It’s been such a good week. Sorry I missed last night but hopefully this makes up for it.
The thing that has been a great thing about this week is that Last Thursday was our LAST DAY at Mesa High School. WooHoo!!! I have never felt so relieved to leave a job, well, maybe other jobs like leaving Walmart, or leaving Subbing at other schools. But this was definitely up there in relief for me, and for Sarah as well. Ever since Thursday, I’ve been thanking Heavenly Father for helping me see the “New Horizons.” This is the time I get to see what is just around the corner. I’m in the process of turning.
I am super excited about this Summer. Not only do I get so see you and our whole family, and then have a family reunion with Sarah’s wonderful family, but there are a lot of things that I want to do. My plans are to continue working at Amazon with the max. hours that I can (usually 25) and then go full on with a piano teaching business/classes. But I’m not only offering piano, I will probably offer guitar, ukulele, and voice. Oh boy, this makes me so excited!
Another thing around the corner is that I will be starting school at the end of August. I think it is actually Aug 30. I’m not doing it before then because I will have residency here in Arizona in Aug. And having residency is a heck of a lot cheaper than out-of-state tuition You might be wondering what my plans are. Well, as you know, I have a Bachelors in Psychology. I want to do at least a Masters in Music, specifically in Secondary Ed with an emphasis in Choral Ed. Since I literally took almost no MUSIC classes at BYU (I took Music History classes, but music was only lightly touched in that class, however, my professor was in the MoTab and from Australia), anyways…I need to take all the music prerequisites to a Music Master, before I can actually start working on the Masters, which makes a lot of sense. Even though I could take that as a setback, I’m not seeing it in that way. I need all the refresher courses they (Mesa Community College) offer. Even though I know a lot about Music, it was all self-taught knowledge, so I am really excited to learn even MORE. I learned the other day that compared to being self-taught and learning from a teacher, it is much better to learn from a teacher (preferably an expert in the field you are learning), so you can get proper technique, learn all the tips of the trade, receive constructive feedback, and much much more. Aw, Jacob, you don’t even know how excited for this.
Choral education in High School is my end goal now, but I can see myself increasing in knowledge and expanding to other things, such as band (I may have to do band anyways???), and then conducting choirs for even bigger/more prestigious colleges, or outside of college. During all this time, I will be writing books. I already got a set in mind. My idea is to do a series of Piano instruction books, but primarily geared towards members of the church. With hymns, and songs, and other fun doodads. I just thought of it, but perhaps I can do instruction books for the other instruments I know. (uke and guitar and voice). But the LDS market is what I want to shoot for for my piano instruction book.
Anyways, I am very excited about all the prospects my dreams are taking. And it gets my heart to be on a high level, because I believe it will be something that I love to do.
As you heard this morning, Sarah and I went to the tennis courts by our house and played tennis for an hour. It was a very happy time, as it still hasn’t gotten so hot that it is terrible to be outside. In fact, it was really perfect weather. Also, starting on Thursday, I began doing my own workout of a 30ish minute workout videos that I have found (DollarWorkoutClub) on YouTube. I did three days straight of it (TH, F, and Sa), and I want to continue working out every day except for Sunday for at least 30 minutes. So far so good.
Another great thing about this week is Sarah and I have decided to better ourselves at doing the chores of the house. Sarah had made a chart when we first moved in, and we decided to start implementing it this last week and it has been sooooo nice. You know, a place where the spirit can dwell. It is totally real. Pray that we can keep it up.
Sarah did something very nice for me. She invited all my friends to surprise me for my birthday on Saturday. That’s not even enough words to describe everything she did to prepare for it and to handle all the things up to it. She hand-made an invitation. She sketched a guy with his finger over his mouth saying “shh,” not to tell anyone that they were going to have a surprise party for me. The card was a super hard thing to accomplish, even spending a while at some print shops getting them printing, and all that it implies. She had been planning it for like 3 or so weeks before the party. She had to call the apartment office to make sure that they could have a party at the pool right next to our house. Also, btw, it was a pool party.
Well, day of, Sarah had gotten one of my friends, Carlos Santos (2nd Counselor in the Branch presidency) to take me out at 3pm. Unbeknownst to her, he was going to his parent’s home in Maricopa to go feed the dog and have her take her medicine, but on his way back from there, he got caught behind an accident. So, 3pm turned into 4:30pm-ish. Although, what added more to that, is we went to the temple and barely got home at around 3:20pm-ish anyways. It was alright, except that Sarah had many plans to get things ready by the pool and more importantly, the food. Sarah had decided to try a recipe that Briana had given her called Texas Trash Dip. Also, we had nachos, a great pizza-ish pasta salad, different types of chips, tortilla chips and nacho cheese and toppings, and otter pops. The cake was the most beautiful Costco chocolate cake I have ever seen. Why? Because it was catered to me. It had my name and a treble clef with three eighth notes. Very pretty.
The best thing was the company, the people who showed up. Gracie, Aunt Ann and Peter came. The Santos's, our neighbor Jackie France, our YSA member neighbor friend, Heidi Greathouse, Valeria Lozoya, a teenager in our branch and recent convert, Ashley, our friend we invited to our house to watch General Conference, and two of our coworkers, Aundreia Gallegos, her husband Anthony, and their two kids, Jamie and JJ, and our coworker, Anu. I loved playing the guitar for them at Aundreia's request. And there was super good music playing afterwards. Some that were even Aunt Ann's and Peter's scene. And Sarah even made it SUPERHERO themed. What a great woman, amiright?!? There were superhero masks that people could color, and coloring books as well. You name it, it was there.
Yeah, it was great. My friend, Carlos, took me to the Arcade near our house and got me a personal pizza, and then when we got home, he directed me towards the mailboxes at Sarah's request, which is just by the swimming pool. Well, as soon as we got there, I heard someone yell out my name, I turn, and there are many people there to wish me a happy birthday and for the party. It was quite fun. I really enjoyed myself and all the work Sarah put in to make my day special and a overwhelming success. I even swam.
The temple was awesome. Very busy. We decided to go for sealings, since something I did in the morning (help someone move their things into storage) took awhile. I am glad we did, though, because our sealer was a Samoan with the last name Ho-Ching. I don't know if you know this, but my 2nd Counselor in the EQP when I was in the Single's Ward, before he got married was Ho-Ching. Well, guess what? It turns out they are related. The sealer is his great-uncle. Small, small world, right? (Esp. in the church). Well, in the intermediary portion while he took a small rest from performing the ordinance, he told us stories of Samoa. Biggest one was that President Kimball did a Pacific Island tour just like President Nelson is doing now. At the end of a talk that he gave to the Samoans, he went to go sit back down in his seat, stops midway, and goes back to the podium. Everyone was surprised and. wondering what the prophet might say. Well, he stands at the pulpit, and begins to say that he had forgotten to mention one thing. That the Samoans were descendants of the Nephites, and then he sits down. Our sealer then explained how he thinks this happened, with some stories. One was that of Hagoth and his ship, another was that in Lehi's patriarchal blessing to Jacob, he promises him that his seed would not perish, and another was a story of man from Ecuador that built a raft with no sail (in TWO separate occasions) and the current washed him to Samoa. Anyways...cool stuff, huh?
More funny and interesting things, things that I will probably choose to forget because it has to do with Mesa High. Sarah and I get back on Sunday night, and I work at Amazon for 10 hours. Well, I return to work on Tuesday (three days left of the year). Well, Eva arranged for her version of a surprise party. It was very nice. Very, very nice. They even made me Sonoran Hot Dogs. That is all fine and everything, but, believe it or not, I only got half of a Sonoran hotdog without a bun. I'll tell you how this came to be. So they send me to lunch. I get back from lunch and they are cooking the hotdogs. It smells amazing, right? Bacon wrapped hotdogs are the best. Well, I am the kind of receiver that acts as host at my own parties, so I started serving the food to everyone in the room that doesn't have one, including our SID kids. I finally get to the time after everyone is served that I am about to get my own plate of hot dogs when Gavin, who is already having a roughish day, bounds out of the classroom, and of course, I go after him. Sarah tells me that they think it was because he heard the party and singing and was expecting a cake and some ice cream, which is his favorite. But unfortunately we don't have those things. I run after Gavin, make sure he runs toward the field, and have him walk around the track a couple of times. Well, that was great and everything; I didn't really mind, but guess what I come back to the room to? I return with Gavin and begin to head towards are kitchen to collect a hotdog, and guess how many were left? Not even 1 whole hotdog. Can you believe it. And Sarah tells me that when she left (because my wife was invited to the party) there were 5 and a half hotdogs on the plate. The interesting thing is that I made sure everyone in the room had one, so that means some people ate two and didn't think to spare at least one for me. Crazy, huh?
So, Eva decides to spend all of the next morning to make me one loaded Sonoran hotdog, and neglect all her 2nd to last day duties and work. It was good, but not worth the strain she put on the class focusing on getting me another hotdog. But, who can complain? She even asked me to test Gavin the 2nd to last day, but didn't bother teaching how to do the test and I end of doing at least a third of it wrong. Oh well, not really my problem. And definitely not my problem anymore.
I will miss the kids though. Not just our six, but other kids as well. So much so, that if there is time, I will probably go back to volunteer??? maybe???? Who knows? But I did get to say bye to two key students that I have touched. Specifically a girl named Abbi, who is a Junior going to be Senior next year. I gave her, and she gave me, several hugs in the last 20 minutes that I was there, and even cried. She got permission to receive an email from me, so hopefully she KITs. Another girl is Teresa, who I drew the Titanic for and got her the series The Mysterious Benedict Society. By the time I finally got to see her on the last day, I saw her bookmark in the first book and she was almost finished. I was grateful to spread a hand of friendship and love to those to young women.
Besides those things and experiences, I am very happy to leave Mesa. It is a relief, once again. We're definitely not the only ones that are leaving. We went to a catered staff and teacher luncheon. It was catered by someone that has made really good ham and turkey sandwiches.
Well, good week, once again. We are having the girls (Anna and Valeria) over for FHE tonight again. We have decided to have a series of going through the For The Strength of the Youth with them and discussion. It's been quite fun.
I love you so much. I'll see what I can do about the French Open.
Love you, BROTHER!
John
Well, good week, once again. We are having the girls (Anna and Valeria) over for FHE tonight again. We have decided to have a series of going through the For The Strength of the Youth with them and discussion. It's been quite fun.
I love you so much. I'll see what I can do about the French Open.
Love you, BROTHER!
John
