Darren's New Job

For the past few months Darren has been working as a recruiter for hospitals and he has hated it. It was nice that he could work from home and work whenever he wanted but that was also hard because he never wanted to work. I also watch Jack and Maddie at our house and we were pretty distracting for him. A couple weeks ago we started looking on craigslist for a job for him. He didn't want to have another dumb job especially since he has a bachelor's degree. We were lucky enough to find a job in Rexburg that he qualifies for and that requires a bachelor's degree. Darren applied for the job and had an interview. We were really nervous that he wouldn't get the job because a lot of other people applied for it and we are only going to be living here for 8 more months. Before his interview Darren told me he has never not gotten a job that he interviewed for. I practiced interviewing him with some hard questions and he had such good answers. He's so good he thinks he could teach a class about how to interview for a job! And apparently he is really good at interviewing because he got the job even though we thought he probably wouldn't!

Darren's new job is a psycho social rehabilitation specialist. He works with troubled kids and helps them learn whatever skills they are working on. Each kid has a treatment plan with different things to work on and he goes to their home and works with them. It is a pretty interesting job and he is learning skills that will definitely help him be a good parent. The best thing about his new job is that he makes more than minimum wage! Woot woot! I am also still nannying and so our two incomes combined will help us save some money for graduate school, which is really nice. 

We have felt really blessed lately with all of the good things that have been happening in our lives. Everything in our lives has fallen into line, and things have been working out perfectly. We are very grateful for all of our blessings!

Left: Darren before he left for his interview

Righ: Darren with his new business cards! 

The End of My Internship

Last week I finished up my internship at the Teton Flood Museum/ Rexburg Children's Museum. Overall, it was a good internship and I actually had fun doing it. Darren and I toured the museum ourselves quite a few times since we had nothing better to do. There are a lot of cool facts about Rexburg and it made me appreciate this little city that I live in a little more. It was fun to see all the old pictures and old things in the museum and I gained appreciation for the pioneers that settled this area. The Tabernacle is a beautiful, historic building and I am glad I got to work there for a little while. On our last night Darren and I took pictures with some of our favorite things in the museum to remember our time there.

The first picture is me holding the Latter Day Saint Psalmody. I forgot when it was published but it was really old!
The second picture is Darren sitting in an old scary looking dentist chair. The old dentist tools don't look like too much fun.
The third picture is me with a set of drawers that was used in an old department store. I wish I could take this home and put it in my house. It reminds me of a card catalog.
The fourth picture is Darren playing an old organ.
In the fifth picture I am holding a big book of jail records. I loved to look and see why people went to jail 100 years ago in Rexbug. A lot of people went to jail for adultery and drunkenness.
The last picture is Darren sitting under the basketball championship banner for Madison High School in 1925.

The Children's Museum

I am doing my child development internship this semester. For my internship I am in charge of the Rexburg Children's Museum. The Children's Museum is just a large room that is located in the basement of the Rexburg Tabernacle and it is part of the Teton Flood Museum. For my internship I have to set up a new theme each month with at least 8 coordinating activities. I also work the front desk 12 hours a week at night. Darren is able to come hang out with me, so it isn't that bad. We have actually made some pretty big life decisions chatting in the basement of the tabernacle, since not that many people come in, we have a lot of time to talk. I enjoy setting up the theme for each month, and even though it is a ton of work, I have a great little pre school curriculum started! I think I will actually miss it when I am done!

Beaver

A few weeks ago Darren and I drove down to Beaver, Utah where we met my family to go snow boarding. At the ski resort in Beaver it is free for California residents so my whole family could go snowboarding for free except Darren. We had a lot of fun just visiting and spending time with my family. I spent a lot of time on the ground and Darren was a lot better than I thought he would be. I was really impressed! Beaver is just a tiny little town but they had the greatest little Mexican restaurant. We went there two nights in a row because we all loved it so much! The funny thing is, we went there to eat and when we walked in it was this tiny one room log cabin and we thought it was kind of weird so we almost left, but we talked to people who were leaving the restaurant and they were raving about it. We ended up staying to eat and it was a good thing we did! Overall, it was a really fun weekend trip and I loved the time I got to spend with my family!

This is really how I spent most of the day! Ha!

Because my mom and I weren't doing so good, and the boys were way better than us, we wanted to try skiing. Everyone told us that we were already good at snowboarding so it would be harder to learn how to ski, but sometime I want to try it. It looks fun and I like the fact that you are always facing forward!

SNOW!

We got a ton of snow the last few days! I have never seen so much snow in Rexburg. It is a lot of fun to play in, but not a lot of fun to drive in!

Surprise!

This Christmas was the first Christmas that I hadn't spent with my family. I was a little sad that I couldn't be with them, but I was also happy to be with Darren's family. I just really wish that both of our parents lived closer together! Darren and I were planning on flying into Salt Lake and staying there for one or two days because we were going to go to the temple with my Grandma so she could be sealed to her parents. I have been doing a lot of family history lately, and I had a couple other sealings ready that we could do with my grandma. I was talking with my mom about it and she was talking with my Aunt Valerie about it. My mom called me one day and told me that my Aunt Valerie had made an appointment at the temple and she told me all the details. The day before we left to fly to Salt Lake, my Aunt Valerie texted me and said that she was going to pick me up from the airport instead of my Grandpa because she was going to be up that way. I never thought twice about it because my Grandpa had also been really sick. I gave my Aunt our flight details and that was that. When we were going to bed that night I told Darren that I thought my mom might be in Utah. He asked why I thought that and I said because she had been asking a lot of questions lately. Darren told me that mom's just ask a lot of questions and I shouldn't expect her because I would be really upset when she wasn't there. After he said that to me, I started to cry. I cried mostly because I missed my family and because I knew they wouldn't actually be there. When we landed and were waiting for our luggage I did quickly glance around for my family, but knew I was being crazy and that I shouldn't be so hopeful. I thought that if they were going to surprise me then they would have been waiting in the airport, so at that point I completely got over the idea of them being there. When we were waiting for our luggage I called my Aunt and told her where we would be. At the Salt Lake Airport there are numbers outside marking where you can pick up passengers. I told her we were at number 6. When we got out there I realized we were actually at number 2. I called her and told her and she said she would have to drive back around to get us or we could just walk up a few numbers. I told her we would walk and meet her at number 6. We got there and waited for her for about 5 minutes. I was looking for her white SUV the whole time and I was starting to wonder where she was, when all of the sudden I heard a voice saying, "Hey, don't I know you guys?!" and it was Gage! Even though I had previous thoughts about my family being there, I had totally lost hope and I was really shocked when I saw Gage! And then I started crying... not too soon after my mom came running up to me on the other side. I was so excited to see them both! My Dad wasn't able to come and neither was Josh and I missed them but I was so glad to see my Mom and Gage! Who knew that my whole family was such good liars? My Aunt wasn't even at the airport and my Mom had driven up to Utah that day.

There is a video of the surprise, but it isn't very good. You can fast forward most of it because it is mostly of Gage's feet.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qib1i9ilx86gych/20130102_210952.mp4

The surprises didn't end there. My Aunt Lisa had also driven up to Utah with my mom and my grandparents had no idea that either of them were there. On our way to my grandparents house from the airport we came up with a plan to surprise them. I was supposed to go in first and act like nothing was abnormal and get them in the same room. Darren, me, and my grandparents were all sitting on their bed when I texted my mom and told her to come in. Gage and my mom came through the door a few seconds later and my grandparents were so surprised!

The last surprise happened in the temple. My grandma had no idea that my Aunt Lisa was in Utah, but while we were waiting in the waiting room of the temple my Aunt Lisa walked in and surprised my grandma making her cry. My grandpa wasn't around at the time so Lisa surprised him in the celestial room right before we went in to do sealings.

It was such a cool experience to be with my grandma when she got sealed to her parents. We were also able to do some other sealings like sealing my grandmas grandma to her husband and parents. I was so happy that so many people got to be there and I know it made my grandma really happy to have 3 of her daughters there.

 I know my Grandma's eyes are closed but they were closed in all 3 pictures we took.

Darren and I partied the next few days with my Mom and Gage. It really wasn't long enough, but I am glad for the time I got to spend with them. I wish that we lived closer to them so that we could see them more! I never got to see my Dad though, so hopefully we will be visiting soon :)

Minute to Win It Christmas Style

 The day after Christmas we played some minute to win it games. A few weeks before Christmas we got together with some of our friends and played some Christmas minute to win it games. It was so much fun that I thought we should do it again with Darren's family. Darren's family invited some family friends over, and we all had a good time together playing fun and silly games.

A Flu Filled Christmas

A few days before Christmas Darren got the flu and was throwing up all day. It lasted for about 2 days and by the time Christmas came he was feeling better. But on Christmas eve a few others came down with the flu and half of the family was throwing up on Christmas. Ocassionaly we had to take a break from opening presents for someone to go puke. Even though half of the family was sick, we all still had a wonderful Christmas and it was a lot of fun!

Darren got a lot of tools for Christmas and a basketball which he was pretty excited about. I got a set of cutco knives which I was really excited about! I have been using them all week and they are so great! I am only a little bit afraid that I am going to chop my finger off! After everyone was done opening their presents there was one Christmas gift left. It was from Amy and Troy to Randy and Linda. When they opened it, they immediately started to cry. The rest of us were a little bit confused and as soon as Amy started crying, I thought, she's pregnant! I was right, she is pregnant and she kept it a secret for almost 4 months! It was a joy filled Christmas for all! The day after Christmas we all went with Amy to her ultrasound to find out the gender of her baby! Some of us placed bets, most of us thought it would be a girl, but it is actually a boy! After we knew the gender the girls got to crafting making baby boy things! Babies are so fun and I am so excited for Amy and Troy and I am excited that I am going to have a nephew!

A picture of all of us at the ultrasound