Saturday, January 26, 2013

Two Down, Two to Go

Thursday afternoon Kris sent me a message saying that she wasn't feeling well.  Her car was having some work done on Friday and we were supposed to drive it down Thursday night and drop it off.  By the time I got home from work, it was clear that we weren't going anywhere that night.  She spent most of Thursday night throwing up.

The day before she had stopped by her dad's apartment to check up in him and clean up a little.  He wasn't in his apartment but she did see a nurse's aide who was also looking for him (They thought he must have been at whatever the physical activity was for the day) but the aide did tell Kris that there was a "stomach flu" going thru the facility.  So apparently, the stomach flu found its way to Kris. 

Friday she was in bed most of the day as well trying to rest until she felt better.  The good thing was that all the vomiting was done within the first ten hours or so that she had it.  Today it has just been mainly recovery by sitting on the couch and resting, though she hasn't had any solid food since Thursday afternoon.  I saw a story on the news Friday morning where they said the recent flu that has been sweeping through the area is a result of a strain of norovirus.  So her run with the virus is about done.  However, about four hours ago, Alison came in by us and was complaining of a stomach ache.  About an hour or so later, she was throwing up.  So now in the last two plus hours she has vomited five times. 

So I expect Ali will be laid up most of the day tomorrow.  It's just a matter of who will get it next, me or Sarah.  Hopefully neither of us, but I thought we were taking pretty good precautions against it before Ali got it.  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Prank

Sarah's competition last week was in Sheboygan.  The team went up the night before and stayed at a convention center/resort there.  So that night, she was taking a shower, and from what we were told Saturday by a couple of the other parents, her friends pulled a prank on her.  We were told it was because she was taking something like a 45 minute shower, but Sarah disputes that.  Though from the length of the showers she takes at home, I don't have a hard time believing it.

Anyway, while she was showering, Sarah didn't lock the door to the bathroom.  So her friends went in and took her clothes.  All of them.  And the towels and her bag as well.  so when she got out, she had nothing to put on.  It took a while, but she finally managed to get a towel and then had to go room to room trying to find where her friends had hidden her clothes.

Kris and I just had to laugh, and told Sarah the we hoped she learned a lesson.  She said she did, always lock the door.

Book Report

Alison has to do a book report a month for school.  Each month she has to do a different category of book, and this month she did her  biography book.  She got the Justin Bieber autobiography for Christmas so that was the book she wanted to do.  One of her friends got the same book, so they decided to read it "together" and then work on their report together as a team.

Because of our schedules, the only time they could get together was over this past weekend.  So they spent about 5 hours yesterday working on it.  They weren't done so since they didn't have school today her friend Sadie came over today to finish it.  They are doing a combination posterboard and power point presentation.  I still haven't seen the finished project, but I saw them working on it yesterday, and I thought it looked pretty good, even if it was Justin Bieber.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

WACPC State Champs!

I guess taking first place at the Heat competition two weeks ago had some affect, because Saturday morning the MFHS JV Cheer team took first place in the WACPC State Jam 2013.  The girls were in the large JV Cheer division going against five other teams.  I thought they were up against some tough competition.  There were a couple of other teams that I thought were giving them a run, and when it came time to announce the awards, it was pretty tense, especially when the second place team was announced.  Many of the other parents thought that the second place team actually had the best routine, or at best was the Falls' toughest competition.  We were worried that the judges had marked them down and they weren't even going to place.  Then they announced that first place went to Menomonee Falls, and the girls all jumped up screaming!  So did the parents when I was videoing the awards, so I didn't get the initial reaction. 

So, without further adieu, I present the 2013 WACPC JV Large Cheer State Champs:



And a couple of pictures of the girls with their trophy and medals:






Thursday, January 17, 2013

Starting to Drive

Sarah is able to start taking the classroom portion of driver's ed. starting when she is 14½.  Since that happens in roughly three weeks and room is limited, and she can't miss a class, we took the steps to get her registered last week.  Because of her schedule with cheer practice and other family stuff over the summer, we have her scheduled later this spring.  I don't think she can take the test for her learner's permit until she is 15½ but I need to check for sure.  She said she thinks she might be able to take the test once she finishes, and then when she hits 15½ she'll just get it.  Plus there are also other rules as far how many practice hours she needs as well as her on the road sessions.  But at least we've got the first step taken care of.  I think in a year or so we'll be longing for the days when she still couldn't drive.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Champs!

Sunday Sarah had a cheer competition.  I think it is the only one that happens on a Sunday, all the other ones are on Saturdays.  It was run by a tumbling clinic and took place at Kettle Moraine Lutheran HS.  So far this year in her competitions, her team hasn't had to go against a lot of teams because they will have the teams separated by size.  Because there are 24 girls on their team, they fall within the "large" category.  So this time, they just had the teams bunched together as junior varsity, so we got to finally see how they stacked up against all the other teams, not just the big ones.

The day started off on a bad note.  Sarah was supposed to be at the HS by 10:15.  the JV and Varsity teams were going up together on a team bus and we drove up separately.  We dropped her off around 10:05 and then took off.  The school is about 15 miles away, so we were gong to be there early, but the gym is small and we wanted to be there to get a place to sit.  The first session was supposed to end around 10:30, and awards at about 10:45.  But as always, things were running late.  The awards for the first session were handed out around 11:15.

We had to sit and watch those awards, but as soon as they were over we moved to get our place to sit.  Some of the other parents got there shortly afterward and we found out that someone forgot to schedule the bus.  So the coaches had to end up calling and getting another bus.  The Falls teams didn't leave until 11:00, and Sarah's team as originally scheduled to go on third.  That didn't leave them much time to get there, get settled in and warm up.  I was hoping that wouldn't be a bad omen for them.  The organizers moved the schedule a little bit, so they got bumped back a couple of spots.  I don't know if they did that on purpose to accommodate our team, or if just worked out that way.

They did a very good routine, only a couple of small mistakes that I didn't even notice.  There were a couple of other teams that have always been their main competition, at least when Sarah was in Middle School.  I was expecting there to be a very tight competition, but after seeing the Falls' and then the other teams, I was surprised that they (the other teams) were not as good as what I would have expected.  When it came time for the awards, I figured that the Falls were either going to take first or second, though I thought they deserved first place.  I was right.  It came down the the final two, and when they announced 2nd place went to the other team, Our girls did a bit of a celebration.  And then they announced the 1st place went to Menomonee Falls and the girls all jumped up and started screaming. 

Of course this was the time that I decided to not bring either the still camera or the video camera.  So for Sarah's first time taking first place, I didn't have my camera to take a photo.  Luckily, there were plenty of other parents who did and through the magic of Facebook, I was able to get one.  So...  Here are the 2013 Bringing on the Heat JV Champions.  Congratulations girls!

CHAMPS!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

End of The Season

Well Christmas is over.  I started taking a couple of things down the night of New Years Eve, but I really went to town yesterday.  In fact, I missed most of the Rose Bowl because I was putting things away.  Taking things down is always so much more of a pain than putting it up because I have to find the right box for the ornament, and make sure they are wrapped in tissue paper, and bubble wrap for storage.  I started around noon and finished around 8:00 or 8:30.  The only things I have left to do is take down are the outside decorations, but they are all covered in snow right now.  Maybe this weekend when it warms up a little but I will see if I can get them dug out and put away.  I'm so very ready to be done with Christmas.

What's American Bandstand

As we were driving up to visit some friends over the New Year weekend, we were in the car listening to the radio, and during the news break, there was a story about the upcoming annual New Years Rockin' Eve show, and how prior to the start of the actual program, there was going to be a tribute to Dick Clark.  The story then went over all the contributions that Dick Clark made to the world of entertainment, and one of the things was American Bandstand.  And just like with the cassette, Alison asked "What's American Bandstand?" 

My first thought was, "Am I that old?"  I thought that EVERYONE knew what American Bandstand was.  Sort of like everyone knows what Woodstock was, or The Cosby Show.  Kris and I explained it to her and how every week, it was a ritual that you would watch American Bandstand to hear new music and see the popular bands, or singers.  So much has changed since we were kids I guess.  We watched on New Years Eve and made sure to point out to the girls which clips they showed were from American Bandstand.  It was a nice walk down memory lane for us, but the girls were underwhelmed.  They just have no sense of nostalgia I guess.


The Recall, Recall

Last week while the kids were off of school and Kris didn't need her car, I called to get it in to see about having the airbag sensor in the seat fixed.  I figured I would just take a long lunch, drive it down, and then have them shuttle me back to work.  Kris could then pick me up from work and we could go down later and pick it up.  When I got there the manager I had spoken to the week before asked if they had called and told me things were all set.  I told him, no, I didn't know I was supposed to wait.  I thought things were already "set", but I guess not.

I told the guy that Kris didn't need the car last week and it didn't matter if they had to have it for a while to get fixed, and that I thought all they wanted was to be able to call someone at their support operation which is why I needed to bring it in during the week. 
Apparently the North American operations were all shut down from Christmas until the New Year.  They had left a message for the rep that handles these sorts of things but they hadn't heard back from him yet.  They were going to email him a message too, but they didn't expect to hear from him until after the 1st.  So it was a wasted trip down there.  I guess it is my fault for not understanding the first time around, I'll let them have that. 

The dealership did call on the 31st, saying that they were all set to do whatever they needed to do, so I could get thing set up anytime after Wed. (today). The problem now is that we are back to having to work around school schedules.  Since we have to drive Alison to school Kris needs her car until just after 8:30, so the soonest I could get it there is 9:00.  Then Kris needs to be there by 3:15ish to get Alison from school.  So we have a limited time window.  They said they would give us a loaner while they worked on it if we needed one, but I am not sure Kris is going to want to drive around in a different car, especially if she is carpooling.  Maybe I can get something worked out for next week.