At some point during our summer in Yellowstone Brandon asked me an important question. He asked, "If someone had given us a choice between living in Yellowstone this summer or getting the job at Airport #2 in Salt Lake which one would we have picked?"
That was a hard question to answer. On the one hand the job opportunity in Salt Lake represented financial security and a stable life, but it also meant living in the one place we didn't want to live. (Nothing against the west side of the Salt Lake Valley, but we weren't interested in moving back to the area where we grew up.)
Living and working in Yellowstone on the other hand represented adventure and exploration, but was temporary and came with a small paycheck.
But given the choice I would have picked living in Yellowstone over taking the stable job in Salt Lake. The summer in Yellowstone was one that my family will treasure forever.
Of course I didn't know that back in February. I was devastated when Brandon didn't get that job with Airport #2. I'll admit I spent a little bit of time questioning God about why things didn't seem to work out. Brandon was perfect for that job, and it would have helped us out so much. Why didn't he get that job?
In hindsight its easy to see why Brandon didn't get that job. Getting rejected is what led us to look into getting his A&P Certification. And that led us to ISU in Pocatello. And that led us (sort of indirectly) to spending the summer in Yellowstone. Which was amazing. So maybe God does know what he's doing after all.
And now that we are here in Pocatello I can really say that God knows what he is doing. We LOVE Pocatello so much. And ISU is amazing. Brandon is excelling in the Maintenance Program. He's happy to go to school every day. For the first time in his life he is getting A's in school. It's wonderful to see him enjoying school so much. This is exactly where we are supposed to be right now.
I think this picture sums up how Brandon and I felt this last year. We've had to give up a lot dreams and plans, but we've been given better ones.
Well that was the inspirational thought for this post. Let's get on with the picture recap. My camera died the day of the eclipse so most of these pictures are from my phone.
The kids are loving our new house. We have a back yard, but they all prefer to stay inside. After a summer in an RV in Yellowstone they are pretty happy to have walls again.
Derrick sets up his train set in his room every day. And every night he puts it away without complaining.
When we announced we were moving to Idaho I got an almost immediate facebook message from my friend Sarah. She and I were in the same married student ward back in Logan, but our friendship really happened online after we both moved away. I've considered her one of my best online friends for years. Her message said that she was also moving to Idaho. She would be in Idaho Falls which is about 45 minutes from Pocatello. We knew we had to get together. So we made that happen during the second week I was in Idaho. She moved back west from Virginia so we've formed a little bit of a support group for the re-adjustment to Utah/Idaho Culture.
Kindergarten here is every other day so that means Derrick is home every other day. I like spending time with him, but it's kind of hard to keep him occupied. We usually make a trip to the Library so he can play on the I-pads there.
We didn't do much for Labor Day Weekend. We just hung out at home and unpacked. My sister Hillary and her husband Joe came to visit and we had fun catching up with them. And I completely forgot to take a picture
In the afternoon on Labor day we checked out the splash pad in Chubuck.
The kids thought it was great.
Yellowstone had a lot of fun stuff, but it didn't have splash pads. So the kids were excited to do this.
I forgot to bring towels so I let the kids get warm in the skirt I'd thrown on over my swimming suit.
It was very stretchy.
On another day the kids played in the gutter while it rained.
Brandon and I weren't able to go on a date the whole summer so we made sure to ask around in the ward for a teenage babysitter and so we could go on a date. Our first date was dinner at a local restaurant and walking up an down Pocatello's historic main street.
We live only a few blocks from this area and I love all the old buildings.
We found this cute little park between buildings. Pocatello has little park everywhere.
On another date we saw Wonder Woman in the the movie theater in the Student Union Building. We both got in for free since Brandon is a student and I have a spouse card. The movie was great! I've wanted to see it ever since we came out, but movie theaters are hard to come by in Yellowstone.
Derrick is doing AMAZING in kindergarten. We are still working on evaluations and paperwork to make sure he gets all the services he needs, but in the meantime everything is going really well. I'm so glad he went to pre-k for 2 years because transitioning to kindergarten has been a breeze.
His teacher has a private instagram account set up so she can share pictures with parents. I love it because Derrick doesn't tell me much about his day, but with the instagram account I can see some of what he does. For example, he wore this mask home one day. He kept telling me he was a ghost. On the instagram account his teacher posted that they'd learned that they were super heros and can do great things.
During the early part of September the kids would choose otter pops as their afternoon snack and then go outside and eat them. (We woke up to frost on the ground this morning so this picture feels like it was taken a long time ago.)
We live right by the Portneuf River. I love how it flows through the neighborhood.
We are pretty big fans of the library. We don't have the internet at home yet so we rely on the library for our internet needs, and our movie needs, and our binge TV show needs (Brandon and I are currently enjoying Community), and our book needs. It's also has some fun toys. Here's Veronica playing on the Triceratops (and determined NOT to smile for me)
Here's a better picture - she looks like she's smiling, but really she was yelling at me.
I took a little nap one day and woke up to Veronica covered in marker. She told me it was a map to Fairy Falls.
Here's more Library Pictures. They have a little cafe area and the kids really enjoy playing there.
Charlotte wrote this by herself.
I promised the kids that we wouldn't drive anywhere outside of Pocatello until September 22, but I broke that promise and took Derrick and Veronica with me to Idaho Falls so we could hang out with Sarah again. We did "real mom things" like take our kids to McDonalds and Target. We also saw this giant potato truck. I thought it was really funny at first, but I've seen it several times since then and the novelty has worn off.
Brandon had a welding class on a Saturday so the kids and I were on our own that day. Luckily there is a model train club here in Pocatello and this was the one Saturday a month that they were open. So we went to check that out.
They kids were so excited to see Thomas as well as all the other trains.
I was so impressed by all the layouts. We've paid money for places that weren't this detailed.
The kids had fun following the trains all around the layouts.
Derrick asks every day if we can go back to the "Train Museum" and every day I tell him that we have to wait a month. (This is actually progress though because before we went to the museum he kept asking me if for a train to go around the Christmas Tree so at least we are talking about something that can happen sooner then Christmas.)
The missionaries helped us move our heavy furniture into our house when we moved in. So when the calendar for feeding the missionaries came around I made sure to sign us up. We had a really good meal that included jello fruit mousse.
Veronica had her first day of Pre-school on September 18th. I'd been hoping to get her into the free head start Program, but we didn't have an address in time to get her into the program. Instead we were on the waiting list. I thought I was fine with hanging out with Veronica for a few months as her name worked its way up the list, but then I changed my mind. What changed my mind was that we were watching the Cars movie for the billionth time. Veronica was reciting the lines word for word and I was sitting there wondering why one character refers to Lightning McQueen as a person when he is clearly a car. And in that instant I realized that we could not do this anymore. We had already spent two years together with the older kids in school. I couldn't do another year of this. We both needed outside stimulation.
And so an hour later we drove over to ISU and I signed Veronica up for their pre-school. It cost money, but it was money I was willing to spend in order to get Veronica to interact with children her own age. Because, quite honestly, I've been a little worried about Veronica's social skills. Since Derrick is on the autism spectrum I've been keeping an eye on Veronica. She definitely has some odd tendencies, but I think most of them are just things she's picked up from Derrick. I'm hoping that time spent in a classroom with other kids will help her develop some social skills.
Veronica is pretty excited about school too. She is so happy to have a backpack. She happily walks to the bus stop with the older kids and once they are on the bus we go to the car and drive her to her school.
I think her favorite part of pre-school is the toys. She's looked forward to playing in a pretend kitchen for months. My favorite part of school is that she takes a nap! This girl hasn't napped consistently in over a year. But she takes a nap every day at school. I thought it would make her harder to put to bed at night, but really it just makes her more pleasant in the evening. She used to be so ornery during dinner time. But now she's a happy little girl.
Part of me is a little sad about the end of this era of having kids at home, but mostly I'm feeling pretty happy. I feel like I can be a better mom thanks to the break I get every day.
Oh and I guess now is a good time to mention that I'm looking for a full time job. One of the reasons I wanted to put Veronica into school is so I can get a job. I know that I wrote about how I had a night auditor job at a hotel, but that didn't last long. The schedule was brutal, but doable. What ended the job for me was the company's complete disorganization regarding policies, specifically cash policies. As someone who has carefully tracked every dollar going in and out of cash offices I was appalled at how lax they were on their cash drawer. It was just one of many problems, but it's the one that convinced me I couldn't work for this company.
And so I've spent most of this month applying and interviewing for jobs. I know that I will find a job eventually, but it's been a discouraging month. I'd appreciate any thoughts, prayers, or job tips you might have.
Veronica's first day of school was also the day of the Kind Community Festival in downtown Pocatello. We went there and had fun looking at all the booths. The kids really liked this display trollery, we also went on a real trolley ride later in the evening.
There were free bounce houses, free balloons, and lots of other free things.
We had fun walking through the tunnel under the rail yard. Usually this is for cars, but it was for pedestrians this night.
The kids were able to paint a metal sign that was hung up around the fence to the rail yard.
Derrick was no happy about all the noise, but he put up with it and later told us he'd had fun.
Here we are walking back under the tunnel.
Lydia was so exited when a train went over us.
Charlotte lost both her top teeth a few months ago and she has had the cutest little smile and lisp. Lydia lost her other top tooth a few days ago so now she had a matching smile and lisp. I think we need to teach these girls to sing, "All I want for Christmas is my too front teeth."
Since Veronica is in school every day, but Derrick only goes every other day, Derrick and I have been able to spend one on one time together for the first time in his life. Previous to this the only one and one time we've ever really had has been when we went to doctors appointments. We enjoy going to the library and looking at the Halloween Decorations at stores. He's also a good grocery shopping buddy. I also decided that he needed to learn about Star Wars so we've been working our way through those movies. If/when I get a job I'll put Derrick into the childcare program at ISU on his "off" days, but until then I'm enjoying this extra time with Derrick.
On the days that all the kids are in school I spend a lot of time with the job hunt. Last week I realized that I could go out to the airport and eat lunch with Brandon. That was really fun. He showed me the replica of the Wight Glider that he and a few other guys had been putting together.
On Thursday night we went to the Idaho Falls Temple with our ward. Our friends, Elder and Sister Coombs were military relations missionaries when we lived in Fort Hood. They are back home in Idaho Falls now and they offered to watch our children when we go to the temple. So when our bishop announced that we'd have a ward temple night I knew that finding babysitters wouldn't be a problem at all. So we were able to go to the temple for the first time in two years. It was so good to go again.
On Saturday we had the ISU home coming parade. I'd been planning to go to this and watch from the sidewalk like everyone else. But Brandon helped with the float/trailer for the Aviation Maintenance Department. They wanted him to be on the float. When he told them that he was planning on watching the parade with his family they said he could bring his family. That sounded like a great idea.
Brandon walked over to the parade staging area around 7:30. The kids and I walked over there around 8:30. We passed a few buildings that had ISU themed decorations.
We made it to the staging area and found our trailer. It was fun to be in the middle of so much activity.
Everyone around us was very excited.
The kids were cold, and bored so they all wanted to sit on me.
But once the parade started they all perked up. The kids LOVED throwing candy. Even Derrick, who we'd worried would be scared, thought this was the greatest thing ever.
We had a car behind us that was playing loud music. The twins really got into it and danced and danced.
The trailer had two large airplane engines on it.
This is the view from behind.
Here I am.
The kids had been sad about not getting any candy, so when we reached the end of the parade we walked back on the route and got candy from the floats and entry that were still coming up the road. The kids FILLED their hats with candy. Then we walked the 18 (little) blocks back to our house.
In the afternoon we listened to General Conference on the radio because we don't have TV or the internet. The kids build elaborate houses from lincoln logs while they listened.
It was kind of ironic that we had to listen to conference on the radio. 9 1/2 years ago Brandon and I were living in Logan and we decided to take a road trip in our new jeep on conference weekend. We didn't have TV or the internet and our tiny basement apartment didn't even have radio reception so listening to conference from our car radio made a lot of sense. Guess where we went on that little road trip? None other than Pocatello, Idaho. That was actually our only visit to Pocatello until last February when we came up here to check out the school that Brandon had already applied to. Back in April of 2008 we had no idea that the town with the cute main street would one day be our home.
It's funny how things like that happen.
