Gila Valley Arizona Temple

Well here it is! I was in Spain at the time I found out there was going to be a new temple in my hometown for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I was shocked! The Gila Valley (Thatcher, Safford, Pima) is such a small community but we are ready for it! For those of you who know the area, the temple will be built where the ball fields currently are. At first I felt bad for the ball fields, but they don't even compare! The South fields will stay there however. Work begins in January to begin building it. I'm so excited!

First SNOW!!

Today it snowed! And it was freezing too. I didn't get around to taking any pictures, so sorry. I'll take some soon. My car was entirely covered in snow this morning though. This is the first time that I actually don't have to walk to school in the snow - that's the worst. So I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a bit disappointed on my way home from work to see that most of it had melted....

So to celebrate this fine day I had pancakes for dinner, broke out the Christmas music and listened while enjoying the warmth from my space heater, and last but not least watched Elf with my roomies, which I must say is like my favorite movie ever! Couldn't get any better....

Coach Anderson

Yep, that's me! Last week I started coaching the girls basketball team for our high school. I've never coached before, but it's something I've always wanted to do so I'm super excited. We already have games in a couple of weeks. There's a few challenges that I need to overcome - these girls have no fundamentals, only a few have played competitively, there's not enough balls for every girl, and we only have practice 2-3 times a week. That's the downside to working for a brand new up and going charter school I guess. I'm looking forward to a great season and I'll keep you updated from time to time. I love it so far! If you have coached before and/or have any suggestions, please let me know!

School or Work?

So most of you know that I teach High School Spanish. Well.....when I refer to my job, I never know if I should refer to it as "work" or "school." Essentially it's both because I work at school. Maybe that's just what I should say from now on - "So, today at work at school......." No, definitely too confusing! Mostly I just call it school since I have my own homework to do too - preparing lessons and grading papers. It's a ton of work though! Ok, so mostly I haven't made any progress with this post........hahaha! Any thoughts?

Halloween

This was my costume for Halloween this year. I can't really say exactly what I was, but I had fun with this dress. I was looking through Lisi's costume stuff trying to find stuff to be a pirate, but when I found this I just knew I had to wear it. And of course it's not complete without the moon boots!

I wasn't going to dress up for school either because only the teachers could and students weren't allowed. But I went to school like this and everyone loved it! Most of the other teachers dressed up too, so I didn't feel quite so conspicuous.

On Halloween night a huge group of us all dressed up and went out to eat - so fun! Then Lisi had a party at her house. I'm sad Halloween is already over.....

So here's a good story for you -
When I was about 14 or so my friends and I all went trick-or-treating. So we got to this one house and I go up and knock on the door. As I say trick-or-treat, the lady tells me I'm too old and refuses to give me candy. Well, what can you do? Then my friend who is barely over 5 feet tall comes up after me and says trick-or-treat. The lady goes right ahead and drops a few pieces of candy in her bag! This upset me because we were the exact same age, but since I was tall I didn't get candy but she did since she was short. Not fair! It makes for a funny story, but needless to say that was my last year to go trick-or-treating.....