2011 in Five Acts

Act 1: Snow and Ice
In the first act of 2011, we went to New Orleans to attend the Joint Mathematics Meetings, where we got to see several friends. Now, you might be thinking "where's the snow and ice in New Orleans?" You are correct, there was none there...however, the snow and ice in Atlanta prevented us from leaving New Orleans on time, so Rebekah missed the first day of classes of Spring 2011.

For the rest of this act, Ryan had a birthday (with a snowman on one of his presents), we had giant icicles on our house (and a lot of snow), and we visited Rachel, Doug, and Lydia in Rochester several times, despite the snow and ice.



Act 2: Flowers
The snow and ice finally went away. Rebekah's parents came to visit for Easter and we met Rachel, Doug, and Lydia at Letchworth State Park for our annual Easter picnic. Flowers bloomed in our yard and we attempted to plant a garden. Well, we planted the garden, but we had to move several of the plants to different locations weeks later due to lack of growth. They did get flowers on them, however! We also stalked the baby bunny that was living in our yard occasionally--can you find the bunny below?



Act 3: California, Climbing, and Child at the Zoo
After the semester ended, we went to California to spend time with Ryan's parents before attending the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences conference. We climbed in a river gorge, Ryan finished working at Autometrix, and Rebekah wrote her talk for the conference. Then we picked our friend Cornelia up in San Francisco and drove down to Westmont College for the conference. When we got home, Lydia (and Rachel) took us to the zoo in Rochester. And here we confess: these pictures are not entirely logically placed--the bottom two climbing ones are from our next trip to California, which technically occurred in Act 4. We'll ignore that, however, and note that Ryan is climbing in one climbing shoe and one sandal since he injured his toe...at a pizza place.


Act 4: Family and Friends
We drove with Rachel, Doug, and Lydia to the Hofstra family reunion in June, where there was much frolicking. Rebekah finally painted the chairs she got last summer for the deck. We went back to California for our friends Michael and Stephanie's wedding and for Rebekah to go to a research workshop at the American Institute of Mathematics. While Rebekah was at AIM, Ryan and his mom built a new side table for his parents' house. When we got back to NY, Rebekah's family came to celebrate her birthday, and we went on a walk through the Houghton woods and picked berries.



Act 5: A New Semester and News
At the end of August, Rebekah started her third year teaching at Houghton and Ryan started started a PhD program in computer science at the University of Rochester, which includes a lot of driving. It was an incredibly busy semester, full of much complexity, and we're glad it's over. However, it was also an exciting semester as we learned a few weeks before it started that we're having a baby in April. We're incredibly excited, and to demonstrate that excitement, we have just one picture for this act (ok, so Rebekah doesn't have any other pictures after August on her computer, but we really are excited!). We also were thrilled to welcome our nephew, Micah Philip Graham, toward the end of September (for which we should really have a picture, but, again, pictures post-August do not exist on Rebekah's computer at the moment), and we have been enjoying watching him grow and watching his sister Lydia learn that he's more interesting than a doll, at least sometimes. Finally, we had fun learning a bit about Alaska from Rebekah's parents during--and after--the several weeks they spent in a small fishing town as part of Rebekah's mom's sabbatical.



As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this Christmas season, we pray for His guidance as we anticipate the changes coming in the next year. We are thankful for you all and would love to hear from you!

Seasons of 2010

Winter 2010 was something of a blur. We started the year in Beaver Falls celebrating with the Johnson family and then plunged into the spring semester full-force. Rebekah taught a Real Analysis course (her favorite) for the first time, Ryan played indoor ultimate (frisbee) semi-regularly and joined the Houghton Roaring Sheep for a nearby tournament in February, and Möbius discovered the heating vent in the kitchen.

The real highlight of Spring 2010 was, of course, that our niece Lydia was born to Rachel and Doug on Easter. We were happy that Houghton had no classes the week after Easter, so we were able to be with Rachel, Doug, and Lydia in Rochester, pretending to help while getting to know our new niece a bit.


Summer 2010 was pretty busy. We were excited to be able to attend Rebekah's cousin Jason's wedding to Bonnie in Chicago in May and spend time with family there. After the wedding, we visited Wheaton for several hours, getting to see the women of the Herr family and many of our math and computer science professors as well as the new Science Building. Then we drove to Edwardsville, IL, for Rebekah to attend the Sixth Conference on Function Spaces, where we saw many friends from graduate school and enjoyed the paved cycling trails in the area. A few weeks later, we headed up to Potsdam, NY, for Rebekah to give a colloquium talk at SUNY Potsdam and then drove to Burlington, VT, to spend the weekend with Rebekah's cousins Laura and Ryan. On the way home, we rode the ferry across Lake Champlain and drove through Lake Placid.

In July we headed out to Missoula to spend time with good friends and get our Glacier National Park fix (we miss living three hours away!). We saw our first wolverine and a whole family of black bears.


We continued on to Grass Valley, CA, to spend the week with Ryan's family and attend both our nephew Chris' adoption ceremony and the Christian Encounter Ranch 40th Reunion. From there, we flew down to San Diego, where we got to go to the San Diego Zoo, see more family, and attend Ryan's cousin Shaina's wedding to Chris (not our nephew).

August was spent getting ready for the fall semester and Rebekah went to MathFest in Pittsburgh to begin her year as a Project NExT fellow.

Ryan played a lot of ultimate in Fall 2010, including three tournaments with the Roaring Sheep, Rebekah rode her bicycle regularly and worked constantly, and Möbius learned that bicycles are fun climbing gyms. We enjoyed the wall-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the renovation of the Science Building at Houghton (Rebekah's new office is really happening--and her temporary office is twice as big as her original one!). There were a lot of trips to Rochester to "go to the grocery store" (read: see Lydia, though we did also go to the grocery store), and on one of those trips we got to be part of Lydia's dedication to the Lord. Rebekah went to Potsdam again, this time with several students to attend a conference on undergraduate research in mathematics. We went to Rebekah's parents house in Beaver Falls, PA, for Thanksgiving.


We began Winter 2010-2011 with a pre-Christmas trip to Grass Valley, where we enjoyed anticipating Christ's birth with Mom and Dad Yates, Grandma Yates, nephew Chris, and other California friends. We flew to Pittsburgh on Christmas Eve, landing early Christmas morning, and had a great time celebrating the birthday of our Savior with some of Rebekah's extended family in Beaver Falls. As we continue in the Christmas season, we pray that we will all be amazed by the mystery that we are celebrating: ‎"when we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating that amazing time when the Word that shouted all the galaxies into being limited all power and for love of us came into us in powerless body of a human baby" (Madeline L'Engle) and that we will know His love more fully in the year to come.



(Yes, we forgot to take a camera, and yes, we had a Christmas bush this year instead of a Christmas tree. Don't judge us.)

A Tale of Two States

It was the year of firsts, it was the year of lasts, it was the age of decision-making, it was the age of indecision, it was the epoch of arriving, it was the epoch of leaving, it was the season of sunshine, it was the season of overcast skies, it was the Spring of ending, it was the Fall of beginning, we had everything before us, we had everything behind us, we were all going direct to New York, we were all going direct from Montana--in short, the period was so full of change that a report on it must be received in the superlative degree of extremes only.

There was a green house with a front porch on the valley floor in Montana; there was a blue house with a back deck on the Allegany Plateau in New York. In both states it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the Yates household that things in general were about to change forever.

It was the year of our Lord two thousand and nine. Here we abandon Dickens since we are not detailing the bloody battle of two nations but merely the great changes in the Yates household over the past year (and because literary juices have been exhausted).

Lasts:
Last job interview for Rebekah (the interviews started in November 2008)
Last Easter picnic in Missoula
Last semester as a TA for Rebekah
Last semester as a student for Rebekah
Last six months in our first house
Last ride up Going to the Sun Road as Montana residents
Last degree completed for Rebekah
Last bike commute to school

Firsts:
First climb up to the M with the Johnson family plus the Yates parents
First time selling a house
First moving trip across the country
First time buying a house before seeing it
First semester as a full-time professor for Rebekah
First time living in a ski-in, ski-out house
First time living less than four hours from her sister for Rebekah since 1996
First walking commute to school
First anniversary divisible by five
First cross-country moving trip for Möbius (the cat)

In this year of many lasts and many firsts, we are grateful for the love and help of friends and family and the constancy of our God. While this is clearly not our first time celebrating the miracle of the Incarnation, we pray that we and you will again be awed by the wonder of God become human, dwelling among us, that we may see His Glory.

Merry Christmas!

Note: This post is still subject to editing and picture additions, but we're publishing it now so we can still call it a Christmas blog.

Möbius says "Merry Christmas!"

 

Anticipation

Though we were too lazy to incorporate a theme into the following pictures, anticipation was something we've experienced quite a bit this past year and will continue to experience in the coming year. We anticipate Rebekah finishing her degree in May 2009, so she spent a lot of time applying for jobs and interviewing this Fall (a process which will continue into January and February at least). We anticipate moving next summer when she does finish, and we anticipate God's guidance in the entire process.

During this season of Advent, as we anticipate the celebration of the birth of our Savior, we rest in God's great promise that He knows the plans He has for us as we seek Him in our lives. As we anticipate the challenges of the coming year, we glory in the mystery of the incarnation, of God come into our messy world as a human to draw us into relationship with Himself.

"The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned....
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." --Isaiah 9:2, 6

2008 in Pictures, Part 1

We started the year in Grass Valley at Ryan's parents house and then traveled to San Diego for the Joint Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. We didn't just do math there, however.




Möbius was not impressed that we were gone from home for so long.


We celebrated Ryan's 27th birthday in late January. Until Rebekah's birthday in August, Ryan was a perfect cube and she was a perfect square.


In the late winter, Ryan was diagnosed with mononucleosis. Lovely swollen glands, aren't they?


We both played Ultimate in the Missoula Spring League and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, though Ryan's stamina was definitely affected by mono.


In late May, we drove to Grass Valley to be there for Ryan's grandparents (who moved there earlier this year) while Ryan's parents went to Phoenix for surgery on Ryan's dad's pancreas. Möbius usually hates the car, but she did quite well for three days.


We stopped at Multanomah Falls on the way,


camped at a state park on the coast,


walked on the beach,


toured the Tillamook cheese factory,


and stopped to take many, many pictures of the Pacific.


Möbius was very happy to have a break from the car the second night when we stayed with Jim Farrington, a Yates family friend, in the tiny town of Alsea, Oregon. We were glad for the break, too!




When we got to Grass Valley, Möbius thoroughly enjoyed the luxurious accomodations.



While there, we hiked part of the Pioneer Trail with Carol Douglas and Sam the dog.



On the way home, we had great views of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.

2008 in Pictures, Part 2

Rebekah's family came to visit in early July, so we went on a scouting trip to Glacier the week before they came since Glacier had significantly more snow than normal. You can see why Ryan usually doesn't give his wife the camera.


We didn't see any baby mountain goats due to the snow, so Ryan had to resort to taking pictures of people instead.



This is Rebekah's family's plane arriving--taken from our front porch. We're going to miss living three minutes from the airport when we leave Missoula!


And here are the obligatory animals in Glacier photos from our trip with Rebekah's family.





We had lived in Montana for four years and had never seen a grizzly (other than the stuffed one in the airport); Rachel and Doug saw three on their first time visiting us!


This old mountain goat seemed to have been quite hot in the previous week as he had shed his entire coat.


We ate,


hiked,


ate some more,


and posed for pictures.



In late July/early August, our friend and Ryan's coworker Michael came to visit the northern office of Autometrix. Of course, we took him to Glacier as well.


In August we celebrated Rebekah's birthday and her sister Rachel's birthday with her family and celebrated her grandmother's life with her dad's family at Grandmother's funeral.


We attended our 5-year reunion at Wheaton in October and even have an iconic Wheaton photo to prove it.


We stayed with our Wheaton friend Sarah and her husband Kyle and got to hang out with their daughter Elsa.


This Fall was really busy, so we didn't get around to taking many pictures. However, here's one final picture of Glacier from our trip Thanksgiving weekend during which we found out that we're winter camping wimps (it wasn't even freezing!).