We get a lot of questions about how the girls are doing, so some pictures of the kids. 🙂
Kid 1 has turned twenty one. Here she is at her 21st birthday party. We took her and a bunch of her friends to Rotten Bunch in North Austin and had a lovely time.
Kid 1 owning a selfie
Kid and Kid 2
Kid 1 is going to college, but has yet to figure out what she wants to do so she is knocking out core classes. She is thinking of trying a coding class this summer to see if she likes it.
Kid 2 just had her senior prom. She had an awesome time and looked like a princess.
Kid 2 doesn’t want to go to college, despite being very successful at her IB program and maintaining a ridiculous GPA. She is fried and burned out and she is taking a gap year. She says she want to work on her writing a bit, which would be nice since you are still emailing us about that one novel.
Here they are at Easter with Kid 2’s boyfriend and a friend.
You will find no pictures of me or Gordon, because we officially feel old. OLD.
So pretty!
Also, just happened to be randomly scrolling and a new post popped up. Never been first before (Internally squees) Random note: My 21st is tomorrow! Kid 1 and I are almost twins!!
Wow, time flies! Contratulations on 2 lovely daughters.
Lol you have gorgeous kids and I completely relate to OLD comment. About 5 years ago the camera became the enemy.
Both gorgeous! I see a lot of Ilona in Kid 1. Kid 2 reminds me a bit more of Gordon.
Also which one novel? Did Kid 2 write a novel?
Ilona posted some of Kid 2’s writing a while ago.
I second this question
https://ilona-andrews.com/and-now-for-something-different/
It’s three years old now, so not holding breath and all that. We actively discouraged her finishing it at 16, because if it was finished, she’d want to sell it, and this business will rip you up.
Just read through it. She’s talented-I hope she finishes it. That short snippet was better than 70% of the mediocre stuff I wade through on Amazon. I’d totally finish it ??
Wasn’t there a second snippet? I remember a great conversation between the two.
Started with Drew going out to read in a hammock?
I can understand you guys wanting to shield her from the harsh critics that comes with writing when she was so young and even now.
She has a lot of promise in her writing and I really wish her success. With a lot of younger and promising writers their base story is really interesting but is not always given the shine it needs to really take off. With you guys pointing the way, I would bet she will have some great stories to tell. Perhaps that snippet will be inspiration/worked in to another of her stories like how like how Kate Daniels started of for you. 😀
off***
I remember that snippet! I really hope she finishes it some day. She has definitely inherited your talent!
Yes. It’s very good. Held my attention. More please.
Beautiful family!
Thank you for sharing!
They look lovely!
And you need to own the old and knock it out of the park.
It’s bittersweet when our babies become adults. Where did the time go?
The kids are lovely and both look like you, Ilona. It’s prolly good kid 2 is taking a break. College is rough on overachievers. My kid, Michael, is much more relaxed with his real life job than he ever was in college.
Pretty girls – they are a credit to you both. Whatever they decide to do in the future as long as they are happy that’s what counts ?
As our two daughters are twice the age of yours, that makes us not old but ancient ???lol
Coding is a really awesome skill to pick up even if it doesn’t become a career.
I hope kid 1 has a blast 🙂
Also hope kid 2 has a chance to explore her options to see which direction she wants to head in.
College is crazy amount of money and time to put in the hands of your 18 year old self, so taking some time out to figure things out might be a really sensible move.
p.s. for kid 1 it might be a good idea to think up some small projects external to whatever course she’s doing.
Some of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had with code have been solving small real world problems with code (I once save my partner weeks of painstaking mistakes-filled data entry by designing a simple rules-based text parser).
Courses are funny things. I’ve spent a lot of time teaching coding to my research students (well, okay, teaching them a bit of code and them giving them projects to do, and a place to go if they get really stuck – and I did run a python club for a bit in there) to get them past having decided that they hate coding after having taken the required Java class. …and then other students like the same class just fine. Or love it! I think there’s a lot about how to teach coding effectively that’s still getting worked out. Made much harder, of course, by students being quite different from each other.
(My take, FWIW, is that spending a fair bit of time just playing with a small number of fairly powerful commands so as to develop an intuitive feel for things before learning a bunch of theory is really good idea. Starting non-coders with memory management on the first day is just abusive. But I grew up hacking.)
I am also a giant fan of gap years. Mine were without benefit of planning (or budget, and then there were the lawsuits…) but by the time I fought my way back to uni, I was set to milk it for everything it was worth.
I think it really does depend on the student and their reasons for learning. If it’s an intro then I think you’re right and they should get their hands on the practical benefits as soon as possible.
If it appeals then it’s probably worth going back to basics (although maybe my university making us use MIPS boards might have been going a little too far).
Oh, I’m with you. My observation – and this includes the time I spent as a trying to hire folks* – was the folks who really did well in CS proper were the ones who had spent a fair bit of time in their teens hacking, got a good intuitive feel for things, and had that going for them when they came in to learn the formal conceptual framework. I think theory is wonderful – you just need something to hang it on. And clearly, “you coded a whole lot on your own time as a teenager” is not an appropriate prerequisite! So a bit of recreating that experience is in order. …or so goes my reasoning.
…I think spending time working with micro-controllers is a really good experience – it puts you in a limited environment and teaches discipline. I’m always a little wary of it devolving in crusty old hackers griping about walking barefoot in the snow uphill both ways, but sometimes I think current systems are so powerful, and so complicated that new programmers are cursed with an abundance of riches. A confusing abundance of riches.
* Where I saw way too many folks with CS degrees who could not code their ways out of wet paper bags. Though to be fair, plenty of music majors who were pretty brilliant programmers.
“You will find no pictures of me or Gordon…”
Ha! Found one on the Appearance page of this site (which means it’s also showing up at the bottom of the main page). 😛
Shhh. If she finds out…
Also in the shawl pix we see Ilona… ?
Wishing both kids every happiness for the future!
I heartily endorse the gap year. I wasted my undergraduate years thinking I wanted a career that didn’t fit. Twenty years later came the grad degree that does fit.
Add me.to those interested in the one novel by kid 2.
Love the prom dress. The beadwork is gorgeous and the floaty skirt must have been fun to wear.
What a pair! (The nephew just turned eighteen, but he’s utterly outclassed.)
…if there’s anything that makes me feel completely old, it’s that I keep looking at that amazing dress, and trying to figure out the logistics of managing the skirt.
Right? That skirt would terrorize me. So much trip potential + I’m super klutzy
I went the community college route before transferring to a four year university in Missouri. What’s fascinating about doing that was as a transfer student, the general GPA at the time (we’re talking 20 years ago) was a 2.0 for any university in the United States. After a few years got my master’s degree, and a few years after that my doctorate. Community colleges…….a wonderful route to go if not ready for a university straight out of high school. 😀
What stunners!!
Lovely pictures! Seeing your pictures makes me think about my kids Girl 22, Boy 20 and another girl 17 also graduating this year from High school. Understand about the old bit too much… But hey we’re still here chugging along
So gorgeous. I will say again, I am stunned at how grown up they look. Seriously. When you don’t see them for a while, you sort of forget they are moving right along toward the adult thing. I know you and Gordon are so proud. Good job.
Thanks for sharing photos of your beautiful children!
Oh my goodness. As someone who has absolutely no clue about makeup (and I’m over 40), Kid2’s makeup is gorgeous (as is that amazing dress). My junior is in IB and is talking gap year after HS already. That program is tough!
Wonderful to see your girls finally! You have gorgeous girls 🙂 I would encourage them both to take some time and explore their options. Once you start school and get student loans there isn’t any off time. You will be working to pay for what the loans don’t cover then you will be working to pay back those loans. Do some travel and get some life experience before you get locked into that cycle if you can.
My oldest grandchild is 15. She just got her first job, driver’s license, and checking account. Time flies by.
Thanks for the Pictures. Oh the changes a couple years make at this stage, giant leaps in maturity that show in behavior, attitude, and acceptance of responsibility. The hard slog and responsibility of parenting starts to ease back and you get to watch them blossom into bonifide adults. Good stuff.
I took a coding class for fun when I was 21 and fell in love with my computer (I had never coded anything before)…swapped majors after the first semester and graduated with a comp sci degree a few years later. I absolutely love my job and feel so grateful for the life experiences that I have had because of taking that one class “for fun”. I would definitely recommend to anyone that isn’t sure what they want to do yet in college to experiment: take one class just for fun every semester until you find the thing that you can’t live without. If Kid1 thinks she’d enjoy coding, I heartily encourage her to take that class! And if she’s worried at all about being in the small minority of female programmers, reassure her that we do exist 🙂
I am amazed and impressed with how strong of a relationship you seem to have with your two smart and beautiful girls. Keep up the good work, mum and dad.
You have a beautiful family and, it appears, two great kids to be proud of. Well done! And, since you’re both younger than I am, I feel like I’m allowed to say that neither one of you is old.
I don’t if I’d do it for a girl, but when my son graduated, his father and I let him back-pack through England and Europe for the summer – Youth hostels, euro-rail pass
I didn’t have much in the way of family backing*, so it wasn’t the coming of age tour, but I managed to go live in Turkey for several months when I was twenty, and spend a chunk of my time there busing around (Turkey, at least at that time, was more of a bus than train sort of place), staying in pensiones – I spent a while on some of the Greek islands as well. I was traveling with another woman, a few years older (and so much more trouble-prone! – though I could easily pass as Turkish**, and she couldn’t, so I had that. It’s not just about looks, though, so much is non verbal.)
It. Was. Amazing. The thought of choosing not to send someone traveling because they’re a woman just make me sad. (Though I, ah, wouldn’t recommend Turkey at the moment. And I spent years after I left regretting having not made it into Syria. My regrets have increased exponentially.)
* I did get a hugely appreciated monetary gift from my favorite aunt. Not large in the scheme of things? But it made a huge difference.
** At least until I opened my mouth. Then my Kazakh accent and vocabulary just confused/amused everyone.
Lovelies!
They are so beautiful and smart! Kid1 looks a lot like you Ilona.
Kid 1 has a lot of you in her face! And Wow, you’re right about Princess. I wish I looked half that great for my prom. Her makeup is really striking.
I took heaps of classes in college and I mostly knew what I wanted to do. I would encourage kid 1 to try out anything she has an interest in and see where it leads (which she probably already knows). Maybe kid 2 should travel a bit? I did a study abroad going into freshman year of college and the following year bought a ticket to fly around the world for a month. Really great way to find inspiration and have some amazing experiences. I’d encourage anyone to do it if they can.
They look a lot like you, especcially kid 1 🙂
I understand how kid 1 feels bc Im 19 and still have no idea what I want in my life…
Anyway, if you still take writing questions here is my question:
Kate vs. Lark?
Who would win in this epic swordfight?
You have lovely daughters!!
You really should stop looking for models for the Kate covers! You have two of your own (well you could put one in a brown wig). My nephew couldn’t bear uni/college after his IB, A couple of years on ( post working and trying different courses) he is happily finishing bio-mechanical engineering. They eventually sort themselves out but it does say something about the IB that so many children are burnt out when it is over.
Fine looking kids you two have.
Regarding feeling old; there are times I reply to the comment “You’re only as old as you feel” by saying that if I was as old as I feel, I’d be dust.
They’re both absolutely beautiful and clearly whip-smart too. Congrats on your lovely family 🙂
Your girls are gorgeous and just wow beautiful!!
My step-daughter turns 21 in a month. I graduated High School with her mother. So I know exactly how old that makes you feel! Your girls are gorgeous and they both look so much like you!
Your daughters are beautiful! I have a 14 year old son, so I understand feeling old.
Thanks for sharing both photos and the snippet. Time goes so fast doesn’t it?? My son will turn 30 this year and part of me is in complete denial that I could have a child that old!!
BTW I’d totally buy your daughter’s book based on the snippet. Thanks for sharing again!!
So i’m in a Phd program in plant breeding and genetics working on potatoes right now. I also done work in other aspects of biology as well. What I found that coding was essential in my current work. What we need now are people who can code who can talk to biologist or biologist who can at least code a little bit. If Kid 1 ever any questions about graduate school let me know. I also support gap year, a friend of mine did the rotary program after high school and loved it.
May I ask where? My nerdson recently finished his Master’s, and has been looking around for programs in plant genetics and/or bioinformatics. I know nothing about programs in the former, and am getting pretty out of touch with the latter. (He’s a sweetie – though a lot of our recent bonding time has been discussions of various DNA sequence crunching libraries over IM.)
another supporter of the gap year here. coming from a developing country, there was this burden and pressure to finish university as fast as you can in order to get a job to support the family. so never really had that leeway to pursue what i wanted or even had the time to be sure what i wanted to do. not that i dont like my undergraduate degree, just that its not something–as i later verified–id like to grow up old and grey doing. now im struggling to change careers, and sometimes wonder how far i couldve gone more if only i just started with this field in the first place. or how more colorful and meaningful my university life couldve been if i had the confidence i now have due to my travel experiences vs. during undergrad years where i felt so out of touch and disconnected wet kitten lol
I LOVE coding! I took it in high school when we still used punch cards, but I loved the puzzle. If I want the computer to do this, how many yes/no questions do I need to ask? Even though I eventually became a nurse practitioner, in my head my patients are a still coding problem. You are sick with this (yes/no), how many steps do we need to do to get you to well?
your family is lovely. 🙂
you know, I went straight to college because my parents were dead set on it. “you can be a garbage collector if you want, but you will, by god, be a college educated one.” and I drank a lot for 2 years and the university and I agreed that I should take a break, and I did for another 2 years, and then I went back and finished. and i’ll tell you what, my final gpa was REALLY affected by the classes I took and basically did only the minimum for during my first two years. I wish that a gap year was a thing then, because I think I’d have been better served to take a break after high school instead of the way I did it. and, the 2 years off, working as a server, a bartender, a nanny, etc made me VERY determined to get my engineering degree. good luck to both of them!
What beautiful daughters you have raised. Kid 1 would be a perfect Kate model ?
Your gals are GORGEOUS and so sassy looking! Mine will be 7 this summer and declared that she now is tall enough to reach my arm pit.
NOoooooOOooooo! She was just fitting in my arms! Still wrapping her whole hand around 1 of my fingers!!!
Seriously, I wouldn’t give up a moment. I loved my kiddo as a baby but the more I see of her personality, the more I like. I bet it’s the same with your girls. 🙂
Why do I not see kid 1 and kid 2 but maybe Kate and Andrea.
Ditto! ?
Beautiful! My oldest and only girl turns 21 in August. Feeling old as well. I’ve got four boys ages 18, 15, 13 and 10. Hoping I survive them! So far Boy 1 has been my drama maker.
Your girls are absolutely gorgeous!
Holy Russian models, Batman! Your kids are gorgeous, and Kid 1 looks so much like you! (Harder to tell with Kid 2 because of coloring and super-glam prom makeup.)
As someone who is currently in school for computer science i think its cool that Kid1 is thinking of it too!! 🙂
However, regarding taking a summer class, I don’t think that’s necessary. There are TONS of online free classes available from websites like Coursera (Python for Everbody, etc). Googling a little bit should give Kid1 all the info to pick an intro class.
It’s not that taking a summer class is bad or anything, just maybe you don’t have to spend that tuition money. Also, I have had classes that made me dislike programming… Really it all depends on the class sometimes, and seeing different online classes might help. And of course, you can always do both 🙂
What a lovely family! (I feel old too!) I wish both young women great success and happiness in their future endeavors. I think it is very unfair to ask a 17 – 19 year-old to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives!
If more kids took gap years, a lot fewer would flunk out when they do get to college. It’s a really good choice for kids who are burned out on school, want to save up for expenses, and/or still working out what they want. And really, the majority of kids probably fit somewhere in there.
I named my Australian Kelpie puppy Maud, after your character, but now I suspect that the real Maud is #1
Kid 1 doesn’t look like you had her, Ilona. She looks like you cloned her. LOL
I accidentally took a coding class in college (my adviser was horrible and I signed up for classes based on the online requirements for the major…which were out of date) and I LOVED it! Took the second semester of the class for fun, and eventually changed my major to Computer Science. I would highly recommend starting out with a c++ class. It’s not as easy an introduction to programming as some other languages, but it forces you to think like a computer and understand a little bit about what’s going on behind the scenes. Other languages try to make programming more intuitive, which is not a bad way to start if you’re just looking to play around, but also not a great way to gauge if you’ll enjoy programming as a whole. If you enjoy c++, even just learning the basics, your brain probably works well for programming 🙂
You have a lovely family ? Wishing your girls all the best!
wow kid two has some serious Russian gens! 🙂
What a nice surprise, and a very beautiful family!!