South Dakota Get-Away

Here are some pictures and highlights from our much-needed vacation. The time away really helped us reconnect with each other and with God. Camping in the great outdoors has a way of doing that. :)

Sylvan Lake - One of my favorite spots (and there was going to be a wedding later that night!)

Me holding up one of the huge rocks.

Josh exploring a roadside cave. We also toured Wind Cave and Jewel Cave but didn't take pictures inside them (too dark). Jewel Cave was my favorite. The amazing rock formations made you feel like you were walking through a corral reef. I can't even adequately describe it!

More remarkable rocks we drove through on Needles Highway.

And, of course, Mt. Rushmore.

New homestead

After a crazy weekend of moving, cleaning, and sporadically working, we are finally settling into our new apartment. The place is a mess, naturally, but already I feel better about life. Something about being able to have fresh air blowing in all day, extra sunshine, and more room to spread out.

I'm really excited to start unpacking. Unfortunately, I need to wait for Josh to come back from work to help me move the furniture. And set up his computer. He has this cool new thing on his Mac called Delicious Library where I can use the camera on the computer to scan the barcodes of all my books and movies and keep a record of them. And then, if I loan them to people, I can quickly and easily check them out. So exciting! (I know, I know, I am such a nerd.)

And for more exciting news, someone at the new place has really fast unsecured internet! We're hoping we'll be able to borrow that from time to time. ;) And for the time being, Josh has the T.V. set up in the bedroom, which is becoming a dangerous situation. I really like it there! Would it be redundant to get another one for the living room?

Anyway, it's good to have a new place to call home, especially one that feels more welcoming. And I can't wait to get the place looking all organized and cute and to have people over to visit!

Titanica

"Women and children first," they said, and I knew that was my only way of

safety and also the way towards my biggest loss - the life of my husband.

- 1st class passenger

Oh my. Something about having a husband yourself makes you feel differently about the Titanic disaster. Josh and I went to the exhibit at the Science Museum on Thursday, and it was quite the intriguing and sobering experience. We were there about two hours, but I probably could've stayed longer. Let me list some highlights of the day:

1. As we entered the exhibit, we each received a "boarding pass" with a name of an actual passenger and a bit of his/her history. At the end of the exhibit, you found out if your person survived. I was Margaret Brown (a bit anticlimactic since she's the "unsinkable Molly Brown"), and Josh was a Frenchman traveling with his family to Haiti (he was the only colored man on the Titanic. Kinda cool). Of the two of us, I wonder who died? ;)

2. One of the artifacts retrieved from the bottom of the ocean was a steward's jacket. After being underwater for close to eighty years, it was still in tact! The steward, named Broome, had written his name on the inside of the collar, and you could still read it. Remarkable.

3. They had some role-play people wandering the exhibit giving tidbits of info in British accents. That's how I learned that the Titanic was one of the first and only ships to offer meals to the third class passengers. On other ships, those passengers were required to bring their own food to last the duration of the trip. That would lead to some interesting smells, I imagine. And the steerage passengers had real mattresses rather than sacks stuffed with straw. The ship was glamorous even in steerage!

4. We touched a huge block of ice that represented the coldness of the ocean on the night of the sinking. *shiver* I'm surprised people didn't die instantly.

5. I discovered this fantastic website that has biographies of all the Titanic passengers. I can't wait until I have more free time!

6. And lastly, we watched the omni-theater presentation, which was incredibly interesting, and I didn't get motion sickness! :)

Love,

Heidi

New job!

I cannot believe what a whirlwind this week has been. After I got over the excitement of getting the internship, the reality that I needed a paid part time job started to sink in. I called a couple book stores. No luck. Then, out of the blue, I remembered that there is a Once Upon A Child in Roseville, and since I'd worked at one for two years during high school, I thought I'd give it a shot. And I totally have a job now! Wow. God is so good.

Now, I hope my life will settle into some semblance of a routine. But probably not. And I should probably work on packing up the apartment, since pretty soon, I will have very little time.

Love,

Heidi

p.s. I absolutely LOVE this picture. This couple set up the timer on the camera, posed, and this little squirrel decided to investigate the situation right as the camera flashed. Makes me giggle every time.

From one internship to another

I have had the craziest week so far (and it's only Tuesday!). Yesterday was my last day at my internship. I was a little sad, because I really enjoyed the people and the pay, but I'm ready to start something new. And I was waiting to hear back about a new job position. I figured I had a good chance of getting it seeing as I made it through three interviews. But apparently, they made an offer yesterday, and I was left out of it. I got the email today. Very sad. But I'm glad they didn't call me with the news. How are you supposed to react when you have your hopes up about something and then they are crushed? "Oh, thanks. I was really hoping the other person would get it." But anyway, I'll stop sounding bitter about it and won't go into all the details of how perfect it would've been and how Josh could've quit his one job and not be so tired all the time, because obviously, this job was not meant to be.

So, after I cried and moped for about ten minutes, I got a phone call from Milkweed Editions. Two weeks ago, I received a rejection letter from them as well, so naturally, I had completely taken them out of my mind. But miraculously (because God is crazy good about stuff), they had another opening, and they wanted me! Seriously, I sat holding the phone with my mouth hanging open. I had NO idea how to feel. From rejection pains to extreme excitement in ten minutes? Kinda hard to handle.

Talk about your "one door closing, another door opening" experience.

Now all I have to do is find a part-time job that actually pays. I don't want Josh to have all the pressure. And seeing as the first two days of this week have been completely unexpected, I hope some other crazy good things will happen.

Love,

Heidi