I am so excited that today Ry and I are actually leaving Boise!!  We haven’t left this area for 4 months and thats a long time for us.  We are staying in the state and heading over to Eastern Idaho.  We will stay the night in Pocatello with Ry’s roommate from college then head to Rexburg to see the temple and BYU-I.  We won’t spend much time there b/c we are heading up to Island Park to stay in their cabin for a couple of days.  It will be nice to just get away on a trip.  I will fill you in with pics next week!

I let you know what the big weekend plans were and now you need a report. I had to work the show for a couple of hours on Friday and then Ry came and met me. We ended up staying at the show for a whole 2 hours because there were lots of fun things to look at. Some of our favorites include:

The Stellar Lightning Toy Hauler-this is a perfect size-lots of room, sleeping, but not enormous (which also means cheaper) It is definitely my favorite camping trailer I have seen at a low budget. Of course I love our fams’ trailers.

Ry’s Favorite Toy: The Snowbike-developed right here in the Treasure Valley

This is an actual kit you can buy to put on your own dirt bike. It looks pretty fun but I have never driven a dirt bike before. Ry signed up for test rides though and I wish they would call him so bad. He talked to the guy for like 25 minutes!

We also saw a midget car race (yeah I had never heard of that either) and on Saturday I saw some motor cross jumps and tricks. Luckily, Saturday I only worked until 6:00 and Sunday I was off. Conference was great…More on that later…

But my favorite part about our date night was the dinner after (surprise surprise?!) We went to Texas Roadhouse for the first time! Where have you been all my life?!? We split ribs and a ribeye–my stomach is aching right now. It was the best food I have had in a long time. I still can’t believe how good it was. And it was more affordable than other places like Outback or Ruby River. I was so impressed. We have been hearing about it ever since we moved here and now I know why!  If there is one near you GO! Elka-they have 3 in OK city.  JW-they have one in Tracy–yeah I was scoping it out.  There is only one in AR

This weekend we are doing a spinal screening at a trade show and I think it will be a fun one.

Working won’t be fun but tonight Ryan is meeting me and we will tour the place ourselves. They will have all kinds of big boy toys: RVs, ATVs, motorcycles, etc. etc. I know it will be fun b/c this is what my hubby likes to do. We have actually gone to RV parks just to look around and tour inside. This is something his whole fam likes because they all like camping and it is something I have really come to enjoy as well. So this is our date for the weekend and I am really looking forward to it!

Last Sunday in Relief Society we had a great lesson on repentance from the Joseph Smith manual.  At the very beginning the teacher explained that before she began preparing her lesson she wrote down a question and by the time she was done she knew the answer to that question.  I am sure this is a process that has been encouraged for a long time but I, myself have never done it.  She challenged us all to write down a question regarding something we do not know about repentance.  So I did as she asked not really knowing what I didn’t know but I put it down anyway.  I felt that the discussion couldn’t possibly go that way but sure enough it did and my question was addressed for a fair amount of time.  I was pleasantly surprised that her promise was true and gained a testimony of this process.

With this in mind, I really want to go into conference weekend with specific questions that no doubt will be answered by our apostles.  I encourage you all to do the same and know that it will make it that much more enjoyable and beneficial.  I am really looking forward to hearing the teaches of our leaders and feeling closer to the spirit.  I just need to write down my questions!

I do apologize for my gloomy attitude today…

I was disappointed to learn yesterday that BSU will not be offering the final class I will need to graduate until the spring of 2010.  I don’t know what else to say.  Of course my heart is broken even though it means nothing really except more waiting and patience.  My husband sees nothing but hope and I know he is just trying to help.  I appreciate it but when I get disappointed about something I usually take time to feel it before seeing the positive outcomes of it.   And Ry is one to automatically start naming solutions and other options.  I am not changing my plans though.  I do not want to work at my present job any longer and I am really excited about going back to school but it seems to not make sense right now.  *Sigh*  I don’t know what to do.  But I am really grateful for my husband’s strong faith.

And I have to work all weekend.  It is very rare that I have to do this and it seems to always happen on conference weekend.  Same thing happened in October but I was working in Salt Lake and that was very nice to be there at that time.  More on conference later…

A few posts ago I discussed my job and schooling situations.  I wanted to let you all know that I made my decisions and it is all in motion.  I let Dr. Mofid know on Monday that I will be leaving at the end of May b/c of school and the Idaho Shakes Festival.  He was disappointed and he said he will miss me but other than that he was fairly pleasant and it hasn’t been too awkward.  I am really looking forward to it and getting everything ready for the next person to come along.  I feel that it can be much much more organized than when I took over and I want to help Dr. Mofid with that problem as much as possible so it is keeping me busy.

School is another story.  I did not get the information that I longed for–”Sure we will give you credit b/c of ALL the costume classes you took!”  No, I really wasn’t expecting something like that it just would have been nice.  But I do have a great deal of faith that they will let me take the classes I need without the pre-requisites or taking them simultaneously with the pre-reqs. Today I have, hopefully, a final meeting where I will speak to the one who should be able to tell me.  None-the-less, I am going back to school full time in the fall and I am really excited.  I have my schedule tentatively set out and I go to orientation at the end of this month.  At least I feel relaxed now and comfortable with whatever my fate is.  Please pray and cross your fingers for me.

I found this on FoxNews today.  Having not heard about it before I was very touched.  What a great thing to do and organize to make a difference in this world.  It made a big difference to the two winners of this competition.

Sorry I am always changing my blog.  I get really tired of having the same ones and I might actually which to blogspot soon b/c it seems like you can do so much more.  The last one was making me feel really old and dark.  And my sis-in-law talked about how with April comes a fresh, new, alive feeling.  I am experiencing that as well so I needed something bright!  Thanks for your patience and understanding!

I have been able to spend ALOT of time reading lately.  Members of our book club are always surprised and wish they had time to read at all.  I want everyone to know that I am not completely ignoring my husband.  Right now the job I have is very easy-going and not busy at all.  It is a great job but I have a good amount of down time and there are some moments that I have nothing else to do.  And even if it sounds nice, I don’t like it at all.  The other interesting part of job is that I have a two hour lunch break everyday.  “WOW” you say but really its not.  It makes my day 10 hours long and by 5 everyday I am done and ready to get out.  So I have come up with several different ways to spend my extra 120 minutes everyday.  I try exercising but due to weather the last 5 months didn’t allow this activity.  I really like to shop on my break!  But Ry doesn’t and I had to break this habit my first month of working here.  Going home is not usually that nice b/c it is so far away I don’t get to stay long and gas prices are through the roof right now so unnecessary travel is not smart.  Sticking around is an option but if I do that I am pulling my hair out by 4:00 and the walls seem to get closer and closer to my desk.  hmmm…  I also tried walking Dr. Mofid’s dog, working out in the office, bringing projects to work on, going to the library, driving around, and going to lunch with friends.   The last is my favorite thing to do but I don’t have that many friends or that much money to eat out all the time.  Our office is in a prime location sitting right across from one of two big hospitals in the Treasure Valley.  We also have a nursing home right next door and several patients that work there.  So I thought that I could do something better with my time and volunteer.  I started back in January at St. Alphonsus and have really enjoyed it.  I go Mondays and Fridays.  Fridays are great b/c I love the people and Mondays are not very great because they are not as easy to work with; frankly, they are some mean old ladies.  It was challenging learning and being trained by these fascinating old women.  They have been doing this for like 10-20 years but guess what?!? The still do it wrong but they don’t believe you when you tell them!  No, the problem is that the hospital is always growing and changing and it gets extremely confusing.  But I have enjoyed being in that environment and learning all there is to know.  It is an amazing place and it blows my mind.

So that takes care of two days of the week and I am left with two and nothing to do (Thursday we close at noon so I go home!)  What have I been doing?!  READING and recently, just to get out of the office, I have been going to Hastings for a place to relax lay back and read.  The one close to work has a big area with tables, couches, and comfy chairs purely dedicated to people relaxing, eating, reading, and chatting.  I have yet to go there when there hasn’t been at least two groups of people having a meeting, eating lunch, studying, or just reading.  Ry and I like to do this quite often.  He prefers magazines and I prefer books so we just hang out with each other reading.  But today I was able to just hang out at the book store sunkin into a bright orange, vinyl chair that was surprisingly comfortable and read the pick of this month, The Wedding.  Lately I have felt like we live in Washington or Oregon; the green parts b/c we have been getting all the rainy gloomy days but without the green.  Today was especially dark and it started to rain while I was inside sipping on some hot cocoa.  It was just a cocoa day ya know.  Anyway, I know this is a long winded, pointless post but I just know that soon I will not have so much time to read and relax.  I will miss my two hour lunch breaks and overhearing conversations at the bookstore and I know this summer I will miss rain and moisture b/c it will be gone forever almost.

I am so relieved and nervous to finally have a meeting scheduled with the woman that holds my fate in her hands tomorrow.  Just to fill you in; I have a very good chance at graduating in May ‘09 but that is only if the people in charge are nice enough to accept the credits I deserve.  I know I have this horrible attitude of entitlement about this; I should be willing to follow their college’s course study and guidelines but if I did it without any leeway I would not be able to graduate until 2010 at least from BSU.  We would move yet again and I would transfer yet again and blah blah.  But I just want to finally accomplish this.  I want to be awarded for the good work I have put in and I just hope they will trust that I will put in a great deal of hard work the one year I am there.  I am just glad to be having a meeting and hoping that I will get some idea of how things could work out. You never know though.  They could say yes yes to everything I want and then the classes could fill up and you are just out of luck.  Anyway, just have me in your prayers please.  My heart stops a little everytime I think of all the things that could go wrong.  But I know this is a righteous desire and that I need to have faith that it will work out oh and I must not forget about patience.  I feel like I have been patient up to this point.