spiritual uplifting

i have been having a hard time this past week. i'm trying to have more fun at school and enjoy my life, but it is hard. i was able to go to the women's conference broadcast on saturday and i am so grateful! i felt touched by so many wonderful words, especially President Uchtdorf (not sure how to spell his name).

also, today at church, we had fast Sunday and wonderful lesson going over 3 nephi 8-11. it was wonderful to be uplifted and reminded to focus on the positive in my life.

I decided to make a choice to be happy. I have usually inmy life been a happy person, but i'm not sure Trevor, or people in my life would say that so much anymore. I don't want that. I have some amazing things/people in my life and i want people to know that i appreciate it/them and people that i'm not so close to, i want them to know that i am happy because of all those blessings.

updates

this week, i had track one, the morning class start school and i was their substitute because their teacher had a baby on monday. and let me tell you that the class is wonderful! it helped me really realize that it is just a really difficult class in the afternoon.

I am very glad that i am able to be working. Jade McClellan is watching craig two days a week for us and my mom 2 days and anita watched him on friday! i have so many wonderful people in my life.

with the am class starting school, i remembered that i really do like teaching 5 year olds! they are very sweet. one little boy (and it was so chaotic the first day i don't have a clue who it was) brought me a rose the first day of school!! it's like he knew i had been having it tough and was thanking me for sticking with it! then, a couple days later, a girl in my pm class brought me a fake little rose, but was so sweet about it!

it was still a difficult time at times during my week, but i am enjoying parts of the day.

craig has so much fun! on tuesday, when i picked him up, he actually threw a fit that he had to leave! he had been riding a tricycle around the whole day, practically and loved it! i am so glad he is getting to be around other kids and will hopefully learn to share and get along with others better because of it.

i had my first open house i was in charge of! and i think it went ok. there were a couple of things i shouldn't have mentioned about my substituting position and how i'm not sure what's happening. but i had both am and pm together and it seemed to go well. i was worried 60 parents would be there and instead, it was only about 20-30.

lessons

Today, in church, we had wonderful lessons given. our stake president challenged the bishoprics to not give topics for talks during sacrament meeting (i don't know for how long this has gone on, maybe this entire year). but i am so glad he was inspired and our speakers are inspired. we have had some very wonderful talks and i think it really helps not being tied down to a certain topic!

we had wonderful talks, gospel doctrine and relief society lesson. in gospel doctrine, we studied the prophecies of Samuel the lamanite and at one point the teacher was talking about how we need to keep hearing the same lessons, the basic points of the gospel because we still aren't getting it. i couldn't help but think of my pm kindergarten class. everyday, we review the rules of the class. yet everyday, rules are broken! we don't get to go play outside, snack, centers are rushed. all because we can't learn the basic rule of not talking when it should be quiet and being a polite listener. in kindergarten, we cannot do fun things if we can't do the simple things. it is the same with the gospel. there are more things for our church to learn. scriptures that have not been shared. but Heavenly father and our prophets cannot give them to us if we are not using the things we have already!

The gospel doctrine teacher even mentioned a man saying that we need to be ready! if the gates of India and China were to be flung open for missionary work and we were able to freely send missionaries over there, all the missionaries would be taken for the north America. but we are not self sufficient enough in sharing the gospel to be able to do it without called missionaries. it just reminds us that we still have lots of work to do!

a fun lady in relief society mentioned that everyone makes a big deal of global warning and she says forget about global warming. we need to be spreading the news about the second coming like it is even more important than global warning!! especially since it is!!

a wonderful quote i heard today, "Ponder the blessings we've been given". it made me think! i need to make sure that i think about the things we have been given and recognize those. that is one of the reasons that i started this. to allow myself the time and place to make note of the wonderful things in my life.

anita

i just wanted to take a moment to think about how grateful i am for anita ross. she is always letting us come over to the house that she is staying at and go swimming, or play her Wii and rockband, or just hanging out. she has watched craig for us on almost every Friday that she has off of work since January! plus, she is so amazing. she is so very special to all of her nieces and nephews and they love to have fun with her. the other night we were over there and she stopped what she was doing to make sure she got her time in for scripture study and was reading 10 pages a night to read the book of mormon in a year as inspired by president gordon b hinckley! she is so wonderful! not more, but she had a guy over there doing it with her!!! she is totally improving this mans life, not only by him hanging out with her, but she is making sure that they read and discuss scriptures daily!

Anita is really a special person and i know Heavenly Father has special things in mind for her.

heidi

the other day, Heidi (my sister who is always trying to tell Craig what to do, or having a cow about something he is doing), Heidi had a dr's appointment. when they get home, my mom tells me that she has something for Craig. at the end of her appointment, she got to pick out a lollipop. she turned to my mom and asked "what about Craig?". and so, dear Heidi does like Craig and brought him home a lollipop.

it sure did make my day! and i think craig!

more about work

my class was still difficult today, but i had help today! we went to the library today (for the last time until track 1 is back out) and many people tried to help my students. i like to know that it is not just me. it is a difficult class and a difficult group. the individuals would still be hard if they were split up, but all together, it is very hard.

Today, after school, the literacy specialist came in and gave me a vase of roses!!! it was so sweet. she brought them to me to help me feel appreciated. she also had flowers for another lady who was having a hard time. it was so nice!

i am very grateful for all the help i got today and that others understand that it is hard. today, another lady said to me "we are all surprised to see that you come back everyday" . it made me laugh!

my class

things have not really gotten any better with my class. i have a microphone that works, so that is helping. however, when one student has a better day, another decides to act up. every day when we go outside, it takes us a couple minutes when we are in line just to stop talking and settle down enough to go inside to cool off.

but, a wonderful mom who helped out last year, offered to help a little yesterday and tested half my class! without her, i'm not sure how i could have gotten all those testing done. she really is wonderful and doesn't even have a kid in kinder anymore, but is helping all three of the kinder teachers! she really is a blessing sent from heaven.

struggling

Last week, with my class, i had a very hard week. i have several students who like to act out and then they are just very talkative and immature! but Friday was a little better. i'm trying my best to encourage and reward positive behaviors. i looked up tons of ideas from other teachers that i got all last year. i was even going to video record so i could see what i could do better. i talked with the two other teachers before school started and they reassured me that things will get better and it is not just me or just my class. all of them are having a hard time, but it will get better. one of them was the lady i had my practicum with last fall. she is really a great teacher and everyday i think about how she taught something. she was so sweet. she said that if her daughter was going to the school, she would put her in my class and not worry about it.
Friday was better.

i think i'm having a harder time because craig is being more grumpy too. i am so grateful for the sweet moments with him that remind me how precious he is and how i still need to teach him too.

i'm also sick, with a cold and my head is all congested. it makes me appreciate all the times that i feel better. i'm glad that we don't get sick very often.

i got a random call this week, from Laura (Henrie) Pennock. it was such a surprise but it was nice to talk to her again. we went to high school together and she was my best friend the last two years of it. it was nice to hear how she is doing. i am very grateful for her friendship during high school and the good impact she had on my life.

Temples

I was emailed this wonderful video today! honestly, i thought it would be kinda lame at first, but i watched it and it was wonderful! it really touched my heart to see how many temples we have around the world. at first, i thought they did north america wrong, but at the end, they showed north america again! our prophets are so amazing and i love the quote at the end from bruce mckonkie! there might be hundreds or thousands of temples before the second coming!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7_CRN74Ues



now, this is not put out by the church, i don't think, but someone wonderful made it. I love our church!

help

Yesterday, we spent most of the day over at Anita's. it was very fun. we got in the pool, then got out to eat a little. Craig was acting tired, so i changed him out of his swim trunks and tried to lay down with him and read a book. however, it did not work. he ended up swimming again (kinda. he would put his feet in and play around the edge of the pool, but never really liked to get in above his knees the silly boy. well, he was getting pretty grumpy and so we went inside and tried to calm him down. finally, Trevor came to my rescue and was able to get him to go to sleep around 3!

I am so grateful for my husband! he can be firmer with Craig and Craig will do things for him that he might not do for me. I'm grateful that we were able to enjoy time together with family yesterday and enjoy our longer labor day weekend! Trevor's parents, Curtis and even Lynette and Mark (Trevor's cousin) came over with their three kids! it was nice being with family.

Also, Trevor is encouraging us all to be a little healthier. I didn't get to workout this morning, but I'm hoping to be able to go for a walk today after work. I'm not feeling too well and want to get hings done for school this afternoon. but i am hoping that with both of us working on it, we will be better about exercising and making better choices!