I don't normally take pictures of my neighbors clothes, but I chuckled when I saw this set airing outside~
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Deer Hunting
I don't normally take pictures of my neighbors clothes, but I chuckled when I saw this set airing outside~
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Nests~
Leaves are in abundance up here, and we are making the most of them!
Two "nests" were made today, and a request was made for lunch to be delivered; no problem!
Halloween
We had fun on Halloween trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Our new friend and neighbor Marva organized the whole neighborhood to have treats for our children! Here she is~a delight at that.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Duluth
Duluth. This is one of the places I have never been! I always wanted to "go North" and see this city on the shores of Lake Superior, but never had a chance.
And now, I did.
The children's favorite part of the whole day? Climbing on the rocks~
Another guy enjoyed it too!
Gooseberry Falls~
Leif Erickson memorial park~(someone we just studied!)
We also took the famous "Skyline Drive" and took a few autumn pic's along the way~
A favorite fall memory already~
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Claire is now Eleven!
Happy Birthday Claire!
What do you do when you run out fingers? How do you tell people how old you are without speaking? We had to enlist Sarah's help this year, since Claire is now eleven!
Yesterday was beautiful, and after a yummy breakfast, my folks arrived to help celebrate the big event!
Another 'horse' birthday for Claire~
After roller-blading down the road, we happened to come upon ANOTHER carload of well-wishers, my sister Michelle and her family. What to do? Well, how about swimming!
Claire requested Clam chowder for dinner, and then, a few more gifts!
Thank you Lord for Claire!
What do you do when you run out fingers? How do you tell people how old you are without speaking? We had to enlist Sarah's help this year, since Claire is now eleven!
Yesterday was beautiful, and after a yummy breakfast, my folks arrived to help celebrate the big event!
Another 'horse' birthday for Claire~
After roller-blading down the road, we happened to come upon ANOTHER carload of well-wishers, my sister Michelle and her family. What to do? Well, how about swimming!
Claire requested Clam chowder for dinner, and then, a few more gifts!
Thank you Lord for Claire!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Dissertation
Jim here--
Thanks for all your great comments! It's been so fun to see all the encouraging notes and congratulations.
Getting across the finish line yesterday for the PhD was a huge milestone for us. Thursday, October 2 was the day I finally turned in the final copy of my dissertation signed by my three examiners or readers. Yahoo!!
I thought I'd fill you in on what happened the last few weeks from my perspective.
I spent the two weeks before August 24 (D-Day, Defense Day) cramming for the big day. If this live defense of my dissertation didn't go well, it could have made all the work, transition, and sacrifice of the last year and a half worthless: leaving our friends at First Free, selling our house, moving to England, late nights in the library, etc. So I was feeling a little bit of pressure!
On D-Day, you go into a room with three professors who are sitting across the table from you. One of them is your supervisor--he's friendly and on your side. The other two are there to GRILL you--that's their job for the sake of maintaining academic quality. If you can't answer technical questions and defend yourself adequately, then presumably you are not prepared and don't know your material well enough. It's a good thing, but grueling. Oh, and there are half a dozen doctoral students in the room learning from your experience.
After a few softball questions to get the ball rolling, the second reader takes over. I had absolutely no idea what he would ask and was totally surprised by his lines of questioning. We went back and forth for over an hour. Then the third reader starts to ask his questions, again from a totally new angle.
Actually, the questions they asked were very thought-provoking. I have been thinking about their critiques and questions the last few days and feel like I understand my topic better because of the defense. So that too is part of the educational process.
Well, after the intense questioning, they ask you to leave and you sit outside for 15 minutes while your fate is in the balance. I was pretending to read a brochure, but I don't think anyone walking by was fooled for a second.
When they asked me back in the room, the third reader excused himself and walked out, which I took as a bad sign. But actually, he was going to get a bottle of sparkling grape juice to celebrate (for our British friends, Trinity is dry for the most part).
They did ask me to write another section and modify some things before they would sign off on the dissertation. So I spent the next week doing these revisions, then submitted them to my supervisor for his approval.
I can't tell you how good it felt to see the third signature go on the dissertation! I turned the two signed copies over to the librarian for binding, and walked away a free man after almost ten years of study!!
Several people have asked me what my dissertation is about. So I snapped pictures of some of the first few pages so you could get the gist of it if your interested.
The abstract will give you an overview of the whole thing. The total dissertation was 351 pages.
Enjoy...
Thanks for all your great comments! It's been so fun to see all the encouraging notes and congratulations.
Getting across the finish line yesterday for the PhD was a huge milestone for us. Thursday, October 2 was the day I finally turned in the final copy of my dissertation signed by my three examiners or readers. Yahoo!!
I thought I'd fill you in on what happened the last few weeks from my perspective.
I spent the two weeks before August 24 (D-Day, Defense Day) cramming for the big day. If this live defense of my dissertation didn't go well, it could have made all the work, transition, and sacrifice of the last year and a half worthless: leaving our friends at First Free, selling our house, moving to England, late nights in the library, etc. So I was feeling a little bit of pressure!
On D-Day, you go into a room with three professors who are sitting across the table from you. One of them is your supervisor--he's friendly and on your side. The other two are there to GRILL you--that's their job for the sake of maintaining academic quality. If you can't answer technical questions and defend yourself adequately, then presumably you are not prepared and don't know your material well enough. It's a good thing, but grueling. Oh, and there are half a dozen doctoral students in the room learning from your experience.
After a few softball questions to get the ball rolling, the second reader takes over. I had absolutely no idea what he would ask and was totally surprised by his lines of questioning. We went back and forth for over an hour. Then the third reader starts to ask his questions, again from a totally new angle.
Actually, the questions they asked were very thought-provoking. I have been thinking about their critiques and questions the last few days and feel like I understand my topic better because of the defense. So that too is part of the educational process.
Well, after the intense questioning, they ask you to leave and you sit outside for 15 minutes while your fate is in the balance. I was pretending to read a brochure, but I don't think anyone walking by was fooled for a second.
When they asked me back in the room, the third reader excused himself and walked out, which I took as a bad sign. But actually, he was going to get a bottle of sparkling grape juice to celebrate (for our British friends, Trinity is dry for the most part).
They did ask me to write another section and modify some things before they would sign off on the dissertation. So I spent the next week doing these revisions, then submitted them to my supervisor for his approval.
I can't tell you how good it felt to see the third signature go on the dissertation! I turned the two signed copies over to the librarian for binding, and walked away a free man after almost ten years of study!!
Several people have asked me what my dissertation is about. So I snapped pictures of some of the first few pages so you could get the gist of it if your interested.
The abstract will give you an overview of the whole thing. The total dissertation was 351 pages.
Enjoy...
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Drum roll please. . . . .
HE PASSED!!!
Praise the Lord!
Only a week or two of revisions, and then Jim will resubmit his dissertation, and be DONE!!!
Thank you so much for praying for us~
Wonderful!
Praise the Lord!
Only a week or two of revisions, and then Jim will resubmit his dissertation, and be DONE!!!
Thank you so much for praying for us~
Wonderful!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Please pray tomorrow!
After nine long years, Jim will be defending his dissertation tomorrow at 10:45 a.m.
This 'oral defense' can be quite grueling, as his three Readers have the opportunity to grill him about anything in his 300+ page dissertation. Even his German, Greek and Hebrew will be under scrutiny!
The girls keep saying, "We can't wait to call him 'Dr. Daddy!'" for even they realize the momentous effort put into this endeavor.
SO PRAY!
This 'oral defense' can be quite grueling, as his three Readers have the opportunity to grill him about anything in his 300+ page dissertation. Even his German, Greek and Hebrew will be under scrutiny!
The girls keep saying, "We can't wait to call him 'Dr. Daddy!'" for even they realize the momentous effort put into this endeavor.
SO PRAY!
Homeschooling
There have been a few surprises in homeschooling. The first is that I actually really enjoy it! I know that sounds crazy, but after the first few weeks of wondering if I would survive, we have all settled into a good routine and we are all learning a lot.
That's another surprise. I am learning! I feel like I am doing school all over again, but with a teacher manual to help me~
BUT, probably the biggest surprise is how much I realized I WASN'T teaching my children before. I realize now that I am IT. I am the teacher, and so I better get my act together and round out their education well. SO, I had a unit last week on "How to take a shower." I know, I know, you may be saying to yourself, 'haven't you already done that?' Well, of course I in general have, but I certainly haven't sat them all down in a circle with washcloths and soap and shampoo and given a tutorial. Here were a few of my points:
1. The shower liner must ALWAYS be inside the shower, and this is how you do it~water is not allowed outside the shower
2. This is how much shampoo you should use, conditioner, soap etc.
3. You should have a towel ready so you don't trail mass amounts of water across the bathroom into your bedroom.
4. You need to rinse your hair. A lot.
5. Hang up your towel when you are done, put your dirty clothes in the laundry and clean up the bathroom~
From there we went on to brushing teeth, washing hands, reminders about public restrooms, and other basic hygiene topics.
Indeed it has been an education all around~next weeks topic~cleaning bathrooms!
That's another surprise. I am learning! I feel like I am doing school all over again, but with a teacher manual to help me~
BUT, probably the biggest surprise is how much I realized I WASN'T teaching my children before. I realize now that I am IT. I am the teacher, and so I better get my act together and round out their education well. SO, I had a unit last week on "How to take a shower." I know, I know, you may be saying to yourself, 'haven't you already done that?' Well, of course I in general have, but I certainly haven't sat them all down in a circle with washcloths and soap and shampoo and given a tutorial. Here were a few of my points:
1. The shower liner must ALWAYS be inside the shower, and this is how you do it~water is not allowed outside the shower
2. This is how much shampoo you should use, conditioner, soap etc.
3. You should have a towel ready so you don't trail mass amounts of water across the bathroom into your bedroom.
4. You need to rinse your hair. A lot.
5. Hang up your towel when you are done, put your dirty clothes in the laundry and clean up the bathroom~
From there we went on to brushing teeth, washing hands, reminders about public restrooms, and other basic hygiene topics.
Indeed it has been an education all around~next weeks topic~cleaning bathrooms!
Camp Ripley
We took a field trip on Friday, our first, while living here in Brainerd. We headed to Camp Ripley, an Army base, which also houses a museum complete with outside climbing apparatus.
Inside as well as out~!
We met some new recruits while we were there~
and learned quite a bit~for instance, did you know that MN has had 45 individuals win the Medal of Honor?
Monday, September 22, 2008
A cousin's birthday
Just to show you that our children aren't always wounded or dirty, I thought I would include a few "clean" photos.
For cousin Caroline's birthday the girls enjoyed dressing up; after using most of my mom's eye shadow and lipstick, of course.
We enjoyed the "Lady of Shallot" pose, and thought you might enjoy it too~
For cousin Caroline's birthday the girls enjoyed dressing up; after using most of my mom's eye shadow and lipstick, of course.
We enjoyed the "Lady of Shallot" pose, and thought you might enjoy it too~
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Another day at Nanna and Papa's
A beautiful garden awaits you upon arrival at my folks place~and I can never resist taking pictures!
I couldn't resist taking a few more pictures of a different species of "flowers" that I encountered one afternoon.
The children decided to make mud pies and mud cakes to sell, and Andrew discovered a green bean (below) he thought we could eat for dinner~
You can just see the corner of my Dad in this picture, the girls are heading his way to give him a little love~
I couldn't resist taking a few more pictures of a different species of "flowers" that I encountered one afternoon.
The children decided to make mud pies and mud cakes to sell, and Andrew discovered a green bean (below) he thought we could eat for dinner~
You can just see the corner of my Dad in this picture, the girls are heading his way to give him a little love~
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