Jordan's Travel Log

Life is crazy, so I asked Jordan to write our year in review. Here's what we got:

Well well well so we finial see ourselves coming to the end of the year. There have been many things that have happened this year that were awesome and thing that were not so great and other things that were ok.... Basically is was a year like most people on planet earth. It passed by at the same relative rate that all years have passed. (thanks physics) 

For me this was another great year. I have a hard time saying that a year was bad. My life is very blessed and I have nothing really to complain about. my Year was great because I was able take on some new challenges and took them in stride to come out on top. Work was great this year. I was able to settle into my relatively new role at work and became really good at it. For those of you thatdon't  know I work for a gold mining company called Newmont in North Eastern Nevada. So any of you that are enchanted by the Wild West, just come out to Elko and you will find it. I am an engineer and currently working as a short range plan. Basically that means I make mine plans ranging from one week to six months in the future. I make sure that we mine in the most economical way possible. I plan the shot schedule and how and where we will mine and where the dirt goes after that. I was the planner for 5 pits for most of the year. I was a lot of fun. I got to play in the dirt with big toys and blow it up. Just this last week I have found out that I will be starting a new position as a maintenance planner for the next year. It will be a great chance to learn a new part of the business. So things are good at work.
This year I have been surrounded by wonderfully people. We were blessed to visit the promise land, Brazil. We went back to my mission and I was able to show Kelli off to family down there. We went for the World Cup and to visit people. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time. My favorite part of it was seeing old friends and family, the food, must mostly to see how everyone automatically loved Kelli the moment she walked into the room. Everyone wanted to show her how much they loved her at every moment in the trip. It was incredible. We also have been blessed with amazing people here in Elko. All of the friends that we have made here have become our family. Part is a survival part of being orphans out here not having any family or anything, but the other part is that we have learned to love each other. I know that I have friends here that I would help them out with anything and they would help me out as well.
Lastly the part that made this year great I have to blame Kelli. We have been in our house for a little over a year now. She has gone to great effort to make this place a home. Many of you that know me I have a hard time with empathy. I do not understand humans. I do not understand why people cry, feel bad, or anything else. I do not feel bad for people that are found themselves in a difficult position in life. Kelli on the other hand understand these human emotions very well. She is always willing to listen to people and their problems and offer/try to help them. I think we helped 12ish families move and offered to 20ish more families that we weren't able to help for whatever reason. Now, when I say we helped move I don't mean just load and unload a truck i mean help them set up beds, rooms, tables, clean, organize, and not stop until they are in and can sleep and live in the house. Most of that comes from Kelli, she takes time off of work to help those in need. She is amazing.
So basically our life is awesome and it doesn't have much to do with luck. We grab life by the horns stare it straight in the place and face "let's do this!" I decided a long time ago that every year will be better than last and so far it has. Here's to another great year and looking forward to an even better one in 2015.
Merry Christmas!