Welcome Back to Utah

This week has been quite a crazy one full of TONS of ups and downs.Here's a recap. I didn't take pictures among the craziness so here's a picture of a cute puppy.

- We began our long trip back to Utah (27 some hours from Houston!) and stopped in Austin to see Joe's family once more. I learned how to can food for the first time and made pear butter.

- Monday morning, Joe checks his email and finds out that BP wants to fly him out for an interview for an engineering position (he leaves tomorrow morning at 5am). We stopped at some McDonald's in New Mexico with wifi so he could send them all his information for flight reservations.

- We arrived to our apartment in Springville Tuesday afternoon to find it a complete mess. Later, we found out it was broken into and trashed so we can't live there. We went to the library to find any available apartments to look at that night. The landlord agreed to refund our money so we were able to find a new place.

- We signed a new apartment contract Friday morning for a great place near the Provo Tabernacle (but can't move in until later this week!)

- Last Wednesday, I started my master's program and have enjoyed getting to know my peers in the program. There are a few others that went to BYU that live all around the country so that is neat!

- I set up several interviews with lots of companies in Utah while still in Texas. I went to my second one and they offered me a job! I have a real salary and everything! I start next week sometime! I am the new case manager at a care center for people with mental retardation and mental illness. Also, I supervise the recreation department.

So Joe and I have learned this past week that everything works out when we turn to the Lord and ask Him for help. We could not have dealt with all the stress without each other and the constant reminder that as long as we're together, everything will be okay. And honestly, things are working out better than we imagined. We are so blessed and look forward to what comes our way this year! We have a feeling it will be full of joyful moments!

Chemical Engineer for a Day

Since Joseph started working at DOW, I've wanted to see his plant and what he does all day. A few weeks ago, he came home and said that another employee had her family visit the plant so he would find out how to let me go. Well, on Saturday I got to go see Joe's plant! I was very excited to go and I even got to wear an orange hard hat outside and a special badge! For security reasons, I couldn't take any pictures but I found some online of what it looks like.

The little guy in a blue suit is probably one of the operators.

We went on a Saturday when it was pretty calm. Joseph said other days, there are lots of people running around, trying to make sure the plant is running well. Because of security, I was unable to actually go inside all the machinery but Joseph tells me he does that a lot. He keeps reassuring me that his work is safe but I doubt it sometimes. I loved seeing it and knowing what Joseph does all day.

Lion King and Shakespeare... All in One Weekend

This past weekend was probably the most exciting and fun-filled weekend in Texas. When we found out Joe's internship would be in Houston, I bought tickets to see Broadway's Lion King as it had been a dream of mine to see it since I knew it existed. We went Friday night and it was absolutely amazing and worth every penny. Joseph keeps saying that he enjoyed it more than I did so that's good and he's been singing songs from it all weekend. Since you can't take pictures/recording of the play, here is the online clip of the opening scene. Imagine it 1000 times better than the video clip, though. The singing left me in awe of their talent and the costumes were crazy amazing. Here's a picture of Joseph and I before the show started.

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to meet up with one of Joseph's mission friends and his wife who live in Houston. We went out to a great pizza place in downtown Houston and then went to a Shakespeare outdoor theater thing. It was alright but we left half way through to go get ice cream.  We had so much fun with them and it was great to get out with another couple.