Fall 2009

Can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since our last post. We've been staying super-busy, and keep on taking more projects and classes. We had to put everything on Google Calendar just to keep track of it all - and we're running out of colors for all the different schedules!

Alison decided that being a Troop Leader for Girl Scouts wasn't enough work, so she started up a Destination Imagination team. The team is a small group of 2nd graders (including Sarah, of course) who will work on problem-solving in fun and creative ways, with a performance at the end of the year. Now, Ali and Sarah have Brownies after school on Mondays and "DI" after school on Tuesdays. Alison is also volunteering in the school library several days a month. She's also made the time to go to the gym at least 3 to 4 times a week, and has been losing weight and looking great!

David is gearing up to go to the AGU meeting in San Francisco for several days in December. He'll be presenting the public release of NLDAS data; one usage of this data is historical and real-time drought monitoring. The NLDAS data is over 30 years of hourly 1/8th-degree surface meteorology and land data, including precipitation, soil moisture, runoff, and snow cover. All that data is over 2 TB in size, so David's been working with the NASA GES DISC, who have the expertise and hardware to make it all available for researchers and the public.

David is also getting ready to move offices. After over 14 years in the Climate and Radiation Branch, he will be moving into a new office (in the same building) within the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. David's actually been working part-time with both the GMAO and the Hydrological Sciences Branch for a couple years now, and his actual work duties and people he works for/with won't be changing. However, NASA just opened up a new building, which left open many new offices in his current building. Both the GMAO and HSB are consolidating on the other side of the building, and David will be moving sometime in the next month or two. The best part is that David will be moving along with his current office mate and friend, Greg, and Greg's agreed to let David have the window side of the office this time around.

David started the year going to the gym regularly as well, but ended up with a bad case of plantar fasciitis. It had been hurting him off and on for most of the spring and summer, but seemed to be easing starting the fall. But it started hurting more and more again, so David's now started physical therapy. He might end up getting orthotics (inserts for his shoes) to help keep his arch supported.

Sarah is enjoying 2nd grade and all her after-school activities. In addition to Brownies and DI, she was taking jazz dance and ballet, and will be starting ice skating lessons next week. She's also taking CCD in preparation for her first communion in May. She made the honor roll at school the first time she was eligible, and continues to read books all the time (even when she shouldn't be reading during school time).

Nicholas is doing great at the day care at NASA. He's the biggest kid in his class, and knows all his letters and numbers and has a great vocabulary. He can even spell his name (if you spot him the "N" and maybe the "I"). He has some trouble pronouncing several words, and we will be getting him evaluated for his ankyloglossia (aka, he's tongue-tied). Hopefully, we can correct it with just some pronunciation exercises/therapy. Nico also seems to be allergic to pollen and/or mold. He rarely gets a fever or other infection, but his nose will run for what seems like 2 weeks in a row. It seems somewhat correlated with when he visits the day care at the gym, but we're hoping the allergy nasal spray will shorten/reduce his bouts. He doesn't seem sick otherwise, but - as Nicholas finds hilarious every time we say it - "boogers are gross!".

Summer of Concerts

David and Ali went to a bunch of concerts this summer. Some together, some individually, and some in serial (more on that later). The summer started off with the Springsteen and E Street Band show - the best show David's seen - and he can't wait until they come around again in November. David had no idea which songs were coming next (and he studies setlists from previous shows religiously). The highlight was a section in the middle where Bruce and the band took requests from fan-made signs out of the crowd. Next, we saw Green Day - a really good show that could have been great if Billie Joe (the lead singer) didn't yell "Washington DC" three+ times a song. Some reviewers called it "Springsteen-ian", but only in the sense of "a long show with a huge stable of hits". Alison saw the Young Dubliners with Marisa and saw Eagles of Death Metal with a friend from work. EoDM is not a "death metal" band, rather a power punk/alternative band that's in Ali's current musical wheelhouse. David also went to see the Progressive Nation 2009 concert with a couple of friends, mainly to see Queensrÿche, but was also impressed with Dream Theater. The final show we saw had the cheapest tickets - free! It was the FreeFest concert with a whole day's worth of acts on two separate stages. Since the bands David wanted to see were early in the day, and the bands Alison wanted to see were late in the day, we decided not to spend money on a whole day's worth of babysitting, and just took turns. When David was done, he met Alison in the nearby mall parking lot with the kids, and then took them home. Thankfully, we had some friends who stayed most of the day to hang out with.

Sarah spent part of her summer with a week of Girl Scout camp; she's already asked to go back next year. She also had a week with Camp Grandma and Camp Mom-Mom (David and Alison like the weekly rates, too), and a week at a "Nutritiously Delicious" cooking camp. Her school year started early this year - two weeks before Labor Day. She really likes her teacher and is having fun so far. Nicholas started his new school year, but he's still in the same classroom from the summer.

Summer Summer

It's been a long time since we've updated the blog - and two big events have happened since. First - we got new phones! OK, it's not really that exciting, but we can now send/receive texts and we started some Twitter accounts (here is Alison's and here is David's).

The other exciting news is that Nicholas started at GCDC (Goddard Child Development Center) at David's work. He started near the end of June after the end of the school year. The first day was a bit stressful; the new acting Director of the center didn't want to accept the way our doctor filled out Nico's health inventory form. We did some research and found we were in the right, but they still made us obtain our doctor's initials to "prove it was her signature". It took 15 minutes to drive there, 30 seconds in the doctor's office, and then 15 minutes back to the school, and finally Nico was able to start his first day. He's been doing great so far; he was the first kid to start during the summer, so right now his classmates are 3 years old (or close to it) before they transition to their class next year. Of course, he's the biggest kid in the class. We have a really great lead teacher and it's been nice to see all of our favorite teachers from when Sarah went there. Speaking of favorite teachers, we were a little sad when Nico had his last day at Miss Beth's. She'll be moving out-of-state, but hope we'll still see her from time to time.

Sarah has been having a fun summer too after finishing 1st grade. So far, she's been to a camp in Annapolis (Quiet Waters) and went to a gymnastics camp at the Univ. of MD. She's also had swimming lessons and spent some time with her friends, including a couple sleepovers. Next week, she'll been going to a Girl Scout sleep-away camp.

David's softball team is having a .500 season so far. He has a summer student working with him on the NLDAS drought project. The project is getting close to having all 30 years of hourly data online on a new server as well as a new NLDAS webpage.

Alison's been going to the gym just about every day; she's trying to "Reach the Beach". The challenge is to do enough miles on the treadmill, elliptical, and bike before the end of the summer. She's been doing great and has just a few miles miles to go!

Taylor Swift concert

Last Saturday (the 6th), we drove down to Waldorf to the [phone company] Wireless store just to enter a sweepstakes to win Taylor Swift concert tickets. Sarah is a big fan and plays her two CDs over and over again on her little boom box in her bedroom. The concert was already sold out, but thought we'd take a chance on free tickets. MIX107.3 was also there and giving away their own free tickets. On Monday, we got a phone call letting us know that we not only had won 4 free tickets, but also a meet-and-greet with Taylor backstage before the show! Sarah screamed with joy when she found out.

The concert was on Thursday the 10th at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. Alison couldn't go because it was the same night as the Girl Scout leaders' award dinner. David took Sarah, who also invited her friend Rachel and her mother. We met at a tour bus with a group of about 35 people; there were two males in the group - David and a ~65-year old grandfather. We were escorted backstage and met Taylor's mom who gave us the tour. We took a quick look inside Taylor's bus, visited the backstage party room, and walked onto the stage before the show. Sarah and Rachel then lined up to meet Taylor and have a picture taken. They had a pro photographer, and they gave us a print inside a frame at the end of the show. The girls each got a hug, and Sarah had a chance to tell Taylor that her favorite song of hers is "Best Day".

We then made our way to our seats; about 20th row and a little to the left center of the stage. Gloriana and Kellie Pickler were the opening acts, and then Taylor started around 8:30pm. Sarah and Rachel were dancing and screaming in their t-shirts; David was glad he brought ear plugs for all the screaming at the show. The girls finally wiped out by 10:00pm, so we left before the end to beat the traffic. On the way out, we picked up our photo, along with a Taylor Swift signed poster, tote bag, guitar pick, necklace, and (even) lip balm. Now both concerts Sarah has been to were at Merriweather, and we won the tickets both times.

Memorial Day Parade

Yesterday was Bowie's Memorial Day Parade. Sarah and Alison marched with the Girl Scouts. It was a nice sunny day with a few puffy cumulus clouds, so David and Nicholas grabbed a spot near the end of the route in the shade under the trees. This year, the Girl Scouts were near the front of the parade instead of near the end - but Nicholas still cried after waving at his Mommy and sister walk right by him. They came back pretty quickly, and we watched the rest of the parade go by. Sarah spent most of the time on the edge of the curb collecting candy being thrown, while Nico just wanted to eat, drink, and play with bubbles. On the way back to the car, we ran into our friends the Olsens and Sarah spent the afternoon playing over their house. Later, we met them at our pool, which was open for the 1st day of the summer. The water was very cold, but the kids had fun jumping in the water or just splashing in the kiddie pool.

Sarah is Seven

Yesterday was Sarah's 7th birthday. But that doesn't mean the celebrating was (or will be) limited to one day. Her party at school was on Thursday because her teacher wasn't going to be in on Friday. We brought in (store-bought) Rice Krispie treats and juice boxes; Sarah made herself a crown that she wore. On her birthday, Grandma stopped by and we had Carvel ice cream cake, and then Sarah opened presents. Tonight, we're seeing Grandpa because Aust Susan is in town, and will celebrate with them. Sarah's actual party will be at our pool at the end of the month.

Visit to Auburn

Back on Fri Mar 27th, we drove up to Auburn, NY to visit Alison's family. We originally were planning to go in the summer when it was nicer out, but many of Ali's cousins were going to be in town, so we decided to go when we did instead. Grandma and Papa Bob also drove up, as did Ali's brother Andrew and his family. Our trip up there was the quickest yet - no traffic and summer construction season hadn't started yet; plus we managed to keep it to only one food/bathroom break, which is impressive between Alison and two young kids!

On Friday night, we just went out for pizza and then turned in early at the hotel. Saturday was a busy day, however. First, we went to Ali's Uncle Al and Aunt Irene's Max200 shop, where they manufacture and sell dog agility equipment. We got a tour of the shop, and also got to see one of their dogs in action on the equipment. Next we stopped by Al and Irene's farm. Nicholas and Sarah had fun feeding hay to the horses, and also fed and got to pet some sheep and some chickens. David insisted we do at least a little trainspotting on the New York Central Line (since we were SO close). After less than 10 minutes of waiting, a freighter came through. Then we went to Ali's Uncle Chris and Aunt Margaret's house and met up with Ali's cousins too. Two of them have young kids as well, so there were plenty of little ones walking and crawling around. The weather was warm enough to sit and play outside; we even wandered out onto the golf course behind their backyard. When it was Nico's bedtime, David took him back to the hotel room and watched some college basketball, while Ali spent more time with her cousins.

On Sunday, Ali's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Pam came down from Rochester, and we went out to lunch/brunch. After that, we let the kids run around in the new Veterans Memorial Park, which was almost complete. The man who is leading the town's effort to build the Park stopped by and chatted with David for a bit. After that, we went to Liverpool, NY to visit Jessie - a family friend of Ali and her Mom's. Jessie and her husband Chris just had a baby as well, and we took turns holding the baby and playing Uno Attack with Sarah and Nico. For dinner, we drove back to the Auburn area to have a big dinner at Ali's grandfather's house.

Our trip back to Bowie on Monday seemed like it took a bit longer, as we picked up a brief cold sometime over the weekend. When we finally made it back, we collapsed and took most of the rest of the week before it felt like we recovered.

Nicholas turns two

Today is Nicholas's 2nd birthday. On Saturday, we had a birthday party for him at our house. The theme was "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" for two reasons: 1) Nicholas loves to eat food, 2) last Friday was the 40th anniversary of the first publishing of the book written by Eric Carle. Alison and Sarah made a chocolate cake with a bundt pan and shaped it and frosted it like the caterpillar in the book. Alison also got some fruit and put holes in it, as did the caterpillar in the story. Finally, Sarah and Mom-Mom cut out and colored some paper in shapes/colors of all the food the caterpillar eats on his Saturday feast. Alison, Sarah, and Mom-Mom made a cherry chip cake shaped like a butterfly; we hid it behind a cardboard box (the crysalis) until we sang happy birthday. Ms. Beth read the book to the kids at storytime, and then we all had the cakes. Here are some more pictures of the cakes. It was still chilly, but the kids had fun outside in the yard and on the swing set. UPDATE - 9:05PM: Nicholas is 36 and 1/2 inches tall on his 2nd birthday.

Nicholas has a stomach bug

Nicholas has had a stomach bug since early Tuesday morning. [if you are eating or easily grossed out, please stop reading now :) ] David went to get him when he woke up in the morning, and he was covered with gross stuff. David couldn't tell if Nico had thrown up or had diarrhea that leaked because it was all in his lap and down his legs; he later determined that the answer was "both". Nico took two baths - one to wash everything off and the next to get clean. While getting Sarah ready for school, Nico threw up in his high chair and a few more times on the kitchen floor. Thankfully, all these were clear, and David had put a few bibs on him to catch most of it. A few hit the floor though and Nico even got his shoes. After Sarah was dropped off, Nico threw up in the car seat on the way home and then again a few more times at home. David took him to the doctor's and was told to just let it run its course and give only sips of Pedialyte. By Wednesday, Nico was only having diarrhea, although he was also having a high fever. Last night and this morning, he's been very tired and quiet and not moving around at all. David's been staying home watching him. Oh, and Sarah is home today with a runny nose and cough; we're really hoping it doesn't turn into what Nicholas has!

Snow Day!

We had a decent March snowstorm overnight - about 7 to 8 inches at our house. The kids had school canceled, and Ali decided not to go to work today. NASA at first said they were going to be "Code Yellow - opening at noon". However, at 10:41AM, they changed their mind and went to "Code Red", which means closed all day. David didn't know they made this change until he came inside from clearing the cars and shoveling the driveway, but he was glad to not have to go into work. All four of us spend some time outside in the morning. Nicholas barely moved in his snowsuit and boots, while Sarah was running all around in the snow. We took turns dragging Nico around the yard on the sliding sled.

Ali & Sarah at Camp Winona

Alison and Sarah went camping over the weekend at Winona Girl Scout Camp near Hughesville, MD. They went with another Brownie troop, and camped in a lodge (slept in sleeping bags on the floor), had a campfire, sang songs, and went on a hikes. It was still a little chilly and the weather was cloudy with some light rain and sleet overnight. They came home earlier this afternoon and took a longer nap that Nicholas took this afternoon. E-mail Ali or David for the link to the photo album.

Sarah is Talented and Gifted

Of course, we already knew that. But now so does Prince George's County Schools. We received a letter from her school letting us know that Sarah was identified for inclusion in the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program. There's a TAG school in Bowie to which we've applied (in a lottery system) for her to possibly attend next year. If we don't "win" the school lottery, she'll go to her current school again next year, but still within TAG. We don't know yet if that will mean a separate classroom (her current school usually has three classrooms per grade level) or special instruction during the week. One benefit of switching to the TAG school is that it starts an hour earlier (around 8:15AM) and Sarah can take the bus; some drawbacks are that she'd have to switch schools, which might also affect Girl Scouts. We'll be finding out more information on our options this spring. We're very excited and proud of Sarah!

David's Fortieth Birthday

David's 40th birthday happened last month. On his actual birthday, David was flying back from the AMS conference in Phoenix and didn't get home until after dinner time. We decided to combine a birthday party with the Super Bowl and have a big get together at our house, even though it was a few weeks after David's birthday. We had it catered by Mamma Roma, and served gnocchi, ziti with zucchini, and chicken marsala. Ali, as usual, thought that wasn't going to be enough food, so we also served party sub, mini hot dogs in crescent rolls, wings, salad, veggies, cheese, crackers, etc. We had a very full house; we even played some Guitar Hero: World Tour on the Wii. Some people left to go watch the Super Bowl elsewhere, and some folks stayed to watch the game - and the halftime entertainment. David was most excited to see Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band. We had a contest to guess the songs played at halftime. As proof that David had no inside knowledge, he didn't even finish in the top half of the entrants. It was a great halftime show, and a great football game at the end as well.

For archival purposes, here's the text of the Evite that we sent out:

Lordy, lordy, look who's forty. Come celebrate David "officially turning old".

Dinner will be catered by Mamma Roma, so save all your carb points for the party!

Dress: Sports casual

We've included an end time for the end of the birthday festivities, but the party will continue to watch the Super Bowl (commercials/half-time show), for those who wish to stay.

David's 40th birthday party - family, friends, Italian food, potential New York football Giants repeat appearance in the Super Bowl, Super Bowl football, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band halftime show -- it's going to be legen ... wait for it ... dary!

First snow of winter

...and maybe the ONLY snow of the winter for Bowie. It was only an inch or two of snow, followed by a little sleet and freezing rain. Never lost power and the roads were only bad for a little bit. But of course the schools closed early on Tuesday, shut down on Wednesday, and inexplicably opened two hours late on Thursday. Sarah had fun outside on Tuesday, however, and she showed Nicholas how to catch snowflakes with your tongue. Nicholas just tilted his head to the sky, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth with a big smile on his face.

Grades and Awards

Sarah received her first report card this week. Her grades for all subjects were "PR" (for "proficient") - except for "Reading Level", for which her grade was "AB" (for above grade level). She's been reading books that are 2nd and 3rd grade level and above for sometime now. She reads so often she's earned the school rewards (for minutes per read week) in the reading club every month since the school year started.

David earned two separate awards at work this week. The first, from the Climate and Radiation Branch (the branch David is actually in), is a Special Act Award "for [his] generous contributions to various Branch activities, including the resolution of computer problems and the organization of Branch seminars". The second award, from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, is an Outstanding Performance Award "for exceptional performance in the development of a multi-analysis data set and the validation and inter-comparison of GEOS-5, an outstanding contribution to the GEWEX/CEOP community".

Holidays 2008

Our holidays this year kicked off, as usual, by celebrating both Chanukah and Grandpa's birthday at Grandpa and Sue's house. This year, we were at the new place in Annapolis, and there was plenty of room for all the kids (and all the presents). We had a delicious brunch and had plenty of fun playing with the new toys and puzzles.

We celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Papa Bob on the Sunday before Christmas Eve. We first went to the service at Knox Presbyterian (Grandma's church) and then we to Andrew and Treva's for more food (and more presents). Sarah finally lost her first tooth, chewing on some steamed rice. The Tooth Fairy paid a visit that night, and gave Sarah a dollar and a coupon to a visit to Chuck E. Cheese.

On Christmas Eve, we were all planning to go to the children's Mass on St. Pius with the Olsens, but Nicholas had another round of pink eye, so he stayed home with Ali. The next morning, we opened presents - and Santa brought us a Nintendo Wii! David wanted to ease into the day, but Ali and Sarah were pushing him to hook up the Wii as soon as possible. It didn't take long, and we played for a little while. For dinner, we went to the Olsens, and had ham and other goodies.

The weekend after Christmas, we drove up to NJ to stay at Steven and Jenne's in Madison for "A Mocko Family Christmas 2008". Sarah and Nicholas finally got to meet their new cousin Paige, and it was great to see Bryan and Anne and JJ again. We also met JJ's girlfriend Emily. Poppy was also there - but Mom-Mom was so sick with the flu or something like it that she couldn't come up to Madison. :( During the two-plus days we were in NJ, we met David's friends John and Carolyn, took the kids gym at the YMCA, and visited David's grandmother (GG, for great-grandmother) and Aunt Marlene.

For New Year's Eve, we went (as usual) to Ali's friend Cathy's party. She had a "pie" theme this year, so Alison made pepperoni bread on the shape of pi. We ate many other delicious savory and dessert pies, but the kids crashed and we left the party early, and were home by 10:15pm and asleep by 11:00pm.

That weekend, Alison had a bunch of her friends over for a tea party. We ate more delicious food as well (see a theme here?). It was definitely the kind of party that white people would like. *grin*

Happy 2009!

On New Year's Day, we weighed and measured the kids. Nicholas is now 35 and 1/2 inches tall, and is 30 pounds. Sarah is 46 inches tall and weighs 45 pounds. Happy New Year to all!