February 27, 2007

February 27, 2007

Well, that was a crazy week. We had the biggest ice storm hit, most of the homes lost power, and school and even church were canceled. The roads were like one giant sheet of ice. We were lucky in that we only lost power for 2 ½ hours on Saturday, unlike many people who just got their power back today. We did find that Alayna had hid most of our flashlights and had run out the batteries. Once again, we need to be better prepared.

When I sent the kids out on Saturday to check the mail, a stray puppy followed them into our house! When we tried to get him out, he wouldn’t go. I called the pound, but they weren’t able to get to us because of the ice. They asked us to please keep it ver night because another storm was coming through that night and he wouldn’t fare well overnight outside. So, we set him up in the garage , but the wind was brutal and it was so cold. So, we set him up in the laundry room. He was an adorable laso apso (sp?) who was SO kid friendly, but boy could he bark! Especially, when we lost power. The pound came Sunday afternoon and got him. They said they have had him in before. He belongs to a single mom who someone gave him to her for mother’s day ad I guess she doesn’t like it. Maybe she should give it to a family who would love him. Just not us, it took me days to get the wet dog smell out of the house!!

Last week, we had Tyler’s first blue and gold banquet. They had a cake decorating contest and I even got to be a judge. Tyler made the coolest cake. He told me he wanted a two layer circle cake. So, I made that. Then he wanted to decorate it with chocolate frosting and M&M’s. so, I gave him the cake, the toppings, and let him go to town. He made an awesome looking cake and won the award for the “Most chocolicious cake”. When it was time for dessert, his cake was the first one devoured and he was so proud!

We also had the kindergarten orientation, so we turned in all her paperwork and she is ready to go. I am so excited about this new school and for this new experience for her. I think she will flourish there. I also ended up taking her to the doctor and found out she had a severe sinus infection. She is almost done with her antibiotics and is doing 100% better now.

We spent the weekend starting our spring cleaning and finished up the storage room and toy room which were no easy task! But it feels good to have those done. Now Alayna can actually PLAY in the toyroom and we wont kill ourselves walking through it.

Marisa made 2^nd chair for the Festival of the Orchestras!!

Well, I guess that sums up our week. We have a flood watch and winter storm warning for the next two days, so who knows what the week holds?

February 18, 2007

February 18, 2007

Do you have any idea how excited I am that the temperature is supposed to be up to 41 tomorrow? We need to have a “Spring is on the way” party!!! The kids didn’t have school Friday or tomorrow since their teachers have a work day and staff development, so we are enjoying our 4 day weekend. Except poor Bob, who has been working nonstop doing overtime.

On Monday, Kayla had her first major band concert. They held it in the HS gym and it was packed. It was for our district and there were at least 100 kids in the 5^th grade band and probably the same amount in the 6^th. They sounded amazing and Kayla was so excited to be in it. Bob said the 6^th grade band sounded better than a lot of high school bands he has heard. So, once again, we are pleased with this school district!

Tuesday ended up being a snow day. Everything was canceled because the roads were too slick and it wasn’t safe to travel. So, we enjoyed a quiet, lovely day indoors!

We had a GREAT Valentines Day on Wednesday. Alayna even had a fun pajama party at school and she got to frost some sugar cookies. I decorated the kitchen in red, white, pink balloons, and set the table with candles, hershey kisses and my best china. Then I made oven steaks, mashed potatoes, red jello, and wheat bread for dinner and made a hot fudge cake for dessert. To top it all, we watched Lost, which only seems to bring up more questions than give answers, but we still love it!

On Thursday, Tyler had his LEO people fair. He chose to be John F. Kennedy. So, for the past month, he has done tons of research on him, and then did a presidential library on him for his display. He did a great job and I was proud of how well he was able to answer everyone’s questions at the fair. The event was very well attended, quite crowded in fact.

Yesterday, Bob and I were invited to the annual Valentines/Newlywed game extravaganza. Marisa watched the kids while we went. Although we weren’t contestants this year, we had a fantastic evening and it was fun to be out on a date. The couples who hosted it made all the food (chicken cordon bleu, prime rib) and it was an amazing meal!

Alayna and I are home from church today. She has actually been sick most of the week with a bad cold, what I thought was pink eye (but has since cleared up) and a fever. She is doing better today, but kept her home so she doesn’t spread the germs. I woke up feeling under the weather, so I hope I will be back to normal tomorrow. It was a vERY dry sub week last week, and I hope that changes this week, but only if I feel well. I think its hard to stay healthy with this kind of weather. When your inner core temp dosent have a chance to raise, its no fun.

Well, we hope all of you had a Happy Valentines Day and that all are feeling well. We would love to hear from all of you!

Love-

Kris and family

Feb 11, 2007

February 11, 2007

Anyone else out there sick of the subzero temps we have had for two weeks now? You know its bad when we are excited that today’s temp will climb all the way to 33!! Yee-haw!! I may have to get in my swimsuit, it will be so warm. Just kidding, that would be scary!

We had a jam-packed week full of lots of exciting activities:

1. Marisa took the ACT Saturday morning. She thought it was hard, but actually felt she did really well. I think it’s exciting that she gets the chance to try it so early. I think she wasn’t so thrilled it took almost 4 hours, but that’s ok. She also had “New Beginnings” for YW this week and they had a Princess Party. She came home with a bag full of neat things.
2. Kayla had her first gymnastics meet yesterday. She did GREAT!! She won 3 blue ribbons (the highest you can get) and 1 red. She also won a medal!! I think that got her VERY excited for the next meet.
3. Hal and Corey came up and did 6 science presentations at our kid’s schools. They did Tyler’s 3^rd grade class (plus the other 2 3^rd grade classes in the school) and they did Kayla’s class (and the other 2 5^th grade classes as well). Then, they even did Alayna’s preschool class! I didn’t have to sub those days, so I was able to go as well. They did the coolest demonstrations on air pressure. They made garbage bag mummies, made marshmallows and balloons expand in a vacuum chamber, made a water balloon suck into a glass jar using a match, let kids use a giant straw, and of course, blew up some diet coke with mentos, which is always a hit!! Thanks for doing that, Corey and Hal!!!
4. We had a fun Survivor premiere party with root beer floats. I really could never be on that show. I would never sleep or eat and therefore, would not be pleasant to live with. Actually, I could probably make it to the final 2, because everyone would want to take me with them to the final two, so they could have an easy win. Maybe I should consider it?
5. We went to the cooking cottage again to make some meals. The older 3 kids really love going and whipped through making our meals in no time with all that extra help.
6. I finished my online application for the Cedar Rapids district and activated it yesterday. Things are slowly coming together. I must say, I am curious for what is in store for me next year.
7. Marisa is babysitting a dog this week across the street. She just barely had 4 puppies. So, the kids have been over there playing with them this weekend. The puppies are so tiny and barely have their eyes opening. They are once again trying to talk me into getting a puppy, its not gonna happen.
8. Yesterday was our 14 year anniversary of when Bob asked me to marry him. Can you believe that?

Well, I guess that about sums it up. Happy Valentines Day, everyone and enjoy your week!!!!

Feb 5, 2007

February 5, 2007

School was delayed today. Wanna guess why? For frigid temperatures. Wanna guess what constitutes “frigid” here? Well, that would be -38 (with the wind chill) !!!! The wind chill was so bad last night. They warned against anyone going outside as frostbite can start after only 10 minutes outside! I noticed you people in L.A. are at 76 degrees right now. That is just wrong...

Well, let’s see what is new in our chilly, icy, “frigid” neck of the woods: Marisa was accepted into the metropolitan orchestra. She auditioned and made 4th chair out of 25 kids who were auditioning for 2nd violin. That’s for the whole Cedar Rapids Metropolitan area (7th graders). She was able to perform in a huge concert in the Paramount Theater downtown. It is such a cool experience and she had a fun conductor. My favorite number that they did was “Farandole” by Georges Bizet. Wow! They did a great job. She sure loves being a part of such an amazing program.

Kayla also had her school musical performance about Lewis and Clark. She was an indian. It was a great performance and I took a picture of the costume we made for her. Actually, she made most of it and did a great job. I think she is becoming a real performer.

Bob was called to be ward clerk this week and released from the Elder’s Quorum. I was thrilled for him until he was at the church Sunday from 8-5:30- now I am not so sure. I know it won’t be that way every week, but we sure miss him when he isn’t here. Our family history class is going well. We are learning to navigate through the different research websites. It’s amazing how much information is available on the web for genealogy now!

I have been busy subbing quite a bit. I have also been working on a couple of papers for one of my college courses. I spent a good portion of Saturday filling out an electronic application for the Cedar Rapids district. It took forever. But once you have it all complete, it automatically scans you for all jobs you are qualified for and sends ALL your information to the person hiring. Or, if there is a job you really want, you just push the apply button and it sends your stuff priority. It’s actually pretty cool.

I guess that is all that is new here. We did have sick kids for a few days last week, but everyone is well now. We do have a giant snow storm headed in tonight so school may be cancelled tomorrow. Hope everyone else is staying warm and having a great week.

Love,
Kris and family

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