Tag Archives: Bjorn

Travellers now home

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The weekend was fairly quiet; it seems like I spent most of it asleep (which, unfortunately, is not much of an exaggeration). On Saturday we left the house only once, to visit a nearby AT&T store where I tried, unsuccessfully, to determine whether our street address was eligible for DSL service. Long story, but basically, because our house is new and built in between two older houses in an established neighborhood, it appears that our address is unknown to AT&T. Since it isn’t in their database, apparently it doesn’t exist ;-)

Yesterday was also a quiet day and the only time we went anywhere was in the late afternoon. We made a trip to Woodman’s in Kenosha (I don’t like grocery stores but this one is more tolerable than most) to pick up some food for dinner. My parents-in-law along with Keegan and Tristan arrived back from their week-long missions missions trip shortly after we got home. They had a great time; so great, in fact, that there was a lot of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (yes, I am being a little sarcastic) at the fact that the trip was over. This happens every year and there is an air of gloom and doom and sorrow for several days before equilibrium is reestablished.

Tristan looks quite different: his hair has been bleached a little bit (especially his eyebrows) by all of the time spent out in the sun, and he now has a tan and freckles on his face. We think he looks a lot like his cousin, Bjorn, just now. Shortly after getting home, he started complaining of a stomach ache and later in the evening, he threw up. He then fell asleep on my lap and hasn’t stirred all night long. (Yay! Maybe this trip finally cured him of his nighttime wakefulness!)

I went to bed really early last night so I woke up early this a.m. It was supposed to be a nice, quiet, “alone time” but that was quickly dispensed with by Brinley waking up within minutes, crying for me. She’s wide awake next to me right now, playing with her stuffed animals and other toys rather than going right back to sleep. I predict a crabby day ahead for her.

Some family photos

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My brother, Dan, digitized many family photos a while ago. I’ve chosen a few to show here.

Below is a photo of all of my family members on the afternoon of our wedding in January 2000, including my six brothers and sisters and almost all of my nieces and nephews and one of my cousins. This is the last photo taken that includes all of my siblings and parents. My sister, Becky, is married and lives in New Zealand, so it is very unusual to have her in a recent family photo. And then my father died almost exactly two years after this photo was taken.

First row from left to right: Dan (brother), Ben (nephew), Keegan (son), Pelle (nephew), and Nils (nephew); Second row: Lars (nephew), my mother with Kerstin (niece) in her lap, my father with Bjorn (nephew) in his lap, and Sam (nephew from New Zealand). Third row: Debbie (sister), Bradley (cousin), Linda (sister-in-law), Jeff (brother), Jocelyn (niece), Tim (brother), Petra (sister-in-law), Kevin (brother), Britta (niece), me, Michele, Becky (sister from New Zealand).

Here is a photo of my mother and father on their wedding day in September 1958:

This photo is of Grandma McCallum, my mother’s mother. I was really close to her and miss her even to this day. This is the last photo taken of her not long before her death in October 1982. The baby in the stroller is Nils, my oldest nephew:

Below is a late photo of Grandpa and Grandma McCallum, the only grandparents I ever knew (my paternal grandparents both died before I was old enough to remember them):

I like this photo of all of us kids (except Donny, my parents’ third child, who died of unknown causes at 18 months of age). Left to right: Dan (#6 and twin to Debbie), Kevin (#1), me (#8) in Kevin’s lap, Tim (#2) with Debbie (#7 and twin to Dan) on his lap, Jeff (#4), and Becky (#5). At this point we still lived in Nebraska:

My Kiwi brother-in-law, Martin (top), along with some friends, pretending to do a Maori war dance called the “haka,” on a beautiful beach on the North Island:

Finally, here I am for my third birthday: