Journalings of a Primary Teacher {8-25-13}

The kids in my class are totally, completely, 100% the CUTEST kids in the whole universe. 

When asking them how they would feel if Jesus put his hands on their heads to bless them, we got mostly answers like, "Happy, I guess," and "Um, good?"

Except for one boy. Who bluntly stated, "Honestly, I think I might faint."

LOLing.

Later on, we were discussing whether anyone in the class had ever felt a peaceful feeling after they prayed. One girl shared this fantastic story:

"Sooooo once upon a time we had to take one of my friends home at night after it was dark. We were so nervous, and scared, actually really scared, so we said a prayer, and then we like felt something inside, like this peaceful feeling....And we felt like we'd be safe. But we took a baseball bat just in case. And then everything was fine."

And in my husband's class, he was sharing the story of Joseph Smith rebuking the men for their language while he was in prison. After listening to hours of filthy language and even filthier deeds, Joseph Smith stood up and said, "Silence ye fiends of the infernal pit!....I will not live another minute and hear such language..."

Later on, Chris was sharing a story about how sometimes the people around him at work also use bad language and swear. One girl raised her hand and asked, "Well why don't you just say to them what Joseph Smith said? I'm sure that would shut them up."

Its good to have such pragmatism in the world. 

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {7/14/13}

Did you know that, contrary to popular belief, the golden Moroni statue on top of the temples is not holding a trumpet, he's actually holding a tuba. 

{this fun fact is courtesy of an 8-year-old in my husband's class}

{instead of correcting her, he encouraged the idea of "Moroni and the tuba"}

{he cracks me up}

When you are trying to think of ways to serve, remember these three nice things you can do for people: {courtesy of the 7-year-olds in my class}

1. Give them an apple.

2. Help them collect rocks.

3. Turn on the light.

When guessing how old I am {my birthday's coming!}, remember that "eighty-ten" is a legitimate answer.

And lastly, if you are looking for ways to strengthen your family, remember this pragmatic answer from a 5-year-old:

EXERCISE!

Simply Living {And Rambling}

Sometimes I swear I could just live in my bathrobe. 

Making a shirt from scratch is more time-consuming than I thought. But I am persevering. Maybe you will get to see it one day.

I made the MOST. COMFORTABLE. PENCIL SKIRT. EVER. {tutorial soon!}

My little bro graduated high school.

How is he even that old??!

At primary last week a little 5-year-old very seriously stated as he shook his head, 'Man, I hate dying."

{seriously. dying is just the pits, isn't it?}

It was just about the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. 

Despite only needing one house out of all that are being sold, it is impossibly hard to find that one. House-hunting for 4 months now and I say ugh. 

How does life go by so fast? June is over! But that means my birthday month is almost here. {Yippee!!!}

I want an awesome one-piece swimsuit. Suggestions?

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {5-12-13}

This Sunday was not the best of Sundays. Whenever holidays come around, all the kids seem to get antsy and twitchy and chattery and reeeeeeally hard to calm down. My only comfort is in seeing all the other classes acting just as bad as mine when we sit down in primary {sorry presidency....you've got it tough}.

My partner was out sick, so I snatched Chris to come sit in on my class. And man am I glad I had a second person there, because they were all. over. the. place.

If there is one thing I have learned from teaching Primary so far, its that you really can't base your teaching skills or self-esteem off of how your class is acting some weeks. Because honestly, they are going to be naughty. They are going to throw paper airplanes at each other. They are going to look at you with that know-it-all face and tell you exactly why they don't have to do something. They will tell you you're a bad teacher. They will threaten to tattle on your bad teaching skills to their mothers. They will loudly whine in sharing time because you didn't let them color.  

They will be kids. 

And sometimes I frantically bust out of church like I haven't breathed fresh air in years. Sometimes I just have to let out a big ole' sigh because I'm pretty sure they didn't absorb an iota of the lesson I just taught. But that's primary. That's learning to be a teacher. And the funny moments always overshadow the bad ones.

Like during a discussion on the bishop's storehouse when one boy pipes up and says, "I bet I could do some calculations to figure out the amounts!" 

And the girl next to him sassily says, "You're not old enough to calculate!"

Or when the sharing time leader asks if anyone has a mom who follows the commandments, and one boy stands up and anxiously says, "My mom is obedient! But she didn't want to raise her hand so I had to tell you." His mother, also his teacher, turned bright red.

Like the times when you tell one girl who has the hiccups to hold her breath to get rid of them, and it turns into a traffic jam in the hallway because all the other girls stop and want to hold their breath too.

{who knew it was so much fun?}

Or when you ask them to explain what 'enduring to the end' means, and one girl compares it to having to re-build her lego castle multiple times. "I just kept having to re-do it because it would break, but I never gave up! And that's like enduring to the end."

I'm learning to be {extraordinarily} patient. I'm learning to say no and not worry about how upset a child may be because they will promptly get over it in the next 5 minutes. I'm learning how to find the humor in everything. And I'm learning how to tie lego castles into teaching the gospel.

And I love it. 

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {5-5-13}

I know that my primary posts can seem sort of random at times, but honestly, they're mostly for me. I want to remember how funny and cute and sweet all my kids are, and how much I adore them!

As we were sitting in class, chatting with the kids who were there and waiting for the others to show up, one boy, out of the blue, shouts, "SOMEONE SAID SOMETHING!!!" 

My partner, while I was trying to stifle my laughter, teasingly asked, "Was it me? I say a lot of things." 

Sadly, we never figured out who it was that said something {bahaha!}. 

He wouldn't specify.

Our lesson was on the gold plates, and my partner was teaching. After explaining that Moroni hid them in the ground to keep them safe, she let the kids make their own 'gold plates' by using a popsicle stick to write on tin foil-wrapped cardboard. Then, we went outside to hide them, just like Moroni did.

You kinda had to see it for yourself, but just try and imagine the excitement....

One boy immediately runs over to a flower bed and starts digging a gigantic hole. Dirt flying everywhere. Another boy is repeatedly chucking his 'plates' at a tree, trying to get them to stick in the branches. One of the girls is trying to drag me along by the hand while begging to let her hide my plates too because she knows the best place. The other girl quickly runs off to hide hers, but upon returning, comes up to me with a panicked look and says, "I can't remember where I hid mine!" 

It was one seriously funny scene.

For the second hour I actually got to sit in on my husband's class. He introduced me as his wife, Sister Diepeveen. One girl quickly raises her hand and begins chattering on about how much she loves me. "I think Sister Diepeveen is the best! I am so glad she's here; I like her more than you!"

My husband, meaning to tease her about sucking up, replied, "I think you've got a little brown on your nose!"

Confused, she started rubbing her nose. "Really?"

A friend of hers quickly came to the rescue, standing up and putting her hands on her hips while loudly scolding us: "That's because she has freckles!!!"

Awww, primary love.

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {4-14-13}

I love hearing kids pray. They have no fear, no expectations, and no filter. Plus, they almost always say something completely adorable.

In primary today, the girl who got up to say the closing prayer just made me giggle. She started off with, "Heavenly Father, thank you for letting us be in primary today...." and then said, "Please bless us not to be rude. Bless us that we will be nice. Please bless us not to be rude..."

And then, realizing she'd just repeated herself, quickly stuttered out, "...ah....to our parents! Nameofjesuschristamen." 

And one of my most other favorite things in the world is when they mention us  in their prayers. 

Hearing, "Thank you that Sister Diepeveen and Sister Passey are our primary teachers" kinda just melts my heart.

Primary class for me really is just a giant circle of melting heart, saying 'no' to the same question ten times, pulling kids back into their chairs, and stifled giggling. This week I had a word search as part of my lesson, and it just cracked me up listening to them do it {because in our classroom, word searches are very loud}. 

From the two girls next to each other trying to secretively glance at each other's papers: 

"I found 'principle!'" 

"Well I found it too!" 

"I found 'gospel!'" 

"I FOUND 'GOSPEL!' ....where was it?"

From the boys: "I found the word 'ham.'"

"Look....it says TV!"

"'POO!' I found 'POO!'"

We are just so good at staying on topic.

And over in my husband's class, they are the kings and queens of metaphors. You might remember the "Joseph Smith had pedals" metaphor gone wrong from this post. This week, Chris decided to emphasize that Heavenly Father keeps His promises by saying, "For example, if Heavenly Father told you that if you jumped on your left leg 25 times He would give you a red Ferrari, do you think it would happen?"

This promptly caused excited left-leg jumping all over the classroom.

{Primary teacher high five!}

 

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {3-17-13}

Today I learned that:

• You should never let two girls who have both decided to draw rainbows sit next to each other. This will result in a rainbow-drawing war; including, "Mine is going to be in a pattern," "Mine has a waterfall!" and "Mine has more colors!" 

• Never question a 7-year-old's ability to entertain both themselves and you {often without meaning to}. For almost 3 whole minutes during class I watched one boy lick every inch of his left hand. For no apparent reason. 

• It is expected that you will feel happy while you are at church. When asked, "How is everyone doing today? Are you feeling pretty good?" by the singing time leader, one of my girls heaved a big ole' sigh, rolled her eyes, and said, "Duh. Of course everyone feels good today. We're in church aren't we?!"

That Kind of Monday

Yes, it is that kind of Monday. 

The one where you wake up and realize it's also that time of the month.

Because you have cramps so bad that all you want to do is lay on your face with a heating pad while simultaneously shaking your fist and asking the universe, "Why??! WHY??!"

And if you drag yourself out of bed....then you have to actually make the bed. At least if you're in it the messy covers have a purpose.

I can tell it's going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

So the best I can do is to get up, drag my grumpy self into the sunshine, eat a healthy breakfast made entirely of Hershey's kisses, and cross my fingers this Monday goes by {very} fast. 

Picture{perfect}

We may be a small family, but we sure do have a lot of love.

{and also, man are we attractive}

Sewing is Messy

Sometimes, my husband comes home to this all over the living room.

Because, you know, I require a lot of space to be creative.

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {2-24-13}

Kicks and giggles, that's what primary is made of.

While waiting for sharing time, I watched a little 2-year-old guy run as fast as he could down the hallway, closely followed by his dad. He promptly got scooped up upside-down, and as he was being carried off, he folded his little arms and voiced a big, "Aw maaaaaaaan!"

I couldn't help but bust up laughing.

~~~

One little guy in my class accidentally bit his lip in the middle of singing time. He tapped me on the shoulder with a, "Sis-er Diepeveen I think my lip is bleeding." I look over to discover he's smeared it all over his cheek, hands, and chair {yaaay}. I promptly grabbed some tissues and helped him clean up a little. As he's pressing one bloody tissue to his lip, a boy from the row behind leans over, all agog, and asks, "Is that blood and guts???!!"

~~~

We ended primary on a very good note. The small guy who said the closing prayer started with, "Dear Heavenly Father...." He then asked, "Please bless us that we won't ever lie. And bless us to do good things." And that was it; "Amen." 

So here's to a week where hopefully we won't lie, we will do good things, and we will always find the humor in the little things!

Journalings of a Primary Teacher {2-17-13}

Teacher: Does anyone know who Peter, James, and John were?

Kids: Yes! Apostles! 

Teacher: Do you know when they were apostles? During what time?

Kids: ....silence.....

Teacher: Anyone?

One brave girl: Umm...the 80's? 

{i had to cover up a gigantic snort of laughter at that point.}

Teacher: How can we talk to Jesus?

Kids: Prayer! Texting!

Wouldn't it be cool if we had Jesus' phone number?

We could text JESUS.

--goes on for several minutes--

Teacher, trying to regain some control: Ok, but, if your cell phone battery dies, you can't text. And guess what? You can always pray! 

One thoughtful boy: Well....yeah....I suppose prayer is better than texting.

{they should put that on a pillow or something.}

This next one happened over in my husband's class. Good to know his primary lessons are sometimes as hilarious as mine.

Chris: So, when Joseph Smith was first shown the plates, he couldn't have them. Do you know why?

Kids: Why???

Chris: Because he wasn't ready for them yet. 

Kids: ...confused looks....

Chris, trying to come up with a metaphor: Okay, so it's like driving a car. Do your parents let you drive?

Kids: No! Bahaha!

Chris: Well why not?

Kids: Because we're not old enough!

We're not allowed!

We can't reach the pedals!

Chris: Well, Joseph Smith couldn't "reach the pedals." He wasn't ready to receive the plates.

..lesson continues....

...lesson ends....

Chris: So, who can tell me what we learned today?

Kids, laughing hysterically: JOSEPH SMITH COULDN'T HAVE THE PLATES BECAUSE HE COULDN'T REACH THE PEDALS!!!!

{well played, Chris, well played. good luck getting them to forget that one.}

Love Week: Drama, Zombies, and Funny

Sometimes {most of the time} on my lazy {and not-so-lazy} days when people ask what I've been up to, I reply: 

"Oh, nothing much. Just hanging around and watching useless tv."

And that is partly because useless tv is so addicting. I have, like, a million shows I'm in love with. 

To start, my all-all-all-time fave:

Grey's Anatomy. I had this friend, in high school, who would religiously watch this show every Thursday night. That means refusing to answer the phone, the door, or, if you were lucky enough to already be in the room, any attempt at conversation. And never EVER was I going to be her. 

Now, here I am. I curse the years I lost feigning disinterest in Grey's.  

Next up:

THE WALKING DEAD. WATCH. IT. I cannot express enough how awesome this show is.

heehee.

It has zombies and drama.

And then there is:

The Vampire Diaries. Let's just all admit we are on team Damon. 

And, I hope you know:

Downton Abbey. Old-fashioned, amazing, and it's gotta be totally true. Because life was totally like that. 

If you're ever in the mood to LAUGH YOUR BUTT OFF, you neeeeeed to watch 2 Broke Girls.

 Chris & I are having a secret affair with this show. We meet up late at night...in the dark....on the couch... but sometimes even in the bedroom.

ADORE.

A few runner-ups are: 

How I Met Your Mother

Big Bang Theory

Desperate Housewives 

Modern Family

So, as you can tell, my tv hobbies can all be grouped into drama, zombies, or funny. 

I have my tastes and I'm stickin' with 'em.

Any other useless-tv-watchers out there?

There's a First Time for Everything

Since I'm still working out how to post my pictures from Photobucket {that site is NOT happy with me}, I decided to do a little Q&A for you. I saw this on another blog and I think it's kinda fun.

You're fascinated already, I can tell.

1. First thing you do when you wake up in the morning:

Blink like a madwoman {why are mornings so bright?}.

2. First thing you do when you get home from work:

Honestly? Usually I have to pee.

3. First kiss:

I thought it was incredibly romantic-- it was in the rain. Although, technically, we were inside. Eh, but who cares! It was my first kiss. ;)

4. First home:

The first house I remember growing up in was a duplex in Bountiful, Utah. My first home after I moved to college was in Cedar City, Utah.

5. First car:

The awesome little '93 Honda Accord that now belongs to my brother! Yep, she's still running.

6. First car accident / traffic violation:

My first ticket was on the freeway heading home one weekend from Cedar City. It was totally unfair.

7. First thing you wanted to be when you grew up:

The little mermaid! Baha!

8. First choice of beverage:

Orange juice. Deeeeelicious.

9. First choice of dessert:

Now that's a tough one. Mmmm....at the moment I'm feeling Mountain Dew Cake.

10. First choice of restaurant:

For fast food: Taco Time. For sit-down, Olive Garden.

11. First song that comes to mind:

Two Black Cadillacs, Carrie Underwood.

12. First major purchase:

Its happening this week! The Christopher and I are buying our very first brand-new washer!

13. First job:

I scored the glamorous job of sales associate at Old Navy.

14. First time you flew on a plane:

I think it was for the choir trip in high school. New York, baby! Wait...maybe it was San Francisco...

15. First real "grownup" job:

Copywriter! I was super lucky to score my first freelancing job last year; this year I'm working on my second! It makes me very excited.

Well, there you are. Fifteen firsts. Did you learn something new?

Listed

INJURIES ACQUIRED TO DATE IN THE MOVE:

Giant bruise on right thigh.

Multiple small bruises on both knees.

Two bruised toes due to being squished by a piano.

Gash down the side of left big toe from the sharp corner of a mirror.

Stabbed thumb from the sharp teeth meant to cut packing tape.

Random bruise on left bicep.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS MADE TO DATE IN THE MOVE:

Living room, kitchen, and craft corner all arranged to my liking.

Computer desk painted blue. {i love it}

One bookshelf painted white. One more to go.

New fan installed. {definitely not by me though}

Orange cat lured out from under the bed for two consecutive days.

New job started.

REALIZATIONS MADE TO DATE IN THE MOVE:

We have a lot of crap. 

We are addicted to buying fish. Before we hit the grocery store, we stop by the pet store to oogle.

Living closer to family means family gets to prevail on you to do odd jobs around the house/yard.

The Walmart here is a much scarier place than the one in Cedar. {what do so many people have to talk to themselves about?}

And lastly, despite a hugemongous DI pile, we still have a lot of crap. 

Happy Anniversary to Us

Two years....

...and we're still totally mature.

Growing up is for wussies. 

So. Today, the 29th of May, is actually and officially our wedding anniversary, but we took this past weekend off and celebrated a little early.

We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant in St. G.

Mmmm....sushi.

And then we had ice cream.

And when I found out our hotel had a hot tub, I made Chris drive like a madman to get back so we could sit in it before it closed.

I really like hot tubs, okay?

Our gifts to each other.

{year #2 is cotton. very difficult.}

I'm not sure what kind of aura we're dragging around, but the pool and hot tub completely emptied a mere 2 minutes after we sat down. 

Oh well, more kissing for us.

The next day our original plan was to go to Quail Lake, but after triple-checking the weather and experiencing it for ourselves on our way to breakfast, we decided that 30 mph winds and  a cloudy sky would not make for a fun boating trip. So instead, we just hung around the city. 

Bought Chris some new shoes...

...and me a new shirt....

Where's Waldo, you ask?

He's right here.

Then we went and saw What to Expect When You're Expecting, which I've been wanting to see since the very first time I saw a preview a couple months ago.

It's hilarious, by the way.

After the movie we had a picnic in the truck {yeeeeeeahhhh....still too cold to enjoy outside}, and ended up with waaay too much food.

Fried chicken.....so good.

In a very long nutshell, that was our weekend. 

And in honor of our 2-year marriage, now I'm going to tell you a story.

This is when I first knew Chris was definitely a keeper.

One night, after we'd eaten, we were just hanging out, talking. My stomach began to feel a little queasy so I figured I'd better tell Chris good night before something bad happened. 

Once I'd admitted I was feeling sick, however, he decided not to go. He stayed. And probably got much more than he anticipated.

A couple hours passed, and my stomach got worse, and worse, and much worse. He offered to give me a blessing {aw, cute!}. I accepted.

He began the blessing and said, "I bless you that your sickness will be short-lived..."

And then he was abruptly cut off because I started puking my guts out.

He quickly threw out a couple more words and an "Amen!" 

And then, ladies and gentlemen, he rubbed my back and held my hair out of the projectile zone.

When I was done, my face was tomato-red and extremely embarrassed on behalf of my unexpectedly-barfing self. I totally thought he was going to walk out and never say another word to me.

Instead, he started laughing, and said something akin to: 

"Dang, I give a good blessing!"

I'm pretty sure that's the fastest answer to a blessing I've ever had in my life.

But, thanks to that, I knew just how great a guy I'd stumbled upon.

Thank you, and enjoy your day.

DIY Booty Bling: Adding Bling to Jeans

Sooooo.....

I have no clever way of introducing my post today. 

Oh well. 

Recently I've been seeing a lot of jeans that have just a little bit of snazz to them--you know, small jewels and bling. Of course, I wasn't going to buy a new pair of jeans, so I started trying to figure out how I could do it myself. 

I found THESE babies while browsing at JoAnn's:

Lovely.

Then I took these jeans....

And sewed on these beads.....

And now I have DIY bling.

One on each side of the front pockets, and two on each back pocket--six total.

Plus, then I got to tell my husband I needed him to come home and take pictures of my butt. 

{to which he responded with gusto.}

Nerd Alert

For those of you who know my husband, you will know exactly why this video reminds me of him.

He's racing down the street in a high-speed chase in a souped-up wheelchair.

Chris could do it better.