Food and Friends

The day Lacy returned from California, we were able to see two of our friends from Minnesota: Mark and Jenn Johnson. Mark lived in the house where Lacy and I were resident directors for a year of the Urban Cross-Cultural College Consortium. The house was in downtown Minneapolis and in a great location to be the incarnational hands and feet of Jesus to our neighbors around us.
Here is a link to the program we were a part of. U4C

Mark proposed to Jenn while he lived in the house and they got married last August. Jenn's parents live in Colorado Springs and we are super excited that we will be able to see them often. They are both passionate about Christ and we are tremendously blessed by their friendship. They came over to our place and we grilled hambrugers and shared stories from the year we lived together in Minneapolis. We reminisced about Aldi's, our Somali neighbors, and the mice and rats who decided to bunk with us at the house. It was a great night.

Single Parent Week

Last Sunday night, we found out that Lacy's mother was not doing well so Lacy decided to fly out to California the following morning to be with her. We decided it would be best to leave Violet with me since Lacy's mother was in the hospital and Violet would probably be happier if she was at home in her own environment. Lacy's mother is doing a lot better but will be in the hospital for another week or so. Lacy returned home last Thursday.

As a single parent of a two-year old for the week, I picked up a few insights.

1. You just do not eat as much as you normally would. This is because Violet usually wants to eat what you are eating or she wants you to play with her just around the time you want to eat.

2. You feel like you need to get out to see people, even if it is at the park or the mall.

3. Nap time is devoted to cleaning up the mess that Violet made while she was awake, only to repeat the process once she wakes up.

4. At the end of the day, no matter how tired you are, you stay up later after she goes to bed because you just need time alone.

In all seriousness, Violet and I had a great week. Our bond grew stronger and we shared quite a few laughs. I even graduated Violet to her own bed. :) The next time I am a single parent, I will have to find some other mom's in the area and have a playdate. Here are some pictures from the week.










Here are some pictures when I took Violet to the park.







After Violet went on the slide about 50 times, she needed a little rest.

Pulpit Rock

After my shift the other day, it was near 80 degrees and we could not find a pool so we all decided to hike Pulpit Rock. Since it was only a 15 minute drive from where we live, we decided to go for it. It probably was not the best idea to cool off but it was worth the views when we reached the top.

Here is Violet and I on the trail up to the summit.



And here is Lacy and Violet on top of the summit.



Here are some of the spectacular views we saw. The mountain in the background is Pike's Peak.




Those buildings in the distance are part of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. For those who do not already know, I will be attending this university in the fall as I pursue a second career as a high school mathematics teacher. I am pretty pumped. I registered for Discrete Mathematics and Higher-level Geometry on Tuesday.


On the way back to the car, Violet was energized by the spectacular views and was running toward me at full speed. :)

Violet, the girl who did not need sleep

So Violet went down for bed three hours later than usual in the hopes that she would awaken a little bit later. Instead of waking up at her usual time of 5:00am, she woke up at 6:15am. We were hoping for at least a 7:00am wake-up time. :) But alas, she is Violet, the girl who needs no sleep. The girl who looks sleep in the eye and laughs at it. So, if we do the math, she went down three hours later and woke up only about an hour later. We are operating on a two hour deficit here. She does not seem to mind, though. :)

Baskin Robbins

Tonight at Baskin Robbins was 31 cent ice cream scoop night to raise support and awareness for firefighters.

Since Violet has been waking up at 5:00am for the past week and a half, we decided to put her down for two naps instead of one and to keep her up later in the hopes she would sleep in, even it was just for a little longer. So, it was an ideal situation to take her to the 31 cent scoop night. I counted my change and off we went. When we arrived, we could not believe how long the line was. It is amazing how long Americans will wait for cheap or free things. Time truly was money in the Baskin Robbins line tonight.

As I entered the store, the excitement and anticipation of ice cream from all the adults and children alike was disrupted by a disgruntled truck driver who could not get out of the parking lot because someone had parked their SUV right in the middle of the road. The truck driver probably wanted to get home to his family after a long day of driving and this was interrupted by someone who had decided they were entitled to parking where they wished. Although no one claimed to be the owner of the vehicle in line, people would comment to one another, "Even though that is not my SUV parked in the middle of the road, he better not hit my car which is located at so and so..."

In this chaos, I quickly ordered my ice cream and then had the exact change in my hand but panicked after I realized I ordered the ice cream to be in waffle cones, which was an extra 62 cents. Luckily I had bills, but my plan to rid myself of all this loose change ended in utter defeat.

Needless to say, Violet had a GREAT time. As parents, we limit her sweets but in light of keeping her up later in the hopes of her sleeping in, it was well worth it. She really did not know the word, "ice cream" until tonight. Perhaps this is simply an excuse to be able to spoil her as parents. I will let you know what time she wakes in the morning. :)

Denver Aquarium

We recently went to the Denver aquarium as Violet loves fish. She does the best fish face I have seen west of the Mississippi and especially loves Goldfish.

The great thing about Denver is that it is only an hour's drive from Colorado Springs. One of my co-workers used to live in northern California and she was telling me it took her some time to get used to the "big city" of Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs only has a few hundred thousand people. Everyone's perspective can be different based on our own experiences. After moving to Colorado Springs from the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Minnesota, Colorado Springs feels super small. Although Denver metro boasts around 3 million people, I still do not think it is as cosmopolitan as Minneapolis/St. Paul. But it is growing on me. The aquarium was in downtown Denver and here is a shot from the free parking that we stumbled upon.


Violet loves the fish! She could not get close enough!



Lacy and Violet did not seem too concerned over the sharks swimming above their heads.



Perhaps Violet will be a scuba diver when she grows up.


We all had a great time at the Denver aquarium!

A Day of Favorites

I thought I would share a list of my favorite things. The categories today will be top 5 songs, top 5 movies, and top 5 books. These are in no particular order:

Songs:

U2 "With or Without You"
Video here

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova "Falling Slowly"
Video here

Counting Crows "Long December"
Video here

The Verve Pipe "The Freshman"
Video here

Coldplay "Viva La Vida"
Video here

Movies:

Les Miserables
Trailer here

Chocolat
Trailer here

Crash
Trailer here

Slumdog Millionaire
Trailer here

Gandhi
Trailer here


Books:

The Shaping of Things to Come
Reviews here

In the Name of Jesus
Reviews here

Circle Trilogy
Reviews here

Prophetic Imagination
Reviews here

Redwall Series
Reviews here

Shoes and Pools

Violet loves shoes more than anything I know. She is constantly putting her mother's shoes on and even tries to put other shoes over the shoes she is wearing. And she likes the pool. After enjoying 70 degree weather the past few days, Lacy bought her a pool and she loves to go in. She particularly enjoys dropping her toy Noah into the pool to test his swimming ability.

This is her in the pool.





And this is her after the pool, in which she insisted that her shoes be on.

Easter Gatherings

In addition to celebrating the resurrection of Christ and reflecting upon His love, Lacy's two sisters came to Colorado Springs to visit. With Lacy's father and step-mother living in town, one sister stayed with us and the other stayed with Lacy's father. We mostly congregated at Lacy's father's house and it was a blast. I have 5 nephews and 2 nieces on my wife's side of the family. With 8 children, including my sweet Violet, the ages ranged from 19 months to 10 years.

With so many children, germs do abound, and although I do not lay the blame with anyone, I am sick. :) It started with a runny nose, then moved to coughing, exhaustion, and now I am hopefully in the final phase of this thing: diarrhea. And this in addition to all the previous symptoms I just mentioned. As I am about to retire to take another nap, I am still pretty thankful for family. I just wish we all lived closer to each other. And a perk of this would be an amazing immune system.

The Joys of Colorado Weather

Colorado has an interesting weather pattern. It does not stay cold for very long in the fall, winter, or spring. Today it snowed and snowed and snowed. I estimate there was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground. It was a heavy, wet snow, which was good for snowballs and making snowmen. After being cooped up in the house all day, we decided to go out and 35 degrees with the sun actually is not that cold. We saw some neighbors with their children playing in the snow and we joined them. We then decided to go on a trip through the countryside.

A horse came right up to me on the side of the road.





Just four weeks ago, it was 70 degrees and we were hiking in the mountains. Colorado is truly a great place to live if one likes the extreme variations in temperature.