Pioneer Day in Park City

Utah has this great holiday, Pioneer Day, that no other state recognizes and actually not all the employers in Utah recognize it and consider it a holiday from work. But! The companies that Jen and I work for do. So we had this last Thursday, July 24th off of work. So Jen and I went to Park City for Pioneer Day. And it was fabulous! Jen had never been on the Alpine Slide so we went up there to do that and then we found that they had two other things we wanted to try: the Alpine Coaster and the ZipRider. The Alpine Coaster was our favorite! It is basically a roller coaster where you sit in your very own car and you can control your speed. They haul you up to the top of mountain (sort of) and then let gravity have its fun while you zip around some curly-qs and corners and whatnot - all throughout some very cool Aspen trees. As soon as I can get the pictures off of Jen's camera I'll upload some. Very fun day!

10-Year High School Reunion

Wow. I feel old now. I graduated from high school 10 years ago! I went to Boise for my high school reunion last weekend (so the weekend of July 18-20). It was wild. I went to the picnic Saturday afternoon where everyone was able to bring their families and then I also went to the main event, a "banquet", at the Courtyard Marriott in my hometown that evening. I think I liked the picnic the best, but it was good to go to both because I was able to see some different people at both events. It was fun to see everyone and hear what they have been up to for 10 years! When I first arrived at the picnic I felt like a deer caught in the head-lights! And I then I felt so relieved when my long-time school friend, Jen, showed up.

Her son, Rylan, is so darling! And it was great to meet her husband. Some of my school friends pictured here are Clarissa, Jen (of course), Kristina, Cathi, and Alicia (although I don't remember knowing her very well in high school).

I was also able to go to the park with my sister, Jill, and her family for a picnic dinner. Check out the video of my niece, Jennifer, texting her friend. Can you believe how fast she is?! The talents the youth have these days!

Mundane Monday - Working for BYU HR

In honor of moving into my new office today, I decided to write about my job! But first you must admire my office and the view I have from it! Doesn't the sight of Timpanogos and Squaw Peak just make you want to drool? And then, can't you just imagine the sight I'll have when the first snowfall comes to the valley? I'm already salivating over it.I am an Area HR Consultant. I am assigned over 1/4th of campus. My areas consist of everything under the Advancement Vice President - so Athletics, University Communications, Alumni & External Relations, etc. And then also everything under the Student Life Vice President - so Student Health Center, Residence Life, Dean of Students, Counseling & Career Center, Student Academic & Advisement Services, etc. And then I also have the Harold B. Lee Library. I loooove working with my areas. They are great. It is humbling to work with all the directors and have them call me with questions. That is actually one thing that takes up a lot of my time - helping the directors of each of these areas solve their own HR issues they are facing in their organizations.

A typical day on my job isn't very typical. My weekly schedule is more typical than any given day. All through out the week I may be reviewing job postings and getting them finalized and posted on-line so people can apply. And then I also set starting salaries for the top applicant that the director wants to hire for their vacant job and work out a final salary with them for that applicant. Those are pretty much the little things that fill my days in between all the meetings and bigger responsibilities.

Mondays are generally pretty quiet. This is the day that I usually have time to get some work done.

Tuesdays are pretty full of meetings. On occasion I attend the HRS directors meeting (the four of us consultants are on a rotational schedule to attend). And then there is always devotional - which I almost always sleep through - sadly. (I don't know why! It drives me bonkers.) And then my piano lesson on my lunch hour - I just had to throw that one in there. And our meeting with our Assistant Administrative Vice President over HR.

Wednesdays is when I have to do a lot of reading in preparation for Job Evaluation meeting on Thursday. So I read countless job descriptions for jobs all across campus and try to make a justifiable determination of a pay level so I can go into the meeting prepared. And then I have a couple other meetings that afternoon as well.

Thursday. Oh Thursday. That is when our forever long Job Evaluation meeting is. It's actually a very fascinating meeting. I rarely, if ever, struggle to stay awake in that one even though most weeks it is 3 hours long - from 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Why do I not struggle to stay awake in that long of a meeting? Because the conversation is engaging and on occasion we have a pretty good debate going over some of the jobs. It really keeps you on your toes. We determine first whether or not the job should be paid hourly or salaried - did you know that is based on some very strict criteria put forth by the federal government? Yup. And in some cases it is rather hard and very subjective to determine if a job meets those criteria to be salaried. Then we figure out the pay level the job should be based on the content of the job and then we compare it to similar jobs out in the market to see if we are close to it. See. Pretty interesting huh?

Friday. Friday always tends to be the day that I stay late after work. I don't struggle to get everything done on other days of the week - but Friday is different. Friday is the day that I prepare job descriptions for Job Evaluation meeting the following week. I mark up the job description to see how it has changed since the last time we evaluated it and then I prepare a cover letter with the highlights and any "insider" information I know about the job from the department telling me. It doesn't sound like much, but it can take a good couple of hours to prepare one job description so when you add in numerous job descriptions and interruptions... then that adds up to staying late Friday night since I have to turn in those prepared job descriptions by Friday at 5 o'clock or else first thing Monday morning.

And then I have some big projects through out the year. Like the Annual Salary Review - also known as raise time. We help to administer the process to our directors since they have to figure out what their employees should receive percentage wise based on their performance. That takes the whole month of June and first part of July - so currently, we are wrapping it up.

Right now, I am serving on a disaster drill committee for a drill we are having in November of this year. That's kind of fun although it hasn't taken much of my time at all. I hope it takes more because I think that is a cool assignment.

Renaissance Women

My friends and I, on occasion, call ourselves Renaissance Women. Apparently, there are several definitions of a Renaissance Woman, but to us - a Renaissance Woman is one with many and varying talents and interests. Those talents and interests may be domestic, musical, athletic, intellectual, etc. She is continually trying new things and finding balance between work, play, friends, and family. She crosses all spectrums of types of people easily & fluently - high maintenance, low maintenance, athletic, prissy, educated debater, silly tease, mountain-dweller, city-dweller, etc. You get the drift.

Here is a weekend run-down in the life of this Renaissance Woman and her Renaissance Women friends (and this weekend is a perfect example!):

I jet home from a fulfilling day at work. Change my clothes and pack my backpack full of my sleeping bag (that I affectionately call my "glow-worm"), sleeping pad, backpacking stove, tarp to sleep on, oatmeal, biking clothing and shoes, biking helmet, some water bottles and escape out the door with my roommate Jen. We pick up Heather and head up to Coalville for the Echo Triathlon that Jen is going to participate in.

Eat at a questionable American/Mexican restaurant named Rodriguez's Polar King in Coalville - for the thrill of trying a local "mom & pop" cafe. And actually, the milkshakes were divine!

We find a great spot of weed covered land between two baseball fields - yes, I said two baseball fields and set up camp. Camp consists of a tarp on the ground and hopefully sufficiently far enough away from the sprinkler heads that are bound to go off in the night, and slap our sleeping pads and sleeping bags on the tarp. We jump into our bags wearing all the clothes we wore on the drive up and the ones we intended to wear the next day (or at least that is the case for me) - just for the good measure of packing light.

Get up at the crack of dawn to see Jen off and then Heather and I break out our backpacking stoves and boil some water to make our oatmeal breakfast. Heather and I then change into our biking clothes and ride our road bikes down to Jen's Triathlon to watch her, cheer her on and take pictures. Go on another little bike ride while Jen is on her biking portion of her Triathlon. Come back in time to see her come in on her bike and begin the run portion.

After Jen finishes her Triathlon, ride our bikes back to the car and change our clothes between two open car doors... cuz we're too lazy to walk down to the bathroom. Then drive home!

Then what did I do with the rest of my Saturday? I came home and got cleaned up, unpacked from the camping trip and hit the road.

First "To Do List" item: get a pedicure and manicure. Mmmm. I haven't had one in 2 years or more!! It felt so good to be pampered. It was truly appreciated and now my toenails and fingernails look so good! I can even appreciate the pampering - right there with the stars and milky way I gazed at above me last night.

Second, I turned in my snowflake quilt for the Springville Museum of Art Quilt Show. And yes! I made that quilt - pieced it myself. Cross your fingers that it makes it into the show... and then if it does, go to the show and vote for it! As there is a People's Choice type award.

And then the cherry on top of my weekend is when Jen and I jumped her car since her battery was giving her trouble.

Camping, biking, one triathlete, pedicure, manicure, enter a quilt show, jump a bad car battery. Wouldn't that be your definition of a Renaissance Woman? Yeah, pretty much amazing.

My Ankle and the 4th

It's been so long since I posted last that I just had to get a quickie in tonight before I went to bed. I'm trying to be good and go to bed so I can get up early and go to the gym again. It has been so long and I have lost my habit entirely. The last time I went to the gym was June 17th and today was the first time back!! Woo hoo!

So here is the update and the one of the causes of the lost habit of going to the gym: I sprained my ankle .... B...A...D. I went mountain biking with the Mad Dog's "Ride Like a Girl" Clinic for women. It's actually a really neat clinic -- best part: it's free. This was my 3rd time going and this was the first time my roommate (who is on the Mad Dog's Mountain Biking Racing Team with the normal instructor), Jen, led the group. We went up to Big Springs Trail in South Fork Canyon off of Provo Canyon. It was absolutely beautiful!! There were flowers everywhere! The trees were green and lush... the up-hill was brutal. I just kept telling myself, "You're gonna get better at these up-hills. And when we get to the top and start downhill, it will so be worth all the work of coming up." So I kept talking myself into keep going. And I made it - to the top. Then we started downhill and it was every bit as fun as I had been telling myself it would be. We circled around trees and through meadows of tall grass and then ... we hit the spot where Jen told us there was some loose gravel that had caused her to crash earlier that week...

Honestly, I'm not sure exactly how it all happened. But this is my theory: I think I was going too fast and so I tried to brake to slow down, but then my bike began to slip out from underneath me. So I tried to jump off the bike. And it would have worked out so beautifully, because if I had landed right then I would have landed in this soft, lush, grassy spot right next to the trail - well I did still land there. But I didn't land right on my feet. I landed on the side of my left foot instead of the bottom of it like you are suppose to. Oh my gosh! The pain. It was intense for a few minutes. The other girls were just down the trail a bit and started calling to me, but I couldn't call back because I knew my voice would crack and I would lose it (meaning, I would cry). But I started to cry anyway, especially when they all started running back up the trail to me. Ugh. I felt like a weanie. Well, the pain subsided like I knew it would (because I am not new to sprained ankles). I got back on my bike and insisted that I go down the trail and ENJOY it like I needed to since I had biked UP all that up-hill!! And it was still worth it. :o)

Well, the bruising and swelling came and stayed and stayed. By the next Saturday (June 28th), the swelling had finally gone down to where it looked normal - even though I had been able to walk normally on it since the Saturday before. And so guess what I did on the 28th? Aggravated it by tripping on the side-walk and falling into the gutter. Not only did I have my sprained ankle now, but I also had two bruised shins and two bruised tops of my feet, and bruises on my arm and shoulder. Don't ask me how I fell or what I hit on my way down..... I don't really remember. I swear, I think my body blacks out my vision or something as a defense mechanism - I've done it when I've taken a bad fall skiing too. So Lindsey and I watched the swelling in my ankle puff right back up to where it was when I originally sprained it. I cried. Again. Out of frustration! Because that ankle had caused me to miss going to the gym and miss out on some fun bike rides and other cool activities and now to lose all that ground I had gained??!! Oh I cried.

So this last week, I've been good and kept my foot propped up on my desk at work - the same as I did the week before - much to the entertainment of my coworkers. And some coworkers were even impressed that I was flexible enough to put my leg up on my desk... which baffles me - wouldn't they be able to do the same? Maybe not.

To this day - nearly 3 weeks after the fact - I still have some swelling in my foot, but it is manageable. And the best part? My foot fits into my road biking shoe again. Heh. That means I can ride my road bike!! And that is what I have been doing. Part of my therapy has been going to the theater to see two movies last week: Wall-E and Hancock. Wall-E was darling and Hancock was alright.

On the morning of the 4th of July, my other roommate, Jana, and I rode our road bikes out toward Utah Lake. We got a good 20 miles in on that day. Then we came back and toodled around the house some, took a nap, ran a few errands, hosted a BBQ for some of our friends here in the neighborhood, and then we went up to Rock Canyon Park to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire event at Edwards Stadium on campus. That's it. Don't you love it? And then the best part? Waking up to my real Saturday and toodling around the house some more. I love 3-day weekends.