New Stuff

Some camp outside and some camp inside. You can tell what type of people we are.

Since we don't have much new to report, you can also see our new purchases: a brown sofa cover and a $130 area rug that we bought for $11. The tent, air mattress, and sleeping bags are also new. We decided to test them out before our ward camp out in a couple of weekends. They passed the test so we are ready to go. For some reason, summer doesn't seem like summer without at least one camp out.

May Day

We finally got all the boxes sorted and stored away. It's nice not to see anymore cardboard laying around. Jason finished his Calculus II and Economics class at the BYU Salt Lake Center and started two stats classes Spring term at BYU Provo. My new job is going well. It's still a little slow for me sometimes, but I really enjoy the people I work with. I think that alone makes it better....not to mention that it's located next to the Provo river and I can walk as far as I want along the river during my lunch break.

The building I currently work in.

My department is moving to this new building down the road in a couple weeks.

The Provo River next to our building where I walk during my lunch break.

My office cube at the current building

Building our new shelves from IKEA

Finished shelves in our spare bedroom

I was rudely awaken in the middle of the night this week by a low battery on the fire alarm in our bedroom. After waking up enough to realize what it was, I kindly shook Jason until he was awake enough to fix it. :) We successfully got rid of the annoying beeping sound every 15 seconds by taking the battery out....that is, until we turned off the light and laid down again. Fortunately, we happened to have a 9V battery and I even remembered where it was. Several minutes of annoying beeping later we really solved the problem and went back to bed. I'm glad that when Jason thinks something is ridiculous he usually laughs instead of getting mad, so we had a good laugh before we fell back asleep.


Thanks to all those who have already visited us at our new apartment. Visitors are always welcome!

Erica Cooper, who I worked with and carpooled with for more than a year at Allen Comm

My nephews James and Grant. I think they love my iPad more than me :)

My cute nieces Amelia and Lillian

A Month of Changes

Playing games with Seth and Cassie

Jason with his Deacons

Happy Easter! It's hard to believe that it's already Easter, but I'm really grateful for the warm weather and the beautiful Spring flowers. This is my favorite time of the year and I love to walk around outside just to see the trees and flowers.

I am officially an Instructional Designer at Imagine Learning now. I really like it! I gave my two weeks notice to my previous job on Feb. 17. They didn't want me to go and counter-offered a better salary to try to keep me, but I knew Imagine Learning would be a better fit for me so the extra money wasn't very tempting. Unfortunately, since I decided to leave anyway, the management didn't give me the fondest of farewells...but, oh well. I have a lot of respect for many of the people that work there and wish them the best.

I took off March 5th and 6th before starting at Imagine Learning. It was nice to take a couple days off and relax. I spent a lot of time organizing and starting to pack since Jason and I decided to looked for apartments closer to my new job in Provo.

I really like my new job at Imagine Learning. They have made me feel welcome and are great and easy to work with. I already knew a couple people from from graduate program at BYU so I had instant friends. I enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere and a company that truly shows their appreciation to their employees. I've helped with lots of different things in my first month, but I haven't had a project that has truly been mine. Things are not quite as efficient as I'm used to and I keep asking "Why do we do it like that?" The company has grown large very quickly in the past 6 months so they are still working out the kinks in their processes. My managers think I  have good ideas, so hopefully some of them will start happening. Something that I've been working on most recently is writing new books for the literacy program. It's kind of fun and tricky to write texts appropriate for kindergarten and first grade with a limited vocabulary so that it's readable. I've already written several that have been approved and the artists are amazing and will make it look and feel like a published book, but unfortunately the Development Team is a year behind curriculum design so I probably won't see it in its finished form for many months.

During the first few weeks of March we spent a lot of time looking for apartments, especially Jason. We found one we liked in a great location and moved to Orem the 31st of March. We really enjoyed our apartment in Sandy and would have stayed longer but I really didn't want to commute every day. Even during the two weeks I had to commute, I averaged an hour and a half in the car a day. That's a lot of gasoline and a lot of time in the car. One day I got stuck right behind a semi-truck that rolled and blocked all the lanes. It took me 2 hours to get to work that day. We're grateful for the people in our ward and all their kindness to us.

We were very grateful to Stuart P. for his help as well as our home teacher Nate G. for lending us his truck, trailer, and strong muscles

We were also grateful for Jason's parents and my parents + Keith for their help moving

Enjoying a doughnut break after all their hard work loading boxes

We had plenty of help and even more offers to help us move on the 31st. We didn't want to take people away from conference so I took Friday off and packed all day so we would be ready early Saturday morning. We started loading in Sandy at 7:00am and finished unloading in Orem in less than 3 hours. We are still in the process of making our new apartment feel like home. We really like the fireplace, the dishwasher, and larger refrigerator, washer, and dryer. We made a big trip to IKEA yesterday and miraculously fit everything we bought in our little Hyundai Elantra. If anything would have been a couple inches longer or a couple inches thicker we would have been out of luck. I already put together the bathroom organizer yesterday and it's nice to have the extra storage in the bathroom.

The front of the house

Our basement apartment entrance

Our awesome moving helpers

Kitchen (minus the couch)

Living room (minus the couches and rug)

We attended our new ward for the first time today and the people were very welcoming and friendly. The best thing about living here is the location. I'm only 5 minutes from my work and we're close to the shopping center, BYU, and the freeway. As soon as Jason finishes his classes in Salt Lake next week he'll start taking classes at BYU and won't have to commute in the opposite direction.

Building the bathroom cabinet

Finished bathroom cabinet plus new washer and dryer

 

Lost a Ring, Found a Job

About a year and a half ago I wrote a blog post with a similar title about losing a contact lens and finding my current job at Allen Communications. I don't know what the connection is between losing things and finding jobs, but we've just experienced another incident.

Losing a Ring
About two weeks ago I looked down at my hand as I was putting on my coat to leave work and realized I didn't have my wedding ring on. I was pretty sure I had put it on that morning but I wasn't positive. Jason and my friend Erica were waiting for me to carpool home and I didn't want them to have to wait for me so I left work hoping to find my ring in my ring box when I got home. Well, I worried most of the way home and hurried to my ring box hoping to find my ring. It was not there, which meant only one thing--I had lost it at work.

I called my project manager on her cell phone hoping she would still be at work. She was driving home but gave me the office number of another designer, Heather, she thought might still be there. By this time it was about 5:30. I called Heather and was very relieved to hear her voice at the other end of the line. I quickly told her about my situation and asked if she would please look around my cubicle to see if she could see my ring anywhere. I waited on the line while she checked. She came back a few minutes later only to report that she couldn't find it anywhere around my desk, on the floor, in the garbage, etc. She said she would quickly check the bathroom and the break room just in case. Again I waited, hoping and praying she would find it somewhere. A few minutes later she came back on the line and said, "Julie, you are never going to guess where I found your ring....."  "Where," I said. "In the bathroom garbage can!" she replied.

Apparently after I had washed my hands a few hours earlier, my ring had slipped off while I was drying my hands and I had thrown it away! If Heather had not have found it right then, that garbage can would have been emptied about two hours later by the nightly janitorial crew. What a blessing! I was so grateful for such a quick and miraculous recovery of my wedding ring, a gift that would be very difficult and costly to replace.

Finding a Job
Apparently sometimes you find things even when you're not looking for them. I heard about a job where one of my former co-workers worked. She has since had a baby and quit working, but she had some really positive things to say about it. Anyway I decided to look into it. The more I learned about the company, the more I liked it. Eventually I applied to an Instructional Design position. I had three interviews in about three weeks and then after waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I was officially offered the job. The company is called Imagine Learning and is located in North Provo near the mouth of Provo Canyon. One good description of the company can be found on their website, it says:

"Imagine Learning is your language and literacy solution, providing award-winning educational software to hundreds of thousands of students in schools across the United States and around the world. Students receive one-on-one instruction through thousands of engaging activities specifically designed to meet their individual needs and provide real results."

So instead of focusing on corporate training I would be working on designing online literacy activities for struggling readers generally K-6th grade. Since my background is in elementary education, I feel like it's a better fit for my skills and interests. I've heard a lot of good things about the company and their culture. I'm also excited about getting a raise and better benefits. All around it just seems to be a good choice to change jobs.


I plan to accept the offer on Tuesday and will then start working in Provo the first full week of March. With changing jobs it's likely that we will also move as well. Jason is currently taking classes at the BYU Salt Lake Center but plans to take classes in Provo during Spring and Summer. If we're both going to be commuting to Provo we figure we might as well live there. We won't move until at least the end of April and not until we find another place to live that we really like. 


This change is exciting and scary at the same time, but I believe it is a blessing for us in many ways. It will be interesting to see what is in store for us in Provo.

Celebrating Birthdays

Birthday presents from Jason. He used an a la carte method this year where I got to up-wrap several gifts and choose which ones I wanted to keep. The necklace I'm wearing is from Melody. Thanks Melody!

Jason brought this beautiful lily to me at work and took me out to lunch. I enjoyed see the flower all week. The stargazer lily is one of my absolute favorites.

We had a fun dinner at Tucanos for Jason's birthday and ate some yummy, yummy food. Afterwards we met my parents at the Conference Center to see a Young Ambassadors concert. Funny enough, Jason's parents happened to go to the same concert that night as well.

Happy birthday to Jason!

Christmas and New Years

A post better late than never. We had a great Christmas and New Year's this year and spent most of our time with Jason's family who were all in town for the holidays.

Holiday Highlights

Christmas Cookies

Christmas Eve Chimes

Temple Square Visitor Center--Julie with Brooklyn

1. Rasband cousin party at the DuPaix's home Fri. Dec. 23rd. It just doesn't seem like Christmas without seeing the cousins since seeing extended family has always been a part of the festivities since my childhood
2. Christmas Eve morning we went to Temple Square with the half of the Burninghams that were in town. We enjoyed seeing the sights in the visitor's center including the Christus statue, the "Plan of Happiness" presentation by the missionaries, and the replica of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple. Saturday morning there were hardly any visitors and I felt like we had the place to ourselves. We spent some time in the afternoon at Grandpa Richard's and then he treated us all to lunch at McDonalds. That evening we enjoyed hearing the Christmas Story read from the Bible and played Christmas songs on chimes.
3. Christmas Morning began early with lots of excited children waiting to see what Santa brought. Our big Christmas gift this year was a Kawaii digital piano that "Santa" delivered a few days early this year. I've wanted a piano for several years now and it's so nice to have one here in our apartment to play! We had a nice sacrament meeting in Alpine and then headed to my parents' home for a delicious dinner and time with my family. We enjoyed playing games with Katrina and Neal while their son Daniel was very engrossed with the new Wii he got for Christmas. I must say that I really did enjoy having Christmas on Sunday this year since it really helped me focus much more on the true meaning of Christmas.
4. Monday we were back in Alpine hanging out and playing games. That evening was the viewing for Jason's grandpa, Ross Burningham, who passed away the week before. At 91 years of age, his health has steadily declined this winter and he went into the hospital just before Thanksgiving. He was staying in a rehab center but his health was not improving. Jason and I visited in the rehab center the night before he passed away. We had a short, but good visit with him and I was grateful we were able to speak with him one last time before he passed away. Jason's parents and siblings went with him to the viewing while all the sisters-in-law stayed home and put the kids to bed. Jason said it was very nice.
5. Tuesday we attended the funeral. The arrangements were very nice and many people came to pay their respects. Jason's dad and his two living sisters spoke at the funeral. The great-grandchildren and some of the young grandchildren sang a primary song and I accompanied Jason's brothers and their wives singing "Because I Have Been Given Much." At the gravesite they had a touching military service and the ward provided a lovely lunch for our family afterwards. Later that evening we all attended a BYU basketball game in Provo.
6. Wednesday I went back to work for the rest of the week but Jason stayed with his family. His family had a neat opportunity to do sealings all together at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple with Grandpa Richards. They enjoyed a fun night of games after putting the kids to bed as well. Snorta and Bananagrams were probably the two most played games this Christmas along with Word on the Street.
7. Thursday they took everyone sledding somewhere up Big Cottonwood Canyon and I joined them to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point. (Note: To anyone who has never seen the lights at Thanksgiving Point I would say, I don't think it's worth it. It was somewhat cool but not worth the drive or the price for approximately 15 minutes of driving through some lights.)
8. Friday they watched the BYU bowl game and went out to Applebees. That night we all watched Kung Fu Panda 2, put kids to bed, and stayed up to play games.
9. New Year's Eve most of us went ice skating at Peaks Arena in Provo in the afternoon. Afterwards Jason and I met up with Reija, a high school friend of mine, and her husband who were visiting from California. Then we headed to another BYU basketball game and then over to Jason's brother Jeff's house in Provo for the rest of the night. We had good food and enjoyed dancing to Just Dance 3 with the X-Box Kinect before ringing in the new year with an interesting political and religious debate. --I could never see my family doing that. That's one difference between the Rogers and the Burninghams. :)

 My Christmas Present

Jason's Christmas

What Jason wishes he got :) j/k

Just Dance 3

BYU Basketball

Grandpa and Grandma Richards

Grandpa Burningham's funeral

Ice Skating

Ever Wonder?

Have you ever wondered what I do all day at work? What is an instructional designer anyway? Well for any of you who are curious to know, I'll give you a quick overview and then show you an example of my work.

Typical Work Tasks

• Determine the training needs/knowledge gaps of a company
• Gather and/or sort content needed to fill that gap
• Write up a formal design plan
• Script the content and activites using our custom software
• Record and edit professional and in-house audio talent
• Coordinate with artists to create all graphic elements including the interface,splash intros., and graphics
• Coordinate with programmers to create custom interactions, features, and wizzards 
• Work with clients in person or over the phone on a weekly basis to monitor the progress of the project
• Oversee other instructional designers and review all work for quality assurance

To see a short marketing demo and a few sample course pages for a program I designed for Talaris, follow this link: http://www.parentingcounts.org/professionals/preview-training-program.php and click on "Launch the Preview."