Secret Service Project

Maryn is a softy.  She has a sweet, tender heart.  She is very sensitive, and does her best to cheer someone up who is feeling blue.  I appreciate this about her.  Oftentimes when I have had a long day, she will ask me if I want a "spa".  Usually this means she will rub my feet with her selection of B&B lotions, and give me some karate chops to the back.  It's pretty sweet, I must admit.  I got it good like that.  :)

Recently Maryn observed that many family members were acting stressed out.  It seemed like everyone was tired, frustrated, and running on low patience and energy.  She suggested we all pick another family member to do some secret acts of service for in an effort to brighten and lighten the mood.  This is where I don't know whether to feel ashamed that I didn't come up with this idea, or proud that she did!  Anyhoo, we all picked our names and almost immediately we started seeing thoughtful little things being done around the house. 

Mark and I went out for something...can't remember what.  Probably just a quick errand, seeing as we really don't have any social life beyond that.  Ha ha!  Anyway, when we came back this is what we were welcomed with.  It made me laugh out loud!!  It was perfection and sweetness at it's finest.  Apparently Avery was in on it too, and I just love how they just know us so well!! 

In case you can't tell from the pic, it's 2 glasses of diet Pepsi, the one without ice is mine because I always tell them that cold drinks make my teeth hurt!  LOL!  The crackers and squeezy cheese is just a snacking staple in our house, artfully arranged around the chocolate chip cookies which are also a true family favorite. 

The note says:  "To Mom and Dad From Secret Servers"  and then they signed their names which kind of let the cat out of the bag, but is also pretty awesome too. 

Thoughts: The Job/Career Edition

One thing that has been a blessing in disguise about living here and having Mark work at IVCC is that they are very friendly to spouses seeking employment...almost encouraging of the fact. So, after I had Parker and my unemployment (from CPWR '08) finally ran out, I figured I'd take it nice and slow and work a few hours at the friendly Writing Center on campus. It has been great!! I really enjoy what I do, and the great thing is I don't have any deadlines or obligations. I just show up, help students, chat with co-workers, do a little data entry, and go home. It's a breeze and actually a respite from life back home.

Last semester I was able to increase my hours and that was even better! I went from working a couple nights a week to several days and nights. While my life became a little busier, my paycheck also got a little heftier and that was definitely nice! Well unbeknownst to anyone, IVCC has experienced a lull in registration and part-timers are being scaled waaay back in their hours. So I went from about 15 hrs. a week to only 4 hrs. a week this semester. Not good. I miss the money, and my respite time.

So I've decided to take the next step in terms of my opportunities at IVCC. Mark's boss had asked me awhile ago if I would ever be interested in teaching a class? I figured the answer was no because of my limited availability, and lack of education. Well apparently I was wrong. Turns out I can teach developmental English with a Bachelor's degree, the class is called English 0900. This is what students take before they take take 101 and upper level classes. I agreed to teach my first course this summer!! Yikes is right!! I'm nervous. I haven't ever really done this before. I taught ESL classes in Twin Falls through CSI, but never a full-fledged college class! Anyway, I've been in the process of talking to people on campus, gathering info, ideas, knowledge, etc. I even got my own parking permit for faculty parking the other day! LOL! Should be an adventure, wish me luck!!

Which brings me to my next subject, careers. I wonder how much of our career path is carved deliberately or happens due to circumstance. I started out in college wanting to be a graphic designer. Due to my lack of confidence with my artistic abilities, I quickly revised my plan. I became an English major, intending to teach high school English. That was my plan until after I returned from my mission. After talking to a college counselor and weighing my options, I realized that teaching high school would not only take me longer, but it wouldn't yield the financial results I wanted. I considered Social Work for awhile, but soon realized that my skin wasn't thick enough to pursue that path. He encouraged me to look into Technical Communications. With the advent of the world wide web, lots of businesses were publishing material online and needed writers who could translate and bridge the gap. So I went for it. I want to be clear that this wasn't just a willy-nilly decision. I prayed about this long and hard, and felt the confirmation that it was the right career choice for me at the time. I pursued it with Heavenly Father backing me up. And I have always felt like my choice to do that has been a blessing to my life and our family. I may not have ever loved technical writing, but I know that it was a vehicle to receiving the blessings that our family has needed at different points along the way. I believe the Lord knew that even though I didn't, and I fully recognize that now.

However, I feel my life/career are heading in a new direction now. Now that this phase of my life seems to be inching closer, I can feel a natural pull back to the direction I originally intended. I would like to get back to education. Not high school per se, but I figure if Mark is always going to be on a college campus, why shouldn't I? So hopefully teaching this first class will be my first foot in the door. After that hopefully I can start the wheels turning for getting into a Masters program so that I can teach full-time. Hopefully by the time Parker is in school full-time I can be too!!

Reflecting on all the different jobs I've had in my life, it's kind of amazing how the Lord has blessed me. I think He intends for me to have a lot of different skills. And I've seen how those skills have really served me well throughout my life. From working at the dry-cleaners in high school and college, to working at the Girl Scout camp, to technical writing, and now to teaching. I've been shaped, molded, pushed, and pulled where the Lord needs me and wants me to be. I appreciate that it's all contributed to the person I am today. And it makes for some fun memories and stories, for sure!! Read this if you don't believe me.

Easterz '12

We had a lovely Easter this year! Dying eggs, dressing up in our fancy's for Church, getting baskets from the bunny, a really delayed Easter egg hunt, and a special FHE program kept it simple and sweet. I'll let my pics do the talking this time. Hope you all had a great Easter too!!








The Easter bunny always brings a new book in our house. This year Maryn got two books by Kate DiCamillo. The Magician's Elephant and the Tiger Rising. (I'm going to read them next!!)


Avery's book pick was by Tom Angleberger called The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. It's part of a series, so we'll see if she likes it enough to continue.


Parker's easter book selections included Dora and the Unicorn King; Toes, Ears, and Nose (a really cute lift the flap book), and a Sesame Street Springtime coloring book. She also got a bubble blower and a fuzzy new Dora blanket.








Avery used some of her sidewalk paints to decorate the front sidewalk for the Easter egg hunt. It says "Hoppy Easter egg hunt", but I didn't get it all in this pic.

Spring Break '12

So technically we have 2 Spring Break's each year. 1 is for IVCC, and that happened at the end of March. During that Spring Break, Mark and I did the great bedroom swap-a-roo...it took us the whole week. By the end of it, we couldn't believe that the week was gone. Frankly, we felt a little jipped, but were glad the job was pretty much done. So for those of you familiar with our house, we moved the tv room into the living room, the toys into the sunroom/basement, our bedroom into the old tv room, Maryn into our old bedroom, and turned Avery's room into a new room. Needless to say, it was a lot of work. The reason I say it was "pretty much done" is that we ran out of steam with the finishing touches...mainly the decorating, etc. I am just now getting to it this week. I'm unmotivated and lacking inspiration. I wish I didn't hate painting so much. Sigh. Anyway, no pics of that process yet. Although I do intend to once everything is more "finished" looking. Until then...sigh.

The 2nd Spring Break was last week for the girls. We really didn't do a whole lot in terms of going out and about. A trip to the mall one day, lunch out a few times, a couple trips to the park, and some play dates was really the extent of it. One afternoon Maryn sat out in the front yard for what seemed like hours. She constructed a 7 foot (we eyeball measured it) daisy chain (made with dandelions and those purple weed-flowers) and was in heaven the whole time. Reflecting about her favorite part of Spring Break, that was it. Avery has been on a real drawing kick lately and has filled several notebooks and is now onto a big (I would say 16x20) sketchbook. She sketched our backyard one afternoon and it was really quite impressive. Hopefully they will remember it's the simple pleasures in life. :)

Anyhoo, one day we did venture out to Peoria to the Zoo!! It was such a fun afternoon. Peoria's zoo is small enough that it is perfectly do-able within a couple to a few hours. The exhibits are simple, but effective. There aren't a lot of animals, but the ones they have you get a pretty close up view. Monkeys, a sea lion, farm animals, a tiger (who wanted to eat us for lunch), and an awesome Africa exhibit are what I love about this zoo. I could sit and watch the giraffes all day. They are so fascinating. Something funny in the Africa exhibit is that the lions are at the top and look out over the rest of the other animals. Right straight in front of them are the zebras. Poor, poor lions. If being caged in a zoo isn't torture enough, watching a couple of juicy steaks frolic around in front of you day in and day out sure would be. LOL!! Parker was thrilled with the whole experience. The last time we went she was still too little to comprehend or appreciate what was happening. This time she got it so much better and really loved it! Which is of course, fun for the rest of us. She now has a new favorite animal. The Rhinos!! LOL!

Enjoy some pics: