Thnaksgiving fun

Maura and I have returned home from our trip to Vancouver for Thanksgiving. It was a little different from last year. Maura's parents moved into a mansion a few months ago! It felt like staying in a hotel. We had a lot of fun being with both families. I saw my little bro Adam for the first time since he came home off his mission. Well, I kind of saw him...he was mosly out with his soon to be wife! I guess that is how it goes. Our family continued our thanksgiving tradition by going to a blazers game. It was a pretty sad showing by the blazers! When a team as bad as the Vancouver Grizzles have a 32-2 run against you, your team has a problem. Thankfullt he blazers played almost worthy of the millions they make to make the game somewhat entertaining. It was fun watching the BYU game. I thought that we were all going to watch it togethet, but Maura and I ended up watching it by ourselves. Thats ok though, it was still an awesome game. We are kind of bumbed that we had to sel our tickets before we came home. Our baby is doing pretty well. Maura is a little more tispsy now. I havw had to catch her on multiple occasions before she falls! We are happy to be back in Orem. I have 3 more killer weeks of school until christmas break. We will be heading back to Vancouver once more! This time for 8 days! To the bros... We are planning something really cool for Mom and Dad. It is fun to od nice things for them. They did such an awesome job raising 6 sons. It is quite the accomplishment. Now it is time for us to give back to them.

Maura's cute belly and a sad football game :(

Maura's belly is growing! I wonder what is inside? It is kind of like buying one of those suprise bags at the store. At least I know a girl is inside. Maura is now at 25 weeks.

Look how cute she is!
She has gained a whole 10 lbs! Sometimes she will start bitting me in the middle of the night so I have started rubbing down her body pillow with butter. JK....That just made me laugh really hard with the thought of it. I love Maura. What would she possibly do without me? (As she is glaring at me while I write this post).

Here are two funny pictures from BYU's embarrassing loss to TCU. Guess which one is before and which one is after?

PUMPKINS!!!!

This was the highlight of our Halloween day and the last thing we did too. SO, we bought these pumpkins like 2 weeks ago. We put off carving them everyday because of school or work. Finally it came to Halloween evening after we went with our little nephews and niece Trick or treating. I went to pick up Maura's pumpkin and my finger went right through the bottom! Sick! There was a huge rotton spot on the Pumpkins bottom. Yes her pumpkin had a rotten bottom. So, natural I cut it off. Now he has a big hole. We used our sweet new carving kit with a little help from some pre-made patterns. Maura made the witch and I made the monster looking guy. Here are some sweet pix of our "strenuous"labor.

Maura's Cool Halloween Classroom

As an elementary music school teacher, Maura had the opporunity to celebrate Halloween for a whole week! Well, Utah basically celebrates Halloween for a whole week. It is second only to Christmas here. (weird)

Maura did fun activities, turtorous songs, and a human body carving contest....well, ok, maybe not....But she did have really cool activities and a really cool looking classroom thanks to her awesome amazing handsome cool um um (I can't think of anymore :) ) Husband. Well, basically I just did the awesome spiderwebs. Maura makes a great fairy-witch.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Maura and I had a fun Halloweens week. Yes, in Utah, Halloween goes for a week and is second only to Christmas! People are pretty intense here about there Halloween. Maura, being a school teacher, got to enjoy to enjoy haloween all week because of class parties. She has eaten so much candy that we had to glue in those fake teeth into her gums! HA ha. Just a joke. Thats actually probably true for me... I hid the candy from her all week and have been having a piece...maybe two...with every meal. Yum!


Maura and I first went to the corn maze on Monday for FHE at Thankgiving Point. Here are some good picks from our adventure!

Maura and I completed the Maze in record time! Well, not really. We actually just wandered around for half an hour (it is a huge maze!) then decided it was time to leave. I don't know if we were going the right way, but we did find the exit, by following some little kids! They were quite scared of me...I'm mean look at the above picture! I can't blame em'. There was a lot to do after the maze. We watched pig and goat races, went to a 3D spook house (thus the picture with the stupid glasses) went on a hay ride, a train ride, took a little kids candy...twice, had hot apple cider that Maura loved but I thought was like drinking liquid plastic, look at cool jack-o-lanters, and last but not least, the pumpkin princess carriage (my personal favorite part). Yep, it was a fun evening, and Baby's first Halloween!

Updates...

So...Its probably about time we update this thing.

Well, since our trip to the Caribbean we have had some other noteworthy adventures.

First of all, a couple of weeks after our trip we found out that I'M PREGNANT!!!! YAY! We've been trying basically since we got married and ten months later...YAY! I'm due in February. I was getting nauseous on our trip, but I just thought it was a new environment, etc. I wasn't extremely sick or anything, but then it didn't go away after our trip and lo and behold...there's a baby growing inside of me!

At the beginning of August, we moved from our tiny apartment in Provo to what seems like a mansion in Orem. 2 bedrooms, huge living room, kitchen, etc. We still do not enjoy luxuries like washer/dryer, dishwasher or disposal, but the extra spaciousness is worth it. Plus we're going to need the extra room :)

I started my job as a full time music teacher at Amelia Earhart Elementary in the middle of August. It sure is exhausting, but so much fun and exhilarating at the same time. I love sharing my talents in ways that bless the lives of precious children. They are so cute! I teach every kid in the school...k-6 plus 3 special ed classes...about 576 (or something close to that) names, faces, and personalities to learn! I see every class 2 times per week. Wow! It sure is a lot to keep track of...and takes a lot of energy to be doing a song and dance all the time with the kids (literally). Its not like a regular classroom where the kids can sit quietly and do silent reading or quiet work time while the teacher can kind of take a breather from being "on stage"... music teaching is a high performance job, but very worth it.

Ben started his semester...he's applying to his major (Public Relations) this semester and hopes to start the major Winter Semester. He is enjoying his classes and he is still working part-time at LogoWorks (I guess now it is technically Marketsplash by HP or something like that). He now also has a gym membership...he hopes to lose all of the baby weight he's been gaining. I guess he has been having "Sympathy Symptoms" :). No...he really hasn't gained that much weight since we've been married, but enough that he's determined to start working out again.

I got a new calling just a couple weeks into our new ward (apparently the bishopric heard through the grapevine that someone "musical" was coming). You guessed it...Ward Choir Director. So basically, my whole life revolves around music making with people. Oh yeah, did I mention in my spare time I teach piano lessons? Gotta love it! I think Ben is getting a new calling this week...but I'm not sure what it is yet. Someone came over to talk to him a couple days ago about it. We'll keep you updated.

All in all, we're enjoying life, having fun, and looking forward to new adventures.

Sorry for lack of interesting pictures and such. Look forward to pregnant lady pics and other fun stuff! We will try to be better about updating this now that we're kind of settled in and in a routine.

Caribbean Trip

(So... Ben Started writing this post right when we got back from our trip 2 months ago... I'm (Maura) going to finally finish it so we can finally write about other things...)

We're back!

After a fun 10 days, it was time to come home.... :( By the time we left, even Maura was talking with an accent! I guess I will give a fun recap of our trip.....

First day.....We spent all day Saturday flying and got to Trinidad and Tobago in the later part of the evening. We then found that they weren't going to give me the car rental for the week! Lame....I had been emailing back and forth with the car rental representative to ensure that we could have the car rental. She said we could, even though I am only 23 years old. Looking back, I am glad we didn't get the car rental....People drive crazy in Trinidad! I was holding my breath half the time the taxi was taking us around.
So, our first night, we stayed in the Marriott hotel. It was a good transition for Maura. The moment we step out of the airport, we began shedding layers of clothing. I was drenched with sweat by the time we reached our taxi, 100 yards outside of the airport.
The next morning, we went to Church in a city called Chaguanas. No one knew we were coming, so it was a huge surprise when we walked in the door. The first face I saw was very familiar....He was the father of a family we baptized two years earlier. He is now in the branch presidency. Him and his wife are very active on the church. It was so good to see them. Their little boy didn't recognize me at first, but then he got a big smile on his face and yelled, "Elder Brewer!" (I don't think I was called anything else the whole trip.) It took us a while to sit down, as more and more familiar faces entered the church. It was funny to see their reactions when they saw Maura and I standing there. I think everyone was more excited to see Maura then me! It was fun to be in a tiny building with the church members...about 40 of them. The branch president whom I served with while I was in Chaguanas, is now the first Stake President of the West Indies...well it is actually a stake of the island of Trinidad....the rest of the church members are still under the watch care of the mission presidency.

The cutest part of church, that made me cry, was when a boy named Satysh Deonerinesigh

came walking by, not recognizing, when someone pointed at me and said to him, do you know who that is, he grinned, ran over to me and through his arms around my neck...and he wouldn't let go! He then gave Maura a big long hug...it made us both tear up.

(Maura's insert here: The whole time I was at this little branch I was teary eyed. The faith of these people is incredible. The children were so adorable and the spirit was so strong. The people have simple testimonies, but they are strong. Also, Bro. Ramdath (the first person we saw) asked us to teach the youth class for sunday school after sacrament meeting. That was cool. Everyone loved Ben so much and were so glad he was back. I could tell he did a lot of good in this area.)

After church we went to stay with the Lackin family. They are an older couple in the branch who have a pretty nice house for Trinidad standards. (See picture) We really enjoyed our stay with them. We spent the rest of the day at the Lakins. They fed us so much food on the trip, I felt bad for Maura! When they weren't looking, I often took a few scoops from her plate and put it on mine....Man I sure gained a lot on our trip....The lakins took us to some sightseeing sights Sunday afternoon. We saw the huge hindu monkey god and the Temple in the middle of the sea.


On Monday, I took Maura through Chaguanas. It was fun, but it sure rained a lot......here is a video and some pics for your enjoyment.... Please try not to get motion sickness from the video. We are obviously beginners at video taking while walking.





The next few days we spent visiting other cool places....Maura got eat lots of fun food and meet lots of my friends! This is Sister Verra Doon and her daughter Johanna. Johanna is really Skinny! She has a heart defect that keeps her really skinny. This is the first family I met on the island of Trinidad. Sis Doon was pivotal in the conversion if the current branch president of the Chaguanas branch. When I first arrive in Chaguanas, there was a family named the Gopauls being taught by two other missionaires. They believed the church was true and the book of Mormon was true logically, but they were waiting for the spiritual confermation. The missionaries promised them that if they went to every sesion of conference, they would receive their spiritual confermation. Well, they went to every session. After the last session, they were happy they went, but were a little discouraged that the spiritual confirmation hadn't come as promised. We were there as well with a recently baptized member named Sister Doon. We felt inspired to have the Gopauls give her a ride home. Here is the rest of the story, according to the Gopauls.....We were driving sister Doon home and it was quite in the car for most of the way. When we were a few minutes from her home, we asked her what she thought of coference. She just began to share her strong testimony and belief that she had joined the true church and that she knew that she had just listened to a prophet of God. As we dropped her off, we just sat outside of her house, and we couldn't move. We lookd at each other and said, did you feel that. (They both had.) It was the spirit! They recieved their spiritual confermation. They were baptized two weeks later.

Maura and I had the opportunity to go to a beautiful beach in Trinidad! We went with a family I taught and baptized while I was there. They are called the Ramdath family.



There story is really cool as well! I was just finishing up my first transfer in Trinidad. It was quite ruff. I had been in Guyana the previous 10 months and I was missing it there. My comp and I had just come home from church where we had to investigators there. Any missionary knows that is a hard moment because it feels like your whole previous week was a waste. I was sitting on the couch and really had no desire to go out and work in the hot sun. Elder Gibby and I had a little pep rally and decided to pray to where to go. We received and answer that we needed to go to an area called Felicity. We made a goal to teach every family that we walked past.On our way to geta taxi, I felt a strong impression to walk a different way just before reaching the taxi stop. We walked to an area just behind the church building. There, sitting in their front yard, was the Ramdath Family. We walked up and said, hello we have come to teach your family. They just stared at us and we sat down and started teaching. It was a powerful experience. Missionaries are a lot more powerful when they have been humbled, which we felt after church. When we were done, we commited them to baptizm. Suprizingly, they said yes and yes to a date as well! We then left. Now read this....As it turns out, the Ramdaths had skipped their church that day and where deciding if they should go back to that church or go to another. They were deciding to go to another, when we showed up. Pretty cool huh? The wife was the most dilligent. We taught her and she came to chuch off and on for a few months. The husband was supportive but was progressing very slowly. He didn't have anything to overcome, he just wasn't that interested yet. He became interested in a funny way. It came time for Sis Ramdaths inteview for her baptism. An Elder came and interviewed her and deemed her ready for baptism. So we get to the baptism....There was 20 people, including are the awsome supportive branch pres, who is now the first Stake Pres is Trinidad, a few senior couples who helped teach them, and lots of her friends. So we are about to start, and my comp feels he needs to fill out the baptism record. So he goes to ask Bro Ramdath for his marraige date. And he says, "Oh, we arn't actually married, we just tell people we are." My companion came over and told me....I wanted to crawl up and die. We had to call off the baptism. Man did I feel like an idiot. But when I was explaining to Bro Ramdath why his "wife" cant get baptized, he had a change of countanence. He said, "I want to be ready when she is ready to be baptized." Wow! So I guess it needed to happen. They were all baptized a month later.

I will do the rest in another post....

Long Drives and Lobsters

The rest of Monday was awesome! We took taxis and visited some of Ben's friends. We had Family home evening with the Deonerinesingh family (a family that Ben baptized). Sis. Deo taught us how to make roti...Maura was better at it than Ben. Tuesday, we went with some other friends to the beach! It was about a 2hr drive from Chaguanas to the other side of the island. The roads were covered with pot holes...a real wonder because Trinidad produces 70% of all the world's pitch for roads! The roads were wound around the jungle and through villages. Spectacular sights. We made it to the beach and loved being able to play in actual WARM ocean water...not like the beaches at home in WA and OR. Because we went on a weekday, we had the beach pretty much all to ourselves. We put on sunscreen, but still came home as lobsters...oh well...it will turn into tan, right? Today is our last day in Trinidad. We are going to visit some more people and do a little more shopping. Tomorrow morning we will fly to Guyana...a whole new adventure.

Trip Beginnings

This post will not be too detailed and will not include pictures, but just wanted to keep you posted on what we've been doing.

We arrived safely in Trinidad on Saturday evening. The flights were very enjoyable and didn't seem too long. We were unable to get the rental car that we were assured we were going to get because Ben is younger than 25. Lame. But it has been AWESOME so far. We got a taxi to our hotel and Maheas was our very nice driver. Most all of the cars look brand new and sweet. The driver sits on the right side and drives on the left side of the road. Maybe its a good thing we aren't attempting to drive because it is pretty much crazy out there. Maheas picked us up Sunday morning to take us down to Chaguanas for church. We will post more about our church experience later....it was SO COOL! The Lakans took us in for lunch and Maura had Trini food for the first time. DELICIOUS! We did a little religious sight-seeing as well (more to come).

This morning Sis. Lakan made us sowine, they call it a porridge....noodle things in sweet milk with cinamon type spices. YUM!!! Last night we snacked on some spiced chauna. Today we have been walking the streets of downtown chaguanas being immersed in the culture. We are taking a break at an internet cafe right now. We are planning on going to a "doubles" stand for lunch and then visiting some friends of Ben's. We are hoping to make it out to the beach Tues. and Wed. Today is very warm and humid and rainy. We like it....a lot. In fact, we've decided we're not coming home. So keep looking at our blog to see our life in Trinidad. :) haha.

Maybe we chose the wrong Dentist..........

So Maura and I went to the dentist today for our checkups and cleanings. I have grown to tolerate these checkups over the years. No one really enjoys to listen to your dentist chastise you for not flossing everyday or reteach you how to brush (that one bugs me the most.) In any case, I knew that these checkups need to be done, so we did it. Well, I am regretting that decision now.........

Let me explain the scene for you. So..... I drive up to this apartment complex in provo that has a sign for a dental office on the bottom floor. Fair enough, they are a modest joint. I walk in to find that I could see the entire dentist office from the front door....even the patrens having their teeth worked on. That definetly bugged me a little, but I am not one to back down, and I had already made the appointments, so I stepped two feet from the front door to the front desk. Immediately I had an urge to use the restroom. I asked where the restroom was and the receptionist pointed behind me and said "down the hall on the left." Well, I turned around and almost ran into the bathroom door! Yah....down the hall....What hall? After using the bathroom/closet space...I proceed to the chair, in an open room, to have my teeth cleaned. I was met by an overzelous recent graduate of the BYU dental program. She talked like she knew what she was doing so I was ok with being worked on only 6 ft from the receptionist desk. (I'm not kidding!)

Over the next 45 min., I continually cursed in my head for ever even calling this place! At the very beginning, she stuck something in my mouth that I had never seen before. It was a super scraper that squirted out a solution that was basically salt water. I tried my best not to gag or cry as she gouged my gums till blood was running out the sides of my mouth! Only five minutes had gone by at this point..... I then got talked to like I was five years old...she proceed to chastise me for not using a "soft tooth" brush and that my medium tooth brush was "ruining" my gums! I then was re-taught how to brush my teeth! lame......I was then told that I probably had a high fever when I was kid, because my bottom teeth were grown in all weird. Thanks, I said.

Anyways, she finally stopped scraping me with this nasty salt shooting thing... I can still taste the salt in my mouth. During this time, she asked me every five seconds if I was Ok. You'd think that the twitches and horrified looks gave it away that I was NOT even close to being ok. After this brutal attack on my teeth, she then used that standard scraper thing. Somehow, she made sure that the scraper thing was a painful experience as well. By this time, my nerves were shot and I wished that Maura was there to take me away. The dental hygenist said that the visit was almost over and that all she had to do was floss my teeth and polish them before the doctor took a look at my teeth. What a relief I thought........WRONG! Wrong ! WRONG!

I have never been more humiliated and violated in my life.

She proceed to shove this floss down to the roots of my teeth till blood filled my mouth. Oh yah, she made me hold up a mirror up so I can see her torture my gums. It was sick! I could see blood squirting out of gums. She kept saying, "don't worry, after a week of flossing like this, your gums will build resilience and won't bleed." DUH! That cause by then I will have bled to death!
Man, after that flossing, my teeth hurt so bad. Thankfully the doctor came in soon after. He was like an angel in the day light. The "evil" dental hygienist stepped away, and the gentle doctor took a look inside my mouth. He was so gentle and nice the entire time. After that, my turn was up and Maura was ready to take the hot seat. I couldn't bear to watch....to make a long story short, she came home and could barely move her mouth. We tried to eat some string cheese, but it was too painful to chew....String cheese....after ONLY a cleaning! COME ON! They asked us when we wanted to set up return appointments......I began to hear the cursing again in my head. No Thanks, I said. Now it is late tonight and Maura and I are now enjoying solid food again.....

Oh, one more thing.... Poor Maura had a Typhoid shot as well in her arm almost immediately following the dentist. She has been incapacitated this whole evening. Poor thing!

Graduation, Trips, and MORE...

Wow! I really need to update this thing! So, I'm finished with my student teaching! My first block of student teaching was in a 1st grade classroom and my second block was in a music classroom for K-6 music classes. I loved EVERY MINUTE of it!! Then April came and I had NO finals! YAY! My parents came down from WA and my Grandparents came up from St. George to see me walk across the stage in a blue cap and gown and pink tassel dangling off of my cap.
It took me five years to get my Bachelor of Music with a dual certification. I can now teach an elementary school classroom or an elementary music classroom!
Ben has been very supportive through it all. We still have another 2 years until Ben gets to wear the awesome cap and gown...so another while in Provo!

Graduation was awesome! Commencement was in the Marriot Center. President Uchtdorf received an honorary degree and addressed us! Elder Nelson also spoke. Both gave very uplifting and inspiring speeches. This is why I LOVE BYU!! I got to learn at the feet of the Prophets and Apostles of the Lord all the time! For convocation for the school of music, we were priviledged to learn from Elder Oaks! I was sitting directly behind him on stage (with one person in between). I could have leaned over and touched him if I wanted! It was a very cool experience.
So, After graduation, and even before, I was feeling somewhat "lost" as to what to do with my life. The only logical thing to do was to apply for teaching jobs and teach! But I didn't really know whether I wanted to jump right into teaching...I wanted to explore my options. Well, after exploring, an opportunity basically just fell into my lap...so I am going to....TEACH! I got offered a job at Amelia Earhart Elementary School in Provo as the music specialist! I had an interview with 4 principals at once and less than two hours later, I had a job offer. One interview= job! Hooray! So I start sometime in August. Until then, I'm just relaxing and taking it easy this summer!

After graduation Ben and I drove up to WA to visit our families and help them out with some house work. It was nice to see so much family within 2 weeks! Ben and I celebrated our 1year anniversary in the car on May 3rd driving back to UT from WA. But we were able to make a visit to "our" spot back home on the waterfront!We are gearing up for our trip to the Carribean in about 2 weeks! AHH! We are so excited! The day we get back is the first day of InterMuse...a summer workshop program I am attending to get more music teaching credits/certification. It lasts two weeks and is intensive 8am to 6pm classes everyday! I will be SO EXHAUSTED after the trip and this conference...but then I can just CHILLAX the rest of the summer until I start working!

All in all...Ben and I are LOVIN' life and soaking it all up!

Only in Utah

Ben and I were blessed with the opportunity to attend the Draper Temple dedication yesterday via satellite broadcast to our stake center along with other members of the church in Utah.  After attending the Provo temple for a session on Saturday, we realized we still needed to obtain white handkerchiefs for the Draper Temple dedication the next day. Knowing the church distribution center was closed, our next option was Wal-Mart. At 10pm on Saturday night, the place was over-crowded. People and carts everywhere!  I don't know if I've ever seen a Walmart so crowded. 

As we dashed around the store looking for anything that resembled a white handkerchief, we discovered groups of people following in our foot steps...first the kitchen linens aisle. ALL of the white dinner napkins were out of stock. The next best thing was an ivory napkin...but ivory would not do.  On this same aisle we discovered a few white wash cloths left, but we didn't think a washcloth would be appropriate. We wandered around the aisles, looking

for any white fabric...to no avail. Everything that resembled a white handkerchief was out of stock, surely bought out by the people who did not wait until last minute to buy their handkerchief. Finally, we came up with a genius idea! The FABRIC department! 

By this time, our handkerchief seeker friends had wandered off to other corners of the superstore. As we approached the fabric department, we beheld the counter where they cut your fabric for you covered in an array of various white fabrics with a line of people.  Ben and I could not help but chuckle to ourselves.  Our genius idea was not such a novelty after all. We waited in line and watched the workers feverishly cutting white squares.  When we got in line there were only a couple of people, by the time we had gotten our goods and were leaving, the line was wrapping around to the next aisle over....at about 10:30pm.  

We learned a few things from this experience....

1. Do not wait until last minute

2. Lots of people in Utah wait until the last minute

3. You will only find a long line of people in the fabric department of Walmart late on Saturday night in UTAH! 

Only in Utah....haha

experiences of the heart

So, I have started student teaching in a music classroom. The rigors of a music teacher are demanding. Changing mind-sets every forty minutes is necessary...One does not want to make a fool of themselves or belittle the high and mighty fifth and sixth graders (who rule the school) by talking to these rulers as one would talk to say, a third or second grader...and one has to be especially careful not to offend by singing 'baby' songs or 'boring' songs by old dead guys with the little kings and queens of the elementary domain. But even though they need to have the 'tough' facade, I can see right through them. Fifth and sixth graders are still third-graders at heart, just in bigger bodies. It will be a fun challenge to try to connect with their 'inner-child' and help them experience music so that they will learn to love beautiful things in the world.

Sometimes people's attitudes can get in the way of deep experiences and deep learning. I have found this to be true as I teach little ones, and if little ones in this generation have begun to develop attitudes that do not allow for personal growth and learning, then I am almost positive that we as adults do the exact same thing (who do you think they learn it from?)! Of course we sometimes unknowingly feed this behavior, but I'm wondering if we could overcome this blockage of growth.

I've been thinking lately. (I know...its amazing!). I've been thinking about the condition of the heart. Our stake theme is "Charity" and all of the ins-and-outs encompassed in charity. With this complex, yet simple principle in mind, I have been looking at the condition of my own heart. sometimes I equalize charity to 'good deeds' or acts of service to others. These are all fine and dandy and probably lead to a more charitable heart, but I'm realizing charity is a process of becoming charity...becoming more like our Savior...having our hearts become a heart like His. At the recommendation of our amazing bishop, Ben and I have been reading "A Heart Like His" by Virginia Pearce. This book presents an interesting experiment we've been trying out lately. It requires no extra 'deeds' or 'acts', but should take place naturally in everyday living. The experiment goes like this:

In every day experiences, be more aware of the condition of your heart. By so doing, maybe we can crack open our hardened hearts a little and let a little softness in. For example...in every interaction with a person, think to yourself "How can I open my heart up to this person a little more?" some examples from the book include people letting a friendly neighbor or visiting teacher in the door after having a delicious treat delivered. Instead of merely exchanging greetings and thank-you's and dismissing each other on to each others oh so busy lives...why not open your heart a little and invite this friend into your home and into your life? Ben and I have also been discussing the principle of seeking to understand before seeking to be understood. Having a mind-set to understand others certainly would help us become more aware of the condition of our hearts.

As I've experimented only a few days, magic is stirring in my heart! I'm not reading my scriptures more than usual, praying more than usual, baking cookies for all of my neighbors and all of my acquaintances- the only "extra" thing that Ben and I are 'doing' is thinking about our hearts...becoming more conscious, more aware of how our hearts are interacting with others and with God. I can already tell that this simple experiment is helping me change into what I need and want to become. I feel closer to my Savior and as a result feel closer to everyone I interact with on a daily basis. I'm sure I will have more specifics to tell as this experiment continues and I'm looking forward to experimenting and nurturing this 'seed' more (see Alma 32).

I think this may be a first step to our "attitude" problem that gets in the way of our personal learning and growth. Just being aware can help us recognize areas in which our hearts are cold and shriveled and blocking our opportunities for real experiences.

More experiences to come...feel free to share yours with us!

Its about....time!

Well, we have not been doing too well on keeping this blog updated, but we've decided its about...time. Time is an interesting phenomenon. This man-made mode of keeping track of our comings, goings, activities, etc. Sometimes it seems as if time stands still. Other times it seems there is not enough time in a day to do all that is needful.


The latter is how I have been feeling lately. Wake up, rush off to teach Heavenly Father's sweet little children, come home, make lesson plans, teach piano, if I'm lucky try to make dinner before Ben gets home, if I'm not lucky just grab a snack and rush off to the library to make more lesson plans, come home and then finally crash on the bed (or if I can't make it all the way to the bed, I'll be on the couch). That is how I've been spending my time lately. But my first block of student teaching in a first grade classroom has come to an end. This very moment I am taking a break from writing up my final undergrad paper/project...the dreaded TEACHER WORK SAMPLE (which in my opinion does not show one's ability to teach, but just one's ability to interpret graphs).


Tomorrow everything changes.


I will begin my student teaching in a music classroom at a different elementary school. I'm almost positive this will not be nearly as demanding on my time. I am looking forward to having evenings open and free to other activities besides trying to find the perfect way to teach contractions or subtracton methods. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE teaching ALL subjects to children, but I am just MORE passionate about teaching music to children. I will not have to be observed nearly as much and I will not have to worry about the TWS any longer!


Come April 23-24, I will be finished with my undergrad degree...after 5 whole years! I loved every minute of it! I feel ready to move upward and onward with my life! I have NO IDEA what I'll be doing after graduation. I could teach a classroom, I could teach a music class, I could have kids and teach from my home. I just don't know! Ben still has another 2 years before he finishes his undergrad so I guess we'll be in Provo for a while. Our time here has been fabulous.

Now I just feel like I'm rambling on...but oh well...I'd rather be spending my time keeping up on capturing life in words than analyzing assessment graphs and writing about how I accommodated a unit test for my class.


Ben and I might be going to Trinidad and Guyana this summer! Ben served his mission there and opportunity arose for us to go down and visit/be involved in a humanitarian aid project. We'll be delivering rice packaging machines and teaching the people how to use them. The packaging is water proof and air-tight. This will be helpful in the areas because they have problems with flooding. This packaging will help them store and preserve rice and other food staples. The church will be shipping the machines down for us and we will serve a deliverers and trainers to the people. Everything has been falling into place so nicely. We feel blessed for this opportunity. Check out this video link about it : (FYI the news guy messed up...Guyana is on the northern tip of South America NOT South Africa! )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRIBtef_hvw

Time to say goodbye and be more productive with my time. May all who reads this find happiness and joy this moment in time.