Life Chronicled

I never intended this blog to be something I recorded my life on, but I’m going to take the liberty of doing an update.

The most relevant new thing in my life is that I am done working in the nursery. I did the simultaneous nursery aide/Good-Touch/Bad-Touch facilitator thing for a while, but I just wasn’t loving the nursery aide part. Since Good-Touch/Bad-Touch (GTBT) was during school hours, I was scheduled to be in the nursery at nights, and this really put a damper on my evenings. It put a damper on my entire week, really. Monday and Thursday nights were the only weekdays I could spend more than 3 waking hours with my husband. Since Monday nights are FHE, Thursday nights were the only time we could do our ward missionary visits, so Thursday evenings got scheduled up pretty quickly. Thus, Monday nights were my only truly free nights. How lame is that? But I’m done now, and I’ve been loving spending more time with my husband. Maybe I can also hang out with some old friends or make new friends!

GTBT has been fun. It’s mind-blowing that I not only like this job, but that I’m actually pretty good at it. When I was twelve I gave a talk in church (very quickly, apparently), and the high councilman speaking after me said something to the effect that he’d never heard anyone talk so fast. I was mortified, and vowed to never speak in public again. Obviously, that’s going well—I give around 9 presentations (speed talking) a week. It’s so ironic. To add to the irony, the worst final grade I got in my college career happened to be in a public speaking class.

The comments kids make in GTBT are so hilarious sometimes. Before you read the rest of this paragraph, I should give a disclaimer--this story is ever so slightly inappropriate (but so funny). But keep in mind a 3rd grader said it. Read ahead at your own risk. In a 3rd grade class I asked them to give me examples of times when somebody is looking at or touching private body parts, but it’s not sexual abuse. One boy said, “When you play football or baseball you have to get a physical, and they… they…” Another boy chimed in, “They check your balls!” I had to employ some major poker face. I sensed that most of the class didn’t catch what he said, so I moved on to the next thing before they had time to start being all giggly and embarrassed because he said “balls.”

In September a really fun job fell into my lap. I decided that I wanted to teach violin, so I emailed the 4^th and 5^th grade strings program in a local school district to see if they had any teacher openings. They responded no, but they were interested in possibly hiring me as a substitute. I sent them a paragraph of my qualifications, and they said they wanted to meet with me. I was expecting an interview-like meeting, but instead she just went through the paragraph I’d sent her and pointed out all the things she liked about me. She was satisfied with my violin experience (and that I play the piano) and was particularly interested in my fiddling experience. She liked that I taught GTBT not only because I had experience teaching that age group in a classroom setting, but also because I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the schools in the district. So she hired me as a sub then and there. Piece of cake. I’ve averaged about one substitution job a week, and starting next week I’m filling in for a teacher who is going on maternity leave. It’s been so much fun. Another perk is that I recognize some of the kids from GTBT. It has also inspired me to get back on the violin practice bandwagon. I’ve practiced every day this week! Lastly, it has enabled me to be freed from the nursery! I get done with work around the same time my husband does! It’s so great. The one dark cloud in my sky is that I won’t be able to do it for very long, even though I want to. Chances are, we’ll move away from our lovely blue house this summer.

In other news, I found Pinterest and have since become addicted. It is so fun. I’ve never been so crafty in my life. There are also some really awesome recipes on there. So I’ve been cooking a lot, too. I learned to make bread, so now I’m hooked on homemade bread. Now that it’s cold again, I’m addicted to hot chocolate. Not that I don’t drink hot chocolate regularly year-round, but it becomes a legitimate addiction this time of year. Lately I’m in love with two spoonfuls of regular hot chocolate mix, one spoonful of white hot chocolate mix, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

My husband is great. I’ve not been in a joking mood lately, so when he jokes about something funny I did, it never seems funny. I was eating some cinnamon bread, and sprinkled some of the extra cinnamon sugar on my slice, and he chuckled and said something to the effect of, “You need more cinnamon sugar on there?” After a few minutes of being defensive and hurt, I told him that was the worst fat joke I’d ever heard. Bless his heart. I get bent out of shape over the stupidest things sometimes. He accepts and tolerates me so well. He and I have been watching a lot of baseball lately. By this, I mean that he watches the game and I knit. I've done a lot of knitting. I've learned a lot about baseball, though, so I think it's been good bonding time.

Well, that is the condensed update. Over and out.