kirk@kirkhalliday.com
FacebookInstagramLinkedInTwitterEmail

Monthly Archives: November 2011

//November

Black Friday Activities!

Welcome Black Friday!  For some VERY STRANGE reason, the girls were totally excited to get up early and go shopping!  😐  They left at about 4:30am by themselves.  Angela stewed about this for awhile.  She couldn’t sleep with them out by themselves so she got up, got dressed, and went and found them.  They had a lot of fun together and it wasn’t too bad.  I guess the places they went weren’t too overcrowded.  The cool thing that happened is that Sarah entered into a drawing for a $100 shopping spree at one of the stores and WON!!!!!  She was totally excited and spent every dime!

As for the rest of the shopping, most of it was done on-line from the comfort of our own warm house.  I have sworn off going outside and shopping on Black Friday.  The funny thing is that the deals you get on Black Friday aren’t as good as the deals you get if you wait until closer to Christmas!  The retailers start to get nervous and start discounting things more heavily!  🙂

One of the things that really bothers me as well is that people have been starting to celebrate Christmas earlier and earlier.  This year, right after Halloween, Christmas stuff starts going up!  I hate that, as we really do need to celebrate Thanksgiving!  We need to celebrate our blessings and what we have been given.  That said, I refuse to put up even a single Christmas decoration, a single Christmas light on the house, or anything until AFTER Thanksgiving!  I know it will be colder to be outside stringing lights, but I guess I’m stubborn that way!  🙂  That said, we started bringing things up and decorating our house.  We didn’t get very far, so we’ll finish tomorrow!  🙂

By |2011-12-26T05:33:32-07:00November 25th, 2011|Home Life|0 Comments
Read More

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!  We hope you had a wonderful day today!

Angela and Brittany started off the day healthy and well!  They got up early and went to our Stake President’s house (Scott Clark).  He hosts a Thanksgiving Day neighborhood 5k run which is becoming quite popular.  There were quite a few people there this year.

The rest of us were smart (or dumb if you love running in the cold) and stayed home in our nice warm house.  We then started feeling guilty so Sarah, Kirstyn, Zach, Ben, and I bundled up and went for a nice walk around the lake and the neighborhood.  It was nice to get out!  🙂

Brittany worked the rest of the day (with a little bit of help from Angela) to prepare our Thanksgiving Day meal!  She really wanted to be in charge this year, and did a GREAT job!  She made a great-looking turkey cheese ball that was a hit, and everyone loved the spread she made!

Great job Brittany!  We sure enjoyed our meal!  This year, we decided to relax and not do anything with anyone else.  I think that Angela really needed a break from stress and Brittany sure helped out with this!  🙂

By |2011-12-26T05:26:14-07:00November 24th, 2011|Home Life|0 Comments
Read More

Stake Conference and Youth Planning

Today was the second half (general session) of Stake Conference so we got everyone packed up and left 2 hours early to drive down to Joliet to get a good, soft seat (which we did).  I used my iPad to keep Ben occupied, and again, it proved worth its weight in gold!  Ben was very quiet we never had to take him out once!  Yea!!!!  🙂  It did make Zach a little jealous that Ben got to play and he didn’t, however, but he’ll live.  🙂

Tonight we had our 2012 planning meeting with the youth presidencies in our ward.  As a member of the Bishopric, it is always fun to attend these, especially this year, when Sarah, Brittany, and Kirstyn are all in the presidency of their classes.  The youth pounded out a great schedule of activities for the year and decided who would be in charge of each activity.  It was kind-of weird for Sarah, because she was helping plan activities for the fall of 2012 that she would never see due to her going off to college!  😐

By |2011-12-26T05:06:35-07:00November 20th, 2011|Church|0 Comments
Read More

Dentist, EEP, and Stake Conference

Today was a pretty busy day!  Kirstyn had her Engineering Program (EEP) at NIU in Naperville and was very excited to go.  She loves all the activities that they do, and is excited to become an Architectural  Engineer herself!  🙂

After she got done, Kirstyn and I joined the rest of the herd over at the dentist office for our semi-annual cleanings!  We all came out of it luckily with a clean bill except for Zach.  🙁  That guy doesn’t have the teeth that the rest of us have.  He has 4 cavities that need to be filled, and I think that 3 of them are in permanent teeth!  Arrrgh!  We try to brush and floss his teeth well, but I guess we’ll have to try harder!

This afternoon and tonight, we attended meetings for Stake Conference.  I had to leave at 3:30 and carpooled down for our leadership meetings from 4-6.  They then fed us dinner, and Angela met me at 7 for the Saturday evening session which is always very good.  Not sure sometimes if it’s always really good due to the fact that the speakers are awesome, or because there aren’t any kids to worry about taking in and out and so you can pay attention!  🙂

 

By |2011-12-26T05:00:29-07:00November 19th, 2011|Church, Home Life, School|0 Comments
Read More

Angela Fly Home and Art Speaks!

Today, Angela flew home and we are so excited to have her here with us!  We missed her so much!  Her flight went well, although she didn’t get bumped up to get more leg room.  🙁  Her flight from LA was a little delayed so she got back home a little late!  A sister from our Ward went and picked her up, which we were very happy for!

I couldn’t go pick her up because I had our Art Speaks meeting tonight.  This is a pretty neat group that is dedicated to helping the community become more acquainted with the arts in school, especially right now when the big federal push is all around Science, Math,  Engineering, and Technology (STEM).  We like to refer to our group as the A that makes STEM “STEAM” and gives education momentum.

Angela was totally worn out when I got home from my meeting.   She’s going to put off unpacking until tomorrow so we’ll have our debrief then.  🙂

Good to have you home, beautiful!  🙂

By |2011-11-29T07:30:24-07:00November 17th, 2011|Home Life, School|0 Comments
Read More

Angela Japan – Day 6

Ever so quiet here in Illinois!  The kids are doing great and being pretty obedient!  I have been working from home since Monday and have had Ben with me.  He went over to play with one of his friends on Monday and this morning from 9-12 each day.  This was GREAT, especially today when I had a VERY busy day on phone calls.  It has been great being at home with Ben during the day.  We have had a LOT of fun whenever I could take a break, and we have laughed a lot!  🙂  It’s great to see the kids come home from school and to hear about their day first, rather than a rehash when I get home from work at 5!  🙂

Meanwhile, over in Japan…  Angela will have to help fill in the details of today, so this post will be updated soon…

By |2011-11-29T07:25:34-07:00November 16th, 2011|Home Life|0 Comments
Read More

Angela Japan – Day 3

Nothing major happened today on this side of mother earth.  Angela is still enjoying being over there and is having a blast with her mom and dad.

Angela will have to help fill in the details of today, so this post will be updated soon…

By |2011-11-29T07:21:50-07:00November 13th, 2011|Home Life|0 Comments
Read More

Angela Japan – Day 3 and EEP!

Today, I took Kirstyn to her Engineering Program activities at Northern Illinois University (NIU) Naperville Campus.  She had a GREAT time building electronic boards and such!  For the rest of the day, we just relaxed, played games, watched movies, and did all the things that Mom would probably not let us do on a Saturday!  🙂  Sorry Angela!  We were pretty tired and the kids did well with keeping the house clean during the week, so we took a break!  🙂

Meanwhile, over in Japan…  Angela will have to help fill in the details of today, so this post will be updated soon…

By |2011-11-29T07:21:02-07:00November 12th, 2011|Home Life, School|0 Comments
Read More

Angela Japan – Day 2 and No School!

Today the kids had no school as well so I was able to go to work again!  I’m saving the days for Christmas and for this summer when we’re going to be running around like crazy with mission returns, college drop-off, possible wedding, etc.  😐  Again, the kids did a great job getting along and only had a very minimal amount of disagreement today while I was gone.  It made me feel a LOT more comfortable at work, knowing that things were OK at home.  It made Angela more comfortable as well!

Over in Tokyo, Angela had a great time today!  We’re going to keep these blog pages consistent with our day of the week and time since for her, she is almost a day ahead of us, and when we are going to bed, she is getting up!  🙂

Angela will have to help fill in the details of today, so this post will be updated soon…

By |2011-11-29T07:18:40-07:00November 11th, 2011|Home Life, School|0 Comments
Read More
Info