A Few Things I'm Grateful for this Week...

I have now been teaching middle school for a little over two weeks. I am loving it, but realizing how time and mostly time consuming it is. I really am grateful for my experiences in DC because I know they prepared me to be an effective teacher here. Though, I'm not going to lie, I really, really miss them. I love everything about DC and need to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I wish these decisions were more simple, but I know everything will work out how they should. Middle school is hard. I'm not used to this whole baby sitting thing. And, I'm not going to lie, I feel like they should know what continents are in the ninth grade...But, we'll just start from square one and get them where they need to be.

Side note--In class Thursday we were discussing the Five Themes of Geography. One of the themes is movement. For a starter I asked them to write down every mode of transportation they have ever been on. After listing car, plane, bike, skate board, horse, this one kid said, "what about my mom? She carried me around for 9 months." I was dying laughing.

I'm grateful for my 280 students :) I'll let you know when I learn all of their names.
I'm grateful for the BYU football team. Last Saturday, at 2 AM we went and met the team as they returned from their victory in Texas against Oklahoma. It was a HUGE UPSET. I loved seeing them. They were flattered to have thousands of their fellow students there, yet they seemed humbled...and TIRED. It was a really cool experience. And a great thing to rub in my students faces as about 90% of them hate BYU.
I'm grateful for my brother, Sheldon! I got to see him last weekend on his way up to college. Wow. I can't believe it. Sheldon, my little brother, is in college. My parents are officially empty nesters. I wonder what in the world they will do? Weird.
I'm grateful for the men and women who work for and fight for our nation. I can't believe it was eight years ago that I sat in my 9th grade first period. I remember the day pretty clearly, and I'm sad that my students, who are now the same age I was, don't fully remember the day or the significance of the events of September 11, 2001. I'm so lucky to be an American. I'm blessed.
Last Saturday, when I entered the temple, I was told by a male temple worker, not much older than myself, that there was a two hour wait. He apologized and I continued to enter the temple. Anyways, as I was sitting, waiting (for two hours ;)) I just thought about what a huge sacrifice he was making. He was there for much longer than two hours and he worked weekly. I'm grateful for those who work at the temple to allow us to stop by whenever we can. He was the one making the sacrifice. I'm sure he's been blessed for it. I'm grateful for his example :)

PS--I just discovered this whole bolding thing. It's a marvelous invention.