We have moved

We have moved! Tom has a new job working at Bear River Mental Health in Logan Ut.

Our new address is
440 E. 1200 N.
Logan Ut 84314

Janets blog

Check out Janet's new blog at carepackages911.blogspot.com

Weight

We are beginning to make several life changes at our house. 1) we are taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. but todays blog is about our second change. Thomas and I have started using xocai chocolate. it is more commonly called "the healthy chocolate" it is especially formulated to be healthy and has lots of added vitamins and minerals and proteins. not only is xocai good for helping you to lose weight, it is good for allergies and asthma.

Thomas is having two shakes a day, counting his calories and drinking lots of water.
I am having one shake a day, 3 pieces of chocolate, counting my calories and drinking lots of water. Next monday I want to start working out. One goal that I want to set is to see how long it takes me to walk to lions park up one set of stairs and down the other, and then work to shorten this time.

When I weighed in last week I was at 232 lbs. this week I am at 225.6 lbs.

Thomas last week was at 400.8 lbs and 391.2 lbs.

I am very proud of him, and us for our progress so far.

P.S. in the mornings when I work I start with a shake, then drink a bottle of water on the way to work. In the past I have not been good about taking a break every 2 hours like we are supposed to, however, after drinking a shake, then a bottle of water, I have found I NEED to take a break, visit the little girls room then drink another bottle of water so I can repeat the process at my lunch where I usually drink one to two bottles of water. thus making a second break a necessity as well.

P.P.S. I know that simply counting calories and drinking water will help with weight loss, however adding the chocolate makes sure that my body still gets what it needs.

Coolest family ever

Today my family ran/walked a 5k.

UVU held a 5k today, they call it the No Snow 5k it is to support Habitat for Humanity in Utah County. It is held completely inside. there are 2 routes one (with stairs) is 3 laps of stairs and then 3 short laps around the courtyard (for those of you who are familiar with UVU this includes the hall of flags). the non stair route is 12 laps of the courtyard.

my family has times ranging from 41:31 to 68 min. Katie and I (Lillian) did extra laps before going to the finish line because we are a bit odd. (I wanted to finish with my husband and it took 2 extra laps to catch up to him and Katie half way through started walking with Grandpa Wilkinson.

We invited the Utah County Wilkinsons to go with us, and most of them did. Grandpa, John and Alicia, James and Tiffany, and James' kids and James neighbor Brad came.

Chandler and Janet did the stair route and ran most of it. Jim and Daniel ran most of the non stair route. I only ran while I was trying to catch my husband. I had told a friend I was not going to run, I was planning on taking a leisurely stroll and enjoy myself. apparently I did not stroll leisurely enough because all of my children that I started with found someone else to go with. as I was on part of the catch up to tom to finish part James was with me. He told me that I walk fast.

Any way I am very proud of myself and my whole famiy for our starting and completing of this race.

We are going to look for other races to go on and we are training for a 10K in July.

Test

Thomas went this morning, to take his Utah state psychological law test. he needed a 75 % to pass, he got a 82 %. On the way home he took his pass note to the dept. of licensing. now we are waiting to receive word of licensure. hopefully within the next week. It should go faster than usual, since he hand delivered the paperwork.

APPROVED!!!!!

Thomas got an email. In it he is told that he is now a candidate for licensure and needs to register for the Utah Psychology Law Exam. He will be doing this today.

this means that after lots of prayers (thanks!) they have approved his paperwork, and his supervision hours.

its been a busy while

its been busy around our house for the last couple of months.

the kids have been quite busy with school. Katie had a guitar concert in December,
Carolyn had a drama night in November.

I have been working full time hours although technically, I am only part time at walmart.

Thomas taught two classes at Salt Lake Community College during the fall semester and will be teaching two more this semester. He was hired at UVU to teach a class and as he was getting in the car today to go teach it, he got a phone call asking him to teach another one. that started today too.

He was given a choice of two books to use for the second class and chose the one that he is using for the classes at SLCC. so he doesn't have lots of extra prep that he will have to do.

He has also accepted a job working at a clinic with one of his friends from grad school. He will be the staff psychologist. He can start working as soon as his license comes through. so we are praying for speedy mail.

Care Packages by Janet

Me and my friend Ansley are putting together little packages to send to people who need some extra love. We would really like it if anyone new some people that need some extra love please post or talk to me. We would also appreciate any suggestions you have to what we could put in them.

September and a bit of October too.

In Sept. we had several birthdays at our house.

Mikey turned 7
CarieKay turned 14
Danny turned 5

they all enjoyed their day.

School seems to be going well for everyone, there is a lot of homework and I am proud of my kids for working so hard on it.

after going seriously over on our cell minutes for two months in a row, we decided to get a home phone.

801-691-0813

I have applied for a new position at work, it took them a month to get around to interviewing, which I finally did on weds. hopefully we will find out soon who got the position. (I'm hoping to find out when I go to work tomorrow (saturday))

Thomas is still looking for a job, he has applied for quite a few, but keeps not getting interviews and then getting an email telling him that they have chosen someone else.

Danny is enjoying being with his dad.

August

the kids are all in school. Jim and Echo are both in concurrent classes at Provo High. Jims is Auto, and Echo is doing both a govt, and a math. Carrie is finding that she is enjoying the honors classes they put her in in math. Katie and Janet are also doing well in school. Mikey likes the playground. the younger kids really enjoy walking back and forth to school.

I have been working quite a lot (2 days off in the last 14 days)( I do have tomorrow off so maybe thats 3 days off in 15 days). i was working every other day in deli and then bakery, but the schedule for the next 2 weeks has me in bakery. One day I was in the bakery and the cake decorator was complaining to the dept manager that there were too many orders and she wouldnt get them done, the dept manager turned to me and asked, did you say that you decorated cakes before? I got to spend the rest of my shift decorating cakes, and have a couple of times since.

Thomas is working on the paperwork to get licensed in Utah, and is getting to know Carries three boys as he babysits for her while she works and goes to school.

A job

I got a phone call today from walmart. they asked me to come in and add deli to my preferences. I did, and then they were able to input me into their local walmart system, I now have a job. I start at 6 oclock tomorrow.

Wow,!!! EARLY MORNING!!

in Utah

We are in Utah!

We took a day to load the moving truck and then a day to clean the house so we were behind schedule. but we got out of town ok, thanks in part to our wonderful branch missionaries who came and helped clean and took a huge load to the thrift store.

We were in Laramie Wyo. when the transmission (that was new in feb) went out on us, our dear friend mater drove in and picked up the kids and the trailer the suburban was pulling and took it all to Utah. We took a bit longer getting to provo than we had planned.

We pulled into provo about 10pm unloaded a few things and we were early to 9am church on sunday.

had sunday dinner with Thomas' parents, then disbursed the kids to von and carries homes where they stayed while Thomas and I (and echo) drove to escalante for a job interview bright and early monday morning (8:30). then we drove home to provo. Jim and Von had the truck 1/2 unloaded before von had to go to work, Toms brothers and their boys came and helped finish the unloading.

we decided we were on vacation for the week and did as little unpacking of boxes as we could till we found out if we were staying or moving to escalante. enjoyed the week of visiting with family and just relaxing. I bought and read the book "driven" about Larry H. Miller it was a very inspiring book.

On saturday morning we got an email from the escalante job saying thankyou but they gave it to someone already with the company. Our vacation is now over and we are unpacking as fast as we can. but where to put it all????

our suburban is slowly being worked on. it is under warranty but it is still out of state. we are having regular phone calls with our car place in SD.

Tom is looking for a job, I am on a Leave of Absence till the 16 of Aug. from walmart but so far no walmarts in Ut. valley are hiring, does this mean that I get to be a stay at home Mom, (while babysitting for my sister) or do I need to look for another job, maybe even using my degree?

moving day

Im taking a moment before we disconnect the internet, to blog.

Friday was Tom's, Lillie's and Jims's final day at work. Sunday was our last sunday in South Dakota. Today we are loading the moving truck and we plan on leaving Tomorrow morning before bright and early.

When we took the suburban in to get the Air conditioning worked on, we were told that the part it needs is in Salt Lake city and they could get it here in 4 or 5 days. We told them that in 4 or 5 days we would be in Salt Lake City and we would take care of it then.

the house is mostly packed, but I'm to the point where I cant really see what still needs done, because I have so many boxes in the way.

we are looking forward to seeing all of our Utah family and friends soon, and will miss all the rest of you. I have told the kids more than once we have new friends in Utah, just waiting to meet us.

Love you all!

Moving

Well, we have done much praying and pondering and discussing, and more praying, in the end we have decided to move.

I have given work July 16 as my final day, I plan on transfering to another walmart, not quitting. We are going to head back to UTAH! The kids for the most part are very excited, (Jim doesn't know yet, he is at scout camp this week) there are a few drawbacks, like drivers licenses for my under 16 drivers, going back to the three hour block for church, but we feel that this is the direction that Heavenly Father wants us to go.

Thomas is still looking for a job, so please continue your prayers on that. Also I am asking for nice moving weather with a nice tail wind to help blow us home.

We have reserved a truck for the 21 of July, and plan on being back in Provo, by the 24. we are going to take a short detour to MT. Rushmore on the way home as we have lived in South Dakota for 2 1/2 yrs and haven't seen it yet.

We only have 2 1/2 weeks so I have a lot to do to get us ready to go, an advantage to working at Walmart is that I can bring home boxes every day that I work. pack them then bring home more the next day, and pretty soon my whole house will be packed.

We will see how it goes.

Girls Camp

I got to go to girls camp this week. it was a great week. We went to Lake Pahoja, IA. It is only about 30 mins south of Sioux Falls, SD. We camped in the "scouting area" which was aproximately 3 blocks from the nearest bathrooms, and 4 1/2 blocks from the enclosure where we ate. there was a nice 4ft wide paved path, along rolling hills, and around a lake. our hike on hike day was simply all the way around the lake. The priesthood met us just more than half way with popsicles and cold water.

I was able to borrow my dads tipi from him for girls camp. I had a bit of a struggle setting it up, but I got it. Our theme was Tribes of Truth so it was quite fitting to have the tipi there. on stake presidency night we had a program where the older girls dressed up as indian maidens and presented the young women values, we had the girls start in my tipi and then enter the "stage area" it was a great program and many people commented how great it was to have the tipi there. (so thanks dad for lending it to me.)

Finally Licensed

I found out yesterday, through round about means, that my license to practice psychology was issued. This is a great relief. I would like to thank Heavenly Father and all of you for your support and encouragement in this long process.

On another note, my family has a new prayer request. Please keep us in your prayers as I look for a new job. My last day at Aurora Plains will be July 16th. While the choice was not fully my own it is a great time for me to be looking as my residency is now over and I am a marketable psychologist. We know that all will move forward in the Lord's plan, and there are already new opportunities on the horizon. (also the severance package offered was quite generous.) We love you all, and again Thank You.

Drew

In the Mail...

As you all know I recently graduated from MTI.

Something you dont know is that I did not get a diploma.

we had classes up to and including graduation day, so to give our instructors time to get grades in and to make sure all of our fees were paid, etc. etc. they only give us a diploma case. with a nice little letter inside that says essentially, congratulations, and hope you have a successfull life. you should receive your diploma in the mail before June 30. ( almost two months after our graduation day.)

Well, today I got my diploma in the mail. I have put it in the case and now I can put the case and diploma, into my cedar chest with my high school diploma.

one more thing off my summer checklist.

personal progress

A while ago: I set the goal: to earn my YW personal progress by age 40. I have not really had the time to work on this for the last 3 years as I have been busy with school. however yesterday as I sat in church and listened to a talk by one of the YW in our branch, I realized that I have now completed my Knowledge value project. Go to school and earn a degree. Yay!! one step closer.

Graduation

I bought my cap, gown and tassle today.

graduation is this friday. and I realized today that I didnt mail out invitations. so anyone who might be in the neighborhood on friday.

Graduation is May 7, 5 pm at the corn palace in Mitchell SD.

Love you all and thanks for your support!!!

Seminary

Jim and Echo finished seminary this morning. They enjoyed the year and they did a great job at waking each other up and getting the computer turned on on time. I am really greateful for a great teacher who was also always there with a great lesson and enjoyed teaching them. I think the webcam classes were a great idea. Thanks to Sister Smith, Maggie, Jim and Echo. Good job to finish!