Alive and Hot in Texas

We have concluded our long journey to a new life in Texas. It was an adventure for sure!

As you all know (or don't know but will know soon because I'm about to write it...) we spent the month of May living with my wonderful parents in Alpine, Utah. After a long and painful job search, Jonesy finally landed a great job at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Yay! We set off on Monday morning and arrived in Flagstaff that night to check into a very ghetto hotel (we're cheap, what can I say?).

Tuesday was wonderful. First we had to stop by the library to return some books (oops!). We got to see a few friends as well. Tuesday night we loaded up our 16' rental truck with the help of a very good friend (Thank you Moses!!!). We left Wednesday morning for Albuquerque.

I was a bit nervous about the drive because it was going to be me against two young children in the back seat while my beloved husband risked his life driving the truck behind us. Luckily, we arrived safe and sound with time to spare for swimming in the hotel pool. (a much less ghetto-ie hotel). Thursday was another day of driving and it went surprisingly well. We got into Lubbock just in time to check-in and wait for some guys from our new Ward to come help us move our stuffs into the apartment. We were grateful to have plenty of help (a nice welcome!).

So yeah... here we are. Thursday and Friday were hot and dry. Today was hot and humid. Weird huh? I guess the winds sometimes bring up the humidity from the south. Oh and the worst part?...I have NO IDEA WHICH WAY NORTH IS!!! No mountains. No hills. No numbered street signs. It's pretty nuts.

Random Updates

We've been kinda shy about the blog lately. Mostly because we're lazy. Also because life has been pretty hectic lately. We said goodbye to Flagstaff last week. We're going to miss a couple things about the place, but mostly we're excited to begin a new life somewhere else (which still remains a mystery!) One thing we miss a lot is storytime at the library. Ruth has spent the past two years really getting to know the librarians. Every time we walked into the library all the librarians would happily greet Ruth. They were even on their toes enough to have a new and different bookmark ready for her to take home every week. Ms. Karen was Ruth's favorite. She is the best story-teller ever. Here is a picture of Ruth, Ms. Karen and Ms. Karen's granddaughter...



Ruth was talking today about how she misses her friends. Daniel was (and is..she's excited to write him a letter) her best bud. They loved to eat pizza together and run around being crazies together.


A couple days after we arrived in Alpine Ruth woke up with a very high fever of 104.6. We were able to keep it down aroudn 102 with ibuprofin but when she still had the fever on the third day we took her to see a doctor. Bronchitus again. The inhaler helped her cough instantly but the medicine didn't help the fever go away until the fifth day. She spent all those days sleeping on the couch. Poor thing.


On May 2nd, we (Jonesy and I) celebrated our 5-year anniversary! Yay us! After surviving the past five years we feel that we can do anything.
We celebrated by leaving the children with Grandma and going to see a movie (Ironman--awesome flick...highly recommended!) eating dinner at a hawiian grill and going to an improv comedy show at a club called Comedy Sportz. Here we are in love and waiting for the show to start...


This is a picture of the little comedy club, just for fun.


After the laughs we headed to Village Inn (the place we had our first date) for some pie. This is Jonesy being annoyed by the table FULL of highschool children who were thinking they were all that and a bag of fritos because they were out past 10pm without their mommies to take care of them...


After the pie we took an amazing trip to Wal-mart to buy diapers for our baby boy. All around it was a lovely anniversary. We look forward to another five years (mostly because we have promised ourselves a cruise for our tenth anniversary)


Here is Gareth feeding himself with a spoon at Wingers (the best restaurant in the galaxy)...



So in case you are all wondering about us we are all fine and dandy. Keep checking the blog, we'll post more often...maybe!

Oh on a side note, I was very sad to not get a picture of the wonderful surprise we found floating in the toilet today if only Jonesy didn't have to pee so badly I could have run and got my camera....apparently Gareth had snuck in there to find a place to hide his bottle and keep it cold.

You're fired.

So, for those of you who don't know, I have been jobless for about a month now. I, Mr. Jones, got fired. Kinda. Not really. I still get a paycheck, still have benefits, and still collect retirement. I just don't have to go to work. In fact, I'm not allowed to go to work. My contract, which is up June, will not be renewed. So I need to find a new job before then.

Why did I get fired? Well, thats a long story. Suffice to say, I'm not a very good teacher in the classroom, and I have a habit of not treating the students like precious snowflakes. Oh, and I swear. A lot. That, and I came down on the wrong side of a political struggle at the workplace. Now, my boss didn't want to fire me, my co-workers (with two notable exceptions) didn't want me to leave, and there were a handful of students who actually liked me and my, ehm, unique teaching style. (They were, of course, all techs) But those that didn't like me, (either because of my lack of teaching ability, my caustic personality, or the fact that they perceived me as a political opponent) leveled enough complaints about me (real and otherwise, cause believe me, I know I did some stupid things) to the dean of the college and the president of the university, and the decision was made to cut me loose. And since I was a professional staff employee, the decision didn't have to go through and of the normal channels (committees and the likes) and the President was able to make the decision all by himself.

But why didn't they just outright fire me? Because if they had of, I could have filed a grievance or worse, sued them for unlawful termination. Why unlawful? Because the final complaint against me appears to be pretty weak. But by just reassigning my duties and choosing not to renew my contract, I am unable to file a grievance, (per my contract) and have no basis to sue them. Also, they don't have to tell me why I am being let go.

So the last month has been very hard for me. I have been depressed, angry, bewildered, and angry some more. But I have come to some realizations.

1) My family and I are extremely blessed. They might have fired me, leaving me without a paycheck, without insurance, and without a way to take care of my family. Instead, I have an opportunity to focus my time fully on finding a new job. And I am spending time with Havilah and the kids, which when it comes right down to it, are the most important things I have. Plus, I can look for some part time work and save up for when we move and any space between the end of my contract and the start of a new position. So all in all, it looks like Someone is still taking care of us.

2) I am not blameless in this. I did, in fact, make many mistakes. Some of them were due to ignorance on my part, and others because of pride. I have been so proud of being perceived as being a caustic, abrasive and sarcastic personality that I have been either unwilling or unable to change my behavior, (such as swearing and kidding around) with my students. And that behavior is just not accepted in a learning environment. And honestly, I'm not a good teacher. Give me a crew in a hands on environment, and I rock. But in a classroom, I am very weak. And it scares the crap out of me. So I cover that fear by joking with the students and swearing. Thus causing more problems. So maybe I need to get a non teaching position and just grow up. A bit. Around underlings, at least.

3) Spending my time being pissed of about this whole situation is not going to accomplish anything. So I need to focus my energy on finding a new job and spending my time constructively.

Umm, so yeah, thats what I have been doing. Anyone know of any job openings?