Hot Springs

Jess was in town which means that we went on another adventure. We went to the Spanish Fork Hot Springs, Three Forks is the name of the trail and I think the springs are actually called Five Falls. Anyway, we started early so Krishna could come to, she had an appointment that afternoon. Ok so we had never been to where we were going and even though I had a GPS it was the first time I really tried to use it. Which means that we hiked, through snow at points, for about an hour before we met a hunter who told us we were on the wrong trail. In my defense I had just figured that out as the numbers on the GPS went one to far in the wrong direction and I thought about this sign we passed at the trail head. I didn't remember seeing our trail name on it. When we got back to the trail head we read the sign.

Unfortunately, because we were on the wrong trail Krishina didn't have time to go with us anymore. But this was going to be attempt number three for Jess and I to go to this place and being that close we weren't going to quit. So we started on the right trail. It was a great hike. The springs were ok. I'm a bit mad at them as I slipped while crossing them and got beat up pretty bad. Totally awesome bruise on my arm that everyone at work keeps asking about. It was strange because you could be sitting in one place and have half of you in cold water and the other in totally hot water. Grand time all around.

Family Fun

I've had the chance over the past month (March) to tend Zeke a lot. We have had some great times. Playing with trains, cars, tickle wars on the couch, watching movies and Inspector Gadget. Great times. I got to watch him during Manndi's sister's wedding and took some good pictures.
Then of course it was Ashlynn's birthday in March so we had a party. Which was great fun by the way. Thanks for hosting it Quinn and Dawnie. Tell you what Dawnie throws some pretty creative parties. This year was princesses. Grandpa was even there.
Ashlynn likes to take crazy pictures here is my favorite of the crazy ones we did that day.
Of course she wanted to pay with her new toys which were princess of course. But since she is the princess she hands me the prince and said I had to be the boy. Reminded me of the good old days when Skye would say the same thing. I didn't mind as I never really wanted to be the princess any way.
I also spent some time with my high school friends and Liz (Heather's college roommate) all of which I count as family. It was great to play cards and see them all again.

My Big Girl Bed

So after years of thinking about it I finally bought a queen bed. So here it is. Note: The quilt is my "wedding" quilt that is from Grandma Averett. It is hand quilted by Grandma. Thanks to Grandpa for giving it to me dispite the fact that I haven't managed the wedding part yet. ;)

As you can see there is not much space on the one side but over all I love it.

You know you work in government when...

So today the manager of the office, the building not all the people, announced that our lease on the building is up in March 2010 and DWS has decided to lease only half of the building from now on. All eligibility specialist, that's me, are going to be moved to the Provo Regional Center (PRC) , located on Center street in Provo, in either March or April. I'm ok with the change as I already live in Provo and it isn't the Provo North office. I remembered this joke list that was given to me when I worked in the Logan DWS office, which was June of 2001. And I had to laugh at how many of them were true for me. I put my answers in White

You know you work in government when..

• You sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different departments. Well it's been six years at the same desk and two divisions. First one didn't really have a name the second one is Eligibility Services Devision which was just created this past year.
  
• You worked for the same department for four years and sat at more than 10 different desks. Eight and a half years and four different desks.
• You've been in the same job for four years and have had 10 different supervisors. Again six years at the same job, 1. Noral, 2. Mike D., 3. Dave, 4. back to Mike D., 5. Matt, and current 6. Emily. My record is three supervisors in the same day. I went into work with Dave is my supervisor, got an email at 11 am and Mike was my supervisor then at about 4 in th afternoon Matt called and introduced himself as my supervisor.
• You order your business cards in "half orders" instead of whole boxes. (note a whole box is 1,000) I've had three different business cards and all of them were half orders of just 500. I also need a new set as we changed our numbers and so forth so no current business card at all.
• When someone asks about what you do for a living, you can't explain it in one sentence. This is the shortest way I've come up with explaining what an eligibility specialist is/does. I determine eligibility for food stamps, financial, medical and child care assistance. Even after I say that people look at me with blank stares and say, "what does that mean?"
• You get really excited about a 2% raise. Last time I got a 2% raise was 2005 and they don't call it a raise they call it a cost of living increase. We haven't had a cost of living increase since 2007. So yep, if I got a 2% raise I'd be totally excited about it.
• You use acronyms in your sentences. Not such an unusual thing in this day and age, what with text messaging and all. Yes we do use acronyms in our sentences. They have only increased over the years. I used to work for DWS. Now I work for DWS in the ESD, under the ESO on the CBT.
  
• Your biggest loss from a system crash is you lose your best jokes. Well I do have some funny emails on there but I'd be more bummed about losing my music.
• You sit in a cubicle smaller than your bedroom closet. My cubical is smaller than my bedroom closet right now. I have a fear that it will be even smaller come April or May.
• It's dark when you drive to and from work. In the winter this is very true. The only way I see the sun right now is if I go out to my car on a break or lunch. It starts to get a little light when I arrive at the office at 6:30 am. Currently I leave at two different times on the days I leave "early" the sun is setting and on the days I leave "late" the sun has been down for over an hour. In the summer it is only dark in the morning. Daylight savings time really does give you more hours of daylight in the day.
• Fun is when issues are assigned to someone else. Anytime I can pass of a nasty case oh you bet I do. For the record I fix more than my fair share of nasty and stupid.
• The words "challenge" and "opportunity" makes you shiver in fear. It's so true.
• You see a good-looking person and know it is a visitor. Yep they are either there for a job interview, consultants gathering information, or top brass of the department.
• Free food left over from meetings is your main staple. To bad most of it is chocolate. Maybe that's why I weigh so much. ;) Most of it isn't from meetings though it is from treat bowls in Julie's cubical. I had to change the route I take to the bathroom to avoid the temptation of her treat bowl.
  
• Weekends are those days your significant other makes you stay home. Not a problem for me. But I have worked overtime the past few weekends. The last time they even offered over time was about 4 years ago so that doesn't happen offer.
• Art involves a white board. Yep the white board is by my cubical and the makers are at my desk. I put up a quote for the day every day. It used to have drawings but I can't draw and Jennifer moved to the Provo office so there hasn't been much art recently.
• You're already late on the assignment you just got. Happened on Thursday of last week. All applications have to be worked with in 30 days. I got the case on the 30th day and all of the stuff for it had been for about 3 weeks. Then on Tuesday I worked a case that had been lost in limbo for a month so I issued it back to October.
• Dilbert cartoons hang outside every cube and are read by your co-workers only. Actually my co-workers don't understand the humor of Dilbert. I know Dad, it is shocking but they just don't get it. One of the consultants that stopped by about two weeks ago laughed out loud at it. I do have three Dilbert cartoons on my cubical, some Peanuts, Garfield and Maxine.
• Your boss' favorite lines are "when you get a few minutes" or "when you're freed up." Actually it's, "when you are caught up." Which is funny because my version of "caught up" is a little different than hers. I work on other peoples stuff pretty much every other day.
• You read this entire list and understood it.
  

Junk mail changes

Junk mail is a constant thing in life but I've recently noticed how it can change from time to time. Have you ever noticed that your junk mail changes after you make a purchase of about $200 or more. When you buy a house all of the sudden you get all of these home loan applications and information. What's the point of sending out that stuff after you've already got a loan and bought the house? At lease the home improvement store junk mail makes sense after a home purchase. You've made this major investment and now you naturally want to sink all of your money into fixing it up.

So I flew for the first time in a few years and now instead of just credit card applications they have miraculously changed to flight reward credit card applications. If I buy camping stuff then I get outdoor/sportsman credit card applications. My favorite with the buying camping stuff was when I bought a tarp to put under my tent years ago at Cabellas and the next month I was an official member of the North American Hunting Club. Got an bright orange hunting license holder and everything. When I signed up for that at Cabellas I'm not sure but there must have been a check box I didn't check somewhere.

Then there is the you buy one thing in our store you naturally you are a fan and want to get rewards here forever, right? Yeah, how many of us spend all our spare time at furniture stores or electronic stores. And the stuff they send you is discounts and coupons for what you just bought because naturally you will need another 52" LCD television or a $1,000 digital camera a month after you just purchased one.

"These days are crazy!"

Me trying to be a nature photographer again

So here are my favorite nature pictures from my vacation.

A rain storm from above.

New Jersey the Garden State

Five Mile Point Light

Lighthouse Point Park

stream by Lake Wintergreen

Lake Wintergreen

trail around Lake Wintergreen

Cleveland rocks

Ok so I was on vacation from October 1st until October 18th. Which was has been the longest vacation I've ever taken to date. It used up all of my vacation time so I won't be going very far for a while.

First stop was Skye's in Ohio. We went and checked out West Side Market. Which is like Pike's Place in Seatle without the flying fish. Then mostly just hanging out around the house. Which is totally fine with me as I got to play with Kaelyn and Kylie. I think I read The Pokie Little Puppy about 40 billion times.

We went to the museum of natural history where we saw lots of animals and dinosaurs. Kaelyn and I got to be Blue Footed Bobby Birds. The picture of the actual birds is above me on the right. Apparently this is one of Kaelyn's first things to do at the museum.


After which we had lunch in Cleveland's Little Italy. Which is by Jon's campus. We took a lot of pictures on Jon's campus including some of playing in the fountain but they are on Skye's camera so I don't have them yet. During General Conference we did our hair.









Then I rented my first car and went on a little road trip to visit the Taylor family in Connecticut. It was a nice 8-9 hour drive to get there and cheaper than plane ticket.

I saw my very first in real life lighthouse, Five Mile Point Light.

Being with Elizabeth of course we went for a little hike. However, there aren't any mountains so we hiked, took a long walk, around Lake Wintergreen.
I also got to have lunch with Sarah A. Kandil. Whom I haven't seen since just after high school. I got to meet her husband for the first time and he is pretty cool. Love being able to still hang out with my high school buddies.
Then back to Ohio, where Kyle and Tyler joined us. We went to Kirtland and toured some covered bridges.


A Halloween family tradition that we used to have was that we would go to Grandma Averett's house and decorate the cookies she would pass out for Halloween. Since Grandma's passing we haven't done it very often but I insisted on it for Kaelyn and Kylie. We don't pass them out on Halloween any more but it was still tons of fun to decorate them.