Yellowstone Trip: Day 1 - Tetons

Our trip to Yellowstone was short and sweet. We covered almost the entire park in two days. For those of you that don't know, Yellowstone has two main roads that cover the park...an upper circle (loop) and a lower circle (loop). Both loops create a figure-8 through the park. That being said, the only side of the park that we did not hit was the West side and that was mainly because one of the main roads on the West side of the lower loop was closed and it was too inconvenient to hit the West side on the upper loop. But we managed to get everywhere else! :)

We started off by entering the park through the South entrance because getting to that entrance takes you through the Grand Tetons National Park and we really wanted to see the Tetons!!! The Tetons are absolutely gorgeous and if you ever have a chance to go, you should definitely do it!! Welcome to the Tetons!! :)

That's me!! I took this picture all by myself by using the self-timer on the camera. Mom & Dad were off taking pictures, too, so no one was around to help me. I did pretty good, huh? ;o)

Yellowstone Trip

This is what I've decided to do...every day this week I will have a new post up of our trip to Yellowstone. There won't be too many pictures each day, but that's more fun (I think!) than a bazillion pictures all in one post!! :) So, check in every day to see the part of Yellowstone that I'll share with you that day! :) Hope you enjoy it!!

Bummer

Well, Mom & Dad left this morning and are on their way home. We had good days together and I'm so glad that they came! :)

We went out for breakfast this morning before they left and toward the end of the meal, I started NOT feeling well. Alas, I made the decision to stay home today and I'm glad that I did. The morning has not gone so great, but I am feeling much better now. Just not 100%. I think I'll be able to go back to work in the morning. So, that was kind of a bummer of an ending to their last morning here, but not much I could do about it! :)

I will post Yellowstone pictures this weekend because I won't have time before then. I have about 125 pictures from the trip, so once I sort through them, I'll put up the best ones (and I promise that it will not be PAGES long!! :). Enjoy the rest of YOUR week!

As of today...

As I've been journeying through my life this last little while, I've found that my attention has often been caught by cars that are messy. By "messy," I mean that they are so full of stuff on the inside that there is only room for the driver to plant their rear in the driver's seat. Any extra space in the inside of that car is covered by something and sometimes it's identifiable and sometimes it's not. I'm really not sure why this has caught my attention lately, but I know that I cannot imagine allowing my car to get that full of useless junk. Sure, sometimes my car gets a little dirty on the inside and/or I haul around some stuff for awhile before I deliver it to its intended place, but for the most part, my car is ready for passengers at a moment's notice. Don't get me wrong, either...I'm not criticizing these people. I've just noticed lately that these cars have caught my attention more often than normal and I find it interesting to see what catches my attention. Yesterday, it was a pair of scissors and a package of Midol on the dashboard. Quite interesting, I must say! :)

Anyway, moving on...my folks arrived to town last Friday and we've just been hanging out and doing the "local thing". Today, though, we're leaving for a trip to Yellowstone National Park, so that should be awesome! I've never been there and I'm really looking forward to it!! :) Up to this point, I haven't taken any pictures of their time here, but over the next few days I plan to take a few, so I'll post them when I return next week! :)

Helping Hands

Apparently some folks weren't impressed with having to READ so much in the last post, so I'll work at keeping this shorter. :)

I had a situation that happened at work yesterday that made me feel as if I want to do more for people. Outside of our office building, we recently had a new sidewalk put in along with new sod and a new sprinkler system. As most of us know, sod requires A LOT of water in the beginning, so the sprinklers have been running several times a day now instead of JUST at night, which is the usual. Not a big deal, right? Well, we quickly learned that if the water sprays (or is blown by the wind) TOWARD our cars in the parking lot, a horrid, thick film of junk gets on our windshields and it is impossible to get it off. When that really matters is when you're driving somewhere, facing the sun, and you realize that you can't see a thing out the windshield (again, learned by personal experience)! So, to give everyone in our building a head's up, I just sent out an e-mail, explaining what was happening and how to fix it (use vinegar & water to clean it off or go to a good carwash or park somewhere else). Needless to say, I was razzed quite a bit for sending that e-mail out. Just as I was starting to feel like a big idiot, someone made a comment to me that just encouraged me. They said, "Thank you for always taking care of us." And she was being serious. :)

Some people might say that the reactions I got were because it was a silly thing to do (sending the e-mail) and that I'm just a nerd. But you know what I felt when that serious comment was made? That things like this don't happen enough. Yes, it was just a small thing that I did but even with those kinds of things, it might matter to someone! And I do believe that people respond "oddly" or with shock or even critically because things like this just don't happen enough!! It's so "out of the norm" that I don't know if people really know HOW to react, so they just make fun of it or do whatever it is that they do. So, it just encouraged me to give a little more. Show a little kindness when it's not needed. Reach out to someone before it's asked of you. Say a kind word for no reason at all. Do something for someone without looking for something in return. Just go the extra mile and be a helping hand. It may make the world a little bit better for someone and there's just nothing better than sharing encouragement and hope with another.

School

Life is interesting, isn't it? You see, when it comes to my education and career, I kind of put the cart before the horse in terms of what I want to do and how to get there, but that shouldn't be surprising to anyone. After all, what 18-year-old really knows what they want to do with the rest of their life?!? Not many. I promise. So I started out a little slower back in the day and now I'm back-tracking a little bit in order to finish a degree for what it is that I want to do

I grew up in a lovely home and I had a great family...until they decided to torture me at the ripe age of 15 by sending me out to get a job. How cruel!! ;) So I worked (A. Lot.) for the high school years of my life at the local grocery store. I decided that I wasn't too keen on customer service work, but it did lead to my next job which was in customer service at Kohl's Department Store. This is where I worked while I went to a local community college to get my Associate's degree in Administrative Assitant work. I really had NO idea what I wanted to do for a career, but I knew that I didn't mind office work, so I went to school for that.

Right after finishing my degree (and I mean right after), I got a job as an Administrative Assitant with the Chamber of Commerce. That ended my time behind the counter of a retail business. Now, it was customer service in an office setting. I was moving up! :) After half a year at that job, I started to feel a serious itch to move and to explore the world. So, I decided that I was going to move to Seattle and I started planning to do so. Three months into planning, and just TWO months before I was to move, I knew that going to Seattle was NOT the thing to do, so I just sat on the idea. Shortly thereafter, I made the decision to settle where I currently am and I've been here since.

I moved here and immediately got a job with the local University as an Office Assistant. After three years in that job, I was given an increase in title, and a year after that, I accepted a job offer with the department that I currently work for. And this is where I discovered what I wanted to do with my life.

This job didn't start out with the majority of the duties I do right now...only about half of it was. The rest has been added to my workload during the time that I've been there, and one of those items is advising students with their academic careers. I love it! I love knowing that I have helped a student figure out their schedule and helped in some of their career decisions and I just love everything that goes into working with the students during their time at the University. I always joke around that, "Their drama is my drama!" and that is certainly what it is, sometimes. But I really do love my job and I feel blessed because I honestly don't know if many people really, truly feel that way about their job.

Anyway, one of the perks of where I work is that they pay for schooling and so I've been taking advantage of that for quite awhile now. I'm to the point where I finally became a senior in my bachelor's degree program (in Communications) and if I keep going to school part-time while continuing to work full-time, I figure that I can graduate with a bachelor's degree in December 2012. :) People laugh at me when I say that because it seems like such a long time away, but it's a date and I'm steadily going to keep working toward it...unless I'm directed to head in a different direction OR to move to another place. I have to admit, though, that being this far along in the program...well, I just want to hang in there and FINISH! :o)

So, that's what occupies my time most of the year. I do work 40 hours a week at work (60 hours/week during advising weeks and the first weeks of school) and while it's hard sometimes, it's not impossible. I sometimes get to feeling blue because I have to choose...a social life or school and right now, school is the winner. It has to be. I still get out, socially, once in awhile, but not as often as I'd like to and that can be kind of hard sometimes. But this is how things have played out and I just have to do my best with them.

I may have started out rather clueless and just looking for a big adventure in life, but I managed to include some education in the journey and it helped me to get the jobs that have brought me to the place where I am today. I don't have any intention (voluntarily, at this point) to find another job in this field and to move on, but part of considering the move to be back closer to family AND to still stay in this field of work is to consider what I need to do educationally. Most jobs that do what I do require a Master's degree. My boss has trusted me to do that kind of work without the degree and for that, I'm very fortunate! But if I'm going to stay in this line of work, I do need to have something other than an Associate's degree. So, that's the other reason that I keep diligently working on my degree. I really don't know if I'll ever go far enough and actually complete my Master's, but it is an important goal to me to finish my Bachelor's and so that's what I will keep working toward. :)

So, in the future, if you call me or e-mail me and I'm busy or don't answer for awhile...don't take it personally. I'm more than likely immersed in textbooks. :)

Managing...maybe.

I thought I'd stop in here very quickly and let you know that I'm managing the week just fine. I've put in a LOT of overtime during the past two weeks just with getting ready for this first week of classes, but I'm doing okay. I have only had one really rough day and that was Tuesday. At one point, I was walking down the hall, trying not to cry and just telling myself, "You're just overly tired, Jen...it's no big deal...you can do this...". :) Other than that, it's going just fine. I might go in a little bit this weekend, depending on how tomorrow goes, but after that, I should be able to keep my normal schedule again! :)

Not only have I been busy with work, but I also started the two classes that I'm taking this semester! I'm taking spanish II in the evenings and "Business & Professional Communications" during the day. As long as I stay on schedule with homework and studying, I should do okay with this, as well.

Oh, and I should mention this...ONE WEEK from tomorrow my folks get to town!!! YAY!!! :) It's another reason that I want to get ahead on work stuff...so I can relax with my family. :) So that's really all that's new here! Take care!