Luke photo bomb

One of the rare times he wants me to take his picture.

Little things

I just finished teaching my regular student Jack. I have been teaching him every weekend since December. We send these silly cards back and forth to each other. When I got done with class tonight this card was waiting for me. I was especially glad to receive it tonight. I felt like a failure after our class because we were having such horrible connection problems. I eventually had to take off my headset because my sound was freaking out. He also had to move to a different room. Eventually we finished class, but it was a doozey. Now I am craving Chinese food. These cards are always super silly because things get confused in the translation. VIP kids also doesn't allow teacher to directly type things to the student - so they are always these auto formatted cards. They make me laugh every time. 

Another milestone

I hit another milestone this week. It was getting 1,000 likes from Qkid students. It seems like forever ago when I hit the milestone of 500 likes. My next big milestone will be teaching 1,000 classes. 

Right now I've taught 680. Wowza, just saying that number seems incredable. I now teach classes I've taught numerous time before. I no longer prepare for each class ahead of time and I try to focus on making class the best for each student instead of just trying to survive the experience. 

New Background

I had a student tonight that was driving in a car to visit a friend. I was wondering how long it would take for her to arrive there. I only had one student and it took her 9 minutes to arrive at her friends. She then got out of the car, and I didn't see her again.

It was sad, especially because we were having such a good time. But, I was productive while I waited for her to come back - which she never did. I got my background finished. The silliest part is that I ordered a tapestry background off Amazon, but when it arrived and I put it up....it was UGLY.

So, instead I reused the decorations I already had. I really like it and I think the students will too. Not sure what to do about the tapestry. I guess I'll see if one of my friends want it. Buyer's regret is real over here.

I found out late last night that the Australia lady that does the Christmas gift exchange decided to do a "happy mail" exchange to help get us through this hard time. I signed up last night and was assigned my giftee this morning. It was a lady in Australia. I managed to get a little letter/gift sent off today for her. I am excited about receiving my own. I wonder who it will be from. I love the small gifts of kindness people all over the world are doing for each other.

Luke and I both struggled so badly with his homework yesterday. Neither one of us could understand how to classify quadrilaterals. Luke kept failing the quiz so Mr. Brace sent me an email asking how he could help. Earlier today he had uploaded a tutorial video. Luke and I watched it together and then did his quiz. He (we) got 100% this time. Luke has a problem of slowing down and reading the questions and then all the possible answers. It makes it very difficult for new content to sink in and for him to pick the correct answer. But, hey, at least I'm not coming up with the content. 

Hope

I just finished teaching a Level 4 class. One particular student stayed after class to talk to me. He asked me if I lived in America. Then, he asked me how the pandemic was.....his mother was right beside him helping him with the words. 

It appeared that he had a script he was reading to me. I think it was a homework assignment. He said something like this....in China everything is almost normal. The cinema is open, traffic is flowing, restaurants are open, people are coming out of their houses.

All I could do was cry and type so his mother could read to him. He gave me so much hope. If their nation can make it through, I know we will too. It's the little things that mean so much. I really hope I didn't upset him with my crying. I was so very, very moved by his sharing this news with me.

Also, I am in the middle of switching out my background. Stay tuned!

Job Milestones

Lunch

In January I attented a VIP teacher meetup with a large group of other ESL teachers. We went to a new Chinese place on State Street in Orem. The food was amazing! 

They scheduled the meetup for Chinese New Year day which was cool but.....the place was packed so the service was very slow. 

Ever since that day I've been wanting to go back and try different food. Today was the day.

The server even sat me in the back area near huge windows. The view was incredable. While eating I sat and read my Book of Mormon chapters for the day. It was so peaceful.

Miles and miles

During the month of February I wanted to walk at least 10,000 steps a day. I have a walking group I'm a member of and it's very motivating to be at the top of the daily list. I didn't reach 10,000 steps every day (can you tell what day is Sunday?), but walking over 80 miles in a month was astonishing to me.

40th Birthday

I gave the best gift to myself. This year I took off work and slept in. It was heavenly. I didn't wake up until nearly 7am.

The plan for the morning was to have a typical morning and then take Peter to do baptisms at the temple as soon as school started. I didn't want to go any earlier because I knew it would be crowded. We left the house just after 9am and there was only one other person in the baptistery doing names. It was heavenly and so peaceful/quiet. I really think that helped Peter not to be so nervous. He was still quite nervous and told me that he was shaking from the time we walked in until we walked out. But, he said it was amazing and fun and he can't wait to do more names next time. We took 3 temple names and then he did 7 more temple names. It was such a treasure to be able to be the witness for his baptisms.

On the way home we stopped at the Payson Walmart. Brandon had attempted to take the boys to Walmart for birthday shopping last night, but a kerfuffle happened and there was drama. Instead of being patient and dealing with it Brandon just brought the boys back home. Peter was very disappointed that he wasn't able to buy me some jewelry. These are the earrings he picked out for me this year. I love them! A bit more shiny than I'm used to, but I will wear them with all the love he gave me. His favorite thing is to buy me jewelry.

First thing in the morning he also gave me this little note and he has been faithfully giving me hugs every morning. I will take all the hugs he will dish out. At 11 years old I know they are limited.

Luke was disappointed that we didn't go anywhere to eat breakfast or lunch. But, once we had all eaten lunch we drove over to Nickelmania and played there for about an hour. We had the entire place to ourselves. It was  amazing! My favorite game is the Space Invaders and Spin the wheel. The only problem is the boys want to go there all the time now.

Brandon needed get his license renewed so we chilled at home in the afternoon. For dinner went to Red Robin. I really, really wanted to go up to SLC to a very nice (aka expensive) Italian restaurant, but then I thought about how much complaining the kids would do if we did that. Red Robin satisfied us all and it's a bonus that it's so close to home. Brandon took me to the At Home decor store nearby and told me I could have anything I wanted. The only thing I found was a .20 Christmas gift box. LOL Peter was thankful we didn't take too long there because he wanted to get home so he could go to YM at 7pm. They were playing video games and he really didn't want to miss that.

It was a beautiful birthday in which I was completely relaxed and happy. I also had many birthday texts and a couple of friends dropped by to wish me the best. I really have an amazing life.

Snow day!

We got so much snow here on Thursday! It snowed all day long and I had to dig us out twice. The boys were helping me for a little bit while they were waiting on a ride to school.  Peter especially has been in a very helpful phase of life. I'm loving it!