The Anderson's Blog

Tomorrow is Bailey’s 100th day of school.  Lincoln Elementary makes a HUGE deal of it.  She had to bring 100 of the same items (we counted paper clips).  Also, since she is on Student Council, she gets to have a pizza party for lunch.  Everyday this week she has come home with a sticker everyday like the one today “1 day till 100th day”.  This is picture of her 1st day of school.

Bailey is selling Girl Scout Cookies.  They will be delivered in March and cost $3.50 per box.

Here’s the choices

• Caramel deLites
• Peanut Butter Patties
• Shortbread
• Thin Mints
• Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Thanks-A-Lot
• Lemonades
• Reduced Fat Daisy Go Rounds

Call Bailey to order yours today!

So, who said TV wasn’t educational?  On a Disney Channel show tonight, Bailey learned a brain teaser that stumped Jason and I…

“Today is Friday and our uncle came to stay with us for 3 days and he is leaving on Friday.  How can he do that?”

We were stumped that she knew the answer and we didn’t.  Turns out the he was leaving in 3 days on his horse named Friday.

We got Bailey’s report card for the 2nd 9 weeks of school today, and we were VERY pleased.  They guage children’s reading levels from A (Beginning) to U (Expert).  The expect a Kindergartener at this level to be at a B, and Bailey is at a C level.  She has a 101+ on her Reading Progress Rubic for 2nd Quarter (101 is the top score).  She had +’s in every category other than writing her name.  She needs to work on her Y’s still.  Her teacher said “Bailey has shown growth in all academic areas this nine weeks.  She should continue to practive retelling skills.  Bailey should also practice sounding out words and writing short sentences.

She had 3 hand written notes from the Principal, Dr. Banks.  “Terrific Grades”, “Excellent Attendance!” and “Good school behavior”.

Thank you Bailey!  Because of her good grades, our family went out for supper to Taco Johns!

Jason and I decided about 6 months ago to become foster parents.  We both would like to have more children in the house, but would prefer to not enter the unknown of pregnancy again.  During my first pregnancy I was on bed rest or half days at work for a few months.  Bailey was still delivered 5 weeks early by Emergency C-Section and, to this day, they don’t know what caused my uterus to do the things it was doing that day.  So, I’ve been told to expect to take time off of work for my next pregnancy and my job relies on me being there.  And I love my job.  We love Sioux City and enjoy giving back to the community.  Becoming foster parents is another way for us to assist families to create a stronger future Siouxland.

During our orientation meeting, we were excited to know we were one of six couples that signed-up to attend the orientation, but quickly saddened when we were the only couple that showed up.  We quickly felt that foster parents had a lack of committment.  But, as we walked into the actual 10 week Foster Parents classes 2 weeks ago, we met a class of future foster parents that are going to be great parents.  I am very excited to get to know each one of these individuals throughout these 10 classes and to keep in touch following the class.

Many people warned us about the homework.  I wouldn’t call it homework, I’d call it paperwork.  There’s a lot of assessments, documents and reading to be done.  Also, we need to write a letter to our foster children, foster children’s parents and draw a floor plan of our home.  Bailey even got to draw a picture of the foster child apart of our family.

Looking forward to finishing up my homework on Friday night for our Saturday class!  Nite

We woke up Friday morning getting excited for our visit from grandma & grandpa Janicek after work/school that day.  On the way to school, Bailey couldn’t believe that it was already the day they were coming.  Her week went sooo fast.  We were scared that they were not going to make it as it started raining later that afternoon , but it did quickly turn to snow.  They were just going to have to take their time.

Once they arrived, we headed to Hy-Vee for dinner and then came home with the movie Narnia, Prince Capia.  It was good.  Bailey fell asleep 1/2 hour before the end of the movie.  During the break from a fight scene.  Not sure how she could do that.  But, she was able to see the ending on Saturday before I brought it back.

On Saturday morning, we had our 1st PS-MAPP for foster parents.  We were encouraged to see the participants in our class.  We had left our orientation with the impression that most people wanting to be foster parents were not really dedicated to the cause.  However, we did come away with a different impression.  Over half of our class is grandparents trying to get permant custody of their grandkids.  That surprised us at first, but as we talked about it, it didn’t really surprise us.  There are 5 younger couples also in our class around our same age.  So, I really look forward to the next 9 weeks of getting to know them more.

Bailey had a great basketball game (even though she fell on her funny bone).  We went out to eat with her, grandma & grandpa Janicek (who took her to her game for us) and grandma Charlotte at Little Chicago.  Then, off they went to Aunt Laura & Uncle Robert’s house to celebrate my sisters birthday with her.  And off we went to Jacki Kelly’s baby shower.

Bailey was the winner of the pin game.  Everyone started out with a pin and if you said the word BABY you had to give you pin to that person.  Bailey got a lot of people in the room.  So, she won a coffee mug and some mints.  Jacki got a lot of awesome gifts.  Things have really changed since we had Bailey.  It’s amazing the type of tools you can have to assist you in the first year of a childs life now days. 

After the baby shower, we went home and made a Taco Ring.  Angie Cox came over and we hung out playing wii.  Zach showed up later. 

It was a late night, and it hit Bailey hard.  She went snow boarding with SCGO & daddy in LeMars.  I guess she fell off her tube and got hit by a lot of people.  She cried a lot, cause it was scary, but no bumbs and bruises to show for it.  When she got home, her and dad played wii and the tiredness set in.  She cried anytime she made an error.  Everything frustrated her.  So, she is now enjoying a nice quiet bath.  Then PJ’s and a movie to calm us down before bed.  What did I do all day, like I have been doing many other Sunday’s…. studying for my real estate exam.  Unit 7 completed.  I believe there are 15 units total.  UGH.

Tonight Jason and I got to watch Bailey’s dance class.  They were definately all crazy after their 2 week break.  However, Bailey was awesome.  They started off with her teacher asking them to preform different dance steps.  She knew them all, and no one else knew them as well as she did.  Her teacher even commented on how well she was doing.  She paid attention and tried hard to learn the steps. 

Just need to work on Turns and pivot turns.  Can’t wait for the dance recital May 17th!

Tonight I picked up grandma and then picked up Bailey from Beyond the Bell.  We celebrated her getting her 1st Grade list by going out to eat at McDonald’s.  We caught up on everything that’s happened the past week & half.  Grandma caught brochitius so we couldn’t hang out last week.  After dinner we took grandma home and got her telephone working.  Then, picked up dad for the ride home.

So, on the way to pick up dad, Bailey asked me about something that I definately would disagree with.  But apparently I didn’t say it out loud.  So, she asked dad about it when he got in the car.  Dad disagreed and I said “I told you so”.  Her response was, “Mom, all I heard you say was …. (she pressed her lips together)”.  Sometimes she can be VERY witty.

Jason and I picked Bailey up from Beyond the Bell tonight and the first thing she said when we got in the car was, “Mom and Dad, I have a huge surprise for both of you when we get home.”  Dad couldn’t get her to break her secret on the way home, even though he tried hard.  She told us when we got home we needed to take off our coats and head up stairs to sit on the couch.  While taking off our coats, she informed us we could not peak in her backpack.  When we all got settled, she pulled out a piece of paper for us – – it was her 1st Grade Word List!  🙂

When starting Kindergarten, she was given a list of 50 words that she needed to recognize.  For the last month, we have been working hard on the word “WHAT”.  It stumps her everytime.  But, she said before Christmas Break that she wanted to work on her list hard so she could pass the Kindergarten list once started back at school.  She did what she set out to accomplish.  She said she was the only one today that got the 1st grade list.  She thinks theres like 5 or 6 others in her class that already are on the 1st grade list.  But, no one is on the 2nd grade list….YET….

Happy new year! Last night we hung out at kyle and jacki’s house with friends and Cindy. We brought out our wii and played mario kart and guitar hero. I was the DD. I have not felt good all week till yesterday morning, and wanted to keep it that way. However, I woke up this morning back to not feeling good. We went to Hoak’s to watch Iowa Hawkeye’s dominate. Then headed to zach and dave’s to watch my huskers have a fabulous bowl game against clemson. Huskers blackshirts really stepped it up and ganz did great even with his injuries.

We came home, cleaned the house and played mario kart. Bailey got to bed on time tonight. Last night she stayed with grandpa rick and cole and watched the ball drop in new york city.