A Decade is Done

The last ten years have been full, busy, challenging, and filled with blessings. In a few short months from now I will have been divorced for a decade. I never expected that to be the story of a decade for me but it has been. Before my own experience with I thought I knew so much. I quickly learned that I knew nothing. I had no idea of the pain and anguish that would come through that experience. I didn’t know of the sadness, loneliness, and depression I would have to endure. There were some difficult moments associated with this time in my life but I pressed forward, trusting in Heavenly Father, and doing all I could do to be true and faithful to what I knew to be right. I fell short often and continue to do so, but I keep trying. I don’t know what that is worth but I will just keep doing the beat I can. I will show the Lord my willing heart even when I stumble and fall. I think those have been lessons that have served to strengthen me over the last ten years. It has been a whirlwind. It has involved sacrifice and going without in an effort to better our situation. It has required long hours and lots of work. As the decade began winding down I graduated from college with a teaching degree. I am a semester in to my first year as a teacher and I love what I do. My kids are good people who try hard and though they have their own struggles and challenges, they keep moving forward. At the end of a decade I am still single. Dating was not a priority. I went on many dates in the last ten years but never got involved in a serious relationship or anything beyond just being friends. Perhaps as I move into this next decade it is time to shift gears and look towards the future and meaningful companionship.  We will see what the next ten years will bring. I am sure there will be much to learn.

New Things

This week has been filled with new things. After a short two week stint serving in the young men’s I was called to the Stake High Council. I was sustained last week as a high priest and a member off the high council. It was kind of a special experience as my name was presented to the members of the 8th ward. I felt their love and support as they raised their hands. It was a cool experience. I spoke for the first time in that capacity today in the 8th ward and it was a good experience. They didn’t throw tomatoes at me so that was good. 

On Wednesday evening I was ordained a high priest by dad. That was a peaceful and powerful experience. In that ordination and blessing it was made clear that experiences I have had in my life have prepared me for what I am asked to do now. President Heap then set me apart as a high counselor and echoed some of those same things. It was a special evening. 

School started on Tuesday. Things went pretty well for my first week. I think there is much for me to learn and it is going to take a lot of work this year. I love the kids and enjoy my time with them. There is an exceeding plenty of communication and I am going to have to get used to a plethora of emails every day. I am not used to the amount of email communication that is hitting me and it can be a bit overwhelming. I had two days where things went pretty well. The third day was a bit rough and I found that I wasn’t happy with my level of preparation so I made some adjustments on Thursday evening and went in to Friday with a much better plan. It was a great day.  I am geared up for Monday and have a better feel for what needs to be accomplished each day. I guess like Hannibal from the A-team, I also love it when a plan comes together. 

I was reminded of a few different experiences this week as I prepared to speak. The topic was Elder Renlunds talk from April conference titled Abound with Blessings. In the talk he uses the analogy of a large amount of wood with kindling, tinder, and fuel wood that are ready to catch fire. A match is required to light the fire before it can provide heat. This he compares to the blessings the Lord has ready to bestow upon us. We have to strike the match and light the fire which Elder Renlund refers to as activation energy. It is through acting in faith that we obtain blessings from God. We do not earn the blessing because the small amount of activation energy or faith we expend pales in comparison to the blessing received.  I was reminded of a letter I received from Jim some 27 years ago. He was serving as a missionary. I was of missionary age but had not done anything towards that effort. The letter was spirit filled and was exactly what I needed at that time. Jim loved to include scriptural verses at the end of his letters. That was cool but I didn’t really look them up because that would require effort to find my scriptures, figure out which book it was in and then navigate through chapters and verses to find the right one. Most times I struggled to understand it anyway. Well, true to form Jim included The reference in my letter. It was Alma 7:23-24. This time I acted, I found my scriptures, I opened up to Alma 7 and read the verses. This activation effort was like putting the match to the wood pile. I started reading the Book of Mormon and felt the power of it. It was always there but I would not activate the energy required to receive the blessing. I will ever be grateful for that letter and for choosing to act. It has been a great blessing in my life as I continue to sup from its pages and activate the energy required to receive it. 

Well, that about covers it. Grateful for new things this week and grateful for reminders of old things that have blessed my life. 

Perhaps An Update Is In Order

It has been a bit since I last wrote a little something here. A lot has transpired in the last 9 months. I will do my best to summarize the events of life. 

In December I completed my student teaching and graduated from WGU with a bachelors degree in special education. That felt good. Still does. The actual ceremony is on August 3rd in Salt Lake and I decided I would go ahead and walk. I don’t know that this is that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things but it was a challenging journey in my life and feels good to have accomplished that goal. 

I took a job in January as a wellness coach at South Elementary. I loved it. Loved being around the students and working with them. The staff at south is wonderful and it was a pleasure to work with and learn from them. 

In March I interviewed for a position at Canyon View Middle School and was hired for next school year. I was thrilled with this but my goal had been to work at Cedar High. There were no openings in Sped at CHS at the time I took the job. Roughly an hour after accepting the position I got a call from the principal at CHS and he told me a position would open up and he wanted me. It took a couple of months for everything to come together but it did and I will be starting at CHS on August 8. I am very excited to get started and maybe a little nervous as well. There is much to do. I will be with the severe students that I loved when I was student teaching there and though it will be challenging, it will be a lot of fun as well. 

Since the end of January I have been focusing on my calorie intake every day. I set some goals relative to weight loss and have worked diligently to meet those goals. This has not been a quick weight loss program and has required steady and consistent effort in both diet and exercise. I have lost 53 pounds so far and have exceeded my goal. I have a new goal to reach my return missionary weight. Pretty excited about it and feel really good. The best part is that it is way easy to pay attention to what I am eating and there is no restriction on what I eat. I simply track the calories and then maintain a certain number of calories per day. The magic bullet of weight loss for me is not the quick and simple or the body trickery. Those work for folks and I have had some limited success with them. More and more it came down to simple math that made sense to me. Calories in and calories burned. If those burned out number those taken in then you will lose weight. Obviously starvation is not what I am advocating. I used an app, entered my current weight, entered my goal weight, looked at my lifestyle and the app provided me with a calorie goal for each day. In addition, I was determined to have some form of daily exercise as part of my routine. That has included elliptical, walking, hiking, other sports and yodeling. Only kidding about the yodeling. Anyway, feels good. 

I am currently working on the house. Came to an agreement with Jay and Sara on a purchase and qualified for a loan. Everything is in process at the moment and we should close on it in August. It is very exciting. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be a homeowner again. I have been busy on little projects that have needed to be done. I am about to finish putting a new floor in Jacks room. I took out his existing closet, put up a new wall making the closet about half the size it was and added 10 sq ft to the room. That isn’t much but it makes a huge difference in the space. 

The kids are all well. Jack came home from Alaska early. Picked him up 2 days ago. His allergies are really bad up there and he has been miserable. Happy to have him home. Missing Mr Andy and look forward to having him home in a month. Natty is living in her own place across the street in Amy and Dans basement apartment. I think she likes having her space and likes the convenience of being across the street as well. That has been since last November and it has been good for her. 

Ok, that pretty much brings everything up to speed. I will try to get back in the habit of being a regular record keeper again.