November 2012

           October started out with General Conference as always. I really enjoyed listening to the talks given. I enjoyed being at home to watch as well because I’m much more comfortable on my couch than on the chairs at the church. There were several talks that really spoke to me. I think Megan’s favorite was by Elder Nelson who kept saying “Ask the missionaries, they can help you.” She liked it enough to put it as her Facebook status. I was actually a little surprised that she watched it as she was babysitting all day long. She even had the kids join her for a little bit here and there. I asked her if it was a challenge in seminary and she told me that she had just wanted to. I was pretty happy to hear that let me tell you.

I have not enjoyed missing mutual all month long. I will miss November all month as well. December 5^th is my last Wednesday night class for a few months and I’m glad about that. I wish I could figure out a way around it, but sadly there doesn’t seem to be one. I just registered for classes for the winter quarter and all the classes are in the late afternoon or evening again. I guess I’m going to have to accept that as the way things will be until I graduate in 2015. I’m looking forward to that day and wish it was already here.

The classes haven’t been too amazing with the exception of science. That has been a very interesting and enjoyable class which I’m grateful for because it’s the one I’m missing mutual to attend. My math class is frustrating me to no end as I keep being assigned homework that we haven’t gone over in class. I spent six hours doing that last Saturday and finally gave up and copied the answers from the back of the book. I don’t like it at all. I will be putting that on her evaluation. It’s completely ineffective and wastes my time. Another class is theory of reading and I felt like I’ve only learned something one time. I hate that my time is being wasted by attending the actual class. I spoke to the dean about that and it’s also going on the evaluation. I’m glad I can evaluate each of my teachers. I’ve never really said much negative about any of them so I’m rather disturbed to have to say bad things about two of them this time. I’ve had the math teacher before and there wasn’t a problem, but this time it’s been bad. The whole class feels the same way as I do for both classes, so at least I know I’m not alone.

Although October was a very busy month for me it was all pretty much school. I had a practicum for one of my classes, which is similar to an internship, but not as long and I didn’t get paid. I had to work 90 hours in a preschool setting. I did that in Battle Creek. Last Friday was my last day doing that. Now all I have to do is all the paperwork that goes along with the class. I have to write up six lesson plans that I taught and then journal about some different topics. Last Monday the part-time teacher was let go. I’ve applied for the position as it works out very well with my schedule for school. As far as I can tell it would be 8am-1pm Monday through Friday. I’m now substituting there. I’m excited to get paid to do that. I don’t know how long it will be before they decide. From talking to the director there are three possible candidates including myself. She might hire outside, but she likes to take from the substitute pool and there are three of us. I’m keeping my fingers crossed because it would be good for me to have some money coming in. It wouldn’t solve all our problems, but it would sure help out a great deal.

I went to the temple by myself. I don’t really ever want to try that again. I didn’t enjoy the streets and highways of Detroit. The GPS was nice, but it would have been better if I hadn’t needed to do it on my own. Andrew had to work that day so he wasn’t able to come with me. I went because Dave Snowberger from Battle Creek got his endowment taken out and then he and his wife Deb were sealed. They mean a lot to me and I really wanted to be there. I missed the session after getting lost (sort of), but I was there for the sealing and that was more important anyway.

Andrew’s first class ended. He got an A- and was glad to get it. He has two classes now and is having more trouble keeping up with it. He isn’t working as much now though as they cut his overtime almost completely off and so that’s helping in that area. Sadly it’s not doing us any favors on the financial end of things. He went on a really enjoyable campout last weekend. He didn’t get much sleep, but he did enjoy the activities and such. It was about search and rescue. Apparently that’s a merit badge the boys can earn. They did most of it there and now they will finish it at scouts in a week or so.

My foot and ankle still bother me to some extent. I can wear most any shoe that’s flat though so I’m making progress. I haven’t gotten any further than that for several weeks though. I still have trouble with bruising of my foot near my toes and my ankle swelling up badly. Other than that I can do most anything as long as I don’t stay on it too long.

It’s nice to be home this morning. I cleaned up the kitchen pretty good and even managed to clean the microwave and sink area which were in pretty bad shape. I forgot the toaster oven till it was too late so that will have to just stay dirty until I decide to clean up again. I would like to do that this week sometime. I guess we’ll see what happens.

I got some new pants this month and went crazy and got some purple pants and a dark red berry color. I have no idea what I was thinking since I’ve always worn gray, black, tan, brown and blue. I feel odd wearing them, but apparently I don’t look too bad as I don’t get comments from anyone. It’ll take some time to get used to I guess.

I’ve had some trouble with vertigo again. I had it really bad a few years ago for two months or so. This time it’s not putting me in bed which I’m very thankful for. I found an exercise online called the Epley maneuver which really helps me with it. Apparently once you have it you are subjected to relapses now and again. This wasn’t exactly exciting news for me, but at least I know how to work with it.

We didn’t do Halloween at all. We put up some decorations, but we didn’t dress up or go to the activity at the church. Andrew was working, Megan didn’t feel well and I sure didn’t want to go alone, so we all missed it.

Megan got her first report card and did very well in her classes. Her favorite class besides math is seminary. She enjoys it a lot and never complains about getting  up early to get there on time. She has been walking but I think I’ll start taking her over in the mornings so that she is a little safer in getting there. She doesn’t like her health class but is glad it’s the last one she has to take. She just had to bring home a fake baby that has some computer programming in it and that was NOT fun. We had it over the weekend and were very glad to send it back this morning. It was supposed to be realistic, but it really wasn’t. I like real babies, I hated that thing. At least we’re done with it though and I’m glad!

I guess that’s about all. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We will have the missionary here, which has become our tradition. It works well since they don’t have anywhere to go and neither do we. I’m trying to complete 800 indexing names before the end of the year. Yesterday I passed my half-way mark. I’m behind what I planned which was 100 names each month for eight months. Now I’m trying to really get on the ball and do about 100 a week to catch up. It’s pretty fun to do overall though I don’t enjoy it when I can’t figure out what in the world was written.