Just after our last blog post, Tom and I took a trip down to Independence, KS so that Tom could interview with a Mental Health agency. Tom got the job but, while we were super grateful, we were a little uneasy about the offer that they made. The salary that they offered left a lot  to be desired and from the look we got of the place we just felt like things would be extremely tight for us on the salary that they offered, that is if we were even able to break even to begin with. On top of that, they wanted Tom to sign a contract agreeing to work there for four years and if he for whatever reason needed to leave the agency before the fulfillment of the four years we would have to pay them back monetarily for whatever supervision they gave him towards his clinical license. We were pretty stressed for a few days simply because something did not feel right to us about the offer but we didn't know why and we worried that if we turned down the job that maybe no other job opportunities would present themselves for a while. That being said, Tom and I spent a few days thinking over things, doing a lot of internet research and, after realizing that we had no idea what constituted a "normal" job offer, we e-mailed some of our old professors to ask for their advice/insight. After conferring with them the uneasiness we were feeling started to make a lot more sense and ultimately Tom and I decided to not take the offer in favor of continuing the search and hoping that a better offer would present itself.
On the bright side, Independence is home to one of the historic Laura Ingalls Wilder homes and a really ginormous train that we initially thought was on of the largest trains ever made...sadly, we were wrong about that, but it is still pretty cool looking.

After, leaving Independence we drove down to Cherstin, Dan, and the chillins' in Oklahoma City being as it was only a 3 hour drive south. We got there Thursday afternoon and spent Friday with them before leaving Saturday afternoon to head back to Springville. It was good to get to see them as they live far enough away that that doesn't happen as often as we would like. So, Friday night while we were in OKC we got a text from Mama Bibber saying that she had heard there were supposed to be some pretty nasty storms in OK and KS the next day and asking us to look into and be careful the next day as we headed out. Cherstin helped us look into that night and the weather service was saying the storms weren't supposed to start until Sunday so we thought we were fine and we left the next afternoon without even thinking to check the weather reports again.

Now, I apologize for the inordinately sized map of Kansas below, but I feel that it is necessary to explain what happened next on our adventure.

As we headed out of OKC that afternoon we checked with Dan to find out the best route to take on the way home. He said there were two ways, he said we could either go up through the OK panhandle, which he didn't recommend because apparently it is extremely boring, or we could take the 35-N back into KS and then take the 70-W at the junction in Salina, KS. Tom and I left and everything was fine for the first little bit, we took the 35-N and junctioned with the 70-W just fine. If you have never been to KS, it is pretty much a whole lot of nothing but cows and corn. As you can kind of tell on the map, heading west on the 70 after Salina there really isn't anything until you hit Hays. So, Tom and I were driving towards Hays when I suddenly had this overwhelming urge to use the bathroom. Thank You, Noah. We stopped at this rest area in the middle of nowhere so that I could use the facilities and, Thank Goodness we did. While we were there Tom heard a weather service report saying that they were having "extreme weather" in Western KS. We kept driving but we turned on the radio and tuned into some weather reports. As we got closer to Hays it sounded as though the thunderstorms and everything were heading towards Hays. At that point, Tom turned to me and said that he thought we should turn around and start heading back towards Salina to wait out the storm. We turned around and as we were waiting in Salina we heard on the radio that a tornado had been spotted in the Hays area and that people were being advised to seek shelter. Tom and I were super grateful we made the decision to turn around because a) we were traveling and would have had no clue where to stop and take shelter and we would have basically been up a creek and b) I have been absolutely terrified of tornadoes ever since I saw Twister in the second grade and I sincerely hope I never have to live through one. We ended up being delayed 3 or 4 hours and we still had to drive through a pretty good sized storm but at least there were no tornadoes. Thank goodness for the promptings of the spirit and a husband who listens to them. :)

On the way back to Utah we stopped in Denver and spent some time with Desi, Mike, and their kidlets, and Matt, Alyssa, and Jack. We even got to be there for Desi's Birthday! We really are grateful that we are close-ish to them and that we get to visit at least somewhat frequently. 

After turning down the job in Independence, Tom and I decided that we actually wouldn't mind trying to find a way to stay in Springville. That being said, Tom began focusing his job search more in the Salt Lake/Utah Valley area. However, we also realized that we needed to look in other areas as well in case UT didn't work out so the job search also included WY and ID. 

I've always had this secret desire to be crafty-pants even though I do not have a crafty or artistic bone in my body, but after some searching on Pinterest I decided that for Father's Day I would make Tom a personalized mug. 

He also got breakfast in bed.

Tom eventually got another job offer from an agency in Gillette, WY. The starting salary that they offered was awesome and Tom and I were seriously considering it, until we found out about the agency's insurance plan. The agency offered healthcare benefits that would have covered Tom 100% but they wouldn't have covered Noah and I at all. The monthly cost to cover Noah and I through the agency's insurance plan would have been $1500 a month! At that point, it didn't matter how good the salary was, Tom and I were pretty sure that it would be difficult for us to make it work with an insurance premium that high. We looked into private insurance options but they all said that they wouldn't cover maternity care and that they wouldn't even insure me right now because the pregnancy was a pre-existing condition and that if they did insure me after we had Noah if I ever became pregnant again they wouldn't cover maternity care. And, we know Obamacare will be taking effect soon, but there have been a ton of mixed reports about the effect that that will actually have. So, in the end things just seemed a little dicey in terms of insurance for Noah and I and we decided not to go with the offer in Gillette either.

However, while Tom was considering the offer in Gillette he contacted our friend, Stephen, from the MSW program who had gotten a job in WY to figure out how licensing works. Stephen was super helpful to Tom and mentioned that if things didn't shake out in Gillette that his agency, in Rock Springs, was hiring and that he would be willing to put in a good word for Tom with the HR and agency directors. So, after turning the job offer down in Gillette, Tom applied for and was offered the job in Rock Springs. We gave the offer some thought, did some research on cost of living, etc and decided that Rock Springs would be a good option. So, long story short, we're moving to Rock Springs. We would have liked to have found a way to stay in the Springville area but with the number of people from our cohort and from the U who wanted/needed to stay in the area the job market for Social Workers was quickly becoming saturated. And Rock Springs seems like a nice, quiet little town. Also, the agency Tom will be working for has been really accommodating and has agreed to let Tom start work in mid-August so that we can have Noah down here seeing as how I'm already so far along. Speaking of which, as of my 36 wk appt on Monday, my Dr. said that I am dilated to a 2 and that I am 75% effaced so there is a chance that Noah could make his debut before August 6th! Knowing my luck though, the kid will decide to camp out there and be a week late or something. 

Tom and I, I think are still a little nervous just because there are a lot of changes coming up, it would be stressful to either move or have baby just on their own but, when you consider we'll be doing both in a matter of weeks it is a little anxiety provoking, at least for me, but we're moving forward with faith. Here's to our new adventure! :)

Tom's started watching Doctor Who and he is super cool!

Shenanigans and Job Interviews

Sundays we have church from 11-2. I thoroughly dislike that time. I know that many people love it, but I just have always struggled with it being right in the middle of my day, but I digress. Last Sunday afternoon following church the weather was gorgeous and Tom and I had the wonderful opportunity to go for a walk.

Springville, is a small town just south of Provo and while it's not exactly the sticks, it's actually fairly well populated, there is still a fair portion of the community that is agricultural. So, pretty much down the street from us and across from our Church building is this family that has a tiny little animal farm. They have pens with horses, chickens, cows, llamas, sheep, goats, emus, and this weird sort of shaggy cow looking thing that Tom and I haven't been quite able to decide what it is, that line the road. Frequently, after church families will take their children across the street to pet the animals. Sunday, our walk happened to take us in that direction and I begged Tom to stop and pet the animals with me. Tom was a little hesitant for fear that they might bite, but I eventually wore him down. Most of them would just sort of blink at me when I whistled to them but there were a select few that obliged, including one of the llamas! I told Tom I was a llama whisperer.

That night we were sitting at home discussing the adventures of our day and Tom got to wondering about whether the animal I petted was actually a llama or an alpaca so he did a search on Wikipedia. These were the images that accompanied the article on alpacas.

Tom's Favorite Picture

                                         

Felicia's Favorite Picture

You cannot tell me that you don't at least giggle a little to yourself when you see these. I seriously laughed for at least twenty minutes at these photos....there were tears. My favorite is the white alpaca with the farmer guy, it still cracks me up when I look at it. Needless to say, Alpacas are my new favorite animal.

Last week I bought into Bountiful Baskets which, if you don't know, is a produce co-op. Basically, you and a bunch of other people in your community each pay $15 for your "basket" and then that money is pooled together and used buy fresh local produce. We picked up our basket last Saturday and it had a pretty good amount of produce including a small cantaloupe, watermelon, and pineapple, romaine lettuce, two heads of cabbage (which Tom and I initially mistook for iceberg lettuce...oops), onions, green peppers, squash, oranges, bananas, and two artichokes. I knew what to do with everything in that basket except the cabbage and the artichokes. Monday, after some thorough searching on Pinterest I found a recipe for Spinach Artichoke Pasta. The recipe called for canned artichokes which we already had some of, but I figured I could just add the fresh ones we got in our bountiful basket along with it. At one point as I was preparing the artichokes I look up to find Tom doing this....

He was shirtless because he had been playing WiiFit and doesn't like to get his Gs all sweaty.

Tuesday, Tom was able to schedule two job interviews for the latter part of the week. One, with Adult Protective Services (APS) in St. George on Wednesday afternoon, and the other with a place called Red Mountain Behavioral Health in the Phoenix area on Thursday afternoon. That being said we got things packed up on Tuesday night and left Springville early Wednesday morning in order to make it down to St. George in time for Tom's interview with APS.  

Tom looking spiffy-pants on the way down to St. George.

While Tom was at his interview that afternoon I got the opportunity to hang out at the St. George Temple and enjoy the scenery. Then, when Tom was finished he picked me up and we were off on another 6hr car trip down to Mesa, AZ. Tom was pretty pumped because this was going to be the farthest south he had ever been in the continental US.

From St. George the GPS wanted us to take the I-15 and go through Las Vegas, but we opted for the scenic route and took Route 89 instead. Northern Arizona is actually quite pretty.

As we were passing through Kaibab National forest on the 89 we kept seeing signs for something called "cliff dwellers" which we were kind of confused about. Eventually we came to it and it turns out its just this quick little turn out on the side of the road where you can see some cool American Indian cave dwellings and a bunch of huge rock formations. Below, Tom is "holding" one up.

Also, on the 89 we passed by two entrances to Grand Canyon National Park. The first one we came across was the entrance to the Northern Rim in Kaibab National Forest but, the entrance was closed for the Winter (go figure that May is apparently still considered Winter down there). We were a little bummed, but a few hours later we came upon the entrance to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, so we decided to go have a look-see since Tom had never seen the Grand Canyon before.

 

It was pretty late in the afternoon/early evening when we got there and the sun was just setting so viewing circumstances weren't ideal, but we still got there. And, I suppose the one bonus to getting there so late was that by the time we got there they had already closed down the guard stations for the day so we didn't have to pay the $25 entrance fee!

We got to our hotel in Mesa late Wednesday night and were going to try hit the Mesa Temple Thursday morning before Tom's job interview. Unfortunately, I woke up that morning with a pretty gnarly sinus headache and what Mom said she thought sounded like a sinus infection...awesome. So instead we settled for just taking a tour of the temple grounds and visitor's center and taking a quick peek at the Gilbert, AZ 9/11 memorial.

Again, while Tom was at his job interview I hung out at the temple. Which, can I just say the temple grounds in Mesa are huge and lovely. Tom said it reminded him of a little oasis and I must say that my favorite part was that it just seemed so still in the temple grounds. Outside on the street it was so busy with traffic, etc. but the minute you walk in the temple grounds it is very peaceful and it seems that the only thing you can hear are the birds singing in the trees.

Following Tom's interview we took off for St. George again so that our trip back to Springville on Friday wouldn't be quite as long. This time we did end up taking the I-15 up through Vegas and we got to stop and see the Hoover Dam on the way!

We stopped and spent Thursday night in St. George. Friday morning we woke up and got to attend the St. George temple. We also took a tour of the St. George Tabernacle before heading back up to Springville. We got home last night around 5pm.

Thursday, I hit the 27 week mark with Noah and so this morning I had to go to the lab at the hospital and have my glucose test done to screen for gestational diabetes. The punch I had to drink for that was really nasty and I practically gagged it down with Tom snickering at me a good portion of the time. 

27 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He made up for it though because when we got home there was a man waiting to deliver these for me...my Mother's Day gift from Tom.

What a sweet and wonderful husband I have! :)

Months in Review and So...

So....I've been meaning to update this for a while but just have not gotten around to it. Things just got kind of crazy after Valentine's but I was texting Cherstin today and I thought: "gee...I need to be better at that. Just like my awesome sister." So where did I leave off....

Last February on President's Day Tom and I had been dating for about a week. We spent the day together that day by going to a French bakery in Salt Lake called Gourmandise at which point we went back to Tom's apartment in Provo and played a game of travel Scrabble on Tom's couch. So this President's day we decided that we couldn't think of a better way to spend our day than going to Gourmandise again and playing another rousing game of travel scrabble, along with some other added adventures.

On our way up to Gourmandise I talked to Mom and she asked if we would mind putting flowers down on Grandpa's grave since his birthday was that coming Friday. No prob...or so we thought. The problem was that Utah had an unusually cold winter with a good amount of snowfall and Tom and I severely overestimated the amount of snow that had actually melted.

This is what the cemetery looked like when we arrived. It was basically a field of snow.

Tom and I could not remember the placement of the grave, especially with all the snow, and the caretaker's office was closed for the holiday. After about a half hour of trudging around in the snow and trying to clear off the gravestones with our shoes Tom remembered that he had a mini-shovel in the trunk of his car!

Then one of us had the brilliant idea to use my phone to look up photos Brian had posted of the interment. From those we were able to find the approximate placement of the grave. Thus, thanks to some brilliant detective work on our part the day was not lost and we were able to find Grandpa's, Grandma's, and Tony's graves.

The following Thursday, February 28th, was Tom's 26th Birthday! It started out by me making him breakfast in bed...french toast and eggs!

 I use to have a sandwich cutter that would decrust your sandwiches and then cut it into the shape of dinosaurs. I was going to use it to make Tom dinosaur french toast, but alas, the day before his birthday I could not find it. I tried to fashion him a piece of french toast cut into the shape of Yoda, but my crafty-pants skills are sorely lacking and Yoda turned out looking more like a demon. Sorry, no pictures.

 We had to spend the majority of the day in classes which was a major bummer for Tom, but we still managed to make it a somewhat special day. We celebrated in the evening by going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner since our Valentine's day attempt had been a bust.

Afterwards, Tom and I went to the store so that he could pick out his birthday cake. I felt kind of like a lame-o wife for not making it myself but Tom said it was alright and he enjoyed it all the same.

Mmmm....Boston Creme Cake!

Then it was time for Tom to open his presents! He got three new pairs of dress socks and The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

Tom calls them his "Booth" socks! Ha I got him hooked on Bones!

In early March it was time for the BYU Luau. Since BYU has a pretty good portion of the student body that is Polynesian, every year they put on a Luau where students with heritage from each of the different Polynesian islands: Hawaii, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, and New Zealand can showcase their cultures. And since Tom served his mission in Tonga and has a healthy love of all things Polynesian we went to the Luau this year. There was a video to go with it but for some reason I can't get Blogger to cooperate.

March also hosted some very lovely weather and Tom and I were able to spend some time outside enjoying it.

We played frisbee which is my sport of choice. 

Tom also bought me a baseball mitt and we enjoyed some catch. 

I also learned how to throw a football and a rugby ball...sort of.

Rugby balls are a lot bigger than a football and thrown in a way that is completely counter-intuitive to me so it took a bit of time to pick it up.

On March 21st I reached the 20 week mark with the pregnancy and we got to go to have the ultrasound done! We found out that we are expecting a little baby boy to be named Noah Richard Bibber! It was funny watching the ultrasound technician getting frustrated because Noah wouldn't move or cooperate at all. It seemed like everything the ultrasound tech tried to show us, Noah would cover it up, especially his boy parts. Our little prude should be getting here sometime around August 6th.

When Tom and I started dating he was in LOVE with this band from Provo called Imagine Dragons. I had never heard of them before, but the more I listened to them the more I liked them. That summer Imagine Dragons gained a lot of radio play with their song "It's Time" and now they have become pretty popular. I believe they even do the title song for Iron Man 3. However, my favorite song of theirs is "Radioactive",

Back in December Tom heard that Imagine Dragons would be doing a concert in Salt Lake on March 22nd so I pre-ordered tickets as one of Tom's Christmas gifts. So at the end of March we went to their concert. It was pretty good but super loud and Tom was worried that we had ruined Noah's hearing. He's going to be a great Dad. :)

At the Imagine Dragons Concert!

For Easter, we had Flora and Annika over for dinner! We made a meal complete with ham, funeral potatoes, biscuits, asparagus, and strawberries. Afterwards we dyed eggs and had an Easter Egg Hunt.

If you look close you can see a bright blue Easter Egg hanging out on the fence post just behind Tom.

Still Hiding Eggs

Now time for finding eggs!

April came and with that the last few weeks of school. Tom and I both finished our internships on April 12th. It was a little bittersweet. The following week was the last week of classes so we were busy finishing up projects and such. One of the classes we had to take this semester was a class on Community Organization and we had to do a class project that would in some way give back to the community. Our class partnered with some key leaders in Provo School District to work on developing a suicide prevention manual called "Hope 4 Utah" for teachers. We had to put on a banquet to introduce the manual, which I was in charge of organizing. Our hard work was featured on the news and you can even see Tom and I up close! We're famous! I couldn't find a way to post the video directly but follow the link to Watch our 15 seconds of Fame!

That same week Tom and I also took our licensing exams to prove that we know enough to officially become social workers. Tom took his on Monday and after a huge fiasco with the social work board office concerning the change from my maiden name to my married name, I took my exam on Friday.
The night before my exam Tom left me a sweet note on my phone.

We both passed our exams and will be receiving licenses as Clinical Social Workers (CSWs) once our final transcripts are sent over to the Utah department of licensure from BYU. After that we have to find jobs that will provide us with 4,000 hours and at least 2 years of supervised work experience before we can become Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) and work independently without supervision. It's almost like residency for doctors.

The following Tuesday mama and papa Bibber got into town for graduation. We took a trip up to Brigham City and spent some time with a missionary couple, the Harrison's, from Tom's mission and went and saw Promontory Point.

Thursday was commencement at which Elder Perry spoke. And Friday morning was convocation where we walked and officially received our...degree holders. Ha. The actual Master's Degrees will come in the mail in a few weeks.

Do you like our sleeves? Everyone in our program kept playing with them, pretending to fly and what not. Yeah, we're mature.

Friday afternoon following convocation the School of Social Work hosted a reception for graduates and their family members. We got some pretty sweet pics with our professors...the ones who were there anyway.

Us with Dr. Roby. Our faculty adviser. Tom was also her Research Assistant our first year in the program.

Dr. Limb- our program director. (notice that by this point I've begun removing my robes.)

Dr. Marett! My favorite professor. He told Tom and I that we have a unique flow and asked us to e-mail him if we ever got divorced because he would be surprised. I think we might be the basis of a research study.

Dr. Seipel- Our Macro-Social Work Guru.

K.Shaf! Our stats professor and all around pal.

Saturday and Sunday we got to spend some more quality time with mama and papa Bibber before they left to go back to ME Sunday night. Papa Bibber was able to give Tom a blessing before they left which was really special. It was good to see them and get to know them better and it was sad to see them go. I have great in-laws! :)

So two years of craziness are officially over and Tom and I officially have a Master's Degrees. And now you ask? Tom is being a wonderful husband and is looking for a job...he is super smart and already has a phone interview lined up with a mental health center in Kansas for tomorrow morning! Keep your fingers crossed! And me...well, I'm not even sure that people will want to hire me right now. I'm anticipating that employers would take one look at me 6 months pregnant and say to themselves: "at best we'll get three months of work out of her before maternity leave and then she may not even come back...is it worth it?" I know they're not "supposed" to let that effect their judgement, but let's be honest, employers do and I can't really blame them. Tom and I have decided that ideally, I will be a stay at home wife and mom to Noah and whatever other children we have. Social Workers get paid squat for the first little bit though until you become fully licensed, so if for some reason I did need to go to work, it would be part time and Tom's job would still be the primary one we lived off of. That being said, we're kind of here waiting until the right situation comes along and Tom gets offered a job. It's kind of scary not knowing what the future holds, but we both know everything will turn out alright. Tuesday during the day we had the opportunity to go to the temple and as we were sitting there after our session Tom looked at me and said "We're going to be ok." I know that's true, we just have to have the faith to see it through.

And finally, as if this post wasn't long enough already, Pregnancy Pics!

17 Weeks

23 Weeks!

26 Weeks!