Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving and . . .

We had a great thanksgiving weekend. We stayed home this year and spent the day with friends. It is our first time ever to do that. It was really nice. We split up the cooking, so not a big burden on anyone. Then we spent the rest of the weekend pretty much at home. Ed worked really hard at getting the baseboard trim up. He got the whole entire downstairs done. Well, all most. He forgot one piece in the dining room. YEAH! It looks so nice. He also laid some vinyl in the under-the-stairs closet. We can actually check off whole rooms from our list that are completly done. That is SO EXCITING! I did some sewing projects that I need to get done before Christmas. We also got the Christmas tree up. Now, we are ready to head into December full force.

Another thing that I have been wanting to blog about is a fund raiser at Hannah's school. It is called SCRIPS. Basically what it is is you buy gift cards from them and the school earns money. The school can buy a gift card for lets say $22.50. I buy the gift card from the school for it's face value of $25. The school has just earned $2.50. They have decided to split that money 2 ways. The school gets half and I get half towards my tuition! You can get many different gift cards and each store has decided on whatever amount they want to donate. I have been buying grocery gift cards for the stores I shop at. I'm going to spend that money anyway, may as well be earning money towards my tuition and helping the school out all at the same time. Here is a list of what some of the gift cards that are available and the amount that the stores gives back:
Applebee's - 8%
Old Chicago - 6%
Outback - 5%
Alberstons - 4%
Barnes & Noble - 9%
Bath and Body Works - 13%
Cabelas - 11%
Family Christian Bookstore - 9%
Macy's - 10%
Payless Shoes - 13%
Town and Country - 2%
Texaco Gas Station - 2%
So, I tell you all of that to offer for you to help out the school and help us pay our tuition!! If you live here in town, and want to do it thru the school, the orders are due on Tuesday afternoon between 2:45-3:45. Cards will be available on Friday at the same time. If you live out of town, you can order them on the internet - http://www.shopwithscrips.com/. The enrollment code is B8F51DAB18686. I think that there is also a place for you to put Hannah's name so that we get the credit. Also, retailers have "specials" that you can learn about on the internet. I know Cabela's ran a specail where they gave and extra 3% back for a total of 14%. It all adds up! This is an on-going fund raiser. Think about us when doing your Christmas shopping or think about us when doing your grocery shopping! Don't feel obligated - just throwing this out there!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

First, some updates on the house. On Saturday, Ed's dad installed the first 2 of 7 wall sconces that we needed. Don't they look nice?

We also purchased the first 150 feet of baseboard. It is all stained and polyurethaned and Ed put in the first piece this evening. Oh, so exciting!

Okay, now on the the purpose of this blog. Hannah and Halee both had a little Thanksgiving program they put on. Yesterday, Halee's class sang the "Turkey Dinner" song and recited a poem.


Hannah's class has been working on a play. Today was the big production. Hannah had 2 parts. The first character she played is Captain Dermer. Here is the scene. I was on the wrong side of the auditorium, but you can at least hear her. She says, "We are here. Where is your village?" and "I see an Indian along the beach. Maybe he can tell us."


She also played the part of Chief Massasoit. She was too fast on her lines and I didn't get the button pushed in time. She just said, "Thank you for inviting us to the feast." She did a great job. Actually, the whole thing was great!
After the play, they all lined up to tell what they are thankful for. Here is Hannah:


Lastly, since I had the camera with me today at swimming lessons, I took this little video of Halee swimming. Her class swims in the deep end now. She can pretty much swim all on her own. They dive in (while sitting on the edge) and swim around for 30 minutes. Here she is:

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Hannah's Report Card

Almost 2 weeks ago we had Hannah's parent/teacher conference. She is doing great. Miss Swanson didn't really have anything we needed to talk about. She is basically a straight A student at this time. She is reading on a 2nd grade level. She does well in all other subjects. She did give us a break down of some of her grades:
Social Studies - 98
Language - 97.5
Spelling - 96.6 - she gets most of the words correct on her tests, but the grade also includes dictation where her teacher gives her a sentence to write to see if she can write all the words correctly in the sentence. Hannah has some trouble doing that. Her biggest problem is that she hurries through things instead of taking the time to do it right.
Reading - 96.2

Overall, 1st grade is going well for Hannah. We are extremely proud of her!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Photo Shoot

The weekend of November 8th, we went to Billings. There were 2 reasons for us going - 1. to pick up our new TV armoire. Ed's dad purchased it at a garage sale for $25. I'm refinishing it. It is solid oak and weighs a ton! The refinishing process has been interesting, but I think I know what I am doing now. I hope to work on it more this week. When it's done, I'll post a picutre.
2. To get our family picture taken at Sears. You can view our session here. I'm interested to know which picture you think I chose!

While there, the grandparents did their normal spoiling. This is what happens:

Thank goodness we had our pictures taken when we first got there Friday evening!

Gramma got some new dress-up dresses from one of her friends (Thanks Marilyn!!) We had a little photo shoot trying them all on.

This is Halee

And Hannah


The neighbor girl likes to come over and play when we come to town. She was involved in the photo shoot too. Here are all 3 beautiful girls. (The way Hannah looks in this picture kind of scares me as to what is to come when she gets older! What do you think???)


We also got to shop at Kohl's! That is my favorite department store ever. Whenever I go visiting friends and they have a Kohl's in their town, I always have to shop. Well, they finally got one in Billings. YEAH!!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Trick or Treat

Halloween night here in Bozeman, Montana was very mild. The high for the day was around 68. So, we didn't have to bundle up to go trick or treating. Here is Hannah Montana and a beautiful princess ready to go.




We basically had the neighborhood to ourselves. We visited probably about 15-20 houses and got a sack full. We didn't see anyone else out! Plus only 3 people rang our doorbell. But the girls made out. When we got home, they dumped out their bags and we gave them 15 minutes to eat all that they wanted. Then put it away. That seemed to work fine. They had fun!