Family Photos

This past week was busy for Jake and I; no surprise there. Jake spent long hours working and doing homework for his online classes, and I was busy with my own school-related duties. We've made sure to spend as much time together as possible, and with Zoe of course!

Monday I had my first day of mandatory volunteer hours (which is an oxymoron, really) at the junior high school here in Rexburg. In Idaho, it seems that the "types" of schools they have are: elementary (kindergarten-4th grade), middle (5th-7th grade), junior (8th and 9th grade), and high school (10th-12th grade). Which is very confusing for a Californian, since back home middle and junior high are the same exact thing. I managed to find my way to the junior high (since it wasn't where I was last semester, when I worked at the middle school) and had my first experience with tutoring a special needs student. Legally the school can't tell us what "special need(s)" the student has been diagnosed with, but it became clear to me after not even five minutes in the classroom that the student I was working with had severe ADHD, and possibly some other social issues. It was very difficult to get him to focus for longer than 2-3 minutes at a time, so I found that I had to be a lot more strict than I would have liked--constantly calling his attention back to his work, asking him the same question multiple times etc. The experience definitely taught me to strengthen my patience skills!

Wednesday my friend Becca came over and we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We've been getting together every week to watch a Harry Potter movie, since they're appropriate for all the holidays coming up: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. So it's the perfect excuse to watch them!

Sunday was such a great day for Jake, Zoe and I. Jake and I went to church in the morning (which Zoe was NOT happy about, since she has to be left alone for three whole hours) and then spent the afternoon relaxing together. That evening, our friend Janae came over and took family photos for us! When I woke up Sunday morning I was worried about doing the photos, since it was clear that it had rained Saturday night and it looked like we'd probably get some more rain throughout the day and evening. But everything ended up working out well--the cloud covering provided some great lighting for photos!