It's Official

So most of our family already knows we were pretty sure we were going to stay in UT another year, but I wanted to let you know that is is official now. Jirik canceled his April graduation and will be continuing school and adding a minor or two. Also I submitted the preliminary paperwork to return to work next school year. While this wasn't our orginal plan, we know it is the best decision given the economy. Most of the companies Jirik would want to work for are having hiring freezes, but my job is secure. He definitely has more earning potential than I do, but my job pays the bills and I'm grateful to have job security. I'm glad to be able to stay at my school because I love it there! And I wanted to teach more than just one year. I feel very blessed to have graduated when I did and to have the job I have. It's hard, but good! On a tangent, I'm up to 28 students (crazy, I know!). We also got our tax return (we filed it a few weeks ago). That's all the updates for us!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Work is often stressful and my patience is definitely tried more than ever before, but some days I just end up laughing because 7 and 8 year olds say the funniest things. I hear so many great quotes in a day! It's sometimes what keeps me going when it's been a hard day. Today as we were going to lunch one of my little boys showed me how his sideburns were getting a little shaggy and said, " Look Mrs. Hynst, I'm starting to grow a beard!" I think he thought that that's how a beard grows (from the sideburns down). It was pretty darn funny! First off, he's 7 (not the usual age you start seeing facial hair). Second, he's Chinese (not usually tons of facial hair). My class was really chatty in the afternoon and every time I found myself getting frustrated and losing patience I thought back to this incident to give myself a little laugh :-)

Wii Fit

So I tried it out the Wii Fit yesterday and I love it! I've never been good about exercising before so I don't know what I'm doing on my own. The Fit tells me if I'm doing the exercises right or not and how to improve. There are 4 areas: yoga, aerobics, strength training, and balance. It helps you set up a goal and track your progress with body tests that measure you BMI among other things. I'm not one that is confident enough to go to the gym and workout and we don't have much space in our apartment for lots of equipment, so this little gem hopefully will do the trick. It's actually pretty fun and does make me sore (which I assume to be a good thing:-)). It also makes you want to workout because it deposits the time you've spent working out into your "fit bank" and unlocks new exercises. You also earn scores for how well you do on each exercise and it keeps a top 10 list for all the users. So I can compete with Jirik which will be fun. I'm hoping exercising more will help my health improve and also drop some of the pounds I've gained since I got married!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I feel like this year I got to celebrate Valentine's Day twice. Yesterday we had our classroom celebration, and Valentine's is so much fun with little kids. They are all so excited about the holiday and there is none of that drama like with older kids and teenagers. Everyone gets each other valentines and it seems to be a day where they all get along. They were all so happy, it made me happy too! It's also fun to be the teacher! I got chocolates and roses and heard throughout the day how much they loved me, it's a pretty good confidence booster :-) I made little valentines for all my students describing why I thought they were special, which were well received. They loved them! I have a hard class this year, but they are very sweet kids. Even my little gangsta has been sweet recently (for the most part:-))

Today obviously is the real Valentine's Day, and I'm so glad it's on a Saturday so I can actually spend the day with Jirik. Weekdays I don't get to see him as much as I like, so it works out well this way! We are having a chill day just enjoying spending time together. I kinda ruined his surprise for me because I walked into the store as he as checking out (I think it was the first time ever I finished looking at my store before he was done at his, lol). What was the surprise, you ask? A Wii Fit!!!!! I love my husband! I've been wanting something that will make it a little easier to exercise at home without taking up space (someday I want a treadmill and eliptical, but those don't exactly fit into our small condo). The Wii Fit is perfect! It's been sold out every time we've gone to look for it, so I'm thrilled he was able to find it! I think I will end right here because I want to try it out right now!