Renting in Grand Junction

Ruthless! That is the only word that I can use to describe how you have to be if you want to get a place to rent in Grand Junction. Right now the renting market is incredibly tough!!! There are lots of people moving there because of a booming oil market in the area, so needless to say renting is a big business right now.
When we first got there we looked up things in the paper, on the internet, and had friends who live there make contacts for us. We would find a place and then that place would already have paying renters. Then we would find another place and people would have applications in to rent it. We were told to be bold while looking for a place. We called this older lady who had discussed renting with another couple, but the couple didn't put any money down or anything on the place, and the lady told them she would hold it for a few days while she waited for their response to if they wanted it. We called that same lady up and told her we would give her another $50 dollars if she would rent it to us that night, we begged and pleaded, but to no avail: she wanted to keep her word.
We decided to go to a city just outside of Grand Junction. There we found a nice little Condo, it was under our first budget by a little, and our second budget by a lot. So we drove to the renting company and got an application. We decided to fill out the application there and turn it in. So we did that and then left to get some food. While we were at the store the renting place called back and said that another person was putting an application in along with a holding deposit (guaranteeing the place to her if she qualified). So we quickly drove back to the office to pay a refundable holding deposit also, $150. We got there and wrote out a check right before the other lady finished her application and paid the deposit. The funny thing is that we hadn't even seen the inside of the place yet, but we wanted to be sure to get the condo if we liked it. After putting down the holding deposit we got a call from the man in charge who would show us the condo. So we drove over there and took a look. It was great, in good condition, and cheap. :) So we told him we wanted it, all we had to do now was qualify. He told us that he would call us that day to let us know if we qualified. He also told us there was someone else who put the holding deposit in at the same time so it wasn't guaranteed to go to us. Luckily a few hours later he called us back and told us it was ours if we wanted it. We told him yes! So we have a place. It's got 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, washer/dryer hookups, and a kitchen with a range, a fridge, and a dishwasher. We don't need that many rooms, but since it was cheaper by far than anything else we had seen, plus under our budget we thought it would be good. So...we have a place!!!

The United World College of the American West

That's it! That is the official name of the place that I am staying in for my training in the booming Metropolis of Montezuma, New Mexico. I heard today that during the school year they have on average 200 students at the school studying, and from what I have seen so far they are all international students. This is New Mexico! Below you are going to find some of the pictures I took from the shuttle bus window from my 2.23 hour drive from Albuquerque to Montezuma. Oddly it got greener and greener as we approached Montezuma.
When we got to Montezuma it only took a few minutes to arrive at the College and I was impressed with what I saw. There were trees and it was really, really, really green! See for yourself...
And to boot we got to stay in a castle, kind of...
So I wish I would have stayed here, but some of the conference attendants were able to stay here, and others stayed in little dormitories like those you see in the first green picture above. The rooms weren't bad, I was expecting worse...
The rooms were split in two by a wall, you see the wall on the right edge of the picture, that was it. In each room we were able to have our own desk (on right), our own dresser (far left on edge) and luckily our own bed (center). I think I have a guy as a roommate, but I haven't met him yet. I will keep you updated on this potentially awkward situation! :) It is my first night, I have Internet, but my phone is roaming, oh well. In Duchesne I only had a roaming phone, and no Internet so I guess I am moving up in the world. I will keep you update as to the fun and exciting things I have planned, or they have planned for me!

Official

It's official, I have been offered a position at Palisade High School near Grand Junction, Colorado. I got the call July 5th after a week of stressing over the fact that I might not have a job next year. The worries started about a week ago when I got a call from the Vice Principle who said that if I didn't get some official things turned in soon that they would be looking in a different direction at someone else who they stated had already filled out all the needed applications. After that phone call I took 2 days off of work in Duchesne and went down to BYU to get things taken care off. After a few hours down there I got all the forms sent that I needed to send. Earlier this week I called the District again to see if they received the forms, to which they replied that they hadn't. So I called up Angie from Duchesne and had her fax the forms over to the District so they could get the forms. Then today I got the call as I was running around SLC, and they offered me the job. So thanks to everyone who held their breath, and prayed for us because we got it. :D

Summer Job

I have a summer job in the wide open expanse of Duchesne, Utah. It is a little town about 180 miles away from Salt Lake City. My parents own a cabin there, a cozy 2 room, 2 floor, 2 bath, 2 car garage get-away. They have a friend there that owns his own business building cabins, Basin Wide Builders. I leave my SLC home Sunday night and go to The Cabin. On Monday I wake up at about 5:30am, and get ready to leave by 6. After a 30 minute drive to the site we are building the cabin we get out and start working. I have done things like putting in windows, roofing, and ehlping with some basic electrical stuff. It has been interesting and really different from teaching. But for a summer job where I am just interested in earning some more money before we move to Grand Junction it does the job. We finish at about 3:00, and after cleaning up we take off at about 3:30 to get home by 4. I take a shower and then relax for the rest of the day. I don't have phone service there without paying for roaming, so I don't call anyone on the phone very often. I leave on Friday's and get home in SLC at about 6pm. I do it all so we can move to Grand Junction and get settled in there. It's a good job, but I don't think I want to do this for my whole life.

Last day at Sunset Ridge

I had my last official day at Sunset Ridge Middle school on Thursday June 7th. It was a happy, and sad moment for me. While I was there at the school I learned a great deal about kids, and their desires to learn. I will miss all of the Falcons that I taught for the past year. It was great every morning to have half a dozen kids come into the class room to say hi and then to hang out a little before they all took off to get to their first period class on time; I will miss the chances to see some students come in and say hi to me during passing time; the occasional student who would come in to say au revoir, or ciao after school got out. I will also miss the other teachers who gave me so much: Linda, Coleen, Natalie, Wyatt, and Sherrie. They were there to help me with my questions and to cheer me up on those few days when I didn't want to be there.
I am glad that I had that opportunity to be there and teach those kids preparing me to go out and teach other students in my new adventure. Thanks so much to you all for your help, you are wonderful!!!

Palisade High, Grand Junction (Palisade) CO

So I had my interview down in Grand Junction, CO. It was a very long day. It started off with me waking up at 4am so I would make it down to Palisade High at noon. I figured I needed to leave by about 5:30 in order to be safely there on time. The time didn't go by fast and it didn't help that I'm not to smart,even though I just graduated, because I thought there was going to be a time change from SLC to GJ, but low and behold there wasn't; plus without any traffic it was easier to go a little faster than the speed limit. So needless to say I got there a little early. You can probably guess how early I got there, but for your sake and mine I will just tell you I had about 2.5 hours to spare. Yup, 2.5!!!! So as I approached the school to make sure that I knew where it was. The I decided that it would be fun to go on a little scenic drive to check it out, so I did! My first stop was at Safeway to use their facilities. Then for the next hour or so I was talking with Angie on the phone while she was at work and we tried to find different things in GJ together. I would drive around and ask for certain things, like where the church was or where Walmart was and she would also tell me some things that she was finding on line, like how many wards were in GJ (12). We also teamed up to find out about some apartments there, just in case we move there. When I would find one I would tell her the name and she would look it up online from her computer and then give me the scoop on it. We didn't really find to much doing this, but it was fun anyway. After a while I was tired of driving so I decided to take a much needed break at "Barnes and Nobles". So I took my computer in and tried to connect to the Internet there, but of course you have to pay if you want Internet access. So instead I just relaxed until it was time to head over to the school for the interview.
I didn't really know how far away the school was but I figured 30 minutes from the "Barnes and Nobles" would be fine. I had also forgotten that I needed to get gas, or I probably wouldn't even make it to the school. So I hurried and found a gas station and pumped me some gas before heading out to find the school again. Luckily I didn't hit any red lights (I only had about 5 lights to go through) on my way to the school and I got there with 3 minutes to spare before my interview. I quickly put on my tie and suit jacket and headed through the front doors and into the office. There I found some people laughing and having a good time, plus to my surprise there were two dogs there in the office just hanging out. I found out earlier that their school year ended May 24th, so there were no more kids in school. The office staff told the assistant principle that I was there and I only had to wait a few more minutes before he waved me into the conference room where I had the interview. For the interview 2 assistant principles, the athletic director, and a Spanish teacher were present. They started off mentioning that the whole interview would be very informal because they wanted me to feel comfortable with the situation. Starting off I was asked to talk about myself because all they knew about me was what was on my resume, a one page description of my work experience. We talked about me for a while and then they went into some prepared questions. The interview went on for about 45 minutes while they asked questions and I asked questions. At the end of the interview the assistant principle, who had called me on the phone to schedule the interview, told me that because the position was still open he could not officially offer me the job, but stated that I would "probably be getting a call" from them. After the interview he took me around the school and showed me where everything was. The picture on the right shows where the the French room is, it's on the other side of this detached building addition tot he right. So let's all pray and cross our fingers that the decide to officially offer us the position. Bulldogs

9-mile Canyon

For our memorial day weekend get away we stayed at my parents cabin in Duchesne and prepared to go the the world-renowned 9-mile canyon. So, this canyon of sorts is...interesting. We went prepared with as many brochures as possible that we gathered from the Duchesne information center. We had a total of about 4 different ones that gave us their own idea of what 9-mile canyon is. None of those brochures told us about the 40 mile drive before we even got to the canyon. So there we were driving on unpaved dirt road for about 1 hour before we realized that we weren't getting very far. In that hour we went about 25 miles and didn't see anything but a bunch of smooshed bunnies. So for anyone that is willing to go more that 40 miles on a dirt road without seeing anything, then the 9-mile canyon drive is for you. But for us, the drive was great because we were able to talk to each other, but for the view...um...NO