Nice to Meet You

Friday night we got to welcome home my little brother, Jared! He just returned from serving in the Warsaw, Poland mission. It was so good to see him! Although we loved reading his weekly emails, and seeing how much he has learned and grown, it is fun having him home again!

After waiting for two years, and then waiting anxiously in the airport for 20 minutes, it was a joyful reunion! Well, at least a reunion for most of us. For Craig and Jared, it was more like a "nice to meet you!"

Surviving the 2nd Grade...

...and loving it! 2 weeks ago, I interviewed for a job teaching 2nd grade. I interviewed on a Thursday afternoon, found out I got the job Thursday night, (wahoo!) and started teaching on Monday. It was a really fast transition, and it was kinda stressful being thrown into a classroom in the middle of the year. but I am so grateful! The school is less than a half mile away from our apartment, so as it warms up, I am excited to be able to walk or ride my bike to work. One thing that I have learned, teaching 2nd grade is WAY different than teaching 6th grade! There are definitely pros and cons to both. But I love my students, they are all so cute! I feel like I know them all so well already, and it has only been 2 weeks! In my classroom alone, languages that kids speak other than English include: Spanish, Burmese, Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Thai, and British (as one student replied when asked what other languages they spoke...ha!) It is a pretty diverse bunch of kids and it makes it really fun.

It is amazing how things always seem to work out better than I could have planned! What a blessing!

When I get frustrated...

Work at Bridger Elementary is going well. I feel like I am making it over the learning curve, and am starting to really enjoy working as the refocus teacher. Some days are easier than others, but there are always lots of crazy stories when I come home at night.

One day, a little Kindergartner came in, who was just really frustrated, and not happy with life. He was crumpling up the papers that he was supposed to be working on, etc. Anyways, after he calmed down enough, and I was able to get him started working, and he started getting frustrated again. All of the sudden, he just blurts out, "I just need to pray!" I thought he had said, "I just need a break" but wasn't sure, so I had him repeat it. The cute little kindergartner explains to me that "When I get frustrated, I just need to pray." So he folded his little arms, and I went back to my desk to give him some privacy, and he said his prayer. After he was finished, he had such a new determination to do his work. It was so cute! He ended up being able to finish all of his work after that.

I was so proud of him, what a great idea! It was good to see the results of parents taking the time to teach their kids about who is always there to help us.

Thankful

I am a little nervous, but excited. I got a phone call yesterday from the principal at Bridger Elementary here in Logan offering me a full time position at the school. No more job-hunting! I will not be a regular classroom teacher there, I am going to be the Refocus Education Specialist....so basically, I am in charge of discipline and positive reinforcement at the school. Before this time in our lives, I would have never even considered looking at a job like that, because I am not the "mean teacher" that kids are afraid of. But I am really excited, and mostly thankful, for the opportunity that I have to teach these kids (the ones that need it the most) about responsibility, leadership, decision making, and respect, and feel confident that I can be a positive influence in these kids' lives and can do it without the kids being "scared" into behaving. Wish me luck!

Freezing

Well, since it has been over a month (time flies!) I decided it was time to give a little update...

The last weekend we were in Brazil, we took a trip up to Craig's mission. After two years of looking-and-not-touching....

Craig couldn't wait to jump in the ocean! Our trip up to Maceio and Aracaju was the highlight of our experience in Brazil. We got to spend time playing on the beach and in the beautiful ocean,

ate some traditional North-Eastern Brazilian food, (some of it was good, some of it, not so much)

and visited some of the people that Craig worked with while he was on his mission.

It was amazing meeting all of the wonderful people from Craig's mission, and seeing some of the areas that he worked in.

So we went from this

To this.

And now we are back to the real world...and although we were FREEZING when we came back, we have adapted. We made it back safely to the United States right before Christmas, and spent the next week or so in between families houses until we got our apartment put together again. There is nothing like spending the holidays with the fam! It was so good to see everyone again!

In honor of our experience in Brazil, and our return to Logan, we hosted a Brazilian party for New Years, complete with Brazilian treats, games, and soccer jerseys.

Craig is really busy this semester between school and work. But he is doing really well managing his time and all that he has to get done. I have been working here and there being a substitute, and it has been okay, I just am not a fan of not knowing if and when I am going to work. So I just got a new job as an After School Club Leader, (it should be pretty fun) and will be interviewing for a couple of jobs this week for different teacher-related jobs.

We are doing really well, and are happy to be back and enjoying good ol' Aggie Village (minus enjoying the cinder blocks), intense games of Settlers and Rook, trips up to Lava Hot Springs, and more time with family.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

Today was the last day in the Elementary school here in Brazil. Everyone was so cute! The teachers brought in a cake, and all of the fifth grades that I have worked with made little cards for me. Some of my favorite quotes from them are....

"where you pass we see flowers!" and "Mrs. Maughan you are a great helper. Because of you I am so good at maths, language, and unit!" and last but not least "Say bye for your husband for me and I hope he knows you are a lovely girl!"

It was so cute! I have a lot of mixed emotions. I am really excited to go back home and be with all of our friends and family, but it is hard for me to start closing up this chapter in our lives. There have been so many amazing people that we have met along the way, and it is sad to say goodbye to them all, realizing that probably I will never see them again. Thank heavens for technology, so we can at least keep in touch a little over the years.

Anyways, you are probably wondering what that has to do with the title of this post, and the answer is...nothing! But we did go to the zoo a little while ago, and I wanted to show some of our fun pictures!

We had a lot of fun at the zoo! We hear from the locals that normally it is really crowded. But we were lucky! The sky was threatening rain all day, so most of the people stayed home, and we stayed dry! So it worked out well, and the animals were even lively because it wasn't so hot. It was perfect! The zoo was nice, about the size of Hogle Zoo, so not huge. But I loved how many trees were all around, it was a beautiful place!

We saw some amazing tropical birds, native to Brazil and some surrounding countries...

The monkeys are always fun to watch! I love to see them jumping and swinging around, or simply grooming each other....

But I think my favorite was the smiling alligator.

In the middle of the zoo was a big pond. There were little islands on it, with different kinds of monkeys on them. It was a beautiful place!

One Year Ago...

One year ago, (from yesterday) this is what was happening....

We were married in the Salt Lake Temple on November 22, 2008.

I love you, Craig! Thanks for such an amazing year together. I am excited that I get to spend eternity with you!