Where did the time go?

data, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Where did the last 5 years go? It's hard to believe that tomorrow Eliana will be 5 years old and that in about a month and a half this will be her daily attire as she goes off to school! She is VERY excited about going to kindergarten at Petra Academy, and is excited to see the new Petra building going up just a couple blocks from our house! She can see the new building out her bedroom window. In fact, she thinks they are building it just for her!

While this may be life in a month or so, right now we are enjoying time in Texas - the last bit of summer before school starts!

Finally Summer

Summer decided to show up in Bozeman about a week ago. The days have been warm and the evenings have been perfect and long. Tonight we ate dinner with some of our exceptionally lovely neighbors, whose band of merry children our young'un disappears among. When the sun had set over the pond, the mountains had graduated from amber to purple, and our conversation had finally wound down enough to think about cleaning up, I realized it was well after 9. Oh, wondrous Montana summers.

Of course, the kiddo has trouble getting to sleep at a decent hour under these conditions. She really only gets serious about having second dinner around 10. She's sitting a the table now having her second course. Just now, she asked me, "Dad, when is there going to be enough snow to sled?"

Ug, I thought. Summer just started. The mountains still have too much snow to get up high. Dar. I'm still hoping for the pack to melt, eagerly checking the Snotel map daily. "Well, in about five months," I said somewhat reluctantly.

The daughter emitted an eloquent sigh and languidly and morosely replied, "It's taking forever."

Mastered

(Cross-posted from Leif's blog.)

The ol' postal service delivered the diploma cover for my master's in computer science today. This was after receiving my diploma rolled up tightly in a cardboard tube a couple weeks back with a postcard voucher for a diploma cover. That was after skipping (sorry, Mom) the six hour graduation ceremony I wasn't keen to sit through at the beginning of May. That was after actually finishing up last December. That was after taking (cough) 9 (eh hem) years to finish it while working full-time, being married, moving a few times, throwing away 9 credits due to transfer, throwing away another pile of credits after abandoning my first thesis, finishing a basement, designing and building another house, and raising a baby to a pre-schooler.

I am far prouder of this degree than I ever was my bachelor's. I was raised with the expectation of getting a college degree. It was always a foregone conclusion in my mind that I would finish that one. I struggled a bit with my bachelor's (I'm looking at you Electric Circuits I), but I never had reason or occasion to consider quitting. I can't count the times I wanted to give up on the master's.

Special thanks to my wife and daughter for putting up with me during all that, to my adviser, Rocky Ross, for helping me finish, to Neal Richter for nagging my butt into gear more than once, and to Erich Hannan, my boss through most of that interval, for supporting me doing work and school.

I am so thankful this morning...

This morning I got up at 5 to go to the gym, but when I looked out the window and saw the beautiful sunrise over the mountains I got another idea and went for a run on the trails around our pond instead. It was beautiful! It makes me really thankful for our new home. We've already mentioned how much we love our new house, but I don't know that I've mentioned how much I really love our new neighborhood.

(In case you haven't yet seen it in person, the red house in the middle of the picture is ours.)

I love that I can head out my front door and within feet I am on a trail that is great for running or walking.

I love that we are just across the street from a beautiful pond, and that our pond is home to all sorts of creatures we're getting attached to. I took a break from my run and watched a big white pelican gliding along in the water. We frequently sit at the dinner table and watch the heron who calls our pond home. There are plenty of geese and ducks, too. I thoroughly enjoy the pond!

I love that we have friendly neighbors. Whether we're at the park with Eliana, taking a stroll around the pond, or just happen to be outside when someone walks by, the people in our neighborhood are quick to smile, greet you, and strike up conversation! I love it!

I love that we live in a kid-friendly neighborhood! Many of our neighbors have small kids, so Eliana has lots of little friends to play with! The neighbors across the street have 4 little girls, 2 of whom are close to Ellie's age. Just a couple houses down from them are neighbors with a couple little boys around the same age. Down the road from us are some friends we met last year (before we OR they lived in this neighborhood!) and they have a daughter and two sons who are close to Ellie's age. And in just a week or so another one of our friends is moving in down the street and one of her sons is Eliana's friend! It's so nice to move someplace new and instantly become a part of the community. I'm so thankful for that!

I love that Eliana's preschool was just around the corner this year. I love even more that Petra, where she will be in the fall, is building a new building just a couple blocks from our house! It's fun to watch the progress and know that's where Ellie will be going to school in just a few short months!

The Wickland Bike Limo

For Memorial Day we took a family bike ride on our tandem+trailer bike. It was quite nice to be able to go for a ride all together. We went on the downtown historic district "walking" tour (of course, we rode instead of walked) and looked at all the cool old houses.

We found the walking tour guide on the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce website and enjoyed the little history lesson as we rode!

This little girl...

This little girl went to preschool....

and is not in preschool any more.

Tonight was Eliana's graduation from the preschool at Heritage Christian Early Learning Center. She has thoroughly enjoyed being there, even though she didn't start until January. She loves her teachers, Miss Sandy and Miss Michele, and they love her, too!

All of the kids from the Early Learning Center put on a program, which culminated in the graduation of the preschoolers who are headed to kindergarten next year. Here's Eliana's class:

They sang a song about 5 little ducks...

... and each recited a verse...

Eliana's verse started with the same letter as her name.

"E... Even a child is known by his deeds, by whether his conduct is pure and right."

Then the kids presented flowers to Miss Sandy and Miss Michele as a thank you for all they've done this year!

The kids even got diplomas to make the whole event official.

Ellie's will be going in a scrapbook, minus one corner. She managed to chew that corner off while we were taking pictures. Great.

Congratulations, kiddo! We are so proud of the big girl you are becoming and excited for you to start kindergarten next year!

Date Night

Last fall Elizabeth and I decided to buy season tickets to this season of Broadway in Bozeman.  We'd done it once before a few years back and it had been a nice excuse to schedule some data.  Well, although Garrison Keillor was astonishingly good, I'd forgotten that I really don't like musicals.  So, when it came time for The Wizard of Oz earlier this year, I suggested Elizabeth take Eliana.  They had a great time and the kid loved it.  

This past Tuesday, Elizabeth had a conflict, so I took Eliana to Riverdance.  Because it was date night, I went all out and took her to eat at Wendy's.  She ordered her own food, which included a baked potato with a side of crackers.  We got into our seats at the show about 4 minutes before show time.  Three minutes later she was quite impatient and was asking when the show would start, so we started looking through the crowd for people with funny hats.  That tided her over until the show started.  We both enjoyed it.  Her favorite part was, ironically, the Flamenco dancer and her beautiful dresses.  Then again, I liked the staged dance contest between the hip hop dancers and trio of Riverdancers.  It was a good night.  The next morning she said thanks for taking her on a date.

What I think is funniest about our taking Eliana to these shows is that the whole Broadway-style of entertainment, or at least the family friendly versions that manage to tour our neck of the woods, are probably more fun and more exciting for a kid than for an adult.  I wouldn't have guessed when we bought the tickets 9 months ago that it would be our baby, who's rapidly turning into a girl, who would enjoy them the most.

Great moment in parenting

The day my kid learned to climb into the car, close the door, and buckle her seatbelt was a great moment in parenting.  

One fine day....

We had one fine day amidst all the snow lately, so Ellie and I went to the park!! Here's some of her fun there!!

Wisdom from the young one

"Why is it called a restaurant if you're not supposed to lie down and rest there?"

"If you want people to be friendly to you, you have to be friendly to them."

"Is it called shampoo because it's made out of sham and poo?"

Nothing like a birthday party at the park

On the last day of April in Montana!

Recent Birthday Party

Eliana got to go to her friend Jocelyn's birthday party recently and was so excited to be there! Here she is with the birthday girl:

It was a Rapunzel party and Eliana got Jocelyn a ballerina Barbie. It was a hit!

Look at the BEAUTIFUL cake her mom, Jessica, made!! It's amazing!

The girls had a great time playing with it! ;)

And they were mesmerized once the candles were lit - can you blame them??

Make a wish, Jocelyn! Happy Birthday!!

My Favorite Picture Yet

I asked Eliana what this picture was and she told me there was the grass, clouds, sun, sky, and Josie. I pointed to the not so obvious parts of the picture and asked about those:

"That's Josie; she's a carrot. And that's me; I'm a cherry. We're Veggie Tales characters!"

This is my favorite picture yet!

Better Bike Rider

Last time I posted about Eliana learning to riding her bike, I mentioned that she was unable to get started unassisted. Well, she's pretty much gotten that figured out now. We've also been riding longer distances together. Yesterday we rode to Weebee's to buy sorbet. It's about a 2 mile trip which involves crossing a major street and riding in bike lanes. She's doing a really good job staying in the bike lane and following directions. It was a fun trip that I hope we'll be able to repeat often this summer when we don't need to wear parkas when going for ice cream.

Wii Bowling

I am sitting here watching Leif and Eliana play wii bowling. It's funny to watch Leif's competitive side come out against his own daughter. It's also funny to watch Eliana skunk Leif by getting 6 strikes in a row. It's the first time Leif has played with Ellie. Apparently she has been learning to wii bowl at Josie's house. She's either crazy good, or crazy lucky. Either way she's crazy. :)

Bike Riding Fun!

Tonight for the first time I actually got to witness Eliana's new-found bike riding skill. I was impressed! I'm pretty sure she can ride a bike better than I can now. I had fun watching her ride to and fro in front of our house and snagged some pictures.

Playing the classics

A while back Shirt.Woot had an awesomely nerdy shirt I couldn't resist.

It came in the mail yesterday and I proudly wore it today. Eliana was quite interested in the shirt and kept asking questions about the details of it. It was hard to explain why the turtles were doing those things and how they were painting a cloud on the sky.

I figured the easiest way to explain it was to show her. So we fired up the Wii, downloaded Super Mario Brothers, and set to playing. I played a few levels to show her the ropes and then turned over the controller. She laughed gleefully at being able to make Mario jump and run and so forth.

She definitely lacks the motor skills to play well, but it doesn't matter. It was still a fantastic moment. I've been looking forward to playing the classic video games with my kid for a long time. It's right up there with teaching my kid to ski and bike.

On the topic of biking, we went out riding again tonight. Given a sufficient slope, Eliana can now get started on her own. The best slopes around are found in the park across from our house, pointing straight down into the pond. She's better than I expected at translating that momentum
into forward motion around the pond when she rolls down to the trail.

As last night, she was quite resistant to heading home when I told her it was time, despite obviously tired legs, cold hands, banged up shins, and flushed cheeks. I love the spark of drivenness that I see in her.

In another sign of her growing up, when we got home, I told her she needed to take a bath or a shower. She picked a shower. She even managed to get out of the shower in a timely fashion when I told her to keep it short. I was proud of her.

Bike Rider

Today Eliana learned to ride a bike. She went around our neighborhood pond three times. She still can't get started by herself, but with a little something to stabilize her to get started, she's off.

This newfound competency was met with such humble expressions as

• I'm doing it. I'm doing it.
• Whoohoo!
• I am the greatest bike rider ever!
• I'm a five year old!
• I need to tell Josie about this.
• I am an excellent rider!

It appears she got my sense of humility. (The preceding sentence caused Elizabeth to cackle.)

To think I considered staying in to watch some silly basketball game tonight instead of taking the monster out.

First Crush

Eliana apparently has developed a crush on one of the boys in her preschool class. A few weeks back, she received an invitation to his birthday party. She toted the Transformers festooned cardstock all over the house right up until the day Optimus Prime had announced.

It was the ever insightful Mommom who first noticed that Eliana's enthusiasm seemed to be greater than usual for a birthday party. She asked Ellie if she though the boy was cute. Emphatically the reply came that he was the cutest boy in preschool.

The party was Wednesday at "Old McDonald's." Elizabeth had a chance to talk to the boy's mom at the party. It turns out the crush is requited. She said that her son tells her he and Eliana are "in love." In more worrying news, the mother of another boy at the party says that he doesn't like girls, but he talks positively about Eliana all the time. This pattern could become concerning to a father.

Today, Eliana is running around, making what I believe is a card for the birthday boy. She's been writing their names next to each other obsessively and commenting effusively about the shocking fact that they both have "E"s in their name. Oy.

It gets worse. Elizabeth reports that the wee one then said something to the effect of "Eliana and boy's name. Now for love." Then she asked her for help drawing a heart, which she spent the next 20 minutes practicing. The authoring of this post was interrupted many times to be shown her improving attempts.

Pleasant surprises about the design of our house

We put a lot of thought into the design of our house. (Elizabeth would typically call it obsessing when I would do it. She'd do something else while I pondered the importance of the position of a door, for example. Often that something else was try to get me to stop obsessing so that we could leave the house.) With a few exceptions most things worked out the way we'd hoped. For example, I had the electrician install a power outlet in the downstairs hall at light switch level. I intended to put a shelf there to set my phone on while charging. In the end, Elizabeth came up with a better solution, which was to put some furniture in our "mud hall" to collect that kind of stuff. Because I wasn't on the same page with her there, I didn't get an outlet on the right wall in the mud hall, so I can't plug my phone in at the same place that I drop my keys and wallet. Whoops.

However, there were other things we didn't plan that have worked out well. For example, as we were walking through with the electrician Elizabeth told him that we wanted one can light on its own switch above each of the window seats. I thought it was a silly idea, but the electrician said it would not cost substantially more to have it on a separate switch, so I acquiesced. Turns out, I use that light in Eliana's room as a night light. She likes it because it's bright enough to read by. I like it because the CFL can uses less power than the pretty, girly incandescent night light.

Another happy surprise is also lighting related. I've been reading to Eliana most nights before putting her to bed. We'll turn off all the lights in the living room, light the fire, and sit down to read. Normally, that'd be the time that you'd want some sort of end table lamp to give you just enough illumination to see the page. Well, I don't really like lamps and we don't have any in the living room. But we do have awesome lighting on our deck. If I turn that on, more than enough light comes in through the window to read by and provides something of a sunset effect. I like it.

The shelving unit that we bought to put into Eliana's closet was a mistake that turned into serendipity. It took up too much space in the center of the closet, i.e. where the door opened, leaving too little room to hang closets on the rods, which ended up back in the hard-to-reach corners. I'd already assembled the shelving unit at that point, so we didn't feel like we could return it. Then Elizabeth had the brilliant idea of installing the unit in the laundry room. We'd originally drawn the laundry room with enough space for cabinets on the wall opposite the washer and dryer, but hadn't planned to actually buy them until later. Well, the closet kit, which was much less expensive than cabinets, worked great in that space and provided hanging space that we (or at least I) weren't even thinking about. It also provided storage for detergent, stain remover, etc. There was even a little room left over to slide in a table for folding clothes on.

On an unrelated note, the water is starting to melt off the pond and the birds are beginning to return. After Eliana and I cleaned up after dinner, we took some bread down to feed the ducks. We also saw a Great Blue Heron, a Red-tailed Hawk, a pair of Hungarian Partridges, and some geese. It was fantastic except for the daughter forgetting to put on socks before we wandered outside into a newly fallen half foot of snow. Her cold toes required the excursion's end.

Officially in the new house

Last time Elizabeth posted on the blog, she included a picture from the bedroom of the new house. What she didn't mention is that that, February 26, was the first morning we woke up in the new house. We had been planning over a month beforehand to move into the house that weekend. We were busy enough schlepping that weekend and since that we really didn't take the time to say that we're in the house. We've been a little hesitant to post pictures since we're not completely unpacked and because there are a few more construction details to complete. Most notably, a fair bit of the siding still needs to be painted.

But the real point of this post is to say that we've been in the house two weeks and love it.

Here's what we woke up to this morning...

Here's what we woke up to this morning..., originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Here's what we woke up to this morning...

Our house is getting so close to ready to move into!

Our house is getting so close to ready to move into!, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Our house is getting so close to ready to move into!

Energy Star Certified

We decided to have our new house Energy Star certified. I had two motivations for doing it: I wanted to be able to advertise the house with some sort of green credential if we sell it and I wanted to have an independent third party directing all the various subcontractors toward building an energy efficient house. I feel like it turned out great.


Bill at Infrared USA did our verification and ensured that everybody was building things energy efficiently. Oddly enough, just the fact that we were building a home we intended to have certified seemed to make a big difference in the subs' attitudes. I'd overhear them discussing how to do something and picking a certain option because it was an Energy Star house. I'm not sure if they were required to do it that way to meet the certification, and in some cases I'm guessing it wasn't. However, that sort of green umbrella over the project is the kind of secondary effect I'd hoped to achieve by opting for the certification. Some of the credit for that effect certainly should be extended to our builder, Keith Fraser who made a point to mention the goal.


The news aspect of all of this is that today we had our final blower door test. One of the key aspects of the Energy Star certification is ensuring the house doesn't leak much air. To do that, the tester performs a blower door test with a rig that looks like this:





That rig contains a fan that turns hard enough to generate a specific amount of pressure and an anemometer to measure the amount of air moving through. From that and the volume of the house, the air changes per hour can be calculated. To meet the standard, the home needed to have 4.0 ACH or better. Our house measured over six times better than that, 0.65 ACH. I'm pleased.

The downside of having such a tight home is that we'll need to install an HRV to ensure that the home has sufficient fresh air. In the short term that hurts because it's another couple thousand dollars we'll be putting into the mechanical system of the home, but long term it means that the house will have fresh air that we're not paying to heat which should mean lower heating bills (and hopefully no cooling bills).

It has been brought to my attention...

... that I am slacking in the blog post department. My apologies. =D

The house is coming along! I am excited for all the changes that are taking place - daily it seems! Here are a few looks at the progress...

We have cabinets!!

We have Corian countertops!

We have progress on the siding!!

We have wood stairs!!

Hooray for progress!! About a month until we get to move in!!

Wood Floors...

This boy has been working so hard to help put our house together, including installing and finishing the hardwood floors. Don't they look great??

This little girl...

... starts preschool in the morning. I'm not sure I believe just how big she's gotten.

Siding Progress

We had a warm spell last week, so work began on the lap siding, which is "traditional red." Above the red, you can can see the board and batten, which is the other style that will cover parts of the house.