Can't talk right now...busy playing with my new Galaxy S "smartphone". So much nicer than my old "stupid" phone...

Christmas Shoes

Is it wrong that I can't stand the song "Christmas Shoes"? If you have never heard it, it's a song about a man in a line up at a store, and there is a poor, unkempt boy in line ahead of him. The boy has a pair of womens shoes that he wants to buy for his momma. See, she is sick, and is going to die soon. So he wants to get her this nice pair of shoes before she dies, so she looks good when she meets Jesus. The problem is the boy doesn't have enough money for the shoes, so he looks at the man and pleads for help. Man helps, writes a song about it and there you go.

You know, it doesn't sound so bad when I try to explain it to you, internet. But why is it when it gets put to a melody, it makes me feel a bit like throwing up. I don't know. Is there something wrong with me that this song doesn't just make me want to cry with sadness for this boy? Am I just a bit cold hearted that the strings of my heart don't melt with a tear that this boy wants to do something so nice for his momma, but can't, and then this nice man helps him out and discovers the true meaning of Christmas at the same time?

Of course the kids love this song, ever since they watched the movie. Yes, internet, someone created a movie based on this song. And now, when it comes on, the kids sing it at the top of their little singing voices for all to hear. In the immortal words of Charlie Brown - Aaargh! (now there is a Christmas movie getting all teary over)

linking up

I just added a link to a blog that Vanessa and I have been reading for about a month now. It's called "stuff christians like" by Jon Acuff. Not sure if you have heard of him or not, but he's funny nonetheless.

Sunday updates

This past week has been super busy. A couple of night shifts on the ambulance at UBC started the week off. I don't really understand the purpose of a 14 hour shift, but there are many things that I don't understand about BCAS. I have spent a good portion of the minimal free time I've had this week trying to re-equip our computer after having to strip it of all of it's info due to a virus we picked up. The programs got back to 2005 basics, and most of our info was wiped. I managed to save some of the pics pre-wipe, which is kind of nice. I haven't been able to get the itunes repopulated from the ipod though, and I'm not sure if I will be able to or not. I think there is some sort of security feature on there that only lets you upload music that you have purchased from itunes. Most of our close to 1000 songs were from cd's though, so I will need to do some research on how to make that work.
We have a laptop now too, which makes dual-computering at home a bit easier now. The sore throat that I thought I had kicked from 2 weeks ago came roaring back last night at work, and I almost lost my voice. Trying to keep quiet today to make sure it is ready for work again tomorrow.
Christmas is fast approaching, and thanks to my amazing wife, we are almost totally ready for it. Hoo-ray! We are heading out to the annual Christmas Dessert Theatre tonight, which should be awesome. My brother is performing in it this year, and I am excited to see what his first on-stage performance will look like. Time for a rest now before the next busy week starts up.

snow day!

Um, picture day came and went. Life got busy, and then I got sick. Then it snowed!

I have a video that I have been trying to upload of the kids playing in the snow, but for some reason it seems to be fighting with me. We made a small snow ramp at the top of the small hill in the front yard, and the kids spent almost 2 hours sliding down over and over again. Even after so many years of having kids, it still amazes me how sometimes the most simple things can entertain for so long when you are a kid. A grown up would have looked at this ramp and hill and surely scoffed, and muttered how it wasn't much of a hill at all to be sledding on. It was cool to be reminded of the innocence of children that Jesus must have been referring to when he speaks of them so fondly.

Picture day

This is it. The last day of calm before the flurry of work, ambulance shifts and more work. Packed in throughout will also have to be studying for a class 4 license and the ensuing tests involved. Also, the application for paramedic license testing, and month worth of studying that will be involved in getting ready for that exam. Oh, lets not forget the Christmas season creeping up on us too (It's almost November!)
Let the calm begin...after we finish getting 4 kids ready for school and school picture day, and drop them off at said school*.


*yes, we still homeschool. The school that we are registered with has a resource class on Fridays, and they are doing picture day today. Hoo-ray!

question time

Hey Internet world, I was just wondering. Is it weird to order a pair of glasses with no prescription, just to have a cool pair of glasses? How about when it is a special offer that clearly contacts has, and the glasses are free? Does that take the weird factor down at all?

And how is it that for two weeks in a row, we missed garbage day?!?

turkey surfing

I was just doing a bit of surfing while I cook up the turkey bones in to some stock (which there is much debate on whether it will turn out or not, because it is my first time trying it and I didn't do any research on the subject). Anyhow, this link here is a good example of what Vanessa and I have had quite a few discussions about in regards to how we live our life. So, check it out and have a read, it will only take you a couple of minutes.

Turkey Day Off

I have been anxiously awaiting my next shifts on the ambulance. It's been almost 2 weeks though, and nothing new scheduled. Hopefully I can get something scheduled this week for next, and be done with it. That would mean that I have to get my application ready for my license, get my application ready for BCAS for when I get my license, and get my class 4 so I can drive the bus. That is the one thing that I will not be allowed to do on my practicum shifts, is drive the bus. I am pretty excited for the day I get to, when I can flip the lights and sirens on and scream down the road. (I actually started smiling at that thought)

We had thanksgiving dinner here at our house last night, and I think it went pretty well. We had a total of 17 people here, cause #18 was home sick. I dropped some food off for him, then came home to the madhouse. It actually went pretty smooth, everyone brought something tasty to eat so the work was spread out a bit. We moved a couch out to the carport, a chair in the back yard, and left the kids in the kitchen to eat while the adults filled the living room. It was a night full of learning too, as we all learned that when you cook a turkey "upside down" (the breast down instead of the top), the white meat stays very moist. Totally intentional on my part...yeah...

Today we have a mound of turkey in the fridge, and a full day off of work and school for everyone. Not sure what to do with either of those things, but will hopefully figure it out soon.

Sept-ober?

whoa! what happened to September? It seems that it has run away from me and left me holding nothing but October. Not that I have a big issue with October. It is usually decent to me, and the changing color of the leaves on the trees that accompanies it is quite pretty. It's just that September and I seemed to be getting along pretty well this year, with the sun and the warm and all that. Next thing you know, I blinked, and September was gone.

8 of 12 Practicum shifts are done now. I have still yet to be allowed to ride up in the front of the ambulance, I am excited for the day that I get hired and don't have to bounce around in the back every single time we drive somewhere. It is pretty exciting though, and although most of the calls that I have attended so far have not been emergencies, the couple that actually were emergencies were pretty neat to be a part of. I don't know how it will feel without the safety net of the preceptor there backing me up if I need them or miss something, but since I have 4 more shifts to practice with one there I won't worry about that yet.

ruminations

The dreaded "Back to school week" is over. After the first couple days of getting used to the routine of school work again, the kids have resigned themselves to having to "learn" everyday. The good news is though, that over the summer the math fairy* came and sprinkled some "math isn't the end of the world and it's actually kind of fun here's how it works" dust on Eleanor. Not only has she done her math without complaint every day this week, she has a) expressed pleasure in it with such comments as "math is fun" and "these questions are so easy" and b) completed two 2 minute speed tests in under the 2 minutes, and achieved 100% on both of them.

The piano curriculum that we got for the kids is working well. After one lesson/workshop, the kids have been practicing and are almost ready to move on to the next lesson. In one week we have accomplished more that what I tried to teach all of last year. They are enjoying it, and it's a great teaching moment for me to use when they get frustrated that they can't get it perfect.

I'm off to Awana now, helping with the cubbies this year instead of leading it, which should be good for everyone.

*I know there is no "magic" fairy for math and anything else. The glory of Eleanor and math becoming "bff's" can only be attributed to God.

who needs sleep?

After a week of working (even though it's half the amount of hours as my managing jobs, it still feels like full days), a 3 hour trip to langley and back, and a mad hatter tea party, it's only just beginning! Friday morning, and the weekend brings with it a couple overnight on-ambulance shifts for me. Of course I found out a short time ago, so there is still some work schedule involved too, which means that I will be leaving for work in an hour, and then returning home tomorrow morning around 7am for a nap. Then back to the ambulance for another all nighter, followed up by a super exciting good time with Sunday lunch shift at work (gag).

Our friends to the South have delivered their healthy baby boy! Glory to God that momma and Job are doing well. I don't have a pic for you out there, but trust me when I say that he is gorgeous.

ER's & Bars

It has been a week. I managed to finish my last exam free and clear on the first try. I am now officially done the classroom portion of my paramedical training. At least for now. I am sure that in the future there will be some sort of classroom-ing involved, but that is a ways away. For now, I am anxiously awaiting my first of 12 shifts on the ambulance, to put in to practice all that I have learned. I spent last night at the emergency room of Royal Columbian hospital, practicing some of my skills there, but there will be something different about practicing on an ambulance as opposed to in the hospital, where there is all sorts of help ready on a moments notice.

There were some cool things we (3 classmates were there with me) saw last night, and it was interesting to see some actual presentations of conditions that we had learned about in our textbooks for 3 months. On the other hand, it was very sad to see one patient in particular, who got brought in by the flight paramedic team after being struck by a vehicle while walking.

It's a strange balance, between the strange excitement of seeing the trauma team do their job, and learning how we will be a part of it, and knowing that this person is very sick and will likely not ever have the same life again (if any at all).

I also officially have a job. I have a feeling that I will be battling with EI to get them to cover me for the whole 4 weeks that I was job free though. They have issue with the fact that I was in school M-F during the day, and "not available" for full time work. I kindly explained that for two and a half months I was in fact in school, and not only available for full time work, but actually working full time. It's a restaurant business that I am in, and they often deal in evenings and weekends. We'll soon see if EI understands that or not. You would think that after 17 years of full time employment, it wouldn't be a big deal to cover a couple weeks that I wasn't working.

Time for a bike ride with the kids before suiting up for an evening behind the bar of the finest Tuscan Grill in Langley...Coza!

2 down, 1 to go.

Or, 66% done, 33%to go, depending on how you view my last post. So far "final's week" is going well. One more final (the final final? finally the final final to end the final's?) tomorrow, and that is pretty much the end of it. A housekeeping day Friday, and probably monday (for those with remedials) and that's it.

Time to find a job...

3 or 1

3 Final exams coming up this week. I guess technically there is only really one 'final' exam, the other two are precursors to it. Whatever. 3 finals this week, no time to think. Back to the books...

Lamentations 3:22-24

²²It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Every day we are blessed by the Lord's mercies. As we awake every morning, we should remember to thank Him for his saving grace. Our hope lies in Him alone, and in Him alone we have enough.

I'm Back!

Paramedic training started way back in May. Balancing that and a full time job, not to mention a family has made it nearly impossible for me to think about blogging. Why am I blogging now you ask?
It isn't because school has finished, I still have two more weeks of that before I am done. I still have a family too, which is the best part of all. To the thinking man (or lady), there seems to be only one conclusion left as to what has changed that has allowed me the time to begin blogging again.
Yes, it's true, I am officially finished at the Original Joe's. The restaurant that I spent so much time and effort trying to get with and I have officially broken up. We are no longer seeing each other. Why you ask? Well it seems that OJ's wasn't happy with the amount of time that I was spending with it. Actually, more accurately, it wasn't happy with the potential lack of amount of time I would be spending with it. According to OJ's, it was anticipating that I wouldn't be able to meet it's needs after I start working part time as a paramedic, and wanted someone more committed to it.
I was kind of shocked and surprised, because I thought we had a pretty decent relationship going, but these things happen. There is a new love in OJ's life, and I guess they have more time and energy to put in to it.
The good news for me is that the relationships that I still have in my life (my family, my friends, my God) are all more important to me than what I had going with OJ's. Not to say I didn't care about Oj's, but if I had to choose one of the above to give up it would have been Oj's. Which I guess is part of the reason that I don't work there anymore.
So I have two weeks of school left, and then it will be time to get out there and find some work. Until then, I will be spending my extra time catching up on the relationships that matter the most to me now that I don't have the high maintenance Oj's relationship draining on me.

signs of spring

My beautiful wife pointed out to me the other day a sad point that spring is here and summer is coming. She noticed some young girls walking down the street, and noticed that they forgot to put pants or a skirt on, and only had a long t-shirt on. Definitely a sign that spring is here.

get outta my restaurant

NO! Bacon Bits are in fact, NOT supposed to be soy. They are supposed to be BACON! Just because the grocery stores carry products that substitute real food with processed almost food, doesn't mean that when you go to a restaurant and it says "bacon bits" in the menu that you will be getting a soy product. It means you will be getting BACON. And if you are a vegetarian, and have an issue with mean, maybe YOU SHOULD ASK WHICH ONE WE USE FIRST!

And at the very least, if you have made an error by not realizing the above, DO NOT freak out on us like we have done something wrong by calling our bacon product bacon!

rapid fire updates

-One day, Eleanor will look back at today and laugh. One day, but probably not today. What will she laugh at you say? Well, upon getting her toothbrush ready in the bathroom this morning, she thought it would be lovely to sit upon the toilet to do the work-all the while thinking the lid was down, providing an easy seating solution. Turns out, the lid was up. As was the seat. Which left only the bowl of water to catch her bottom. Like I said, one day she will laugh at this, but not today.

-Paramedic academy starts May 10th. It will take a lot of effort and energy on my part to get school and work done, and a lot of help from He who guides me.

-I find that every year when our wedding anniversary comes around I end up bragging to everyone that I meet how awesome my wife is, and how lucky I am to have ended up marrying her at the fresh young age of 21. I also reflect back on how young and naive we really were, and marvel at how God has worked in our lives to lead us to where we are today.

-We are heading south in two weeks for a homeschooling conference. I am not really sure what to expect from it, but I am quite excited to see what God will teach us, and to see our friends the Messengers that are going to be there too.

ok, no video from the restaurant, I had too many challenges trying to post it, and then I gave up.

Now, I'm super busy. I know, know, I say it all the time. But now I have good reason to. Out of the blue, the JIBC called me and informed me that there is a class that starts in May for the paramedic program. If I want it, I'm in. If I don't, I have to re-apply, which would take much time, effort, money and time.

So, after a brief time to reflect, we decided to jump on this opportunity. Not sure how I will fit everything in, or how it will look, but I am trusting that God has put this opportunity in front of me and will provide what I need to get it done.

coming soon

Stay tuned...tomorrow I will be posting the security camera video of everyone in my restaurant losing their top when Sydney Crosby scored in overtime, winning Canada the Gold Medal in Mens Hockey!

days off work are great

We survived our trip to the madness that is Vancouver, all is well. We hit the skytrain, after driving in a muddy parking lot for 10 minutes trying to find a spot to park. If I knew ahead of time that my Cavalier would be making a trek through a bog, I might have changed my mind on whether it was a good idea or not. Now, my car looks like a pick up that has been driving in the bush all weekend.
The Skytrain wasn't that busy on the way down, at least until we hit the beginning of the Olympic venues. Then it got packed, but never uncomfortable.
Once we got off the train, people were everywhere (really? you don't say...?) which was really cool. It was such a positive and happy vibe going on in the city it was hard not to be excited. We ended up at Robson square and found out the skating on the outdoor rink was still 2 hours away. We pretty much just mulled around,


walking up and down Robson to kill some time amongst the throngs of people. And had a Starbucks.

When it was time for skating, this happened:


If you are not a fan of Canadian figure skating, you won't know that what we have here is the Gold Medal winning (2002) Pairs Figure Skating Champions Jamie Sale & David Pelletier posing for the kids! We went on the ice to skate, and they followed (along with what seemed to be 2000 other people. I think it was actually 80).

It was pretty cool, they were doing spins and lifts, picking up kids and doing it to them too. Lots of smiles all around.

After skating, it was time to head home. I'll leave the story at that, as it takes a bit of a nosedive once we reached the surrey end of the skytrain and had to get back to the car, which was still in the middle of a bog.

westward bound

The great debate if we will be busy at work or not seems to be weighing to the side of not. Even for the mens hockey, team Canada played last night, and it was very much not busy. It picked up a little after the game, but it looks like the Olympics are bad for business in South Surrey.

So, I have taken today off of work. I could fight the Olympic power, rail against it and how it is hurting business...or I can take the family down to Robson square and try and hit up the outdoor skating rink in the glorious sunshine. This is most likely the only time in our lives that we will be a part of the Olympics, especially in our home town. Who knows if there is a trip in our future to see them somewhere else, but if I was a betting man, I would bet that that probably won't ever happen. Because of this, we are going to brave the skytrain and ride downtown to the crowds. I am expecting it to be an exciting day, full of adventure and culture from around the world.

If nothing else, we will get to spend the day together as a family. In the sun. God is Wonderful, isn't He?

It's been a busy couple weeks for me. I am down to 6 days a week at work, but my day off keeps me quite busy with church in the morning and awana at night. The light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter though, as I just had a part time person open up his hours to full time, and will be able to get me a second day off.

The Olympics start today, and I am unsure of what will happen at the restaurant. Will we see more traffic of visitors? Will lots of regulars and locals stay close to home and come by? Will people come out to watch the bobsleigh?

God says that children are a blessing, and when I see how much progress they are making in their math, or how amazed they are at our solar system, or hear how much eleanor loves pickling beets with her momma, or when I see the kids riding their bikes in the cul-de-sac (and eleanor tying up her 'horse' with string before coming inside) I am constantly reminded of that. Some people wonder how I can work so much and not just sleep with my time off. They obviously don't know how blessed I am to have these kids to spend time with. It also helps that I have an amazing wife to keep things together at home.

back online

So we moved, and true to form Telus again displayed a lack of customer focus. Almost 3 weeks after we moved, we finally have our TV/Internet/Telephone hooked up. And I am pretty sure we will still be billed for the 3 weeks of no service since we moved.

Moving on from that, life is good. God has blessed us with an amazing house to live in, in a great location. We hadn't really planned on living in the area that we do, but as things turned to chaos around moving day when the other house fell through, God placed this one in our laps and all is well. We had a battalion of friends and family come and help us move while I was busy at work, and we have spent (by we, I mean mostly my wonderful wife) a lot of time putting things back together here.

Ah, as I type this the internet/tv connection just timed out for about 3 minutes. How I love Telus service...oh the day when our contract is over.

Ok, time to get ready for dinner. But before I go, a big ol' congratulations to our friends the Messengers. Their family is going to grow again! We wish you all the best, and I have to say that we are more than looking forward to April when the district conference brings us back to Goldendale.