New House

New House

Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all staying cool and enjoying your summer. I'm looking forward to the 4th of July and seeing some of you coming up this week. The big news in my world is that Gus, Benny and I moved to a house on west 13 in Hutchinson. My parents bought this house and I am renting it from them so it is our own home.

We happened to stumble upon it at just the right time and managed to beat another person to buy it. It is a really nice home with two bedrooms, a big yard and a nice finished basement. It has all hard floors so sweeping is easy and that's good with all the dog hair floating around. I have planted some things in the flower beds with Grandma's help and I am actually enjoying taking care of them. I have boxes under my windows for plants and it's really cute. I enjoyed decorating and tried to make it a little bit more "grown-up" which I think I have succeeded.

The finished basement is actually was what finished selling the house to me. I want to start doing dog daycare in my home and the basement is perfect for this. I even have a side door people could enter through to drop off their dogs. Also, it's a great training space for Gus and I to work.

I have my first dog sitting client this coming week. Mama's boss is paying me to watch her Aussie, Jenny. I will have her a whole week so I'm jumping in with both feet at the beginning. I think it will be an easy customer as I have met Jenny and she seems pretty laid back. We'll see if she livens up the longer she is here.

That's about it! I  hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!
-Kate and the boys

Here are some pictures of my new house

Living Room 

Kitchen

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Basement

Island

Chairs in living room

Living Room

Backyard

Rivers Ripple

Summer is here, officially.  We've already been enjoying swimming at the YMCA pool, playing in the water in our backyard, and exploring items on our summer bucket list.
Dan has been working at KWCH and will begin playing regular gigs with his new band, The Llew Brown Band later this month.  He's still playing with The 33 when the opportunity presents.  He installed a new lamppost in our backyard during his stay-cation in April.  It's a little like Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 
Sarah has been working a few more days, since it is summer and Grammy can help watch the girls.  She has taken the summer off for Sunday school.  Sarah heads to the Y twice a week to meet her friend, Amber, to work out.  However, Amber will be moving soon so she'll be missing that component soon.  Sarah has been organizing and decluttering and also working on catching up on some photo books. 
Olivia had a great preschool year.  She finished up at the beginning of May with a little program.  She's moved up a level in gymnastics and now attends Academy Level 1.  She can do a bridge and is working on a handstand.  She practices all kinds of step by step skills for success on the bars, beam, and floor.  She has to be fairly independent in her practice, which can challenge her attention sometimes.  Olivia spends her days playing with Barbies or small figurines, dress up, playing outside, riding her bike, doing art projects, and watching some TV.  She admitted she missed preschool, so, as I guessed she would, has loved VBS this week.
Kinley is 30 months old (2.5 years).  She is growing into her own little personality, which is fun to see.  She has a great sense of humor and is at the stubborn 2.5 year old stage.  Most days she doesn't nap, which is a challenge.  Kinley loves to play with her Laloopsy's, the DUPLO LEGOS, dress up, and whatever Olivia is playing.  She likes to swing on the swingset and play in the water. 
Brisco got a cortisone shot and B12, so he can be a healthier doggie.  His seasonal allergies were bothering him enough we had to take him in.  Most days he monitors our activities and finds the closest air conditioning vent to hang out near. 

Work or Play?

I wanted to give everyone a taste of what I do on a regular basis, so here are some images from a recent show I developed about Superheroes.

For a discussion of Wonder Woman and how she bends light, a laser shining through a 2L bottle and into a falling stream of water. Instead of continuing through the stream, the laser reflects off of the edges and remains trapped in it. I'm holding my hand in the stream, where you can see the dot from the laser pointer. The second photograph highlights that even better.

This detail shows the laser beam reflecting off the stream right after it exits the hole. You can see the second reflection as a vertical green line shortly before the water starts to fall.

Relatedly, here is my hand in a Rochester Invisibility Cloak. It's a four lens setup that bends light (hence the related portion) around objects so that you can see the background behind the object. You can see the soft horizon across the upper part of the lens.

 And the last one in our repertoire is pyrex lab equipment in vegetable oil. In the animation below I'm dipping a test tube into the oil. Because the oil bends the light at the same angle as the pyrex lab equipment the pyrex appears to...disappear when dipped into the vegetable oil.

My final stop in our virtual tour is the fire piston. It's a tube setup that can ignite kindling when the air inside is compressed quickly.  

First Day of Summer in Austin

Yesterday was the last day of school, which means today is the first day of summer vacation! It also means that I have way too much chocolate as that seems to be the most popular thank you gift for teachers. This one I thought was especially cute, and don't worry, none of it will go to waste :).

My plans for next year are still unknown. The position I am currently in is being cut to half time, so I will definitely be doing something different. I have applied to two middle schools in Austin that have open orchestra director positions. Murchison (my current school) suggested I teach .5 orchestra and .5 band for them. Since I have already signed a contract, I will have a full time job, but I may be at a different campus or even multiple campuses. We shall see.

James is at a convention in Nashville, TN. Hopefully, it gives him a chance to rejuvenate a little bit as he has been really busy at work. The last month has been full of interviews and negotiations as he filled the three vacant positions in his office. Once he gets back from Tennessee he will be training new staff members and eventually reducing his work load back to one person's job from the two or three he has been covering :).

We will be heading to Denver at the end of June to tour the local breweries, camp and hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, and explore the Mile-High City. I was just reading about the campground we will be staying in... they have bear lockers to house food overnight... this should be fun...

Rimsky loves boxes!

My first project for the summer was to assemble our new chairs. Of course, I had lots of help from the kitties! 

Duncan explored each new piece as it was added :).

It wasn't long before Rimsky joined Duncan.

Final setup, whew! Now we have a few more seats for when family and friends visit, yay!

 Happy summer to everyone! Hope to see you all soon!