Category: family

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It’s The Thought That Counts

Pam, Adam, and Noah seriously kick butt when it comes to gifts. More than a decade ago we as a family started following the 4 goals of Advent Conspiracy for our guidelines for gift giving. Then when we got to be a part of starting Tapestry we led the church in those guidelines. The 4 advent Conspiracy goals are:

  • Worship Fully
  • Spend Less
  • Give More
  • Love All

So when we give gifts to each other as a family we really try to focus on the thought behind the gift. We want our gifts to each other to reflect something of ourselves and to reflect that we truly know the person we are giving the gift to. To be honest I am nowhere near as good at this as Pam and the boys are. They each amaze me each year with their ability to find simple gifts that do an amazing job of reflecting who they are and who the recipient of the gift is.

I thought I would quickly share their gifts because I think they are great.

First, Pam’s gift to me.

The hat you see on my head is a Stormy Kromer. Pretty much the quintessential Mid Western Winter hat. I have wanted one for years but I simply could never bring myself to spend $45 on a hat. Forty-five dollars is not a ton of money, it isn’t really an extravagance, but I am a very cheap person. Therefore, $45 is more than I could ever convince myself to spend on on a hat that probably won’t keep my head any warmer than a $5 toboggan (Wisconsin friends, we Southerners call knit caps toboggans). Pam told me several times to just go ahead and buy one, but I have felt stupid for wanting to spend that much on a hat. So Pam bought one for me. She knows me.

I’ll go with Noah’s gift second since as the youngest child he usually gets mentioned last.

Noah bought me a painted tile of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” with a basset hound in it. Noah knows that Van Gogh is one of my favorite painters and anyone who knows me should have found out early in our relationship that I love basset hounds. Last year Pam had the great idea of making a corner of our den the odd basset hound corner. We put photos and prints in this corner that are weird basset hound images. Like a basset hound with antlers and a civil war basset hound portrait. The tile is a wonderfully odd addition to the corner. Noah knows me.

Finally, here’ Adam’s gift to me.

That is a hatchet that is presently on my wall. Actually it isn’t just any hatchet, it was my dad’s hatchet that he kept hanging in his shop. It was covered with dust and grim from decades of work. Adam took it from Dad’s old shop when we were there to help Mom pack up stuff for moving. I was with him in at the time and was glad that Adam wanted the hatchet. What I didn’t know was that he was going to put some serious work into cleaning it up, bringing out the patina of the metal and the wood, sharpening it to a very fine point, and then finish it off for me as a gift. It is wonderful. Adam knows that such nostalgic items matter to me because Adam knows me.

These gifts weren’t real expensive but each one reflects a great deal of thought by the gift giver. They didn’t simply go out and buy a gift that cost a certain amount. They thought about who I was and what type of gift would reflect that they knew me. Like I wrote earlier Pam, Adam, and Noah kick butt at this.

SIDE NOTE – I regularly listen to a podcast about serial killers (The podcast is titled simply enough “Serial Killers“). Thanks to this podcast I now understand that the main reason that there were lots of people killed by serial killers using hatchets in the past and not now is just because every house had a hatchet for cutting kindling for their wood burning stove. The hatchet was a handy weapon that was usually found at the house. Obviously it isn’t a handy weapon anymore and thus you don’t hear of modern day hatchet oriented serial killers. I assume Adam’s gift doesn’t put us at risk. 🙂

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Two Traditions Converge


We are a family of traditions. Seriously we have a lot of traditions that we do throughout the year. Today was a double whammy of tradition.

Years ago Noah, the youngest boy child, wanted a muffin from Kwik Trip. His way of getting a muffin was to declare that the 24th was International Muffin Run Day, where you are supposed to go and get a muffin. Being the good parents that I am I gave in and took the boys to get a Kwik Trip muffin. So from that point onward the 24th became the day that I continued to take the boys to get a muffin somewhere. This started when Adam was in High School and Noah was in Middle school but we have continued to celebrate the 24th as Muffin Run Day If either of the boys are at home. Obviously, you already knew that the 24th is International Muffin Run Day.

Christmas Eve supper is also a tradition for us. This tradition started because we were tired of trying to prepare a big homemade meal after me getting back late from doing Christmas Eve church services. So decided to try a more convenient meal and it turned out to be something we loved. Each person eating with us picks their favorite appetizer (this includes my mom this year – Hi mom!) and those appetizers are shared by everyone for supper while we watch the modern Christmas classic Elf. We love this movie. Sadly if the sound ever went out but the video continued we could probably fill in all the dialogue.  The only thing that is different fro normal in the above picture is that usually there would be cocktail weenies, which I have a weakness for, but we were so stuffed already I decided to forego my appetizer suggestion today.

I hope you have traditions that remind you of Who Christmas is all about. I hope you have a wonderful day of remembering the birth of the Prince of Peace.

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The Cheesing of the Relatives

Whenever Pam and I shred cheese we tend to shake the grater where the extra cheese falls on the kitchen floor so Clive can eat it. We also used to do this with Montana and Roux, or two deceased bassets. Pam has always referred to this act as “the cheesing of the bassets”. Needless to say, when Pam or I get the cheese grater out Clive gets very excited.

Hey Ken your cheese has been packed with love, though not necessarily skill.

Years ago when Pam and I were first introduced to the beauty of Wisconsin cheese (seriously, I’m not sure that I would call what I ate before moving up here cheese – this stuff is so much better) we decided to send it to our relatives as Christmas gifts. It was so well received that most of them told us that they never wanted anything else other than cheese for Christmas. So each year Pam or I hike over to Rudolph to our favorite cheese factory, Dairy State Cheese. As busy as the factory store is each year it is obvious that many other out of state families have also asked for nothing but cheese for Christmas.

Anyhow today I made the trip over to Rudolph, then Pam and I packed the cheese and mailed it to our relatives. It should be there in time for y’all to have some Christmas cheese (other than Jim’s jokes -😜).

I believe I will now take a phrase from Pam and refer to this as “the cheesing of the relatives“.

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Hey Mom, Guess What’s Working :)

The Terrell house now rings with the tones of my childhood because yesterday Pam brought home the clock that is jokingly (or scarily depending upon your predilections) known in my mom’s family as the “death clock”. There are now family members that would not enter the den of our home because they wouldn’t want to be in the same room with this clock. To paraphrase Michael Scott from “The Office“, my mom’s family isn’t superstitious, they’re just a little stitious.

My mom can tell the story much better than I of why it is referred to as the “death clock”. I always tend to forget. Basically the clock stopped working when one family member died, and then suddenly started working again when another family member died, and then stopped working again when another family member died. That was enough for most people in the family not to want the clock, so it came to my parents’ house and stayed there in a non-working condition until Pam and I picked it up a few months ago.  We took it to a shop and had it fixed and it will sit on our mantle after the Christmas stockings are gone.

It is pretty cool to hear the chimes in the house every quarter hour and the ringing of the bells every hour.

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Terrell Family Christmas Tree Day

I’m really just posting these photos here on the blog more as an advertisement for a company I believe in, Pheasant Pines. We Terrell’s have been going to Pheasant Pines for years to get our yearly Christmas tree. We even used to be an advertising photo on their website a long time ago. One of the things I like about them is that they support a local charity each year with part of the proceeds from their tree sales. This year the charity they will be supporting is Evergreen Community Initiatives (ECI). For you threads you will know ECI as the group that runs the Place of Peace meal that we regularly participate in and several of us go to and help at each week.

Anyhow if you don’t have a place from where your family and/or friend-amily purchase your Christmas tree, I would recommend trying Pheasant Pines. They are awesome and you will be supporting ECI with your purchase. If you have a place and like them stay with them. Building a family/friend-amily tradition is the thing that I want to encourage most.

As for how the Terrell’s do Christmas tree cutting we have traditionally had a very strict work order. The order is:

  • Pam picks the tree
  • I cut the tree
  • Adam drags the tree to the vehicle
  • Noah places the tree on the vehicle

We find that this order leads to a smooth overall Christmas tree acquiring process. We had to modify things a little this year because Adam could stay past Thanksgiving day (we missed you buddy).

Best part of this year was a fluky thing. I cut through the tree trunk with the bow saw, and apparently did it so fast that the trunk fell on itself and reminded standing without any other support. If you look at the fourth picture closely you will see the bow saw on both sides of the tree trunk.

Noah and me following Pam as she finds the perfect tree. She is the master of this. We have very well defined jobs. Pam picks the tree, I cut the tree, the boys (or in the case Noah) drag the tree to the car).
My job is to cut the tree down.
It was Clive’s first Christmas tree trip. As you could probably have guest he was a huge hit. People literally chased him down to pet him.
You can’t really tell it from this photo but the bow saw is on both sides of the tree trunk. I cut straight through the trunk and it continued to stand up without any support.
Every year Pheasant Pines picks a charity to support. This year it is Evergreen Community Initiatives. Yet another reason you should go there.
Pamela knighting Noah as a qualified tree picker.
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Please Do Some Advent Traditions With Your Kids

The Tapestry Advent Wreath minus the center lamp, which we replaced with a candle since we were at my house instead of the school (and thus able to use open flames).

The Terrell family is a family of traditions. Pam has a coworker who often jokes that if we do something once we turn it into a tradition. She’s not far from wrong.  We love traditions. What I like about traditions is that they are a good way of reinforcing beliefs and behaviors that we, as a family, want to encourage.

The pastor in me probably looks like this.

The church has known this for millennia, and therefore developed many such traditions. Several of the traditions from our church practices can be adapted  to use during family time. The pastor in me (who often decides that he must take control) wants all of our “thread” parents to regularly do some wonderful traditions with their little ones to help them grow up experiencing more of Christmas than just gifts.

Here are a few classic Advent traditions that I recommend for adjusting to family use:

    • Advent Calendar – Pam and I used an advent calendar with the boys. our was a story book advent calendar (this one right here).  Growing up we would read the boys two stories before bed each night – one Bible story and one children’s book. During Advent the Bible story would be the story book from the Advent Calendar. We loved the calendar and the story of Advent that the storybooks told each night. It was an easy way to make sure we focused on Jesus each night during the Christmas season.
    • Chrismon Tree – Basically a Christmas tree where are the decorations are based off of religious symbology. My first experience with a Chrismon tree was at First Baptist Church in Carthage, Missouri. Every year FBC would decorate a Chrismon tree on Christmas Eve as a way to talk with the kids about the Christmas story and early Christian history. It was always a wonderful worship service. You could setup a small Chrismon tree in addition to your family Christmas tree and allow your kid(s) to make different Chrismon ornaments to put on the tree. Thanks to Pinterest you can find Chrismon ornaments here.
    The Jesse Tree I used when I was a Youth Minister at Parkview Baptist Church.
    • Jesse Tree – This is what we will be using during our last worship gathering before Christmas. Our kids will help us do this by creating and decorating some ornaments to hang on the Jesse tree. The Jesse tree is very similar to a Chrismon tree but it starts with the Old Testament (the root of Jesse – Isaiah 11:1) and remembers all the messianic prophecies pointing to the Christ. You can get a free Jesse tree kit at this link.
    • Advent Wreath – we’ve been doing this in Tapestry with our lamps for years and will do it again this year. You can easily adapt an Advent wreath to  family use. Put it at the center of your dinner table and explain the meaning of each candle each week. Then maintain the correct candle for each meal time of the week. An added benefit of this is that it will encourage your family to eat at the table (if you need to encourage that behavior). You don’t have to buy an advent wreath. You and your kids can make it yourself. Here’s an instructable describing how to make several different types of advent wreaths.

There are plenty of other Advent traditions that you can adjust to working within your family. What is important is not so much what you do but that you make a conscious effort to help your kids to understand Who Christmas is all about.

Advent starts Sunday, December 3rd (not this Sunday but next Sunday) so now is the time to thing about such preparations.

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Saints versus Packers

We had pretty awesome tickets
Oddly enough when we parked Noah thought “Mhmm, the voice sounds familiar.” Turns out we had parked by one of his professors from UWEC,
It was raining at this point but we didn’t care.
It was still raining but we finally began to care.
They had a performance painter for half-time. I thought it was stupid until I saw him perform. Actually pretty cool.
When it stopped raining
We were pretty close to the field.
Pano shot.
Had to stop by Tom’s because we both love it.

Last week Noah asked “Do you think we could get Saints v Packer tickets?” I didn’t really hold out any hope for getting any at a price that I would be willing to pay (after all I am a little cheap), but then Pam sent the word out and Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone. Suddenly we were able to get really good tickets for face value. Best tickets to a Packer game I’ve had. Thanks Pamela … and Rodgers’s collarbone. Go Pack Go … even when they lose.

Funniest moment of the day was when we parked and Noah thought “That voice sounds familiar.” We turned around and discovered that our of 73,000 paid spectators and who knows how many additional people who had not paid to be there we had just parked right beside one of his professors from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Small world moment.

SIDE NOTE – I heard good things from Tapestry’s morning worship gathering today. I love being a part of a group where I don’t have to worry about not being there and in fact things may go better when I am not there. 🙂

SIDE SIDE NOTE – yes I wore a Bama hat to a packer game. I had on Packer apparel otherwise.

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Dad's Obituary

Since the local newspaper only keeps obituaries online for a year I thought I would post dad’s obituary here on my blog. Also for those who want to attend dad’s memorial it will be Monday, October 19th at 6 p.m. at Forest Lawn Funeral Home, 9700 Celeste Rd, Saraland, AL with visitation an hour before the memorial.

Here is the obituary that Mom, Ken, Pam, and I wrote for dad:

Jun 5, 1944 – Oct 14, 2015 Floyd (“Buddy”) Bernard Terrell, 71, died peacefully at home in Saraland, AL on October 14, 2015 surrounded by his family. Floyd was born on June 5, 1944 in Monroe, Louisiana, the second child and only son of C.F. Terrell and Ruth Windsor Terrell Ezzell. His sister, Lynn Terrell Case Longshore preceded him in death earlier this year. Floyd grew up in Montgomery, AL and was a graduate of Robert E. Lee High School. After a stint in the Navy he married the love of his life, Evelyn Sansom Terrell. He worked in sales in various fields until 20 years ago he found his professional home at Bay Paper in Mobile, AL and retired(ish) in 2006. Floyd enjoyed being an active member of the Mobile Mustang Club, fishing, and previously served on the Kushla Water Board.

Those who knew and loved Floyd, know that he had much wisdom to share including life lessons such as these: You can say you hate cats and still feed & adopt half the strays in the area. When your wife reads a lot, you get to control the TV remote. Breakfast with friends is a great way to start every day, therefore, two breakfasts with friends is even better. Helping your son put a moonroof in his Ford Pinto is a terrifying but wonderful thing. When your child is in trouble help them first, but don’t forget to chew them out later. You can solve most of the problems you face in life with a pen, band-aid, pocket knife, and a quarter. Why buy something that you can make Always ask for a better deal. Making friends of all the people around you is the right thing to do, which just so happens to lead to lots of great deals. Be more valuable to your company than your paycheck. It is better to be the person helping to get something done, than it is the person complaining about it not being done.

Floyd is survived by Evelyn, his wife of 50 years, his sons Robert Adam Terrell (Pam) of Wisconsin and Kenneth Bernard Terrell of Colorado, 7 grandchildren, and friends from all walks of life. A memorial service will take place at Forest Lawn Funeral Home (9700 Celeste Rd, Saraland) at 6 pm on Monday, October 19. The family will receive visitors before the memorial. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the American Cancer Society .

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I Love Our Friends

Last week we were on vacation and while we were gone our cat got out of the house. She has been missing for at least a week now (we’re not entirely sure of when she got out of the house) and Pam, Noah, Adam, and I have searched and done every trick we can think of to find her. The good news from Pam and my constant search of the internet concerning finding a lost cat is that there is a great deal of hope that we will be able to find our cat even up to a couple of months after the fact. So we continue to search (Pam most of all). This post isn’t about the cat, though if you see in our neighborhood a long hair black cat with a white spot on her chest I would appreciate you letting us know. Nope this post is about our friends.

A few days ago Pam and I were searching through one of our neighbor’s yard when I looked up and saw Mark & Julienna walking through our neighborhood. This didn’t make sense because they don’t live by us. So I shouted out to them and asked what was up. Their response was that it was a pretty day so they thought they would go for a walk and why not look for the cat while walking, so they came to our neighborhood. Cue Pam’s tears.

Then the next day I start getting messages from Kate that I couldn’t read because I am busy at the moment. When I got a chance to read them I quickly notice pictures of spots in our backyard and the woods behind our house. I read the messages and discovered that Kate had taken it upon herself to go into the woods behind our house and search for the cat. Freaked Noah out when he realized there was someone in our backyard until he realized it was Kate. Then he was just confused. Cue more tears from Pam.

While in Marshfield today I got a text message from Natalie saying she was organizing a mass hunt for “Kitty Girl” this Sunday after church. She has already contacted people to get them to show up at our house after church. I’m not sure that Pam knows about this yet, but I am sure that when she does know there will be more tears.

Our friends are responding like this for a cat just because they know that this talkative black mass of shedding hair is important to us … actually she is VERY IMPORTANT TO PAM. I can’t adequately express how much these actions mean to me. You are showing love for my family and that makes me love you guys all the more. Y’all are amazing and I am honored to be your friend. I hope I give as much to you as you do to my family and me.

Cue my tears.

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2013 Christmas Card & Newsletter

Pam writes a Christmas/New Year newsletter each year to send out with our Christmas Cards (I say “Christmas/New Year” because it depends upon when we get them out). Below is the one she wrote this year.

New Year’s greetings to you and yours!

Being as the end of the university semester with all of the associated grading corresponds with the holiday season, my ambitions for Christmas cards turned into New Year’s cards and ultimately morphed into “I’ll get them in the mail sometime in January 2014” cards. And so it goes…

2013 brought about changes, excitement, and blessings. For starters, in addition to continuing as the pastor of Tapestry Church, Robert also began working 2 days a week for Corporate Chaplains of America, as (you guessed it!) a corporate chaplain. This is a perfect answer to prayer as it enables him to use his ministry, counseling, and chaplaincy education and training, as well as his background in business management. He has a territory in central Wisconsin that includes businesses such as a grocery store, software company, and pallet shop–blue and white collar. He provides spiritual counseling and support as an employee benefit and is given free reign to openly share his faith. He is enjoying the work, it is flexible and doesn’t interfere with pastoring and church responsibilities, and it meets a financial need with one kid in college and another headed that way in a year and a half. Robert also fills in occasionally for a friend at her chocolate shop/stationary store just because he likes interacting with the downtown community. Plus, he brings me home truffles! After many year of hard work, Robert also graduated in December with his Doctorate of Ministry (D. Min.) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. It has been a banner year for him!

I have had a good year as well. I finally achieved tenure at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a promotion to Associate Professor. I will also be the new graduate coordinator starting this summer, a change in title only, plus a move to a bigger corner office with a real window. I am loving my job and am always challenged to think more deeply by my students and colleagues alike, plus they are all so much fun. We have had a exceptionally close, friendly, and wonderful 2012-2014 grad class and will all be sad when they graduate in May. In my spare time I have been crocheting, refashioning old clothes, completing various Pinterest projects, and working on simplifying life and stuff. I’m on my way to becoming n almost-minimalist. I have finally gotten Robert on board with downsizing square footage and lot size, so we will be spending the next several months preparing the house to sell. The plan is to buy a smaller, older, character-filled, (hopefully Craftsman-style) house in Stevens Point and live closer to the university and downtown so that we can walk and bike more.

Adam is now a sophomore in college and will be 20 in March. I’m not quite sure when or how this has happened. He finished his freshman year at Northland College, but since it is a very small (~600 students) environmental liberal arts college and he decided against an environmental type of major, he transferred this year to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He is now majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders, much to the thrill of his mother’s heart. However, he is more interested in audiology right now, due to all of his experience with deaf and hard-of-hearing community through his summer job of the past 3 years with Minnesota Conservation Corps. This past summer, he was a crew leader, including a deaf crew. In college, he already knew so much American Sign Language through immersion that he was able to bypass ASL 1 and go to 2. His professor said that his grammar was good enough to skip to ASL 3, but his vocabulary was lacking. He could sign things like, “Go over to that trail and remove that invasive species,” but not “I live in a DORM and have a ROOMMATE.” Adam has also gotten very involved in his dorm and InterVarsity on campus and is playing bass and cajón in the worship band. Music is his life and he is looking forward to one concert/month for the first 6 months of the year.

Noah is a junior in high school and one of the tallest kids in school. We now have to special order his jeans and he is always getting asked if he plays basketball. He does, but he decided to play intramural this year rather than try out of the team, due to the time commitment. He spends much of his time hanging our with his posse, playing video games, and biking during the warmer months. Noah seems to be enjoying his current classes and he really gotten into reading again. He is especially interested in science right now and is thinking that he may focus on some kind of science-related major in college. We’ll start college tours this spring, which will include some schools around WI and MN, as well as the University of Missouri. Noah has also become interested in photography and putzing around with the camera and he amuses us with his spot-on impressions ranging from Obama to Sofia Vergara to Tim Gunn.

Our other baby, Tapestry Church, turned 5 years old this past September and is still going strong. We have developed a committed core of young adults who came as college students and have married and decided to stay in the area, much to our delight. 2012-2013 was the year of weddings and 2014 is shaping up to be the year of baby dedications. There are many ways to grow a church and procreation is one of them! Ironically, since we are a church primarily of college students and 20-somethings, we have been opposite of most churches in that we desired senior adults to offer diversity, wisdom, experience, and stability. Fortunately, we are growing in that direction too, with a new senior adult couple and a few more middle-aged folks.

We continue to love Wisconsin, from the glorious and temperate summers to the beautiful, frozen winters. The Packers and mass quantities of delicious cheese and ice cream don’t hurt either.

We hope that 2014 brings you just enough struggle to help you stretch, grow, and learn, but much more joy, contentment, peace, and love.

Much love and blessings of the new year!
Robert, Pam, Adam, and Noah Terrell

By the way the above image is the Christmas card we sent out this year. You can view the full image here.