Family Pictures 2017

It has been such a long time since I've put anything on this blog. When I last wrote, we had no children. Now we live back in Pocatello, Idaho, again, and we have two kiddos. As I write this, one of them is playing a game and one of them is watching my work intently. Can you guess which one is which?

In the meantime, here are a few of our family pictures we had taken by my wonderfully talented sister, Shannon Christensen.

More pictures will go on Facebook. In the meantime, we will try to update this blog more often, as it is nice to go back and read it.
The answer to the question, by the way, is that Makyla is playing the game and Hannah is looking over my shoulder. In case you wanted to know. :)

Pictures from our Minnesota life

Hello, world.

It's just after seven in the morning on Friday. I'm so relieved it's Friday, because my weeks just keep getting longer and longer. I spend 4 hours every morning tutoring children in reading, and I've decided, as much as I'm growing to like teaching my kiddos, I will never become an elementary teacher.

 A few minutes ago, I came in from my morning walk. It's a little chilly outside (although nothing compared to what my Idaho friends and family are going through), so when I got back in, my nose was running. Steve must have heard me sniffling from the bedroom, because despite the fact that he doesn't need to be up for another hour, he came in to see if I was okay and what I was crying about. He is the best husband and best friend a girl could have. I love him.

 Enough with the romantics.

 I am working on getting my book ready to publish on Kindle, and as part of that process, I am planning a blog that chronicles some of the childhood adventures of my main character, McKenna Ellery. The blog is keepdanikasafe.blogspot.com. I will alert you when the first post is up. I am very excited, about getting my book published and available for you to read, and also for you to get some of the juicy tidbits of her life that got cut in the writing process. Stay posted!

Reflections on my new life

Hello everyone from Minnesota. I have been here almost a month and haven't yet posted much on this blog. Partially because I've been (oddly) busy, and partially because I am attempting to digest all the changes that have occurred in my life. So here's what's been going on: 1) I have managed to acquire three part-time jobs. I am teaching online for ISU, working as a reading instructor in a local elementary, and working at the local library. I am still holding out hope that I can get work at a university around here sometime, but for the moment, this will work. I started ISU yesterday, the library today, and the elementary next week. So that will keep me fairly busy. 2) I have been called as the Young Women's president in our branch, which means I am in charge of all the teenage girls (there are 4-5 of them). I have no counselors or assistants, so I am doing it all. So far it is going okay, although the branch is run quite differently from what I am used to, and I am struggling a little to humble myself to work with them, rather than trying to railroad everyone into being more organized. I have also been called as a branch missionary, so I have been working with our missionaries on several occasions. That is pretty fun, but also has been busy. 3) As I knew that I was about to get really busy once school started, I have been attempting to get a few things done at home in advance. So I have been storing food. I have canned pickles and jam, and I have bags and bags of zucchini and corn in the freezer. Hopefully that will help us make it through winter. 4) Steve and I have been spending as much time together as possible. We've been to the Twin Cities twice (to go to the temple), and we are going again this weekend to go to the fair. We've also been spending time with Steve's parents, and that has been really nice for all of us. 5)In particular, I've been dragging Mom Yerka along with me to do family history, which I have been trying to do a lot of in the last few weeks. For some reason, I've been feeling incredibly drawn to our ancestors (both Steve's and mine), and I am trying to find them. 6) Let's see, that might be all. Except that I am struggling a little bit with missing my life in Pocatello. Everything is quite different now, and I know that I will get used to it. But I miss my friends and family, and I miss school (I'm such a school-junkie), and I miss Katelyn. She is doing okay, for those of you who know who she is. She's living on her own, and starts school tomorrow. Hopefully that will go okay. 7) One funny thing is, I actually don't miss my house that much. I mean, I do a little. It was a great house. But our little apartment is so much easier to clean and take care of, and it's kind of nice to have just enough space for us, instead of way too much. I particularly don't miss taking care of the yard. :) It is a little harder to entertain here in our small space, but since we don't know anyone, that's not such an issue. Okay, I have to go before this basically becomes a pity party. I really am okay. Just adjusting.

We have arrived...

...in Minnesota, that is. Whether that constitutes arriving in the traditional sense of the phrase is yet to be seen. But we are ensconced here in our apartment in Kandiyohi, and things are going well. The apartment is small, but we knew it was going to be, so so far I am not experiencing any latent missing of my big house in Pocatello. We went for a walk around town today, and it took about 40 minutes to circumnavigate the entire side of town (at least the part on this side of Highway 12). Along the way, we picked up a little friend named Faith who showed off on her bike for us for quite awhile until her parents shouted her back inside. She was very cute. We also went to church today, and although the branch was much smaller than I am used to, it is going to be just fine. I am quite pleased to be here, and I am hoping that things will work out well for us here. If not, c'est la vie. All is well. Pictures will be forthcoming, just as soon as we clear up some of the rubble.