Merry (nearly) Christmas!
We have had a good fall and seem to finally be getting into the groove of Adam being in grad school now that this semester is ending. Here are some updates:
School and Work
Adam's last day of finals is tomorrow and I'm sure he is counting down the hours until freedom. He has enjoyed his classes immensely and has got a better idea of what he can do in this field and what he wants to do after graduation. Today was his last day of his class that he teaches as well! He has loved teaching and is very excited for next semester now that he has a foundation to work off of and an idea of what works and what doesn't. He is also finishing up the BYU Online class he TAs for. He had an exciting moment last week when he got to give a presentation about the BYU Online class to the whole Humanities department at BYU. He has been with the course for 4 out of the 5 semesters so he was able to give a lot of insight about the benefits of BYU Online and what they are looking to improve on. He hopes that this will lead to a Master's project for him. The Humanities department has 7 GE courses that they offer so he is offering himself as an Instructional Designer to get more online classes available. They were all extremely interested in his ideas which is great because this would be the ultimate job experience!
I am very ready for Adam to have a break from school and luckily next semester should be a little bit lighter. I still work at Wasatch Mental Health and I love it! I especially love my coworkers and any time we get to do a clinic party. They definitely have turned into a second family for me :) I have been trying to keep busy since Adam is unavailable so often so I have been doing lots of reading and made a blanket!
I had a fun time doing it and will probably do more. I will have lots of other projects in the future that I'm excited about and will give updates later.
Holidays
We had a low key but fun Halloween this year. We went to a corn maze with my sister and her family which was lots of fun! My nephew Anders led all of us through the maze while running wild. He quite enjoyed it :)
We also actually dressed up for our Halloween ward party! We were Charlie Brown and Snoopy :)
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year even though we didn't travel. I of course forgot to take any pictures though xP. My sister Stephanie and I did the meal together and just divided up the dishes. She got to make the turkey and I did most of the side dishes which included making stuffing for the first time! We accidentally made a TON but Adam didn't mind because he loved it so much :) We also got to Facetime with my family which was great. Then on Friday, we decorated for Christmas and Adam's brother Seth and his new wife Sabrina came to stay with us for the weekend! It was so much fun having them here since this was the first time us being with them since they got married. We got to play lots of games, go to the temple together, and on Sunday we got to go up to the house of Adam's other brother and sister-in-law up in Lehi to have sundaes. We were so grateful to spend that time with them.
We are very excited for Christmas as my sister Jessica will be flying in from Washington! This will be the first Christmas I've spent with both of my sisters since we got married. We are looking forward to it :)
We love you all and hope you are having a great Christmas season!
<3 Ashley
Hey everyone!
I apologize for it being so long since we last posted. I can officially say that this year has been the craziest we've ever had. It'll be interesting ending 2014 and looking back on this roller coaster. But for now, we'll just try to enjoy the ride without falling off haha. So here is an overview of the last five months as brief as I could make it:
June
Adam continued his job working in the testing department at BYU Independent Study which was working out pretty great :) Then his former boss from when he was a TA for BYU Online came to him and asked if he'd like to come back to his old job! It turned out that the demand was super high for the IHum 202 class that he used to help run and that they were looking to up the registration cap this fall semester, and therefore were looking for another TA to help with the work load! They offered to let him start as soon as spring term ended (mid-end of June) which actually worked out great because IS was going to reduce his hours anyways. The TA job pays a LOT better than the IS job which was a huge blessing for us.
I, on the other hand, was still looking for work. I got quite a few interviews but was struggling to find something in my field, especially because I didn't have a very good experience when I worked at the group home back in March. I knew I didn't want to try to do residential treatment again so I mostly applied to secretary positions and caseworker jobs. Finally, I got an offer for a part-time secretary job with Wasatch Mental Health (a mental health clinic for those on Medicaid) and one for a full-time caseworker job for a care center for the intellectually/physically disabled. Initially, I took the caseworker position but right after I did, I did not feel right about it. Also, at this time I was struggling with some severe anxiety issues. In the end, we decided that it would be best for me to take the job at Wasatch Mental Health. Again, I felt that Heavenly Father was leading me to a much different direction than I planned but I know that he will take care of me.
Also at the end of June, we had the pleasure to travel to Colorado to see Adam's brother Seth get married! We had met his girlfriend (now wife) a few months earlier and absolutely adored her. We both were so happy to see Seth find someone who was so utterly perfect for him. All of Adam's siblings and their kids came out for the occasion which was incredible because some we hadn't seen since before Adam and I had even gotten engaged! It was wonderful to spend time with all of them :)
July
We celebrated Adam's birthday again by having a BBQ and watching the fireworks. I also surprised him by making a homemade cheesecake (his favorite dessert) which I had never made before! We also had kind of a topping bar to go with it. He loved it and was very surprised :)
The rest of the month was pretty uneventful except for just getting into the swing of new jobs. Adam got back into the groove with his TA job and continued to prepare for the class he was going to teach in the fall. I got used to working at WMH and absolutely loved it! The work wasn't too stressful, the people were great, and I was so glad to still be helping people in my field of emphasis.
August
We continued on with our jobs and loved it. I definitely continued to feel confirmation that I had chosen the right job to do and I felt even closer to Heavenly Father as I let him lead me to what my true purpose is. We also got the chance to go on a weekend away to Manti! We hadn't traveled anywhere as a married couple that didn't involve visiting family. Non-family traveling funds just seem to be nonexistent when you have half your family in Colorado and the other half in Washington, so normally we just reserve any traveling for seeing family. We decided to take an opportunity to just stay at a bed and breakfast for a night before school started and it was amazing! The place we stayed in was called the Yardley Inn. It was a beautiful old house that was run by the sweetest older couple.
We also got to do a session in the Manti Temple which neither of us had done before.
It was such a relaxing and enjoyable time! We know we definitely want to go back there again :)
September and October
Time for Adam to go back to school! He started graduate school at the beginning of September and it has been an up and down experience so far. He likes his program and finds it very interesting but at times feels a bit out of his element. Eight months is a long time to not be in school and then have to start up again. Also, this field is quite a bit different than his undergraduate as it is more in the scientific area of academia. It has also been difficult adjusting to him being in school and me not being busy at all. Lots of reading, movies, TV shows, and knitting for me. I have to admit that it has been depressing to not be in school when Adam and so many of my friends are as I haven't felt much purpose currently. But I'm trying hard to stay positive and find productive things to do. We still try to find time to be together but it is quite a bit less than expected. I hope that as time goes by we'll get used to this new routine and find more joy in the journey. It is slowly getting easier :) I know that times have been rough over the last year but I truly believe that Heavenly Father has a reason for everything that happened. I know that the plan, even though it is not what I expected, will be even better than I could have imagined :)
