Good Times

Just thought I'd send a few photos of our trip to Mexico. What a great relaxing time we had. The first photo was taken in Mexico City where we had a layover and ended up spending the night with Ryan's cousin who is an MCC country rep. there. The rest of the pics are of the beach where we spent most of our time and the last one is a view from our hotel room. Ryan and I thought it would be fun if we all planned a trip to Mexico for our Christmas some year. We'd have to plan far enough in advance so we could all save up for it. But it would be a rock'n time.

Sorry we'll miss you all at Christmas. Hopefully next year we'll be home. Love you all!

ONE!

Halloween pictures

Here are a few pics from trick-or-treating. If you can't tell, Emma was a fairy and Sophie a butterfly. The girls had great time. Sophie really got into it, more than I thought she would. Anyways, I can't believe it's November already. One week and Ryan and I will be vacationing in Mexico, no kids! Yipee!! Well not much more to say. I've got to get back to my motherly duties. Take care.

Becky, Where are you?

I thought I would see something with Becky in Oregon. A picture with Emma & Sophie & Heather would be fun!!! Hope you are having fun!

See you.
Cheri

Oregon

hello hello. We are saddened as our week in oregon comes to a close but its been a lovely time. some highlights included (but certainly not limited to) seeeing where emma goes to school, walking around portland a couple of days (not in succession), going to the famed rolloff farms, which is a pumpkin farm from the TLC series "little people, big world" (it's run by dwarfs...todd and i are posed with amy the dwarf mom- probably the highlight of my life), and finally we spent the weekend at the coast. a busy week indeed. The weather has been perfect. can't wait to get back to the hot, stuffy, terrible amounts of terribleness that is our hometown. hope everyone is well.

Household Saints and other books

I finished a wonderful novel last night called Household Saints by Francine Prose. I think you all would like it. The first sentence is a zinger: "It happened by the grace of God that Josheph Santangelo won his wife in a game of cards." How could you not want to read the rest? Ms. Prose explores, in her own quiet way, themes as broad as God and love, and as unlikely as the possibility of modern sainthood. It's quite moving and very thought provoking.

I am also reading a book called Real Presences by George Steiner, a literary critic/philospher who argues in this book that perhaps art is not possible without the existence of "the Other." It's a dense book, but very good. He is inspiring, especially in my thinking about a Mennonite approach to the arts (which is abysmal, if it is anything at all—we could learn a few things from the Catholics here) in general, and painting and writing in particular. One of my goals this coming year is to work on an apologetic for a Mennonite approach to aesthetics. There isn't one, and we need one! I think it could revitalize the life of the church.

Another book I just started is called Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry, who is a philosopher of aesthetics at an Ivy League school. Not much to say about that except that I'm only a few pages into it, and that she ties beauty with social justice.

And finally, I'm reading a book about Modernism (1890s-1930s) in literature. Yawn.

I'm going nuts at Amazon. I haven't bought any books lately, but there is almost two hundred dollars worth of books in my shopping cart waiting for a nice warm home and a loving caretaker!

What are you guys reading?

Well, Lily wants toast, so I'll sign off now.

By the way, Radiohead has a new disc out, Gretchen. You have to order it from their website. It's called In Rainbows.

Chad

Hello,

I just finished grading my students' essays. Oh vey. Here is a sentence from one of my student's essay. They were asked to do a semiotic reading on an object that represents American culture, and this particular student chose to write about hamburgers. So that's a pretty good object to write about. His one sentence that almost made me pee my pants was, "Hamburgers are very vertical." Oh yea? Well how do you get the ketchup, mustard, and pickles to stay put if your burgers are vertical? (He meant "versatile.")

But, on the other hand, I have a student who wrote the most eloquent essay, why America is like a quilt. I gave her a 97. So, I gave 6 As, 2 Bs, 7 Cs, and 2 Ds, an interesting spread of grades.

I'm getting ready to start a painting on canvas. I'm going to print one of my stories onto it, then wash over it with several layers of thinned oil paint. I've been thinking a lot about icons and how they are painted, how when an artist makes an icon of a saint, Mary, or Jesus, he or she "writes" the icon and doesn't paint it. It's a lovely metaphor, particularly when you explore the etymology of the word, "write," which means to etch or scratch. So, in is a very real sense, my stories are icons or paintings, etchings in canvas.

Anyway, I hope you all are well. The kids are great. Lily is reading and writing. Aaron is reading a lot, and Cyndi has a show this weekend at EMU. She is debuting her birds, the dead ones.

Good times all around!

Chad

where is everybody???

Are we all not speaking these days? We had a great time at the Birky Family Dinner on Sunday. Missed Chad & Heather. Gretchen, Todd & Maddie were there. Maddie got to meet her cousins & was excited to interact with the little ones. Becky was there too. Sorry I don't have any pictures - even though lots of them were taken. Chad, tell Aaron & Lily I could use some of their artwork. Heather, Emma could send me some of hers too. Take care!

Love,

Mom & Aunt Cheri

Hello!

I'm absolutely loving teaching. My kids are so young and impressionable. It sometimes freaks me out when I think about all of them (there are nineteen) listening to me ramble on for an hour. I assigned their first essay today: a semiotic reading of an object that represents American culture. Hmmm....we'll see how that goes. I'm finally doing what I want to be doing for the first time in my life. Gosh, it took long enough. Hopefully there will be more classes for me next semester, or next year. I'm going to apply again at JMU. But in the meantime, I'm teaching, painting, and working on a novel. I've sent out a couple of stories, but haven't heard back yet. I discovered a cool podcast available from the New Yorker where writers read fiction that has been published in the New Yorker. It's really good. You should take a listen. My favorite story thus far is by John Cheever called "Reunion." I'm also thinking about starting to paint on canvas: big color fields painted with oils. I can picture them in my head, but I'm not too sure how to flush them out into colors and onto canvas. We'll see if that happes. Cyndi is working on a photo project. She is photographing every item she owns (like all our spices, one by one, every pair of underwear, our CDs, etc.). The show will be called "And This Isn't Everything." She wants to cover several gallery walls with prints of all our crap. It's a bit obsessive, but that's Cyndi! God bless her. She's also going to put it on YouTube as flashing images (about one per second) to some house music. I'll keep you informed when it happens.
Lily is liking Kindergarten. She's hot stuff now, and wants to pierce her ears so she'll "be the prettiest one there." Dear God have mercy on us all.

love to all,

Chad

books i've been reading lately

Catching Up

I've got new photos to share. We seem to be very busy here out west. It's not interesting busy stuff that you all care to hear about. Just a lot of walking (in prep for Marathon), get togethers with friends and family, and house stuff. We are getting very excited about all of your visits this fall. Chad, I wish we would be seeing you. Look foward to hearing from you all.

singles ad

hello hello. i finally got around to taking some more recent pictures of maddie. she's crawling, sort of. she kind of scoots around and drags one leg-slightly resembling a hermit crab. as you can see, she still loves baths and faking illnesses. this is begining to sound like a singles ad. she also loves poetry, long walks on the beach, candlight dinners and massages. um, anyway...i think its becoming apparent that i have nothing to say. i would be interested to know how chad's days as a professor are shaping up. oh and mom, i checked out your shadow puppets and they were pretty impressive. i now regret making fun of you, relentlessly for those several minutes. my deepest apologies.

Where is everyone? It's been a long time . I need to hear about Chad's teaching experience . Emma's nursery school adventure & Lily's first day at kindergarden. This is fund - On your computer go to u-tube - click on Shadow puppets & then "What a wonderful world". This is great.

Cheri

Cyndi and Jessica.
A typical scene in Santa Fe.



This picture is the first fiction cohort of the SPU MFA. Matt, Jessica, and me. (I'm looking at her flowers, not anything else.)

Well, here I sit, MFA in hand, and now I think I need to be all literate. But all I want to do is read cheap mysteries and drink bourbon by the mug-full. That's not all true, but it is kind of funny how people look up to you and/or get all scared when they ask me what I'm reading.
"So what do you think of Harry Potter?" they wonder.
"They stink," I say. "Read Proust."
And that's the end of that conversation.

Let me tell you about my good time with Over The Rhine in Santa Fe. Our graduating cohort had a nice graduation ceremony, and Karin and Lindford supplied the music. Very nice and emotional. Sniff Sniff. Part of the ceremony included brief readings of our work, read by two faculty mentors, to give the audience a taste of our writing. Well, they lost my excerpt. After grad, Karin told Cyndi that I should pick something out and that she, Karin, would read it during their concert.

So that's what I did. "Do you want something tame or spicy?" I said.

"Spicy," she said.

That evening, near the end of the OTR concert, she read my piece. It was amazing! She's got a voice that melts butter and leaves you wanting, well, er, something. She joked with me afterward that Linford and I should start a literary mag called "Mennonite Erotica."

Yadda Yadda.

where is everyone? heather and i seem to be the only bloggers these days. i'd like to see some pictures from your grauation chad, mr. mfa. there is not much going on around here. let's see...maddie pooped yesterday for the first time in like a week, so that was exciting. she's also getting her top teeth now and looks ridiculous- she's got a huge gap inbetween them- she could floss with a garden hose, seriously. mom and dad are coming down this weekend to stay with maddie while todd and i spend the weekend downtown for our anniversary. i guess i'm looking forward to it... i hope we can find something to talk about. well that's all the news from here. if anyone wants to come to the indiana state fair and try some fried pepsi you've got a place to stay.

traveling fool

well after three adventurous weeks, maddie and i have returned home. i feel a stranger to the blogging scene, but worry not my friends, i have been reunited with my trusty barb and the world wide web.

Summer

Some pictures of summer fun.

words

oregon. oregon is hot. red hot. we are having a lovely time, its true. despite carting around one very whiney child, one very fussy child, and one who is into everything. you decide which is which. yup...fun times. welp...see you...lata. oh my gosh, you should totally call us. whatever, sha.

More pics

You'll have to forgive me. I just think he is so darn cute! Finally, I have some pics to share, too.

Jesse David

Here he is!!

I'm an aunt!!!

i am so excited!! jeff & andrea had baby Jesse David last night. he weighed 8 lb, 9 oz and is 21 inches long. both baby and mom are doing well. it was a long difficult labor. pics to come soon!

New Pics

Here are a few pics of the girls. Sophie's fun thing to do is pick her own strawberries from the backyard and eating them. She looks like the first picture when she comes in from outside. She is really keeping me on my toes. That girl is into EVERYTHING! Yesterday I found her putting reciepts into the toliet. UHGGG. We're getting things packed up. It finally feels like we're moving. I'm so glad we don't have to do this again for awhile. I'll be sure to email my new address.

funny

gretch,

i looked at the comedian on youtube. very funny guy. check out the Flight of the Conchords on youtube. They are hilarious.

not much going on here. trying to keep cool. anybody have plans for the 4th of July?
Andrea hasn't had her baby yet. she is due the 29th.

bex

Hey everybody,

Here is one story from my final creative manuscript. I hope you enjoy it. (It's not too long.)

Chad

Well now, I can't figure out how to add an attachment, so I'll just email it to you. It's called "Stencil."

Hey.

I wanted to update you guys on some fantastic new music I've been listening to. The first is Wilco's new disc, "Sky Blue Sky." It's more like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, though not entirely. The Shins new disc is great, "Wincing the Night Away." Also, an album called "Selwa." It is a Tibetan singer with ambient sort of music to back her up. It's very relaxing. Your kids might like it. "Mi
Sueno" by Ibrahim Ferrer is great. And, of course, Bjork's "Volta."

Happy listening!

Chad

yes indeed

yeah, that's right...i have nothing better to do than take pictures of my kid everyday and post them on this blog. I am not ashamed of this. okay maybe a little ashamed. but seriously, what is a person supposed to do with a seven month old all day, everyday? no really, i'm open for suggestions. I've taken to simply mimicking her when she's annoying me. real mature, i know. sometimes we lie on the floor and i do a pilates stretch called the happy baby. just two perfectly normal, well adjusted gals laying on the living room floor in the middle of the day.

Here's a picture you all might enjoy. Did I mention that I'm teaching one class at EMU this fall? College writing. I have two stories out at magazines right now. Haven't heard back from either one.

I started a new story this week. It is going well, though I am tending to overwrite. I can take it all out later.

Chad