Season's greetings, family and friends! The impending new year finds the Angola Sauers healthy and happy.
The year coming to a close brought challenges, but challenges not as extreme as those faced in earlier years. In general, 2007 will be remembered as a calm, quiet time.
We took lots of short, fun trips. In February, we enjoyed an overnight stay at an Indianapolis waterpark, thanks to Aunt Ellen. Several times during the year we visited the Fort Wayne and Toledo zoos.
In May, the girls joined me onstage in a revival of the old Recyclone show. (More on the Recyclone later in this blog.) We were the featured entertainment at an Earth Day celebration in northwest Indiana. The girls enjoyed the moment in the spotlight and I enjoyed sharing with them a taste of my earlier life. Later that day, we relaxed on the sand dunes along Lake Michigan.
In June, we traveled to Tennessee for Cousin Nick and Whitney's wedding. We stopped near Cumberland Falls to camp. We knew the area would be beautiful, but weren't prepared for what we found. The night we arrived, it already had begun to turn dark. We climbed down winding trails through rock formations covered in moss. We couldn't wait to explore more, so early the next morning, we set off for a long hike to the falls. All we had to do was follow the roar. If anyone has the chance to visit Cumberland Falls, one sight of the massive wall of foamy white will reward the effort.
The wedding is well documented. It was a valiant Sauer effort to celebrate this first coupling of the next generation. We felt we did our part by eating, drinking and dancing.
Like a glacier melting, we made slow progress on the house. The big bathroom project is now (almost) complete. MacKenzie's bedroom got a makeover, including a built-in bookcase and Harry Potter decor. With a little help from high places, we replaced the roof. And now the dining room walls stand bare, awaiting our next best efforts. About the time Global Warming turns Indiana into beach front property, we should have the house in tip-top condition.
Now, let's take a more intimate look at individual family members, shall we?
Monday, December 31, 2007
Avrie Ann
In identifying herself among the Sauer sisters, Avrie told a family friend she was "the weird one." No one disputed her claim.
Avrie is known by several labels. We also call her Casper, the Biafrin, Skinny Minnie and the Albino Chipmunk. Her coloring and body shape (or lack thereof) inspire the nicknames. True to her uniqueness, Avrie may be the only female in America who wants to gain weight.
But she takes, and dispenses, ribbing with good humor. Avrie stands apart from her older sisters in at least two aspects: she views other's accomplishments and possessions without jealousy and she is the Sauer child most willing to laugh at herself.
But despite differences, Avrie longs intensely to be like her sisters. Following their example, she is a fervent Harry Potter fan, and collects Webkinz and Bobbleheads. She instructed me to tell you that she is also into Bratz (she got a boy Brat and the Bratz movie for Christmas) and Hannah Montana.
Like her sisters, Avrie reads almost constantly. (When she isn't watching TV, that is.) She cut through the Magic Treehouse series like a lumos maximus charm through darkness. Last night, I'm told, she finished the Spiderwick series.
Avrie makes friends easily, but Carly remains at the top of her list. A familiar sight at suppertime: Avrie walking through the house with the cell phone held in front her, talking to Carly with the speakerphone option on.
By the way, all of Avrie's speech is currently sprinkled with extra s's. This was the year of the Tooth Fairy. One of her front teeth was recently exchanged for cash.
Avrie is known by several labels. We also call her Casper, the Biafrin, Skinny Minnie and the Albino Chipmunk. Her coloring and body shape (or lack thereof) inspire the nicknames. True to her uniqueness, Avrie may be the only female in America who wants to gain weight.
But she takes, and dispenses, ribbing with good humor. Avrie stands apart from her older sisters in at least two aspects: she views other's accomplishments and possessions without jealousy and she is the Sauer child most willing to laugh at herself.
But despite differences, Avrie longs intensely to be like her sisters. Following their example, she is a fervent Harry Potter fan, and collects Webkinz and Bobbleheads. She instructed me to tell you that she is also into Bratz (she got a boy Brat and the Bratz movie for Christmas) and Hannah Montana.
Like her sisters, Avrie reads almost constantly. (When she isn't watching TV, that is.) She cut through the Magic Treehouse series like a lumos maximus charm through darkness. Last night, I'm told, she finished the Spiderwick series.
Avrie makes friends easily, but Carly remains at the top of her list. A familiar sight at suppertime: Avrie walking through the house with the cell phone held in front her, talking to Carly with the speakerphone option on.
By the way, all of Avrie's speech is currently sprinkled with extra s's. This was the year of the Tooth Fairy. One of her front teeth was recently exchanged for cash.
Morgan Leigh
Movement defines Morgie. In her school portraits, she sits listlessly, staring warily at the camera. It's in moments like that, when she's nervous and shy, that people get the wrong picture of Morgan. They have to see her move to know the person. She loves to dance, and it's when she's twirling around without inhibition that you see her soul.
Morgie, who turned 11 on December 10, still skips to her own beat---a beat only she can hear. At any moment, she'll throw her arms around you, tell you she loves you, then do a little hoppity-skippity, walking dance out of the room.
Thoughts boil around in Morgan's head, but we only see the bubbles on the surface. If you're quiet and patient, you can catch her giving a cooking show to the kitchen window, or diving into the YMCA pool again and again to save Ron Weasley, Hermoine or Cho from the merpeople. It's a great gift to carry your own fun with you wherever you might go.
Of course, an over-active imagination can be a burden, too. Every muscle twinge or gastronomical rumbling foreshadows a bout with cancer. Every blemish turns into a tick burrowing into your skin. Hearing a news report can be sheer terror when the world's woes are applied to you personally. Luckily, shadows only appear where there's bright light, and dark thoughts don't last long.
Morgie will remember 2007 as the year she first stepped on stage. This fall she auditioned for a local production of "The Miracle on 34th Street" and got several small parts. Her four or five lines of dialogue were deemed just right for a debut appearance. And, although she occasionally assumed the look she has in her school portraits, family critics declared her performance superb. At the very least, she got an insider's look at how a play is put together. She has already declared her intention to be in the next production.
Although she can make a mess with the best, Morgie likes to help around the house. She does the fun stuff like cooking and baking, but she'll also pitch in with dishes and cleaning up, often----and here's the shocker---without being asked.
A voracious reader, Morgan finished the Harry Potter series this year and almost immediately began reading it again. In between, she's gone through the Spiderwick and Lemony Snickett series, with single titles in between.
Morgie, who turned 11 on December 10, still skips to her own beat---a beat only she can hear. At any moment, she'll throw her arms around you, tell you she loves you, then do a little hoppity-skippity, walking dance out of the room.
Thoughts boil around in Morgan's head, but we only see the bubbles on the surface. If you're quiet and patient, you can catch her giving a cooking show to the kitchen window, or diving into the YMCA pool again and again to save Ron Weasley, Hermoine or Cho from the merpeople. It's a great gift to carry your own fun with you wherever you might go.
Of course, an over-active imagination can be a burden, too. Every muscle twinge or gastronomical rumbling foreshadows a bout with cancer. Every blemish turns into a tick burrowing into your skin. Hearing a news report can be sheer terror when the world's woes are applied to you personally. Luckily, shadows only appear where there's bright light, and dark thoughts don't last long.
Morgie will remember 2007 as the year she first stepped on stage. This fall she auditioned for a local production of "The Miracle on 34th Street" and got several small parts. Her four or five lines of dialogue were deemed just right for a debut appearance. And, although she occasionally assumed the look she has in her school portraits, family critics declared her performance superb. At the very least, she got an insider's look at how a play is put together. She has already declared her intention to be in the next production.
Although she can make a mess with the best, Morgie likes to help around the house. She does the fun stuff like cooking and baking, but she'll also pitch in with dishes and cleaning up, often----and here's the shocker---without being asked.
A voracious reader, Morgan finished the Harry Potter series this year and almost immediately began reading it again. In between, she's gone through the Spiderwick and Lemony Snickett series, with single titles in between.
Before you picture her as a pure intellectual, I've been instructed by one of her sisters to note that Morgie also watches too much TV.
Friday, December 28, 2007
MacKenzie Jill
MacKenzie soon will become our family's first teenager. She turns 13 on January 2. Already she exhibits teen symptoms. She talks tough, dissolves in disinterest when family projects are proposed, aches to own electronics and clothes, giggles uncontrollably when boys are within hearing range, and is drawn like a zombie to television and the Internet. Just for fun and without provocation, she screams.
A casual observer would first notice MacKenzie's height. She added five inches in 2007 and now stands proud of 5-foot-six. Her legs account for 5-foot-two of the total.
Obsessed is a strong word, but not strong enough to explain MacKenzie's interest in Harry Potter. She reads and rereads the books, she watches and re-watches the movies. She consumes magazines and downloads photos. Her most avid interest focuses on Ron (pronounced "Rhon" by his close observers); she can tell you each time Rhon sprouts a new pimple or facial hair. (Bloody hell!) MacKenzie has gone so far as to re-write the Harry Potter saga and added herself as a character named "Bailey." To this point, the manuscript unfolds over 180 typed pages, complete with hand-drawn illustrations and back-story character sketches.
When her mind can be pried from Rhon, MacKenzie enjoys music. She shares the third flute chair in the Angola Middle School band. (For some reason, first chair has three members, second chair has six members, third chair has 12 members, and fourth chair has 178 members, or something like that.) Despite continued interest in flute, MacKenzie soon will begin playing saxophone with a borrowed instrument and individual lessons from the band director.
MacKenzie recently became the proud surrogate mother of a cow. I'm not kidding. Suzann's husband, a Michigan dairy farmer, is letting MacKenzie raise a baby bull bovine. The cow's name: Ron.
MacKenzie and her new step-sister, Heather, have grown inseparable. They enjoy overnight stays at each other's houses.
Our Angola neighbors are thrilled to have MacKenzie nearby. She is a willing, even eager, babysitter. She loves kids and treats them tenderly. She'd take care of the little nippers---as Rhon would say----just for fun. But she also likes the money.
MacKenzie wants me to add that she got a DIGITAL CAMERA and, omigod, an iPOD FOR CHRISTMAS!$%!!! AIIGTHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
A casual observer would first notice MacKenzie's height. She added five inches in 2007 and now stands proud of 5-foot-six. Her legs account for 5-foot-two of the total.
Obsessed is a strong word, but not strong enough to explain MacKenzie's interest in Harry Potter. She reads and rereads the books, she watches and re-watches the movies. She consumes magazines and downloads photos. Her most avid interest focuses on Ron (pronounced "Rhon" by his close observers); she can tell you each time Rhon sprouts a new pimple or facial hair. (Bloody hell!) MacKenzie has gone so far as to re-write the Harry Potter saga and added herself as a character named "Bailey." To this point, the manuscript unfolds over 180 typed pages, complete with hand-drawn illustrations and back-story character sketches.
When her mind can be pried from Rhon, MacKenzie enjoys music. She shares the third flute chair in the Angola Middle School band. (For some reason, first chair has three members, second chair has six members, third chair has 12 members, and fourth chair has 178 members, or something like that.) Despite continued interest in flute, MacKenzie soon will begin playing saxophone with a borrowed instrument and individual lessons from the band director.
MacKenzie recently became the proud surrogate mother of a cow. I'm not kidding. Suzann's husband, a Michigan dairy farmer, is letting MacKenzie raise a baby bull bovine. The cow's name: Ron.
MacKenzie and her new step-sister, Heather, have grown inseparable. They enjoy overnight stays at each other's houses.
Our Angola neighbors are thrilled to have MacKenzie nearby. She is a willing, even eager, babysitter. She loves kids and treats them tenderly. She'd take care of the little nippers---as Rhon would say----just for fun. But she also likes the money.
MacKenzie wants me to add that she got a DIGITAL CAMERA and, omigod, an iPOD FOR CHRISTMAS!$%!!! AIIGTHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Monday, December 24, 2007
LeeP.
My 2007 sailed along calmly, uneventfully, dully. Judging from past Christmas letters, it's the kind of year I've been hoping for lo these many eons, and yet, now that the doldrums have descended, I'm not sure I'm content with peace and routine. It's time to shake things up.
There. I flipped the radio from FM to AM. That will cause some discomfort.
My years as a freelance artist and writer are slowly slipping into the misty lanes of my memories. Unfortunately, what I did yesterday is similarly fading, but my point is that my career has taken a turn. I am, for better or worse---good for me, bad for my customers---a handyman.
In case it isn't obvious, these different careers don't easily and naturally flow from one into the other. As a writer, you might misplace some notes, but while you shuffle papers a thought of crystal clarity might pop into your mind. As an artist, you may misplace a pencil, but a few moments of searching can aid the image in your mind to take on form. Writing and drawing are cloud-like, creative endeavors based on ideas, which can be aided by a mind that takes its time to wander.
But as a handyman, if you lose your hammer, you lose effectiveness and profitibility. If you lose concentration on a ladder, you fall. The handyman world is concrete, with well-defined lines and harsh realities. You can't pound a nail with an unaimed thought.
Needless to say, my genes are at war with themselves. I need the super efficient Sauer gene to dominate, but the gentler, easily-distracted Wasbotten gene-----oh, look. There's a squirrel----.................
I'm sorry. I forgot what I was talking about.
Anyhoo, work is a challenge.
I have one artistic project underway: this next year (2008) will mark the 20th anniversary of my Recyclone cartoon. For those who don't know, I drew a cartoon from 1988 to 1992 and it was published in the Auburn Evening Star. (In 1989, I developed the strip into a live show and gave school programs until 2000.) Anyhoo, I'm collecting the 100 or so Recyclone cartoons in a book, which I will self publish. I hope to get it out in late summer.
Enough of this nostalgic peek back at our past year. Time to get back to work.
Anyone seen my hammer?
There. I flipped the radio from FM to AM. That will cause some discomfort.
My years as a freelance artist and writer are slowly slipping into the misty lanes of my memories. Unfortunately, what I did yesterday is similarly fading, but my point is that my career has taken a turn. I am, for better or worse---good for me, bad for my customers---a handyman.
In case it isn't obvious, these different careers don't easily and naturally flow from one into the other. As a writer, you might misplace some notes, but while you shuffle papers a thought of crystal clarity might pop into your mind. As an artist, you may misplace a pencil, but a few moments of searching can aid the image in your mind to take on form. Writing and drawing are cloud-like, creative endeavors based on ideas, which can be aided by a mind that takes its time to wander.
But as a handyman, if you lose your hammer, you lose effectiveness and profitibility. If you lose concentration on a ladder, you fall. The handyman world is concrete, with well-defined lines and harsh realities. You can't pound a nail with an unaimed thought.
Needless to say, my genes are at war with themselves. I need the super efficient Sauer gene to dominate, but the gentler, easily-distracted Wasbotten gene-----oh, look. There's a squirrel----.................
I'm sorry. I forgot what I was talking about.
Anyhoo, work is a challenge.
I have one artistic project underway: this next year (2008) will mark the 20th anniversary of my Recyclone cartoon. For those who don't know, I drew a cartoon from 1988 to 1992 and it was published in the Auburn Evening Star. (In 1989, I developed the strip into a live show and gave school programs until 2000.) Anyhoo, I'm collecting the 100 or so Recyclone cartoons in a book, which I will self publish. I hope to get it out in late summer.
Enough of this nostalgic peek back at our past year. Time to get back to work.
Anyone seen my hammer?
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