Interview Day.

We got up early, well, I got up early.  The crazy thing about all of this is that Drew is sick.  He came down with a few symptoms on Monday.  By Tuesday at his judges’ meeting, he was exhausted.  I did the driving down (mostly).  Mornings are the worst for him.  Nights are best.  So he drove last night, but this morning, before the interview, he is wiped.  Poor guy!  But he managed to make it out of bed.  We tidied up the hotel room and went to their continental breakfast.  Not bad.

Ya..I know, I used this one three times, but it goes with this:

We got back to the hotel room and my sweetheart went over his application and wrote down a few of his thoughts about things they might ask to just clarify his thinking.  Then it was time to drive him over there.  We stayed just 3 minutes from the interview, but remember that whole timing thing my sweetheart struggles with?  He wanted to leave the hotel and be at the interview building by 9.  We didn’t leave the hotel until 9:20 and then there was zero parking.  So I had to stop in the road and let him out.

As I drove back to the hotel, I decided to get gas.  Where I stopped, they only accepted cash and debit card.  No gas there.  And I was the only white person there.  Not that it matters, because I really don’t care, but it was interesting to look around and realize that everyone else were different nationalities.  That doesn’t happen in most of the places I live, or even visit.  If we make this move, life will be different.

I went back to the hotel, called a girlfriend.  Talked about our experience up to that point, sat down and read my journal and realized some of my significant growth over our time in Northern California.  When my sweetheart had about 1/2 an hour left, I decided to go and get him.  I found a sweet parking spot next to the courthouse!!  I parked and just sat outside on the bench in front of the courthouse, waiting for Drew and doing my favorite thing: watching people.

It was 11 a.m., 72 degrees outside, and people were wearing sweaters.  If it gets to 72 degrees where I live, we all go to the beach and play in the water.  That is HOT!   But here, it is cold.  So strange.  That means, if we live here, we are going to roast!

Anyway, Drew finished the interview.  He felt like he did really well.  He said it was one of the best interviews he has had.  And he felt like he did well on the practical part, as well.  Because of our discussion about where we would live on the way down, we decided not to waste our time looking at housing in the ‘work’ city and to make the drive to the ‘housing’ city and look around.

We ate lunch and changed our clothes, or Drew did.  Poor guy.  He has only been eating potatoes since we left because he is feeling so lousy!  Then we drove up to the new city.  As we arrived, Drew had the thought to check out the high school.  We decided to drop by.  It was a good thing we did too.

I hadn’t felt the need to reach out to them by phone.  When we arrived and explained the reason for our visit, the receptionist, kindly but firmly, told us there was no way our child would be able to attend their school.  They only accept freshmen and both their freshman and their sophomore classes were full.  End of story, no exceptions.  So I just clarified.  “You mean, even though he is currently enrolled in an early college high school, and we might be moving, you wouldn’t accept him?”

She thought for a moment and then said, “Well, I would have to run that by the principal.  And she is in a meeting right now.”

“Great, we’ll wait.”  Then she asked us if we had taken care of parking.  We hadn’t, only because we didn’t see the parking permit boxes.  Parking was an entire dollar, and only accepted quarters.  We had one quarter between the two of us and zero cash.  At this point, we hiked over to the security office to explain our predicament.  We are from out of town.  We didn’t plan on visiting.  We stopped by on a whim.  She laughed and gave us a parking permit.  Drew put it in the car and I went to talk to the principal.

We had a great talk.  She was totally supportive and reiterated the secretary’s original position, but said they do accept individuals with unique circumstances, and this would be one of those circumstances.  Then she told us all of the things she would need from us to talk with her supervisors about admitting Speedy to their school.   It was a huge blessing!!  I know if we had not been there in person and if we had just called on the phone, they would have told us ‘Sorry, but no’.   There would have been no more discussion.  Stopping by and talking to them in person was definitely the right thing to do.

Then we went and got all checked into our hotel room.  Definitely a down-grade from the night before.  In hotel staying, you definitely get what you pay for.  Pay the extra money.  It is worth it, trust me.  But it worked.  So that was OK.  We hung out in the hotel room and did a little more educational research, just looking at schools for the littler kids.

About five o’clock, we met with one of the bishops from the area.  He gave us a tour of the building and then took us around town.  It was too funny.  He drove us all over his ward, told us he would take us to the other side of town and show us that ward, but took all of his time in his ward and then encouraged us to go and see the other side of town.  He was trying to be fair and that was his honest intent.  He was just so excited about his area of the vineyard that we didn’t see the other side.  Driving around gave us a definite feel for where we should live.  No specific houses, but a definite feel for where to look.

After our time with the bishop, we drove half an hour north for dinner.  By now, I was starving!!  I hadn’t eaten since 11 and it was 7.  I needed food.  I was grouchy.  I had told Drew I was tired of hamburgers and I wanted to eat something nice.  Even though we didn’t arrive until 7:30 ish, Drew took me to the Olive Garden, one of my favorite restaurants!  I think it has been 16 years since I have eaten there because we don’t have one where we live.  Anyway, after a yummy dinner, we made the drive back to the hotel, to sleep.  We were both exhausted.  At least the bed was soft.

Driving Day.

Tuesday morning I got all the kiddos where they needed to go.  Kissed them and told them I’d see them in a few days.  I had presidency meeting at 10 a.m. then hit the grocery store, because that didn’t happen yesterday.  Then I came home and packed.  Finally.   I picked up Drew at 1 and we went and picked up the rental car.  When we got home, Drew packed and we tried to pull things together so we could leave.

I don’t know about you, but I have this uncanny sense of time.  I know exactly how long something will take me, including travel, and interruptions and I can usually sense if things won’t work into a given time slot and make adjustments within about 10 minutes of accuracy.  I was ready to drive away by 1:30 when we returned home with the car.  My husband does not have that gift.  He continuously underestimates the time something will take him and then we are late.  Today was no different.

Remember to look for this photo in other posts.  Then you’ll know what day I actually wrote it.

We left home at 2:30.  The kids usually get home by 3.  If we had stayed another 20 minutes, we could have picked the kiddos up ourselves!  But we finally got on the road.  It was only an 8 hour drive with stopping.  Oy!

As we drove I discussed with Drew the comments made by Speedy’s administrator about the area we were headed to.  It was fairly easy for both of us to say, that sounds a little too dangerous for us.  We made the decision on the drive, that we would be commuting to work and live in a safer neighborhood.  Which really is a fine decision because the only school we can find around the area that will allow our children to graduate high school with their Associate’s Degree is the area we decided we would live in if we get the job.  So that works out nicely.

We talked about all the things moving will mean for our family and our lives.  It is a little daunting.  My sweetheart needs stability and security.  He feels like he has that where we live and feels like he will be giving all of that up if we move.  I don’t agree with him, but those are his feelings, and so we need to work with that.  Moving will be hard on all of the children.  They do not like moving.  The littlest ones have not known anything except here.  The last five were born here.  Moving to another city is a huge step in their little lives–one that most of them do not want to have to face.  We have been managing lots and lots of emotions here.

Sun just cried and cried to me the other day.  I think I spent 45 minutes with her in her room as she poured out her little heart and just sobbed about all the reasons she didn’t want to move.  Some of you may say that I shouldn’t have told them until things were more final.  Yes, I can see that approach.  But, if we are moving, my little ones need more time to emotionally process what that means for them.

Slim told me during this process how hard the move from Utah to California was for him.  He was 7.  He said it was too fast.  He heard we were moving.  Then we were packing.  Then we drove away.  Then he had to attend a new school, with new people.  He wasn’t ready.  He was ‘sick’ the first week.  Shorty is a lot like him.  He needed more time to process.  So does Sun, and Speedy.  We still haven’t told Smiley.

We finally rolled into town about 10:30 p.m.  Checked into our hotel.  The interview is tomorrow @ 9:30.  Wish him luck!  I’m not sure what I will do during his two hour interview.  I’m sure I’ll come up with something!

(During the drive, we also found out about the death of one of our ward members, so the Bishop got to manage that remotely as well.  Love those days!)

Today is my husband’s birthday!  He is almost the big 50, but not quite.  What can I say?  Drew has been by my side now for 26 years or more.  We started as friends, hung out after class, ate meals together, and participated in ward stuff activities with each other.  Everyone thought we were dating when we weren’t because we spent so much time together.

He is my rock.  Next to my Savior, Drew is what keeps me sane, kind, functioning, and all in one piece.  I am prone to emotional explosions, especially when I have been bottling it for a while, which I do regularly.  He is good at getting me to vent and then knows how to manage all of my steam and exactly which words to say to help me stop the emotionally out of control train.  I guess you could say he helps me to bridle all that passion.  (Of course, he would like it all redirected—which I am working on–but that is a post for another day.)

I am so grateful for my kind-hearted, level-headed, malice-free husband who may not know how to fix the lawn mower, or build a wall, or even paint.  But when it comes to my heart, he can fix it all and does so with gentleness, love, and occasional reproof.

He is an amazing father.  Our children have periodically struggled with their relationship with their father, as most children do.  But always in time and experience, they come to see the wisdom of his counsel even if they do not agree with how he would have handled something.  I can only imagine that as they become parents in their own right, they will grow to greatly appreciate the example of fatherhood which was set before them.  I certainly do.

Fathers play a vital role in the development of their children.  Indeed, my children would not be the men they have become without the influence of their father.  Drew is an amazing man, a good man, a righteous man, a man who loves God above all others, and because of His love for God, he loves us, protects us, and leads us in a manner pleasing unto God.  Yea for righteous men with testimonies who will love and lead the next generation teaching them how men of God behave and live.  Yea for Drew!

Happy Birthday, Honey!  All my love,

Do you know what EFY (Especially for Youth) is?  When I was younger, I didn’t either.  Here is the link to tell you about it.

Especially for Youth is basically a spiritual and entertaining week of activities, devotionals, and classes with youth ages 14-18.  I think it is based in the United States and I am unaware of any programs out of the USA.  I personally, have never attended EFY.  But as a parent of youth, there are some significant reasons we spend the money to help our youth participate. 

EFY is super expensive–around $500.00 for an overnight session, depending upon which session you choose.  Plus, for us, there is the expense of traveling to and from the session we attend.  Because of the expense, we cannot possible go every year.  But we try to make sure each of our children can attend at least two sessions between 14-18.  We try to coordinate with another family in the area or cousins or friends out of the area who can attend the same session.  That way, we can either share the expense of the travel or we can make sure to see friends and/or family who live far away and renew our relationships with them.

This year, we are doing both.  We are traveling to our session with friends from the area and we are meeting friends who live far away from us.  (My ultimately favorite session was the year a girlfriend and I drove our kids out to Utah and we–the moms–hung out in Utah and Yellowstone the entire week and played until the youth were done and ready to be picked up!  We had way too much fun!) 

Why do Drew and I spend the money to send our youth to EFY?  Well, coming from an area where our children are almost the only active youth in their ward, we want them to know that they are not alone.  We want them to experience the strength and excitement that comes from seeing other youth who live their standards, have fun, testify of their experiences with the gospel, and share that light in their lives.  Those experiences strengthen our youth and help them to have the courage they need to stand up to the pressure they feel in living a solitary life of values and morality.  We live in an area (and I have the feeling we are not the only ones facing these issues) where my children are some of the very few who are not drinking, doing recreations drugs, having sex, using vulgar and coarse language and who are not willing to expose themselves to those kinds of behaviors, even if only through what they see and read, in their classes.  Sometimes my youth are not supported by the adults in their lives for living the values and beliefs they hold.  Unfortunately, sometimes for us that has been in the church as well.  How do you fortify those youth to be able to stand up under those kinds of pressures?

You send to them to EFY where other adults and youth their ages, hundreds of them, support them and encourage them and love them for their valiance and courage.  We send them there to remind them that they are not alone in standing for the values the Lord says are significant and important to Him.

We try to send them the summer right before high school so as they head into that rocky sea of shifting values or the doldrums of virtue, they know who they are, what they believe, why they believe it and understand that they are not the only ones who believe that and feel that way.  (And then we send them again when they are older so they can really enjoy the atmosphere and have fun doing it, making friends along the way.)

When my youth return from EFY, they are different youth.  They glow.  They talk non-stop about their experiences and their testimonies shine.  Some of them have come home and immediately changed things they knew they should have but didn’t have the courage to before EFY (like drop a girlfriend).  It is worth every penny, and every sacrifice we have to make, for our youth to have that opportunity to strengthen their faith.

Is EFY right for your youth?  I do not know.  But if you can make the sacrifice to find a way for them to participate in that program–it is worth it, a hundred times over.  I would have loved to participate in something like that as a youth and I am ecstatic and grateful that we have been able to make the sacrifices necessary for them to attend.  Don’t just dismiss it!  They have scholarships available too and it isn’t only in Utah—they have sessions all over the nation!  Choose one close to you!  Make time and support them in their desire.

this year’s theme

Start early!!  In September, log into the EFY website and declare your intent to attend the following summer.  This part is considered preregistration, costs you nothing and you are not committed to attend at this point.  If you are worried about the expense, also fill out the scholarship application for each youth you are sending, as early as possible after September.  Start reviewing the session schedule so you can plan your summer activities appropriately.  Then sometime after the beginning of January you will receive an email notifying you of the date you can register for EFY.  When you register, you will be expected to pay for your session.  Then it is just a matter of waiting for it.  You can still make changes after you register, it is just a little trickier and I haven’t had to do that because we are usually pretty set on our plans before we register.

If you can’t go this year, plan on preregistering in September of this year and plan for next year!!  When your youth return home from EFY, you will be glad you sent them, and you’ll pay for them to go again!  It is that worth it!

I am blogging these at least a week behind, because I got behind!!  So let’s see if I can remember what actually happened those days.

I did goo-gone the floor, it looks great by the way, thanks for asking!  Cleaned the sliding door and deck windows, inside and out.  Watered the grass.  Did the normal weekend stuff, which included trying to get all the laundry caught up for our trip in a few days.  Complained because the boys used all the laundry soap.  I have one who thinks his laundry needs three cups of detergent each wash load instead of one.  More soap is apparently better, you know?!

Monday we met with Sun’s teacher and discussed her class work and educational opportunities where we might be moving.

I also had a phone conference with one of the schools we are considering.  The bummer thing is that I cannot find any schools in the area where the parents get to choose the curriculum.  Here, where Sun attends, our home schooling charter allows parents to choose their child’s curriculum, which is great!  And then they are allotted a portion of the budget to pay for that curriculum, which is also awesome!  Sun takes the BYU independent study on-line classes.  They give us a year to complete the classes, but Sun does them within the semester.  They have classes from 7th grade through high school, and then some of their college classes are independent study.  I LOVE them because they are all laid out in lessons with assignments and I don’t have to think about what her courses of study look like.  We just have to follow the outline and the computer will decide when everything is due in order for us to stay within our timetable.  It is incredible!!!  Just pricey!  But the budget covers it, all of it!  Anyway, where we are looking at attending, they don’t have anything like that nor does anyone in their immediate area.

After I finished my phone call with the principal, it was obvious, that was not the school for us.  They use their district curriculum and you just go through that independent study and meet weekly with their teacher.  Yep, not the course we are looking for.

The other thing that happened over this time period was that Speedy told a couple of his administrators at his school about the possibility of us moving.  As their conversation progressed, the administrator told Speedy that he used to live there and here are the issues……The biggest one was that the gangs in that area are really bad.  He told Speedy that sometimes when you go to bed at night, you hear gun shots.  And he shared the story that one of his friends stopped at a Burger King to grab a hamburger one day and someone thought he should be shot, so they did.  He died in Burger King getting lunch.  And this administrator has been here where we live for probably as long as we have.  So this was quite a while ago.

I spent the rest of Monday trying to get ready for our trip, grocery shopping for the kids while we would be gone, washing laundry, taking care of paperwork, calling friends to transport them to where they needed to go while we would be gone, explaining to Spike where we would be and when we would be home, etc…

It was a totally busy day and I was completely exhausted because in addition to taking care of the business at hand, I had people drop by and want to talk, I needed to go and make a primary visit and I think I had extra phone calls that day too.  It was super busy.

Our friend received her endowment on Saturday!  I was privileged to be her escort for the temple.  She chose to receive her endowment in the Oakland temple (closest big temple to where we live).  It only took 5 and 1/2 hours to drive down.  We left at 5 a.m.  The session was at 12:15 but we had to be there at 10:45 for all of the preparations for her endowment.  We didn’t leave Oakland until about 6 p.m. and we got home even later.  By the time the rental car was returned and we were able to lay down, it was 12:30 a.m. the next morning.  It was a super long day!!  (And the poor bishop had meetings at 7 a.m.)  By the time I was driving to return the car, I made some pretty bad driving decisions.  I realized, yes, fatigue while driving is almost like drinking and driving.  Sheesh!  But we made it and then Drew drove us home and I slept.

We at dinner at Red Robbin.  I had never eaten there before!  The fry sauce was delicious!  It was a super fun trip!  We loved hanging out with Richard and Dani (his fiance) and we are super excited for their wedding in July!  Slim, Tams, and Johnathan are all planning on coming back into town for the wedding.  I think that is when we are going to redo our family photos too!  It will be super busy!

But here are a few photos of our trip—all of Richard and Dani, of course!

This is so crazy trying to keep up ‘two’ blogs in essence.  I have not done too much with moving.  I finally got a hold of one of the schools we are looking at and I am suppose to phone conference with her on Monday.  Tuesday we will drive down there for the interview Wednesday morning.

We did manage to get a hold of two bishops, one from the immediate area and one from half an hour away.  We are considering commuting.  Crazy, I know.  It isn’t really crazy.  A lot of people do it.  We just haven’t had to.  But the commuting bishop sounds like a lot of fun.  He offered to give us a free house and a driver if we moved into his ward.  (He has been the bishop for five years and is ready for Drew to come down there and take his place and he is kidding, of course! 🙂  Anyway, we are making arrangements to meet with both bishops and to look at houses in both areas during our interview trip.  Slim will stay home with the kids and hold down the fort here and make sure everyone is fed and goes to school, etc…

I have to admit, I am a bit nervous.  I love meeting new people, but I hate re-establishing myself and the family somewhere else.  I am totally spoiled!  Having lived here for 16 years and visiting the same doctors and same dentists, I have been here longer than some of them.  They know me.  They know my family.  I am not a number, I am a person.  I love that!!  I am all about relationships—whether that is with my family, ward members, teachers, or doctors.  I work on those relationships, and my effort pays off in the service my family receives.  I don’t want to give that up!!

I think that is one of the things we give up when we limit the number of children we have (I am talking on a society basis, don’t take offense!), or how much time we spend on the computer as opposed to person to person relationships, or how long we live in a particular area, community or neighborhood.  We need each other.  There is a certain richness to life that is lost when we don’t know our neighbors and those within our communities.  And by ‘know them’ I don’t mean just know who they are.  I mean, we know them, about their life, their families, their beliefs, and their feelings.  When we know those things, we understand better, a person’s motivations, or their desires, or what will touch their heart and help them change their feelings.  Sure, it also makes us more vulnerable, which I assume, is why we don’t risk ourselves in those relationships.  But you know what I have found?

Almost all of the people I interact with are kind and just trying to figure out this thing called life.  They are people.  They make mistakes.  I am ‘people’ too, and I make mistakes, just like the rest of you.  But when I try to repent and apologize and cut people a break because they can make mistakes too, and not hold a grudge against them, life is amazingly good and wonderful, and emotionally rich!!  Now I just get to uproot my family and build that again somewhere else, which is hard.

But along the way, I meet more wonderful people who become my dearest, dearest friends, people I learn to love, people who enrich my life and make me a better person because of our shared experiences.  There’s my soap box!

Today’s moving agenda:  Do the laundry, goo-gone the floor, get rid of extra clothing and sporting equipment, wash a few windows, my favorite!

PS  I wrote this post on the same day as the other post with all the Redwood trees.  Can you find that one?  This beauty has been my home for 16 years!!!  And I spent all my girls’ camp years in the Redwood trees!!  I LOVE those trees!!

We have an entire week before it will even be time to drive down to the interview.  A lot of things can happen in a week.  Saturday we attended a baptism in the morning and watched the BYU football game in the afternoon.  Because the game was played on Thursday, we just watched the parts we wanted to, stopped at half time and watched a soccer game, then picked up the rest of the football game.  Later in the evening, I ran to the hardware store to pick up a few things that would help me to take care of those little fix-it projects on my master-list.

While I was there, I also picked up some flowers for the front yard flower bed.  Gotta’ have those right?

Sunday was the typical church day, until the last hour when all chaos broke loose.  The Senior primary (kids ages 8-11) were totally out of control (and there were only 7 of them, so it shouldn’t have been a big deal—but it was).  I won’t go into the details but I ended up putting the wrath of Sister Lund into a couple of them.  I tried to be nice and sugar coat it, but they know what their behavior should look like from now on and what will happen if it doesn’t.  Enough said.  That little fire girl inside me??  Yep—she was out!

It probably would have helped if my three year old would have stayed in nursery, which he wouldn’t.  And if he hadn’t been screaming because he wanted to sing Book of Mormon stories and they were working on the Primary Program songs instead.  Yep, that would have definitely helped.  And if I hadn’t had a new sister in the ward in my face about how things were going with my child in nursery.  Ya—that didn’t help either.

I was frustrated enough that Speedy went and found his dad to tell him that I was on the ‘war path’ and Drew, my bishop, came to find me sitting in the Primary room almost in tears.  Such a frustrating day.  I’ll tell you, I was ready to pack it up that day and move away right then and right there.  But I didn’t scream, and I didn’t yell, and I wasn’t mean.  I was firm and insistent and made sure the message was received and understood.  Now I get to enforce that next week.  Lovely.

Then Monday, we were all so exhausted from the weekend and stress of the week that we kind of hung around the house and didn’t do anything.  Well, most of us didn’t.  I washed the walls in the living room with my very favorite Mr. Clean eraser.  Then I planted those flowers in the front yard, which included digging up my bulbs and moving them so that in the spring the flowers don’t grow on top of each other.  You know, I used to love planting flowers.  It made me feel good to be out and digging in the dirt.  I still love it, but my body is a lot older now and it doesn’t do that as easily as it once did.  By the time I was finished, I was finished for the day.  I sat down and drank some water and then made simple broiled chicken sandwiches for dinner with a salad, and we used paper plates.  Then I was really done.

I felt a little like the guy in the stripes!

So today the children went back to school and I took Slim to the dentist for a couple of fillings, filled out the back to school paperwork, filled out the dependent verification form and paperwork for our health coverage, and washed my kitchen window.  Now I’m working on the laundry.  Here a little and there a little, I’m trying to cover that master list and continue with the day to day workings of our family, which at the moment doesn’t include any packing, because we don’t know we are going anywhere yet.  (But I am more apt to get rid of stuff.)  Slim is working on the garage today.  Yea for small favors.  Tomorrow I will probably have to make a dump run.  More loveliness.  Happy days!

Last Friday, we held a ‘Freshman Orientation’ in seminary where we invited all the incoming freshman to attend seminary and see what it was like.  It was a ton of fun–mostly because currently we have only 3 students regularly attending.  That day, we added seven students–so we had a real class!!  Don’t make fun of me.  I know three students, two students, any student is a real class.  But truth be told, without the freshmen who are coming, we should have about 14 students in there now, and then add about 10 next fall.  And instead we have three (really four–one had serious health complications) faithful.

For our orientation, I made cinnamon rolls.  Anyone who makes cinnamon rolls, will tell you that, of course, they taste better fresh out of the oven.  But when class starts at 6:15 a.m., you have to get up pretty early to make cinnamon rolls.  I got up at 3 a.m., went back to bed from 3:30 until 4:30, got back up and rolled those babies out and put them into the oven.  By then, it was time to get up and get ready for class.  As I was rolling dough, I was reminded that every Friday of my freshman year of seminary, my seminary teacher made us fresh cinnamon rolls–not one Friday—Every Friday of the entire school year!!  That meant that every Friday she got up at 3 a.m. to make them for us.  Seriously, she must have loved us or something!

I can’t even remember her name!  I am sure she is long gone.  She was not young 30 years ago.  Now it was my turn to show another generation of youth how much we love them.  Now, I just don’t think I have it in me to do that every Friday, especially as long as Spike is still climbing into my bed most nights.  We had broken him of that habit and he was climbing into bed with Sun.  Then he got brave one day and walked through the dark of the house and up my stairs and into my bed.  He hasn’t gone back to Sun.  Darn it!  We will work on that over the summer.  For this year, next week is my last week of seminary until the Fall.

I guess I just wanted to have you think about the sacrifices you are making for your calling.  Are you sharing your love and appreciation for the Lord by the way you minister to those you work with or for in your callings?  It is a lot easier for me to do that when I work with the youth than when I work with the Sunbeams—but it shouldn’t be.  I should be able to share that kind of love and spirit regardless of where I am working or with whom–even if I have to pray for that ability—a lot!

Sorry this isn’t longer, but you probably have a lot to do today anyway!!  Tomorrow we are taking a friend to receive her endowment!  I am super excited about that!  I love attending the temple!  (This will be the 2nd time in one month!  I think that is a record for me since we have lived here.  We are four hours from the closest one.)

Have a great weekend!! I will!!

Well, we got the phone call today.  They want him to interview on Tuesday September 9th.  That isn’t going to work because Drew has a judges meeting that day where he is presenting the budget (I think, don’t quote me on that!).  Anyway, we are trying to work out another day for an interview.  Right now we are waiting to hear.  I’ll probably write more later today after we hear what we are doing.  But I know my sweetheart feels so much better knowing that he is getting an interview.  So funny!  I love that man, but he is a worry-wart!

K.  Stay posted.  More later.

Well, we now have an interview set for the 10th.  We will see how things go.  Hopefully when we go down there we will be able to talk with a few of the ward people there and check out some housing opportunities.

Also, I told Speedy today.  He is excited!!   It is really funny to watch how the kids roller-coaster through their emotions of the pluses and minuses of moving.  One minute they are excited and giddy about the possibility and another minute they are mopy and sad about what they are leaving.  So very, very normal for the situation.

Alrighty, over the next week while we are waiting, we will just keep doing more research and taking care of things at the house.  How exciting!

(Here’s another one.  Yes, I was crazy!  I wrote three posts in one day.  Nuts, I know.  But sometimes the time was just getting away from me and I had to document something.)