open for discussion

OK :D rephrasing this entry .. :)
I would love to hear all your stories about purchasing your own house .. from the beginning, first house checkout to the very end when you got the keys... all the issues with realtors/loans/inspectors ...
I'll sure appreciate anything!!
thanks!!!

Oscar and the rest of the week

A big congratulation to Kim and Eli!!!! Oscar Rosen Powers was born on the 14th of January at UNC Hospitals :D healthy super-sweet boy! makes me want to have a boy right away ;)

(sorry for the bad res... that's all i could get from facebook..)
Eli was a grad student of Tom's, worked on the aerosol project until last summer when he graduated. They watched Reka a couple of times back in Chapel Hill, so should I think that maybe Reka wasn't soooo bad at their house so they did not get frightened enough to not want to have a baby?? :D
anyway, we are sooo happy for them, it's great start for something amazing, and hope they'll have many more children as Kim and Eli will be wonderful parents with so much energy and humor!
I'll post pics if I get permission :D
anyway..
this past week was pretty busy and lots of new information.
First of all, I'm advancing forward in my phd research, and I'm getting a good amount of support from my hungarian advisors, which is pretty good and hopefully it'll be fruitfull enough soon so that we can send out a paper...
Second, I've started to get some info on kindergarten.. well, it sucks.. we live in the wrong street.. there are two district in Stocton: Stockton Unified and Lincoln Unified.. and one definitely wants to send his/her kids to Lincoln, no questions, period. so what do we do now?
theoretical options: 1, interdistrict transfer: I would need to work in the other district to be able to get that accepted. 2, move: either buy a house or rent a house somewhere else that belongs to LU. well, the open enrollment is between mid March and mid April.. so we have to get a resident address by mid April.. this'll be though.. but that's our plan..
3, Reka can go to a private school, there are a few catholic schools, and if I consider how much we paid back in NC, it's actually half of the year price.. but then we had two income..
anyway.. so since we are to buy a house in Stockton in the near future anyway, this just speeds up the things a bit more..
so there we are here at the third big thing about this week: getting familiar everthing that has to do with mortgage/housebuying... all the loan side and the house side.. it's still a little bit overwhelming, but I hope I can clear some gray area soon.. at least I hope I have everything under control: we'll meet with an independent mortgage broker on Monday and a woman at Wells Fargo on Wednesday, I'm in contact with several realtors, and probably we'll decide on one, since the european way, that is to shop around houses by yourself, is not really in fashion here and if I keep continue that I'll get no help from any of the realtors as they thing I'm cheating on them ;)
we did went and took a look at 4 houses Friday afternoon.. it's promising.. and realised we really need to narrow down our pricerange and get preapproval and that'll help to find more specific homes and probably solve this homebuying issue quite fast actually.. lot's of houses on the market...
Andy, our german friend from the department, and Sampada, Balint's indian grad student were here last evening for dinner and some board game afterwords.. it was fun, I like playing games... it takes off your mind from soo many things..
it was funny, actaully I've noticed that while at the table what do 4 chemists talk about? chemistry .. but when we sat down and started playing, no chemistry was mentioned for 1-1.5 hours.. that tells you something, right?
anyway, it was fun, I like Andy quite much, he has great humor, great stories with lost of information..
what else...
oh, yes :D Bori :D sweet as an angel still.. her first teeth is comming. 5 months, exactly same as Reka .. we had a few rough days, and lately she's not sleeping that well during the night.. but oh well, it's not that terrible.. and she's in her smiling mood quite much ... she smiles at everybody and constantly.. she's soooo happy, it's amazing how much she smiles.. :D and the other sweet thing is that she learned how to swing herself in the car seat, same as Reka did.. I'll post a video of that.. it's sooo sweetly strange how my two girls figure that out about the same age and amuses them and keeps them happy.. :D there's this rabbit.. at first I was scared to give it to her cause it's big and has many things hanging off it.. but Bori likes it quite much, she can always find something that's interesting.. so this way she's sitting next to me playing in the car seat while i'm hitting the laptop keyboard ;)
oke, that's it of now, I'll do some chemistry work now..


teeth and misc pics:

something really funny :D

for you guys in RTP :D
from my sis's blog..
enjoy :D

Xmas and the sorrouding days in pics ;)

Before Xmas:
chess books are in right now ;) ... my own little jedi :D and the advent wreath (?) that we always have before Xmas:




Christmas Eve:
angels and Jesus brought us the tree and gifts..






After Xmas off to a zoo/playground, also trying out the new razor..

happy

every time i realize time is passing soo fast.. this is the song that comes in my mind..
he's one of my favorite Hungarian singer, we grew up "together" .. he became a great singer .. this one is one of his earliest song preformed at a concert in 1994..
although it's in hungarian hope you enjoy it..
happy 2009 for everybody, hope it'll be a happier, nicer and more successful year with tons of fun

bori :)

Yesterday Mary, Eva and Christian came to visit us :D Eva was a postdoc at Tom's lab, Christian is a prof at NCSU and Mary, their first daughter is 2. They're expecting their second in March :D Tom's former and current lab members were in their reproductive mood last year :D : first us, then Jim and Kristin expecting their first up in Seattle in 6 weeks, and then Eli and Kim also their first one early February and then of course Eva and Christian their second one :D I'm soooo happy for everybody .. we should get together, find a good place to live, set up a lab, where all of us can work and open up our own daycare next to the lab of course, so the kids can learn science immediately :D
oke, enough from the great ideas :D
so they left around 7pm, which was really 10pm for Mary since the time difference. and after they left, Bori was in her good mood :D screaming cause she was enjoying her time :D I'll post a video :D


of course normally she has her pants on, but I took it off for the video, cause she can't stop moving her legs, and it was blocking her... and this way it's easier to see how active she is :D

also some achievements:
I always put her down on her tummy to sleep, cause that's what she got used to in the hospital, as i wrote about it earlier.. and so a week ago in the middle of the night i woke up to a laughing sound that Bori does when she's happy and staring at her toy in her bed ON HER BACK .. yes, she learned how to turn to her back from her tummy :D and she's doing it ever since last weekend.. I think she only skipped one night.. so nowadays I have to get up at 3-4am, to flip her back to her tummy so she'll go back to sleep.. and so she does, really nice and sweet girl .. but sure she enjoys her time during the night :D it's so sweet, I'll try to capture it sometimes soon..
the other thing is that I'm giving some solid food for her now, since i no longer nursing her, so the sooner she's eating solid food the less formula i have to give her.. we've tried rice cerial, but she hates it and I'm not surprised, it has no taste (and of course added salt or sugar is not good, which I agree with actually) .. the second thing I've given her is potato puree, which was OK, she ate it but wasn't too enthusiastic about .. and this week I gave her yam :D sure she enjoys that :D and I don't blame her, it's sweet, good taste.. so that's where we are, her digestion is good, she enjoys it, and I don't have any problem with her .. :D:D:D
here's a little funny stuff for you :D whenever yam is mentioned/on the table, we always say: my two greatest enemies, Rachel Green and complex carbohydrates :D
it's from Friends, when Brad Pitt goes to the Thanksgiving dinner .. :D and Rachel enters with the yam, and Will (Brad Pitt) have this scene how he hates Rachel ..
here is it for you :D I couldn't find just that minute, but the whole scene, the referred funny part is at 2:30-3min :D but the whole piece is quite funny, I love it.. enjoy :D

Xmas

Just would like to put everybody in the mood.. so click to the left of this :D
Merry Xmas in advance for everybody! Love you guys, and miss you!!!

pictures

Yesterday afternoon, naptime ..



day before yesterday, at midnight, after the last feeding ..


sometimes this week: I was doing some stuff in the kitchen and Reka was entertaining Bori ... apparently with a bit too much animal :D


7th of December:


At a UoP volleyball game on 29th of November:


26th of November :D:D:D


24th of November: my inlaws with the kids...

don't even get me started on the Santa dress.. she wore it once, thank God is was small for her already..

23rd of November: after Bori's breakfast ..


17th of November afternoon: she's getting taller :D and bigger :D


13rd of November morning: my friend, Judit. She's in Livermore for her postdoc and gave a talk at UoP the day before. We know each other from the university, same year same chemistry MS ..


12nd of November, dinner with Judit. Andy, one of Balint's colleague at UoP came as well.. Andy is a great new friend, he helps us a lot, and Reka adores him quite much :D funny..