Thanksgiving and November Wrap-up

November sure has been a busy month. With work, my church calling, teaching after school, and other things going on it seems I barely have time to relax these days. Work has been going well other than me always being sick. I came down with STREP again the week before Thanksgiving. For anyone counting, that's 2 times in 2 months. This one was a lot worse too. I had a fever, aches, chills, headache, and of course an extremely bad sore throat. When I went in to the doctor, he said it was the worse case he'd seen in awhile. This time I had multiple prescriptions to reduce the swelling, get rid of the bacteria, and manage the pain so I could eat. It also came the weekend I had to give a talk in church. Luckily (or unluckily), I managed to be well enough to give it. It was on gratitude and it made me focus on all of the blessings I have in my life even when things are tough. Maybe me being sick is trying to teach me a little more about patience and to always be thankful for what I have. I must not have learned enough yet however because I have another sore throat at the moment. I'm pretty sure this one is not Strep this time but I'm getting a little sick of my throat being in pain. Who knows, maybe the real lesson I'm supposed to learn is to eat less since I'd rather starve then swallow at the moment!
Although being sick makes work difficult at times, I'm having fun teaching my students. I started teaching the older grades volleyball. Sometimes it tries my patience but I know a lot of them have never had any experience with this sport before and at least I know they are enjoying it. The younger students continue to make me laugh with their crazy antics and sayings. They have fun doing the simplest of things and it is gratifying to see them improve their skills or succeed at something for the first time. I also love how often they remind me that I'm the nicest, most beautiful PE teacher in the world! That always helps brighten my day.

I also got to go home for Thanksgiving break. I was at home for a whole 3 days and it was wonderful. We broke tradition and had Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year with my sister's inlaws. The food was amazing and the company enjoyable so it was a great day.

I felt like I literally spent the entire day in the kitchen and don't look forward to ever having to host a Thanksgiving dinner by myself in the future as it is so much work!

The rest of the break was spent mainly hanging out with my family. No one had to work on Friday so we got to hang out, play games, eat, and take our traditional family portraits at the ol' homestead. Here are some of my favorites:

We were missing Whitney's husband so we'll have to take more over Christmas break but we sure had fun. 

Other highlights from the trip home include:

Going shooting twice. I finally hit something thrown in the air with a shotgun so that was a feat and I totally beat my dad on shooting accuracy with the .22 and the BB gun pistol.

Roasting hot dogs and s'mores one night in the fire pit since the weather was nice.

Having amazing authentic tacos and playing Just Dance 4 with my best friend.

No one had any accidents, injuries, and I didn't get pulled over on the drive to and from Colorado!

So overall, wonderful trip. And another big perk is that I will be back in 4 weeks for Christmas.