Just a quick catch up...

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?

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

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:

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

The House that Jake Built

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...

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

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!!!

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!