Glenn Family Reunion May 2014

Somehow, Steve bamboozled me into going to a family reunion. The conditions of me going were that he take me to the Bodies exhibit and that he take me to a magic show. In hindsight, I should have been more clear about what constitutes a magic show as Steve bought tickets for an amateur magic show with a guy who trains cats (for reals) and dogs. Not that it wasn't an interesting show, I was just hoping to see someone get stabbed through a box. Steve also decided to take a few liberties by buying a Groupon for shooting Zombies, as pictured below.

If you want to see Jodie freak out, go back to last year's Go Pro Video and you will hear her scream after she GENUINELY believed that she was bitten by a Zombie. At least now we know who not to choose for our post-apocalyptic team. Also, as it turns out I can be quite the fast runner with the proper motivation. 

I honestly do not know how I have had this picture for over a year and not realized this until now.

Steve was so excited for that cotton candy. Bless his heart.

Outside the Las Vegas temple

I think my favorite part of the reunion was the Bodies exhibit. It actually came to Cincinnati while I was on my mission, but it left before I got permission (thanks for nothing, P-Robb). The coolest part was the vascular system, but since they don't let you take pictures I am borrowing some from the internet.

After the family reunion, we visited my sister Jenn and her family in St. George for a couple of days. Her kids seem to be the only kids that actually like me and I don't seem to make them cry. And they're still too young to realize I'm not cool, so I have that going for me too.

We went on this 6-7 mile hike and her kids actually made it most of the way without being held. It made me look bad because I was thinking about asking Steve for a piggy back ride, but I like to avoid being shown up by toddlers when possible.

I think the best part of this trip was feeding the ducks. That white swan kept pecking the other ducklings to steal their bread, so the kids started chucking bread at the swans head and they hit it with surprising accuracy. I was waiting for the swan to come chasing after us and a clip of it ending up on America's Funniest Home Videos.

I think this is the one picture I got of Steve wakeboarding. Never ask me to man your camera. There will likely be nothing on it.

That time I went to NYC...Over a year ago

Yep, I am finally getting around to blogging about that trip. Mostly because I am transitioning in my job, so I don't have a lot whole else to do during the day for the next week and I need proof for Steve that I did not sit around using Netflix all day watching shows about conspiracy theories or blowing out our sound system while watching Inception. Although, if I'm being honest, I am surprised our speakers have made it 5 years.

About a month before I graduated last year, my mother-in-law wanted all the "girls" in the family to go on a group trip to New York, which I had never been to (unless you count that time I had to go through customs on my way back from Armenia that was super awkward). Anyway, I never go on vacation while in school EVER, but I consented to go and I somehow convinced people that we should go see After Midnight starring DULE HILL!!!!! This was the highlight of the trip and I may have accidentally shouted "Gus" from the audience. And I'd like to believe at one point he stared right at me (and knew that I was the biggest Psych fan), but there's a good chance he was staring at everyone in the audience.

And I also got to fulfill my life dream of eating a cream-filled Cronut. I ate this on the plane ride home and used my finger to wipe the bag clean because I don't believe in wasting good food.

This was all of us after our sweaty Central Park bike ride and before I ate a pretzel the size of my face.

I can't believe Steve and I have been married over 5 years and he has never told me that I look like Quasimodo when I ride a bike. Not that it would motivate me to change my posture, it just would have been nice to know.

9/11 Memorial. I was surprised that people were as quiet and respectful as they were.

Another sweaty picture after we climbed the Statue of Liberty. I'll be honest, I was a little surprised the statue was not bigger.

And of course, New York

There were a couple things I was bummed about. One being that I did not get to go to the Chip Shop in Brooklyn where they BATTER AND DEEP FRY PIZZA AND TWINKIES!!!!! I told Steve that I needed him to take me back so I can eat there. I am also sad that I did not take the bread basket at some Italian restaurant we ate at. The bread was amazing and if I had been there with Steve, I would have made him request a doggie bag that would have been full of just bread. But seeing as how this was my first vacation with Steve's family, I was trying to make them believe that I have good manners and I don't always think with my stomach (both of which are lies).

Merry Christmas 2014!

Here is a video of Christmas at the Hardy's including footage of Sally dog.

Behold Your Future Old People (that includes you, Mom and Dad)

So I have been working at a new job the last 3 months doing Medicaid case management for older adults so that they can stay in their home/apartments instead of moving to a nursing home. I have clients that literally live in the middle of nowhere and some that live in cities. Most of the clients I have that live in cities typically live in apartment complexes similar to Fort Knox, but I haven't decided yet if it's to keep people out or keep the old people in. I have to go visit them in their homes before they can be enrolled in the program to receive services. In October I had to enroll almost 30 people in the program and these are not short visits. The visits are 2-3 hours long and sometimes 4 hours if you get an old person that doesn't want to let you leave (in a lonely way, not a serial killer way-not yet anyway). There was one day where I had to complete THREE of these long visits that I also had to do 3+ hours of documentation for afterwards and I was so tired by the time I got to the third visit at an apartment building. My eyelids were drooping until I got into the elevator and saw this:

Genius idea. Next year I'm putting one outside my grandma's front door.

Then my eyes got huge and I choked on my breath. Thankfully I was alone and decided that I would take a picture with my phone so that I could blog about it. And then I thought, "Dude, who puts a skeleton in an elevator in an apartment building full of old people?" And then I got super bummed because there were no old people getting into or out of the elevator when I was using it and I would have really enjoyed seeing an old person get scared like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UgPiYHNjkY

GoPro Video of Summer 2014

Here is a compilation of some footage I took over the summer on my GoPro including our hiking trip in Southern Utah with the Olsen's, wakeboarding at Utah Lake, and beach trip to Wrightsville Beach, NC with the rest of the sears family (remember to change the quality to HD by clicking the gear/settings in the right bottom corner):

...And Then There Were None

I like watching mysteries/thrillers/stuff that gives you nightmares, which is a terrible habit because I have very vivid dreams that have on more than one occasion scared Steve when I wake up screaming that someone is trying to kill me.  It's usually Steve rolled over on sheets that restrict my movement, so in a way it serves him right.  A couple weeks ago two of my sisters were talking about a British series called Endeavor so I thought I would try it out.  Steve and I watched the first season because the second season started airing on PBS this month, but I watched the most recent episode by myself because Steve was working nights at the hospital (even though it looked freaky from the previews).  This was a terrible decision.  Basically a bunch of murders happen at this spooky looking mansion in the late 1800's and more murders were happening that appeared to involve ghosts.  It took me several minutes to psych myself up to go upstairs to bed and after I flipped the light switch the light at the top of the stairs flickered and then went out (cue serial killer and creaky stairs)!  I remember thinking, "I'm pretty sure this same scene happens in every scary movie I've seen and I always scream at the people to not go where it's unlit and creepy, they do it anyway, and then they die.  Every time.  Ugh."  I did eventually go upstairs, but I brought my laptop to hit anybody over the head and pushed Charlie up the stairs in front of me because the family pet has to take one for the team sometimes.  Needless to say, I had to watch an episode of Parks and Rec before I could go to bed.

Glenn Family Reunion - Las Vegas

Here's a video I made with footage from my GoPro Camera of the 2014 Glenn Family Reunion. Make sure you go over to settings at the bottom right corner of the YouTube screen and switch the quality to HD!