Our Family: September 2007

Josie's Tree

Here is Josie's tree. Daddy planted it in the back yard. It is a red maple. We hope to take her picture here every birthday.

The Rest of the Eight Things

Well, I have some time now, and I probably won't be on the computer over the weekend so I'll finish our Eight Things. And I officially tag my niece (or niece-in-law, not sure how that works...she is married to my nephew...) Becca. She is at http://www.5finns.blogspot.com/. She is married to my "little nephew" Pete and her oldest son looks just like how Pete still looks in my mind (except he's blonde like his mommy.) Becca I love your blog and if you're reading mine, "You're It!"

3. Josie is named after her uncle Joseph (Jim’s only brother) and also a tribute to Joseph the Dreamer in the Bible (he was falsely imprisoned for 13 years and then led a full life of service and honor, and reconciled with his birth family who had sold him into slavery.) She is also named after Colleen’s mother, and also retains her Chinese name. She can’t say her full name yet!

4. We have lived in 9 different homes since we got married, not including short stays with family and friends during the course of our interstate moves. We are pretty sure this is our last house, besides the fabulous condo we will buy in downtown Madison when we retire as millionaires. This is also the longest time we’ve lived in one home - over 3 years… Yes, we are both “those who go” not “those who stay.” - a good match. We left our hometowns as young adults and we still get the urge to move every 18-36 months. I have finally started to really long to paint and decorate (i.e. settle in,) although the truth is that we’ve both talked about moving in the past few months…(We won’t because this house was a bargain for our location, and we want to always be very close to UW Hospital.)

5. Ever since Jim was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis 4 years ago, his age tends to match the number of years that the CF Foundation says is the median life expectancy of CF patients – this year they updated it to 37 years, and he will be 38 next month – Time to update it again CFF!

6. Colleen has 6 brothers and 4 sisters and Jim has 1 brother, 1 sister, and 4 stepbrothers. Our family is mostly Caucasian although we have a Chinese daughter, an African-American sister and an African American nephew. Perhaps we’ll add some more color in the coming years if Josie ever has a sibling.

7. We attend a local Christian Church that we found about a year and half ago. It has been refreshing for us to worship with this group of people striving to seek Him in all they do.

8. Colleen likes to read historical fiction and books dealing with women’s issues. Jim likes mystery/suspense fiction. We both like Greg Iles. Josie likes Clifford books, Nursery Rhymes, and anything that helps her learn new words.

Eight Things About Us

I’ve been tagged to list 8 Facts or Habits about myself. This is a blogger game that I just learned about. When I'm done with my 8 things I will tag another blogger and they have to do the same! I was tagged by our friend Heather. She and her husband are waiting for their referral for their Chinese daughter. Their blog is www.cotecheck.blogspot.com. They have pics of the *amazing* Dr. Seuss nursery that they're painting during the horribly long wait for referral (over 2 years!! We waited only 1 year.)

I’m going to make our 8 things about our family because this blog is for all 3 of us. I will do 2 at a time because once I started writing it was paragraphs instead of sentences.

1. The first time I saw Jim was from a distance (I was on the second or third floor balcony of the Medinah Temple in Chicago and Jim was on stage.) The moment I saw him it actually was like a strike of lightening and I knew that I was going to marry him. I didn’t actually want to get married, and at the time I was still recovering from a painful relationship. And I was very grumpy, and Jim looked very happy and glowing – I was angry with him already because I knew that he was so joyful and I wasn’t, and that there was nothing I could do about it because we were destined to marry. Kind of like the past 14 years have been for us….Jim being hopeful and positive and me being grumpy and worrying about everything.

2. Jim was a dental tech in the Navy for 7 years. He spent 3 years stationed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier. He did two 6-month Mediterranean cruises and many smaller cruises too. I really regret not spending the money to visit him in one of his port visits.

Two more tomorrow.

Back Home

Well the Badger Football Season has started, so we are settling into Fall already. Jim's family comes down to Madison from Green Bay for the day for the football games. Josie gets to spend these days with her Feldhausen cousins - such fun! Usually the guys will go to the game and Kourtney and Colleen will go to the farmer's market or just hang out with the kids at our house. The weather is cooling off here and it feels great. It won't be long until the leaves start changing color.

This Sunday's edition of the Wisconsin State Journal carried a nice article about Cystic Fibrosis. The print edition contained two pictures of our family: there was even a picture of Jim and Josie on the front page of the Sunday paper! The article also features our friends Deirdre and Hans. Here is a link to the article if you want to read it (no pictures in the online version.) http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/244586

Below is our little Badger Fan. She loves to sing "Varsity" and especially to shout "On WISC-ON-SIN - GOOOOOO Badgers!" She knows that "W is for Wisconsin!" And when she sees a picture of Bucky Badger, she says, "Bucky Badger! Josie saw him! Josie saw him at the volleyball game!"

Vacation

We went to Michigan and visited Jim's mom and step-dad, then spent several days at Colleen's parent's home in the U.P. SO fun and relaxing!!

There are four miniature horses at Jim's mom's house...Josie LOVES them. She hasn't stopped talking about them since our last visit on June 30th. Sometimes over the past few months she's just said, "Bye-bye? Grandma? Grandpa Jim? Ride Horses?" So she was finally able to ride them again in September.

This is how her face looks when she rides: ecstatic!

Josie and Grandpa Jim at the river on their property.

Josie with Poppa (Colleen's dad) taking a dip in the lake during sauna. This is Lake Superior. Below is the same shot of them last summer.

This reminds me of that poem "Footprints in the Sand."

Beach fun with Ammi! (For those of you who don't know, we call Colleen's mom "Ammi", which means "Grandma" in Finnish.)

Josie went all the way in the water with Ammi, Poppa, and the neighbor's dog Chauncey!

That's an awfully big lake! I think I can see Canada on the other side....

The sauna.

So much fun with Daddy on the beach!

Helping Ammi and Daddy with their puzzle.

Why It's Difficult to Get a Picture of Josie

She is a very active toddler! Here is what goes on trying to get a picture of her. I finally got her to stand still by asking her to stand next to her dollhouse.