From the Girl who has been MIA for Forever...

Dearest most Darling Friends and Family that I have so sorely neglected for way too long...

Wow… so much has happened in what seems like the blink of an eye. After I got back from Vienna, we had a wonderful Ebeling family reunion. It was a little different this year without Rachel, but it was really good to get to spend some quality time with all of my cousins, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, enjoying a talent show and a fireside, and watching the cousin play Peter Pan for the first time (every other time I’ve been quite involved in the grand scheme and therefore unable to watch the production myself).

School has been a veritable whirlwind of everything. I love having Laura and Cara here with me, even though I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like. Classes are challenging, fascinating and draining all at once. My German 201 class jumped from 20 students to 30, and it has been a huge demand on my time and creative resources. I just feel like a sponge that has been wrung out too many times as I try to come up with new lesson plans, activities, unit plans etc. I’m taking a drama theory class for German that I absolutely love… we’re discussing the relationship between religion’s role in the development of drama by examining lots of famous German plays that I should be very familiar with already, that I haven’t gotten around to yet. My 284 ballroom dance technique class is trickier than I thought, but I love being able to concentrate on standard the entire time (my Cuban action for any of the Latin dances is sorely lacking). My mission preparation class is nice because it’s easy. French 201, well, the only thing that makes it hard is the fact that it’s something I have to fit into my schedule every day. Practicing vocab is also just really time consuming, but it’s really fun to practice with my friend Felicia after class… such a good excuse to just talk about the important things in life.

So, then I’m taking a German pedagogy class that meets almost every day. I was not very happy about it, since I had already been teaching just fine without it, but I’m beginning to see the value of it in more than one way. It’s been really helpful when it comes to planning different listening, reading and speaking activities. More importantly, however, a young man in that class asked me on a date… on several dates… and it has been awesome. We saw World of Dance together, went to a movie in the dollar theater, saw a choir concert, had a picnic at Provo River trail, climbed trees, waded through a river, went to the social dance club where I gave some intense dancing lessons and he was a pal for taking them, rolled down a hill, ran through the sprinklers, went to a football game, sang at an old-folks home and then again in the basement of the HFAC, watched conference in Salt Lake, made waffles, crepes and chocolate chip cookies… well… you get the picture J. His name is Ben. He’s amazing! More on this later.

Oh yeah – another really important development in my life that I forgot to mention. I have been called to serve as the second counselor in the Relief Society in the ward. It has been an amazing experience so far. Our presidency is a solid group of incredible women, and I’m learning like I’ve never learned before. The ward is really solid this year, with so many people from diverse backgrounds with something to contribute to the community. It’s beautiful.

And on that happy note… life is beautiful… full… but lovely.

Love and miss you all!!

Margaret