Working Woman

Hey y'all.  I'm a working woman again.  On Monday, I started my new SLP job at Glenwood, Inc.  It's a nonprofit organization that works with children on the Autism Spectrum and with other mental health disorders.  First week was good, but I am TIRED.  I got used to being a stay-at-home wife.  I appreciated my break from real life, and although I miss having the time to do whatever I want whenever I want, I'm glad to be working again.  I think I'm really going to like my job.  It also doesn't hurt that I get free lunch. :)

Home Away from Home

One of the things that made it easier to move to a place we'd never been to before was knowing there was a temple in Birmingham.  I grew up with a temple in San Diego, and there was always a temple close by no matter where I lived in Utah, and it's a place I've always tried to visit often.  Knowing there'd be a temple to go to in our new city made it so much easier to move because I knew I would have a holy place to worship God and feel close to Him.

 

After a few weeks of getting settled, I went to the temple and I can't fully describe how good it felt to be there.  It always feels good to be in the temple, but it was especially good that first time in the Birmingham, Alabama temple because I felt like I was home.  It was familiar, and it was something I knew.  My temple dress was the same, the kind temple workers were the same, the covenants made and promises given were the same, the closeness I felt to the Lord was the same.  I felt at home.  For those who want to know more about temples, go here.

First of Fall

The leaves are just barely starting to change here, but word-on-the-street in B'ham is that fall happens quickly.  I was advised to take pictures before it all goes away, so that's what I'm trying to do.  The trees are still pretty green, but as I drive around the city, I can see some are changing now.  As I was driving to drop off some paperwork at my new job, I was blown away by the beauty of the drive, and I had to pull over to take some pictures.  Here's one of my best shots:

Newel and I plan on going back to Oak Mountain to get some really good pictures of the autumn leaves, so look for another fall post in the near future!

Oh yeah! We went to the Zoo.

On Friday, I went to the Birmingham Zoo with my friend and her kids, and it was pretty cool. It wasn't the World Famous San Diego Zoo, but it gives a good effort. Here's some stuff we saw:

roosters cock-a-doodle-doing,

 

eagles having staredowns,



 

elephants crossing their hind legs,

 



 

a don't-mess-with-me gorilla, 

 

zebras and giraffes,

 



stinky warthogs,

 



 

napping lions,

 

slimy alligators,

 

 

and a beautiful, blue macaw!

 



It was fun, and I'm glad I got to see it with good friends.  Sometimes, I forget how amazing it is that God created all of these different animals that are all beautiful and unique in their own way.  Isn't this world awesome?!

A Day of Science

I went with my friend and her two boys to the McWane Science Center in downtown Birmingham.  This place was/is awesome!  It's fun for kids and adults which makes it great for families.  It's great for field trips too.  A class of students was visiting when we were and they were loving it.  Personally, I think science is so much more fun when it's hands-on, and McWane Science Center offers just that.  It contains more than 9,000 square feet of interactive exhibits including: bubbles and digging for pretend dinosaur bones.  There's a bunch of physics stuff too, but you can guess what the most popular exhibits were for the boys. :)  McWane also has an aquarium and an IMAX theater.  We didn't check out the IMAX, but the aquarium was really cool.  The aquarium tanks were grouped by different geographic locations (e.g., all the fish you'd see in the Gulf of Mexico were in the same tank), and they had a tank for fish you'd find in Alabama waters.  By the way, did you know bonnethead sharks are always moving and that they lay eggs every few hours, and if the egg isn't fertilized, it becomes a female shark?  Lots of cool information to be learned at McWane!  It was a lot of fun and I totally recommend it.  I forgot to take pictures until we were about to leave, so I was only able to capture this:

It's cooler than it looks.  I promise.

Are you SERIOUS?!

"You've got to be kidding me." "I'm so mad at this car right now."  These are the words spilling out of our mouths as our car breaks down again!  Aaaaahhhh! 

We went back to Atlanta on Friday to fix the alternator on the Jetta.  We spent the night at Newel's sister's house where our car had been staying this past week.  Then we got up in the morning to get to work.  Actually, Newel and his brother-in-law got to work and I went to Zumba with my sister-in-law, after which we went to a consignment sale and got a car trunk's full of clothes for her kids.  I'll need to post about consignment sales because they're the cat's pajamas around here.

When we got back to the house, they had finished fixing the car so we ate lunch, said goodbyes and got back on the road so I could make it back to go to the Relief Society Broadcast.  Turned out, the Jetta had a different plan for how things we're gonna go down.  After being on the freeway for just a few minutes, the car started making weird noises and then the belt went flying off somewhere on the road.  Fortunately, we were able to pull off at the next exit and stop at a gas station where we checked the car to confirm what we thought happened.  Turned out the pulley on the alternator was bad, so Newel's brother-in-law came to take us back to the store to get a new alternator/pulley/serpentine belt and then helped Newel replace it again while I sat in the car and gave some solid moral support.

After replacing the alternator for the second time in one day, Newel said, "This car is officially not allowed to break down anymore."  Ditto.  We then made it back to Birmingham safe and sound.