A 46-year old record broken / Father's Day

On June 2, 2012, Cody Zaeske, a junior at East Troy High School broke the WI Division 2 State Meet Long Jump record held by my dad, Ken Peterson, set in 1966.  Here is an excerpt from Madison.com.

East Troy’s Zaeske fells a golden oldie: Of the 25 meet records that fell this weekend, none was as old as the one East Troy junior Cody Zaeske dusted Saturday afternoon.

Zaeske went 23 feet, 8 ¾ inches to win the Division 2 long jump and break the 1966 divisional record (23-1 ¾) set by Grafton’s Ken Peterson. It came on Zaeske’s final try of finals.

“I jumped 23 at regionals, but breaking the state record is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” “It felt like someone was pushing me in the back. I couldn’t believe (how long) I was in the air. I saw I was past the state record mark and I went crazy.”

Afterward, Zaeske revealed one motivation for having a big meet -- brother Cory, a sophomore at UW-Whitewater who placed fourth at last month’s NCAA Division III meet (24-7 ¼).

“Jumping’s in the family,” Zaeske said.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/sports/high-school/track/article_848daa34-ace8-11e1-9687-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1y4zTowlW

This week, my step-father forwarded an email from Bob Wundrock, a high-school teammate of my dad's, to Cody to give him a glimpse at who Ken Peterson was. The two images alongside are scanned copies of an article from the Ozakee County newspaper written on June 4, 1986, 22 days after he died.

Lastly, Bob also forwarded a video of my dad doing the long jump in 1965.

Ever since I was in high school (secretly hoping to break his record myself), I have been aware of the record and every year around this time, I check the results of the state meet, to see if it survived another year. This year, it was only because of this email that I was aware that his record had been broken, mainly because it is a little harder to follow US sports here in South Africa and the seasons are backwards, meaning it feels much more like late football season then track season here.

Anyway, this day had to come and now that it has, and it is a little bittersweet. The record was a part of my dad's legacy, a piece of him that I could hold on to, and now that it is gone, it feels like I have lost a little bit of him. I was 11 years old when he died, 26 years ago, and the impact of his death still hits me like a brick sometimes. His record being broken, coupled with the article from 1986, and the video has just stirred the emotions all up again. I can't help but think, what could have been?

Now, it is pointless to walk down this road, there is nothing that can be done to change what happened, but it is inevitable from time to time to wonder. Questions will just pop into my head, like with his help, could I have been a better jumper, instead of the distance runner that I became? Or at those times of crisis, what pearls of wisdom would he have shared? The questions go on and on.

The road eventually leads to the big question of: Why? Why did this have to happen? When any tragedy occurs, it is our natural human reaction to ask why. I would love to say that over time it all makes sense, but that would be a lie. Time does heal some of the pain and life eventually moves on, but the wound left behind by the tragedy never fully heals, periodically getting reopened.

Today is Fathers Day and this tends to be a day when the pain resurfaces, particularly the question of what could have been? This morning at church, as they were celebrating fathers and had kids hug their dad and Aaron gave one of his precious hugs, I was overwhelmed with the whole thing. Last night, I realized that on May 13 (anniversary of dad's death) this year, I was 37 years old the same age as he was when he died. The question that I could not shake this morning was what if I am not around for Aaron?

Again, another question with no conclusive answer. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee for tomorrow. As is evidence by what happened to our friends in Madison, Jon & Amy, tragedy can strike at any time. Their 7 year old son died last week when a car jumped a curb, bounced off a tree and landed on the picnic table where they were eating. Absolutely tragic.

Okay, before this spirals too far downhill, tragedy is unfortunately a part of life, but we can not let it control who we are. There are ways to survive tragedy, first holding on to the love that we have for those around us, second treasuring the memories that we still have and for me personally, I have relied heavily on the hope that I have in Christ Jesus. I love my dad and look forward to seeing him again, but until that day, I miss him and wish that he were still here.

ants. perspective.

proverbs 6:6 - go watch the ants, you lazy person.  watch what they do and be wise.

so i'm reading thru proverbs these days and was reminded of this verse this morning while i was watching the ants...the ants...

man, we have a lot of ants!!  for awhile we tried to fight it: ant traps, ant spray, squashing ants, wiping ants, sweeping ants, etc, etc.  but now i think we're more at a place of acceptance and for the most part they go about their work and leave us to ours.  usually our paths cross when they seem to fall from the sky and land on your arm or something.  and the last week, or two weeks ago, we had big trouble with flies!  so i would kill the fly and the ants would come running!  they seem to be so attracted to raw meat...yum! :P

its amazing tho, to sit and watch them for a bit.  they work together as a team sometimes to carry really big things (like 1/2 a fly) or on their own they will carry some chunk of something across a huge expanse!  where are they going, how long will it take them to get there, isn't that heavy, why don't they get discouraged and give up??  these questions go thru my mind...

just one of our many ants :)

this is where the perspective comes in...  am i like that ant?  no, i don't think so.  i feel like i give up so easily.  i feel as tho i only pray for blessings and comfort in life.  i feel as tho when life throws me a long journey or a heavy burden that i give up, that i only see myself, that i don't consider the whole "ant colony."  and the thing is i don't even have to go that journey alone or carry that burden by myself...God is always there!  i don't give him the opportunity to even show me that thru my weakness i am strong, that by putting him and others first i actually reap the most.

God is so good tho!  he gives us so many opportunities to come to him.  he doesn't give up on us.  he wants the best for us, and here's the thing that bothers our human perspective, sometimes that means it won't be easy.  that doesn't mean its bad, that doesn't mean that God is bad, it just means that we don't see the whole picture.  it means that we have to TRUST that God knows what he's doing.  it means we have to release control (another society fighting inclination).  it means we have to let God take the reins...in EVERYTHING!  i think i struggle with the everything bit the most.  i can give certain things to God, the big things really, that's good right?  but what about the little things?  what about conversations with people?  what about my actions towards my family?  what about daily living in a way that brings glory to God and not in a way that i'm "comfortable" with?

wow, guys this is long!  one final thought, i'm praying now for more opportunities to trust God.  (that makes me so scared!)  but i desperately want to be drawn closer to God, to know him so intimately that i couldn't imagine a moment without him.  will you pray it too?  do you want to hunger and thirst for a God that hungers and thirsts for you?

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / March 24, 2012]

here's what i love: growing things, here's what i hate: growing things

so one of my friends cleverly does her status as, "here's what i love and here's what i hate" all the time.  it's such a fun way of summing up a day or a situation.  often she would do "roses and thorns" with her kids over dinner before she started doing her facebook status updates that way (and maybe they still do...just haven't done dinner with them in a while, sad.).  which if you are unfamiliar with roses and thorns it's the same sort of thing, rose: what did you like about the day, thorns: what didn't you like about the day.  all that to say i often find myself thinking in those terms about something.  so the title of my note comes out of that...

so, i hate gardening.  not sure how many other supporters of that statement are out there but it's never been my favorite.  but let me tell you how much i love plants, flowers, bushes, trees, grass...other green or growing things...love, love, love!  so my cure to this obvious dilemma is to by cut flowers and live in houses where other people are in charge of the gardening. ;)  and yet somehow i find myself living in a rented house and still doing the gardening (our landlady is sneaky!  not sure how she talked us into that!).  for the most part that means we have to "mow" the grass.  i put mow in quotation marks because we don't really mow it.  it is such a small patch of grass that a law mower is not necessary.  steve uses a weed-eater on the whole thing!  and it only takes 15 minutes, maybe.

yes folks this is our "garden". here in sa, garden is used in the same way we americans would say "yard". :)

but the rest of the "garden" (that's what the south africans call a yard) is flower beds with no flowers...sad.  i've just been living with it because why sink a bunch of money into flower beds that you're renting??  and also, did i mention, i hate gardening??  so recently my solution to this problem is 2 fold.  part 1 of the plan is to "steal" plants.  i don't think it's bad, i haven't really decided.  but i walk thru the neighborhood and when there's a plant that seems to be under-appreciated, growing outside the fence, extra-large or something i just grab it.  (is that wrong?  i'm sorry if it is.  i'm still under the impression that's it not.  let me know tho.  i can stop.)  and part 2 of the plan was to entertain aaron.  he seems to really like watering things.  i think my mom got him hooked when we were in the states in june and july.  so i thought, well, i'd be entertaining him anyway might as well be productive at the same time.  so we drag out the hose and the watering-can and we water all our plants.

so far i feel our results are slow coming.  so i rather hate "growing things."  i seem to get little or no development.  i think i've killed a few things, and other things don't seem to be multiplying like i thought they might.  at the same time weeds seem to crop up everywhere!  why is it weeds are the only things that seem to be able to grow without any effort.  so i hate those "growing things" too.  because instead of revealing in the fact that i have lovely things that have just popped up into my garden all on their own and they need no help from me to survive; i have to use extra effort and try to get rid of them!  what kind of cruel twisted fate is this?

duhn da da duhn...super lawn mower man!!

so all those gardeners out there...i'm sorry.  this is not the note for you.  but for everyone else that has ever struggled to accomplish a "garden" and failed or got frustrated in the process, fist-bumps for you!  we're bros for life. ;)

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / Oct 11, 2011]

spring in september??

it's funny all the differences just living in the southern hemisphere.  people always talk about the toilets flushing backwards...why don't they talk about spring in september?  i mean really who cares which direction the toilet flushes?  how does that affect my life??  i'm waking up these morning feeling the cool air, seeing the beautiful sunshine some days and rain others and thinking in my brain it's fall!  but guess what it's not!  the weather is on it's way to 90 degree (that's 30 celsius for all my south africa readers :)) days!!  flowers are blooming, there's no sight of leaves changing color and yet people are playing football games (in the u.s.) and i have the sudden urge to make chilli.

it's great this being the start of our second year here because there are some things that i know from last year.  not everything will be new this year.  last year at this time we lived in a different house so i find myself reminiscing about some of the things we did/learned when we lived there.  we moved into our house in harfield village last year on december 15.  it was hot!  steve's family was going to arrive soon and be here for christmas then after that it only got hotter.  i have to say it was a difficult time for me.  all my normal scheduled activities were off for christmas/summer break and i was in a new house in a new neighborhood with a 7 month old.  no air conditioning, not even a ceiling fan, our pool was green and it was HOT!  did i mention that it was hot?  so in someways i'm looking forward to a retake on that...finding a new way to survive the summer and hopefully enjoy it more.

but for now, i'm enjoying spring.  i love that the days are lengthening and that we are getting more and more sunny days.  spring and fall (here they only say autumn, they kind of laugh when i say fall :)) are definitely my 2 favorite seasons.  it's funny that i find that they are the hardest to adjust to being during different months.  but they are beautiful!  and so many amazing flowers in the spring!

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / Sept 23, 2011]

just another day...another dirty shirt.

so i'm sitting here looking out my back door, watching the clean laundry swing in the breeze and dry in the sunny rays.  table mountain is in the background, our grass is too long, and our pool is too dirty but none the less a gorgeous day for clean laundry.  here's the thing, as a mom, maybe it's more oppressive than it would be without kids, but laundry happens everyday...come on guys!  everyday!!  steve gets up and goes to work and does little of this, a little of that, with the intention of completing something each day but a least moving on to a new part of the task.  i get up and stay at "work" and do the same thing every day...laundry!  and dishes, and watch our kid, but mostly laundry.  :)

you know i didn't really start this note to complain about laundry because most days i don't even really mind doing it.  it did take me a long time to get into the swing of things washing the dishes everyday, especially after being used to having a dishwasher but now even that is fine.  i think i started this post tho b/c outside looked so beautiful and sometimes my accomplishments each day aren't that grand.  the other thing is it seems so weird that i sit at my computer typing away emails to people that are so far from that line of clothes, even that mountain in the distance.  how can i communicate to all of you what's going on in our life effectively and personally and constantly without getting bogged down, losing touch with our life here, or spending too much time at it?

communication is like laundry it can become overwhelming or if dealt with in a manageable way it can actually be enjoyable.  i actually love emailing friends and family.  it's hard to do tho because i'm not much of a writer or a sharer or even a very good communicator.  it takes a lot of hard work to come up with great, witty things that i think people might care about.  not all of you are like that...i know!  such clever friends i have. xoxo

anyway, i'm not sure i started this post to end this way either but it did so this is what i'm going to do...if you have any questions or things your interested in about cape town, post them here.  i'll try to answer them and hopefully it will paint a better picture of our life and the place where we live.

cheers! diana

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / August 10, 2011]

New Year Resolutions

 Every year, like a large portion of the World's population, I resolve to change something about my life each January 1st.  These resolutions meet with varying degrees of success, the majority of which never make to the end of the year.  This year, like previous years I have set out three resolutions (see below), but hopefully these are a bit more realistic (fingers crossed :).  I will try to keep you updated on my progress!  Cheers, Steve

 

1. Pray weekly with Diana. We have chosen Wednesday mornings. So far in Jan, we have been successful 2 out of 4 Wednesdays, not great, but a start.

2. Keep a record of our spending, by tracking our receipts and bills. In the US, I was good about entering everything into an Excel spreadsheet, but the system did not make it across the ocean, mainly because we have been living paycheck-to-paycheck, but when I was getting our taxes together, I realized that it is virtually impossible to find the information that I needed without it, so it needs to make a comeback.  So far, nothing has happened, but the receipts are all piled up waiting to be entered.

3. This idea was stolen from Elisabeth Cutrer.  We were sharing our resolutions on New Years Eve on Skype and she is resolving to read more books this year, lamenting the amount of time spent with electronic devices and Facebook.  I realized that my own reading had dropped significantly, of course having a kid and a full-time plus job doesn't help, but still, I should read more.  So, I am resolving to read more books, the question is: what is realistic?  After some thought, one book a month seems doable, so the resolution is to read 12 books in 2012.  My not-quite-complete list is below.  Three of the books are carry-overs from 2011, so I thought that I would start with those.  Since we recently unpacked the books from our move, I decided that a picture would be nice, so see that below as well.

Book List

   1. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (from 2011) / finished (great book)

   2. Joy Unspeakable by Lloyd-Jones Shaw (from 2011) / in-progress

   3. Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson (from 2011) / in-progress

   4. The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancey (been sitting on my shelf for 5 years)

   5. The Convenant by James Michener (massive 1000+ page book on South Africa, Diana has finished it)

   6. Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & John Denver (highly recommended by Diana)

   7. The Associate by John Grisham (just love his books)

   8. The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg (gift from Joy and highly recommended)

   9. No Well Worn Paths by Terry Virgo (biography of New Frontiers founder)

   10. Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt has the best adventures)

   11 & 12. Undecided, waiting to see what peaks my interest in 2012. 

 

Dis!

Now that Aaron has turned 20 months old (a milestone, I know), he has picked up a lot of words, like truck, horse and choo-choo (see list below, over 60 words!)  But his favorite word is "dis" accompanied by empathic pointing towards something (see video).  This action is followed by a look of expectation as he waits for ma-ma or da-da to go retrieve this item.  As we try to decipher which of the myriad of objects in that direction he is referring to, the look quickly turns to impatience and then insistence, and typically ends with severe whining or possibly crying if he is pointing to something that he cannot have, like the iPad.  

It has been fun to see him pick up words, but I am amazed at his grasp of "this".  Somewhere along the way, he picked up that "this" refers to anything, that it is a non-specific descriptor (which he uses to his full advantage).  There is probably some child development psychology reasoning behind this, but for me, it reveals the amazing capacity our brains have to learn and develop.  Cheers, Steve

Some of the words Aaron knows: truck, horse, choo-choo, one - ten, drink, dog, door, gate, car, bird (his first word), hi, bye, please, ma-ma, da-da, Jo-Jo, Louise, Joshie, pool, ta, rice, meat, milk, nose, eyes, mouth, ears, hair, head, bull, spanspek, flea, hat, boot, peas, fish, blocks, pawpaw, dip, poo, wee, dance, books, stairs, toes, feet, bite, big, tall, small, spot, dash, this, what, bowl, plate, fork, spoon, knife, teeth, yes, no and more everyday.

 btw, this is my first blog post from my iPad, using the Blogsy app