A Long Overdue Update

Pictures from Amelia and Lee's wedding. :)

WOW. Lots has happened since the last time I posted. Amelia and Lee got married in the Mesa Temple on the 18th, and that was just fantastic. What a blessing and miracle it is to have eternal families. I am so happy for them. It was also fun to hang out with family and have all of us together. None of us can remember the last time that has happened. There was stress and frustration as most weddings and special occasions bring, but we had a great time. The Arizona heat killed us wimpy Washingtonians, but we enjoyed our weekend there.

Other highlights:
1. Mom and Dad coming and visiting me in Provo on their way back to Washington. They took KC and I to Tucano's. Let's just say that that gave me the sanity and strength I needed to get through an incredibly busy and stressful week after being gone for Amelia's wedding.
2. Getting sick and having my voice sound like a boy going through puberty. This has allowed me to stay home today and get to watch the BYU Devotional of one of my favorite professors, Dr. Alton Thygerson, and get to catch up on cleaning up my apartment.
3. Going to visit Amelia and Lee. I got to eat a yummy dinner that Amelia made, tour their house, see pictures from their honeymoon in Durango and chat. It was great to get to see them.
4. KC getting me my favorite grapefruit cups at Costco to grace my school lunches and grace me with his presence while I was working on Wednesday and doing cleaning checks.
5. Making my soccer boys' jerseys and them rocking their game. They won 5-1!! I love those boys, and I am so grateful to have such outstanding assistant coaches such as Jenni and Emily.
6. Going to the BYU Hockey game on Saturday with Matto. I have always wanted to go to one of their games, but I never have, and am grateful I got to, and it was also fun to catch up with Matto since he got home from his mission.
7. Teaching. I love the kids I get to teach at MMHS. They make me laugh and smile all the time.
8. Getting to teach Relief Society on Sunday. We have such outstanding sisters in our ward!!
9. Getting to watch the RS Broadcast. President Monson's talk especially reached out to me, and I am excited for Conference weekend, and all of the knowledge and strength I can gain from our wonderful church leaders.
10. Life is good!!
-Love, Janae

To Teach is to Learn

Me on my first day of student teaching!!

It's finally that time...not to do spring cleaning, get married, lose weight, buy a car, or anything else normal, but to do something rad and...STUDENT TEACH!!

Last week was my first week student teaching Health and PE at Maple Mountain High School. It is a brand new school built last year in Spanish Fork with about 1,000 sophomores, juniors and seniors. My mentor teacher is Ms. Hall, who is awesome. At first, I was pretty intimidated, but I am grateful to get the chance to learn from such a knowledgeable, outstanding and cool teacher. I have really enjoyed getting to meet the students and learn how to apply all of methods I've learned in the teaching classes I have taken in combination with the Health and PE content classes I've taken. However, I have felt very ill-prepared for PE. One of my minors is PE/Coaching, and let's just say that the emphasis was on coaching in the classes I took. Nonetheless, Coach Hall is a PE queen and is helping me learn a lot.

I got to teach my first class last week on Friday!! Oftentimes, mentor teachers will either not let a student teacher teach for a long while, or just peace out and leave the student teacher in charge of their class so they don't have to teach. I am grateful that Ms. Hall hasn't fit either one of those stereotypes. She is willing to let me try out new things and lets me take control of the class, but is always there if I have a question.

Every new experience is fun and exciting, but always has its challenges. I am learning a lot and am loving it, but have had my fair share of struggles. I am grateful for outstanding family, friends, and a God that loves and supports me in all I do. I love life!!
-Janae