'Tis the New Year! (Already?!)

Whew! What a whirlwind of a year it has been! And especially these last few weeks! I have very much enjoyed the holidays and everything that comes along with that! Being a teacher, I have a pretty nice break where I don't have to worry about getting called into work. Landon also took some days off, allowing him 17 days at home!! That was really nice! Looking back on this past year, I can not believe how fast it has flown by! It seems like I was just blogging about the first of the year (a year ago). It has been a year FULL of ups and downs. Just a quick recap of some of the happenings this past year...

January:  -We celebrated New Years Eve on the drive back home from Omaha after Landon's Grandma's services. His cousins were with us and we all tried to stay up once we got home to bring in the new year. (I think some of us may have fallen asleep :P)
             - Started my student teaching

February: Grandpa Poge went to the Greenfields' to live as he continued to battle his cancer.

March: Passed my Praxis!
          -Started my second student teaching placement
          - My parents celebrated their 50th Birthdays
          - Landon moved to MN

April: Went to Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin concert in MN!

         
May: Graduated from BV with my BA degree in education

June: Landon and I celebrated one year together
        -We lost my Uncle Jeff and a week later my Great Uncle Harold

July: I was honored to be in my friend Whitney's wedding

August: Went to the ISF
            -Went to St. Louis for the Cardinals game

September: Started Substitute teaching

October: celebrated my 23rd birthday

November: Had an awesome Thanksgiving

December: -Celebrated Landon's 25th Birthday
                 -TSO concert
                 -Celebrated a year and a half with Landon
                 -Was spoiled a ton on Christmas
                 - We lost Grandpa Poge
                 -Celebrated New Years Eve with shopping, Ice skating, the Iowa game, and Longhorn Steakhouse

The smallest things bring the biggest joys!

Hello fellow bloggers and followers! Fall is upon us and winter is just around the corner, can you believe it?? Time flies when you're having fun! I know, I really stink at keeping this up, BUT for another quick update since August (that's only been a few months ya know)...

1. I've been keeping busy substitute teaching and loving every second of it. My favorite is when I get to teach in Douds... seeing "my" past students, having students pass me in the halls saying "hi Miss Taylor!" (students I don't even know), getting SO many hugs from students, and having a posy follow me around the playground when I'm on duty. It really is the best medicine... if you're having a bad day or week.... just go visit a classroom full of first graders! I will bet you anything you will smile AT LEAST once! (and if you don't smile more than that, you probably need a counselor :p ) This year in Douds, they try to have the same substitute for when the teacher is gone. I have had the opportunity to work with first graders when their teacher has to be gone. It has been a blast! After subbing for 2 days, today was the last day for awhile to be in the classroom with those kiddos. The sweetest little boy came up to me to give me yet another hug (he gives me a hug every time he comes in the classroom)... it was the end of the day and here comes *insert students name*. I was expecting the quick hug (quick, but so sweet)... this time *insert students name* gave me a hug and hung on for awhile longer. Now, because of confidentiality, I can not tell the boys name. But I have learned that this boy has had some very hard times in his life lately. I know there are many other students that I am not aware of that are having hard times as well. This has been a very rewarding and valuable lesson to me. To be one person, he feels comfortable enough to give a hug to, and be the one to give that hug back... I almost wept in tears as I drove home after school thinking about it. I am so happy and so blessed to have that little boy in class, even if only a few days a month. It's truly the smallest things that bring the biggest joys!

2. I celebrated my 23rd birthday October 9th. Not surprisingly, I was very spoiled yet again. I am very blessed to have such a great family and extended family! I received new boots, sirius radio, clothes, a paid hair appointment, slippers, hat, shoes, gift cards, cards with precious messages I will treasure, and many wishes! The weekend after my birthday was my family get together on my moms side. I loved getting to see family from out of town and out of state and all young kids that are growing up so fast but so fun to watch! (Even got some snuggle nap time in!)

3. My cousins had their precious baby boy!! And man is he ever precious! Lots of dark hair and the tiniest little fingers and toes. I was able to go up to MN to visit them and catch up... looking forward to going back soon!

4. Hunting season is upon us! If you know my family at all (especially my brother), you know I have a brother who would fish and hunt for a living if he could! I'm a pretty lucky girl because of this. I have my very own bow that I go out hunting with and I really enjoy the time spent with nature and my brother. I had the opportunity to go out this weekend with my brother... we put up a couple trees stands (in a slightly not so safe way), sat in the tree together on pretty chilly mornings, and best of all, had some giggles and laughs through it all. That's my favorite... making someone laugh and laughing with them over small things. It's truly the smallest things that bring the biggest joys!

5. Landon and I have been together for just over a year and 4 months. If you follow baseball, you know October is very stressful for baseball fans, and to be more specific, Cardinal fans! Basically, if you date or are married to a Cardinals fan, you will be replaced during the month of October, just a fair warning :P Really though, before meeting Landon, I could care less about baseball. See, that's one of the joys and adventures of dating someone and getting to know them. Through their interests, you are pulled into some of those things (maybe not ALL lol) and become interested in them yourself... and you may even find yourself staying up all night watching the game, holding your breath! Okay, yes that was me... partly because yes, he's suckered me into enjoying watching the game and on the other hand, things tend to go a lot smoother when the Cardinals are doing well. So, knowing how the game went, I can prepare myself for future conversation and moods, if you catch my drift :o) I really have enjoyed the time spend with Landon, memories made, and interests shared. I look forward to learning more about each other and sharing more interests with each other. Just to add to the long list of things that make us smile, give us things to visit about, and enjoy doing together. It truly is the smallest things that bring the biggest joy!

All in all.... I'm enjoying life. I'll be the first to admit, my life isn't perfect. I'm still working on finding a permanent job, and finding my own place and life. But hey, IT TRULY IS THE SMALLEST THINGS THAT BRING THE BIGGEST JOY! I'm continuing to grow in my spiritual walk everyday and I am very excited for what my future has in store for me!

Catch up!

"So come with me where dreams are born and time is never planned. Just think of happy things and your heart will fly on wings in never never land." -Peter Pan

To all my family and friends who haven't heard from me since my last post in January. Or maybe you have and just haven't maybe been informed on EVERYTHING going on. I can't promise you that I can get you up to date completely.... but I can try to get you up to date on some of the events going on in my life.

As far as my career goes.... I started student teaching in January, finished in April, and graduated from Buena Vista University with my Bachelors of Arts degree in Education in May. My plan for now is to get some experience through substitute teaching around home for a while until a bigger opportunity arises. I have applied for my MN license and just waiting for that process to be complete. That will open more doors for me and also get me closer to Landon.

This summer has been filled with many ups and a few hardships along the way. I am so blessed to have Landon by my side every step of the way. We've made tons of memories this summer that will go down in the scrapbook and fun to look back on. We've been swimming, golfing, attended a concert, graduation, celebrated our One year together in June, shopped the Mall of America, attended a wedding, Fishing, horseback riding, bonfires, Fairs, tractor pulls, the zoo, St Louis trip to see the arch, river boat ride, and Cardinals game, Hannibal stop to see Lover's Leap, races, and of course a lot of time spent together with each other and family. This summer we have also been spending as much time as possible with Grandpa Poge who is still battling cancer. The hardest part of my summer was saying "see ya later" to my uncle Jeff who passed away expectantly from a freak accident. His son Luke and his wife are expecting their first baby boy to arrive September 1st.... that little boy will bring joy, the whole family needs. I think about him often and miss him very much. My uncle Harold also passed away about a week after Jeff this summer. He was in his 90s and lived a very fun life. I'll never forget all the games he build, taught, and played with us at family get togethers. It has been a very eventful summer!

St. Louis Arch!

Bonfires!

Iowa State Fair!

Cardinals Game!

Iowa State Fair!

Mall Of America

Celebrating our one year together!

Painting Jamie's Demo car in memory of Uncle Jeff! 

Landon's Trophy and "trophy girl" at the tractor pull!

MN zoo!

Welcoming in the New Year!

Well, it is officially the new year. Although the Greenfield family and I didn't ring in the New Year on the GREATEST note ever, it was still nice to be able to be with them, which is all that matters. Grandma Poge passed away so they had a beautfiul service for her New Years Eve. Although it wasn't on the best of circumstances, I was able to meet more of Landon's family and get to visit with Grandpa some! Grandpa Poge and the rest of the family would appreciate prayers as he continues to battle cancer and now the loss of his wife. I am very sad I didn't get to meet Grandma, but I know from all the wonderful, funny, and sweet stories she was an amazing lady, just as the rest of the family is.

I am very excited to see what this year will bring. I start my student teaching in just a few days, on Monday!!! Eeeeekkkk!!! I'm so excited and nervous all at once! I will be teaching 4th grade, which is older than what I hope to get my "job" in one of these days but this will be a good experience out of my comfort zone! I have not met the teacher I will be teaching with but we have exchanged emails and I can already tell she is going to be awesome to work with!! I am very relieved about that!

Highlights of year 2012

• Spring Break vacation in Florida with my mom and Grandma and Grandpa England. I was able to lay by the ocean and swim with the Manattees!
• I moved back home from MO the end of April and started school at Buena Vista the beginning of May.
• I met Landon's family for the first time at the end of May.
• I made my first trip to Chicago with the company of Landon's sister Marissa. I enjoyed spending the weekend at Landon's apartment and having my best friend take the train out to come see me and stay with us! We visited down town and had a blast! It was my first cab ride, train ride, and water taxi ride, along with of course my first visit to down town Chicago!
• I became the luckiest girl ever the next weekend on June 16th when Landon took me to Kip Moore and Hunter Hayes concert and asked me to be his girlfriend.
• I was able to witness beautiful Marissa become fair queen the end of June.
• I took the Praxis July 21st and PASSED!!
• I also met Landon's Grandpa Poge the afternoon after my Praxis test and fell in love with tears of happiness streaming down my face! (as I have describe in previous posts)
• The next weekend I took another trip to Chicago and was able to attend my first Cardinals game in Chicago with Landon and his friends!
• Somewhere in there I attended my first tractor pull.
• I attended the Races with Landon and his father which was an honor because I felt like I was crashing Father-son time!
• Marissa made us all proud as she competed in the Fair Contest at the Iowa State Fair!
• My sister-in-Law had her wedding showers and bachelorette party which was also a first for me!
• Dad and I were able to have some bonding time at a cattle sale together for the weekend.
• My oldest brother got married and had a beautiful wedding!!!
• I attended my First IOWA FOOTBALL GAME with Landon!!
• My best friend got engaged!!! and I am honored I will be standing up with her at her wedding! eeek!!
• I went to Chicago with the Greenfield family and was able to see TSO for the first time!! It was AMAZING!!! Had such a fun trip!
• The following weekend I was able to go to Chicago again with my mom and Brother's girlfriend and we visited downtown and got to see The Grinch on broadway. That was very kewl!
• I've done a lot of babysitting and spending time with my cousins which I always enjoy.
• Lastly, I was able to end the year with some awesome quality time with Landon which spoiled me very much and I enjoyed every minute of it!!

Some highlights of what the new year is going to bring:

• I start student teaching Monday!!!
• Marissa is graduating high school a week before me!!
• I will be graduating in May!
• My best friend is getting married in July!!

That is all I know for now, but I am extremely excited to see what else comes of 2013!! I will hopefully be finding my first job and getting out on my own. I am sure I will also have other "firsts" to look forward to with Landon!! Here's to 2013, Bring on the new year!! :o)

Dollars for Granddad!!

'Tis the season! I am ready for Christmas! The cookies are baked, presents are wrapped, and I am getting to spend quality time this week with the boyfriend in Chicago! Couldn't get much better than this..... except there is one thing that keeps coming to mind. Recently, my boyfriend's grandpa was diagnosed with brain cancer. They were able to remove 95% of the brain tumor and he has just started chemo. Although this is no easy news to hear any time of the year, this time of year seems to make is especially hard.

I had the privilege of meeting Landon's grandfather this Summer and he is a hoot!! Such a lively, caring, loving guy! I can see where Landon gets some of his traits (along with his mother)! As you can imagine, the Greenfield family have been having an extra stressful season. I am not asking for pitty or for anyone to feel bad for them. This is just something that has been on my mind everyday. I want to help in some way. I'm no doctor, and obviously can't make the drive to Omaha everyday to help around the house so I'm been trying to find a way I can help from right here at home. I decided, why not try to start a fund? Tis the season for giving, maybe there are others out there willing to pitch in an extra dollar and skip buying a pop for the day, or maybe an encouraging note. I have to say, I had an absolute BLAST with Grandpa when I met him. We played the game Apples to Apples and I could have build a pond with the tears that were rolling down my face from laughing SO hard. He really is a great guy, and I'm not just saying that. Having only met him once, I feel closer than that to him. He had so many nice things to say and I look forward to seeing him again soon. Grandpa is a very strong guy who I believe can beat this cancer!

So, this is what I am proposing. If any of you blog followers out there would like to send a dollar for granddad to help with his needs, I know ALL of us would appreciate it SO very much. He is so very blessed with many friends and family that are already helping in so many ways, I just wanted to be able to help as well. If you would like to send a dollar or even an encouraging note, please contact me at taylor.jackie.c@gmail.com! Thank you!

Merry Christmas and God Bless!!

that "right" feeling

Well, many things are continuing to keep me busy and everyday I feel blessed to have this wonderful life I live. (Are you tired of hearing that yet?? Sorry, I just can't get over it!) I have many things I could blog about but tonight I escpecially want to blog about that "right" feeling I had.

As many of you know, I have been attending school to be an elementary teacher. I will be starting my student teaching in January and graduating in May. Today, I just started my supervised participation. This consist of observing, and participating in the classroom along with teaching a lesson. The classroom teacher I will be working with for the next few weeks was gone today so a substitute was there. But, she was very easy to talk to and I had so much fun! I have many stories I could tell but I especially want to share two!

1) There was a boy in the class that was having a hard time paying attention because the cup of marbles on his desk was too tempting to play with. (Each pod of 4 has a cup and if they are caught doing something good, they are given a marble. The first group to fill their cup gets a prize, which Im not sure what that is yet, I am sure I will find out soon!) I learned in my many classes I have taken that simply walking toward a kid of standing by them can stop their behavior without you even having to open your mouth or call them out in front of the class. At first I wasn't sure if it was my place to correct the behavior of this particular student but the teacher was busy teaching and I couldn't ignore the fact that this student was going to miss out on learning what was a brand new concept. I thought, if he doesn't pay attention now, he wont learn this concept and everything built on top of it will be very confusing and hard for him to learn later on! So, I thought why not try what I have been taught and simply walk over to him. So I did, and...............IT WORKED!! He immediately knew he needed to put the marbles back in the cup and pay attention. So I stood there awhile to see what his reaction would be. Well, a couple minutes later he could not resist the temptation and started playing with his marbles again. So I tried another trick I was taught and simply put my hand on his shoulder and....... IT WORKED AGAIN! I was feeling pretty good, I didn't have to make a scene in front of his classmates and he was paying attention. I stood there awhile and felt he was paying attention so I walked away. After some time, again the boy started playing with his marbles. I waited to see what the teacher would do and she was busy teaching so I decided to walk over to him again, and again he instantly put the marbles in the cup and even placed them on another students desk. I thought I had given him enough nonverbal warnings so I got down on the boys level and whispered that if the marbles continued to be a problem I would have to take them away (having marbles taken out of your cup is not a good thing) (again, not knowing if I should follow through with this if I had to, I was a bit worried) But the boy listened and we didn't have a problem the rest of the class! **Feeling accomplished**

2) There is a little girl who gets picked on from time to time in class. I was only there a day and I could pick up on this fast. So, during writing time the students were asked to write about Halloween, either what they did last year, or what they expect it to be like this year. This little girl says "Well this is going to be fun..... not!" and a little boy says to her "(her name), that wasn't even funny" So the two of them start arguing. Unable to just ignore the behavior once again, I went over and stood between the two of their desks and ask the girl to get her notebook out and start righting like her classmates were doing. She said to me, "I don't have anything to write about" I replied with "You don't have any Halloween stories?" She says "no, not really" I continue with "What about this year? You could write about what you are going to wear and what you hope your night to be like." She continues with, "I don't even know what Im doing tomorrow" So I mentioned "well, what does it look like around your house on Halloween?" She says "the dogs are in the yard, the cars are in the driveway, and we don't have any decorations because the dogs tear them up." Driven to not give up and let this little girl just not write I said "Well there ya go! Write about how you won't find any halloween decorations outside your house because the dogs tear them up!" She continues to say "I dont think that will work, thats boring." I say "Thats not boring, I think thats funny!" She says, "really? Noone thinks Im funny, they all think Im dumb." I encourage her by saying "well I think you can make it a very funny story!" She says "Okay, I will give it a try" and she wrote for the rest of writing time.

I was so happy with how I could help the students today and I just had that exciting feeling like hey this is really what I am supposed to do and I can't wait to get my teaching license! We all have that wonder, is this really what I want to do? Can I be successful at this? Well today I answered those questions.... YES!!!! This is exactly what I want to do and yes, I can be successful!!

I get asked the question, what grade do you want to teach? often and when I respond "the lower grades, Pre-K through first preferably" sometimes I get the answer "Oh, so a glorified babysitter, you're going to be babysitting 25 kids all day". I would like to tell all those people who think I am a licensed glorifed babysitter, No I am not a glorified teacher, I am teaching the first steps of schooling you, your kids, employees, and everyone else need before they can do their job!

Updates

Hello fellow bloggers! It's been awhile since I have blogged. Hmmm what to blog about. There are so many things I could blog about but would hate to bore you all. So a few updates in my life...

1) We finally got my brother married off at the end of September. It was a beautiful wedding and we could not have ask for more perfect weather!

2) I've been going through many health issues that aren't fun. Nothing drastic, I had a cold then I had mono and now I have a rash that has taken over my body from the medicine! It has been a long month!

3) I have been reading my bible a lot. I try to read every morning or night. I have to admit there are some days I don't make time for the bible. I'm learning a lot through God's word! I have been going to church with my boyfriend's family. The little church they are a part of is very small so it feels like a family. I love it! I am excited to be starting bible studies soon with the pastor!

4) I will be attending my very FIRST Iowa game at Iowa City this Saturday! It's a night game, I am so excited!!

5) I just received my placement for one term of student teaching. I will be in Kindergarten with the teacher I requested, so I am very happy and excited abou that! This week is the last week of classes for Term 1. Just one more Term of classroom classes for me and it's off to Student teaching in January! I am very nervous and excited at the same time! Not sure what to expect :o)

6) I will be attending my very FIRST Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in December with Landon's (the boyfriend) family in Chicago!!

7) I will also be attending my very FIRST Iowa Basketball game in January!! (can you tell I am an Iowa fan? Go Hawks!) 

8) I am an extremely lucky girl to have an amazing boyfriend to share so many great memories with. I am also lucky and so very blessed to have his family in my life. I love my family and what I like to call my extended family so very much! What a lucky girl I am :o)

9) The month of October has been a busy month for birthdays. We celebrated my brothers girlfriends birthday, my birthday, and Landon's dad's birthday all within a couple weeks of each other. Also, this month is the annual Savage reunion (my mom's side of the family). It is always fun to get together and see everyone!

10) I carved my annual pumpkin a couple weeks ago at the Greenfield household. It was super fun picking out and carving our pumkins. Landon and I along with his two sisters and his olders sisters husband all went out to pick the perfect pumpkin to carve. It was a great night, we stayed up past midnight working on our pumkins! I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. The guys were very serious in their pumpkin carving while us girls were laughing way too hard. My pumpkin turned out to be not what I was intending, but that just makes it all the more unique! LOL!

I have been enjoying my life and I feel very blessed for the life I live!