Updates

° School is in for Mike. School is a lot more work than Mike thought it would be and is thankful that he doesn't have a part-time job. However, the lack of income has made things quite tight. It will work out, however, because of that tithe law. Mike is taking Java, Trig, Astronomy, and Business Statistics. An interesting variety of classes, but until he gets on course for his Major, it will have to be that way.
Do you remember me complaining about how much I made at my last job? Well, that raise was well worth it. It shot us into another tax bracket (for the first time in my life) as I made $35k last year. Nothing exactly to brag about, but we've never really been that successful. Too bad about the lay off!!! Now we'll have to settle for a stint at school in hopes of landing a $250k one. Grrr.

° Work started for Jay, and she just got out of training with an unjustly, horrible schedule. She scored 100% on her training exam and was given quite possibly the worst shift they have, while others in her class did quite bad and was given early shifts, including 4-10's. This is going to make the daycare quite expensive. I've urged jay to try and find someone to talk to to find the method of their madness and perhaps petition for a better schedule. They never did give any options to select your preferred shifts, so it's as if they just assigned schedules randomly. We hope all goes well, and I'm sure it will, as long as we continue to be obedient and enjoy the temple. However, there has been talk about looking for other open positions in the region as well.

° Speaking of, we've finally gotten back to the temple. It had been so long... we estimate about 6 years or more. We just took the close proximity to the Idaho Falls and Boise temples that we never attended. And you wonder why things weren't working out for us in the past?...

° Myson LOVES school, of course. We spoke with his teacher and they didn't seem too excited to be getting another kid, as their actions spoke louder than words and left him out of 2 weeks of school to do "paperwork." When we met, we helped him learn his teachers' name (Mrs. Hayes & Ms. Welker). She just said, "Oh, don't worry about it. The other kids just call me teacher." In the interest of respect, we wouldn't have that -- but we didn't have to try anyway. We met her on the Friday before he would start Monday. He had already memorized her name and let us know the whole weekend before.

° Em has started what we call "preschool," which is really daycare but she doesn't want to go to daycare (even though she calls it that when she leaves). She is the most adorable thing that we know of on this Earth (but she's also 2 right now, so she's also very difficult). One example: Myson brought a teddy bear to school as an assignment for bear week and Em would not go to daycare without one as well. So we let her. As we were leaving when I went to pick her up, we were interacting with her and the attendants and they asked, "What's the bears name?" To which she replied, "Bear Haddox" quite matter-of-factly. Very cute. There are a million more examples which need cataloging, but I'm horrible at memory, so we'll let Jaypea do that.
She's also potty-training, which I was just reminded to talk about as she said "Ooooh. Big poop" as she currently sits on the toilet. She was doing so well her first week, but then got in a pattern of not caring and just letting it all go onto the floor. I tried to make the thing positive, but after 3 days of non-stop cleaning of the carpet, I let her know the law. After that I didn't need to discipline anymore. She's knows what right and wrong now and she gets Hello Kitty! stickers for doing a good job.

° For Deedee, the move to Eastern Idaho was just another move. Since she's been through so much she doesn't make a big deal with them anymore. However, she does get motion sickness, so we had to buy some powdery stuff you mix in her food to calm her down. It worked quite well. So far we love Shelley. The people are all very friendly and the city is shut down on Sunday's which helps us observe the Sabbath a bit better. They only have 2 decent fast food places which means it's easier to get sick of them and not go to them.
Although I am switching to BYU-Idaho next semester (upon approval), we will still live in Shelley do to the proximity to the kids' grandparents and the cheapest daycare prices I have ever seen ($2/hr/kid).

° Dan came home from Afghan- and I can't wait until he's free to take phone calls. I'm excited to talk to him again but I really want him to spend as much time with his immediate family before we get to converse again.

° Great Britain has abolished the use of the apostrophe on all their street signs do to it making things too confusing. I wish the English language would the same as a whole because I suck at it. I signed up for an English class for the very reason to improve upon this, but then I did just one assignment and felt myself sick to the stomach the moment I got involved. Hence, that was dropped and Statistics was added (because it was the only interesting online class). Anyway, I brought that up because instead of making corrections on this blog, I'm just letting it go. For instance, I began the blog in third person, now I'm in first. How fun!

° I have a test at 2pm which I have not studied for... That gives me 1½ hours to do so. Enjoy the blog and please comment. We'd love to hear from you!

Let's Review Part 3: Jessica's Birthday etc.

My birthday was December 31st. We had my mom and Sherwin over for dinner. I made salmon, and Mom made a cherry chocolate cake. Mom and Sherwin gave me towel racks for the bathrooms and a step-stool so I can reach the cabinets in the kitchen. We watched an old movie called The Court Jester and played pinochle.

Mike gave me my "present" the next day. I knew he was up to something because he kept secretly taking calls. Sometime between 5:00 and 5:30, my friends Lezhai and Melissa came with their families. Shortly after, Dan and Carissa and their girls came. Finally, Sandi came with her husband Nathan and daughter Annalee. In all, we had 9 adults and 11 kids. The kids went off to destroy our play room while the adults ate and chatted. Lezhai and Darnell had to leave early because their daughter wasn't feeling well, and they had to pick up their two boys from the movies. The rest of us played a great game of Cranium. Mike and I used to entertain a lot, but we haven't had friends who were into parties and games since we moved to Boise. It was a lot of fun to do that again! The only down side is that we left our vacuum in Nampa by accident and can't clean the chips out of the carpet.

Mike's niece Caryssa will be attending BYU-I this coming semester. We went to Rexburg on Saturday to help her move in. I can't believe how much that city and campus have changed. We'll be glad to have her nearby, and plan to have her over for dinner sometime.

Saturday the 3rd, my brother and his wife had a baby girl. Congratulations, James and Tessie! She's beautiful!

On Sunday, I found my Aunt Zelma (She's really my grandma's cousin, not my aunt) is in my ward. She was so excited to see me there since she hasn't seen me since I was very young. Still, she knew who I was immediately. I guess my grandma tipped her off that we were moving out near her. She seems to be a very positive, bubbly person. I've been told she is a very talented person. It was nice to meet her.

Next Monday, I start work, and Mike and Hyrum start school. I'm a little apprehensive about how all our schedules will work out... or not work out. Wish us luck!

Let's Review Part 2: Christmas

Christmas Eve we took a break from our unpacking to spend the evening with my extended family opening presents to and from my Grandma Sears and eating pizza and junk food. We had a really great time. On our way home that night, we needed to stop at my mom's house to pick up some of the stocking stuffers we had left there. We could see that the roads were already starting to drift over a bit, and the thought crossed my mind that maybe we should spend the night at my mom's house. I brushed aside that notion, and we went home.

I must say, I love Christmas. I love it even more after this year when the, "You'd better go to sleep or Santa won't be able to come," threat worked so perfectly. There was not even one peep from the kids that night. In the morning, the kids looked in their stockings and played with the toys from Santa while we waited for word from Mom and Sherwin about if we could get through the roads to their house for breakfast and presents. The news wasn't good. All the roads to my mom's house were completely closed, and there was little hope that the snow plow drivers would want to take time away from their own families on Christmas morning to clear the roads. Eventually, one of their neighbors shoveled out a corner, and Sherwin was able to get through in his truck to pick us up. We packed an overnight bag for our family, anticipating the possibility that we would have to stay the night.

Christmas breakfast was great, and soon we were opening presents. The kids had a great time. Hyrum is just the right age to really enjoy it. Among their mountain of presents were dishes (which go perfectly with the kitchen Emily got for her birthday), Legos, a race track, walkie-talkies, and a fridge toy to help Emily learn letter sounds and help Hyrum spell 3 letter words. Hyrum is now a spelling pro, and Emily knows nearly all her letters. Mike got me a NintendoDS Lite, and I got Mike a computerized telescope. The snow continued to come, so we spent the day playing with the kids' new toys. After they went to bed, we adults played board games.

The morning brought visitors in the form of stranded drivers on their way to work. Someone who was obviously mentally unbalanced had told them that the best way to town was through those country roads. The driver called a cab, which of course, couldn't get through the snow. However, they were able to get out with a truck, and soon the plows came through to clear the roads. Mom was able to get to work, and Mike and I were able to return home to our lonely cat.

I was able to play with my DS right away, but Mike has had some trouble with his telescope. It has been too cold, windy, and cloudy to use it much since Christmas even though he has taken it out nearly every night. He hasn't been able to train the drive or set it to the alignment stars yet. The telescope has an on board computer that will search out stars, planets, and galaxies for you once it is aligned correctly. It has just been entirely too cold to stand to be outside for that long, and the lenses freeze and fog if we're out too long. However, we did get one video (there's also a camera that fits into the lens drop in) of the moon a couple nights ago when we had a clear night. It's not super great. The best part to view through the lens without the camera is the line between the dark and light side where the shadows define the craters well. However, the camera went out of focus and began shaking at this point in the video. Mike tried to adjust the focus as we filmed, but that only made it worse. There was also junk on the lens. Probably fuzz that fell off our gloves as we switched to different magnification lenses and the camera. It looks so much better through the telescope than through the camera. Mike added music to cover our geeky sounding voices the camera had picked up while we filmed. By the way, the camera/telescope isn't panning. That's just how quickly the moon moves in magnification. When the on board computer is turned on, it'll track objects across the sky gradually so that they won't move out of the viewer.

Ta da! Ok, not the best video... We'll take better pictures and videos when it gets warmer. Maybe we'll post a picture or video of one of the planets. The telescope can supposedly see Jupiter at about the size of a dime.

Let's Review Part 1: Pre Christmas

I said I would post again after Emily's birthday on December 6th. Well, if you didn't notice, it's now January 6th. So now I have to go back over a very eventful month and try to remember it all. Sadly, I never had the time to make Emily's birthday video, so pictures will have to do. I also don't have any Christmas pictures or pictures of my own birthday. Sorry. It's been a really crazy month.

We had been in East Idaho until 3 days before Emily's birthday, so we weren't able to plan much. Emily loves anything pasta, so we took her to a local place in Meridian called White Water Pizza and Pasta to open presents. Among her presents were bottles for her doll and Dora and Boots figurines which she loves to hug.

She also got a Dora umbrella, a doll stroller, and a mini stove/oven play set from my mom which is now her's and Hyrum's favorite toy. I didn't take many pictures of our trip to White Water, but took several videos. However, my camera was dying and the videos turned out badly. I'll see what I can do to clean them up. Maybe I'll just take new videos of her playing with her presents or something so I can make a video for her.

Mike and I finally moved out of our apartment in Nampa on Saturday, December 13th. We had planned to move out on the Thursday before, but U-Haul did not have our reserved truck in time so we had to push it out for the weekend. Lucky us -- It started a light snow as we loaded the final boxes in the truck. After cleaning the house and vacuuming the last Easy Mac noodle off the dining room floor, we drove out of Nampa at about 5:30pm. We got a call from both my mom and my step dad while stopped at a gas station in Nampa. They both warned that we shouldn't come because of a bad storm. However, everything was packed. There was nothing left to go back to, so we pushed forward. The roads were icy from the first snow of the year and many Boiseites had no clue how to drive in it. This was the cause of 12 accidents beyond the Vista exit which left us at a dead halt for 1.5 hours. Once it started going again, it was by no means fast. I think our average speed was 35 mph and at one time I topped it at 45 mph to pass someone. By the time we got to Mountain Home, 3 hours from when we left Nampa (normally a 1 hour drive), we took shelter in a Best Western and waited out the storm that night. It continued to storm all night, but the roads were mostly bare by the time we got away from the Mountain Home area. They got bad again around Pocatello and increased in severity all the way to Shelley. We got to Shelley white-knuckled and exhausted.

There was a little time between when I arrived in Shelley and when Mike came with the U-Haul. I took that opportunity to shower and unwind from the drive since, as soon as he showed up, we had to hit the road again to go to my Aunt's house in Firth for my Grandma's 90th birthday open house. I adore my Grandma Page and was so glad we were able to honor her in that way. My dad was also at the open house. I haven't seen my dad since the summer I was pregnant with Hyrum. He got to meet Hyrum and Emily for the first time ever. Once they got over their initial shyness, they loved him.

Monday started a week of madness. We had gone ahead with the move from Nampa because we were supposed to have our apartment by no later than Tuesday. U-Haul had agreed to let us keep the truck a few extra days for free when we let them know of the situation. The truck would be due back on Wednesday. However, on Monday, the apartment manager told us our application was rejected because we would make too much money with Mike having a part time job. This was a load of bull. Her numbers were all speculative. There was no way Mike could make as much as she assumed he would while going to school full time. She returned our holding deposit to us, and we began the search for a new apartment. We looked all over Shelley and Idaho Falls the following few days, but nothing looked as good as the apartment we had originally applied to.

On Tuesday, Mike went back to the apartment office and begged the manager to review our application, saying he wouldn't be making that much at part-time. He even went as far as to tell her he wouldn't work if it came down to getting the apartment or not. Living in Shelley was a priority to us because child care in Idaho Falls is twice as expensive as we can get in Shelley. The manager agreed to look over the application again, but said she couldn't promise anything, and told us to keep looking since our U-Haul was due back the next day.

Mike tried to follow up with her on Wednesday, but she was screening his calls, and wouldn't answer. We called U-Haul and told them we needed to extend the rental on the truck at a rate of $40/day.

Thursday, Mike finally got a hold of the manager who told us that she had been up all night working on our application and didn't foresee any problems. Worst case scenario, we could move in Friday morning at 10:00. This was great news because if Friday came and went with no apartment, we wouldn't be able to sign a lease and move in until Monday. Keeping the U-Haul over the weekend would be very costly. The apartment manager had already deposited our $300 security deposit check (without giving us keys or a lease).

10:00 came and went with no word. Mike called at 11:00 to ask what was going on, and the manager told us that the compliance manager had rejected our application because she needed a slew of ridiculous paperwork. For example, she saw that we had a foreclosure on our house, but for whatever reason said she needed proof that we no longer owned the house. We didn't have this paperwork. She also asked for proof that I wasn't a student because I had student loans. Well, duh. Of course I still have student loans. That doesn't mean I'm going to school, just that I did at one time. She also wouldn't accept my letter of hire from Center Partners even though it supplied all the information she needed. We were so sick of the run-around they were giving us, and took matters into our own hands. I went to Center Partners and was told that they couldn't fill out the paperwork the apartments needed because I wasn't yet an employee, but that they could send a letter to the management with the exact same information that was in the letter of hire that they wouldn't accept before. We asked HR to go ahead with that, but had little confidence that the manager would accept it. We had no other choice. We also called my student loan holder who said that they could just look online to prove that I wasn't a student, but that no documentation existed on the matter. In the end, Mike and I had to sign an affidavit saying that we no longer owned our home in Ammon and that I wasn't a student. If they had just asked us for this information a month before, when we started the application process, we could have spared ourselves a lot of headaches.

We sat in the apartment office for 3 hours waiting for the compliance manager in Seattle to approve or disapprove our application. She kept sending emails back to the apartment manager asking for different documents, explanations on the documents she had received, and explanations on how the apartment manager had figured our income. By the end, the apartment manager was as fed up with the compliance manager as we were. Finally, a little after 5:00 pm, the compliance manager gave in. The apartment manager told us she wanted to go home, and didn't want to go over the lease until Monday, but gave us a key so we could move in and return the U-Haul.

Unfortunately, it was too late to return the truck without being charged for the day, so we kept it over night and moved in on Saturday. I'm pretty sure it was well below 0° on the day we moved. Because it was so close to Christmas, we were unable to recruit any extra help . Mike, Sherwin, and Sherwin's son Dale unloaded the truck themselves while Mom and I stayed home with the stomach flu. By the afternoon, we were feeling a bit better and went to the apartment to unpack boxes.

I'm a Bengal

I have been accepted at Idaho State University and will begin classes on January 7th (or so). Now comes the joy of applying for financial aid, registering for classes, and balancing the time when I will be at school and Jessica will be at work. FUN!

This news also means that we finally know exactly where we're going to live. That also means that we're moving this weekend. Depending on how efficient we are, this could be on Friday or Saturday.

More news will come later, as I won't spend much time here NOT packing (although it sounds good to me). While you wait, you can laugh at the ridiculously orange school logo.

Note how this particular Bengal has obsessive compulsive disorder, as displayed by his strangely symmetrical claw marks.

East Idaho Trip Update

Since Mike lost his job and decided to go back to school, we've been looking for jobs and apartments in East Idaho. However, we found it very difficult to do this while still living in West Idaho. So Sunday the 23rd, after choir practice, I left Nampa for my mom's house in Shelley. The original plan was that my move was permanent. Mike and the kids would join me later after finishing up the packing and getting Hyrum's school records transferred. I missed my family, but it felt so great to be back in that area again. Since we've moved out here, I feel almost paralyzed by the city. We don't have any friends, I don't know the roads, I hate our neighborhood and am afraid to let the kids go outside. Because of all this, I never leave the house and have become antisocial. Not healthy, I know. There were plenty of things I didn't like about East Idaho, like how people there are cliquish and how every store and restaurant plays country music. Still, East Idaho is home to me, and not just because that's where I grew up. I enjoyed just driving down the familiar roads and visiting with my old friends who have been anxiously awaiting our move back to the area. The feeling of freedom seemed to confirm to me that we were making the right choice. I feel like I can finally get back to being healthy again.

Monday, I found an apartment. I looked at a few places, but for the money and space, the best option was a complex just down the road from the credit union where my mom works. I never would have thought I'd live in Shelley. The problem was, there was a ton of paperwork to be approved to live there. They gave me an estimate of at least a 3 week wait. That meant 3 weeks before the rest of the family could come join me. We decided not to worry about that until we had to.

Tuesday, I found a job... kind of. I applied at a company called Center Partners which is a call outsourcing company I've worked for before. I used to be on the Qwest Loyalty and Retention account, but Qwest has since moved all their call centers in-house. You have to be a top agent in the Qwest general queue before being considered for a loyalty agent position. This all worked out great for me since they said that any accounts they currently have would be a cake walk after my retention experience. They gave me a basic computer skills test and set me up for an interview on December 3rd. I was told that it was mostly a formality, and that I'd be offered a job unless they found something wrong in my past HR records or if I messed up badly in my interview. I was one of their top loyalty agents in both quality and save rate and received more kudos calls of anyone in the center, so I wasn't worried. Then came the bad news. The training class wouldn't start until mid January. I decided to begin looking for temp work the next morning.

My temp job search didn't go as well as everything else had up to that point. I applied for seasonal work at Walmart only to find out that I couldn't work at the Idaho Falls store because my aunt works in personnel there. I couldn't work at the Ammon store either, because they had entered a hiring freeze. I did, however submit my application to the Blackfoot store. I planned to apply at Shopko, Target, and other such stores after Thanksgiving.

I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Judy's house the next day. We had a nice time visiting and playing games. Mike and the kids had dinner at my brother James's house in Boise. After dinner, they drove out to Shelley for the weekend.

Friday, we opted to stay out of the after Thanksgiving shopping traffic and submitted applications online instead. On Saturday, Mike got a call from the Ammon Walmart for a job and went to a late night interview. They offered him a position as a cart pusher on a temp/seasonal basis and told him to go for a drug test on Monday. I was surprised since I had been told they had a hiring freeze. However, when he went for his drug test on Monday morning, the store manager told him that the assistant manager had hired him by accident and that they weren't accepting new employees. Still, he did say that he might need someone in the electronics department, so Mike is hoping to get a call about that soon.

Hyrum had Friday and Monday off for Thanksgiving break, but had to be back on Tuesday. So the plan was for Mike to head home after his drug test on Monday. Instead, he decided to stick around until after my interview on Wednesday and take me back with him since the temp job idea wasn't working out. He decided to use his free time to meet with advisers at BYU-I and ISU since he still hasn't decided which school to go to or what to major in. ISU couldn't fit him in for an appointment, so we drove to Rexburg. He got a lot of good information, but now he's even more unsure of which school he'll attend. He found out that he can take his entire first year at ISU remotely at the Idaho Falls campus. That would be really convenient, but ISU doesn't have the exact major he wants most and BYU-I does. I don't really care which school he chooses. I just wish he'd choose!

Wednesday was my interview at Center Partners. I showed up early and was the only candidate dressed appropriately for an interview. I thought I had it locked. The HR director took me back to the call floor and began chatting to me about the people I knew when I worked there 7 years ago and how all the accounts and buildings had changed. We went to the break room where she got me a large cup of hot chocolate, then we returned to her office for the interview. I set my hot chocolate on the edge of her desk while I pulled off my coat. Well, you all know what a klutz I am. Yep, I knocked the hot chocolate over with my coat sleeve. It spilled all over her desk and the 2 inches of paperwork she had piled on it. I quickly ran back to the break room for paper towels and water, and we spent the next several minutes cleaning up the mess and trying to save her memos and reports. The spill narrowly missed an envelope of her kids' school pictures. I felt terrible. She had to sit on her jacket because the hot chocolate had dribbled off her desk and soaked her chair. I must be totally awesome because I still got the job!

We're home now, and it feels good to be back. I'm anxious to move to East Idaho, but my mom's house was just a little too crowded with the 4 of us and Sherwin's son Dale and daughter Donna visiting as well. We're hoping to hear from the apartment complex soon. Until then, we get to do my least favorite chore... packing.

Tomorrow is Emily's 2nd birthday. We'll see if I can find the time to make a video of that.