Halliday Family Blog

Today we started on our 2-week family vacation/trip out west to Utah and Idaho.  We are going to arrive in Utah on Saturday and stay through Thursday.  We will then spend the next week in Idaho and come back home on the 4th, just in time to pack up Sarah and Brittany to go to EFY early the next day!

Normally we leave to drive out west around 4:30 or 5:00 am, but today we didn’t leave until about 11 (I worked part-day from home).  It’s always hard to see the trip odometer start out at 1 mile, because you know that you have over 1400 left before you arrive at your first destination!  😐

Our trip went well!  We made it out to Sydney Nebraska before stopping for the night.  The kids were really good and the best traveler award today went to Ben!  🙂  He was an angel the entire day and never cried!  Whew!  We traveled for about 900 miles today.  We are very tired and are not looking forward to the longer day than normal tomorrow.  We have about 600 miles left before getting to North Ogden, UT.

Today Brittany turned the ripe OLD age of 14!  She was SOOOO excited!  One of the main reasons is that now she gets to go to church dances!  She has been excited about that for months now!  After I got home from work, we had a family party for her.  Brittany went to the store with Angela and got a large variety of Indian foods that sounded pretty good to her.  We cooked all of the food up for dinner.  Some of it was pretty good, while some was “eat once and never try again” food!   🙂  We all had pretty active stomachs afterward from all the spices and the curry.  Our favorite was the potato Samosas.

After dinner, Brittany opened presents and we ate cake and ice cream.  Zach and Kirstyn set up a “birthday throne” down in the basement where Brittany sat to open her presents.  It was very sweet of them to do.

Brittany’s favorite part of her birthday was our Indian dinner.  I don’t think the rest of us felt the same way (especially that night when we went to bed), however!  🙂

Happy birthday, Itty Bitty!

Today was a wonderful day!  I didn’t go into the office, but instead drove up to Kraft’s world headquarters in Northfield (Chicago suburb) and attended a re-connect for the Midwest Regional Leadership Forum (RLF).  This event was much larger than just our class of 2009.  There were people there from as far back as 1997!  Our 2009 group had the most there in attendance, however.  I think that it was pretty close to half.  We are a pretty close group and to have 19 of us there to share the day together was great! 

The event started off last night with a dinner at Kraft’s R&D kitchens.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the event.  It sounded pretty fun!  Everyone put on aprons and they cooked their own dinner in a huge room of kitchens…  kind of like high school home ecconomics on steroids.  🙂 

Today’s event was wonderful!  We started off with the CIO of Kraft speaking to us as the keynote speaker.  He had some wonderful things to say that were very inspiring.  His main focus was “don’t be afraid to screw up.”  Fear of making mistakes stops innovation in its tracks. 

We then had some other discussions around innovation (with a group activity), around what we have learned since the last time we met, and we discussed a book by Marshall Goldsmith called “Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It.”  In this book, Marshall shares the ways in which to get–and keep–our Mojo.  Our professional and personal Mojo is impacted by four key factors: identity (who do you think you are?), achievement (what have you done lately?), reputation (who do other people think you are–and what have you’ve done lately?), and acceptance (what can you change–and when do you need to just “let it go”?). Goldsmith outlines the positive actions leaders must take, with their teams or themselves, to initiate winning streaks and keep them coming.   Mojo is:  that positive spirit–towards what we are doing–now–that starts from the inside–and radiates to the outside. Mojo is at its peak when we are experiencing both happiness and meaning in what we are doing and communicating this experience to the world around us. The Mojo Toolkit provides fourteen practical tools to help you achieve both happiness and meaning–not only in business, but in life.

What a great experience!  I’m looking forward to next year’s Midwest re-connect which will be in Milwaukee at We Energies.

Today, Angela and the girls helped out at a wedding open house.  It was for a young man that I had in my seminary class when he was a freshman!  😐  It’s crazy to see time fly.  One day you’re teaching a shy 14-year-old Church History, and the next day he’s returned from his mission and is getting married!  Where did those 8 years go?  🙂

Oh no!  Stay off the sidewalks!  Sarah got her drive’s license today!  She’s official now and doesn’t need us in the car anymore!  Angela took her over to the DMV today and was really worried.  Sarah was pretty worried about a couple of things that she hadn’t practiced enough on, but things went very well.  The instructor that gave her the driving test was actually really cool and Sarah said it was fun!   He took Sarah and then assured Angela that everything would be fine and they left!  🙂 

Sarah said the driving test was really easy and she only hit the curb once while she was demonstrating up- and downhill parking.  Her big concern was backing around corners, because if you hit the curb, it’s an automatic fail.  She did it well and passed with flying colors!

For us, that means 2 things:  1) We don’t have to cart Sarah around to everything she needs to go to, and 2) we have to shell out a bunch of money for insurance now!  😐

Oh well, if Sarah can get herself to things without us always having to take her everywhere (especially with Brittany to Seminary in the fall, we are happy about it)!  Congratulations, Sarah!  Great job!

Last night and today, Zachary and I are enjoying our annual church Father’s and Son’s campout with our Ward.  Zach looks forward to this so much every year and about tackled me yesterday afternoon when I got home from work.  He was ready and excited to go!  In fact, he already had the tent, camp chairs, sleeping bags, air mattress, and other camp equipment out and ready by the door!  🙂  He is so cute!

We packed up and went to get some food and treats for the event.  We ended up going to KFC for some chicken and then went and got some junk food (including licorice, gummi coke bottles, and Cheetos).  We then headed up to Blackwell Forest Preserve to pitch our tent with many of the other dads and boys in the Ward and have some fun.

It’s funny how camping works here.  You go to a groomed forest preserve where you pitch your tent on mowed grass!  🙂  It’s very comfortable, but a far cry from what we did when we were growing up.

We ate our dinner and then sat around the fire, talking to all the other dads and boys.  Zach got tired of that and went off to play with the rest of the boys while the dads relaxed!  🙂

We then had smores when it started to get dark, and then Zach was tired and wanted to go into the tent.  I don’t think he was as tired as he was ready to eat junk food and watch a movie on Dad’s laptop!  We do this every year and I think that’s a highlight for him!  This year, he made it through the entire movie!  🙂

In the morning we got up and we made breakfast for the group while Zach went off and played with the boys.  We ate a great breakfast of pancakes, sausage, eggs, and juice before we packed up everything and came home.

We had a great time together.  I look forward to spending this time with Zach every year.  Next year, if Ben is potty-trained, he will get to come too!  That should be VERY interesting and FUN!  🙂

Today was the last day of school!  We ALL are very excited!  We love supporting our kids in their activities and love to see them perform, but May is always incredibly hectic with stuff going on almost every day.  Sometimes we have to split up because we can’t always cover everything together!  😐  It’s really crazy, and we keep saying that we need to cut down on the amount that our kids do, but the problem is that individually they don’t do a ton extra that requires us to be out of the house.  Sarah has Band, Student Government, Tri-M Music Honor Society, and Star Raiders (the last two don’t require any after school time).  Brittany was the busiest with Cross Country/Track, Musical, Chorus, and Orchestra.   She won’t have some of this next year, so that’s good.  Kirstyn has Band and Chorus, Zach has nothing right now, and Ben has nothing.  The problem is not really that our kids are over-programed, but that collectively, it takes a TON of time to do what they have.  Crazy!  🙂

Anyway, now that school is out, we can relax for a couple of weeks before things like Youth Conference, family vacation, EFY, and girl’s camp, marching band, etc. hit!  😐

Today was quite the day!  Brittany graduated from Still Middle School!  We went over to the school early to get a good seat and they made all the parents stand outside the door until 10 minutes before the graduation was to start.  🙂  There were some parents grumbling.  It’s funny how seriously people take some of these things!  🙂

Anyway, Brittany was part of the program and went up on the stage to introduce an award that was going to be given out.  This year, the ceremony was all student run and it was neat to see that.  Ben DeMaso was the MC who introduced everyone, and students (like Brittany) came up to introduce their parts of the program.  Brittany did a great job, spoke up loud, and you could hear her really well.  She sounded very confident!  🙂

One of the most prestigious awards that you could receive as an 8th grader is the Rotary International Service Award.  We were sitting there and all of a sudden, Brittany’s name was announced as a finalist for the award!  We perked up and listened…  They then announced the winner and it was Brittany!  🙂  What a great honor!  She came up and received the framed award and was VERY surprised and happy!  🙂  To get this award, you need to have been determined as a person who extends yourself in volunteer and service efforts benefiting your fellow students, and have made the school a better place be.  In order to be eligible, you need to be nominated by a teacher.

After her award and a couple others were presented, they started with the actual graduation ceremony.  They decided to split the 8th graders up into 2 groups and hold 2 ceremonies because of the numbers and lack of seating space in the gym, so the actual ceremony went pretty fast.

Afterward, there were many pictures and people hugging and crying and spending time reminiscing about the year.  The thing that really stinks is that many of these kids are going to be split from many of their friends next year as about 30% of the kids will go to Metea and the rest will go to Waubonsie.  Brittany also has a friend who is moving away to India soon and she won’t get to see her again.

Brittany with some of her fellow presenters on the program.

Brittany with Marc DeFarno, one of her core teachers.

Brittany and Christina Guillano

Great job Brittany, we are very proud of your accomplishments!  Keep up the hard work next year in high school!  😐

Today Sarah found out that she made Marching Leader for the Metea Marching Mustangs again next year!!!  Yea Sarah!  She was very excited that things turned out for the best!  Also, Brittany decided to join the marching band as well and play in the pit.  They were looking for people to play the bells, marimba, cymbals, and congas!  She’s very excited to learn instruments in addition to her violin!

This coming year, the band is going to do a Billy Joel theme!  Below are the songs that they are going to do (performed by a band):

• 1-We_Didn_t_Start_The_Fire_Piano_Man
• 2-Just_the_Way_You_Are
• 3-Air
• 4-My_Life_Only_The_Good_Die_Young

Enjoy!

We had a Homeowner’s Association meeting today and Angela attended on behalf of our family.  She wasn’t expecting it, but they asked her to fill an open position on the board and after some coaxing from them, she accepted.  It shouldn’t take too much of her time, but now our family is in a place where we can push for some changes in the neighborhood.

A couple of these are the type of fence that they MAKE you have (if you want to have a fence) and the UGLY mailboxes that they force us to have that I think MOST people in the neighborhood hate (and are overpriced)!  Hopefully Angela can go in and help convince everyone to make these allowances.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed!