Pumpkin Pie

A couple weeks after Halloween, our downstairs neighbors, the Ortons, had a few uncarved pumpkins still and invited us to come make pumpkin pie with them. Pumpkin pie is my most favorite, and I've never had actually made from pumpkins pumpkin pie. I was stoked.

I think Rebeckah had made it once before, and she had the recipe, so we just did what she told us to do. :) We did a batch with one pumpkin, and the Ortons did a batch with another. It was actually way easier to make than I'd expected. The hardest part was probably peeling the pumpkins. We had a lot of fun making the pies, and even got to watch a movie while they baked! We like to hang out with the Ortons. Not only because of this...just in general.

We each made a pie that night, and we were sent home with a huge bowl of pumpkin filling. (I later attempted to make our filling into cookies, which I ended up having to bake as a cake. Sad. I've never been successful at pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The rest we froze, and it became our pie on Thanksgiving!)

This was the most delicious pumpkin pie I've ever had!! I think I should do it every year. It was totally worth the time and effort.

Me with our beautiful pie.

Joshua cutting our pie so we could taste the yumminess.

I got a job!!

My first real job after graduation! I always want to say it's my first real job, but then I remember that my job at the credit union was a really good one too. This one just actually requires my degree!

I'm always jealous of those people who are kind of just handed jobs. I wonder how they get so lucky. Now I can say I'm that lucky too! The timing was perfect, and they seemed eager to hire me. This job really is a blessing for us.

So the week before I finished my internship at Head Start one of the afternoon teachers wasn't at work. I never really talked to the afternoon teachers much, and hadn't heard anything, so it took me a couple days to realize she wasn't working there anymore. I think it was a pretty sudden thing. After talking with one of the other teachers, she told me she thought they were looking to hire and really encouraged me to ask about it. I was a little nervous and waited until Friday to ask Rose, the manager, about the job. She seemed to get really excited, and said she'd had no idea I was even available. She asked if I could fill out an application and bring it back to her that day so she could send it in. They were needing to hire an assistant teacher as soon as possible. They were already planning on doing interviews for it Monday, and if I got it to her that day I might be able to get in for an interview the next week as well. Of course I jumped at the chance.

Monday was supposed to be the last day of my internship, and Rose came into the classroom to ask if I could go to Idaho Falls for an interview that afternoon. That worked for me, and was probably good because then I didn't have too much time to get nervous. When I walked into the room for my interview, there were 4 people there to interview me! That was a little bit nerve-wracking. Rose was there though, and I was pretty sure she wanted me to get the job, so it wasn't so bad. They went around the table asking me questions, each of them writing down my response to each question. Yikes. Somehow I felt comfortable and pretty confident about how my interview went.

In quadruple-checking my time logs (okay, so I don't really know how many times I'd done the math, but it was a ton) I discovered that I might need a couple more hours to fulfill my internship requirements, and to be on the safe side I went in on Tuesday as well. Rose told me how impressed they'd been with my interview, and I was feeling pretty good about it. When I was done for the day Rose hinted to me that she'd heard through the grapevine that I should be getting a call and a job offer. I was supposed to let her know if I heard from them that day. I anxiously carried my phone with me everywhere on Tuesday. No phone call. I told myself that was alright and maybe they'd call on Wednesday. After all, she'd originally told me I should hear on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I think I jumped every time my phone made a noise on Wednesday. Again, I carried it everywhere with me. The morning went by without a phone call. I started to worry. In the afternoon one of my references text me to let me know she'd just gotten a call from them, and she told them all sorts of wonderful things about me. I breathed a little easier knowing this. At least they were interested in me enough to call my references. But still no phone call.

On Thursday I didn't want to spend another day worrying and carrying my phone around. Instead I pretty much just convinced myself I didn't have the job. I hadn't heard from them yet. Maybe Rose had heard incorrectly. Maybe they'd been interested, but then decided to hire someone else. I was feeling kinda blue, but figured if I didn't have the job, they would still have to call me soon. I thought it would be easier to be happy about getting the job than disappointed about not getting it if that was the case. No phone call on Thursday.

Friday morning....they called me! And offered me the job!! I was ecstatic! I was also relieved. Friday afternoon I went in to the Head Start here to pick up some papers they'd faxed for me to fill out. Turns out everybody in the office had known since Tuesday that they were going to hire me. I was the only one who didn't know. I have no idea why they didn't call to offer me the job sooner if they'd made up their minds, but I'm just glad they did decide to hire me.

Since the next week was Thanksgiving (and I was hoping to get this job) I'd already requested most of it off from WW. I stopped by on Friday to talk to the person who does the scheduling. I was checking to make sure it would be fine to submit my two week notice, but just request all of that time off. I got it even better than that though! Since I talked to him about it, and he hadn't done the schedule for the next week yet, he told me Saturday (the next day) could be my last! He had me fill out a thing still, but I just put that Saturday's date and it counted as my two week notice!

I was supposed to start at Head Start the following Monday. Until I was leaving for work I had no idea it had snowed all night. I got to work, and there was only one car in the parking lot. I figured that meant there was no school for some reason, but went in to see who was there and find out. Rose let me know public schools had been canceled due to a blizzard warning so we got a paid day off as well. Sweet! I didn't mind one bit that I got to go home and curl up to read all day. Rose had let me know how to find out about the school cancellations, so before I even went to bed I knew that I had no work on Tuesday either! Wednesday we weren't scheduled to have school. Thursday and Friday were paid holiday days for Thanksgiving. Not bad...my first week of work and I got paid to not work for 4 days!!

Joshua told me I should write all of this down, as well as all of the reasons I think this job is so fabulous. Then if I come home hating work one day I can reread it and be reminded of how blessed I am. So here's my list of reasons why this is an excellent job:

• I get to quit working at WW!! I'd considered the possibility of just having 2 part-time jobs.
• I'll make enough money to pay our bills! Plus a little bit to save. Maybe.
• I'll work regular full-time hours - 8:30-4:30 Monday through Friday. Weekends off! Paid holidays. (We follow the same schedule as the public school district.)
• It's only 8 hours a day. I don't even have to take a lunch break because they feed us lunch and a snack during class!
  
• I'll be fed lots of delicious food because Rhonda is an awesome cook. And it's healthy food so I'll have a balanced diet for once. :)
  
• I get insurance benefits.
• I'm actually using my degree and for the first time getting experience in that field.
• Unlike some preschools, I don't have to write my own lessons. That's a huge plus for me. We have a set curriculum, and I like it a lot.
• I'm super excited to work with Connie!! (She's my lead teacher.) She seems cool and really nice. I think we'll get along.
• I get to work with kids! They're cute kids. I get to play with them!! (Playtime is always my favorite part of the day.) Maybe I'll be a better mother after having this experience.
  

Tribute to WW

November 20th was my last day working at probably the most miserable place I will ever be employed! I may not have ever had to work fast food, but I've spent 18 months of my life doing phone surveys. Since I haven't worked fast food I can't truly compare them, but I can't imagine ever wanting to do either for very long.

I first worked there during the fall semester of 2008. I loathed it. Yet somehow I was enticed there again. There is something to be said for weekly paychecks and flexible hours; 4 hour shifts and a minimum of only 12 hours a week; knowing that you can request as many days off as you want, as long as you request it the week before; showing up to work in your pajamas (for the record, I never did that, but I could have); and working on homework between calls. Sounds pretty decent, huh?

It might sound good, but that's before you think about the constant rejection; supervisors who often seem to forget that you cannot possibly control how many people answer the phone, how many people who answer the phone will qualify for your survey, or how many of them are willing to complete your ridiculously long survey if they do answer and qualify; trying to do homework...you just barely find your spot to start reading again before somebody else answers the phone; and political surveys. Who likes to do political surveys? I wouldn't like to answer the questions those people tried asking me. Quite frankly, it's nobody's business. But I got paid to do them, so I asked the questions.

Anyway, I desperately needed a job in the fall of 2009 so I gave WW a call. I remembered what to do so all I had to do was show up for work the first week of the semester! It really was a lucky thing for us. Joshua started working there as well. I didn't loathe it entirely like I had before, but let's just say it was never going to be my favorite place to work. It might be safe to say Joshua despised it. For me, it was the thought of going to work and actually getting there that was terrible. Once I got there it wasn't so bad. Plus, I got to sit by Joshua while we worked on Saturdays!! (That was the only day we worked the same shift because of our class schedules.)

Joshua quit during the winter semester of 2010, and I continued to brave WW alone. They did move to a new location. That made it considerably more pleasant. The got some new computers, chairs, headsets, and there were more than two bathrooms! In the old building I must have always had to go to the bathroom at the same time as everybody else. The line seemed to fill the whole little break room. Now there are 4 bathrooms! There are still long lines sometimes, but they don't even compare to what they were like before.

I'm a miserable dialer. I rarely got pr (the number of surveys we were supposed to get per hour). It didn't even matter what survey I was on. However, my quality was awesome so I normally dialed on the best surveys anyway. I always tried to get pr. I'd even put away my homework and word searches sometimes in hopes of being more focused and getting more surveys. That never seemed to help anything. I'd just get bored, so I'd pull them out again before too long.

Basically I was never good at the job. They paid me better than most jobs I could get in Rexburg (which still isn't saying much), so I kept going to work. There's one thing I'm proud of about my time at WW - I had time to finish a word search book I'd had at least since I was 8! (I know I'd had it that long because there was one word search completed in crayon with Kelli's name and a date by it.) Yeah, I'm a pack rat. But I was able to throw it away after coming home and showing it to Joshua. I also finished a couple of word fill-in books. Time well spent.

I was a little bit sad as I turned in my 2-week notice. I'm not sure why. I'm very happy to be moving on to better things, and a better paying job. Somehow I grew to be a little attached to the place though. The supervisors were cool people and I enjoyed chatting with them. There was some camaraderie in knowing that our lives all sucked a little as we worked at good ole WW.

Fall Semester

Anybody who's ever talked to me about it knows that I've spent the last couple years being very anti-preschool. It bothered me when people assumed I was getting a Child Development degree to teach preschool. Teaching preschool was the last thing I ever wanted to do. That didn't really help me with finding an internship in Rexburg though. I knew I didn't want to do preschool, but wasn't really sure what else I could do. Brother McCoy gave me some options, and I honestly wasn't excited about any of them. After much indecisiveness, procrastination, and people trying to convince me I might end up enjoying preschool, I gave the local Head Start a call. They were more than happy to take on an intern.

Fall semester for me has consisted of going to my internship from 7:45-11:45 Monday-Thursday, as well as 2 hours on Fridays. I spend my time helping in the classroom. Classes are Monday-Thursday, and Friday is for cleaning and preparation for the next week. I've grown to really love the kids and enjoy my time there. The only teaching I do is closing circle twice a week, which I think contributes to me liking it so much more than I ever thought I could like preschool. It hasn't been nearly as stressful as I know the campus preschools are for people doing their practicums there.

The rest of my time is spent working part-time and reading. Life is good. I really enjoy having the time to actually be at home. Our laundry gets done (including being put away!!) every week, and sometimes I even make real food for dinner!

Joshua is off-track in the fall. He's taking one night class which doesn't take up a lot of time. The teacher Joshua was a teaching assistant for last semester, Brother Merrill, asked him to T.A. again. Since Joshua is off-track, Brother Merrill had to get an exception for Joshua to be his T.A. this semester. This time Joshua is a T.A. for all five of Brother Merrill's classes! Three of these classes are sections of one class (Introduction to Philosophy), which Joshua has previously taken from Brother Merrill. Another (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) is a class he's taken from a different teacher. Grading papers for all of these classes has kept Joshua really busy. Plus, it's great practice for being a teacher one day.

Here's a fatty stack of papers Joshua had to grade one week:
Good thing Joshua's kept some of his textbooks.

Here's the stack he refers to when keeping up with the stuff
for grading papers:

In the middle of the semester, Joshua was asked to start helping tutor Logic. There was already one tutor, but he did not have time to help all of the people who were requesting it. The logic professor got another exception for Joshua, and Joshua started spending a few hours a week helping some students. This was really exciting for him: Joshua really enjoys Logic, and he had fun brushing up on it and having the opportunity to teach others. Maybe I'm biased, but I'm certain Joshua will make a great professor one day! He loves learning and is very enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge with others.

Feeling Adventurous

Since being married, Joshua and I have talked numerous times about how we're not sure what color my hair is. Sometimes it looks really brown. Sometimes it looks super light brown. Sometimes people tell me I'm blond. Always that makes me unhappy - I am not blond. In the summer it gets hints of red, and maybe people could convince me it has a tiny bit of blond, but not likely. Dirty blond just sounds nasty. So I stick with saying I have light brown hair, but really it's up for debate.

I always wish my hair were one solid color that I could proudly claim, and not have people question or secretly disagree with me. Joshua's suggested I dye it. I've always thought that seemed like a hassle. When it grows out and your roots start to show, you can do one of two things: 1) continue to let it grow out and have your hair look stupid while looking a little bit like white trash, or 2) pay a bunch of money to dye it again, and do this for the rest of your life. Neither of those options sound enticing to me. People told me I could just do a light brown so that you couldn't tell when it was growing out so I wouldn't have to do it again, but I didn't see any point in that. Why bother dying your hair if nobody can tell? I guess it would have given me a name for my hair color though.

Whenever Joshua and I talked about dying my hair, I'd flat out tell him no. But after a while I started toying with the idea in my mind. It was probably in August that I decided I wanted to try it. I told our friend Skyla, and she was going to do it for me. I procrastinate just about everything though, and we didn't get around to doing it.

At the beginning of October I went to the beauty school to get my hair cut by the girl, Natalie, who always did a fabulous job on Joshua's hair. He'd mentioned to her that I was considering dying my hair. (He had no idea I'd actually decided to do it.) She loved my "super healthy virgin hair." She told me about all the different kinds of things we could do with my hair. They have some line of stuff to color hair that can only be done on incredibly healthy hair, and somehow it's better for your hair than normal dye. It was primarily to make your hair lighter. There was no way I wanted to do that since I hate being called blond. Then she told me about this other stuff they have which fades out. We looked at the colors, and in the excitement (she was really excited about it and I was in love with my new hair cut) I set up an appointment for her to do it the next week.

Joshua wasn't supposed to be home when I left for my hair appointment, so I thought I could do it as a total surprise. Turns out he was home as I was trying to hurry out the door. He kept trying to get me to watch some YouTube video, and couldn't understand why I was in such a hurry that I kept telling him no. After all, the video was probably only a minute long. To get out the door I finally had to tell him I was going to get something that was a surprise for both of us. He asked if he had to dress up for it, so I have no idea what he thought it might be. That made me feel better since he clearly had no clue what I was going to do.

Wow...this is turning into a really long story. Here's a short part: I went and got my hair done.


I love it!! Natalie is awesome. She did a great job! I ended up doing it lighter than we'd initially decided on but that was alright. You can get it done so it fades after one month or two months, and I was pretty sure I'd like it and doing it for the two would be safe. I was right. I guess the moral of this story is that I did something adventurous, but not that adventurous. I am still too chicken to permanently dye my hair. I a little bit wish I'd just been born with darker brown hair. I think I'll do it again. It's not quite faded out all the way yet, but I've loved every shade of brown that it's been as it's faded. Plus, you can't see my roots. :)

Joshua just stared at me for a good minute when I walked in the door. Later he said that he wasn't rationally thinking to himself that I'd dyed me hair. He knew what was different, but somehow it still wasn't registering and he wasn't sure what he was looking at. It was priceless. My surprise worked! He jumped up and was really excited, but then kind of concerned I'd done it for him. It was cute. I assured him that I loved it, and then we were both happy. I'd kept telling him no, even after I decided, so that it would be a surprise, but I think it was also for me. I'm stubborn sometimes. I wanted to know that I was doing it because I wanted to, and not just because Joshua thought it would be fun.

I was excited and loving my hair so I let Joshua take
a bunch of pictures of me that night.
I felt silly after a while.

Then we attempted some pictures of both of us.
This is the only one that looked even halfway decent.

My Least Favorite Part of Winter

Snow. Technically it's not the snow itself that I dislike. I dislike that I live in Rexburg, and they don't do much to take care of the snow that falls so abundantly. The snow freezes to the sidewalks and roads. It potentially might melt a little in the following days, but then it freezes again and it's even more slick. Living in Rexburg is hazardous to your health.

We actually had a pretty mild fall. For a while in October the weather was a bit bipolar, and we had some really warm days in the midst of our cold ones. November 8 was the fateful day. It was just starting to snow when I peeked out the window at 7:30. It seriously snowed all morning! At my internship there's a big window in the classroom, and I found myself constantly looking outside to check on the snow's progress. It was still snowing when I got home around noon. It continued to snow all afternoon. It hadn't let up at all as I headed to work at 3. I sat so I could watch out the window (really that's the seat I generally sit in anyway) and know for certain it was snowing at least until 5:30. At that point it was too dark for me to really see. I walked outside at 7, and no surprise here, it was still snowing!! I have a sneaking suspicion that it hadn't stopped snowing. What's up with this? Our first real snow of the year, and it lasts for over 12 hours??

This is why snow is my least favorite part of winter. When it comes it doesn't just fall lightly for an hour or so. It's actually pretty when it's falling. I could handle that. The heavens seem to decide to dump all of the snow they've been accumulating during the summer all at once. There was way too much snow for there to be any hope of this snow ever melting. November 8: welcome winter!

"Walking is out, snow sliding is in! Snow sliding is the new pink. Potential side effects include: heart attack from sudden slippage; bruising; sprained ankle; broken appendage(s); and damaged ego."

Joshua sent me that text during the day. I laughed really hard. Thankfully snow slippage is the only side effect either of us experienced. Ready or not, here come six months of snow sliding!!

Pumpkins

We didn't do much for Halloween this year. We've made it an annual tradition to watch Hocus Pocus. So we did that. We were excited for the holiday, but didn't do anything else to celebrate.

In the weeks preceding Halloween I did spend an awful lot of time looking at ideas for cute Halloween decorations online though! In the end I was either too cheap or lazy to do most of them. Oh well. At least I have ideas and know where to look in the future when I feel more motivated. There was a super easy one I loved. So I did that. We bought a few baby pumpkins and painted them into little ghosts!

Me and the two little pumpkins I did.

Notice the little bat on the door?
That was our only other decoration inside.
We had a witch on outside of our front door.

Joshua painted one pumpkin too. We wanted to adopt lots of the little pumpkins at the store, but knew we wouldn't paint them all. We did end up buying two we didn't paint. They were just so cute. We had to have them.

Me with our pumpkin family.
Isn't it neat that we found one with the vine thingy on it still??

Joshua and I on Halloween.
(I think he's looking longingly at the computer, but he's still cute.)

And we couldn't have Halloween without candy corn pumpkins!
One day I fell asleep protecting them.

We also got some pumpkins from our ward Halloween party. We'd forgotten about the ward party and gone to Idaho Falls to go shopping that night instead. After we got back and were bringing our groceries in, our neighbors were getting home from the party and said there were tons of donuts left and we should check it out. So we did. There were only about 8 people left when we showed up, but there were dozens of donuts still! We took a plateful. And a whole bunch of candy. Then we helped clean up so we didn't feel so bad about just showing up and taking a bunch of food. There were still tons of pumpkins too so we grabbed a couple on our way out. They sat on our porch for a long time. We never carved them. But having them made me happy.