Happy Groundhog's Day from Leo

Happy Groundhog's Day! I'm Leo. My mommy and daddy think I bear striking resemblance to Punxsutawney Phil, the world's most famous weatherman and the only one who is also a humble little groundhog. They thought it would be hilarious to humiliate me by comparing me to this fatty of a rodent who "predicts" the weather by "seeing his shadow" and miraculously draws thousands of people annually to the small town of Punxsutawney, PA to witness the event. I simply don't see the resemblance. Do you?

Rick-Rolled

I just got "rick-rolled". A few minutes ago, Joe called my cell phone. The ringtone that plays when he, and everyone else, calls is "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, a 1987 ballad that is pretty much one of the worst songs of all time. My mother-in-law, Kathy, told me that she used to do step aerobics to it back in the day. Now the song is used to prank people. Including me. Everyday. Every time my phone rings. Here's a Wikipedia link to the meaning and practice of "rick rolling":

And here's a You Tube video of Rick performing his song. It's pretty bad.

I'm too lazy to change my ringtone, just in case you were wondering.

The new BLUE vs. GRAY

So I blame not posting for a month on our leaving town for 10 days, me starting Inorganic Chemistry, and job hunting. And then there are those wonderful winter blues. Not exactly "post-holiday slump", but just putting the hand to the plow to face yet another day of gray skies. I've lived here in the Northwest since 1987, and I've become accustomed to the fact that we are famous for our rainy, gloomy days. In fact, I've even grown to APPRECIATE them because there are so many types of rain: misting, showering, downpouring, sprinkling... it's never just raining outside and it's truly a spectacle to watch the rain fall as one would watch snowflakes. But, like the Midwest has to face months of long, dark nights and days of freezing winds and blustry snowstorms, we have to endure the GRAY. Needless to say, I'll take the rain over GRAY any day. At least something's going on outside my window besides the GRAY that suffocates our atmosphere and blots out the BLUE.

I always forget that there is BLUE waiting to be beheld, lingering above the GREY. I am reminded of this when the plane I am in takes off and while gaining altitude, eventually has to penetrate through it. At that moment, my eyes are filled with the sight of golden SUNSHINE mingling with BLUE. While others are dozing off around me with their headphones in ears, it's a rush I look forward to every time. On GRAY days when I am not on an airplane and my feet are planted on the ground, I look up at the sky and close my eyes. I attempt to comfort myself with memories of the last time I saw BLUE and how it warmed my face and not GRAY when I woke up that morning. You really have to develop a good imagination and a whole lot of faith in order to even attempt this, because when you open your eyes again, all you see is what you started with, GRAY. (I do realize people from regions when sun is more plentiful might think this a bit daft. Even I do sometimes, I'll admit. But when it serves as a spark of hope when it's well needed, it's worth it. I generally loath to take things at face value anyway.) It helps to, if not subconsciously, transcend the environment around you even for just a few minutes.

a little error...

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the writing, printing, folding, and mailing of our annual Christmas letter, we noticed a little mistake. See if you can catch it:

December 2009

Merry Christmas, dear family and friends!

We are 2 ½ years into our journey of marriage: the better we love God, the better we love each other. He is always faithful to our needs, and even our wants from time to time. See what He did for us in 2010:

Joe successfully concluded his first year of teaching at Pioneer Middle School in DuPont, WA. Towards the end of the school year, he was approached by his principal regarding a possible change in his teaching assignment. Despite budget cuts in surrounding districts as a result of the recession, Steilacoom Historical District No. 1 had funds available for full-time choir teachers for both Pioneer and Steilacoom HS! Joe was given 24 hours to decide which position he’d rather take. After listing the pros and cons of each position and, of course, much prayer, Joe took the high school position. And I must say, he is well suited for it: he enjoys the challenge of molding rowdy students into fine singing ensembles. Or shall we say rowdy singing ensembles, most days. He has a gift for recognizing raw young talent and aiding students in honing their craft for post-secondary aspirations or for encouraging their passion for singing. He teaches an all-female choir, a beginning coed choir, an advanced coed choir, a select coed ensemble, and a music theory/history/guitar class. Hoping to add to his teaching endorsements, he is also teaching a first year French class. After a strenuous nine month long search, God blessed us with a new church home, Oberlin Congregational, in Steilacoom, and in October Joe hosted his first high school choir concert there. If you are interested in listening to a portion of it, go to www.youtube.com, type “zachwingfield” into the “Search” field, hit Search, then scroll down to “SHS Pinnacle Choir.” (However, he did not compose any of the music, contrary to what it says.)

Joe continues to sing on the side - and get paid for it too! He fills in as tenor from time to time for friends in the choir Sunday mornings at St. Mary’s Episcopal in Lakewood or at Trinity Lutheran in Parkland. Joe is not just The Music Man, he’s Car Repair/Maintenance Man too. He has enjoyed many a Sunday afternoon under the hood of one of our cars, tinkering with windshield wipers and flushing radiators.

The question of graduate school for choral conducting in Joe’s future remains just that: a question. Since it took him 7.5 years to get from high school graduation to having a “real job,” and since he just transferred this year to a new assignment in his district, he does not feel like going back to school is a good idea right now. He wants to invest in the students and music program at SHS for a few more years before moving on to anything different. Plus, now that he has a steady and well-paying job, he is ready to put his hand to the plow and let Katy pursue her goals.

December marks 13 months as a Nursing Assistant for Katy at ManorCare in Gig Harbor. She is finding what draws her to nursing is the direct involvement in the rawness of the human experience. Although she strove to build report with her coworkers and worked diligently to understand and meet the needs of her geriatric patients, she intends to apply for a hospital CNA position come the start of the new year. It’s time for a change! She wants as many new experiences in the healthcare field as a CNA before committing to nursing school full time. It’ll be another 12 months until she is eligible to apply for an RN or LPN program. Meanwhile, she is taking one prerequisite a quarter at Tacoma Community College. Last summer, she took Cell Biology. At the time you are reading this, she is studying for her final in Chemistry while pumping herself up for Inorganic Chemistry and Psychology 100 for winter quarter. Many a Sunday afternoon passes with Katy and her chemistry book at the local Starbucks. The light, although faint, is still visible at the end of the tunnel, and the prospect of realizing her vocational goals in 3+ years is what fuels those arduous late nights in the chemistry lab.

In November, Katy decided to start a blog, thinking that it might be nice to keep the parents and friends abreast of the everyday goings-on of “The Lindquist Two”. If you’re lucky, she might have posted the third blog entry by the time you read this. Check it out at: http://katylindquist.blogspot.com

Our kitties, Leo and Millie, continue to be our pride and joy- as long as they don’t mess the carpet (not that they have) or scratch the couch (not that they haven’t). They are our constant companions everyday, helping Katy fold the laundry and Joe grade papers.

We had the pleasure of hosting Joe’s parents for a week in June. Since they hail from Fargo, we only get to see them about twice a year (three if we are lucky). Katy tried her hand at cooking for her in-laws and Joe was only too happy to go for lots of walks around Chambers Bay Golf Course. We took a quick jog down I-5 to Katy’s parents’ house in Oregon and, all together, drove over to Cannon Beach on the coast. Thankfully, we’ll see both sets of parents this Christmas.

We love you all! We welcome all emails, cards, photos, and even phone calls!

Keep in touch.

Thinking of you,

If you guessed that we typed "2010" instead of "2009" at the beginning of the letter, you've guessed correctly! We were at Kinko's one Saturday night and just before feeding the master copy into the copy machine, I noticed it. We debated running home and fixing it but decided against it. Hence, to all our family and friends who received a letter this year, we apologize in advance for my last-minute obvious doctoring of our Christmas letter to read "2009" instead of "2010".

The picture is from when we went to Steilacoom's annual Christmas tree lighting at Town Hall. Santa read "The Night Before Christmas" and Joe's all-girl choir, Celestial Singers performed.

rolling up our sleeves for Christmas...

With Thanksgiving under our belts, we welcome the Advent season into our home. I especially love this time of year because Target puts out all their really cool merchandise-wait no! I TRULY love Advent because we get to celebrate Jesus' birth and realize what it means to be in relationship with the Living God all year long. Oh, what peace I have from Him!

Joe and I are discovering what the holidays mean for our little family of two. We have Joe's family in Fargo, ND, and Minnesota, and my family in the Northwest, California, Florida, and Minnesota. So, needless to say, sometimes the holidays are a bittersweet time of loving the ones we're with if we can't be with the ones we love. We have been fortunate to fly out from Seattle to the Upper Midwest for the past 4 Christmases plus spend some time with my parents in Oregon; this year will mark number 5. We savor these blessings.

Although we are seasoned (haha get it?) holiday travelers, we do not have a track record of decorating in our own home because we were gone so much of the time during the season and we simply didn't have the money! This year marks the first year that we actually have a real Christmas tree!! My parents brought an extra tree they had in storage up for us and they helped us decorate it. My sister Chelsea and brother in law Rob came down from Renton and we all watched Uncle Buck while we decorated. I think my red, gold, and silver theme came together quite cohesively.

for starters...

Hi. We are Joe and Katy Lindquist, although the writer of this post (Katy) is most likely to be the primary blogger. We live in University Place, WA, a suburb of Tacoma. When Joe is not jogging, balancing our checkbook on Quicken, or helping with the dinner dishes, he tends to spend most of his time at Steilacoom High School, where he teaches choir and French. If he had it his way, he would sing for The Concordia Choir full time under the direction of Dr. Rene Clausen. Katy, while toiling away at her current job as a Nursing Assistant at a nursing home in Gig Harbor, dreams of attending nursing school someday...after she completes her prereqs 1 quarter at a time at Tacoma Community College. She loves to paint portraits in watercolor and hones her cooking/baking skills on her guinea pig of a husband, who fortunately has a hollow leg and will eat anything except maraschino cherries and grapefruit.