It was April Fools Day, Easter Sunday, and General Conference all on the same day as well as Peter was on duty. I had made jello the night before and put straws in it to look like lemonade at lunch the next day. All the kids fell for it and started to try and drink and nothing came out bc it was jello. I was dying laughing. We went to the firestation and dad had hidden a bunch of easter eggs around the station for the kids to find. General Conference was amazing and especially exciting where it was President Nelson's first conference as prophet. He announced that the High Priests will now combine with the Elders and be known all together as the Elders. They also got away with visitng teaching and home teaching and now there is a new higher way of living that law and they are refering to it as ministering. It feels so right. All this news and it being general conference creates an excitement in me for the work to move forward and to spread the gospel. It lights the fire in me to do more and be more and be better!
We took the kids to Hill Air Force Base. They had a good time seeing all the planes. We had lunch at subway and it was a bit chilly so Corey gave Brielle his coat. The next day I took the three little kids to dinosaur park while Casey stayed back with Peter and worked on the spec home. Casey wanted to stay and work with dad. The other kids and I had a great time at dinosaur park.
Corey and Brielle flying kites
YM and YW activity was baking cupcakes for the bishopric to eat...doritos in cupcakes? yum!
Casey's first job and first day on the job. He started working for Bret Davis doing yard work. My boy is a man child! Such a good hard working kid!
This article mentions Elder Staheli who I will write about at a later time. He met with my YW at temple square and is the Prophets personal secretary.
Brielle dressed up for preschool for the letter day.
My mom sent me a text of this job opening. For about a month I have been having these impressions to do more, and reach out and help youth. I wondered if it stemmed around my calling as YW president to reach out and teach my YW more but that wasn't it. So I started creating a program on things I want youth to learn and know. I had to do something because the spirit was so strong I couldn't shake it off until I started moving on it. A few weeks later my mom sends me this job opening as an elementary school counselor. I open it and start bawling. Ugly crying sobbing. I thought, why the heck am I sobbing? And it was because I KNEW this was the answer. I knew I needed to apply for this job. And I was sure that I was going to get it because the spirit had led me directly to this point and prepared me for it. I felt with my whole heart this was exactly what the Lord wanted me to do and I wanted it so bad! I started the application process which in the end took me about a month to complete. I worked on redoing my resume, collecting 3 letters of recommendations (Chris Hardy a counselor I worked with, Lynn Archibald a former principal I worked for, and Melanie Francis a friend and current school counselor). I also had to get 3 references. I used Nicki, Bishop Walker, and Jenny Speth who was a counselor at the high school. I made phone calls to current elementary counselors, I visited schools. I made contacts and did so much foot work. After a month I thought I have done all I can do and I handed in the resume.
Fast forward a month (I am writing this in September and it all started in April, so that's why you get the entire story in a lump sum). I received an email stating that I didn't have enough experience to qualify me for an interview. I was not surprised that they would say that, because that made perfect sense. I had been a stay at home mom for the last 10 years. I don't have experience! But I knew I was supposed to apply for it, the spirit was so strong. So that was where I was stumped. So I figured that for whatever reason I was supposed to apply for that job. I knew it. I didn't know why but I didn't regret it. I told myself that come fall I was going to do things to get more experience and renew my licence that had expired.
Fast forward to August I get a phone call from my mom who is the administrative secretary at Mt. Crest High School. She says that a counselor there is taking 1 year off and wondered if I would be interested in working there for a year. I thought yes! It would give me the experience I lacked, and renew my license. I got a phone call for an interview less than a week after that. I went in for the interview on a Wednesday, and on Thursday I was offered the job, and I started Friday. I about died. What just happened? I went from being a stay at home mom for 10 years to a full time high school counselor!? Wow, thank you Lord! It was all divinely coordinated in the small details by the Lord. Come to find out the counselor that was leaving, was Jenny Speth, the same counselor who was my reference on the elementary application. When she realized she needed to leave for a year she asked HR what to do and they said they didn't want to open up the position but to look at the list of people who applied for the elementary position and choose off that. She saw my name and said I want her! Not to mention my mom and the principal who played a major role. My mom had been talking to the principal Teri about me. So when Teri knew one of her counselors were leaving I came mind from her conversations with my mom. Wow. All I knew was this was all completely out of my hands and in the Lords. I love love this job. Although mornings are tricky with kids and Brielle is only in half day kindergarten I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am right where I am supposed to be.
Casey goes to the temple with youth every other week at 5 am. Wow, what an example!
Casey's SEM project: Under Cover Storage. He and his group presented it at the college of Business at USU. They put in a lot of extra hours after school creating their box. They made a commercial to go with it. (Jamison, Casey, Olivia)
I watched Emmett and Ollie for a few days while Nate and Paige went to Boston.
We had the neatest experience with the Young Women at temple square. I feel so blessed that the Lord had provided such neat opportunities for the YW to meet with church leaders and be in such special places and holy temples where the spirit is so strong. The first year I was put in we met with Elder Brough, 2nd counselor in the YM presidency, who took us to church administation building where members of the 12 meet to discuss the youth and primary and make missionary assignements. Then we got special permission to have a testimony mtg on top of the conference center. So this past year, heading into my 3rd year as president we had another amazing opportunity. My Beehive advisors mission president is our current prohpet President Nelsons, personal secretary. So she made arrangements for us to meet with him and his wife on temple square to talk about the power of the temple in our lives. Well little did we know they took us into the church building where the 12 apostles have their offices. We met in a room where the 12 meet with the first presidency. What a beauriful building and beautiful room. To be in the same chairs that the leaders of our church meet was an honor. We listened for about a half hour to Elder Staheli's wife give amazing words and insights into the temple and how it can change our lives. As we were heading out of that room Elder Staheli asked if we wanted to see the Prophets office. um what!? Yes please?! Just next door to us we walked into a room of secretary desks. Next to that was Elder Staheli's room that we had to walk through to get to our Prophet's office. We walk in and without saying a word all of the young women were silent. The spirit was so strong. The room was neat and tidy and full of special pictures and momentos. Pictures of the prophets family, picture of him being sustained a general authority and shaking young President Monson's hand, Book of Mormon's in all the languages lined up behind a glass case. It was a powerful moment in my life. I can't believe how the Lord so freely blesses our lives.
As we left the prophets office I asked Bro. Staheli, how did you become the prophets personal secretary? He said it all started years ago when they were raising their family and lived on the East Coast. He had the impression to buy a 25 cent book and learn short hand. His wife kind of laughed like, why? But ok. So on his own time he learned short hand because of an impression he had. Later his brother in law called him from Utah and said there was an opening at the church offices for a secretary but the only caveat was they needed to know shorthand. He said, "I just happen to know short hand." Ha! Wow, the Lord is in the details of our lives! He got the job and has since been the personal secretary to 2 apostles and now 2 prophets. He was President Hinkley's secretary, then when President Monson became prophet he didn't want a personal secretary which is when Elder Staheli then served as mission president in France. When he returned he became Elder Nelson's secretary and a short time later when President Monson passed away he naturally become the prophets secretary again. He testified and said, "I know these men as well as any man can know another man. And I am here to tell you they are better than you think they are." What a testimony to me that this church is true, that if we listen to the spirit, he will direct us in the small details of our lives, which then turn into great things. It is by small and simple things that great things are brought to pass. Do the small and simple things and listen to that small and simple spirit. I testify that to be true in my life and I see it in the lives of others.
Celebrated Grandma's 58th Birthday! Isn't she pretty!
We checked out a wicked cool park on our way home from Hill Air Force Base. The kids loved it.
Soccer season at it's finest! This field happened to be the worst field in the history of field. We were eaten alive by noseeums. The smallest nicest mosquito ever! My poor kids came home and it looked like the chicken pox hit their heads. There were no spectators on the home teams side. We were all there completely oblivious to how we would end up!
If you look closely you can see tire marks back and forth back and forth. It took awhile but I was proud of myself for backing the camp trailer back through the gates!
We invited Dallin and Amy Wengert over for a quick evening and root beer floats before they took off to the Caribbean islands for Vet School. Such a cute little family!
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