Spring Break: Happy Easter!

Hal writes:

Happy Easter! We woke up to a blanket of snow covering everything. A little off for Easter weather, but quite symbolic in regards to the bright white that covers all that is part of the Easter message. Put as Pastor Dennis mentioned this morning, we won't have an Easter this early for another 220 years, so I'm guessing that since I won't live that long there will be more April (non-snowy) Easter's in my future. Here are a couple of pictures from the snow.

Coming back to your home town church is always interesting. Some people have not changed (primarly older members of the congregation who have looked the same the past 20 years) and then those who have. A few of my high school classmates were there, many with children of their own. I tired to hold my friend Rachel's daughter Aili, but Aili would have none of that and would rather stay in mom's arms. And then there were those sweet "little ones" that are now high school punks (which I say in jest). What is it about playing hockey that allows a tenth grader to have more facial hair than I do?

This is the first Easter in a while that we have not celebrated with Anna's family in Indiana. Anna thinks this is the third Easter that she has missed being with her family. It just couldn't work for us to drive all the way from Duluth to Indiana and back with Anna not having any days off.

On Friday I was able to spend some time with my friend Lauren. She is back in the Duluth area after enduring a bad accident while in Ethiopia. You can read about her story in an article in today's Duluth News Tribune or you can read about her first hand experience working with the women in Addis through her blog.

Notice that my legs are longer than her crutches that I am holding.

Spring Break: Jump Ropes and Generations

Hal writes:

I am currently on Spring Break in TH. Not too many people travel North for spring break, but since this is my 11th collegial spring break, I thought I would try something different. Plus, it is nice to visit my wife every once in a while. I must have left a cable at home that connects my camera to a computer, so I don't have very many pictures thus far. But, my highlights so far have included:

* Seeing Kevin in the Twin Cities on the trip up
* Seeing Jay & family in TH
* Sleeping in on Monday morning
* Enjoying home made burgers and root beer at Fitger's with Anna, Kat, and Katie
* Going to see Juno at the movie theater (who knew that it took place in MN?)
* Spending some time getting to know my new toy better
* Visiting my parents at work

Today I spend some time at the high school. I spoke to the THHS teachers about Generational Differences, specifically who the Millenials are and what their deal is. It was fun to see some of my former teachers and meet some new teachers (new, as in they were added after I graduated 11 years ago). I also was able to join the NCAA pool for a $1. I have three different pools, including the one I joined today I also have a Facebook bracket and a Fantasy Sports bracket. For the THHS pool I picked Wisconsin to go all the way. It's a long shot, but if the unexpected happens and the Badgers win, then I'll make a little money.

My fun yesterday included spending the day with elementary school children. When I was younger I participated in Jump Rope for Heart. I still have the skills, but my body is a little sore today from all the jumping I did yesterday. The biggest compliment I got was that the children who are typically a distraction in class paid attention to me the whole time. Below is me trying to get eye level with some first graders and kindergarten students to talk to them in between tricks (as a way to catch my breath). Notice the safe distance employed so I didn't whip any of them in the face.



Here I am trying to work "The Traveler" with some fourth grade students later in the day.

I was given some jump ropes (single ropes for performance and longer ropes for double dutch) as compensation for helping. My RAs should be pretty excited since they have been asking for me to perform all year but I haven't been able to because (up until now) I didn't have any ropes.

This afternoon's activities includes a trip to the dentist's office. Will Dr. Dan find any cavities? Stay tuned...

Wicked Smaht

Hal writes:

The photos in this post are all off of Facebook, so they may not be as clear as the photos I normally post. Here is a picture of most of my colleagues and I at OPE. If you didn't know, our school colors are orange and blue.


This past weekend I was out in the Boston area and had spent some time with my sister Beth and her boyfriend Nick. But Beth only uploaded a couple of photos on to Facebook, so the ones that are added are the ones Nick took, so he isn't in any of these.

I was also out in Boston for a conference, but not much to say about that other than I had the opportunity to run into some friends and colleagues from different schools, including Heidi one of Anna's high school classmates from Shell Lake.

The first picture is Beth and I at a restaurant the three of us went to called Tascas. They served tapas, which are smaller dishes that the three of us shared. If I remember correctly we had Queso de cabra al horno, Solomillo Petit, Canelon de pollo, Tarta gratinada de peurros, and Jamon serrano y queso manchego. This was in addition to the sangria and TWO desserts we shared: Ice Cream Crepe (Ice Cream rolled in a thin Crepe and smothered in a Chocolate and Amaretto Sauce with toasted Almonds) and Pastel Basque (Layered dessert of a homemade cookie base with milk toffee, bananas and whipped cream).

One of our adventures included walking around the Harvard campus. Here we are in front of the library.

My final picture is dedicated to Jim. In the summer of 2002 I visited him while he was interning at Salem State. While on our walk all over Boston, we stopped in at Harvard to look around and ended up chalking on one of the boards to let the school know that our school was better. As much fun as we had, we never took a photo. So Jim, this reenactment is for you:

After I get through this week, I have a week of Spring Break. (28 years old and I still get a spring break... I get paid for this?)

My wife came back! Then left...

Hal writes:

Anna has completed her two month internship in Indiana. This last week she was able to come home and spend time with me. Concerned with the amount of weight that I had lost during her absence (I said it was a combination of XC skiing and being in mourning for her) she proceeded to cook a number of meals for me and our friends this past week. Shrimp and coos coos, pasta with pesto and chicken, pot roast with potatoes and carrots, salads with no less than five different dressings to choose from... yum! The picture above is Anna preparing the angel food cake that we had with strawberries and whip cream. I think her favorite part of the weekend was when she had all four burners in addition to the oven going as she prepared the shrimp and coos coos. In addition to cooking Anna completed a number of "to do" items in preparation for graduation (and taking her boards) this May during her week off. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have to work! ;)

Anna has left again for her next two month clinical internship in Duluth and will be staying with my parents (again). She stopped to see her family in Shell Lake on the way north and was able to see some high school classmates that were having a wedding shower for her friend Sarah this weekend.

This weekend I was at OPE (Oshkosh Placement Exchange) and was able to see a lot of friends. It's a small student affairs world after all. I have a couple of pictures, but I took them on one of the university cameras I brought with and it's in my office, so I will put those up later this week.

So, for those of you with Facebook, you know that there are plenty of applications to add. I decided to add the virtual bookshelf that indicates what books I am reading, have read, or intended to read. Not wanting to spend hours trying to remember all the books I have read, I simply put up the last six that I read plus the book I am currently reading (The Gift of Pain by Paul Brand). The only time I have had to read recently is at night and only one or two chapters before I fall asleep, so the book has been on my "currently reading" list for a few days. Well, I got an e-mail from the Facebook application asking if I had forgotten to move it to the category that would indicate that I have completed reading it. This humoured me because it made me feel unintelligent. "Um, excuse me, slow reader? Are you done with that book yet? Or do you not know how to use this application correctly?" Back off! I'll let you know when I'm done with it... ;) And yes, I highly recommend this book to everyone.