One down, 608 to go…

Well, it was bound to happen… first you get married, then later you have a child(ren), and before you know it your child turns 5 and is ready for school.
It has happened to millions of parents all over the world throughout the ages and now for the first time it has happened to us.

This past week was Aden’s first week of school. Here are a few pictures of Aden’s first day…
Aden was quite tired his first morning of school. He felt like he was waking up in the middle of the night since it was still dark outside.

Aden has been a really good sport about getting dressed and ready for school.

Aden and Cadel are having their favorite breakfast… cereal.

Aden is proudly standing in front of his locker, #6.

Well, here he is. At the desk he will be occupying for the rest of the year.

The first week went really well. There are 11 kids in his class and one teacher, Mrs.Kitchen. Who I have to say is one of the best! The first week consisted of leaning things like the calendar- months and days, holding a pencil correctly, new sounds, identifying numbers, Bible stories (The Good Samaritan and Samuel), crafts and even no school on friday.

Aden has been very excited about this upcoming week. On Tuesday is his gym class and he has been looking forward to wearing his new gym clothes and runners. And of course playing in the gym. On Wednesday is show and tell. Aden would really like to bring his new kitty ‘Yoyo’ (who lives at grandma and grandpa’s house) to show.

This was the first week but it certainly won’t be the last. In fact, if my calculations are correct (or even close), and if we include our other children’s overlapping school careers, we have another 608 weeks to go! Hooray!

A real life snowglobe!

I’m sure you all remember snow globes. You know, that cheesy water-filled globe souvenir thingy that you shake up and then the fake snowflakes flutter around for a second or two.
Well, today that is what we’re living through.
A real life snow globe.
This blizzard we’re currently experiencing has to rank in the top one or two worst that I have ever experienced.
Winds at 80-90 km an hour, lots of snow, and now it’s getting quite cold (-16C and dropping, forecast is -28C) .
Wow! It would be lots of fun if we were at home, but as I write this Aden & Cadel are at Grandma & Grandpa Goertzen’s house for a now two maybe three day sleepover (so they’re having fun), Angela and Aisha are at mom & dad M’s house, and I’m still here at work but hoping to be leaving soon to get to mom & dad M’s so Angela, Aisha and I can make it home together. It’ll be an adventure for a while yet as people around here try to get home so they can hunker down and ride things out.

Father God, I ask you to see that everyone gets home safe. I thank you that your angels surround us as we travel, keeping us safe as well as our fellow travellers. In Jesus name, Amen.

So, wherever you are today, stay safe and warm. God bless.

Update at 7:40pm:
Oh my, that was crazy! This is the worst blizzard I’ve ever seen. The wind is huge. Some people spent 5 or more hours trying to go home in a city where they can normally get home in 20-30 minutes. All of the highways are closed and many roads within the city are closed, including Circle Drive, the major people moving road. For me, I caught a ride to Angela’s parents place and it took us 2.5 hours to get there. It took over two hours to go approx. 2 km’s before we abandoned that route and took a different one, and then it took us about 15 minutes to go the other 10 km. And our trip home from mom & dad’s took us another 20 minutes. But hey, all is well. Thank you God.

Boxers or Briefs?

A few weeks ago I received a visit by two Latter Day Saint missionaries. I didn’t have time to listen to their evangelistic efforts at that time so we agreed that they would come by “later”.

Well, before I knew it “later” came and then there they were, Saturday Dec 30th, ready to talk. Well, I put it off that day because I was taking care of the kids, so they showed up Monday Jan 1st but that didn’t work, so we decided that Tuesday the 2nd would be the day.

So that I wouldn’t be completely blindsided by their religion I took about an hour on the web and looked up a site or two that gave a brief primer on the key points that the LDS church preaches. Although (according to the ex-Mormon site I was on) they don’t teach you the following until after they’ve indoctrinated you more thoroughly, they believe some interesting stuff like…God has a wife, Satan is Jesus’ brother, when a man goes to ‘heaven’ he inherits a planet, although Jesus has forgiven us of sin Mormons wear special temple underwear to protect them from sin… and all kinds of other interesting secret stuff. Well, now that I was armed with a bit of knowledge (and more than a few questions) I was ready for my guests…

The Mormon missionaries came at 7:25pm to share their ‘restored’ gospel of Christ… wow, golden plates that no one has seen since the 1830’s, the Jews being the original inhabitants of the Americas, special angelic visits from God & Jesus, John the Baptist, some dude named Moroni, and 3 apostles,… it all sounded so fantastic! So unbelievable!

So I didn’t believe it.

After their lesson on Joseph Smith, they asked me to pray, with intent, to see if God would reveal to me that this ‘new’ revelation is indeed from God. I agreed to do so. After all if it’s not true nothing will happen, and if it is true won’t God want me to come to this knowledge too? They also gave me a chance to ask a few questions although I didn’t get to ask the one question I really want to know.

I won’t be converting any time soon (actually never) but I do give Elder Arian and Elder Caucasian credit. They were some nice young guys who are doing their two year tour of duty far from home in the usually cold but currently very mild Saskatchewan winter. And they weren’t too pushy, but they did ask if they could pray to start and close our meeting (I chose to do the praying… the idea of giving them permission to pray in my home just seemed creepy).Being evangelized by Mormons was an experience that I probably won’t do again (what’s the point?), but it was interesting.

Now I just have to pray and receive the special revelation from God that these words in the Book of Mormon are true…

(a few minutes later…)

Okay I prayed… no warm fuzzies…no booming voice… no angelic visitors to bear witness.

Maybe when they come to hear about God’s non-answer to my prayer I can ask the question I just have to know… boxers or briefs?