Moving right along

We have moved. We moved into a new house on Labor Day weekend. The one day it decides to rain is the same day we decide to move. We had a lot of help which made it go fast, extra fast because of the rain. :)  This house is bigger then the previous one. It is about 2400 square feet, it has an Arizona room where the kids have their toys and can play. Everyone has adjusted well, even the pets.

Maddie has lost both of her front teeth and has some more loose ones. She is doing good in school and is enjoying her swim class. She also started going back to taekwondo class on Mondays. Which is good for her for the self-confidence.

Ian is as cute as ever. He is still singing his Mamma Mia songs and dancing too. We even have to play the Mamma Mia songs on the ipod in the car so he can sing with them. He got his flu shot the other day and didn't even cry, I was so proud of him.

I started school on the 27th of August. I am going to the University of Phoenix and I love it. I am in constant contact with my enrollment and academic counselor's. I take one class at a time, one day a week. My first class was a goal setting class and I got an A in that one. Now I am taking Intro to Popular American Culture. My teacher is really smart but hasn't started off on the right foot with our class so far. Changed our first assignment at the last minute and then was 40 mins late to the first class. But I think it is going to be a good class.

Kathy is at camp in Tucson right now so it is just me and the kids. I think tomorrow we are going to go to a carnival with the grand parents. I hope everyone is having a great start to the fall season!

If you would like to have our new address just email me (jdy1226@gmail.com) or Kathy (kjkicks@gmail.com).

With love from AZ,

Jessica

Dancing Queen

One of Ian's favorite movies is 'Mama Mia'. While I kind of new some ABBA songs, I am now an expert (at least on the ones from the soundtrack).

Ian now just burst into song. His current favorite is 'Dancing Queen'. Here is his version of the chorus. You'll notice some pretend microphone work at the end.




Here is another version with Maddie also running and singing as well

Ian reads and Maddie gets into a new school program

The video is a little dark because it was nap time. This is Ian "reading" one of his favorite books.





While Ian is clearly on his way to brilliance, his sister apparently is already there. Maddie was tested two weeks ago for a new self contained highly gifted program in her district. She scored extremely well and will be in this new class next year. This will be a great class to push her at school. They already had to move her up for reading this last year but now she will be working on everything at a very high level. The best part is we won't have to pay for private school since this is in the public school!

Just wanted to give you all a kid update!

ATA World Championships 2009

Jess and I spent a week in Little Rock, Arkansas last week for the American Taekwondo Associations annual World Championship event. This year was special because it was the 40th anniversary of the ATA. Jess helped work the event that had over 2,000 participants.

I had many activities that I participated in. Things started on Wednesday with a Physical Fitness Test that I had to pass in order to do my mid-term. The test consists of push-ups, sit ups, and bag work (kicking only, punching and kicking, punching only). Each round is one minute and there is a one minute rest. I passed and then since I am a Master had to help administer the test to the other 150 people.

Thursday started off with me doing a midterm test. I demonstrated my form, sparring, and board break. I have included the video Jess took of my board breaks. It took two tries but I am allowed three so it's ok. I'll get the results in about a month.



Following the testing the tournament of champions took place. I judged on Thursday but had a student get World Champion and another get a silver medal.

Laura getting 2nd

Friday it was my turn to go for World Champion in two events. I got World Champ in sparring and silver in Xtreme Form. Below are pictures of me receiving my gold medal.




Friday evening we went to the big opening ceremonies at Alltel Arena. I was part of a demo that had 99 Masters doing a form in unison. Jess said we looked very cool.

Saturday I had my regular competition. I competed in 5 different events. I received 1st place in Xtreme Forms and Creative Forms. 2nd Place in Traditional Forms, Traditional Weapons, and Sparring.

Sunday, was left for judging and saying goodbye. I know it seems like a lot...it is :) We were exhausted by the end. Jess has quite a bit to do dealing with trouble shooting and keeping things running smoothly. Saturday and Sunday were especially long for her. Judging is much easier on me.

All in all it was a great event. Always nice to make the trip and visit with people I have known for 20 years.

Maddie Sings

Last night at Maddie's school the entire 1st grade came together for the end of the Star Reader Program. Maddie was one of the top readers in her class and earned all the prizes

The entire 1st grade also performed 3 songs. Here is one of them - the school song. This is taken with my phone.

Maddie's Recital

Maddie had her first recital on Saturday. She performed Old MacDonald on the piano. We were all very impressed with her pressence. She was the youngest in her group and her teacher couldn't believe how well she did.

Here's the star of the show

Gay Pride Weekend

This weekend was Phoenix Gay Pride. Kathy and I went on both Saturday and Sunday to help with the HRC booth. Saturday started off with the parade. This was this first year HRC had a float in the parade.

This is the float when we were working on it the night before. It had more balloons on Saturday morning but it looked great. We also had poster board that stated facts about HRC and what they have done for the LGBT community. Such as HRC is lobbying congress to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, HRC supports a fully inclusive ENDA (Employee Non-discrimination Act). HRC has 750,000 thousand members and 8,000 in Arizona. People watching the parade were very supportive and clapped and cheered for us as we went by. We have some ideas for next year to jazz up our float. Many of the other ones had music, were throwing out candy and giving out mardi gras beads. We were able to had out the bumper sticks but then we ran out in like 45 mins.

After the parade we worked at the booth and talked to people about HRC. Sometimes it is surprising how much the gay community doesn't know about their own community and groups that fight for their rights. The weekend was a success in educating and also in signing people up for membership. When we left late Sunday afternoon we were up to about 85 memberships. Which means that is just 85 more people that are going to continue to get information about what is happening on a federal level with LGBT rights.


On Sunday we got to see some live music which was great. One of the performers that we really liked was Jennifer Vazquez, she had a great sound to her and had great songs, she is based out of California. The food is also very good at Pride. It is the only time of year that I get to eat my Indian Fry bread burritos! Yummy!

Phoenix is one of the first prides of the year and there were a lot of out-of-state people that were their and some even said that we have a really good pride festival compared to where they are from. Even though we had a great time at pride we were definately missing the kids as they did not attend the festival. Now it is time to relax and enjoy the family time.

Ian's Test Results

Image via Wikipedia

We got the results from Ian's echo cardiogram today. The doctor says he has back flow in the pulmonary valve. The good news is the valve is formed properly. The doctor said people with life long problems are typically people that don't have the valves formed properly.

The doctor is referring us to a pediatric cardiologist to make sure nothing was missed and to see if anything further needs to be done at this point.

So it will be a few weeks before we have that appointment so now we wait. The picture is not actually Ian's heart but it is very close to the one the nurse gave him to take home so thought I'd include it here.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

Update

Ian recently had his 2 year old physical and the doctor detected a heart murmur and wanted him to get some testing done. So this last Friday we went to Phoenix Children's Hospital and had some extra tests done. When we first got there after checking in the radiologist called us back really fast and took us to one of the rooms. She wasn't the most friendly of people for working in the Children's Hospital, but anyway, she put a lot of sticky things all over his chest and stomach and then connected the cords and ran the EKG. Now meanwhile Ian is screaming his little head off and does not want to be there.  So she finished and says "Do you guys have the Rx for this that has the codes on it, we need that so it doesn't slow things down." Well we didn't have anything because we weren't given anything. So she calls up front and has us go up there to check and the front desk lady called the doctor's office and they said they would fax it over to PCH. So we were told that we could leave and go home. As we are leaving I was like "I don't think the did the right test. I thought it was supposed to be an echo cardiogram." Well I was right because about 10mins later the hospital called me and said can you guys come back we got the fax and he is supposed to have the echo. So we turn around and go back to the hospital.The second tech that we got was much better and this test was longer. He made it through that one and hopefully we will find out on Monday (tomorrow) the results.

Ian's 2yr old physical

Ian had his physical on Tuesday and everything went well for the most part. Let's start with the good: Dr. Galles was very impressed with his speech and vocabulary. He said that he is way advanced for only having one ear that works. Ian is 36.5 inches tall which puts him in the 90% of his age. He weighs 35.6 lbs which is the 98% for his age. So basically is a BIG 2 year old, which we already knew. And just to think that he was born 5 weeks early weighing 6lbs 12 oz and now is so big is crazy. The donor that we pick was 6ft 4in tall and weighed 225lbs. I am short so we know where he is getting his height, definatley from Kathy! :)

Now for the scary part. Dr.Galles detected a heart mumor while doing the exam. He said that it is something that can happen at this age and that it is possible that he will just grow out of it around 7-8yrs old. But just to be safe we are having and Echocardiogram done just to make sure that there isn't something more serious going on. It is hard not to worry and get stressed when something like this happens, but we are just going to take this one step at a time, and just send your positive thoughts and prayers our way.

Ian has be silly and cute as ever! Today we went to the copy store that we have been using for years. The lady's there, Donna and Nancy were very excited to see Ian. When it was time to leave he didn't want to go. But he finally gave in and gave both of them a hug and a KISS! That was a first, but he does like giving hugs and a kiss to family. Now when he gets older we may have to monitor this very closely.

I hope everyone has a great day and weekend, and when you are watching the Suerbowl on SUnday remember to cheer for the Cardinals!!

GO CARDINALS!!

Podcast

This month I started a podcast. It is an absolute blast!! It's basically like doing a radio show. One of my friends Patrick is a wiz on the computer so he is my technical director and helps put it all together. I talk a little politics and news. Also, I'll do an interview each time. Right now I'm doing it monthly and then in June plan on going to twice a month.

If you have iTunes you can subscribe and listen to the podcast here.

Otherwise you can listen to it right here on the blog. I added a player over on the side that says "Listen to Kathy's Podcast." Just click where it says show 1 and then scroll down and click the play button.

I'd love to hear your feedback.

Daily Mugshot

I wanted to explain what the slide show of the kids are from in the sidebar of the blog. This is something Jess ran across at dailymugshot.com. It's a simple concept, you just take a picture a day for a year.

Some of the sample slide shows they have are really cool. You can see how much people change in a year. We thought it would be a cool way to keep a record of the kids and really document their changes over this next year.

So enjoy the show. You will see new pictures added on an almost daily basis. If you click on the arrows at the top you can scroll through the pictures at your own pace instead of the at lightening speed they insist on showing them.