August 29, 2010

Grace has had seven days of kindergarten, and she loves it. She really likes her teacher, and it sounds like she's made some good friends in her class. Nodland is a small school that is only K-2, and we like that. They moved all her equipment from preschool, so she pretty much already had everything she needed at the start of the year (classroom chair, lunch chair, etc.).

This weekend Grace is battling Strep Throat, which is no fun. She started not feeling well Friday night, and Michelle took her in on Saturday morning. She's had a full day of medicine now, and as of Sunday afternoon she's feeling a ton better--pretty much back to normal.

Tomorrow Grace gets to go to a photo shoot at Kirk Hinrich's annual golf benefit in town. She got invited by the people at Camp High Hopes, which is the main benefactor of Kirk's event. Camp High Hopes will serve children with disabilities, and it's supposed to be open within the next year. There is nothing like it all anywhere close to Sioux City, so it should be a really positive thing for the region.

The Beaverdash in Des Moines is about three weeks away, and we're looking forward to being there this year. It's the main fundraiser for the Iowa SMA, and a lot of the Iowa families turn out for it. We missed it last year because Michelle was about due with Claire, so it'll be great to get back.

August 18, 2010

We're close to a milestone in the Nelson house: Grace starts kindergarten tomorrow. We had back to school night last night, and that just increased Grace's excitement level. We're happy because she can't wait for school to start, and she's never expressed any fear or concern about her new school. Her teacher Mrs. Hunter seems very nice, and she'll have the same classroom aide she's had the past two years in her preschool.

Michelle and Grace starting school means the summer is coming to an end. All in all we've had a great summer, starting with our Make-a-Wish trip to Orlando and Disney World in June. We had a positive trip to Iowa City for Grace's annual appointments there in early July, and in late July we had our most successful Race 4 Grace ever. On that note, we're getting ready to send out T-shirts to those who don't have them yet and thank you's to everybody who participated.

August 1, 2010

RAGBRAI is over, and it was a great year for our annual Race 4 Grace event. We had a booth in both Sioux City and Kingsley during the first and second days, and our riding team went three days. We had quite a few people who participated in RAGBRAI for the first time, and we've had a ton of people participate in Race 4 Grace for the first time through their donations. We have so many people to thank, and we'll get to all that. We also have a lot of pictures from RAGBRAI which we'll get on the site eventually. We are still taking donations, and we are pretty much assured of having our best fundraising year since our inaguaral event in 2007. We've also gotten a lot of great publicity, getting articles in the Des Moines Register, the Sioux City Journal, and even in the Sioux City Diocese Catholic Globe newspaper. More to come!