Christmas fun! :) TKP

Here is a sampling of our "Dauphin Christmas Adventure" so far......

There was the 4 hour drive to cut down a tree.......
And "Tree trimming"....


We went skating at the new rink.....

Some played games.....


There was lots of this.......

And likely not enough of this......

We had a big bonfire (the remnants of which can be seen here)......

We went for a sleigh ride in the park.....

And then there is a whole bunch of other stuff that I cannot post on this site.... ;)

Happy New Year from us!!!!! (This last picture was taking in Duck Mountain Provincial Park during the tree cutting festivities)

I have learned my Christmas shopping lesson - TKP

About a month ago, I saw a "Best of Mr. Bean" DVD in Walmart and I thought to myself, "I should buy that for the girls". They LOVE Mr. Bean. There were like 578039485690386938683990 copies of it there though, so I figured, "Ah - I will pick it up sometime".

Two weeks ago I went back to get it and they were all sold out! I asked the unhelpful Walmart electronics girl if they had more coming in - she said that she did not know (and, apparently, checking the computer would have been a silly thing to do) and so I left. I checked every day for a week - nothing!

Last week, I started getting desperate! This was THE gift for my girls (When we go to visit one of the members of the congregation, the kids always grab their Mr. Bean DVD..... and laugh and laugh and laugh!!!) - so I sucked up my pride and I asked for help. I got people in Regina to look for it (nothing). People in Moose Jaw looked for it (Nothing). I called Weyburn's Walmart (nothing). I even had Sari's brother looking for it in Ohio (nothing)!

I was sad! :( It was not a big present, but it was one that they would have liked and it would have said that their dad knew them well. That is when Sari (gently) reminded me that this is exactly the reason she started shopping for Christmas stuff more than a month and a half ago. She got everything she wanted before the 1st of December. No rush. No worries. No problem.

And then today - one last shot: I went back to the Estevan Walmart and what do I find? A whole stack of "The Best of Mr Bean" DVDs!!!!!!!! :) I was so happy!!! Christmas has been saved!!!!

Now - upon reflection - here is what I have learned from this experience.......


I started shopping too early!!!

If I had not gone shopping a month ago, I never would have seen the DVD. Then, if I had not gone shopping 2 weeks ago, I would not have realized that they did not have the DVD because I would not have even known it existed in the first place! Then that would have meant that I would not have had to suck up my pride and ask my friends and relatives to run all over the place looking for this DVD.

If I had not done anything until today (December 19th) everything would have been perfect! I would have just walked into Walmart and "Voila" - "One Mr Bean, please" and it would be over. No stress! No hassle! No problem!

Next year I am going to make it really stress free - I am not going to start shopping until December 24th! :)

And people say that I am too stubborn to learn from my mistakes! Ha! :)

Fathead - TKP

I had dental surgery yesterday - had a wisdom tooth taken out - and it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. No bruising - not much swelling (some as the title of this blog suggests but not as bad as I expected) - almost no bleeding - it was Fun! (Ok - fun is a little much - but it was not the worst thing that has ever happened to me).

The most interesting part was the "happy juice" as the Dr. called it. I have never been sedated before (though I am sure that, at various times in my life, some wished that I had been). I remember laying in the chair, the IV going in, the Dr saying, "I will let this drip in slowly - sedatives are meant to be given slowly" and that was it - next thing I remember I was walking to the recovery room. It was not unlike a number of college classes that I have been in. :) It was bizarre! Anyway, it is over. Other than the fact that I can hardly eat (b/c I can't open my mouth or chew on the right side) everything is great!

The only odd thing - Sari keeps giving me the pain killers that make me sleep even though I have not had any pain since last night. Strangely enough too - there is a bunch of money missing from my wallet - and Sari seems very happy lately. I have been thinking about asking her about the connection there - but I am too sleepy! Good night! :)

This is Freaking me Out!!!! :) TKP

So - Sari and I put out the rest of our Christmas lights today - including a string of coloured lights around the back fence in our yard. As we came to the tree that stands in the corner of the yard, we decided to throw a "net light" of white lights in it - just because we did not know what else to do with them. Six hours later, when we turned on the lights, look at what we saw.......
Dude, there is an angel in our tree in the back yard!!!!!!! (Wings up in the air, head in the middle - you can see it right?). Here is another look.....
We did not plan it - but there it is. We are offering tours - $10/person ($25 if you want to see the the water cooler and the stove too - see blogs below if that does not make sense to you).

You never know what you will see until you look for it! ;)

Appliance faith healing (part 2) - TKP

It has happened again!!!! Another kitchen appliance, that was simply on its last legs, has found its way back to life and usefulness!!!!

For those of you who have forgotten the life changing story of how I faith healed our water cooler (and really - how could you have?), please refer to the archive section (May 2007).... but enough living in the past!!! Only losers do that!!! In this "what have you done for me lately?" world, we need a new story.... something to keep hope going in the darkest nights of the prairie winter.... Enter our 20 year old oven!

The distress call came in at 4:54 when Sari called my office to say that the wonderful roast beef supper that she had planned had been thwarted by the death of the oven! Being the helpful, happy man that I am, I did the only logical thing: I yelled "What? Oh come on!!!!" and then started crying like a little girl. After having Sari question my manhood and berate me over the phone (seriously - you people don't know the real Sari - YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIVE WITH HER RAGE ISSUES!!!!) I decided to do the only thing I could do at that moment.... leave town!! However reality kicked in when I got in my old truck and realized that, in this weather, it may not make it past Macoun, so I decided to go home and begin the fight with our senior citizen of an oven!!!

After taking out the fuses, turning the on/off thinger 890475890346893476 times and glaring at it for 10 minutes - I came to my conclusion... "This stupid thing doesn't work!" At that point, Sari left the room.

I then proceeded to take the element out to test it - and in doing so I held up a grand Pippus tradition..... I almost electrocuted myself. Ask my mom, Sari, or Lenny's wife Tracy - they can supply many funny stories about Lenny and me almost dying while taking things apart. (Editor's note: Only sissies unplug things before working on them)

Having determined (the hard way) that there was at least some power at the element, I proceeded to take the back off the stove - have you ever seen the mess of wires back there? Yikes!!! Oddly enough - I somehow know the smell of burnt electrical wires (go figure hey?), so I immediately realized that there was a problem - that and the fact that there was this burnt wire hanging down from the thermostatic control unit (or so it said on it) - those were two strong clues!

Long story short (b/c I am not getting paid by the word here ya know?), a quick trip to Canadian Tire for a wire end thinger, a little testing with the multimeter, a bad burn on my hand while trying to see if the element was actually working or not (good thing I did not use my tongue as I first wanted to) and our old oven is back in business.

The miracle part? I spread the whole thing all over the kitchen floor and it still works! Haven't you been paying attention????

Now, if the house burns down - I had nothing to with re-wiring my stove!!!!

So, here is the deal.... we are offering tours of our "Miraculous Kitchen" - we are calling it "Twenty three years old and still going strong.... sort of", or "Maytag's warranty runs out at 20 years - bah!". You can see EITHER the stove or the water cooler for $5 - or (just for you internet readers) you can see BOTH for $15 (no pictures please!).

Or for $20 I will stop writing stupid things like this altogether! Here is a teaser for you.....

Sports Goofy - TKP

Some pictures for you:
- First, Katie playing volleyball with her school team....
Then this was the last night of basketball for Megan - it was "Parents vs the Kids" night so Katie and I both got to play against her! :)

Running so fast that we are blurry....
With "Coach D" (aka "Shady Shane")
Girls and me.....

This is Funny to me! :)

This post is for Trinda (see her lippy comment on my last post below) :) and for Roberta (who really likes my racing/car stories) :) - I found this thanks to my brother-in-law Joel! Enjoy! :)

Facebook Rant! (TKP)

(Just because I feel like ranting about something) :)

Why I think that Facebook is a plague on our society.....

1. I used to be able to keep up with people without too much trouble. Email appeared in my "inbox". Your blog showed pictures and described what you had been up to. Facebook has caused many of my friends to abandon their blogs (many have not been updated in months) and if I want to see what you have written to me, I have to search for it on one of several different areas of Facebook. Email has now become a treasure hunt!

2. The Facebook "friends" list: From what I can tell, most people's list consists of 223 people most of whom, if you saw them in your local mall, you would avoid by hiding behind a rack of clothing! Just because you know someone's name and put them on a list does not mean that you actually have any friends! Most of these people are my "friends" in the same way my mailman is! (No wait - at least the mailman actually comes to my house once in a while!) :)

3. Because Facebook is mostly open conversation (read by everyone), "How are you?" and "I am doing well" are about the deepest conversations you will have. I have more interesting conversations when I order my coffee at Tim Horton's.

4. I will never have the desire to "buy you a drink" and I rarely (If ever) feel the need to "throw a sheep" at you - so those applications are completely useless to me.

5. If you want to play Scrabble, come over to my house! I have a real board. We could play and have a real conversation! I may even let you win!

6. Just because your "Status" line tells me that So and So "is doing laundry" or "is sick of hearing Johnny Cash on the radio" or "likes the colour green" does not mean I actually know anything about who you are or what you are doing.... I may think I am keeping in touch with you but....

7. I don't care which "Desperate Housewife" I am most like (I wish I knew even one of their names because I would insert it here - alas I don't) and if I want to know how "alike" we are - I will probably just talk to you sometime.


For these reasons (and many more that I may list later), I am boycotting Facebook and I encourage you to do so too!


Whew! Thanks for "listening" to this (not to mention actually visiting a blog!). I feel much better! Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go lurk on Sari's Facebook page - I may be missing something important! ;)

Adam the Tree Slayer

Earlier this year, a storm took down part of a huge tree in our backyard. My first plan was to carry my chainsaw to the top of my 20 foot extension ladder and cut the top of the tree off that way.

However, when it became obvious that the tree was too weak to support the ladder and me (not to mention that it seemed very likely that the tree would not be the only thing missing a limb or two when it was all said and done)... I called in the pro - "Adam the Tree Slayer". He brought over a pole saw that could reach the top of the tree. Below is visual evidence of his handiwork.

Now, you may notice that there are a bunch of tree branches laying in my backyard. That is about 1/2 of what the pile turned out to be. Once we got Adam started, he did not want to quit!
For some reason, though, Adam left before we got them all cut up and loaded in my truck - but that is ok! I saw the look in his eyes when he had the chainsaw in his hands... I was not going to say anything rude to him! :)

It is nice to have friends. It is even nicer to have friends with whom you can make great big messes (with chainsaws, no less). Thanks Adam!

Firewood anyone?

My stock car dream continues???

Earlier this year I got to go to Charlotte to a NASCAR stock car race - then later in the year I got to drive a car in the Estevan "Faster Pastor" race - and now this.....
A buddy of mine wrote me the other day and said that he was giving me an Olds Cutlass that he wants me to turn into a stock car. Can you believe that? It was like Christmas - only better. :) So now the work begins - kicking out windows, ripping out the interior, painting, etc.

So - anyone want to sponsor my new ride for the low, low price of $8653894673487683476???? (or I will take an loose change that you want to give me too!) :)

I am not sure how long it will take to get this baby out on the track (I need to build a garage first so that I have a place to work on it) but it is a huge step closer! Woo Hoo!!!!

My new Best Friend - or "How I single-handedly saved the Roughrider's Season"

I got to go to an "Athletes in Action" supper last night. The guest speakers were Rider quarterback Kerry Joseph and running back Wes Cates. There were about 300 people in attendance and maybe 40 tables or so set out.

When the supper started, the MC said, "Now, the players are not going to sit at the head table. We are going to send them out to sit with you guys" - so my buddy Bobby jumps up, runs over to Wes Cates and says, "You have to sit at our table!" Wes looks at him and says, "Well, I am not sure but I think that they have a place reserved for us". Bobby looks at him and says, "Yep - you have a place.... at our table!" So we got to eat with Wes.

Over the course of supper, I asked him 3486593869836986908 questions. When I found out that he played quarterback in high school for a year I offered to draw up a "Half back option pass" play that he could take back and show to head coach Kent Austin.

Now if you had been playing football since you were 7 years old, were now playing pro and you found yourself at some supper in some hick town and a scrawny white guy who has never really played football in his life offered to draw up a play for you - what you do?

Wes laughed at me!!!! :)

But you watch... I think he really liked this idea! He is going to suggest it - and they are going to try it - and it is going to work and turn their entire season around - and they are going to win the Cup....... and you are going to know who to thank! :)

On a related note: I saw Katie's teacher (who is about my size) at this supper, so I went up to him and said, "I will give you $5 if you go up and sucker punch Kerry right in the face. What is he going to do? He can't punch you back in front of 300 people" - but he did not take me up on it! Can you believe it? Everyone in the province would have known his name right now had he done it - and he would have been $5 richer too! :)

But it was a good night and I was super impressed by these two guys (and D-line coach Ron Estay) - they were great! Gave up 6 hours of their day to come here and talk to us about God and about putting spiritual things first. Pretty cool - even if they never use my play! :)

Do you Canoe?

Oddly enough, sometimes beautiful places and fun adventures are just sort of stumbled upon. Today, Sari, the kids and I took my canoe down to the Souris river just to see what we could see. As it turned out, we saw a lot! Three and half hours later - after exploring 3 different parts of the river - and after seeing frogs, fish, a couple of muskrats, a Blue heron, a couple of hawks and who knows how many turtles - we arrived back at our starting point. Who knew that the river was so nice? Who knew stuff like this exists in Estevan? Warm day, calm water, lots to see and fun together - what could be better? :)

My Racing Career starts here! :)

This has been quite a summer for me. First, in May I got to go to my first NASCAR race (have any of you seen those pictures or heard those stories?) and then this last Friday night I got to drive in a stock car race.

Our local speedway held what they called "Faster Pastor" - a race where they take ministers from all over town, stick us in race cars and send us out to race against each other. It was great!!! Ever since I was a little kid going to the stock car track in Moose Jaw, I have wanted to drive one of these things in a real race.

I got to drive Trevor Gowan's "Pure Stock" car #81. One of my first impressions of the car was how isolated you feel. There was no rearview mirror. You cannot see beside you. It sort of feels like you are out there all alone - until people start passing you. It is loud and really rough and bumpy... tons of fun!!! :)

The plan was that at the end of the night of real racing, they would load us into whatever cars were still running and let us go. We were going to run 5 laps and then stop while they inverted the field (put the 1st guy in 8th the 8th place guy in 1st) - then run 5 more laps. I started on the pole (1st place) and led the first 3/4 of a lap (the video is posted below). Just when I was thinking "This is too easy", two guys went around the top of me. I think I ended the first segment in 3rd or 4th. I lined up in 6th (3rd place inverted to 6th) for the second segment and finished in 4th (I think - there were cars spinning and stuff so I will have to watch the video later to know for sure).

The funny thing is that I had a bunch of people saying, "I am sorry that you did not win" as if I would be really disappointed - but I was not disappointed at all. When I got in Trevor's car he said, "You will have to drive it really hard just to keep up to the other guys" (because all the other cars were from a higher class than mine), so I figured that coming in 4th was pretty good. Besides, it was so much fun, I would come in last a hundred times just to do it again! I was so excited that I could not go to sleep when I got home - I was awake until 4 am (literally). :)

So I may have to find a way to do this again. My brother, Kurt, and I are talking about building a car for next year. And if that does not work out - "Faster Pastor" is going to be an annual event - so I am already looking forward to next year! :)


Below...... Me coming onto the track



Getting lined up for the second segment.......



Cute racing chicks getting ready to cheer for their favorite driver...

VBS Success

I hate VBS!!

At least that is what I normally say - VBS is tiring, draining, yelly kiddy (you know) - but I LOVED VBS this year!!! From top to bottom - it was a great experience.

We started Monday morning with 75 kids - that is usually our highest total for the week - and numbers-wise it just kept growing until we had 100 kids on Thursday and 114 registered overall. It was cool to see kids inviting their friends, people bringing their neighbour's kids, etc. It was just great to have new faces there every morning.

We also had a great group of workers. I would say that there were 30 + involved every morning and that does not include those who participated before (with setup) or after (tear down). Not only did we have lots of volunteers, but we had volunteers with great attitudes - really focused on the kids, on the lessons and on just being helpful. By the end of the week, we even had parents staying to help out with crafts, snacks, etc. That was cool!

On Friday night we invited everyone to a big Hayride/wiener roast - it was a fun ending to the week and good time to visit with the kids and the parents too.

Great kids. Great workers. Great lessons. It was just a great week.

I used to think that Vacation Bible schools were a thing of the past and that no one was interesting in helping with them or in bringing their kids to them anymore. Fortunately, I was wrong! :)

We will post pics later in the week.

Summer HOLIDAYS!!!!!!

Beach Bums

What has been keeping us from blogging well it could be the beach or a thousand other fun things we are finding to do this wonderful summer. Hope yours is going well too.. :)P

Family

For some reason blogger isn't letting me load up pictures but I will when it lets me....maybe it is on a coffee break. Well after much pressure from I will not say who I am writing about my recent trip home. I enjoyed being in the great outdoors and breathing clean air...sorry folks from my town...:)
Dad is recovering nicely we think and his levels are lower than they need to be for now so he is still being monitored. At least chemo did it's thing. Mom was good too and a bit busy. She is looking after dad and Joel who was also sick at the time which made it harder for dad. It was great to see Rae again and meet her man Christien. We had lots of free time to just hang out together and that was a real treat.
We had a beauty of a day on Sat before we had to leave and so we spent it at Clear Lake. An awesome spot for a get away if you need to. All in all a fun time and good to reconnect with everyone who was there.
Okay by the time I was done writing blogger came back off coffee break and wa la!

A real Biker!!! - TKP

I now have 2 reasons to consider myself a "real biker".

First, last week I left the safe confines of the city and did my first road trip (until now, I was convinced that my 500 cc bike was too light to be very safe or comfortable on the highway). It was great! Lots of fun! I am looking forward to more highway rides.

More importantly, the second reason, I had a run in with "the law" today! I was leaving the church building when I saw Skip Hill coming down the road. He was pointing like he wanted me to turn around, so I quickly shot down the back alley, through the parking lot and met Skip at the front of the building. Turned out that he needed a key to get in. That is when we saw them - "The Fuzz"!

A cop car sitting in the driveway behind my motorcycle. Skip asked, "What did you do?" and I said, "I don't know. Maybe I did not signal when I turned into the alley". So I went up to them, said "hi" and they asked if that was my bike. I told them that it was and they asked "Do you have a license?" I produced license and registration and they said, "We saw you veer off the road and down the alley when you saw us coming, so we thought that you must be driving an unlicensed bike". Skip and I laughed, told them the real story and they said "Have a nice day".

So there you go - it is true.....

"The Man" is always hassling the innocent, good, nice, "never causing any trouble" biker dudes! :)

On the good side - my "brush with the law" should give me some much needed "street cred" with the Harley boys down the block!!! Now I can put off getting that tattoo for while! :)

Storm chasing - TKP

We had tornado warnings here today as well as a "sighting" out by Torquay - just west of here. So in the grand Pippus tradition of doing things that are just slightly stupid - I threw the kids and Sari in the truck to go and see the storm (one of the three was not as excited about this turn of events as the others - I will leave you to fill in that blank with your own imagination though) :)

I mean - come on - how many times do you get to see a twister in real life??????

Not to worry though - we stayed a long, long way back and in the end..... nothing! No funnel clouds. No flying cows. Hardly a drop of rain. Lots of dark clouds and some good lightening and thunder - but that was it.

Stupid Environment Canada Weather Warnings!! All the interesting weather misses us! :(

(Of course those last two lines are written "tongue in cheek" - I am not actually wishing to be in a tornado, taking them lightly, or trying to call down a curse upon myself - just for the record!)

Planes, Lennys and Automobiles (Part 4) - TKP

For those of you who have been slugging your way through my last 3 postings about Lenny's and my trip to Charlotte and thinking to yourself, "Wow! Am I glad I wasn't there" [That group could include anyone who is either... 1) a "non-racing fan" or 2) those who can imagine what our rental car smelled like after 8 days in 93 degree heat - Whew!!! :) Either way!].... I just wanted to prove to you that Lenny and I are men of broad experience. We not only went to race shops and races at the paved track - we also went to races at the dirt track!!!!!

(Ok - so what did you expect? A posting about how we went and got our nails done at the spa? Actually, Lenny wanted to, but he decided that their red nail polish did not match his skin tone, so he walked right out of there!!) ;)

On Friday night, the top dirt racers in the country - the "World of Outlaws" Sprint cars - were at the dirt track in Charlotte. The track is 4/10 of a mile (Isn't that actually 2/5 - why don't they say that? I don't know) and is basically the same size as the one in Estevan. The cars in Estevan average 80 - 90 mph around our track - these guys were averaging 120 mph+. The Estevan track draws 1 400 people on a good night - these guys had 14 000.

Two pictures - looking each direction from our seats (just to show the numbers of people) and then two videos to show you the cars on the track - three of them flip near the end of the first video - but I missed most of it. The last picture is self-explanatory.