Christmas 2006 Family Photo

Here's the whole gang! Pretty soon we are going to have to give up on having the kids stand in front of us! They have grown so much in the last year!

We leave tomorrow for East Peoria. May you all have a very blessed Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

'Twas the week after finals and what did we do?
Musical concerts, solos & home projects too!

A two hour High School Extravaganza,
A french horn "Finale",
A bathroom in scraps,
And don't forget the borrowed zoo!

As per our usual vacation plans, we have a home improvement project going on. The bathroom wallpaper is coming down this year! We haven't quite decided on a color for the paint, but we'll be sure and put a picture up when we get it done.

This week has been full of musical activities! Savannah had her first High School concert Monday night. She played in the Symphonic Band and the Full Orchestra. She is 4th chair clarinet in the Symphonic Band (quite an accomplishment for a freshman). One of the upperclassmen recruited her for the Full Orchestra position.

Duncan's french horn solo was last night. Sean was busy getting the accompianment down this weekend! Duncan did a good job. His horn hasn't been getting much of a workout this fall, the bass has been much more of a priority. We'll have to work on getting them a little more equal time this next semester. And, speaking of the bass, Duncan was named the 1st chair bass in the Northwest Iowa Honor Orchestra! We are so proud of him! They will have their concert in late January. Tomorrow is the last day of school and also the Middle School's Christmas concert, assuming of course that the weather doesn't mess things up. The kids had a 2 hour late start this morning because of icy roads.

What's up with the "borrowed zoo" you say? Well, we are pet sitting for some friends of ours over the break. Let's see, there's a dog (pictured at left), 2 hamsters, 3 fish, and a morning dove. Add all of that to our own menagerie of 2 cats and 2 hamsters and we have quite a houseful. The cats have been in hiding since the dog arrived, Jaker's occasionally ventures out only to hide under Savannah's bed once again. However, the dog is just as scared as the cats, he hasn't gotten a good enough look at either one of them to know just what is staring at him from under the bed! All he knows is that there is something very scary under there! As you can see this is a very interesting looking dog. His name is "Shadow", but we like to call him the "Pirate Dog". One of his eyes didn't really develop so it is mostly shut, while the other one is very large, so he looks like he is saying, "ARGHH!" all the time!

A Cat's Life

Oh to have the luxury of seeking out and spending all of your time basking in a winter sunbeam! The cats love catching rays in the TV room. Usually there is some controversy about who gets the best sunbeam, but today all seems peaceful. Jakers seems to be the most relaxed, but Anastasia's old bones spend more time in the sunbeams. I love that posture with the head turned nearly upside down!

Transformers!

Purple Flower Day 1:
Breakfast time, November 24, 2006
"I think the carnation might need some more water," said Mom.
Lately we had been noticing that the carnation I got at the play from my friend Amy Korver, was not as bright a pink as it had been when I first got it. You see, at the play, which was The Music Man, there is a tradition on performance nights for people to bring flowers, candy, and random presents for different groups of people or individuals in the play. These gifts can be from friends, family, or other people in the play who wanted to give presents to everyone. I was on the props crew in the play. Me and some of my friends who were Wan-Tan-Ye Girls, I don't think I spelled that right, all got flowers from Amy. I, aside from my carnation, I also got a pop, lots of candy, and truckloads of chocolate, some of which I still need to eat. The best gift that I probably got was the carnation. It's been sitting on our table for several weeks now, and doesn't look that much different than when it started out. The only differnce is that it is now a lighter pink than when it started. We decided that we should try to make it turn purple. So we filled it up with water and then put 4 drops of blue food coloring in the water. So far, nothing has happened, but it's only been about 15 minutes. We hope to see some purple by tonight.
Signing out,
Agent 007 (sec)

Recent Musical Successes

Well, we've finally got some new news and a chance to sit down and tell you about it! October was a busy month. Savannah finished up Marching Band season the last weekend in October. The band competed at the Youth in Music Championship in Minneapolis, MN. They took first in their class and nearly swept the caption awards (best drumline, best guard line, best hornline). Now she is focusing on the concert band season.

Duncan has also been busy with his music. He auditioned for the Northwest Iowa honor band and made it so we were in Storm Lake this last Saturday for the concert. It was a long day for him, but I think he enjoyed it! The middle school also had their fall concert a couple of weeks ago and Duncan played in the band and orchestra. The french horn hasn't been getting much of a workout lately, but he has a solo contest in December so he has something to challenge him. He also auditioned for the Northwest Iowa Honor Orchestra this last week and should find out in a couple of weeks if he made that.
The semester continues to march on for Sean and I. We'll really feel like it is nearly over after the Thanksgiving Break. Everyone is starting to feel the drag of tests and assignments. The students really need a break and so does the faculty!

Serious Competition

Well, you think we would have figured it out several weeks ago, but marching band is serious business around here! Savannah had her first competition last Saturday in Sioux City. It was an all day affair, as in 18 hours! We went down for the evening finals and had our first marching competition experience. It was quite fun and also eye-opening. It is amazing to see a complete show and know how hard all those kids have worked to make it look so great. The POD placed 3rd overall at this competition, losing to 2 schools that are probably twice MOC-FV's size or more.

This Saturday we were in Sioux Falls for the Festival of Bands competition. The middle school marching band (7th & 8th graders) marched in the morning parade. They received a participation award since they were the only middle school band that marched (they don't let them officially compete against the high schools to save morale in the high school bands). :-)Duncan wasn't very positive most of the week about their sound, but they did a great job Saturday morning! We could hear them over the band that was in front of them and they were still 3 blocks away!

After the parade we spent some time with Duncan at Falls Park. Yes, there really is a waterfall in Sioux Falls, SD! And then we headed to the stadium for the field competition pre-lims. The high school band didn't march in the Sioux Falls parade because they had to march in a state mandated competition in Cherokee, IA in the morning. Then they rushed up to Sioux Falls for the field competition there. Everyone kept telling us how good the bands would be here, but it was still incredible! We placed 3rd in our class and made it to the evening finals. We ended up 4th overall (10 bands competed in the finals) and we were the smallest school once again. The kids really poured it on for the night show, especially since it was the 3rd time they had marched that day! Savannah is the band member to the right of the 30 yard line in this picture. We are finally figuring out how to pick her out of the crowd!

Great Circle of Life

It is now mid-September and our garden is starting the final leg of its journey in the Great Circle of Life.

Our tomatoes were grown on single vines, with a few plants reaching heights of over seven feet. They were "Big Boys" and Melynda says they are splended. (The kids and I take her word on that.) On the right, you can see that the taters (that'd be "poh-tay-toes" for all you Golem types) are well died back; each twig of a stem marks the hiding place of two or three fist-sized Yukon Gold beauties.

Hear you can see the raspberries and one-half of our world-class organic pest deterence system. (Don't forget: flossing with grass can keep your teeth shiny and sharp.)

Home of the Manly Man Workbench

Here we have the shop all decked-out in the latest drywall fashion-wear. Note the new stream-lined seams for this fall's season. For accessories, you can note the organizing gear on the wall providing a splach of color in yellow and blue.
This angle really shows-off the stylized lines and details of Pockets' world-class drywall work. You can see the work island in the middle with the Manly Man workbench and the table saw.

The Manly Man Workbench

Behold: the workbench that makes other workbenches feel girly.

A portion of the center can be removed and either the router table or the chop-saw can be inserted. Way cool.

The Next Cross Country Runner

Another first for the Cordry's: Duncan ran his first ever cross country race this morning. He did a great job and was the first MOC-FV runner across the line (40th place overall). There were probably close to 100 kids total in the race. Fortunately for all involved the Junior High girls ran separately. (I think the girls' winner would have given the boys a run for their money.) Duncan has been a real trooper about all of the training and the racing and really seems to enjoy it. He didn't want to take his uniform off last night after practice, he was so excited! It was great fun to be at a cross country meet again and especially to be cheering on my own child.

An Official POD member!

Well, here she is our official POD (Pride of the Dutchmen) band member! They marched for the first time last night at the home football game. They only did a small part of the competition show, but it was quite impressive! The only drawback is it is really hard to pick out your own child when they are all dressed exactly alike and are wearing hats. Oh well, they still looked great.

The Top 10 about our 15

The top 10 musings about our 15 year old.

10. We can't believe she could possibly be 15.

9. She still can laugh with her 12 year old brother.

8. She isn't very eager to drive, but. . .

7. She has her permit!

6. She loves all animals, but especially her cats and hamsters!

5. She manages to find the band director's tirades humorous sometimes.

4. She still takes forever to do her homework (when she has any).

3. She must be growing up because she didn't know what she wanted for her birthday.

2. She's getting faster in the mornings!

And the absolute top musing about our 15 year old:

1. She's fantastic, funny, fun-loving and we're fortunate to be her family!!!

First Day of School

We have a high school student! Wow! Welcome to the hamster wheel of high school activities! It really didn't take as long to reach this milestone as I thought it would. It seems like just the other day I was taking their picture as Savannah was entering 2nd grade and Duncan was entering Kindergarten. Savannah was pretty excited this morning. Of course, with band camp the last 2 weeks she feels like she has already started high school! I think Duncan would have been happy to extend the summer vacation, though. He has his first Cross Country practice this afternoon so it should be fun to hear how that went. I am glad that official practice has started because I don't think my achilles tendons can take anymore running for a while.

What did we do this summer?

Remember when summer used to take forever? Not this year!!! We've had a very busy summer out here in Iowa. Savannah has had a part-time job this summer on top of taking Driver's Ed in June and beginning band camp in August. So, the parents feel like their nice relaxing summer has been highjacked and the brother has wondered what happened to his big sister! We did manage to get in a few family moments, though. We spent Memorial Day weekend at Custer State Park in South Dakota and we camped with my parents at Palisades Park on the other side of South Dakota. Duncan and Savannah's favorite part about South Dakota is all the rocks. We have quite a deficit of nice rocks to climb on here in Northwest Iowa so finding great rocks to climb is a real treat. This particular rock is at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.

Band Camp

The last week of Band "Boot" Camp is almost over for Savannah. This has definitely been a full immersion experience! Camp started August 3rd and has gone 6 days a week since then. This picture shows them preparing for the day with a few warm-ups. (I wonder how many of the kids fell asleep?) The first week of camp was pretty trying for our new freshman, but she came home last Friday night (9:30pm) with a big smile on her face because the show was really coming together. It is really neat to see her be able to appreciate this unique experience. Can you find her in this picture??? She is the the 2nd person back on the line (white shirt, blue shorts).

Cordry Family Portrait

Whoops! This picture is a little old, but it will have to do for a while. This was taken about 2 years ago at one of our 1st degree mid-terms. Savannah is now (nearly) my height and Duncan is about as tall as Savannah is in this picture. We are all 2nd degree black belts now (but the belt doesn't look any different).

Now we're blogging!

Welcome to our blog. We thought we would give this thing a try and help our friends and family keep closer tabs on us. Pictures at Christmas don't really show how much the kids have changed! :-) They also don't keep everyone up on what's going on.