Spring Cleaning!

What a whirlwind the past couple of weeks have been.

First an announcement, and then an explanation. I have quit my job in the lab and withdrawn from school. While this may come as a shock to some of you, those of you who know me closely know there was a lot of soul-searching that led to this decision. I haven't been happy for at least the last year with my job in the lab. I was close to finishing school, but no closer than I was a year ago. I've realized no matter how easy it looked from the outside, I couldn't physically make myself do something my heart was no longer interested in doing. I'm not sure if my bad job situation was keeping me in school, or school was keeping me in my bad job situation, but the minute I sat down and talked to my boss about it I felt like a million pounds was lifted from my shoulders. So I'm still working at TOSH, but no longer in the Biomechanics lab. For the time being I am helping back in the office for the athlete training program, and for the first time in probably 2 years I'm again enjoying being at work. You should ask my husband what a better mood I'm in! Instead of dread and doom I'm looking forward spring gardening, enjoying my hobbies, and counting the days to our next WI trip in May! Life is too short to be so unhappy!

More about that WI trip. It looks like we'll be visiting mid-May. We're driving this time!! Partly to haul some stuff back to Utah, and partly because Jason and I really want to drive there together before we have kids. Jason actually hasn't seen much of the country between Utah and WI so a driving trip is in order.

This past month I turned 29. I'm enjoying it so far. I got some lovely cards. My favorite was a funny one I received from KTP, so I decided to include it in the blog.

I also got some beautiful dish towels from my sister-in-law Misty. The poor dear didn't know what to get me, but upon hearing she was willing to sew something...these were my request! I would happily accept another set of these for each of the next 3 major holidays at least! Love them! They also came with this cute card and wrapping paper with pictures on it of me as a baby! What a crafty and creative sister-in-law I have.

If you recall our skunk problem, you know why this card is fitting.

The replacement for my dead Dell laptop arrived and I LOVE her! I got a Toshiba Satellite and really have no complaints thus far. Laptops are hard to test in stores where they are bolted down to the counter. I didn't want a "counter-top" I wanted a "lap-top"! Luckily when this one arrived the keyboard and all the little features that are hard to test in the store are even better than expected. I don't have many pictures for this month, so I will include one of "Toshiba" as we call her. ;)

In more recent news, after a near brush with death, Jason is going to make it! Jason had the cold/flu last week and I spent the better part of 4 days feeding him whatever combination of medicines would alleviate his symptoms. It was one of those rapid-onset bugs where at 7am before work he seemed fine, by 9am he told me he thought he was coming down with something, and by the time he got home at 7pm he'd already notified his boss he wouldn't be coming in the next day. Since he's working 4 ten's he only missed one day of work (Thursday), but generally looked and felt miserable from Wednesday-Sunday. He spent the better part of 3 days moving from the bed, to the futon, to the recliner, back to the futon etc. On Friday I was leaving the house to get my hair cut and asked Jason (laying in the recliner) if he knew his hoodie was on backwards. He carefully explained to me that it was that way on purpose, so that he could pull his hood over his face for sudden-onset naps. Poor sick monkey!

Saturday I got out with friends and went bowling. We try to go bowling every month or two with Cory--Jason's old college roommate. Cousin Heather usually comes along and it's a fun time. We found a local bowling place that has a weekend "shoes and 3 games for $9" special that's surprisingly not as much of a dive as the "cheapest bowling in town" designation would lead you to believe. This is the first time Jason hasn't made it along, but it was fun nonetheless.

By Sunday Jason was starting to perk up a bit and we watched the Superbowl together. We decided it was a bad idea to go spreading his bug around just yet, so we stayed in. What a game! I nearly had an ulcer by the 4th quarter...but the Packers did it! I told Jason it was lucky he had a WI wife so he still had a team to cheer for after his beloved San Francisco 49er's were out.

We checked our planting log from last year, and much to our dismay, found it unwise to plant tomato seeds until at least March. Last year we got a little too excited mid-February and by the time the weather outside was suitable for tomato planting we had seedlings that had outgrown their containers and were nearly flowering! In careful preparation Jason moved the potting soil inside to warm up, and last night we picked out next year's seed varieties. From the heirloom seeds Jason ordered last season we have 13 varieties we haven't tried yet, and one returner from last year that we really loved. Looking through our seed collection was exciting, and now my spring fever is even worse!

This coming President's Day weekend we are going to spend away in St. George and visit the Baxter grandparents. They get a place there for a few months each winter and enjoy having lots of company. Although southern Utah is usually this is a nice mid-winter getaway, it looks as though the weather is going to be warm all week and then turn colder for the weekend...so I'm not sure how much "warmer" it will be there so to speak. This week in the Salt Lake Valley it is in the 50's...a nice taste of Spring! For the weekend trip we are planning to take bicycles and enjoy the outdoors, but if the rain prediction holds true we might just stay in and play games instead. Time will tell. It's really our first road trip since Jason finished his hiking contract last fall, so I'm looking forward to it either way.

I hope everyone enjoys their Valentine's Day. Jason and I don't have any big plans, and that's OK. We will enjoy a nice dinner out some night when the wait isn't so long and we don't have to compete with all the other couples trying to have the "perfect" evening.

Take Care!

S.~



Kiki and the Carrot