Wow What a Year!

As I sit here contemplating the goings on here in my life I shed a few tears of sorrow, joy, laughter, and of love. This year has brought many emotions to the surface. I have gained so much and lost alot this year.

I lost one of THE greatest men in my life...lets just say he is one of the MOST INCREDIBLE men I will ever meet. My Grandfather passed from this mortal life into the next to be with my Grandmother who preceded him in death. That happened in January and it made for a very hard month. I really wanted to have him at my wedding to see me in my wedding dress and meet the man of my dreams. I wanted to get a hug from him and have him give the man I marry a few words of wisdom and such. But with this loss, I have gained so much. He has left behind a love greater than anything in this world. His example and love have touched my heart and soul to the very core. He gave and gave his entire life and I my life has been changed because of him. I am forever grateful for all he taught and for all the love and joy he has brought into my life and my family.

I found out that my cousin Mindy is having a baby...and it's going to be a boy! I found out an old colleague from work is pregnant with a girl. My hilarious blog reader, old roommate, and festive friend Marisa is pregnant as well. And my cousin's wife Lisa is pregnant as well! I am very excited for them and wish them the best of health as they carry these little angels! I have some very cute gift ideas for them...hint, hint!;)

I made it through another year of teaching Kindergarten! Whew, glad that is over! I had a huge class, but they were so very fun! Each year is a challenge and I learn so much from them! I learn how much patience I have...my patience monitor is reading a bit low...I have used alot of it! But then summer comes along and it get re-filled and I have a bunch more for the next set of 27-30 kids that come into my classroom!

In September I started another year of school and I am enjoying my class. They are proving to be hard workers and highly hilarious! I am pushing them hard to learn so they can be successful and they are pushing me hard to test my boundaries! I have had alot of them out sick with some sort of illness this year, wether it is H1N1, the "regular kind of FLU", a cold, asthma, sore throats, etc. They are very giving little tykes...I got the flu from them and had to spend one weekend in bed away from family and all the excitement in my house. I was bored sick...well I did find a scary movie to watch that I highly recomend! If you can handle suspense!
Anway, most of my students are on track to begin blending and segmenting words and making word families in class. It is going to be fun learning all these new things and writing those words will be a joyful adventure as well! In math they will be doing addition, subtraction, growing patterns, story problems (I hate those), and a whole heap of other exciting things. We will be going on a field trip to the farm at Thanksgiving Point in April and the ZOO in May. Both of those are going to be a blast and I hope we can make it through! I get so worn out with field trips! I might need some helpers for those too! Anyone?!

In September my family had a gift enter our lives! My niece Abigail was born. She has stolen our hearts and made our lives even more joyful! After losing my Grandpa it was a great blessing to have Abigail enter my life. I love to watch her grow and annoy her mother! I get to use my creative juices to make things for her and I have spent a bunch of mulaa at Lakeshore to get her things to play with and help her learn! I love her smile, her attempt to laugh, and her snuggling. I have mastered how to get her to sleep and found she loves music...especially the Beach Boys! Now if I can get her to like NSYNC...we will be best pals! ahahaha!

Another good thing happened this year...my BF Leah got engaged. I guess blessings do come from working with elderly people! She met her fiance at the care center in which they both work. She took a bold move and asked him to a party, he accepted and...this is the shocker! He called to confirm they were still going and what time they would be leaving. How cool is he!?!
I have had the opportunity to do some of their pictures to help them out and to help me improve my skills! Though the pictures I took won't be their announcement pictures, I am glad to have them be in their scrapbook! They will be married in March and I am so excited! Leah has found a great guy and he has found an incredible woman that will be by his side through thick and thin! I think its great that a guy that is taller than me is marrying a gril that is shorter than me...by about a foot or more! Now where is mine?!

I just have to say that I have learned so much this year about others, about the Church, about Christ, Heavenly Father, family, friends, and myself. I have learned that there are crazy people out there driving and they really scare me! I have gained confidence in myself...that someone tried to rip away from me. It didn't work but oh well! Like I mentioned in my other post I have lost some weight and I hope to lose alot more in time for my BF's wedding in March. I am going to need some help on that one. All this holiday food is finding places to store itself on me. UGH!

Thank you for reading my blog and I wish you and your family a very MeRRy ChRiStMas and a HaPPy NeW YeaR!