April 13, 2008
The other day I was in a presidency meeting and they were all talking about how sick their kids were. I said, “We are so lucky, none of us have been sick for a long time!” The minute it came out, I knew I had jinxed us. Bob thinks I am crazy, but it’s true. We had 3 different types of sicknesses slam into us the past 2 weeks. We have had a stomach virus, severe cold, and the flu. Note to self: buy stock in Lysol! Marisa, Kayla, and Tyler all missed 3 days of school this week. Marisa had to miss the orchestra trip to Linn Grove and the 8th grade job shadowing day. I had the stomach virus last week and now have the cold.
I would love to give a report on what has been going on around here, but since we have all been so sick, there is little to report. We did, however, get a fun visit from Jonathan and his new wife, Kristi. It was so great to meet her and have them come visit here in Iowa. It even snowed while they were here so we could give them a taste of Iowa!
Marisa started tennis, but we have had almost constant rain so I think she has only had 2 practices. Yesterday she took the ACT again. Last week she went to a murder mystery overnighter with her friends from school. She had a blast, but she didn’t get much sleep. (We will post her picture) Alayna’s class is hatching baby chicks, they will hatch this week. Tyler got the solo for the 4th grade choir concert!! We are so proud of him! Kayla is extra lucky because I am subbing her math class for 2 weeks! I am subbing for her teacher who went in for surgery this week. Tomorrow we have a field trip to Camp Courageous ( with all the 6th graders) It should be 54 and sunny- good thing since we are outside all day. I have been subbing every single day, which is great. Still no job openings. Sounds like there probably won’t be this year.
Ok, I guess that’s my quick update. Hopefully we will all start feeling better and have a good week. We would sure love to hear from everyone- hint, hint!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Harry Potter and BBQing in the snow
March 30, 2008
Marisa and Kayla were invited to an all night Harry Potter party this weekend. They stayed up all night watching all 5 movies in a row and playing guitar hero in between movies. They had so much fun, but were dead tired when they came home. This coming weekend, Marisa has been invited to a Mystery over-nighter at a friends house from school. She is pretty excited about that as well.
Marisa got her braces off this week (yea- freedom!!) And she got her new retainer. She can barely speak with it, but happy to have the braces off. She started tennis team this week. They cancelled practice on Monday because of snow and ice on the courts, but it was melted enough to start practice on Tuesday. She is starting out ranked 5th place over all the 7th and 8th grade girls in both middle schools. That is quite an accomplishment!!
Kayla had her birthday this week and turned the terrific age of 12! Today is her first day in YW. She requested steak for her birthday dinner. So, we ended up BBQing steak in a huge freak snow storm that hit. I’ll post some pictures. Anyway, her Battle of the Books team had their last competition on Wednesday and they won!!! They beat every team in the whole school and are the first 6th grade team to have ever won!! Pretty cool! Kayla also had her culture fair for her world languages class. She did hers on Italy. They had to make a big display board and then bring authentic food for people to try. We stayed up the night before making Italian butter cookies which were a huge hit. As you can see, Kayla has had a very busy week.
Tyler and Alayna had a sock hop at school on Friday to celebrate reading week. They also had a “read and feed” day, “drop and feed” day, etc. They had a very fun week. Alayna has become a reading fiend and begs us to read to her or listen to her read all the time. She especially likes to read with her daddy.
I have had an incredibly busy week as well. I was called in early to sub Tuesday morning. When I got there they also asked me to sub for a teacher (Mrs Alexander) for the next week. I said sure. Mrs. Alexander’s daughter was in a severe car accident over spring break and part of the car rammed into her upper thigh and broke her leg. They had to take her in for surgery to put a rod in her thigh and do a muscle and skin graft. To top it off, she is 8 months pregnant, so they are doing everything they can to keep the baby inside and safe. But that means her daughter has to go with very little pain medication. Anyway, I am subbing her class 3 days this week, then Tylers the last 2. Then next week I sub for Kayla’s math teacher for 2 weeks who is going for surgery. The school also said Mrs Alexander is considering taking the remainder of the year off and asked if she did, would I be willing to take over for the remainder of the year. I said “of course”. So, we should find out in the next week if I will be doing that. Bob has also had a busy week since his work has now asked them to start working overtime until October with no pay. That makes me so mad. That is one of the main reasons we left LA. Bob is very frustrated by it as well.
Tonight we sign up Marisa for seminary and youth conference and both girls for girls camp. This coming summer is going to be crazy busy. I was down with a migraine and sick tummy over the weekend. I just hope I feel better by tomorrow because I cant miss school. A special CONGRATULATIONS to Missy and Clark on their new gorgeous baby girl!! Ribera’s- we hope all went well with the performances of the Messiah and look forward to hearing all about them. Well, I guess that sums up our week, we look forward to hearing from you!
Marisa and Kayla were invited to an all night Harry Potter party this weekend. They stayed up all night watching all 5 movies in a row and playing guitar hero in between movies. They had so much fun, but were dead tired when they came home. This coming weekend, Marisa has been invited to a Mystery over-nighter at a friends house from school. She is pretty excited about that as well.
Marisa got her braces off this week (yea- freedom!!) And she got her new retainer. She can barely speak with it, but happy to have the braces off. She started tennis team this week. They cancelled practice on Monday because of snow and ice on the courts, but it was melted enough to start practice on Tuesday. She is starting out ranked 5th place over all the 7th and 8th grade girls in both middle schools. That is quite an accomplishment!!
Kayla had her birthday this week and turned the terrific age of 12! Today is her first day in YW. She requested steak for her birthday dinner. So, we ended up BBQing steak in a huge freak snow storm that hit. I’ll post some pictures. Anyway, her Battle of the Books team had their last competition on Wednesday and they won!!! They beat every team in the whole school and are the first 6th grade team to have ever won!! Pretty cool! Kayla also had her culture fair for her world languages class. She did hers on Italy. They had to make a big display board and then bring authentic food for people to try. We stayed up the night before making Italian butter cookies which were a huge hit. As you can see, Kayla has had a very busy week.
Tyler and Alayna had a sock hop at school on Friday to celebrate reading week. They also had a “read and feed” day, “drop and feed” day, etc. They had a very fun week. Alayna has become a reading fiend and begs us to read to her or listen to her read all the time. She especially likes to read with her daddy.
I have had an incredibly busy week as well. I was called in early to sub Tuesday morning. When I got there they also asked me to sub for a teacher (Mrs Alexander) for the next week. I said sure. Mrs. Alexander’s daughter was in a severe car accident over spring break and part of the car rammed into her upper thigh and broke her leg. They had to take her in for surgery to put a rod in her thigh and do a muscle and skin graft. To top it off, she is 8 months pregnant, so they are doing everything they can to keep the baby inside and safe. But that means her daughter has to go with very little pain medication. Anyway, I am subbing her class 3 days this week, then Tylers the last 2. Then next week I sub for Kayla’s math teacher for 2 weeks who is going for surgery. The school also said Mrs Alexander is considering taking the remainder of the year off and asked if she did, would I be willing to take over for the remainder of the year. I said “of course”. So, we should find out in the next week if I will be doing that. Bob has also had a busy week since his work has now asked them to start working overtime until October with no pay. That makes me so mad. That is one of the main reasons we left LA. Bob is very frustrated by it as well.
Tonight we sign up Marisa for seminary and youth conference and both girls for girls camp. This coming summer is going to be crazy busy. I was down with a migraine and sick tummy over the weekend. I just hope I feel better by tomorrow because I cant miss school. A special CONGRATULATIONS to Missy and Clark on their new gorgeous baby girl!! Ribera’s- we hope all went well with the performances of the Messiah and look forward to hearing all about them. Well, I guess that sums up our week, we look forward to hearing from you!
Friday, March 28, 2008
March 26 - Pictures
Sunday, March 23, 2008
I’m dreaming of a white…Easter??
March 23, 2008
I know my posts are not doing much to convince any of you to move to Iowa, but this could be my first Easter in a snowstorm. I am amazed the Easter bunny found us! I didn’t get a newsletter up last week, but hopefully you were able to see the concerts we posted.
Previous week update:
Kayla’s Battle of the Books team won again. If they win Wednesday, they win overall for the whole school! Her band had their concert (it had been rescheduled 3 times due to weather!) We posted some of the concert on the blog. I know you can’t see her too well, but she is in the clarinet section.
Marisa had her violin concert; we posted it on our blog. I thought she did a very nice job. (Grandpa Ribera, Marisa would like the violin music for the Messiah so she can start practicing) She also had her big NHD showcase. It was so funny- every time she went to demonstrate the guillotine, a huge crowd gathered. Then you would hear all these “ooohs” and “ahhhs”. She did an excellent job and had the option to go to Regionals, but she would have had to spend her entire Spring Break working on it and she just wasn’t willing to do that. I can’t blame her, she needed the break. We will post a video with her explaining the project and demonstrating the guillotine for you (pretty cool.)
I took a grammar final from you know where. It was 2 hours, 19 pages, all hand written. It was B-R-U-T-A-L!!! I am so glad to have it done. My professor is very slow so I still don’t know how I did or even if I have everything done for the class that I need to. When this endorsement is in ink, I will have one heck of a party!!
This week update:
We had a fun St. Patrick’s Day. The kids made green French toast and green eggs. They looked pretty nasty, almost moldy, but tasted delicious.
This week was Spring Break. I went into my usual “spring cleaning” mode, which interpreted means “complete insanity of deep cleaning and deep organizing.” (Ask our kids- they can tell you what those mean!) However, I have found that I just don’t have the stamina anymore to accomplish what I used to. My cabin-fever kids were cooped up in the 32° and I swear could have given the WWF a run for their money. I swear when the weather gets warm, I am locking them outside for 24 hours!
We celebrated Kayla’s birthday this week, since we could stay out late! We went to Planet X. She invited a few friends along. We did laser tag, miniature golf, bumper cars, arcade games, etc. We all had such a great time. Maybe I can talk her into taking a few minutes to tell all about it. Anyway, she had a horse cake and got some fun presents including a new sleeping bag for girls camp! She actually turns 12 this week on the 26th!
Marisa is supposed to start tennis team tomorrow. I guess we will see if the snow melts off the courts. I guess that is a quick update of our past couple of weeks. We hope everyone has a HAPPY EASTER and hope to get updates on EVERY family this week.
I know my posts are not doing much to convince any of you to move to Iowa, but this could be my first Easter in a snowstorm. I am amazed the Easter bunny found us! I didn’t get a newsletter up last week, but hopefully you were able to see the concerts we posted.
Previous week update:
Kayla’s Battle of the Books team won again. If they win Wednesday, they win overall for the whole school! Her band had their concert (it had been rescheduled 3 times due to weather!) We posted some of the concert on the blog. I know you can’t see her too well, but she is in the clarinet section.
Marisa had her violin concert; we posted it on our blog. I thought she did a very nice job. (Grandpa Ribera, Marisa would like the violin music for the Messiah so she can start practicing) She also had her big NHD showcase. It was so funny- every time she went to demonstrate the guillotine, a huge crowd gathered. Then you would hear all these “ooohs” and “ahhhs”. She did an excellent job and had the option to go to Regionals, but she would have had to spend her entire Spring Break working on it and she just wasn’t willing to do that. I can’t blame her, she needed the break. We will post a video with her explaining the project and demonstrating the guillotine for you (pretty cool.)
I took a grammar final from you know where. It was 2 hours, 19 pages, all hand written. It was B-R-U-T-A-L!!! I am so glad to have it done. My professor is very slow so I still don’t know how I did or even if I have everything done for the class that I need to. When this endorsement is in ink, I will have one heck of a party!!
This week update:
We had a fun St. Patrick’s Day. The kids made green French toast and green eggs. They looked pretty nasty, almost moldy, but tasted delicious.
This week was Spring Break. I went into my usual “spring cleaning” mode, which interpreted means “complete insanity of deep cleaning and deep organizing.” (Ask our kids- they can tell you what those mean!) However, I have found that I just don’t have the stamina anymore to accomplish what I used to. My cabin-fever kids were cooped up in the 32° and I swear could have given the WWF a run for their money. I swear when the weather gets warm, I am locking them outside for 24 hours!
We celebrated Kayla’s birthday this week, since we could stay out late! We went to Planet X. She invited a few friends along. We did laser tag, miniature golf, bumper cars, arcade games, etc. We all had such a great time. Maybe I can talk her into taking a few minutes to tell all about it. Anyway, she had a horse cake and got some fun presents including a new sleeping bag for girls camp! She actually turns 12 this week on the 26th!
Marisa is supposed to start tennis team tomorrow. I guess we will see if the snow melts off the courts. I guess that is a quick update of our past couple of weeks. We hope everyone has a HAPPY EASTER and hope to get updates on EVERY family this week.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
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