Favorite Books

Just so you don't think that all we do is watch TV I thought I'd post about Grace's favorite books. This girl loves to "read". She would rather bring me book after book after book than play most of the time. And she definitely has her favorites. I was going to do her top 3 but I couldn't narrow it down so we're going with the top 4 (and they are clear favorites).

#4. Go Dog Go

My Aunt Melanie got this book for Grace and she loves it. She loves looking at the pictures of the dogs. She also loves the pages where two dogs greet each other with a hello. When she brings the book to me to read to her it is usually accompanied by her saying "hello, hello" just like the dogs do.

#3. If You Give a Moose a Muffin

This book was a hand-me-down from some friends who had 2 copies. They chose a great person to give this book too. Grace usually says "moose" multiple times as soon as she sees this book. There is one page that where the moose gets scared by saying boo and Grace loves this page. I think it is the whole reason she wants me to read the book.

#2. Clara and Asha

Our friend Holly gave this book to Grace before she was born. I think this one might be my favorite. I just love the illustrations. I think Grace likes it because its about a giant fish. She always brings this book to me stating "Ashy, Ashy, Ashy" which is the name of the fish.

#1. Happy to be Girls

This is the mother of all books. It is a clear number one in Grace's book of books. Thanks to Jacque B. for giving this to Grace shortly after she was born. We have had multiple and very dramatic meltdowns because we wouldn't read it to her. It is safe to say that Grace is obsessed with this book. Because of that we keep it hidden and only take it out when we are ready to read it over and over and over again. But when we do read it, it is so cute to see Grace. The book is very has a singsongy feeling to it when you read it. Before I even turn the page Grace is reciting the next words or sounds as best she can. It is crazy how much she loves it and has picked up on what comes next.

The Backyardigans

I have recently discovered one of the greatest kids shows ever made. We don't have cable so we are limited to PBS kids. PBS kids is good but I know there is a lot of other stuff out there. And a lot of not so good kids shows too. So, I was pleased to discover this excellent one. Also, until recently I put Netflix on hold for a few months. It was getting a little too addicting. But we got it back on September 1st and were quickly reminded why we love it.

Ok, back to the show that I recently discovered. We have some friends who have always told us how much they liked the show The Backyardigans. After looking into it I realized I could play full episodes on Netflix watch instantly. After that first 5 minutes of the show I was in love.

The characters are adorable, the music is good and it is not remotely annoying. I would love for Grace to ask for Pablo, a character on the show, rather than asking for Elmo. I can tell she enjoys it but she won't sit and stare at it like she does Elmo. That red monster is addicting.

Vomiting Vent

It's 9:31 am on Sunday morning and I just finished throwing up for the second time this morning. I did it for the first time shortly after I woke up and this time it was a whole bowl of Fruit Loops. They don't look as pretty coming up as going down.

I've been trying not to blog about my morning sickness because I'm so thankful for the baby growing inside of me. I look at Grace and think every second of the ickys I had while growing her were totally worth it. But, this morning I'm just in need of a good vent!

Matt is giving the message today at church and I really wanted to go. I've been doing a lot better the last week and am thankful for that. I haven't been to church in over a month because I throw up so much during the hours that church takes place. I'm not really a fan of throwing up in the church bathroom (which is in a school). I had high hopes of making it out the door this morning.

But since I haven't been able to keep anything down yet this morning I'm feeling worse and worse. Once I can actually eat I will begin to improve and probably by this evening I'll be feeling halfway decent. I'm just really bummed that I'm missing Matt's message this week. I have heard it several times around the house and am sure God will use him to challenge many people.

I took a short break and I'm back from my 3rd visit to the toilet and ready to wrap this post up. Don't feel sorry for me but thanks for reading my vent. I know there are a lot worse situations I could be in. Things are a little hard right now but I'm so thankful for so much. I'll leave you with this Psalm. It is worth meditation on.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving thanks.

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Working With Petabytes

One of the interesting things I get to work on at my job is a technology called Hadoop. Hadoop is a set of open source software that includes (among many other things) a distributed file system, a software framework written in Java for distributed processing, and a high-level data flow language called Pig that allows for simple queries of large datasets.

In layman's terms, Hadoop allows for the storage, data processing, and data mining of ginormous sets of data (on the order of Petabytes*). I'm part of a team that helps write jobs that process advertising data on Hadoop to allow customers to run useful analytics and research experiments. The clusters that our jobs run on are made up of over 3000 different servers. A single job can run on almost all of them! Yeah, I'm nerdy.

If any of you are ambitious and want to try out Hadoop for yourself, you can install and run it in local mode (on your own home computer) by following these instructions.

* A Petabye is equivalent to 1024 Terabytes. A Terabyte is equivalent to 1024 Gigabytes.

2010 NFC North Preview

I (Matt) am back after a long hiatus caused by laziness and a twisted left ankle. OK, there actually wasn't a twisted left ankle. Only laziness.

The 2010 NFL Season is right around the corner, so an NFC North preview is in order. Thanks to my loyal reader(s) out there who likes reading about my sports opinions!

A Look Back

Last year, the NFC North contained riveting drama with the unretirement of Brett Favre to the Minnesota Vikings. He had his revenge against the Packers by beating them twice and leading the Vikings to the NFC Championship game. The Packers had a great second half of the season and went to the playoffs as a wild-card entry before losing in the first round in dramatic fashion. The Bears and Lions did not win many games last year.

The Prognosis

I see the 2010 season shaping up to be similar to 2009 for the NFC North. The Packers and Vikings will be in the top tier and fight for the division crown, while the Bears and Lions will struggle to stay about .500. One notable tidbit about 2010 for the NFC North division is they are scheduled to play for the AFC East and NFC East divisions, which are two of the three most difficult divisions in the league (I'd also put the AFC North up there).

My prediction is that the Packers will win the division with a 10-6 record by relying on their high-powered offense and an easier schedule than the Vikings. Their defense will still give them trouble and will prevent them from getting to the NFC Championship game. The Vikings will finish second at 9-7 and miss out on the playoffs. The Vikings have question marks at the receiver position and secondary that will lead to their demise. Brett Favre should have another solid year, but it is expected that he will retire and unretire a couple times during the season.

The Bears may show some promise with a new offense and I expect Jay Cutler to have a good year, but I see them finishing at 7-9, leading to the probable firing of Lovie Smith. The Lions will be improved, but I don't see them doing better than 6-10. They're still a year or two away from being competitive in the division. And they're from Detroit.

Selling a Home...

...is not very much fun right now. Our house has officially been on the market for over 3 months. So, it is time for a quarterly update. I know when I first posted about putting the house on the market I had a positive attitude and said I didn't care if the house sold soon or not. And ultimately I can usually get to the point of not caring. I would be lying if I didn't say it has been a little bit frustrating.

The reality is the market in America has a 9 month inventory of homes and in our town it is 8.5 months so not that much behind. There are also several homes just like ours for sale in our area. We have aggressively priced and have kept our home nice and have no issues with it at all. So if a house was to sell I'd hope ours would be on the shorter list. But houses aren't selling. If houses aren't selling it doesn't matter what list you are on.

We have only had a few showings in 3 months. Yes, I know it only takes one buyer but if that one isn't even shopping for a home then you are out of luck. I think the hardest part has been I have kept my eye on the market and have found some homes I think would be a good fit for our family. However, I have to remember that we have a nice home and there will always be homes that I think are a good fit for us.

One blessing about this whole process is I'm learning more about money and how to honor God with what he's given us. We've been able to really think through the budget that we set for our next home and really evaluate whether we want to stick with it or not. In thinking about all of this I've learned more about what it means when I say I believe that our money is really God's money. It's not just about giving away X% but about using 100% of our money in a way that we feel is ordained by God.

With all that said it would be really nice to sell our house by the end of 2010 so we can have a bedroom when the new baby comes. But I'd take new baby over an extra bedroom any day. So in the scheme of things Grace can share a bedroom with her brother or sister and I'd feel very blessed.

Bad, Bad, Bad

A few of our faithful readers may have noticed that Grace hit the 16 month mark a couple of weeks ago and I never gave an update. I decided that although she is growing and changing so much it is harder to update on monthly basis. So, as she learns and does new things I'll probably just dedicate individual posts to those things. I imagine I'll still do big ones like 18 months, 2 years, 5 years:) Ha, I wonder if this blog will fizzle by then.

Anyway, Grace has been doing something really funny and house elfish (Harry Potter reference) for the last week or two. The back story is Grace is our first child and we have no idea how to discipline. So, we're learning. Grace's main offenses are playing with the DVD/VCR player or the blinds. When this happens we usually put her in timeout. She continues to do the things she's not supposed to do so I'm not sure if that means timeouts are ineffective.

Another bad behavior that Grace has been exhibiting lately is throwing her food off of her tray when she is done. This does not go over well especially because our dining table is on carpet. So we immediately take her tray away. I think a few times we said bad and slapped her hand. But not enough that I even really remember doing it.

Then the house elf behavior started. Now, whenever Grace throws her food or even does something she is pretty sure she is not supposed to do she starts saying, "bad, bad, bad" and slapping her hand. She usually continues to make the bad choice but she's discipling herself. Let me tell you it is really hard not to roll on the ground laughing.