Destination internship: Pulse Design.

Life is a strange and wonderful thing.   It seems like just a minute ago, Josh and I were wondering what the point of getting a Bachelor's was if the possibility of finding work was so slim.  I was scared out of my whits of our new baby boy.  Basically everything he did was advanced algebra and I had only begun long division (marriage).  My mom had a business trip to Lawrence, Kansas, and asked if we would like to come along for the drive.

When we came here, it was like stumbling upon a garden of all the foods we didn't know we were craving.  There were trees up the wahzoo, water in places that had nothing to do with irrigation, and a moistness in the air that quenched our Utahan-dry-skins.  We had "baby bear syndrome" as we drove around town.  Everything about it felt "just right"--not too big, and not too small.  Just right.

Josh was drawn to the grad program here mostly because of the Studio 804 3rd year option, which included students designing and then actually building what they designed.  Our plan was that he do that his last year.  But after serious thought and prayer, Josh decided to go with the Healthcare Internship Option instead, where he will learn how to design healthcare facilities in such a way that both the patients and the providers' have a better environment for healing and development.  After applying for several internships, Josh was offered as spot as a paid intern at Pulse Design Group in Lenexa (an outlying suburb of Kansas City, 40 minutes East of Lawrence).

Both Josh and I are conflicted about his interning here.  Don't get me wrong.  We are immensely blessed that he found an internship in the first place and with such a great company, but Kansas City is more than double the population of Salt Lake City, which means more than double the opportunities for work after school.  We had always planned to move back to the Salt Lake valley after school and have Josh become licensed in Utah.  But our feelings about this bit of the mid-West haven't changed.  It is still "just right".    

Plans are funny things.  They change on a moments notice.   And they are never solid.  For now, "the plan" is to take what work we find, including taking post internship offers (if they are given), even if it is 17 hours away from the people we love most in the world.  But then again, I think plans are our way of giving the Lord a good laugh.  So come what may, and love it.

(For those of you who have already heard me talk and talk and talk -way too much- running, you can skip this next part;).

On a very different note, I ran the Free State Trail 1/2 marathon last month.  It began when the clouds opened up an let out a tropical typhoon and ended about the same time it began to drizzle.  By the time I crossed the finish line, I found mud in crevices I didn't know I had and my knees felt like they were broken in ten places.  It was a BLAST.
After much mulling it over, I finally figured out why I like running.  Being a homemaker, my every day is filled a ton of things started, and only about one or two finished.  I will start a load of laundry only to hear Joshua crying that he can't get the peanut butter open, but has already smeared honey all over the counter.  Before I can clean up the honey, Genevra starts screaming because she can't get her shoes on.  You get the picture.  I only have two wonderful kids, but at times, they are like a small army programmed to make messes.  And there is SO much that does not get finished.  And there are nights interrupted by feet up my nose and pee in my bed where I wake up too tired to have motivation beyond running a couple miles.  If nothing else, at the end of the day, it's nice to say I accomplished those few miles.  It feels great to have set this half marathon goal and have met it head on.
My participating in other long distance events depends mostly on the verdict my physical therapist passes on my knees sometime in the next month.  In the mean time, I will enjoy running for the bit of accomplishment it adds to my day.