The Strangest Annual Meeting Ever!

In more than 18 years here, I have been to many meetings. Elders meetings, deacons meetings, elders/deacons meetings, camp, ministerial, congregational, individual, group and any other kind of meeting that you can think of.

I have seen people get so mad that they have walked out. I have heard things said that should not come out of the mouths of sane people (mostly they came out of my mouth - sorry about that!). I have seen people break down in tears of frustration and in tears of joy. But I have never seen an Congregational Annual Meeting like the one that I saw today.

We did the normal stuff. I did a devotional about hope and what God could do among us if we let him. Various ministry leaders got up and gave updates on their 2009 plans. Dennis gave the financial report and presented the budget. All normal stuff.

Then Calvin got up. Calvin is always a good elder and a good leader, but no more so than today. He gave an open, honest speech about what it is like to be an elder and where they would like to see the congregation going and growing in the next year. Then he told people that Ron Jacobs has agreed to let his name stand as an elder. I don't have the time to explain how nice it is to see someone "step up" and help out in this way, but lets just say that it has been a long time coming and that it is good news.

Ron gave a bit of a speech and then Bill Muirhead got up - gave some "thank-you"s (To young moms who bring their kids out faithfully, to the deacons for their hard work, to the "FriendSpeak" group) and then led the closing prayer. That is when the odd part happened........

People got up and started smiling and shaking hands as if we had just won the Stanley Cup. People (the women I mean - not us guys) were hugging. Pats on the back were seen. Nice things were said to one another. No fighting. No "issues". No upset people. No fretting. Just a family - happy to be together - glad for another year and looking forward to what may come. They even offered to let me hang around for another year.

It is interesting what happens when there is hope in air. I like it. :)

Getting things together (And Lanny MacDonald)

So far the weekend has been really nice (I say "So far" b/c this is only Saturday night - Sundays are usually good, but you never know right?) :)

I spent all day Friday goofing around in my garage. I had put the door openers up last weekend but I had not done all the wiring really neatly, did not put up the safety lights (just put them on the floor) - so I cleaned all that stuff up - did some rewiring - adjusting the closing force - little stuff that needed to be done. In the process of needing things, I also got to go hang out at Peavey Mart and Canadian Tire too - which is always fun! (I told one of the teachers at Sari's school that it is like going to Disneyland only cheaper!) :)

The kids and I then met Shady and Keith at the Bruins hockey game (-43 with the wind chill and we go out to a hockey game!). They beat the Melville Millionaires 14-0. I have never seen a game like that. Melville is way ahead of the Bruins in the standings but they got whipped. Lots of fights (like 10) it was fun!

Adding to the night was the fact that former Toronto Maple Leaf, Colorado Rockie and Calgary Flame Lanny MacDonald was there (The Bruins brought him in for a PR thing). That was sort of cool. Growing up a Leaf's fan, I really liked Lanny. Fun to meet him.

Sari stayed home and got some stuff done for Ladies Retreat which is coming up in the middle of February.

Today (Sat) we slept in - then had brunch - then went shopping. It was nice just hanging out as a family with nothing to do for a change. And since it was so cold, of course we had to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Back home and just hung out till the kids and Sari went to the movie and I stayed home to watch the NHL All-Stars competition.

So all in all it has been good. We got to do some stuff together. The big projects on my "To do" list that I had made for myself after Christmas is close to being done. We are planning to go out for supper tomorrow night to use up some of gift certificates that we got for Christmas.

Life is simple but good! :)

An amendment to the last post

One other thing that I hope I never forget ....... I am almost 40 years old and should not be trying to "surf" down the toboggan hill on the top of the sleds anymore. I wiped out about 10 times.... banged my head once..... then I gave myself whiplash the next time (trying to keep my head from hitting the ground again).

My neck is sore.

My back is sore.

My shoulder is sore.

But I "surfed" farther than anyone else!!!! So I can't retire yet! :)

Weekend

I hope I never get to the point of not being able to appreciate "little" stuff in my life. This weekend was full of good "little" things like......

- Putting up my garage door openers. I know that many of you have garages and door openers and never think twice about it, but let me tell you.... they are luxuries!!!! I spent a few hours Friday and a few more Saturday putting my openers up and it is like winning the lottery to pull up to the door and being able to drive in without getting out. Seriously - you don't use your opener for a month (especially when it is -40) and you will find out how nice it is to have one.

- Going to Calvin and Mary's for supper with Jurgen, Pia, June and Isabel. Good food, good visit, unexpected invitation - it was a nice way to spend a Friday night.

- Playing "Rockband" on the PS2 with Sari and the girls. Who knew that I was a good drummer????? 45 right "notes" in a row (On the easiest setting but come on!!!!)

- Going to the Bruin's game with Shady, Keith and all our kids. Good game. Good guys.

- Having a little German friend, named Bernice, stay with us all day Saturday while her parents went to Minot. She is fun and sweet. The girls were really good with her too - helped a lot.

- A good morning at church today.... good atmosphere, visitors, a buddy from town who has been there three Sundays in a row now. It was nice.

- An impromptu "sledding party" this afternoon with about 20-25 of our friends meeting at the hill for 3 hours of fun in the nice warm sun. What is better than getting 20 people that you like, sticking them on sleds, making a chain and then just about killing one another when you wreck 1/2 way down the hill????? One kid even bit his lip and bled all over the place...... good times!

- Then, to top it off, walking the dog after dark with Sari.

Just some of the "little things" that made this a really nice weekend. I hope it never forget to be thankful for things like this!

NOOOOOOO - NOT AGAIN!!!!

It has happened again!!!! I have been sucked in by "American Idol"!

I saw the ads for it all week long.... "Who cares?" is what I thought. Then, tonight, I am flipping through the stations after the news and what do I find???? So I call Sari and the kids (they like it) and I start to watch it with them..... now I can't wait till tomorrow!!!

I KNOW!!!! It is pathetic!!!! It is stupid!!!! But it is funny!!!!! :)

And inspirational at times (but mostly just funny - I usually lose interest after the first few weeks - after they get down to serious singing).

Oh well - what else am I going to do when it is -90 outside???? Read?????? HA!

Stop one leak - get another

For a few month, the cold water tap has been leaking in our tub. Actually, water comes out around the handle when the water is on. This is not a big deal really, but it is not right and it is annoying, so I fixed it today. That may not seem like a big deal, but these are reverse flow taps (not "Reverse flow" you say in horror - yes - REVERSE FLOW!!!!!) so they are different and hard to set and generally a big pain.

The good news: the tap leak is stopped.

The bad news: My truck's water pump started leaking today. Like not dripping but pouring. Leaking everywhere. Good times!!!! So that will be the next thing to deal with.

Good thing I can still drive the mini-van that has exactly "0" clearance. Did I mention that a buddy of mine got stuck on our street tonight...... in his Four wheel drive pickup! We has stopped to push out another dude in a 4 x 4 and after discovering that he was in too deep to get out, we got stuck. So I had to walk the rest of the way home to get some shovels so that we could dig everyone out.

Maybe I will just stay home tomorrow as we are supposed to get another 10 cm of snow tonight.

Anyone want to go on a "Hot Holiday" right now? I love winter, but getting stuck on city streets makes me wonder if they have this problem in Jamaica? Do you think they do?

Let's go check it out! :)

The hills are getting longer

I swear it is true - someone lengthened the sledding hill this year. It took way longer to climb back up than it ever has before. Or maybe it was that 4 feet of snow that we had to plow through. Or maybe we just slid a greater distance. It certainly has nothing to do with being another year older on my part (I think the hill is more rough this year too - my legs and back hurt a lot too). :)

The kids and I got dropped off by "Sari-rella" (she could not stay and play but had to go shopping so that we could eat for another week - poor girl) and met Paul and his kids as well as Shady and his kids over there. It was a lot of fun - except for the face wash that Katie and I encountered when we took the road less traveled through the biggest powder drift in the world (20 feet of snow flying in your face.... or maybe it was 200..... or 2000 - it was hard to tell really). My face/head have never felt so frozen - not sure why Katie did not sacrifice her body to protect me from all that snow. What are kids for anyway??????

Snow, Snow blowers, Kids and other things

Though it is hard to display in pictures, we got a lot of snow yesterday! Like 15 cm! What that means is that where it drifted up, it was several feet deep. What that means is that we had to take the kids and the dog for a walk in the badlands behind our house today. There is nothing quite as funny as watching Murphy running through snow that is deeper than he is tall. Especially when he goes into a really deep spot and disappears. It is pure joy for him to run and for us to watch him. :)

Unfortunately, my free snow blower broke down earlier this week. I think I am going to demand my money back! The drive chain broke, but that is not the worst part. The chain broke because there were 8 various parts (Bolts, set screws, keys) laying in the bottom tray and they got caught on the sprocket. Some investigation showed that the parts were from the second stage fan - the bolts should have held the part that blows the snow out of the machine to its shaft. Fortunately, the fan is rusted on the shaft so hard that it does not seem to need the bolts - so I will re-install them in the summer when it is warmer and I do not need the machine. The other fortunate part was that Paul Quilliams got me a new chain link to fix the drive chain - cost me $2 and he delivered right to my office. A few hours of work later, I was out blowing snow with it again yesterday.

Of course, school started again this week, so all my girls were back at it. I think that they enjoyed it, even if it meant classes and work again. Megan signed up for Basketball and for Art club. This is reportable news b/c it is usually Katie that signs up for everything(which is great), but it will be cool to be able to go watch Megs do something too. Both girls are curling right now too. I was supposed to go help teach that on Friday but Megs stayed home (not feeling really well) so I missed my chance. Oh well.

So that is about it. We are back to "life after vacation". The kids and I are going to the Bruin's game tonight, so that will be fun. I am looking forward to church tomorrow morning. Life is good! :)

Home and thinking

So this is the last night of Christmas holidays and I have to admit that I am really sad about that! Not that I do not like my job or the routine that comes with the kids back in school etc, but I don't want Christmas to be over.

We got to spend so much time together as a family (with both just the four of us and with our extended family) and I miss that already. I appreciate a lot the chance to get to hang out with everyone and just spend time together because I know that we will not always be able to do that (it will change someday). We had lots of fun in Manitoba and at the wedding. Thanks to Dave and Marilyn for all the work you did to make our Christmas away from home (anyone's home - we stayed at a B and B) fun and homey away. The wedding was fun as was the dance. I enjoyed our "last lunch" in Portage on the way home (That is where the Mullers went north and we kept going west). Then in MJ we enjoyed seeing everyone - watching hockey - good meals - laughs - going out for coffee late at night - playing the Wii. Even Murphy behaved himself (both in the kennel and at Deb and Dorian's).

Anyway - this is just a short "thanks" to anyone who helped make our Christmas fun - so much fun that I do not want it to end. I am already looking forward to our next chance to be together.

The guest room is empty next weekend.... whadoya say? :)