My Garden

My little "porch garden" is finally producing and beginning to bloom, so I thought I would take some pictures of it. I hope you like them!

Zinnia plant. Zinnias are colorful little flowers, perfect to cut and put in a vase. I will have to post more pictures once they fully bloom. Currently there are at least twenty buds on this little plant, so I am very excited!

Not the best picture of my strawberries, but they are there none-the-less. They are small but tasty!
More of the strawberry plant. I've already picked at least a dozen of them.

This is one of my sunflower blooms. They are just starting to open up and I really look forward to them. Sunflowers are some of my favorite flowers to have indoors.

The whole sunflower plant. Several blooms already!

My peppers. They are a little funny looking, but they sure are tasty. The other day some new blooms came out, so there are still more to come!

A Good Weekend!

We had a great weekend. Friday night we got to hang out with Jon's mom, Cindy and the girls. They stayed in town, while on their way to the Denver airport. We ate at probably our favorite restaurant in town. We definitely think it's the best restaurant in town, but then again we might be a little bias. Anyway, Cindy and Mike love the restaurant too because of the memories from their college days in Laramie. It's where Cindy's parents took them for special occasions back in the 80's and so Jon and I, of course, love it when they suggest dinner there! So that was great...the girls were a ton of fun. They were giggly and borderline obnoxious, but I loved it, because they weren't too cool for us. Being 14 and 12, they often think that they are too cool for us "old people" so it's always a treat when they relax and have fun.

We ate breakfast with them the next morning and then they were off! Jon and I did a whole lot of nothing, especially since it was stinking hot (we don't have a/c here) in the house. All motivation to do anything left! It was actually quite nice, and I believe needed. Sunday we went to church, and it was a great service. They just hired a new pastor, but he and his family are in the process of getting moved, so one of the elders (I think) shared. It was a great lesson, which I will probably share more of later.

One our way home, Jon and I started talking about some things in our apartment that are driving us nuts. Little "projects" that we would like to do and furniture that we would like to move. So, rather than just plan this time, we ate some lunch and got started. What started out as a plan to move the desk in our guest bedroom to the garage, ended up being a total revamp of both our bedroom, the guest bedroom, and our two spare closets! We threw away about two bags of junk that we had been keeping, but either never used or that didn't work. For instance, we had five cell phones, mostly of which were for companies that don't even exist anymore, a good pile of "junk" shirts from Jon's closet, and old snow boots that not been worn since Oklahoma. It felt great to get rid of all that junk and I look forward to seeing the trash can overflowing on trash day tomorrow!

Before we knew it, it was almost 6:00 and we were starving. Over dinner we decided that it was definitely worth all the work, and as a bonus, we both slept great last night!

Laramie Has Been Taken Over by Crazies!

Ok, not really. Well at least not in reality, but in my dream it was very real. Laramie was taken over by some crazy people...I think it my dream they were similar to the Taliban. I was at the gym with my good friend and gym partner, Michell. We don't actually work out together anymore because I go to a different gym now, but we still see each other everyday because we work together. Anyway, for some strange reason, which actually felt strange in the dream, she and I were working out at my gym, which is actually here on campus.

Anyway, they made an announcement over the PA that the place was shutting down, effective immediately. The machines stopped working, the music got turned off, and the electricity went out. Michell and I, along with other people got really freaked out. We went back to the locker room and heard lots of yelling and gun fire. We freaked! We went to hide in one of the showers or a locker or something like that. Somehow, we found out that Laramie had been taken over and that people were trying to leave but couldn't. We decided to wait until the crazy people left the gym, so then we would be able to sneak out. My car was parked about a block away, so we would be able to go out one of the emergency exits and make a run for it.

When things finally seemed to calm down, we snuck over to the exit. We knew that the alarm would sound and that we wouldn't have much time. I told Michell the code to get into my car, because she's faster than me and would get there sooner. I also told her where the keys were and then we were ready. As we ran for the door, one of the men saw us and started to come after us. We went through the door, the fire alarm sounded, and the sprinklers started going off. I ran as hard and fast as I could, but Michell still beat me to the car. She jumped in and picked me up just before the guy chasing us caught up to me. She peeled out and tried to get out of the parking lot. We had to go off road a bit because the crazy people were at all of the exits. Fortunately we were in our new car and it has four-wheel drive. We made it.

I called Jon to find out where he was at and he said he was outside of town, at a river, where there was a boat taking people to safety. He told me which direction to go, but couldn't be too specific because the people had tapped into the phone lines. He figured we were probably okay because we don't have a local number, but wanted to be vague just in case. I told him we would be there as quickly as we could, and asked him that he just make them wait until we got there. I told him not to leave us. I think Michell's husband was with Jon too, so we both felt better. We got to the edge of town, and again the crazy people were there and would not allow people to leave. I was so glad that Michell was driving because I don't know if I could have done what she did. We just went off the road, again, and drove through a pasture. We were far enough away that they couldn't do anything, but close enough for them to see us and get really mad. So we were just hauling it as quickly as we could through the pasture. We stayed in there for a while and dodged cows and antelope. It was all exciting but scary at the same time. Suddenly Michell took a sharp turn and there, out of the blue was the river and our husbands. They were anxiously waiting for us and begging the people on the boat to wait just a few more minutes.

The boat captain was removing the ropes and picking up the anchor, when Jon saw us. The captain simply apologized and said he must keep going. He would get us on the next trip. Well Michell and I were pissed about this, so we used our super athlete skills and took off running. We were going to jump on...and we did. Safe into our husband's arms...terrified of what was going to happen next. The dream ended with us on the boat, trying to figure out where we were going and what was still to come for Laramie.

So, if you can't tell, I have very vivid dreams, hence why I needed a good cup of coffee this morning to get going! This is not to mention the fact that I was apparently running for my life all night long...I was exhausted! So who knows why I had that dream, but looking back now I find it quite entertaining, although that was not the case when I woke up at 5:45 this morning!

Super Old Office Building Can Be Good

I work in a building that is somewhere around 100 years old. While it's been re-modeled a hundred times, there are still things about it that are frustrating. Our internet is slower than the rest of campus, one of our offices is an old bathroom (that was remodeled), the offices are awkward in sizing, and there is always construction of some sort going on.

A little event today reminded me to look on the bright side of working in such an old building. Thunderstorms. Inevitably when lighting even thinks about striking within a fifty mile radius of Laramie, the electricity goes out. Now a lot of people get frustrated with this, but I have actually learned to enjoy it. So you loose everything you were working on...So you could have to re-do some stuff...So you loose good "productive" time...at least you get a little break.

Today a little thunderstorm rolled through. The lights kind of flickered once, so I decided to go ahead and save the important stuff that I was working on. It began thundering and raining, and then of course the electricity goes out. Sweet! I wanted to watch the rain anyway! And after communing together about the fact that we had no electricity, and decided that we therefore could not work because of our dependence on computers, a couple of girls and I walked to the end of the hall and sat on the stairs. The door was open and we just sat and talked while enjoying the rain. I have to say it was delightful!

The electricity stayed off for about thirty minutes, which is actually faster than I expected because it was really coming down. The rain began to let up, the sun came out, and we went back to work for the remaining hour that we had left. It was the perfect pick me up to the usual long Monday afternoon. I just hope it rains again this evening so I can read a book and really enjoy it!

Ergonomical=Intense

I got a new chair today at work. We had some money to spend out before our fiscal year ended, so I got this super-duper fancy little thing that goes nicely with my office furniture and matches nicely with the other chair I have in my office. I have been anxiously awaiting it's arrival for the last six weeks, and was all but enthused when I found out that it had come in this morning. This thing is intense! I put it to the side so that I could respond to all the emails and phone messages that I received while I was out of the office. Finally mid-late morning I looked at the chair. There was a tag hanging off of the bottom, so I assumed that would tell me how to adjust it. Indeed the tag said "Leap:adjust the leap chair to fit you." Sweet, this shouldn't take too long! Boy was I wrong! Apparently you are actually supposed to be able to adjust the twenty knobs on the chair and then when adjust just right, it will be like sitting on a cloud, or maybe a lazy-boy. Anyway, I started to look at it and to make some adjustments, when I quickly gave up. I need some serious help! How am I supposed to know what to do with this stupid thing? Plus I have to sit in it to see what's comfortable, and then remember which knob needs to be turned in order to make it fit better? So I assume that my afternoon will be spent adjusting my chair, with a good deal of frustration. Hopefully I can get this thing figured out so that I can get some work done! Wish me luck!

Crazy Car Week!

The start of the 4th of July week was not so good. We found out that our trusty Honda Accord was going to be put to rest. The poor girl...she was 9 years old, had 160,000 miles on her, and was dependable until the day she died. Jon and I can't seem to part with her just yet, so we are still trying to decide if we want to put the $3,000 into it to get fixed. We'll see.

We did find out though that she is definately not dependable anymore, and knew that we would need a new car. It was inevitable really. We knew that the Honda wouldn't last forever. We were planning to get a new car just as soon as Jon graduated in a year, but it turned out to be sooner. We had some money saved and I got a raise in July, so financially it wasn't a big deal to go ahead with the purchase now. So rather than going up to Gillette for a nice long, relaxing weekend with the in-laws, we went south torwards Denver.

We had a few cars in mind, since Jon and I are planners. We had been talking for quite some time about what we might like to get in the future, although we had not decided on anything in particular. We headed to Denver Thursday evening, after I had been looking all day in town. We found several that we liked, but still weren't set on anything. The ones we had been looking for seemed kind of small for us. We were looking in the small SUV category. One dealer that we were talking to must have been listening to what we were actually saying, because he recommended something totally different than what we were originally looking for.

I have really enjoyed Jon's parents Ford Explorer. Their's was a limited edition, with leather interior, so I knew that we would not be to afford that. The dealer took us over to a gold, 2007 explorer that we immediately fell in love with. It had all of the "special" things that we wanted (like leather seats) and had very low mileage. We drove it around, then Jon and I decided that we would take it if we could get a good deal on it. So we started the negotiation process (not one that I enjoy whatsoever)...after talking with the people for what seemed like hours (ok, maybe just one hour) we settled on a deal. I was actually quite proud of myself because I stuck to my "cheap" guns and we got what we wanted.

Then the paperwork began. I was still uneasy about it all because it was our first large purchase. Once I found out that we really did get a good deal on the vehicle (the guy doing our paperwork couldn't believe that we got such a good price on it, we checked Kelly Blue book, etc) I became much more comfortable with it. We even got an extended warranty included for the amount that we wanted to pay each month. Finally I started to get excited about it! We were driving it around Denver (we had a hotel for the whole weekend) and kept telling each other that it felt like a rental car, but it was still fun. We stayed in Denver until Sunday, did a little shopping, had some dinner with Jon's mom and a family friend, and really just enjoyed what turned out to be a mini-vacation.

This is what our car looks like. I will have to add a few pictures later of us in the car. We are so excited!

Old Friends

Over the weekend Jon and I were able to spend some time with some "old" friends. They are people that we became very close to when we moved here. They were also the only believers that we knew in town, so we kind of bonded over the Lord. Natalie and I got very close through it all too, and she quickly became one of my favorite people here. They got married a few weeks ago, and then came to Wyoming to celebrate with their close family and friends. It was a great time, as we got to spend all day Saturday with them. Joey had moved to Austin, while Natalie actually went back to Sri Lanka (where she's from) about ten months ago. They grew closer while they were gone, and then Joey proposed when he went to Sri Lanka for a visit. They will be living in Austin since Joey has a job there, and I already miss Natalie terribly. We had such a good time together with a couple of other girls that are still in town. We had a great time getting to know their families as we celebrated at one of their favorite spots, Veedauwoo. I am so happy for them and look forward to seeing their marriage develop into the relationship that God intended for it to be.