Tennessee

We just got back from our spring break visit to Paul and Lydia in Tennessee. Photos are below: That's Linda sewing buttons with Lydia, and Elydia playing with Buster, the 3-week-old goatly lamb. And Anna E. in her greenhouse. And the whole family the night before we left.

There was a cold snap while we were down. Although it was much warmer than in Ohio, it was still quite chilly. In fact, it briefly snowed there! Its a critical time for Paul's crops, and we spent evenings covering everything, and loading greenhouse fireplaces with fuel. During the day, the boys went logging with Paul. We felled a number of white oaks, hauled the trunks out of the woods by horse, then watched the truck load the trunks and haul them to the mill. We had long, deep conversations about family, the gospel, culture, technology, life.

We visited all the neighbors that Paul visited. I was amazed at how many people he has contact with every day, and enjoyed chatting with them. Because Paul doesn't have a phone, he relies on an elderly neighbor for long-distance communications, and he gets his news from everyone he meets. The weather is an important topic here.

The ladies stayed at home and made some delicious meals. The girls made soap. One night Linda did tacos and Mexican Hot Chocolate for everyone. We had Berry punch, a treat made by preserving blackberries in sugar water. All of the kids got to take a turn riding Duke (the horse).

On our way home, we stopped for an hour or two in Scottsville, Kentucky, where there was a Plain (this term encompasses the Amish, Mennonites, and other related groups) auction that Ida, Emanuel, Emery, and Anna attended. The auction was attended by several thousand Plain folks (and their friends and admirers). Joe liked the auctioneers especially. We thought they only did that funny jingle-talkity-talk in movies, movies, movies, hey! Will liked the Chili and hotdog. Linda liked the shovel she bought. Elydia liked the chickens.

Pinewood Derby and Joe's Play

Here are the boys from our Pack, on Pinewood Derby Night. Joe is not pictured - he was at play practice. His friend Devan raced the car he built, and took 2nd place.

Joe will be appearing in a play put on by Findlay's Youth Theatre - Aesop's (oh so slightly) Updated Fables. It runs on the following dates:

Fri, 27 April, 7 pm
Sat, 28 April , 7 pm
Sun, 29 April , 2 pm

Flaming Disaster

This is the heating element from our oven. It suffered a catastrophic failure when we were baking chicken nuggets. Anna noticed that the oven was on fire. Dad looked in to find the element arcing and melting. Dad tried to shut off the oven, but it kept arcing. Mom shut off power to the whole house and saved the day.

Sloppy Joes for Lydi

Here's Elydia showing off her lunch. Everyday she likes to show off new ways of being independent. Today, she wanted to go outside. She didn't have anything on except a diaper, and I said "oh you can't go out without pants on..." I was trying to buy a minute, intending to get her dressed as soon as I finished putting away some things. When I got back, I found her sitting on the laundry room floor trying to put on some pants. So, yes, she is picking up the language just fine.

Happy Birthday Joe!

Joe turned 10 this weekend. This is a photo of Joe at the BGSU planetarium. That's the star projector in the background. Joe and 5 buddies watched a show about Pluto and its new designation as a TNO. That "Trans-Neptunian Object" for you land-lubbers.

Joe just earned his Bear badge in cubs, finished up the Upward Basketball season, and is staying busy practicing for his part as the butcher in our local Youth Theatre's production of Aesop's (oh so slightly updated) Fables.

Basketball

Anna, Joe, and Amaya are all in Upward basketball again this year. Here's Anna playing.

Her team is named Mercury, and has an abundance of players with similar names: Anna (2), Annie, and Hannah. Poor coach. They have lots of height on their team, and they won yesterday's game.

Lego Creation

Amaya shows off a statue of Elydia that she and Joseph built together. Check out the hands with 3D fingers!

2007 Cornbread Champ

Last weekend our ward had its chili-cookoff, complete with cornbread competition. Joseph entered his cornbread, and won 1st place! Joe uses Jiffy mix. He has perfected his own cooking process.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our holidays were full of joy and family and -yes- some stress. Photos above: Linda looking at the "Guess Who?" game that Erik and Lo made for us. The photos are of us and the kids, but with 'special' photoshop treatments: beards, mustaches, bald heads, etc. My '93 civic died - blown headgasket - at 225K miles. I decided it wasn't worth fixing, and bought an '04 civic. The last photo is of the kids on New Year's Eve. We spent the evening at home making cookies. We actually were awake this year when the ball fell. Then we went outside and threw snap dragons at each other. At in Akron, the whole Mars Clan was together for the first time in awhile. We launched a big rocket, and lost it. We did not end up going to TN to visit Paul, much to our dissappointment. The extra time and budget stresses from the civic surprise kind of ruined that plan.

Tired Dog

Yesterday I ran 15.7 miles, breaking my former distance record by 0.7 miles. New route, and I feel fine today thank you very much. Only a little joint soreness. I am thinking a marathon may be within reach for me next year.

The title of this post is in honor of our neighbor's dog. A week ago, when I went for a 10 mile run, Amaya came with me on her bike. About 0.5 miles into the run, this little dog comes out and starts yipping at us. I tried to chase it away, but it kept following. So then we tried ignoring it. But it still kept following. In fact, it ended up following us the whole 10 miles! Poor dog looked pooped by the time we got back. It was all matty from sweat, and sort of running sideways like he (she?) had real sore feet. The next time I ran by his house, though, he just yipped and me and stayed in his yard.

Ice Skating

It's been ages since we last went ice skating. I have a friend at Cooper, Rene, who skates regularly. So yesterday we all went skating. That's (from left to right) Joe, Anna, Rene, Gabrielle (Rene's daughter), Amaya, and Will. We had a blast. Joe got the prize for fastest skater. Elydia got the prize for biggest grin when we took her out on the ice. Grandma Ellene would have been proud of everyone.

Kickin' off Christmas

We love Christmas. We start the season by remembering our blessings at Thanksgiving, and by hanging out with family and friends and eating lots of food. Just after Thanksgiving, we always buy our Christmas tree at Brinkman's Country Corner. The trees are brought down from Michigan by the farmer - Rod Hose. He must be a real people person because he always remembers us. Or it might be the Mexican Hot Chocolate that Linda brought to share. Here are some pix of 1) Joe picking out our tree, 2) Anna stringing lights, and 3) Elydia helping. There are all sorts of Christmas traditions in our community. Pic #4 - That's all of us with Santa at the Benton Ridge fireman's pancake breakfast. This was the first year we went to that. We always take the older ones to go see Handel's Messiah in Bluffton. There's also a wonderful Live Nativity put on by a local congregation. It's a busy, busy month with cookies and cards and shopping. Linda has a book of Christmas strories that we read each night in December. Sometimes all of the activity can be stressful when our many plans and high expectations exceed our capacity. (We are still trying to get our cards out, and to procure the last few gifts!)

This year, after we open our gifts with our kids, we will travel to Akron to visit with our extended family. The WHOLE Mars clan will be in town - an event that seems to happen with less and less frequency. We're going to launch a BIG rocket - 40 lbf of thrust!

The culminating celebration is, of course, Christmas. We exchange gifts on Christmas morning, remembering the Father's gift to humanity in his Son. We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my sister Jan, and much of the rest of the Mars Clan. Mom and Dad were there, along with the families of Erik, Dan, Dave. And several of Jan's friends from church. The kids all enjoyed hanging out, watching movies, jumping on beds, etc. Those of us who run ran a 5 mile race in the morning.

We have so much to be grateful for. During our traditional 'candy corn sound-off' (each person gets two candy corns, and tells about two things they are grateful for) Eliza (age 3?) touched everyone's heart with the sincerity of hers - Jesus.

Paris

Linda and I had the opportunity to visit Paris, and it was wonderful. I had been invited to participate on the Ph.D. thesis jury of a student at this University: http://www.lmm.jussieu.fr/index.html. After discharging my duties at the University, we spent the weekend exploring Paris. Here's a photo of me in front of the 'champ de Mars', and another of me in front of the University.











Here are some photos of Linda. In front of the Eiffel tower, biking along the Seine, at the Arc du Triomf, and in front of the Louvre.





This is a strawberry desert that we got from a bakery. We decided that its true that the French know how to make the best food. We tried a number of French cheeses, many of which were completely new to us.

The professor who invited me turned out to be a great lover of organ music. So much so that he had a full blown organ in his basement, which he played for us. Of course the pipes were 'electronic'. But the sound was incredible.

I took several runs along the Seine while staying in Paris. I was surprised at how compact the city is. I was able to cover the distance from our east-side hotel to the Eiffel tower and back in one run.

Running Update

I've been running plenty lately, about 5 miles a day. For the year, I'm on my 3rd pair of running shoes (I show below new and old shoes). I just hit 952 miles since I started keeping my log about a year ago.

For Turkey Day, many of us got together at Jan's and ran the Turkey Trot. It's a 5 mile race. The weather was perfect this year. Dave (came in 14th!), Ben, and Marissa smoked us all. Dan, Erik, and I all came in at the same time - 41:46. Margaret and Janis also ran a great race. Dan and I ran the whole race yo-yo-ing for position. I was really trying my best to beat Dan, and every time I thought I was well past him, he'd blast by me. During most of the race, we did not see Erik. But on the last 1/2 mile, Erik popped up from behind us, and we all 3 finished together. I actually don't remember our finishing order, because the finish line queue had backed up, and we all ended up in a bunch together. After the race, we each recieved a pumpkin pie (see photo below).

Amaya's New Look

Amaya has officially joined the ranks of the myopic, among whom are already counted many of her family. We love her new look, and especially the Princess Jasmine design she chose for her frames.

Cubmobile Races

Our pack built a cubmobile. We raced against other packs in the area yesterday in Kenton. That's about 1/2 hour south of Findlay. It has a great hill right down main street that we used for the race.

That's Joe preparing for launch...

Birthday Girl

For her 7th birthday, Amaya lost her 2nd front tooth!

The Mad River

We got to hang out with our Wunderlich cousins on the Mad river. And Elydia got her first canoe ride. That's Linda, Emma, and Amaya in the girl boat.

Hancock County Fair

Anna's rabbit pluto won 3rd place at the Hancock County Fair. Great Job, Anna!