Corona Virus and I Got Hired!

Basically, the world has gone crazy in the past two weeks.
That is all.

Hopefully, I will look back on this in about a month and say, "Wow, that was sure a wild week. I'm glad that's over with." At this point, no one really knows. (The good news is, our snow is finally melting! So at least there's that!)

To sum up the development of Corona Virus... At the end of January, as we were getting ready to fly home from Florida, my friend, Lindsey, told me that her mom had said on the phone that there was this new virus called Corona Virus that people were talking about. She said, "My mom said that there's this new virus coming out of China that the government is worried about. She said they might take our temperatures at the airport when we land!" I thought, "Well that's crazy..." and didn't think too much of it. They didn't do anything to check us when we landed in Salt Lake on January 25th.

Fast forward to now: March 15. Our church meetings have all been cancelled and we just got finished having our own Sunday church service in our living room using the "Come Follow Me" manual with our family. BYUI has cancelled all classes for at least the next two weeks. Many school functions including school plays, dance recitals, basketball games and so forth have been cancelled. The NBA has decided to conclude its season early. There will be no "March Madness," at least not in the basketball sense of the phrase. School for the Rexburg district is still on for tomorrow... but is barely hanging by a thread. Many school districts surrounding Rexburg have decided not to hold classes for at least the next two weeks as teachers scramble to assemble packets and online learning. Fond du Lac is not having school.

Everyone is trying to do everything they can to prevent the spread of this sickness so that America is not affected like other countries, especially Italy. It seems like Italy has been hit especially hard by Corona Virus (or COVID-19 as it is officially called) partly due to their large population of elderly people and partly because they all live in such close proximity of each other. Their hospitals are overloaded with people.

Here in Rexburg, so far the biggest inconvenience is that every store is out of toilet paper. That seems to be the item that people are most panicked about not having should they end up being confined to their homes for three weeks. We were actually the lowest we have EVER been on toilet paper about a week before all heck broke loose. Luckily, we did go and get a pack of 24 rolls right before things really hit the fan. A few days later, as the church announced they would not be holding Sunday services, the population of Rexburg really went into panic mode. I tried to order some paper in a Walmart pick-up order and when I went, they said, "Sorry, no toilet paper in the whole store." Everything else was in my order, as far as food items like bananas, brownie mix, and so on, but no toilet paper.

So then right after that (which would've been Thursday morning, March 12) Josh and I drove to Albertson's, a different store that is right down the road from Walmart. I would say their shelves had about 30 percent of the toilet paper left. I bought about another 24 rolls and Josh was shaking his head the whole time like, "This is embarrassing..." but guess what?! Later that day, you couldn't find toilet paper ANYWHERE in the state of Idaho. And it's been like that for the past few days. I'm thinking that in a week or so it's got to level off. People can only hoard so much toilet paper.

That is the update on the Corona Virus and the toilet paper stock in Rexburg! Other than that, it seems like everyone is doing okay. We haven't felt sick yet. The funny thing is, Josh got really sick right after we got home from our cruise. it was all of the symptoms that describe Corona Virus: deep cough in the lungs, body aches, fever, etc. He had this for a solid 2-3 weeks! In retrospect, we are like, "You probably got it on our cruise and we didn't even know it was a thing yet!"

I'm really happy that our church came out with the new study manuals last year that outline all of the Sunday school lessons for all of 2020. Everything has been done to push the new "home-centered church" over the past year and now everyone is like, "Ohhh... this is why..." It's kind of crazy. Also, last October at the semi-annual general conference, President Nelson announced at the pulpit, "The next general conference (in April 2020) will be different from any previous conference. In the next sixth months, I hope that every member and every family will prepare for a unique conference..."

At the time, we all just thought, "Ooh, maybe there will be a special musical performance or something!" haha Now we are all like, "Ohhh... he meant because they won't be actually holding a conference where thousands of people sit together in the conference center. It will all be done via satellite and everyone will just listen in their homes!" It's crazy to realize, "Wow... he knew."

It makes me think of the time when a flood hit Fond du Lac in June of 2008. Caleb had just been born on June 6th and we got home from the hospital back to my mom's house on June 9th. A couple of days later, on June 11th at about 5pm, Josh got a call from the Bishop of our ward saying that he needed him to come and help unload a truck of supplies that had just arrived from Salt Lake. I was like, "Ummm... I just had a baby and you don't need to go help." But of course, Josh did. When he got home that night I asked, "What the heck was so important that Salt Lake sent a truck with? What was it? What did you unload?" Josh told me it was a bunch of 5 gallon buckets with bleach, rubber gloves, garbage bags, and other cleaning supplies. I thought, "Well that's weird." The next night, a huge flood hit the town. Our church was able to hand out hundreds of buckets with cleaning supplies to people who had been affected and were trying to clean up their homes and prevent mold.  I've learned now to just shut my mouth and listen when the leaders of the church tell us to do things!

The other big news is... I got hired!!! I took my big test on March 2, which I talked about in my last post. I found out that I passed the multiple choice portion right away, but it took about a week to find out about the essay. I found out on March 9th that I passed! I had already been subbing a few times and had chatted with both the principal at the middle school and at the junior high. In Rexburg, we have 5th and 6th grade at the middle school and 7th-9th at the junior high.

The principal at the middle school, Mr. Bone, wanted to meet with me one day after school on March 11th. In the meeting, I walked in and also saw two of Caleb's current teachers sitting there. I found out as the meeting began that the English teacher, Mrs. Jones (Caleb's current homeroom teacher) was planning to take a different job at the district office and they wanted to interview me to replace her. It was kind of funny because I know that "team" of teachers well (from Caleb) and I didn't know that was the team that would have an opening. The other two teachers are both men, Mr. Spencer (math) and Mr. Bloom (science). We chatted for about 45 minutes and it went well. The next day, in between subbing a choir class, Mr. Bone pulled me aside and offered me the job, teaching 6th grade English, officially. I was very honest with him and told him that I had also been talking with the Jr. High principal and was considering working there from the very beginning, so I would have to think for a few days and get back to him.

Two days later, on Friday, the principal at the Jr. High called me in for an interview and at the end of it, he officially offered me a job teaching 8th grade English. So then I had a decision to make! I told him I would let him know by the end of the weekend.

I thought about it and talked with the kids about it and they actually REALLY wanted me at the Junior High. Caleb will be in 7th grade next year and Gabe will be in 9th, so they will both be there. The 8th grade teacher that I will be replacing is actually the one that Gabe has right now for English. She had a baby in January and has been out on maternity leave. I was thinking she would decide not to come back and I guess I was right!

So now I have to officially plan to teach 8th grade in the fall! I am excited and also nervous, but hopefully I can prepare for the next 5 months and feel ready by August! Also, hopefully the Corona Virus gets over with in the next couple weeks and we don't end up having the next month off of school!

In other news, Avery has been getting her two front teeth for the past few weeks and guess what... they are so crooked even I could tell she would need braces right away. So I took her to the orthodontist and YUP, turns out he DOES want my money (shocker). In truth though, they really are turned so bad that they're hitting her bottom teeth and ruining her teeth every time she closes her mouth. So they are going to get braces on her before the end of March. They will also need to pull a total of six teeth and put in space maintainers. It's going to be a great few weeks. (sarcasm)

She also had Dr. Suess week at school a couple weeks ago and she dressed up with some friends as "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, black fish, white fish...." Here is a picture!

Finally, Caleb finished off his basketball season with the rec department on Saturday. It was a good experience for him I think, but sadly they did not win a single game. Their coach was awesome though and a really nice guy. He made sure they knew it wasn't about winning and they all improved. They had some close games! The game on Saturday (which just BARELY was not cancelled due to Corona virus) was their closest game yet. It would've been awesome for them to win, but in the last 6 seconds they were down by four points. One of their players had the ball way down at the opposite end. He dribbled for about 3 seconds, not even making it to half court, and took the longest Hail Mary shot I've ever seen... and guess what... it SWISHED into the basket! It was INSANE. Seriously the craziest basket I've ever seen. The whole crowd erupted with stunned applause and cheers. They didn't win the game, but it kinda felt like they did. :)

Valentine's, Teacher Stuff, and Please Let This Winter ENNND!!!

Here is what has been going on in the past month...

Valentine's Day

Caleb has this girl in his class named Brylee that he asked to be his Valentine (I guess that's a thing in middle school) so he went to Walmart and picked out a little dog stuffed animal and some candy for her. He even dressed up on Valentine's Day (and by that I mean he didn't wear sweatpants to school) and he decorated her locker with heart lights! It was so cute. He also came home with a stuffed animal and some candy.

I had asked Gabe if he needed to buy anyone anything and he said, "No, I am trying to avoid girls this week so no one asks me to be their Valentine and I don't have to buy anything." (Nice.) I know for a fact there is a girl at our church who had her friend come up to Gabe and ask him, "Do you have a Valentine yet?" (Caleb witnessed this and told me.) To which Gabe replied, "No, and I don't want one." (Again, nice.) So I bought him a big bag of skittles and told him to take it to school in his backpack just in case a girl DID come up and bring him something. I told him if no one gave him anything, then he could bring them home and eat them himself. At the end of the day he sat down on the couch and pulled out the Skittles and said, "I successfully avoided people all day so I could eat these." He's a real charmer that one. I didn't take a picture of him alone with his skittles.

Avery's class had a little party, which the room mom had asked me to plan a game for. I went to Avery's class with Josh, who had off that day, and we did this little hot potato game first and then did a game that's basically like beer pong, but we didn't call it that. They just had to bounce a ball into a cup! They had fun. Her class also had a chocolate fountain and exchanged valentines with everyone.

Avery's Presidential Fair

Something they always do when they are in second grade at Burton elementary is this Presidential Cookie Fair. They do a report on a president (which is chosen for them) and then the parents have to help them make this big trim-fold poster with pictures and fun facts. THEN, the teacher also sends home a recipe that she gets from some cookbook which has what "could have been" each presidents' favorite cookie. In the past, Gabe had Benjamin Harrison (I don't even remember what cookie we made) and Caleb had Teddy Roosevelt (who liked snickerdoodles.) This year, Avery had Franklin Pierce, who was apparently the worst and most forgettable president of all time. It literally said that on many websites. His cookie was the "New Hampshire Seed Cookie" and contained sesame seeds. It was super weird. But we made them and some people ate them and then I threw the rest away. lol
Then she also had to do this square dance thing with her cute little boy partner, Hendricks. (Fun fact: Hendricks is a twin and both of them and Avery were born on July 18th, 2012 in the same hospital in Idaho Falls... They probably laid next to each other in the nursery....I'm sharing that at their wedding some day... if she marries one of them.) It was so cute to watch them all dance together. Then at the end, they did the bunny hop. Here are some pictures!

Caleb has been playing basketball with the rec department team. I haven't really taken many pictures. I have taken a few videos, but they don't really post well on here. His team is made up of sixth and seventh graders, but I think his team is mostly sixth graders. They have been playing most Saturday mornings for the past month or so and they haven't won a single game... so it's been a little rough. They honestly aren't awful and the games are usually pretty close, they just haven't quite gotten a win. They have one more game left, so we will see what happens!

Gabe has been having lots of soccer practices. He is playing on a competitive team again this year that we have to pay an arm and a leg and our first born child for (luckily he is our first born child, so it's okay). He tried out back in November and they started having practices at the end of January. He was pretty excited the other day because he came home from practice and told us that he had been chosen to be a starter and he will be playing "left wing" (whatever that means). I think it means he's not the one that is typically scoring the goals, but he can run up there and score if he wants to. I'm not really sure. He's like, just behind the forwards, kind of in the middle. His good friend, Amos, is on the team too, so they have a lot of fun together. They have their first tournament in Boise in a few weeks.

Avery has been doing tap lessons all year, but she has really been difficult about it lately. She had her performance in February and she's supposed to have another one this weekend in Blackfoot, but I am thinking about just letting her be done after it. The teacher has been a real pill about it though and is telling me that I still have to pay for the months of April and May even if she quits (which I don't really understand...) but whatever. So we will see. I am debating if I should try a different studio with her next fall or try gymnastics or something else. She's kind of a stubborn girl and when she decides she doesn't want to do something it's VERY hard to make her go. Plus, with me starting to substitute teach I am often not home in time to get her to dance class at 4:00.

On Friday, February 21, I worked my last day as a secretary at Burton elementary. Denise gave me this sweet little basket of goodies on my last day!

Then I spent the following week studying. I did also sub at the Junior High on Monday, Feb. 24 but it was super easy because it was the last day of the trimester so they were just watching a movie AND they had a student teacher that basically did everything. I just sat there in the back of the class and watched Zootopia and observed. It was pretty nice. Then I also subbed at the Middle school (5th and 6th grade) for an art class on Friday, Feb. 28. That time I was actually by myself running the class, but it was only from 11:30-2:00 and it was little half hour classes. Then I took my big test the following Monday (two days ago) and I subbed yesterday, March 3, for a 5th grade class at the middle school. It was for a math teacher so I had to quick reteach myself how to convert tons to pounds and pounds to ounces! It wasn't too tricky, luckily, and I was able to figure it out before class started!

But let's also talk for a minute about the big test I mentioned...
I took my second/final big teacher test two days ago!

I had taken the "PTK" exam, which stands for "Professional Teacher Knowledge," in December. Then I enjoyed the holidays and we went on our cruise and I didn't really crack down on studying again until the end of January. Then I started studying for the English/Literature exam. This was the one that I was even more nervous about. I had talked to a number of people who had done this program and many people said they had easily passed the PTK, but then failed multiple times on the second one. A few people I know had actually failed THREE times, which in those cases then you are just done and you don't get a teacher's certificate and you forfeit your money!! So I really didn't want that to happen.

So I studied my little brains out the whole month of February. A lot of it was on poems, novels, dramas, and historical speeches I had never read before. There were also additional sections on grammar and writing, research strategies, speech and debate, and then some more teaching principles.  Simply put, it was a LOT of information. I had scheduled my exam for March 2 a while ago and I debated moving it further into March as the date got closer, but I decided to just go for it.

The day I took it was a crazy day because Josh and I started to drive down to Pocatello and we got about 3/4 of the way there and then some crazy stuff started happening in Rexburg and they needed Josh to come with Drax! So we pulled off the highway and a state trooper that was nearby let Josh hop in and then sped him back to Rexburg with his lights and sirens on! (I think Josh actually secretly likes feeling like Batman in these situations.) So then I drove myself the rest of the way to Pocatello and went in and took my test! The test had 150 multiple choice questions, which they allowed you three hours for. Then right after you finished the multiple choice section, a timer started for one hour for you to write an essay! They had told us in the preparation materials that the essay would involve reading and then writing an analysis of a poem. It was very stressful. I said a little prayer right before I clicked into the essay section that I would be given a poem I was familiar with. Thankfully, it was a poem I had read before and even knew a little bit of historical background about! I was soooo happy! It was called "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. It's basically about this caged bird that is singing and it's symbolic of African-Americans in the early twentieth century.

But my happiness was short-lived as I started to write and, for some reason, I got hung up on one part about the symbolism. I worked on it for a while, rewriting and deleting, and then I looked at the clock and I only had 19 minutes left!! I quickly wrote the remaining three paragraphs and then looked at the clock. I only had 4 minutes left! And I hadn't even read through the whole thing once! So I started reading through it as fast as I could, catching a few errors and fixing them as I went, and the whole time I'm looking back and forth up at the timer on my screen as it ticks down to 3 minutes.... 2 minutes.... 1 minute... I actually still have PTSD just writing about it now. I was reading back the final paragraph when suddenly by screen went blank and the words, "YOUR TIME HAS EXPIRED" were on the screen. Then it said, "Please alert the proctor that you are finished by raising your hand." So I slowly rose my hand and the lady came over and escorted me out of the room. And that was that!

When I walked back out into the lobby with her, she gave me the little print-out that shows the score and I was like, "I don't even want to open this in front of you in case I need to go start crying in my car." She kind of laughed nervously like, "I hope she's not serious." Josh actually popped his head back into the lobby at that moment and I was like, "How'd you get here?" I guess a co-worker had driven him back down! So then we walked out into the hallway and I said, "That was a really hard test. I don't even know if I want to open this." But then I did and I PASSED! Well, I should say, I passed the multiple choice! The essay needs to get sent to this company that has a panel read it and then give you a score. So honestly, I'm still stressed out because if I end up failing the essay, I have to take the WHOLE thing over again!

And that brings me to where I am now.... anxiously checking my online page every day in hopes that they will post a report saying I passed the essay. I will seriously cry if I fail. I do NOT want to take that test again.

So today I am just here relaxing, cleaning, and writing a blog. I took Avery McDonald's for lunch today at school since she has been missing me being available to chat with during lunch time as the secretary. She also has an orthodontist appointment today for the first time where they will probably take X-rays and prepare me for the fact that she DEFINITELY needs braces. I can already tell her two front teeth are coming in very crooked. Joy.

Finally, I have to show some pictures of the awful amount of snow we have had this winter. The months of January and February were just ridiculous with the amount of snow we had. I mean, it snowed in October, November, and December too, but in January is DUMPED snow by the truckload. Today it is 40 degrees and sunny and so. the snow is finally starting to melt away, but we had such HUGE piles that it's definitely going to take a while to all be gone. At least the sidewalks and the roads are clear! These first few pictures make it look like a beautiful winter wonderland... but I'm sick of it. I'm ready for SUMMER!! Or even SPRING!