Catching up

Well, so much for a weekly update, huh? So our last post was vacation and it mentioned the job change. . . that threw me for a loop. I had to quickly finish at my old job and then my new job began the first of August. The learning curve was HUGE! I went to training in Washington DC (my first time being there ever, so that was exciting) and Boise. Then came home to hit the ground running. I am just now starting to feel like I have my feet under me. So with those two things--finishing one job and starting another I feel like I missed a lot of summer. However next year I will have most of June and July off! Hurray.

Dad, Cindy, Roni and Doug and kids came out the end of August. I hope they had fun but because of the job change I wasn't able to spend as much time with them as I wanted. We did do some fun things like Silverwood and hanging out at the lake. The weather wasn't nearly as nice as it could have been and we had to skip a trip to Schweitzer to ride the chair lift. In fact, Craig and the kids and I went back later to ride the chair lift (at the beginning of September) and decided not to ride it because at the top the temperature was only 32 degrees--in September. That is just wrong. We went and had hot chocolate, tea, and coffee instead. My Aunt Sally and Uncle Jim came to visit at that time to--as a surprise for my mom.

While Dad was here he and Craig started our home remodel project of putting in our wood stove--a two year dream of Craig's. You see the finished project in the pictures. It is beautiful and it is nice to have the house really warm and it will be even better when it is actually cold outside!

Ben started Kindergarten and Amanda started 4th grade. Their first day of school pictures are here too. They are both loving school. Ben is excited each and every day to go. He loves his teacher and she is doing a great job with him--she is challenging him and keeping him learning. Amanda has a first year teacher this year who is expecting a lot. Amanda is rising to the challenge. Amanda had a terrific bike wreck this fall. She took a tumble on our road going to her friends house. She had her helmet on, thank goodness. It was cracked pretty good and she was very scraped and bruised. She ended up taking a day off school to recover but is almosted healed up and back on her bike.

September has whizzed by and October is half over. The kids went to Grandma and Grandpa Wikoff's while Craig and I went to Pastor and Spouses retreat. They carved pumpkins and went to Northwest Trek. We got to see Kristen and Brian and Debbie, Jennifer and Kyle before we headed home. What a great family I married into! I am enjoying my work with Idaho Virtual Academy and Craig continues to enjoy the associate pastor position with Chad. We agree with the popular shirts, hats and other gear, "Life is Good!"