A look back

WARNING... This is my yearly summary of what's gone on with us, so it might be kinda long.

As the year ends, it's always nice to look back at what happened. For us, this year was definately a year of changes.

Ty is still in the Elders Quorum Presidency as second counselor. I think he mostly enjoys the position because he holds some power, but not all of it and the stress that that would bring. Ty also still is working for the city as the Budget Officer. With California's budget crisis, it was hard getting the budget done this year. He is learning more all the time and is enjoying his work. His favorite hobby is working on his 1973 1210 International pick-up. He has actually done a lot of work on the truck and almost has it so he can drive it (after almost two years now). The biggest project was replacing the old axels with new ones. He currently has 5 axels for the one truck. His friends call him the Axel King.

Kristi is still teaching primary. Most of the year she has taught the 10-12 year old girls. She really enjoys teaching that age because they actually grasp what you are teaching them. She has just found out she will be moving to the 5-7 year old class and is really struggling with it, but willing to try it. At the end of February Kristi started working part-time again. It was quite a change from anything she'd ever done before, but something she fell in love with. She is a nurses assistant at an urgent care center. It has inspired her to get her EMT certification with the dream of one day getting her paramedic's license. Kristi organized a family reunion this year for her family. Never would she have thought it would be so hard to get everyone here, but she mananged to do it. We had a lot of fun seeing everyone together. The last time her whole family was together was when we got married.

Joey turned three this year and I think is crazier than ever. She wears everyone out who just watches her. She is figuring out how to ride her trike (she doesn't like making the effort to push the peddles down), though would rather just play on her scooter all day. Joey lost her first tooth in the middle of September this year. She was playing in the backyard of Nana and Bop-Bop's house and fell down and knocked it out. Now she thinks it's funny to stick food in the whole and pretend it's her tooth. Thankfully she hasn't been too self-conscience of it. Joey and Kristi went camping with her family up at Sherwin Creek, by Mammoth, and had fun. I think we may try to camp there every summer now.

Our Jetta was recently returned to VW!!!! We started the process almost a year ago about getting it returned due to all the safety problems we've had. It's nice that it is gone. So now we have a new Ford Flex. We just took our first long trip in it, and it was so nice and comfy! I highly recommend one. Lastly our biggest change of the year came during September when we put an offer on a house. It closed at the end of September and we started moving in on Oct. 1. We are enjoying making it our own.

We hope you all have had a good year and will have a good year to come!

What's this white stuff???

Saturday the forcast was showing a possiblilty for snow here for us for Sunday and Tuesday. Everyone seemed certain it was going to happen, but my thought was "I'll believe it when I see it." I was right. It didn't snow either day. However, today everynow and then this funny white stuff kept falling from the sky in little flurries. None ever stuck, but it sure was there. (It's on the mountains all around us and Joey keeps telling me she wants to go play in the snow.) I felt like such a nerd about it that I had to call my babysitter and tell her to have the kids go play in it. For those of you not familiar with our desert, it snows here maybe once every 3-4 years. It snows and sticks every 7-8 years.

Buh-Bye

Ty said goodbye to the Jetta two days ago, and Joey and I said goodbye to it yesterday. We finally have that all settled and done! I am so excited it's over. I signed it over to VW yesterday when I took it down to the VW place in Lancaster. Sometimes I think I'm really going to miss the car. It was pretty peppy and I think I'll miss that it's small, but I'm definately not going to miss all the problems with it.

Christmas Cards

So I am currently trying to figure out how many Christmas cards to get this year. If you are interested in one, let us know. Most of you will probably need to email me your address. You can get my email address by clicking on my profile.

I'm done!

Yay!!! I finished the second part of my final last night! It was a two part final that took two normal classes (so up to 8 hours). I was one of the first ones done and I finished the whole thing in about 4 hours total. I'm so glad that it's over. I feel like I can breathe again. I have one more class session to go to, but that's just to get my course completion certificate. Oh, and I have to work 8 hours in the ER on Saturday, but not a whole lot left. It will probably be early next year when I actually go and take the National Registry exam, but then I'll be a certified EMT-B! I think I'll take the spring off and just relax a little!!

Family Pictures

So I briefly mentioned a while back that my whole family had a reunion. We had family pictures taken. I just got the pictures a few days ago, and they are so cute! I am super excited to have them. My family is a little nerdy, but we usually have fun together. I know a lot of you don't konw my family, but here they are anyway.