My life.

Life hasn't been very exciting but I feel it's time for an update so here we go. School is going well. It is a lot of work but the kids keep me motivated. They say the darndest things ps. I wish I could share all of them. The other day I was tying on of my little boy's shoes and while I was doing so he proceeded to pet my bangs and say, "I love you." It made me giggle. They are all just so sweet (for the most part) and innocent. When you spend so much time with kids it's easy to see why Christ exhorts us to be like little children. They are so much better than us in so many ways! Here are some great drawings from my kids this week.

On the other end of the spectrum I have one difficult little soul I'm working with. He's three, has some major behavior issues, and no language. I had my mentor come and observe him last week and she agrees that he needs to be in a more structured placement... So now I begin the transitioning process, which I hear is a doozy. Wish me luck! Hopefully I can get him moved sooner than later, it'll be better for him.
Things with the family are good. Braden leaves for the mission in TWO WEEKS! So very crazy! I'm so excited for him. He's going to do fantastic! I can't believe he's old enough to serve, my buddy is going to up and leave me to go to Florida. We found a video of his mission president this weekend which is so awesome! I've pasted it below. It made us a lot more excited!

Whitty and I have been taking a cake decorating class together. Whit has wanted to take it for a longtime but she never got around to it. She didn't want to take it along so I took it with her. It's been really fun. I forgot how much I loved cake decorating. I've missed it since I quit Baskin Robbins. We have the last class this week. I have to think of what theme I want my cake to have. Any ideas? We may have to sign up for the second class soon. It's just so fun! Here are our cakes from our second class!

I've gone to the Temple five times now (Salt Lake twice, Bountiful three), and I love it! Braden and I were able to do sealings together in the Salt Lake Temple on Tuesday which was a really cool experience. I have a lot of family names that need sealed so hopefully we will be able to go and do those soon! I really wish I could just sit in the Temple forever. On Wednesday I was able to go to a YSA session with my stake. That was an amazing experience! All the Temple workers were young single adults, and it truly was an outstanding experience. The spirit was so strong and it felt great knowing that young single adults can do God's work in the Temples. I loved it! I'm also hoping to go do a session in Brigham City and Logan asap!
One last thing... We had a little fun Sunday evening when going through some stuff. We got into my mom's wedding dress and decided to recreate the 80's bride my mom was. I think we succeeded fairly well. It was a blast nonetheless. Whitney wanted to show Grandma and Grandpa so.... we drove over and she walked in just like this. I think the best thing was my cousin Bliss started oooing and awing and then wouldn't stop bowing to her. It was adorable.

Well I think that's it. I'll be sure to keep you updated if anything fantastic happens.

The Holy Temple

Saturday was a fantastic day, a day I thought I would have to wait a lot longer for. Braden and I went through the Temple and received our endowments. It was amazing to be there with him and to finally be able to do something I've wanted to do for so long.

As mentioned previously the last three and a half years haven't been the easiest. I've had to rely on my Heavenly Father for strength to survive this ordeal and to make it through the typical struggles that come during the early adult years. By relying on Him I was able to come to know him very well. During my sophomore year of college my roommate KaeDee taught Temple Prep in our ward. I began attending to support her and soon discovered that I had a very strong desire to go through the Temple and wanted to right then. I prayed and kept preparing and was on the verge of discussing it with my Bishop when I was prompted to wait. I was heartbroken. Over the last three years I have continued to attend Temple prep, hoping to get as much of the Temple as possible. Every time I checked a customer out at Lowe's and saw the gold recommend in their wallet it almost brought me to tears. Every time an institute teacher asked who was endowed and I couldn't raise my hand I'd get sad again. I so wanted to take this next step and get to know my Heavenly Father and His gospel better. Back when I received the answer to wait I thought that when Braden went through I would reconsider it again, and that felt right, and before I knew it that time had come.

Again, I started really pondering and praying about it. I went and talked to my bishop which was a little scary since a lot of girls don't just go through to go through.  He said he would pray about it and that I should continue to attend Temple Prep. Then......he got released. So I had to gather my courage again and go to my new bishop. May I just bear testimony of the mantle Bishop's have and the inspiration they receive? It became obvious very quickly that the Bishop was able to look deep inside me and know my desire was sincere and honest, even from our first meeting. Being a little young in their eyes my bishop and stake president were both a little hesitant, but once again, after meeting with them I truly felt they understood me and more importantly that my Savior was telling me through them that he supported my decision. I will never forget the walk out of the stake center holding my completely filled out gold recommend. My time had come, I was going through the Temple!

Saturday was nerve wracking and as everyone says very different. It didn't help that about every Temple worker asked me if I was Braden's fiance or where I was going to serve my mission. But I was so happy to be there and to make covenants with my Heavenly Father. The gospel is true and I can't wait to return to the Temple again and again to continue to learn all that my Heavenly Father desires me to. It was amazing to be there with my family and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to go frequently with Braden until he leaves for his mission. I love the Temple, I love this gospel, I love my Heavenly Father and His plan for all of us. We are all so very blessed!

Getting Down To Business! (To Defeat The HUNS!)

Where to start. The first month of school is over! Most of my kids have become adjusted to coming to school everyday and are doing much better, as am I. :) The tantrums have decreased, but they're preschoolers so they will never go away completely. My kiddos are adorable. I love when you can see that they start to get attached to you. One of my little boys told me he loved me the other day, and many of them seek my attention/approval which can be endearing, or annoying depending on how much attention they want. It's just cool when you can see they value you and want to make you happy. It shows I am meaningful to them, which is what you strive for as a teacher!

I've come to realize that I was in shock for all of September. There has been a lot of trial and error in regards to getting our classroom set up and running and I've been focused on that. The other day it just hit me hard how much work I have cut out for me. I have a lot of interesting kids on my caseload. Some have behavior issues, some are extremely low cognitively, others have no language skills whatsoever and it is extremely tiring to work with them for two and half hours because even the simple things can take forever. It's overwhelming to say the least! I wish I could go back to my preschool practicum class and just talk about the issues we have in the classroom together. That was so beneficial and I miss it. It's just scary! Here I've worked so hard to do this thing I love so much, and now here I am and I'm terrified of failing. These parents drop their kids off with me everyday in hopes that I can help them succeed. They are depending on me. Nothing like holding the future lives of children in your hands to stress you out. It's time to pull up my boot straps and really get to work. It wont be easy but as time goes on I know I will improve. I'm really going to have to depend on my Heavenly Father a lot this year! There is no way I can be successful in this without Him being by my side and reminding me of everything I learned during my education and how to put it into practice. That really truly is the only thing comforting me. The creator of these children is on my side. He knows them inside and out and can help me find ways to teach them.

On to the other areas of my life. This weekend I went back up to USU for the Homecoming game. Oh how I love Logan, Utah! It is so gorgeous and truly my second home. As most of you know I had a lot of family trials going on during my four years up there. Because of those trials I became a very different Jessica than I was when I arrived. The events in my family were so traumatic that remembering my life before them is extremely difficult, almost impossible. So in a way I feel like I was raised in Logan, and it will always hold a big place in my heart. Homecoming was great! Nothing like doing the Scotsman with thousands of people. We won which of course was awesome! I hung out with Kenzy for Saturday and Sunday. We went to Lowe's and said hi to all of my coworkers which was a blast. Love my Lowe's family! We went to Kneaders for lunch and our usual Wendy's after the game celebration. Sunday was great and interesting. We attended my old ward and it was great. Fabulous testimonies and lessons, but I kind of had an odd/good experience. While up at school I had numerous spiritual confirmations that I was exactly where Heavenly Father wanted me to be. This weekend that feeling was gone. It was sad, but also comforting. I'm no longer supposed to be at USU, even though I love and miss it so much. That time has come and gone and I am meant to be where I am working with the kids I have. Growing up is interesting.

My dear brother Braden is turning nineteen this month and will be getting his mission call on Wednesday. Sooooooo weird!!! I swear he's still three and we're having picnics in the living room. I'm so excited for him! He will be an amazing missionary and I know that he will bless the lives of others with his testimony. Please pray for him this week and the weeks to follow as he prepares!

That's all for now! Here are some pictures from my weekend! Love- Jess

 Kenz and I at the game!

 The AWESOME White Out!

Beautiful Sardine Canyon on my way up.

Holy Moly!!!

What did I get myself into?! Just kidding. I'm not regretting my career choice. These last few days have been H-A-R-D, HARD!!!   Tuesday we had parent orientation. Irma and I put a power point together and presented it to parents. Can I just say how odd it feels to be talking to adults as an adult. A responsible adult who will be caring for their children?! I hope I didn't say um 15,000 times. I didn't practice at all but I think it went ok. Wednesday and Thursday (Today) we had all of our kids for the first time. I don't know if I've said this before but I have fifty students divided into four two day a week classes. We have M/W and T/Th AM and PM classes. In case you didn't realize....THAT IS A LOT OF KIDS!!! Not to mention the number of IEPs I'm supposed to keep track of. Wednesday morning I was lucky to enjoy a tantrum...for the whole two and a half hours the kid was there. It took me 15 minutes to walk him in from recess. This involved him throwing himself down on the grass and pavement every five seconds, kicking off those sweet spider man shoes, and of course LOTS of screaming. Can you visualize it? Wore me out. The whole time I kept scanning my brain of everything I learned during my four years of school, all to no avail. I really think he was sick and just having a bad day because the FIRST first day of school is bound to be traumatic for the youngins. Lets all hope, and pray that these kids adjust...preferably quickly. Wednesday afternoon consisted of angel children. Praise the Lord. Tender mercies happen people. They are all stinking cute as well, it helped me recuperate a tad. Then came today. The morning class is all three year olds. Apparently the District started this system for the last two months of last year. If we are judging off today, I very much dislike it (them all being in the same class that is). It's amazing how much more independent a year makes them, and the amount of energy they loose. They were again ADORABLE! Especially because they are all so little, but OH SO MUCH WORK! My back was killing me by the end... and bathrooms aka diaper changes took a half hour. Oh, and lets not forget that my monkeys got painted green, no worries I saved them.That class will have to be run COMPLETELY different from the others. There is no way we can continue to function the way we did today. Then came the afternoon class. It was SO awesome to have big kids again. It made me grateful for four year olds. Walking in we had a few tears because as we all know, leaving mama is hard, but it was nothing I couldn't calm down within a few minutes with a few toys/ distractions. So there we were sitting at circle with our faces drying off and smiles reappearing when it happened. One little kiddo was picking his nose and my lovely TA kindly asked him to take them out and instructed him that it was gross. Let the sobs begin?! Really? This kid was happy to come to school, waved off mom like it was no big deal, told me the letters of his name no problem, and went to circle. Then he began to cry... and not just little tears. The hard type of crying, where you think they're going to either vomit or pass out. Folks it lasted the whole two and a half hours as well. But this one takes the cake. No self soothing occurred, no volume decreases, no nothing. Honestly... it was kind of amazing, that kid has a set of lungs! The other kids kept plugging their ears and I was just waiting for the teachers next door to come smack me. I tried every distraction in the book and that kid wouldn't budge. I tried being comforting, even letting him sit on my lap a little, nothing. So I tried being a little more stern (which often works), nothing. I tried acting SO EXCITED for all of our activities...which helped a miniscule amount. FYI I tried so hard that now my throat is really sore. It is not easy to be louder than a screaming child without yelling yourself. I'm pretty sure my vocal cords were stretched to places they have never been stretched before today. I talked to mom after and she said this isn't typical. May we all hope and pray again that this is just the first day drama.... or trauma. I think trauma is more fitting.

Through all of that, I am still happy with my choice. I'm extremely grateful to be where I am and the last few days have helped me realize that I am here to make changes to better these children's lives. Things still need to be changed in order to give them the best education I can and I am extremely motivated to do so. I wish I had a personal stenographer inside my head. There are so many things I need to get done and so many ideas that come into my head that I want to implement to help these kids. Hopefully Heavenly Father will have them all cross through my mind over and over again until I can write them down. Hopefully next week will be much better as kids adjust and become accustomed to our routine.

I took some pictures of my classroom before the kiddos came. I made some changes and I'm sure there are many more to be made. Here they are.

 Song Board

 View from my desk

 play area

 circle

 Reading Corner

 Birthdays...don't know what the deal is with December folks.

View by the door

Block area

Not too shabby, but still in the works. I'm excited for this year of tweaking and learning from experience. Hopefully it won't kill me. I love my kids, especially when they are not crying...and can't wait to make a difference in their lives. I'll continue to keep you posted on my many adventures.

Love Jess

Sooooooo Many Changes!

My dear friends, my life has made a complete turn around since last week. Shall we discuss all the changes? On Wednesday I moved home from good old Logan, Utah. It broke my little heart! I have loved the last four years in Logan and have no idea how it went so quickly. Will someone remind me why I zipped through college so fast? I love my major/career field, but man, part of me really wants to still be living the college life. Wednesday was also my last day at Lowe's. I was leaping for joy because I was leaving retail FOREVER, but again was torn because I was leaving some amazing people behind. They truly have become a second family to me, and it was hard to say goodbye. I plan to visit often but it wont be the same. Lowe's peeps who are reading this, I love ya! Another change, moving back to Farmington aka moving in with Mom. Now don't get me wrong, I love my mamasita something fierce, but I have become accustomed to living on my own. Not only that but I rather dislike becoming part of that statistic of college grads that move back home with Mommy. So ya'll better not be judging me. It's where I need to be right now. I'll be able to make a dent in my car loan and such, and adjust to my new income. So I'm here for now, until it's time to go somewhere else. Hopefully a nice gentleman will be delivering that message.

So school. School is now work FYI. That confused my dear cousin Kynzi the other day so I thought I better clarrify. I'm excited to work with these little kiddos, that is for sure! I'm glad they are the main part of my job because they make everything else worth it. I've had to go to multiple different trainings in the last few weeks. Three so far and only one of them has really pertained to me. Throughout my entire education I felt that Sped Preschool always got forgotten about. The same thing has happened now, except at some district meetings they forget about special education all together. HEY! WE HAVE KIDS TOO! In fact they are the tricky ones to teach. Sooooo can we talk about that?! It's just frustrating to spend a whole eight hours in training that is completely useless to me. The bad news is.... It's probably not the last. The good news is my training on Monday IS JUST FOR PRESCHOOL! I'm kind of excited about it!

Today I was able to go set up my classroom with Irma (my coteacher), and work on some other teacher stuff.  It was fun to start getting into stuff and learning my new job. I even got to see a few pictures of my students and they are stinkin cute!!! It'll be exciting to get started!

That's my update for now. Gotta run before my siblings start yelling at me to come help set the table. Love ya oodles!

Adventures in Flip Flops

Hello! So much has happened and it will take me a little while to catch up, so lets get started! I had a great Pioneer Day with Miss Makenzie Pitcher! We left Logan in the morning and drove to Grace, ID to pick up her siblings and head to Lava Hot Springs. Grace is SO small! Kenzy kept trying to prepare me, but I did not see the small house turned into public library coming! Seriously so tiny, but it was cute! Lava was great! I haven't been there for ages and it was fun to hang out and go off some pretty awesome water slides. When we got back to Grace Kenzy gave me a tour of her grandparents farm. I got to see sheep, cows, bulls, some SUPER smelly, but cute pigs (I may or may not have gagged), and just the awesome farm itself. Farms are just cool. Made remember when my dad gave me a tour of my grandparents farm in Rexburg. It's just such a different life than the one I live, it's fascinating. After touring her farm we went to her neighbors farm to take care of his animals because he was out of town...or something. We drove over on a four wheeler which was so much fun! I haven't rode on one for a long time! I got to herd goats! Or rather watch Kenzy and her brother herd goats. There were some baby piggys too, cute! They fed the baby bull calves from the goats which was pretty crazy to watch. Unfortunately I did all of this in flip flops, which isn't the best foot wear to choose when walking around farms. Had I known we were going to have so many adventures I definitely would have prepared better. Overall it was a fantastic day! Here are some pictures.

Kenzy's awesome pen cap cruise control. It wont work without it.

The Pitcher's kitty Max. He loves me.

Feeding the bull calves.

What we look like after swimming, a four wheeler ride, and a stroll around two farms. Admit it, you're jealous of that hair.

On Thursday I was finally able to go to the Temple! It made me super happy. It was fun to go with my ward and get to know them a little better...even if I'm leaving in two weeks. It was really cool because a non-member came with us. She walked around the Temple while we did baptisms and afterward we talked about the Temple. We then got talking about the Brigham City Temple openhouse and told her that she could go in and see all of the rooms even though she's not a member. She got really excited about that. I hope she gets the chance to go and hope she becomes a member! The church is amazing and can bless our lives in so many ways!!!
The rest of that week was pretty unadventurous. I worked a lot and played Donkey Kong on Super Nintendo. I'm so happy Kenzy bought that beautiful, ancient device. It seriously brought tears to my eyes when the Donkey Kong music started playing.... a little ridiculous I know. I came home Tuesday night for a week at home. Wednesday my good pal Brit called me and we went to the airport to welcome Miss Karianne Knowles home from her mission. It was great to see her and great to catch up with Brit as we waited. We decided to make a whole day out of this little outing. We went up to the U and met my mom for lunch and then met up with Ryan. We went to Station Park to walk around....which ended up being a walk around Gordman's and then went swimming at Farmington pool. Oh my goodness did it feel good! It was SO hot that day. Here's a picture of Ryan and Brit messing around in the toy aisle.

                                             

They're pretty awesome. Later that night we went country dancing at the Union Station in Ogden. I have been spoiled! The Logan peeps are so much better, but it was fun. I think the most entertaining thing was being allowed to watch Brit and Ryan pursue the young ladies and hear their thought process while doing so. I've never been allowed in like that so to speak. It was great! We drove by the Ogden Temple that night on our way home. It is so big and not even finished yet! I couldn't believe it. It looks about triple the size of Brigham City. I'm excited to see it when it's finished.

Oh goodness this is getting long, no worries we're almost finished. Folks, I'm officially 22! Where in the world is my life going? I can't believe I'm a college graduate and certified teacher. I have to choose what insurance I want over the next few weeks.... weird. Anywho, for my birthday I went to the District building and got everything ready for teaching. I went and visited my grandparents after that and spent the rest of the afternoon with them. They are great people if you didn't know. I could sit and talk with them for hours. My mom met us there after work and we had some birthday cake (courtesy of Miss Whitney Smith)

 and then went to City Creek to walk around. It was my first time, that place is crazy cool! I loved the creek that went all the way through. It was a great birthday that ended with some chocolate covered strawberries....my favorite! Yum!

This weekend I got to go to my cabin with my roomies from this past year! It was so much fun to see them and just relax, play games, and go shopping! Ariel's birthday was the fourth and mine was the second so we had a great party weekend! I love them all so much and I'm bummed the weekend went so fast. They are all great/amazing girls and we will be life long friends for sure! That's it for now! I'm going to enjoy the evening with the fam before I head back to Logan tomorrow. Much Love!

Thoughts

Hello again! I'm not doing too shabby about keeping this up am I? This week has been alright, I've been working a lot and I'll say it again... I CAN'T WAIT TO BE DONE WITH RETAIL! Oh it will be a beautiful day when I can walk out of Lowe's forever. Kenzy and I have been having a blast with little adventures in Logan. We went swimming a week or so ago, went and saw Hunger Games again which involved me having a major laughing attack in the middle of the movie, walked around Logan Golf Course, wandered around the mall, and much, much, more. Our friend Troy and his sister came up this weekend and we got to go to lunch with them on Friday which was super fun! I got to hold his amazing wand from Harry Potter World, which was fantastic! Tomorrow Kenz and I are heading to Lava for the day! It's been ages since I've been and I'm super excited!

Here's a little odd fact about me... I've been kind of obsessed with the news lately. Odd right? During the wildfires I was checking every hour to see the progress of firefighters. Something about it just glued me to ksl.com. The same thing has happened with the shooting in Colorado, but it's been even more addicting. It's unbelievable the horrible acts that occur in this world. It's so sad to see twelve people's lives just come to an end so quickly, in a movie theater?! This world just becomes more and more insane. Watching all the coverage I just became extremely grateful for the knowledge I have that my Heavenly Father lives, has a plan, and is watching over all. I pray that all of those families can find comfort in Him. I was also thinking how great it is to have the knowledge that eventually all of these tragedy's will end. Eventually we will no longer have sadness and will be with our family members forever. What a blessing it is to know that these horrendous acts will end and that the world as it now will not just continue on forever. If I didn't have this knowledge I would become so down in the dumps every time something like this occurred. It's not forever!!!!!! Our forever will be thousands times better than this world we live in and I can't wait!

I need advice ladies, and gents (if any are reading this which I find very unlikely). It's about lovely boys. I feel like I get nervous and awkward every time I'm around a boy I have the smallest of feelings for. Why!? Why can't I just chillax, take a breather and act normal. I just over think every little action and I very much despise it. I've improved over the last little while but for example, I dropped by this young man's house the other night with a group to drop something off. I said like one thing to him and then kind of avoided eye contact, because I don't want it to be obvious I'm interested...and we barely know each other. I'm thinking avoiding eye contact isn't the best way to get things moving along lol? I just don't take advantage of any opportunities when I'm around them to really go out of my way to talk to them, sit by them, etc. How do you get the courage to do such a thing? I've been told that I should just wait for them to make the move.... but if we're going of prior dating experience, they've ALL forgotten how to do that. So do I keep waiting or do I need to be more out there and make the first move? Any and all advice would be much appreciated, please comment below. Hope you all don't think I'm ridiculously silly for that paragraph.

That's all for now. I get to go to the Temple this week and I am so excited!!! I've wanted to go for the last month but I called the Temple and found out they were closed until the 17th.... So I called on the 17th all excited and discovered the Temple was OPENED, but the baptistry was closed until the 25th... LAME! Anywho it's finally opening this week and I'm going on Thursday with my ward and I'm so stoked! There is nothing else like the spirit there and I'm in withdrawals!  Love you all and hope everything in your life is going swimmingly!