Christmas in California

We spent Christmas day in Rancho Cucamonga with Laurel, Lars, Luke and Leah. It may have been raining outside all day, but inside there were lots of sunny smiles.

On Christmas Day Luke opened his stocking first.


Lars helped Luke figure out how to make the remote-controlled truck work.

Laurel shares a kiss with Luke.

Grandpop with Leah on his lap and Sheena by his side.

Grandma spent a lot of time holding precious Leah.

Luke and Pop-pop read the Gold bug book.

Here's a video of Grandpop and Luke at play.

Christmas in Pennsylvania

Christmas with Kat and Jason on December 20th.

Kat and Jason came for the weekend and we celebrated Christmas morning on Saturday. Jason opened his new router and Kat cuddles in her "slanket," designed to keep her warm through the winter. Rich got a new grind and brew coffee pot and Susan started taking pictures with her new camera.

Christmas was a bit different this year, with a celebration with Mark and Sharon in Ohio at Thanksgiving and with Kat and Jason the weekend before the 25th. Then we were off to California on Christmas eve to join the Eriksens for their Christmas.

Annual Christmas Letter - 2008

Dear Friends and Family,
This year we have gone from one grandchild to three, with a fourth on the way! There is nothing in the world like being grandparents. The little ones bring us so much joy! My new favorite scripture verse is Prov. 17:6a “Children’s children are a crown of glory to the aged.”

The first five months of 2008 were rather uneventful. In June, however, we hosted a family reunion and celebrated Rich’s 60th birthday and his brother Bob’s 55th. A dear friend, Bev Asper, held a baby shower for Sharon that same weekend.

From the Pacific to the Atlantic and places in between…
After the festivities, we headed for Las Vegas for a week’s vacation. Sharon, Laurel and Luke joined us for a few days. We visited Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon, and the Strip. On our 38th anniversary we dined at Joel Robuchon’s L’Atelier restaurant in the MGM Grand. From Vegas we rode home with Laurel and Luke and spent a day on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean.

In July we traveled to Westmont, Illinois, to visit Sharon and Mark and see their new home. We enjoyed the sights of Chicago, hot dogs and deep dish pizza. Mark is attending Kellogg School of Business on Saturdays in pursuit of an MBA, so we met him for dinner in Chicago.

In August, before school started up again, we spent a long weekend in New Jersey, visiting Rich’s brother Bob and wife, Janis, checking in on Uncle George and Aunt Bernadette, and hitting the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean for a day.

In October Carmella (‘Ella) Rose joined our family and I spent two weeks with Sharon helping her with the transition to motherhood. In November, Leah Katherine made her entrance into the world a few weeks early. We plan to spend Christmas and New Year’s with them.

Kat and Jason and Rich and I met Sharon, Mark and Carmella at Chuck and Anita’s home in Ohio for Thanksgiving and joined their family for the holiday. It was like old times getting the Mitchell clan together at Thanksgiving.

Technology makes the distance bearable!
Thanks to a free Internet telecommunications program known as Skype, we are able to visit with our families on a regular basis. Rich and Luke see each other at least once a week. We met ‘Ella for the first time at the hospital the day after her birth, and we saw Leah when she was only one week old. Kat and Jason were able to show off their new nursery furniture just after they got it.

Another great way we keep in touch is through “Blogs” on the Internet. If you would like you can keep up with us by checking out the Blogs we Read at the bottom of this page.

We have lots of guest rooms and would love to have you stop by for a visit if you are in the Harrisburg area. Our next family gathering is planned for June 20 – so stop by then if you can!

Hope you have a blessing-filled Christmas as we thank the Lord for His many mercies and the love He demonstrated to us in that, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” What a gift!

Merry Christmas!

Susan & Rich

Field Trip Part 2

Check out pictures at http://www.smsd.us/webpages/sstallings/pictures.cfm.

In the afternoon we headed over to Silver Springs, MD, for a visit at the Uniformed Services Medical Simulation Center (SimCenter). There they have the world's most advanced simulation center for training medical personnel in surgery techniques, medical procedures (such as a colonoscopy), and patient interaction. We first visited the doctors office simulation. Each exam room was fully equipped and had a camera and microphone installed. A room full of computers allowed the trainer to watch every move made by the trainee. Trained actors and actresses from age 6 months (mothers are trained) to age 90 were the patients with a wide variety of symptoms.

The moulage area was overseen by a trained theater person. Her job was to make up the "patients" so they looked like they had very real injuries. From a refrigerator she extracted a model of a broken bone breaking through the skin. This would be applied with a light adhesive to a person's elbow. Other injuries were produced from cuts to broken bones hidden under the skin.

From there we toured the virtual simulation lab. Here large screens are set up in a huge room in which the medical personnel are placed. They are given special 3D glasses and soon find themselves in a war zone where actors and actresses are portraying actual victims of shrapnel or gunshot. Students could put on similar glasses and get a feel for what it would be like to be training in such an environment. It was kinda like being inside a video game - very much like a real Matrix experience.

The last area we visited was the surgery simulation lab. Here students could try using laproscopic surgical instruments and experience performing a colonoscopy. A human manikin provided a lot of fun as it breathed, had a pulse, groaned, talked to the students and even coughed or vomited (sounds only). It reacted to medications, had an IV inserted in its arm, and was very life-like.

We left the SimCenter wanting to spend a lot more time there. In fact, there was so much more to see and do at both locations that we could have made a day of either one. Today students told me it was the best field trip they had taken in 12 years of education! That really made it all worthwhile.

Field Trip!

One of the best parts of my job is getting to take students to fascinating places. Today was one of those days! The high school Special Interest (gifted) Class traveled to Greenbelt, MD, to visit the Goddard Space Flight Center.

We began our tour in the Visitor Center where we saw "Science on a Sphere." A large globe-shaped sphere hung from three wires and served as a screen for four projectors which created the earth in front of us. The screen provided a compilation of data from satelites. We watched weather patterns from the last year and a half in fast-motion cross the globe. We saw today's weather around the world. We saw polar ice caps thaw and re-freeze. We saw what the earth would look like if the sea level were to rise 1 meter. (We would lose part of Florida, entire islands in the Pacific and some of our borders.) Fascinating stuff.

Next we visited the world's largest "Clean Room" where scientists in "bunny suits" were working on the actual parts to repair the Hubble Space Telescope to send on the next space shuttle mission. Our tour guide took a liking to our group and decided to take us behind the scenes. We went downstairs to the testing area where we were able to see huge machines that test for the effects of extreme cold, extreme heat, high velocity, high noise, and vibrations. One large room held the world's largest speaker system with a woofer that was at least 12 feet in diameter. A person in the room when the test was being done would die from the volume! Tests are monitored from a room that is a safe distance away.

We saw robotic arms that are used for astronaut training, a machine 20 feet tall that measured the effects of heat on objects, nitrogen tanks to measure the effects of cold, and a balancing machine that spins objects that are packed for space to make sure they can withstand being turned every which way on their way to their destination.

A large model of the telescope was being covered with insulation as astronauts practiced covering up old insulation on the telescope. The material they used was light as a feather and could withstand radiation, extreme heat, and extreme cold. More fascinating stuff!

In the final room we entered was the largest centrifugal force machine I could ever imagine. The room was the size of large building. The machine looked like a giant amusement park ride – It could spin at incredible speeds to see how velocity would affect any object being prepared for space – even something as big as a lunar lander. The machine has mostly been replaced with computer simulations, but is still used to calibrate the computers. When they use the machine they have to notify the city of Greenbelt because of the amount of electricity it uses!

Sometimes I can't believe we are getting to see the stuff we get to see!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog. As our family grows, it seems time to start blogging! We had a wonderful time with family over Thanksgiving, with deep gratitude to my sister-in-law and brother who hosted our get-together. We were able to spend time with Kat and Jason, Sharon, Mark and Carmella, and our nieces and nephews - possibly starting a new tradition! Our newest addition, Leah Katherine was born in California on November 25. It pains me greatly to not be able to be with Laurel to help out when she needs me most. Leah decided to come too early for Grandma to get there! We will see her and Luke, Laurel and Lars, at Christmas. Perhaps we can make it up to them at that time! -Grandma