Picture Time!

Speaking of blessings... I bought a Honda Civic and I'm really happy with it. I had to take a picture of the odometer, because she's so young.

Luckily, Eric tested the alarm for me, for which service I am extremely grateful. You don't want a cheap car where the alarm goes off when some punk off the street is shaking the car or, heaven forbid, punching it. Well everyone, I have anecdotal evidence that Honda alarms are high quality and will not go off even if you hit the car hard enough to leave an imprint of your hand in it. I love you Eric.

The good people at Ken Garff removed the dent for free before I left Utah. What a great story.

This is the beautiful sunset driving across Nebraska. This and the 75-80 mph speed limit were about the only positive things I found in that state.

Good thing my brother is a genius and found a Giordano's on our way through Illinois. And they accidentally made a larger pizza than we ordered. Their bad.

Remember the Hansen's? Well Ashley (Patt's daughter) brought her 2 year old and her 3 week old up from North Carolina to visit me. We went to the coolest little zoo in Reston. This is me and Willa-woo-woo.

Grandma Patty, willa, and the HUGEST horns I've ever seen on a bull.

Brian first discovered this gentlemen making his rounds in John and Patty's complex, and this was my second sighting and this picture opp was perfect. So here you go guys, wish you were here right?

This picture is at the Antietam Battlefield. These bugs are everywhere out here and I'm sure you can guess how I feel about them. I want to punch them in the face as hard as I can.

Before we went to the battlefield, we went to the temple. Unfortunately the baptismal font was closed, so I watched some old BYU produced seminary videos in the visitor's center. Great use of time.

Snuggling with my Garmin, Staci. She died, so now I have Staci Jr.

Here's the computer my buddy hooked me up fat with: it needs a battery, which is much cheaper than a whole new computer, so I'll take it. Sorry I don't have pictures of the winning males I have had the pleasure of meeting out here, but I'll keep working on it. Miss you guys.

I Would Like To

formally welcome myself back to consistent internet usage. Welcome Mal. I was chatting with a friend at work yesterday at lunch and I told him about my "predicament" of lack of media. I've kind of been laughing about this since I got out here: my hand-me-down Dell that my daddy gave me (because my parents gives me just about everything they have ever owned) crapped out once and for all. Being as how I have been broke-phi-broke for the past year just meant I would have to learn to wait. I also have this gigantic TV in my apartment that came with the apartment, but I don't have cable or a dvd player so I just get fuzz. I've been using computers here and there and just reading a lot. I felt frustrated one night about not being able to do many necessary things and I told my brother I just needed to buy one. He was really understanding and told me he'd lend me the money if I wanted it. Sometime during the next few days I calmed down a bit and realized (with a little exceedingly wise guidance from my church leaders) that getting out and staying out of debt is very important. I had a new motivation to hang on a little longer. I got a library card and got some good sleep in the meantime.

So back to my friend at work. He's all "I have an old gaming system that will play dvds if you want to borrow it" and I'm trying to decide if I should just keep enjoying my reading time so I never really asked for it. Well today on our way into work he's like "I have a present for you after work" and so after work we walk out to his car and whips out a mac laptop. And I'm like "um.....what is that?" and he's like "here, take it". So I took it with the promise it would come back once I purchased one for myself and he was like "well whatever, I don't use it anyway so have it for as long as you like."

I brought it home smiling and laughing the whole way and then another miracle happened at my apartment. I'm somehow connected to someone's internet (the first thing I did, obviously, was watch a good Fly a Kite youtube video). So I'll get some pictures coming of my new place, my double recliner couch (another great patience slash Holy Ghost story), and my weird friends from church. Love you.

I Miss You

All of you. It's past my 8 pm bedtime but I came over to Pat and John's to do a little online bill-pay and found myself here. I thought I'd just say hi and tell you about my rather uneventful couple of weeks.

I'm doing shift work so tomorrow will be my 4th and final 12 hour one of the week (praise the Lord). There is so much going on at work that I have to learn about that my brain nearly explodes everyday. I have been frustrated almost to tears a few times already but then I tell myself that no one is going to feel bad for a 22 year old girl who cries because learning new things is hard. So I have had to humble myself and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day. Besides working long hours the tools in the fab are incredible. I feel like a kid in a candy store. Everything is shiny and clean. It's a cleanroom so there is no dust/dirty oil/grease anywhere which is something I can handle if I'm going to be an engineer. Being dirty makes me feel less girly and I hate that.

The team that I work with is awesome because I don't feel like the odd one out because I'm the girl (like I was in school). There is so much diversity on our team no one thinks I'm so very different. And I enjoy that not everyone knows everything about Mormon culture because they don't treat me any different either way. There is another LDS guy on my team who I've become friends with which is super cool. And when someone on my team mentioned drinking the other engineer (who is Hindu) said he doesn't drink, and a tech who has teenage kids said he doesn't either. And it was almost like we had all said "we don't drink soda." No one thought it was a big deal at all. I'm so grateful everyone at work has been so sweet and helpful as I try to learn.

My singles ward is really small and there are a lot of converts and the elders come to our ward every Sunday and all our activities and it's just slightly different than the BYU wards I've been attending for the past 4 years. There are differences in the culture if you will of this ward and I think it's cool to learn about something different.

At "Home" in Virginia

I just wanted to stop by and give you an update. Brian and I made it to Virginia. I can't begin to explain how selfless it was for Brian to drive 34+ hours with me across the country and buy a plane ticket home. He also cleaned the Manassas Costco out and emptied it into my new apartment. I told him I'm going to repay/get back at him for it by giving his children cell phones and ipods at ridiculously young ages. Thanks Brian. Oh and he has most all of the propaganda we produced throughout our roadtrip so visit his blog for *amazing* videos and pictures of a few state lines.

Next on my Thank List are Elder and Sister Hansen who are on a mission here in Virginia. Part of me believes that Heavenly Father sent them to this mission for me. Patt Hansen is Nat's aunt by marriage and has been a wonderful mother while I've been here for 4 days. She's been feeding me wonderful meals and just making sure I have everything I need. Which brings me quite nicely to numero uno on the List.

The past few weeks and really months as I have looked for a job and tried to figure out where my life is going I have received more blessings that I can count. I prayed for this job in Virginia the moment I applied for it. I had this (strange) desire to try something I had never done before: live far from home. I have this weird tendency to copy my brothers. I feel like I need to do everything myself and prove somehow that I'm independent and smart and all that crap. Heavenly Father really gives us what we want in this life which is incredible that He actually trusts us enough to say "tell me what you want, and I'll make it happen." His love is incomprehensible to me. I wish you could have seen His hand the way I did while trying to find a job, and a car, and get out here and find a place to live and a bed to sleep in.

Recently my good friend's father died. He was only 50 and he was perfectly healthy. He was just kayaking. My heart ached whenever I thought of this extremely close family. They all just loved each other so much. And some of their children are still in elementary school. I wondered how they must be feeling. I wondered how Heavenly Father would take care of each of them. And when I observed an outpouring of blessings in my life I wondered why He was blessing me so, when surely others needed His help more. The Holy Ghost taught me that because God is no respecter of persons, He is not limited like I am. He can, and is, taking care of all His children who need him. No list of needs is too long for Him.