We have our own QR Code!

What's a QR code? It's basically the same thing as a barcode, like you see at the grocery store. You scan it with a QR scanner, an app you can download for free on your cell phone, ipod, ipad, etc. If it has a camera on it, it can scan the code. When you scan the code, you'll be taken to a website, you'll get a message, or something similar. Sometimes a coupon. QR codes are everyone these days! The Skis cannot be left behind! If you scan this code, you'll get our family blog! I'm already thinking of clever ways to use it for Christmas cards! :)

Time to Catch Up...

Where has the time gone? (I have a feeling a say that every time, don't I?) Once again, we've been busy...being busy! I think I left off with summer...

No big trips for us this summer. I took a class over the summer that ended up taking up way too much time ~ Biology. And what a doozy of a class it was! My professor was a conspiracy theorist who blamed all of the world's problems throughout history on bankers (every presidential assassination/attempt - including Lincoln - was arranged by the banking industry.) He also hates politicians (Bush and Clinton are drug/gun runners) but in particular Republicans (the Bushes are Nazis), along with Public Relations people and those weaklings who believe in religion/creationism. You can imagine how well we got along! He felt it his responsibility to teach us the "truth" ~ the stuff we'll never read in books or hear about on our own; he was one of the few "enlightened." It sure was interesting. I sat through class, biting my tongue and got my "revenge" the best way I knew how... He had to give this Republican, PR degree holding, Creation believing Christian an "A" in his class. :)

The kids had a better summer! Grandma and Grandpa L. bought them a pool for the backyard as a combined birthday present. It was great for cooling off on hot days and just chilling out. Timm enjoyed it, too, once in a while after mowing the lawn! They also did they annual camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa, although they went to a new campground this year. They also got the hottest weather of the year, making it almost impossible to do much. Each year I'm surprised that Kayleigh still wants to go ~ getting dirty and "roughing it" is really not her thing, but she always says yes. Even if all she does is spend the time sitting around camp reading, she enjoys the time with Grandma and Grandpa. Besides, "roughing it" now includes A/C, a tv/dvd player, microwave, and flush toilet and shower in Grandma and Grandpa's new "camper."

Matt asked Grandpa if he could take him fishing this year while they were camping. If you know Grandpa, you know the answer was YES! Matt had so much fun; it was one of his favorite parts of the entire summer! He can't wait to go again! I know it was a great memory made for both of them.

Matt spent a lot of time riding his new bike over the summer as well. We're so glad we invested in that new bike! He lost track of how many miles exactly he put on, but he got a new bike computer for Christmas, so he'll be able to keep track this summer. He also got to take a big trip with Grandma Tam and Grandpa Wayne down to Kentucky to visit his aunt and uncle and his cousins, Kameron and Riley. He hadn't seen them for a long time, so he was excited about that, and he was REALLY excited about getting to visit someplace his sister wasn't! :)

Kayleigh continued to feis (dance) throughout the summer and fall and bring home medals. Most of her competitions were in the Milwaukee and Chicago area, but we also did make the trip to St. Paul, MN a couple of times. Timm and Matt came with us to one of them and we made a long weekend of it, including taking in a Twins baseball game, taking the train from the Mall of America to the stadium, which was fun. In November, Kayleigh competed at Oireachtas, the MidAmerica Irish Dance Championships. Her competition had 73 dancers and she placed 14th!

This fall has had us busy as ever!

Kayleigh started out the year in 7th grade taking the advanced 8th grade classes. At the end of the semester she officially became an 8th grader, and just a couple of weeks ago we registered her for her classes next year up at the high school! How can that be, right? She's loving 8th grade and busy as ever with dance, forensics team, band (oboe), jazz band (tenor sax), peer tutoring. She also goes to youth group at our church and volunteers as a teacher's aide every month in the preschool Sunday School class. The kids love her ~ I call her the Pied Piper of Preschoolers!

Matt's in his last year of elementary school. (I think I might actually be having a harder time with this than with Kayleigh moving up to high school!) He seems to have a passion for building and inventing. He's always in his room tinkering with his legos and kinex. For Christmas he got a kinex kit to build a (working) roller coaster, and he did the entire thing all by himself! Every night he'd come home from school and go right up to his room to work. Sometimes I'd catch him working on it instead of being in bed when he was supposed to! Hockey season started in October and has taken up much of his time since then until March. Last year he was quite the scoring machine on the offensive line, but this year his coach has moved him over to defense, and he's doing really well. Hard to believe our mild-mannered, laid back, sensitive hearted kid is such a toughie on the ice, but he is! The team started off going undefeated for quite a while, but broke their streak a few weeks ago with a couple of tough teams. The season is starting to wind down with the State Tournament coming up March 3rd here at home. This weekend Matt's going to be giving lacrosse a try for the first time, which many hockey players play offseason.

I continue to plug along with school and subbing. I try not to get too frustrated sitting in class listening to profs who are talking about teaching and kids, yet they haven't been in a real classroom in years (or in some classes since their own student teaching) and don't have kids of their own, and here I sit giving up time in the classroom subbing. I was officially accepted into the college's Professional Program this semester, so that's the next step in the process. I took my first break from classes this past winter break, which was REALLY nice. I had forgotten what it was like! And I got subbing calls EVERY day of Winter break!

Timm's decided to join the fun as well; I guess he felt left out when the rest of us had homework to do! haha. Timm's work has always had it in the plans for him to return to school to get his Bachelor's in business. Fortunately, the majority of his classes can be done online and are pretty flexible, which help with both his work schedule and my school schedule. And, between his veteran benefits and his work, it's 100% FREE!

Whew! So, there ya have it...I think we're all caught up now!

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!