Click.

Okay, so, sometimes when a few of us at Sundance don't get lessons, we go and do skiing clinics. And today we clinicked (I don't know if that's a word, but it is now) with Owen, and I have to tell you right now, he is officially my new favorite person to clinic with. He makes you (well, me) feel like a CHAMP. Seriously. Today he said to me, "I love watching you ski. You are such a powerful skier. It is beautiful." My jaw seriously dropped into my lap as I was grinning and blubbering thanks. But seriously, for someone as good as he is to tell me that HE loves watching ME ski?! That blows my mind/makes me feel like a million bucks. I can honestly say I have never received a better compliment in my entire life.

But, during the clinic, there was this moment of "OH! THAT'S what that's supposed to feel like!" It was so awesome. I felt my skiing improve in just a matter of hours. Seriously. It was so freaking cool.

Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say. But. Work is good. Even when I'm not getting paid.

I'm trying to get Chris to come skiing with me this weekend, so that if he ever ends up coming and taking a lesson from me, I'll have an idea of what to work on. We'll see. :)

Sturdy.

Although it isn't really looking like Christmas anywhere but at Sundance, we've been listening to festive music at Outdoors Unlimited for the past little while, and I realized that I'm a lot like the tree in the park. You know, the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow. :)

 My cousin got engaged yesterday. Never thought I'd see the day! But she doesn't want a ring... which I find extremely odd, especially because they're planning on getting married in August. (Yes, eight month engagement. Whatevs.) Does she WANT to get hit on while she's engaged...? Shrug.

I hate rocks. They're sharp, destructive, and they ruin people's skis. Aka our rental skis. Which means guess who gets to do all of the work on them? Yep, you got it, me. I mean, it could be a lot worse, but right now I've been coming to work at Outdoors directly from Sundance, which means I'm in full under armor, which gets hot even when I'm NOT working on skis. Add in working on skis, which makes me hot normally to the point that I'm going to start bringing basketball shorts to work, and I literally die of heat within the first five minutes. Yeah. It's awesome.

I just finished Chris's Christmas present. I think it looks absolutely incredible, but I can't share it, because... yeah... it has his name on it... Maybe I will share it without his name. LOLz. If I do share it, it won't be until after he sees it, because frankly, I don't want to ruin the surprise! :)

Sigh. I've got to be honest, I'd really like to sleep in tomorrow instead of going to church. But to church I will go, with Chris at my side, and we will stay awake the entire time.

Weirdo.

So let me tell you a little bit about my friend, Weirdo Blogstalker. She is fantastic. Apart from saving kittens from burning buildings and working to end world hunger, she occasionally likes to hang out with me and read my blog. After reading my blog, she will often tell me how much she loves me, and how happy my being in love makes her. Ha. She makes me happy.
Honestly, have you ever experienced the phenomenon that occurs when you have someone with whom to share your happiness? Your happiness somehow becomes exponentially greater, until you're reduced to a pile of lovesick giggling.
Okay, not really, but I will admit that whenever she tells me how much she loves me and Chris, I somehow get all giggly and love-struck. It's weird. And frankly a little abnormal.

Anyway, my dearest most beloved Weirdo, I just want you to know that you are beautiful and I adore you! xoxo and all of that stuff.


Moving on. Finally finished my stupid paper today at about 3:30. Woot. I have to admit though, I still don't feel like finals are over. It hasn't hit me yet that I'm free for the next couple of weeks. I still have this little lurking stress headache. So I'm definitely looking forward to a night full of Skyrim and texting Chris to relax. :)

Tomorrow I'm going to give my first adult 'lesson!' Haha, not really, I'm just heading up to work a little early to ski for an hour with my friend Francis. He skied for the first time today, and I'm looking forward to having a student to explain things to on a more technical level. And, of course, I'm excited to ski! Woot.

Then work, then work again, then Skyrim, then sleep, then CHRIS. :) Hurray.

Discovered.

Trying to finish my twelve-page paper tonight... No bueno. I'll probably end up being up until four or so, sleeping for three and a half hours, going to work, then printing my paper and turning it in, and crying tears of extreme relief before I collapse in a heap on the ground from exhaustion. Honestly I am so sincerely looking forward to tomorrow night, when it's finally all over, and I can just play Skyrim all night without feeling guilty. Oh, and text Chris, OBVS.

Speaking of Chris, Hannah found out about his blog. That may have been, in an extremely indirect way, my fault. (Sorry Nerf... yes, my pet name for Chris is Scruffy-Lookin' Nerf-Herder. You're jealous, don't even try to deny it.) Remember how I love the Anti-Austens? Yeah, go check out this post. Apparently Hannah's sister may or may not read the Anti-Austens, which led her to Chris's blog, which... if you read it and you know one or both of them, it's... yeah, pretty each to use powers of deduction. I only feel sort of bad, I personally think she deserves to see a) how much he actually loved her and b) how much she hurt him by leading him on. Again, I'd say I hate her, but I really don't. I seriously owe her, big time, and although I'm NOT glad she hurt him, I am glad she lost interest, because I love Chris way more than she ever did. No seriously, talking to him about it has always kind of astounded me. She put next to no effort into that relationship. Yeah, who was the one driving up to Logan EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND to see her? Yep, Chris. And yeah, I've pulled the, "hmmm, that doesn't sound familiar at all" line, but frankly, it does make more sense for me to go up there, plus I'm pretty sure Hannah never bought Chris a tank of gas in her entire life. Which Chris does. And he washes my windshield. Don't worry, I tip him very well. ;)

However, apparently, I've made it pretty easy to figure out who he is. BUT! Although most readers know my name, most of them only know who Chris is through me if they Facebook stalk me. (Tripp you are officially being called out. Right now.) Never once have I called him by his real name, even though I almost have like 50 bajillion times, because I really like his real name. And since we started dating/since I started getting mentioned on his blog, I have only commented as 'Mirage' and not myself. Yeah, okay, I've talked about him being on the Quidditch team a lot, and I've posted attractive Quidditch pictures of his posterior, but seriously, only if you had Facebook stalked me would you know who Chris really is. Or if you had Facebook stalked the Crimson Fliers. (Either way, Tripp, you're still a creep. It's okay, I still love you. And if you're going to Facebook stalk me, just add me as a friend for crying out loud, Chris and I are kind of actually dying to meet you.)

On a completely unrelated note, my tandem bike bruise is officially ten inches long by four inches wide. Yeah, as soon as I can get a good picture I'll post it, because it's freaking epic. Definitely the coolest bruise I've ever had.

On another completely unrelated note, my students today were tough. They were good kids, just... ridiculously un-coordinated. Like, unbelievably so. This resulted in one of them getting hurt, which resulted in me having to fill out an accident report with Ski Patrol... yaaaaaaay.

On what I believe is the last completely unrelated note, I completely rocked my final tonight. At least, I feel like I did. I finished it in like half an hour, and I felt like I really knew all of the answers, and gave more than was required of me on the short answers. I'm definitely looking forward to my next class with Dr. Barney, because he's frickin' awesome, AND it's Accessible Recreation, which will be really cool from him because he's in a wheelchair. Wheelchair basketball HERE I COME!

Wait, I lied. Last completely unrelated note. I have cleaning checks on Monday and I do not want to clean... Pleh.

Six.

That's how many consecutive days Chris and I have spent together in the past seven-day period. Yep, six. Birthday weekend turned into birthday which turned into finals all-nighter, so technically today (Wednesday) is only PARTLY contributing to the six, but w/e, it sounds more impressive/awesome. However, now I have to wait until Sunday to see him. *face melts into indecipherable expression*
But then we get to have another 'weekend' aka he's going to hang out in Provo for like four days and whenever I'm not working we'll be together. And when I am working he may or may not be vegging at my apartment playing Skyrim on The Gorgeous. Or watching Netflix. Or sleeping on my couch. My roommates won't be home, so I need someone to guard my stuff while I'm not there! (Right.) Either way, the month of December is going to involve plenty of Chris-Jen togetherness.

Next semester is going to suck.

The job at Sundance is still going ab fab, I'm finally to the point where I'm teaching lessons by myself, NBD.

The job at Outdoors alternates between putting me to sleep and making me want to kill all of the people who come in all at once wanting to return/rent skis. Grrrrrrrrr.

School is almost over. One more paper to wrap up and then I'm free, for better or for worse. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm not going to lie, I'm SO excited to get rid of the permanent headache that settled on me last week it's kind of ridiculous. I'm not even nervous about my last final, not even remotely. I'm just nervous about finishing my paper.

On the subject of papers, I don't know if I've told you all, but there have been a few times that Chris has told me that I'm "the best girlfriend" he's ever had. (Although I haven't actually heard him say it in a while, which is okay I suppose. It's just not something I ever get tired of hearing.) To be honest, he had been chilling at the topmost tier since before we even started dating, but there hasn't really been anything to this point that has "blown my mind." Until now. It's not even something that seems like a big deal, but it was huge to me. Some people might think of 'mind blowing' as some completely over-the-top romantic event, but to me, it was simply him helping me with my paper. Because of his help I was able to get it done on time, which might just save my grade. He had tons of studying to do himself, but instead he opted to help me. Seriously, I'm still in a little bit of disbelief. I know he doesn't think of it as that big of a deal, and some of you are probably like, "What? Something that simple makes him the best boyfriend you've ever had?" My answer to you is most assuredly yes. By small and simple means great things are brought to pass!

My family might call me a broken record, but I'm more crazy about this boy than I've ever been about anybody else. AND he got the, "he's really cute!" seal of approval from my mother. Which is a big deal to me. She called Brandon 'nice' (code for "what on earth are you thinking Jen?") and she never met Nine Toes. I honestly don't remember if she liked Mitsubishi or not, seriously, I remember very little about that relationship, even though it was essentially eight months long from start to finish and we had very seriously talked marriage. The last boy she called "really cute" was Dork Boy, and I don't think I've talked about him, but my mother LOVED HIM, in fact I think she's still secretly disappointed that I let him get away. Even though that was almost two and a half years ago and he's married now. Yeah. Either way, lately every time I've been invited to 'family things' it has been "would you and Chris like to come/be able to make it to..." YEAH. I don't think I have to tell you how much I really like that. I've always wanted to be "you and boy." And now I am. I love it I love it I love it.

Sunday is the Woods family Christmas party, and I don't know if I should be excited or nervous. Now that I think I'm over the parents hurdle I'm not particularly nervous. Besides, I'll be with Chris. Other than remembering to keep the PDA toned down (it will have been FOUR DAYS since our last time together, talk about difficult!!!! LOLz) I don't think I have much to worry about.

Tomorrow is a full day at Sundance, followed by Friday morning there as well. (Friday will be awesome, because I'll be off by 12:30 and don't have to be at work at Outdoors until four. Skiiiiiiinnnnngggggggggggg.) Stoked. I love skiing. I love Sundance. And teaching is okay too I guess.

OH, and today a tandem bike fell on my leg as I fell through a rack of skis. I'll be sure to post a photo/diagram tomorrow. It hurt. And I want you to fully grasp why.

Sequel.

Dinner at Chris's parents for the second time yesterday... infinitely better. So, that's a relief, because honestly I was concerned that it would be awkward forever. Thankfully, it is looking up.

Dinner with Chris's friends... while I might not have impressed Smartypants as much as I would have preferred, we ARE friends on Facebook now, so I suppose that's a good sign. As for the Quidditch team, well, they already love me, NBD. Nerdy Friend (I don't think he will end up meriting a nickname, but if he does, I'll come up with something new) would have to be clinically insane if he didn't approve, because we sat across from each other and basically ended up quoting Robot Chicken Star Wars and HISHE at each other all night... Yeah, nerd Jen definitely showed herself at that particular outing. Again, NBD.

Quidditch practice with the Fliers... SO AWESOME! It was fun to see what a 'real' practice is like, rather than just scrimmaging and such. I learned a lot from Brown Wig, and even though it was honestly like the second time I've played Quidditch with other people in my life, I feel like I didn't make a COMPLETE fool of myself. Chasing, however, is definitely not my thing, especially because now that climbing season is over my hands have lost all of their strength. :/ Keeping FTW.

OKAY, so. Onto sappier matters. Today is Chris's birthday. And, having spent his entire birthday weekend with him (the weekend which included the one-month mark, which I'm not going to lie, is a big deal to me, especially in light of my recent success in the dating world) I just have to say that caring about age difference is for shmucks. Not that Chris is immature, but I think we're on a pretty good level maturity wise. Does the fact that we're over four and a half years apart make me love him any less? Assuredly no. Does he love me any less because of that? I imagine not. So. Yeah.

Anyway, I'm heading to Salt Lake once again (isn't Chris nice for buying me gas?) tonight again for birthday shenanigans. Stoked.

OH and a final note, I freaking LOVE my job at Sundance. I have gotten total ballers for students so far, and I'm just... I love it. Putting on that dang Sundance uniform makes me feel (and ski) like a million bucks.

Fa-reak!

It's been waaaaaaaaaaay longer than normal since I posted last... Blame Chris. He knows, he doesn't care. Neither do I, frankly. As much as I love you all, Chris trumps.

But seriously, today and Monday will be the only days this week that I don't see him. Can you say freaking spoiled? Yeah. It's been amazing, but it's going to make the next few weeks REALLY HARD. Because next week is crunch time, with finals the week after that and then... my 'break' from hell. I'm literally working every single day all break. Actually, I'm working every single day from the ninth to about... oh, mid-April. Yep. Every single day. I know, you're thinking, "What about Christmas? What about Sundays?" Yep, even those. I'm sure I'll get an earful about not working on Sundays, but if I don't, I won't make enough money to pay my tuition when March 1st rolls around. I know, depressing/scary/sad right? So honestly, I spent (and will spend) the majority of my week with Chris because I need to fill up the tank to keep me going for the next month, when I'm honestly not sure how much I'll get to see him. I'm sure I'll see him more than I'm thinking I will, because let's face it, we are kind of addicted to each other. But in a good way. :)

So I'll give you a rundown of my week, after Monday that is. Tuesday, went to work, then school, then drove to Salt Lake. Five Guys for dinner. (So good.) We talked about how smart we are (but seriously, we actually did talk about that) and other related topics, then headed back 'home' to watch... oh shoot, what DID we watch? Ummmm... dangit... what did we watch? I know at some point we played Harry Potter Scene It and I kicked his TRASH (he will deny this vehemently, but there's no way around it, I womped) and I seem to recall we watched... dangit, I don't even remember. He had class at nine and I had class at eleven so we figured we'd go really late, then do breakfast before heading to our respective places of education. Yeah, after sleeping for about five hours at my 'Salt Lake residence' (seriously, I might as well just move in) and then doing breakfast... yeah, he ended up skipping class and coming to mine instead. Yes, that does mean we drove down to Provo, and yes, he sat around doing nothing while I worked... Seriously, I had a work meeting at Sundance that lasted FOUR AND A HALF HOURS, it was utterly ridiculous. I had thought it would maybe be an hour or two... yeah, right. I finally got back to my apartment just before TEN. Ridiculous. At that point we probably should've just stayed in Provo... but we didn't. My one Thursday class got cancelled, so we were together all day until he had to work. It was fabulous. We attempted to watch Dune (too weird, we didn't finish) watched all three Robot Chicken Star Wars, watched Avatar, and of course, ridiculous amounts of conversation.

Today feels like Thursday because of that though. It's obnoxious.

Tomorrow... Full day of skiing! Yippee! And then... Chris! Meeting my parents! (Ay, I'm nervous.) Ugly Sweater Party! Double date with La and Marine! Church at Chris's ward and meeting HIS parents on Sunday! (Super nervous for that one... yikes.) And then... the week from hell! Yeahhhhhhh.

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?

Recap.

Okay, so guess what I did yesterday?? I won't tell you though. But guess anyway. so a guy named jingle heimer schmidt came to my work today and made me laugh so hard I almost kicked a stool over which almost hit him and caused a gigantic raucous with my co-worker I call morten butkis. But really, I am so cool I dont know what to do with myself. any ideas? maybe I should move to china. Anyway, back to reality, my long lost friend gina seymour chinamen came over and ate at my apt. It was so fun to catch up and remember the good old times at our old all boy boarding school. good times. I want to buy a bike  but I only have about 750 euros, which we know means somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 dollars and 75 cents. i have no sense. I'm all out. Got a concussion last night, don't know why. but I do know I am cooler than the other side of the pillow. I think I want to kiss jingle heimer schmidt, but for some reason I only see him when I sing a special song. That song is a secret but guess what it is anyway and i still won't tell you. I am in love with ********. decifer that and you will know whom I love. I must go to the bathroom right now...excuse me. anyone have a match I can borrow?


.... Wait.... That was definitely one of my coworkers... Thanks a lot Chance.

And now I don't even remember what this post was really about. If you got to read it before Chance deleted it (jerk!), lucky you.

Basically, whole weekend with Chris, skiing at Brighton was great, I got the job (woot!), but lost my iTouch (sad day, I'm so bummed). BYU football did great, and Chris did great cheering for them. Baby steps. ;)

Ugh, Chance, I'm going to KILL YOU. I had so much in that post.

Backflip.

I get to ski TOMORROW. Oh my goodness. I am so nervous/excited! Went on yet another lovely date with Chris. Cafe Rio and quality conversation, what more can a girl ask for? Oh and when we walked back outside? Snowing like a yeti's backyard. So happy. Chris doesn't much care for winter, but I'm hoping that my obsession with it will rub off a little bit. lol. It is beginning to astonish me how much Chris and I have in common. Tonight we got onto the subject of politics, and, shocker, we have pretty similar views. We're both 'moderate liberals.' It's just so funny to me that almost everything we talk about, we pretty much agree on. We disagree enough that it's clearly not a case of Runaway Bride Syndrome. It's like we're the same person... I won't pull out that ridiculous two halves of a whole thing quite yet, but it's an intriguing concept. Anyway, I need to be able to do a triple backflip tomorrow, as per suggestion of my home teacher, so I'd best be off to bed. I'll keep you posted on how things go! Triple backflip here I COOOOOMMMMMMEEEE!

Interview.

I'm going climbing tomorrow with Hands and Chris. Oh wait, you don't know who Hands is! Hands is the first boy I EVER held hands with. I was a freshman in high school, and I had been crushing on him for a long time. One day we held hands. We kept holding hands. I LIKED IT A LOT. Then four days later he 'dumped' me for this hoe bag. Don't worry, he thinks she's a hoe bag too. Anyway, I was mad. I didn't talk to him for a way long time.
A month or so ago, he added me on Facebook, fresh off his mission. And we've been chatting almost non-stop since. It's not really going anywhere, we both like other people, but it's nice to have good friends. Especially when those friends have known you for years.
Anyway, Hands is wanting to get more into climbing, so he practically begged me to teach him my ways. With some deliberation, I accepted. Tough decision. JK. He didn't beg. And the decision was not tough. I love teaching people to climb!
On a whim, since we're going to Momentum in Sandy (best climbing gym everrrrrrrrr), I invited Chris. And I think he's gonna come. And I'm super excited.

BECAUSE WE'RE CLIMBING, YOU DOLT. Okay, that's not all of it, you know me. But I am so excited to climb, it's killing me.

Interview with Sundance went pretty well. They asked some bizarre-o questions, like, "What is the purpose of life?" Um, what? I said it was to be the best person I could be and help others around me be better. I didn't want to get obnoxiously church-y on them. Not that I don't love the Church, I just... don't want to be one of those overbearing Mormons that only talks about the Church. One thing that was a little.... I dunno how to say, but when I had the second part of my interview with Jerry, the director of the snowsports school, whom I have met before, I told him that we had met, and that I had taken Neil Lundberg's ski instructor class. He said, "Oh, you're THAT GIRL."

Um.... what? He said he'd heard people talking about me, and I'm like, what the heck, "I hope it wasn't anything bad..." Apparently it wasn't. But who wants to be THAT GIRL, unless it's like, 'Oh yeah, THAT GIRL, the crazy awesome skier we pretty much are hiring on the spot but have to go through the motions anyway....' Unlikely.

Anyway. It's seven thirty and I don't want to do ANYTHING. I just want to eat junk food and read Lord of the Rings.

I really should do my homework...

EIGHT DAYS.

Anxiety.

My interview with Sundance is TOMORROW. EEEEEEEK.

Seriously, I'm freaking out. And I have absolutely no reason to freak out. Up until they called me and scheduled an interview, I was the picture of confidence.

But suddenly, now that it's real, I am nearly choking on anxiety.

I know, it's ridiculous. But it's just the way it is.

On a note regarding the gentlemen in my life, I think I've made a decision. One I can talk to for hours. The other... I can't. And I think you all know how much I love to talk. :)

On one last note.... NINE DAYS! SINGLE DIGITS!!! Speaking of freaking out.

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.