Thursday, September 29, 2005
kristiannewborn
This is my nephew, Kristian Leif. He is pretty big, especially considering that his mom is not. Over then next while as he starts to become more aware, and able to be awake for a time away from his mommy, I hope to be carrying him around for a time.
Right now he sleeps a lot and when he does wake up, he is either hungry or wet, so I let him mommy take care of those.
Right now he sleeps a lot and when he does wake up, he is either hungry or wet, so I let him mommy take care of those.
Lap Baby
It took me a while to get a hold of any of the pictures of the babies born out here, but I now have a couple I am going to share.
This is Cordellia, and she is just a little girl. Once her grandparents leave, then I hope I will get a chance to carry her around more.
This is Cordellia, and she is just a little girl. Once her grandparents leave, then I hope I will get a chance to carry her around more.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Reading
Today was my annual trip to the "For the Love of Books" conference (which is conveniently across the street from our church). I was once again the token male. I recognized a few of the faces but I don't know if they recognized me from last year. The person I sat beside was someone I knew from an entirely different context. She works in a day care facility and I used to give a boy a ride home from that day care. It was a good reminder of the different things to teach others (and to do) for reading to their children. I hope that I will get some opportunities to use this program in the schools this year, I like it and enjoy trying to "de-mystify" the idea of reading to children. The point of the program is the impact parents have on their children and importance of sharing your story (your life) with your children.
Football Update:
We started into the last few games of the regular season on Sunday and it started poorly. This was the second time this season that we faced this particular team and the last time we played them we beat them 36-6 in three quarters of football. Once you are up by 30 points, at any point in the fourth quarter, the game is over. This time when we played them, we could not score. They won 14-0. In the fourth quarter I dropped two passes I really should have caught. Other than that I had a pretty good game, I made some pretty big catches early in the game. As a team to win games we simply need to catch the ball more, and our quarterback needs to make some better decisions about who he is going to throw the ball to. I hate to criticize the quarterback because I know it is not easy but he did throw some bad passes and he did not call a very good game. As coach, I need to step up and do something about it too then and I did not do it so I also have a big part of this loss. It gets very discouraging to lose games when I think we should win and when I think we should really have played better. I start to feel the need to make more plays and I don't know that I can carry that kind of weight. I am preparing myself to call more plays in the huddle for the quarterback and tell him who the primary receiver and secondary receiver should be. This may change our game. It is kind of like my church responsibility in that I just have to step up and take charge, but I am too often relunctant to do so. Maybe I can practise this in football so I can do it in church leadership?
Football Update:
We started into the last few games of the regular season on Sunday and it started poorly. This was the second time this season that we faced this particular team and the last time we played them we beat them 36-6 in three quarters of football. Once you are up by 30 points, at any point in the fourth quarter, the game is over. This time when we played them, we could not score. They won 14-0. In the fourth quarter I dropped two passes I really should have caught. Other than that I had a pretty good game, I made some pretty big catches early in the game. As a team to win games we simply need to catch the ball more, and our quarterback needs to make some better decisions about who he is going to throw the ball to. I hate to criticize the quarterback because I know it is not easy but he did throw some bad passes and he did not call a very good game. As coach, I need to step up and do something about it too then and I did not do it so I also have a big part of this loss. It gets very discouraging to lose games when I think we should win and when I think we should really have played better. I start to feel the need to make more plays and I don't know that I can carry that kind of weight. I am preparing myself to call more plays in the huddle for the quarterback and tell him who the primary receiver and secondary receiver should be. This may change our game. It is kind of like my church responsibility in that I just have to step up and take charge, but I am too often relunctant to do so. Maybe I can practise this in football so I can do it in church leadership?
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Happenings
A lot has happened in between my last post and now. First off, my sister in law has had her baby. A wonderful baby boy (Kristian). That was early Friday morning. I noticed on Thursday with some of my regular surfing that one of our (my wife and I) friends had a baby boy. Then on Saturday while I was checking in on some people I noticed that another friend (a cousin to the first friend) had a baby girl. Then by Sunday morning on of our friends here had their baby (a girl). Don't expect a lot of posts from mimlap if you are one of the people checking out her blog.
This has certainly been a busy baby weekend for our household and friends. Last night was the first night home for the baby (in our crowded house). My wife says she heard the baby up a number of times last night, but I didn't hear a thing. When my oldest was little, my wife was getting tired of always being the one to wake up with him and me sleeping right through it. She expressed the frustration to me and so I started waking up to the baby (but I was only able to bring her the baby for feedings at that point so I am still not sure why I was waking up). This carried over to our second son so that I was waking up and getting the baby before she even woke up!
If memory serves me right (which is always questionable since the baby spends the first while brainwashing the parent) the first few nights were a lot of adjustment for both learning how to survive this experience of the first few days.
Yesterday we adjusted the satillite tv so that we can now have 4 receivers plugged into it (which we also have). This takes care of a tvs for the adults (our teenager just turned 18 so I guess he is kind of an adult now too, but that is only in age, so he doesn't have one in his room). Speaking of our teenager, he is woking on getting his grade 9 English this year, and if he can get this first credit done he can write some kind of equivillancy test for the rest of his grade 9. He has started toying with the idea of moving in with his brothers (into an apartment somewhere) but I don't think he is serious yet (which is good, because he is not ready).
Football Update:
Well another part of the busy weekend was the football tournament. This weekend we had 3-4 games to play in the span of 2 days. Our team lost our first game but then won the next to finish first in the "B" side of the tournament. This meant that we received a free pass into the finals ("B" side finals). We played a really good team, but instead of our traditional fold that we do against challenging teams (teams we could play with but somehow don't), we won despite the fact that they scored first in the game. This means that we won the "B" side playoff to win $100 for our team. I played in one game Saturday and the only game that we played on Sunday (I had an interception on Sunday to help end the game).
We had three players from another team and all three were there for the Sunday game (and we only had nine players in total for that game). The two guys run the defense for their usual team so we had them run our defense. They didn't just set up the defense, but they also coached us throughout the game helping us be constantly aware of what we were trying to do on defense. It was great to be coached and to have that kind of help. My one friend is going to join their team next year and I am considering going over there too. That would leave a couple guys who have not done a great job of running the team this year, in charge of running it next year. I don't want the team to fold, but I don't want to be responsible for the team either. Also I would like to play in the "B" division (instead of our usual "C"). I guess I have some decisions to make as the season comes to a close.
This has certainly been a busy baby weekend for our household and friends. Last night was the first night home for the baby (in our crowded house). My wife says she heard the baby up a number of times last night, but I didn't hear a thing. When my oldest was little, my wife was getting tired of always being the one to wake up with him and me sleeping right through it. She expressed the frustration to me and so I started waking up to the baby (but I was only able to bring her the baby for feedings at that point so I am still not sure why I was waking up). This carried over to our second son so that I was waking up and getting the baby before she even woke up!
If memory serves me right (which is always questionable since the baby spends the first while brainwashing the parent) the first few nights were a lot of adjustment for both learning how to survive this experience of the first few days.
Yesterday we adjusted the satillite tv so that we can now have 4 receivers plugged into it (which we also have). This takes care of a tvs for the adults (our teenager just turned 18 so I guess he is kind of an adult now too, but that is only in age, so he doesn't have one in his room). Speaking of our teenager, he is woking on getting his grade 9 English this year, and if he can get this first credit done he can write some kind of equivillancy test for the rest of his grade 9. He has started toying with the idea of moving in with his brothers (into an apartment somewhere) but I don't think he is serious yet (which is good, because he is not ready).
Football Update:
Well another part of the busy weekend was the football tournament. This weekend we had 3-4 games to play in the span of 2 days. Our team lost our first game but then won the next to finish first in the "B" side of the tournament. This meant that we received a free pass into the finals ("B" side finals). We played a really good team, but instead of our traditional fold that we do against challenging teams (teams we could play with but somehow don't), we won despite the fact that they scored first in the game. This means that we won the "B" side playoff to win $100 for our team. I played in one game Saturday and the only game that we played on Sunday (I had an interception on Sunday to help end the game).
We had three players from another team and all three were there for the Sunday game (and we only had nine players in total for that game). The two guys run the defense for their usual team so we had them run our defense. They didn't just set up the defense, but they also coached us throughout the game helping us be constantly aware of what we were trying to do on defense. It was great to be coached and to have that kind of help. My one friend is going to join their team next year and I am considering going over there too. That would leave a couple guys who have not done a great job of running the team this year, in charge of running it next year. I don't want the team to fold, but I don't want to be responsible for the team either. Also I would like to play in the "B" division (instead of our usual "C"). I guess I have some decisions to make as the season comes to a close.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Young & Old and Values
I was reading a blog (http://heartwarmers.blogspot.com/) by a preacher I interned with who is now a missionary in India. He was talking about the way that the western world values youth while the eastern culture values age. This made me think and I wonder if that battle is waged here in the west more than people realize. It is not a blanket statement that we value youth (though on many fronts we do) because we can also see in many circumstances how we don't trust youth. Young leaders have a harder time earning respect than those with more grey hair.
My wife (a CEO) talked about looking forward to being 30 because then she would stop getting this look that people would give when they found out she was in charge of an organization. People didn't trust that she had the skills and abilities to do so when she was under 30.
How do you bridge this gap? How do you bring the old and the young together when if you listen to both they are speaking different languages?
My wife (a CEO) talked about looking forward to being 30 because then she would stop getting this look that people would give when they found out she was in charge of an organization. People didn't trust that she had the skills and abilities to do so when she was under 30.
How do you bridge this gap? How do you bring the old and the young together when if you listen to both they are speaking different languages?
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
I have things to say, but no place to say them so I need to find other things to say.
Our house is being renovated and I appreciate it, although I would like to be more involved and feel like I am being more helpful than I have been currently. I helped for a while putting down the flooring in the office upstairs, but that was interupted by football ( a lucritive offer came to "ref" a game). The floor is basically done, we are just waiting for the big orange store to get a finishing plate in so that the doorway can be finished.
We have discovered a leak in the roof in that room now. It seems that the shingles are so old that they are causing problems with water drainage and instead of going into the eaves where it is supposed to it is going along the beams into the house and leaking into the office. We have some rotting boards along the eaves to replace the the shhingles (once it stops raining for a while) and who knows what else there is to do with the roof when we look in side.
Football Update:
I finally scored a touchdown this past week. After the winter season I thought I would continue with a few a game but I have not been doing that well. This week the QB and I noticed some of the same problems and discussed them and attacked them. It worked to move us down field and to score. We still lost to put our team record at 3-3. Oddly enough it is good enough for first in the "C" division. We are tied for first with a team we beat.
I finally called a guy I knew and got him to come play with us. With the things going on in his life, football might be a good distraction or at least a fun release to get out and run. We have at least 3 more games that we should win this season and 1 more that we have a shot at.
Next week is a break from the season and instead there is a tournament. We have picked up some players and are planning to put a team in. A couple years ago a team that came in second really became the team they are today because of the tournament. They are now a strong "B" division team.
Our house is being renovated and I appreciate it, although I would like to be more involved and feel like I am being more helpful than I have been currently. I helped for a while putting down the flooring in the office upstairs, but that was interupted by football ( a lucritive offer came to "ref" a game). The floor is basically done, we are just waiting for the big orange store to get a finishing plate in so that the doorway can be finished.
We have discovered a leak in the roof in that room now. It seems that the shingles are so old that they are causing problems with water drainage and instead of going into the eaves where it is supposed to it is going along the beams into the house and leaking into the office. We have some rotting boards along the eaves to replace the the shhingles (once it stops raining for a while) and who knows what else there is to do with the roof when we look in side.
Football Update:
I finally scored a touchdown this past week. After the winter season I thought I would continue with a few a game but I have not been doing that well. This week the QB and I noticed some of the same problems and discussed them and attacked them. It worked to move us down field and to score. We still lost to put our team record at 3-3. Oddly enough it is good enough for first in the "C" division. We are tied for first with a team we beat.
I finally called a guy I knew and got him to come play with us. With the things going on in his life, football might be a good distraction or at least a fun release to get out and run. We have at least 3 more games that we should win this season and 1 more that we have a shot at.
Next week is a break from the season and instead there is a tournament. We have picked up some players and are planning to put a team in. A couple years ago a team that came in second really became the team they are today because of the tournament. They are now a strong "B" division team.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Time is getting away again
We have now had one Sunday since we started our planning at Family Camp, and we have no plans yet to finish. I have a meeting tomorrow that will hopefully address this issue as to when we can finish the planning process so that we can start taking the next steps. I would think that at this point we would not be putting new ministry teams in place until the start of 2006.
I have been typing up the sheets that were written at family camp and I would love to be discussing some of this. Yesterday I finished the typing with typing up the first activity we did, the defining of the terms of our vision statement (A Safe Place to grow in relationship with Christ and others). It seems that there are a variety of thoughts out there, and I think that in some of these we have only touched the surface. We defined the idea of a safe place, but I wonder if our definitions would change if the first part was "a safe place to grow" instead of just "a safe place"? Does this change how you see "safe"? What then becomes the focus?
Football update:
Week 5
We played the other team in our division who is vying for first and we won (fairly easily). The problem with gauging the other team is that they only had 6 players for the game (they had their top receiver and their quaterback so they weren't lost), we could field all 7 and had 3 subs for the whole game.
I finally caught a deep pass, but their fast guy chased me down before I could score my first touchdown of the season. I almost had another spectacular catch, but I just couldn't get a grip on the ball with my outstretched finger tips while diving through the air. My middle finger on my left hand has been hurting for just over a month now and I wonder what effect that could be having on my catching. During warms ups I shy away from catches with that hand a little. The end of the finger is really swollen, and at times (when nothing is going on) I get a sharp pain (instead of a dull, continual pain) at the first knuckle). I would go see a doctor, but I don't want to give in to my hypercondriact side, so I wait until I know it is serious, or till I am seeing the doctor for something else.
That reminds me I need to go get a physical so I can continue the process to get my bus licence. Then I could make some money driving a school bus. Hopefully the church will soon also bump me up to 3/4 time again so that I can help take care of my family (instead of just continuing to dig a hole that we can't get out of). I guess I have some phone calls to make then.
I have been typing up the sheets that were written at family camp and I would love to be discussing some of this. Yesterday I finished the typing with typing up the first activity we did, the defining of the terms of our vision statement (A Safe Place to grow in relationship with Christ and others). It seems that there are a variety of thoughts out there, and I think that in some of these we have only touched the surface. We defined the idea of a safe place, but I wonder if our definitions would change if the first part was "a safe place to grow" instead of just "a safe place"? Does this change how you see "safe"? What then becomes the focus?
Football update:
Week 5
We played the other team in our division who is vying for first and we won (fairly easily). The problem with gauging the other team is that they only had 6 players for the game (they had their top receiver and their quaterback so they weren't lost), we could field all 7 and had 3 subs for the whole game.
I finally caught a deep pass, but their fast guy chased me down before I could score my first touchdown of the season. I almost had another spectacular catch, but I just couldn't get a grip on the ball with my outstretched finger tips while diving through the air. My middle finger on my left hand has been hurting for just over a month now and I wonder what effect that could be having on my catching. During warms ups I shy away from catches with that hand a little. The end of the finger is really swollen, and at times (when nothing is going on) I get a sharp pain (instead of a dull, continual pain) at the first knuckle). I would go see a doctor, but I don't want to give in to my hypercondriact side, so I wait until I know it is serious, or till I am seeing the doctor for something else.
That reminds me I need to go get a physical so I can continue the process to get my bus licence. Then I could make some money driving a school bus. Hopefully the church will soon also bump me up to 3/4 time again so that I can help take care of my family (instead of just continuing to dig a hole that we can't get out of). I guess I have some phone calls to make then.
