Spewage.

Okay y'all, I realize that I have been failing dismally at my New Year's resolution to blog every day. Whups. But hey, in my defense, I have been spending 99% of my time at work, school, or with Chris. So. Yeah. Oh wait, gotta put IQA West in there. LOL.

So, a few blog-worthy things have happened, which each honestly deserve their own post, but, whatever. Here we go.

1. My beloved car is broken. STILL. I took it to the shop a week ago to get the 4WD looked at, and there were a bunch of things wrong. Crack in the radiator, some plug had fallen out and coolant was leaking into my engine, yada yada yada. So, got that all fixed (for almost 2500 bucks, my dad was a little less than thrilled) and picked it up last night at about 5 ish. Thrilled to death to have my baby back. Driving to work (with three of my coworkers), just as we are about to drive into the canyon, something happens, there is a huge grinding/cranking sound, and something definitely goes wrong. Engine smoking and everything. Wahoo. So I call Steve's (bless his heart, the man is a freaking SAINT) and he sends out a tow, we call Sundance and one of the yurt people comes and gets us. I wait on the diagnosis all day, and finally get the call as I am about to get off the lift for my last run of the day. And what do I hear? My front differential is shattered. SHATTERED. You might as well have told me that one of my best friends got in a bad car accident for the effect it had on me. My dad will definitely not be thrilled about this, even though it's totally not my fault. These things do happen. It's repairable (thank Talos) but it will be expensive. Sigh. I'm just praying that my dad continues to be merciful. If I have to, I will bust out some of my new student loan money and pay it, but I'd really rather not do that. Anyway, I also called Chris practically in tears (at what was essentially one in the morning for him, speaking of saints) and he ended up coming down to pick me up after work. Anyone could've taken me home, but Chris knows how much I love that car and knew that I wanted comfort. So he did it. Seriously, how on earth did I get so freaking lucky? I will never figure it out. Anyway. Yeah. Hopefully that all will get taken care of by the end of the week. I'll keep you posted.

2. As I briefly mentioned above, I accepted my student loan. My mother cautioned me to think long and hard about this, well, honestly, she told me not to do it. But guess what? I am a big girl, and I am not making enough money to pay tuition by March. Plain and simple. Plus, with New Zealand on the horizon, I am willing to take out a loan that I can certainly repay soon enough that interest won't make a big deal. I'm not stressed about it. I will make more money on patrol, plus working as an EMT in LA (or... wherever... but we're hoping LA...) will probably make me bank. We'll see.

3. Ohhhhh this is the good one. The one that definitely deserves its own blog post. But I'm keeping it on here. So on Friday, no, Saturday, I get this text from this 801 number I don't know that was like, "Hey Jen, how's it goin?" and then when I said good and asked who it was, he said, "It's Matt. So are ya still single?" Bahahahahahaha. (What he actually said was funnier, this is why I need a smartphone.) Anyway, I asked Matt who, and he said, "Strong," and then proceeded to act all offended that I didn't remember him. LOLz. Eventually, I managed to drag out of him where I had met him (and I mean drag, so mature...) and I honestly have NO CLUE WHO THIS KID IS. Whatever. He said he remembered my long legs and dark hair... so definitely me. :/ Whoops. I can only imagine that I gave him my number because we had a class together and I thought he was cute, but he never used it. Until now. When he just broke up with his girlfriend and "was looking through my phone and saw your number and thought I'd see how you're doing." WOW, CAN YOU SAY BOOTY CALL?! Kill me. Chris and I had a great laugh about it. Especially when Matt pulled out the "old flame" line... Bahahahaha, old flame, right. I can't even picture your face, we are not old flames. Roll my eyes. I kinda wanna hang out with him though, to see if seeing his face would jog my memory. Don't suggest Facebook stalking, totally already tried that. Haha. So entertaining.

4. Quidditch drama. Rolls eyes again. I don't even want to tell the whole story. But some people are silly.

5. SO EXCITED FOR SNOW CUP. And the Snow Ball with ma hot boyfrennnnn.

Last but not least...
6. IT FINALLY FREAKING SNOWED. A LOT. I SO HAPPY. <3

Thanksgiving.

I'm exhausted. Part of this is because I was 'Skyping' Chris until like 1 am (my time, I'm not a very nice girlfriend) and then woke up at like 9 for family breakfast. Plus I ate tons of turkey. Not really helpful.

Today was great though. Skyrim, college football, beach, body boarding (caught some SICK waves), hot tub, beach football, and lots of delicious food. Mmmmmm.

So, it's a little cliche, but here's a list of things I'm grateful for, the important stuff at the top but not in any particular order.

I am grateful for Chris. Not only does he make me happy, but he makes me feel important/wanted/needed/desirable. He has restored my faith in finding a guy as diverse as I am. Even when he posts things on Facebook that make me mildly unhappy, I'm still pretty crazy about him. I'm thankful that he cares enough about me to help me work through my insecurities and get to a place where I can accept compliments and believe him when he tells me he loves me. (He hasn't yet, and it'll be awhile. That's fine. But it's probably going to happen eventually.) I'm grateful that I found him, and most especially grateful that he cares about me as much as I care about him.

I am (obviously) grateful for my family. Even when they drive me crazy, I still love them. I've interacted with enough people in the universe to be very glad that I have as good of a family dynamic as I do. I love them, they love me, and even when tempers run high, things never go terribly awry.

I am grateful for my unendingly forgiving parents. I know I stress them out, and yet they still love me  without pause.

I am grateful for my (admittedly very few) true and lasting friends. Scooley, Bruce, Christel...

I am grateful for my wonderful roommates.

I'm definitely grateful for all of my friends, old and new. I could list them, but that would seem... lame.

I'm grateful for my coworkers and classmates, who make my days brighter.

I'm grateful for the technology that allows me to communicate with the people I love even when I can't be with them. Texting, Gchat, Facebook.

I'm grateful that I've been provided with a car that allows me to go wherever I want to go, whenever I want - yes, most specifically Salt Lake, but also my work.

I'm super grateful that I have a (mostly) perfect body. I may not take the best care of it, but it does pretty much everything I ask of it, and most of that it does very well. Harder, better, faster, stronger - that will come with time.

I'm grateful for Hannah's mission. If she hadn't gone, I never would've met Chris, and even if I had somehow, he probably would've been married to her. I owe her the best guy I've ever dated.

I'm grateful for my passion. Without it, I never would've made it to where I am.

I'm grateful for the Gospel, the Church, and BYU. I don't think I need to go into any sort of detail on this.

I'm grateful that I've never had the misfortune of getting rejected from a job that I truly, legitimately wanted. I've always had wonderful employers, and they have always been gracious enough to give me jobs when I wanted them. Jim, Gardner, Jerry - thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will love you men forever.

I'm grateful for snow. It makes me happy, and has provided me with what I hope will be a fantastic job, as well as a lifelong passion.

I'm grateful to live in Utah. Some people don't much care for the state, but I am deeply in love with it. It is truly a playground!

I'm grateful for music. How boring life would be without it! Music says what I need when words escape me.

I'm grateful for perspective.

I'm super grateful to you, the readers of my blog! Even though this blog is pretty much completely for myself, I love knowing that you enjoy it.

I'm grateful that today isn't the only day I can express gratitude for all that I've been blessed with, because one day is not enough!

So, in the spirit of this lovely day, what are YOU grateful for?

SNOW!

It snowed in the mountains. Like, holy crap. I am so excited, it's kind of ridiculous. If my skis weren't in Logan, they would resume their normal place in my bed. Yep. IN MY BED. Once upon a time I had photographic evidence that my skis spent a few nights in my bed (when they first arrived), but that evidence has long since been lost. Okay, 'LONG' being a year.
Anyway, snow turns me into this ridiculous, hyper, ecstatic person who claps her hands and bounces up and down a lot. Because snow=skiing. And you probably know how I feel about skiing.

SO, in celebration of the snow, I drove up to Squaw Peak to have a snowball fight with myself, and take pictures of the snowy autumn leaves. It was wonderful. I would have been clapping my hands had I not had to maintain a steady grip on the steering wheel.

It was gorgeous.

I am so excited for winter, it's a little ridiculous.

Heaven.

I went skiing this morning. Ohhhhhh heaven and earth, it was glorious. It was snowing, quite a bit at first, so there was a little skiff of powder on top of the snow. Not enough to qualify as POW but enough to make for some fun spraying. :)
I can't wait for next week. Even though it's finals week, I'm going skiing every day. Yeah. I know. My life is the bomb.com.
Be jealous.