So, Indiana

So last post (for most of you this will probably be mere moments after reading the last post, if you actually have been reading, and waiting for new posts could you leave a comment? I need a little acknowledgment) I said I would write a little more about Indiana, to fill in some of the blanks. And I totally will, I just have to mention that Erik got a job!!Which is pretty awesome for us. So thanks for all the prayers and good wishes. Now, on to Indiana.

When we lived in Indiana we lived pretty close to the ghetto. Now, some people will look at where we lived and say, "What do you mean near the ghetto, this looks like the ghetto to me!". To these people I say that you are mostly right. It was a little ghetto, but for the most part it could have been worse. I saw places where it was worse, where every other house was boarded up, but some of the boards had people sized holes in them, for homeless people, or they were drug traps or whatever. Or places where the parks were over grown because kids didn't play there. So by that measure where we lived was pretty nice. What put it over the top though was our neighbors.

Specifically one neighbor, Jimmy. Jimmy was the nicest guy you could ever meet. For example, there were some college kids who lived next to him, and he would drop by their place to make sure they had enough to eat, and if they didn't, he would give them dinner. He lent his vacuum to every family in the building who needed it. When we moved out and were getting rid of some of our stuff, including an old twin sized bed he knew exactly who needed one, and he helped to move out the old mattress and move in the new. When my niece visited, she was immediately family as well. Completely the epitome of a neighbor. I actually feel a little guilty as I am writing this, because I haven't spoken to him since we moved away. I keep meaning to call him but unfortunately I haven't.

I'm not as good a neighbor as him.

It's only been 2 years...

Since my last post on this. That is MARKEDLY better than some of the entries I made in my journal (Confession time: I totally typed "posts I made" before I realised I was talking about pen and paper, not keyboard and internet tubes. Does that officially make me a nerd?) some of those posts were further apart. I guess I'm just not that awesome at keeping up with my journals/blogs.

So. News then. Let's see... last time I wrote Erik and I had just moved to Indiana. Which means that my not writing was truly laziness (I'll be honest again, it does have to do with the fact that my faithful readers topped out at about 2, so the drive to write wasn't there so much). I know it was truly laziness because i had quite a bit of time out there in Indiana (notice the past tense? Yes, we will get to that in a minute). See, Erik was almost always working. Now, I can hear you asking "But Jenny, isn't Erik a teacher?? Don't teachers work from about 8 to about 4:30?!". While this is usually the case, it isn't necessarily true when one is a teacher in the "Murder Capital of the U.S.", working for a charter school. So Erik worked and I was at home a lot, but not blogging and letting you guys (my 2 faithful readers) know what was going on. So I will sum up, yes?

We moved out there in August and got our apartment and met some people. We went to church and made some awesome friends there, the Goepferts. We lived in a place very near to the ghetto, if not actually in the ghetto, where we made some equally awesome friends, the Shorts (in particular Jimmy). Jimmy was our upstairs neighbor and he took care of us. erik went to work at 6:45 each morning, and left work around 7 each night. His students' parents were largely non-committed to their children's education which in turn made the kids not care much either. I stayed home and played the Sims 2 a lot, and Megan came to visit me in the winter and we had a good time. We went into Chicago a couple of times (mostly driving through on our way to other places) but mostly Erik was too tired/ stressed to do much other than hang out around home.
After Erik was not renewed at WGLCS he tried to find a newjob around the area we were in, but nothing happened there so we moved back in August of 2007.

One thing people often ask me is "How did you like the weather out there, wasn't it horribly hot (or cold, depending on the person)?" I will answer this question here: Yes, it was really uncomfortably hot there, from June to mid-September. However, the frequent rain/thunderstorms kept it interesting and very green. In the winter, yes it was very, very cold. I remember one night ( I think it was late January, or early February) Megan (my niece) and I called my friend, Ben, to let him know that it was 3 degrees Fahrenheit outside. While Megan was visiting we would often go outside and blow bubbles in the single-digit temperatures, because the bubble froze in mid air; when the bubbles landed they wouldn't pop, they'd crumple. Because of the difference in what I was used to, and the absolute beauty of the dark green foliage or the crisp white snowstorms, I really did love the weather.

When we moved back top Puyallup, WA in August '07 I was sad to leave Indiana. I would have loved to stay there for much longer. Thankfully Erik was able to get a job in the Puyallup School District, and he really enjoyed teaching this last year. It was such a nice change to have students who liked him and liked learning; or at least they'd tolerate learning.

This summer has been slightly unfortunate in that Erik has been looking for a job again. His contract with Puyallup last year was not a continuing contract, and so when his school needed to lighten it's numbers he was one of the ones who had to leave. Other than that we have had a great summer. Erik's brother Andrew got married to an awesome girl named Bobbi, we got a new dog (named Wrex), and we have been lucky enough to spend almost all of our time together, kind of making up for the lost time we had together in Indiana. We have gotten to spend a lot of time with our nieces and nephews and with his parents, so other than that little job thing, it's been a good time.

Erik has another job interview tomorrow, so we are anxious to hear good news back from that, I am planning on cleaning while he is interviewing, and that pretty much fills you in on our lives for the last little while. Hopefully I will be able to flesh out more of the details of Indiana and Puyallup in later entries, but I think this one is quite long enough.

Indiana-nans

It's a little bit like banana, where you first go "bana" nope not enough "na"s so then you go "bananana" nope too many. It takes some practice.

But, YEAH! I live in Indiana now. It is really cool here (not cool as in BRRR, not yet anyways) and things are neat!! We live in a decent apartment i.e. there is enough space but the dishwasher is crap (making me the new dishwasher) and the maintenance guys are slllooowww to get anything done. But our neighbors are super nice. Our one neighbor upstairs is awesome, he says he doesn't think Taz counts as a dog, yet he brings him bones and cows ears and all kinds of things. So now Taz thinks ALL black people want to give him food. Except that doesn't really work with the black kids, they are scared of him. Which is sad, because once he senses their fear he gets uppity and that scares them more. It is a vicious cycle.

So yeah, we love it here and I will apologize in advance but I don't foresee us moving back to WA. Sure it is beautiful, but it is beautiful here too.

In other news we bought a car. We had to leave my little Ford up in WA so we bought a replacement. We are super excited because we will probably be getting it in mid-October, in plenty of time for our trip to Louisiana.

What's that you say? Louisiana? Yeah, that is our destination for Thanksgiving. I get to go to Louisiana! I never (seriously, never thought we'd be able to go) thought I'd be going to Louisiana, even for a couple days. Yet another reason I like it here, it is a lot closer to those places I'd like to visit, but doubted I'd ever be able to, like Louisiana and NYC and Chicago.

Haven't been to Chicago yet. We were supposed to be going this weekend, to meet up with Erik's friend Atom, but we had to adjust our plans. So another time for Chicago.

Anywho, that is what is going on with us. We are here, we luurrve it, and come visit sometime!!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Okay today I am overwhelmed. It just hit me that there is SO much to do and very very little time in which to do it. Want a quick list? (Of course you do, you don't have anythin better to do do, do you ?) {BTW if you haven't heard, or it hasn't sunk in yet, Erik and I are planning on moving to Indiana ASAP, considering he gets the job of course}

• Paint- I have to not only paint some of the walls, I have to find out what color the walls are, cause I am way to cheap/poor/lazy to buy a new color of paint and repaint every wall. This means I either have to call the company that built my house and ask them to look it up, or (and this is more realistic) look at the icky dirty GARBAGE FILLED can of primer/paint the buillder left in our garage (Yeah, no, seriously, don't leave the extra paint that's fine. I'd rather have some garbage if you have any.)

• Clean- I actually have a good start on this but once again I have alot of other stuff I have to do too and not a good work ethic to do it with. I have gotten the kitchen done. That is it. I still have to do the bathrooms (ick) and the closets and the garage (ick, ick, ick). The garage is horrible. Seriously. There is an oil spot on the floor not to mention all the junk that got moved in there because of space issues. But worst of all is the bugs. Yeah, I said it. There are bugs in my garage. Spiders mostly. Spiders and their webs and the bugs they've already eaten. It is seriously gross. Thankfully my Mother-In-Law has a pressure washer so my game plan is basically to blow them out with our blower, and then spray whatever is left. I will probably have to refine that.

Not to mention that Erik is flying to Indiana on Monday for his interview. We like to leave for the airport from Puyallup because it's closer and I'll just stay with his parents while he's gone so we don't have to drive 3 hours, just one. So there is today (which I am wasting by writing this haha), Friday (but we have to take Taz to the vet and buy Erik some clothes for his interview) Saturday (friends coming by to watch the World Cup, who knew soccer was so cool?!) Sunday (church and leave for Puyallup) and then our house is on the market by next Wednesday. So I have no clue when I am going to do the cosmetic stuff that our house needs. Probably Friday night and Saturday morning. Sounds like fun huh?

Actually it almost is. In a sick way. I am busy, there is a goal and some pressure, and I still have time to write blogs that no one reads!!

So wish us luck, light candles, pray to whomever, throw some karma our way, whatever you do to sway things in our favor. We could use the assist!

Hoooo!!!

Wow, lots and lots has happened. I'll start with the small stuff, work my way up. Tonight I watched Dukes of Hazzard. That movie was terrible. Maybe even the worst movie I have ever seen. that doesn't mean it doesn't have its moments, but I think that Johnny Knoxville is a better actor than Sean Williams Scott. Cuter too.
Then last night I saw Boondock Saints. That movie ROCKED. It was really good. Kind of a little Guy Ritchie/Snatch feel. If you get a chance to watch it, and you don't mind cussin' and Irish and blood watch it. Buy it, even.
Night before last was The Ringer. That movie was surprisingly good. Sure "mentally challenged" people still creep me out a little, but it was funny and ended well. And Johnny Knoxville did a good job in that one too. Not Oscar material, but not that bad either.
The reson we're watching so many movies lately is Erik's got a kid in his class from one of those "no TV" families, the kind that buys every movie ever made rather than pay for cable. I've never understood that, seems like paying for cable might be cheaper, but that's just me.
Okay, now for the big guns. Erik and I are hoping to move. That's right. We love Camano Island and all but holy crap it is totally expensive. Where are we hoping to move to, you ask? Indiana. Yeah that's right, I hear your gasps. But we ain't moving there because it is cool, or anything. It's just cheaper. Erik gets paid the same and things are cheaper, yadda yadda yadda. Anywho, that's it for me.

Yay!!

Now I don't usually give shout outs to other blogs (no, I want to keep you all to myself) but this is really, really clever.


This Day In Mythstory

I'm Tired Already...

So the summer is starting to shap up for me, (earlier than usual) and it is looking pretty busy. Just so's you all know.

May (this counts because it is warm fairly consistently): Erik goes to Outdoor Education Camp. I am lonely for about 4 days. But maybe Adrianne will be here for some of that time, so at least I have something to look forward to.
June: School lets out for the summer! This means being lazy with another person!!
July: Friends will visit from Utah. How ever, these people are not Utards, they are nice and normal. Then we go on a short vacation to Fort Flagler. That place is quite awesome, some of my favorite times ever have been spent there.
August: A road trip :) to Utah :( Not that Utah isn't cool and everything (it isn't), but it's for a family reunion, and not my family either, Erik's family. So could be worse.
Tail end of August, start of September: Andrew comes home from Korea! Seems like it is so soon, but it isn't really.This is cool because I like Andrew, he is funny and nice, but not so cool because I hate being present when people are fawning over someone, and believe you me, there will be fawning (is fawning what happens when a deer gives birth? I would hate that too.).

So that is what I am doing this summer. It is one of the busier summers I can remember, usually my summers are just like the school year, only there is way more complaining (from me) about how hot it is. I live in WA and apparently can't handle the heat.

Oh!! Awesome!! Totally Awesome!!

This is so neat, I'd like to thank the folks at halfbakery.com for pointing me to this, and I am seriously telling you, if you are interested in names CHECK THIS OUT!!!!

As for the rest of it, I have been having a pretty good week. Been sort of busy, y'know in the way that a person can be busy without getting anything of substance done. We bought an iPod on Monday so I've been trying to figure out how to get the stuff I want on it. Specifically movies. We have a set of DVD's that are comprised of all the music videos of the band we like and would love to get some into our iPod, so we could watch them ALL the time, because I honestly would. So wish me luck on that. Have a great weekend!!

I Love Books.

Just introducing you to a new link that will be appearing shortly over there --->. It's pretty neat so far, you can keep track of books you have read. It's free for 200 books,but after that you gots to start paying. If I like it enough I might start asking for the lifetime subscription. But not yet. I ain't committed yet.

LibraryThing Catalog your books online

This Isn't Popular.

Human rights are important. I fully believe in the rights of every person in America I believe that any person is equal to any other person. That being said I also believe that just because you are gay/lesbian/straight, Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Atheist, white/black/asian/ hispanic you doesn't mean that you are any more open-minded than anyone else. I base this assumption on what I see on TV. Particularly TV that caters to 20-somethings, like, say, MTV and their news guy Gideon Yago.Today as I was flipping through the channels I was that the story MTV News was reporting on was about a bus full of modern-day freedom riders. When I say freedom riders I say it is the most incredulous tone I can muster because although that is what it is reminiscent of, this isn't at all what civil rights are about.
What I see it as being about is oppression. The interesting part of this is that these kids also see it as being about oppression. But that is where the commonality of our thoughts diverge. What they see as freedom from what they think is oppression, I see as the oppression of religious differences. Let me explain:
It is a bus of kids who are travelling to right-wing conservative schools to protest the fact that these schools don't allow gays and lesbians into their programs. Not only that, but if a current student "comes out" that student is expelled. Now, I don't entirely agree with that position, but I do think that these schools have every right to expell any student that doesn't embody the values that these schools hold dear. That is what I mean by oprression of a right to freedom of religion. Because the religion that these schools are founded on is also expressed in the rules and ethics the school places on it's students these kids are protesting. Now I don't have any problem with protesting, I think it is a good way to fight something you think is wrong, but I don't like double standards.
To me double standards are when something is wrong for one person, but is right for another. Take this for example: 50 gay people show up at a bible college that disallows gays and gather in an open area. They then give speeches, shout slogans, have demonstrations or whatever. How is this any different than 50 of Jerry Falwell's follower showing up at a place that is predominantly gay or atheist or whatever they don't agree with and doing the same thing. It is good that the gay protestors stood up for thier rights but how dare those crazy right-wing Christians oppress people!
I would feel different if these schools were public, state universities or what-have-you, but they aren't. The people attending these schools know from the start what they are getting themselves into. They aren't attending Jerry Falwells' Libery School (which, I do realize, is an ironic name under the cicumstances) because they are sure that THAT will be the open-minded place to grow as a person. No, they are deciding to attend a college that is quite famous for its right-wing philospohies.
I am not saying that gays and lesbians don't have a right to the same education, and I am not saying that they shouldn't have the same rights as everyone else (that is a whole other blog-post!), but I don't think that it should every be open season to protest a person based on what they believe, do, look like, or want. To me that means that if Jerry Falwell's private university (keyword private) doesn't want to accept gays and lesbians, that is fine. If BYU wants to expell Julie ( you remember, from the Real World) for not following that specific university's rules, that is fine. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that religious university's have rules, regulations, morals, and ethics that are not going to make everyone feel welcome. And if it does, well, maybe you should research your next school a little better.
Basically I get frustrated when people assume that one way of thought is the correct way of thought. I myself am pretty conservative, I don't agree with gay marriage (although I don't agree with alot of straight marriages either), I don't agree with all abortions (please, explain to me, a person who can't concieve why you wouldn't want to give a child up for adoption), and I don't agree with the ERA (although this isn't republican of me, I just don't see hiring a woman or a black man because you HAVE to as particularly equal). I think that for America to truly be free people have to be able to do or think exactly as they please. I relish the right that I have to speak my mind about hings like this, just the same as anyone else. Because I am republican doesn't make my ideas any less valid or open to discussion, just as your democratic ideas (or whatever they are) aren't any worse or better than mine.

Mothers.

Seriously, does every woman on the planet have a problem with her mother? I mean I read it in books, on blogs and experience it all the time with my own mother. I have not been able to have a reasonable, friendly chat with her since I was like 13. Worst part? I think it is because we are too alike. Neither of us wants to concede defaet. But they arent loud drawn out fights about my hair or anything like that, they are mostly based on our 2 differing realities.

In her reality it is entirely inconceivable ( makes me want to watch The Princess Bride now) that each and every one of her 9 children aren't the best of friends. She doesn't seem to comprehend that I am 20 years younger than most of my siblings. This means that when one of them gets married for the 3rd (or 6th, or even 2nd) time I don't see it as one of my sisters (or brothers) getting married. I see it as a friend of my parents getting married. I simply don't feel much family attachment to my most of my older siblings. Is this weird of me? I mean out of 8 brothers and sisters I really feel like a sister to... 2 of them. Both of them are my sisters too. I guess age doesn't really have anything to do with it, one of them being 20 years older than me, it has more to do with our relationships. One of them I grew up with, and has actually been my sister all of my life, and the other really started to feel like my sister when I started baby-sitting HER kids. Which seem weird, in hindsight.

The others, I don't really count as siblingsfor a variety of reasons, the main one being I don't really know them. I mean I know their ages, and for the most part their birthdays ( I at least know the month), but really we don't speak all that often, and the ones I have had good conversations with, it still doesn't seem like they are siblings, because the conversations either didn't continue or only happen when they want to tell me how to run my life. I am going to tell a story now, one that is kind of 2nd hand. Here goes.

My oldest sister (48, I think) was having a conversation with my youngest brother (34 or something) and he told her that he didn't feel like she had ever been there for him, when he needed her. That she had never been a big sister to him. I thought that was kind of sad. Then a couple of years later it occurred to me. He had never reallly been abig brother to me, why should he have had the benefit of an older sister? He didn't seem to take any interest in my life. I remember only 2 times when he did, the most recent being when I was getting married. He invited me out to dinner and then spent almost the whole time trying to convince me not to get married. And since then, I think we have spoken like twice. I think that is really sad.

I don't know what my point in typing this out was. I really don't. If someone could please tell me it would be really helpful.

Sorry Folks.

I am so bad at things like this. And when I say things like this I mean blogs, journals, diaries, things like that. It is a pretty consistent pattern: I discover something that everyone else is doing, and I try to join in, then after a short time I get tired of it annd give it up. I am afraid that is what is happening here. I just don't have interesting things to write. I mean my days are pretty much the same all the time.

On another note, I have one of those "the Onion" desk calendars that gives something different every day, and todays says that "1 out of every 37 U.S. adults has been in prison, giving our nationt he highest incarceration rate in the world." I was thinking lets see...if I take the 19 adult members of my family (spouses included, but not all the multiple ones, only the multiple ones that I can picture in my mind, leaving out a good 60% of them) I figure that at least 5 of them have been in prison. And that id only because I don't know my siblings' spouses that well. That sure is a high ratio. It just adds to my theory that there is only a specific number of circumstances to go around, i.e. marriage: There is a specific number of marriages in the world at any given time, and everyone get an equal amount, to start off with. then as other people get married first, or get married mulitple times (not at the sme time, that is a whole other blog), your number of marriages goes down. So my brother, who has been married like 6 times, has taken other people's oppurtunity for marriage, with out them even knowing it. But not to fret: all the confirmed bachelors and spinsters, people who never get married, make your numbers go up, because not only do they not take other people's potential marriages, they give theirs up, possibly to you!

This isn't a perfect theory and I only really apply it to marriages so I don't know how it stands up to other circimstances. If you think on it and find something else that works, let me know.

Oh For Pete's Sake!

This is kind of a 2 parter, ever since I gave it that title. The First part ( the original part) was going to be a pet peeve of mine (because I know you are totally interested in my every thought, mood change and just the general goings on) so here goes: This week it's those STUPID talking ads you find on some sites <coughcoughMySpacecoughcough>. The ones where if you move your mouse into it's area it YELLS at you, because now your emoticons can talk! YAY they can say banal things like "He say WHAT?" and "Awww shucks" and "Oh no he dih'ih". Actually I don't know what they say, but I am sure it is irritating, and rest assured(all my IM buddies) that I will never plague you with talking emoticons.

The second part is kind of another pet peeve mixed with a memory. The pet peeve is one that applies to me, in that I do this and I am kind of embarassed. It's the person who repeats the joke 4956759 times because you laughed once. I do this. I don't do it so often, now that I have realized how irritating I am when I do. The first time I really overused something was with a friend in high school, and middle school I guess. When we were in like 8th grade together I was sitting nearby when someone said to someone else " Oh for Pete's sake" and I said, "Yeah do it for Pete!" She (the original sayer) laughed and repeated my little funny. Cut to 3 years later when I was still doing it. Only without the lead in line of "Oh for Pete's sake" I would simply say (only to Erin, who sort of started it all with her exhortations)"C'mon, do it for Pete"still hoping for a laugh. I have heard others do it from time to time like the guy who kept repeating something about bacon because he thought, no, wait, he KNEW, that if we heard his joke we would all laugh uproariously. Only he stopped after about 5 minutes. My pet peeve is when it goes on for much longer. Like the way I dragged it out for years. But don't worry. I made up for it eventually by buying Erin a lot of muffins. And they were good muffins too.

Your Nerd is showing...

And by "Your" I mean "my". I haven't been on the real internet for a while now. I usually spend a great deal of time on the internet: looking at MySpace, writing these blogs, reading internet comics, chatting, that kind of stuff. Lately though I have been caught up in a whirlwind of Nerd. I have been playing an inordinant amount of time playing Sims 2. I even went so far as to create my own desktop for it, so that MSN Messenger, and AIM don't start up, so that I can start playing that much sooner.

Now you may be thinking, "Wow, I had no clue Jenny was so nerdy! That is amazing!" or "Well I knew it was only a matter of time before she succumbed". But I do want to point something out. I can still talk about normal things, and I still shower. Therefore I am better off that most.

All My Secrets.

I have some secrets. Most of them are about myself, things I have done, things i want to do. Occasionally I just want to tell everyone all my secrets. To just get them out on the table and say "There. That's me. Still think I'm (fill in the blank)?" just to get stuff off my chest. I have been to that website where you can type in your secret and disappears into all the other secrets and no one ever sees it. But I don't really want my secrets to just disappear. I want them to be where folks can read them and maybe even call me on it. Say : "I didn't know that about you." but at the same time there are reasons that these things are secrets. Reasons I never told anyone. But I am not sure they are very good reasons. Reasons like I am ashamed I did this, or I wish I still (fill in the blank) and of course the ever-present I dont want you to think less of me for doing this. Anyways. I just want you to know that I do have secrets and that I think they are going to come out soon. Not come out as in the police are going to dig up bodies, but comeout as in I don't think I can stand by and watch people make the same mistakes I did. Not when maybe I can point them away from it.

Hello!! I am back!!

Okay so I'm back. What? You didn't notice I was gone? Shame on you. I was thisclose to death for like 3 days and you didn't even notice I was gone. No I'm just kidding. I wasn't close to death. I have a sinus infection and for a few days it hurt pretty bad. It's getting better though. I think I'll be okay. Anyways. I don't think there is much of anything for me to write. I just wanted to let everyone on the internet know that I was sick, because it is important. So you go have a nice day!!

Pblblblblbl

That's the sound it makes when you blow raspberries ar someone. It alos odes a pretty good job describing how I feel today. I am a total wreck. I have intermittent ear aches, sinus aches and occasionally a sharp pain will run down the side of my face. I think I am dying.

Remember?

I love to color. You know, with the book and the crayons and all that stuff, it just rocks. My favorite crayons were the Crayola Color Slick crayons, remember those? They were so nice, the color was really smooth, I think that they were made a little bit softer than the other types of crayons. They were also really bright and made nice cheery pictures. I wish I had a coloring book right now.

Also, check out my Flickr. I put up 2 new pictures!

Just Thought I'd Fill You In...

It's my, I think , 3rd day of excersize. I am tired. They say that excersize wakes you up and gets you ready for your day... I don't get that particular effect. When I excersize I get tired. Like lie on the couch and watch Law and Order tired. But that's neiter here nor there (what does that even mean, anyways) I just thought I'd let you know, because I am pretty sure you care. Also as prrof that I am doing it and I ain't dead yet.

I did it!!

I finally got a real picture of me!! Don't you love it?