T minus 8 days (End of 2009)

I have selected some of my favorite family pix from this past year (plus a new one of Kris sledding this morning). Hope you had a good year - we did!

T minus 10 days

We leave for China in 10 days. Our travel plans are: Peoria, Chicago, Shanghai (east marked point on the map), Beijing (north point), Guiyang (west point), Guangzhou (south point), Shanghai (east point again), Chicago, Peoria. We had wanted to slip in a stop in Seattle, too, but the logistics were not workable. We spent a big chunk of the day taking down all of our indoor Christmas stuff to make room for packing.

Home to Peoria

This morning I took my snowshoes for a stroll along the Mountain-Bay trail in Green Bay. I found out that I made better time without them. After we packed up we headed back to Peoria. The weather was breezy but otherwise OK. We saw some interesting ice formations on the rock walls along I-39 near Rockford.

Snowy Door County

Northeastern Wisconsin got more snow last night, and there was a beautiful hoarfrost in areas this morning. We drove up to visit Karen's family in Sturgeon Bay, WI. We watched the Packers clinch a spot in the playoffs and had a good visit.

Day After Christmas

Another low-key day (to recover from yesterday). We worked on a building project to make a small foosball table-Kris really enjoyed it. Tonight we went to Happy Joe's Pizza to celebrate Tina's and Kris's birthdays (Kris is watching the pizzas being made). It is snowing again-the weather system is like a Christmas guest that refuses to leave. A flash picture of the gently-falling snow looks like a starry sky.

Have a Blessed Christmas, All!

Visited lots of family today. Mom is holding her newest grand-niece (17 days old).

Christmas Eve in Green Bay

We drove up Peoria to Green Bay yesterday in 8 hours and 8 minutes; we have done the run in 2 hours less than that. The weather was more or less as predicted, but I did not pay attention to predicted wind speed which was pushing really hard from the east. We had rain to Rockford (I saw ice in the trees as far south as Benson), ice from Rockford to Madison , snow from Madison to Oshkosh, and mostly clear from Oshkosh to Green bay. The Rockford to Madison part was toughest; we counted about 10 cars in the ditch. Karen was driving at about 30 mph there. Parts of the van got about 1/4 inch of ice during that stretch. However, if we would have stopped or waited to go today it would have been worse. We basically fell into bed when we arrived last night. By this morning the storm had caught up with us, and snowed, iced, and rained on us here. Today has been sort of low key. We went outside and played in the glazed-over snow for a while.

A quick walk in the woods

Took a quick walk in the nearby woods late this afternoon during a light snowfall. In addition to seeing a few cardinals, I saw a few snowflakes sticking to a single strand of spider silk.

Semester's End

The fall semester at Bradley ended today with commencement. Broadcaster Larry King spoke at the ceremony and told a very funny story about a stunt he helped pull in 9th grade.

More Icicles

The recent rain/cold snap again made for spectacular icicles along Kickapoo Creek Road.

Study Day

Well, lots of items. Monday night one of Karen's friends threw her a baby shower for our future adoptee. Kris went with Karen; I went to a Christmas party held by the Bradley Chemistry Club. Tuesday we had a nice less than 1" snowfall, followed later by rain which melted much of the snow. This morning the heavy rain changed to light snow. The winds picked up, too. I had to chase my trash bag down the street and took down a few yard decorations so they would not blow away. This bitter cold snap will last a few more days. Tuesday was the last day of classes, Kris had her Christmas concert at school, and we got news of our much awaited travel dates to China - Jan 8-29. When I think about all the things that could still go awry I want to curl up in a ball, but I thank God for the wonderful opportunity. Today was study day - finals start tomorrow. Five students and I did a demo show at a junior high school in Morton.

Happy St. Nick's Day

Christmas preparation, including decorating, continues. We have added some elements of whimsy. We have added a small sign to a manger scene, and we have had some teddy bears help us decorate our tree. Karen made a lot of cookies yesterday. This afternoon a nearby church had a "night in Bethlehem", where kids could do activities supposedly similar to those in ancient Bethlehem. (Kris is wearing the laurel on her head.) The event was part of a kit written by the same organization that puts together our vacation Bible school curriculum. I think it is a neat idea. I shot the pic of ice crystals along a creek this morning.

Early December

It flurried not long after my most recent blog entry. Here is a picture of snowflakes whizzing past a street lanp that still had a spider web. No real accumulation yet. We started putting up the Christmas tree tonight. Strangely, most of the burned out bulbs were red ones. We have had the same artificial tree for about 15 years and it is holding up well. The wire frame scratches me up -but a real tree would do that and get me full of sap. :*)

Have to share a poem that Kris wrote for school:

Our Adoption Trip to China

Looks like vendors everywhere and historical buildings.
Smells like yummy food and stinky feet.
Tastes like hot noodles and yucky sushi.
Sounds like car horns beeping and people shouting.

Feels like the pushing crowd, my backpack getting heavy, and my little sister’s warm hand.

Mountain snow

I'm giving an exam right now and just finished putting together a quiz. The end of the semester is fast approaching. I have not taken much in the way of interesting pictures lately, but grabbed this image this morning from a webcam located in the North Cascades region. I check this site to peek at the weather in the Cascades: http://www.cascadeclimber.com/web_cams.htm. Something about the lighting caught my eye, so I captured and cropped the image. Snow has definitely reached the mountains out there - my brother's family has gone snowshoeing already. There is a chance of snow here in Peoria tonight and tomorrow.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Green Bay this year. No snow (though it was a possibility). We saw about 30 wild turkeys on the way to church this morning - we think that they might have been celebrating their survival. We watched the Green Bay Packers beat up on the Detroit Lions. During the game, my sister Tina and her friend Bob stopped up to visit. After the game we had the big Thanksgiving dinner. While we recovered for the rest of the day we watched TV for the most part.

Day before Thanksgiving

We made it up to Green Bay (finally) to celebrate Thanksgiving. Kris helped make the stuffing.

Thanksgiving approaches

Long time no write. I have been busy with a grant proposal and other things, and outdoors in November is not what I consider especially photogenic. It has been very rainy lately - in fact for over the last 300 days over half the days have had measurable amounts of precipitation. The record corn crops in the area are having a hard time drying out. It was not raining when we drove north to Naperville yesterday to get fingerprinted (again) for immigration/adoption paperwork. We left at about 5:30 am, and we got fingerprinted at about 9 am (an hour ahead of the 10 am appointment). Afterward we stopped at IKEA. On the way back we stopped at a state park with a lock along the old I&M Canal. Note the lock doors have been replaced with concrete.

Karen and Kris rang bells at a mall this afternoon.

Elsewhere in history, last weekend was the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine disaster. I read Tintori's interesting book "Trapped" about the event a few years ago. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1909_Cherry_Mine_disaster for more details.

Tonight we watched a recording of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special and I took a couple shots of some of my favorite scenes. Thanksgiving - one of my favorite days of the year - approaches.