Halloween Superheros

Every year, Heather makes us all matching costumes, spending hours and hours of work (usually at the last minute). Everyone always asks us where we got our matching costumes, and everyone is so impressed that Heather made them. She is quite handy, I have to say. This year she was quite sick with her pregnancy and still was able to pull it off: although at crunch time the kids just got the fake buy-it-off-ebay deal.

Christmas Card

Heather is so talented. She wrote up this poem to include with our Christmas card. It really is a gift she has. Hopefully she only uses it for good (not evil).

What a year this has been full of joys to remember
One that kept us busy from January to December.

Coby at 4 is energetic as ever but even more fun
He learns things so quickly and is always on the run.
Holding my hand he’ll look up and say
Best buddies right mom? It sure makes my day.

Our funny little Rett-ster has grown up a lot
Doing things on his own he’s no longer a tot.
He still is a sweet boy and mischievous too
Everything is “I do it”, you can tell that he’s two!

At UCSD Jacoby took schooling under his wing
Earning a Masters in electrical engineering.
He’s ever so busy with work, family, and school
With very little sleep, he’s still mister cool.

Heather turned 30 and is now in her prime
Crafting, & baking & writing silly rhymes.
She’s pregnant again and is sick as can be
June 2009 will bring baby number three.

Two weeks in Europe on an adventure we went
Our kids watched by friends who were heaven sent.
First stop was Venice, a maze of beautiful sites
Glass blowing, gondolas, so much to see in only two nights.

Ancient history came alive as we toured around Rome
Eating Italian food for a week sure made us miss home.
Paris was da bomb (Jacoby’s helping here) and the food was divine
Spending this trip together was a fabulous time.

By London our poor little feet were exhausted
We were missing our boys and our noses were frosted.
So after a little sight seeing it was off to the shows
Les Mis & Wicked brought our trip to a close.

Summer was full of the joys that are found
When you live only a mile from a beach year-round.
A student apartment is our new zone
Saving our pennies for a house of our own.

Up to Lake Hume for a family vacation
For camping, and swimming it was the perfect location.
Next on to Sequoia to see the worlds biggest trees
The boys loved to make s’mores and do as they pleased.

We have so many blessings, too many to tell
We hope this letter finds those we love as happy as well.
We are grateful this season for all that joy that can be found
In family, in friendship, in God’s love all around.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Jacoby, Heather, Coby & Rett Larson



Here were a few of the lines that I nixed:

First to Venice, so beautiful and serene
Some say that Jacoby is really mean

First stop was Venice, a maze of beautiful sights
The gondolas were very romantic at night (but we didn’t really go on one since Jacoby said they were too expensive. See other poem about Jacoby).

He’s a busy guy with family, school, and work
Sometimes we think he acts like a jerk.

Family, school, and work keep him busy
With too little sleep he gets in a tizzy.

This is using her powers for evil.

Apple Pickin' in Julian

So in the middle of October (my last weekend of feeling good) we went camping in Julian with some friends of ours, the Haltermans and then picked apples the next day. It was a ton of fun except that it was SOOOOO cold. And I mean cold. I always hate when it gets to cold camping because I wake up all night long thinking that maybe the kids are going to freeze to death. When usually I reach over to check on them they are super warm. They really should make those sleeper pjs for adults! I have wanted to go apple pickin for awhile now but whenever I bring it up to Jacoby he looks at me like I am a nut. (That's what you get for marrying a Washington boy who used to walk home through apple orchards.) So pickin apples wasn't exactly high on his excitement list but we had a great time anyways and the kids thought it was a blast!
Here's Rett playing with acorns. Shell & I loved to collect these as a kid. We would find the acorns who's "hats" had fallen off and make people out of them. Such fun!

Here's our new tent and a funny story all in its own. We had a small four man tent that we just no longer fit into since if it says four man it means two. Anyways, so we found this one brand new on craigslist for $85 but it sells new at Target for $140. So it was a great deal. We go to meet the guy to buy it and its kind of a back alley type area. Not the best part of town but maybe he works at one of the warehouses there. So he pulls it out of the back of his trailer covered by a tarp and we check it out. It's all new and sealed so we buy it. Then he asks if we need a sleeping bag and pulls out a really nice one for $20, also brand new. We didn't bring any other money so we said no thanks. As we are driving off Jacoby turns and says, you know I wonder if this is stolen property. I mean why else does he have all this brand new stuff on a trailer?? So we might have bought stolen property. But heck if I was going back to that alley to ask for my money back!!! And for camping it was a great tent. Being able to stand up the middle of them tent was awesome and it has so much space!!

Morning Sickness Musings.......

After another particularly bad day of a particularly bad week of a particularly bad month our bedtime conversation went something like this:

H: Know what I would do if I could go back to school?
J: Oh, oh, um let me think, you would do research and create a way to rid all pregnant women of naseua. Is that it? Since you've told me that 20 times at least in your pregnancies.
H: Yeah, well its a good idea.

A little later:
H: Know what is valuable? Marrying a woman who doesn't get morning sickness while pregnant.
J: No kidding.
H: I mean really that is like gold if you can find that. (Since currently our house is a mess, I can't ever make dinners, and somedays we never even get outside!)
H: So we would tell our boys to make sure that they find those girls. They say that those who get motion sickness when not pregnant are more prone to get morning sickness. (Flashbacks to all those cartrips I threw up after are reeling through my head at this point.)
J: Our boys could take their dates to the fair and go on all those crazy flip you all over type of rides that always make you super sick. The loop-de-loop rollercoaster, the zipper, gravitron, you name it. (Then he procedes to tell me about puking when he got off the gravitron and the octupus in high school. ) So, then when they get off they could ask their dates how they feel to test their motion sickness.
H: That's a great idea.
J: Oh, except our boys won't be able to go on any of those rides because most likely they will get sick like us.
H: Oh, bummer. Well they could just wait outside the rollercoaster and ask cute girls as they come off, "How'd you like it? Are you feeling well? Could you ride it again?".
J: Then when people ask where do they look for dates they could tell them at the carnival:)

Diets that work!

Heather and I have been losing weight lately. These diets really work! They might be considered a little extreme by today's standards, but tomorrow might consider them mainstream, you never know. Here's how we do it:

Jacoby has lost 5 lbs by maintaining a healthy exercise habit of biking to school everyday. They have a shuttle that would take him to school for free, but he likes having a bike at school to get around. He also gets an average of 5 hours of sleep and adds in an extreme amount of anxiety and stress from homework and lab due dates and big tests. Oh, and when he gets a few minutes of relaxing time, he spends it running around the block chasing kids on bikes.

Heather has lost around 10 lbs by the old tried and true method of throwing up a couple of times a day and having immense disdain for any type of food, day or night. This kind of diet doesn't require much exercise at all, in fact, it pretty much leaves you completely drained and exhausted so that you won't even be able to get off the couch. Lose weight by laying down on the couch, can you believe it?

These diets are so awesome, we thought we would share them for others who are also looking to lose weight.

In support of traditional marriage

I really enjoyed this proposition 8 video. I thought it set out the facts out really well and described my position on this issue.

Graduate School Musings

UCSD Geisel Library (named after Theodor (Dr.) Seuss Geisel and his wife). The views from the 7th and 8th floor are pretty sweet.

I started graduate school this Thursday at UCSD. I am in the Electrical Engineering Master's degree program, with an emphasis in Intelligent Systems, Robotics, and Control. My undergraduate degree was in Computer Science and to get a full understanding of the graduate level classes I need to basically take 2 years of undergraduate EE classes. I won't take that many classes, but at least all of the classes I'm taking this quarter are undergraduate courses. And although I have only had 2 days of classes, I am already swamped and wondering if I am ready to leave the familiar relaxed atmosphere of my current job and go back to school. Too late I guess.

So I had a meeting with my advisor and he suggested that I go for the Ph.D. degree (since I will have that option if I want) and put myself in that mindset right now. For those who don't know, I have a scholarship through the Department of Defense that will allow me to go to school full time, work part time, and still make my full salary. I get full benefits (retirement, health insurance, etc.) while I go to school. So for those of you who pay your taxes, thanks. I promise to make a difference in the world and use your money wisely. The scholarship will pay for my masters and my doctorate (if I so choose) and I will owe the government back 1 year for every year I am in school. Not a bad deal! Currently I am not extremely devoted to the subject and have that deep down desire to delve into one specific subject for the next 5-8 years. But I do like going back to school, I think I will learn a great deal, and am excited to do research in the field of robotics and write a thesis for my Master's degree. Although I am only planning on two years of school, I might like it so much and want to continue. That is something I will assess as time goes on. But I am still naive in the ways of graduate degrees and could use some sage advice. So my question to those of you who might read this blog and have opinions in this area is, should I go on and get a Ph.D.? What are the pros and cons? What do you think? What would you do if you were in my shoes?