We Moved

So, we moved.  Again.  Evy's only 19 months and she's lived in 3 different houses.  But, we did move for a real job so we're pretty excited about that.

Brad had a couple of different offers so I went to check out both cities.  One was up in Greeley and the other was down in Colorado Springs.  We really wanted to stay in Colorado so we were happy with both options keeping us here.

I loved the office in Greeley.  They're called "The Smile Department" and are themed around fire departments complete with real fire trucks outside.  Then I went over to Windsor and met up with Brad's would-be-boss's-wife at a playground.  Micah is super nice and was so sweet to let me know about the area.  And our families are kind of eerily similar.  Like both of our husband's are named Brad who play the trumpet and tennis. We're both LDS. And we both have a kid with autism.  It's been so nice to have Micah to get recommendations and let me know about services.  After that we ran over to see the temple in Fort Collins.  It was really surprising to me driving around to see how many little lakes there are around here.  It's really beautiful and the mountains aren't too far away from Fort Collins.

The very next day I drove to Colorado Springs. It was so beautiful!  So close to the mountains.  We drove up to the Garden of the Gods which was amazing.  I drove around to a few other places in town to see how we liked the city. The practice also looked pretty nice, but it wasn't in a great part of town.

Goodbye Aurora house!

After that we were so back and forth about our decision.  We really kept changing our minds about which we liked better.  But in the end we've very happy with our decision to move to Fort Collins.  We decided to move to Fort Collins 2 weeks before our move.  It really was crazy timing.  My mom flew out to watch my kids while I was supposed to go to Girl's Camp for the week.  But then I got sick.  So while we were still making up our minds, my mom was packing up our house while I lay on the couch.  My illness did allow Brad and I to be together and make a decision.  By the end of the week we decided to move to Fort Collins and we put in an application for renting our house.

Brad's actual practices are in Greeley and Ault.  Both are a 30 minute commute. So why did we move to Fort Collins? Well, the school district here is great for special needs and the community board (how we access county services) is better in Fort Collins. And we really like Fort Collins.  It's also kind of special since Brad served part of his mission in Fort Collins.  In fact, we're in the same ward Brad served in 11 years ago.

We love our location. We're so close to everything.  It's only 10 minutes to Costco, 5 minutes to Sprout's (my favorite grocery store, I know, a little nuts to have a favorite grocery store, but I really do love it,) 10 minutes to Cafe Rio, Nate's school is 2 minutes away, we walk to church every Sunday since we're just across the street, and we can see the temple from our house.  It's an amazing location.  The house itself, well, let's just say the landlord didn't even do a walk through of the house after the last tenant left.  And he doesn't want to fix anything.  So, we're really motivated to start saving for a house!

But just as long as we can stay in this area.  I really really like our new ward. It's a good mix of families though everyone is a dentist, doctor, or a engineer.  We're had 3 new Mormon families move in on our street since we're been here.  And all of them have kids the same age as ours.  It's great!  And this ward is very special needs friendly.  The bishop's brother has down syndrome so he's been so supportive and welcoming.  He's calling a special helper for Nate for sunbeams.  And there's also a few other kids with special needs in our ward so Nate's quirks really aren't that unusual.  We're also really liking Nate's preschool.  Bacon Elementary has been recommended to us by so many people.  It's the district's special integration school for kids with autism.  So they're especially versed in autism care, but they still let these kids be fully integrated into regular classrooms as much as they can.  In all I've read about classrooms for autistic kiddos, integrated classrooms have the best outcomes for all of the children involved.

And Brad's been liking his work.  The Ault Office was closed for some renovations before Brad started so they did a Grand Re-Opening party and also welcomed Brad to the practice.  They had a cake with Brad's name on it and even had "Welcome Dr. Packer" goodie bags to hand out.  The whole staff is wonderful.  Brad's Greeley office is also undergoing some renovations and they will be putting in some operating suites for Brad to work in so he can start doing sedation and oral surgery cases.

We're really loving this move.  We love the beautiful area.  We love being close to the temple.  We love the friends we're making here.  And it's so nice to feel like we can put down some roots.   For our entire marriage, we're known how long we're staying in one place before we're going to pick up everything and move again.  But we're staying here for the foreseeable future.  We are hoping to buy a house, but we'll stay in the same area.  We won't have to leave familiarity and friends behind.  So life is good.  Life is really good.

Lately

I've been pretty bad about updating the blog.  I can't say the forcast looks any better since we are moving to Philadelphia in 3 days!  But before I forget, this is what we've been up to lately.

• My last week of working at Head Start.  During my last week we went to a ropes course for a team building activity.  That's my kind of fun.  After my years in gymnastics I've lost my fear of doing these sort of things.  Zipline, rock climbing, giant swing?  No problem.  Having to say goodbye?  Not so easy.  I've made so many wonderful friends and have absolutely LOVED my job.

• Right after my job ended, we went to see Uncle David and Aunt Colleen in Idaho with Zack and Karen.  So much fun!  Pics to follow.

• Immediately following our trip to Idaho, we left for Moab.  Just the two of us.  Pics also in the line up for editing.

• Lots and lots of packing.  Luckily we've had our back bedroom to put all of our boxes in.
• Good times with family and friends before we leave.  It's been so much fun to see everyone one last time before we go.
• This includes my amazing friend Shelley.  I've needed a haircut and color badly, but my mom has been so busy.  Shelley gave me a great haircut.  I love it.  Thanks Shelley!
• We got a GPS.  Finally!  I've wanted one with my job for my home visits, but we just got one.  It's super cool.  Voice commands and hands free calling through the GPS.  I know you are jealous.
• Family pictures.  In between my parents trip to Alaska, our trips to Idaho and Moab, my mom being Girl's Camp director AND doing the Weeblos Scout Camp, we've put it off to the last minute.  However, we did pull it off.  Don't we look great?

I GOT A JOB!!!

Finally!  I'm going to be working for Mountainland Head Start as a Social Services Specialist.  I'll be working with Head Start families setting them up with services from Head Start and within the community, and planning classes and activities for families.  It's here in Provo (only about ten minutes away), but I'll be going out to do home visits in the Provo area.  I start on Monday.  It's a full time job and I'm really, really excited.

I didn't think I would get this job since there was a lot of competition.   When I went in for my interview they had 8 or 9 people in the waiting room filling out written interviews.  They were interviewing all day and had interviews every 20 minutes.  They did have 4 different positions open, but still there were a lot of people applying.  I was going to go see my sister in St. George for her birthday, but I cancelled my trip because they were only holding interviews while I was going to be gone.  But I'm so glad I did.  

After my interview they told me they would let me know in two weeks if I got the job.  What I long time to wait to hear back.  But I didn't think I would get the job so I put it in the back of my mind.  Tomorrow would have been two weeks, but they called a day early so I wasn't even nervous yet over whether I would get the job or not.  I seriously thought they were calling early to let me know I didn't get the job.  I was completely shocked when it was actually a job offer.  I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised.  I had a really good interview and my resume is decent, but I've been looking for a job for so long and had lots of rejection letters, phone calls, and emails.  It's really nice to finally get a job and have that stress gone.  Thank you everyone who has been praying for me to find a job.  I know it helped.  I'm super excited to have a job and to be working for Head Start.  I wanted to be working with children and families so I'm really happy that this job encompasses both.  YAY!

Irony

Today started so good and ended somewhat badly. I had a great morning. I was up at 7:30, out the door at 9. I did a little early Christmas shopping and even found a screaming deal, 93% off! The house was even cleaned up.

I headed out this afternoon for work. Right now I'm just doing on-call hours for the place I did my internship over the summer. Today I picked up a 9 year old boy that I've been working with quite a bit. So, we did our normal schedule of schoolwork at the library, then dinner, and then play time. He did great a his school work (not even one complaint, which is saying something for this kid) and wasn't fussy when we got him dinner. The problem was finding things to do after dinner. We found a few things to keep us going and had a good night together.

The problems all started when I brought him home. No one was there. And my phone was completely dead. I couldn't even turn it on long enough to get my coordinators number. We drove to a pay phone and I had a few numbers written down, but no one was picking up. We drove back to his house a couple times in between calls to see if anyone had arrived home. Finally, 30 minutes after he was supposed to be home, his foster dad finally showed up. An emergency had come up so his foster mom was in the ER and his foster dad was delayed at work. Now, I just had to get home to charge my phone and let my coordinator know everything was alright.

So, I'm hurrying home on the freeway, when I see a cop come on the freeway. I slowed down a bit and kept driving. The cop slowed down and as I was going the speed limit I passed him. He then got behind me and started up his lights so I pulled over. I didn't know why he was pulling me over when I wasn't speeding and there were people going much faster than I was.

"Miss, did you know your headlight was out?" I told him I didn't and that my dad had an auto body business so I'd bring it in to get fixed right away. He checked my license and insurance and let me go. As I finished my drive home I just started laughing at the irony of the one day my phone dies is the one day I need it most. And that the one day I need to hurry home after work (since my phone is dead) is the one day I get pulled over. I finally got home, finally called my coordinator, and finally got dinner at 9:30 pm. I'll never let my phone battery get that low again.

You Wish You Had My Job

My paid internship finally started. What a week it has been. For those of you who don't know I'm working with a with special needs for the summer. We're in a group with other special needs kids and their mentors. We go do fun things together like:

Monday:

If you liked the first one then you'll like the second.

Tuesday:

BYU's Dinosaur Museum and swimming at the Orem Fitness Center.

Wednesday:

Bowling at Fat Cats and swimming again, but this time at the Scera pool.

Thursday:

It's a good thing our group was mostly boys. And. . .

It was much better than Tuesday's dinosaur museum.

Friday:

They let us make our own pizzas and then they gave us a tour of the restaurant.

Basically, I'm getting paid to go have fun with someone. It's great. The kids are all really sweet and we've had some really funny moments. I can't wait for next week.

What A Relief

Brad and I finished finals!!! Neither of us failed any of them so that was good. And I saw some hilarious things during finals week which made all the stress bearable. Like a girl who brought in a 5 foot long peacock feather attached to her pencil. The poor guy sitting two desks behind her kept getting it in his face. Too bad I was in the testing center or else I might have taken a picture.

Also, I almost got hit by a duck. If you have been on BYU campus you know there are ducks everywhere. So, I was walking home, minding my business, when a duck got scared and flew right in front of my face. There was a guy walking in front of me who turned around to see what was happening and he started laughing. It was just the sort of thing you wish you had on film because it will never happen again (at least, I hope I doesn't happen again. It was kind of scary.)

Mostly, we're just excited to be done and have a weekend together. We had it all semi-planned out. Tomorrow, we're going to Trevor and Shelley's wedding. The rest of the weekend will be spent doing spring cleaning and having fun together. Also, since Brad's birthday is next Wednesday we're going to do something fun for that as well. However, good news has changed some of our plans.

What is my good news? Well, I got the internship I wanted! I'm so excited. It's with a group called RISE and I'll be mentoring a child with disabilities for the summer. As part of this we meet together with a group of eight other kids and their mentors and go do fun things together like swimming, bowling, painting, etc. And I get paid for going to do all these fun things.

The bad news with this is I have manditory meetings on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings next week which means celebrating Brad's birthday will have to be postponed. Brad has classes all day Wednesday so I'll have to figure out something extra special to do for him since I won't see him all day. But we'll have lots of time to celebrate since summer is finally here!

It's Official

I applied for graduation this last week. I'm going to be able to graduate in August! I'm so excited! I've been waiting on an internship to know for sure, but they just opened up a course that fulfills my capstone requirement which means I can graduate whether or not I get the internship. I'm still hopeful to get an internship, but it's nice to know that I'll be able to get everything all done.

Also, I got a call back for a second interview for the internship I would like. I'm hopeful that this will all work out. I'll keep everyone updated with how it goes.

Today was also interesting because I went to a graduation luncheon put on my major's student association. They had it in the new Gordon B. Hinckley Building. That is such a cool building. I never took advantage of the tours they gave of the building when it first opened, but I wish I would have. There was an exhibit about Christ in there that I think would be cool to go back and see. We were up on the third floor of the building which had very pretty views. There was about 50-60 people there and I actually knew a lot of people who were graduating.

When I was invited, they asked if I would like to invite a faculty member who has influenced me. I invited Dr. Elizabeth Fawcett. She taught my Theories in a Family Perspective Class which, despite it's boring name, has been my favorite class at BYU. So, I got to sit with Dr. Fawcett and another friend from that class.

And as with any good graduation celebration, there were speaches. At least they weren't the long, boring kind that were at my high school graduation. Short, funny, and with a good point. At the end, I even received a certificate of achievement for graduating as a member of the School of Family Life Student Association. But it all, once again, reminded me that I'm going to be graduating so soon.

It's a little bittersweet to be finishing school. I'm really glad to be done with papers, research articles, and exams, but I've also really loved going to BYU. Part of me wouldn't mind staying around some more. But I am graduating in August and now I have to figure out what I'm going to do out in the real world. Wish me luck!