Thanksgiving Memories

Pictures are so bright and believable, that sometimes, I think they steal our memories from us...

So I'll try to weave some of my own memories with the pictures of the weekend.



We drove North through a gentle blizzard. Only one long traffic jam just an hour from home. The whole trip was 9 hours.



We played endless rounds of Take Two -- the scrabble-on-steroids game that I learned in Australia. I, the former champion, came in deadlast. I'm not sure what that's indicative of.



We played two hours of MAFIA -- the older cousins played with wilder and wilder abandon in the adjoining living room -- fully aware that the adults had somehow lost track of them and their bedtimes.



We told ghost stories and took Myers Briggs Tempermant Analysis tests on Friday night.



We went to see _Pride & Prejudice_ on Saturday afternoon. Everyone liked it to varying degrees. Ryan was the firm dissenter -- with a somewhat valid analysis that fully half of the movie had been shots of Mirrors and Long-Shots-of-Walking-Through-Fields. It was cinematic! I argued. Watch this! he countered, and slowly pretended to walk through a pretend field. Look at me! I'm cinematic! I'm artsy! I'm full of longing and despair and breadth of spirit!



Okay, perhaps I embellished Ryan's protests a little bit there.



Will and Isaac were talking and bouncing and increasingly disinterested in their bottles. Grabbing and shoving anything into the mouth that could construed to be solid food.



We listened to some Blues Music and checked out gingerbread houses with the Livermores at the Festival of Trees.



People laughed. People cried. People argued. People agreed. People told stories. People made plans.



It was a good weekend.

Jaelyn's New Locks

The fam arrived home from Thanksgiving last night. Had a good time in Michigan. Pictures from the celebration will be up soon.

Jaelyn and Lynn had the day off today so Jaelyn got a perm...she's astonished by how long her hair is...

All Saints Night

Here are pictures from All Saints Night at Malone College. Apparently, this is the acceptable, Christian way to Trick-or-Treat for Halloween. They were able to collect their treats with the "co-op kids". The history is becoming very thick between these kids as we all share life together.

Jaelyn has been obsessed with Cheetahs for a long time now. I love how varied her interests are and how she diverts from female stereotypes. Of course we still have dolls, but I'm most happy when she comes in the house with five worms clutched in her filthy, dirty hands, gleefully informing me of the worms' names and the exact location of their homes underground.


Addison has become equally obsessed with space and astronauts. For whatever reason, spaceships are his favorite things to draw now. He's been perfecting them for months; he even got input from a college art major who is often at our house. He loves looking at pictures from space and hearing stories about space travel. And after each story, you always hear his trademark phrase, "For REAL?!"

The twins were here! (so were Daniel and Andrea...)

Daniel and Andrea brought the twins to see us in Canton this past weekend. Will and Isaac have been officially adopted for about two weeks now, even though they become part of the family right at birth. I'm continually amazed at the unique, wonderful ways God is designing our family.

We all had a great time together. Jaelyn and Addison were very nurturing and engaged with the twins. Here is a mosiac of our time together:

....Daniel took random pictures all the time, capturing beautiful memories.
....We had lots of wonderful food and conversation.
....There were many bottles and feedings with the boys strapped into their 'saucers'.
....We had lots of laughter at the new antics of the kids, and Daniel.
....We had a wonderful time playing in the sunshine at the monument.

Mostly it was just really fun to spend time with family. We miss that a lot. The sacrifice of time needed for traveling is great, especially with two six month old boys. We really loved it!

Braiding into a new culture

Being new at Timken has been an interesting journey for our entire family. While we still love the Malone community, it has been very enjoyable getting involved with another culture. The urban culture is fascinating, challenging, stimulating, and disturbing all at once.

Jaelyn and Addison love going to Timken, running through the endless hallways, and mingling with students. Jaelyn feel in love with MarDez (one of my peer tutors) and her cousin, Autumn, who is doing the braiding. While MarDez and Autumn worked on Jaelyn's hair, they inducted me into many facets of hair traditions. It was fascinating to hear their family stories and their histories that were so dramatically tied to their hair. It was a very rich time, yet it made me realize how tightly bordered our lives had become. I hope there will be many more activities like this one.