Two blog posts in one month?! Who dis?? New year, new me! I was actually thinking of printing out a blog book because i haven't printed one in a while, but then I realized I've only made four blog posts since I last printed one in September of 2021... soooo..... I should probably write a few more and write more often! Then I can justify printing another blog book in a few months maybe! It's been a crazy two years, okay?! The last time I printed a book, we had just sold our Summerfield house and were moving into the Meadows townhouse. Now, we have moved a few more times.... so once we get settled again... maybe I will print a blog book and it will contain the two years full of moving!
Anyways! I just wanted to write about a few exciting things for January!
Las Vegas Trip for Josh and I
On January 13, Josh and I flew out of Idaho Falls with Cody and Lindsey Summers and went to Vegas for the long weekend. The kids didn't have school on Monday, January 16 because of it being Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We had some flight vouchers with Allegiant that we had to use before March, so Josh and I decided to just take a short little trip. We stayed at the Mirage, which we found out once we got there that it had just been sold to the Hard Rock. So if we ever go back, it will probably look a lot different! They are going to start remodeling it next year. When I booked the trip, I was expecting it to be warm and sunny and I wanted to just lay out at the pool. But sadly, it was pretty cold and rainy while we were there! The high was about 55 on Sunday. It rained most of the day on Saturday. We didn't lay out at the pool once. We walked the strip, ate a TON at the Bacchanal Buffet in Caesar's Palace, saw a show at the Rio, walked Fremont Street, and drove through the Red Rock Canyon area. It's changed a lot since Josh, Gabe, and I used to live there when Gabe was one! Here are some pictures!
New Job Offer
So, I've been saying since the beginning of this school year that I didn't know if I wanted to teach full-time next year or not. I really was starting to feel burnt out and like I was just wanting more time at home to be a mom again. So I was looking at the school district website one night in late December, and I saw this job posting for an "online coordinator" for the Madison school district. I didn't really know what the job was, so I reached out to a couple of people and asked about it. Long story short... I ended up getting offered the job the first week in January. So I really went back and forth thinking about it for about a week. I talked to Melissa Clark, my co-worker at the junior high, about it. She said, "You know... you might as well try it and if you hate it after a year, you can always come back to teaching." She also advised me to talk to Mike Bennett, the guy who offered me the job who would basically be my boss, and tell him any concerns I was having about taking it. I asked him if it needed to be full-time and he said we could probably reduce my hours to .75 time. So starting next fall, I am going to work from 8am-2pm Monday through Thursday at a school called Central, and then I'll work from home on Fridays. I'm really excited about that part! Just being able to stay in my jammies all day and put laundry in and get some things done around the house or start some dinner for the evening actually sounds REALLY nice. I wish there was a way that I could just work like, 3 days a week and then have 2 full days a week off, but maybe in a couple more years. So basically, the job description is coordinating the online program, helping out the online teachers, getting kids registered for online classes, and possibly even teaching a couple online high school classes myself. It's nice because I will still get summers off and all of the school holidays! So, that will start this fall and I'm sure I will cry on my last day of school in my classroom at the end of May, but hopefully, it will be a good change for me and my family. (No pictures to represent me getting a job offer, so here are some pictures of me in my classroom.)
House Progress
The new Summerfield house is coming right along! They painted it and laid the LVP flooring last week. This week, they will install cabinets and the rock on the fireplace. They also started the siding. The whole back side of the house is done, and they are starting on the sides. They are still telling us we will close in March, but we don't know if that means the beginning, the middle, or the end of March. I'm hoping for somewhere around March 10th! Our lease ends here in this townhouse on March 9, so it would be amazing if we didn't need to extend it at all, but I'm kind of expecting we will need to. Maybe I will ask them about paying for half the month or something.
Avery Finally Got Her Ears Pierced
Avery has been going back and forth for years about if she wanted to get her ears pierced or not. I think I first suggested it when she was about 4 and she always said, "No way!" Well, she finally came home from school one day and said she wanted to do it. So, Josh and I took her to Claire's inside Walmart and she picked out some tiny purple studs. She was super nervous, but as soon as it was done, she said, "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." All those years of putting it off, and she was just fine. So now she has to wear those for three weeks, then she can switch to some other studs for a few more weeks. She's excited to wear the other earrings she picked out that look like little doughnuts.
Here are a few other random photos of sledding, swimming, and going to the Idaho Museum for the "Toytopia" exhibit with Avery! Most of our evenings are spent at the clubhouse pool, so I figured I should post a picture that represented that! We also have been going to a lot of basketball games, both the 8th graders at the junior high that I teach and also Carter's JV team. The Varsity team has been doing really well lately, so it's been fun to go watch those games. Hopefully, the next time I write, we will be close to moving into our house!
