Change, Change, Change

My normal uneventful life has been somewhat eventful these last couple of weeks. They say change is a good thing. If that is true then my life is supposedly going great!!

The Missionary
My little brother left for the MTC last Wednesday. He is going to Kiev Ukraine. He will be a stellar missionary but I still worry about him getting enough to eat, staying warm at night, etc. Brett has more personality than anyone I have ever met (if you have ever seen any of his movies he and his friends made you would know what I mean). He is very likable and gets along with just about everybody. The Ukraine is so far away and two years is a long time. It takes a lot faith and trust in the Lord to know that that is where he needs to be.

Student Teaching
I have survived my first week of student teaching. I am at Carwright Elementary School in a 4th grade classroom. The teacher is going to be really great to work with and will make the experience quite enjoyable. I haven’t done any actual teaching yet but in the past week I have gotten to know the students and the classroom environment and look forward to spending the summer with them. I had the students fill out an interest survey to help me get to know them better. One of the questions was, “What subject are you good at?” One of the students answered English, but spelled it “Inglish”. I laughed out loud when I read it –maybe he is not as good as he thinks he is! The kids all have a lot of personality and are pretty well behaved. I thought I would have all of their names down after the first week but there are 29 students and it doesn’t help that there is a Karen, Caroline, Catherine and Kaitlin –I am having a little trouble with those ones.

Moving
Don't get too excited, I am not moving out of my house, just into a different room. My brother, Andy and his family are moving here from California. And since they haven’t found a house yet they are going to live here. I don't mind moving rooms at all, there is just one small problem -the closet in the room I am moving into is smaller than mine. It is not that I am a total shopaholic, I just have a hard time getting rid of clothes. I have clothes that I have had since I was a freshman in high school. I haven’t worn them in years but I can’t bear to part with them. I keep them with the mind set that maybe one day the occasion will arise where I will need that particular item. So this past weekend I have had to make some big decisions and part with a lot of clothes that I am not ready to part with (sigh).

The Tassel's Worth the Hassle

I did it! I graduated from college. My commencement ceremony was this past weekend and it worked out that my brothers were in town for the weekend so my whole family was able to attend. Even though I still have my student teaching to get through it was exciting to be at graduation and celebrate this great accomplishment. As I was sitting there in my cap and gown surrounded by the other graduates I started thinking about my freshman year of college when I would wonder if I would ever make it through college. But here I am four years later with a college degree (almost) and looking back it really wasn’t that hard. I just have one more speed bump to get over now...student teaching. (I had a teacher in college who, whenever he gave us an assignment that appeared difficult, would always say, “Don’t think of this assignment as a mountain to get over, it’s just a speed bump.” So that is what I keep telling myself when I think about getting through student teaching; it is not a mountain, just a speed bump.

This is my parents and me the day they dropped me off in Reno my first year of college....


and this is my parents and me at the end...

Cinco de Mayo

Today was a great Cinco de Mayo. I ate LOTS of yummy food and I learned an important lesson about graduation announcements....

This Saturday is my graduation ceremony. I didn't plan on sending out announcements, but at the last minute I changed my mind. When I went by the bookstore to pick some up there was only five left. Seeing as how graduation is in five days I should be grateful I am even getting that many. So, I have five announcements to send out and have to decide who gets them. I would make my own, which, if I have more time would be pretty easy. But if I had more time there would probably be more announcements left for me to buy. Next time I graduate from college I will be sure to buy the announcements sooner so I can avoid this issue all together.