Enjoy!

–Melissa

Recently I read a book compiled of slave accounts–these being written mostly by American slaves during the 1800’s. Ever since I traveled to Virginia with Mark several years ago, and came across a book called “The Slave Narratives” I have been interested in the history of slavery and what slaves conditions were, in their own words. A strikingly sad situation that we can now look back on and say “I’m glad that’s over.” But after watching this movie and hearing a quote from one of the modern day “abolitionists” about there being “no need to feel wistful about the past [wishing you had a part in the Civil Rights movement of the '60s because of the great a noble cause it was] because the opportunity still exists today. The slaves of today need justice and freedom…but they have no voice of their own.”

Wow, I am undone.

If, in the span of a lifetime we in America have witnessed the downfall of Jim Crow and the raising of one of its past victims to the highest seat of power in our land, what could be possible for those without a voice today all across the world who so desperately need someone to care? As I watched this film and saw the little girls, I couldn’t help but see the face of my own daughter. And I realized that for me to do nothing is unthinkable.

There was once a man walking along the beach just as low tide was showing itself on the shoreline. The beach was mostly abandoned, but the man did notice a small girl walking up and down the shore. As he got closer the man could see that the girl was picking up beached starfish throwing them into the water before they dried out and died. The man looked about the shoreline–there hundreds of starfish on that beach as far as the eye could see. The girl seemed to be hardly making a dent. The man couldn’t stop himself from asking the question of her “Little girl, there are hundreds of starfish on this beach. How can you make a difference?” The little girl calmly looked up at the man as she held up a bright red starfish, “It makes a difference to this one.” she said, and flung it into the sea.

Skittle Face

As many of you know we don’t really celebrate Halloween. But we love to have fun (and eat candy, of course!). So this year, being that Savannah is now old enough to appreciate one, (and, well the rest of us are too) we had a bon-fire out at my parent’s house in Caledonia. With us, my parents and my sister Krista it was a very fun and relaxing time roasting S’mores over the fire and watching for shooting stars. Along with the necessary candy (as seen in the Skittles face photo) we had a pizza dinner and then went out to enjoy the fire. Our hearty bon-fire, smoked-sausage-smelling hair and coats after the night was over (mmm…smoked sausage! LOL!) were the lasting evidence of a great, smoky, evening had by all.

Since I volunteered that day to help out in Savannah’s class with the games for their Harvest Party, Savannah and I had already had our fill of pumpkin bowling. It was a great game that the kids really loved playing and barely wanted to stop at the end of the party. But I feel that next year, we will need to add this fun game to our festivities at the bon-fire.

Updated with some photos.  Cirque Shanghai made a special appearance and they were simply amazing.  We all had fun at the Mayan Waterpark and are exhausted.

Posted from my iPodTouch using WordPress App

This year Dragonboat festival fell on June 19, but the races in Chicago were on the 21st of July. Chinatown was a-buzz with lots of different things to do and see because of the races. There were lots of vendors with samples, performers and art booths. One booth for Saint Alp Teahouse gave out free samples of their tea creations. The green tea and milk drink was so good we went and visited their store on Archer to get a small cup to go–so refreshing. The shop was so cool. Very hip and modern, just like their drink ideas–combining the awesome tea of China with the idea of mixed coffee type drinks of America. This was a fun new find for us.

The races were fun to watch and cheer for. I’ve posted some pictures to the website of the races.

Of course, we ate at our favorite restaurant Lao Sze Chuan for lunch which was a special treat. And we stocked up on tea again for the year. It was a beautiful day in the windy city–not too hot and some lovely wind. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Unless we are out of town next year (crossed fingers that we will be in China) we will surely not miss this event in Chinatown next year.

Well we didn’t fly off to any exotic location, or even Florida for that matter but I was able to leave a few hours early from work today and we had a great picnic at Hoffmaster State Park on the beach. We were one of only two families on the beach which was excellent, apparently the dark clouds scared everyone else away or they were in route to beaches in warmer climates. Anyway, I posted some photos which are located in the Holidays and Events album under SpringBreak-07. Enjoy! Oh, and btw the photos are little grainy as I took them with my new point and shoot 6mp Panasonic(which I bought with a gift certificate from Nielsen, so who can complain) anyway, I’m still learning which settings generate the best results.

Later,

Mark

So, as you have probably seen, we got Savannah some dress-up clothes for her birthday. We haven’t been able to get her out of them since.

Oh, for those who would like to make an Elmo Cake, here’s a template you can use on a 9×13 cake. Just cut around the outer edges for the head shape. You’ll need the free Adobe Reader to view this document. Click the downloads button.

Well, long story short….the foam letters S A T were put together on the floor in the kitchen and when Savannah saw them she said, “hey that spells sat”

Hmmm, her first word is sat and those same letters are the acronym for a college exam test, coincidence…I think not.

The day after Thanksgiving this year we made a trip down to my sister and brother-in-law’s house in Ohio (five-and-a-half hours). Savannah had so much fun playing with her cousins and it was so wonderful to see them all and see how much they’ve all grown. It will be nice to see them again at Christmas. I’ve put some photos in the photo section of our site (under Holiday’s and Special Events). Enjoy!

I figured I ought to change the info on this page since August was so long ago. But, uh, there isn’t much I can say about our lives right now except that they are very, very busy. Okay, everything else I want to write sounds stupid when I write it, so I guess that’s all for now.

On Saturday we checked out Chinatown and all its shops (and of course did some shopping). We had a good Chinese lunch and then later an EXCELLENT Chinese dinner at Lao Sze Chuan restaurant. This is the second time we’ve been there and it is so good. We can personally recommend the very spicy Dried Chilli Chicken (this has about–and I’m not kidding–thirty dried chillis in this one dish). We loved it!

On Sunday we played a little at Hyde Park while we waited for the Museum of Science and Industry to open. There was a special DaVinci exhibit that you can see some photos of in our photos section. But the exhibit that Savannah liked best was the frogs exhibit! Lately she has been just loving scaring the frogs in our pond into the water and so the frog exhibit was right up her alley. Not that she could scare these, but she enjoyed seeing them anyway. One of the frogs was so poisonous that it contained enough toxins in it to kill 10 humans and several horses–making it the most deadly creature in the world. Wow–keep that one in its cage. There were some very beautiful frogs though. Then as the whinning began to crescendo we knew it was time to make our exit (the Savannah whinning that is). What a great time we had!