The Five Jacksons

The school year has started and usual that means things have gotten extremely busy.

Before school started we (the kids and I) did manage to get in one more activity. We drove over to Athens, TX to visit the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. We walked around looking at the live freshwater fish that they had in tanks. There was one tank that had a lot of large blue catfish. It was pretty cool to see so many catfish all grouped together. The kids had a little food that they were able to toss into the various tanks. They enjoyed seeing how fast the fish swarmed to the food. The highlight of the trip for the kids was when they got fish in a pond they have there that was stocked with catfish and trout. David caught 2 small catfish. The rest of us caught one each. They were pretty small (around 6 inches or so), but they were thrilled to catch their first fish. I only had time to try it out after the kids got too hot to fish anymore. The rest of my time was spent baiting hooks, untangling fishing line, casting, unhooking and releasing the fish. Oh, I also spent a little time bleeding. Catherine’s fish managed to stab my thumb with one its fins. The amount of blood seemed to indicate a much worse injury than it actually was.

School started on 8/23. The kids were excited for the most part (David wasn’t too excited about school). Neera was excited to get started as well after all the hours of getting her classroom ready. We have already had curriculum nights at each school. Neera went to Catherine’s middle school and heard from all her teachers about the classes that she has. Her match class is actually for high school credit, so that will be interesting. It will be her first record on her high school GPA and she won’t be there for 2 years. She should be challenged with year with her schedule. I went to David’s middle school and spent time going to each of his classes. One neat thing is that he has the same math teacher that he had in 6th and 7th grade. It is good for him because she knows him well. David’s schedule is nice in that his core classes are his first 4 in the morning. The afternoon is when he has his electives (Art, Creative Writing/Reading, Athletics). Christopher has the same teacher that David had for 4th grade. She is really good so we are pleased. Since Neera is also teaching 4th grade, she will get to see him at times during the day (lunch, recess) and knows the curriculum so that will help.

Neera has gotten through the first 2 weeks which are very hectic for teachers. She has learned all of her students names and how to pronounce them (which is no easy feat with our school’s diversity). Now she (and the other teachers) can get into a regular teaching rhythm.

Outside of school, the schedules are quite full. The following is what is usually on tap for a normal week:

Monday – David has football practice after school until 4:15 or so, Christopher has football practice from 6-8, Catherine has softball practice from 6 – 7:30.
Tuesday – David will have football games at 5:30 starting on the 14th (his game this week is on Wednesday).
Wednesday – David’s football practice should end at the end of the school day when they paly a game the day before. Christopher has football practice from 6-8.
Thursday – David has football practice after school until 4:15 or so. Catherine will have some Softball games on Thursdays. This week we have a homecoming parade to attend.
Friday – David has football practice after school until 4:15 or so, Catherine has batting practice from 6 – 7, Christopher has football practice from 5:45 – 6:45.
Saturday – Christopher will have football games in the morning. Catherine will have softball games in the afternoons.
Sunday – Neera and I have a softball game in the afternoon.

Christopher’s and Catherine’s games get started next Saturday.

There are also other things like monthly PTO and Dad’s Club meetings that I have. Neera will have some late days on school for meetings and other things that come up.

We hope everyone is doing well and that you all aren’t too busy.

I thought it would be a good time for an up[date since the kids will be heading back to school on Monday.

When I last left off, we were getting close to David’s birthday. The week before his birthday I took a week of vacation for a couple of reasons. First, Neera had 2 days of training to attend so someone had to be with the kids. Second, we spent that Thursday and Friday at the Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate David’s upcoming birthday. We had 2 days at indoor (and outdoor) water park that makes Great Wolf Lodge popular. We spent Thursday night in a room there that had bunk beds and a cabin theme. David, Catherine and Neera also spent time doing an interactive game called Magic Quest. While they were doing that Christopher and I hung out at the water park and ate ice cream. It was a lot of fun.

During the week of David’s birthday, he had a football camp every evening. Instead of going out for dinner on his birthday, we went for lunch at On The Border. That night after he got home from football camp, we had his treasure hunt (that Catherine made up) so he could find his gifts. His big present was a new bicycle that I took him up to pick out the Saturday after his birthday. He got a new Trek mountain bike that is burnt orange in color. It is a nice bike and he has enjoyed riding it even in the heat of the day. The only thing that he is trying to get used to is the fact that it only has hand brakes. His previous bike had hand brakes for the front, but disc brakes on the rear. He still tries to stop by going backwards on his pedals but that doesn’t work now.

David’s other big events since then were attending a couple of camps that included a rocketry class and a baseball statistics class. He enjoyed both, but I think he really liked the baseball stats class. This week has been tough for David. He had some MRIs done yesterday (Tuesday) to see if we can find out what causes his legs muscles to be so tight which affect his gait. He did great during the MRIs though. Today, he is getting his last 2 baby teeth pulled (I’m actually doing this update at the dentist office) since the permanent teeth are coming in a bit crooked and are not pushing the baby teeth out correctly. He was very nervous since it involves getting a shot to numb his mouth. He will also be getting laughing gas.

We have also picked up David’s football gear and his 8th grade schedule. He isn’t too excited about going back to school. <g>

Catherine hasn’t been too busy. She is still having weekly piano lessons. She really impresses me with her piano play. Other than that she also had two classes the same week that David had his 2 classes. Her classes were costume design and debate. She had a good time in both, but I think she had more fun with costume design. We picked up Catherine’s 7th grade schedule. All of her core classes are GT classes so it will be interesting to see how busy that keeps her. She stills fills most of her time with reading and has gone through a very large number of news books and re-reads this summer.

Christopher hasn’t had much on his schedule the past month. We got him signed up for football this fall since he wanted to give it a try. His football practice began this week, He has practices on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Practices are 2 hours (6 – 8 PM) this week. After this week, the Monday and Wednesday practice will be 2 hours and the Friday practice will be an hour. He is excited about playing football. We found out who his teacher will be this year earlier today. Tomorrow night is the Meet The Teacher night although we (and he) already knows the teacher. It is the same teacher that David had for 4th grade.  One of the other teachers who he will have in the 4th grade rotation was his 2nd grade teacher. All are excellent teachers.

Neera is already back in school this week which is why I took vacation this week. The teachers all have meetings and training this week. She is also trying to finish getting her classroom setup to her liking, I saw it yesterday and it looks great. She is just trying to get things just right before Meet The Teacher night tomorrow. Other than getting her room ready, she has spent time with the kids and we have been playing softball on Sundays. She also 2 days and 1 night away with a group of friends so that was a nice break for her. She also coordinated the process of getting the carpet replaced in our family room. It was getting quite dirty and worn after 15 years and 3 kids.

As for me, I went to Wyoming for a weekend to visit some high schools friends for an informal high school reunion. It was great to see some old friends that I haven’t seen in 26 years (others I had seen 16 years ago at our 10 year reunion). Based on talking to some of my friends that still have family ranches, I might see about going back up there next summer to go on a pack trip or maybe to have the boys (and me) help out on one of the ranches to show them what kind of life that is. As mentioned earlier I have taken a couple of weeks of vacation to be with the kids while Neera has school commitments. It has been good (and sometimes not so good <g>) to spend time with the kids. I have also been playing softball on Sundays. Our coed team won our summer league so we got t-shirts. <g> We just started the “Fall” league the Sunday before last.

The weather here has been really hot and humid. The temperature has been above hundred (as of yesterday) for 18 straight days and 24 overall. The forecast calls for at least another week of the same. It might not make it today since there are more clouds around and that might keep the temperature down a bit. The heat index during the days has been from 105 to 110 which qualifies for heat advisories to be issued. We are all looking forward to temperatures cooling off and some rain. Our yard is shrinking (it is clay) quite a bit with the lack of rain. Sprinklers just aren’t the same as rain.

That just about catches you up on what we have been up to.

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through the Summer break for the kids and Neera. We hope everyone is having a good summer.

The summer is going by fast and slow. <g> It all depends on the day and how the kids are getting along.

We aren’t going anywhere as a family (out of town) this summer, but I am heading to Wyoming on Friday for an informal high school reunion (get together) on Saturday. I’ll be coming back on Sunday afternoon so it is a quick trip. Since the kids were busy this week and Neera has some training next week, we couldn’t get enough days to make the trip worthwhile for the whole family. If we could have taken a few extra days, we would have made a quick trip up to Yellowstone National Park to make it a family vacation. As it is, it will be my first trip back to where I went to high school since a short visit 7 years ago.

The kids have been trying to keep busy around here with various camps.

The boys went to a baseball camp the week after school was out. David also went to a football passing camp the last week of June. Christopher also went to soccer camp in June. Catherine and Christopher are attending Camp Invention this week. They to get take things apart and try to “invent” new things with the various things that the kids bring to the camp. The kids have done this for a couple of years and really enjoy it. David was too old to attend this year.

I will be taking next week off as well since Neera has 2 days of training to attend. We will also be going to Great Wolf Lodge for 2 days and 1 night next week. Great Wolf Lodge is a hotel that has an indoor water park. To go to the water park, you have to stay in the hotel so we booked one night so that we can go to the water park the day we check in and the day we check out. This is one of the things that we are doing for David’s upcoming 13th birthday. He is attending a football camp during his birthday week so we couldn’t do it that week.

Neera is getting her new classroom set up slowly. She will be working on it more over the next couple of weeks. She just bought two book cases that we need to take up there and put together.

The other big news this summer is David becoming a teenager. It is hard to believe that the little squirt will be 13. He even mowed the backyard today, so we are starting to take advantage of child labor which will give me more free time. <G> If he can get a job maybe I can retire.

Signing off for now…

It has been awhile since I posted an update. The last couple of months (as usual) have been busy. Between the kid’s sports activities, Neera’s teaching, and my job, it is something just to keep sane.

The school year is over on Thursday. The kids get out early that day, so they only have 2.5 days left as does Neera. We are just about finished with the baseball and softball seasons as well.

Since it has been 2 months since I last posted an update, I’ll give an overview of what has been going on. This time, we will go from oldest to youngest.

Neera is completing her first year of teaching. It has gone by quickly and she has thoroughly enjoyed it. She truly loves teaching math. She is a natural at this job and she has gotten a lot of great feedback from teachers, administration, parents and students. While she has enjoyed her time at Austin Elementary, she was approached about a 4th grade teacher position at our home school (Valley Ranch). While it was a tough decision to leave her first school and some of her peers, she found that she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to teach at the school we have spent the last 8 years at especially since the other four 4th grade teachers that will be on the team are so good. She will work in a rotation with 2 other teachers and she will be teaching math to 3 classes of kids. She has started packing up things in her class to get ready for the move and now we have a guest room full of boxes and other stuff. Next year will be another adventure especially since Christopher will be in 4th grade next year. He won’t be in her class, but it will still be quite a change for both of them.

As for me (Stephen in case you didn’t know), I bounce around from work, to after school activities with the kids and other school related volunteer activities. On the work front, I took a short notice trip to Chicago from 3/31 through 4/3 to assist with a critical customer issue. I found out around 1PM on Wednesday that I needed to leave and was on a plane that night at 7PM. I was also in Redmond (Seattle) for a business meeting from 4/19 through 4/22. Outside of traveling, I have been kept busy, which is much better than the alternative. On the personal front, I helped coordinate and play in our 7th Annual VRE Dad’s Club Golf Scramble. We had a good time and I played about as well as can be expected considering that I hadn’t hit a golf ball in a year. <g> After that, I helped host the annual teacher/staff lunch that the VRE Dad’s Club has done for several years. The last big thing was the VRE Field Day that I was the coordinator for again this year. My 2nd Field Day will end of being memorable for the heavy rain and high winds that ended the day at lunch. A few of the volunteers and I got thoroughly soak as we worked to get the electrical equipment for the inflatables and other things out of the driving rain. Along with the wind an rain, the temperature dropped quite a bit so we were quite chilled as well as being very wet. The good news is that the kids had a good time during the morning and they were not outside when the skies opened up. Christopher’s favorite part was dunking me twice as I sat in the dunk tank when his class came to the event. His class dunked me at least 20 times though I actually lost count while climbing out of the water so much.

David is quite ready for the end of 7th grade. He has had a good year and has enjoyed school for the most part. The end of the year consisted of the state mandated TAKS tests of which he had them in 3 subjects. This past week, he had semester exams in two classes with 2 more this coming week. It is hard to believe he will be going into 8th grade next year and will be a teenager by the end of the summer. His baseball season ended on Tuesday this past week as his team lost for the 2nd time in the end of season tournament. His team played well at times and not so well at others. David played mostly catcher, right field and 2nd base. He seems to really enjoy playing catcher and does a great job there. One highlight from this season is when he threw out a runner trying to steal 3rd base. His throw was right on target and the 3rd baseman made a good tag.

Catherine has really enjoyed her first year in middle school. She is ending the year on a strong note after working through some early issues with remembering to turn things in on time. Her grades are strong and she had no problems with her TAKs tests (even though we have not yet seen the scores for those). Her math grades were good enough that she was exempted from taking the semester exam last week. She is looking forward to her challenging classes next year. She is still taking piano lessons once a week and is really doing well. She had a piano recital last weekend and did very well from what I was told. I had to miss it because each of the boys had baseball games at the same time. On the sports front, Catherine’s softball season ended on a very high note. Her team lost their first game of the end of season tournament (it was a double elimination tournament) on Friday night (5/21), but then came back Saturday to win both games of a double-header. On Monday night (5/24), her team both games of another double-header. On Tuesday night, they won the championship for the 10U (10 and 11 year old) league. They received their trophies on Thursday night. It was an incredible run of 6 games in 5 days with them winning 5 games in a row.

Christopher is nearing the end of 3rd grade. He too has had a good year. He really likes his teacher and has many friends in class. This was the first year that he had to take the state TAKs tests. While we have not seen the scores yet, we are hopeful that he did well. A lot of focus is put on these tests and some kids feel a lot of pressure to do well. Christopher was chosen to represent his class at the school districts night at the Texas Ranger Ballpark on 5/19. As part of this, he got to walk out on the field (along the warning track in the outfield) prior to the Texas Rangers baseball game that night. He was quite excited as he got to walk by several Ranger and Orioles players that were warming up on the field while they walked out. The next best thing was that it was $1 hot dog night, so we got to eat hot dogs on the cheap. <g> Christopher’s baseball season is not quite over. His team lost their first game of the end of season tournament, but they have won won their last 2 games to remain in the running. His next game is on Tuesday night. If they win that game, they play Thursday night. The championship is on Friday night if they make it there.

As for the summer, we don’t have any big plans at this point. The kids will be attending a few camps (sports-related as well as educational\fun camps). Neera has some training to attend as well over the summer. We may not be taking any family trips at least as far as we know right now.

Anyway, that sort of catches you up on what has been happening around here in our family for the past two months.

Talk to you soon.

Our trip to Maui got off to a very rough start. We arrived at the airport Friday morning at 6AM for our 7AM flight. This is where things started to go bad. Normally an hour at DFW is more than enough time, but we were unable to check-in online because of some error. This meant that we had to stand in line to get checked in and to get our boarding passes and check our bags. The line was quite long because a number of people were starting Spring Break early like us. Once we got to the front of the line it took awhile to get us checked in. Apparently, the error that prevented us from checking in online was because of a relatively new TSA rule that required the kid’s birth dates. Since we were getting pretty close to our flight departure, we asked if they should call the gate to let them know we were on our way. The ticket agent said no, you have plenty of time. They moved our bags to the head of the line and we moved to the security line. Once we got through this, we got to the gate about 16 minutes (according to my watch) before the flight was to leave. The agent at the gate rather rudely asked if we were the Jacksons. When we said Yes, she said you missed the flight. The plane was still there, but she said that we missed the 15-minute cutoff. We didn’t here any announcements (as the security line was basically just across from the gate about final boarding or any announcements calling our name.

Needless to say we were in shock and quite upset. While we know we checked in late, we got no sense of urgency from the front ticket agent because we could have been rushed through the security line and they could have called the gate. Also, they must have given our seats away more than 15 minutes before the flight because the rude agent said that it was just under the 15-minute window which is why we could not be seated.

Since this was “all our fault” our only options were to get on standby lists fro later flights to LA. We didn’t get on the next flight to LA and the agent at that gate suggested that we try standby on a non-stop to Honolulu (and then get a flight from there to Maui). Some luck was with us because we managed to get 3 seats on that flight. Neera, Catherine, and Christopher took that flight. David and I waited to get another flight.

To keep this relatively short, David and I were on the standby lists for multiple (at least 6 to 8) LA flights and one non-stop to Maui. We never got close to getting on any of these flights. The standby lists to LA ranged from 23 to over 70 on each flight. After we didn’t get on the 8:35PM flight to LA, we gave up and went home. After getting home, I called AA and talked to a very nice agent. She was able to get us booked and confirmed on a non-stop flight to Honolulu on Sunday (3/14). We would lose 2.5 days in Maui, but at least we would make it.

Meanwhile, Neera, Catherine, and Christopher arrived in Maui late Friday night several hours later than we had planned. The bags had not arrived and AA was not sure where they were. They were finally delivered (free of charge) to the condo at 12:30AM.

They spent Saturday and Sunday going to the beach and sight seeing. They went to a sugar museum and drove around some parts of the island checking things out and locating good beaches.

David and I arrived late Sunday night to join the rest of the family. We learned our lesson about getting to the airport early especially for the first morning flight, which is deemed as a “critical” flight. This is why they say they were so strict with the boarding cutoff time. As David and I watched flight after flight during our 15 hours in the airport, many people boarded within 15 minutes (or less) of departure. In fact, many passengers were paged multiple times before a standby passenger got their seat. In many cases, the paged passenger showed up before the seat was given away,

Monday – March 15

After breakfast we drove up to the top of Haleakala, the dormant volcano that rises to 10,023 feet in elevation. The road is very curvy and slow. It took at least an hour and a half to get to the top because many of the hairpin turns had to be taken around 10 MPH or so. The bad thing for us was that the mountain was covered in clouds which we never got above. When we reached the summit, it was cloudy, drizzly and cold. We could not see anything, so it was a bit of a disappointment. After driving back down and eating lunch at the condo, we went to a beach. The kids had a blast in the water especially David since it was his first trip to the beach. The others had gone a couple of other times. Catherine spent most of the time playing in the sand.

Tuesday – March 16

We were picked up at 7:20AM to go on a tour that took us around the entire island of Maui. It included the road to Hana, which we were very glad we did not have to drive. The road is very narrow and includes over 600 turns (I didn’t count them). It was much better to have a bus driver navigate the roads and narrate along the way. We got to stop at several locations to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. The drive continue past Hana around the backside of the island and included a long stretch of unpaved, rough road. We also stopped on a winery where we picked up some pineapple and passion fruit wine. It was quite tasty.  This drive took us basically all day. It was well worth it as the sights were quite breathtaking. We went from lush rainforest to dry, arid landscape that could have been from southwest Texas, and back to more lush landscape.

Wednesday – March 17

We ate breakfast in the condo and then drove to Lahaina to catch our 7:30AM whale watching tour. This was a treat. We went out into the bay and found one group of humpback whales that were in a mating competition where there is one female, a dominant male and several other male jockeying for position. There were 7 – 9 whales in this group and they were very active. They were surfacing, diving (great tail fluke shots), and many blowhole sightings. There were a couple of breaches (whale’s body coming out of the water) as well. We followed these whales for awhile and then went over to another group that we spotted. This group included a female and her baby along with 3 or 4 males. The baby was quite active and breached a couple of times. A few of the males were interested in our boat so they came over to check us out. In fact, three of them swam under the boat and we got a good view of them coming out from under the boat (there were under the water but near the surface). Since they were so close to the boat, we could not leave so we got some extra time watching them.

In the afternoon, we went to the beach again. We took some boogie boards that were in the condo, which the kids loved. They used those for the whole time that we were at the beach. The weather was perfect. The previous day at the beach, the wind was howling so the sand was blowing into our stuff and it was not as enjoyable. Today, the winds were lighter and the temperature was good. Personally, I would have liked to have had the water a bit warmer, but I guess I’m used to the very warm Gulf water in Texas. <g>

For dinner, we went to a local seafood restaurant and had some very good food. The fish was excellent. The prices were what are to be expected in Maui I guess.

Thursday – March 18

Our last day here. We had breakfast in the condo and packed up as we had to check out by 11AM. We left the condo and went to the Maui Ocean Center (Aquarium) which was pretty much next to the condo we stayed at. We spent a little time there looking at the fish until we had to leave to make our submarine tour at Noon. The submarine took us out into the bay where we dived to a maximum depth of 126 feet. We got to see a lot of fish along the coral reefs and around a ship that they sunk a couple of years ago to serve as an artificial reef. There was a wide variety of fish, coral, sea urchins, and even a sea cucumber. Christopher wanted me to mention that we also saw some puffer fish, which are very poisonous. After the submarine tour, we drove back to the aquarium to finish our walking tour there. We got to see a diver in a tank with sharks, rays, and fish. She hand fed one of the rays and then she got out of the tank and they dropped in dead fish. We got to see many of the fish eating as well as a hammerhead shark eat. The other sharks didn’t eat. We found out that sharks don’t actually eat that often. Some sharks go without eating for more than a month since their metabolism is so slow and efficient.

Little known fact to amaze your friends: More people die annually in Hawaii from falling coconuts (average 10 per year) than suffer shark attacks (around one per year on average).

We are in the airport right now (as I type this) waiting for our return flights home. We were here plenty early tonight so we won’t have a repeat of the adventure getting here.

Please take a look at the few pictures I uploaded at the following site:

http://cid-8ae4e1d7a44ec11a.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Spring%20Break%202010%20-%20Hawaii 

That is all for now as we get back to the real world where we have work, school, soccer practice, soccer games, baseball practice, softball practice (Catherine), and softball games (Neera and I). Baseball and softball games (Catherine) start next month.

An additional update: While we were gone, we had Rambo boarded at the veterinary office since they also offer boarding. When I dropped him off on Thursday (3/11), we was doing OK. His rear legs have been getting weaker due to arthritis, but he was still able to get up and walk OK. After I got off the plane in Honolulu (before David and I got our connecting flight to Maui) I had a message from our Vet. She said that Rambo wasn’t doing well and they had to help hold us his rear end to take him out and that he was not eating. She called again the next morning to explain the situation. He was not doing well. She was going to examine him but they were hand feeding him to get him to eat. By the time we got home and went to pick him up, he could not get up or stand at all. Even with assistance he would not bear any weight on his front legs either which was not a problem when we left. Since he could not move and was going to the bathroom where he laid, we decided that we couldn’t let him live like that. Friday afternoon (just a couple of hours after we got home), we had him euthanized. We hope that he has met up with his brother again, but we were all very sad about this as it was quite unexpected. As I said he was getting a little worse, but this was a dramatic and fast change in his condition.

Another month has gone by. I just realized that it has been a little over a month since I have posted an update. It has been a fairly routine month around here, but here are a few details.

We were going to have a couple of friends and their granddaughter come over for New Year’s Eve, but a couple of the kids had a low grade fever so we decided not to get together. We all stayed up until Midnight to celebrate the New Year. We played games and watched the ball drop in New York and then we watched the countdown on TV from the live party in downtown Dallas.

The kid’s fevers were gone on New Year’s Day so our friends came over that night to play games and eat. This is something we have done with them (usually on New Year’s Eve) the past couple of years.

I was on call the week between Christmas and New Year’s (even though I had taken vacation that week) and I got an early morning call on January 2 from Egypt about a critical support case in Saudi Arabia. I worked on that for a couple of hours that morning until the problem was resolved. That was my excitement for the weekend.

After that we got back to a more normal schedule since the kids were back in school and we were back at work.

David had several days of 7th grade semester exams between January 8 and January 15. Catherine has a couple as well that week since she is in a couple of 7th grade classes. The kids were out of school on the 18th for Martin Luther King day. Neera had to attend a class so she was not home. I took the day off work to spend with the kids. We went to see the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel movie. It was pretty funny and the kids enjoyed it.

Christopher and the rest of the 3rd graders did a performance during a school spirit assembly on the 22nd. They sang a couple of songs about the month’s character trait of “Self Control”. They did a good job with the singing and dance steps.

Neera and the kids reach the end of the grading period. The kids all did well according to their report cards and Neera got all her grades posted in time. <g> We are now halfway through the school year.

We also booked our flights, a condo, and a car for our trip to Hawaii (Maui) over Spring Break. Actually we are leaving the Friday before Spring Break since it was much cheaper to fly on Friday when compared to Saturday. We are all excited, especially Catherine since she has been booking sample trips for several months. I’m glad she didn’t have a credit card number because the trip would have been booked long ago.

The month ended with a trip to Seattle for me. I had a 3 day conference to attend (Tuesday – Thursday). The conference went well and the weather in Seattle was unusually dry and warm. It was actually sunny for most of the first 3 days. On Friday, I spent the morning visiting some of the program managers and developers that I work with. Around lunchtime, I drove down to Portland to visit a high school friend that I had not see for almost 27 years. It was really nice to connect with an old friend. I flew home last night (Saturday).

This morning, the boys and I cleaned up toilet paper that was in our trees. Some kids thought it was a good time to pull a prank. At least they did it after the storms that went through Thursday and Friday were gone. It would have been worse if it had rained after they threw the TP in the trees. We are pretty sure it was some of David’s friends.

I guess that is it for now.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Before we get to more about Christmas, a little update on things since my last update.

As mentioned previously, we were having the windows in our house replaced. They are all in now. The workers did a great job. We had 2 crews working on them on Wednesday (16th) and they got all but 6 done that day. They were here from just before 9:30 until almost 6 PM. One crew came back on Thursday and finished the remaining 6 windows. They look great and we can feel the difference already because we don’t feel breezes coming through the windows. The utility bills will hopefully show a difference as well. It was a bit chilly in the house especially on the first day with so many windows being replaced and outside temperatures in the 50s.

Christopher’s 9th birthday was on Friday. It was also the last day (1/2 day actually) of school. Christopher’s class had their holiday party that morning so he got to wear pajamas to school and have pancakes in class. It was already a good day for him before we went out to dinner for his birthday and before he got his presents. All in all, he had a pretty good day. It is our last year with a child in single digits. Hard to believe the time has gone by so quickly. He had his annual checkup on Monday (21st) and came in at 54 inches tall and 81 pounds. He is a big boy. Catherine made up Christopher’s treasure hunt which led him to his gifts. You can see a few pictures from his birthday at birthday pictures.

We all finished up some Christmas shopping and wrapping during the week to get ready for the big day.

We got a surprise as the weather forecast changed from just being cold on Christmas Eve and Christmas to have snow. On Wednesday the high temperature was 75 and then on Thursday, it snowed 3 inches (official amount at DFW airport). It is the first measurable snowfall on Christmas Even since record keeping began in 1898. It was quite a rare treat indeed. Today if is a beautiful sunny day and the snow is melting (temps are supposed to be in the low 40s today), but it still counts as a white Christmas. <g> Might never see this here again.

Santa made it despite the weather and left the kids quite a bounty of gifts to add to the family gifts they received. They were up and downstairs around 6:00. They worked hard to get everything open as fast as possible. It seemed that they enjoyed all the gifts as did Neera and I.

The kids have been playing with some of the new things they have. The boys went out for awhile to play in the snow with a few of the neighbor kids. We have a turkey in the oven so we are getting ready for our Christmas dinner this afternoon.

I uploaded a few pictures from yesterday and today so you can share a little of our Christmas and see proof that it did actually snow here. Just click the following link:

Christmas Pictures

I hope all of you have had a Merry Christmas as well.

Christmas is right around the corner, so I hope you have been able to get your shopping done.

This is my first update since Thanksgiving when we had many visitors. I know that our kids had a great time seeing their cousins and aunts and uncles. Neera and I also enjoyed seeing everyone as well. We don’t get together all that often so it is nice when we can get together. Many pictures were taken of course. I uploaded a few of those to the following link:

Thanksgiving 2009

Our kids (especially David) seemed to go out of their way to take special care of Tyson. It was cute to see how they made sure that he was played with, fed, and had his milk (soy, of course) when he was thirsty.

After everyone left, we got back into our normal routines of school and work. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is filled with birthdays as you all know. The first one up was Neera’s. We had a low key evening for her birthday. We went out to eat (but not at the place she wanted to go because the kids were a little tired) and gave her a few gifts. One of the things we will get her, but she has yet to pick out is a bicycle. Hopefully, we can get that taken care of before XMas.

The next birthday (just yesterday) was Anil’s. The boys and I left a message on his cell phone to wish him a happy birthday. Neera is off on a girl’s weekend with some friends so she wasn’t here when we called. Catherine was at a school dance where she also bought a few Christmas presents so she wasn’t here either.

Christopher’s birthday is next this coming Friday. It is hard to believe that he is going to be 9. It seems not long ago when he was just a little thing. Now he weighs almost as much as David (just 2 pounds less).

I put up Christmas lights the weekend after Thanksgiving and we put up our Christmas tree last Sunday. The kids are excited to see a few presents under the tree already. I took the kids to see Santa this morning, They each made a small Christmas tree ornament and then had a chance to get a picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Catherine declined the picture though. The boys each sat on Santa’s lap for a picture.

School is going fine for the kids and all the sports seasons are over, so the evenings are just filled with homework or play time. They are looking forward to the Christmas break which starts the afternoon of the 18th when they get out of school early.

Work is going well for me. I will be taking Dec. 28 – 31 off as vacation myself. I had a few days of vacation left that I needed to use or lose. I’ll be flying to Seattle the week of January 25 for a conference. This will be my first business trip since I went to Jakarta almost 2 years ago.

We are having the windows in our house replaced (yes, all of them) this coming week. It should take two days to get them all done. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate otherwise it might get a bit chilly in here while windows are being pulled out and put back in. Here’s hoping for a smooth process during all of this.

I guess that is all for now.

Take care!

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week. The time has flown by since my last update almost a month ago.

From the perpetual rains of September and October came almost a perfect November as far as the weather is concerned. We’ve only had rain once and the temperatures have been good. It has just started cooling off enough to remind us that Winter is coming (such that Winter exists here).

We have wrapped up the kid’s sports seasons. Catherine had her last soccer game on November 8. Her team finished the season in 2nd place with a 7-1-2 record. The won their last 7 games. Even though Catherine started playing the best soccer she has ever played, she decided early in the season that this would be her last season of soccer. We were a bit disappointed with this, but if she isn’t enjoying it then it wasn’t worth it. She will play softball again in the Spring.

Christopher also finished up his soccer season last weekend with a first round loss in the end of season tournament. It was a tough season for his soccer team. The lack of practice due to bad weather meant that the boys just didn’t end of playing well together. They played hard and had fun though. We are looking forward to a better season in the Sprint (late Winter actually).

David had his last football game on November 9. They lost a tough game, but they had a good season. During the season, David had a few passes thrown his way including a 2-point conversion. He almost caught 2 other 2-point conversion passes in that same game. He had fun and is looking forward to next year. He tried out for the basketball team, but didn’t make it. They only have room for 36 7th graders (for 3 teams). He is in the offseason program until the Spring, so he is doing conditioning work (running, pushups, crunches, and eventually some weight room work) until the Track season comes around in the Spring.

Neera is still finding teaching rewarding, challenging, fun, and tiring all at once. She got through her first round of report cards and parent/teacher conferences. That is another new experience that she has made it through. She came down with a little stomach thing that hit her school so she stayed home on 11/6. This was unfortunate because we were supposed to go on a tour of the new Cowboy’s Stadium that night. Since she was not feeling well, she stayed home and missed out on that.

As for me, I did go on the tour and it was pretty cool. We got to go into a suite, on the field, into the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader’s locker room (no cheerleaders were in there, but they had large pictures of each of them over their lockers), and we had dinner in the Cowboy’s locker room. The stadium is pretty awesome and the world’s largest video screen is amazing. Here is some info on the screen:

The two main sideline displays measure 72 feet high by 160 feet wide, and the two end-zone displays measure 29 feet high by 51 feet wide. Weighing 600 tons, the screens are suspended 90 feet directly over the center of the playing surface and stretch from nearly one 20-yard line to the other. With a total viewing area of 11,393 square-feet, the display is equal to 3,268 52-inch televisions, and has 10,584,064 LED lights.

To see some pictures that I took on the tour posted click here.

The boys and I went to a high school playoff game at the stadium last Saturday night. The Coppell Cowboys (the high school our kids will go to) game started just after 9PM so we were there until 11:30 or so. This is when we got to see that giant high-definition screen in action. It is hard to watch the game on the field when the screen is so beautiful. We are planning (the whole family) on going to the next Coppell game (since they won Saturday) this Saturday morning. It is much cheaper to go to a high school game there when compared to Dallas Cowboy games or concerts.

We all got H1N1 vaccinations this past Saturday morning. A doctor offered the vaccinations to the school district employees and families so we got them done. The boys chose the mist version while the rest of us had the shots. I got my seasonal flu shot just 2 days before that at work, so I got both in a 2-day period. Each arm got one shot. <g> We should all be covered for the rest of the flu season (we hope).

We are looking forward to next week since we will have a chance to have all the cousins together for Thanksgiving. It is always good to see the kids get a chance to be together.

Hope everyone is doing well.