February 2023

February was a busy month. I spent my days teaching more classes than I usually like to, but the money was nice. Owen was busy all month working and took the ACT. Emmie started outdoor soccer with practices on the turf at Meridian High School (when there wasn't snow on the ground).

Owen took up crochet. I'm not sure what prompted him, but his talent for things like that always amazes me!

The most exciting news of the month was when I was looking out the window and saw Emmie's truck driving by! What are the chances of that?!

For Emmie's health class they have to do community service. She was able to count her hours when we helped with the agency for New Americans and she also volunteered at the school helping a few teachers. 

I spent a Friday driving two refugees to dentist appointments in Caldwell. Everytime I do anything to volunteer for ANA it makes me feel so much sympathy for what these refugees are going through. I met a woman named Razzia from Ukraine. There was a massive language barrier, but we managed to make a few connections with the help of google translate. I went to a meeting to be put on a list to be a mentor for a refugee family. I had offered to be a mentor for Razzia's family, but I haven't heard anything yet so I don't know if it's going to happen. 

In other news, my dad bought a new car. And then proceeded to offer his old car to Ainsley. So John and I agreed to help Ainsley buy her first nice car. She gets to drive a 2012 Acura SUV with on ly 80k miles. Hopefully that car will last her a LONG time! Sadly we had to say good-bye to the little Scion. We ended up selling it to Steph and Eric. So at least we know it's going to a good home!

The other big news of the month was that I got an interview at ISU for the counseling program. The only bummer was that the interview was on my birthday. I haven't been that stressed in a long time! I didn't even have anything to wear!  I spent weeks reading and practicing interview questions and shopping for professional attire. I made John interview me several times, and talked out-loud to myself for hours, but when I finally showed up for my birthday I still didn't think it went great. It was a 2 1/2 hour process. I was there with 10ish other people and I learned that they were interviewing 40 people and only had 20 spots available. my expectations for actually getting into the program were very low. There were 3 parts of the interview. An individual interview (where I was interviewed by the head of the department...just my luck) where I was asked questions like, "What is a feeling you are uncomfortable having?" and "What is a feeling you are uncomfortable seeing in other people?" I couldn't even think of any feelings at that given moment and I had no idea what they were looking for. Then we had a portion with 2 applicants where we did a mock counseling session on each other, and then we had a group portion where we read a case and had to analyze it. I came away not having any clue as to whether I had done well or not. I was the oldest person there, and I walked away thinking I should look into renewing my teaching certificate. 

I drove home and in an attempt to celebrate my birthday I got myself a Cafe Rio salad. Sadly it was the grossest salad I had ever eaten at any Cafe Rio. I was starving and emotionally drained. John and the kids took me out to Red Pavilion that night and we had tres leches cake and watched second hand lions.  A pretty low-key end to a stressful birthday.

February was filled with lots of skiing. I went up with Owen and Logan and Brooke and Piper. I think we did 2 runs with Owen and Logan but the girls had fun together on easier runs! It was a nice day! Emmie and I also went up several times and even did some night skiing with her soccer team. We definitely got good use of our ski passes this year!

And I think that's all for the month of February!