Avery Ella Mitchell

So I realized I never posted about our trip to Utah. We got to go to Utah for a quick trip over President's Day weekend for our niece's blessing. It was fun to be home and see our wonderful family and friends! It was definitely too quick, but lots of fun!

Avery

Me, Kim, Melissa, and my sister Stephanie

My sister Stephanie, my mom, me, and Avery

Justin, me, and Avery

How blessed can we be?

I am feeling so blessed right now. I don't know why Justin and I deserve what has come our way, but I could not be happier. Not only has Justin landed an amazing job that he loves so much, but now I have been given the opportunity to begin the perfect job for me! I was just hired as a Speech Language Pathologist Assistant for a school district near us! I could not be more excited! And the best part of it is, it will be close to home so no more long commutes! I cannot wait to start this amazing job! I've had a few days since we moved to Arizona where I had a pity party for myself and honestly wondered why we moved. For the most part I have been happy and have loved having free time and hanging out with family while Justin is at work. However, I did LOVE my job and our life in Utah, so there were a few days I wondered why I ever thought it was a good idea to leave. I already knew it was right for us to be here, but I feel it more and more everyday as everything falls into place. We feel so lucky and so thankful for how we have been blessed and the wonderful life we have here in Arizona. We cannot wait to move into our apartment this weekend and finally really get settled into our life here!

Now that we are away from a lot of family and friends, I get lots of grief for the lack of updates on my blog... so here it goes!

We finally have an apartment! We are so excited! We signed our contract last night and will be moving in two weeks from Saturday. We love the location and cannot wait to live so close to work. Pictures will come soon after we move in.

As for other happenings in our life, there are not many. We love being in Arizona! It really feels like home. We also have loved living with our grandparents. They are so sweet and loving and help us out a lot. I think they love having the company around as well. Grandpa kept telling us to cancel our contract last night and keep living with them. They are great!

Justin loves his job! It is so nice to see how much he loves it, especially since he's still in boring training. He loves the people he works with, the atmosphere, and the company itself. I've taken him lunch a few times and it's been really fun to meet his friends and see his work. We are so blessed to even have a job during this bad economy, but to have one that Justin loves so much is much more than we could ask for.

We are having fun and loving life! Not much more you could ask for.

New Year, New Beginnings

This New Year has brought a whole new life for us... We are now officially Arizonians (if that is even the technical term). It is weird to think we aren't just on vacation this time.
On Monday, January 10th, Justin found out that he had gotten a job in Arizona. We were excited, but very nervous. It was what we had been wanting for a long time, so neither one of us could figure out why we felt so unsure of the whole idea of moving. It was partly because of the quick move we would have to make. Justin's job would be starting in two weeks! We were waiting to hear from one more job that would've started a little later, so we didn't get everything finalized with the first until that Friday. That meant that our time had now gone from two weeks to one. We planned to pack up and move in exactly one week. What a stressful and emotional week! We didn't really realize we had a life in Utah. I know that sounds lame, but I've always called Arizona home, not Utah. So I thought it would feel so natural to move back home. Unfortunately, I was very wrong. We have great family, wonderful friends, and of course my amazing job in Utah. And we had to say goodbye to it all. Not goodbye really, just see you later. It was a roller coaster of emotions. Long story short...we packed up and moved on Friday the 21st. Justin has now started work and I'm on the hunt for a job as well as an apartment. It's exciting to start fresh and we are already loving being here! But there are plenty of things we will miss in Utah... Here are a few...

1. Our family: We have a wonderful family in Utah that we won't get to see as often anymore. We have tons of family here too so it's an easier transition, but sometimes I wish everyone could live close so we wouldn't have to make the transition. It's a good thing we have cell phones...

2. Our friends: We have made some amazing friends in Utah and it was very hard to leave them. But we are currently working on recruiting to get them to Arizona after school!

3. My wonderful job and coworkers (who also fit into the above category): I absolutely love my job and the people there! I could not have asked for a better career right out of college. I am very lucky! They are all so wonderful and threw such a nice little party before I left. The teachers in my classroom planned a fun little game of how well do I know my kids. Each child had a piece of gum and if I got the question about them wrong they got to give me their piece of gum to chew. Sadly, I got 7 wrong, but I must say they were not easy questions! After the game we all ate cake, but the kids thought it was my birthday, not my last day. Everyone at the Academy gave me the sweetest little gifts to always remind me of Elizabeth Academy. We took lots of pictures and had lots of fun! We laughed and we cried. They are all the most wonderful people and I will miss each and every one of them.

4. My kids: My sweet little babies that I teach bring joy to me everyday. It was so hard to leave them. Many of them didn't understand that I was leaving, but the ones that did absolutely broke my heart. I will miss all of them everyday.

These are only a few things we will miss, there are many many more. But we are extremely excited about starting our little family here in Arizona! When I get my computer out of our trailer I will post pictures of Justin on his first day of work and my last day of work, and of course our apartment...when we finally have one!

Finally Finished

So as usual it has been way too long since I last posted. Hopefully one day I will get better with this... Maybe when I have cute kids to write about. But today, this is all about my cute husband. I couldn't let this week pass by without recognizing all of his hard work. After 4 and a half long years, many hours of studying, and tons of stress, Justin is now a COLLEGE GRADUATE! And while I'm bragging about my wonderful husband, I must add that although he was taking 18 credits this semester, and was extremely stressed many times, he got really great grades as well! We are so excited for him to be done with school. Now we are doing lots of interviews and trying to get a job. We feel so blessed to even have interview opportunities in this economy and pray that one will lead to a job. Justin works so hard for us and is on the computer every spare minute he has to try to find one more job to apply for. He is amazing and is a great example to me. It is exciting to know we are now both done with college...until we do our Masters degrees...

Murder Mystery

A few weekends ago, our friends Dallin and Sam threw a murder mystery party. The theme was a new nightclub opening in the 20's. It was so fun to dress up as flapper girls and mobsters! The night was full of good food, good friends, and many murders. Dallin and Sam worked so hard to put it all together and it turned out perfect!

Fads are not always fabulous...

Two words...SILLY BANDS...What a funny fad! Don't get me wrong, I had my fair share of crazy fads when I was young...doodle bears, blow up backpacks, blow up furniture...but fads just get better and better. I can see why parents love silly bands since they are so cheap and kids get a kick out of them.

I went to school on Wednesday to find our cute little Madilyn with a backpack full of silly bands. "I want to give one to each of my friends," she informed me. She is so cute and so sweet. We told her she could take them out to the playground and hand them out during recess, as long as she had enough for every friend. Madilyn went from one friend to the next giving each a silly band. And don't worry, she didn't forget about her teachers. I now own my very first silly band. Lucky me! It was so fun to see how happy she was to share with all of her friends. One of her friends came up to me with five of Madilyn's silly bands on her arm and said, "Madilyn is wasting all of her bracelets!" She was so concerned that Madilyn was giving too many away, but Madilyn could not have been happier.

Silly bands...what will they think of next?