Very last pre-baby update

Tim and I are headed in to Abbott tonight for the prep for induction, which should take place tomorrow morning. We are praying that after the prep, I won't even need the induction, and obviously, I am praying for a quick and uncomplicated delivery. We hope to have a little baby in our arms within the next 24 hours! We will keep you all posted. Right now, we are mostly trying to stay calm and not let our nerves get the best of us :)

Real quick update

No baby yet. We continue to wait. When something happens, we'll post it here.

Yesterday I got a call from HR that I am still in the running for the position. I will hear in a couple weeks if I will get another interview. That's better than nothing, I guess.

Since my last blog, my Fantasty Football team got crushed in the championship game. Second place is not bad but first place is way better. Also, the Denver Broncos lost at home to a lousy team that has been playing lousy. If the Broncos lose on Sunday in San Diego, they will make NFL history for worst collapse at the end of the season and miss the playoffs. Sometimes I hate being a football fan.

My Push Present

Yes, indeed, it is what you think it is: a present for pushing out a baby! A little silly, I know, but I got an email from a baby website a while back about push presents and I thought, that sounds pretty good. If I am giving Tim an heir, maybe he can give me a push present. So I sent the email to Tim with a suggestion to disregard the email's suggestion of engraved, keepsake jewelry as the present. That kind of jewelry isn't really my style, so I suggested an ipod instead. And sure enough, my sweet husband went for it! He gave it to me early so that I could load it with songs to listen to during the delivery, which hopefully, will be any day now.....waiting, waiting, waiting. I did ask Tim not to get me anything for Christmas, so I guess it ended up being an early Christmas present, but it's more fun to call it a push present! Not sure if push presents are retro-active ladies, but you could try!!!

Update

No baby yet. The official due date is tomorrow and he seems to like it inside Heidi, where he is warm and well fed. I will post something when he makes his debut.

A while back I interviewed at work for a promotion/department transfer. That was almost a month ago and I still have not heard anything back yet. Thanks for those of you that prayed for me. I guess now I won’t hear anything until after the holidays.

This weekend I am playing Jeremy Melander in the championship of our Fantasy Football league. This is my 10th season with that league and I have never played for the championship. In last night’s game, Jer had Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Maurice Jones-Drew starting and each had career nights. He already has 80 points from one game. I think my goose is cooked. At least the baby’s birth should keep me from being sad about getting to the big game and watching my team lose horribly.

Speaking of teams losing horribly, if my (yes, they are my team) Denver Broncos can win at home against the Buffalo Bills, they will make the playoffs and have at least one game in the thin air of the Mile High City. If the Broncos lose and the San Diego Chargers win, then the Broncos play the next week in San Diego and the winner of the game goes to the playoffs. If the Broncos lose the next two games and fail to make the playoffs, I will not leave my house for a month and use my John Elway jersey as toilet paper.

Just a few more...

I don't really like seeing pictures of myself pregnant, but the rest of you seem to enjoy it, so here's one more! I wasn't even cooking, this is totally posed, but whatever.

For some reason aprons make the baby bump a bit more novel, or so I hear.

At my last baby shower, such a sweet little outfit, thanks Auntie Sharron!

Not really sure what we were doing, but I followed orders to join the pile...

Me and gramma!

Poor Tim

Any of you who have been to visit us lately and gotten a tour of our temporary new digs have seen the 2 beds in our room. Tim has been sleeping on a mattress at the foot of our bed :( Poor guy. When we got married, we foolishly bought a (very comfy) full size bed. Let me just say this: too small.

About a month or so ago we just couldn't do it anymore. With the 2 of us, the baby and the body pillow, I just wasn't sleeping anymore. So I said "babe, I am going to start sleeping in the guest room." My sweet, sweet baby daddy would have none of that :) and moved the guest mattress into our room and he sleeps there now. It is very sad though. I miss him! Every night, one of us (and sometimes it is indeed me!) crawls to the other's bed for a little snuggle before we say farewell until morning. Here is a visual for your viewing enjoyment.

Soon, my dear, very soon, you can come back!

Some photo updates

Thought I should catch up on pics before baby comes and this blog becomes inundated with darling pics of our little sweetie. Jackson Oliver Chase is coming soon, about 2 1/2 weeks, hopefully sooner, but we'll see. I had my last day of work at MyTana today and they gave me a great little going away party. I am actually going to miss that place. Now I can rest, freeze some meals, and get ready for labor!

With Jenni and Sarah at a baby shower. So great to see you girls!

With Melissa, love you girl!

Super cute prego desserts that Sally made for the shower, gingerbread men with ice cream bellies, mmmmm

Tim and I at the Round Barn Farm B&B in Red Wing. We took the weekend as a little "babymoon" vacation before baby Chase arrives. So fun.

Thanksgiving weekend update

The Thanksgiving weekend was great. We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights at Heidi’s parents house where they stuffed us with turkey, fixings, and desserts. Most of our time was spent relaxing and eating. It was a perfect holiday. I did drag my tired self out of bed at 5:45 am on Friday to buy a cordless drill at the Home Depot for 50% off. It is a really nice drill and I have wanted cordless one for a long time. It will serve me well in Africa. Anyone that knows me well knows that I don’t like mornings or shopping, especially alone, but I could not pass it up. Heidi said she was proud of me for braving Black Friday alone while she slept.

Friday night was spent home with my sister, Sally, and her family. She brought an amazing apple pie and Heidi made Cream Cheese Casserole, which is better than its name implies. Kent, my handy brother in law, helped me with a couple projects around the house that were a little beyond my comfort level. We enjoyed having everyone together in our house.

On Saturday we went bowling and had dinner with some of Heidi’s longtime friends. I am ashamed to admit that I lost to Tammy in one of the games but I did beat her in the next one. Her boyfriend, Dante, crushed both of us in the second game. Her brother and his wife joined us for dinner and ice cream after. Heidi and I had a great time hanging out with them.

Sunday was as good a day as the rest. I got some projects done around the house and Heidi made curtains for the baby’s room. As a special bonus, the Broncos put a hurtin’ on the NY Jets in NY (really New Jersey, but whatever) even though everyone said the Broncos should lose badly. I taped the game (on our VCR, I am so old school) and I will watch it tonight. It will be fun to savor a Broncos victory over a good team after watching last week’s humiliating loss to the Raiders.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I (Tim) as a kid remember being at Thanksgiving dinner and someone recommending that we all share something for which we are thankful. That is a nice idea, but with the food smelling really good and getting cold in front of me, I always wished we could have done that after we ate. Since we have a blog, I am going to share what I am thankful for this year.

I am thankful for my Sweet Baboo, the Heidster. She is my favorite and I love her a lot. Soon we will get to enjoy our first offspring and that will be great. I am blessed, indeed.

Peapods

I finally made it into Peapods today to exchange something. What an amazing store! I was overwhelmed by it incredible-ness. Definitely going back there. With Christmas coming up, if you have to buy gifts for children, you'll have to check it out on Snelling and St. Clair. Happy shopping!

Barnabas Team

Bethlehem Baptist has missionary support teams for the missionaries they send out and after hearing about it first hand from our teammates, Tim and I thought it was a pretty sweet idea, so we "copied" them and started one of our own about a year ago. Our Barnabas Team is a group of people from different areas of our life that get together once a month to pray for us and for our ministry. It has been a blessing to be a part of it while we are still in the States, but I imagine it will be even more vital to our well-being once we are in Senegal. We like to think of our team as our inner-circle of support, those at home holding the ropes for us.

We also had the privilege of visiting Joe and Cara's Barnabas Team about 2 weeks ago and joining with their friends to pray for them as well as give and eye-witness update on how they are doing. It was a great encouragement to us to see how much this group of believers has personally taken on the ministry of our team through Joe and Cara. The depth of their concern for our friends and for the Wolof people was tremendous. It re-affirmed to us that we can't be successful in this endeavor without the prayer support of the body of Christ.

If you have any questions about our barnabas team or would like to visit one of our prayer times, please let us know!

Christmas came early this year

Heidi is nesting. I guess pregnant women do that. She actually has been nesting for a while now. On Sunday she decided that it was time to buy a Christmas tree and decorate the house for Christmas. So, we bought a tree at Target and put it up while listening to Christmas music. It looks good but I usually don’t start the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving. I am not one to argue with a pregnant woman, so I will wish you all a very early Merry Christmas.

On Thursday night I watched the Broncos play the Browns with Brian and Nic. It was not that great of a game until the 4th quarter. At that point, the Broncos were down 23-13 and only had one healthy running back (a fullback) on the field. Jay Cutler connected with Eddie Royal, a rookie receiver, for a 93 yard catch and run and the momentum changed back to the Broncos. From that point on, Cutler put the team on his back and carried them to victory. The final score was 34-30 in the Broncos favor and hope for the season was restored. Or the game was simply a stay of execution. I’m not sure which it will end up being, but it was nice to see the Broncos finally win a game.

Halloween Fun

I don't really like Halloween as a holiday, but it's fun to dress up and get free Chipotle. Here's a few shots from Friday nightIndiana Jer

Santa (Linsey)

Turbine I and Turbine II

Tim's costume as "Mullet Man" with uncomfortably short shorts...wow, need I say more?

Baby and I went as a bowling ball. Easy and comfy!

Hope you had a great Halloween! We waiting in line at Chipotle for about an hour for our free burritos, but it was totally worth it.

Broncos = Wildebeests

Watching the Denver Broncos on Monday night reminded me of a nature show I saw a while back with Heidi’s family. In the nature show, helpless Wildebeests wandered through Africa trying to find food and survive the various predators they encountered. The scene that stands out was when the poor creatures came up to the river for a drink and one by one were snatched and eaten by crocodiles. We were yelling at the TV for the poor dumb wildebeests to stay away but they kept just approaching the water until all the crocs were busy eating and the rest of the herd could safely get a drink. It was agony to witness the Broncos defense helplessly watch running backs go past them and receivers catch the ball with almost no fear of being tackled. To compound the misery, two of our best defensive players, the Bailey brothers, got hurt, one for the rest of the season and one for a month. The defense could not get a break because the offense lost three fumbles and Cutler tossed two interceptions. Cutler, our starting QB, hurt his hand on the first play of the game. Ramsey, the backup QB, went in for four plays and, on the fourth play, fumbled away the football after getting hit and is out for the rest of the year with an injured elbow. To ensure complete misery, the special teams were anything but special, letting Welker run for a 50 yard put return, setting up a Patriots touchdown. The Broncos are still 4-3 and lead the division but I have no hope for the season. The worst defense in the NFL, combined with a turnover prone offense does not give a fan much confidence. At least the Broncos were getting beat by the Patriots and not eaten by crocodiles. The way the season is now going, that is a possibility.

Japamberly says "Sianara USA!"

My good friend Amberly is a missionary in Japan, thus the nickname Japamberly (which a few of us all claim was our original idea, but don't be fooled, it was MINE, all mine!). She recently headed back over there for another couple years, but before she left, we had a little fun in Mankato being quite silly.

Trying on ridiculouly uncomfortable, but incredibly cute shoes and posing like a big pregnant dork.

I love, love, love cute shoes, but my feet love comfort. So I like to try them on at the store, but never buy them. I really like it when Tim takes me to DSW and sits there with his bribe of a frappaccino and let's me model cute shoes for him. I never buy them, which he appreciates, but he is still working on finding the fun of watching me take great joy in trying them on and asking him what he thinks. He hates it, but I love it that he indulges me. At least I buy him a treat!

Here's Am driving around Mankato. Go, Am, go!

Before watching the movie Super Size Me, I never wanted to eat at McDonalds, other my my short affair with the place in high school, that is. But ever since watching SSM, I LOVE McDonalds! It is a guilty pleasure that I don't often give in to though, which is obviously very good. Since being pregnant, though, the cravings are much stronger. I have only been a couple times, and am greatful to Am for indulging! Mmmmm...

Well rested in Seattle

Heidi and I were in Seattle last weekend to visit a church that wants to support us. We met the pastor of Philadelphia Church last April at our church's denominational gathering and he invited us out. It was a good trip and we enjoyed meeting people and seeing Seattle. In my humble opinion, Seattle is the most beautiful city in America. Strangely enough, much of our time was spend hanging out with five people from Long Island, NY, who flew in to be the cooks for the weekend. They were amazingly fun. The most bizarre occurance was getting invited to a wedding reception by a family in the church but not having a chance to change clothes first. So, there I was, wearing shorts and a knock off Senegalese soccer jersey and Heidi was wearing a baseball cap. It was great fun and great food, too. We will post pictures from the trip soon.

Some of our new friends from Long Island.

Heidi and her new best friend, Stan!

Our wedding crasher attire.

More committed than ever.

I (Tim) intended to blog more about our trip to Senegal but have not. The short summary of the trip is that it was incredibly valuable and we are glad that we went. Aside from the Lord revealing some things to us, the most important thing we learned was that we are absolutely supposed to be there. Our calling to Senegal and the Wolof people was solidified in concrete and we have no doubts that God called us there and, despite the frustrating delays, has a plan to get us there well. We love our team and cannot wait to do ministry with them. We are more committed than ever and hope to be in Senegal next spring.

We are blessed in many ways, but one of them is that now we have a full house. On Saturday we moved into the downstairs unit of our duplex and, as of tomorrow, there will be four women living upstairs. They are Christian gals and Heidi and I like them a lot. Another woman will live downstairs with us for a couple months as she prepares for overseas ministry herself. We are happy that the Lord blessed us with good tenants.

Last Sunday was the worst possible football weekend for me. First, the Vikings lost. At least they played a decent game (until they made stupid mistakes at the end) and lost to one of the best teams in the NFL. Second, my fantasy football team lost because I did not know that Carson Palmer was injured. I was playing Robbie, whose team was also 3-0. Now my team is 3-1. Third, and worst of all, my Broncos lost to one of the most inept teams in the NFL. The offense turned over the ball four times and the defense showed that they not only give up lots of passing yards but also running yards. At least Zach was happy that the Chiefs finally won one. Now they can finish 1-15. Now that would be awesome.

Tim comments on Television shows

Television has become a wasteland. Reality television either brings out the worst in humanity for everyone to see or tugs on our heartstrings. Sitcoms are now mostly just attractive people cracking sex jokes to laugh tracks. (See Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother. Also, I hate laugh tracks.) I cannot even begin to communicate how much I hate prime time game shows. (The contempt and disgust I hold toward Deal or No Deal knows no bounds. It glorifies greed and the objectification of women. It makes me sick.) Dramas are often trying to one up the others pushing the envelope of what you can show on Network Television. Fortunately in all the unoriginality and garbage there are a few shows that entertain me.

LOST and The Office are the best shows on TV. Nothing else comes close. Last season I started watching three shows that I was sure would be cancelled but somehow where not. Of course, that means they will be cancelled this season.

First we have Chuck. It is about a nerdy but likeable guy who gets all of the United States’ secrets downloaded into his brain. He is forced to go on with life as normal while two secret agents watch out for him and sometimes take him on missions. The show has a playful tone and the action is comic bookish in nature. I like the memorable characters and the geek inside jokes. Sadly I get most of them.

Next up is the Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles. This show picks up with the characters after the events of Terminator 2 and answers the question of why Skynet does not just keep sending back Terminators after one fails. (The answer is that they do keep sending them back.) This show is darker in tone and relies much more on action sequences than Chuck. There is a real danger to the characters since aside from Sarah and John Conner, no character is safe from death. Unfortunately, ratings are low and the Fox Network loves to cancel shows (see Firefly), so it will probably not last the season.

The third show is Life. I consider it the best of the three. It follows a cop, Charlie Crews, who comes back to the force after spending 12 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Each episode he and his partner solve a different murder while Crews tries to figure out the conspiracy that led to his imprisonment. The acting and writing is great and I love the way Crews and Reese work together despite their personal issues.

Heidi and I almost never see a TV show on our actual TV. We almost always watch them on their network website or www.hulu.com. Feel free to comment on these or other shows worth watching.

Lucky Broncos and the new I-35W bridge

The Denver Broncos got a huge break on Sunday, then took a huge gamble, and got a huge win. It was awesome. With less than 2 minutes to play, down by a touchdown, and one yard to go into the end zone, Cutler, the Broncos Quarterback, fumbled the football and a Chargers player recovered it. Everyone thought the game was over and the Broncos had lost, but the ref screwed up and gave the Broncos the ball back. Two plays later, Cutler hit Eddie Royal, a rookie receiver in the back of the end zone for 6 points. Most coaches would call for the extra point to tie the game and head into overtime. Not Mike Shanahan. He called for the two point conversion and the exact same play that just got the touchdown. A moment later Mile High Stadium erupted into cheers and the Broncos got the 1 point victory. I only got the see the end of the game, but it was amazing.

This morning I (Tim) drove across the new I-35W bridge on my way to work. Thirteen and a half months ago the bridge collapsed and 13 people died. The new bridge was finished three months ahead of schedule and it looks great. I drove across that bridge every day to and from work and had been on the bridge less than an hour before it fell last August. Life is fragile and we never know what will happen. I am glad to have the bridge back and a much shorter drive to and from work.

Weekend update

So it has been raining a lot lately and it makes me want to go camping. Not that camping is that fun in the rain, but apparently rain makes me want to be outside. It may be b/c Tim and I recently got a great deal on raincoats at REI and I have been carrying it with me in the hope that I will get stuck in a downpour and get to wear it. Well, this weekend, I got my chance! We had planned to hit up the Mpls Farmers Market on Saturday morning and go hikin later on. Lucky for me, it was raining all day! We donned our raincoats and headed out. It was great! We got a bit wet during the hike, but it was still fun and we got to break in our new gear. Sunday was a full day with church, our Barnabas Team meeting and an open house for a friend. Oh and a date night on Friday which ended at Peter and Julie's house. It was a full weekend, but lots of fun!

Processing

For those of you who are wondering if we are ever going to share more about our vision trip...it's coming! We promise. Most of you have probably heard the standard, it was hard, but good. We do have more to share, much more!, but I think we are still processing everything. God did so much in our hearts in that short two weeks and we are overflowing with thankfulness to God! We feel very different than we did a month ago, in a good way. Our vision for ministry has been clarified, our desire to get there has increased, and our passion for the Wolof has intensified. God has been faithful to us in the past week as we pray through what we experienced in Senegal. He is speaking to us and we are listening, making changes, and seeking His face. We cannot express how excited we are for this endeavor. But we are also more realistic now in what it will require of us once we get there, so we are patient as we seek God for preparation. Again, I thank you for your prayers and we do look forward to sharing more stories with you as opportunity allows.

A picture of our whole team

Senegal Pictures

Well, still no luck recovering our pictures from the camera. So sad! We will keep trying, but it doesn't seem too promising at this point. The day our team went to the village, we took some team pictures of everyone in our colorful clothes. These aren't of the whole team, but you can see us in our booboo and haftan! I'm in the booboo, Tim's in the haftan.

Here we are with Joe and Cara

The women from our team.
Cara in back, Deb and I in middle and Iris in front. Great ladies!

One night in Dakar, we went to a touristy area and had dinner on a point overlooking the ocean. This is the western-most point of Africa. We were as close to home as we an get and still be in Senegal. It was breathtakingly beautiful!

Right in front of restaurant.

Hopefully more pictures to come.....hopefully.

back to blogging

I know that everyone is very excited about seeing pictures from Senegal....but I am at a loss. Sadly, all the pics I took found there way into a folder on my new memory card and I don't know how to access them. If anyone has any knowledge or tips for this, please let me know! Until then, we wait.

But here are some pictures of the weekend right before we left. A little reunion with my college roomies! Here is us posing with Sierra's lovely bags at Max's pirate birthday party.
Love those bags.

Two pregnant chics at a baby shower.

Bump battles

Mandy having a Mike's Hard Lemonade. Tasty.

(she didn't really drink it, don't worry.)
Hopefully Senegal photos coming soon.....

Home Again

Heidi and I are home again. The trip to Africa was incredibly valuable and we are glad that we went. We will put up a couple posts about the trip soon.

So far so good in Senegal

Heidi and I made it safe to Senegal. Things are going well and we are really glad we came. Today we will visit the village and wear our new outfits. Thanks for your prayers.

Quick update catch-up

My culinary desires have changed quite a bit since becoming prego and one of the things that I used to love is coffee. While I don't really care for it much these days, every so often a little taste hits the spot. So here I am enjoying a baby-sized cup of joe. I love that little cup! Too bad I have since broken it. :(

Some pictures over the 4th of July weekend during a stop for lunch at Mom and Dad's on the way up to Fergus Falls. I was about 16 weeks in this picture. I will note that when we arrived in Fergus, Sally's friend Wendy said hello by exclaiming, "wow, Heidi, you really ARE quite pregnant, aren't you!?" Huh. Thanks Wendy. :)
Our first tri-generational pic! Grandma, momma, and baby
Tim and I have been trying to squeeze in some fun dates this summer before our limitless freedom to go out is hindered by baby. No that we actually go out that much, but anyway, we are actually making an effort to do so these days. Tim planned this one, dinner at Conga (delicious latin tasties!), a walk in St. Anthony, a movie with friends (Iron Man - excellant) and ice cream at Izzy's (gotta love the Izzy scoop). All told, a wonderful evening! We got mango margaritas, but don't worry, mine was virgin! So tasty.

Team Chase!
My papa on the 4th of July, looking stylin' and going to be a grandpa!
It would seem that I got my mother's coloring, huh?

It's time for Tim to post about football

The football preseason has begun. I do not plan to watch any preseason games, but I am getting excited for the Broncos first regular season game in exactly a month. First, I must lament the loss of three of my favorite Broncos. Mike Bell, an undrafted rookie running back who played fantastic two seasons ago, was released last month. I liked the way he played and put the team first. He signed with the Houston Texans and I wish him the best. Rod Smith, the best undrafted wide receiver ever to play in the NFL, hung up his cleats and embraced retirement last month. He was the personification of a professional and showed a generation how to play football right. Finally, John Lynch, a safety who was always good for a borderline legal hit once a game, realized that he would not play as much this year and asked for his release from the team. If he cannot find another team that will promise to let him start, he will likely retire and take a job in sports broadcasting. He has been a model citizen during his career and I hope he enjoys his life after sports. I give these three players a mile high salute.

Some time in October, the Jets will be sporting a 1-3 record, Favre will have 2 touchdown passes and 6 interceptions, and he will be lying on his back after his 6th sack of the game. The New York fans will be booing him and, like Will Arnett’s character on Arrested Development, he will say “I have made a HUGE mistake.” In the meantime, the Packers will have a 1-3 record, Aaron Rodgers will have just thrown his 3rd interception against a division rival, and Packer fans everywhere are smashing beer bottles against their foreheads. The Packers coach and general manager will look at each other and say, “We have made a HUGE mistake.” That’s good drama.

I love Heidi more than I love football.

Keeping busy!

It seems that just when you think things are slowing down a bit, new things come along with full force. We've got family visiting, friends visiting and 2 new roomates, so Tim and I have stayed busy! With taking the house off the market, we are busy doing some looking, and a lot of praying, for great new tenants. And the Lord reminds us of His faithful in that endeavor often. We are also preparing for a visit to see our ministry team in Senegal, which is SO exciting. We are so blessed to have this opportunity to survey the land and to catch a greater vision of God's personal calling on our lives to minister the Gospel among the Wolof.

We will be gone the last 2 weeks of August and covet your prayers. We acknowledge that we are headed into enemy domain, where the great deceiver has been hard at work for many years establishing his authority. But we also know that we go in God's will, under His covering, with His authority, and with the blessing of His annointing. So pray for us in these coming weeks. That God would prepare us for what we will see and experience, that our spiritual eyes would be opened, and that we would get a representative taste of the spiritual environment where we are moving our family.

That sounds a bit heavy, I know! But as we grow closer to departure, we are both excited and sobered to what we are walking into in this new phase of ministry. God has Kingdom plans for the Wolof and we are thrilled to be a part of them!!!

Bella

This time I, Heidi, am doing a movie review! I know, I know, we're switching things up a bit. Over the weekend, we rented the movie Bella. Wow, it was great. If you rent one movie all summer, I think it would do your soul well to rent this one. I think it's an independent film......I never remember director's names, but either way, it was a great film. It got a lot of press in Catholic circles for it's strong pro-life theme, and I believe it received good reviews as well. The story was touching, the acting was top-notch, and the message was solid. If you view life and family as precious, go see this movie. The main guy in the movie made it big in Central America as a soap star. He re-discovered his faith through the Catholic church and wanted to make a movie with a worthwhile message that was honoring to his faith. Mission accomplished. I almost want to say that if you didn't like this movie, something is wrong with you...but that's offensive. So I won't say it. :)

Just go rent the movie! Movies like this deserve our time and money. You're gonna rent a movie anyway, make it this one. More movies like this are certainly what we need these days!

It's getting hot out there. . .

We have entered the dog days of summer. I don't actually know what that means, but I think I sound smart when I say it. The next few days are supposed to be hot in MN. That means mid 90s with high humidity. It would not be so bad if either of our cars had working AC. The worst part of my day is driving home from work in traffic while sweating profusely. Heidi usually does not mind heat like that, but now that she is pregnant it bothers her. The ironic thing about this is that next month we are heading to Senegal to visit our team. In the hottest part of the year. We are so excited to see our team that I guess we will just find a way to deal with it. Details about the trip with be forthcoming, but we will be gone for almost 2 weeks. I just hope I don't melt.

Movie review: The Dark Knight

The new Batman movie came with a lot of hype. Is there any way that a movie with that much hype can live up to it? On Saturday afternoon, Heidi and I went to find out. In my humble opinion, it more than lived up to the hype. The Dark Knight is awesome. Comic book movies are seldom this smart and certainly not as well done. The entire film I was on the edge of my seat, caught up in the intensity. Just as a warning, it is dark and intense all the way through but the violence is bloodless and the scariest stuff is implied. Heath Ledger’s Joker was incredible. Denying the audience a back story on the Joker was a great move and made his character even more menacing. At two and a half hours, the movie could have been trimmed down a bit, but that is really the only thing I could find to complain about. Leave the kids at home for this one, but The Dark Knight is the best movie of the summer and possibly the best comic book film of all time.

Great scenes: The Joker ambushes the police caravan.
The Joker’s introduction to the mob bosses (the disappearing pencil trick).
Batman’s visit to Hong Kong.

Great line: Lucius Fox: Let me get this straight. You think that your employer, one of the richest men in the world, is spending his nights running around the city beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands? And your plan is to blackmail him? Good luck with that.

Rollergirls on the Greenway

On Tuesday night, Heidi and I took a walk on the Midtown Greenway. We often see unique/strange things while walking on the Greenway and Tuesday night was no different. The first odd thing was a group of Rollergirls. It was a group of women, and a man who appeared to be their coach, on old school rollerskates cruising down the Greenway in single file. They all had colorful clothing, 1980’s style tube socks, and moved at a pretty good pace. The next odd thing was a group of kids in their early teens that appeared to be acting out some kind of Fight Club. (If you’ve seen that movie, you can probably picture it.) There was no actual fighting, just boys talking big and challenging each other. When we walked back to where they had been, no one was there. We did not call the police since they seemed more intent on challenging each other than actually fighting. The last odd thing was a guy on a huge Unicycle. He was moving really fast and the wheel was about twice the size of a normal Unicycle. He appeared to be enjoying himself. Ah, the things we get to enjoy living in the city.

I played the new Disc Golf course at Minnehaha Falls yesterday with Nic, Jer, Peter, and Eric. It is the easiest course I have ever played, but we had fun. I had two terrible holes, but still finished at -2 after 20 holes. That’s how easy that course is. I would like to play it again.

Heidi and I were happy to welcome back our friend Peter Bodurtha (I may have spelled that wrong) back from his ten month stint in Russia. He and his fiancé, Julie Grazier, joined Heidi and I for Thai food last night. We went to Chai Thai, a tiny restaurant in the Cedar Riverside area, near the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The place was nice, the company was excellent and the food was good. In my quest to find the best Pad Thai in the Twin Cities, I give Chai Thai a slightly above average grade. The service was great, the food quality was good, but the amount of food versus the price was lacking. I don’t like feeling hungry when I finish my meal and that is what happened. No one else seemed to have that problem, so maybe I eat too much. Anyway, we are glad to have Peter and Julie (Petulie) back and are excited for what will surely be a memorable time when they get married next month.

Family Time

Once again, I am running a bit behind on posting pics of all our adventures, but here's a few to satisfy the masses or whoever it is that actually reads our blog!! Our nephew, Carver, in his clip-on tie for church!

Sadly, he took it off right before wegot to church.

Us at Minnehaha Falls. It was a beautiful day.

Here's my blog premier of wearing maternity clothes!!

Everyone who was visiting us :)

Tim and his sisters. The sibs.

We had a great time that day, got some Chipotle after church and everyone ate their ENTIRE burrito! It was a sight to behold. I was rueing that decision later on, but by then it was too late. We hiked around a bit at Minnehaha, got a bit muddy, but enjoyed the georgeous weather. Played at the park a bit and got ice cream for dinner :)

Intentional community and urban chickenry

Last night Heidi and I spent some time with our friends Andrew and Sarah and their cute, happy, baby, Ezekiel. They are friends from church who live in intentional community in a house not far from ours in South Minneapolis. They live with two single people and a married couple and are part of a loose association of other similar houses where people live in similar fashion. They see intentional community as more than simply living in a structure with people, but also sharing their lives with them. It is a counter cultural idea that goes against American ideals, but I like it. After dinner, we joined them at a meeting of other like minded people where there was fellowship and discussion about how to live and share lives with people in community. There were lots of dreadlocks, body piercings, and tattoos (making me feel very preppy in comparison) and we enjoyed our time with them. Most everyone lives in our neighborhood and it was great to know that there are people like them all around us. Many of them attend a church called the Salvage Yard, which I had never heard of before last night. We got some great ideas for our house and some fantastic leads on people to live in our place.

Right before dinner last night, Sarah went out in their back yard and returned with three eggs. Joking, I asked her if she had chickens in their back yard. She replied that, yes, there were four chickens in their yard. Of course, then I went out and saw them for myself. I am not used to seeing chickens in our neighborhood. Later, at the meeting, a woman offered to share her knowledge of “urban chickenry” to anyone who wants to learn. I guess it is what it sounds like. Maybe someday we will participate in “urban chickenry”.

Since this post is about living in community and how we plan to set that up for our house, it is probably clear that we are taking our house off the market. We did not want to go with property management, but selling our house involved losing a lot of money and that did not seem wise to us. We felt that the Lord released us from selling for the time being and are now actively seeking people to live with us until we depart for Africa. The downstairs tenants are moving out and we are moving downstairs. We intend to have a house where people desire to live in community and we will use a property management company when we leave for Africa. So, please send anyone our way who wants to live in community in the city.

Updates and random thoughts

I (Tim) played one of, if the not best, round of Disc Golf ever on Saturday morning. There were six of us that got up early and barely beat the rain at the Bethel University course. The players were Dan, Brian, Phil, Grant, Dave (my sister Amy’s fiancé), and myself. The scores were pretty tight until the end. On hole #9 I took a five and thought that my goose was cooked, however, two long par putts later and I found myself in the lead with four holes left. With some good fortune and a couple great drives I ended up winning the round. I never beat those guys, so it was particularly sweet.

We got in some good family time this weekend. On Saturday night we had both my sisters and staying at our house, which was a little tight. After church on Sunday, we all ate at Chipotle and spent some time at Minneahaha Falls. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. We will post the pictures later. It is good to be with family.

I finally joined Facebook. It is a good way to keep track of people and I have already made contact with people I have not seen in years. It is a slick site.

A couple weeks ago Heidi and I were in the mood for a fun movie, but instead ended up with Fool’s Gold. It is a forgettable movie where the previews showed all the funny parts. Seriously, there was not a single joke in the movie that was not already revealed in the preview. It was directed by the guy who made Hitch, but it was an inferior movie in every way.

I sure do love Heidi. Especially with her special glow.

Tim's niece made a new friend

My Niece, Christi “the” Mann, is spending the summer with her father in Nashville, TN. In the fall she will be a Junior at Grace College in northern Indiana. Since she does not know anyone in Nashville, and the church her Dad and Grandmother attend did not result in making new friends, she signed up for an Improv class. The first friend she made in the class was a woman who is a few years older than her named Rebecca. Christi’s new friend casually mentioned that she had moved to the U.S. from Australia when she was a teenager and has recorded a few Christian CDs. Since everyone in Nashville has recorded a few CDs, Christi did not think much of it. After a few weeks of performing in skits together and enjoying hanging out with her new friend, Christi decided that something seemed familiar about her. After checking the internet, she discovered that her new friend is Rebecca St. James, a well know Christian singer/songwriter. I give props to Rebecca St. James for being so friendly and sweet to a young woman who was new to town. I was already a fan of her music (I even gave Christi one of her CDs for Christmas a few years ago) and now I am a fan of her as a person.

Mpls in the summertime

One thing we love about living in South Mpls is the lakes. It is glorious being so close to the major lake chain: Isles, Calhoun, Harriet, and Nokomis. We walked a lake three times this week and it was wonderful. Tim and I have some of our best conversations when we walk, something about the fresh air and beautiful surroundings gets our mental juices flowing! This afternoon we did Nokomis and it was lovely. Perfect weather for trying out new sun hat. Caribou was giving out free drinks today from 3-4, but we didn't make it over there. Oh well.

Memorial Day Camping

I am a little behind on posting, but here are some pictures from our super fun camping trip to St. Croix State Park over the long weekend. The Watsons are from church and we became fast friends! Sadly, they are moving to Singapore tomorrow. We are really going to miss them!! Katie and Julia and our nephew, Carver

Chases and Watsons

Chases and Lundholms, Tim's sister

Lundholms and Watsons...it was a regular photo shoot!!

Sally got a ton of marshmellow smeared in her hair when she swatted at a mosquito not knowing the mallow was all over her hand. It was pretty funny. Sorry Sal! Obviously, this picture doesn't convey the real humor. It was funny. But if I have to tell you that, what's the point?

Phil and Amy frying up some tasty bacon for breaky!

Me and my girls!

Hanging out at the playground. The bugs were really bad that weekend, which was a big bummer. It was worth it though, to make some memories before they ship out! We're gonna miss you guys, see you at Christmas!