After the Long Winter

We had snow this winter.  Lots of it.  For five months.  But it’s gone now.

After an abnormally mild winter in 2011/2012, this year we had snow cover from late November to late April, so we enjoyed another white Christmas and were able to go sledding on Christmas day.

Only a few weeks ago, we were building a snowman enjoying the winter vistas.

Though a long time coming, spring has finally arrived.  The photos below were taken on 24 March 2012 and 23 March 2013, and illustrate how different the two years have been.

Last year Craig took photos from the patio each week, and compiled them into a book for Edelweiss’ Mom as a Christmas gift.  If you’re interested, you can view this online (click here).

We enjoyed a couple of days at Duluth on the western edge of Lake Superior over New Years.  The temperature reached a high of -9degC the day we were there and was down to -25degC overnight.  It was cold but beautiful.  In February, Edelweiss and Craig enjoyed their 10^th wedding anniversary with a long-talked about cruise.  It was a three-day trip out of Florida, stopping at the Bahamas.

Ethan and Jesse continue to keep active and learning, and coped well with being mostly inside for five months.  Jesse’s vocabulary is expanding rapidly, and he is making good progress at learning the alphabet (beginning with “W” and “Y” thanks to Craig’s Dallas Cowboys shirt).  He loves books, which of course we encourage.  Ethan is doing well with reading and writing, can recite the value of pi to 14 decimal places, insists on sweeping the foyer and helping with the dishes, and loves shovelling snow.  They’ve recently enjoyed many of the activities available in the Twin Cities, including the Como Park Zoo, a kite day and the Minnesota Horse Expo (see them here on YouTube) where they went on a horse-drawn wagon and Ethan had his first pony ride.  That was followed by an outing to the St Paul Chamber Orchestra where local high school musicians played for a family audience.  Ethan later told Edelweiss “Mom, there were children playing in the orchestra!!”  It made an impression – good!

At the beginning of May we were excited to hear that Edelweiss’ sister, Esther had her second boy, Marcos Haroldo (named after their Dad Haroldo Silva who passed away in 2009).  We had Eli (our two-year old nephew) stay with us for a couple of nights which gave the new-again parents time to settle in with the new baby and get some rest.

Meanwhile, Edelweiss completed her latest book chapter on South American women in international management.  The chapter is part of an edited research handbook that is expected to be published in 2014.  That brings her accepted academic publications to four: 2 articles and 2 book chapters.   While she has enjoyed the research experience and likes teaching, a career in academia doesn’t appear to be likely at this stage.  She applied to a PhD program at a leading university in the Twin Cities and despite being a ‘serious contender’ was not accepted into the program.  Although that was a disappointing experience, she’s already considering other ways she can continue working on publications and teaching or training in some capacity going forward.

In January, Edelweiss co-founded a company called RPHealth with her Mom and sister Liz.  The company is a Mannatech Independent Business Associate and aims to help end global childhood malnutrition.  She’s excited to share Mannatech’s cutting-edge glyconutrients and Real Food Technology® solutions and is learning a lot about nutrition and wellness.  All three attended the national training conference in Dallas and had the opportunity to meet some of the executive team members.  She also continues to work with Capstone and recently took a trip out to DC along with some extra time with long-time friends during a 48 hour trip to North and South Carolinas and Virginia.  She even got her first tour of an OM Ships office and book warehouse in Florence, SC – thanks Jon & Myles!!

We hope the year is going well for you.