Saturday, February 04, 2006
GO SEAHAWKS!
Here is my darling kindergarten class in their Seahawk headbands. Look at the second little boy from the left, front row. Very hawk-like, isn't he?
Laura Unveiling the bottles
Here's Laura reading the comments we wrote about the wines we tasted. January was a Petite Sirah tasting. Fluer 2003 from California was the favorite of the group.
Ironically there were only three wines represented out of six bottles. That made
for some funny reactions at the unveiling!
Ironically there were only three wines represented out of six bottles. That made
for some funny reactions at the unveiling!
Snow Pig
I cross country skied at Iron Horse State Park. It is nice and flat and the trail goes along a lake. It is just my speed. I had to ski about 3 miles from the parking lot before it was truly tranquil. This cute pig is someone else's creation that I saw along the trail.
the Summit at Snoqualmie 1-2006
As you can see, the snow was lovely but it was just as gray as it was in Seattle.
This was Jan. 22nd I believe. They turned the lights on at Snoqualmie Central at 2:30 because it was so foggy.
This was Jan. 22nd I believe. They turned the lights on at Snoqualmie Central at 2:30 because it was so foggy.
Our Tree 2005
It was by far the most expensive tree we've ever bought but it sure was lovely and it held it's needles for 3 whole weeks. I took it down in bits and pieces during the first week of January. I was sad to see it go. I bought new candles for the mantle to try and replace some of the warmth/light that the tree gave to the room.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Haircut!
Although I think this photo is not the best (Anna Rae took it of herself) I must say I definitely like her new, shorter haircut...and I think she does too.
Sitting Down to a Sumptious Christmas Dinner
The Kornowskes hosted another fabulous holiday meal followed by a LONG game of dominoes, which Anna Rae won. I can't begin to tell you how stuffed we all were
when we finally pulled away from this table!
when we finally pulled away from this table!
Christmas Morning
Here she sits in the midst of Christmas wrapping paper and ribbons as she figures out the workings of her ipod dock/radio.
If you have ever read the Peter Spiers wordless picture book, Christmas, you will understand me when I say: The memories of Christmas come from a plethora of details.
If you have ever read the Peter Spiers wordless picture book, Christmas, you will understand me when I say: The memories of Christmas come from a plethora of details.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Christmas Eve
She never seems this short to me. I am always surprised to see the height difference between us as in photos like this.
Emilien and Anna Rae Visit Sanislo
Since Anna Rae's school had early dismissal she brought Emilien to Sanislo to visit me and my kindergarten class during lunch. I had the children practice saying Bon Jour! But when the teen aged guests arrived, the kindergarteners became mute with shyness. Emilien liked Sanislo, especially our gym. When I was able to release myself from the kindergarten I found Emilien in the gym juggling pins and feeling quite 'at home'. Turns out that his dad (a teacher of 9 and 10 year olds) teaches juggling along with reading, writing, etc. in a classroom in France.
At Our Dining Room Table
On Dec. 3rd Emilien, an exchange student and friend of Anna Rae's from Annecy, visited us in Seattle. He is on exchange in Summerland, British Columbia. Emilien stayed with us for 3 days, going to school with Anna Rae on the ferry, attending a school dance with her, and touring downtown on the weekend. The pitcher that Anna Rae is holding is one of the 'treasures' I brought back from France. Every family table I ate at in France had a similar earthenware pitcher filled with water on the table at mealtimes.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Dream On
I do love to cook, really I do. But when I come home after 8 plus hours of teaching kindergarteners everything from the letters of the alphabet to how to blow their nose, as well as picking up after aforementioned kindergarteners and preparing for the next day of engaging, educating and nurturing them, well, I am more than a little ready to spend time on myself. So I am here to tell you that Dream Dinners is one of the most liberating routines I have added to my life in years. How it works: you go to a Dream Dinners Kitchen in your area. They have 14 menu entrees and all the pans, utensils and ingredients to make the entrees. You select the number of meals you want to prepare and get to work. I did 6 meals in about 1 and a half hours. Actually that is 12 meals for our small family because every recipe feeds 4-6 people. Yesterday we had Buffalo Chicken and today it is Autumn Pot Roast. Check out the Dream Dinners website for more information.
What a day I had on Friday! I got to school a half hour early to set up for Science. The lesson was: Investigating how many paper clips it takes to sink cedar and particleboard. We had 4 parent volunteers helping as well as 1 IA and 3 certified teachers (including myself) to guide the investigation. It is certainly ample adult coverage for 52 students but communicating what needs to be done and getting the materials divided up correctly; that is the challenge. But we did it and it went quite well; even managed to get out to recess early for 3 laps around our track (our pattern this year since we have PE only 2 times a week. Once back in the classroom our young scientists graphed their results in their science notebooks. Now as if that was not enough excitement...our Fall Festival was to be in the afternoon. Keep in mind we have no prep time on Fridays and I had a luncheon meeting scheduled. During the kids' lunch (they eat in the classroom) our phone rings. It is Virginia Mason Hospital. The person on the other end says "Teresa were you in Virginia mason 2 weeks ago for XXXXX?" (a midlife test; yucky!) "Yes." All the kindergarteners are quietly munching away they are a 'golden group' ,SO polite when I am on the phone.
The person on the other end is saying, "During your procedure someone attending you
exposed you to a communicable disease."(My mind is racing; "hepatitis, bird flu, SAY the word WOMAN!!" and my heart skippety skips in my ears)"Do you have any cold symptoms? Have you heard of Pertussis, also known as Whooping Cough?" My heart finds its normal pace but I am pissed as she says I should have my Dr. Prescribe antibiotics as a precautionary measure. They do not offer to pay the copay for the drugs, her response; "Our policy is that you recognize when you enter a hospital you put yourself at risk." My feeling; if you are employed in a hospital you had better dang well have your immunizations up to date. Isn't pertussis something that falls under an immunization. OK cousin Beth, if you are reading this tell me what you think. Phone call ends, kids wind up lunch and enjoy a lovely fall day on the playground, I go to my meeting. After recess, 4 more parents and two other IAs arrive to help with our Fall Festival. RUSH RUSH RUSH get the paint out for sponge painting tag board maple leaves, find newspaper to cover tables, get frosting, Oreos, licorice whips, and mini m&ms out to make spider cookies. Are there enough bags for the owl puppets? At last we are ready and the kids are in one of the 4 stations,just loving every minute of the break in routine. I like my station most of all: Movement and Singing fall ditties like 'The Leaves Are Falling Down' (each child holds a colored streamer to represent a leaf color and they flutter and fall as their color is sung), Wise Old Owl (tune of Fre Jacque), and Scarecrow, Scarecrow
Turn Around (tune of Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear). 3:00 comes fast and they gobble the spider cookies and head out the door oh, SO happy! It would be nice to collapse but no, time to get the message on the board for Monday and get out my reading lesson so I am ready to go. Stop at the grocery store on the way home, pick up ingredients for an artichoke spinach dip. Once in my kitchen I whip it up. Chris comes home with the blended red wine for the 'wine tasting' part of the Halloween party we go to at about 8:00. Our costumes are lame; I am a blind red mouse and Chris is Jason which is kind of tongue in cheek because the host of the party is named Jason (but not at all like the horror flick Jason). The red mouse costume is a recycled classroom costume from 2 weeks back when the teachers dressed like story book characters. I, along with the other Kindergarten teacher, dressed like two of the mice from Ed Young's book 7 Blind Mice. This is our second wine tasting with this group and it is fun. I try to take the tasting seriously, I really want to learn and develop a discriminating taste. But more than anything it is good to relax with a new group of adults. Most of these people we know from the YMCA spinning and pilates classes. One of them, Laura, has suggested I enter a triathalon. Who knows maybe next summer. Right now I am just so thrilled to have my running feet back and I am happy to be in the company of people who like to exercise as much as I do. Anna Rae did not go to this party. She went costume shopping with her friend Erin and then on Sat. night she and Brittany (Erin's sister) went to another friend's house and carved jack 'o lanterns and watched horror movies. Today we visited with our friend Arthur who was in town from L.A. He was here for his brother's 41st birthday. In Japanese culture the 41st birthday is supposed to be a big deal; something about it being a bad year and needing to ward off bad luck. I still don't think I understand it. Anyway it was good to see Arthur. We ate out at Endolyne Joe's then Chris took him to the airport. Whew! This is a LONG post and I didn't even tell you about the 6 hours of hauling chips and yard work that I did on Saturday. The pile of chips is dwindling slowly but surely. Tomorrow night I will take a photo of our Jack 'o Lanterns which are perched on top of the pile.
What a day I had on Friday! I got to school a half hour early to set up for Science. The lesson was: Investigating how many paper clips it takes to sink cedar and particleboard. We had 4 parent volunteers helping as well as 1 IA and 3 certified teachers (including myself) to guide the investigation. It is certainly ample adult coverage for 52 students but communicating what needs to be done and getting the materials divided up correctly; that is the challenge. But we did it and it went quite well; even managed to get out to recess early for 3 laps around our track (our pattern this year since we have PE only 2 times a week. Once back in the classroom our young scientists graphed their results in their science notebooks. Now as if that was not enough excitement...our Fall Festival was to be in the afternoon. Keep in mind we have no prep time on Fridays and I had a luncheon meeting scheduled. During the kids' lunch (they eat in the classroom) our phone rings. It is Virginia Mason Hospital. The person on the other end says "Teresa were you in Virginia mason 2 weeks ago for XXXXX?" (a midlife test; yucky!) "Yes." All the kindergarteners are quietly munching away they are a 'golden group' ,SO polite when I am on the phone.
The person on the other end is saying, "During your procedure someone attending you
exposed you to a communicable disease."(My mind is racing; "hepatitis, bird flu, SAY the word WOMAN!!" and my heart skippety skips in my ears)"Do you have any cold symptoms? Have you heard of Pertussis, also known as Whooping Cough?" My heart finds its normal pace but I am pissed as she says I should have my Dr. Prescribe antibiotics as a precautionary measure. They do not offer to pay the copay for the drugs, her response; "Our policy is that you recognize when you enter a hospital you put yourself at risk." My feeling; if you are employed in a hospital you had better dang well have your immunizations up to date. Isn't pertussis something that falls under an immunization. OK cousin Beth, if you are reading this tell me what you think. Phone call ends, kids wind up lunch and enjoy a lovely fall day on the playground, I go to my meeting. After recess, 4 more parents and two other IAs arrive to help with our Fall Festival. RUSH RUSH RUSH get the paint out for sponge painting tag board maple leaves, find newspaper to cover tables, get frosting, Oreos, licorice whips, and mini m&ms out to make spider cookies. Are there enough bags for the owl puppets? At last we are ready and the kids are in one of the 4 stations,just loving every minute of the break in routine. I like my station most of all: Movement and Singing fall ditties like 'The Leaves Are Falling Down' (each child holds a colored streamer to represent a leaf color and they flutter and fall as their color is sung), Wise Old Owl (tune of Fre Jacque), and Scarecrow, Scarecrow
Turn Around (tune of Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear). 3:00 comes fast and they gobble the spider cookies and head out the door oh, SO happy! It would be nice to collapse but no, time to get the message on the board for Monday and get out my reading lesson so I am ready to go. Stop at the grocery store on the way home, pick up ingredients for an artichoke spinach dip. Once in my kitchen I whip it up. Chris comes home with the blended red wine for the 'wine tasting' part of the Halloween party we go to at about 8:00. Our costumes are lame; I am a blind red mouse and Chris is Jason which is kind of tongue in cheek because the host of the party is named Jason (but not at all like the horror flick Jason). The red mouse costume is a recycled classroom costume from 2 weeks back when the teachers dressed like story book characters. I, along with the other Kindergarten teacher, dressed like two of the mice from Ed Young's book 7 Blind Mice. This is our second wine tasting with this group and it is fun. I try to take the tasting seriously, I really want to learn and develop a discriminating taste. But more than anything it is good to relax with a new group of adults. Most of these people we know from the YMCA spinning and pilates classes. One of them, Laura, has suggested I enter a triathalon. Who knows maybe next summer. Right now I am just so thrilled to have my running feet back and I am happy to be in the company of people who like to exercise as much as I do. Anna Rae did not go to this party. She went costume shopping with her friend Erin and then on Sat. night she and Brittany (Erin's sister) went to another friend's house and carved jack 'o lanterns and watched horror movies. Today we visited with our friend Arthur who was in town from L.A. He was here for his brother's 41st birthday. In Japanese culture the 41st birthday is supposed to be a big deal; something about it being a bad year and needing to ward off bad luck. I still don't think I understand it. Anyway it was good to see Arthur. We ate out at Endolyne Joe's then Chris took him to the airport. Whew! This is a LONG post and I didn't even tell you about the 6 hours of hauling chips and yard work that I did on Saturday. The pile of chips is dwindling slowly but surely. Tomorrow night I will take a photo of our Jack 'o Lanterns which are perched on top of the pile.
So Lovely
It is hard to believe that this lovely teenager was that roly poly 6 month old baby in the picture on the mantle. She will be 18 in less than 2 weeks (as she reminds us daily).
AR dressed for Homecoming
Anna Rae did not like sitting to pose but I think this one turned out very nice. It was such a brilliant fall day!
AR & friends; Homecoming
L to R: Danielle, Anna Rae, Collin, Kaylin
Before the Homecoming dance they went to downtown Seattle and the girls had their nails done and then they ate out at a Mexican restaurant in Pacific Place.
Before the Homecoming dance they went to downtown Seattle and the girls had their nails done and then they ate out at a Mexican restaurant in Pacific Place.
Anna Rae Oct. 2005
You should click on this and look at the enlarged version. She really did look quite lovely. The glitzy shrug is kind of out of character for her but in keeping with the Miami theme of the VHS Homecoming dance. She does a heck of a lot better job walking in those high heels than I ever did.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Sea Grass
See the rain falling on the right horizon?
When I took this picture the sun was shining behind me (yes, there was a rainbow). I think the greens and yellows of the sea grass against the grey sky are very lovely.
When I took this picture the sun was shining behind me (yes, there was a rainbow). I think the greens and yellows of the sea grass against the grey sky are very lovely.
The Tides By the Sea
Chris taught Anna Rae to play Shuffle.
I don't think she won but she may have come close.
I don't think she won but she may have come close.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Seaside, Oregon
We thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing weekend at Seaside, Oregon last week. While the weather behind this stump looks very dramatic, we did have dry pavement and warm sun on Saturday morning which made for some fabulous roller blading on the promanade. If you have never been to Seaside, I would highly reccommend it for: strolls on the beach, flying kites, lots of shopping (an outlet mall is in town, skating and bike riding (also those low riding bikes for on the beach), plenty of little shops for every age, and lots of good restaurants. Also there is historical significance; Lewis and Clarks' sltworks is in this town. In summer they do a reenactment of how they boiled the ocean water for the salt; and a state park and the Lewis and Clark Trail are close by too.
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