30.12.16

A Tumultous Year. And We Made It.


We've had a year full of all kinds of the unimaginable things that humanness always affords.

This year Lynn continued her work at the district level in one of the school districts in the Canton area (Canton South, for you local friends).  Andrew continues to work at Malone University teaching film, media and persuasion;  he made some films this year.  Addison moved to Central Catholic School and continued his pursuit of computer programming (along with many other interests).  Jaelyn joined her first year in the Commercial Photography program and advanced to the first chair Cello in her strings group.

The kids (and us) got the chance to meet their birth mom, Tanya, first online and then face to face for the first time in the memories.  And life stayed full of stories, surprises, success and survival (barely).

If you'd like to see the longer version of our year, watch the video below. It's eight minutes of only the MOST essential moments. Every photograph has a LONG story behind it. (And as you know -- all the really best stories have "no photos available")

 

If you've read this far, it's likely that we miss you and that we wish we could see you more.  Hope 2017 brings us together again.

25.12.15

Time Marches On.

In the picture, the Rudd family sails away from Mackinac Island, the Grand Hotel in the background.  Some of you will remember the GREAT classic film Somewhere In Time where past and present collide.  We hope that sometime in the next year, our common past with you will collide in the present and allow us a time to have conversation, laughter and time together.

29.12.14

Goodbye 2014!

From atop Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, PA, the Rudds wish you a happy holidays and a happy new year.

2.1.12

Happy New Year!

Here's our annual year - end slide show, first in long form (10ish minutes) and for the less hearty for invested a truncated (3ish minutes) version.


The Epic Version:



The (more appropriate) Brief History of One Year In Our Lives: 



We've missed you! And we wish we still lived in a world where we could write rambly missives about our happenings and genuine inquiries about yours, but instead, we're just uploading a bunch of photos as a kind of proxy for the kind of sharing we'd like to do with you. Hopefully 2012 brings opportunities to spend more good times together...

2.1.11

Our Year In Review...

To those few of you who keep in touch with us here at this blog....sorry we haven't been more present! It's been a busy year, a good year, a complex year and it ended well. f

As is our new (ish) tradition we're offering a highlights video for those of you who are interested. Once we finished the initial version and found out it was over 12 minutes long (!) we made a hyped-up-on-adrenilene version for those of you were are only more vaguely interested.

Interested or not -- if you're one of our family or friend -- we love and miss you. Come visit us in our new digs in 2011 (more on that soon!).



And here's the Speedy (/more tolerable) Version:

30.5.10

Catching Up: May, 2010



It's been too long since we posted! So here's the beginning of a series of catch up posts.
In May, Lynn found out that her position had been eliminated at the Canton City School District, but the next day was offered five different positions at other schools in the district. She found a place at McKinley High School - the largest urban high school - as the literacy coach.
image borrowed (without permission) from Anthony McCune's Stark County Blog.

The beginning of May meant that I (Andrew) celebrated graduation and the end of school with my colleagues and students-now-alums. Alyssa (below) was not only a delightful student to work with, but also a thoughtful, delightful human being. Like parents, I don't single out favorite students, so I'm mute on my comparative liking of Alyssa, but I'm deeply grateful for the chance to work with her helping produce beautiful films, advising her honors thesis, having her in class as a student, and later as a teaching assistant. I've continued to work collaboratively with her now as a peer and colleague -- more on that later.



Jaelyn and Addison finished third and fourth grades respectively and finished their soccer seasons, too.



This picture of Addison using Montessori manipulables was taken during open house in his classroom - of - three years with his cherished teacher Mrs. Rimmele. Addison and Jaelyn's public school is a montessori collaborative amongst many districts in our county and is refreshingly diverse and progressive and lively.



Addison finally gave up on combing through the tangles that had grown deep into his magnificent and jealousy-inducing 'fro so one night we headed over to Aaron's apartment and Aaron worked some magic on his locks, following Addison's instructions, and emerging with this haircut:


One afternoon, Jaelyn and I had a date to our favorite downtown Mexican Restaurant - El Galeron. We were both struck by the aesthetic strength of this painted red brick wall, so Jaelyn decided to have this photo taken just which she could have on reserve for her facebook profile picture. When she turns 14.



Both kids enjoyed the spring weather. Here they go into our backyard adventuring into the bush-fort in our neighbor's yard, or walking over to Chris and Victoria's house -- our first neighborhood friends.



The previous year was a roller-coaster ride for me professionally; a new administration made me certain that my university was headed toward becoming a (more) maudlin, right-wing, evangelical institution.

So the fact that the Spring brought radical changes for me (our president was gently ousted) and for Lynn (her new unpredictable, but hopeful(?) job) was the most keen and turbulent social fact that defined our family life.

I taught a couple of online courses and got a grant to work on my reelate documentaries. The combination of Spring and the hope of Summer always makes a May a renewing invigorating month. This May was no exception.