New Job

Blessings blessings everywhere! Back in October I started the hunt for a full-time position after grant money ran out from my current job (I was working as a liaison between BYU and the Utah County Health Department, connecting students, professors, and professionals with research and project needs). The county offered me another part-time position but I knew I needed to be filling my afternoons with more than Oprah, so I was on the lookout. Amazingly, I quickly had an interview and job offer at the state health department where I'd work on flu campaign materials. It would require lots of driving and would be temporary with no benefits but I was willing to try and take on both part-time. That same day I was alerted that a full-time, benefited position opened up at the county where I already was working. I went through the long and laborious government application process but I finally have the job!! It was worth the wait and I love the projects I'm working on: tobacco prevention (working with worksite policies and physician tobacco screening/education), injury prevention (creating a YouTube video contest for Hispanic teens which focuses on highway safety) and the same academic liaison stuff. I love my job and I am so blessed to be paid to do what I love.

You are hereby called to serve in the......

MEXICO CHIHUAHUA MISSION!

Yes, my younger brother David just got his mission call to Mexico - how exciting! He got the call last Wed. or Thursday but sister Sammie was in California at the Footlocker West Cross County Race. She was heartbroken that we'd open it up without her so we waited until she got back on Sunday night to open up the call. Grandma Johnson, Aunt Julie, and cousin Michael Anne were there as well.

I was especially excited because I went on a study abroad to Mexico and love the language, culture, and people. If you want to see the excitement for yourself, here's the video!

T is for...

...Tarpy's, treasured memories, totally amazing weather, toasting marshmallows on the beach, and of course, Thanksgiving!!

SO, first up - we forgot our camera and thus, no pictures of our wonderful week vacation in CA. Hopefully words will be enough description. Here are some of our highlights:

• The night before we left we got to see sis-in-law Laura and her beautiful family and we stayed overnight at my Grandma Furse's house in Salt Lake.
• Saturday morning on the 21st we flew into San Fran and drove with Mother Bennion south to Salinas/Monterey CA.
• The memories: Looking at Christian's box of old baby clothes, soccer uniforms, school work, prom pictures, and mission memorabilia - I am obsessed with pictures, history, and old memories - I was in heaven :)
• Made it through all the family picture albums (i'm not lying - i'm obsessed) and some of the family videos. My favorite video clip is a tie between the Christmas eve kissing/gift exchange tradition and the family talent show (those Bennions can dance!)
• Picnic at the park on a 70-degree day
• Bonfire at the beach - hot dogs and s'mores included
• Playing dominoes and hearts with the fam
• Making my family's favorite Berry-Mallow Yam Bake for Thanksgiving dinner
• The delicious dinner - thanks especially to Mother Bennion and Sarah!
• Running with Christian on hilly horse trails
• Celebrating our 6 mo. anniversary by going out to a steak dinner at locally famous Tarpy's
• Falling in love with Christian all over again! :)

And I can't forget the perfect cap to the end of Thanksgiving break by getting to see and stay with my family here in Utah. Family makes the holidays what they are. I am so grateful for mine and for the opportunity to gain such a wonderful new one!

Guess who?

So, these aren't the best pictures in the world, but guess who we are....Imagine Christian with a paler face, a sparkling complexion, and maybe a hint of blood around his mouth...

You guessed it! Edward and Bella. I have to admit, I'm not the biggest Twilight fan you'll ever find, but when you got a guy as good-looking as Edward around, why not?

How do I love thee Fall? Let me count the ways

Why do I love fall so much?
1. The crisp, smoky smell in the air

2. The cool sweater/jacket weather mixed with sunny afternoons
3. The beautiful fall leaves
4. Memories of the ecstacy of high school cross county success (yet I also experience vague anxiety left over from the nerves that were also associated with the XC season)
5. Pumpkins and pumpkin-flavored desserts
6. The anticipation of Thanksgiving and then Christmas
7. My birthday
8. Christian's birthday
9. My parent's anniversary
10. My brother David's birthday
11. The excitement of the beginning of new classes and new school supplies

Oh joy :)

Before and After

So, if you've ever lived in a basement, you probably know it's easy for it to feel...blah. Well, after getting an enthusiastic go-ahead from our owners when we asked about painting, we went to work. That was last May, a couple weeks before the wedding, and four months later we finally have the place pretty much put-together. Here's a little look at how our little apartment has changed...

The living room:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

The Bathroom

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Kitchen leading into the bathroom

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The Process...

My wonderful roomies helping me tape the apartment while Chrisitan was taking the DAT

Voila!! Even though we have many more house projects ahead of us in our life, it's so fun to have our fist experience under our belt :)

Let this be a warning...

Rooted from a school project last year, I started a blog and a small awareness campaign against texting while driving. Let this video be a warning: you're not as good at texting while driving as you think. Go to my blog to check it out: textinganddriving.blogspot.com

Ah, the weekend

Weekends are so renewing. I woke up at ten this morning (I blame it on still getting over mono...) and then I spent the day doing things I've meant to do all week: the laundy and spending all afternoon cleaning out the dust, grime, and other unsightly things from our basement apartment. Now I am clean, in a clean house, peacefully blogging while Christian reads Harry Potter (continuing to slaughter me in reading pace - he is way ahead). And tomorrow: Sunday. The ultimate renewal day. We humans couldn't survive without our weekends. And now tonight we are looking forward to watching another classic movie we checked out from the library! If you don't have your library card, please get one. Ever since I was a little girl I've loved the library but I hadn't gotten a Provo card until last night. Now we have hundreds of VHS and DVD's at our fingertips (not to mention books). It sure beats Red Box on a busy weekend night.

Let me mention another fun event from a recent weekend: Graduation!! Yes, after four busy years of reading, note-taking, test-taking and lots of walking all over campus, it came. Here's a taste:

I spoke at my college's convocation

Elder Ballard was the headline speaker at commencement

Better late than never

So, I just started the seventh and final installation in the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To the horror of most die-hard fans, I did not even complete the sixth book (which made the end of the movie extra exciting) and did not join in the reading festivities when book seven came out two summers ago. Why you ask? I have no idea why!! I really liked the other books but for some reason I could not motivate myself to continue at the rate of everyone else. Yet, watching the most recent movie left me wanting more (where in the heck are all those horcruxes?!) and thus motivated me to get the book from my family and to read on my own. I have had to carefully avoid spoilers from my siblings and husband (he didn't read it but got all the gritty details from the fam) but I still don't know what's going to happen and I'm so excited to find out!

What about you? Are you a die-hard fan, simple movie follower, or none of the above? How did book seven compare to the rest?

Summer 2009: One never-ending vacation

Okay, so it hasn't been all play and no work. We get little spatterings of work in-between our fun trips and lately ours have been a little hectic: for me, a high-powered grant application and two-hour presentation to prepare and for Christian, never-ending and piling-up customer complaints to answer, but we have survived successfully and are doing well in that arena! Oh and to get the bad stuff out of the way, I got mono and resulting hepatitis a couple weeks ago but am very much on the mend. Now, on to the fun stuff!!

First: Canyoneering in Orderville Canyon at Zion's
So beautiful!! The most technical hike I've EVER done in my life and I was starting to get sick so that spoiled it a little but really - it was spectacular. A day long hike of waterfalls and towering red rock canyons. To see the adventure click HERE

Second: The beaches of Southern California
This was a mini Bennion reunion and most of the fam was there to enjoy good food, sunshine, and HUGE waves. They were unnaturally huge so they freaked me out a little, but Christian got me to brave the waves when they had calmed down the second day and I had more fun playing in the ocean than I ever have (actually, I don't think I've ever really played in the ocean. I'm from Oregon - the land of icy oceans). We mostly spent our days at San Clemente, but we tried one day at a Laguna beach. And YUMMY food. I got my appetite back from being sick at the perfect time :)

San Clemente
It looks like we're trying to dance in knee-deep sand

We're kissing across the sand. How romantic :)

Third: Timpanooke Camping
We just got back today from a two-day jaunt up American Fork Canyon with the Raleigh clan. Again, sooo beautiful. I am so grateful that we live so close to this beauty! But, of course there are the camping trade-offs of dirt and smoke. It was worth it and we made delicious dutch-oven dinners, hiked a little, explored, and endured a 1:00 AM cacophony of lost young adult campers who were trying to hike Timp. They were on a trail and had NO idea they were waking up a a whole campground of people. We hope they found their way! :)

Julie Andrew's Meadow

A closer look

I love my Mattie. Playing with him was one of my other favorite parts about the weekend

P.S. I'm speaking at convocation of graduation! Exciting stuff!

Summa Days

We just wanted to say....we love summer! We are soaking in the days and enjoying every last bit of our nice weather. Here's what we've been doing this last week:

Long walks and longboarding
Here are some pics we took on our way to a park that is in the neighborhood right behind our house. We are so lucky to have such nice trails and parks so close to us.




FOURTH OF JULY

We LOVED our Fourth of July Weekend. It was perfect....well, almost perfect. We woke up early to try to go up to the Y parking lot and see the hot air balloons - but of course, the streets were blocked off quite extensively. The parade would be starting soon and the Freedom Run races were going on so alas, no scenic view. Then, we tried to go get free french toast at the grocery store Macey's, but the line was much too long for our liking and we needed to get to Spanish Fork...so we got donuts instead and took off. Once the Raleigh fam was gathered in Spanish Fork, we loaded up the cars and headed up the canyon to hike to the hot springs. I've hiked it twice before, and so has Christian, but I'd never done it during the day and it was beautiful! We also were amazingly able to do the almost four mile hike with a three year old. Matthew wanted to stop and throw rocks and look at bugs more than we did, but he kept moving along and was a little trooper. In the end, Matt ended up beating me back because of course, I rolled my ankle. Not fun at all, but at least I had my dad and Christian with me at the time to help me hobble back the last half mile. Thankfully it's not gonna ruin my marathon training for too long and doesn't hurt anymore - just not pretty too look at.

Back out of the canyon, we had a fun lunch at the park and then went home to rest and recoup a little. That night we got to see the Bennions too! The fam flew in to go to the Bees baseball game and see the fireworks. We had a blast watching the game, fireworks, and stuffing all ten of us in a mini-cooper! We stopped at a park afterwards to do some fireworks and almost got beat up by a scary guy when some of Christian's brothers decided to throw a popper at his back (bad idea boys). After a shove and few expletives from him he walked away and we were alright...but good story! Here are some pics of our day:

The waterfall at the hot springs

Beautiful butterfly we found on the trail


On the baseball field waiting for the fireworks to start

Me with Mary Todd Lincoln and her good husband (we met them at a little celebration at the Freedom Festival)