My husband, the intern

As of last night, Drew is now an intern on the campaign staff for Allred for Idaho! (See previous post: "Allred for Idaho") The internship will take place over a 6 week period, where Drew will, essentially, be on the campaign staff. He already has quite a few assignments that he is looking forward to. We couldn't be happier that this has worked out so well!

There are pros and cons to taking this internship at the present time:

Pros:

- Drew will be completing his requirement for an internship for his major

- This sets him on track to be finished with his Bachelor's degree in April 2011!

Cons:

- Drew can't work more than one day per week due to the work load

- He had to drop Hebrew (one of his favorite classes), again, due to the work load... but on the bright side, he'll be auditing the class (participating without getting credit or needing to turn in homework and tests)

Overall, we are very excited for this new opportunity! We'll keep you updated on the goings-on with the campaign and the internship!

Primary Activity at Bishop's

Saturday was our Primary Activity!

Our theme was "I know that Heavenly Father loves me".

Hailee is proud of her strawberry that she picked

Kent: thoroughly enjoying his strawberry

Bishop Kohler's land; they have 80 acres

Our Primary children in the wagon, ready for a ride

Just picked some apples!

Wagon ride!

Picking out pumpkins

"Here!" says Molly... she wants to get her "punkin" now too

Kent and Bishop

Hailee and Bishop

Abbie Carson telling the children that she knows that Heavenly Father loves her because He gave us beautiful mountains and a pretty sky and everything in the world

On the wagon, ready for some refreshments

We had such a fun time with these kids! I think they'll remember it every time they see a pumpkin now. :) I sure hope they know that Heavenly Father loves them!

Idahoisms

In our time living here in Rexburg, Idaho, I have noticed quite a few phrases, quirks, and methods used only here in Idaho... "isms", if you will. Here are my observations:

- anything that has handles, holds groceries, garbage, etc., and resembles what I call a "bag" is called a "sack"

- instead of investing in some good snow plows to rid of the winter's awful snow and ice, Idahoans convert an everyday back hoe, tractor, or pick-up truck into a plow

- on top of the amazing snow plowing, the state uses red rock from the Tetons to use as traction on the roads... not sand, not salt, RED ROCK, which is really only effective as a stain for your pants and shoes

- whether they're pants, a jacket, or a skirt, anything denim is called "Levis"
- the word "meal", and any other word to rhyme it, sounds like "mill", and the like

- no one here knows how to use a turn signal while driving, unless the driver is from a state where they were actually taught to use it

- every school year is interrupted in October by the week-long "Spud-Harvest Break", a time for local farmers to, well, harvest "spuds", or potatoes, as normal people would call them

- just because we're from NY, doesn't mean that we're from NYC... why does everyone here assume that? The Idahoans need to get out and live a little... and maybe inform themselves on the location of Syracuse, NY

- not showing up for class is called "sluffing" here... I thought it was just "skipping class"...?

- something we love (honest): right after "Spud Harvest", 15-pound bags of potatoes are $2 each, sometimes less

- I have never seen such an odd highway system... in addition to exits, there are just normal turn-offs, as if we're just driving down a normal TWO-LANE road (at 70 MPH) and need to turn right to get to Grandma's

- specific to Rexburg, the highest speed limit in the whole city is 35 MPH, but it's mostly just 25

- living so close to an LDS temple is one of the biggest blessings... even if we didn't live right down the street from the Rexburg temple, it would only be a 30 minute drive to the Idaho Falls temple

I'm betting there will be more in the future, but that's all I can think up right now...

Idaho can be a crazy place to live, but for now, we are loving it, whether they call my jeans "Levis" or not. :)

Allred for Idaho!

Let me forewarn you: this post is somewhat political and is half-written by my smartsy husband, which means it sounds a little more intelligent than I normally write. :)

Recently, Drew and I have had a wonderful opportunity to get involved with Allred for Idaho, the gubernatorial campaign for Keith Allred. We stumbled across Allred's website while Drew was exploring an internship back in April. When he learned about a possible internship with the Allred campaign, Drew decided to check out just who this Keith Allred guy is. After reading up on his platform, Drew urged me to learn more.

I have seen first-hand the problems going on in the State of Idaho, namely in education. Keith Allred's entire platform is centered around creating jobs and improving the quality of the educational system. So Drew and I discussed Allred's campaign more thoroughly and we found that we now support this candidate for Governor of Idaho.

Drew was unable to get the internship he was looking at with Allred due to work obligations, but this semester he met up with an old friend from his mission and found out that his mother is Allred's campaign manager in Southeastern Idaho (hey, that's us!). This friend told him about all the opportunities to help with the campaign in these last few crucial weeks before election day. We decided, together, to take advantage of them!

So this past Saturday, the City of Rexburg had a fun little event showcasing some local talent and local venues called Rexburg Unplugged. The Allred campaign had a booth at the event, so we went to volunteer our help. When we got there, we were surprised to meet Keith Allred himself, there to talk to residents of Rexburg and to answer any questions they may have for him first hand. We were both very impressed with him and found him to be a very genuine and a very kind and warm man. He's so stinking tall, too! A great thing about Keith is that he's not a "career politician"; he's the type of person who is concerned solely about the people of the state and fixing the problems we face. Though Keith is a people-person, that does not mean he does not have what it takes to become our governor. He was a professor of government at Harvard and has a PhD from UCLA in Conflict Resolution.

Allred is running for governor because the Democratic party approached him and, feeling that he would be the strongest candidate to run against the current governor (Butch Otter, who is Republican), they asked him to run on the Democratic ticket. Even though Keith would not be ideologically classified as a Democrat, he chose to run as a Democrat because he saw that it would be his best chance to run against Otter.

So at Rexburg Unplugged, Drew and I focused on making Rexburg-ians aware that they can vote in the State of Idaho after living here for 30 days, and urging them to inform themselves on the issues and the candidates' stance on those issues. The great thing was that Keith Allred, himself, was there too and would come over to us and introduce himself whenever he saw us talking to people. A few people commented on the unique opportunity it was to be able to talk to him face to face.

I have never really been involved in politics, rather choosing to stay ignorant, especially as a student living away from home. But this is my home now, at least for now, and I need to get involved. Drew and I loved the experience we had to help just this one day with the campaign and it strengthened our desire to help in the campaign for this man whom we support whole-heartedly. We are planning on doing all we can, wherever we can, to make those aware of his policies and his goal of truly helping the residents of Idaho. Drew will be as close to a full-time intern as he can be while taking 17 credit hours of classes in the time leading up to election day, November 2, 2010.

If you were to have questions regarding Keith Allred's campaign, please don't hesitate to ask us personally or take a look-see at his website: http://www.allredforidaho.com/home.aspx

We'll keep ya updated!