Happy New Year!

As 2009 comes to an end, may this coming year be one of happiness and many blessings for all of you. One of my dreams for this coming year is to be chosen for a Design Team for one of the many stamp companies. I am hoping to have more time to create cards to enter in "challenges" in hopes of becoming more "known". I realize this is a pipe dream but, hey, you have to start somewhere! As a result I created a separate blog for my hobby called Cindy's Creations so check it out from time to time - www.cindys-creations.blogspot.com. I hope to start posting things to it soon. I am going to keep this site to family-related news. Thanks for visiting my blogs and leave a note if you have time!

Grandma's adventure

You can imagine my surprise when Grandma's doctor's office called and asked me to come get her and take her to ER. She had gone for a follow-up blood pressure appointment and was having a hard time breathing and was very cold. He felt she was serious enough, and her oxygen level low enough to warrant being hospitalized. After an EKG, chest x-ray, IV put in and blood drawn, two additional blood draws for cultures, a breathing treatment, and given oxygen, they determined her white cell count was low enough to put her on antibiotics (the chest x-ray didn't show anything significantly different than past ones). After 4+ hours home we came. Hopefully the meds will improve how she feels as today goes on.

December 26th

Hard to believe it's the day after Christmas already. So much preparation and anticipation ... and over so quickly. The children chose to open their gifts on Christmas Eve this year and, on Christmas Day, we attended the 12:30 Mass so it was a leisurely morning. Rather than the traditional turkey dinner, chicken cacciatore was requested so less time in the kitchen too! While I enjoy this time of year it is also a very sad and difficult time for me as I miss so very much my family and dear friends who are far away.

Since I was bemoaning the fact I have the entire year to put into a digital scrapbook (just what was I thinking?), thought I would post some of the highlight pictures of the last couple of days.

I made the kids suffer through another photo session on Christmas morning ...

Ryan's bike and helmet - the highlight of his day ...

Connor is wearing several of his gifts - shirt, jersey, Cal sweatpants, but you get the idea! His DS was the "big" gift.

Kelleigh asked for Webkinz, DS games, and of course some Twilight items! (The "peace" shirt is new too.)

Grandma received LOTS of books so she'll be busy until next Christmas ...

And I couldn't forget my babies who so love the torture of wearing their ears ...

Hope your day was fun!

Saturday's projects

When I took the bridal notepad to school to give to Dana, Eileen loved it ... and after school was saying how she needed to get organized for the classroom projects after the holidays, etc. So last night I made one for her (which I love) and one for her husband (who got me hooked on the Kindle) and each daughter in their favorite color! They are very fun to make and all come out so different.

Thursday night

I had a wonderful conversation this afternoon with my Dad who I called to wish a belated birthday. They surprised my nephew - who shares a birthday with him - as it was his 18th yesterday. So hard to believe that many years have gone by.

Tomorrow is my last day in the classroom which makes me sad as I will miss the kids but hope to visit the class often. I am delighted that the sub who I have worked with these last six weeks is going to stay part-time and work with kids doing Impact. She is getting married in July and I may be doing her wedding invitations! Since I was busy getting ideas together to show her tomorrow, I was in a creative mood and made the following notepad "portfolio" for her.

These are holiday cards that I made for another dear teacher friend to give her two room moms. The cards are in clear "folders" on the front and the back has the envelopes in another folder all in a handy little portfolio!

A difficult decision

I made the hard decision to turn in my resignation effective the end of the day Friday, Dec. 18th, for the Instructional Assistant job I've done for the better part of a year and a half. I'm hoping to continue doing the admin portion of my job in the office but that is up to the Principal; I am content with whatever her decision is. While I tried to continue for the financial side of it, it became clear to me that I needed to make other choices. This is also the last week for the long-term sub that I've been working with and have grown very fond of. It is so sad to see enthusiastic and extremely qualified new teachers have no prospect of permanent jobs and next year's opportunities in this district will be even less.

For those of you who haven't gotten Susan Boyle's CD "I Dreamed a Dream", get it! It is one of the most gorgeous collection of songs, not to mention sung so beautifully, that I've heard in a very long time. Has everyone seen "The Blind Side" yet - if not, you're missing out on another incredible story.

Ryan is going to help me wrap presents later. No more gifts to buy but a few I'm still waiting on. Enjoy what's left of your weekend!

A great Dancer!

Kelleigh's infamous part was Dancer today in the choir/drama ensembles that went to several elementary schools in the area. I was able to see her "perform" when she came to our school and it was indeed quite cute! It won't win any Academy Awards but it did greatly amuse the audience.

Ryan made the declaration at dinner tonight that he "realizes he only has 2-1/2 years of school left and he just needs to gut it out as it will determine a lot of things for his life". While this may not sound very profound for the average kid, it is quite a statement from one who despises school and struggles daily. I think I have his counselor to thank as we saw him today!

My sister also wrote to say that her soon to be 18 year old son got his letter saying he has been admitted into FSU's early admission. We are very excited for him as he's worked hard at college courses these last two years of high school and carries a high GPA. I believe he will enter as a Junior but I will have to confirm that. Congrats Josh!

It has been quite cold here in sunny San Diego and the weather guessers are threatening that another horrible storm is coming in tonight through the weekend. Can hardly wait!

Holiday 2009 Letter

Dear family and friends,

We hope this finds you doing well and enjoying the holiday season. It was another busy year between school and work. We were able to spend a long weekend in August at Shaver Lake visiting friends at their cabin. We always have a great time there and the kids enjoyed jet-skiing, fishing, campfires, and, of course, making s’mores!

Mark & Cindy
In May Mark was offered the opportunity to teach again at La Costa Canyon High School where he added AP Calculus to his Geometry and Statistics classes. He completed his ELL certification and is also the math department’s instructor for a new software package the district is piloting. His love of playing golf seems to be on hiatus although he enjoys following the PGA tour events. He remains active with Ryan’s high school as a Foundation member and designed and maintains the football team website as well as being on the chain-gang for home games. He also continues to consult for a start-up company.

Cindy continues to work at the elementary school as an Instructional Aide for a Kindergartener and doing admin jobs for the office. This is her fifth year coordinating the martial arts enrichment program for eight elementary schools and recently took over the admin and website for a local lacrosse organization. She also helps a friend with his Colonial Educator’s business creating fliers and materials for his presentations. She started a blog so family and friends could see what we are up to so be sure and visit it!

The Kids
Ryan is in the 10th grade and busy working toward his driving learner’s permit. He has completed the on-line portion successfully and once he passes the practice test, we can go to the DMV for the real thing! He played football on the JV team this year as an offensive left guard. He did very well and was one of the biggest kids on the team at 6’1” and 245 lbs. Ryan continues to struggle academically, socially, and emotionally and he really does not enjoy being at school. He is now paying the price for a series of bad choices but we have been attending counseling each week and he is trying to put his life back on a positive path. Things are improving and he’s learning that trust must be earned and we won’t allow his choices to impact his siblings. Keep him in your prayers that he will find peace within himself and see the potential he has to be successful.

Connor is in the 7th grade and continues to enjoy middle school and his teachers. He chose art as his elective this year and does really well in it. He received his Black Belt certification in September and has chosen to stop training for now to spend more time playing lacrosse. He was RB’s ball boy for the JV and Varsity games this year and continues to be annoyed we won’t let him play Pop Warner football! You can often find him practicing his kicking out back with his football net and loves wearing his variety of jerseys!

Kelleigh is in the 6th grade and adjusted to middle school life well. She likes changing classes and has really great teachers. Math and art are her favorite subjects and she reads over five books a week – you never see her without one! She took piano lessons until the summer and we hope to begin with a new teacher after the holidays. She continues to practice and plays very well. She and Connor are working towards earning cell phones but have to make the Honor Roll first. Much to our annoyance, their new favorite pastime is to argue as soon as they lay eyes on one another!

“The Boys” are very spoiled and have yet to realize they are dogs! Shadow is now 10 and Buddy is 2. They have their daily routine complete with games, naps, daily snacks from Grandma, bones to chew, and no shortage of attention!

We wish all the best to your family in the coming year and hope that you will keep in touch as we enjoy hearing from all of you.

"Mom, I got the part"

Yesterday Kelleigh told me she was trying out for the part of a mouse in her drama class play. Today she proudly announced she got it! The discussion went something like this:

Me: "Wow, congratulations. What is the name of the play?"
K: "I don't know but the song I'm singing is "It was the Night Before Christmas"."
M: "When is it?"
K: "I don't know but I think I have to miss 4 days of class for it."
M: "Realllllyyy? Will you be doing it at school so parents can come see it?"
K: "No, I think it's at a theatre or something. There's a permission slip on-line as last year parents got mad about that part." (checked on-line - no information remotely resembling a play is on there)
M: "Perhaps tomorrow you could get just a little more information for me...."