the 12 (or so) days of December, Kidder style

December recap: look at Flickr for the pictures!

Dec 5th - Brett's concert - the Bugg house, he was on TV.
10th? Arbonne party with Laura
12th - Frank's birthday, first day of "vacation"
15th - Rachel's wedding (photos here)
16th - Fun dinner with Heather - Macaroni Grill
18th - Brett's chorus and and concert - Sunset Mesa
19th - Belated anniversary dinner with Frank
21st - Adopt a family present drop off. Thanks for the partnership, Bruce!
23rd - Kidder family christmas at Elena's
24th - Great Christmas Eve dinner with Franks parents, Keith, and Laura - mmmm Crab!check out the youtube video
25th - Our Lord's birthday
26th - Brett's birthday
27th - snowboarding and skiing at Angel Fire in 0 degree weather
28th - family get together at the Welton House
29th - Bounce U part for the boys
30th - Old Town with Shebbus and Grammy
31st - the Annual Camino Arbustos New Year's Eve Gala

A few of the best pictures of it all : my Flickr Christmas Album

Adopt-a-Family update and website!

http://www.scribblehouse.com/xmas/index.php

In lieu of spending a lot of money on each other within our families, we thought it would be richer to share what we have with a needy family.This year we have chosen to share the Christmas spirit with the N. family.

We are both collecting funds and determining a schedule in which to shop, wrap, and deliver presents to the family around Christmas. Our main focus is simply providing some of the wish items listed below, but if we're able, we may also try to provide them with some food and Christmas items as well.

We have been, and continue, to work in partnership with Eagle Ranch Middle School, who helped us to select the N. family as a needy recipient of support. The counselor we have been working with has continued to reiterate that any assistance given to the family would be greatly appreciated, and that this support is going to a family that normally wouldn't reach out for help. The circumstances of this year would make receiving such a show of support particularly meaningful to them.

If you would like to contribute funds to this project, we would love it if you could contribute by December 12th. We would like to see what pool of funds we can collect, which then will help us to strategize how best to spend the money on the family.

We will then shop at some time between the December 12th and Christmas, and so if you would like to join us in that part of the process, let us know.

This is a voluntary project, and we don't care what you can or cannot put in. If you want to help, it's just a way to practice giving.

Check out the site early and often!

Facebook is up.

I'm trying to make sure our updates are a little more interactive. I haven't figured out how to post the link here yet, but will shortly.

Waning hours of summer vacation...

As I look out my kitchen window at the mountains and the twilight, I realize we're in the waning hours of summer vacation, lodged squarely between the nights of summer freedom, the start of school, and the transition to our favorite time - New Mexico fall.

As the summer ends, we bid fond farewell to our nanny Sarah, who is off to *gasp* NMSU to study journalism. The boys had a great summer - swimming, Pop Pops, movies, and managed to stay relatively balanced while Frank and I traveled ( mostly me.) Much thanks and good luck to Sarah this fall!

With school approaching, we're trying to get schedules set, after school decisions made, and figure out how I'm going to juggle the first week of school with a trip to Oregon I'm supposed to take.

But even as I'm a little worried about the logistics, I am happy to report the very first hints of fall have arrived. I have sunflowers blooming with cute little yellow and red finches; I tasted my first fresh green chile from Wagner's Farm tonight, the AC turned off about 6 PM tonight, and deadlines are approaching for the New Mexico State Fair. The boys are trying to finish their "Creations", I'm trying to decide if any of my Israel pictures are good enough, and I can't wait to wander aimlessly in less than a month. Also about 12 days til the Lobo Football season opener. Lots of former Lobos playing in the NFL, too!

Here's praying for a lot more time at home in the fall.

Lots of love for now.


FYI: Pyewacket is still AWOL.

Fabulous family friday night

Last night just the 4 of us took the time to go to a place called Hinkle family fun center. Brett's favorite part was the Bumper Boats. It was the first time he'd gotten to drive all by himself and he took delight in completely drenching me and Grant on our bumper boat. Grant was the gunner on our ship and made sure everyone was as wet as we were. Then we got to race around the track, Frank and Brett had a mini wipeout when someone tried . Miniature golf was all about getting the golf balls out of the stream, (I swear they were hitting into the water hazards on purpose) and then we won some tickets before we went home. The boys have been in a great mood the last few weeks - I hope it continues.
I seem to have more energy after work now now - I've taken up kickboxing at a gym close to my house. I have bruises, sweaty boxing gloves, sore muscles, and a new community that I get to see a few days a week. I could swsear I can actually do a pushup now. Its been good therapy for a financially frustrating month. (SM tuition due, vet bills, crowns, small accident...). We'll see if the weight comes off too.
This morning I got up early to meet Don for coffee- it was a treat. We walked to Raley's, talked about physics, and chemistry, and family, and politics, and energy policy. Its going to get a great weekend. Lots of love for now

the kidders

Weekend update

Happy Birthday Dad! I am proud of the fact that Dad has embarked on a fitness journey recently, and look forward to seeing his health continue to improve!

Pyewacket Update While Pyewacket is home and more comfortable, he is definitely not the same cat. he went AWOL a couple of days ago, and showed up a half a mile away close to spain. He doesn't want to eat, isn't drinking much water, and is constantly irritated. The vet says he's made a remarkable recovery from a couple of weeks ago, but its clear we still have a long way to go.

More to come

Current News bits and bytes

4th of July: 7/6: Great night - lots of firework carcuses around the neighborhood! 7/4: Our block is having its annual 4th of July Fireworks night. Join us for food, fireworks, and fun! Frank's bought a bunch of fireworks, the neighborhood is loading up on side dishes - come early!

Pyewacket update: 7/6: Pyewacket has been walking and eating pretty well today and seems to be alert for a longer period of time! 7/4: Our kitty that thinks he's a dog is having seizures for unknown reasons and has been at the vet's for the last several days. He's definitely not himself for periods at a time. Last sunday he was showing some symptoms and went to VCA to get looked at. They ran $450 worth of tests, said he was fine and sent him home 4.5 hours later. Instead of getting better, Pyewacket started drooling, his pupils dialated, and he pretty much blue screened. Luckily, a family friend redirected us to take him back to Emergency Vet's clinic. Pyewacket had a 104.8 degree fever and was given a 50/50 shot at making it. He had several grande malle seizures, and the vets indicated he had probably been having seizures for awhile. He has VERY SLOWLY started acting like himself, but still is having trouble with weakness, panting, and small facial tic. We'll keep everyone updated throughout the week as he hopefully continues to improve.

Banwart Bazzara update: Brett, Sarah (our summer nanny) and I got to go see Brett's new birth-brother Bryce and his family yesterday. Heather looks great ( I can't believe she just had a baby - she looks great! ) and the girls and Brett had fun playing together. Heather and I want to get the kids together more often on the weekends for cookouts and such.

SNAP fitness number 2 has opened, and Scott has hooked us up with a membership! The equipment is nice ( state of the art) and the location is pretty terrific - Academy and Tramway. Thanks, Bro. I'm also excited because my dad is going there too. Scottt had dad meet with a personal trainer to get started.

Garage Sale Saturday 8-12ish: 7/6: It's official - dad and mom can both park their cars in the garage now. we moved everything we could! The cousins had fun on the 4th when all of us converged on Dad's house to drop off flea market items.

Brett's back in acting classes on Monday nights!

Now for the fun stuff... Israel as a visitor

The tourist part of this trip has continued to educate and influence me. After leaving Jerusalem, I had the pleasure of spending a quality day with Lior traveling to Haifa. We lunched, I think, in Akko, a marine city, and shopped for a couple of items for the kids. I stayed in a place called the Dan Carmel on top of Mount Carmel. At the top of the hotel was a business lounge where Leland, Dave,(coworkers in for this trip) and I spent at least an hour or two every night unwinding and watching the world go by. Below us were some beautiful gardens, industrial ports, the Mediterrean ( I think ) and the hustle and bustle of a modern industrial city. The cadence of life is different here - history isn't so pressing, the tourists are more international / informal / business and less holy city tour types. There is also a more pronounced German influence - both the type of tourist and the presense of schitzel in the cafeteria every day. The city reminds me most of Penang. Our first evening's dinner was at a fabulous restaurant called Remme - excellent french restaurant with a view to die for. Teriaki salmon with mashed potatoes were excellent!

As a business group on monday, we spent an excellent day at Ceasaria - south of Haifa, north of Tel Aviv. Originally built as a harbor in honor of Julius Ceasar - it was a feat of ancient engineering. The artifically created harbor, built in about 12 years, at one point could house more than a hundred warships within its confines. It also served as a monument to Herod's ego. Elaborate palaces, bath houses, a swimming pool, and a hippodrome were built to a) placate the natives, b) protect the Romans who lived in the harbor and c) Exhalt Herod's place in the society. Over the years, as the sea reclaimed the harbor, the port retained symbolic importance - relatively large structures over the course of history were transformed from churches to mosques to refugee camps - symbols of the changing order The scale of the engineering and the cultural implications of this location as a trade port / conflict location made the trip a wonderful reinforcement of the significance Israel has in the annals of history. Sultans, rabbis, constantine's mother, and other dignitaries have called this place, and many have fought and died to control it.

While most of the rest of our time was spent close to the hotel in Haifa - there were at least a couple of other fun experiences. We went as a group to an Irish Pub to eat, and watched the EuroCup competition between France and Italy. I was able to text my friend Susan(who is married to an Italian), listen to people shouting at the TV in 4 languages, and eat Israeli Fare. Along a similar line - a couple of my work colleagues and I had jet lag and were watching the finals between the celtics and lakers in our respective hotel rooms at about 5 in the morning, and IMing comments about the game to each other. Fun and memorable. We never really made it to the beach in Haifa, but drove by it every day! We also formed the Haifa Hummus club.

After Haifa, we sojourned back to Tel Aviv. This city has a 3rd flavor - more arabian, jet set, party tourist - less religious / business sojourner. There is also a much more stark contrast between hotel row and the immediate blocks around the location. I believe this is close to some of the sites of violence from 2000 and 2005, and the population mix is much less orthodox, much more arabic. We arrived yesterday here mid day.

My travel companion - Dave and Leland - had a little trouble finding the hotel, and all had one thing on our minds. We wanted to hit the beach. We stopped for lunch ( really yummy sweet potato ravioli with cream and mushroom sauce covered with cheese!) and just sat for a while. Then we hoofed it across the street and relaxed for the first time the entire trip. There is a series of breakwaters that have created the perfect beach - deep fine sand, shallows for 100 years, crystal blue and turqoise water, and chairs and umbrellas set up to your specification. The water is about 80 degrees, and the breakwaters are just far enough away to provide a challenging swim without discouraging everyone completely.

The lifeguards use a 20 ft long and 4 ft wide surfboard with very long oars to quickly get to tourists in trouble. They are also pretty vigilant - one looked suspiciously at me for quite a while when I was swimming back from one of the breaks, and then asked me to be careful and "was I sure I was OK?" The people here are diverse, interesting, fit, and attractive. You don't have to look hard to see Italian, German, Egyptian, African, and other racial influence, in addition to Jewish.

It was one of the few times recently that I have "lived in the moment." We stayed on the beach for 6 hours - alternately napping, swimming, people watching, walking, and chatting. My IPod provided a soundtrack including the most appropriate song "who wouldn't want to be me?" It was heaven.

When the sun finally set on the second longest daylight day of the year, we slowly turned, returned to the hotel, and looked for sustenance. We ended the day with a restaurant next to the hotel dining al fresco. Yet again - great food ( salmon + mashed potatoes, israeli wine, chocolate desert, and tea with fresh mint leaves.)


I am about to embark on my last day as an Israeli visitor. As I write this, I am watching spongebob in Hebrew. My hotel, an interesting bauhaus style on the inside, will be a jumping off point for a visit to Jappa (an old port in Tel Aviv), to the beach, a recommended restaurant, and to the airport. I will likely not enter another post again before I land tomorrow night in the US. I will be happy to be home, as I have missed my family, friends, coworkers, but for one more day, I am happy to part of this israeli family. Shalom for now.

Work related post.... from israel

What a week. While I know more blogs about israel will come, I just want to capture a few more thoughts before I leave. First , the hospitality of this country in phenomenal. I had the pleasure of building friendships not only with my official hosts - Gal and Shirly, but with other bright and talented individuals like Lior, Julia, Shlomi, Zahi. Each time we had a question, we had had ready answers, phone calls, followup, suggestions. Transportation, food, history, phones - each of these we had such marvelous support. I also had some very flexible travel companions from the US that let me tag along for the ride - Leland and Dave.
It's very good that we had the support - the FTF was pretty demanding. Lots of days of building common ground, sorting through as is, to be, what can be done on new technology, old technology, priorities, philosophy - all in a large pile of knowledge to be sorted through. For 3 days, it was touch and go as to whether or not we would accomplish developing a single, comprehensive strategy or not. Fortunately, by the end of Day 4, we came to a place of common ground. While we didnt get to the final end state, we have gotten to a place where it was safe to break. It is time to take what we learned and go home. And I will be very happy to go home.

Shalom from Jerusalem!

I am at the religious epicenter of the modern western world. The airplane trip was pretty great, considering the 14 hours of air time logged; thanks to Frank and modern technology. The hotel in Jerusalem is less than a mile the Jaffa Gate to the Old City and to Ben Yehuda Street, so I have been walking my legs off for the last couple of days experiencing the new and old world that meet here. I have a lot of impressions I'll be posting in the next couple of days, but want to make sure you all know I am thinking about each of you as a spend time here in the Holy land. Being in the Old City for Shabbat was a meaninful experience. Check the Flkr site for pictures. More will come today. Just so you know, for some reason my phone doesn't work too well, but my texting seems to do just fine, so you'll get a lot of text messages!

Lots of Love
kristi

Back from heaven! (New Pics on the Flkr site)

Florida was great, but boy are we tired! I don't know how we managed to do it, but we managed to come back from a week in the sun more tired than when we left. We got into the pool at 9:00 pm the first night we got to the hotel, and didn't really get out until our plane left (mostly!) Wildlife encountered included: Jellyfish, tube fish, sting rays (small), sea urchins, dolphins, egrets, swans, ducklings, pelicans, seagulls, sandpipers, squirrels, and a whole bunch of animals at Busch Gardens.
We basically spent 4 hours a day (minimum) in one of the five pools at the resort, or at the beach - 100 yards away. We also watched a lot of SpongeBob Squarepants!

We're back to the grind. Looking forward to Friday fun Day this week.

Lots of Love,

Kristi and the tribe!

Mothers I love...

I have been blessed. The strength of the women I have come to know as I have traveled through this life astounds me. In honor of Mother's day, I would like to take the time to recognize some of them publicly - they mean the world to me!

My mom - She enabled me to know I can do anything I set my mind to. She gives me an example to strive for - in the face of every situation. She faces life with grace, humor, intelligence, faith, family, and a deck of cards.

Her mom - Grandmares - For bringing such strong and vibrant and loving daughters into the world.

Nana - For her unwavering optimism, her perserverance, her unflappable knowledge that she is doing what is right for her family ( especially her grandsons.)

Heather - For her willingness to share her son so that I could become a mother. Her strength amazes me daily, and the wonderful woman she has developed into. Her mother, Mary, for embracing us and loving us into her family from the beginning.

Carmen - for holding on just tightly enough to keep us connected, even when I was overloaded. Thank you for that, Carmen! (and I hope to see you at the butte this summer! )

Rachel - for her willingness to embrace the journey we are on together, for her bubbly laughter, companionship, for the family she has brought into our lives.

Susan - my best friend. It is likely she and I will commiserate for years to come on the impishness of our sons, our families' life journey, our (only slightly) mis-spent youth.

Deb - She has shown me the light at the end of the tunnel - two boys well grown up. They are her pride and joy ( as they should be), and she's a Packers fan to boot!

Working mom's extraordinaire - Xiaomei, Laura, Victoria, Joyce - incredibly capable moms who still show me that you can be a great professional too.

Lindy - Our "other" mother. Her 4 years with us allowed me to be a better mom. Because I knew that Lindy was in the house, I had clear conscious about how the kids were growing up, even while I was working. Her love, attention, and time, ensured that Brett and Grant continue to grow up to meet their potential.

Jennifer and Rose - who have from time to time, embraced the Kidders and allowed us to be part of their extended families.

My wish for you - a terrific mother's day, and that you can stop and acknowledge how you have impacted our lives! Lots of Love,

Kristi

Life is crazy good today (mostly)

Props to my brothers, first and foremost. Bruce just presented a working version of APS's first ever working capital tracking system to mgmt. Nice work, bro! Tee and his SNAP fitness centers are off and running - the 98th and Unser location is going gangbusters, and the two new sites should be open in June.

Work at Intel has taken a VERY interesting turn. I have been working with colleagues on design engineering computing, business intelligence and visualization, and design engineering license mgmt. The results are starting to show. A very positive side benefit have been 3 different opportunities to work in different groups have come across my desk in the last week. Never in my life have I had such good choices to make. The great thing is the opportunity to draw on the wisdom of some of my closest advisors to make such a tough, but positive decision. I believe my mind is made up, but I'm gonna sleep and pray on it for 24 hours.

Speaking of prayer, please pray for Grant again this week. He's having a hard time at school again, and we're not sure what has changed.

Lots of love this week, looking forward to Mother's day.

Brett's Musical - Friday Night 6:30 PM

Come one, come all, come early to Sandia Baptist Auditorium. Brett will be singing proudly in the Sunset Mesa musical. We will be going to Flying Star Afterward for a wonderful family time!

OK - OK - I'm finally posting again!

First things first! Come one, come all to the Spring Musical Pre-First, 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade Sunset Mesa Musical 6:30 PM, April 25th. It's a Friday night at the Sandia Baptist Church Auditorium. The musicals fill up, so be sure to come early if you want to see Brett perform. He's been singing for months! Afterward, we will likely go to the Flying Star restaurant at Juan Tabo and Montgomery.

The boys are growing like weeds. They are currently very much into Indiana Jones (new movie, new video game, and new lego products are all feeding this obsession.) Brett is making a stop action lego movie, of course, with Grant's help. They are looking forward to summer very much. We think we have finally settled on a summer plan for the boys. Sunset Mesa in the mornings, a new nanny in the afternoon - with lots of playdates and gym time in the summer.

Rachel's baby has arrived = Michael Anthony - and is a completely beautiful bundle of boy. Heather is due June 15th, but I'm hoping she makes it to our annual Mother's day at the Zoo.

Frank won an award at work called the "Intel Achievement Award" - the highest award given to anyone inside Intel. We are going to be forced to go to San Fransciso so he can hang out with the big shots in downtown San Francisco - right across from union square, and to rub elbows with the captains of industry. We hope to connect with some old friends of ours in the area as well.

Finally - after school gets out and before the summer gets into full swing, we'll be visiting Florida for a week. I can't wait - we'll go hand out at roughly the same property we did last year. Beachfront, Gulf Side, with lots of kid friendly amenities and significant returning guest discounts = a nice relaxing way to kick off the summer. We can't wait, and are trying hard to get back in shape for Florida.