My last first day of school...as a student!

Hello all. Happy Sunday. I love Sunday. I get to sleep in until 7 (how is 7 sleeping in? I will explain...) and I love church. I seriously do! I love our ward so much. We have great teachers and I really liked the Sacrament meeting talks on marriage and family. And every week our ward executive secretary and his wife make homemade bread for the sacrament. It's the best. I am free from any and all homework, and I get to spend almost the entire day with Justin! The Sabbath Day is a tremendous blessing!

Before the end of summer Justin and I wanted to get out one last time. He played in a frisbee tournament the Saturday before school started, and after that we stayed the night in a hotel. We went swimming and enjoyed a little romp away from home.

Monday morning at 6:00 I reported to my first class: Military Physical Fitness! The class has at least 100 people in it. It's crazy! We went over basic formations, and it's not called military physical fitness just because of the exercise...the sergeants yell at us a lot, but I just laugh to make it funny so I don't cry...haha. I am too sensitive. Wednesday I did the P-test. We had two minutes to do as many pushups as we could, two minutes to do as many sit ups as we could, and then we had to run two miles. I did 23 pushups, 34 situps, and ran two miles in 16:26. I was disappointed in my pushups and situps, but that's okay: I have lots of room to improve. The two miles was really hard because we ran them on the track outside (which makes NO sense to me because we have an indoor track!) and it was very cold that morning with lots of wind. Hopefully we move inside soon. That class is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I get up just as early and go swim for 30 minutes and then get ready for my 7:45 class. I really like this routine. For one, it gets me to bed EARLY (9:30, 10:00 at the latest) and with my crazy classes it makes me feel like I have a jump start on everything...like I'm one step ahead of the game. Justin's boss invited us to dinner that night, and Justin and James helped him put up a fort he built for his kids.

After military class I head to Madison Junior High for my teaching practicum. I teach a class this Wednesday out of a book called "The House of Scorpion." I'm supposed to find something earth science related in the book and teach that. I have an hour and five minutes to teach. It will be interesting.

I'm also in Family Foundations. I have Brother Bolingbroke, and he is great! I really enjoy it so far and I have a strong testimony of eternal, happy families. The family is the central unit of the church, and when all is said and done, family is what will bring us the most happiness. My mom and dad have both expressed to me the blessing it is to have children who live the gospel and teach it to their children. My brothers and sisters are great examples to me. Unfortunately, families can also be the source of great sorrow. My classmates have expressed that they don't want to get married and have children because they are afraid to raise kids in the wicked world we live in. I say the children are going to come one way or the other, so they might as well come to my home! But truly, ESPECIALLY in the crazy times we live in, living the gospel as valiantly as we can is the only way I think my children -- and myself -- will make it. It's a good thing I picked the best dang husband to do it all with me. =]

Health and Science teaching methods are two different classes that seem pretty chill. They're both three credits but they won't be really hard three credits. On the other hand, my Mineralogy class is three credits and it should be six. We spend three hours twice a week in class, and we have tests, quizzes, and labs like crazy. In the geology department, it's the hardest class you can take. I think it's ridiculous I'm required to take it. I'm NEVER going to teach 8th graders about ANY of this stupid stuff. So I have a bad attitude about it, and I'm already struggling. Our teacher is new and she's a Nazi. She refuses to post her power points, she lectures impossibly fast, and she requires us to pass every test with 90% or higher. If we don't get 90% or higher, we have to retake it, and every time we retake it, she docks 10% off the final grade. So if it takes me three times to get a 90%, my grade will be a 70%. Dumb.

I'm also in a special ed class. We talked about Tourette's Syndrome and our teacher showed us a video that flat out scared me. The child had a very severe case where his "ticks" forced him to bite himself beyond his control. As he got older his condition worsened. My teacher finally had to stop the video because we were all shaken. Talk about being afraid to have children....having a child with special needs would be SO HARD. I would check myself into a mental home before I watched my child hurt him/herself like that.

I also have a meteorology class. It goes from 4:30 - 8:30 every Tuesday afternoon...GAG! I am so upset! What the heck kind of class goes for four hours right during dinner time?? 8:30 is nearly my bed time! Nevertheless, that's what I get for taking 19 credits! Here's what the sky looked like after class...very fitting.

I also work 20 hours a week. Luckily, my supervisor LOVES me (literally) so when I asked her to do the Kurzweil desk she obliged. This basically means I sit at a desk and do my homework until someone has a question about the Kurzweil programs on our computers. Hallelujah! I'm also in charge of training new tutors, so I'm not totally useless. Heaven knows we need all the money we can get as we try to save to buy a car this winter...which seems nearly impossible when my cost of books was over $500 and I lost my full ride scholarship....I still have half scholarship which is great but I'm still annoyed that they changed the requirements. Lame.

I sold a lot of Mary Kay this week which was so fun! I also rented my dress out again so here and there we bring in an extra few hundred dollars. I almost forgot to pick up the dress from the dry cleaners to get to her grandparents on time. That would have been a disaster! The next time I rent it out I will actually make a profit because the money so far has paid off what it cost me to buy it. Awesome!

So between work and school I see Justin like, three hours a day. He is such an amazing guy. He is my biggest support. He makes me lunch and dinner everyday, complete with love notes! Ahh to be in the first years of marriage. If I didn't have him, I'd be eating oatmeal three times per day.

Other than all that I had an assignment where I had to be in a wheel chair for half a day. We had to complete several tasks like opening a door without help/with help, using the rest room, drinking from a drinking fountain, going up and down a hill, and getting in and out of a car. It was pretty hard. I am determined to ask if I can help push fellow students to class if I see them rolling around campus.

It would be impossible to get in and out of a car without help. Justin ended up having to lift me into the seat. Bless him.

I really did get the hang of it by the end of the day. It really made me appreciate having two functional legs.

Saturday we finally had some time together, so we went to the temple in the morning, and then after finishing a few homework assignments we went golfing with Trisha and Travis and Keaton! It was SO FUN! I missed the balls A LOT but on the 9th hole I actually drove the ball the farthest! Travis is hecka good. Justin impressed me at his skills (everything he touches turns to gold....he's good at EVERYTHING he tries) and Keaton and Trisha were also impressive! I was definitely the worst but I had a huge thrill anytime I hit it remotely decent. Travis said to Trisha that I was "my own cheerleader" which is so true. When I would hit it well I would yell and cheer. Woot woot! Trisha and Travis were generous enough to take us all out to dinner after! That was so awesome! We went to The Hickory which is the new BBQ place in town. We quite liked it. Thanks again Trisha and Travis!

Today we did our ward reorganization which made for 6 hours of meetings today. Woof! But it was really good and I'm excited to have all the callings filled again. For our lesson today we just had everyone introduce themselves, and then at the end my counselors and I bore our testimonies. This calling has its challenges but it's rewarding when you see the spirit working its magic through you, and we saw that today.

 In other news, Justin is working on a business he's considered for a few years now. It's called "Dates to Go" and he's got some clever ideas. It will be exciting to see if it takes off. He's working on it with his brother James, so it's pretty cool.

That's all our news! Until next time.