Back to School

Can't believe that it is time for yet another school year.  Even more scary is that Sarah is a junior and Kristen is a 5th grader.  It seems like just yesterday I was walking Sarah up to school for her first day of kindergarten and then heading to a doctor's appointment.  I was supposed to have my gestational diabetes test that day.  Now how did I go from that day to the day when my oldest is an upperclassman and the little one is at the top of the so called food chain at the elementary school. 

Sarah and Kristen with their 5th grade teacher Mrs. Pailsey.  This is the first time that both Sarah and Kristen will have had the same teacher.  Kristen has been in the same room as Sarah many times, but never the same teacher.  This is actually the first chance they had to have the same teacher.  Kristen came home on the first day with an interesting fact.  3 other people in her class also have an older sibling that had Mrs. Paisley and they were all in Sarah's class.  What are the chances.

Kristen at her  desk ready for a new scchool year to begin.  She is so excited and can't wait for all of the cool stuff that she gets to learn.  This year that includes American History.

 Already looking away and talking to someone else. 

Kristen at her locker.  Next year she get a lock on her locker.

Both girls ready to leave for their first day.  Kristen is already dressing like a middle or high schooler.    Of course she loves to dress up and has always been very concerned about the clothes she wears.

Kristen heading up the hill to Whittier.  No book bag because it was left at school last night during back to school night.

A slightly different picture of Sarah leaving for school before I have always taken a picture of her walking, but this year she will be driving her self to school so that she can go to work right after words or head to dance after cheer practice.

Clinton Football 9-11

Clinton High Schools School Loyalty

Sarah with the Clinton High School Marching Band playing the school loyalty song. Sarah is wearing the red shirt and shorts instead of the uniform.

Football 9-4-09

Pictures from Friday Night's Football game against Davenport West. This year Kristen has moved to the sidelines for the sophomore game.

Concert Band season

Today was the first concert for the year. The band concert was so awesome. Some of the music was so fun to listen too and you could tell that it took a lot of work to get it down. Considering all that has happened to these band kids they deserve a tremendous round of applause. They have overcome their problems and are stronger than before.

Mommy, Mommy the band is here

Mommy, Mommy the band is here, Sarah excited exclamed when she would catch the first glimpse of the pep band whenever I sold tickets for the basketball games. She would then spend the rest of the night dancing to the beat whenever the band played. Of course this was 14 years ago and she was a short curly haired little toddler of only 1 year of age. The joy of her life at that time was to have the pep band play during Daddy's games so that she could dance. How we loved watching her dance to her heart's content during those games. Of course never thinking that some day she would be in that same pep band.





Tonight was Sarah's first pep band. She was so excited to for her first pep band. While she was so excited, I was finding it hard to believe that it had been 14 years since she first discovered pep bands. I hope you had a good time Sarah, you are growing up so fast.

Whittier Christmas Program 2008

Tonight was Whittier's annual Christmas program. This was my 8 year of attending this program. They didn't let the Kindergarten and 1st grade in the program when Sarah was that age level. Tonight's selections were cute as usual, but I miss being able to hearing the traditional songs.

High school choir

Sarah had her first high school choir concert tonight. It was very good. 3 large groups and 3 small groups sang. It was so nice to be able to hear the kids sing, understand what they were singing. They also had dynamics and tempo instead of singing in a monotone without feeling way that was common to middle school. Just one question, when did my child get old enough to be in a choir that wears robes?

Homecoming 08

15 years ago a very special little girl made her appearance at the beginning of homecoming and came home on homecoming. Ever since that year, we have made it to the homecoming game and made a big deal out of it. Many of those years, her birthday fell during homecoming. This year however homecoming came 2 weeks early. That didn't stop us from celebrating. Sarah now has a more active role in the entire week. As both a cheerleader and member of the Royal River King Marching Band, she has been very active this week. Many assemblies, a community pep rally, a parade, decorating the field, commons, and Yourd gym, selling spirit items during the breakfast and finally marching at halftime and then managing the team to a Victory. This was the first time that Clinton has beat Assumption in 20 years and the first homecoming victory in a couple of years. Congrats to Kurt, Sarah, and the rest of the River King team on their awesome Victory over Assumption 14-7

Clinton vs. Bettendorf

All of the freshman cheerleaders are required to sell programs at one varsity football game. Friday night was the night that Sarah was assigned to sell the programs. She wasn't happy because she couldn't help Dad for the first half of the Sophomore game. I know she wasn't thrilled about this, but for the people that like to have a program she provided a valuable service. She was able to rejoin the football team during the 3rd quarter. Shortly after getting on the field she was required to tape someone up since Dad was busy in the locker room with the varsity team. I am sure he feels better knowing that both Sarah and John are on the field when he has to be inside. Even though Clinton lost the game it was fun to see an old friend. The first High school trainer in Iowa used to work for Bettendorf and he was at the game. He was one of the reason I got into athletic training way back when. Clinton ended up losing the game to Bettendorf 35-14.

Go team Go

I am posting several pictures of Sarah's first game as a cheerleader. The squad did an excellent job and you could see them relaxing as the game went on. After the team scores they do push ups for the number of points that the team has. So in order, they did 8 then 16, then 24 and finally 32 push ups for a total of 80 push ups tonight. I think their arms will be a little sore tomorrow. I am also posting one picture of Kristen. Please pray for me as I am going to be in serious trouble with this child. The picture doesn't show things right, but she was surrounded by about 8 little boys at one point. If she is already into boys at the old age of 8 what is going to happen when she is in high school?