End of Summer Musings

Hello world. It's been a while.

What a whirlwind of a summer. Since I last wrote, Joe and I have both just working tons, and taking a few random trips. We went to California (L.A.) at the end of July to visit Joe's sisters: Liz, and Rebecca and her family. We had a blast. We visited the Getty museum, the Griffeth Observatory, and Malibu beach.

We also ate some great sea food and did a lot of nothing. It was great and very relaxing. Liz was kind to take us around LA and see the sights (and drive-- LA drivers are CRASY-GO-NUTS!).

This trip was especially nice to get away from the move we were in the middle of-- that's right, folks, Joe and I officially moved out of the Branbury (after 6 years for Joe). Because we couldn't move in to our new 4-plex until the 1st of August, but had to be out of our Branbury apt by the 22nd of July, my parents were nice enough to let us stay with them for a week.

Now we are all moved in to our new place and loving it. It feels like a palace in size compared to our first place--it's actually almost twice the square footage (our Branbury apt. was about 500 sq. ft.). We are also loving the extra storage, 2nd bedroom, and covered parking.

Other story of the week, which it pains me to tell: Joe and I were up for phone upgrades so we decided to join the world and get smart phones. Well, after having mine for all of 2 days, I put it through the washer accidentally when I washed the sheets on our bed, not realizing I had left my phone on the bed when I woke up. To make a long story short, after trying every trick on the internet to try to dry it out, it was ruined. We went ahead and added the warranty, since we were still within 14 days of purchase, but now we will have to pay the monthly warranty fee and the deductible, so... I am rethinking how smart it is for me, Emily-- clumsy and ditsy at times-- to be responsible enough for a smart phone. Right now I'm just using my old phone again.

I'm back in school for my last semester until I graduate- yay! I'm taking my capstone English major class, which I chose the literature of the Brontё family (Patrick, Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell), as well as my last general ed class (second half of humanities), a poetry class, the Bible as literature, and a history and criticism of rhetoric class. So-- lot's of fun classes!

Also, I officially worked my last day at Charlotte Russe yesterday- it was bittersweet. It feels good to move on, but I've literally worked there for almost four years and made a lot of friends and memories. So n

o more weekends or late nights working! Or holidays! I love it. I only work 20 hours/week at Cedar Fort (oh, yes I don't know that I mentioned on here that my internship hired me!) and it is around my classes, so I have a much more regular schedule.

No update on the Army yet :( But Joe has been busy building guitars. You heard me right.

Life is good and we feel really blessed. Love you all!

Summer Fun

HELLOOOO!

So I finished my spring class (book publishing) so now my days are filled with working (still at CR) and. . . da da da: my internship! The first week was a bit rough. I went in for my first day and took an editing test and read through the their style guide and stuff. So when I went in the second day, I assumed I would be doing more orientation stuff. Well. . . instead, there was a fat manuscript on my desk to source check, along with a box filled with seven three-inch thick binders filled with photocopied sources. So, source checking isn't the most glamorous of jobs within the realm of editing, but someone needs to do it, and as an intern, I was overjoyed at having a project of my own to be in charge of. Well, unfortunately, before I could even start source checking, I had to make sense of all the sources. They weren't in any sort of order, so I spent pretty much the whole day alphabetizing the hundreds of articles by author or editor last names. Also, about 2/3 of the the cited sources were not even in the binders, so I had to make note of all the missing sources and carefully go through the bibliography. Even though it took me about a week, it was rewarding every time I found an error and could fix it. Because it was so time-consuming and tedious, if I hadn't done it, I don't know that it would have gotten done as thoroughly. Besides, after that, all the editors felt so bad for me that I had to do that, that they have given me really fun projects since then. I've proofread a few Christmas books (yes--that's how far in advance they are going through the editing process), I proofread a kindle version of a cupcake cookbook, and now I am doing the page layout design for a book on business strategy and I've been put in charge of it so that I am the one collaborating with the author. It's pretty fun and exciting. My favorite aspect of editing/publishing is the ambassador role between author and publishing house. It's a lot of collaboration, compromise, and negotiation. Fun fun fun.

A couple of weeks ago, Joe and I went on a weekend camping trip with Brittany and Kenton. Joe and I had seen a list on Yahoo or something of "the ten places every kid should visit in the U.S."

http://dailymailnews.com/0311/29/Snippets/index.php?id=1

So, between us, we had been to all of them (thanks, Moms and Dads!) except Craters of the Moon national monument. And whattaya know- it is only in Idaho! So we decided to be spontaneous and go check it out one weekend. It was truly awesome! Except the weather, which was super windy and rainy the first day (making my dutch oven meal plans rather difficult!), but cleared up by our second day there. We checked out these tube caves that had been formed by lava on the surface cooling and hardening first, while the lave beneath kept flowing out, forming hollow caves. There were just these huge mounds of black sand from the volcano cones, and then lots of jagged black rocks everywhere. It was really surreal scenery. It truly looks like you are on another planet (or the moon), and we read that astronauts used to go there to learn about volcano craters and other geological features found on both there and on the moon.

I taught our primary class (4 and 5 year olds) for the first time this past Sunday. They are hilarious and adorable. There are just 3 girls. They talk SO much. They love to talk about their families and how awesome/terrible their parents were in the past couple days, current favorite toys, who they played with yesterday, and how they are going into preschool/kindergarten soon.

For the fourth of July weekend, Joe and I went to my parents for a BBQ on Sunday and then Joe's parents Monday evening. We drove to see Keren and Nik's new house in Weber and in anticipation of watching fireworks from. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes got the best of us, but we got to see tons of fireworks on the drive home to Provo-- more than I've ever seen on Independence day, most likely due to the now legalized aerial fireworks in Utah. But we also go to meet Keren and Nik's new dog, Oscar, a dachshund! He is so cute and it makes me want a dog so bad!!!

Kara is at Brighton, being counselor Chinook and having so much fun! It makes me nostalgic for being up there, and I really miss hanging out with her during the week. But I think I will go up for devotional one of these weeks.

I wanted to post some pictures with this, but I can't find our camera at the moment, so... hopefully I'll put some up soon

The Curious Incident of the Ravens at Mid-day-time

HeLLLOOOO, Spring. Nice to see you. You make me so happy inside.

This past weekend, Joe and I got to go on a really fun camping/hiking/jeeping trip with my Uncle Dave, Cousin-in-law Mark, his 7-year-old son Caleb, Tom, and Lauren.

We left Wednesday night in Stella with Tom and Lauren in the back, while White Trash heroically carried Dave, Mark, Caleb, and seven peoples'-worth of gear. We got to Canyonlands (about 5 hours southeast of Provo) around midnight and therefore just set up our sleeping bags out under the stars. Which would have been awesome, except that it was 43 degrees. I didn't sleep too well because Joe and I had brilliantly decided to zip our sleeping bags together because then we could snuggle and be warmer, right? Well actually, it just made it so that we couldn't utilize the mummy bag feature of draw-stringing the top tightly around your head to keep cold air from coming in. The next morning warmed up real nice though and Joe made his famous Chambers' McMuffins (which don't, in fact, have anything to do with muffins. Or Mc.) of sausage, egg, and cheese on a hamburger bun for everyone. Next, we headed toward Elephant Hill with one goal in mind: TO FULFILL MY LIFE-LONG DREAM OF DRIVING STELLA OVER IT. Or at least that's been my dream since I got Stella 15 months ago. Well I am happy to report that my mission was accomplished (I only stalled like >4 times. Way less). And Lauren didn't die. Win-Win.


We then set up our campsite at Devil's Kitchen and went exploring in the rocks and cliffs nearby. I am always so amazed at the view, every time I go. It is so surreal and pictures just don't do it justice.

Well, when we got back from our little exploring adventure, there was stuff scattered all around. Lauren's bag was all opened up and spilled out on the ground, the paper towel roll was peppered with holes, and, alas, the 7 lb. bag of Black Forest gummy bears was being FEASTED UPON BY A MURDER OF RAVENS! I think "murder" is the term used to describe a quantity of crows, but it is fitting here. Even though we thought we had adequately sealed up all our food, it seems we neglected to read the posters at the visitors center which warned of ravens being very aggressive and able to unzip bags and knock lids off trash cans to find food. It was a sad, sad moment and the gummy bears were sorely missed.

I made taco soup adapted from Pika's dutch oven recipe for dinner and it was a big hit, although I later regretted putting so many chili beans in...

Friday, we jeeped over to the joint and hiked from there to Druid arch. It ended up being an eleven mile hike and I was exhausted afterward, but it was beautiful. For dinner, Dave cooked up canned soup buffet. It's amazing how hungry you get camping and I'm pretty sure we finished most of them off.

Saturday we went on a short hike and then jeeped over to the confluence (where the Green River joins the Colorado River), and then saw newspaper rock on our way out of the national park. The 5 hour drive home wasn't bad at all, as the weather was overcast and a bit rainy. Driving home in an un-air-conditioned car mid-day in the sun would not have been fun.

Overall, it was a really fun trip, and it was so fun to take Joe there and hang out with Tom and Lauren, Mark, Dave, and Caleb.

Yay for camping!
Yay for Stella going over Elephant Hill!
Yay for the rat poison we injected into gummy bears and left for the ravens!

Ok just kidding about that last one... we forgot to bring rat poison so there's no way we could've done that. Only imagined it fondly.

Peace.

"OSAMA GOT JIMMERED"

Darn. I had forgotten I was supposed to be back in the habit of blogging again. Hmm. So much news to share, I don't know where to begin the update.

Well, I am officially signed up for graduation in December when I will be walking. Yay! It will have only taken me 5 1/2 years to do so.... I am taking one class right now for spring term, and then summer term I have my internship, and I will take my last few classes in the fall. I am really excited to start my internship-- I will be an editing intern for Cedar Fort, a book publishing company located in Springville.

I cut my hair off. Well, I didn't, but a nice lady at the mall did. It's all gone and I love it. Kara kind of gave me the idea, but I had been wanting to do it for a while.

So... if you're not familiar with driving around Provo lately, there's this bridge that goes over University parkway, and there are often messages written in plastic cups in the chain link fence that you can see overhead as you are driving west on University Pkwy. Usually they advertise Elder Smith coming home, or Gertrude's 16th birthday. Well yesterday as I was driving to work, it said, "OSAMA GOT JIMMERED." My first reaction was profound hilarity, but then it kinda just seemed morbid. If you don't know the back story behind "jimmered" becoming a verb, check out:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Letter-besmirching-Jimmer-inspires-hilarious-Fac?urn=ncaab-318567

And then:

http://dreamcatchermedia.com/jimmered

Anyway, after many well-spent hours reading some of the Provo Jimmer obsession, getting "jimmered" really just has become an everyday verb in my head like "facebooking" or "texting," and you hear it all around Provo. But to have it so taken out of context to apply to a long-time hunted tyrant made it seem like a joke. I know it is a good thing he is dead for the benefit of everyone, but I have a hard time reveling in the death of anyone, especially in a light manner. Maybe if I had had a close love one die in a terrorist attack like 9/11 for example, I would feel differently though. I did really like President Obama's remarks and I am grateful for this bag step in the fight against terrorism. I think it was important that he differentiated that we were fighting tyrants, not Muslims or any other religions or peoples.

So... Prince William and Kate, huh?

Joe's been making some good progress on his book that he is writing (sci-fi). He has been letting me help him brainstorm and edit parts of it. I am hoping to use some sway during my internship and try to get it published because I think it is very worthwhile. If any of you out there have book projects you are working on, let me know, because I would love to help push some projects through.

I should call it a day here, but here's to the hope that warm weather will find us soon. Happy belated Easter and Earth Day-- go see the movie "African Cats."

Emily

Hair, birthdays, and quarter-life crises

Ok so... I am repenting am going to start blogging once a month again. Although, now, probably no one is following us anymore since it has been 8 months since my last post. Poo.

So most of you have been aware of my chameleon hair lately. First, back in August, it just had a few blonde highlights, and then I decided if I was going to "go blonde", I should just take the plunge and commit to it, so allover blonde I went. I actually kinda liked it. But of course, I got bored with it (and having to re-bleach it like once a month) and so I decided to go red. Well, I did it myself and it was really more of a, well--a sort of--orange. So then I had a friend fix it into a darker red with some brown. But I felt like a vampire, with my blessed widow's peak. So last week, I decided to go back to brown. So it was a fun six months, but I am glad to be back to plain old brown.





In other, less boring news, my friend from high school, Sharolee, just got married to another one of my good friends, Jason, and they moved in below us! It is so fun for me to have them as neighbors and we hang out with them a lot.

Let's see... I had a birthday. I am 23. Wayne and Liz and Joe all went behind everyone's back and surprised us all with a surprise Chambers family birthday lunch at Olive Garden. It was such a fun surprise!


Also, Joe and I are having quarter-life crises-- not because we are buying random stuff, but because we just both realized we have no idea what we are supposed to be doing with our lives right now. Or maybe that was why I was doing crazy things with my hair... It all started with me getting an email to go to this 4th-year student workshop for the humanities college. So-- these things are usually useful, but once you get to the 4th year one, it's like: "So... you guys have already taken the GRE and gotten into grad schools if that's your plan, or if not, you've like, already done your internships and been networking and have a job set up, right?" Like there is not much they can really help us with at this point in our college career. After several other students had shared their ambitious plans or news of making it into Vanderbilt law, this one kid raised his hand and said, " So... what if I'm graduating in April and I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up?" It was so funny, but so true to how I felt. So basically, I decided I am going to post-pone my graduation until December (it was supposed to be August) because... I'm not ready to be done with school yet, and I don't want to cram too many classes in this summer while I'm trying to simultaneously do my internship. And go to Moab. A lot.

And Joe has decided that he needs to fly again. So I think he is going to try to get his CFI (certified flight instructor) license this summer, so that will be really cool.

Look forward to another post in March! Because I am committed to the blog!

Love, Emzo