East or West, Home Is Best

Holiday Greetings to our Friends and Family,

Especially as we’re so far from almost all of you this Christmas we’ve had a chance to think about the relationships we made in Seattle (and in years even more distant) and want you to know what an important part of our lives you all are. We look forward to staying in touch via phone, email, this blog, and the occasional personal visit.

This has been a unique Christmas season for us, both as we’ve had our own celebration at home for only the second time during our marriage and as I’ve had more freedom to get caught up in our family traditions. The decorating, the gifts, the baking, the visits, the caroling – while they can look like a lot of busyness during this season, it’s been good to remember the reason for all the celebrating. I hope as we refine these traditions across the years they can increasingly strengthen our commitment to and feelings of love from our Savior Jesus Christ.

I appreciate so much the “excuse” of Christmas to reach out to others. Somehow it’s not so weird to show up unannounced with goodies or whatever and just say hi to the important people in our lives (or those we hope to become close to). I felt this yesterday as Gavin, Arwen, and I put aside the millions of other things going on and visited with several neighbors on our street one by one. It was fun to hear about who they spent the holiday with, what wonderful food was there, the gifts exchanged – but even more so to just be together strengthening our relationship as neighbors. Something so small invested in a little at a time pays off in big ways over time.

So while we’re so far from all of you we hope you’ll subscribe to our site as one means of staying in touch. Best wishes for a wonderful 2008!

Elise, Chad, Gavin, and Arwen

I am just starting my second semester teaching in the Botany Department at Connecticut College and I love it. It has been a challenge to adjust to different location, learn the plant species, figure out where to take students on field trips, and plan classes that I have never taught before. However, the faculty and staff in my department and the campus as a whole have been extremely supportive. I greatly appreciate all of the time that they have put in toward helping me get started here.

I taught a course in plant taxonomy and identification in the fall, which was a challenge since I knew few of the plants native to Connecticut when I arrived in August. Together with the students we learned the common plants and had a great time doing it. We got to spend our lab time exploring the Connecticut College Arboretum (450 acres of natural areas that surround the campus) and other sites in southeastern Connecticut. All in all my first semester went very well.

This semester I am teaching plant ecology, which at least I have more experience with. I am looking forward to the class and have some great things planned. I am also starting to work on a research project examining the pattern of spread of invasive species into the arboretum over the past 50 years.

Here are pics of my building and the greenhouse at Connecticut College, also of me teaching my class in the arboretum (you can see this one rotating on the home page at http://www.conncollege.edu/).

This year I’ve discovered that they’re not kidding when they put moving in the list of the top 3-5 most impactful changes in life. Getting us and all our stuff across the country was a major undertaking, to say nothing of trying to put together a new home and get to know all new people and places. I will forever look differently (hopefully more sensitively) at people who have just moved.

That said, probably the biggest change for me has been shifting from sharing home and work with Chad to spending most of my time at home with Gavin and Arwen and becoming the “expert” at their care. It’s been fabulous having the flexibility to be with them and to shift what we’re doing at a moment’s notice. I also have enjoyed more time to just play and work together.

Having more time at home and with the kids has made it far easier for me to form relationships in our neighborhood and even with people we meet out and about in the area. Whether through a playgroup I formed with another new Connecticut College faculty member, trips down the street to the bus stop, or pursuing relationships with people we’ve met here or there, we’ve really gotten to know a lot of people in a short time, which has been great.

My job as Relief Society president (see Church Community) has provided some interesting projects and challenges as well as the opportunity to get to know lots of new people very quickly. It’s great to be able to make such a significant investment in my community so soon after arriving here.

I enjoy keeping up with professional contacts and the news surrounding my professional interests and participated in a Families and Work Institute Corporate Leadership Circle event in New York City earlier this month. With the end of the holidays in sight, I’m looking forward to refining plans for my next professional project (likely a book!).

Just a couple of weeks after arriving in Connecticut Gavin started kindergarten at Gales Ferry School. He’s one of 21 kids in Mrs. Goodrich’s morning class where his favorite part of the day is playing Legos with Michael and Eric during Choice Time. I get the chance to see him in action during my time in the classroom every two weeks which gives me a huge window into his school life. He loves riding the bus, both with the big kids in the morning and with just the kindergarteners on the way home.

The thrill of Gavin’s academic life so far has been learning to read. He has down 40 or so “sight words” and likes pointing out a familiar word on a street sign here and there. He has gained notoriety with his schoolmates for having the word “in” in his name. One of my favorite times during the week is when we sit down together and review his assignments and he reads mini books to me.

While Gavin has adapted to losing most of his friends over the years to their moves, leaving good friends and familiar places been harder for him than we expected. Over the past several months he’s become more accustomed to and comfortable with our new surroundings and made new friends, which has helped.

Arwen has probably been the least impacted by the move. One of my favorite moments when we first arrived was Arwen’s first look at our new place. She got out of the van with Grandma and directed a studious gaze at the house (which she’d seen many times in pictures). After a few moments she decided it would do and wanted to see the rest.

Over the past five months Arwen’s vocabulary has really taken off. The other day it was, “C’mon, my kitchen, show you something.” She is known to say ”please” and “sank you” quite often and is quick to apologize (“saw-wie”) if anything doesn’t seem just right. She has become a little bit of a mommy’s girl since we arrived but enjoys lots of diaper changes and snuggle time with Chad when he’s home.

Gavin and Arwen (and Mom) are big fans of playdates. They get to spend time with friends Jessie (across the street) and Brynn and Keagyn each week. We also like having lunch with Chad on campus and exploring the local attractions.

Being able to jump right into our church community (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has been a big help in adjusting to this move. There have been lots of people to meet and activities to participate in, and of course our Sunday meetings each week.

Coming from our Seattle congregation based near the University of Washington we were used to a lot of turnover and things are no different here. While it was graduate students and medical and dental residents there, here it’s our proximity to the Groton Naval Base that feeds the regular inflow and outflow of members. Mingled with our Navy friends are a large base of longtime residents and a growing group of people who have been brought here by Pfizer, Electric Boat, and other career opportunities. It’s been nice to find other families like us as well as those in other stages of life. It’s also neat to be back in a congregation with families of youth.

Not long after we arrived I was asked to serve as the president of the Relief Society, the church’s women’s organization. I work with three other women and our congregation’s bishop to coordinate the care and instruction of the 175 women in our group. I enjoy the “excuse” to make visits to new friends and to work together with other members of the ward leadership.

Chad teaches the 9-11-year-old boys as part of our Sunday meetings and leads the ward’s Webelos Scout program. He has had the most fun so far helping the boys earn their Scientist merit badge. They’ve exploded soda bottles in the snow and done all kinds of funky experiments.

The house – what can we say? I had this crazy need to move into an established place with character, which complicated our house hunt a bit. We thought there’d surely be tons of historic homes in New England, but most of what fit our other criteria was built in the last 20 years. But miracle of miracles we found a Cape Cod with tons of character and almost everything we were looking for.

Some fun features of our new place – four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a big backyard, and a screened porch. It also has an attached two-car garage, separate playroom for the kids, a built-in workshop in the basement, and tons of storage. We love the character of hardwood floors, built-ins, and window seats. While we have no shortage of projects to update our 1954 place and make it truly our own, we are very happy here.

A big part of our choice of the house in Gales Ferry was the proximity to great things in the neighborhood. What we knew about before we came – the park, library, post office, and river, all within walking distance; the train that runs twice a day through the gulley behind our across-the-street neighbor’s house (if you run fast enough when you first hear the whistle you can see it pass from the bridge at the end of our street); the huge park-like complex owned by Harvard University a few hundred feet away; and our quiet street which makes a great place for riding bikes and playing ball.

On top of these we discovered several other great features of our neighborhood after moving in – Farmer Pete’s place just down the road where we buy fresh produce in season from our other across-the-street neighbor, Cows and Cones where we loaded up on premium ice cream from March through Halloween, hearing the Star-Spangled Banner playing from the Navy base at 8:00 every morning, and Ocean State Job Lot where we can buy all kinds of random stuff. Best of all has been our neighbors across the street whose children Jessie (5) and Dyllan (6) have become Gavin and Arwen’s best friends and playmates.

Before leaving Seattle we celebrated Gavin’s birthday with friends at one of our favorite haunts – Carkeek Park. We enjoyed beautiful weather, great company, and a few of the amazing Puget Sound. In keeping with the medieval theme we had a tournament for all knights and ladies in attendance, as well as a nature quest led by our resident botanist (that would be Chad) and his assistants.

Somehow the party preparations proved more interesting than packing, so it was easy to spend more time baking and cutting out swords and shields than filling boxes. But it was great spending some last minutes with friends and enjoying some of our favorite surroundings in our favorite city.

Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!