Happy New Year!

We didn't do much to celebrate the New Year.  We had chocolate pie and Martinelli's and watched TV.

Good-bye 2025 and hello 2026!

 

Nathan's book

I spent most of October and November working on a nearly 400-page book about Nathan's childhood, with written history and pictures from 18 years. I gave the book to Nathan for Christmas, and it was my favorite gift to give this year.

Here's a look at some of the pages: 

 

Christmas 2025

Nathan arrived home on December 20th. My parents arrived on December 23rd.  By the time they arrived, it was raining and some of us were a little sick... We were all still pretty functional though.  Some of us did caroling and treat deliveries in the rain on Christmas Eve.  We also did our traditional candlelight Christmas singing and reading the Christmas story, with chocolate loaf cake for dessert.  

We had a nice Christmas morning.  With teenagers, there was no early rising, so we eventually opened presents and had cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon for brunch.  We also got to chat with Jared.  He was playing a board game.   

We had potato casserole, green bean casserole, ham, rolls, and Martinelli's for dinner.  My mom made cherry pie, which was delicious.  

The day after Christmas, Mike, Carrie, Nick, and Ryan joined us for a couple days.  We enjoyed hanging out on Friday evening.  We sort of all did our own thing during the morning and afternoon on Saturday (walk, chocolate making, football game).  I enjoyed watching BYU beat Georgia Tech in the Bowl Game. We all went out together on Saturday evening to wander around the harbor and then out to eat. We went to church together on Sunday morning. Mike and Carrie headed out after lunch. My parents left on Monday morning.  We didn't get out much because of the rain, but I actually enjoyed hanging out at home.  The boys enjoyed playing Pinochle with my parents.  We also put together our new puzzle of us in the M&M shirts.  We watched a couple of movies and also some old videos of the kids.  We had ice cream, cookies, pie, and yummy food.  Owen was supposed to be playing in a couple of basketball tournament games on Friday and Saturday, but I guess it was okay that he wasn't feeling well enough to play.  That meant we all got to hang out together instead of going to BB games.  He did play in the games on Monday and Tuesday, so Nathan got to drop my parents off at the airport.  It was nice to see everyone and have Christmas guests at our home.

Busy December

December is always a busy month!  This one was even more busy with me starting a job and working about 33 hours before Christmas.  We also had family coming in for Christmas, so I had extra stuff to do to prepare for them.  We celebrated Owen and Savannah's birthdays.  Owen wanted more Legos, and I also got him a few clothes and such, which he didn't ask for. 

Savannah DID want clothes and shoes.  I didn't think I could pick out shoes for her, but I got her a whole box of clothes (many from the thrift store).  She also got a necklace, money, and some other lotion and stuff.  We had a friend party for her later in January because December was too busy.

We had choir concerts at school and church and singing at a local retirement home.  Alex and I did our monthly temple visit. We had youth activities (gingerbread houses and white elephant party) and ward Christmas party. We still had quite a few basketball games (although we missed some due to sickness).  We sent out Christmas cards and letters and delivered treats and gifts to local friends.  I made several chocolate loaves and snickerdoodles (not sure how many this year - we delivered on 4 different days). We also delivered some blankets this year. 

Here was our Christmas card this year.  Our letter highlighted our 25 years of marriage.  

Here is the gift Owen got at the white elephant party:

New Job

Our financial situation was looking bleak, mostly due to our Utah housing situation.  I had already been looking for a part-time job occasionally over the past year, but I hadn't found the right one yet.  This fall, I knew that I needed to step up my search.  I finally found the right position and started my new job the second week of December.  Here's the story, since it was a long process. (I had to go back and check the timeline on this process to remember the details.)

 Every month, we participate in fasting (and prayer) with our church, usually on the first Sunday of the month.  Because General Conference was the first weekend in October, fast Sunday was moved to the last Sunday in September.  So I actually fasted twice in September (on the 7th and 28th), and both times were in regard to our financial situation and finding a job.  On September 24th, I saw a position listed on the Simply Hired website for a paid position within my church.  Most of our church positions are not paid positions - all the callings are volunteer, from Bishop, Stake President, Young Women President, to Nursery / Primary / Seminary teachers.  They're all volunteer positions.  However, in the church departments that don't work directly within a ward, there are several paid positions.  I was surprised to find out how many various church departments there are - Auditing, Communications, Church History, Information & Communication Services, Materials Management, Meetinghouse Facilities, Security, Correlation, Deseret Trust, Missionary, Office of General Counsel, Philanthropies, Directors for Temporal Affairs, Family History, Finance and Records, Priesthood and Family, Publishing Services, Global Services, Headquarters Facilities, Human Resource, Special Projects, Tabernacle Choir, Temple, Welfare & Self-Reliance Services, and Seminaries and Institutes.  I have a friend that works for the Church History department, so I knew there were some paid positions.  

This position was for an administrative assistant in Seminaries and Institutes.  I thought I knew exactly what position was being advertised, because one of the ladies in my ward worked as the secretary of the Institute here.  On Sunday, I decided to ask if she was retiring from her position, and she said, "Yes. My last day was on Thursday." (She worked there for about 30 years.) I told her I'd seen an advertisement for her job. I still was unsure if it would work for me, because I didn't know the hours or if I had the qualifications to be an administrative assistant.  On Monday, I decided to do one last search online for part-time jobs.  Again, I landed right on this position, in a random search for any part-time jobs available.  I felt like that wasn't a coincidence and the push I needed to apply, so I put in an application the next day (Tuesday September 30th).  

I didn't hear anything back very soon about my application.  On October 11th, Alex forwarded me an email that he received from the Institute Coordinator, asking Alex (as a Bishop) to pass along the job posting to anyone he knew who might be interested.  That was a little odd, because I didn't really want to compete with a lot of other applicants. Anyway, I understood that he had to send it out. The email went out to all the Bishops in the area. What I did get from that was someone I could contact.  Applying through the website, there was no contact information, so I wasn't sure where or who to follow up with.  I emailed the coordinator just to confirm that he had received my application.  He responded that he had received it, but they were still in the gathering process of applicants. I wasn't sure if that meant they had to leave it open for a certain time or if maybe they saw my resume and were hoping for more choices...  Anyway, I had to be really patient with the process.  

On October 21st, I finally got a phone call, but I was disappointed to learn they were looking for someone to work 1-5pm and be there on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  I had thought it was a morning / daytime position, with no evenings.  I told him I couldn't commit to those hours since I still had 3 kids at home, with lots of sports and activities during the afternoon and evening.  I had really been hoping this job would work out, so it was a letdown after our conversation.  However, about 30 minutes later, I got a call back, in which the coordinator said they might be able to work around my schedule.  He realized they had a senior missionary couple who could be there in the afternoons and evenings.  He was asking what my ideal hours would be, so my hope was renewed.  

Well, it was still almost another 2 weeks before I got a call to come in for an interview.  I was pretty relaxed for the interview.  I thought it might be more of a formality than of competing with other applicants since it seemed like they were tailoring the position to fit my schedule.  I got a tour of the institute building and then had the interview, which was a little different than I've ever done before.  The coordinator was obviously there in-person, but we were also on a zoom call with 2 other ladies.  I didn't really understand who they were, which was probably a good thing, since later I realized they were secretaries to my boss's boss.  I was talking to the regional administrative assistants for the CA South Region!  They were very nice though, so I felt pretty comfortable during the interview.  However, at the end, the coordinator said they had some other interviews, but I should know by the end of the next week about the position.  Hearing "other interviews" worried me a little bit.  I wondered if others would have a lot more work experience or be much more qualified than me.  (I never asked if they actually had other applicants for the job.)

Well, the interview was on November 4th and then the "end of next week" came and went with no word.  And then another week went by, so I thought maybe I didn't get the position.  Then on November 24th, I got a quick update that they were still in the process of evaluations, clearances, and such.  Finally, on December 1st (another week later), I got offered the job.  Basically, the whole process took 2 months.  It was worth the wait though.  I'm just glad I didn't have to start at square one with the job search after waiting around for a couple months with no job.  

My technical title is an Administrative Assistant for Seminaries and Institutes, but more simply, I'm the Secretary of our local Institute, which serves the college aged young adults.  My first day was on Tuesday, December 9th and worked the 2 weeks before Christmas.  I mostly worked on cleaning out and organizing my office the first week. It had several years' worth of stuff we didn't need and not much organization. I did some training the next week with the Regional Administrative Assistants. We also had a Christmas party luncheon with other area secretaries and spouses and a few regional people.  One of my first big tasks was to help with set up and decorations for the luncheon.  The senior missionary couple did a lot to help with that too.  Alex got invited to this luncheon as well, so he got to meet some of the people I work with and have a nice lunch.  

This has been the perfect job for me.  I have Mondays off, which is great since that's my day to chat with Jared.  I usually work Tuesday-Friday from 10-2.  Sometimes it's a little more, and twice a month I have a 9:30 zoom meeting with other secretaries.  That just means that another day I finish at 1:30 on those weeks.  It seems pretty flexible.  The hours are great, and I have all the normal holidays off, weekends off, 2 weeks for Christmas break, and a week off for spring break. I'm not sure what the summer hours will look like yet, but it will be less hours.  I'm really glad that I'm not going to miss any of the kids' events in the evenings and still be fully there for them in the mornings and afternoons.  

While my office is at the local institute building, my job also involves working with the seminary teachers (who teach the scripture study classes for 9th-12th graders) for 3 different stakes.  There are 14 seminary classes that I cover, plus attendance for 4 institute classes. I attend the seminary teacher training meetings and then help track attendance and prepare reports for seminary students.  I don't attend the evening institute classes, but I'm on a committee to plan and coordinate institute events and such.  I head up the service committee to help plan quarterly service projects.  We see the full-time missionaries a lot and they're part of the weekly committee meetings.  I also do the "waffle Wednesdays," making waffles for whoever comes in during 12-2 on Wednesdays.  We haven't had more than about 5 or 6 people for that yet.  I also have a financial component to the job, but it's pretty easy.  I scan receipts, code them to the correct account, and prepare the expenses to be submitted or reimbursed.  I really like doing the paperwork, the quiet environment, and all the independent work. The meetings and social part aren't my favorite, but the people are great to work with. 

I do have some weekend training meetings and occasional regional meetings to attend.  I recently had my first work trip ever.  The regional meeting started early on a Friday morning and would have been a really early start to drive there that morning.  So I got to stay at a motel overnight. We had a nice meeting with brunch and lunch included.  I also got an official name tag for my job.  I probably won't wear it very often, but it looks pretty cool.  

Nathan's Thanksgiving

This should have been on the end of the Thanksgiving post.  Nathan decided not to make the drive home for Thanksgiving - long drive to just be here a couple of days and the flights were too expensive at the last minute.  He joined Alison and Micah for Thanksgiving dinner.  I never saw any pictures from that, but here are a few pictures from the weekend.  A few of them came and saw Nathan's place and took him out to dinner (with Micah's brother).  The second photo is one that Nathan sent me, which was from a social event on Sunday evening.  Nathan ran into one of the sons of one of the families that we had Thanksgiving dinner with.  They hadn't met before but found out from conversation who their families were.  Nathan had been getting rides from this guy's brother every week to go to the Orem Temple last year. Now he knows two of the brothers in this family, and this one was just a random meeting at a social event. 

 We appreciate Alison and Micah taking care of our college kid! 

 

School Choir

Owen made it in the elite choir this year.  He sang the National Anthem with the choir before every home football game.  He had a couple of concerts.  He also had several caroling gigs throughout December at various events.  Weston also sang in the boys choir.  He and Owen sang a couple of songs together. We really enjoyed listening to them sing.