Thankful 6 & 7

6) Freedom. Levi, Miss Bacon and I sat around enjoying some delicious pastries last night whilst we watched the election coverage. I ignored my homework. I didn't do laundry. It was fantastic. Our political views lean a bit further left than the bulk of Utah, and we smiled at the results. But that's not really my point. My point is that we can have a black man and a white man run for the same office. We can discuss Mormons, Muslims, Catholics, Atheists and every other belief system anywhere we want. We can be outright angry if we want to be about anything we want to be. We can work where we want. We can get the education we want. We have freedoms protected by the Constitution of the United States. I'm so grateful to be free. And, because I am slightly smug, here is a picture of Obamarama. They said that while we were watching the PBS coverage last night. We laughed. Moving onto things people won't be mad at....

7) Friends. As I was getting ready for bed last night, Jacey called me up to chat about the latest stuff happening in her life. When I hung up, I couldn't help but be grateful for her friendship. She makes an effort to keep in touch, which is more than I can say for myself (about anyone...I'm TERRIBLE at keeping in contact with people). It's nice to get her perspective on things because she has known me for so long. And I'm willing to extend this gratitude of mine to other people whom I get to call "friend." High school friends, college friends, work friends, and now graduate school friends. They have all meant so much to me. I don't get to say that I have a lot of friends. I've sort of always been that person who had one or two close friends at a time. Part of that is my insane personality. Part of it is my insecurity. Part of it....eh, who knows. Many of those great people are out adventuring--Florida, California, Idaho, Minnesota...you name it. I just want all those I have ever considered a friend to know that I love you. I'm grateful for the impact, big or small, you have had in my life.Look, there is Rachael (RAHOOL) and I about to head out to the club in Florida, and then me and all the other little versions of friends when we won softball. Yay friends!

Grateful Post for Nov. 5th

5)  Education. I'm grateful to be done with my cognitive test. But I'm more grateful to be earning a pretty awesome degree at a pretty great university. Levi and I have had the opportunity to pursue our educational interests,and luckily we both got in to the same university (Go Utes)!!  We've made some sacrifices to complete our educations at the same time, but we feel it has all been worth it. This is the building that I essentially live in. I work the front office 16 hours per week, see clients for about 7 hours, have classes for 9 hours, and then all the paperwork and studying...I miss my "real" life. If only we could ignore all the loans that are coming due...

The Grateful Posts

I, like my sister, get tired of reading what people are grateful for on Facebook. Really, no offense meant, but I prefer to have them listed where people purposefully go to read my stuff. That said, I am going to try to do short posts for the entire month of November. Today will consist of 4 things (which is going to get LONG, but I added pictures!!), since we are now (shockingly!) into the 4th of November. These aren't listed in any particular order, just as things pop into my head....

1) My home. Levi and I bought this house when he was first accepted into law school. We knew that if we were going to do it, it had to be done before we had all the school loan debt accumulated. We have LOVED this house. We like fixing things up, and so far we have pulled up carpet and refinished the gorgeous hardwood, laid some new carpet, added a bedroom in the basement for Katelyn, gutted and remodeled the main bathroom, and added new shelves in the basement for all of my crap decorations. There are some more things in the works, like redoing our master bathroom and tiling the kitchen, but all in due time. This is of the outside of our house this past June when we finished laying sod. Next year we will finish all the little outside projects! It is such a blessing to have a stable, lovely living arrangement.

2) My sister. Katelyn, Kater bug, George, Vern. I call her many a name, some not appropriate for the public. It has been so great having her live with us for the past year+. She is a girl who has been through a lot in her relatively short life, and I look up to her so much. Kater keeps me (and Levi) laughing. I have had many "mom" moments with her living with us, from her not cleaning her room, me telling her what she needed to do to have a cat in the house (Levi told me I was going a BIT overboard on this one!), cooking dinner, etc. It's so awesome to have my best friend living under the same roof as me. I'm very protective of her, especially when it comes to dating. She just means the world to me. I feel like I am rambling a bit now, but she is just so awesome.  Here she is in all her beautiful, pageant-y glory. Just ignore me in the picture. I happened to be emcee-ing with her that night.

3) Levi. My husband is a pretty cool person. We met when I first got to college at SUU and started working with the debate team, and that was the beginning of something AWESOME. He helps me look at things in new ways, challenge my own thoughts and the thoughts of others, loves me unconditionally. Our marriage isn't perfect--we have very different views on some important aspects of life, which lead to disagreements, but because of our love for each other.... we make it work. He never fails to tuck me in at night. He will run to Sonic in the wee hours of the night to purchase me an emergency vanilla coke. He helps me with chores, and listens to my complaints. He encourages me to be positive when I'm feeling homicidal. If his encouragement doesn't work, then he plots murderous schemes with me. We have made it through a lot of difficult situations and made some fanTAStic memories. I love him so much. Here he is after rescuing our basement from a near-disasterous flood when building Katelyn's room. It was a scene from Poltergeist. Isn't he adorable, even covered in mud?!

4) Me. It might be an odd thing to put down on my list, but I am grateful to be me. I have had experiences that no one else has had. I have made mistakes that are classic Lynley. I've had breakdowns and epic highs. I am a drama queen. I am talented. I am loving. I have a sharp tongue. There are days where I literally have no filter and wonder why people still talk to me. Then I remember it's because I'm kinda funny. I'm a motivated person who knows my own limits, but still challenges those limits daily. I'm a strange mix between a conservative 1950's house wife who cooks and cleans in dresses and heels, and a liberal bra-burning feminist who doesn't listen to anyone. I am what I am. I believe I will have an impact on the world, or at least one person in a positive way.I thought random pictures best described me, so here I am deliriously happy for my wedding, doing the "Ed" with my fabulous ol' roommate Chelsea, and looking ridiculous on a snowmobiling trip with the fam. 


Thanks for reading this long post. More to come!!     -Lynley

We're still heeeerrrrrre......

Sorry.

It's been a LONG time. Things have changed in the more-than-a-year since I posted anything. Not dramatically or anything, but just little changes.

Levi has graduated from law school--Yippee!! He takes the bar on the 24th and 25th of this month, and already has a position locked down as an associate at Utah Family Law, LLC. It's not his area of choice, per say, but it's a job and he likes the people he works with, and he will get to go to court--all good things. I can't even start to tell you how proud of him I am. Seriously, being married to him is awesome.

That's the next thing--4 years of dating, and now 4 years of marriage. We've been together for quite a while, and things haven't always been rainbows and roses, but we communicate and make things work. We even have fun doing it (shocking!). For our anniversary this year, we put in sod. Because we rock. And own a house. Like ya do.

I'm getting through my masters program, and am so close to being a Speech-Language Pathologist I can taste it!! My dream for my externships is to do Pioneer Valley Hospital and Jordan Valley Hospital, a skilled nursing facility, and a few days a week in a school. I want to do all the things. All of them. And then sit at home for a while Levi makes all the money.

I read all my previous posts, and it was funny to see how plans change and then come together. Up until a few weeks ago, we were planning on trying to start a family like, next month. That's now a big WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!  I need to get through my program, and get most of my clinical first year done before I do anything stupid (sorry...I meant wonderful...I think) like have kids. So maybe in another year I will have that news to throw on here. We shall see.

Miss Bacon is sleeping next to me, it's the 4th of July, I have a million school things I should be doing, and yet here I am. See? I'm still me...just grown up a bit :)

Work work work work work

So I remember not too long ago where I was complaining about Levi not having a job, that things were expensive, yadda yadda yadda. I don't think that complaint was online, but it was in my head.

Those complaints have disappeared.

Levi now has three jobs: research assistant with a professor at the U, research assistant for a family law attorney for his new book, and carpet repair man extraordinaire.

I, on the other hand, have two jobs: administrative assistant at the Work Activity Center, and waitress at Cracker Barrel in West Valley.

No, we don't see each other very often. No, we still don't have any money. How does that work? I have no idea.

Update: I have been accepted into the graduate program at the University of Utah in Speech-Language Pathology. I have applied for a job there. No, I won't have three jobs. Sadly I cannot keep my current job at WAC and still do grad school. We'll see how this all goes.



Is this weather making anyone else nuts? Don't get me wrong, I love snow. However, Levi and I are trying to get our yard put together, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to plant grass and edge flower beds when the dirt is floating towards the street and/or is completely frozen. Know what I mean?

Katelyn graduates in two weeks. It's insane. How old am I again? Oh, yeah. OLD. I had three people at Cracker Barrel comment about how old I am. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! 24 (nearly 25) is not that old. And besides...I've accomplished a lot in my time.

That's all, you whipper snappers.

Winter

Yeah, yeah Jael. I suck and so I am now posting something new.

Funny thing is, I had planned on posting tonight ANYWAY, so HA! What's embarrassing though is that I refuse to change my background, even though this post is titled winter. Why? Because the next time I post I would just have to change it again, I'm sure.

Levi and I do not really get out and do a lot of things. We changed that this Christmas break. We even left the state to do said things. Oh yeah. Hard core.

My parents decided they wanted to go snowmobiling in West Yellowstone, and we heartily signed on. I've been waiting for Katelyn to get me these pictures so I can show you how awesome of a trip it was. Behold:

This is the lodge where we ate lunch two days in a row. It is only accessible by snowmobile. FABULOUS!

Me and dood. No, really, that's me. Stop laughing. I'm not kidding.

And that's my mom and dad. No, it's not me again, silly. Like mother like daughter...

This is me, with growly teeth. I was showing Katelyn how I could scare off any bears we run into. For some reason she thought it was hilarious. I don't get it.

One of the places we snowmobiled to. This water stays fairly warm year round, thus the ducks.

This, my friends, is a lot of snow. We figured that we were machining on anywhere between 8 and 10 feet. And then we got 2 more feet while we were there. Poor snowmachines, all cold and such.

This is one of the trails. It was absolutely breathtaking.

The trail went along the edge of the water for quite a ways...

And here we have a little otter/muskrat, playing in the "warm" water. The ducks hated him. I think its because he was cuter than they were.

More gorgeousness.

Taking a quick inventory of toes, fingers, noses, etc. The snowmobiles had hand, feet and butt warmers, but it was still below zero, and I am a wuss.

Me and Jack. This kid is a trooper. Jace would ask him how he was, and he would say, go dad go! He even managed to fall asleep between Katelyn and Candice at one point, and slept the whole way back to the hotel.

Trying to decide how tough we were...and how long we could hold off on peeing because holy crap there was no WAY we were stripping down out there. Like I said, bitter butt cold.

Levi and I conversing. We are so CUTE!!

And one of dood. I love him.

So, I ended up with frostbite. Not kidding. On my big toe on my left foot. I'd take a picture, but its gross. My mother was not impressed with a purple-reddish toe. I should probably go to the doctor, and I will if it doesnt improve, but eh. Who needs toes anyway?


Also, for your enjoyment, I am posting our annual Christmas eve pj picture, and a picture of mine and Candice's gingerbread house. Levi couldnt make it this year because finals are stupid.

And that, my friends, was winter for us.



OOO, and something else---Levi is more than halfway through law school, I should hear back from the U any day now to see if I get to spend more money at their school in the Comm. Science graduate department, and we bought new windows for the house. We will soon be finishing a room in the basement, and possibly a bathroom. One day I will have a new washer and dryer, and maybe a dishwasher. One day....

Summer

What stinks is Levi doesn't have a job yet.

What's good is it has given him time to chill from school.

What's also good is he has been helping around the house, which rocks my socks.

What's good is its getting warmer (albeit sometimes colder) but the warm means I get to wear capris to work.

What's bad is my school loans are coming due next month.

What's good is I am going to be taking a six-week belly dancing course, possibly with another law school wife.

What's good is our garden is already popping up!!

What's bad is we can't afford to plant any trees in our yard.

With the good comes the bad, and vice versa. I must say, I'm glad the good sticks around.

On another good note, our two year wedding anniversary is on the 7th. We will probably just go four-wheeling up the canyon or something. Also, I will be 24 on the 16th. I have always worked on my birthday, due to me being able to bring it up to patrons and them giving me bigger tips. This no longer works, seeing as how I have a steady paycheck. So this year, I am taking my birthday off. And there is a belly dancing class that night, so that rocks too.


Life is good.