Sunday, August 12, 2018

Authenticity

Did you know I have two tattoos?  They have been apart of my life since I was 14idh, I don’t remember my exact age. I do remember the day I got them. My brother and his friend were in my sisters old room giving themselves tattoos. I wanted one! I chose a rain cloud with rain drops. Kind of like the emoji on Apple phones now. The second,a heart, it scared and the right hump of the heart didn’t take. My mom was livid when she found out.
I have gone through phases with the tattoos. First they were so cool! Who else at my age had a tattoo?   Then I went through a phase of being embarrassed of them. Especially when I became active again in my church. It use to anger me when people would point them out with, oh you have a tattoo?, what is that (pointing at my ankle), youuu haaave aaa taaattoooo?! The tones were different depending on the person. Some times the tones were shocked, surprised, rebellious, horrified, but all had a judgement attached to them. That was what was hard. Especially as someone coming back into activity in my church. I use to always make my husband sit on my left so when I crossed my legs I could tuck my right ankle behind his right calf. If he wasn’t around I never sat with my right leg crossed on top. I hated when someone I was sitting by would notice them. Usually this is how it went down, during a lesson they nudge me, point toward what I thought first was the ground and I would look, look back at them not following them, they point more clearly at the object which I would realize is my ankle with the tattoos. My heart would sink because questions would follow. Questions I didn’t feel most people were entitled to ask or deserving of knowing the answers to. I am sure my body language would communicate my discomfort. I went a large part of my twenties wanting them removed, but we didn’t have the means or services to do so. I am glad though now that I didn’t have them removed. I don’t love my tattoos, nor do I want my kids to have them. I view these markings now as what they are mistakes in my youth when I didn’t know better. I actually have a lot of those, but all the rest aren’t tattooed on my body, for which I am grateful.
These tattoos are one of my filtering systems. I filter who I give of my energy to, based on if they bring up my tattoos, their response to them, their body language. Maybe this is wrong, but at this point in my life I have learned those who have negative responses to my tattoos are not worth my energy. I have not listened before to only have trouble come and relationships not last.  Through my adulthood I have been in search of authentic people. It is more important to me now more than ever. I try to be my authentic self and be authentic in my dealings. I want the same, there is just too much let down when you discover people who are not authentic and the energy and time wasted that was put into them. I am not perfect and I don’t want perfect people in my life. I want people to feel comfortable to be whoever they are around me. Even if it isn’t the prettiest. Just be authentic!  I am a work in progress in constant progress. I try to overcome my short comings and in doing so I have a bumpy road of mess ups and having it together times trailing behind me. I need people who are okay with this and also having their perfect image not be so perfect. The freedom that comes from being authentic and being around authentic people is well, freeing. Being authentic is something constantly sought after because this world has so many forces telling me what to be, feel, and act like. Authenticity is all I want for me and those around me.

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Heart Attack

On June 8, 2014 my Grandma past away due to a heart attack.  I was woken by phone calls from my sister Allison, then my Dad both of which I didn't answer.  Then I was woken one last time from my sister Carrie.  I knew it was something serious if Carrie was calling.  She told me that Grandma had had a heart attack that as far as she knew she was still a live.  My mom was in Casper with Allison, Duran and my Dad and drove back  to Thermopolis as soon as she was called.  When she saw my Grandma she was a live and making jokes like her normal self.  She was very nauseated from what my mom believed was the medicine they were giving her.  My Grandma had a lot of stomach issues in her nineties and would usually always wake up nauseated.  My Mom didn't think it to be anything out of the ordinary.  My Grandma's heart enzymes were elevated indicating she in fact had had a heart attack. They were going to take them again in a few hours to see if they stayed the same or were lower or higher.  I knew if they were higher that it wasn't good and that she was most likely not going to make it.  I wanted to be able to say goodbye to my Grandma so I was in limbo of what I should do.  My mom made it seem like she was doing okay but just in pain.  I didn't want to make a big deal of it and rush up to Thermopolis and things turn out okay.  But I wanted to say goodbye if I needed to.  I was waiting to hear back about the results of the test.  I kept myself busy water painting with the girls.  I ended up taking a nap that day and was woken by another call from Carrie telling me Grandma stopped breathing and they were in the room working on her and that Carrie was on her way to Thermopolis.  Allison also called and told me Grandma had died, there was a moment of confusion as I was told two different things within minutes of each other.  My mom had confirmed that she had died.  We were all in hysteria over the turn of events.  My mom said that she was in a lot of pain and then all of a sudden she took one last breath like she was gasping for air and her head fell back.  My Grandma didn't want to be resuscitated.  I was heart broken that I didn't leave that morning when I got the first phone call.  I could have been there before 5pm when she past away.  I could have hugged my Grandma one more time.  Turned out that her heart enzymes were elevated and my mom hadn't called to tell me.
All of us were in shock and utter disbelief.  We could have sworn that Grandma was going to make it another year.  She was doing so well.  She had just gotten home and settled in after spending the winter in the Pioneer home.  She was going to have home health nurses come and help her.  My mom had just done all her shopping for her while she was in Casper.  My Grandma had plans to get her hair cut and curled.  The heart attack was so unexpected.  My mom was with her the entire time the week before.  Even my mom commented on how well things were going. I get it was her time but I was never going to be ready for her to be gone from this life.  She wasn't just an ordinary Grandma she was amazing.
The rest of that night as I began to pack and prepare to leave the next day.  I cried and could not believe how much I now longed to hug her one last time.  To feel her little body in my arms one last time.  I believe I cried so much that I made myself sick.  Monday I woke up feeling horrible I actually wasn't going to leave but then as I was doing Paiglee's hair I had a feeling that I needed to go and my sister Carrie told me to come anyway.  So I finished packing and loaded me and the girls up to head to Thermopolis.  Daryl couldn't come with because of work and it was his first landscaping job with the business.  It wasn't a good time for him to leave.    The girls were amazing during the three hour car trip.  I couldn't have asked them to be better.  The only time I cried on the trip was when I was driving through Wind River Canyon and went through the three tunnels.  I didn't cry when I arrived at her house.  I didn't cry when I saw my family.  Probably because I had cried so much the day before.  My eyes were finally not as swollen and my head didn't hurt.  The girls played with their cousins and we just did what we needed for he funeral.  Tuesday was the viewing and we tried to get any thing that still needed to get done for the funeral done.  I also was surprised at how well i did at the viewing.  I don't know if it was a disconnect or what for me.  But for me it was my Grandma's body but it wasn't my Grandma.  It is a weird feeling I had.  But I am glad I was able to see her although it just made my urge of wanting to hug her that much worse.  Seeing her body and not able to hug it.  i did imagine what my Grandma would say about herself.  She probably would say oh I look just terrible and shake her head in disgust as she did when she saw images of herself she didn't like.  I touched her head, it was unbelievably cold and didn't feel like a normal head.  I just touched a small part of it.  I couldn't bring myself to full out touch her.  Allison and her family finally showed up that evening.  our sleeping arrangements in my Grandma's trailer were really quite comical.  I was getting sicker, but the girls were amazing the whole time which I am so thankful for.  I just wish Daryl could have been there.  Wednesday morning was going to be the funeral and I still had to finish up my letter to Grandma that I would be reading at the funeral.  Wednesday was a good day I didn't feel emotional a little somber. Paiglee and her Cousins Tegan and Scout sang the primary song Grandmother. It was absolutely perfect. I kept it together until it was my turn to read my letter. My dad came up during to put his arm around me. I wanted to remember things in the letter that at least everyone could at least resignation with At least one thing I rembered her for. We stayed and talked to those that came to the funeral and invited all to come to the LDS church for a lunch that had been prepared for us by some of the members there in Thermopolis. It was a great meal!
My grandmothers absence has been profound there is not a day I don't think of her in some way.  After her passing I felt her near and sometimes I occasionally still do  but it is less often.  I am sure she is happy with Shirley, Grandpa, and her mother.  She had many people to welcome her.  While she is gone from this world her impact on my life and the lives of my family live on and through us i believe she lives on with us.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Lander September 2015

Before we moved I couldn't wait to get to Lander.  I was just ready for the new atmosphere and whatever it had to bring.  I knew it was going to be good for us.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that D and I have this imaginary list of things we look for in our ideal place we want to live.  Well I didn't even know how much Lander had so many of the things on our list.  When people think Lander they automatically think Reservation.  But we aren't on the reservation and that is a huge difference, so glad we aren't.  It has this outdoorsy vibe, very granolaish, salt of the earth type vibe (so refreshing).  But you also have the farming community.  The mountains are right in our backyard.  The trees are ridiculous here....there are just so many.  We have 13 trees just on our property and we had to get rid of two that were dead.  We are on just about .25 of an acre, 13 trees is a ton.  We came from no trees to 13!  They are work too!  We have this awesome terraced backyard.  I totally love it, it is a big reason we loved this house.  The sucky part is the sellers weren't gardeners and I don't think they knew what they were doing to be honest.  It looked and still looks horrible.  It is going to take a while for that to get to where we want it.  Heck it is going to take a while before our whole house to be where and how we want it.

I love it here so far and I feel super blessed to be here.  The more I find out about our surroundings and the town I love it even more.  I can deal with the small town factor, sure it gets annoying to have to go to the next town for Walmart, but we just plan and do a big bulk item run once a week.  Plus we have a really nice Safeway and their produce is pretty awesome and things actually go on sale here.  It is so quiet here, no interstate running through town or in our back yard anymore.  We commented within the first few days about not having the interstate in our back yard anymore.  I will say the birds are loud here, but i will take the bird chirping, that is normal.  I love not being attached to my neighbor and worrying if they can hear me yell or laugh or sing to my music when I clean my house.  I love the small town feel.  People in general are really nice here.  I have to get use to people just starting up a conversation with me for no other reason than to be friendly.  One of my friends I have here just started talking to me and we both joke about the look on my face when she did it.  Shock was very apparent on my face.  The pace of life here is slower, even compared to RS.  Just get use to driving 25 or 20 through the whole town.  People just help you to help.  Quick story:

I was at a playgroup and was leaving.  I tried starting my van and it wouldn't start.  It would try to turn over but it wouldn't.  Also I couldn't get one of the electric sliding doors to close.  Some how the car finally started and I got the door closed.  It was weird but I didn't think any more about it.  When I went to pick paiglee up from school it wouldn't start and the exact thing happened again.  I call D he brings me the truck because it was Tuesday and right now Tuesday's are our really busy evening days.   In between shuttling the girls to every where they need to go D and I go to O'riley and we are asking the guy who works there if he thinks it is the starter or battery.  Then a guy starts talking and D and I both are kind of taken off guard like whoa you were totally ease dropping.  Well this guy totally offered to come to our house check it out.  I had to go get Paiglee from piano and leave D with this guy.  In the back of my mind I think what if he is a psycho and kills D while I am not there (cause you know I came from a huge town like RS).  But he isn't, turns out he is just a nice guy.  We get the van started and we take it to O'Riley to test the battery.  We needed a new one and the guy that helped us was there he exchanges numbers with D and tells him if we have any more problems just call. WHAT!? Who does that!  We both commented on how that would never happen in RS unless you knew the guy and were best friends with them.So my point is people are freaking nice here.

I love that people are more the way I grew up.  No helicopter parenting!  People just drop their kids off and leave during practices and then come get them when done!  No hanging around the schools they don't let parents in to eat lunch with kids for the first week.  I have to be honest I love it.  In RS I always felt obligated to stay at practices cause other parents did.  You don't want to be that parent.  I hated extra activities for that one reason.  First day of school parents didn't hang around and walk their kids in the building.  It was crazy! I loved it!  I always thought it was weird in RS that everyone did that.  I never considered myself a helicopter parent then we moved here and I am the last one dropping my kid off sitting there watching her.  Other parents drop and go.  Part of mine though is Paiglee being new to a school.  But at those moments I came to terms with, holy crap I am a helicopter parent.  I am so glad it is this way here, it will instill some independence in my clingy child.  In RS we were having problems with her thinking she would be left or forgotten.  We haven't had any of those problems here which I am totally surprised with and thankful for.

I will tell you the biggest thing D and I have noticed here.  There is no socioeconomic status mumbo jumbo crap here.  Can I scream it from the roof tops, that I love it!!!  I don't know why it is different here no clue but it is so much better.  That was one of the biggest reasons we hated RS.  The keeping up with the Jones's crap was bad.  The well to dos hung with the well to dos.  The not well to dos hung with the not well to dos.  There was little cross over, people could argue this with me but I lived there long enough to see it experience it and hate it.  Don't get me wrong I made great friends and love a lot of people there but guess what they are the good eggs that we found in it all, some might even agree with me.  My point in case when someone tells me oh you should move over where I am so I can hangout with you more.  WHAT?! How is the mile between us so gapping huge that I would have to move to have a better social life.  I hate that you can't just be a friend or like someone because of them.  That some how where they live and what they do for a living factors into that equation.  That kind of atmosphere wears on the soul, that would be a huge part of why I kept to myself and had a small group of good friends.  But there is a lot of money there so I guess, why should I be surprised?  I am just glad I don't have to live in it anymore and that it is one of the drastic differences we have noticed here and we feel it and I am so thankful for it.

I had many silent pleadings to the Lord that whenever, wherever we ended up that it would be what we needed.  The Lord knew we were not thriving in RS anymore and I feel so blessed that he knew what we needed and that he sent us there.  We didn't fit into RS we are the odd ducks out I guess and it caused me to not want to invest any of my valuable time into people who didn't actually give a damn.  Who wouldn't actually be a real friend or bring value to my life.

I am just thankful to be here and so is Daryl, the hard stuff we had to endure to get here makes it even more enjoyable.










Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Leaving Rock Springs

I will be honest, as much as we wanted out of Rock Springs, I also had become comfortable there.  I can't speak for D he never was.  He loved his job and that was about all he loved there.  Paiglee had her friends and loved her activity day leaders.  She was finally going to get the teacher I have been wanting her to have.  It was just familiar and I like familiar.  I wasn't sure if I was going to miss Rock Springs.  To be honest I was just glad we were finally leaving.  We have struggled really bad the last two years with finding happiness there.  Don't get me wrong we were happy with our life but the place we were living was really wearing on us.  If that makes any sense.  But I didn't have a lot of time to think about these things because moving was so stressful and I thought I just needed to get there then all would be okay, stress would be alleviated.  Not the case!

The morning of moving, saying goodbye to the place we have called home for the last seven years.  I already knew I was going to miss my house and certain things about it.




The girls were troopers through it all and dealt with things so well.  I tried so hard to keep my crap together for them.  We were on the road to a new place!



I knew I wasn't going to be walking into a home that was as clean as mine in RS.  My realtor in RS already told me I wouldn't get a house as clean as mine.  I guess it is uncommon for people to be clean?!  I had planned on cleaning a lot but little did I know how much I really would be cleaning.  I just wasn't prepared for what I walked into.

I did the final walk through when we pulled into Lander.  The owners were out weeks before and they had a contractor doing some of the negotiated repairs during those weeks.  Also my contractor had been in to scrap the popcorn ceilings off.  But I walked into that house and it didn't smell like I remembered.  Plus my contractor had left more of a mess than I would have liked.

Here is a list of everything that went wrong:
-moneys negotiated to be exchanged were not exchanged
-the swamp cooler wasn't working
-the down stairs toilet wasn't functional
-the whole entire house was disgusting
-the kitchen was the worst of it
-my brand new refrigerator got dented and scratched really bad
-the foundation had a crack that was discovered
-the bugs and spiders are out of control here

I think that might be it.  When I say the house was dirty I really mean dirty.  There was a greasy film on every wall and the kitchen was so bad.  It took three days for my mom and I to get the kitchen really clean.  Then it still needed some touch up done.  But we washed every single cupboard inside and out.  Every crack was scrapped and cleaned.  My mom spent one whole day on the oven while I worked on cupboards.  It was not just a wipe down of them either it was taking a sponge that wouldn't scratch them and scrubbing.  The grease was compounded by the fact that they had a cat and the cat hair was everywhere sticking to the grease.  It was in every crack!  I literally don't think they ever cleaned.  I didn't look hard enough at the kitchen when we first saw it.  But guess what it wouldn't have changed anything because it is still one of the better homes on the market at the time and I even kept looking at houses after we put an offer on this one and nothing compared.  I am so glad that we bought a fridge, theirs was so nasty.  The oven needs to be replaced and probably could have been if we didn't have to do unexpected construction.

My parents were only going to stay until Sunday.  We moved on Friday and they could only stay until Sunday.  Well Sunday morning Daryl discovered a big crack that you could see through in the foundation.  I was appalled, I was mad because they should have disclosed it and they didn't.  I talked to the realtor and she said they didn't have to unless it was structural and it wasn't.  But how in the world do you in good conscience sell a house like that and how did my inspector not make note of it. A lot of shady things went down with them and I still have yet to look into them all.  I will at some point, not now.  So my parents made plans to come back after my mom's appointment on Monday and get all the stuff needed to fix the downstairs room properly.  I had to get on my contractor to do his job in a timely manner.  It was just a hot mess and I kept my cool through it.  That in itself is a miracle.  The whole situation taught me a lot.  But I am so glad that first week is over.  I looked back from the second week and it felt like a life time had passed that first week.  I couldn't believe we had done so much in so little of time.  But once again through all the things that went wrong there were many heavenly mercies that I saw.  I cried once I think that Sunday and it was the two previous days finally catching up to me, and it felt like almost a panic attack.  I was so mad at the sellers and my realtor.  I felt blind sided in so many ways and the Sunday morning I finally had a moment to absorb some of it and it came out in tears.  I was trying to hold it together because the girls were pretty mortified by the house as well.  I didn't want them to hate the house we were suppose to be excited for.  Emery wanted to go home the first day.  She told me she hated this house.  But I knew once I cleaned it she would change.  I made that kitchen spotless and with the cleaning the smell began to go away.

I don't want to go back to that week or two ever.  They were really not fun, so stressful.  I still have so some cleaning to do to make this home feel clean enough for me and up to my standard.  But a ton is behind me and that is all that matters.  I am so proud of myself for keeping my cool like I did.  even Daryl was shocked and I kind of was too when I look back on it.  But it really taught me about myself.  I know for a fact though that if my parents weren't here helping me during that first week and a half I wouldn't have handled it so well, probably.  They really helped and dug in and cleaned and repaired.  I was afraid it was going to kill my dad he was working so hard.  I stopped several times just to hug my mom and thank her for helping.  I thought about taking pictures for before and after but you can't see the film of grease on everything you just had to see it in person.  I still need to scrub my ceiling in the kitchen and repaint it.  There is so much that needs to be done to this house, that we have planned.  But for now until we can recover it is good we will continue to paint and clean.  I swear it took three deep cleanings of the bathroom to get it really good.  Each time grim came off and it made me curse the sellers.  I actually hate the sellers and have hard feelings toward them.  So much so that I hate my room because I know that is where they slept and for some reason it makes me mad.  Plus with the headache they gave us before we even moved in just to get the house then the nastiness of it, it just compounded to..... I can't stand those people.  People I have never met in my life.  I don't understand uncleanliness, I never will.

Before we moved we had tossed the idea of getting a hypoallergenic dog.  Well with me having to clean all the cat hair up I told Daryl it is out of the question.  Also the linen closet in the hall had a horrible smell to it.  My mom scrubbed it from ceiling to floor and it still smelled.  I put my stuff in there anyway thinking it will air out and I put dryer sheets in there.  It didn't work it made my towels and everything smell like it.  Daryl said it was the smell of a litter box or kitty litter.  Once he said that I knew he was right.  So finally this week I painted it with KILZ and it is gone.  Hurray!  The downstairs toilet is almost fixed too.  Also did I mention the sellers also did the worst paint job ever.  Even if I liked their colors I need to repaint to cover up their bad job.  In the bathroom I noticed they painted over hair.  I mean why couldn't they wash the wall, then paint.  It kills me the laziness of the sellers.

But I love my house now and there is a lot of improvements we want to do but they will come with time.  The house is livable and breathable now.  I do a little something new each week and up keep on the rest.  We love this house and the uniqueness of it.  Also we love the yard as well.  So once it was cleaned I was reminded why we did choose this house, there is so much potential and character to it.

My fridge, it happened the first day while they were trying to get it in.  Daryl was sure it would send me over the edge, but it didn't.  I just said it is okay we can replace the door.  We haven't replaced the door but we will eventually, but once again we need to breath.





The first night we didn't have the swamp cooler and it was so hot so Daryl and I slept on the couch with fans blowing on us.  This night I was exhausted but I was the last one up and I really missed my house.  It killed me to know I gave a really clean house to a guy who was probably sleeping soundly and I was in a pig sty and miserable missing my house wide awake.   Funny tidbit in RS in our living room window we had a view of the hospital there and here in Lander we too have a view of the hospital on a hill from our living room window.  Those are the lights you see in the window and part are from the airport as well.





Leading up to the move

We came back to RS rearing to go.  We tried to sell our home without a realtor for about a week and then realized we needed a realtor.  We learned that they are able to shuffle out the not serious buyers from the serious buyers.  Plus they just give your home more exposure than we ever could.  We looked into three realtors and decided to go with Paula Doody for one reason really her no BS attitude.  She was worth every single penny.  We absolutely loved her,  she helped us beyond what was required of her.

We came to Lander one weekend to look at houses and luckily I was already looking online and had a list of what I wanted to look at.  I thought I found the house I wanted online and was ready to make and offer without walking through it.  But Daryl and Paula strongly disagreed with that.  Good thing too, it was the biggest dud.  We walked in and smelt the place and looked at each other.  We hated it, and I am so glad we didn't listen to me, not like that was even going to happen.

The day of looking at houses was becoming quite the downer, the houses here are old and smell funny and not well up kept.  I was grossed out and just discouraged.  We looked at the place we finally ended up buying and it was the best we saw all day.  We loved the yard and it had some upgrades and didn't smell as funny when compared to the other houses.  We also wanted to stay within our current house payment/price range.  We didn't want to go to the max of our price range and be house poor.  Also their aren't new housing divisions going up like in Rock Springs.  If a new house is being built it is already called for.  The economy is different here than Rock Springs.  So we made and offer on this place and followed the great advice of Paula.  When they countered our offer we should have known then that it was going to be a roller coaster with these sellers.  But they finally accepted our offer and they had another offer on the table but we were the better offer.

We had a lot of struggles with the realtor here in Lander and the sellers.  I actually would never recommend the realtor here.  Our lender (who is also amazing by the way)had to do part of her job for her, he felt our pain having to deal with her.  I rarely talked to my Rock Springs Realtor and from the moment I put an offer on the Lander house I was texting or calling the Lander realtor daily up until the week we closed.  It was awful and so stressful.  The sellers acted like we were trying to take them to the wood shed, when we were just trying to be as fair to both parties as possible.  It was a huge learning experience and I actually dealt with it pretty well.  I did have to call my mom several times just to vent and yell.

Daryl had to commute two weeks from Rock Spring to Lander everyday because his job started before we could close on both homes.  That also added to the stress of packing and selling a home and buying a new one.  I remember there being a time in July where it seemed like we were never going to move and the days moved so slow.  I was in a limbo I couldn't pack because our RS realtor said that just incase our buyer fell through we need to keep it in normal order as long as possible.  So I felt like I was a sitting duck waiting for something.  Then when D was commuting it was hard things began to get super hard ten fold.  Our van's a/c broke in it and no one could get us in, in Lander or Rock Springs.  So he had to commute for two weeks without a/c.  Plus I was really behind with the packing.  Luckily my parents came to help and really helped to get us packed and moved.

Our Bishop in RS let us borrow his moving truck and that a lone saved us a boat load of money.  I am so grateful for that.  We had a few friends come to help us load the heavy things we really needed help with.  I was a little disappointed to be honest though.  In the seven years we lived in RS Daryl had helped many, many people move in and out of the ward and even non-members.  We didn't get the help like we had hoped for in return.  I guess my thought was oh you have helped and now it is our turn to dip into that and get some help.  It made me feel glad to be moving.  But my parents were our saving grace and really helped a ton.  We wouldn't have been able to do it with out them.

This moving experience compared to when we moved to Rock Springs was much more stressful.  But through it all I could probably name as many blessing through it all as I could stressful events.

Looking for New Horizons

I can't believe we are moved and settled for the most part.  It has been a whirl wind and a roller coaster this summer.  Actually our summer kind of sucked because of moving.  But we are here and happy now.

Daryl and I knew it was time to move.  D's loan repayment was going to be up in June and we began to look in March when most districts post jobs.  He applied to many places.  We have this imaginary list of things we want in the place we would like to live.  So we tried applying in places that met some of those requirements.  We even applied in IA and the rest was in WY.  It is hard to leave Wyoming as an educator because they pay amazingly well.  But there are not a ton if any of the places that meet our imaginary lists requirements.  But we tried to pick the best places we thought would be nice to live.  We just knew it was time to get out of Rock Springs.

We didn't get any bites and the only serious interest he got was in Rock Springs and they went with someone out of State.  It was a blow to us we had stopped looking at that point and when he didn't get it he started looking again.  He found this Lander one but of course me not wanting to live in a tinier place wasn't excited.  He waited a long time, in fact the night before the job listing closed he submitted his resume'.  The next morning while at church Daryl got a call for an interview.  We couldn't believe it.  Either no one had applied or D's resume was what they were looking for or the job wasn't a great one since it was open so late in the hiring season.

We made a little trip out of it and went up as a family.  Daryl wanted to make sure that I liked the town.  I had only ever been on one side and it was in the winter/spring time.  This was late spring andI couldn't believe how green it was.  I didn't remember the mountains being so beautiful.  I didn't want to think about this place as our home, I didn't want to jinx any thing and I wasn't sure if I was really ready to move.  I had kind of come to the sad reality of Rock Springs being our home, even with us not being happy with it.  Plus no one and really bitten on us so I felt it was a hope in the wind.  

Daryl had the early interview and he said the guy after him had experience and when he found that out he felt like it was a no go.  He lost out to someone with experience in RS a place they knew D and how amazing he is.  Lander didn't know him and so we felt it was now a long shot.  I do remember while D was in his interview I had taken the girls to a school here and let them play.  I was swinging on a swing and looking at the gorgeous green mountain view and I felt peace.  I felt like this was going to be the place but I didn't want to acknowledge it, in fear of it not happening and fear that is was just my hopefulness talking to me.

Daryl was done and we hung around to eat and go to another school to talk about how his interview went.  He said it went well as good as it could have gone but he mentioned the guy after him.  We were just anxious at this point to know whether we would be picking up our life to move or staying put and putting our big girl pants on to keep trekking along in RS.  We decided to get on the road to Rock Springs and the drive literally has no service shortly after leaving Lander until you get to Farson and Hour and 15 min away.  We were just anxious talking about how we thought we might hear either way as to whether we got the job or not.

Then in a small stitch of service Daryl sees he has a missed call and voicemail.  Daryl checked it and it was them asking for D to call them back.  We then spent a good amount of time looking for service to call back.  D said after that he knew it was good.  When I think of us driving around on hills trying to get service along the way to Farson I laugh it was so comical.  D finally was able to call back and talked to the Principal and he got the job.  We were so excited!  We began to call all of the people close to us and tell them.  Paiglee was excited but I know she was scared.  Emery didn't get what moving really meant.  D's old Pincipal found out he got the job before us really, because when he called to talk to her she said that the other principal had just called and talked to her.  We were more in disbelief that we would actually be moving.  Something I think D and I thought wouldn't happen yet.
 

Fall Activities

While I have tons of catch up to do on this blog, I have to start posting the current things going on in our life.

We are moved and about as settled in as we are going to get right now.  We really love it here and love our home.  The girls have adjusted really well and I couldn't ask for more.  I knew part of their success was in getting them active and involved as soon as I could.  

Paiglee has been asking us since last school year to play soccer and so we got her signed up as soon as we could and luckily Lander doesn't do their registration as early as RS does.  I found a lady in our ward to do piano lessons for us.  Then Paiglee also has activity days as well.  She is busy when she has all three in one week.  Paiglee is doing awesome with soccer, I was impressed with how much skill she had kept, with not really using it for a few years.  

Paiglee tells me daily how much she loves soccer.  There are two older girls on her team and she looks up to them a lot. She told me she wants to be good like them so badly.  I told her she would if she sticks with soccer, tries hard, and practices.  She wants to do good and asks "mom did I do good"?  Of course she does, and she has improved even with the three weeks she has been playing.  She also has matured a lot since the last time she played in 1st grade. She use to never go for the ball and she would dance and hop around the crowd of kids that were around the ball.  Now she gets in there and she controls the ball better.  I am excited for her, and her new love of soccer.

The beautiful Wind River Mountains are one of my favorite things about living here.  The pictures don't even do them justice.  I constantly say how pretty they are and how much I love the mountains.  


Emery has some activities as well.  I signed her up for gymnastics two days a week, and I was able to get her into Tiger Tots here two days a week.  She loves Tigers Tots and barely has time to hang up her coat an back pack before she runs in to her classroom.  She barely has time to say goodbye to me as well, and never looks back.  She feels big and loves to talk about "her" school.  

Gymnastics has been good she cracks me up watching her try and learn these skills her teacher is teaching them.  Watching her try to move her body they way she is told to makes me giggle.  She is such a social butterfly and is not afraid to talk to the kids.  She is so fun to watch.  I haven't been able to get picture of Emery at gymnastics because her teacher likes parents to go but next time I pick her up a few minutes early I need to remember to pull out my phone and snap a few pictures.