Mail Call!

This came in the mail for me yesterday. I knew my grades, of course, so I had suspected I had made some sort of honors list, but it was still nice to get the official letter. Of course, I really didn't have an option. Both kids bring home perfect report cards every semester; I wasn't about to be shown up by them! :)

And now for the Grown Ups....

As I've said, it's been a year full of change for the Fourskis.

Last summer, I left my job as Director of Education & Children's Ministries at the church. It was a heart breaking decision, but it was time. In fall, I began subsitute teaching. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into, to be honest, but before long I found myself enjoying being with the kids and being in the classroom. With encouragement from some of my teacher friends and, most importantly, my family, I decided to go back to school and get my teaching license! It's been a strange process, pretty much backwards, taking classes after having already been in the classroom, already having kids, and already having earned a degree a lifetime ago, and all the turmoil and politics going on the in profession right now, sometimes I wonder if I'm just crazy. But everytime I'm in that classroom, I know that's what God has gifted me to do. Estimated Graduation Date: May 2014

After I left my job at the church, our family started attending a new church as well. Another change and tough decision. It's a much bigger church, which is an adjustment, but we're finding our place. Timm plays on one of the church's softball teams; the kids attended AWANA all year and loved it; Kayleigh went on her first mission trip, working at a shelter in Chicago and then doing some grunt work at the AWANA warehouse and attending worship services at Willow Creek. This summer Kayleigh has moved up to C-Team, the junior high youth group, and I'm teaching the 3 year olds preschool class. (Never a dull moment in there, that's for sure; I LOVE it!) Our family is really growing and we are so thankful for this new family God has led us to.

Timm is still blazing his trail at Hoffmaster. Every few weeks he comes home and tells me of some huge chunk of change he managed to save the company - many times in the millions of dollars range. If only he got just a small percentage of that.....(dreaming.....) After about 18 months of crazy labor negotiations, the company and union finally have a contract and are able to move ahead, giving us our dad/husband back again. YEA!

Timm also spent a lot of time this year at the hockey rink. He became known as the voice of the Fox Valley Blades Mite C Team, announcing for all our home games. He put plenty of personality into the games, making it fun for the kids and spectators alike. Many of the kids came out of the season with new nicknames that seem to have stuck with them.

Although it's been a year of change and new beginnings and some challenges, we also know how richly we've been blessed and are thankful for so many blessings!

It's Kayleigh's Turn....

As usual, it's been tough keeping up with Kayleigh this year! It was a rude awakening for us registering her for middle school last summer, but she jumped right into her new school, made some new friends, and did really well. Except for having to ride the bus to school and having to leave her favorite teacher behind at the elementary school, she really likes middle school. Once again, she's in Student Council. She's still playing oboe, and even received a scholarship for private lessons over the summer. Oboes, being a double reed instrument, don't march, so for marching season she picked up the tenor sax, and took to it pretty quickly. She decided to audition for jazz band on the sax for next year and made it, so she'll be continuing with both instruments. This year also saw her expanding other horizons, auditioning for and making it in the school play (playing a bratty sister - a role her brother thought was perfect for her!) and was also on the school forensics team (speech - not dead people!) She really enjoyed both and is looking forward to doing both again next year.

Academically, it wasn't a very challenging year. After quite a few tests, assessments and meetings, we've come up with a new plan for next year, though, which should work out much better for her. She's actually going to be skipping 7th grade for her academic classes and taking the advanced 8th grade classes (some of which are technically 9th/10th grade classes, I guess.) But she'll be able to stay in 7th grade with her friends for her elective classes, so we think it will work well.
Of course, anyone who knows Kayleigh knows that her world revolves around dance. Her biggest piece of news since my last attempt at blogging is that she earned her solo dress. This is big news to Irish dancers. When dancers compete you move up levels by earning first places. Once you get to a certain level and get a first place at the level, you earn the "right" to wear a solo dress rather than your "school" dress. The school dress is the dress the dance school has designed for everyone in that school, made specifically for the school. Kayleigh's school, Trinity, has a black dress for their school dress at the level she's at (I've posted a picture in another previous post) which is made of wool in Ireland. The solo dresses are flashy one of a kind dresses earned by dancers. Anyway, Kayleigh earned her dress. (We earned the payment!)

She's been doing great, placing in every feis she's entered, bringing medals and trophies home each time, and even earning the opportunity to compete at the mini-feis at the Oireachtas Mid-American Irish Dance Championships this past November. It's been wonderful watching her develop her talent and confidence! Last summer we took at trip to Washington D.C. and she even got the chance to dance at the our Nation's Capitol!

She's hardly our little preemie anymore. She's taller than me, she steals my shoes, and she volunteers for mission trips and children's ministry at church. Her latest career aspiration is archeological law, but really, who knows where this girl is going!

Matt's Year in Review

We'll start our updates with Matt. Being the youngest, he usually ends up last with everything, so it only seems fair.

Matt's had a great year, and a year of new changes, starting with a new school. Thanks to some changes made in our school district, the school we've enjoyed since Kayleigh started Kindergarten is now a K-2 school only, and grades 3-5 are now at a school on the other side of the river. The majority of our teachers made the move, and the majority of Matt's classmates are the same. Different principal (*sigh*) but overall, it was mostly just a building change. Matt had a bit of a hard time with the change in principals - a complete 180 in administrative styles. (We ALL had a hard time with this change!) But other than that, it was a pretty good year. Matt had a great teacher - Mr. V. (A little background about Mr. V - he looks creepily like Timm. When he first came to our school and I ran into him in the hallway, I thought it was Timm. Everytime I'd see him in the hall when I'd be at the school I'd be completely confused wondering why Timm was at the school, and would have to stop myself from calling out something like, "Hey, hon!" Before I found myself in some sort of completely awkward prediciment, I apologized ahead of time to Mr. V if I ever said anything to him that ever seemed inappropriate and explained to him the situation. As the year went on, when Timm would come to school, kids would approach him, thinking he was their teacher.) Anyway, Matt got Mr. V this year, and he is the perfect teacher for Matt. He just gets him completely and we've seen Matt mature quite a bit this year. Mr. V is teaching a 4/5 grade split class next year, and while I normally would be fighting to make sure my kid is NOT in that class, in this case, I'm actually hopeful he is!

Another great thing to happen at school this year for Matt was Student Council. This was his first year being able to run for student council and I encouraged him to run for one of the Class Representative positions. Matt, however, decided he wanted to run for Student Council Secretary. Maybe because it was something his sister hadn't done? Who knows. With Matt, you never can tell. In anycase, he made it and had a great time. He's looking forward to running for a position again next year!

Matt's biggest time commitment this year was hockey - his newest obsession. This year he played both cross-ice and full ice, and we officially became a completely committed hockey family, learning all the rules and spending many nights and all our weekends wrapped in blankets at the ice rink. The great thing with hockey is that you spend so much time with other hockey families that you make great friends. Matt had a great season, thanks to a healthy dose of determination and some very dedicated coaches. He tried playing goalie a couple of games, but it was clear early on that offense was the place for him. He scored goals in nearly every game, included a few hat tricks (3 goals in one game.) Although the season lasted 7 months, he misses it already and can't wait to get back on the ice again!

This summer he decided to take a break from baseball. After the hecticness of hockey, he needed some down time. For his birthday he got a new bike - a nice one to go longer distances, so he's eager to go on some good rides this summer. Last summer he did about 18 miles with Timm one day. His goal this summer is to do a 30 mile ride!

Yes, it's been a YEAR!

So, it's been a year since my last post. I realize this. But I'm not sure anyone else has. Does anyone really even read this or know this blog exists? Regardless, I'll be updating it over the next couple weeks. I've got a lot to catch up on, so expect a whole lot of bragging!