Austin Update

James and I are doing well in Austin! We've been waiting to post until we had the house ready to share. Nesting is taking quite a bit longer than we thought so instead of putting off the post any longer we thought we'd write a quick update and save the complete house highlights for another post.

Saturday I attended the Round Rock ISD Harp Festival. There were 39 harpists performing (3 from Hopewell). We're so lucky to have the teachers, instruments, and budget. I only know of a few other districts with programs like it.

Yesterday, I went to a teacher workshop for string teachers, and guess who was the teacher presenting??? Jan Coleman!!! She mentioned she was from Hutchinson, KS and I said that my family lived there. When I said the family name was Kinast, she immediately knew Vicki and Pam. She knew my dad from piano lessons and of course Uncle Randy :). She then asked how Tim Givan fit into the family and I explained he was my uncle and then she remembered Auntie. She said Uncle Tim really helped her family while she was away. She is still living in Seattle (25 years and counting) and is a well respected Suzuki violin teacher! How cool is that!

We put up a bird feeder two weeks ago and the birds finally found it this weekend. We had a pair of cardinals, chickadees, and tufted titmice. Of course, later the morning doves and grackles showed up, too.

The kitties seem to be at home and enjoy all the windows! There is a neighborhood cat to watch as well as lots of squirrels and birds.

There are lots of new places to explore. Rimsky managed to find his way on top of the kitchen cabinets in pursuit of a bug :).

 Lots of love to everyone! Hope to see you soon,

Hannah and James

Chris and Theresa Update

We're almost late!

Theresa and I don't have much to report, unfortunately. I'm still at the library, making too little to pay the bills, and Theresa's still working with Kate to sell clothes via Lu La Roe. Not much to report there because after the holiday travels it's taken a while to get back into the swing of things!

I have been working on saving the missile pictured below by finding it a new museum. The museum that currently owns it is closing down, and it's actually a rarity (the only one on public display in the US). It hails from China and was designed under the direction of Tsien, the father of their space program. Besides being a good start to a Chinese collection of artifacts, Tsien has a very timely story—a Chinese immigrant who helped found JPL and worked with various aerospace luminaries in the post-war period, he was expelled from the US because of fears he was a communist. He wasn't, but after his poor experience with the US government, he was more than happy to help China build their ballistic missile and space programs. He died in 2009 without ever having returned, despite being close friends with many of the people who'd defended him against the baseless claims/fears of his being a communist. 

I found the missile accidentally but have since negotiated a purchase price ($2500) and figured out the transport cost ($1100), I just have to find a museum that will pay those so I don't end up owning a 24' long, 6600lbs missile just to save it from being scrapped or lost to obscurity! The Cosmosphere declined, though I seem to have been unbanned from the building... , so my next call is to the Cosmosphere's founder and former CEO and his museum—they seem flush with cash and Max apparently loved finding the rare artifacts. While the Cosmosphere was my first choice for displaying, I have a list of other museums that it would fit with, but if anyone knows of someone willing to sponsor a missile, let me know!

(It's rough-looking, and poorly displayed, at the moment, hence why it probably never attracted much attention)

Change on the Horizon

Change is often a theme at our house as you have heard here many times before. We work in a business that is ever-changing. We live in a city that is moving fast and changing often. We have a five month old (5 months!) who is learning new things every day and changing faster than we can fathom. It would be hard to stay put in these environments with all of this change.

So, here's what's really new since the beginning of the year:
* Mary and Kurtis closed Jersey Boys.
* Kurtis joined the crew at the August Wilson Theatre for strike of Jersey Boys and now for load in of the next show, Groundhog Day (the Musical).
* Mary and Aurora marched in the NYC Women's March. It was important to march for the rights of women, LGBTQ, immigrants and the environment to name a few causes that have a great impact in our lives.
* Mary will begin her new show next week, the revival of Miss Saigon, as the Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor to Rick Kelly.
* Aurora is quickly learning how to sit up, has begun rolling over, has had many tastes of various foods, recognizes Mom and Dad, has learned to go to others (thanks to our visits with all of you), made her second round of flights in her life, will chatter on, observes everything and gives smiles to all who engage her.

Mary and Aurora's visit to Kansas has been particularly lovely. Thank you all for taking the time to spend with us while we were here. We will fly back to NYC with hearts full this week!

Love,
The Rutherford Family

4 Generations

January Brings Good Family Memories

January 1, 2017 brought the Kinast Exchange.  What a fun time!  We enjoyed being with everyone and seeing all the neat gifts. 

Passing out gifts.

Everyone ready to open.

Opening gifts, Oliver is definitely up and ready to go.

Enjoying the soups and other goodies.

Grandma, Olivia, Adelynn, Ava, and Kinley getting ready for supper.

Reading The Princess in Black book to the girls.

Aunt Vicki and Emily.

We enjoyed some special time babysitting Aurora for Mary and Kurtis January 13-18th as they were helping close Jersey Boys.  Here we are out for a walk and Grammy is playing with Aurora.

Then Mary and Aurora arrived at our house January 22nd for a visit to all the great-grandparents, family and friends in the area.  We had a special family dinner on Sunday, January 22nd and have been enjoying having Mary and Aurora at our house.  Today I got to hold Aurora before work.  Oh, my that is dangerous!  Makes one want to call in and say not coming today.  Ha!

Emily enjoying the toys with Sarah

Grandpa helping the new train engineers.

Mary giving Oliver a ride on the horse.

Cassi, Dave, and Dan chatting.

What better way to enjoy each others company than eating pizza together. 

We look forward to more family activities throughout the year and so enjoy the time together with everyone!