So Tess needed a car to get the job and a job to get the car. She got both this week! Actually she got two jobs. She will teach 1st grade at Canyon View Elementary (across the street from Brighton High School) starting in August. In the meantime, she got a job at a daycare/preschool for the VA at the University of Utah. For the time being she is living at home which is fun for us!
Tess finished up her student teaching (the latest round was teaching at the BYU preschool on campus). While she was trying to apply and interview for teaching positions next fall, she somehow managed to clean and check out of her apartment and then actually graduate!
As per our New Year’s Eve tradition, we enjoyed gathering around 3 fondue pots. Our three favorites are: cheese, meat and chocolate. Because we ate too much (as per tradition) and all went into what Madeleine calls a “food coma”, some of us had a hard time staying up till midnight! A few of us did see the New Year in and I personally am looking forward to 2012…I feel in my heart that it will be a good year for our family.
It always surprises me that Christmas actually comes…I guess just because we talk about it so far in advance! As always, our family had a really nice Christmas. Actually every year we have 2 Christmas Days…one with Alan’s parents the Saturday before and then of course Christmas Day at our house.
This year I particularly enjoyed having our house decorated. It seemed especially cozy…I think we had the fire burning morning and night (pretty easy when all you have to do is flip the switch!)
Tess is spending the summer working two jobs now. One as a secretary at the French/Italian Language Dept. at BYU and the other as a clerk at Deseret Book. On the side, she is working as an ordinance worker in the Provo Temple once a week. On the “other side” she is having fun dating and spending time with room mates.
Of course Loren and Phillip share a birthday, and Tess’s is just a few days later, so we decided to combine birthdays and celebrate with dinner and presents on the deck. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it was for me because I had recently taken on the job of power washing and staining the deck. And with all the cold wet weather we have had this spring, it was so fun for me to have our birthday party on a warm beautiful day on “my” newly stained deck!
Happy Birthday to Loren (26), Phillip (26) and Tess (23)
All the Provo students are doing well. They are studying hard and working hard to earn and save money. Our married kids, Loren and Anne, are doing well and often have their siblings over for meals and movies. It’s crazy having half of our family down there – but so fun for them to all be there at the same time.
One weekend when the kids were playing Bananagrams, I suggested that they each play in their “other” language. So Tess spelled her words out in Polish, Clark used French and Elliot used Spanish. It took them a bit longer than in English, but it was fun and a good brain exercise! I am so proud of my foreign speaking children!
Bananagrams is an short easier version of scrabble without the board.
