Another Book of Mormon Study Guide

I'm pretty much the 14 to 15 year-old teacher right now.  They've put the regular teacher into a different "special" class to teach.  The last three weeks have been an interesting time teaching them so far.  The second time I taught them I didn't even know I was doing it, so I had to wing it.  They were about as energized as the first time I taught them.  There was one kid there that wasn't there the first time and he at least had a little energy and answered some of my questions.  Then the third week on;y two kids showed up!  My lesson plan was to split them up in little groups and have them present to the rest of the class.  That wouldn't work with two, so I had to totally convert it into a normal lesson at the last second.  Then yesterday I decide I would do another Study Guide.  It worked a little better than the first time.  I had two kids that weren't there for the first one that talk a little.  Yea! I was able to get those two to answer some of my boring questions.  I figured I would share the next study guide with you all.  I did recycle the Ezra Taft Benson picture.  I was a little lazy and didn't want to draw everything new or write it out.  The type version is much either to read in my opinion.  I might make one more of these before the regular teacher comes back, or I might not.  Who knows.

thanksgiving 2012

Yesterday was Thanksgiving!  What a great holiday, you get to eat food, watch movies, and sometimes go buy cheap stuff at stores.  This was our first Thanksgiving alone.  Three years of marriage and we have always gone to family to celebrate this holiday.  We love going to see our family, but with me having to work at midnight there was no way to enjoy the holiday with family.  Our thanksgiving was pretty awesome and eventful.  We made a chicken instead of a turkey.  Turkey are just way to big for the two of us, plus we both love this chicken that Allison makes.  Best chicken I've ever had.  We also had some stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, and green beans.  Allison made an excellent dinner, plus it only took about an hour to make.  Most of that was the chicken cooking.  One thing about the chicken is it's so juicy that the juices spill and smoke up the house, causing the smoke detector to go off.  It was worth though.

The main excitement came about twenty minutes before dinner was ready.  Allison heard this weird noise.  At first we thought it was just the chicken crackling in the oven.  Oh that is a beautiful noise.  It was though.  The sound got loader the closer to our bedroom we got.  The noise was water pouring out of our ceiling in our bathroom!  We quickly got buckets to catch the water and towels to wipe up the water.  We called our maintenance guy and had him come look at it.  By the time he got here it had stopped.  He went upstairs to see if everything was alright up there.  Things upstairs were okay except for one little thing.  The new person who moved in didn't own a shower curtain.  They had laid towels all along the floor and took a shower.  Not the smartest move in the book.  Luckily it wasn't a big problem, just human error.  We went on and had our dinner and hopefully our upstairs neighbor will get a shower curtain, because I can't have water pouring out of my ceiling ever day.  I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving.  Lots of love from the Indiana McLeans.

fourteen year-olds

Today I had to teach Sunday School for the 14 year-olds at church.  It wasn't as bad as teaching the adult gospel doctrine classes.  I didn't feel like they were judging my teaching skills, but I totally taught a cooler lesson for the 14 year-olds.  I made this cool little booklet to go along with my lesson.  I thought it would be really cool, but I'm not sure anymore.  Look at this, I've never received a pamphlet at church to go along with the lesson.

It has to be cool. When I'm talking about searching the scriptures I have Sherlock Holmes searching for clues!  If Sherlock Holmes isn't awesome, I just don't know what is.  Benedict Cumberbatch is the coolest guy around and he's Sherlock Holmes.  I guess my British love of Sherlock was lost of them.  Still the pamphlet is cool.  The back has a picture of the Angel Moroni.  Maybe I'm to much of a nerd and this stuff is lame.  I can't tell because I'm to close to the situation.

So the 14 year-olds were not excited at all during the lesson.  I'm not sure if they were bored either.  The lesson went super fast for me.  I didn't get very far through the part I planned to present which left a whole section off.  I really tried to get them involved int he lesson but my questions and stories didn't seem that engaging to them.  I must be getting old.  I can't relate to kids these days.

three years

On a overcloud day with a little crisp to the air, much like it is right now I made the best choice I could ever make.  The sky threaten of showers, a little rain fell.  The leaves were changing from their hues of green to brilliant reds and oranges.  I dressed in a black suit.  Allison dressed in flowing white dress.  This day meant only one thing to us.  I've made very few good decisions, but today three years ago I made the best decision of my life.  Happy Anniversary Allison!

catching up in Kalamazoo

Life has been a little slow out here in South Bend the past couple of months.  Allison has been working a bit and weekends have been included in those work weeks.  Luckily a couple Saturdays ago Allison didn't have to work and we planned a little get away to Kalamazoo.  A sweet little city in Michigan.  There we went to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.  It was chemistry day so tons of kids were there doing fun little experiments.  Allison and I decide to focus on being news anchors and weathermen.  I'm pretty sure this museum was for kids after attending it, but it was fun.  We also hit the Kalamazoo Institute of Art.  It was small fine arts museum attached to an art school.  It was a fun little weekend.

chicago

We went to Chicago early this month.  Hope you like the pictures.

potato creek state park

Allison had yesterday off. Instead of wasting the day trying to figure out what to do, we decide to go down to Potato Creek State Park and have a picnic. It was a lot of fun. We started with a good hike int he woods. We found a box turtle on the trail just hanging out. Bird watching at the nature center, then a picnic. Plus we stopped by the beach to see how it. It was a pretty awesome day.  Plus since it was Thursday instead of the holiday weekend, no one was really there!  We saw maybe three or four people the entire time.  It felt like the park was all ours.