Sunday, February 27, 2011

Reid's Multisport Day


Happy Birthday, Matt! The big 2-0! I remember my 20th- I was on a climbing trip to West Virginia and I remember thinking that this was a big milestone because my childhood was over and my adulthood had arrived. If only I'd begun acting like an adult soon after...

Reid had a huge day as the seasons changed; we started the day at Eldora where he showed some runs through the treesthat I'd never been on before. It's getting more and more fun to ski with him because he's going faster and he's up for more challenging terrain, so I have to ski hard to keep up!

We got home in the early afternoon in time for him to go to the first session of his tennis program with the Millenium Harvest House Junior Tennis Team. Jerry Grant saw how inspired and excited Reid was about tennis last summer, so he's sponsoring him for this new, more competitive program. He came home saying that it was a lot of fun.

The third event was the cotillion- Kate has been threatening to send him whenever he's been especially boorish, and now she's managed to get a critical mass of his friends together to make him accepting enough to make it happen. He just got back, and he really sounded like he had a good time! Pretty exciting new steps in young Master Reid's life!

Friday, February 25, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!!!

WWHHHOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! 20!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS, MATT!!!!

Seems like only yesterday that you were being born and we were getting married...how time flies! Hope you have a fantastic birthday!

Love and kisses to you from all the Blackwells
XOXOXOXO














Matt turns 20 on Saturday. He will be traveling back to school that day so we all celebrated early. Here he is perusing some gifts, reminiscing about last year at this time (pledgeship), and watching Friday Night Lights with Sarah and Joanie on his laptop.
It has been a relaxed and fun vacation filled with trips to the city, shopping at Woodbury Common, visiting, watching movies and TV, and sleep. Sarah and I are creeping ahead on planning a California trip, saw Brown with friends, and have almost all the pieces for junior formal in place.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Advantages of a busy birthday



Birthday celebration with cake - photo courtesy of Boden


Since there was no time for a party on the 17th, we had one on the 20th. Also, Mom took me out to see a musician who plays a variety of instruments - including didgeridoo - on the 15th and to the Hotel Eldorado for an art show that included drinks, hoers d' oeures, and a senior citizen acting group dressed as artists or people in paintings. We knew a few of the group and others all stopped to quiz us on who we thought they were - it was entertaing, fun, and relaxing time. The event was followed by a basketball game of Reid's. He and his team are really fun to watch.


As Rico reported, we had a family day at Eldora on President's Day. It was deja vue for Rico as I didn't get off the chair in time - the snow just dropped away as I stood up and I went down. He got me up and we had a decent run from the top. I was much luckier than Mom 20 years ago. Rico was great but I felt for him. The sun was warm - as it often is now - but the notorious Eldora wind was blowing. However, overall it was very good to be out and fun.


We finally took our old computer to the dump today. It cost $29 to get rid of the monitor, computer, and printer. Wish Congress had the sense to pass a law making it mandatory for manufacturers to take back their old products. There is a lot of lead, etc. in the machines that can be recycled and should not go into land fills.


Speaking of Congress - I can't believe the hacking of government programs the House is up to. What an example of cutting off noses to spite the face! The idea of no funding for public radio/TV in a democratic society that requires news is incredible to me. Even worse is the cutting of all funding for Americorps = the organization that supports hundreds of public service programs largely run by young volunteers as a service to the nation - OK to spend billions to support the military of Israel and Egypt but not to spemnd millions to support volunteers at home. I could go on but instead will suggest you check out "Be the Change" website. The organization was founded by an SPS grad and is organizing a contact your congressman day on Feb. 25th. Hope you might join in.


Speaking of Egypt - what an amazing time to be alive. It reminds me of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 50s and early 60s when so much change was taking place. The present upheaval is moving faster and is spread more widely than the Civil Rights movement but it will no doubt take at least as long to work out a new system for the Arab world.


Love to all,


Dad


PS Finally spotted the spell check so here goes. Still am not sure on moving photos around.

Monday, February 21, 2011

A POD for P.D.


We Just got a POD (Personal On-demand Storage) delivered for President's Day weekend, with the goal of offloading some of our accumulated crap to make our house more attractive to potential buyers. It's actually been a nice experience trying to figure out what we really need in the short term and what's just extra baggage that we really don't care if we see again in the next year, or ever! The hard part is schlepping all that crap to the POD or the trash.

Backing up a bit, last weekend I had a great hut trip with some good friends and some guys I'd never met before. We broke our crazy cold snap just in time to enjoy some of the mostincredible high country weather of the season while still having some light, fresh powder in the spots where the sun didn't shine all day. We were able to enjoy some excellent European style lunches on the deck with meats and cheeses, and some trips to the rustic, wood powered sauna just outside the hut. You can check out some footage of our adventures at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iULe2YzQrUM It was one of the best hut trips I've been on yet, and I'm already thinking about next year!

We had a really nice birthday dinner celebration for Dad at Mom And Dad's last night and we all headed up to Eldora today to enjoy a family ski day. Kate went up with a friend and got to enjoy some snowshoeing and Mom was generous enough to hang out in the lodge with Alden while all the boys headed out skiing. It was a great family experience, and Dad, fortunately, managed to not do himself great bodily harm by falling off the chairlift (you can ask him about that later, but he nearly gave me a heart attack!) Hope everyone is well, and keep posting- we love hearing about everything you're all up to!


Friday, February 18, 2011

A busy birthday


Thanks for the cards, phone calls, facebook, and blog messages. I had a good day yesterday but busier than I would have planned if I had had my way - serves me right for saying "yes" to organizations.


I spent the morning getting ready to moderate a discussion at the library on educating the world leaders of the future. I had lunch with the resource person - Eric Glustrom, a Boulderite I've mentioned who I admire greatly. He founded Educate! as a 17 year old and now at 26 is educating 1000
Ice on the lake at Eldora Feb 14, 2011
Ugandan youth in entreprenurial, leadership, other skills. His organization has been asked to write the new entreprenurial curriculum that will be offered in every Ugandan high school and they expect 45,000 kids to be involved by 2012. The two hour discussion was interesting with 19 people involved. Then Mom and I picked up a movie screen for the evening event, came home, and relaxed a few minutes.

We had a quick sandwich supper. Just before we sat down, Rico called, I opened cards and got good laughs while eating, came home to phone messages from Elli and Julie. I'd started the day with a facebook announcement that Matt had left a message on my wall and there was a blog message - oh technology.

Last evening I moderated the first of a planned series of films and panel discussions the UNA is offering. It was meant to be in late January but it took more planning than expected. Discussion topics will relate to the Millennium goals and last night it was microfinance. We had a short film then a good panel - two who work with locally headquarterd, microfinance NGOs (Uganda and Guatemala) and a man who is working on poverty issues in Boulder County. The crowd (25) was smaller than we had hoped but they were a very good audience and everyone enjoyed it.

On the way home (30 minute drive as we were in Lafaayette) we had a beautiful full moon, a few clouds, and light on the mountains. We stopped for sweet crepes - my cake substitute - at a place we like. The Kelloggs will be over for a birthday dinner Sunday - it was too much to try to see them yesterday. So the birthday was very busy, different, but enjoyable and I felt pleased with the way both discussions went.

On another topic, our plans for NH in March are falling into place. We fly east March 9th and spend the night and Thursday night with Paul Miller. We'll bus to Concord, rent a car, and be around until the 18th when we fly back. We'll be with Anne Sayce the nights of the 15,16, 17. Where we'll be other nights, we're not sure. I speak the 14, 15 and 16 so we'll be somewhere in the Concord area from Sunday on. We're hoping to see the Davis's and other friends.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD/BABBO!!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE 83-YEAR-OLD!!

LOTS OF LOVE AND KISSES FROM THE BLACKWELLS

XOXOXOXO

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Mystery Artist?

To the unknown blog-kisser---you have a distant cousin here in Boulder, who recently (since Christmas) has been building and leaving large sculptures made from "found" materials in the front yards of various homes. They are left at night, and discovered in the light of morning. The artist/giver is still unknown, but a former CU student who now lives in LA is suspected---now how does that happen overnight?? Anyway, let's hear it for kisses, and creativity, and St. Valentine's Day! Hugs and kisses, from Mom.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Ah, Symmetry!
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Friday, February 11, 2011

Hey Matt - Great to hear from you! Welcome to the family blog. Sounds like you're one busy guy at the moment...it was good to hear all about what you've been up to. (Well...some of it, anyway!). Your studies sound fascinating - would love to hear more about it, especially the religion courses. Are you thinking of teaching as a career at this point? You will certainly get lots of family advice on that topic!

Hope you continue to enjoy uni. If the rugby slackasses get you down, Australia is always an option...we have some great universities, and LOTS of guys that love to play rugby!!!! (Just keep it in mind) Hope to hear from you again soon! XO Elli

Matt's First Post

Hey everybody. So via convincing email, Babbo got me into the blog.

What's going on for me right now is school (mainly). I've decided to dedicate more of my time towards schoolwork and less towards other activities. It was pretty hard seeing as I'd almost never had to study for a test before I came here. It also doesn't help that the public school kids are way behind the private school kids (and there are a lot). I've decided to major in religion with a focus concerning the effects of Islam on the politics in the Middle East. That seems to be a hot topic right now. Pure coincidence. I'm also about half way through getting an educator's license, but I'm not sure which Praxis I'll take yet. I'm also considering a minor in Philosophy since it's only 6 classes and the courses line up with the religion major pretty well.

Staying in the same vein, let's move onto classes I'm taking this semester. Sufism (Islamic Mysticism), The Bible in Modern Literature, The Exceptional Learner, Sociology of Religion, and Soccer. We still have to take PE for 4 terms here, it reminds me of high school. The most interesting right now is Sufism, which has actually played a pretty major role in shaping the Middle East starting in about the ninth century maybe (?). Right now we're reading a book titled "God's Unruly Friends" (it's about extreme ascetics in Islam) and later we'll be reading Salman Rushdi's "The Satanic Verses".

Other news. Rugby could be going better. We're struggling to get numbers out to practice and games. We're not a very big (size) team to begin with, so with a lack of subs to keep legs fresh the games get very tiring. I've become used to the Sunday morning feeling of having a compressed back. I usually play second row or flanker (the former would explain the back). We have a home game tomorrow against UVA's B-side. It should be a good one if we have enough people show up. The weather has been pretty nice, and it's supposed to get up to the mid 50's tomorrow so that bodes well.
More 'other news', I have a new girlfriend. She's from Chicago and has an amusing accent. I think that our family friend put it best when they told me I was a "serial monogamist".

We also just got our batch of new members to the fraternity. They're working hard and learning a lot, and cleaning my entire room with a toothbrush as we speak. Kidding. But they did tell me and my friend that we were the reason that 70% of them were there. They said we did a really good job in the recruitment process. I was flattered and subsequently decided to run for Rush Chair this year. As of right now I'm running unopposed.

Glad to be a part of this now.

Over and out,
-MC

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The Hardest Week of the Year

Because of our missed days last week, we are behind on our teaching schedule and we missed a night of parent conferences. As a result, we're scrambling with getting ready for the standardized tests and we have 3 nights in row of conferences, below-zero temperatures again and an outbreak of strep in the school. I've got my annual hut trip with the guys this weekend, and I'm SOO looking forward to a break! Sorry there's no time to post photos. We're soldiering on pretty well, although we're also trying to get the house ready to show for sale (lots o' crap accumulated over 13 years!). Loved the Mirror Man- too bad about all that bad luck he's due for. It must be payback for narcissism. Happy Birthday to Drew! Congratulations to Rachael! Love to all!
Rico

Regarding Books, School, and - of course - the weather!

All of Dad's recent reads sound intriguing and make me feel like I should be tackling something more challenging than Anita Shreve! I have been gobbling up her most recent novel Rescue, and before that I read Alexander McCall Smith's latest addition to his "Sunday Philosophy Club" series The Charming Quirks of Others. I've enjoyed both. Rachael, Ken and I are the latest family members to get hooked on "The Week", which I find contains just the right amount of information on a great variety of news stories. Anyone else read a good book lately?

Rachael has had a week of good and bad news: she has a job at the Woolworths supermarket near the airport (yeah! money!!), but missed out on an offer from the University of Queensland. We'll be having a family brainstorming session this weekend to try and come up with a "next step" for her that everyone's happy with - wish us luck!

Emily has started Grade 10 and is happy as ever to be back to the challenge of a new year. She has good teachers, a MacBook (courtesy of the school), and an improved attitude towards her committments. Time will tell...

Loved the photo of Sarah's reflective head - would love to see it "in person"! I'm sure it is breathtaking. And I loved the photo of Boden on his "cool" day - it looks so wintry you can FEEL the cold (which is nice when it's 37C and 85% humidity outside!!) See - I just can't help but mention the weather!! Love to all, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DREW!!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Book Reviews

Of course, the weather comes first! We're in another cold snap with light snow falling - a beautiful view out my study window. I think I am about over my long drawn out cold and the energy level is creeping up - I'm almost back to my full swimming routine. Also, I've got most of my volunteer work up to date except for checking last month's treasurer reports for the Library Foundation - I always put that last - so I though I'd head to the blog and delay it further.

My cold provided a lot of reading time during the recovery and I've read several interesting books of different types. They all have something to recommend in them. Big Citizenship is an upbeat account of the founding of City Year, a volunteer NGO that now works in city schools around the country and in London and South Africa. Alan Khazei, the co-founder, is a SPS grad and former student of mine. He was instrumental in getting the new public service law thru the Congress. The book isn't particularly well written and there is a good bit of name dropping - illustrating the power of networking in achieving goals. In spite of these drawbacks it is a tribute to what an individaul with an idea can achieve.

The Places in Between by Rory Stewart is a Scot's account of walking, basically alone, across Afghanistan in 2002 after the invasion. He describes the different tribal groups, the snow (it was winter!), the beauty of the country, and one individual's persoanl journey to get to know the people of the region. Stewart is now a member of the British Parliament and was knighted for work done in Iraq. It is well worth reading if you have any interest in what goes on behind the headlines in Afghanistan. I found it fascinating and wish I had read it several years ago, It should be required reading, together with Mortenson's Stones into Schools and Three Cups of Tea, for every soldier in Afghanistan and especially the US leadership.

Another perspective on travel is given in The Routes of Man by Ted Conover. He describes six different journeys on "roads" from icy tarils along frozen rivers in Ladakh (next to Kashmir in the Himalayas) joining a group of high school kids leaving home for boarding school, to 'road clubs' that travel the new highways of China as tourists in their new, fancy cars, to traveling with truckers in East Africa along the route that brought AIDS out of Central Africa to the world. His travel descriptions are very well done but he avoids any judgements or opinated conclusions about how roads are chinging the world - the sub title. The other three roads traveled are in the city of Logos ( a mess,) over the Peruvian Andes with rain forest maghony headed for NYC, and in Palestine ("a war you can commute to.") I learned a lot of interesting bits but missed the analytical side that asks, 'so what?'

I'm almost finished Journey to Ladakh, a book I bought in the 1980s when I was going to Ladakh - I chickend out when the monsoon came early and mud slides took out some stretches of the road. The story is one man, Andrew Harvey's, journey to this isolated and beautiful area, a Tibetan Buddhist region in the Himalayas bordering Tibet and now part of India. It was still quite untouched in the early 1980s. He describes the country with its light and mountains, its crumbling monasteries, streams and rivers, and I can relate to it having been close to Ladakh and in Bhutan and Tibet, and, of course, in the Colorado mountains. The author was interested in Buddhism and he describes his personal meeting with a Rinpoche and how it opened new vistas for his life. Another fulfiling story of journeying.

For total relaxation I read Dick and Felix Francis's mystery/murder story, Dead Heat. Besides the horses, the setting is the restaurant business. It moves fast and is well done - a bit more sex in this one than when Dick was writing with his wife rather than his son!

I think my next book is going to be on Palestine. We had dinner with a very interesting and attractive woman from Palestine last week and several books came up in the conversation. It will have a connection to her visit and a chapter in the Routes of Man. I must say I am enjoying this non-fiction reading spree.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Mirror Man

Sarah, I really like what you have created here. Regardless of the message, the physical head is beautifully done and captures interest immediately. It lends itself to a variety of interpretations, and in that way pulls the viewer in. Nice sparing use of color panels too. There is also a sense of TIME involved here too---how much will I just reflect, and how much allow will I allow into my brain, and what will I do with it there? There is process as well. I am intriguied. Yia-Yia

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Just kidding! I stand corrected. It represents a cool exterior and a resistance to letting people see the person behind it.

Mirror Man

This is Sarah's completed first IB Art project. It is called Mirror Man. The gist of the message is that this person is one of those who spend their time trying to be what they see and think they should be (a reflection of the society they perceive) rather than being who they are.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

All the Dobbs dwellers have their fingers crossed for you - both for school and lack of cyclone impact.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Hello, it is Rachael! Woo!!
I am incredibly jealous of all the cold weather you all are experiencing. Brisbane is not too bad at the moment, despite the humidity. However, it is nice to have the sunshine back! North Queensland has just recovered from floods and is bracing itself for a massive cyclone to hit sometime in the next day or two. Yasi is enormous and both the hospitals in Cairns have been evacuated down to Brisbane. Crazy stuff!
I have been job hunting for a few months now with little success however I have an interview tomorrow at a supermarket near the airport! Hopefully I'll get the job and get to meet some interesting tourists as I pack groceries! Tomorrow is also the second major offer round for the university courses I've applied to. Fingers crossed I am accepted in UQ (University of Queensland) for either a bachelor of social sciences or a bachelor of arts!
I am enjoying my holiday time, if accepted into uni I have another month left before I restart school. I spent a couple nights with my boyfriend and his family on the Gold Coast a week ago. Luckily I didn't get too sunburnt! We visited Dreamworld the themepark which was fun even though my shoulders got a little pink. Otherwise, I've been filling my time with successully learning how to use the washing machine! My first independant load of washing is waiting to be folded!
I'm very excited about tomorrow and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated!

Love Rachael!

P.s I might update the Kellogg Blog's colour scheme if I can find the button again!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Too Cool For School



Too Cool For School


That was the caption for one of the articles on the front page of the Daily Camera today. I hate too have my comeback to blogging after a little hiatus be related to the weather again (How lame is that?) but it’s really that one thing that keeps disrupting everyone’s lives, so we’ve got to talk about it!


Today was an unprecedented ‘cold day’ for Boulder Valley schools as the high temperature didn’t get above 0F. The district was concerned that the busses would not be ready to handle these kinds of Minnesotan temperatures, and that little tykes would freeze solid waiting for the incapacitated busses to show up. As tonight is forecast to be the “low temperature of the decade”, somewhere around -19F, they’re also calling tomorrow as a ‘cold day’. So, we have an unanticipated weekend in the middle of the week. Since this is my first week of conferences, I got through one night and now and I’m getting way ahead of preparing for the rest. Sadly, we’re getting behind on the planned lessons and the schedule is going to be wacky for a while.


Sorry for the lapse in posting on the blog- Elli justifiably called me on it. We had a nice skype chat the other day. There’s been a LOT going on in the Kellogg house recently with the new year. The school calendar has been going full-tilt, and we’ve been hitting Eldora as much as we can over the weekends to make some turns. When we’re not skiing, we’ve been getting tons of geocaching in. As Team BRR, we’ve found 50 caches since Thanksgiving and placed 6 in our “A Ditch Runs Through It” series. Check it out at:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?u=ricokellogg&submit4=Go


Alden celebrated her 3rd birthday and she has now taken up her rightful position as the head of the family. She got a great dollhouse and has been moving in her friends and furniture and marshalling her brother as a moving and feng shui assistant.

Speaking of moving and feng shui, mom and dad Kellogg (that would be us, Rico and Kate) have been looking into a possible shift in the home location. We’ve found a new development on the far northern edge of town with brand new green-built homes and incredible views to open space with trail access out the back door. We’re deep into the pros and cons weighing phase, but we’ll share any developments as they come up. It’s a mind-numbing proposition, but we’re staying open to the possibility of change!

Stay warm, dry and well!

Rico