Callie

Life in 2012

I've been told that when you join our church and start paying tithing you should not attempt to pay tithing for all the years you were not a member of the church.  In keeping with that spirit, I will not try too hard to remember and write about all the things that have happened over the past year in which I have been neglecting this family blog.

My how time flies.  I am back in Europe on business.  (It seems business trips help me find the time to write.)  This time I am only spending two weeks here, as opposed to the month and a half I spent last time.  I went to church today in Malmo, Sweden, where Erika, Thomas, and Matthew also went to church during their trip earlier this year.  I saw a couple folks nod and smile when I mentioned this during my introduction in the priesthood meeting.  It was a really nice experience, bringing back memories of the small branches and wards I attended as a youth living overseas.  The upcoming U.S. election was brought up a couple times in Sunday School and Sacrament meeting, mostly in reference to the world-wide attention being put on the church.  Apparently a program talking about the church aired on TV this week - it had some positive things to say but also a lot of negative things.  The Bishop likened this media treatment to someone looking at a beautiful face and focusing on one little blemish or mole.  Apt analogy, no?  One man who bore his testimony said he remembers years ago teaching a history class in school and that one of the subjects they covered was the origins of our church.  He recalls finding it all quite preposterous and even getting his students to laugh with him.  Later, when the missionaries taught him basically the same history he was deeply moved.  His conclusion - teaching by the spirit makes all the difference.

My company is slowly transitioning back from being a global company to being a mainly Danish company.  When I was hired last year the vision was for U.S. operations to expand.  This week the company announced the closure of two U.S. offices, one in Boston and another in Colorado.  (The closure of the Houston office has already been announced for some time, but the timing is now more certain.)  The only major U.S. office left is in Portland, but there is really no technical research going on there.  Nonetheless, I have been asked to move to Portland by June 2013.  Portland wouldn't be so bad, but it puts me nine hours away from HQ where pretty much everyone I need to work with is located.  I was also given the option of moving to Aarhus, Denmark (HQ), but after some careful consideration decided against that mostly for the sake of the family.  Last week I spoke with an American co-worker who lives in Aarhus -- he loves his job but the cold and darkness has taken a bit of a toll on his wife's mental well-being and, to some extent, his.  He also misses a lot of the little conveniences most of us Americans have but take for granted, such as a garage, space for large items of furniture, and a coat closet.  Furthermore, the heavy taxes have made saving money difficult.  His solution to the cold and darkness has been to take lots of mini-vacations to warmer, sunnier places, but that puts additional strain on his budget.  So we will have to give Portland some thought, but I am looking around at other job openings in Houston (and a little in Dallas - I have an interview there later this week).  Although I am grateful to have a good job, the uncertainty about where I will eventually work and, correspondingly, where the family will live, has put some unwanted stress on all of us these past few months.

During this trip, I have been skype-ing with Erika and the children almost every evening.  I stay up late and my virtual head sits (via laptop) at the table with everyone during dinner.  But for the silly faces little Coco (now Cora) and I make at each other during dinner, we carry on with our normal conversation as if I were actually present.  Thomas has been enjoying cross country at school this year.  He truly loves running - something I remember loving a lot when I was his age, at least I loved it more than I do now.  Matthew loves playing on a soccer team and participates in math competitions.  One evening when I came to his room to tell him goodnight he quickly asked me to leave because he was timing himself on a practice test.  One of the competitions he enjoys most (there are a few different ones) is mental math.  For example, he can multiply lots of different combinations of 3 digit numbers in his head in seconds.  I think he likes the parlor trick value, so to speak, of that particular competition.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a campout with Thomas and the other scouts his age.  Matthew, though not a full-aged scout yet, came along as my guest.  Thomas was not too keen on the idea, Matthew being a little too young and immature for Thomas and his sophisticated 12-13 year old friends.  In the end, nobody minded having Matthew around one bit.  In fact, the 12 year old scouts were particularly delighted to have him around.  While sitting around the campfire, the owner of the property we camped on announced that he had free kittens for the taking -- they were found one morning in one of his sheds .  Thomas and Matthew begged to take a kitten home.  Erika thought it wasn't such a bad idea.  So we welcomed two kittens into our home that day.  They stay in Thomas's room for now.  About a week later, the female got lost.  We weren't sure if she had managed to escape the house so just in case Erika made some signs and posted them around the neighborhood.  We eventually gave up and Thomas shed a few tears.  That night after reading bedtime stories to Emmy, while leaving her room I looked down at a pile of toys near her door and saw the kitten curled up with the toys.

Emmy copied a "lost kitten" sign with her best handwriting to help with the search

A couple months ago I traveled to Singapore for work and spent a week there.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip (there is a whole raft of these photos on my facebook profile).

part of the city as viewed from a river/canal I jogged by each morning

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some monks playing badminton... without a net (what bravado!)

a tree that grows "figs" on its trunk

And here are some recent photos of the kids:

Matthew's bed-head looks a little like some of the hair-dos I've seen on this trip

These next few were taken a while back while Erika and the boys were in Denmark and I took the girls to a nearby children's farm.

Cora climbing around in a play structure / barn

 Emmy did not want to milk the cow - too many flies, I think

Emmy during a much happier moment

 Went to turn off the light and found this

Thomas really wanted to go to a haunted house so I took him to this "mental patient hospital."  Nobody else in the family or any of his close friends dared to go with us.  It was quite scary.

And finally, here are some photos of sights in Malmo, Sweden:

The twisting torso building near my hotel.

 

The twisting torso up close (turns out you can't go inside - it's residential)

a castle with moat and all

 my 3pm shadow (to be fair, I am rather tall)

I couldn't resist photographing this cool little orange juice maker in the European patent office in Munich.  (I was there for a judicial hearing to oppose the grant of a competitor's patent.)  The basket on top rotates, dropping oranges into a little torture chamber in which they are squeezed to death.

Photos of Denmark

I am almost halfway through my stay in Denmark.  It has been really amazing.  I'd like to share a few photos of some places I have visited.  

My department (IP rights) includes people from Houston, Denmark, Singapore, and China.  Because there is no one time we can all meet without disturbing someone's sleep, we all get together once a year for a big meeting.  I think it is usually held in Denmark because that is where most people in the department work.  This week we had the meeting at a conference center called Fuglsøcentret just north of Aarhus.  Here is a bird's eye view of the conference center (the group of buildings just above the golf course).  After the conference I played the nine hole golf course, which afforded some stunning views.

The day before the conference I got to travel to the west coast of Denmark and climb up into an actual wind turbine.  (They turn it off while people are inside it.)  Our guide started off with a strict lecture on safety, then smiled broadly and said, "Welcome to the V112 wind turbine."  The 112 part of its name means the blades sweep out a circle with a 112 meter diameter.  I didn't go into the blades but some servicemen with us did go inside one of the blades to install some sensors.  I just walked around in the nacelle (big rectangular thing on top of the tower) and sat inside the hub in the middle of the three blades.  It is among the largest turbines you can find on land.  Our company is currently developing a new off-shore wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 164 meters.  It's a behemoth.  Also, in just a few weeks I am going to visit a factory where they are developing floating wind turbines for use in the ocean far away from land, which were considered unthinkable just a few years ago.

Here is my office, which I travel to and from each weekday either by bus or bike (once I even walked home - a bit far but doable).

Much of the architecture in Denmark is minimalist, but also somewhat unique.  Here is a building near my office that I bike past.  Notice the interesting arrangement of windows.

I have a shopping market near my apartment.  I thought I'd snap a photo so you could see what a typical shopping market looks like here.  You have to put a coin in the shopping cart to release it from the queue and you get the coin back when you're done-- I think -- so far I've just used a handheld basket to shop.

One day I was waiting for the bus and an emergency vehicle pulled up right in front of me.  They were assisting with clean up of what appeared to be a big oil spill from a broken down bus just down the street.

Here is a view of the skyline of Aarhus.  They don't have any really big buildings.  The gray rectangular shaped building jutting above the others is the town hall and nearby is the steeple of a large church.  My apartment is on the fifth floor of a building that looks a lot like the ones in the foreground.  Apartment buildings of this style are all over.

A lovely beach near my apartment.

 Lots of people go sailing in the bay near Aarhus.  

On Saturday I took a bike ride to see the royal family's summer house.

Here is the harbor near my apartment (sorry it's skewed, I took the photo while riding my bike).

That's all for now.

New chapter of life in Houston

We recently moved to Houston so I could start a new job.  I now work for Vestas, a wind turbine company based out of Denmark.  It was a somewhat stressful time while we moved, as can be expected, but thankfully the company paid for the move.  In addition, although we initially didn't like the idea of renting our house, we ultimately decided to after seeing how low the offers were on our beloved house in Utah. 

We now live in the house the Rowbothams used to occupy.  They briefly considered moving into our house, but ultimately decided to move to Heber.  I got to help them load the truck with their stuff a couple weeks ago. 

Everyone is pretty happy about being here in Houston.  Erika and I are excited about the warm winters.  The boys and I were bummed about leaving the beloved mountains of Utah behind since we were just learning how to ski.  On the other hand, now we can golf year round!  Emmy loves to go swimming at the neighborhood pool near our house.  She also likes to look at the lizards the boys catch and put in the terrarium on our back porch.  Matthew is starting to warm up to tacos, I'm told.  Good thing, because every Tuesday at his school cafeteria is Tex Mex day.

As part of my new job, I have the pleasure of spending six weeks in Europe for job training.  I will be in Denmark for the next few weeks and then in the UK for one week.  Right now I am in Copenhagen, where my boss and some co-workers work.  Next week I will go to Aarhus where a lot of the engineers work.  During the brief time I had in Texas before coming here to Denmark, we did some child-friendly sight-seeing in Houston.  For instance, we went to the Johnson Space Center and Erika took the boys to a science museum that had the original Star Wars costumes and other Star Wars paraphenalia on display.  I also got to celebrate Erika's birthday with her--I took the family out to eat at a restaurant called The Hobbit, which was actually quite delicious despite the silly theme.

Now for a brief travel log of my trip so far.  I took the following photos of Copenhagen just walking around my hotel tonight:

Here is my hotel (Clarion Collection 27)

Every few blocks you encounter an open plaza like this one

My boss took me to dinner last night at this french restaurant in the Latin quarter.  Being in Copenhagen is like being in a little bit of every major European city.  Also, my boss is a really nice guy.  He is part Spanish, part French, so he's cool and classy (French part), but the opposite of snooty (Spanish part).  

Most people in Denmark do not have a car.  For example, last night my boss got to my hotel via metro and bike.  Apparently, Denmark imposes heavy taxes on the purchase of a car.  Consequently, most people get around on bikes, as demonstrated by the bike parking lot shown above.  And because there are so many bikes, many of the roads have two sidewalks -- one for bikes and one for pedestrians.  And heaven help the pedestrian who accidentally walks in the bike lane--that's a great way to end up in the hospital.  Also, many bikes are equipped with passenger seats, as show below.

Copenhagen is a group of islands and so canals such as this one are a common sight.  The canals are contiguous with the North Sea.  I plan to take a canal tour this weekend.
 

A conveniently located toilet I ran into on the street.

 Absalon is a famous figure in Danish history and I thought this statue of him wielding an axe while riding a horse was ultra-cool.

 I found this uniquely titled store while walking to the metro my first morning here.

Although it's a bit cliche, the only word I can think of to describe how I feel about being in Denmark is "unreal."  I really miss my family, but being in this unusual place has distracted me from that feeling for now.  I will enjoy that while I can.

Finally Found My Camera!

Dear Family,

I finally found my camera, so get ready for a bunch of pictures! I'll try to touch on the highlights of the past month too. We stayed busy with Halloween celebrations, school field trips, school and just playing together :)

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of driving a group of Thomas's classmates on a school field trip to two BYU museums that I didn't know existed. I knew that BYU had an art museum and a natural history museum, but this was my first time visiting the BYU Palentology and Peoples & Cultures Museums. Both museums were very interesting and I'd like to bring Matthew back sometime.

Our group watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid and ate lots of
popcorn & movie candy on the drive to and from BYU

Going on a scavenger at the Palentology museum!

The coolest group strikes a pose just before going to the
Peoples and Cultures museum

While I was on the field trip, Emmy and Cora went to Silver Pups, a program that I'm so thankful for. It's so nice to have the flexibility to volunteer and substitute teach at Thomas & Matthew's school and to know that our girls are having safe fun and being productive at the same time.

The Awesome and Amazing Miss Emily (Go BYU Early Childhood Program!!!)
plays with and reads to Cora, at Silver Pups, whenever I sub, volunteer, and/or run errands

My job as a substitute teacher has gotten so much easier since the school has mandated a new name tag rule for all of the students and faculty. Now I never have to guess on names. Here is my cool new magnetic name tag:

Thomas and Matthew wear name tags like this one almost every day

I went with Emmy and Cora to the Silver Pups Halloween party. The teachers are so fun and creative in the activities they do with the kids there. Emmy dressed up as Elmo and Cora was a strawberry. We went trick or treating through all of the school offices, through the cafeteria, and to a few classrooms. Emmy went on a pumpkin hunt on the playground and she painted her pumpkin pretty fall colors. The kids also sang some Halloween songs for us.

The Silver Pups, with their parents and teachers,
trick or treat their way through the school halls

Elmo stops for a quick taste

Emmy-Elmo leads the charge!

Then she stops for another treat with her
buddy/neighbor Jacob Speckman, who wore a cute monster getup

After the playground pumpkin hunt,
Emmy-Elmo admires the biggest pumpkin of all!

Our whole family went to Ron's office's Halloween party as well. They boys trick or treated through three floors of offices in Ron's building, getting an huge amount of loot. They dressed up as clone troopers this year.

The clone troopers, Thomas and Matthew, make
their way through the spookily decorated Workman Nydegger.
By the end, those "Grandma Ward" pillow cases were FULL of candy.

Yikes! Who is this guy?!

He can take his face off! Gross :P

One of the attorneys and all three of his kids dressed up as
Sesame Street Yip-Yip Martians. This Yip Yip almost ate Emmy!!!

After the Workman Nydegger party, Ron had to stay to finish up some extra work before the weekend. Thomas and Matthew really wanted to ride the train home with him, so all four kids and I played around on Temple Square (across the street from Ron's office), until Ron's work was complete.

There are so many pretty fountains to play around!

Matthew tests his balance

The Joseph Smith building was decorated for October.
This picture was taken past Emmy's bed time. She was ready to go home.

Ron, Thomas, and Matthew made it to Sandy on the Trax train before Emmy, Cora, and I arrived there in our minivan. I think it was because I stopped for a couple of diaper changes and feedings. I picked the guys up and we all drove home together.

By now, you're probably sick of all of the Halloween parties, but I'll just post one more picture from our ward Chili Cook off and costume party. This one is of Emmy-Elmo and our cute little neighbor, Mia. Emmy and Mia are in nursery together and like to play together.

Emmy and Mia show us their cute costumes at the Ward Chili Cook-off!

This year Halloween fell on Sunday and so most all of our neighbors did trick or treating on Saturday night. It was raining, but that didn't stop us from giving out nearly 15 pounds of candy! On Saturday night we went to a small Halloween party at the Villagomez's house. They made homemade pizza and we turned off the bright lights and told scary stories. Ron went home and put the girls to bed, while the Thomas, Matthew, and I stayed late. We only had three trick-or-treaters come on Sunday and we didn't know any of them.

Our trick-or-treaters stop at the first house, our house!

One night, a few weeks ago, our whole family went to Juan Diego Catholic High School's performance of Cinderella. Juan Diego donated a bunch of free tickets to American Prep (our school). Emmy and I loved it! The sets, acting, and the costumes were incredible! I think that the boys were worried that they might get seen their by some girls from their school. Sure enough they did! They were good sports about it :)

Emmy and I visit with the "back-up" Cinderella

Emmy wishes that she had worn her Cinderella costume too.

Sometimes after I pick up the kids from school, we stop at parks or other places to play for a while. We loved stopping at this family's pumpkin patch and corn maze off of the corner of our neighborhood. I especially like to support this pumpkin patch/corn maze, because all of the money earned from it goes to that family's kids' missionary fund :)

Thomas and Matthew help Emmy climb up to "drive" the tractor

We enjoyed pizza for our picnic dinner, inside a hay trailer

And yet another corn maze for our after dinner entertainment

I hope that you're not totally bored yet :) Just a few more photos! On a teacher work day, Thomas and Matthew didn't have school and Emmy and Cora did have the opportunity to go. And so I was able to spend some special time alone with Thomas and Matthew up on the top of a mountain, at Silver Lake, next to Brighton Ski Resort. It is such a beautiful place and we had so much fun just hiking and playing around together.

The Silver Lake ice was really hard to break with rocks and sticks

Thomas and Matthew enjoy a little "bro-mance"

Throwing rocks. It was so hard to get them to leave.
We'll have to go again sometime.

Cordelia is a wonderfully content baby. She's eating solids, mostly squash and oatmeal cereal w/ grape juice. I tried rice cereal first, but it gave her a pretty bad case of reflux. She's getting quite mobile -- she scoots and rolls across the room and she's able to hold her rattles and teething rings. She's a pure joy <3 style="text-align: center;">
CoCo is ready to go!

Zoom Zoom! Cora loves her "Jeep" walker!

Emmy is a bundle of fun too :) I'll share a few cute things that Emmy has said recently. Ever morning I comb out the tangles in Emmy's hair. I try to make it as painless as possible, by distracting her with a movie, using detangling spray, and a very wide toothed comb. She still doesn't like it very much. One morning when i was combing away, she turned around, looked me in the eye and putting out her hand said, "Emmy's turn!!!"

I handed her the comb. She lightly fake-brushed the comb down the side of her head, then she chucked it across the room, announcing, "All done!!!"

There are lots of days when Emmy wants to wear her pajamas all day.
On the comb incident day, Emmy threw her comb from about
where she is standing to the pillows on the settee.

We still have a group of really sweet Spanish-speaking ladies come over regularly to clean our house. One of them especially seems to like Emmy a lot. She always smiles at Emmy and waves, saying, "Hi Emmy!" I decided that it might be a fun opportunity for Emmy to learn some Spanish and so I instructed Emmy to say, "ola!" Emmy looked at the lady and said, "Hi Ola!" Now every time Emmy sees her she says, with exuberance, "Hi, Ola!."

One night, while I was making dinner, Emmy asked to take a
bath in the "little tubby." Playing in the kitchen sink
turned out to be a fun playtime.

Just one more story: We were eating dinner and Thomas said, "Please pass the sour cream." Emmy went running to the mud room and came back with the sunscreen :)

We send our love!!!

Erika, Ron, Thomas, Matthew, Emmeline, and Cordelia