Surgery--a holiday tradition?

The bottom picture is of his bone tumor--COOL! (its the white blob in the bottom left corner)

Jake has made an annual tradition this time of year for hospital visits. Last year around this time he had lithotripsy for a kidney stone. Yesterday he went under the knife to fix his nose. He had four procedures altogether, and I can't remember the official procedure names, but he had his nasal passage(deviated septum) straightened out, a bone tumor (not as scary as it sounds) in his sinus removed, a tonsillectomy for his tonsils that were growing back, and some reconstruction on his nose done.

Jake's Medication Schedule

Drugs!

He is certainly in a world of hurt. Jake is currently on 8 medications for recovery. I made him a spreadsheet of times to take each one with directions. His nose was cauterized, so there isn't much bleeding, but he has a little bandage under his nose that makes him look very cute. He won't let me post a picture of it though.

Our wonderful neighbors brought us dinner last night, so we haven't had to leave the house since we came home. It has been great. Thank heavens for Netflix!

I am the kind of person that lives for downtime like this. I am so glad I get to be here with him just hanging out. And he shares his pudding with me.

What I learned on my summer vacation

1. Life is not like Mario Kart, and I have the destroyed fender and headlight to prove it.

2. When you have a wii, your spare time plans itself.

3. Zuchinni is a crazy plant. One day it is dying, the next it is exploding.

4. Boise deserves to be the capitol of Idaho, simply because it is where my awesome 3 year old niece lives. And they have a pretty good zoo.

5. When you go on 11 road trips to see family in one summer, you gain an appreciation for audiobooks. We had a lot of fun listening to Fablehaven, Harry Potter, and the Da Vinci Code.

6. My cousin Trevor is going to be an amazing missionary in New Zealand. We are going to miss him so much, but we are excited for him.

7. You can fit 9 people in a 2 bedroom house, as long as someone is willing to sleep on the kitchen floor with their head under the table. We loved having the Beckstead Family visit us!

8. Being married to Jake is just as fun as it was 2 years ago.

9. Camping is the best when you have a crazy Uncle Nick as your camp host! Blow Out camp ground in Palisades is one of the most beautiful places in Idaho. And ice cream really does taste better when it is in a square shape.

10. Jake is a girl's camp hero--he carried a heavy 13 year old girl up a big hill "princess style" when she "twisted" her ankle.

11. Sometimes hubcaps like to stay at girls camp after you leave.

12. We have all sorts of cool distant relatives around here that we got to meet an a Reynold's fmaily reunion in Ashton, Idaho.

13. I prefer my regular students to the ones I had in summer school who have the "My daddy can buy my grade" mentality.

14. Cub scouts are FUN!

15. Blogging should happen more often. As much as I snoop and read, I should be doing more of it.

Back to school!

Somehow, the Lord will always make sure you are on the right path. Even if that means he surprises you extra money to get you where you need to be. I have been receiving impressions that I needed to continue on with my schooling, and wasn't quite sure how to go about it. A few weeks ago we received a check in the exact amount needed to pay for school and go out to dinner. So we did just that. After a lovely trip to the salad bar, I enrolled in an online program to pursue two teaching certificates. At the same time, a coworker of mine did as well. And I found out another of my coworkers had recently finished the program. So not only did the Lord provide me with the means to go to school, but he also gave me a study buddy and a mentor! 

Well I certainly have my testimony of paying tithing now!!!!

This program is super exciting. I work at my own pace, but I know that I can finish this by August.

When I finish this program, I will be certified to teach special education at any grade level, as well as any exceptional student. I will also receive my elementary education teaching certificate.

I have had a really rough time lately. I am so glad to see 2009 go. I know that sometimes everyone has to experience adversity, but I think I forgot that.  I was so prideful and angry that I had trials that many people go through. And my suffering helped no one because I was bitter. Only when I realized that did things start to get better.  I have always been given what I need, and that is so much better than what I wanted.

I am a lucky girl. I love my family. I love my husband. I love my job. I love my students. I love my friends (even those I seemed to have lost touch with.) I love the gospel! What else could matter in life?

New Job

A few days before Christmas, I started to feel a little burned out as a sub. For anyone who was unaware, I have been enjoying the footloose and fancy free occupation as a substitute teacher since September.  I got to meet so many neat people who I have learned a lot from, and I loved teaching and getting to know so many students. My favorite aspect of being a sub was the fact that I was often requested to sub at Jake's school! I even got to work directly with him on a few days.

Anyways, as much as I liked it, I didn't have health insurance, nor did I love dealing with some of the nastiest school secretaries to walk this planet. I got to meet some really nice ones, but some were demons. That is what really made me feel burned out. Day after day of working with the glittery eyed beasts who sit behind the front desk just waiting to make you feel like you are less than a human being tends to make a girl tired.

So I have been applying for any openings in the school district where I could settle down and have a little mailbox in the teacher's room of my own. That's all I wanted.

I have interviewed far and wide without much luck (the teaching market is glutted with new, fresh faced college graduates) and a few days after new years, I got an unexpected job offer for a job that I had really wanted.  So, the first week of January I started training at Lincoln alternative high school to work in a new program for students who can't quite handle normal high school. I work in a computer lab with a program that offers about 100 different high school classes, all completely online. I work with three other amazing teachers and we are quite the team. My responsibility lies over creating and evaluating the effectiveness of each class. So when things are quiet I will go through a few lessons of Art, or U.S. history, or P.E., or anything. Just yesterday I created an economics class.  I am also in charge of community service. Some kids have the chance to earn an elective credit through doing hours of community service and I get to help set that up.  It is fun to see them excited about serving others.

The kids I teach are not what others would consider bright stars of this generation. There are students who have parole officers I keep in constant contact with. There are teenage parents who attend around babysitting schedules. There are students just months younger than I who have not been to school since they were 14. And you know what? I adore them. A few days ago we had our  first group of students finish a class. I am so proud of each and every one of them and I know they are brilliant. I am honored to be their teacher.  I will fight for them, and I will make sure that I help them go as far as they want to. Yesterday a kid asked me to help him start looking at college requirements. My heart is full. I am fulfilled. 

They recently did a news story on this new program. http://www.kidk.com/news/82003832.html

I'll be home for Christmas

I don't have much to say today. It is my favorite day of the year, Christmas Eve Eve. I made that up when I was 8 and I still think it's clever.
I just want to say thank you today, to all my family and friends. I may not talk about it much online, but you all have sure been there for me through some dark times this year. Thank you so much. I really do love you all.
This year we are spending the holidays in Hagerman. It will be my first Christmas away from home, and my family has all tried so hard to make it special. Mom and Dad made sure I had lots of presents to open and they loaded our car up when we left after spending Thanksgiving in Utah. Tara has given me all the support in the world, as well as someone who I can complain to. Every one needs one of those.
What has been the most special to me this year most of all at Christmas is that my amazing brother and sister in law came up to see me and Jake last weekend. It was like our very own holiday and I had so much fun. It will be a memory I cherish forever, and it made my first Christmas away from home so much easier to bear. Thank you Brooke and Taylor. You'll never know how much it meant to me to have you here. Love you all! Merry Christmas!

Conference Weekend

Many people apologize when they don't blog for a long time, but I don't think I will. That would mean I'm assuming people actually read my blog.

But I will, for the sake of connecting the last blog to this one in a matter of time frames, highlight each month and a little of what has been happening.

April: Jake starts working as a substitute and decides that he will one day pursue a degree in Elementary Ed and Special Needs. Taci finds out that the district who guaranteed her a job no longer has the budget to keep her next year so she starts looking for a new teaching position.

We traveled down to Utah for conference and attend Jake's second missionary reunion.

May: Job searching is hard and scary! They travel to Utah frequently for interviews with no luck.

This is not a good year for hiring someone in the social sciences like history and geography.

As the school year winds down and the weather warms up, we get excited for summer. Jake packs all of our camping stuff together in a bin so we can "camp at a moment's notice" (his exact words).

June: Taci works at a science summer camp for kids at the local community college and has tons of fun! She enjoys teaching kids about the rock cycle and dirt and dinosaurs so much that she decides to pursue a second teaching certificate in science education.

Jake finally convinces Taci that they need to camp. We went up past Ashton Idaho to Warm River and spent a weekend getting eaten by bugs and trying not to drown in the rain, all the while having a blast.

Jake got offered a full time job at an elementary school working with autistic kindergarten and 1st grade kids.

July: Taci and Jake go camping again with Jake's parents for the 4th of July. Camping is fun just by yourselves, but it is great when you have someone who owns 4 wheelers with you. Taci learned to drive a 4 wheeler, and we had some great campfire cookin' from Jake's mom.

August: We spend their first anniversary with Taci's family in DISNEYLAND for a week! Taci's parents took us as a late college graduation present for Taci and just because they love Jake. Tara came along and made sure everyone stayed un-grumpy in lines and the hot sunshine.

We went to the beach and everyone got fried in the sun and Jake tried to body surf while we watched.

We also spend a few days in Utah during which we had a chance to see Taylor and Brooke's new apartment and kitten. Sure love that Hector and Helen.

At the end of August Jake started his new job and loves it! He works with some incredible people in his classroom who are all very experienced in the special needs field and have given him great advice and adores each kid in there.

Jake and Taci spent a weekend with Jake's sister Jodi and her husband Dallan in Soda Springs and watched her sing in sacrament meeting. She has such a beautiful voice and we always love spending time with them.

September: Was the busiest and craziest month yet! Jake turned 23 and we spent a weekend with his family. Both his sisters and his niece Ella were at his parents and it was fun to see everyone.

Taci's cousin Brady stopped in for dinner during his business trip through the area and we had fun spending time with him!

Jake and Taci decided one day to move to a new apartment, so we went and looked around to see what we could find. We come across a little house that was renting out the upstairs and when we saw that all utilities are paid, it has an extra room, and it is only 75 dollars more than our other smaller place, we snatched it up. In a matter of three days we were completely moved in with the help of good friends and family. It is a few blocks away from Jake's school and we are excited to be in a new ward.

Molly and Brandon, our very good friends in Rexburg, took us out for Jake's birthday and we had so much fun hanging out with them!

Taci started substitute teaching and so far has really enjoyed it. She has learned so much and is excited to do this until she finds a more permanent position.

October: Well, here we are again, six months and another conference with Taci's family down in Utah. A lot, yet just a little in the face of eternity, has happened, and we are still doing wonderfully. We love being in a new place and we are so happy with our jobs where we are learning every day.

We are excited (mostly Taci) for Halloween so Jake can dress up at school. We (Taci) has decided he is going as a nerd, with the suspenders and taped glasses. We (mostly Jake) are also so excited with the halloween candy in bulk at winco.

The next few months will bring us both starting night classes and trying to survive the winter without a crazy heating bill. We are going to have Thanksgiving with Taci's family and Christmas with Jake's, and in between we are happy staying home and spending our weekends together. We are so happy to have the same work hours and the same employer with the same days off! Jake is a flourishing cook who is keeping Taci chubby and in turn she isn't burning as much stuff as she used to, and her biscuits get better every time.

Good News, She's Dead!

The wicked witch I mean of course.

In order to start this blog I have to rewind a year ago when my mother went on choir tour with Tara and fell in love with Wicked. She came home and bought the cd and made us put it on her Ipod and would go around humming popular.

Then she heard the big news: Wicked was coming to Salt Lake City. Right then and there, she vowed to enrich all those around her with the chance of a lifetime. She bought herself and my father season tickets to all the plays coming this year, and bought over a thousand dollars worth of tickets for whomever she knew that wanted to get in on this business.

At the time I was dating a cutesy fellow named Jacob, and I said I was in.

Fast forward to thursday night, where Jake and I, Tara and our cousin Trevor, Brooke and Taylor, Aunt Kristin and Uncle Ryan, and Uncle Brad and Aunt Rae all met up in front of the Capitol Theater and sat together to see the show.

As we were going in, Jake noticed Elder Perry next to us showing his ticket to the ticket lady.

Wow! How neat was that!

Then, as we were sitting down, we saw Elder Uchtdorf( I don't know if I spelled that right) going to his seat. Then my Uncle Ryan noticed in front of us a very familiar bald spot belonging to the Prophet!

We were in good company that night!

The show was incredible. Everyone loved it!

For anyone who hasn't had a chance to see it or listen to the music, I hope they get the chance! Its a great story and it has an interesting message. And if the prophet approves, then I guess I can't say anything better about it.

Thank you mom for getting us tickets! You are very "Popular" with all of us.