Author: Jen

Nick and I spent the weekend in Virginia seeing the Natural Bridge. It was beautiful! The only problem was that Mr. Thomas Jefferson bought the land with the natural bridge on it and then sold it to someone else who has turned it into not only a tourist attraction but has made the surrounding area the ultimate tourist trap. I am not sure why the state has not reclaimed this natural beauty, but it remains privately owned. There is a HUGE gift shop where you can purchase package deals to take a tour of the nearby caverns (deepest on the east coast!), see the natural bridge, tour the wax museum, the dinosaur museum, the monster museum, the factory, the zoo, the drive through zoo and see a life size replica of stonehenge called “foamhenge”. All this, in the middle of nowhere! Their marketing is great…they make it sound like you need to plan on spending DAYS there. Which means that you also have to stay at their hotel and eat their food. It’s brilliant really.
Luckily we were smart. We wanted to camp and we did our research. There was a national park only 10 miles away where camping was 1/3 of the price that the private campground next to the natural bridge tries to charge you. We actually asked about camping while at the gift shop and they did not mention the national park.

We took a tour of the caverns…which were mostly man blown holes with paved walkways to see a few little cave formations. Then we went out to the campground where we met some funny old men who lent us an ax and talked our ears off for awhile and made a few blatantly racist comments. (Funny how white people assume they can say these things to other white people!) We made a fire and some s’mores and went to sleep.

Next morning we went to the natural bridge. It was quite impressive. Worth seeing for sure. They have a nice little 2 mile trail you can walk down and see an “indian village” and a little waterfall. It followed a stream that was full of fish jumping here and there.

Then we saw the “foam henge”…it was free. Some crazy man wanted to make his mark on history and decided this was it. It was pretty cool.

It’s always sad when the weekend ends and you gotta go back to work. But that’s life I guess! It can’t always be the weekend!

Have you ever gone for a run and felt like you were moving so slowly but then looked back over your shoulder and the point where you started is much further away than you had imagined it would be? That is the best metaphor that I can think of for what my life feels like right now. Each and every day drags and yet at the end of the month I can’t seem to figure out where all those days went!

Work has been insane. Remember the boss that I talked about? The really nice lady who made a terrible manager? Well she had been working at our facility for 12 years and a month after I started working, she put in a four weeks notice. I thought for a little while that this would make life a little better…I was sorely mistaken. Within our department there is supposed to be a boss and three staff. When I started work there were two staff members who had just quit. I replaced both of them as there were no other applications for the position. After being poorly trained, I attempted to take over two people’s positions. As you can imagine it has only resulted in stress. Now that the boss has been gone for a month, life is all the more stressful. The two of us are trying to do the work of four and we are getting stretched thin. The worst part is that our wonderful residents have not been too forgiving about the situation. They continue to comment on how there “used to be so many good activities in this place!” We try to explain that we have to get a lot of things done and we had to cut back…to no avail.
But there is a light…finally after weeks of no applicants, we had a downpour of them and have now hired a new director and staff member who will start on Sept 8th (hopefully…we have had one fall through before…) Even then though, we will be responsible for training them. I only hope I can train the new staff better than I was trained.

I fluctuate between being really super motivated and seeing a lot of potential in my job to feeling completely beat and just wanting to give up and quit. I guess the main thing that keeps me there is the fact that there aren’t many jobs around here. I’ll keep looking though.

As far as Nick’s job goes…We still haven’t heard where we will be stationed after Nick’s graduation from his training here on Sept 29. I guess we might not know until the week he graduates…good old army. I’m beginning to develop a love/hate relationship with the army.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY from the nation’s capitol! What better place to commemorate our nations birthday than Washington DC? Yesterday j

Nick and I have been keeping ourselves super busy the past few weeks/weekends. Weekend before this last one we went to D.C. on Saturday to check out a few museums. After going through the sculpture garden and the museum of natural history, we discovered a Bar-B-Que festival being held on Capital street. Nick (of course) decided that this was much more interesting than any of the smithsonian museums and took a detour for the day. Right before entering the festival we were given a flyer about pigs being kosher (courtesy of Jews for Jesus)…very interesting read if I do say so myself considering that I work with orthodox Jews every day. We had Famous Dave’s BBQ sandwiches and then stopped at the aquafresh booth (complete with sinks and free toothbrushes/paste) we brushed our teeth in public!

Yesterday we went to six flags using our wonderful military discount. Neither of us have been to a six flags before so we had pretty high expectations which weren’t quite met. The park was comparable to Lagoon in Utah, in fact it probably had less rides than Lagoon even. The very first roller coaster we got onto, Nick was wearing his hat. Right before take off I said to him “You should probably take that hat off!” His reply was “You sound like my mother.” After the first upside down spin, sure enough, his hat was gone. I guess mothers know best eh? It was pretty hot out and Nick’s haircut being the lovely military buzz that it is, he needed that hat to keep from frying. We located the hat beneath the roller coaster, not too far over the fence with the signs posted about not crossing the fence. After the coaster had stopped and was loading again, Nick jumped the fence, ran out beneath the roller coaster, grabbed his hat and we ran. We laughed and went on to have a good day, riding all the rides including a super fast coaster called “superman” and one that made you feel like you were flying like a bat called “batwing”.
Later, I read a story in the news that disturbed me. The day before we went to six flags, a 17 yr old boy was at a six flags in Georgia and lost his hat on a roller coaster, went to get it and was decapitated and killed when the roller coaster came by. YIKES! I don’t think we’ll be jumping over any fences at an amusement park EVER again!

This is my third week at my new job. Which is probably why it has been about that long since I have blogged! I am working at an all Jewish nursing home in Baltimore.

So far I love the residents. I am learning a lot about Jewish culture and all the rules of eating kosher. The facility is completely kosher which means that meat can never be prepared or eaten with dairy, no pork or shellfish and there are separate kitchens/fridges/utensils/plates/
pots/tupperware (all of which are kosher) for the meat and for the dairy. The Rabbi comes every friday for the shabbat (Jewish sabbath, which technically starts at sundown on Friday and goes until sundown Saturday). He sings all kinds of Yiddish songs that get stuck in my head and then I help to pass out the bread and wine to the residents. I’m not even Jewish and I get to help pass the bread and wine! Judaism is so rich in culture that I am excited for the opportunity to learn more about these wonderful people!

On the flip side…the actual job has been far from likable. This being my third week one would think that I would have a pretty good grasp on what is expected of me on a day to day basis. To be perfectly honest, I still feel like every day that I go to work is my first day. They have not trained me very well and I feel it is due to a lack of communication between the boss and the staff. Which I have come to an understanding is a common occurrence in this workplace. The boss at this job is not even a recreational therapist. She is an ADC (activities director certified) and yet she supervises three recreation therapists. Which throws a wrench into the whole system really.

Anyhow…long story short, while I love the residents, I’m not sure that I can stand to work for the boss. So I am attempting to find another job, but continuing to work at this one until I find something else.

Yesterday I attended Nick’s Basic Still Photography graduation. Which makes it official, he is a “photographer” he has earned the right to be called professional! Not only has he finished his training in photography, but he finished it with flying colors and graduated as an “honors” student. Smarty Pants! Good job Nick! I am excited to have a photographer for a husband because hopefully that means that he will photograph our lives in a meaningful and memorable way.

Last thursday I went hiking with an old friend of mine, Abby. She was my roommate when I went to BYU-Hawaii about four years ago. We’ve seen each other a few times since, but it’s been a few years since the last time. She was my hiking buddy in Hawaii, so we decided to keep the tradition going and go for a hike! She has been living in Virginia and working in D.C. for several years now so she knows a few good places. We went on a trail near the Potomac river. We saw a really fat toad, a HUGE water snake and lots of green!

Yesterday I went out with another old friend that lives close by, Hillary. She was a trailwalker with me at Anasazi two years ago and I haven’t seen her since. We went to a lebanese restaurant for lunch then took the metro to the beautiful union station and went to the national botanical gardens. I have never seen so many different plants in one place! It was incredible!

It is always so nice to see old friends…hopefully I can make some new ones soon too!

Thanks to a three day weekend, Nick and I were able to do a little bit of exploring. Saturday we went to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland. We spent time walking around the harbor area and went out to eat at “Reynold’s tavern”. We enjoyed the small town eastern charms of the city and the sea air. When we were all tuckered out from walking we sat on the pier and watched the sun set as the ships docked. It was a beautiful night.

Sunday we went to Baltimore for the afternoon. We walked around the harbor and went to the Hard Rock Cafe. After taking lots of pictures while waiting for a table and then for our meal, we wandered around the harbor area and watched a spectacular street performance. A man juggled a bowling ball, a razor sharp sword, and a torch while balancing on two skateboards on a round pipe. It was pretty impressive. After the days activities we spent an hour helping a rich woman get her mercedes started. We’d never jumped a car that nice and couldn’t find the battery leads at first. When we finally did, there was no black lead, only a red one and we were confused, but managed to get it going while she stood and watched, smoking a cigarette. She shoved five dollars into our hands as we left. Thanks lady.

Monday we went to Washington D.C. to the Arlington Cemetery for Memorial day, figuring it was the most appropriate place to be on this particular holiday. It was also our first experience taking the Metro…not too bad. We took pictures of the graves and honored the dead by remembering their sacrifice. It was somewhat difficult and sobering given Nick’s line of work. Every tombstone we read seemed to remind us that Nick is soon going to be in a dangerous combat zone taking pictures while bullets zoom overhead. We didn’t talk much and wandered hand in hand wondering about how the men and women buried there met there fate.

Also, we took pictures of our home. Our stuff arrived on May 16th and we weren’t expecting it until the 21st, so that worked out very nicely! Keep in mind that we’re not all the way moved in yet when you look at the photos. We’re still waiting for our nice leather sofa and loveseat that are in the mail, and our spare room could use some TLC, but it’s really beginning to feel like home. If you look close, you can see the flowering bush we planted in the back yard.

To view the rest of our pictures, go to: Nick and Jen’s Pictures

I made it! After three days of driving and two nights of cheap hotels I am now residing in Maryland with my husband Nick at Fort Meade. My Mother-in-law, Julie, helped make the journey here a much more pleasant one than it would have been just driving by myself! So thank you Julie, for coming with me across the country! And for being willing to sacrifice your mothers day with your family.

Right before I left Utah, I gained a niece and almost lost a sister. Thanks to everyone’s prayers, my sister is still with us and I am excited for her to begin the adventure of a new baby. They named her Mersadie Nicole Hunter.

Since Julie and I got here on Saturday and her flight did not leave until Monday, we had Sunday to explore. In the morning we went to the local LDS ward, which although they were few in numbers, they were by far the noisiest ward I have EVER attended! After church we headed into Washington D.C. where we went to the Space and Flight museum. They have the actual Wright brothers plane…the very first plane to fly! Nick and I are pretty excited to be so close to the capitol and all the neat things to do and see.
I dropped Julie off at the airport this morning and Nick off at work/training. I spent the day organizing the few things that we have here. Most of what we own is currently in possession of the moving company who has until May 21st to get it here. Nick and I will be camping out on the floor until our stuff (including our bed which I already miss “sorely”) arrives.

Living on a military base is like being in a whole different world. It’s like a special club for members…you have to have an I.D. to even get onto the base, especially this one since the most secret top secret government agency is on this base. Sometimes they even search your car when you come on base! Once on the base, it’s like a town. There are different neighborhoods, shopping (all tax free of course!) and even a hotel! If we wanted to, we could stay on the base for the rest of our lives and have everything we need! But of course, there are some very cool things just outside the gate…this base is halfway between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. There are so many places to go and things to do around here that Nick and I are going to have to get busy if we want to see even HALF of it!

Today is Friday. Which means a lot of things for me. One of those things is that it’s almost the weekend. Another is the fact that today is my last day as the boss of my department because on Monday the real boss will be back from maternity leave at which point she will resume her place as the boss. I will then be stuck in that nowhere land where I don’t really have a “position” here at work other than that of transitioning all the information in my head into that of the boss’s head. Probably the most significant thing to me about today being Friday is that in exactly one week from now I will be driving my little white car across the whole country with my trustee mother-in-law at my side. Perhaps we should make a sign for the back of my car that says “Maryland or bust!” I don’t think I’ve technically ever been to Maryland. I’ve been to Washington D.C. which is rather close but I’m not sure if I’ve ever been into the state of Maryland. And I certainly haven’t been to the “state of MARRY land!” In one week I will be on my way to both of those states! WAHOOOOO!