It's Life

Well, everyone, I just want you to know that I did not get the internship that I applied for. The interviews (well one of them anyway) went really well, and I was surprised about how confident I was. The interviewers knew and loved my family members such as Grandpa Harward, uncle Chris, and uncle Stan. They seemed so excited about me, and I thought I had a chance. I got a short email this morning telling me that they "regret to inform me that they decided to go with another candidate." I didn't think I would care as much as I do. I think it's more a shot to my pride than anything... haha well that's life, I guess. Mom and Dad are right though, it will be interesting to see what we will be blessed with to compensate for this disappointment. If nothing else, it was a good experience.

For those of you who did not know much about this, UVU has an internship partnership with districts in this area. Each student in the program can apply for two districts, and I chose Provo and Alpine. If I had gotten the internship, I would basically finish school this summer and start teaching this fall getting paid half salary and full benefits. Provo was the district that emailed me this morning. I haven't actually heard from Alpine, but that interview was no good, and they were supposed to let us know by today. I'm assuming that they sent it to the wrong email address.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Time to repent

I admit I'm thrilled at this call to repentence, but I also will admit it won't be easy for me to get over my past problems with Payson. 

I'm picturing this in our backyard.

Hooray!

First time grandma blogger

Hi Everyone,

This is Grandma just saying hello. Melanie is trying to teach me how to use the blog.

Request: Please only post photos of Marcel and Susan that show our good looks - none of those degrading photos. We are trying to age gracefully - don't make it harder for us!!!


Love ya,

Mom

Okay, Utahns

It's up to you guys to get this thing really rolling--I have a feeling that it's going to take some reminding to get Mom and Dad, etc. to use this blog.  Here is an official list of ways I thought we could use the blog:

1-- Personal History Club:  Once a month we could assign a topic and each person write a small essay.  Or at least Mom and Dad.  I thought it would be a nice way for Mom and Dad to teach us things as well as begin compiling their personal histories before they get too old to remember.

2--Grandma's history:  As mom works on compiling Grandma H's history or Elaine's, it would be fun if she had one place to put little blurbs that she'd like to share.

3--Birthday Spotlighting:  We could make a post about somebody's birthday and then comment on the post sharing memories or thoughts about that person.

4--Picture sharing:  While some of us have our own blogs, you guys take millions of pictures and selfishly never share :)  I can't fly to Utah everytime I want to see pics of you guys.  Or of Z.

5--Announcements:  Again, like "Jamaica died",  or "Mikee won Miss Universe" or "Mignon changed her major",

6--Orton Specific Things:  There are certain stories that I want to share with you guys but not all my millions of blog readers (hahaha), so this would be a more intimate way of sharing, plus it records it.

7--Family Journaling:  If it's not clear by all the other suggestions, the great thing about this is that all the things we share are recorded just like a journal, only with pictures, too. 

Okay, I would say this is going to be my last final push to get you guys going but I doubt it is. 


Oh, and for the sake of another example of how to use this, I'll blog what's on my mind right now:

Does anybody have suggestions of dealing with an extremely strong-willed child?  It's like it just got 100x worse, and I really don't know what to do!  Every day is an emotional disaster over here right now.  I need some help.  Anybody?

Oh, and thoughts on spanking?  I've been really stubborn about saying no spanking.  Especially with Cadence--I feel like it's only going to open up another can of worms with her.  She'll just use that as a tool when she is angry adn I don't want her spanking Campbell.  I feel like it will only make her angry and scared, and there are enough negative emotions going on around here right now.  I don't know.  Is that a sissy way of thinking about it? 

Clivemobile - Arkansas edition

I know that this isn't a "family pic", but this is what I plan on buying Mardee in lieu of a minivan, and it is characteristic of the awesome oddities we hope to find in Arkansas.

Check out what you can do with it when you come visit us in Arkansas!














Hopefully this post helps to capture the interest of Marcel and Susan in the wonderful things that a family blog can be used to share.

I love this idea, Mard- way to go! So this is the only semi-good picture of us together that I haven't already used on our blog. We don't have a whole lot of pictures of us together because usually one of us is holding the camera and the other is in the pic... So we went hiking a lot last year. This is in the Fall on our third hike up to Stewart Falls.

This was our trip to Cali (Jake is taking the pic). Merica, as always, made sure we had a lot of fun! This is our excursion to the Jelly-Belly Factory. We had a blast.

Alright, I know this picture was turned the right way when I added it. Anyway, this is Mignon and Jake on Christmas day. Jake is setting up Mikee's new lap top, and Migs is setting up her new ipod.

This is Mikee on Christmas. I think it really captures her beauty and grace.

Fatha and Mikee after opening presents.

Poor Mother had a painful-looking bruise on her chin. Of course, she is working hard in the kitchen, preparing for the Christmas Feast.

Z on New Year's Eve. I had so much fun with him. When he is at his own home, he is still into cars, balls and vacuums, but he is much more social! When he's at Grampa's, it is hard to compete with Grampa and his toys. That night, however, I think we really bonded. He is such a cutie.

Well, there you have it. Sorry, Mard I don't have any pictures with your family yet. I guess we need to come visit... Or you need to come back here. I have some more pictures on my blog with Mckay and Karalyn on New Years, and others of Christmas, so if you want to see those go there.

Come on guys...

Okay, I've invited you to be authors, so now you can post pictures, make comments, even add polls.  Will somebody teach mom and dad how to do this so that they can post pictures or make announcements?  They may not be very motivated but over here in Chicago I'm pretty motivated because I'm missing out on all of the fun that goes on around there.

So here's the first challenge:

Each of you must post at least one picture for us and include at least one sentence describing it.  Not too hard, right?

Here's mine:

Mom poses with Layla, incidentally this picture is hauntingly similar to a picture taken of mom and Cadence three and a half years ago--on the same couch, and I think Cadence was in teh same outfit.  I love when my comes to help with my new babies.  Nobody knows how to take care of me and my family better than she does.  And she's so cute.