Category Archives: Uncategorized

I should write Winter “Performance.” Having seven four-year-old girls do any sort of organized performance basically elevates their instructor, Miss Diadra, to sainthood. It was mostly us watching class, and a chance for Haley to wear a tutu and a special hair piece in her bun (holly berries!). Still, she was very excited. Jim evenContinue reading “Winter Performance”

This week, I spent three days training at one of the Microsoft buildings in Bellevue. I had a room at the Hyatt the whole time I was gone, starting Sunday night. So Jim and the kids came to Bellevue on Sunday and we enjoyed an evening out together before they went back home for theContinue reading “A Night in Bellevue”

This year we are enjoying our Advent season in several different ways. We choose to focus on the love story between God and His people during this special time of year. I made an Advent calendar with pockets last year, and this year I found a great activity (thanks, Katie!) to use with it. WeContinue reading “Advent”

We had such fun hosting our friends the Schmalzes overnight. We had a yummy dinner, and while we were cooking, the girls dressed in matching Elsa dresses and painted their toe nails (thank you Grandma Keene!). In the morning, the kids could be found snuggled in arm chairs, reading Golden Books. Then we went andContinue reading “Thanksgiving Week”

I found out last week that I got a recognition and a certification. First, I was selected as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert for 2015. Some of you may remember this as the reason we got to go to Barcelona in March. This year, the Global Forum is in Redmond, Washington. 😛 The participants fromContinue reading “Announcements”

In the past eleven days, I have traveled to Palm Springs, Anaheim, Great Falls, Billings, Missoula, and Portland. Not in that order. I went to Palm Springs for Kent School District for the iNACOL conference. It was 89 degrees. At the Hard Rock Hotel with my work teammate, Laurie Friday morning by the pool TheContinue reading “A Little Travel”

UW has this great Daddy-Daughter program, and this year Haley and Jim got tickets. They get to attend women’s sporting events and sit in the special “dads and daughters” section. It comes with a t-shirt for each person and lots of other little giveaways. Last night was the first event and they had a greatContinue reading “Date Night”

Halloween started off with Haley’s preschool festival party. She got to wear her costume to school for the party. (Back up. She also got to wear her costume to ballet Thursday night!) JT and I went to Costco while school was going on, and then joined Haley for her party toward the end of school.Continue reading “Halloween”

Our annual tradition of carving a pumpkin (one) together as a family continued this week. I told JT and Haley that, if they wanted a carved pumpkin, they needed to get goopy. They didn’t want to, but they made a decision to be cheerful about it. Three minutes later, they were done and Jim tookContinue reading “Pumpkin Carving”

We were excited to go up to UW and visit our nephew/cousin, Preston, and see his house. He is living in the 17th Avenue House, where Jim lived in college, but there have been some major improvements. It was fun to see the house, meet some of the guys who live there, and visit hisContinue reading “Visiting Preston”