From Outer Darkness to Early Morning "Cemetery"

Nursery is my life calling. Seriously. I was nursery leader from the time I graduated high school (2003) to a few months prior to my marriage and move to CA (2007). The only reason I had a few months of a change was when my dad was called to be the Suday School president released me to teach the 12-14 year olds and took temple prep classes.

After a year in the UCLA ward, My husband and I were called as nursery leaders after a brief stint as a ward missionaries. Like I said before, nursery is my destiny and I was placed where I belong. I love nursery. Nursery-aged children are sweet and loveable and crazy fun. Despite the fact that we had anywhere from 12-19 little children, most of them boys (including 2 sets of twins), and that there were never enough nursery workers, I truly enjoyed my 8 months in the UCLA ward nursery. I have grown really fond of the children and will miss spending time with them and hearing their young testimonies (they love pointing out the Jesus on the wall).

Though nursery could be physically and mentally draining, the worst part about nursery was that it felt as though we were banished to "Outer Darkness". We hardly ever saw anyone else in the ward, other then the brief times in which they picked up or dropped off their children. This was compounded by the fact that we don't live in the University Village Student Family Housing like everyone else because we have 2 large dogs.

It's been hard because I feel like I haven't really gotten to make very many friends and we don't really hang out with people very much because we are "out of sight, out of mind". Which is why when Steven and I were recently asked to be early morning (yes, I said early morning) seminary teachers, I had a glimmer of hope that during our last year here, I would finally be able to feel like I belong.

Seminary has been great during this first week. We are teaching the New Testament and are hoping to bring our students closer to Christ. We have ~10 (one day we had 11) students in the class, more than half of which are children of bishops and/or the Stake President. Come to find out that 2 children are cousins of our friend Karyna Bouslog, and another one is the granddaughter of my dad's cousin, Garn Wallace.

We had a kick-off/bbq last Saturday in which we got to meet the parents and students. Since we only had about a week to prepare for the year, we spent last Saturday night cleaning out the Seminary closets to sort through the materials. We found many treasures, including a leg massager, several hawaiian shirts and "wife-beaters", 3-year-old handouts, and many books, including "Early Morning Cemetery". We put a lot in the trash, and saved even more for use during our seminary experience. The cupboard looks great!

The major adjustment has been to our time. Steven is busy with his last year of law school and preparing for the bar. For the last 5 years, I have run 5+ mornings a week. Because it isn't safe or realistic to run a 4 am, I asked my boss to change my 9-6 schedule to 8-5 so I would have extra time to run in the evenings. After running 70 miles this week and waking up at 5:15 every day, I was worn out by the weekend. Even so, we are glad to have the opportunity to serve the Lord and his little ones and to help us all become more like Him. Here's to an amazing year!