Tag Archives: dan

Look who’s 40

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Today my brother, Dan, and sister, Debbie, who are twins, turn 40 years old. Amazing. I am the youngest of seven children (five boys and two girls; an eighth child, Donny, died when he was 18 months old). Dan and Debbie are the next youngest siblings. When we were kids, we tended to play games together and were perhaps closer to one another than we were to older brothers and my older sister. Individually and together, we have gone through a lot over the years.

Partly in celebration of their birthday, Dan and Debbie are going on special trips soon. I’m a bit jealous ;-) because Debbie is going to Florida for a week, and Dan is going to New Zealand for two weeks to visit with my sister, Becky, and her family.

Now tomorrow is another family birthday, this time, for my brother, Jeff. I wish Debbie, Dan, and Jeff well on their special days.

Status of our move

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We’ve been going through a lot of uncertainty about our move back to the Chicago area. For one thing the time it is taking to get our Indiana house ready to show to potential buyers is enormous. There is so much to do and it is overwhelming. My brothers Dan and Tim helped out tremendously when they came last Friday through Saturday to paint and clean up the yard, but there is still a lot to do. A lot of the burden has fallen on Michele because I have been at work and during off hours, I have been working on catching up with grading and other work for the class I’m currently teaching for the LEEP program at UIUC GSLIS.

I’m happy to note, though, that last week we finally found a place to live in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. The town we will be living in has a wonderful location about an hour’s drive from my in-law’s, with great schools for Keegan (and Tristan, who will start kindergarten next year). Our house is across the street from the commuter rail station so it will be a short walk to take the train to my work. There is a Starbucks one block away. The nice public library is a short walk of about four blocks. We won’t have a yard of our own but there are lots of parks and playgrounds we can walk to. We really praise God for providing for us and we are looking forward to the move in a few weeks.

We have a local family coming to see our house early next week and we hope that they will make an offer on our house. That would be a real answer to prayer, also.

House of Flying Daggers

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Last night Michele and I got to see a movie my brother, Dan, had highly recommended: House of Flying Daggers. Since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of my all-time favorite movies, I looked forward to comparing it with this one that is somewhat similar in style and setting.

Some impressions:

  • eye-popping cinematography, such gorgeous colors and scenery
  • very good casting and acting
  • some of the fight scenes definitely topped the stunning scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, including a whole segment shot in a bamboo forest that puts the ostensibly similar scene in the other movie to shame
  • the ending scene, shot in a sudden, blinding snowstorm, was beautiful but really stretched the limits of believability
  • overall, some other adjectives that attempt to capture my impressions include gorgeous, rich, lush, romantic, incredible, lyrical, tragic, stunning.

If you can’t tell, I loved it.

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:

Much needed vacation

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I’m on Christmas vacation now. What a relief. I have really needed a true break from work for a long time. It was sad to say good-bye to Ashley, who had worked for me on web development and graphics things for the past two years. She graduated and is moving on to bigger and better things. One of the other students who works for me, Matt, is spending the next five days on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, lucky guy!!! Dave, the third student, will be spending time with his family in Wheaton. My brother, Dan, came to visit us for the first time this weekend and it was really nice to see him. We hadn’t seen him since my meningitis episode last year. He brought his dog, Cassie, with him, and she is a real sweetheart. We have a ton of things to do to get ready for Christmas but I’m feeling better already, having been off work for a few days.

Lane’s End (Devon, England)

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My brother Dan recently created a nice website for relatives in England. My sister-in-law, Linda, is from Devon, and her parents have a centuries-old farm called “Snape” on which they recently built a cabin that they rent out to vacationers. The cabin is called “Lane’s End.” Click here to see the online version of the official brochure for “Lane’s End” that Dan put on the web. There are also some additional photos of the farm and surrounding countryside taken by him on a visit to this beautiful place a few years ago. I was fortunate to spend some time there as well about five years ago, and among other experiences, was able to help birth a lamb! If you’re ever in England and are looking for a wonderful place, a hideaway, in which to get some rest and relaxation, this is THE place to go.

No more pacifier for Tristan

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After more wintry weather these past few days, we now have about a foot of snow on the ground, and I still haven’t managed to dig out the driveway…Even I am beginning to long for Spring. It’s nice to have Michele and the younger children home again after they were gone for a week, staying with my in-laws. While they were there, Michele managed to wean Tristan from his pacifier — AT LAST. In celebration, we threw a party for him on Saturday. He is growing up so quickly! Michele and I and the kids are looking forward to a trip to Florida. We’ll fly from Indianapolis to Orlando and then drive to New Smyrna Beach, where my brother, Jeff, has rented a townhouse for a week. My mother will be there, too, and so will my brother, Dan. It’ll be a fun time, and we hope for some warm weather. I’ve never been to Florida, and neither has Michele.