Sunday, January 30, 2011

Look, that's me!!

I was watching a recording of the Nauvoo Pageant that a friend's friend made when I was there this past summer. My friend sent it to me and I finally got to watch it all the way through tonight. To my complete surprise, I saw me on stage!!! I had to rewind it to double check, but it's true. Of all the nights for her friend to record the pageant, she did it the night that I went on stage to fill in for a girl that fainted! In the video I can see when I got on stage and for pretty much the whole time I was there. I'm relieved to know that my confused state of not knowing what to do when wasn't super noticeable, but obviously it was noticeable enough that it got my attention so I saw that I was there! Yay! It really made my night to see that. I'm grateful that that moment was recorded and that I have it. It reminded me that prayers are answered and dreams do come true and most of the time it happens in the least expected way.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Girl's Choice

Last night was the Girl's Choice dance and it was awesome. My date and I had a lot of fun together. I was right in thinking that he would at least smile at my fun surprise... actually, he laughed, even when I told him not to. The fun things I did was I said "you was handsome" and that I had a good time with him in Cantonese. He served his mission in Hong Kong and that is the language he spoke. For the first one he was surprised mostly because he didn't expect Cantonese to come out of my mouth. That was funny. He knew I had a few phrases to recite to him, but I couldn't say the last one until the end, so when it came to that time, he just laughed at me. It really was funny. I am very grateful that I went and that it turned out to be such a great date.

We made snowflakes. :D

Me and Taylor


Monday, January 24, 2011

Makes Me Smile

I'm actually SUPER excited for my date on Friday. I'm planning something really cool that I'm sure that if it doesn't impress him, it would at least make him smile and we'll laugh about it. I just can't keep the smile off my face! This will be awesome.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Misery Loves Company

Okay, okay! I finally asked a guy to the ward dance. I don't think I will regret it either. He's cute. :P

I realized last night that my desire to be alone, cuddled up in my covers watching movies was a symptom of a big problem: I need people. I'm mentally exhausted pretty much everyday after work and I have lots of things on my mind to do for work and figuring out life in the real world. With assessments going on at work and everything else going on in my life, it just feels good to escape the world by watching a movie or reading a good book. That's good, and I really do need that sometimes, but what I think I neglected to remember is that I have friends who care about me and want to help me or be with me. I also am happier when I am involved with other people and serving others. Maybe they don't need me as much as I need them, but I have disconnected myself from them too much and too soon. I need to just talk and have fun and build relationships with people. Isn't that what's most important in life, anyway?

There is just so much going on! I can't get into it all, but one thing is that I learned this week that my family is basically having a make-over of the house done because of a really bad leak that turned into a flood when the plumber didn't repair it correctly. This week they are pretty much living at my brother's because the whole house is covered in plastic while they make the repairs and figure out how much damage the water really caused. It's a blessing in disguise because it will help my parents out financially, but at the same time, it's probably pretty annoying and frustrating.

It's amazing how just realizing what my problem was has made a difference in one day. I already feel a bit better. I'm grateful that I got to take my roommate Lynnae to the store and then to her friend's house. It was great to spend time with her. It also helped that I got the courage to ask a boy on a date and he said yes. I was so nervous... and I'm positive he knew it, too. :D

I'm not so miserable, thanks to company. Life is wonderful.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Girls' Choice

My ward is having a girls' choice dance in the next few weeks. I was just wondering, girls' choice also includes their choice to go stag or to stay home, right? That's kind of the point I am at. Seeing as the guys I am interested in are taken and so are many others, I might just make it be a night of me and Chuck.  That sounds like fun.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Freezerburn & Moving On

Can I just say that some foods should NEVER be frozen or put in the freezer for so long! I just finished cleaning out my grandma's freezer and there was a heck of a lot of food with lots of freezer burn on it. I still have another freezer to clear out. Pretty much I'm filling up a garbage container. She thinks the food isn't so bad, but really, who freezes sour cream? That is just one example...

Now that I've told my roommates, I can write about this.... I'm moving!! I never thought I would move from where I am unless I was getting married, so this is a surprise to me, too. I've been in my current ward for 7 years. Yeah, that's a long time, but it's been amazing. I do not regret it even a little bit. I've learned so much from the people in that ward.

So, how did this come about? Well, before coming back from Christmas break, I was feeling like I was beginning a new ME-- full-time job, new car.... Then when I walked into my apartment, I realized that it would be a lot harder for me to be what I feel I want to be/need to be if I stay where I've been for so long. I need more personal space- my own room. I'd like my own place, but that is out of the question. I also feel like I need to be around older singles who are graduated like me. After looking around online for hours and asking around, I found a place that I was seriously considering until I got a phone call from my mom. As I stood in front of the door of the potential place, my mom told me that my grandma was in the hospital. As soon as she said it, the thought came to me that maybe I should move in with her to help her out. I went to visit her in the hospital and asked her about it and she thought it was a good idea, too. Since I decided to move there, I've felt at peace about moving, although I am a little nervous about the new ward. Hopefully it will be what I need.

My grandma was in the hospital for congested heart failure. She was retaining a lot of water, too, so both of those together made it very difficult for her to breathe when she tried to sleep. She is home now, but now she is lugging around an oxygen machine to allow her body to take in all the oxygen it needs to function. The doctor was very optimistic about her future, but my family and I kind of think it's only the beginning of the end. She now can only have 2 g of salt a day and foods that are low in vitamin K. That is part of the reason why I cleaned out her fridge and freezer. I also went shopping for her and I realized how many things have salt, canola oil, and soybean oil. She can't have any of those.

I moved some of my stuff in last night, stuff I'm not going to be using very much. I slept at her house in the basement just to get a feel for the place and see how I like it. I asked her if just knowing I was there made her feel better and she said it did. Granted, I will be gone all day and be social at night, but I will be there as much as I can. I can always invite people over to watch movies or play games as long as she is up for the company because normally she loves company.

I am VERY excited to live in her basement! I'm already thinking of things that I can do to make it warm and inviting. The basement is pretty big, but only half of it is finished. Two bedrooms and the bathroom are done and look good, I just have to get a dresser and add whatever things I want to. The first two rooms you walk into down there are not finished. She has all the supplies, it just needs to be done. It probably won't happen for a while, but I want to finish one of the rooms so it looks warm and welcoming. In order to do that, I need to get the electrical things done or fixed-- add plugs and fix how the lights turn on and off. I then just need help putting in the insulation and boards for three of the walls. One wall is just cement, so it needs the wood put in as well. It shouldn't be too hard, just a lot of work. The floor is cement and currently has random rugs and carpet to cover it, but I think that will be taken care of much later.

I hope I have some good home teachers who want to do some service!! :D

Friday, January 7, 2011

Blooming

My amaryllis flower # 2. My roommate took this picture for me yesterday. Today some of the buds are opening, but they are not quite open yet. Plant # 1 I took home to see bloom and had to leave it there until my brother brings it with him here in a week or so.
It's amazing how much a simple flower can bring so much beauty into a small apartment bedroom. At first this flower wasn't growing as well as the other one I planted just like it at the same time, but after some tender care by a friend over Christmas, it budded and now is more beautiful than the first one. I am excited to see all the flowers bloom.

In some ways, I am like this flower. I have struggled long and hard to grow, but through the nurture of amazing family and friends, I am blooming and I am beautiful.  That sounds really cliche, but it's one way to express how I am feeling right now. It's the first time in my life that I really feel like a grown up. With the new year I feel like I am finally blooming into the kind of person I've always wanted to be and more. I'm excited to feel more like an adult, but it's also scary. Being independent and having to provide for myself isn't easy, especially when it involves trying to figure out how to pay all the bills. I know I don't have a mortgage to pay like many adults, but I do have a car payment, car insurance, rent, credit card (which I only use for gas), food, saving for the Nauvoo Pageant, and all those unexpected expenses to try to balance out with the salary I'm given. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be given a full-time position half way through the school year, so that is a huge blessing. But with the full time position comes a lot more responsibility. Yes, I do get paid more, but I still have to budget and make sure I have all that I need to pay for everything and that is very overwhelming sometimes.

I am grateful that things are falling into place. I really feel like the Lord is preparing me for great things to come this year. I've been thinking about some things that I might do this year that would mean a lot of changes in my life, but I feel peace that it will be for my good and it will all work out.

My new full-time position is still at Head Start preschool, but it's different than anything I've ever experienced while working there for the past year and a half. My first year I taught a full-day class where the kids come in the morning and leave in the late afternoon. Because I was part-time, I left at the beginning of nap time. Putting kids down for a nap when some have already grown out of naps is a nightmare, let me tell you! The beginning of this year, I taught in a part-day afternoon class. Part-day has a morning and afternoon class of different kids. Even though I only taught the afternoon class, I came in time to get to know the kids in the morning class, too, and I loved that.

What I am doing now is called Homebase. It's a special program for 3-year-olds, although recently they enrolled some 4 and 5 year olds. There are about 34 kids total. The kids are divided into 4 classes and each kid only comes to class once a week. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays we have two class sessions a day where we teach the same exact things to the different kids. The class size is 8-10 rather than 12-16 like the regular preschool classes. I really like that! Those days are mostly like the normal preschool days that I know. On Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays I do Home Visits to the 10-12 kids that I am assigned. There are two other teachers who do Home Visits as well. Starting at 8 AM, I go to 3 to 4 homes per day and stay for an hour and a half. While I am there, I direct one activity for all of us to do together and then the parent picks one activity to do. Three year olds have a very short attention span so I am learning fast that I have to have more than just two activities planned or I need to bring games or puzzles or books to use. This program has a parent-child focus, so the activities we do are quite a bit more flexible than what we are allowed to do in class, which I also like. We do what the parent wants to do even if that means we bake sugar cookies, which would be a big NO at school because of the sugar. While I am there, I am also helping the parents with whatever they might need to help them with their kids. I make observations at the visits and in the classroom and have to do a lot of paperwork on each of the kids. It's not too difficult, but there is a lot to remember to do.

Surprisingly, I wasn't very overwhelmed this week at work. The hardest part was (and still is) getting used to working for 8 or more hours a day and having a lot less time to do other things, including socialize with my roommates. Tuesday and Wednesday double classes was really exhausting! I don't know how part-day teachers do two classes everyday! So, doing Home Visits was a welcome break. The only down side to Home Visits is that I have to do a lot of driving. Fortunately, I now have a reliable car... and a very cool car at that. I was VERY grateful for my heated seats and the defrost on my side mirrors this week. I was also VERY grateful for the GPS I got for Christmas. I didn't stress at all about finding the houses and it made for a very relaxing time between appointments. The other thing I have to get used to is having the self-discipline to go to bed between 10 and 10:30 PM. I wake up at 6 AM and because I don't do well on lack of sleep, I have to go to bed earlier. I did great this week, but that is with nothing going on and isolating myself from my roommates, which can't last long.

I'm still deciding if I like Homebase better than the normal preschool classroom. It has it's perks, but I think I will actually miss teaching more often than I was. I will only teach once every three weeks now rather than every four days. My co-workers are great and they are willing to give my new ideas of how to do somethings on our teaching days a try, so that is really nice.

I'm grateful to sleep in and then to go to the temple tomorrow! I am also excited for Sunday! I feel like it's been forever since I had a Sunday to rest and meditate. It also will be great to see friends from the ward that I haven't seen in weeks.

Here is a link to an invitation to the Nauvoo Pageant that I will be performing in this upcoming summer. It is a life changing experience and I believe everyone should go there to see it at least once.

http://www.invite.nauvoopageant.net/2011/Invitations/2011_Blue/Kelly.htm

Monday, January 3, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Well... it's a brand new year and I feel like it will be a good one! In some ways this year is the beginning of a brand new me. I started my full time position today and tomorrow the kids come back. It's very tiring, but it will be good. I'm kind of stressing out trying to figure out how to do everything I want to and need to do in the little bit of time I have now, but it will work out. 

As I will be having to drive a lot with my new position, I got myself a new set of wheels... I didn't post it right away because I wanted to surprise my roommates.


It's just like my brother's but better... :D

 This is a HUGE step for me, so I hope I can handle it. It's my dream car so now I'm really living the dream!! I also got a boyfriend.... named TomTom. I wish it were really a boyfriend and not just a gps system for my car, but I'll take what I can get!

My family took pictures the day before I left to go home. It was a lot of fun!