June, So Far.

So I ended with telling you that I made it to Utah!

While I was there, my siblings and parents did a great job of helping with Bekah. The kids took her out on the trampoline and the slide, and my dad took her for a walk every night! My mom enjoyed time with Bekah by reading her stories, and listening to music videos with her while Bekah danced away. (www.erichermanmusic.com click on Videos - great stuff!) I enjoyed spending time with the family, watching TV with siblings, and getting some ME time to read books! I read 2 while I was there: The Silver Phoenix, and Spells. (Aprilynne's second book! You should read it!)

I thought I had a phone interview that Tuesday, and I was supposed to write a lesson plan for it. I REALLY struggled - it was for Algebra 2: Graphing rational functions, which I have no experience teaching. I called a friend of mine who taught it this last semester, and she sent me her lessons so I could re-teach myself before I wrote my own lesson. It turned out the interview wasn't until Wednesday, so I had plenty of time! My family was so awesome taking care of Bekah while I focused on it.

On Thursday I got a call back from Catalina Foothills (the school I interviewed with) and they offered me a job! :) I asked when they wanted to know by, and they said they could give me until Friday. So I told them I had to talk things over with my husband and I would give them a call back the next day. After talking to my family, I decided to say yes, but still go to the other interviews I had set up for the next 2 weeks. Everyone has told me that nothing is permanent until I sign a contract, and not to worry about interviewing when I already have 'accepted' an offer. So on Friday I called and accepted the offer!

That same day I flew home with Bekah in tow. It was Rebekah's first time on a plane and she did great. :)


Bekah being good on the airplane (her first flight!). Seriously, I am in love with whoever invented the magnadoodle; Bekah played with it in the car on our way up AND in the plane. :)



Saturday I had a baby shower in the morning, and then we drove up to Casa Grande and met Gary and his mom (Daryn's Grammy) for lunch at Cracker Barrel. It was great! I'm glad that Bekah and Grammy got to spend some time together. Grammy was very nice and bought Rebekah a new toy that she LOVES!



After that we rushed home and attended a birthday party for Bekah's friend Bella. She is in our ward, and she and Rebekah went to the same daycare this last semester. They're SO cute together - when they see each other, they run towards one another yelling the others name, and then hug. We had a lot of fun! Rebekah was the youngest of the kids that "got" how to play with a pinata! :)




That Sunday was Ammon's birthday! My little brother is now 20! Crazy... I am so happy to have him as my brother. He's such a great kid, and I'm so glad he's serving a mission and sharing his love of the Gospel with others. I miss him tons, but I know he's where he is supposed to be, and look forward to seeing him in a year!



My baby looks great in red! I love her little shoes - someone gave those to us! Also - the stool she is sitting on: Daryn made it in 7th grade (how appropriate, that's where we met!) and I sat Bekah on it once to do her hair. Since then when I tell her we're going to do her hair she goes and gets the stool for me, sits on it, and waits patiently while I do her hair! Rebekah is AWESOME! :)

Tuesday June 8th I had an interview out in Tonopah! (It's west of Buckeye... crazy!) Thanks goes to Christin, my awesome SIL, who was willing to babysit on her day off. :) This interview is one that I went to mostly to see how things would work out, even though I was doubtful about taking the job. They wanted me to have 3 preps - Alg 2, Trig and Calculus - and they wanted me to do it from scratch! I had a hard enough time doing 2 preps, even though I had materials available to me almost the whole time! Crazy. But I was very interested in the school because it has the power plant so close by that it gets a lot of money from it. So there are smart boards in every classroom, and the math teachers just got tablets that are tied to the smart boards! Of course, since they are so close to the NUCLEAR Power Plant, there's an evacuation plan posted everywhere, and the front office has all parents sign forms about distributing medication to block some of the more harmful effects of radiation to under-aged children. The interview went well, but when I started asking questions about the preps, I kinda let them see how little I wanted to teach THREE preps. Oh well! I was pretty convinced by the end that there was no way I'd take the job.

So while I was driving between my brother's place and my in-law's place that afternoon, I got a call from Millennium High School requesting an interview. I had planned on going back to Tucson that night, but decided that I could arrange to stay the night and not waste all that gas! So, the next morning I took an interview with them. No one was really available to babysit in the family circle, so I called up my friend Tiffany and a few other people to see if anyone could sit for me. Tiff didn't answer right away, so I called a young woman that had just graduated HS that I know from my parents old ward in Phoenix (my in-laws live in those ward boundaries, but they are not members). Amber was more than happy to watch Bekah for the morning, and I was very grateful, but Tiffany called, and things worked better if I had Tiff do it, so I canceled with Amber. Not only did I feel like I needed to spend some time with Tiff after the interview, but she has a son just a few days younger than Bekah, so I thought that would be fun for both our kids. :)

The interview with Milennium went very well. They liked that I had a portfolio to show them, and we joked about bias for/against the various state universities. The Principal graduated from ASU, and I think the math teacher did as well, so they teased that if I had come from ASU I'd already have the job, but they'll still give me a chance. Then I told them about how Christin had just graduated from ASU and Daryn from NAU so my parents have one from each state university this year! They thought that was pretty cool. I also really liked talking with the secretary while I was waiting for my interview - she was very sweet. :)

After the interview I hung out at Tiffany's place for a while and then we went to Olive Garden for their Soup & salad lunch. Rebekah was kind of tired when we got in our cars to go to lunch, and she cried and said "Gage! Gage!" over and over when we put the kids in separate cars. It was VERY cute! Poor thing. She was very pleased to see her friend at the restaurant. AND, she really liked my soup! By the time we finished she had a full belly and I was planning on driving straight to Tucson so Bekah would nap the whole way!

Except, one of my headlights was out.

I could have gone home and had Daryn fix it because it wouldn't be dark for hours, but instead I went back to my in-laws and asked Gary to fix it for me. :) Yay for dads!

THEN I finally went home. :)

And discovered a piano in the back of our truck!

Daryn found a mahogany 1917 Smith & Barnes Player Piano on Craigslist for free! I guess he'd been keeping his eyes out for one for me for a while, but we mostly didn't have any space so he wasn't going to buy one. But free was an offer he couldn't refuse! Also, before I got home he had a man come out and look at it. This guy will tune it and fix the few problems it has inside for just over $100. VERY cheap! Daryn plans on refinishing the wood himself. In the picture below, you can see that the fall (part that covers keys) has been refinished already.





This is the upper panel (front piece that covers the strings). It fell off the piano in transit and the boys moving it didn't realize that happened until later. When they finally found it, it was broken. :( Also, I don't have pictures of the player piece that is taking up a large amount of space in one of our rooms right now. Daryn forgot to put it back in the truck when we took it to Kati's.



I was so excited to see the piano, but knew we couldn't just leave it on the truck for a month and there was no way it would fit in our current apartment, so I called Kati and asked if we could store it at her house until the end of July when we would be moving into a new apartment (regardless of if we go to Phx or stay in Tucson - we need a little more space). She was very kind and said we could, so we drove up to Marana that night and Chris and Daryn put the piano in Kati's front room.

Only, Daryn took all the weight of the piano getting it out of the truck, and twisted his knee while it was bent. He dropped the piano (a couple inches, no damage) and fell to the ground! :( It was very scary, and he just stayed on the ground for a while. We had this huge upright HEAVY piano tilted - one corner touching the ground, the other side still against the bed of the truck...

Eventually, we got the piano inside, iced Daryn's knee, and I took him to the ER. There they did an x-ray to check for breaks, but told him to see his PCP about getting an MRI to look at muscle and cartilage. They also gave him really strong ibuprofen and some percocet for the pain, and a knee brace to immobilize his knee.

The next morning, Daryn seriously thought he was going to go to work until he tried to stand and the pain in his knee was unbearable. Instead he worked from home, doing paper work etc, and we set him up to see his Dr. that day. I'm glad we have such a good Dr and that he is available when we need him! :) He told Daryn that he had torn his meniscus - no MRI needed, b/c he could tell by moving Daryn's knee around, feeling it, and considering Daryn's story of what happened. He shot some steroids into Daryn's knee to help the fluids drain (which is what was putting pressure on the knee and causing so much pain), and Daryn says the intense pain was gone almost instantly. Yay! (Now, why couldn't the ER do that?)

Daryn did go to work the next day, and though his knee was sore he managed to do pretty well. The intense pain he was feeling before his shot has not returned at all. :) He did end up buying a cane to help him a bit, but he's pretty stubborn and doesn't use it as much as he should. He wore his brace for a week like the dr said, but ditched it after that because he really hates it, and work won't let him wear shorts even though it's to accommodate his injury. (Under the pants, it can't be adjusted when he needs to sit or walk, and over the pants it has to be adjusted every couple of steps - high inefficient!)

Sometime in those next few days, Millennium offered me their position, and I accepted. Then their HR called to talk to me about salary etc. They said that their board meeting was that next week and they doubted they would get all the paperwork done by then, so my name would probably be submitted at the July meeting. That sounded perfect for me, because it would give Daryn and me the time we needed to decide where we were going and what we were doing. It's after the board approves my name that the schools do the work to pull together a contract for me to sign.

That Monday, though, the principal at Millennium called to say he just needed to talk to a personal reference and my work would be done and my name would be submitted to the board that week! I had him contact our good friend Lyn, who could act as both a personal and professional reference. :) There were a few tricky questions that she answered wonderfully to make me look best. Yay Lyn!

Monday was also the day I was supposed to interview in Williams, but I canceled it because their salary was just too low compared to my other offers, and considering how difficult it would be for Daryn to have a job up there. Instead I interviewed with Amphi HS and CDO HS. Carrie babysat Bekah for the day (for which I'm VERY grateful), and I drove to these two VERY different HS for interviews. Amphi is very close to Flowing Wells (where I student taught) and, like FW, has a relatively high population of low income families. I certainly don't have any issues with that - I LOVED my time at FW - but it was a very strong contrast to CDO, which is one of the more affluent schools in the Tucson area. At CDO, the principal mentioned that she knew my University supervisor very well from their days at TUSD together.

I think both interviews went well, but apparently one went awesome because CDO called just 40 minutes after I finished my interview to offer me the job! I asked how long I had to reply, and they wanted to know ASAP. So I told them that I needed to talk to my husband, but I would call them ASAP. The principal even gave me her cell phone number - she wanted to know that night even if she had left the office!

After talking things over with Daryn, we decided that CDO was very far north, considering if we stayed in Tucson he would still be working pretty far south. Also, it was a bit less money than Catalina Foothills is offering. I really would have liked to work there and live closer to Marana (where Kati lives, and we play soccer every week) but because of all that, and the fact that I had heard more about CF and was getting comfortable with the idea of working there (frankly the actual work load would have been the same, as far as I can tell), I called the principal that evening and declined the position, but thanked her for the offer.

So, if you're keeping score, I've kept things balanced at 1 offer in Phx, and 1 offer in Tucson. Millennium (the one in Phx) called recently and told me that my name was approved in the board meeting, and my contract would be ready to pick-up/sign etc on Wednesday the 23rd. Tomorrow! The Catalina Foothills board meeting is tonight, so I should be hearing from them this next week when/if my contract will be ready for me to sign.

I participated in a talent show at church this last Friday (the 18th). It was very fun, and Sister Carpenter was very sweet to play for me after having my music for less than a week! :) She did great. I really enjoyed the talent show as a whole, despite having to chase Rebekah all over the place. It was def worth skipping a night of soccer for.

Saturday I skipped a baby shower (sorry Emily) but sent my gift with Carrie. I had to clean house before the missionaries got there for lunch! There were 3 of them, and we enjoyed the visit. Then Brent and his wife stopped by for a visit. Brent is the oldest brother of my friend Chelsea, whom I've known since I was eight. :) He just got accepted to UA's pharmacy program, so they were down looking for an apartment. We gave them our opinions about different areas around campus and suggested a few things for them to think about when considering places, talked a little about our families, since we haven't been in a lot of contact recently, and then they left to eat and look at a few more places before going back up to Mesa.

That night, I babysat for Kati while she and Chris went to dinner and chaperoned a youth dance. Daryn was going to come with me, but he got a call from some friends that we're just starting a friendship with and he really wanted to spend time with them, and I was okay with that. :) He had a lot of fun, and I had a pretty relaxing evening getting laundry done and watching Bekah play with her cousins. Kati's kids are SO well behaved, I really didn't have any problems at all!

Sunday was Father's Day! I made Daryn blueberry muffins for breakfast (his favorite) and gave him his cards: one from Bekah, and one from me. We had a pretty relaxing day, and that evening I made him the grilled ham and cheese sandwiches he asked for.

Yesterday I basically spent the day updating this blog! When I wasn't taking care of Bekah, of course. :) When Daryn got home we decided to use some more of our gift cards from graduation, so we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner, and then watched Toy Story 3 in 3D. I was itching for a movie, but didn't want to interrupt FHE for anyone, so that's how we decided on TS3, because Rebekah would watch it. I've never really taken her to the movies, except when she was a little baby and slept through it. When I've put a Disney movie on at home, she gets bored pretty easily, but she enjoys watching (too much) TV. But then at Kati's house we watched part of The Incredibles, and Bekah sat fairly mesmerized, so I was convinced she'd do well at the theater. :) She made it about 3/4 of the way through before she started getting antsy, and even then she didn't cry or make a scene. It was a very pleasant evening!

Which brings us to today! :) Right now Bekah is still asleep - lately she's taken late naps and stayed up really late, then slept in a lot. It's a little rough, but I'm appreciating the time during the day to accomplish things - now if only that didn't come at the price of a lack of sleep! I need to get out of the house more to wear her out and get her to take earlier naps, then I think we'll get into a better schedule. It's just so hot and bright outside that I don't like going to the park, and the mall play area just isn't the same. I need to reach out a bit more to the moms with kids Bekah's age so we can get together and have fun.

Of course, I also need to clean my house and pack it up! But... we're working on things! All in good time.

So, now that I'm caught up, I'll also catch you up on Daryn's job predicament:

Daryn was put in charge of the project that he didn't want to work on, but being in charge looked pretty good to him! (The project is to make a map of where every single phone jack is in all of the Raytheon buildings in Tucson, so the Raytheon fire department can get there faster. This is because a man had a heart attack in a VERY large building, and all the fire department knew was which building - not which cubicle, not which floor, etc - and took 20+ minutes to get to him. The man is okay, but what if he hadn't been? Hence the project.)

It wasn't until later that we found there was no pay raise for it. We were hoping they were looking at giving him a manager position that opened up unexpectedly, but after nearly a month of being on this project, they finally filled the position. Now Daryn's work is harder for him since being passed for the promotion. (He doesn't like the work he's doing, and no one working for him likes the work their doing, so he has to try his best to keep them motivated.) He's supposed to have 10 techs, and he only has 7 and they are starting to take techs away since Daryn has managed to almost keep up to the speed everyone wanted him to go. Only, now he's very stressed about falling behind - and his bosses won't give him the manpower he needs to hit his projected finish time. The new boss asked Daryn for his resume, because he's looking for an assistant and Daryn rushed to get it to him (a little too fast, he thinks he could have taken some more time and made it better) and then the boss said "Thanks, but just so you know, this isn't really a priority for me right now." Ug.

This is particularly frustrating because Daryn's injured knee makes it hard for him to work any of the jobs he might be assigned to after this project is over (which, BTW is sometime in the next week, depending on how many techs he can get). All of them require a lot of walking, and several of them require heavy lifting on a regular basis - things that he is supposed to be avoiding!

Also, he is working for a company (let's call it company A) that is working for a company (company B) that is working for Raytheon. It is Company A that has bosses who are not giving him enough techs. Company B boss wants Daryn to be finished with the project tomorrow, but Daryn has been trying to say "It'll be close, could I have a few more days?" without blaming his Company A bosses for not giving him enough techs. This is because Company B boss will just get upset and demand answers from Daryn that Daryn does not have. So I told Daryn that he needs to sit down with Company A bosses today and say "Company B boss wants me done tomorrow. I was thinking I would be done by Friday - IF I was given the 10 techs you promise Company B would be on this project. No one has another project due this week, so mine should be top priority. If I don't get done tomorrow, and Company B boss gets mad I will say 'Company A boss did not give me the techs I repeatedly asked for - please talk to him about why this project is not complete.'" If they get mad at Daryn for it, there is not much they can do - it's not like he's been written up in any way, so they have no grounds to fire him. Also, he already doesn't like the job, so they can't really give him a worse assignment when this job is over. If, however, they do find a way to make things worse, I'm okay with Daryn leaving. He can stay home and take care of Bekah. My job starts in just over a month, we have the funds to live off of until then, and he can look for another job, or just work on getting into a Master's program. It wouldn't be ideal, but we would be okay, and Daryn does not deserve the trouble he's getting when he's working SO hard and didn't even get a raise, and this job doesn't even give him insurance benefits!

So that's where we are at! I'm 99% sure we will remain in Tucson, but I'm waiting to see if the Catalina Foothills board approves me at the meeting tonight - I don't want to call Millennium until I know there will be a contract for me at Catalina Foothills. I was going to call M a few days ago, but I got this weird feeling that I should wait, and so I am! I don't know if it's just self-doubt, or the spirit helping me out a bit, but we will see sometime this week.

We've picked out 2 apartments here in Tucson - one is about in the middle between my job and Daryn's, about 1000 sq ft, 1/2 a mile from the zoo and a very big park, and the complex is right behind a Fry's. The other is just down the street from where we are now, about 950 sq ft, with a huge yard, and it is at the back of the complex, so pretty far off the street. It is almost $100/mo cheaper than the other we're looking at, in our same ward (which we like), and only $20/mo more than we are paying right now! :) Our only issue is that I opened the refrigerator there while we were looking at the place, and it has BLACK MOLD! YUCK! So we called the manager and said that we really love the place and want to rent it - but first we need to know what she plans on doing about the refrigerator, b/c black mold is really hard to get rid of, and I could see that it was in the cracks and under parts of the freezer that don't really come out to be properly cleaned. I'm hoping that means we get a new fridge... that would be awesome. But, we'll see!

So congrats on reading all this! :) I'll try and take more pictures to show off in the future, and post more frequently! We have a family reunion with my dad's side of the family coming up, and lots of us cousins have kids now, so I'm really looking forward to all of my grandma's great-grandchildren getting to play together. There will definitely be picture of that! :)


Lately we've been putting Rebekah's cartoons on my laptop, if Daryn is playing a video game, or if I want to watch TV (like for the World Cup). She decided that instead of letting it sit on the couch, or her little bed, she needed to have it in her lap, like Daddy and his laptop! :)