Happy Holidays - Our Christmas Letter

Hope all of you enjoyed this wonderful holiday season. Christmas is always my favorite time of year. The sparkle, cold weather, and family time always brings back wonderful memories.

For many of you, this may be the first time viewing my blog. I started blogging as a way to share photos and updates on our family with you our family and friends. I will admit that since the school year has started, I haven't does as well with posting regularly, but hopefully when you check in you enjoy reading about us. We hope to hear from all of you soon and enjoyed the cards and pictures you sent. While mine is always late, I do enjoy getting yours. While you are able to look back at my past posts - I am giving a condensed update of what has been going on in our lives during the past year.

Kris continued working for the railroad as a conductor until August of this year. He had committed himself to a year, but then decided it just wasn't what he wanted. Too much time away and unpredictability. Fotunately, he has a found a job that he is enjoying much more. He is a police officer for the City of Abilene. He works 12 hour shifts (with a set schedule) and alternates every 3 weeks between days and nights. In April he will go to the police academy for about 14 weeks, Monday-Friday. He continues to golf when he can and helped coach Elliott's flag football team this past fall. He also purchased an 89 Jeep Wrangler which he hopes to work on his spare time. He has wanted one for several years and finally found one that he wanted at the right price!

Elliott is a second grader this year and is very much into all sports - depending on which one is in season. Of course right now that means basketball which he will start in January. This summer he went to several golf tournaments and was proud to win several medals. After basketball he will play soccer. He has several friends in his class this year and enjoys having them over to play. He is no longer in the school where I work, so he is able to ride the bus to his school which he really enjoys. While he often says he does not like school, he does very well which we hope continues.

Matigan is in her last year of preschool and is ready for the day when she no longer has to go to the sitter. We are on a countdown! She is into everything girl - barbies, baby dolls, dress up, and make-up. If it isn't pink or glittery, she isn't going to wear it! She had a speaking part in this year's preschool Christmas program, and she did great! In addition, to lots of play, she also continues to take dance lessons which this year includes tap along with ballet. She really does a great job and will continue as long as she enjoys it.

I am still an SLP in Abilene working with children aged 3-6. Each year proves new challenges in the students I work with. While the paperwork side of things is always a burden, seeing the accomplishments in the kids I help is rewarding. I am also in my 4th year of coaching freshmen girls' basketball and have a great group of girls this year as well as the largest group I've had - 14. Because of all the crazy weather we've had, we have only played on game this season (we won!), so January will be a busy month with make-up games. Then as if I'm not bust enough, I have agreed to teach a college-level class for Cloud County as part of their off-campus program. It is one night per week for the spring semester, and I am teaching it in Abilene so no traveling. Looks like it will be a busy start to our year.

In April, we moved to a new home in Abilene. It is larger than our previous home and has many of the features we wanted in a home including a two-car garage! I love not scraping snow or getting out in the rain! Hopefully, you caught our new address on your Christmas cards - if not, e-mail me, and I'll get it to you. Hope all of you have a great year, and we look forward to hearing from you or seeing you soon.

Winter Is Here

I know I never got a post on here for Thanksgiving, but I couldn't resist posting what we've been doing for almost the past week. Rain with near freezing temperatures left Abilene and much of the Midwest covered in a thick layer of ice. While things weren't quite as bad as the Kansas City ice storm we were in about 5 years ago, the sounds of breaking trees, falling ice, and transformers popping were quite familiar. Unfortunately, we didn't escape having the power go out. We and my parents have been without electricity since Tuesday morning. Thankfully, Stephanie has had power pretty much the whole time, so we have been camped out at her house. I'm sure all the added company is driving her crazy, but we are so thankful to have a warm place to stay. School was out from Tuesday on, and it is up in the air for next week. Yesterday a lot of the ice melted, but this morning we woke up to SNOW! Kris said at least 6 inches of it when he came home from work and it is still snowing. Hoping to go sledding later today!

Branches down in our front yard.

Our tree and the neighbor's truck.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

October Update

I've decided to shoot for monthly updates as finding time and the energy to do more is too much.

On the second weekend in October, we headed down to Oklahoma to visit friends and our alma mater - Oklahoma State. We saw these three cars cruising down the interstate on the way and couldn't resist taking a picture.

We were visiting my friend Sarah, her husband Eric, and their new baby - Olivia. Matigan couldn't resist holding the baby. She is such a little mommy and couldn't believe that she was ever that little - I can hardly believe it either. She seems so grown up now.

Sarah is also a speech-pathologist, and we became friends in undergrad at K-State. Then we both went to grad school at OSU, and she has a daughter Emily who is only a month and a half older than Elliott. While we keep in touch via e-mail and occasional phone calls, we hadn't seen each other for at least a year if not longer, so it was so great to see all of them again.

After our visit with them, we headed to Stillwater to see how much it has changed. It felt so good to be back there. While grad school was a stressful time, I still have so many good memories of our time there - it is where Elliott was born. We stayed in the Atherton Hotel that is actually on campus and is a training hotel for students. It has been updated since we went to school and is really very nice. It was so much fun to show the kids where we had lived, where Elliott was born, and things we did while we were there. We even got to go to church where we were members at the time.

The kids by Pistol Pete in the Union. All of us by the library fountain (which had been dyed orange!), and Kris and the kids on the veranda of the hotel/Union.

My mom's birthday cake the kids and I made - it was Elliott's idea to make it KU becasue "grandma really likes KU."

Halloween - Elliott and Kaleb were both Ninjas, Kyson was a cowboy, and of course Matigan was sleeping beauty.

Matigan's field trip to the fire station. She now says she wants to be a "firegirl" when she grows up.

Forts under the dining room table!

Dozer getting "styled" after his bath we gave him at the cute shop in Manhattan. They supply everything you need, you just have to wash the dog! He looks so clean now.

Scooping out seeds and making jack-o-lanterns!

Staying Busy

We continue to be busy with school, dance, and football. This weekend, the kids enjoyed one last swim in Grandma and Grandpa's pool. I wasn't as brave as them and only stuck my legs in - burr it was cold, but they loved it. Hopefully, the weather will start reflecting the change in season. I'm ready to open up the windows and drink cocoa or cider at the football games!

Looking forward to this weekend as it is the Ft. Riley garage sales weekend. It is so much fun to search for those great deals. This year I am looking for a bike for Elliott that has hand breaks - I've found several girl bikes, but no boy bikes. I promised him that if I don't find one this weekend, we will just go buy a new one. Therefore, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can find one and save some $$$.

Check out the video of Kris getting tazed. The police department just got tazer guns, and he decided to see what it was like-he didn't have to, but went for it! Crazy isn't he?

Hope everyone is staying healthy (I missed two days of work last week with sick kids - stomach flu - yuck). Would love to hear from those of you who are reading this and hopefully enjoying the little updates!

Family

It seems as though once school starts all the days are the same, so there isn't as much to write about. I realized that I hadn't written since Labor Day break. We spent the weekend at the lake which was a good time for everyone. We stayed in my parents' RV, but because all of the utility sites were taken, we were without electricity which meant no t.v. like the kids are used to having when they stay in there. However, they survived and actually had a good time on scavenger hunts, bike rides, and using household items to make a band. We also went to a cookout sponsored by the department of wildlife and parks where the kids were able to pet a pet skunk - they thought it was great!

This last weekend, we went to the football game on Friday. I love going to football games, espcially when the weather is getting cooler. It is one of the things I love about small towns. The kids found several of their own friends to play with which meant I could actually watch some of the game rather than hearing about how bored they were!

Saturday Elliott played his first organized football game! It was a lot of fun to watch, and he had a great time. Kris even did a good job of coaching! That's him in the background of the picture below.

This weekend will be more of the same, except Friday I have BUNCO!!

Long time, No blog

Okay, I knew that once school started it was going to be a little more difficult to continue blogging, but really two weeks since my last blog? That's pretty pathetic if I do say so myself. Those of you who work in the school system know how hectic the first few weeks of school can be. I'm still just trying to get back in the routine of having to get out of bed by a certain time, getting the kids ready, working all day, and dinner, activities, and homework at night! I'm exhausted!

Elliott is in 2nd grade this year and enjoying riding the bus to school as he is not in the same building as me this year. He has several good friends in his class and likes his teacher which has made the transition great. He started flag football practice, since at his age they do not offer fall soccer. So far he is liking it, espcially since Kris is helping coach.

Matigan is in her second year of preschool which means she goes Mon., Tues., and Wed. mornings. If it were up to her, I think she would go all day everyday as going to the sitter is not her favorite thing.

I still have my same schools as I did last year with the exception of only seeing the kindergarten kids at one building instead of both K and 1st. That has lightened my load a little. I still go to 2 headstarts and service all of Abilene's preschool-age population. Lots of challenging kids here in Abilene!

For those of you who haven't heard - Kris started a new job at the same time school started. He is now a police officer with the Abilene Police Department. So far he is really liking the change and so are we since he is able to be home more and has a set schedule. He will have to go for training in February for 14 weeks in Hutchinson. I'll have to take a picture of him in his uniform to post on here.

Hope everyone is doing well. I miss so many of you and hope to hear from you soon. Congratulations to my friend Sarah who had a beautiful baby girl Olivia a couple of weeks ago and to my friend Cindy who was married a couple of weeks ago. I know you both are happy and you deserve it! Can't wait to talk to you and see some pictures!

Summer's Over, School's Here :(

Matigan learned how to float on her back and is swimming all over the pool!


Elliott and Kris cool down with a water gun fight.


Elliott practices his moves on his skateboard.


The goggle crew - I had to get my own - the kids were tired of loaning me theirs!

The finale to a great summer - a night out without kids with Kris and my sister in Aggieville - we behaved ourselves!



Well summer is officially over. I started back to work today and sat through all day meetings. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some time to get my room in order and get ready for the upcoming school year. Kids start on Monday, so there isn't much time. Elliott will be in 2nd grade this year and is excited that one of his best friends is in the same class as him. He has all his school supplies ready to go and is anxious for the social side of school, but not the actual academic part - I guess that is a 7 year old boy for you! Matigan started back to the daycare and will start preschool in a couple of weeks. Since she is 4, she will go 3 mornings a week. She is already talking about kindergarten though and going to mom and Aunt Stephanie's school. Sometimes it is hard to believe how old they are.



Just an update on my mom: She is at home and doing fairly well. Still a little sore from the surgery, but overall is okay - no more severe pain, so that is good. Thank you to those of you who asked about how she was doing.

Summer's Almost Over

This last week has been so busy. I went to a coach's clinic last week (Wed. - Fri.). It was really a fun time hanging out with the other coaches, and I learned some things as well. Including the fact that South of the Border has really great margaritas! While we stayed overnight on Wed., we had to come home on Thurs. for the parade and fair. This time always signals that summer is winding down and school will soon begin. The kids had a great time collecting candy at the parade and sorting it when we got home.







Later that night, Elliott got to try out mutton busting for the first time. Unfortunately, we had a quick downpour shortly before the rodeo, so it was very muddy. When he was done, he was caked in mud, but he had a great time!









This weekend we spent a lot of time in Manhattan as Kris' parents house as Kelly was back in town for her 10 year class reunion. It was so nice to see her and get caught up. She is starting to show, so we even got to go shopping for some maternity clothes. Is it just me, or have they really improved those things over the past 8 years? We also got to make several suggestions for names which she is keeping track of in a notebook. How exciting! I'm waiting to hear from a couple of friends about their babies births - with so many babies it almost makes me wish we were having another - almost, then the screaming/arguing/crying of my kids makes me wish I was just at the spa! We went clothes shopping in Wichita yesterday. Lots of great deals, but I still can't believe I spent that much money. Clothes are so expensive it seems. The kids actually did relatively well considering we were in Kohl's alone for just over 4 hours! Kris went along and was the one who got the least (he said he didn't need anything!), so I told him he needed a t-shirt that said "I went shopping for over 12 hours with 2 bratty kids and a wife who spent all my money, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."








I went to bed last night thinking I was going to get caught up with laundry and housework today, but instead I got a call at 7am from my dad saying he had taken my mom to the emergency room. Apparently she had chest pain and pain in her left arm and was rightfully worried. After several tests and of course waiting, they determined she had gallstones (who knew the symptoms would be so much like heart problems). Anyway they decided to go ahead and do surgery tonight - she came out at about 8:30. Because of the anesthesia, she was still very out of it tonight when I left, but we are praying that she does well and this cures the problems she has been having.

Surprise!!

What a fun weekend - the only bad part was Kris getting called out at 2 am on Saturday morning and not getting back until 4:30 pm today. :(

On Friday morning we got a package in the mail from Kris' sister Kelly that had the following note in it

The kids (and myself I must admit) could not wait to open it. I had my suspicions about what was inside, but we had to wait until we talked to her to find out exactly what it was all about. She let us bend the rules a little bit since Kris wasn't going to be home, and we found out what the secret was on Saturday afternoon - she and Mike are having a baby!! We are so excited for them! She is due about the same time as Kris' birthday so we have to wait until January to meet the newest addition to the Kobiskie family. Congratulations again Mike and Kelly!

Our second surprise was a surprise birthday party for friends of ours from church (twins - Tricia and Teresa) on Saturday evening. We went out to eat, talked, laughed, and had a great time. Elliott stayed the night at a friend's house, so with Kris away Matigan was my date. She did a great job of being a "grown up."

Tonight we spent the evening playing board games with the kids. It was some great family time before Kris has to go back on the train again - ugh!

My Celebrity Look Alikes

I saw this on another blog and thought it looked like fun. Let me know if anyone tries it as I would love to see who your celebrity look-alikes are.

Kendra is Back

I'm a couple of days behind, but the other night Kris' parents and sister came to town for dinner. What made this special was that this was the first time we had seen Kendra since she came back from Africa. She had been there for 8 weeks completing an internship for a free trade group in Ghana.

We barbecued, talked, asked Kendra a bunch of questions about her trip, and looked at the pictures she had taken. It was a great evening with good food and conversation. The kids were thrilled when Kendra brought out the gift bag and they saw what she had brought. I didn't get pictures of all of them, but she gave each of use some cool wood-carved pieces, some beautiful earrings for me, a t-shirt for Elliott, and the dress you see Matigan wearing. Matigan could not wait to wear it, so you did well Aunt Kendra! It's in the laundry now, and she can't wait for me to get it washed. I looked online at the company that markets the dresses made by the women in Ghana and they have some really neat stuff (http://www.globalmamas.org/). I might have to get myself one of the purses/bags.

Thank you Kendra and we're glad you're back!

It's Over!

We/I made it through our busiest week of the summer! Basketball camp went well. I will have at least thirteen freshmen girls this year with a possibility of adding 2-3 more that weren't at camp. It will be my largest group yet. That's great for scrimmaging though - last year I only had 9 and it was a little difficult. However, trying to get that many girls into a game is difficult, especially if it's a close one. Camp makes me feel really excited about the season.



One more week of swimming lessons. Both kids are really enjoying themselves and learning something new everyday. Why is it that they seem to trust the instructors more than their parents? They will try and do things there that I've been trying to get them to do, but wouldn't. Elliott is swimming on his back, and Matigan is going underwater and kinda swimming in water where she can't touch (more of a dog paddle at this point - but still very brave!). I'm hoping they both pass or there will be serious disappointment!



Vacation bible school was a hit! The kids had fun, made a lot of crafts which are all over our house (yeah!), and we got to end the week with a program, ice cream social, and swim party last night. One of those things where you are glad you did it, but are glad it's over and only happens once a year. The theme was Noah and the flood, so we got to revive an old favorite of mine from VBS - the Floody song. It was fun to see my kids enjoying a song that I remember from my childhood.

Kris playing a game with the kids.

The final program - Elliott is in the back
with an orange t-shirt. Mattie is up front
with the pink dress that is falling down -
next to her is my nephew - Kaleb.


Now to enjoy what is left of summer. Less than a month and it will be over. The older I get, the faster it seems to go. I honestly don't know how people work year round. I have gotten very spoiled with having summers off. I love it!

Is there a full moon?

Those of you who are parents or who work with young children will know what I am talking about. Whenever there is a full moon, or the weather is going to change - the kids are crazy! With the way mine have been acting lately, there has to be something going on. They got grounded from TV for a week and from their toys for a day! Unfortunately, I feel like by doing this, I am grounding myself as well! As the weekend has progressed, I think they have maybe gotten a little bit better.

Maybe part of the problem is the busy weekend we had. The pictures are from the outdoor concert we went to in Salina on Friday night. The kids had so much fun dancing around and the music was really good. On Saturday, it was garage sales, swimming, and movies. Today we went to Sunday school and church, then we went back to church after lunch to help set up for VBS. Kris's parents came to town for the afternoon. His mom made us supper - thanks, Sheryl - it was so nice to not have to worry about cooking and it was great too! Then we went golfing!

I'd like to think things will slow down this week, but with basketball camp for me, swim lessons for the kids starting, and VBS for all of us - we'll be lucky to make it to next week! Maybe the kids will be busy enough, they won't get in as much trouble, and I won't have to be the "meanest mom in the world!" :)