Michael & Amanda and chicklets to call our own: Never ending winter

Sometimes I feel like Rexburg only has 2 seasons. Winter and road construction. In place of spring we have winter. In the place of fall... we have winter. And when it's actually supposed to be winter, oh boy is it winter. -20 is a little too cold for me. Especially when we found out Michael got the job! Yay! Many of you may know, but Michael is only a semester away from graduating with his bachelor's. This is pretty exciting. Especially considering we've been going to school off and on since 2008, we've gotten married and had 2 kids, and 2 of his siblings have gone on to get post graduate degrees. So finally the end is in sight! So what do we do? We postpone graduation of course. Ha! Most of the job openings for the career Michael is looking into open up in May or June. This means him graduating in July would do us no good. Even more no good because we would be paying out of pocket for tuition and be stuck in Rexburg that much longer. One of Michael's teachers suggested applying for an internship with Deseret Ranch in Florida. They have a wildlife internship where Michael could get real experience in his field and have pretty good references to draw from. It is also a paid internship with free housing. Sounds better and better by the minute. So he applied. His teacher gave him a good reference. Michael did outstanding in the phone interview. And he got it! Yay! We will be moving to St. Cloud, Florida at the end of the semester.

Now I can't stop checking the weather difference between here and there. Oh boy, that does me no good when it's 70 there and snowing here. After complaining this much about the winter, I actually don't normally mind the snow and the cold. I like being bundled and cuddling on the couch under blankets. I like building snowmen. I think the snow is absolutely beautiful. But now I seem to be associating the weather with this terrible feeling I have. I feel like I'm stuck. We've been in Rexburg for 4 years and we're still not done with school. I'm trapped in this college town even though I'm not in college. I'm cut off from the student body because I am not a member of it. So here I am, in a college town, not a college student, and I just plain feel out of place. Whatever close friends I've had have moved on with their lives. The people I graduated with have long been gone. And here I am, left alone. It makes me really sad. I feel completely isolated. And the snow makes me feel even more isolated because I can't just go for a walk outside with my kids. I can't just leave the door open for the neighbor kids to wander in and out. I can't go to the park because of the knee deep snow or the 10 degree temperature. I'm ready to move on with my life.

That being said, Michael and I debated for a long time whether or not I was going to go with him to Florida. The housing is a one bedroom house and bringing 2 kids with us sounds a little miserable. I'm really glad I decided to go! So we're selling our house and taking with us what we can fit in the car. Oh yea, the car. We're going to sell the Passat and buy something that will fit more stuff in it. Something SUV ish.

A lot has happened lately, so here's a catch up for what you missed.

We went sledding this day, sorry no pictures of that. But it was crazy windy!

Ivan's best friend Ember.

If you can't go outside, play in the sink!

Ivan loves his dinosaurs. He started making the dinosaurs eat his gummies. Then he yelled at the dinosaurs for not sharing.

Weird snow stuff this year.

Ivan's first day of Toddler Lab! Toddler Lab is a program set up by BYU-I that is like a montessori program. Students who are studying to be teachers get the chance to take on 2 toddlers and work with them an hour and fifteen minutes a day on a goal they've set with the parents. Ivan's goal was to become more sociable. He loves his teacher Miss Rebecca.