Duck, Duck, Goose!

As my summer in Omaha is coming to an end, I'd thought I'd share a few of the activities I've done with my duck and geese friends.  

1.  We played hide and go seek.  There were sooo many ducks and geese that we had to have three of them be the seekers at the same time.  As you can see in the picture they are covering their eyes and counting.  Wait a second. . . Oscar (the goose) is peeking!  No wonder he found me so easily!

2.  We played Hands Up, Stands Up, or as the ducks like to call it, Heads Up, Tail Feathers Up.  And the winner is. . .

3.  I held a yoga class for the geese!  Chloe loved the class.  Jaky. . . not so much.

Janell:  "Ok class!  Let's start out with stretching our leg out like this."

Chloe:  "Like this?"

Janell:  "Almost!  Now just point that toe!"

Chloe:  "Like this?"

Janell: "Perfect!  Good Chloe!  Jaky, can you please stay focused?  Now, try and do what Chloe's doing."

Jaky:  "Huh?  Oh, right.  How 'bout this?"

Janell:  "Hmm. . . We'll work on that one more later."

Jaky:  "I don't like that one.  I want to do this one!  Ready and toe to head and go!"

Janell:  "Jaky, we're not doing that one yet.  Can you please stay with the class?"

As you can see, that one wasn't as successful as I would have hoped, but it was still fun!

 4.  Brett and I had a picnic with the ducks and geese, and boy did they love our food!  Some of those geese were getting a little too friendly.  Talk about invasion of personal space!

Ironically enough, we were not able to successfully play Duck, Duck, Goose.  The ducks didn't like being called 'goose'.  They didn't quite catch on to the concept of pretending.  That game did not end pretty!  Let's just say a few feathers were lost. . . 

Oh the joys of making new friends.  I'm sure gonna miss them! :)

  

Omaha vs Riverton

After having experienced both the life of living in Omaha and living in Riverton.  I have come up with a list of differences between the two cities that I wish to share with you.

Here in Omaha. . .

1. Mal-Mart is THE place to be!  It doesn't matter what day it is, or what time of day.  The Wal-Mart here is ALWAYS packed!  I went on a Tuesday at around noon and the place was like an ant hill!  I'm pretty sure people here think, "Dude, it's our lunch break.  Let's go hang out at Wal-Mart"!    I'm not saying that's a bad thing or anything.  I'm just saying if you want to be hip in Omaha, you gotta hang out at the Wal-Mart!
2. Trains like to stop in the middle of the intersection.  The other day I was driving and had to stop for a train to pass.  The train was only about 10 cars long, so I was thinking it would be no big deal.  This will go by quickly, but that was before the train slowed to a stop right in the intersection!  Only 10 cars!  Couldn't they just keep going for 5 more seconds then stop?  I really didn't mind the wait.  It was just kinda random.  Something I don't see everyday.
3. Dentistry is a competition!  There are sooo many dentist offices here, and not one is the same business.  Within a 10 minute drive around Omaha, I see about 7 different dentist offices.  Dentistry is definitely the most prominent business out here, which is kind of ironic because Brett talks about people missing their teeth.  Haha!  Well, I guess I won't have a problem finding a dentist if I need a cavity filled!
4. Now, here is where things start to get a little backwards.  Instead of watering their grass, people here water their water.  Yah, I was pretty confused when I saw it.  All the yellow lawns out here make sense now.

     

 5.  People here like to barbecue in the weeds I guess.  I was going on a bike ride and I looked over and                            saw three barbecue stands in the weeds.  I don't know about you, but I prefer to have barbecues on the nice green grass, but I guess since they don't have green grass here, weeds are the next best thing!

6.   This next one is what confuses me the most.  Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought towel racks were supposed to go on the outside of the shower.  Well, here in Omaha, they like to put their racks inside the shower.  Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?  Maybe I'm missing something, but I prefer to have a dry towel when I'm finished showering.  I guess it's just the way I was raised. . .

The next two on the list are actually quite cool!  Not backwards, just cool. :)

7.   This is the first year that fireworks are legal here in Omaha, and because it's the first year, people here went nuts with the fireworks!  The entire week before the 4th of July, there were fireworks going every night, and they weren't just the little street fireworks either.  They were the big fireworks, like the ones that the city of Riverton puts on.  It was so cool!  And just to clarify, this is the people themselves doing these fireworks, not the city.  On the night of the 4th, we drove to Brett's work office and watched all the fireworks from there.  We had a great view of the city from there!  For the 45 minutes we were there, there were constantly at least 15 big fireworks going off simultaneously!  It was awesome!  I took a video of it, but the fireworks are kind of hard to see in the camera.  So, Omaha may be a little backwards with some things, but they sure know how to put on a good firework show!  

 

8.  The last thing I want to mention about Omaha, is its rainstorms.  They are awesome!  I took a picture of one of the storms we had, but I can't seem to find it.  I did, however, video a little bit of one on this next video I've posted.  The purpose of the video is really to give a tour of mine and Brett's apartment, so sit back and enjoy a little tour of our place while you wait for the rainstorm portion of the show! :) 

Well, there you have it!  The differences between Riverton and Omaha!  It's been a great experience being here in Omaha, but I'm ready to go back to my hometown.  Just a few more weeks!!!

The First Adventures of Summer

     Wow!  So many wonderful things have happened in just a few short days.  I need to learn to take my camera everywhere because there have been so many times these last few days when I wish I had it, but didn't!  Lucky for you, I have plenty of time on my hands, so I'm going to go back and reenact most of it, so I can take pictures to show off to you.


     Last Thursday, I went on a bike ride.  There's a hill close to mine and Brett's apartment that I wanted to ride up to see what was on the other side, and boy am I glad I did!  When I reached the top of the hill, I was overlooking a beautiful lake, and it just so happened to have a bike trail around it.  I thought that was very thoughtful of the city to pave that for me. :)  I was only planning on taking a half hour bike ride, but since I had time, I decided to ride around the entire lake.  It took me about an hour and a half to leisurely ride around it.  The scenery was fantastic!  There were parts when I was riding through thick forest, and other parts when I was riding through big meadows with these really yummy smelling wild flowers.  They smelt like honeysuckle.  Passing through so many meadows made me wonder why I wasn't seeing any deer, but after going through about the fifth meadow, I finally saw one!  I stopped to take a picture of it on my phone, and while taking the picture a tiny little Bambi head popped up from the tall grass.  It was so cute; definitely the tiniest deer I've ever seen in the wild!  If only I had my camera!  You can't even see the big deer in the picture I took on my phone, so it wasn't worth keeping.  Hopefully I'll see them again when I ride sometime in the near future.  Overall, the bike ride was quite enjoyable.  It'll definitely be my getaway place!  I can't wait to take my sister-in-law to see it!  She's going to love it, which leads me into my next exciting event!


     Annalee sent me a text the other day with a picture of a round trip plane ticket to Omaha!!!!!  I'm soooooo excited!  She'll be staying for 8 days!  We are going to have a blast together.  We're going to take a picnic to the lake and watch the sunset over it while the fireflies sparkle in the back ground.  It's going to be so beautiful and so much fun! We're also planning on attending the Nauvoo pageant and temple, along with the Winter Quarter's temple!  I can't wait to see her!!!  It's going to be so much fun!  22 days! :)  Eeee
(squeal of excitement)!


     This leads me into my next event.  Brett and I were able to go to the Winter Quarters temple last Saturday night.  We were intending on attending the 7:30 session, but when 7:40 rolled around and we were still lost in the ghetto, my hope of getting to see the temple that day was getting smaller and smaller.  I called the temple to let them know we weren't going to make our appointment, and they said that we could still make it for the 8 o'clock sealing session.  We made it with 5 minutes to spare!  It was so wonderful!  I must say that the Winter Quarters temple is, by far, the smallest temple I have ever seen!  About two weeks ago I had the chance to see the Nashville temple and I thought that one was small.  It was smaller than the stake center sitting right next to it.  Well, the Winter Quarter's temple is about two-thirds the size of the Nashville one.  It was so little!  Anywho, the inside was so beautiful with all of its symbolism about the stories of the pioneers, and then to continue the beauty, as we were leaving the temple at dusk, the fireflies were sparkling all around it.  It was a sight to behold!  I was so bummed that I didn't have my camera at the time, but alas, Brett and I will be going back very soon, so I will get a picture then.  Can't wait!


     It has been quite the last few days!  What a way to kick off my summer!  I can't wait for the adventures that lie ahead! :)

   

   

Life As We Know It

     If someone would have told me 6 months ago that I would be married to my sister's friend and living in Nebraska, I would have laughed at their joke and walked away, and yet, here I am!  Married to a wonderful man, living in good ol' Omaha, Nebraska.  
     On February 29, 2012, Brett and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Jordan River Temple.  

      We lived in a nice little basement apartment in Riverton for two months.  At which time Brett moved to Omaha to start a salesperson job, and I moved back home.  We spent all of May apart, which was definitely the HARDEST thing I have ever had to do.  People say 'distance makes the heart grow fonder'.  Well, after having experienced it, I believe that saying to be a bunch of bologna!  I don't recommend this to anyone!  It's not worth crying yourself to sleep three or four times a week.  Anyway, that all doesn't matter now because we are reunited and it feels so good!!!  So once again I am with my loved one and I am now living in a quaint little apartment by a beautiful little lake.  

     Life doesn't get much better than this!  There's just one tiny glitch. . . Brett's job.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great job and it's keeping us financially stable, but the hours sure stink!  He leaves for work at 8:50 a.m., and doesn't get home until 9:45 p.m.  I really shouldn't complain though.  I would much rather be living with my honey again and only see him about four hours a day than to be 1400 miles apart and not see him at all!
     So. . .what does one do for 13 hours by themselves you might ask?  Well, I go find friends of course!  
Friend #1: Geezer the goose. :) He's a very friendly fellow. . . when I'm sharing my lunch with him.  He's definitely not a shy guy.  He'll come right up and eat out of my hand.

Friend #2:  Archibald the ornery goose.  He sure likes to hang around me when I'm eating, but when I try to talk to him or offer him some food, he hisses at me.  It's definitely one of those love-hate relationships.  The feeling is mutual.

Friend #3:  Pegleg the one-footed duck.  When I told Brett about Pegleg, he started to laugh.  I asked him what was so funny, and of course, what does he say?  "I can just picture him trying to swim in a straight line , but end up just swimming in circles".  Typical guy thing to say, but it was pretty funny.  Now, whenever I'm trying to find Pegleg, I just look for the duck that's swimming in circles. ;)

     Other than making friends, I spend my time cleaning the apartment, scrapbooking wedding memories, cleaning, reading, bike riding, listening to sweet tunes, playing Solitaire, cleaning, doing laundry, job hunting, hang out with the only other wife out here, cleaning, cooking, and now blogging!  I would go out and explore Omaha, but Brett has the car 5 out of the 6 days he works.  You can imagine how excited I was when we bought Brett a bike three days ago.  Now I can at least go explore a little bit. 

     I thought I would go crazy being by myself for hours on end, but so far it's not that bad.  With a creative imagination and being easily entertained, it's pretty easy staying sane out here. :)