Cross your fingers and pray

We put in an offer on a house. Here's a picture of the kitchen. Unfortunately, someone beat us to it and their offer was accepted, but there was some question of whether or not the other buyer will follow through. I am excited by the idea of owning a home with an apricot tree. Werty is psyched about the backyard and the view. Oh yeah, it has a view of the mountains and the valley. We REALLY want it. We moved as quickly as we could, so now we have to just hope. Last week, we had another potential house fall through, but this one is SO much better. We were hoping to buy a house through the GNND program as a teacher, but it seems the program is running out of money. Houses that clearly qualify for the program are not being offered as eligible. It's a way to temporarily cancel the program without officially canceling it. The first week of school is not the ideal time to be starting the house buying process, but everything keeps pointing us in that direction, so we hope something works out.

Breakdancing BooBear

Here is a video of BooBear's newest trick, spinning around on the floor.







This week I went back to work. My contract didn't start until Friday, but I went in Tuesday - Thursday to administer ESL placement tests to new students. I spent 6 hours finding and labeling files from the classroom move. The sad thing is that I didn't quite finish the files for the IB class, and I haven't even touched the other classes yet. I spent another 6 hours on covering my bulletin boards. They are about 85% finished. Next week is going to be crazy busy with district meetings, Back to School Night, and the NHS retreat. I am trying to be upbeat and positive about the retreat. It should be fun for the kids, even though it means not seeing my BooBear for 36 hours. We leave right after school and are gone most of Saturday. With the first week of classes, plus all these after hours events scheduled, I am going to be so tired...and I am going in to it already sick with a cold. Grrr. BooBear has been sick all week, but I think he should be improving soon. Poor kid is still adjusting to mom going back to work. He has been refusing to go down for a nap at his normal time because I'm not there to put him to sleep. But I guess that's the nature of things, as soon as you get him on a schedule, it's time to get used to a new schedule.

School starting is good news for those of my blog readers who enjoy reading the strange and hilarious things my students blurt out.

Friday was Rena's baby shower. Werty's relatives in Idaho came down. I was already fighting off this cold, but it was a lot of fun. A friend of hers did a pregnancy photo spread with lots of cute black and white photos of Rena with her baby belly.

Yesterday Werty, Sue, Enrique, Softserve and Werty's brother Link helped Soyjoy move from Payson to a new apartment in Provo. Soyjoy is going to finish up her massage therapy program at Provo College this Fall, hopefully before her baby shows up. I hope she can do it. I know things get difficult during the last trimester as you get more tired and, well to be blunt, more huge. It must be hard to be pregnant when your husband is away (he's a Marine).

Today we were pleasantly surprised to see an old friend from our old BYU student ward today. She was visiting our ward. She moved back to Hawaii with her daughter, but is in Provo until the end of the month. We should see her next Sunday at our ward again. Werty and I had lost touch with her, and were very excited to reconnect with Jennifer.

Benefits of working?

Well, so what if the district continues to freeze everyone's pay so that I am still being paid as a first year teacher...my 7th year working for them. I don't really miss that they no longer give us a Thanksgiving turkey, they only did that once, after all. And I don't mind that they have been increasing my workload each year. Because at least my family has health benefits...

Then I open the email today that lists all the changes to said benefits. Annoyed that they are canceling our dental option (I pay 100% of it, district pays none), I read on...premiums are only going up slightly, that's good, oh wait! All the deductibles are skyrocketing by at least 50%! I remember back in 2008 when the benefits coordinator at the district (same one that was unable to confirm I was covered or get the company to issue me medical cards for over 6 months that year) explained that having a baby would cost the family maximum deductible of $2k. Well, then I had a baby and discovered that it was actually $4k. And I chalked it up to the lady giving the figures for the year before or something. But wait! This year it has gone up to $6k. So, if we have a baby on my health benefits, we will pay more in premiums and deductible than it cost for my last baby. No, really. Thanks SelectHealth for increasing your deductible by 50% every year!!!

Which brings me back to the problem that I have more responsibilities at work, have higher living expenses due to inflation and rising food prices, higher deductibles, and get paid the same. In reality, I am getting paid less each year that I teach.

Salsa

The official salsa season has begun! (The eating kind, not the dancing kind) We had enough tomatoes from our garden for a half recipe, so 3 quarts of salsa is now processed and sealed. This is just the first wave of tomatoes. We had a late season this year because of the unusually cold Spring. That means that Werty will have to do most of the salsa canning this year since I will be at work. I did manage 13 pints of apricot and apricot-cherry jam earlier this summer as well.

Here's our salsa recipe:
(a variation on the USU extension service recipe, scaled down to fit in my 8 quart pot)

4 1/2 quarts blanched, peeled and chopped tomatoes
3 1/2 cups chopped white onion
3 1/4 cups seeded, finely chopped jalapeno peppers
4 -5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
3/4 tablespoons black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin

Combine everything except for the cumin, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Add the cumin and simmer for another 20 minutes. Leave a 1/2 inch headspace and process jars for 20 minutes.

Wedding and Stuff

There has been so much family stuff going on the last few weeks. So, here are some pics to share. Let's start with the wedding:


View of the sunburst through the clouds as we were leaving the temple after the wedding.

I think this is a great pic of my mom.

SoyJoy and my cousin, cousin's husband is in the background. Soyjoy has her baby bump now, but that didn't stop her from wearing 4 inch heels.

My sister FBS and the best man, Joe.


The wedding party (mostly their WOW friends) for the ring ceremony.

Softserve and Maeby's first dance, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The DJ played "Do you Want to Date My Avatar" later when the couple left for their honeymoon. Where did they go? Well, they were already in Vegas...so...Vegas.


Vegas is a beautiful temple, and it was a beautiful sealing. Softserve gave a strong affirmative answer (unlike a certain brother-in-law of mine that answered so quietly, his own bride didn't hear him). Werty and I got to be the witness couple at Maeby's session the day before. It was almost eight years ago that Werty and I went to the LV temple together when we were dating. It was at the end of that trip that he told me he loved me for the first time, and we officially became a couple. So, I have fond memories of that temple already.


While we were in Vegas, and my family was gathered, we celebrated BooBear's birthday a little early with a lunch at R@d Robin.

Photographic evidence that my parents and sisters were there to celebrate his birthday. This will go in his baby book eventually.

A few days before our trip to Vegas, it was our turn to host FHE with Werty's family.


A few days before FHE, Werty's cousin went in to the MTC. His cousin enjoys BooBear, "the last baby he gets to hold for two years."

The proud family.
And you thought your family was big? :P Here's most of the clan, just before we walked him to the MTC and dropped him off.