Alturas & April Pictures

Chesnie and her punk hair

My pretty purple iris in our yard

Running wild at Whiskeytown

Enjoying breakfast burritos with dad

Happily fishing

Hooked one

Self portrait

Chesnie not sure of what she is doing

Mattie fishing at Grace Lake

Chesnie in the tree

Mattie in the tree
Takeing a break at Hat Creek
Our tiny snowman
Chesnie had to eat some snow
Winter wonderland
The girls got to meet Curious George at Barnes
Mattie running through the sprinklers
Chesnie enjoying the sprinklers
Dress up time in my old leotards
Mattie's latest culinary creation from her Highlights magazine

We went to Alturas last Friday for a teaching interview for Matthew. Alturas is about 3 hours NE of Redding and is about the farthest you can go in Northern Cali before you get to Oregon. It is a small town of about 3,000 and it is in the middle of nowhere. There is one grocery store and a bunch of little mom and pop places. No chain stores of any kind well except for Subway and Quiznos. We headed up after a week of the girls running through the sprinklers and swimming in the pool and what did we see? Snow! A winter wonderland at the end of April. Everything was white. Everything was covered. We weren't expecting it and weren't even sure we were going to be able to make it to Alturas. It was coming down heavy and it was only little country highways. We made it but it continued to snow the whole time that we were there. Mathew's interview went really well, the best he has ever had. There was 75 applicants for the job and they interviewed 8. Matthew liked the people and was taken on a tour of the school and really liked it. The town, I wasn't really fond of. But on Monday Matthew received a call saying that he didn't get the job. He was a little disappointed but relieved that God had made that decision easy. We are proud of how well he did at the interview and that he was chosen out of 75 people. On the way home we stopped and let the girls run around at Hat Creek and then we went fishing at Grace Lake in Shingletown. No fish but the girls had fun. The next morning Matthew gave me a day off and took the girls fishing at Whiskeytown. Again no fish but they had fun with daddy. I've also posted some additional pictures from our everyday lives for the month of April.

Easter 2009

We went to the Bay Area for Easter and enjoyed time with our families. The girls had a great time dying eggs. I think they each decorated a dozen of them. Then when they took their nap my mom and I decided we needed a turn at it. We dyed a dozen of our own! What great fun getting creative. We went to my parents church where the girls enjoyed singing Jesus Loves Me with their Papa. Then we rushed home and got the meal together where Matthew's parents and brother Rick and sister in law Tanya joined us. The meal was delicious and had great reviews from everyone. Then it was time to fill the eggs and begin the hunt. I think the girls had 100+ eggs to find, just the two of them. They had their baskets overflowing! Then we sat and watched them open all their eggs to find the surprises within and the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Then we went through the story of Jesus with the Resurrection Eggs and enjoyed some strawberry shortcake for dessert. A great time was had by all. The day ended with the girls and Papa watching The Great Easter Beagle (Charlie Brown ).

The hunt is on

Ches had this surprise face every time she found an egg

Mattie's loot

Precious girls

Mattie and mama

Being silly

Me and my girls

Personality coming through

The girls and their pretty Easter dresses

The first egg being decorated

The girls decorating with Gma

Mattie and her intensity

Ches enjoying the fun

All the colorful eggs

Reasons Not To Move

So we have decided not to move to Twin Falls, ID. We are finding peace in this decision. The job was just not a good fit for Matthew so we decided that it wasn't worth the sacrifice of leaving Redding. As we were traveling to Idaho we came up with a list of reasons not to move and I thought I would share them with you.

You Know You Shouldn't Move When...

1. You have to spend $200 on snacks for the road trip.

2. You have to pack an emergency kit to make the drive.

3. The nearest creek is called Stinking Water Creek.

4. You have to pack your fridge.

5. All the Uhauls you see are going the opposite way.

6. It's 70 degrees where you're from and they tell you it is in the 40's where you're going.

7. You're children can watch at least 10 movies on the trip.

8. You have to bring along a pottie.

9. You could die on the road and no one would find you for days.

10. You come to a "town" and if you blink you will miss it as it is a town of 41 (Matthew blinked).

Quick Trip to Idaho

Friends Elli and Malia

The beautiful gorge in Twin Falls

The bridge into Twin Falls over the amazingly huge gorge

The girls at the lookout

At a park in Twin Falls

The girls watching a show with Kelsey and Tyson

The girls with Kelsey at Lake Lowell

Mattie B. in the sunset

Mattie at the park with Malia and Elli

Being silly with Malia and Elli

Matthew was offered a teaching job in Twin Falls, Idaho. Everything happened in less than 24 hours and we decided to take a trip to check things out. We have good friends that live in Nampa so we were excited to be able to visit them too. It was a very quick trip with lots of driving but we enjoyed our time with friends and were glad that we went so that we could make a fully informed decision regarding the job. We left at 4am Saturday morning. Unfortunately our girls do not sleep in the car so they were up from 4 till 9 that night. Thankfully they are pretty good travelers. It took us about 10 hours to get there and the roads are back country roads with no civilization for hours. When you do finally get to a town it is a town of 41 people. Not much around, someone could die out there and no one would notice for days. The girls enjoyed playing with all the other kids: Elli, Malia, Zach, Kelsey, Tyson and Micah. We had to get up at 5am to travel to Twin Falls on Monday. We dropped Matthew off at school and the girls and I shopped at Target, read books at the library and played at the park. Then we picked up Matthew for lunch and went to the health food store and bought popsicles. Then we dropped Matthew back off and shopped at Old Navy. After picking up Matthew we checked out the beautiful gorge and ate at the Pita Pit (very yummy by the way). Then we traveled the two hours back to Nampa that night and had to leave to come home the next morning.

Twin Falls is a nice town, smaller than Redding but it has all the basics. The school is a charter school with a focus on the arts. It is very different than anything Matthew has ever done. They teach Roman history, Latin, piano and dance for PE. If you know Matthew he is a sport guy through and through so he wasn't sure that this was the school for him. But he really liked the teacher that he would be working with and got along really well with the principal. The kids were extremely well behaved. The teacher never had to take time for discipline, she was just able to teach and for Matthew that is unheard of. It was obvious that the kids were there to learn. The teacher was also a believer as were many other teachers that worked there. We bought a newspaper to look for housing and on the front page the biggest headline with a big picture was his school. He asked me what that was supposed to mean, I told him that I didn't know. We are weighing the pros and cons and are continuing to do some serious prayer as for what our final decision shall be. It is a long way from our families, about 13 hours and that weighs heavy on us especially with two little girls who love their Gma, Papa and Grandma and Grandpa. So we shall see and we will keep you posted. Thanks for the continued prayers as for what the Lord has for this Miller family.