Spritually Filled

This past weekend was just what I needed. The youth of my church had a youth conference this past weekend, "What Are You Broadcasting?" was the theme of the weekend. It was all about what things you are putting out to the world. Are looking for things that are lovely, of good report, or virtuous or praiseworthy? Are you being honest, true chaste, benevolent, virtuous and doing good to those around you? So basically, you are being an example, a light on a hill, to the world around you? The best part of the weekend was being able to listen to Sis Cook, First Counselor of the YW General Presidency, speak. She was fabulous! I was able to hear her speak three times. I would like to share some of the things that I think are most important for the youth today.

- Challenge our youth today. Give them an assignment and let them do it, don't do it for them.
- Have the youth plan and teach so they feel they have some ownership.
- Look at yourself and others as God sees you, not as the world sees you
- Live with virtue
- Serve the world around you
- Serve the Lord
- Serve your family
- One righteous young man/young woman can change the world
- We must teach the doctrines and principles of the church and gospel plainly and bluntly
- Young Women teach the Young Men benevolence
- Young Men teach the Young Women the Keys of the Priesthood

That's only a little bit of the three "trainings" I was able to sit in on. The best thing, I think, that I heard was to challenge our youth. We are so in the habit of not challenging our youth and allowing them to either accomplish the task of fail miserably. We are so afraid to let our kids fail (just look at the school systems and you will completely understand) and learn and grow from their failure. We are to the point that we don't want to challenge our youth so they can accomplish everything they want to. When they do struggle, we take over and don't allow them to struggle, problem solve and figure it all out. We want to take away the hardness of the task so we don't have to see them hurt and struggle. Yes, it hurts to see our youth struggle, but nothing done the easy way is ever truly worth it. We all have struggles and fights but it is how we handle those trials that make us who we are and allow us to grow and learn. If someone is always picking us up when we are down and they do not allow us to fight our way back, we have learned only one thing, that we don't have to fight, someone will always get us out of whatever the problem is and we don't have to do anything. Allow the challenges to come and allow yourself to get back on track. I am not saying we don't help and support them, just don't outright rescue them. Two cents done, now on to the rest of the weekend that I was able to participate in.

Friday I was able to be a COPES facilitator. I went through COPES facilitator training when I was in college and have been doing it with my job for quite some time now. I was so excited for this opportunity, but the guy I was partnered with must have felt I didn't know what I was doing because he took over everything. I had told him I have done facilitation for this age group of kids and that I do it on a regular basis at work and he would not let me get much in edge wise. I had to fight my to say anything. He was stuck on a script that he was given when the kids were learning something not on the script. I was trying to let them continue with the path they were on, but he would always go back to the script. That's okay, the kids learned at least a little something from it. Every group was different with different dynamics and they had to work together for a common goal. Some groups were tougher than others, but the last group of the day was my absolute favorite. They were so engaged in the activity and the discussion that I didn't want them to leave. They thought of things that I never thought about and discussed things that to a normal person would be way above their heads, but they grasped the point. They understood and it was fun to see the light bulb go off in their heads. That is why I love working with the youth. It's those light bulb moments. It was a spiritually fulfilling couple of days and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to be a part of it. It totally filled my spiritual tank which was, honestly, a little low. We have a great group of teenagers in the world today, we just have to teach and challenge them to get them on the right track. They will do wonders if we just believe and have faith in them.

The Spark of Memory

It's funny the things we randomly remember from when we were little kids. The other day I was brushing my hair after my shower and the memory of my dad brushing my hair came back. My dad loves long hair and when I was younger I had really long hair, almost to my elbows. On occasion, after my showers my dad would have me sit on the floor in front of him and he would brush my hair until it was dry. My hair would be long, straight and pretty the times he did that. When Mom was out of town or at work and I wanted my hair braided I would sit down on the floor in front of Dad and he would pull my hair into one of those "face-lift" ponytails then braid it. The ponytail and braid, no fail, would always hurt my head and give me a headache, but I didn't care because Dad did it. That was about all he could do with hair, but it worked for me. After that memory had lapsed, I then thought about all the different hair designs my mom did for me. I feel bad for my mom because she did not get the cheerleader daughter she always thought she would have. She got me, the anti-cheerleader, sports enthusiasts who could learn anything but despised cheerleading and cheerleaders. Poor Mom! She always did my hair some really cool different way. It would be in a french braid, french braid pigtails, bun, halo braid, whatever she was feeling for that day. Sometimes it would take an hour for her to do my hair perfectly, but it still looked pretty awesome. Now that I don't have that talent around me anymore, I miss my hair being braided and sitting for long periods of time while someone was doing my hair. I have tried on numerous occasions to braid my hair and do cute things with it, but I can't, I just don't have that skill set. Now my hair is either down or in a ponytail. Oh, well. Maybe sometime in the future I will be able to have those sweet skills, but I won't hold my breath.

Just a Little Rant

What's the deal with people hating on members if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons)? I don't get nor do I want to understand the pure hatred. I was reading an article yesterday online and my eye caught hold of a side article. Michael Otterson the public affairs guy for the Church had a couple of opinion articles stating the beliefs and some little known facts of the Church. I sat and read some of the comments that readers wrote and I was just disgusted by the vitriol and hate that was coming from these people. It didn't matter how many people stood up for the Church whether they were members or not, these people would continue to bash and bash and bash some more. It was almost as if they were refreshing their browsers every few minutes so they could jump on in with a comment in support of a fellow basher or find some way to try to prove a supporter of the article wrong or make them doubt what they know to be true. As a member of the Church, I am not going to engage in the arguments and bashing. I know what the truth is and I will be an example of it and live my testimony. I do become angry when I read that stuff (and I should stop reading it) but it is not my position to judge another person for his/her beliefs, so i won't do that. I will say though, it is disheartening when there are other religions and religious leaders that proclaim tolerance for all, but cannot seem to stop hating on the Mormons (the same holds true for all the politicians that are screaming that conservatives/republicans/etc are not tolerant because of their views of society yet, those same people hate and bash and have no tolerance themselves, but that is a discussion for another day). Anyway, rant over, just had to get that off my chest. Ahhhh, I feel better now :)

I had my end-of-the-year evaluation last week. Everything went well. I even got a little bit of a raise. It was a great feeling to know that I will be coming back for another year! I had two complaints from two teachers. It was funny, I wrote a small paragraph on their evaluations about some things that needed improvement for next year, and they wrote two - three pages of complaints against me. What's even better, not once did they ever tell me to my face or write a letter about what they were feeling and it wasn't sent until after the school year ended that the e-mail was sent to my principal. Thankfully, he saw through what they were trying to do and had the same feelings I had. One of the complaints came from a teacher who thought I was always second guessing her and taking authority away from her. I believe in being open with my teachers and telling them what is going on with students and the complaints I receive from them and the stories they tell me when the teacher does not send a referral with the student to my office or call me and let me know what happens. Most of the time I only hear the student's side of the story. Later I ask the teacher what happened and tell them what they student said happened. There was one time when this teacher sent the troubled student to my office with another student to tell me what happened. After the second student told me what happened he then goes on to say that the first kid really wasn't doing anything wrong. So I went and told the teacher what the second kid told me. She thought I was second guessing her abilities. I just wanted to find out from her what happened and let her know that the kids she thinks she can trust are pulling the wool over her eyes and will lie to anyone they can lie to so they do not get into trouble. Perfect example, a kid had his yearbook taken up by this teacher because another student was looking at it during class after she said they could not look at them during class. She comes to me all concerned because the yearbook she had taken up was missing so I check the cameras then do a little investigative work. I see the yearbook everyone was talking about then ask some kids some questions. One kid says, "She never took any yearbooks away from any kids today during class!" I tell her what student had said that and she says that student always tells the truth and never lies. I heard it with my own two ears and saw it with my own two eyes. The kid then goes to her the following day and says he saw the owner of the book pick-up the yearbook from her cart. She believes the kid, even after he bold faced lied to me the day before. I gave her some advice and told her that she can't always trust one kid after only knowing him/her for a school year. The kids I trust have shown me over the course of two to five years that they can be trusted. She also told me that another student lied to me and told her truth about another situation, but refused to give that kid's name. This situation was something that was possibly going to get a kid thrown out of school that should have been thrown out of school, but because the one kid lied to me and signed a statement, the kid who should have been thrown out got to stay. She wants to complain about me undercutting her authority? The other teacher complained about me being unfair in assigning subs and giving my friends an easier sub schedule than what she had. On top of that I am a hypocrite in all ways. Granted, some of the examples she pointed out looked like they could be hypocrisy if she didn't know what I was doing. Every time I was talking to someone in the cafeteria it was about a situation that needed to be handled or a questions a teacher had about a topic, but not once did I ever take my eyes off the students and what they were doing while in the cafeteria. There were many times when I was talking to a teacher would see a student doing something that they should not have been doing and the complaining teacher would walk right by as if nothing was going on and I would have to go ever and handle the situation because she wasn't even paying attention or thought that whatever the kid was doing was okay. There were also many times in which I would look at the camera and she is talking face to face with another teacher while kids are running around the cafeteria, trying to fight, and yelling at others and she didn't do a thing about the situation. Anyways, I could have been a whole lot harsher then what I was in the final evaluation, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt and allow for improvement the next year. I guess they thought they could hammer me like that since I was a teacher last year and they could not deal with me being moved into the role I am in now. Oh, well. They will have to deal with me for at least another year.

So far summer is treating me well. I have lost four pounds since summer started, which is great! I am not going to worry about how much more I need to lose because if I worry, I will not improve. I am just going to continue to work out and have fun. We finally found a place to live, we just have to wait to hear back about whether or not we are approved for the place. Leland started his internship and thins seem to be going good so far. One of the guys he was out with yesterday asked him if he has talked to the head guy about a possible job when he finishes with the internship and school. Everyone seems to be getting along with Leland and like the work he is doing. Hopefully, fingers crossed, prayers answered the way I would like for them to be answered. He received an e-mail from his advisor about a group in Portland, OR that has a position to be filled. He just sent that guy to the trash folder. Now Leland's advisor is telling him that there is no way he is going to finish his dissertation before the first week in August. That just lights the fire under his butt and gets him more motivated. He should be finished in July. If he spends all of his extra time in the lab and library writing, he will do it. I have faith in him and he will get it done when he says he will get it done. If not, he knows how mad I will be and he doesn't want to make me mad. Things will get done, I am sure of it. Dad goes in for eye surgery tomorrow. He is getting a lot of work done and hopefully all goes well. The doctor even told him if things go well he may be able to get my dad's vision to the point where dad will not need glasses anymore. I told my dad that would be really weird since my entire life he has worn glasses. I may not recognize him without glasses ;) That's about it for this week, sorry nothing too interesting. It's summer, not drama, what can I say?

Summer is Here!

Summer has finally made it's way to me! It has been one very long school year and I am grateful that it is now time to relax. So far I have fallen asleep and taken a two hour nap. Yesterday I told Leland that is what I have been doing and he told me I was still recovering from the school year. I have to say that I agree with him :) I have been able to workout four days in a row! That is the most exciting thing so far. I already have started feeling better with the workouts happening. Still do not have a new place to live. Leland did not get the job in Utah!!!! His third letter of recommendation was never submitted so the job went to someone else who had everything in, but more on that later. I have already started preparing things for next school year. I will be resetting all the locker combinations in the coming weeks. I just hope I am coming back next year. I never had an end-of the-year evaluation because my principal and I both forgot about it, so I don't know if I have a job next year or not. I did notice today that the settings on my database have changed and are now more restricted but I wonder why. I found out that my principal will not be back next year, which totally hoovers since he is the best principal this school has had. I don't really know who is coming to take his place but the rumors are that it is a principal from one of the other campuses or the guy that was here three years ago that I cannot stand. If he comes back for this next school year then I may end up being fired because I won't be able to hold my tongue. I guess I might want to look for another job starting in September ;) As much as I love summer, it sure is a summer full of uncertainty.

Back to Leland not getting the job in Utah. I am not sure if I told this story or not in a previous post so if I have, please bear with me. Leland received a call last week saying he did not get the job because his third letter of recommendation never came in. When Leland asked about it, the person who was suppose to write it said he never wrote it. From what I know, Leland would have had the job in a heartbeat if that letter made it in. Everything had already been sent in and HR was just waiting for that third letter. When I asked why it wasn't written, Leland just said that the person had so much stuff going on that he just didn't have the time to write it. My reply? "If someone asks you for a letter of recommendation and there is a due date for it, it doesn't matter how busy you are, you write the letter that should only take 30 minutes and get back to what you are doing. I think he didn't write it on purpose. I think he sabotaged the whole thing. he doesn't want you to leave SA". To which Leland agreed, partially. That's my thoughts and feelings towards it. If you have known someone for five years and always talk to others about him in such high regard, then it shouldn't take but 15 minutes to write a glowing letter of recommendation for that person. Anyway, that means two things, so far we are not moving anywhere, but Leland still does not have a job. Grrrrrrrr!

Yesterday Leland started his internship with MARP, the company he would like to work for when he graduates. I really hope it turns into something more than an internship. Hopefully he can impress those he is working with enough for them to hire him at least part time by August. It is going to be really tough if we have to live off my check for a few months. Especially if we move into the place I checked out yesterday and have to start paying off his student loans. I just want him to get something, even if it's just 20K-30K. I know he wants something more, but anything is better than 0 right now. I am always praying that he will find something. I worry a ton about this stuff. I will not be comfortable until I know we have enough saved up to last two years without jobs. I hope it never gets to the point where we have to live off savings for that long, but the way the economy is going and budget cuts in education and other places, it could happen.

Summer is here, and I am grateful for the time away from kiddos for a little whole. I know I will start to miss them, but it's nice to work without someone stopping in or calling my office every 10 minutes. I can actually get things done. Now it's back to working out the locker situations. I hope all is well with everyone out there in the blog world. And congrats to all my preggers friends! I know each one of you will make great moms because you are already absolutely amazing women.