The Nitty Gritty

What a fun week we've had! We only had school on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday was a fun day. We had a Turkey Trot for every grade level that the PE teacher organized. Van had a Thanksgiving feast with his Kindergarten friends. We were all ready for a 5 day weekend from school! We left for Las Vegas on Wednesday after Isaac's meetings. It was an awesome road trip. I'm pretty sure Isaac and I sang to the top of our lungs for 3 straight hours thanks to Spotify. When we turned on "Hello" by Adele, Van was beside himself yelling at us to be quiet. Ha ha!  We spent the weekend with Steve and Dana. Mitch and Supriya came down too. Thanksgiving was fun--we overate and played Spoons. Friday morning was the highlight of the trip for me--we watched Mitch and Dana jump off the Stratosphere--an 800 something feet drop.  Steve and Will went to the top of the tower to watch. The rest of us watched from the deck on the bottom. It was crazy how high the drop was! I can't b...

Hey there family! We had a fabulous weekend and a pretty good week. We are ready for a 5 day vacation this week. Woo hoo! Isaac has some meetings Wednesday morning and then we are going to drive to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with Grandpa Steve and Grandma Dana. We'll head home Saturday afternoon. Isaac called me at school on Friday with some exciting news. His friend Jesse who went to ASU with Isaac and is currently working as a music professor in Virginia spoke with someone from USC at a music conference. He told Jesse there is a tenure track position opening up and asked Jesse if he knew of anyone to watch out for. Jesse proceeded to tell him about Isaac and filled him in on what Isaac's been focusing on with his research. SO, we'll see what happens but we're thrilled that a connection has been made with USC. Isaac's already applied for the position. We're hoping to hear back in December and January about interviews. Friday night, our friends the Sk...

Hi Family! What a week! Let’s just get down to the nitty gritty—what we’ve been up to and….. the election. Sorry, but I can't neglect this piece since this was a major part of our week. I really wanted Hillary to win. I thought she had it in the bag with the popular vote AND Electoral College votes.  I am shocked that Donald Trump is our president elect.  William was really upset on Wednesday morning when I told him that Donald Trump won.  I then showed him the video that President Obama made the night of the election. I loved his message…that the sun will rise in the morning and that we can all work on being better.  It was such an optimistic message and it was something I needed to hear.  Being in a democracy can be painful, but boy am I glad to live in America where we can elect leaders every 2 to 4 years and not be stuck with someone for a lifetime (unless Orrin Hatch is your rep).  I’m so grateful I live in a nation where I am free to wor...

Halloween in Arizona is so much fun, but really tiring! We had our Carminati Fall Festival Friday night. I helped with the cake walk and Isaac took the boys around to the different games. Will's friend, Isaac Acedo, came with us. Saturday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. We ate dinner, played games, and then did the trunk or treat. We didn't decorate our car, but we blasted our music and danced while we passed out our candy--the candy that we forgot at home, but luckily Justin Bird had some extra that he shared with us. On Sunday, Isaac and I were tired of Halloween. The sad fact was that Halloween hadn't even arrived yet. Last night, Halloween night, we ate dinner with Susan James and her husband. They always build a bonfire in their driveway and pass out candy outside. We stayed for an hour and then trick or treated around our block.  I can't imagine celebrating Halloween without Isaac! He carves the pumpkins, makes the costumes, and takes the kids tr...