Snowflakes of gratitude

This morning, as I do on most mornings, after settling in I head to the break room to warm up my Pop-Tarts for breakfast. While waiting on the toaster, I enjoy looking out the window and wondering about all of the exciting things that are going on outside of the walls of my cubicle. Well on this special day there are light fluffy snowflake falling from the sky, and with a high of thirty, it is going to stick. While I was enjoying this winter wonderland I saw one of the guys from the landscaping crew out working in the snow. At this point I remember how grateful I am for my job and that I need to be more appreciative of my blessings. Such as a job that can support my family, that does not require manual labor, and that lets me sit inside where it is warm and I am protected from the wind.

Sometimes I forget . . .

I am really excited to go home for Christmas. It's pretty much all I think about. So naturally when I called my brother up and said "Guess what!?!" the response I had prepared was the count down of how many days until I come home. Well, when he answered the "Guess what!?!" with a "You are pregnant," I was taken completely off guard. I wasn't expecting that for some time way, way in the future. Sometimes I forget that such things are possibilities.

And for the record let me repeat, I am not pregnant. Not that there is anything wrong with that; I'm just not. It would be dishonest for me to say so.

My favorite photographer & ice cream connoisseur

Charles Raymond Varley 1920 ~ 2007 Charles Raymond Varley died on November 18, 2007 from causes relating to Parkinson's disease.He was born November 19, 1920 in Salt Lake City, the son of Thomas and Charlotte Griggs Varley. His maternal grandfather, T.C. Griggs, wrote the theme song for the Tabernacle Choir "Gently Raise the Sacred Strain." Ray graduated from East High School where he excelled at football. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1943 with a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering. He was affiliated with Beta Theta Pi social fraternity and was one of seven elected to the Senior Men's Honor Society-Owl and Key. He was Sports Editor for the Daily Chronicle student newspaper. His by-line was Charlie Varley. To this day university classmates sill call him Charlie. Ray served in World War II as a Construction Officer with the 42nd U.S. Naval Construction Battalion in the Philippines, Hawaii and China. After the War he lived in California, 1946-1972. He married Marilyn Ream in 1947, later divorced.

He was hired by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as director of volunteers to construct a chapel for the Carmichael Ward in Sacramento. He has held numerous church positions including serving in the High Council. Ray next worked for the State of California as a Construction Estimator and then as Supervising Construction Analyst. Governor Edmond "Pat" Brown selected Ray to be his Department Secretary and later chose him to be the Assistant Director of California's vast Public Works Agency. Ray had a distinguished career in Higher Education. He was Vice-Chancellor Business and Finance at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He then served as Administrative Vice President at the University of Utah. He was also Director of University Relations for Western Washington University. He was a Senior Project Engineer for Ford, Bacon and Davis an engineering firm. After retirement he established a business as an Historical Architectural Consultant and performed surveys for the Utah State Historical Society.

Ray is an accomplished award-winning photographer, a lover of nature and has logged over 2,000 miles rafting the wild rivers of the American West. His writings include an historical novel, biographies of ancestors and religious papers. He has completed a work entitled: CHRIST IN ART THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES, consisting of 800 slides of Christ as an adult portrayed in various art forms throughout various cultures and time periods, along with a text which reveals political and theological events of the various time periods.

Survived by his eternal wife Helen Van Os Phillips; daughters, Victoria (Jay) Hawkins, Grapevine, TX; and Kristine (Randy) Vest, Colleyville TX. Sons: Douglas C. (Denice), Gillette, WY; David A. (Grace), Grand Junction, CO; Michael S. (SuzAnne), Castle Rock, CO; Alan R. (Maribel), Bedford, TX; Keith T. (Lisa), Bountiful, UT. Stepchildren: Vikki (Marvin) Mills, San Diego, CA; Marc C. (Kelley) Phillips of Anchorage, AK. 23 grandchildren, 16 great grand-children. Ray suggested that in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Tree Utah, Inc. in Salt Lake City or to a charity of your choice. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, November 24, at 12:00 Noon at the South Cottonwood Stake Center, 1250 East 4800 South (Murray Holladay Rd.) A Viewing will be held prior from 10:00 to 11:45 a.m. at the Stake Center. Interment will be in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Online condolences at www.larkinmortuary.com

Published in the Deseret News from 11/21/2007 - 11/22/2007.

This is why I'm cool

Few of you probably noticed, but on tonight's episode of Gossip Girl the Humphreys used a particular serving bowl for their mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. Fact is, I happen to own pictured serving bowl as they match our super cool square plates. Seeing how they are the cool, artsy, edgy family this is why I'm cool. :)

Halloween

Question: what do you wear when your professor makes you dress up for Halloween?
Answer: Your wife's clothes!



My adorable Husband strutting pretending to be a runner.

I love puzzles!!!

I love puzzles. And this one is by far one of the hardest ones that I've ever done. Seriously. AND I got to do with my husband. Well, at least start it with him until the patience wore out. I think I have an abnormal amount of patience for these sort of things. One thousand pieces. Count 'em!

BUNKO!!!!

Since moving to PA, one of the best decisions I've made is to join a Bunko group. On the first Thursday of the month a group of women from church get together and have a crazy good time. For October's bunko I made spinach-artichoke dip and it was delicious!!


I also won a little prize for having the most losses. How's that for beginner's luck!!

Blogging hiatus

Well friends, it finally happened. I found a job. This is my excuse for the lack of current blogging. I am a "Financial Analyst" but really I just get to play around in Excel and our other systems all day long. It's pretty cool. I like. But I have been having a hard time transitioning to having ten hours missing from my day. Yep, you heard me, ten hours. Half an hour (if the weather is good) commute there, four hours of work, one hour of lunch, four hours of work, and then half and hour (if the traffic is good) commute home. I am now an, "early to bed, early to rise" type of gal. I am learning to adjust and hoping to still fit in all of the things that i love to do, like blog! So thanks for all of your patience. I'll be back again soon.


We got our digital card back from Russia so check out the photos from our adventure!! We also have some good one from our trips to DC and NYC.

Por fin!!

After they tried to give us the same defective couch twice, they delivered a different defective couch. And then, on the fourth attempt we got our new friend. Now we finally have some where to put out decorative pillows!!

A new addition

On its way . . .

The things you can find online . . .

Your Inner Pop Princess Is Shakira

"Baby I would climb the Andes solely To count the freckles on your body Never could imagine there were only Too many ways to love somebody" You're more a poet than a pop star.

Who's Your Inner Pop Princess?

A survey, if you will

Alright, what I want to know is that do any of you know what/where "Hague" is and why is it important? Remember this is without the help of Google, Wikipedia, or any other means of information gathering. No need to post what it actually is, we can all use Google, more of a yes/no and where you picked up such knowledge. I am curious out of the sample size of the population a.k.a. the handful of people that read my blog who knows this stuff. Because I sure didn't and was quickly reprimanded for not knowing such basic information. I am so ignorant, apparently.

When you don't bring your "A" game . . .

So I have been learning a lot about kitchens, food, recipes, and how they all go together this past week. I tried out three new recipes which is a pretty big deal, because I've never been very experimental with my food. Last Friday I hit an all time low when I was accused of not bringing my "A" game or even my "B" game to the kitchen. While I don't think that the meal was a complete failure I know that It wasn't my shining moment. My better half wanted to make sure that that fateful date would be preserved so he managed to sneak in two pictures. The first is the "finished product" and trust me, there was no picture, but I am pretty sure that this isn't what it is supposed to look like. The second picture is the draw under the oven. If any of y'all are familiar with these drawers they never stay on their runners and always slides all over the place. At this point I had given up on fixing it and left it as it seemingly wanted to be. But do not fear, all is not lost. I brought my "A" game today with my own recipe, and it was much appreciated.

I am so proud of my friends!

No, but seriously. All of this time away form them, and I mean all of them, has helped me to appreciate them even more. I've been working on catching up and it is just so much fun. So many of my friends are doing such fun and exciting things right now I just get so excited that I want to run around the room and jump up and down!

Recently I have been struggling to find excitement in my life, but thankfully I can live vicariously through my gal pals! So, if you would allow, I am going to brag for a little bit and most likely a few more posts.

Matt & Jamie are doing so many exciting things: new school, house, baby and puppy. And knowing Jamie she's looking great doing it all. For more bragging see previous post.

Next up on the brag-list is Lacey. She is living in Switzerland doing an internship for the UN. How cool is that? I am sure she scored such a sweet gig because she's a genius and got an A in this super hard Math-Economics class that everyone else I know who took it failed. So she picked up some French this summer and has packed her bags. After her first official two weeks on the job she is kicking butt and taking names. Oh yeah, this is what gets to follow her name on the signature of all of her emails: ITC partnering with UNCTAD/WTO
DTSS/EMDS. Yeah, she's that cool. To prove it here is a picture of her overlooking Bratislava and the Danube



So who is next on the list? This is a tough one, but I'll give a shout out to Emily!! (I simply can not type her name without at least two exclamation points afterwards.) Not only has she been excellent and keeping in touch with me (not so easy to do), but she is also in her first year of law school in an excellent program, enjoying being newly married, and has an awesome social calender for someone so new to the area. I hope she doesn't mind me bragging on her, but tough! Not only is she a super dedicated law student, but she also makes sure dinner is ready every night. Leaps and bounds past me, and I don't even work/have a job!! Here is her with her hubby Jason looking gorgeous on their favorite day of the year. ;)



Trust me, I am not done with this list yet. And the order of the names in no way represent the associated amount of pride or love I have in them a.k.a. I love them all!!

Ten Ways to Improve the Value of Your Home

For all of you who like to stay in on Saturday nights, I have a great suggestion. Tomorrow (Sep. 15th), TLC is airing a show called Ten Ways to Improve the Value of Your Home. It is scheduled for 8pm Eastern. I am really excited about this show because one of my favorite couples (they met through me!) is going to be on it. Jamie & Matt (that's them in the picture) lived in DC for a year while Matt worked doing big-time medical research and Jamie worked on this house. They have recently moved to Salt Lake where Matt attends the University of Utah for med school. Jamie have a great fashion and design sense (her wedding was incredibly sophisticated!); I am anxious to see how she has incorporated it into the house. This summer they had their first child, Ben, and he is a s cute as a button! Don't forget their new puppy, Mabel. I am so proud of my good friends Jamie & Matt!!

The blog hiatus

As I am sure none of you have noticed (well except for Plip, I can always depend on her) I haven't blogged in ages, with the exception of the previous post and one other very special post. Explanation: I have been living a nomadic, internet (and computer) -starved existence. Thankfully that time has come to an end, but based on a request here is a brief history of what I have been doing for the past six weeks sans pictures. I'll explain later.

July 30th: Left Provo for a Little America Hotel Cheyenne, Wyoming
July 31st: Ramada Omaha, Nebraska
August 1st: Days Inn Dayton, Ohio
August 2nd: Super 8 Carlisle, PA
August 3rd-5th: Ramada Silver Spring, Maryland a.k.a. DC
August 6th: Non-chain hotel in Oyster Bay on Long Island
August 7th: Ramada JFK Intl Airport
August 8th: Delta flight across Atlantic
August 9th-14th: Val & Natasha's in Moscow (Bless them, that's 5 nights in a row!!)
August 15th: Red Arrow Train to St. Petersburg (admittedly, a very cool experience)
August 16th: Taoist Retreat St. Petersburg
August 19th-21st: Back at Val & Natasha's in Moscow
August 22nd: Super 8 in Carlisle, PA (not the same as on Aug 2nd)
August 23rd-27th: Super 8 in Etters, PA (this was with the seriously crazy house keeping couple)
Aug 28th+: Our new home!!! Apt 109
Sep 4th: Finally get internet!! (When hubby doesn't need it for school or to check his fantasy football. Lucky me!)

Oh yes, two more lovely items of note. First, we have absolutely no pictures because of a certain memory card that "somehow" didn't make its way back into the camera and is now chilling in Moscow until the in-laws get back from vaca and can mail it to us. Then you will have some visual stimulation. The second is that I managed the whole trip out of one suitcase. What a feat! I am proud.

So we are back and hoping to get back into the swing of regular blogging, and ideally to become employed. Soon. Like yesterday soon. I have a family to support here people! ;)

Crossing the line: where is the line?

As many of your are aware, there is an episode of The Office where they discuss "crossing the line" and "where is the line?" Okay, the truth is it isn't that big of a portion of the episode, and while the setting for this "line" is the workplace, I am curious about where the "line" is in blogger-space.

Periodically, I will have an idea for a blog but then refrain from typing/posting it, because I'm not sure who will be reading the blog. And personally, if I am going to burn a bridge, I'd rather be aware of it than have it come back to me later. For example: I keep the blog pretty clean and up-beat, but did mention a stinky work environment only to have a co-worker Google (Should that be capitalized when used as a verb and not a direct reference to a corporation? Who knows.) our company name and have mt blog come up. Interesting. That definitely made me think twice about blogging on work-related issues. And of course there have been other more serious subjects I had considered posting but refrained.

This has recently come to my attention from something that I read on a friend's blog that kind of bugs me, but I hesitate to put my irritation online (in anymore detail) because one, I am pretty much overreacting, and two, what if she read it? That would be not so nice. Anyway-

So I ask you all, where is the line? Considering privacy, family issues, work, church, friends . . . where do you say this is really funny and informative and when do you say this is crossing the line? I beg of you, ayudame (that's the command form of help me in Spanish).

In honorable and loving memory

Dean Shepherd Vest, born November 6, 1925, to Hyrum Mearl Vest and Aurilla Shepherd Vest, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, in his home on August 5, 2007 after a brave battle with cancer.

Dean grew up in Spanish Fork and graduated from Spanish Fork High. He entered the military after graduation in 1944 and served in the Philippines during WWII as an infantryman. He married his sweetheart, Jean Johnson, September 12, 1946 in the Salt Lake Temple. Dean worked for the Geneva Steel Company for 39 years then retired to his lifelong love of gardening. He loved the outdoors and he and his family spent many vacations hunting, fishing, camping, and enjoying nature. He is widely known for his gardening skills and he loved to experiment with various gardening methods. Dean served faithfully in many Church callings throughout his life. He loved serving others and he loved serving the Lord.

Dean and Jean made their home in Orem where they raised their family. Dean will be remembered as a loving husband and father. His grandchildren and great grandchildren will remember him as the "Bumblebee Grandpa" because he loved to rock a lapful of children as he sang them the "Bumblebee Song". He was a hardworking man of integrity whose priorities were his family and his Savior.

Dean is survived by his sweet wife Jean and two brothers, William M. Vest and Larry D. Vest (Charlene). He is also survived by his children, Randy (Kris) Vest, Colleyville, Texas; Bonnie (Henry) Hansgen, Lehi, Utah; Colette (Dave) Wahlen, Aberdeen, Idaho; Robyn (Gene) Peterson, Lehi, Utah; and MerriLyn (Dan) Gotter, Syracuse, Utah; 28 grandchildren and 25 great grand children (that's a lot of bumblebee's).

Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 11, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. in the Timpview 2nd & 6th Ward Chapel, 950 West 1200 North, Orem. Friends may call Friday evening from 6-8 p.m. and one hour prior to services on Saturday.


The family wishes to express thanks to all the thoughtful friends and ward members who have supported Dean throughout his illness. We would also wish to thank Nancy and Darla, the caring professionals from Vista Care for their tender care of Dean.Interment will be at the Lehi City Cemetery. Online condolences may be submitted to www.serenicare.com.

Published in the Daily Herald on 8/8/2007.

Good bye #213

From this . . .


to this . . .

Good bye Sonic Nights

Meggs, Ashley, and I have a little tradition we like to call Sonic Night. This our special time to catch-up and chit-chat. The evening usually culminates in a trip to Rite Aid to peruse the aisles and make a few fun purchases whether it be beauty, hair care, or matching flip flops. Well, before the move we celebrated our last one, at least for a long, long while. Love you girls, and I'll miss you like crazy. While Carlisle doesn't have a Sonic, it does have a Rite Aid. Thank goodness!

Good bye Nuvont!!

On my last day at Nuvont we happen to have a fiesta to celebrate the employee birthdays in July. We had a grand 'ole time with the pinata, candy, and getting outside. My last sit at my desk brought on a bit of bitter-sweet emotions.

The best looking balcony

We have, by far, produced the best looking balcony the North Canyon Condos will ever know. They are large and beautiful. For the full effect click on the center picture and view the close-up on our huge tomato plants. Leaving them behind was one of the toughest choices we had to make. Sad day for the Getmanenko family. We will survive and plant again. For the full life cycle, check out out "Mini-garden" album on our family photo album.

Deer!!

Stas was lucky enough to find two deer outside our apartment and capture them on film. I was surprised to learn that wildlife from the mountains had ventured all the way down to our place. So neat!

Vaccinations

.For those of us who have the option, never get five shots on the same day. Although accinations are a good idea, spread them out if you can. My arms hurt like crazy

What a location!!!

This is one of the reasons why I am not sad to leave my current employer. Back in April we moved to a new location with big windows and a much better parking situation. However, it does have one minor drawback: it's location. These beautiful blue-metal roofed buildings are gently nestled between a landfill (trash dump) and the city's water treatment plant. Additionally, with the temperatures scorching over a hundred, it only intensifies the smells that come from either direction. I find myself looking forward to leaving work and stepping outside to take in the sweet odor that permeates the atmosphere over here at what we call Nuvont. Yuck.


Oh, and to and to add insult to injury, it's trash day. So far I have seen about five trucks come and dump their junk, then drive away. Depressing. And gross.

Are these people serious?

This morning while I was working out at the gym, the TVs were mostly playing news or sports up-dates, boring! One TV that I decided to position myself behind was playing TBS. And little did I know that TBS like to play out-dated teenage drama series in the mornings.

As I remember back to my youth when Dawson's was all the rage and I was the target audience, it was the show to watch. Either that or Buffy (another awesomely ridiculous teenage show, but at least they owned up to it). Back in the day there was a lot of talk around the show, but thanks to awesome watch dog parents I never really had the opportunity to watch it frequently enough to get into it. But I do remember my friend Lindsey always freaking out over how hot Joshua Jackson is. Wow, she loved him. Goodtimes.

Anyway, as I was watching it this morning (and thing to help the time, and the miles, pass by) I was shocked at the content of the show. Well maybe not the content so much as one of the story lines. While, of course, they all tried to depict different ways that teenagers deal with sex (none of which paralleled my experiences in high school, or at least my friend's experiences anyway). But one story line in particular was totally ridiculous. The Jenn character was trying to explain/convince the Dawson character that it is not love but lust that makes intimacy such a good experience. BS. This chick is whack. I could go on and on about how outrageous all of her "thoughts" were, but I want to keep this family-friendly. This just reaffirms what I already knew that TV in no way depicts reality or represents it fairly. Well, except The Office. :)

When thunder roars, go indoors.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/07/12/ipods.lightning.ap/index.html

Four!!

So I totally stole this from Plip in an effort to re-vamp my slacker tendencies for blogging.

Jobs I've Held
1. Customer Satisfaction Manager, Nuvont Communications
2. Personal Banker, OmniAmerican Bank
3. Supervising Account Clerk, BYU's Office of Information Technology
4. Carhop, Sonic

Movies I Can Watch Over & Over
1. The Holiday
2. Dirty Dancing
3. Moulin Rouge
4. Garden State

Favorite Pictures
1. The picture to your right with your's truly applying a little lip-chap on the big day.
2. Is Dad pretending to help Stas do a home repair.

3. From a trip to the Aquarium. I was quite pleased with myself. The jelly fish are swimming downwards; it's not up-side-down, so stop asking.
4. When Stas and I finally won Compatibility

Places I have lived
1. Provo, UT
2. Colleyville, TX
3. Alcala de Henares, Spain
4. Carlisle, PA (in 3 weeks!!!)

TV Shows I Watch
1. Best Week Ever
2. The Soup
3. Who's Wedding is it Anyway?
4. I Propose

Places of Vacation
1. Bear Lake, UT
2. Silverthorne, CO
3. Europa (Spain, France, England, and soon to be Russia!)
4. Jacksonhole, WY

Foods
1. Anything Stas makes, yummy!
2. PB&J
3. China Garden Orange Chicken
4. French Toast

Desserts
1. Ice cream
2. Brownies
3. Peach Pie
4. Fudge-cicle

Household Items You Can’t Live Without
1. Chap stick
2. Lotion (I live in a desert people!)
3. Pillows & blanket
4. An object with which to hold my water; i.e., glass, cup, mug, or bottle

things that have made me laugh in the last few days…
1. Doing yoga with Meggs after us both taking a week off
2. Pretty much anything that comes out of Stas's mouth
3. Spencer telling me that he was hating on Ashley for not talking to me (without any prompting from me!)
4. Re-watching the whole third season of The Office this week

Oh my aching eyes!!

So I haven't blogged in what seems like ages. There are several reasons for this.

1. After a long day at work my eyes look like this <--
2. I can never remember the ideas that I've had to blog about.
3. My husband is always playing around on my computer.
4. Lately, it's been more fun to read blogs, then write one myself.

So this is my pledge to rededicate my efforts. I love to read other's blogs and find myself greatly disappointed when a weekend round-up is left out. So maybe, perhaps, someone out there, somewhere is disappointed by me. So no longer will I be the cause of sadness, but a reason to rejoice. Or at least put a smile on someone's face. Or make them laugh inside their head. Or just keep people informed. That is all.

Campfire

From time to time Stas and I like to take our adventures up the canyon. Tuesday evening we did just that. We packed up our things, drove the winding rode, and hiked a bit to our favorite spot. And I am pretty sure that good times were had by all. We took in the beautiful view, roasted some wienies, and saw the biggest, fuzziest non-bee that I have ever seen in my entire life. For the proof, check out The Getmanenko Family Album. It is full of fun pictures! Loves.

Русский

I'm sure no one else looks at such things, but as I was reviewing all of the features on the so called dashboard I was so impressed that I can now blog in Hindi. Not that I have any real knowledge of the language or practical use for it, but I still think that it is neat. Way to go Blogger! Blog on. Additionally, I can also blog in Russian, which by all means, I will be doing soon enough. It'll be good practice, right?

What's in a name?

Despite what Juliet thinks, I’d venture that most people feel great when others know their name. The other day at work I was minding my own business (wich can be hard to do with commotion like crazy and people always coming and going) keeping to my trusty computer. When out of no where I hear someone say: “Hey Julie, how’s it going?” Sac-le-blur!?!! What is this? Someone not only has acknowledged my existence but also proven intelligent and human with his hello. Yea. What a good day. If people just bothered to learn a few names here and there—and remembered and used them—then I think we could really have something.

Ta-dah!!

I have arrived. As I approach this new world, I hope that it welcomes me with open arms. Okay, but really, I have finally taken to time to get things organized and am now ready to spill the beans and make my mark on the world wide web. Bienvenido.