A Long Time Ago

I am currently scanning our old photos that have been sitting unsorted in multiple shoe boxes. Right now I'm doing photos from the time Jo and I met until Peter was born. You'll be seeing more of these in the near future.

What year are we talking about here? Hmmmm. Are these even from the same year?

Catulpa Trees

Lois Ann was interested in our Catulpa Trees when she was down this summer. The leaves were barely beginning to sprout. They are odd trees in many ways. This is an average size leaf. Some get larger.





In the fall the leaves don't change color and they fall at the same time. One day the tree is green and the next they're on the ground. This is what our driveway looked like when Jonathan went to school on Monday.





And this is what it looked like when he came home from school.

One More From Sufjan

Since childhood Sufjan has never liked Christmas much. It brought out the worst in his somewhat dysfunctional family. As an adult his pastor suggested that every year he should create a disk of Christmas songs to send to friends and relatives as a way to overcome his issues. He did this for five years before he became famous. Some of the songs are goofy, some angry, some sad and some reverent. Those disks are currently our favorite Christmas disks.

I'm experimenting with ways to present music on our blog. To the right should be an audio player. You can click to hear a few of Sufjan's Christmas songs. The first is reverent, the second silly and the third is kind of sad. The third, I'm guessing from the lyrics, he was suffering with depression that year and used this song to apologise for being such a jerk.

If other's want to post a favorite song or playlist in a week or two I'll include some explanation of how to do that in a comment.

Sufjan Stevens

When I'd find someone I liked I'd enter their name at places like Amazon where they'll say things like "People who listen to W also listen to X, Y and Z". A name that kept popping up was Sufjan Stevens. The name sounded wierd. I ignored the advice. Finally I checked him out a little deeper and concluded the albums sounded as wierd as the name. One was about the 12 signs of the zodiac. Another was about his home state of Michigan. I ignored him some more.

Meanwhile in my MPR exploration there were a few haunting voices I had heard but couldn't make a connection. Checking the playlist one day on the internet I found the name of the musician of one of the songs - it was Sufjan (pronounced soo-fyan). When I listened to his songs I found there were another two or three that I had also been trying to find from my radio listening.

I listened to more stuff and really like it. I read more about him and found out he was a Christian. There are a lot of Christian and Biblical images in his songs though he doesn't write Christian music. He's won lot's of awards with big names like Billboard and Rolling Stone. Now I'll be grocery shopping and hear his songs playing throughout the store.

Here's a UTube video with his song "Casimir Pulaski Day" playing in the background. The song is remembering a girl he loved who was in his Bible study who died from leukemia. It's very sad, I think.



The end

Yep, It's Aaron Espe

MPR has three radio stations in The Cities - Classic, News/Talk and Contemporary/Alternative. I've been listening to the contemporary station lately. A lot of it I don't like but once in awhile I hear something that really grabs me. When that happens I find out who it is and I check them out on the internet and I frequently go to ITunes and purchase a song (for 99 cents). That's how I came upon Aaron Espe. It was only later that I noticed he is from Roseau. You can hear an interview and two songs he did in the MPR studios here. I especially like the second song about a vacation his family took to Disney World. As long as I've started, I think I'll do some more posts about other songs that I heard and liked.

Anybody Know This Guy?

Hands

First of all notice that we have the same haircut! Second, I love looking at babies hands.
There are more photos at the marksalaska. We arrived at about 2AM on Saturday morning.

Emery Kadence

This is Heidi calling us Monday night at about 7:20PM Alaska time right after our first grandaughter was born.
She weighed 7lbs. 3oz. the same wieght as Holly and Christoffer when they were born.
I had a little trouble downloading the big photos so this is size we have for now.

How Time Flies

Isn't it amazing how time flies? This fun day was already three months ago! Ya'll enjoying Autumn? Remember, this was the Fourth!
Those of you who know I was laid off in August will be happy to know that I'm on the job again at another place. Trying out the graveyard shift this time. It's an adjustment! I did enjoy my month off as much as I could, contemplating the color of my parachute, or if I had one! It's also good to know we really do have a Provider. We learn Who we really trust in these times. God is GOOD!

Moose - 1 month and 4 months

These moose were in our yard at the lake house on the morning of June 25th.
I believe this is the same family below on Sept 19th, almost 3 months later.
They grow up pretty fast!!! They will stay close to mama (on the left) until she has new babies next spring. They usually have twins unless there are too many moose in an area then they have only one.
Today i went golfing and there were 3 caribou on the course. They were probably looking for lost balls. Didn't have the camera with.

GO TWINS!

I need advice

I had some trivia regarding your Uncle Sylvester that I sent to my friends in my Bible Study. It was regarding your introduction to who Sylvester was to you. Now I would like to send the other articles you sent out but don't know how to transfer it from the blog to email for instance. I tried to print out the second story you sent out, Daniel, regarding Sylvester but it printed the post about Jose.
By the way, we will be staying at Hawk's View in Fountain City, WI. in the Osprey Lodge at the end of September, on a Sunday night. It will be more affordable! The cabins had of course been reserved on weekends for months in advance. We're looking forward to a mini vacation and a chance to see the beginning of the fall leaves. Ken and Barb had stayed in one of the cabins and thought they were great, too.

Our newest member is growing up fast

A couple weeks ago Dean, Kurt, and Jose joined my parents and I for a Sunday dinner. Before eating we ventured out to a nearby park. It's amazing how much fun slides and swings can be when you have a one year old along. Jose had all of our attention as he laughed, observed his new surroundings, drooled and all. Here are a few snapshots of the day.

ONQI list

While you are all searching for Waldo, maybe you could also search and tell me where Graham Crackers are on the ONQI list. It is a new 0-100 food list coming soon to a grocer near you. I learned about it from paging through the beginning of the Sept. National Geographic. Until we know better, stick to eating: broccoli, blueberries, oranges, green beans, mustard greens, strawberries, and raw spinach.

Another Waldo

What is this a picture of? I'm going to be real stingy with clues. There will definitely be no street names.

Barracuda!

Mark, what can you tell us about this woman? All I know is that she used to have the nickname 'Barracuda' when she played basketball.

My Great Great Great Grandpa (9 and out)

The modern graham cracker has no whole wheat, no fiber, lots of sugar and a ton of additives. I haven't checked it out but I would guess Kellog's Corn Flake hasn't fared much better.

Winding Down (MGGGG 8)

Sylvester Graham, from the time he was a child, was frequently sick. Some think he had tuberculosis. As a young man he knew he didn't have the constitution for normal work. He tried teaching but found it exhausting. He concluded that the only job he was fit for was the ministry.

Many famous people were his admirers. Henry David Thoreau (left) mentions Graham in Walden. Ralph Waldo Emerson called him "the poet of bran and pumpkins". The revivalist preacher, Charles Finney (right), was a strict Grahamite, but eventually rescinded and said he had become addicted to the diet. The famous editor and presidential candidate, Horace Greeley, was a follower. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was an adherant.

As he advanced into late middle age his poor health was too much for even the Graham Diet to mask. He stopped lecturing, returned to eating meat and became taciturn and bitter. The Graham Diet faded as quickly as it had sprung up. He was 58 when he died.

In the next generation, John Kellogg was inspired by his reading of Graham to invent the corn flake and establish his sanitarium for quelling impure thoughts in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Puny Offspring (MGGGG 7)

You'd like to think that if the young men could just hold off until marriage, then they could relax and have fun. But in his book to young men Graham spends many pages warning of the dangers of having too much sex even within marriage.

Here's another quote from his book, and the last, I promise.

It is no uncommon thing for a young couple to enter into wedlock in good health, and in due time to be blessed with one and perhaps two or three healthy and vigorous children; and afterwards they will have, in succession two, three, four or five feeble and puny offspring which will either be still-born, or survive their birth but a few months, or at longest, but two or three years; and very probably during this time there will be several abortions; and all the while the unfortunate wife will be afflicted with great debility and extensive functional derangement, and almost constantly suffer those numerous and distressing pains and ailments which result from sexual excesses. Very frequently, also, the husband becomes severely afflicted with distressing consequences, debility, inflammation, swelling and excruciating pain of the spermatic cords, and also of the testicles, resulting, perhaps, in the necessity for castration, and sometimes death.

Sound familiar? An odd thing about this argument is that Sylvester was the 17th child and when he was born his father (my great great great great grandfather) was 73 years old!

A Chip Off The Old Block (MGGGG 6)

The things I'm reporting about my forebear are true. Just Google "Sylvester Graham" and see for yourself. The only thing you won't find on Google is the fact that I'm related. Well a picture is worth a thousand words. The resemblance is uncanny, don't you think?