In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Back to Normal, I Think!

Well, it's been a month since my last post. I tried writing a post a few weeks ago, entitled "Show Time = No Time," but ironically, I didn't have time to finish it.

A brief summary of our crazy life:

1. Zach and Allison got married and we went to a couple of their receptions in Idaho and Sacramento. We are so happy for them!!


2. I wrote and directed the 1st Grade Musical that debuted Oct 29. It was adorable and had a Halloween drumming theme.
3. Amid the preparationgs for the 1st Grade Musical and the wedding stuff, I was rehearsing for a church Broadway Review that performed Nov 5-13. I was Gisselle from Enchanted in one of the songs and tap danced in another song! This meant Saturday rehearsals all day and Tues and Fri night rehearsals for nearly 2 months. I got sick during the middle of the performances and still managed to sing without a speaking voice.
4. Then, I went to Missouri to visit my friend Deadawn and her six beautiful children during the weekend of Nov 13-15.
5. As soon as I got back, I directed the 4th Grade Musical and Narrative Mime on Nov 18. The owner's son of the school said it was one of the BEST performances in the school's history.
6. Oh yeah, the day before that, one of the after-school classes that I teach ended with a bang. My Drum Circle students jammed out with their parents and siblings on all of our African drums and instruments.
7. On Nov 19, I ended Creative Dance Class with an awesome performance of my JK-3rd students dancing their hearts out in front of their parents. I was showered with an unexpected plethera of flowers and leis after the performance. I admit, that felt good to know I'm appreciated.
8. Just when you think things were calming down, it was the end of the trimester, so I scrambeled to complete all the grades for each of my classes. I stayed at the school every night last week until 10:30pm, some nights 11:00pm. (note- I wasn't doing grades that whole time. I was also doing stuff with all the performances)
9. And I took a group of my 4th graders to the Barnes & Noble Book Fair for another performance this past weekend.

So that's what I've been up to.

I'm not exactly sure what Jeremy has been doing, but I know that he has been working late nights, too. (Late for him is about 7:00 pm). And he's worked a few Saturdays this month, too. This goes to show that his promotion has given him a lot of new challenges and responsibility. I'm really proud of him.

I was able to go on a date with Jeremy on Friday. We saw Blindside, which was fun because both of us have listened to the book. We were joking on our date that we have been so busy in our own working worlds that we could both be having an affair without the other person knowing! We're glad that things are calming down a little now. Luckily, I planned to not have any school performances in December- wasn't that smart? So things should be fairly normal for a while. I cannot wait to have Saturday and Sunday back again.

Which brings me to a few things I am thankful for on Thanksgiving Day:

• Free time on Saturdays and Sundays
• No where to go on Thanksgiving. I know MomR and MomZ might get offended by that, but seriously, it a blessing to not be traveling this week. I get to see my husband!!
• Living near the beach during winter
• Wholesome Choice- it's the best international food market you've ever been to. We've been getting our meals from there lately as we've had no time to cook or grocery shop.
• Jeremy. I know he loves me so much because he has filled in so many of my responsibilities these past 2 months with only a "peep" of complaint. Okay, so the peep was a long venting session, but it was still done very lovingly. He really is so patient with me and the frustrating situations we've been in, which were mostly due to my own weaknesses. Honey, I promise I'll start using my planner- eventually.
• Clean bathrooms and kitchens. Ours aren't clean right now and haven't been for a while, but I've learned that I really like it when they are clean.
• Tivo. It's so nice to come home after a 15 hour day of teaching and working and calling and grading and planning and painting sets and moving instruments and making flyers and just being able to plop on the couch with a cozy husband and watch any of our fav shows on demand.
• The gospel and Heavenly Father. You can't make a thankful list without mentioning the most important thing! And it's because of Him that I still have my head on- it might not be on straight, per say, but it's still on!!

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.