Teacher of the Week

Billy brings his high school football players to mentor 3rd grade students every week, and those 3rd graders nominated him for "Teacher of the Week."

Take a look at the article!

Congratulations, Coach Cook! :)

Another Freebie

Willing to give your name, e-mail, and birthdate to Quizno's? They'll give you a free sub coupon. I just tried it... and it works! You have to use the coupon within 5 days, though.

I find this stuff at dealigg.com - lots of electronics, but sometimes I find gems like free coffee, free blankets, and free Quiznos!

And apparently, it's fashionable to be a conspicuous cheapskate these days. 

Free Download of Not For Sale

During the month of February, you can download the audiobook Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It....for free.

I just downloaded the Mp3s, and it was fast and easy. Now the hard part: listening. But so important.

Listen with me?

YouTube Orchestra

I just found out that YouTube and London Symphony Orchestra are creating the first collaborative online orchestra. Winners chosen from the online auditions will be invited to play New York City's Carnegie Hall in April.

Such a cool idea... Trey and I had a blast clicking through the audition videos.

I found out about this via Abraham Piper's twentytwowords.com, since he is passing the word along about his friend who is auditioning and asking people to vote... which I did! 

Trey was in the room with me when I watched the video on Abraham's site, and he was entranced. Asked me to play the 'gi-o-vin' video eight times yesterday. So instead of sitting in front of the computer all day, I played Joshua Bell in the house and in the car. We'll see how long this lasts....

(I won't lie, I was daydreaming for a few minutes about having a violin prodigy on my hands....)

Deeeelicious

Em and I share an Allrecipes.com account, so we can put all of the recipes we find in the same 'box.' I think she found this recipe for Chicken with Asparagus and Roasted Red Peppers, so we tried it last night, and it was so good! Probably one of my favorites in years. (Besides her Chicken and Asparagus Bundles find). 

I served it with the chicken cubed and over whole wheat pasta. With only 190 calories per serving (sans the pasta), you can't beat it!

Braggin' on my sis

How could I not brag on her? (grin)

Em's drawing was chosen as picture of the month by jetpens.com!

I'm not sure if it will be featured for next month or in the next few days/weeks (you'll have to let me know, Em), but I'll post when it appears on JetPens.

I'm so proud!

One down, three to go

Dad, Mom, and Andy came to visit this weekend, and we had Christmas in February. Thanks for coming, guys! We had a great time.

Mom and I were looking at the kitchen with pastel green walls and partially peeling wallpaper, and I was sighing with frustration at one of the four rooms I need to get done/painted.  She decided that we should try and get something done while they were here, so with her kind-hearted help, we peeled off all of the wallpaper in record time. So we went to pick a color. I wanted a bold something-or-other, and started with this:

but the cranberry red looked so darn pink to me (not as pink as in the picture, but pink enough), that I couldn't handle it. So we chose again. Mom found this gorgeous herbal garden green (to which these photos are not doing a bit of justice), and I am really happy with it. The fam had to leave on Sunday evening, but I stayed up 'till 1 a.m. and finished. Feels real good to have a non-pastel-y kitchen! Can't wait until my curtains and decor are finished...

The kitchen is a total mess, I know. But after painting for hours and hours, do you blame me? Thanks for all your help, family! Love you!

Hilarious and disgusting

Have you seen the Cakewrecks blog?

I get a big kick out of heading over there once in awhile. The latest post is gross (cakes made to look like feet - ew), but some of them are really funny!

Brrrrrr

It was warm enough to venture out for a jog last week. Plus, I suckered Bethany into pushing the jogging stroller, so it was quite a nice outing. Love you Bobo!

Drastic measures

Sorry to interrupt the recent political climate at the Tuck porch, but I think it's time. Especially for something as important as this. 

We've had a bit of trouble with Trey's double cowlick (this is not static, it really looked like this when Trey woke up)...

... so we took some drastic measures. Baby's first buzz cut:

Nationalized Healthcare

This editorial at Pajamas Media had me seriously considering supporting the (seemingly inevitable) move towards nationalized health-care system.

This editorial at the same site changed my mind.

The one who states his case first seems right,
until the other comes and examines him. Proverbs 18:17

Thank You, Fiscally Conservative Republicans

(HT: The Cato Institute)

Whirlwind

Busy and wonderful last few weeks... Christmas, Trey turned two, we cruised the Caribbean to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Van's 65th Anniversary, and a sweet little boy was born and joined the family: Jackson Cook to Billy and Teresa. Lots in between, but here's to brevity! And, well, lots of pictures.

                                                                     

Jaedyn and Trey playing a game with Poppie on Christmas Day

Putting Trey's Christmas gift together

Baby's first blush! I couldn't believe it, but Trey actually blushed when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him at the hotel. There were lots of people around, and as soon as he heard his name in the song, he blushed like crazy! 

Trey with Mom-o and Pop-o Van

 

Jay, Sam, and Trey. Sam was too cute in the pool: "Help, Uncle Jay! I'm floating away!"

Trey loves his cousins!

The Tuck Clan

Jackson - so sweet!

Ice storm

Been a little cold here over the last few days... as in, negative degrees and windy. Yuck. 

It does, however, make for some gorgeous pictures (compliments of Bethany). 

Charles Edward Ketner

Charles Edward “Chuck” Ketner, 62, died on December 9, 2008, another fallen soldier in the war against cancer. Born on April 2, 1946 in Jacksonville, IL to Charles Albert and Marjorie Doris (Johnston) Ketner. Spent his wonder years in Polo, IL. Graduated from Rockford West High School and the University of Wisconsin-Plattville. Married Mary (VanLandingham) on October 6, 1978. Loved playing golf at Rockford Country Club; fishing in Waupaca, WI; riding his red custom motorcycle on the area highways and byways; running his business, the Rockford Carpet Company; and spending time with family and friends.

He will be missed by his wife, Mary; his children, Charles A. Ketner, Elisabeth E. Key (Harry Mallin), Tiffiny A. (Paul) McGivern; his grandchildren, Francesca Mallin, Paul McGivern, Michael McGivern, Katherine McGivern, John McGivern; his siblings, Sue Ellen (Al) Orian, David Ketner (Chris Swenson), Sally (Dan) Hogan; mother, “Dodie”; father and mother-in-law, John and Jean VanLandingham; and best friends for 46 years, Hazen Tuck and Neil Fischer. He will join his father, “Charlie”, on the other side of the rainbow bridge.

Visitation on Saturday, December 13 from 2-4 P.M. at Rockford Country Club. Private family prayer service. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the charity of your choice.

Mr. Mischief Returns

(Apparently Trey wanted to freshen up his feet with baby powder.)

He found my mascara - most of the bottle was in his hair.

What a Little Bird

I found The Mincing Mockingbird on Etsy awhile ago, and have really been wanting an excuse to buy some of her magnets. They are hilarious! 

Her descriptions alone make me laugh - not to mention the expressions of the birds. Love it!

Sisters, sisters

Don't be mad at me, Em, but I had to show off your goods!!

Doesn't her display look cute?

Chase kept getting in the mix.... lucky he's so cute.

An Ancient Rivalry

Em and Luke came to visit this past weekend, and we had such a good time with them. (Thanks for coming, guys!) Em and I had an open house together, and she had her cards and prints out - they looked fantastic!

They brought their new Devon Rex kitty with them, and we tried to introduce Chase to Rinkle. I'm not sure how it would have gone if we would have just let them go all weekend (Rinkle spent some time in the garage), but we tried to put them together twice, and there was LOTS of hissing!

And hiding.

(P.S. Don't judge me for the thick layer of dust under the bookcase.) 

Illusion of Neutrality or a Glorious Hypocrisy

I read about Pleasant Grove City, UT v. Summum case a couple of weeks ago in World magazine and heard about it again on NPR the other day. I think cases like this are interesting because it brings out underlying presuppositions that aren't usually talked (or even thought) about. The shallowness of American theology rears it's ugly head here. We pretend that we think all religions are created equal, and that anyone who thinks one religion is superior to another is both arrogant and ignorant (i.e. ignorant of the "fact" that it's impossible to know anything about God). Then something like the “Seven Aphorisms of Summum” shows up and wants to join the party.

If the city says that the 10 C's monument reflects the views of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Summum folks can say that their group should be able to have their monument put up. If they say that the 10 C's monument (after donation) reflects the city governments views, then there's (supposedly) a violation of church and state. I'm sure the arguments are going to get more nuanced than this, but it may end up coming down to something like: "the 10 C's, unlike the Seven Aphorisms, are interwoven in the foundation of Western Civilization" or "The Fraternal Order of Eagles has longstanding ties to the community" (which I think was the original argument).

The problem is, even though this case is going to the highest court of the land to be scrutinized by our finest legal minds and ought to bring about deep, probing insights into religious epistemology, what we're probably going to get is legal technicalities which obscure the real issue: Cities should be able to reject monuments like the Seven Aphorisms of Summum because they are heretical, hurtful, and false.

It's either an illusion of neutrality that's going to ultimately end up hurting us as our public religious sphere gets more and more absurd, or a glorious hypocrisy which allows us to have a civil, productive society despite fundamental religious diversity.

I'm sure Nate and Andy will tell me that I'm just an ignorant layperson.