4X4

So last Saturday I had work. During my Saturday shift I am supposed to do three things specifically besides the normal guard duties. I am supposed to patrol in a vehicle the perimeter/exterior of the construction site. I am supposed to patrol on foot the interior of the building. Then, last of all, I am supposed to drive out to the plant's power station and check to make sure it is secure. I like the two times I'm in the vehicle, I have the radio and I'm warm and none of the freakishly evil stray cats on site jump out at me. That night it wasn't too cold and the cats were fighting on the other side of the building (away from me) so foot patrol wasn't so bad. Then I checked the substation and got the work truck stuck.

Really, it was ridiculously stuck. One wheel wasn't getting grip on the road because of the mud and so two inches of mud was keeping a two-ton pick up truck from moving forward or backward. Naturally, I wanted to remove those two inches. That was rough because I didn't have a shovel and only found the tire iron in my last fifteen minutes of being stuck. But digging in the mud with your hands can have all sorts of bad side effects. Losing your wedding ring, covering anything touched with mud, and basically not working at all were the side effects I found. Don't think it was for lack of trying, an hour and a half of digging in the mud isn't as fun as it was when I was five. After that hour and a half I was convinced that I wasn't getting out on my own and since I couldn't get the other guard on site by way of the radio, I had to use the company cell phone to call my supervisor. He didn't pick up and so I called the guard who was going to relieve me on duty. I told him what was wrong and the first thing out of his mouth was "Is it in four-wheel?"

No, sadly it wasn't in four-wheel. But it could have been. The entire time the lever on the floor with 2W and 4W Hi had been staring at me wondering why I hadn't pulled it back two inches. Two inches. The entire time I was hoping my answer would be that other guard bringing a shovel or someone pulling me out. I was so focused on the answer I wanted, the real answer I needed was ignored. And just like the guard said, I put it in four-wheel and drove out of the mud in ten seconds. Tiny little answer that fixed everything.

p.s. I did find my ring before driving out which is why this story is not a police report ending with "Wife then killed husband with piano bench"

Enjoying the Basketball Season

I have discovered that I inherited a hobby. I just spent the last hour checking out high school basketball scores and players and anything else. I love following high school sports, almost as much as I like watching them. So, its started out as a good week in the world of basketball. Two brothers are in tournaments this week. Younger brother won his high school game over Box Elder by 25 points, older brother won the first game of their conference tournament by 23. Good day. I'm hoping that the good week just gets better. So many important games this week, starting tomorrow. BYU vs. Utah is always great and what a great year if we sweep them! Then it continues on Thursday with more action from the brothers. Hopefully it can keep up till Saturday and beyond. There's the beauty of a possible state championship, and a conference tournament championship. Wow, I'm excited. Go Cougars, Go Griffiths, and most importantly GO LEHI!

Other Website

The post below is much better, but I just had to post my link to my new blog/website for my piano studio. I'm so excited to start teaching again more. Watch also for the weekly practice tip.

pianofun.wordpress.com

Sweet Husband

So, I don't have pictures again, which makes this less interesting, but I do have to put a plug in for my husband lately. It will update you as best I can on life lately as well. My story begins two weeks ago. With the impending holiday (Valentine's) for family home evening I pulled out our little "FHE for newly-weds" and looked for a fun idea. We decided to do an activity where the goal was to hide little notes around the house and allow the spouse to find them during the week. Well, we decided to do it sometime when the other was actually gone. The next day was very eventful and difficult, but when I got home from work my sweet husband had still remembered to hide his notes. Things like "I love you because your mine" "I love you because you play slug bug" "I love you because we snuggle well" and similar sentiments. It was so nice on that particular day. The next day he left in the early morning, walked to the grocery store and bought me a rose, but even more than that was so supportive and helpful.

Then this weekend I went Friday evening down to visit my family and watch brothers' basketball and youngest brother's play. Matt couldn't go because he had to work both Friday and Saturday. I really enjoyed my trip. When I got home, the first thing I saw was one of the same-style little notes on the kitchen table that just said "I love you." Then continued finding them again, "I love you because you smell good" in the shower. "I love you because you have passion" on my piano. "I love you because you're a little nerdy too," which may sound funny, but with us is really sweet.

So there you go. Husband has definitely been earning points. Very sweet.

Weekend Adventures

So, it was a good weekend. Very good. It started off earlier in the week in that the husband has a job! I'm very happy for him. It's only part-time (28 hours) for the moment, but we have high hopes that he'll be able to pick up more hours and plus it gives him time to work on his class and write and stuff. But anyway Friday night we had an awesome date night. We used our Christmas present from Matt's cousin McKell (thanks) and went out to dinner at this cool little cafe in town. Yummy chicken fried steak that I actually enjoyed, which was really good. Then my husband finally took me swimming, which I've been wanting to do since we got married and we've never gone. Obviously no pictures of that, no one wants to see very white winter bodies in swimming suits. But it feels so good to be in the water and Matt taught me how to swim better and I was proud because I swam the whole length of the pool without touching down, possibly for the first time in my life.

So then Saturday we had fun. On Thursday we bought a little end table from DI. It looked like this:

The lighting is not great, but when we finished painting the table looks like this:

I'm still going to antique it by sanding the edges, but I wanted to share our project and I might not ever do it if i wait. I also thought the drop cloth we used looked very neat and artistic. Matt didn't agree with me, but I had to share it.

I

know that we're all moved in, but I actually took pictures of the move so it seemed like a waste to let them just sit there with nothing to do except watch the popular pictures get blogged and make new friends. Sorry, had an afterschool charlie brown special moment there.

Anyway, this was the result of our move. Yes, it is in deed a room full of our stuff. My old bedroom got packed (as you can see) with almost everything we owned while we waited for movers to make room in the house for us to take over. Luckily most of our furniture sat in a kind uncle's garage so we didn't have to worry about it.

So my wife didn't want me to show a picture of her on moving day, so here's a mildly entertaining popular picture of my old roommate Abe being attacked by three Werewolves. Anyway, the movers came and were just the happiest elves you'd ever meet in a truck stop. They were really cool and moved all my mom's stuff into their truck PDQ. I think that means Pretty Darn Quick, but I better google it and make sure it's not a viral plague somewhere. Ok, thanks for enduring the randomness!

Wow, its been too long!

So, I haven't blogged for a very long time. I've been a little preoccupied I guess. Or I just don't have an excuse. Its sort of like writing in my journal has been my whole life, I go through streaks. While Matt and I were dating I kept a journal all the time, we got married and I did ok, and it just gradually went downhill. The good news is, I think that soon I will be on the upswing and blog a whole bunch.

So the holiday's were good and they won't get more of a mention than that. Matt graduated (sort of almost, but I consider him graduated. Just got to finish that last class honey :) and it was a lot of fun for me as the wife. I'm really proud of him.

And then our big news is we've now moved from the frozen north, just a little farther south to Brigham City. Matt has pictures from the move, which he might feel inclined to share sometime. His parents got a job out in Sacramento and have made the big move out there, in the meantime we are living in their house. Its really nice to have a lot of space, we just have to be careful not to fill it. The house is nice and we're both really enjoying it. Its also been nice being closer to family again. Matt's brother lives just across town and my sisters are only a half hour away. So we're taking advantage of that.

I've started working at the local elementary school, and I love it. I'm a paraprofessional, which is a fancy word for an aid who teaches a lot, in a resource class. The kids are awesome and I'm having a blast. Big shoes to fill though. I actually am replacing my mother-in-law who is one of the nicest people ever, and then indirectly it was actually my aunt who had my exact job about a year and a half ago. I really like my job. Then I'm also starting to teach piano, and its been a long time since I've had very many students, and quite a while since I taught at all and I LOVE teaching piano. I'm sure to it will make good stories which I hope to post here.

So there, I caught up. Next post I won't be lazy and I'll add pictures of the new house. But I have to decorate it at least a little first. It feels good to have finally done this.