10.5 years in
October 25, 2009
- Lily has been just ornery–yelling, scratching, or doing whatever is necessary to get anyone with the temerity to cross her. She also sounds like a long-term smoker when she talks.
- Elsie is now our sickest child with eyes that make you want to cry when you look at them,
- Timmy's been reading and sounding out everything in sight,
- Abby made a quarto-sized book for Elsie complete with illustrations, story, and binding,
- Kate finally recovered enough to get back to attending school and playing soccer.
- Gina worked things out with her favorite midwives in Albuquerque to have the baby with them, and
- I made a combination of celery, carrots, chicken, garlic, onions, fish sauce, egg noodles, and a light marinara sauce that I sold to the kids under the name of "Tuscan spaghetti." Amazingly, people loved it.
Half a year from taxes
October 18, 2009
- Lily said, "Daddy, thank you for doing everything that I want,"
- Elsie got to wear her pajamas for a whole day,
- Timmy learned to charge the offense instead of sitting in the goal when he is a goalie,
- Abby scored two goals for her team,
- Kate was sick all week and missed a couple of days of school and all her soccer,
- Gina's stomach is starting to get tired and sore by the end of each day, and
- I discovered that I'm now the first person who comes up when I search my professional name ("Douglas H. Bradshaw").
Durango
October 12, 2009
- Lily pushed Elsie around Durango in the stroller, and
- Elsie learned to pump and explained that her success came because she was pumping with all her might.
- Timmy gave us the time every minute with the stop-watch/clock combination that he got from his grandpa. One day later, he lost it and cried bitterly.
- Abby got a queen-sized bed all to herself two nights in a row, because
- Kate chose to sleep on the floor, and
- Gina liked not preparing dinner almost as much as the beauty of the Animas in the fall.
- I put a free version of a paper I helped write onto the web,
- "Grandma Judy" took a series of fantastic pictures, and
- "Grandpa Tim" gave the kids ice cream, hot chocolate, and varied and sundry toys.
Defense
October 4, 2009
First, a little news. I changed jobs, but stayed here in Los Alamos. I'm currently learning about laser guided chemical vapor deposition technologies and helping figure out ways to make high quality gold micro and nanotubes.
I also defended my dissertation. I the presentation went great and I passed, but with a stipulation. There are two chapters in my dissertation that I've been asked to develop and polish and turn into submittable papers. Until I do that, I don't graduate. So I'm trying to spend some time each night developing and polishing. For the rest,- Lily has been singing "I am a child of God" to her dollies in a very gentle voice,
- Elsie has been batting her eyes to charm her way out of reprimands,
- Timmy took making our bed over from Elsie and cheerfully did the dishes this week,
- Abby took all the green tomatoes, wrapped them in paper, put them in a box, and taped it shut for storage,
- Kate scored a goal against the toughest soccer team she's faced (they still lost 3-4),
- Gina was overheard explaining, "we do not use the toothbrush for our toes."
