Memorial Day

I surprised myself and actually made it through the exhibit without any serious problems! There was one time where I got a bit dizzy and light headed, but we're pretty sure it was because a light was flickering funny and a backboard was swaying at the same time. It happened to Darren too.

Anyway, we had a great time. It was SO interesting! The weirdest parts for me were the toenails, and the left over belly button and eyebrow skin. I loved all the detail that we could see and, surprisingly enough, the early human development/fetal room. I thought that would be the hardest part, but that's the room I loved the most! Crazy. I couldn't believe how early into a pregnancy the little human features come into focus (like 49 days!). I don't know how anyone could leave that room still believing that life doesn't happen until later in a pregnancy.

We decided to eat before we went (smartest move ever) and enjoyed the rest of our day on the couch vegging out in front of the tv. Happens when it's like mid-50's outside. We had a great day though and enjoyed the time to really relax before getting down and dirty with packing and traveling later this week.

Weekend Bust

So, our big plans to go to Yellowstone this weekend have been busted. We decided that camping in this weather:

was pretty stupid if we wanted to keep our sanity, and our toes. So, we called everyone and told them it wasn't going to happen (sorry Trish, Charles & Johnny!). It was sad, but Darren and I were able to spend our morning doing this instead!

We were able to get most of our living room, desk and kitchen packed up. We decided to pack some of our stuff up before we leave for California, so we don't have SO much to do when we get back and only have 5 days until we drive away to South Dakota. While I didn't quite anticipate packing up all of our stuff so soon after unpacking it 7 months ago, I did find it quite fun. It must be the organizational nut in me, but I LOVE being able to find a way to fit as much stuff in a box as possible :)

Anyway, as for our Memorial Day plans...the weather here in Idaho Falls promises to be pretty much the same (minus the snow but add rain) and non-conducive to outdoor activities. I guess we'll bust out our Foreman and do our burgers that way. We may hit up the "Bodies" exhibit at the Museum of Idaho, see a movie, etc. I'm just looking forward to a week of no work and less than a week to MUCH warmer weather!

Virginia

Our decision has been made! We will be moving to Virginia the first weekend of July. We'll be pulling out of Idaho Falls on June 30, but will spend a few days in Rapid City, South Dakota, at my dad's family reunion. We should be getting to my parents' house by July 7th, and will be staying at their house for a little bit while Darren interviews and hopefully lands the best teaching position ever. He's already had two interviews this week, so we're hopeful something will turn up!

We are so grateful to everyone that we've met here in IF and know that we will miss you. If I could take this wretched thing called "Winter" out of the equation, this would really be a nice place to live. I'll sure miss all of the Young Women I work with, and Darren will miss working with his scouts. We're excited to be close to my family though, and we know that is where we need to be.

D-Day...

Today was "Decision Day"...or so we thought. The school board met last night, so Darren was ready to hear their decision at school today. Well, turns out there was no decision. That's right, we still know nothing.

Apparently they met last night for the sole purpose of presenting a few different budget options. They won't vote on anything until June 8th. JUNE 8TH!! Needless to say we were less than thrilled with this news.

So, Capells & Boices - here we come! We decided we're not going to sit here and wait so we'll leave everything here in our apartment (still on lease until June 30) and head out that way June 2/3 for about three weeks. Unless the news we get around June 8th is dramatically different than what we know already, we'll be heading out to Virginia at the beginning of July.

Can't wait to see most of these people soon!

And all of these ones!

Life in the I.F.

It's been a few week since our last post, and I'm here to remedy that. At least for the short term. No promises on when you'll hear from us next :) (brace yourself for some major word vomit)

So, I'd love to tell you that we've been up to crazy things and busy as ever, but that would be one elaborately thought up fairy tale. We have been busy, but with the boring things like work and church callings (we're both working with the youth - Darren as Deacon's quorum advisor/Asst. Scoutmaster and me as the secretary in Young Women's).

Other than that, we've been doing a lot of thinking about our future and where exactly we'll be come August/September. Going into this month we were pretty confident Darren's job was not only secure, but that he would be getting a few more classes that would bump him up to actually being full-time (he's only 1/2 time now). We had previously decided that since our lease is up at the end of June, we'd stick around here until my family reunion the first weekend in July. Then we'd head out to California until mid-August to see all of the lovely family we have out there.

Well, doesn't it always seem that when you've got a really good plan something happens to shake it up a bit?...A few weeks ago Darren heard that his position at his school was up for elimination due to budget cuts. We freaked out, went to Cafe Rio for dinner, and then tried to figure out a Plan B. We decided that we'd go out to California for June instead and then head to our reunion and then head out to Virginia with my parents and look for a job out there. We thought about staying here and having Darren substitute, but why sub somewhere you don't really want to live when he could sub in Virginia too? While I was and am thrilled with this plan I hate the idea of taking Darren so far away from all of his family, and moving without the guarantee of a job.

We knew the situation at Darren's school wasn't a for sure thing yet, so we decided to wait a few weeks (the board meeting for the official decision is this Wednesday, the 18th) and go from there. Just a week ago Sunday (Mother's Day to be exact) we had another wrench thrown in our plans. We were called into the bishop's office and I was asked to accept a new calling. It's not official so I won't discuss it yet, but let's just say it's something we'd have to be around a while for. We told the bishop about our situation and were suprised to know what he already knew (the executive secretary is the chairman of Darren's school board). I accepted with the stipulation that we would wait until after the school board meeting to make it official. Many tears have been shed since that Sunday. Part of me feels that I wouldn't have been extended this calling if we were supposed to leave, while the other part feels I would be letting our ward down if we do move.

I talked to a member of the bishopric yesterday to get some more info and he told me that he "unofficially" knows that Darren's job will still be around for next year. While this was good news on the job front, I was immediately heart broken about being so far from my family for another year. I had tried hard to not get my hopes up about moving to Virginia, but somehow it snuck in there anyway. After talking things over with Darren we decided that we still needed to wait until Wednesday to hear the official verdict, and then we needed to find out if his job will be anywhere close to full-time.

He had hopes it would be at least 3/4 when his superintendent pulled him into his office last week and asked him if he'd teach a PE/Health class in addition to his three Spanish classes. That all changed today when he was called in again and shown his schedule for next year. This year he had three 1/2 hour middle school classes and two 1 1/2 hour high school classes (on alternating days). As it stands now he would have a 1 hour PE/Health class, two 1/2 hour middle school classes and one 1 hour high school class. According to the superintendent that would put Darren at .37 time. How that works I will never know, but that would mean we'd be taking a 13% pay cut. Darren was a little surprised that his status was decreasing and asked about it. The superintendent said he'd do what he could to try and bring Darren up to the .5 he's at now, but no guarantees.

SO...what do we do now? Darren is planning on signing his contract for next year anyway (as a semi back-up plan), but is it really worth it? I have to work two full weeks a month to have us just break even right now. We had plans to start our family next year but staying here with this situation makes that seem extremely difficult/impossible. Do we go out to Virginia anyway? We're not sure, but we know we have to make a decision soon. For one thing, I can't keep our bishopric wondering, and we'd be heading to California in just 3 weeks if we go with Plan B!

This post is mostly to get all my/our thoughts out, but feel free to let us know what you think! We'll be sure to keep you updated on everything.

Next up: Something actually fun! We're heading to Yellowstone to camp Memorial Day weekend. Can't wait to get out!