Spring 2008!

Gorgeous stuff in my back yard!

Catching up

Here's Kira in her Easter dress and (below) and hunting Easter eggs after church. (She's the blur at the left!)

And here are some snaps of Ken's birthday party. Since he had to work on his birthday (the 31st), we celebrated on the 30th when he was home!
Kira was especially ecstatic about the candles - the kind that are supposed to relight after being blown out. Well, one of them worked!

UPDATE: Austen objected to the photo above that includes him. He prefers this one; he is in the "guise" of Martha Stewart's second cousin twice removed!!

Hoedown 2008

Here are some photos from Kira's last hoedown -- at least, her last at her elementary school!

Amazing bird

Right in the center of this photo, there's a very large bird. I think it's some kind of hawk. There have been three of them around here for the past few weeks. They fly from tree to tree or housetop to tree or they soar across the area. They're beautiful. I wish I knew exactly what they are. (Click on the photo to "biggify" it.)

Updates!

Here are some update pix of Taylor and Jayden, the li'l darlings!

Quality??

Class.
Character.
Excellence.
You make it happen!

Does anyone recognize those lofty thoughts? Why, they're posted on the Klein Oak High School homepage, of course!

So far, so good, I was thinking as my oldest grandchild works his way through his freshman year in high school. This is usually the toughest time for a school kid -- adjusting to the demands of high school, especially when he is taking several pre-AP classes.

Then on the first day of second semester, he and many others at KOHS were handed new schedules! What? A new schedule? Why? He is enrolled in year-long courses, and his grades are really good. The excuse reason given was that these "changes occurred due to class leveling." Class leveling? Was someone complaining about class sizes? Was this done with the knowledge of the teachers? Did anyone even CARE what the students and parents thought?

And how does this concept of "class leveling" fit with class, character, and excellence? If a student is having real success with a teacher, and then is moved to another teacher's class that is supposedly the same course -- except that the original teacher was keeping a good pace and (as it turns out) is TWO UNITS ahead of the current teacher -- how is that "class" or "excellence"? What does that tell the student that builds his "character"?

Overall, I've been pretty impressed by the good education my grandkids in Texas are getting in this district. Even with this stupid move on administrators' parts, the level of education is still noticeably better than in California. But really -- what message does some political decision like this send to the students?

"Musical" video games

Austen, Parker, and Kira, along with their friends Abbi and Austin, have discovered some "musical" video games. These games don't MAKE music, you understand! The players just have to hit the right buttons on the "guitars" or the right drum on the "drum set" at the right time to rack up points. It's really a hoot, but I am not sure we should be calling these games "musical"!

And here is a link to a couple of videos. The picture "quality" is almost completely non-existent, but the sounds alone tell what these games are all about!

Birthday

Wow! It's been a while since I posted. Lots of things have happened, but I've taken very few photos. Oh, well.

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I went to visit my folks in California. It was a short but very good visit. And the plane flights were smooth and easy, no lost luggage, etc. Marvelous.

Kids went back to school on Jan 2, and life is back into some kind of routine. Austen will experience his first-ever Semester Exam schedule this coming week. He's really happy that he'll get out early - maybe he hasn't figured out yet that the extra time is meant to be used to study for the NEXT exams!!

Today is my birthday, and so far, so good. It's a gorgeous day outside, not hot, not too breezy. Just right. I'm going to send my mom a big bunch of flowers - SHE'S the one who should be celebrated!

Linehan Christmas!

The Linehan kids once again made out like bandits!
(Remember you can click on each photo to 'biggify' and see it in more detail.)

Here they are by the tree and all the presents before diving in and unwrapping everything!

Austen got "Driver Education in a Box" so he can start studying and qualify for his learner's permit pretty soon.

Parker got Guitar Hero III (Xbox game), so now he and Austen can have contests!

Kira got some rollerblades and all the protection gear for knees, elbows, and hands. She also got a new bike.

And all the kids got this new TV. They are a happy lot, indeed!

Kira and Santa

Here's Kira, making a quick visit to Santa just before church yesterday morning. She was so fast, I didn't have time to use the camera's zoom! You can click on the photo to "biggify" and see more detail if you wish.

Merry Christmas!

School Christmas party

All the classes at Kira's school had their annual almost-vacation party last Friday afternoon. Here are a few photos from Kira's class.

Kira's eating her cookie - yummm!

Mrs. Mickelson has opened her present from the class - a plate with all the kids' names in their own handwriting.

The whole class with their teacher! They love her!!

Linehan house got TP'd!

The Linehans woke up to a TP'd house this morning -- thankfully, restricted to just the trees in front, not the whole house! Anne made Austen get up, handed him a trash bag, and said, "Clean it up!" Anne and I are laughing and chuckling; Kira and Parker think it's great fun; Mr. Grumpy (Austen) doesn't see the humor, no big surprise! I couldn't get to their house fast enough to take these pix -- so most of it had been cleaned up by the time I arrived (although there's still a bunch left!). Click on the pictures to see them in more detail. Fun, fun, fun!







Notice the unrolled roll caught up in the tree!

Christmas doin's

Last night, we went to Market Street in The Woodlands for their annual lighted horse and carriage parade. Before the parade started, we were entranced by the wonderful music of a small orchestra and amazing choir. And then the parade started about 7 pm. Big horses, small horses; black, white, and brown horses; large carriages and small ones -- what a treat!

Turkeys on Strike!

All the second-graders at Kira's school put on their Thanksgiving musical - albeit a week after Thanksgiving. It was still wonderful and funny and precious!

School playoffs

Yesterday was KOHS's football team's second round in the playoffs -- and they lost. So that's it for the marching band trips for this year.

Onward to concert types of performances.

Day after Thanksgiving

Hmph! I'm upset with myself that I didn't get any photos yesterday. My camera was all charged and ready to go, but it was forgotten. Oh, well, maybe I'll get some of the leftover-fest!

Austen and the KO band and football team are off to Huntsville for the second round of high school football playoffs. It's cold out and Anne tells me that Austen is sick again. How miserable for him.

Another newbie

And then this morning, I also received word that my niece has had her baby, a little boy, Jayden Matthew. He was due on Nov 30th, but was born on Nov 18th. Good thing! He's 7 pounds, 4 ounces and 22 inches long! Going to be tall like his 6'5" daddy, no doubt.

Newbie in the family

Here's a cute baby added to our family: The Spandaus now have a cavapoo puppy, named Ollie. Just precious!!