New Job!

Well we made a decision! We have accepted an offer from Knolls Atomic Power Lab, operated by Lockheed Martin. I will be a nuclear reactor designer and no I cant tell you more, or I will have to kill you (possibly literally, since I have to get a top secret department of energy security clearance). Next August we will be moving to Schenectady New York. Schenectady is just north of Albany, the state capital. We will be roughly 2 1/2 hrs from New York city, Pilly, Boston and Montreal. We are really excited to live on the east coast, but at the same time sad to be so far away. As we prepare to move we will let everyone know more. We love you!

Love,

Levi, Torrie and Emma

el Tour de Tucson

Well, I am still trying to learn how to label the pictures. I will figure it out one of these days-in the meantime, the 1st picture was taken near our park where David and Bryce stopped to leave their jackets w/us and get a drink. The 2nd picture is just one of many I took of the groups that rode by as we watched-there were about 9,000 riders in all. The 3rd one, well, I think it explains itself, the end of the race and he made it! Time: 5hours, 50 mins., not bad for an old man of 51! And the last is best; it was worth it all! With his "gold" medal hanging around his neck. Congratulations David!

el Tour de Tucson

Mexico

Well, the labels got messed up on the pictures, but I tried! Dad & I went down to Mexico Sat for the "Christmas Caravan. We just wished we could have taken more down. There is never enough for all the needw to be met. It was cold, but the people were eager to see what we had for them, not enough, that's for sure. I have lots of other pictures, but don't want to clog the blog with them. I will post more if you would like.
This made me appreciate all I have!
Love, Mom & Dad

Mexico

Dad & two "old" friends

Dad playing santa

They can't wait to see what we have!

One of the trailers that have been brought in.

Happy "Haupt" Holidays

We enjoyed another wonderful "Haupt Family" White Christmas Party. We got 12 inches of fresh snow Saturday, but that didn't stop us. We had a great time eating (always a favorite), playing games, singing and just enjoying each others company. Adair was the winner of the favorite "White Elephant" and stole "Ghostbusters" away. Just wait until next year...... We had our favorite visitor stop by, but we did miss Grandpa Claus. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year. "Happy Haupt Holidays". We love you.

Thanksgiving 5K

Thanksgiving morning we ran a 5K for the LDS Humanitarian fund. Sandy and Heidi came up to run with us. It was only 18 degrees, and we were freezing. We had such a great experience we are going to do this every Thanksgiving. We are "Thankful" for all our family.

We Love you. ~The Leavitts

Haupt Family Christmas Party, Saturday, December 1st

Okay, these pictures are a couple of years old. so if you want to see new pictures you will have to attend the "Haupt Family Christmas Party", Saturday, December 1st at 6:00 PM, Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve can't wait to see all of you. Don't forget to bring something for our dinner, a white elephant gift for each person in your family and a gift for "Grandpa Claus" to give. If you would like to share a talent, (song, story) for our Christmas program, please contact Aunt Karen. Let's make this the best party ever, since Levi and Torrie are thinking about moving away and taking our sweet Emma. See you all soon. Happy Holidays!

Linda's National Board Certification

Well, the day for receiving my National Board Certificiation scores finally came on Friday. I am sad to say that I did not certify this first go around. I really did not expect to. (I just was really hoping.) I was told at the beginning that this truly could be a 3 year process. Less than 1/3 of the candidates pass the first year. If I can do it in 2 years - I will be relieved.

Most of my scores were nice and strong. I have one entry - Math and Science; a video entry that was very weak. My mentors and I both questioned if I had time to redo the video to improve the write up but we thought I could make writing portions strong enough to compinsate the weak points of the video lesson. I guess not. I only scored a 1.0 on this entry. The evaluators really didn't like this entry. (Honestly, I didn't expect it to be that low.) My overall score was 260 of a needed 275. All I have to do is re-do that one entry. I only need a 2.0 and will pass because each point has a weight of 16 for this entry. Having such a low score gives me a big margine for improvement. I am hopeful this time. because I can really focus on just this one entry. I can say that I know a little more about the writing process and I only have to do one entry instead of 4 which will be much less stressful. I do not plan to take any of the assessments again. The state of Florida will pay for one retake. So, the math/science entry is it for me.

I have until the first of April to video, write and resubmit this entry and then the waiting process starts all over again until this time next year. Becoming NB certified is a difficiult and "when I pass' with the needed points - I will know that I truly earned it.

Keep me in your prayers as I start this process again with my new class. I have another difficult group with an autistic student in my class this year. It makes my life interesting, to say the least.

Love,
Linda

Job Offers

Well,
we thought we would write a little to let everyone know how are job search is going. Since this summer I (Levi) have been traveling around the country talking to anyone who would listen to me. It has really paid off. We have received offers from:

Owens Corning (makers of Pink Panther isulation) in Ohio
Spirit Aero Systems (Makers of Boeing airplane fueselages) in Kansas
Vernier Moon technologies (they are sponsoring my research at BYU making a transmission) in Utah
Goodyear Tire (Designing tires) in Ohio
Lockheed Martin (Designing nuclear reactors for navy submarines) in Upstate New York

The first two offers we have turned down, mostly because of the work is not exactly what I want to do, and the other offers are alot more better. It has really come down to Lockheed and Goodyear. We have to decide by the end of the month, and have been spending a lot of time on our knees praying and in the temple. If anyone has any knowledge of these companies, or the areas that can help we would welcome the comments on the blog. We hope everyone is doing well, and feel truly blessed to have choices. We love you all and will let you know what we decide.

Love,
Levi, Torrie and Emma

Audrea's Car Accident

Well, again Mom has put me on the task of updating the blog on what happening on the east coast. So here's our recent big event! I (that's me, Audrea) go to the University of Central Florida which is about an hour from our house, so i drive there five days a week. So on Oct 5, I was driving to school same as always, except it was an icky rainy morning. I was about 15 minutes from school on a particularly narror road. I had edged over to the side of the road as always because i was a bit uncomfortable with how close i was to oncoming traffic. At the point of the road i was on there was a good 6 in drop off the side of the road. There was absolutely no shoulder, so when my passanger side front tire fell of the edge of the road there was no way for my little Honda to get back up. Well as if that wasnt bad enough my tire blew and i was set sliding out of control on wet grass right into a utility pole. It's hard to explain exactly what happened after i hit the pole, but if you can image the front bumper somehow got wrapped around the pole and the back end of my car was thrown up from the force of the hit and dropped back down about 10 feet away. the air bags deployed and boy do those things hurt! But anyways, i got out unscathed, which is a blessing based on what happened. The nicest elderly man who witnessed the accident stopped and stayed with me until Dad was able to get there and the police had everything worked out. He was a blessing. We did go to the ER after just to make sure everything was ok, i mean i did have whiplash which is no fun, but it could have been worse. The car was deemed a total loss. Now, 3 weeks later we are battling a claim with orange county roads for the damge. right now they are claiming they are not liable for the damage to my car because there was no road damage when they investigated. What their records fail to show was that we called in a report to them the day of the accident and the damage was fixed on the next working day. Thankfully, my cell phone takes great pictures and so we were able to document all of the damage to the car at the scene and also the road damage that caused the accident. But we keep reminding ourselves that i was very blessed that day and so we take each new difficulty as it comes and remeber it could be worse.

Well, thats about it on this story, we will try to keep ya'll a little more updated on our happenings in Florida. We love you all.

Orton Family Halloween Thingy

Hey everybody,

Mom wanted me to post picture of our Halloween get together. Lyndsey had the idea to get together and do something for Halloween and since we couldn't be there for the Haupt party we decided to carve pumpkins too! Basically we all just got together tonight and had dinner and carved pumpkins. Mom entertained us with her kindergarten Halloween music and we all just talked, laughed, and joked while enjoying each others company. It was a ncie change to being stressed out and we really haven't had many chances to spend time together lately. But as for the pumpkins, the artists are as follows: Samual and the Grim Reaper, Lyndsey and Brad with the big witch, Uncle Ken and Aunt Vonnie with the funny jack-o-lantern, and Audrea (me) with the witch on a broomstick. It was tons of fun and we hope everyone had fun at the Haupt Party.

Miss ya'll and Love ya,

The Orton Klan

Jake's Eagle Has Landed

Jacob Martin Haupt recieved his Eagle on Saturday, October 20th. His Eagle Project was making toys for the "Happy Company". We are all proud of all his hard work and this great accomplishment. If you would like to send a card to Jake he is at:

Jacob Haupt

2293 Bridle Oak Drive

South Jordan, UT 84095.

Football Season

Well we decided to buy football tickets this year. It has been a lot of fun, but Emma has not been too impressed with the location of our seats. We Love you all!

Levi, Torrie and Emma

Haupt Halloween Party October 20th 6:00 PM

It's that time of year, once again. After such a busy summer we are ready to get together for our Annual "Pumpkin Carving Contest" Plan on attending the "Haupt Halloween Party" on Saturday, October 20th, 6:00 PM, at Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve's house. If you want to join us for Trunk or Treat, we will be meeting at 4:30 at JetBlue Parking Lot. Remember to bring your own pumpkin, candle and craving utensil. We will call you on food assignments. Can't wait to see the great designs you will have this year. See you all soon. (Isaac, hope you found a date!)

Tucson Rain, again

These are all taken on Harrison Rd. A couple of years ago a lady drove into water like this at night, with barriers up and her car, with her in it was swept far down the wash. This is the same Pantano Wash that is in the other pictures. The city then installed a couple of street lights in the middle of the wash, so now no one has an excuse!

It Rained in Tucson-part Two

This was taken of Pantano Wash at Speedway Ave.

It Rained in Tucson!

These signs mean DO NOT ENTER! The water is flowing at 2 feet. 1 foot of flowing water will wash a car about half a mile down stream. When you try to get the car out, your are given a "Stupid Driver" ticket, plus the bill for hauling the car out! It's best not to try to cross. This is Harrison Road, near us.

This is Pantano Wash, near 22nd Street.

Aloha

We have been really busy lately and have wanted to add a post for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. The same weekend that we had Emma's birthday party was my undergradute graduation. Both Torrie's and My parents came down to celebrate. Emma and I wore graduation gowns, which looked great until we were actually crossing the stage when Emma's hat fell off twice. By the end of the day she was definitely ready to go home for a nap.
The last few months my senior desgin project intensified. Often I would work on the project from 7 am to 1 am breifly taking a break to come home and help put Emma to bed. Torrie has done an amazing job taking care of us while I run around trying to keep all the various ships a float (work, school, the race car, and family time). The week of June 16th I traveled with the race car to the California speedway for a week to compete against 62 other teams. For only being a 2nd year team. We placed 4th in the design competition and 22nd overall (due to a battery problem that knocked us out of the final race). It has been a great experience and often people ask if I would do it again.... let's just say the jury is still out.
Emma has been growing fast. Not in the physical sense but in a personality and management sense. She has learned to micro manage well. She will follow Torrie and I around the house always at our feet. I think since I havent been around much Torrie has been teaching her ninja tactics, before I turn around she is all ready there~ very sneaky! She come down the hardest on us though when we do the laundry. Torrie and I can only fold so fast. If Emma doesn't approve (which is always the case) she will pull it out of the neatly folded pile and put it back on the floor. When Emma does find time to relax she has grown to love the pool. For some reason though she never stays in it too long. She is always climbing out and back in, I think it is that ninja training spreading to all aspects of her life.
We are excited for this summer to be over (ironic isn't it?) so that I can officially gradute. I will be starting my graduate work in engineering here at BYU in fall. We had the option of attending Virgina Tech or the University of Illinios (at top 5 engineering school), but decided that the relationships we have built here are too valuable. Besides the grandmas were calling me non stop to voice their opinions, and remind me how far away Emma would be (no concern for Emma's parent huh? interesting).
We hope all is going well for everyone else and would love to hear updates!

Love,
Levi, Torrie and the Sensei

I got my letter!!!

I just wanted to take a second to let everyone know that I finally received my acceptance letter to the school of nursing. I will be starting in August. I am so excited. As many of you know this was a much anticipated announcement and it is a big relief to finally have that letter in my hands! I will be sure to keep everyone posted.
Lots of love,
Lyndsey

Isaac's Quarterly Update

Hello everyone,

I am writing as requested to let all of you know how I am doing and what I have been up to. I believe last time I wrote I was doing my internship at Camp Kostopulos in Recreation Therapy. This was a great experience and I had a lot of fun doing it. This is a picture of me helping with the Salsa dance program which I assisted to design and get going. It was a lot of fun, and I could even keep up with the participants in the program. After my internship ended in December I spent a little time unemployed until I couldn't handle that anymore.

At that point, I discovered even I am qualified to be a substitute teacher. I substituted in the Salt Lake City School District. I was able to substitute everything from Kindergarten to High School. I think I really enjoyed Middle School the most, and they tended to ask me to come back a lot. It was a lot of fun working with kids, and trying to keep them motivated despite the lack of a regular teacher. This was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for some meaningful work on a short term basis.

I continued searching for work while substituting and found an incredible position at a methadone treatment center called Discovery House http://www.discoveryhouse.comeven/. I am a Substance Abuse Counselor there. This might take a little explaining. What we do is offer treatment for people who have opiate addictions; i.e. heroin, oxycontin, lortab, percoset, and other pain killers. We also vicariously work with addictions to cocaine, benzodiazepines, and various other drugs. Treatment consists of two components, a biological or medical treatment of methadone or suboxone to treat the biological symptoms of withdrawal. The second component is the psychological component and that is where I come in. I am a counselor to assist with the psychological aspect of addiction. A lot of the behavior associated with using drugs can be addressed through counseling, and it has been found to be very beneficial to recovery to pair medical treatment with psychological. It has been a great experience. I have learned quite a bit about what is involved in addiction and recovery. It can be frustrating but it is also a very rewarding experience. Oh, I should mention my hours are from 5:30 am to 2:00 pm daily.

This has allowed me to find time to take part in a variety of other activities. One of these was coaching soccer for an afterschool program at a local elementary school. This has been fun, although it did become slightly frustrating towards the end. The kids started out very motivated and excited. We planned to play for 4 weeks originally with two games each week. Our team was the last to sign up and so we had one less game than the other teams, but we convinced the director to extend our season for two weeks. We had a lot of participation the first few weeks, but by the end we had a very difficult time getting anyone to show up for practices or games. It was a great experience working with the kids and trying to teach them principles of teamwork, and sportsmanship. I am very proud of my team though. They were some of the most well behaved kids who played, and I would argue some of the most disciplined. I hope I was able to express to them the importance of having fun, as well as being able to play a fair and honest game.

After soccer, I would usually go for a ride, yes, that is right I am taking after my Dad and training to ride from Seattle to Portland with him this year. I have been trying to ride everyday, and have purchased a new bike to assist in the endeavor. If you would like to see some of my rides, here are a few urls: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/U-to-City-Creek-Loop , http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/42396 , http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/20th-to-U-loop. I have really been enjoying cycling this year, and will alternate days between my road bike and my mountain bike. I think I am in the best shape I have ever been.

I am sure many of you are wondering about my dating life, as many often do. Contrary to popular myth I have been dating quite a bit. I have done everything from baking cookies and taking them to my home teachies to attending Les Miserbles. It has been a lot of fun. Over the past few months I have been dating an incredible girl named Erica. She is like the beach. Beautiful, fun loving, and inspiring. Even on days that are bad and it is dark and stormy there is still nothing as incredible as being at the beach, and that is what it has been like with her. Unfortunately, she broke up with me last Saturday. She tells me she loves me and really cares me, but she says she is not in love with me. I am not exactly sure what this means, so if any of you have any insight into the secret world of girls, I might be happy to hear. We did have an incredible time though. We spent time mountain biking, long boarding, we went out on the town, and took time to serve others. It was really a wonderful relationship, and I don't regret a moment of it. One of our funnest dates was when we went to Sky High Party and Pizza. This is a restaraunt that has inflatable toys. We jousted, and rolled down the giant slide, raced through the obstacle course and boxed with giant gloves. In less than an hour we were both ready to collapse. After wearing ourselves out we went to "Meet the Robinsons" in 3D, a great movie by the way. It was fun to be able to be a kid with her, and I really hope I find someone a lot like her, who is also able to make me feel like I am at the beach all the time. I haven't quite given up on her yet, but I am trying to keep my options open at the same time. Oh, I almost forgot to include that I do have a calling my ward, and am doing my best to serve faithfully. I have a great ward, with some great people in it. (Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people I am really interested in dating.) I think that is pretty much everything I have been up to over the past few months. I hope you are all doing well, and I look forward to reading about each of you on the blog over the next few weeks.

Isaac

Casey Graduates from College

Casey Graduated from SUU on Saturday, May 5th. He earned his Bachlors degree in Business, Economic's. Both he and his wife graduated together. His wife almost fell off the stage when the "Leavitts" cheered louder than anyone else. We soon had people asking us to cheer for their graduate. Casey and his wife have moved in with us and are finishing a room in the basement, while they try and save money for a house. They are both still looking for employment in the field they majored in. Casey is still a manager at Smiths until he finds a job in his expertise. Our next graduation is on June 5th. Courtney has sent out annoucements and you should all recieve one. Love to all ~ The Leavitts

Our new address

Hey Everyone! We just wanted to take a second and let you know that we have moved again. We moved back to our old apartment complex so that we would be closer to work from Brad and closer to UCF for me when I hopefully start school again in the fall. Our new address is
2703 Red Lion Sq.
Winter Park, FL 32792

Our phone numbers are the same as they are our cell phones. Brad's number is 407-948-7635 and Lyndsey's is 407-948-9230.

Hope all is well with you. Love you guys1
Brad and Lyndsey

Rebekah's Prom

Grandma and Grandpa asked if I would post some pictures of me at prom so here are a few of them. If you really want to see more just let me know and I can email them or they are on snapfish.com ! Hope everyone had a good sunday and a good weekend!

Love Rebekah