another new beginning

we've been insanely blessed. our whole married life has been hectic moving from place to place. although moving isn't fun, it's been an adventure all the different places we go! we've been juggling our educations and making it work. 

our original plan was to come back to provo for two semesters, divided with a summer back in idaho. then, that plan altered a little as we thought we'd just stay put for the summer and save ourselves another move and job-hunt. now another opportunity has come up with my program. with the lowered missionary age for girls, half of the elementary education program participants dropped out and left on missions. that allowed for a new fast-track to open up. basically this means that if i go to school straight through the summer, i could have the opportunity to do a paid internship starting in the fall. this means i graduate at the exact same time, i pay the exact same amount of tuition, but i get to be paid (and enjoy the full insurance benefits) to "go to school" and experience my first year as a teacher! there are a lot of things to consider like time away from zenna, drake's work schedule, more months in provo, financial stability, teaching experience, and dealing with all the stresses.... but i think we've decided it's what we're going to do. i'm so extremely excited, but also very nervous. i don't know what it will be like to handle it all! but this is what i've been working towards, right? it's called: being a teacher. so i better be able to put in all the work! it's a huge responsibility that affects those kiddos lives! so the plan has changed again and we're staying in provo until mid 2015. i've always wanted to do the internship option, and was set on the right track originally. then, i got pregnant. and everything changed when i had to take a semester off. i had already made my peace with the fact that i'd be student teaching, but now that the internship is back on the table, i'm so excited to jump in there and give it a try!

i've had a testimony-strengthening experience since moving here. this is the first time since he got home from his mission and we went to vegas that we've moved without drake having something lined up immediately to be able to start working. i had some babysitters lined up to watch zenna while i attended classes, assuming drake would work a regular day shift. since he's spent this week job-hunting, he's just stayed home with her while i went to classes. what he's said is it's been easier than he expected. that's partly because zenna is such a sweet baby, but also he underestimated his skill as a daddy. as i've watched him, i've seen his love and fondness of her grow. his confidence in parenting has grown too. he's gotten more capable of getting her to sleep, quickly changing a diaper, and making her feel special. it's been fun watching that. so that was one cool thing that just happened. a blessing? maybe. getting a lot of one-on-one time with your daughter sounds like a blessing to me. 

but this is even cooler. one of the jobs drake applied for gave him the option of what shift he wanted. there was days or nights. sunday through thursday or wednesday through saturday. he chose the night shift sunday through wednesday. this means he gets three day weekends every week. he's home in the morning in order to spend a few hours with zenna while i go to early classes, then he can sleep the day away. so he'll get to continue using that babysitting skill! then we'll have all day thursday-saturday and most of sunday together as well. and he's getting 40 hours a week of work. then, when i start doing the practicum, he can be helpful in babysitting there as well. it really feels like one of those blessings we didn't see coming, but God did. he knew the situation we would be in, and he provided a way for us to get blessings. we've been taken care of, again. it's always scary to not have a plan except to trust and have faith, but then when it falls into place, it becomes a real testimony-strengthener. we've been praying together for drake to find a job that was a good fit for us and provide financial stability. drake put in the work and job-searched every day and went to a few interviews. then, he found the job with the best fit for our needs. but we didn't do this for ourselves, we believe it was God who made it possible and of course, it's a perfect fit. i'm excited to watch drake and zenna's bond continue to grow even closer. she's lucky to always be surrounded by her mommy and daddy. when i start my practicum, i'll be in schools for most of the day (until 2:30) for four weeks. i guess that will be a good tester to see if the internship is really what's best for me. i have a good feeling about it though! it's exciting to be at this point! life is an awesome adventure!
another new thing we started was new years resolutions, or simply some goals for ourselves. we broke them up into different categories like personal, financial, educational, physical, and spiritual. it's been really good for us. one of our family goals is family home evening every week. we've stuck to it so far too! we've done yoga, played on the kinect, and made brownies besides simple little spiritual discussions to express our gratitude for being so watched over and taken care of. who wouldn't want that as part of their week? it's definitely been a great way to start our 2014!