Packing Update

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Today I was packing my room up. Luckily I've had help from Liz! She's such a good friend!! As you can see in the photos my pile is getting bigger, but the mess seems to have just popped out of the cabinets!! It is SO SCARY!! I am so thankful that Liz has been helping me. Before she showed up today I was just sitting there looking at everything...hahahaha...and missing my third grade cohort already!!!! Packing with Liz made me miss third grade even more! We were packing and talking about third grade things like teaching cursive, going crazy, silly kids, saxon math (WE HATE IT), and other boring things. ha ha ha ha...but it was so much fun to talk to someone and pack. Liz is SOOOOO organized! She helped me clear a LOT of the clutter and get it into boxes. HA HA HA HA....well, Marcy and Cindy (my third grade team) were also so very organized! I wish to be more like them! Maybe moving to Floyd Elementary will FORCE me to be that quality that I admire so much in my colleagues. Anyhow, my room is a mess...and my packing pile is HUGE!!!!! More updates later. Have a great day!

Packing My Classroom and Stuff

Yesterday Alyce Johnson came over for dinner with the missionaries. It was pretty fun. Simba couldn't get enough of them. He even nibbled on Elder Finance's tie!

Today I worked on packing up my classroom. I've only been in it for 3 years and OH MY GOSH I have tons of stuff!!! hahahaha...I must admit I'm a book-junkie! I have over 15 boxes of just books!!!!! I just can't get enough books! (I'll post SCARY pictures of my room later.)

I took down almost everything from the walls and my room looks absolutely naked! It's horrible seeing it in such condition! I imagine I will survive. I will be able to move into my new room after June 30th. I will be in room 52. I'll miss room 117 at Hafen Elementary. I haven't even seen my new school yet! Weird, huh! Michelle is going to show me around next week some time. I am going to miss my beautiful school and fun-loving staff!!!! I'm also going to miss the student bookstore, Tomes for Domes, that I opened up last year. It's been fun doing things at Hafen, hopefully I will get a chance to be as involved at my new school.

Feeding a Lamb!

So I've been going through my pictures and I keep finding fun ones that I haven't posted. This is of me feeding a lamb!!! I think it's pretty awesome, I really LOVE ANIMALS! And this is the first time I've done something like this. I use to want to become a veterinarian, maybe if teaching doesn't work out I'll go back to school.

Shopping With My Sis!

Angelina came down to Vegas a few weeks ago and we went shopping to cheer me up. These shirts were some of our favorite purchases. We had a lot of fun cruising the outlets and getting lost thanks to the GPS.

Sorry Girls, Mr. Hong Kong got married! 5/2/09

Sorry ladies, Michael is officially taken! I went to his wedding in May and look at how happy he is! It was fun to get to hang out and see my little brother. He looked so pretty in pink! I also did the tea ceremony for his reception...what an interesting opportunity!

We're part of the Furious Five!

Amanda and I are just so furious! We saw Po and just had to take a picture with him because he is so cute. This was right before we saw Terminator Salvation, which by the way was an AWESOME show! Erik was of course too embarrassed to take a picture with Po, so he took the picture for us. =)

I still can't believe how expensive theater food is!

Simba's Shoes!!!!

The asphalt gets so hot here in the summers so I got Simba shoes! They are so funny on him! When he put them on he walked around all silly, like he had tape stuck to his feet. But eventually he got use to them.

5th Grade!

So I am going to be teaching 5th grade at Floyd Elementary next year! CRAZY!

The Dust Has Settled...

This morning I was sitting in a room with 40 other teachers, waiting to see who would have a job and who wouldn't, it was pretty nerve wrecking. I arrived on time, 8 o'clock, not earlier. Luckily, because they started the whole process REALLY LATE! At about 9am they started the whole thing. (For those of you who havec no idea waht was going on, Nye County School District decided to cut 28 elementary school teachers. They cut teachers from each school that were the lowest depending on their seniority, instead of cutting from the bottom of the seniority list. So now the teacher's had to bump other teacher who were less seniored...yes, yes.....A HUGE MESS!) So at around 9 am we start the bumping process. They took one person at a time and told them the jobs they were qualified for in the district and gave you the least seniored person to bump. Some people took a long time. I was the 16th person from the top, so at around 10:30 am I was called in.

Now I've been really nervous about this whole situation. First I was ANGRY! ANGRY doesn't even describe it, I loathed the person who made these decisions. Then I was SAD! Now I've come to grips with change...and even though this year at Hafen Elementary School we have had a "Dream Team," I'm reminded that life is full of changes. Something has to make sense somewhere...I feel that this is just such an insane move that somehow it was meant to be. I know it is actually. I am starting to feel more and more at peace with the idea that my only close friends here will soon be off to new adventures in the East. AND that Daniel is deployed. AND that I will be switching schools. I am ok with that. In fact, I am praying that Erik gets his dream job. Afterall, I really feel that he deserves this. I'm actually feeling like a change in schools wouldn't kill me, it will give me an opportunity to reinvent myself and not allow myself to get complacent in the workplace. I feel that God has to watching out for all of us and even though all of this is INSANE and CHAOTIC and feels UNNATURAL, we will all learn and grow and continue to live. I feel that God will protect Daniel and that we will all somehow make it through the mess that we call life.

Anyhow, I was given options of where to accept a job. The choice was obvious. And now I'm sitting on this decision and feeling it is okay. I haven't felt this much peace in a while. I'm so thankful that I feel this. I'm embracing myself for the next bump in life, as life goes....but until then, I'm glad the dust has finally settled.

Too nervous to sleep...

I am still up...and I have work in the morning! Actually, what I have is a displacement! I am going to be over at the Southern District Office, waiting around to TAKE someone's job! YIKES! ALL of this is just so crazy and is driving me crazy! I hope that it all works...well, I know that somehow all of this WILL work, it's just my nerves that aren't letting me think that.

The other day I was talking on the phone with a complete stranger, I had met her at a teacher conference. Her name is Marie. Anyhow, I was talking to her about a product I really want to use for math when she said, "Is everything ok? I can here an edge in your voice." I was totally shocked at the complete and total intuitiveness of this stranger and felt a connection. Marie told me several things that hit home, one of which was, "Jessica, you just need to trust life." I had never really thought of it that way. Trust life? Now that I've been thinking about that, I do. I do need to trust that whatever God has in store for me will happen. And I am starting to believe that. I am feeling calm. AND I've even began feeling that all of these things in my life that I feel are trials are beginning to be blessings in disguise. I cannot explain the thoughts that cross my mind or the feelings running through my body. Somehow I know it will be ok.