If I Could Go Back...

I was cleaning out my 'random' documents file and found an old journal entry that I had written before I left Maryland, so I thought I would post it! This is how I felt before I came back to Utah!

"Wow! I cannot believe that in three days I'll be making the drive back to Utah. Surprisingly enough the feelings of going home are very,very bittersweet.

Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to be back and to be with my family and get this wedding completely planned but there are a lot of things that I'm not excited about being back to, such as being back in the mixture of millions of members, construction, dealing with cut throat drivers, and everything being cookie cutter and nothing all to extraordinary. I will miss the diversity of living in Maryland, the humidity, the brick row homes, beautiful old stone churches on every corner, green trees, the diverse people, amazing thunderstorms, the fatty foods from Bubba's and Season's Pizza, and being in a centralized area to so many awesome places!

I feel like living out here that I have grown up a ton, I have been sheltered for so long in Utah that I didn't understand that such cultures as in Maryland could be so different from the one that I lived in Utah. In Utah, everyone seems to be a member of the church, out in Maryland you'd be lucky to find a member randomly in a store. In Maryland, I strived to be able to feel the spirit and was able to recognize what things brought the spirit into my life; where back at home it was hard to differentiate because the spirit was always felt. I am excited to go to church out here and to socialize with individuals who have the same beliefs as I do because every day of the week being able to do that is a rare treat.

I will miss Maryland!"

Looking back on my experiences and photos, Maryland really is a beautiful state. When there are no mountains and just miles of plains, they produce some of the most beautiful sunsets. 

This was on top of the parking garage of where we lived, {we lived in the building pictured}. I will definetely miss the spectacular sunsets!

This picture was just taken a few minutes prior to the first picture. Beautiful!

This is a video of the sunset, I included this here only because we took video of the area near where we lived. The Catholic church I saw every day, the cemetery, the Towson Mall and where I lived.{Disregard some of Jamison's comments on the video...please!}. This is a neat video to always have to remember where I have been and what I saw during this summer.

Storms Like Never Before...

Before I came to Baltimore I thought I understood and knew the definition of what a thunderstorm was through my experiences of living in Utah. The Utah thunderstorm definition being: 'Crack of lightning and the roar of thunder every 15 minutes with a sprinkle of rain here and there'.  Since living in Maryland, I have now come to a quick understanding that Utah thunderstorms are weak compared to the severe thunderstorms you get out in the plains/east coast.  Definition of Baltimore thunderstorm: 'fabulous light show with great surround sound for hours of entertainment, caught without an umbrella? Sucks to be you'.

Out here you can watch the storms build up and expand for as far as the eye can see, even cooler you can watch the lightning stikes and hear the thunder coming for hours. Although the daytime storms are cool, the storms are even better at night only because it is as a light show from each lightning stike that lights up the black clouds.

As the storm approaches, the light becomes more distinct and the thunder sounds like a gun shot depending on how close the lightning struck. When it rains out here, it pours for hours at a time! Rain in Utah is a sight less seen and takes only several minutes before it's over. Here I feel like it never ends and depending on the storm you get good sized hail will come from the sky! 

I have never experienced anything like this before, the first couple of storms we had out here {which it happens to rain at least once a week} have amazed me because I didn't know these storms were possible!

Jeez, was I naive!

*I didn't take these pictures, Google did an amazing job for me so I borrowed them. There was no intentions of stealing, promise!*

One Year. Two Months.

I can't believe Jamison and I have now been dating for 14 months. It is crazy how fast the time has flown by and all of the amazing adventures that we have experienced together.

 I came into work the other day to find flowers that had been left in the office for me by Jamison. All of the bouquets I have received from Jamison have been beautiful, but I think that this has been the prettiest bouquet Jamison has ever given me! {Do I say that everytime?} These flowers are beautiful! Although it has now been a week later and I am finally writing about them, I am surprised to say that they still haven't died yet and look like they just bloomed!

I secretly like to smell them, {as well as the other guys in the office} especially the carnations. They smell so good! I get a lot of compliments on my flowers, besides we all know I worked so hard to get them!!!

Thanks for the flowers again Jamison, it was a great way to brighten up the office as well as my day.

Love you.

Late Night BBQs.

You know it is officially summer when you start having BBQs with friends and family! {Family being Hudson of course....} 

On Sunday nights there are a lot of us from work that get together at the Terrace where we live and sit around the fire after cooking our food to just eat, relax, and talk around the fire. It really is a lot of fun!

This is the very lovely crew who joins us every Sunday for our BBQs. This picture was taken right before we started to eat Smores! Yum! Sunday evenings are so much fun when you have something to do....even if it is just relaxing and talking with some new friends.

Cooking? Check!

Yes. I made dinner...in a crock pot!

  

 What was on the menu you ask? Rice with a creamy brocolli chicken sauce to go on top with raspberry Jello topped with whipped cream and semi-homemade rolls!

I didn't do too shabby on my first legit cooking experience and I finally used my crock pot which was a christmas gift from over a year ago....

According to Jamison and Hudson...they thought it tasted great! 

Maybe I can do this 'woman' stuff.  

I Love To See...

The Temple!

 

On our very first Sunday here alone we decided to go see the Washington D.C temple. What a spectacular and beautiful area! The temple itself is a masterpiece alone! The neatest part is when you are driving on the freeway, it suddenly appears out of nowhere. It is amazing.

It is a beautiful temple, living in Maryland there is so much traffic and chaos. Walking on this property, although we could still hear the freeway, I felt safe and peaceful.

 

I'll go inside some day. 

Traffic Stops.

I have learned several things about driving while living in Maryland.

1. There is traffic, lots and lots of traffic. You can be stuck in it for days at times it feels like during rush hour.

2. People actually follow the speed limit here. Some freeways are 55 mph...and they keep to it!

3. There are no cops on the freeways. {They are too busy busting crime in the streets...scary thing, it's true!}

4. Cars will be parked in a lane at certain hours of the day...seriously watch out for those. 

5. I have so many tourist attractions at my fingertips. {Washington D.C, the Harbor, NYC, Gettysburg, Philadelphia...the list can go on!}

6. There are more interstates and freeways in this state then the letters of the alphabet.

7. There are freeway entrances and exits that pop literally out of nowhere. To get to one destination, you get on at least 5 different freeways to get there.

8. A GPS system is like water out here-without it you will die.

9. You have to let a driver in sometimes, if not, no one will ever let you in to their lane.

10. It seems to be the cool thing if you honk your horn for no apparent reason. Everyone does it!

Oh Maryland, I have learned so much from you.

And So It Begins...

Just started my first day at work today...and it was fun!

{Well the monotony of my job still hasn't kicked in yet}.

I do have it figured out for the most part, and although I am nervous, I am running the entire office by myself tomorrow and it's only my second day! It is almost as bad as starting at ToysRUs on Black Friday...ha! Now that was crazy hard! So pretty much what I am saying is to keep them crossed peeps! 

{Mom says 'peeps' all the time, 'Hey peeps!' It's almost her form of "What'sUp Dawg!"....really it's too funny}.

Jamison had a really good first day, he is currently shadowing a more experienced technician but he seems to be getting the hang of what he is doing as a technician, in fact, he should have his first install tomorrow. I pray that the install won't be cancelled!

Poor Hudson {my older brother a.k.a head technician}is pretty stressed, even he will admit that he is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. For now, I'm trying to help him out the best I can and he seems to appreciate what I have done so far.

Well, after 11 hours of work on my very first day I am pretty exhausted. Hopefully I'll be able to move out of this scary Ramada Inn and finally get in to my amazing new apartment! I'll post pictures of my new home once I've moved in. I can definetely get used to not seeing bugs in the shower anymore, the Ramada is creepy disgusting!

Flying Time.

Wow. I have been busy.

{Finals, R.A, School Projects, Packing, Moving}

You got it. Moving.

I'm finally in Maryland!

It only took 3 days to finally get here, good ole 32 hours of driving...not including a major detour through West Virginia. {more scoop on that later!}

I just wanted to make a post letting you know that I am still alive. It was just too hard to find the time and energy to write anything. But now that I am in Maryland, I get to blog about all my new adventures here with both my older brother Hudson and Jamison!