First week in April - bike season

Finally spring is in the air and with that the kids can escape outside. Carlita got new rain boots and umbrella. 

Luke loves his sister's bike helmet and wears it around the house. 

Carlita is now known as the "lil chef" an she helps out with every meal. We love being inventive so we tried to make easter egg pancakes.

And Luke loves to get into the cars and plan with buckles. He also thinks he can drive.

Carlita has been taking karate at the Y. Here are hilarious shots of her!

And we love to dress up so here's Mother and Daughter ready for Sunday church. 

But the big thing that has happened is Carlita getting a new bike. She has a dora bike but it's way too small. So off to Toys-r-us we went and she got a new 18inch bike called Coral mist by Avigo.  She loves her bike. We went biking in our area which was hard to do so we wen off to our local park, Nichols Park, where she can go bike by herself and we can be on the playground with Luke. Actually Luke likes to run after his sister. He's our little runner. We're looking forward to a fun bike season with the kids.

Visit to B'more with kids - March 2011

With ACPA in Baltimore and it being spring break at UDel, Karl and I decided to have him and the kids come visit me during the conference. This was rather hard on everyone since there's only so many things you can do with kids in a hotel room. Luckily we were on the same floor as the work out center and pool so the kids ere in the pool right after they woke up and right before bedtime. Carlita really like hot tub though she can't go in them. 

For the first day they were there (I was busy with interviewing candidates, presenting, and networking), they went to Port Discovery, a children museum we are members to. They had a blast but Karl was tired from the walking from the hotel and the running around there. I got to see the kids for dinner and we met up with Jessica, Karl's cousin, who is working in Qatar. Check out her blog here. That night we got to go to the Commission Showcase and some receptions. Then bed time.

On Wednesday we all went to the Baltimore Aquarium. We got in early and there was no crowds. The kids loved seeing the fishes, sharks, and then the dolphin show. Carlita took hold of my camera and took some amazing shots of fishes. Then after a long morning, we ate at Noodles & Company and headed home. Naptime for everyone!!! It was a blast but it's very exhausting to have kids at a conference.  I don't think they will come to any conferences next year - too expensive and just too much to handle. 

Surviving March Madness

For many March Madness is about the NCAA tournament and seeing dreams come true. For us in the student affairs profession, it's the same except it's not basketball we're talking about it's job searching. The marathon to land that perfect job.

In my new job, this is what I do : run all job search processes for my department. For March this is our season - the season to find that next person who will join our team. For Temple we have anticipated job openings so we can interview candidates but can't yet bring them on campus. This year we were lucky that two major conferences, NASPA and ACPA, were within our distance. NASPA was in Philly and ACPA in Baltimore.

For NASPA I traveled back and forth for the week which was exhausting. Next time a conference is in Philly I'm staying over night. But for ACPA we got to stay in the Hilton which worked out great. Every day we ate out at great places (and ate too much). I got to present at both conferences about my dissertation work and StrengthsQuest,which was a great experience.

Applying Multimedia principles to online learning

View more presentations from Licinia Kaliher

So I survived 15 days of conferencing. In between the conferences I was on duty so basically the whole month of March I worked, including weekends. Over 100 people interviewed yet we're not able to move on with the selection process so we'll see how the next months go. But it was worth it for the food and friendships developed.

Snow snow and more snow

It snowed on April Fools. Really Mother Nature - snow in April? Reflecting back on the past three months we had alot of snow in this area - more than usually and necessary. In Jan. we were snowed in for two days. We quickly learned that we don't have to have a large drive-way and will ned a snowblower when we get a house. The kids enjoyed the snow a bit but not really - they hated getting bundled up and only stayed outside for a few minutes. But it was beautiful and memorable. Here are the scenes of snow at our Landenberg house.

Late post on myself turning 38

As I was going through my pictures and blog postings, I completely missed talking about the snow and my own birthday. How did that happen? How could I have forgotten all of Jan? Well I know.. we moved and stated a new job and routine. So here I am finally in April writing about what happened on my birthday.

Actually it wasn't too much of an exciting day since I had to work. It was group process weekend (for those not in ResLife - something like a group interview that w have potential RA candidates go through).  This is something that I will oversee next year so it was definitely something I had to be at. I was on campus by 8am and left by 4pm. When I got home, I found a cake that Karl made (check out the picture of the manly cake) and presents from the kids. They had built me a birthday bear - it was very bright and a voice recording of Carlita saying Happy Birthday. Tia Samanta watched the kids and Karl and I went out to dinner at Potstickers, an asian sushi grill. We had a wonderful dinner but had to be back by 10pm for me to be in bed for work the next day. Hopefully next year I could be with my family all day but I had a wonderful birthday - thank you to all.

My niece turns 3

I can't believe that my niece, Sofia, is turning 3 years old. It was just yesterday she was born and then 1 and then 2. For this year, Sofia had a gymnastics party and the theme was "monkey business". My sister went out of her way to make this party awesome. She made homemade banana cupcakes, vanilla icing, and personalized monkey favors. Curious George would have been proud.

Now originally I wasn't suppose to be at the party. I was at NASPA in Philly and had told my sister that I couldn't make it but little did she know that I had always planned to be there. Karl and the kids arrived earlier on Saturday and spent the day with Sandra, Sofia, Mike, and Koji. They jumped on the trampoline, climbed Sofia's treehouse, and played dressed up. The girls got to play alot together. Meanwhile I was finishing up interviewing candidates in Philly and at 5pm took the train to Marcus Hook (which is where I parked my car for that day) and started on my way to Sandra's, arriving around 8:30pm. I drove up and turned off my lights. I could see Sandra in the window wondering who it was and Mike was coming out to find out. I sneaked up and into the house and scared my sister. Boy was she surprised and happy to see me, as well as everyone else.

The next day was the party. Sandra and I headed over to the gym a little early to get everything set-up but before yo knew it the party had started. the first 45 minutes was a gym lessons. Sofia took some time to warm up but then she got right into it. Carlita, of course, was the leader and trying to do everything. Luke, well... he really struggled being in the class. Instead he just ran all over the place. That really worn us out. After the lesson, it was time for pizza and cake. There was a story time read by Sandra and then the pinata. All the kids were worn out and passed out for naptime in the afternoon. I was suppose to drive back to Philly for the NASPA opening speaker and reception but I was tired so we stayed until evening and then headed home. It was a great weekend and party for my little niece, Sofia. I love you!!!

Click here to see all the pictures from the party. 

My last advising legacy - RSA and No Frills 2012

Most of you know that I work in student affairs - the land of student development on college campuses. Part of my job at Delaware was advising student groups, including the Resident Student Association. With me leaving University of delaware for Temple, one of things that I was most proudly helping the group with was bidding to host a small conference (No Frills)  next Jan. 2012. It was already planned for me to go to the conference to support them but my students had no clue I was coming. During the weeks leading up to the conference, I skyped in and consulted with the group on their bid. I even went to their meeting the next before they left to show them my support and wish them luck. Little did they know I was going to be joining them in a few hours. 

At 3:30am Kyle Griffith, my fellow co-advisor and friend, came and picked me up. I hid in the back of the mini-van as we went on to pick up all the students. The first student picked up was Marisa (the NCC). She had no clue I was in the van. I just kept quiet as she talked about the conference preparation. Then we picked up everyone else and as they opened the doors I popped up. Marisa was shocked to know I was in the car the whole time. Everyone else was happy to see me and have me come along. Then off we went to the Philly airport to fly into Dayton, OH to be driven to Ocford, OH to Miami University campus, the site of No Frills 2011. The other advisors in the region knew I was coming, since I had communicated with them. I was also presenting as well with my friend, Kevin Gates from Bowling Green. 

There was one more thing that the group was doing at No Frills: submitting a bid on my behalf for Advisor of the year. With so many bids going on, tension was high. The group did wonderful presenting and it was announced a the banquet that Delaware would be hosting No Frills 2012. Though I didn't win advisor of the year through CAACURH, I was so happy and proud of my advisees. My legacy will live on within each of them. I wish them good luck as they plan forward to next year's conference. 

Kyle and me - co-advisor, co-conspirators, friends forever!

The winning team!!!!

Videos of Luka kids

Here are some clips of the Luka kids over the past few months. Enjoy!!

Luke and Carlita dance it up!

Swim Lessons for Carlita and Luke

Jumping Cousins on the Trampoline

Carlita singing in St. Thomas Little Lights group, April 3, 2011

Flowers and Flat Stanley - March 15th weekend

So winter has been tough this year. Lots of snow and coldness. Finally we are getting some nice weather here. On one day it was 70 degrees. The kids and I started our garden out back and were so excited for spring to be here. We went to a local park where we met up with one of "mom" girlfriend and her kids. Carlita is helping out with a "flat Stanley" project so he came along as well.

The next day, I had purchased tickets to Longwood Gardens from Groupon so one Sat. we all went off to the gardens. It wasn't as nice as the day before but still nice. They have a very nice outside kids' garden but with the weather nothing was in bloom. We did get to be "queen bees"

The inside garden is amazing. Carlita took hold of my camera and went crazy. She took amazing shots of the flowers. So much to see but our favorite is the Children's garden. The kids got to play around in water and all type of things. Then we went out side to the treehouses. Again amazing designs and so much to see. So we're ready for spring to come - please come fast!

Click here to see the pictures of our adventures to Longwood Gardens.