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Monthly Archives: April 2009

//April

RLF Session 3 Great Experience for Kirk

I just finished up my 3rd of 6 Regional Leadership Forum sessions.  What a GREAT experience.  I read 5 more books, totalling 15 since the first of January.  They were 1) First Break all the Rules, 2) The Zen of Listening, 3) The Prince (by Machiavelli), 4) Brain Rules, and 5) The Pearl (by John Steinbeck).  Discussing them with the group was wonderful and very insightful.  I also heard presentations from 2 prominant CIOs, participated in many leadership activities, and continued to build relationships with the participants from all over the midwest. 

On Monday night (27th) for our group activity, we were blessed to hear from one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.  The story is absolutely humbling what they went through.  If you are not familar with who they are, check it out:  Lost Boys of Sudan History.  To think that any boys this age with no parents could survive what they did is amazing!

It’s hard to believe that we are already half-way done with the program.  Only 3 more sessions to go and then SIMposium in Seattle in November.

By |2009-04-29T10:50:44-07:00April 29th, 2009|Work-Related|0 Comments
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Double Dose of Success!

What a GREAT day today was!  Two wonderful things happened in our family:

1)  Sarah tried out for section leader for the Metea High School Marching Band last week, and today she found out that she made it!  We are very excited for her and she can’t wait.  Part of this experience will be to attend a 2-day leadership course at a prestigious downtown Chicago music school where she will receive some training.  Way to go Sarah!

2)  Kirk just finished up a very rigorous course on ITIL v3 Foundations.  ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library and is a worldwide standard for IT Service Management (read more about it here).  The training course was only 3 days but was VERY brutal.  300 pages of content and by the end of each day, his head was swimming!  After studying for multiple hours every night, exam time came and he passed it!  He now has an ITIL v3 Foundations Certification, which will look good on the resume!  🙂

By |2009-04-23T20:23:36-07:00April 22nd, 2009|School, Work-Related|0 Comments
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Win in 200!

brittany-200meter-win1Brittany shocked us all and made us proud today at her track meet as she secured a commanding win in her heat of the 200 meters!  She came around the turn strong and never looked back!  Her time of 33.59 was the 2nd fastest girls 7th grade time in the entire meet!  Congratulations to Brittany!  She also ran the 400 meters and had a personal best as well.  She also tried out the triple jump and didn’t like that too much!  Looks like Brittany found her event!  She’ll probably be named to the 4 x 200 meter relay team for the next meet.  We’ll wait and see!

By |2009-04-18T20:51:52-07:00April 17th, 2009|School|0 Comments
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A Little Taste of Spain in Our Home

Our family will be joined in July by a young woman from Spain!  A lady involved in the PTA sent us some information about this and after much thought, we decided we would jump in and do it.  We are VERY excited!  This will give our family a little taste of another culture, as well as help Sarah with her Spanish.

The girl’s name is Carmen Montanes and she is 14 years old.  She is from San Fernando (Cadiz) which is on the southwest coast of Spain.  The program she will be coming over here seems wonderful.  She will stay with us from June 30 – July 28.  While here, she will be able to do things with the program such as a White Sox game, Six Flags, museums and other attractions in downtown Chicago, a few local activities, etc.  They take 2 day trips a week.  The rest of the time, she gets to spend with our family seeing what we like to do and how things are in an American family.

We’ll keep you posted on how this goes.  We are so excited to have this experience!

By |2009-07-20T12:27:17-07:00April 16th, 2009|Home Life|0 Comments
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Brittany Right on Track!

brittany-1st-trackmeetBrittany had her first Still Middle School track meet this week and did very well.  She competed in 3 events:  1) Shot Put, 2) 1600 meters, and 3) 4o0 meters. 

Her shot distance was almost 15 feet (which is pretty good considering her size and weight).  She ran the mile in 8:29, and ran the 400 in 1:28 (the mile and 400 were back-to-back so that was pretty crazy)!  Now that she has her trial times, she knows what she can shoot for to better her times in the future. 

Overall, Still Middle School performed very well (much better than in Cross Country which Brittany also ran).  GREAT job Brittany!

By |2009-04-18T20:52:34-07:00April 10th, 2009|School|0 Comments
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Kirtland Temple Visit – Day 4 of Whirlwind Tour

kirtlandtempleToday, the last day of our 4-day spring break, 1500 mile road trip (Sunday – Wednesday), we visited the Kirtland Temple on our way home.  The Community of Christ has done a nice job keeping the temple maintained.  They have added a new visitor center addition since we were last there:  a theater where, after the movie is over, the curtains open up to a full wall of glass looking out onto the temple.  They now charge $2 per person “maintenance fee” to tour inside the temple which is a little weird, but we paid and went on the tour.  The kids’ knowledge of the events of the times stunned the tour guide!  🙂

What a great sacrifice those early saints made to build that temple.

All-in-all, we had a GREAT trip and even enjoyed most of the 24 hours worth of driving (round trip) we did. 🙂  We hope that the kids learned a lot from the trip and now have a greater appreciation for our Church heritage.

By |2009-04-03T05:54:54-07:00April 1st, 2009|Church, Home Life|0 Comments
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