Getting It Done!

**ADD Moment** Does anyone else hate giving their posts titles? Maybe I should stop doing it. I'm not really a writer, and it's hard to come up with something clever and unrepetitive.**

Anyway, I am really really really thankful that I was able to get everything on the to-do accomplished this week (minus vacuuming, but that's never really high up on the list to begin with).

Monday was a day off, and it went crazy fast (four day weeks are always so long, why is that?) Tuesday and Thursday I worked out after school and then stayed after, and I'm pretty sure that Tuesday-Thursday I didn't get home until around 6. Thursday night I came home, and decided just to be safe, that I needed to type up programs for Great to be 8, write my talk for the program, and work on my sharing time lesson (they were all falling this Sunday). I over-achieved that night, because I was going to wait to do my Sharing Time lesson, but I was on a roll, and so I just kept right on rolling. This turned out to be a blessing...

Friday night Todd and I went to Freddy's to eat, and then came home and relaxed. Friday and Saturday nights are kind of sacred here because every other night gets filled up with work stuff for both of us, things to do for our callings, and even Sundays are crazy for me because of meetings and Primary.

Saturday we headed up to the temple again. We are trying to go more often, and so far, we are doing pretty well. This session was fun because it was PACKED. It ended going over 2 hours because they had to keep bringing in chairs...and bringing in chairs...and bringing in chairs...There was also a lady who needed sign language, and so that was really cool to see how they handled that.  It's just so nice to get away from work and get out of town and have that peace for a while.

Getting all of my Primary stuff done Thursday night was a blessing because I got carsick on the ride up to the temple, and didn't feel well on the ride back. I NEVER get carsick, and I usually have no problem reading in the car, but for some reason, I was feeling quite queasy by the time we got to the temple. I felt fine while inside, but when we got done, I was starving, and after that, I was just plain exhausted. I did a few easy things Saturday night, and I was in bed by 10!

Sunday, we had ward council, and so that means I'm out of the house from 10:45 to 4:30...that makes for a long day. Today though, I had to be back at church at 5:30, so I scarfed down dinner, and headed to the Marlatt building to set up for Great to be 8. This was all new for me, because it's not an activity I had when I was 7. But it seemed to go well, aside from our pianist ending up sick (none of us in the presidency play piano), and my shoe strap breaking halfway through the night (luckily, it managed to sort of stay on my foot). All the craziness was worth it, because those little 7 year olds were so sweet, and it really did seem to get them excited for getting baptized. Sunday in general went so smoothly, and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father because I was pretty stressed about everything that needed to be done. But these sweet little faces made up for it, as well as knowing that I had been blessed to accomplish all that I needed to do this week:

And now Monday is here....and I need to take my deep, relaxing breaths again!

3 Day Weekend

First off, I love three day weekends. And I am totally sad this one is almost over! Grrr!!!

Second, this weekend was lovely. I got lots of schoolwork done, Primary things got accomplished, no extraneous meetings on Sunday, sitting in front of the fire Sunday night, lots of household things got done on Monday, etc, etc, AND I still had time to read more than half of a new book. 

My mom and dad were on the phone...say hi!

My Primary project for the day. Next Sunday is our Great to be 8 program. I decided to get crafty, and embellish our traditional white towels with SPARKLY INITIALS!! Good thing they are all girls, so I can do stuff like that. The bags just have some baptism FAQ's and interview prep, plus a cute picture of Pres. Monson (rescued from the depths of the Primary closet), and a temple bookmark. They turned out really cute. Now all I have to do is plan a sharing time lesson, write a small talk for Great to be 8, create programs, etc etc etc. Oh boy. That's in addition to my full time job as teacher and wife! 

Who wants me for a Sunbeam?

Today we were helping kids fill out their Spotlight sheets in Primary. We will randomly pull a few of these each week and have the kids do a guessing activity to see who it belongs to, to get to know the kids a little better.

I was a helping a CTR 7 cutie fill out her sheet, and we got to the question, "What is your favorite primary song?" Immediately, she grabbed her pencil and began scrawling,

"Gees..."

at this point, I wasn't sure where this was going, and as I was about to ask her if she needed help spelling something, she continued

 

"Geesus wants me for a sunbeem."

 

It was the cutest thing :)

Imagine

I have been going through a major Imagine Dragons phase. If you haven't heard of them, go youtube "It's Time." It's good stuff. One of the lines from that song has been speaking to me lately. I won't quote it because it has what a Delaware Mormon girl would call a swear word (versus Idaho Mormons who don't believe that h*** and d*** are swear words, according to Todd). Anyway,the line is pretty eloquent for having a mild swear word, and it spoke to me this week because the  beginning of this week started off a little rocky, which was inevitable because the weekend was so smooth and lovely.

I already had an inkling that Monday was going to be rough, and then I made the mistake of taking two pills with caffeine in them at 5 pm, which meant I was awake until 4 am. I totally believe the old adage "Nothing good happens after midnight." Originally, I think that was made up to encourage teenage children to come home at a decent hour, but I think it heartily applies to myself. After midnight, if I am not asleep, I am cranky, I cry, I write sub plans. See, nothing good.

I don't work on 0 sleep, so I got up at 6:30, went into work until 11:30, and then headed back home to sleep. By Wednesday, things were a little more normal in our household, although I have to say, I am constantly adjusting to whatever "normal" is. A blessing from that is that I sense peace a whole lot easier than I used to. I stop and think, "Oh, this is peaceful" or "I have no demands pressing at this moment...nice." So if recognizing peace is a side effect of this crazy time of our lives, I will take it. Besides, I can only handle so much busy-ness until I have a mental breakdown. I am not one of those people who "wear their busy-ness as a badge of honor" as Elder Uchtdorf put it.

Columbus, 2008. When I was a cool kid who worked at an outdoorsy summer camp. Also the summer I burned my lips on a really hot fork. Todd burned his hand this morning and it reminded of how fantastically much that hurts!

 

My students were super great this week. Seriously, I hit the jackpot. It isn't always puppies and rainbows, but I don't want to die of stress every Sunday night (Sunday nights still go by too quickly!)

 

 

Todd and I went to our ward's Pinewood derby this morning, and again I puzzled over why girls never did this. We didn't activity days when I was a kid, and man, there are some things I wish we would have gotten to do (although with my personality, I wouldn't have WANTED to do it when I was 8....oh, kids). And I will not insert a depressing comment here about again watching everyone ELSE'S kids run around.

 

 



On a happier note, Todd and I will probably be in Florida in a month. I have happy memories of traveling there with my family, and also for a high school band trip. It will be so fun to go there with Todd and get away from all of the craziness for a few days. We are looking forward to a break. We love Kansas, but the inner traveler in me is itching to be somewhere with different geography for a little while!

Also, I am missing the people above, and so I think a trip back to my east coast "home" is in order for spring break!

Coming Home

My friend, Megan, who teaches third grade next door, got to see her husband for the first time in 9 months. He came home today from Afghanistan.  It has been such a pleasure to get to know the wives and families and children of those who are serving overseas. I have a greater understanding of what they go through. I won't ever fully understand how difficult it is, but I am grateful...and most of all, happy for my friend!

Dreams

I have been having some crazy nutso dreams in the past few months. I don't know if it was the added stress of the Primary calling but oh.MAN. And many of them were SCARY. Things I am terrified of in dreams (aren't scary things always more scary in dreams?)

• tsunamis, or other things that involved giant waves
• snakes (I have had several snake dreams. Ew)
• new students (haha. especially students I don't know about until the day of AND they have IEP's and undiagnosed ADD. Yes, that is terrifying)

Some of my other dreams haven't been scary, just vivid and personal. I woke up crying from one of my dreams, which I haven't done since...hmmm....FIVE YEARS OLD???

Last night I had a dream that I was getting released as Primary President. First, I wondered if something was wrong with me because that would be my second calling in four months. In my dream, I wondered what people would think. And then, I realized I was SAD to get released!!

Even though it was a dream, could I sense...a turning point? Do I like my calling? Knock on wood because it's a Saturday and there are still 24 hours for things to go wrong! But yes, it is growing on me.

However, in my dream, I was getting released as Primary President and was getting called as some kind of music chorister that had to lead music second and third hour (but it wasn't in Primary. Which rules out any REAL chorister). So apparently, music directing is worse than Primary President, at least in my mind :)

Day 1 of the end

Today we came back to work. The kids were angels. I can't believe how lucky I got with this job, Heavenly Father was watching out for me.

I'm already missing Christmas break. I don't know what it was this year, but I got so much stuff done over the break, but I also had tons of time to sleep in and relax. It felt good having the energy to cook and wrap presents and read and do Primary things when I didn't have to work for 10 hours already that day!

Primary is getting better. I still can't believe people ask me questions and expect me to know things :) but I am trying. I have great counselors, and really, the kids are awesome. There is usually at least one time during Sharing time that I have to get up and walk away or cover my mouth because they have said or done something totally hilarious. And the Sunbeams (3 year olds). Holy cow. I'm so glad I teach 3rd graders! They are totally cute but it's a zoo in there!



One of our goals this month is to not spend money on fast food. This is hard for us, as we are busy people, (well it's hard for ME!), but it's a worthwhile go and it'll help me learn how to use the things in our pantry. I'm going to have to get creative and do a little planning ahead, and also learn a million ways to bake a potato!

Work Update

School starts back up on Monday, and while I am NOT looking forward to the end of vacation, I don't mind going back. I can't believe it's already January.

I love my class. One student in particular has been very challenging, and I have twice as many boys as girls (YES, TWO TIMES AS MANY! EEEKKK!), they are really sweet, and I can do a lot of things with them.

We did Oobleck when we talked about liquids and solids. Luckily it was a beautiful day right before Thanksgiving break and the kids were GREAT! I ended up doing this with both of my science classes.

We do lots of things as a third grade team. I really like my grade-level group, although it sounds like we are losing one of ours to a PCS next year :( She is a military wife, PCS means permanent change of station, which is when they are assigned to another base. Her time in Ft. Riley may be up and we will all be SAD!

Anyway, we did a poetry slam with the kids and they chose their favorite poem, practice it with kids from other classes and then presented it to the entire group.

We have a giant pod area where we can have small groups or meet together as a grade level. Each pod area has two smartboards.

Halloweeen. The best Halloween ever. The kids were so good. I couldn't believe how well they behaved, and we had a lot of fun :)

We even had a few "Army kids." Love these miniature uniforms...they even have their last names on them like the real ones.

 Hilarious spider costume :)

We had the kids make a long tunnel so classes could walk through and see each other's costumes.

 We spent an afternoon in Wal-Mart picking out our costumes...I must like my group if I'm willing to wear a Batman costume. But the kids LOVED it, so it was worth it :)

So that's what we have been up to over at Seitz Elementary. We have to have our winter celebrations when we get back because we had a snow day on our last day before break!