Christmas Festivities

We hope you had a great Christmas! There is nothing more wonderful to celebrate than the birth of our Savior. Ours was a little bittersweet, being our last with family for a while, but we had a great time.

We saw Tim's sister on Christmas Eve, here's us with our nephews, and then Tim drove them to the airport as they were off for Arizona to see Kent's parents. Doesn't Arizona sound nice right now?

Here's my brother and his wife, Ellen, on Christmas morning. After a delicious breakfast of belgian waffles, my parents spoiled us yet again, it was great.

We pretty much laid around for 2 days, played games, watched movies, it was great. Although Tim still went running each day. Good job, babe! Then we ventured out for dinner at P.F. Chang's and then on to see a Christmas Carole at the Guthrie. Kinda fancy for folks like us, but we had a really great time and the show was wonderful. The new Guthrie is pretty much amazing! Although I think they made the seats to fit tiny little elves.....

Us at the Guthrie

Mom and Dad

Dan and Ellen

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Prayer Request

I, Heidi, am going to my dentist again tomorrow, Thursday at 1pm, so he can make some more adjustments to my splint and see if we can fix the pain I'm having. We have determined that the headaches I get tend to start in my jaw. Since I received a prophetic word about a year ago to go see this dentist, I've been seeing him for about 10 months and we've tried 2 splints. Please pray specifically for these things:

• Wisdom for Dr. Chad, that God would show him exactly what needs to happen
• That I would be filled with hope in this process
• For God to move on my behalf through the use of technology and training
  

Recently, a friend recalled a story about his wife's physical healing. When she asked people to pray for her she said, don't pray for grace and strength for me to get through this, b/c God is already going to give me that. Pray for complete and miraculous healing and have faith for it.

I would ask the same of you, my dear friends. God has given me tremendous grace for 4 1/2 years and He will continue to do so. Please pray for a physical completion of what He did for me on the cross. My Heavenly Father divinely led me to this dentist and I would love for this to be a testimony of God's power and faithfulness to Dr. Chad and his staff. And I don't want to be in pain anymore :)

And then there were three...

Our friends that we live with, Phil and Emily, are pregnant and last Saturday was Emily's due date. Here is the before picture. This morning/afternoon at about 12:06pm they headed off to the hospital to have baby Carlson!! We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet this new little person. Please pray for a safe and speedy delivery and that Phil's cold will quickly dissipate. So excited!!!!

Bad Broncos and other, more serious thoughts

My Denver Broncos stunk the place up something fierce last night. It would have been an even worse experience if not for Grant and Jen’s hospitality. (Dinner and dessert was great. Thanks, Jen.) The Broncos were clinging to a faint hope of the playoffs with a win, but came out flat and uninspired. The Texans pushed around the Broncos offensive line while sacking Jay Culter at least 4 times, the Broncos had almost no pass rush and could not stop the run, and the special teams constantly gave the Texans a short field and the Broncos a long field. Only Brandon Marshall and Jason Elam gave the Broncos an outstanding performance. Cutler was not bad, but he never had time to throw since Mario Williams was on him all night like ugly on a Raiders fan. With two games left against teams bound for the playoffs the Broncos are likely to finish with the 3rd losing season since I was in high school. At least it will all be over soon.

I have been processing the Sunday murders in Colorado and still cannot wrap my mind around those events. Heidi and I have loose associations with both YWAM and New Life Church and it just does not seem real. My home state has seemed like a magnet for evil in the last few years (the Chuck E Cheese shootings, shootings at Columbine and Platte Canyon high schools, and Sunday’s tragedy.) Any wisdom that people have for me would be appreciated.

Someone is still interested in buying our house. Thanks to everyone who has been praying and please continue so we can move that bad boy and get to Africa!

Heidi sure does look cute when she is making Christmas cookies!

More cookies

When I said this was the year of the Christmas cookie, I wasn't joking. Marlyse and I whipped up some "Mom Bars" (remember those, college roomates??) and some of her mom's famous pumpkin cookies. They were delicious! And we had a great time baking.those are the pumpkin cookies...mmmmmmm

cookie award of the evening

I wanted to give a shout out to the cookie of the evening from our cookie-baking night. Candace's cookie wins, although it was a tough competition. And to be fair, no one knew it was a competition! Hers was a chocolate cookie with a Rolo inside and drizzled with white chocolate. Amazing . Nice work, girl.

Circling the drain

In a lost season, the Broncos put forth another shameful display of inept football. As a lifelong Broncos fan, I have been spoiled by teams that win much more than they lose. I am also spoiled by Shanahan’s record against the Raiders at 20-6. Even in lean years I could count on the Orange Crush to take it to the Raiders. This season, for no good reason, the Broncos are stinking up the place. Each time I give up on the season, which has been several times now, they win and give me hope, but soon after they dash it. I will watch a couple more games before they end the season with a 7-9 record and a high draft pick. Maybe they will hit the jackpot in the draft and have some good players for the future. Yes, there is always next year.

It is time to give a shout out to the Alma Mater. Bethel University had a great showing this fall in both Cross Country and Football. My love for CC at BU runs deep since I was a member of the team for three years. I was excited to see high finishes for both the Men and Women’s programs at the conference and regional meets. Even more, BU had a total of four All-Americans, two men and two women. That’s awesome. BU football, a more high profile sport, has been incredible. They are playing the perennial powerhouse, Mount Union, in the NCAA DIII tournament final four on Saturday. BU’s coach, Steve, is a great guy and I am glad for him and his boys. I hope they win on Saturday, but even if they do not, it has been an amazing season.

Winter has finally come to Minnesota. We got about six inches of snow on Saturday and the high temperatures are in the teens. This morning when I went out for my run, it was about 3 degrees. As we say in Minnesota, there is no poor weather, just a poor choice of clothes. We will be choosing our clothes wisely for the next couple months.

Heidi looks cute even in the many layers she wears this time of year.

Cookies 2007!

I have decided that this year is the year of the Christmas cookie. I am pumped about cookies this year. I have already made 10 different kinds and participated in 2 cookie swaps. Yum!I made some great little treats with Roni and Jake was helpful in taste-testing everything.

The girls made a bunch of delicious little tasties, but Candace's Rollo-filled chocolate cookie was the winner. I mean, a cookie with a Rollo in it, bring it on.

Fun times.

That is the special cookie that I made for my sweetie out of leftover bits from Linsey's cookies.

I think he liked it!

So go and make some cookies, after all, it's the year of the Christmas cookie!

Tim's winning weekend

I had Thursday and Friday off of work last week, so I was able to play a rare weekday game of Disc Golf at Acorn Park with Dan. On Thursday morning we had an epic game. Dan started off horribly and I played pretty well through the first nine. My game started to unravel on the back nine while he made up ground. On Hole 17 I made a long putt to keep a one stroke lead. My drive on the last hole was awful and I botched my approach shot which gave Dan the opening to tie the score. Finally, on the third playoff hole I made a long putt around a tree for the win. It was my fourth ever win playing Dan and needed him to have his worst game in a long time to pull it off.

On Saturday there was an event for the young adult life group at our church, hosted by JG. When Heidi and I arrived, the group was playing football. So, joining late, I started playing quarterback. On our opening drive, I threw up a jump ball for Josh, the tallest guy on our team. Fortunately he came down with it for the touchdown. A few series later, with the score tied, JG called out “next score wins”. The pressure was on. We ended up on fourth and goal with a long ways to go for the score. I was QB, but Josh took the handoff on an end around. When the other team went after him, I took off, uncovered, into the open. He put the pass in my arms and I ran untouched for the score.

Last night was Monday Night Football. The Broncos were hosting the Titans and I invited people to Sensors to watch the game. Nine of us were there (including one brave woman, Ruth) and it was a blast. The Broncos won a tense game (closer than the score would indicate) on some exciting, big plays against one of the better teams in the league. As an added bonus, I had three Broncos players on my Fantasy Football team and they scored enough points for me to beat Dan by less than 2 points. (It was a bad weekend for Dan vs me.)

It feels nice to win every once in a while.

The Miniature Earth

Check out this video from YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvTFKpIaQhM

Prayer request

After prayer and talking with people that we trust, Heidi and I decided to wait on signing up for the Missionary Training Institute until we sell our house. We are anxious to get to MTI, as it is our first step to Senegal, but need to make sure we are following God’s timing, not our own. Once our house sells, I will be able to quit my job and we will go on support and go to MTI as soon as possible.

You, our faithful blog readers, can help. We have a second showing tomorrow, which is promising, and we need you to pray that an offer is made. Thanks so much.

If football games were chick flicks

Heidi loves chick flicks and I do not. I love football and Heidi does not. After the painful Monday Night loss to the Packers a couple weeks ago, I tried to explain to Heidi what it felt like. So, here is what the last two Broncos games would be like if they were chick flicks.

The Broncos vs Packers game on Monday night a couple weeks ago was fantastic until the Broncos blew a perfect last second touchdown opportunity and lost on the first play of overtime. At home. If that game was a chick flick, it would consist of many scenes where the man and woman flirt, break up, and finally, at the end, appear set to walk off into the sunset together, happy as can be. The audience is ecstatic for these likeable characters and they are clearly in love. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the man is beat to death by a gang and the woman cries her eyes out while the credits roll.

Last Sunday’s game was a beat down at the hands of the Detroit Lions where the Broncos were incompetent in all aspects of the game. If that game were a chick flick, it would contain the same woman from the last movie. She finally finds a new love, a man who cares for her deeply and helps her heal her wounded heart. After fifteen minutes of happiness, however, he is killed by a drunk driver right in front of the horrified woman. She promptly marries the drunk driver and he abuses her for the rest of the movie. The credits roll as she again sobs in grief of her ruined life.

Now you can understand how it feels to be a Broncos fan this year. Consider yourself lucky if you cheer for the Packers, Colts, or Patriots. Their endings look to be much happier.

Halloween

I pretty much hate Halloween as a holiday, but I do like the
candy that goes along with it. Although this year I didn't eat
any. And I just found out that Halloween started as a Catholic
holiday. Interesting. This year we spend the evening with our
friends Gus and Jenny and we scored free Chipotle burritos....
twice!! We went for dinner and then again on the way home for
lunch the following day. Gotta love free burritos! If you put some
tin foil on your head, they give you a free one. And, the best part
of the whole night: I got to ride to and from Chipotle on the
Harley with Gus. So freakin' sweet! I am totally buying a Harley
for Tim one day. :) He's happy about that.

baby monkey

Nolan Sheck showing off his Halloween costume, too cute.
I found this little wagon at a rumage sale for like 50 cents.
A mini wagon for a mini monkey, how cute is he?!
I love mini things :)

Amanda, Roni (and baby) and me.
Amanda left for DC this morning :(
I had to say goodbye for three years, so sad.

Weekend in Duluth

Tim keeps saying that it's been so long since I've posted, so I've been trying to catch up this week. This past weekend, I was up in Duluth with some girlfriends and it was great. We didn't do a whole lot, but that was much needed I think. Played a lot of Bohnanza, but I don't think I won any games. We did decided to have a Bohnanza Extrazaganza before we leave though :) Great fun!! Well, the weather was nice, company was great, food was tasty and warm and we stopped at Tobies for donuts.....twice! Yum, yum, a great weekend. Thanks ladies.

Camping once last time

We wanted to go camping once last time before we leave and
we were priviledged to go with our friends from Columbus
Avenue! And Marmar of course :) So we picked a weekend in late
Sept. and headed for Frontenac State Park, one of our fave spots.
Even though it rained for 5 hours on Sat, we enjoyed a few
rousing games of Bohnanza, the greatest game ever.
We had a yummy lunch in Red Wing and did some sweet
hiking. The food was great and the company was better.
It was a terrific way to end our camping season!

Yup. It was Tim and 5 ladies. I don't think he was TOO
tramatized...maybe just a little :P

more New York

i thought this was so funny! safety first!

we went to this place called the Cloisters, which was
a museum, but much of it was brought over from
different monasteries throughout Europe. very cool.

ok, now we have finally posted all the New York photos. whew.

Football and other stuff

I (Tim) guess I am spoiled when it comes to football. The Broncos have had one losing season in the last twelve. They make the playoffs more often than not and enjoy one of the best home field advantages in the league. Just two seasons back the Broncos were just one game short of the Super Bowl. I am certainly not used to seeing my favorite team destroyed in Denver while looking inept in every phase of the game. If they lose on Sunday night to the Pittsburgh Steelers then their season is pretty much over. I was hoping for better in the last season I will experience before moving to Africa. Maybe that means they will win the Super Bowl while I am over there. That wouldn’t be so bad.

Our support has been coming in faster lately. Not including our church’s support, we are at 50%. We are excited for the momentum but also thinking about how much we have left to do. Busy days are ahead. We feel so blessed and are not worried.

I bought the Transformers on DVD, but have not had time to watch it yet. There was a bonus DVD called Beginnings that was included. Heidi and I did watch that one. It is only 19 minutes long and super lame. I am pumped to watch the best movie of 2007 again. Mmmm. Large robots destroying each other. Mmmm.

Heidi sure did look cute when I left for work this morning.

Running Renaissance

Since we moved across the river, Heidi and I have had to find new places to go running. We no longer have the Greenway and all the colorful characters we used to see every morning. The first morning that we ran together we found a small park that includes a lake with a path around it. Imagine a miniature Lake Calhoun, without the crowds, runners dressed to kill, and ugly dogs. The path around the lake is only about two thirds of a mile, but still nice. We have taken to running to the park together then I will run around it three times while Heidi runs around it twice, and we will run home together. It takes about 30 minutes, so it works out great. When I run alone, I have been checking out a section of the Gateway Trail that runs nearby.

With the cooler weather coming on and a change of scenery, I have been enjoying running more lately than I have in a long time. I hate running in the heat and welcome the colder weather. That is a sure sign that I am becoming a Minnesotan. This morning it was about 44 degrees, so I ran in shorts, a long sleeve shirt over my t-shirt, and thin gloves. It was perfect and I felt great. Running before work was never attractive to me before, but I like it a whole lot now. In fact, I prefer it. Soon though, I will have to drag myself out of bed when it is still dark out and below zero. We’ll see how much I like it then.

Heidi has been doing well with running lately. Be sure to encourage her to keep it up!

Tim's summer movie review

If you read this blog, you know that I like movies. I like to review movies because I like to state my opinion, but I also want people to enjoy things that I enjoy and I want to warn people about soul-destroying films that become moments in life you cannot have back. After a summer of movies, I thought I would give you my opinion of what I saw. As a bonus I will include DVDs I watched, too. My only evaluation of a film is how much it entertained me.

The Great:
Transformers was easily the most entertaining movie of the summer. Nothing else comes close.
The Bourne Ultimatum was great. The action gripped me the entire film.
3:10 to Yuma is a Western. I love westerns and this was well made.
Blades of Glory was dumb, but really, really funny.
The Prestige was fantastic. I did not figure out the ending beforehand, but everyone I have talked with about the movie did.

The Okay:
Spider Man 3 was nothing compared to parts 1 and 2, but still decent.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a solid film, but not as good as the previous installments.
The Pursuit of Happyness was interesting, but nothing special.
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was okay, but too long and nowhere close to being as good as the first 2 movies.
Wild Hogs was better than I expected, but I did not expect much.
The Last King of Scotland was interesting, but it could have been more. I am bothered that an African story is not told from an African’s point of view.
Blood Diamond is an African story that follows an African and featured some great acting.

The Bad:
Because I Said So is a clichéd and poorly made movie.
The Transporter is old, but I watched this summer. It’s really dumb.
Disturbia wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t good, either.
Casino Royale did not entertain me much. That surprised me a little since I heard it was good, but found it kind of boring.

I probably left some off. Please post your comments on the best and worst movies of the summer.