Thursday, January 20, 2011

A Diplomatic Day


Look what came in the mail today!

(It's a diploma, in case that's confusing to you.)


Cecil and the prophet signed it. I'm not sure,
but I think that makes it legit.


Well, I might have a diploma but unfortunately, I'm still jobless. I think I'm still getting over the shock of having so much time. It's surprisingly tough to transition from the busiest semester of your life to the most unstructured my life has ever been. It's like jumping from the hot tub into a bath of ice water. That kind of shock could kill you, you know. Just FYI. Anyway...I digress. I'm making good use of my time I do believe but if anyone happens to know of a smashing full-time job opportunity within a 20-30 mile radius of Provo, I'm all ears. :)

This time of my life definitely does have its advantages. I read a lot which is fantastic. And it's a lot harder to come up with excuses not to run (notice I didn't say impossible...) which means I run a lot more now. Even though it's freezing. And, even though I have no money for travelling, there's still some opportunities for totally spontaneous and cheap road trips. Such as the one we took this past Monday to Zion National Park. I'd never been so obviously it was a necessity.

Here I am just enjoying the scenery. And the temperature!
Short sleeves? In January?! Too good to be true.

The best part of the trip? A mile long tunnel! In the greater Chicago area, there's really not a huge need for tunnels. So I found this simply incredible!I probably shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did but I just smiled the whole way through that tunnel.

Believe it or not, I actually did go with some other people. But I don't have any good group photos of all of us. We even had this kind older woman take one for us but alas when I got my camera back...the picture was nowhere to be found. Still not exactly sure how that picture didn't get taken. But, I do believe one of us got a good one so perhaps I will post it at a later date.


Monday, January 3, 2011

My Niece is Cuter Than Your Niece

I'm sorry if that's rude but...I just can't believe it's not true. This Christmas break was a great one. My whole family was home and it was just a much needed break and distraction from everyday life. We did a lot of pretty awesome things (pictures to come) but really, mostly we just sat around and watched Hailey, an 8-month old bundle of pure joy. And that was entertaining enough.

So...without further ado, I present to you, Hailey Marie Giles:

Hailey's hair has a mind of its own.
I love it. :)


Me and the girl of the hour.
This was after our family picture shoot so she
wasn't totally thrilled to be in yet another picture...


I don't know who did her hair like
that but it's pretty incredible.


Hailey loved Christmas morning.

If you can believe it, there are some even cuter ones out there from the break. I know, I know. You're thinking that this can't be possible. Well, it just is. I will post them when I have them.