A Turn in the Road

After a year and a half of applying to every school and district in the state just about, taking resumes around to many schools, a hundred interviews, and hours of worrying and hoping for just something I have finally been put to peace...Yep, that's right, I GOT A FULL-TIME TEACHING JOB! I can't even express how excited I am. I will be teaching 1st grade at Lake View Elementary in Brigham City. The job was offered to me last Tuesday so I have been frantically trying to get things ready, but I have been blessed with the energy and help to do so. I can't even tell you how blessed I am with the people in my life. I have had so much help from my family especially Sunny, my mother in-law. She has spent countless hours with me in my classroom cleaning every nook and cranny, and doing all the tedious work. Britt, Julie, Michael, and Jon have all been a great help too in the classroom! My co-workers have all been impressed by my in-laws. I would be sleeping in my classroom and working through the weekend without them.

I work with the most incredible staff, too. I have been welcomed with open arms. It is such a different feeling from the school I was at last year. I have had countless people in my room checking on me and giving me their support and more. It's been an amazing experience in these last few days. We had back to school night last night and it went great. I was able to have my room put together thanks to all the helping hands and support. 1st grade will be a big change from what I am used to but I couldn't be more excited for it. I think that is another way I have been blessed.

I am so so grateful for all the help I have received in this last week. I know that this job came at the right time in my life and that Heavenly Father had this all planned out because so many things have fallen into place the right way and I have been able to receive the help I have because of his little plan for me. This year will sure be an adventure but I can't wait for the challenges and growing experiences that lie ahead! Wish me luck!

Welcome Home Elder Price

Thursday, August 12th, Michael Price came home from serving two years in the Canada Edmonton Mission. Unlike my brother's flight, his was late so we by-passed our time with the horizontal escalator and coming up with ideas to welcome back Elder Price since we were the only family without signs or balloons. A huge smile lit up his face when he got a visual of all of us. It was super cute. He was welcomed home with 2 new nephews he has never met. It was a good reunion all weekend long! There has been so much food! I feel like I've eaten enough for 10 in the last 4 days. We had a bbq at the Price's after he got set apart. We ate s'mores at our house Friday night. We used our standing campfire pit we just purchased off KSL. Best 20 buck investment yet! Saturday, I baked all day for my dad's birthday and for the homecoming Sunday so you know I did a lot of picking and licking. And Sunday, oh man I don't ever want to relive that day again! There was enough food to feed Utah, twice! My tummy was so full! We ended up taking packed plates of food and desserts to at least 3 neighbors and I took a good load home myself as well as the rest of the siblings. It's great to have Michael back!

eagerly waiting

Mom gets the first hug

Siblings

The night at our house. Dave is explainng to Michael that he gets one wish for the "Magical" Wysteria tree to grant...

Cora and Wells leading him dwon the path to the "Magical" Wysteria tree

It's a bike!

This is Mike and Sunny's bedroom that was filled with the overflow of the food...

This is maybe a quarter of the desserts. You can't tell but most plates are double or triple stacked

LAVA

This last weekend we packed our camping and swimming gear and headed up to Lava Hot Springs for a great couples weekend. The Fausetts, Bartons, Fowers and us. We camped at the KOA and they put us on an RV campsite but it turned out to be great, because they gave us 2 sites so we'd have some room. As we were setting up camp the first night, it was windy but not windy like I experience on my bike going up South Weber Drive but I guess windy enough to make a large willow tip over, its circumference was probably 10 feet round, and branches coming down all over the campground. One came down right next to where Darin was standing while setting up the tent. Luckily, that was the last branch or tree we saw fall.

First night we made hobo dinners. It's one of my favorite meals while camping and this one turned out amazing! We used steak instead of ground beef, added some sour cream to the creamy soup which made it amazingly good, used rice instead of potatoes which made it cook a lot faster, and used vegetables from my garden! Everyone loved them!

Dave's friend he found in the river behind our campsite.

Making S'mores! Dave and I bought a standing fire pit from KSL, s'mores all year round at our house!

The boys waited in line to get a shadey spot at the pool while we ran the river one time...worst idea ever! Everything that could go wrong, did. We had girsl, tubes and articles of clothing flying every which way. Most of us ending up with battle wounds. We decided that it was best to have the boys with us. The rest of the runs went much more smoothly!

We all ended up safe and sound by the end of the trip. It was a great camping weekend! I ended up with no squito bites either! It was great!

Happy Birthday Michael James!

Yesterday, Michael turned 22! We celebrated by eating at a family favorite, The Old Spaghetti Factory, and then we hit up the go-carts and arcade at Boondocks. It was a blast! I've really been enjoying all the time spent with my family lately; we've been having such a blast together!

Michael got to experience the Dr. Suess cake for the first time. I learned a lesson in baking yesterday, when making a cake that you'd like to decorate, such as the ones I usually do, do not use the low-fat method with applesauce, it doesn't hold together well at all. Kaitlin and I salvaged it as best we could though and it turned out pretty decent. Good thing for frosting!

Happy 22nd Michael James!