Okay, my 2 readers have been complaining about no posting for the last 6 months, so I’m here to remedy. In my defense, I started working in September (so much for Peace & Quiet) while the kids are in school, so my time is even more limited. `So, here is a recap of what has been going on in the Sievert’s world the last half of 2008:
I decided to do some part-time work while the kids are in school. I wanted something I could leave at work and not take home or be stressed about, so that cancelled out real estate. So, I’m doing bookkeeping for a company with a majority of the clients in the oil & gas industry. I have a lot of flexibility with my hours and that works out great. It’s nice to feel I accomplished something besides the laundry, although the mountainous pile is still there to taunt me when I get home.
Barry has been busy keeping the cows from getting pink slips. You wouldn’t think the dairy industry would be so volatile, but this past year has been rocky due to the big ripple effect that the fuel hike had. The end of 2008 has left hope for a smoother 2009. He has been consumed lately with putting together an investor conference in New York for February. As part of the prep for the conference, Barry visited New York at the beginning of December. I finally got to go with him! We had a great long weekend packed with lots of the traditional stuff-Empire State Building, “All My Sons” on Broadway, the subway, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Fao Schwartz, Times Square, great food, crowds, and cold! It was great!

Tanner is enjoying middle school. He has no problem keeping up with his 4 AP classes and percussion. He had his first band concert at Christmas and we were impressed at how well they performed. I really think Tanner has a lot of natural musical ability that I hope he continues to develop.

He also has attended his first school dance! Barry and I were chaperones-wow-we are old, that's all I have to say about that. It was a little crazy for the first few months of school while he was playing football. He really enjoyed his team, his coach, and playing. His team, the Desperados, did not win one game during the regular season but kept improving with each game. Since this is a new league in the area, started by Tony Casillas former Dallas Cowboy, it is still small and all teams go to the playoffs. The Desperados peaked at the right time as they took the Championship. It was a really cool moment. What a great memory for Tanner! He says he wants to play in 7th grade, so I guess we’ll see.


He and Parker are taking a Hip-Hop dance class. They are really having a lot of fun and have a performance in June. I’ll have to figure out how to upload video before then.
Parker is having a great time with his friends this year. He loves that he has kids on his soccer team that are also in his school class. He is playing up a year in our rec league for the Tsunami. They ended up in 1st place for their age bracket. It’s a great team with a great coach. He is playing with them on an indoor team during the off season. They are playing up a bracket during indoor as the coach thought it would be a good challenge for them. None of the boys know this and they are holding their own just fine.

Parker has a lot of passion for soccer and that is so cool to witness!

He has a challenging teacher in 5th grade this year, but he is still managing to pull out great grades! We enjoyed his antics in the school Christmas program this year.

Madelyn played soccer, took piano, and started in gymnastics this fall. She enjoyed playing on The Liberty soccer team and has a very enthusiastic coach who seems to be really interested in helping each girl develop her own personal strengths. She will start playing with some of the players on an indoor team at the end of January. We are looking forward to watching that. She has quickly advanced in gymnastics and is now on pre-team which means 6 hours a week of practice. She enjoys it and is constantly doing back walk-overs or handstands. She is getting a lot stronger! After 6 months of piano, we decided to wait a year or so and then try again. She had one Halloween recital where the kids dressed up and played. Fun!

She loves school and her teacher. She is a great student-her lowest grade this year-a 97!
Cambren played soccer with his same team, the Stars, this fall. They were bumped up in their bracket, so it was a little more challenging for them, which is good. It is a good group of boys and a very patient coach. Cam keeps saying he wants to play football and golf and take karate. Not sure which of those we are going to try next. He still wants to play soccer in the Spring. (I think I need to talk to Calvin & Hobbes about their duplicator machine.) He has a great Kindergarten teacher and is doing fabulous in school. She has been really good about tweaking assignments to challenge him. She tells me he is a good leader and he seems to have quite a following of friends. He says he wants to be a marine biologist (like Tanner) when he grows up. He does love animals, especially our new cat Sundance-sometimes he gives him a little too much love. (The cat which started out as a cute little kitten is now our biggest animal-he picks on the poor dogs.)
Cam and Parker's birthdays were low key this year. We had a fun family day hanging out together. We went out to lunch, went rock climbing (Maddie, mom & Tj made it to the top of the 3 story rock wall), and then had dinner at Life's A Beach with some of the family.

We had a lot of fun picking out some fun pumpkins and decorating a few for our front porch and walk way for Halloween. The kids decided to dress up at the last minute for Halloween. I think we did pretty good with our thrown together costumes. Tanner and Parker both went with friends in other neighborhoods and had a lot of fun. While Barry & I passed out candy, Maddie and Cam went around ours with James & Monica & their kids. They all made a haul and we threw away a lot of candy!

We had a McGovern family turkey bowl in preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner that was coming later that day. Becky brought her kids up along with her sister's two girls who I met for the first time. It was a blast! Thanksgiving dinner was of course really yummy!We enjoyed spending the holidays with my side of the family. Ben, recently back from Iraq, was able to come visit with his family from Washington. Although half of us were sick through the holiday and still getting over it now, we had a great time getting to know their 5 kids a little better. They are all great and we hope they end up settling somewhere close! We had our traditional Christmas Eve at mom and dad’s with dinner, present exchange, Christmas story presentation by the kids, and the Drop ‘n Run. For New Year’s Eve, we had a low key get together at our house with a few board games and the Wii.

We’re glad to be slowly getting back into a schedule. I say slowly because we still have some lingering sickness. Hopefully, we will be rid of it soon. Although our 2009 is off to a slow start, I think it’s going to be the best year yet!