Proud Mama!

As a mom, it is so amazing to see your kids succeed at something. Last month, Bjorn was able to attend Challenger Learning Center as part of the SOAR (Student Opportunities for Academic Richness) program at school. At Challenger, students simulate a space mission. He and his classmates prepared for 2 quarters to take part in this program. The had to design a mission patch and run the space mission with no outside help from their teacher. Tonight they had their press conference for the parents. Bjorn has turned into quite the young man. He is so articulate and very poised in front of a group. Here is a video of him giving his portion of the press conference. He was the only student to do a power point. I am definitely a proud mom!

Project 365

One of my many 2009 Resolutions includes updating my blog every Sunday. We have morning church now, so there is no excuse not to spend 15 minutes each week doing this.

For those of you who are aware of the scrapbooking world, Becky Higgins, the scrapbooking queen, has designed a kit called Project 365. The entire premise is that you take one picture each day and then journal about that picture. It can be anything you want, but it is a project that gives a glimpse of what your life is like over an entire year.

I was really excited about it and decided that I wanted to purchase this kit along with about 25,000 other crazy scrapbookers. It went on sale on January 1. I promptly got on to order it at 9:00 am when it went on sale and two hours later finally received a confirmation of my purchase. Come to find out that the kits sold out in two hours, the website crashed with so much traffic on it and there were only 5000 kits to be had.

So I am one of the lucky one's who was able to get my hands on one. Here is our life this last week.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Monday: It is a snowy day outside and quite cold. We are ready to go back to school and Anders decides it is necessary to wear his ski goggles to school.

Tuesday: It is back to swim practice! Here is Bjorn in his brand new Michael Phelps swim cap getting instructions from his coach, Wendy. This brings back so many great memories for me, as a swimmer and as a coach.

Wednesday: This is our commute to school each morning. This is a view of Pikes Pike with the sunrise hitting it. I definitely cannot complain about the scenery here or the beauty I get to see each day. This is the mountain from which Katherine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful." Each day I can see first hand why she wrote "purple mountain majesties."

Thursday: Anders at swim practice. He usually has swim lessons for a half hour, but the next session doesn't start until next week, so here he is watching everyone else swim and asking when he can be on the swim team too!

Friday: 6:20 pm and we are all in our pajamas ready for bed. We were all asleep by 9:30 pm. Let's just say it was a long week. Getting up at 5:30 am each morning, teaching all day, and running the kids around to their activities after school has me pretty wiped by the end of the week. As you can probably guess, Dane is gone right now. He is hanging out in Portland, Oregon.

Saturday: Family Fun Art Day at Bemis School of Art in Colorado Springs. Every three months, the Fine Arts Center's art school has family art day that coincides with current exhibits. It is one of Anders' favorite things to do here in town. They get to paint, play with clay and experiment with all types of art mediums. We are starting to have quite the collection original art work.

We are Back!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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Here is a slide show from this summer and this past weekend. We have been quite busy since the last time I posted. Here is a quick update of our life: July 25-Principal at Bjorn's school calls me to let me know she has to hire another 3rd grade teacher. Wants me to apply for the job. July 28-Apply for job July 29-Interview for job July 30-Get job August 6-Start teaching third grade and my first year of teaching! I am so loving it! I was not planning on looking for a job until next year, but this was such a blessing in our lives. I feel as if I was just handed this job on a plate. It is only a one year contract as the teacher whose position I took is in a one year position at the district. I am working really hard to make sure I have a position there next year. Anders started full day kindergarten and Bjorn started 5th grade. Dane was home for 7 weeks and then deployed to New Orleans for Hurricane Gustav. He is still there. He came home last weekend and we had a great time. Missing him lots! He was a great house husband my first month of school! Spent a day in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was so much fun and it so beautiful there. Passed my teacher's test in August a couple days after I got my job. Anders started playing soccer. The pictures of him looking mean at the boy from the opposite team is because he is covering him and the boy is not standing still. Last weekend at the game, Anders yelled at another boy who was moving away from him, "Hey I am covering you!" Bjorn started the swim team. We have some happy grandparents to finally have a grandchild swimming. He went to his first practice meet today. I was waxing a bit nostalgic remembering the good times growing up at the pool. Although I must say, the indoor pool is a bit nicer for the parental folks than what my parents had to deal with and still do deal with. I have been warned by my dad not to succumb to the swim meet volunteering as I will end up like my mom! We are back to school tomorrow after our two week fall break! That means no more sleeping in, taking naps or just reading a book for fun! Although I can't complain because at the end of the school day I always ask myself, "Was that work?" And I always answer no because teaching is way too much fun!

Do you have time?

One of the first things we do when Dane gets back home is hit all of the local bike shops to look at all the bling. Colorado Springs has some pretty amazing bicycle shops here. Dane is always glad to get back home to them and the bad thing is they all know us around here.

The other day we went into Colorado Cyclist. This is mainly a catalog business with very high end merchandise, but does have a small retail store. It was one of our favorite catalogs to look at when we lived in Washington. Ryan, the manager of the store knows us. We were talking to him about the Copper Triangle Ride that we did last year and told him we wouldn't be able to go this year (Teaching test takes precedent that date). So when he heard that, Phillip, another sales guy comes up to Dane and asks him if he has time to demo a road bike? Well, you should have seen Dane's eyes pop out of his head. You never ask him if he has time to ride because of course he does!

Dane got to demo a Time Carbon Road bike with all Dura-Ace (everything top of the line) for 2 days. Two teams in the Tour de France ride this bike and it retails for $6500. Let's just say Dane loved it! When we brought it back, Ryan asked how he liked it and I said that he was cheating on me. Like Dane says, "It's hard to go back to margarine once you try butter."

Here he is with the bike as proof he got to ride it.

No more single mom!

Today is the day Dane returns home from Atlanta. He is somewhere in the middle of Kansas right now and we are so looking forward to seeing him in a few hours. Anders has a plan of running up to him and giving Dane a big hug when he gets home.

I am so excited to see him and have him here for a few weeks for sure. In honor of his return home here are the top five reasons I love not being a single mom,

5. I don't have to vacuum. Dane does all of the vacuuming. In fact, I am so used to it that when he leaves I often forget to vacuum until midnight and I am not too thrilled about pulling it out then. Trust me with Anders in the house, vacuuming each night is a necessity.

4. Women's Bike Ride night! I get to go and not worry about finding a babysitter to watch the kids.

3. Cooking. It is just not the same making a full on meal with two boys who have very different ideas about what is great food and not as much of an adventurous spirit as Dane and I have when it comes to food. Not only do we make great food, Dane does all of the clean up! Who wouldn't love that!

2. Bike Rides together. These are some of my favorite times spent with Dane. It is a chance to talk (with Bjorn we don't get to talk much as he likes to do all of the talking), enjoy the beautiful scenery here in Colorado and get some much needed exercise.

1. Waking up next to my sweetheart! It is just not the same waking up to a 5 year old who has crawled into your bed in the middle of the night and a 10 year old sleeping on the floor of your room.

Here's to you Dane and your three weeks home!

Bugger

Yesterday we acquired a new pet. Anders comes up to me in my bedroom to show me that he has caught a small beetle. I give him the usual "Cool" comments you are supposed to as a mom and proceed to continue what I was doing (which was not much). I then hear him downstairs rummaging around in the cupboards. I call down to ask what he was doing and he replies, "Trying to find a home for my beetle." I ask him not to use anything glass and a few minutes later he comes upstairs with a mostly empty water bottle with the beetle inside. He then goes and gets some grass for him to eat and places him in his bedroom. I tell him he can watch a movie until we have to pick up Bjorn from Scout camp. He says he can't because Bugger(this is the beetle's name) is taking a nap and that the movie would wake him up. Well, Bugger took a really long nap and I thought that nap had taken him to the other side, but Bugger seems to have survived the move from outside freedom to apartment living. He is slowly moving up in his new digs, along with a droplet of water, and I think that Bugger might be looking for a more upscale neighborhood soon. So if you have any great property you are willing to sell, Bugger is in the market despite Anders new found talent as a landlord.

Heaven and...

A couple of weeks ago Jenn, one of my best friends in the whole wide world, came for a visit. Jenn is my scrapbook buddy. When we lived in Washington we would go to crop nights at the local scrapbook stores and stay out very late scrapbooking our lives or the lives of the members of our families. One of the things we did was hit up some local scrapbook stores while she was here. We had no time constraints and no children with us. It was pure HEAVEN to peruse the store looking at all the new products and what we might do with them.

Yesterday I went to that same scrapbook store with my children. And let me tell you it was not HEAVEN! First of all it is summer so there is no school. Second, Dane is out of town in Atlanta so I have to take the kids on every errand. Third, we were at a scrapbook store! I just needed a couple of pieces of paper for an album that I am doing with Dane's job taking him around the country. It would have taken me about 5 minutes to get in and out but the kids decided to use it as cross country running course and my blood pressure, which was very good earlier that morning at the doctor's office, was now about through the roof!

Let's just say I am thankful for the little bit of Heaven I had with Jenn last week in one of my favorite stores!