Thurs. 1st--This has recently become Rolo's second dinner--licking the dishes as we load them into the dishwasher. As soon as he hears that dishwasher door come down, he's there. So funny! We rinse the dishes pretty thoroughly and they're going to be sanitized anyway so we let him do it.
*Jared--the "mastermind" with his small dog.
Fri. 2nd--This was Good Friday. Everyone, including Jared (thanks to his employment with a Catholic organization) all had this day off from school and work so Jared and I had made arrangements to drive up to Dallas to meet Trina's parents, Brady and Amanda Bush. My dear friend, Melodee Cooper, was in another battle for her life. She was currently hospitalized with liver failure. She lives in the Dallas area and I told Jared I wanted to swing by and see her while we were up there. Especially, heaven forbid, if it ended up being my last opportunity to do so. Turns out, Melodee and Trina's parents live just 8 minutes from each other! What are the odds?!
Mel was being released that afternoon sometime, so we headed to see Brady and Amanda first. We had a lovely visit. Spent about three hours just talking about our lives and how we met, our engagements/weddings, education, jobs, and kids. Then we talked about Trina and Jake and worked out a couple of wedding details. They have a sweet dog, named Frodo. He's an old man--17 years old, gray beard, wears a doggie diaper, and he sure liked Jared.
*We learned when we were visiting with Trina's parents, that Amanda and I went to the same high school. This isn't a super crazy coincidence, if say, you both lived in Utah, for example. But no. We attended high school in Anchorage, Alaska!! Her grandparents homesteaded in Alaska. She lived there for most her life, but they left in 1987 or so to go to Utah. Then they went back up to Alaska in 1992, which was the SAME year my family moved up there from Georgia. It was Amanda's senior year and my sophomore year. But her sister, Becky, was my age in my seminary class because our wards attended the same church building. Our wards (hers was 5th Ward, mine was 13th) didn't overlap on Sundays, so while I did see Becky from time to time in seminary, our paths didn't really cross all that much. And while Amanda does look vaguely familiar, I really didn't know them. But still! We have a lot of mutual friends.
This is the cover of the high school yearbook that year. I dug it out of my attic. ;)
Amanda's senior picture (bottom left corner).
*As part of our General Conference weekend, we had Dr. Pepper ribs for dinner and Rolo really liked the bones! He was playing tug-of-war with me. He's got a very strong grip.
Tues. 6th--I got to attend JJ's class as a substitute. There was a mix up and a substitute was never called on this day for a teacher planning meeting. I had told JJ's teacher that if they needed some help to let me know. I went about my regular schedule until, Robyn, the principal grabbed me and asked if I'd sub in 3rd grade for the day. I was super happy to.
*I felt a million times better at school on Tuesday than I did on Monday. When I got home, however, my left arm felt like I had been sucker punched several times. Which was strange because I used it a lot during the day while subbing and didn't feel a hint of pain. It also felt like it was sunburned. Nope, not sunburned, just a big splotch of redness/heat--another reaction at the injection site. Crazy weird.
*Rolo's new spot on the recliner. He loves to hang out there.
*Our newest tenants.
Sat. 11th--Rolo sleeping on a pillow on the couch. Pretty cute.
Tues. 13th--Rolo wanted some of Jared's breakfast. Either the eggs or the banana. He loves them both. We'd never seen him stretch across both recliners before. Haha!
*The kids having fun and being silly at what I believe is Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon.
I ordered mine, but still needed to see if it can be altered enough to use it. It was too long and the sheer cap sleeves would need some kind of insert.
*I got my second covid shot later that evening. So grateful!!
Mon. 5th--I definitely started feeling the after effects of the vaccine around 10am that morning. I gutted through the day as best I could with body aches and chills. Once JJ and I got home, I climbed into bed. Jared was working an extra shift, but fortunately, it wasn't a 12 hour one and he could take Karcyn to piano. I felt worse with the second shot than I did with the first one and worse than when I actually had covid. When Jared got home, he checked on me, and exclaimed, "You're burning up!" I had a 101.5 fever. Never had a fever with covid. Just a little cough here and there for a couple days and body aches and a LOT of fatigue. Thankfully. I'm still super grateful to have had the opportunity to be vaccinated. I knew it wasn't going to be anything that 12 hours of sleep couldn't fix.
Ironically, this day marked the 3 year anniversary of the very first day I started as a substitute teacher. I subbed at College Station High School (anatomy and physiology) where I got to see both Jake and Cooper in the halls.
*Kind of hard not to love this face.
Wed. 7th--When you are super excited to have crepes for breakfast, but grab the cumin instead of the cinnamon. Lame, lame, lame! At least I caught my mistake before cooking and eating the crepes.
*Just a boy and "his" pup.
*Yep. This is totally me and the Cooper genes.
Thurs. 8th--JJ finally got to get his chipped tooth fixed. He was brave. But also a bit loopy afterwards! ;)
*Love these two lovebirds!
*You just never know what the weather will bring from one moment to the next. We had no warning. All of a sudden, at 9:35pm, the tornado siren was going off. I put my shoes on real fast and grabbed my rain jacket and then dashed upstairs to wake the sleeping kiddos.
We hunkered down in our pantry like we've always done. We got news alerts on our phones and learned there was a LOT of damaging hail coming through our area. It hit Bryan, north of us, and then College Station. We listened but didn't hear anything. Not even wind. Turns out, the storm was *just* east of us by a mile or two. Phew. We have two cars out in the driveway. That would not have been good.
Turns out that A LOT of people we know had severe hail damage to their vehicles AND homes. We feel very blessed to have come out unscathed.
*Calvin and Cooper bowling in the College Station Youth City Tournament.
Mon. 12th--I'm sensing a theme here... ;)
*We feel very certain that what we really have is a puppy-cat. He does so many things that seem "cat-like." Except for clawing at my furniture, thankfully.
Fri. 16th--The search is on for dresses for the wedding in July. My mom found hers. It's beautiful.
Karole found hers, it's wonderful.
*Cooper had a bowling tournament in Lubbock, TX, over the weekend so Jared took Karcyn and JJ with him since their grades were solid enough to miss school for a day. Calvin's grades, however, not so much. He was failing about half of them. So Calvin stayed behind with me and Rolo. But I was excited about having Calvin all to myself. I think it's important for kids to have one-on-one time with their parents as much as possible. A big storm came through that afternoon--I got utterly drenched doing afternoon car rider duty. And got home just long enough to let Rolo out to go potty (we're so fortunate he doesn't let rain or snow deter him from doing his business) and then jumped back in the car, sopping wet to go pick up Calvin from his bus stop. Rolo joined me.
*Calvin and I shared family contributions (or what most people refer to as weekend chores). He cleaned the upstairs, I cleaned the downstairs. We watched the classic movie "Atlantis" that night and enjoyed Fazoli's for dinner, another meal we don't get to eat with Karcyn around because we don't want her feeling alienated.
Sun. 18th--Calvin was having fun with Rolo and my phone camera before church.
*Yes, please!!
*He's got a point. :)
Mon. 19th--For only the second time in my life, I got another migraine on Monday morning. It was so bad, I had to go home early from work around 10:30am. I do not know how people function with migraines. I couldn't see or think. I felt nauseous. Not sure if it was tied to hormones or what. But I had one other one at the beginning of December. It was about a week or so after we came out of covid. Hard to say what the correlation is, if any. I just don't want to feel like that again. Ever.
Thurs. 22nd--I know it's Earth Day and all, but I did NOT want to start my day with a *snake* in my kitchen!! I don't care how big it isn't--snakes do not belong in homes, especially mine! Holy schnikey, my adrenaline started pumping a bit. Thank goodness Rolo wanted to play with it or I never would have seen it. The back door is quite a distance from our kitchen so I'm still not sure how that snake got in...and it gives me shivers thinking about it. I'm also grateful for my hero husband who caught the snake and returned it to the great outdoors.
*This is one of Karcyn's art projects. She drew and painted her name in sign language. She did such an amazing job! Hands are hard enough, but having them in sign language formation is just wow.
Fri. 23rd--And we had another exciting end to our school day--a tornado watch during the car rider line!
And we got drenched, again! (FYI: Wearing masks in the rain is dee-skust-ing!) And those rainboots I wore did nothing but collect water.
*I caught JJ doing push ups in bridge formation between the kitchen counter and kitchen island.
*Seriously? He has TWO letters in his name. Only two. And they happen to be the SAME letter. We really couldn't have made this any easier for him to write his names on his papers! *sigh*
Fri. 30th--Rolo had a day at the PetSmart spa. He's a good little client and doesn't seem to mind anything except the blow dryer in his face. ;) They even put a little handkerchief around his neck.
*Saturday, May 1st, would be Calvin's 13th birthday. He really wanted to watch his first PG-13 movie with his friend and buddy, Justin Boatcallie, from the Caldwell Branch (though they live in CS like we do). May 1st is Justin's dad's birthday, so we decided to let Calvin celebrate on Friday instead. First, the guys went bowling, then they picked up some pizza on their way back home to watch "A Quiet Place" on our big screen. Justin even brought his popcorn maker. Super fun! They had a great time, but it was hilarious because we could hear their girly screams all the way downstairs. Haha! We're grateful for kids like Justin and those friendships. Which just makes me more sad about our move. :(
Calvin and I had a fun date that night watching a mystery movie and eating pizza.
Sat. 17th--Someone overslept so we went to IHOP to get lunch instead of breakfast. It worked out just fine and he ate every last bit of his brunch.
Wed. 21st--For our primary activities we did some water color painting! The kids ate it up. We were so grateful to have Jennie Linford share her talents and supplies with us. We definitely have some budding artists in the branch.
Sat. 24th--At bowling league, Calvin and Cooper received multiple awards and scholarship money for the city tournament and the bowling season. What a way for Cooper to end his final youth bowling league season and for Calvin to end his very first.
COOPER: won 1st Place Doubles in the city league tournament AND got the league award for the HIGHEST AVERAGE this season with a 187. He earned $60 in scholarship money.
CALVIN: won 1st Place Singles AND 1st Place Doubles in the city league tournament AND earned awards for being on the 1st Place Team and for having the HIGHEST GAME during this league season. Calvin earned $125 in scholarship money. Super proud of my super bowlers!
Thurs. 29th--Happy 44th Birthday to me! I don't think there's a better place to celebrate your birthday than at an elementary school! Every teacher who passed me in the hall today wished me a happy birthday and their students following behind them, followed suit--whether they knew me or not. Three different classes saying "Happy Birthday" to me when I entered their rooms. My 4th graders thought I turned 37 and my 2nd graders said I was finally 30. Haha! I was also gifted with two, beautiful surprise bouquets of flowers, a very touching willow tree figurine, a yummy vanilla steamer, and lots of texts and posts. It was a wonderful day and I'm so grateful to have lived another year. 
*Jared worked late on my birthday, but when he got home, we had a small family gathering so they could give me my gifts. I told them to skip the cake because a) Jared and I aren't eating sugar or carbs and b) Calvin's birthday was in two days. After I opened gifts and kids were in bed, I was cleaning up in the kitchen when Jared told me he heard back from Ella that day. Ella Helms is the CEO of Cogdell Memorial Hospital in Snyder, Texas where Jared's brother, Kevin, and his family live. Kevin is an internal medicine physician and runs a clinic there. Ella has actually offered Jared a job working with them a couple of times. But in each case, it just didn't feel right. We had Jake and/or Cooper still in high school and the offer just didn't seem worth uprooting the family for. In both cases, I jumped on realtor.com to check out the housing situation up there. It's horrendous. Nothing but small, junky homes from the 1950s for $250,000+. Anything close to our size house, and less junky, you're looking at $400,000+. Waaaay out of our price range. One time I looked and there wasn't anything we could buy. Can't move to a place where we can't live.
Ella had reached out to Jared a week or two prior to this. Kevin's clinic is getting busier and he needs help and he told them that Jared could do it, just didn't know if he would. I didn't put any stock into Ella's recent conversation after Kevin gave Jared a head's up she'd be calling at all and dismissed it as another attempt to woo Jared that we would graciously turn down as he has in the past. So when Jared brought up he had heard back from Ella, I didn't think much of it. Until he said, "I'm kind of scared to tell you what she said." Oh? "Okay, you have my attention." He said that Ella had asked him what his conditions would be in order to work in Snyder at Kevin's clinic. First, Jared said he needed loan repayment. Second, he needed to make a lateral move in terms of salary, he wouldn't move for less. Third, he needed a really good retirement package. Those were his top three.
This was Ella's offer:
*$500 a month, tax free, for 5 years ($30,000) toward student loans
*Salary match
*A generous pension plan for retirement: we contribute 7%, the hospital contributes 7%, and the state of TX contributes 7%. If Jared stays for the next 20 years, until retirement, he will have MORE than we ever dreamed possible at retirement.
*Paid moving expenses
*Signing bonus
And a couple other benefits:
*Cheaper medical insurance costs and if you're seen at the clinic/hospital, they bill insurance then write off any remaining balances you may owe.
*A rental home to move into while looking for permanent housing for a reasonable cost, utilities included.
*All students who graduate from Snyder High School can attend Western Texas (Junior) College, tuition free
Jared said they met every single demand he had and then some. Wow. Tears started to well up in my eyes, selfishly, because I wasn't ready to leave College Station but managed to say, "We're moving to Snyder, aren't we?" With Cooper graduating in another month, if we were going to make a move, now was the time to do it. Karcyn was ending her freshman year of high school, but she could start again. We knew her personality was such that she'd be okay. If I could move from Georgia to Alaska when I was 15, she could move six hours up the Texas road. Fortunately, there are cousins at the end of that road which we knew would help soften the blow tremendously. For all of us.
Everything Ella offered--everything that Jared threw out there--these are the job perks Jared has been waiting for. But I started to get a little protective of him and played devil's advocate. He's been burned, badly, before. I wasn't going down that road again. I told him this all sounded amazing, but what guarantees do we have that we won't get the bait and switch again? He said he spoke to Kevin about that very thing. First, Kevin was shocked they matched Jared's salary--which is pretty high for a PA. Jared got a very significant raise five years ago and when we've looked into other jobs the past few years outside of CS, we could never find anything that came close to his current salary. A blessing and a curse. A blessing that we have it. A curse because no one else would pay him at that rate meaning we were stuck with St. Joseph. Second, Jared had the same reservations I did about the offer of loan repayment, for example, the biggest reason we'd be moving. Kevin said in the three years he's been there, Ella and the hospital have always followed through with everything they've promised. Jared also reminded me that Ella is the CEO of Cogdell Memorial Hospital. He's negotiating and communicating directly with the top dog. He's not working through layers upon layers of administrators like he did at St. Joseph. So we put our trust in God and accepted the job offer we couldn't refuse. And let the craziness begin!
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