Blue Oaks Walk-A-Thon

The Kern kids are fundraising and this time there is a Paypal option so you don't even have to write a check if you don't want to! It's our 3rd annual Walkathon!!! It's exercise, helps the PTC and teaches students empathy and community care via CMN! Highlight last year was CMN patient, and teacher's child, Casey -age 4, telling his story about heart surgery and showing his scars to students totally improv. Even the smallest donation is welcome! Please note teachers: Karly/Ratcliff and Kyle/Wells so the kids get credit for their classroom competition. All donations are due by next Wednesday the 10th.

Here's the link! Click here to see more! Blue Oaks Walk-A-Thon

Here's some pics of the kids from past walks!

Oh CANADA!!

To say that this family enjoyed the Olympics is an understatment. We lived the Olympics here at the Kern house these past few weeks.....well, except maybe for Karly who is way more into American Idol these days than snowboarding, curling or hockey. And, it's true that with each Olympic contest that has come through our 16+ year marriage that my husband leaves behind his US citizenship for a short time to become a man of the maple leaf. So for two weeks Kent has cheered on the country of his birth and Kyle, who idolizes his Daddy, goes right along with him. Of course the US gets many a cheer, but the Red and White trump the Red, White and Blue in their book.
After a fantastic hockey game, which is way more exciting and stressful than I ever gave the sport credit, Kent not only put the whole family in his Canada Hockey jersey, but stood and sang the anthem, "Oh Canada" with pride. What a great country it was to host the events and we here love the fact that people got a better look at the wonderful people that share our continent with us!
Karly and her little pal Lauren actually fill out this jersey the best!

Yep, even the dog!

Well done hosting Canada. I think you won the hearts of many!

Congrats to Karly!!

She's done it again! Our Karly made it through a handful of written test rounds and has qualified for the Placer County Oral Spelling Bee. She is estatic and we are quite proud of her accomplishment! She has a gift with language and no doubt we'll be watching to see what is ahead for her in life. For now, it's a huge packet of words to study and nerves to tackle at the oral Bee on March 17th! What a kid!

The Bicep

How bad is it? This bad. Yuck!

The House, a Cruise, the Kids and a Bicep

Latest Scoops:

The HOUSE- The house is on the market. Day four as of today. We'll see what happens. We are offering something different than most. Easy sale and move-in ready, unlike most short sells and foreclosed homes. We are hoping for the right buyer! Someone who needs to move in on their time-line and doesn't want to hassle with bank issues or fixing up neglected homes/yards etc. No doubt though, we are outnumbered by homes that are bank owned and priced for a bargain.

We are hopeful but cautious. If we stay here for a while longer, we will make the best of it! Kent did an awesome job putting in new appliances and landscaping. I've got the paint touched up and everything as clean as is possible. About three weeks of prep, but we figure even if we don't sell, now we've got things well updated and all those little jobs we put off forever, done.

Our CRUISE- We are growing more and more excited about our upcoming Spring Break cruise! We have never really vacationed during Spring Break, so it's throwing us for a bit of a loop in regards to anticipation and preparation. Hard to think about bathing suits and flip-flops when it's raining and cold outside. Our islands of destination this trip are St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Martin. We are actively pursuing our port plans and looking forward to the rest and family fun it will bring.

The KIDS- Karly is hard at work with Thumbelina. She's got her lines down and is a star as always with her stage presence and projection of voice. Grammy is making the Thumbelina costume and Karly has a great solo she's excited to sing. I haven't worked as closely this year with the school play but look forward to supporting the cast backstage as I have done in the past. Props, scenery and who needs to be where will be at the top of my to learn list this next month or so.

Kyle just found out he'll be playing on the Phillies in the Majors this year. He'll be the only nine year-old on his team. We are very excited for him to play at this higher level and anticipating the changes that will come with it. Probably he won't have as much playing time as he has in the past, but the learning will be maximized. Plus, he'll be able to fire a ball into 1st base knowing that it will most likely be caught! Just today he watched a show on Albert Puljols and how he learned a lot playing with older kids who were better than him. Kyle instantly drew the parallel that while these kids are older, his skill level will be encouraged by playing with kids older than him.

The BICEP - Superbowl Sunday I head to the gym and come home to find Kent in serious pain. He and Kyle were playing baseball out front. Kent tried to climb a wall to retrieve a ball, but instead both Kyle and Kent heard an audible ripping sound. Kent managed in pulling himself up to tear his bicep. His entire right bicep, upper arm is purple, blue and black. Nasty bad hurt. He saw the doctor Monday and it will be four weeks until he can try to any lifting or pushing/pulling. How perfect is it that we finished our last house project just the day before.

That's what is up here. Lots of crazy business, and yet I'd be sad to have it boring anyways! :)

Pre-teen sleepover

I'm sitting at the computer as Karly has six girlfriends over for a sleepover/birthday party. The girls are eating pizza and talking all at the same time with contagious laughter and a few prideful belches in the mix. It's hillarious! They think they are so big and yet they still sound like little girls trying to make sense of their in-between status. Lots of remember whens, songs sung and key discussions on who will be the one to stay up the longest.

The beauty of it, it's so free and easy. What a gift such innocence is!

Not a sleeping beauty...

Kyle has to be one of the strangest sleepers I know. He talks in his sleep almost nightly and has to have a bright light on to fall asleep. Usually too, he falls asleep with a blanket over his head that we have to pry back when we head to bed ourselves because he gets all hot and sweaty. Recently, we creeped upstairs to find him like this. Totally asleep. We had to get a pic. What in the world?