Mental and physical exhaustion, Car troubles, a week later in choir, chili for Halloween 2023

I have felt mentally and physically exhausted today. But as I have talked to Sarah and have allowed God to come into my life by remembering the contributions I have made to my family, I have felt a lot better. I've also decided to have Handel's Messiah playing the background while I am at work here at Amazon. I have been feeling guilty because I want to be done with Amazon, but thinking that I don't have any other job (besides maybe Uber) to fall back on. But I have contributed a lot to our family and will continue to work with pleasure for our family. These are the 12 contributions that I have made, plus a 13th that Sarah came up with:

 I'm finishing up my schooling with the intention of finding better work in the music field so that I can do what I love and earn the big bucks for our family. So I can be more qualified in my field.

2. I take care of Sarah by doing my best to listen to her concerns and feelings during this hard transitionary time in our life. I also support her in her business to best of my energy to work on it.

3. I bring a positive vibe and attitude to our family dynamic, especially in times of crisis.

4. I invite us to read scriptures on a nightly basis.

5. I invite us to read in general as a couple so that we have fun in our lives.

6. I play games with Sarah, like tickling and/or sudoku.

7. I invite us to have romantic experiences together.

8. I am strong in my faith and in my callings.

9. I love Sarah passionately.

10. I take care of Sarah when she is sick or weary.

11. I follow the spirit when seeking out answers to where we might live, or what we need to do in our lives.

12. I take time for myself, when needed.

13th that Sarah came up with: Additionally, your humility and desire to grow helps our family grow closer to God and one another.

So, I thought relating what has been going on this month would be a helpful thing to do, as well as a good entry to our blog: La Bella Jornada.

First of all, I have gone hard these past two weeks in the high school with Ms. Clausen. I've been to work before class starts every day, no later than 6:20am, sometimes even when I'm supposed to arrive at 6:15am. I've only been given free reign in two-ish classrooms of the five that she has. I have helped out in the other 3, but Cami has taken those (which makes my life easier, but kinda goes against what I'm supposed to be receiving in student teaching experience). I think it's because I haven't made it clear all the things I need from Cami in these weeks. But you know, after this next week up until Nov. 7th, I will be in her classroom. I hope to be able to make a difference in the next 7 days.

This past Thursday I really fell into my own as a teacher with her Forte group. I've been preparing to teach them White Winter Hymnal, and I had lots of time with them to do it on Thursday. They had briefly seen the song two days before, but I spent my time teaching it to them, and everything was just clicking. I brought the students down around the piano and that reenergized them to a point that they learned the whole song. It was quite exciting. I felt like I was doing everything right. And the students could feel it too. The next day was a bit of regression, as I did my best to help the baritones learn their one rhythmic part. But it's not going to mean that they won't learn it. I even did a warm-up that was great for learning the one rhythmic part.

I felt like I was in a folly yesterday, because I felt like I hadn't prepared enough to teach Triple Threat. But it was an okay experience, as mostly they were working on solfege-ing their song, and Cami helped me out with teaching them. I think I expect myself to have perfect experiences even though I am still learning and am an imperfect person. I have also felt that Cami's responsibility that she carries with her as a teacher of high school choir is just so great, and if I were to have to match that level of responsibility I would need a lot of help from God to get me through it. She has things that she is always doing for the choir, I am surprised that she has time for anything else. I also see that she has health struggles that she pushes aside so that she can run the choir to the best of her ability, like headaches or going to the bathroom after 3 or four hours of holding it (i know because that is what I have had to do and it sucks.) I don't want to put aside my needs.

Written a week later, November 4th, 2023:

It's been an interesting, but good week. First of all, last week I was feeling the residual rebelliousness about not wanting to work and feeling sad about work. So when Monday came, and our car did not work, maybe it was the perfect excuse not to go to work that day, but it was also a long day. I woke up early as normal and I was about to leave when the Corolla was acting up. Turns out (after taking it to Ray's Parrot Auto) that it needs changed spark plugs and changed cylinders. It wouldn't even rev up on the freeway, which made it a long drive to Parrot's, who has his shop in Central Mesa. I did get caught up in sleep that morning, and it felt so good. After dropping it off at Ray's, we decided to take the Tram to the Visitor's center. It was time for lunch so we ate at this burger restaurant across the street called Haven's Burgers. We saw some missionaries there (it was their p-day) and Sarah asked them what they would suggest to people that are going through hard things. They said, Read the Book of Mormon (particularly 3 Nephi 11). So we read a little bit of it at the restaurant. At the Mesa Temple Visitors Center we did our best to figure out what to do next. Aunt Ann wasn't able to pick us up, and neither could Emily Gipper.

We knew that we needed to rent a car, and there had been many miracles, like money from Jessica out of nowhere. We needed more money if we wanted to rent a car. We were wondering, though, if we could borrow a car from one of our friends and forgo rental costs. So we reached out to Bishop Norton, from our previous Summit Point Ward in Chandler. He ultimately said that he couldn't loan us a car, but that he was willing to give us money to rent a car, which was extremely nice of him as well. We decided that we were going to go to a car rental place, but we were limited in where we could go because we could only follow the route of the tram. We decided to head to the airport, and the airport tram, to go to the car rental section of the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.

We took the tram there, and it was a nice ride and honestly we were on an adventure at that point. We bumped into some people going to the Diamondbacks/Rangers first World Series game in Arizona (which the Diamondbacks ended losing the whole thing in 5 games). At the rental place, we stood in line for a Budget car, but ultimately, we felt it was way too expensive to blow all our money on that. We were also trying to decide whether we wanted a car for a week, or for a day and Sarah would be able to get a cheaper rental through Uber Getaround. But in the end, the prices were going to be the same. We got a panini and a phone charger at the local little shop, and tried to get a rental through priceline through Avis. But that didn't work out, because they needed the money to be on our Credit Card instead of our Debit Card, so I transferred the money to the Credit Card not knowing the 300ish dollars was going to take 1-3 business days to appear.

So we couldn't get a rental car there, and we decided that I would take an Uber in the morning to school and that together we wouuld drive to the bus stop first so Sarah could get things the next day. We drove all the way back on the tram and a bus to Superstition Springs Mall, and we asked both the Fergusons and the Farnsworths for a ride home. The Fergusons agreed and at 9:15pm that same day we were picked up from the mall and drove home and 20ish minutes later, we were home after getting McDonalds and talking to Brother Ferguson.

We did use Uber the next day, and Sarah's mom helped us with renting an uber car in Scottsdale. Now we're just working to save the money to get our car back, hopefully sometime next week, sooner rather than later. Surprisingly the fixes on our car only took one full day to go through. So with the help of Jessica and the Bishop, we put some money down, but we still have about $500 to earn for our car. That same day that Sarah got the Uber Rental, she reached out to President Stock about getting money for our rent and not having it because of our car troubles. They agreed to provide us with the rent, which is a huge blessing. Now we have to work really hard to get this all to work.

The next few days student teaching were a lot better. Cami had a procedure on Thursday because of her skin cancer, so I took the two class block day. That day was good, but then Cami was in a lot of pain (rightfully so) so she took off Friday as well. She said they bored a quarter inch into her nose to remove it. Luckily it happened in one go round instead of a few. So, I was in charge of the next day. Sarah helped me make plans (besides the plans that Cami had already sent) and I had a really good day with the students. The only troublesome portions of the day were the fact that it was so hard to play Here Comes Santa Claus on the piano to play parts for Dolce. The other one was that since it was Friday, the kids didn't have a lot of energy. In Chorale I gave them the last 10 minutes of class to veg because I could tell they were out of it. I had a good time getting to know the sub whose name was Joan. I had forgotten to bring a lunch so it was the first time that I bought lunch from the cafeteria. Sarah and I are going to the play "Suite Surrender" today at the High School where people like Austin and Abbi are in (although Abbi's aunt just died, so she's not going to be in it. We've been telling the classes all week that I will be leaving and that Tuesday is my last day in the High School. They've all been very kind and sad about that. Chorale is even going to throw me a party called the Mr. G Party where the foods they bring are snacks that start with the letter G, like Graham Crackers, Goldfish Crackers, Gingerbread, and other things. We decided against Grilled Cheese sandwiches because it cost a lot of money and also because cooking those for 40-50 people is extreme. I've made the biggest connection with Forte and Triple Threat.

Our Halloween was super good. I had signed up to bring Chili to the Ironwood Trunk or Treat. Sarah was pivotal in helping me make the Chili. And we had two secret ingredients that made the chili our unique spin on it. We used Aji Amarillo (the yellow Peruvian Pepper Paste) and we used Abuelita Hot Chocolate brick. It was so good. We were one of six chilis. We did not win top three but I believed it was because it was rigged because we had a vote and all the kids swarmed and voted for 1, and not with how they tasted. But in the end, Sarah and my chili was awarded the Most Unique Chili, and instead of 1st/2nd/3rd place award spoon, we got the spoon with the question mark at the end of the night by sister Ferguson, it was so nice. Sarah also was part of the Halloween Party committee and she was asked to make decorations. She made a lot of great decorations, including cup mummies, Kleenex ghosts, moons, Frankensteins, googly-eyed black spiders. We also were able to play an axe throwing game. After the party, Sarah had stored the chili in the fridge, and as she was taking it out when we were leaving, it slipped from her fingers and fell on the floor of the kitchen, still warm and all over her sandals and feet. It was so precious because Sister Higley stopped what she was doing and helped me throw away the chili on the floor, and then got a rag and tenderly washed my wife's feet. It made Sarah and me very emotional as were driving home, and continues to cement in our heart that we are in the right place as far as a home and ward.

We also went to the Summit Point Ward Halloween party on Halloween night, and saw many of our friends. They also had a huge Jurassic Park themed ride in the parking lot. It was actually really cool. We saw the Mows, the Klinglers, the Youngs, the Urias', the Shreeve's, the Norton's, Alison Fox, etc.