It's been a long time...

After almost 3 years away from this blog, I've decided to be more proactive in updating it. I'm the world's worst at keeping in touch with my friends far and wide, and this is one of my new strategies for keeping others informed with what's going on in my life. I'm working on other strategies to keep up with what's happening in everyone else's lives, too, and well, staying actual friends. Stay tuned.

I've felt more nostalgic and sentimental the past few months than perhaps ever before. I have been lucky enough to live in lots of places and know some amazing people in my life. I truly want to reconnect and/or rekindle those friendships now.

ANYWAY, what's new with me? Not a lot and yet quite a bit at the same time. How's that for clear? I'm in my 5th year of teaching at American Heritage of South Jordan, which is a private school in South Jordan, UT. I teach mostly the juniors and seniors in subjects like U.S. History, PreCalculus, Calculus, Latin, etc. This year, I get to teach electives! I'm teaching a class on Shakespeare, last semester was World Religions. I'm also directing our school plays this year - it's been awhile for me. Our school is so small that I have to get creative with double casting and just do fun, silly shows. It's been fun to dip my toes into the theatre world again - maybe I'll get to do something meaty sometime soon. I also coach our school's Academic Decathlon team. Since I'm not super competitive by nature, we just have fun, do the best we can, and go to St. George in March for the state competition. This year, we got to make it a class and are actually doing relatively well in comparison to past years. Again, even with a team of only 6 kids, that's over 10% of the high school, so I feel like we're doing well. :)

When I'm not working at/on school, I'm currently our ward's primary president. It's a big job and I often feel like the worst Primary President in history. I just have so many demands on my time that I don't get phone calls returned as quickly as I should, etc. I'll get better with time, and lots of forgiveness. Lucky for me, I have AMAZING counselors and teachers who make up for my weakness.

In addition, I also volunteer with a group called People to People which travels with youth around the world as student ambassadors. It's a once a month commitment as we prepare the delegation to know how to be "ambassadors" rather than just "tourists." I also have to send emails, answer questions, etc. It's hard but totally worth it. This year, I get to travel with high school students to all four countries of the United Kingdom in June. The best part is that I get to travel for free :) I don't plan to be able to travel every summer, but it's definitely a perk.

I still live in my little condo (over 3 years now - the longest I've lived in any one house since I was 15!), and am still single. I'm kind of tired of being single (understatement), but haven't really had much success in meeting new men. I'm working on it, though, and having faith that God will help me. If any of you know anyone...

I'll update more later - with pictures and everything. I just wanted to get this blanket update out and see how well I do at reaching those "long, lost friends."