Country Roads, Take Me Home

2015 was a hard year for us.  We love Salem, and the kids are SO happy here!  But it was really hard on Nate and me to keep our chins up and keep having faith in God's plan for us when he just kept getting rejection after rejection.  He felt defeated, and we both felt so helpless and stuck!  But at the same time, we grew closer together.  We have a better friendship and relationship now, than we ever have.  I love him!

Last week, Nate was offered a job in Charleston, West Virginia!  We are so excited! And very much in shock!  The more we have prayed and researched and talked to people, the more excited we get, and the more we understand WHY we had to wait so long.  This place is exactly where God needs us to be. Now all of the rejections simply feel like stepping stones that led us here.  Our new home!

God has poured this blessing upon our family, and our joy is full!  

Happy Holidays!

Such a busy, FUN time of year!  We have had so much going on!  Family parties, Nate's work party, holiday group runs, and lots of shopping and Christmas movies.  I love it all!  I am SO excited for Christmas this year.  The kids get more fun each year, and this will be the best one yet!  I can't wait to see their faces and watch them be so happy!

My gift to my Savior this year was to finish the Book of Mormon by Christmas Day.  I was in Alma, so that put me reading 19 pages a day.  It's been tough, and I've had to sacrifice some tv time to get the pages finished at night, but I DID IT, and it was amazing.  I learned SO much.  The Lord truly opened my eyes and gave me new light and understanding.  My love for my Savior grew, and my desire to serve Him and trust His wisdom increased.  I love the Book of Mormon!

Sunday was a beautiful Church service.  The music and messages were perfect.  I felt such a reverence for our Savior's birth.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Eleven-Eleven

So apparently I just don't blog anymore!  :(

Nate takes the laptop to work now, and we don't have the PC set up here, so it's not quite as convenient to blog.  But I don't want to get too behind!

Nothing new on the job search.  We press on. We are so blessed!

#Salemlife is great!  The weather this season has been unbelievable.  So warm!  We are taking advantage like crazy!  Lots of walks and hanging out with new friends....animal friends!  Allie has befriended every horse within a mile of here.  We take them apples and carrots.  We have also met kitty friends and a black lab named Kohl, who used to bark at us, but now when he sees us, he gets SO excited to play fetch!  And there's Bruce.  Allie wrote him a letter and put it in his mailbox (without my knowing), and he "wrote back" and gave us a Twix.  Awesome!  I love our neighbors!  Sigh.  We need pets....

Halloween!  It was a blast.

On a whim, I decided to run the Saltair Half Marathon with Cathy and Sonja.  It's a completely FLAT course, and we ran it in 2:26:52.  Pretty happy with that!  Sonja was sweet to stay with us, it was more of a training run for her.  Cathy and I did our best to keep our pace under 11:00.  The aid stations didn't have cups (SO lame), so we had to stand there and drink from the big thermos at aid stations.  Ate up some time.  It was fun to see Wan, Joshua and Meridith too!

Finally, some random pics.  Mostly of Claire because that's who I hang out with the most!  :)

October Life, Part 2

Pretty much a repeat post from two weeks ago.  Still no job, enjoying pumpkin patches, running and trying to increase my spirituality.  My dad and I attended the Provo Temple together last week.  I needed that!  I haven't been to that temple since I've been married, so it was nice to go there again.

Cam and Nate ran the Salem Witches 5K on Saturday.  My dad went and ran with them.  They did great!  Cam told me he wants to run a half marathon with me one day.  I am so excited that he loves running!

I ran the Howloween Half marathon on Saturday night.  I've decided that I will NEVER do a night race again!  They are terrible!  I just prefer mornings.  But I ran with Shaylee, and we helped each other finish.  Our time wasn't great, but I told her I wasn't going to leave her behind.  There was this sweet deaf man who we kept seeing along the course.  Whenever he would see us, he'd give us a thumbs up, to "check in" that he was doing well.  Shaylee signed with him afterwards, and turns out he was all alone.  No one to cheer him on.  I'm so grateful we could be his support.  Sometimes races have NOTHING to do with yourself.  Sometimes you are meant to be there for someone else.  I am grateful I could do that for Shaylee and this nice man because I can't even count how many times someone has been there for me. When he finished, he came up and thanked us and wanted a picture.  Made my night!!!

I also spent some time with Cathy this week.  We always laugh when we get together because we have 8 kids between us and it's just nuts.  I love this girl.  She is a blessing in my life right now!!

October Life

Life is crazy!  I keep getting behind on blogging.  Here's an update:

1. Both potential jobs we were hoping for fell through, so we are back to square one.  I don't want to talk about it.  But these comfort me:

2.  Salem is still treating us well.  I can't get over how grateful I am that we have a place to live right now!  We were hoping it would be VERY short-term, but for some reason, this is where God wants us to be right now.

3. It's that time of year!  Pumpkin patches abound.  Claire is at such a fun age where she can keep up and understands things better.  I'm loving the kids' ages right now!

4. Running!!  We did AF Canyon again last weekend.  Nate came with me, and we ran the whole 8 miles with Wan.  It was such a treat getting to know him better.

Then on Tuesday, I went up to Yellow Fork Canyon and did a HIKE....it was supposed to be a run, but Wan took us straight UP the mountain!  I biffed it on the way down, but still, it was a blast, and I was happy to push my body and get stronger. It was such a fun group though!

 I love MY Janet!