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.