President Hinckley

I wanted to post about President Hinckley and say how much I love him. I will miss him dearly as our prophet. He was such a great man. One of the things I loved about him is how much he loved his sweet wife. He always talked about her with such respect and deep love. What a great example of how we should treat each other in our own marriages. As I think back, here is my most memorable experience having to do with President Hinckley (from my journal in high school):

December 11, 2003
Today was such an awesome opportunity. We (the Chamber Choir) got to go to Salt Lake City and sing at the Church Administration Building. We were singing and having a great time when Mr. Wood said to sing "Lullaby". While we were singing President Gordon B. Hinckley walked into the room. You can feel it in your heart that he is a prophet of God right when he walked in. He listened to us sing and then he said, "Thank you so much for waking up so early and coming to sing for us...You're in tune!" and then he said, "Merry Christmas". I felt the spirit so strong just being in the pressence of a prophet. I felt like singing the whole day "We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet". That was the most Christmasy feeling I have ever felt.

I will always remember this experience and this great man.

Brrrs! It's Cold!

It has been freezing cold in Logan these past couple of days. Yesterday I was driving to school and the thermometer said a chilly -13 degrees only to warm up to a toasty warm 7 degrees later on that day. Wow! All I can say is I'm glad I don't have to walk around on campus this semester. Anyway, here is a story about my dear sweet husband and Logan's cold mornings:

Mike couldn't find his car keys yesterday (the same yesterday that was -13 degrees in the morning). I had already left for Hyrum and couldn't give him a ride. He looked outside and decided that it was sunny and looked like a nice day. He then proceeded to get on his bike and ride his bike to work! He admitted that after a few minutes of riding he realized it was a bad idea... To make matters worse, we had gone sledding at Angie's house and all our gloves and hats were in my car. All he had on to keep him warm was his coat. Needless to say, his ears were red the whole day from minor frost bite. When he told me this story later on that evening I thought he was absolutely nuts. I mean, seriously! Who rides there bike when it's -13 outside?

Worry Wart

Okay...maybe it's just me or maybe I have a legit reason, but I am the biggest worrier ever! I am starting my student teaching on Monday and I am so nervous. To make matters more nerve racking, Mike and I are going with Kim and Pat, and Angie and Rob to Hawaii in 4 weeks (so exciting!!) and I am so nervous about leaving in the middle of student teaching. I've talked to my supervisor and my cooperating teachers and they said that it will be okay, but today I ran across the following warning in my student teaching packet:

"Absences ar NOT permitted during the student teaching experience except for extenuating circumstances (illness, death in the immediate family)...If absences accrue beyond three consecutive days, the Office of Field Experiences must be notified. The student teacher may be required to make-up the time missed during student teaching."

Oh great! What does that mean? How do I make up student teaching days? I could tell them that my great aunt that lives in Hawaii is deathly ill. And of course I am coming up with the worst scenarios like that they won't let me graduate or that the department of Secondary Education is going to send me hate mail from now until forever beacause I left for 6 days during student teaching. So hopefully they don't take a picture of me without my college degree (becuase they won't let me graduate) and hang it up on the board as a warning to all student teachers not to miss any school ever!

So...hopefully everything will be okay and I can actually enjoy my vacation. Thanks for letting me vent.

My Christmas Present

Mike and I had such a fun Christmas! It was so fun to spend some quality time with family and to enjoy each other's company. I loved it! It is good to be home though and not living out of a suitcase anymore.

Here is my new Christmas present! An ipod nano!

I am loving it. It is so fun to have all my music right there with me wherever I want to go. How cool! I'm already getting some good use out of it.

Finals Week!

It's coming up on the end of the semester which means that next week is finals week! The most dreaded week of the semester for any college student. I just can't believe how time flew by. I already have my student teaching assignment for next semester: South Cache Center (8th and 9th grade). Eigth and Ninth graders...do you think I can handle it? I have mixed feelings. I am nervous but VERY excited. I love to teach! I love seeing the "Oh! I got it" moment on a students face. Of course there will be bad days, but hopefully the good will outweigh the bad.

Oh Christmas Tree!

I wanted to blog about my new Christmas tree! I have worked lighting and decorating Christmas trees for the last three years, but I never had one of my own until now...and I'm so excited! And yes...it is set up in my living room. I said I wouldn't decorate before Thanksgiving, but I fell into the Christmas Spirit trap and I'm loving it! I'm excited for Christmas and I hope we have a white one this year.

Halloween

Sorry I haven't blogged for awhile!
Unfortunately, Mike and I don't have any pics to share becuase we left our camera at Kim and Pat's (we'll post some of our costume when we get it back). We did have a fun Halloween, though. However, I decided that Halloween in uneventful when there are no kids in the family. Oh well... We still had a blast hanging out together and passing out candy to all the cute trick or treaters. I LOVE all the fun costumes!

And now it's NOVEMBER! Can you believe it? I was thinking today how fast time is going by! Soon it will be Christmas and then before I know it I will be graduating in the spring! YAY!!! I am so excited to be done with this whole school thing...(I am going to be a teacher, though, so I guess I'll be doing the school thing for awhile...just in a different context). Anyway, I'm excited for the new month and for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is my favorite time of year!

Sugar Cookies

Mike and I had a fun night the other night. I finally was able to talk him into doing something that I've wanted to do for a long time...make sugar cookies! We made the cookies and only had two cookie cutters (a circle and a star) but that wasn't good enough for Mike. He wanted to make his own cookie...and yes, as you can see from the picture, his cookie was an old man.



He spent so much time frosting his "work of art" and here it is for all to see. As for me, I loved frosting cookies. It remined me of when I was younger and we would always make halloween sugar cookies.

Puppy Love.

Mike and I babysat Lucy (Kim and Pat's high energy Shih Tzu) a couple weeks ago. She was fun to watch, and to tell you the truth we kinda miss her around. She added a little noise to our quiet condo. She thought it was funny to climb on top of Mike's belly when he was lying on the floor.