Our Little Engineer

I forgot to mention something in my last blog that happened last month. Kayla's school was holding a Young Engineers Fair where the kids where encouraged (especially the girls) to build a bridge out of Popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue. They could only use 120 sticks and it had to be one of four different kinds of bridges. The competition was to build a bridge that could withstand the most amount of weight. They had this cool machine that applied weight to the bridge until it cracked. The kids were then sent to talk to a panel of judges where they had to answer questions about their bridge. They were scored on two parts: A) Amount of weight the bridge could withstand and B) The judge's interview. With Jim's help - Kayla built her bridge and it turned out pretty dang good! We think it may have held more weight had we not done all the gluing the night before. It was still a little bit tacky in some spots because we waited until the last minute to put the bridge together. Shame on us. But, they divided the contest up: K - 3rd Grade in the morning and 4th - 6th Grade in the afternoon. Are you ready to hear how she did??? See the pictures below to find out!

Kayla's Bridge: A Truss Bridge

Here she is at the Young Engineers Fair

Waiting in Line For The Weight Test

The Bridge Being Loaded Into The Weight Machine

Adding More Weight

The Breaking Point: 262 Pounds!!!

Kayla Got Second Place!!!

Even if engineering isn't something that interests her - I'm still proud of her for doing it and actually being put in front of a panel of judges and answering their questions. I thinks he did a great job! Go Kayla!

So Much To Do - So Little Time

I'm thinking I just might have to make the title of this blog the title to my life story. I swear I just spent an entire day blogging about Valentine's Day and now here I am, the beginning of April, trying to get everyone caught up over the last two months!!! I guess times sure flies when you're having fun...or just really busy. On to the latest happenings in our household!

1. Hang on ... ... ... (okay I'm back) 84 Days until Jim and I finally tie the knot! Sorry for the brief pause back there - I had to open my blog in a new window to see my wedding day countdown for accuracy. But anyway - less than three (3) months away! Can you believe it? Last time I really thought about the wedding (like - REALLY - thought about it), we still had about 9 months to get it all together and save up some major greens for this trip! But alas - the final weeks are approaching and I'm stressing - but also getting pretty excited! Wanna know what I'm stressing about the most??? I haven't picked out my dress yet. I haven't even looked or tried anything on. I'm dreading it. I've been working out - a lot - hoping to drop a couple of dress sizes. I'm slowly getting there - but refuse to try on wedding dresses until I drop just one more dress size...just one more. Hopefully by the end of this month. We'll see how that goes. I may have to cave and try the no-carb diet (even though I know it's unhealthy in the long run - it just might help for that brief period of time). Wish me luck! The good news - is that we have almost everything in Hawaii taken care of thanks to my mother and our awesome wedding planner over there who is taking care of just about everything for us. We leave for Hawaii June 19th, get married June 25th and come home June 29th. It will be a great 10 days! I can't wait!

2. Kayla got her cast off a few weeks ago. I forgot to blog about it then - alright well I didn't forget, I just haven't had time. She's pretty excited but still has to stay of the monkey bars for another week or two, just to make sure everything is okay. I take her back in a few months for more x-rays to make sure the bones continue healing properly and also to verify that new bone growth is occuring. If not - this poor child will have to undergo numerous surgeries throughout her growing years to manually elongate the bones in her wrist. How sad would that be? We're keeping our fingers crossed. I'm just excited that her shirts all fit again!!! It was such a headache trying to find clothes every morning that fit over her cast. Never again.

3. We are moving...again. I thought we had until the end of May to move. I could have sworn that's when our lease was up. But I was wrong and we recently discovered we have until the end of April to find a new place to live. We like where we live. The location is nice and the area is safe. But with the hardwood floors - it's cold. And it's expensive. We've decided we can afford a mortgage payment the size of our rent payment. So - we're attempting to become new home owners. We've been looking in the Auburn, Bonney Lake, and Renton areas. We'll see how that goes.

4. And now for the big news...I'm done... Completely done with Dental Assisting school! Last week I finished up my extern hours (all 150 of them), took my Organic Chemistry final and now I'm done. I have one more class that I need to take for my Dental Hygiene prerequisites. But I seriously just needed a break from any kind of higher education. Sadly - I'm not done with school though. Over the course of the next 10 months, I need to take my Public Speaking class, take the HOBET test, and fill out my paperwork to apply for Dental Hygiene school. Everything is due in February 2010. I've had mixed feelings about going on to Hygiene school. I've found myself to be content with where I'm at. But - I know my long term goal was to go to Hygiene school, so I feel obligated to myself to follow through. All I know - is that I love the dental field. I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out. But I love it...which leads me to....

5. I have a job! A new job that I absolutely LOVE. But not just any job. It's not often that you walk into a position as the lead Dental Assistant in a Dentist office. Seriously - you have to pay your dues...usually. I somehow managed to make it happen. I started my extern at an office here in Kirkland around February of this year. In the middle of March, I was officially offered a position as lead dental assistant once I was done with school (their assistant was having a baby and decided to be a SAHM). So I'm done with school - and my first day was March 30th. I love it! I love the office - I love the staff - I love our patients. It's been a great experience.

I think that's it. We've been keeping busy. If it weren't for my mom - I think we would be postponing the wedding. She has been the one to keep all the plans going. I owe her big time. But okay - expect another update after about June 29th....I just might find time after that time for another update.

Peace!