- Utah is freaking cold. At least this part of it is. Everyone always said that Salt Lake and Boise were similar temperature-wise and I believed them but they lied!! It snowed for like four days straight last week and just overall has been very cold. A lady I work with told me that this is normal for Salt Lake, but they haven't had a "normal" winter in like ten years, so maybe this is just a fluke. Who knows.
- I can drive as fast as I want to work and will literally never get pulled over because there will always be someone driving faster than me.
- It's nice to live by friends.
- The mountains are so big and beautiful!! I don't feel quite as caged in by the mountains in Salt Lake as I did in Logan, so I'm very happy with them.
- If you are ever feeling homesick, go to Walmart. They are all mostly the same, so you can walk around and forget where you are while you are buying your self-pity pint of Ben & Jerry's. Side note: the walmart by my work puts the ice cream at the back of the store. What kind of sick joke is that? It's already bad enough that I'm going through self check out with literally only two pints of ice cream in hand, but to make me do the walk of shame all the way back to the freezer section and then back up to the front of the store?? Talk about kicking a lady while she's down. Geez.
Those are just some random things. Really though, our time here has been good so far. We have been living with Brandon's uncle, and have hopefully not been too much of an imposition. He has a mini schnauzer, and we have our two cats, so it's basically just hilarious to watch them interact. Brandon and I have stayed busy with our free time too, trying to make the time pass quickly so we can get to move-in day! We have seen three movies, spent our two Mondays watching The Bachelor (he's so good to me but Kayla I miss you!!), went to the Ice Castles in Midway, watched the Super Bowl with friends, have eaten out far too much, and sometimes we just drive to explore our new area. Where we live, and also where our new house is, is called South Jordan, or SoJo, if you are hip. I have never actually heard anyone call it that, but there is a SoJo Dental down the street from our house, and I think it's funny.
Our house is about five minutes away from where we are staying now, so all the places we have been frequenting (Costa, Walmart, movie theater) will all still be our regular places once we move. The Walmart and Costa are about three minutes away from our house, and then there is a big shopping/dining/entertainment complex about seven minutes away, so everything is very close. It's a bit different than where our house in Boise was at in relation to everything! It takes me ten minutes to get to work, and about thirty five minutes for Brandon, which isn't terrible considering how far away we are from Salt Lake and also morning traffic. We could have lived closer, but when we came to explore the area we sort of just fell in love with South Jordan, and my job gave us the excuse to live here, so it all worked out!
My job is going well-I work with lots of great people (people my own age!) and I like what I do. I haven't worked directly with students with disabilities before, so this is different for me, but they are super fun. I definitely miss Lewis and Clark though. I miss what I did, the staff, and the students for sure. I'm still adjusting to this new position, but they love me, so I guess I'm doing something right.
Brandon starts a ten-day training session on Monday, and then after that he will be able to start doing some real work. He has been job-shadowing up until now, and I know he is excited to delve into it!
We sign our closing documents this afternoon and are more than ready to get the keys and move all our stuff in. Everyone is welcome to come help us move, and also to come stay with us anytime!
