Toronto Fun!

You know how your soul just needs to get away once in awhile? How your heart desires connection with friendships that are not in a day-to-day context? That was what my heart needed, and I was able to have this past week at a conference in Toronto.

First, I was able to spend extra, out-of-school time with some of the facinating teachers I work with. The roadtrip with this group was great!







Second, I was able to spend a totally enjoyable evening with my friend Vic from BG days. It was great to realize that time and distance can't erase a unique and valuable friendship.



Third, I was able to eat dinner with my thesis chair and recieve her encouragement and insight into my future graduate school plans while catching up with each others' lives.

Finally, I had the opportunity to chat quickly with my favorite YA author, Laurie Halse Anderson, who visited Timken last year and made such an amazing impact on our students and staff. She pretty much blows other authors out of the water with her candor and ability to connect with people. Since she cares deeply about her own faith journey we were able to have long conversations about our lives last year, and so catching up with her was soul-filling. Amazing woman! Love her!

Most of the food I had was amazing too. I love the options in an urban center!

Oh yeah, I learned some pretty good literacy ideas from the sessions.

Of course, this entire 'soul-revival' would not have been possible without my amazing husband staying behind with the kids. What a great partner to have in life!

I feel full and thankful.

At the corner of 22nd and Gibbs...

a great cry arose from the back seat. A happy cry.

"My tooth came out!"

After two days of angst and worry over how, when, where, and with what level of pain his tooth would come out -- our six year old, sick-with-strep-throat son lost his first tooth.

Blue skies and sunbeams are here!

As I was looking at the window this evening, I was struck by the colors! Spring is the BEST time of year! How many grey skies did we endure? It's so nice to see a full palette of color and not just the tones of grey and white!





The Ohlingers came over the enjoy the afternoon also. Remember these days of basking in the sunlight as a kid?





Have I mentioned how much I LOVE sunbeams??!!

It's Snowing Now, but Way Back at Christmas...

The day after Christmas, we walked to the beach with my dad -- the kids were practically ready to plunge into the chilly waters of Lake Michigan...

The 2006 Holiday List

at Katie & Luke's Wedding

Since the whole year's worth of blogs relates the mundane anecdotes that weave the fabric of our lives together -- we'll dedicate our end-of-the-year-holiday-wrap-up to the Bird's Eye Fly By version -- pictures and lists.

Favorite food:
Jaelyn: homemade macaroni and cheese
Addison: chicken nuggets
Andrew: the Sunday buffet at The Desert Inn or Spicy Peanut Beef at Pataya
Lynn: Purple Chicken (Chicken Provencal) or the Mango Lassi at Bombay Sitar



Jaelyn wrote & directed a play where a dragon (played by Chris) eventually burned the evil conman (daddy). The princess and knight (foreground) were relieved.

Favorite music:
Jaelyn: Nutcracker
Addison: Charlie Brown’s Christmas music
Andrew: Pedro and Sufjan
Lynn: Family mix CD’s



riding with cousins at Grandpa's Farm

Favorite place to visit:
Jaelyn: Michigan
Addison: Chucky Cheese
Andrew: still the cabin…
Lynn: a warm beach…in the winter/early spring..

the ceremonial goodbye to the faithful grey car.

Favorite book:
Jaelyn: Little House on the Prairie
Addison: Salt in his Shoes (Michael Jordan’s childhood biography)
Andrew: Everyday Apocalypse
Lynn: Curriculum Development in the Postmodern Era (back in grad school!)

in Rudd conversation at Thanksgiving

Andrew's trip North with dad & brothers

Favorite way to spend a Saturday evening:
Jaelyn: reading and playing
Addison: going to see basketball at Timken
Andrew: having dinner, movie, and conversation with people I love
Lynn: watching a movie and cuddling on the couch with Andrew





Favorite TV show:
Jaelyn: Maya and Miguel
Addison: Cyberchase
Andrew: favorite? TV? Can such a combination exist?
Lynn: Alias (with Northern Exposure living a resurrected life)


Addison practicing two-wheeling with visiting Uncle Adam

Favorite new friend at school:
Jaelyn: Sasha
Addison: Sam
Andrew: Bob
Lynn: Kim



Favorite Bible story:
Jaelyn: When Mary had a baby
Addison: David and Goliath
Andrew: the death of Ehud
Lynn: the story of the women who financed Jesus’ ministry

Mom & Dad Rudd and Ang delivered Andrew's childhood piano to Casacommunitas

Favorite movie:
Jaelyn: Karate Kid
Addison: Power Rangers
Andrew: See my movie blog for this year's tops.
Lynn: Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (I’m so embarrassed)

Maya Corbin, one of the many babies to enter our lives this year

Favorite game to play:
Jaelyn: Chutes and Ladders
Addison: Sorry
Andrew: Given the frequency of the above two, I prefer the occasional gin rummy with Lynn...
Lynn: racing against time to the next lesson, appointment, job requirement

summertime at Er-le Farm.

Favorite new toy:
Jaelyn: my Little Pet Shop hamster
Addison: my scooter
Andrew: digital camera
Lynn: toy??

Halloween Lion and Halloween Princess


Favorite new hobby:
Jaelyn: African dance
Addison: Karate and stage fighting
Andrew: (still)…blogging…
Lynn: (still)…running…

Akron Christian Reformed Church at Trinity

New Year’s wish:

Jaelyn: I want to pass to the third grade
Addison: I hope to go and see fireworks again.
Andrew: clarity
Lynn: a hold on sanity for more than two days



Jaelyn’s greeting: Merry Christmas greeting to everyone and happy evening, night.
Addison’s greeting: Merry Christmas and I hope you have a good day.

The Christmasizing Quest

The Last To Be Struck Down

Over the past three weeks, Jaelyn, myself & Lynn have all been struck down by strep throat. Addison has remained impervious to the virus. We had almost decided that he was unstrepthroatable -- given the number of times that his sister has been victimized and he has remained untouched.

But when Lynn arrived at Noah's house and saw Addison sitting forlorn on a swing while three friends ran and played wildly, she knew something was afoot.

His sick-shirt just happens to be his Dash Shirt, which only makes his mournful misery more pathetic. The sucker he holds is leftover halloween candy masquerading as a proxy lozenge. Poor kid can barely muster the energy to suck his halloween candy.

My Dad's Pumpkin is Bigger than Your Dad's...

Do these look like great jack-o-lanterns to you?

Because I was pretty proud of them too. Jaelyn and Addison designed their faces, even went through several sketches. Cleaned the entire innards out of the pumpkins by themselves. Even coached me and gave me tips as I interpreted their drawings with the knife etching the faces into the pumpkins.

They felt pretty satisfied, too.

But I have a confession to make.

This year, I was really late in getting the jack-o-lanterns to the kids. It was partly because I went to California the weekend before Halloween. Partly because it's the busiest part of the semester right now. Partly because we put a lot of halloween energy toward costume design and acquisition.

And partly (happily) because we were getting ready for the visit of Uncle Daniel, Aunt Andrea and Will & Isaac. (That's right a family of blogging Rudds....what a surprise, eh?)




We had a great time with our visiting cousins and family. Jaelyn and Addison adopted the role of the older nurturing cousins with a flourish. Will and Isaac conversely were delighted to both be the hilarious centers of attention.



The adults got to sneak away for good Indian food and strange consumerist quests one evening. Grand times were had by all.

The next morning as I zipped to our favorite local grocery to pick up a few items, I decided to go ahead and buy pumpkins. With two days left until real halloween -- and trick or treat scheduled for that very afternoon -- I was feeling more than a little bit substandard in my Holiday Parenting.

The bad news? Two days before Halloween? The pumpkin supply? "Picked over" is generous. "Horrifically deformed", "moldy" and "discolored" might even be generous.

The only pumpkins that had perfect shape and color -- were mini-pumpkins. What's more -- there were four. One for each of the cousins.

Jaelyn and Addison never even mentioned the size of the pumpkins. I don't know if it even occured to them.



So every week I spend my Tuesdays with Noah and Addison. I enjoy these playdates for many reasons. One of the best is that listening to these two engage in unmoderated dialogue is better than reading Plato's dialogues -- and very like overhearing the Muppet Judges commentary on my life.

So yesterday Noah and Addison were lunching next to the mini-pumpkins and I was lunching across the room, listening in:

NOAH: We always have Big Pumpkins.

(I cringe. My sins have found me out. My son will feel emasculated. His self image will be devastated....)

ADDISON: Well my dad is good enough to carve the small pumpkins. It's really hard. Can your dad carve the really small ones?

NOAH: (fumbling a bit, definitely on the defensive) Well...we like the big ones(?). (but doubt inflects his every syllable)

So I hate to call you out in public, Jeff, but clearly my pumpkin is more PRECISE than your pumpkin. And at least according to our muppet judge philosophers...that's the reigning value here...

Return to Fields of Green

It was a long soccer saturday morning again. Our games stretched across a four hour span. Importantly both kids had fun, less importantly both kids won. I'm starting to recognize that the relationships that gently emerge between parents on the sidelines constitute a profound sociological phenomenon. More on that later...

Today? Pictures, of course.





I'm not really sure what Addison's pained expression is about right here. You can see the smile dancing on the corner of Lynn's lip. We were complimenting him on his great defensive game. Giving him a few pointers. In any case, he kicked a glorious goal moments after our little pep talk.

Jaelyn was so Jess-from-Bend-it-like-Beckham in practice with her goal kicking that the coach pulled her from defense to take a penalty kick. Alas, in the heat of the moment the opportunity was missed. I'm pretty sure that it was because the goal is smaller than regulation size. Happily, she seemed unfazed by the missed opportunity. She was just elated to have had the chance.