Friday, January 22, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
What's up? January 2016 edition
Typing this on our new iPad. Yep, we joined the rest of the world. Though, I'm sure they are aleady onto something else by now :) It's been fun, espcially for Adam. He's such a video game freak. I like being able to use a touch screen while typing, but don't like that you can only have one app open at a time. I really like that I can use it anywhere in the house.
What else is going on for us? We had a visit from Michelle and family just before Christmas. The kids hit it off right away. I love that our families can just pick up where we left off. Christmas was lovely. Half at Jim's parents and half at mine. Way too many presents, tons of fun and not enough time. My parents and Kim lost power for 36 hours just before we showed up. We got lucky to have hot water and a heater!
Jim - He is back to living with us. The NY job fizzled and he is now working out of Eagan, managing people in 3 different locations. That seems temporary too, so we'll see where they steer him next?
Jenny - I am a lunch lady! OK, actually just a substitute lunch lady! It's been really fun. I took a little time to get over my own personal stigma about what "kind" of job I "should" be in and have settled into a very good place with it. I realized today how crazy happy everyone is to be at their job, at all the schools! How many of your coworkers can you say that about? No glassy eyed, bored people here. Lots of energy, pride, and commraderie. These ladies are smart, funny, and a pleasure to be around. I like the sub situation also because I've reserved Mondays for volunteering at the kids' school, and if I don't want to work some day, I just say "No". (That's a good theory, but I'm booked for all of January and a few days in February already).
Also, I am entering 2 of my drawings to the Art House's winter exhibit. They display the art in the library and Byerly's grocery store. I think they will take any art that is submitted, but it's still exciting for a brand new artist. I'll post pictures of them after they are displayed.
I'm also still walking our neighbor's dog, Nikka, everyday (or bringing her over here to play with Ava), and once a week I teach a short class at a local family shelter.
Since starting work, I am so much busier, but also so much happier and strangely enough I get more done at home too? Weird!
Laura - She's cruising along in karate. She still loves her bo, but is finding this form much harder and longer to learn. Which makes sense, it should get harder as you move up belts.
She is also in student council, orchestra, piano, and I signed her up for track in March. Busy girl!
She will be 10 this year!
Adam - He just lost another tooth today! That's #5 for him. I find the milestones of teeth loss particularly meaningful. They are just so darn cute with those holes in their smile and it doesn't last long. He is still taking drumming lessons and just started a short chess class. I also signed him up for track in March. Overall, he's doing great. School is going well and he seems to have made a couple new friends.
I owe the blog some pictures, but they are on the desktop, not the iPad, so that will have to wait. Happy January!
What else is going on for us? We had a visit from Michelle and family just before Christmas. The kids hit it off right away. I love that our families can just pick up where we left off. Christmas was lovely. Half at Jim's parents and half at mine. Way too many presents, tons of fun and not enough time. My parents and Kim lost power for 36 hours just before we showed up. We got lucky to have hot water and a heater!
Jim - He is back to living with us. The NY job fizzled and he is now working out of Eagan, managing people in 3 different locations. That seems temporary too, so we'll see where they steer him next?
Jenny - I am a lunch lady! OK, actually just a substitute lunch lady! It's been really fun. I took a little time to get over my own personal stigma about what "kind" of job I "should" be in and have settled into a very good place with it. I realized today how crazy happy everyone is to be at their job, at all the schools! How many of your coworkers can you say that about? No glassy eyed, bored people here. Lots of energy, pride, and commraderie. These ladies are smart, funny, and a pleasure to be around. I like the sub situation also because I've reserved Mondays for volunteering at the kids' school, and if I don't want to work some day, I just say "No". (That's a good theory, but I'm booked for all of January and a few days in February already).
Also, I am entering 2 of my drawings to the Art House's winter exhibit. They display the art in the library and Byerly's grocery store. I think they will take any art that is submitted, but it's still exciting for a brand new artist. I'll post pictures of them after they are displayed.
I'm also still walking our neighbor's dog, Nikka, everyday (or bringing her over here to play with Ava), and once a week I teach a short class at a local family shelter.
Since starting work, I am so much busier, but also so much happier and strangely enough I get more done at home too? Weird!
Laura - She's cruising along in karate. She still loves her bo, but is finding this form much harder and longer to learn. Which makes sense, it should get harder as you move up belts.
She is also in student council, orchestra, piano, and I signed her up for track in March. Busy girl!
She will be 10 this year!
Adam - He just lost another tooth today! That's #5 for him. I find the milestones of teeth loss particularly meaningful. They are just so darn cute with those holes in their smile and it doesn't last long. He is still taking drumming lessons and just started a short chess class. I also signed him up for track in March. Overall, he's doing great. School is going well and he seems to have made a couple new friends.
I owe the blog some pictures, but they are on the desktop, not the iPad, so that will have to wait. Happy January!
Monday, December 7, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Karate, lately (or My Sweet Little Princess)
Karate continues to be a big part of Laura's life.
She faced her first true competition in a tournament and finished 4th out of 10 in forms. And this tournament was also her first try at sparring, where she won the consolation bracket (lost 1st fight, won next 2). I was so impressed with her composure and good attitude because her other tournaments were so tiny (like 2 competitors) and she blew them all away. There were some pretty awesome girls at this one. Laura gave it her all and earned a respectable position and was proud of herself.
This is Laura's form (pretend fight) at the tournament. She learns a new one with each new belt. They are great for memorization, coordination, discipline, working on little details (like correct feet width, direction, crisp moves, etc.), and the act of being judged and rated. I used to worry cuz she doesn't do piano recitals, but this has got to be giving her at least the same benefits. FYI - she is saying "thai", not "die" :)
She faced her first true competition in a tournament and finished 4th out of 10 in forms. And this tournament was also her first try at sparring, where she won the consolation bracket (lost 1st fight, won next 2). I was so impressed with her composure and good attitude because her other tournaments were so tiny (like 2 competitors) and she blew them all away. There were some pretty awesome girls at this one. Laura gave it her all and earned a respectable position and was proud of herself.
This is Laura's form (pretend fight) at the tournament. She learns a new one with each new belt. They are great for memorization, coordination, discipline, working on little details (like correct feet width, direction, crisp moves, etc.), and the act of being judged and rated. I used to worry cuz she doesn't do piano recitals, but this has got to be giving her at least the same benefits. FYI - she is saying "thai", not "die" :)
Mouthpieces are fun
Laura on the right in her first fight. This little one on the left was awesome. She won 1st in form and 2nd in sparring.
Little Laura on the left, against The Giant on the right.
Laura beat her 7-0.
Receiving her scorecard. She's so cute.
Because she prepared her form so well for the tournament, she got to test early for her blue belt. She's been through a lot of belts, but this one seemed to mean more to her than the others. Maybe due to the extra work for the tournament, or maybe because now she gets a bo (staff). She is super psyched to have this bo. Hers is on order right now, but when she gets it I'll post a picture.
And a silly group pic.
I love that she has this set of friends at karate. Some of these guys, we've been seeing 3 times a week for 3 years. Even if you don't mean to, you get to know them and become friends. Its a great community.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Adam's missing tooth
Take a good look, folks.
You don't get this front-tooth-missing, adorable kid but once per kid.
Gosh, I love this look.
We are a weird family...
...and we know it. We like...
...elephant rides,
...wearing satyr horns,
...medieval fairs,
...sitting upside down at our lemonade stands,
...giggling at Total Tools who put "Mr. Wrong" license plates on their fancy black trucks,
...pretending to be farm things,
...lopsided cakes,
...hermit crabs...
...even if they are bullies...
...big bullies...
"MY food dish, back off - shrimpy"
...anthropomorphizing our hermit cabs,
...designing new crabitats,
...being too cool for school,
...organizing our Lego bins by color,
...swimming in corn...
...with extra goofiness,
...using a leftover fire-stick on a huge canvas,
...and hula hoop contests.
And we're proud of our weirdness.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
First Day of School 2015
Did I tell you the kids started school?
Its been over a month, but I'm getting caught up.
We now have a 1st grader and a 4th grader!
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