Hiking

On Thursday July 18th our homeschool hiking group decided to hike up Big Springs Hallow in Provo. I was already planning on taking the boys. Then, I realized that my cousin would have all five of his boys on that day. So, we coordinated with them and took them with us. It was more than a big crazy to have 7 boys to keep track of. 

The boys had a marvelous time though (when they weren't arguing and punching each other). They all got a turn to find a hiking stick. We also stopped frequently for snacks and water. Plus, we stopped to let them play in the water and find bugs and get dirty. On this particular hike you don't go very far before you reach a large meadow. I always stop there. The boys had a fun time playing hide-n-seek in the tall weeds. We did get a few scrapes and Peter got stung by a bee. But the pain was quickly forgotten because there was so much to see and do. 

Apricots!

On one of the local homeschool groups a mom posted about her parents needing help with their Apricot harvest. They wouldn't be able to harvest their trees this year and wondered if any local homeschool families would like to come and pick. As soon as I saw her post I was 100% in. My boys love picking things. This particular farm is at the base of West Mountain so we drove down to Payson this morning for an adventure. Funny thing - it took us longer for us to drive out there then it did to pick the fruit. I knew there loads of families coming so we took a small amount. It was such a fun thing to do and the kids loved it. I was ready to quit the city life and move to the country after our time there. I often feel that I'm doing my boys a disservice by raising them in the city. Plus, nothing can compare to the views out there. It was incredible.

The great A/C disaster of 2019

Yep, it happened. The one thing we have been dreading for a very long time. Our A/C decided it was time to stop working.

The crux of the problem was that cold air wasn't blowing out of the vents.  We had this happen a few days last year, but it eventually started working again. On Thursday morning around 10am I knew that something was really, really wrong. The temperature upstairs was 85 degrees. I could hear that the air conditioner was trying to turn on and work, but it just couldn't turn over and start. I watched a few YouTube videos online and thought that maybe if I cleaned the condenser coils that might help. Honestly, I've never gotten around to doing that even though I knew I should. Didn't work....shoot! Brandon and I seriously tried so hard to figure out what was wrong before we called anyone about it. We even went so far as to pull the top of the A/C unit off. We did figure that the fan blade part of the A/C wasn't moving. Ugh.

I called the company who had the sticker on the A/C in the garage. Sadly, they were booked out a week. At that point I thought I better try someone local that hopefully could get here sooner. Thankfully (very thankfully) they had an appointment for the next morning.

What they determined is that our condenser was not operating like it needed to. It had just given up the ghost and the tech couldn't give us an exact reason why. He said it maybe one of the welded seams failed, or it just decided it was time to die. So, we had a choice to make. Pay a lot of money for a replacement piece, or pay more than double that amount of money and get an entirely new system. Since our unit was 13 years old we decided to go with the latter. Another thing that made that the solution easier is that that the federal government is no longer allowing an R22 A/C unit to be manufactured. These types of units apparently increase green house gases into the ozone layer. The feds came out with a mandate that after the year 2020 manufactures wouldn't be allowed to even make replacement parts for it. So, in a way, that made our decision easier.

Brandon and I are glad we decided to upgrade. We could have just upgraded the A/C. However, without an upgraded furnace it wouldn't have done any good. Sadly, we had to survive through a weekend without the A/C. Fortunately, the A/C company lent us a portable cooler that made it tolerable to live until they came out today to install the new product. One other thing that was dumb about our A/C unit was that it was too close to the house. The contractor of this house must have been an idiot because he put the unit about 6 inches away from the house. As I have learned - no airflow means not as much cold air coming into the house.

See how close it is to the exterior of the house - Bad job on this install.

Here is the new unit in all of it's glory. It will take a bit more maintenance then we were doing on the other one. But it was stuff we were supposed to be doing anyway and didn't (carefully wash down the outside unit every couple of months). I hope it lasts a very, very, very, very long time.

We also got a new thermometer for the inside of the house. Plus.....the install guys discoverd that the gas valve on the old unit had snapped and was slowly leaking gas. YIKES! We could have died. They also discovered a tear in the ducting to the furnance and it was leaking out Carbon Dioxide. Again, we could have died. YIKES. Super glad that all is fixed and back to normal. Honestly, sleeping without all the windows open was a relief last night. The nighttime temperatures have been in the upper 80's until after midnight.

My new job - QKids

Big news from me!!! I was officially hired to be an English teacher for the company Qkids last week. I am now teaching English to darling Chinese students, and I love it so much. I've had a lot of anxious thoughts in regards to what I would do with myself once my boys start attending public school. A former employee of Brandon's started working for Qkids a year and a half ago. Occasionally she would post about how much fun she was having. She made a similar post recently and I thought that I had nothing to loose, so I applied.

The application process was a bit lengthy. First I had to fill out their application which included a video of me reading a children's book. I chose to read the book - Dear Zoo. Super cute book that I love. After submitting my application I had to wait for them to contact me for the next step. I applied on June 14th and I had heard back on Monday the 17th. They invited me to complete demo interviews with them.

These demo interviews were so nerve wracking. They gave me access to their teaching interface and I taught the class with a "coach" instead of kids. I spent hours and hours going through each part of the interface and verbalizing exactly what I would say and all the buttons I would push. They have cool buttons in the interface like: spotlight, highlight, text box, markers, and stickers.  Since all of it was new, I spent gobs of time making sure I could handle it all. I also watched as many YouTube videos that I could find so I could see how other teacher navigated their system. Those videos were so useful. After my first interview I was asked to continue on to complete a Demo #2 with a different coach. They were so great to work with and easy to talk too. Even though I was nervous, both trainers did a great job of calming my fears.

At the end of Demo #2 I was asked to participate in trial classes. I was having issues with my headset/microphone combo so I told her I would get back with her once I got a new set. Since I am now wearing glasses full time I had to try and find a headset that wouldn't give me headaches. I bought a super cheap pair to get me thru the first part of the interview process, but I knew that I would need to purchase something better for the trials. I had a tender mercy happen while I was at Best Buy searching for the perfect pair. A gamer nerd overheard my conversation with the sales clerk about my potential job and my need for a headset that could handle thick glasses. He came over, interrupted us (thank you!), and grabbed the pair he uses since he also has thick glasses. I was so grateful! Bought them and have loved them ever since.

My first trial class was a total bust. I could not get my headset to work. The kids couldn't hear me and I couldn't hear them. It seems like tech issues are fairly common. It is frustrating, but considering the distance between myself and these kids it isn't a surprise. Qkids is amazing because they have a tech team standing by whenever people are teaching. You can contact them and they can try and help you resolve the issued. With this particular class I was still having issues 10 minutes into class. I was trying to teach, but since I couldn't hear what the cute kids were saying the class had to be cancelled. I was devastated. I have another class scheduled directly after my first class, so I put on a happy face and got through the next one. I also had sound issues, but we were eventually able to get the resolved and I happily taught class. Afterward I was so happy and thrilled with the amazing kids I had just taught. I was pinching myself all day long.

After the second trial class it took a few days for my coach to get back with me about my performance. BTW, my coach's name is Cara. She gave me a tip on the one slide I had trouble navigating. Thankfully, I had already gone into the test system and figured out where I messed up. She scheduled me for Trial Class #3 a few days later. That class ended up being the last trail that I had. Soon afterward they sent me an email asking for a background check. I took that as good news. So I proceeded to obtain a TESOL certification (you are required to have it plus a bachelors degree). The day after I completed the TESOL certification I got a contract to sign in my inbox. Funny thing, since they are in China I receive all communication in the middle of the night and wake up to it. That night when I got up in the middle of the night I checked and the contract was there. I was so excited and I didn't want one more day to pass. So, I signed my contact and sent it back at 1:30am on July 4th. I think that's a pretty awesome day to get hired. I don't think I will ever forget.

Since that time I have taught six more classes. It's been a blast. I still have been plagued with sound issues, but it seems to slowly get better. Just for example sake, during my last class this morning all of a sudden one of my students started yelling that he couldn't hear me. It was shocking because it happened all of a sudden. So I go into the app sound settings and discover that somehow my microphone had gotten turned all the way down. I'm totally baffled. Turned it up and everything started working just fine from then on.

When I originally thought about applying for this job I decided that just teaching one class would be a good enough diversion for me. Interestingly, Qkids actually requires that you teach at least 12 classes a week. That was a bit of an expectation change for me. It hasn't been too bad though. A lot of teachers will wake up super early to teach the first class that starts at 4:40. But, I'm not doing this for the money so I just have two classes at 6 and 6:40 every morning. Then, I've also said I will work for an hour on Friday and Saturday nights. We will see how it goes. I will teach 4 classes for the first time tomorrow. It might be a little crazy.

Since I still feel that I am very new to their system I go through each classes material the day before so I am ready. I outline it all out on a piece of paper and scribble down notes for myself. I also prepare any props (one day it was a lego spiderman, another day a purple monkey) I might need for class. A lot of veteran teachers just sit down and teach without previewing the material. I don't think I'll ever feel that confident.

To motivate the kids to speak and participate Qkids used diamonds as a reward mechanism. I am supposed to give the kids between 50-80 diamonds every class. It's a button I have quickly become adapt at clicking even in the middle of a conversation. The interface also used two characters throughout each lesson. They are Koby Koala.....and Momo Monkey. It's adorable to see how much the kids love these characters. One boy even had soft squishy blocks with Koby and Momo on the front.  I feel like the company, and in particular the computer programmers, have done a fabulous job at creating an interface that is amazing for both the teacher and student. I am SO glad to call myself an official Qkids teacher.

Richfield/Monroe Trip

As I mentioned before, we had a family wedding to attend on June 8th down in Monroe. It was a beautiful event and we are so happy for the new couple. They are committed to each other and it was wonderful to celebrate them on that special night.

Instead of driving all the way home that night we decided to get a hotel and stay around for another day. We discovered the Fremont Indian State Park wasn't that far away. It ended up being a really amazing adventure. I really loved that the hikes to see everything weren't very long. It gave me a deep appreciation for the Native Americans that lived in this area so long ago.

Can you see the blanket?

Hiking Ensign Peak

At then beginning of June I convinced my friend, Alli & kids, to come with us to hike Ensign Peak. I've always wanted to do it, but have never made it happen. We ended up going on a super windy day. It was a good/bad thing. Good because we didn't get as hot as we could have, but it made it really hard to enjoy the view from the top. The wind was so strong that Peter could literally fall into the direction of the wind and it would hold him up.

It was so windy that the grass was even rolling like the ocean. It reminded me of  "amber waves of grain".

Luke was pretty nervous for most of the hike. He isn't a big fan of hikes, plus he doesn't enjoy being up high either. The only really treacherous part was the end. Although the hike did follow a pretty steep incline. I think it would be amazing to go again in the fall.