December

Dear all,
This is a packed month for our family. The semester is winding down, KC has finished classes for the month and is on Christmas break until after our New Year. He returns January 4th to school. He will still be practicing swimming and competing in swim meets since he swims for the high school team, but he won't be in school (see the picture below). Jack and I will have lots of time to spend together. He won't be going to his school (as he likes to call daycare) since I will be home. Most of school (K-12 and University) work is put on hold during the holiday break -- two or three weeks around Christmas and New Years, so I also get a break from work. The classes I am taking will be over with my final exam on Monday afternoon, so I get a break from school too. Larry's work is slow during this time too. So we should get lots of family time together!
One of our family traditions it to cut down a Christmas tree. We did that a few weeks ago. See the picture of Jack near the tree attached.
We celebrated my birthday a few days ago (December 17th) and our Wedding Anniversary (December 16th). We will be celebrating Christmas with the family (really the families) very soon. On Christmas Eve (Dec. 24th) we will go to Nonna's house (Nonna is the Italian word for Grandma). This will be a celebration with Larry's family.
Christmas morning we will wake up and see what Santa has brought the boys and give them a chance to unwrap their presents. We will then go to my mom's for Christmas Brunch (this is a new tradition in my family -- usually we go to my Grandmothers, but she died last year around this time, so we are making the celebration a little smaller). We will go to Larry's mothers the day after Christmas and have a relaxed celebration with them. Lots of family!!!
We have had a little snow -- see the attached pictures -- you should recognize the back yard. The other picture is Larry shoveling the snow so we don't slip and fall.
I hope you are having a chance to relax a little too.
Let me know how you celebrate the end of the year and things I should be paying attention to for Chinese New Year.
Happy Holidays,
Stacey

November

This has been a busy month (and I am now seeing that busy is a reoccuring theme), but I have gone to a conferences on teaching and learning and learned a lot!! I will be modifying my courses over the next few semesters based on the new stuff I learned and great ideas that were shared.
I am avoiding studying right now for my statistics exam this evening -- wow, stats is not a fun course for me!! I understand the math, but need reinforcement in the application - when to choose a specific test and what the results mean.
KC has decided to swim for the school this season in sports -- he has practice everyday - sometimes twice a day - before and after school.
Jack just turned 3 -- just a few days ago -- November 19th was his 3rd birthday -- time really flies, huh.
Larry and I are enjoying seeing the boys growing!
November's holiday is Thanksgiving here in the US. We take the day to give thanks for all we have - traditionally it is a harvest festival and is associated with the Native Americans (Indians). If I remember right, (I think Mia's presentation) there are similar festivals for indigenous Taiwanese people.
I hope you aren't working too hard - especially if you have to make up days for H1N1 issues.
Talk to you soon,
Happy Thanksgiving (I am thankful for all of you!!)
Stacey
Well, back to studying

October

Dear All,
October is a fun month here. The leaves are changing colors and dropping to the ground. The red, orange, and yellow are so pretty to see! Fall is my favorite season of the year. It cools down nicely and is so pretty.
We have been busy with K.C. and his Fall sports. He started 10th grade this year and is very good in school (we have parent/teacher conferences next week, but he has already told me he has 4 A’s and 1B – in History). He also plays the drums in the Marching Band so he performs at the half time shows at the high school football games. When he is not doing playing drums he is playing soccer. He plays on the Junior Varsity (J.V.) team this year. He is number 21 in the picture below. Soccer season just ended and the team did GREAT!! He is now looking forward to Basketball season – tryouts are next month.
Jack loves school – he calls his daycare ‘school, I play with friends.’ He is doing well. He is drawing, painting, and playing three days a week while I go to work. He is really increasing his vocabulary and starting to talk in complete sentences! He is cuter than EVER!! 
This past weekend we went to a Halloween event. There is a little re-creation of an old time village in Flint (about an hour from the house) that has about 20 little houses like a bakery, a blacksmith, a library, a school house, etc. At Halloween time they have people dress up and pass out candy (they do a similar thing at Greenfield Village). The kids (and some parents) dress up in costumes and ‘Trick-or-Treat’ at each house. The idea is that the people in the house give a Treat or they get a Trick played on them (no one really does the tricks anymore, but they used to be like throwing eggs at houses, soaping car windows, putting toilet paper all over the houses) so everyone gets lots of candy. Afterwards we went on a train ride there that had Halloween displays like witches, ghosts, and monsters in the woods. It wasn’t scary for Jack he thought it was fun!! Jack dressed up as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story and K.C. was Woody.  Officially Halloween is October 31st, but most places do these events earlier in the month so that everyone gets to have fun.
Next week I will be going to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (aect). This is an international educational technology organization and each year they have a conference to share ideas and network. If you have a chance to go to this type of conference – GO!! You might have a chance next semester. One of my professors at Wayne State, my advisor actually, is going to a variety of universities (including in Taiwan) and sharing knowledge. If you hear of Dr. Ke Zhang from WSU, go and meet her and tell her you know me!!
Let me know what you are up to,
See you soon,
Stacey

September

Whew, this has already been a busy month!!
I started back at school at Wayne State -- I am taking 8 credits, three classes this semester -- statistics (yuck), statistics lab (not as bad as the theory since I don't have problems with math and computers, but still kinda yuck), and an independent study where I am proposing a project to work with the computer science faculty and get them to teach online.
I also started back to my job at Wayne State -- I work there three days a week. I support the faculty and am doing two research projects with online teaching (which nicely ties in with the other jobs) and the effectiveness of discussion boards.
I continue to work on my job at Library Sciences creating a library of online tools teachers can use (I am starting to see a theme here and thinking of dissertation projects).
And of course, I am teaching at LTU. I have one class of Computer Applications -- it's a fun, busy class for me!! And I am working with two students in the Multimedia 2 class -- this one is a new one for me to teach so any of you that have already had MM2, I can use any suggestions!!
But the most important thing I do is being MOM!! If you remember we were taking a vacation to Tennessee right after classes ended. Here are some pictures. We went to the zoo, the Jack Daniel's Distillery, the Tennessee Aquarium, and lots of other places.
I look forward to reading your blogs and seeing what you have been up to!
More later....
Stacey