Laura is one fun gal! On the way home Wednesday we were talking about her favorites. She told me her favorite CD’s are “Woody” and the “Chipmunks” - “but nobody beats the Chipmunks!” Her favorite food is watermelon and potato chips come as a far second. Her favorite color is “pinky-purple”. What a joy it is to see her blossom into her own little person!
What an eventful week! The week started out with Helen having her adenoids removed successfully and coming home on the same day. We were actually expecting to stay overnight because of her small size and because she had heart surgery just three months ago. Well…she was such a trooper they decided she did not need to stay overnight! What a blessing! She was able to come home and sleep in her own bed peacefully, the WHOLE night!!
That same day she wowed us by starting to crawl on her hands and knees in the pre-op area. We had been told that she might not do this because she was already two and hadn’t yet. She is also extremely flexible and we thought that she might not have the muscle tone to do it. But of course, she is amazing! Now she mixes the hands and knees crawl with her army drag one leg scoot.
Laura is continuing to learn to read! Wow, I can’t believe it but she is four and reading! She is definitely smart like her dad. Jeff has put a couple of games on the “family” computer for her to play. One is Roller Coaster Tycoon. She is able to add trees and all sorts of landscape to the amusement park without reading how to do it. Yesterday she even did something that Jeff wasn’t sure how to do. He says, “Get used to it!” I am sure that she will soon pass us both up on her computer smarts as soon as she can read everything.
Our prayers go out to those affected by the 35W bridge collapse that happened yesterday at 6:05 pm in downtown Minneapolis. We heard about it around 6:30 from Len, Rachel’s dad who called us to tell us the news. My dad called us at about 6:45 to ask what we knew about it…he and my mom were out to eat at a restaurant and had been told by the waiter that a bridge had collapsed.
This disaster, although it has not caused anyone we know of to be hurt, is disturbing nonetheless. I’ve personally probably travelled over that bridge thousands of times over the years, and also travelled under it on the West River Road or SE 2nd Street. I went to the University of Minnesota from 1988-1993; I lived in the Seven Corners Apartments right next to 35W in 1992-93; Rachel lived in the Dinkytown area from 1995-96; I had classes for my MSSE program in the West Bank Office Building of the U of M right by the bridge; and all the other countless times driving over that bridge to get to destinations north of the river…
I sincerely hope that some good will come from this tragedy. It was heartening to hear about the bystanders who stopped to help people without hesitating to worry about their own safety. And hopefully once the cause of the collapse is found, bridge safety around the state and country can be improved.
This is a picture of the I35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. In the background is the Seven Corners Apartments building, where Jeff lived in 1992-93.
An aerial view of the collapsed 35W bridge:
Wow! We have had Helen for one week now. In some respects it feels like it has been longer. It has been wonderful to see Helen’s progression of attachment to us and to see some of the real her. She is such a happy and inquisitive girl! She loves to play - especially with paper. We think it possibly is a novelty to her. She can entertain herself folding, unfolding and turning the same piece of paper for a long time. She also likes the “I drop it, you pick it up game”.
She started to learn to feed herself last night. When I would feed her Cheerios she would just open her mouth and make no attempt to try to feed herself. When I would try to have pick them up herself she would pick them up and purposely drop them. Last night she went from hiding her hand under the bib to taking the Cheerio from my fingers and putting it in her own mouth and then clapping. She then would start to fuss if you didn’t give her praise for doing it. If she could talk, one of her favorite phrases would probably be, “Do it again!” I think we have a little ham on our hands.
We are really impressed with the variety of food that Helen will eat. She will try anything and can eat a lot for her 14 lb body. Laura has been quite adventurous as well. She will try most things but has settled on rice (white or fried) being her favorite. She has done really well without her allotment of milk. Here the milk is reconstituted which she does not like. She has decided that her belly button does not call for milk anymore, it calls for food. It will call for milk in Minnesota only.
Laura is doing great as a big sister. Sure it is hard adjusting to sharing her parents especially after having four adults at her beckon call for two weeks in Hong Kong, but she is doing well. It has been wonderful to have Ross and Karin here to help take care of Laura and make our transition smoother. I have heard the other families talk about how they miss their children at home and I am so grateful that I have mine all here. The other day when I out of the bathroom, Laura and Helen were sitting in Laura’s little foam bed and Laura was singing to Helen about how God made all of the big things.
Laura loves the swimming pools here and has readily taken anyone one up who invites her. That is her favorite time to be outside. She has been a real trooper walking lots of miles around the cities with us. She is ready to have cooler weather as she said yesterday, “I don’t want to go outside, I’ll get all hotted up again!” It has been consistently in the 90’s and very humid. I think that we also look forward to temperatures in the 80’s with less humidity. Here we come Minnesota!
We are all very eager to get home and to establish our new routine. Even though we know that there will be a lot more things to keep us busy we miss it - especially our own beds (In China, they prefer extra firm beds) and turning the water faucet on and drinking from it!
Here is a picture of our two girls:
This map, from Wikipedia, shows how vulnerable the city of New Orleans was to flooding:
There is a good article describing the effects of Katrina on New Orleans on Wikipedia
There is a also a general article about Katrina that has lots of good summary information.
It sounds like things are getting bad in New Orleans. After what seemed to be somewhat of a near-miss on Monday, today it seems that the doomsday predictions are starting to come true.
Herald.com | 08/30/2005 | Sweeping devastation along the Gulf; panic in New Orleans
Let’s continue to pray for all those affected by this disaster. Pray for the rescuers and those in authority, for strenght and that they will know what to do to help those in need.
News? What’s that? Indeed, I have not made keeping this page up-to-date a very high priority. But if you want to know about what’s going on in our family life, you can always visit Laura’s page.
Upcoming: Christmas. We are going to be spending Christmas Eve at Mom & Dad Olson’s, Christmas Morning at Mom & Dad Matejcek’s, Christmas Day at our place with the whole Falck clan, and then December 27th at (Great-)Grandma & Grandpa Olson’s place with the whole Olson clan.
If you’re interested, take a look at our new photo gallery. This new system should allow for easier updating of our photo albums, so check back once in a while to see what’s new.
Wow! It’s been quite a while since I added anything here. I’ve been quite busy with school and work. Most of my web work has been for the church web site.
Rachel has also been busy with school, working on her BSN in nursing. She also continues to work hard as an RN in the Intensive Care Unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
We are excited about some developments at church. We have a new senior pastor who is starting on March 31, Rev. Joel Sutton. Also, we have recently had a small revitalization of our 20 & 30-something Sunday School class (the Chaim class) at church, which is important for our church’s future. Please pray with us that God will do good things at our church!
I just noticed that the last entry on this page was before the awful events of September 11th. What a shocking day that was! There is little I can say about it that hasn’t been said elsewhere. We simply pray that our leaders will make the right decisions that will help bring peace to a broken and fallen world.
Both of us have now finished school for the year! We are looking forward to a nice summer off before hitting the books again next fall.
Also, see the pictures from the MSSE Class of ‘02 picnic yesterday.
I’ve added pictures from the Waterboys Concert on March 28, 2001.