Job Hunt

Since I know that many of you have been praying for me to find a job, I thought I would give you an update of what your prayers have done.

I've been actively looking for a job for two or three months now, and and I've submitted more applications than I care to think about (easily 75 or more). I've looked for jobs from Anchorage, Alaska to Orlando, Florida and just about every place in between. I've learned a few things as I've done this.

The most important thing that I've learned, I think, is that being able to work and provide for your family is so important that you shouldn't be too proud to work in a given place or doing a particular job. Since the beginning of my job search, we've prayed that we would find the right job for us and be in the place God would have us be. At the beginning, though, there was always a thought in the back of my mind saying, "Just as long as it's where I want to be, too." I had a little checklist of preferences for where I wanted to work: high school and preferably somewhere close; but if not close, then somewhere that pays well and has a nice climate with lots of green, and not Payson. As I went along, I couldn't get interviews, no matter how hard I tried, and I'm grateful for that. I was taught that I shouldn't let my prejudices get in the way of providing for my family. I have gotten to the point where I really would work anywhere.

Things got better towards the end of this last week. I scheduled three interviews in three days, one of which I went to this last Friday, and the other two are on Tuesday. I also scheduled a screening interview. The interview I had this last Friday was in Roy, as is one of the interviews on Tuesday. The other interview on Tuesday will be over the phone for a school in Oak Creek, Colorado (it's a bit north west of Vail). My screening interview is also over the phone for Anchorage School District.

Emergency Room Fun

Our doctor diagnosed Chalyse with an ear infection, but I hadn't noticed her pulling at her ear at all. I think that he suspected that it was the early stages of it and that it would soon flare up. She got an antibiotic, and her fever seemed to have gone mostly away on Friday.

Yesterday (Saturday), her fever shot back up, however. We decided that we needed to go to the emergency room after her fever just wouldn't go down (it was well over 103 again). After three and a half hours (we got there a little bit before 7:00 pm) and a whole lot of tests that Chalyse thought were very rude, they diagnosed her with viral pneumonia. They told us to keep her on the antibiotic just in case it was really bacterial, because there's no way to tell the difference from the symptoms.

About an hour before we got done, Chalyse decided that she was miraculously healed. She started to use an entire day's worth of energy in the short time she had before going to bed. We didn't want her getting down on the cold floor, so we had an extremely fun battle with her for the rest of the time we were there.

104 Degrees!

Chalyse has been sick with a cough for about a week. It hasn't been too bad so we have just been waiting it out. Last night though i put her down for bed at 6:30 (she had refused to take an afternoon nap) and at about 9pm she woke up crying and really warm. We took her temprature at almost 104 under the arm. Yikes! We quickly dressed her down to her diaper and gave her some Motrin and a cold drink wich she downed. At around 10:30 she was still over 102 but it seemed to be dropping...slowly...and she didn't realy have any other simptoms besides her cough, which wasn't even that bad, and that she was a little fussy. She even thought about getting down and playing a few times but didn't really have the energy. So we decided to just watch her closly and take her to the doctor in the morning if she wasn't doing much better. Well, her fever continued to drop and by morning her temrature was normal and she was mostly back to her perky self...until her nap. She woke up an hour into it with a fever again and was really grmpy. Her fever wasn't nearly as high as last night but i decided we should take her in just in case. Tom has her at the doctors right now so we'll see what happens. I hope she starts feeling better soon. It's no fun being sick.

Yay Tom!

Yay, Tom graduated this week! It feels weird to us that he is done. This year kind of sputtered to an end. Tom finished his last classes and finals last semester and has been doing his student teaching for the past three and a half months. He has had his teacher work sample turned in for a while and his last week of teaching was the high school's spring break (a novelty to a BYU student). This combined with the fact that Tom really enjoys teaching has made his undergraduate experience just kind of cruise to stop and all of the sudden he is graduated.

We are so proud of Tom. He has worked hard and taken his education very seriosly.

Thanks to everyone for your support and love! Thanks especially to John and Jeni for giving us a place to live for a year and to Sandy and Richard for instilling in Tom the love and desire for an education. We have very blessed in many ways!

Dancing Queen

Chalyse's dancing has graduated from just waving her arms to bouncing up and down.

Now you see it...

So Chalyse has gotten into the habit of hiding her binkie when she doesn't want to go to sleep. We'll give it to her when we put her down, but she'll throw it across the room or hide it and start screaming if she doesn't want to go to sleep yet. One place she likes to hide it is in one of the corners of her crib. We didn't realize that she did this on purpose until one day Camille was putting her down for a nap and she immediately pulled her binkie out of her mouth and put it into one of the corners and put her hands up and said, "Where'd it go?"

Just barely we tried to put her down for a nap, but after 30 minutes of periodic screaming and quiet, we decided to get her out and let her wear herself out a little bit more out of her crib. Her binkie was gone when we got her out, and after searching for it briefly, we gave up. About 15 minutes later she went back into her room and came out with her blanket in her arms and...her binkie in her mouth. She knew exactly where it was.

Wilson Easter Party

Chalyse in her pretty Easter dress.


Picking wild flowers.











Chalyse and Aunt Bethany


Savannah and Bethany


Chalyse Brighton and Gavin eating bunny suckers

We didn't get any pictures of the egg hunt..really just a candy hunt. Chalyse was so grumpy and Tom and I just filled her basket for her while she tried to chew the foil off of some chocolate.

Coxson Easter Party

Hunting for eggs. It was too rainy to do the egg hunt outside.


All she needed was one for each hand.


Putting the eggs in the basket...and taking them back out...and putting them back in.


Eating fishies and teddies.


Grandmas worms and dirt. YUM!