Our Return to Utah

Well its been awhile since I’ve sent an update and we do have some worthwhile news.

First though, a few stories about our last couple of weeks in Texas and our return to Utah. When we moved into our fun little trailer the housing lady told us we’d probably make friends with all the bunnies and prairie dogs. I asked her what other types of creatures were around and one she mentioned was coyote. She said we might hear them but they never really came around. Well one morning as Jeremy and I were walking the “hiking” trail surrounding campus I looked across the open space and jokingly said, “look there’s a coyote.” I just thought it was someones dog that had gotten loose. The more we looked though we discovered it was a coyote – and then saw two others. All of this about ¼ of a mile from our house….exciting? Not so much. After that we saw them more often and even closer to our trailer, try about 100 yards away! One even went trotting across the road right outside the clubhouse one day.

Lucky for me there were plenty of servicemen around to help with whatever I needed. (probably even to shoo away coyotes!) After the bed delivery people I got to meet two electricians that were just as fun. While they were installing a new ceiling fan we got to talking. Then as the electrician I like to refer to as Ernst went by the fridge he bent over to look at the ultrasound pictures of Ellia. They were the new 4d technology and he said, “wow it ulmost luks lok a real baby n ere.” When he turned his back his partner looked at me, made a winding motion with his hand around his ear and said, “well it is a real baby!” What a team! As they left they told me to “have a noss dae!” I saw them a few other times after Ellia was born when I was walking around campus and they stopped to have a look, but not without asking, “haus the poss?” Now I’m not quite sure if I heard that correctly or if poss could maybe mean posse as in family? If anyone knows please enlighten me.

People did say some pretty funny things to me…things I will never forget. One of my favorite was a worker at the hotel we stayed at during my last week in the area. Now in Utah it seems many of the hotel workers are Hispanic, not so in this area of Texas. Every worker was black. They were so nice and all of them wanted to see Ellia, ( I started getting used to just turning her outward whenever someone went by – more on that later!) As I walked by one lady she took one look at Ellia and said, “Boy she godda faaaat fayace!”


Ok, enough making fun of other people, I guess its time to make fun of myself. Funny thing about living in a trailer, you just never really feel like it’s totally secure. One day as I was doing my hair I heard a beep beep beeping outside, lost my balance a little and got worried the trailer was getting hauled away somewhere with me and all our stuff in it! (I had to look outside in the parking lot to be sure, thankfully it was just a garbage truck!)

One of the coolest gifts Jeremy got from Chevron during his Internship was one of those new tiny ipod shuffles that clip on. Well I was trying to think of some good songs to put on it while I was walking early one morning and I heard a song I liked but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I actually started thinking it was pretty rude of whoever was playing the song that early to have it on so loud, I mean if I could hear it all muffled from where I was it must be blaring at the source! Well, I leaned down to check on Ellia and see if it was bothering her in the stroller and realized I was the one blaring the song! The ipod was with me and had gotten turned on somehow without me realizing it. Nice to know I really did like the song! At least no one was around for me to get too embarrassed.

Not so with the next story. As Jeremy and I were waiting to board our plane from New Mexico to Utah we sat and watched as the previous passengers unloaded. One gentlemen sortof moseyed on over to us and I held Ellia up for him to see. As he was standing over me I looked down at Ellia and said, “can you say hello?” The gentleman said, “what?” and I looked up to see that he was talking to the woman sitting behind me. I stupidly explained, “oh I thought you were coming to see the baby so I asked her if she could say hello.” He didn’t say anything.

Being back in Utah was so nice. I never appreciated the mountains so much! Things calmed down and one morning when I woke up at my mom’s in Midway I looked outside. In one direction I saw a field with some cows and to the other I saw an old red barn on the hill. I couldn’t believe how beautiful and majestic they seemed to me. What an amazing place Utah is. I even saw a little cottontail rabbit just as I was starting to miss the little buggers.

In other news Jeremy and I decided to take the job with Chevron in Bakersfield, California. He will be working as an earth scientist, which is sort of another name for a geologist. We will most likely only be there for a few years before transferring to Houston. We turned down an amazing company (Exxon) which made us sick to our stomachs but decided we needed to start off a little closer to home to make the transition a little easier for everyone. We are excited to be going with Chevron, Jeremy starts February 4, 2007. By then he should have his thesis done and his Master's in Geology from BYU.