Third Day of Christmas: Caroling and Love

I went caroling at a retirement center with a few families from our ward tonight. Ben didn't come with me because he got off work late. He really missed out!

I've always loved caroling at retirement centers. I've done it a few times, and each time has felt magical. The people we sing to appreciate it so much, and I've always felt a strong spirit of love while there.

This experience was no different. From the moment I walked in the door and saw the excited faces anticipating our caroling, my heart melted. I actually almost cried, that is how strongly I felt. A lot ran through my mind in that instant: I felt a very strong love for every single person in that room as a son or daughter of God. I felt that I was in the right place, spreading the word of the gospel and bringing merriness into their lives. I felt peace, complete peace. I felt joy, and my heart felt ready to burst.

I also felt the spirit of my grandma. She was always up for a good time, especially if it involved music and/or dancing. I think she joined her daughter and granddaughters for a brief moment during the musical praises we sang. She always loved to hear us sing.

Upon the end of the night, all of what I felt boiled down to one word: love.

Tonight, I felt like I understood a piece of what Jesus Christ feels for each of us. He loves us. He ransomed Himself for us. I felt a piece of that love for each of the men and women with me tonight, both retirement center folks and the friends and family I went with.

Tonight, singing brought us together. We bonded over our love for Jesus Christ and the joy of what He has brought to life.

Tonight, I am writing because this is what His birth signifies: love. And joy.

And I can't think of any better way to share that with people than through music. Music is powerful. It has always spoken to me in ways that no others can. Music has healed and soothed my soul when I've needed it most and found no other balm. Good music is of God. We can use music to learn, to teach, to soothe, and rejoice. Tonight, we taught, possibly soothed, and definitely rejoiced through music.

Caroling is a Christmas tradition. I never fully understood why until tonight.

D&C 136:28
"If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving."

Merry Christmas!

Second Day of Christmas: Our Dependence on Christ

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Today in Elder's quorum, we talked about our dependence on Christ. It made me think of Ammon's boasting of the strength of the Lord in Alma 26:12:

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I've gotten a lot of chances to think about the experience we've had since moving to Arkansas. I wrote a little bit about my feelings on my other blog, but today there were some extra things I hadn't thought about.

For those of you who didn't know, I was unemployed for the first six months of this year. I applied for scores of jobs in the area and interviewed for a good number, but I always fell short. It seems that almost every time I asked for feedback, they told me they thought I was a great candidate and they wanted to hire me, but someone just barely beat me to it, and I never knew the reason.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that there is a very good reason--God wanted me to learn something. If it was right for me to have a job, I wouldn't have had a problem, but He wanted me to learn that we are wholly dependent on Him for everything. I have the skills necessary to have a successful career, but I know now that that's not what's important in this life. It's important to realize that our relationship with Christ, and our acknowledgment that without Him we are nothing, are the things that will help us be the most successful with that which is most important in this life.

In the story of the Brother of Jared, God says that the winds that sent them to the promised land came forth from His mouth. There were a lot of times when that wind caused huge storms that buried their vessels in the water and they had to pray to make it back to the surface so they could breathe. And I'm sure it wasn't the most comfortable ride for them, but they were always moving toward the promised land. For me, I'm actually on a pretty good path right now toward self-employment, but that wouldn't have happened without going through what we've had to. The winds have blown and we've felt buried at times, but I can see now that we're still being blown in the right direction.

When we realize our dependence on Christ, it's easier to see why certain things happen to us. It also helps us to humble ourselves so that we can start making progress in the right direction. The enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is what makes that possible.

On the First Day of Christmas

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..."

...A message about Christ that makes me happ-ee!

Starting today, we will be bringing you a Christmas thought/message/scripture to gear us all up about the true meaning of Christmas. I realize it's been a while since we blogged...maybe we will start being more consistent. Maybe not. Only time will tell. But for the next 12 days, we will surely be consistent!

Day 1: The Word

Yesterday, as I was driving around town with mi mamasita, she asked, "Kilee, I just realized something yesterday. Have you ever thought about the word Christmas?" Yes, many times, but as soon as she said this, I realized I had never thought about it in the way she was about to describe, and it instantly clicked.

Christ. Mas.

More Christ.

We all need a little more Christ in our lives. Christ represents so many things, but the biggest things for me are salvation, hope, and peace. Let's come together this Christmas season and bring more Christ into the lives of those that need Him.

Except, let's not stop at the end of the Christmas season. We could always use more Christ.

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Blessed

I just want to write about how blessed we are. I don't know if I've already written about this, but I finally got a job. Woohoo! It's a teller job with Arvest bank. It only pays $9.75/hr, but it's enough for what we need right now and will be enough with Kilee's income once she starts getting a paycheck. It will also help me have time to work on the business. So when they first called me on Monday, they said the next available teller school would start July 23rd. Not ideal, but I knew we could make it. They called me the next day and said they should probably be able to get me into the one that starts on the 9th. Woot!

I've also been thinking a lot about our financial situation. I honestly thought that if I didn't find a job by the end of May, we would be toast. It's now a month later and I feel like we could make it all the way through to August when Kilee starts getting paid if we had to. The reasons why are as follows:

• My dad sent us a $500 check to use if we absolutely needed it, which we did. I didn't ask him to. He just did it.
• Kilee had her training in Blytheville. Because of the gas reimbursement that was WAY more than we actually paid for gas, we not only were able to pay to replace a worn out sensor on the car (which would have gone bad soon anyway and we would've had to pay that out of our own empty pockets), but we still will have about $100 leftover to keep.
• The Sasine's, a family in our ward, asked us to house sit for them starting today for the next 10 days. Last night when we went over there for last minute instruction and he told us they were paying us $300. Holy cow! I didn't know what to say. I probably weirded him out because I just stared at him, speechless. I think I made a sound, but it was probably unintelligible. We were totally fine with doing it for free. 

Such are the blessings that have come our way. 

I feel at peace with where we are. I feel at peace with my $9.75/hr job, because in all reality, I would prefer to start a business and be self-employed for the rest of my life anyway. So only working 40 hrs/week rather than 60 will give me some time to work through a business idea I am working on with a friend (We finally have friends!!!). We'll see what happens, though. Who knows where the Lord's plan will take us. I'm just grateful for the ride (and sorry for being lame about it sometimes).

Trekking across Arkansas and a venture into Tennessee!

Last week, Ben and I traveled to Blytheville, Arkansas (please read in best southern accent) for a training for my Nutrition and Wellness class. Ben came since he doesn't have a job, and we were able to make a mini vacation out of it.

The week was full of adventure! 

First, our car broke down just a little past Little Rock in a small town called Lonoke.  It was kind of freaky. We were driving, and all the sudden the check engine light came on then in that instant, the car just powered down. We got safely to the side of the road, said a prayer, and got the car started again. We couldn't go over 30, though, which made a lot of cars behind us mad (driving in one lane because the others were closed for construction). I was just glad we got it running. 

It's a good thing we got smart phones for Christmas! We looked up the nearest O'Reilly store and had Byron do a diagnostic check for us. We figured out what probably needed to be fixed, but it couldn't happen till the next day because everything was closed at that point. So we got a hotel for the night and chilled. Actually, we got to watch the Voice, which I am obsessed with, so it worked our perfectly! 

Being stuck in Lonoke overnight was so funny! I had to translate for Ben... He didn't understand their southern drawls! It was seriously so funny to me. I giggle thinking about it. Also, did you know I can rock a mean southern black woman accent? I told Ben that on our next date we should talk with thick accents as best as we can. Maybe he will do British and I'll do the South. 

Anyway, the next day we did make it to Blytheville (pronounced blah-vul) (just in time for the Voice finale!). I missed the first day of my training, but it worked out. 

The next few days were spent with me doing day training and spending the evening with Ben. Training was fun, and it was AWESOME to have so many resources and ideas for that one class (Utah teachers--you should talk to someone about having some specialized training for certain classes. maybe? I thought it was pretty amazing. AR has some pretty cool things going on with FACS). It was also really good for me to meet other FACS teachers and state representatives here. 

On the second to last day, we got to go out to lunch. I sat by a few black women who were so hilarious. One of them was trying to set me up with someone (I lost who he was somewhere in our conversation) because I have good social skills. Lol. You had to be there. Then, later, one of them was talking about her son's fiancée, who wants to freeze her eggs. Favorite quote from that week of training? "Gurl, I don't want no frozen granbabies! Them babies be like, gramma I'm cold and I'll just tell them it's all their momma's fault" (Read in best southern accent). If that's not funny to you, I guess you had to be there. We all had a good laugh, and the waiters were probably glad when we left :) 

Friday, we headed back to good ol' Bella Vista. We took a little detour and stopped in Memphis on the way! We talked down Beale, which would probably be way cooler at night, but was still pretty awesome. We saw W. C. Handy's statue (father of the blues), the walk of fame, and lots of bars. They had live bands playing in W. C. Handy park. We also found the first public park for blacks. Created around the turn of the 19-20th century. 

We also walked down Main Street to the Civil Rights Museum. If you have been to the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas, it's kind of similar. The top floor of the museum is all about MLKJ's assassination. It has the  room where the guy was watching the motel and the bathroom where he shot from all set up. You can see the angle, and the motel is right across the street. There is a wreath hanging on the balcony  where he was shot. The rest of that floor has information about the assassination, manhunt, and conspiracies. It's cool. The next floor down has civil rights history and other information. 

It was really inspiring to be there. I like learning about history. It was a reminder of where we have been as a nation and what we are still working to save. 

After this, we walked around town some more, at some amazing BBQ, walked by the Mississippi River, and headed home. 

What a week! 

A mile?

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JUST IN CASE ANYONE WAS WONDERING, THIS GIRL SWAM A WHOLE MILE ON SATURDAY! (yes I took breaks. I did it though! 33 laps in the pool.)

A mile, you say? I thought your back was injured...

Well, here's what I say to my back: take that, fool!

It's still injured, but I'm making progress!

Did I mention I swam half a mile in a lake a few weeks ago? Beast mode. I love swimming in the lake!

It's June 10!

There is absolutely no significance of this date :P

However, it could be significant! Ben had an interview this morning with Central States Manufacturing for the two positions they are considering him for! Can I get a WOOT WOOT?! One is a financial analyst position, the other has something to do with credit... (I think.)

He is currently at yet another job interview for Arvest. We don't have a lot of info about this position. He had a teller interview last week, and they passed his resume on because he is SO AWESOME! I think it's for a financial sales representative position. I'll get him on here to do a better update of his life. Is it sad that I'm not 100% sure about all of this? Lol.

My life is kind of crazy right now. By crazy, I mean crazy awesome! Last week, we had the awesome opportunity to watch my cousins and sisters while our parents went on a cruise to Alaska. Needless to say, we had an absolute blast. I took a break from school stuff and hung out and had fun with the family. We played the wii, made a fire to cook hot dogs and s'mores, played with the dogs, went to see Epic, went bowling, and played lots and lots of games at home.

Just chillin in my parents' closet during the "tomato." I mean, "tormado." Haha, Isaac was so funny!

Can you read the name on the ball? It says booger... they insisted on taking a picture!

 Oh the blissful days of being young and not having to fulfill job responsibilities. Sometimes I wish I was not an adult...

I feel like I have a lot of responsibilities on my plate right now, but I'm getting it under control. I'm on the Emergency Preparedness Fair donations and sponsors committee. Apparently, the EPF here is crazy. It's a HUGE community event. Last year, we had well over 4000 visitors. It's hosted by the LDS church and the local BSA troops. So, my responsibilities consist of calling last years sponsors, thanking them again for their help, and finding out if they want to be involved again. Hopefully they say yes, but if not, then I have to find more sponsors because this is a huge production. I'm getting to practice skills that I will need to pull some stuff off at school next year with FCCLA and community events that the school will be involved in. I just know that the reason I was called to this EPF assignment is to help me for next year. I can feel it.

School is a big crazy mess. I think I have signed up for all the professional development hours I need. Oh, I guess if you didn't catch it on facebook, I got a full-time job doing what I have done for the past four months--teaching at Pea Ridge High School! I'm so grateful I got that long-term sub job. So, during the summer I am attending some conferences for classes I will teach. Those don't count for PD, though, because they were paid for by a grant (lame. if I paid for it from my pocket, it would count. but we couldn't really afford it. I just get more learning experiences!).

I will be spending a total of 3 weeks during the summer attending trainings. I still have to get my classroom all in order, get the nitty-gritty classroom management things in order, figure out how to teach 97% paperless, create/fine-tune curriculum for a new class we are getting, purchase supplies for said class, estimate budget and lab costs for said class, and prepare myself for the other SIX PREPS I will have. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, during this upcoming school year, I will be teaching SEVEN different classes. Two are a full year. Five are semester classes, two first, three second semester. I've got my hands full. BUT I know it's all in the Lord's hands. He knows what I am doing here. He knows who He wants me to become, and there is purpose in us being here.

In the almost six months we have been in AR, we have seen definite blessings for our faith in moving here. We have also seen specific reasons why we moved here. Most of them are regarding students I have dealt with this past semester. Some graduated, and some I will get to continue teaching next year. All of them have blessed my life, that is for sure. And I have seen my skills bless them as well.
Also, one of my students took a picture with me and posted it as her woman crush Wednesnesday on instagram... lol

I'm so excited for this chapter of our lives. Now...if only Ben got one of those Central States positions. They loved him! They told him they are referring his name for the next interview, so hopefully that goes through :)