A Year in Review or The Longest Post Ever

It has officially been one year since we blogged (besides the 2 or 3 bare minimum posts). So, I'm going to give a summary of what we have been doing in the last year to update.

Maia:
Maia finished up her dance class at Miss Angela's house in January. She was doing so well by the end, I was disappointed Angela wouldn't be teaching anymore. (They had a baby and moved along with Maia's friend Daisy).
We celebrated Maia's 4th Birthday in February. She really wanted a Princess Party, so we sent out Princess invitations to around 15 friends and the princess's at DisneyWorld. On February 12th, everyone gathered in their best princess attire at The Jacobson Castle (Papa Jake's very old English style residence). We were not sure if the princesses would be able to make it, but 15 minutes after the party started, Aurora and Rapunzel arrived! They gathered the girl's downstairs and played games, painted faces, sang songs, and posed for pictures. Rapunzel sat right next to Maia the whole time. Maia was so excited/surprised she passed right out during one of the games (not really;)). After the Princesses left, we ate dinner (catered by Dask's Greek) and another amazing cake (created by Ben, of course).

On our trip to Hawaii, Maia fell in love with Jimmy. She told him that if she couldn't marry Ben, than she would marry him. She also told him, "If you are with us, people might think you are married, but you're not." Jimmy, Maia, and Ben spent hours wading through the tide pools and Maia learned how to catch little blennies with her hand! Maia also had a great time running around the big condo we had in Honolulu with her brother and playing with Auntie Jenny. At one of the beaches on the Big Island, she was standing in the water with Ben and there were four sea turtles around her! She could have reached out and touched one if she wanted. She was learning to boogie board at the same beach. If we still lived there, I wouldn't be able to get her out of the water! Maia also had an experience with the Menehune. As everyone knows, Menehune leave a little present on your first visit to Hawaii. On our first day there, Maia found a small slipper close to our car that we could only assume was a Menehune's. We decided he was coming to drop off Akai's gift when he got startled by someone and lost his shoe. Maia searched the entire time for a Menehune with a lost shoe, but could never find one. With the help of Jimmy and his mom, we found some good places to leave the Menehune slipper, but ultimately decided that the place with the ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs would be the best. Maia left the slipper next to a small cave and on the way back, she found that the slipper was gone and two chocolates were in its place! I guess the Menehune got his slipper back.

Maia really wanted to go to Mesquite to swim. We told her that we would go if she passed her swimming class. She did and while we were there, Maia swam and swam (probably at least 8 hours)! She is getting pretty good at dunking her head under the water and holding her breath. She again, loved the water slide and could not wait until it opened in the morning. The last day we were there, she fell off the bed and her head hit the ground really hard. For those of you who know Maia, she rarely cries when she gets hurt, but she was crying this time. We got out to the pool and she just wanted to lie there on the chair. It was odd. She kept dozing off. Then, she went into the room with Ben and threw-up all over. I think she experienced a concussion. It is probably not her last with that wild child. I am just happy she is ok!
One of the biggest things with Maia this year is that she started school. First, she went to summer camp at Imagination Place (where we do our Music Together classes). It only took a few times before she stopped crying in the morning and she never ran out of the room after us. I was pleasantly surprised, but a little heartbroken that she is growing up so quickly. Her very favorite part of the class was doing anti-gravity yoga. We were told she was very good at it, as well, for her young age. They could not believe how strong she was (and still is).
Second, she started pre-school at the Jewish Community Center. We were very concerned that she was not going to get in as she was #4 on the waiting list. We started looking at other schools about 2-3 weeks before the session started. Then, the day after our tour of one dismal looking pre-school (literally, the lights were so dim it made the place seem depressing), the director called and said that they had made a place for Maia! YAY! She went to meet her teachers on September 6 (Theresa, Eric, and Amy) and started on September 7. For about 2 months, she told me everyday that she did not want to go to school. She cried a bit when we dropped her off, but we developed a routine of going to draw a picture when she first gets there. Now, she LOVES school! She hardly gives us a look when we leave in the morning and she is missing going now that she is on winter break. She has made many friends in her nut-free class, Ginger (who she plays squirrels with), Sophia with brown hair, Sophia with blonde hair, Milo (her Kangaroo Zoo buddy), and Kaia (rhymes with Maia). Most of her classmates are quiet like she is and it took some time to get them to start socializing with each other, but her teachers are stellar and have really worked with them to boost their confidence and socialization skills. She even successfully went on a field trip (after I took her to see where they were going, of course). They went to the Sunflower Market where they tried mango, cheese, and candy and went into the meat freezer. "It was stinky and everyone held their nose except for me."
Maia is looking forward to Christmas. We went shopping to look at things that she might want to add to her Christmas present list. She was naming just about everything she saw. Then, she saw something remarkable. She said, "Mama, forget everything that I told you that I wanted up to now. I just want this." Want to take a guess at what our girlie-girl Maia wanted? A pink baseball bat and ball. (My mind is cheering at the thought of not having to go to dance recitals)! She is absolutely getting it for Christmas.

Akai:
Akai's biggest accomplishment this year is his supreme use of language and ever growing vocabulary. He went from saying, "Doooooooooooh" in Hawaii to saying, "Hee hee, Haa haa" in Mesquite to saying dozens of dinosaur names and 5 word sentences! Currently, he is adding "too much" to everything. "I love you, too much!" "I need a drink, too much!" "I am running, too much!" And, he copies just about everything that Maia says or does ("cast the anchor on the lion," "me, me, me, me....," "chicka, chicka, boom, boom, SQUISH").
He also is always trying to start arguments with Maia. He says, "She's my mama FIRST!" whenever Maia is trying to hug me. He will take things from her and run away laughing. He will also try to hide things from her. He does know that when he pinches or pushes he has to go to timeout. He will do one of the former transgressions, then go and stand in timeout on his own. A few minutes later he will come over and say, "I'm alright. Sorry, Maia." It is funny how he will sacrifice by going to timeout to get what he wants in the short-term.
He is a joker, as well. He somehow has perfect timing to make everyone laugh and he knows exactly what he is doing. It is bewildering to me since I never possessed this skill. He will be eating and if he really likes it, he will get up and do his "happy dance" which is just him alternatively putting his elbows out in front of him and bouncing up and down.
In Hawaii, he did not so much like the sand or the water because he doesn't like to be dirty. He played quietly with Grandma in the shade most of the time. He did have fun running around the condo, playing with his sister, and seeing the bullfrogs at the aboretum.

We spent Easter in the bungalow at Mesquite. It was nice to get some warmer weather for a few days. On Easter morning, Akai discovered the eggs outside in the yard and had a marvelous time collecting them. When he discovered that there was candy and crackers inside from Maia, he would shove handfuls in his mouth as fast as he could to prevent me from taking it away.
Akai did have a wonderful time 'swimming' at Mesquite. He was in the pool as much as his sister. He like playing on the stairs the most. He also had a great time riding the brass deer at Grandma's condo. He got so into it, holding onto the horns and rocking back and forth. Very funny!
All summer, 'Amma' and 'Pops' took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum in Logan. Never a day passed when Akai did not ask to go to the 'Dino Museum.' He really loves dinos "too much." He wants to wear dinosaur shirts daily and looks through dinosaur encyclopedias. Maybe, he will be a paleontologist. Although, he loves cars and trucks and trains, too. He really is interested in backhoes and race cars and Thomas the Steam Engine. He insists on taking one of the aforementioned to bed with him every night. Can you imagine sleeping with an encyclopedia or a hard wooden train? We've tried to switch him to stuffed dinosaur toys, but he will have none of that. He needs his blanket and hard, hand-fitting toy.
Akai also loves reading. He will sit and listen to the books that I read to Maia, which is amazing because the are 2nd grade novels. I guess that is one of the reasons his use of language is so good.
Akai is going through the same stage as Maia did, where he is afraid of shadows. However, he seems more scared than she did. Someone will mention one and he will start crying and repeat, "I'm scared, I'm scared." Yesterday, Maia and Akai were hunting with the flashlight in the dark basement. Maia said something about a shadow and he hightailed it upstairs and into my arms. (He is still a cuddler).
Akai turned two on the 23rd of December. He did not really understand when Maia and I tried to tell him about his birthday. We asked what happens on his birthday, he says, "blow out candles," (which he actually left for his cousin, Dean). We kept things low key since this week has been so busy for them already. We gave him presents in the morning, then took the kids swimming. After naps, we had some of my family over to Ben's parents house for dinner, ice cream, and cake. Ben, Jenny, and Lois made two amazing cakes, although their origin is somewhat unclear. He got way more gifts than I imagined--dinosaurs, 'hucks,' and trains--he was in heaven!

Ben:
Ben enjoyed Hawaii as much as ever. He was home. He spent most of his time searching for treasures. Unfortunately, we did not see even one frog. :( He catch some amazing fish and crabs, though. The kids were mesmerized by the crabs. I cannot believe he is quick enough to catch them! He also had an amazing time with his good friend, Jimmy. We spent days with him at his home--The Big Island. He showed us all around and we were honored that he spent so much time with us.

At the beginning of June, Ben's his close friend, Nick, and his wife, Chasity, came to Utah for a visit. We met their new son, Conner, for the first time and the kids got to have some fun playing with each other. Later we accompanied them to Las Vegas. We stayed at the New York, New York, courtesy of Kenny (thank you) and had some relaxing fun shopping, eating, and playing. Chasity even booked us tickets to a show called Absinthe. It was hilarious (if you ask me) and gross (if you ask Ben). It was also remarkable! They literally had people walking on tight ropes and swinging skates right above our heads. If someone had stood up, they would have been knocked out or dead. It was great! But most of all, it was great seeing our friends.
Out of the blue, a company in Boston called Ben asking him to do some contract work for them. He flew out for a week and isolated phages. At the end of the week, they gave him an offer to move, but he suggested that he work for them from Utah. They thought that this was a good idea and he negotiated with them all summer! Finally, around September, they had reached a deal. Then, the company decided to move in a different direction. D'oh!
Ben did not meet us at Mesquite in October. He flew into Vegas a couple of days later to shop at the outlets and eat some terrific brunch at The Wicked Spoon (best brunch ever for those going to Vegas).
Ben fished a lot this spring and summer. He would go out after the kids were asleep or early in the morning. I wanted to join him some of the mornings because he would see so much wildlife while he was out. I was constantly afraid a mountain lion would sneak up behind him. However, I think my presence would have decreased his sense of solitude. He may have perfected his technique in those quiet hours. A couple of days ago, for Christmas, he received a flyfishing pole and is already well on his way into a new hobby. In fact, he fished all day with my step-brothers, Pat and Nate. (Thanks for keeping him occupied, guys)!
Ben recently changed jobs (mostly because of a jerk named Chris). He is now an assistant faculty member + a postdoc in informatics. He is doing Unix programming for deep sequencing. The last postdoc in the lab, now works for Google. It will be interesting to see where this will take him. He is also still working on his own projects, as well, or more correctly, I am. He needs a female to do some of the experiments, so I have been helping him out. He is definitely the brains in the relationship, I'm just the brawn.
It was our 6 year anniversary December 22. We celebrated with a dinner at Ruth's Chris. It was delicious, albiet buttery. I am ecstatic to be married to such a wonderful man! How did I get so fortunate?
This year Ben decided to take Mandarin class at the U so that he could become more proficient in reading, writing, and speaking. His professor turned out to be the Tiger 'Mom' that he always wanted, kicking him out the first day for not being registered and making fun of him in front of the class. She became more happy with him by the end, telling him that she liked how he entertained the class. He really ended up bringing everyone together, just like Jeff in Community.
During the first week or two of his class, an email was sent to all of the students saying that an exchange student from Taiwan was displaced and looking for a new family. Because of Ben's innate desire to do good, we accepted Wei-Jen (aka Jenny) into our family in September. It was a difficult time because we were very busy with new jobs, new school, and other obligations. Not to mention that our house was not ready to accommodate a new family member. Because of this, Ben, his dad, his mom, and I worked very hard to clear out our storage room (under the stairs, mind you), build a wall to make Ashley a bedroom, paint 3 rooms, and buy and assemble new furniture for Jenny and the kids. We did all of this in under a week. Then, challenges arose as expected. For example, Jenny cannot drive as per agreement with her program/visa. This proved somewhat problematic as we had to incorporate new schedules. After 3 months, we have grown more accustomed to each other and love having her with us.

Jenny:
If you did not read the above paragraph, Jenny is the exchange student living with us. She is a very sweet, talented, and naive 18-year-old from Taiwan attending East High School. She will be living here until June.
She is taking some fun classes at East High, since the classes that she takes here will not contribute to her graduation. Some of them are photography, dance, and drama. She is very interested in drama and very good at it. Her drama teacher even commented to Ben during Parent Teacher Conference that Jenny is very involved and driven. She just participated in a play at her school, Aida, and will be acting in another play this spring. However, her best role so far was as Mother Moon in a short 5 minute adaptation of a Latin play. Maia and I really enjoyed watching her as Mother Moon. She had more charisma than the rest of the actors put together.
Jenny is the last of three girls and has not traveled much. So, coming across the world to a small, cold city into a family of two little kids and a feng kuang Lao hu is very different for her. At first, she was a little reserved and quiet. Now, she is voicing her opinion more and hugging the kids (there typically is not a lot of affection in Asian families). The kids love her and she has been a great playmate to them and a invaluable helper to me. I do not know how I will get on without her once June roles around.
She misses the food and her friends, but is making a marvelous effort at not complaining and trying to experience everything. I really admire her as I do not think that I would be able to do the same.

Ashley:
By far the most defining thing about the year for me has been job turmoil. The beginning of January came without any layoffs at Myrexis. We were all a little relieved and surprised. Then, while we were in Hawaii at the end of March, I got an email about an important meeting the next day. I texted a friend to let me know what happened, but I was not really expecting a layoff at that time. I was wrong. My friend texted me to let me know that 40% of the company was laid off and I was one of them. :( Luckily, the severance was very good. A woman, The Ice Queen, from HR called me a couple of hours later. I was upset, but not really about the layoff. I had lost my Rolex at Ko Alina Beach. (I still get a sick feeling thinking about my beautiful lost watch even now). What an awful day. I tried to talk Ben into leaving his job and moving to Hawaii right then and there, but he would not go for it.

So, I came back to Utah and began job searching. I quickly got an offer for a temporary position at SuperGen Inc, another Pharmaceutical company even closer to my house. I learned a lot there, but as my position was coming to an end, they laid off everyone but 13 people at the Salt Lake branch of the company due to a merger. Surprisingly, they asked me to stay for a few more months. I could not because I had already found another job at the University of Utah working for Ila Singh.
Ila was moving to New York to be a co-chair for the Pathology Department at Mount Sinai Medical Center. (Wow)! She was looking for someone to move with her lab in June and I said, "yes." It would be a great opportunity to be a lab manager for the chair of Pathology at such a prestigious place. Turns out, I don't think the offer was quite what she made it out to be.
I started asking around about other jobs to some of my contacts. I had the option of going to another lab at the U, but wasn't too thrilled about it. Miraculously, Tracey Fleisher recommended me at a biotech start-up company called Great Basin and Lisa Abegglen recommended me at a pediatric oncology lab at the U. They gave me offers the same week within one day of each other. Good offers, too. It was very difficult to make a decision. Ultimately, I decided to stay at the U even though the allure to go back to industry was very strong.
I am very excited to work for Josh Schiffman on pediatric cancers. Although, I was a little embarrassed to have our kids in the same school class (oops). Turns out he was the one who was embarrassed when we went to the Room Holiday Party at his home. I was speaking with him and his wife about his recent vacation and coming back to the smog, when his wife declared that she hated living here and would only stay 1 more year tops! He gave her the dagger eyes and said, "Have you met Ashley. She is going to be working for me." I started laughing and told him not to worry. As long as he is going someplace warm, I am happy to go with him. :)
I had a wonderful time in Hawaii, but it was marred by the layoff and loosing my precious watch. So, I feel like the relaxing vacation in Mesquite in October was much more fun. (We actually spent Easter in Mesquite too). I had so much fun playing with the kids and sharing the big king-size bed with them! I had a blast gambling with Kenny and eating the delicious dinners he provided! I had a great time with Lois going through things and the condo and am forever grateful to the help she gives me with the kids! I had a wonderful time with Ben trying to find a parking spot in Vegas and running to Louis Vuitton before it closed so that I could try on the beautiful $1000 wellies. It was very nice trip.
Then, we came back to the start of school, a new job, the news about the negotiations, and a new family member. It was stressful for sure. Now, we are into the rhythm of things again and I hope things remain stable for awhile!
Because I wanted to keep things low key, Ben and I decided to organize a family activity for Christmas instead of buying everyone gifts. Plus, the kids have sooooo many toys. So, we rented out Classic Roller Skating in Sandy on Christmas Eve. Classic is more than just skating, now. It is bounce houses, a blast zone, laser tag, and a jungle gym. All of my family, but Phil was able to attend and we had an amazing time letting go of our inhibitions go. Some of my most memorable moments were: racing Parker on the relay bounce house, the roller skating derby for boys and girls, Rick shooting everyone down in laser tag, Akai yelling, "I'm having fun!!", watching Joan finally make it down the BIG, RED slide. After the party, Pat and Ruth generously bought everyone Christmas Pizza for lunch. What a fun day!

Kona:
Our beloved dog passed away on December 25, 2011 due to renal failure. It was excruciating to watch and, I imagine, to endure. We will remember her in her younger years: chasing a new ball, tearing apart a toy until the squeaky died, devouring food and wistfully staring at Lani eating, protecting Ashley from Ben's tickles, making sure no other dog got close to Baby Maia, therapy, somehow always leaving her pill in the dish, and curling up on the couch to keep us company in the evenings....We love you, Kona!