WANTED...

Someone for a Saint. My friend Ashley is a saint! Yes she teaches Junior High and if that isn't Sainthood enough for you she told me this story that surly makes her a Saint. There is a homeless man that can always be found on University Avenue. Anyone who lives in Provo probably knows who I am talking about. Well on Friday Ashley and I were driving home from work and as we drove past the man, Ashley says "Hi Dennis." I asked if that was just a made up name for him. She said "no... that is his name." Apparently a couple of years ago Ashley took presents to Mr. Dennis on Christmas Day and had a good heart to heart. Then during the summer she heard on the news that a homeless man died in the canyon and she was so worried that it was Dennis that she had her brother drive her up and down University Avenue until they found Dennis. They even checked in his hut. A man that she had one conversation with! Yes Ashley is a saint and if you have a sibling, friend, cousin that is looking for a saint, just let me know :) She is very cute and an Amazing Teacher. Here is just a little shout out to Miss Belnap.

Misinterpreted

So sometimes when I am teaching, things don't always come out the way they are supposed to. And then my students make pins of things I say and they are taken way out of context... Crazy 8th Graders!

Allen's Shout-out

Since Cameo has been keeping this up a lot better than I have, I feel the need to give a little shout out to myself...

It's actually more like an update. But I'll include Cameo as well with a couple recent activities...

First, I recently started an internship. It's basically supervising noncustodial parents on visits with their kids. It's paid and it's perfect for my future plans for graduate school. I'll have to change jobs at the MTC due to the internship (I'm going to become a tutor next semester) but I'm so grateful that I get to stay at least. After I had my interview and got hired, I felt overwhelming grateful and here's what I wrote in my journal that day as I received yet another blessing.

"As I look back on the past few years of my life (which has included some major decisions and events), I realize how much the Lord has guided my life and blessed me so much more than I ever would deserve or think to deserve. So many things have seemed to just fall into place without much effort of my own. I recognize that my life is truly in the hands of the Lord (see Mormon 5:23). The Lord is so good to me."

Although every day hasn't been "easy" per se, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Cameo and I have been blessed far beyond anything I could have ever imagined. We continue to enjoy each day, to be more and more in love every day and look forward to the rest of our lives together...the hills and the valleys and all.

I recently competed in DanceSport (the Ballroom Dance Competition) again in the Rumba. I had a great time as always. Unfortunately, no pictures this time...

Cameo threw me a surprise birthday party a couple of days before my birthday. We went to a BYU volleyball game and randomly Cameo HAD to come home to do her seating charts. Luckily, I was submissive to her seemingly ridiculous urgency and came home to some great friends and a good time. My wife is the best.

We recently had our Ward Christmas Party. Good food, good music, and good company = a great party

Here's a picture with our Bishop and a good friend Jon.

Here is our little Christmas tree that we borrowed.

Most recently, we attended the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and walked around afterwards to admire the beautiful lights on Temple Square. We went with our fabulous friends the Mannings. Afterwards we drank hot chocolate. It was a great evening.

Check below for updates on my ultimate frisbee championship and thanksgiving. Don't forget to watch our music video if you haven't done that as well (it's below)!

We're excited to see our families in a couple of weeks!!

Cameo Christmas Wish List

This is pretty good...

So this makes it pretty easy for me eh?!

It all began at Thanksgiving

Two years ago around Thanksgiving is where the Sabey Story begins. I went to Arizona to spend the holiday with my Sister and her family and my brother and his family.

These are some pictures from that Thanksgiving in Tucson. Don't I have the cutest nieces and nephews?
Since I was going down in Tucson, Peter really wanted me to go on a date with his brother-in-law. I kept saying no... but then I decided it would be okay. So Peter set up the date for the Friday after Thanksgiving. Collin and I had a great date, but right after the date Peter and Kristen took me back to Phoenix so I could catch my ride back to Provo. So I went back to Provo to finish my student teaching. The two weeks after Thanksgiving were especially rough. I didn't know what I was going to do once I graduated (even though I had mission papers in... well kind of... they were lost in the mail somewhere). BYU started saying that I wasn't going to be able to graduate. I had this huge project that was due for me to complete my Student Teaching. So two years ago today (December 3) at about 9:00 at night, I was sitting in Orem Junior working and crying because I didn't know what I was going to do. So I decided to check my email and facebook. And there was a little surprise that cheered me up. There was this boy that added me as a friend. I thought to myself, "Who the heck is Allen Sabey?" He had a really cute picture and then he sent this message "Hey... I am Collin Thompson's best friend, who is Kristen's brother, who married your brother... Get it?" Sure so I replied, "Yes... so that makes us best friends." And that is how it all began. A little shameful I know. So apparently after I left Tucson, Allen called Collin and Collin told him that he should look me up since we both lived in Provo. So we flirted it up some messages for a while and those weeks when I was in limbo suddenly didn't seem so bad. Then I decided to be bold. I wanted to talk to him in person because his picture was really cute :) So asked him if he was going to be in Tucson for Christmas because if he was we should do something since my family was going to be there for Christmas. And his reply was perfect... "Well why wait till then." So we went on our first date on Saturday, December 9th. Then next day my Bishop told me that my papers were found and ready to be turned into the Stake President. So I set up my appointment the following Sunday. Well, that week was a special week. It was my last week of Student Teaching, BYU called to apologize to me for telling me that I couldn't graduate, and Allen and I started dating. So by the time I had my appointment with the Stake President I told him I was dating someone. The President Childs got this big smile and started clapping his hands. He said he was going to hold onto my papers as long as he needed to and I should date Allen and then let him know one way or another. Six Months later I let him know which way we were taking. And there you have it... it all began at Thanksgiving. So I thought I would give a couple shout out Thank Yous.

Thank you Mom and Dad for letting me go to Arizona even when I was broke after having no income during student teaching.

Thank you Laurel for living in "the wilderness" for forty years so I could come visit you for Thanksgiving and so you could set up Peter and Kristen.

Thank you Kristen for marrying Peter.

Thank you Peter for insisting that I go on a date with Collin.

Thank you Collin for going on a date with me and then setting Allen and I up... kind of :)

Thank you Allen for listening to Collin and for looking me up on facebook even though I still am a little ashamed. :)

So because thanksgiving is a special time for us... here are a couple pictures from our Thanksgiving this year. Since we couldn't go to Arizona or Oregon for Thanksgiving, our friends the Nelsons invited us to go with them to their family Thanksgiving in Midway. It was perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving. Thanks Guys!

The Thanksgiving Ultimate Frisbee Game.

Our Grateful Hand Turkeys. Mine is a lot smaller than Allen's.

This is the Fall Decoration that I made. I think it is really cute!The Happy Couple Two years later!

A Good Treat

If you want a good treat... then make some cookie dough that doesn't cook in well, but still tastes really good. Roll the dough into balls like so... and mix it into ice cream. Homemade cookie dough ice cream. Allen had fun rolling the dough.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Allen. Allen turned 24 last Sunday on November 23. I decided that we needed to have a week of Partying. The Sunday before his birthday I was too excited about his present that I couldn't wait to give them to him. I thought he could use them for his intramural championship game. So a week before he got his new cleats. He has been taping up his older cleats for a couple months now. Then on Thursday my friend Kendra and I threw our husbands a joint birthday party. Allen and I were at a volleyball game and I was sure it would only go 3 matches. But when it was going a fourth match and it was 8:30, the time we were supposed to leave to head back the apartment I decided I needed to think of an excuse. The only thing I could think of was that I needed to do my seating charts. I told Allen I forgot about my seating charts and I had to to them right then. He was a little puzzled, but being the great husband that he is, he agreed. He was truly surprised when he got home. He had a good time visiting with his friends. Thank you everyone who was able to make it. BRYNN EVEN CAME FOR ALLEN'S BIRTHDAY! Okay... Brynn just came for a visit and it was FABULOUS! I love you Brynn.

Allen actually spent most of his Birthday at the church on Sunday. But we had a nice evening together and he even got eggnog (something I am not fond of) for his birthday. This is Allen showing us his face his face (Burnett Tradition)

I have seen this on some other blogs... so for Allen's 24th Birthday... here are 24 things you may or may not know about Allen.

1. He can hackysack really well... well at least he says he can.

2. He LOVES Frisbee and he is really good at it too

3. He can make really good burritos and BLTs

4. He is a really good dancer. My student's think it is weird, but I think it is awesome

5. Allen is a ladies man... okay he is really a 2 year old's man. There are two little girls in our ward that just love Allen. Abbie will talk to Allen on the phone multiple times a day and she yells out his name in the quad and waves to him at church while he is up on the stand. Our car is Allen's car and our house is Allen's house. The other little girl loves Allen too. When ever Clara sees me, she won't say hi... she will just point and say "Alln" Alln... And she isn't satisfied to she sees Allen.

6. Allen is not a procrastinator. He has never stayed up later than 11:00 working on an assignment for school. He even turns in assignments weeks early.

7. Allen was just recently invited into one of BYU's honor Societies.

8. He teaches Norwegian at the MTC

9. He was a bagger at a grocery store for his first job so he is really particular where we place the groceries when we check out at the store.

10. He can't fall asleep in movies... even if he is really tired... except for "The Kind and I"

11. Whenever he goes to see a movie at the theater, he will stay until all the credits have rolled by.

12. He is really good at playing croquet

13. He is very complimentary.

14. He loves church talks. He usually listens to a talk by a general authority a couple of times a week.

15. When he was in the MTC his nick name was "Sabey Speed"

16. He can eat a lot... a whole lot! I don't know how he is so skinny with how much he eats.

17. He is an excellent writer.

18. He is so kind and thoughtful.

19. He is competitive, but he doesn't get upset or down when he loses (I love that about him!)

20. He can only whistle through his teeth.

21. His favorite cake is strawberry cake (the cake we ate on his birthday)

22. He loves the gospel of Jesus Christ

23. He is a great example to me.... someday I hope to be as good as Allen Sabey.

24. He is the perfect husband for me! I LOVE ALLEN SABEY!

SMASH

SMASH... the name of the Division 1 intramural ultimate Frisbee champions. Allen started playing serious ultimate Frisbee a year a half ago and ever since he has been addicted. It is okay because he is really good. He got invited to play on smash last year. They had a great season, but they took second place in the tournament. This year they came back determined to win it all. And they did it. Congratulations to Smash!Smash giving one last team cheer!

Smash wearing their championship t-shirts

Smash wearing their original season t-shirts!
Congratulations guys! You all played Great!

I spend my days at OJHS...

My second home is Orem Junior High. Here are a couple updates from OJHS

1. Be very very afraid of the slave ship simulation. I wanted to do something memorable for my students when we talked about the triangular trade route and the middle passage. My co-worker and I came up with a plan to bring in someone to who spoke a different language and yell at the students and order them around and make them lay on the ground as if they were slave ship. Once they were on the ground I read to them slave narratives. They then had to create their own slave narrative. My slave drivers were Matthew Peterson who spoke Tagalog. Matt Earl who spoke Norwegian and Allen came in for one period. Allen tried to be mean, but he doesn't really have a mean bone in his body. They all did great, but I was only able to film Matt Earl and he really got into it wearing his leather pants. Take a look... would you be scared?

2. A student at our school has brain tumors. They held a race for her so she could have a "make a wish" experience. She gets to go to Disney World with her family in February. Although we don't get to go to Disney World, we had a great time running for her (even though I am really out of shape and I blame OJHS for getting me out of shape)Isn't Ashley the cutest teacher you have ever seen?

Down below are the amazing teachers at OJHS that came out for the event

3. LASTLY... WWCD... A couple of my students created these buttons that look like this...

It stands for What Would Cameo Do? Although there are students that don't like me, I look at the button they gave me and remember there are some students that do like me.

The long Awaited Music Video

On our very first post on our blog we said we were making a music video. That was back in February. We started this little activity back in Februrary for our Valentine's date. And because we got a little bit busy... and we forgot about... we didn't finish it till a couple of weeks ago. It is really cheesy and random, but we had a lot of fun making it. I hope you enjoy it. (It is a little bit long... sorry)

Funny 8th Graders

I have the opportunity to teach the gifted and talented students at my school. Now sometimes they talk TOO much, but I still love them. They love to learn and they love get me off topic. One day a couple of weeks ago I finally got them to stop talking and I was able to start teaching. Just as we were about to begin the planned activity, a student from the room next door came in and said that the substitute next door needed my help. With any other class I wouldn't have gone. The other classes would have destroyed the clasroom. But with my gifted class... when I came back after 5 minutes of being with the sub, this is what I came back to. They are funny!

A SPECIAL THANKS!

Last week was a really rough week for me. For some reason I let school get to me. I just wanted to send out a thank you to all those who have helped me last week.

Thank you to my dear friend MINDY who just had a baby. She is a busy young mother and she asked me what she could do to help me. She invited me over so she could help me grade papers. I find a lot of times people offer to help, but it is hard to tell if they are sincere. With Mindy, she is one of the most genuine kind people I know. Thanks Mindy!

Thank you to my friends CJ and Eric who followed the prophets advice of helping someone feel better when I had a rough day at school and took me to see high school musical 3

Thank you to my co-workers (Allison, Ashley, Kathe, and Camille). They watch out for me and they help me when I decide I need to take a "mental health day." This is us on Halloween. It is a little blurry but you can see I work with great people.

My brother-in-law Nate and my sister Julee who know what the life of a teacher is like and tell me that I can teach when I feel that I can't.

The junior high students that danced at the Junior high dance. It totally changed my life... Oh to be that awkward again!

But MOSTLY... I want to Thank my AMAZING husband Allen! (Isn't he handsome? This is my favorite picture of him.) He is so patient with me when I get stressed with teaching. He is always so kind and thoughtful. Last week when I was feeling overwhelmed and a little bit down, I came home to this beautiful boquet of flowers. He then stayed up with me when I was busy grading papers and working on a final project for a class. Thank you Allen for taking such good care of me. I am so blessed.

High School Musical

Three years ago my dear friends, Laura Krebs and Brynn Burke and I skipped ward prayer so we could watch the premier show of High School Musical. We were slightly embarrassed that we were seniors in college watching high school musical. Now we openly show our love for all high school musical movies.

Last night my other dear friends CJ and Eric Carter took me to the opening day showing of HSM 3 since Allen was out of town. All I can say is I was not disappointed! I highly encourage everyone to go see High School Musical 3 which is now in Theaters. It's FABULOUS!

Good Times at Junior High

So yesterday I had an interesting day at Orem Jr filled with many lows and many highs. But even though Jr high students can sometimes be mean to each other and to their teachers, they do say some pretty darn funny things. In my fourth period class, we talked about the presidential elections almost the entire period. Throughout the entire discussion these were some of the highlights of the funny things that 8th graders can say.

After a student shared his dad's point of view on Obama someone asked, "Is your dad a conspiracy theorist?"

"Plus McCain is HOT!!!!!"

"I think Obama is like Hitler."

"Both of these candidates came out of no where!"
"What are you talking about? They both came from mothers."

And my personal favorite... "I don't like Obama because everything he is going to do is going to raise taxes for rich people and well... we are like rich!"

Fall Time!

We had an enjoyable Sunday afternoon in Provo Canyon. The pictures speak for themselves on this one...

Marty

Monday night for Family Home Evening Activity we decided to carve a pumpkin. We had a great time. This is the end result... Marty the Pumpkin!

Our friends the Shannons created "Mr. Wiggles." Look at them... so happy together! Too bad we found out we can't have candles anymore :(

The Tattletale: Hero or Villain?

On Wednesday I had a meeting at the district office. Meetings are always a little nice because I don't have to pay for a substitute and I am not exhausted by the end of the day. Although I am always little worried about what is going to happen when a substitute is in my classroom. Are my students going to be great or disrespectful? Well it wasn't the worse sub report I ever received so I came to school rejuvenated on Thursday. As I walked to my classroom a student came up to me and said she needed to talk to me. She said that she felt like a tattletale, but wanted to tell me. Yesterday on the bus a student of mine came onto the bus holding my tootsie roll jar boasting that he had taken my tootsie roll jar but then was worried about getting caught and then threw it out the window. This was a student I knew was mischievous, but I never expected something like this! I reported this to the administration and to the counselors. The situation was taken care of. I actually felt a little bad for this student... just a little. I went to go talk to him in the principals office and we talked about poor decisions and how he hurt me and I lost trust. I felt that he really did feel bad about what he had done... especially when I saw tears streaming down his cheeks. The counselors and the administration came up with appropriate consequences and this morning I received a beautiful new jar filled with tootsie rolls from this lovely student. He still has to earn his trust back, but I feel he learned an important lesson (especially when his mother sobbed about what he had done.) Well the point of this post... The cute girl that had explained the situation. I talked to her this morning and thanked her for doing what she had done. She said she is glad she told me, but she said that she is now ostracized on the bus. "Everyone hates me," was what she had said. Why is a tattletale so negative? Why is doing the right thing bad? Is she the hero of the story or the villain?
Oh good times at Junior High!!!! Go OJHS!

Conference Weekend

There is always a little bit of a happy skip in my walk on Fridays, but especially this last Friday because it was the Friday to my favorite weekend of the year... well it is tied for first with another weekend in April. Conference is the most uplifting, relaxing weekend of the year! Allen's best friend Dave and his girlfriend Derrelyn came up for conference. We had tickets to the Saturday morning session and then stayed up at temple square for the second session. We then spent Sunday at our home just the two of us! Here are just a few reasons I love conference weekend.

#1 We get to walk around in Salt Lake City with thousands of other people dressed in their Sunday best... even on a Saturday and even in the rain. And everyone is smiling!

#2 Even though seats may be 3rd from the last row in the nosebleeds section, it is still amazing to be in the presence of the Prophet and Apostles.
#3 Conference is a perfect place to play match not a match. This is one of my dad's favorite games. We look at couples and based on appearance we decide if they are a match. So what do you think.... Dave and Derrelyn... match not a match?
#4 We got to eat at Dave's favorite Utah restaurants since he resides in Arizona. We highly recommend the Urban Cowboy from Gandolfos.

#5 We get to take cheesy pictures on Temple Square and pretend we are engaged again! Look... we even match with our red and black!
#6 Our friends from far distant lands come to visit! Collin and Chenelle came to visit as well (but no pictures) and it was great to see them and celebrate with them their exciting news!
#7 We get to eat dinner from a cart! Another of Dave's favorites. Looks at little sketchy, but it tastes so good

#8 Our friends that just got married came back to the face of the earth (at least for conference weekend) so we got to see them. I am pretty sure that they are perfect for each other.

#9 Eating and hanging out in the rain!

#10 Sleeping! Sunday was amazing! We slept in till 9:30, took a nap between sessions, and after the sessions, and then had trouble falling asleep Sunday night because we had slept so much.

#11 Cooking delightful delicacies!

#12 But most of all, it is such a spiritual and uplifting experience. We couldn't have asked for a better conference. Some of our favorite talks were Elder Holland's and Elder Hales. Allen and I discussed how a theme of the conference was finding joy in difficult times and trials. We are truly blessed. We have been given so much and we know that our Heavenly Father loves us! We feel privileged to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church that hast the fullness of the Gospel. After conference we feel encouraged and uplifted to go forward with the work and to find joy in everything that we do!