A Week in the Life of...

Hola!

It's a long weekend here--Rosh Hashanah on Monday--so the kids get Monday off.  It always cracks me up that we wait so long to START school, then right off the bat they get a long weekend for Rosh Hashanah, then NEXT week they'll get Wednesday off for Yom Kippur.  It's a choppy September.

SOCCER.  Of course our soccer news is for Kara.  Background is, the town has soccer teams for all ages of kids.  The season is appx. 10 weeks: 2 practices a week, + games on Saturdays.

The Middle School also has a soccer team, for 7th and 8th graders.  (Kara is in 7th grade.)  Practices are after school 4 of the 5 weekdays, + games during the week after school.  So Kara was already on a town team, and she wanted to try out for the school team, too.

Tryouts were last week, 3 days.  20 girls can be on the team, and they "favor" the 8th graders.  FIFTY girls showed up to try out!  14 of the girls who made it were 8th graders.  So they chose six 7th graders, and...Kara made the team!  She was so excited.  Congratulations, Kara!  :)

TUTORING.  I also started tutoring English Language Learners (ELL or ESL) again, at the same 2 elementary schools where I worked last year.  I will work 2 days a week, with children grades K-3.  We are still in the "testing" phase, to see how many additional kids including summer move-ins and new Kindergarteners, we will add to the students who receive services.  The Kindergarteners are so little!

I have been thinking about getting my ELL certificate, so I could be an official "ELL teacher."  I need to take 2 standardized tests, pay fees, and have my transcripts sent to them.  It's kind of a long process, and a little arbitrary.

My degrees are also from 20 years ago, for Pete's sake!  They may laugh and say "time for you to start over."  I took the 1st standardized test last week.  The 2nd test is specifically about English as a Second Language so I'll have to either take a course or study by myself about the theories, etc. behind learning second languages.


CAR MAINTENANCE.  Frank took the car over to help the girls in the church youth group learn about maintaining your car.  Checking the oil, other fluids, jumpstarting the car, etc.  They had quite an extensive list, and I think they learned a few things they did not know before.

TARANTULA.  Ok, I'm going through photos and I thought this one was cool.  That's Frank's ring so I know it is him, but I can't remember what trip this was, exactly...?

GRANDMA.  And I'll end with this Blast from the Past: Thanksgiving, 2002.  It's our family reunion, and her's a photo of Grandma with all of her great-grandchildren!  This was almost 10 years ago.  You can imagine, that now we have 2 more in the group, plus all the kids have changed.  (Grandma, of course, has not!)  These same great-grandkids are graduating college and serving missions, or married and starting their own families!  Grandma is 101 for another 3 months.  You can click on the photo to enlarge it.  Love you, Grandma!

Have a great week, Kari :)

2nd Gear into 5th

Hola!

That was Frank's description of the transition from summer to fall, just over the past week or 10 days:

"All of a sudden we shifted from second gear, into fifth."

Of course our calendar is full of all good things.  But everything starts up all at once, and I fill the calendar with pick-up times, evening events, back-to-school nights, sports practices and games.  Oh, and then there are church activities and friend and neighborhood events.

Ho-ho-ho!!  (Bet you didn't know that Christmas is almost here...)

I'm kidding.  Christmas is a LOOOOOOOOng time from now!

FIRST DAY of SCHOOL.  The kids went back to school on Tuesday.  Here they are, humoring their mom by standing still for a picture (during the mad dash to get out the door).

Early-morning seminary also started, on Thursday.  Nothing like hitting the ground running.  That alarm goes off VERY early.  Painful for everyone involved.  Good thing they have awesome seminary teachers!

SOCCER.  Kara had her first soccer game last Saturday.  That's for the town team, and she also wants to be on the school team.  We'll see how tryouts go.

VOLLEYBALL.  Teresa played her first away games this week.  I can't wait for a home game so I can watch!

REFFING.  Teresa has taken classes to be a ref for the town youth soccer games this season.  Her first game will be at the end of this week.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL NIGHT.  Amazingly, the High School already had their Back-to-School night, after just 3 days of school.  I still think the new building is to die for.  Worth all the hassle and hype, and paying our property taxes through the nose.  It's beautiful.

RED SOX GAME.  Frank and I had Red Sox tickets last Friday night!  It poured.  Then it stopped, so the game was delayed about 90 minutes.  The best part?  The Internet saved us...we saw the storm warnings online, so we waited at home.  Then the Red Sox website kept us updated on start time status.  By the time we found out the new start time, we had avoided the nasty traffic and weather, and sailed right downtown to Fenway.  Very cool.

FRANK GETS BETTER.  Well, he is still coughing some, but the cough always lasts the longest, I think.  He was in bed for 3 days, for Pete's sake, but has slowly come out of the "sick fog" this week.  Ugh.

Hope your week was productive--  Onward!  Love, Kari