Update

The Cannons were still in town on President's Day. We went to Pojos and then had lunch at Five Guys. We had a great time at Pojos as usual. After lunch Colie gave Gabby her old iPhone for her birthday! She was SOOO excited. After that they headed back to Utah.

The rest of the week was busy as usual. I subbed a half day in Piper's class and they were kind of a hard bunch to keep on task. 1st grade teachers are saints! I also subbed a half day at Lewis and Clark. It was an art class so I watched Bob Ross videos all day. Kind of boring, but easy and the classes were good. Watching Bob Ross paint is like watching magic! 

I had brunch on Friday with some of my friends. We haven't gotten together in forever for some reason. We are all super busy these days it seems like. On Saturday night Scott and I went and played games with some friends. I didn't work this morning and I slept in until 9:00, it was glorious! We are headed to watch the Oscars with some friends tonight. I don't really care but any excuse to see friends and eat junk food... I AM IN! 

I also spent some time getting things ready for basketball. The 7th grade season starts soon and since I'm the A-team coach I have to get things organized for the parent meeting and for try outs. I'm mostly ready I think. I checked out coaching basketball for dummies AGAIN. I asked my boss if we could have practice in the morning. I'm REALLY hoping he will say yes. I won't lose very many VIPKID class slots and it will be so much easier than dealing with the stresses of after school practice. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The new fish we got for Gabby died! UGH! It wouldn't eat and it died. We are taking a fish break for now. Maybe forever! 

RIP Flame

Ryan comes home with the best stuff from preschool. I need to take more pictures.

I've been wanting 8 pound weights forever. I finally cashed in some gift cards I eanred from work and got them. Score! 

Cute Willow

PoJos

Birthday girl

Cute Ryan at breakfast at the hotel

Gabby's B-Day, Cannon's Come to Town

I celebrated my 2 year anniversary with VIPKID last week. Crazy! I don't know how long I will teach online but for now it's a pretty good gig. I taught 55 classes last week! I worked morning and evening slots taking advantage of good bookings and the students being out of school. I'll be glad to not be doing evening classes this coming week though. Oy! 

Gabby turned 9 on Wednesday. I can't believe it! We didn't do much on her birthday. I made her a special breakfast and dinner. We decided to save Pojos for when the Salt Lake Cannons could be there.

I kept Valentine's Day pretty simple. I bought each of the kids a giant Hershey kiss and they seemed pretty happy with that. I helped in Gabby's class party. We had lasagna for dinner and I worked a couple of hours that night.

Nana, Papa, Colie, Rustin, and Greta came to town on Friday to celebrate Gabby's birthday. The kids went swimming on Saturday morning and later went to Lego movie 2. That evening we went to dinner at Big Jud's. Yum! The kids went swimming again today. We then had to go buy Gabby a new fish. Greta poured a bunch of fish food in Bubbles tank and it killed him. There were a lot of tears this morning. We've just been hanging out this afternoon. We will hit up PoJo's tomorrow before the Cannons head back home.

Happy B-day G!

Bedtime stories with Rustin.

Colie's artwork from last year made it on the wall at Big Jud's!

Gabby's artwork picture.

Swimming train! Woot!

Chinese New Year

It was Chinese New Year on Tuesday. I decided to celebrate a little bit. We had Chinese food and I gave my kids a red envelope with $1. Chinese New Year is SUCH a big deal. The whole country travels to their home town and visit family. The kids get a month off of school. Surprisingly for me my bookings all still mostly filled which is CRAZY. I've already taught more classes this month than I taught in the whole month of February last year during Chinese New Year. This week I opened some extra slots because I thought my schedule wasn't going to fill this coming week but they all filled. So I'm working a ton next week. I'm going to have to pace myself. It's pretty awesome though. I don't know how long it will last...

Ryan's hand, foot, and mouth disease ended up not being a very big deal. Every day his rash faded. I still kept him home for preschool for a week but he seemed fine. The other kids haven't gotten it yet so I think we are good. Ryan gets to go to preschool next week. He will be so happy.

Ryan got to go to Kinder-chicks on Friday. Summerwind hosts the upcoming Kindergartners once a month for an hour to introduce them to the school. This time it was music and PE.

Scott and I got away for a bit Friday and Saturday night. We went and got pie shakes on Friday and on Saturday we went to Cheesecake factory for an early Valentine's Day celebration.

That baked orange chicken was good!

Chinese New Year is like Christmas for Chinese people. They give their kids a red envelope with money in it (probably more than $1, ha). It is the year of the pig, hence the pig red envelopes. 

I finally added the hardware to the dresser.

Ryan went to Kinder Chicks. It's crazy he's going to be in Kindergarten next year.

Gabby was trying to train Willow to do tricks today.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease!

Hooray it's February...Woot! I'm so happy! I subbed on Thursday, it was okay. We got our tax information from last year though and I made more money subbing last year than I did teaching online so the money adds up. It's a nice option for making some money and it gives me flexibility so for now I will keep powering through. I will probably sub a lot more next year.

I noticed that Ryan had a rash on Thursday night. I read online that antibiotics can give people a rash sometimes 8 days later and Ryan had been on antibiotics for 8 days at that point. I thought maybe he was having an allergic reaction. In the morning the rash had spread all over. I took him to the doctor, he's not allergic he has hand, foot and mouth disease. Boo! I've never had to deal with it before. I've just heard horror stories. So far it's okay. Ryan is the best sport ever. He doesn't even act sick. It's very contagious so I'm hoping the other kids don't get it! We are on lock down for the next week at least. He will be very sad to miss preschool next week.

It makes me so glad to be an online teacher though when stuff like this happens. It would be really hard to be a working mom. What in the heck would I do? I would have to take a week off of work if I had a regular job. I was thinking about possibly teaching next year but I have decided for now to stick with my three job hustle. Flexibility is a BIG DEAL!

Last night I went to a VIPKID meetup with local teachers. We celebrated Chinese New Year by eating at a Chinese restaurant. It was fun and yummy. It's nice to talk to people who do what you do and understand.

We were supposed to go to a Superbowl party with friends today but couldn't go because of Ryan. I was bummed because I haven't seen them in awhile. We decided to have our own Superbowl party mostly to eat all of the unhealthy snacks! We will probably only watch for a bit. I'm waiting to eat Scott's homemade chicken wings and stuffed potato wedges. Oh yeah!

Willow was just chilling in Scott's arms for like an hour. So cute!

I mean...so cute!

Some local VIP teachers.

Ryan's rash.

His cheeks looked so bad yesterday. They look much better today. Fingers crossed he gets better soon!

Organizing

Nothing much happening around here. I've almost made it through my least favorite month. Woot! My winter project goal is to clean and organize my house. I worked on that a bit this week. I hope I don't burn out before I get done.

Ryan was complaining about his ears on Tuesday so I took him to the doctor on Wednesday. He had a double ear infection but when he opened his mouth the doctor was really concerned about his tonsils. He is putting Ryan on antibiotics for three weeks. We have a follow up appointment and if his tonsils don't look better they may have to come out. I'm hoping we don't have to have surgery but at the same time he has been sick all winter so maybe he will be better without his tonsils. Who knows?

On Friday night we went out to dinner with my siblings and their spouses for Alex and Lance's birthday. We had a fun visit with them. Last night I had a late night with Scott. I've been working almost everyday this entire month so I've been going to bed early every night. I felt like a real party animal going to bed after midnight, four hours past my usual bed time. Ha.

Corbin survived his maturation talk. Ha. We talk to our kids really openly about sex stuff so it's not like there were any surprises!

Well that's all. I'm super excited that January is over this week and I'm excited to see my fat paycheck from VIP next month.

I went through the kids' puzzles and put them all together in one bin. Each of the puzzles had their own box and it took up so much room! 

Ta-da! So many puzzles in there! 

Teaching stuff disaster

A Little Less of a Disaster.

Poor Willow, Gabby has had her captured all day!

Working Hard.

I survived my subbing week. It wasn't so bad. This is the teacher I subbed for  last year for 6 weeks so I'm very comfortable subbing for her. I feel like I know what I'm doing and I know a lot of the staff and kids at the school since I also coach there. The best part was last week was finals week so Thursday and Friday were half days! Score! I did wheel in two chairs into my private bathroom and shut off the lights and have a power nap on some of the days during my prep time. I am a big fan of power naps! I think I've decided I will go ahead and sub one day a week until I start coaching.

For some reason I have been killing it at VIPKid I don't even know what is happening. My schedule has never been so full. My bookings go up and down so I'm just trying to enjoy it. I will earn my biggest check yet this month. Chinese New Year is in a couple of weeks and the entire country migrates so I'm counting on my bookings going down soon for a little while. We will see what happens.

I am trying to finish up in my room as quickly as possible. Projects are so messy and disruptive! I finished painting the walls in my room. I decided to switch out my dressers with the kids' dressers because I want white furniture with my new paint. I finished painting a dresser today. It looks good! I'm close to being done. I can't wait! I'm tired and need a break.

Corbin is watching his maturation video this week in school. He's so nervous. Ha. He's been talking about it for WEEKS! It's weird that he's going to be going through puberty and heading off to middle school. Weird!

Gabby starts play practices for the spring play she will be in. We will see how that goes. I'm hoping it will be a fun, good experience.

Piper is doing well even though her BEST friend moved away before Christmas. It hasn't seemed to phase her that much.

Ryan loves preschool. He thinks Miss Janis is the best (she is). He enjoys his daycare as well.

Scott's job is going well. He really likes his co-workers and mostly enjoys his work although it can be stressful at times.

Gabby taking selfies of her straightened hair. (There were so many pictures). Ha.

Power nap!

Choosing a paint color

White dresser

Painted dresser

My dad has been the county commissioner in Butte County for 33 years. They did a little write up on him in the local paper. 

Faux Shiplap Wall

Okay lets see, the kids went back to school and we got back into the swing of things around here. The sun has been out a lot and it's been a very pleasant January so far. I was at Walmart with Ryan and I went past the home section and impulsively bought a new bed spread. I then felt the bug to change other things up as well. I love shiplap so much but I am intimidated by that project especially since Scott does not enjoy projects as much as I do and I felt like I would need his help. I asked an experienced friend about it and she sent me some instructions. On this blog there was a link to another blog where someone just drew lines on their wall instead of doing shiplap. Color me intrigued! I decided that I for sure wanted to give that a try first. I painted the wall white and then drew on the lines. Boom! Done! It looks good enough. It's not as amazing as shiplap of course but for real I'm already done and it cost me nothing since I already had some paint. Now I'm trying to decide what color to paint the other three walls. I have a couple of different blue shades on the wall and I will try to decide soon, I have to put a pin in the project though because I am going to be swamped this week. I am subbing for my friend for a week. I have been dreading it for awhile. I'm hoping it goes okay! I'm mostly worried about being too tired since I will work for 3 hours before I head into sub. I'm hoping some caffeine can help see me through! I've already got dinners made and ready to go. Wish me luck! 

Rustin hanging out before his flight home. 

Ryan playing with his cool car he got from Nana.

Willow just hanging out while Gabby does her homework, 

I made bread pudding for the first time. It was good! 

Wall before: 

Faux Shiplap wall. The lighting is not great. It's kind of hard to see.

Still deciding on a new paint color for the other walls.