My Family

I failed to mention this earlier, but my family ended up moving here as well! My mom, dad, sister and her husband and kids, and my grandma all live here now. I have loved having them close and have really enjoyed being involved in all of the birthdays and other holidays that I have gotten to spend with them. It so nice to go over and see my nieces and nephew and actually have them recognize me and run up to me for a hug yelling "Auntie S!" I love it every time!

Back to Candy

After my trip and our trip, I searched for a full time job. I was unsuccessful but I was able to get two part time jobs that would give me more hours than a full time one. I went back to the little candy store I had worked at, my manager was looking for someone else to hire and I was still looking for work. I was able to get a steady schedule there that allowed me to work for a kids after school program. I ended up becoming a site leader at the elementary school where I worked. It was a lot of fun and I love those kids. I also loved working in the candy store again. I had really missed my manager, my coworkers, and the customers, it has been good to be back.

Our First Time in Great Basin

Shortly after my trip to Montana, W and I went to Great Basin National Park. We only had time for one and a half days there but in that time we both fell in love. Great Basin is in Nevada and it's such a small national park that they don't charge any entrance fees. While there we hiked to the top of Wheeler Peak (13,065 ft). It was the first time I had ever made it to the top of a mountain, I loved it! The next day we were there we went on a tour through Lehman Caves and hiked to the Bristlecone Pine grove. Both experiences were also wonderful. The Lehman Caves are beautiful and full of cave formations. The Bristlecone Pine grove was a much more sacred experience, these trees might be the oldest living organisms that we know of (the oldest ones are around 5,000 years old). It was a great trip for our marriage as well, we learned a lot climbing to the top of that mountain and I'm looking forward to when we can do it together again!

P.S. When I find that dang memory card I'll post some pictures! :)

Wow It's Been A While! / Montana Trip

Well, It's been over a year since my last post on this blog and I feel pretty bad about letting it go this long, a lot has happened in the past year so I will attempt to catch everyone up. Be ready for a few posts this week. Here's to a new start:

Last June I quit my little candy store job and took a trip up to Montana. I had never been there before and W and I were considering moving there. I also wanted to have the experience of living by myself for a while since I had never done it, I suppose that's what happens when one gets married at nineteen - you move straight from your parent's house in with your husband. I loved my trip! I rented a car and drove a big distance all by myself. I went up and visited Glacier National Park during their centennial, it was beautiful. On this trip I also went to Yellowstone for the first time and it was beautiful in a very different way. Between the two I think I preferred Glacier because it had gorgeous lakes and mountains and felt like home. If I could live there all year round I totally would, it's heaven! I will write more about my trip and include pictures once I find the memory card from my camera!

NOOK!!!

W and I bought a nook from Barnes&Noble today and we are sooo excited! For anyone who has ever been to our apartment, you've seen the hundreds if not thousands of books that we own. Now with a nook we can have a library that's a bit easier to transport with us while we are still figuring out where exactly we want to settle down. And as a new promotion for the product B&N is offering a free $50 gift card with the purchase of a nook. That's actually why I'm online, so that I can buy ebooks with our new giftcard! I'm so excited!!! :)

Bless My Beautiful Hide

Well, last Friday we got to go see a production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with my manager and one of her friends. It was a lot of fun and brought back a lot of memories for W and me. We also had a Greek dinner before hand that was quite yummy.

We also now have callings in our new ward. W gets to teach Sunday School for the 14-15 year-old class and I get to teach Primary for the 9-10 year-old class. I really like W's class but am feeling a bit overwhelmed with mine (half of the class members are trouble makers). I've been thinking about it a lot lately and realizing that I like interacting with kids that are younger than this age and kids that are older, but kids that are right around this age just get under my skin. I find this especially interesting because I've been reading Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood and in it she talks about being this age, and being the mother of two daughters this age, and what a horrible age it is to be a girl (did I mention that my trouble makers are all girls?). I'm just not sure how to connect. Perhaps I'm just over-thinking, maybe I just need to give them more time.

My manager has, somewhat jokingly, mentioned the idea of making me her assistant manager. I think she's been doing this because she wants to get a noncommittal reaction from me. I don't know that it's necessarily going to happen, but it's a slightly new development in my life. W continues to work on his novel and hopes to be done with his first draft by Thanksgiving.

We both are doing well and living life. We're looking forward to the time when our life will reach a higher level of normalcy, but for the mean time we're trying to do what we think is best and what we think He would have us do.

I got a part-time job!

Well the biggest news for us is that I've been able to find a part-time job to work while we're down here. Man, I really don't have much else to say but I enjoy it. My manager is really cool and I get tips which are always welcome!