Some pictures from Alaska...enjoy

our home away from home - the m.s. oosterdam

We're back

What an amazing week we had last week on the cruise! I honestly think I need to go on a diet because of so much food that we ate. The scenery in Alaska and British Columbia was beautiful. We had a great time with my parents and sister. We had so many adventures once we were off the boat getting to the hotel. The customer service was amazing on the boat, however once we got off the boat, things did go down hill. I don't want to sound ungrateful because we really did enjoy the vacation. I'll just say things were more interesting once we left the boat.

 

I'll be sharing more stories and hopefully pictures in the days and weeks to come. Hope you're having a great day

The vacation starts tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well tomorrow is the long awaited day Becca and I go on vacation. Our day will start very early in the morning when we get in the taxi at 4:30! L Our flight leaves Grand Rapids at 6 and we’ll be in Seattle by 10:30. I’m excited we have some time to explore Seattle before my parents and sister arrive. We’ll get on the boat on Saturday and the cruise begins! We’ll take lots of pictures and hopefully we’ll be able to share some of them with you when we return. See you in 10 days!

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone in the US enjoys the day today. Hope my friends around the world have a good day too. We are very excited with the trip to Alaska coming up on Friday. It is exciting to look at the weather and the sites around Seattle and other cities will be visiting. We had a scare yesterday as some of flights were changed without the airline letting us know. My plan is to call the airline everyday (except today) to see if anything changes. It is sad I cannot trust the airline to give me the information but I'm over it.

 

That's my story for now. Nothing too exciting around here. What are you up to today?

9 days!!!!!

I was reading a magazine today during lunch and learned how Seattle’s Best Coffee received its name. Many years ago (the number 35 comes to mind) there was a competition amongst coffee companies in Seattle to see who had the best coffee. At that time, this company’s coffee was rated #1 so they changed their name to Seattle’s Best Coffee. They had done their best to maintain this reputation ever since. Perhaps I should find their coffee instead of one of their competitors. Who knows?! J

 

2 weeks and counting!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 weeks from today we will be on vacation in Alaska on our cruise. I am really looking forward to our time away together. I must say the 1^st thing on my list once we arrive in Seattle is to find a latte stand and find coffee. Seattle is a coffee lover’s “Mecca” and I must take advantage of this. Hope you are having a great day! Have a good weekend!

Back From the "Dead"

A friend of mine strongly suggested that I post something on my blog so here I am. I can post by email so that is helpful. Many things have been going on in our lives the past few months. It would take a really long time to catch you up on so we can start again from where we are now. The exciting news is we are waiting for our cruise vacation in July. We’re headed to Alaska with my parents and sister. We’ll be there for a week and it should be very nice! Everyone is telling me it is a very beautiful time of year to go to Alaska. If you have been there, please feel free to comment about your experiences there. More later…

 

Lent update and weekend

I think I've decided what I'm going to "give up" in observance of Lent. I must warn you this is not a traditional item given up for Lent. I've decided that I will stop biting my finger nails. This is something I need to do anyway, however "giving it up" for lent is a good short term goal. Feel free to ask me about this from time to time.

We were in Cleveland this weekend visiting my parents. Spent some time with Mark & Margie on Saturday night. The restaurant where we ate was horrible. I will not put their name on here but I will say we waited close to 10 minutes to be seated and more than 40 minutes for our food (Part of the food we waited on was appetizers that should have been served right away). Suffice it to say, our waitress received about $2 in tips between our two bills which were about $40. I know the waiters and waitresses out there are going to say that they need tips to make a decent hourly wage. I agree with this, however I think tips should be earned and not given (like a lot of things).

Well I better get back to work...

tmsaisti

Lent - What Should I Give Up?

Lent officially starts tomorrow and I'm looking for your input. I have never really observed lent, but I have been thinking about it the past couple of days and I think there are some merits to it. I think sometimes we focus on the celebration part of Easter but miss the preparation part. Lent is that preparation.

One popular part of Lent is giving something up. I don't think I'm going to come anywhere close to sacrificing like Jesus did, but I think giving something up is a good idea. Becca and I talked about this tonight. She is probably going to give up sweets and chocolate. I'm not sure what I'm going to give up. I do not want to give up coffee. I am drinking less each day, but I do not want to give it up altogether. This is where you all come in. Please send me some comments with what you think would be something good to give up. I look forward to reading your feedback.

HELP...I'm trying to sell my PDA

Hello worldwide friends...I need your help. Here is a link to an eBay auction where I am trying to sell my PDA. This is really a good deal. (Yes, I know this is shameless promotion, but work with me.) If you add up the retail value of everything I am selling, it would be more than twice what I am asking for. If you or someone you know is looking for a PDA, please direct them here.

 

Let's join together and get this great PDA sold :) Thanks for your help!

The Second Chance Movie

Hello again everyone. Sorry for the very long silence.

 

Last night Becca and I went to see The Second Chance Movie. I hope many of you were able to see the movie where you live. It seems like this weekend might be a test before they release the movie in more theatres next weekend. I know here in Michigan the movie is only showing in two theatres: Celebration North in Grand Rapids and Cinemark 20 in Grandville. If you are at all able, please go out and support this movie. I will not promise a huge budget blockbuster, but I think it is a good movie. Michael W Smith is the star and he portrays an associate pastor of a suburban church with a ministry to an inner city church. You'll have to watch the movie to learn more. Let me know what you think.

End Of the Spear

I wanted to do my part to get the word out about End Of the Spear. This movie opens in theatres tomorrow January 20th. The movie is the story about 5 missionaries who were martyred in the jungles of Ecuador, attempting to share the Gospel with the Waorani Indian tribe. I am really excited to learn more about this event that has inspired so many to be involved in missions around the world and here in the United States.

 

Will post my thoughts on here when I've seen the movie. Let me know what you think when you have seen it.

Coffee quiz link

Here is a link if you want to do the Coffee quiz below. For some reason, the link wasn't included when I posted it here. Enjoy!

What Kind Of Coffee Are You?

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Does Your Sneeze Reveal About You

I actually could not believe I heard this phrase on the radio this morning. However since reading the article about it, I thought this was too funny not to pass along.

Being good isn't good enough...

The following is an email I received from a missionary friend in Thailand.

 

I just sat down to check my e-mail... I didn't have anything. My eyes caught one of the older guys who is working for us building the water tank and future garage. These people live just down the road from us in make shift homes made out of tin and bamboo. They are construction workers and live like this all their lives. He was taking a break; a well deserved break, and just staring at the tree or something in that direction. I noticed as he was staring, that he has a large tumor on his neck. My guess is that he probably has cancer because he smokes tribal cigarettes and chews who knows what. Unfortunately that is common around here. Anyway, he has those kind of eyes that are soft and tender looking, non-judgmental, and non-condemning. As he stared at whatever he was staring at, the thought ran through my mind of how hard it is sometimes to be here in Thailand among people who have been blinded by our adversary and do not want to hear about the gospel. Yes, they are good people, honest, caring, and quite generous even though they have very little... but that isn't good enough is it. The road is straight and narrow. It demands only one thing. That we confess that we are sinners and by faith we accept the finished work of Jesus Christ... his death, burial and resurrection. This is the only acceptable payment for our sin. It is so simple and yet for the most part Thai people will have nothing to do with it. Not all of them of course. Christ is building His church in Thailand, but the blinders have been put on and most of them don't even know it.  It is hard and yet I know that it is through our lives and the life that we live in Christ that many will be drawn to Him. One of the people (a lady) that was working for us for these past 3 days mentioned to Dave that she would have liked to not work at the other job that they had off from for the New Year celebration, and would like to continue to work for us. "We were so kind", she said. "We were different", she said. Just pray with us that they would one day understand the story of Salvation... the life that WILL set them free.

 

God is doing a work around the world and in Thailand. Matthew 16:18 says "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it" (NIV). This promise of God toward Peter applies to all of us who have called upon His name and accept Him as Saviour. Please pray for this family that God will encourage them as they serve Him.

Happy 2006!

Well this is the long overdue blog entry from the Holidays! Becca and I were with her family on Christmas Day. Wonderful time had by all. On 26 December we went to Ann Arbor to spend time with my family. Ann Arbor was the pre-determined "mid-way" point between Grand Rapids and Cleveland. We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Paesano's. If you are ever in the area, I highly encourage you to check it out and do not forget to bring your credit card with you.

 

The week between Christmas and New Years is a pretty dead week at work so I took as much time off as I could...2 days :( The other bad thing is that I was in the office on both days that I was supposed to take off. I need to reconcile that this week and take another afternoon off I think. We were closed on 2 January which was nice. Becca's work was also closed so we spent the day together. Let me back up to the weekend before New Years.

 

Before we moved into our condo we knew that we would need to replace the toilet seal in the 1/2 bathroom downstairs. This project has gotten away from us, but in light of leaking onto the washer downstairs, this project became an urgent priority. Becca and I went to Home Depot and got a toilet seal (this was a story in and of itself...will post more about it later). On Saturday morning, Becca's mom came over and she and Becca took care of this. I am not the handiest person with house work so I defer to the experts and help out in any way that I can. This policy works very well with Becca and her mom. A few months ago Becca and I purchased a cabinet that sits on top of the toilet for the 1/2 bathroom. Becca and her mom also put this together. In addition to all of this, Becca (with some help from me) painted the 1/2 bathroom so the really horrible pink color is gone. I will post pictures of the bathroom with the new gray color soon.

 

For Christmas, Becca and I bought ourselves a stereo from Target for the living room. After Becca put away the Christmas decorations we put up the stereo. It is certainly very nice to have a stereo in there.

 

We spent New Years Eve night with a family from our church and some other couples. We played some very fun, but interesting games. Got home close to 2am and was at church later that morning at 9:30. Needless to say we both took a nap Sunday afternoon. New Years Day night we were invited to dinner at the Keizers. Spent a lot of time reflecting on the Thailand trip this past June. I really enjoy times like this because it reconnects me to the trip. It feels like it was so long ago that we were in Thailand. We started talking about when the next trip would be and where we might go. Exciting discussions!

Well I'm back at work now. Back to the grind I guess. How was your Christmas and New Years? Does your family have any traditions you do each year?

Christmas Gift

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Spent Christmas Day with Becca's parents and met my parents and sister in Ann Arbor yesterday. Did check out the University of Michigan while we were in town.

 

I would be remiced if I did not mention one of the gifts I received on Christmas. Here is a link so you can see what they look like. Enjoy!

Pistol Packin' Mama

This is a true account recorded in Police Log of Sarasota, Florida. An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and upon returning to her car found 4 males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags, drew her handgun, and proceeded to scream at the top of her voice, "I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of my car!"

The four men didn't want for a second invitation. They got out and run like mad. The lady somewhat shaken then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver's seat. She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition. She tried and tried and then it dawned on her why.

For the same reason she did not understand why there was a football, a frisbee and two 12 packs in the front seat. A few minutes later, she found her own car parked 4 or 5 spaces farther down. She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report her mistake.

The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn't stop laughing. He pointed to the other end of the counter where the 4 pale men were reporting a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than 5 feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun. No charged were filed.

Moral of the story: If you're having a senior moment, make sure it's memorable.

This Year In Pictures

I just looked at the year in pictures 2005 on MSNBC's website. These pictures are amazing. Make sure to look at both Editor's choice and reader's choice. You can cast your ballot for the pictures you like too.