Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Happy Birthday!

Today, The Boy turned 3! What a wonderful three years it's been -- being a father is the greatest privilege and joy I could ever have.

I love you, son.




The Boy's first present of the day: a package from friends in Calgary that had, among other things, a dinosaur puzzle!




And then we went to the river to catch minnows















And had an ice cream cake



And lots of old friends came over to help him celebrate. Yay presents!








Thanks everyone, for making it such a special day.
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

O boy.

O boy, o boy, o boy.

I really hope you enjoyed those nice pictures of Boy2, because they're going to look mighty different from now on.

He climbed a chair to reach a toy. I said 'no,' and put the toy out of reach. He lunged for the toy, grabbed the toy, and then triumphantly held it up to show me how smart he was, and how dumb I was.

Yes, I am dumb.

Because he'd kicked the chair out from the table, and when he tried to get down, he fell. And broke one of his front teeth.

Three hours at the emerg dentist later, and he is now officially missing a bicuspid. Mind you, this is not the one he chipped two weeks ago trying to get ahead of everybody on a walk. This was the other one.

So now, in a few months, he can sing "all I want for Christmas is my one front tooth."

That is, provided he doesn't bonk any more.

Monday, August 24, 2009

last bunch of pictures.


Who thought you couldn't ride the elephants at the Zoo?













Oofda (introduced below) and The Boy take a break.














The Boy and Unkit sharing a movement.














Amma and the CoDirector with The Boy at his early birthday party. His b'day is August 26, for those who're wondering.
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and more pictures



The Boy hanging out at the Zoo.



















the boys with very special friends of our from Calgary, Trackgirl, Smiles, and Oofda.















G'ma and Gr'pa came out for Gr'pa's birthday on July 4. Happy birthday!


G'ma and Gr'pa. G'ma's hiding, but we found her anways.
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more pictures


Boy2 exploring his new surroundings in S'toon.

















The Boy doing the same thing.














A nap in the midst of the chaos of moving. Boy2 is getting so big!















The Boy and the CoDirector at his early birthday party at Amma's house.
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more pictures



Boy2 at the Zoo on his favourite perch in the whole wide world.













The gang at the Zoo. Behind the CoDirector, Boy2 is holding the hands of some very special friends from Calgary, Smiles and Trackgirl. (apologies for posting your pictures!) (but don't think I won't do it any more...)













Trackgirl, The Boy, and the CoDirector.












On the balconey at our old place in Calgary. The Boy is not too enthusiastic about moving.
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more picture updates

took some time to visit the natural history museum on the UofS campus. The Boy especially enjoyed mucking about in the soaked flowerbeds.














My three favourite people in the whole world in the claws of a Tyrannosaurus.

Food + Boy2 = sharing. Being mugged for my snack in the old house in Calgary. Yes, I shaved my head. Yes, it will stay that way, since it appears to be the way nature is sending me anyways.
















Early morning cracker snack. I think this was the day we moved, or the day before.
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picture updates!

Some picture updates for the universe to enjoy. These are from before we moved -- our last trip to the Calgary Zoo, our last trip to Amma's house before we moved, that sort of thing.








The Boy on a great big bear









Boy2 being mauled by assorted relations.















On the move. This is the giant Tyrannosaurus at Drumheller, where the Co-Director and friends had stopped for a visit. Yes, it looks like a giant dinosaur is about to crap on my child. Think of it as a metaphor for life.













Books are good. Boy2, though enthusiastic about literature in general, is a bit unclear on the concept sometimes.
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Saturday, August 22, 2009

name change?

it's that time of year again -- being surrounded by other bloggers, most of whom (with the exception of one Rev. Kevin Powell) have ultracool blog names.

I feel left out. bummed. Uncool. (mind you, I want to be a pastor. How much more uncool can you get?

So, I'm taking a poll. Should the name stay the same, or be one of the following options:
a) The Zen of Kicking Ass: From Bouncer to Pastor in Nine Easy Years, or
b) The Alien Word: How to Kick Ass and Save Souls at the Same Time (little Lutheran joke there.)
or even something edgier:
c) Mastication and Regurgitation: Life in the Family Trenches.

thoughts?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Sooooo.....I promise picture updates next. Promise. But first, other updates.

The problem with this whole journey is that it feels like I'm (we're) always leaving friends. We started in Lethbridge -- really, for me the journey started in the tiny southern Alberta town of Vulcan. If you've never lived in a small rural community, you probably don't know the kind of relationships that are formed through the closeness to other people. It was hard to leave that little town -- hard to leave the people I knew, respected, and appreciated -- but I knew that the journey would worthwhile.

So I moved to Lethbridge for my undergrad degree -- and found a whole new community. Communities, really. What I learned from the fine people at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd left me with a deep love of forming community and living in it. The campus chaplain at the University of Lethbridge just doesn't know how appreciated she is -- in a tough time in my life she was a rock, helping me to be grounded and loving me with simply human decency when many other people around me would rather have seen me as less than human. My professors at the University -- really, if you're familiar with Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series, just think of the wizard faculty at Unseen University -- asked me what I wanted from my degree and challenged me to achieve those dreams.

And of course, I met the woman I love, and we formed a community with many near and dear friends. We made a life together, worked on a future together, and then began a family together. Then, we had to leave. I still remember crying together with a dear friend before we left, as the wee Boy was still in the hospital. It was so hard to leave.

Saskatoon was different, though, and of the places we've lived it's the one place that we looked forward to leaving again -- not because of anything bad about the city, and we did try to find a community -- but the whole lifestyle of Seminary is one of transition. Coming and going, going forth and returning, the rhythms of life are more tuned to study and preparation than to forming community (despite the best intentions of us students).

But Calgary, and Hope, was different. Way, way different.

If you're reading this, and you're a pastor, you've been on internship. You've built those relationships. You've moved in and moved out.

But let me own this: if you were single, you have no idea what it was like for the co-Director and I. I'm sorry; you just don't. If you were married without children, you still don't know. If you did the route like us, our little family in a big world, then you maybe know what it was like.

But you still don't know Hope.

More than any other place we've ever known, Hope was home. H-O-M-E. and for someone like me, whose own home growing up was transitory -- and as a military brat, so was the co-Director -- finally finding a place we wanted to stay was like being able to stop for a year and drink deeply from the finest springs in the most peaceful place imaginable. This, in the middle of Calgary. Yes, I'm serious. Calgary is 'home' for us in ways that no other place has ever been.

But we've moved again. I've no desire to replay the emotional, mental, and physical toll that this move and all it's baggage cost us. Save to say that it's a rare group of people that can come together and support people so strongly as that community at Hope did for us. It was incredible, and I'll never be able to thank the people enough for all their help, support, and prayers.

So now we're back in Saskatoon. I've taken a course -- "Revitalizing Rural Ministries" -- that was really worth the work. Great course, and I'm certain that a better name for the course would simply be 'Revitalizing Ministries'. I do love what I study, that's for certain.

and so, we stand at the edge of the beginning of our next great adventure -- in relationship with our Redeemer, blessed and kept in grace through the prayers and love of the people in our community.

We are truly blessed.