Hello family and a Very Doggy Holiday to You!

This holiday season Gus, Benny and I have had a good time. Last year was difficult for me so it was nice to have a quiet and relaxing holiday season. As a family the Givan's decided the have Christmas be less of a big deal so instead of putting up our big family tree we each put up our own little tree. We decorated it as we chose (or in Chris's case except for his rather large tree topper - see below) chose not to.

Benny participated in the family gift exchange and Grandma has his name. He was very happy with his presents as was Gus whom Grandma was nice enough to include. She made them each a blanket of "their colors". Benny's favorite color is orange which you may not believe but he does have a preference and will pick an orange toy our over others. Dogs by and large are color blind but they do see differences in shades and orange appears different than others. And Benny very much likes it. Gus is turquoise because I like it. :) Benny had Sarah's name. He enjoyed shopping for her very much although he did send Gus in his place to the stores.

All six (mother is cringing as she reads this. She doesn't like to say the number out loud) of the dogs opened their gifts Christmas day receiving a bone and another item. The bone's purpose was to distract them while we opened our other gifts. This worked wonderfully and we opened the rest of our presents to the sound of gnawing away.

 Christmas day was spent with Grandma and Grandpa. Gus was the dog who accompanied us (little Liza went too in her special sweater) and he enjoyed the attention. Gus likes to have Grandpa pet him and is learning that Grandma gives treats. Although he chews his. Benny does not.

Anyways, that sums up the holidays for the dogs and I. It was uneventful really. We enjoyed the time and the festivities but kept it low key. I didn't really decorate my apartment except set out my dog that I got for my Birthday (thank you Aunt Pam and Aunt Vicki etc) that lights up.

Here are some pictures from our holiday:

Chris's tree with the very large hat

My tree

My mother's tree - note the pigs. All that is on there is pigs

My father's tree

Gus was not a fan of the moose at the mall. Even if it didn't talk this year. I wasn't either Gus when I was your age.

Adelynn at the gift exchange trying on Olivia's crown.

Olivia in the very popular Frozen crown

Examining a gift together.

Ava and Benny share his new blanket

Rivers Ripple

A bit late, but it is the season!  This week has been a particularly "out of the norm" week.  Thankfully Dan should be on vacation starting tonight.  (Crossing fingers as it was supposed to start this past Wednesday.)

Since we last posted...
Dan continues to work at KWCH-12, learning more about his manager responsibilities in this past week and a half.  He's been playing fairly regularly with a band around town about twice a month.  We try to get a date night each month together and that has been a good thing.

Sarah has still been working at Via Christi Rehab. This quarters lesson--please take care of yourself.  Just do.  MOPS has had a good start.  We have about 8 moms who regularly attend and are about at max on our childcare capacity.  The group has been a good one, as God has brought together moms with similar interests/backgrounds and/or parenting philosophies. Either way, we get to support each other and say we are not alone in the job of mothering.  Sarah has continued to try new recipes (mostly baking this past three months) and has managed to start a new cross-stitch. 

Olivia loves preschool--learning new things, songs, and enjoying playing outside.  She's been doing swimming lessons and can do a rudimentary front crawl and floats.  She seems to really enjoy it.  She also asked for gymnastics so she's been doing that too.  In between, she plays with her figurines and Barbie-type dolls.  She turned 4 in November!

Kinley just turned two this week and is really developing a personality.  She is a sweet, cuddle-bug who has a budding sense of humor.  She says a lot, although sometimes you have to really listen and decipher what she's saying.  Her favorite phrases recently are, "fix the button (which sounds like "fixabuton")" and play with me (which sounds like "pay me").  She likes her new "dolly house" and Little People.  And continues to enjoy her babies and coloring.

Brisco has been playing, dealing with his allergies, and snuggling when it is cold. 

We are enjoying the Christmas season, taking time to do a craft or activity together each day.  We've baked, painted, colored, glued, seen lights, eaten donuts, taken baths by the light of Christmas lights with Christmas music, danced, and read books. 

Enjoy the season and many blessings are wished for a wonderful 2015!

Chris' Update

I work, a lot, at the Cosmosphere. I do Dr. Goddard's Lab, the Planetarium, and the Dome (formerly IMAX) theater. Technically I'm box office staff, so I do that a lot too, plus an odd education program here and there. In the in-between time, here are my "hobbies:" (you'll notice that they overlap with work. In philosophy we'd say the two were coextensive).

Rockets: I've completed a flyable model of a Chinese Long March 2F, and used some of my time in the Dome to design a Brazilian VLS, Indian GSLV, and Chinese Kuaizhou. I haven't gotten to build any of these yet but hope to do the VLS in the next month or so.

Relatedly, I get to do a "Coffee at the Cos" presentation on other country's space programs next year!

I don't read and write as much as I used to, but I've got some "forthcoming" posts on my friend's blog about a thought experiment in philosophy that is used to "disprove" hedonism but which I think is silly. They're quite dull reading but I am excited that I've finally gotten around to writing them.

Thanks to a project the Cosmosphere has been working on, I've been drawing in Google Sketchup again. Below is an education space as well as changes I want to talk the Cosmosphere into making to one of their exhibits.

Beside some projects not quite done yet (RCAT is reviewing their Google Maps data, an education program called Mars Rescue is almost done testing), I dove back into scripting this month with two little web apps. Neither is done but they provide good entertainment while I'm at the front desk!

Events since our last Post

It has been a couple months since we last posted so here are some pictures from a few special  events.

                                               Birthday dinner for Pam & Vicki.

                                         At the pumpkin patch with Pam and the Rivers girls.

                                                        Two of our trick or treaters

                                          Time for Christmas decorating.  (This is at Stage 9)

Christmas Parade

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. 

September, October, November - The months ending with "er" - ER stands for "Endless Regrouping"

This past couple of months since my last post have been a whirlwind.  Mostly, this comes from all of my responsibilities at the Hutchinson Theatre Guild.  There was also a brief relationship which had both a bizarre start and end.  And of course, the many fall activites (fair, Halloween, etc.)

September brought auditions for Other Desert Cities.  It's final performances happen tonight and tomorrow.  Here are a couple of wonderful pictures from the production.

 This has turned out to be my favorite production at the Guild this year.  It is truly a great play and all things considered the best one we've done all year.  It was a great pleasure to work with all of these actors.  The designer of the scenery and costumes, Nancy Sliker, is retiring from a nearly 50 year career in the theatre.  And she felt that this production was the one to exit with.  Very humbling I assume you.  We rehearsed from the last weekend of September to our opening on November 6th.  Thank you to everyone who came to the production (or is still coming :) ).

My next major event was Talking Tombstones.  I participated in this fundraiser for the Hutchinson Theatre Guild.  The fundraiser is literally what it sounds.  Residents of the Eastside Cemetery stand next to their tombstones and tell their stories.  I played Sheriff Thomas Jennings, the much beloved sheriff who's double funeral (his daughter and he both died in a car accident) was the highest attended in Hutchinson's history.  It was fun and the fundraiser went the best its ever gone including $2500 raised for the Guild.

Finally, the last major event was playing the Grade School Outreach events for the Hutchinson Symphony.  We played Peter and the Wolf (the real version) and I had a great time.  Katie Goodenberger, a friend and HTG Board member played the 2nd horn part and I was 1st horn.  Here's a picture of the fun.

And for those of you who want to hear what I sound like now on the French horn, here's a recording of what we sounded like at Faris Elementary - Mom was there listening. :) http://andyaddis.com/peterandthewolf.mp4

Happy fall.  Thanksgiving is around the corner and Christmas is close behind.  YAY!!!!!

Tolleson Update

Hello from Austin!

There is not much to report. James and I are really good at working :-). Most days we both get to work early and stay late. Perhaps the biggest change is visible in this picture taken at the football game today against West Virginia. We won! James has his name tag on because he was hosting about 100 high school seniors on campus today for a recruitment event.

I donated 10-inches of hair to the cancer society!

Looking downtown from the stadium you can now see four tower cranes where there will soon be UT's new medical school.

It was a beautiful 70 degrees and sunny for the game!

Mary and Kurtis came to visit the first weekend in October. It was so much fun to share Austin with them and catch up over good food and beer. Here are a few pictures from their visit.

Mary and me at Allen's Boots on South Congress.
You would not believe how many different pairs of boots they have!

Waiting in line at Franklin BBQ (yes, totally worth the 5-hour wait)!

And of course the other main event in our lives is evenings with our cats :-). Duncan is growing quickly and Rimsky has found a new favorite toy. They are both eagerly awaiting the trip to Kansas for Christmas.

Duncan - we're in awe of his tail :)

Rimsky

We wish everyone a Thanksgiving full of good food, family, and friends. 

Love you,

Hannah and James

The Crazy 'Yes' Men

Hello all!

I'm afraid that this one is going to be fairly short and sweet. It's a day late and life is just moving by too too quickly currently. We seem to be the 'yes' men at our house as we are always taking on more work and projects and generally enjoying life somewhere in between the craziness.

Kurtis has been working at a new shop in New Jersey called Siegfried's Basement. He is happy to be back in a shop, building every day. It does cause him to be up at 5am every morning with an hour and a half commute to Secacus, NJ, but on the plus side, he does get a seat on the train and tends to be out of work by around 3pm. When things are in full swing, he will often do a 7a-8p day out there and thankfully, they have been swinging left and right! He has been brewing beer like crazy as we get ready for the holidays and plan to share a lot of this with friends and coworkers as gifts for the holiday season.

I am keeping busy with all sorts of work. I have been at Jersey Boys and Aladdin leading up to the end of October with side projects on White Christmas as it got ready to go out on tour. There was even a day working at Side Show, which is a new musical. Then, this week, the Christmas Spectacular bloomed full on and I am happy to be back with my Rockettes. I think it's fair to say that I have not worked less than 60 hours per week since sometime back in July, including the weeks where we went away for the weekend. In addition, I offered up my sewing skills for Halloween costumes for the little nieces this year. Four Frozen costumes later, we had a great success! In my small moments, I have found time to brew kombucha, ferment saurkraut and do yoga.

Amazingly, we made a couple of small trips this fall. One to Kansas City for a friend's wedding, which was a great success as we saw many friends from college that we had been missing. The second trip was really our little reprieve from all the crazy busy-ness. We got the chance to sneak a weekend in Austin with Hannah and James, which was truly lovely. Lots of time outside, eating great food and chatting up a storm.

Missing you and wishing you happiness for the holidays ahead.

Sending love to all,
Mary and Kurtis

Awesome Autumn

                       A  All is well in Givan Land.  Both of us are still working!

U-  Unusual occurrences have been Tim’s two trips to Denver in two months to help his mom move to a new smaller apartment.  I have a new boss who is very energetic and full of ideas.  Some days, I’m tired just trying to keep up.

T- Tim is busy planning the Bets for Pets fundraiser in January for the local animal shelter.  Last year he came home with a real fire hydrant that someone had painted.  I’m hoping that doesn't happen again!

U- Until it’s time for Christmas decorations, we put up outside Fall decorations this year.  Our pumpkins we got from a pumpkin patch near Buhler.  It included riding on a hayrack pulled by horses to the pumpkin field.  Gus did a good job riding in the wagon.  It was a good day.

Outside Autumn Decorations.  The leaves light up.

/The railing and lattice got a fresh coat of paint this Autumn.

Some of our inside Autumn Decor.

M- More the merrier.  Even though some might think that this is the philosophy as far as pets go at the Givan house, I’m proud to report since last writing we have not acquired any new critters.  Except, if you count the mouse I've caught a glimpse of a time or two.  Tommy is not too good at catching mice-maybe if it ran across his paws he could get it.  All critters are doing well.  Shona has been going to an obedience class with Kate and loves it.  She has days though when you could tell if an open door appears she would be out it and on an adventure.  Liza accompanies Tim on his trips.  Ellie Mae sounds a lot like a pig most evenings as she snorts around.  (I guess that it is as close to a pet pig as I will ever get) Mandalay is definitely the queen canine putting the others quietly in their place.  Benny has sleepovers on occasion and seems to enjoy his time here.

N- Night times, i.e. evenings, usually find us at home (or sometimes meetings) enjoying Kate and Chris and the pets.  Most nights, we all eat supper together discussing a wide range of topics, such as politics, rockets, dogs, mental health issues and current events .  The house usually shuts down before 10 and we are in bed and getting rest to start everything all over again.

Have a blessed Autumn.

Auntie and Uncle Tim

Life at the Johnstons

We have been enjoying the granddaughters.  They are a special blessing in our lives!  I try and play once a week with them.  They all have great imaginations.  We play Elza and Anna from Frozen, mermaids, kitties, doctor, babies, enjoy swinging, and much more. 

Princess Olivia.

Grammy pushing Kinley.

Ava enjoying playing mermaids.  Adelynn is the captured mermaid.

Adelynn stopping for a picture.

Randy and Charles enjoyed a train trip together,  September 3-12, 2014.  Here are a couple of pictures. 

Charles in the Muir Woods.  Notice how small he is compared to the trees.

Part of Colorado as seen when riding the Amtrak California Zephyr.  Both really wanted to ride this train!

Randy had to speak in Hawaii but did enjoy a bit of vacation time at Molokai.  Only 5000 people on the whole island so he was often on the beach alone.  He said it was wonderful!