We are fasting today...

Luke does not have a job yet, but we are excited at a new opportunity that came our way last week. It is not in speech pathology and does not require us to move. We are hoping and praying that Luke can get it. We are fasting today so that Luke can do well in his interview, get the job, and succeed at the job. We feel that maybe this is a huge reason why we were supposed to come to Greenwood. We have faith and hope and we know that fasting makes prayers more powerful. So think of us in your prayers today. It would be really good for us if this worked out. We are actually asking Heavenly Father for this, something we have never really done -directly asking that is instead of praying for blessings. We have always felt that it is too bold and if it is supposed to happen it will. We have prayed and said "please bless... if it be Thy will etc." but on this one we are promising things and asking boldly because it is something we really want. My mother-in-law said that is okay to do. So we are. Fasting with heart-felt purpose is so much better than alternative ways to fast!! And I am not pregnant or nursing so I can fast without getting sick. It has been so long since I have been able to fast and it feels good. Heavenly Father wants to bless all of us we just have to behave well enough and ask Him. We are trying to be good and we are asking and exercising our faith!

So Luke quit?!?!

Yes, you read that right. He quit on Friday last week. 2 whole weeks he worked for Greenwood Regional Hospital (GRRH). But we are going to be fine. How? Because SLP jobs are everywhere. There are 3 local SLP positions in the schools here that he should be able to get this coming week. Not to mention many other medical setting ones as well. But those are out of the question.

Why?
And why did he quit??

Well Luke figured out that being an SLP in a medical setting is not right for him. It is very fast paced, requires on the spot analyzing, adjusting, adapting, and presenting/reporting/explaining medical information. It also requires really dedicating yourself to your job. THINGS THAT LUKE IS NOT GOOD AT. Not to mention that if you make even a little mistake you could be facing a lawsuit and your hospital would as well. Luke does not enjoy being a speech-language pathologist (SLP). He knew that in grad school apparently. But he does like that it lets him enjoy the lifestyle he wants to live. High pay, time off, and not a lot of stress and pressure to do everything immediate and exacting.

Luke has worked for the last year and a half in Utah with his dad trying to do their own business that merged into a few others. None of it panned out, but Luke did figure out he is not a full-time entrepeneurial (sp?) type of guy. After doing it for that long, I was ready to move on as well. Get back to making money, saving money, job stability, and working on our side business Home Speech Home. So we took a job to try the medical setting with older patients. (I wanted Luke to go shadow someone first in Utah, but he didn't want to work for free). Well now we eat it I guess, because we are in the middle of SC and have to pay back relocation and sign-on bonus, most of which we have already spent in moving and getting our new place set-up. UGH!

Options

1- Take another great deal on a school job and move somewhere again (they pay).
2- Stay here and find a school job to pay the bills while we work on our website with the hopes of eventually doing it full time. (BTW, we have had HUGE SUCCESS lately with our website traffic, book sales etc. and we are EXCITED, but know it just takes time and hard work). Both of which we are willing to do if it means Luke can get out of being an SLP. 3- We wish we could get in the military, but I think they are still not accepting anyone. 4-Start up our own garage door repair business here on the side as well and hope it will take off. 5- Shadow and intern for free at GRRH until he is up to speed and knows enough to work there again.

INOTHERWORDS: We are going to be okay even though decisions made were not the smartest. We have always paid our tithing and we have always been taken care of. We still don't want to move for like 5 years at least. We know we are supposed to be here because a lot has shown us that, we just don't know why. Maybe one of initial reason is just for Luke to finally "quit" being an SLP, something he does not enjoy, does not come naturally, and he thinks he is not good at. He is good at working in the school and does well, he just does not enjoy it.
He thrives on internet stuff, website creation, and web marketing. Who knows what the future will hold, but we aren't scared. Luke is a man and I am proud of him cause it takes guts to quit and search for your dream. But I know he will take care of us in the meantime.

I will update when I know more. Until then don't worry about us! (Now we know why I still haven't quit my job!) Luke is just a fish who has been trying to climb a tree. I love Einstein. No matter how hard I try I would probably not be a successful stand-up comedian, or a singer, hmm.. what else?)

Back to Church Marathons

Today:
1. Luke got called as the YM President.
2. I got called as the YW First Counselor.
3. Luke and Gracie bore testimony in church.
4. I played the piano in Junior Primary.
5. Gracie got an attitude in Primary today again and threw her picture in the garbage.
6. Katie went to Nursery for the first time 3 months early and did not cry as long as she had her baby!!!
7. Gracie gave her first talk ever on how Noah was blessed for listening to the Lord and she was so cute (video clip to follow).
8. Luke got bombarded with YM's calendars, leaders, and boys without a phone to keep everything straight. :(
9. I joined YW for a time and then went back to play the piano in Senior Primary.
10. I practiced singing a musical number and set up for New Beginnings that was going to happen after church today.
11. Luke and I pawned our children off while we went and got set apart.
12. Walked in late to New Beginnings and sang in the musical number and had lunch.
13. We drove our exhausted family home, put the kids to bed, and fell asleep in the middle of talking on the couch.
14. We made dinner, cleaned up the house, and talked to family.
15. Put the kids to bed - late cause they had napped so late.
16. Finally, we splurged on big bowls of ice cream smothered with homemade caramel and chocolate syrup while we dredged our way through 5 medical cognitive and swallow evaluation reports to create long term and short-term goals and treatment plans/strategies that Luke was assigned to practice by his boss.
17. I got on the computer to print out some materials to prepare a talk on fasting in 2 weeks and decided to write this post instead.

Busy? Yes! Worth it? Yes! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

We love the weather, the girls are growing up, and we are doing okay with one car..

Hopefully we will still be saying that in 6 months! We may not be able to go snowboarding but at least we can run around with no coat on during the day and eat delicious watermelon on our back porch in the sunshine.
It is really not cold, Katie is just addicted to her hat! I don't blame her because it is dang cute. Any time I say let's go, or she wants to "go" she gets her hat and at least 1 jacket if not 3 of her own and someone else's. She is so stinkin' cute lately. But still a stinker in other ways - still real whiny. She is beginning to say animal sounds and says dad and yeah all the time. Imitation of what we say is increasing. I just weaned Katie from nursing, finally (kinda hard). She loves to eat yogurt, salsa, and dip anything.She and Gracie love to play together most of the time. After I finish working and they wake up from their nap, I always find Gracie in Katie's crib with a handful of barbies or stuffed animals, messy hair, and huge grins and giggles. I LOVE IT! I am so glad they are becoming better friends every day. They love to ride bikes together. Gracie still tries to help her "too much" which triggers the whining.And oh man...Gracie is the best help right now. She pretty much does whatever I ask. I don't know what it is about this stage she is in, (let's hope it is not a stage) but she does whatever I ask for the most part, even if it is stop what your doing and let's go upstairs to bed. Crazy, I haven't really had to get after her for anything lately and she is becoming more like a friend to talk about stuff with and teach, than a little girl to take care of. I LOVE IT! She hasn't had "poo poo" problems in a while now which is such a relief. She loves to race and "beat you" now. She likes to pick out what we all wear so we match, including me. And she is doing better at getting her hair combed. She loves changing her earrings and wearing mine too as you can see.

The other day we walked a half hour to Walmart and back on two lane roads with no sidewalks, cars whizzing by, with matching "Hello Kitty" shirts on. We fit all our groceries in the bottom of our stroller. And pushed the extra weight home. We found a place that we rode our bikes to the other day (around the corner) called "The Pantry Shoppe" that sells all natural foods and ingredients including, dairy (raw and only pasteurized whole milk), meat, deli, and bakery. Can't beat that. So we stopped there on our way back to get some ham, beef, sausage, raw milk, whole milk, sourdough bread, and Gracie picked out a cupcake. We ate a little lunch out of it in the parking lot and walked the rest of the way home. Gracie ran along side me in the gutter part of the road for about 1/4 mile. She fell twice and just got up and kept running till she "beat me" home. It was a good trip but I was exhausted after the 2.5 hours that it took.

We are liking it here and are almost done getting our house how we want it, then we will do a video tour. We miss our friends and family, but we are happy to have each other on this adventure. Pray for Luke cause he is definitely experiencing a learning curve at his new job. We believe in him though, and we know he is man enough and smart enough to hack it if he puts his mind to it. After a few months of hard work, and maybe hard knocks, we hope he will be able to float along and enjoy his job!
That's us for now.

After 2 months of waiting, Luke got his SC license!

Luke got up for his first day of work this morning. His new schedule is 7am-4pm because he needs to be there to help his patients at the "Diner's Club." This is where people who have swallowing problems following a neurological injury, like a stroke or brain injury, and who are at risk for aspiration, aka choking, meet together during meals so Luke can help them learn to use strategies to eat safely. Luke loved the "swallowing" area in school, but he sure doesn't like getting up early. I guess Saturday will be a sacred sleep-in day! We think it will be good for us to try to get the kids in bed earlier so we can maybe be up with daddy. Don't bet money on it though, cause every time we try to become morning people it doesn't work. We have been putting our kids to bed between 9 and 10 since we moved here. We all have the same number of hours though right?
Well I snapped this picture from bed as Luke was leaving to document his first day of work, only... he came home 2 hours later. We all screamed excitedly and I kissed him a little, okay a lot. And then I said, "Were you fired? Why are you here?" Well apparently they didn't tell him he needed to get a TB shot, so he can't start 'till Monday now. It's a win for sure that we get Luke home for a couple more days, but no paycheck for months (besides mine) is really starting to wear on us. I will be glad to not be Luke's Sugar Mamma (as he calls me) anymore and hopefully quit soon. Cross your fingers that there won't be any more hiccups on this road to Luke beginning this great new part of his career. I am so proud of him. I know he is going to do great like he always does. Although the girls and I will sure miss his help at home. He is great at putting the girls to bed, cleaning up after meals, changing diapers, changing mom's plans and they way I do things (or atleast weighing in on them). We can't wait to bring you lunch and eat it with you in your new huge office. We can't wait for the days when you will walk in the door and surprise us for lunch. And we can't wait for the days when you say you are too swamped to come home and so we will wait eagerly to hear how you day ended up as we help you unload. Thanks Luke for working hard to support us girls and give us our wildest dreams!!

27... wiser and spoiled too!

Man I am spoiled. I already have more than I need. My girls and husband and a warm place to live, who needs more than that. Apparently I do because I got a sewing machine and a piano for my birthday! Yes. I told Luke there is no way that I can tell people I got both of those for by birthday and he said "Yes, I can." So I guess it is the truth, so there you go. I am super excited for both.
All I ask for now is that Rick is right that 27 years is when you gain all your wisdom and not 47 years like he was unsure about. I can't wait for 20 more years to be wise. That would be 27 years of being unwise and that just won't do. Earlier in the week, two ladies in the ward (Heather, Anna) were so nice to surprise me and take me to Chili's for dessert and to get to know each other.

I got my piano delivered on Saturday from a nice guy on Craigslist 45 minutes away for a whopping $100. I have named the piano Black Beauty, inspired by others' suggestions because I haven't really named anything before, because of the story Black Beauty. Pretty much, just like the horse, this piano is an awesome beautiful instrument that has been abused and been through a lot, and now its rescued, cleaned up, and in a home that will love it. (Note the birthday cards on top, thank you to everyone who thought of me on my birthday. I need to be be better at doing that.) This picture is after I took 2 hours of elbow grease (muscle) and furniture polish to rub off all the white paint scuffs, dried gooeyness, and food galore. The close up shows you better of the water damage and abuse the wood has taken. Maybe refinishing is in Black Beauty's future? I will probably put $200 into tuning and repairing it to get it up to par. That way I can stay in my budget I hope. I am really fortunate to have made friends with a piano tuner here who helped me scour Craigslist for the right candidate for my cheap budget but still have beautiful sound. We love it already and Luke and Gracie have had 2 mini lessons and are doing excellent. Today I played Chariots of Fire, Tea for Two, and Time in a Bottle and Gracie came running in from watching a show to play with me. Katie was already on my lap. AND I LOVE IT! If you do not play the piano you would not understand but there is just some special connection, it is truly like a romantic connection with your fingers and the keys and the sound that comes out that is so soothing and provides so much solace. I love it. I played "Olive Tree" and the spirit was so strong in me and my house. I love music and I love the piano. I hope that I can get my skills back and more in the 7 years I have not played.

On my birthday, I woke up to this...
Then we took a easy day, played the piano, did laundry, didn't have to work because of MLK (thankyou), and then we went to Chilis for a free dessert again that night.


Then on Wednesday... Gracie wanted to make me cupcakes. So she made them Pink Lemonade Cupcakes (interesting) by adding koolaid to the cake and then lemon frosting. Gracie decorated them too. Katie learned how to blow and that was probably the best memory during my birthday. She was stinkin' cute. That is why there is so many pictures. Now Katie says "Haaaawwwt" in addition to dad and yeah all the time. Love it.

27 is a great birthday! Thanks to everyone who made it so special for me, including phone calls, cards, emails, FB messages. I feel very grateful to have my health, my family and friends (old and new), and my testimony that God loves me, He has a plan for me, and that life is short so we need to try our best to do our best to love other people and become more Christlike each and every day. Here is to being 27, 37, 67, 77, and I don't 97 too. It's a good age!

Nostradamus was wrong and we are excited for 2012!

Hey to break it to you Nostradamus, the world did not and will not end in 2012. And we are psyched about that. 2012 is going to be a good year. It has already.

Now if Luke could just get his license so he can start working and bring some money in. We are glad I haven't quit my job yet so we have at least a little income. We are hoping it will be next week.

Gracie loves doing cheers, so our Lehi neighbor's Becca's gift was perfect for our little New Year's Eve celebration. I told Gracie we were going to have a party. She said, "Who's coming over?" I said, "Nobody. We can have a party with just us." She did not think it was possible. But it was. We loved being just us.
We had a veggie/cheese/ham/crackers/fruit tray with dips, and a dessert tray with nutella and peanut butter for dipping. Santa brough us poptarts that we hadn't eaten. And yes we cut them up like little cookies and dipped them too. We had to do something to push the limits this New Year. Ha ha. Oh and we let Katie sit on the table. I don't care who you are, that is pushing the limits right there!
3 goals I am working on this year: 1- Read scriptures better 2- Love from the beginning, openly, and without judging. Have charity toward all men regardless of... anything 3- Be more bold in saying what I should when I should when I know it is the right thing (strategy is to use humor and make fun of myself to share the point I know is right- may not make sense to you, but it does to me- can't wait to nail my first opportunity to have no regrets, standing up and saying what I should have and I will share when I do.) Happy new year> it's going to be a good one.