What a year!

So....blogging didn't happen as much as I planned for it to this year. But it's better than blogs in the past! This year has been crazy, yet oh so good! So here is a tribute to the year 2012!

My best friend, Jonna, left on a mission. This is only the 3rd time we've been more than 10 mins away from each other for months/years at a time, since we were 5 years old. I seriously miss her! But I wouldn't want her to be anywhere else! She's serving the Lord in Texas, and absolutely loving it! I'm so proud of her! I've always looked up to her as my example. I'm grateful for EVERYTHING she does for me and is to me!

After much thought, and prayer I decided to leave the ward I live in and ventured my way into the Mesa YSA 1st Ward. It was THE BEST decision I made all year! I felt so welcome. I loved going to church every week. I finally started going to ward activities. I made so many wonderful new friends, and I cannot see my life without them any more.

Some other best friends of mine had a baby! She is seriously a cutie! Looks like a little cabbage patch doll. I love her!

A friend from my mission, Laura, came to visit me and stayed for 5 whole weeks! We were companions for 3 transfers and never once had an argument while serving together. This was her first time to America and she came to AZ in JULY! Probably not the best idea, but we had a blast! I took her to California for some much needed cooler weather and Disneyland which I promised I'd take her to if she ever made it over here. We then went to Utah and had a wonderful time catching up with other RM's from our mission. Laura was here during a huge trial in my life, and while I don't think I ever expressed to her my love and appreciation for all she meant to me, and did for me at that time, I am eternally grateful she was here for me.

That trial was almost losing my mom. My mom is seriously one of my best friends! I do not know where I would be without her. A week after Laura got here my mom had chemo and then got a staff infection immediately afterwards, which put her in the hospital in ICU, in a coma. After 4 weeks of that we were told she wasnt going to pull through and that when she went we should just let her go. The next morning she woke up and surprised the Dr. with her overnight recovery, she ripped off her DNR bracelet the next day! However, she also caught pnemonia and had to have major surgery, which kept her in the ICU for another week. And then she had to go to a nursing home for yet another week after that. But somehow......with a lot of prayer, faith, and fasting she pulled through!

I started my year of student teaching! Finally! I've waited my whole life to teach. I've known my entire life that this is what I'm supposed/want to do. And finally I'm only one year away from it! ASU's teacher program makes you student teach for a full year, and my specific cohort is in 8 week rotations. We are placed in a Pre-k and a K-3rd grade class. I was blessed to start in 2nd grade and then in a special need pre-K and I'm loving the experience. It is definitely a lot of hard work, but I love going to work every morning! There have been some trials and difficulties with my mentor teachers, but they are both wonderful people and I have gained a lot of knowledge in how to run a class and what I do and do not want to do in my own classroom in the future.

I was eventually kicked out of the mesa ward because 5 YSA stakes were created in the valley and there were no exceptions to the boundaries, NONE. I was so sad to leave that ward. I ended up in another ward where quite honestly I felt was the worst place I could possibly be. Thank goodness that only last 1 week, as another ward was created which I luckily lived in the boundaries of. This ward has been a blessing to me. For months, like 6 months to really get down to it, I felt that I was going to be called to teach Relief Society. After this new ward was established that calling finally came. I was not surprised or overwhelmed with the idea at all. I knew it was coming and gladly accepted it. It was a wonderful blessing for me to see that the Lord was communicating with me and preparing me for this calling. It is and will be great blessing in my life, and I'm really looking forward to teaching and getting to know the sister in my ward.

This next year, Cole gets home from his mission. I graduate from college. Jonna gets home from her mission. And who knows what else?! I'm sure it's going to be another great year though!

Life in the Second Grade

Wow. It has been forever since I've posted! This summer was quite eventful. First, I quit my job at the after school daycare. Second, one of my favorite companions came to visit for a whole 5 weeks! We road tripped it to Disneyland and Utah. Her visit was so much fun!

But at the same time, my mom had caught a staff infection practically immediately after a chemo treatment. She was in the hospital for 4 of those 5 weeks in a coma, on a breathing machine, and at one point given only hours to live, and then miracle! after another week in a nursing home she was able to come home, as long as a nurse comes daily to still give her antibiotics through her iv. And so far she continues to improve!

So... fast forward to today. I'm finally student teaching. I've waited my whole life for this and am so excited for the experiences I'm having.

Today, my mentor teacher had a family emergency and was away, the sub came in - in the hour my mentor was at school and was told "This is the student teacher. You don't need to really do anything, cause she can take over." While I was a little nervous, I was excited for this challenge. Little did I know that these kids had a plan to really make the morning difficult. But I have to say I'm pretty proud of how the day ended.

One of the students came in at the start of the day already crying. She had a rough weekend, and the morning must not have been any better. The poor thing cried literally all day! No matter what was said or done she was not happy. I tried having her be my helper to get her mind on other things, but each time it only lasted for a few mins, then she was back to crying. It's tough being a kid sometimes.

Later another student must've thought "well she's crying and getting a lot of attention from everyone in the room. I might as well cry for attention too." And she did. But I knew it was an attention cry, so I just didn't give her any extra attention. This eventually led to spitting on others, which in turn lead to one of her friends deciding it was ok for her to spit on someone too. Which only lead to more frustration on my part, and a feeling of complete exhaustion as I had no clue which way was the best way to handle it, while all at the same time I was trying to help and give attention to the students who had good behaviors.

I tried talking with the whole class so not to point out specific students but then one of my spitters felt that I was still singling her out (I was seriously trying just to have a relaxed conversation about respecting others) she threw a fit and ran to the back of the room to hide in a corner. We ignored her and let her calm down. Then left for lunch and she just dragged behind. The second I turned around to make sure she was coming she stops and screams at me. Tells me she hates the school and everything else. Again I ignore her and eventually she finds her way to lunch with me watching her from the corner of my eye the whole way.

Lunch was a much needed and enjoyed break.

After lunch I finally got the hang of things. I was able to keep the noise level down. My classroom shouters were finally raising their hands to speak. My first spitter and screamer had calmed down and after much positive praise on my part she was a little angel! And my cryer had finally realized that no matter how bad things were she couldn't go home and she got tired of the attention so she calmed down too.

It was quite the first experience. I've never worked with this age group before, but with more experiences like this and practice, I know even the toughest children I work with will be my favorites! :)

Baby Joslin is almost here!

I threw my very first baby shower this past weekend. I couldn't have done it with out the help of Becky, Lindsey, and Clair though! Rebecca is now 8 months pregnant and looking big! Annette will be here very soon and we are all very excited! I completely forgot to take more pictures like I wanted to but heres a few...

Some of the decorations: notice the diaper banner

The Diaper Bouquet

The Diaper cake

The diaper bundle of joy and friend

Becky found these tiny plastic babies at party city and froze them into ice for one of our games. First person with their baby melted out in their drink wins by yelling "my water broke!"

We also had a onesie decorating station and lots more food but I forgot to get pictures.

And finally the cute pregnant lady herself! :)

Been keeping busy

Whew! It's been awhile since I've posted. I enjoyed my 3 week christmas break way too much and because of that it flew by way too fast!

School started up again the first week of January and I've been behind ever since. Motivation this semester is no where to be found! But luckily I'm still able to get things in on time. Interning in a preschool is not as fun as it sounds. I definitely want to teach an older age group. But they are cute.

Lets see between school and work I've been busy seeing my longest friend off as she left for her mission to Texas. She's been gone a week and I miss her like crazy. But now it's my turn to graduate from college while she serves the Lord. :) I've also been helping my other best friends fix up their new house before they hopefully move in this weekend.

On top of that I've been spending time with family. I have designated movie/tv time with my mom every Thursday night plus some bonus days through out the week. I look forward to those nights all week long! One of the shows we watch is my new favorite! Bones!! I started watching during my winter break and fell in love! Mom is almost caught up with the seasons. Thank you Netflix! I cannot wait for new episodes to come back!

Along with that I've been planning a baby shower for my new home-owner friends! Their adorable little girl is going to be so spoiled!

I also found out my best friend from my mission, Sister Granier, is coming to stay with me for a whole month this summer and ever since it's been all that I think about!! June 24th seriously needs to get here much faster!

Oh, have I mentioned that I've fallen in love with pinterest?! I get ideas for homework on there, I find fun activities to do, yummy food to try, and most recently a 15 min daily work-out plan which I have started and it is totally kicking my butt! I couldn't move my legs at all yesterday without wanting to scream! But its a good burn, I'm loving it!

AND....I've applied for my full year of student teaching! The time has finally come! Only one more stinkin' year of college and I am officially a certified teacher! It's been my dream for seriously as long as I can remember! I'm still not too sure about a full year of student teaching, I can see the benefits but at the same time, thats a long time to go with no spending money! But thats why I'm saving up for one incredible month with sister Granier, before it all begins!

So like yeah, life is busy, but it's oh so good!

Only 10 more weeks of the semester!

Holy Moley Batman!

I cannot believe it! The semester from you know where has finally ended and I have received all my grades!

Nutrition Health and Safety for Young Children ~ 94% A
Foundations in Education ~ A (she didn't put up %)
Social and Emotional development of young children ~ 97% A
Technology in the Classroom ~ 97% A
Field Experience ~ Pass (no letter grade)
Home School Community ~ 96% A
And Policies in Education ~ 98% A

I don't know how I did it?! I've never hated school more, and never struggled so much in one semester!

I got a 4.0 with 18 credits! WHEW!

And to reward myself I bought Lego Harry Potter years 5-7 :-D

Now to take a break before the spring semester starts. 16 credits will hopefully seem like a breeze!

I Think I Can, I think I can, i think i can...

Well it's the final stretch, the semester is FINALLY coming to an end! I will NEVER take 18 credits again! If I can pass all 7 of my classes with A's and B's it will seriously be at the top of my life's greatest accomplishments! With only a week of class to go, I have 15 assignments left. Included in those 15 are 5 papers ranging from 1-14 pages! Those are my greatest stresses! That 14 page paper is already mostly done but I just got my rough draft back and her notes weren't terrible but edits are necessary. Atleast I don't have to re-write the whole thing!!

If you could see my planner right now! I've had to color code to attempt staying on track, yet somehow I'm still falling behind. But I received a blessing at the beginning of the semester which said I will have a successful semester so I trust in that blessing and the power of the priesthood, and I do my best. It will all work out.

But I'm getting in that mode of being done. I have a headache, I'm exhausted, and my planner makes me go cross-eyed! Next week cannot come soon enough! I'm planning to reward myself big time when my last assignment has been turned in and I have a month of no school to worry about!

LOVE IT!

This past weekend....scratch that rewind...let me fill you in on the last few weeks first.

At work the kids were preparing for a jump rope for heart fundraiser and we thought it'd be fun to put up some decorations. So we made an apple tree. Every student colored an apple and at least 2 leaves. It took us about 2 weeks to complete and 2 of our very smallest kindergarteners to trace their sillouettes but here it is...

Of course I only have a picture of it before the apples actually got put on, but you get the idea. It turned out a lot better then I originally thought! When the PE teacher found out I had done the majority of it she came up to me and gave me a hug saying it was so good she wished it was actually painted on the wall. :)

Then the next big thing that happened was...

I got myself a car!!!!! It is AMAZING! and I just got back from taking it on its first road trip (with me as owner) and it did absolutely marvelous! Not a single problem! I LOVE having my own car, and its in super good condition too. Thank you g'mas friend for giving me such a great deal!

So as I was saying... this past weekend... my mom and I took MY car to Utah! It was a much needed vacation. I was able to see the missionary couple (The Bowen's) I grew close with on my mission. And visiting them was one of my FAVORITE member couples (The Marran's) from England visiting for the wonderful General Conference weekend. (they'd been visiting for 2 weeks already). I thought mom would never get to meet those wonderful people from my mission, but in fact she got to spent 2 whole evenings with them!

This is the Marran's. They fed me probably every week for 7 1/2 months. I LOVE them to pieces! So glad they were able to visit and I was able to make it up there to see them.

I unfortunately forgot to take a lot of pictures and most I did take ended up blurry cause they are all off my phone as my actual camera hasn't worked properly since my mission. So just to put a face with the name here is a picture on the Bowen's while still on the mission.

The Bowen's and Marran's are two of the sweetest couples I've ever met!

Also on this trip I was able to go to my mission reunion. I saw a few of my companions, the mission president and his wife for the first year of my mission, and the Elders I went into the MTC with (minus Degraw) as well as some other missionaries I grew very fond of.

Sister Todd was my last official companion. 

(I had 2 more when I got stuck trying to get home for 5 days cause a snow storm closed down the London airport which originally was my connecting flight)

Sister Wheeler was my third companion and my last American companion for the next 9 transfers!

Heres Burnham and Eggleston...who I went into the MTC with. They haven't changed a bit! ;)

There were others at the reunion too, but I don't have any good pictures. :(

I was also blessed to go do a session in this beautiful temple. It was seriously beyond beautiful! It brought me to tears.

Mom and I were able to attend the Saturday PM session of General Conference (for my very first time) it was, as always, a very powerful spiritual meeting! And I was again moved to tears when I saw the 1000's of people stand up and become immediately silent as we all watched our beloved Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson enter the room and walk to his seat.

We then visited Ashley and Mandy (and their families) How I met them is kind of a long story, But in short I met them through Rebecca and they met through their boys. All three of them got married while I was on my mission and as you can see Mandy is expecting! :D

It's a tradition in Mandy's family to make doughnuts during priesthood session so we kinda helped out this time. They were SOOOOO good! 

And lastly some very pretty rainbows off the mountains pictures. The first taken in Utah on the way to Mandy's and the second in Arizona on the drive home. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but you could actually see the end of both these rainbows. It was awesome!

It was seriously an incredible and uplifting weekend. One I needed :) Now I just need to focus on school for a few more weeks. Thank goodness this trip kinda recharged my batteries, even if I was doing homework during my vacations free time...