Monday, January 21, 2013

Life is Good

It feels so good to say life is good, again. I feel like most everyone that reads this blog already knows the stuff I write on here, but here I go anyway.

Christmas with family was great, as usual! The only difference was coming back "home" to Utah for New Year's Eve. It felt good, though. I had a few extra days before returning to work and that felt really good. I spent New Year's Eve with my sister and then went to a friend's party.

Then work started again. Fortunately, I love my co workers, so it isn't so bad as it has been in years past. Now that things are in full swing again, I realize how busy I am, but I'm not complaining. Okay, I might be a little, but only because sometimes I come home after work and am so exhausted all I want to do is lay in my bed or on the couch and watch TV shows or movies. In other words, do absolutely nothing. But alas, I have a life and I can't do that everyday.

Work is a little stressful right now, though. We are government funded so we are required to do developmental assessments and continually document the kids' progress. We have a deadline to turn in their progress 3x a year and the next one is in a couple of weeks. We have to take notes on things we see the kids do and then input them into a computer and tie them with one of 38 objectives, some which have sub-objectives. We have to have 2 notes per objective per child. With 32 kids, that's a lot. I know part of my problem is I am not as familiar with these new objectives, so I worked extra hard on Friday to organize stuff in a way that could help all of us try to get it all done it time. There is a threat that we'll have performance evaluations if we don't get it all done and that really worries me. Not because I think I'd fail them, but because I am hoping to apply for another position and I don't want a write up to reflect negatively on me. The position I'm looking to apply for is called a child development specialist. The person is a supervisor over the teachers and does a lot of paperwork. Sounds exciting, right? A couple good reasons I want to apply for it are first, that I would make about $6,000 to $8,000 more a year and second, I want to have experience doing something other than teaching if something ever happens to Head Start in the future. The best part is I don't have to speak Spanish for it, which is the only reason why I didn't get the position I applied for last summer. I know that we will most likely get through this assessment period just fine, but it's still something that exhausts me everyday.

I started institute again last week at UVU. I'm in the Orem Institute non-audition choir on Thursday nights and I absolutely love it. We sometimes get to do cool things like sing at the last CES fireside where Pres. Uchtdorf spoke. I am also taking a class right before choir that is about women in the scriptures. I'm really excited about it.

I can't tell anyone enough how much I love my new ward. It's absolutely amazing. Great people, great activities, great everything. I've made a lot of new friends very quickly, which has helped so much in my healing process. It's hard to believe I've been in my new place and this new ward for 5 months now.

Starting this week, some friends and I in the ward are rehearsing for a roadshow that we will put on sometime in March. It's really just a cheesy musical we are putting on for our ward only, but it will still be fun. It will definitely be a comfort zone expanding experience for me, though. I've been assigned to be the narrator. The only catch is, that the narrator sings the opening act by herself. Yeah... that's going to be... interesting. Seeing as I've only sung solo two or three times and it's a hymn-like song that I've sung over a hundred times and even then I'm really not that great.... Yeah, this will be awesome. But I will give it my best shot. If it sounds bad... well, it will only add to the cheesiness of the show. At first I was really nervous about it, but I'm not as nervous anymore because I decided I need to think about it as I did being in the Nauvoo Pageant. I didn't have a speaking part or sing, but I learned many principles about performing that can help me even though it is a completely different setting and drama. It will be an opportunity to develop my talents and maybe even help me feel more confident to apply for the Nauvoo Pageant core cast again in the future. Even if it is embarrassing, it will be fun to spend so much time with my friends in the ward as we prepare for it.

My calling right now is family history co-chair and I'm loving it. My co-chair is amazing. It's the first time EVER that I've had a co-chair that actually wants to "co-chair." He's helping me to not take charge or take control of everything, which is what I usually do in my co-chair callings. I'm learning how to team teach, too. It's also nice to have the opportunity to share my interest of family history with others and to help people get started. I feel like the last time I had this calling, I was constantly "pulling-teeth" just to get people to my class and then when I offered to help people outside of class, no one was really interested. This time, however, I have people who seem excited to learn and want individual help to get started. I'm excited to help them and learn with them. My experience mostly has been with Scandinavian records and only recently I've started some research in the US, so I'm learning right along with them about somethings.

So with immersing myself in family history, being involved in the roadshow, going to institute, working, and spending time with my sister, I am really busy, but LIFE IS GOOD.

Geocaching with my siblings

Reunion with my college roommates/best friends

Taco bell date with my brother

Ward temple trip/Temple Square Christmas lights

Dates with my siblings- caught in the act of getting cronked

Made an amazing apple pie for my family


Snow angel or dead man?

Sister dates are the best

My co-workers

Me and my choir buddies singing at the CES fireside

My ward is just... cool