Something To Smile About :)

So remember back in High School when Ken Garff decided to be a big name and donate a car to a lucky student?

Yeah... I wasn't that student...

BUT

As a teacher I now know that Ken Garff does more than just cars...

He does bikes!

In fact, my school gets 6 bikes to give to lucky students as part of the "Road To Success" program.

That's a drawing every 6 weeks during the school year
(none of that waiting around until the last week stuff).

There was a drawing today
(okay, the 6 weeks hasn't been perfectly consistent, but that's the general idea)

It also happened to Dr. Seuss' birthday today.

The Mayor came.

The Superintendent came.

They read their favorite Suess books to the kids.
(2 assemblies... I'm not sure what they read to the older bunch, but my chillins got HOP ON POP and MR. BROWN CAN MOO, CAN YOU? Very entertaining, I must say...)

The Mayor mixed up the bike raffle tickets.
(Students earn one each week they read at least 20 mins/day, 5 days/week -- TWO raffle tickets if they read all 7 days)

The Superintendent picked a raffle ticket.

"Do we have Ms. Turner's class here?"
(My kids squeal a bit and all raise their hands)

"This is a girl's name..."
(The girls all sit a little taller... some of them bouncing on their pockets...)

"Is there a C.?"

You should have seen her face.

Priceless.

Complete shock turned to radiant joy as she stands up.

She is visibly SHAKING as she walks to the front.

She can barely contain herself!

They congratulate her, shake her hand, send her back.

She bounces back... waving... with a huge grin.

Then she turns and gives me a big thumbs up :)

It was awesome.

She comes from very, very little.

As in at Christmas when all the kids were getting awesome toys and Gameboys and puppies, C. got a new shirt and a pair of jeans.

And was super excited about it.

Now, she gets to go pick out her new bike.


Even better is that she is an AVID reader. She LOVES books. ESPECIALLY Dr. Seuss.

I can't think of a more worthy recipiant...



But the VERY BEST PART?


It's her birthday today.

Happy Birthday, C!
You'll never forget turning 7 :)

Back to the Real World...

'Tis the season for trying to remember what goals we set last year, wondering why we even set New Years Resolutions since we always forget them and then go on making them again...

...oh the human race...

And yet I do it too. Mind you I figure that if I write them down, I have no excuses for forgetting, right? :)

I always set smaller "goals" (really just things I want to do) for the Christmas break. Things I want to do to maximize my time off and enjoy this time of the year.

Some of the things I had on my list (which I completed) this year include:
See the lights at Temple Square
Knit a scarf (ok... I cheat... I use a loom... and I'm not quite done yet)
Do a puzzle (technically I did 2... one with Jessie and another on my own)
Make mint fudge
Make our traditional Holiday food items with Mom (Christmas braids, candies, etc.)
Finish my book (I've been so tired and busy lately that I'd had it sitting around forever)
Give really meaningful gifts
Be social on New Year's Eve
See friends in town (missed seeing Camille's crew -- I was sick -- and Katie's crew :( -- hopefully I'll catch the Pondster before she heads back to Cali)

I really wanted to go skiing over the break, but it just didn't happen.

Other things I did:
Spoiled the Cal-bear :)
Went to Narnia (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and out to Chili's with some friends
Finally re-watched INCEPTION (still soooo good!)
Saw A BEE MOVIE
Played lots games (and never won :( -- except for Mario Kart...)
Watched a bunch of LIE TO ME episodes
Music, music and more music
Family time! :)
Watched a few traditional Christmas movies
Cleaned and organized to make construction a little more sane
Worked out
Slept in



And tomorrow... it's back to school.

The good thing about this is having a schedule.
And institute is starting up again.
And Thursday is Temple Night.

It's already after 11?

Darn.

I better go to sleep...

Grateful Charts and Open Hearts

So I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but it required a poster. And I seriously have gone to get a poster for it several times and whichever store I happened to go to has been out of single poster boards.

SERIOUSLY

But then last night I was driving home from a night out with some old roomies (Can I just say I love Nancy and Alyse? I don't see nearly enough of them! And then I happened to end up seeing old roomies Kamie and Brett too... crazy love!) and just got thinking about various things (driving in the car is the best time for me to think) and just felt like now was the time to do it. No matter what.

So I got home, raided the craft closet and was able to find a very large piece of construction paper. It'll do. For now.

I sticky-tack-ed it up by my door and wrote across the top:

I AM GRATEFUL FOR...

Now, any time I go through my door (in or out) I write something I'm grateful for. And I try to put something that is IN THE MOMENT.

For example:
Just now I wrote "memories of Camille"
(yes Mills... YOU! You must say we have a lot... and I'm letting my hair go curly tonight but it was doing something funky on top -- new hair cut -- so I stuck in a claw... which I haven't done FOREVER)

Anywho.

I love it already.

I have a lot to be grateful for...and remembering that really does open my heart.

Life is good.

☼

And I go in/out of my room a lot (11 times in one day! 22 things on the chart!)

☼

And I wrote the start date on the chart. It might confuse some people though. I most definitely agree with this! (sidenote...this same blogger just gave birth to the cutest little boy! I'm super happy for them!)


♥ LOVES TO YOU ALL! ♥

Good "Pointe"!

How many times in your life do you think you’ve heard the phrase:
“a broken heart and a contrite spirit”?

A LOT, right?

But what does it really mean?

That was a question that came up in institute a few weeks ago and so we turned to the dictionary... HERE…

…easy enough to understand, right?

OK – How about “broken heart”?

(You can’t find it in the dictionary)

But for all you dancers out there, I had a thought.

…A “POINTE” TO MAKE, REALLY…

(and if you don’t happen to be a dancer, you still can read it)

***ahem***

New pointe shoes are beautiful:
Smooth. Clean. Seemingly perfect.
But they are HORIBLE to dance in:
Extra slippery. And they give you terrible liines. (note exhibit A)

(exhibit A)...EW...

In order to get a nice line, you need to beat the shoes up a bit.

YOU HAVE TO BREAK THEM IN

You have to bend them and work them. They’ll get a little dirty. The satin on the platform starts to rub off and fray.
But your lines are SO MUCH BETTER! (note exhibit B)

(exhibit B)

The “broken” shoes are molded and willing to work with the wearer’s will.(alliteration not intended)

And so it is with us.

Our hearts represent our desires. Our motives. Our purposes.

And they are the “pointe shoes” worn by our Savior.

Once we’re beaten up a bit we make not think we “look” as good…
…but the results can reach perfection.

Let Him mold you. Let him shape you and break you in. Let him do this and your will will become his own.

Sharing Some Scriptorial Studyings...

So the other day I felt the need to write.

And when I started writing, I found myself writing about things that I'd been thinking about in the scriptural sense.

And it was good.

REALLY good.

...(and by good, I mean therapeutic)...

And I figured that if it did me such good, maybe some of my thoughts would serve as a positive reminder to someone else.

maybe.

And if not -- well -- you get an insight into my thinking.

(And I've got my thinking on hand for some future Sacrament Meeting talk☺)

SO... if you do choose to read... ENJOY!

~~~~~~~
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3rd Nephi is probably my favorite book in The Book of Mormon (9:14-22 and 11:7-17 are my favorite passages -- they seem to summarize the Gospel so well! Powerful stuff). The power that I feel each time I read of Christ's visit to the Americas is overwhelming. I've taken to comparing his sermon to the Nephites to the Sermon on the Mount, finding some of the more subtle differences. There is one slight difference that has had a real impact on me. Let me preface it with Moroni 10:32:


"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all you might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ, and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can nowise deny the power of God."


I think many people (such as myself) tend to look past the word "perfected". We forget it is a process and instead focus on the admonition given in 3N 12:48:


"Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in Heaven is perfect."


What a daunting task that seems! To be PERFECT just as our Father and Elder Brother are. Comparing it to the same verse (48) in Matthew 5, however, I found that slight difference:


"[Ye are therefore commanded to be perfect], even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect."

...([]=Joseph Smith Translation)...


Here, Christ does not include himself in the definition of perfection. For though he was the perfect example in all things, he was not yet in a perfected state... the Greek word for perfect also can mean complete, finished or fully developed... giving us insight to the fact that Christ could not call himself perfect as He still had work to complete. He had to be finished with his work on Earth and become fully developed spiritually through his sacrifice to be in that state of perfection.

We are here to be perfected... not to be perfect.

We too have to complete our own missions here on Earth and offer up our own sacrifice: a broken heart and a contrite spirit (3N 9:20). That's what I'm trying to focus on.

Another focus I'm trying to make in on my Divine Nature. In working with Young Womens-aged girls in Especially For Youth, you can probably imagine that I bring the Theme into play a lot.

...(One of my Co-Counselors had it memorized. We girls thought that was awesome of him)...


"We are daughter of our Heavenly Father who loves us, and we love Him. We will stand as witnesses of God in all thing, and in all times, and in all places, as we strive to live the Young Women's values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity, and
Virtue
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the Temple, and enjoy the blessings of Exaltation.


As literal sons and daughters of God, we have inherited, through our Divine Nature, God-like attributes which we should be working to develop. Many of these qualities are there within the YW values.

One thing I've found myself focusing on is not only the value of virtue in the sense of being pure, but also in the way it is used in Luke 8 when rehearsing the story of the woman who had an issue of blood. Here when Christ spoke saying that he felt virtue leave him, the word meant power. To me, the YW's value is not only a reminder of the need to be clean, but also of the POWER which we carry over the adversary to say, as Moses did(1:13, 16):


"Who aren't thou? For behold, I am a [child] of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?...

...Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten."


Also as heirs, we are entitled to receive the same blessing given to our Elder brother. Romans 8:16-17 is one of my favorite scriptures reminding us of what lies for us in the world to come.

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♥ Man -- the Gospel is GOOD! ♥

Well, hello there!

Ok... considering the fact that I haven't written anything since... February? (wow...) You are all probably expecting an update... here is the [very] short version:

1- Mitch got his mission call the first week of March to Sapporo, Japan. He actually said a few days earlier that he felt like he was jinxing himself, but that if he could choose his own mission, he would go to Northern Japan... I guess it wasn't a jinx! He was like a little boy on Christmas morning:
Notice the dazed look? Yeah... he was in blissful disbelief.

2- Mitch left for the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on May 19th. Matt, Michelle and Callan were able to come down for the farewell!

The Oh-So-Handsome Missionary:

The Fabulous Family:


And the most delightfully, darling, chunk of a nephew around!:Mitchell is absolutely loving the MTC and is devouring the Japanese language. He's always had a thing for Japanese culture and language, though -- so we aren't surprised :)

3- School ended. I officially survived my first year of teaching! (With no parents yelling at me either... though I was assumed to be a HS/College aide more than once...) Once the year was over, I spent the next week cleaning out my classroom for the summer, sorting supplies, etc. It's a never-ending job! I miss my kiddies, but it's nice to have the summer off and still get the same paychecks! ;)

4- The week after cleaning and before starting #5, I got to see my dear friend, Camille, her hubby, Cody, and their darling boy Jaden! They were in town for a bit during their crazy 3-week road trip so we took a morning to enjoy a Smoochie Smoothie :) I also got to go to my friend, Greg's, cabin at Bear Lake.

5- I've been working EFY again. I worked three weeks straight, had last week and this week off then go back next week. I love it! I had forgotten how exhausting being a counselor is, though. All three of my groups have somehow worked out with more guys than girls. For anyone who has been to or done EFY, you know that this is unheard of... and yet this year is crazy common. I had it 3 weeks in a row! And 2 of those weeks it was two guy counselors with me! Craziness! (My girls have been loving it... ;) )

6- Last week I was actually somewhat social! (Ok... I have had a few other sporadic social events since summer started...) I went to a birthday party one night and a house party another night.

I also went out to lunch with some of the girls from High School and was pleasantly surprised when another of my best friends, Katie, walked in the door with her baby, Kyson! They're living in Texas, but randomly decided to drive up since her husband wasn't in school and she was still on maternity leave -- it pretty much made my day!

7- Today Alex (16 and 6'1") and Jackson (13 and 6'2") left for a 19-day trip. They are on the 100th anniversary Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree and I'm pretty sure that they were more excited than they were willing to display... they get to tour in NY, PA and DC as well as camp and go to Busch Gardens... I'd be excited! (I love roller coasters...) The rule at our house is that to go they have to be an Eagle Scout... all four of my brothers have gone on the Jamboree now. Isn't that awesome? :)

8- Tonight... I'm going to the Days of '47 Rodeo!

How was that for an update? Still breathing? Seeing straight? Good...

♥ you all! :)