Journey Home

It as mentioned earlier was quite the weather. Well, it affected work the rest of the week. I decided to not stick around and so did my co/worker friend. We left monday. The transportation though was highly amusing. We were picked up by someone in the family congregation and taken to the bus station an hour away.  Than, we got on the bus in time, but we had 5 suitcases between the two of us. The train in that area was not operating because the tracks were iced over in that area. So, the new shuttle was a city bus going to the next big station. Well, the station people told me not to worry about the fee until the station. The bus people said otherwise. I never carry cash and so, they argued with me. I told them what the station people said, and than at the same time another bus person was telling me to move my luggage to a different spot. I was holding up the bus unintentionally. I was having a two way conversation at the same time. Finally, I was let my friend hold my luggage and rearrange it according to them while i went back inside to tell the station people about the fee disagreement. They sent me to the cop, who was not much help. He pointed in the general direction of where to get a ticket at the machine. I didn't see one around the corner like it said,  bugged him again. He grunted finally pointed directly to where and told me where to look. I had to go across to the tracks, walk all the way to the end of the area. Machine was broken. Walked back, a lady paid it on her phone for me. The station people asked where I had gone, when they had sent me to get my ticket. We left 10 minuets late. Than at the next stop we became a sardine bus. Like 20 more people boarded. So, I was leaning over the luggage since it was in my friends seat. She leaned on me as an arm rest since we couldn't move. It was pretty funny.  Than, we had to get off at the one station the whole bus load, than catch the train. My co worker and I boarded another train a short time later. Had a nice security fare cop come up to us and tell us the best routes to our airports. I had to get off before my co worker  since we were going to two different airports, so we said goodbye quickly and she kept going. Had some guy asking for bus far at the 2nd station. Than, got on my second train and had to get off, had a nice gentleman that showed me where to catch the shuttle.  and than go to a shuttle to get to the airport. Got checked in and such. The plan was delayed for 30 minuets. Got on, had a delay of waiting because it was a 3 flight destination. Kind of interesting. We left about an hour after. The first stop people got off, had another delay because of course needed to check all luggage. I am glad, don't think anyone wants to lose luggage :). But, we still got back only about an hour late. They managed to save time once we got out of texas, since the ice storm was mostly in their region. We had the church congregation guy pray before we pulled out for us to catch everything on time and all would work out. It did, in a crazy way. But, we had lots of help, caught everything, met nice people along the way.

icy madness

So, the weather here has been bonkers. Apparently, it is all over the states though. But, work got canceled fryday, our kid group went home at noon instead of 5 thursday. Now, church, the nativity, city float and such are all canceled. We have been iced in . But, we did laundry,watched Christmas movies, cleaning, packing, baking and my co worker and I have found plenty of mischief. We have found the buildings with many giant icicles on them and broken them. We broke some and threw them into the frozen parts of the lake, and used other icicles and brooms to knock others off. We have our own personal ice rink out front the dorm. None of our roommates/co workers are surprised by any of these activities.  Here are some photos and vidoes of it all. :) enjoy.

Jokersters on the prow

So, super funny story, at least to myself. I had a lively, spunky, and  plucky group of kids this week.
I had them try these cedar berries, i have all my groups try it when we do the forest trail. Most of the kids dislike the taste and will spit it out. I do it, just for their reaction because I think it is hilarious to watch. Well, my group on their own went up to two other groups and advertised these berries as delicious, a must try food, and so forth. They just really, did their best to make these berries sound amazing. It was just extremely comical. It was a lot of fun with that group :0 ).

Road walker

So, it was a nice day out yesterday. Went with my roommate and walked to the store about 2 hours and 45 minuets away. We had this herd of cows that as we passed them, they came running from out in the field and up to the gate. The entire herd. I will attach a picture. Than some cars drove by and they ran back out into the field. After the cars left, they ran back to the fence to us. One cow was on two legs and riding on another ones rear end trying to get to the front of the herd. It was interesting, we laughed pretty hard.
Than a couple of weeks ago I walked to the store and got picked up by a cop. He took me to the store the rest of the way. Than saw me walking back and dropped me off at his boundary line. He saw my roomate and I yesterday, and he pulled over and said, " Everytime I see you, your walking". " You gonna be out walking tomorrow again too". I said, no I am gonna be sittin on my butt at church. It was really funny how many times I have run into him.

We saw two coyotes yesterday, I have only ever heard them. It was my first time seeing them in the wild. That was pretty cool. 

Happy Early April fools to self

So, I was starting to make spaghetti, and first it started boiling really fast, than I go to get the sauce and well turned out to be a gormet jar of salsa instead of spaghetti sauce. My roomate was there and laughed at me. It was really funny. Then she said the other reason it was so funny was that salsa and spaghetti aren't even in the same isle at the store we go to :). That is my joke on myself. Time to prepare for teaching a night hike :).

sites of wildlife

I was on my last stop for the class I was teaching. On the trail I found a three -toed box turtle crossing the trail. I went and picked him up so my group didn't pick him up and harm him. I got a picture with him and named him Fredrick. It is the first I've seen wildlife during the day.  I have seen armadillos, heard pack of coyote, and owls.

 

One of my co workers found the biggest frog. I am assuming is an american bullfrog. 

Dallas zoo

So, I am now living in Dallas for the next few months and working at a outdoor school. I went to the zoo this week while there with some co workers.

 This is the zoo put under a freeway and I thought that was interesting. 

 this was my favorite. We had lunch with two sleepy lions. 

 This is a bird eating a mouse it had just caught, not something you see everyday. 

Vistin the neighbors

I last week went on a trip to see a close friend that I haven't seen since graduating at the university 2 years ago. I brought my sister with me. I am putting up pictures of the trip.

 This is a pictures of Brigham Youngs house, Famous Church prophet from 1800's.

 This is my friend, sister and me posing just before we saw our show called " Thoughly Modern Millie". 

 The church Tabernacle in the area made in the late 1800's. 

 This is the theatre we went to for the show

 This is my sister and I at a nature park

 My friend and I at the same park :)

 The church Temple in the area. 

 This is us pretending to be caving. We only went in a little ways. We hiked the trails in the area. It had sand dunes, lots of different types of mountains, volcanic rock, many caves, and it was really cool. It only takes 20 minuets to get through the park driving through. 

storm clouds

At work, I have been having my kids during their ribbon activity do an arizona rain storm. It didn't seem to be working. Well, last night we finally got it! But, well we are flooding a little bit :? . I feel a little guilty now. But, we have had some awesome clouds with these storms.

And no, palm trees are not native here haha!

We did the rain movement with our camp groups and we got rain everyday we did that. If anyone is in need of rain, try it. The snap of fingers, stump the feet, pat the thighs, rub the palms together ( making a swoosh sound), and than repeat all the way back and than the final thing you will do is the shhh thing. It works. Each sound represents a storm sound. 

A day and a life in scottsdale

I was leaving the mall in scottsdale with my lovely body soaps purchases. On the way out of the mall parking lot, saw this event and thought it would be fun to post it :).

Choo choo baby!

I had my first train ride ever on my way home from completing that job in Texas. I decided since I had hmmm like 4 bags is what I condensed my stuff to.  The plane would cost way more to go especially with all that luggage.  I have always wanted to ride the train. It was a 28 hour ride. I thought it was going to be so long and boring. It was not. The train has a lounge, cafe, dinner car, and such. I just slept and read a book, watched movies on my laptop, and talked to the people next to me. I learned a lot about old towns we passed from people I was sitting by that had been frequent riders. I met a nice older woman and I was able to help get stuff for her since it was harder for her to cross 3 trains while moving.
Here's some pictures of the adventure .

Tucson, AZ

 El, Paso, TX

 Austin, TX

Tucson, AZ train station

boogie woogie bar!

So, I have now been to a bar twice. I go with my co workers to this piano bar that is really fun! While there this last time, I was called wild one, high energy from people in the bar and so forth. I was a sensation. I was the only dancing and cheering and what not. My co workers thought it was great. All were amazed at me just  having so much energy to dance every song. Especially, since they were all drinking except 3 of us and I wasn't. I felt pretty special. It is more one of those stories to see rather than read about.
But, it was really fun!
Oh, and I got my first strike with bowling that night also.

Oh Turtles!

So, my co worker/ neighbor and I were assigned to go on a town run for animal feed, and supplies for banana boats that they use for the survival class. Well, I was driving down the road with her, we both saw this turtle in the road and we had to move it so we didn't squish it, so she went out and started to move it. I watched from my drivers chair and as she was carrying this turtle it just started pouring and pouring out pee from itself. I just busted up laughing. She had to sort of waddle and hold it far from her so it didn't get on her. It was like a faucet attached to the turtle it was nuts. Then, she found another turtle at the other side of the road and moved it too and it did the exact same thing. It too just had this faucet going as she carried it to the little pond near the side of the road. We thought to get a picture too late, but it was way funny!

off roading whoo!!!

So, I got my first golf cart driving experience here at camp! Had to clean up bathrooms since the house keepers bailed for the day. We got to ride in one, than later that day, I got to drive the golf cart myself to get fire wood!!!! We had 15 minuets til dinner, and I was like time is of the essense!!!! Were going all the way with this!! We would have to park and carry like 6 loads of firewood, and I was like um no. So, my co worker condoned me in my decision to take the golf cart to the max! Drive that cart off the trail and right up to the bins where we keep extra fire wood. Than managed to still reverse even though the ground was lumpy and bumpy. Than, I drove it down to the spot near where we need. Well, the golf cart decided that wasn't okay with it where we parked it. It decided to make a run for it down the hill. So, my co worker and I went cart chasing. It didn't get too far. We braked and turned the cart off and it kept moving. So, we were half in and out trying to stop it.  We decided to just park it on an area where it wasn't so sloped. Where we had wasn't much of one,but  yah. Than, I got to go into town to get hersey bars for s'mores for the kiddies.

I finally after all these years since being in Florida and seeing all dead armadillos, saw one that was walking, breathing, and running from me last night on the road into camp!!!!

A unique kind of race

This weekend got invited by some co workers for my roomate and I to go strawberry picking with them. We  got a 1/4 basket full of nice, red and juicy strawberries! One we thought looked like a flower :). Than, they had a race going on for lawnmowers, very interesting. There was two races, one for slower lawnmowers and one for faster ones. Never seen anything like it, so very unique.

adventures in the golf

It has been a crazy last few weeks for work. I've done so many things. I have learned to do many new things. I have help with platforms, building trails, glob training, and learning new classes to teach to kids. I went on a weekend trip with some co workers and took pictures of Corpus Christi a beach city a few hours from here. We went to a biotanical garden, surf board museum, the beach, camped out, and geocaching by lake corpus. The last picture is of me and my co worker dressed up to play an astromony game called "Team of the Universe" ha ha.:)

Power of Awesomeness!

 I am in my last week of training at work. Super busy, like morning to night of stuff literally.
We did ropes course, power pole, flying eagle, and zip line training. We were all trained how to tie the knots used for belaying correctly. We were tested, it took me twice. We are now trained for properly belaying of these courses.
We do have to do all of the activities ourselves, so we know the feel, and will relate with the kids.
I did all the high ropes course things. Catwalk is walking across a log with nothing to hold and walking straight across it. You are of course attached to rope and have belayers. I did bridge of dreams which is holding onto ropes on either side of you and walking a wire. The swings, very difficult in high wind that we have here. You have to move from one swing to another side ways. You have to rock your body sideways to get it to swing and reach out to grab the next swing.  Power pole this one I admit- scared me pretty good. You climb a ladder, climb prungs on a pole. You than have to put one foot up at a time on top of the log. But, you have to balance doing it, there is nothing at all to hold on to. One foot on the last prong is much lower than the leg you have to put up on the log first. So, you have to push into one knee to and pull the other leg up while balancing. Than, you have to stand. When we do, look down ah!!!! The pole wobbles on top of that. You have to jump from the pole to this trapeze swing . I managed to grab it, and than lost my grip and the people said I look like a rag doll flapping and twisting every which way haha!
I than did the flying eagle, it is stepping onto a ladder in the middle of the course. Put into a harness, and hooked onto a rope. Than, have to grip a rope that you let go as you get to the height you want to swing from. You have a pulling crew and they pull you up from the ground on your attached rope to your harness. When you are at the height you want you say, 1,2,3 stop, and you release your rope and you swing and it's a huge swing. But, it was actually fun.

We did trails yesterday, and anyone who knows me knows directions aren't my strong point. But, I did manage to find the two destinations I was assigned. so yah !!!

Today is astronomy testing. So, need to do some more studying for that now ;)

New life

So, as some of you know I have moved recently.
I live in Texas now for a job change since mine is no longer in operation that I had.
It is my 2nd day here. It is very different, but reminds me of arizona, Oklahoma and Idaho all in one.

I am in training so far. People seem to be super nice and good group.
I made a nice new impression for my first night last night, I managed to break my key I had in my pocession of like one hour and broke it in half my first attempt at opening the door so.

It is just training for a few weeks and than the job really  starts.

I am learning tons and good experiences. It has been fun so far.

we have gone over policies and such. We have had mock classes training. Since we are all instructors here. I find it very helpful. We get to see what a typical classes and day is like.  Today we team building activities, bio/chem, learning edible plants and night activities. We learned some camp songs, played group games, and had smore's.

That is the latest, peace out for now!

The old west/ hats hats hats

 old down town. The picture on the left is a comic called "Family Circus" and he used to go to this old fashioned ice cream shop to draw them.

 this is a trolley ride people can take around the town

 this place makes their own sodas

 just fooling around in a park in that old west town

 this is ben !

 stylin sistas

 Unity walk

 the mayor

This is  the unity walk event. . He is really short, but was nice enough. I got to shake his hand and didn't know it was the mayor at that moment haha!