A Great Year! 2013 in Review

This family had a great 2013! This is not to say it was without it's struggles and trials, but as I look back, I recognize all the good and the many blessings this family was given.

Student Teaching

We started out 2013 in a particularly hard time for us. Deryk began student teaching and although he was so happy to be teaching and loving every minute of it, we struggled more financially than we had ever struggled before. In the midst of one of the most stressful points in our marriage, we were blessed greatly by the love, compassion, and generosity of our parents.
My parents came to stay with us for a week each month so that we could save one weeks child care per month. It made a huge difference and it was such a special opportunity to have Grandma and Grandpa Simper in our home each month for an extended amount of time. Grace and Seth developed a closer, more loving relationship with them. I loved putting the kids to bed at night and then playing games or doing puzzles and chatting with my parents each night. It really was a special opportunity! I look back on that experience with gratitude! My parents gave us so much of their time and were so compassionate towards us in a time of struggle and much need. We had been blessed by their care in a great way.
Another way in which we were greatly blessed during this time of struggle was with Deryk's father, Joe. He so generously gave of his days off to come watch the kids. He would come for three days at a time and spend the days with our children, again to save us a little cash in child care. He was so generous with us! It astounds me still that he was so willing to give his free time to us and our children!
We are eternally grateful to our kind, generous parents for being there for us in a time of great need. I look back at those 5 months as a time of struggle, but more fondly, as a time of great love and compassion.

Thank you Mom, Dad, and Joe for being there for us when we needed you most!

Graduation

My sisters and I often joke that when a spouse graduates it is as if the marital partner graduates as well. As I watched Deryk march down that long isle into graduation in May, I had that same sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as I did when I myself graduated. It was a joint effort to get us both graduated after we married and a joint sense of joy and elation each time one of us finally accomplished this goal!
Deryk's graduation day was a great day! We celebrated with family and friends at our small little house. It was even more fun to announce that we had both accepted jobs in the same school district. Our family was around us to feel the joy and sense of accomplishment we both felt that day. Deryk and I had never anticipated a bright future more than we did that day! It was such a great day!

Summer of 2013

The summer went by in a flash! We had a great time enjoying our last summer in Smithfield! We tried to see as much of our favorite places as possible. We went on day trips, hikes, and walks soaking in the home that we grew to love in the four years we were there. (I really miss Cache Valley).
As we tried to stuff our summer full of Cache Valley sights, we also searched for our new home. We really didn't have a lot of time, by the time we received our teaching contracts, to find a home. We had given ourselves a time limit to find and place an offer on a home before we decided to delay buying a home for a year. Miraculously, we found a house we both fell in love with one day before that deadline. Our offer was accepted the day we set our deadline! We were elated! We found a home! We would be homeowners again!
We finished out the summer with family reunions, picnics in the park, late summer night star gazing, and making plans for our new home, and finally moving to Rigby!
It was a great, and somewhat stressful summer! I loved every minute of it! We sure were blessed to find our home just in the nick of time!

Home Repairs in the Fall

On August 9th we took possession of our home and immediately began making it our own. Within just a few hours, we had torn up the carpet and made an expensive trip to Lowes! Once again we were greatly blessed by our parents generous ways. Deryk's parents spent 3 or 4 days with us. They were a huge help! They helped tear out, take down, paint, fix, and put in new flooring. My father spent a lot of time helping us get our floor in and donating his materials. My mom helped in the way she knows best, she made many meals for us and all those who came to help on the home repairs and move.
We had a lot of help from loved ones during this time! My sisters, their husbands, and their families gave time and service as well. We wouldn't have accomplished so much, so quickly without all the amazing help!
All the help and generosity made it possible for Deryk and I to complete the major projects before school began.

A New School Year

This school year was a unique year! Deryk and I began working at new schools and Grace began Kindergarten! It was a day of first for all but one us in this family!
Deryk has loved working in the large new school here in Rigby and finally having his weekends off (we have done a lot with those free weekends)! This is the first time since we have been married that Deryk hasn't had a job that required he work on Saturdays!
Grace has loved kindergarten at Roberts Elementary! She mostly loves making new friends and being a little ring leader for them out on the playground.
I have loved seeing Grace in the hall and out on the playground as we both get settled in our new school. It has been a fun school year, though a little trying for me. The pregnancy has drained so much of my energy and my class this year has really been hard. They really demand a lot of the energy I have so little of, but I have done my best to give it all! I have tried to focus on the needs of this class in a way I have never done before, and yet they still struggle to improve test and reading scores. I feel grateful to be in a class that needs me so much, but it has been very hard and taken a lot out of me that I never even knew I had. It has been a great learning experience for me!

Finishing out the year 2013

We finished the year of 2013 with a New Years Eve party. We invited my family to come party and stay the night with us. We had fun playing games and dancing (or watching the kids dancing) in the first minutes of 2014! It was fun to be able to have a large group in our home and fit comfortably. We were happy to share our home and celebrate the ending of such a great year with family.

As I look back on this year I recognize how richly I have been blessed. I do not write this post to brag about all the good in my life, but to keep record of all that we've been given. To recognize the good we have enjoyed and known throughout this year, to make myself aware of how much we have! To give me something to read when I am down and struggling, to renew my faith when I need it. I truly feel as though this was one of the best years Deryk and I have had together! This does not mean that we had it easy, that we did not struggle, just that we have never seen such great blessings poured out upon us.
At the close of 2013 I look back on this year and see the great blessings, I see all that we have and now need to give back! my hope for 2014 is that we can give generously to those who need the help we have been given so much of. In this way, I hope we can give thanks for the great year we had in 2013!