The Waiting

December 30, 2006


It is the vigil you keep as you wait for death. The family alternates between moments of silence and longer moments of storytelling. The memories fly fast, son (Uncle Rich) and grandsons (Randy and Greg) adding different dimensions to the stories, fleshing them out. Grandpa mostly sleeps, but awakens every now and then at some of the louder laughter, chuckling himself and falling back asleep with a smile. Sometimes he wakes and his eyes search, unfocused but still so blue. He sees you and holds out a hand, smiling. His son holds a cup of steaming coffee to his father's lips, and the memory of Grandpa and his nightly coffee mixes with the reality of this last coffee held with such love to these old lips. It is almost too much to bear. When you kiss him goodbye and brush the lush white hair from his forehead, you think, "This is the last time."

Still, there is tomorrow. He is waiting now--we all are. At some perfect moment, the time will come and he will go peacefully with a smile. And it will feel as if the whole world should stop in memory of this one monumental man.

Duncan's Read-Aloud Chapter Books, 2006

December 26, 2006


• Ramona the Pest
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
• Pirates Past Noon
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
• Several Boxcar Children books
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Charlotte's Web
• Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Hundred Dresses
• Peter Pan
• My Father's Dragon
• Mummies in the Morning
• Five True Dog Stories
• Dolphin Adventure
• The Apple and the Arrow
• Mr. Popper's Penguins
• Cricket in Times Square
• Pippi Longstocking

Laurel's Reading List, 2006

December 26, 2006


• The Kidnapped Prince
• Escape Across the Wide Sea
• A Murder for Her Majesty
• The House Without a Christmas Tree
• Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims
• Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing
• Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
• Double Fudge
• Christy (series), Books 1 and 2
• The Hundred Dresses
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
• Jess
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Happy Birthday Felicity
• Hitty: The First Hundred Years
• Kirsten Saves the Day
• The House Without a Christmas Tree
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Last Battle
• The Silver Chair
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
• Phoebe the Spy
• Changes for Molly
• Molly Saves the Day
• Best Friends Get Better (Ballet One series)
• Ellen Tebbits
• Molly's Surprise
• Molly Learns a Lesson
• The Happy Hollisters
• Dozens and dozens of Babysitter's Little Sister series
• Kids in Mrs. Coleman's Class (2 books)
• Felicity's Surprise
• Ramona and Her Mother
• Meet Felicity
• Felicity Learns a Lesson

Jesse's Reading list, 2006

December 26, 2006

Here's a lot of what Jesse read in 2006. I know I missed loads of books he's read because he reads them so fast, but this certainly hits the bulk of them. He says his favorites were Into Thin Air, The Broken Blade, and Inside Intel but that most of them were good.

• The Climb
• Into Thin Air
• The Sherwood Ring
• The Kidnapped Prince
• Escape Across the Wide Sea
• A Murder for Her Majesty
• The Broken Blade
• In Search of Honor
• The Arrow Over the Door (he didn't like this)
• The Outsiders
• Escape (Houdini biography)
• Geronimo (biography)
• Armageddon's Children (Terry Brooks)
• Inside Intel
• Stow-away
• The Iron Peacock
• Julie of the Wolves
• The King's Fifth
• Going to the Sun
• Flame Over Tara
• The Last Battle
• The Silver Chair
• Augustus Caesar's World
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
• The Trojan War
• The Visitation
• The Shakespeare Stealer
• Nightmare Academy
• Monster
• Luther (he didn't like this)
• The Second Mrs. Giaconda
• Shadow of a Bull
• I, Juan de Pareja
• Catherine, Called Birdy (he didn't like this)
• Adam of the Road
• The Great and Terrible Quest
• 1984 (re-read)
• The Samurai's Tale
• Otto of the Silver Hand
• Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
• The Beduin's Gazelle
• Through the Desert Gates
• Bill Gates: Biography
• Black Horses for the King
• The Bronze Bow
• The Last Battle (re-read)
• The Silver Chair (re-read)
• Prince Caspian (re-read)
• Eldest (re-read)

December 26, 2006: Lordy, Lordy, Dr. H. is 40!

And in honor of your monumental milestone day, here are 40 reasons why I love you, Dr. H....

1. You wear Hawaiian shirts to work.
2. You are the nicest person I’ve ever known.
3. You do the crossword puzzle every night.
4. You play guitar in the bathroom while Duncan has his bath
5. Not only do you have your own blog, but you take your daily journey through all our friends’ blogs.
6. You yell at the football players on TV as if you really believe they can hear you.
7. You wave to people in parades and yell greetings to the participants (e.g., “Merry Christmas” or “Happy 4th of July!”
8. You are brilliant.
9. You abide by the maxim: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
10. You are adept at using all kinds of colloquialisms, such as “Don’t take long to look at a horseshoe,” “Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise,” and “Looks like they opened up a new box.”
11. You are gifted with knowing how to do small talk.
12. You always make people feel at ease.
13. You can talk about U.T. football one minute and genetic coding the next.
14. You’ve been wearing our engagement earring for 18 years.
15. You fold laundry every night.
16. You make the best guacamole.
17. You read The Lord of the Rings trilogy every couple of years.
18. You listen to whiny chick music even though your grad students make fun of you.
19. The right snack food makes you so happy.
20. You are kind to animals.
21. You love to read.
22. You are an amazing discussion leader/teacher.
23. You cook Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for my entire extended family with a smile on your face.
24. You take the dog out every night.
25. You learned how to play my family’s traditional card game.
26. You think homeschooling is awesome.
27. You do the grocery shopping when I need it most.
28. You know what food is in what aisle at Walmart.
29. You’ve taken over algebra with Jesse.
30. You treat our daughter like a princess.
31. You treat me like a princess.
32. You sometimes enter commitments reluctantly (e.g., being a deacon), but once you’re there, you take the situation seriously and do your best.
33. You fill up my van with gas.
34. You want to go to a hockey game on your birthday because it’s an adventure.
35. There is almost nothing you love more than to be in the mountains.
36. You worked your butt off in graduate school so that you could get us a job here.
37. You joined the Dave Ramsay bandwagon.
38. You’ve taught me more about what it means to be Christ-like simply by your actions than I’ve learned in 40 years’ worth of Sunday School, VBS, sermons, Christian college, and Bible study groups.
39. You are a spectacular father, and you are always willing to learn more and evaluate, and adjust your parenting skills.
40. You love me with all your heart and soul.

Dec. 25: Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!

Happy 6th Birthday to Duncan James (you can read his birth story here)! The bad thing about having your birthday on Christmas Day is that you get a slice of pumpkin pie with a few candles for your birthday "cake," squeezed in between Christmas dinner and evening games. The great thing about having your birthday on Christmas Day is that 1) you get to share your birthday celebration with the Greatest Gift of all; 2) there is no way that YOU can ever be topped as the best earthly Christmas present ever to your parents and siblings and 3) you get to have your whole extended family there to celebrate. So here are the folks that helped us celebrate Christmas--and Duncan--today:

The matriarch and patriarch: my Mom and Dad, Cindy and Jim

Brother #2, John, and his wife Sharon



Their oldest daughter, Esther (26) and her boyfriend, Jimmy



Their younger daughter, April (23) and her husband, Jeremy



Brother #3, Peter (his wife Nancy didn't make the photos, but she was there!)



Their daughter, Ellen (24) and husband Justus



Their first son, Owen (20)





Their middle son, Isaac (14)




Their youngest, Seth (10)




And of course Jesse





and Laurel



Randy and I were also present and indeed hosted this grand celebration, but it seems we always forget to take pictures of each other. Missing in action are brothers #1 (James) and #4 (Stephen), who are both in New York, and--much to the dismay of Laurel and Duncan--Jeremy's kids, Carena (8) and Xavier (5).



My parents gave my kids this air hockey table for Christmas....


and it was occupied every single minute of the day by some combination of cousins, uncles, aunts, or even grandparents. (And no, we're not leaving it permanently in the middle of the living room.)

Other festivities (besides eating) included our annual Family Bunko Extravaganza, basketball games, and marshmallow gun fights in the driveway. At long last, the company is gone and children are in bed-- Duncan with a fistful of new action figures, Laurel in her new jammies with her new pillow, and Jesse with his new iPod docking station. Randy's settled down to football and I'm about to put my feet up and read a good book. It's been a good day in SmallWorld.

Dec. 25, 2006: Merry Christmas!

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

(Isaiah 9:6)

May your Christmas be filled with joy and blessings!

From the residents of SmallWorld

Ed's Applesauce Cake

December 23, 2006

For the past 5 years in the days preceding Christmas, I've enjoyed a cup of coffee and a slice of Ed's Applesauce Cake for my breakfast. Ed was a post-doc in Randy's lab several years ago when he began presenting Randy with an applesauce cake as a Christmas/birthday gift. Unfortunately for Ed, he's still a post-doc (although now in a different lab), but fortunately for us, he still gifts us with the annual cake. This is one of those great, dense cakes--dare I say that it somewhat resembles a fruitcake, but without those creepy candied fruits? It's truly fabulous with a cup of coffee and the morning paper. Also makes a great last minute gift!

Ed's Applesauce Cake

1 box light brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
2 cups raisins
2 cups chopped nuts (pecans and/or walnuts)
1 can applesauce, heated

Cream sugar and butter until light and creamy. Beat in eggs. Sift dry ingredients together (set aside a little flour and add to nuts and raisins to keep them separated), and gradually add into butter mix. You may need to add the applesauce partway through. Finally add nuts and raisins. Bake in greased tube pan at 300 for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Dec. 19, 2006: Party Boy

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This past Saturday was Duncan's 6th Birthday Bash. This year he wanted to have a soldier party. After distributing dog tags and hats and painting camoflauge faces, Captain Opa and Sergeant Randy let the recruits through basic training. Learning how which is RIGHT and which is LEFT was the hardest lesson. Other events included an obstacle course, tug of war, and trench jumping. We were blessed with the perfect day: 70 degrees and sunny in the middle of December.

As always, Duncan thinks that, because he has had his birthday party, he is now 6 years old. He's always so surprised when we celebrate yet again on Christmas Day evening!

Dec. 18, 2006: Monday Memory: First Christmases

Because next Monday I'll presumably be too occupied to sort through photos and find the right ones, I've dedicated this Monday Memory to the kids' first Christmases. It was fun to go through the albums and visit each of their firsts and to see how we've all changed...

Jesse's first was in 1993, when we were living in Oxford, Ohio. Randy was nearly done with his master's degree from Miami University. In this photo, we are at Randy's parents' house over the border in Greensburg, Indiana. Jesse was the first grandchild on that side of the family and received 121,492 gifts. A few days after this, we travelled down to Tennessee to spend Christmas with my family. Jesse got an ear infection.

Laurel was not quite 4 months old for her first Christmas in 1997, and Jesse was 4 1/2. We were all by ourselves in Ames, Iowa, 10 hours from our nearest family. In some ways those were very precious days, just the four of us, all covered in Iowa snow.

Duncan's first Christmas was quite literally his birthday. He was born Christmas Day, 2000. Laurel was 3 and Jesse was 7 1/2. This photo is actually taken on December 31--the first day that the kids actually got to meet their baby brother. Duncan had been in the NICU (meconium aspiration) until the 31st, when we got to take home this amazing Christmas gift.