Going camping

We're going camping!  The place we're going is called Valley of Fire in Nevada.  I'm looking forward to having a break.  I talked to Mom a few days ago and she was telling me about her and Dad getting the house ready for us to come and it made me really excited.  I know at the end of it I'll be wishing for my own place again and they be wishing they never offered their house, but I'm excited all the same.

Jarom is doing better.

It was a good parent teacher conference this time. I don't know if you know, but we took Jarom to the doctor to see if there was a medical reason that he was doing so poorly in school. After doing some tests at school and other things, he was diagnosed with ADD. We put him on Concerta about two months ago. In that two months, he has taken his grades from mostly D's and F's to mostly A's, B's and C's. He still struggles with math, but so do I. He is doing so much better in school and I am so proud of him. I was very hesitant to put him on medication, but he is doing so much better and feeling better about himself that I think it was a good thing to do.

Now if we can just get Nathan to stop talking in class when he shouldn't. He finishes his work so fast that he gets bored and starts to talk to the kids around him, then he gets in trouble.

Erin is trying to slide by and not do her homework, but she is going to change that.

Jacob is still doing well in school but is discovering that math is getting harder the older he gets.

Hope you all are doing well.

Connie

Hi!

Big news from over the weekend: Lilia has her first word - HI!! She's said things like "mama" and "dada" for a long time now, but they seem to still be somewhat indiscriminately used. She'll say mama to me, but then she also says it to the toilet - so who knows what she thinks it means. But, she now says "hi" like a real word. She'll crawl over to where I am or where Adam is after playing by herself for awhile and say "I!" (she doesn't really do the 'h' so well). Or, sometimes if I've left my phone vulnerable, she'll start to play with it and say "I!" to the phone. She has a toy phone and she likes to say hi to that, as well as speak loudly toward it in her own language, including words like guk, gok, gak, aga, duck and dog (not associated with the animals), baba, ada, etc. It's pretty funny, but so far hi is the only thing in English she consistently uses correctly.

Walking: not yet. She wishes she could walk, and likes to spend a lot of time practicing, but really isn't a walker. Basically, she's a big wuss. She'll walk from a piece of furniture to Adam or I and back as long as it isn't more than 4 or 5 steps for her. If she's walking between Adam and I, she'll go as far as 8-10 steps, but that's all we can get her to do for now. I haven't seen her choose walking over crawling when a parent is not involved - ie, couch to chair, chair to toy, etc. But, she's improved a lot in the last little bit, and I expect we'll see her really walking in the next month or so.

Other random updates: Her hair is now long enough to pull up in pigtails or a ponytail, very cute. She also can give kisses. We'll say "Give me a kiss!" and make a kiss toward her, and she'll come at us with a huge, open-mouth, very slobbery kiss, usually right on the lips if she can manage. Very disgusting, but highly amusing and so adorable. Dance moves must run in the family because Lilia has become quite the head-bobber, bootie-shaker, and foot-stomper.

Well, that's what's going on in the Lilia department. We've taken some great fotos and videos recently, but that's Adam's department so I'll let him post them when he gets a chance. :)

Like mother, like son.

Ok, so that's not how the saying really goes, but Dante is now an official walker and he is the same age I was when I started walking: 10 months. He's still pretty slow and kind of shakie, but it is really amazing how much he improves with each day he's on his feet. I'm posting some videos. They include Dante walking and a short Dante dancing section. Hope everyone gets to see them!







Post reset on Tuesday, Feb 23 @ 7:15 pm central time.
Post reset on Wednesday, Feb 24 @ 7:04 pm central time.

One thing after another.

In a very small way, I understand the biblical plagues. It feels like it has been one thing after another here at our house. First it was that everybody got coughs, now it seems to be fevers. I don't dare speculate if anything else is coming. I sound like I am whining and I don't mean to. We are on the mend and we are going to be fine.

Connie

My little man.

He's walking! I still can't believe it. He is taking steps from one piece of furniture to another or to a person. This evening my mom started him walking and he walked all the way across the living room. He still chooses to crawl a lot. So I guess I will recategorized him officially as a walker when he walks more than crawls. (He actually does choose to walk now when the distance isn't very far.)

Another thing he does that I find very cute is that he dances. He'll be playing with his toys and when he pushes a button that makes one of his toys play a song, he starts bobbing up and down. I'm trying to get a video of this, but it's hard to get videos of things like this. As soon as he sees the camera, he refocuses his attention on the camera and all I get is Dante crawling (or walking) to me and the camera.

I'll take more video tomorrow and I'll post some videos on Friday in the late afternoon.

Picasa Web Albums

I've been uploading a lot of pictures recently and I thought I had been sharing them but I was wrong.  I have the latest pictures and some from a while back.  Check them out if you're so inclined.  In case you were wondering, they require a username and password to view so they're relatively safe.

Adam's Web Albums

More snow pictures

Snow!

We here is the north Dallas area didn't want to be left out of the snow storms that have been hitting various parts of the country. So we put in an order for some snow. And yesterday it was filled.

We had record breaking snow fall. In 24 hours we had 12.5". For Feb 11, the total was about 11.7" with almost another inch falling after midnight. It was so cool. A few school districts were closed yesterday, but not mine. I spent the day teaching and looking out the window a lot as the snow fell all day long. We had snowfall from 6am Feb 11 to 3am Feb 12. It snowed straight for 21 hours! Crazy for here!

I'm off today. My school district closed. In total there are over 600 closings and delays of schools and businesses.

Snow Feb 11-12, 2010

Here is a piece of a news story that I found. We have had the second snowiest winter on record...



"The 11.2 inches of snow that had fallen by midnight Thursday at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport topped the previous record for snowfall in one day of 7.8 inches recorded in 1917 and 1964.

The 12.4 inches that had fallen by 4 a.m. Friday also broke the 24-hour record of 12.1 inches Jan. 15 and Jan. 16, 1964.

Thursday’s snow also catapulted seasonal accumulation to 15.7 inches, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

That ranks as the second snowiest season ever.

Most snowiest was the 17.6 inches that fell in 1977-78."

http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1964259.html

Dante Standing

Dante has been standing on his own a little lately. He will occasionally let go of what he is using to stand (such as the couch) and stand independently. He will also take a few steps if he is going from one object to another one that is close by. It won't be long before he is walking. I'd give it about another month.

In this video, I stood him up and let go to show how good he is getting at balancing on his own.



So, I'm frustrated. I can't figure out how to get my videos to link like Adam did so this one will "expire" like Adam's did. Grrr. I don't have time to spend figuring this out right now; I'll try again later. :(

So here is the latest...

By way of background CES moved 60 people last year, which can cost about 50k to do, this year they are aiming to move around 20, so think of a funnel...right now it looks like they really want a Spanish speaker for the Houston spot, something they are trying to focus on more down there, which is totally understandable, so they are leaning in another direction, which may be a good thing, all my work would have been in the inner loop, Southeast side of Houston, and we would have lived in the Northwest side, so I might have seen my wife and kids sometime, maybe. I was told on friday that there is another spot I am being considered for in Texas, but some other "dominos" have to fall first, there are no retirements in Dallas, San Antonio and maybe 1 in Austin (lots of guys are postponing retirement since their 401k all took some serious hits) or some people may be going to BYUI or BYU, but I do know that David Shumway one of the Coordinators in Dallas fell of a ladder and broke his back, he served in my mission and is a great Christlike man so I really can't hope they move him for that reason, but if they decided to move him so that they could cut down on his movement I wouldn't complain too much...so right now the chance of any move this year is about 4/10. So we are hopeful and waiting, but proceding normally until we hear otherwise, right now its really economics, so I suggest we all blame Obama, and mention what I just explained to you to no one, please keep praying, it availeth much, and we will see. Were not too worried, it will happen, it's now just a question of when not if. Love you all, sean

Houston?

Well,
There is a CES spot opening up in Houston. Sean got an e-mail this morning from CES saying that there was an opening in Houston and that if anyone was interested, to apply for that spot. So Sean called his friend in the church office building and was wondering if he had even been considered for the spot. His friend said that "yes, he was being considered for the spot, but Sean doesn't know Spanish and the assignment would cover 2 English stakes and 2 Spanish stakes." I don't know if Sean not knowing Spanish will disqualify him, but I know that he would like to move back to Texas and be closer to family and home.

If you are so inclined, any prayers in this regard would be appreciated. I know that what is best for our family will happen. God has always watched out for our family and blessed us and I know that he will continue to do so.

We should find out in the next couple of weeks what decisions have been made.

Love you all,
Connie

Not much happening here

It has been a while since we posted. It is because it seems nothing new is happening here. It is winter, it is cold, nobody wants to go outside and we are all a little stir crazy. We had an inversion here for several weeks (that is where a pocket of cold air gets trapped in a mountian basin under warmer air flowing over top of it) and all the smog and fog and polution gets trapped in the cold air. Erin and Isaac get a cough every time it happen, so they have been coughing for the last few weeks. Enough of that. We will get storms and clean out the air and life will be good again.

It is official. We have a teenager. Jacob turns 13 today. I can't believe it has been 13 years since he was born. Time sure does fly.

Connie

It's a GIRL! (probably)

We went to the doctor today and have some ultrasound pictures for you.  We also found out that we are probably (90%) having another girl.  This is great news for us since it means that we won't have a lot of new expenditures (i.e. we already have clothes, toys, etc. for a girl).  The only bad news is we'll probably (99%) struggle to come up with a name we like.

GAO Summer Internship

I got a call from the GAO a few weeks ago. They informed me that a very competitive debate had eliminated me from the internship. There were only 2 slots and I was their 3rd pick. This morning, GAO called me and informed me that a 3rd slot had opened unexpectedly and they invited me to participate in the internship.

This summer should be very interesting considering Laura will be having a baby sometime in June and the internship will likely be around the same time. We haven't had much time to discuss the ramifications of this news but I suppose it is still pretty good. If the internship goes well it could mean an offer of a permanent position with the GAO in Dallas. Let's not get our hopes up but this has potential to be a very good opportunity.

*Update:  My start date will be 6 July 2010.