Myrtle Beach Oct 2021

 

Audrey 11th Birthday, October 2021

 Audrey is such the sweetest girl. She can be feisty alright, but overall, this girl is packed with sweetness. She is so caring. She never fails to give me a hug and a kiss. I need to learn from her to always take time to express love, hugs and kisses. She is so thoughtful and honestly, I am so blessed to have her. She helps me when I am overloaded with work, she does the dishes for me and tells me that she does it because she loves me. She often tells me I am the best mom ever. We are so excited for and at the same time I can't believe she will be in YW next year. She is going to be awesome. She really enjoys playing tennis now and she's getting really good at it. She also play soccer this fall and she did amazing. Her piano skills is so great also. I need to be more like Audrey, loving and kind. 

Primerica Beginning July 29, 2021

This summer, interestingly, I had a few clients that came up to me asking for financial advice. I happened to have connected with Ken Sutherland, who lives here at Lake Royale and owns Life Plan Group. I have recommended a few of my clients to him since I am not licensed to do so. But, I found out later on, his ideal client was one that can invest at least a million dollar. I thought to myself, well even I personally won't  qualify to be his client as I am also in search for further financial advice. I have also spoken with Edelman Financials and they also require a minimum of $100 000. I knew then I have to do something not only for myself but for my clients. I posted in my Facebook tax group to find out how common it was for tax preparers to also have financial advisor licenses. As it turns out, it is common and someone in the group invited me to an informational webinar with Primerica, which video was very attractive and appealed to the opportunity of educating families on financial journey. I knew right there that I would like to do so. Immediately the following day, I was on zoom with Randi Schreiber (the agent who invited me to a webinar) and Mark Spina (RVP). I signed up and paid $49 background check fee and $25 on a monthly subscription on their portal. In return, they pay for my federal and state licenses. 

By the 3rd week of September, I studied Life insurance and passed the course and got my license. Then I took the Health Insurance course, passed it but decided not to take the license as in Primerica, they don't actually let agents sell this product but rather we can refer instead so there was no need for license. I then took the SIE, Securities Investment Exam, as a pre qualifier for Financial Advisor Rep License. I passed that too after 3 weeks. Then I started the following requirement, Series 6 and then after that Series 63. By End of November, I have finished all the 3 exams and was awarded my Financial Advisor Rep license early December. 

December 7, 2021 @ 6 pm, I took the over 3 hour Real Estate course and passed it too. Although I took the course back in September, because of family vacation and getting excited on the SIE course and timing it for tax planning to have my financial license first before the year end was the reason for delaying the real estate test. I am ever so thankful that I passed it. It was a heavy course. Link to my facebook post below.

(2) Facebook

I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father and the support of my family. Every time I went for an exam, I gathered my family and asked them to pray for me. I have asked each member of my family to pray for me in their personal prayer. I am so thankful for their support and love. My Heavenly Father has blessed me so much, my heart is full. When last year in 2020, from May to beginning of December, it was such a different state I was in, I could hardly retain a verse of scripture let alone study a course. I am so thankful I was able to overcome that. I saw the vision that I wanted to be a realtor, I did it. I saw myself a financial advisor, I did it. And I knew without a doubt that the Lord wanted me to be successful. I know that what I have and what talent I have is not mine to keep. My ultimate goal is for me and scott to serve a full time mission together, the sooner we get to that point the better. I know the Lord is helping me with this goal and leading me to resources that will eventually help us be financially secure get to a position when our kids have grown to then be able to serve the Lord. Not to say that we cannot serve the Lord now, we can, but such a different opportunity to be able to serve full time and not have to worry about the worldly cares of employment, and others. The last two years, despite the pandemic has been a great opportunity for growth for me, I had struggles like everyone else, but I rose above them, thanks to my family and my God.

The Parks. July 4th 2021 - Sept 4, 2021

 So we finally got the bathroom upstairs fully renovated last May. We have had a visitor that stayed with us (Rogelyn) for a couple of months. She was my brother Francis' sister in law, she was coming from Bermuda, also pregnant, single mom. In any case, we were glad to have our upstairs room done. 

In June I heard from Joy Park, she was an old room mate in Vancouver, BC, a Korean International Student. While she was staying with me, she joined the church. Her elder missionary, then Elder Going, came back after mission to visit and they ended up together. Now with 6 kids later, coming to visit us in NC. They are taking their family on church history site road trip. Apparently they have been contemplating on where to move and upon coming to NC and attending our church on the first Sunday of July, James was really touched during the sacrament and felt the prompting that they should move to NC. 

Our kids really had a blast together. They have 4 boys  (16,12,10,8) and 2 girls (14,2). We also took them to Wilmington at the beach. All our first time there, it was really crowded, the parking near the shore was really expensive luckily they found a free spot. 

After they left our house, I connected them with Brother Buchanan, a member of our ward who is a retired air craft mechanic. James is an aircraft mechanic. They have gotten in touch with each other. There were two members in our stake that bought a company at the air port and they hired James to work for them. The Buchanan's have been really helpful in this process. I can't believe the Parks visited us in July and 2 months later, their house in Idaho was put on sale and now they have moved to NC. What a faith and trust in the Lord they have to uproot their family and move because they felt the spirit. 

Tax Season

Tax season has started for me. I start back with Intuit. This is my 2nd tax season and I am very excited to be coming in with some experience and knowledge of what to expect. We are still having church at home. We really enjoy the kids playing hymns on the piano as part of our Sunday service. Elias is growing really tall. Audrey is almost close to my height. Pretty soon I will be the shortest. We didn't really get much snow this winter, I mean it snowed but stayed only for few hours basically.  The tax deadline has been extended to May again this year so that helps spread out my load for tax work. Kids have been very responsible for their own schooling for the most part, and have also been a great team player. It's always very hectic for me during tax season, I am glad for now they are virtual school and am glad we could go away skiing for a bit. 

 

Downhill Skiing

 

We decided to take the kids downhill skiing. We didn’t know if they would survive the cold or whether they would enjoy it. To our surprise, the kids absolutely loved downhill skiing and can’t wat to do more of it. We started with the easier mountain which was Appalachian Mountain. Then we did Beech Mountain the same weekend. We came back in February to ski at Sugar Mountain. Sugar mountain was nice but we didn’t like how we have to park at the bottom of the mountain and get shuttle bus up the hill where the bus was so jammed pack and this way we were not able to pack as much lunch or extra gloves or any “just in case items”. Worse of all, they did not sell tickets on line. This was supposed to be a one day trip so we left at 5sh from home, got in line at 9 am and line was so long that we didn’t get our tickets and our skis ready to go until almost noon and they refused for us to buy afternoon session so we ended up paying for a full day ski pass. Not sure I want to go back to sugar mountain again.