Jan 28, 2007

January 28, 2007

It’s a gorgeous 0 degrees this morning, but with the windchill is -15!! Anybody else out there ready for spring to begin? It may be cold, but that sure doesn’t slow us down. We have had lots going on around here.

The most exciting thing this week was Tyler had his very first pinewood derby!! He was so excited about it. We watched the movie “Down and Derby” last weekend so he could see what it was like. Those dads on the movie seemed unrealistic- or so I thought, until we went to our derby! Anyway, Tyler tried to paint lightning on his car, but it didn’t work. So, he just painted yellow and orange blobs over the red. I will post some pictures- he was SO proud. He ended up winning his first four races and lost his last four. He is so excited for next year that he has already created his “design” which is Spongebob and Patrick riding in a blue car. I will let you know how it goes!

Bob and I were asked to start attending the Family History course. We are very excited to have a time set to work on it and lots of people to help. Thank you all for sending us the work you have already done. I was shocked when we downloaded Grandma Cunningham’s file to see 6,500 names. Holy Cow!!! Marisa is excited to help as a personal progress project. Very cool!

We got all of Alayna’s kindergarten paperwork this week. Her orientation is in February! In some ways, she has grown up very fast.

This week is full of “stuff”. Marisa has her chair auditions for the Metropolitan concert she is playing in next weekend. She also has a choir concert this week. Kayla has her 5th grade musical. She tried out for a part and didn’t, make it which was heartbreaking! But she was chosen to be an indian, so this weekend we have been working on designing her cool costume. I’ll send pics when we finish.

One of my professors started sending me assignments even though its not an official class yet. I see many hours of work ahead of me. Jobs are already starting to be posted, so I am trying to get prepared. It was a quiet sub week. I only subbed a half day. I do sub tomorrow all day. Bob has been working overtime the past few weeks and is almost done with volleyball season.

If any of you are interested, this is the address where we posted all our family slideshows.
We take all of our pictures from the year and put it together with music. We think they are fun. Please let us know what you think. Have a wonderful week!

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=67415



Kris and Family

Week in Review- Jan 15, 2007

January 15, 2007

Week in Review:

1. Tyler’s expander broke, so we had to take an unplanned trip to the dentist to have it fixed and recemented on.
2. Marisa placed 2^nd in the school Geography Bee. Here is what I wrote on that:

Marisa placed 2^nd in the whole school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She kicked butt the first 5 rounds. She never missed a question. She beat out all the 7^th and 8^th graders! She got to the final round and then went against a 6^th grader for the championship round (this kid had missed one question, but you have to miss two to get out.) In this championship round their slates went clean. They both got the first question right. Then Marisa got the next one wrong, the boy got it right, then they both missed the last question , so she lost. She was beating herself up over it, but I am WAY proud. 2^nd in the entire school is nothing to sneeze at.

3. I taught Kayla’s class for ½ day this week. I also taught another 5^th grade class in her school on Friday and another class at the middle school for ½ day. Another very busy sub day!
4. We had a very sad loss of a special member of our family. Our 9 year old TV finally gave out. As devastating as that was, it was more devastating knowing our favorite show “24” was back on this weekend. So, we moved the DDR TV into the living room and scooted our couch and chairs all within a few feet of the TV. WE plan to get an LCD flat screen someday…someday…
5. Speaking of 24…it was awesome!!! I can hardly wait for part 2 tonight!
6. Bob is finally feeling better but now we have Kayla and Alayna sick. Note to self: must convince family to stop sharing everything with each other!!!
7. We had our first giant snowfall last night. So, since the kids have the day off, they went out to build a snow man and play in the snow. Since they built it on the side of the house and its 8 degrees outside, I wont get a picture taken of it today…
8. Nothing else new going on. Have a great week!

Kris and Family

January 8, 2007

January 8, 2007

Quick note for the week:

I got hit with a cold dose of reality on Wednesday morning at 5:45am , when I had to get up and get ready for work. That vacation was way too short. Anyway, I was given the opportunity to teach Mrs. Yerke 7th grade reading classes for W/TH/F. I really enjoyed it and love being able to see the same kids three days in a row. Wow- what a difference that made!! I will admit though, I was very tired on Saturday. I ended up having to deep clean Saturday instead of my normal Friday.
We found out Marisa placed 1st on her team (150 kids) and qualified for the school Geography Bee which will be held Tuesday. I am subbing Kayla’s class that morning but subbing at Excelsior for the afternoon so I will be able to see the school Bee. I know she is nervous, but she is just hoping she does better than last year.
Bob was up all last night sick. So, he stayed home from work. Hope I don’t get it, I have too much going on. Tomorrow after the Bee we have gymnastics and then babysitting for a family in our ward.
Glad Grandma Annie made it home from the hospital and is doing well. We were so sad to hear though that the girls bunnies died. Anyway, I know this is short, but its another busy one. I will write more this weekend.

Kris

January 1, Part 2

January 1, 2006- Part 2

I want to start out by saying you should ALL go see “Night at the Museum”!!! It was such a fantastic movie and I thought Ben Stiller was great in it. We took the kids over Christmas break and laughed through the whole thing!

Anyway, continuing from yesterdays blog (Part 1)...We had a prefect Christmas. It was so relaxing and well, just perfect. The kids got great gifts and they played with their new stuff all day. We had crepes in the morning and enjoyed a turkey dinner in the evening. We also watched lots of fun movies.

On Tuesday, the kids had gymnastics and Bob’s parents and brother, Jeff, arrived. We spent lots of time watching movies and hooking up the 5 computers to play “Midtown madness”. We went to the special Japanese Restaurant called “Osaka” where they cook your food in front of you. The food was excellent and it was very entertaining. It was our way of celebrating our family finishing reading the Old Testament! We also went out shopping to spend our Christmas money.

This weekend Bob took the kids to Illinois to play at the Harts home and celebrate New Years. I stayed here to get my mile high pile of things to do done. The last day of school I turned in all my teaching applications and portfolio. It looks like there may not be any jobs available this coming year, but there will be next year when they expand a new middle school. So, I guess I will just see what happens. Another year of subbing may be in the cards. So, anyway, I have enjoyed a quiet weekend and hae gotten so much done. Its amazing what you can do when you don’t have to constantly be on your toes making sure no one cuts their hair off!!

We are excited for this new year to come and , as always, wonder what it has in store for us. We wish all of you a Happy New Year and may your year be filled with health and happiness!

Love,
kris and family

January 1 - Part 1

January 1, 2006- Part 1
This Holiday vacation has flown by so fast! I didn’t even get a newsletter up last week. I thought I should catch up on all this fun stuff that has been going on here.

First, Marisa was once again accepted into the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Orchestra for middle school. That was exciting news and she looks forward to the performance in February. She has auditions coming up soon for which chair she will be.

As shared with some of you when the event actually occurred, Alayna actually cut off her hair. I will quote my exact thoughts here:

“And the Mother of the Year award goes to...Me!!!! For NOT beating my child when I found her cutting off all her hair!! She was only alone for 5 minutes. She had been playing with daddy and he ran to the bathroom. She did it that fast. Thank heavens, because of years of experience, I didn't beat her, I just screamed in unholy terror at the site before me. A dorky looking boy with a mullet. I have a friend in the ward who was an angel and did a night house call on the spur of the moment. She did a great job fixing it considering the circumstances. It figures- the night before Alayna was to accompany me to help run the medieval fair. Giant- Ugh!!! Wishing me luck raising this kid... PS She keeps crying and saying "I want my hair back!!" Well, tough luck, sista! Should have thought of that instead of your other bright idea. She doesn't want to face people at the fair tomorrow. Instead of a princess, I may just dress her up like a squire!”

She was quite devastated for a while, but then we found her with scissors the next day trying to cut hair off a wig. Ugh!!! We did find some cute headbands and hair bows and calmed down after I reassured her she had NOT turned into a boy just because her hair was short!

Marisa also had her school Medieval Festival that week which I was able to volunteer for. (I was actually the photographer which should scare you all!) Anyway, it was similar to the madrigal dinners we used to do in High School. Marisa played in an orchestra quartet for the Royalty. Alayna was allowed to come too- she heard from Marisa it was a Prince and Princess party so she went all out dressing up for it. I will include some pictures.

That same day, Alayna and I went to Kayla’s classroom to help out with her Winter Party. They made marshmallow igloos, tried to unwrap Hershey kisses with gloves, and had lots of treats. It was so fun to go spend time with her in her classroom.

It did end up being a long week since I worked 3 days and volunteered one. I guess I got a feel for what a full time job/full time mom would be like. Can I just tell you how long I slept in on Saturday?

On Sunday, our family was asked to do a musical number in church. We were asked to sing “I believe in Christ”. Marisa accompanied us on her violin and did an amazing job. We sang in 3 part harmony and I think we did a pretty good job. We had a fun relaxing joyous Christmas Eve that night. Tune in for Part 2 of our holiday vacation!

December 17, 2006

December 17, 2006

Can Christmas really be so close? Wow! We are hoping for a very enjoyable and relaxing holiday break. This week is a busy one. I work every day but Tuesday, I am working the 7th grade Medieval festival that Marisa is in, the kids have their holiday parties, etc.

On Friday, Marisa’s chamber orchestra had a Holiday Tour. They performed at Cottage Grove and then I met up with them at the mall. I got to each lunch with her and her friends there and then they performed in the mall. It was a FANTASTIC performance and I just can’t believe how good she is getting. The acoustics where they performed were so great. It was so fun to be there. Then we got to walk around the mall and Alayna even got her picture taken with Santa Clause!

A teacher at Excelsior just found out this week she has breast cancer. (She is not a member but her daughter in law happens to be my visiting teacher!) So, I am covering her class this week when she goes in for surgery and then covering in January for whatever chemo or radiation treatment she will need. It will be one week or a 6 week set. I should know Monday which one she has to do. I am worried about her- she is pretty scared. I can’t blame her, I would be terrified.

Other than that, not much else new is going on. I am home with 2 sick kids- bad colds going around. Hopefully we can keep everyone well to just get through this week! Oh, and our family was asked to sing in church next week. We have been practicing and our harmony sounds pretty good, if I do say so myself. Marisa will also be playing her violin for one of the verses.
We are getting excited for Christmas. Hopefully all of you have received our Christmas letter. If not, let me know, or I just posted it on our blog. Enjoy your week and we love you!

Hart Christmas letter 2006

Hart Family Quiz

1. We went on a family vacation this summer to two family reunions. Where did we go?
A) Winter Park, Colorado
B) Grand Tetons
C) Yellowstone Park
D) South Dakota badlands
Answer? All of the above! It was a great trip that was a lot of fun.
It was also our first time actually camping as a family!

2. What happened to Marisa this year?
A) She turned 12 and started 7th grade
B) She auditioned and made the chamber orchestra (playing violin)
C) She is on the Geography Bee team and her life dream is to visit every country in the world
D) She attended girls camp for the first time and was able to go to the Nauvoo temple
E) She played on the 7th grade girls volleyball team
F) She got braces
Answer? A thru E. She has been very busy and loving every minute of it!!

3. What happened to Kayla this year?
A) She turned 10 and started 5th grade
B) She got a pet turtle named “slowpoke”
C) She started gymnastics and is already on the pre-team
D) She started playing the drums
E) She LOVES horses
Answer? A, C and E! She loves 5th grade and plays the clarinet in band. She is doing a great job in gymnastics and was thrilled to be accepted to the pre-team! She also loved seeing her horse again at Grandma’s house.

4. What happened to Tyler this year?
A) He got glasses
B) He got an expander retainer
C) He got a green belt in Tae Kwon Do and started taking gymnastics
D) He turned 7 and started 2nd grade
E) He got baptized this year and started Cub Scouts
Answer? A, B, C, and E! He turned 8 and started 3rd grade.

5. What happened to Alayna this year?
A) She turned 4 and attends preschool
B) She put the camera down the disposal
C) She started karate
D) She took swimming lessons
Answer? A and D! She actually put all the crayons down the disposal- can’t even explain what kind of a mess that was! She started gymnastics too and can already do a hand stand against the wall. She loves preschool with her new teacher and looks forward to her kindergarten orientation in February.

6. What’s new with Kris and Bob?
A) Bob played on a football team and volleyball team
B) Kris started subbing school part time and taking classes to get her middle school endorsement.
C) Bob changed jobs and is now a professional wrestler
D) Kris completed her nursing degree and is now a labor and delivery nurse
E) Kris and Bob celebrated their 13th anniversary this year
Answer? A, B and E!! Kris plans to start teaching full time at the middle school in the fall.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

All our love,
The Hart Family