Japamberly says "Sianara USA!"

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

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

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

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

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

Well rested in Seattle

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

Some of our new friends from Long Island.

Heidi and her new best friend, Stan!

Our wedding crasher attire.

More committed than ever.

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

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

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

Tim comments on Television shows

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lucky Broncos and the new I-35W bridge

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

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

Weekend update

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

Processing

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

A picture of our whole team

Senegal Pictures

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

Here we are with Joe and Cara

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

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

Right in front of restaurant.

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

back to blogging

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

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

Two pregnant chics at a baby shower.

Bump battles

Mandy having a Mike's Hard Lemonade. Tasty.

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

Home Again

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

So far so good in Senegal

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

Quick update catch-up

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

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

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

It's time for Tim to post about football

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

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

I love Heidi more than I love football.

Keeping busy!

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

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

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

Bella

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

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

It's getting hot out there. . .

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

Movie review: The Dark Knight

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

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

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

Rollergirls on the Greenway

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

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

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

Family Time

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

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

Us at Minnehaha Falls. It was a beautiful day.

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

Everyone who was visiting us :)

Tim and his sisters. The sibs.

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

Intentional community and urban chickenry

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

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

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

Updates and random thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

Tim's niece made a new friend

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

Mpls in the summertime

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

Memorial Day Camping

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

Chases and Watsons

Chases and Lundholms, Tim's sister

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

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

Phil and Amy frying up some tasty bacon for breaky!

Me and my girls!

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

A sad post

Yesterday a dear friend of Heidi's family passed away. Don Swenson, who is survived by his wife, Angela, suffered heart failure at their home. I believe he was in his late 40s. He was a jovial man who provided Heidi and I with some great stories and he will be greatly missed. Please be in prayer for his wife and for Heidi and her family. They are taking this pretty hard. We are encouraged that we know that he is with Jesus, whom Don served his entire life. Welcome home, Don. We will miss you.

we love weddings!

In May, we were blessed to attend 2 weddings: Steve and Emily Mattson, friends from church and Joe and Julia Novik, a dear friend of mine from high school. Ju and I both went to the U and now they are both Dr.s in New York City.Me and Julia

Julia looking stunning in her gown. They had a lovely outdoor wedding at a great place in Stillwater.

Her very interesting cake decorated by another friend from high school. Yep, those are trout and cattails.

Enjoying our kiddie cocktails at Steve and Emily's wedding. I don't actually have any pictures of the happy couple.....We had a great time at this wedding and wooped it up on the dance floor.

Nate aka Jeff Foxworthy and his crazy 'stash.

Good times with friends.

Another newly wed couple, Ben and Brenda, having a ball!

Strange sights, summer in the city. . .

I have lived in the city long enough that not much surprises me. Every once in a while, though, I’ll look out the window and call Heidi over, saying, “you have to see this.” We had seen some kids earlier playing in a puddle on the edge of our driveway, right by the alley. It can be 3 or 4 inches deep after a heavy rain. The kids were riding their bikes through the puddle and washing their feet in it. A while after they got bored and moved on, I moved our trash bins and recycling containers into that spot for the next morning’s pickup. Not long after that, I heard the sound of kids playing again. This time they were using the puddle as a wading pool and had moved our trash cans and recycling bins into the middle of the alley. After coating themselves in mud and splashing each other, they headed back down the alley, leaving our stuff in the middle. As I again put the cans and bins in the proper place for the next morning, I thought about how people who live outside of the city never get to see things like this. They sure are missing out.

Now for some football news. Denver Broncos running back and father of nine children with nine women (none of whom he married), Travis Henry, has been released from the team. Last season it was hard to cheer for him knowing what kind of guy he was. Now I can cheer for the Broncos starting running back without that tinge of guilt. Good for Coach Shanahan for getting rid of the problem children and making room for the good guys.

Last week’s season finale of LOST was great. With LOST and The Office on summer break, there is officially nothing worth watching on TV, which is good, since our set is old and doesn’t work very well any more.

The weekend and Prince Caspian

Heidi and I had a great Memorial Day weekend by camping at St. Croix State Park with family and friends. We spent Friday night by ourselves and the Lundholms (my sister, Sally and her family) and the Watsons (friends from church) joined us from Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon. The kids from both families played together and even let me play some Freeze Tag with them. The only bummer was the mosquitoes, which considered us a buffet all weekend. I have never seen bugs that bad. I am still scratching the bites two days later. We will post the pictures from the weekend soon.

I have been meaning to post a review of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, but have not had the chance. So, here is my official review: as a movie, it was awesome, but as a book adaption, it was terrible. The directing, photography, effects, and acting were all top notch. The pacing was solid and, overall, I enjoyed it a whole lot. However, they changed some things and added others that I found both unnecessary and irritating. As good as it was, the movie only partially captured the spirit of the book, which is a bummer. I hope the Dawn Treader is better. I love that book. Please leave comments with your thoughts on the movie.

Just for fun, here is a link to the Will Smith superhero movie, Hancock, due out in July: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809801452/video/7633208

I love my Heidi an awful lot.

Girls weekend up north

At the end of April/start of May, I skipped out on Tim a bit and went to Seattle and then right away up North with the girls. Poor guy, it was in that weekend that he broke the tip off his finger. Don't worry, he's ok and the finger is looking pretty good.

We had some great time of fellowship up at Candace's grandparents "cabin."A little hiking.

A little shooting! My first time. Check me out.

Here's the "cabin." HUGE! Good times. Lots of food, laughter, and fun.

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.