Burke's Birthday, First Haircut, Potty Training, and the Job Hunt Continued, Pioneer Day a

Loves corn one day, won't touch it the next.  We're learning to go with the flow over here. :)

It's interesting that the day after I wrote that last post about Daphne giving me a run for my money, she calmed down overnight.  She has been an overall dream the past two weeks, so eager to please and noticeably less whiny.  She's continually changing and grows out of stages as quickly as she falls into them.

On the 14th we celebrated Burke's 32 birthday!  As you can see, he was very happy happy happy (a hunter orange Duck Dynasty fan t-shirt would make anyone happy!) on his special day.  As it was a Sunday, we decided to invite the family down for a dinner, but Alan and Marie were on an Alaskan cruise, Danelle had just returned from girls camp, Cassie and Dan had Riding family in town and Mat had to work.  Thankfully, Kristen, Catherine, Lyndee and Jade were willing to make the trek and we had such a lovely couple of hours with them enjoying delish food and good conversation.  Sure love those ladies.

On June 29, Daphne had her very first hair cut!  It was challenging as I couldn't get her to hold still and Burke was worried that I was cutting too much, but the mullet had to go!  Immediately afterwards I almost started crying - she looked so old and a bit boyish to me.  However, her hair was so uneven before and the trim has helped it look much cleaner.  

We've had to get creative this summer to keep ourselves occupied inside while the heat rages outdoors (it's usually over 90 degress by 7 A.M. - yuck!) so we've done a lot of puzzles, drawing, dressups, reading and finger painting, which always turns into body art!

That first day the Ipad was used to coax her to stay put on the potty!

On Wednesday, July 17, we started potty training.  Daphne had shown interest for a while, but I hadn't pushed it because, truthfully, I had no idea how to proceed!  After some advice from my parents and sisters, we went to the Dollar Store and bought several prizes, a packet of stickers and a poster board.  We went home and made a giant potty chart, talking it up the whole time and telling Daphne that as soon as she learned to go to the bathroom in the toilet she could get a prize, put a sticker on the chart and wear big girl panties.  She was stoked, but after TWELVE accidents the first day (I kept pumping her full of liquids to give her lots of practice) and ZERO successes, I was a wee bit discouraged.  Upon calling my mom, she encouraged me to stay positive, practice running several times from the spot of the accident to the bathroom and to even have Daphne teach her dolly how to go correctly.  Day 2 we had 6 accidents and 1 success.  I gave myself a deadline of Sunday and decided if she still wasn't catching on by then we'd wait a month and give it another shot then.  We unexpectedly went to Parowan for the weekend, took all of our potty gear with us and began to make a little progress.  Finally this past Wednesday, a week after starting, I was at YW when Burke sent me a text showing Daphne's #2 in the potty and a note that said, "There will be only a few times in your life when you receive a picture like this and shot for joy!"  Super gross, but he was right - I was ecstatic!

The saga with the job hunt continued Alan called Burke (Tuesday, July 16)  to tell him about a job opening with Western AgCredit (basically a bank for farmers) in Cedar City.  Alan and Uncle Alma bought a new farm a few months ago and got their loan through Western Ag, so when Darren (the branch manager there) mentioned how he needed a new loan officer with both banking and farming experience Alan told him Burke was his man!  With 18 years of growing up on a farm and 5 years of banking, we felt like it was a pretty good fit.  That night Burke submitted his application and on Friday Darren called to schedule an interview with him for Monday in Cedar.  We decided we'd make a weekend of it to get out of the heat and drove up to spend a few days in Parowan with the family.

On the way through St. George Friday evening, we stopped at the temple, taking turns doing initiatory work.  Daphne and I ran some errands and then came back to enjoy the grounds and the visitors center.  She was so excited about the huge statue of Jesus in the visitors center and kept repeating loudly, "It's Jesus!"  Going through initiatory, I was able to do my very first ordinances for family names that I had located by myself through my genealogy work.  I was moved to tears as I felt three very distinct communications from my ancestors: gratitude, love and chastisement.  It was almost as if these women were lovingly reprimanding me with a gentle, "What took you so long?"  We had the baptism work done way back in November and I've only done endowment sessions since then, so their work was halted for several months.  I made a commitment that I would return soon to do their endowment work so they don't have to wait on me any longer.  What a wonderful process!

Daphne 4-wheeling at the mountain with Uncle Mike and cousins Aubrey, Lainey and Macie

After a dinner that evening of Panda Express and a visit with Catherine, Alan and Marie at the Rowley house, we finished our drive to Parowan and spent the night at my inlaws.  The next morning we drove up the mountain to Co-Op to join Mike, LeeAnn and a group of their friends for some nice conversation under chilling in camp chairs in the shade.  As usual, Daphne was ecstatic to see her cousins and wanted nothing more than to ride on the 4-wheeler with them all day.

The rest of the weekend flew by as we played Farkle and visited with Alan and Marie, taught Daphne to ride the zipline all by herself, visited the puppies who have tripled in size, attended church with the family, finger-painted with dyed pudding, and watched 17 Miracles on Alan's new $800 projector that he got for $25 bucks!  Can't wait to watch a movie outdoors with that baby.

4 Hour Interview = Mind Blown

On Monday (July 22) , Burke's interview with Western Ag ended up being a whopping FOUR hours long!  Besides Darren who manages the Cedar Branch, they had brought two other executives down from the Salt Lake and Logan offices for the interview.  Burke felt great about the interview, except for a brief finance quiz they gave him and then reviewed question by question towards the end.  It would be a great job for Burke as he would get to spend a portion of his time out visiting with farmers from Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado, which I know he would love.  We should know in the next day or two what they decided.

In the mean time, we heard back from the Iowa job and they are trying to pick a local candidate for the position, so we didn't get a chance to interview.  That whole scenario is still very confusing to me.  Why would Mike Miller feel so prompted to call and ask us to apply for this job when he hadn't talked to Burke in 8 years?  Why would the boss call and encourage Burke to apply if he wasn't even going to give him an interview?  Why did we pray so hard about that possibility and feel so good about pursuing it?  I have a lot of mixed feelings about the whole process.  I keep wondering - what were we supposed to learn from this experience?  I for one feel like I'm about to the end of my rope.  I am trying so hard not to get excited about this Western Ag job.  I feel like every time I start to get my hopes up, things don't work out and I feel increasingly discouraged each time.  Thankfully, Burke has reacted oppositely - he becomes more positive and upbeat with each opportunity, telling me that if this one doesn't work out than the Lord has something even greater in store for us.  I am so thankful for his example of faith and optimism and am trying to copy his uplifting attitude.