Almost a month...

Well, this has been the longest hiatus with posting on my blog for the past six months. It's kind of weird to think that seven months ago I started that special diet to see if any of the food I was eating was a trigger for headaches. It's even more weird to think that five months ago I wrote my first blog post from DC (followed by many, many more). And then school started and my blogging took a backseat to figuring out how to be a third grade teacher, how to be a teacher, and how to balance my work life, personal life, and church life.

Maybe life will slow down, but probably not.

Today has been kind of a hard day. I've been really worried about someone that I care about so much all day. I'm not sure exactly what is going on with her and her life, but I know that it isn't what was planned and if it happened to me I would be crying buckets all day.  Like I said, I don't know exactly what is going on, but the worrying and praying and trying to be hopeful for her all day, has been a growing feeling throughout the day.  I wish I could do more for her than just think about her and pray for her, but I can't.  I've made myself available to talk but probably everyone wants to talk to her right now and that can get old and annoying.  Thankfully I know she has a great family that is supporting her right now and that Heavenly Father is right there with her giving her the strength she needs to make any tough decisions.

...

Other than today though, I've had a good week.  I voted on Tuesday for mayor and a city-council Member. I love feeling and knowing that I am participating in the great American experiment when I vote, even when it is in "small" elections like for mayor. These are our leaders that impact the exact place where we live! Why wouldn't we vote for "lesser" positions like mayor and city-council?

Proof! I have the "I voted!" sticker

Last week was Halloween and Cody and I dressed up as Wreck-it-Ralph and Vanellope Von Schweetz.

I'm starting to get into the groove of third grade, but I do still miss teaching fifth grade social studies. I'm trying to follow Jane Eyre's advice when she becomes the teacher to those poor, country-folk--to put aside her fine accomplishments because she knows they will keep.  I know that my love for American History will keep. I'll still find ways to incorporate it a little bit in my class (still not the same!), but that knowledge and that love will "keep."

Also, I got my first flu shot (that I can remember; I maybe got one when I was a baby) today. I figured I should just bite the bullet, get it and not try to test my luck that I won't get it this year. I've been blessed with extraordinarily good health, but I don't want to let getting sick mess up my Thanksgiving or Christmas plans (after that? Sure why not? haha).

Goals to help Beth become Human again...

I will never deny that I have thoroughly enjoyed the past couple months of sleeping in because of being job-less and in search-mode. But the time has come for me to join the rest of society again, leave my vacation-like life of sleeping in and getting around 10 hours of sleep every night :) ... Let's see if these goals help:

1. Wake up at 5am to go running on the BYU track with my roommate
2. At least this week and next week, be at the library by 7am to work on research till about 2pm.
3. Eat salads for lunch--or at least something vegetable-y.
4. Write down what I think I need to do for school and for sanity and organize them by days so I don't feel overwhelmed and can work on a little something every day
5. Try as hard as I can not to get behind on my journal...at least no more than a week...
6.Write things down...
7. Decide what needs to stay or go to protect my privacy and image as a teacher...maybe this blog will become private...

Let's see how this works...

back and forth

I keep going back and forth between having this blog be open to everyone or not...So if you get an invite and then realize you don't need to sign in, it's because I'm changing my mind all the time. :)

Back in Utah

Dear family and friends who have been reading this blog,

So I returned to the United States and am now safely in Provo, Utah--right back into the thick of things at work and getting to know people in my ward.

Thanks for everyone who has been reading my blog. I hope you liked it. I'm going to keep writing on here every once and a while--mes aventures à Provo. I'm going to take off the email alert after this post, just fyi.

-Beth

p.s. I'm a little more of a food snob and white plate snob now that I've spent 6 weeks in France. Today as I was walking back from campus I made a pit stop at a little grocery store, looked for some French bread or a baguette or something (because hey, you never know!) and surprise surprise, they didn't have any. So instead I bought some bread from the Provo bakery instead of the Home Pride or whole wheat grain bread that I used to buy...

To-be-coming

This is where I'll try and post at least weekly some of my adventures and thoughts about my stay in France this spring term. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up every once and a while too, but we'll see; apparently it takes a long time to upload pictures internationally.