On Monday morning we met our friends, Kenya and Shawn, for breakfast at Denny’s. We talk often on Marco Polo, but I haven’t seen Kenya in person for almost two years because of the pandemic! We had so much fun chatting and catching up.
Mark spent a lot of the holiday working on his chapter, but we also made some time to watch another Marvel movie.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday Mark was out at the bird refuge dragging chains to look for nests. They still haven’t found many, but it is early still.
It’s been unusually hot this week and Utah is experiencing a drought. The whole state has been asked to pray and fast for rain this weekend. Our garden is having a hard time in the heat and I’ve been trying to think of diners that don’t involve turning on the oven since we don’t have a built-in air conditioner. I’ve been using the crock pot a lot since it doesn’t put off much heat. We decided it was worth the heat to try a new cookie recipe Friday night though. I made oatmeal cookies that used coconut oil instead of butter. I added craisins, white chocolate, and semi sweet chocolate. The recipe was definitely a win and I want to make them again!
A couple weeks ago I learned that the Church of Jesus Christ has an online English learning program for adults around the world. EnglishConnect3 is an online program and they contract online BYUI instructors to do the grading. I’ve loved working for VIPKID the past four years and I have hoped to pick up a couple more credits with BYUI so I decided to apply. I was enrolled in an evaluation course to see if I was a good fit for the program. I didn’t feel like I did very well in the evaluation course, but I guess I did well enough because this Friday they offered me the position! I start training next Monday! I won’t have specific students for English Connect like I do in the parent education course. There are about 2,500 adults in the English Connect program and every submission goes into one large pool. I just have to spend a certain amount of time each week grading available submissions. I’m a little worried about adding more hours to my schedule, but I think it will be good to try.
Saturday morning, we decided to hike the Highline Trail. They’ve extended it since we hiked it last. We didn’t go quite to the end but we did go farther than we could go before they extended it. It was really pretty and we had a lot of fun!
After our hike, we went to Lowe’s. Lowe’s is a pet friendly store so we love excuses to take Flynn there and he loves going and all the attention he gets! Mark was looking for a fuel filter to fix Dr. Conover’s boat motor. They’ve gone fishing a few more times recently and the motor always dies on the way back to shore. They went fishing Saturday night and it worked a little better but it still didn’t quite make it. Mark brought home two fish though!
Our Story: The Bell Family 