Home from Chicago

Koclanes extended family

Last week I headed up to Chicago for the funeral of my Great Aunt Catherine.  I flew up Tuesday and arrived in time to attend a couple of hours of the wake which was conveniently taking place near O'Hare airport.  The funeral service was Wednesday at the old family Greek Orthodox church on Austin Blvd and the internment in the Koclanes plot at the Elmwood Cemetery.  Catherine was laid to rest with her parents, sister Stella, and brothers Cookie, Nick, Chris and Solon.  I served as a pall bearer along with my cousin Nick and my Cousin Cathy's husband Dave (who was a personal favorite of Aunt Catherine).  Also serving were three friends of Catherine's son Chuck; Al, John and Bobby.  The weather threatened rain but we avoided the wet stuff which was fortunate as it was quite cold (later in the day there were snow flurries).  We had a great family lunch afterward and all shared our recollections of Aunt Catherine.

My Mom had flown in from Seattle and Wednesday evening I drove her over to Midway airport to get on a plane home.  My return flight would not be until Sunday because the cost of going home before then more than doubled the price of my ticket.  I took advantage of the extra time to stay with my sister Johanna and meet my God Son Zach and see my nephew Nicholas whom I hadn't seen in almost two years.  Nicholas and I went to the children's museum together and on Saturday night I baby sat both boys while Jo and her husband celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary.  In between I got to catch a Bulls game (see photo below) and have lunch on Saturday with Aunt Mary and visit with my Uncle Hank who is the last surviving member of that generation of the Spetters that included my Grandma Rita (Hank is her baby brother).

After the Bulls 99-96 win over Memphis

While the circumstances of going were unfortunate, it was good to catch up with a lot of family I hadn't seen in several years as well as meet for the first time my God Son.  Yesterday was a long day of travel home and looked like it might be even longer when my Miami to Grand Cayman flight was cancelled by American Airlines due to fuel issues in Miami after a fire at that airport last Wednesday.  Luckily, they re booked me on Cayman Airways and I made it home about two hours later than I would have if all had gone as scheduled.  Not having seen Arianna and Katie in six days I was very happy to open that door and see them again.

Aunt Catherine Rest in Peace

We got the sad news this morning that my Great Aunt Catherine passed away last night up in Naperville, Illinois.  Aunt Catherine was the last living member of the generation of Koclanes' that my Papu (Greek for Grandfather) Alex was a part of.  Nine brothers and sisters who all grew up in the great depression and then served their country in many different ways in World War II.  Several of them raised families and saw their grand children and in some instances their great grand children go on to success in life.  They set an example and made sure that those who followed them would be given the opportunities any parent and grand parent would want for their children and grandchildren.  In every way they were prime examples of the "Greatest Generation" and they left for my family a legacy that we all share in.

Aunt Catherine lived to ninety one years of age.  She leaves behind a son Chuck and his wife Twila and two grand children Cory and Christy.  She had a stroke and was in the hospital but had gone home at the end and died in her own bed with her family around her.  Please keep her immediate and extended family in your thoughts and prayers this week.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patty's day and Arianna is celebrating with her new jumperoo.  One of the things we always do when we visit Miami is to search for items that we know are way too expensive down here but are affordable if bought in the USA.  We took two extra suitcases with us both empty precisely for that purpose.  The only problem with that is how to get it all back here without having to pay extra baggage fees (hence the two empty bags going up) or customs duty when we arrive.  We flew Cayman Airways which unlike U.S. airlines doesn't have a checked bag fee so that meant 4 suitcases checked with no charge.  Coming through customs we have a 350 CI exemption for bringing back items and if all three of us are traveling that means 1050 CI or about 1300 in US dollars.  This time we were bringing back a large box with the jumperoo, a play rug and a video monitor along with other various items so not surprisingly we got pulled aside by customs when we arrived and they saw our form (on which we declared everything).  They went over our receipts and after confirming the purchases let us through without having to pay duty.  We looked like refugee's as we took everything to our car but we got it all home and Arianna is loving her new toys and celebrating like the Irish with and in them.

Miami Trip

This past weekend we headed up to Miami for the winter term seminar.  It was Arianna's first trip to the United States and if you check out the baby blog over the next couple of days you will see several posts on her portion of the trip.  On Sunday we hired a babysitter and headed over to Key Biscayne for some Scott and Katie time.  We went to Cape Florida to see the lighthouse (Scott checked another one off his list) and then had a romantic dinner on the water on Virginia Key just off of downtown Miami.  The afternoon was a great time to reconnect and also to wind down from what had been a very busy several days of working the seminar and then doing baby shopping. 

We had bought a pre-paid cell that we will now use on all our US trips and that made us a lot more comfortable about the sitter as she had a way of getting in touch with us immediately.  She was great even sending us hourly texts of what was happening.  Overall the trip to Miami went very well and we definitely feel better about the longer trips to see family later this spring and into the summer and fall. 

Chuck and Nick head home

Yesterday afternoon we put Chuck and Nick on their flights back to Chicago.  It was a very quick and event filled five day trip for them both.  Prior to the baptism on Sunday they went for what would turn out to be their final snorkel out to the wreck of the Cali in George Town Harbor.  It was early in the day so the water was very calm and we had the site to ourselves.  On Monday we had a final breakfast and then while Katie worked on her master degree course, the three men and a baby went in to George Town to do some shopping.  There were two cruise ships in so we got to experience what that was like as we went through the down town shops.  As noon approached though it was time to get them to the airport and wish them a find farewell.  We really had an amazing time with them and are so happy they could be here for the baptism. 

Arianna Baptism

With her Godfather Chuck and cousin Nick standing in for her Godmother Kristy in attendance, Arianna was baptised today at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in George Town.  It was a wonderful ceremony with four other families also baptising their babies.  We attended 11:30 mass and then the ceremony was at 1:00 p.m. Arianna was awake for the first half of mass but crashed in the second half hour.  She got fed between Mass and the Baptism and she was wide awake during the whole baptism and really enjoyed the water part.  Afterward we hosted a get together at the house.  Katie's baby group founding members of which she is a part all made appearances with their babies so Arianna got to share the day with her friends.  All in all it was an extraordinary day spent with family and friends celebrating this important moment for Arianna.



Baptism




Annointing




Parents, GodParents and Father Paul



Baptism Party at the house



Baptism Party



Saturday in East End and Rum Point



Nick at Rum Point enjoying the sun

Today we headed east to see the sights in East End, go to the Botanic Gardens and spend a lazy afternoon at Rum Point.  Here are some shots from the day.

Nick not getting too close to
a Blue Iguana at the Botanic



Chuck didnt mind getting
closer to the Blue Iguana



Chuck and Nick with their
youngest cousin



Chuck and Arianna are exhausted





Chuck and Nick make new friends

From our Sting Ray Sandbar Trip today.  There were high winds so the waves were high throughout.  This afternoon we hit Cemetery Beach for more snorkeling followed by dinner at Yoshi's and then watched a perfect sunset on Seven Mile at Governor's Beach.

A kiss hello



Nick is really friendly



On the Sandbar with the Rays







Well hello Sally my name is Chuck

 

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!).