What I love about Burley

What I love about Burley is Holidays
Living in a small town means a lot of sacrifices. No big stores, no where to go out to eat, not a lot to do. But living in a small town does mean a lot of community support and activities. Especially when it comes to a holiday.
Now Christmas great, lights were strung everywhere, decorations in every corner and a ton of activities going on. One other holiday that is big here, the 4th of July!
Rupert (Which is 10 miles away) does a 5 day 4th of july celebration. It is held at the rupert square and all 5 days there is food vendors there and music performances every night. They begin the 5 day celebration off with fireworks and end with fireworks again on the 4th. They have lawn mower races, carnival, rodeo, parade, and on and on. Since I love the 4th so much this is the best to me. I get 5 days of celebration!
Last night the celebration began. We went to the square and had dinner from one of the vendors, listen to music all night, which ended with a great band and watched the fire works, and the 4th was still 5 days a way! I Love it!
So that is what I love about Burley.

PHR

Yesterday I took my Professional Human Resource certification test and passed!
Now this is so exciting because I took it last year and did not pass it. So I was a little nervouse this time around, but I passed.

This certification doesn't really benefit me know with Boise, but if I decide to look for another job it will benefit me. Most of the really good HR jobs have begun to require a bacholers degree, PHR Certification, and 5 years of experience. Once I get the experience I will have all requirements!

June 13

My baby is now 14, yet I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.

I will have to post pictures later, but I cannot beleive that my cute little screaming, fit throwing baby is now 14. He will be entering into highschool next year, taking drivers ed, and doing all of the grown up things that no longer require the assistance of a mom.

For his birthday we celebrated with matt's family the weekend before. Matt's dad cooked hamburgers and we had a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake (Patrick does not like cake). The day before his birthday we opened presents and went to Twin Falls for dinner. The day of his birthday he went to football camp.

I will post some of the pictures a little later....

One Year Ago

It has been a little over one year since I have moved to Burley, and what a year it has been. I think I have gone through every emotion and every question possible. Well I got to Burley, loved the job, hated the town. After a few months I grew frustrated with the job, but worked through that. I dealt with the frustration of our house not selling or even being looked out. I worked through the long distant thing and then when Matt finally moved her I watched him hate his work and get frustrated with going to work. The worst part was when I watched Patrick cry because he hated school and did not have friends. I often asked my myself, what have I done? And wondered if I had made a huge mistake.
So after a year what do we all think?
I love the job, all of the frustrations I have worked through and will probably continually work through. The town has grown on me, I don't mind it too much now. Matt loves his job and is happy for he has learned and Patrick is getting involved in school. He is playing football, in the band, and making friends.
Now when I say we can move bakc to Idaho Falls, they say no.
It is crazy to think it has been a year and nice to know that we have finally settled in.

Road Signs

Who comes up with the pictures that are put on road signs?





Patrick and I went into Idaho falls for March birthdays. On the way this is a sign that we came across. I thought it was pretty interesting.

Sisters

I love my sisters. There is nothing better than having sisters. I think girls who grew up in a family full of boys sure missed out on what it is like to have sisters. As kids we fought all of the time. We did not like each other, I like to think that is normal for girls. As we have gotten older we have become better friends, in fact they are my best friends. A few weekends ago we went to Salt Lake on a day trip. That was a lot of fun. We laughed over the stupid things and just had fin together.

So I just wanted to say to Jennifer and Heather, I could not have asked for a better sister. We may have been at each others throats as kids, but letting each other live to see another day sure paid off. Look at us now. I love you both.



Jennifer, me, and Heather

We also had the oppertunity to spend some time with my sister in law. I sure love having her in our family!

My Name

My whole life I have had to deal with questions on my name.
For example
- that is a boy name
- is it short for Roberta
- Being called Robin (there is not N sound at the end of my name)
- being accused of not being Robbie (this goes back to it being a boy name)
- did your dad want a boy
- where did a name like Robbie come from?

I have faced this my whole life, but it seemed to have died down. I am not sure if it is because more names are less gender specific or if abnormally names are now the norm. For a long time I have not had to explain my name, until recently. I have been asked how I got my name and what it is short for from the managers at Pacific Ethanol (the ethanol plant next to us) and then while in Wallula (another Boise plant in Whashington) the guard assumed my name was short for Roberta and then a few days after that I am questioned on whether the credit card I am using is indeed mine, she just wanted to make sure I was not using my husbands card!
Oh well, at least my name is original.

Grandma Turner

On Sunday Matt and I went to a mission farewell for a guy he works with. One of the speakers talked about his storage and how they were making bread and then he began to tell a story about his grandma, I wanted to ask him if we had the same grandma!
He told a story about how they would go to her house and they could not leave until his grandma gave them all bread with butter, I leaned over to Matt and said sounds like my grandma, but she gave us honey to put on our bread and butter. Then he was telling about how she would send bread home. She would pull out a used plastic bag to put the bread in and then would put a rubber band around the bag, the rubber band came from the newspaper. She had saved it so she could reuse it. All which she stored next to used tin foil she had saved to use later.
The bread that came from my grandma's was always in a bag that had been used before. She had a neat little stack of rubber bands in her house and I am sure she re-used her tin foil. After all she would save wrapping paper to use again! You would have thought he was talking about my grandma!
The best part about grandma..... frozen chocolate chip cookies and sauerkraut.

Pulled Over

I got pulled over for the first time in Burley. Now not the first time ever, just the first time in Burley. I have a very heavy foot and have had my share fare of tickets. Matt lectures me the whole time about how our insurance is going to go up and about how good I had been doing. Well the cop comes back and gives me a warning.
Matt is telling me how lucky I am and I tell him I have been pulled over enough, I knew he was only giving me a warning. At which Matt tells me that is nothing to be proud of. Now I will have to watch my speed, the town is small and I know the cop will remember me, especially since I have Bonnivelle county plates, not Cassia county.

McKenzie Birthday

March 5 was my little niece, McKenzie's birthday. She turned 14.
You see this particular neice's birthday is a little hard for me because that means in just 3 short months Patrick will be the same age. Yes, he will be 14. Everytime McKenzie gets older I question how that happened. How is it that she is so old. And how is it that I have a son that old.
It is a little hard for me to take in.