Lunch Lady??? I don't think so!!!

Here it goes!
A week ago on Friday I received a call from a Kent Getzin, director of Food Services for the Wenatchee school district. He asked if I had applied for the position of Lead server/Asst. lunch server at Washington Elementary. I replied, Yes. He said Trish Greene at Washington had brought my name to his attention and was wondering if I would like to substitute in the position for 2 weeks to see if i liked it. So I told him I would.
The first day: (Tues. 9/16) I arrive at the school at 7AM, as that is what time I needed to be there. I went into the school, saw Trish and was excited to work with her. She is a super sweet person, always happy & smiling. We went into the kitchen, and she told me about what we were doing that morning. What was for breakfast, etc. I received a blue apron, and a lovely hairnet. It was great!! I looked marvelous!! :-)
We heated up the pancakes and sausages for breakfast, took the cereal, milk and fruit to the other gym to serve breakfast. I was the syrup lady. After breakfast, we went back to the kitchen and then she showed me what was next, etc. I was done at 8:30 and had to be back at 10:15 for lunch prep, serve, etc.
For lunch it was Salad bar or Hamburger Deluxe. I was in charge of setting up the salad bar and keeping it stocked, also keeping the lunch lines moving and not getting backed up. Ok, so far so good!! Well, then after lunch was over, much to my dismay I got the lovely job of washing all the lunch trays (over 300). ICKY!!! I had to plug my way through until 2pm when I was off duty. It was yucky! I had made a salad to eat after my shift and couldn't eat it. Felt sick to my stomach!!
I had decided the first day that this wasn't the job I would love. I enjoy being with the kids, and this didn't give me that opportunity. Also, I don't want to wash dishes anymore than I have to. ;-)

Next day, same routine. Served Breakfast Quesadillas for breakfast, I was the salsa lady. Then for lunch was Pretzel with Cheese sauce/or salad bar. The trays were icky and gross. I really couldn't eat after that!! YUCK!! The dishwater was disgusting.

Yesterday, my last day, I only had to come in for the lunch portion to help. We had Chili Haystacks. It amazed me how well the chili came off the trays, but not the shredded cheese that had melted. ICK!!

Anyhow, I will wait for another opportunity at a position I could love.
Until then, no more lunch lady for me!!! ;-)

A Day of Remeberance!!

Today in 2001, a horrible thing happened in New York City, NY!! My family & I were living in Germany at the time, with the military. I remember I was home, and Jeff called me and said you need to turn on the TV. We didn't have cable or anything, just a couple of German stations. I don't recall his exact words to me, other than I needed to see what was happening in NY.

I turned on the TV, and stared at the screen in disbelief. It couldn't be real, could it? I remember that it all seemed unreal. When I first turned it on, just seconds later, the 2nd plane was shown crashing into the 2nd tower. I watched in amazement, and still in unbelief, that it was all happening right then.
What a tragedy!!



When the towers began to fall, I was horrified!! The people running and screaming through the streets. The dust and debris everywhere. It was horrible!!



I pray we can each take a few moments in our day today, and remember those who died and those who became heros this day!! For their families and friends who mourn their loss each day!!

We Got U Day!!

This will not be in chronological order, as this day was actually Sunday Sept. 7, 2008.

On that day of Sept 7th, back in 1995, Jeff & I arrived on a plane to Kansas City, MO. We rented a car and drove to Independence, to the LDS Social Services Office @ 517 W. Walnut St. to pick up a special package. When we arrived the director, Bro. Young, asked us if we would like to go do some church history touring. Jeff, thinking the package had not arrived, said I guess so. Then Bro. Young said, Just kidding, she is in here. Our package, we went to pick up, was a beautiful little 3 mo. old baby, who we named, Jolyn Courtney Stevens.



We went into a room, and there on the floor on a blanket was a little girl fast asleep. We being afraid to wake her up, let her sleep, and sleep, and sleep, etc.........
Finally after an hour or more, Jeff got up and went to the bathroom, and when he returned I did the same, also stopping to talk to the receptionist who had had her the night before, to find out her schedule. As I walked back into the room, Jolyn, had just awoke from her long (very long) nap, and Jeff was picking her up and saying Hi,
I'm your Daddy!! She had these very crystal clear blue eyes, with super-duper long eyelashes to melt our hearts. It was love at first sight. We were and still are, so grateful to a birthmom who was so unselfish as to give her baby both a mother and a father, and that she chose us to be the parents of her baby girl.

How eternally grateful we are to her and to our Heavenly Father, through whom this miracle came to be!!
We did not give Jolyn her name that day at the agency, because we hadn't fully decided what we were naming her. We left the agency and went to a hotel. The hotel was Shoney's Inn and figured out a name for this baby. Jeff likes to say she was named after the street the hotel was on. (Lynn Court). I bathed Jolyn and put her in a cute dress, which I named the Nettie dress, as it reminded me of something my sister Lynette would have worn. We then took her to the restaurant, Shoney Inn, and ate dinner. At the restaurant, the hostess who seated us, commented how beautiful she was, and asked how old she was. Jeff told her that she was three months old, but only a few hours to us. She then started crying, as she came to the realization of what that meant. Then we were all crying. It was awesome!!
She slept through the night, woke up around 6 am, had a bottle and went back to sleep. We loved that she was a sleeper already. :-) We then got up and got dressed and went back to the agency to complete our paperwork, and get ready to go home with our new little girl. There were some glitches with paperwork, as far as the birth father was concerned, and we were not sure they were going to let us leave. The agency director, decided to go ahead and let us go, so we could catch our plane home. We had to sign a paper for a High Risk Placement, which basically said we were taking her on the chance that if the birthfather didn't sign his rights away, we could lose her. We used our faith that it would all work out. (A month later, it did!!)
We caught our plane back to SLC, where we left from as we were on vacation when we received the phone call to come and get our baby!! :-) What a joyful day that was. We feel so blessed to have Jolyn in our lives and for the joy and trials she has brought us along these past 13 years. My how time flies!!
HAPPY WE GOT U DAY, JOLYN COURTNEY STEVENS!!!!

Camping and start of school!!

Well here it is another long break from writing....... YIKES!!! I may never catch up.

We took a family vacation to go camping from Thurs. 8/28- Mon. 9/1. We went up the Entiat River and camped in a campground called Lake Creek. It was beautiful. Our campsite was #1, and it was right by the creek. At times the creek was very loud, but it was wonderful to look at.


I couldn't find a good picture of it, so here is a trail map of the area.

http://www.publiclands.org/explore/site.php?search=YES&back=Search%20Results&id=4906
The above website will tell you a bit about the area we stayed in.

We slept in our trusty tent, that we have had for over 15 years. It has seen its better days, and it was laid to rest in the trash bin at the campground, at the end of our camping. :-( It was a sad day for Jeff, he didn't want to let his tent go, and neither did I but it was done!!

We had a fire every night, and made smores. Yummy!! We cooked lots of good stuff to eat including corn on the cob one night. It was delicious!! We debated on whether to go home on Sat. or stay until Monday. We all decided we were NOT ready to go home on Sat. so we stayed. Jeff planned a church service for us, and we were each assigned a talk to give. It turned out very wonderful. The girls each did their part,and we all enjoyed the spirit that was present during our meeting. We hung around camp all day on Sun. and just enjoyed each other and planned for our meeting. IT was awesome!!

We did a little bit of hiking in the area, the girls and chewy played in the freezing creek water, did some game playing and some reading, and some napping. It was nice to be away from all the requirements of day to day living. (no phones, no radios, no tv, etc.)

It was nice to have this time together as life is busy with Jeff in school and working. It was our last chance before the girls started school on Sept. 2nd.
Jeff is on break after finishing his first year of his Masters Program. He is doing so well, and we are all proud of him.
He won't begin his Fall quarter (2nd year) till Sept. 29th.

The girls started school on Sept. 2nd. Jolyn to the 8th grade at Orchard MS and Jalani into the 4th grade at Washington Elementary. Jolyn is in her last year of Middle
School, next year she will start High school. (YIKES!!) It is crazy how the time goes by.

Jolyn's Core teacher (for Language Arts & Social Studies) is Mr. Gavin.

Jalani's teacher is Ms. Detwiler.

Their first week went well. Jolyn had homework in Math the very first night. She was not happy about that, and she claimed she already didn't like her math instructor.
(Mr. Graham). Other than that, I think she is happy with her schedule.
Lani is loving school already, she was anxious/nervous the first day, but has adjusted quickly to the 4th grade.

I was busy all of last week doing laundry. First I did the laundry that was here at home, then I dug into the camping laundry. I still have some blankets to wash from camping, and I already have to do all the other laundry again. :-(
I depise laundry. It is never ending. Wish I had a laundress to do it all for me. Wishful thinking, I know!! :-)
I volunteered a couple of days at the library at school again. I am waiting for some sub jobs to come through. i know I am on a couple of peoples lists to call if they need a sub, so I know I will at least get a few calls.
Well better go almost time for the girls to come home. Take care and hope this catches you up some.

Another Day in Paradise

So it has been another week plus since I wrote, I will try and do better, but no guarantees. :-)
Well we did not end of going to Vintiques that weekend, we went to Lake Chelan and played on the Aqua Park (which is a bunch of water trampolines and slides hooked together) (Jeff, Jolyn, Kaari, Kory & Lani played on that for an hour) I stayed on shore with Chewy and let him swim in the lake.
Then we went to the lake chelan state park and had a picnic and went swimming in the lake. (Well at least the kids and chewy did.) :-)
http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Lake+Chelan

We had a good time! We also in between those two activities went into city center Chelan and checked out a few stores. On our way into Lake Chelan we stopped at a little stand to see what they had and found this great salsa and chips. We bought some and that was my breakfast and Kaari's snack. It was really good, had some corn in it, so surprised Kaari liked it. :-)
Jeff got a small taste, I mean small............ ;-) I went back to Chelan with Jolyn & Kaari on the following Monday and we bought 3 more things of salsa and 2 bags of chips. So Jeff had his own container of salsa.
Anyhow, it was fun!!
On Tues. I drove Kaari & Kory,along with Jolyn & Lani to North Bend to meet up with Beth McIntire, another aunt of K3 & K4. She and her husband Matt live in Redmond, WA. They offered to take K3 & K4 to the airport on Wed. afternoon. It was nice of them to do that. The kids were ready to go home, and I must admit I was ready too. I really enjoyed having them, and would love to have them back. They are awesome kids!!

The rest of this week was spent trying to put life back into its normal place, whatever that is.............. ;-)
Today we are at the library looking up info. for Jeff for a school project he has coming up. He is doing really well this quarter. He is almost done with his first year of his Masters Program. Yea, Jeff!!! I am really proud of him for sticking with this, and doing what he set out to accomplish a number of years ago. Only 2 more years to go!! Woohoo!!!!

The girls are at home currently with friends. They are going swimming with them at 6:15 tonight.
Well that is all for now folks!! Stay tuned for another exciting adventure!! ;-)

Catching up!!

Here it is, almost a week since my last post!! Where does the time go? Anyhow, I have been busy entertaining my niece and nephew for the past week. It has been fun, but I am running out of ideas of things to do!! :-)
I know I don't have to entertain them all the time, but there are things we would like them to be able to do/see. I hope they are having a good time. I heard their mom is ready for them to be home, so is Kris their older brother.

This week we don't have anything much planned, except for the weekend, possibly going to Yakima to the Vintiques. (car show) We can hopefully stay with Jeff's dad & his wife.
On Thurs. at the library, is the Short Shakespearans' (theatre group here in Wenatchee).
Jolyn & Jalani want to swim everyday, but not Kory & Kaari. It is hard to find the medium to make all happy.

I was called to my new calling yesterday, as Achievement Day Leader. I will be one of two ladies in this calling. I will work with Jalani and about 5 other girls. It should be fun, just need to figure out what I am supposed to do.

Well better go and get cracking on whatever it is we are doing today.
Catch up to y'all later!!

Back to Life

Well here it has been a long time again. Time just slips away from me. We have arrived home (one week ago) from Utah. I brought Kory & Kaari (nephew & niece) with us. We had such a wonderful time while we were gone.
We went to the zoo, parade, fireworks, family gatherings, and more. It was great to be with my family. We got to have time with Lynette, Layne, Jayme & Payce too. That was awesome!!

I am grateful to my parents for their hospitality in letting us stay for so long. It was wonderful to be there to celebrate both their birthdays with them. Thanks Mom & Dad. Thanks to my wonderful sister for allowing my children to sleep over and spend time at their home, also. Thanks Lori.

I am trying to get my house back in order after being gone for so long. So much to do, so little time.

I have applied for two positions with the school district here in Wenatchee, and already know one of those has been filled and not by me!! :-(
Something will come along, I am sure.
Jeff is still plugging away in his summer quarter and is doing really well. Today he, Jolyn & Jalani are still in Spokane and are going to his class field trip to a Hutterite Colony. That should be a great experience for them.

I am grateful to be home mostly. I miss my parents and family there in Utah. I had such a great time spending time with my Grandparents as well. I love you Bmor & Bfar!!

I am being released from Nursery this coming Sunday, and they called me to be an Achievement Day Leader. YIKES!! That is more frightening than Nursery.

I hope I can do OK there.
Well that is all for now, folks!!