Sunday, August 27, 2006

August 27, 2006

August 27, 2006
* Marisa, Kayla and Tyler all started school this week. Overall, I think all went well.

*Kayla, Alayna, and Tyler all started gymnastics this week and loved their classes. Kayla loves pre-team and I really think she will improve quickly. She was very sad to learn the day that it started that her friend across the street chose at the last minute to go to a different gymnastics place with a different friend and they didn’t tell Kayla. That was frustrating. But I am confident she will make new friends.

*Marisa started on the school volleyball team this week. There are 70 girls and they will be divided into 4 teams. She will get to play every game. They practice every day after school for 2 hours!! They start by running around the school twice. She has been so sore that she can barely walk down the stairs. Her forearms are bruised pretty bad too. But she is absolutely loving it and I am thrilled.

*Tyler also started flag football this week. He has practices two days a week. We finally made his mouth piece. I am not sure what he thinks about football yet, other than his face is bright red after all that running. It’s good for him.

*Kayla started band practices this week which are on Thursday mornings. She seems to really like playing the clarinet. Yesterday, she and Marisa were playing a duet and they sounded pretty great!

*We had Alayna’s school open house this week. We met her new teacher Mrs. Elizabeth. She seems very nice and Alayna is ready to start. She actually starts classes tomorrow and will now be taking 3 days a week.

*We had Marisa’s open house this week as well. For hers, I went with her and we attended each of her classes in the order she does during the school day. So, I got to meet all her teachers and see where her classrooms and locker are. She LOVES school so far. She also has some amazing teachers. In social studies this year, they will do a renaissance fair. She is even taking family and consumer sciences where she will have to take care of a computerized baby doll for a week or so. She is pumped and ready to go!

*I decided to get my middle school endorsement and shoot for teaching middle school. So, I will be doing 10 credits in the next 5 months. I just started one class and will start two more in October. It will be a tremendous amount of work, but I think this is the right direction. My background check finally cleared for subbing so I am now officially cleared to sub. I also already started the volunteer work at Wilkins and will be doing so again this week.

*Today, the stake RS (which is only two fo us right now) traveled to Mt. Vernon to visit today. They are a small branch and it must be a huge challenge. Afterwards, the Schofields invited us over for dinner. It is wonderful and thank heavens the kids were on their best behavior! Marisa just went to her first fireside (now called Sunday evening discussions) where the stake President and his wife are speaking.
As you can see, we are busy busy busy! Have a great week!

Monday, August 21, 2006

August 21. 2006

August 21,
Got lots to do so this will be quick this week.
Hart Top Ten of the Week:

1. We celebrated Alayna’s birthday this week. The canoe trip was completely rained out so we didn’t get to go. ( we were all very disappointed)

2. Went to Kayla’s open house to meet her teacher (Mrs Cummings)and take in supplies.

3. Went to Tyler’s “Meet and greet” to meet his teacher (Mrs Emanuel) and take in supplies.

4. I decided to go for my middle school endorsement only to find massive obstacles blocking my way. Am considering new profession- haha.

5. Whole family taught a Cha Cha routine to about 35 youth for Mutual night. Think it was a success.

6. Alayna decorated her own birthday cake and loved all her gifts.

7. Saw 2 great movies “Hoot” and “Firewall”

8. Hart Grandparents came for bday party and helped steam clean all the carpets in the house

9. We had the Schofields over for dinner last night and had a wonderful time! We also did a quartet with Bob’s parents for church.

10. The kids started school today. They are excited. Alayna and I took them to school and went to the parent donut party.

First day of school!

Kayla and Tyler doing the Cha Cha

The cake Alayna decorated with an entire bottle of pink sprinkles

gifts from her siblings

Alayna's new fairy dress up

Fairies

Hanging out on Sunday afternoon

Alayna turning 4- blowing out candles

Kayla being a basket

Sunday, August 13, 2006


Tyler testing for his green belt

Alayna practicing her hand stand

Alayna learning the "cha-cha" with her new partner

August 13, 2006

August 13, 2006

Well, we registered Marisa for school on Monday and got her pictures taken for her ID card. She seems happy with the teachers she got. She is even starting off with the Family Sciences class, so she is excited about that. On Tuesday, I registered Kayla and Tyler at their schools. They were both got the teachers they wanted so that was exciting. I also stayed and volunteered at the registration checking people in for 2 ½ hours after that. It went very well and I was able to talk to the school secretary to let her know my intentions for the next school year. She said she would love to call me to sub at the school.

On Thursday, I went to the huge substitute meeting. I had a huge packet of info to turn in. It was about a 2 hour meeting, explaining the sub computer system to us. It was so cool. The whole system is set up for the entire Cedar Rapids Metropolitan area. You choose exactly what days and what schools you want to sub in. Then when a teacher will be absent, they put it into the system and it chooses a sub. I am a bit nervous about the whole subbing thing, but it will help me network. On Saturday, I went bright and early to the stake employment seminar only to find they didn’t have big enough enrollment so they had cancelled it. I was more than upset since I spent HOURS working on drafts for them to help me with- so, grandparents, I may be asking for some help. As an update, I did get a hold of the lady at the Utah office who is writing the Iowa license place about the hold up. The new Sub lady I am working with at AEA said that when the deadline is up, I can call the Iowa office to give me an extension. Let’s just hope this all comes together soon so I can get my final papers into the HR dept ASAP! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support through the last few stressful months.

We also spent the week deep organizing the top floor. The house and all in it are ready for school to start next Monday. We have lots of fun plans this week, including a canoe trip to celebrate Alayna’s 4th birthday. Can you believe she will be 4 so soon? ( we are actually celebrating it a bit early this year so we can play before school starts again) Nothing else new is going on. We did rent tons of movies to watch. We saw “Hoodwinked” with the kids and thought it was adorable. Bob and I watched “Fun with Dick and Jane” which was pretty funny. Although, I have to say, if I don’t get a job, we may have to turn to that lifestyle to pay for all the kids college fees!!

Well, hope all is well. Loves getting newsletters this week from mom, Jonathan, and MJ. We miss you all! Our doors are always open- (except when its humid!!) Our love to you all!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

August 6, 2006

August 6, 2006

Can it really only be two weeks until school starts again? We actually start registering for classes tomorrow. I am also excited to begin subbing and volunteering at the schools. I will work the Wilkins registration g for a couple of hours on Tuesday. And so it begins...

On Thursday, Bob took the kids to Illinois to see an old friend, Jim Mitchell, and his family. Even Grandma and Grandpa Hart were able to come. They had such a fun time picnicking in the park. I stayed home and worked for HOURS on my resume and cover letter. Talk about depressing. Being out of the field for 12 years isn’t good. On Saturday though, I am attending the Stake Employment seminar and they said if I bring in my resume and cover letter, they will help me fix it up so I can turn it in to the HR department with my teaching portfolio.

Yesterday, I took Tyler to Clinton, Iowa again to test for his green belt. He did a great job and we will find out some time this week if he earned it. Then he has decided to take a short “break” this fall and do Flag football and gymnastics. Kayla and Alayna will be doing gymnastics as well. Kayla will be joining the preteam and is very excited about it. She is just flourishing in her class.

We also had the missionaries over last night for dinner, along with a new family in our ward that just got baptized. She is my new VT companion. After they left, we watched “Cool Runnings” as a family. I forgot how funny that movie was.

I deep organized and deep cleaned the entire bottom floor of the house, going through every box and all the kids clothes. This week I will do the whole top floor and the next week I will steam clean all the carpets. Then we should be 100% ready to go for school. We went and bought all the kids school clothes and organized all their school supplies and we are ready to go! We found all these awesome shirts for Kayla that were only $1 a piece, so we stocked up on those. The tough part was getting everyone shoes. I told them they are not allowed to grow anymore!

Everything else here is pretty normal. We were thrilled to get rain with cooler temps today. It has just been too hot. Bob and I were asked to teach the youth next week a ballroom dance routine. That should be very entertaining. Bob did find out how he will have to have surgery on his nose again, just FYI.
Until next week...

Wednesday, August 02, 2006


The badlands of South dakota

The evening at Mount Rushmore

the buffalo we saw

seeing the geysers in Yellowstone

Taken in Yellowstone by Old Faithful

Traveling in the car...

Leigh Lake in the Tetons

On the Hike up to Leigh Lake- you can see the Tetons in the background

Marisa riding her horse at Grandma Ribera's house

Ribera Reunion 2006

Ribera Reunion 2006

Saturday, July 8: We drove to Logan, Utah and made it just in time for lunch! Then we went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It was hilarious and we loved it. I will say it was darker than the first one and a bit scary for children. Kayla had her eyes closed most of the time, especially when the goopy guys were on. But I enjoyed it! After the movie, the kids were able to ride the horse around the yard. Marisa’s horse spent most of her time with her head down trying to eat the grass, but they still loved the opportunity to ride. We had a fabulous cook out dinner and then made s’mores over the fire pit in my parents back yard. She even made peach cobbler in the dutch oven. Yummy!!!!

Sunday, July 9: We went to church with my family and I helped my mom teach her lesson. Actually, she would have done a perfect job without me, but it was fun anyway. We enjoyed the evening watching Jonathan’s videos and slides from his amazing trip to Europe. Marisa is really excited now and more determined than ever to take a visit through Europe when she graduates. It was also Joe’s birthday so we had a little party. Happy birthday to Joe and congrats on getting his first teaching job!

Monday, July 10: Off we go, heading up to the Tetons. We went to Bear Lake first and enjoyed Raspberry Shakes before a yummy lunch at the lake. We played in the lake for a few hours and had a great time. However, I forgot that we were MUCH closer to the sun and forgot to apply any type of sunscreen (or “sum scream” as Alayna calls it). As a result, the kids got burnt. Okay, lesson learned. Anyway, then we drove about 3 hours up to the Tetons. It was absolutely GORGEOUS there. The weather was perfect (although a bit rainy) and it was just so peaceful. Since it was late when we arrived, we went to the restaurant for dinner. That night we stayed in Colter Bay Village in these cabins that were half cabins, half tents. Two sides were canvas and two were like a log cabin. Inside the tent were these primitive bunk beds and a wood burning stove. So, to keep ourselves warm we kept a fire going at night. Although, I woke up at about 2am and the fire had gone out and I couldn’t get the dang thing started again. Anyway, that night, Barb and Joan (friends of the family that came with us) set up their cabin like a huge store and invited us over for bingo. Every time someone won, they got to go into the “store” and pick out a prize. That TOTALLY saved us on our long trip home. The kids got all sorts of fun stuff- we even got prizes!

Tuesday, July 11: We started out the morning right with a great buffet breakfast. Then we went on a hike to Leigh Lake which was formed by a Glacier. It was only a mile away but took our entire crew about 3 hours. It was hot, so the kids spent some time playing in the cold lake. Then we came back to the cabin, had lunch, and we took the kids to swim in Jackson Lake. It was absolutely beautiful there and we stayed a couple of hours skipping rocks while the kids swam. A storm started in so we had to head back. We ended up making foil dinners and s’mores through cold wind, but I didn’t mind. We played Bingo again that evening and a new game called “Apples to Apples”. Very fun, but my brothers cheat. Bob had been feeling sick to his stomach all day, that night I got violently ill. Made for a fun night in the cabin: my air mattress deflated, the fire went out , and I had to run to the public bathroom all night. Yuck!!

Wednesday, July 12: Again, we had that great breakfast buffet, but Kayla started feeling sick. We drove up to Yellowstone for the day. We got to see Old faithful erupt which was very cool. Then we said goodbye to the Riberas as we all headed our separate ways home. It was a great reunion, just wish Nina and family and Grandpa could have come. Maybe next year? Anyway, we took our time getting out of Yellowstone. We stopped to see a lot of the geysers. It was so cool. Bob didn’t get out for much since he was feeling so sick. We were getting upset though since all these signs kept warning us to leave the wildlife alone and we hadn’t seen any!!!! Finally, at one stop, we saw an eagle dive down into the river and catch a fish- way cool! Then, we stopped to see a Buffalo eating grass, an elk, and saw several deer. It started to rain, but we got out to see stuff anyway, like the bubbling mud pots, etc. At one point, while we were driving, we found a buffalo ON THE ROAD. If I had been bold (or dumb) I could have reached out my window to touch it. Now THAT was cool. We had to leave through the East exit- I hope to never do that again. Bob was sick so I had to drive. It was over an hour on a narrow road with NO, and I mean NO thingies on the side so you won’t go over the giant cliff on the side. It was raining and muddy and under construction. If you recall, my mentioning in the Hart reunion my irrational fear of cliffs, especially with no protection. You can imagine the horror I went through and the terror I felt. It may be years before I get that out of my head. Nevertheless, we made it to Powell, Wyoming to our hotel to stay the night. We LOVED Yellowstone and hope to go back again someday!

Thursday, July 13: We woke up and Marisa started feeling sick. See? we are a family who likes to share! Anyway, we spent most of the day driving to Custer, South Dakota. After we checked into our hotel, we went up to see Mount Rushmore. It was a perfect time of day to go and it was so cool. Especially after just seeing it on TV on Treasure Hunters. We took some fun pictures there too. My favorite part was the walkway with all the flags of the US with pillars listing when each state was admitted. Awesome!! We also saw the new Crazy Horse Monument they are building. Its only part way done, it will be so cool when it gets completed. We enjoyed a nice evening swimming at the hotel.


Friday, July 14: We spent the day driving to Oacoma, South Dakota where we would stay that night. We took our time though and saw lots of really neat things on the way. We stopped to see the Natural History Museum and let the kids each buy a really cool rock. We also drove through the Badlands of South Dakota. It was so amazingly beautiful but beastly hot. It was 108 degrees as we traveled that day. Yikes!!! We enjoyed driving through there though, but can’t imagine how anyone can survive the heat out there. We also stopped at the Prairie Homestead, but decided it was entirely too hot to take a tour. We also stopped to see the famous Wall Drug and must say we were not impressed. It had solid billboards advertising for it for several hours before we reached it- it was kinda lame. Anyway, we made it to the hotel which happened to be the most awesome one we stayed in. It had 2 King size beds, a double bed, and a pull out couch. For the first time in weeks everyone had a comfy bed. We went swimming, out for ice cream, and watched our first TV in 2 weeks, the new show “Psych”.

Saturday, July 15: We finally headed home. It was a long drive and most of the group wasn’t feeling well. It was heavenly to be back home after having such a wonderful vacation full of family, adventure, and beautiful scenery!!

Utah- Part 4