2nd Half of 02-2020

For about three years of my working career life I recruited. Although it was one of the happiest days of  my life when I left recruiting, the skills I learned have been very beneficial. One of these skills is resume building and reviewing. Honestly, I also learned a lot about resumes from a counselor in college who shredded my first draft, and then reviewing version after version of my own resume with my brother. Jack and I even talked about someday starting a business where we reviewed resumes and gave people feedback. All this said, within the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to help a few friends and family members. I reviewed their resumes, gave them feedback, and even did some interview prep. Tabitha came into town for some networking events because she's hoping to move to Utah, and we spent a full afternoon running through interview questions. I also helped Nathan and a friend from California with their resumes as they are both starting on the job hunt. I am grateful I have some useful skills to be able to help people, it's been a lot of fun!

Also while Tabitha was in town, we had a double date night with her and her boyfriend. We made taco salad and played Reverse Charades and Pandemic. Pandemic is one of our go-to group strategy games, we love playing with people when they come to visit. It was such a great evening!

T's Boyfriend, Tabitha, Jay, Me, M

I've been GF for almost 5 years now, hard to believe because when I started I thought I might starve. And, my tummy has felt better over the past 5 years than the 5 years before that I am very grateful. Over the 5 years, I really haven't made too many bad things and my experiments have turned out most of the time very good. Well, this week was different. The first attempt was bread sticks, I wanted something to go with my rigatoni so I found a 4-ingredient recipe online that had over 150 reviews and 4.5 stars...I thought I was totally safe. They smelled so good, I doused them in butter and garlic salt, and they tasted terrible. I ate the seasoning off the top of mine, and M asked if he didn't have to finish! You know it's bad if even M won't eat it. So, that was the first fail of the week...

See, they even look good! Don't be fooled though.

Second fail was cinnamon rolls. M passed his CPA test, I found a GF cake mix on sale, so I thought it was the perfect time for a treat. As soon as I began I started to have some little doubts. Hmmm, maybe the cake mix won't be good or the new flour I am trying won't be good, etc. When I dumped the dough out to roll it, it stuck to my rolling pin and was 100% stuck to the counter. I had to keep dumping flour into it and around it as I scraped it off the table with the spatula. FINALLY, I got it rolled up and tried to keep it together when I cut them. It was a process and the more flour I dumped I just thought to myself, there's a dollar, and another, and another...GF flour isn't cheap! They cooked up beautifully and are pretty good, but the density and the texture really didn't suite M's fancy. He tried to make it sound good by saying he liked the cinnamon part and the frosting was good....Again, they look amazing, but not so much the taste for someone who likes gluten. It was a good learning experience, and unless I have a few other people who are GF who want cinnamon rolls, I probably won't go through the effort of making them again...OR, I'll find a better recipe that suits GF better.

Beginning

Middle

End

One Sunday afternoon the weather was beautiful, so we walked over to M's grandmother's house to introduce her to Jay. We had a great visit, Jay slept almost the entire time, and then we went on a long route home. It was good to introduce Jay to his great-grandma, so now he's met 2 of the 3 living greats.

Me, Grandma Eddington, M, and Jay

Jay also got to meet his Grandpa for the first time! Grandpa Blaylock was here for Root's Tech in SLC and came down to visit with us for an evening. We were so happy he was willing to drive down and visit us, and we enjoyed the evening with him, Michela, and Nathan.

Grandpa and Jay

The weather has been beautiful a few days each week, so Jay and I have been loving our afternoon walks. My favorite is when I can catch someone on the phone and I can talk to them the whole time I am walking. Feeling the sun, moving your body, spending time in nature and with those you love is so good for the soul. I am excited for when the weather gets warmer and warmer and we can go on walks every day!

Jay doesn't look too pleased, but really he does love walks and falls asleep every time.

One highlight of the past couple weeks is that I got to go to the temple. I haven't been to the temple since before Jay was born and it was wonderful to return. It has been the longest I've been away from the temple since I was endowed a little over 5 years ago, and it was wonderful to be back! I am grateful for M's willingness to watch Jay and his support in helping me go. I hope to be able to take advantage of only being 10 minutes away.

MADC-4, this may seem like one of the oddest acronyms you've seen, but it's the name of the superhero group of the movie M and his friends made in high school. His friend Coop was in town for the weekend from NYC, where he's trying to make a real acting career, so we all got together for the premier of this video. It's a 45 minute episode that they spent almost a year making...they have scenes with snow and scenes of summer. When they created it in high school, they all watched it one time and then the file became corrupt and they never saw it again...no parents saw it, nobody except those who made it...the 4 friends, Nathan, and a couple others. I have heard so much about the video, I was so excited to see it, and I was not disappointed. The premise of the movie is the villain wants to capture three gems, and to do it he decides to try and split up the MADC-4 with some insider help. It was hilarious to watch these people who I have only really known as adults act in their teenage ways, all while trying to create some cool effects, fight scenes, and drama. They wrote the script, did their own editing, their own camera working, etc. It is awesome! I really hope we can get a copy so our posterity can someday watch it. I also loved spending the evening with some of M's best friends, this was really my first time being with M and his friends. There was so much mutual respect between Coop and M, and the whole group was able to laugh and just have a great time together. M said he was so relieved when he saw Coop again it wasn't awkward and it felt like they hadn't even missed a beat. One time my mom told me that you know your true friends by those who you maybe don't contact as often, but when you get together it's like you've never been apart and that's how this night was for M, so cool!

Jay has been such a fun kiddo, he's starting to interact so much more with smiles and some ooo-ing. Whenever we're stressed or begin to worry about things, Jay will laugh or get a big smile and our stresses are washed away for a moment.

Jay has a unique ability to get at least one hand out of the swaddle, and he loves touching his ears. 

M's shirt says it all, LOVE.

These two on Sunday night were really enjoying each other. 

Oh what fun February was! We've seen a lot of friends and family, played games in our free moments, and soaked up all the laughs and smiles that we could. Jay has started to be interested in small rattles and reacting to the things hanging above his playmat, so we're excited to see what March has to offer.