Institute Party

I follow the local community college's schedule when it comes to teaching my Institute class.  Last class for the fall semester was on December 9th, and we don't start back up again until January 20th.  I really enjoy rubbing shoulders with these young adults--they are fun, kind, respectful, and full of good ideas and experiences.  We have a good time together!

Here we are having a mini Christmas party after class--everyone brought goodies to share and then we played quite a few rounds of Reverse Charades.  It was awesome!

Gospel study

I've been teaching Institute since the end of May, and I'm learning quickly that in order to stay on top of my game I need to take time to study every single day, among other things.  I haven't had that habit for a long time, and it feels good to make it a priority.

Especially during this week, when I just finished a lesson last night, have to start preparing for next week's lesson, and have to give a talk in church on Sunday.  I've felt like I've been juggling lately and having a hard time keeping everything up in the air, haha!  Thank goodness I have time to figure this all out before school starts next month when our schedules--school! seminary!--get busier!

I'm also thankful for the Church's Notebook feature on lds.org.  This morning I spent about an hour and a half reading scriptures, reading talks, making notes, and highlighting important things, all online.  And I discovered that I can print all of my notes and highlights when I'm done--GENIUS!

A new church assignment

In the middle of the very busy month of May, one of our church high councilors came by to talk to me and Jason about a new church assignment.  I was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT sure that he was going to ask me to help out with Girls Camp, and I was ready for it.

SO,

when he asked me if I'd be willing to serve as the stake's young single adult institute teacher, I was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT shocked.  Totally, completely shocked.  I did NOT see that coming, not in a million years.

I started teaching the very next week and finished up the Book of Mormon class they'd been doing.  Now we are starting a Doctrine and Covenants class.  We meet every Tuesday night form 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the stake center, following the local community college's schedule.  (This means I'll get a LONG 5-week break around Christmas.)  So far I've had anywhere from 8 to 14 people attend, and that's a very tiny percentage of the young adults here in Ridgecrest.  An area to work on, for sure!

Getting released from my Webelos assistant calling has been bittersweet.  I was super sad at first, and so was Wade.  I have LOVED being his Cub Scout leader!!!  But as I've prepared and slaved over these institute lessons each week and get ready for several hours of training over the summer, I'm also grateful for the release.  It's a bigger deal than I thought, this institute gig.  Among other things, I had to have a 4-year college degree and a current temple recommend!  That's a first!

After the second lesson, though, I was hooked.  Teaching young single adults makes my heart sing.  Those who attend want to be there, and they do a pretty good job teaching ME with their comments and their spirit.  It's wonderful!

Jason, Wade, and the Boy Scouts

Jason celebrated his 37th birthday by going on a camping trip with Wade and 19 young men in Death Valley!  They had a fantastic time, as you can see from these amazing pictures that Jason shared...

I. LOVE. THIS. PICTURE.

Can you see the rainbow?

 One of the leaders took this great shot of a visiting fox...he was pretty bold.

Jason said the young men were really great and friendly with Wade--he was obviously in heaven.  Wade was super proud of himself for eating not one but TWO hamburgers for dinner and for beating Dad at Superman Uno in their tent.  And I was very glad to hear that the group sang "Happy Birthday" to Jason and that one of the boys gave him a bag of cookies that his mom had made.  The group had amazing weather right up until Saturday morning when they got to the top of the sand dunes to ride boards down them (the main point of the trip).  All of a sudden this huge wind whipped up a sandstorm--they all tried to go down a time or two and then they hightailed it out of there.

Back here in Ridgecrest we'd had terrible wind/rain since Friday night, so I was praying for the boys all night long.  I was very happy to hear that MOST of the trip had been great! 

 

Off to a good start

Weekend report:

*Jason survived (and enjoyed) the final session of BOLT/OWL Scout training Friday night and all day Saturday. This was a blessing since both of us have had some mixed/bad feelings about it. The training turned out to be fun and was very well-attended by LDS members, too.

*Wade had a stomach bug all day Saturday and is thankfully starting to feel better from it. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the rest of us won't get it!

I'm off to a good start today. Before 9am I went for a walk, listened to a General Conference talk, vacuumed, sorted laundry and folded 2 loads of it, started up the dishwasher, skimmed leaves from the pool, got the kids out the door for school, and checked email/blogs. I hope to crank out the Primary program, do some clean-up in the front yard, cash some checks, go to Wal-Mart, and get a TB test done for substitute teaching, too.

To reward myself, I will be watching more of the 2005 BBC production of Charles Dickens' book Bleak House. Man, it's good stuff. I started watching a bit of it because it came up on a Netflix instant-streaming search. I'd never heard of this book and was on cloud 9 to find that our small local library had a COPY of it, a beautiful, ancient-looking copy! So I am in heaven, reading the some-700+ pages that Dickens wrote at night, and watching a TV version of it during the day! Sometimes I wonder if I was born in the right century, but then I remember how much I appreciate modern-day conveniences! :)



Tomorrow is a big day for Rhiannon--we'll find out if she won the election for Historian/Photographer! We'll keep you posted!