Primary Blog

So as I'm sure most of you know, James and I were called as Primary teachers when we moved to Pleasant View.

also... we go to church at my parents ward, not the ward we live in. Which I feel has upset some people

but what people need to understand, I have lived the last 4 years of my life not going to a ward where I know people and no matter how hard I tried.... People just didn't seem to care to get to know me. When James and I got married and had moved to Logan, one of the first things we did was find out our ward and attend. We did this and for the first few weeks, it was pretty normal that people didn't know who we were. But we introduced ourselves and met a lot of people. I got a visiting teaching assignment and it was great.

However... After 6 months.... people still had no idea who we were. We were "new" every week. And then out of the blue, my visiting teaching companion moved and didn't tell me. Told everyone BUT me.

It was very frustrating and it soon became very clear to me that if we were going to stay active, we needed to be in a ward where I felt people actually cared about us.

So that is why we are attending my parents ward. Sorry if it upsets you but I'd rather feel that people care about me.

Sorry for that little rant..

Anyways! We are primary teachers. We originally taught the 4 - 7 year olds. Why such a large gap? Well, the ward is small. So there weren't many children. But then our stake got all switched up and we got some people added to the ward and we got enough children that our 4 -7 class had to be split up so now we teach 4 - 6 (lol doesn't seem like much of a difference... but it is)

We have 4 kids in our class. 2 boys and 2 girls.

They are adorable and I've had a lot of fun teaching them and getting to know them.

I've used a lot of websites to help me figure out how to teach our lessons and I've decided I'd really like if I could post every week about the lesson we had. And I can post some of the activites we do and if I use a site to help me, I can help direct others to those sites.

So hopefully very soon, I will be able to think up a name and get that started. (I keep all my coloring pages so I should be able to add past lessons (maybe not where I got things though... cause I might not remember))

Message me if you can think of any cute primary names!

Madi

So I meant to write this all out and post it for all of you the day after it happened but then I got busy with work and I was just tired and a little stressed with the thought of all the things I was trying to get done. But I did write most of this on a piece of paper the day after it happened. 

On Monday, September 10th 2012, something happened.  A friend of mine from high school was in a terrible accident. And she didn't make it. It was a shock. It still is!

I wasn't incredibly close to her, especially after we graduated. But I did know her and I believe we were friends. Her name was Madisen Savage (or Madi for short).

I didn't really know her before our senior year. I mean, I knew she existed but I don't think we ever talked. So what was different about that year?

Chamber Quire

For those of you who don't know what that is, I'll tell you.

Chamber Quire is a choir at Weber High School (they have them at most, if not all, high schools too but they are usually called something else.) But this choir is the high and mighty of choirs in school. Only 32 members can join. 16 boys. 16 girls.

This is where I truly met Madi.

She was such a sweet girl and I loved being around her. She always made everyone around her filled with joy.

I'll admit there were times she annoyed me but... as I write... those times don't even matter.

Here is a picture of the Chamber Quire and I've circled Madi in red (and I've pointed me out... as you can see)

She was beautiful.

Her family had a viewing for her the Thursday following her passing and then another viewing on Friday as well as the funeral. I had to work so I was unable to go to anything on Friday but James and I did go the viewing on Thursday. It was very nice. We were taken into a room where they had a slideshow running of pictures of Madi and some of her favorites songs playing.

Row by row they would invite people to go back to see her and her family. I hadn't cried about it at all but knew that it was coming. While we were waiting in line, a very dear friend of mine, Kirstie Bastow,  came up to me and we hugged and it just all fell out of me. I cried and cried and cried. I just couldn't believe she was gone. It was only a few days before that I was laughing about something she put on facebook.

After that, I got the chance to meet her dad (I had never met any of her family before) and he was a very sweet man. I told him who I was and how I was in choir with Madi and he knew who I was. Even though I had never met him. He laughed with us for a little bit and gave us both hugs. He then talked about something Madi wanted at her funeral when the time came...

Something funny right here. Madi loved bacon! (but I mean... who doesn't? It's candy, right?)

And I found out that she had told her family that when she died, she wanted a bouquet of bacon roses at her funeral.

And there was. It was awesome. I would have taken a picture but I didn't feel like it was an ok time or place to do so. (had I been at the funeral though)

It was very funny.

We then walked over and saw Madi. She looked as beautiful as ever. It was crazy to me that she was actually gone. I just stared at her... waiting for her to sit up and say "Gotcha!" cause .... well, that's the type of person she was.

After that, we met with her mom. Once again, I had never met her before, but she knew who I was. We talked for a little bit and it was great. We then hugged and once again... tears just flowed out of me. I felt so bad but her mom just hugged me tighter than anyone before.

James got me some tissues and soon I was better.

We got the chance to see a lot of my friends from high school (mostly chamber quire buddies).

It was very nice to see everyone. Sad under those circumstances but nice.

After all that, we met up with Shay, Greg and Nikelle and hung out for a little bit.

We all live so far (yet not) from each other now.

Shay is in Bountiful and Greg and Nikelle are in Salt Lake. I'm sure Colette would have been at the viewing as well if they could have. 

Through all of this, I realized something. I'm not scared of death. I mean, you know how everyone is always so scared to die? They haven't lived their lives yet?

Well, I honestly am not worried. When it comes, it'll come and I'll take it gracefully. However, I hate watching people I love go. I know they are in a better place and that they are fine and happy but it still hurts to watch people leave.

But it does help that I know of our Heavenly Father's plan. It helps a lot actually. I don't understand how people can get through the death of a loved one not knowing they'll be able to see them again.

Well, in closing, I would just like to show you some pictures a picture of Madi I found. ( I thought I had more but I looked and looked and looked and can't find anything... sad day. Wish I had taken more pictures in high school. Especially with the amount of things we all did together in Chamber Quire)

This was at a dance in high school... It was... Morp 2008. The theme was Stuck on You (and I honestly  can't remember if the theme was also duct tape or if EVERYONE just decided it was) but it was way fun.

At this one, me, nikelle and colette created a giant sorry board. And the couples played together. It was way fun. We were the pieces. We then had dinner that was made by... Nikelle's mom and some other women if I remember correctly. Or something like that.

The dance was way fun and I enjoyed getting the chance to spend time with everyone. 

(Madi is in the white and I am right under her.)

Madisen Savage was an amazing person and I am so glad I got the opportunity to meet her and become her friend. I still think of her and I pray for her family.

Love you so much Madi!

Playing Catch Up

So I said this in an earlier post but I would REALLY like to catchup with everything so I can start posting things that are happening in my life right there and then.

So I would like to catch you up really quick on somethings before I continue posting anything.

So first off,

On August 17, Jeremy and Crystal finally got married! It was beautiful! I have pictures I will upload later for you all to see.

I have been trying to get a job and have been applying to many places. I hadn't had much luck and then my aunt Linda let me know that the dental office on washington was in need of a new employee. So TA-DA! I got the job and that is where I've been working for a couple weeks now. I started training in the first week of september and have been working there every week since.

It's a fun job. I collect and then clean and sanitize all the doctor's equipment. Some days it is very slow and I do a lot of just sitting and then other days I don't get a chance to sit for almost 2 or 3 hours.

It's great and it's nice to get the extra income (even though I am only working about 14 hours.)

We got Chloe spayed this week (FINALLY) and it was pretty funny. I will have a post with some of the pictures of that day. and tell you some stories.

I think that is it for now. So I will now continue trying to play catch up with pictures and some more personal posts that I did not feel should just be thrown in this one.

Daisy has super powers that I didn't know about....

So I put this on Facebook, but here they are now for you to see (even though I'm sure you saw them.)

I was inside doing... something (I don't remember what) and I hear barking. Super annoying barking. And so I get up to go yell at Chloe (because she is the one who barks)

I stand up and realize... Chloe was sitting right next to me..

Daisy is barking?

So I walk out to the deck to get Daisy to come in. Our neighbors grandkids were over so I figured she was barking at them... But wait... I walk out and instead of her standing right by the kids... she is.. to the left?

So I try to find her and this is what I see...

So I run inside and grab my camera (cause that's what I do)

I could not figure out why she was there OR how she even got there.

I then saw it. There was a cat in the tree. Silly Daisy chased a cat up a tree.

Chloe seemed uninterested in the cat (either that or she couldn't see it)

But it was so funny.

I called Daisy down and so they came running..

running...

NOPE!

The cat was still up the tree! Daisy had to get it!

Chloe couldn't figure out how Daisy got up the tree.

Well... you see...

She jumped.

And jumped again..

Then stood up.

Weirdo dog.

The Ride Home

So we ended our trip at the Zoo. We were there for... the time it was open til it was about to close (seriously. It's one big zoo!) and so now here are some pictures of us leaving.

or well... Vidalia in her carseat.

We were playing a game with her. 

This is how she would play peekaboo. It was funny.

What a sweet kid.

The cute faces of Vidalia

Now for what I consider the main event of the zoo trip... all the pictures of Vidalia! She is just so cute and I love taking pictures of her!

something must have been hilarious.

weirdest thing ever. A little tunnel that kids could climb in and then there was this part where you could look at them and they could look at you (turns out you could open it... so we did to get better pictures)

hi vidalia

This is Vidalia petting a sting ray! Not many 1 and 1/2 year olds can say they pet a sting ray.