A Week in the Life of SarahLynn and Jeremy

I decided to track exactly how we have been spending our time this past week, as our lives seem to be whizzing by with near insanity. We have been out of town the past two weekends in a row for our brother Zach and Allison's wedding and receptions. They were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity and we are so happy for them!

We are also glad to be home this weekend to sort of get our lives back on track. Here's how it went starting with a little over a week ago:

Friday, Oct 16
6:00 am Wake up
6:45 Leave for work. Haha, Jeremy has to lock the door, cuz I got out before him!
7:10 Jeremy arrives at work. He sits at the desk all day.
7:20 SL arrives at work. She spends the day running around, setting up and putting down for different lessons, teaching 5th grade to 1st grade to 5th grade to 2nd grade to Kinder to Junior High (in that order!) All of which involve singing, dancing, stretching, and being very dramatic.
12:00 SL sits down for the first time since being in her car. Jeremy goes to the gym to work out.
4:30pm SL races to her rehearsal for the church production in a few weeks.
5:00 Jeremy comes home. Starts laundry and dinner.
5:30 SL comes home to grab something to eat. She sits to watch a few minutes of TV.
7:00 We start packing.
9:00 SL leaves for tap rehearsal.
10:30pm SL gets home. She helps Jeremy clean the house for a guest that will be staying at our place while we're gone.
1:15 am We finally finish cleaning the house. (It hadn't been cleaned for 2 weeks, so it took a while)

Saturday, Oct 17
4:00 am Wake up
4:15 Start driving to Sacramento. Jeremy drove. SL slept.
8:00 SL starts driving.
10:53 Arrive at church in Citruis Heights. Start helping Mom Z with setting up for Zach's reception.
12:30 pm Go out to Adalberto's with Zav family. VERY fun and yummy.
4:00 Start cutting food for reception. I only sliced one thumb and jabbed one finger the whole time!
6:30 Get spruced up for reception.
7:00 Stand in reception line. Smile a lot. Nudge Jeremy to remind him to introduce me to people.
8:45 Disban reception line. Scramble to get the last bit of scraps from the food table. And the yummy soft serve icecream from the machine.
9:15 Sit down.
9:45 Start cleaning reception up.
12:00 am Sit in room to watch Zach and Allison open presents.
1:10 Leave the church.
1:25am Go to sleep.

Sunday, Oct 18
9:30 am Wake up
11:00 Go to church
2:00pm Go to Zavoral home. Eat and have a party!!!
6:00 Start the drive home.
12:30am Get home.
12:45 Go to sleep.

Monday, Oct 19
6:00 Wake up.
8:30 SL Works frantically to get lesson plans turned in before 8:00. She got them in by 3:00. Spend every possible moment in between classes to run to make more copies, answer that one email, create a parent letter, answer West Music's phone call, make a worksheet, set up for the next class, etc.
12:00 pm No time for lunch.
3:20 Last class ends.
5:00 pm Leave the school. Get stuff for Jeremy's b-day.
5:30 Kid nap Jeremy. Take him to the beach, exquipped with tent, food and blankets.
6:00 Watch the sunset. Enjoy the fire.
7:00 Cuddle in the tent.
7:35 Beach Police pull up and flash lights into our tent. Apparently you can't have tents on the beach. Oops!
8:30 Come home. Watch TV.
9:30 Go to bed.


Tuesday, Oct 20 - Happy Birthday Jeremy!! You're finally as old as me.
6:15 am Wake up
Another busy filled day. Stressing to catch up!
12:00pm Only 30 minutes for lunch. I spend it working with a JH student on his singing.
3:30 After school drum circle class.
4:30 More planning.
6:00 pm Reluctantly leave the school. Still so much to do.
6:30 Tap dance rehearsal for the stake show.
8:00 Arrive at home. Too tired to cook. Eat a bowl of cereal.
8:15 Watch Seinfeld.
9:00pm Exhausted. Go to sleep.

Wednesday, Oct 21
6:00am Decide to sleep in.
6:45 Wake up. Ah! I'm late.
7:55 Arrive at school late.
8:30 First class. Teach all day.
12:00 Spend my lunch working with 4th graders for an upcoming show.
3:30pm Begin after school voice tutoring.
5:15 Sit down for the first time. Breathe.
5:20 Try to plan. Hard to do on an empty stomach.
6:30 Leave to get In& Out Burger.
7:00 Return to school for more planning.
9:00pm Leave the school.
9:30 Crash into bed.... Oh yeah... hi Jeremy!

Thursday, Oct 22
I'm too tired to finish the week. On this day I had an hour and 15 min lunch, but it was all spent helping more JH students with their solos for the musical.

My after school class started at 3:30. It's called Creative Dance, so I got a very good workout.

I started planning and doing real work at 5:00pm. Left school at 8:30pm, I think.
Scarfed down some yummy rasselberry pie and a few chease sticks. Not the healthiest meal, but it's better than nothing. Watched a bit of TV before going to bed.

Friday, Oct 23
Much like Thursday, except I left work at 4:30 to go with Jeremy to his work social thingy. The next day I remembered that I had a rehearsal during this time that I was supposed to be at! Drat!

Saturday Oct 24- Baby Sis, Tanya's 18th Bday!!
I got to sleep in until 8:30!!

This day was mostly spent at the church with more rehearsals for the upcoming show. I also managed to plan 1/2 of this week's lessons which are due Monday morning at 8:00. I was going to work at the school, but got too tired.

Sunday, Oct 25
Today was awesome. I got up at 5:45am and cleaned the kitchen, started cooking meals for the week, and prepared my Sunday school lesson for church. I woke up extra early so that I will be tired right about now (8:45pm). I want to be able to get to school tomorrow no later than 6:30am because I am SO behind.

This week, the biggest event will be the first grade musical on Thursday. I hope I don't forget about it amidst everything else there is to do!! Wish me luck!!

ps- I am well aware that I stopped talking about Jeremy around Tuesday of this week. That's to help document how horribly immersed I am in my own job/carreer. I realize this is a problem and I am trying to work on it. Let me just celebrate in the fact that I remembered to plan something to do for his b-day and we had a lot of fun.

Yeah for Jeremy!

On Friday, Jeremy accepted another job promotion!! His new title is Customer Executive. That means he will be in charge of selling all Hormel grocery and meat products to Stater Brothers, a popular grocery chain in Southern California. We are excited about the pay increase and the amount of responsibility he will have.

Luckily, there is no job re-location, so we will stay right here in Huntington Beach! This job means that we will be living in this area for a couple of years. Which is great news for my career. I get to teach at the same school for a while!!! We might start looking to buy a home soon, too.

We know that this is a huge blessing from our Heavenly Father. Jeremy's boss had his eye out for Jeremy to take this position. Jeremy was told that his integrity and hard work ethic is what set him apart. I am so proud of him!!

Ever since we moved here, we've wondered when the time would be to get transferred to Minnesota- because that still is the long term plan for Jeremy's career. Well, now we can see that the Lord definitely wants us here in SoCal for a while. I guess there are still people for us to influence and be influenced by and things to learn and do. We hope to do our part so that we can benefit from all that God has in store for us.

Just Thinking

Thought 1-True Friends
Our Sunday school lesson today was about being true friends. We read a quote by Joseph Smith where he praised his dearest friends because they had stood by him in adversity AND stood true to their faith in the gospel. What an interesting thought- that one may be a true friend by being true in the gospel.

I really think this is true. As we draw closer to Heavenly Father, we become more Christlike. Our abilities to love and care for our friends will increase because we have the Spirit with us more. How neat to think that I can be a better friend simply by living the gospel more faithfully.

Is it a wonder, then, that my dearest friends are ones who have always stood firm in the faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I think not! Here are just a few of the friends that have touched my life for good. I hope I can be as wonderful to them as they have been to me!Kisha, Jine, and MeganDeadawnBrooke
Debi and Laura
Chelsea and Ryan
Mom
Cammie (Malee!)
Stacy Lynn

Thought 2- Twitter Shmitter
Does anyone really use twitter? I still have not met a single person that actually uses twitter for personal reasons. My work is trying to get us to use twitter to advertise school events as they happen, and I can see the merit to that. Other than that, it seems like twitter is just a big fad in the media. All the talk show hosts, news anchors and sitcom stars use it, but to my knowledge, not the average person. Am I right?

Thought 3- Gossip
When I was in high school, I thought that gossiping was just a juvenile thing, that once I graduated, gossiping would be a thing of the past. Boy, have I learned otherwise. Jeremy and I are realizing that grown-ups are even worse about gossiping than kids. At Jeremy's office, it seems like people are always talking about how annoying or weird certain individuals are. Those one or two people get the brunt of every joke. And Jeremy is always caught in the middle of it, not sure how to change the subject, wishing he wasn't even in the room to be a part of it. Too bad he can't move his desk.

The same kind of thing happens at church, in our families, and among the teachers at my school, of which I have alluded to in an earlier post. It's so ridiculous and disappointing and ugly! It makes me sick. I've made a firm commitment to not be a part of any gossip anymore, anywhere. I never want to be the cause of another person's hurt feelings.

Has it been easy? Not really, but I'm finding, as always, that when I seek the Lord's help to be more loving, it is easier to think positively. But the adversary is nearby. As I've striven to only speak positively of others, I somehow notice more of the side conversations that take place in the teacher's lounge and corners of the halls. And sometimes I find myself tempted to join in, or to mention a frustration about someone to another co-worker. Wow. It's just so perplexing that this would be a challenge for us in adulthood!

Wait. Does it count as gossip if you vent to your husband about someone? Hmm.

Line Up, Please!

The first week of school was great! I had a ton of fun with every class. I teach Jr Kinder, Kinder, grades 1-5 and JH choir. That's about 500 students in 19 classes. Since I teach at a private school, my class sizes average at about 17!! Piece of cake! It's funny to hear the veteran teachers who have never taught in public schools complain about a class with 24 kids. They have no idea.

The most worthy thing to note about the week is that I have forgotten what Kindergartners are like at the beginning of the year. How do I say this politely? They are completely delinquent in absolutely everything you would think is easy to do! I mean, really! They can't sit still to save their lives, they can't wait for you to finish even one sentence (or an 8 measure song), and they have no concept of walking in a line.

What happens is the teacher asks for the kids to line up. This results in a swarm of children around their hive...er... teacher. So then the teacher tries to choose one person to be the start of the line and show the kids which direction the line will end up. Now we have three lines in 4 different directions.

When the teacher finally gets all of the kids in a somewhat unified conglomeration, the next challenge is to get all the children to face the same direction. You can try singing, saying "1,2,3, eyes on me," and jumping up & down like a clown, but you will still have 4 kids who have no idea that you are even at the head of the room trying to get their attention. So the teacher must physically move their bodies to face the front.

The next challenge is to start moving the line in a forward direction. The teacher walks backwards, beckoning the first child in the line to follow her. The kid only gazes into space, transfixed on the beaded necklace around the teacher's neck. "Follow the person in front of you!" "Keep facing the front!" But to no avail. If she is lucky, the teacher will get the first child to walk forward, leaving everyone else behind. Finally, one child notices that the teacher is moving forward and starts to walk. But that kid was fifth in line and doesn't wait for the others to go. Once again, there is a human blob in the doorway of the classroom, spilling into the hallway, resulting in virtually no progress from what began 7 minutes earlier.

Expect about a month to master exiting the room. Then another 3 or 4 for the children to test every law of physics by sauntering through the halls in zigzag motions, walking backwards, tracing their fingers on and bumping into every wall, finding microscopic pieces of trash on the ground, starting at the end of the line at point A and ending up three people from the front at point B, tripping over their own feet, kicking, poking, teasing, arguing and falling over each other. Seriously, no exaggeration. I am a witness to these true events of the past week!

How we underestimate the patience required to teach our little ones! Even though they struggle to focus on my instructions, the moment that I sing and move, the children are all fixed on what I am doing. Reaching these little people through the power of music and movement is exactly why I chose this career. I love it! And I love them.

Back to School

This Tuesday is the first day of school. It is really exciting, but there's a lot of stress and anxiety too. The first week is crucial to the success of the year, so no pressure or anything, right? Luckily, I know nearly all of the students I will have. It is going to be so neat to see the same groups of students that I've taught before. What a treat that music specialists have!

I've got my new room all ready, which is a soundproof studio that already existed on campus. Finally we will be able to make music as loud as we want!! No cares about anyone hearing us. Our brand new African drums line the walls, my stuffed animals and songbooks color up the space, and my bulletin boards are ready for new melodies and rhythms to be added by the children. And I've also got 4 grade levels of lessons planned- just a few more grades to go. Ah!

There is one thing that I am not looking forward to, though. That's being misunderstood. Already, in my short career of teaching (this is my 3rd year since graduation) I have witnessed the sad politics and gossip and stupid competition that occurs among teachers and other colleagues in education. For the most part, the teachers that I've worked with in all of my teaching jobs have been fantastic. They are driven to help children and love what they do. And I have had some amazing teammates throughout the years (like Laura, Debbie and Cammie, to name a few).

But it's those 2 or 3 teachers or administrators that can literally destroy one's passion and love for teaching- if one lets them. I'm learning that most of the political crap & gossip among teachers happens due to pride and simply an unwillingess to understand. That's what I hate the most about life right now- being misunderstood.

So I am just trying to take all of the unfriendly, humiliating and downright coniving encounters that I have had with these people in good measure. I've got to just chalk it up as experience, to try to forgive and understand, to be patient, full of charity. And literally rely on Heavenly Father for strength so that my fiery flame for making a difference in the lives of children is not squelched by the pessimistic few.

I have faith that if I rely on the Lord to magnify my talents, and if I am humble, somehow I will figure out a way to deal even with the most difficult of people.