An update in pictures

Am I confused, or do I have gas?

I love this blankie my great grandma made me.

How cute am I in my bathtime get-up? I love bathtime.

Just hanging out in my basket.

Well, Jackson is keeping us busy, but learning to sleep better at night. I have even gotten 8 consecutive hours a couple nights! Waittago little guy! We sure do love him and praise God for this addition to our family.

Fundraising is also keeping us busy and we are still pressing on to leave for Senegal this July.

Jackson's photo gallery

Cooing at Nana

What's up, papa?

Papa and Baby Jack

Note from the editor, I mean, Momma. Tim and I really wanted to be in Senegal by now, but I am so thankful for God's timing. Not only being able to have Jackson in a medical facility where English is spoken and access to a close ER (would one need that...) but I am so thankful for all the mom's that I am surrounded with and all the fantastic support and advice that I have received. I joined the mom's group at our church when I was pregnant and have been greatly blessed by those relationships and support. Having a new little person is a marvelous and taxing transition and I can't imagine dealing with this first month without all of the great support our friends have given, praise God for community!!

Smiles all around

I sure love it when Daddy rubs my head

In my teddy bear suit from auntie Ellie

It was a little warm this day, so I tied my sweatshirt around my waist...with a little help from Momma

I sleep a lot

Happy Valentine's Day!

Movie Review: Fireproof

A few years ago the gold standard for low budget, high quality movies was the Billy Graham Association. They have not made a movie in a while and the void has been admirably filled by an unlikely source, Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA. The Kendrick brothers, who are on staff at the church, wrote and directed the movie, and also played small roles. The locations, fire station and equipment, and even food, was donated by people in the community. The crew and actors, even the leads, were volunteers. The entire project was completed for around $500,000, which is an incredibly tiny budget for a movie this big. There were times when the writing and acting was weak, and a couple times it was distracting enough to take me out of the story, but the filmmaker’s enthusiasm and belief in the message made up for those shortfalls. If I was to describe the movie simply, I would say that it is better than it deserves to be. My expectations were low, but like the church’s previous effort, Facing the Giants, I enjoyed it. By no means is it a perfect movie, but it was good.

Special kudos must go to the filmmakers for tackling the subject of marriage. That is a hot topic in both the political realm and in the evangelical world. Putting forth a movie that affirms marriage, while showing how difficult it is for many couples, is not an easy task, and they have been taking shots for it. I applaud their efforts.

Great Scene: The Wrath of God hot sauce eating contest was an accurate portrayal of the way men act when they are bonded by a difficult job and when women are not around. (The name, Wrath of God, for a hot sauce, is genius.)

Great Line: Caleb Holt: Marriage isn't fireproof. Michael Simmons: Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it.

Jackson's cousin, Carver

The other day, Jackson's cousin, Carver, said, "I know three Jacks. Jack in my class, Jack the dog, and Baby Jack. I only love baby Jack."

The picture was taken when they first met.

25 Random facts about Tim

This is something that people are doing in Facebook, so I thought I post it here, too. Just for fun. Also, there has not been a post in a while and I don't have any picture of Jackson with me, so this will have to do for now.

I was born in Spencer, Iowa, but moved away after 1 year.

I spent half my life in Denver, Colorado, but have only skied in Colorado 3 times.

I still love the Denver Broncos. One of the best moments of my life was when they beat Green Bay for their first Super Bowl win.

I have had stitches in my head on 4 separate occasions and fractured a bone in my right hand on 3 separate occasions.

In high school I got pulled over by the police 4 times and never got a ticket. In the first two years after college, I got 3 speeding tickets. I have not gotten one since.

I have been to 49 states. Alaska is the one I have yet to visit.

I played 2 seasons of Jr. High basketball at a tiny school called Aurora Christian Academy. I only took one shot in those 2 seasons, but I made it. Sadly, it was in the game against Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, who had beaten us earlier in the year. True story.

In college I played on an intramural basketball team named Elky Pro, after the urinal mat. The requirement to be on the team was being horrible at basketball. We lost every game by an average of almost 100 points. We designed trick plays and had fans with signs and wore funny clothes. It was incredibly fun.

God gave me a highly competitive nature but very little athletic ability. Not a good combination.

I got Varsity Letters in Speech and Track my Senior year of high school. In Track it was a Senior letter but I was still happy with it.

I might be the only person in the history of Bethel University to participate in a Track meet and a theater production in the same day.

My first girlfriend, when I was 17, broke up with me after 2 and a half weeks.

My second girlfriend, when I was 20, broke up with me after 2 and a half weeks. That was when she told me that she already had a boyfriend in another state.

The first girlfriend, Holly, and I remained friends and her cousin, Heather Whitestone, became Miss America in 1995. We all hung out once and Holly told me that Heather would have gone out with me if I had asked her. Maybe she was saying that to be nice but it sure felt good.

I am an ordained, but not licensed, pastor in West Virginia. Only in West Virginia.

I ran my first Cross Country race in college with my shorts on backward. A girl that I liked at the time pointed it out to me after the race.

I spent the summer of 1994 doing ministry with gang kids in San Francisco. Part of my heart is still there.

I bear a striking resemblance to General George Custer. When I would travel to the Pine Ridge Reservation for work, I often wondered how many people realized that. (For the record, I am not a fan of George Custer. He was a bad man.)

I met my wife, Heidi, on a blind date. Chris Heng, my best friend, convinced us to meet. We were married 15 months after we met.

I worked for 6+ years at YouthWorks! Inc., leading mission trips. It is the favorite of the different jobs I have held in my life.

Heidi pierced my ear with a piercing stud and an old apple. She finally pushed it through on the 5th try. It hurt a lot. All to save a few bucks by not getting it done at the mall.

My mother cried when she saw my tattoo. I was 28 years old at the time.

My wedding day is one of the happiest days of my life. Getting married to Heidi was one of the best decisions I have ever made. She’s awesome and I love her a lot. If I had known how much fun marriage is, I would have done it years ago. Of course, Heidi would only have been in high school, so that doesn’t really work.

The birth of my son, Jackson, was amazing. I love the little guy so much. When we had to take him to the ER a few days after he was born, I cried for the first time in 20 years.

I have been a Christian my whole life. My faith means everything to me. If I am known as someone who brought glory to God and loved his family and friends, I cannot think of anything better.

three weeks today and counting

well, we are at 3 weeks old and counting. i am pretty much a total zombie, not really ready to get back to the real world yet. it's great to have Tim home on the weekends though. but i think we are managing ok during the week....sort of... me and Jackson are both still alive, so that's good news :) Tim and I even made it out for our 4th anniversary with the mini.

can't wait till he starts to smile when he's awake

ready for his first appearance at church, he was a big hit of course

"Everything changes now" and other thoughts

A few days after Jackson was born, I (Tim) talked to some friends and they all said “everything changes now.” I knew things would change with a baby but I did not really understand it. Slowly but surely I am beginning to comprehend. I must clarify that these changes are good. There is a sense of responsibility and a depth of love that seem at times to overwhelm me. The absolute, gigantic responsibility to take care of a completely helpless human being is sobering and humbling but, most of all, exciting. I picture myself with an adult Jackson who loves God and is well liked by the people in his life and I can think of no greater accomplishment. Winning a Super Bowl for the Broncos could not compare in any way to raising Jackson from cute baby to strong man. Also, I have loved my family, friends, and the Heidster, (and my cat, Sinbad, in my youth) but the love of a father for his son is altogether different. Even though I have only known the little guy for less than 3 weeks, I love him so much. What a tremendous gift from God Heidi and I have received. We are so grateful.

Last night Heidi and I took Jackson and had dinner to celebrate our 4th anniversary. The last four years have been great and love the Heidster more now than 4 years ago. We had a great dinner and enjoyed our time as a family. I think Jackson was eyeing my shrimp but he had to settle more milk. Poor kid.

Alas, this will probably be my last football post for a while. In case you missed it, my Denver Broncos completed the most humiliating collapse in NFL history by losing three straight games at the end of the season and missing the playoffs. That included a 52-21 drubbing by San Diego the last game of the season. The Broncos coach was promptly fired and soon replaced by a 32 year old prodigy who will hopefully lead my team to glory. The defense will be completely rebuilt, which is good since it was one of the worst defenses in the league last year and set an NFL record for least amount of takeaways in a season. There is no where to go but up on defense. Even if they are in the middle of the pack next year, it will be a huge improvement. In an earlier blog post I said I would use my Elway jersey as toilet paper if the Broncos lost. I decided to instead just not wear it for a while. The pain is just too great. My fellow football fans understand.

every day he looks older....

look how cute i am!

right after the birth

check out my cheeks!

a few more pics for his public, including one of his sad little IV. what a little trooper he was in the hospital. our little champ! had to get blood draw every 4 hours :(

Yay for pictures!!

Did we catch everyone?

For anyone that has missed the details on our sweet little boy, I am copying the notice I posted on our facebook pages to give a little summary of our weekend:

A few of you have asked why we are here (Children's Hospital) and we haven't gotten to notify everyone yet. Early Friday morning Jackson had a fever of 102.6 so we took him to the ER at about 5am. He didn't have the fever anymore when we got there, but they did a full sepsis work-up with blood work, urine sample and a spinal tap. It was pretty brutal to witness, we had to leave the room for the spinal tap. We had only had him home about 36 hours from Abbott before we were re-admitted to Children's for about 4 days :) Not a great way to start off parenthood, but we are managing ok now. That last couple days have been pretty rough, but God has been gracious to us and Jackson is in good health. We go home today, Monday, and look forward to going back to basics and establishing a family routine that does NOT include hospitals. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us, we REALLY appreciate it. God is good.

*I keep forgetting to mention what was the matter with our little guy since the tests were negative. Basically, we got some really bad nursing advice at the hospital and he ended up severely dehydrated with a fever. Since we didn't really know what to look for with the dehydration, it got pretty bad pretty fast. But now he is eating like a champ! I am biased of course, but he is also pretty darn cute. One of these days we will fix our camera and you can all see it for yourself :)

I know I keep saying this, but more pictures coming soon, either tonight or tomorrow and our computer is getting fixed this weekend, yay!

Pictures....?

Sorry friends, the wait continues. We are obviously still having some trouble with our camera. We are waiting for an email with some pics someone else took and also waiting to get our laptop reformatted, then I promise lots of pictures of our little sweetie. Gosh, what did we do before the internet??? At least I get to look at his darling little face all day :) heehee We are doing well, Tim is back to work today and Jackson and I are settling into a routine. So far so good, although we miss daddy a whole lot already. It was nice to have 2 days with the three of us at home without being at a hospital. I am still recovering, our stint at Children's seems to have delayed that a bit, but I am doing ok overall, feeling MUCH better than last week. Turns out this delivery was a little traumatic. I guess it's not really normal to not be able to stand up straight for 3 days! Oh well, I didn't know any different!

Jackson Oliver Chase

Introducing Jackson Oliver Chase. Born on December 29, 2008 at 9:44 pm. He weighed 8 pounds and 12 oz and is 21 inches long. We are so happy he is here with us.

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