Thursday IBM laid off 5,000 U. S. employees. We are prayerfully thankful that Jim survived the cut; and also prayerfully hopeful that he can have some job security. We are still waiting to hear about the same three possible projects - Astra Zeneca in Manchester, England; the U. S. Department of Education in Washington, D. C.; and a bank in Toronto, Canada. All of them have start dates around the beginning of April, so we should hear something soon.
Jim will be 37 in just a couple of days. Please send him birthday greetings, if you get a chance: jwlowry@att.net.
Parent-teacher conferences were mid-March and I was proud. Both children had excellent report cards, their teachers are very pleased with their performance, and so are we. Aidan gave a presentation as part of his conference - with PowerPoint slides and everything. He even wore a tie.
Both kids are trucking right along with their AWANA programs. They have both finished the main body of their memorization work for the year and are working on review material. They're also both looking forward to this week's carnival.
We're looking forward to warmer weather, which will eventually mean that the kids can stop wearing and/or carting their hats, mittens, boots, snowpants and winter coats to school every single day in creation.
I made this quilt for my soon-to-be niece, Emily Anne Hollopeter. Mom quilted it. Thanks, Mom!
Aidan took the "Shutterbugs" class at the Frederik Meijer Gardens in early March. It was a dark and rainy day, so most of their pictures were taken indoors. We think he did a great job with this flower:
Aidan also took this picture of the butterflies' traveling cases! Yeah, we know the butterflies don't need luggage. :)
This picture of the Gardens' main tropical greenhouse gave us a very "grey-day" feeling:
The third and fourth grades' music concert also took place in March. Here Aidan's class is singing a song and playing their boomwhackers in time to the music.
They are quite the young musicians. I really enjoyed myself.
Aidan clearly enjoyed himself, too, despite his moaning and complaining before the event took place.
A big smile for Mom before the concert got started.
Esme at breakfast on a school day. She still won't eat her cereal with milk, and it still takes her forever and a day to eat even a handful of cereal in the morning. *Sigh*
I just finished this quilt for Esme's kindergarten teacher's new baby, who will be born in early May. We will miss Mrs. Morrell while she is away on maternity leave, but we are happy for her and her family! (Mom quilted this one, too. Thanks, Mom!)
Mom also quilted this one. What a great mom she is. :) This baby quilt is for a friend's baby, due in early June.
The grand finale at Aidan's music concert. Try as I might, I can't figure out how to get Blogger to put my pictures in the right order.
Singing and motioning, they all did a great job.
Yeah, right, he didn't have any fun at all. Thanks to the third and fourth grade staff and students, who worked so hard to produce such a cool concert.
