Brennan Bugle Online

by: Katrina Brennan

Over the past few weeks we've spent many hours visiting schools to decide where we'd like to send Logan for kindergarten next year.  We have the choice of either full-day or half-day kindergarten, however Colorado does not fund full-day kindergarten.  If parents want to send their kids to full-day, then they pay $2100 extra for the year (in addition to taxes).  We want to send him to half-day for many reasons, but our neighborhood school where he should go only offers full-day.  Therefore we had to fill out an online school of choice application and select all the different schools in the city that we were interested in.  Then any open spots that the schools may have are filled with kids that have been put into a lottery system to pick randomly who else will attend that school. 

There is quite a variety of schools here.  There are Christian schools that we could pay to send him too, or we could homeschool him of course, but for this year at least, we are not choosing those options.  We visited a Christian co-op held at our church, a neighborhood school, an international baccalaureate school, a lab school, a core-knowledge school, and 2 charter schools (also core-knowledge).  We had to fill out separate applications for the 2 charter schools who each consistently have had well over 100 on the waiting list to get in that don't get selected in the lottery.  The charter schools were our first and second choices. 

The lottery for our first choice school was held last week, and we got the call a couple days later that Logan was selected in the lottery and will be going to one of the best schools in Colorado next year!  It will be sad to send him to school, but he'll actually be going only a few more hours than he is this year.  And we think he's very prepared for kindergarten as he's already reading much of Hop on Pop with a little help and loves to try and spell and practice his writing.  He also enjoys math and we can't wait to see where his gifts and interests take him in the future.

Andy thought I should make a note that often I add new pictures to the ends of albums that have already been posted for awhile.  So, you may not look to find the new Christmas photos if you just look at the first few pictures in that album and think you've already seen them all.  But keep looking and just scroll to the end!  I just think it's easier than having hundreds of albums to kind of categorize them.   

by: Katrina Brennan

I love shopping for deals.  I frequent consignment stores, thrift stores, and Craigslist.  The other deal I got some amazing deals at a kid's consignment store.  I got a sleeper, a skirt, a dress, 2 summer outfits, 5 winter outfits, a hoodie, and a sleeper, for $14.40!  Regular consignment prices were listed at $65.50, and the original purchase prices probably amounted to a couple hundred.  Yay!  Daisy will be very well dressed and I'm a happy shopper.

by: Katrina Brennan

My 30th birthday has come and gone.  Several people asked me if I was depressed.  I'm not!  I have so much to be thankful for from my first 30 years of life that I wrote about in our Christmas letter - 1 great husband, 2 degrees, 3 beautiful kids, 4 years in China, and the list goes on.  Andy did an amazing job in making my day special.  He started by making me breakfast and I was given a Starbucks card, along with a card telling me that he was giving me a day of pampering.  He wanted me to go enjoy coffee and go to the spa!  I had to switch out a bit of relaxed shopping for the spa since they were booked, but I will enjoy that soon. 

Then in the evening we went out to eat at a lovely Italian restaurant.  He had reserved a private room with a table for 2 and our own little fireplace.  The restaurant was downtown where each year it is always decorated beautifully for Christmas.  [On a side note, they actually decorate downtown for the holidays, NOT for Christmas, as public property/public government buildings are not allowed to decorate in red and green to favor Christmas - ridiculous eh?].  At our nice dinner Andy gave me a sweet card with tickets to the Candlelight Theater (dinner and a show), so we will be going to see Clue next week.  Fun! 

Andy seemed to be in kind of a hurry at dinner, but I thought it was just to get home and relieve his mom from babysitting duties all day.  When we walked in the door I was surprised by 5 girlfriends that had brought cake to come help me celebrate.  And it's becoming my birthday tradition to play Nerts, as Andy hates the game.  :)  So we played a bit of Nerts, and a bit of Balderdash.  What a great 30th!  Bring on the 30's!

And have a very Merry Christmas celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Happy Thanksgiving, cyberspace.  We have A LOT to be thankful for.

by: Katrina

She's finally here!  Daisy Elizabeth was born on November 9th at about 5am, and weighed in at 7 pounds 14 ounces, 20 1/4 inches long.  She came rather quickly once she finally decided to come, as my water broke at 2:30 in the morning, and she was here before 5.  She is doing great - healthy, sleeping and eating a lot.  She has a bit less hair than our other 2, seems to have a smaller face/head, but is looking more like her brother and sister as the days go by.  Logan and Taya are anxious to see her when they get up in the morning, curious about the whole process, and seem to be enamored with her.  They probably wish she would hop up and start playing with them already.  We are thankful to have had another healthy baby and good birth experience.  She's our only one that was completely born and made in the USA.  :)  Enjoy the pictures!

by: Katrina

Three days past the due date and we are still waiting for the arrival of baby #3, trying to be patient.  My babies have all been late!  We are ready to meet you, baby!  I haven't gotten the usual load of comments about whether people think I'm carrying a boy or girl, etc.  Any bets on when this baby will finally arrive?

This is the first pregnancy that I have had gestational diabetes.  So I've been on a special diet for the past 2 1/2 months and have been exercising 5 times a week up until the last week or so.  So I haven't gained any weight since August and am feeling pretty good, which is a bonus.  I'm just ready to eat some cake and ice cream and meet this little one!  Maybe they can sense that we haven't decided 100% on the names yet.  :)

My mom has been here for a week almost, and is anxiously awaiting meeting grandchild #3.  Family and friends keep calling and sending messages asking if the baby has arrived YET.  Sorry folks, no news yet.  We will let you know and pray all goes smoothly when the time finally comes. 

by: Katrina

We now have a two-year old in the house again, and it is not so terrible.  :)  We celebrated on the actual birthday with just family, and then this weekend we had a party involving some of Taya's friends, as well as some of our own.  We spent Friday evening and most of Saturday making the cake and goodies.  We decided to make a lot of Halloween/Fall treats and had fun experimenting with new things.  Taya's cake was 3 big flowers, made up of 8 different cupcakes each.

Her party started at the Pumpkin Patch a few miles north of our house.  The kids played around in the hay bales, then one group went on a hayride, while others went inside the 11 acre corn maze.  We had a group of 5 working together and it took us 20 minutes to get out.  Then we watched pumpkins being launched a couple miles out and picked some pumpkins for carving.  Then the party moved to our house where we enjoyed hot cider, chili, Halloween snackage and of course the birthday cake.  Taya got a couple of new dolls, which she loves right now, some stuffed animals, a new book, and a stacking toy.  A good time was had by all.

Taya is a joy and her verbal skills are exploding.  I just finished reading Brown Bear Brown Bear to her, and she sang much of it right along with me.  She loves books, playing with dolls, and playing with pretend food.  Speaking of food, she can eat more than I can, especially while I'm on this diet for gestational diabetes.  She likes to spin and dance, and is already starting to ask "why?" (isn't that supposed to start around age 3?).  She is starting to enjoy talking on the phone and is becoming more social like her brother.  She enjoys Sunday School and Wednesday morning playgroup when I go to my study.  We're hoping she's not too jealous when her new sibling comes along, but that she will love him or her and be a big help to mommy and daddy.

by: Katrina

WOW stands for Women on Wednesdays and is a study group I've had the pleasure of being involved with for the past few weeks.  I've been looking forward to joining a group like this for years, and I finally can now.  Logan is in preschool during the morning, and Taya goes to childcare at the church while I get to spend time with just the ladies.  It's a varied group ranging from single gals, to moms, to grandmas.  We're going through a book called "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow, which I highly recommend.

We sit at round tables together, and each week a different table brings a spread of yummy snacks to share with the whole room.  I'm looking forward to being able to eat the sweeter things on the table in a month or so after gestational diabetes is behind me!  Besides eating yummy snacks and sipping tea or coffee, we listen to a speaker, spend some time in worship, have small group discussion, and a time of prayer.  It's been really, really good.  It only runs for 9 weeks, and then I'll join again in the spring.