New Calling

I got a new calling yesterday.  I sort of knew it was coming.  When our neighbor the bishopric member came over and asked if he could give me a new calling I knew what is was going to be.  I taught a CTR class as a sub a few weeks ago.  They were waiting for the new teacher to be called.  Apparently they said no because my new calling...team teaching that same CTR 4 class with Dr. J.  The class is actually pretty nice...considering the age ;). I am in need of an attitude adjustment though.  Right now I'm pretty bummed.  It isn't that I mind primary.  I actually enjoy it, but primary is pretty much a death sentence when if comes to meeting people and after only making it to two relief society meetings in this ward I would really like to meet people.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy we moved.  We are so much closer to family, the job is great, I can't look at my bank account and not smile but I am lonely. Really lonely. I had amazing friends in Indiana, church friends, gym friends, neighborhood friends, and my mops friends who honestly were like my family away from family. It is hard to replace that kind of companionship, and being shipped off to primary this early in the game just makes it a lot harder.

Jordan Reunion

Nine years ago Dr J and I spent a summer in Jordan.  Nine years people...Captain E was two, I was pregnant with Gigi, and that was the summer I started to blog.  How have I been doing this nine years and am not rich and famous :)  Back on track though that summer I was a tag along wife along with a whole slew of tag along wives. Three of us started blogs that summer and via blogs and Facebook have done a fairly good job of staying in contact.

Nancy and I were actually roommate along with our husbands and E those two months and are now living parallel lives. Well there was that two year period where she went to Egypt but besides that we are pretty much on track. We support our husbands who are forever in school with odd jobs and paper help and pretty much keeping up the home front while they study away. We occasionally get to travel. We are both Democrats...well I'm a democrat and she is a Canadian so that is pretty much the same thing ;). We both had preemies. We both do the stay at home mom thing. Sometimes when I'm having a really bad day or something ridiculous happened church wise or politically or I'm just bored because my husband is never home I will text her. She is pretty much always awake...except in the morning and I never sleep so we make a good pair. When I found out I was pregnant with my fifth she was the first person I paranoid texted. When I had a miscarriage two months later she was again the first person I texted. We've seen each other a handful of times in nine years. Our parents live in Utah and for awhile her husband was in school there and so occasionally we'd have a play date. Her family also knows me via the blog fairly well, in fact it was her mother in law who first told her when Cheetah was born premature and it was her mom and sister who teasingly said last November when I came out to see my family that they felt like we should get together.

Last month we not so teasingly finally did get together. Nancy and her kids were in town and Myrna planned a family reunion that she also kindly invited all of Nancy's friends to attend. We took the opportunity to stop by and say hi. It was great to see how much all the kids had grown. I got to hold her youngest Zoe for a bit...until she pooped and then I handed her back over to mom. I also got to meet finally almost all her siblings. The one of note is Josie because she is funny and cute and like a younger cooler versions of us. She has totally great stories about the Young Ambassadors and I'm totally bummed I didn't get to hear more because of family pics. Also we got to see Andrew and he a J immediately started in on poly sci and stats talk....of course. Myrna was also very nice. It was sort of funny though because she said I didn't sound anything like she'd imagine I'd sound. I still wish I knew what she thinks my voice should sound like :)

My second Jordan reunion of the year was with Bridget. Bridget is the slightly cooler more accomplished version of us. Nancy does it bug you that I said that or do you think that is fairly accurate? Ok, Nancy is cooler than me but i'm going to lump her with me to make myself feel better. Bridget's and my husband were actually roomates and got the same undergrad degree. Her husband finished school earlier then ours did and she just finished five years in the UAE. They just moved to Finland where they will be switching things up a bit and Bridget will take on a full time job teaching while Jeremy takes on the family responsibility because see while they were in the UAE and she was being a mom and was pregnant and had a new baby she completed a masters degree. So her part time job was actually teaching and she has great stories about princesses who take bubble baths everyday and woman who sew pillows as teacher appreciation gifts. She also does things like vacation in Thailand, run relays, keep a pregnancy a secret seven month so she can have the best surprise trip home ever, and oh yeah she got another part time job (if you can even call it that because it seemed like full time work) accompanying masters voice students and choirs the last two years. I'd probably totally hate her except she is so hard working and deserving.

I have not seen Bridget at all in nine years. Our parents don't live in the same places, she's spent a lot of time overseas, and when she did live here we lived on opposites sides of the country. We keep current on each others lives via blogs and Facebook. But this summer something weird happened...during the middle of her month long trip home I happened to move into a two between her and her husband's parents hometowns, so a week after I moved in she just happened to be driving by and stopped to have dinner at my house before they moved on. I was happy to see them, to be able to offer them a place to pee and eat and to get the skinny on a question I'd been dying to ask but they'd seemed to avoid clarifying on the blog.

It was fun to have my little mini reunions with my Jordan friends. I had no way of knowing nine years ago when I took that trip that I would be making friends I  would want to stay in contact with for the rest of my life. It was good to see you ladies!

So I Haven't Blogged In More Than a Month

 People who were paying attention would know that is because my family just underwent a monumental move for us.  We didn't have to sell everything we owed and move to another continent (you know who you are friend) but we did have to pack everything we own and move across country.  After 12 years of living in the midwest (8 years in Urbana, Illinois and 4 years in Indianapolis, Indiana) we finally had the opportunity to move back to the west.  We now live in Idaho.  Our third I state in a row although I'm fairly confident this will be our last.  Idaho was an ideal location for us.  It borders Utah the state that our parents and most of our siblings live in.  It also is a stopping point for my sister who lives in Washington and is much closer to my brother who lives in California, and more importantly it is in the west again.  Coming west again for me was like coming back home.  I've never lived in Idaho before but the mountains, the tumble weeds, the dry heat, the farming, the irrigation, these are things that are deeply ingrained into the background of all my childhood memories.  All of them.  With the exception of a short respite in Kansas as a child I spent almost all my life before moving to Urbana at the age of 22 either in Arizona or Utah.  The west is part of who I am and to return to it after all these years, well it just feels good.  It also is amazing to live so much closer to family.  I've lived here a month and I've already been out to see my sister.  She's coming this week and then I'm planning on heading down to see our parents next week.  This never used to happen when we lived in the midwest.  Every trip was at least two days of driving or almost 2000 dollars between plane tickets and parking fees. 

The job here is also awesome.  We moved to Idaho because Dr. J had finished his residency.  When we were looking for jobs our one requirement was closer to home and so every med/ped job in the west we would scout out.  There were a couple that looked interesting enough to apply to and they were all interested in J enough to want to interview him but when then job came up I insisted J call them right away.  It seemed perfect for what he wanted to do.  So far it has not been a disappointment.  It is what he wanted to be doing and almost more importantly everyone he works with is just super nice.  The perks at the hospital are great.  The money is great.  His boss is awesome.  His NP is a hoot and her husband is an excellent cook.  We are very happy to be here and unless something changes drastically are glad to make Idaho our forever home.   

 This was at a work meeting at J's boss's house.  He lives on 60+ acres and has a small family farm.  They had their meeting and then family was invited for a BBQ.  The kids loved being on all this farm land and one of the highlights of the night was when Richard (this is the boss) brought out tons of gravel for the kids to look through...gravel containing uncut sapphires.  My kids now think he is the coolest things since Grandma Sycamore Bread.  He also happens to have an oil saw...so you know all those uncut geodes and fire eggs we have.  Soon enough they will be cut! 

 First day in our rental house.  Love the set up, love the location, not loving the olive green color or the fact that the yard is sort of a disaster.  The first indication of this was the plums that are everywhere.  I don't know if you guys know this about me but I always thought I wanted fruit trees at my house.  Now I'm not so sure.  These plums were everywhere and every day I'd make the kids go out and pick up plums with me.  It was a daunting task and honestly there were just way too many to ever eat and I had zero interest in plum jelly or especially in making plum jelly right after I moved into my house.  No thank you.  This particular day I'd combined three of our grocery sacks into a white garbage bag and then into a heavy black one.  Imagine my surprise when the two garbage bags broke and plums went everywhere.  It looked like I had murdered someone and I may have screamed my dismay a little.  Luckily I was able to get them all cleaned up again.  This has prompted me though to get some professional help on the rest of the yard.  Everything is so overgrown and the lawn is full of thistles.  After three weeks of trying to battle it on my own I finally called a professional.