Finishing the School Year 2017

Matthias and Lizzy loved being at Wasatch Elementary in Provo this year.  Lizzy attended Kindergarten with Ms. Whitaker.  It was her last year there and she was a fabulous teacher!  Matthias was in 2nd grade with Ms. Perry and Ms. Wang.  He has learned so much Chinese.

Wasatch also has a really fun art program.  Here are the kids showing off some of their artwork at the art show.

Lizzy's class had a program near the end of the year.  She got to stand next to Jared (whom she said was the cutest boy in her class).  She also had a short solo part and rocked it!

Matthias has a Chinese program in which they had to recite things in Chinese and dance to the music.  Matthias was the best one there.  Several parents commented on how well he did all the moves.  

Since Kindergarten is only a half day in Utah, Lizzy was signed up for two Kindergartens (we did this as several people recommended it for working moms).  So she was also able to go to BYU's Kindergarten and several days a week I would pick her up from Wasatch and we would have lunch together in my office.  I will have so many good memories of our time together.

While I was at BYU, I was able to teach Career Exploration with a focus on Women's Issues.  I loved this class and the ability we had to talk about concerns that might come up for women in seeking out a career.  My favorite part was inviting fabulous women to come and talk about their career journeys.  During this semester, my aunt Norah came to talk about her career.  Uncle Terry came to help.  Her talk was amazing as she used flower arranging as a metaphor for all of the things you need in life to find balance.  My aunt Norah has always been an inspiration to me.

I also invited a supportive husbands panel to come and speak to the class.  There are always a few men that accidentally sign up for this section of career exploration, but I think it's important to for all of my class participants to understand this "shift" in perspective from multiple people.  Josh was kind enough to come for this class.  He talked about how it has been hard for both of us to get PhDs and seek career opportunities.  Then he quoted President Hinckley quoting his wife about their relationship, "You have given me wings to fly, and I have loved you for it" (The Women in Our Lives, Oct 2004 General Conference).  I definitely feel Josh has done this for me.

Also during this time I finished everything to license as a Clinical Psychologist in Utah.  Yay! What a relief.

Josh also had a busy semester.  Not only was he trying to finish up post-doc projects and watching kids most afternoons, he was also working to obtain future funding and get a job.  More on that in the next blog post.

During this semester we were also able to celebrate Easter with the Webbs. It's so fun to be close to family.

Matthias and Lizzy participated in soccer again this year.  Matthias made a lot of improvements and Lizzy had fun making friends.

Rachel, Matthias, Lizzy, and I drove down to El Paso, TX in May to surprise Alicia for her birthday.  She was seriously surprised and was so good to show us around El Paso.  We had fun at the zoo, seeing the border, and swimming at their pool.  Also, the food was amazing.  But my favorite part of this trip was chatting with my sisters! They are some of my best friends!

Checking out the wild life

Matthias took piano lessons from Melody Storey this year and finished with a piano recital.

At the end of the year, Wasatch has a dance party in which each grade learns and performs a dance.  My dad came with me this year.  Josh was busy that morning with phone calls so was able to run in right before it started.  Lizzy performed the jello dance and Matthias performed in "In the Jungle."