A New Baby!

The family has a new member! Kathy had her baby girl last night and named her Regan Kathleen, after both our Grandma Kate who died in 1991 and Tim's grandmother. I got pictures of her via Moogie and am going to load them on to facebook for people to enjoy. I figured out how to change privacy settings on my facebook but I'm not sure how they have affected the photo-sharing settings of the link off of this page, but I'll do my best so you can see her soon.

Other than that, I spent the last couple of days at UW Oshkosh for AmeriCorps/Red Cross Disaster Training and for the AmeriCorps Serve Wisconsin Opening Ceremonies. Many of the AmeriCorps people just started in the last month, so this really is their welcome to the whole system. I feel a bit more seasoned and had heard a lot of the promo stuff before. I didn't mind disaster training...I feel it was the best they could do without sending us to some natural disaster area for hands-on training. Some of the creepy pictures will stay with me for the rest of my life....I shudder to think. They had some hands-on stuff, like lifting a van in order to get someone trapped out from under it, bandaging techniques, entering structures for light search-and-rescue, and assessing a scene which I thought were useful. If I had a disaster happen and I was deployed, I'd be freaked out for sure, but a little less overwhelmed because I kinda sorta know a little bit about what to do. It was fun because we also had a chance to go see a live reggae band which was fun. Unfortunately they still allow smoking in public venues, unlike Madison, so I walked home smelling like an ashtray....and showered as soon as I found my clothes. We also got to meet a few people, including a girl that apparently many of us know (I guess that I've been petting her "fluff friend" virtual pet on facebook for months!) and a guy who works for Easter Seals in Wisconsin Dells and I'm thinking about volunteering at one or more of his camps for special needs kids. It's going to be fun fun fun!

I didn't mention my new job as a club leader. My crafts kids are 12 k-2 girls who are very energetic and, although they have a large desire to paint, I already know that I'm going to have to cover the entire room in paper before we do it. My time traveling kids are 6 3-5 kids that I adore, it is so much fun and they are so excited to learn my personal favorite subject, history. I have yet to meet my science kids because I was gone to Oshkosh. Next week there is no science club so I'll get to finally meet them in November. Until then, I must learn how to make paste without making a mess. It is going to be interesting for sure :)

Lily is snuggly...while I was away Mom checked on her and clipped her nails (thank you!!). I should get to bed as tomorrow I'm going to Badger games...and they'd better win this week!!

Lots of love, Christi and Lily