Exciting New Chapter Filled With Blessings!

   Hi everyone! We have had a great summer and I am so excited to share some of it! It hasn't been easy but we have been doing our best to count our blessings and kind of power through it. I will update the best I can!

   Having nothing to do after graduation really wigged me out. It was nice having time to relax but I don't relax easily. Glen always says that I can never just do nothing, which is pretty accurate. I had my first interview about a week after graduation. It was exciting to get to interview for a "grown up" job, but when I came out of the interview I wasn't as excited as I knew I should be. Immediately, Glen and I started praying about what we should do if I was offered the position. We both agreed that something felt off about it and decided to turn it down when it was offered to me. This was so hard! Turning down the type of position I have been waiting for forever and the paycheck that went with it seemed absolutely ridiculous; but we did it. I found out about 10 minutes after I called and turned down the position why I was prompted that way. I don't want to go into too many details but it would not have been the right place for me. So....we took a leap of faith and it turned out to be exactly right.

   Starting in June I went back to working at the animal clinic just for the summer. We turned in our application for the apartment complex that we have wanted to live in for forever and we got accepted! So we both took on more hours to pay for deposits as well as our current expenses. Glen is working his butt off at Leslie's and is still on track to become the assistant manager at his store. With the hours we were both getting we were able to pay half of the deposits and set our move in date. This was another light at the end of the tunnel; we've grown out of our apartment and so many things have been going wrong with it that we are ready to get out of here! Toward the beginning of the June I was crunching numbers and freaking out, as well as worrying because it had been almost a month with no other calls for interviews. Literally as I was thinking this I got a phone call from the school that I attended for my first observation year at UTA. I went to the interview and felt like I sounded like a total dummy. The questions were so much harder than I expected but I answered them the best I could. Right after my interview Glen and I went to the temple; after our session I spent some time in the celestial room and part of that was praying about the interview and the job in general. I could tell right away that this one was different; I was anxious to get the phone call from the principal and hoping it would happen. We prayed about it and felt that if the position was offered to me, I should take it. I heard back from the principal the next Monday and I got the position! I will be teaching second grade at Remynse Elementary in Arlington ISD and I am so excited!!

   Glen and I have been enjoying our mutual days off together. While I was student teaching we didn't get a whole lot of quality time. We've gone swimming a couple of times, played games, and gotten to veg some. The one thing that we didn't get to do is travel like we wanted, so we've made plans to save and go next summer. I did get to spend some time in New York. I went with Megan and Caelan and we were there for about 6 days. We went with Chris, Holly, and the kids to see The Hill Cumorah Pageant. We played games. went to a birthday dinner for Caelan and just got to spend some time together. I also got to go to my best friend Kassy's baby shower. It is crazy and awesome to see her as a mom; they're going to be so great though. No doubts.

*WARNING: SHAMELESS GUSHY FEELS PORTION*
   Okay so here's I think one of our biggest blessings this summer. I posted a status about it on Facebook but couldn't type details through the tears. I'm able to talk about it without crying, I am just amazed. For months Glen and I have been praying that our finances would work out with moving this coming Saturday. I always forget how expensive moving is with having to still pay rent in the current place as well as deposits and rent in the next place. Finances are painful for me, so I am pretty sure that my brain blocked out that pain. Anyways, we have included this next couple weeks especially both in our individual and couple prayers. We've fasted about it about it and brought our concerns to the temple. Well the peak of our financial hill is coming up in the next week and a half. As I was coming home for lunch today I was thinking about all of our upcoming bills and wondering how this was all going to work out. Thinking about how we'd done all we could; we paid our tithing first thing after each of our checks and we have been as careful as possible with our finances. I was thinking all of this when the email alert on my phone went off. The email was from UTA and it said that a refund had been generated to my checking account. I figured it was a little refund for parking or something so I logged onto my account to see what it was from and how much. It was a good thing I had put the car in park because otherwise I would have wrecked. Almost $1,500 was the amount of my refund.
 
   I walked into our apartment and I am sure by the look on my face Glen thought something terrible had happened. I told him and we thought they had made a mistake. I called my mom to see what I should do or if I should call the financial aid office. She told me to do what I thought was best. I intended to call but thought I should first check my financial aid page and all the way at the bottom was the grant that was being refunded. I was supposed to receive it last summer but never did so they issued the refund now. I just started to cry. This is literally the exact amount to pay our deposit we've been looking for relief for and some other bills. I We are so incredibly grateful. The first thing Glen mentioned was blessings from our tithing; my first thought was the hundreds of prayers answered.

Whatever caused it, we know we are blessed beyond words. The following quote seems to sum it up nicely. We were feeling blessed as it was by friends and family who support and love us, this was the icing on the cake.