School has begun

School has begun around here, and I was a little sad to have Megan, my sweet companion, start kindergarten. The morning of their first day, Megan realized I was sad and told me I could use her stuffed bear to cuddle with while she was gone. So cute!

We have quite the day - Kim is up at 6 a.m. and takes the bus to high school at 7 a.m. Alicia is usually up around 6:45 a.m. so she can make it out to her bus to junior high by 7:30 a.m. and the younger two girls are up and going by 7:45 a.m. so they can catch their bus at 8:30 a.m. Then Megan is home by 11:45 a.m., Kim is home at 2:30 p.m., Alicia at 3:15, and Natalie at 4 p.m.

So, I only have a couple of hours to myself, but I make the most of it! I usually go for my hour-long walk, then get some work in before Megan gets home. I am getting settled into my new resume-writing gig while also still writing religion and stories for Hill AFB. I love what I do and am glad I get to do it from home.

Let me tell you what we have been up to as a family. Sorry, there aren't any pictures! We keep forgetting to take snapshots of our different activities. Kimberly started up with a local Scout Venturing Crew (which allows girls), but they are their own charter - or something like that - so they rely entirely on parent help, so John attends as one of the leaders. They recently had a weekend camping trip, which included a bunch of different activities in Salt Lake.

We then headed up to Lava Hot Springs on Labor Day to retry our tubing adventure - remember we got rained out back in August? It was fun, though a little chilly.

Kim is working at Lagoon right now for their Frightmares. She is a zombie in one of the haunted houses. Sadly, I will not see her in action because I absolutely hate haunted houses. John and Alicia will have to go inside and see her.

I think that's it for now - just wanted to make sure you knew we were still alive :)

Change is Good, Right?

One hard and fast rule about journalism I have become all-too-familiar with is that change is inevitable. Since working as a correspondent for the Standard Examiner five years ago, I have worked for nearly a dozen different editors, waded through hundreds of stories that have gone to print, and battled the chronic ups and downs of a newspaper budget, but things always got better, things always improved, and things were great.

I loved my job and it was the perfect gig for me while I stayed at home with our kids.

The time has come that things are changing again, but this time I cannot weather it out with the newspaper. With some changes that have been made at the paper and the stories written by correspondents cut back by 75 percent, it was time for me to look at other options. 

When I learned of this, I was depressed, sad, deflated, in shock, worried, and then the cycle started all over again - depressed, sad, deflated, in shock, and worried some more...

I began sending out my resume a few weeks ago and have found another freelance writer position working from home. I will still do what few stories I can do for the paper, but this new position will be the bulk of my time. 

Some things I learned during the process:

I am very aware that Heavenly Father knows me, knows my desire to write, and also knows of my desire to be home with our girls. I felt at peace when I prayed, but then my fears and sadness would creep back in, so I would pray some more.

John has been telling me for a long time now that there are better opportunities out there for me - I just didn't have the courage to look for them. I was forced to forge forward and I believe this opportunity will be great - and probably even better. I don't have to cover any more boring meetings!