Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it is Christmas this week! That's so crazy! It feels like this whole year just FLEW by! I am really excited for the holidays though, to be able to spend time with family and friends and celebrate the birth of Christ and all he did for us. I think I get so wrapped up in all of the things I have to do to get ready for Christmas, without really stopping to remember what the holiday is supposed to be about. I am just realizing that now, and with every year that goes by it seems to get harder to remember Christ because of all that "busy work". It is so good to go to church each Sunday and remember why I am here. I am so blessed to have all that I have and to be able to be around sweet little children every day for my job! Some days it is discouraging, but I absolutely love being around kids and hope that I can influence them for the good. Even though I can't really teach them about the gospel at school, I can show it by example and I hope I do. . .

Well, this past week I ended up not having to do Jury Duty, which I was SO HAPPY about! It just made life a whole lot easier! We continued to work on our service project for Primary Children's by painting the blocks they brought in. I attempted to have them put the alphabet, numbers and shapes on the blocks, but most of them did not turn out too well (as you would expect with 9-10 year olds!). So, I assembled a little "committee" to touch them up and make them look as nice as they can, and they are doing a pretty good job of it. I wish I took a picture of what they looked liked after the first day of painting. . . They looked REALLY SCARY to say the least! :) Oh well, it is about the experience anyway!

I also got a new student on Thursday. I was a little worried about getting a new one, but this little boy is actually really sweet and well-behaved. All of rest of the class loves to help him with things and he seems to be "on top" of everything we are learning so far, so I guess we will see how it goes!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Thanks for all of your support everyone! I did have a much better week this last week. It seemed to go a lot smoother. I guess there are just the good and bad weeks! Oh, and my date was fun. We went to the Festival of Trees and to dinner at Guadalahonky's. The guy is really cute and nice and we got along okay. I would like to go out with him again and I even asked him to go to my single's ward date night yesterday, but he had something else going on, so I don't know what will happen! I will have to let you know...

So this week, my students decided that for a service project they wanted to make and donate toy cars to Primary Children's Medical Center...well if you are like me I was thinking "how the heck are we going to do that", but they REALLY wanted to do it so I said, "Okay, how are we going to do it?" Well, they insisted that if they got enough wood from home, they could have somebody cut it into cars and we could paint them (I wasn't going to let them cut the cars in class of course!). Well, I sent home a note to the parents explaining what they wanted to do and that we needed some donations, but when the notes came back, all anyone wanted to donate was paint and wood blocks, not any "cutting services". So, I told them yesterday that we didn't have anyone to cut the wood into cars, but then they came up with just cutting them into blocks and painting the blocks with the Alphabet and numbers and things like that. (What a much better idea!) A bunch of them said they could have their parents cut the wood into blocks (poor parents...:) ) this weekend so we can paint them next week, so we will have to see what will happen! I love to see them problem solving like this though! It is so awesome when I am not making all the decisions for them! Hopefully it will be a good lesson in problem solving and service! Gotta love kids...

Anyway, I am really nervous right now because I might have to do Jury Duty next week! That would mean making sub plans, which take HOURS because you have to write down EVERYTHING you do for each lesson! It is a PAIN... and you never know if you're going to get someone good or not! So, pray that I don't have to do that next week! :)


Well, I took a few pictures of my classroom Christmas Tree I brought in and my bulletin board with the art we have been doing so I thought I would post them for fun! The art we have been doing is optical illusion art and paper quilling (which is just a fancy name for rolling little strips of paper into designs!)

And the FUN continues.....

So, it was REALLY hard to get up and go to work everyday this week...I don't know if it is because of the cold or what, but I feel like I am in this rut and I can't get out of it! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE teaching and I LOVE my kids, but maybe I am just plane TIRED. I guess that is the same with every job, no matter what you are doing so I shouldn't be complaining...

Today was pretty crazy. It was a track change day, which means one track goes off and another one comes back on. It is also considered a moving day because we have to move everyone's things in and out of rooms. I didn't have to move this time, but we all have to help everyone. It is pretty crazy, but it all works somehow. I have realized though that I really like the school I am at, even though we have to move around, but people there are so supportive and it is a good community. We also had a faculty Christmas Party tonight that I had to help with because I am on the "Social Committee". I kind of thought that not very many people would go but the turnout was really good. It was really pretty fun too! So, needless to say, it has been quite a day (hey I am rhyming...oh boy...I AM tired...)!

Anyway, everything is going good.... not much else to say except that I actually am going on a DATE tomorrow! Sad to say, but this will be my first date this year! And not to mention, it is a blind date. I guess that is the only way I can get them these days. :) I will have to let you know how it goes...