Bragging... Just a Little

I have to brag a little about my awesome husband! After softball games, we always talk on the way home about the game and how we played and how amazing our team is, and how much fun we are having. Usually we highlight the play of one or more of the other players on our team. This week, it was all about Matt! Matt has been hitting well (he learned from the best... ME!) for the past couple weeks, but on Monday he hit his first OVER-THE-FENCE HOMERUN! Yay! There were two runners on base and he didn't even see his hit go over because he was so concerned about running the bases! He was yelling at Candice to run faster when the short stop on the other team had to tell him the ball went over! The rest of the night, the outfielders would scoot back all the way to the fence whenever he got up to bat! I'm pretty sure that my hand is going to fall off soon from Matt high-fiving me constantly for the past two days. I have a sneaking suspicion he may also be high-fiving me while I am sleeping.... I am happy that I married a man who is not too proud or manly to listen to my softball coaching (and actually do what I tell him to do!), and who is also so athletic and fun to play sports with! I am so lucky!

An Apology and a Surprise

The apology: I apologize for making my blog private without telling anyone. I blame Randy. You should too. He text me one day and told me that it would be smart to make my blog private while I job hunt. He's a smart guy. So that's what I did. It's true that I sometimes don't want my boss (or prospective boss) reading my blog.

The surprise: I am happy to announce that I was offered a job in Cache County School District for next school year! I will be teaching fourth grade at Summit Elementary in Smithfield. Again, you can blame Randy...

When I decided to start looking in Cache Valley, I found out that I missed a sign-up for a screening interview. Apparently, people don't usually get hired without first going through this screening interview, and I was on the waiting list. So, when Randy called, I asked him if he knew anyone in the district who could help me get this interview. Come to find out, he knew the son of the SUPERINTENDENT. Hello, good luck! So, Randy worked his magic, but didn't think it would work out. He asked me to send him my resume, which he forwarded to the superintendent. About a week later, I got a call inviting me to the screening interview, and I got an email from the Director of Human Resources saying that he got my resume and was very impressed. Well, the interview went amazing. There were 30 applicants all looking for jobs, and this was the second screening interview. We all had to stand up and tell about our experience. 80-90% of the other applicants had ZERO experience. I was very proud to claim three years of experience in Canyons District. I did my one-on-one interview with a principal that I already knew from my practicum while I was a student. She was very impressed. Two days later, I was fielding calls from the HR department from all the schools that were interested in interviewing me! I had one phone interview immediately. Then I had three interviews up in Logan. Two of the three schools offered me jobs on the spot, basically hoping that I would choose to work for them. I have never felt wanted/needed in Canyons District. And now schools are fighting over me and I can have my pick? Definitely a new and exciting feeling. After a lot of thought, I chose Summit Elementary and I am very excited.

We didn't want to announce the job until we had things figured out in terms of housing. We didn't expect it to take so long to get figured out, which is why the cat is out of the bag. But, thankfully, we can report that we have figured out our housing situation and we will be going up to Logan to sign paperwork tomorrow. We are moving into a townhome/apartment in Logan city, just northwest of the temple grounds. And for those of you who know your Aggies, the previous tenant was Tyler Newbold! Tyler played basketball for Utah State when I was a student, and it was really fun to get to talk to him a little bit and see his jersey up on the wall. I think the experience reminded me of one of the many reasons why I love Logan so much, being a part of something so great!

Obviously we are really excited. There are still about a million things to do, but we are happy and feel like this is the right place for us to be right now.

Dancing with Four Year Olds

I am basically the worst dancer/singer in the world. So when games started coming out that wanted you to do these things, I was secretly terrified. Rock Band? I'll play guitar. But what about Just Dance and those other dance games? Well, I try.

So I was babysitting the twinners last weekend and they wanted to play Just Dance 3 on their Kinect. I was just entertained watching these two! You can tell they have older siblings because they know exactly how to work that game and exactly which dances and songs they like. I couldn't help but record a video of how freaking cute they were. Andrew is very serious. He tries very hard to do exactly what they are doing on the screen. Zachary just basically moves around a lot. He usually gets a better score with this technique. The best part was when they wanted me to play with them. So I get up and am doing the best I can to keep up, when apparently I was doing good! At the end of the song, Andrew looks at me and says, "Tori! Give me a hug! You just got five stars!" And he ran up and gave me a big hug. HAHAHAHAHA. He was so proud of me for doing well. So yes, I have some coordination. Not as much as these guys though...

Suzie

A few weeks ago, my aunt Sue flew in from California to hang out! We don't get to see Sue very often because she has four daughters that keep her very busy, so we were excited to have her here for the weekend. On Saturday we went down to City Creek to do some shopping (more like walking and avoiding all the millions of people). Matt was a trooper and spent the whole day with the girls. We met up with Jeff and my papa for dinner after shopping. On Sunday we went to my mom's for dinner, and apparently a makeover. My mom and Sue had been plotting all weekend to dye my hair and that is what they did. I am much to practical for these women. But Sue did a great job and I love being blonde again! We went and played tennis after my hair was done, just me, Matt, my mom and Sue, and we had a blast. It definitely made for some interesting conversation to say the least.... I love my aunt Sue and was so happy to see her!

Sue, my mom, me, Alex and Cassie at City Creek... don't my mom and Sue look alike? It's crazy!

Matt hanging out with the girls.... (he secretly loves it)

8 Weeks and Counting...

Exactly 8 weeks from today, I will be all checked out of my classroom and ready for summer! Last day of school is Wednesday, June 6, but I have to work on June 7 also. For those of you who want to know, that means that we have 38 days left of school!

Big Green Softball Machines

Yes! We started our summer softball league this week on Monday night! Matt and I loved our team last year, and wanted to play again this year. Our team has a few different people this year, and our shirts are bright green instead of pink! Our first game we played a team called Abeo and won 18-3! We had so much fun. I can't wait until the weather warms up a little for the rest of our games! Hopefully I will get around to taking a team picture this year!

Easter 2012

This year for Easter, we spent a little time with everyone, but I didn't take any pictures. On Friday we had dinner with my dad and the Hightowers and played games for a little while. On Sunday morning we went with Diet and Myrna to look at a boat and happily talked Diet into buying the boat. We stopped at Krispy Kremes on the way home since we didn't do Easter baskets and needed some treats! Then Matt and I went out to my mom's house to play tennis and have dinner at grandma and papa's house with some of the cousins and Janet and Toby. The boys of course had to watch the Jazz game. It was a nice relaxing weekend, and although I was sad that my long break was over and that I had to go back to work the next day, I was glad we had such a nice weekend with family.