Big News for 2011

Kathia and I were pleased to welcome our first child into the family.  Miles Sakamoto Reynolds was born on February 23, 2010 at 4 pounds, 7 ounces.  The little guy took us surprise and came 7 weeks early.  That, and complications for his mother, kept us in the hospital for the better part of a month.  Miles took life by the horns though and has been growing and thriving ever since.  Our little joke is that he is "miles ahead with miles to go". 

Where We Are...

Kathia and I continue to live, work, and play in Atlanta, Georgia, where we have a home near Grant Park, Turner Stadium, Downtown, and the Atlanta Zoo. 

Mom and Dad continue to enjoy their retirement and divide their time between Crested Butte, Colorado and  Boise, Idaho, plus where ever the airline sales take them.  This year, they traveled to Budapest and Vienna with our Aunt Mimi and Uncle Ross.

My sister Courtney lives in Boise, and Ellen lives in Asheville, North Carolina.  Kathia's family are in Brazil in São Paulo, São José dos Campos, & Paraná.  In the U.S., she has cousins and Aunts in Florida, Detroit, San Francisco, San Diego, and Atlanta.

Everybody reports they are good health and doing well!

What We are Doing...

Kathia continues to work as a sonographer at Grady Hospital, Atlanta's largest public hospital and home to Emory's OB/GYN residency.  2010 was the year Kathia got to be both caretaker and patient.  

In January, I started work for BayTSP, a leading provider of anti-piracy and business intelligence services for media companies, where I am heading up Product Management for the company. 

Our Year in Pictures

With the new job, arrival of the baby, and back-to-back family visits, 2010 went by like a blur.  Here is a short summary of our year in pictures: 

Jan - Feb: Kathia is very, very pregnantFebruary 23: Miles is born 7 weeks early!

Mar - July: Eat, Sleep, Poop. Eat, Sleep, Poop. Mommy, Daddy tired. (Especially Mommy)

July: Happy, healthy baby passes all his checkups and gets his vaccines

Apri - Oct: Everybody comes to visit!November: Ross runs a 10k on Thanksgiving day, and we all settle in for the holidays!

Miles does his Christmas dance! (Click the picture to see the video.)

More pictures from our year here.  (Password protected-- email us if you don't have the login.)

Stay in Touch!

Kathia and I are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and (occasionally) Orkut, so look us up if you're not connected with us there already.   We wish you a wonderful 2011 and look forward to staying in touch. 

All the best,

Um abraço,

Saludos,

Tanti auguri,

Ross & Kathia Reynolds



 Baby Miles came into the world with an auspicious start, by surprising us a few weeks early.  He is now doing well, and feeding and gaining weight like a champ.

Kathia had some surprise complications that kept us in the hospital for the better part of a month, but she is fully recovered now and taking care of Miles.

Thanks to all who reached out to us and supported us these past few weeks.  We are thrilled parents and cannot wait to introduce baby Miles to friends and family. 

All the best,

Ross & Kathia

P.S.  We will be sending out an email with a formal birth announcement to a larger group soon.  The surprise delivery and long hospital stay has us behind on everything. 

Where We Are...

Kathia and I continue to live, work, and play in Atlanta, Georgia, where we have a home near Grant Park, Turner Stadium, Downtown, and the Atlanta Zoo. 

Mom and Dad continue to enjoy their retirement and divide their time between Crested Butte, Colorado and  Boise, Idaho, plus where ever the airline sales take them.  My sister Courtney lives in Boise, and Ellen lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Kathia's family are in Brazil in São Paulo, São José dos Campos, & Paraná.  In the U.S., she has cousins and Aunts in Florida, Detroit, San Francisco, San Diego, and Atlanta. 

What We are Doing...

I spent the last year working for Attributor, an Internet company that Turner was invested in.  They sold my section of the business just before the holidays and I started this week at BayTSP.  BayTSP is a company that has been providing copyright enforcement services to major media companies since 1999 and is a leading brand in the business. 

Kathia joined the Grady Perinatal Center in late 2007 as an OB sonographer.  She has fantastic co-workers who all take care of her and provide a great collegial environment.  She's been working with them since she moved to Atlanta in 2004, as a visiting professor initially, and a researcher for two years. 

For those who humor all our dog stories, Hobbes, our Labrador Retriever, is all grown up and a master of his world.  He can sit, lay down, and stay (in Portuguese and English).  He is the master of playing hide and seek with toys and small children.  For security, he has learned how to trigger all the motion sensor lights around our house and when to bark (possums or strange people out back) and when not (postman dropping off Netflix).  We've decide his new hobby is cooking because he watches Kathia cook obsessively from the kitchen floor and samples everything that falls his way.  (Kathia is waiting for the day when we'll come home, and he'll have dinner ready for us.)

Milestones this Year...

This year, Kathia's cousin, Agda, and husband Marcelo moved to town.  With all her family half-way around the world, it has been great having relatives here so close, and especially when we have so much in common. 

We had several visits from family this year: 

Aunt Martha and Uncle Doug, along with Lisa Sorensen visited, and we tracked down the original home in Decatur where my Dad, Uncle Gyp, and Martha grew up.

Kathia's parents Martha and Kazumi visited in July, and we went to Asheville to celebrate the 4th of July the old American way with bluegrass music and fireworks.   

Kathia's brother Ivan and his wife Kaori visited us in September, and we went to Crested Butte, Colorado to visit Mom & Dad.  We had a great time with Ivan and Kaori.

Just before Thanksgiving, Kathia's youngest brother added another baby to the family.  Vítor arrived on November 4 to proud parents Ivo and Marina and has been spoiled by all the attention ever since. 

We spent Thanksgiving and the holidays right here at home with Mom, Dad, Ellen and Ron and the Howard clan up in Marietta. 

Our New Addition to the Family

This fall, Kathia and I were blessed with the best news of all:  We are expecting a baby boy in April 2010 (exact EDC 04/15/2010... tax day!).  After helping so many women go through this process, Kathia couldn't be happier to be experiencing it herself.   He looks just like us!

We're both excited to be starting a family.  We're taking suggestions on NAMES (the harder to pronounce the better).  We'll send out a birth announcement when the little guy arrives. 

Stay in Touch!

We've posted pictures from all our adventures this year.  We're also on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and (occasionally) Orkut. 

Life continues to be good in the Reynolds household.  We hope that all is well with you and yours and hope to hear news from you soon! 

All the best,

Um abraço,

Saludos,

Tanti auguri,

Ross & Kathia Reynolds

For those of you who haven't already, friend us on Facebook!

Ross & Kathia

Ironically, it was our Aunt Mimi who first let us know that a tornado had passed by our neighborhood a couple of blocks to the north of us. Kathia and I were at home safe watching a movie. Hobbes, our usual early warning system for all things out of ordinary, was agitated, but we thought he was just mad we were watching a movie and distracted him easily with a chew toy. There was hail and hard rain around 9:30. The tornado passed by at 9:45. We wrapped up the movie at 11:00 and would have gone to bed not knowing any better if Mimi hadn’t called to check in on us.

The Tornado that passed through Atlanta was an “F2”, which according to Wikipedia, can cause “Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars overturned; large trees snapped or uprooted; light-object missiles generated.” Not growing up in Florida or the Midwest, “light object missiles” is a new phrase for my vocabulary. This is the first tornado to ever pass through downtown Atlanta. Lightening strikes more often.

I got up this morning and ran through Grant Park, which is as beautiful and intact as ever, aside from some twigs on the ground and a few earlier bloomers that lost their flowers. The Atlanta Zoo security tells me they lost power but no animals were hurt. The local T-League had a morning game and decided to play on.

Cabbage Town and the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts were not so lucky. CNN Center, Centennial Park, and the Downtown buildings all suffered a lot of damage. Fortunately, even with all the March Madness fans in town, no one was hurt. To date, there have been NO FATALITIES from the downtown tornado.  A couple in Polk county was hit directly by another twister.  Our heart goes out to their families.

The front of CNN Center lost several windows. My side of the building was not too damaged. My own office is a ways back from the windows anyway. I now get to kid all my senior colleagues who have one of the few window offices at CNN Center.

To see the aftermath, check out these pictures on iReport.com:

Cabbage Town Damage:

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-3748

Downtown / Centennial Park Damage

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-3847

Lots of love, Abraços, e tudo de bom!

Ross, Kathia & Hobbes

Where we are...

Kathia and I continue to live, work, and play in Atlanta, Georgia, where we have a home near Grant Park.

What we are doing...

I continue to work with the Platform R&D team at Turner Broadcasting.  Kathia was working with Emory as a researcher at the Center for Prenatal Assessment & Human Development.  This fall, she took a new job with Grady Memorial Hospital as an OB sonographer with the Perinatal Center team. 

Milestones this Year...

This year, we had a couple of big milestones. 

Dad turned 70, and we celebrated with a big party in Crested Butte, Colorado. 

Kathia defended her thesis and earned a PhD from the University of São Paulo in April.  We now call her "Dr., Dr. Sakamoto". 

Kathia's brother, Ivan, got married in April. 

In the summer, we took a trip to San Francisco together.

In the fall, we adopted a puppy, and named him Hobbes. 

Happy Holidays from Ross, Kathia, Kazumi, Martha, and IvoAnd for the holidays, we had the greatest gift of all with a visit from Kathia's parents and brother Ivo.   (pictures here)

Live continues to be good in the Reynolds household.  We hope that all is well with you and yours and hope to hear news from you soon! 

All the best,

Um abraço,

Saludos,

Tanti auguri,

Ross & Kathia Reynolds

In August we went to San Francisco...

Kathia and I on the San Francisco Bay

The trip was great and gave us some much needed R&R just for Kathia and me.  

Highlights of the trip included a day hike in Muir woods and Sausalito and hike around China and Japan town. 

Pictures here

Introducing Hobbes!

In September we celebrated my Birthday with the best gift a guy can get... a baby chocolate Labrador. 

We found Hobbes with a breeder out in Stone Mountain.  He was one of the last three of his litter.  He likes sleeping on grates, chewing ice, digging up weed stopper, and stealing dirty socks and underwear from the laundry.  We've posted pictures of him here. 

More news to come! 

-Ross & Kathia

Spring is here, and so many milestones have come along that we wanted to send out a little newsletter to friends and family.   Here are some of the many things that have happened so far this year...

Dad turns 70...

Dad gives a toast on his 70th Birthday! - Aniversário do meu PaiYeah, when we threw a retirement party for him in 1999, he said he was NOT retired (he hasn't worked a day since).  So this year, we didn't listen to his protests, when we decided to do a party for him at Mom and Dad's home in Colorado.  All their friends turned out in force, and it was a great time for the family. 

Ivan & Kaori's Wedding
Casamento do Ivan e a KaoriIvan and Kaori get Married...

Kathia's brother and his fiancé Kaori got married on March 24th.  Kathia and I were godparents, and the party was a party to remember!  A força esteja com vocês!!!!

A formatura da Candice -
Candice graduates...One Generation Graduates, Another Generation Celebrates...

Kathia's youngest cousin graduated with a BBA from Brazil's top business school in April.  Kathia and I got to go to the graduation.  On the same trip we got to spend time with her
Vovô, the Sakamotos, & Familygrandfather, who started the Brazilian branch of the Sakamoto family when he immigrated in 1935.  He came over with just his sister and brother-in-law and enough money to pay for his passage and food.  Today, all his grandchildren are college graduates, and his family in Brazil numbers more than 60. 

Kathia gets her PhD...Kathia finishes her PhD...

Kathia defended her PhD in April passing with flying marks from her board at the University of São Paulo, making all of us very proud.  This brings to fruition several years
A banca da defesa - Kathia defends her thesis before the review board of work going back to an idea she had during her residency and is the hallmark of more great things to come...

We hope everyone is doing well and wish you all the best! 

- Ross & Kathia

Happy New Year!

Another year has passed by, and once again, we are sending out our annual update to friends, family, and colleagues. We hope this newsletter finds everyone doing well.    We wish everyone all the best for 2007!

Where We Are…

Kathia and I continue to live in Atlanta, where we have a house between Grant Park and Turner field in a neighborhood called Summerhill, which, in one of those odd symmetries of life, is about 10 minutes from where my great-grandfather had his home in the 1920s. We are about four blocks from the Atlanta Zoo and are fortunate enough to be able to carpool in to work together in a commute that is barely enough time to listen to the morning news.

Mom and Dad continue to live in Crested Butte, Colorado and are enjoying their retirement. Whenever the off-season rolls around, the head up to Idaho to visit with my sister Courtney and the grandchildren, or to whatever worldly destination calls with cheap tickets! My sister Ellen continues to live in Asheville, North Carolina, where she is working as a physical therapist and enjoying the great outdoors. Kathia's folks continue to live in São Paulo, Brazil, where we visit them as often as we can.

If you've recently moved to Atlanta or are ever in town for a visit, look us up!

What We’re Doing…

Kathia continues to work with Emory University as a researcher for the Center for Prenatal Assessment and Human Development. There, she is working on research projects with the Psychology and OB/GYN departments. On top of her day job, Kathia continues to work on her PhD in Obstetrics from the University of São Paulo. I continue to work at Turner Broadcasting with Platform R&D, a corporate group dedicated to helping Turner develop new technologies and distribute its programming to emerging media platforms.

Our Latest…

2006 was a quiet year at home as Kathia worked on her PhD thesis and I worked on house projects that have cropped up after our second year in our new home. Kathia finished her draft in July and is turning in the final text this month. In March, we will travel to São Paulo, where she will defend her work before a board of professors from the University of São Paulo.

We also traveled quite a bit and were fortunate to see family in friends in Asheville, Crested Butte, Brazil, and Idaho. As usual, we've posted all our pictures to our web site, where you can see pictures and news from our blog and this year's photo albums.

Staying in Touch...

I've included in the email version of this newsletter ways to stay in touch with us. If you've Googled us, there's a form on the web site for emailing us.

Since last year's update, we've a lot from old friends and family. We wish all the best for everyone and hope you can stay in touch. For those of you old friends and colleagues that have fallen out of touch, please don’t hesitate to look us up if you are ever in our neighborhood in Atlanta or simply would like to catch up on old times.

All the best,

Um abraço,

Saludos,

Tanti auguri,

Ross & Kathia Reynolds

Mom, Dad, Kathia, and I in Colorado

In September, we headed out to Colorado to see Mom and Dad in Crested Butte. For
Check out that Fish!  (The picture takes off 10 pounds.)those who have never been to Colorado in the fall, it is one of my favorite times of year.  Dad and I went fishing with a new fly rod he gave me for my Birthday, and I caught a massive fish by most fly-fishing standards.  We also got in some wonderful hikes in and around Crested Butte.

Kathia & Family in BrazilIn November, we celebrated Thanksgiving with the neighbors the Fogarty's and headed down to visit Kathia's Family in Brazil that very night, where Martha, my mother-in-law managed to pull off a major surprise:  working with one of her American friends, she managed to re-create a Thanksgiving for me in the Sakamoto home the night we arrived!  While we were there, we met up with Kathia's old classmates from he exchange trip to Denmark in '87 and met up with several of her former colleagues from the USP hospital.   My Portuguese is coming along enough that I can joke and converse casually with folks, which is always a help.  (I find that people somehow think you're being serious if it takes a serious effort to say things, so that joke with the lengthy punchline never comes off quite right.)  The best part of being in Brazil besides family and friends:  it's summer! 

December brought the end-of-year holidays, and with it a chance to see some more friends.  We caught up with
Kathia with the Genta Family in OrlandoPedro, Malu, and Felipe Genta in Orlando, where we went to Universal Studios for the day.  Pedro and Malu were both among Kathia's closest friends throughout medical school and residency, so we were lucky to get this time to spend with them.

December also brought some sad news.  My great uncle Joe Norton passed away.  He was remembered as a dedicated uncle who survived the Great Depression and World War II and despite never getting the chance to go himself, managed to help all his grandchildren through college.

My brother-in-law Steve proves you should never grow up!For Christmas, Kathia and I made our annual trip out west to see the family in Idaho, where we had a great time hanging out with Mom, Dad, and the White family.  Despite the balmy weather back east in Georgia, Idaho was having a white Christmas! 

I'll be sending out our annual newsletter after New Year's, but for now, here's an update with the latest pictures. 

Hope all is well! 

Ross & Kathia