Haircut Woes

About a month ago I got about 12 inches cut off my hair. I love the rejuvenating feeling of being free from my long locks. To add even more good feelings, I donated my ponytail to Locks of Love. They make hair pieces for kids who have lost all of their hair due to illness or disease.

Me and my nephew at Christmas

Just after the haircut

The change was pretty dramatic and some of the kids I work with had a hard time adjusting to my new look, especially the boys. Here are just a few of the many comments that I got from the boys I work with:

Shocked, "Mrs. Black, why did you cut your hair!?"

"Mrs. Black! When I saw you, I thought you were a boy!"

"Why would you do that?!"

"Mrs. Black why did you cut your hair?"
me -"I like it this way."
"Man, you must be on crack!"

"Mrs. Black, you look like a boy now!"
me sarcastically - "Thank you."
"Why do you think that's a compliment?"
me - "I'm trying not to respond rudely."
(This boy had a particularly hard time and we had this conversation every day for a week.)

These comments have gradually subsided and thankfully, I don't base my self-confidence on the opinions of 8 year-olds.

God's Words Never Cease

This video is of a talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He testifies, as do I, that God continues to reveal his will unto prophets and apostles. He loves us and wants us to know and do his will that we might return to live with him forever after we have finished our mortal sojourn. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is the Savior of all mankind. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:16

Christmas, a Month Late

Okay, so it takes me awhile to sit down and upload photos for you all to see. Here's what our apartment looked like when it was all decked out for Christmas. We spent hours one Saturday making a tiny paper chain for our tree. After the Christmas decorations came down, we replaced them with some beautiful pictures taken by Whitney that I got Nate for Christmas. They make our dumpy little apartment a bit more classy. Now if I only had walls that weren't made of solid cement I could hang them up!













Happy New Year, I hope it has started off great for everyone!

Homeade Pumpkin Pie

So, this is a long time coming, but a while back Nate and I made some pumpkin pies out of pie pumpkins and we took some photos to document it. The pies were a little stringy, but otherwise quite tasty.

Nate scraping out the seeds

Baked pumpkin chunks.

Scraping out the baked pumpkin

The finished product

The Joy of Christmas

I love the Christmas season. I can't even explain my own excitement - family, decorations, giving gifts, serving those who are less fortunate, a break from school, a time to reflect on the year, a feeling of love, community, and generosity, and most importantly, a time to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the kindergarten class that I work with, we were making little Christmas tree crafts and I got to be in charge of the art table. As the kids were working, they got to talking about how excited they were for Christmas. One of the little boys was expressing his enthusiasm for Christmas celebrations, but then he got this great light in his eyes and said, "But when Jesus comes [meaning the Second Coming of Christ] it will be even more celebrater!" Poor grammar perhaps, but a wonderful message. The joy and hopefulness that we feel at this time of year is only a glimpse of that which we will feel when Jesus Christ comes to the earth again.

Comic Relief

For your reading enjoyment and end-of-semester stress relief, here's some more great stories from work. I love working with kids.

Squishy
A month or so ago the smartest kid in the second grade came up to me at recess and informed me that there was something squishy in the grass. Seeing that he was obviously quite concerned about this, I asked him to show me what it was. My first thought was that it would be some small maimed rodent and I was steeling myself for something gruesome. As we approached the spot, he began examining the ground very carefully. When at last he pointed to the ground I came over to investigate more closely. "Nathan*," I said, "that's dog poop. Don't step in it." Keep in mind that this literally is the smartest kid in the second grade.

Yeah
I was chastised by a third grader for saying "yeah" because apparently it is the lazy way of saying "yes."

Pictures
I recently got an assignment at school with a kindergarten class. I help a boy who comes from a rough background learn what is appropriate behavior for school and basically just be his friend. I love it. Anyway, he was drawing a picture the other day and, noticing that it looked a lot like a picture he'd drawn of himself the day before (you know, big circle for a head with arms and legs that come directly out of the head) I asked if he was drawing a picture of himself. "No," he replied, "that's a dinosaur." Of course, silly me.

Rain
As I was "lifeguarding" (for some reason, the kids on the playground call me 'lifeguard') at recess one day, it started to sprinkle. One of my second-graders came up to me and told me that when it rains, it means that Jesus is crying. I asked her why she thought that He was crying. She said that it was probably because He was sad because people smoke.

Big Belly
I was reading a Sponge Bob book to one of the kindergarteners in the after-school program. In the story, Sponge Bob eats a lot of food and gets sick, but in the picture his belly also gets rather large. In my attempts to help this boy enjoy the story and improve his comprehension, I was trying to help him examine the pictures in the book. "Why does Sponge Bob have a big belly in this picture?" I asked. He immediately yelled out, "because he's going to have a baby!"


*as always, the names of the students have been changed.

Halloween

Nate and I had a great Halloween this year. Nate went as a used car salesman, which was by far the best costume he's had since I've known him. (in previous years he's been an undercover cop - a.k.a. he had no costume, and a P.E. teacher - which he actually is) I went as a 70s snow bunny.

We carved pumpkins with some friends and they turned out pretty well. They got a pumpkin carving kit and it was great for the smaller cuts, but only because the knife blade was tiny. It was actually a battery powered knife, which was cool. I thought my Frankenstein pumpkin was downright adorable.

For Halloween day, I participated in my first ever school Halloween parade at the elementary school I work at. We don't do that in Oklahoma, but here it's a pretty big deal. Even the teachers that wouldn't even wear pajamas for pajama day went all-out for their costumes. It was quite an experience. I went as a cowgirl, (I had lent my snowsuit to a neighbor. Her work was offering $100 for the best costume.) but I definitely didn't measure up to the other teachers.

That night we drove down to Fairview to visit my grandparents and had a great time with them.

Nate as a used car salesman, Deb as a snow bunny.

Here we are again at the ward party (our singles' ward).

The pumpkins outside our apartment.


Ta Da! The finished products!