Who ever heard of an operatic Jake?

Well I am in full-fledged-final-freak-out mode. The six hour final previously mentioned has been upgraded to eight, and my draft of that 20 pager was returned with the word "poor" used more frequently than I would have hoped. Also, after applying for my first real job that I had hoping for since before we moved out here, I got a "we will contact you if we want an interview" response. 

They don't have to be so polite about it, I know what that means.

On the bright side, I am completely finished with one class, final paper turned in and all, and this professor actually hands out more than one A per class if deserved, so things might actually be okay in that department.

I spent today typing up all my notes to review for that eight hour monstrosity. Did I tell you it is for Water Resources? The same class I have been complaining about all semester? The sad thing about it though is that the professor was awesome. He a really cool guy who talked to us like we were people, and ended the last lecture on the last day with "Four Keys to Lawyerly Happiness". They actually made me want to be a lawyer almost as much as the late great Boston Legal (albeit it went out with more of a bizarre fizzle than the grand pop it deserved). Here are the keys:

1. Show the love (don't demonize people).
2. Wear the badge proudly. Lawyers are leaders. We are the foundation of the civil society.
3. Believe--in yourself, in your clients, in what you do.
4. Follow your dreams. Your time out there is not that long.

Maybe after I'm done with this degree I'll just go on and get my JD. Wait...that would mean more of these ridiculous law school finals...

And here I am back to finals. I can't get away from them!

On a completely separate note, Jake and I traveled to Boston this last weekend to see my uncle Brian in the Messiah at Symphony Hall.

BOSTON WAS AWESOME.

We ate and P.F. Chang's, AND Addis Red Sea (Ethiopian), saw the Messiah in the most beautiful hall I have ever seen, drove on actual roads made of cement, walked around a real mall...all of this while avoiding getting a parking ticket even though we clearly deserved one. We were parked in the same meter spot for about ten hours with only a few quarters after we realized Boston counts its meters on Saturdays too. Saturday was a great day. We also got to see baby Jane (Ann and Brian's youngest) who is about as cute as possible, and getting so big! She was very popular everywhere we went. Pat and April and family were also there to share the P.F. Chang's, and it was great to see them too. They saw the Messiah the night before, and Grace was due to play the Angel in the Nativity at their ward Christmas party, so they couldn't stay long, but it was great to see them.

I don't know what was more comforting about our trip to Boston: the fact that the real world still exists outside of Vermont, or the fact that Vermont still exists inside the real world.

Either way, we are still enjoying our little slice or rural happiness we have carved out for ourselves.

One thing I love about Jake: he continually thinks that I can't hear him when he is in the shower. This is when he practices. Sometimes he practices strange voices or bits that he pulls out on occasion. Recently he purchased an opera CD and has been practicing opera. We also are in the ward choir, so the singing has been almost a constant. I am so proud of all of his hard work even though he doesn't really like singing the tenor part. But right now he is practicing "Figaro", and quite impressively I might add. After every run he adds on a delightful "thank you" to his awestruck audience.

I love Jake. Even when he stays after work for an hour and a half to work out when he knows I want to eat dinner before nine o'clock. If he didn't look so good, I might be a little madder. 

Oh, and I tried raw milk. 

Straight from the cow's teat to my mouth.

Brilliant.

Well, it is exhilarating...

For all of you that are just on the edge of your seat for a new post, I apologize. This is not the post for you. Just a quick little note.

The majority, if not all, of our New England posts have been positive, if not downright gleeful. However, much to our dismay, not everything is just peachy up here in Vermont.

1. School is very hard. Although this morning in class I completely redeemed myself from my rambling not-quite-an-answer answer to the one time I have been randomly called upon in my Water Resources class (that's the Socratic method...apparently it's supposed to help you learn more thoroughly. For those of us with crippling anxiety, it just makes us stay up at night). I rocked this morning, and I am not ashamed to admit it. However, for that same class, I recently did a practice exam question (it is a six hour exam because he feels the typical three hour exam doesn't accurately portray life as an attorney...) and the answer to that one question was five pages long.
2. This is what is feels like to take a shower:Something has been going on with the hot water for the past...well...since we've been here, and as a response, I have stopped showering. I keep making jokes that by the time I leave here I will have dreadlocks and permanently smell of maple syrup, but as it is nearly Thursday and I have not showered since Sunday, that joke may become a painful, smelly reality. It's not that I don't try to bathe, I do. Today I psyched myself up, blasted some Christina, and got in the shower. I only got the corner of my head wet because it was just too cold, even with the help of the constant companion I find in that voice that just doesn't stop.

I guess those two things are really the only two things that make Vermont a little less lovable. It is getting cold, and houses that were built in 1858 do not do their duty to keep out the wind. 

As soon as I finish my Open Memo and my twenty-something page Ecology paper (based on a study of whether drinking reclaimed water adversely affects prenatal development (it doesn't)) I will post about my lovely birthday and more about this lovely state in which we reside.

Vermont: I love you. Don't take it personally, I just would like a warm shower, please.

How I am feeling:

• PROUD
• READY
• GOOD.

yes we can.

We'd like to release with a vote of thanks...

For those of you who are avid Reynoldses followers, you may remember several blogs ago that I had a ward livestock story. Well, the time has come, the piglet said, to talk of other things...

Let me first begin by saying that we had a ward activity. As ward activity chairs (did you know that was our calling?) we of course attended. Luckily for us, this activity was mostly planned before we were called. But it was a typical Vermont service project. Our ward is right next to Camp Joseph, a church owned and operated camp site located a few hundred yards from the Joseph Smith Memorial. It is amazingly beautiful, like everything else surrounding us.

Here we are at the service project. It was windy and I had been working for about three hours. I thought the picture should reflect that. It looks a little more lusty than I originally intended, but I thought just go with it.

The service project we did involved wood. 

Lots and lots of wood. We stacked wood six lines long, as tall as me, in lines of about 30 yards. It was lots of wood. And because so many houses around here are heated all winter by only wood, the kids knew what they were doing, and did it well. One thing about Vermonters, they know how to work. We kept wishing Aysia could have been here to meet other kids that really have to work. It would be a good experience for her I think. It certainly was enlightening for me! Even after it started raining and getting quite chilly, the children just kept at it! A little girl named Hannah who looked about 5 was just hauling log after log after log for at least three hours without ever complaining once: all without gloves. I did one log without gloves, got a splinter, and was ready to quit (then I got gloves and shut up about it). Those kids were amazing.

Now to the livestock. 

Here is a story from deep Vermont:

Once upon a time, a little ward in a little town in Vermont pooled their money and bought a new baby piglet.

Everyone in the ward loved the piglet. They decided to induct him into the ward by calling him "Brother Pig".

Brother Pig was very popular. Whenever anyone had any leftover food, they would bring it to Brother Pig so he could munch on it and grow big and strong.

Brother Pig got so much food from his friends that he grew to be two hundred and fifty pounds!

Now, the little ward in the little town in Vermont was planning a big party for Brother Pig...

Okay I can't go on like that. It's just too sad.

We sliced him down the spine, roasted him on a spit for hours, and ate him.

We ate him all.

Even I ate him.

Jake was less hesitant.

And so, Brother Pig, we salute you. 

Had I known you, I would have loved you in an embarrassingly true way. 

forgive me

you were delicious

so warm

and so juicy

i think it's pronounced FOILage

The leaves here just don't stop! They are getting more beautiful every day. We are completely surrounded by rolling hills covered head to toe, or

 rather, bough to trunk, in hot reds, cool yellows, and fiery oranges. If I were a real photographer, I would capture every hue, but I am not even an 

amateur, so I fear I will have to rely mostly on my memories rather than photos.

Our ward building is getting major reconstructive surgery, and this was our last Sunday in the building. It was very emotional for many people who have lived here their whole lives, and it was very sweet to know how much the building means to them. For the next undisclosed amount of time, we will be meeting in Montpelier, which will be a little bit of a drive for us. We were very spoiled having the building so near our home, and now I suppose we must pay for taking it for granted. But a Sunday morning drive will be very nice, especially this time of year, and I'm sure it will all just be part of our Vermont adventure! A lot of the building is being salvaged, and we thought about claiming a pew and having it shipped to Arizona to await our arrival, but decided against it. The blue-green upholstery would only clash with our living room set.

Right now we are sitting on the back lawn of Debevoise Hall. I in a hammock and Jake in an Adirondack chair, soaking up this Vermont air. I sense some spontaneous back lawn poetry coming on...

He writes what he knows in his orange book

I steal glances sideways.

The grass is crunchy with dying life, slowly sinking back to the beginning

The tree is parted, smiling at me, knotted wrinkled old

Sun warms, cloud cools, blue remains.

I steal glances sideways.

And there you have it. Spontaneous back lawn poetry. I have a degree in that.

Saturday is a special day

We are beginning to fear that our time in Vermont may come to a close before we are ready to leave. While a change of scenery is almost always welcome to me, this life we have carved out of this crisp New England air is suiting us just fine. We had another delicious breakfast at Sticky Buns this morning. We both worked out nice and hard so that we could fully enjoy our bounty. Last weekend we journeyed up to Stowe, a very popular ski town that was really fun. We originally went to hunt down the makers of these awesome tortilla chips we had by chance in Hanover, but found the place was closed. Luckily, as it is a resort locale, there were plenty of other dining establishments to choose from. We also went for a nice hike and drove nearly to the top of the tallest mountain in Vermont. It was so colorful!

Jake, pensively studying a leaf, or perhaps, life.

_________________________________________________

 We try to do something fun every Saturday. Today was kind of lax. We played Exquisite Corpse outside (taking turns adding to a drawing) and now have some great art for our wall. We also went to buy some orchard apples, and ended the day in Hanover seeing The Duchess at the old Nugget Theater, which has been around since 1916, I might add. Then, because the movie was kind of a downer, although beautiful in many ways, we returned home to watch a Seinfeld, and so Jake could eat his second dinner (he is fasting tomorrow, but he might have eaten a second dinner anyway). Now Jake is pre-sleeping, one of his favorite things to do.

He keeps saying that he is so happy here. He is having more great days than he has ever had before, and I am so glad that I get to share them! Look at him, doesn't he look happy? For those of you who knew Jake several years ago, it may shock you that he does in fact smile. His smile was actually one of the reasons I fell in love with him so hard so fast. That and those steely blue eyes...a girl can't help herself. But when I saw that genuine smile (I believe it was the first time we played Scrabble at Barnes & Noble oh those many years ago) I knew right then and there that I would have to see it again. 

And lucky for me, he, those eyes, and his smile, followed me all the way to Vermont.

Leaf-peeping!

Leaves they are a changin'.

It is unbelievably beautiful up here right now! Today we took a walk and took many foliage pictures, some of which are displayed below. The colors here hardly do the real colors justice, or even the colors of the actual photos justice, but this should give you some idea of our surroundings! We also learned today that "Leaf-peepers" are people to journey to Vermont just for the foliage. We had a few in church today!

As we were driving last night, we saw a tree that was the most pure hue of red I have ever seen. I started liking red inexplicably in eighth grade, and I didn't know why until that moment. I actually exclaimed out loud, "THAT is why I love red." Entire mountains are covered with millions of leaves that shame my once lovely red Kitchen Aid. I fear that after witnessing true red, nothing else will do. I may have to find a new color.

To the color green: you are always my favorite, don't be jealous. 

You make me happy in a way that red never can.