During the early part of 2006 Mariah was enjoying her first sabbatical. One of the perks of the academic lifestyle is occasionally having a few months to retool and renew. Mariah was working on writing a teaching module on the mathematics of voting. She was involved in other projects with her Scholars, the honors program at Wartburg, which she has been leading for the past two years. She was able to take a trip with her Scholars to London and Paris for a week in March as part of a “Debunking the DaVinci Code” trip in which the students evaluated how well the popular book compared to reality. Mariah enjoyed her trip through the Chunnel and eating at the Jules Verne restaurant in Paris.
In February Mariah’s sabbatical included taking Jeri and Zac on a train trip to California. Zac is a train fanatic, so both children enjoyed taking the train across the country. They were able to visit with their newest cousin, Tilden. In April our family took a brief trip to Washington D.C. so Mariah and Brian could pretend to be lobbyists and make the case for funding efforts in science education. Jeri and Zac spent the day getting to know their Mackey cousins in Maryland. We made sure to arrange some time touring the Capitol and seeing the many monuments.
During May, Brian’s teaching duties took him to Germany with 13 students. He was in charge of a three week course on the “Historical Roots of Math and Physics in Germany”. Brian and his students spent their time taking the train through Germany, staying in the youth hostels and visiting a variety of locations, from the birthplace of Kepler to the Deutsches Museum in Munich to the Leibniz archives in Hanover. He was able to put his German language skills to good use and turn his Iowa students into beer snobs. Brian has decided he likes being a math professor, especially the part that involves going to Germany and drinking beer with his students.
Jeri and Zac keep our lives full of surprises. Six-year-old Jeri completed kindergarten in May and has started first grade. Her teachers have wonderful things to say about her positive attitude and her ability to do her best, but not get frustrated when things don’t turn out quite perfect. She is helpful in the classroom working with other weaker students. It is no surprise to us that she is a strong reader, currently working her way through the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but we are amazed at the ease with which she socializes and how popular she is with her peers. She is one of the shorter students in her class with all of those tall Iowa Norwegian farm-girls, but she assures us that it just because she’s really a Californian. She still has the Birgen flair for the dramatic. Once in the midst of a particularly bad day she stated, “If I were a princess right now, I would be the princess of disaster!”
Zac is a different type of disaster waiting to happen. Like many boys his age, he is a free spirit refusing to conform to society’s demands. Much of the year was fighting the expected potty training battles. Zac was the kind of boy who wasn’t disturbed at the prospect of a large wet spot on the front of his pants, and he wasn’t going to stop playing just to satisfy other people’s standards of cleanliness. We had to spend some time teaching Zac the virtue of keeping one’s hands out of the butter. In defiance Zac was heard to shout, “Daddy! I’m naughty at you!” He is still working out the details of word usage, but he is quite adept at communicating.
Once we were trying to teach Zac the dangers of running out into the street. Mariah explained in great detail about the little ducklings walking across the street. “Do you notice that you never see ducklings get run over by cars? That’s because they walk in the street and stay together. But squirrels run out into the street and that’s why you see little run-over squirrels in the street.” Zac’s response: “I’m a squirrel!” Apparently Zac’s sense of self-preservation is as poorly developed as that of his father.
Mariah’s father spent much of the year on his sailing voyage around the world. He was sailing around the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar and through to the Canary Islands when he started to feel poorly. He came back to the States and went to see his doctor. Poor Don was immediately hospitalized while his bypass surgery was scheduled. Don was disappointed in the lack of wireless internet in the hospital during his stay, but he emerged from his successful triple bypass surgery feeling rather abused. We are happy to report that he is on the road to recovery, although it is clearly not proceeding quickly enough for him.
Finally, Jeri and Zac are bursting with excitement to announce the anticipated arrival of their new sibling. Mariah is pregnant and due on the first day of summer. We informed Jeri and Zac of the news on Thanksgiving, and they were immediately sharing the news. Zac informed all of the teachers at his pre-school that “I’m having a baby!” The teachers weren’t sure if he knew what he was saying and that afternoon we were quizzed about our son’s veracity. Jeri and Zac are very excited and are already making their plans. Mariah and Brian are trying to point out to Zac that as a big brother, he will have to set a good example and stop peeing in his pants. It remains to be seen if this motivation works any better than all the other approaches we have used to date.
May the new year hold many wonderful surprises for you. We are very blessed to have a healthy happy family in a safe town where we can care for our children. We pray that families throughout this world torn by war and violence would be able to enjoy those basic joys. May your world be filled with peace and may you spend the holiday season surrounded by those you love.