Chuck and Nick Day One

Camana Bay on the Main walkway

Our cousins Chuck and Nick arrived yesterday for Arianna's baptism and today we played tourist with them all day.  We started with snorkel trips to Smith's Cove and Eden Rock.  In the afternoon after a lunch at Fosters Food Fair we went to Pedro Castle and Camana Bay. 

Tomorrow is the Stingrays and Seven Mile Beach.

Pedro Castle






Eden Rock Snorkeling

 


In the theatre at Pedro Castle

 

Weekly Birthday

The wonder of celebrating each new week of Arianna's life has not yet passed so every Tuesday is another marking of one more week in the books.  Today she turns 16 weeks old and at left is Arianna in her week sixteen onesie made by her Aunt Stephanie who ironically enough celebrates her 21st birthday today as well.  We are looking forward to Scott's cousins Chuck and Nick visiting this week from Chicago and they both arrive tomorrow.  Yesterday the low here was 70 degrees, the high in the high 80's.  Chicago today has a high of 41 degrees so they should be in for quite a temperature shock.

When the Photographing Everything Bug Passes

On both of our laptops are files for our photographs of Arianna.  They are broken down by month and within each month folder are individual folders for big events.  During her first two months of existence you could track Arianna almost hourly by the photographs taken.  During her first month we took no less than 324 pictures, an average of 10 plus a day.  In month two which included Christmas that jumped to 354 or an average of 11 plus per day.  January though saw reality set it and only 184 pictures or just about 6 a day.  Now February is drawing to a close and we go days without taking a photograph.  I intended to do a weekly wrap up blog today and went looking for a photo and discovered we hadn't taken any since Tuesday when we did her week fifteen photos.  We still took a bunch of photos this month, 217 as of this morning, an increase over January but it is clear that the number is in a steady decline.  With her visit from Chuck and Nick, baptism, and first real trip coming up, no doubt March will have some great photograph opportunities but it would seem that bug of always having the camera with us and photographing every little event has passed.

As for this week, it was somewhat anticlimactic after the big accreditation visit last week.  The Governor had to postpone on us and we are now rescheduling that visit.  It will be another week or two before we get the team report though we are already almost done with our response based on the anticipated language in it.  Next weekend is Arianna's baptism and our cousins Chuck and Nick arrive Wednesday so we are looking forward to playing tourist with them.

Arianna's First Newspaper Appearance

The news media runs just a little behind the times here so it was just this morning that the Compass ran an article on our Memorial Walk from a week and a half ago.  There prominently featured in the photograph were Katie and Arianna.

Memorial Walk Article


Picture that ran in paper

The Governor is visiting campus today and we should have some photos and an update tomorrow on that.

Accreditation Visit: Final Day

Our accreditation visit ended on Friday.  The last day of our accreditation visit was a bit like waiting for a jury to come back with a verdict.  They arrived a little before 9 a.m. and we gave them some of the items we had worked on overnight to address some of their issues.  They asked a few questions of a couple of the staff and then went into their team room to work on their report.  Then the waiting began.  We knew we were going to get a few citations but exactly how many we weren't sure.  Would it be four, five even seven or eight.  We were very confident it would be less than ten and absolutely certain it would be far less than the 25 we got in 2007.

Around 11:40 the team chairman came to get me as chief on site administrator and John as President to give us the preview of the final report they would read as a full team to our staff.  They started by giving us the important news, there were a total of four minor citations.  None were unexpected based upon the updates they had been giving us and none are difficult to fix.  They complimented us on a great visit and asked us to gather the staff for the official reading.  They started the official reading by noting that they would only read the citations but that the full report they file would have a lot of comments about the good things we were doing.  He then read the four citations which took less than 1 minute.  This was a stark contrast to four years ago when they took some 20 to 25 minutes to read off all the citations and violations and it seemed like it went on forever.

When they finished we thanked them and the mood in the room was very congenial.  Unlike four years ago when the team couldn't leave fast enough, this time we walked them out, wishing them well and talking about what some of them were doing this weekend in Cayman as they were adding days to their visit to do the stingrays etc.  The whole atmosphere was so different from 2007 it was breathtaking.  We come out of this visit with some great recommendations for improvement and with some minor fix up work that will take us a week or two to get done.  We get the official report from council in a few weeks and by the time we get the official report we plan to have already taken all the corrective actions to address the four citations.

We reported to the board of trustees last night the news and the board was extremely pleased.  It isn't a stretch to say this was probably the best accreditation visit in recent memory and perhaps the least citations ever received by the college.  We hope to get a five or perhaps even six year grant of accreditation (the max is six) once we finish the corrective action.  As one board member noted though, our next accreditation cycle begins now and everything we did right the past three years needs to continue now.  As he said, we obviously have developed a process that works so keep following it.  I cant help but view this visit as a vindication of our great team and of all we have done over the past three years at the college.  This weekend is a time to rest and recuperate then Monday we start the corrective actions and implementing their recommendations and keep doing all the good things that we have been doing to get us where we are now.

Accreditation Visit Day Two

We got through day two of our accreditation visit yesterday still in really good shape.  We resolved a few of the issues from day one and are well on our way to completing the visit by around noon on Friday with just a couple of minor citations that will be fixed over the next month or so.  Unlike our visit in 2007 we have received several compliments from this team about our Institutional Effectiveness Plan (IEP), our students and faculty and our Self Study.  The IEP is the most important document we have and one we work on constantly every year.  Last visit it was a major citation, this visit we not only got no citations for it and its implementation, we got glowing accolades from the team chairman.  The compliments on our IEP are a testament to Katie who drafted the original template we still use and who noted the kinds of data and analysis we needed to be doing and that we still do to this day.

It has been a long and stressful couple of days (every day this week has been 12 plus hours and the team days over 14 hours) but it has been so much better than the last visit where it just felt like huge rock after huge rock was falling on us.  We have been preparing for this visit for over a year and a half and never really stopped working since the last visit on continuous improvement.  That has really been the key.  We continued to push in all areas, and will continue to push for improvement in all areas after this visit so that hopefully at the next visit in four or five years it goes even more smoothly.  It has been a personal point of pride to hear team members compliment us on our process and on our institutional reports because as the Dean I was ultimately responsible for most of those reports.  However, this has been a complete team effort and we have reached this point where we can in just four short years go through a visit in really good shape because of the fantastic staff we have.

When the ACICS team finishes around noon they will give us their preliminary report.  They may dig up one or two more things this morning but we are through the big stuff.  Then they send their report to council who may determine certain citations the team suggested are not appropriate and who will send us the final report with any areas that we need to take corrective action on.  We already know two of those areas (both fortunately minor and easily correctable) and have already started the corrective action.  Tonight is our Board of Trustees meeting and we will report to the Board on the visit.  I told our students in the weeks leading up to the visit that this was like the Olympics for the college and to carry that analogy I cant help but feel like we are on that medal podium, maybe not the perfect gold medal but definitely having proved our worthiness.

Accreditation Visit

This week is our accreditation visit for the college from ACICS.  Four years ago it was a gut wrenching experience and we had a ton of work after the visit to correct all the deficiencies.  It took us almost a full year. This time we are a universe of difference in terms of readiness.  Yesterday was the first day and they gave us a preliminary update yesterday evening.  They found some deficiencies with one issue being something it will take a little while to fix, but nothing major and while we will likely get a couple of citations (they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't come up with things we should do differently/better) it will be no where near the final report of last time.  We have another full day today so in baseball terms its just the bottom of the fifth and the score is tied or maybe we are a little ahead.  When I got home last night I was so stressed I had to wake Arianna and get some smile therapy.  In my defense she was already sort of stirring (though Katie didn't buy that).  They finish up tomorrow afternoon and we should have a good idea of what work we will have to complete once they file their report.

14 Weeks Old

Arianna is 14 weeks old today. She is in her first homemade 6-9 month onesie. She is growing so quickly!!

Memorial Walk

This morning was the annual Hugh Cummings Memorial Walk at the college.  We arose bright and early at 4:50 a.m. to get ready and be at the college before walkers started arriving at 6 a.m.  We had to pick up Amy (one of our trustees and a huge fan of Arianna) in Beach Bay at 5:30 so we were out the door by 5:15.  Arianna was nice enough to wake up only briefly when we moved her to the car seat and to sleep until we got to the college.  Once we got there though she was wide awake and wanted to see all the people.   We made it to the college by 5:45 and several people were already there waiting to sign up so Arianna was quite a popular attraction as those who hadn't met her yet wanted to and those who had, wanted to see her again.

The walk goes from the college down Hirst road to Pedro Castle and back.  We had bought 75 t-shirts but sold out of almost all of them last week and the remaining few went quickly this morning.  Between 35 and 40 people actually did the walk and Katie and I brought up the rear with Arianna in the stroller.  We kept a reasonable pace and finished Arianna's first 5k walk/run in a little over an hour.  There was breakfast waiting at the end including patties, fruit and coffee.  I haven't been on a long walk since my back issues several weeks back so I am going to be paying the price later today but Katie came through in good shape and Arianna just loved it though she was exhausted by the end.

 

Bananaquit

Over the past few months Gypsy's newest friends have been a family of Bananaquit birds that have decided to visit the bush in front of the window.

They are tiny birds but really pretty. I wish I could say that I took the picture above but I must give credit where it is due; it is a Google images picture. The bushes in front of the window just don't look that pretty!

There is something on the bush that they like to eat because they will hang out in the tree for a while picking at things on the leaves and branches. Gypsy really likes it when they decide to come and perch on the window screen. That just makes her day!

Arianna hits three months

Today is Arianna's three month birthday and as busy as we have been it snuck up on us.  I am furiously getting ready for the ACICS accrediting team next week and Katie is working hard on her final Masters paper.  Both Arianna and I are feeling a little better though both of us still have the sniffles and congestion.  The pressure of the team visit next week probably isn't helping my body heal itself.  Katie once told me it is always hectic down here but right now seems even more so than normal.  Yesterday I did a TV appearance for our Memorial walk that is taking place this Saturday and the link for which is here:  Scholarship Walk TV Interview. 

I also did an hour on Radio Cayman about the college, the scholarship walk and issues facing the Cayman Islands in the field of higher education.  Katie is setting up interviews for her Masters capstone next week before the team arrives and we both plan to do the 5k memorial walk this Saturday morning with Arianna in her stroller.  Will post pictures after the event.

13 Weeks

Today Arianna is 13 weeks old. Tomorrow is her official three month birthday (her Grandpa Russ' birthday!).

Two Sickies

Today both Scott and Arianna are sick. Scott started to get sick Thursday. A long day at the career fair and then at the beach yesterday didn't help him get better. We were hopeful that I would get sick before Arianna so that I could give her my antibodies through the breast milk but she beat me to the punch. Both of them now have stuffy noses and feel yucky. Scott had trouble sleeping last night. Arianna is having trouble nursing and taking her pacifier (she loves to suck to calm herself) because she can't breathe through her nose. They are both a mess. Please pray that they will get better soon; it isn't fun having two sickies in the house!

Afternoon on Seven Mile

Mommy, Kira and Arianna

In honor of snowmageddon 2011 we decided to spend this afternoon on Seven Mile Beach with some friends from work and really feel the pain of all our friends and relatives in the US.  We had a picnic lunch on the beach and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon playing in the sand.  The water was once again a little too chilly for Arianna so no swimming today.



Hanging out with Daddy


 



Chilling out




The beach is exhausting



12 Weeks Old

Today Arianna is 12 weeks old. These two pictures are my favorite from our onesie shot this morning.

Don't forget that you can see much more about Arianna on the baby blog at Baby Cummings' Journey.

Church and Baptism

As many of you know we have been somewhat schizophrenic in our church going.  Some weeks we would attend First Baptist and other weekends St. Ignatius Catholic.  With Arianna now able to go to church we have decided it is time to pick one church and stick with it.  We also decided we wanted to either baptize or christen her depending on the church we chose.  After much thought and prayer we have decided to join the Catholic church and have Arianna baptized Catholic.  Her Baptism is set for March 5 and her Godparents are my brother Kevin's wife Kristy and my cousin Chuck. 

Chuck is coming down for the Baptism and we will have someone stand in for Kristy who is coming a few weeks later to visit and we will do something special then to introduce Arianna to her godmother.  We are also planning to get our marriage blessed by the church in the next several weeks.  We have been attending baptism classes for Arianna and are looking forward to her big day in just a little over a month.  Here she is in her church outfit this morning.  She started talking during the sermon today as if to agree with the Priest as he told us all to be more mindful of the Beatitudes in our lives.

Reading Time

We have rearranged the alcove in our master bedroom moving stuff over to the upstairs guest room which will become the nursery.  Katie can now do reading time with Arianna in the alcove in the rocking chair and Gypsy likes to participate.

Arianna at Eleven Weeks

Arianna turns eleven weeks old today.  Here are some photos from this morning.  On a very sad note, the Cayman Islands are in mourning as the Premier's daughter who was only 30 years old died suddenly this morning of a heart attack.  She leaves a young daughter who is classmates with the son of our business manager.  Please keep her family and relatives in your thoughts and prayers.

National Heroes Day

One of our co-workers gave Arianna a pool and here she is relaxing in it over the weekend.  Today is a national holiday here in the Cayman Islands celebrating National Heroes Day.  Prior to today there were two national heroes of the Cayman Islands, one of whom James Bodden is connected to the college as he donated the land on which it sits.  Five new national heroes are being formally recognised today.  Here is the link with information on them.

CI Government Release on New National Heroes

Katie is spending the day working on her Masters capstone and I am on baby watching duty.  We are both a little down after the Bears loss yesterday.  Me because I am a fan, Katie because we had pseudo talked about going back to DFW for the Super Bowl if the Bears made it so I could try and attend and Katie's family could see her and Arianna.  Oh well at least for a day Katie was a big Bears fan.

Saturday at the Beach

This morning the weather was nice and warm so we decided to try getting Arianna into the water again.  We went to Smith's Cove first but the water was chilly and way too rough.  We decided to head up to Seven Mile and see if the water was a little warmer and maybe not as wavy.  We went to Cemetery Beach in West Bay and the water was warmer though just as rough.  Arianna is definitely going to be a swimmer when she gets old enough as she loved the water and was not happy when she had to get out.  She was exhausted by the end but has learned a new activity that she will be engaging in often.

Arianna at Ten Weeks

Arianna is ten weeks old today.  Here are a few of the ten week photos.

Doing Fine

First of all, thanks to all who sent me good wishes for a speedy recovery.  The scans showed that there were no disc issues just some muscle spasms that with a few days of rest and some physical therapy have gotten a lot better.  It gave me a great excuse to catch up on some reading and I finished the Lou Cannon biography of Reagan's years as Governor of California.  I was back at work today and should be OK going forward.  I did get a chance to watch the Bears game yesterday and am looking forward to the NFC championship game next Sunday.  Katie finally pushed me onto facebook so I suppose you can now follow along there though her page will still be best place to go for pictures etc.  Arianna is ten weeks old tomorrow and already has the tips of her top teeth peeking out of her gums.  She continues to grow like a reed.

Scott's leg

Please keep Scott in your thoughts and prayers. Since before Christmas Scott has been having some pain in his lower back and leg. It started off just a teeny twinge in his lower back when we would do our walks but over the course of the past few weeks has turned into more. Last week he was complaining of pain in his right shin. It seemed to come and go and most of the time he was okay. Then Sunday night he got up to get Arianna in the middle of the night and it was too much for him to stand. He felt better when he woke up but after a long day of being on his feet, the pain was back again. Since this was the first week of classes he was too busy at the beginning of the week to get in to see the doctor. Finally he got an appointment for yesterday morning. He was at the hospital most of yesterday talking to the doctor, getting x-rays and a CT scan done, and talking with the physical therapist.

He had a physical therapy appointment this morning. I know he was hopeful that it was going to be like the last time and the physical therapist would take one look at him, pop something back into place, and he would feel good as new. Unfortunately that isn't what happened this time. The physical therapist isn't sure and doesn't want to do anything intensive without knowing the results from the x-ray and CT scan. Scott has another appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning and then will see the physical therapist Monday morning.

He is just in a lot of pain right now so please keep in your thoughts and prayers.

Meeting Madeleine

Yesterday Arianna turned two months old and got to meet her "twin" sister Madeleine.  We met Ian and Tanya during our Lamaze class and later discovered that we had the same Doctor and due dates within two weeks of each other.  Then when our Doctor was heading off island around the time of our mutual due dates, we both ironically decided to induce on the same day.  The evening before induction we saw each other at the Doctors office to put in the catheter.  Then on the day we went in for Arianna's birth there was Ian and Tanya in the waiting room and later in the next delivery room and finally in the next maternity room.  Their daughter Madeleine took a little longer than Arianna in coming waiting until about 2 in the morning on the 10th some four hours after Arianna.  Yesterday they held a christening party and we headed over to congratulate them and introduce the two young girls to each other.

Our new term begins today at the college and Katie is furiously working on her proposal for her Masters Capstone course so it will be a busy week down here.

Graduation

With Daddy in his regalia

Thursday night was our graduation ceremony and with over 700 people in attendance.  It was also Arianna's ICCI debut and many of the students and people in attendance took time cooing over her.  She did very well and at one point even started talking during the ceremony as names were announced as if to say she approved. 

With Mommy and a graduate

Papu and Public Debut

This week Arianna got to meet her paternal grandfather.  Although he was actually on island shortly after her birth, John was unable to see her because he was down with a bad cold.  This week he is on island for the college's graduation and got to be introduced to grand child number five.  Tonight is the ceremony and Arianna is making her ICCI debut.  So many teachers, students and board members have asked about Arianna attending that it almost seems like a coming out party for her.  Will post how it all goes tomorrow.  We are also picking up our second car this week.  With Katie and the baby home during day and me at work we didn't want to have them with no vehicle so we took an advance on our salary and also split the cost with my father who will use it when he is on island and got a nice cheap small Honda Life (similar to our old Daihatsu) for me to use going to work.

Eight Weeks Old

Arianna turns eight weeks old today. This is a busy week at the college even with no classes as we have a faculty meeting, new student orientation and of course commencement.  On Thursday, Arianna will make her ICCI debut at the college graduation ceremony.  We tried swimming again yesterday at Smith's Cove but even though the water was warmer then Christmas, it was still too cold to put her in so her first swim will still have to wait.

Happy New Year

We rung in 2011 about 4 minutes after midnight when a slew of fireworks in our neighborhood woke up Arianna and forced us to wake up as well to feed her and calm her down.  Arianna is big enough now to use her bouncy chair so she used it for the first time.  It was a little to chilly to go swimming so Arianna's next venture into the Caribbean will wait for some warmer weather.  My father is in town this week for the college's graduation and we start the winter term on the tenth so the next few days will be very busy.  Happy New Year to all our friends and relatives.  We look forward to seeing many of you over the course of the next year.