The Life of...Dave and Rach
I remember my first seminary teacher at Brighton would begin and end each lesson by declaring this to us and sometimes would shout it with joy. I wanted to express with the same joy for the good and cool experiences I have all the time; especially this one...
Monday night I was driving home from doing some visiting teaching and decided that I'd stop by my friend Allison's house, since Dave wouldn't be home for another couple more hours and I had planned so well in advanced for school last week that I didn't really have anything to do for that. We were hanging out, talking and I kept trying to leave because my tummy was hungry but ended up starting new topics each time. Allison used the restroom and I heard an "OH, NO!" from in the bathroom. It was not a normal tone of voice I hear from Allison so I was quite worried but hoped it was just her son getting into trouble, but she said it again and cried my name and then said, "I'm bleeding," with a horrified voice. Allison is almost 20 weeks pregnant so it was not a good thing. She got a hold of her OB finally and her instructions were to get to the E.R. So we dropped Jake, her son, off with her brother-in-law and me, Allison, and Rachel (her sister-in-law) hopped in my car and sped to the closet E.R. Her husband had just left for a business trip that morning. Luckily there were no waiters and we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get back to a room. It was pretty much silence from Rach and I until we heard the baby's heartbeat, which we were able to not too long after getting to the room. They had to do a bunch of other things and then we got to experience a live ultra sound. Waiting for that ultra sound was what took the longest, I guess the tech didn't get a message that the hospital sent at first so it took awhile to wait for her. Everything turned out to be ok. They think it was the placenta pulling across the cervex but no major damage was done. Phew!
I got home late that night. Dave wanted me to call a sub but I figured I'd be ok with just one night like that. I felt so good that night when I got home. I feel as if a lot of things played into me being there for my friend that night and I'm happy I was able to listen to the little promptings along the way. I like to have those ah-ha moments and realize my prayers are being answered. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!
Don't mind our nasty chipped stairs, it's one project we're stuck on... 
I've survived two of the most gruesome weeks as a teacher... parent conferences and the week of Halloween! I hear the week before Christmas is the worst so I'm not looking forward to it at all. The conferences went surprisingly well. I just decided to not be nervous and it worked! I had one weird experience, not with parents but with my body...it was early in the second night of conferences and I was talking with a parent when I started getting dizzy, shaky and sweaty. Luckily, I had a little break after that conference and my next one so I went searching for something to munch on because when I stood it all got worse and then my tummy felt empty. I ate an apple and some bread. It seemed to help enough to get me through the night. I'm pretty sure I was experiencing low-blood sugar and it was a first. I was so confused because it has never happened to me before. This job has done some funny things to my body, for example, I seem to always be hungry- I usually take about a ten minute lunch break where I actually sit down and eat a little something but other than that it's always go, go, go and so I eat a couple pretzels here, an apple there, so I probably am not eating properly but I don't have the time to notice or track it. I do feel blessed that I've had the energy to do all that is required of this job and that I have not had more issues with sickness than I already have. I've been sick for the last month but usually it takes a lot to stop me from missing work. I don't think I have really ever missed work due to illness, I usually just push through it.
Halloween week was crazy!!! The kids are so riled up and excited for Halloween that they forget how to function in school and how to behave all together! Even some of my best behaved students shocked me this week. Along with Halloween coming up, we had 3 birthdays in our class this week! It was a chaotic celebration all week. I was surprised at the end of the week when all my students did their best on the spelling test. We celebrated Halloween Friday and the students dressed up. There is a nursing home right next to the school so the school parades through there. I had parent helpers bring in games and activities for the kids at the end of the day. And again my students shocked me, they were ten times better on Friday, in their costumes and all, than they had been all week! Those little guys surprise me when I least expect it. I love them all, I really do and I am so happy I get to teach them and have this job!
The one picture I took of the boys playing their game turned out to be the best action shot I've probably ever taken! Dave caught it, too! 
The beautiful St. George Temple
My hottie!
Cheering Bridget on in her century race. She took 5th even with going through the finish line the wrong way:)
Bridget was a little angry with the race but she did great!
Dave in his element
A GIANT Skookie... for one cake
Balloon games
And a white cake with frosting...
10 10 10!
Natalia and I!
Give me s'mores!!!!
All I can say is I'm pooped! When I say pooped, I mean I've worked hard and given it my all so it feels good but I am exhausted from all of it! I caught a bug a couple weeks ago and I've been trying to fight that off while working long hours and trying to mold 22 six year old minds. It's been a crazy month and a half. I've been swamped with things to do for my class, things to do since I am a first year teacher-there is a lot required of you outside of teaching youngsters, and not one person knows how hard it is until you do it, I can attest to that. It's a good hard though. There have been times I have wanted to break down and cry but haven't had the time but there has been just as many, if not more, of those amazing moments that you always hear of why a teacher becomes a teacher. I never imagined myself liking 1st grade but I couldn't ask for more because I can make mistakes or get impatient with the "TEACHER! TEACHER!" and the constant yelling out, but they just give me a hug at the end of the day with love in their eyes.
Dave has worries that I am becoming a workaholic and in a way I kind of agree...if you love what you do, it's hard to stop. I spend my day at school constantly going and then I get home and continue with projects and planning. Sometimes I have to remind myself to step back and just breathe, and take a break because there is always things to do, it's never ending and my thoughts are running 24/7. It does feel so good to do what I've wanted to do for so long! I am loving it and can see myself doing it for a good while. We'll see...
Friday night we took our moto up Weber Canyon and headed towards Kamas to meet my family for some family time. Luckily Dave made me bring my winter coat and packed my gloves for me because the ride back wasn't as pleasant as the ride there. It was almost as cold as my start in Lotoja two weeks before. We were chilled to the bone, literally. It took us sweats, layers of blankets, snuggling, and hours of our space heater blasting on me to warm up finally.
This is me when we arrived home. My muscles weren't working properly.
I forgot to put these up on our last post! The night before we headed up to Logan, we had some door bell ditchers and this is what they left...
Thanks Cora, Jonas, Brit and Cris!!! It made our night of hecticness!!!
