Another Rivers Ripple

When last we posted, it was August and we had just returned from vacation and began to tackle potty training.
Since then, the fall has flown by.  Olivia and Sarah continue to enjoy days home together.  We fill our time playing, reading, creating arts and crafts, attending playgroup and library storytime, running errands, going to the Y, and generally having a good time.  We've had OB appointments more frequently so that's been an added task on the list.  Sarah is now at 36 weeks (and dilated to a 4 as of today!)--the crunch for accomplishing things before baby arrives began at the end of October with the realization that Olivia's birthday and Thanksgiving were only weeks away.  Since then, we've been working hard to get things accomplished.  Some days are more productive than others.
We've transitioned the computer room to a playroom/library, which seems like it will work out well.  Olivia continues in her toddler bed because when we went to set up her twin bed, the headboard was missing!  Now we are waiting for it to ship.  Hopefully soon.  Otherwise she may end up on the floor on her mattresses for a bit of time for Sarah's sanity.  The basement is now our entertainment area/music man cave.  Dan has his basses hung and we are able to watch TV when time allows.
Dan works hard daily at KWCH-12, you can see a lot of his hard work in the presentation of the KWCH website and in his iphone app for CatchItKansas.  Bayless Band is officially done in Kansas--the main people moved, so Dan just has church band right now.
Sarah has been busy teaching 2 and 3 year old Sunday School and has Olivia in her class now.  It's a fun adventure most weeks!  (For a fun picture: the first week Olivia joined our class we had 2 separate potty breaks that involved everyone...)  Besides what was mentioned above, Sarah has continued with one Saturday a month at ViaChristi and plans to return there in April as this past Saturday was her last day to work until after new baby.
Olivia has been successful with potty training--we are down to an accident every week and a half or so, which is usually the result of being in the wrong place and the wrong time (car, Y parking lot, church potluck).  Wa-hoo!  For those who might be around to help her, potty break sounds a lot like "patty cake".  Beware.  Olivia celebrated her 2nd birthday and enjoyed the cake, candles, singing, and presents that came with it.  It was fun to watch her enjoy opening her gifts and her eyes lighting up when people sang to her.  Her favorite activities include playing babies, dressing up, and tea/fruit party.  She's also been into painting lately--this usually involves whole-hand finger painting, even when given a brush.
Brisco has good and bad allergy days, but we are going to try some probiotics and resume fish oil to see if that helps.  He's now on grain free food permanently as his salmon food was affecting him.
My apologies for a late post and for no pictures.  I had most of this post typed, and went to add pictures only to have google say I was out of space.  Now I can't seem to figure out how to get my picasa album working.  Grump.  But, know that we are all doing well.  We anxiously await new baby's arrival and hope to have a little person to introduce to you all before Christmas.  You can keep up with our latest adventures and Olivia's antics at: theriverscurrent.blogspot.com
  

Some Christmas Cheer from Colorado

Well...after three days and many expletives...my apartment is decorated.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Love and Holiday Greetings to all!

Of Haircuts and Housemates

Hello family, here's a quick update on what I've been up to.

First off, I'm back in Hutchinson for Thanksgiving. I'm currently sitting in one of our recliners observing a terrified Mandalay...things haven't changed much. Although I haven't seen any cats just yet, which is a big difference from the normal.

At school, I've completed my first four grad school apps (to UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, Arizona, and Colorado) and am currently considering what schools to follow those up with. I have at least a few with later application dates marked so I can use them as fall backs.

I successfully presented one of the papers I linked last time at the Columbia College Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. It was a good experience and really helped me to refine the paper so that it was more accessible. Of course, I stayed up all night doing this (yay, Prozac and coffee)...

...then stayed up the next night to build a TARDIS (from the television show Doctor Who) for the homecoming parade. The WC Independents (whom we were building it for) won, and rightly so.

Looking ahead to next semester, I only have 6 hours of classes, two upper level philosophy courses on "The Meaning of Life" and "Philosophy of Mind," so my classroom experiences should be really enjoyable to close out my Westminster career. When I'm not doing that, I'll spend about 20hrs a week working in Jefferson City as a part of the "Capitol Internship Program." While I don't know my placement yet, it'll probably be with State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democrat who will give me the opportunity to explore my interest in healthcare and public policy.

And just to head off any possible questions on Thanksgiving, yes, I am missing my sideburns. I gave myself a haircut for the first time, and while doing so, accidentally removed one of them. At that point I was forced to decide if I would look stranger with just the one or with none at all. I chose none and now just wait for them to return. So that concludes the first half of my title! On to the second!

EcoHouse this year has five residents, plus a few frequent visitors. These are my second family:

Mulu is from Addis-Abba, Ethiopia, although she went to high school in BC, Canada. She studies Chemistry and Environmental Science, cooks traditional Ethiopian food (which means enough onions to make your eyes water no matter where you are in the house, jalepenos, and paprika--the hotter food is, the better), dances a fair amount, and speaks English and Amharic. She's taught me to count to five, say goodnight, and thank you. Spelled phonetically, that's "UNd, WHO-let, SO-st, AH-raht, and AH-mist" (1-5) although since her birthday was yesterday, I also know "AI-ya UNd" is twenty one. Goodnight is "DARE-na, ah-DARE-he," and thank you is "ah-muh-SAY GA-nello." We also know her for her sense of humor, which we've termed "pulling a Mulu"--at different times she's easily convinced me that she was 22, spoke French, was leaving EcoHouse at the semester, and was crying out of happiness. She pulls it off every time. I've also agreed to go to a Greek Orthodox service with her sometime, since she needs a ride there.

Mulu chops jalepenos and tomatoes for our Thanksgiving

Marina is from a part of Sao Paola, Brazil, but has previously lived in the US in Maryland during part of high school. She is studying math and pre-engineering, is one of the few I-students at the school not a part of the University World College program, and speaks Portuguese and English. She's taught me how to say her first name (I still can't get her last one down), goodnight, and thank you. Respectively, those are "mah-dRI-na" (the "r" sound isn't one we have in English), "bo-A NOI-ch," and "oh-bri-GAH-(d)oh" (the "d" is nearly silent). We know her for spending the most time around Andrew and I and thus having picked up a fair amount of our sarcasm. She's a worrier and tends to run around a lot. 

Marina prepares a traditional Brazilian birthday treat

Kareem is from Palestine, but attended high school in Albuquerque.  He's currently studying economics, although that's not his first choice, he has to graduate in 4 years because of his scholarships so he can't switch again. He speaks English, teaches Arabic, and is learning Spanish. Kareem has just started cooking the house, which really means we see Rima cooking for the both of them a lot (more on her in a bit). He holds a Jordanian passport because Palestine's contentious status means they don't issue any (or don't issue ones that are accepted). He's afraid of dogs because the Israeli police use them to control protests and will often have strays follow him at night when he walks home. He's tried to teach me goodnight, but I couldn't even approximate one of the sounds. I'll have it by the end of the semester hopefully.

Kareem takes a break to take some pictures

Andrew, of course, lived with me last year. This is his third year in the house, and he's majoring in Philosophy and the Science of Information, and minoring in Math. Next year, he'll probably try and make the What if...? Conference, which he started last year, into a job. His fall back plans include graduate school for either design or philosophy. We tend to refer to each other as "brother," both as an inside reference to the TV show LOST and as an honorific for the way our thinking complements each other. He knows about as much American Sign Language as I do French (so he can put together sentences) and about as much French as I know ASL (we tend to exchange pieces of information). He's taught me remember, forget, now, pretty, beautiful, I, son, and daughter. 

Andrew and I add the second of three tables we needed

Our most frequent visitors include Michael, Andrew's girlfriend, who is Pre-Law and Poli Sci. She's also a junior this year, one of the motivating factors for Andrew's decision to not go to grad school immediately. She's currently in ASL classes and often teaches us new signs (I can count up to twenty). Rima takes second place, who is Kareem's kind-of-sort-of girlfriend, a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon. She hasn't taught us any Italian, but is a really fun person to have around the house. She and Kareem occasionally argue about dancing (she's all for it, but he's opposed).

Michael and Andrew as we leave our picnic at the Arch

Kareem says he does it, but if you ask Rima, she says she does all the cooking

Lastly, because of our own population of I-Students and because I have some international mentees, we had a massive Thanksgiving of our own last night. Below are just a few photos, but our end result was about 20 guests (plus some surprise guests for Mulu's birthday who showed up later).

Our dessert table

The rest of the potluck

A few of the guests, including (from L-R) Kareem, Kristen (my comentor), Joseph (from the Congo), Sean (from South Africa), Rosemary (from Missouri), Rima, Marina, and in the front Mulu on the left and Mihi on the right--both from Ethiopia

Tolleson Tidal Wave (of work)

We, too, must apologize for a delayed post. James has been working 70 + hour weeks and then filling in the rest of the time with homework for his class on Baroque music. I am learning that starting a new job at a new school is almost like starting to teach for the first time again. Paul, the head orchestra director at Murchison, and I took 120 beginning orchestra students to Zilker Park for the 39th Annual String Festival on election day. There were over 1,000 beginning orchestra students from schools all around Austin there to perform. Whew! So many purple shirts! Each year the shirts are a different color. Apparently the year of lime green was a little harsh on the eyes :)

This week and weekend is the All-Region Orchestra. I will be leading a viola sectional and am coordinating the Middle School Symphony Orchestra. Unfortunately, the concert is on James' birthday, so I think we will be celebrating on the 18th instead of the 17th. And not long after that will be our one year anniversary! What a busy year it has been, but we are so thankful to have each other. This morning we made blueberry muffins and enjoyed them fresh out of the oven with a warm cup of coffee. Yum!

We recently came home to find a termination of lease notice on our door (the door of the apartment we thought we would be in for at least three or so years). They are renovating and raising the rent. So, it looks like we will be moving again before Christmas. It seems like all of our things were just in boxes :).

Yesterday we were at the UT football game against Iowa State (James was working so we sat with 100+ visiting high school seniors) and saw the best half time show I have ever seen! Being that we are all band geeks or orchestra dorks I figured you would all appreciate how cool this was :). In honor of Veterans' Day the UT marching band played a medley of the Armed Forces' Anthems. As the anthem played for the army the band formed a tank and the whole thing moved down the field, it then changed into a boat and moved back to the other end zone, then a plane, then a submarine and the line of people that had served as the ground before moved across field making the submarine sink into water with just the top poking through. Finally, they formed the word Royal in honor of Darrel K. Royal's recent death (a legendary coach and the man after which the UT stadium is named). They showed the whole show again on the jumbo tron fast forwarding so that the shapes looked even more like they were moving in real time. Best half time show ever! Hope you enjoyed picturing it.

We wish we could join you for Thanksgiving but will certainly be thinking of you and wishing everyone a joyous and relaxing time with family. We'll be visiting Kansas around Christmas time. Until then, enjoy your Christmas carols :)!

Love,
James and Hannah