Christmas, New Year's, birthday, family, work, party

This has been a busy week. I don't think I can blog again today, so this will wrap up 2005 for me. My first full calendar year of blogging.

Tonight we are having a youth group party at our pastor's house.

Nancy bought me Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring for my birthday, which I watched. Last night I rented and watched Anchorman then Andrew and I watched Lord of the Rings: Two Towers. Tonight I went to dinner with Andrew and Sarah, Nancy's parents, and our family as a farewell to Andrew and Sarah as they head back to Milwaukee tomorrow.

After dinner, Todd met me at a sports bar and bought me a post-birthday beer.

After that, Tyler and I went to watch King Kong, which we were both impressed with. Counting The Chronicles of Narnia, I think that makes 5 movies this week, oh and we watched Robots and Shrek 2 at some point as well -- so 7 movies this week. That's a lot, even for a movie buff like me.

I realized tonight at dinner, as I heard the wait staff singing Happy Birthday to someone, that I had not been sung "Happy Birthday" to this year. I also had no birthday cake. I won't lament the day, for certainly the shooting of many guns with my brothers was a wondrous occasion. Also the abundance of movies watched this week was a treat. Several friends and relatives sent cards and some sent some money (thank you, to those who sent cards and / or money).

I was very blessed this year, but I can't help wishing I had had a cake and the "Happy Birthday" song. Oh well, perhaps such is the fate for those of us born near Christmas.

I need some sleep, there will be much party prep today.

I won't be able to say it later, so "Happy New Year!" dear friends.

Thirty-two and one day

Well I succeeded in turning 32.

I had a good day yesterday. We were all up at around 8 am, then we went to lunch at The Egg and I, which was a very good thing. My brothers David and Andrew, their families, my parents and sister Rachel, and my brother-in-law Andrew all met and ate together.

After lunch we headed up to Jax Outdoor where we got some ammo and supplies, after which we headed out to our friends house and we shot for several hours. We shot everything from .22 rifles and pistols, to my .223, to my .30-06, to Andrew's 1903 .30-06, to my 12-guage shotgun. It was a lot of fun. There was a good amount of wind, but it wasn't terribly cold. The sunset was beautiful.

After all that, we ended up back at Nancy's parents' house for prime rib -- which of course was delicious. We topped that off with cheesecake and coffee.

For my birthday gifts, I received the first Lord of the Rings movie and some clothes. I really love the LOTR movies, so I will enjoy being able to watch that when I have time.

So today I am working, then this afternoon I will be taking the High School Students to see Narnia. This coming weekend I have a New Year's Eve party with the Students at our pastor's family's house.

Ending and beginning and somewhere else

Well I am facing a 7-minute wait until my thirty-second (32nd) birthday. I haven't really thought at all about my birthday.

The year ends with this week, I am facing forward into a new year.

I just finished my last drawing class for the year. I am looking back at one year of running the weekly life drawing class at CoCoA, which has been a success, and which I end with the class being in better shape than when I took over.

I am resigning from CoCoA due to some changes in my life that will cause fewer evenings to be free, so I need to step away from other evening responsibilities. January will mark my last official month as the assistant director.

I will miss the relationships I have built over the past year. I wish I could stay as engaged with folks from class as I want to, but I know that will not be a realistic possibility.

My drawing has improved significantly this year and the prospect of not committing a 3-hour window of time every week to drawing feels discouraging. I know I will regress without constant practice.

I have a friend who has just finalized a divorce in the past week, seeing the end of a 6 (or so) year marriage.

I will be redefining my business pretty dramatically in the new year, the details of which I cannot yet divulge.

This coming year will mark 10 years of marriage, which is going well - but I think could certainly stand more of my attention.

My oldest daughter will be 6 in less than a month. I have a brand new baby daughter and a son in the middle who has more energy than all of the rest of us combined.

Our country feels less familiar to me as I look forward into the new year. People seem to think less and less alike, and what feels comfortable and safe is being challenged and upset left and right. Politics are so crazy and messed up right now I don't know how to feel from day to day.

I feel ready to see new things, I feel mostly unafraid of what I don't know. I feel happy for blessings in my life, my family, my church. I feel sad for friends who I know are tired and hurting right now.

I long for close friends who will reach out and touch me and tell me they love me and laugh and cry with me.

I want to be better to my family. To spend more time with my kids, to invest more in blessing Nancy and telling her how wonderful she is.

I want to spend less time investing in business and more time investing in people.

Hey, look at that, I'm 32 now...

Christmas Upon Us

Well we're T-Minus 6 days and counting until flying-reindeer season officially opens. Our kids are all excited for Christmas morning, many family members are en-route for the big holiday, and we can't find a Christmas goose for my dad, so turkey will have to do.

Our little church, as it has done for 36 or so Christmases before, put on the living nativity this past weekend. I stood in the single-digit air for 2 nights serving hot chocolate and tending the fire as visitors came to warm themselves during breaks between shows.

In spite of the great weekend our church is having a rough month. About a month ago, the youth pastor gave his resignation. It was not a voluntary resignation.

Our church has been dealing with factions forming along loyalty to the youth pastor versus loyalty to the church body. It feels as though those aligning with the youth pastor are generating some pretty awful sentiments toward the church council. I have taken the path of accepting the council's decision and believing that they want what's best for our congregation.

I admit that I am not close with the former youth pastor, so his leaving will not hit me in the same way that it has hit many of our members. That said, some of the things that have started to rumour their way around the church are completely destructive and have gone too far.

I have confidence that our church will survive this difficulty, but it is not pleasant right now.

Work has been very busy lately. I have projects coming in from every angle right now and am struggling to keep my head above water. I hope that the holiday week is not lost to work. I have family in town that I really want to spend time with, so it would be a big disappointment if I missed them while they were here.

That is my life right now.

I'm so grateful for it.

Just for Jackie.... Cute Overload! ;)

Cute Overload! ;)

Suffering for Art

We returned home from a trip to Avon Colorado this weekend. We had fun visiting with Nancy's folks. We didn't ski, we shopped a little, watched a good amount of TV and just relaxed.

After we put the kids to bed, I came downstairs to check my email and I heard the faint sound of water running.

I looked all around inside the house and couldn't find anything.

As a last option I stuck my head out the back door of the garage and encountered this beauty. It's about 7 feet tall and weighs many hundreds of pounds.

After digging around for a while I found how to shut it off. When I blew out the sprinklers this fall, I failed to drain the 6 feet [or so] of copper line going from the main to the sprinkler system, and the portion of the pipe that was just outside the wall froze and burst, creating this ice sculpture. I don't know how many days this has been running. We were out of town since around noon on Friday, and I don't know if it had started before we left or not (it's been so cold that I haven't gone outside without a very good reason).

Tomorrow I'm calling the city to see what our water bill is, then I'll try and defrost this thing so it doesn't damage our house.

WHEE!

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