Better

Feeling MUCH better.  The scriptures have brought so much peace to my restless heart and my tired mind.  I love it.

I've had a few people ask how Nate is doing with all of this.  It's hard on him, for obvious reasons.  He's SO tired of applying for jobs.  It's tedious and taxing, and he is sick of it.  I have talked to other couples who felt strained during the job hunt.  Nate and I have felt strained, individually, but as a couple, we are actually growing much closer.  I can see how times like these can pull a couple apart, but that hasn't happened with us, and I'm so grateful.  I love him so much, and we have been able to find the humor and blessings and love in this trying time.  What a blessing.  I think we both feel so defeated that we just sit together at night and just laugh.  Because what else can we do??

Everything is going to be alright!!

The Family is of God

Our Father has a family.
It's me.
It's you.
All others, too, we are His children.

He sent each one of us to earth, through birth
To live and learn here in families.

God gave us families.
To help us become what He wants us to be.
This is how he shares His love.
For the family is of God.

I can't stop looking at this picture.  Ashley did a beautiful job.  I feel the Spirit so strongly whenever I look at this, and I know that my family is of God.  Things aren't easy right now, but we know He is aware of us and has a plan for us.

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

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!

Goodbye Village

Well, we moved down to Salem last weekend.  It was such a stressful weekend, but we're here now and settled in and actually loving it!  The kids love their new school and teachers, and we have my parents' basement to ourselves.  Cam has a group of boys to ride his bike to school with, and I get to go running with my dad in the mornings!  I wish we knew how long we will be here, but the job hunt goes on, and we keep waiting.

It was weird to clean the apartment and drive away.  We lived in the Village for almost 7 years!  But I was ready to go!  I miss a lot of things about life up there, but it was definitely time to move on.

We still don't know what the Lord has in store for us, but I have never doubted that He has been in control the whole time and knows what job is best and what location is best for our family.

Life Update (LONG post!)

Okay.  I have been slacking on my blog, and I don't like that!  This is my family journal, and I need to do better.  I'm going to try and sit down every evening and write down our day.  That's the goal.

So here's a quick recap of what I haven't blogged lately.

1.  The kids are doing great in school!  Cam had a field trip to Silver Lake yesterday and said it was a blast.  He's learning multiplication and division, and it feels like yesterday he was in Kindergarten learning addition!  Roo is loving Kindergarten.  I love her little homework worksheets.  She LOVES riding the bus, and I'm sad that the chances of the kids riding a bus wherever we move to are pretty slim.  Bear and I always have fun at home together.  She misses the older kids, but I'm loving have that time with her.

2. Still no job.  Trust me, you'll know when we get one.  He's had a few interviews though, and the IHC job is still in the running.  Our official move-out date is September 27, so the plan is to move to Salem if nothing else happens by then.  Sigh.

3. I have started a new workout program and clean eating, so be ready for that update each day.  I LOVE it!  The goal is to workout an hour a day, NOT counting running.  I alternate arm/ab day with leg day, and I feel so amazing already!

4. Nate did his 2nd Triathlon on Labor Day and rocked it!  SO SO proud of him!  He wants to do a half ironman next.  Woot!  Such a stud.  And hot, might I add...

5. Yesterday, I met up with my friend, Cindy, at City Creek for lunch.  She is part of our running group, but we had never met, since she lives in Southern California.  She came to Utah to run Big Cottonwood this weekend.  It was such a treat to meet her.  We walked over to Temple Square, since she'd never seen that before.  I hope she had a nice time and felt something special there.

6. My awesome running friend, Ty, invited our family and Joshua over for dinner last Sunday.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  We seriously laughed for like 3 hours straight.  I don't think I've seen Nate laugh so much!  Also, I got to snuggle baby Ginny.

7.. Nate is HOT.  That's all.