Can I toot my own horn for a minute?

You are reading the blog of a person who has survived being the wife of a shift worker for an entire year.

Now if you are anything like I was a year ago, you wouldn't really know what an accomplishment that is, but let me assure you that it is indeed cause for me to toot my horn.

I never thought having a husband who works nights as well as days, weekends as well as weekdays, and 14 hour shifts where no cell phones are allowed would be so challenging for the wife (as well as the husband), but it is..  I was completely oblivious to the toll it would take sometimes. 

But we did it!  A year has gone by, we are still alive and we know the ins and outs of shift work.  We don't have it perfect yet, but we are getting there.

And now, I really have to give a shout out to the main superstar.  My husband.  He is A-MA-ZING!  Seriously.  He is our rock.  I know this year has been challenging for him schedule-wise, but he almost never complains.  And when he is home, he is home.  He's completely focused on us.  And that says A LOT!

A little of this and a little of that

Hello.  Remember me?  The person who is doing a terrible job of posting on her blog?

Well, here I am, attempting to fill you in on a little of what we have been up to lately.

So, I have this amazingly talented husband (who might I add, is quite handsome...) that completely surprised me with this gift:

when Alayna and I came home from our trip to Laramie. Yep. He made it. Awesome, I know.  Don't you LOVE it?!.  I have been wanting a corner shelf for our den and it is perfect. 

I am having one minor dilemma though...deciding what color to paint it.  Dan and I don't agree on this at all.  He claims men like the look of natural wood, so he wants me to stain it.  And I on the other hand, have this itch to paint everything.  I don't know what it is.  I just want to slap a nice coat of paint on it and maybe antique it a little.  I am thinking white.  What do you think?  Black?  Gray?  Really, what do you think?

Now onto the next tidbit.  Fall.  Can I just confess to you that I absolutely LOVE Fall?  I do.  I LOVE it.  I have to admit, I wasn't always this way.  In fact, I might have dreaded it a little.  But I have since repented and it really is one of my favorite seasons.  It took me moving to a few new places to really appreciate this season because, well, let's face it....in Laramie, WY, Fall lasts about a month.  Maybe a little longer.  I just didn't have time to really enjoy it.  Now, I live at the complete opposite end of the spectrum and Fall (I hear) can be a long season, it just takes a LONG time to get here.  And I am getting antsy.  Enough with the 102 degree weather already.  Where is the crispness in the air?  So in order to nudge the season along a little, I decided to go ahead and decorate.  (As you saw in the previous picture.)

Oh, and I might as well admit, I have a bit of an obsession with pumpkins, or puh-kins as Alayna calls them.  LOVE them. 

Now, the next tidbit.  I have been having an inner battle lately.  About what, you might ask?  Well, preschool.  Preschool is causing my inner battle.  Alayna will turn 3 in less than a month and with the start of a new school year, we had the opportunity to do a preschool co-op with some other moms in our community.  And I decided NOT to do it this year.  Am I terrible?  I have gone back and forth and back and forth again.  But Alayna would have been the youngest one and with her still having three years 'til Kindergarten I just didn't want her to be burned out of school before she even went.  If I started her now, then she would go the next couple of years and after having taught Kindergarten, I know she will be fine if we wait. She really is young.   Plus, this mommy wants to spend a little more time with her Layna.  But still, I know she would have loved it.  So we are living it up by having our own fun letter games and as many play dates as our friends will allow to provide her with all the social-ness she craves. 

Excuse #1 for my absence.  Classes.  I have been taking online classes to renew my teaching certificate.  I have to do this every 5 years.  Can you believe that in May it will be 5 years since I graduated college?!  Me neither.  Sheesh. 

So, I am enrolled in 4 classes that are rather interesting, but admittedly, I will be glad when they are over. 

Excuse #2. Sharing time.  I am in the primary presidency which means I have to teach Sharing time every few weeks.  I absolutely LOVE it!  Oh, how I miss teaching Kindergarten...but this is a perfect filler.  I really look forward to it each time.

And that, really is the end of my excuses.  Pretty pathetic, huh?

And while I am filling you in, I might as well tell you a little about the other two people that live with me.

Layna is busy as ever.  She is getting excited for her "Happy Birthday".  Especially after having gone to her very first birthday party (other than family)....which I will save all the details for another post. 

And have I mentioned that she is COMPLETELY potty trained?!  Like at nights as well as days.  And she has been for a few months now.  I just decided I was tired of buying pull-ups so I stopped and she really was AWESOME!  Only one accident to date.   She seriously made it so easy.

And....she doesn't know it yet, but she will be getting a "I'm all potty trained" present.  Because, well, that really is a big deal.

Now, Dan.  What can I say?  He has been busy providing for our family and gearing up for his upcoming seven off where we may take a small, much needed, family trip. 

And there you have it.  A little of this and a little of that.

Bringing home the bacon

Let's talk work....Dan's work specifically. 

So men, here's a post for you.  (Yes, I am talking to all two of you: Dad and Adam.)

Dan works at a copper mine in Morenci (about 50 minutes north of where we live).  It is the one of the largest copper mines in the world.  It really is quite big.  He does in fact work in the mine in their truck shop as one of their Diesel mechanics.  The truck shop consists of two parts: the truck side that works on the HUGE dump trucks.  And when I say huge, I mean HUGE!  But, we'll talk about that later.  And the support side that works on everything not dump truck. 

Dan works on the dump truck side.  (He started out on the other side, and then was moved to the truck side.)

The white building on the right is where he works.  These pictures are taken from the lookout so everything looks tiny.

 

Now let's talk dump trucks.  The dump trucks he works on are no ordinary dump trucks.  They are gigantic and can carry 800,000 pounds of rock and dirt in one load.  Dan says it's like driving a two story house.  It's THAT big.  And boys, yes, he has actually driven them.  I know, every man's dream, right? 

And here's the proof of how big they are.  Dan says this picture doesn't do it justice, but at least you get the idea.  This is just the bed of one of the dump trucks.  It is big enough to fit an entire regular dump truck with plenty of room to spare.

Dan requested that I add this picture just so you get an idea of the massiveness.  Look how small the people are compared to the truck.

And a couple more pictures of the mine from the lookout.

 Dan is really loving his work and learning a ton.  What more can a wife ask for!

What day is it anyway?

With Dan's work schedule being so completely different than ever before, I find myself getting my days of the week mixed up. In fact, most of the time I don't even have any idea what day it is. I actually have to stop and think about it.

I never realized how a person's schedule could entirely alter how I view the days of the week. Before moving here, I could honestly say that Friday was my favorite day of the week. It meant the end of me being "on my own without Dan" and the start of two full days together. Now, since Dan technically doesn't have "weekends" I find that I seem to value other days of of the week. It changes from week to week since he doesn't always have the same days off. Of course the entire week that he has off is my absolute favorite, but the other weeks, it just depends.

I keep reminding myself just because Dan has the day off, doesn't mean that everyone else does. In my mind I think of his days off like Saturdays. And on the flip side, I expect everything to be open on Saturdays, because sometimes Dan isn't home so it is just another day of the week to us. It's really quite weird.

So then I got to thinking. Does everyone have a favorite day of the week?

Plans

I won't leave you in suspense any longer.

We are indeed moving. St George will no longer be our home. Oh, how we have loved it here.

Loved the weather. Loved the people. Loved the temple. Loved the shopping. Loved Target. Loved the variety of places to eat. Pretty much loved everything, except for maybe the cockroaches.

But alas, it is time for us to call another place home.

The truss plant that Dan worked for is shutting down. So we are on to bigger and better things. Right? At least, that is what we keep telling ourselves.

We are moving to Laramie for a couple of weeks until we hear back from a job in Casper. Then we will see where life takes us.

It's funny how you have your life planned out and the Lord seems to have a different plan in mind.

Thank goodness He knows what is best for us...because apparently, we don't. :)