October 4, 2009

Once again, it's been months since I've update the site. Seems to be my pattern - I guess it has someting to do with being WAY TOO BUSY all the time.

The girls have had an awesome summer, including the following:

In between they spent time swimming and having lots of other fun at A Child's Way. They were gracious enough to allow Katelyn to come back one last summer. They'll take kids up to age 13 as long as they have a prior relationship with them. Katelyn's work learning about teaching young kids made her a favorite with the kindergarteners there.

For me, the summer brought an agonizing time of not knowing if I'd have work, but then my contract was extended through next Februrary to work on the second release of the commercial department intranet makeover, so I'm happy about that. I've been slacking a bit, working fewer hours as I take a day off here and there for important things like Leather Levi Weekend (3 days off), Katelyn's school registration day, visiting Judy, and other assorted fun things.

Val is finding her job situation vastly improved from last year, due mostly to her new boss Andrew who not only treats her as a good manager is supposed to, but also really seems to respect her technical skills and is giving her the freedom to really act as a lead on her team. It's amazing how much feeling confident and respected in your job makes a difference in your overall outlook.

Katelyn is busy studying for her Bat Mitzvah (January 16th). She attends regular religious school every Sunday and meets with the Cantor every Thursday. Starting on 10/22, I (and hopefully Val) will be accompanying her to meetings with first Rabbi Ettlinger to discuss her Torah portion, and then with Rabbi Feder to discuss her sermon. Meanwhile I'm trying to plan the party and other related things, which is hectic. And now we're working on invitations, yarmulkes, etc.

Katelyn is also continuing her karate studies. She's enjoying being one of the senior green belts in her class, and is looking forward to getting her blue belt. Meanwhile she's early interim stripes on her green belt, so she's progressing well. The most important thing is that she really enjoys it, and it helps her keep strong, fit, and confident.

Haley continues to do really well in school, especially in Math, which she loves. She's our little engineer who asked for a rock tumbler and various other science-related things for her birthday. She's doing much better on her school behavior this year, having avoided getting in trouble most of the year so far. She's also re-started Irish Dance, which she really likes, although she still isn't interested in going to a feis (pronounced "fesh"), which is one of their competitions. Perhaps she will as she gets better at it. Haley continues to take piano lessons from Grandma Adrien. We'd hoped to get her started on another instrument but due to budget cutbacks they aren't offering music to 4th graders, only 5th and above, so it will wait until next year. She thinks she wants to play the drums.

September Madness hit us once again. We have this every year with birthdays (mine, Haley's, Glynis', various relatives of Joanie's), High Holy Days, the Folsom Street Fair, and the Heart Walk. All usually within a 2-week period. In order to make it all work we had to have Haley's birthday party on Saturday, September 19th, which is Glynis' birthday, which she graciously scaled back. So it went like this:

Needless to say, the last couple of weeks have been EXHAUSTING, but fun.

Other interesting and notable things we've done since I've last written:

We've also continued to have fun with visiting friends or having them over. In particular: