Tuesday, April 7, 2009
It's a girl
So Justin and Amanda called and they are having a girl!! I am so excited! All those nephews and now another niece!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Break Up
So not that I have been dating anyone to break up with ...well kind of we've been talking weekly for several hours and doing things... but that is a whole other blog...I'll just say we are for sure just friends and I am at peace about that. Still yearning and longing to be a wife and momma though.
"Break Up" is what Alaskans refer to as Spring. When the sun starts coming out more and everything beings to melt and the ice begins to break up. Parking lots are turned into swimming pools..and where there used to be one large massive chunk of ice now there are huge chuncks of ice missing. Driving in driveways and parking lots like this is a backroad experience. The two outside lanes of traffice are always wet and full of water...I have seen more than one predestrian get completely drenched from such water in the lanes and more than one car hydroplane through a huge puddle. The inside and turning lanes are dry as can be but look out, those outside lanes are deadly. I saw some guys flame tourching a drain to melt it so the water could have somewhere safe to go. Nice job. Hi what do you do? Oh I torch drains.
Of course this also means that windshield washer fluid is a must because of the spray from the wet lanes. My driver side sprayer works great the passenger sprayer shoots a huge stream not so much sparying it over the passenger side... it is so less effective but better than nothing. If you are out of fluid you should NOT drive; because after a few minutes your windshield is impossible to see out of. --my car has bigger problems than this though. I took a drive down the Turnagain arm last Saturday (FYI we had some ash fall from Mt. Redoubt on Saturday but not while I was driving. It was like dirt only finer and people said it smelled like sulpher) On the way home it was acting funny... like it was not getting gas therefore the shifting was funky. I was afraid I would not make it home but, I did. I have bummed rides this week from my roomate and YSA friends esp. Laney.
Laney moved to Seattle for a few month now she is back. She directed our Institute choir last semester. She is so funny. I am glad she is back we have hit it off nicely. She is living with her sister who has two daughters and it has been so great to be around little ones! She has been carting me around. Thanks Laney baney! Oh today we watched conference at her brother Greg's house -he is a mechanic and is going to look at my car since Mark never did punk- Anyway her brother and sis in law have 3 boys and a one year old girl. I got to rock the baby to sleep; it was so soothing! Seriously that was probably the best thing about conference weekend.. I can't wait!!
Back to the Break Up stuff.........................
The melting and freezing snow on the side of the road is really funny looking it is dirty brown/black and jagged due to the melting and refreezing at night. Nightmare material folks this stuff looks nasty and I hear it is a smelly time of year as all the dog pooh turns to dog pooh mud.
It is so gorgeous here! The the sky here is almost always a perfect shade of "sky blue." I will miss it here.
"Break Up" is what Alaskans refer to as Spring. When the sun starts coming out more and everything beings to melt and the ice begins to break up. Parking lots are turned into swimming pools..and where there used to be one large massive chunk of ice now there are huge chuncks of ice missing. Driving in driveways and parking lots like this is a backroad experience. The two outside lanes of traffice are always wet and full of water...I have seen more than one predestrian get completely drenched from such water in the lanes and more than one car hydroplane through a huge puddle. The inside and turning lanes are dry as can be but look out, those outside lanes are deadly. I saw some guys flame tourching a drain to melt it so the water could have somewhere safe to go. Nice job. Hi what do you do? Oh I torch drains.
Of course this also means that windshield washer fluid is a must because of the spray from the wet lanes. My driver side sprayer works great the passenger sprayer shoots a huge stream not so much sparying it over the passenger side... it is so less effective but better than nothing. If you are out of fluid you should NOT drive; because after a few minutes your windshield is impossible to see out of. --my car has bigger problems than this though. I took a drive down the Turnagain arm last Saturday (FYI we had some ash fall from Mt. Redoubt on Saturday but not while I was driving. It was like dirt only finer and people said it smelled like sulpher) On the way home it was acting funny... like it was not getting gas therefore the shifting was funky. I was afraid I would not make it home but, I did. I have bummed rides this week from my roomate and YSA friends esp. Laney.
Laney moved to Seattle for a few month now she is back. She directed our Institute choir last semester. She is so funny. I am glad she is back we have hit it off nicely. She is living with her sister who has two daughters and it has been so great to be around little ones! She has been carting me around. Thanks Laney baney! Oh today we watched conference at her brother Greg's house -he is a mechanic and is going to look at my car since Mark never did punk- Anyway her brother and sis in law have 3 boys and a one year old girl. I got to rock the baby to sleep; it was so soothing! Seriously that was probably the best thing about conference weekend.. I can't wait!!
Back to the Break Up stuff.........................
The melting and freezing snow on the side of the road is really funny looking it is dirty brown/black and jagged due to the melting and refreezing at night. Nightmare material folks this stuff looks nasty and I hear it is a smelly time of year as all the dog pooh turns to dog pooh mud.
It is so gorgeous here! The the sky here is almost always a perfect shade of "sky blue." I will miss it here.
new blog and saturday am general conference highlights
So I started a family blog for the siblings to post on..hopefully sometime they will it is http://www.becomingmckinney.blogspot.com/.
General Conference is such an amazing experience; I always come away: more committed to the gospel, uplifted and filled with a love for all my brothers and sisters, feeling our Heavenly Father's love for me, gratitude for the restored gospel, and joy!
Saturday we YSA's watched conference at our institute building. It is always a pleasant experience. President Monson opened conference talking about the temple dedications. He said," each temple dedication is a time for re-evaluation of ones own performance and sincere desire to do better."
Elder Hales then spoke of agency and that we need to use it to be PROVIDENT PROVIDERS. One of my favorite quotes from him was " Each temptation is to strengthen us not destroy us" also that we need to be "joyfully living within our means" as well as " only through the atonement can we have mighty change of heart and mighty change of behavior." He talked about distinguishing between our wants and needs. That we can get into debt for education, a basic automobile, and housing. I need to do better at distinguishing between my wants and needs and to save more of my money for a rainy day.
Then Sister Lifferth spoke of respect and reverence. I really enjoyed this talk. She spoke of how reverence is taught in the home. She asked us to think if we were examples of reverence and respect? Do we show respect for our scriptures and teach the doctrine from them. Then she said we need to teach by example because harshness begets hard feelings; she mentioned that we teach it by being patient over time and being consistent in our efforts. She quoted someone with this one "reverence invites revelation." She closed by saying that an increase in reverence reflects our deepest love for Him.
Brother Neider (who was a counselor in my mission presidency SLCS Mission) spoke about Aaronic Priesthood quorums and how they should operate..with more youth leadership and adults supporting the youth leaders. I am pretty sure I heard him say one of the purposes of the YM program is to eliminate sloth. I thought that was great! It will be interesting to see what he did say. He said that we need to be "students of God's commandments" and that we need to obtain His word.
Elder Allan Packer of was up next. He spoke about receiving revelation. He said we live in the fullness of times and these times are times for preparing for the Saviors coming and to workout our own salvation and that if we are to do this we must build on the bedrock and we must know and know that we know. He taught that we need to become acquainted with the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Then he spoke of Alma 32 and the process by which revelation can come
Elder Christofferson spoke next and his message was one that touched me deeply. I can't wait to print this talk and study it out!
He said we need "strong Christians" who can persevere through adversity and make important things happen through our faith. He said that we can access this power through our covenants and that our covenants are to exalt us and they manifest our commitment to become a covenant people and inheritors of exaltation where we can obtain all the divine possibilities God can give us. He spoke about how obedience to covenants give us greater control of our lives and enhances our capacity to deal with challenges because we are blessed by doing so. He said that once we know our course is right and in accordance with God's will then our faith becomes unbounded..and that it takes faith to make covenants. He taught that covenants bestow divine power into our lives. That the power of godliness can flow into our lives. He said, " Strong covenants make strong Christians." He asked us for our obedience to be exact and that then we can ask and He will sustain you, He will stretch for the His hand and say here am I. God will keep His promises. He will bless you and strengthen and finish your faith, deliver you from want, anxiety and stress!" Wow. I know I want to be a strong Christian and have the faith to perservere. I need to go to the temple more often and review the covenants I have made. In fact I thought this temples/temple attendance was a theme of this years conference.
President Eyring spoke about adversity and that it comes to all of us at some point or another on our journey and that it is normal and necessary. He said" we can only faintly comprehend the infinite atonement that can comfort us when we have to wait in distress." ( this has been something I have learned as I feel that not only am I waiting on the Lord but on some fella to make up his mind to want to be married and then to want to be married to me. I am learning to wait on the Lord's time) He then went on to teach that the Savior could have known or infirmities by the power of the Holy Ghost but that instead He chose to learn by His own personal experience how to succor His people. Alma 7. He said that even when you feel the truth of atonement that the test may still test your courage to endure. "He will give us strength to rise with every trial"
General Conference is such an amazing experience; I always come away: more committed to the gospel, uplifted and filled with a love for all my brothers and sisters, feeling our Heavenly Father's love for me, gratitude for the restored gospel, and joy!
Saturday we YSA's watched conference at our institute building. It is always a pleasant experience. President Monson opened conference talking about the temple dedications. He said," each temple dedication is a time for re-evaluation of ones own performance and sincere desire to do better."
Elder Hales then spoke of agency and that we need to use it to be PROVIDENT PROVIDERS. One of my favorite quotes from him was " Each temptation is to strengthen us not destroy us" also that we need to be "joyfully living within our means" as well as " only through the atonement can we have mighty change of heart and mighty change of behavior." He talked about distinguishing between our wants and needs. That we can get into debt for education, a basic automobile, and housing. I need to do better at distinguishing between my wants and needs and to save more of my money for a rainy day.
Then Sister Lifferth spoke of respect and reverence. I really enjoyed this talk. She spoke of how reverence is taught in the home. She asked us to think if we were examples of reverence and respect? Do we show respect for our scriptures and teach the doctrine from them. Then she said we need to teach by example because harshness begets hard feelings; she mentioned that we teach it by being patient over time and being consistent in our efforts. She quoted someone with this one "reverence invites revelation." She closed by saying that an increase in reverence reflects our deepest love for Him.
Brother Neider (who was a counselor in my mission presidency SLCS Mission) spoke about Aaronic Priesthood quorums and how they should operate..with more youth leadership and adults supporting the youth leaders. I am pretty sure I heard him say one of the purposes of the YM program is to eliminate sloth. I thought that was great! It will be interesting to see what he did say. He said that we need to be "students of God's commandments" and that we need to obtain His word.
Elder Allan Packer of was up next. He spoke about receiving revelation. He said we live in the fullness of times and these times are times for preparing for the Saviors coming and to workout our own salvation and that if we are to do this we must build on the bedrock and we must know and know that we know. He taught that we need to become acquainted with the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Then he spoke of Alma 32 and the process by which revelation can come
Elder Christofferson spoke next and his message was one that touched me deeply. I can't wait to print this talk and study it out!
He said we need "strong Christians" who can persevere through adversity and make important things happen through our faith. He said that we can access this power through our covenants and that our covenants are to exalt us and they manifest our commitment to become a covenant people and inheritors of exaltation where we can obtain all the divine possibilities God can give us. He spoke about how obedience to covenants give us greater control of our lives and enhances our capacity to deal with challenges because we are blessed by doing so. He said that once we know our course is right and in accordance with God's will then our faith becomes unbounded..and that it takes faith to make covenants. He taught that covenants bestow divine power into our lives. That the power of godliness can flow into our lives. He said, " Strong covenants make strong Christians." He asked us for our obedience to be exact and that then we can ask and He will sustain you, He will stretch for the His hand and say here am I. God will keep His promises. He will bless you and strengthen and finish your faith, deliver you from want, anxiety and stress!" Wow. I know I want to be a strong Christian and have the faith to perservere. I need to go to the temple more often and review the covenants I have made. In fact I thought this temples/temple attendance was a theme of this years conference.
President Eyring spoke about adversity and that it comes to all of us at some point or another on our journey and that it is normal and necessary. He said" we can only faintly comprehend the infinite atonement that can comfort us when we have to wait in distress." ( this has been something I have learned as I feel that not only am I waiting on the Lord but on some fella to make up his mind to want to be married and then to want to be married to me. I am learning to wait on the Lord's time) He then went on to teach that the Savior could have known or infirmities by the power of the Holy Ghost but that instead He chose to learn by His own personal experience how to succor His people. Alma 7. He said that even when you feel the truth of atonement that the test may still test your courage to endure. "He will give us strength to rise with every trial"
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Genera Conference and Decisions
So I have been trying to make some decisions and here are some conclusions
1. I want to go to grad school...for what I am still unsure law school or education administration, literacy coach, speech pathology, nursing, idk!!!!
2. UAA is not the college for grad school...it'd be silly to pay out of state tuition at UCA if I stay here another year
3. Need to get a permanent teaching license and I can do that fairly easily here or Arkansas
4. Moving home to get a permanent teaching license and investigate going to law school is a good call
Saying goodbye to good friends here is going to be really hard. I will always love my year in Alaska and the lessons I have learned at my special school with my special students.
General Conference is amazing. I am so excited for this weekend and the enlightenment that always comes. The love and connection I feel for the saints throughout the world is amazing. I am excited for mom and dad who get to attend in person this time with Janeen and Eldon.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Roadkill
So I saw some roadkill yesterday driving home from work and smiled and thought of home. Not too many furry creatures running around here in the arctic weather to get smushed. Certainly not any armadillos to get crunched. I was telling my friend how roadkill made me smile and she thought that was hilarious...the little things you miss from Arkansas.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Spring Break- not so "springy" but that is okay
Well I still can not believe I have made it through my first three nine weeks of teaching. I love my students they are each a treasure in my life. They come from varied backgrounds and all of them have their moments but I love them each for the good that they possess. I called my female student "Janeen" the other day (which is my little sister's name). I must have been really exasperated..=) of course immediately after I said Janeen I busted up laughing...then I could not be upset.
Last week one of my little darlings on his way out of our classroom down to the "practice hall" - a room where they can practice good student skills such as NOT swearing at your teacher, or following directions, or NOT throwing things in the classroom. If they are ready to practice they can process out. Processing out means they have completed several academic tasks calmly. If they can not walk out of my room and down to the practice hallway they are escorted out by our "intervention coaches" aka security. If they are fighting against our wonderful intervention coaches then they will start off in the gray room. The gray room is a room with a lock on the outside. It is empty and guess what color it is?..you guessed it gray. This room is watched 24/7 if someone is in there. This student was swearing at me therefore; he needed to go practice good student skills; on his way out he flipped over several desks, threw his book, tore up his worksheets, and then picked up my teacher podium - a music stand- and chunked it at me. I managed to dodge it except one of the legs hit my shin. ouch!! But I did not want to let him know I got hit so I kept quiet and calm and walked with him the rest of the way to the practice hall.
Spring Break so nice! Sunday I drove out to Eagle River with Cole and some other YSA's to a preparedness fireside. Cole was cracking me up. The setting sun was shinning on the mountains way out in the Mat-Su valley and it was gorgeous!
Monday- I did some errands, went to my favorite store here - Value Village- like goodwill but better. I found some books, a coat, and some new jeans a size smaller than last time I bought jeans YAY!! Monday night was FHE. Cole taught on Pres. Uchtdorf's talk "The Infinite Power of Hope" it was a great lesson and such a powerful talk.
Tuesday- Cole and I went to breakfast downtown ( I think Cole was repenting for not being social on Monday you big bum!) and walked around. It was nice to have a good reason to get out of bed early...We watched a ship come through the ice in the ocean so beautiful and had a good time talking about me possibly getting arrested for a traffic ticket I got back in November. I plead not guilty and still have not gotten a court date mailed to me. I figure it is their job to contact me, right? Tuesday afternoon Matt and I went shopping for some Ammo so we could go shooting later on this week. We also picked up some wonderful grub at Artic Road Runner. YUMMY.
Wednesday- Cristi and I went around town. We picked up some groceries at Fred Meyers. Went to the Celtic store and picked up some UK chocolate. I got some to send Amy my Canadian sister in law. Then Matt and I went to Birchwood to go shooting. He has a Walther .22 , .40 and a colt .45 (those are all pistols) and a 708 rifle. We had a great time shooting. That was my first time at a range. I liked the .22 pistol and the .45 . It was nice to do something different and get out of Anchorage. That night I watched Strictly Ballroom with Cristi. It was hilarious.
Thursday - I had a new chiropractic appointment. It was sooo nice to get adjusted. I miss you DR. Hurley! My neck is completley straight instead of having a c curve..so my neck muscles do a lot of work keeping my head upright...thus lots of tension headaches. Then I met my friend Bethany for lunch and we went and visited our friend Charlotte who is really sick. Then I went to my friend Katie's for taco salad. She was keeping her 1 year old nephew. It did me some good to be around a little one. I just love them. We had fun playing peekaboo and I would hide his little stuffed bear in his pockets or in my collar and he would have fun pulling it out. He was such a cutie! Then we went to Coldstone for some yummy ice cream!
Friday- I came to school to study for my praxis test I am taking tomorrow at 7:30 am. Kay Papakristo is here too. She is such a lifesaver I would never had made it here without her to vent to and celebrate with. I love that woman! We did lunch and drove around and found exactly where to go for our test tomorrow. I took a practice praxis test and made a 77% so I hope that is a passing score...if not i am not smarter than a 5th grader and I teach them. =0)
Saturday- I will take my Praxis test and then me and Cole had talked about going to a benefit lunch thing involving soup and pottery bowls and then to a baptism of a friend in our ward.
Sunday-church and then Monday back to school. Spring Break has flown by. I have had some good times with good friends.
Last week one of my little darlings on his way out of our classroom down to the "practice hall" - a room where they can practice good student skills such as NOT swearing at your teacher, or following directions, or NOT throwing things in the classroom. If they are ready to practice they can process out. Processing out means they have completed several academic tasks calmly. If they can not walk out of my room and down to the practice hallway they are escorted out by our "intervention coaches" aka security. If they are fighting against our wonderful intervention coaches then they will start off in the gray room. The gray room is a room with a lock on the outside. It is empty and guess what color it is?..you guessed it gray. This room is watched 24/7 if someone is in there. This student was swearing at me therefore; he needed to go practice good student skills; on his way out he flipped over several desks, threw his book, tore up his worksheets, and then picked up my teacher podium - a music stand- and chunked it at me. I managed to dodge it except one of the legs hit my shin. ouch!! But I did not want to let him know I got hit so I kept quiet and calm and walked with him the rest of the way to the practice hall.
Spring Break so nice! Sunday I drove out to Eagle River with Cole and some other YSA's to a preparedness fireside. Cole was cracking me up. The setting sun was shinning on the mountains way out in the Mat-Su valley and it was gorgeous!
Monday- I did some errands, went to my favorite store here - Value Village- like goodwill but better. I found some books, a coat, and some new jeans a size smaller than last time I bought jeans YAY!! Monday night was FHE. Cole taught on Pres. Uchtdorf's talk "The Infinite Power of Hope" it was a great lesson and such a powerful talk.
Tuesday- Cole and I went to breakfast downtown ( I think Cole was repenting for not being social on Monday you big bum!) and walked around. It was nice to have a good reason to get out of bed early...We watched a ship come through the ice in the ocean so beautiful and had a good time talking about me possibly getting arrested for a traffic ticket I got back in November. I plead not guilty and still have not gotten a court date mailed to me. I figure it is their job to contact me, right? Tuesday afternoon Matt and I went shopping for some Ammo so we could go shooting later on this week. We also picked up some wonderful grub at Artic Road Runner. YUMMY.
Wednesday- Cristi and I went around town. We picked up some groceries at Fred Meyers. Went to the Celtic store and picked up some UK chocolate. I got some to send Amy my Canadian sister in law. Then Matt and I went to Birchwood to go shooting. He has a Walther .22 , .40 and a colt .45 (those are all pistols) and a 708 rifle. We had a great time shooting. That was my first time at a range. I liked the .22 pistol and the .45 . It was nice to do something different and get out of Anchorage. That night I watched Strictly Ballroom with Cristi. It was hilarious.
Thursday - I had a new chiropractic appointment. It was sooo nice to get adjusted. I miss you DR. Hurley! My neck is completley straight instead of having a c curve..so my neck muscles do a lot of work keeping my head upright...thus lots of tension headaches. Then I met my friend Bethany for lunch and we went and visited our friend Charlotte who is really sick. Then I went to my friend Katie's for taco salad. She was keeping her 1 year old nephew. It did me some good to be around a little one. I just love them. We had fun playing peekaboo and I would hide his little stuffed bear in his pockets or in my collar and he would have fun pulling it out. He was such a cutie! Then we went to Coldstone for some yummy ice cream!
Friday- I came to school to study for my praxis test I am taking tomorrow at 7:30 am. Kay Papakristo is here too. She is such a lifesaver I would never had made it here without her to vent to and celebrate with. I love that woman! We did lunch and drove around and found exactly where to go for our test tomorrow. I took a practice praxis test and made a 77% so I hope that is a passing score...if not i am not smarter than a 5th grader and I teach them. =0)
Saturday- I will take my Praxis test and then me and Cole had talked about going to a benefit lunch thing involving soup and pottery bowls and then to a baptism of a friend in our ward.
Sunday-church and then Monday back to school. Spring Break has flown by. I have had some good times with good friends.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Symphony
I was able to attend the Symphony here in Anchorage tonight with a great fella from out ward. We had a good time. I was noticing that in order to be a good conductor one must have really great hair to flick all around while conducting. We had good seats and when the conductor took a really deep breath I could hear it. It was great.
Walking to the show we saw some of the Fur Rondy fireworks. I am still trying to figure out what exactly Fur Rondy is. Some sort of celebration tied into the start of the Iditorod race. Those of you who don't know I absoluetly LOVE fireworks. So beautiful and sparkly so fun!! Anywho during the show I noticed that some of the musicians were so stoic and serious and others were very expressive in their movements and facial expressions. I liked to watch the ones who were expressive. It helped me feel what they were playing.
I also thought how life is like a symphony. Sometimes our parts are quiet and repetitive and other times at the conductors signal we are soloist and crescendo into all the volume that our instruments can play. Sometimes we are silent and wait on the conductor to be brought into the music again. I know I feel like now my part is small and quiet and sometimes it feels like I am on a 100 measure rest wanting to play the part that is divinely mine to play but I sit waiting on THE Conductor to get to the part in the symphony where I get to join in. I love the idea of us all being connected and how we all echo parts of the same music at different times. As the melody went from the violins, to the wind insturments, and then the horns it was like the generations of time: family traditions, gospel knowledge, love all being passed around and around. I know that if I stick with The Conductor, He has a big finish for all of us at the end. Where we all play and play together; it will be so grand! This is not very articulate probably cause it is late here but I wanted to write down those feelings while they were fresh.
It was the best day. I read ( the fire and the covenant) while the magical white flakes from Heaven fell and fell. After I slept in. Alaska so gorgeous, esp now that we are getting more sunshine!
Walking to the show we saw some of the Fur Rondy fireworks. I am still trying to figure out what exactly Fur Rondy is. Some sort of celebration tied into the start of the Iditorod race. Those of you who don't know I absoluetly LOVE fireworks. So beautiful and sparkly so fun!! Anywho during the show I noticed that some of the musicians were so stoic and serious and others were very expressive in their movements and facial expressions. I liked to watch the ones who were expressive. It helped me feel what they were playing.
I also thought how life is like a symphony. Sometimes our parts are quiet and repetitive and other times at the conductors signal we are soloist and crescendo into all the volume that our instruments can play. Sometimes we are silent and wait on the conductor to be brought into the music again. I know I feel like now my part is small and quiet and sometimes it feels like I am on a 100 measure rest wanting to play the part that is divinely mine to play but I sit waiting on THE Conductor to get to the part in the symphony where I get to join in. I love the idea of us all being connected and how we all echo parts of the same music at different times. As the melody went from the violins, to the wind insturments, and then the horns it was like the generations of time: family traditions, gospel knowledge, love all being passed around and around. I know that if I stick with The Conductor, He has a big finish for all of us at the end. Where we all play and play together; it will be so grand! This is not very articulate probably cause it is late here but I wanted to write down those feelings while they were fresh.
It was the best day. I read ( the fire and the covenant) while the magical white flakes from Heaven fell and fell. After I slept in. Alaska so gorgeous, esp now that we are getting more sunshine!
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