Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Megan has been doing her senior thing these last several days: missing school, hanging out with large groups of peers, going to dances, and staying out till midnight on a Monday. 

Today all that hard stuff and sacrifice Megan's been enduring has paid off. 

She took FIRST in STATE in administrative support at BPA (Business Professionals of America).  She had to do spread sheets, memos, write slide presentations, and create a database.

That means Megan will go to Washington DC in May to compete on a national level. Hmm. I wonder where she's getting the money do to that....

Spring is Sprunging In Montana

Monday I saw 4 or 5 of these digging through the snow on my neighbor's lawn. I didn't have the heart to tell them the worms are still in serious deep freeze.

There were 15 or so of these in the field near our house today.  They winter somewhere else.  Their return is a sure sign of spring.

The crocus and daffodil are making their presence known in my garden.

 Hailey has been busy fixing her roof for the coming spring rains.

Hailey said  "It got ruined by an earthquake. What's an earthquake?" 

I hope Stan doesn't need painter's tape anytime soon.

Hailey and Makayla revived my garbage can with original spring artwork. I was sternly instructed "do not remove the decorations, ever!".  I wonder why I can never find tape when I need it...

Makayla is sporting a new spring 'do.  It looks a lot like her winter 'do, just a bit longer and wilder. 

Hailey got a new pair of spring glasses.  They look pretty much like the old ones, except that Makayla hasn't broken the hinge on them (yet).

Makayla is really into pretend lately.

She got furious at me today when I told her Barbie does not own panties.  I should know.  My daughters and granddaughters have owned 52,308 Barbies between the 10 of them in the last 30 years.  None of them had underwear. That made Makayla pretty angry.

No one can convey outrage quite like Makayla.

I spent this lovely spring day, surrounded by flannel, slaving on a project for baby Pearson. I'm not sure flannel was the right choice for summertime baby Pearson. 

Perhaps you could wait for September to give birth, Ashley.

Stan spent this lovely spring day slaving at the office. Again. It's been a long week for Stan. I don't think he's even going to notice spring this year. See you next winter, Stan!

So How Has Our Week Gone Since The Big Move?

Pretty good, actually!

If the local temperature would rise by about 100 degrees or so, it would be darn near perfect!

I got this beautiful bouquet of flowers this week from Stan's new boss at Stifel.

 I got this letter from Stan's old boss, telling me Stan was no longer my broker, but they are still fully committed to me and wanting to help me with my account.  Oh good.  I've been worried about that.
 Just between you and me, as far as surprises from the boss go, I liked the flowers more than the letter.

In other good news, Megan's battered knees are healing nicely.  Although she's completely clueless about how she managed to injure herself, she has been in considerable pain since last weekend. It must have been "Bad Luck Saturday" at our house a week ago. This mysterious injury happened the same day my computer took that disastrously suicidal fall down the stairs. Did you notice how those bruises are the exact size of the stair tread on the staircase the computer threw itself down? Weird.

 

In more good news,  my replacement computer screen arrived.

Stan unscrewed a few things,

removed a few things,

 and attached the new screen.

Ta-da! I'm up and running again. 

If Stan's new job doesn't work out, he's always got that computer repair career to fall back on.

In still more good news, Stan appeared in the Billings Gazette today. 

Oh, look! He's opening a new office! And he's Vice President!

I checked out his new office for the first time on Saturday. Stan is in a temporary space in the Transwestern building, waiting for the permanent space in this same building to open up.  Stifel worked hard to open an office so that Stan didn't have to commute to Bozeman.

I found Stan hard at work, calling clients.  His response from his clients has been very positive.  I think almost all of them are going to follow him to Stifel. As of Saturday night, he has contacted 147 out of 500 clients. Don't worry--he's going to call you soon! He's putting in 14 hour days, 6 days a week.  It takes me back to our early years, when Stan started in the business.  I'm keeping a picture of Stan in my wallet for the next 12 months so I can remember what he looks like.

Good news, Jessica, Ashley, and Megan! You'll be relieved to know you made the big move with Dad.
You'll also be relieved to know the walls in his office aren't pink.  They are boring beige, but somehow turn pepto bismol pink when I photograph them.

In yet MORE good news, the roses CR gave to Megan 3 weeks ago still bloom on our table (Creepy, I know. I've never had roses last more than a few days.),

AND Megan was assigned to her first choice, the fall/winter track at BYU-I,

AND we managed to find a prom dress yesterday for under $10,000. (Thanks, Jessica!).

(Don't worry. This isn't the dress. Megan's dress has a turtleneck and is not nearly so fitted.)

In case you missed it, let me tell you the very best news of week:

 THIS IS THE LAST PROM DRESS WE HAVE TO BUY,

EVER EVER!!! WOOT! WOOT!

Cha-Cha-Changin'

Stan has been married to the same person for nearly 34 years.

I've been married to the same person for nearly 34 years.

Stan and I have had the same kids for a long time

and even though they've changed a little over the years,

one of them has been around for 32.86 years or so.

We've lived in Montana for almost 30 years, somewhere around 3/5 of my life

We've lived in the same house for 25 1/2 years.

Stan has worked for the same firm for nearly 30 years.

He loves his view out his office window. He's been enjoying it for years. From this window he can see the hospital where he was born, his childhood home, his elementary, junior and high school.

I know what you're thinking:
"Wow, those Joneses are stuck firmly in a rut!"

All that is about to change. Today Stan is starting a new job. 
The last few months have been a nightmare of frustrating, humiliating, and depressing events, culminating in Stan's decision to change employers.  He has become increasingly disgusted by the way his firm tries to force investments on some clients and charges exorbitant fees to customers with smaller accounts.  And if that isn't enough, he has been subjected to a boss who insists on telling him he's going to hell because of his religious beliefs, and that this treatment is God's way of punishing him for his religious choices, and that he hopes Stan is looking for "other options". 



These last few weeks have been agonizing.  Stan couldn't eat.  He couldn't sleep. Stan didn't know when he went to work each morning if he'd have a job when he got there.  His confrontations with his boss have become increasingly stressful.  He hated the growing feeling he could no longer recommend investments in the best interests of his clients. 

Fortunately, he is a top producer in our area, and has been headhunted by a number of firms in the last five years.

Finally, he got the right offer from the right company at the right time.

By the way, that's pronounced "Steefle". 

So last night Stan, Megan, Stan's brothers, sister-in-law, and I visited his old office after closing time and cleaned it out.

Stan signed the Stifel contract, did the paper work, and this morning he turned in his letter of resignation at the old firm and moved to a new job with a new company.  He didn't have far to go. The new office is right across the street from the old.

 We're both a little nervous. 
Although there are 5 other Stifel offices in Montana, the first Stifel office opens in Billings today. 
Stan is currently its sole stockbroker.
It's scary to be starting over at our ancient mature age.

But we know it can't be worse than the last several weeks.

Just Another Manic Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday

Friday

What do these..

......and this have in common?

Yup. They are either from Idaho, or a future Idahoan.

Provo was Megan's first choice, but Stan and I are secretly glad she will be in closer, sister-filled Idaho for her Freshman year.

 Since this is Jimmer's last year at BYU, there's no rush to get to Provo anyway.

On Friday evening Amy was rear-ended by someone as she was making her way home from a job interview.  Fortunately, Hailey and Makayla weren't in the car.  Unfortunately, Amy's car lost a bumper and she has a pretty significant amount of whiplash.  Fortunately, this is not her car.  Her car is still drivable.

On Friday I hit the sales at Target and found some clothes that just happened to be

Makayla's and Hailey's size.

Makayla is going through a "must wear a dress" stage.

 It's hard to say for sure, but I think Makayla was excited to have a new skirt.

Hailey and Makayla did a "New Clothes Boogie" dance for us.

"Oh, look! We match Mommy!"

 Posing for pictures and

 more dancing for joy.

You know girls, if you are always this easy to please I may be hitting those sales again!

Saturday

This weekend is our stake conference weekend. We decided to recycle our "pink" from last Fall's broadcast table decor for leadership.

Our theme for Leadership was yup, you guessed it:

"Love, Simplicity, and Sisterhood."
My counselor made these cute blocks from scrap wood, vinyl letters, and a bit of paint.

We covered topics ranging from Hearts and Hands, to preparedness, to meeting the needs of single sisters,  to holding more effective presidency meetings, to new handbook discussions, with an overall encouragement to keep things simple and inexpensive.

Our taster's table focus was "Using Powdered Milk".  I found an idea for these ice cream cones online, and my counselor and I whipped up an extra large batch of hot chocolate using powdered milk and put them together. 

 I know you're all surprised I managed to work an ice cream theme into the day. 

By the way, if you were looking for these around Valentine's Day and couldn't find them, it's because I bought out the Billings supply to use for this project.  Makayla and Hailey will be happy to know I have several bags left.

We've been having record cold and I was sure no one would come to leadership.  Our branches have had large amounts of snowfall.  Not only did we have great attendance, we also had more than enough sisters who willingly volunteered to stay and help serve dinner for the stake.  We have leadership at 4, dinner at 6, and adult session of conference at 7.  That means many of our sisters from the Branches don't get home until 11.  They are amazing!

 Sometime on Saturday, my laptop had a little accident.  Okay, a big accident.  I'm glad I wasn't home to see it.  Apparently, it became despondent and threw itself down the stairs. Stan has become a master screen replacer--this isn't our first disaster.  Stan can replace a screen for the fraction of the cost of replacing the computer.  Stan promised to have me up and running by the end of the week. We don't call him "Handy Standy" for nothing!  Okay, we don't really call him that.



Sunday

Our stake president had chest pains after yesterday's meeting and spent the night and today in the hospital having tests.  That meant our stake conference had a few holes in it and they were calling surprise people out of the audience to speak.  I was one of those surprise speakers.  It was about as fun as my last root canal....

As exciting as this weekend has been, we are expecting this week to be even more thrilling.  Check back mid week for "the big news"!