A different look...

Well, I went to have my haircut today at a new salon with a new stylist. She was recommended to me by my good neighbor Amy. Naomi (the stylist) was great! She is so friendly, listens and understands what I want and is very energetic. She asked if she could straighten my hair for me, so I said sure, why not! And this is the result. I could not help but laugh out loud at myself, I kept looking in that mirror in the salon and I could see my own mouth move, but it was not me in the reflection. Just crazy and super fun. It was a fun day to be doing something a bit different. Thought you all might enjoy this one as well.

SHE'S A GENIUS!!

Atira had a reading assessment done a couple of weeks ago and it turns out she is reading right around a 6th grade level! WOO HOO!! She loves to read (just like her brother) and we are so happy that she has been given this gift, a love of literature. The teacher who assessed her stopped at the fourth grade assessments saying there would be nothing left to assess her on in future years, but that most likely she is reading much higher than 5th...so that led to 6th! She is doing a wonderful job and growing up to be such a smart girl!

ok, really, this is it...

Ok, since blogger was being disagreeable I had to break up my post into three, which really doesn't work very well because you read what I intended to be last first. Stink. Ok, here is the upside, the last post (this one) is sure to be the funniest of all, at least in my humble opinion (either way it cracks me up). So you decide, start here, enjoy a laugh and then go down and read the rest. Or, scroll down to the bowl of cornflakes and read up.

I should probably put in a some kind of warning or rating for the following picture...but I will let you adults decide what is appropriate for you to see and what is not. Now to give you some background, Scott and Josh also played the Wii tennis game. Needless to say they are lacking in skills, and that is not just my opinion, you can see if for yourself on the game system, it ranks your skills right on there and it kept telling them they had no skills. So anyway, here is a shot of them after playing for a couple of minutes, I think it was just a bit too much activity for them. And someone should tell them to not fear the ball....it's only a video game.

now then, where did I leave off??

Wow! What a winter (and even fall) it has been around here! First we had rain, so much rain! We had flooding everywhere making it difficult to even get out of our little neck of the woods! Next came snow, lots of snow! It was so beautiful and the kids could not have been happier! They hit the hills straight away! It is nice to have a driveway that is a hill in the snow, we don't have to travel anywhere for a good sledding spot. After that came the wind, boy what a screamer of a windstorm that was! Thanksfully we only lost power from about 10:30 at night until around 5AM. Not bad for us. But not so for many other people, my grandparents were out for 4 days and some even longer than that. Incredible winter, and we are not even half way through it yet!

And now, Hanukkah! It was our fourth year celebrating and the most fun yet. The kids had a wonderful time and so did mom and dad. We enjoyed the company of family and friends over several different nights as well as one cold, but very clear night spent at a Seattle mall watching a 15 foot menorah being lit up with music and lots of people all around. That was a fun time, not to mention we ran into some friends of ours and it was a true joy to get to see them again. We have lots of fond memories of this year and look forward to it again next year.



And finally, something a little more serious. To the untrained eye, this might look like Serena and Venus Williams, but if you had seen my friend Kyla and I playing their new Wii tennis game on New Years Eve, you would be able to quickly discern that this is really us, rockin' the tennis court! OW! Oh yeah, about 4 hours later we were total pros and even contemplating how we could use our considerable skills to shark people. Ya know, let them think we stink, then go in for the kill. It's gonna be great. I am gonna have to start buffin' up too, my right arm was killing me the next day. But hey, that is the price you pay when you play at the level we are at. Kyla, glad we decided to team up and not kill each other, this will be way more fun and just think of all the fun stuff we will have to talk about!

Ok....I have one more thing to show you, but again...you will have already read it by the time you get here...but wasn't it funny?

WHAT A FLAKE!

WOW! I cannot believe that it has been so long since I have last updated my blog! I have to apologize to my friends and family! And everyone can send out a nice thank you to my neighbor, Kyla for ever so gently (not, *giggle*) reminding me that I am WAY overdue! But really, thanks Kyla! I needed a not so gentle kick in the rear to get in here and get things going again! SO, here we go, I am gonna update ya on everything going on around here since the last post!


Look who got concrete!! WOO HOO! What a great day that was! Our driveway has been poured and we have a street again! We're movin' on up! Although it was nice to pretend we were back in the hood for a while, brought back warm fuzzy memories of days gone by. Our neighbors have been so faithful about making sure we feel right at home. I wonder if they used to live in the hood too?


This is a picture of the kids saying good bye, for now, to our good friend Terri. She recently moved to Israel, Jericho to be exact. She is working with refugees, teaching them english. She is such a wonderful lady and a true friend. We will miss seeing her regularly, but are praying for her safety and protection while she away.


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
This is the thanksgiving that Atira hosted for our good friends next door along with her brother. They had such fun recreating a kids thanksgiving meal and I just love this picture of them all. We had a joyous holiday here on Thanksgiving day with family from both sides. I think it is so great how my family and Scott's come together to celebrate as one larger family. It truly makes the day memorable and I don't think our kids could ever be happier than when there are six (yeah, count em) six grandparents in one room. I hardly saw those two! Not to mention Uncle Geoff, he truly made the night complete for my kids! Hope everyone else had a wonderful day too.


Ok, blogger is being weird, I was planning to go on with a couple of more photos, so to do that I am going to publish this post and reopen another one and try to finish out my story. Sorry! So, things will end up a bit backwards, you will have most recent first and later next, oh well.
Thanks for taking the time to read up on how we are doing out here!
Love and miss all our family!