Summer Camp - Rock Mountain

For those of you who care you can find Alinea & Jacob in this video at these place:

.47 - Jake's Bed in his tepee
1.46 - Alinea's back - putting clothes pins on counselor's shirt - right corner
2:15 - Jacob
3:51 - Jacob playing soccer (he's the white shirt w/ the ball)
4:04 - Jacob
4:11 - Jacob - yellow shirt
4:21 - Jacob - rocket launch - yellow shirt
4:30 - Alinea's next to the person launching the ball
5:48 - Alinea's knee in the pretty skirt
6:00 - Jacob reading his bible
6:13 - Alinea's hair in the back row
6:39 - Jake serves himself some bacon

It was an amazing first camp experience for both of them and it's so wonderful to have these memories captured for them here.

Happy New Year!

2007!

What a year of opportunity!

Can't wait to see what unfolds. Pray you had a wonderful holiday celebration! We sure did!

My Christmas Traditions by Alinea

My Christmas traditions go like this...

1. On Christmas Eve I open 1 present. I open pajamas or an ornament. No toys! The best for last I guess, or the best for Christmas morning.

2. On Christmas morning I wake up (I'm an early riser) probably no one is awake yet! If no one is awake I have to wait and wait and wait. Staring at the presents does not make it easier to wait!

3. Finally someone wakes up! It is my brother Jake. Then my parents wake up! Time to open presents.

4. After that my parents go to get the camera to take pictures of our faces when we see our gifts. I stick my hand in my stocking and usually there is candy, small activity books or small gifts.

5. After presents we eat breakfast and light the last candle on the Advent Wreath. My Christmas is probably not the same as yours but it is Christmas.

(Red)emption & World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day. Does it matter? How does it affect our families?

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

One of the ways we can help is to give to a project called (Red)emption that a good friend of mine is putting together.

You can read more about it here:

(Red)emption

Alinea, Jacob, Keith & I all feel that this is God's heart for the nations. Please contribute if you are able. It's only $10.00, but together we can change the world.

We are the people we've been waiting for!

Happy Halloween!

MMMMMMM Minti!

I have found a wonderful family site full of advice, interaction and fun. Just for families. You can get and give advice, get to know other families in your area and really create an online community of support. And don't we know we can all use a bit of support!

You can find it here:

Minti.com

Alinea

When I was pregnant with our daughter Keith and I had many disagreements about what we should name her. During our eigth month of pregnancy I was reading the Dragon King series by Stephen Lawhead and came across his beautiful, noble queen with the long red hair named Alinea - I fell in love with it immediately. It suits her beautifully and the other day she asked me what it meant. I had forgotten so today I searched for the answer again.

I had written Stephen Lawhead years ago asking if he had the meaning of her name and this was the answer from his website:

Q: We named our daugher after Queen Alinea. Can you give me a meaning to the name, or any history you may have on it?

Q: I am now pregnant and knew from the first time I read the name 'Queen Alinea' this would be the name of my daughter. I am hoping you can tell me what Alinea means, as it will mean very much to me and my daughter when one day she is able to read the series.

A: Most of the names in the DRAGON KING books are medieval names, or older forms of common modern names. The name "Alinea" is a very old name of Germanic origin derived from the popular 12th Century "Adeline," which derives in turn from the old word "athal" which means: noble. It was a name given not only to women of royal birth, but women of sterling character.

Happy Canada Day, eh

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies - WikiHow

Here's a wiki How-To I wrote that might help this time of year:

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies - WikiHow

Field Trip!

 

Moving, Moving, Moving

It's been far too long since I've updated here - but we've been SO busy getting ready for a more permanent living space. We officially move on Saturday into our new home. It's the top 2 floors of a large home and will be really good space for us. We've had access to it for the past couple of weeks and have gotten it move in ready. Alinea's room is bright green - we call it electric celery - and we're using a couple shades of pink and lots of butterflies to decorate. It's really come together beautifully. She is giddy every time she walks in there. I am so thrilled we've been able to fulfill this promise to them and give them the bedrooms they have dreamed about.

Jacob's room is a castle theme - we're having to make more of his things, so some of it will have to wait until we're moved in - but he's got a throne, and dragons, shields and swords - and he's very excited to have a space that is fit 'for a king'! (well, at least a prince or knight!)

We've done lots of painting and prep work for the move and now there are just a couple of tiny things to tie up and then the work of getting the stuff 'here' to 'there' - it's just 11 addresses down the street and I joked with friends that if I had access to four shopping carts we'd each be wheeling them down the street! The kids are so relieved we didn't! HA!

I'll post pictures as soon as we get furniture in.

Please pray if you think of us - we do the big move on Saturday. I'm on my second round of antibiotics for bronchitis and I'd really like to be returned to full health soon! Thanks a lot!

Squirt!

Ali & Jake cool off with a squirt gun fight

 

It was a good friday

Grieving and loss was such a big part of this past year for us that forcing ourselves to be sad on such a beautiful day seemed wrong. So we decided to celebrate life instead. We think God will understand.

We headed to one of our new favorite places St. Andrews by the Sea to beach comb and fly kites. We also got there right at high tide and watched it receed to expose the starfish and anenome(s?) on the wharf - it was a Good Friday indeed!




 

I have never thought of juggling as beautiful before

Beach Combing on Jasper Beach

 

Forward This!

This cartoon is great!

Watch Here!

Happy 8th Birthday Jake!

I can hardly believe our young son is 8 today!

Happy Birthday Buck!

No More Car Seats Yipee!!

How does your garden grow?

We came across this site:

Your virtual garden

So if you're tired of waiting for "the Big Melt" why not use this tool to get your mind off of the ice and slush? it does require a download, but you can then use it to plan how your garden will look, design the ultimate green space, or get all of your greenthumb needs met virtually and not have to do ANY weeding!

Enjoy!

The Great Turner Puffin Search

Well, things are starting to look up on the job front. Keith has been filling in a couple days a week at the university cooking. He's learning lots and enjoying getting to know the student body. He also has been contacted by the local group home and community services to do some one on one work with the high needs/risk teens. It's not full-time work, but it's a start. Thanks for your prayers!

We're meeting new people and making new friends and truly loving the community here. People actually take the time to sit and visit here. It's really a warm, welcoming place.

Ali & Jake have "March Break" the first week in March, so we're hoping some nice weather drops in here so we can take some day trips and see some sites. We're on a puffin hunt (not the killing type of hunt, but the 'ah ha, we've found you' type of search). we know they're around here somewhere - but we're not sure if they migrate and when they return, and where exactly they go - but if they are around here in March we're going to find them!

There's not much left to tell, but wanted to give an update. Hope this finds you well!

Migration

Well, we've moved the family blog here so that Keith can have his "Keep Imagining" name on blogspot - instead of blog.com - they just didn't have any flexibility and the server is so slow... so, we've lost comments - sorry.... please know that they were so special to us and ministered to us!! So, please leave some more at this blog!!

Also, please don't forget to change your bookmarks and rss feeds!!

Thanks!

Oh, and don't forget to keep dropping by Keep Imagining to encourage Keith!!