Oh, wait, I have a blog?!

I missed the month of October. THE WHOLE MONTH. It's one of my favorites too. Sigh. My reasons for this happening are as follows:

1. I am a newlywed.
2. I am a preschool teacher.
3. I am a hobby-ist with too many hobbies...

• photography
• scrapbooking
• reading
• piano
• knitting
• digital design
• blogging
• various assorted crafting

So there they are. My viable excuses. Still excuses nonetheless. I will try to do better this month.
Now, since I have the entire month of October to make up... here are the recaps.

The month started off with the opportunity of taking engagement pictures of a dear friend and her fiance.

Josh came along with me on the shoot and was an immense help.



The fifth of the month brought about my 23rd birthday! The kids at work all sang to me multiple times throughout the day at work, and the other lovely teachers at KK brought in treats and a couple gifts for me! They all definitely made it a special work day. I then came home to a couple surprises left by my sweet husband...

We also went out for an annual birthday dinner at Pizza Hut. Since coming to college here in Watertown, Pizza Hut is where my birthday dinner has been for the past 4 years. The free desert pizza is the major draw. :)

The day after my birthday my parents arrived for a visit from Ohio! We were able to take off and spend the weekend with them and Nathan up in a cottage on a lake in Green Lake, WI. It was definitely a fun and much needed break!

Immediately following THIS visit, we were able to enjoy a visit with Josh's mom as well!

Towards the end of the month we traveled up to Minnesota for a friend's wedding which Josh was a groomsman in. We were able to leave early on the Friday before and make a stop at the Mall of America! The wedding was beautiful and it was great to see some dear friends I don't have the opportunity to see often. Including a dear friend I haven't seen in FOUR years! That was definitely a wondrous surprise! :)

I would say those are the main highlights of the month. But as always, the month was also filled with the everyday joys, challenges, and blessings. Josh and I are continuing to enjoy life here where God has placed us, while eagerly looking forward to following where God continues to lead. 







This the power of the cross...

September has flown by. The air now has a crisp to it, the leaves are brilliantly changing, and the days are getting shorter one by one. Josh and I are staying busy between his work in the welcome center and the dorm, my work at Kiddie Kampus, ministries at church, and so forth. We're enjoying life though. It's great to be married to the one God planned for you and to be living a life together led by Him!

Now onto what the title of this post hints to...

All week at Kiddie Kampus I have been teaching the Bible lessons. The lessons for the week have all had a theme of prayer. Monday was about Jonah praying in the whale to confess his sins, yesterday was about Nehemiah praying for help to rebuild the wall, and today was about how Jesus prayed for Himself and others. So I'm going through the story and the kids are listening (most of them anyways!) and one thoughtful question that was asked was, "Why did Jesus have to pray when He is the one we pray to?" What a thought for a 3 year old, eh? Then we get to one of the flashcards from the story that shows a picture of Jesus and above him are three thought bubble type things with pictures in each. One had a picture of the disciples, one had a picture of people of today, and one had a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross. They were each picturing times when Jesus prayed or things He prayed for. We get through the lesson and after Bible time is snack time so half of the kids are sent to go wash the hands in preparation for snack. While the kids are back washing their hands I look through the flashcard pictures from the story once again with some of the remaining kids. As we are looking one boy asks if we can go back and look at the picture of the cross. So we look at that picture and this little boy is enthralled with this picture. He asked, "Why is he on that cross? Why is there blood on him? Why doesn't he have clothes on? Why are those nails in him?" I proceeded to answer his questions as simply and lovingly as I could. I explained to him that Jesus had to die on the cross so that we could go to Heaven one day and be with Him and how the people took his clothes from Him and the nails were there to hold Him up on the cross and He bled because it hurt a lot. He continued to stare at the picture of Jesus on the cross and I could just see the emotion and questions flowing across his face. Well the time then came for the rest of the kids to go wash their hands and I headed back to the sink with them all. Back at the sink this little boy was still thinking about the cross picture. He said, "I don't want to go on a cross like that." To which I replied that we don't have to go on a cross because Jesus did it for us. After thinking about that for a moment he asked, "So how do we get up to Heaven?" I first replied by saying how we have to tell Jesus we are sorry for the bad things we have done and we have to believe on Him. To which He interrupted me by asking, "How do we GET up there?" I told him Jesus will come back and bring us up through the clouds. He thought about that for a minute and replied, "Ok, but I'm scared to do that." I said it won't be scary because we will be with Jesus. With simple trust he said, "Okay."

That right there is why I love my job. I truly pray that this little 3 year old boy will continue to have questions and a desire to know about the cross.

"This, the pow'r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross."

A day in the life of a preschool teacher...

6:40 am - Get woke up by a text asking if I can come in asap to cover for sick coworker.

6:55 am.- Clock-in at work (impressive, I know).

7:30 am - Eat a blueberry muffin with the kids eating breakfast and listen to conversation on why or why not muffins and peaches are good.

8:00 am - Wonder how long it's just going to be me with 14 three year olds?!

8:15 am - Let the kids lose out on the playground.

8:30 am - Help arrives!

8:35 am - Take screaming and thrashing child from leaving parent.

9:00 am - Corral the kids inside for Library Reader.

9:05 am - Sing songs with kids instead, since Library Reader went to the other class first.

9:25 am - Serve morning snack of yogurt to kids asking, "What kind of ice cream is that we're having??"

9:30 am - Library Reader arrives and reads during snacktime.

9:55 am - Split kids up into groups to play in centers.

9:57 am - Console those kids who ended up in a center they didn't want to be in.

10:10 am - Teach kids in Drama Center who are pounding at the tool bench how to use the screw driver to screw things in instead of always using the hammer (score!).

10:12 am - Watch boy hold blocks as a microphone and walk around the room belting "Baa, baa black sheep," "Old McDonald had a Farm," and "Twinkle, twinkle, little star."

10:30 am - Release kids out onto the playground again.

10:32 am - Instruct child not to hit friend.

10:38 am - Instruct child to share toys with friend.

10:40 am - Instruct child not to take toy out of friend's hand.

10:50 am - Comfort child who fell down.

11:15 am - Call kids in to wash hands for lunch.

11:20 am - Serve pizza, pineapple, veggies, and cottage cheese to kids.

11:22 am - Instruct kids to only take one piece of pizza.

11:26 am - Assure kids that it's okay if someone takes all that's in the bowl, I can fill it up.

11:30 am - Clean up a cup of spilled milk.

11:32 am - Scarf down my own pizza.

11:40 am - Clean up another cup of spilled milk.

11:50 am - Spread out cots around room.

11:55 am - Excuse kids who are finished to go potty, get their blankets, and head to their cots.

12:00 pm - Fix blankets, put on sheets, zip sleeping bags, and say "goodnight" and "I love you" to kids.

12:02 pm - Tell kids who are talking they need to go to sleep.

12:10 pm - Fill out observation chart for each child.

12:20 pm - Fill out daily sheet for each child.

12:35 pm - Am impressed that 16 out of 18 kids are sleeping!

12:40-1:40 pm - Sit and keep myself from falling asleep, search the internet on my phone for ideas for next weeks' lessons, continue to be impressed that all 16 kids are still sleeping.

1:44 pm - Laugh as child sits up wide awake and exclaims, "Where did the other teacher go!?!"

1:48 pm - Allow those that are awake to get up and put their blankets away, and read a book or do a puzzle quietly.

1:55 pm - Assist the kids in waking up and getting their shoes back on.

1:57 pm - Listen to a conversation by kids who are looking at a book about bees - Child 1: "Bees make honey." Child 2: "How?" Child 1: "They poop it." Child 2: "OoOoh."

2:00 pm - Wake up the final few kids who are still sleeping.

2:05pm - Get the kids seated for an afternoon snack of cookies and milk.

2:12 pm - Back out to the playground we go!

2:28 pm - Go down the slide with child on lap and child behind me.

2:20 pm - Order chicken nuggets, fries, and chocolate milkshake from "McDonalds."

2:21 pm - Am asked if I want a toy with my meal. Me: "Sure, what kind of toy?" Boy: "Batman." Me: "Do you have any girl toys?" Boy: *thinks for a moment* "Yeah, we have a button you can push in." Me: "Oh. Thanks!"

2:30 pm - Instruct kids to take turns on the bikes.

2:32 pm - Comfort child who hurt his finger and take him in to get a bandaid.

2:40 pm - Listen to child "call the cops" on friends for coming into his McDonalds - Boy: "I'm going to call the cops on you!" Children: Run away, taunting that the cops can't get them. Boy: Picks up pretend phone, "Hi cops. You need to come get some people."

2:45 pm - Listen to a complaint from child that another child bit him.

2:46 pm - Address afore mentioned child who bit - Me: "Did you bite him?" Child: "No." Me: "You didn't bite him? Did you do anything to him?" Child: "No I didn't do anything." Me: "You didn't bite him? Did you touch him?" Child: "It was *other child!*" Me: "*Other child* was not even by you two. Did you bite him?" Child: "Well, he pushed me." Me: "Then what did you do? Did you bite him?" Child: "Yes."..........

2:48 pm - Sit with above child for a couple minutes.

2:50 pm - Comfort another child who fell and hurt his knee, and take him in to get a bandaid.

2:51 pm - Laugh as hurt child runs out the door to show his friends his cool "tatoo" bandaid.

2:55 pm - Push child who needs help on bike.

3:04 pm - Next worker arrives and I get to go home!

3:12 pm - Collapse on couch at home and share day with my husband. :)


Ready for round two (well, actually round five this week) tomorrow!

These are the moments..

Let me just start by saying, it's been a busy past few days. With Josh attending meetings and assorted dorm sup functions for hours every day, and me jumping right in and working around 7 hours daily with 3 year olds, it's rather astounding we are both still faring reasonably well.

We were able to sneak some fun in this weekend though. Saturday found us at the Dodge County Fair with Jenny and Matt. It was an, eh, interesting experience.

• It was raining for most of the time we were there. So we walked around through puddles with our hoods up.
• We almost got trampled by a runaway sheep in one tent and a runaway pig in another. The man watching as the pig comes barreling towards us merely says, "Um, girls looks like you have a loose pig."
• Finally, the part I most look forward to at fairs: walking around the exibiters booths and collecting free stuff. :) But alas, I aquired but two items: a plastic 11-12 week fetal baby from the Pro-Life booth, and a CD of Christian songs from around the world from the Lutheran Ministries booth. Definitely not the bagfuls of free stuff I recall scavenging while walking around fairs in my youth.
• Last but not least, I experienced one of the hick-est events thus far in my life. A true Beaver Dam, WI horse pull. We cheered for Hoppercorn. Our cheering helped little though. The winning pair of horses ended with pulling a load of a whopping 6,600 pounds. "You bet!"

Then on Sunday, after church we stayed and ate lunch with the Pastor's family. It was a nice time of fellowship. Oh, and Sunday night we talked to the Pastor and Deacon's about joining the church. So grateful, God led us to Faith Baptist Church in Oconomowoc. We are definitely excited to get involved in the ministries of the church.

Last night I met with the fellow dorm sup wives in one of their apartments and we made cookies "for the arriving guys." I don't know how many cookies actually made it through to be given away to guys though. :) It was a fun bonding time to be sure.

Work at Kiddie Kampus has been going well. The fellow teacher I'm with and I have gotten along wonderfully. Definitely an answered prayer! I've already fallen in love with the 3 year olds we have. They are definitely a crazy bunch, but also so precious. Next Monday all of the kids will be back from the summer (20 total!) and we will start the curriculum. I'm looking forward to it being a little more structured. Week number one is about colors and back to school! That week is then followed by teaching about shapes and 'God made me!' :) And the cute story of the day is this: This afternoon while playing out on the playground a couple of the kids were making pretend meals and we were all sitting around the table eating. Before starting to eat the pretend meal, I mentioned how we should pray first. I then proceeded to pray a simple prayer thanking Jesus for the food. The ext meal they made, the boy playing said he would pray. He then proceeded to pray a rote food blessing prayer. The NEXT meal they made, the girl playing said she would pray (*note:this girl comes from a very rough background). She prayed the following, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for the food. Thank you for playing. Amen." So precious. I melted. :)

My husband is free from all meetings/guys/dorm related stuff for approximately 3 hours and 17 minutes. So I'm off to make sure not another of those minutes are wasted. :)

The Daily Grind

I just met our first pre-season dorm resident. Of course, he came early and Josh was not back yet. I think I might have been a bit scared to be greeted at the dorm by me - a female. :) Starting today the pre-season guys will start trickling in. Then Monday the RAs arrive. Then RLs. Then Freshmen. Then the returning students. It's kin of crazy that it's all starting! We are for real living in a men's dorm as dorm supervisors! Josh has had hours of meetings all week, and I do believe his brain is fried. But things will settle down after these beginning weeks are over.

As for me, I started work at Kiddie Kampus on Monday. Let me just say, there's nothing like being thrown right into things! I started Monday without having gone through orientation or training. Plus, the lead teacher was gone until Tuesday. Needless to say, the first day was a little stressful. I hate not knowing what I'm supposed to do in a job. But the last couple days went a lot better. I really like the other teacher I'll be working with and the kids are great. I'm working in the 3 year old room and I've already fell in love with the little cuties. :) I love hearing them say, "Mrs. Annie, Mrs. Annie!" :)

Another fun thing that happened as of late was a trip last weekend to Illinois. We were able to drive down on Friday evening and spend a couple days with Pastor Caleb and Ms. Jess and their family. It was awesome to get away for a couple days. We really love that family as well as the awesome church family we have gotten to know down there over the past couple years. We are definitely hoping and looking forward to being able to visit down there every now and then.

Well, lunch is now beckoning. :)

I have my dining room table back!

We finally finished writing, addressing, stamping, labeling, and licking all of the thank you cards to all the generous people who gave us wedding gifts. That means, I now have the other half of our dining room table back! Woot. :)

I can't believe it's almost been SEVEN WEEKS since we got married! {I just had to go look at the calendar and count.} People were asking us last night at church how long we have been married, and we were both like, "Um, since June 25?" :) I guess it's hard to keep track of how long it has been, because it just feels so normal now. It feels like this is how it's always been. :)

Well, tonight starts the beginning of dorm sup meetings and such. A cookout at the Dean of Students' house. Next week {Monday and Tuesday} are two more cookouts/picnics! You can tell we're Baptist. :) It's okay though, it just means less time cooking meals for this wife. :)
Tomorrow evening after Josh has training on the new E-Learning computer system, we are heading to Illinois for the weekend. I'm very much looking forward to getting away for a couple days. As well as getting to see some dears friends.

One more update: Yesterday I bought a self-training book and some yarn and am teaching myself how to knit! I've always wanted to learn, and had a 50% off coupon to Joann Fabrics and thought, why not?! Another hobby added to the list. :) We'll see how it goes.

First week of August...

This week has flown by. Can't believe the first week of August is over! We are anxiously preparing for the upcoming days of arrival of guys in the dorm. Josh starts his dorm supervisor training and meetings this weekend and I start my job at Kiddie Kampus next Monday. So busy times are a coming! We've immensely enjoyed these weeks of settling in and spending lots of quality time together though.

Moving on...

We worked in the office the other evening finishing up our Ireland/Missions wall. Josh found every missionary/pastor in Ireland and where their church is located and marked them all with a number on a map of Ireland. We then recorded the names of the missionaries, their church's name, and their location on index cards and wrote the corresponding number from the map on the card. For those we had prayer cards for we simply used the prayer cards instead. It turned out really great. It will be a wonderful way for us to systematically pray for the missionaries over in that country. We also then added our collection of other missionary prayer cards around the map as well.

One more thing. I got a much anticipated orange box in the mail this week! Our wedding photo book from Shutterfly. I love it. It turned out wonderfully! :)



 Off to go relax now with my loving husband. :)