Summer Catch-Up

It's hard to believe that school has started for many Bay Area districts on Monday. I've never heard of school starting in mid-August! Aidan doesn't start kindergarten until the 29th, so we've got about a week and a half left and in that time we'll visit my parents for a long weekend before school starts as well.

Aidan has been going to his Thai language and culture school at the temple in Berkeley four days a week and he's learned a lot. This year's teachers are fantastic! They give out homework and demand excellence from the students. The kids work hard. They also want to make sure the kids know how to stand for the Thai national anthem properly. If the etiquette is never practiced, it can never be learned!

On Sunday the 14th, the temple celebrated Thai Mother's Day and this photo is from that ceremony. Aidan impressed everyone when he said in Thai that his loves me the most in the whole world. He speaks flawlessly for a boy his age and his exposure to Thai. Aidan's love for his father and Golf's insistence in speaking only Thai has made Aidan fully bilingual. It's absolutely wonderful!

Golf had his citizenship test on the 8th and he passed it with no problem as I knew he would! He's now awaiting the notification of when his oath taking will be. Next on the agenda, once he's officially an American, is to get his new passport and research ways to do some government translation projects.

On the 9th I began working at the testing center, testing incoming kindergarteners with their English and it's been fun working with such cute little ones. Aidan is so much more grown and mature in just a year, it's amazing to compare.

So now I'm working only in the mornings rather than sticking around for afternoon sessions. This is because I want some time to work on my websites! My online earnings are now replacing what I would have earned working full time at the testing center. YES! So now I've decided to only use my substitute teaching permit for the CELDT every year. No more substitute teaching. Not that I did it much last year anyway - I think I did it twice.

My plans are to get a new laptop within the next few months. This one is already about 3 years old, which, by technology definition, means it's out of date! But I'm going to give it to Golf to replace his Toshiba laptop which is about 6 1/2 years old! Yeah, he needs an update much more desperately!

I've been out promoting Stroller Envy, putting out a press release called All-Terrain Strollers Hot Sales Items this Summer. I invested quite a bit into this release, so we'll see how well it does over time. I also wrote a couple of guest posts for a blog called New Parent Tips. The first is called Top 3 Disney Cars Toys for Your Toddler for The Leaping Lamp and the second is called Trending Now: Convertible Strollers. I've been quite pleased with how much I've been writing for other blogs. I've got another new article due to Shopaholic Mommy tomorrow.

I tried out FaceBook ads for The Leaping Lamp and got about a hundred new fans, and for both sites, I've become more active on site blogging which seems to have boosted traffic. It's been both fun and enlightening with how much work marketing your product takes.

Having my own business has been one of the best expressions and journeys of self-growth I've ever been on. I've learned so much, both about business, online marketing and humanity all at once - it is quite an education in and of itself. I'm grateful for the experience. The feeling of taking matters into your own hands and creating your own economic reality on your own terms is utterly priceless.

Speaking of which, I'm a big Dave Ramsey fan. How does that relate? He's got a movement he's started called The Great Recovery. He believes that The Great Recession can be healed and it starts from the bottom up rather than the top down through government jobs programs. I agree with him because I'm doing it myself.

He talks about "God's way of handling money" and while I am not a Christian I feel that these principles hold truth. The debtor is slave to the lender. I've always felt this way. Save your money, sacrifice now for better returns later. Always felt a connection with that. Ramsey can be a bit controversial, but that makes him entertaining. He's uplifting and positive, most of all, and he cuts through all the BS that you hear every day from our so-called leaders in office. BLEH!

So that's what's up for now. I should update more often so that I don't write so much next time!