ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Payton's last volleyball games were today and her team won the championship! Here are some pics.

Practicing bumping the ball before the games...


Payton's team. Notice how the entire "bench" is filled with girls and the other team is practically empty. Having so many girls on the team means that each time the team rotates, they also rotate a girl out and one in.


Good game...


Blake at the game. He spent his time taking pictures and trying to figure out how the scoreboard works.


They won 3 out of 4 games today...


The team (Payton is barely peeking out next to the coach)...


Video of Payton serving...

• 4 stories tall - one for each of us
  
• Basement - he feels that we are depriving him of a basement because everybody in Kansas has one. He counts this is a story so we could get away with a 3 story house...whew!
  
• Color changing walls - he has been begging for color changing walls for a very long time. He envisions being able to push a button and the wall color changes. I deal with this request by saying "I'll email daddy and ask him about it" and so I do and now it's in Andy's court. You're welcome, Andy.
  
• Voice activated - he pronounces this as Boist Activated and he'd like things like opening the door to be done via voice command. I'm so glad Andy put on Home Alone 4 for them to watch tonight so we get to constantly hear ideas for how Blake would like to program the house...where does he get these nerdy tendencies anyway?
  

Address blotted out for security purposes

This invite is being given to a few of Payton's 6th grade friends. I never appreciated Payton more than after last year's birthday slumber party where some of the girls were complete freaks in public (throwing cloth napkins in a restaurant, yelling, etc.) but this is a different group of friends and I predict it will be much more calm. Either way is a win-win - either I appreciate Payton more because she knows how to behave OR they all behave very well and we have a great time. Wish us all luck. ;-)

We were shocked to see the snow this morning. Either we missed the news reports or it was a surprise to everyone, I'm not sure. Andy attempted to go to work this morning but turned around and came back home due to the roads being bad. Then he looked up school closings and saw that Payton's school was closed just before she was headed out the door for the bus stop!

Some pics of the snow....

Snow angel (made in the driveway!)...



Making the snowgirl...

Haven't had much to post lately since we've been iced in and doing boring things like cleaning and being lazy. Weather is still cold but we aren't stuck in the house as much now. Here's an update on everybody.

• Blake - happy as long as he has something to figure out. Our days are spent with him asking me questions I often don't know the answer to. Things like:
  
  How does the horn make a sound on the outside of the car?
  
  How does it scan?
  
  How is it a clock?
  
  What is a be-donk-a-donk butt?
  
  How does the car slow down?
  
  Why is a _______ called a _______?
  
  
  
  Here he is putting together a track on the refrigerator...
  
  
  And doing a science experiment where you collect smoke from a candle and then blow out smoke rings...
  
  
  I just printed out 5 worksheets for him to do tomorrow and when I buy him workbooks to do, he's done with it within an hour. He's tough to keep up with. I'm not feeling overly optimistic about how exciting kindergarten will be. Every time I come across a kindegarten website for printing worksheets, it's things like drawing numbers and letters. He'd much rather do addition/subtraction and try to read some words so hopefully he will be able to find things to learn once he starts school (for him, probably more on an emotional level than intellectual as he still has much room for improvement in that area!).
  
  
• Payton - has really come out of her shell this year and has gotten involved with a variety of things including volleyball (her team won all 4 games today!). She continues the trend of growing 3 inches a year and is now about 5'2" with no signs of stopping anytime soon. The emphasis for her has definitely switched toward friends which is very normal but means we see a lot less of her than we used to. Her recent report card had all As and one B which seems to be what she's always gotten. The work gets more difficult every year but she's doing a good job keeping up and maintaining good grades. The ipod she got for Christmas has quickly become a fixture in her life and she writes down new song requests almost daily and I download them for her. It takes a long time to build up a playlist but she's getting there.
  
  
• Andy - turning 32 in a week! He's been very busy at work lately and trying to keep up with a heavier workload. He was told by the dr. that he needs to lose weight so that is a new goal for us both.
  
  Andy's weight loss tracker:
  
  
• Me - also going to lose weight as we've both gained together and we'll be losing together. I went and signed all of us up at the gym today so Blake and I will go tomorrow for the first time in a long time. It will be healthy for him as well because he doesn't get enough physical activity being home all the time. I'm in the process of planning out some trips for the year but won't be saying much until they are booked and as everyone knows, trip planning is my favorite thing to do! I plan to write soon about what I'm doing to earn income because it's been an interesting road trying to figure out what I want to do. I'm still in the early phases of working on some things but I'll post more in the near future.
  
  My weight loss tracker:
  
  

Outside photos by Payton





Cooking in the fire