Happy Halloween

Thought since I had a few minutes today I would try and get a post done. I'm unfortunately home today with Adam who this morning had a 103.6 degree fever. I don't know what's going on with the little guy, but he's been sleeping all morning. You know he's not feeling well when he does that!! Don't know if this is a new bug or remnants from when he was sick a week or so ago. Hopefully this isn't a preview of the winter to come!





Briana is officially ready for Halloween now that she has lost her third tooth!!! She was a little excited about it!!! When she could twist the tooth around and smile at you with the back of the tooth showing, we knew it was time for it to be pulled!!



Adam being sick will put a little damper on trick-or-treating tonight. : ( Bret's planning to stay home with Adam and I will take Briana up to Georgetown. We are meeting some of her friends up there and will go with them. Should be fun. Too bad our little Spiderman will miss the festivities.



Hopefully my class is doing okay today. I hated to be gone today on Halloween of all days, but you've got to do what you've got to do!! Poor sub! I've really been enjoying my new class, but it's a huge amount of work. Good thing my energy's back up or I never would have made it past the first week!!!



Here's a little sneak preview of the kids' costumes. I'll try and post some trick-or-treating shots later. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!


Pumpkin Patch

The kids and I went down to Wilton yesterday and went to the pumpkin patch with Barb. The first place we stopped at had lots of animals, things to play on, and of course, a tractor/hay ride. They loved the baby goats (6 week old twins) and climbing the trees. We even got to have our very own private hay ride - lucky us!! All the other trailers were full of people, but we chose a time when nobody else showed up!! It was actually not nearly as crowded as I would have expected either. Maybe most people actually went before the last weekend before Halloween! : )


We then went to another place that had a corn field maze. I had never actually been in one before, so it was a lot of fun. They kids had fun going every which way trying to find our way to the end. They said it was about "8 miles" long!!
Which way should we go??
They can't wait for Halloween. We will go up to Georgetown again, which was a lot of fun last year. We went to a Halloween party last night, so they broke in their costumes. More pics to come soon!! Hope everyone has a spooktacular Halloween too!




New position

Tomorrow I start my new position as a kindergarten/first grade teacher. I said good-bye to my 200+ students and will meet my 20 students in the morning! I can't wait!! Of course, this weekend has been work overload. I spent from 8 o'clock yesterday morning until 6 o'clock last night moving stuff out of my old room and working in my new room. I was back there again for 4 or 5 more hours this morning, plus doing planning and curriculum here at home. Yikes! I'm beat and the work week hasn't even started yet!! : ) I talked with one of the subs I had while I was gone for my treatment who will be taking over for a while in my old spot. He said he's dubbed that position the "Iron Man Position". He completely understands why I've taken the opportunity to move to another teaching position! I hope it's a great move for me. I'll keep you all posted about how it goes.

Briana's lost teeth

The big news a couple of weeks ago was Briana's first loose tooth. She finally lost it last Thursday morning, and was so excited she took it to school to show it off. Of course, she ended up losing it (I guess you could say a second time!!!) at school. Luckily the tooth fairy was very understanding when Briana wrote her a letter about what had happened and that it would never happen again. She still got a dollar under her pillow! And then yesterday, she lost her second tooth while she was at school. It did end up making it's way home and under her pillow last night! Very exciting!! (And very good timing.....she's looking like a jack-o-lantern. We're going to put her out on the front porch!)


I'm home!!!!

After 2 weeks of being gone, the doctor finally gave the okay for me to return home. Yea!!! It's so great to be back. As most everybody knows I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in July. I received my radioactive iodine treatment on September 6th and had to be sequestered from everyone until my radiation levels went down. Thanks to the geiger counter Stacie lent me, I can say for certain that I was shooting off those beta particles like crazy the first week or so. I stayed out in my "isolation rooms", which were all decked out thanks to my parents. They had magazines, flowers, TV, cards, food, and all kinds of other things that helped make my stay a little bit more tolerable! Of course they liked to give me a bad time as much as they could too. Here are signs in the bathroom were I was allowed to shower!


I sure missed my email, internet, satellite TV, and all the comforts of home. I did not however miss work much!!! I got caught up on my reading for the next 5 years!! My body scan came back clear, and I got to start my thryoid meds yesterday, so I'm finally on my way back to "normal".

Family Reunion

The Kissingers got together for a family reunion and, of course, it was a great time!! We were just out of Placerville, up towards my parents' house, so we didn't have far to go. It was great weather to break in the new pool at my cousin's house (water was added Wednesday and we were swimming Friday!!). We forgot Adam's "swimmies" so Bret took him in the pool with him and before we knew it he was swimming on him own! We were quite surprised as we didn't even know he could do that!
He was very excited about it as you can tell by the huge smile on his face!!!Friday was also my birthday, along with my cousin Michele's. So we got cake and presents which was lots of fun. It was her 35th and my 25th (or maybe I have them backwards, I can't quite remember!!!).

Of course, while we were up in the area we had to hit a couple of the local wineries. Miraflores was our first stop and here is Mary, Michele, Ben, me, and Bret trying out one of their wines. It was our first time there, as they haven't been open for very long, and I would definitely go again. Let me know if anyone is interested (hint, hint).

And here are the girls at Holly's Hill.


A few shots of the crazy cousins.






A perfect spot for a perfect weekend. It was beautiful!!! You couldn't beat the view or the company. So, who's hosting it next year?!?

First day of school

Another year of school has started. Here are the kids on the first day. Briana finally has a new teacher this year after two years with Mrs. Liddicoat. Adam is back at Cool Care, and his friends were very excited to see him back after his long summer vacation. It's been tough getting back in the routine of things though. Hope it gets easier soon!!

Briana's 1st loose tooth

Last night for dinner Briana bit a fork and got a loose tooth on the bottom right. Then she was wiggling it for a long, long time. Then this morning it got even wigglier. She was so excited about her tooth. She really wants it to come out. Bret said, "Let's superglue her tooth back in her mouth." Briana does not want to do that. She wants it to come out instead. She is going to put it under her pillow so that the Tooth Fairy can give her money the next day, and Bret thinks it will be worth $1. Amy thinks it's worth a quarter, Adam thinks it's worth $5, and Briana thinks it's worth $2. We'll see what she gets. That's the exciting news about Briana's first loose tooth.

[This post was narrated by Briana.]

Garden & Chicks

I know everyone has seen batch after batch of chicks we've gotten, but I thought it would be nice to include a picture or two of them full grown. Yes, we've actually managed to keep these longer than any of the rest. We have 4 hens and one rooster. They are awfully spoiled living out in the garden. Chicken scratch just doesn't cut it in their book!!! Here are a few pics of them as well as the garden. I think the 12 tomato plants we planted are a bit much, but my tomato-loving family is in heaven!!!

End of soccer camp






Adam did really well the rest of the week at soccer camp. He had a good time even though it was quite hot!! Here is anothr picture of him after they had gotten their "treasure". Friday was their last day and they were supposed to have a good time by dressing their coach up in crazy clothes! Unfortunately, Adam's coach had a migraine and wasn't feeling so hot. He stuck it out, but had to go to the bathroom several times because he was sick. Poor guy!! By the end of the hour the migraine medicine he had taken earlier that morning was kicking in and he was starting to feel a little better, but I bet that felt like a really long day! Here he is with the stuff on that our kids brought as well as the next group. It was hilarious!! He also signed their soccer balls and gave them a little "evaluation".