Visit to Seattle

Here are some pictures from my visit to Seattle to see the Leberts.We went to Pike's Place Market about everyday!

After church at Mars Hill on Sunday. A very interesting church service....

The Fremont Troll! As seen in the movie Ten Things I Hate About You. Great flick.

We got dolled up in Amanda's clothes and went window shopping downtown. It's good to get in some girly time. This is at dinner that night with Ed. It was a great trip, lots of girl bonding. Plus, we're in Seattle! I love Seattle.

Prayer ministry and family time

Our church, Bethel Christian Fellowship (www.bcfnations.org) has a cool prayer ministry that I think has been mentioned before in this blog. Heidi got involved with it soon after we started attending BCF, but I always had an excuse why the Lord had not called me to that particular ministry. About a month or two ago I felt like it was time to get involved. There was no dramatic change in my heart, I guess I finally ran out of excuses and decided to obey. I am glad that I did. Over the past month I have been used by God to encourage several people and I feel that I received a blessing as well. I have been on the receiving end of these prayer appointments three times and was always blessed by the experience. If you feel that something like this would benefit you, then let Heidi and I know. It is not just for people from BCF. In fact, many appointments are for people from other churches. It is always confidential and encouraging.

Heidi and I had a lot of family time this past weekend. On Saturday we spent the day with some of my family. My former brother in law, Walter, drove up from Nashville with my niece, Christi, and picked up my nephew, Tim, and his wife, Amanda in Warsaw, IN on the way. We all met up in Dresser, WI, where my sister Sally and her family live. The visit was over way too fast, but we had a good time. My family is scattered pretty far, so it is great to see them. Then on Sunday, after breakfast with everyone and church, we spent the rest of the day with Heidi’s parents. They always spoil us with good food and Sunday was no different. We took a walk by the Mississippi River and mostly just hung out. The weather was not all that great on either day, but we had a good weekend.

Movie Review: Iron Man

Movies that are based on comic books are hit and miss. Some are terrible (Daredevil, Electra, Batman & Robin), some are mediocre (the Fantastic Four films and X-Men 3), and only a few are terrific (Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2). Iron Man is outstanding, equal with Batman Begins in sheer awesomeness. Taking a second tier superhero and making one of the best comic book films of all time is an amazing feat. All the important factors are in place: good acting, a well paced, character driven story, and stuff blowing up. Unlike many super hero origin stories, (yes, Fantastic Four I mean you) where the heroes complain about how cursed they are, Tony Stark embraces his new power in a way that most people in the audience would. He also blows stuff up. I don’t ask for much with action movies and Iron Man more than delivers. Oh yeah, stick around for a great bonus scene after the end credits.

Best scenes: his escape from captivity, the first time he takes the armor into combat, and the final battle. (Pretty much the scenes where he blows up stuff.)

Best quote:
Soldier: Is it cool if I get a picture with you?
Tony Stark: Yes. Yes it's very cool. I don't wanna see this on your myspace page. Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding.

An eventful last week

Last week Heidi and I attended the Annual Meetings for the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, of which our church is a member. It went from Tuesday evening to Friday afternoon and was pretty packed the whole time. We were a part of the prayer ministry and spend the afternoons praying for pastors and missionaries, which was great. The speakers that came were outstanding. The highlight was Carter Conlon of Times Square Church in NYC. (The church started by David Wilkerson, famous for The Cross and the Switchblade.) Conlon’s talk was fantastic. We made some connections with churches in MN that we will visit and even got an invitation by a church in Seattle. This short summary did not do justice to how encouraging those few days were.

On Saturday Eric and I ventured out to Bethel University to play Disc Golf. We played the 9 hole course five times. The temperature was about 34 degrees, the wind was crazy strong, there was mud everywhere, and snow fell part of the time. Our scores were terrible, but we had a great time.

Later Saturday night I played Diaper Wars with Jer, Brian, Nate, and Grant. It was awesome. The only bummer was at one point I was trying to run, duck, and throw a diaper when I slammed my hand into a barrier. It hurt something fierce, but I played for a couple more hours. On Monday I got an X-ray and discovered that I fractured the bone in the fingertip of my right ring finger. Yesterday I saw a hand specialist who said that there is no tendon damage and it will fully heal in a month or so. That means no disc golf for a few weeks. Bummer.

The showings that I wrote about in a previous entry have not resulted in an offer yet. In fact, we have not heard anything since the showings. That is a little disappointing, but we still trust God to sell our house.

Heidi has been in Seattle since Saturday morning visiting Ed and Amanda and she is finally coming home this afternoon. I miss my Sweet Baboo and am excited for her return.

You'll never believe it

But I enjoyed a musical!!!! I know, I know, a miracle. Last weekend, Tim and I went with some friends to see Linsey in a wonderful rendition of Godspell that she was in. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't really care for theater productions unless they are really good. Otherwise, I find them ridiculously embarassing. But this one was really good and I really enjoyed it. Great job, Lins!

Yay, it's starting!

What a great show! Candace and I were there as well, but behind the camera

A second showing

Today we had a second showing on our house. It is only the second time this has happened since we put it on the market. We are praying that an offer will follow. Our trust in God to sell our house has not waned and we are hopeful that this will result in the sale. Please join us in prayer.

So funny!

So today I'm out running errands. A little stop at Saver's to drop off some donations and then on to the bank. I pull into the drive through and send my checks through the magical zipper dipper into the bank. I turn down my music and wait for my receipt. A moment later the lady inside greets me, well hello, I say. Then she tells me that this bank is now the Franklin Bank, no longer WellsFargo. I bank at WF. It hasn't been WF for over a month. Whoa. Time to switch back to caffeinated coffee!!! I had to laugh. Everyone inside was laughing too. So I drove back to Saver's.....since the new WF is right next door. I had driven right past it 5 minutes before. Whoa.

Coming home

Late Wednesday night I (Tim) was on an airplane returning from meetings for the NMDP in Charlotte, NC. A young woman was sitting next to me wearing military fatigues. We did not converse until the end of the flight. (I slept most of the flight. I hope I did not snore.) Right before we were leaving the plane I asked her if she was going home. She said that she was returning home to Mankato after a year in Afghanistan. I told her thank you for her service and then her turn came to leave the plane. A few minutes later as I walked up to the baggage claim I saw the woman’s family mob her. Her mother approached her at a run and did not let up the hug for a solid five minutes even when other family members tried to get in. I felt a wave of emotion cover me as I watched the reunion. As I processed the interaction, I thought about Heaven. The Bible makes it clear that when I stand before God and hear him say “well done, good and faithful servant”, that will be the best moment of all time. The God of the universe running to me and welcoming me into Heaven is something I cannot imagine being worthy of, but that is what will happen. Fortunately it is not about my worth, but His grace. How cool is that? It is one of the many reasons I am a Christian.

God's faithfulness

Tim and I have some friends who have adopted 3 beautiful little boys and we have known the family about 2 1/2 years. When we met them, they had just moved to MN from West Africa. One of the boys needed more adequate treatment as he was HIV positive (from his birth mom). About this time in our lives, God was taking us deeper into an understanding of how He views illness and how we can pray with confidence for His will to be done concerning that. So we started praying for complete healing for this little guy. He is real cute by the way. Real cute. He even has red hair :)

We prayed and we prayed. My parents joined us in praying over him and declaring health into his tiny little body. One day, as I was walking and praying I received a picture of a quiver of arrows. And the Lord was saying, "This one's ours. This victory belongs belongs to the Kingdom of God. This boy's healing is going to be one of the arrows in this quiver. And when the enemy comes to intimidate and steal, we can hold this arrow up and say, remember him? He's ours. And Christ healed him."

I tell you what, I was sold. So we continued to pray. A couple weeks ago, we saw our friends and got an update on their son. The last time they had been in to see the Dr. (an Indian Hindu Dr.) the HIV was undetectable in his body. I'm sorry, did I hear you right? Did you say undetectable?

So Mom asked the Dr., "does that mean it's gone and he's healed?"

Dr. replies, or rather stammers, "well, no, I mean, you can't get rid of HIV, it just means it's, uh, it's, uh, undetectable for right now.....um, if he went off meds, it would be seen."

To that I say, whatever, God heals. GOD HEALS!

So we celebrated. We rejoiced. The next day we were at my parents house and man oh man did we praise God! We rejoiced in His goodness and mercy. Maybe you're a skeptic and are thinking, it's still there, it's just undetectable. We believe 100% that our faithful Jesus healed this little boy from HIV.

I share this because the more people who hear and can believe and rejoice, the more glory God gets.

This, my friends, is what we want to see more of in Senegal. We want to see God sweep in in His splendor and blow the socks off the Wolof people. They are ready for it and so are we.

A time of waiting.

Yesterday Heidi and I took a walk down the Greenway to celebrate a 44 degree, sunny day in Minneapolis. We like watching the various runners and bikers pass us as we walk. I did wish there was a restroom somewhere on the route, but we are fortunate to have such a nice path so close to our house. Anyway, as we were walking, we talked about the odd place that we are in our lives. As we wait for our house to sell and the rest of our support to come in, we are in a place where we cannot move ahead with our lives in MN, but cannot yet start our lives in Africa. Don’t get me wrong, we are still enjoying being around friends and family and are involved in some things, but we cannot really start anything new right now. Once our house sells, everything will move quickly, but until that time, everything seems to move slowly. This can lead to feelings of frustration and helplessness. After our walk, I felt prompted to read from Deuteronomy 8. In that passage, the Lord speaks through Moses and reminds the Israelites about how He sustained them in the wilderness to prepare them for the entry into the Promised Land. I am sure that at the time the Israelites felt frustrated and helpless as they were stuck in the desert, even though the Lord protected them and supplied their needs. The Lord is sustaining us during this time and we are learning to have greater faith. When everything is in place and we depart for Africa, we will be better off for having had this experience. I guess that is how the Christian life works.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM

Today is Tim's 35th birthday! I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband. The Lord truly sent me a gift when He brought Tim into my life. I was independent, strong and secure as a single woman and I wasn't looking for a husband. But God knew what I needed and shortly after I entered into what has now been a very challenging 5 years of physical pain, the Lord brought Tim along. Just in time to be a tremendous support to and advocate for me. So I praise God for Tim and I love him so much. Happy birthday, baby.

Happy Birthday, Heidi!!!

Today is Heidi's birthday. Be sure to leave a comment to wish her a Happy Birthday.

I sure am blessed by my Sweet Baboo and we were not married, I would totally date her. Love you, baby.

Settlers tourney

Over the weekend, starting Friday night with two and ending Sunday with one game, Tim and I fit in 5 games of Settlers whenever we could and I am pleased to say that I crushed him 4-1. If you know how much Tim has played this game in the past 10 years, then you know what an accomplishment this is! He always tells people that his social life before he met me was pretty much comprised of playing Settlers with his buddies. And he was even playing pretty hardcore in this quest to beat me. It was fun. Well, it was probably more fun for me. I figure it's a compliment to him. With how much he has played, it's only right for his wife to know how to as well. :)

Back to the blog

It has been quite some time since I have posted. I have been temping and I got a full time assignment about a month ago and haven't blogged since. Well, I'm back!! The assignment is now over so I have a lot more time to blog. I was working at MyTana, a manufacturing company in St. Paul that makes equipment for sewer cleaning, like cable machines, cameras, jetter hoses, leak detectors, etc. I know all about it now! Ask me anything!! It was a pretty crazy job, I had some unique conversations with plumbers of all varieties to put it mildly.

So yesterday was my last day and boy did I get a wonderful send-off. My boss came to tell me at about 10:30 that it was going to be my last day and for the next 20 minutes everyone huddled around my desk to say goodbye, wish me well in Africa and say they would miss me while I packed up my desk. They even gave me a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant! I was a temp! Crazy sweet of them. They also loaded me up with MyTana gear.....

In case you can't see that real well, the t-shirts say: "show that turd who's boss!" and "nice pipes!" A little plumber humor for ya. And then there's 2 hats as well. It was a really interesting place to work, the highlight was definitely the people. I am really going to miss them! Thanks MyTana!!

Tim's male bonding weekend

The Man Night on Friday was fun. We started with board games and moved on to Diaper Wars once the group using the Fellowship Hall left. Since there were six of us for Diaper Wars we did not have subs and played for over two hours without much of a break. In particular, I enjoyed the one on one game where the winner got to stay put and the other players cycled through. On Saturday I was really sore. In fact, I am still sore. It was worth it. Special thanks to Nicolas for opening the church for us. Robbie, Chris, Jer, Jimmie, and I had a great time.

On Sunday, the male bonding continued when Grant and Mark came over for a game of Axis and Allies: Europe. It is a board game where players assume the role of the countries involved in WWII and use the resources and weapons to defeat the other players. Grant played Germany, Mark played Russia, and I played England and the USA. The game is set so that when equal players match up, the Allies usually win. Grant played a masterful game and it looked like he might get the win when he made one crucial mistake and Mark destroyed his entire air force in one battle. At that point, the game was impossible for Grant to win and he conceded defeat. Heidi could not understand the draw to a game that took about seven hours to play, but we sure did have fun.

Heidi enjoyed seeing her friend Am this weekend and hanging out with girls from church on Sunday and I enjoyed my male bonding weekend, but my favorite activity is still anything that involves my Sweet Baboo. Spending time with Heidi is still my favorite pastime.

The 2008 Disc Golf season has begun!

On Friday, right after work, Eric and I (Tim) opened the 2008 Disc Golf season. The air temp was around 31 degrees and the wind was whipping in all directions, but we played. Neither of us had a particularly good round, but we did have fun. It was hard to get footing to throw in the snow and the wind wreaked havoc with our shots, but at the end of the round we agreed that it was good to be back out.

My niece, Christi, was in town the last few days for her Spring Break. While most of her friends were either at home or in a warmer climate, she came to visit her family in MN and WI. She spent a couple days my sister, Sally, and Heidi and I got some quality time on Saturday and Tuesday. Christi was blessed to get the Chase family sense of humor and she even writes a humor column for the newspaper at Grace College. We enjoyed her visit.

While Christi was here yesterday Heidi and I took her on shopping trip to Steve and Barry’s. It is a clothing store where everything costs $8.95. Everything from t-shirts and hats to jeans and leather jackets cost $8.95. Some of their t-shirts contain messages that communicate that you have no class, but I scored two pairs of cargo pants that will serve me quite well in Africa. It’s a good place for clothes if you live on a tight budget.

On Friday night I am putting together a Man’s Night. If you are in the Twin Cities and you are a man, you should come. We will start with board games and move on to Diaper Wars. Drop me a line for more details.

I sure do love Heidi.

All he was really wanted to say was "why should the devil have all the good music?"

The man who is credited as creating the Christian rock genre of music passed away a few days ago. Larry Norman was a brilliant musician who lived an eventful life. As a rock and roll fan, I (Tim) am grateful to Norman for taking the friendly fire of other Christians while sticking to his conviction that the Devil should not have all the good music. A whole lot of good music has been created by people who followed Norman’s lead. He is jamming with Jesus now.

This afternoon, if the weather holds up, I will start the Disc Golf season off at Acorn Park. Eric agreed to brave temps around 30 degrees to play. I’m pretty excited.

Some friends blessed us big time by praying for us last night. Thanks, friends.

Heidi is the cutest of all time.

A working woman

Heidi is a working woman again. She took a temp job while we wait for our house to sell. I will let her tell post the details of the job. She is learning an awful lot about plumbing supplies right now.

Here is a link to a documentary that looks interesting. Click here to watch the trailer: http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php Ben Stein hosts the doc about how Intelligent Design is not allowed to be taught in America. It is set to open in April and if it plays in MN we are planning to go.

The Roseville 4 theater (or Roseville stick-to-the-floor theater) is closing at the end of March. I have seen more movies there than any other theater. It was a great place to watch a movie if you could find a seat that was not broken and get your feet unstuck from the spilled soda on the floor. I’ll miss it.

Good season of LOST so far. Last night’s surprise at the end was awesome. We did not see it coming. As usual there were more questions and not many answers.

A Legend retires

I know football season is over, but I must say my piece about a Broncos legend. Rod Smith, one of the all time great receivers in the NFL, not just the Broncos, is likely to retire from football. He was an undrafted player who came up from the practice squad to play in two Super Bowls. Any athlete would do well to emulate his work ethic and drive to excel. Like most of the Broncos nation, I am hoping that he will join the Broncos coaching staff and show the next generation how the game is played.

I love my Ipod. At work I can put on my headphones and jam out while I answer emails or read documents. Today my artists of choice were Pillar and Project 86, while yesterday I listened mostly to Nickel Creek and P.O.D. How did I survive without an Ipod for so long?

Winter still has its icy grip on Minnesota. It was -8 degrees when I went running this morning. Getting a little tired of it, I’ll be honest. I am hoping for a somewhat warm day to start the 2008 Disc Golf season. A sunny, 25 degree day would do the trick.

For Valentine’s Day, Heidi and I took in dinner and a movie. I got to pick the restaurant, so we ate at Quang’s. That place is so good. For the movie, we saw Enchanted at the Riverview Theater. It is a fun, clean movie with some great moments. Not bad for a chick flick. It was just great to be with my Sweet Baboo.

D-War and losing in Settlers

On Saturday morning, while Heidi was working, I picked up D-War (Dragon Wars) from the Redbox. It is a Korean film about some attractive people and an evil serpent and an army of bad guys. I think. The plot did not make a whole lot of sense and they relied on Deux ex Machina to carry their plot so many times that I gave up trying to follow it. The dialog was awful and the actors could have been made of wood. (A minor character is played by the guy who plays Darryl on The Office and that character is exactly like Darryl from The Office.) Despite all that is wrong with the film (including the fact that at no point in the film are there dragons at war), I really enjoyed it. In Hollywood there are so many committees who write scripts that most films that are released are just rehashed movies with different actors and settings. (How many times have you watched a Romantic Comedy and felt that you have seen it before?) The great thing about D-War is that whoever made the film decided to make something that they would enjoy seeing. They figured if a helicopter flying through downtown Los Angles while fighting with a flying beast was cool, and a helicopter fighting two flying beast would be even better, but a helicopter fighting 17 flying beasts would be spectacular. Therefore, while D-War failed to be a good film, at least it failed spectacularly. I give the makers of this film credit for daring to make something great. Hollywood should take notice.

On Saturday night Heidi put together an engagement party for our friend Julie (JG). While the Heidster and the girls were out eating sushi and fondue I went over to Patrick’s place for a few games of the Settlers of Catan. Patty, his sister in law, joined us. Evidently at some point I must have offended the Settlers gods (I don’t really believe in them, don’t worry) because I got destroyed three games in a row. At no point was I competitive the entire night. At least they had fun.

It was horribly cold this weekend. The high for the day on Sunday was -5 degrees. Yesterday when I went running before work it was -7 degrees. This morning it was +6 degrees and it felt great. I wonder how I will feel when it is 115 degrees in Africa. Maybe I’ll miss the sub zero temps. Hmm. Probably not.

Heidi sure is cute.

The Blues

In the Twin Cities, we have a radio station called KTIS that plays the latest (and sometimes super-old and lame) Contemporary Christian Music. The music tends to be of the happy, praise and worship type, which is okay sometimes. However, there are times when I don’t want to listen to happy music, since it does not match my mood. While I am a generally upbeat person, sometimes I need the Blues. My favorite old school Blues rock bands are Rez Band and Red Sea. There is just something about the Blues that can help a person through a tough time. I know it is no accident that in the book of Psalms in the Bible, there are more Psalms of lament than any other style. God, in His endless wisdom, gave us an art form to express ourselves in the tough times. David, a man after God’s own heart, knew tremendous heartbreak, often because of his poor choices. Through his pain he wrote Psalms of lament that always ended with a declaration of his trust in God. Those Psalms encourage us even now, so many years later. I find it so cool that God cares enough about us to give us art to help carry us through hard times. Now, if only I played the guitar.

80's Party

We never posted these sweet pics from the 80's party we went to for our friend Patrick's birthday.You'll notice that Karen's outfit came straight from the the mall scene in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. She was even wearing white shoes. So great.

Wow, we are cute.

A Super Bowl

Last night’s Super Bowl was great. Sandy and Allen Putnam opened their home and offered their food to a small group of football fans. Chad, Ruth, Jer, Amy, and I were blessed by their hospitality. The game itself was the most exciting since the Broncos beat the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII ten years ago. (Don’t anyone say that the Titans/Rams Super Bowl was exciting. It was horribly boring until the end.) The commercials were mostly good, with the FedEx Carrier Pigeons as my favorite. Heidi watched a girly movie with some of her girlfriends and claimed she had more fun than watching the game.

The outcome of the Super Bowl was not at all what I expected. I did not figure the Giants were enough of a team to beat Green Bay in sub-zero temps, let alone the mighty Patriots. My prediction before the game was the Patriots in a blowout. I guess that’s why they play the game. When Manning escaped the sack and completed a long pass with only minutes left in the game, I knew we were witnessing something special. The only downer of the Super Bowl means that we have eight months before another season starts.

lil' bro in WA

This is my brother and his cute wife. I would call him cute too, but I was recently reminded that men don't prefer the term "cute." Plus, he is very furry, as you can see. Their hats match. Darling :)

Back in the 'hood

We are back in our house and it feels good to be home! The place is much more sparce than ever before, i.e. nothing on the walls, but we're down with the minimalistic look.

cute baby, moving annoucement, and Senegal update

This is kind of a long blog, so if you don't read the whole thing, here's my major announcement: we're moving on Saturday and could use some help :) Give us a call if you want to move some boxes from St. Paul to Mpls on Sat. afternoon!!

I realized I never posted any photos of the new addition to our home, baby Corban Paton Carlson. This is him! Wrapped in the sweet blanket I made for him. What a cutie.I know you can't really see him, so if you want a closer look check out the Carlson's blog at www.philthecarl.blogspot.com for many more shots of this little McCutie.

We have loved living with these good friends, what a blessing they have been to us. Living in community has it's moments, but it is a very worthy investment. We feel privileged to have been here to see Corban's arrival up close and personal. And it was a good reality check on having kids for me, he is SO cute, but SO much work. A great blessing for Tim and I has been the opportunity to pray with our roomies, share trials, triumphs, burdens, and blessings.

We are moving back into our house, though. The one we own. The missionaries who were staying there have moved on and we figured we might as well move back in if we're paying the mortgage and all. So this Saturday if you're sitting around thinking, what can I do today? We'll be moving, so come on over! (It's supposed to warm up as well.) We have a couple people to help, 2 small but mighty ladies, so if you're around, give us a call if you can help. It won't take too long, we don't have much stuff at the Carlson's. We have one truck, but could always use another. Thanks, friends!

It is actually a little bitter sweet moving back into the house. We were planning on being headed to Senegal at this point, arriving there in February. Our teammates, Joe and Cara, arrived in Dakar last weekend. The Lord has different plans and different timing for us though, as we wait for our home to sell. There are moments of deep pain and we feel the loss of not being with our team and feeling like we are just waiting...waiting...waiting for movement. There are also moments of assurance, when we know we are in the right place, waiting for God's timing in His perfect will. And He has provided strength as we wait upon Him. Our plans may not have happened, but that's the great thing about our plans versus His plans, He holds time is his hands and overrides our plans when need be! So we are persevering and searching to find His intimate direction at this point in the journey. We trust Him with all that we are and we know we will get to Africa when the timing is right!

girl finds sweet clothes in Mom's basement

I haven't posted in a while, but this one is worth waiting for. Over the holiday, I was looking through some stuff in my parents basement and discovered that Mom had kept a bunch of our baby clothes. Lots of them were made by my grandma and Mom. And they are sweet! It's like little vintage baby clothes!! I snatched 'em up before my little bro could claim them.Check out the overalls and tiny little swimsuit, I wore that!

Grandma maid the kitty pantsuit. My personal fave of this group is the blue halter dress.

I saved the best for last. Check this blue polyester baby housecoat!!! I love it, I wish I could wear it right now. My baby is going to be styling. In case anyone is wondering after this post, no, we are not pregnant. Just excited about baby clothes....I may even take these to Africa....

Tim talks to a cat

This morning when I finished my run, I walked the last quarter of a block to our place. There was a cat standing on the sidewalk unafraid of me as I walked up. I patted him/her (I did not check for gender) on the head and said hello and kept walking. When I was taking out my key to go inside, I realized that my new friend had followed me home and walked up to the door to go inside. After petting him/her a little, I had to explain to kitty that his/her fur made Heidi sick and that he/she could not come in. At that point, I realized that I was talking to a cat, so I went inside.

Like last weekend, Heidi and I have a couple birthday celebrations to attend this weekend. Happy birthday Patrick and Danita! (Happy Late Birthday to Eric and Grant.) We are looking forward to seeing some friends. Since Patrick’s party has a 1980s theme, I am planning to tight roll my pants and wear my Denver Broncos half shirt. I am hoping nobody has a camera.

Tim’s picks for this weekend’s NFL playoff games:
Packers beat Seahawks
Patriots pound Jaguars
Colts mercilessly pummel Chargers
Giants squeak past Cowboys

Tim loves Heidi more than football.

The Holiday season was great.

The Holiday season is over. It was great. I (Tim) love Christmas in a cold weather climate. The snow looks so pretty after it first falls and sitting and staring at the Christmas tree with hot coffee and my hot wife is awesome. Having five days off in an eight day span is also great. However, now it is over. There is only one more Holiday until summer and the long Minnesota winter looms in front of us. The snow that is so pretty and fun in December becomes rock hard and brownish by the end of February. I guess that is what I get for living in Minnesota. At least there are winter sports. Take that all you people who live in warm places! I will enjoy it while I can since we will not see snow in Africa.

Another bummer of January is that for the second year in a row, there is no playoff game for my Denver Broncos. Scoring a victory in the final game was great, but I was a little sad that it had to come at the expense of the Minnesota Vikings. A Vikings playoff game would have been fun, but I guess this was not my year for football. I had a great time with everyone who came to Heidi’s parent’s house for the game. Thanks for the party, Don and Lyn!

There is no movement on our house. It does not want to be sold, evidently. We are still steadfast in our trust in God to sell our house. Thanks to those who have been praying. It will happen. We are certain of that.

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.

Tim thinks out loud

Here is a link to an interesting article about Jon Kitna’s (Detroit Lions QB) Christian faith: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3036235 Makes is hard to root against the Lions.

Last night we enjoyed a banquet for Mission: Moving Mountains. It was a fundraiser banquet, but also got people up to speed on the merger with the Navigators. Our pastor and some other friends from church came and we able to get a little better taste of what we will be doing. We are more excited than ever about going to Africa.

If you have not yet heard, we are living in our friends’ basement now. Our house has been rented to some missionaries from our church that came home unexpectedly and needed a place to stay. So far it has worked out fine for everyone. We do need our house to sell soon, so we appreciate your prayers in that regard.

This could be another bad football weekend. The Broncos match up poorly with the Colts, especially in Indy, and this could be a painful game. The poor Vikings look like they will get run over by the Brett Favre bandwagon in the Dome. All I can hope is that my injury depleted Fantasy Football team manages enough points to break Dan’s heart.

The perfect storm of football badness

There have already been 3 games in the NFL and I have not blogged about football. It is time. This weekend was the perfect storm of football badness. The Broncos, after winning two close games, were playing at home against a mediocre team and got beat. They stunk it up on offense, defense, and special teams, leaving the Broncos nation smelling like a wet dog. Every time something good would happen, like a Brandon Marshall touchdown, soon after something bad would follow, like a Dominic Hixon fumble on a kickoff return. I fear that the Broncos are shaping up to be a 9-7, just missing the playoffs, kind of team. Compounding the football misery, the Vikings lost and the Raiders, Chiefs, and Packers all won. Also, in my Fantasy Football league, I got pounded by Robbie. I had Kevin Kurtis on the bench and he was worth 50 points, while all three of my starting wide receivers combined did not score 50 points. (I just noticed that every single player on my starting roster lost their game yesterday.) It could be a long season. At least Heidi still loves me.

more pictures of nueva york

Other than our honeymoon, this trip was our first vacation together.
I love to vaca with my sweetie, but I am definitely more of a
lay-on-the-beach-vacationer. New York was very fun, but tiring.
This is a flag that was a part of a 9/11 tribute. There were hundreds
of them on display in Battery Park. This is the second time I have
been to NYC on the anniversary of 9/11 and it was pretty powerful. It was
good to remember. The words on the flag: "Flag of Honor, This flag
contains the names of those killed in the terrorist attacks of 9.11.
Now and forever it will represent their immortality.
We shall never forget them."

This is us taking a photo of ourselves in the mirror. Cheesey.

Time Square is so great at night.

Gloria and I met during my DTS with YWAM in 2001 in West Africa.
She is a Dr. now and works in the Northern most part of Manhattan.
Here we are enjoying the classic New York treat, black and white cookie.

Timmy on the Brooklyn Bridge heading back into Manhattan.

The Big Apple

Our first day we wandered around the city most of the day checking things out. In the afternoon, we were sitting in Central Park, and suddenly Tim says, "hey, is that Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher over there?" Well, yes it was. 50 feet away, they were filming a scene for their new movie! It was fun to watch and we almost got to be extras. The darn papparazzi ruined it for everyone and when they wouldn't behave, they made everyone leave.Cameron and Ashton

We also saw Nikki Hilton earlier that day, but that was it for movie stars. All three on the first day. Well, 2 1/4 stars at least, who's Nikki Hilton anyway?

These are some of the friends we stayed with, Joe and Julia. They were terrific hosts!

Us and lady Liberty.

weekend in Duluth

A couple weeks ago, we spent the weekend with my folks up in Duluth. It was wonderful and they spoiled us! We are trying to squeeze in the family memories before we go :) We had a great time seeing the sights and hiking around Jay Cook Park - so beautiful. The weather was great and we ran into a few people at Canal park, which was a fun surprise.

Labor Day Weekend Update

After flying high from beating Dan in Disc Golf last week, we decided to play again. Since we had not played the course by Maplewood Mall in a while, Jer and I met Dan there for 18 holes yesterday. Dan beat me like a rug. However, a bad round of Disc Golf on a beautiful day is better than no Disc Golf.

On Friday night my sister, Sally, came to the cities to see her husband’s cousin, Justin Roth, play a concert at the Lake Harriet bandshell. Heidi and I rode our bikes and met her there. Justin puts on a good show, but the mosquitoes were so bad that we finally had to leave. We did get some ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s before we parted ways, so that was a bonus. It was one of those evenings where things did not quite go as planned, but we still had fun.

On Saturday and Sunday we were in Duluth with Heidi’s parents. After stopping for doughnuts (Mmmm. Doughnuts. Mmmm.) at Toby’s we visited Canal Park. We took in some sights, ate some ice cream, and walked around. Twice we ran into friends that we did not know were going to be there. That night we watched the Bourne Ultimatum and liked it a lot. On Sunday morning we hiked at Jay Cooke State Park. Wow. That place is amazing. We tooled around again at Canal Park before eating pizza at the Green Mill and heading home. Having cool in-laws is a good thing.