Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Tribute to 2008!


So I have been so bad at keeping up with this whole blog thing. I don’t know how to add anything or even change my background. After having pink poke a dots mixed with Thanksgiving leaves together I decided to emergency call Becca and have her fix it. I am hopeless I guess when it comes to taking the time to figure out all the html stuff. Well I finished fall semester. It went by so fast I can’t believe I only have 3 semesters left! I am very excited. I learned so much this semester and can’t wait to learn even more. My education class where I actually taught at the middle school was a real eye opener and my school health programs class was too. I just can’t believe how hard teaching really is and how much there is to it. I know teachers are smart and that it isn’t the easiest major, but I had no idea there was so much to putting together an actual classroom and dealing with so many different personalities of children. I successfully managed to get by with the 5th graders and learned so much from them, but realized they must likely didn’t learn much from me. That is going to have to change! The main thing we learned was that the students should be doing all the work not the teachers. Funny thing about that is that the teachers do so much work to get the students to do all the work that the teachers are too exhausted to do any work doing class anyway.
Other than classes things are going well for Christmas. I loved getting to spend some time in Utah even though it was for less than 24 hours. The babies are cuter than ever and Becca now has a ring on her finger! It is so shiny and sparkling! I love it so much! She seems very happy and I am so glad that she found the one that makes her complete. She deserves the best! The engagement story is pretty amazing too, but hopefully she has posted a blog entry with the details about that.
So funny story… We got home from Utah today and we had a huge wind storm while we were gone. I looked out the back and there was no possible way for the cats to get into their little house. I felt so bad for Bonkers that I put some food and water in side by the door for her to warm up and have some food while I cleaned off the back stairs and shoveled a path to their house. I made a path for her and when I came back inside to let her out she had disappeared! Becca and searched the whole house and couldn’t find her anywhere! Well we looked and looked and mom and dad came home from the store. Dad started looking cause we really didn’t want Bonkers to be stuck inside the house during the night since she isn’t trained at all. We finally gave up looking and decided she most have somehow got outside when April left for the store. I went to bed and it was about midnight and I heard mom call dad saying the cat was behind her jetted tub. Well this is a complicated works of pipe and wood pieces so we couldn’t get her out. We tried cheese, ham, yard stick, turning on the jets, flashlight and finally the winning item a spray bottle. She finally ran out into the bedroom we shut all the doors and opened the back door that cat ran so fast you would think her life depended on it. I felt so awful for Bonkers I wanted to cry. I know she has a thick coat but she looked so cold out side. Anyway it was just so funny that Bonkers picked such a perfect hiding spot and that it took so many of us to try to get her out.
So the weather has been very interesting this Christmas. We have so so so much snow! It will for sure be a very white Christmas this year! I am excited about the snow but it is not fun to shovel or to drive in. I slept most the time in the car when we drove to Utah because I decided if I was going to die that day I didn’t want to know about it. I’m very glad we made it safely too and from Utah. It is so nice to have Becca here from Christmas I was very sad when I thought it was just going to be me and my parents. I’m really excited about Christmas this year now. I am with family and the snow has made everything so beautiful! I just really feel like it is Christmas now. I wish I was able to do more for charity though. I guess I got busy and the snow distracted me. I really wanted to do something, but another problem is I never know what to do. I feel like this year I have been so blessed that I really should give something back. I know that I will never be able to repay Christ for all he has done for me and my family, but it would be nice to show some gratitude this Christmas through helping others. In my D&C class there is a girl whose niece is only 3 years old and she has cancer and is at St. Jude’s Hospital. She is the cutest little girl with such a bright warm smile. Every time I saw a picture of her I cried. I couldn’t help but think of all the children in the world that suffer so much when they are children yet they are so happy and act as if nothing is wrong. It just touched my heart so much I wish I could give every child at that Hospital a huge hug and tell them how much I loved them even though I didn’t even know them. But I do know them they are all my little brothers and sisters and it brakes my heart to see them go through something so painful. It just gives me a slight little glimpse of how Christ must have felt when he chose to give his life for every one of us. When I see a child in pain I want to do anything in the world to fix it to take the pain away. Christ obviously felt the same for each one of us. He knew of the pain and sorrow we would have to experience if we came to earth and gained a body so he sacrificed himself to take that pain and sorrow away from each of us. How can you deny such love he has for us. I have truly learned the real meaning of the Atonement this year. It has truly been a great year and one filled with trial after trial but I would have never learned this much without those trials and with each struggle came numerous blessings. I will never forget this year and the love my Elder Brother Jesus Christ has for me. A lot of you know that I struggle with self-worth I struggle with depression and I read in the Ensign that was dedicated to be all about Jesus Christ that if we truly understood the Atonement we would never doubt our worth or the worth of someone else. I do not fully understand the power of the Atonement, but I do know Christ loves me so much he gave his life on a cross for me. He knelt in pain in Gethsemane for me. He loves me THAT much. How can I ever look at myself in the mirror and say something bad about myself when Christ thought I was worth his life? This Christmas I am celebrating my older brothers birth, his life and his gift to all mankind. This next year I want to do everything I can to help bring my knowledge to as many other people as I can. They deserve to know the happiness that I know. I don’t always remember this, but I do know it and I bear testimony of the truthfulness of it. I know that in life we struggle and that it is not easy. There is no easy part about it, to think that I might get to live with my Heavenly Father and Big Brother again in the Celestial Kingdom, makes it all so worth it. Everyday there is something special about it. I just need to find it and never waste a moment of the precious life I have been blessed with. I have the most wonderful family one could ever want. I have a beautiful home to live in. I have clothes to wear, food to eat, and opportunity to learn. Nothing is really held back from me. IT is up to me to take advantage of every opportunity I have. We all have opportunities lets use them and see what a difference we can make in this world in the year 2009. Thank you everyone for being in my life and loving me. I could never go through life without my family and friends. Thanks for making the year 2008 so memorable and do able!

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