Dear family and friends,
It is the end of 2003 and our family is embarking on a new adventure for 2004. During the summer, an opportunity to work for Cadence in Europe presented itself for Tim and it became a reality in early November. Tim will be working from Cadence’s Bracknell office starting on January 5th, 2004 and will be VP Of Marketing for the Europe/Middle East/Africa region. We will be living in a small town called Odiham in the county of Hampshire. Caelean will be attending Mayhill Junior School as a Year 3 student and Jeremy will be attending Burysfield Infant School as a Year 1 student.
The plan is for our family to live there for the next two years and then we will decide whether to stay longer (or permanently) or move back to the States. We are renting our house out in CA and will be renting a furnished house in the U.K. Our new address there is: Pembria, Wedmans Lane, Rotherwick, Hampshire, RG27 9BN, UK. The best way to keep in touch will be through email because we may be moving into an unfurnished house after 8 months. Marina’s email address is here and Tim’s email address is here.Tim’s year has been one of travel. Trips to Canada (Ottawa Toronto, Montreal), Japan, Germany, India (Delhi) and the UK, as well as a lot of domestic travel: New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, and Seattle. The new job will probably require a lot of travel within Europe, as Cadence operates throughout the region. The big advantage of traveling in Europe is that there are not a lot of time zone changes to deal with, so jet lag is less of a problem.
One reason for the travel is a new responsibility – talking to analysts and investors about Cadence. Investor marketing is one of the costs of being a public company, but it’s also a very interesting task, because institutional investors have a lot of money to spend, and very little time to really learn about their investment targets. We help explain Cadence’s strategy, and they decide whether or not to invest.
Tim
Marina…
The year seems to have gone by like a whirlwind for Marina. Besides turning 40, the biggest event this year for her was doing the Lake Tahoe ultra marathon. This was a 3-day triple marathon around Lake Tahoe – three marathons in three days. Her accomplices were 3 other crazy girlfriends. At first, it was a 50th birthday celebration for Liz, but it quickly turned into one of Marina’s most memorable life experience. It taught her how powerful our mind can be and that our potential is really limitless. After this amazing weekend, going back to being a Mom took some getting used to: working in the boys’ classroom, walking, running, monthly book club meetings, household administration, and setting aside time to practice yoga. What has been new this year is building our community – getting to know more parents in our boys’ school and strengthening ties with our boys’ former preschool, the Mountain School. This has been very rewarding and THE hardest thing for Marina to leave. It will take time to build a community in Odiham, but the hope is that it will happen.
The boys…
Caelean is eight and has matured by leaps and bounds this year. He’s really come into his own. Over the summer, he became a ferocious reader. A couple of weekends ago, he sat down for 4 hours straight and finished one of Enid Blyton’s books which he received for his birthday. He’s also very interested in the Lego model kits and will work steadily through until it’s complete. He’s fallen in love with soccer this year and had a fabulous year on the soccer team. He is playing with a lot more confidence and we’ve enjoyed going to his games and cheering the team on. His favorite time of the day seems to be the early morning – he is almost always the first to wake up, then he climbs up onto the top of his wardrobe (he calls it his “lift”), and reads books and Lego catalogs.
Jeremy is five and started Kindergarten this fall. He is enjoying it very much and has fitted into the routine of his classroom and has become friends with a number of the kids in his class. Most of his friends will miss his ability to make them laugh and his stories. Jeremy loves to talk and he also seems to know a lot, so he’ll spend a lot of time explaining what he knows to you. He is practicing Tae Kwon Do and has reached “yellow-stripe” belt level, which has required him to pass two tests. He enjoys reading and current favorites are Judy Blume’s “Fudge” books. It’s hard to believe that he was in Teacher Marie’s 4, 5 class, at the Mountain School, just the beginning of this year.