Winter Break

Okay, I'm going to attempt to not be to verbose in my recap of winter break.  :)

For starters, they got the professional graduating class pix out!

well aren't we fancy?

The first week of break I worked 50 hours of a 138 hour stretch.  That's only 8 hours a day for 6 days, but it was rotating shifts: 2 graveyards, 1 day, 1 night, and then 2 days.  Then I was miserably sick with an awesome cold.  So when I wasn't working, I was sleeping or laying around.  I wondered why I scheduled so much work right before my exam and when I had to get sick to destroy all study time.  Poor planning.  Jed took very good care of me though.  :)

Since I worked 7am-3pm Christmas Eve and 3-11pm Christmas Day and Jed and I goofed off til like 4am xmas eve, we didn't get much of a Christmas morning as planned.  Made some quick crepes, opened some presents on the run, skyped the Parkers/Jensens, and called my parents and off I went!

our pretty tree with pressies

We didn't have time to take pix of us each opening gifts so here is the pile.  Not included are many delicious edibles.  :P  Circular from left to right: flavored balsamic vinegars (18-yr aged, red apple, & blueberry, mmm), nativity, fruit dehydrator, binary clock, mouse, latest Futurama season dvd set, bouncy solar powered plant, mini sd card, silver lined gloves (that you can use a touch screen with, yesss), thermometer that glows with temperature, Men are from Mars Women are from Venus book, and camera for computer/skyping.

We drove down to Ogden on Wednesday night and stayed in a rather nice hotel that was close to the Pearson testing center.  I was freaking out about the social work licensure exam that was Thursday morning, but prayed a ton, did some Lamaze breathing (okay not really, but it might have helped!), tried to stay calm and .... passed!

Actually, I did pretty well.  You have to get 100 questions or 70% correct to pass.  There were 170 questions but 40 are questions they're testing out and don't count.  I got 121 correct so if you don't count the test questions, I should have gotten 86%.  And I thought I was gonna squeak by with 72% or something.  So now I just have to wait for Pearson to send my results to the Idaho Bureau of Occupational Licenses, for BYU-I to send my transcript, and for the Bureau to send me my license so I can start working! 

PASS!!

We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating (the alternative weekend if I'd failed would have been a little miserable, so I'm glad I passed for that reason, along with dozens of others, heh) going to nickel arcades, eating out, shopping, going to the movies, and hanging out in cooler places than Rexburg.  We were able to stay with Jed's buddy, Brendon, in Lehi, which was really fun (although our new air mattress leaked from the get-go so we didn't get very good sleep on sofas and love sacks).

Thursday after the test we spent in Ogden.  We went to possibly my favorite Thai restaurant ever: Ruan Thai, under new management, but still so freakin delicious.  I thought thy had closed for good so I was worried, but it was still there and still a total dive from the outside.  Gosh, so good.  We also went to the Nickelcade (which was fairly underwhelming), the Newgate Mall, Costa Vida (Jed's first time), and saw TinTin in 3D at the big Megaplex.

my massaman curry (best I've ever had) and Jed's halibut

Jed sick of my trying to get a picture of us after seeing the TinTin movie in 3D

Friday we hung out with Brendon in Orem and went to In-N-Out Burger, Nickel City (very nice place; many nickels were spent), Best Buy (for the nerd boys to gawk at stuff), and Bangkok Grill (yes, more Thai!).  Jed and Brendon got cap guns with their tickets (and admittedly mine, lol) and had entirely too much fun "shooting" each other with them the rest of the night. 

playin the slots at Nickel City

Jed and Brendon's snub-nosed cap guns

good times were had

Saturday we spent in Salt Lake City.  We went to the Gateway Mall to Dick's, a huge outdoor sports store, and got some good deals (shown below).  Also an olive oil store and huge kitchen stuff store.  Much drooling was had at all three stores, and also at Ikea in Draper, which we hit up on our way back down to Lehi.  We both love and hate the place.  Wonderful stuff for wonderful prices, but no place to put them and not quite enough money yet either (unless we were to go the American route and go into debt for everything we want).  So we have big aspirations to actually move in April and get some Ikea furniture.  Like a sofa we actually want to hang out on (the one we have now is almost painful to sit on).  We also hit up Zupas with Brendon for dinner (all our first time). 

we had Ikea cafeteria food right as they were closing so Jed got a few more than the standard 6 Swedish meatballs; my vegan chili was pretty good too :P

why does Ikea have to make so many things i want?!

Sunday we drove back after hitting up Whole Foods Market in SLC to stock up on soy cheese and soy pepperoni for pizza.  Also got some Amy's soup, soy chorizo, and TVP.  Seriously can't find this stuff anywhere in Idaho.  

Monday we went to Idaho Falls to escape Rexburg one more day.  We went to the mall, Best Buy, and had dinner at Adeberto's (total dive Mexican restaurant).  We got some awesome stuff on sale, pictured below. 

Goodies we bought with xmas money!  Circular from left to right: Photoshop book for Jed's personal study, tofu cookbook, Apples to Apples game, incense and holder (Jed and I didn't know that we both love incense until this weekend, lol), industrial apron (I freakin love this thing), LOTR extended edition bluray boxset (on sale for $50 - a steal), IsoPro fuel canisters, MSR Pocket Rocket camp stove, Steripen Journey UV light water purifier (on sale too), knife sharpener, and flavored balsamic vinegars (lavender & black current, yum!).

It was a great break.  Now Jed is back to school and I have started some preliminary training while I wait for my license.  It's gonna be a good year.  :D