meanwhile in the 11th ward...

Hey all, it's been a while. Today I am very grateful for Sundays. I get to spend all day with Justin, and we don't have to do any homework. It's the best!

Relief Society...for the past several weeks that I've been serving every week we have new girls moving in and other girls moving out.. It is so hard to stay on top of! It makes visiting teaching a nightmare. On top of that, ward council...not my favorite. I got called in the beginning of January and had tentative VT assignments by the end of the month. Turns out that report got in super late at only 15% while the Elder's Quorum "killed it" with 62% in January.

Mmmk. Hold up. Before I listen to everyone start to council me at ward council, can we remember for a tiny sec that I got this calling, like, yesterday, and people didn't even get their assignments until the end of the month? I'm shocked we even got 15% to do their teaching. I was expecting more like, I dunno, zero. In the meantime, everyone's telling me how Elder's Quorum is "killing it" and Relief Society needs to step it up. K guys...we'll do that.

And can we also remember....I've done this before. I know how to do this job... so before everyone goes around the room and tells me, "You know, as president you really should..." and "One thing you should really consider..." yadayadayada can we all just...not? In the mean time, I want to extend a calling to two sisters who are new. Let's get them involved in the ward pronto! ...not. Idea shut down. Needless to say...I won't say it.

Justin and I got to see some family in Boise a while back. Gabe invited everyone to go ice fishing. Justin let me know he's never been. As much as ice fishing is very "hit 'n' miss" we decided he needed to have the experience! We drove over with Chase and Rachel and stayed Friday night with Gabe and Christy. We played a few rounds of "Saboteur" where I enjoyed being the "Saboteur" with Christy and Rachel the last round. Take that men! Gabe and Christy's kids are as cute as ever, and Brigitte now refers to me as 'Keaton's girl.'

Brigitte: "Where's Keaton's girl?"
Christy: "You mean Kelsey?"
Brigitte: "Yeah...Keaton's girl."

Ha.

Ice fishing was as fun as it can get when you're not actually catching fish. We had beautiful weather and great company. Lance and Kaleb joined Gabe, Chase, Justin and me for some cornbread and beef stew on the lake. The ice was crrrracking like crazy. There was one time Justin, Gabe, and I literally jumped out of our chairs because I swear the ice dropped an inch after we heard a huge crack right under us! If you've never heard ice crack beneath your feet while 20+ yards away from the shore, you can never quite understand the fear felt in that moment. Good times. We caught a whopping two fish (both from Kaleb's hole--nice work kiddo!) after setting 15+ ice fishing poles out. Not even Chase's A capella hymn solos could make the fish bite.

We hit a sweet outdoor hot springs after fishing. Hot water came springing out of the beautiful granite full of hornblende, quartz, and micas. Poor Chase caught a norovirus and felt sick from 9 that night until the middle of the next week. Justin and I stayed at Mitzi's that night. We had a fun visit. I miss hanging out with her all the time. We played tripole which I was surprisingly good at. Who accidentally gets a straight? Awesome. I was killing, but then Justin snuck up on me. No worries; I still beat him by four points. Score!

Justin and I played in our last floor hockey game Friday night. They had a guy who hit the small, rubber ball extremely hard and he hit me with that small, rubber ball three times and hit me with his hockey stick. Lame. I have the bruise of my life from that event! Thanks dude.

This week my 2nd block New Testament class starts (online). I am so not excited. Who would be when your professor emails you a week before and says, "If you can't commit 15 hours per week on this class alone this is not the semester to take this course." Really dude? Whatever.

Justin and I are going to Las Vegas this weekend.  We will be playing in a frisbee tournament wooo! I have two offers to student teach in Las Vegas. One is a high school, one is a middle school. After fasting and praying about it I've chosen the middle school. I figure that's when most schools have their students learn earth science so I better take advantage of having a mentor help me get it right. I love the power of fasting. We were able to go to the temple Saturday night with fasting and prayer in our hearts and we both felt very good about things we've been praying about. It definitely helps us grow together as a couple.

Well that's our update. On a funny note, Justin bought some spicy Doritos that were on sale, and after eating some before bed the other day I woke up the next morning with a swollen face! This exact thing happened over Christmas break...so weird. Beware of spicy enchilada Doritos!

Comic Frenzy

This week has been pretty chill. Justin and I have been getting ready to go to a Las Vegas tournament in a few weeks. It's the same one I went to last year but this time we are taking a girls team down so that means a lot more fun for me.

Tuesday was my spiritual high day. For a class I studied a talk by Elder Maxwell all morning, and then Justin and I went to devotional. The speaker was really good! I love devotional every Tuesday. That's something I'm really going to miss when we leave Rexburg. After devo I had a class until 4 and then I walked to the temple. Justin and his brother James met me there and we did the 4:30 session. I love being at the temple and living so close so we can go so often. It's the best part of the week.

Thursday my group was on again to teach Geography at the middle school. We taught supply and demand with red and black licorice, and then we taught scarcity with twinkies. It was fun to get on Ebay as a class and look at prices for twinkie boxes. The highest price is $100,000! For one box! Pretty crazy. Friday we taught about resources in different regions by using the "Settlers of Catan" cards. They had to trade with each other to get the resources they needed. It was a fun activity that got everyone moving and thinking, but the kids were wild on Friday afternoon! The classroom was so loud and the boys were especially hyper. How do people do this job by themselves? I'm pretty sure I lost about half my Settler's cards...oh well. Thank goodness I had two other girls who were helping keep everyone in control. Monday we teach again and I'm in charge of the lesson. I'm hoping to get some positive feedback again like last time, but if the kids are wild like they were Friday....we'll see.

Friday night Justin and I had a floor hockey game. The other team was not very good at all so we beat them pretty bad. The team that played before us, however, called "The Knucklepucks," is very good. I was watching their girl before we played and she was shoving guys out of her way and being super aggressive. Their guys are also really aggressive and Justin told me they're not afraid to shove people hard, including girls. I don't want to play that team! I'll get worked up; I'm too feisty to have someone start shoving me around. I hope we never play them, but I doubt we get so lucky.

Saturday morning we had a Relief Society activity where we learned how to reupholster furniture. We had like seven girls come which is too bad, but after we learned how to do a few things with tables and chairs we all went to D.I. together to see if there was any cheap furniture we could use our newly acquired skills on. I didn't buy anything, but I'll be on the lookout. For the most part, Saturday was spent doing much homework. I hate when my Saturdays are spent in our room on my laptop getting caught up. My dear, sweet husband detail cleaned our bathroom. We made a deal that if I scored in our hockey game he would clean the bathroom, and I scored twice. ;) That night Justin played our Zombies game with some friends and then Justin and I went to a "Comic Frenzy" show on campus. This is probably my favorite show of all time. It's stand up comedy and they involve the audience a lot. The show is an hour and a half but the time flies by because Justin and I really get a good laugh out of it! And it's refreshing because they are able to keep things clean and yet still be hilarious which is nigh impossible these days. They are very witty.

Today I am grateful for willing and proactive counselors who have taken a huge load off my shoulders. For the past few Sundays, all afternoon I've been working on spreadsheets for Relief Society for Visiting Teaching District Leaders, Compassionate Service members, and the Workshop committee, along with doing the headache of visiting teaching assignments. Now each counselor and the secretary are heading up each of these committees and I can take turns going to their meetings. I feel like now we have a handle on the whole Relief Society and it feels good not to be drowning anymore.

This week should be fun. We have a ward activity and a stake activity all centered around Valentines Day. I'm debating if I want to take Justin cross-country skiing with me on Saturday or if we want to zip over to Boise and see my brothers and sisters for some ice fishing. Either way I'll be looking forward to the three day weekend. My friend Kelsey Montgomery is reporting for a mission in a few weeks and she gives her farewell address this Sunday, so Justin and I are going to go see her for that. All my friends are either going on missions or they're pregnant--ha! That's all for now--until next time.

Feels like Spring!

After a couple weeks of -20 degree weather, lately it feels like spring with these lovely 20 and 30 degree temperatures!

Last week my education practicum teacher kept me after class and showed me my "progress sheet" thus far. To get an "A" in the class, we need to exemplify 13 specific teaching methods throughout the weeks we teach. She sat me down and pulled out my sheet and showed me I had six of the 13 checked off, and that was after our first day of teaching! She said I could walk away from the class with a C right now if I wanted to. She then went on to tell me all these good things she's noticed about my teaching. Sure we have co-teachers, but she said she's picked up on me and she is impressed. I was beaming. Not to turn this into a brag-fest (my mom wisely taught me..."nobody cares") but it was most exciting. "I bragged about you," she said!!! She is from Oregon, and she quotes Mean Girl...she is the best.

School this week was very chill. I didn't have to teach at all so everything felt much more relaxed. My body weight management class is kicking my trash! We cycle every day and it is my new favorite thing. Sure it's hard, but it's so great! It is very low impact, so it's really good for your joints. We are supposed to set a weight loss goal, so I just did something really small. Two years ago I went to the wellness center and got several body measurements, one of them being my body fat percentage which was 33% at the time. They did our body fat percentages at the beginning of the class and I'm 24% now. What a crazy transformation but I am very happy and Justin and I have been using myfitnesspal and exercising every day to stay/get fit.

My best friend from Boise (when I lived with Hart and Jory fall 2010) Mindy came to Idaho for a friend's wedding and asked to stay at our apartment for one night. She brought her boyfriend who she's been dating since September. I'm really happy she's found a really nice guy to date--we'll see where it goes. She and I had the best of times right before I left for college. It was good to see her and to catch up!

Friday night Justin and I had a floor hockey game. I haven't played floor hockey since middle school P.E, and here there were serious hockey players out to dominate the floor hockey rec league. Lo and behold, my husband is one of them! He and James (Justin's younger brother) have experience playing floor hockey, and Justin has experience playing real hockey so they tag teamed while our friend played goalie and Jessica (my Ultimate co-coach) and I tried our best to mess up the players on the other team. We didn't have any subs, while the other team could sub in a whole new team. We were dying by the end of the game. Who knew it was going to be so exhausting? But Justin and James were happy with our performance and said we played feisty (because that doesn't sound like me). I almost scored once, but I've got nothing on real hockey players. Justin and I celebrated our five month anniversary that day by buying some Dominoes pizza. Spicy Hawaiian is now one of my new favorites!

Saturday we played some indoor Ultimate in the morning and then spent some time in Idaho Falls at Winco. Justin signed up to play in a racquetball tournament next weekend at Apple Athletic Club. That night we hung out with Chase and Rachel and played my new zombie game. Chase managed to steal the win from me just as I was about to succeed! We watched 500 Days of Summer with Chase and Rachel. I don't know how they felt about it, but I love that show and think it's hilarious.

Today I think I finally got a handle on the Visiting Teaching assignments. It's taken longer than I thought which has been frustrating! But I feel like I know most of the ladies' names by now and I'm starting to get more of my personality across now that I'm not so timid. I don't know why but the married ladies in my ward kind of scare/intimidate me. Maybe because for the most part they either have kids or are pregnant, I don't know, but I feel like some of the girls don't like me. In fact I'm pretty sure there are some that definitely don't like me. Oh well. I had a meeting with the stake relief society president. I am so grateful I had this job once before with half the sisters I do now, because I would be totally overwhelmed otherwise. I wrote my old bishop a letter thanking him for all the training he did in ward councils and after church meetings because in this ward there is no such thing. Ward council has been interesting being the only female. The bishop brought up that the stake wanted to put together a Valentine's Dance and everyone in the room made it seem like it would be absolute torture and claimed it would have no success. I was the only who chimed in saying I thought it was a good idea. C'mon people--let the stake put something fun together! Sheesh.

I had student teaching interviews all week. My favorites are a Las Vegas middle school and a Mesa high school. I was happy because none of the interviews made me nervous. I feel like I have a lot to offer because I'm interested in getting involved in sports programs, and many of the teachers expressed that they need earth science teachers. The middle school is my favorite because the principal expressed they definitely need earth science teachers, and their school just got donated a ton of new ultimate frisbee gear. Jackpot! I am sold. Justin interviewed with a company in Las Vegas on Thursday for an accounting position, so we fasted and prayed for everything to work out. We are really hoping that works out for us and to live there for at least a year. We'll play life by ear from there.

Ever since I had my cavities filled my jaw has hurt pretty bad. I'm having trouble opening my mouth as of late. I can't open my mouth big at all, and Justin says I chatter my teeth at night. It's not quite like grinding my teeth but it's like doing little "chomp chomps" in my sleep...weird. I'm calling the dentist tomorrow to see if they can help.

This week we are on again for teaching. We have a great Halloween-centered idea to teach Supply and Demand...should be interesting.

My parents are coming up on their 42nd wedding anniversary. As far as I'm concerned my parents could be movie stars, and when they were my age they should have been! Their marriage is such a great example for Justin and me as we start out early trying to make righteous habits. I want to have a big family just like them one day.