Last Full Month of Summer & First Month of School

Just a few reflections of a few events over the last bit:
So August 29th marked the beginning of my eighth year of teaching.  How crazy is that?!  Eight years.  Wow!  I began with 26 students on my roster with 1 never showing up, 1 moving shortly after beginning the school year, and 3 being moved to a 7th 3rd class that was creates.  So I now have only 21 students in my class.  That's almost unheard of having a class that size nowadays.  I'm very grateful for that.  There is so many changes and additional requirements that are overwhelming me.  So a small class is a great blessing.  I have spent my nights and weekends trying to get caught up.  I hope to be caught up by the end of the week so that my weekends are all mine again...hopefully, in time for General Conference.  :)
I'm so blessed to have some really great friends and have had an opportunity to get together with a few of them over the course of the month to force me to take a break from work: Lacy & Kim's birthday bash, Jamie's soup potluck, and Jen's Pampered Chef party.
For those of you, I was given the best most in the whole entire work.  At the beginning of the month, we were able to see Hunkcules at Desert Star theater playhouse which was fun.  Then, we went out to dinner at Olive Garden last night before going to the Conference center for the Relief Society meeting which was absolutely amazing!!!
As we all know, September 11 marked 10 years.  It's hard to believe it's been that long.  We have what is called a healing field in front of Sandy City hall where a flag is displayed for each person who died that day.  It's an incredible sight.

This year a statue replica of the firefighters who put up the flag at ground zero was added.  It's was also an amazing sight to behold.

September 12 marked two years since I took my endowments out at the Salt Lake temple.  My life's circumstances were so different back then.
Last weekend, Saturday, September 17, we went to the Utah State Fair-my first being that I can actually remember.  It was fun to be there in that atmosphere and made me miss Germany and the markets there.  The kids really seemed to enjoy it.

 

This is a huge pumpkin (871 pounds) at the state fair...oh and Josiah, Jody, and Julia.  :)

So now as far as my health goes, it's still a mystery as to why I can't lose weight and why I'm so tired in the morning after getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep.  So I get to see if I have Celiac which I really hope not!!!  If it comes back negative, then I'll have an ecogram to see if I have a hole in my heart.  Then, if that's negative I'll get to pay for an expensive sleep test.  It's pretty crazy.