Success Rate

I got a job today! Walked in to give them my resume and say if any jobs become available please consider me. With my perfect timing I walked in during the middle of a fire drill, but once things calmed down the assistant director grabed the owner and director. They interviewed me, and hired me! That was a place I drove by last Friday and thought "That's a cool place, I would like working there." Hallelujah!
Ill be working full time at a "day care" with school age kids for the summer and helping out in the Kindergarten rooms, and working with school age kids after school during the school year. Tell me that's not perfect. God put me in just the right place AGAIN! The girl whos place I'm taking is leaving for Wyoming tomorrow.  His success rate seems to be pretty high. Youd think sitting back and having a little faith would be easier by now.

Honeymoon

We got married on Saturday, May 22, 2010. The whole time Luke planned our honeymoon AND kept it a secret. I had no idea where we were going! So, as the reception was wraping up, Lukes dad went and retrieved my car from its hiding spot (There are Vandals in Idaho you know) Luke went and got his suitcase, I gathered my stuff, some very kind souls helped me carry it down, and then we were off. Except I stil didn't know where we were going. About 5 minutes in I fiigured out we were headed north to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We stayed there for one night. Final destination: still unknown.

...but isnt this color gradiation of cars in the parking lot cool? Bright yellow, mustard yellow, brown yellow.

Then we were back in the car and once I saw the sign I discovered we were going toward Montanna! After a bit of probing I learned we were headed to Yellowstone! I've always wanted to visit!

Luke fibbed a bit as I had originally thought the stipulations were "We were going somewhere neither of us had been befor," but I've always wanted to go to Yellowstone so I got over it pretty quick!

It wasnt an unsubstantial drive from CdA to Gardiner, Montana. (Town nearest the North Entrance) So we waited until the next day to go to the park. The weather was....well...colder than expected.

Note the snow on the ground!

The springs were hot enough to keep some things warm. Note the grass growing green in the runnoff and the little bird in the bottom left quadrant of the photo. (Thats for you Grandma G)

That was probably the day we did the most driving in the park. We saw tons of wildlife as we made our way up and down the park throughout our trip.

Baby bison!

Road block. Our side was stopped to take pictures (not just us, there were 3 cars in front of us) and the other side well...as you can see they werent going anywhere.

Hidden in the bottom half of this one are some goats, sheep or something.

This elk is impressive because apparently he has quite the rack allready. Hahahahaha

I wanted so badly to brush (or maybe shear) all the animals free of their winter coats. They just looked so uncomfortable with pieces clumpin off.

We were also able to see some whitetail deer, bears and a couple cayote! Quite the wildlife experience!

We got to Old Faithful just after he/she had let off some steam already so we did some exploring. Then we sat around with everyone else and took some funny pictures while we waited .

We tried a bunch of times to make it look like Luke was blowing the steam coming out of Old Faithful but the wind kept shifting. No such luck. We didnt take any pictures of the eruption because, well, we wanted to watch.

Then we went into the old lodge. Wow! Talk about some intricate wood work! I really wanted to go to the top so Luke and I set off up the stairs...

Only to be stopped. Then we snuck a peek into some of the rooms (very cool...no bathrooms.)

On our way back for the night we stopped just outside the West Entrance to the park and visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip!

They had some really interesting and informative displays inside (in the warmth) and out!

Running with wolves. This exhibit had a room with large glass windows for viewing and the wolves were being really active!

Look! They even have a Jacob Black monument! Hahaha

And we finally met someone with biger hands than Luke! No not me...

The bear!!!

Whew!! That was ALL day one! We really covered our bases...the days to follow are a bit more mellow so I'm going to do us all a favor and post that later!

One in Every Color- Right on Target

Thanks goes to John for sharing today's "One in Every Color." He first saw the ad insert in his newspaper and then sent me the link! Check out all the things Target has in every color right now! (Or had a couple weeks or so ago.)

and here they even had the circular concept going....

Address Change

We have a new address! This one will be good until about December. Send me an email at ljnickodemus@comcast.net (temporary, most likely only until December) or my normal personal email with the word "Address" in the subject line and I'll respond with our address and updated contact information.

Jazzing Up the Breakfast Sandwich-For Dinner

We had our first dinner in our apartment yesterday. Spaghetti. Real original eh? Today's was a little more creative:

Garlic onion roll (left over from dinner at Aunt Polly's the day we got here) halved and grilled with a bit of bacon juice as we're both lactose intolerant (sometimes we cheat.) Scrabled/fried ish egg (first attempt was to be microwaved in silicone muffin sleeves but I over-did the time. Oven is a better bet but after the first one exploded I went the traditional pan route. Round two we'll go for perfect round egg McDonalds style, but baked in the oven.) Topped with some bacon and dabs of salsa juice. I prefer some ketchsup, but Luke doesnt like it so we didn't get any on our first trip to the store. Dont worry its on the list now. I made do with some dabs of the run off from the salsa. My brain thinks it's less spicy. Anyway. It was stinkin good. Stinkin because there was quite a bit of garlic in the roll.

And Just to Clear Things Up:

I wasn't blogging on my honeymoon...I had written a few posts back when I was packing my room based off of some ideas I had written on post-its and then let scatter around...I found them and figured blog now or forget forever. So I wrote the blogs and then scheduled one (maybe two) for while I'd be MIA so you (my bleaders) wouldnt forget I was on your blog roll.

Pondering Production: Allergies

"You know what's sort of surprising? Mohair comes from Angora goats and angora comes from rabbits. You know what else is surprising? How few non knitters find that interesting."
-Yarn Harlot

This cracks me up. And seriously, non knitters look at me like I'm nuts sitting there cracking up and the joke nobody else thinks is funny.
Oh well.

Anyway, its even funnier because I'm allergic to both. Sad day for me because both add such a delicious element to yarn. Sigh. Now I'm on the hunt for other goodies that I'm not allergic to. I included some cashmere in my wedding shrug. My eyes got itchy by the end of the day of working with them but that might also have been spring allergies.

Baby cotton=fantastic. I'm definitely not allergic to that. Sheep's wool=good to go. Alpaca=doesn't seem to bother me yet.

The Big Reveal

Luke planned our honeymoon all by hisself, and was able to keep it a secret until we were on the way out the day after the wedding! (Freeway signs sort of started to give it away!) Can you tell where we went?

We're headed to Colorado Springs today! More details to come!

One In Every Color -Cuisin-Art

This one was a store display at Sur La Table. I didn't want to push my luck and ask to re-arrange ALL the display items as well as take pictures. But yum. It prepares food AND looks good!

Pondering Production-Feet First

Heather Ordover, of the podcast Craft Lit talks about learning to knit in one of her first "casts." She reminisces how she jumped in feet first, paying no heed to anyone who told her she couldn't, and as a consequence she found that she could.

Every time I tried a new project in McCall, ID under the supervision of Lynda my instructor extraordinaire, she'd say "pretend it's going to work until it does."

The Yarn Harlot says to "charge straight out and start a knitting project that you think is too hard for you. It's good for the human soul to accept a challenge, and you know what? It's going to be easier than you think. All knitting is only knit and purl, and I bet you know how to do both of those. "

It's true. I never learn very much when I don't challenge myself. I just have to keep remembering, to keep going, feet first, paying no heed to anyone who says I cant, pretending to work until it does, and accepting a good challenge.

Here we go!

Ps. There's a clause to this challenge put out by the Yarn Harlot: If you are a VERY new knitter, still finding your way around, read the descriptions of the patterns you are considering really carefully. If you see the words "intriguing construction," put it back down. If you see the word "heirloom," put it down and then run: It's code for "This pattern is so difficult that you will consider death a relief."

11 Days...

until I'm married! I'm on my way to Moscow right now...well sort of. I left this evening after packing EVERYTHING. I keep telling Luke apoligeticly "I have a lot of stuff." 
Right now Im in Reno. It took three hours longer than it should have to get from Sacramento to Reno. Yay snow, bad snow drivers, TONS of trucks. Ive never seen so many trucks in my life! I've never felt so little in my bug! After such an adventurous section of the trip, I decided I needed a good nights rest. Im in a hotel with friendly germs, no smoking, and no casino attatched. Peaceful. Thank goodness for the AAA discount! As for the snow? Im over it. Its May. Lets have sun sun sun! Here's to good weather the rest of the way!

One In Every Color-Driving Fan Base

Im truly loving these things that people keep sharing! Today I got a message from Tracy:
After church on Wednesday, Daniel and his friend were organizing cars according to color. I ran in and said, "I have to take a picture!" Marcy was standing there waiting to see why I was taking a picture. I said, "for Jessica and Cindy." She said, "That's who I thought of and I was waiting to see what you were taking it for."

 Thanks for sharing this fun photo and for thinking of me Tracy and Marcy! Goes to show that even young kids  can appreciate sorting things and color! Give em props!
Ps. If you can coach them into a circle next time  bonus points!

Pondering Production: Holy Knit

The Yarn Harlot once asked a friend of hers who is "very active in her church if she thought it was appropriate to knit while sitting in the pews. She replied, 'I believe that my Maker made me the way He thinks I should be, and I'm a knitter.' To cover her bases, she uses this time to knit for charity."

Mom's cousin Bruce, a minister from Massachusetts, rang in his vote saying that if you making prayer shawls it wouldn't seem so bad.

While I have yet to knit in church, but seriously consider it on a regular basis, (so far I design quilts I'm going to make someday for the MCC sale...my brain works better when my hands are busy...) I'm excited that our Pastor James's sermons particularly those through November on the Sermon on the Mount will be available via Podcast <here.> This makes me especially happy because once we're married we'll be moving to Colorado Springs where Luke will be completing his seven month internship. (And now, no one will know if I'm knitting or not!)

Lazy Diet

For the first time ever laziness might actually keep my from getting...squishy? Out of shape?
The driver side window of my car wont roll up easily once rolled down. Every time I consider fast food I have to think....is this worth the risk of not being able to get my window up? Usually no. Then I have to think, is this worth going IN to the restauraunt for? Usually no.

I'm getting my car fixed today. This theory will soon be over. Sad, but happy day.

One in Every Color-To Paris and Back

We were going to get some pedicures after our girls rodeo night. We stopped for coffee for Jenny and Emilie (apparently they cant live without the stuff) and I saw this shop called Weekend in Paris right next to the Starbucks on Willow and Herndon (in Fresno.) Through the window I could see all of the brightly colored products they carried and had to peek in! Check it out! One In Every Color!

One In Every Color-Buttoned Up!

So it seems I've now got you all clued in on my hunt for things that come in every color. I got this as a picture message from Dani <here> last week. What I especially like about this is how the colors are in order. It makes them look organized....now if only they had been on a cicular rack, and Dani had been standing on TOP of the rack to take the picture. Just kidding Dani! Thanks for the picture!