Back to the Real World

This post has been way overdue!

Long story short I got a job!! I can say for sure at this stage as I have been working for a week and a half. I am the sales, accounts and administration coordinator for a company called Equip Office Furniture. Basically I do a little bit of everything administrative. The company is a small business which provides a customer everything they need for their small or large office furniture needs.

So what is it like being back in the "real world"? Good and bad. I like my job and the people I work with. I enjoy getting to learn about the aspects of the business and of course I still really like data entry. My first week I even got to go to a celebratory dinner with the company! It was a great opportunity to get to know the others in the company.

Steak/Rib combo at Hurricanes

Coworker John with his 1kg rump steak!

There are six guys and just the financial manager and I are women. No one in the company is LDS and most can't comprehend the decision to not drink coffee or alcohol. In fact a few of them are betting up to $20,000 total that I can't go the rest of my life without coffee or alcohol. They aren't mocking or rude about my beliefs, so I don't mind and just find it funny that they don't trust that I could do it. We did clarify though that they can't try to "trick" me into drinking and of course there's no actual money going around. They are all good guys though, and I was glad I could get to know them better as well as have a great big meal! 

The hardest think about having a full-time job is the schedule! I am at work from 8:30 to 5:30 but it takes me an hour by bus to and from. I constantly feel like I don't have enough time in my free time to get anything done. Additionally my body is really struggling with getting up earlier. I still haven't figured out when to work out because I can't motivate myself to get up early and most nights I am busy and can't do it later. Also, I believe in strong work ethic so I don't answer my phone or texts at work. This is hard to get used to when I for about three months I was at home and could deal with any household stuff whenever.

In the end I am happy to finally have a job, and especially one that I like! Not much else to report at the moment as I am still trying to sort out my schedule!

Holidays and Illness

Warning: Long Blog To Follow!

It was wonderful to spend time with my family in Utah. I had previously set up a Google spreadsheet so my family could schedule specific times to do all the things we wanted. It worked out perfectly!

My second day in Utah was with my mom. We picked up a copy of my marriage certificate and headed on a 30 minute drive to visit my grandparents. While at my grandparents I started to get REALLY sleepy and took a mini-nap on the couch. I learned that I didn't feel the jet lag if I was doing something, but the moment I was just sitting around I felt the tiredness hit me like a sledgehammer. In the end I did get some time talking to my grandpa who has been quickly deteriorating in health. He recently published his autobiography and I felt so bad that I had to tell him I hadn't read it when he asked. He looked so sad! My uncle was also there and I spent a lot of time catching up with him as well.

That night I got to visit my cousin's predator birds! He does falconry and has a license to own predator birds including eagles, hawks, etc. and uses them for presentations, events, and birthday parties (skymasters wildlife foundation).

Juniper - Great Horned Owl

After visiting the birds my brother took me to a Japanese ramen restaurant. It's been ages since I've had a one on one chat with my brother and I was glad we could catch up. Out of everyone in my family I seem to talk to my brother the least, which is funny because it used to be we had the most in common. In the end I think we're happy with whatever time we get whether it is a lot or a little.

The following day I got to sleep in and spend time with my little sister. She's been through a lot in the last six months with coming home from her mission early, cancelling her wedding, and not being able to find a job. That's a lot for anyone to deal with and I'm glad we had time to talk about stuff.

For lunch we met my dad at The Training Table restaurant - the same one I used to work at. The food is still amazing, but I was surprised to discover some have closed and the ones still in existence have a completely new look. Their ranch is still the best and I miss their sandwiches!

I spent time getting some much needed shopping done for the rest of the day and later had dinner at Applebees with my mom, stepdad, and sisters. I was astounded with how good the service was! I had forgotten how much better the service is in US restaurants! My drink was constantly filled, they took our orders and got us our food quickly, and they provided the check before we had to ask for it. To all Australian servers...take notes! I also was so happy to have non-carbonated lemonade again, and especially flavoured lemonades!

Somehow this was the only pic I took of Laura

The next couple of days I spent with my friend Laura who flew out to visit with her two-month old baby. It was awesome to catch up in person. Skype is good, but it's just not the same as in person. We just took things easy and the first day spent a lot of time shopping around at City Creek. While there I had the Apple store look at my phone which seemed to be having constant issues. They replaced the battery for me for free and wiped the phone. Although I had to reinstall apps and lost some app data, all my issues seem to be fixed. The highlight of the day though was going to Tucanos, a brazilian restaurant downtown. My uncle who served his mission in Brazil and my brother went with us. The food was great and we also had a bit of fun judging all the prom dresses we saw that night. The highlight of the following day was having a girl's night watching the BBC Pride and Prejudice. It was great to be with Laura and see her gorgeous little Amelia, who was a perfect angel as we shopped around. Although her baby was awesome, I think the hassle and expense of all the baby stuff made me happy I am not at that stage of life yet. Some day.

Sunday in Utah was crazy! My mom has over 700 people in her ward! There is so much development in the South Jordan area that people are constantly moving in. I'm sure they will split the ward soon. There are so many families that it was quite noisy and for sacrament it looked like it was Stake Conference. After spending over 18 months in a small ward of close to 100 people I was in shock. I guess there are always pros and cons no matter where you live.

That night we had a family dinner and game night. We made chicken cordon bleu and alfredo pasta which nothing turned out as planned, but it all tasted good. After dinner we played Betrayal at House on the Hill. The best part of this game is that it always changes. We had lots of laughs as my mom was the "haunt revealer" and couldn't figure out who was the traitor for the game because it stated "none." She kept looking for the "none" scenario until we finally sorted it out. The second game was also fun because my mom ended up being the traitor. I miss family get togethers!

Monday I went to lunch with my other grandparents to Arctic Circle. I forget how funny my grandparents can be! I also forgot all about Arctic Circle and their complementary ice cream cones.

After hanging out with them my family all headed up to the Woodruff family cabin up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Utah had a very dry winter so there wasn't as much snow as usual, but it was still a beautiful drive and a fun night. We played games and ate s'mores.

 

   

The following day I spent a ton of time sorting through all of my boxes that my mom has stored for me. I catalogued all of the items in a spreadsheet and so for the first time in nearly 10 years I went through all of my fragile item boxes. I had decorative items from when I had my old room growing up including small wooden bunnies, my old school portable CD player, small porcelain animals, etc. It was easy for me to dispose of a lot of it knowing that even when I will have my own house some day, I will never use those items as decorations. At this stage I don't know if Matt and I will ever own our own home. The next time Matt and I go to the US we will likely get rid of boxes of stuff that realistically we will never use.

Later I went with my dad and sisters to one of my favourite US restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory.   The food and cheesecake was great, but the portions were huge! I could barely finish half of my meal.  Each plate was the size of a dinner platter and I suddenly realised why Australians talk about our massive portions at restaurants in the US. After dinner we went to see the new Cinderella, which I loved of course.

That night I slept at my sister's place and got to cuddle with Odin. It's hard to think that I helped nurse that cat to good health and now he's a big, happy, and playful. My sister has been amazing with him as well and has even trained him to sit and wait for his food!

The following morning we got some items out of my boxes in her attic and organised all of her front room. A lot of the furniture needed two people so I was glad I was able to help her out. After all the cleaning and lifting we got to relax with Domino's pizza and watch The Sound of Music with my mom. I miss American pizza!!

April 2nd was a big event because all of my siblings had planned to spend the day celebrating my mom's birthday (April 3rd). We drove an hour to Heber, UT and went horseback riding. It was a gorgeous ride and although we didn't get to do any trotting, the view and our guide were entertaining enough.

Afterwards we got pedicures, including my brother. It was a great idea especially with those special massage chairs that even do your buttocks, which get so sore after riding. To finish off the birthday fun we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Spending quality time with my mom and celebrating with her was long overdo and I'm glad everyone was able to take work off and commit that time with her.

My mom was also excited about going to her book club meeting with me. She had told me in advance about the book A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute so I was able to finish it the day before the book club. It was fun to sit and discuss with the other women what they thought of the book. I really liked it, but I wish I had tried the audio book that one of the other women had used because that would have been more fun to hear the Queenslander accent they talk about in the book. They definitely didn't use a lot of Aussie words I was familiar with. I learned afterwards that most of the book was loosely based on a couple of unrelated true stories, which kinds of ruins the magic. Nevertheless I highly recommend it.

My final sendoff before I left the US was going to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple with my mom. It was a great peaceful end to my trip. I know that Australia is where Matt and I belong and call home now, but I'm hoping we can afford to visit more often.

The flight home was interesting. The first plane was so full that they checked my carryon for free, which was awesome! This made my 5 hour layover in LAX so much easier since I only had my backpack to carry around. I did have issues when I got to LAX because I couldn't figure out what terminal to go to. My information said terminal 3 so I figured I'd head there, but not the way was the international airport and I figured I'd go into that terminal to get dinner. Well on the board of flights during the security check I noticed my flight and gate. I'm glad it all worked out and I didn't have to wander aimlessly for a while. Additionally, I was happy to find a Panda Express for dinner!


Luckily I had a much better time sleeping on the plane home (likely due to the melatonin and tylenol PM my dad gave me) so transitioning back to Australia time was easy. It was a little disappointing though that when I arrived Matt wasn't immediately there, but he eventually parked and found me and we had plenty of time to get home, change, and go to church. I know many people at church thought I was crazy for going to church, but there was no way I was going to miss it. It was Easter Sunday, I had a great Easter lesson planned for the young women, and it is better to try and stay awake the day you arrive. Unfortunately the rest of the day Matt took a nap while I cleaned, organised, and unpacked.

As for some other news. My second week in Utah I e-mailed Evocca about the status of my references only to find out that they had decided to withdraw the job offer! It was a huge blow! I had my family to support me during that hard time and now I'm back on the market again. It's SO frustrating, but I trust that everything happens for a reason and that everything will work out in the end. I have already had a job interview and hope to have learned from this experience.

The reason I didn't write anything this last week is that I had brought a cold with me from Utah. While there I felt it was trying to surface, but it decided to wait till Australia to explode. Matt has done a wonderful job of taking care of me by getting me vitamins, making me soup, and constantly refilling my water bottle. Today I am finally better! If I had to get sick, at least it was when I didn't have anything else going on. It also made for great cuddling time with my cat who slept with me all day and night. It's so good to be back home! I guess I should also add that despite my sickness I went to my graduation and got my Master of Research degree!

Thanks to Kelly and her family for taking these pics for me!