If you have been wondering where I have been, I have been on a rollercoaster. Life lately has been having so many ups and downs. Where shall I start? The school year is coming to an end, and therefore, the kids, along with myself, are so ready for summer! Even my angle children have been acting up lately. I didn't know that reading time was an okay time for them to create paper boxes at their table, or that it was okay to wander the classroom and chat with friends during the time they should be working. My patience is about ran up and I am trying hard to just enjoy these last three weeks. We do have a some nice breaks throughout the last few weeks. Next week we have a day for "Hershey Track" where we go to the High School and the kids run in track events against other Elementary schools. It should be fun. I think the weather is suppose to be very nice, unlike last year where it SNOWED the day we went. The week after that we have a half day where we get to go down to Salem Pond to participate in some fun activities. This past month all the Salem schools took part in the "Salem Reading challenge" where they have to read set number of minutes for five nights a week and then their reward is this fun outing to the pond. Also that week we will have our 6th grade talent show. It is always very entertaining. The last week of school we have our 6th grade graduation. It is always quite the event. And the day before school gets out the 6th grade is going to Boondocks (a fun center) for a end-of-the-year-reward/celebration. It is so close to summer I can taste it!In other events with school. Back in early April we got the word that we would have to cut back to only two 6th grade teachers next year. We were pretty devastated because we were told not too long before that, that we were set to keep the three of us. We knew it was going to be either Debbie or me that was going to have to go. We were stressing over it for a while, thinking one of us was going to lose our job. We had a talk with our principal and she let us know that yes, one of us would be leaving, but that they would place us somewhere else in the district. She said they would soon know which jobs were available in the district and then let us know and see if one job was appealing to one of us and we could make a decision on who would be leaving. A few days later our principal informed us that we had no choice in who was leaving or where we would be placed and she would let us know the next week. I was completely torn apart by the whole thing. It was affecting my teaching and my mood. The next week I was called down to the office right before school began and was informed that it was me who was to be leaving and I was placed in a 5th grade at Art City Elementary. I was definitely prepared to hear news that I would be leaving and thought I was ready to handle it, but boy was I wrong. I just broke down. It was very convenient considering that I had to begin class right then. I went and talked to one of my 5th grade teachers and she came and took over for a little while while I went out and composed myself. Now there was good and bad in this news. For one thing, Art City is much close to Provo and I did my 2nd half of student teaching there and really liked the school and really liked the principal. The bad news, I was going to have to switch grades and I absolutely love Mt. Loafer and didn't want to leave. Throughout the next week I was scoping the website to try and see if there was any 6th grade positions in the district that I could try and snatch. If I had to move schools I didn't really want to have to go through having to switch grades as well. There were a few places opened, but I was so torn between going to an unknown school, with an unknown principal, further away, yet staying in 6th grade or going to a school I knew, a principal I knew, and much closer, but switching grades. Debbie, one of the other 6th grade teachers, had been looking at this 6th grade opening at a school in South Santaquin (the most south school in the district). She had a friend that works there and it would be MUCH closer for her. Right now it takes her around 35 minutes to drive to work, driving to that school would take 15. Along with that, she would be able to carpool with this friend of her. It would cut back on how much she spends on gas immensely. She eventually decided it was the right thing to do, so she applied for a transfer. It was still up in the air for a few days while all the paper work went through and things were finalized. It finally was finalized and I am officially staying where I am. Now there are a few down sides to that. I will have a class of at least 32 children (7 more than I have now) and there will only be us two teachers, which will mess up our rotation set-up we had. I am grateful that I am able to stay however.
Besides school, life has been a roller coaster in other areas. One which involves a boy. I won't go into too much detail, but I'll give a brief summary. I started hanging out with a boy in my ward back in the middle of March. Things were great and I really liked him. I then got to my "freak-out stage". I have finally figured it out. I will start liking a boy and get those new and exciting feelings for him and that will cause me to jump into a relationship probably too quickly. Then a few weeks down the road I get to the point where the new and exciting feelings are gone and I kind of freak out. I am worried that I got myself into a situation I am not sure I want to be in. That is when I usually jump out of the relationship. So about two weeks into this relationship I kind of started questioning it. I wasn't sure exactly how "in" I was, and I was beginning to worry that I may have gotten myself into something I wasn't sure I wanted to be in. About three weeks into the relationship he wanted to define us as dating. I was honest with him and told him I wasn't sure if I was ready for that. The first few days after that were a bit rocky but I quickly decided I was being dumb and that nothing was wrong with the relationship so I had no reason to be afraid of it. I spent the next two weeks pretty much making up for me being lame and I thought things were going great. Key words, "I thought". Turns out he wasn't on the same page. Ever since I told him I wasn't sure about it, he kind of backed out a bit and it went downhill for him since then. Things were very rocky for a few days because of some events that took place and there were some hard feelings. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) my heart is just too good and I am quick to forgive. We ended things on a good note and we keep in touch. But let me tell you, it was quite the rollercoaster of emotions for me.
One other thing that has been a ride lately is my summer plans. The plan for the summer was for me and my sister(s) to take a trip to New York and then over to Europe. There is a bit of planning that has to be involved to make that possible. I am still in the process of knowing whether or not I can get a passport. You see....I don't have a name on my birth certificate. Whenever you have to answer those getting to know you questions like "what is something interesting about you?" I always use this one. My parents didn't name me until after they took me home from the hospital and they never got around to going back. Now that I am over the age of 18, I have to actually go through a legal court order name change. So I have been trying to get other documents in order to get a passport. I finally just sent some things in and should be hearing back from them shortly and they will either tell me that I am good and can have my passport, or they will let me know exactly what other items I need to send in. Hopefully this will all work out before the trip. We have been going back and forth between the time we want to travel. We were hoping to meet up with other family in New York as a fun family outing, but everyone's vacations are different. We did finally decided on a time and we finally booked our tickets. Since I did just spend around $1000 in plane tickets, I sure hope my passport works out. There is still a lot to do however. We still need to set in place or travel plans within Europe and places we will be staying. I am leaving most of that to Wendy and Angela, since they have traveled before and actually know what they are doing. According to Wendy, my job is to learn German. HA! We'll see how well that goes.
Other updates in my life...BYU has let out for the summer and many of my friends have left. Provo has calmed down immensely and my ward is about half the size it use to be. I received a new calling. I was on the Enrichment committee in relief society, but I am now a relief society teacher. EEK! I have never had a teaching calling and it is a little intimidating. I know you are all thinking, "You are a teacher, you know how to teach!" but teaching my peers about a gospel topic is MUCH different than teaching 11 and 12 year olds about math, science, etc. We'll see how it goes. I am staying where I am for the summer, however, I do not know where I will be living in the fall. That is still to be decided and figured out. I am thinking I'll probably stay where I am (that is, if it is still available). I did get accepted to be an EFY counselor again this summer. However, I did not apply for as many, since I will be traveling. So far I am only scheduled to do one week. I am excited to do it again, but a little disappointed to only have one week. We'll see if I can pick up any other weeks when I'm around this summer. I absolutely loved doing it last summer and not only was it great to help the youth, but it really helped me as well.
Shout out to my mommy on this mother's day. I love you very very much! You have made me into the person I am today and I could never say thank you enough. I am so grateful for the sacrifices you made for me growing up and that you continue to make. I love being able to call and talk to you whenever I want. I love that you care so much about what is happening in my life and always lend a listening ear. I hope to one day be the amazing mother that you are! I LOVE YOU!
This is what I like to do...just sit and chat with my mommy. This was from my first year back at home from college for Christmas.
This blog is probably more than anyone wants to read. I'm sorry it is so long, but it has been around four months since I have written on here. I'm sorry there are really no pictures. Perhaps next time. Once again, no matter how chaotic my life is, I always feel amazingly blessed for everything I have!
