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posted by Gretchen 11:33 PM
posted by Gretchen 10:39 PM
Saturday, May 13, 2006
2006 Ends with a Few Bangs!
2006, on the whole, was a good year for our family.
Bas is still doing well with Hubbell Power Systems except for a minor incident on December 8 (the night of Chapman Elementary's Christmas Party @ Joe Uher's home). Bas and his colleague, Al were supposed to travel into the back country high voltage line area in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania vicinity on December 7. The trip was cancelled due to an excess of snow; however, they rescheduled the trip for the next day. In the afternoon of December 8, the voltage "sightseeing" trip halted near a cliff. The Ford pickup truck (that was driven by someone from First Energy Electric Company) landed in a precarious position while trying to get through the narrow passageway of "High Voltage Line Countryside." Actually it was ready to fall down a cliff and the driver had to keep his foot on the break petal until a rescue crew from First Energy could winch it out. Bas and Al and the rest of the crew were cold and heard a few gun shots from distant hunters but made a safe return back to Ohio. Needless to say, Bas missed the Christmas party but had the pleasure of eating where the locals from the backhills of Pennsylvania eat.....YUM!!! Yesterday, Bas took Sean ice skating for the first time at Ice Land. Sean was really getting the hang of it after awhile and decided to sit down and rest. Dad decided to skate and show us his moves.....he ended up in the emergency room after falling backwards on his head (slight concussion). When we took Bas to the emergency room, the nurse remembered Sean and how smart he was from another time we was in the emergency room! We later bought Sean a helmet that same day! Bas, you're not a spring cock anymore!
Alison had two successful internships in Nashville, Tennessee this past summer. She had the opportunity to see first-hand the workings of both a radio station (Citadel - WKDF....country and sports) and a Sony/BMG company called Provident Label Group. Alison really enjoyed the experience and will be completing her last semester at York College of Pennsylvania in May, 2007. She plans on setting up shop in Nashville in the music field!
Sean played T-ball this past summer and joined the Ledgepark Swim Team. He also played fall soccer and recently started taking jazz and tap dance lessons. He even likes "My Little Pony" much to his dad's chagrin! Sean started kindergarten at Sts. Joseph & John School in the all day program. He is doing quite well and has brought home several "smarties" candy for using his brain and answering some hard questions in school. Sean has become friends with Matthew, Kevin Lenihan, and Jackson. During daycare, he has a second grade girl friend named Lizzie. Sean still enjoys playing with and learning all about airplanes. He has even amazed the tour guide from NASA with his knowledge of planes! Sean, will you always remember playing people's bongo's? Don't forget learning all those kindergarten "popcorn" words. Remember those words families....how about the time you explained to us that words like class, lass, pass, mass, and bass all belong to the "ass" family! How about the time you got up at 6 am in the morning and stopped to wake up Hunter only to discover that his nose was dry and warm. You immediately fixed a potion of ice water and poured it over his nose to get Hunter back into his cold and wet nose! I could not stop laughing about that one! Don't ever forget waking up at 2:30 am on Christmas morning in 2006. You have always been an early riser but this was taking early a little too far!
Gretchen has been busy teaching science and reading to the 5th graders at Chapman Elementary in Strongsville. She comments that teaching this year is so much fun that it isn't even like working. Every teacher should have the opportunity to teach in Cleveland for awhile and their tolerances and attitudes to things would certainly change for the positive.
Hunter is doing well too. He enjoys chasing Sean through the house and just took a test indicating he was practically a genius (it was an internet test)! He did bite the groomer when she trimmed his beard though.
We took a short summer vacation to Denver and had a really nice time. We also found out that dust mites, that Sean is allergic to, cannot survive at such altitudes. Driving in the mountains was awesome!
Let's have a great 2007......
posted by Gretchen 9:21 PM
It's spring already, where has the year gone? Here's some family updates:
1. Alison is doing well at York College of Pennsylvania. She is majoring in Communication and minoring in Music Industry. She secured (all by herself) a double internship in Nashville, Tennessee. She will intern at Provident Records, owned by Sony/BMG and WKDF Radio, which broadcasts both country music and sports as the official station as the Tennessee Titans NFL football team. Alison will be living at Fisk College in Nashville during the internships. Way to go Alison!
2. Sean began the remainder of his preschool year at a new school: The Goddard School, right down the street from us. His teachers are Miss Julie and Miss Jenny and Sean is doing great. Because of the change of schools, Sean has mysteriously become a model student. He has great behavior and loves learning new things. He especially likes the science experiments and the study of continents and countries.
3. Since April, 2006, Sean has wanted us to give him math problems such as 8 + 7 = ____ and on May 5, 2006 told us he can "READ." It's true. During naptime at school, the kids that do not want to take a nap can read books. He told us he's been practicing his letter sounds and now he know 3 letter words with short vowels such as c-a-t, n-a-p, g-e-t, p-i-g. Way to go Sean!
4. Some funny things Sean has said or done lately:
a. He and Jack play a game called, "Cook Your Butt." They heard someone say, "Kick Your
Butt" but interpreted it as, "Cook Your Butt!"
b. Sean has a new loft bed and within the first week, fell out of it. He was supposed to be
taking a nap but decided to see how far he could lean over until he fell! When Dad
rescued him, Sean said that the fall was great but the landing hurt, next time he'll have
to have his parachute! That's our Sean!
c. One day at the early hour of 5:00 a.m., I heard Bas talking on the phone in Dutch (he had
to talk to the IRS in the Netherlands about a tax issue) and then I heard him talking to
Sean. When Bas came back to bed, he told me that Sean was sitting up in bed when he
went past his room with his mouth WIDE open. Bas asked him what he was doing and
Sean said he heard footsteps so he was getting ready to bite the bad guy (he's been
pretending he's either a killer whale or a crocodile lately).
d. We went to a gas station and I stopped in to buy a pepsi and when I came out I told Sean
and Bas that the place was a "hole in the wall." As we pulled away Sean screamed that he
wanted to go in to see the hole in the wall!!
We are planning a possible move to the Denver, Colorado area. Will we really move......stay tuned!
posted by Gretchen 10:21 PM
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