The New Job

The last two days have been interesting. I worked about 10 hours yesterday and 9 hours today. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the main exam days for seeing patients so they have to pack everyone in. Thursday and Friday are spent at the hospital with little kids who have to be knocked out completely for the dentist to be able to work on their teeth. So the dentist and his assistants are usually not actually in the office. Those days I only work like 5 hours each.
Yesterday, my first day, went differently than planned. About 12:30 the girl who was training me randomly quit. She had already put in her notice, but wasn't supposed to finish for another two weeks after I was trained (she is having a baby at the end of the month). But I guess something happened between her and the dentist, and so she quit. And left. The other person who is there to be in the front office is only there Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and then the Office Manager/ Collections guy has only been working for a month and was still in training. Crazy eh? Needless to say yesterday afternoon I was practically let loose and had to hold down the fort for 3 hours after learning the job for 5 hours. Not what I expected. It was especially ironic when I remembered I told the dentist during my interview that one thing I appreciate is being trained thoroughly. :)
Anyways, I like this job though. I get to speak Spanish often. I'm getting the hang of the regular tasks that need to be done with the patients. I just need to figure out more what my responsibilities are in between that. It will be fun. I just hope all the people there are patient with me as I try to learn everything partially on my own and without someone by my side for the first two weeks.
Well, that's that. Wish me luck! :)

Strange Things Are Happenin'

So I have had a very unexpected turn in the last week and a half. January 20th, I lost my job. It came completely out of the blue. I came back from my lunch break and within 20 minutes was told that I was being let go for reasons that didn't make any sense. That day was heartbreaking. Primarily because I just felt like everything was getting ripped out of my grasp and mine and Sean's opportunity to save money was lost because if I didn't have another paycheck within 6 weeks we would have been completely broke.
Today I got another job. haha. 11 days later. I interviewed for this job last Thursday, was invited back for a 'work' interview this morning, and got hired this evening. I am working as a receptionist at a Pediatric Dentist office. Pretty sweet! I'm really excited about this job! I will also get to speak Spanish often--definitely a great plus!
I really have no idea what was up with this whole little switcharoo! I'm definitely excited, and now I'm grateful because I think I'll like this job even more than my last one! I guess life just sometimes throws you curveballs and you just have to learn to roll with the punches. Maybe in a few months I'll have a long list of reason why i'm do glad this all happened . . . right now I have a few ideas, but we'll see how it goes. I'm just grateful that my unexpected unemployment only lasted 10 days!

My Memory of Mama Rene

After being very sick for over 2 months, Sean's grandmother passed away yesterday. All of her grandkids called her Mama Rene, and it was completely evident to me that every single one absolultely adored her. I knew she was a special lady when Sean told me how excited he was for me to be able to meet her at our wedding. I instantly adorded this wonderful Southern woman and although I only saw her twice I will always remember how great she was.
The reason why I wanted to post about this was because I wanted to share a little something she said over Thanksgiving this past year. That evening us women were all sitting around talking about weight, holiday weight, baby weight, you name it! Eventually in the conversation Mama Rene said, "You know what I do? Every morning I wake up, look in the mirror and say 'Honey, you still got it!'" I will never forget that. I think that statement kind of sums up her personality, and now you know why she left an impression on my heart.


*In the photo Mama Rene is to the right of Sean's mom.

MEN IN UNIFORM

Somewhere I heard this top 10 list about men in uniform. UPS guys were number 1 and guess who was number 2... LDS missionaries. Pretty funny, right? They are cute and all, but I'm thinking I like Sean in this uniform better. Especially cuz he was off limits when I knew him in the other one! :)

Anyways, Sean is in Army ROTC right now at UVU. He's always wanted to be in the military since he was a little kid. Now, he's not 100% positive, so we'll see. But he's giving this a shot... and today he gets to go paintballing. Not too shabby.

JOURNALS

Have you ever not written in your journal because either something has happened that you'd prefer to forget? or maybe there's just so much that happened that it's just too overwhelming to think about writing it all down. That's honestly how I've felt about my life over the last year... pretty much since I came home from my mission. I have extremely good journal entries from my mission up until the night before I came home. Today, I'm still working on filling up that exact same journal I had that last night in Texas. Then, there was maybe only 20 pages left. If that.
I've wondered why this was over the past while, because I've noticed my lack of desire to get my thoughts down on paper. It used to be this release of energy for me. I would write vigorously everything I was thinking, hoping for, and bothered by. For some reason my journal has never been 100% focused on actual events in my day, more just my thoughts rapidly recorded, pages and pages long. Much of my journal was taken up by my thoughts about what I hoped for my future. Ever since I got home and real life started happening I think I kind of had to get my head out of the clouds and actually live in reality, make decisions and grow up. Much of those decisions and preparations involved building my life with Sean and figuring out how we would survive together as students for a few years. I think one of the other reasons why I don't need my journal as much anymore is because I have Sean tell everything to. Before I held some things in, but now I don't really. Sorry journal, your place was taken. :)
The other reason why I think I don't write as much anymore is because of something related to a post I've already written about how I'm not going to figure out life just by thinking about it... more likely by living it. If only you knew how much time I spent thinking... haha. This is a random sidenote: When I was a freshman living in the dorms my friend Layne was my roommate. At night I would lie in bed before falling asleep and just stare at the ceiling thinking about everything. Sometimes I would randomly say things to Layne about what I was thinking about--the boy I liked, my classes, what my major should be, who I would really marry, etc. etc. Usually she was up late doing homework. But, we had this running joke that all Layne had to do was basically acknowledge the fact that I was talking with a "mmmhmm" or "yeah" and I would be completely content thinking out loud. The other joke was that I looked kind of dead just staring at the ceiling all weird like that. haha...
Anyways, my point is that my journal stage has faded for now. I like this blogging thing though because I can share things that happened, photos etc, as well as ideas that other people can read. I guess we can all learn from eachother.

What's Best For Us

One night last week as I was talking to my mom I saw a journal on her dresser that I knew was hers, but that I didn't think had been written in. I opened the cover and realized that she had written one entry with Melissa's help. Her entry was written January 1st and basically summarized in a paragraph her experiences of 2010. Despite my mom's trials one sentence that was included in this short synopsis basically said "I know that God knows what's best for us."
Throughout my life I've thought a lot about this idea. I feel like time and time again God has proven to me that He does know what's best. I've learned that by looking for his guidance in my decisions as well as taking opportunities as they come that seem to be put in my path for a specific reason. My mission was definitely that way. I can't imagine my life without that experience. It meant everything to me. It helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses as well as understand the true desires of my heart. Ironically, I never really planned to serve, and I only did after feeling like I was knocked over the head with the idea in a moment of sincere desire to know what was best for me.
Sometimes I think it's also the case that we know what's best for ourselves and God agrees. Isn't that the best?! Towards the end of my mission I developed a strong desired to be married and start my future family and I prayed to receive those blessings. Apparently God agreed because Sean and I started dating and fell in love quickly after I got home. We fit together as husband and wife in a way I always dreamed of, and I was so grateful to realize that what I hoped for myself was something that God also thought was best for me.
Often, we realize why a certain situation was for the best after it's over. Maybe even months or years later. I'm not going to pretend that I already have figured out why my mom is experiencing the trials she is right now, but her statement that God knows what's best gave me hope that maybe one day I'll understand.

This Christmas

This being my first Christmas home from my mission as well as my first Christmas was Sean, I was really bummed this week when I found out that Sean was scheduled to work Christmas Eve, but for his sake it ended up working out well because I ended up spending the whole day cooking Christmas Eve dinner while everyone finished up last minute things like wrapping presents, even going shopping, and I think Melissa ran to the grocery store like 4 times to get stuff we had forgot. Luckily it's only a 3 minute drive. Everything turned out well. I was exhausted. I made orange rolls, raspberry jello crunch, sweet potatoes, a dark chocolate cheesecake, wassil, mashed potatoes, broccoli and carrots and helped my dad with a turkey. Whew. It was crazy. And it all turned out delicious. And I have no idea what Sean would have done while I was doing all of that, so I guess it was good he was busy.

Christmas morning was really fun! Sean and I happened to be the first ones to get up and when we did we immediately ran down to the basement to tackle awake all the rest of my siblings. He tackled and I took pictures. My favorite ones are of McKayla--so candid. Our first Christmas together was a blast. We had a good time opening presents, watching movies, and relaxing. I'm really glad we decided to spend Christmas with my family so that I was able to still make it fun for everyone by helping making yummy food, shopping, and wrapping the gifts. My mom is doing okay. She finished another treatment of radiation recently. I'm not totally sure if that's whats caused her ravishing appetite, but she literally wants to eat everything in sight---especially if it's sweet. My grandma has hid every box of treats neighbors have brought because it would all be gone in a day if my mom could get her hands on it. haha. Not surprisingly, it's hard to see her this way. Especially during Christmas when in the past it's her time to shine with all of her wonderful homemaking skills. But I'm happy she's doing okay, that she's not in pain, and that she was able to have a good time with all of us. It was a wonderful day!

PS: How does McKayla manage to make the best facial expressions? Geez...

Hope ya'll had a great holiday!!