oh dear.

oh my. It has been a while. I'll try to get around to updating about our summer someday and getting some pictures up on the site.

Basically, it went like this:

• My parents came to visit in June. We showed them around the area and went to a Rockies baseball game.
• At the end of June, Johnny and I drove to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park to meet up with friends Kaylynn, Hannah and Chris, and go camping, hiking and nearly eaten by bears and other wild animals for a week (true story).
• In July I enrolled in a weekly pottery wheel class and spontaneously cut my hair to my collar bone.
• On the 28th, we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary with cheesecake and a weekend long camping trip near Laramie, at Deep Creek.
• At the very end of July, Jason and I traveled to Washington to attend a wedding and tie up some loose ends for our move back to Washington.
• My bell pepper plant that I bought in May started sprouting peppers out of nowhere! They are about 3 inches long right now.
• In mid-August, Harley was diagnosed with Central Diabetes Insipidus after several visits and tests at CSU Animal Hospital in Fort Collins, CO. He was drinking 21 cups+ of water per day prior to medication!

and now we're to today. The next week will be hectic. I'll be wrapping up my time at work, dropping Jason off at the airport while at the same time picking Meghan up, and then Meghan and I will begin our roadtrip (U-haul and dog in tow) to Seattle! I'll get settled in and prepare for graduate school and my new job (at the Pacific Science Center as a Science Teacher on Wheels! (look at the awesome van I might drive! heh!). In late September, Johnny will arrive with his dad (who is flying to Laramie to drive back with Johnny) and with our cat, Atari.

Both Johnny and I are going through a lot of changes on Sept 25: I start graduate school at the University of Washington in Museum Studies and he'll begin his first day of work at Vintage Customs in Auburn! Shortly after that day, we'll be able to move into our new apartment!

Things are a'changin' and are going to be busy so I'm not sure how often this blog will get updated. My goal is at least monthly. Or at least to be less wordy and post pictures instead. We'll see. :P

Give us a call if you want to get together, we both have 3 day weekends!

and check out my 101 Things to Do list! *points to the right of the screen* I've gotten quite a bit done this summer, although I've definitely failed on the repetitive tasks. :P

Thanksgiving

Ah, once again, long time no post! :)

My new job is great! I just started at the Office of General Counsel at the University of Wyoming last week. I've been learning a lot about the legal process and my coworkers are all really fun and good at teaching me all sorts of things. In fact, I'm not really sure I can talk much about it! Lawyer-client privileges and all. :)

here's the building I work in, Old Main.


the entrance to my office


my desk! come visit!


For Thanksgiving Johnny and I drove down to Pueblo, CO to see Meghan and Nick and stay with Nick's family! OH gosh it was SO fun! We had a blast. We stayed Wednesday night, then Thanksgiving and Friday. Saturday we met up with Aunt Sherry and Connor for lunch! I have a few pictures from our Thanksgiving adventure. We decorated Nick's family's Christmas tree, too, which really reminded me of decorating our tree, with all sorts of 25+ year old ornaments, elementary school projects, etc. :) We played lots of Wii, watched lots of Project Runway, knit a lot, and ate a lot! And shopped a lot! haha. :) It was definitely a fun time, Nick's family is GREAT! And they even invited us back! :P

On the way there, about in Loveland, CO, literally THOUSANDS of birds flew across the sky. It was like a never ending stream of birds!




the sunset




Johnny, me, Becky, Meghan and Nick. Becky is Nick's younger sister. Missing are their parents, Becky's twin brother (twins are the best!) and their oldest sister.


Johnny and I.


On the way home, Pike's Peak (I think)


Castle Rock


when we were almost home, the moon came up over the mountains. It was HUGE and AMAZING!




almost home




my friend Lauren and one of her dogs, Tess. Lauren and her fiance Matt watched kitty while we were gone, so we bought them little matching sweaters for their doggies to say thanks. Cute huh?!?



Today I went shopping for Christmas ornaments and while we were planning on doing a multi-colored tree, I found all these great green and gold ornaments at the dollar store, so I decided to go with a new theme. I ended up finding a few finishing touches at WalMart and Kmart, but almost all of the ornaments are from the dollar store. I'm so proud, haha. :) I think it looks *really* great!











well, that's about it. We're watching a movie tonight, gotta go!

Nothing too eventful has been going on around here. Calm weather and nothing crazy happening, I guess that's a good thing.

The gala at work is over, and now they are gearing up for their Festival of Trees event. I am helping to design and decorate the governor's tree, which is pretty exciting! I won't be working at the museum anymore when it comes time to actually decorate the trees and hold the event, but I'm going back to volunteer, so I'll post a picture of "my tree", as I'm calling it, later on! (it's not until November 29th!)

Yesterday Johnny had a day off work (his first weekend-day off work since we moved here!!! aka the first day we could hang out together!!!) and so we drove to Fort Collins and Loveland, CO. We met up with the guy who sold us the Honda Accord, and he gave us snow tires for the car, horray! We wandered around some outlet stores and I bought a few clothes for my new job. I got a pair of Nine West heels, retail $75, for $15! sweet!


I've been cracking down on studying for the GRE this past week, too. I've become more motivated since I have finally received confirmation from 3 people that they will write me letters of recommendation for graduate school. :) A lot of the studying for the GRE is brushing up on middle school math skills and memorizing some very abstract vocabulary, and but the bulk of the studying revolves around learning HOW to take the GRE, and what to look for in questions and in possible answers. I've bought a study book that is very enlightening in this area. I am a bit worried I'll be thrown off because it is a computer test, you only get scratch paper to work out problems, and once you have submitted an answer you cannot go back and change it. Also, you don't get to use a calculator! oh, the horrors!! At any rate, the test is Thursday so we'll see how it goes!

Meghan and Nick arrive in Denver this week, and we are going to see them, meet Nick's family, and see Aunt Sherry & co. (haha) for Thanksgiving!!! I'm so excited! It had BETTER not snow!!!

some photos from the past week.....

here's my little wild child


me yeseterday


a going-away present my boss at the art museum gave me (it's from the art museum's store!)


some fabrics that were used for the gala that the art museum gave me. Johnny, the expert of the two of us, says I have enough to make a quilt, so he is going to help me with that.


and........*drumroll* the inspiration for our Christmas tree. We figured, 1.) Christmas trees in Laramie are apparently very sad and defeated looking, and 2.) we have low ceilings with hot pipes running around = fire, so we've decided to do something sort of funky this year, and get a white tree and decorate it with some colorful balls. Should be fun....


well...until next time!

So, if you didn't know, I was offered a permanent position at the University of Wyoming. The position at the Art Museum is temporary through nearly the end of November (which is sad because I really like it there), and I will then move to the Office of General Counsel at the University of Wyoming. I'm going to be the Senior Office Assistant for the two attorneys and the office in general, occasionally helping with the VP and his assistant. I'm excited because the people are all very nice and welcoming and I'm going to be exposed to a very interesting work environment. I definitely think I'm going to be kept busy and enjoy the position. I hope I can still help out at the Art Museum still, as a volunteer maybe.

Yesterday I made this type of apple pie called Rustic Caramel Apple Tart.

here you go:

It was SO GOOD. I decided I am going to make them for Thanksgiving.





Prep: 20 min + 30+ min chilling
Bake: 25 min

DOUGH
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold butter
6 1/2 teaspoons cold water
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

FILLING
1 1/2 cups chopped peeled tart applies (one large apple does the trick)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

TOPPING
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping, warmed

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt; cut in butter until crumbly. Gradually add water and vanilla, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 10 inch circle. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. (I didn't do this, just put it on a non stick baking pan). Combine the filling ingredients;, spoon over pastry to within 2 inches of edges. Fold up edges of pastry over filling, leaving center uncovered. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over filling.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly. Using parchment paper, slide tart onto a wire rack (I just used a spatula since I didn't use the parchment paper). Drizzle with caramel topping. Serve warm.

Yield: 4 servings.

nutrition facts: 1 slice equals 286 calories, 12g fat (7g saturated fat), 31mg cholesterol, 226mg sodium, 44g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 3g protein.

SO GOOD


Speaking of Thanksgiving, we'll be going to visit Aunt Sherry! yay! AND, Meghan and Nick are flying in from Seattle and we're going to have another Thanksgiving with them! WOO!

The best thing about Wyoming: blue skies nearly everyday. LOVE IT!

Yesterday marked one week in Wyoming. Things have been pretty good. Atari is thoroughly enjoying her new cat tree and Johnny has started work. I have yet to hear back from any jobs that I applied for, but I applied for most of them last Wednesday or so, so I'm not expecting anything quite yet.

Our apartment has a gas stove, something neither of us have ever used before. I think we're using it correctly...there's really only a nob that says off and then you can adjust the flame higher or lower. Well, the food we have been cooking on it has turned out alright, so I think that's a good sign. :)

I met a friend online, her name is Lauren and she goes to the University of Wyoming. She's not originally from Wyoming and so we're both in the same sort of "what are we doing here??" predicament. We developed a friendship online and then met in person last week and we talked about the town while she taught me how to play cribbage. Yesterday she showed me around the downtown area and told me which restaurants are good and which to stay away from. We discovered a bakery, a bead store, a fabric store, a funky toy store and a ceramics shop. Then we got fruit smoothies at a popular bistro.

Today Johnny and I ran some errands and had planned on going to the park a block away from our apartment to read and hang out, but on our drive home we noticed lightning and thunder and not long after we walked in the door, the rain began pouring and we had a thunderstorm on our hands. And, this isn't even the first thunderstorm in our week here! amazing. It's a good thing we like thunderstorms.

Here are a few photos from today's storm. I'm going to try to figure out a way to take my camera outside so I can get some better pictures next time instead of hiding beneath our stairwell.





hope everyone is doing well.

-Jessica