Wordless Wednesday…Because there are no words.

         

Sunday

Today was my first Sunday at World Harvest Center.  It was so wonderful to be greeted and welcomed by a large family who was excited to meet me.  Also, some of my favorite people, Jim and Jean Hodges were there.  They are the leaders of FMCI which is the network of churches that Church of the King is part of.  I have known them my whole life and love them so very much. 

 

Before church started Miss Jean gave me a hug from my mother, and all the rest of my family.  It was cool because God knew exactly what I needed.  Today was the day I missed my family the most so far so it was really cool.  Also, worship was pretty awesome and I think there is alot of opportunity to grow here.  After church I had lunch with Mr. Dennis and Miss Pat and I have a picture of them so you know who I am talking about.

Then the Hodges’ came over to visit until 4 and it was wonderful to spend some time with them.  I am so blessed and so honored to have them in my life.  The rest of the day has been good and tomorrow it is back to work. 

More from the Land of Enchantment and Colorful Colorado

I don’t have a whole lot to write about.  I have gone running twice now and the altitude is kicking my butt.  The altitude here is 5300 ft.  I went to Colorado yesterday after work to have dinner with “my people” as Timmy calls them.  We went to Durango which is a tourists town.  It was a really nice place and the food there was good.  One really neat thing was driving from the dessert and seeing the Colorado mountains in the distance behind the dessert mesas.  I tried to get some pictures but it didn’t work so well because we were driving.  I’m hoping next weekend to go to Colorado and play in the mountains or something.  I miss my brothers because they would love to go on an adventure there with me.  Another interesting thing here that if there are any farms they all have irrigation systems that look funny.  Today I slept alot which was nice, went running, did some landscaping, and jumped into the pool for the first time.  I have never been in a pool by myself and it was really weird.  I’m not sure I like it.  Anyways, here are a few of the pictures I took.

“Work”

So, yesterday was my first day of officially entering the corporate world.  First I must say it is the exact opposite of working for Iris.  I am so spoiled here I hope I don’t become a brat.  I pray God will always keep me humble and help me to manage His wealth with wisdom.  That being said, I have no idea why they are paying me so much to do what I’m doing. 

I’ll start with the beginning of my day yesterday. Got dressed all professional.  It felt like the first day of school so I had Miss Pat take a pic for me. 

Walked into the office. 

Some people call it the “crystal palace” It has four floors and its own security system. This is the awesome badge they made for me. 

Now I can enter all the secret passageways whenever I feel like it.  Then I did boring orientation stuff for a couple of hours with three other interns.  Then I met my group.  I am in the first delivery group which I figured out goes something like this.  The land and reservoir people decide where to drill and the safety people make sure it is ok (the other boring floors). Then the awesome people on my floor do drilling and completions and then it comes to my group.  My group gets the new wells up and running and monitors them for a period of time before handing them off to production.  Pretty neat right? I have a supervisor, a mentor, and there are two others in this group.  Also a part of First Delivery Team (FDT) are the MSOs which is an acronym for something I can’t remember but means the guys who visit the wells out in the field.  So that is the basic set up for my group. 

After meeting my people I got my own office! (slash cubical) With two monitor screens!

 

And get this one.  We get lunch breaks everyday.  For an hour.  My mentor was very confused at my surprise at this fact.  I guess it is a normal thing for most businesses.  Also, we don’t have to work on Saturdays AND we get done by 4:30 everyday.  It is absolutely craziness. 

So I got my office and then my group went out to lunch.  We went to El Rios and I got a burrito with green chili.  I didn’t know about all this green chili stuff but I guess it is a big part of the culture here and it was really good.  When we got back to the office I just worked on orientation stuff.  Boring.

Then at 4:30 there was a gathering at a hotel of the interns and mentors for a meet and greet type of thing.  Not my favorite type of thing but there was food.  Ok.  So it wasn’t so bad to meet a bunch of people, I might secretly have liked it a little.  There were some interesting people that I look forward to getting to know better this summer. 

After that I went to church.  I cannot express how grateful I am to have a family here.  It is absolutely amazing to come to a place and be able to just jump in and know that these people live for the same things I do.  Worship was awesome and I think I am really going to love it here. 

Last night I was too tired to blog, so I slept. 

So….today. 

This morning I got to the office at 7 and met all the MSOs and attended the well report meeting.  I was completely lost for the first half hour but I caught on some and wrote down a bunch of questions which I asked the other engineer later on.  Oh yeah, I haven’t met my supervisor yet because he is on vacation and my mentor was out golfing for the company so they weren’t there today.  And after the meeting two of the people in my group and myself just sat in their office and talked about random stuff for about an hour.  It was like a social hour break that I got paid for! Anyways, when the engineer was answering my questions one of the MSO guys stopped in and offered to show me some stuff.  So we went out to his truck and he very patiently explained what must be very elementary things to me and it made sense and I was able to connect it with some of the stuff that was said at the meeting earlier.  It is so exciting to me. 

I can’t help but think that I got put on the most exciting floor with the most exciting group and my project is going to be pretty sweet too.  I am so “pumped” to be able to go out in the field and it is just awesome for me to learn all this stuff….ok I’m sounding like a nerd but its true! I really am so very excited. 

Anyways.  So the morning was fun and then I went with some of the other interns and my assigned “buddy” (from a different dept. who I hadn’t met yet) to lunch at the Three Rivers Brewery.  I had a really good time with them and really like my buddy and think we are going to get along great.  I had a delicious burger but the only problem was that the food took awhile to get to us and certain people (obviously not myself because I scarfed it down) were slow eaters.  My lunch break ended up being about and hour and 45 min.  but nobody in the office cared.  Actually they weren’t even there when I got back (but I had left early to go with the group)  I almost feel guilty but that is the culture there.  I don’t want to fall into it.  I want to work hard the whole time I am getting paid to work.  I just haven’t figured it all out yet. 

After lunch they gave me a free t-shirt because on Fridays we wear red to support our troops. 

After lunch my work was more boring stuff completing online training courses.  Oh, and I did meet with my mentor for a few minutes at the end of the day.  He gave me some assignments to work on for tomorrow.  I have to read this book :) and memorize this diagram.

 

On the drive home from work I did my best to snap a few pictures for those at home demanding them but it was difficult for me to concentrate on driving but these were some of the good results. 

 

For dinner tonight I don’t want to rub this one in but…. I had grilled steak. 

After dinner Miss Pat took me around the town a little more and due to the demand I got these pictures for all of your enjoyment. 

So yeah.  Hope you enjoy. 

Day one of the Big Adventure

After the plane arrived in Albuquerque last night Pastor Christi picked me up and we had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Farmington.  It was dark so I couldn’t see much and I was really tired.  When I got to Mr. Dennis and Miss Pat’s house it was after 1 am in Norwalk so I just went straight to bed.  In the morning I went for a walk and explored a little.  The most amazing thing here is the sky.  It is so much bigger here there is no way to describe it.  You can see for miles and miles all around and the sky is big and blue…No I’m not 3 years old but I feel like it sometimes.

Another thing different is the amount of brown and lack of green.  It isn’t bad, just different.  Because I have an interest in landscaping I paid attention to it on my walk. There are a few yards with little patches of grass but mostly it is just dirt and the landscaping is stones instead of plants.  Some entire yards were made of stone.  I will take pictures of that later. 

After my walk I did a bunch of nothing for awhile.   Then Miss Pat took me around the town.  First we drove by the building I will be working in.  Then we went to a Sonic and then on to Walmart.  At Walmart I was asking about the bathroom set up because it would seem that they have their own bathroom in the back off of their room.  Sure enough, for the first time ever in my life, I have my very own bathroom!  I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it.

  

In addition to my own bathroom, yes I have my very own room.  It was so funny because last night when I got here Miss Pat said something about a noisy pool generator outside my window and this morning Mr. Dennis also mentioned it and how they hoped it wouldn’t bother me.  So funny.  I didn’t hear a thing.  This house is actually really quite. 

After Walmart we went to the church where I met Pastor Larry and picked up my ride until I inherit the Jeep for the summer. 

Needless to say I was filled with great joy. 

After we got back I unpacked everything and just chilled until dinner.  For dinner we had grilled BBQ chicken and cheesy potatoes and asparagus.  I think I am going to like it here.  Oh yeah, and I have a pool.

Tomorrow I start work so I will post about that hopefully tomorrow night.  

The Month of May

So I am on the plane right now.  It is taking longer than I thought it would so I thought I would work on a blog post.  This last month home has been really great, really busy, and REALLY fast.  It is hard to believe it is gone already. 

I guess I’ll just start with the half marathon.  After finals mother came and picked me up and we went to Louisville KY.  I ran the half marathon with Aunt Linda.  The weather was absolutely perfect for a nice long run, sunny breezy, cold in the morning and cool in the afternoon.  She did an amazing job and it was really fun to be able to run with her.  We went through Churchill Downs which was pretty sweet.  Also, I love it when there are people cheering for you on a run and there are water stations.  Wish I had those luxuries during training!  I know that I could have run the marathon but I do not regret my decision at all.

During the month while I was home I worked for my boss from the last two summers doing landscaping and making some money, otherwise I would have gotten bored and grumpy. One day after work one of the guys I work with offered to drive me home on his motorcycle.  It was my first ride ever and so awesome and I am so totally getting one in the future. 

I also helped mother dear with the landscaping at our house to help prepare for Jordan’s graduation party.  We started in the front and I totally re-edged using sandstone and I put in a french drain to help the water not spatter.  One night I was working on it and it was pouring rain and I was super muddy and it was dinner time.  But mother dear didn’t want me to stop working and get cleaned up, and I couldn’t come in the house muddy, so she stood on the front porch and fed me my dinner.  Occasionally I do like being a baby again. Here are a couple of pics I just found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another fun adventure was going to pick up Marriana after she got back from Austria.  She stayed in Steubenville for a few days and then called to be picked up.  She thought that only I was coming but I took Jordan and Timmy with me.  When we got to her campus I stowed them in the trunk of Daddy’s car.  (by the way, I’m no longer on the plane, I’m in my room in Farmington New Mexico! Yay).  Her friend sat in the front seat to give me directions to pick up her luggage and she sat in the back which worked out perfectly.  We started driving and Timmy stuck his head out of the middle seat and said, “Hello my fruity pebbles” in his Russian accent.  Marriana screamed from joy and I pulled over to her demands to open the trunk so she could hug him.  And instead of Timmy getting out of the trunk Jordan did first……It was a good surprise.

Other fun stuff I did…. I’m trying to summarize this as much as possible. I went to the high school talent show and Timmy won first place.  He played You Raised Me Up on the piano while one of his friends sang.  They did awesome.  I went back to Marietta for a day to go to a friend’s graduation ceremony.The  next day I ran in Abby’s schools 5k and was the fastest female runner.   My time was around 22 min. I attended Jordan, Abby, and Sarah’s dance recital.  Jordan was of course awesome, Abby was practically perfect in every way, and Sarah was hilarious.  She jumped around and chased people around the stage, I laughed so hard that I cried.  I went to Joey’s t-ball practice, he had a really good hit, I’m sad that I won’t be home for any of his games. The next night I went to Olive Garden for the second time ever with some pretty awesome people ;) Then the next night was Timmy and Micah’s piano recital.  Then Friday night I went with the Hart family to Cleveland to have dinner with the adoption group that we went to China with.  Saturday was Jordan’s much anticipated graduation party.  Again, all of this stuff was awesome and fun and all that, I’m just trying to get through it so I can get to the New Mexico stuff on my next post. 

The night of Jordan’s graduation party after it started sprinkling rain and most of the people had left, we did some fuego magic.  We burned 6 pallets and a dried out pine tree and completed operation JJ.  Operation JJ was the code name Timmy and I gave to throwing flour on the fire.  I bought a rather large bag before the party and it was really cool when someone would throw a fistful onto the fire.  It was REALLY TOTALLY AWESOME when 8-10 people threw large amounts onto the fire at one time! Needless to say one bag was not enough so we went and got two more big bags and a little one.  Being the cool kids that we are we placed a diaper on the little one and named it baby JJ, then we burned it.  Don’t ask me why but it was super fun.

Sunday was my last day in Norwalk and it was a good one.  We went to church in the morning then some of Marriana’s friends came over.  We played frisbee at the res and then went to Aunt Linda’s for a picnic.  There was a really great water balloon fight on the new ghetto fort.  Little kids against the big kids.  Epic.  Then we did poppers, snappers, and sparklers.  The next day I got on a plane for New Mexico and now I am here and eager to take pictures and blog.  I just needed to get caught up so thanks for bearing with me.