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Making It Big

My girl’s softball team had been selling tickets for several weeks for a raffle to pay for new fields. If enough tickets were sold, the winner would receive a new car, but if not, the proceeds would be split in half and given to the winner.

1103 out of 1300 tickets required for the car were sold, so the drawing would be for half the proceeds, or around $11,000. The drawing was made Saturday. None of my relatives won.

That may have been a good thing.  Not that we couldn’t use 11 grand, and not that we didn’t earn it by manning the sales booths and canvasing the neighborhoods.

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Control?

The nine-year-old upstairs could be heard downstairs, “Mom! Dad’s trying to control me!”

It wasn’t my most favorite thing to hear on Sunday morning.  I had sent her upstairs to get something while I was helping her sister.

When she came back down, we had a little chat:

“Let me ask you something. When I do things that your mom asks, do you think I’m doing it because she’s controlling me?”

“Kinda.” Hey, at least she was honest…

“No.  I do things she asks me to do because I love her. That’s why we do things for each other around here.

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Some Progress You Just Can’t Measure

Twin 2 and I had just returned from the store this morning. As I came into the kitchen from the garage, my back popped just below the shoulder blades, and I couldn’t hold the groceries up for a second. The incident was rather bizarre, as I regularly workout with more weight and with more range of motion than what I was doing then. About 11 hours later, there’s a little bit of pain left which I hope is gone by tomorrow.

When my back popped, I winced, because it was a little bit painful. Twin 2 saw it, and asked, “Are you hurt, Dad?”

I said, “Yes, my back popped.”

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Happy New Year!

2011 was a pretty cool year. If I recall correctly, I was in Houston; Alice, TX; and Calgary. Houston is great; it’s my home away from home, and the church knows my name there. Calgary was definitely the most fun and unique, despite spending most of it in negative degrees Celsius. :) Unlike some past years, I got to spend a lot of time at home as well, and that was good.

So far this year the company looks to send me back to Alberta. Halliburton has camps in Medicine Hat, Red Deer, and Grande Prairie. Grande Prairie is out there; we may wander over into British Columbia.

Last year I dropped 40 lbs. through a food diary and 45 mins. of exercise a day; I won’t be dropping another 40 this year. It sounds kind of cool to say I dropped almost three stones. I switched from the Lose It! app on iOS to LiveStrong on the BlackBerry, primarily because the kids now monopolize the iPods.

The podcast has been doing well. After our second pass through the Popular Commentary of Dr. Paul E. Kretzmann, I’m thinking about discussing the background of the hymns we sing: the scripture they reference and the conditions they were written in. Wouldn’t it be sweet if I could get an interview with the likes of LSB composers Pr. Stephen P. Starke or Stephen R. Johnson?

We made two hymn videos. I wish I could have synchronized the video of me singing with the audio a bit better on “What Child is This,” but CyberLink’s PowerDirector was very erratic with that. Video shooting and editing is a process where experience is a slow and demanding teacher, and I would really like to work with someone more experienced on any future projects.

I am quite excited that we are getting new accompaniment from Sam Mussman of Champaign, IL, and the notorious organist of Higher Things, Chris Loemker. Sam will kick off the new year of Time Out on Thursday with CL taking the next three. Jake Weber should also be with us in February. Our frequent guest vocalist Anna Baseley will be more involved when I work out the schedule for the next three months. We are still looking for more; we have no max on our guest list.

The house is now pretty much gluten-free. The market is starting to produce better gluten-free substitutes for normal bread goods, and while they continue to be more expensive, the prices are coming down. Udi’s loaves regularly can be found for under $5. Celebrate Local at the Easton Towne Center has had some good GF cookies that would be hard to discern from typical.

Wishing you and yours a prosperous 2012; keep working hard and forgiving others, as in Christ you are forgiven. Peace.

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For Want of an Allen Wrench

I needed a couple of Allen wrenches to take down a bunk bed set, so I went to the hardware store to pick up some cheap ones.

The parking lot was full, so I pulled off of the asphalt onto some gravel parking.  There was a little bit of a bump, but that bump caused a loud bang under the car. I thought I had hit something, but I looked under the car.  Nothing.

I went inside the hardware store, found some wrenches under $3, and left.

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On Sick Kid Home from School

For the last week and a half one of my kids has been home from school sick with flu-like symptoms that graduated to pneumonia. She’s on the mend, after a couple of visits to the doctor and Nationwide Children’s hospital, and she should be back to school Monday. Thank God, and thank you who have been praying for us.

I will admit that it was kind of nice letting her sleep in and not getting her ready for school. Mornings have been way less stressful with getting just one kid out of the house. :)

From her point of view I suppose you can’t beat the learning environment either: go to the ABA therapy room in your jammies, take a snack and a drink, have a nice quiet place to work, get puzzles and iPod time every page completed. Almost like working out of the house!

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