ions in the blogosphere

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

2011-07-16T12:00:00.003-05:00

Many of you may have read about my adventures substitute teaching my local school district's evening GED class. (If you haven't it's just a couple mouse clicks away.) Well, here's a fun update...
Word spread pretty quick about the class and how so many students showed up, and how it was my first time subbing. I got a couple complimentary emails from some of the school staff. Apparently not freaking out or melting down is looked upon very favorable within this district. Also, it seems no one had heard of a GED class with that many student before. My having a Y chromosome is also something of an abnormality within Adult Education.

Then I get an email from the head of Adult Education asking me if I would like to become an actual teacher with a class of my own, twice a week. I met with her yesterday and she showed me around the classroom and explained more about the job. The school district is going to pay for my certification and continuing education and everything. (Remember, I have still only taught a GED class once before, and I have not formal certification or training.)

Like any full-time doctoral student with a wife and two daughters who is starting outpatient clinic as a senior intern and has a part-time job in the research department, I said yes.

I start at the beginning of this school year.

Changing the Whole Dynamic!

2011-07-03T15:49:00.010-05:00

Some exciting changes have happened in our family this week, as we welcomed our new baby girl into our home.

Nora Rayelle Williamson was born on Wednesday, June 29^th, weighing in at 7 lbs, 10 oz and measuring 20.5 in long.

It’s amazing to me to think about who this little person is and

who she will become. I wonder what her personality will be like, and whether she will have many similarities to her big sister... or to me or Ben. It’s like I’m discovering little clues along the way about who she is. Here’s what I know about Nora so far:

· She hates getting her diaper changed.

· Also hates getting dressed and undressed – it is very disturbing.

· She is has a calm nature. When she gets upset she is really loud, but she calms down almost immediately when she gets what she needs (i.e. milk, someone to hold her, etc.).

· She has dark gray eyes… will they go blue or brown? We’ll have to wait and see.

Arianna is proving to be a great big sister; she loves to hold Nora in her lap, likes to offer her a pacifier, even when sleeping, and Arianna is eager to help change diapers, too. She seems to genuinely love her baby sister, and gives her lots of sweet kisses to show it. The dynamic in our home has certainly changed, and we’re figuring out new ways of doing things, getting places and setting routines; yet it seems that Nora fits in quite nicely here. Welcome home, Nora!

Here are a few photos. You can find even more on either my or Ben's Facebook photo albums.

Forty weeks

First photo

After a few minutes of recovery

Arianna teaching my mom how to hold baby sister

Watching Dora on the hospital DVD player

Home at last

The Student Becomes the Teacher

2011-06-21T21:52:00.005-05:00

Tonight was my first job as a certified substitute teacher for the Adult Education program of our local school district. That's right: I am now a substitute teacher for the state of Missouri.

Until tonight, I never realized how absolutely insane it is to drop a random substitute into a random class and somehow expect a normal educational expereince to be the result.
Let me give some background first...

I have been a volunteer tutor with the school district for the past eight months. Each week I spend an evening helping immigrants learn English and get ready for their citizenship exams. I guess I was doing a adequate job, since the school administrators invited me to apply for a substitute teacher position. I got hired for the position, did all the orientation and paperwork earlier this month, and just now just finished my first class an hour ago. It was a GED class held at the public library. I had 18 students, which was kind of a lot, since they all were working on something a little different. I also have never been to a GED class, so I was a bit clueless as to what I was even to do.

I decided to be perfectly honest and let everyone know I had never substituted for this type of class before. I think that worked. Only one person got up and walked out. It took the next fifteen minutes of class to get everyone settled and working on what they were supposed to be working on. But eventually I got the right tests to the right students and the right review packets handed out, and a studious quiet filled the room.

Of course, since this was at a public library, the experience could not have been complete without a four-and-a-half foot elderly woman coming into room and demanding we all leave the room immediately because her schedule specifically says the Red Room is reserved for the Historical Society Meeting tonight, and she was here for that meeting, and who gave me the authority to take the room? I let the librarians deal with it.

Apparently the GED class uses the Red Room every week, on the same day, at the same time, all year long. I would have thought the Historical Society would have record of that.

I really appreciate working with the Adult Education program. It is a really great experience to see so many people actively trying to better their lives. They just need to be given the opportunity. There were so many different people in all sorts of situations. There was a young teenage couple expecting their baby at the end of the year. There was a Mid Eastern woman working toward a certificate that will be recognized in the US (diplomas and degrees from foreign countries are rarely accepted in the US and must be repeated again here). There was a 40 year old woman who has worked at a law firm for the past decade who never got past tenth grade. There was a young man who didn't care about school until he decided he wanted to go to college and become a psychologist.

There was also an older gentleman who worked for two hours on math problems, figuring out how to subtract negative numbers. He left a half hour before I did. A mile away from the library I saw a woman pulling over to the side of the road to offer a ride to a man who was walking along the state highway. It was this man from class. It was more than 80 degrees out with Missouri humidity, and he must weigh at least 300 pounds. I don't think any of my classmates sacrifice as much for their graduate degrees as that man was sacrificing to study for his GED.

To top off the eventful evening, after cleaning up the classroom and putting all the materials away, I went into the men's room to wash my hands. But the restroom wasn't empty. There was a woman in there. Oh wait, did I say there was a woman in the men's bathroom. What I meant to say was two women in the men's restroom. I double checked for the urinal, and since it was there, I stayed. I have no idea why they were there, but they were just chatting away to each other about their kids and didn't say anything to me, so I washed up and left.

Well...that was my Tuesday evening. Feel free to leave any comments or thoughts below.

New Design, New Content

2011-06-18T09:50:00.004-05:00

I recently came across this very pointed cartoon on the news website CSMonitor.com. (click on it to read it in larger format). Aside from the current events references to former congressman Weiner and the struggles for independence in the Mid East, I was left to wonder how much we are living underneath our capabilities, merely because we use powerful technology to simply entertain or, worse, waste time. The ability to connect with ideas, people, and cultures around the entire globe is phenomenal. Are we taking advantage of that? And if we are, what are we doing with it?

"Because of modern technology, the contents of huge libraries and other data resources are at the fingertips of many of us. Some choose to spend countless hours in unfocused surfing the Internet, watching trivial television, or scanning other avalanches of information. But to what purpose? ...

We have thousands of times more available information than Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln. Yet which of us would think ourselves a thousand times more educated or more serviceable to our fellowmen than they? The sublime quality of what these two men gave to us—including the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address—was not attributable to their great resources of information, for their libraries were comparatively small by our standards. Theirs was the wise and inspired use of a limited amount of information.

Available information wisely used is far more valuable than multiplied information allowed to lie fallow." -Dallin Oaks, 2001

Please do not misunderstand me: I am not here to criticizeanyone who may be reading this. I am simply bringing up my thoughts, and hopefully spark some of your own. And as a result of these thoughts, I have decided that I will do my part to use technology to enrich lives instead of fill it with drivel.

In the next week or so, we will be welcoming into our family a new baby girl. A lot of this blog will be used to give updates about our little family to our families and friends.

But I also will be posting articles from time to time about "other stuff." Stuff that has made me stop and think, and maybe will for you too. Feel free to appropriately comment on these articles, and hopefully we can all go a little step further in using the tools we have to enrich our lives rather than entertain ourselves.

courtesy of despair.com

Where Are They Now?

2011-06-06T21:01:00.001-05:00

We know we have been very delinquent when it comes to updating our blog. Hopefully all that is going to change. As you may have noticed, we've gotten a bit of a makeover in our little corner of the blogosphere. Just the first of many awesome things to come.

Now for some updates...

After a short semester break, I began my student clinic experience at Logan Chiropractic College, where I am starting my third year. While many people think chiropractors just crack backs, we actually are quite extensively trained in physical diagnosis. After a few weeks of performing physicals and health exams, I am now providing chiropractic treatment for students and their family members.

Melina is now full term with her pregnancy. The due date is June 25, so we'll see how well this one does on punctuality. She has been enjoying her time with Arianna, going to the library, play dates, the pool, the OB/GYN, and various other activities as an out-and-about mom. Over break she got to visit many of her family members in California, and is looking forward to seeing her mom again after the birth.

Arianna is as full of life as she has ever been. She talks just about all day long, sometimes even when she is sleeping. She loves to do everything "by myself" such as dressing, putting on her shoes, and going potty in the big toilet. She even slept a couple nights through without her night-time diaper. She is currently finishing learning her alphabet by sight and waiting for baby sister to "pop out of mama's belly" so she can share her things with her.

Speaking of Baby Sister, she's showing plenty of signs of activity but no signs of interest in relocating to a sunny locale. But she's got some time still.
Here is her most recent snapshot.

What's that you say? Lousy picture? Can't tell what you're supposed to be looking at? Well, our ultrasound tech is a sweetheart and does a great job at what her actual job is (checking for appropriate anatomy and physiology and watching out for pathology), but photographer she is not.
Bless her heart.

Hello from Iceland!

2011-01-05T09:35:00.035-06:00

Ben and I are in the capital city of Reykjavik, Iceland celebrating the New Year. We got here on December 29th, and we’re heading back to the States today, January 3rd. Since we arrived here, it has been one awesome adventure after another. We love it!

The first day we got to Reykjavik (pronounced Rayk-ya-vick), we had come in early morning on an overnight flight from Boston. We got a bus ride from the airport to the central bus station, and from there walked a few blocks to our hotel, suitcases in tow. We were exhausted, and were looking forward to getting a couple of hours of sleep in our hotel before we officially started our day. But once we got there, the nice man behind the desk welcomed us to the city, and told us that check-in time was not until noon (about 4 hours later), but we were welcome to sit down in the café and enjoy the free breakfast. We were glad for the chance to sit down, but horrified that we wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep or even drop off our luggage for a few hours. After breakfast, I decided to try asking very nicely for an early check-in, explaining that we had just come on an overnight flight from the US, and were very tired. The nice man behind the desk started clicking away on his computer and after a couple minutes of rearranging this and that with a few inaudible mumbles, we had ourselves a room to rest our weary heads in, and I designated the nice man behind the desk as my best friend for the week!

So as far as flying into a foreign country, exchanging currencies, and trying to read signs in another language, Ben and I are what you might call novices. It was a little overwhelming that first day, but now that the week is at its end, we feel like pros (at least in Iceland travel), and are surprised at how fast we became comfortable here and how much we love Iceland, Icelanders, and all things Icelandic. :)

Now, for some more details of our adventures here in Reykjavik and the surrounding countryside….

Day 1 – After we got some much needed sleep in our hotel on Thursday, we set out on the streets of downtown Reykjavik to explore the shops, cafés, museums, and other sites of the city. Our first stop was for lunch at the #1-Rated restaurant in Europe: Baejarins Beztu Pylsur. What’s funny is that this “restaurant” is actually a hot dog stand on a street corner (much like J-Dawgs in Provo). As far as hot dogs go, these were in fact phenomenal; however, the fact that it was named the best restaurant in Europe is curious, I’ve got to say!

Next stop was at the Culture House, which is a museum where they have preserved manuscripts of some of the original Icelandic Sagas. These Sagas are some of the oldest known literature of northern Europe and are epic tales of the people of Iceland as well as the adventurers, such as Eric the Red and Leif Erickson. The stories date back to the 9th and 10th centuries, but the preserved manuscripts are on vellum and parchment from the 12th and 13th centuries.

After some browsing in gift shops and other stores, it was time for us to tour Iceland’s parliament building. Ben was able to schedule a private tour for us, and the woman who gave us the tour was very knowledgeable about the history of Iceland’s government, the parliament building (called the Althingi), and filled us in on some more details about Icelandic heritage and culture. One piece of modern art they had at the parliament building was what they called the talking wall, which would whisper phrases from old Icelandic poems whenever someone put their ear to the wall. It was neat to get a tour that was off the beaten path, as far as tourism and sightseeing goes… it was a really good experience.

Next was dinner, and then back to our hotel in time to be picked up for the Northern Lights tour. Except that when we got back, we learned that it was too cloudy that night to see any lights, so the tour was postponed for the following evening. We were so tired at the end of this first day, that we were kind of relieved for the postponement. We ventured out later that evening for some hot chocolate at a café down the street, and then called it a night.

Day 2 – Friday, New Year’s Eve, we were picked up at our hotel at 8am for an all-day tour of the South Coast of Iceland. On this tour, we saw so many spectacular sights… we drove through little villages on the way to the stunning black sand beaches of Vik;

we saw the volcano Eyafjallajokull that erupted in April 2010, and its sister volcano Katla, which typically erupts within two years of the first (so watch out for more volcano news from Iceland);

we walked on a glacier;

saw breathtaking waterfalls;

toured an artifact museum with our escort being a 92-year-old man who had done most of the collecting himself throughout his lifetime – he was amazing;

and we had the most awesome tour guide who would tell us stories and Icelandic folklore while we were driving from place to place. What an amazing tour!

We got back to the city around dinnertime, and had a hard time finding a restaurant that was open on New Year’s Eve. We ended up eating at a Kebab pizzeria – we ordered a pizza with kebab meat, feta cheese, olives, and a yogurt-garlic sauce on top; sounds weird, I know, but it was actually really good.

New Year’s Eve in Reykjavik, WOW! You have never seen a fireworks show like this before… there is no organized display put on by the city; instead everyone goes out and buys the big fireworks and sets them off from all over the entire city. Icelanders buy and set off 600 tons of fireworks in this single night. It is chaotic and beautiful all at once.

Day 3 – Saturday, New Year’s Day, we had scheduled a horseback riding tour in the morning, to be followed by a tour of Thingvellir National Park. Well, it turned out that the stables were closed for the holiday, so we had to reschedule the horses for the next day, but still were able to go on the park tour in the afternoon. We had the morning to wander around the city again, but we found that almost every store and eatery was closed, as it had been the night before. Eventually, we found the one gift shop that was open and were able to get out of the cold for a while, and then we found some lunch at a convenience store.

Finally we were off on our tour, where we saw the original meeting site where Icelandic law and government came into being around 930 AD. This location also happens to be where the North American and European continental plates are pulling apart from one another, making a valley in the middle that grows by an average of 1cm every year. In this picture we are in the valley ("no man's land") right next to the N. American continental shelf;

next, we hiked to the edge of a stunning waterfall called Gollfoss;

and lastly, we saw an active geyser and other natural hot springs.

We found a new place for dinner, and then got back to our hotel in time to be picked up for a Northern Lights tour, only to find that it was again too cloudy to go out that night. So again, the Northern Lights tour was postponed. We spent the evening in the lobby of our hotel with our laptop and Wifi so we could video chat with Arianna and our family in Virginia.

Day 4 – Sunday we got to do our horseback riding tour in the morning. We went to Laxnes stables out in the countryside (the farm of the late Halldor Laxnes, Iceland’s most famous author), and on the drive there it started to rain pretty hard; I was nervous that our ride would be all soggy and miserable. However, once we arrived at the stables, there was nothing more than a light mist and fog, and the temperatures were in the low to mid-40s. Each person was given a riding suit that was waterproof and insulated against the cold, so we were all quite comfortable during the ride. The Icelandic horse is a special breed that comes from a cross between the Siberian horse and Norwegian horse, and is very hardy. Since its original breeding, the Icelandic horse breed has remained a pure breed. We were told early on, “Don’t say to an Icelander you think he’s got a ‘nice pony;’ that won’t go over well.” We learned that the maximum height for a pony is 14.7 hands high, and the Icelandic horse is 15.2 hands high, so it is in fact a bona fide horse (just barely!). Well these horses may be small, but they sure are strong and sturdy. Icelandic horses are unique in that they have two different gallops: the one all horses do, and “pacing,” which is when the front and hind leg on the same side come forward, like zebras do. So they can go pretty fast at times. Ben and I had a blast riding through the mountains on these horses, and we were surprised by how much our guides trotted the horses, led us across mountain streams, and even had us all galloping into the stables at the end. So fun!

When we got back to the city, we were able to tour the big, beautiful church across from our hotel. This church, called the Hallgrimskirkja, has a 9-story clock tower, and we went up inside of it to get an amazing view of the whole city.

In the evening we walked down to the harbor and found a great little seafood place where Ben tried “Moby Dick on a stick,” which is minke whale meat grilled kebab-style, and we both had the yummy lobster soup with sourdough bread. It had been overcast and misty all day, but this was our last chance to go hunt down the Northern Lights. When we got back to our hotel, we asked one last time, “Is the Northern Lights tour going out tonight?” Alas, no. And so, we did not get to glimpse those elusive Northern Lights, but we will try, try again… someday!

Day 5 – Monday, our final day in Iceland has come, as we knew it would. This morning we took one last stroll through downtown Reykjavik and found the US embassy. There was a guard patrolling out front of the building, and just as we were taking out our camera to snap a picture, he told us no pictures were allowed. We thought that was kind of strange, but we didn’t want to make trouble, so we just went on our way without protest.

After we checked out of our hotel, we were picked up by a tour bus to take us to the Blue Lagoon, which is a naturally occurring, mineral-rich pool that is heated by geothermal activity. Oh, it was amazing! We had about two hours there to relax and explore in the huge pool. It was surrounded by lava rock walls, and the water had a beautiful milky blue color; with the cold day there was lots of steam coming off the water, and it made for an arctic paradise. It was really, really cool.

After our time at the Blue Lagoon, our tour bus took us to the airport, and now we are headed back to the US. This has been an awesome trip, one that we will not forget. Thank you for letting us share a little bit of it with you!

Making Up for Lost Time

2010-10-13T22:16:00.026-05:00

So, it’s been a while since we’ve updated our blog. Sorry for the long blackout. I’ll skip over the details for most things, and just give some highlights of our past year, along with plenty of photos, of course!

I’ll start back at Christmas 2009 and work forward to the present. We had a fun trip to VA for the holidays with lots and lots of snow.

We started the New Year off with a big change of pace when I was offered a job as a microbiologist for Monsanto, which is a big company based here in St Louis. I had a 3-month, full-time contract position with the company, and I loved working there (Jan thru April). I learned a lot of new skills and was able to complete an important project for the company. I worked with a really great group of scientists, and I am so glad for the opportunity I had to work there and earn some money for my family while Ben is in Chiropractic school. When it came time to extend my contract, I really wanted to keep working, but I couldn’t keep doing full-time; it didn’t work out to keep me part-time, so in the end I chose to go back home to be with my family full-time.
For Valentine’s Day Ben and I went to a Chinese dance production called Shen Yun. It was a great show, and a reporter interviewed us afterward about what we thought of the production. The next day, we found this article published with our quotes and picture:
Arianna enjoyed her first Easter eggs hunts this year. For a couple of months following Easter I would put Animal crackers or raisins inside the plastic eggs and hide them around our apartment for her to find – she loved it!

Some other random springtime fun included Arianna’s first car,

Playdates at the park,
Picking dandelions,

And throwing helicopter seed pods.

Arianna has also started helping out a lot more in the kitchen. She loves to mix things in a bowl, hold the measuring cups, and roll out dough. What a big helper! She also likes to sample while cooking, hence the full cheeks in this pic.

During Ben’s break from school this spring, we took a trip to Portland, Oregon to visit our friends for a few days. We saw the Multnomah Falls, where Aslynn and Arianna held hands on the hike up the path,

Visited the coast on a rainy day,

And even went to an Oregonian Earth Day festival.

From there, we hopped down to California to visit my family for the second half of our vacation, where we played in the mud of a river bank at Caswell State Park,

Panned for gold at Columbia State Park,

And toured an olive grove in Santa Rosa.

Shortly after we got back to St Louis Paul and Rayelle came out for a visit over Mother’s Day weekend. We went on a double-date to see a play put on by a community theater group,

we went to the science center in Forest Park,

and did lots of other fun St Louis stuff. By the way, St Louis is awesome because almost everything is free admission!

In June Ben and I took Arianna to the St Louis Zoo. She loves all the animals, and there is so much to do and see, that she is all tuckered out by the end of the day!

We’ve also started keeping an eye out for festivals going on in the St Louis area, and we’ve been to a few really fun ones so far. First was the Renaissance Fair,

then the Greek Festival,

Festival of Nations,

Art Fair,

Pirate Festival,

and Hispanic Festival, where Arianna got to meet Dora!

In August, Ben and I celebrated our 4-year anniversary. The traditional gift for the 4th anniversary is flowers and fruit, and my sweetie made me feel like a queen with this hand-crafted masterpiece:

During Ben’s semester break we made a trip to visit family in Virginia. We had a great time: we went boating and waterskiing on Smith Mountain Lake,
spent lots of time in the pool,
participated in our nephew’s baby blessing,
and had a generally relaxing, yet exciting vacation.

We had to return home a bit earlier than usual from vacationing because Ben had to attend some review sessions for a big National Board Exam. The reviews were right in the middle of the semester break, and then the exam was right around the first week of school. We’ll find out his scores later this month, and hopefully get the good news that he passed all the sections of the exam.

For all our devoted play testers, we have good news about Ben’s card game, MALADY. We entered it into a St Louis game competition, and it won the first round of competition, and is now a finalist to compete against one other game. The winner from St Louis will be guaranteed a time slot with a game publisher (Rio Grande) at the Chicago Toy & Game Fair next month, where he will pitch his game in the hopes of getting it accepted for publication. Here’s hoping! The final round of the St Louis competition is this Saturday, Oct. 16th. We’ll post an update when we hear the results. Even if we don’t win the St Louis competition, we are still planning to go to the Fair in Chicago next month… we’ve never been to the windy city, and are looking forward to seeing some of the sights. Any recommendations from seasoned Chicago travelers?

That (finally) brings us to the present. (Well, except for one awesome thing that Ben wants to tell you about, but I’ll let him fill you in.) Thank you for reading my novella, and hopefully this post will make up, at least a little, for such long silence in our little corner of the blogging world.

Birthday Boy

2010-10-03T22:25:00.005-05:00

Well, today was my birthday (and to you would-be identity thieves who are reading this blog collecting personal data, my mother's maiden name is Melville and my first pet was named Twig). I woke up this morning to Arianna rubbing my face so she could sing Happy Birthday to me. Then I got the greatest birthday present ever: my wife and family all pooled together to buy me an afternoon flying a helicoptor! A real one, not a radio-controlled one. Complete with pilot/trainer and slim chance of crashing to my death. It's gonna be awesome! Do I have a fantastic wife or what?

Speaking of which, Melina has been working on a novella of a blog post to compensate for the previous four months. So that should be forthcoming, if not here then at your local Barnes and Noble. Plan on blocking out an afternoon of reading about our summer...

Here's a picture for all you who need some visual stimuli.

We're Still Alive

2010-05-28T18:26:00.007-05:00

Immediately upon returning from Christmas break, Melina was recruited for a great research position at a certain international biotechnology company based here in St Louis. It was a contract position for three months, during which time we were pretty busy juggling both of our schedules. But now Melina is back with Arianna at home and I have a lighter school schedule. So we can afford to spend more time updating our blog for the rest if you.

In the meantime, here are some photos from our West Coast vacation last month.

On the plane
Panning for gold in CaliforniaLlamas The girls

Flower Girl, Fall Fun, and Food

2009-11-18T14:14:00.016-06:00

November has been an exciting month for us. First off, Ben's sister, Rachel, got married on the 7th, and we got to be there for the wedding in Virginia. Arianna was the flower girl at the wedding, and was so cute! She was doing really well before she face planted into the grass; but, she's always good for a quick recovery, and was happy to make her way up the rest of the aisle in mom's arms. Here are a few pictures from that happy day.

The Fall season proved to be splendid here in St Louis. The changing colors on the trees was beautiful, and crisp days with sunny, blue skies reminded me of the weather in California - perfection! One evening Arianna and I were playing outside in the fallen leaves, and Daddy got home just in time to join us for some fun before dark. Here are some pictures and a video of our romp in the leaves. My favorite part of the video is when Arianna gets a leaf stuck to her hand, and tries to shake it off - a funny moment.

And just for fun, we took some pictures of Arianna eating spaghetti last night. She has been trying to feed herself lately with a spoon or fork, and here you can see her trying to use her fork, then going back to the tried and true 'finger' approach to eating.

Recently, she has also figured out how to suck water through a straw. She is very pleased with this new talent! She says, "Woohooo" when she's excited about something, and that's what she's doing in the second picture below.

Arianna and I are coming out to California soon (early December), and we hope to see lots of friends and family while we're in the neighborhood. Love you faithful readers!
~Melina

Happy Birthday Arianna!

2009-10-08T20:28:00.003-05:00

Arianna turned one year old today. Along with this landmark, here are a few more.

A couple of weeks ago she took her first step, then yesterday she was getting more adventuresome in walking around without holding onto the furniture. Today, she amazed us by walking all the way across our living room all by herself. She is truly growing by leaps and bounds, and it is so amazing to watch it all happening!

As far as talking, she says "Mama," "Dada," and "Ball" all the time. We've heard her say "Doggy" and "Kitty" a few times, too. She also likes to dance and bob along to music. She is getting really good at waving hello and goodbye to people, and she claps whenever we say "Yay!" Oh, and the latest is that whenever she gets a minor bonk on the head, she then slaps herself on the the side of her head with her hand and says "Boh" for bonk... she made up that sign all by herself!

This afternoon Arianna and I went birthday shopping, and we got her a lot of the winter clothes she needed. We captured these movies this evening. The first is her walking, and the second is her playing with her new birthday toys. She is such a joy!

Summer Vacation, Part 2

2009-09-22T14:44:00.015-05:00

Once we returned home from visiting Ben's family in Virginia, our summer vacation continued here in St Louis when my mom--Kay--came out for Labor Day weekend. We crammed in as much fun and grandbaby-bonding time as we could in the 5 days that my mom was in town. Each night Mom was here, she got to read Arianna her bedtime stories, and they both enjoyed that a lot.

The first full day on Mom's trip was spent at the St Louis zoo and visiting the Gateway Arch.

The next day we got an early start and drove to Nauvoo, Illinois to tour the historic town. We took a carriage ride, saw the Nauvoo temple, and toured the old brickyard as well as other restored homes and buildings. Also, while we were in town we visited the local Lands and Records Office, and found where some of my ancestors (through my mom's side) owned property in and around Nauvoo.

Before Mom headed back to California, we were able to take some new family portraits. Here are my favorites...

So that's the latest here in St Louis. Summer is over, and Ben is back at school at Logan College. Arianna and I are getting back into our weekday routine... we usually go on a walk in the mornings when the weather is nice, and we play and run errands in between nap times, and then look forward to when Daddy comes home in the evenings.

We hope you're all doing well. Leave us a comment so we know you're reading. =)

First Summer Vacation

2009-09-08T10:24:00.008-05:00

My first semester at Logan Chiropractic College ended in mid-August. Since we moved out here to St Louis the day of my last final in Utah, we never got a summer break or vacation. So an hour after my last final we jumped into the van and headed east to Virginia to see my family for a week and a half.
It was a great getaway. The weather was warm and the pool was great. Arianna played her first pickup game of water basketball and dunked on her old man.

Since we were in the area, we hopped up to Washington DC to see our good friend Lee and see some sights at the National Mall. We had a great visit to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Magna Carta, and other documents. We also swung by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (of money) and a few other places.
Arianna had a blast on the metro and got a whole bunch of people smiling at her.

The whole trip was a great chance to relax and enjoy time with family. Thanks to everyone we got to spend time with!

Part 2

2009-08-14T13:46:00.003-05:00

So, I have discovered the joy of videos. As promised, I am posting another video of Arianna. Today, as we were finishing up lunch, I snagged the camera to document more silliness of baby life. I hope you enjoy. ~Melina

...and ACTION!

2009-08-13T22:33:00.007-05:00

Some of Arianna's latest achievements include crawling, clapping, waving, and pulling herself up on everything. She is even starting to attempt standing without holding on to anything, and she can usually last for several seconds before gracefully plopping back down onto her tush. I took a couple of short movies tonight of her playfulness. I hope you enjoy, and check back soon for more videos. ~Melina

Arianna clapping.

Arianna crawling.

Photo op

2009-08-02T10:44:00.005-05:00

Arianna went to her first photo shoot this week and had a blast. Here are a few of the results.

On the Road Again

2009-07-04T09:29:00.013-05:00

In the past month we have taken two family trips, one to Lafayette, Indiana and just yesterday to Nauvoo, Illinois. Here's what you missed:
(you can click on any picture to enlarge it)

In Lafayette, we visited my cousin Chris and his wife, Leah and two boys, Noah and Ian. We had a nice relaxing time with them, visiting the local petting zoo, Purdue University campus, and eating lots of lettuce grown in their garden.

Chris is finishing his doctorate in mechanical engineering, and he showed us the lab where we works. Arianna got to sit in her first tractor. And skidsteer. And front loader. And motorcycle.

Yesterday we took a trip following the Mississippi river north to Nauvoo, the city established by the Latter-day Saints before they migrated west to the Rocky Mountains. It was a nice day for it: not too hot, not too bright. It was humid, of course, being 300 yards from the river and all, but not unbearable. Touring the restored buildings and homes was fun, and Arianna enjoyed preaching her first sermon in the Seventies Hall and taking minutes in the upper room of the Red Brick Store.

Oh, and we also got to ride in an oxen-pulled wagon.

New Poll

2009-06-27T17:10:00.005-05:00

You all know how much I love polls on this blog (and I know how much you don't love participating, hence the long hiatus), so I have a new one for you. Since August of 2008 I have grown out my current stylings of facial hair. So now that it is no longer new and people have grown accustomed to the look, I want to take a comparison poll of clean shaven vs not. Here are some examples:

So now let your mice do the walking over to the left hand side of the page and vote in my new poll, where for a limited time only, I will pay attention to your opinion. :-)

Crib Games

2009-06-27T16:54:00.002-05:00

The summer is in full swing here in St Louis. We've had about a week in the high 90s with a humidity index putting it into the hundreds. But there are several community water parks in the area for Melina to go with the baby.
School is going well. Midterms are in full swing, and I'm looking forward to the July 4th long weekend. We are planning a trip to Nauvoo, IL that weekend, so we'll be sure to post some good photos from up there.

Dual Incisors

2009-06-09T21:13:00.006-05:00

Baby Arianna has been working on her second tooth, and it came through about a week ago.
For those of you who already have a full dentition (or once did, but now are working backward) and don't really care about a play-by-play race to 28 chunks of enamel, then here's a better update for you: She's standing on her own.

In other news, Arianna can also pick up cheerios between her thumb and forefinger and put them in her mouth, and loves to clap.

We are doing well here in St Louis. We really like the area, and we have settled in quickly. I have been at school for four weeks now, and it is going smoothly. BYU certainly holds their students to a high academic standard, and it is paying off now that I am in a 28 credit (this semester) doctoral program.
I also was able to get a job working on campus as a research assistant, which pays well. That was quite a blessing for us.
Melina is enjoying staying at home with the baby and is making friends with other mothers in the community with play dates and weekly library reading programs.
All in all, we are doing well and enjoying this stage of life.
For those who are glazing over from all this text, here's another picture for you:

At the Gateway Arch

Fleeing from wild bison.

Saying Goodbye

2009-05-31T08:25:00.019-05:00

We left Provo about a month ago, but before we moved, we got to hang out with many of our awesome friends. This one goes out to all you wonderful Westerners!

First off, a shout-out to our neighbors and good friends, Ashley and Jordan Haug ... thank you for all the late nights hanging out and playing games. We call Jordan the "Black Barron," due to his tendency toward cut-throat strategy, especially in Ticket to Ride. And a big thank you to you guys for all the help with moving and babysitting. Here are Ashley and I with our little ones. Arianna and little Kimball got to be good friends in the few months we were all neighbors.

Arianna's little friend Aslynn received her blessing in April, and we got to be there (in Idaho) for it. Here we are with Luke, Bre, and Aslynn Mecham.

Arianna and Aslynn bonding.

Before we left Idaho, we also spent an evening with our friends Austin and Liz Dutton... and their Wii.

Back in Provo, we dedicated as many weekends as possible to hanging out with old friends. We went on a double date with my old roommate Gloria Harris and her husband Kyle, and here is Gloria posing with Arianna. Gloria is expecting a little guy of her own this summer, baby McKennan. We can't wait to see pictures of him!

We also got to go on a double date with Joel and Ami Frost with their little guy, Dain.

Another important baby blessing was that of Megan Joy Muirhead. Brandon and Jenni Mae are two of our favorite people, and we were so glad we got to be there for the blessing of their little bundle of Joy!

After Megan Joy's blessing, we went up northward to West Jordan to visit with my cousin and his family. Here we are with Kenneth and Melinda Flynn, and the youngest of their three boys, Brigham.

Sunday night family dinners will be one of the biggest things we miss. Every Sunday night, we would get together with all the Williamson cousins and do a potluck dinner. Oh, the memories! Here we are with Clark and Bouathong (their little guy Talei was already in bed).

Brad and Leslie Twining, our adopted family, took us out to get malts one last time at Provo's Malt Shoppe. Yummm!

Before we left town, we got to say goodbye to my graduate adviser (and friend!) Dr. Duke Rogers. I worked for Duke starting my sophomore year of college, and then I stayed on with him for my graduate work. So, after 5 years of working together, we finally say goodbye.

And finally, here we are at the graduation party for Ben's cousins Clara and Stephanie. Clara just finished her Bachelor's degree in Recreation Management, and Steph is completing her Master's program this summer in Sociology. The grandparents flew in for the festivities, and we snapped a picture with them before the night was over. I love Arianna's surprised expression in this one!

We feel blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. We won't forget you, and please don't forget us!

The California Zephyr

2009-05-15T14:41:00.031-05:00

We'll try to catch you up on the past month of excitement.... The first week of April Arianna and I rode the Amtrak from Provo to Sacramento. The train was called the California Zephyr. I was a little nervous about taking the train for the first time, but it was really fun... Arianna and I could walk around whenever we wanted to, we could relax in the observation car, and the people riding the train were pretty friendly. Not to mention, the view through the Sierras was awesome!

When we arrived in Sacramento, my mom was at the station to pick us up. Our first stop was to see the newest member of our family, Jackson Alexander Dunkel. Jody and Heather's baby was born on April 1st, a fitting birth date for my cousin Jody's son. ;-P

On Saturday, April 4th, we went to the Bay Area for my cousin Emily's wedding reception. There we had a family reunion, of sorts... we got to visit with aunts, uncles and cousins before, during and after the festivities of the reception. Here are a few pictures from that weekend.

My cousin Alejandra with Arianna;

Aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mom's side.

Back in Modesto, my dad got in some quality time with Arianna, too. He adores her!

One of my best friends, Anna Keppel, stopped by to visit with us for a little while at my mom’s house (darn, no picture). Arianna and I also got to spend the night with my other best friend, Rebecca Murdock, and her family in their new home in Merced. Her little guy, Elijah, was about 11 months here. He taught Arianna how to growl… now she does it all the time!

All in all, it was an awesome trip. We got to visit with lots of family and old friends, and we even got some great family history information from my aunt Linda about my Walden ancestors. We probably won’t get back to Cali until next May, so it was really wonderful to get to see so many people who are dear to us. Love you Californians!

...NEWS FLASH...

2009-05-09T11:39:00.001-05:00

Here's a quick update for all of you who keep checking the site and are disappointed to see nothing new:
We successfully moved to Ballwin, Missouri last weekend. This week has been spent in unpacking and getting all our furniture and belongings into the proper place in our new apartment.
I begin classes at Logan College of Chiropractic on Wednesday. The doctorate program is about three years long, so we will be here for a while.
Arianna is growing up fast. She now rolls over and does push-ups. She wiggles like she wants to crawl, but isn't there yet. She also is cutting her first tooth and it is sharp!
Melina submitted her Master's Thesis to BYU and everything went through, so she is completely done with her M.S. in Biology. She has done a great job working hard to finish that up.
Well, that's all for now. Once we get regular internet at the apartment we will be better at posting and sharing pictures and videos.
Love to you all.

The Train Was On Time

2009-04-01T22:39:00.009-05:00

Well, I'm a bachelor again for the next week. Melina and Arianna took the California Zephyr at 9:24 pm to go to California to visit family and friends before we move out to Missouri in four weeks. The train looked pretty nice--it was a double-decker superliner and the seats were quite roomy. I'm pretty jealous; I wanted to ride the train.
So for the next eight days it's just me and my organic chemistry homework.

As far as recent developments, Arianna has been able to sit up on her own for about a week now.We also started feeding her some solid food a few days ago and she absolutely loves her new veggies.
She is almost six months old and weighs a little more than 15 pounds.

A Visual Tour of the Previous Week

2009-03-22T17:28:00.014-05:00

Eight days and 2,800 miles:

This is Kansas. Many people are surprised to learn that it is the 7th longest state in the continental US. We crossed it twice within a week.

This is the college I will be attending in May. It is in a suburb of St Louis, about 30 minutes west of the city.

Our little family on the campus.

This is the apartment we will be moving into on the first of May. It is a very quiet street about five miles from campus.

Arianna got to see her Gramma and Grampa, as well as pet her first doggy.

The temple is very close: about fifteen minutes away.

Our great little traveler. Excited to drive out again in six weeks.

Melina's Master's Thesis Defense

2009-03-22T09:48:00.009-05:00

It finally happened... I have defended my thesis - Wahoo!! This was the last and largest major hurdle on the road to earning my Master's degree, and it feels so good to finally be past it. After nearly three years of hard work and a few setbacks, I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

I defended on Tuesday March 10th, and my defense was in the form of a 45 minute PowerPoint presentation to my committee of three professors and any other fellow students or colleagues who were interested in coming. Ben and Arianna were there, as well as Ben's cousins Steph, Clark, and Clara. It was really cool to have a few cheerleaders in the audience! I really appreciated their support.

After my presentation, everyone was dismissed and I was left to face my committee alone as they asked me questions about my project. This was the part I was really nervous about because I had no way to know what they would ask or how to prepare for their questions. In the end it went pretty well -- they asked me a few questions about my project and my methods, and made a few suggestions about my thesis manuscript. Then they dismissed me while they stayed in the conference room and talked about me amongst themselves. This only lasted 10 minutes or so, and then they came out with signed paperwork in hand and said "Congratulations, you passed!"

As Ben and I were heading back to our car to go home after the long day, we found a wonderful surprise... Steph and Clark had decorated our car with window paint on the outside and balloons on the inside. Ben must have been in on it too, because they seem to have had a car key. They invented new words, such as "Biotastic" and "Theserific," and my favorite was "Master of Mice... and Ben." Seeing these decorations just totally made my day - I was really touched that everyone was celebrating with me, and that so many people cared. Thanks guys!!

So what's next? I just have to finish incorporating the minor edits and few other suggestions my committee members recommended for my written thesis, and then I will be submitting my thesis to the dean of my college for his approval and signature. From there, I print off a few copies of my thesis on some fancy paper and take those to the BYU library to be made into a hard-bound book. My thesis will also be put into PDF format so it can be accessed online. And then I'm done! My official diploma will show an August 2009 graduation.

Let me take a moment to tell you about how wonderful my husband has been through all of this. The months and weeks leading up to my defense were pretty stressful for me, and I needed a lot of time on campus and away from the distractions of home. For months, Ben would come home directly after his classes at UVU to watch Arianna so I could go to BYU campus for a few hours in the afternoons. He did this every day, trying to do his homework during the baby's naps, but not being able to get much done most days. He has sacrificed a lot to help me finish this degree, and I love and adore him for it. I am so blessed to have Ben as my husband, and I am so happy to be his wife. We make a good team, not to mention dang cute kids! I love you Ben!!

On the Road Again

2009-03-14T08:57:00.004-05:00

We are en route to St Louis. Right now we are in Ft Collins, Colorado, and by tonight we should be in Independence, Missouri. We are going out to Logan College of Chiropractic to tour the campus and set up housing, so it should be a pretty fun trip.
Melina finished up her Master's and did her defense of thesis on Tuesday. she did a great job, but I'll let her blog about that herself.
Arianna is growing like a giggling weed. She is starting to reach for our food, but doesn't actually want to eat any of it. She laughs a lot now. It helps that she is surrounded by adoring fans.It' s hard to believe she will be six months old in just a few weeks. We are looking forward to her Grandpa Williamson getting to see her tomorrow for the first time!

Meeting a Mink in a Dark Alley

2009-03-14T08:42:00.003-05:00

Congratulations. Fifty percent of you knew the dangers of minks. Although animals like wolves and mountain lions may seem more dangerous, they tend to steer clear of humans, and do not seek a confrontation. Minks, on the other hand, are highly aggressive and are one of the few animals that will attack without provocation. In fact, minks are known to kill for fun and not just for food. They are powerful enough to kill pet dogs, and can bite the hand off a child.
So beware of the minks that aren't coats.Next up: which M Night Shyamalan movie was his best?

Watson and Crick and Bears. Oh my!

2009-03-07T10:03:00.004-06:00

Well, the results are in for last week's poll. Fifty-seven percent of you thought that Watson and Crick would win in an all-out cage fight between the famous scientists of the centuries. Darwin came in second with 29%. Newton got a lone vote. I agree with the Watson and Crick consensus. After all, they were a tag team, Watson is the only one still alive, and they look like this:
Pretty shifty looking, if you ask me. (Watson and Crick, by the way, were the British scientists who "discovered" DNA)

Now looking to the future: let's test your wilderness survival knowledge. This one should be pretty fun. Please choose the answer you think best, and please don't change your answer after viewing the results. Who knows if the majority will be right...

The Weekly Poll

2009-02-27T15:59:00.003-06:00

I have decided to make this blog even fun-er than it already is. Each weekend I will post a new poll on the left side of the page. The poll will be open for a week, upon which I will replace it with a new poll. I know what you are thinking: polls are dumb and boring. Well not these polls. These polls have no purpose beyond entertainment value. So come each week and see what craziness has been posted.
This week: A cage match between 6 eminent scientists. Who will emerge victorious? Polls end Friday at midnight.

Newness of Life

2009-02-22T17:20:00.004-06:00

I figured I should take a turn at posting, so here goes.
Last weekend we took a trip to the thriving metropolis of Rexburg, Idaho, to see our friends Luke and Bre Mecham and Austin and Liz Dutton (actually it was to see Austin's Wii).
Luke and Bre Mecham have a new little clone, Aslynn. She and Arianna had a little bonding time on the couch. Actually it was a staged photoshoot, but what friendship doesn't begin that way? Here's the picture:The weather was cold, but our hearts were perpetually warmed in the fire of friendship.
Moving along...

Once back to Provo, Arianna began taking a new fascination in books. Her mom has had me read "The Work and the Glory" to them while nursing in the evening, and Arianna started wanting some novels of her own. Luckily we had just the thing. The title is unknown and the author is unattributed, but the contents are inspiring almost beyond expression.

"Wherever you live...
in a burrow
or a pond...
a kennel
or a nest...
a stable
or a sty...
home is the place that's best!"

She also is learning her numbers by counting the extraneous ellipses.

Aside from her literary accomplishments, Arianna has been very adamant about spending a lot of her time standing on our laps. Since we wanted to encourage this but didn't always have free lap space, we got her a jumper. Although she is not quite big enough, with some adjustments Arianna can spend several minutes practicing weight-bearing. She's rapidly on her way to walking before she can crawl.

In other news, for those of you who may not know, I have been accepted to Logan University's College of Chiropractic in St Louis and will be starting in May, assuming housing works out. The program is 40 months, year-round, and at the end of it I will have a doctorate in chiropractic. If Arianna is still small enough, she can be my assistant and walk along my patients' backs.

Okay, that's enough distraction for now. Get back to work before your boss catches you surfing the net.

Our big little girl!

2009-02-11T22:37:00.003-06:00

Arianna hit her four-month mark this week. Wow, how time is flying! At her check-up with the pediatrician, she weighed in at 13 pounds, 6 ounces, and she is now a full two feet long. They grow so fast, sniff! She got some vaccinations, and she's doing great with them - she hasn't missed a beat.

Right at two months, she went from waking up every 2-3 hours in the night to waking up only once per night. We were so happy with that, because it was SO much better than before. But now she has started sleeping all through the night, about 7 to 9 hours at a time. It's been this way for about three weeks, and we are lovin' it! She is also showing a lot more personality now... she is smiling and cooing and sticking her tongue out at us. She is so funny in the car, too. That's where she talks the most - in her car seat, when she thinks no one is looking, she babbles and hums and coos. Ben and I can't help but smile at this.

She is doing great with bath time, too. She likes to kick her feet and splash in the water. It's just when she gets out in the cold air that she doesn't like so much. Here's a picture of her getting all warmed up in a luxurious hooded towel.

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading our latest update. We'd love you hear from you, so leave a comment.

Happy Holidays!

2009-01-04T19:34:00.034-06:00

Ben and I are now back from our holiday adventures in California. This was our first big trip with Arianna, and she was such a good traveler... what a relief! We beat the big storms that were headed to Provo just as we were leaving, and enjoyed the drive down through Las Vegas and then up to Modesto. We stopped at Calico Ghost Town near Barstow, CA and got to tour the old silver mining town. We went to a little leather-making shop just to see what was there, and be touristy, but the owner was so friendly that we ended up buying a leather dog harness with a miniature saddle on top for my mom's dog before we left the shop.

We went to a birthday celebration dinner for me right when we arrived in Modesto, so that was a fun welcome. And it was here that Arianna got to meet her grandpa for the first time. My dad was so excited to finally meet her, and he totally adores his little granddaughter! My Aunt Carol, Uncle Dale, and cousin Mark were also there, as well as our friends Anna and Josh.

While we stayed with my mom, we put ourselves to work. Ben tore out the old, rotting deck that was in her back yard. She has been wanting it out for several years now, and Ben had it all out in only about 45 minutes. What a guy! Also, he and I both painted my mom's dining room as one of her Christmas gifts. Last year we had painted her living room, so this year we finished the project by doing the dining room also. It has really brightened up her home, and she says she is very happy with it, so we're feeling good about our accomplishments.

On Christmas Eve, Ben, Arianna, and I went to the Hilmar Cheese Factory and toured the plant. We got to see how they make the cheese, and even better, we got to taste lots of wonderful samples. Here are some pictures of us having fun and a 640lb block of cheese... yumm!

Christmas day was spent at my Uncle Dale and Aunt Carol's home in Modesto. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas meal, and Arianna got to meet many more aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time. Even my cousin Jody, who says he normally doesn't like babies, told us that Arianna is a cute kid. Coming from him, he says, that's a big compliment!

We have a tradition in my family where we have a gift exchange every Christmas. Everyone puts an anonymous gift in a pile in the middle of the room, and everyone draws a number to see the order we will pick a gift. The first person chooses a gift from the pile of presents and opens it. The second person has the option of either stealing that gift or selecting a new one from the pile of unopened presents. And it continues this way until every gift has been opened, and then the person who went first gets the final choice where they can either steal at the very end or keep their gift.

I had painted a Tuscany scene to bring to the gift exchange, which had a frame hand-built by Ben, and it was the very last gift to be unwrapped. I was kind of anxious the whole time to see who would end up with my painting, and the fact that it was chosen last only added to my anxiety. It ended up perfect though, because my cousin Jason got the painting. He and his wife were married just a few months ago, and they had honeymooned in Italy, so I thought it was pretty cool that they were the ones who got the Tuscany artwork. I asked Jason if it looked anything like what he had seen (since I haven't been there myself), and he said the vineyards reminded him of a lot of the countryside there.

The Saturday after Christmas, Ben, Arianna, my mom, and I all went to San Francisco to see a few sights. We toured one of the 21 original California missions, Mission San Francisco de Asis.

We also ate at an authentic SF sushi cafe called The Crazy Sushi. I'm not normally a big fan of sushi, but this place really was good, and Ben was the brave one who ordered raw octopus and scallops and the super hot wasabi sauce. I stuck with the veggie rolls and California rolls with crab. No squishy octopus for me!

On our way back to the valley, we visited the Oakland, CA temple. This was our first time visiting the Oakland temple since we were married there in August 2006. It was really neat to pose for pictures in the same places we had a couple years before, but this time with our little baby in the pictures. We had missed the last temple session of the evening, but we were able to see the incredible statue display at the visitor's center, as well as the Christmas lights on the temple grounds... there's nothing like Christmas in California, where they decorate the palm trees with lights!

On our last day trip in California, we took my dad to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA, which is near the Bay Area. This was super fun! We got to go on a tour all through the factory and see how they make the Jelly Bellies from start to finish, and they gave us free samples. My dad accidentally bought about 4 lbs of Jelly Bellies... he just got a little carried away with the excitement of it all, and ended up with more than he had intended. Ben and I also bought a bag of "Belly Flops," which are the beans that are not quite perfect, but still taste mighty fine. It was great to spend the whole day with my dad, and we had a great time together.

We spent New Year's Eve with family, first visiting my great-uncle Bob and great-aunt Mary, then spending the evening with aunts, uncles and cousins at my Uncle Keith and Aunt Helen's house. We woke up the next day to drive back to Utah, driving half a day ahead of the next storm. We were certainly glad when we arrived back in Provo before any more snow. Arianna was even better on the drive back, but was more than happy to get out of her car seat and spend some quality time with her mobile. Ben was able to check on his grades for fall semester and we found out that he finished with all A's, even in anatomy, which is impressive.

We hope all of you are having a fantastic start to the new year. The year is starting with our hitting the road running. Ben starts his last semester of prerequisite courses on Wednesday, I'm (finally!) finishing the last details for my Master's degree, and by summertime we will be moving on to bigger and better life adventures!

P.S.

2008-12-15T23:10:00.001-06:00

For those of you who want some numbers and pictures:
2 months, 22 inches, 11 pounds.

All I want for Christmas is a Silent Night

2008-12-15T22:56:00.002-06:00

Happy holidays to everyone!
The coming of the end of the year means the end of the semester for me, which means finals and all their attending joy.
On a brighter note, the girls and I are heading out to California this week until the end of the year. That will be a much needed vacation for all of us.
Arianna will get to see her aunts and uncles and grandpa on her mom's side for the first time, so she'll be getting plenty of hugs and kisses the next couple weeks.
So here's hoping for a nice warm holiday season!

Guess Who

2008-10-28T13:13:00.008-05:00

My mom left to return to Virginia after spending a week and a dozen rolls of film on her newest grandbaby and first granddaughter. She also brought photos of me as a baby to compare with Arianna's. The general consensus is...

(the one on the right is me)

Two Weeks... and still going strong!

2008-10-23T17:37:00.004-05:00

Arianna had her two-week appointment yesterday with her new pediatrician, and she has already grown 2 inches and 14 ounces since her birth measurements, so she's now at 7lbs 15oz and 20in long. Way to go girl! Also, the pediatrician gave Ben and I some tips on how to get Arianna to sleep in her bassinet better at night, and so far the tips seem to be working. Last night was the first time she slept in her own little bed, and she even had a four-hour sleep session from 1 to 5am, which means mom and dad finally got a decent night's sleep too. Wahoo!

My mom, Kay, went back to California yesterday after a two-week stay with us, and my mother-in-law, Rayelle, arrived a couple of days ago from Virginia. She is staying with us for a week. The grandmas just love their new granddaughter, and they both have been a wonderful help to Ben and me.

One Week Later

2008-10-14T19:31:00.004-05:00

Arianna will be one week tomorrow. In some ways the time has gone by quickly. She is feeding much better and sleeping more serenely. She has even had the chance to try out her bouncer and her swing. Melina is getting more sleep, which has been very good. Her mom, Kay, has also helped a lot with straightening the house and helping with the baby while I am at work and school.

The Eagle Has Landed

2008-10-11T22:22:00.010-05:00

Our baby is here! Arianna Kay was born at 8:44 Wednesday evening. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 18" long. She is quite a cutie, and is slowly learning that nighttime is for sleeping.