Our computer is having issues. I will leave it at that and just say that I hope I can use another computer and put photos with this post soon (after all, photos are often the best part of posts...especially when the posts are long ones).
I will start with the others in my family:
Glen:
Glen looks like he's going to have a good school year. He teaches 3 theatre classes and 3 World History classes. Besides building set for the upcoming musical in November,
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, his students are working on putting on
Anne of Green Gables. However, the first use of the stage this year will be this Friday, September 19th, at 7 pm. They are doing another night of Studio C Comedy Sketches. He's keeping plenty busy with his scouting responsibilities as well.
Andrew and Heather:
Andrew, having graduated in April, is out of school but currently working at the Subway sandwich shop on 900th East just down from their apartment and also has a commission-type job dealing with helping people by giving them different financial quotes (can you tell I really can't remember exactly what it is--part deals with insurances, though). He is job hunting and putting in other applications for things related to his English degree.
Heather is taking classes, made it into the BYU Women's Choir again, is a TA for a science teacher, and teaches violin to one student. I don't think she has a spare moment.
Eric:
He continues to sing in the Elijah choir and work on his family history projects that he is assigned. He has just over 2 months left. He'll be home in time to see the
Seven Brides production. Weird. Very weird.
Ryan:
He continues to serve in New Orleans. His current companion had been serving in Liberia, but is now in the Baton Rouge mission. Work in the Liberia mission and the Baton Rouge mission are very different--in Liberia, everyone will talk to the missionaries and in New Orleans, no one will. His big thrill is now having a "cockroach killer thing," as he calls it. And they found an historical jazz park by accident. And almost wound up in the French Quarter by mistake (which is an area he's not allowed to go normally).
Hannah:
She is working full time at Highland Manor Convalescent Home in the Alzheimer's Unit...I call her the cruise director. She's in charge of keeping the patients active and engaged. I'm not totally sure exactly what it all entails, but she seems to like it and the scrubs are cute on her.
She is also going to the local community college, WNC, full time. She has English, Sociology, Ceramics, and an online History of the Musical Theatre class. Plus she has a few callings at church: helping with music in the Primary, working with the Sister Missionaries, and her new calling is the Choir pianist.
She is also working on putting in her missionary papers.
Busy girl.
Alex:
He's about to turn 14 in less than a month now. He just spent some time volunteering at our local library re-shelving books and organizing the shelves. He seems to be enjoying 8th grade.
Me:
Ed Week:
A month ago I drove to Hill Air Force Base where I met up with my sister and we stayed with her son Zach, daughter-in-law Stephanie, and 15 month-old grandson Landon. On Friday, we went to the Ogden Temple Open House, and the next morning before I headed down to Provo, we went to the museum at Hill Air Force base. It was a wonderful, but short visit.
[photo or two of my nephew and his family]
Then on Saturday, with Denise staying with Zach and Stephanie for one more day, I drove down to Provo where I spent the evening with Andrew and Heather. On Sunday I went to church with them, too. It's just one of the simple joys of life--visiting with the ones you love. I think I use the word "wonderful" too much, but that was what it was--wonderful.
Denise came in Sunday afternoon and we were ready for a week full of visiting, food, and inspiring classes.
Monday after classes, Heather and Andrew met Denise and me up at the newly remodeled Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. Our favorite room was where they had various carvings, drawings, and paintings by President Boyd K. Packer. He really is a talented artist.
[photos from that visit]
Denise and I have learned that we cannot keep the pace that we used to. One year I went to every class I could--46 time slots and 46 classes attended. I made it to 30 classes this year. Five were on general topics, 5 were on health related topics, 7 dealt with the Doctrine and Covenants (which is what we are learning this year in Seminary), and 13 classes were on how to be a better teacher (mostly geared towards teaching the youth).
Tuesday night, Andrew, Heather, Denise, and I went to see at BYU the community production of
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. They did a fabulous job. I liked it better than the movie, even if they did cut my favorite song short (
The Lonesome Polecat Song). I look forward to seeing what Fallon does with it.
Wednesday morning, a friend from my college days, Rachel, joined me for 2 classes. We hadn't seen each other for many years. Rachel and I used to clean the Joseph F. Smith Family Living Center together (which was torn down and rebuilt several years ago). She came to my wedding and I went to hers. I did not have my camera, so very sadly, there are no photos of Rachel and me together.
After spending a little bit more time with Denise, Andrew, and Heather, I drove home that Saturday. Glen was in Winnemucca for a scout training meeting (Little Philmont), so I passed through there and picked him up and so the last 2 hours of my drive I was not alone.
[photo of Deni, Andrew, and Heather at the BYU bookstore]
Seminary and School:
Sunday the 24th was church. And I spent the day getting ready to teach my first ever Seminary lesson. Hannah had filled in for me the previous week (with Glen helping just a tiny bit). She was very excited to have that chance and I was very excited to have her sub for me. I think that is going to be a hard thing--asking people to sub for me when I can't be there (like in November when we got to pick Eric up from his mission).
So Monday the 25th, I hit the floor running and haven't slowed down much since.
I LOVE Seminary...the only downside is that I'm afraid I'm boring. I'm sure I'll get better, but I'm not there yet. I went to all those wonderful classes at Ed Week, but I've hardly had time to reread my notes. Plus the church has a ton of helps for teaching, too, and I've looked at some of those resources, but I still need to figure out how to put it all together and improve my teaching skills.
On a Seminary facebook list, one teacher put that she puts in 5-7
hours a week in preparing her lessons. It almost made me snort when I
read it. For the first 2 weeks of teaching, I was putting in 3-5 hours a
lesson so at 5 lessons a week, that's 15-25 hours/week. Of course, I'm
getting a bit better and faster, but it's going to take time. And I
never see me being able to put in that little time.
But
I'm loving it. I love studying everything and I love the kids. They are
great. And they are half-asleep in the morning. It's a good gig.
That Monday when I started teaching Seminary, I also started a long-term sub job at the high
school for someone who's out on maternity leave (she should be back Oct
6th). She asked me back in April. Before I knew I'd be teaching
Seminary. I wonder what I would have said if I'd known.
But my sub job now is MUCH easier than the biology assignment I had last winter semester. I'm busy while I'm at school, but when I leave at 3:15, my papers are all graded and I don't have to spend time making lesson plans as everything is all lined out. So, my evenings are "free" to work on Seminary.
At school, I teach 2 resource sophomore English classes. We are reading
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry which is a wonderful book, but very painful as it deals with how blacks were treated in Mississippi in the 1960s.
Then I get a double dose of racism as the one resource senior English class I teach is studying
Code Talker. It is a fabulous book and I highly recommend it to all. It deals with Navajo code talkers in WWII. It is from the perspective of a code talker telling his grandchildren his story and I'm just loving it.
I end my day with 3 inclusion classes where I'm the co-teacher. Only, being a sub, I don't really teach. I walk around and help anyone who needs help. One class is Earth and Space science. I love that one, of course. The 12-13 students I help in there are students I had when I had the biology class, so I already knew them, and most are really sweet.
Then I have 2 inclusion freshman English classes where I only knew a student to two. We read short stories at this point--several that I read when I was in high school (
The Most Dangerous Game, The Gift of the Magi, and
The Cask of Amontillado) and we are learning about plot, themes, and moods.
So, school is good. Seminary is good. I'm not stressed. Just busy. Especially on Tuesdays.
I also started taking a computer graphics class on Tuesday nights at WNC. I need more credits so I can renew my sub license, and I think learning Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator (which is mainly what we are doing) will really be useful to me. There won't be much homework, either. Eric took this class a few years ago. Fun stuff.
So, there is my update. We are well. And life is good.
