What a week of curious wonder!

Well, this past week was the first week of grad school....woot! and boy was I anticipating it! 


     The past week was crazy good and that first week of school was intense; maybe it's because I haven't been in school for just over 2 1/2 years; that will do it to you.  It was actually a great week.  Monday, of course was the first day of classes and it was hard to get back into the studying habit and Tuesday was the aftershock of it all.

     Let's get into the realization of it all.  On Wednesday last week, I was at the library for 10 hours, 10 long hours; I never thought that I would be in that position, unless it was a job, but grad school is going to have to be like that for the next two years and yes, I knew what I was getting into.  But, since I know what I want to do, it isn't that bad, but like I said, I have been out of school for so long, I forgot what it was like.  

     Many of you might not know this about me, but I have a learning disability (ADD, go figure,) which causes some severe attention problems.  Well, I have taken the opportunity to use the Disability Services office here at UCCS; I've used them before, so it was not a surprise to have to use them again.  Anyways, one of the services that they offer is a note-taker; someone that is willing to take notes during class, email them to this office, and then they email them to me.  I had a letter to give to my professor, and after giving it to him, I noticed a guy in my class look down at my binder, which I forgot to close and I forgot that I had other copies to give to other professors.  Fast forward to the end of class.  This guy in my class has been coming with me to the library, (which by the way, I feel like I am cheating on the USU Merrill-Cazier Library each time I enter the Kramer Library; sorry guys.)  We get in there, do some studying and we each pull out PB&J sandwiches...holla for thinking alike.  He proceeds to ask if I need any help with notes and then says that he saw the letter.  I told him that I noticed and we chuckled about it.  Come to find out, he used to work in that office the semester before and has seen hundreds of that same letter.  I felt kinda sheepish and explained to him that I was getting used to the fact that I need their accommodations, but I had some reservations, just because I am a grad student....blah, blah, blah.  I hardly know the guy and he comes out and says that it doesn't reflect on my character and he was way cool about it; thanks Shayne for being awesome; a blessing in disguise.

     As mentioned earlier, I have been spending a lot of time at the library, and it was hard to stay there and not really know what I was reading.  I began to feel inadequate about the Master's program and the readings.  I mean, I know that I read a lot during my undergrad,  but Holy Hannah, there is an impressive amount of reading.  I sought after my professor for the class and asked him for some direction and he gave me some.  So I went back to the library (I know, I'm still cheating,) and took his directions and I found my groove when it comes to reading 40+ pages...it is a nightmare, but I am learning a lot.  

     Food Glorious food!  While I was on campus, Leslie ventured to the grocery store and had to do some serious shopping.  We did some serious waiting for my student refund, (cough cough..loans,) and just went hecka crazy with the groceries, I mean, after 2 1/2 weeks of not having shopped, we were in a serious famine; okay, not that bad, but we were down to a half a gallon of milk, half a dozen of eggs, measly portions of cereal and that was it.  We love food, and even though she went ballistic with shopping, we needed some delicious stuff.  Thanks honey for showing the grocery store what's up!

     Last weekend, it was Summerfest and we were so bummed that we missed it, but luckily, some of our friends that are still in Logan graciously went in our behalf and enjoyed it for us; you know who you are...bless your hearts for doing that for us.   Also, this passed week, there have been some crazy storms that were brewing over us, and I mean some crazy storms; not the wimpy Utah kind.  Colorado has some serious hail storms, and we love every minute of them.  I mean that it does rain for like 5 minutes, but then the hail comes upon us and it is intense (in tents, like camping.)   Before this one hail storm, I was on campus waiting to go back to my car and I was waiting for the UCCS shuttle.  Well, just to give you a back story of how different it is here from USU.  At USU, if you are waiting for the bus, it is kinda like first come-first serve with the idea of being courteous to people by letting the go before you.  Well, I was walking to the shuttle stop and I saw a line of people, I bypassed them just to wait on the other side of the little sitting area and some guy loudly said that the end of the line was where I came from.  He wasn't rude about it, but just the way he presented himself was rather annoying.  Yeah, he was being helpful, but I didn't know, I'm from out of town, ( I am going to claim that the whole time we are here.)  I walked passed that same group of people, and I felt super awkward, (Kylie, I know how you feel :S)  

Wow, that was a lot, but I still have some more.

     My classes for the summer go Monday through Thursday and then off Friday and I took that day to be super lazy...I know, not a habit to get into, but I just had to...I spent the whole day, while Leslie was at a second job interview binge watching Netflix...huge disease.  I watched two episodes of Prison Break, great show and three episodes of Doctor Who....where have you been my whole life?  I know, it took me forever and a day to start that series, BIG SHOCK!!! even for me.  That was also the day of the full moon...the Honeymoon, because when it came up, it had the most beautiful honey color...what an amazing creation for us to enjoy on this planet.

     Saturday was such a great day, too.  We got up that morning and went to Centennial, CO. to join our new ward family for a Temple day.  We were so spoiled while living in Logan, because the Temple was a 5 minute drive from where we live and now the Denver, CO. Temple is almost an hour; not super far, but it was a sacrifice that we have to make, at least each month to go, but it is such a blessing to go.  That same day, a guy that lives in the same apartment complex is a maintenance guy; great guy.  He came by a couple of weeks ago to check out a wet spot that was showing on our wall.  Well, he cut a hole, because we thought that there was mold and luckily, there wasn't, but there was a hole.  So, he patched it up, did some work and come to find out, they do not carry the same color white that is currently on our wall, but they have a different color of white...weird.  But, we got to pick out a color and he painted our wall...it was way cool of him to do that for us, off the clock, too.  


     We have some news!  Like I mentioned earlier, Leslie had a second job interview at a place called Peaks Physical Therapy on Friday; her initial interview was about two weeks ago.  She was told that they would let her know in a couple of weeks...they called her on the 16th and gave her a job...WOOT AND HOLLA!!!  She is thrilled and I am very ecstatic for her, she starts tomorrow, 6/18/2014.

Well, that is all folks.  I do apologize for not posting sooner, but I hope that you enjoy it.



Here are some pictures that we have to share:

   Just to give you somewhat of an idea of the size of hail; this is a picture of some hail that had melted a little.

                                  Here is Percy in a few of his favorite spots in the new place; little sunbather.

Not super great quality of the 'Honeymoon'.

Temple day on 6/14/14.  This was a great day!

New wall color.  Not our choice of color, but it was by far the best out of five choices.  Sorry for all of you that still live in Aggie Village and have to deal with the white walls, but this makes this place more homey.

I forgot to add some pictures of us using our hammock.  We bought it like two years ago and never had the chance of enjoying it; Percy enjoyed the hammock as well.

    
      

A week of FIRSTS!!!

So everyone here is what went down last week!! 

Thunderstorms are crazy here. It is a constant weather change. I thought Logan was crazy but Colorado Springs is crazier in a better way. Logan it was iffy day to day. Colorado Springs is sunny in the morning and raining in the evening. It is a real spring. We have had more rain in the short time that we have lived here than I have seen in a while. The rain drops are the size of a 50 cent piece. It is crazy and we have thunder that is crazy loud. The best benefit that comes from all of this is the awesome rainbows. We have seen 3 since we moved here. They are the brightest rainbows ever, unfortunately the Kindle can' t get the picture and we couldn't find our camera. We have found it since but there hasn't been a rainbow since, bummer. It also makes everything green and cool so our house is not hot even though in the afternoon it is usually 70ish degrees. Some days are hotter but it has been so beautiful. Here is a picture after the storm, we tried to catch the rainbow but we missed it. The sun is coming out as you can see across the field. This is what we see in our back window!! SO AWESOME!

I (Leslie) was on my way to visit the LDS Employment center at the beginning of the week and got lost! This is the moment in time that I wish I had a smart phone, curse you basic phone. I called Colby and he navigated me there over the phone. Mind you this was incredibly frustrating (sorry Colby) because I felt as if I was making every effort to find a job and all I was doing is running into snags, UGH! I finally made it and I was trying to hard to make an annoying situation good! I spoke with one of the missionaries Elder Tettley about my resume and he helped me make it better and then the receptionist Sister Wursten gave me a couple of jobs to apply for. She is the nicest person that I have met, she wants nothing but great things for people. I got a lot of help from those people and really appreciate them more than they will ever know! I went straight home and stayed up so late getting things all figured out and changed. I also applied for as many jobs as I could through a bunch of websites. 

Craigslist? What? This is something to get used to around here. Apparently, Craigslist is the Colorado version of KSL.com. We have a lot to learn about Colorado Springs. I have been on it everyday to find jobs, oh and an electric dryer too! Don't get me wrong Craiglist is not bad, I just don't know how to use it very well. Tuesday was my job hunting day from somewhere bad!! I was on the computer for at least 10 hours and I was about ready to punch the screen and cry! My eyes were so tired I just didn't even know what to do but I applied for a lot of jobs, so hopefully something will come from it! Everything comes through SACRIFICE!! 

On Wednesday, I went to a workshop at LDS Employment. It was about networking and I really learned quite a bit. During the workshop the secretary came in and told me that I should take a call from someone looking for an administrative assistant (I was the only one there) so I took the call and it was sort of a phone interview. The job sounded great and I accepted an in person interview for Thursday. Colby and I then decided to go to campus and get his books and look around campus to get a feel for what it was like a little more than just driving by.  We are now officially MOUNTAIN LIONS, Black and Gold are our colors! It is going to be really fun. The campus is beautiful, very green and they really take care of all their facilities (at least the ones we saw). It was a fun adventure. 

I did have 2 job interviews this last week! Good news right! They went really well and I really liked both places a lot. One was at a real estate office- which I have never done- he needed someone quickly but he told me that he was worried about hiring me because he didn't want me to take the job and then go looking from full time work and the job he was offering was only part time with no ideas if or when it could become full time. It was also about 30 minutes away from where I live! I couldn't let him down so I was completely honest and I turned it down because I knew that I would be really strapped with money so I most definitely would be looking for a position that was full time. The other job interview was at a Physical Therapy office. I really love the idea of working there. It is almost exactly what I am interested in. It follows along with my degree pretty close and it also includes the office work that I really love. This would be a perfect job in my opinion but it also depends on whether they think I am the perfect fit. I will just keep hoping and praying for that. I really enjoyed the interview as well. The therapist that interviewed me was so nice and I could really see myself getting along with her. 

Colby had his Orientation on the 5th for the Graduate Program and so he was gone for a good portion of the evening. He had such a good time meeting the professors and also some of his classmates. He is now getting very anxious for school and to get into the swing of things.  That evening I was tired of sitting home alone and worrying about the interviews so I decided to take Percy for a walk. He was so excited to get outside too since he is stuck inside most of the day. We went outside and saw that there was little league baseball going on in the field outside my apartment so we walked over and sat in the grass and watched for a little bit. I wonder if anyone looked at me as a creeper. I promise I am not a creeper, I just love sports and being outside. Needless to say I didn't stay long. We walked around the rest of the park and then as usual Percy started biting his leash and pulling me home. This is his way of saying "OK I am done, lets go home". 

We have been randomly getting out of the house to adventure around town and see what it has to offer!! This has been really fun for me but for Colby, he is not so fond of the traffic! It is crazy here all the time, there is no such thing as rush hour here, it is rush hour all the time. That is going to take some getting used to. A trip to the grocery store now takes at least a half an hour when in Logan we could be down and back in 15 min tops. Back to the adventures in town, we have 4 major shopping areas around town, the only thing is they all have basically the same stores! They are all within about 5 miles in every direction from where we live. It is shopping mecca here. I like it except for the part where shopping costs money and money comes from jobs which I don't have yet! We have seen all of these shopping meccas that include things like Target, Home Goods, Ross, Hobby Lobby, Best Buy, and a billion others. But, we have not seen a shopping mall with clothing stores. I thought this was incredibly weird so I took it upon myself to find a mall or something. Guess What, I found one. It is along the road where I was traveling to the LDS Employment center. So during Colby's orientation he was having a small talk conversation with someone and they said oh that mall is the run down one. It didn't look run down to me and it was near the Olympic Training Center so I thought for sure it was nicer than it looked from the outside (mind you it looked like the Logan mall on the outside). I have yet to go inside but we traveled the other direction to the mall this girl said was the better one and low and behold it was huge!! It had all sorts of stores, including Colby's favorites- H&M and Burlington. Life could not be any better for him. We walked around for what seemed like forever. There is one difference between our malls and Utah malls. A store called "All Things Catholic" I thought it was really interesting so I took a picture. I am so used to having Deseret Book that this caught me off guard. We went in and looked at some of the statues that they have. This was a very interesting reality that we are not in Utah anymore folks. 

The next milestone is that we finally emptied 95% of the boxes!! there is still a little bit more to do but I have put it off because I just didn't know where things are going to go!! We still have to put back up all of our pictures which is a feat in and of itself but that will be done soon. I also have a coffee table to finish. We have projects but our apartment is turning out to be very nice. We are finally feeling like we are settled in. The maintenance guy that lives upstairs is such a cool guy. He is going to come and paint an accent wall in our front room since it needs to be repainted after the patch work he had to come and do. He is our only friend in the complex. Except for the 11 year old boy that lives next door. He comes to visit often, he really needs attention. He came over and told me that his mom was too shy to come and talk to me but that she wanted to be my friend? Weird, considering I had already gone over and introduced myself to her? I figure that if she is too shy to come and talk to me, after I had already talked to her, then I am not convinced that she really wants to be friends. I still say hello but I don't think that it will ever become a hang out friendship or anything. 

Colby had his first day of school today!! He was so excited to begin he made this sign for me to take a first day picture like when we were in elementary!! It was so cute, so here it is...

A couple of funny things that happened but I don't know how they fit in the mix of the blog:

First, When we first moved in Colby got an awesome scare by my brother in law. I told Colby that the refrigerator didn't smell good and he should go check it out so he did. This is what he opened up to find.......

My Brother-in-law Charlton saying RAAAAAARRRR!!!!! It was the best house joke ever!! Thanks Charlton. 

Second, We saw a license plate from Arkansas and I asked Colby why they say it without the "S" at the end and his response was obvious, that the "S" is silent. My response was that if the "S" was silent then why isn't it silent in Kansas? They are the same words and there is not a vowel or anything else to stop it from being an "S". We laughed and then I said if the "S" is always silent then it would be "ilent", get it no "S" in silent. I thought I was pretty funny. I don't have funny things to say all that often but we laughed for a really long time!! 

Third, We were driving in a car and talking about all our friends at Aggie Village and doing some reminiscing and he asked me if Tien was Korean or something and I said no and I was trying to spit the word out and Colby jumped in and said, "Oh she is VietMaNese, I knew that" I said yes since that is what I was about to say. I then asked him to say it again because I thought I heard the "M" and "N" mixed up. He said it again the same way "VietMaNese". I told him that it was Vietnamese, the N comes first. He laughed and said that he has always said it that way and that the real way to say it sounds wrong. It was pretty funny. I love you honey!! 

We will be posting every week until we forget so.... Until next time!

What's for dinner? Change? Sounds Delish!!

Doesn't change sound so good for dinner, especially leftovers, right? anybody with me on that?
 
     I love change just as much as the next guy or gal.  I used to welcome change with open arms and a big kiss on the neck, but now I fear it tremendously and with some trepidation.  I know that change is good and so does Leslie.  Even though this move was hard for her, she is going out guns-a-blazin and I am set to ride on the coattails of her awesomeness.  But we both know that we are here for some unknown reason knowing that Heavenly Father needs us here...so bring it on Big Guy we are ready to go.

     Let's go back to the last few weeks of February, yeah, that's a great start.  I was working for the Logan City School District with their After School Program; by the way, this job was Heaver-sent, no doubts about that.  There I was making copies for an activity that I was in charge of and right in front of me was a flier for a School Counseling program at USU and deep inside the corners of my hot mess of a mind, I thought that I heard the Hallelujah chorus...and I felt like there was this strike against my heart chords, sort of like when a small child walks up to a beautiful upright piano and starts banging on the ivories; just like that.  Anyways, that was how I felt.  Just to get it all out there, it took me a week and maybe three days to look into the program at USU (nothing,) U of U (giant road block,) and I found one at UCCS (relief.)  Let's also say that that week and three days had to have been the most stressful time period of my life; worse than Final's week and that is saying a lot.

     I submitted all things requisite and I was told that I wouldn't hear back for two weeks and I don't think that it was possible for someone my age to lose any more hair and gain as many wrinkles as I did during that time.  Okay, now to the most amazing part of this, besides having the most amazing wife back me up through this all.  I was at work and I felt like I needed to look up some apartments, just in case.  That whole day was full of so much stuff, I didn't allot myself any time to look at my email, until super late that night.  Les and I got home from a day spent doing whatever; it's all a blur and quite frankly my ADHD brain has tossed it into the 'unnecessary' box in the basement.  Anywho, we got home and I jumped to my Kindle as if I was Percy jumping to his toy for the first time.  I saw an email from UCCS and I read the first line where it told me that I was accepted; I about passed out, but I ended up crying tears of joy and much excitement.  Leslie and I embraced, I called my mom and Leslie's mom and shared the best news ever...great way to end the evening.

      I am going to jump through boring stuff....and just go to the day we moved.  Just a side note, between the day I found out and to when we moved, there was much anticipation, sadness, happiness, great love and support from friends and family.

     We moved out of our home in Logan on May 19th.  Two days before, we had a going away/birthday party.  We had friends come to see us off that lived about 2 hours away and friendships that we've had with others for a long time that came; it was such a blessed day that we will always remember.  So, on moving day, it was kind of a bummer, because Les, along with her folks, were all sick.  I know moving is an epic lame moment, but being sick was even more lame...DOUBLE LAME!!! LAME!!!  I felt awful for them all.

     Well, it was super depressing to leave, and we really dragged our feet that day.  I mean, we were excited about it all and I am not sure how Leslie felt, but it was weighing me down, like when an Acme anvil lands of Wile E....it was awful.  I will admit that I dragged my feet way more than Leslie...I was extremely sad to leave our home, where we had lived for almost 7 years...UGH!!! Moving on!

     The next four days was spent with our loved ones and a HUGE thanks goes to Leslie's mom and dad for being so gracious to allow us to stay with them, opening their home to us and an even bigger thanks with much love goes to them, her family and friends for spending their time helping us move.  Later that week, we got to see my mom, Grandma, one of my sisters and her kids.  We went to the Loveland Aquarium in Draper and spent the day with them.  We love them, too and will miss them deeply.

     Friday, May 23: Moving to The Springs (Colorado Springs that is.)  It took us 12 flipping hours to get there, but we got half way through Denver on a holiday weekend....A HUGE HOT MESS!!!  We had our niece with us and the Denver traffic at that time was awful.  We couldn't really move to any of the other lanes and to top off the stressful driving situation that we were in, our four year old niece screams out that she has to go potty; to all of you that have children and travel with little ones, bless your souls, I give you great praise and admiration...it was a time of lovely madness.

     We were able to get off and we found a McDonald's.  As we were there, I called our apartments and I found out that they were opened on Saturdays.  We made the decision to go to her cousin's house and she was gracious to let us stay with her along with Leslie's sister and folks, two little kids and our fur child...great times for all...especially when we played Just Dance on the Kinect; it was a lot of fun.

     One week and a couple days in the Springs:  This past week and a couple of days has been a whirlwind of emotion, getting lost (that's just how I feel,) finding new places to check out; there are several huge shopping places, but they're all scattered in ten different directions; luckily Leslie knows where to go.  Our new ward is full of great people and we have only met a few couples.  We had dinner with the second councilor in the Bishopric with his wife.  They are a great couple and we are so happy that we have made friends with them.  There aren't a ton of young couples in the ward.  We had Stake Conference this past weekend and we were scouting out the people our age; we don't mind hanging out with older couples, so whatever works.  And when I say that we were scouting them out, it was mainly me that was doing it...desperate times call for desperate measures.  I try not to be that way and I try to remember that we'll find friends when they come our way.

     This is going to be new for us for awhile, but we're getting the hang of a lot of different changes and lifestyles.  Even though Utah is just next door, the people here are a different breed, but we are excited to get to meet those different people.