January 4th, 2009 - Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Where did the last year go!

 

Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Years!

 

Once again the last update I made was months ago!  So much to catch up on from the last few months but click on the links for the highlights and summary.

 

Winter Vacation 2008 

Plowing through December...literally 

November has come and gone 

 

The rest of October...

 

 

Coming up in 2009

 

A few trips for Steve to Dubai, Thailand and Malaysia

We will a

ll going to Phoenix for mom's unveiling and the walk in her memory

Nathan will be going on the 8th grade DC/NYC trip

Our first trip to Israel including dad

  

Dad has setup a Pancreatic Research Walk through Lustgarten Foundation in memory of Mom.  We'll be walking with him on February 8th and I setup a site if you want to sponsor me:  Phoenix Pancreatic Cancer Walk In Memory of Dody Norban 

 

Sorry for the long winded catch-up entry but hopefully I can get back to at least monthly entries moving forward.

 

Finally, I've been trying to keep things updated on Facebook too so you can look me up there for daiy entries as well!

 

December was definitely an interesting month starting off with Nathan competing for the 3rd year in a row with his school Robotics team in the First Lego League Robotics competition. 

 

Somehow with everything else going on we were still able to fit in taking the kids to see Beauty & the Beast at Village Theatre.  Jessi was sooo excited to stay after the show and get autographs from the actors and actresses.

 

We also took them to the show 7 Brides for 7 Brothers at the 5th Ave Theatre which was a very fun show and the kids really enjoyed it!

 

Hannukkah parties were abundant this year with one with our friends the Puterman's, one with our friends the Tarlowe's and the one at the synagogue (re-schedued of course due to the snow storms)!

 

Just before the kids were supposed to start winter break our area got hit with several snow storms in a row, cancelling school for the last 3 days before holiday break for the kids.  The first day off we've declared a"Threat of snow day" since we didn't even get a flake here but some areas in the Seattle Metro area got up to 10" of snow.  The next day after whining all morning of still not getting any snow, we finally started seeing some snow but only got about 1-2".  Again other areas got slammed while we waited patiently until finally…yeahhhh, we got snow!!  Nathan measured almost 6" out on the patio furniture.  The kids had a blast, sledding, building a snow fort and running around playing with friends.   Why is it that when it's 70 and sunny I can't get the kids out of the house but when it's snowy and cold and blowy I can't get them to come back in from the cold! :)

 

See next entry for December vacation 2008

Steve headed to Dubai for a trade show.  It served to be an interesting experience to setup a show where some of the people setting up the booth spoke Thai and some spoke Hindy but couldn't find one person who spoke both!  He got  to do some sight seeing there too and more pics up on his FB.

 

Jessi & I went to Phoenix to spend some time with Dad after his surgery.   We had a nice visit together and Jessi was a big help in getting things in the condo setup so he could reach what he needed over the next few months while he was supposed to recover.   We went to the pool everyday and Jessi noted, "if this is a swimming pool, how come I'm the only one who is swimming!" :)  

 

Our friends the Tarlowe's came over to watch the OSU vs Michigan game.  They both played pretty poorly but at least we got to watch with friends!

 

For a birthday present for Jessi, Aunt Michele got Jessi and I voice lessons together with a great voice teacher.  We learned a lot of neat stuff about how to sing the correct way!  Jessi's going to continue the lessons and it will be a great compliment to her theatre classes.

 

That brings us to Thanksgiving which we had our non-traditional Annual Luper Thanksgiving Open House.   This year we rented out the Blakely Hall party house up the hill in the highlands for the brunch and it was great to have so much space for everyone to relax, hang out and enjoy the day.   We had about 50ish people join us for the brunch and about 20 for dinner.  The weather was amazingly beautiful for Thanksgiving in Seattle and the kids even got to play in the park.  It was a fun filled day of family, friends, fun and food!  We were very thankful to have such a nice celebration.

Thanksgiving weekend included the Seattle Kids Marathon which Jessi had run 25 miles with her school prior to that day and a crew of about 40 students from her school and their families finished the  last 1.2 miles together with thousands of others.

I can't believe the last update I made was in June!  So much to catch up on from the summer but I'll try to summarize as much as possible.

 

July was a whirlwind of kids at camps, Steve and I alternating going to conferences, unfortunately that while the kids were at camp, so we only got brief chance of some time togehter and didn't get to plan a getaway...maybe next year.  We did manage to sneak in an Adult only Euchre Birthday  party for Steve before the kids came home. After the kids got back, my dad came to Seattle for a visit and then stayed to work at SeaFair with the Coast Guard Auxillary.  He said he really enjoyed and it was fun getting to see the Blue Angels doing flyovers!  We also managed to get to the Microsoft Picnic and the kids really enjoyed a fun filled day and we even had great weather.

 

End of July we headed for an 11 day trip to Columbus for the Luper Family Reunion and Mollie Kahn's 100th birthday! It was a great trip and we got to see family and friends during our visit.  Highlights included the Luper reunion, seeing Arnett Howard, a trip to the Rockhold Hatch, visit to neighbors on Venetian Way, The Ohio State Fair, Graeters & Skyline (of course), girls night out, kids sleepovers, a behind the scenes tour of the Ohio State Buckeye Stadium (thank you Gail!) and seeing Molly play with her band at Hoggy's.  I'm sure I'm missing many other highlights but it was a pretty full trip!

 

End of August included more camps, including Nathan flying a plane  at the Museum of Flight camp (how cool is that!) and Jessi awesome peformance as the Narrator in her Performing Arts camp.  We took the kids to see the new broadway show "Shrek The Musical" it was really funny and the kids really enjoyed it.  Of course we had to get dad Shrek Ears since he is Grandpa Shrek.  We also had a brief visit from Gail and Brad (and Brad's dad) on their way back from Alaska.  It was a fun dinner but due to unexpected downpouring (rain in Seattle -who would have thought) there wasn't much sightseeing.  Jessi also got her braces off in August and is now wearing a retainer. 

 

In September it was of course time for "Back to school"  .  I was in Denver for a conference we managed for Microsoft and before I got back Steve had to leave for a trip to Thailand for his new role at Microsoft in HSG (Health Solutions Group).  So for 30 hours our poor kids got handed off to several friends and a babysitter until I got back into town on Sunday! 

 

More fun in September including a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo on a beautiful warm day, a few B'Nai mitzvah for friends of Nathan's, getting ready for Rosh Hashanah and we got to catch up with our Aussie friends Dean and Stuart for dinner while they were in town.  Also the kids started their afterschool activities including Hip Hop!

 

Here we are in October and we're a month and half into school and the kids are doing well. 

 

On Rosh Hashanah we continued mom's tradition and had our Open House for the first time in Washington.   It was great having so many wonderful people we've met in Seattle come get to relax and enjoy the holiday with us. 

 

After Rosh Hashanah, we Pre-launched the Franklin Move In A Box (MIAB) at SMB Nation.  Steve (Williford) spoke at the conference and Kim was recruiting for MIAB as she was talking to people while attending the conference. Jamie, Alyse and Leslie all came out and helped.  We got great responses to the product!  Now the fun stuff...getting it ready for prime time!

 

Dad came in for Yom Kippor and it was a long day of fasting but ended wonderfully with break fast at the Kay's house.  What could be better than ending a day of fasting with a shot of Jack Daniels?  A homemade chocolate cream pie chaser of course!

 

Dad left on Friday, Steve headed back to Thailand on Saturday and the Aussie's left on Sunday...I think I'll get a Bluper Airport Shuttle sticker for the side of my car!

 

This week has been spent with kids catching up on homework, me working on getting things rolling for Franklin Washington, Move In A Box and finding work!  Included in that work I have cleaned out my email from 650 to 268 in my Inbox!  Yeah!!!

 

Dad has setup a Pancreatic Research Walk through Lustgarten Foundation in memory of Mom.  We'll be walking with him on February 8th and I setup a site if you want to sponsor me:  Phoenix Pancreatic Cancer Walk In Memory of Dody Norban 

 

Sorry for the long winded catch-up entry but hopefully I can get back to at least monthly entries moving forward.

 

I've been trying to keep things updated on Facebook too so you can look me up there as well!

l Well this month has definitely been a busy one! 

 

Today, Nathan and Jessica both had their Hip Hop dance recitals.  Wow!  They both did amazing! I'll posted pictures in the photo area so you can check them out.

 

Steve was in NYC and London on business trips in the first part of the month and there was lots of last minute Bar Mitzvah stuff and a conference setup for me. 

 

Somehow in all the chaos we got to enjoy going to the Mariners game with Grandpa Larry and Nathan's friend Ryan to celebrate both Nathan and Grandpa's birthday!  Steve was able to get us a Mariner's Suite to enjoy the game from.  It was a really great time.  

 

Only a few weeks left of school and the kids are getting excited about their fun summer coming up. 

 

Steve and I just realized that June starts tomorrow and can't believe we're almost 1/2 way through 2008!  I guess it's been a very busy year so far.

 

The next big thing in the works is getting our house ready to sell and finding a bigger house   Now if we could just figure out how to make the real estate market be in better shape we'd be all set.

 

I'm doing a separate blog entry for all the Bar Mitzvah stuff since it was such wonderful weekend and there is so much to write about with that.

 

Looking forward to some nice sunshine in June!

 

Hope things are going well with everyone and please feel free to post comments so I know people are actually reading my blog!

Sorry I totally missed getting an entry in for April but I guess the month was way beyond crazy and here it is May 10th and I'm making my first entry for May!

 

I guess I really wanted to make sure I got to post out here for Mother's Day this year since it will be a very sad and weird Mother's day in many ways, but Steve and the kids are trying very hard to make it as happy as possible for me. 

 

Mothers Day without mom, very very sad... 

I've had a tradition with mom every year to sing this really goofy Mother's Day song to her every year either in person or over the phone.   She loved it and it always made us both laugh.  As silly as it was, it was such a special thing for both of us.   Even though I'm still going to sing it for her, I'm going to miss her great laughter in return.  I guess that was always MY mother's day present back from her, laughing together. 

 

Here's the song that I'm sure you all have heard before or sung yourself...

 

Our Mother's Day family plan

We've tried to get as much of the Bar Mitzvah errands/planning done Friday and Saturday as possible so we can enjoy the time together tomorrow for Mother's Day.   Steve got us all tickets for "Corteo - Cirque Du Soleil" tomorrow evening.  I'm very excited since I've never been to a Cirque Du Soleil show.   So after hebrew school in the morning we'll grab a nice lunch together and then head to Redmond for the show at 5p.  Steve and I had a few errands to run so I told the kids that for Mother's Day I wanted them to clean-up the house before we got back.   It was nice to come home to all of their stuff being put away!  Thank you kids, it was one of the best presents a mom could get from her kids (other than diamond earrings from Tiffany's of course)!

 

Enough about Mother's Day...the Bar Mitzvah count down continues to a very short 14 days left!   So little time and so much to do.  Actually much of the big stuff is in process but we're trying to wrap up all the little details now and then hoping they will all fall into place when it's time.

 

He's been working hard on his community service project and as you can see on the main page of the blog has raised over $600 for Pancan.org.   He's also putting together and selling purple wristbands with an information card and collectiing donations to raise awareness.   I'm very proud of the effort he's made and he's feeling like he's acutally making a difference.   He's also sending out about 3 emails a day to help raise awareness too.  On top of all that he's been practicing his Torah portion, service and D'Var in preparation for the big day, all while maintaining A's and B's in school!  Way to go Nate!

 

Last week I got to go with Jessica and her class on a field trip to the beach to check out tide pools.  It was really fun to get to see them all learning so much and meeting some of her classmates.   I also really enjoyed spending the time with Jessi.  With everything else going on it's been really difficult to get as much one on one time as I'd like to spend with her.

 

Steve is heading to London on a business trip until Friday and on Friday dad will come in to celebrate his birthday and Nathan's together before all the chaos begins. 

 

Other updates...

  

I had started an entry in April but it was such a busy month I never got to spend the time finishing it or posting it so here's the April highlights:

 

 

 

Can't believe that March has come and almost gone!

 

It has been a very bizarre and busy month and something tells me that April will be similarly bizarre and busy.

 

Between spring break, a confrerence in Las Vegas I'm working and Passover all coming up in April, I'm sure it will fly by quickly.

 

This weekend Nathan did a robotics event Friday night and we did family game night at the community center.   Nathan couldn't wait to get home so he could play Rock Band on the Xbox.  Everyone got to play all the different instruments/vocals and we all played together and had fun.

 

Saturday we shopped for Bar Mitzvah clothes and played more Rock Band.

 

Sunday after hebrew school and another round of Passover shopping Nathan had a few friends over to play, you guessed it...Rock Band!  (Do you see a trend happening here...

 

All in all it was a nice weekend and we really enjoyed getting to spend some time together and made some progress on getting things done on the to do list too.

 

Hope everyone has a great week!