Beautiful Baby Blessing!

So our dear friends are now proud parents, and as a result have been able to bless their new born baby girl Effie. A blessing is done by a man(the happy father normally) who holds the Priesthood-the power to act in Gods name-and in church pronounces a name and blessing for the life of the child, similar to the type of blessings children received, even Christ received when they were "presented" to the world. Really many cultures follow this wonderful event. We even have it in cartoon form with the opening number in "the Lion King". This past sunday had far less...animals and singing to be sure.


It was a beautiful, sweet and powerful blessing for the spirit bore witness that this was of God, and that He loves his children so much! I can't wait for the day when my husband can bless our children in like and sacred matter. Joy is very much a fruit of the spirit and it was everwhere that happy sunday. As you can see these are very happy and wonderful people!! We love them dearly. All three of them now. The picture above are the boys trying to get ready for the luncheon after the blessing. I thought it was so funny...don't worry no one got hurt in the process.

A pleasant surprise happened at the luncheon, I met Catherine(the beautiful mommy) in Indiana when I was on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. I also met Matt's parents (the father and the granparents) there before Catherine and I served with awesome couple missionaries as well-all in Bloomington! Well after four year I was blessed to see them all again! Oh what hugs and kisses happened in that reunion!!! So I have to say my cup ran over with joy that day!!! The tender mercies of the Lord seem to come just when you need them the most! And these tender mercies were outstanding!!

When it rains it pours!!

Life...don't we love it. So from unemployment to miscarriages, and from being a new Aunt to having a new dear friend...life-or something like it-is full of ups and downs, full of moments that make you want to scream in tears or laugh right out loud. These up and downs just happen over and over...sometimes just in a week. The quote that comes to mind was said by Elder Wirthlin's mother, "Come what may...and love it". So having said that...I feel like moving to a light and humorous note. Monday morning, during our good news in kindergarten class I decided to share some wonderful news. I told that class I have awesome news and I can't wait to tell them about it. All eyes were on me, waiting to hear the exciting news form their teacher. I smiles-enjoying the moment and then shouted, "I'm an Aunt!" blank stares...just blank stares and then confused looks. "Mrs. Jenn...your an ant?" I laughted right out loud!! "No not an ant that you step on...not the insect kind the kind that you are...a thia (aunt in greek-though not spelled correctly) Those students who didn't know greek were really confused...one even asked it I was a grandma...but that good news ended really quickly. I felt like a stand-up whose joke just bombed. I never heard them so quiet.

Martin Luther King JR
So I linked the video clip that I had my students watch last Friday in hopes to help them understand why we celebrate Martin Luther King Day. I don't think that they understood the words or even the importance of the event that they were watching, but they felt the feelings. They could feel that what was said was important and needed. One step in the right direction. Then, on "dream" looking paper, we all wrote about dreams, or hopes that we have which can make the world a better place. In the cloud there were lines to write, and these students who are still trying to learn and comprehend the writing concept in general, wrote dreams that they hope, when they get "big", they can make happen in the world. I love this activity! There were some that wrote things like "I love the little mermaid" which missed the point a bit but others got much closer like, "I want to be like Spiderman and save people" then there were the few that got spot on and wrote, "I want to make sure poor people have food-all need food," "Everyone should have a house" "I think everyone should have a mommy" and many more. It was precious to see that they knew there were needs in the worlds, and that they wanted to fix them. Just thought I would share that wonderful moment. Now their dreams to change the world are hanging up on the hallway wall. For all to learn from...for out of the mouths or babes.

I am a kindergarten teacher and music director at a Greek Orthodox school. This is my class and I...and the teacher that I replaced...the day we took pictures-that was the most awkward days I've ever had. Yep, even though this picture serves as a constant reminder, I don't think I'll go into it. Anyway, working at Saint Sohia has been the biggest adventure yet, and I am riding the roller-coaster with both hands up. There are things that I get to experience here, that a normal kindergarten teacher would not. These things are small, but they are the spice that gives wonderful flavor to my vocational soup. One; while other schools are fighting about the ethical views of prayers or even the mention of God in schools, or the pledge, we pray often-before school, snack time, and when school ends, and we celebrate God all the time, the kids even have a religious hour. It is very refreshing-and hard at the same time. Two; normal classroom in a public school-35, my class is a class of 17-of course their names are hard to learn at first, but I enjoy my little classroom. Three; while other schools may have events or teacher lunches like cake, fast food-American classics, I , on the other hand, get Greek food all the time! I love it, things wrapped in grape leaves, lamb, feta, etc. this is something I adore!! Mad Greek or YaiYai Nikki's don't even compare. Finally four; There are a lot of thing that teachers worry about. My huge stress is when to make my kids knee in church, to make sure they only take one bread for the sacrement, and that my room is ready for the next time it is blessed my splashing holy water all over the walls with a pine branch (that was a new one for me). That donesn't happen in public schools. I think I found an ever changing, exciting and full of beautiful people vocation that I feel so blessed to have. I think I would be happy where ever the Lord put me, but at Saint Sophia this is the icing on the baclava.

Two-in-laws, a car and a Rabbi

Christmas break is over! Now I can stop missing my kindergarten class, and get back into the grove of things. But we sure had adventures during these two weeks. First, the car. Nick and I decided to buy a car. Which is a big thing as those who know us are well aware. The reasons we bought the car is the same reason we decided not to post pictures of this grand vehicle-sorry mom, you'll get to see it when we come and visit. So we went car shopping-and it was grinding, grueling
gamble but we were blessed and stumble on a few good finds within the means allotted. Here is where the Rabbi comes in (my favorite part). So he wanted to sell the car before 2009, in a days time,(he works for a non-profit=tax deduction) we went to see it. It is a couch on wheels, and is even bigger than our Buwick-it's true, hard to believe, but true none the less. So after looking and chatting we knocked the price down about 600, paid and drove away all in one evening. Rabbi Benny Zippel(note-females, don't shake hands, beliefs are as such: not to touch another woman beside the wife-not even in a handshake-as in my mistake) was such a neat man, knew Pres. Hinckley, prays at BYU often, and is very well known-and how many people can say they bought a car from a Rabbi? Not so much. More so from Rabbi Benny?

Then we were blessed to have Nick's parents come down and visit us! We loved it!! I adore his family and since we didn't see family over the Hoildays, this was a much needed visit-and we had a blast. This is us eating at Mimi's Cafe-we're huge fans. We talked, watched movies, ate a pound of See's best and laughed our way into the new year. I have to say, even with the new car, having family over was my favortie thing about the break, that and becoming friends with a Rabbi! It's in my blood-why can I say?