Going Digital!

When I was in Oregon my cousin Ashlee showed me how to do digital scrapbooking. When I got home, Scott put Adobe Photoshop on my computer. I've had the chance to play with it once. Last night I sat down and put together the "All About Me" page they wanted Nash to bring on the first day of school. On Monday they are suppose to bring a timeline of their life because they are learning about change over time. So, here is my masterpiece! As my mother would say, "I'm so full of proudness!"

It really is a small world...

We went to the orthopedist this morning. They x-rayed Sam's arm and said everything looked good. Then the drama started (I swear, she needs Drama Queen tattooed on her forehead). They cut her cast off (as she was trying to run away - no, I'm not kidding). We got to wash her arm with soap and water (there wasn't even any sand in it!). She decided she wanted red this time instead of pink. We also asked if we could get waterproof and were happy when Dr. Finlayson said "Yes." After much squirming (not sure why, it didn't hurt) and quite a bit of loudness (not screams, just, well - loudness) she had a new cast. She told me when her friends asked her where all their names had gone she was going to tell them she washed them off. Apparently she did too!

After our visit with Dr. Finlayson I dropped Sam off to my mom (she already had the boys & it was almost 11) and headed to Brigham. Mom got both the kids off to school and kept Caleb. After passing the library like 4 times, I finally figured out which building it was. They really should have a sign facing the road not the parking lot! It addition to that, it was peach days, so there were a lot of cars everywhere! I went inside to find Jeanette (the lady that I spoke with on the phone yesterday) and come to find out, she's the mom of one of the students I had last year! What a small world after all! This job is through a company called Futures Through Training. I didn't even interview. Jeanette had all the paperwork for me to fill out, I met the couple I'll be teaching English to and we figured out a schedule. When I tutor both of them at the same time I'll actually get paid more than when I tutor just one of them at a time. They are also going to pay me for my prep time (that's a nice change from the public school system!). I will be going over Monday-Thursday from 6-8 pm (Sorry Tannie - I thought I was going to be able to come to your book club! I'll send you an email.) I'm going to try and take Sam & Nash with me and just set them up in the corner with coloring, books, and homework. I know Sam will be fine (she'll read for ever) but Nash might be another story. I'm going to take Caleb back to the same place I was taking him while I was teaching for the last two years. He should be excited to play with the boys again!

And on a completely random note - I did a digital scrapbook page last night for Nash for school. The only thing I think I did wrong was I thought it saved and apparently it didn't. Oh well, I did print it!

Job hunt

Since I applied for unemployment recently I have had to start applying for 2 jobs a week. I've been pretty picky - only choosing things that wouldn't cost me money to go to work, which severely limits the possibilities these days.

On Sunday I applied for 2 part time jobs over in Brigham. One was for a math tutor and one was teaching English/English tutor. I hadn't heard anything and just figured big surprise. Today though, I got a phone call from the person looking to hire the English tutor. She told me that her supervisor had gone over my resume and that it looked like I'd be the perfect fit for the job. It's part time and the hours are basically whenever the students don't have to work. The students are a husband and a wife. Her schedule varies but he doesn't get off work until around 5 or so. They'd pay me $10/hr. so if I can keep it so that I just have Caleb in daycare, it shouldn't cost me too much to accept this job. I for sure don't want to be making more than 1 trip a day over to Brigham, but it sounds like they're pretty flexible, so I think it will be ok.

The only hang up is that I have to provide all the curriculum. Great. Good thing I've taught English to a bunch of Spanish only speakers before!

Despite the providing of my own curriculum, I think I will like this job. And, as long as I don't make more than 30% of my weekly unemployment amount or work 40 hours, I should be able to still get unemployment.

I'm suppose to meet them tomorrow at the Brigham library, so, we'll see how it goes!

Labor Day Weekend

What a whirlwind weekend (week actually, since Travis has been home)!

The kids are into the full swing of things at school. We are doing homework regularly and trying to get back into reading together for 20 minutes every day. Nash is really loving the fact that he gets to go to a big school and learn things like his sister. Samantha, well, she's always excited about school (she's weird, like her mother). Caleb is a bit lost when both kids are gone. He wanders around the house following me around like a puppy. He's been really good, he's just become a hardcore "mama's boy." I have managed to get some fall cleaning done while the kids have been at school. The only time Caleb hasn't been exactly helpful is when I climbed up on the ladder to take down my light fixtures and he decided he wanted to shake the ladder while mom was on top. Next week I think I'm going to take him to my girlfriend's house for a few hours a day while both of the other kids are at school so he can play and I can finish up my cleaning!

This past Saturday we went to Bear Lake (or Brrr Lake if you ask me). We had planned to go to Flaming Gorge for the Labor Day weekend, but with Sam's arm and her missing so much school already because of it, I couldn't justify letting her miss another day for vacation. So, luckily I was able to convince my mother in law that we should go to Bear Lake. I thought we were going to go camping over there for the weekend, but it turned out that we only went for 1 day. This was good though because the day we went was supposed to be the nicest day and it wasn't that great weather wise. (Surprise!) I swear there was 4 million people at Bear Lake the same day as us! This is what we had to one side of us:

This was looking down the other side:
We were literally sitting at the edge of the water. I was sitting in my chair when I took these pictures so you can see how close I am to the edge. If we had backed up any further, we would have been on top of someone else!

Caleb loved playing in the sand and water and not hearing mom say, "No Caleb!"
Uncle Robbie was the hero of the day because get got down and dirty with my boys & built a major sand castle with them. They were so excited about getting to build a sand castle. And the fact that Uncle Robbie was doing it with them, well that was just the icing on the cake! It was fun to watch them run back and forth to get some drier sand and then hustle to the edge of the water and dump their buckets and build their castle up. They even dug a moat around it and found sticks to use as bridges.

On Sunday Travis, Robbie and Trav's dad decided it was time to put in a front yard. We've only been here for 4 summers and I've asked about it every summer we've been here. What results do I get with my requests? Weeds, weeds, weeds, and more weeds! What does Trav do when his dad brings it up? This:
Hopefully we will have grass sprouting before the snow falls. Otherwise, it will be spring. Meanwhile, I'm in charge of keeping the dirt wet.

He decided he didn't like how I had put my pavers around the tree a few years ago, so he dug them up and redid them so he likes it now. His justification was that "You should like it better, there's more flowerbed space." Uh huh. Thanks.
Nothing quite like laboring over Labor Day weekend I guess, right? I labored too. I made enough dinner to feed the small army we had at our house. That was a job in itself! Not to mention I had 4-5 kids running around my house that I had the privilege of entertaining in between! Oh well, it all worked out and now I don't have to listen to anyone ask, "When are you gonna put in a front yard Travis?"

Sam's 1st day of school pix