Summertime...and the bugs are out!

I love summer. I love being able to feel the sunshine on my face. I love summer foods, and especially snow cones :) Our neighbors introduced us to this Hawaiian Shaved Ice called Hokulia. (Except they call it Hock-A-Loogie. So we usually do too!) Seriously, the best summer treat in the world! They have this added bonus called a sno-cap, where they drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top of the snow cone. SO GOOD.

Doesn't that just look incredible?! 

Anywho, one night Braden and I were visiting our neighbors, Marlies and Dillon Hill. We decided to all go get Hokulia together. It was all good and dandy until the drive home. Dillon is driving, Marlies in the front seat, and Braden and I were in the back. I feel something on my hand. Now, it's dark by this point, so I can't see what it is. I figured it was a fly or something, so I brush it off. A second later, I feel it on my leg. Again, I  just try and brush it off. Then, I feel it on my other leg. I try to flick it off, and Marlies turns on a light so we can try to see what it is. By this point, I was pretty sure it was a spider. I had unbuckled my seat belt, and scooted over as close as possible to Braden. Marlies finally sees it, and starts screaming. Lo and behold, it was a spider. But not just a regular little guy. It was huge, and it was like white/silver. For some reason, it's coloring freaked me out even more. The spider starts crawling up the seat, and I wanted to get out of there! Braden was bending down to see the spider, and I scooted over to sit on him. But since he was bending down, I ended up sitting on his back/neck, putting him in a position where he literally can't move much. Dillon rolls the window down thinking we can just try to flick the spider out the window. This car next to us has their windows down, and just gave us strange looks considering all the screaming coming from the car, and the fact that I'm sitting on Braden's neck by this point. Marlies kept telling Dillon, "Honey,  pull over! We need to get the spider out. Dillon, pull over!" Both of us were screaming, and Braden and Dillon just kept laughing thinking it was hilarious. I rode the rest of the way home sitting on Braden's back/neck/head area. When we got back to our apartment complex, Braden squished the spider and we got it out of the car. It was all quite comical, despite the fact I felt thoroughly violated :) 

Braden and I also found a baby bird outside yesterday! The poor thing couldn't fly, and he was shaking so bad. We tried to feed him some cream of wheat mixed with a little water, and moved him to a safer place than we found him. 

Braden's sister Cassie, her husband Kenny, and their brand new baby Carter just moved to Utah. It has been fun to spend time with them, and get to know Carter. He is so handsome!

Braden and I also went to the Loveland Living Aquarium. It was really fun!

These are the days!

WE'RE BACK! :)

Obviously blogging hasn't been a first priority of ours lately, but I decided that since I'm not working this summer, I might as well catch up.

January turned out to be a miracle month for us. Since I was officially done with college, I wanted to start working full time. The preschool I was teaching at couldn't offer me any more hours than 16 a week. So I started searching for another part time job. And man, it was rough! Trying to find two part time jobs that have schedules that fit together was too hard. I decided to just look for a full time job and see what happened. Braden encouraged me to set a goal of when I would have a new job. We decided that January 31st seemed like a reasonable goal. That gave me almost a full month. When I wasn't teaching preschool, I spent so much time on Craigslist, KSL, and researching other schools in the area. Nothing was working out, and I was really frustrated. The last week of January, three different jobs finally came through. I accepted the one that had the best preschool program. It was a school in American Fork, and I was so relieved that something was finally working out. The owner was LDS, and everyone there was so fun to be with. I went down for the first day of training, where they had me in the preschool classroom, and a chance to interact with the kids. I really enjoyed it while I was there, and I came home feeling pretty happy. The next morning though, I woke up and just felt like I really shouldn't go back. I was so confused. I had been searching for weeks with no results, and this job seemed perfect. The school had a program very similar to BYU-Idaho's (which is unusual to find), and so I couldn't understand why I felt like I needed to turn the job down. Braden gave me a blessing, and I spent a lot of time pondering and praying that day. By that evening, I had made the decision that I needed to turn it down. I still didn't understand why (especially after searching for a month with no results!), but I felt peace about it. The next day was the 31st of January. I taught preschool that morning, came home, and started searching for jobs again, just trying to figure out the direction Heavenly Father wanted me to go. About 12:30 I got a call from a school in Orem called Kids Village. I had applied there back in December, but they had told me their teachers generally commit for a school year, and thus they wouldn't be hiring until the next school year. However, a teacher was leaving in February, and they were looking for someone to fill her place. I was ecstatic! I had been looking into this school since I was at BYU-Idaho. They scheduled my interview for only an hour later. As soon as I walked into the school for the interview, I just felt peace. I immediately liked Kathy, the lady who interviewed me, and I knew I was in the right place. Whether or not the job worked out, I just felt peace that I was moving where I needed to go. Kathy called me later that afternoon to offer me the job, but for some reason my phone didn't register it until she called a second time on Monday morning. So although I wasn't aware I had gotten the job until Monday morning, I technically made my goal of getting a job by January 31st :) Miracles happen, and Heavenly Father answers prayers! That was a huge testimony builder for me of following the Spirit, even when it makes no sense. And on top of that, when I quit my other job, they were so good to me. They gave me a nice goodbye present, and have even let me come back this summer as a substitute. (Kids Village only runs during the school year, so I have June and July off.) Who does that?! I quit on them, and they still have let me come back and work there as needed during my time off. What a blessing.

Anywho, this is what Kids Village looks like when you walk in.

Who wouldn't want to work there? :) It is very well decorated, and I love the feeling in there. The school runs a little differently than most. There are five academic classrooms, which is where the regular subjects like math and phonics are taught. Then, there are five workshop classes - art, history/spanish, science, music, and cooking/nutrition. The classes spend most of the time in their academic classrooms, but throughout each week, they spend 30 minute periods in each workshop. When I was hired on, I was filling the teacher's spot that had just left - so I didn't get a choice in which classroom I was put in. I was placed in the history/spanish room. Now, I don't speak spanish, and history has never been my strongpoint. I wanted the job so bad, but I kind of doubted my abilities to succeed in that room. But with a little faith and help from Heavenly Father, it went MUCH better than expected! My visiting teacher spoke Spanish fluently, so she helped me with pronunciation. And a lot of the spanish was taught through music, so I was able to pick it up quickly. The school is for ages 2 1/2 up through third grade, and I loved the variety of ages I got to teach! Next year though, I got moved to the art room, which I am really excited about! That fits my personality and interests a lot more :)

One of the hardest (and yet best) things about working at kids village as a workshop teacher, is that I don't have an assigned class. So throughout the week, I have about 400-500 students come through my room. It is such a joy to get to interact with so many different personalities, but it can also be hard remembering names as well! I have to admit, teacher appreciation week was pretty sweet though having that many students.... :)

This is the majority of everything I got. There are a few missing from these
pictures. But HOLY COW! We got really spoiled :)

Braden and I both have callings in the ward now, which we are loving! I am the Secretary in the Relief Society, and it has given me the best opportunity to get to know others better. I love the girls I work with, and I have even gotten to teach RS a few times. Which, I enjoyed a lot more than I expected I would! Braden got called as the executive secretary to the Bishopric. Every Sunday after Sacrament Meeting, there is a "Get to Know You" class for all the new members. The Bishopric attends that to introduce themselves and to meet everyone coming in. So Braden and I get to go to that every Sunday. Being in the RS presidency, its an added bonus for me that I get to meet those new sisters on their first Sunday. We have such a great ward, and we are really enjoying all of the friendships we are making with those around us!  

We definitely miss our families, but we are adjusting to Utah. Even though we weren't in Boise for Mother's Day, we still got to have a private chat with Elder Cameron Owen - which was quite a miracle! I didn't know he would be able to call each of us individually, so I was just expecting to get a report from my mom later on how Cameron was doing. I took a nap that Sunday afternoon. When I woke up, I had a missed call and voicemail from an unknown number. I listed to the voicemail, and it was Cameron! I just started bawling, and went out into the living room to find Braden. I'm sure he was super confused as to why I woke up from my nap crying. haha. Luckily, Cameron tried calling again about an hour later, and Braden and I were able to talk to him for about 15-20 minutes. It was SO good to hear his voice, and especially hearing him laugh. Braden and I started dating right around the time Cameron left, so they haven't actually met each other in person yet. I am definitely looking forward to February when Cameron comes home, and they can officially meet :) 

In other news, Braden and I finished watching all four seasons of Hannah Montana. and Braden knows most of the songs better than me now ;) haha, love that boy. Happy Summer everyone!