Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I decided that this year I was going to put my Christmas letter on here instead of sending it out. This way it could be shared with a lot more people than before. Sometimes technology is a great thing, other times I am not so sure.....

It's hard to believe that this year is almost over. I have been so blessed and grateful for so much this year. At the beginning of the year as I was starting the search for a new job. I didn't know where it was going to take me or if I was going to be able to do it, but slowly things started to fall into place and in a matter of weeks everything was set into motion and I had a new job in NSL with good pay and benefits, a place to live with 3 roommates, and I was so excited.

As June came and it was time for me to move to Bountiful I felt on top of the world. Little did I know that the next 3 months would be the most rewarding, frustrating, and challenging, but I wouldn't change any of it. I don't even think I could put into words all of the things I have learned since starting at KinderCare. Its been the best job at times, and at others one that really makes me take a look at what I really want in life. A search that is never ending.

My sister got married the weekend before school started in my parents backyard. Its hard to believe that my little sister is married. It was a very fun weekend. I made her wedding cake with the help of my mom cause I started to freak out.

The next week I started teaching Kindergarten and going to school online in pursuit of my BA from BYU-Idaho. Its been a learning experience and I love the 13 kindergartners that I teach and 13 school age children that come after school. They each have taught me so much.

Besides teaching for fun this year I was able to go with my sister and bro-in-law to Lagoon, BYU's homecoming game, and OK so I guess that's all I did. Well beside my trips home, and all the fun times I have been able to have with my family. Especially my sister and Joe. I love those two so much.

I hope that everything is going great with all of you and that everyone has a great holiday season, and carry it through the new year!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Sarah

Birthday!!!

Ok so its a couple of weeks late since my birthday is October 22nd, but I have been so busy I haven't had time to do a whole lot of anything.

My 28th birthday was GREAT!!!! The last few years I have been sick or had really bad allergies around my birthday so I haven't been able to do anything but not this year. I started celebrating my birthday the day before and got pizza for my roommates and I. We watched football and carved pumpkins. It was so much fun. On my birthday I took treats for my co-workers and candy for the kids, it was just a good day nothing out of the ordinary just fun. I had so many people tell me happy birthday. I even got flowers from one of my girls at work and her family. My birthday celebrations continued into the weekend with our fall festival at work on Friday and then Saturday my parents came down and we all went to the BYU football game against TCU. BYU might have lost the game but it was such a fun game. We sat by some really fun people which helped as the game started to really get bad. We also went shopping. My parents got most of their Christmas shopping done. I also got some of mine done and spent some of my birthday money.

In the past I have gotten down on my birthday, and as my family knows well I have had some breakdowns, but this year I decided to look at all the things I have and not focus on what I don't. I am so very grateful for some much, but especially my health. I have a friend right now who is going through some really hard health problems and is only a month older than me. Its really shaken me to remember not to take anything for granted and to let others know what they mean to me.

As I know look forward to a new year of life for me I am looking forward to everything that could happen.

school...school...and more school...

So I am now on my 4th week of teaching and I think I am slowly getting things under control, and getting use to the curriculum. I hope that the kids are learning something. This week (well Friday and I volunteered my time) I got to rearrange my classroom again, but it looks so much better now. I was able to take out a ton of things that were broken, ripped, missing pieces, or didn't want anymore. It was so much fun. The classroom now looks like a kindergarten classroom that school age children use which is the goal. This weeks goal is to get things on the walls and start running Catch the Wave ( our after school program). When I am not working and teaching school I am going to school, and loving it but there are times I wonder why I decided to go back right now, it hasn't been easy at all to get everything done in a day that I need to and still have a little bit of time for me so I don't go insane. I keep looking at the end result and know that its all going to be worth it in the end.

Survived first real week of teaching...

On Tuesday I started my actual first week of teaching, and it was so much fun. I loved every minute of it, but I only have 7 kids at the most all week during school hours helps. Monday we start working on the letters and reading high frequency words. We also start a 7 week unit on Now and Then. We will be creating life size children, and talking about the passing of time. I am so excited. I only hope that making the bodies goes better than it did this summer cause right now I am seeing a train wreck.

Oh, and to update everyone. When I was hired in April it was to teach Kindergarten and then be a floater in the afternoon and also drive one of the buses to pick up the school age children. Thank goodness that's changed. I am now also the teacher for the school age children and get to still work with some of my children from this summer. Its been fun to be with them still, and its so much easier also since they aren't at the center that long, and a lot of it is outside for right now until I figure everything out for the after school program and get it up and running, but there are still a few that I miss, and will always miss. Some of them though will be coming back to visit on days when they don't have school. I can't wait for those days! Although I am excited for the school year, both in and out of work (for those of you who don't know I am also going back to school) I can't wait for summer to have all of my kids back again.

Following promptings

I am so grateful for following the promptings that I had today, before I get into why I should say that this is something that I don't always do and my father and I are always telling each other to follow the thoughts that we have, for example if I had done this last week I wouldn't have forgotten the bag in Bountiful that had all the papers in it on how to make her cake and a ton more. Thanks so a great roommate who was home I was able to get some of it over the phone. Anyway onto today.

This morning when I woke up I had a ton of different errands to run, and I usually wonder to myself if while out I will run into anyone that I know. When living in Twin I would all of the time but in all of my times living in Utah I never have so I didn't think much more of it and proceeded with my errands in Salt Lake and Midvale. While going to the stores I wasn't able to find any notebook paper for journals I am making for my Kindergartners, something that I thought was a little odd but I decided I would finish out my looking by going to Walmart in Centerville and if I couldn't find any there then the children would just have to wait for a while before they got them. When I arrived at Walmart I knew that they still had the school supplies up in the front of the store but decided that I would first look in the office supply area, and I am so extremely grateful that I did. Once I got back to isle that the paper would be in I ran into Nick. Who is one of the children who I had to say goodbye to early this week and it hasn't been easy at all and after talking with the assistant director yesterday even harder, but that is another story. The excitement he had when he saw me was priceless and I am so thankful that I went back there, even though the paper wasn't there. Had I gone just to the front of the store I would have missed out on the chance of seeing him, and getting to talk with him and his mom.

I have reflected on this all day long today and tonight while attending the adult session of my stakes conference. In our lives we all have promptings to do things but how many times do we put them aside and say we will do them later. Sometimes later is to late. After leaving my bag in Bountiful last week and talking with my dad I have tried even harder than I did before that when I have a prompting to do it and write it down. In my car I have a small note pad and pen, and I also carry one everywhere I go so that when I have them I can carry out what it is I feel impressed to do. Who knows when that prompting could affect another persons life.

First day of school!!!!

Even though I technically haven't started teaching kindergarten, all of my school age children are now gone and it has been extremely hard on me. I have watched tons of children in my life and I have never had anything be as hard as having to say good bye to the children as I did yesterday as I said goodbye to Nick and Erik. These two boys have had more influence on my life in the short 3 months that I have been there teacher than any other child ever has. Not that other children haven't had an huge impact on my life because there are way to many that have, but I honestly didn't want yesterday to end and each time the door would open my heart would drop a little more knowing that our time together was ending. Finally when it came and I was told to clean my room and go home I went to tell them goodbye and give them a hug...but they wouldn't let go. I know I spent a good 5 min. trying to help them to let me go so I could leave and doing this all without crying, a task that wasn't easy at all. My eyes were filled with tears and my heart ached so bad to be able to spend more time with them. They were so helpful. Whenever I needed anything done all summer long I could count on them. They always reminded me to not worry about the small things and it really is OK to laugh at yourself. Being twins they helped to remind me the importance of family and reminded me more than once of me and Katie. Nick also reminded me a ton of Joe (my new brother in law.) He was always trying to pick on me like Joe. It made being a way from my family a little easier. They would clean any mess up that I asked them to clean even if they didn't make it, but the one thing that I will miss the most is the participation that they gave in class and the encouragement that they would give not only to me but to the other children in class. Especially Nick yesterday when helping me fill out the student of the week for me for next week on the question what do you do best and with out missing a beat looked at me and said....teach. Thank you Nick and Erik for helping me this summer.

Katelyn's wedding

WOW! What a weekend. I went home Wednesday night to help finish up all of the last minute preparations for the "BIG DAY" on Saturday. I also had to gather a bunch of things for the first day of school on Monday. Not a wise thing to be gone 2 days before school starts. Planning for everything has been crazy, but it was good to be home, and everything went smoothly and we had a lot more time to relax and enjoy the time than I thought we would. Katelyn looked absolutely gorgeous and its hard to believe that my little sister is married. Here are just a few of the pictures from the weekend.