Family Pictures

My wonderful sister Rita took our family pictures on Tuesday. They turned out SOOOOO good. Emily and Collin didn't always cooperate but we still got cute pictures so who cares! Next time I know not to choose a park that has swings and a slide at it. The fall colours were gorgeous and I loved having all the leaves on the ground for us to play in. The train tracks and park were a perfect place. The trees are planted along a triangle piece of land so it lends some fun background imagery. Click Here to go to facebook where I posted the pictures. It is a public page so you don't have to have an account. Enjoy!

Craters of the Moon Field trip

I had never been to or knew much about Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho when I found out the 8th grade class was going. I was able to go along with 8 other adults and our 120 students. It was nice to get to know two of the school's science teachers on the 2 hour bus ride each way. I learned alot about the fascinating earth science features that naturally happen in Idaho. Luckily it wasn't too hot of a day with a light breeze. The forecast had predicted rain so I was glad that they were wrong. The first thing we did after the ranger talked to us about the rules was climb a cinder cone. A complete hill formed from the ash falling from the volcano vent over 2000 years ago. Totally awesome. The rock/ash was sparkly. I didn't expect that. The climb was rather steep and I discovered that not only am I out of shape but my body has still not completely acclimated here. The top of the hill is 7000 above sea level. My lungs were burning! But the view was incredible. To look out and actually see the black hardened lava. (Can't remember the name of it. Guess I should have paid more attention) I could just imagine what it looked like red and glowing, how it flowed etc. It was really neat to see how certain areas must have had a high enough elevation because there will be a small green island of grass in the sea of black. We then climbed up to two vents. Lots of climbing but so worth it. My legs were BURNING. I love that feeling. :) The students were really good only a few yahoos who were of course from my homeroom. But no accidents even when they were running down the hillsides. I wish I had brought my camera. We then headed over to the caves. Everyone brought sweaters, hats and flashlights. My brother in law had kindly lent me 3 flashlights which I ended up lending out two to girls who did not have flashlights that worked. :) Gotta love 8th graders. We hiked Indian Cave first which was really neat. The caves are acutal lava tubes! Some have collapsed over time. There aren't many you can climb in now because of this happening. We then went in boy scout caves. One went into a large cavern that one end had collapsed making it so you had to go back in the entrance. The other cave you had to slither down into and the only way out was on your stomach crawing. I ended up going back up the entrance because the students were taking so long I was getting claustraphobic. And I'm a coward. :) The last cave is Beauty and it is a simple large cave you walk in and out of. We ended up going back into the Boy Scout cavern so that the Earth Science teacher could tell them a ghost story about the place in the pitch dark. I was trying not to laugh but couldn't help it when he reached the end. He told them that the wind you may feel in the tunnels is from the spirits of the three dead boy scouts and could they feel it. While it was quiet a drop of water and small pebble from the ceiling fell on the neck of one of the girls. She screamed. It was so funny! It was a long day, (8:30am-5:30pm) but well worth it. It makes me want to return with my kids. But maybe not until they are a little older. I wouldn't want them falling over an edge and getting hurt. I highly recommend it to everyone!

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days? You know the one where everything goes wrong no matter how prepared you are and all you can do is laugh or cry. I'm choosing laughing today.

I woke this morning late so I quickly showered and got dressed in the clothes I laid out last night for my field trip to Craters of the Moon. I get makeup on and hair done. Breakfast eaten. Then I realize that Nic doesn't usually work Friday's and I need to get to my carpool. The kids and Landon are still sleeping. I text Nic and he says that he will drive me even though he doesn't work until the afternoon. Landon wakes up to tell me he has decided to go on the overnight trip with his brothers which means he is leaving at 1:30pm. I'm not getting home until 6pm because of travel for the field trip. I quickly text Rita (its 6:30am) and ask if she can take my kids from 1:30 till 6. She texts back yes. Then Nic texts me and says that he is just going to drop off the truck and I can keep it until Landon gets back. (Have I told you my sister and brother in law are saints?) I then realize that Collin had my house and truck key at Rita's house and I don't know where they are. Landon took them from him not knowing they were mine and thought he left them on the piano. I call Nic he was about to get into his truck. He says he will take a look around. I look around my house. No keys. Nic shows up at 6:45. I drive him back to his house. He gives me his truck key because he couldn't find the key either. I run into my house grab my previously packed bag, kiss Emily and Landon and make Landon promise to leave his house key at Rita's so I can get back into my house. I call Melisa and let her know I will be arriving 5 minutes late for carpool. As I am getting out of the truck I realize my healthy, packed last night, lunch is sitting in my fridge. Too late to go and get it. Melisa says that she will take me to the grocery store in American Falls to pick up some food. Half way here I realize that I left my cell phone in the Explorer. I get to the grocery store and realize I have 5 dollars to buy lunch. I haven't been in town or off work at times I can get a bank card for our bank account. I spend $4.58 on tuna fish and crackers snack pack, an apple, a fiber bar, and a pudding snack pack. I get to school, realize I left my school keys in my purse at home and it is only 7:44 am. What does the rest of the day have in store.

Deer and Big Blessings

Since my sister has already posted about this on facebook I figured I better get this on the blog. I have the best sister and brother in law on earth. Seriously, I do. Nic lends me his Explorer when it is my turn to carpool to work. My car is rather small and that way Landon still has a vehicle. Nic either carpools with his brother or I drop him off. I know, a saint. Since I am away Friday on a field trip, and Friday is my day to drive the carpool, I offered to drive Wednesday. This morning I picked everyone up at Petsmart, our meeting place, at 6:55 am and off we went. It is still dark and so headlights are on, etc. We got onto the freeway and I quickly sped up to 80 mph. We were chatting about stopping off at American Falls Break for Breakfast and pick up one of the cute pink insulated lunch sacks they were giving away. (Break for Breakfast is for women to raise awareness about Breast Cancer. You drive up, stop, they hand you literature, a pen and a lunch sack with milk, yogurt, muffin and a banana, then you drive off.) We were maybe 2 miles up the freeway when suddenly a deer jumped into the freeway, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE EXPLORER. There was nothing I could do. I hit the deers butt with my front drivers side bumper. I felt a jolt, and a bump bump under my vehicle. I thought the wheels were handling weird as I calmly pulled over to the side of the road. I didn't swerve, slam on my brakes or anything. Just pulled over. I felt at peace. A little wired but not freaking out. I got out of my vehicle and I could smell blood and singed fur. I walked around the vehicle expecting to find a dead deer, nothing. I then got down on my knees to look under the vehicle, nothing. I turned and looked up the road, nothing. My co worker Melisa got out of the vehicle on the cell phone with her husband. I told her I couldn't see anything wrong. She didn't believe me. She walked around the vehicle and admitted that there was no damage and no deer. We got back in the vehicle and found our other coworker Marilana on the phone with her significant other. She couldn't believe there was no damage. We were worried that the explorer might not drive well because they had felt the thump and weird pull of the wheels as well. I tentatively pulled out onto the freeway and slowly excelerated. Nothing wrong. Except my hazards had still not turned on. Melisa called Idaho State Police to let them know about the deer and where the accident had occured. They said they would go look for the deer so they could put it out of its misery. We sat in silence for a minute and then Marilana said, "Well we braked but I didn't get any meat for my breakfast." That was enough to make us all laugh and joke the next 20 minutes on the drive out to American Falls. We braked for breakfast at the park, got our really cute bags and then headed off to work. As I made the last turn to work my hazards came on. It made me laugh. I called Rita as I got out of the vehicle. The first thing I said was, "Did you know that it takes more than 15 minutes for your hazards to come on?" She paused and asked, "Why did you have my hazard lights on?" I laughed and told her the story. She had Nic's dad drive over from Aberdeen to check the vehicle out and he gave the car and clean bill of health. As we drove back to Pocatello at 4:15pm we looked for any sign of the deer. Nothing. I told Melisa that I was glad that they were in the vehicle with me so that I knew I hadn't imagined it. She laughed and said that it would be pretty hard for the three of us to have the same hallucination. I have been thanking the Lord all day for our safe arrival. If I had driven my car it would have been another ending, I am sure of it. The deer was quite large. I could see his head and eye clearly from my elevated position in the Explorer. I am grateful for the loving care of my Heavenly Father today.

**As I side note: The bags were so cute that Marilana and I went back through the line so that we could pick two up for her daughters and one for my sister. They are pink with pink circle trim. On the pocked it says, "Fight like a girl!" They even gave us a tiny stuffed pink boxing glove key chain that says the same thing.**

Pictures from the Cabin

Since I am sitting at my mother in laws computer I can post a couple of pictures she took when we were up at the cabin for Landon's birthday. Enjoy!

Mel took Emily and Collin out for a ride on the four wheeler. They LOVED it!

The kids loved running around the yard!

It is always so much fun to go to the cabin!

Sunshine and other happy thoughts

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves."

J M Barrie (author of Peter Pan)

If I were to write this email three days ago it would be completely different. I had been throwing myself a pity party for over a week. I knew good things were happening to me but all I could see was the stress from work, an unpacked/dirty home, an extra 10 pounds on top of the 5 I wanted to lose at the beginning of the summer, so forth and so forth. And then Sunday night I read the above quote. Changed everything. I started seeing the positive. I realized that I was not being patient.

As an example: I have been looking forward to moving hoping it was my chance to create some new friendships. In Powell River I didn't have a social life outside of my immediate family (brother, sister in law, mom, dad). Don't get me wrong. They were absolutely over the moon fantastic. But I have really wished to have some girlfriends which I saw outside of work. I am a social person but my husband is not. I have always thought of myself as a friendly person who was a pretty good friend. And that I made friends easily. I have an absolutely wonderful staff at work. So friendly, kind, open, supportive all those qualities you want in coworkers. I car pool with two wonderful women. But nothing outside of school. For the first three Sunday's I went to church, sat by people, said hi, introduced myself, made comments in classes, all the things you do to meet people. Three people talked with me over the three weeks. They all know Rita and were wondering if I was her twin. I was excited to talk to them but the conversations were only once and short. I smile at people and get blank looks back. Rita and her friends are kind to invite me out but its not the same. Rita is over the moon wonderful. I couldn't ask for a better friend or sister but I was worrying that I was asking for too much and counting on her too often. So instead of thinking what you are all thinking, "It's only been three weeks!" All I could see was no one wants to be my friend, my history in friendship doesn't really show a great track record with me being a good friend, I just annoy people and on and on and on.

See I was pretty messed up. But the quote changed it for me. I was so busy seeing the negative I wasn't allowing any postive in. So I promised the Lord I would start to see the positive and be positive with others. Find the good, give compliments etc. Landon left Monday afternoon for Canada and I was stressed about it being Emily and I for 4 days. Rita stepped in, she has Emily all day, then feeds us dinner, we do scripture study with them and then head home. Once Rita's kids are asleep she comes over and helps me unpack. My living room, kids room and toy room are now done. In only TWO nights! Nic came and moved all the furniture I needed moved to unpack stuff into. He solved a couple of problems for me. Rita is calling around trying to find me a free box spring so my bed can get off the floor. And guess what: I am feeling so stress free! I hadn't realized how much it was weighing on me having an unpacked house. Emily walked into the toy room when we finished last night. I asked her if she liked the room and she said, "It's perfect." (in a soft quiet voice with her eyes wide.) Its not a professional room or even completely done yet but she loves it. I almost cried.

The best news is tonight Nic and Rita are taking me to Idaho Falls with them to go to the temple.

We truly need to remember that when we bring sunshine into the lives of others it shines back at us.

PS No you cannot have Rita for your sister. She is mine. (Well except for Naomi and Ashley. I will share with you.)

A "little" update

I have come up to breathe long enough to catch up on our lives here on the blog. This is my family history so I am sorry if this is a little long.

We had a pretty uneventful trip down once we received the visa. We arrived in Vancouver Wednesday night. Thursday morning I went to check the mail multiple times. The mail was not there by 10:30am. We started to get worried. Then my aunt's neighbor mentioned that the mail doesn't get there until 2pm. So we went out for lunch. The mail was in the box by 2 pm and my visa was there! After a dance of joy and a teaful goodbye to my dad we headed for the border. The border crossing guard gave Nic a hard time about working for the FBI. She decided he was okay when she found out that he was a techie. It helped releave my stress. An hour of waiting in the wait room and I walked out with my temporary permanent residence visa in my passport. They were really nice and let me take the kids to the washroom and go out to get things from the truck. They don't all let you do that but we did use the Aldergrove crossing which helps ALOT. The kids didn't sleep well so I got about 2 hours of sleep in total. We arrived in Pocatello at 7:30am. Just in time for Nic to be there as Russell walked to the bus for his first day of school. It was really important to Russell that his dad be there so I was glad that we made it back. Landon and Nic unloaded the truck, I showered and went into work at 10am. Yep on two hours of sleep. Needless to say I don't really remember much from my first day or the 25 minute drive home. Scary since most of the drive is on the highway going 75 mph (120 kmph). I taught three classes as well. With no lesson plan. Good thing I can think on my feet. :)

The school had been so good to let me come three days late I didn't want to make them scramble for one more day. The staff here are FANTASTIC! So supportive, friendly and welcoming. The principal is wonderful, I couldn't ask for a nicer place to work. (Even though I do miss my old schools.) The students were disappointed to find out I don't speak Spanish but they seem to have gotten over it. Of the 50 students I see a day (either homeroom or teaching) 42 are hispanic. I am really enjoying the change. Matt has helped me out with translating a few words and phrases. :) Now that my students know that I know someone who can translate there isn't as much Spanish thrown at me. :) They are hoping that Matt will visit when he comes out in February because they think he sounds AWESOME. See Matt you have that reputation whether you are their teacher or not. There is a teacher here that reminds me of Matt with his fun antics and energy. I think you would love this school Matt!

Our house is still in transition. Both in us purchasing it and unpacking/organizing. I love having a house! There is so much room! The kids are loving it, they love their bed room and the toy room. Especially the toy room. Even though most of the toys are still in boxes. I go to work at 6:30 am and get home just before 5pm. By the time dinner is made, clean up, and then trying to get the kids into bed, I am just too tired to unpack. Last night I spent 2 1/2 hours organizing and cleaning the kitchen. Crazy! I've had to reorganize the pantry a few times because every time I open a new box I find more for the kitchen. I still haven't found my hair dryer yet so hopefully it won't be in the last box. I've got about 14 more to go. Then organizing. Thankfully I have a week off in October so my goal is to have at least half the house organized. Maybe paint the bathroom... Hmmm. It all depends on the finances. :)

Landon's parents came up and stayed Saturday and Sunday with us the first weekend. It is so nice to have a spare bedroom with a bed and everything! People can actually come and visit! We had a wonderful time with them and were so happy they came. The kids enjoyed having them in the house.

The first Sunday I went to our new ward my kids were HORRIBLE! I have never had to take them out so much. They loved nursery though. There are 13 kids in their class. Emily is the oldest but she doesn't mind. I loved going to Sunday School with just Landon. :) The lesson was on Job and I really felt a personal connection to the story after this last summer.

I struggled through most of the next week but I will leave that for another post. Landon's birthday was on the 18th so we left to go stay with his parents at their cabin near Yellowstone Park after I got off work on Friday. I knew it would mean alot to Landon so that was his birthday present from me. I took the weekend off from unpacking and off we went. We had a wonderful visit. Cade and Janie came over Saturday morning and wished Landon a happy birthday before heading into the park with their friends. It was a lazy morning and so we took the kids to Yellowstone Discovery Center in the afternoon. Emily loved the bears and wolves. Collin was going nuts running around. I didn't really mind until I watched the wolves follow Collin's movements. After that I took Collin to the playground at the Center until Emily was done watching animals. The playground was really cool. I hope to get some pictures from Vauna. The kids killed the batteries on my camera and so I haven't been able to take any pictures. My daredevil children loved the playground for 5-12 year olds. Collin and Emily loved climbing a small climbing wall up to the slides. They would push past an overweight 10 year old who was having difficulty climbing up it. I felt bad for her. Collin is as much as daredevil when it comes to slides as Emily. Oh the fun! No one watching him belived me when I said he was only 18 months old. Mel (my father in law) took us out to dinner at Landon's favourite ribs place. It is an old lodge. When I came back from taking Emily to the bathroom I was laughing so hard! Picture this: Creamy white coloured walls, pink stenciled roses as the border, a framed doile on the wall, a garland over the sink, and five pictures of half naked cowboys with their topless girl friends. Yep. Topless with strategically placed arms. See the restaurant shares the building with a "Saloon". I have never laughed so hard in a bathroom. I tried to convince Landon to go in the Men's room but he refused. The food was very delish! The kids were okay. Vauna (my mother in law) made a beautiful cake so we headed back to the cabin to eat it (an Ice Cream of course). Emily kept asking where Daddy's candles were so we found some matches, put them in the cake and lit them. It was pretty funny. Emily loved singing happy birthday to her dad. We drove home to Pocatello after the cake. The kids fell asleep in the car and actually stayed asleep. I should also mention that after crying until 1am Collin slept until 9 am! First time I have had 8 straight hours of sleep since June. I was in heaven. And they did the same thing Saturday night!

Sunday Landon woke up sick. So he stayed in bed as I ventured to church with the kids all by myself. :) The kids were really good. The few times they started to act out either the woman behind us or next to us would reach over and lend a different toy to my kids. The kindness of strangers. They both told me that they had been in my shoes before and were glad to help. It made my day. I get shy when in new situations but I forced myself to go out of my way to introduce myself to people. I had a really enjoyable time at church. The rest of the day was spent laying around. I finished up a decorative family tree for my living room. I really like how it turned out, especially framed.

Landon was better by Monday and this week has been a really great week. I am so blessed. Rita and Nic have been saintly. They have helped out with everything. I'm trying to be better about calling them because I don't want to annoy them but I could not have made it through the last week without them. I am so blessed with family and friends!

Tamara and the Kids are On Their Way

So this is her sister Rita but I know people have been waiting for an update. I will let Tamara tell the whole story when she is safely at home but until then just to let you know her visa came today and as of a few minutes ago drove onto Washington soil and is on her way to Idaho. They should be here between 7 and 8 AM if there are no problems.

Visa Update

No visa in the mail this morning.

I called Senator Risch's office to talk with Rene. She promised to make some calls. I emailed the consulate asking for a tracking number. They emailed back asking for the address it was sent to. A couple of hours later I received a phone call from someone at the consulate. It seems that Tuesday they had some technical difficulties. They didn't print my visa. They printed it today. It is going in the mail today to my aunt's house in Vancouver. It should be there Thursday morning. My dad and will be in Vancouver tomorrow night. My brother in law and his father will be meeting us there. They are coming up early so they can attend a session in the Vancouver temple. Then we will pack my stuff up Thursday morning and then wait at my aunt's house until 10 am when they deliver the mail. IF all goes well we should be heading to the border around 10:30. Pocatello early Friday morning. Please keep your fingers crossed and us in your prayers.

Visa No Show

Looks like I will have to wait until after the long weekend to get my passport and visa back. They didn't show today. If it shows up Tuesday morning I will be in Idaho on Wednesday afternoon.

Hopefully I have an understanding employer since first day of school is Tuesday.