Recently

1. Grading. And finding this page hidden in a female student's notebook. I guess I need to rearrange my seating chart.

2. Detoxing. I did a detox that was supposed to be 26 days long but I went on vacation in the middle of it, so I wasn't very faithful. When I got home I decided to redo parts of it, but I wasn't very committed to that either and by the end I was really over it. But I did find a few recipes I liked and I got to eat beautiful salads like this one.

3. Babysitting. I watch these kids most Monday nights and they're still really cute and fun to me.

4. Visiting. Thomas came home last weekend for a few days so we had a family dinner. He went fishing and caught twins!

5. Bruising. I played on a softball team this summer and we had our last game on Thursday. We lost every single game, but we still had fun. This week I took a softball to the arm and now I'm showing off this beauty. Too bad it's mostly just proof that I'm not very good at catching.

Missionary Miracle

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to give a Book of Mormon away every month. That goal was an act of faith, considering I'd given probably five away in my whole life, aside from my mission. I've felt strongly the need for me to be more proactive about sharing the gospel, and this was the way I decided to do that this year.

So far, we've completed 8 months this year and I've given away 8 Books of Mormon. Don't be deceived, I missed one month, but I did give two out the next month. That was last month, and it was a miracle. I'll tell you about one of the books.

It was August 29th, and I had given no books out and had no prospects. I had one more day of work for the month and no plans to see anyone else on the weekend. I'm pretty open about my faith at work, so most of my co-workers know I'm Mormon and I felt like there wasn't anyone I could give a Book of Mormon to. I kneeled down at the end of the day and went pretty honestly to my Heavenly Father in prayer. I told Him that I'd felt inspired to set this goal, and that I'd already gotten behind in my resolution and the prospects for that month weren't look good. I explained that I really wanted to reach this goal but wasn't seeing a way to do it for that month. I then asked Him for help to find someone to give a book to in the next few days.

As I was monitoring the hall at school the next morning, a Social Studies teacher approached me, saying that he often had questions from students about Mormonism but wasn't always able to answer them. He asked if he could direct the students to me if they had questions. I agreed, of course. He then started asking me questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I quickly offered him the extra copy of the Book of Mormon that I keep at work, and he accepted.

After he went back to his room, I quickly said a silent prayer of gratitude for such an obvious answer to a prayer. I did absolutely nothing but say a prayer and have a copy of the Book of Mormon on hand, and the Lord did the rest. I learned firsthand that this is His work, and if we're prepared, He will use us.

Year Two So Far

Tomorrow will mark the start of the sixth week of the school year. Three more weeks and we're done with the first quarter. I've been asked a lot how this year is going. Here are my thoughts.

Hands down, this year is better. I feel more in control of my classroom, I know how to handle kids who act out and their behavior isn't as upsetting to me as it was last year, I'm better at planning and get through things more quickly, and I have yet to cry about anything related to school.

So what it really comes down to is this: the difference is me. I'm better.

And guess what? That's the purpose of life. To get better. We'll have problems our whole life, and it is foolish and naïve to hope that "things" will get better. We know from the scriptures that the world will get worse before it gets better, so it stands to reason that our lives will only get harder.

But that's not to say that we have to have miserable lives full of struggle and heartache. We will have trials, but as we get better, those things don't affect us as much. We're able to better handle the trials and struggles that we're faced with, and we learn to be positive even in the face of negativity. The happiest people aren't those who don't have hardships, but those who learn to have faith and be happy in spite of those hardships.

Sometimes I get excited thinking about how if this year's so much better, how much better could year four or five be? I could maybe even become the kind of teacher I want to be!

That being said, I still dread going to work and I think every day about what I could be doing instead. Apparently I have still have some room to grow.

Saved by Family

Coming home from Utah was hard. Harder this time than I think it's ever been. I miss it a lot. Of course, it doesn't help that I was coming home to a 5:45 am alarm and bratty students who don't listen to me. But my family has made it so much better. I'm so grateful to be living with Tessa and her kids, who make my life much happier. 

This first picture cracks me up. The twins are both pretty compliant - they don't mind having pictures taken of them, though they always want to see them afterwards. Remember when you used to have to develop pictures before you could see them? Crazy. Anyway, I told Cooper to smile and this is what he came up with the first time. Hilarious!

Today for Labor Day we went down to my Grandma Shoaf's house to have a picnic lunch. A lot of our Shoaf family was supposed to be there to help cut wood for her to last through the winter, but by the time we got there everyone was gone, so it ended up just being our family and Grandma. That was alright with me. After lunch we took the kids for a little walk down to the creek to give them some good country experience. :)

I have so many fond memories of playing at my grandma's house with cousins when I was younger. Her farm provided plenty to do, and I loved playing with my cousins. While we were there, I remembered about the old barrel my grandpa turned into an outdoor drinking fountain for us, playing Ghost in the Graveyard when it was getting dark, and eating popcorn out of cake pans. When we went down to the creek today, I tried to find the spot where I broke my leg sledding when I was nine. I was working from an 18 year-old memory, though, and couldn't quite pick out the spot. I haven't been sledding since.

Poor Campbell had a true country experience, when she got her flip flops stuck in the mud. I think a true country experience, though, probably wouldn't have had shoes at all.

We were all pretty worn out on the way home - three of the four kids cashed out, and I went straight down to my room afterwards to take a nap. I'm sure I'll regret that here in a little bit when I try to go to bed for work tomorrow.

Utah Trip #2 Part 2: Angel, Angel, Angel

Tuesday night Happy Sumo happened. Seeing my friends was an added bonus, but let's be serious. This sushi is what I look forward to most when I go to Utah. It's that good. Jaime and I drove down to Salt Lake one night just to get some, then we went shopping at The Gateway and City Creek. There was lots of shopping on this trip...and lots of food, too.

The next day Jaime and I met our friend Jayne Weaver for lunch downtown Ogden. Rather than making Jaime come back to her house to pick me up and then drop me off again after lunch, I just went back to work with her after lunch and did some work I'd brought with me for school. It was fun to see her in her big-time office manager role. She makes that National Battery Sales classy.

That night we drove back down to Salt Lake for more food. We had our last girls' night (a very tame bachelorette party) with Angela at The Cheesecake Factory. All my favorites were there, except for DeeAura who was stuck at work and Whitney who was, excusably, on her honeymoon. Even Hailey came, even though she'd just been diagnosed with mono that very day.

That night, I went home with Aubrey and Angela came and spent the night with us, too, which was so fun. The next day Aubrey and I did more shopping, then headed over to Angela's wedding dinner that night. This night made my heart feel so full, because even more of my favorite people were there. I feel so blessed to have been part of such an amazing group of people when I lived at the Omni. I made some lifelong friends there, and I love when we're able to get together.

 

After dinner they did some speeches, which were running long and a bit boring, so Whitney, Jaime, and I started taking pictures of ourselves with my phone. What we didn't realize, though, was that Derrick and his girlfriend Jo thought we were taking pictures of them (they were sitting across the table from us) so they were posing and smiling. Funniest.Thing.Ever. Especially since we had to keep our laughing quiet since there were speeches going on. 

And this is when we realized what was going on.

We did take a picture of them, later, though, along with everyone else.

Aubrey and Erik, who were doing this same marriage thing only a year and a few months ago.

Dee and her boyfriend, Dahlon. We were so glad she was able to break away from work to come.

Mitch and Danielle, who I think had celebrated their one-year anniversary only a few days before.

The super fun part of Angela's wedding was that she married the son of one of the counselors in our bishopric when we all lived at the Omni. It was a lot of fun to do this with Brother Farrer (her now father-in-law) and our former Bishop Marchbanks.  

That night Jaime stayed down at Aubrey's house, too, which was fun. Before we went to their house, though, we went ahead and did a bit more shopping. :) The next morning, we had a great breakfast of German pancakes, which Aubrey whipped up, and chatted with Aubrey and Erik and played with Tess before heading up to Salt Lake for the wedding.

 

The sealing was beautiful, and they both looked beautiful, even though they took almost an hour to come out afterwards. And it was raining. Geez. 

I love these girls so much. We were just missing Dee (who had to work) and Hailey (who was a lot sicker by then). I'm so grateful I was able to be there.

Afterwards, Whitney Howard, Jaime, and I went to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory with Whitney (Ehlers) Ashby and her new husband Jayson, who had just gotten home from their honeymoon the night before. They went to Las Vegas so they told us about the shows and their room at The Bellagio, and I was suffering from some serious hotel envy. Then Jaime and I did...some more shopping...then went to the reception. It had rained most of the day, but the rain held out that evening for the reception, which was outside.

Angela's husband, Tanner, is in the marines, so some of his marine friends did some kind of salute which I didn't understand but they looked cool doing it.

And...Tess was still the center of attention.

We stayed with Aubrey that night again, then the next day Jaime and I went to lunch and she took me back to the airport. It was hard to leave, because I feel like so much of my heart is there. So much of this trip was spent doing really fun things with almost all of my favorite people. I know that if I lived there, it wouldn't be like that all the time because people work and live in different cities and don't get together that often. But it's hard not to miss it. I have friends here, and I LOVE being close to my family, but it's hard to be so far away from so many people that I love so much. I wish Indiana and Utah were next door to each other.

Utah Trip #2 Part 1: Whitney's Wedding and Antelope Island

A couple days ago, I was talking to a friend that I hadn't seen in a while. He said to me, "I have a question. True or false: You started school then two weeks later took a week-long vacation." My answer: "False. It was one week later."

 

Two of my very best friends got engaged this spring, and they were both planning their weddings for August. I campaigned hard for them to plan them close enough together so I could come to both of them. They planned them six days apart, which made it possible! I emailed my boss at the beginning of the summer asking if it was ok for me to go, and he wrote me back saying that yes, that would be fine. But then he said that if I was asking his opinion, I should just choose one wedding and only take a few days off, since the beginning of the school year is so important in establishing patterns with the kids. Well...I guess I wasn't asking his opinion, because I went anyway. And I have never regretted it. Sure, my kids were crazy with the sub, but they're crazy all the time so it wasn't that unusual. And I was able to be at the sealings of two of my dearest friends, and I was able to spend some time with my friend Jaime who wasn't in Utah when I went earlier in the summer. It was such a great, great week and every day since I've been home I've wanted to go back.

 

I flew in Friday night and Whitney's wedding was the next day. The sealing was really sweet and Whitney seemed so happy. It was also the first time I got to see several of my friends that week, so I enjoyed the time to socialize. We spent a lot of time doting over Aubrey's baby, Tess. She's a doll. Erik stuck her in the stroller on top of several purses, then the next picture was a recurring scene throughout the week. "I'll hold the phone ready to take a picture while you do something to make her smile."

 

 

After the sealing, Jaime, Hailey, Angela, and I went to Maddox restaurant in Brigham City and had some to-die-for rolls. Mmm.... Then we went to Whitney's reception. They had it outside and even though it had been blazing hot that afternoon, it cooled down to a beautiful temperature for the evening.

The next day, I went to church with Jaime, then most of her family members came over for a birthday party for her niece, Rachel. It was nice of Rachel to have a birthday so I could see everyone!

If you'll remember, last year I made a bucket list of things to do in Utah before I moved away. I didn't get a chance to do several of them, so while I was in Utah this time around, I was determined to knock at least something off my list. After she got off work on Monday, Jaime and I went out to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. I'd read some reviews about it not being that exciting of a place, but I LOVED it. Seriously. It was gorgeous. I had no idea it would be so scenic - I was thinking it was more of a cool place to see wildlife. We did see a couple of buffalo, but the scenery stole the show. Then mixing that with the sunset? Gorgeous. I was overwhelmed more than once by the majesty of the scenery, and I was so touched by the intense love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for us by giving us such a breathtaking world to live in. 

Here's our buffalo friend. We pulled up to the visitor's center to go to the bathroom and saw this car parked on the far side of the empty parking lot. We thought that was weird, until we realized what the people inside were looking at! 

We got out and took a short but steep hike up to Buffalo Point to watch the sun set. Jaime had to put on some good walking shoes. :)