The End and the Beginning

We had another amazing week! Tuesday was my last day teaching my students. I taught them about light years and just how much space there is between objects in our universe. Their minds were blown! It was a fun lesson. I scaled out the solar system to fit in our classroom and then again on a bigger scale to fit in our courtyard.

(Just for fun: if you scale out our solar system where every 100 million km equals one meter, from the Sun to Pluto is 60 meters. On that scale, the sun has a 1.3 cm diameter (about the diameter of the width of my index finger) and Earth has a diameter of a single strand of hair (12 micrometers)! If you move the scale down one power (distance from the Sun to Pluto is 6 meters (diameter of the sun is 1.3 mm: about the size of my wedding ring band)), the next closest star to our sun would be in Hawaii. Yeah...I was doing a LOT of math to prep for this lesson.)

We used the speed of light to calculate how long it takes light to travel in our solar system. Astronomy is so fun to teach. I had three great days of teaching astronomy subjects (seasons, stars, and light years) before my time at Schofield was finished. Wednesday was my last day of student teaching. It was kind of an awkward day because...do you teach? Do you party? I didn't know what to expect because what we did wasn't up to me, it was up to my mentor teacher. Well lucky me, I was blessed with an incredible mentor teacher. She organized a going-away-day that wasn't awkward and gave me closure.

First she bought me a "teacher starter kit" with all sorts of first year teacher supplies. Second, she made a huge card that we sent around each of the class periods for the kids to sign and write nice things if they wanted. We taught about our sun in detail so it didn't really matter that the kids were preoccupied making going-away cards for me. So many of my students made gifts for me beyond the giant card that made me feel so loved! I had about seven personal cards from my 4th period class. One student bought me a dozen roses for crying out loud! "Roses for Mrs. Rose!" she said. They are so sweet. My 4th period class was definitely my favorite. Every single student in that class is phenomenal. They all gave me a hug on the way out the door, and half of them came back at the end of the day for one last hug and asked me for my "autograph." It was priceless! Some of the things the kids wrote brought tears to my eyes. I love those kids and I'll never forget them. I kept a journal during student teaching and on Friday I took the time to write about each of my students. I almost cried saying goodbye to them. I was very proud of myself for keeping it together. I hope to high heaven I get the 7th/8th grade teaching position at that school in the fall so that this goodbye wasn't goodbye at all, just "farewell" until fall when I could have them again in my 8th grade class! I've completed my application except for the certification part which I'm still waiting on. As soon as I have that in I can start applying to schools in the district and principals will call/email for interviews.

My giant card framed

One of my students came up with the poem. It reads:
"We're glad we were your students
We've learned to love you so
We can't believe the end is near
We hate to see you go!

Remember all the fun we had
It's been a great adventure
But most of all remember
You're a VERY special TEACHER"

Wednesday night Schofield  jazz band put on a concert that I surprised Justin with. The students served Olive Garden and the kids played some awesome songs! My favorites were when they played "Good Time," "Moves Like Jagger," and "Call Me Maybe." so fun!

The classroom I taught in.

Geologic Time Project

Biomes Project

Geologic Time Project

Meanwhile I am turning up my Mary Kay business. I have a full week this week as I'm doing facials with several ladies in my ward. My goal is to do 30 faces in 15 days. My goal is to do 18 this week! I'm excited to start that up again. I have a lot of goals for the summer. I'm happy to have this business to do at my pace. I have a website now for my customers to do online shopping! You can shop anytime here!

Thursday my visiting teacher took me out to lunch to celebrate being officially "graduated." I owed a debt to the school that I finally paid off that morning so they sent me an email that the school had graduated me and that I could expect my diploma in the mail soon. I guess it was mailed to Arco so Mom is forwarding it to me. Excellent! It feels weird...I don't feel like a college graduate with a B.S. degree but I am! Crazy. My visiting teacher is amazing. She and her husband have seven kids. They moved into the ward at the same time as us so we have lots in common. They are the family we gave our couch to. We got that back last week. She invited Justin and I over for tacos on Saturday night with one of our investigators and new members (Sharon and Bob). We love spending time with the Heymore family!

Bob, Justin, Me, Sharon, Sis. Maggert, Sis. Baker

Friday Justin took me out to eat to celebrate being done student teaching. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings and then a crepe dessert place that does ice cream in a crepe with toppings. It was delicious! He had also ordered me an ice cream cake so we picked that up to eat throughout the week. We also ended up buying curtains for our bedroom that night. The blinds aren't sufficient for keeping the heat out even though our bedroom only gets morning sun. It doesn't matter...it's 80 degrees before the sun comes up! The curtains have really made a difference in keeping it cooler. It got to 103 this week....yikes!

It now says "Former Student" on mybyui website...I guess that makes it pretty official too!

The Crepe Shack had all sorts of board games we played while we ate our dessert.

Crepe with chocolate ice cream, strawberries, banana, nutella, and whipped cream! Yum!

Oreo ice cream cake!

Saturday we went to a wedding that was held at our chapel. The couple being married is investigating the church. They had a really nice ceremony and they had dinner and dancing after but we couldn't stay because we had given the sisters a ride and they had to leave so that was too bad we missed out on that.

That's pretty much our news. Justin is rocking it at work. He is getting more involved with the meetings his bosses have. He has been doing a lot of training on the new system he's implemented so he's definitely in a good place as far as his job goes. We're so grateful for the life we have here! Oh, I also bought a fedora...I plan to protect my skin from the sun this summer and to do so with style. That's it for this week.

Teaching Update: 3 days to go!

Do you remember the girl I asked about being baptized last week? She's set for baptism for this month, May 31st! I loooove being a member missionary =]

This last week of teaching was great. I got to teach the reasons for the seasons which is one of my favorite topics to teach. After teaching them the CORRECT reason for the seasons they got a kick out of watching a video of Harvard graduates INCORRECTLY describing why we have seasons. It was so funny! They were like, "They are college students!" Yes children...you are smarter than the average college graduate! At least about seasons... My supervisor came in and did her final observation with me while teaching that lesson and she had nothing but praise by the end of it. Of all the student teachers she's observed this semester, she told me I am the only one she's given a perfect score to (4 out of 4 for all categories) and she's given that score to me twice! She also let slip to me that she went to BYU-Idaho last weekend with Schofield MS and Silverado HS principals. She asked if the Schofield MS principal (the one over my school right now) was going to hire me and he said absolutely that he was doing everything in his power to keep me for next year. The best part is...it's a 7th and 8th grade teaching position which means I could have some of my students from this year in my class next year! And it would be my very own classroom! And I'd be making money! I'm really hoping that it all works out. She also told me that not many student teachers are being considered for hire for the fall so I am feeling pretty awesome.=] This week is my last week student teaching and it's not even a full week: only until Wednesday. My kids are upset. Okay let's be more accurate: they are practically in rebellion. They want me to stay but I keep explaining to them that it's not up to me. As much as they'll miss me I know for a fact I will miss them more than they'll miss me. I love those dang kids so much. It is pure joy teaching them.

This video is super condensed as to why Earth has seasons...in case you want to be smarter than the average person. It's more than just the tilt...

Here are some of my kids creations after our last unit: Geologic Time

They drew all these pictures with oil pastels...amazing

Friday my mentor teacher was out and she had a video scheduled but it is SO BORING to watch the same video five times in a day so I decided to teach without her there. I taught about star life and death for low-and-high mass stars and my kids loved it. My 6th (and last) period class has a bunch of Mormon kids in it and after one really great question ("Could a supernova explosion near our solar system light up our sky?") it spurred me to gather them after class and share with them my idea that the three days of light when Christ came to visit the Nephites was perhaps a result from a supernova in a nearby galaxy! They thought that was cool but I mistakenly took one of my students to be LDS who was not. I asked her if I could meet her parents (if I had to pick, she would be my very top student -- she's so smart) and she said her mom was picking her up so I met her mom and invited her to hear the missionary discussions. She said that her friends have invited her to church and activities and they've heard the lessons so it sounds like they have close friends who are LDS who are sharing the gospel with them so that made me really happy. I think about these kids and the decisions they're making. I have been sharing the gospel with a lot of people since we moved here and I want to badly to preach to my kids but I know I can't and I know their parents wouldn't appreciate it but MAN do I wish more than anything that they could all hear the message of the gospel from somebody. Since I can't share the gospel to my students, I challenged one of my students to share the gospel with one of his friends this week. Ha! I told him I expected a report on Monday so we'll see how it went for him.

It was teacher appreciation week this week. My kids gave me all sorts of gifts! One of them gave me a pack of Twizzlers with a note that said, "So sad you're leaving after you've been all 'twizzled up' in my education"...how sweet is that? Love them! 

Saturday we played ultimate for the first time in a while. I wore a light-weight long sleeved shirt to protect my skin from the sun. Everyone thought I was crazy but I am protecting my young skin from skin damage that will surely manifest itself in the future! We had a lesson with an investigator in our home in the afternoon and then we went out to eat. It turned into a quest to find a suitable hamburger place. The night before we shared a sushi roll that was very disappointing so we needed the burger to deliver and we are picky! We drove up and down Eastern avenue trying to decide between three different restaurants. When we finally picked one we walked in and turned around because it still wasn't right! We finally settled on Smashburger and ordered our burger, fries, and oreo milkshake: it was perfect. We came home and watched "Gravity." We enjoyed it! I have absolutely no desire to enter space. Ever.

Today Justin was supposed to give a 20 minute talk but by the time it was his turn there were two minutes left in the meeting. Annoying much! The sister missionaries asked me to teach the young women with them as they taught about member missionary work. We each wrote our testimonies in a Book of Mormon and then we challenged them to give it to someone this week. I testified that if, as they were writing their testimonies, someone in particular was coming to their minds, that was the Holy Ghost prompting them to share the Book of Mormon with that particular person. I shared an experience I had when in a religion class two years ago a teacher asked us, "Is there someone in your life that needs your forgiveness?" and someone immediately popped into my mind. He then said, "If you have a thought about a specific person, that is the Holy Ghost telling you that that is the person that needs you." I told them about how it was scary at first but I wrote that person a letter and felt an increase of love from both the person I wrote to and from Heavenly Father. I promised that if someone specific was coming to their minds then that was the person they needed to share the book with this week. I also promised them that I would do it too, because someone in particular popped into my head as we taught, so next Sunday we will all report and you will for sure be able to read about it next week. My favorite thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is sharing it because I know it's true and I've seen it change the lives of the people we've been teaching who have just been baptized. It's a miracle.

This is Sister Maggert: she is being transferred and I will miss her! She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She's a Georgia peach! I'd have her meet Keaton (she goes to BYU-I) but she definitely wants to live in the South (Tennessee or Georgia) so...maybe not ;)

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mother! I love my mom soooo much. She is a superhero -- you'd have to be to have nine kids! Also Happy Mother's Day to my sweet mother in-law! She managed to keep her sanity after raising four rowdy boys and she is a wonderful example of kindness and service. I'm truly grateful for all the women in my life.

Girl's Weekend in Idaho

Our girl's weekend in Arco was such a fun get-away! I took two days of student teaching off to fly up and visit family. Thursday my flight left at 10 in the morning and I got into Idaho at noon. Trisha picked me up, we ran a few errands together, and then she let me borrow her and Travis's truck to take a romp to Rexburg and see Keaton and friends. I went to the Reading Center where I used to work and gave my old supervisor (Sister Engstrom) a surprise visit. We gabbed for a few hours (not kidding...we are great friends and she's Mom's age!) and I also met up with my brother in-law James while he was at work. We both met up with Keaton after his welding lab and had dinner at Coasta Vida. James took off with his girlfriend while Keaton and I hit Walmart for him to get some earplugs. Apparently his roommate snores. Well halfway into Walmart we were stopped by a sales associate who told us there was a "code blue" and we needed to evacuate immediately. Umm...okay? Keaton thought he heard him say something about a "bomb threat" but I told him to stop spreading rumors and move. We ended up hanging around by the Walmart employees at the back of the parking lot to try to hear what was going on and Keaton was right...there was a bomb threat! The fire department came and blocked off the main road, police officers were everywhere checking cars in the parking lot for anything suspicious...it was fun to see for the 20 minutes we were there but we decided to move on and get our earplugs at Broulims...Rexburg: where anything can happen!

We got ready to play ultimate after our store adventures. We had a fun group show up to play some short-court in the I-Center and we played for two hours. Keaton really enjoyed himself and he was awesome! My favorite part was when Keaton and I both burst into "Let it Go!" at the same time...good times!

We went back to his apartment and watched the news for a few minutes and I headed back to Trisha's. It was good to have the time to visit Rexburg while I was in Idaho. Friday Trisha and I waited around unto 12:30 for her mother in-law to babysit her kiddos and then we headed to Shae's school to do an orientation meeting with her. We headed to Arco after that and were the first to arrive. The weather all weekend was breezy, cloudy, and rainy/snowy. It was a breath of fresh air after the monotonous sunshine we have in Vegas. We enjoyed visiting with Mom until the other sisters arrived. The Boise group got in and we had Trisha's soup for dinner. We enjoyed visiting about bowel movements, pregnancy, and birth stories (a true Beal gathering) and watching "Philomena" that night. We stayed up even later and gabbed until midnight. 

The gals, but missing Katie and Rachel

Saturday morning Jory made her fabulous crepes and Mitzi and I went for a 2-ish mile run/walk. We had fun visiting more during our exercise. The gals hit The Family Dollar and the A&A after that to pick up last minute food items and of course, just to browse! We bought the ingredients for jalepeno popper dip per request. Trisha introduced us to our service project of coloring some items for kids doing school work so a few of us colored while we watched Steel Magnolias. We had Christy's fabulous salad, soup, and bread for dinner and watched two more movies: Austenland and Memiors of a Geisha. There was lots of visiting in-between but also some sleeping: we partied hard! My favorite part of that day was looking at old family pictures. It made me reflect on what a wonderful childhood I had! We all have the fondest memories of Mom and Dad, our siblings, and The Farm.

Good Ol' Duke!

Sunday my flight didn't leave until 12:45 so we had time in the morning to have breakfast with everyone. We got ready to leave around 10 and I started crying when I was saying goodbye to everyone. Dad said family prayer and Mom begged me to move closer! It's hard being away from family...I love Idaho so much! I took some pictures with Duke and King Mountain with Mom's green grass, the blue sky, and white mountain. I also filled up my water bottle one last time with Dad's utility sink water ;) I had a great time in Arco and I already look forward to visiting again this summer for Atomic Days and to see EVERYONE. 

I am obsessed with these mountains!

Lake Mead

Trisha drove me across the desert to the airport. I sat next to an older couple on the flight and had a nice conversation with them. They were on their way to Hawaii. I tried to slip in some gospel things but we were landed by the time I could say anything more. I was so happy to see Justin waiting for me at the airport. Absence makes my heart grow oh-so fond of him! 

I now have 11 days left of student teaching. I can't wait to be done. I started a countdown for myself on the whiteboard at school...my students are not happy. Oh well! Let the countdown begin!

It wouldn't be Arco without a cow carcass on the yard 

This week we did a lot of missionary work. The sisters have a three-companionship right now so one of the sisters has to go on splits with the members. So I've been doing a lot of splits with the missionaries and will continue to do so for the next 10-ish days until the next transfer and we'll see what changes. We had two baptisms this week and we have two more scheduled in the next two weeks. I met a lady tonight who came with the man who was baptized and they've been friends for a long time. I talked to her after the baptism and asked her if she'd been taught by the missionaries, and then I asked her what she'd think about being baptize. She said, "Yeah, that'd be nice." Look at that! Committing people to baptism! I caught the sisters before we left so they could set a date with her.

We had stake conference this weekend and I am so impressed with the work of salvation that's being done in our area. The members here are so strong: youth are constantly inviting friends to church and members are very welcoming to new members and those investigating the church. I love being part of it! Living far from family is hard, but we have the gospel, we have our ward family, and we are so happy.