December 17, 2013 Dear Friends and Family, each year I think I'm getting later and later with holiday arrangements, and this year, I know it's true. Last year's letter was dated December 16th. We hedged our bets and got New Year's cards to be safe this year. We are often asked how we are doing, and the answer this year's reply has always been, "Everything is great, but we are exhausted!" This year's adventures included a trip to Germany (and Denmark), the ocean, Shenandoah National Park, as well as visits from Donna's cousin Missie, the Ohtanis, the Stamps, John and Noro, and of course visits from the Robinsons, the Karps (Michael's sister and family), and Donna's mom, who went along on the Germany trip. We also traveled to see many of these same people. So, we spend quite a bit of time on the I-95. One noteable achivement was that Zachary taught himself to swim in the deep end one day. Donna told him he couldn't go to the "big pool" until he could swim 10 laps of the "small pool" without holding on so he just willed himself to do it. That was such a delightful surprise after years of trying to urge him to swim. Zachary is in Spanish immersion kindergarten, which he loves! This year, Donna was shocked to recieve a Jack Child Teaching with Technology award, which is a big deal at American University. She was shocked mainly because she hadn't been using any technology in her classes, to her knowledge. You can read about that on her Apps page. She and Michael have also started using videos on Youtube and Panopto to help their students supplement their study. Both Michael and Donna are starting to really settle into their new positions at American University and are enjoying working with the very responsive and appreciative students there. The two hardest aspects of this year, however, were probably the bookwriting and the illnesses. Michael has been writing a book, "Topological Signal Processing", in earnest since last January, although he had started the preparation last year. The book is finally in to Springer (the publisher), and our activity level is slowly getting back to normal, whatever that is. The illnesses are still ongoing but have reduced to manageable background noise. Starting around Halloween of 2012, Theodore started getting repeated ear infections and was on antibiotics about a third of the time, up until May 2013. He finally got tubes put in his ears which immediately improved his balance, as he was just learning to walk. We also discovered that the kids and even Michael were passing strep throat around to each other, with Edwin and Zachary being asymptomatic and Edwin's case not responding to amoxycillin, which was hard to detect since he was asymptomatic. Everyone except Donna ended up on antibiotics simultaneously. After this big round for everyone, things mostly cleared up, except that Edwin now has this strange case of hives (which his doctor orginally thought was lyme) that is only going away very slowly. We have been assured that hives is nearly always strange and that we will be lucky if we ever can figure out what's causing it. So, we are hoping that the hives disappear as quickly as they came. Edwin is impressing us with his reading skills, and he is doing better behaviorally in second grade than he did in first grade, which was somewhat better than he did in Kindergarten. However, there is still a gap between what we wish he would do and what he does. We were proud that he was able to participate as a villager in "Eek! The musical" at church, which is a 15 minute Christmas production including about 3 or 4 songs in which the children's choir alternately sings and sits on the sides waiting while some adults so additional singing. Zachary also performed in this production, dressed as a mouse. As Donna is drafting this letter, all the kids are in their respective schools, hopefully behaving, and Michael is downstairs happily working on an experimental clock mechanism. He has been itching to tinker all year, but the book-writing has prevented it. We wish you all a very wonderful holiday season, and please do keep in touch! Michael, Donna, Edwin, Zachary, and TheodoreLast Year's Pages: