New Job!

I received the most wonderful call today telling me that I no longer have to work in the call center! It's a good department with great people, but not at all the job for me. Getting yelled over the phone at regularly and having to make conversation with strangers who do not want to talk to me are not two things that I enjoy doing. But now, I get to be a receptionist! This may not sound like much of a step up for most people, but I actually really enjoy being a receptionist. It's true, I love doing spreadsheets and paperwork and having little projects to do. I'll still be working for Tahitian Noni, which is good, because they really are a great company. I highly recommend working with TNI to anyone, because they take great care of their employees.  I start at the receptionist position tomorrow and will be working in their American Fork warehouse. The people I've met over there so far seem very nice, and I'm excited to get started. Hopefully my days of dreading going to work will be over.

Spring has Sprung

For our most recent project/FHE activity, Ben and I decided to get some plants. Luckily, we have a small balcony, so that leaves us open to quite a few possibilities. We decided to go simple--some flowers and a few herbs. After wandering around Home Depot for well over an hour, we landed on four different types of flowers (including one I've always wanted to have--snap dragons). Ben's only request was that we get some white ones. We found a nice planter box and this is the result:

We also took home basil, rosemary and dill, which are probably our favorites to cook with. I used some of the dill in dinner tonight, and it was pretty delicious.

We were going to try tomatoes too, but we decided to try that once we've had success with these plants (not to mention a bit more money, since gardening is expensive--I won't even tell you what we spent today). We do have an abundance of potting soil, so if anyone in the area needs some, please take ours.

English Lesson

A funny thing happened while Ben and I were in the car today that I knew had to be shared. We were talking about finding Ben's missing jacket and he said, "My clothes were thrown halfhazardly." I thought he was joking and just laughed and said, "You mean haphazardly?" His response was, "Haphazardly? Halfhazardly. Halfhazardly." You could see the panic in his face as he kept repeating the word and realizing his mistake. "You mean you don't pronounce the ph together?" I had to promise him about three or four times that I was not just pulling his leg. I love moments like these, because the thing about living with Ben is that he is always right. That's great for him, but sometimes it's nice to have change. However, when we got home, we looked up the word "haphazardly" on the internet. We found a site with audio clips of the word correctly pronounced. This particular site had one in American English and one in British English. Lo and behold, we listened to the British one and the woman said, "halfhazardly." Ben's response? "I'm British!"

1/2

Today marks the day that Ben is 25 1/2. We (meaning I) realized this at church when we (meaning I) saw the date printed on the program. As a complete coincidence, we had beef stroganoff, Ben's traditional birthday meal, for dinner. I've always been one to get excited about half birthdays. Partially because my birthday is in the summer and I never got to have a party at school (though I still maintain that summer birthdays are the best). So far, Ben's 25th year has been a good one. He's almost done with school--he's now planning on graduating in August. He still isn't sure what he'll do right after school, but we're still leaning more towards work than grad school. His favorite past times include baking, playing Sporcle, painting watercolors, riding his bike and reading about sports. His favorite colors are blue and orange, which explains the vibrant, slightly painful colors of this post. He's still as energetic as ever and never stops being happy, fun and exhausting.

Creative Corner

Once again, more time has passed since our last post than is desirable. I have a hard time finding mentionable events when we're not riding elephants or touring ancient ruins.

I have recently been struck with the desire to start drawing. I took some art classes in high school and really enjoyed it, but since then I just haven't even tried. My goal is to draw a picture of the Nauvoo temple in charcoal for our wall. To warm up my rusty skills, I did this picture of the hut we stayed in on the beach in Koh Chang, Thailand.

Our Sunday activity turned into art--while I drew, Ben pulled out his watercolors. His creations were much more abstract... no, insightful. They were definitely fridge-worthy.

Mundane; adj: ordinary, commonplace, routine

Okay, so we've (I've) been bad about updating our posts. And apparently I'm getting some flack for it. I keep waiting for something news-worthy to happen, but alas that time still hasn't come. I was hoping the foreign service results would be that thing, but the funny thing about bad news is it's not that exciting to share. So to keep the masses happy, I will provide a mundane summary of our lives at the moment.

Ben's in his last real semester of being an undergrad (though he'll take a capstone class in the spring and end in June). He's still working at the MTC and starting to apply for full-time jobs. We've decided not to go the grad school route right away. Considering our situation and chosen field, it just seems to make more sense for him to get some work experience first. So we'll probably end up staying in Provo (hopefully Orem actually) for another little while. Hopefully this means we'll be in the position to travel more (I haven't been to Warrensburg in so long and I'm starting to feel it). New York City and The Grand Canyon are also on our list, not to mention the MacPherson family cruise in November.

I'm just working two jobs--at the Tahitian Noni call center during the day and transcribing at Utah Valley University in the evenings. Ben and I also work at the temple Saturday nights, which has been a great opportunity for both of us. I'm still in the market for another job (shhh) and I'm hoping to hear some responses soon. I know we're incredibly blessed that I can work so much, but it would be nice to work one job and be done at 5 every day instead of 8. It's amazing how something that is possible when you're single becomes exhausting when you're married. Maybe Ben just requires a lot of energy....

We were able to attend a sealing yesterday in Salt Lake. It was a great experience to see a live sealing (the first time for me since our own). It's amazing how much easier it is to pay attention when you're just sitting on the sidelines. We were also able to spend the weekend with Russell and Kim (and David and Kenneth) and see Sherrie and her kids. Family is another one of those added bonuses that has us wanting to stick around for a little while longer.

So there you have it. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to post some more exciting (job) news. Feel free to pray, cross your fingers, wish on a star, or whatever else might make a difference.

Not all news is good news

So we received a bit of discouraging news today. Ben didn't pass the latest stage of the Foreign Service Officer process. This stage is the secretive Q.E.P. stage where they review essays, your resume, and your test scores. To quote the letter from the State department, "A comprehensive review of your file does not allow us to continue your candidacy to the next step of the Foreign Service selection process, the Oral Assessment."

Oh well, I guess better luck next time. The entire process starts over now, and we'll take the written test again in September. At least we'll likely be living in the United States for the next two years now.