Hello All! I'm still here!
I ran into my dear friend Amber Miles last night and was gently reprimanded for not posting in so long ;D (and rightly so Amber, don't feel bad). In very meager defense of myself, I was waiting to do a new post until I got the pictures back from the honeymoon. However, that is still in the works so I'll give you an update now and pictures will have to follow later.
Wow. Where do I start?
Well, since the honeymoon we have semi-settled into our lovely apartment which was very kindly made available to us by my grandparents. We have some fun little Christmas decorations out right now to make it a little more festive. I especially love our tiny little table top tree that sits on the floor surrounded by our own little treasure trove of presents. We have discovered that we are very ideally located in town. We're close to campus, our ward building and most of the places we shop at. Kevin just finished Fall semester which he enjoyed quite a bit. He is now eagerly searching for a job as he begins his semester off-track. We came across some promising prospects today so here's hoping. Everyone cross your fingers for us.
Speaking of school, I have finally completed all of the paperwork and everything else to petition to get back into school. It's all turned in and I am hoping to hear from them not long after the Christmas break. I'm really hoping I get back in because all of this waiting is driving me crazy. It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and now that I am 99.9% sure I've figured it out I have to sit and wait. It took a lot longer than it should have to pull everything together for the petition and I've been feeling so... stuck. I want so badly to move on with my life. Don't get me wrong, marriage is moving along wonderfully, but academics are lagging sadly behind. I'm so tired of doing nothing but work at a dead-end job that is nowhere near where I want to be with a career. I've finally grown up and I want the chance to prove it to everyone else and especially to myself.
On that note! May I vent a bit? Of course I can, I'm typing to a computer screen with no one to stop me! Muahahahahaha!... *cough* I mean.... ummmm... Well you see, my job is, in a word, ridiculous. I have been through all three managements in that building and it seems like each one tops the one before it. And not in a good way. I do have to say that the current management/ownership is much more financially stable and corporate itself seems nice enough, but as far as drama it is just as bad (if not, possibly, worse than the others). I swear that building is a breading ground for stress and drama. You go in there a fairly mild-mannered person and if you're there too long you come out with almost a desire to see the negative in everything and dirty words nearly ready to fly out your mouth at the next person who dares to speak or act without first consulting their common sense. You think I'm exaggerating? You try working there for five-and-a-half years and tell me how you turn out. Thankfully I got out of town for half a week for Thanksgiving. I was getting so stressed about work and everything going on there that I would get physically ill if I let myself dwell on it. I'm not exactly sure what happened on that trip to Utah, but whatever it was, I'm eternally grateful. Something clicked inside of me and since then I have started to make my way back to the woman I was before the corruption of that building infected me. I am relearning how to let things that aren't a big deal slide off my shoulders and not dwell on them. I am learning how to detach myself from that place. When I am not in the building it is not my concern.
Anyway, that's not the half of it, but I'm not including details. It was just a general vent session for my own satisfaction. Moving on!
About Thanksgiving vacation! It was so fun. I wasn't excited to go at first because, as previously mentioned, I was just super stressed and bogged down. However, we went and had a great time. It was so nice to go and not be obligated to be anywhere at any particular time. It was so relaxed. I loved it, I could actually breathe! It was fun to see Kevin's family again, both immediate and extended. We played a fun game with everyone that took forever, but in an enjoyable way. I'm an observer so it was very nice for me to be able to sit and watch everyone. This year we stayed with his aunt Erin and her husband Bruce and their two lovely daughters Amy and Elizabeth. It was so fun! We got to sleep on a comfy king size bed (something we haven't done since the honeymoon). I had to laugh the first night we were there because Kevin scooted right up next to me and after a minute I said: "Babe, you do realize we're in a king-size bed, right?" After a pause he gave me a little space, but still held my hand. How cute :). The next morning Bruce introduced me to possibly the most amazing breakfast idea EVER! Erin made some delicious sour dough waffles and then Bruce brought out vanilla yogurt, chunky apple sauce and cinnamon sugar. OH MY GOSH! It was SO good. I have used that idea several times since coming back to Rexburg. Thank you so much, Erin and Bruce. You have changed waffles for me forever. In a very good way.
Also while in Utah I got to go on a "girls only" shopping trip ;). That was fun. While in the mall Kevin's mom bought us a "first Christmas" ornament for our tree. It's very pretty. Kevin and I went back to the same mall right before we left to head home and let me tell you, I had the worst saleswoman experience ever! She was ridiculous! I couldn't believe it! She would not let me leave. I swear I was essentially captive for about ten minutes. Awful. We ended the trip on a great note, though! We decided to see if anything sounded good in the food court so that we could just eat lunch and leave straight from there. Sure enough there was something fantastic there: sesame chicken at The Flaming Wok. Holy cow, good. If you have the opportunity, we recommend it.
And that is pretty much it for now. I will post again as soon as we get the pictures back and will give any further updates we may have. They will probably include Christmas things and, I hope, a new job for Kevin!
Love you all! Merry Christmas!
