Our Last Trip: California

So, our last weekend before moving home from Houston, we hopped on a flight to San Fransisco to visit Dane's mission, Santa Rosa, CA. Marlyn Gillis, a wonderful woman that rented an granny-unit to the missionaries and absolutely fell in love with Dane during his first 6 months, was gracious enough to pick us up, take us to dinner, and let us stay with her for the trip. She was a wonderful host, fed us well, took us to see the redwoods, and allowed us to do whatever we wanted. We love you Mare!




I think this is supposed to be one of the oldest/biggest trees in the forest we visited. The photo doesn't really do it justice, but it was pretty big. Dane said that there are trees that put this one to shame a little farther up the cost. Sounds like we may just have to make another trip someday.





Charles Shultz, the creator and illustrator of Peanuts (Charley Brown and Snoopy) lived in Santa Rosa. There is a pretty cool museum right next to where he lived. I never really appreciated that comic until I had learned all about it.



Marlyn took us on a long, beautiful drive along the cost. It was a perfect day. We even got to see sea lions!





Dane and I took a day, rented a car and drove to some of the other cities that he had served in. Of course we had to make a stop at one of our favorite bakeries, Bouchon in Yountville, just outside Napa. Yumm.



I bet you didn't know the Jelly Belly Factory was in Fairfield, CA did you? Yep, that was one of Dane's areas too! They give free tours of the factory, and even free samples.



It was a great last trip for us, and we will be grateful forever for the experiences we had while we were in Houston. Thank you Continental Air Lines!
I added up all of our flights we hopped on for free. Any guesses? 30 total! 3 of which were first class.
I went to the CAL website, and those 30 flights, if I were to book them ahead of time for the same weekends next year, were worth about $14,546. So, I guess you can say that we got a run for our money!

The Big Apple, courtousy of AIL!

Last year when I was selling life insurance, I surprised myself (and my family, I think) at how well I was actually able to do it.

Now, I feel I need to say, even though I did find success and make a good amount of money, I will most likely never, ever, ever do it again. It was a really good experience, but just not for me. I have no complaints about the company or the people I worked for. Actually, I love everything about the people I worked with, and the product I sold. However, I decided that no matter who you are, no matter how much money you make, if you are not happy, it is not worth it. So, when I say I wasn't happy, I think the hardest thing about the job was just how demanding it was. It took a lot out of me, but did not give me the fulfillment that I am looking for in a career. As my #1 career goal is to become the best mother I possibly can be, I am kinda picky as to what I want in a job if it is going to take me away from my home.

Anyway, back to the trip! So, every year the company give their employees an opportunity to qualify for an all-expense-paid trip. This year, it was a huge convention with very few meetings and mostly parties/awards nights, and lots of fun in New York City. I was surprised, to be completely honest, when my boss called me up in Houston to let me know I had qualified for this year's convention.

So, in the middle of May, Dane and I hopped on a plane (Continental Airlines... ironic, I know) to New York for 5 days of fun. They gave us true, high class treatment, too. We had tickets for a 2 day hop-on-hop-off bus tour, lots of free time in the city, $50 for a night out on the town on our own, tickets to WICKED(!!), and lots of banquets, along with a great hotel room and shuttling to and from the airport. It was a blast, and a vacation that we really enjoyed. So, here are the pics:

A true, New York deli-style Reuben. Dane and I shared it, and still couldn't eat it all. Take that man.vs.food!



We took a trip to the top of the "Rock", the Rockefeller building. Very nice view.





Of course I wanted to make a stop at the Museum of Modern Art. Here we are in front of a famous Andy Warhol. I have to give a special thanks to all of our friends who tagged along...it was an interesting day. I guess I can just say that not everyone loves modern art as much as I do...



Convention hall.



All dressed up for the formal banquet/awards night.



Wicked! It was the first time for each of us to see it, and we were not disapointed.



We had enough free time one afternoon to take a few hours and visit the Manhattan Temple. It was so beautiful! It was a good day to be inside, too because we later found out from our drenched-freezing friends that it had rained all day, and the double-decker bus tour had not been that great because all of the seats on the bottom were taken.

Houston Space Center

So, after we worked out the logistics with the police and our accident we were feeling a little deflated, but decided to continue with our plans for the day anyway. So, we hopped this time, into our friends' car and recommenced our journey to the Houston Space center. We were soooooo glad that we did. It was a great way to help clear our minds with something fun. We were ok, and that was what was most important.
So, if any of you remember this post from a while back, you may remember my life-long dream of becoming an astronaut. Well, it goes without saying that I was VERY excited to go to the space center. I actually got to see the room where the famous words "Houston, the eagle has landed," "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," and "Houston, we have a problem," were received over radio transmission. So cool. There is still a little part of me that wants to go to outer-space some day. So, i guess my best bet from now on is to become a multi-millionaire and grab a ticket on Virgin Galactic.

So, here are a few pics from the space day:

Here is the whole gang; Dane, me, Jessi and Ryk Heiner, and Stephanie and Trent Hartman in front of one of the pods that some Apollo astronauts came back to Earth in.



What do you think, does it go with my outfit?



There was a flight simulator, and of course Dane had to try, and of course I had lots of advice to offer.



Moon-mobile



Apollo V Rocket. Huge.



Here it is, Mission Control! They stopped using this room, I think in the 90's. But this is where all of the Apollo missions went down. Pretty sweet tour, if I do say so myself.

A long awaited update

This update has been a long time coming, even if there are no more readers out there, I have got to do this for myself!
SOOOOOO much has been going on. Here is a brief summary with more detailed posts to come:
Last you all heard we were still traveling the globe from our home-base in Houston, so that is where I will start.
-We got into a car accident. No injuries, but it put us a few weeks of repairs behind our anticipated move-home-to-Provo date.
-Finally got to the Houston Space center
-We made a trip to the Big Apple courtesy of the insurance company I worked for last year. It was a qualification based on sales/agent. So fun!
-Made one last trip to Cali to visit Dane's mission and a few dear friends.
-Moved home successfully, and miraculously in the truck and newly fixed civic.
-I got to go back to work right away with my insurance company for the summer.
-Dane started flying
-And for those of you who haven't heard yet, we found out that we are expecting our first baby! Due Jan. 22, 2011! (I know, next year. That sounds farther away than it should.)
-Dane is still flying and looking for a job.
-I have started to get my classroom and lesson plans ready for the quickly-approaching school year.

So, I plan on starting at the top of list and working my way down to give more details and photos.
Here we go. The car accident. It was crazy. The first one that I can say that I have ever been in, and to be honest, it could have been a lot worse. I am so grateful that no one was injured and we were wearing our seat-belts! (Thanks Mom for the family motto, "We are a seat-belt family!")
We were on our way to the Houston NASA Space Center with friends on a Sat in May. It all happened really fast. Apparently there was a girl traveling on the cross street to us who ran a red light, not paying attention on her cell phone, and as we went through our green light, we t-boned her. Our car stopped dead in its tracks, the airbags went off, and there was smoke everywhere. She was pretty apologetic at first, but of course when the police showed up, her story changed. It was frustrating, to say the least.
Anyway, with conflicting statements, we had nothing else to do other than plead our case the best we could and fork over the deductible to get our car fixed as soon as possible. (We were planning on moving home in about a week...that definitely was put on hold.) Luckily Houston City is crazy about red-light cameras and that just happened to be an intersection where they had one! But there was no way of knowing if it was even working, so we put in a request from the time and date of our accident, hoping for a shred of evidence in our favor, and waited...a long time.
So, all went ok, but to be honest 2 of the best days of our lives so far have been 1. The day we got the video in the mail from the city of Houston showing our accident, and 2. This weekend when we got our reimbursement check in the mail from the girl's insurance company! Yay. I am glad to say that this mess is finally all over. Ahhhh.
So, here are the pics and video of the damage:
Our car....sniff...


Oh, did I mention that it started raining after that? Crazy hard.


This is the damage we did to her. Too bad she only had liability coverage. Her car is pretty much toast. Bummer. Lesson learned. Don't run red lights!


Here it is, the best video that I have seen in a long time!!!

Syracuse, NY

Last weekend was one of my favorite trips we have taken so far. Is that okay to say? Again, this one was pretty last minute. We called Aunt Beth, Thursday night and hopped on a plane the next day. We were so glad that she had the weekend open! It was such a wonderful time for me to get to know the famous, beloved Aunt Beth a little more, and I can see clearly now why she has such a special place in the hearts of Dane and his family. Beth is my father-in-law's older sister. She has never had children or married and has truly taken her nieces and nephews under her wing as her own. She is an unwavering example of strength, courage and faith. We love you Aunt Beth!

So, for those of you who don't know, Syracuse is about 60 miles from Palmyra, NY. We took a little day trip there on Saturday and had a chance to see the historic sites for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have not been there since my parents' mission and it was wonderful to go back. In a way, I think because they served there, a part of me really feels at home in Palmyra.

Here are some of the highlights from the sites:

Here I am with Aunt Beth at the top of the Hill Cumorah



Going into the Sacred Grove





For lunch, we stopped at the best place to eat in Palmyra, Nima's. Dane's sister, Emalei server as a site sister missionary in Palmyra and Aunt Beth said it was Emalei's favorite place to eat.



We ordered calzones and needless to say, they were HUGE!




Here is the Grandon Building where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was published. Unfortunately it was closed the day we were there because someone was filming a movie, but we got a picture just for fun.



Next, we stopped at a small grave yard in town and visited the grave of Alvin Smith. This is a headstone that the Church made as a memorial.


On the back side of the new headstone you can see where they put the original one.



Martin Harris home



We took a short little detour to go visit the Palmyra Temple. We didn't have enough time to do any work inside, but Dane had never been here before, so it was nice to see.


We walked around the back, and here is a picture of the stained glass window coming from the celestial room. It was really windy and cold, so we ran back to the car pretty quickly.



This is an inside view of the Peter Whitmer farmhouse where the Church was organized on April 6, 1830.





Outside view



Saturday night, Dane, Aunt Beth and I stayed up really late looking at old photos from the Smith family from past generations. Beth had endless stories to share and it was wonderful to get to know more about where Dane came from. Beth has taken upon herself the role of "family historian", and let me just say, she is an All-Star. She really knows her stuff.

Thanks for a great weekend, Aunt Beth!

Washington DC

For the last weekend in April, I had been told that we would be traveling, not to get a job for Friday, to pack clothes for warm weather, and that I was not allowed to ask any more questions. End of story. I wouldn't know where we were going until we got to the gate at the airport.

For those of you who know me, this was really hard! I love, Love, LOVE figuring things out, and to my husband's dismay, I love prying for information about secrets. He was pretty rock solid on this one though, and I have to say that I was totally impressed.

At the airport, through security, we stopped at some seats and Dane handed me my travel package. It was a Continental Airlines folder filled with papers confirming our hotel reservation, a print out of the weather forecast for the weekend, a map of the Metro system, directions to get to church for Sunday, and a complete list of famous sites to see, such as the Mall, every kind of Smithsonian you can imagine and more, historic monuments, and even info about the National Art Museum in Washington D.C.

I was totally shocked! When he said "Bring clothes for warm weather, and oh, yeah. You might want a bathing suit." East cost was ruled out of my mind. We had to be going somewhere in California or something....Way to go Dane. It was a wonderful surprise!

So I wanted to show you all some pics from our adventures. The weather was amazing. It was hot. Actually, maybe a little too hot. But we soaked in as much sunshine as we could.

Here is a nice view of the Jefferson Memorial:



As you can see, it was very bright! This was the best I could do to keep my eyes open for a picture. Washington Monument.



WWII Memorial



Vietnam Memorial



F. D. Roosevelt Memorial. This was one of my favorites. Lots of pretty waterfalls, stone walls, benches and gardens with inspiring quotes from FDR etched into the stone.





Lincoln Monument



Walking up to the Lincoln Monument...wait, is that Nacho Libre or Captain America waiving that American flag?!?!



US Capitol



On to the Smithsonian Museums. Can I just say it is amazing that they are free. So great. here I am in front of Julia Child's kitchen. Love the aqua.



Of course, we had to go see planes, right?



A way awesome mural at the Air and Space Smithsonian



Look what else we found? The FAA office. A bitter-sweet moment for Dane. :)



Thanks to Abbie who lived in DC for a while after her undergrad for recommending this great pizza place. How could our travel blog be complete without food right?

Two Trips to Salt Lake

The weekend of April 23, Dane and I were in the airport with our bags packed and ready to fly to California, but because of a last-minute-scheduled doctor's appointment, we raced across the terminal to catch a flight to Salt Lake. We were sad not to be going to see our beloved friends in Santa Rosa, but very excited to get back to Utah to see so many people. We were able to visit our ward in Provo and spend much needed time with family.

Dane's doctor's appointment was Monday. He got both his back and leg x-rayed, and to our relief there was no problem with his back. His leg however, created a little more of a comical picture. In the x-ray you could easily see what was creating the strange lump behind his right knee. It looked like a finger had decided to grow right out of his leg. "That'll have to come off." Is what Dr. Myers said, and so we have an appointment to get a specialists diagnosis in June after we move back.

That afternoon we couldn't make the last flight back to Houston, so we caught the first flight home Tuesday morning. We were so grateful that the managers at Dane's work were so understanding! Thank you!!!

As we had a little extra time in Utah, we were able to be there to interview for a job as a managing couple of a singles' complex. This is a job that we have had our eyes on for the last year or so, and it was a miracle that we could meet with the owners of the complex on such short notice. Even though this job didn't ever really seem like something that was "so us", I had felt so strongly about perusing it. I knew it would be a great opportunity.

The interview went well, and I spent the next few days emailing back and forth with the owners about my resume, Dane's resume...etc. The owner mentioned that she liked my panda shoes that I had been wearing at the interview, and as it also came up that I was an art teaching major at BYU, she let me know about a position that was opening up in the fall for an art teacher at a local elementary school. She didn't know if I was interested but thought she would just let me know.

WOW! I was stunned. I was so excited. I put in my application within the next two days. I couldn't sleep, I was so excited and so grateful that she would be so thoughtful as to share that with me. Being in Houston, I have been a little disconnected from the job market back in UT. I have a job waiting for me when I get back, and I guess I had just let my dreams of having my own classroom someday slip into the back of my mind. Even thought that is what I really want to do, it just seemed impossible to find what I was looking for: full time, in Provo. And there it was. WOW.

So by the time I had everything in, we had been home about a week (and we had gotten word from the apartment complex owner that they had chosen another couple for the managing position). So, now it is Tuesday again. The teaching job closed on Friday. Friday afternoon (2 weeks after we left for SLC the first time) I got a call from the Principle at Edgemont Elementary. He wanted to know if I could come in for an interview on Monday. Dane checked the space available for the weekend, there was room (miracle!), I said, "Of course!" And Dane and I packed our bags and were out the door within the hour.

So just like that, we were off to Utah again. This was actually a great weekend to be in Utah. Dane's buddies from his freshman year had planned a reunion in Provo for Saturday night because a lot of them graduated and we were able to make it! Here are a few pics of the gang:








Also, Dane's great-uncle Grant Bangerter passed away earlier that week and his funeral was Saturday morning. It was so good to be there for both of those things. Dane's mom, Dale and Leisa, and lots of other family had come in town for the funeral, and it was wonderful to see them. The funeral services were beautiful and It was inspiring to hear about what an influential church leader and missionary that Uncle Grant had been.

Dane flew home Sunday night and I went into my interview Monday afternoon. I felt really good about it, and got pretty excited talking to the principle about the kind of art program they had in mind for the students at Edgemont. The said they would let me know within about a week, I said goodbye and put the rest in the hands of the Lord.

There have been times in my life when I wanted something so badly and after sincere prayer have not gotten them. Looking back, I am grateful the Lord is in control, and with those experiences, I felt a lot of peace about the teaching job. I knew that whatever happened, the Lord's will would be exercised and that He really knew what was best.

The next day, as I waited for Dane to pick me up at IAH, I checked my voice mail and almost dropped my phone when I heard the voice of Dennis Pratt, the principle at Edgemont, saying he wanted to talk to me more about the position. I called him back, and to my delight, was offered the job!!! I cannot tell you how grateful I am for this opportunity. It really is such a blessing. It all worked out so well. I never would have heard about the job if we hadn't interviewed for the management position. The Lord works in mysterious ways.