Lyrics

"My Last Amen" by Downhere

From the corner of my eye

There's a tear I'm trying to cry

But the feeling can't be found

Like a note thrills in a song

When I play it again, it's gone

Cuz it was never in the sound

And it keeps me wanting

That mysterious thing

Like a night is waiting for a dawn

Every prayer I say (a little closer)

To my resting place (a little closer)

Where my final breath is the beginning

To never needing

And I will find my last Amen

I could swear I have two hearts

One to stay, one to depart

This sad, tragic kingdom

And it burns me down to the core

Because I know there's so much more

It's just a pale reflection

And it keeps me wanting

That mysterious thing

Like an outcast waiting to belong

And while the thrills are fading

The joy is in the waiting

Somewhere in the grand design

It's good be unsatisfied

It keeps the faith and hope a little more alive

Father's Day 2010

After Mass this morning we went to Tyroni's pizza buffet. Then Katie and I drove to Jubilee State Park. It was hot and humid, but we circumnavigated the fishing pond/reservoir (which was not easy). Katie rode on my shoulders most of the time, which kept her out of the mud, stinging nettle, and poison ivy, but we were able to see fish, frogs (there were some that peeped when they jumped in the water away from us-never heard those before), dragonflies, butterflies, a skating spider (it really was a spider and not a pond skating insect-never seen one before), flowers, berries, fungi, and a deer. This evening we went to the riverfront in East Peoria and had some ice cream.

Mineral Springs Park

We spent some time at Mineral Springs Park in Pekin this afternoon. We took a paddleboat ride.

Sometimes the hardest part of the entry is the title...

We went to a Chinese restaurant a few days ago and noticed subtleties in the decor we would have never noticed before the China trip: male and female lion statues at the door, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_guardian_lions; dragon and phoenix, see: http://www.chinavista.com/experience/dragon/dragon.html; and the Great Wall in the sculpture only had notches on one side (to observe and shoot from - the side facing away from China). I would love to go back to see more of the country, I was telling somebody it was like you visited the U.S. when you spent a few days in Washington, DC, several days in Milwaukee (with a visit to a couple of Indian reservations), and several days in a few square blocks of Miami. Our van has been having troubles lately, so I have occasionally been riding my bike into school. I am halfway through my second interim class. Today Karen and Kris traveled to Chicago, so I hung out with Katie. We went for a walk to look at the clouds and the flowers, producing these pictures.

More rain

Just before the most recent rain hit this evening it got dark enough for the fireflies to light up a lot. The daylilies and roses are doing well.

Fishing Attempts

It's free fishing weekend in Illinois. This morning I took Kris fishing at Wildlife Prairie State Park. Lots of fish jumping and nibbling, but no catches. We caught weeds, though. I thought the bobber snagged in the pine tree almost looked Christmasy. Later, the family went to St. Anthony's Church picnic - good food and people! Later still, Karen, Katie, and I went to try to dip net some minnows at Lauterbach Park. We saw a few very fast fish (no catches), but I found a couple fossils.

Yates City

On Sunday we gave Katie her birthday present from us parents: a couple of bags of sand for her sandbox. She was pleased and she and Kris played with her sand and water toys.

On Sunday evening I drove over to Elmwood to check out the damage from the F2 tornado that got uncomfortably close to our house. Elmwood is still barricaded off, but I drove a few miles upwind to Yates City. The damage track was hard to find - the foot high corn looked OK, but I found metal debric in the field and a sagging section of fence that was loaded with muddy plant debris. It impressed me how blessed Yates City was: only the northernmost buildings (a barn and a shed - note the trailer flipped over) in this small town got hit, leaving a nearby house unscathed, I think. A video clip of the tornado is on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhaNKNu0P8k. Had the tornado been a couple blocks south it would have passed through the center of town. Other towns in addition to these got hit (15 tornadoes were reported in central Illinois that night), notably Streator.

In other news Kris started soccer camp tonight. It was blissfully cloudy and cool, though it is beginning to get buggy. I found a puddle that was dark and turbulent with baby mosquitoes. All this wet weather is raising concerns about mosquitoes in the area.

Katie's Birthday Part 2 and Stormy Night

Today started out drizzly. I tried to pull weeds out of the muddy veggie garden this morning. This afternoon, Katie had a birthday party at a local Culver's restaurant. We had a bunch of kids, parents, and a visit from Scoopie himself (Culver's mascot). We had fun. After that we went to Lidia Bosma's high school graduation party for a while and had fun. We headed home as bad weather approached the area. Lots of sirens tonight. A rotating thunderstorm dropped a tornado onto Elmwood and other places. The storm crossed over the north end of Peoria, but left the city unscathed. A little while later another rotating storm headed our way but moved to the south. I got a few fuzzy pictures of that storm as the edge passed over us - I think maybe you can sort of see the arcing lines of the rotating storm in the second storm picture.

Happy 4th Birthday Katie!

Today is Katie's 4th (and golden) birthday, over 4 months after her arrival in Peoria. Last night after she went to bed, Kris and I inflated and filled the pool that she got from Grandma and Grandpa Campbell. We have it in the screen porch to protect the occupants from the elements and our lawn from getting squished by the pool. The water was still pretty cold, but Katie loved it - she calls it a bathtub. Later, we joined the Bosmas at Carlos O'Kelly's for an enjoyable dinner.

Last day of May Interim today. My grades are all turned in, and now I gear up for a four-week class I will co-teach starting next week. Research will also kick into a higher gear as more of my summer researchers come in. Kris has soccer camp next week. More storms in the area tonight.

300th post

At about 1:30 am this morning a big thunderstorm rolled in. We did not hear the siren or see the hail but the thunder and lightning woke us up. As I was watching out the doorway I heard about the loudest thunderclap I've ever heard - I did not see which tree got hit nearby, but I'm convinced one did. It only left about an inch of rain and not really any damage to speak of. The rain picture is from Monday morning's rain.

This afternoon we took Katie to a speech therapist. She said Katie is doing well, especially considering that she just started learning English in January and has that cleft palate. Some areas of weakness include pronouns and plurals, which we noted were not really big concepts in the Mandarin language so we are not surprised that she is behind in that. At one point the therapist asked her to talk about her bunny. She said "Bunny at home". When pressed for more details about the bunny she said very clearly "Bunny not here". It was funny. Katie's cleft palate surgery is scheduled for June 30. We need to get her to stop putting her fingers in her mouth so she does not damage the stitches. We have tried the bad-tasting nail polish and it has not worked and are looking for other ideas.