Winter!i!

So, I'm not generally a fan of winter.I like to be warm, I like to wear flip flops, and I like out door sports (softball mostly), but this winter we have done some fun things. I haven't blogged in a while, so this could be kinda long and I don't have any pictures right now, but maybe later.

November

November was a little bit busy for my family because Baily decided to get married. We were busy helping them get their house ready and get moved in. On November 7th we were able to go with Baily and Del when they went through the temple for the first time.
On November 12 we had a birthday party for Camryn, who just turned 3. She got all sorts of cool stuff that I wish I would have had when I was her age.
Baily and Del got married on the 14th. Baily's wedding was gorgeous. She insisted on one thing: having a tent in the gym so it didn't look like a gym. So far, things seem to be really good for the newlyweds.
This year for Thanksgiving, we stayed with my family. Last year we went to St. George with Kit's family. My mom always makes such a good meal. She always smokes a turkey, which is the only way I really like turkey. Kit and I decided to take on the task of making homemade noodles. This is something that Kit is used to having for Thanksgiving. I didn't think Kit would really help me make them, but he did, and they turned out really good. We had a pretty big crowd for Thanksgiving. It was at my mom's house. Both sets of grandparents were there. All of my sisters were able to come for a little while and my uncle Park was there too. After dinner, the guys all went to my sisters to play basketball for a while. Later, I played the game of life with Kolby, Kade and Austin. It was a fun day.

December

December wasn't quite as crazy for me as November was. With work, I usually travel quite a bit, which I don't really love. December I seemed to be able to be home more.
On December 3rd I went to my work Christmas Party. Kit wasn't able to go because he had a review for his final, so I was there all alone. There were lots of good things that he missed out on. Since I work for the State, we have to pay for our own Christmas party. At work we usually have one lunch a month for the office. Everyone either brings something or pitches in $5. The left over money goes into a fund for our Christmas party. This year, my supervisor had bought all of the food we would need with our Christmas fund. She is an amazing baker, so she was in charge of making a lot of the food. The night before the party, she had measured out all of her ingredients and got really organized before going to bed. Well, she got really sick, so some of us from the office ended up having to take over and finish what she started. I spent most of the day at the clubhouse we were having the party at helping stuff pork chops and cream puffs.
We have a few single ladies in my office. One is in her late 40s. She's never been married and really doesn't have a lot of experience with men. Someone in my office told her that they would find her a date for the party. Well, the guy that she had planned couldn't come, so last minute they were scrambling to find this lady a date. They found one, but everyone kept saying that he was really weird and would probably annoy everyone. The lady is a little strange too, so I figured they would make a perfect match. All day long I hoped that I wouldn't get stuck at the same table as them. Well the party started and my table had the only left over chairs in the room, so guess where the lovely couple sat. That's right, right next to me. It was kind of entertaining, but the whole night I was trying so hard not to burst into laughter because it was so awkward! I have never heard one conversation last so long about blood sugar levels.
Then came time for the gift exchange. The lady on her first date had told us all that she didn't like the white elephant gift exchange because she had been offended by some of the gifts that had been brought in the past. Well we played the left-right game. After all of the presents stopped at the right spot, the guy sitting next to me kept elbowing me, telling me to watch the first date lady. He had brought the gift that she was about to open and couldn't wait for her reaction. I laughed pretty hard when I saw that it was a pair of erotic dice! Another one of my coworkers, who is about 6 months pregnant, ended up with a nighty. The guy who was on the date made the biggest deal out of this. I think everyone in the room was embarrassed. He kept telling her that she had to model it and she needed to go try it on. I ended up with a toilet scrubber and some rubber gloves. It was an interesting night, to say the least. The food was really good though.
On December 11th, I was able to go out to Provo with some of my sisters, my mom, my aunt, and some cousins to do some shopping. We had a really good time. This was supposed to be our annual "Girl's Weekend", but Traci and Michelle weren't able to go. Traci was in Florida and Michelle just couldn't go. We went to "The Blindside". It is such a good show. I will probably by it when it comes out. We stayed the night out there. I love spending time with my sisters and my mom. We always have so much fun and so much to talk about.
The next week two of my sisters and their husbands had tickets to a Denver Broncos game that they had been looking forward to for months. One of my brothers-in-law is a Broncos fan and the other is a Raiders fan, so my grandpa got these tickets for them. My brother-in-law's little sister was due to have her baby on the 21st, but started having contractions. My sister and brother-in-law did not want to miss this because it is his only sibling and this will probably be the only child she has because her husband has some pretty bad health problems. They wanted to be there for her and in case anything went wrong. They didn't dare go clear to Denver when she was so close to going into labor, so they gave us there tickets. My parents have been feeling extra spendy lately, and they gave my sister some money to pay for all of our food, our hotel room, and a little extra spending money, so we got an all expense paid trip. I think we really needed it. We left home on Saturday morning. It was such a foggy, cold morning. Once we got to Colorado, the fog was gone and we slowly watched the temperature go up. By the time we got to Denver at about 2:30 pm, it was 47 degrees. We were in heaven! We stayed right down town at a pretty nice hotel. The first day, we walked to the next block over where there is a mall and a lot of places to eat and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Then we walked around, looking in different shops. Later, we walked down to the Cheesecake Factory and got cheesecake to take back to the hotel to eat. Dallas (Kit's team) and New Orleans (My team) were playing each other that night. We couldn't get it in the rooms, so Kit and Wes went down to the bar to watch it. Sadly, my team lost their first game of the season that night.
The next day, we walked around downtown for a while, then caught a bus to Invesco Stadium for the game. It was about 50 degrees that day. The game was fun, but there were a lot of foul mouth people sitting around us. Suprisingly, we didn't get very cold. And to the other big suprise was that the Raiders won. My brother-in-law at home was jumping up and down and my brother-in-law at the game was heart-broken. After the game, we got back on our bus, went back to downtown, ate at Chili's (yum). We went to a store to find swim suits so we could get in the hot tub, but they didn't have any men's suits, so we just went back to the rooms and went to bed. It was a fun trip. It was fun to go back to the place where Kit and I went on our honeymoon and remember some of the things that we did.
The night before Christmas Eve, we went to Kit's mom's for dinner. It was Kit's cousin's birthday party. We had a lot of fun. Kit's mom got engaged. She seems very happy and we are happy for her.

Christmas!

Christmas is always a good time of the year for me. My birthday is always bad, pretty much, but Christmas makes up for it. My dad's family always has a Christmas Eve party. The last couple of years it has been at my mom's house. It gets earlier and earlier every year as my grandma gets sicker and sicker. She has been getting a lot worse lately and having more and more bad days, but on Christmas she was having a really good day. My dad has a cousin with Down's syndrome who is in her fifties. Her family had kind of abandoned her, so my aunt Kelly takes pretty good care of her. Every year, someone tries to pon Virginia off on someone else. Luckily, this year, she really like Baily and Del. I think she was trying to steal Del from Baily! Whenever Virginia is around, we have to watch the bacon wrapped water chesnuts. On my ex-brother-in-laws first Christmas with our family, my dad kept trying to get him to try these tasty delights. He refused, while watching my dad eat them, but didn't tell him why until later. He had been sitting there watching Virginia take one out, suck all the juice off of it, and stick it back in all night. He was about to vomit, I think.
It was good to have Joe and Thyrena and their girls back this year. Last year, they were in St. Louis all alone. We had them on the laptop on Skype, but I think that just made everyone more sad that they weren't there and what they were going through. This year, their therapist encouraged them to talk about Corbin and encorporate his memory into their celebrations. One of Thyrena's friends contacted Greg Olsen and got permission to make a special gift for Joe and Thyrena. It is a picture of Christ with little kids all around him. I'm sure most of you have seen it. It is the version that looks like it is sketched. They were able to put Corbin's face on one of the children. We talked about Corbin for a while, and all of his struggles and a few people shared their testimonies of the plan of salvation. We also took time to remember Chip, Lily, Mardel, and my great-grandma Reidhead, who died four years ago on Christmas Eve. It was a special moment.
This year, we didn't do the oyster eating and the pagent like we usually do, but we did get to hear Andrea play the violin. She is very talented and likes to show off at the Christmas party. We sang some Christmas songs like normal. We also had some new additions this year. Brooklyn and Jayden were able to be there this year, and Del was a new addition. Next year, we are planning for at least one more addition, but possible three more.... and I guess if Heston would get off his duff and find a girl, we could have four newbies at the party.
After the party was over and everyone left, Kade opened a Christmas present from Kolby. It was a game for the wii where you hunt dinosaurs. Kade, Kolby, and Kit played it for a while. My parents finally made Kade get in bed, so Kolby, Kit and I could go get his Santa gift and put it together. It was an electric scooter. Kit and Kolby had fun riding it around my kitchen before we took it over. Kit's family is big on wrapping stuff up weird, so he made me put a bad of dog food in the box and wrap it. The next morning, Kade opened it and saw a scooter on the box. He was so excited. We told him that he better make sure that was what was inside the box, so he opened it and found the dog food. He was so confused. We told him that maybe Santa had brought him a puppy. He started looking all over the house for a puppy. We told him that it was probably in the garage where Chloe's puppies had been. He went to the garage and found the scooter. He was so excited.
Kit and I stayed at my parents on Christmas Eve because I get too excited to watch all of the kids open their gifts and don't want to miss out. This year we got up at about 5 to start the festivities. Kit and I were spoiled this year. His mom got us a BBQ, his dad gave us money, my parents got us my uncle's old pool table and a tv. Kit gave me a shelf and a table for our entry way. I gave him some video games and a hunting pack.
We stayed for breakfast at my mom's, then went to Vernal to visit Kit's dad. We then went to Kit's grandma's for dinner with his mom's family. Poor Koda was locked up most of the day.
The day after Christmas, we ran a few errands, got a few Christmas presents put together, then went back to Vernal to visit Kit's aunt who came into town from St. George. That was a fun night too.

Now we are just getting ready to start the new year. I hope it is a good one full of lots of happiness. My sister is pregnant with her first child. We are praying that things go well for her. Burdick Paving sold out, which will mean a lot less stress on my dad and his brother. They have been waiting for a long time for the right people to come along and offer them what they felt the company was worth. They owned every piece of equipment and made more profit each year. Finally, a good company came along. There will be some changes in the company, but they will all be for the best. My family will still run this division for the next few years. It is a little bitter-sweet. Burdick Paving has been a huge part of my life and it is sad to say that it is no longer my families, but it will be so much better for my family to have more freedom and not have to be there all the time.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a happy New Year!

All About Me in ABCs

A
Available: Nope I'm happily married!
Age: 22
Animal: Dogs, probably Koda, even though she's a pest!
Actor: Vince Vaughn... I don't really know
Actress: Reese Witherspoon
B
Birthday: July 13
Best Friend: Kit
Best feeling in the world:
Blind or Deaf: Neither, but if I had to choose, I'd rather be deaf
Best weather: Summer
Been on stage?: Not recently
Believe in yourself?: Usually
Believe in life on other planets: yes
Believe in miracles: yes
Believe in Magic: Not really
Believe in Satan: Yes
Believe in Santa: no, but I like to pretend
C
Car: Honda Civic
Candy: Whatchamacallit
Color: pink
Chocolate/Vanilla: Chocolate
Cake or pie: Cake
Countries to visit: Italy, Ireland, England, Scotland, Greece, Australia, New Zealand
D
Day or Night: Day
Danced: Yes
Dance in the rain?: I have not. It's usually pretty cold when it rains here
E
Eyes: Bluish
Everyone has: an excuse
Ever failed a class?: yes, in sixth grade
F
Full name: Jenny Marie Burdick Caldwell
First thoughts waking up: Do I really have to go to work today??
Food: Round Robins
G
Greatest Fear: having a big accident
Giver or taker: A little of both
Gum: green
Get along with your parents?: Yep, I'm at their house right now
Good luck charm: don't have one
H
Hair Color: Brownish today
Height: 5'3'
Happy: Yeah
Holiday: Christmas.
Hate: liars
I
Ice Cream: Half Baked
Instrument: I like to hear the piano and violin
J
Jewelry: I don't really wear a lot
K
Kids: Hopefully someday!
Kickboxing or karate: Kickboxing
Keep a journal?: I haven't for a long time
L
Longest Car Ride: California
Letter:
Laughed so hard you cried: about a month ago at Camryn
Love at first sight? Sure
LAST PERSON WHO...
1. Slept in a bed beside you?: Kit
2. Saw you cry?: Kit
3. Went to the movies with you?: Kit
4. You went to the mall with?: My mom
5. You went to dinner with?: Kit
6. You talked to on the phone?: client
7. Made you laugh?: Kolby Jack
M- Milk flavor: I'm not a big fan of milk
Mooned anyone?: haha
Marriage?: June 28, 2008
Motion sickness?: Sometimes
McD's or BK?: McDonalds
N
Number of Siblings: 4 sisters, 2 brothers
Number of Piercings: One hole in each ear
O
Overused Phrases:
One wish: To have a cool place to have receptions and other events
P
Place you'd like to live: I like my house for now
Perfect Pizza: No olives or mushrooms
Pepsi/Coke: either
Q-Quail: ??
R
Reason to cry: people dying
S
Song: toes
Shoe size: 7
Salad Dressing: Ranch
Sushi: Never tried it and I do not plan on it
Scent: Christmas
Skipped school: Yes
Slept outside: sure have
Seen a dead body?: Yes, more than I'd like to
Smoked?: yes, stupid
Skinny dipped?: Nope
Shower Daily?: Yes
Sing well?: probably not as good as I think I do
In the shower?: Not usually
Swear?: I try really really hard not to
Stuffed Animals?: I don't think I have any anymore
Strawberries/Blueberries: Strawberries
Scientists need to invent:
T
Time for bed: usually 9pm
Thunderstorms: I like them when I'm not trying to sleep
TV: One Tree Hill, Cougar town is a new fav
Touch your tongue to your nose? Nope, can't
U
Unpredictable: probably not
V
Vegetable you love: broccoli
Vacation spot: Hawaii, Cali
W
Weakness: Food
When you grow up: School counselor, mom
Which one of your friends acts the most like you: I don't really know anymore
Who makes you laugh the most: Camryn and Kolby
Worst feeling: having no control
Wanted to be a model?: No way
Where do we go when we die: heaven, I hope
Worst weather: When it is snowing and I have to drive
X
X-Rays: never had one
Y
Year it is now: 2009
Yellow: I like it, but agree with Kandice, yellow trucks are ugly
Z
Zoo animal: the long haired monkeys
Zodiac sign: Cancer

30 Days of Gratitude (days 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5)

I've seen a few people doing this, and since I'm not creative enough to come up with things on my own.........

1. I am so, so, so thankful for my family. I would go crazy without them. I am so happy that Kit and I moved to Roosevelt where we can be closer to them. I think it drives Kit crazy sometimes because if we have nothing to do we go to my parent's house. My mom does make better food than I do, so I don't think he minds that part. My family is always there for me. I know that I can always count on them when I need help. I hate to ask for help, and they know that, so they never hesitate to offer.

2. I am thankful for my home. Kit and I spent 10 months in a tiny little apartment that didn't even have a silverware drawer! We had to do our dishes by hand, and we would always say that someday we would miss it. I can honestly say I do not miss doing all of my dishes by hand one bit! Don't get me wrong, I was happy to have a place to live where the rent was not outrageous, but I am so happy not to live there anymore.

My new house has enough room in the kitchen for all of the kitchen stuff we got for our wedding. We have a dishwasher, a huge freezer/fridge, a pretty big pantry, a laundry room that is not in the bathroom, two jet tubs (they don't get used very often), a walk-in closet, two extra rooms, and a garage. What more could I ask for? Well, the yard is not in yet, but someday it will be and I will be grateful for that too.

3. I am thankful for our little Koda. Dogs are the best. No matter what happens, they still love you. Koda is always so happy to see us. She just wants to jump on our laps and lick us to death. I get really upset with her sometimes because she refuses to let me walk through the room without grabbing on to my pant leg with her teeth and going for a ride. We can usually find a reason to laugh at her everyday. For Halloween, she was a bumble bee. She was super cute. We went to my mom's and everytime she would go to jump on or off the couch, someone would laugh because she looked like a little bee flying through the air.

4. I am thankful for my job. I really hate it some days, but there are other days that I feel so fulfilled. Those days come when a cute, loving child gets adopted by gracious, loving parents. I was able to see a foster child get adopted by probably the best parents out there and then see them get sealed together as a family a few days later. This was the most precious thing I have seen. I think I will remember it forever (partly because the sealer's name was Wilford Woodruff). I knew in my heart that it was meant to be that way. The baby, smiled through the whole thing. If it weren't for this family, this child wouldn't have been able to have the blessing of having the gospel in his life.

I am thankful that through my job, I am able to see children get opportunities they would never otherwise have. I am thankful that I am able to see changes for the better in the parents that I work with.

5. I am thankful for trials. I know that a lot of people say this. I don't understand why certain things have happened in my life and I probably never will. I have lost a lot of people who have meant so much to me. I have seen people I love with illness and hardships. I know that through all of these things there is something I can learn. I know that I can become a stronger person and grow in my testimony and relationship with my Heavenly Father.

I will never understand why Lily and Chip died and when I get to Heaven I am going to rough them up! Now, more than three years later, I can't imagine how my life would be without Kade, Kolby and Baily as my brothers and sister. They mean the world to me and I would do anything for them. They are such examples to me everyday. I cannot imagine the pain they feel everyday, but I know they will be rewarded for everything they have had to go through.

I have watched my Grandma struggle with cancer for almost 5 years. This has brought us all so much closer as a family. We did not have a close relationship at all when I was younger for so many reasons. All of those reasons just went away when she got sick. We all started to say, "I love you" more often, and really meant it.

I would not be who I am today if it weren't for the trials I have. My small everyday trials help me to learn and grow. Kit lost his job, but that too has helped me to be humble and grateful. I knew that I had to put my trust in God to help us make it through. My family has been such a support because they have been able to give him some work to do until things pick back up. He has also been offered another job, that we are still thinking about. I think it has brought us closer together. It has been a trial. We had been planning a trip to Disneyland. The ironic thing is I was driving past the airport in SLC when I got the news. Yes, I cried because I would not be boarding one of those planes in a few months. I cried everyday for about four days. That is a scary feeling, not knowing what to do and having no control over the situation. I am so thankful that I have my job and I can handle all of the bills. The income that Kit will be making by doing some work for my family and the business will be just what we need to help with the food and any extras that come up. I know that after this I will work harder on getting my food storage and putting money into savings.

So.... there are my 5. I didn't put Kit yet, but I will by the end of the month.

Labor Day weekend fun

This post is a little late, but oh well. For Labor Day we went out to Salt Lake with Kit's family. We stayed at the Little America. I haven't stayed there since I was a kid, but Kit's aunt always gets rooms there for cheap on priceline, so we gave it a try. On Saturday we all went to Cowabunga Bay. It was fun, but it was so cold, so we didn't do a lot of the waterslides. After that we went to Boondocks.

Kit and I like to play miniature golf, so we did both of the courses there. I didn't do so hot. That night we ate at the Little America.

The next morning we got up and all of the kids swam. After that we went to Rodizio Grill. At first none of us wanted to go there because we thought it would be alot of money, but Kit's aunt said that lunch there is the same as any where else, so we took her word for it. Kit had never been there. He really liked all the different meats. We gorged ourselves and then had dessert. It was so good. And then the ticket came. For Kit and I to eat is was almost $70. We couldn't believe it. We have never spent that much money on a meal. To be honest, I don't care how good the food is, I don't think it is worth $30 a plate. We found out that on Sundays they serve the dinner menu all day long, so it was dinner price instead of lunch price. I guess now we'll know. We went to the Zoo after that. It was a lot of fun. We got to see a lot of babies, the giraffe, snow leopards, and tiger. The Elephant came out like two days later. We were sad we didn't get to see her. We watched her on tv a few days later and she was so cute.

While we were there, Kit took care of his cousin the entire time. He thinks Kit is the most entertaining person in the world. I had two of kits cousins attached to me the whole time too.

After the Zoo, Kit and I left to come home. We had to pick Koda up from my sisters. She watched her for us because she has a backyard that is all fenced off. Koda ran and played all weekend. When we got there, I picked her up and she fell asleep in my arms. That never happens. She was beat.

The next day we were going to go golfing with my sister Heather and her family, but there was a golf tournament. We went four-wheeling at Yellowstone instead. It was fun. I got to see a lot of things I hadn't seen before.

The Halloween Tree was really weird and kinda creepy. I don't know who would take all of that stuff clear up there to decorate a tree. The tree itself is weird and stands out, but then people go put like a headstone and pumkins and coffins and all this weird stuff on it. You can't see all the stuff very good in the pictures, but if you are ever up that way, take a gander at it.

We were on the trail that leads to the look out over Moon Lake. We got to about the end and there was a fork in the road. None of us had been up there before, so we took the wrong trail. It was Brett and Heather's idea to go that way. We got to the main road and waited for them for a long time. We didn't know where they had went. When they finally got there, we found out they had turned around and went to the lookout. I was so mad because that was what I really wanted to see! Oh well, maybe another time. I was trying to compete with Baily for the dirtiest rider award, but I don't think I was even close!

Overall, it was a very fun and exciting weekend. We usually don't do much, so anything different is always fun.

Koda

We got Koda when she was just 6 weeks old. She was so tiny and I was so worried she would be sad for her mom, but she did so good the first night we had her. She didn't even cry! She's grown so much in size since then.















I just took her in for her first hair cut today. I don't have any pictures yet, but when I do I will post them. I tried to get some befores, but she wouldn't stop moving and my camera died.

She's about 15 months old now and she is sure a pest. I can't walk any where without her grabbing on to my pants with her teeth. A few weeks ago she learned how to jump on the couches, so we would go to the love sac for some peace. Well this week she learned how to jump on there too, so we have no where to go. We love her, though, and like to show her off, so here are some picture.

Life

So, I'm new to this blogging thing and it took me two days to figure out how to put a background on here. Ok, not two whole days. I started yesterday, couldn't figure it out, took a break, tried again today and it clicked! Maybe in a week or two I'll figure out how to put some pictures on here!
I started looking at blogs because Kandice told me it was kind of fun. I figure my life won't be too interesting to read about because I don't have kids or anything to talk about, but it will give me something to do.
Here's what going on with us... We just bought a house two months ago. We're working on getting the yard in. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be. We had tons of rocks that we had to get out, then we had to haul in topsoil. We're working on getting it level now. We hope to get a sprinkler system put in by the end of summer. I'm trying to decide what to do with all of the space. Here are some of our options: a volleyball/badmitton spot, a basketball court, and a dog run. We are definately putting in a garden, a spot for a swing set some day, a big shop, some mounds, and a large patio for barbecues.
We just finished up softball for the summer and I've never been so happy. We were driving to Vernal at least twice a week. Usually we had two cars and got home about 11. I get up at 5:30 for work, so it hasn't been too much fun. Kit is sad that it is over, but I will find something else to keep him busy.
I'm hoping that we find something exciting to do so I can write about it on here. We'll see how it goes.