So, now what?

Some of you have emailed me and asked me what's next for us. Well, I'm just enjoying the moment! I'm just glad he's graduated!! Of course real life and rent come knocking at your door so -
Here's what's up for us next:
We've moved out of Caltech housing and into an apartment 2 feet bigger for twice the rent! We do have a washer and dryer now, so I am one happy mama! It is a lot brighter and we are enjoying our new little space. Buying a home in California is for them thar' rich folks. We still po' so we be waitin' a while!

Ameri took a job with an environmental engineering company here in California working on air quality issues. He'll be working in their downtown L.A. office. I like that he's using his degree to help the environment. So far he likes it too and he likes his boss, etc., but he is already talking about returning to school to get an MBA. (I know, believe me, I've already thunk all of those thoughts!) I was a little unsure at first but I told him if he's serious about it he'd better do it now while we're still poor. I don't want to get used to an income if it's going to be taken away from me!!! I'll keep you posted . . .

I have not been working for 6 months since little Madeleine arrived, but I will be returning to work in July. I'll only be training around 10 hrs/week this time. I've kept my favorite clients and so work should be quite enjoyable. Charley starts preschool in the Fall so I'll get "me time" while she gets to socialize! Madeleine gets to accompany me to the gym.
There we are in a nutshell. All sorts of nutty.

Dr. David

Hooray for us! Ameri graduated today! After 4+ long years Ameri has graduated from Caltech with his PhD in Chemical Engineering. He worked his little hiney off and we were able to celebrate his hard work today. I am so proud of him and all of his accomplishments. He is an inspiration and it was a very happy moment today to watch him get his diploma. Good job Ameri - we love you!!!
I also have to thank both of our families for all of their support and love! Thanks to Philippe & Hina for coming all the way from Tahiti to celebrate with us, and thanks to Eve, Olga and Rory for flying down just for the weekend to be with us! We love you guys!!

Here is the song they sang at graduation. Imagine it being sung to the tune of Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus. Very clever, very silly. Who knew?

There's Just One!
Text: K. Giapis and D. Caldwell

Hallelujah!
In Pasadena, graduation, jubilation, the time has come.
Sounds of music, glorious cheering, exaltation, adulation,
the time is now!

Graduates on this day we salute you!
Sing praises, you've done it, it's over, hallelujah!
For your accomplishments, we give honor.
Sing praises, you've done it, it's over, hallelujah!

Praise on this day of great celebration!
You've done it, you're through, no more take-homes, no problem sets,
hallelujah!
No thesis, no flicking, no flaming, no more work, hallelujah!
No finals, no midterms, no more nights in the lab, hallelujah!

For there is life beyond quantum physics.
For there is life beyond the house alleys.
No research, no UASH (??), all-nighters are all gone,
No classes, no letters from the Dean!
Free weekends, real life begins!

With vision now go forth and seek a new horizon, and make your
alma mater proud.
And she shall reign forever in science.

There's just one!
- in theories of protons, electrons and chem bonds.
Caltech can stun!
- in science with rigor, in research with vigor.
There's just one!
- in rockets, in astro, in seismo, in neurons.
Tech is the sun:
- with medals of science, with Nobel achievements.
There's just one!
- for ever exalted remember the Rose Bowl!
And now you're done, you have won, hail new alum.

And you shall spread Tech's passion for science.

New alum, Tech needs you, remit a sum, contribute!
For Tech to reign in science forever.
There's just one! A star of stars!
There's just one! Renown on Mars! (JPL!)

And Tech shall reign forever in science.
You've won the day, we shout hooray!

We honor your passion, your achievement, your triumph, hallelujah!

Getting it out of my system

There are a couple of epiphanies that I've had recently. One is in regards to true friendship and the other concerns just letting go and getting "it" out of my system. Let me explain.

As years pass it becomes pretty obvious how important family is and how your family can become your best friends regardless of whether your older brother stuffed you in sleeping bags and dragged you down the stairs as a child. I've mentioned that my immediate family has become great at emailing short "strings" to each other and we keep each other laughing. The transition from being family to best friends came fairly natural in my case and I feel blessed because of it. The transition from friend to family though can be rare.

Ameri and I recently discussed who our true friends are. We feel like we have some really great "acquaintance" friends and that hanging out with these friends can be truly enjoyable. However, there are those FRIENDS that save your life and your sanity. They're the friends that when you sit in silence there is no awkwardness. They're the friends that you may not have seen for 5 years and yet you can pick up a conversation with them as if you talk to them on the phone every day. These friends allow you to say what's on your mind, tell you what's on their mind and neither party gets offended when things get "real". I don't think I can put real friendship into words, but I think you all know what I'm talking about. Bless you dear friends. Thanks for saving my sanity.

As for getting "it" out of my system, I recently went to Utah for another 2 weeks to allow Ameri some time to finish writing. While I was there I decided to go to "Comedy Sportz". For those of you who do not know what it is, Comedy Sportz is and improv group that performs short shows similar to "Whose Line is it Anyway". I used to perform with them a few years back. I only did it for a short time, but when I did "it" I found that it was something I was fairly good at. I didn't do it long enough to become incredible, but I was learning and I think I did pretty good (without sounding smug).

Before I arrived I was nervous to see people I used to perform with and I was anticipating that those who used to perform with me would say something like, "Wow Kristi! So good to have you back! We've missed you!"
Well, as it turns out no one missed me and I had to remind everyone but one girl who I was (you mean the world doesn't revolve around me?) The epiphany came when I realized that I had actually moved on in my life. I'm not saying the people still performing haven't moved on (far from it!!), but it was just something that I didn't need to do anymore. I always thought I could perform again someday. Maybe I will, maybe not, but whatever happens I know that it was a great time in my life and I'm glad I had the opportunity!

Madeleine takes on cereal

It's always fun to watch your babies eat cereal for the first time. Madeleine was definitely no exception. Once she realized that it doesn't really taste that great, it became a game as to how I could get the food into her mouth. Making stupid faces and playing "airplane" didn't do jack for me with sweet Madeleine. She was as stubborn and tight-lipped as can be until I spiked her cereal with something sweet. She's not dumb.

BFF

Meet Hadley. She is Charley's best friend. Hadley is only 2 but by the way she talks you would think she's 16. She is not afraid to tell you what's on her mind and, seeing as how Charley is just the same, together they're a force to be reckoned with! Girls being girls. Giggles and all.
Do you remember being so care-free?
Germs? What germs? Just save some frosting for me will ya?My favorite. Hadley's mom Laura and I took the kids to the botanical gardens. While we were in the Chinese garden the girls got a little "hammy". Laura caught them in a perfect pose. Ah, youth!

Coldplay "Viva la Vida" Live

I love this song. MTV is not letting me share so I have to send you to them HERE.
Enjoy!

A Sleep Over

My brother Steve took his wife Vicki out for an overnight birthday surprise and Ameri and I went down South to babysit their kids. Charley had a fabulous time and they only got into a few big fights. Thanks Emily and Josh for a great time!

Josh, Charley and Emily at dinner.

The next big rock band. Josh is the lead singer (all of the attitude, good looks, and no pants!), Emily will be the manager (notice the cell phone), and Charley will be back-up vocals and lead guitar. Oh yes, Emily will also be in charge of hair and make-up. She found that ketchup is a great way to get hair to stay just where you want it. Charley is sporting the ketchup "half back/half straight" look. Thank-you Emmers!

Emily and Madeleine trying to find some reprieve from the hot sun.

Charley actually posed for this one herself. She got into position and then said, "Mommy! Take a picture of me like this!" A model in the making!

When Steve and Vicki came home Steve decided to set up their new pool for the kids. It was REALLY hot and you can see everyone enjoying the cool water. Vicki and I decided to stay dry!

Madeleine's First Service Project

When I was Young Women's president in our ward the girls did a lot of service projects. I'm no longer the president, but there is one clean-up project that I want to keep doing every year even if I'm not in charge of the girls anymore. We go to one of the local trail-heads and clean out all of the overgrowth, etc. It's fun and our family gets outside and helps the community.

Madeleine: working hard!

Charley using her "guns"!

Just hangin' around.

I was remembering Charley's first service project and went back and found this picture (July '05 - planting trees!). Whenever I go back through these old pictures of Charley I'm struck by how much my girls look alike!

Charleyisms

Charley says some pretty funny stuff. Here are some things she has already said to me today:

We sat down to eat breakfast and she says, "Mom you didn't pray for your food. You better do it."
I start to pray and she says, "Calm down Mom. Just calm down. I'll do it."
I must have been praying pretty intently!

We were sitting on the couch reading a story and it was about the "Care Bears". She is looking at one of the Care Bears in the story book and tells me that he has a "cute little tail". I ask her if she thinks she has a cute little tail and she looks at me with exasperation in her eyes and says, "No Mom. I have a bum."
I guess I didn't study anatomy hard enough. Duh Mom!

While we were eating lunch Madeleine hits one of the little sound makers on her exersaucer and it roars like a lion. Charley declares, "I like to eat lion."
Me: "Oh, you do? Isn't it a little gamey?"
Charley: "No. It's just a little 'roary'."
She must like it raw.

Comical cuties

Charley's birthday was last month and it was a very small affair. I decided to get Charley a little cake of her own. She eats very slowly and after an hour this is the progress she had made.



Madeleine has not mastered the ability to roll from back to tummy, but we were able to get her to roll over from tummy to back. It takes a couple of minutes so be patient! Charley likes to be a cheerleader but she has a hard time with the he/she thing!

Embarrassing moments

Have you ever just randomly remembered an embarrassing moment? It's awful. Last night I was getting ready for bed and I just remembered some random moment pulled from the cosmos of my brain and I instantly remembered and felt every feeling that I had had when it happened. I have a lot of embarrassing moments so it's not hard to bring one to memory, but man, I could totally skip it!

On that note, my brothers and sisters and I like to exchange email "strings" every now and again and inevitably one of us always remembers an embarrassing moment to share. It sets us all off and we tend to share WAY to much information with each other. For instance, we were sharing stories about peeing our pants last time. You can only imagine . . .

In honor of embarrassing moments, here is one of mine:
I was in high school at the time and my friend and I were at church. We both had taken an unnecessary bathroom break and I finished before she did. I thought I would be silly and wait for her then scare her as she came out of the stall. I still love scaring people. Ameri hates it. Anyway, I was standing in anticipation of the big scare when the stall door opens. I yell as loud as I can, "Arrrrrr"! Much to my dismay it was one of the old ladies from church in the stall and not my friend. She gave me this look like I was crazy and then just walked past me out the door (maybe she washed her hands first I don't know).
I was mortified! Where had my friend gone and how had I found myself in such a horrible situation. Well, my friend had indeed finished before me and heard the whole thing go down. That just made it worse. Not only had I made a fool of myself, but someone had witnessed it. Yep, even writing about it I get the flushed skin and creepy-crawlies. Feel free to share yours with me - the only thing to make a fool feel better is to know that there's a bigger fool out there!

My kind of visiting teaching!

My visiting teaching companion (Saskia) and I decided to go to the botanical gardens to teach our friend Erica. We all have kids and it's much easier to do when the kids can run around and go crazy. Here are some fun shots I got of the kids.

Charley and her new friend Claire

Charley, Claire and Jack

Madeleine and Me

Showdown in the Children's garden! June is Erica's little girl, Charley is in the blue hat.

Saskia, me and the kids

A bit blurry sorry! The kids after a fun day. June looks a little haggard eh?