I LOVE my freshman class!

Just wanted to say that I teach the best group of freshmen in the whole wide world. For any who may not know I teach an early morning Seminary class. This is a bible study class and there are 25 freshmen in my class this year. These kids are AWESOME!

The first 'incident' of the year I call: "A Seminary Teacher's Nightmare AKA We're In Good Hands"! Back at the end of September I awoke to my husband's alarm at 7:00 a.m. In my foggy brain I was thinking, is today Saturday?... Until a few seconds later the adrenaline jolt told me that NO it wasn't Saturday and it was indeed a school day which meant I was LATE for Seminary (which starts at 6:25 a.m.)!!! I jumped out of bed, ran into the bathroom, threw on my clothes & hot footed it down to the church, all the while worrying how in the world they would split my class of 25 up between the other big classes in our building?! The irony of this is that before the school year started we met as Seminary teachers and discussed backup plans in case one of the teachers didn't make it some morning, I assured the other teachers that it would never be a problem for them to have to cover my class because I live very close to the church, so even in inclement weather I'd be able to get to the church AND in the 3 1/2 years that I've taught early morning Seminary I had never overslept so they didn't need to worry about that either!!! Well...as I told my class that morning, I guess the lesson is, never say never!!

Anyway...when I arrived at the church building my first inclination was to wander around the building to see where my class ended up, but I heard sound from OUR classroom. So I rushed down there and SURE ENOUGH, there was the whole class listening respectfully/intently as some of the students were reenacting one of the scripture stories we'd been studying! Once that was over, the kids gave me the 'low down' on what they'd done. When I wasn't there as they arrived (I'm usually the first one in the building) they let one of the other teachers know. When I didn't show up after it was time to start they chose an opening hymn, sang it, had the prayer & devotional, practiced the scripture mastery, had 10 minutes of personal scripture study and then decided to split up into 4 groups and have the role play/reenactments. WOW!!!!! Have I mentioned before that these are the most AWESOME youth EVER!!!! My husband and I had previously discussed the fact that we see future Relief Society Presidents, Bishops, Stake Presidents and all manner of leaders in these youth. This experience just testified to me that it's true! They are AMAZING, and I am truly grateful and humbled to be able to serve as their Seminary teacher. We are truly in good hands in the church with this next generation!

I never knew for sure what happened with my alarm. When I got home and checked it, it was still set at 5:10 AM and was in the 'on' position. So I made the obvious choice and purchased a new alarm clock!

We just held our first scripture chase of the year today. We start with a breakfast and thanks to lots of generous parents this one was great as usual. Then we have the scripture chase. Each year the youth are asked to memorize 25 scriptures from the current book of scriptures they're studying (this year it's Old Testament), we also discuss personal and missionary applications for the scriptures. For the scripture chase we focused on the first 12 scriptures with clues from the personal and missionary applications, key words and first words. We also had a 'second chance' opportunity for each round where the kids could win points by finding and throwing an item chosen at random (like a black sock, set of keys, etc) into a square taped off on the floor, it made the scripture chase lots of fun!

Earlier in the year we studied the 10 Commandments, one of which is of course, to honor your parents. I told the kids that they would honor me as their teacher at this scripture chase by being good sports and doing their best. They did GREAT! They didn't win, but as one of the students pointed out, they didn't do bad at all as they only lost by 5 points. They made this teacher proud! GOOD JOB freshmen!!

Can't wait to have a Christmas party with these great kids over the Christmas break!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Wow, get back home and real life gets in the way of blog updates somehow. So, while I'm 'on vacation' again in Texas I'll try to do a little blog catching up! When I arrived home about 4 p.m. from Texas after having an unexpected 'sleep over' at the Denver airport on Monday October 17th no one was home, so I started the long overdue process of coloring my hair. Alex and company got home a few minutes before I was supposed to rinse my hair, so I jumped in the shower before he got in the house because I figured my hair would be fried by the time I made it to the shower otherwise! Almost the whole time I was in the bathroom I heard pounding on the door and giggling and hollering 'NANA, NANA' giggle, giggle, giggle, giggle! It was hilarious! I kept hollering back at him and then he'd holler at me again. He left for a few minutes and then came back with Briana. Just as I'd put my underwear and robe on, the door flew open (I hadn't locked it and smart little Alex can now open the doors). Would have been a bit of an embarrassing moment for all of us if it had been a moment sooner! Anyway, it felt good to have such an enthusiastic welcome home committee!

I've got to say I'm super grateful for a wonderful friend who's always willing to substitute for me in my Seminary class. Thank you Jon Snider!! He subs for me short-term, long-term, spur-of-the-moment, etc. My biggest concern 3 1/2 years ago when I accepted the call to teach early morning Seminary was that I wouldn't be able to find subs when I needed them. I have had a number of wonderful friends that have willing volunteered to fill in for me over the years, but Jon has been the most regular and diligent of the them all. He has been a great blessing to me throughout my Seminary teaching career so that I can take time off to attend my daughters' weddings, grandchild births, baby blessings, birthday parties, etc.

We had a super fun Halloween season. It's so nice to have little people around again for the holidays. Alex dressed up as a fireman (he loves having a fire station right across the street from his house) and Emmett was his cute little fire dog.

For family night we all went to one of the local orchards that has a pumpkin patch and hay rides. Unfortunately we went during the week and they only had the hay rides on the weekends.

Alex thoroughly enjoyed picking out pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, but the highlight of the trip was his opportunity to be 'farmer Alex' and 'drive' the tractor that they had setting out for photo ops. He was a super happy camper as long as we let him sit on that tractor. And boy was he mad when it was time to get off of it. Isn't sweet little Emmett adorable with those big blue eyes and that sweet little expression of his?! And I just have to mention that every time I see him in a picture it reminds me of my Dad. Emmett has his great-grandpa Larkin's ears!

Later Darvin, Briana, Alex and I had some pumpkin carving fun. Pops was in charge of the first 'attack'. After some initial intrepidation at the prospect of sticking his hands in the pumpkin innards, Alex soon decided it was great fun to pull out the slimy, seedy pumpkin brains! I had downloaded Lighting McQueen & Tow Mater templates, so Briana and I got to work. Alex was thoroughly pleased

with the results.

Teething Stinks! and I LOVE the Old Testament

Poor little Jackson is in the midst of major teething. It makes me feel so sad when everything that can be done for him is done, but he's still in pain! Erin and Russ use teething tablets, a special necklace, cold foods, teething biscuits, the whole nine yards! Poor little guy was still miserable today and not having a very pleasant time as we were trying to finish shopping and get out of Walmart. As we were in the checkout line Jackson spied a kids toy cell phone. Normally I curse those marketers for putting all those impulse buy items in the checkout lanes, but this was precisely what we needed to divert this little guy from a mouthful of pain. He was a happy camper the whole way home-making phone calls and talking to Daddy, listening to his phone ring, etc! That was the best 3 bucks I've spent in a long time!

I never thought I'd say that I LOVE the Old Testament, maybe it has something to do with loving my Seminary class this year too! Anyway, I just finished reading all of Moses, Abraham and Genesis. WOW! I must give credit to David J Ridges who wrote some wonderful books called "Your Study of the Old Testament Made Easier". He gives clarification of the text with brief notes and also quotes from prophets, general authorities, institute study guides, etc. I've always thought of myself as the "Seminary for Dummies" teacher as I am NOT a scriptorian, so these books have been very helpful in improving my understanding of the Old Testament. Now, it's time to start getting some lessons planned. I have some fun ideas and I can't wait to get back to Yakima to start sharing with my class!

Can I also mention that I'm addicted to the Mormon Messages site on youtube? Now that I've figured out how to download clips to my laptop I can't wait to use them as supplements to my Seminary lessons!