Where did the summer go?...no seriously..

There is no redeeming myself in providing an explanation for not posting since Easter, other than the well-worn excuse of the days and hours flying by at warp speed. I suppose just keeping the site on life support is an achievement given the circumstances. So, I will go heavy on the photos and light on the commentary..yes, unusual for me. Consider it a gift! We had a great and very busy summer, with fun activities crammed among Wes shifting positions at Appalachian (now a technology geek!) and teaching Cheap Joe's Watercolor Workshops; Lynne getting a promotion to Director of Advising at Appalachian (and increasing her workday responsibilities significantly); and Andie in several really fun ASU Outdoor Rec camps, Missoula Children's theatre production of Robin Hood (the middle Skunk in photo). This was her favorite activity of the summer. Andie also spent several weeks with respective Grand-moms getting the royal treatment. Genevieve is basically running the show and being the center of the Universe for all of us. She is a walking, talking, climbing machine now and demands close supervision..or else you will find a permanent marker mural on the wall or floor, or a kitchen drawer emptied of its contents in a flash. She is very good natured, funny, and strongly independent. If something gets taken away that is "HERS" you will have a fight on your hands! She and Andie are working out those boundaries successfully (most of the time)and overall they enjoy each other a great deal. Andie and I took a long hike and were caught in a downpour with a wet Daisy dog, and the 4th of July Parade in Downtown Boone with the McCracken-Knight girls was quite festive (and loud) as usual. We spent time with the Wilson extended family (Lynne's dad's family) in Newport TN at the celebration of her Aunt Lucile's 90th birthday. It was good seeing these folks after quite a few years and driving around the mountains and family farm area that Lynne grew up visiting. We ended with a family trip to Myrtle Beach in August, and in between, we enjoyed friends and festivities in Boone. There is really no better place to spend a summer I think. Our garden was exceptionally beautiful this summer due to the right amount of rain and sun, despite our limited efforts to care for it. Landscaping projects which Lynne and I both love, are definitely on the back burner for a while. In late August I attended a conference at Lake Junaluska (near Asheville) via Appalachian and did a little evening fly fishing. Some incredible photo opportunities arose due to the weather and time of day (below). I am still plugging away at learning Mandarin, and frequent the China Buffet for the opportunity to mangle the language with the non-English speaking wait-staff. We all smile at each other a lot. I was given a 50th (ouch!) birthday party and cookout with a live bluegrass band by some good friends. I don't have the time or energy for a mid-life crisis which is just as well. As long as I have Ibuprofen and get to see an occasional concert (Lynard Skynard here at App last month!) I will be OK. Check out the family photo album link to see more of the pictures of our summer. Andie started the first grade and is doing very well. We do have homework now of "List words and Sight words", which..i can handle, just keep the algebra off the table for a while longer. On line for October is Genevieve's second Birthday (Oct. 25th) and an Art Exhibit opening on my China images the same night! Stay tuned.. Now...to get email notices of future postings look for the "new" Subscribe Link (top right column) featured on this site! You certainly don't won't to pass up this opportunity.

Five Months Fly By....

On March 28th it will be five months since we were handed a scared, sobbing yet beautiful little girl from Jiangxi, China. It truly seems like a lifetime has passed in this short period. It is impossible to remember life without Genevieve, and all-in-all it has been a wonderful, positive transition for us all. We very much enjoyed getting Christmas cards, Chinese New Year's cards and emails from our Group 1248 and 1249 travel companions. It was great seeing the girls all looking healthy and happy in their new homes, settling in with new siblings and family pets alike. It has also been a long time since the last post from the trip finale, and despite my good intentions the hours in each day seem to have been radically altered. My "to do" list seems to have grown exponentially and I have felt a bit like Lucy and Ethyl on the chocolate assembly line with a lot of that candy just flying by on the conveyer belt. I am going to bulldoze through and get a post completed with the priority being getting some new photos online of our past few months. Andie turned 6 soon after we returned from China (November 15) and we celebrated in a grand fashion with an airwalk and party. The exploding musical floral birthday candle that we smuggled back to the US was a big hit with all! She has adjusted very well to starting kindergarden and brings home stacks of drawings daily, along with library books all about animals. She is very interested in dogs at this point. We hosted Thanksgiving at our home and both of our families came up for the day. All have thoroughly enjoyed welcoming Genevieve into our collective family life and few days go by without a phone call from them for an update on her status. Genevieve (who still gets called variations on Li Jing occasionally..Gen-li-jing being Andie's favorite amalgamation) took her first steps on Valentines Day. She has a vocabulary of about 10 words thus far: Dad, Andie (sounds a bit like Aunt Bea calling Sheriff Taylor), Daisy (our dog), MaMa, Bob (as in Spongebob), Naw (no)..and a few others we think are words. One of our surprises was that she does seem to recognize the Mandarin word for kiss (Qinwen, pronounced cheen-one) and puckers up. That was comforting knowing that while at HengFeng S.W.I. this affection was shown to them. She also does this funny little pointed index finger salute and shouts Da! repeatedly. "Da" in this tone means "big or important". I know, it sounds like normal baby talk but there is something a bit different about the effort. I am thinking it may be an excerpt from a late era Mao ZeDong speech? She also is getting the words and tune to GuGuDa down by the way (the chicken song). Have any other 1248'ers noticed any Chinese language or carryovers? Just interested. Winter in Boone was pretty normal with a few really cold spells, not all that much snow or ice, but with a lot of respiratory crud going around this year it seems. Everyone we know was sick at one time or another, sometimes twice. The girls performed a duet of 101 degree fevers, which made for a challenging week. It was a while back and since I can't even remember when, I will chalk up January and February as a blur. We did get Andie to her first ski lesson and she enjoyed it and wants to go again. However, it would be best not to go skiing in NC on Martin Luther King weekend in the future, as there were at least a million people on the slopes. Needless to say, by this time of year we are all looking for some spring weather and green grass coming up. We are all taking off next week since Andie is out of school for Easter, and plan on visiting family and taking a short trip to Dollywood in Tennessee. We considered the coast but since Genevieve seems to alternate between sleeping for 30 minutes and screaming for 30 minutes in a car seat, we opted for a shorter driving distance. So, Dolly, here we come! Lynne was greatly upset with the news of Porter Wagner's demise so maybe there will be a tribute performance? I miss the comraderie of our travel group and at times have really missed the sense of freedom that is somehow associated with traveling to a foreign land with a single purpose in mind. The responsibilities of life, work and children in our US sometimes seems extremely complex, and as fortunate as I know we are there is something about the present-tense living that occurs when traveling elsewhere that is appealing. Yeah, I know, the grass is probably not that green from their perspective but you know how we artists must wane toward the nostalgic. What I am saying is,that there have been times this winter when the thought of taking a swim in that weird dark,cold pool at the Galactic Peace Hotel with the planetarium lights overhead has been comforting...a mental escape of sorts. Of course that means I would have to also listen to Xinhua news on a widescreen TV, so on second thought, I will stay put. But.. i sure would enjoy a bowl of those Asian pears! I have been keeping my Mandarin studies going somehow, but have cancelled far more tutoring sessions than I have attended it seems, no big surprise there for those of you with a baby. I purchased a great Collins Chinese/English dictionary but realizing there are 65 definitions for the word "Ji" was a bit demoralizing. I have been able to carry on a few weak conversations at the local Chinese eating establishments and they will probably soon dread to see me coming. Speaking of keeping my travel hackles up, I sent some of you this article link from Dan Washburn's Shanghai Diaries which reflects on his visit to the HengFeng area where our girls are from. I found it very interesting and made me think a great deal of the Cao village area we briefly visited. I would enjoy going to visit someday. Anyone interested? For now, there is much else to think about. ZaiJian! and stay in touch...