Not much happening here!

Well, last week not much happened. But at the beginning of the week Tori and I qualified for Medicaid! Yeah...so insurance for me, covered. Jason will be on his work insurance and both the kids (Tori and Brooke) will be on Medicaid for a whole year, so that should save us some money!

I did read six books this last week. Mind you, they were all pretty short (I want to read all of the Newberry Honor Books). So if you check out Goodreads you can see what I have been up to! I am trying to read all of the books that I have ever bought, but have never read. I am what you would call a book hoarder! I only have a few pictures of Tori messing around in Cami's cat tent! Most of them are blurry! Sorry!

She got herself pretty stuck in there.

But she finally figured it out...

and then went right back in!

Peeking out.

Cami watching Tori as she invades her tent. Luckily no fight ensued.

I will be sure to blog next week about my vacation with my sister and Mom. We are having a mother/daughter retreat for my mom's 60th birthday at Cannon Beach! No husbands and no kids! :) I will probably miss Tori a ton, but I am excited for some alone time!

Blessings

Everyone seems to have missed the blog where I said Jason got a job! :)

Well...along with all of the other blessings in our life, Jason got a job about a month ago. After a month of looking, praying and having a positive attitude (along with a lot of unpacking) Jason found a job with All-Seasons Mental Health. He has a job that is more suited for his talents: counseling (he is an amazing listener and is really in tune with the spirit). Although the pay (which is comparable to his last job...maybe a little bit more) is a little slow at the moment (he only gets paid for billable hours which include meeting with patients and also writing up reviews) and the paperwork seems never ending (although it is only supposed to take him 2-3 hours) Jason is working very hard and has about 12 patients. A full load is 30-40 patients (? I am not exactly sure about that). They have lots of work for him! He works in 3 different offices: Mountain Home-an hour commute from our house both ways (bonus: he is the only counselor there), Nampa-15 minutes from our house, and Boise-about 10 minutes from our house. One of his hiring points was the fact that he speaks Spanish. His boss, after hiring him, told everyone in the office that he was the new bi-lingual counselor. He has about 4 patients that are Spanish speaking. Although he says it is hard, he says that it is much easier than working with an interpreter. One of his clients is from Africa...and they have an interpreter, which he says isn't all that fabulous and lots of things get lost in translation.


Our key to finding a job: 1-a lot of prayer, 2-keeping an eternal perspective and remembering that we knew that God had this all planned out for us in His own time and His own way (let me tell you, that was hard to remember sometimes!) 3-attending the temple, 4-supporting each other (I helped him look for jobs and he helped me watch Tori and unpack!), 5- reminding Jason that he has special talents and that the job God had prepared for him was out there...we just had to be patient and trusting!


I know that a lot of you are looking for jobs right now. I think that it is very important for you to tell your friends and family about it. We will keep you in our prayers as soon as we know about it because we are very thankful for all of you who prayed for us! We know that there were a lot of prayers in our behalf!

On another good note: WE SOLD OUR CONDO!!! One less (HUGE) bill to pay! We are being smattered with blessings! Our next hurtle is insurance...but we are still trusting God that it will all work out in the end!

California? Where are the pictures? Plus the Dunns & temple adventures!

I am sorry that I haven't blogged about California yet. I got back almost a week ago and you think that I would have something, but it turns out that Lora and I forgot to load all of my pictures from my camera on to the CD with all the pictures from the trip...so I have all of Lora's, but none of mine. So I will thrill you with some other pictures and if you need to get your fix of Tori in California, here is a link to my sister's blog. She is better at writing anyway!! And if you want a flashback of when Tori turned 1, my friend Lesley (who is an amazing photographer) just put Tori's pictures on her photography blog (I recommend that if you live in Utah County or near Orem, you should have her do your pictures! She is amazing!!).
Alright then...the last day I was in California, Lora and I took the girlies to the Oakland Temple to see Jesus (there is a visitor's center there with a Christus statue) and to see the temple. It was a beautiful clear day and you could see San Francisco quite clearly, and the flowers were beautiful. Here are some of my favorites!


tori and Livy loved the fountain...I am really surprised that they didn't jump in! You will have to click on that picture of Tori and I to make it bigger to see...sorry!

Ok...this is the best picture ever! I love it! The temple is straight, the flowers are beautiful and Tori is showing off all of her teeth! LOVE IT!!!
After my trip to California, the Dunns (Adam and Tiffany) came to play and visit. They are our best friends that we used to do stuff with basically two times a week when we lived in Orem. Tori loves both Adam and Tiffany and I think that she has a secret crush on Adam (who she couldn't get enough of all weekend and constantly wanted to be held by him...Tori, he is a married man!) We miss them and haven't made any real good friends here yet. It was so nice to hang out with them and play games. We also stuffed our faces at Old Chicago (this might become one of the places we take you when you visit) and Tucanos (for my free birthday meal!) We love that they don't mind our goofiness and we are already ready for another visit.
On Sunday we decided to take a trip to see the Boise Temple (which is about 10 minutes from our house) and take pictures. We also played an amazing game of Monopoly with exciting new "fast" rules to spice up the game! WE MISS YOU GUYS!!!!

Tori exploring the flowers...she had to touch every one. If you look closely, you can see Tori running in her dress. She loves to have her freedom!

Tori and Jason being silly. More flower exploration!

I think this is a pretty good family picture. Tori is smiling super big...and I look super pregnant! The flowers were amazing!

Tori with Tiffany and Adam. Tender!

Here we are ready to start Super Monopoly!

Adam kicked our trash...he owned basically the whole board because of much needed trades to cover hotel rent we owed him!

WE MISS YOU GUYS!!!

More!

Do you really get enough? Because I think you want more! :) I have to share something pretty funny too...last night Jason and I were watching "So You Think You Can Dance" and Tori was totally grooving to the music. We should have gotten video (I know) but she was doing all kinds of moves! Hilarious!

I love this one because you can see her little feet going and she is totally talking to herself! Oh and of course she is totally adorable in yellow!

She got a hold of grandpa's camera. She is so funny when she runs away with things that she knows that she cannot have! I had to take a picture of the cute barrettes I made her!

I had to share this picture because this is what it is like for me to get a picture of her straight on and smiling. Not going to happen! She can always wiggle herself off the couch before I even have the camera ready!

Lizard or husband? Not quite sure! Grandpa and Tori.

Playing with Cami. Cami is actually pretty good with Tori. Although later that day I think she got bit!

Craters of The Moon

We went on the coolest day trip this last Saturday to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was awesome! The drive from Boise was great (it took about 3 hours) and you go from cow pastures, hay and corn to acres of lava! Jason really wanted to take a rock and complained that if everyone took a rock there would still be plenty left over, but in the end all the lava rock stayed in the preserve.

After a pit stop at the Visitor's Center where Tori got to pet a bobcat and a marmot (taxidermy), we found the only picnic table in the vicinity with shade and ate our lunch.

After lunch Grandpa Dinger took Tori exploring. I love this picture because she is pointing! This is the view from our picnic table!

Jason found this pine cone for Tori and it amused her thoroughly for a while. Check out the enthusiasm. We did have to make sure that she didn't eat the thing (it is a preserve you know!).

Tori continues to explore our picnic area.

This is the lava field over the top of the lava flows where we went cave crawling, or should I say spelunking?! As we entered Indian Tunnel (which is an 800 foot cave) you walk down some stairs to the cave...Jason is at the bottom.

This is a not so flattering picture of us at one of the caved in parts of the cave. This Indian Tunnel was made by a whole bunch of hot lava flowing through the rock. The next picture is Dennis and me walking through the tunnel. Yes...a pregnant woman can do it!

Jason is sitting on the caved in portion of one of the holes. On the way back you walk on a trail above the cave marked by trail markers made out of lava rock. This is Jason and me on top!

Tori (who was taking a nap in the car with Grandma) was thoroughly excited to see us walking back to the car. Check out those pig tails blowing in the breeze.

You've got it! We climbed up Inferno Cone (about 500 feet straight up!) Tori had it easy in the stroller! I must admit I stopped a few times, but give me a break! I'm pregnant. Jason huffed it to what he thought was the top without stopping...then he realized that there was another summit! He had to stop too...well, he was pushing the stroller! We got some great pictures!

Jason likes this one the best. Tender.

Jason called the tree at the summit the "Tree of Life" because everything was black rock as you climbed to the top and then all of the sudden the tree came out of no where. The view from the top was amazing!

Ahhh...a cute one of Jason, Tori and the "Tree of Life". Tori wanted to run around, and the first thing she wanted to see was the dead tree.

Tori and her shadow. Tori pondering at the "Tree of Life".

"Ohhh...I can see the light...and the light is good!"

Our next and final stop (I know...this post is so long!) was the spatter cones made from lava spewing out of these cones and drying in the air. The last picture is of all of us in a spatter cone...Jason is the strong man, I am trying to take the picture without looking too strange and Tori is with Grandpa (of course!). All in all, it was a fabulous trip. We recommend it!