First real email from our missionary

I know most of you don't want to read a long email, so I'll stay with a summary paragraph for you. 

I arrived last Wednesday and have been constantly busy ever since. I talked to some of my closest friends from home, ate lots of food, smelled the famous awe inspiring cream soda tree, and taught my first "investigator." 

So I've talked to 5 people from home that I know, and out of the hundreds of people here, they put my friend Jace "Elder" Anderson in the room right next to mine. We've talked a lot and hung out a bunch. I even got to go to the temple with him today. I'm so grateful that I have a close friend to talk to here.

They really so feed us a lot. Every meal is all you can eat. They have great chocolate milk too. The most amazing drink though is a concoction an elder showed me. It's 75% Sprite and 25% orange guava juice. I can't complain about the food. 

Now the most amazing thing I did all week was smell the cream soda tree. I don't know what species of tree or is, since sort of pine, but it smells just like cream soda. I don't know why but it is amazing. 10/10 experience

Me and my companion Elder Hodges need some work teaching people, but overall we're doing pretty good. We got to teach an "investigator" named Ben. I put the quotation marks in for two reasons. They could be actors or they could be real people that need to be taught. It's about a 50-50 chance from what I hear. The other reason is that we aren't supposed to say investigator any more. They are now just called people, which makes way less sense. Anyway, we had a good lesson with Ben yesterday about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. It went well. We had the spirit there and he accepted an invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 
Oh yeah, and my district is amazing. There are 3 sets of elders, Elder Berry and Elder Thornok, Elder McKenzie and Elder Johnsen, and Elder Hodges and I. There are 3 sets of sisters, Sister Corder and Sister Rhoton, Sister Rima and Sister Stottart, and Sister Cobb and Sister Durham. We have a lot of fun and always sit together for meals and sit together in meetings. There's never a boring moment when we're all together. 

Overall a great week. The three hardest things were not having free time ever, being away from home,  and seeing all the emails come in all week without being able to respond until today. 
 Here are some pictures.

1. The cream soda tree

2. The most lovely, majestic elegant tree at the MTC. Also, it is a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

3. Me and my companion

Some other happenings

Wedding and mission and school has seemed to consume a good portion of my life this year. BUT . . . there are other things happening in our family.

Nate finally got his license. It took some finagling to get his driving time in but he was persistent.

Ash got some braces but not before having to be fitted for a mara. I'm not even sure if that's how that is spelled. It's device that is stretching out her mouth. Apparently, her teeth on one side don't line up.

Nate is going on his first date to a "fake" homecoming. Since his Boise cross country trip was over homecoming, the cross country kids are holding their own in a few weeks.

I've been in the throes of drying peaches and finally succumbed to the amount that are left behind. I simply didn't have the time to get to all of them. I was plenty happy to get 15 bottles, the same amount as last year.

Ash has been my Betty Crocker, making meals and fixing dinner. She also inherited some lice from Beehive Camp. That was a fun experience trying to get rid of them. Not! Her long, THICK hair made it so tedious to comb through.

I finished up my first parent teacher conference and have to say I actually enjoyed it. I loved meeting my students' families and praising them in front of mom and dad.

Tyler got a promotion at work. It's not quite official, but he's expecting to know for certain this week.

Kiersten and Jason are moving into Grandma and Grandpa Ellis's basement which will be a huge financial blessing for them.

Ash has been a busy sewer, finishing up a personal project making cute personal progress holders for all the new beehives coming in. When she broached the subject of sewing these for a project, it was during a time where I simply couldn't add another thing. Grandma Jules was so helpful to have her come to her house and get her started.

 

The fire season hit our little community last weekend.

Due to a massive fire and terrible air quality in Utah County, Nate's cross country race last Saturday was moved to Logan. Alex and Ash and I made the trek where we met up with Grandma and Grandpa

who also happened to be in Logan. And then we had to make a quick visit to see the puppies at Natalie's.


Before Erik left we did one last family activity to Lagoon. Turns out Labor Day was a pretty good day to go. I don't do crazy rides so my kids were super excited to get me on The Rocket.

And Elder Leary . . . Ahhh, I can't wait for Tuesday. I sent my first official mom email today. He left me with quite a mess to conquer in his room. But we miss him.


This last picture of him walking away without looking back made me tear up again. Dropping Kiersten off at college was hard, but I knew I could call her or text her and I'd see her sometime in the near future.

This is different and harder than I thought it would be.

First missionary email

Well, the past crazy nine months quietly slipped into oblivion today when we dropped Erik off at the MTC. 

I'm not an the emotional type. I did get teary-eyed as we hopped out of the car to quickly give him our hugs and goodbyes. That last scene of him walking in his gray suit with luggage in tow following his escort through the doors to the stairs will always be etched in my heart.

He's been nervous and apprehensive about this day for about a week when the reality of it finally hit him.

Is he going to be a good missionary? I hope so.

We all took the day off and met Kiersten and Jason for breakfast this morning in smoky Orem, and then captured some last minute photos before all piling in the van to turn Erik over to mighty fortress of the MTC.

The ride home was rather subdued as we each contemplated life without Erik for two years.

Who's going to teach Alex how to comb his hair?

But I got that first email shortly after getting home. I was overjoyed that they allowed him to email home so quickly. We can expect more on Tuesdays which is his P-Day.

Anxiously waiting . . . 

I'm still here

I think one day I'll catch up on my blogging. Totally missed the first day of school pictures that happened three weeks ago.

My very own first back-to-school picture in A LOT of years.

Today I had the cutest thing happen at school. I have a penny economy in my classroom where my students get to earn pennies for being on time, handing in work, good behavior . . . pretty much whatever I want. They can also lose pennies and I finally started taking some away this week so they know I mean business. But man, I can't tell you how much they love their pennies.

Today I had a teacher down the hall bring one of my students to me at lunch recess to tell me that this student had brought toys to school and had been playing on the playground with them with a friend.

**I didn't know this was a rule that they couldn't bring toys to school. I don't allow it in my classroom but didn't know it was a school-wide rule.**

This poor student was just about in tears. After the other teacher left, I consoled her and told her I would walk down to get her toys at the end of the day. A minute later she was sitting at her desk and quietly took her penny box out and said, "I guess I owe you two pennies," and began to get two out to give me.

Oh. my. heart. I quickly told her she didn't need to pay me any pennies. I explained that since I didn't know it was a rule, I couldn't tell her to not take her toys outside.

These kids are so funny. And so honest! They practically beg me for privacy folders in order to take their tests. "Because we don't want to cheat!"

Some days are hard, but most days are oh so rewarding.

A letter to your teacher self

Dear First Year Teacher:

The first week is over. You're getting your sea legs under you and feeling like this might actually be doable. You spent all last weekend ironing out all the details of your first week, and it showed in how smoothly the week went. If you are prepared, there's not a lot to fear.That's not to say long days and nights aren't ahead. But planning and keeping good records of what you do for each lesson is going to be key this year. This will make next year so much easier.

Remember your core values of confidence, agency, and relationships. You want to instill confidence in your students. Give them hard things to accomplish and succeed at. You want your students to use their agency. Give them choices in their learning in the classroom. You want to develop strong relationships of love and trust. School is more than book work and academic learning. Teach them to be kind and look out for your little classroom family.

Before you know it, this year will be over. You will look back and see how far you've come and how much more there is still to learn.

Be ever learning and don't be afraid to ask questions and learn from your mentors especially the two ladies in your hall who have just celebrated their 40th back to school night.

Not my photo

Don't be afraid to try new things or do things differently, especially when everyone around you is doing the same things they've done for many years. It's okay to break the mold. Don't be afraid to change what isn't working.

Celebrate the little successes and don't wallow in the failures. This will be a year of many ups and downs. There is a reason the Lord put you in this position at this particular time when life is more than you can bear sometimes. You may not know the reason yet, but one day it will be revealed. This is part of your life mission.

You have a class of wonderful kids. And a few even have made a point to tell you, "You did a good job on your first day of teaching school." They are bright. They are innocent. They are eager to learn. Your job is to help them reach a greater potential than what they see in themselves which may not always be academically. You are going to have a couple of hard kids that will challenge you. Love them. Love Them. LOVE THEM.

You are going to do better than you think. It is going to be a BRIGHT year.

Love, Your First Week Teaching Self

How we ended up in Lake Point

Our high councilman talked about a time 15 or 20 years ago where he was part of a bishopric that specifically prayed for good people to move into Lake Point. Lake Point was a dying town without a lot of new, vibrant blood. He asked us to go home and think about what brought us here. He specifically wanted us to know that we were an answer to prayer.

Our journey here began in 2009. There was a recession going on and Tyler was itching to take advantage of the down housing market. Thus began our search for a house to buy and then a lot to build on, starting with Stansbury. Nothing panned out.

And then we remembered our family in Lake Point.  I'm not sure why it took so long to even consider looking out here.

We bought a lot and the rest has been history. There were several avenues we took to get to Lake Point and each one just never worked out. But this one . . . this one also had hiccups but over and over I have had that powerful witness that this is where we are supposed to be. The latest has been when I thought we might have to move due to a job loss, and again through different manifestations, the Lord let me know to be still and everything would work out.

Almost two years later we are still in our home. I could not imagine living or raising a family anywhere else. This is where I want my family to come home to. This is why we built this home . . . as a gathering place for our kids. This is where we have created memories.

Like Dorothy says in the Wizard of Oz, "There's not place like home." And home for us is Lake Point.

So much to do . . .

And so little time.

Our school district likes to keeping reminding me that school is starting in T minus so many days.

That freaks me out a little because I do not feel prepared in any way. For two days I sat in meetings for New Teacher Orientation and just cringed as they kept throwing more and more information at me. Do this. Don't do that. Remember all 627 logins and passwords. You'd better start on your new teacher training materials that are due in 3 hours.

Okay, not really 3 hours but there was so much information heaped on me that I came home after the first day in tears, not wanting to go back. It did make me feel a little better that one of the other new hire teachers in my building felt the exact same way.

Just keep swimming is my everything right now.

In the meantime . . . 

Ash and I have spent the last month in my classroom overhauling the place.

It is clean and mostly organized.

Kiersten and Jason came and spent a few hours one day too (which made Jason a little giddy to get his own classroom).

I desperately missed my helper this past week when she went to girls camp. She has been such a HUGE help. I really need her to come and hold my hand on that first day of school :)

Nate had a birthday and turned 16 and would love to get his driver's license if he could only get a hold of his online driving instructor to get some driving time in. Gifts were a little hard this year because he needed so many things BEFORE his birthday. So what do you do? You take pictures and wrap them up so he remembers that what he's been using for a few weeks was really supposed to be for his birthday.

One night we snuck away to Logan to watch our cousins in a play

Erik finally got some missionary clothes,

and we made it to the drive-in.


There was also another special event this past weekend, so stay tuned . . .