Official Teams

Lots of Changes

Coby, Me, Kyle, Tibbs, Kelsey, Katelyn,
Amanda, Tink, Lydia

Last night we found out our official teams...our families for the next 10 months!  I need to preface this by saying the dismemberment of Pod Dysfunction was a sad, sad event.  I think we were all apprehensive about leaving our awesome group.  We had a "puddle", a pod huddle, where a cheesey group hug took place, along with an awesome picture...make sure to find the half-eaten piece of pizza!  In addition to leaving my pod buddies, I am going to greatly miss our breakfast food...I highly doubt that my new team will splurge on the rice cakes and Nutella that I had grown accustomed to enjoying each morning. 

I can't express how greatly I'm going to miss our
dance parties when we change rooms/suites!

In addition to switching teams, we will be switching rooms tomorrow (Friday) night.  There is a two hour time block where all 300 people will be checking out of their current rooms and checking into their new rooms.  This will be chaos.  Thankfully I don't have too much stuff.  It will be tough to get a new roomie and new suite-mates though.  I'm not sure if it's possible to find another roommate who will enthusiastically agree to rap and hip hop at 530am.  Oh, how I appreciate you, Katelyn!




Dance Party!

This morning was our first official pt (physical training) day.  I have to admit that it was more of a gentle wakeup than a full body work out.  I think I'll be supplementing the pt with my own training if I ever find free time in my days.  I definitely appreciated one of the stations in this morning's circuit, however.  This circuit included "dancing" to hip hop music blaring out of one of the vans.  I also appreciate the fact that our pt takes place long before the sun rises, considering it's been in the 90's the last two days.  One of our team members was late to our muster (team meeting before pt), though, so our entire group has to show up extra early tomorrow morning. 

Upcoming Events:
Our first mini work project will start this coming Tuesday for my team.  We will be at Camp Mendocino (about five hours north of Sacramento, located in the Red Wood Forest) until Friday.  I'm not entirely sure what work we'll be doing as of yet, but I was advised by my old pod leader to bring the Baby Taylor.  I was also advised that our living accommodations will consist of open-air cabins, 3 open-air toilets, and 3 open-air showers...That'll be fun with all 70 of us, especially if pt and manual labor is involved.  And supposedly it'll be cold since we'll be in higher altitude and farther north.  I'm not sure what California's "chilly" is though, having come from the state of blizzards and winter wind.  I'm quite excited, despite the living accommodations, to see the big beautiful trees, though, and to not sit in meetings all day.  It will be four days of being disconnected from the world - no electronics are allowed, including cell phones! (I'm not sure if this is due to fire hazards, or just to get us out in nature.)  Hmm...I wonder if alarm clocks are banned as well.

On a smaller note, my girls and I plan on having a Sunday Funday.  This will consist of eating at the famous Californian In-N-Out Burger for lunch, and then either going on a shopping trip in Sacramento, enjoying nature for the day at Lake Tahoe, or finally making the trek to San Fransisco.  (I'm voting for the 3rd option!)  Thankfully my team leader announced that we will fend for ourselves in regards to food on Sundays, which opens up my schedule.  It will be quite nice to not have to report in for dinner!

Lastly, I wanted to announce to all of the drivers of the west coast region that I will be in van training on Saturday morning.  Yes, that is correct.  Little Jenny will be one of four ladies in her team trained to drive a 15 passenger, government issued van.  I was hesitant to agree to it at first, but we had a lack of volunteers for the job within my team.  I love the option of having the freedom to drive, but the responsibility involved makes me a little nervous.

Miscellaneous:
Here are a few left-over pictures from earlier in the week...FYI: I have now completed my first full week in Sacramento!



Making our Friendship Bracelets! 
Yep, apparently we're back in elementary school.  :)

  







Their first exposure to the Taylor!