File This Under "I'm So Proud" . . . Sort Of

This week, Jordan's physics class had an assignment to build a container that could protect an egg from breaking when dropped from about a 20-foot height, using glue and toothpicks. I took this picture of him this morning with it, after the experiment. His creation didn't break (much); the egg did. Is that a success?
The following are pictures from his camera phone. The first is a close-up of his structure. At the top is a box for the egg. There's a wing of sorts that was supposed to help it glide down so that the other end would hit first and gently rock the whole thing to the ground, protecting the egg. Instead, it was off-balance and the egg hit first. Just before he dropped it all from the balcony, Jordan realized the error of his design.



And here is a photo to try to explain why he was dressed like that for school . . . this week was "Spirit Week" for today's homecoming, so he and a friend dressed as the lead characters in the movie Juno (Juno and Bleeker).

I'm so proud.

An Early Silver Anniversary Celebration

Our 25th wedding anniversary is this coming Wednesday but due to the busy social lives of our children, it's challenging sometimes to be able to get away from the house, so we decided to use tonight for an early celebration. At one point in time, we might have expected to get away for a night or two, but instead we settled for dinner and a movie. And it turned out to be a really nice evening out.

We went to Biaggi's for dinner, an Italian restaurant on the far side of town. Actually, it's the first restaurant we ever ate at together in Fort Wayne, during my TUFW interview a couple years ago. I went ahead and gave Jeannette the gifts I'd gotten her: an NIV study Bible, a children's book called Motherbridge of Love, and a (very) little silver necklace/pendant with five (very) little diamonds on it.

Afterwards, we went to see the new Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino. It can be a hard movie to watch at times but there are a lot of funny lines and it ended up being really poignant. (I can't believe I spelled that right.) It's been a long time since I was at a movie where the audience applauded at the end. Rocky 3 might have been the last one!

Then, when we got home, we found a box that had been delivered while we were gone. Inside was an afghan (like a blanket, not the nationality) with our wedding date and names on it and a 25th anniversary Precious Moments figurine. My sister and her husband had sent them to us, along with a beautiful card and exactly the right amount of money to cover the dinners we had just eaten! It was a pretty neat way to end a very nice evening.

Happy anniversary, Jeannette! Here's to 25 more!

Snow Angel

We got a considerable amount of snow yesterday, about half a foot. This afternoon, I went outside to pull down the lights that we had hung on a tree in the backyard for Christmas, so MelodyJoy came out to play as well.

Ultimate Fighting Championships

MelodyJoy always wants to box. She'll come into the bedroom or study and say, "C'mon, Daddy, let's go" and then make little punching motions with fists. The longer we've done this, though, the harder she's starting to hit! She kind of whales on my arm now and she's developed a little uppercut that she throws under my arms and right into my stomach. I'm still waiting for her to take her first shot at my nose.

Happy Chinese New Year

Today is the Chinese New Year holiday so I decided to take my girls out to our steady stand-by Chinese restaurant, the Panda Grill Buffet. Once again, we were disappointed to find there was no panda on the menu. But there was plenty of chicken and rice and broccoli. This is our third Chinese New Year with MelodyJoy.

Our fortunes read as follows:

Jeannette - You are never selfish with your advice or your help.

MelodyJoy - You have an active mind and a keen imagination.

Palmer - Don't be hasty, prosperity will knock on your door soon.

Homecoming Week

This is homecoming week at Blackhawk Christian and today's theme was "retirement day." This is Jameson's and Phillip's attempt to personify retirement--Jameson's ready for loafing in the sun. Jordan wore an old nylon sweatsuit--windbreaker and matching pants--which seemed especially appropriate for the day but I couldn't get a picture of him because, well, he's never ready for school until about five minutes after he actually leaves.

Brother and Sister

A Trip to the Farm

This past week, I had the opportunity to travel to the dead center of Illinois to meet with some great folks at Lincoln Christian College. Afterwards, I had time to go about an hour out of my way to visit my good friends, Jeff and Karen Parish and their six kids. They live in a very old farmhouse that they've almost completely renovated--it's beautifully done--near Mattoon, Illinois.


We ate pizza. We watched American Idol together . . .


We went to Dairy Queen. I think Janell was concerned that I was the only one who didn't order a Blizzard . . .

And we just sat around and talked and laughed. It was a great time. It's pretty amazing how good friendships can survive the miles and the years.

E for Exceptional

Melody has been learning to write her name. In fact, she can pretty much write the whole thing now except for the "e." She was very proud to show me her efforts this morning on this most difficult of alphabetical and penmanalogical challenges.

One More Birthday in the Rear View Mirror

On Wednesday, I celebrated my birthday in an unusual way . . . by flying from Minneapolis to Miami to Detroit to Fort Wayne. All day in the air and airports. Amazingly, especially given the weather conditions, every single flight took off on time and landed early. And the flights were not full, so I generally had pretty good seats and was comfortable. I worked my way through two magazines, finished reading Tempered Steel and started The Red Sea Rules and generally had a fairly good travel day.

When I got home, there was a birthday cake awaiting me. Naturally, they couldn't put enough candles on it for this year's celebration. Not too long until AARP comes calling . . .


Melody helped me blow out the candles. And then we remembered she was sick . . .

But she was very excited to have me home after a week away . . .

The Frozen North

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of traveling to rural southwestern Minnesota. Thanks to the quirks of our new GPS unit, I probably got to see more of rural Minnesota than I should have. I was on two-lane country roads for almost all of a three hour drive. Basically, it just looked like this . . .
. . . for miles and miles and miles. I saw more snowmobiles in one hour on Sunday afternoon than I've seen in my whole life. And this is what I look like after miles and miles of driving in Minnesota . . .
But I did discover that 920 AM is Minnesota's all polka station. Interesting.

Minnesota is very cold. In case you didn't know. I thought my ears were going to freeze off at one point. When your high temp for the day is still a negative number, that's cold. But then I came home to balmy Fort Wayne . . . where I discovered that Minnesota's weather had followed me home. Today's high in Fort Wayne: 2 degrees.

Travel Update

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I was on the road earlier this week and am again today, so this will just be a quick update.

I was privileged to get to travel to northeastern Georgia last weekend. I got to spend the night with two of our former students from Asbury, Kelly and (Doctor!) Michelle VanDellen in Athens, where Michelle teaches and does research at the University of Georgia. It was awesome to reconnect with them and reminisce with them. Going through the old yearbooks, I was reminded again how many incredible students we had at Asbury in the Class of '02. Kelly and Michelle also introduced me to Wii Fit and to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (I know, I'm ridiculously behind the times on that).

I also got to do just a little sight seeing. In Atlanta, I visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historical Site, which includes MLK's grave alongside Coretta Scott King's and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, though it was closed for refurbishing.

It was interesting--and a little heartbreaking--to read the historical accounts, watch the video and view the photographs in the exhibit center. I found myself wondering what my own attitudes and opinions would have been if I'd have been old enough to know what was going on in the early '60s. I'm doubtful that I'd be on the right side of that conversation, unfortunately. I have vague recollections of being an 8-year-old in 1968 and thinking that maybe George Wallace was the best choice for president. But, hey, I was only eight. And I did like Muhammad Ali, so I couldn't have been all bad, right?

Two things struck me especially as I toured the exhibits. First, I've always wondered why black ministers seem to be so strident and outspoken on social issues. Sometimes it just didn't seem appropriate or the right priority (I'm not sure how to phrase that) for a minister of the Gospel. One of the exhibits cleared this up for me quite simply: The pastors were generally the only ones in the black community whose income was not dependent on white employers and who were not subject to having their livelihood destroyed by a vindictive boss. Hmmm, that seems obvious now.

Second, I never had heard about the significant role played by young people in the civil rights movement. And by young people, I mean college and high school students, of course, but not just them . . . Children were actively involved in the marches and demonstrations, children as young as third grade were specifically mentioned. Is that unbelievable or what? And why were they involved? Because if the adults got arrested, they would miss work and lose their jobs. If children were arrested, they had no jobs to lose. I'm not sure if I could put my kids in the line of fire that way. I both applaud and question the courage of parents who did.

I also got to visit Toccoa Falls, about 100 miles from Atlanta. I first heard about Toccoa Falls about 30 years ago when a dam burst and sent roughly 40 acres of water rushing over the edge and through the campus of Toccoa Falls College, where it took the lives of about three dozen individuals. Ever since then, I've been interested in seeing the Falls. It's a beautiful setting, though I must confess that it can't match up with Silver Falls near my old hometown of Salem, Oregon.