One Door Closes...and Lots More Open

July 2011 isn't even over, but has already qualified as one of the most eventful months in our married life. Here's a quick update...

As I mentioned at the end of this post, Nathan was offered a new job right after our Colorado vacation. For 6 years he's worked as a community planner for the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation, just a few miles north of us. His new position is a little further up I-19; now he'll be a Senior Transportation Planner for the Pima Association of Governments (PAG). The organization is a non-profit regulatory agency, which coordinates transportation planning between all the cities, towns, and tribes in Pima County. Nate's specialty for PAG will be pedestrian and intermodal planning, and he will also be a liaison to the local Indian tribes.

He's very excited about his new job, but sad to leave his old one...he felt very close to his coworkers, and to the tribe in general. He received a lot of sweet going-away gifts from the San Xavier district, including this "friendship bowl":

He also received a beautiful little woven O'odham basket:

They will be nice mementos for him of the times he spent serving the O'odham people.

His first day at his new job was July 20--and on the same day, another family member reached a big milestone:

That's right: Lorelai began first grade at Great Expectations Academy! She had been excited for weeks to start school (and would ask me at every opportunity when "first grade was going to start"), and at last the big day had come.

Her new teacher is Mrs. Grant, and she is already putting Lorelai right to work! I hope she enjoys every minute of her time at school, also that she learns, grows, and becomes even more awesome than she already is.

Last but not least is my new "job"--one that I began as of last Sunday. As many of you may know, our home ward(church congregation) was split two weeks ago, since it had grown too big to be manageable. Our family remains in the Sahuarita 1st Ward, while about 40% of the congregation formed a new ward called the Madera Ward. Every time a ward splits, a lot of reorganization is involved, and last week was no exception.

Our new bishop paid us a visit last Wednesday night, and his first question to me was, "How busy is your life right now?" Uh-oh. I mean, how do you answer that when your bishop is talking to you? Well, despite my reply that yes, I was quite busy at the moment, I found myself being called as the ward Primary president. For my non-LDS readers, that means that I'm responsible for all the children in the ward (18 months-12 years). I choose & direct Sunday School teachers, conduct Sunday meetings, do group lessons for the kids once or twice a month, and coordinate a whole bunch of stuff with other ward leaders (this translates into: lots of meetings).

While I am a bit overwhelmed at the moment, and trying to figure out how this will affect my other plans for the near future (I also have 6 piano students and I'm doing a cooperative preschool for Celeste in the fall), I am excited and humbled to be responsible for so many wonderful children (85-90 of them, if you're curious). I hope the Lord gives me strength, wisdom, patience, and courage to do my very best. In fact, I am wishing that for all my family members right now!

Well, hopefully I will be able to keep up with this blog! And if you don't hear from me quite so often, now you know why :)