Happy Thanksgiving!

Now that the dinner is cooked and eaten and the kitchen is (mostly) cleaned up, I thought I'd blog how I'm thankful for family, friends, and of course the God who created those special people and who gives us good gifts so abundantly. As I look forward to my birthday tomorrow, I'm especially thankful for my parents who gave me life. I put the picture here on my Facebook as my profile picture--me now and back almost 52 years ago.

I'm thankful for my family==parents, siblings, husband, children, in-laws, and on and on (including a special nephew who has joined us for the feast today). I'm thankful for work, and the chance to have a break from work.

Hope you've had a great Thanksgiving! And, tomorrow is only four weeks from CHRISTMAS!

Till next time,

Suzi

A fun week

Well, last week we enjoyed the company of my sister Cheri and her grandson Josh. Jon and Kristi, Cheri's son and daughter-in-law, reluctantly left Josh at my house while they traveled to San Diego for a conference.

The picture here is one I stole from Cheri's blog of Josh and our dog Raven. One of Joshy's favorite things to do was stand behind Raven and have his face brushed by Raven's wagging tail. They got along great. (Josh has a cute dog named Chloe at home, but she does not have a bushy tail.)

Speaking of Raven, yesterday I took him to the vet to get his stitches removed. The vet almost cried when she saw how well he was doing. She helped us nurse him to recovery from his dog bite this past summer, guided us through the 2 1/2 months of his "cone-head" humiliation, and helped us treat his wound when it opened up after surgery. Thankfully he didn't need a second surgery, and the vet was very pleased with his outcome. Her own 14 1/2 year old German shepherd mix passed away less than two weeks ago, so she was glad to see our almost 11-year-old doggy.

Since finishing my teaching of ILA (except for posting final grades--getting close to that!), I've been busy getting my teaching portfolio ready for my Post Secondary Teaching Certificate class. I'm almost finished with the Journalism class I've been attending: Critical Issues in Journalism, and enjoyed participating/learning/helping with the seniors in that class as they prepare their final projects and get ready for graduation this spring.

Now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving. Tim's parents and my nephew Daniel (Cheri's youngest--a student here in the Twin Cities) are coming, as well as the three kids. I've bought everything but the turkey--I don't want to get a frozen one, so I'm waiting till tomorrow to pick up a fresh bird.

Should be a great week! In less than three weeks, our Bolivian daughter Carla will come for a month visit! It's been almost 10 years since she lived with us as an exchange student. We are SO excited!

Oh, and other big news--Christina has moved to a property Tim owns in Minneapolis. Tim got her a cute puppy--Rottweiler/German shepherd mix. That dog is only 6 months old, but he is going to be BIG! He's already 45 pounds--almost as heavy as Raven!

Well, hopefully it won't be so long till I blog again. I'm sure I'll have more adventures to report on--after all, my birthday is this Friday!

Till next time,

Suzi

Tomorrow is the last day of ILA

Well, tomorrow is my last day teaching Introduction to Liberal Arts till next year. And what am I doing? Blogging, facebooking, surfing, looking for an episode to Monk in which Tivo failed to record the last 15 minutes (no luck finding it)--when I should be grading and preparing.

But I really am pretty prepared. We are just going to review what they've learned, answer questions about students meeting with advisors next week, and go over their assignment for their final paper and their evaluation of the class.

It's been a very good group of students, and I'm grateful. I'll miss them all. I hope to be a part of their lives during their career at Bethel-whether it ends this year or at graduation in three years from this spring.

I hope I've made a small difference in their lives. I know they have made one in mine.

Till next time,


Suzi

Fall's in full swing

Well, the end of October is already approaching. Summer is definitely over, and fall's been pretty busy. We had snow on October 10--way too early, especially after being spoiled by a beautiful September with mild temperatures. Today's been pretty nice--sunny this morning, but getting more cloudy this aftenoon. The leaves were still green at the Oct. 10 snowfall, but now the trees are past peak and dropping leaves.

Raven thinks the cold is great, and loved the snow and colder weather. After he got his collar off mid-August, he started suffering from end-of-summer allergies and pollens. Now he's stopped scratching and gone back to being a regular dog.

I've been busy with work and school. My internship seminar started this month, and I've got assignments to assemble my teaching portfolio. I've taught one session which Tim videotaped in my journalism class, and I've done some grading. I'm also teaching Introduction to Liberal Arts (freshmen), which will wind down this week. We're having our last class sessions this week, but the students have assignments the following week, so grading won't be done for awhile yet.

At least things at work have settled down a bit. Seminary classes started the end of September, and now we're already almost to the mid-point of the quarter. We're starting to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Funny how quickly time goes by!

Cheri will be visiting in a couple of weeks with her sweet grand-baby--watching Joshy while Jon and Kristi take a trip to California. That should be fun! It's always nice to have Cheri around. By then I'll be done teaching and just have my Tuesday night internship class.

Christina is continuing with her criminal justice classes, and seems to be doing well. All three kids are still busy working at Sarpino's--the boys are delivering pizzas and Christina is working "in-store." Both boys are also working with Tim as well.

Tim's almost finished working on the latest house, and we're excited to see how that's working out. It gives him such a feeling of satisfaction--and it's been nice for him to work at his own pace on his own place.

So, we're keeping out of trouble so far! If anything changes, I may or may not blog about it . . .

You can also keep up with my on Facebook at facebook.com/swansmith.

Till next time,

Suzi

Blogging again

Picture of Tim and his old high school buddy, John. Unfortunately, John's mom passed away recently and he was in town for the memorial service a couple weeks ago. Tim and John look more like brothers than friends, don't they? I had to snap this fuzzy picture of them from Tim's cell phone.

Well, it's been way too long since I've blogged. Been really busy with work and school. I began my teaching internship with one of Bethel's college journalism professors, and she is teaching ENW499: Critical Issues in Journalism. All of the students (7) are seniors. This past Tuesday I lectured/led discussion based on an mpr broadcast on the future of journalism. Tim videotaped me. Next Saturday I begin my internship seminar class, where I'll be working on my teaching portfolio. In the meantime, I'm still working at Bethel in the Anthropology/Sociology/Reconciliation Department, as well as in the registrar's office for the seminary and the adult programs.

Last weekend we went with our church (Solomon's Porch) to Lake Beauty Bible Camp in Long Prairie, MN. The kids were all working that weekend, so Tim and I went up with friends from church and enjoyed a relaxing weekend, although we stayed up too late playing Mafia. The way our church plays the game is with a hand-made set of cards, created by one of our church artists, Luke Hillestad. He has made some very creative cards, including the gravedigger, the town drunk, several freemason cards, and a special mafia card: the Godfather. Last Saturday night I went to bed at 2 am while Tim and others were up till about 4:30 playing the game.

Well, I should work on the house some more today as well as grade papers and plan for next week's classes. I'll try to be more regular about blogging as well.

Till next time,

Suzi

Happy Birthday to my hubby!

I had to post today to wish my sweetie a very happy 51st birthday. It's always nice when he "catches" up to me for three months.

Hope your day is fantastic, Tim!

Love you!

Till next time,

Suzi

Summer's winding down!

Wow, lots of things are happening--so I thought I should update my blog (finally)--if I have any readers left!

Mark has been on a bike trip from Minneapolis to Yellowstone. He and his two buddies have had adventures that I can't wait to hear about in person. They've been gone for almost five weeks, and about two weeks ago decided they were going to return home via Amtrak. So, tomorrow they will board the train in Havre, MT and arrive in St. Paul about 7 am Monday morning. It will be so good to see him and know that he has returned safe and sound.

My dad has continued to struggle with Clostridium Difficile, resulting in almost a one-week hospital stay in addition to his initial stay after his surgery. He continued to fight the sickness and weakness at home, but this past week he seems to have turned a corner and was even back out on his lawn mower/tractor mowing a couple acres again. We are very grateful for his recovery!

Meanwhile, on the home front, our daughter has registered for fall classes again at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, continuing on her criminal justice/sociology track. Classes for her start a week from Monday, I think.

Luke continues to work delivering pizzas and managing his home. He has three roommates and works hard to keep things going smoothly in this tight economy.

Tim's kept a couple of interns from Bethel busy this summer working on the properties (houses) he owns in North Minneapolis. Drywall work has been pretty steady, and we're grateful for the work as so many in construction are struggling mightily this summer.

As for me--I just finished my full-time summer stint in the registrar's office. I go back to part-time on Monday, and return to my Anthro/Soc part-time position then. This fall, I'll be teaching Introduction to Liberal Arts again (freshman seminar), and also doing an internship and integrative portfolio seminar: a class where I'll be building my teaching portfolio. My advisor is working on setting up an internship: the plan is that I'll be working with a journalism professor at Bethel or another college, helping that professor and teaching at least two class sessions. So, it will be a very busy fall!

Mai, our exchange student from Japan, is coming back for another visit to see us since she left in 2002. This time, she is bringing her boyfriend Masa, and we are excited to see her and meet him. She's going to a pharmacy convention in California in late August/early September, then coming to spend a couple of weeks with us. Masa will be visiting friends in Portland, OR, then coming to the Twin Cities to visit for about a week.

Then Carla, our first exchange student, will be coming to visit us for a month over the Christmas holiday. She is from Bolivia, and we haven't seen her since she left to return to Bolivia in the summer of 2000. Lots has happened since then! (Namely, she and our kids have all grown up!) It will be wonderful to spend time with her again.

Well, Tim has planned a game night here tonight, so I should work on getting ready for the "party." Hope your summer's been going well!

Till next time,

Suzi

PS For more updates, see me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/swansmith