Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Congratulations Rebekah & Mark 4.21.07

The New Mr. & Mrs. Latchiss
The Beautiful Women of the Thompson Family

Uncle Joshua a very old friend & a great sport!


Dancing late in to the evening. . .or at least after Sophia's bed time.


It was great to celebrate with such dear friends, we've shared tears & heartaches with eachother--that made sharing in their joy so much sweeter!

This family portrait was taken by a guard right before he informed us that we were intruding onto the member's only portion of the Elmcrest Country Club. I guess ever since Zach Johnson won the Masters every one wants to get on the green's where he got his start. I was just impressed by a guard who would offer to take our picture! It was the nicest reprimand I've ever recieved.
Look out world here she comes!

These two tore'up the dance floor! What a cute couple!

It's true that great friends seem to collect fabulous people! We just met Melissa (Naomi's cousin) and it didn't take long to feel like family!

Sweet & Sassy!


All Smiles Here! Nate, Travis & Jeremy (Melissa's fiance)

Pure Innocence!











Monday, April 23, 2007

Congratulations & Best Wishes

Kristine & Scott are making it official! We're so happy for them! Theses two always make me laugh and feel right at home. Kristine is one of my oldest friends and I love that Scotty brings out the best in her--especially that wonderful smile!

My Life's Work. . . by Annika Durbin

Before Kids--Homecoming 2004. My college roommate Annika & her husband are barely pregnant with their son Jack. (note the expensive haircuts & the physical closeness of male & female.)



After Kids--Homecoming 2006 Annika is very pregnant with her daughter Ellie and we're just glad we got our hair dry--let alone styled in the ever so practical sunglasses-do!
Now where are our husbands?

Oh yeah--real men push strollers!

For a great look at the joys-er realities of motherhood you must read Annika's blog

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I Read It In One Day!

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist In Banerjee's sophomore effort, she introduces Lakshmi Sen, a young woman who has the uncanny ability to read people's emotions. She puts her gift to use in her mother's Seattle sari shop--finding fabrics that ease a bride's cold feet, evoke a widow's first love, and even soothe a young autistic boy's fears. Her notoriety draws the interest of a Bollywood star, but whenever the actress' charming chauffeur Nick is around, Lakshmi has trouble keeping her own emotions in check. Will she allow herself to fall for Nick or marry the Indian doctor her family has chosen for her? Banerjee captures the struggle between tradition and modernity in this accessible chick-lit tale. Readers will appreciate that Banerjee doesn't choose sides and offers a variety of perspectives through her characters. The book has a romantic, magical quality that isn't a bit treacly. It's exciting to see how much Banerjee has grown since her debut, Imaginary Men (2005). Aleksandra KostovskiCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
S.K.'s Review
I love a good mystery, or even better chic-lit with a mystery in it. I love getting lost in someone elses imagination. But call it, left-over Wheaton guilt "if it's not making me smarter I better not be spending time on it," so every other book I try to read something that is cultural or enlightening. When I find a book that was chic-lit AND cultural--well it was a great day! Don't let the goddess-dream forward throw you, its a great book, remember it's cultural! As an author her descriptive imagery into others desires is a fantastic plot-device. I wish I'd thought of that! Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Happy Anniversary Darling April 16th, 2005


How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnets from the Portuguese, 43
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Happy Birthday Dana!


My little brother at his senior banquet (Wheaton College) I know he's following in my footsteps so to speak but it still blow's my mind that he's going to be a college graduate. This picture stopped me in my tracks. For some reason thinking of Dana at his senior banquet made me realize that he is indeed all grown-up. Well at least he has a good woman watching out for him!
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Monday, April 09, 2007

THE FEARLESS IOWAN


SCORE ONE FOR THE 'NORMAL GUY'

AUGUSTA, Ga. – We've been waiting a decade for someone to step up on Sunday and take on Tiger Woods, to refuse to concede anything, to throw out a low score and make him react to a challenge. Ten years. A dozen major titles for Woods. Countless "rivals" without a spine.
And so the guy who finally, at last, does it is … Zach Johnson?
Who? You mean the chiropractors' kid from Cedar Rapids? The one who played college golf – averagely – at that not-so-noted powerhouse of Drake? The guy who is a product of the Nationwide Tour, the Hooters Tour, the Buy.com Tour, the TearDrop Tour and the Prairie Tour?
This 31-year-old journeyman who is straighter than a row of corn, so sweet he makes honey jealous and, truth be told, thought Sunday at Augusta was good, but didn't like missing church back home, it being Easter and all?
"A giant has to fall at some point," Johnson smiled.
Yes, Zach Johnson, who had one career PGA tournament win, shot a 76 on Saturday and is sleep-deprived from having a 14-week-old son, turned out to be the steel-minded killer who looked up at Tiger Woods on a Sunday major leaderboard and said, well here I come, catch me if you can.
Ten years ago Woods won the Masters going away, and ever since he has humbled the competition on various Sundays, including 11 more times in major tournaments when he took the lead after 54 and was rarely even challenged. It has been psychological as much as physical, a decade worth of golfers just wilting in his wake.
Sunday should have been no different. Woods was in the final pairing, sitting at 3-over, just one stroke behind leader Stuart Appleby. And Appleby was going to collapse, that much was certain. Woods took the lead by the second hole, Appleby finished tie for seventh place.
The problem for Tiger was everyone else. In any other year he could have played the round at par (which he did) and slipped on a green jacket. But the front nine suddenly brought a flood of contenders. It was like half the leaderboard decided to say, screw it, we're trying to win here too.
Woods could stand on the fourth green and hear roars coming from all around, a thrilling approach shot out of the trees by Retief Goosen on seven here, an eagle putt on eight by Rory Sabbatini there, consecutive birds by Justin Rose on eight and nine to boot.
It wasn't just Johnson going for broke. Sabbatini led for awhile. As did Goosen, who started Saturday play in last place and 25 holes later was on top of the leaderboard.
But they eventually stumbled back to Tiger. Johnson, who started the day at 4-over, turned it on in Tiger country – the back nine, no less.
He drained birdies at 13 and 14 to get to 1-over. Woods was at 5-over, but after wrapping an iron around a tree on a follow through, he seemed to be turning it on. On 13, Woods nailed a putt for eagle, his gallery roaring loud enough to shake the ground around Amen Corner.
At that precise moment Johnson was standing over a tricky approach shot on 15. The screams of the crowd enveloped him, the classic psychological shot across the bow – here comes Tiger – that had melted scores of men with greater resumes than Zach Johnson.
Johnson knew what had happened – "I assumed it was Tiger making an eagle" – but rather than rattle he stepped back, took a deep breath and hit a nice shot to set up par.
A hole later he birdied to move to even for the tournament, putting Tiger on the ropes. Here in the weekend that nobody was supposed to make such a charge at rock-hard Augusta, Johnson was pouring it on, telling Tiger to match his rowdy gallery cheers.
Johnson claimed he didn't look at the leaderboard – "I guess ignorance is bliss" – but he knew he was in a dogfight. He knew if he kept playing well, scoring low, then Woods would have to press. On 14, Tiger wound up in the water after a daring and, considering Johnson's surging lead, necessary approach, and he essentially never got his momentum back.
His fifth Masters, 13th major and third leg of a second Tiger Slam was taken from him by the fearless Iowan, whose 1-over-par was the ugliest score since 1956 to win this event but plenty beautiful on Sunday.
"It's so surreal," Johnson said.
He's an improbable champion even to those who knew him best. At Drake he wasn't even the team's top player, yet he decided to try his hand as a pro against virtually all advice.
He was lucky, of course. His dad is a doctor, and he has plenty of other friends with money, too. So 10 guys in Cedar Rapids decided that if they were going to blow their extra cash on something it might as well be sponsoring the Johnson kid's silly golf dream, no matter how little faith they had in him.
"His mom and I thought, 'Boy, this is crazy,' " his dad, David, told the Des Moines Register a few years back.
"Emotionally, all of us were hopeful he'd make it," Pat Cobb, one of the money guys, told the paper. "Intellectually, there was not a lot of thought [that] this kid was going to be on the PGA Tour."
They were burning money on a lark, as a favor, on the chance a good kid might catch fire. Johnson couldn't even believe they believed in him. Then that first year, 2000, he entered 11 Nationwide Tour events, missed seven cuts and never finished better than tied for 25th.
Then he really couldn't believe when they continued to believe in him.
He went on to play in every two-bit tour imaginable. He played in Bellevue, Neb., in rural Missouri, in Lawrence, Kan. In 2001 he got to Augusta – but only by purchasing a practice round pass.
He didn't care. The guy lives an "aw shucks" life where family, religion and golf mean everything. It's all about giving an honest day's effort, staying true to yourself. He did that and kept getting better. He started winning on the Hooters Tour, where, in a world away from the stuffy Masters ceremony, a scantily clad waitress would hand him some oversized check for a few grand on the 18th green.
"I thought those were the best days of my life right there," he said. "Chicken wings and everything."
Then his game came together. He made the PGA Tour in 2004, the Ryder Cup in 2006 and Sunday dropped three back-nine birdies at Augusta to run down and then run away from the legend of Tiger Woods. Green jacket (size 40-regular) on his back, he had the golf world abuzz with a single question:
Who the heck is this guy?
"I'm Zach Johnson and I'm from Cedar Rapids, Iowa," he said.
Everyone laughed at the Opie Taylor bit.
"I'm a normal guy," he claimed.
Not on Sunday, Zach. Not on the back nine. Just ask Tiger.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World. . .

No this isn't an international students summit. It's simply a family picnic with the Ndjerareou's.
We were able to join Dana & his lovely girlfriend Tabby (both seniors at Wheaton) and Minga (a grad student at Judson) for a spring picnic recently.


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