News from the SmithKirks...
Hello from Northern California! It has been a great week or so for us (especially Kristina since she’s on Spring Break!!). Highlights include the following events…
ELISE RETURNS… She was the first guest in our new little condo and in honor of her visit she helped us throw a big dinner party for a bunch of her friends. We sat Japanese style on the carpet over a big tablecloth with lots of napkins, since Kristina is a little OCD about getting anything on the semi-new beige carpet. She and Kristina also spent some quality time at the Valley Fair Mall hitting the sales and eating Mrs. Fields cookie sandwiches. Elise also visited the little people at Escondido and was their Fun Friday guest. She fielded questions about her new job and movie stars she’s met and she also shared some entertaining stories about her roommate’s crazy kitty. She had the little people rolling on the floor with laughter.
Another fun part of the weekend was Kevin’s guitar performance at the Stanford 2nd Ward’s Acoustic Café on Saturday night. He played to an audience of about two hundred crazy single people from wards all around the Bay area and sounded incredible!
SITTING ON THE COUCH… This week has also been full of THANK YOU card writing! We spent Monday-Thursday writing, addressing, and stamping wedding Thank You cards during every spare moment of our evenings. We only have 45 left!! Kristina wanted to pull an all-nighter and get them done but her smarter half vetoed that idea J. Fortunately we got a satellite dish (Dish Network) installed on Tuesday, so that has made the job more exciting for us. We’ve been able to keep up with Sharks hockey as they work their way to the Stanley Cup Finals and the continued Barry Bonds steroid scandal. Kristina has also been able to TiVo several episodes of the Gilmore Girls and Dawsons Creek.
THREE POINT SHOTS… Another highlight of the week came on Wednesday night when Kevin got a phone call from the 1st Counselor in our Bishopric asking if he would serve as the new Young Men’s basketball coach. Kevin enthusiastically agreed although he shocked the Bishopric when he told them he’d never played before. They assumed with his height he’d played basketball all the way through college!
So last night Kevin began his coaching career with the Lawrence Station Ward’s team (games are every Thursday night April- June). The boys out shot the other team and played incredibly—several boys nailed almost every three-pointer they tried. The boys were SO EXCITED to finally have a real coach. Kristina tagged along and sat with the moms and dads and learned the boys’ names and cheered loudly. We celebrated Kevin’s first night as coach with a trip to Chili’s, where we ate yummy food and got to watch the Sharks game AND the SF Giants game at the same time on the Sports Bar TVs. It was almost a little too many sporting events for one night for Kristina!
RIDING THE TRAIN… Kevin continues to work up in San Francisco, which means he gets to spend nearly three hours commuting per day. About two hours of the commute is spent riding CalTrain, where Kevin has recently been passing his time reading a Bill Simmons book about the Yankees and Red Sox. He works close enough to the KPMG powers-that-be that he often gets taken to lavish and exciting lunches, although his favorite is still Kristina’s cookin’ (especially the cookies!). The coming weeks will take him to Foster City and Mountain View, which should mean a shorter commute and more time with his beautiful wife. :-)
THE LITTLE PEOPLE GO TO WAL-MART… Spring Break is almost over for Kristina, but she’s super excited to return to work b/c next week the little people are taking a trip to the Stanford Geology Center AND Wal-Mart! In order to bribe the little people to be good, Kristina lets them pick what they want their reward to be after slaving hard to sit in their chairs properly, do their homework, and earn class points for several weeks. Last week’s chosen reward was a trip to Wal-mart, so next week we’re going to go on a scavenger hunt around Wal-mart to learn about prices AND we’ll get to buy some candy. It should be a great way to spend a morning (and hopefully it’ll help the little people learn something about money and buying things at the store too).
In addition to organizing field trips, Kristina has been entering the 21st Century by learning about the computer and how to create web pages. As part of the HP grant that landed her the super cool HP tablet PC, digital projector, and digital camera, the 3rd grade little people at Escondido have been working on creating a web site. Check out all the work they’ve been up to at http://www.sfbaylands.com/
Kristina also learned how to use Dreamweaver and has made a little progress on her own classroom website (still in the early stages). Check out what she’s done so far: http://staff.pausd.org/~krsmith
UPCOMING SMITHKIRK EVENTS… This weekend we’re heading up to the Oakland Temple to attempt to attend our first English speaking Endowment session (so far we’ve made it to Samoan and Spanish sessions). We’re also going to attend our last SJ Stealth lacrosse game of the year.
ELISE RETURNS… She was the first guest in our new little condo and in honor of her visit she helped us throw a big dinner party for a bunch of her friends. We sat Japanese style on the carpet over a big tablecloth with lots of napkins, since Kristina is a little OCD about getting anything on the semi-new beige carpet. She and Kristina also spent some quality time at the Valley Fair Mall hitting the sales and eating Mrs. Fields cookie sandwiches. Elise also visited the little people at Escondido and was their Fun Friday guest. She fielded questions about her new job and movie stars she’s met and she also shared some entertaining stories about her roommate’s crazy kitty. She had the little people rolling on the floor with laughter.
Another fun part of the weekend was Kevin’s guitar performance at the Stanford 2nd Ward’s Acoustic Café on Saturday night. He played to an audience of about two hundred crazy single people from wards all around the Bay area and sounded incredible!
SITTING ON THE COUCH… This week has also been full of THANK YOU card writing! We spent Monday-Thursday writing, addressing, and stamping wedding Thank You cards during every spare moment of our evenings. We only have 45 left!! Kristina wanted to pull an all-nighter and get them done but her smarter half vetoed that idea J. Fortunately we got a satellite dish (Dish Network) installed on Tuesday, so that has made the job more exciting for us. We’ve been able to keep up with Sharks hockey as they work their way to the Stanley Cup Finals and the continued Barry Bonds steroid scandal. Kristina has also been able to TiVo several episodes of the Gilmore Girls and Dawsons Creek.
THREE POINT SHOTS… Another highlight of the week came on Wednesday night when Kevin got a phone call from the 1st Counselor in our Bishopric asking if he would serve as the new Young Men’s basketball coach. Kevin enthusiastically agreed although he shocked the Bishopric when he told them he’d never played before. They assumed with his height he’d played basketball all the way through college!
So last night Kevin began his coaching career with the Lawrence Station Ward’s team (games are every Thursday night April- June). The boys out shot the other team and played incredibly—several boys nailed almost every three-pointer they tried. The boys were SO EXCITED to finally have a real coach. Kristina tagged along and sat with the moms and dads and learned the boys’ names and cheered loudly. We celebrated Kevin’s first night as coach with a trip to Chili’s, where we ate yummy food and got to watch the Sharks game AND the SF Giants game at the same time on the Sports Bar TVs. It was almost a little too many sporting events for one night for Kristina!
RIDING THE TRAIN… Kevin continues to work up in San Francisco, which means he gets to spend nearly three hours commuting per day. About two hours of the commute is spent riding CalTrain, where Kevin has recently been passing his time reading a Bill Simmons book about the Yankees and Red Sox. He works close enough to the KPMG powers-that-be that he often gets taken to lavish and exciting lunches, although his favorite is still Kristina’s cookin’ (especially the cookies!). The coming weeks will take him to Foster City and Mountain View, which should mean a shorter commute and more time with his beautiful wife. :-)
THE LITTLE PEOPLE GO TO WAL-MART… Spring Break is almost over for Kristina, but she’s super excited to return to work b/c next week the little people are taking a trip to the Stanford Geology Center AND Wal-Mart! In order to bribe the little people to be good, Kristina lets them pick what they want their reward to be after slaving hard to sit in their chairs properly, do their homework, and earn class points for several weeks. Last week’s chosen reward was a trip to Wal-mart, so next week we’re going to go on a scavenger hunt around Wal-mart to learn about prices AND we’ll get to buy some candy. It should be a great way to spend a morning (and hopefully it’ll help the little people learn something about money and buying things at the store too).
In addition to organizing field trips, Kristina has been entering the 21st Century by learning about the computer and how to create web pages. As part of the HP grant that landed her the super cool HP tablet PC, digital projector, and digital camera, the 3rd grade little people at Escondido have been working on creating a web site. Check out all the work they’ve been up to at http://www.sfbaylands.com/
Kristina also learned how to use Dreamweaver and has made a little progress on her own classroom website (still in the early stages). Check out what she’s done so far: http://staff.pausd.org/~krsmith
UPCOMING SMITHKIRK EVENTS… This weekend we’re heading up to the Oakland Temple to attempt to attend our first English speaking Endowment session (so far we’ve made it to Samoan and Spanish sessions). We’re also going to attend our last SJ Stealth lacrosse game of the year.
posted by JerzyGrl | 6:26 AM
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