Look! It's the Reynoldses!

rough.

2011-03-10T14:49:00.000-06:00

jake and i are still plugging away at school. we have learned several things:

getting into medical school is a full-time job.
that job is incredibly stressful and not a 9-5 gig.
law school is hard.
18 hours of law school per weekend is really hard.
law school distracts you from other pursuits (i.e., haiku writing).

i have been shot down for job after job and it is really starting to get to me. it is incredibly hard to tell yourself to keep trying when you are one hundred percent confident in your abilities to thrive in a job and the employer still won't pick you. it's been rough lately.

pretty rough.

BUT!

things are still good for the most part. jake and i sometimes get the chance to do really fun things like go see Joseph, and attend the opera this friday. I am so glad i married a guy who likes the arts. have i mentioned that marriage is pretty awesome? having someone to pull you back from the brink of despair after getting turned down for another job, take you out to dinner, chase you around the painfully small apartment, and even pick up Cooper poo in waist-high snow even though he has no patience for dogs of any kind is pretty amazing. and no matter how bad things get (i.e., the neighbors, the money, the school, the job, etc.) i know we'll get through it together. and still be able to laugh along the way through this wacky adventure.

love you jakey.

As soon as finals are over...

2010-11-30T11:23:00.001-06:00

I'm writing a new blog. I swear.

Love,

Worst blogger ever.

Just a quick catch up...

2010-07-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

We have not ceased to exist. We are still here, still in Burnsville, still working at T-Mobile.

Jake has a new job though, which has been a huge relief for me to have a little extra cash flow coming in! That's my Jake: always helping the family. He's a Research Assistant in the Entomology department at the U of M. Bugs are his patients for now, and I think both parties have developed quite a fondness for each other. He sends me pictures occasionally of the little guys.

Jake had a STELLAR semester at school this spring, made the dean's list again, and was able to achieve his rather lofty goal in his chemistry class. I am so proud of him and his amazing work at school. Med school applications are coming up next summer, and we have started to prepare and select some schools to apply to (I know I shouldn't end this with a preposition, but I'm tired and I hate to sound pretentious by saying "at which to apply."). The odds are stacked against us for sure: for every spot available at medical schools across the country, there are 13 highly qualified applicants jumping through hoops to get it. So Jake has to be better than...a lot of people. The pressure is definitely on, but everything has worked out so wonderfully for us in the past that I know whatever happens will be perfect for us.

I have decided to attend law school this fall. I just can't get enough school. I have decided that when I'm done I am going to get a special frame and mat made for my collection of diplomas (although I never got my high school one. Some people told me I had to go pick it up, others told me it would be mailed to me...either way, I don't have it). I am doing a part-time program at Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul. They gave me a nice little scholarship and I decided I should take them up on it.

Jake and I also started meeting with a financial advisor and have been very impressed with her. She is incredibly kind and genuine, and has given us a lot of knowledge about finance and general financial well-being. Even though we don't have much (read, any) money to play with, we are starting to be smarter about our savings and are working toward building a 3-6 month bucket should anything happen. It's nice to know that it's not just the Church telling us to do these things, but that experts in their field also suggest many of the same things. When many sources tell you to plan ahead, you should probably plan ahead.

I have also accepted my mom's creativity challenge and have started a second blog that is only for that. Many of you have probably seen my mom's blog and her new one, her Happy Thoughts blog, and I have joined in the fun along with an aunt and a cousin. Hopefully more people join in and start flexing their creative muscles...everyone has them you know. If you are interested, you can check mine out at www.haikerbole.blogspot.com.

We're still doing great, and hope everyone else is doing the same!

Santa Fe, Are You There?

2010-05-01T23:28:00.004-05:00

So last month Jake and I went to Santa Fe.

IT WAS GLORIOUS.

The weather was perfect, the food was divine, and the company was enchanting. It was Jake and I's first real vacation together alone since our honeymoon and we had forgotten how much we love vacation.

We had a lovely hotel room at the Santa Fe Sage Inn which served a delicious breakfast every

morning, and conveniently shares a parking lot with the Santa Fe Whole Foods.

The Rancho De Chimayo is one of my favorite places on earth. It is so beautiful and delicious. The chicken is so tender you can practically will it to cut. You don't even need a fork.

Heading down into the ceremonial kiva on top of a 200 foot vertical ascent at Bandolier National Monument.

The ancestral caves are not Jake-sized.

Bandolier day was probably our favorite day. We had perfect weather, and we had a lovely picnic lunch from Whole Foods.

We had guacamole every night. Literally.

Culture abounds in Santa Fe. For those of you that know me well, you know about my affinity for Native American culture. I think that is why I feel at home there. So many Indians and so true me.

There are also a lot of cultural things that I do not understand. Take, for instance, this golden jewel-encrusted Virgin Mary toilet seat.

Jake felt at home there too. Notice Gabriel's guacamole below. I have been raving about Gabriel's guacamole for years and he finally got to taste it. After the first bite he said, "Well, I've never tasted anything like that before." Also notice that the bowl has a diameter the size of his forearm.

Santa Fe is a beautiful place.

And we have a beautiful life.

The Contents of My Purse

2010-03-07T20:29:00.004-06:00

When I was a senior in high school, I did a poetry workshop and wrote a poem entitled "The Contents of My Purse on November 19, 2004".

I have heard a rumor of purse contents blog entries going around, and thought I would take advantage of such an occasion.

Also, my purse is getting very heavy and need to be cleaned out.

FRONT POCKET:

1 pair garish turquoise plastic sunglasses
1 Nokia pen
1 Visa gift card with $17.56 remaining balance
16 mini Tootise Rolls
1 Mytouch cellular device
1 old shopping list

SIDE POCKET:

1 chocolate mint Zone Bar wrapper

OTHER SIDE POCKET

1 apartment key card

FRONT ZIPPERED POCKET

15 pennies
7 dimes
4 nickels
11 quarters
2 balled up Valentine Hershey's kiss wrappers
1 business card for a salesman from HOM furniture that I would still like to utilize when I have more than 11 quarters.

INTERIOR OPEN POCKET

2 coupons for Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America
1 "I Heart Seahorses" sticker
1 receipt for a night at Chili's

INTERIOR ZIPPERED POCKET

1 old shopping list
1 Sungold Pink lipgloss
1 pen from the Inn at Saint Mary's in North Bend, Indiana

INTERIOR

1 T-Mobile pen
1 bottle hand sanitizer
1 turquoise faux-leather wallet
1 Best Buy ad insert with prices good January 10-16, 2010
1 note authorizing UPS to leave a package on the doorstep
1 Activia yogurt coupon from Cub Foods
2 T-Mobile employee phone plan service agreements
1 invitation to the Relief Society birthday
2 Burnsville Ward Relief Society announcement bulletins
2 Sunday School quote sheets
1 Minnesota Valley Transit Authority Double Decker Bus advertisement
3 T-Mobile earnings statements
2 change of address forms for Wings Financial Credit Union
1 empty plastic baggy
2 empty envelopes
1 tube of white glitter
1 light-up Nokia bouncy ball
2 Baja Sol lunch receipts
1 Walgreens receipt
1 Leann Chin receipt
1 lengthy Cub Foods receipt
1 coupon for M&Ms
1 IKEA receipt
1 Michael's receipt
1 Five Guys receipt
7 Target receipts
1 Wal-Mart receipt
1 Goodwill receipt

So the contents of my purse reveal a few things about me:

I eat a lot.
I work for a telecommunications company and have regular contact with Nokia reps.
I go to Target too often.

The House that Jake Built

2010-02-28T22:10:00.007-06:00

Or rather, the apartment that Jake rented.

I know it has been a long time, bloggy friends, but the wait is over.

We moved into our new home a few weeks ago and have been sublimely happy ever since. Who knew that a stove, a hall closet, and a bath tub could have such an influence on a Chelsea? I started cooking again and everything is going along just swimmingly. All we need now is a little doggy to share in all the fun! Here is the one that I want:

It's a Coton de Tulear. They are my most favorite dogs ever and one day I will have one. I just need to convince Jake. But as I have said before, based on my powers of persuasion, I am confident that in 3-20 years, I will have a little pup of my own. I should apologize to Jake in advance though. Now that one of my best friends ever just got a little Havanese, another breed I LOVE, I am about to become insufferable.

Now let me show you around our little home! It's a one bedroom in Burnsville. Even though we really need a two bedroom, we just can't afford it right now on my tiny T-Mobile salary. But really, it is absolutely wonderful. As soon as I got all my books out of boxes, I really felt like we were in exactly the right place. I love it here! Aysia also loves it. She is very excited for the pool to open up this summer! Even though a very loud very angry Somali woman has a one-sided yelling conversation (we can't tell if the other person is in the room or she's having the conversation on the phone) every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 7:00 to 7:35 am, and the disposals in this place sound like death, it is just perfect.

Here is Jake's study area with our new computer. It's huge and a beautiful piece of machinery. I just wish my mom's was working as well as mine...

Here is our new TV which we also enjoy. Everything looks very real and smooth. Sometimes it's a bit too real though. Watching LOST on it is like I'm on the island too. You can also see our kokopelli clock and our Conversation Piece by Susan M. Hinckley herself. We definitely need more art, but the art we have is good.

This was the first piece I ever bought. I got it in Baltimore last year at the American Craft Council show. It is so beautiful. It's a stoneware wall pocket. I think it looks perfect with wheat, don't you?

Our bookcases. This is not all of our books. The majority of them reside in our bedroom. These are the ones that look nice on the bookcase. I'm still working on organizing these. You can also see some original Jake glass art on the wall. I have such a talented husband.

Here is our kitchen. You can also see our M&M jar on the counter. Recently it has been filled with Cadbury Mini Eggs...naughty indeed. It is big and open and all white, which makes a huge difference I think. It looks clean and new.

Here is the first part of the HUGE bathroom. It really could almost be a second bedroom. We have a linen closet in there and our washer and dryer as well.

Here is the bathroom part of the bathroom. It's around the corner in the above picture.

And you know it wouldn't be a Chelsea house without a big frog (or two!). Rumphy guards my books.

Here is our bedroom. We need some more art for sure.

My side of the bed.

And Jake's side!

A quick funny story. Last summer my parents had a garage sale and I decided to sell my first electric guitar because I hadn't used it in quite some time. It was a little red Fender. Very cute. I got it for my 16th birthday.

Then leading up to Christmas T-Mobile had a little contest for its sales associates. The top sales people were given an entry into a drawing for a Fender Telecaster signed by Avril Lavigne (she has been doing those Mytouch commercials for T-Mobile...). Well. If you know me, you know how lucky I am with drawings and raffles and things of that nature. About a month ago my manager asks me to come in to work on a day I'm not working and asks me to look nice. I get there and my market manager, division manager, and a whole bunch of other corporate people are there and they give me this guitar. Now there are pictures of me with Avril's guitar flying around the T-Mobile internal email and websites.

So now I have Avril's guitar and her phone. I guess the universe wants me to keep playing guitar! In the entire company there were only four guitars to win, and I got one. It's pretty hilarious. It does look nice on our bookcase though, that's for sure!

To make a long story short (too late--a shout out to the cousins on that one), we are very happy and getting happier every day.

coming soon to a blog near you...

2010-02-15T11:24:00.002-06:00

A NEW POST!!!

Can you believe it?

We have been quite busy the last few weeks. We moved (!), Jake started school again, I've been working like crazy, I've been doing technical support for a few special people back home...

All this will soon be revealed with photos and everything.

Believe it, baby.

The Year Is Dying, Let Him Die

2010-01-01T20:50:00.002-06:00

A fine title for this fine New Year's post. I always thought that was a funny hymn...but it is pretty, and I have a special fondness for it after singing it with my mom and Hannah in church last year (I'm talking about Ring Out Wild Bells for anyone that didn't catch that).

Shall we take a look back at 2009?

In January, we were living in Vermont and enjoying the way the snow falls by the foot up there. By some miracle, when we returned to Boston from our visit home to Minnesota, our car was completely snow and ice free. It was a Christmas miracle, to say the least. January is also when I started getting my cook on. For the first time in my life I enjoyed looking at recipes and trying things out in our funny little Vermonty kitchen. Jake enjoyed it immensely. Neither of us, however, enjoyed the continuing problems with the boilers in the SoRoHo. It was a cold month.

February kept me very busy with my new job at Vermont Law School and my continuing school. Jake was taking a writing class and enjoyed expanding his natural writing talents. We also travelled to Baltimore to the American Craft Council show where my mom had an awesome booth. We also got to stay with my Great Aunt Barbara and Great Uncle Ralph, which was very fun. We also visited the Boston Temple for the first time this month.

March was a boring month. We continued to have trouble with the heat, but we had our love to keep us warm! Oddly enough, turns out love isn't as valuable at maintaining your core temperature as a working boiler. But it is good for enjoying yourself while slowly freezing to death.

April was great. We spent a lot of time with friends, and more time cooking! Jake and I learned how to make tortillas! Our friends hosted a murder mystery party and we went all out for it. In the end, it turned out that all of us had tried to kill the guy...Jake poisoned him with arsenic and I shot him with a poison dart from my lens of my assassin's camera. We started spending more and more time with friends as we realized that our time together would come to an end.

In May, I attended the formal graduation ceremony for Vermont Law School. It was quite the pompous ceremony, but just small-towny enough for it to be thoroughly enjoyable. I had never walked in a graduation before except for the School of Environmental Studies, so this was a new experience for me! It was very fun, and I loved wearing my tam and hood. It was a bummer that I still had a few classes to finish up, because it was such a wonderful feeling getting that hood. Jake finished up his online class, excelling as usual. And we loved having some time off together.

In June our ward had an old-fashioned outdoor revival at Camp Joseph and I loved every second of it. We loved our ward so much out there. I also started taking an Indian Law class and found another huge interest of mine. In fact, I like Indian Law so much that I plan on getting a J.D. and practicing it one day soon. With the weather so nice out, Jake and I started taking lots of walks around South Royalton. We discovered some strange things about that town.

In July we went down to Boston with our friends and had almost the perfect weekend. We love Boston. And we love the Andersons. The two together were just awesome. We got to watch fireworks in the place I watch them on TV every year! And you all know how much I love fireworks. I also had my graduation celebration with all my fellow MELPs. I finished up classes as Jake finished up work, and we packed all our worldly possessions into our trusty taurus and began the drive back home. We had to stop at Eaton's Sugarhouse literally on the way out of town for a final indescribable breakfast smothered in tree-fresh maple. It was both sad and nice to be going home. We grew a lot out in Vermont, and made some life-long friends. Jake got to work in one of the world's best hospitals, I got to attend one of the world's best schools, and we both had the world's best time.

We found ourselves back in Minnesota in August, and our big dreams of fantastic employment started to slightly fade. We had a marvelous reunion with Aysia, and the rest of our families. We also came home to a new nephew!

Jake started school full-time in September, and we are incredibly blessed to have all those costs covered. I was doing a lot of informational interviews and getting to know a lot of people in my field. Unfortunately, everyone was (and still is) broke and not hiring. Jake turned 25 and Aysia turned 7 this month!

In October, I got offered two internships and a part-time seasonal job. Jake continued to rock in school and we enjoyed our early-morning ride to the transit station together. As I took both the internships and the job, my life got a lot less boring and doll-drum, something I had been eagerly awaiting for the previous 3 months.

I turned 23 in the beginning of November. I continued to work about 55-60 hours a week between all three of my endeavors. Jake really started ramping up at school, and although we were back in the basement and winter in Minnesota was near, our spirits were high...for the most part.

December was lovely. Although it was cold and snowy, Jake finished the school year strong with perfect attendance and stellar grades. I was offered the permanent job at T-Mobile, which I have taken, and we spent a lot of time both together and with our families. Jake's sister Jenny and her husband Erv welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Cora, into the world! That brings our niece/nephew count up to 3! We had a lovely Christmas and were able to have Aysia for almost a week!

Now that I look back on it, it was quite the year. I got a master's degree, Jake got amazing work experience and started school full-time, we had a cross-country move...

What a great year.

And you know what?

2010 is going to be even better. I can FEEL it.

Happy New Year to all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2009-12-24T22:51:00.002-06:00

For your listening pleasure...

We did it twice, and although this is not the best sounding, it does look the best. Sure we had a few bad notes...but Hannah sounds nice.

All in all, it's a little pitchy, but enjoyable and chock-full of Christmas spirit.

I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but I'll get back on track in the new year. Just watch me!

Merry Christmas one and all!

Better with Age

2009-10-26T13:22:00.005-05:00

Not to worry, we're still alive and kicking up here in Minnesota!

One would think that with my incredibly boring life filled with couching, internetting, and eating candy, I would certainly have time to blog. And one would be right. I did have time to blog. I had lots and lots of time to blog.

However, one must keep in mind that couching, internetting, and eating candy is not blog-worthy.

It's just not.

I know there are millions of people out there that would disagree with me, and lucky for them, they can blog all about it.

But I am not going to blog about the merits of the 60-calorie Swedish Fish packets or the fun size 100 Grand bars, delicious and satisfying as they may be. Now I actually have something to say!

I AM EMPLOYED!!

I have two internships and a job now. My friend Lynley said, "Wow, I guess when it rains it pours!" I am going to be plenty busy from here on out... Which is going to make it more difficult to keep up with my admirable and impressive number of shows I watch during this Fall TV lineup. I think I can do it though.

It's all about the positive attitude.

My first internship is with the Will Steger Foundation. I am an education intern working on curriculum relating to climate change education, and specifically the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December. I'm sure I will tell you all more about it when I really get started.

My second internship is with Voyageurs National Park Association. I am a communications

intern working on the creation and distribution of a DVD called Minnesota's National Park Legacy that discusses the stories behind Minnesota's seven national park sites. I am really excited about these internships. It will be so nice to be doing something in my field!

My job is with T-Mobile. It's a part-time sales job which I think will be fun. I have a friend who works there and he loves it. Plus, it will be good to be making a little money!

Right before I started interviewing, I got a haircut to make myself look a little older and less collegey. The messy bun is a great hairstyle, don't get me wrong, but I had been doing it since high school, so it was time for a change. Jake was a little sad to lose all that hair, but he came around and now he loves it!

Jake is doing very well in school, as I knew he would. He spends most of his time studying, which is very different from the way I operated in college. I didn't have to take chemistry or calculus though, and I would like to think that if I did, I would have been more responsible and studied more.

Or at all.

Aysia is as cute as possible and getting really sassy. She turned 7 a few weeks ago! She was born three days after Jake turned 18, so it is always fun to have a joint birthday party with the two of them. And now that Aysia is 7, that means Jake is the big 2-5!! He's feeling pretty old these days.

But like a good wine (so I've been told), he just gets better with age.

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair!

2009-09-07T21:40:00.010-05:00

Here we are back in Minnesota. Aysia wanted a family picture! Jake was making that face in all of them...

Not sure why.

Aysia starts first grade tomorrow! She is very excited. Her teacher was blown away by her reading! She is going to do great. It might be hard for her to be at school all day, but she will adapt quickly. I know she will have lots of fun and make a lot of new friends!

It wouldn't be the end of summer in Minnesota without a visit to that Great Minnesota Get-Together!

Jake, Aysia, Hannah, Jordan, Kyle, David (Jake's younger triplet brothers), and I loaded up the van and drove to a park and ride, where we then hopped on a bus to the fair. We had a truly delightful time. I have always loved fairs. Except for the tiny swirly twirly rides. Those are not too fun for me. I will take on any thrill ride, any roller coaster, any droppy bungee glidey thing you can throw at me. But if you put me on a tilt-a-whirl, I will tilt-a-hurl.

For those of you Minnesotans out there reading this, you know about the food at this fair.

It is legendary.

And we had a lot of it.

We started off the day at Jake's Aunt's food booth, Cinnie Smiths. They make mini cinnamon rolls that will knock you off your feet!

They come with a big side of cream cheese frosting for dipping. You can't let any of that go to waste.

After the Cinnie Smiths, we moved on to one of the new foods this year:

the Texas Steak Dinner on a Stick Complete with Dinner Roll!

I wasn't quite sure how to go about eating it, so I just started at the top and worked my way down.

Then Hannah got a homemade Nut Roll that was other-worldly.

Only some of it made it into my mouth. A lot of it ended up on my face.

And a lot of everything else we ate ended up on Aysia's face!

We had some frozen grapes which were delightful and refreshing!

Every year I walk past the alligator and think to myself that I will try it one year. Well, this was my year. I walked right up, ordered some deep fried alligator bits with hush puppies, and ate them. I was a little scared at first...

But they were actually really good! Some bits were a little too chewy for my taste, but for the most part, it was chicken-esque. We didn't tell Aysia it was alligator, and she tried it and liked it too! When she found out later what it was, she was a little shocked.

Jake tried the alligator too.

Hannah refused to try it. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to those who know Hannah. She's not much of a carnivore.

Cookies, however? Right up her alley!

Aysia chose a caramel apple as her special treat. A girl after my own heart. As we were leaving the fair, I remembered I hadn't had a caramel apple, so I had to get a caramel apple sundae (basically a bunch of pieces of apple in a bowl smothered in caramel...absolutely brilliant.) for the walk to the bus.

Now these are what I wait for all year. I love these. Straight-up LOVE.

The deep-fried candy bar on a stick. Milky Way is my candy bar of choice, although I have tried all the other flavors.

Seriously people, I have dreams about these.

We also went and saw all the animals, including the largest boar, which weighed in at over 1300 pounds!

Overall, it was a wonderfully successful day at the fair!

Jake starts school tomorrow, and I think he is a bit nervous. He has some tough classes this semester, but I know he will do great. On Tuesdays he will leave the house at 6:50 AM and return home around 10:30 PM... Tuesdays might be rough.

I have a few informational interviews coming up this week and next. Don't worry, I haven't gotten employed and not told any of you! I know it will happen though. I haven't lost all hope yet!

In the meantime, keep up the prayers and the vibes. I appreciate all of them!

Keep Believing Keep Pretending

2009-08-08T17:45:00.003-05:00

Well we are back in Minnesota, and looking for places to live and jobs to do. We got back Monday afternoon and it has been kind of a whirlwind since then. Vermont is starting to feel like a dream, like I just blinked and the whole year happened. Without jobs and school for these few weeks, things are feeling exactly like they were two years ago. It feels like we haven't done anything or moved forward at all. But I keep reminding myself that I have earned two degrees in this time, and Jake worked an amazing job at Dartmouth and learned a skill he will use for the rest of his life, and we lived in Vermont for a year. I swear a lot of things happened and we have actually progressed in our lives, even though we may be living out of suitcases in my parents' basement again.

We could use some really mighty prayers for getting jobs. They worked for us in Vermont, so we will be enlisting the cavalry again. Just keep us in mind, if you would!

Jake will be starting school with a bang in a few weeks, and if I don't have a job by then, it's going to be quite a boring time for me. This will be my first break from school for the last several years, and I'm not sure how I'm going to fare. What if I'm not cut out for the working world? I suppose I could always just go back to school, but I really feel like I'm ready to work. There is a lot of change to be made out there, and I am ready to get going. Hopefully I can get a job quickly and use all this education I have! I know Jake is going to do great. I think he's a little nervous about all these chemistry and math classes, but he's a smarty-pants--he'll get the hang of it fast! And even if, on the off chance, it take him a little longer to get it, he's such a hard worker that he won't be satisfied until he really understands the material.

So here we are, back in Minnesota, just hanging out, playing some cards, and waiting for our lives to find us. If you find them first, please direct them this way.

It's a small world after all...

2009-07-24T17:55:00.005-05:00

Although to be honest, next Saturday we're going to be wishing it was a lot smaller as we drive halfway across the country with all of our worldly possessions packed snugly in our faithful Ford Taurus. New York is a long, expensive state to drive through.

I have one week left of classes. Five days, six class meetings. One paper, two small papers, two large projects, and whole lot of reading. I am really not sure how all of this is going to get done, but it always does somehow, so I am not too worried.

*******

Oh who am I kidding, of course I'm worried. But then, if I weren't, I wouldn't be me,

and I like being me.

*******

Two weekends ago the law school put on a little celebration for the MELP and LLM (Master of Laws, post JD) students. It was very nice and very short. Two important things to consider when planning a graduation. Oh, and there was food. Glorious Vermont food.

How we will miss the Vermont food.

All the graduates had a chance to say a few words, and I said something along these lines:

"The world is small. The world is savable. And the world is SO worth saving.

Thanks, and I'll see you out there."

It wasn't anything special, but I think it summed up my feelings quite nicely and shortly--again, two important things to consider when planning a graduation speech.

Now imagine you are there, and then clap for me. I worked really hard!

The new picture at the top of our blog is from that day too...I don't wear pink leggings EVERY day...

We have been having a hard time saying goodbye to some of our favorite things here, particularly our favorite places to eat. Two weekends ago we took a farewell trip to the Woodstock Farmer's Market for sandwiches, but decided they were too good so we went again last weekend too. Our farewell trip to Eaton's Sugarhouse may be coming up this weekend as well, and who knows, maybe we'll have to stop there again as we are literally leaving the state. We are saying goodbye to Boloco tonight.

What a sad and delicious time for us.

See you soon Minnesota!!

God loves a Terrier, yes He does.

2009-07-11T15:06:00.011-05:00

We had such a lovely trip to Boston over the Fourth of July. We had an amazing time. We went with our friends, the Andersons (Brian and Nicole, found on the right side of the screen). Her sister lives just outside of Boston with her husband and several turtles, and they were kind enough to let us stay in their beautiful home. Let me say that the Andersons have two little dogs, Buddy and Bandit, whose company I have thoroughly enjoyed while here in Vermont. Jake does not like dogs. His trademark move whenever a dog comes near is to stand still with arms up in the air until the dog goes away. But Buddy and Bandit came down to Boston with us and Bandit sat in the back seat with us the whole drive down and Jake did so well! He was holding Bandit, petting him, and I think Bandit fell in love with Uncle Jake.

He followed him around for the rest of the weekend. Jake even raced Bandit outside!

They grow up so fast.

Now of course I want a little dog, and am very very slowly wearing Jake down to the point where I feel we may have a dog in the next three to twenty years, depending upon how persuasive I can make myself. Here are Buddy and Bandit, the ferocious little beasts that have slowly melted Jake's heart of stone. Buddy is the rat terrier on the left, and Bandit the one on the right. Bandit might be my favorite dog I have ever met. Sorry Cooper and dearly departed Dominoes...Bandit has a little something extra.

Just look at that face!! Bandit's mom was a rat terrier, but the Andersons don't know exactly what kind of dog his dad was. He looks part beagle, part doxen, with a corgi-type of body. Whatever he is, I just love him. Buddy is really sweet too, but it takes him a while to warm up to you. Buddy sat in the back with us on the ride home from Boston, and by the end, even he was sitting on Jake's lap! I am so proud of all of Jake's progress. I know it sounds silly, they're just dogs, but it's hard for Jake, and he has grown so much out here in so many ways. Dog acceptance is just the tip of the iceberg.

Back to Boston. Jake and I had been to Boston several times, but we had never done any of the historic sites on the Freedom Trail, so we did that this time. We saw so many incredible places that literally began this amazing country, and it was awesome to see them in person and feel the spirit of independence that abides there. There are a lot more pictures; feel free to check out my facebook for more.

The redcoats walked right by us.

And of course I had to see the "Make Way for Ducklings" statue at the public garden. It has always been one of my favorite children's books! Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack, and Quack are all accounted for!

The public garden was one of my favorite places. There was this amazing tree that reminded me of Sherwood Forest in Nottingham.

I also made a new friend, Sherman. He is Nicole's sister and husband's turtle, but actually more like their son. He just roams the house and hangs out, and he sat on my lap for a long time. It looks like he has lipstick on since he just ate a raspberry! Sherman and I really bonded.

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July and enjoyed the fireworks as much as I did! But then, if you know me, you know that even a little popper is enough to make me goofy happy. My mom watched the Boston fireworks on TV with the Boston Pops and everything, but said she didn't see us. It was so crowded, but totally worth it. We watched from the MIT side of the river, and our view was perfect. They were big and loud, just the way I like them! Of course getting home in the seas of thousands and thousands of people was a bit of a madhouse, but totally worth it.

In short, we had a great time, with great people, doing great things. It was great.

Oh, also, Mike's Pastries. Wow. That's pretty much all I can say about that.

Coming soon: MELP graduation blog!

bring us back your ways

2009-06-24T17:42:00.004-05:00

I actually do have something to blog about, but I don't have time to blog about it. But I will say that it involved me wearing this ----->

Oh what the hey, I'll just tell you all about it now! So what if I have a 15 page paper to write by Monday morning! If any of you dear readers ever get to the Supreme Court, do please ask them what they were thinking when they "resolved" all these Indian Law cases. Ask them how they sleep at night knowing they just completely screw people again and again when the law has clearly and without question come down in favor of tribal sovereignty? It's too bad there is not a Judicial Procedure Act (to go with the Administrative Procedure Act, of course), with a clause that lets us sue the Court for rulings that are "arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law". People say that's what Congress is for, but I ain't seen the fruits of that labor.

Anyway, back to the hat. We had a REVIVAL at church!! Since our building is being rebuilt, we have been meeting at a private school, the Sharon Academy, which has been fun and challenging. But last Sunday, the school needed the building for graduation, so we had no place to meet. But Camp Joseph is right next door to the Joseph Smith memorial, so we had a nice old-fashioned outdoor revival followed by a successful potluck. We just had an extended sacrament meeting and then all ate together. It was absolutely wonderful. Although up on Dairy Hill it is about 10 to 15 degrees colder than down in the village, so some of us were a little chilly! But I could not resist the temptation to wear a nice big revival-style hat. The Sunday before I, as activity chair, told the Relief Society to get into it, but alas, I was the only one. I did get lots of smiles though! (and the giant white hat was not enough, I had to add an equally giant pink flower, as you can see.)

We had a great time. The bishop is a real nature guy, and he opened his talk with a moment of silence to listen to the birds and the wind. It truly was my kind of meeting!

Only a few weeks left up here in Vermont. Time is really flying. After I finish this paper, I have one week off, followed by two weeks of Monday and Friday classes, followed by two weeks of Monday-Thursday plus Monday and Friday classes, with work all mixed in there, which is what I'm doing now, which might explain the rant and run-on sentences.

Just a few more weeks until the long drive West and my ceremonious induction to the ranks of the great unemployed. But not for long, especially if I wear my giant hat to interviews.

Here's to employers everywhere!

green can be cool and friendly-like

2009-06-04T22:10:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow morning I start the last eight weeks of my educational career. That is, until I get bored and get another degree. But I haven't had time off from hard-core school for a few years now, and I might enjoy the opportunity to just work and read what I want.

Oh how nice it will be to read.

My parents are joining us this weekend in beautiful Vermont. Although they missed the blossoms, they certainly won't miss the GREEN. It is everywhere. And for someone like me who thinks no day is complete without seeing a little green, it has been quite lovely. It is right in that perfect time when the nights are cool and they days are mild. You know, the time before it gets so hot I have to walk to the post office four times to get out of the house, call my mom while laying face down on the floor, and take a cold shower while waving my arms madly in the air while ahh-ing "Memory" from Cats (see earlier post).

Don't worry, it's not to that point yet.

Our neighbor had these beautiful blossoms a few weeks ago. They're gone now, but they have found a good home as my desktop background.

This is one of my favorite houses in South Royalton. It looks like each of the three little pigs got to make a wall...and then for good measure put a pile of dirty mattresses by (one of) the door(s).

Vermonters do have a hard time throwing anything away.

We're kind of kindred spirits that way. I only threw away my old AP Euro study guides a year ago.

I AM THE MASTER.

2009-05-16T20:34:00.008-05:00

Okay so not quite yet, I still have a few weeks left of summer classes, but for all intents and purposes, I am a master. It was formal graduation today for the MELPs and the JDs and the LLMs, with the whole tam and gown and hood shebang. We all started off at campus, took the class photo, then lined up behind a bagpiper in full kilt (a former Masters student), several flags, the law school mace (a big scepter with a swan on top) and the gonfalon (school banner). Law school graduation is quite a medieval affair. Lots of symbols and lots of ceremony. But since lawyering is one of the oldest professions, I suppose the graduation has had some time to define itself. Frances Beinecke, president of the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council, a popular plaintiff when studying environmental law) was the commencement speaker. You have to give it up for her because (a) she is a woman president of a major organization, and (b) she is not a lawyer. You don't have to be a lawyer to be someone, something I wish they would tell the JD students a bit more often. Since us MELPs have a separate little informal graduation party later in July, most of us did not walk at this graduation. There were only five of us that did. I wanted to though, since I didn't walk at my college or real high school graduation, and I always wanted to get one of those funky cultish hoods ceremoniously placed upon my neck from behind.

One of the huge benefits of going to a small school is the fact that after graduation, the school can feed everyone who attends and everyone in the community afterwards. There was a delightful array of champagne, sparkling cider, local flatbread pizza, local cheese, local ice cream, local cookies, local vegetables, local sushi, local noodles, local potato salad, local breads...everything is local up here. There is only one thing Vermonters love more than Subarus, and that is Vermont itself. Everything is local, and likely delicious.

Graduate graduations are always fun because the professors wear their robes from their various schools. We had two professors in hot pink robes, a few in vintage VLS robes, someone with a robe that looked remarkably like Snow White, complete with a fur-lined hood and a hat worthy of the Kentucky Derby, and one in a lovely shade of turquoise. We were quite the rainbow processional walking across town on our way to the village green this morning.

Like I said, I still have a few weeks left of summer classes, which I am looking forward to. The Vermont Law School summer session is quite famous, and the classes are rumored to be magnificent. The faculty is made up of professionals from all over the country and the world, and the classes are two-week intensives, which I tend to be better at than a lengthy semester. I am still waiting for a few grades, including Administrative Law, but it does look as though this graduation will not have been in vain.

Jake also took me to see X-Men and eat at Boloco for dinner tonight to celebrate. Today was a good day.

The trees on campus were blooming today, which also contributed to its altogether loveliness.

my mothers' day talk. oh yes, i gave the mothers' day talk.

2009-05-10T15:11:00.004-05:00

Today, in the South Royalton ward that meets in the Sharon Academy while our new chapel is under construction, I gave the dreaded mothers' day talk. Turns out no one else was speaking. I kind of wish I would have known that since I pared it down the night before! But I think it went well. One person told me I "have a way with words"... Nice to know that English degree isn't completely useless! Enjoy. And Happy Mothers' day Mom and Betty!!

TALK BEGINS HERE:

So, I know God created man before woman…but don’t you always turn in a rough draft before the final masterpiece?

They talk about a woman’s sphere,
As though it has a limit;  
There’s not a place in earth or heaven,  
There’s not a task to mankind given,  
There’s not a blessing nor a woe,  
There’s not a whispered yes or no,  
There’s not a life, or death, or birth,  
That has a feather’s weight of worth …  
Without a woman in it.

Gordon B. Hinckley discussed the importance of woman in the following passage:

““In the sequence of events as set forth in the scripture, God first created the earth, “and the earth was without form, and void.” (Gen. 1:2.) He then separated the light from the darkness, and the waters from the land. Then came the creation of vegetation of all kinds, giving the beauty of trees and grass, flowers and shrubs. Then followed the creation of animal life in the sea and upon the land.

Having looked over all of this, He declared it to be good. He then created man in His own likeness and image. Then as His final creation, the crowning of His glorious work, He created woman. I like to regard Eve as His masterpiece after all that had gone before, the final work before He rested from His labors.

I do not regard her as being in second place to Adam. She was placed at his side as an helpmeet. They were together in the Garden, they were expelled together, and they labored together in the world into which they were driven.”

Today is Mothers' Day.

I would like to begin by speaking to the men. First, how beautiful are your sisters and wives? Look at them not for their flawlessly applied lipstick, perfectly sprayed hair, or finely selected ensemble, but for their infinite and unending potential. For I can promise that is what they look at in you. They do not see you for what you are, but for you might be. Russell M. Nelson said, “Thank the Lord for these sisters who—like our Heavenly Father—love us not only for what we are but for what we may become.” We see in you the potential for godliness, far before you ever see it in yourselves.

Look at us the same way.

Russell M. Nelson, whom I quoted earlier, gave a wonderful talk at the April 1999 Priesthood session of General Conference. It is a shame the women were not there to here it. He said, “We who bear the holy priesthood have a sacred duty to honor our sisters. We are old enough and wise enough to know that teasing is wrong. We respect sisters—not only in our immediate families but all the wonderful sisters in our lives. As daughters of God, their potential is divine. Without them, eternal life would be impossible. Our high regard for them should spring from our love of God and from an awareness of their lofty purpose in His great eternal plan.”

As women, we are expected to do a lot. We are expected to gain an education, work, marry, have children, cook, clean, and support. We need help. Not just today. Brothers, recognize the work the sisters do, thank them for it, and help them the next time around. Again, Russell M. Nelson said, “You fathers can help with the dishes, care for a crying baby, and change a diaper. And perhaps some Sunday you could get the children ready for Church, and your wife could sit in the car and honk.” Love your wives. Appreciate all they do, because they do a good deal of it for you. Love your wives.

There are literally billions of women on this earth. Think about that for a second. Billions of women. Ask yourself then, if it is logical for a loving Heavenly Father to expect the same things from every one of the billions. Of course it is not. While the rudimentary principles of the gospel are the same, and the same requirements exist for gaining exaltation, the way we live can be different. The way we live is expected to be different, and it should be different. Mothers around the globe live vastly different lives from each other, and that is okay, beautiful even. M. Russell Ballard said, “There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else.” Many women on this earth are not mothers, but that does not mean they are not women. The women of the church are united in their calling, and all women, regardless of biological motherhood, are mothers to someone. They are all endowed with the ability to create beauty and make lives worthwhile. Those gifts are not only for mothers. M. Russell Ballard clarified, “While women live in homes under many different circumstances—married, single, widowed, or divorced, some with children and some without—all are beloved of God, and He has a plan for His righteous daughters to receive the highest blessings of eternity.”

And to the younger women, do not be too quick to grow up. You are likely more grown up now than you even know. Alexandre Dumas said, “It is only rarely that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman.”

Women, as we strive to live up to our potential, I think we should look to that timeless classic of literature and film, The Wizard of Oz. The quest of each of the four characters to be granted a trait by the all-powerful wizard is very much akin to our life here on earth. We can see ourselves in each one of the lovable characters. In the Lion, that cowardly king of the forest, we see our fears and doubts. In the Tin Man, we see our desire for love. In the Scarecrow we see our never-ending thirst for knowledge. And in Dorothy, we see our yearning for home. Let’s head down that yellow brick road and see what we can find on our journey.

The Lion is seeking courage. But what is courage? John Wayne said “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” Women need courage. Thomas S. Monson instructed the young women to have courage in three aspects of their lives: the courage to refrain from judging others, the courage to be chaste and virtuous, and the courage to stand firm for truth and righteousness. Judging others is the quickest way to show your cowardice. It is weakness. And we are all weak in this area. I struggle with this more than I would like to share. Part of it is, I suppose, because of my legal training, where, after all, we are taught how to judge people and their actions quickly and effectively. However, in our personal lives, judgment needs to be reserved for God. He is the only one that can judge the actions and thoughts of another. You cannot judge others. I say this harshly because it is the only way I’ll listen. Being chaste and virtuous does indeed take courage. Unfortunately, in this world, it is most often left up to women to cover themselves up, because, bless their hearts, most men just cannot help it. Standing for truth and righteousness is not something you can do once. It takes the courage of a lifetime to live this way. Women need to have the courage to live the way they want, to make independent choices, the courage to stand up to their children, and the courage to be happy in the face of fear. Victor Hugo said, “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.” Sometimes life is scary, but we need to saddle up anyway.

Thomas S. Monson said, “True love can alter human lives and change human nature.” What a remarkable power to have. It is no wonder then, that the Tin Man was so anxious to be given a heart, after a good oiling of course. In almost every situation, it is necessary to have heart. When speaking to your children you need heart to speak with love and kindness, and heart to have faith that they will heed you, and heart to forgive them when they don’t. You need heart to speak respectfully to your boss, to not give up on yourself, and the heart to forgive yourself for the mistakes you will make along the way. Saint Francis de Sales said, “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.” Having heart means that your heart is open to give and receive love. Mosiah 7:33 reads “Turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart.” Our hearts need to be knit not only with each other, but also with the Lord and His gospel. When we pray, we are taught to pray with a full and sincere heart. Our Heavenly Father knows us, and, as David A. Bednar said, “Prayer becomes more meaningful as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart.” Prayer is a matter of the heart. With sincere prayer, your heart can be strengthened, which has the power to change the course of your life in the way you relate to people, and the way you treat yourself.

Perhaps the favorite character in The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow is asking for a brain. Although as a child I always questioned how he could sing and dance with no brain, I later understood that it was not a physical brain he was seeking, but the knowledge and experience it could hold. If it is true, as the scriptures state, that the glory of God is intelligence, then we should all be actively seeking, and using, our brains. Some women feel shameful or selfish when they have a desire to work outside the home. Sisters, this is not an unrighteous desire. The Lord has blessed us with brilliant minds, able bodies, and good ideas for a reason. We do not need to feel selfish for self-improvement. It is expected and necessary to improve ourselves and the world around us. We should also not be ashamed to take credit for a job well done. Even God said, “It is good.”

We need to use our brain not only for intellectual pursuits, but also to determine our spiritual growth. The Lord told Oliver Cowdry to determine for himself whether the teachings of the Church were true. Doctrine and Covenants 9:8 reads “But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.” Romans 12:2 reads “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” We need to be constantly searching to renew and refresh our minds. Our Heavenly Father has given us the most powerful tool possible, and it is our duty to use it wisely.

What a wonderful place Dorothy’s home must have been for her to work so hard to find a way back. What a good example for us. We should strive to make our homes a place where our children and their friends want to be. Our homes should be places of peace and refuge, order and beauty, unity and love. The Bible Dictionary states, “only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness”. With this view, we can then understand how our homes ought to be established. Doctrine and Covenants 88:119 tells us to “establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.” In the most recent General Conference, Gary E. Stevenson told us, “Whether our living space is large or small, humble or extravagant, there is a place for each of these gospel priorities in each of our homes.” We are also to remember to constantly strive for a way back home to our Heavenly Father. We need to remain worthy for that ultimate blessing of exaltation.

We have reached the end of the yellow brick road. We are standing in the presence of the Great and Powerful Oz. He comes out from behind the curtain and we see that he is just a man. Are we disappointed? Or are we perhaps relieved? He points out to the Lion that he already has courage. He tells the Tin Man that his heart has been there all along. He shares with the Scarecrow that he indeed has a brain. And Dorothy need only click her heels to go home. How refreshingly simple it all seems to be. And it can be so for us. When we pray to Heavenly Father for courage, heart, intelligence, and a way home, He will remind us that we have had the courage to continue, the heart to truly love, the intelligence to succeed, and the way home to Him all along. How refreshingly simple it all can be. That is, if we stay on the yellow brick road.

bad boy

2009-05-08T10:54:00.004-05:00

This is something Jake said.

"I don't know how else to tell you, Chelsea, I'm just not a good man. Now excuse me while I bring these cookies to a widow!"

He is a good man. And hilarious.

We have a lot of fun, if you hadn't gotten that already.

oh yeah, he's a bad boy alright.

How Sweet It Is!

2009-05-05T13:14:00.005-05:00

Two weekends ago we journeyed south to the Boston temple. It might have been the perfect day.

It is a beautiful temple with stained glass. I really love stained glass, and it is always sad for me that our church doesn't use much of it. It was mostly blue, purple, and green, which was incredibly peaceful.

The grounds were also beautiful! The flowers were just beginning to bloom.

We also stopped at the Cheesecake Factory on the way home.

Oh. My. Goodness.

We got the avocado egg rolls, of course, and almost died of deliciousness. Jake got the giant burrito, and wowed our friends with his ability to put a burrito the size of his upper arm down his gullet. I got the barbeque pork sandwich. Then came the cheesecake. Jake got the 30th anniversary special cheesecake, and I got the chocolate tower, which isn't a cheesecake at all but rather seven layers of different chocolate cakes and mouses.

It was so good. The temple, the egg rolls, the tower of chocolate...

So good.

So good, in fact, that the temple manifested itself in a bruise under Jake's fingernail...

I need to take a moment to say that Aysia is the funniest and cutest little girl on the planet. We got a little package from her the other day and this was in it. She made it on her favorite website, Barbie.com.

Yes, that is Jake as Thumbelina. He looks good, doesn't he?

I was able to finish this semester without too many problems. The 8-hour administrative law final was quite a bear, but it is over now, and I can take a nice break before my next class starts June 5, which is also the day my parents come! It will be great to show them this crazy place we live and the beautiful state it sits on.

The past few weekends Jake and I have ventured up to Randolph, home of the Vermont Technical College, to take a dip in their swimming pool. Jake is such a good sport. He swims with me and graciously takes my pointers under consideration. I taught him how to do flip turns last Saturday, and he is getting so good! If anyone remembers when I learned how to do flip turns and the crippling anxiety they caused, they would be terribly impressed with how quickly Jake has caught on. I have been making little sets that both of us can do, and it has been so much fun to share something that is so dear to my heart with someone that is so dear to my heart.

In short, Jake is amazing, and swimming is good for the soul.

It's like fancy feast, but for humans.

2009-04-16T20:37:00.004-05:00

Just so you all don't forget, we make food up here. Fancy food.

We have been making homemade tortillas recently, and they have been so delicious! We've made whole wheat ones as well as just plain flour tortillas, and they have both been super tasty.

One week not too long ago I went on a vegetarian/no enriched foods diet. It went pretty well, and it lined up with National Vegetarian Week, so that was nice. We ate a lot of beans and salads, and a lot of brown rice. Overall it went pretty well, although I was glad to go back to multigrain pasta...whole wheat pasta is so intense. Although I don't mind the whole wheat with Cowboy Spaghetti, it's already such a hearty meal that you hardly notice how wheat-y the noodles really are.

We're still waiting to hear back from the U of M, but unless every possible thing goes wrong, it is looking like that is where we'll end up next year. I have been applying for a couple jobs and even an internship...

so let's all cross our fingers and hope something comes my way!

Boom, baby!

2009-04-13T21:05:00.007-05:00

I have ever so much to blog about.

Our time is winding down here, and so is this semester. But when I say winding down I mean ramping up. REALLY RAMPING UP. In Administrative Law (aka, the class that is destroying my soul) we are barely half way through the textbook and so the professor is trying to cram the whole Administrative Procedure Act and about twelve long cases a night into our brains.

Admin is already a bear of a class, I didn't need the extra reading.

On the brighter side, Admin is the only actual final I will have to take. The rest are papers or projects, which are a separate sort of beast.

Granted the final is eight hours...

Jake and I recently ran out of our beloved crushed green chile. But I ordered some from that place I told you all about in an earlier post, Chimayo To Go, and went for the full pound bag. It was only about eight dollars, they sent it to me so fast, and there was a hand-written note inside telling me to enjoy! It was delightful, and everyone should buy some delicious spices from them.

You all might not need the full pound bag, however...

It is a lot of green chile.

But we seriously do use it almost everyday.

We have established quite the group of friends out here that we are going to miss a lot when we all go our separate ways.

Last weekend we had a murder mystery party! Brian and Nicole (see blog list to the right) hosted it and it was a ton of fun. Probably the funniest thing about it was that everyone ended up being guilty--everyone tried to murder this guy. It's too bad really because he seemed like an okay guy in the end.

I was Lolita X. Posure, photographer/assassin, Jake was Wirth Les Bonds, New York Senator/sleaze ball. I tried to kill the guy with a dart hidden in my telephoto lens, Jake went for arsenic in the mineral water, a classic. Funny thing is, the water was already poisoned with cyanide...

Here are the girls!

This weekend we will be heading down to Boston for a temple trip...and a Cheesecake Factory run.

We are so bad.

And for those who are wondering, yes, life is still crazy here at the SOROHO.

nobody knows where our landlord is. word on the street is she isn't coming back.

AND, apparently gravity goes up here.

it's beyond me.

(if you can't see what's in the picture, there is a giant spike sticking out of our ice cube that was just sitting upright in a tray. the spike was over an inch long.)

always an adventure up here in vermont! and for the most part, we are down for it.

Oh, Shenandoah

2009-03-21T15:34:00.002-05:00

JAKE- It ends, it ends, finally it ends. Thank you to everyone who made this memoir possible. Also, thank you for reading. It was my pleasure to mildly entertain you for a few minutes. Enjoy the close.

Haven’t We Met?

Senior year was a lonely time for me. I had school during the day and then it was over to Christy’s apartment during the evenings. Weekends I worked at the theater, with Christy of course, and then it all started over on Monday. Christy talked about moving into her parent’s house when they moved out of it soon. Oh no, what is going on with me? I can’t really be in this situation. We soon broke up and I was on to some other girl with slightly less obligations attached to her. I was not feeling any better.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Baggage Man said as we headed for the side exit of the school. The rarely used gem was perfect for skipping out on the day’s last class and going home early.

“Nothing matters any more Baggage Man, it doesn’t matter.”

“What?” he said with a smile.

“I could do anything man, I don’t care, nobody cares,” I said.

“Okaaay,” He laughed. I grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall on the way out the door. BM smiled as he watched me while we walked.

“Nothing matters, lalala,” I said. I yanked the pin out and pointed the hose at the bare field in front of the parking lot. A fine dust whooshed out of the fire extinguisher as I squeezed the trigger. I sprayed left and right until nothing else came out and finished by throwing the thing at the brick wall on the West side of the school. Some kids had stopped and starred, BM and I continued to my car in the parking lot. We did not say anything.

I was not considering consequences for my actions when I went to school the next day. In fact, the first two hours of the day went rather well. It was on my way to my favorite class, Broomball, that I got stopped and asked to join the school counselor in her office.

“Hello, Jacob, how are you?” She smiled and acted overly polite. I squirmed in my chair.

“I’m well.”

“Really, have you been alright lately, or feeling a little down?”

“I think all of us, at times, feel like we aren’t quite right,” I said. It continued like this for a few minutes. I must have impressed her because at one point she broke from whatever standard operating procedure manual that she was using and said, “You are kind of a poet, aren’t you?”

I said nothing. “What would make you happy, Jacob?”

“Well, I would like to go to my next class.”

“Oh no, that’s not possible, Jacob.” It was then that I noticed the two police officers in the doorway, more or less blocking off any getaway attempt. But I had no intention of running, instead I cried. They told me I needed to go to the emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation. I asked through sobs if my mom could take me instead of an ambulance. They reluctantly consented though I heard later that they were so worried about me being a flight risk that they shut the school down, no one in, no one out, until they got me out of the counselor’s office and off the premises.

My mom was understanding and not upset. The car ride to the hospital was quiet, mostly. After a few hours in the ER I spoke with a psychiatrist for a few moments after which I was free to leave with a prescription for anti-depressants in my hand. That was it, back to school I go. Back to life. I guess the answer to what I was feeling was written on that small piece of paper. How convenient.

No one really talked to me after that, except my closest friends. I suppose word gets around a school like this pretty fast. There I sat, on the Freak chairs in my oversized black jacket. My fifteen minutes of fame were over as I sat and stared, sedated. I looked to my left and caught a glance of Lindsay walking down the hall, headed, no doubt, to talk to her friends at the senior chairs. I burned for her, I absolutely burned. She so much idealized everything that was right: normal relationships, normal friends, normal feelings. I barely saw her these days and if we passed each other she did not look.

Now, I wonder if she would even know my name. If she read this, would she know that it was me who authored it. The building I built for her in my mind was empty. Only me, sitting in the middle of a concrete room, in a chair labeled “Freak,” staring straight ahead. The building I built for her was empty.

Aglio e Olio

2009-03-04T21:20:00.002-06:00

JAKE- Yes, that's right, I hugged a girl. What possibly could have happened next? A little friend, that's what. Didn't see that coming.

Cuddling in the Afterglow

After that point, I carried a torch for this girl through the remainder of high school with both hands. We would talk a little in the hallways, smile at each other, we even hugged again. I wanted her so, but nothing was happening. I guess she had put the ball in my court, but all I did was stand there and dribble. Sophomore year passed. My grades were good and I was free to do pretty much whatever I wanted after school. Much of this included video games and dorking around the mall. Junior year followed suit. I thought about Lindsay frequently. It was good to see her, to talk to her on occasion. A nervous smile while we passed was usually all I could muster, whether she looked or not. I even saw her once or twice at the movie theater I worked at.

I met a new girl at the theater, Christy, and after a long time of putting it off, we started dating. I always felt as though there was something pushing me away from her, telling me not to get with her but I did anyway. She was older and I think this was one of the big appeals to dating her for me, though I do not know why now. She was short with a round face. She often wore dull colors and rock band shirts but I know she wanted to be beautiful because she was always bleaching her hair a brighter shade of blonde. Soon she would bare me a child.

I remember the day Aysia was born. I walked into the hospital room after having finally had some time to get something to eat. The lights were low; the room was mostly a dull blue. Christy was still asleep so I made my way to the bench nearest the bed and sat. The doctors gave her an epidural an hour or so ago so she was asleep for the first time since the night previous when she began to have contractions. Actually, now that I think about it, neither of us slept at all last night. Our sleep was interrupted by contractions and a trip we took to this place only to be told it wasn’t time yet and we were sent back. I layed on her bedroom floor for the second time that night staring up at the ceiling while she moaned and cried every couple of minutes. I know it is all about the mother, but I was so alone. A second trip taken a few hours later found us admitted and here, in this room. I was staring again, this time straight ahead as I sat up. As soon as she wakes up she is going to have this baby and it’s all over. I was so alone. She stirred on the bed. “Hi,” she muttered.

She looked good considering. Her bleach blonde hair was tussled around, her eyes a bit cloudy behind that blue mascara. She always wore that blue mascara, even when birthing our child. “How are you feeling?” was the best I could come up with.

More than anything she needed someone to give her comfort and unfortunately I was lousy at doing so. “Ow,” she replied and suddenly it started happening.

Only moments passed until a nurse came in and said “Ok, it’s time,” and then a few more people came in, and then a few more. Every 15 minutes gave way to a new set of specialists inviting themselves in. I held on to Christy’s right leg and pushed back on it.

“Push, push, you are doing good,” urged a nurse or someone.

Machines were beeping “ARGGG!” yelled Christy, her face glazed with sweat.

I followed the somebody’s lead, “Good yeah looks good, push.”

The room was really loud. Beep, “push,” “ARGG,” the shuffle of people. A woman entered the room looking rather sure of herself. She was assisted in putting on a pair of gloves and a gown and then took a swift position right in front of Christy’s spread legs. She was calm, with an aura that said, “Yeah, I deliver babies.” Aysia’s head emerged and I was hit with a rush of the most repugnant smell I have ever inhaled up to that point in my life and with adrenaline that coursed through me. I was all pumped up.

“Oh, looks good, baby, looks very, very, good!” The doctor looked at me and smiled and I think a couple others in the room got a chuckle out of it as well. The rest of Aysia came out with a sploosh and as the minutes went by, people started slowly leaving the room.

Family came all through the next day, and we eventually took Aysia home. Three days after I turned 18, I was a father. There wasn’t much time to dwell, though; I had to get back to high school.

the look of love

2009-03-03T21:15:00.007-06:00

^ that's the look ^

This past weekend Jake and I ventured south to see the American Craft Council show in Baltimore, Maryland. There were over 700 artists there and my mother was one of them. The drive was a little long, but totally worth it. It was nice to just spend time with each other, even if it was only sitting in the car not deciding which CD to put in--I always want Christina or some show and Jake always wants anything else (He did let me listen to one Christina album on the drive home, which was incredibly gracious of him, and we both enjoyed The Lion King on the way down...although we did mutually agree upon skipping "Chow Down").

But we had a great time. Jake is really big into packing lunches for road trips so we had a veritable smorgasbord for the eight hour ride. I made hummus the night before and bought some of our favorite chips to go with it, plus some Pirate Booty (little puffed corn things that barely count as food but cover your fingers with a delicious aged white cheddar powder reminiscent of Cheetos, but without all the preservatives and fats associated with them). Jake made us some sandwiches, and I bought some chocolate- and yogurt-covered pretzels to satisfy our sweet tooth. We also had pudding, almonds, raisins, granola bars, crackers, and string cheese. It was basically Jake's standard lunch, but deliciously mobile.

We ended up traveling through nine states. That's one thing about the Northeast--everything is so bunched up together that it is difficult to take a walk without crossing a state line. We drove through Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. We got to stay at my great aunt and uncle's house in Potomac, Maryland, just outside of Washington. It was so nice to get to know them better, and so nice of them to let us stay there. My grandma (Mana) flew in and stayed with Barbara and Ralph too, and my sister drove up from Virginia, so it was a whole family affair. My aunt and uncle and family also drove down from Connecticut and we all went out to dinner after the show on Saturday. It was quite a lovely time.

Here is everyone in my mom's booth. Except April who is taking the picture.

I also bought my first piece of art. Look how happy I am.

Unfortunately, I had to send it home with my parents because we have no place for art in our current habitat. It is beautiful though, and I am excited to be reunited with it in a few months.

On a solid note, Jake and I only have to pay three more months' rent in the SoRoHo. On a bummer note, one of the classes I was planning to take this summer is not being offered anymore. I guess I'll never learn about Urban Planning Law. Sure I'm taking two other planning courses at the same time (did I mention I will have three finals in one day while Jake waits in the car with all of our things because our lease will have run out? I guess that's for another blog...) but I was looking forward to drowning in planning-related studies.

For those of you reading this blog and planning on going to law school, don't take Administrative Law. It just blows. Hard. It wouldn't be so bad if I had had a year of Constitutional Law under my belt, but just being thrown into this constitution-heavy class is seriously bringing me down. It was not helped by the fact that I got called on in class for the first time this semester and just didn't know the answer to the question. It wasn't that I didn't read, because I did, it was because the specific case the professor was asking questions about had four parts: Administrative Hearing, Circuit Court, Supreme Court, back to Circuit Court, then eventually remanded back to the agency, and I just got lost and wasn't sure which ruling was which. What made it worse was that the professor, instead of saying something comforting, said "If you're not prepared, just tell me to pass it on."

IT WAS AWFUL.

I was so bummed for the rest of the day.

Anyway, Jake and I had a great time in Baltimore, and we would love to do it again...

as long as Jake let's me listen to a little Christina.

Im not a witch, Im not a witch

2009-02-22T13:12:00.003-06:00

JAKE- Oh good, the story continues. It turns out that this will actually not be the final draft of my memoir. The teacher has pulled the old Kansas City Shuffle on us students and I will be required to do a rewrite of my final draft to make an even better final final draft. Didn't see that coming. If you, gentle reader, have any advice for me, hey, let me know. Anyway, here is section three of five.

Climax

“This is the one!” Baggage Man said with a giggle in his voice. He had a slight build, unkempt hair that would later give way to dreadlocks, and pale white skin. His real name was Chris but our group of friends called him Baggage Man for reasons that have become obscured over time.

“No way, dude, it’s orange,” I replied.

“Orange is fresh. I’m taking it,” and with that he began to unspool the chain from the industrial size storage winder.

“Oh look at this!” I said. I grabbed hold of the oversized silver chain. It was heavy in my hand. “This is definitely my style.”

The hardware store wasn’t so busy at this point in the early evening, but nonetheless I wondered what the cashier would think of two kids buying a length of industrial chain each. We strapped on our rollerblades outside of the Home Depot and made a beeline for BM’s house. In his room we used a few tools and whatever crude methods we could think of to attach these newly acquired accessories to our wallets and then to our belt loops.

“I got it,” I said and stood up to check out how it looked. My pants almost dropped right to my ankles.

“Whoa,” we both said and then just laughed.

The chain was four or five pounds pulling hard on the right side of my jeans. With only a minor belt adjustment I was suddenly glowing with pride. Baggage Man got his attached too. His hung down to around his ankles, mine to just above my knee. “Let’s sport ‘em,” we decided, and it was back out to the town on our rollerblades.

We must have looked like quite the spectacle, trying to rollerblade with our giant new wallet-chains bearing us down. It felt good though. We were different, we were weird, and were we wearing our new chains to school? Absolutely.

The first couple of days were pretty fun. Everyone looked. Some loved them, some hated them, but after a week or so we were old news again. We became a novelty really, good for the occasional laugh when we would be walking down a quiet hallway with students all in their classrooms. The clinking and clanking when either of us was walking sounded something like Jacob Marley coming to haunt old Scrooge. Needless to say we couldn’t sneak up on anyone. Freshmen year continued to float by. I heard from Tia that Lindsay liked that I said goodbye to her that one day, but other than that I hadn’t heard much about her or put too much thought into it.

As class schedules changed with the new semester, I began to see more of this Lindsay girl in the hallways and such. I would glance now and then. Then glances became looks. We would smile in passing. I started to wonder about her, what she liked, was she still into me. I wondered what she thought about my chain. The more times I saw her the more she would change. Her lips got redder. Her hair was long, dark, and beautiful. Her face was simple and lovely. What was going on with me? None of my other female possibilities appealed to me this way. I began hoping I would see her at a certain time of the day. “Ok third period is over, now I head toward math and she should be coming… yes there she is, oh, she looks nice today…huh,” and things like that. It was a casual sort of feeling. There was no longing, but I was happy to see her. To say hi like we were friends or something. Well maybe casual is too light. There was something there, very real, yet indefinable. Either way, this spark would soon burn, the first time we touched.

I was wearing my oversized black jacket. It was late winter in Minnesota. I was adorned in the usual baggy black t-shirt and black cargo pant. My black hair was a mat on my head and the only thing pulling me through this day was the caffeine-infused root beer I gripped in my right hand. The bell rang. I pulled myself out of my chair. “One more class,” I thought to myself.

The school day ended with English class. Not a favorite of mine, but I do like the fact that it is so close to the front doors of the school. I began shuffling to the classroom through the overcrowded hallway. Rubbing shoulders and bumping into people was nothing new here. We were packed in the skinny hallway puttering along slowly in either direction like at some droll rock concert. I thought about my plans after English: stop by the freak chairs (to which I had been cordially invited by my fellow misfits, could it have had anything to do with my wallet-chain?), hook up with BM, and head to the bus to roll to his house for video games and oatmeal pies, nice. Would we be playing Hitman or… suddenly there was a break in the student traffic, I stepped into a hole of free space to my right and coming right at me was Lindsay.

It was so natural, so easy, like we had rehearsed it or something. We each opened arms and she came right into me. I held her. I held her. There is a piece of music which I consider almost perfect. It is Luciano Povarotti and Joan Sutherland singing Bella Figlia Dell’amore from Verdi’s Rigaletto performed in London. It is so crisp, so beautiful, absolute perfection. This blows that away. That is not even in the same atmosphere as what is happening right now. What is happening right now absolutely has stunned me. We were gently swaying back and forth and turning 180 degrees. No words were spoken. No words, oh no. Say something! If for once in your life you can come out of your shell. If for once you can overcome this debilitating shyness, this thing that is so cleverly masked by this giant chain, this aloof attitude. If for once in your life you could muster the courage to say something, to do something, do it now! “I don’t want to let you go,” I whispered, yet loud enough to be heard over the buzz of the hallway full of rushing students next to us.

Yes! Yes! You said something, and it was good, too. Wait; was that coming on too strong? Oh who cares, you said something! And it was true, too. Truest words you ever spoke. For at that moment surely, if nothing else in the world was true, I without a doubt did not want to let her go. “I’ll be late for class,” she said quietly, sweetly.

She turned away and continued down the hallway. We parted with arms outstretched, the very last thing to touch being the tips of our fingers on our outstretched arms. I stood there for a moment and then proceeded to join back into the flow of students, headed toward my English class. You could not have removed smile from my face for anything.

Over Under Around and Through

2009-02-19T21:47:00.003-06:00

JAKE- Are you riveted yet? Well, her comes chapter 2 for you. This is a short little section, but it sets up the rest of the story.

Foreplay

It was early in freshmen year that I met a girl. I was just settling in, maybe the third week or so of classes. I had carried over a few friends from middle school and I was finding myself. I walked out of math class to greet a familiar face. Tia was there and she was more excited that usual.

“Hi, Lennon!” Oh, yes Lennon. The nickname originated in middle school for a reason I don’t remember now (nothing to do with John though). “There is this girl that likes you; I want you to meet her.”

I just smiled and let out a laugh that was mostly air. Frankly this was nothing new. Freshmen year I guess I was cute or mysterious, something that attracted a few ladies to me and back in those days they did not hold things back, they let you know. Tia snatched me by the arm and dragged me along.

“Her name is Lindsay,” is the only preface she gave me to the meeting. We muddled past kids in an overcrowded hallway before we reached a group of Tia’s friends standing in a circle and talking outside the door of their next class.

“Hi guys this is Jake,” she said. The introduction was generally for all but was really directed at Lindsay. I said nothing. This also was nothing new. I was quiet and shy. A black baseball hat flipped backwards on my head was standard attire, so was a black t-shirt. The group of friends continued to gab at each other until the bell rang for the next class to start. I looked at Lindsay. Exceptionally beautiful she was not. She had small features on an otherwise plain face. Her hair was dark and somewhat scraggly and hung down to her shoulders. She was skinny, plain, and tall for a girl. She smiled nervously at her friends and only for a moment at me while they all finished talking. I don’t think this little meeting was her idea. I followed Tia into the door of the classroom. She took her seat at the front of the class.

“What do you think?” she whispered. Lindsay sat in the back of the class. They were friends I guess but not good enough to sit next to each other.

“About what?” was my brilliant response.

“Whatever, Lennon,” she said. Truth is I had met a lot of girls in ways similar to this so far in my young high school career, and many of them were more worthy of report than this one. The bell rang for class to start and as I walked toward the door I made no movement to even acknowledge Lindsay. This was my usual MO. Ignore them because goodness knows I am to shy to talk to them anyway. But before I walked out the door, something happened. I walked up behind Lindsay sitting in her chair on the back row ready for class to start, I leaned in near to her and said “Bye, Lindsay.”

“Bye,” she said sweetly as she could with being half startled and caught by surprise. Then I stood back up straight, and walked out of the room. I hadn’t even done this to the girls that I found attractive that expressed interest in me. What just happened? How had I summoned the courage to utter this simple goodbye? “Whoa,” I thought, “I’ve never done that before.”

You better call somebody

2009-02-16T21:33:00.003-06:00

or

The way to a man's heart is through his thoracic cavity

JAKE- I have just finished the final draft to one of the larger writing assignments in my Writing A Personal History class. Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting portions of it in the order they were written. You, my friendly readers, will be taken on a strange and perhaps unpleasant journey through much of my young adulthood. Remember, this was all written from memory and while needing to be true, it also needs to be a good piece of literature. It is like in the movie Jurassic Park, where portions of the Dino DNA are missing, they just filled it in with modern amphibious DNA to make the end product whole. If it were Shakespeare, i guess this story would be a tragedy, more or less, but do not get too sad for me, things worked out really well eventually.

Being Young and Rather Unaware

By Jacob Reynolds (Online Eng 320)

"Everything We Do" by Peter Meinke

Everything we do is for our first loves
whom we have lost irrevocably
who have married insurance salesmen
and moved to Topeka
and never think of us at all.

We fly planes & design buildings
and write poems
that all say Sally I love you
I'll never love anyone else
Why didn't you know I was going to be a poet?

The walks to school, the kisses in the snow
gather as we dream backwards, sweetness with age:
our legs are young again, our voices
strong and happy, we're not afraid.
We don't know enough to be afraid.

And now
we hold (hidden, hopeless) the hope
that some day
she may fly in our plane
enter our building read our poem

And that night, deep in her dream,
Sally, far in darkness, in Topeka,
with the salesman lying beside her,
will cry out
our unfamiliar name.

My Place or Yours?

It was hard to sleep. It was always hard to sleep on the night before something big happened. I lay in my bed, the top bunk of course, although there wasn’t anyone in the bottom bunk to feel lessened by my being higher up than them. On my floor lay neatly the outfit for tomorrow. It was something new, every part of it. Mom always made sure we had new clothes for the school year. The tags have been freshly removed and the blue long-sleeve t-shirt lay above the jeans, just as they would be worn the next day. I stared up at the ceiling; the glow-in-the-dark stars shined their dull green.

I remembered something a girl had said just a few months ago. She and her high school buddy sat with four or five of my fellow middle-schoolers in a circle on the floor of some hallway at school. Soon we would be in high school and she was dishing the dirt on how to get by as we made the big leap. She seemed knowledgeable enough as her long blonde hair flipped side to side while she gabbed a mile a minute. A smiled spilled across her face; she must have thought she was doing us the biggest favor. “Without me these poor kids would be utterly lost,” she must have been thinking. Then she said something that actually stuck in my head. She said that it didn’t matter what you wore in high school, nobody cared. As I lay in bed listening to various family members shuffling in the hallway outside my bedroom door, I wondered if that was actually true. I would soon learn it was not.

The high school was this brown monstrosity planted seemingly right in the middle of town. All brick with a small incove before you reached the front doors. Upon entering, your options are to turn right for the cafeteria or left for the classrooms. It was a big school and there was much more to it than that, but for an incoming freshman, that was all I needed to know at this point. Also right next to the front doors, on either side, was an oxymoron of what the whole purpose of high school was supposed to be as far as I knew it. Behold, The Chairs. The Chairs consisted of a row of benches where all the cool kids from a given grade would gather. To the left of the front doors was the bench the Freaks would sit at; the Freaks having taken over the freshmen chairs some time ago. To the right of the doors was a much longer bench where would sit the sophomores, juniors, and seniors in ascending order, seniors closest to the cafeteria. Only cool kids allowed of course. At times I would wonder why the high school, a self proclaimed champion of diversity, would allow for these clique-making machines to exist at all.

If you want to keep writin', writin' along...

2009-02-01T19:20:00.003-06:00

or

The proudest tradition of exposition.

JAKE- My new online class has me writing again,and i think that is a good thing. Oh my and what a treat for all of you out in blog world. You see, the class is entitled Writing A Personal History, and it is all about creative nonfiction and writing your own memoir. So, Chelsea has demanded in her sweet way that I post some writings for your pleasure. Friends be prepared. Family be prepared. You are all now characters in a more-or-less true story about my life. If you think my portrayal of you is inaccurate, if you think i describe you as some sort of caricature the likes of which causes you to cringe, if you think that there is no way you said those things, well you may be right. Memory is tricky. Hey, don't take it personally. Here is an excerpt I wrote for one of my first assignments in class. I think it is mostly true.

The Oasis

Having a day without a purpose may have been my greatest inspiration when I was young. Scurrying down the stairs with their brown shag carpeting I caught myself wondering if it was possible that the banister could actually be older than the house itself. But thoughts like these leave the mind of a half naked eight year old almost as soon as they enter. My purpose was indeed a grand one this sunny summer morning. Mom tried to stop my as I stormed the kitchen, but to no avail. I think she mentioned something about breakfast or lunch… never mind. The sliding glass door that led to the back yard always seemed so heavy. My little arms would have to give a full heave-ho to budge that monstrosity, but with motivation like mine, no obstacle was too great. I stepped onto the concrete patio with my bare feet. Oh feel that heat. It shot up through my legs and all over my small frame.

The back yard was well groomed. It had a border of grass with a tree placed every few yards. A swing set and a sandbox to the east, not today. An open patch to the left for any number of ball-related activities, nope not that either. And there in the middle of it all, the pool. Yes, don’t mind if I do. Surrounded by a concrete walkway and a thin strip of brown tile, it stood there like a sentinel. Summer was no match for this childhood best friend. The crystal blue water shimmered. Into the shallow end with a cannonball splash. Directly across the street was a field of green grass that formed the center of our cul-de-sac. Neighborhood baseball and football games were the norm, while my brother sat on the roof picking the participants off with his air rifle. But alas, no b.b. riddled baseball game could pull me away today. Right now I was all wet and hoping to stay that way for some time. I think lonely is a state of mind. Right now I was by myself and loving it. However, no contented part of existence remains so for very long. Eventually we are all invaded.

Sure enough here came my brother and his friend. They were intimidating high school kids with only enough patience for a young person to annoy me for a while and then be finished with my presence. They jumped in the pool and made a few snide remarks. Maybe it was something about the way I looked in my swimsuit. Needless to say it was not uplifting. They offered a game of marco polo. I don’t remember accepting, but I do remember being “it” and being thrust into the middle of a game I couldn’t win. My fear of the deep end of the pool was something of family lore, and I could well assume this was the reason for their entertainment. I hip hopped along the rough pool floor arms outstretched, eyes tightly shut. Following the call of “polo”, “polo” I tried to find one of these teen aged miscreants and get this thing over with. Higher and higher on my tippy toes and I knew I was approaching certain death, the deep end. Were they trying to drown me? Perhaps they wanted me dead so they could take my carcass into the high school and hide it somewhere as their senior prank. Finally, I could go no further and opened my eyes. They were out of the pool, a clear violation of the rules of the game, and when they saw me look they ran away, laughing. Each of them swung open the wood gate that led to the front yard and ran through. Suddenly I was alone again. The big brown fence that encircled the back yard separated me from the rest of the world and I was alone. I wondered if that was the way you had to act when you grow up. Maybe you sign a contact guaranteeing that you will be a complete moron at least 70% of the time. As the sun beat down on my face and my body bobbed up and down in the pool, I thought I might choose never to grow up.

And a pair of fancy boots fancy boots fancy boots...

2009-01-31T12:56:00.006-06:00

As always, food comes first.
Here are some black bean burgers I made from scratch. I know Hannah will be jealous!
I also wilted some spinach with olive oil and cracked pepper to put on top. They were very good.

After we made them we put some in the freezer for later, and they were just as good if not better! Although next time I think we will cook them on the grill so they can get a little bit crispier.

So here is that Cowboy Spaghetti I've been prattling on about. It really is delicious. A fiber-riffic vegetarian delight! Just get a can of black beans, kidney beans, and corn (remember low sodium...and rinse them well to clean off any of that canned sticky sodium-laden juice) and heat it all with a jar of non-chunky marinara sauce. Then throw in some of that crushed green chile I do love so much, some chili pepper, and some cumin and you will be good to go. I like it over thick spaghetti noodles. It is so good, and I must toot my own horn for this one.

I am a culinary genius.

This shows the difference in portion sizes between Jake and I. Usually I eat on a salad plate (I'm trying to drop 12-15 pounds...there, I said it for everyone to see) and so I have been trying to control my portions. Whatever I eat for dinner has to fit on a salad plate. --I know the corner of that roll is hanging off a titch...I'm so bad-- However, because we live with other people, it's always a gamble as to what will be actually in the kitchen at any given time, so sometimes I have to limit myself to the middle section of the big plates. As you can see, Jake does not limit himself much. However, he is trying to gain 12-15 pounds...so...there.

In other news, our heat has been going out on occassion. There have been two weekends now where the heat has just stopped working. And because if you stand next to a window and can literally feel those icy Maine winds gently caressing your skin, whatever heat we do have does not last long. This is how a few Saturdays ago was spent until we finally had to leave the house to go to for a drive. I know it's not the most earth-friendly activity, but it was so darn cold.

It was 49 degrees in the kitchen.

51 degrees in our room.

We had just got back from doing laundry so the clothes on the bed were still a little warm. I stayed in this exact position for over an hour.

In other SoRoHo news....

what are those, you may ask?

WE HAVE NO IDEA.

For some utterly bizarre and completely inexplicable reason, these dirty carrots were soaking in a cup of water on the counter for weeks. We don't know who put them there, or what they were doing with them, but they did occasionally switch them around so the other side could soak for a few days. They swelled up (as the picture details) to quite a hefty size, and then when they got switched they would shrink back down to smaller than they were before.

Really people, weeks of soaking carrots in a cup on the counter.

Then one day, they mysteriously vanished. The cup was gone, the carrots were gone, we didn't see them in the garbage...

Just another day at the South Royalton House--

you really should come visit.

All you need is Positivity!

2009-01-30T18:22:00.006-06:00

Okay, for those of you that read comments, read Lynley's comment with the lasagna recipe and make it. It was so good and so easy. BUT, use a 16 oz. jar of cottage cheese.

I have a job here on campus that is going quite well. I am the Communications and Media Relations Assistant. I get to write press releases and update website content. I also get to do some less fun things like digital archiving and hole-punching stacks of news clippings and putting those stacks into the appropriate binder. I had a lesson in CMS today to do website stuff, and it was pretty cool. Maybe I should go back six years to junior year of high school and stay focused on Graphic Design. Maybe I can find that perfect job that melds environmentalism and graphic designism into one far-out title.

Graphic Environmentalist.

Not bad. I kind of like how it sounds a bit risque. It's me all over.

A little hitch may have been thrown into our Arizona plan. Many of you already know, as plenty of my readers already reside in AZ. Arizona State University, Jake's school, is undergoing a serious budget crisis with the state and has threatened to close down one or two campuses (Jake's being the first to go) and cut numerous programs (health programs the first to go). Now me being the healthy skeptic that I am, seriously doubt that the largest university in the country can just shut down entire campuses and programs in the span of one semester. However, the president of the university keeps sending out massive panic emails telling us that the threats are real.

So there you have it. I'm almost positive everything will go according to plan for us. But, as Batty makes so eloquently clear in that classic of animation Fern Gully: the Last Rainforest (it was in the $5 movie bin (my favorite of all bins) and I couldn't resist...it does have a great environmental message...and Tim Curry)

ONLY FOOLS ARE POSITIVE.

So I'll let you know how that goes.

One of Jake's phlebotomist buddies is studying for the MCAT. It is good for him to see that this is something people do, and is actually possible. He has this theory that:

1) Only geniuses can be doctors

2) He is not a genius.

ERGO...he can't be a doctor.

In my book, the logic is fine, but I disagree with both of the premises, which as all Logic 101 passees know, invalidates the conclusion.

coming soon: Cowboy Spaghetti with photos! Oh!

Cooking wifey

2009-01-10T12:50:00.003-06:00

Here are some recipes:

The green chile crusted chicken I completely made up and got lucky. My mom brought me home a bag of crushed green chile from New Mexico and I had to use it somehow! I found a place online where you can order the same stuff. I would try out just a packet first (crushed green chile) and then go for the pounder. It's got a real kick, so depending on how much you like it, you can crust accordingly.

Green Chile Crusted Chicken

Drain, rinse, and dry a can of black beans (preferably low sodium...got to watch that sodium intake). I let the beans sit out on a plate in a thin layer covered with a paper towel. I like them to have a little bit of crispness when they come out of the oven. Put the beans in the pan in a thick layer. Coat chicken breast with the crushed green chile all over and put chicken on beans, sprinkling a little chile over the beans. Thinly slice an apple and cover the chicken (this can be removed before the cheese goes on, I find it gives the chicken a nice flavor and keeps it moist). Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. Discard apples (or not) and cover with Mexican cheese. Put back in the over for about 5 minutes so the cheese gets nice and melted. Let it sit out of the oven for about 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve with cilantro-lime rice. I like lime, so I put a squeeze of lime on mine right before eating.

Braised Balsamic Chicken
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 (14.5 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

For those spices I used an Italian Herb Grinder and really went to town. McCormack's Italian Herb Grinder is my favorite kitchen item and I go through one pretty fast.
Season chicken breasts with ground black pepper and garlic salt. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet, and brown the onion and seasoned chicken breasts. If you really want to go above and beyond, you can saute up some minced garlic in some olive oil and rub that into the chicken instead of garlic salt. Do still use the fresh ground black pepper though; it gives the chicken a really nice look.
Pour tomatoes and balsamic vinegar over chicken, and season with basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Simmer until chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 15 minutes. It goes really great with garlic mashed potatoes, and the sauce is amazing, so don't leave it in the pan, pour it on everything.

If people want the granola bars I can post that too, but I really made up most of it so I have to figure it out.

I think people should also try swedish meatballs, if you are a fan. They have been a consistent hit with everyone. Just heat up some frozen TURKEY meatballs (I know they make frozen swedish meatballs, but the turkey ones taste so much better) in the microwave, heat up two cans or bottles of brown gravy (it's good with beef gravy too, it just tastes less swedish) and add a little less than a cup of sour cream and the warm meatballs. Let it boil and it will change colors and consistencies. Serve over egg noodles. It truly is a taste sensation.

Now go cook.

Everything I Do, I Do It For FOOOOOD

2009-01-08T18:16:00.004-06:00

Okay that's a bit of a stretch. But I do enjoy food. A lot. And with one of my current plans allowing for slightly less food than I normally enjoy, I have been realizing my growing obsession with tasty tasty food.

I have never been one for cooking.

But there's something about this teensy tiny kitchen with half-size everything that really brings out the chef in me. I have been making everything lately. I think part of the fun of it all is having our roommate Emily come into the kitchen every day and say, "What are you making today?" and me answering pretentiously, "Well, my dearest Emily, we're starting with a mild tomato and cucumber bruschetta and finishing out the evening with braised balsamic chicken breast and garlic potatoes."

It doesn't really go like that.

But I am having fun making things, and I have the pictures to prove it. Here are a few little dishes I have whipped up recently:

This is a dried green chili crusted chicken breast on a bed of black beans with thin Vermont apple slices on top to keep the chicken moist, then sprinkled with Mexican cheese. It was served with cilantro-lime rice and it was delicious. We also have these funny little mini personal casserole dishes that are proving to be both fun and fundamental to my growth as a culinary artiste.

I wasn't kidding about the bruschetta. These are Vermatoes (Vermont tomatoes) and local cucumbers on local bread. I'm a localvore now. Jake has been loving all the fancy food, as evidenced by his face above.

The bruschetta again. It was tasty, and I don't even like bruschetta. Jake had six pieces the size of my hand, and then a whole bowl of Tuna Helper (I have yet to outgrow my love affair with Helpers of all nations).

This is the braised balsamic chicken with garlic mashed potatoes. I guess I wasn't kidding about that either--though this and the bruschetta were not on the same night. This was phenomenal and my favorite thus far. Let me know if you want the recipe, it was so easy, and it's very healthy.

Did I also mention that I make my own granola bars now? It's cheaper than buying them and they are way healthier, plus they actually fill you up. Also (bonus), no packaging=easier on the landfills=environmentally friendly=good for me!

So I have really been liking making things. Swedish meatballs and chicken stroganoff have become a weeknight staple for us. I feel very strange getting out of the Top Ramen and Mac 'n Cheese world, but it is a beautiful world, and I would like to stay here.

Who ever heard of an operatic Jake?

2008-12-10T20:52:00.005-06:00

Well I am in full-fledged-final-freak-out mode. The six hour final previously mentioned has been upgraded to eight, and my draft of that 20 pager was returned with the word "poor" used more frequently than I would have hoped. Also, after applying for my first real job that I had hoping for since before we moved out here, I got a "we will contact you if we want an interview" response.

They don't have to be so polite about it, I know what that means.

On the bright side, I am completely finished with one class, final paper turned in and all, and this professor actually hands out more than one A per class if deserved, so things might actually be okay in that department.

I spent today typing up all my notes to review for that eight hour monstrosity. Did I tell you it is for Water Resources? The same class I have been complaining about all semester? The sad thing about it though is that the professor was awesome. He a really cool guy who talked to us like we were people, and ended the last lecture on the last day with "Four Keys to Lawyerly Happiness". They actually made me want to be a lawyer almost as much as the late great Boston Legal (albeit it went out with more of a bizarre fizzle than the grand pop it deserved). Here are the keys:

Show the love (don't demonize people).
Wear the badge proudly. Lawyers are leaders. We are the foundation of the civil society.
Believe--in yourself, in your clients, in what you do.
Follow your dreams. Your time out there is not that long.

Maybe after I'm done with this degree I'll just go on and get my JD. Wait...that would mean more of these ridiculous law school finals...

And here I am back to finals. I can't get away from them!

On a completely separate note, Jake and I traveled to Boston this last weekend to see my uncle Brian in the Messiah at Symphony Hall.

BOSTON WAS AWESOME.

We ate and P.F. Chang's, AND Addis Red Sea (Ethiopian), saw the Messiah in the most beautiful hall I have ever seen, drove on actual roads made of cement, walked around a real mall...all of this while avoiding getting a parking ticket even though we clearly deserved one. We were parked in the same meter spot for about ten hours with only a few quarters after we realized Boston counts its meters on Saturdays too. Saturday was a great day. We also got to see baby Jane (Ann and Brian's youngest) who is about as cute as possible, and getting so big! She was very popular everywhere we went. Pat and April and family were also there to share the P.F. Chang's, and it was great to see them too. They saw the Messiah the night before, and Grace was due to play the Angel in the Nativity at their ward Christmas party, so they couldn't stay long, but it was great to see them.

I don't know what was more comforting about our trip to Boston: the fact that the real world still exists outside of Vermont, or the fact that Vermont still exists inside the real world.

Either way, we are still enjoying our little slice or rural happiness we have carved out for ourselves.

One thing I love about Jake: he continually thinks that I can't hear him when he is in the shower. This is when he practices. Sometimes he practices strange voices or bits that he pulls out on occasion. Recently he purchased an opera CD and has been practicing opera. We also are in the ward choir, so the singing has been almost a constant. I am so proud of all of his hard work even though he doesn't really like singing the tenor part. But right now he is practicing "Figaro", and quite impressively I might add. After every run he adds on a delightful "thank you" to his awestruck audience.

I love Jake. Even when he stays after work for an hour and a half to work out when he knows I want to eat dinner before nine o'clock. If he didn't look so good, I might be a little madder.

Oh, and I tried raw milk.

Straight from the cow's teat to my mouth.

Brilliant.

Well, it is exhilarating...

2008-11-19T21:29:00.004-06:00

For all of you that are just on the edge of your seat for a new post, I apologize. This is not the post for you. Just a quick little note.

The majority, if not all, of our New England posts have been positive, if not downright gleeful. However, much to our dismay, not everything is just peachy up here in Vermont.

School is very hard. Although this morning in class I completely redeemed myself from my rambling not-quite-an-answer answer to the one time I have been randomly called upon in my Water Resources class (that's the Socratic method...apparently it's supposed to help you learn more thoroughly. For those of us with crippling anxiety, it just makes us stay up at night). I rocked this morning, and I am not ashamed to admit it. However, for that same class, I recently did a practice exam question (it is a six hour exam because he feels the typical three hour exam doesn't accurately portray life as an attorney...) and the answer to that one question was five pages long.
This is what is feels like to take a shower:Something has been going on with the hot water for the past...well...since we've been here, and as a response, I have stopped showering. I keep making jokes that by the time I leave here I will have dreadlocks and permanently smell of maple syrup, but as it is nearly Thursday and I have not showered since Sunday, that joke may become a painful, smelly reality. It's not that I don't try to bathe, I do. Today I psyched myself up, blasted some Christina, and got in the shower. I only got the corner of my head wet because it was just too cold, even with the help of the constant companion I find in that voice that just doesn't stop.

I guess those two things are really the only two things that make Vermont a little less lovable. It is getting cold, and houses that were built in 1858 do not do their duty to keep out the wind.

As soon as I finish my Open Memo and my twenty-something page Ecology paper (based on a study of whether drinking reclaimed water adversely affects prenatal development (it doesn't)) I will post about my lovely birthday and more about this lovely state in which we reside.

Vermont: I love you. Don't take it personally, I just would like a warm shower, please.

2008-11-05T11:59:00.002-06:00

How I am feeling:

PROUD
READY
GOOD.

yes we can.

We'd like to release with a vote of thanks...

2008-10-26T21:02:00.004-05:00

For those of you who are avid Reynoldses followers, you may remember several blogs ago that I had a ward livestock story. Well, the time has come, the piglet said, to talk of other things...

Let me first begin by saying that we had a ward activity. As ward activity chairs (did you know that was our calling?) we of course attended. Luckily for us, this activity was mostly planned before we were called. But it was a typical Vermont service project. Our ward is right next to Camp Joseph, a church owned and operated camp site located a few hundred yards from the Joseph Smith Memorial. It is amazingly beautiful, like everything else surrounding us.

Here we are at the service project. It was windy and I had been working for about three hours. I thought the picture should reflect that. It looks a little more lusty than I originally intended, but I thought just go with it.

The service project we did involved wood.

Lots and lots of wood. We stacked wood six lines long, as tall as me, in lines of about 30 yards. It was lots of wood. And because so many houses around here are heated all winter by only wood, the kids knew what they were doing, and did it well. One thing about Vermonters, they know how to work. We kept wishing Aysia could have been here to meet other kids that really have to work. It would be a good experience for her I think. It certainly was enlightening for me! Even after it started raining and getting quite chilly, the children just kept at it! A little girl named Hannah who looked about 5 was just hauling log after log after log for at least three hours without ever complaining once: all without gloves. I did one log without gloves, got a splinter, and was ready to quit (then I got gloves and shut up about it). Those kids were amazing.

Now to the livestock.

Here is a story from deep Vermont:

Once upon a time, a little ward in a little town in Vermont pooled their money and bought a new baby piglet.

Everyone in the ward loved the piglet. They decided to induct him into the ward by calling him "Brother Pig".

Brother Pig was very popular. Whenever anyone had any leftover food, they would bring it to Brother Pig so he could munch on it and grow big and strong.

Brother Pig got so much food from his friends that he grew to be two hundred and fifty pounds!

Now, the little ward in the little town in Vermont was planning a big party for Brother Pig...

Okay I can't go on like that. It's just too sad.

We sliced him down the spine, roasted him on a spit for hours, and ate him.

We ate him all.

Even I ate him.

Jake was less hesitant.

And so, Brother Pig, we salute you.

Had I known you, I would have loved you in an embarrassingly true way.

forgive me

you were delicious

so warm

and so juicy

i think it's pronounced FOILage

2008-10-12T14:01:00.005-05:00

The leaves here just don't stop! They are getting more beautiful every day. We are completely surrounded by rolling hills covered head to toe, or

rather, bough to trunk, in hot reds, cool yellows, and fiery oranges. If I were a real photographer, I would capture every hue, but I am not even an

amateur, so I fear I will have to rely mostly on my memories rather than photos.

Our ward building is getting major reconstructive surgery, and this was our last Sunday in the building. It was very emotional for many people who have lived here their whole lives, and it was very sweet to know how much the building means to them. For the next undisclosed amount of time, we will be meeting in Montpelier, which will be a little bit of a drive for us. We were very spoiled having the building so near our home, and now I suppose we must pay for taking it for granted. But a Sunday morning drive will be very nice, especially this time of year, and I'm sure it will all just be part of our Vermont adventure! A lot of the building is being salvaged, and we thought about claiming a pew and having it shipped to Arizona to await our arrival, but decided against it. The blue-green upholstery would only clash with our living room set.

Right now we are sitting on the back lawn of Debevoise Hall. I in a hammock and Jake in an Adirondack chair, soaking up this Vermont air. I sense some spontaneous back lawn poetry coming on...

He writes what he knows in his orange book

I steal glances sideways.

The grass is crunchy with dying life, slowly sinking back to the beginning

The tree is parted, smiling at me, knotted wrinkled old

Sun warms, cloud cools, blue remains.

I steal glances sideways.

And there you have it. Spontaneous back lawn poetry. I have a degree in that.

Saturday is a special day

2008-10-11T21:26:00.005-05:00

We are beginning to fear that our time in Vermont may come to a close before we are ready to leave. While a change of scenery is almost always welcome to me, this life we have carved out of this crisp New England air is suiting us just fine. We had another delicious breakfast at Sticky Buns this morning. We both worked out nice and hard so that we could fully enjoy our bounty. Last weekend we journeyed up to Stowe, a very popular ski town that was really fun. We originally went to hunt down the makers of these awesome tortilla chips we had by chance in Hanover, but found the place was closed. Luckily, as it is a resort locale, there were plenty of other dining establishments to choose from. We also went for a nice hike and drove nearly to the top of the tallest mountain in Vermont. It was so colorful!

Jake, pensively studying a leaf, or perhaps, life.

_________________________________________________

We try to do something fun every Saturday. Today was kind of lax. We played Exquisite Corpse outside (taking turns adding to a drawing) and now have some great art for our wall. We also went to buy some orchard apples, and ended the day in Hanover seeing The Duchess at the old Nugget Theater, which has been around since 1916, I might add. Then, because the movie was kind of a downer, although beautiful in many ways, we returned home to watch a Seinfeld, and so Jake could eat his second dinner (he is fasting tomorrow, but he might have eaten a second dinner anyway). Now Jake is pre-sleeping, one of his favorite things to do.

He keeps saying that he is so happy here. He is having more great days than he has ever had before, and I am so glad that I get to share them! Look at him, doesn't he look happy? For those of you who knew Jake several years ago, it may shock you that he does in fact smile. His smile was actually one of the reasons I fell in love with him so hard so fast. That and those steely blue eyes...a girl can't help herself. But when I saw that genuine smile (I believe it was the first time we played Scrabble at Barnes & Noble oh those many years ago) I knew right then and there that I would have to see it again.

And lucky for me, he, those eyes, and his smile, followed me all the way to Vermont.

Leaf-peeping!

2008-09-28T19:18:00.011-05:00

Leaves they are a changin'.

It is unbelievably beautiful up here right now! Today we took a walk and took many foliage pictures, some of which are displayed below. The colors here hardly do the real colors justice, or even the colors of the actual photos justice, but this should give you some idea of our surroundings! We also learned today that "Leaf-peepers" are people to journey to Vermont just for the foliage. We had a few in church today!

As we were driving last night, we saw a tree that was the most pure hue of red I have ever seen. I started liking red inexplicably in eighth grade, and I didn't know why until that moment. I actually exclaimed out loud, "THAT is why I love red." Entire mountains are covered with millions of leaves that shame my once lovely red Kitchen Aid. I fear that after witnessing true red, nothing else will do. I may have to find a new color.

To the color green: you are always my favorite, don't be jealous.

You make me happy in a way that red never can.

2008-09-27T10:17:00.010-05:00

Happy Birthday, Jake!!

He is a ripe-old twenty-four today! We have been celebrating since the wee small hours of the morning, well, for us, which means about 10:30. We went to the post office to pick up some presents from parents, and then headed across the street to Sticky Buns, our favorite little pastry shop right here in town. We really gorged ourselves too: we got a caramel sticky bun about the size of a human brain, a giant coffee cake muffin, and a large piece of strawberry pear torte, all for a whopping price of five dollars. Then Jake had his normal breakfast of cereal, oatmeal, and yogurt. I just don't know how he fits it all in there. Tonight we are going to Hanover to have dinner and a good time. We are going to get dressed up in silly preppy clothes and strut our stuff. Should be a good time.

Since I have not been blogging very regularly, I

have a good deal of catching up to do. Vermont is being ridiculously fun for us. A few weekends

ago we ventured to the Worlds Fair in Tunbridge, which turned out to be only a few miles up the road. It was very animal oriented, and we got separated from some friends we were there with by an hour long cow parade that circled the fairgrounds. They were on the outside and we were on the inside. But the good news is, we saw several members of our ward parading their livestock, which was very fun to see (I have another story about livestock in the ward, which I will save for a later blog...). I loved the crazy looking chickens, they reminded me of the funny-looking birds in Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss.

Of course we got lots of fair food (we worked out hard that morning so we could eat all we wanted and not feel guilty!). The fries were served in a dog bowl, which I suppose is fitting. They were delicious. We also got a caramel apple, ice cream sundae, and fried dough with lemon curd, powdered sugar, maple butter, cinnamon, and maple syrup on it. Don't worry, we didn't mix all those together, they were separate, but we had to try all the toppings! The maple butter was delicious. That's one thing about Vermont, they know maple products. We also watched some pig racing, which is a favorite pastime for fair-goers, or so we learned (it was extremely popular). We saw giant oxen (by giant I mean as big as a Ford F250). Actually and legitimately huge.

We also saw a cow that looked like Hannah! Look at that beauty spot! The prettiest cow in town, just like Hannah is the prettiest

girl in town (NOT A COW).

Last Saturday was probably one of our best days (this is also the day we discovered Sticky Buns). We had been planning on going to the Vermont Public Radio Listener's Picnic at the University of Vermont's Morgan Horse Farm for about

a month, mainly to see our favorite local band, Banjo Dan & the Mid-Nite Plowboys. We first heard them on our second day here, listening to VPR, and fell in love with them immediately. What else can you do with a Vermont bluegrass band that plays such classics like "Fire in the Sugarhouse" containing such lyrics as, "it's roilin', and it's boilin', and it's fillin' up with steam. the fog is gettin' heavy and it's like you're in a dream..."?

If you have seen the movie

A Mighty Wind, then you can imagine all of the characters of the band, and the rest of the lyrics. They are brilliant. Two of the band members actually look astonishingly like Christopher Guest. The horse farm itself was amazing. Jake's mom and my dad would have loved it! The drive out there was beautiful too. It was about an hour and a half away, only forty miles, but in Vermont roads, that means an hour and a half. We drove through Green Mountain National Forest, which Haleigh and Mike need to see sometime. On our drive we saw a sign for an Interfaith Nature Hike and naturally, we had to stop on the drive back. We hiked the Buddhist Path (we were kind of afraid to do the Pagan Path...) and learned some Buddhist teachings on posted placards. It was beautiful and enlightening.

I have so many more pictures, but they will have to wait. Jake is currently indulging in a Birthday Nap, and I might have to join him.

Let's get this party started right, y'all.

2008-09-12T20:13:00.004-05:00

What is going on here? Exactly one week ago I was taking cold showers trying to calm down because it was too darn hot. My how things have changed. Jake and I are realizing that there is at least a forty degree temperature change during the days up here in Vermont. It is very tricky to stay abreast of the current temperature. It has been sixty-one degrees in the kitchen for the last few days, and because the boilers are currently down, there is nothing we can do about it. My nose is permanently icicle-like because it is not much warmer in our room. It was a cool fifty-eight when Jake woke up for work the other day. Luckily by the time I rolled out of bed and into several sweaters and a hat it was up to sixty-two. Our landlady told us in August not to turn the boilers on because it might flood the restauranty basement with boiling lava hot water at any moment, but that was August, and we didn't care. But now it's September, and everything has changed. Last week I was sprawled out on the floor ahhing "Memory" from Cats, this week I'm wrapped up...on the floor...ahhing "Memory" from Cats.

Okay it's not that bad. But I do have to wear a sweater. And a hat. Luckily I have many hats and many sweaters that I need to wear out appropriately before we get to Arizona and the arid Southwest.

In my Water Resources class, we have shifted from learning about Riparianism, the water law practice of the East, to Prior Appropriation, the water law practice of the West. Many times it class we have made the joke, "why do they even need water law in the West? There's no water there to begin with!"

It is funny every time. But I suppose it won't be funny when I am forced to drink recycled sewer water and use a composting toilet. Something big is going to go down soon, environmentally, and I want to be a part of it. That's why I need to get this degree and get in on the action! As of now, I'm still hopeful that changes can be made, and that I can save the world. Maybe the profound and soul-devouring desperation won't sink in until finals week.

Until then, bring it on.

I am ready!

NOW... won't somebody give me a job?

feel that flow, that salty salty flow!

2008-09-05T21:36:00.005-05:00

Today was very warm. Very warm indeed. On Fridays I don't have classes, but while Jake is still in the training phase of his job, he works. So, that means I am left to fend for myself all day in tiny South Royalton without a car, and certainly without air conditioning. For those of you that know me well, you know that I do not do well without air conditioning. It was almost 90 degrees in our room today. When Jake finally came home, I had about lost it. I was lying on the floor in little clothing, talking on the phone with my mom, telling her I needed to take a cold shower. Shortly after that I was in the cold shower, waving my arms wildly above my head ahhing "Memory" from Cats.

Perhaps this is too much information, but it was so hot.

After the ridiculously long cold shower, I told Jake that I had to get out. And he, being the understanding husband that he is, obliged. We went to Hanover, New Hampshire. An uppity hoity toity little town that is home to a little known school called Dartmouth.

For those readers that like to see the big picture, I have inserted these maps, so that it can all be taken in together.

We have come to love this little town...I don't know if it is because we like knowing that we are not the Canoe Club kind of people that we are surrounded by, or because we secretly wish we were those Canoe Club kind of people. Either way, it's fun to rub elbows with the big boys every once in a while.

So far in our times in Vermont, we have not been disappointed in our culinary experiences. It seems as if everything out here tastes more, and better. We are developing quite the little food tour for those souls brave enough to venture East of the Mississippi. Last week we went to a place called boloco. It's a swanky little burrito place that made both of our jaws drop and some of the food we were eating actually fall out of our gaping mouths. Tonight was no different. We went to a restaurant called Murphy's on the Green. It boasted "superb food & spirits!" so naturally we could not back down. Also, its soup of the day was artichoke and roasted red pepper. When one encounters such a promising soup, one does not dismiss it without at least a cup and oyster crackers. So we shared a cup of the soup and it was delicious. Jake ordered the meatloaf. Now before I tell you all what I ordered, I want to let you know that some of what Jake has been saying is true: I have blossomed out here. I have been actually trying new things. For so many years of my life, I have travelled to some of the most exotic and expensive restaurants only to order the chicken fingers. Well, Vermont has been the birth of a new me. I even tried raw fish a few weeks ago. I don't even eat aquatic life, but there must be something in the water here, because I can't get enough of this weird weird food (not the seafood...just new food. I still don't like seafood, and I didn't like the fish, but I ate it). At Murphy's, I ordered Pulled Pork Crepes with caramelized onions, watermelon onion salad, and mango sauce. When it came out, the crepes were served directly on top of the watermelon salad, which I wasn't expecting, but I just went with it, and holy cow. I cannot adequately express the festival of flavors that was bouncing in my mouth. It was absolutely delicious. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS.

On another note, I have been suffering from a sinus infection for the last few weeks. Because we are currently uninsured (our coverage doesn't begin until late September) I have had to suffer in silence. I learned about some home remedies today and we stopped at the pharmacy to see our options, and decided to try a neti pot. A neti pot is something that looks very much akin to Aladdin's lamp.

You fill it with warm water and a saline mix and then stick one end of it comfortably up your nostril. You tilt your head and the full half cup of liquid goes in one nostril, through your face, and out the other side. You must remember to breathe constantly through your mouth, otherwise the salty discharge will go straight down your throat. It was quite an experience. I had stuff coming in one nostril, out my mouth, eyes, and at one point it even felt like my ear. I finally got it to work a little, and although it is not a comfortable procedure, I am hopeful that it will help. Living with sinus infections are no fun, and after ten years, I am ready to try most anything.

I didn't have quite as much fun as her...

Jake should be about done pre-sleeping now, so I will end with this: if you should ever find yourself in Hanover, wondering what eat, do try the pulled pork crepes.

They will not disappoint.

It may be small, but it sure is pretty.

2008-09-04T20:00:00.005-05:00

It has been several days since our last update, so I feel obliged to enlighten the rest of you as to our goings on. Not to be outdone by my husband, of course.

I am in the throws of school. This one class of mine (which for the sake of anonymity I will call W. Resources...no wait, that's too obvious...I'll call it Water R.) is very tricky. I live in mortal dread that I will be called on and be forced to fess up that I simply do not know. For the first time in my education career, I have read every page of assigned material, and I still feel like I am lagging behind. This feeling is quite new to me, and although it is altogether distressing, I do feel like I am being challenged for the first time since SES, and who knows how long before then. Maybe it just took learning what I was really meant to learn about to awaken this very studious student in me. But still, I don't like feeling stupid.

Jake and I are starting to make some friends, which is due in most part, to the shocking amount of church members in my program. Of the small admitted class of twenty-four, four of us are members of the church, which leads to nice built-in friendships. It certainly is nice to have a few people you know, something I didn't really have as an undergraduate, since my attitude was pretty much, "get it, get out, and take no prisoners". It worked just fine for me then. However, since Jake keeps prattling on about this blossoming new wife he has, I should at least try to live up to it.

In conclusion: school is hard and getting harder, but people are nice and getting nicer.

We are actively missing everyone, so no one need feel left out.

And the picture is my campus: you might be thinking, Oh, what a lovely little part of campus...No, that's pretty much all of it!

If it wasn't for that spider, I never would've made it through law school

2008-08-25T19:14:00.002-05:00

OR- Hypochondriacs R Us

JAKE- I have started work and Chelsea has started school. So, it begins. I have been thinking lately that it was about time that we got started with what will essentially be our routine for the next year. Of course I say that now, but I am sure I will be complaining about the never ending drag of our lives in about nine months, but what can ya do. A week or so ago Chelsea and I saw a spider living by the front door of the house. He or she was nestled into the phonebook that dangles from the pay phone next to the door. So naturally I destroyed its web and thought nothing of it. Well, it remade its web a short time later and now we don't have the heart to kill it (the resilient little bugger) so instead we have adopted it and named it Dex, like the phonebook. I have started my online course as well. It looks like it will be a lot of writing; not surprising considering it's English 102 Freshmen Writing. Enough jabber, it's time for family fun evening.

So zombies CAN go to church

2008-08-21T21:11:00.003-05:00

OR- Good news if you are married to Chelsea Reynolds

I suppose four can be the magic number for now then. I was offered all four jobs that i interviewed for. A 'thank you' email to the perioperative services department received a response confirming they were going to offer me the job there if HR wouldn't have told them i accepted the position in the laboratory. Now, I am not saying that I am anything special. In fact I am quite sure that these departments had several openings and perhaps I was just one of few applicants. Seriously I am not trying to make it sound like I am praiseworthy. I am telling you this so I can give credit where credit is due. Who says that paying your tithing doesn't pay off? These job opportunities were a blessing. Period. I got the exact job that I wanted in the exact place i wanted to work. Sure I put in the hours of interviews, driving there and back, phone calls, emails, etc. But I could not have done it alone. I couldn't do this life thing alone. Not without a Father in Heaven looking out and helping. Yes, actually stretching forth His hand and helping. And this is not something that I alone enjoy, millions could testify of the same thing. Don't mistake coincidence for the very handiwork of the almighty.

On another note. I don't claim to know much. I mean, many of the great mysteries of the universe i simply do not comprehend. Although, do you think it is possible that my wife is actually getting more and more beautiful as time goes on? How is this conceivable? She's so hot and getting hotter! All I can do know is just sit back and enjoy the show. I'm telling you people she is really starting to shine out here in so many ways, and it is my privilege to be a part of it. What a wife! Hey, if you can't laud your wife via blog, where can you do it?

Shmorienshmation

2008-08-19T21:31:00.002-05:00

The above should read: "Orientation", but this is the way all words are sounding in my head right now. Orientation at Vermont Law School is an all-day week-long extravaganza. Eight AM to five PM everyday. Most nights there are things going on as well, so things usually start winding down around twelve or thirteen hours after getting started in the morning. JD students, here for three years and becoming a lawyer at the end of it all, have it somewhat rough. They have no say in their classes or schedule for the entire first year, and are pushed away into sections that are basically built-in study groups. MELP students (me) might actually have it rougher. The goal of the professors for this week is to make sure that every MELP student knows as much about the law as one would learn in the whole first year of law school, so that we will be ready to take the classes that the 3L (third years) and LLM (Post JD Master of Laws) students take, starting the first day of school.

This is not an easy task.

I am by far the youngest in this year's admitted class of only twenty-four, and am finding myself to be ridiculously under-qualified. Most of these people have spent years cavorting around the Amazon, working in the Peace Corps, or having whole other lives, like the retired policeman and mother who was an elementary school teacher for fifteen years. I don't know how I got admitted into this remarkably prestigious program. ASU didn't want me, but the number one program in the country did? Yes, I am still bitter about that. Oh well. Since I am moving there in a year, I can wave this Harvard-Yale-Dartmouth caliber diploma in their face and say "neener neener!"

So this week is very tiring, and incredibly informative. I am learning all about the law and will be able to hold my own with any lawyer in a matter of days. That is, if words will stop sounding like gibberish.

On another note--a few things we have learned about the house (if you didn't know, we occupy a very small area of the house, and are oblivious to what goes on in the rest of it):

it is well over 10,000 square feet.
it is four stories tall plus a basement.
the fourth floor is a full-sized BALLROOM.
Theodore Roosevelt (the former president) stayed here frequently...our bedroom? used to be his.
after Lincoln was assassinated, his wife and family "fled to Vermont" and lived here.
the Law School still owns the majority of the building and cooks all of its meals in the industrial kitchen (sometimes we smell things...)
there is a pub in the basement.
there are other tenants. they have a dog.

It is really quite remarkable, and the history is very rich indeed. We have mixed reports on its paranormal activity, and some nights, I wouldn't be surprised to believe some of the shadier stories (see Jake's post on the midnight disturbance). All in all, we actually really like it here, and in all honesty, it has to be seen to be believed.

We may have stumbled onto greatness with this one, folks.

For now, more reading and case briefing and trying to sleep at all at night.

AND ONE MORE THING! Jake got three job offers today. THREE. He took one. I will let him post about it later.

Wife of Green Tables

2008-08-18T20:24:00.011-05:00

OR- Putting shame in your name

JAKE- The last of the interviews have been finished at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. I have interviewed for four different positions now, and all of them are pretty varied in context. First was EKG Tech (doing ekg's on patients) then, Phlebotomist (drawing patients' blood) third was Surgical Support Tech II (do everything in the operating room that you never think about having to be done) and finally, Sterile Instruments Tech II (clean surgical instruments). Oh sure there a few that i would prefer over the others, but can i really be picky? They all seemingly offer great pay and benefits. Chelsea and I had our first ever family home evening tonight, and yes, it was just about the cutest thing ever. I prepared a media-enriched interactive lesson that really hit the spot. Did you know that the Vermont Law School nickname and logo is the Fighting Swans? Chelsea is a Fighting Swan. Maybe not as bad as the Wichita State University Wheatshockers, the Campbell College Fighting Camels, or the University of California at Irvine Anteaters. All of which strike fear in the hearts of their opponents and the hearts of the people who make sweatshirts and caps with these ridiculous logos on them, hoping someone will buy. This just in, sadly the Russell sweatshirt company has opted to use the following as their nickname and logo- The Russell Sweatshirt Falling Profit Margins.

italiano traditional...o

2008-08-14T22:45:00.009-05:00

JAKE- Here is what i made for dinner. A tomato sauce from scratch consisting of tomatoes, garlic, farmers market basil, salt, pepper, olive oil and love. Then i made up some penne pasta, plus we had an italian sausage from the farmers market that may have well been cut from a pig that was actually alive in the morning, im not sure. it was a good meal with a good wife. Speaking of she, might i say that chelsea has been doing really well out here in South Royalton. Those of you that know her may know what i mean. sure, at night she can have some tough anxious moments, but other than that she has been so stinking fun. I swear she is getting funnier and funnier every day. her wit and humor has been so right on the money. Its not that she has changed, but its like there is more of her than before; more flavor to enjoy. Yeah, she is more full of that chelsea flavor that we all love... its like she has gone organic. No preservatives or additives, just pure wife. Hey if im not going to laud her over the pulpit at church at least i can do it in this blog. Did you know that 80/20 ground beef is as cheap as 1.99 a pound out here? that is a special deal. i think maybe we should load up and have burgers every night for goodness sake. oh boy, i muust run up a large hill tomorrow; the last two times i have done it i have felt like i was going to throw up. Run.Run. We had dinner at our landlords house(barn) last night and though i wasnt much part of the conversation, i think i overheard people saying that there are raccoons out here as big as black bears. Is that possible? If thats true than i guess i should be more scared of a rodent attacking me than a carnivorous beast. i thought that sort of thing was only possible in the fire-swamp. alright i will stop this blog... as you wish.

if you were in the South Royalton Ward, you would be hearing this on Sunday:

2008-08-14T20:07:00.002-05:00

Here is my talk. Jake didn't want to post his, but is willing to send it to anyone interested.

I am Chelsea Reynolds, formerly Chelsea Hinckley. I am twenty-one years old. I am five feet and four inches tall, and have already nearly exhausted my supply of cute outfits, so be prepared for repeats.

I truly am a mover by heart. Growing up, my family never stayed in one place for too long, and after a while, I start to get the itch to get up, get out, and see something new. Before I was born, my parents and older sister moved around and around the Midwest as my dad gained work experience doing internships after receiving his MBA from BYU. But, in the grand Mormon tradition I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Weeks after my birth, my family relocated to Minnesota where my dad took a job with Northwest Airlines where he worked until 2006. You can now find him at the top of a tall building in downtown Minneapolis where he works as a VP for US Bank. He took to the banking business when the airline industry began to tank, and has been looking to get out of the banking business since about a month after his hire. My mother is an artist, and is recently gaining some national recognition. Go Mom! If you are truly interested in what kind of art she does, I can tell you separately, as it is difficult to explain over the pulpit. As I previously mentioned, I have an older sister that lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, who is another artist, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I also have a younger sister who is studying Opera performance and Painting at Southern Virginia University. As you can tell, I come from a family of artists. This also makes me the classically and intrinsically motivated middle child. I studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota after a brief stint at Southern Utah University. I am now ready to begin work on my Master’s degree at Vermont Law School, a Master of Environmental Law and Policy, which is what has brought us to this beautiful part of the country.

My husband and I are a truly classic tale of a home ward romance and freakishly cosmic chance. We first met before either of us remembers, when our parents were great friends. However, to keep things interesting, my family moved away to Chicago, then to Seattle, and then to Florida…but the universe was watching out for us, because eventually, it brought me back to Minnesota where, after many adventures of his own, Jake was waiting. After a few years, we dated, then we didn’t date, then we dated, then we weren’t on speaking terms, then I winked at him, then we fell in love and were married almost exactly a year later. Ladies, never underestimate the power of a single wink.

As an English major and a lover of words, I am always interested in new ways to describe things, new ways to play with format and style, especially with Sacrament Meeting talks. I have given talks in rhyme, a sassy top-ten, and it has always been a lofty goal of mine to one day give one in iambic pentameter. Don’t worry; you do not have to be that lucky congregation. But for now, picture this: I have decided to tell you the many things that I believe on an innate level. What I believe not as a member of the church, but as a human being. Then, hopefully, it will become evident to you why I am a member of the church, because the teachings of the church align themselves so nicely with what I believe as a person.

First, I believe in people. I believe that people were put here to help each other, and to be different from each other. I believe that in our differences, we were created from the beginning, so that we could learn to live with one another in a constant celebration of diversity. M. Russell Ballard said, “Just as we claim the right to worship as we choose, we believe [others] have the right to worship—or to not worship—as [they] see fit. All of our interpersonal relationships should be built on a foundation of mutual respect, trust, and appreciation. But that shouldn’t prevent us from sharing deeply held religious feelings with each other. Indeed, we may find that our [religious and] philosophical differences add flavor and perspective to our relationships, especially if those relationships are built on true values, openness, respect, trust, and understanding.” This great country that we live in was erected out of many nations, and it took the input of all those nations together to create what we have today. Some question the church’s respect of different cultures and different religions, particularly considering our vast missionary efforts. Here is what I believe. This is also my favorite scripture: 2 Nephi 29:7 “Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?”

From this, I gather that of course the Lord is a respecter of cultures; He made them. A visiting teaching message instructs us to “value our diversity as we blend our efforts.” How lucky we are to be different. I believe in people.

I believe in education. I believe that one of the primary reasons we were put on this earth is to learn everything we can. I have a rabid desire for education, and I thrive when I am surrounded by papers and books. That is probably the reason I have decided to pursue a graduate level education. I anxiously await the day when I can receive the senior auditing discount at my local community college so that I can continue to take classes and soak up as much information as I can. This love of education is one reason why I enjoy moving around so much. I love to visit a new place to take in all it has to offer: rich and varied histories, delicate ecosystems, a culture unlike any other. When I see someone with a skill I don’t have, I admire them, for they have gained a piece of knowledge that I have yet to experience. One day I hope to learn how to milk a cow, grow a cucumber, or fix a toilet, and if I stay here long enough, I just might get that opportunity.

Education comes in all forms. Schooling is an easy way to gain knowledge. You sit in a desk while a teacher literally tells you everything you need to know for an upcoming exam. You quickly jot down notes and graphs that will help you memorize names and dates that are only needed to pass this class. While that is a worthy goal, it is not the only way that we can pursue education. I try to take in every mode of education, such as watching someone do something they do well, or talking to somebody who has a passion for a subject you know little about, so that I will have a broader understanding of life in all of its aspects. The late prophet Gordon B. Hinckley wrote, “This Church came about as a result of intellectual curiosity. We believe in education, and we spend a substantial part of our budget on the education of our young people. We expect them to think. We expect them to investigate. We expect them to use their minds and dig deeply for knowledge in all fields. If we have a motto, it is this, "The glory of God is intelligence."” The Gospel Library of Topics says, “a good education will prepare us for opportunities as they come” and I hope that by educating myself now, I will be ready for the many opportunities I will have throughout my lifetime. Gordon B. Hinckley also taught that “the Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands” and I intend to do just that. I believe in education.

I believe in art. Coming from a family of artists of all kinds, my appreciation for the arts came at an early age. I remember the first time I cried while bearing my testimony. I had recently accompanied the ward choir as they sang the Wilhousky version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and the feeling I got while playing, and even whenever I think about it now, was something that came directly from my heart. Art has the power to inspire us, to change us even, and I believe that we should receive it with open arms and sincere hearts. Singing hymns is the perfect way, and the easiest, to show the Lord that we appreciate Him. Not only are we afforded the opportunity to sing several hymns each Sunday, but we are expected to sing to the best of our ability. You do not have to be perfectly on pitch to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. What better way to show your thanks than to sing to the rafters a song that praises our pure and loving Maker. Music is just one outlet in that great mechanism we call art. Not all of us are painters or quilters or sculptors, but as one of my favorite quotes says, “We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by” (Will Rogers). So even though, in a family of artists, I am not the most artistically gifted, I am a great art appreciator, and in some cases, that is the more important role.

My grandmother is a docent at the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City, and it is amazing to me how many people around the world use art as a way to glorify their creator. The Savior and His Mother are some of the world’s most often used subjects in many forms of art, and as a people that loves their Redeemer, I believe that we should be exposed to these great works of art. In a 1996 New Era, M. Russell Ballard wrote, “I have never painted a picture, composed a sonata, or won an award for acting. But I have been inspired by artists and their art…Inspired art speaks in the language of eternity, teaching things to the heart that the eyes and ears can never understand…No one can gaze on the art of Michelangelo and not see the hand of God. Michelangelo said, “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”” Art is a way of showing the world what we know. I believe in art.

I believe in myself. I believe that in each person there is a light of goodness that should be constantly reached for. I believe in edifying myself so that I can help those around me in whatever way I can. I believe that self-love is paramount to all other loves, and without that first and all-important love, other attempts at love will fail. Although love of self is a difficult task at times, as there is always seemingly someone better out there than you, it is one of the most important lessons that we can learn in this lifetime. Matthew 22: 37-39 instructs us, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The last sentence here strikes me. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. This great commandment is usually shortened only to “Love thy neighbor”, and by so doing we are eliminating the other half of the commandment: to love ourselves. How can we effectively love our neighbors as ourselves, if we do not first love ourselves?

As part of this self-love, I believe in keeping my body healthy. I believe that our bodies are gifts and in order to respect what I have been given, I need to keep my body as capable and competent as possible. For me, that means exercising and eating good food in good quantity (something I sometimes struggle with). It also means completely avoiding dangerous substances which family history tells me I have a weakness for. I respect the capabilities of my body too much to endanger its future by polluting it with substances proven to do me harm. Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants gives the Saints the Word of Wisdom, which instructs us to keep our bodies healthy and clean, and by so doing blesses us with health, wisdom, knowledge, and the capacity to do the things that of which we have need. I believe in myself.

I believe in family. I believe that the family is the primary construct of society, and all larger models of people are built around the singular family. I believe that our families are our closest neighbors, and that to fully follow the aforementioned commandment to love our neighbors, we need to love our families. I believe that the bonds we form with our family when we are young are the bonds that will stay with us forever. Having two sisters, I also believe that sharing a bathroom between three teenage girls can be difficult and straining on even the most solid of relationships, but that in time, those unions will continue to strengthen and mature, despite any stolen T-shirt or hairspray. Henry B. Eyring said, “It is the sealing power and our knowledge of it which changes and transforms our family life here and our expectations for the joy of family life in the world to come.” I believe that families continue after this life, and that all the joy we share with our families here on earth will be magnified in the worlds to come. I believe in family.

I believe in God and my Savior. I believe that the Savior created this amazing world, under the close supervision of the Father, with incomprehensible foresight and unimaginable magnitude. I believe that there is a God watching over all, and that His love for us is unending and undeniable. I believe that those who are happiest in this life are those who recognize the hand of God in it. Bruce R. McConkie said, “I think the Latter-day Saints have a great obligation pressing in upon them to rejoice in the Lord, to praise him for his goodness and grace, to ponder his eternal truths in their hearts, and to set their hearts on righteousness. If we are going to work out our salvation, we must rejoice in the Lord.” I believe that God is good to all, and that through the Savior we can all come unto Him when He calls us home. As Howard W. Hunter said, “I am grateful for my affiliation with a people who have a firm conviction that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ.” I believe in God and my Savior. Basically, it comes down to this: why am I a member of this Church? Even if, somehow, by some realm of the imagination the prophets were wrong (although they aren’t), even if, somehow, something went awry somewhere along the way (although it hasn’t), even if it weren’t true, it would still make me a better person, and that alone makes it worth it.

In the words of Alma, “Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel” (Alma 26:16).

i sat down to write a talk and this is what came out.

2008-08-11T14:52:00.001-05:00

I am constantly reaching for the goodness in me. Sometimes I have to reach farther than I am capable, and still come up short. I have a bad habit of saying everything that I am thinking, without regard for inappropriate timing or the guarantee of hurt feelings. This habit has gotten me into trouble many times, and for years I have tried to curtail this naturally occurring character trait. However, it was not until a few days ago that I realized that simply holding back is not enough. I need to change the way I think. I need to eliminate the thought process that leads me to these unkind and often misconstrued judgments. I am notorious for loudly proclaiming my dislike for certain trendy items. For years I vowed not to read Harry Potter. Turned out to be a huge fan. That little pouf of hair that is worn by so many girls, I stridently opposed. Turned out I love it and am wearing it in my wedding pictures. Songs are the same way for me. Being a musician at heart, I have a tendency to be somewhat of a music snob. Listening to new songs can be an almost painful procedure. The music is shabby, and the lyrics always leave something to be desired. Immediately and true to form, I make a statement that cannot possibly be true, “this might be the worst song I have ever heard” or, “there might be worse songs out there than this, but…” The difficult thing for me then is getting over myself enough to admit that I like them. Scanning the radio in secret is not the best way to promote trust in a relationship, nor is it the best way to listen to the songs you want.

Still in love after all these year

2008-08-09T18:35:00.004-05:00

JAKE- Today we celebrated our 1 year anniversary by going out to eat at Chilis. Sure it seems like a rather modest way to celebrate a year of marriage, especially when you consider that a stifling 3.4 percent of all marriages end in divorce before the first year anniversary, but it was right for us. i guess we did splurge a little, i got a steak after all and it was delicious. So, what's with the new love affair with meat you say? Jake, were not you going to go vegetarian or something there for a minute? OK i will admit i am being a bit hypocritical, but i have learned something about this part of the country: they love their meat and their ice cream. Also, now is the time for me to get serious about achieving my goals, health-wise. First, and quite simply, i need to get ripped. I will spare you all the story of how it is my dream to play division one college football. How i used to run around my back yard as a boy throwing the football to myself and practicing my moves on all the invisible linebackers. How walk-on tryouts at ASU is my one and only chance. The point is if you want to bulk up, put on weight and eat protein, and work out; and do a lot of each. I dont yet know if i will have access to the campus gym here at Vermont Law. Anyway, enough about my silly dreams and wishful thinking, what i really want is to be as healthy and fit as i can be. I was invited to play pickup soccer on tuesdays and thursdays. I think i will, but i suppose i should wait until i have medical insurance before i start banging shins with the rest of the boys. Speaking of insurance, i have a job interview this Wednesday so wish me luck friends. Enough of me on a tangent, back to the anniversary thing. I guess you could say our anniversary started with a bang, literally. At 230 AM Chelsea and i were rudely awoken by the loudest noise i have ever heard seven feet from our bed. BANG! So loud, and scary. Chelsea immediately thought it was a gun going off or someone in our room. in reality it was our roll down drapes rolling up for some reason at breakneck speed and slamming to a stop. Church tomorrow and then a day of rest for our real anniversary, the tenth of August. Hooray for marriage.

Twenty feet to home-grown goodness

2008-08-07T19:52:00.008-05:00

The last two days have been quite mixed with ridiculously anxious emotions and extreme serenity. Both Jake and I are having some trouble sleeping here. It could be that we are not used to mountain time, where the horizon is so high up that the sun sets around six and rises about the same time twelve hours later. It could be that the air literally stops moving in the night so you feel slightly like you're suffocating. Or it could be that we are sharing a double bed which is slightly too small for a growing boy over six feet tall.It could be that the mountains are home to some strange species of birds that make calls like singular cackles several seconds apart starting around four AM and going at near equal intervals until the sun sets. Any of these things could be contributing to our lack of sleep, but something's gotta give soon...

Tuesday we went to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, just a little drive away from here. A great time was had, and after the tour we went to Burlington to see The Dark Knight, which was equally entertaining, although not as tasty. It is amazing that they make all that ice cream with just two conveyor belts. Here is some motivation for anyone interested in coming to visit us. There is something called the "Vermonster" at the factory, which entails twenty scoops of ice-cream and several freshly made cookies and brownies. It also includes at least one banana, several scoops of various toppings including hot fudge and caramel. It costs around thirty-five dollars and weighs up to nine pounds. It is also served in a giant commemorative plastic bucket that is yours to keep (and possibly use later...). We will buy the brave adventurers a Vermonster. And, if you need help finishing it, I'm sure we would be more than happy to oblige. If that isn't motivation, I don't know what is. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

We were able to visit the Joseph Smith Memorial today, and it was quite beautiful. We took the tour and it was pretty amazing. It is definitely worth a visit (not just a ploy for people to come see us, but a genuine belief). For those that don't know, the memorial is a 38.5 foot solid granite obelisk (one foot for every year of Joseph Smith's life) and was erected in 1905, 100 years after his birth. As I have mentioned before, it is on beautiful grounds, meticulously landscaped, and is just breathtaking.

The farmers' market is an absolutely jubilant experience. I think that accurately describes our emotions: jubilant. It is roughly twenty feet from our house, which is fantastic, and occurs every Thursday. These Vermont farmers are pretty funny. I was buying cucumbers, cukes, and, not knowing how to select produce, I said, "how do you pick a cucumber?" and she said, "well, I pick mine from a vine." I felt like an idiot. But we got black currant jelly that is just wild, some fresh bread, some cukes, and some sweet corn. Jake made a fantastic saute of cucumbers, corn, chicken, and pasta that we ate tonight, and those home-grown flavors just came alive! Support your local farmers' market!

It was an absolutely beautiful day until it started just pouring. People keep telling us it never rains this much, but we find that hard to believe:

That's all from Vermont for now.

Come visit.

No, i said you have nice 'crests'

2008-08-04T21:07:00.002-05:00

I reached the crest of that aforementioned mighty hill that i could not conquer on my last run. Run isnt exactly the right word now that i think of it, it was more like i was crawling, snails pace, oozing my way along. Dont ever let someone tell you that something named rainbow cant be tough. Tell that to the former University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, now just Warriors. Chelsea and I have taken to watching lost during our meals now. I have a bad attitude as we watch and continue to make snide comments. Why? Im not sure. I guess the anti-groupist that i am wants to pretend that im the only one who thinks that show stinks, but it is alright after all, im just a being a Jake. Chelsea made a great dinner tonight, she is one heck of a wife. I need a job

We are sooooooo Vermonters.

2008-08-04T20:51:00.004-05:00

We went to church yesterday at our new ward! The South Royalton Ward of the Montpelier Stake. The building is absolutely beautiful. A real old-timey New England church. It is on the grounds of the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, which is quite remarkable. It is a giant granite obelisk, in the style of the Washington Monument. The grounds are perfectly landscaped, and there is actually the tabernacle choir emanating from the very woods. Seriously. But as we were driving to church, we saw people walking in from the fields and woods from all directions, and we could hear the organ playing on a bell setting, which was just so perfect. It is a small ward, but what it lacks in number, it makes up for in diversity. There are many senior missionary couples that run the Memorial, and a set of young and strapping elders. We were there for testimony meeting, which is always a bit precarious, "open mic" as we sometimes call it, so we were able to see (and hear) some very interesting people. As Gospel Doctrine started, one of the older missionaries got up and said, "Well, the teacher isn't here yet, so we'll just start without him." We thought that was a little strange, but everyone seemed to go with it, so we did too. The woman sitting in front of us turned around and said, "He runs a dairy farm. That's his mother up there. They work very hard." Then it started pouring. All the doors were open of course, no air conditioning in these old buildings, and all of a sudden, coming up the hill, was a man in a khaki colored button up shirt and khaki pants carrying a horse bit and a big set of scriptures. As he made his way up the hill and into the chapel, the man leading the discussion sat down, and the new man walked straight up to the microphone, soaking wet, set his horse bit on the pulpit, and started teaching. It's ridiculously charming.

We have a saying in our family, "only in Florida"...but I think we can add a new one..."only in Vermont".

We also went to the laundromat today for the first time, and were pretty disappointed. It's very hot and very small and very expensive, and the dryer did not do it's job in spite of the incredible amount of quarters we put into it. Although the store right next door has 24 flavors of soft serve, so I stopped and got some Black Raspberry, and that made everything a little better.

That is a picture of us going to our first day of church.

Oh, and don't let Jake's post fool you. I screwed up the dinner. I was making roasted garlic vermicelli tonight and i used a splatter screen to drain the pasta (our kitchen is not as fully equipped as we would like it to be...) and it bent and all the vermicelli fell into the sink.

Jake saved the day and made some angel hair pasta instead. What a husband.

Our House--In the middle of our street--Our House

2008-08-02T19:31:00.006-05:00

This is where we live now, in this house:

We are slowly, slowly, slowly gathering ourselves up here in the great Northeast. It is mighty different, let me tell you. We traveled to Hanover, NH today to buy some things we need (which we have found out is many things. Unfortunately we also brought many things...but somehow what we brought is not what we need) and looked at a map to try and find a good route. We looked up where the nearest Walmart was (Of course, being the Midwesterner that I am, I prefer Target hands down. However, as some of you know, there is not a single Target to be found in the state of Vermont. The nearest one is over a hundred miles away, and is just not practical), and it said it was in West Lebanon, NH, which is just a jump away from Hanover, about 25 miles away from South Royalton.

Fifty miles later...

We were on the interstate and exited in Hanover because we didn't see an exit for West Lebanon (Hanover is where Dartmouth College is located). Immediately upon exiting the freeway we knew we had made a mistake. Cars were backed up all up the hill to get into Hanover, and police were trying to direct traffic. The puffy little Corolla in front of us was very confused, and whenever we had a chance to go, she would pull over and talk to whomever was directing traffic. Eventually we just drove around her, which was a risky move, considering how two lanes can suddenly become one at the drop of a hat, as Jake has detailed previously. We don't know why the road was closed (the only road through town) but it was, and the whole town was trying to drive through today. The detour was quite magnificent. We were driving behind houses, through parking lots, and even around the exterior of the high school! I have never scene a detour more true to its definition. Once we got through Hanover, we ended up back on the freeway, then to a rural route, then a state road. After following many signs pointing us in all different directions, we found West Lebanon, and eventually Walmart. After asking for directions at Kmart.

I don't know what it means, but when you ask for directions to Walmart from Kmart, something is going on.

As we are getting unpacked, we are finding that we have brought too many clothes. Far too many clothes. As we were packing it didn't seem like that many, but upon arriving to one small closet and three drawers, anything more than a week's outfits are too many. We will have to be doing laundry at the town laundromat, which will be something new for us.

Here are some pictures of the place we are living...the outside is glorious. But the inside...well, you can definitely tell that it is a hundred and sixty years old. Our setup is quite unique. We have a room upstairs that includes a bathroom and shower and closet. That is our bedroom. Then we have a room downstairs as well, with an old high back couch with a slipcover that doesn't fit anything made more than a hundred years ago, an obscenely old table, and our little 13" TV (I do have to say that LOST doesn't have quite the same effect on this TV as it does on a big screen with surround sound...). Both of these rooms have locks, and so we will live our life separated. Sometimes we will be downstairs in the living room, and sometimes we will be upstairs in the bedroom. The space between them is shared with two other people, so it will definitely take some getting used to. We also share the kitchen with these two people. One of them is a visiting scholar from China who cooks something very Chinese every day, thus the already small and hot kitchen has a distinct aroma. One more note, food is heinously expensive here. We shopped at the Co-op (only organic and local food) today and although the green beans and meat (raised down the road and packaged yesterday) were the best I've ever had, they were ridiculously expensive.

In summation: new place, new life, no room, no money. But it sure is exciting!

Jake cooking in the tiny hot kitchen

Running the rainbow road

2008-08-02T09:06:00.004-05:00

Awesome running and scenery in Vermont! South Royalton i never doubted you, except for that time i doubted you. So, i went for a run this morning, i couldn't help myself, as usual i was up before chelsea and since you cant do anything at our place without making noise (squeaking creaking doors and floors etc) i looked up a map of the town and headed out. i went down railroad st, took two quick rights and was on pluck hill rd. the roads name is accurate, it was a hill. a dirt hill to be exact and steep too. i should have waited three days or so before exercise to let my body adjust to the mountain elevation and begin producing more oxygen carrying red blood cells. Therefore, in theory, after a year of living here if i flew immediately to Arizona and tried out for the ASU football team i would have all the more advantage over those sea level kids, for about three days anyway until my body adjusted. Thats why Dallas Cowboy receiver Terrell Owens sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber every night. Im off track, ok back to the run, i ran back down the hill and continued straight; the road changed names three times now, Rainbow rd to Pleasant to Oxbow rd. whatever it was called though what it was in reality is heart-burstingly steep incline road. I was able to go up a little but i had to turn around after not to far. there was lush green forest all around like going for a run at your cabin or something. Chelsea and I went through Lebanon new hampshire and saw the dartmouth hitchcock medical center. it is up a few hills and set back privately in the woods, but once you get there it is so big; an absolutely sprawling campus, just huge. i hope to get a job at the DHMC, i would really like that opportunity. its off to church at 1000 tomorrow. the chapel is about 5 minutes away from our house, what a blessing to have church here. speaking of blessings, i just found out that i got paid for all my unused vacation days from lifelink; hoorah for unions... in this case.

There are some green hills far away...

2008-08-01T20:49:00.003-05:00

JAKE-There are some green hills far away alright, and we are nestled down snugly in their midst. It is hard to believe what is really going on. We are living in an hotel in the middle of downtown South Royalton. Welcome to hot summers and no air conditioning, it is hot in our home without fans on and windows open. Welcome to flies buzzing about; they are your new friends: name them, love them. How can i describe this place. We are living in a little girls vintage dollhouse that has been broken by her little brother but has been fixed up nicely on two floors. The third and fourth floors are battered and rundown and in need of some loving care; think of it as when you are a kid and went exploring in houses being built, its in that condition on floors 3 and 4. We walked around Chelsea's campus today, it took two minutes. Her campus consists of old-timey Victorian houses. Her campus reminds me of the "ye olde village" that you stroll though at your local county fair. Heres a noodle scratcher: imagine you are driving on a winding two lane road when you come to pass under a bridge and the road suddenly becomes a single lane game of death with the cars coming from the opposite direction. Suddenly you are playing chicken with a farm boy in his jacked-up four wheel drive truck. Well, this is indeed what happens on Vermont state road 14 coming into town. How is this even reasonable? Perhaps we are in the nexus of reason: down is up, white is black. Well, hello for now everyone.

let it fall

2008-07-31T21:41:00.006-05:00

CHELSEA: Jake is writing a blog at the same time as me. He just asked me how to spell "wonder". He might be writing the same thing as me...so you may be getting the same stories told from two different points of view. How mainstream alternative cinema of us!

We are at the Quality Inn again, but this time much farther north. We saw it off the freeway and said, why not? Last night was great. The shampoo is amazing. I have never smelled a small like this shampoo. We had a nice breakfast, and if the past is any measure of the future, then it stands to reason that this Quality Inn will be just as nice. We stopped by Niagara Falls today, and it was quite amazing. We drove across a few pretty wild bridges, and I think that we were technically in Canada at some points. We had a great time and it was so beautiful! And the walking around felt really good after a long day in the car.
Our drive continues tomorrow, and hopefully we will arrive at our final destination (which we hope will be agreeable) without incident. The drive tomorrow is a little longer than we had thought, but tomorrow is the last of it. Then we will finally be in Vermont! It will be great to be able to say, "We live in Vermont" instead of "We're moving to Vermont".

So, world, I hope you are ready for us...because here we come.

If all of Harry Belafonte's music sounds the same, why cant I stop listening?

2008-07-31T21:07:00.002-05:00

Dateline: Batavia, New York

JAKE- So the wife and I have arrived at a point where we are very close to the destination. And thank goodness for that by the way because gas prices and hotel bills are getting higher the more easterly we go. Six hours to go and i just cant wait. oh hey with all this all excitement i almost forgot that we saw niagara falls today. Its a mighty wonder, as in, i wonder why i am standing here looking at this water. seriously, it was cool to see i suppose, i just want the driving to be over. My bottom can no longer take the abuse of sitting and driving; i guess i dont have enough cushin' on my tushin' or something. i am shoving pillows under my rump as i drive but i need more support! im fine. on a lighter note, may i say that traveling with my wife is really fun overall. what a wife! am i right!?

Quality Inn is not an oxymoron

2008-07-30T21:12:00.002-05:00

JAKE- So here we are day one, well night one actually. I can hear a train whistle out of our hotel room, lets hope thats not a recurring theme throughout the night. Anyway, we have traveled a great distance and the wife of my bosom seems to be doing pretty well. Oh sure it was a cryfest last night and this morning, but what do you expect? She is a sweet, sensitive wife. I wish there was something i could do to make her feel better, but leaving her family is a personal mountain she has to climb, i can merely be a sort of sherpa to her, figuratively speaking of course. We drove farther or further than we planned to today, ending just outside of toledo ohio. There was some bickering in the care, sure, but for the most part it was pretty fun laughing and singing with the music; Chelsea was doing most of the singing. i did the majority of the driving considering that at my last two jobs i was basically a professional driver guy and it can be pretty much second nature for me. Chelsea cant drive for too long before she goes completely insane, but she toughed it out. our funds are depleting rapidly and its only day one, may the miracles of financial sustainability continue for us.

we are a happy family!

2008-07-15T19:58:00.006-05:00

We are moving in a matter of days. Our whole life has become boxes. Where can we get boxes? Who will give us boxes? I wonder if they have boxes? What should we put in this box? This move is a little different because it is so temporary. We basically have two moves in one. Everything for Vermont has to fit in my little car, but we only have two weeks to get from Vermont to Arizona, and we have to stop in Minnesota to pick up all of our other stuff that my parents have been kind enough to begrudgingly let us store.

Jake is in extreme packing mode. After a 29 hour car trip home from Utah last Sunday, I came home to find nearly everything packed. I couldn't even get to my side of the bed because giant wardrobe boxes were everywhere. I guess it is better to be prepared than hurry at the last minute...but seriously.

We had a lovely time with Aysia this past weekend. I had recently gone through my cedar chest and found an old tea set I had painted many years ago, and had set it in the garage sale pile. However, when Aysia saw it she immediately fell in love with it and, needless to say, we all played "tea" for a majority of the weekend.
She is getting so grown up (and sassy) we can't believe it. Since we are moving away, we have been taking a lot of pictures with her.

Here are some of my favorites:

We like to frequent the park.

nice day to start agaaaaiinnnn

2008-06-08T22:33:00.003-05:00

We just found out that Jake's sister Jenny is engaged! How exciting! She is getting married in Central Park. On Saturday. A quick engagement to be sure, but we sort of expected it. How amazing to get married in Central Park. We are so happy for her and wish we could be out there for it.

One of my greatest friends in the whole world, Lynley, just got married to another one of my great friends, Levi, and they are fantastic. Levi wore Chucks. Again, they are awesome. And it's about time they got married; they were made for each other.

The days are winding down to the cross country move. We still don't know what we're going to bring, and if we can't bring some things, where we are going to put those things. This life of ours in Vermont is going to be an adventure, that's for sure. Does everyone know where we are living? In a little town called South Royalton in a historic inn in town erected sometime around the 1850s. We will be living with two other people, and I will probably be able to write a few books about our time at the inn. Good thing there was room for us at this inn though (lame joke I know. But I couldn't resist). I guess we will have two rooms, one above the other, with a grand staircase and the original banister separating them. It could be quite lovely.

Again, congratulations to Jenny, and to Lynley and Levi!

Later.

Brilliant Wife

2008-06-05T22:33:00.001-05:00

Chelsea made the Dean's List!

How proud could a husband be?

Warm Laps

2008-06-04T16:02:00.002-05:00

Jake and I are sitting here in the basement: he in his chair and I in my couch, both playing on our laptops. Since I got a new one for graduation, I gave him my old one, and he is so excited. Even though my new mac is way better than his old toshiba, he is so grateful to have a laptop to play on.

What a good man.

We're Here!

2008-06-03T22:36:00.000-05:00

Just like in "Horton Hears a Who", WE'RE HERE! No Beezlenut Oil for us.

Now that I have a blog, I don't really know what to say.

I took my French final today after a taxing dental appointment. Two events like that back to back are not advised. I have been clenching my jaw so hard that my ears keep plugging, like I have been on an airplane or have a nasty sinus infection.

While Jake is at work, Hannah and I are hanging out watching TV and that K Mart commercial came on where the dad opens the windows and says, "Beach Day!" and the lawn is littered with those water toys that look so fun on the box but turn out to be much smaller and bumpier when set up in your own backyard. Hannah said, "Could you imagine Dad ever doing that?"

We both just laughed.

Personally, I am glad that my dad never instigated "Beach Day!" for the whole neighborhood of awkward preteens. It would no doubt be smaller and bumpier than his original conception; and his daughters would have undoubtedly never have let him live it down.

In conclusion, the Reynoldses are on the interweb.

We'll see you out there.