Ring Out the Old

This year has been an amazing roller coaster. There has been far more good than bad. The good is the amazing amount of blessings I have received and the bad has been my amazing way of seeing things in the worst possible light. I am working on it. Still, I know my blessings are many and great. This blog is more for me than it is for any who may read it so sorry about the boring details.

So here it is the Mic and Libby Shelton year in review:

January 2008:
We were still living with Mom and Dad Shelton. Mistie, her husband, and her 4 kids moved into
Mom and Dad Shelton's as well. Resulting in a full house.

I was still the site director working at Highland middle school for the Boys and Girls Club and teaching drivers ed at A-1 driving school in the evenings.
Mic was working for Boys and Girls Club as well, at the Marshall White Center as a technology coordinator.

We were in the process of eliminating all debt, except my student loans, which were totally manageable. We were lucky enough to have a home finance counselor to help us.

As a result I was finally able to convince Mic that with the market going down and the low interest rates we would be able to purchase a home. We started working with a great realtor and the house hunt began!

My mother flew up for my brothers' birthdays and it is always wonderful to see her as she fueled the fire of our house hunting.

Katherine turned 11 years old and began her last year of primary; a very melancholy event. How did she get that old? Surely I am the same age I was as when I married Michael. Shouldn't she still be five?

We also used the Hogle Zoo membership that Matt and Jenny gave us for the first time!

February:

February began with our search for mortgage agents. It was rather painful to have to face our credit openly and honestly.

I am sure Michael and I had a good Valentine's Day, but I can not remember it right now.

March:

WHAT A MONTH!

I was a little disappointed that having had my B.A. in Anthropology for almost a year I had still not used in for anything.

Finally in March I was able to fly out of SLC on Easter Sunday to spend a week in Monument Colorado doing materials analysis. My favorite part of archaeology. Weighing, measuring, drawing, recording, and INTERPRETING artifacts.

My favorite artifact was a reworked folsom point. Essentially, it is a spear point about 10,000 years old, but it had been reworked (probably by the Ute Indians). I won my first argument for analysis with real archaeologists on that point. I know it sounds boring, but I was waaay excited!

One last thing . . . I was interviewed for a local station there. So here is Libby on TV. FUN!
I couldn't figure out how to embed this so here is the link. It's right after the ad. :D

http://www.cbs4denver.com/video/?id=40239@kcnc.dayport.com

After a week in Colorado, I was certainly glad to get back to Mic, it was the longest we had been apart our whole marriage. I realized when I really do start doing this stuff for work I will be separated from him more often. :C

April:
April began with a great bonus! After a lot of intense house searching, several rejections (some on our part and some on the part of the home owners), Mic and I found OUR house!!!

It is 1640 sq ft. There are four bedrooms, but the downstairs room do not have windows large enough to escape incase of a fire so until we fix that we only use two of the rooms as bedrooms.
The lot is pretty large and it is all definately large enough for the two of us.
These are pictures we took before we closed, so we didn't have the key. :D

The other most awesome thing that happened in April is da...da...da....DA: Our Anniversary!

Michael and I were married on April 13, 2002. So this year we celebrated our 6 year anniversary.

As I mentioned before, I can not believe that it has been so long. I guess it is good to feel like we are still newlyweds a part of the time. We spent our anniversary at the Comfort Inn and Suites. We booked a room with a jetted tub and took our new season of Stargate SG-1.

The next morning we went for a walk along the river and got to go a session at the Ogden Temple. HOO-RAY! After years of being behind, Michael was finally able to catch up on his child support so that not only could he get his temple recommend, but we could put in our papers for a sealing clearance.

It was an AWESOME anniversary!

May:

Kat came in the middle of May this year just as we were moving into our new house. YAY!

It was a little early, but she was preparing to go to public school for the first time and school started July 28th, leaving us a short summer.

Yay for public school, but BOO for year round school.

It is always so much fun when Kat comes.

Right after Kat came, Mic quit his job at the Boys and Girls Club. I understood why, but I could have killed him for quitting right after we received a mortgage without finding another job first.

GRRRRRR . . . . .

It was an awesome opportunity for him to spend more time with Kat, but the income would have been nice too.

Under the influence of Kat, Michel adopted a Cat! Nevermind that he is allergic. For good measure, he adopted a rabbit the same day. (truthfully he knew I wanted one so he rescued one that needed a good home) And so Rory Rabbit (Rhorschach Ace Shelton) and Slatey Cat (Slatey Calypso Shelton) joined our family.

That brings the menagerie to one cat, one rabbit, three snakes, and two bearded dragons. Mic is hoping to adopt a Greyhound eventually. I know WE'RE CRAZY!

June:

In June the Boys and Girls Club began their summer program, so I was demoted since we were all at one site. (thankfully my pay was the same or more). As challenging as they are, I have to admit that I do like hanging out with teenagers. When will I ever grow up?

The Boyd and Bonnie Shelton reunion took place in June this year. We spent our time up in Midway, Utah just outside of Heber. It was amazingly fun as always.

Also, almost as always, my birthday was during the reunion. I turned the big 3-1! Michael took me to see Wall-E, while the rest of the family was on a hike. I don't care what anyone says about that movie. IT WAS ADORABLE!! I liked it!

July

We spent the Fourth of July with my brother Peter this year. My mother flew up the day before so Kat got to spend the Fourth with her Aunt Ruthie (three years older than she is) and her cousin Sarah (1 1/2 years older than she is).

What a Trio!!!

Can you say Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers to the -nth degree!?

Mom also brought all of my furniture from when I was a teen. I can't believe I had so much. It was alsmost enough to furnish my whole house. She also brought a lot of memorabila that got me thinking . . .

On July 7th we took my Hernandez parents, my neice Taylor and my nephew Curtis to the Treehouse museum. They had a blast. Funny enough we saw Andrew and Amy Whitford's family from Riverside (we grew up together and they currently live in Idaho Falls). It was nice to chat and catch up!

Sadly, because of finances, we sent Kat home with my Mom. It was already a short summer and to say good-bye to Kat ten days earlier than we were planning to was really tough, but the gas prices had us strapped. So Kat went home with Mom and Ruthie and thankfully still had an awesome time with the Logan and Betts cousins in Riverside.

On the24th of July Michael and rode our bikes around Ogden. (And when I say around Ogden I really mean around we rode about 20 miles that day)

This picture was taken at Fort Buenaventura! It is a five minute walk from our house.

August:

Once Kat was safely back in Hawaii, Michael started a new job for Chrysallis working with disabled adults. He really enjoyed that and it helped me not freak out so much about our finances.

The Boys and Girls Club ended the summer program. I was so excited because I knew when we began programs again we would be in a building outside of the schools where we could really work with the kids the way the BGC intended.

Also, Michael and I finally received our letter from the First Presidency saying we were clear to be SEALED! Hooray! It meant we could finally start attending our knew ward and we didn't have to start the process over.

Our new ward by the way was GREAT!

September:

The Ogden Teen Club of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Weber-Davis was officially open!

It was one of the things I have longed to see since I had begun working for them 2 1/2 years earlier.

More and more I was becoming torn between pursuing the career my degree prepares me to do or working with the kids I love.

Michael was being well utilized at work. Basically working harder than I had ever seen him work. I was so pleased.

October:

October saw me as part of the Keystone Conference. I was on the planning committee for this activity. Basically it is all the BGClubs in Utah send their Keystoners (leadership and service Club) to a lodge for 3 days. Living with a group of teenagers in a lodge and only getting paid for 8 hours when you are working 16.

What's not to love? :D

Halloween was very uneventful because due to the conference, I was too busy to make costumes. Plus Mic had to work. I stayed home and watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind: one of my most favorite movies.

November:

November was a trial and the GREATEST BLESSING EVER!

Michael turned 38 years old and began realizing his 20 year H.S. reunion was less than a year away.

I was called to be the Fourth Sunday Relief Society Teacher, which is a calling I love.

More importantly, Michael and I were finally sealed in the Temple as man and wife for time and all eternity. Please see our november post on this.

We spoke in Church the next week. Talk about a spiritual whirlwind.

Some awful things happened at work basically leading to some very liberating things. I was presented with two envelopes from my supervisor. (who is truly awesome btw and was only doing the bidding of others) One envelope was a thank you note from the head of the professional association showing appreciation for all my hard work at the conference. The other was a letter from the administration of my club letting me know that I had allegedly said some things at the Keystone conference that were inappropriate and if it happened again I would be fired. Eventually I got the story and it was something someone thought I might have meant by something I said as I was looking for a club kid.

It was at that point I decided that I cared about the kids, but I was not going to let a threat of being fired make me ineffective working with them. That had happened before. My job teaching drivers ed said they would take me full time (they pay more too). It gave me the courage to go to my supervisor and call the bluff. I still work there and have been much happier in my job there ever since.

Michael also had some changes in his work. Chrysallis closed one of their houses because the lease wasn't going to be renewed and moved their clients and the workers from that house to Michael's house. The office called Michael and told him they wanted him to go to another house where they needed someone they could trust. While Michael was doing his best to stay out of the way of the new clients and staff moving into his house, a director he had never met saw him, and decided he was not being productive. After talking with the director about it, Michael no longer had a job.

It was a blessing in many ways because Michael has finally decided what he wants to do with his life careerwise and I am SUPER excited. We began preparing to begin his education in photo journalism.

Thanksgiving was a fun family affair, but a little overshadowed by everything else.

All in all November was not a great month for work, but a great month for our marriage.

December:

With our tree up and our carols playing, December was an awesome month.

I had a long break from the BGC because of Christmas Break, so without Michael's checks and my hours we were super strapped in December. Good thing we did a lot of our Christmas shopping early.

We mailed out Kat's presents and she got them by Christmas! YAY!

We were able to attend the A-1 Christmas Party. It is nice to be able to go into Ye Lion's Den once a year without worrying about the cost. We had a lot of fun.

We were asked to sing "O Holy Night" by our Bishop in the Sacrament meeting before Christmas and we chose a beautiful arrangement by Sally DeFord. We have never received so many complements in any ward we have sung in and that is saying something.

On Tuesday of Christmas week we went sledding with the Newbolds. It was the most fun I'd had sledding ever.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Shelton's and I called my family in California, lamenting that I had not been able to make it down for Christmas this year and realizing that for the first time since my mission I have been away from Cali for a whole year.

I gave Mic his first present on Christmas Eve. You know you chose right when your husband cries because he appreciates it so much. It was a piece of sheet music that I can actually play and that I sang for him. I don't often get him something he appreciates that much so I was really relieved.

On Christmas morning we opened the rest of our presents. He gave me the LDS Family hymnbook. It was lovely to read the stories and see the art that they put with the hymns.

I gave him a hooded sweatshirt he had been needing and some sweat pants for bedtime. I also got him Book of Mormon Evidences. It is a small book and one we can enjoy together.

After opening our gifts we went caroling to our neighbors. This was Mic's favorite part of Christmas. We got to know our neighbors better and let them know we cared for them. We also got to hear a few stories about our house. Always fun!

After we carolled and delivered a present to my friend Mike Thorn, we went to my brother Peter's house.

Christmas was fun with the Newbolds. We had some traditional British fare, read the scriptures, and watched Mama Mia! It was snowing so hard and the roads were so bad we spent the night.

On Saturday we opened presents with Mic's family. We received a badly needed spice rack and some awesome recipes from Mic's sister Mistie. We received a badly needed printer from Michael's parents. And because I am such a film junkie, we received a Clear Play DVD player from his parents as well. I am still debating if watching an R-rated movie on a Clear Play DVD player is cheating the no R-rated movies rule, but at least I don't have to say . . . "If only there weren't the language . . ." or "if only there weren't that one part . . ." Woo Hoo!

As the year died out last night, I thought how negative I can be, but as the year rolls around I can not deny:

I AM TRULY BLESSED!!