Happy Fall Ya'll

Summer seems to want to stick around, but we've had some glimpses of fall and it's exquisite. Keep reading to hear about a hodgepodge of our messy, but wonderful life. 

Harry Potter Special Showing

The theater near us showed old Harry Potter movies briefly. We sped through the book "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" so we could see the movie on the big screen. Sirius Black was a bit scary to the kids for a large chunk of book 3. When the children found out he's not the bad guy after all, it was comforting. Oops. Spoiler alert. I took the big kids to the theater. It was a little frightening but we survived. We're pausing the rest of the Harry Potter series for now. Isn't it obvious that Izzy dressed up just like Hermione?

Saturday, September 7

James' Award

I got a happy email and phone call about James. He was awarded in an assembly for being a curious thinker/learner. His teacher's nailed it. I have never met a more curious boy. Just the other day, Andrew mentioned I blew I circuit with my curling iron. James couldn't help but ask all about it. Andrew gets into details with James that I didn't know a 7.5 year old can grasp. I was bummed not to be able to attend the awards assembly (I was subbing), but Andrew got a video and picture of the event which helped. James got a t-shirt (which he shows off regularly), cookie, and certificate. 

Friday, September 20

Hikes

This is the time of year that my body aches to be in the mountains. The fall leaves are stunning. We hiked the Draper Suspension bridge again. We've been on this hike a handful of times. We had a lovely time.

September 21

We also tried a new hike that has been on my list. We went up Big Cottonwood canyon and hiked Dog Lake and Lake Mary. The hike started with a case of the grumps but thankfully those disappeared. Izzy was nicknamed "Skittlebelle" and determined throughout the hike when it was appropriate for a little sugar pick-me-up. Let's just say skittles were deemed necessary more often than ever. This hike was harder than I expected, but our active kids made it look easy. We saw a gorgeous bird along the way. Andrew later looked up the name. A bluejay. It followed us for awhile and was so vibrant and blue. James was in rock-climbing heaven. There were a plethora of ginormous rocks to climb and heights don't stop that boy. Dog Lake was kind of lame, but Lake Mary more than made up for it.

Friday, October 4

Penny couldn't hang. Being carried for 3.5 miles is draining.

Since soccer officially ended, our schedule has opened up and our Saturdays will be a lot more free. You better believe more hiking plans are up my sleeve.

Soccer

This has been the best season of soccer to date! The season started on Saturday, August 17 and ended on Saturday, October 12. Both kids are improving. The league switched fields and I liked the new park and setup. We also lucked out with awesome coaches. Izzy's was a "football" player/fan from Scotland with the best accent. James' coach was very hands-on and into the game. Other teams had a hard time beating James' team. Both kids scored a goal! James is a defender his coach depends on. It's so great to have him be so into the game that he doesn't want to sit out. Instead of counting down the number of games left, I'm actually kind of bummed to say goodbye to soccer for now. We bought Izzy her very own cleats this season instead of having her wear tennis shoes. Soccer is getting serious! So serious my mom cheering has come out more than ever before. I noticed the day after a game as I was trying to sing that my voice was a bit hoarse. Until spring!

Go Sharks!

Go Gaters!

Father and Kid Campout

Our ward does an annual father and kid campout. Last year, we had a conflict and couldn't attend. James, Izzy, and Andrew set out to Parley's canyon on Friday, September 27. I packed them sack dinners to eat on the way. They had smores and breakfast the next morning. The kids could hardly wait to go on this campout. They stayed up hours past bedtime hearing scary stories from older kids, Izzy made a mermaid with a group of girls, and they came home smelly. It was a success. I went out to Slackwater Pizza with some women in the ward who's families were also camping. I need to plan another time to go eat that stellar pizza. Fall break is coming up and I suggested a family camping trip. What? You read that correctly. It would be nearby, only be 1 night, and include a stunning hike. The kids were disappointed I wasn't invited to the ward campout, but they sure enjoyed their time outdoors.

The Wild Robot

Call me miss spontaneity, but we decided day of to go see this movie as a family. It was a Tuesday, so tickets were cheaper which sparked the idea. I have the 3rd graders I've been subbing to thank for the idea. Many of them went to see the movie over the weekend and enjoyed it. It lived up to the reviews. Now we need to get our hands on a copy of the book to read together. Jessica, Chris, and George joined us at the theater which made it extra fun.

Tuesday, October 8

My One-Year-Old

Penelope is 1. Writing this hurts my heart. How can this be that she's one? Her personality is darling. She is teeny. She just wants to keep up with the big kids and is our earliest walker at 11 months. She is friendly and likes to greet everyone with "hi." (She often waves and says hello to people on TV). Life is so fascinating. Penelope points and says, "what's that?" Knowing how to say Mama and Dada comes in handy too. Her latest thing is saying "woof woof" like a dog. She loves dogs! I breastfed her the longest of any of my kids. The doctor said we could switch her to cow's milk at 11 months and you better believe I stopped the day I could. Penny is an early bird. We celebrated her birthday at the park. She is a huge fan of swings. Anytime I would take her out of the swing, she would point to get back on the swing. She smiles with her whole face! We got Penny her very own remote control to play with. She also got a set of baby car keys, and a book. She is so interested in books and absolutely loves them. She giggles as I'm reading to her. She ate every bite of her cupcake. She LOVES food though you wouldn't guess that. Penelope is LOUD! She screeches/screams and makes happy sounds at volumes that pierce our ears. Having Penelope around has been healing. She makes every day happier.

Andrew took Penny to her 1 year appointment (I was subbing). Here is proof that she is petite (And our smallest child by  5 pounds at this age!). 

Penny's stats:

                    Height: 27 " (4th percentile)

                    Weight: 16 pounds 9 ounces (1st percentile)

                    Head: 18 inches" (70th percentile)

Snuggling the little "sister bear" Izzy got her from the Berenstain Bears.

Fall Pictures

Getting the kids school pictures back is always a highlight. We also took family pictures at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo with Malia on Friday, September 26. I am aching to see those and will post them probably in November if I dare give you a sneak peak of our Christmas card.

Wednesday, September 25

No Fear

James has been so eager to finally get the chance to do the ropes course at Thanksgiving Point. Look how high it is! Andrew and James raced on part of it and Andrew said James legit beat him. During their hour canopy tour, the girls and I explored. Penny had both pointer fingers out constantly. There was so much to see!

Saturday, October 12

Homeownership

Our water heater went out. My scorching hot showers have been put on hold. Thank heavens we have my parent's house nearby. We got ready for church there yesterday. We are getting a new hot water heater today.

Stay tuned for some spooky costumes and activities.

BIG BambooHR!

Andrew signed a job offer! Booyah! BambooHR is NOT a startup. Startups are risky and I've been ready to divorce them for awhile. Here's to stability and finally having a 401k option/matching.

BambooHR has been around for 15 years! They have never done layoffs in that time! The company is large! There are 40 engineering teams. BambooHR is located in Draper! Employees work both at home and in the office. From what we've heard, BambooHR is close to IPO ing which means they'll be a publicly traded company. This shows they're doing well.

BambooHR is a company that makes software for managing HR and payroll. Andrew will still be doing Quality Assurance.  Yippee! For awhile, we wondered if it was time to change fields. The tech industry has been brutal to us. Andrew's official job title is "SDET" which stands for software engineer in test. BambooHR wants Andrew to write the framework for their automated testing efforts. 

His start date is October 21 or 28 pending his background check. I have been long-term substitute teaching a 3rd grade class for a few weeks. First, the teacher's mom died. The day before the teacher was supposed to return, her dad passed away too. This poor teacher. I have been a busy woman working full-time as a school teacher and teaching piano before and after school 2 days a week. I didn't intend to sub so much. The teacher will be out next week too, so I will continue helping them out to provide some stability for the students. Penelope is lucky to have had so much one-on-one time with her playful daddy.

A neighbor sent me this and said she thought it was the cutest to see them all waiting on the steps for carpool in the morning after waving goodbye to me.

Andrew had his first call with the BambooHR recruiter on Thursday, September 12. He had an interview with them on Monday, September 16. After that, the next person that needed to interview Andrew went to Japan for 2 weeks and we had to *patiently wait for his return... Andrew had another interview with BambooHr on October 2. This was a technical interview where they checked Andrew's skills. Let's just say he passed with flying colors. Andrew was told he can write code faster than the interviewers and they kept telling him to stop and they'd seen enough. They were also impressed he was conversing with them while coding and said they could stop talking if that would be best. 

Andrew had a final interview with BambooHR on Tuesday, October 8 and it went swimmingly. The head of QA kept trying to beat around the bush but finally just said, "you'll be getting an offer later this week." Andrew got a verbal offer October 9 and the written offer today, October 11. They did a thorough check-in with 4 references and told Andrew all gave him "glowing" reviews.

We know someone that works at BambooHR and they have wonderful things to say. It's a substantial company.

Andrew also interviewed to be an SDET at the church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. He had a second interview with them on Friday, September 27 and didn't hear anything back, even after sending a follow-up email and thank you. When Andrew got the offer from BambooHR, he texted a family friend of ours that works for the church and was told the church hired an internal candidate and that HR was supposed to have emailed. I think BambooHR was meant to be. I was able to get to the point of praying that "I would see the Lord's hand throughout this process" instead of "bless that Andrew will get the job from the church or Lendio."

The story behind Andrew being let go is bizarre and I won't get into it on a public platform. Let me just say it was the worst job Andrew has had by a landslide. The company had mandatory meetings and the topics were political. Employees were told they had to memorize the Bill of Rights or they would be fired. Some other meeting topics included gun control, presidential candidates, VP debates, etc. Company time was also used to watch documentaries unrelated to their investment app. None of this was appropriate for the workplace. 

Someone high up in leadership position had a drug addiction and still had decision-making power. This led to many things happening that didn't make sense like an entire department being let go on a whim, and someone Andrew hired being fired without cause. Andrew lost his job on  Wednesday, September 4. Andrew's old boss texted him after the fact saying she would highly recommend him for a job. Andrew has had experience working for many companies and has seen a variety of QA methods. He knows what he's doing. BambooHR is lucky to have Andrew or "Ditto" which I'm sure is what he'll go by.

We have a babysitter booked for tonight and have been dreaming about and planning our celebratory date for weeks. I'll give you a hint. Trader Joe's is involved...