Will's article for the lay person

Will got up super early this morning to go to the lab for an interview with one of the local news stations. Dr. Sood was the front man actually being interviewed. Will was a behind-the-scenes blogger. Viewers wrote in questions to the station's blog and Will answered them in real time.

http://www.beloblog.com/KHOU_inyourneighborhood/2008/12/tx-medical-center-ovarian-canc.html#comments

Dicer, Drosher and outcomes with patients with Ovarian Cancer

Will and his colleagues, other fellows and attendings, at MD Anderson have been working so hard over the last weeks, months and years on this research project which was just published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Sood was Will's research advisor during his first two years of fellowship.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/359/25/2641

It has been cited in quite a few national publications as well.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/17/healthmag.ovarian.cancer.mutations/index.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6169811.html

Cookie Decorating Party

The Cookie Decorating Party on Sunday afternoon was a hit. We had a mixture of friends join us - friends from Olivia's school, McIver's school and friends from church. There were more than enough cookies to decorate and plenty of icing and sprinkles to go around . . . and then some.

Olivia could barely wait to taste her cookie.

Some children had heavier hands with the sprinkles than others.

The carnage - and this was after just the first round of kids came through. We were still only about half-way through the party when this picture was taken. This doesn't show the thousands of sprinkles all over the floor. It really was unbelievable, and not too hard to clean up (according to Will!).

After everyone left, Will and McIver got down to business decorating the last TWO tupperware containers FULL of cookies. We had a long way to go before we could finally clean up. The left-over cookies are teacher gifts for the many teachers who take such good care of our kids day in and day out. So far, they have been a big hit!
I had to get in on the action, too!

Look at all those cookies. This will definitely be a tradition at our house no matter where we live.

Grandparents' Day

Friday was Grandparents' & Special Friends Day for the first grade at Olivia's school. Since her grands are so far away, I made plans to be the 'special friend.' Only, the only part that made me special was that I brought ChicFilA for lunch. Aside from that, Olivia didn't seem all that happy to have me there.

Since her school is a language magnet, the Welcome sign says hello in lots of languages along with the different ways that cultures around the world say 'grandmother and grandfather.'

The first grade had the run of the lunchroom so Olivia was able to sit with friends from her kindergarten class. Tomer's grandparents live in Israel so we were glad that she could join us.

Posing for another picture before heading to the Book Fair and playground.

Prep for Cookie Decorating Party

Will and the kids spent most of Saturday preparing for our Cookie Decorating Party. They rolled out the dough, cut the cookies and baked, and baked, and baked. The kids lost interest after the first batch, but Will pressed on and we ended up with more than enough cookies for the party.

Will and McIver cutting out the cookies.

Busted! I caught Olivia sneaking a taste of the dough.
She actually cut out a few cookies, too.
Check out all the cookies... and this is just one batch.

It took a few tries to get the dough thin enough that you could still tell what the shapes are. We had a few very fat Christmas Trees and Candy Canes.

Check back for pictures from the party on Sunday afternoon...

Yea Will!!

Proof that Will's hard work is paying off.... One of his papers was chosen as 'outstanding paper by a resident or fellow presented at the 2007 SGO Annual Meeting on Women's Cancers.' A small profile was included in the Gynecologic Cancer Foundatoin Annual Report.

McIver's Christmas Program at school

The Christmas Program at McIver's school was wonderful this year. The children all did a great job singing and in each group there was one really funny kid that seemed to cause a chuckle, if not a full-on belly-laugh, from the audience.

Here's McIver blowing kisses to his adoring fans during the Processional. That sweet little girl in front of him is Bella. She was in my class last year and is precious. McIver told me the other day that Bella is his girlfriend and that he would give her a big hug if they were ever under mistletoe together.

Turns out that McIver stood next to Bella when the Monkey Class sang. He didn't sing a whole lot, mostly spent time blowing kisses and shaking his head back and forth. But at the end of one song, he decided it was time to kiss Bella - right there on the top step in the church for 150 families to see. Bella did a great job dodging him!

We met McIver back in his classroom. I just had to take a picture of this. The prompt from the teacher was: Tell something kind someone has done for you.

McIver's response: I was at a train station and I flipped over and somebody helped me and got my backpack, too. He was like a secret agent.

Never happened, of course. The kid loves using his imagination!

Quick family picture - believe it or not, this was the best of three. McIver insisted on making a silly face...

Houston the Elf - Report

Houston has been finding some clever hiding spots lately...

This one was easy to find - hanging upside down from the kitchen cabinets.

There was a note taped to the bathroom mirror:

Dear Olivia and McIver,
I got hot so,

I moved around the house a lot,

the North Pole this is NOT!

I looked for a place that's cool,

but there is not a swimming pool...

I'm hiding in a place with ICE.

I bet you can find me without looking twice.

Your Elf,
Houston

This hiding spot was a little tricky - took several attempts and clues before they found him in the dining room.

And, here's Houston reminding us the reason for the season.

SNOW in Houston

The temperature was really low all day yesterday, but rainy, so I didn't believe the rumors at church that there was snow in the Galleria area. But, when we walked out to the parking lot after choir and pizza, we saw actual real-life snowflakes!!! Will and I had a last-minute dinner party to go to so the kids and I loaded up for the ride home. It took 45 minutes to get home - probably because so many people were gawking at the snow. The closer we got to the loop, the bigger the snowflakes got. It was beautiful - we had the heater on, the windows down and Christmas music playing. We snapped a few quick pictures before the babysitter arrived...

I can't even imagine how excited they're going to be when they see snow in Colorado when we go skiing for Spring Break. Olivia wondered if this was a blizzard!

This is all the accumulation we got during the 2 1/2 hours we were gone to the dinner party.

Christmas Tree

Will took the kids to pick out a Christmas tree on Saturday while I was at the ECW Christmas Luncheon. I left Olivia with strict instructions to take pictures for the blog. So, here's Christmas tree shopping from her perspective...

Daddy & McIver with a tree, but this one was too small so we didn't pick this one.

Now THIS is what I call a Christmas Tree. Me and McIver in front of the tree after they cut off the trunk.

These are the men who cut off the bottom of the tree and then helped Daddy put it on top of the car.

Daddy tied the tree to the top of the car to get it home. This is me and McIver in front of the car with the tree on top.

Birthday Party at the Houston Museum of Natural Science

A friend from McIver's Monkey Class invited his friends to a birthday party at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The invitation said to "Ooze on over to A's party" so McIver had been looking forward to it for several weeks. He could not wait to 'do science' at a birthday party.

When we arrived, though, the first thing we saw was a huge terrarium holding a boa constrictor and a dead rat. (Rat #1 had already been consumed.) McIver was lucky enough to claim the chair right next to the window so he had a great spot to watch the show. The boa checked the rat out for a good little while before doing anything really gross.

McIver and the snake mirrored each other's movements for a little while. McIver would stretch his head up tall, and the snake followed. Then the snake dropped down low, and so did McIver.

Finally, the snake got used to all the kids' screaming and screeching (I'm pretending that I didn't squeal like a little kid!) and decided to have his dinner. Look at McIver's face - he loved every second of it!

And, the slime was fun, too.

After the party, we were able to spend a little bit of time in the museum. McIver loved turning the wheels to watch different kinds of oil fill up these big cylinders.

Christmas Party with Santa

After a rush-job of decorating the Christmas tree and hanging lights on the house, we made it to our afternoon event just in time to see Santa arrive in a convertible. Olivia and McIver thought that was WAY cool! Our friends, the DuMays, have invited us to their annual Christmas party since our first year here and we always have a great time. (We missed last year, though, because of Will's appendectomy - so glad we're not dealing with that again this year!)

They had a backyard full of kids having a great time! The temps were just cool enough to require a sweater - it actually feels like Christmas in Texas. I wonder if it will actually be this cool once the 25th finally rolls around. Anyway, the kids had a ball roasting marshmallows to make s'mores.

McIver prefers his marshmallows burned.

Olivia is much more patient and just turns and turns her marshmallow until it is golden brown.

McIver popped right into Santa's lap and gave his beard a big tug. It was the real deal!

Olivia told Santa that we are taking good care of Houston the Elf. Santa said he had heard good reports so far and asked us to leave some cookies out on Christmas Eve.

Houston the Elf - Report

Houston the Elf is working some serious magic for Olivia and McIver! Olivia has started taking on some extra chores around the house without being asked. She has been super-sweet with McIver, even inviting him to sleep in her room for the last week or so. McIver hasn't exactly been eager to do anything 'extra' but is always sure to run tell Houston when he has done what I asked him to the first time I ask. They are both still jumping out of bed (McIver a bit slower than Olivia, but that's to be expected!) pretty quickly to see if they can find him. He's had some pretty good spots so far...

Hiding in Olivia's room on her 'parrot swing.'

He was hard to spot this morning nestled into the Christmas tree just above Dale Earnhardt.

Houston the Elf - Report

Houston was good to his word! He was back this morning on top of our TV cabinet. The kids popped right out of bed (pretty impressive after the cajoling I had to do yesterday - the first day back at school after an extended break!) to see if they could find him. The first place they looked was in the box, but he had busted out. They struck out in the first few places they looked, but it didn't take too long to spot him.


Word on the street is that the Stricklins have an elf named Jessie. Olivia can't wait to talk to Abby tomorrow at church about Jessie's escapades. We're wondering if Houston and Jessie know each other...

The Elf on the Shelf

McIver and I had to go to Learning Express in Rice Village today to find a Christmas gift for some special friends. When I went to the counter to pay (wink, wink), the clerk said that someone (she thought it might have been one of Santa's elves) had left a package for us earlier today.

So, after I dangled the idea of opening a secret present over the kids for a good part of the evening, we let them open the special package. Here they are all bright-eyed and curious...

Meet Houston, our Elf on the Shelf. We decided to name him Houston (Daddy's suggestion) because we live here and wanted to always remember where we were when he first came to our family.

Houston came with a book explaining his story. He's one of Santa's elves, of course, and will fly to Santa's workshop every night to report to Santa whether Olivia and McIver have been naughty or nice. There are a few rules - no one is allowed to touch Houston or his magic might go away. And, Santa won't let Houston talk to us, although we can talk to Houston any time we like to tell him something nice about someone else or maybe even tell him what's on our wish list for Christmas. According to the book, Houston is supposed to come back to our house every morning and we're supposed to make a game out of finding him. Let me assure you that the kids were the definition of 'nice' all night tonight. They cleaned up the wrapping paper and insisted that I tell Houston what they were doing.

It didn't take long for McIver to start telling Houston exactly what is on his list. The first thing he told him was a 'spaceship with an alien' which was news to me.

Olivia seemed a bit less sure about Houston. She swears that she saw his eyes move and I'm pretty sure he winked at me. Olivia read one of her Book Fair books to us all tonight - and she made sure to read loud enough for Houston to hear and even turned the book around so he could see the pictures at the end of each page.

Olivia also told me that if she starts 'misbehaving, then just remind me about Houston and I'll straighten right up!'

Wonder where he'll be tomorrow morning!?

First Sunday of Advent

Even though we were up late last night with friends celebrating our Post Thanksgiving Fried Chicken Bash, the kids and I made it to church for them to sing with the choir. Except that McIver decided not to sing and we brought Shannon with us who did want to sing. So, I broke even in the number of singers today, even though they weren't both my children.

Anyway, they sang a beautiful song in St. Bede's Chapel to mark the first Sunday in Advent. I really hate that McIver decided not to sing because he has been singing the song for the last week and a half at home, in the car, at school, etc.

Here are Shannon and Olivia waiting to sing.

After church, we went upstairs for the annual Advent Wreath making session in fellowship hall. I don't think McIver remembered doing it last year - or he was in the nursery so he actually didn't participate. Either way, he had a ball picking out just the right greenery and using the clippers to get it just the right size.

Olivia loves when Shannon and Reagan come to church with us. She enjoyed showing them around and really had fun helping Shannon make an advent wreath for their family.

Olivia ended up staying to play with Shannon when we dropped her off, so McIver and I headed home. I got busy cleaning up the kitchen and noticed that McIver had gotten awfully quiet which is never a good thing. So I put down my rubber gloves and headed off to find him. This is what I found in Olivia's room (where she decided to let him sleep last night!). GranGran gave us that Santa a Christmas or two ago.

It turned out that he was playing possum this time. But, later this afternoon, I went to see Australia (SO GREAT!!), and Will was doing some work when McIver did actually go curl up and fall asleep for a little bit. An afternoon nap for this little boy is the kiss-of-death when bedtime comes. But, with all the excitement we've had over the last week or so, it sounds like the Sandman has hit in Olivia's room (she's allowing her guest to sleep in her room again tonight).