Calm before the storm...

So I'm sitting here in bed drinking a cup of tea.It feels funny to sit here and do nothing as I know tomorrow that will all change. I'll be teaching three classes at the English Language Institute for the next 8 weeks, starting with High Intermediate Grammar at 8:30 am!! So these past few weeks of Texas fun and road trips has really been such a calm before the storm. Joelie starts back to school on Wednesday and so that'll be kinda hectic as well. Good though in some ways. It'll be fun to be back in the classroom, good to get in a routine again, good to know Joel will be getting started on his last two years in school.

I'm also up a bit late as I didn't wake up this morning, ahem,afternoon until 12:30!So, I'll probably be up very, very late tonight.I might even get my second Texas post done tonight to post tomorrow. I just can't sleep when Joel's not here and so i didn't fall asleep until almost 4. Part of that is me being a big night time scaredy. I have a very long history of it.I think it must come from an over active imagination. I used to wake up in the middle of the night in Hockley and just freeze I was so scared of the noises I would hear. I created all kinds of elaborate situations in my head as to what could be coming to get me.So either I would work up the courage to yell out, Moooooom and Daaaaaaaad!" or jump out of the bed and high tail it to theirs.Then there was the first night I convinced them to leave me home alone and I got so scared that I put all of the dolls I could find in front of the windows to make it look like people were home. Then I was too scared to go into the back of the house to go to the bathroom and so I peed in a pot in the kitchen. Yes I did. Oh, the stories go on and on.
So, last night was no exception. I turned the swamp cooler and bedroom fan off so that I could hear any burglars that might decide to come in. I kept the kitchen light on and the bedroom door open so that if someone did come in I could....throw all the ESL curriculum stacked on my bedside table at them?!?! So, I was really hot with no air circulating and so I slept on top of the covers....yep, it was a miserable night! Our poor children, it will most assuredly run in the family. I remember one night in Hawaii I was laying in bed going to sleep and Joel was in the living room studying. All of the sudden I heard the thump of his chair fall over and him sprinting into the bedroom. I swear he jumped from the doorway of the bedroom into the bed and pulled the covers over our head. "What happened?!!!" " I don't know, I just got really freaked out all of the sudden!" I tried to be compassionate for a second and then we both burst out laughing. Our poor kids won't have a chance. Well, at least if we co-sleep with our kids than when one of us gets spooked we'll already be together:)
That's all for tonight, Jen

Mixed Reviews...

So, I got a haircut on Tuesday. I saw my ESL students today for the first time since the haircut and knew they would be full of opinions...they didn't let me down:)

"Jenny, you look so.....clean!"

"Jenny, you look like a highschooler now, maybe 16 or 17." Great.

"Jenny, why you didn't cut bangs? Bangs are essential."

You learn something new every day. Bangs are essential. This turned into a long conversation and the student was actually very perplexed why Americans don't think bangs are essential. She insisted that "Bangs make someone more attractive. I mean you are attractive without them but normal times people are more attractive with them." aha.

Anyway, it was really fun hearing all of their comments. Of course, there were lots of sweet comments thrown in there as well, but I just thought these were classic.I'll try to post of picture of the new do later on tonight:)

EDIT: Here are the promised pictures...


So, nothing too different. Just a few layers and some much needed thinning out. Oh yes, layers was a major topic of conversation today as well. The girls had been calling them "levels" and were delighted to learn the correct term. Even the guys got caught up in all of the bangs, layers vs. all one length, dye, natural color talk. You just never know the kind of conversations you'll have when you walk into an ESL classroom--how wonderful is that?

Hours we keep

Well, Joelie has now been an official PA student for one full week! You can check out his blog for details (www.joelsjourney.blogspot.com ), but I can say for sure that the week went well for both of us. Joel thrives in intensity and fast-pacedness(I think I just created a new word:), so I think this PA school schedule is going to suit him just fine. He stays up until about 1:30am studying and then wakes up at 6:15 to ride his bike up the enormous hill to the program!!! He gets home around 5:30pm, we eat dinner together and I get all the juicy details of his day, and then he starts the studying all over again...crazy.The long classroom hours of sitting are hard for him, but his biochem professor seems to understand that and gives them 20 minute breaks--smart man.
I start my day a little later:), usually head to one of the libraries to do some data entry and catch up on e-mails, go home and do some house work, run errands, make sure I'm home for my brief time with Joelie, go to bed with a book......
Dreamy schedule for me for sure until I find another part time job:)

I'm actually sitting at the Sugarhouse Library right now. I'm in the "reading room" with lots of mahogany furniture and quiet people reading the newspaper or studying. It has big windows where I can see the mountains and the dark, heavy clouds. Please rain!! How wonderful to sit in a library and watch it rain!

I went on a job interview two days ago at the college ESL program. Afterwards I went by the grocery store to get a fountain coke and heard this conversation between two of the deli workers:

Employee 1: " So you two did okay by yourselves yesterday?"
E2: "Yeah we did. Kari was just so willing to do whatever I asked of her.She has such a great attitude."
E1: "that's great. Did you teach her how to cut the meat?"
E2: " Yes, we worked on that a bit. She was so positive and wanted to learn how to do everything."
E1: "She's really nice too isn't she?"
E2: "She is a very sweet person."

Now, this may sound ridiculous, but after being in such a formal atmosphere hearing this kind conversation between the deli workers just warmed my heart. It was comforting to my soul. Like mom always says, " I just love when I meet nice people". Me too, mom. Guess that's all for now. Jen

A (Long) Word From Joel

Well, this sure has been so fun living in this in-between world. We're in between school and jobs, just living. It's great having so much time to spend with each other and explore this new beautiful place that God has granted us the opportunity to live in. However, it is a bit unnerving knowing that we are making basically no money and will be existing on loans or a scholarship that requires indebted servitude after my time as a student, not to mention not having a car. I will come back to the no car thing in a moment because it deserves is own little discourse, but I want to make it clear that I am not complaining, just stating the thoughts that are ever-present in my mind. I'll spell it out real simply. Here's a glimpse into my subconscious/conscious, depending on the situation and awe factor that is occurring at the moment: "Wow, this is so fun. All I have to do is sleep, eat, fix up or home, that's right, a HOME. NOT an apartment, a home. In addition we get to be in an incredible city and explore it. The city has so much and there is so much to see and do. Oh yeah, we don't have a car yet. Oh yeah, we have to get one. Ahhhh, money! Oh man, what about the school loans vs. the scholarship? What about the car? Do we get new or used? (I won't go into detail but I go into the pro/con argument for each.} I have to map out a route to school. Oh, that's right, I have to go to school in less than a month and then all this gallivanting will be over and it'll be nose in the books and trying to remember what being rested is like. Oh look at those mountains, aren't they beautiful? I love the weather here." So that is sort of what the stew in my mind looks like, if you will.

Now the car. We don't have any mode of transportation ourselves besides ourselves, meaning foot or bike. It has been great to walk everyday and go places on foot. It is so much more healthy and fun and invigorating. It's a great time just walking and talking with Jenny. It is not fast, but it sure is friendly. We love it. Then there is biking. We just got Jenny's bike back from the guy who tuned it up, that would be a whole other post about this guy, he's pretty cool. Anyway, we are now both mobile on wheels. It is so fun. It is faster too. Now, I think that it is probably the most perfect way to commute around a town, almost any town, even if they are bike unfriendly like most of Texas' towns. I know I was just as fast in San Marcos on a bike as I was in a car. It's great. Again, it's healthier for the rider and the environment. What makes it so unbelievable up here, besides the ideal weather and the mountainous backdrop, is that this city is set up with bikes and pedestrians in mind, almost as a primary thought with vehicles as a secondary mode of transportation. So, we have not missed the car too much. However, this riding around and walking to and fro is wonderful and healthy and clean, but it is dependent on good weather and one cannot go very far or carry much at all, which probably is not a bad thing most of the time. We still are planning on getting a car soon but hope to keep our car parked as much as possible and use our feet and legs as much as we can.

Jenny. What an explosion of wonderful personality that this move or city or phase in life has brought out in her. She is perfectly wonderful. It is so fun to watch her around the house, again I must emphasize that we live in a HOUSE, and getting things together and arranging this and that. I love watching her wash the dishes (we don't have a dishwasher) or scurry about in the kitchen or move boxes around or really just about everything she does. She got a shot of energy from somewhere and I love it. This place is inspiring and I know she is glad to not be going away to work everyday, she kind of likes being at home as much as possible so this is right up her alley. I love watching her walking to the coffee shop and sit there without a care. She is so cute in the little coffee shop just punching away on her laptop and getting her work done or updating this blog or whatever else she does on-line. It's fun to see her having fun and enjoying herself, especially since I am responsible for ripping her away from her family and taking her to some far off place, again. But at least it has a magnificent beauty rating, which helps a lot. It has been so much fun reducing our "stuff" from "stuff" to things we actually use. I like how she is not into sentimentality too much, actually I am the one that wants to keep more stuff than she does. She is so practical, it's wonderful. We have pared down quite a bit and our home is the better for it. We are finding that we need way, way, way less than we have. It feels like weights being lifted off our backs to get rid of things that we do not use. Anyway, back to Jenny.

I have a story from today that will be backed up with pictures shortly. Well, it has snowed the last couple of days, which is mind-blowing to us Texans, and both days we have gone out in the "elements". See, again, that is something that Jenny and I refer to as the new "SLC Jenny" does, goes out in the elements and doesn't mind them much. Yesterday it was walking to the coffee shop and the grocery store in some pretty heavy snow and some rain, but today it was just cool/cold when we went on our ride. I brought her bike back from the "bike guy" and then the next thing I know I look out the window after a stint in the basement and see Jenny riding around in circles in our driveway/alley/yard thing. It was cute, funny, hysterical, wonderful, and out of nowhere all at once. I just looked out through the glass panes and smiled. She told me she was "warming up" for our big ride to the library. Well, I had no idea that she was going to be scaring ME on our ride. I was being cautious and trying to keep her from harm and then again, the next thing I know I look back and see Jenny riding on about a foot of sidewalk right next to rushing traffic and dodging trees along the way with the calmest look on her face. I was nearly mortified, but mainly amazed, at her skill and boldness. I have to say though, that just writing about it made my heart rate rise again. She was a little trooper, no that sounds like she was toughing something out, she wasn't, she was enjoying it and reveling in it. Talk about filling my love tank, I got extra love bubbling all over the place. Then, this is now the story I set out to write about at the beginning, we went to the grocery store on the way home, which I think we have been to everyday since we moved up here. We bought some stuff, ended up being four pretty weighty bags. Jenny had two and I had two. Again, the next thing I know Jenny has her bags on her handle bars and is waiting for me to get settled so we can go. As she road home I almost wrecked into a number of parked cars on the way while I was riding and looking and smiling at Jenny as we rode together. She would look at me and say she was having so much fun. What a woman! That's the story folks, Jenny on a bike bringing her groceries home on her handle bars and lovin' it.

He jumps in with both feet while she cautiously dips in a toe...

Joel loves change. I think it’s because he loves exploration of all kinds, and change often times brings about lots of exploration. I, on the other hand, have a very hard time with change…. to say the least. For example, when I was younger (tenish, maybe a tad older) my mom and dad were going to sell an old stove that had been in the kitchen since I was born. Apparently that was too much change for me and I through my body over the stove and sobbed uncontrollably at the thought of losing it. Things haven’t changed much. Though, I am happy to say, that Joelie has increased my ability to deal with and even get excited over the new and the journey of change.

All this to say that this move has been a real illustration of those characteristics. Joel revels in exploring new shops and churches and transportation and trails and parks and meeting new people, while I have to ease myself into these new experiences. When we walk into a new place ever-observant joel has noticed that I’ll walk in and immediately stop or start walking really slowly. I laughed when he told me this and I started to notice it myself. I have to get my bearings, to see the whole situation and then move forward while Joel unabashedly bursts into a place. We have grown to love this difference in each other. I envy and learn from Joel’s ability to live life to the fullest with no fear and he appreciates my tendency to fully see a situation and the pure joy that I feel when I open myself to new people or places.

So, keep this in mind as I write about Joel’s adventures and mine. For Sat. Joel’s adventure was going on a new hike with three new friends while mine was talking myself into using the washer and dryer that is shared with the duplex in front of us because I had been afraid I would inconvenience one of the other tenants. Joel had a great hike and I had a great laundry experience and we both felt very fulfilled by the days events.

Like I said, he jumps in with both feet while she cautiously dips in a toe…..