Our Story

Warning!! Very long post. I won't be offended if you just look through pictures.

Tomorrow is Dave's and my 2nd anniversary. I can't believe it's been 2 years. It's odd to think that most of my time in Texas has been as a wife! I'm going to take my old roommate's idea and use this as a chance to journal for myself about Dave's and my courtship and marriage.



Those that know me well know that when I felt impressed to take the job in Texas I wasn't thrilled about the prospect and I really hoped that moving down here meant I might find someone meant for me. My first year was awful. I hated my job. I didn't date anyone that was worthwhile as far as finding anything lasting. I really thought I wanted to leave but couldn't hardly form the thought because I remembered the clear impression to move here. I enjoyed my time playing ultimate frisbee with the singles ward and actually met Dave when playing ultimate shortly after I moved to Texas but he was dating someone else at the time so I forgot all about him.



I quit my first teaching job at the end of the year because I knew that if I was to be a teacher that I could not be a good one at that school. I applied for jobs in other districts and toyed with the idea of trying something else. I interviewed for two jobs in Spring ISD and really liked what I saw at Bammel MS. They offered me a job at my first interview and after thinking about it for a day I accepted. I spent the summer, between my first and second year teaching, traveling and enjoying the fact that I finally had the money to do those things. I didn't know it then but I had already caught Dave's eye but he hadn't worked up the guts to say anything and I was also gone very often.



Shortly after the new school year started a friend of mine walked up to me at church and asked what my last name was. I found that odd so I asked her later why she asked. I'll never forget the response "because there's this really hot guy that wants to ask you out." I didn't believe her but when she told me who it was I remembered him vaguely and agreed that yes he was hot.



The next week I saw him talking to a friend of mine and thought I would go say hi to my friend and give Dave the opportunity to talk to me. He took it and we talked for a while and realized we both had MySpace pages. That night I went home and looked him up to see what more I could find out about him. He looked me up to and sent me a message later that night. He called me the next day and after a long conversation (very out of character for Dave) he asked me out on TWO dates! Our first date was September 10th and we went to a mexican restaurant (well Tex Mex actually seeing as we live in Texas) and as we were leaving he said, "I don't have to take you home yet do I?." I didn't want to go home either so we went and got a malt and talked. It was really nice. We started to email and talk and see each other just about every day. I think we counted once and we've only been apart for 2 days since our first date.




Things progressed pretty fast. We knew we loved each other by General Conference weekend. We mentioned marriage but didn't want to rush things so we kind of ignored it as long as we could. I don't remember the day we decided to get married but we thought we'd get engaged before Christmas and married the following March. Little did I know I was about to have a break down.

I started to have serious doubts and fears. I was hurting all of the time and didn't know what to do. Most of my friends know about my parents' painful divorce and the affect it had on me. Dave and I decided to spend a few days apart on Oct 30th. By the next morning I was beside myself in pain and emotional turmoil. I didn't know what the Lord wanted me to do. I tried to go to work but had to leave because I was crying all the time. I called my bishop and met him at his office late that morning. He counseled with me and I realized that the Lord doesn't talk to us through pain. I realized that Dave was a good man and could make me very happy and we could be a great good in the world and that Satan really didn't want that. I decided at that moment that I would marry Dave but we needed to get engaged NOW. I called him on my way out and asked him to marry me. His response was cute. It was something like "Are you serious?" or "Are you sure?" I don't remember. We made plans to meet in The Woodlands at The Cheesecake Factory after he got done with work. He later called me and said that his dad thought it might be a good idea to get married sooner . . . say Christmas. A long engagement probably wouldn't be good for me considering my issues and I agreed.

That night when I met Dave he told me he forgot his wallet in the car. When we went to it he opened the trunk to balloons and a picture of his YMCA kids holding up the letters to "Will you marry me?" (the pic is in our slide show) and a teddy bear with a ring tied to its finger. He said something sappy I'm sure but I don't remember. It just felt so good to know for sure that he was the one for me.



And he is. We had a beautiful Wedding with almost all of our immediate families there. It was kind of hard to pull it together in 7 weeks but I'm glad we did. We've never looked back. I am still teaching 6th grade and love it most of the time. It's been a little struggle for us putting Dave through school but he will graduate next Christmas and we are looking forward to being able to expand our family sometime soon. We are so grateful for the love we share and the blessings we have. When my bishop counseled me that day he told me that being married isn't easy but that sharing it with someone you love it makes the hardships half as hard and the joys twice as joyful, he was right. I love you David.

Door Decorating Contest

One of the things my school does to celebrate is have a door decorating contest. I wasn't really going for winning and doing it was really an after thought but I liked it.

The teacher next to me has an 8th grade daughter who attends our school and she had wanted to do this door last year and finally got to do it this year. I thought it was clever having an Einstein Santa.
If I don't get another change to blog before Christmas . . . I hope you all have wonderful holidays. You are a blessing to Dave and I and we are grateful for each of you.

~The Figgins~

You'd think that seeing as I had a whole week off for Thanksgiving I'd find time to blog but alas . . . my life is boring. Dave and I did have a nice Thanksgiving though. Before we left I really wanted to get our tree set up. We bought it last year at the day after Christmas sales and despite the fact that we have very few ornaments but I think it's pretty cute!

Because it's our tree we have to be nerds and have Star Wars ornaments.

We spent Thanksgiving with Dave's family at his sister Lindsay's house. It was a lot of fun and I'm so happy they were so accomodating for us. I always struggle sleeping away from home so it was nice to have our own room that was quiet. Dave loves playing with his nephews and Gabe is kind of funny. He likes to line things up like he did with cars on David's tummy. He also lined up the window stickys later in the week.

On Friday we went and worked off some of our food by playing volleyball. Dave's parents watched the kids so we were free to kick butt and we did . . . at first. Then we got tired and sucked. We had fun though and I was mostly glad to be active after all that sitting and eating. My stomach had been achy but volleyball did the trick. We went home on Saturday morning and we were so glad to have time to ourselves before heading back to the daily grind.

Missing the Cold

I am missing the cold weather this week. We've had a few days of cold mornings and I love being able to put a jacket and a scarf on to head to work. I sometimes even needed gloves. Yesterday I had to turn the AC back on and it was SO depressing. I just miss cold weather. People think I'm crazy but I grew up around people who were happy with what we had and that was snow. Consequently I love snow. It's so sad not to have that to look forward to. I just look forward to the cold weather and snuggling with my husband. Sigh . . . . Happy Thanksgiving all! If you have snow for Thanksgiving be grateful! Some of us don't have that blessing.

Need to write, nothing to say

Life is pretty boring around here. I shouldn't say really boring because I love my life but it's not very noteworthy. Today was our Primary Program and I am getting really tired of my Sunbeam class. 3 and 4 year olds are so frustrating. They are great during regular Sunday classes but sitting on the stage for everyone got them too rowdy and they can't be reasoned with the way my neice Karin could be reasoned with (sometimes) at that age. The beauty is that for the most part they know how to act right and if their next teacher expects as much from them as I did they should be great.

School is the same old thing. The 6th grade assistant principal is dealing with some health issues and has been out since our open house. Some people like it without her and not having so many expectations but I hate it. The kids are more unruly and I don't feel as supported without her. I really miss her and maybe not really the things she does but just knowing she's there and that she knows that I work hard. I'm so glad I didn't change schools for this year because it is so nice being in the 3rd year on the same curriculum. I'm not fabulous at it but it makes for less stress and when I get ahead I can worry more about the students and helping myself be mentally healthy. I have my down days and Dave will attest to that but I seem to get out of ruts faster because I am comfortable where I am over all.

My personal ruts lately have been cause by all of the turmoil with people against the church since the elections. I have always been happy to just avoid confrontation but it seems that isn't an option anymore. I can't say I'm a fence sitter because my beliefs are firm but I have always been happy to know what I know, say my peace then live and let live. It makes me sad that people are so hateful towards other people who exercised their political rights. All I know is that the only way to live a happy life is to listen to the promptings of the spirit and follow them regardless of how people respond. The line has been drawn and through time in prayer we will weather the storm knowing that the Lord is on our side as long as we stay Christlike but firm in our stance. Nothing that was really worth it was ever easy and with the Lord on my side I will always have comfort and peace.

Getting Sick

So after finally joining stake choir for stake conference this year here I am at home sick. No singing at stake choir for me. I had a very stressful end to the week at work and think my body was already getting sick but today I seem to have a slight fever.

Last week at school was homecoming . . . for middle school! I thought it was VERY lame to do that in middle school but I did try to participate. We had a pep rally and the kids behaved admirably. I was so proud of them. Past 6th graders have had some huge issues with assemble type events but our kids were able to show pep but not get crazy. I was pretty happy.

I was also identified as someone with older brothers by my ability to give in nice punch in the arm when being teased. It went a little something like this.
Me: Giving odd signals to my students at the pep rally to remind them to sit.
Brian: Making odd gestures to mock me behind my back.
Me: Turning and taking a couple of jabs at his shoulder.
Brian: "You got older brothers or something? You sure hit like you do."
Me: "Four. OLDER."
I should mention that Brian is built a lot like my brothers but with a bigger gut so he inspires me to treat him like a brother. I don't generally go around hitting people at work.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Halloween. For Dave and I it was a special day being the 2nd anniversary of the day we got engaged. When I got to school I remembered that 2 years ago on the same day I was in a pretty bad state trying to figure out if the bad feelings I felt were inspiration or not. It was a day that I will never forget. It started off terribly but ended up being one of the happiest days of my life. I am so happy that I had a bishop who helped me discern the Lord's will and for a sister who helped me realize that just getting the ring on my finger was half the battle. Mostly I am happy that I found someone who loved me as much as I loved him. To have finally found someone with whom I wasn't the only one working at the relationship. I know he is the best match for me and I love him more today than I did 2 years ago. Happy engagement anniversary Baby.

Working in Education

I really wish I could sleep in on the weekends. My body gets so used to getting up early that I just wake up by 5:40 every day! Ouch.

This week has been pretty good. I gave my students their first real test and it went okay for some and really bad for a samll group. I recently decided that even if I use the pre-made tests at school I will divide them into objective so that I can figure out if the student didn't get it over all or if it is certain concepts that are giving them trouble. It's definitely a lot of work but If I can find the time it will help me know what kinds of assignments to give to each student to make sure that they understand the material before they leave my class at the end of the year. I think it's very idealist to think that I will be able to do all of this but I'm going to try. If nothing else at least I can say that I am attempting to do data driven instruction which is one of the domains of the new teacher evaluations in my district.

I'm trying to just do what is expected but I just can't see how the education system has decided that after all of the time and energy teachers put in to try their best to help kids understand with just basic teaching that it is now my fault if they don't get it. Sometimes it is but sometimes it has more to do with the level of effort of the student. I'll do what I have to do to try to help kids succeed but I get really concerned that if I am constantly the one making sure that the kids understand the material and to pass the test . . . when do children become accountable for themselves and their own learning? When do they try to see what they are having difficulty with and ask for help? And if after all I can do they still don't get it am I to be blamed by the system? Just things that worry me about my job.

Over all my students seem to work better for me this year. I already have some kids who I know hate me (which I really don't mind except for the fact that I wish they'd see it has more to do with them than me) and some kids that love me which I always count as a bonus and don't necessarily expect. I'm starting to be very thankful that the Lord didn't get me a job at a school closer to home like I wanted. I have a reputation at my school and I see new teachers struggling with behavior management more than I do and I know it has more to do with time than talent. I am very grateful that the Lord takes control in my life because my decisions wouldn't always make me happy.

Afternoon Naps & Babies

So I used to love my afternoon naps. Not so much anymore. I really like taking them and my sweet husband is kind enough to let me sleep but I sleep a little too long. Then my going to sleep Sunday night is restless. I seem to do fine on Mondays so the lack of sleep at night isn't causing too much of an issue but I wish I could get over my desire/need for Sunday afternoon naps.

Dave and I hung out with a friend in our ward this weekend. She has a newborn and a little girl and we had such a blast. Her daughter is SO cute! She calls me Miss Jill and my husband Mr. Dave which is too cute! Both Dave and I got chances to rock the baby to sleep. It was awesome and we're just in love with babies. We're looking forward to when it's our turn to have our own. We know it's not all sunshine and roses but we'll take it when it comes. For now we're doing okay with our Sunday afternoon naps.

Thanks Mom

Interesting week. Open house went well and as much as I don't really like talking to parents (I really don't know what to say especially if their kid is a good kid) it was nice to meet parents. Some of the conferences were very insightful. One parent was very down on her child and it helped me understand why he is often so negative. He also has a very tough background and I am finding that I have a lot of kids this year with difficult backgrounds. I do every year but every year it breaks my heart to hear the new stories. It makes me very grateful for what I have and for the fact that, even though my upbringing wasn't what it should have been, it wasn't bad. No death, no abuse, no one had to take me from my home and I am more appreciative than I can say.

Thanks, Mom. You gave me all the best!

Open House

Who knew life got more stressful after you left college?!?! We have open house at school on Monday and our principal has a lot of really great ideas to make it an effective use of time for all involved. We are going to have tables for each family of teachers that we'll decorate (which I'm helping out on). We'll meet with most parents there but we are also scheduling conferences with parents of our difficult students. It'll be really nice because we can knock them all out in one day (the conferences not the parents) where it would normally take a week or more to find time before or after school to meet.

Back to the tables . . . at the tables each family of teachers had to make a newsletter giving information on what is going on in each core class. We'll hand them out to parents with their student's report card. I finally finished it today (late) after trying hard to work with a computer illiterate co-worker and scrambling to remind teachers to submit SOMETHING to the newsletter then finally telling the co-worker I just needed to finish it myself.

We (and by we I mean I) also needed to make business cards to hand out to parents with the newsletter so they have our email addresses to contact us. Notice a running theme here? That would be me doing all of these things. I really enjoy doing things to help out and serve others but I'm pretty sure I'm one of about 2 people in a group of 7 teachers who is working at this. We're all busy and I'm behind on lesson plans and grading but am still working to get it done. Sometimes I feel like people don't understand that busy or not it has to get done so just do it. Because I see the world that way I end up doing a lot of work that ought to be delegated more evenly. It's usually things I enjoy but it stresses me out because I don't have as much down time (and actual time) as I need.

Sigh . . . this blog is a lot of complaining and I'm not saying I'm super man here but I'd really be a lot happier if people would A-pitch in and help get the necessary things done and B-learn to use a stinkin' microsoft publisher template so that I didn't have to feel obligated to volunteer because I'm the only one with the skills to get it done!

All done . . . the next blog will be happy I swear.

P.S. I am in love with (my husband and) not having chinchillas anymore. No more poop kickin'!

No Chinchillas for Us

After Hurrican Ike I realized that I'm not really into having the chinchillas anymore. We had discussed getting rid of them around the time we would start having kids but after the heat in the apartment proliferated the smell I couldn't take it. I already had someone who wanted them so after today we are no longer pet owners and I am really happy about that.

Conversely I am kind of sad because they are cute and sweet and fun. I just don't want the huge cage and the huge mess anymore. I'm feeling a little guilty for not wanting to deal with them anymore. I'll get over it.

I wrote the above this morning and we took the chinchillas to their new home today. The family seems to be really into pets so I think they will be well loved. Knowing that helps ease the bit of sadness. I'm now just excited for the time I'll have to keep my home cleaner because I don't have to clean out the chinchilla cage weekly anymore! Yeah.

Sharing Talents

Shortly after Dave and I were married he got a job at a craft store. He got a broken corner-shelf-type thing and told me he was going to remake it. He finished it for a gift for me for Christmas and it was beautiful.

Then he realized that he liked woodworking and was good at it. He made himself a nightstand and me one to match it.

So now he is on to building us a new entertainment center unit. We go down to Dave's parents' house most weekends and he works on it with his dad. We currently have a huge unit that doesn't fit our TV and a small one that we set our TV onto and put our Xbox into. We wanted something that was the right proportions to put our DVD's and stereo into as well. The beautiful thing was that we designed it and my clever and talented husband is building it (yeah, I know I'm mushy. Just remember we haven't been married 2 years yet ;). Once it is done we can get rid of the other two and we can have space to breathe in the living room.

I mentioned before that I did some card stamping during the hurricane. Last weekend Dave's mom was nice enough to get out her stamping stuff before work so that when I came I could do some stamping while Dave worked. Here are a few that I did this weekend.

I am pretty proud of how cute they turned out. Considering my beginner skill.

Other than that life is pretty much back to normal. Our fridge is starting to get stocked again and I just got a new student with a weird name . . . note to parents out there; If you have a verb as a last name (like Baker) do not give your child and adjective as a first name (like Happy). The actual name is so much worse than that and despite how bad I feel for this child it does get me smiling on a slow day.

Insanity of recovery.

Dave's parents finally have power back (yeah) and so does most of the area. Despite the fact that some areas where I have students still don't have power, we are starting school again tomorrow. We had a "meeting" day today that basically consisted of lots of time with staff to decompress about what we've been through. I was so grateful to a principal who saw the need for that and didn't give us a lot to do.

Anyway . . . I'm kind of nervous to get students back. We discussed that we don't know what will be walking through the door tomorrow. Some kids have been babysitting the entire time. Some kids don't have homes anymore. Some kids may not have eaten since they left school almost 2 weeks ago. We're not teaching tomorrow but have activities planned where the kids can have some time to get back into the groove while having their own chance to decompress from their experiences over the past 2 weeks. At the end of next week I will be turning in pretty bogus grades because I haven't really had many academic assignments in class but we're not going to alter any schedules because there's really no way to make it all up and right now we are operating under the assumption that we will not have to make up the days lost. I hope we don't . . . .

In all of this I have found out that I am a pretty chill person. A lady I teach with is freaking out about how to fit in the stuff we missed and keeps bugging about what are we going to do. I'm not really that concerned. I'll figure it out as I go and I will find time to teach everything. What's the big deal? Maybe it's because I'm pretty good at altering my plans to go along with whatever happens (due to growing up in a large family) I don't really know but today I am grateful that I am kind of chill. I never thought that I was but I guess compared to some I am.

Thanks for keeping up with me. Check out my slideshow! I think if you click on it you'll be taken to the site and you can see that captions that explain them.

Ike

Sometime Wednesday evening or Thursday morning it became certain that hurricane Ike would be striking Galveston and probably the greater Houston area. The Mayor called for some evacuations and recommended that local businesses that carried out non-essential functions be closed on Friday to allow the roadways to be clear for evacuation. We all remembered what happened with hurricane Rita in 2005 when the roads where jammed with people trying to get out. I definitely remembered it. My 45 minute trip from Hambrick to Conroe, where I was living with Bonnie and Jason, turned into a 6 hour drive.

With evacuations clogging my route home I decided to call Dave and have him pack some clothes for me and meet me at his parents’. I didn’t have to take any major roads and we’d probably have decided to weather the storm there anyway. Staying with Dave’s parents is something we both enjoyed anyway and Dave’s brother Doug had just come home from Idaho too.

We spent the next day preparing the house and helping others prepare for the hurricane that looked like it was definitely headed for us.

The night of the hurricane Dave and I stayed in one of the guest rooms at Dave’s parents’ house. Sometime between 1 and 2 in the morning the gusts of wind began to shake the window above our bed so that every gust was accompanied by “BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.” It must have been a combination of windows hitting each other and the blinds. During that time we lost and regained power a few times before it finally went out altogether. I got up around 2 and wandered the house to see what the storm was doing. It was definitely wicked windy outside. Around 2:30 Dave sat up and we looked out the window. He mentioned that it looked like the window was being sucked in between gusts. We decided to try to find some place else to sleep. We tried the game room but it was still pretty darn loud up there too. So we got Dave’s brother, Doug, who was sleeping in the game room and we went downstairs with intentions of going into Dave's parents' closet to sleep (the largest windowless room in the house). His parents were sleeping so well and it was so much quieter downstairs that we decided to sleep in the living room. We slept a bit restlessly but heck . . . there was a hurricane raging outside. It was also nice to be able to look out the windows and see what was happening each time I woke up.

Around 7:30 Dave’s parents got up and we looked out and the storm seemed to be weakening. We did a little assessment before they all decided to go back to bed. I was really into reading Eclipse so I stayed up in places that I could find light to read. Around 9:30 a man in Dave’s parents’ ward came by on his bike. He’d been around to the ward members in the neighborhood to see how everyone was. I have to say I thought it quite amusing that anyone would ride their bike in that. The second half of the storm was a lot rainier than the windy first half.

When everyone got up later that morning (Saturday the 13th) we got Dave’s parents generator running in order to keep the fridges and freezer cooling. We also jimmy rigged some plastic and some window AC units into the living room windows in order to have a comfortable place to sleep (it was still pretty moist and warm outside). Most of the day we put things back to normal and Gary (Dave's dad) and Doug helped folks in the neighborhood clear trees from the road. We had a nice evening playing Cities and Knights of Catan by candle light and went to bed in the living room. In the middle of the night the generator stopped working. Gary tried to work on it twice in the middle of the night with no improvement. He decided to try again when it was light and he could see. When we got up Sunday morning they realized that although the generator’s motor was running there was no electricity. After we realized nothing was fixing it, Dave and Doug decided they would drive toward Brenham and then toward San Antonio looking for a fuse a new generator. We also called Dave’s sister Lindsay and asked her to start looking for a generator in San Antonio.

When they were gone I talked to my brother Steve on the phone and we talked about ways to bypass the fuse to see if that was really the problem. Gary and Steve talked and after some testing of the generator it became clear that something else electrical was wrong with the generator that we couldn’t fix and we needed a whole new one. At that point we were talking to Lindsay and she told us the chances of getting generator didn’t look good. She kept looking and was lucky enough to get one of 4 generators at a store nearby. She made plans to meet up with the boys. Meanwhile D’Ann (Dave's mom) and I started working on getting some of the meat into her friend’s running freezer to keep it from spoiling and we decided to do some card stamping. It was a long day because it was pretty warm still and Dave and Doug had a hard time getting back due to heavy traffic. When they finally got back it was cooling off outside but we were very grateful that we had the generators running to keep the rest of the food in the freezer and fridges from spoiling.

After the hurricane was like any other storm recovery. I found out that the eye passed right over Conroe so we were likely close to the eye if not within it down at Dave's parents. The boys helped folks clean up trees that had come down and we did our best to work with gas to run stoves and some running water (not clean) in order to get through daily life. I came to be very grateful for power to make my life easier and more entertaining. We played games to keep ourselves entertained and hooked up Gary’s laptop in the evenings to watch a movie before bed. Mostly we were very blessed with nice cool weather and were able to enjoy being outside. Not having to run the AC much also made it easier to do things like laundry with the power that the generator gave us.

During all this we assessed damage at Dave’s parents. They had a few cracked windows in the game room. A tree almost down in the back yard and some water seepage in the dining room that was probably cause by some rotting in the front wall of the house. We considered ourselves lucky. One family near Dave’s parents had a roof that began leaking VERY badly. A family in our ward in Conroe had 3 trees come into their house and a pipe was broken that caused some severe water damage.

Power is slowly being restored to all of the areas in Houston. Dave and I got power in our apartment at the same time as most of Conroe, on Thursday, and came home to get ourselves ready for life to start again. Our apartment had no damage. We had lots of food we had to rebuy since it spoiled without power to keep our refrigerator going (luckily the management of our apartment came and cleaned it out for us). We also needed to clean up our apartment. It smelled very musty without airflow for almost a week.

Unfortunately Dave’s parents are still without power even though some areas near them do (We were able to go out to eat two times before we came back to Conroe). We are hoping for them to get power back soon.

That's all for us here. That was really lengthy and probably boring. Sorry . . . my first blog and I feel like I'm writing and English paper (poorly).