No Fun Allowed!!

Exit Ivory Tower

Well, I finished my two classes last Friday. As I mentioned two posts ago, my missions class rendered me useless in every area of life. So, what have I been doing since last Friday? Actually I have only been doing three things: Sleeping, eating, and catching up on lost time with my bride and son. Simply put, I have done a lot of nothing and I'm not apologizing for it. After completing my courses I vowed to do no reading, writing, or thinking for one full week. As you can see, I am breaking my vow right now, but "Hey, ya can't win em all."

Anyway, I have had an excellent time with my family. My vacation lasts until Monday. Pray that my classes next semester are a bit more reasonable. Also, for those of you out there looking for a class on missions: make sure that the class you take doesn't expect so much out of you that you have no time left for... ummm.... what was it again... oh yeah... MISSIONS! Anyway, I am thankful that I am now freed up to do the most important things--minister to my family, my local church, and the lost in my community.

For those of you who don't know: The helmet James is wearing in the picture is to reshape his head. Because of his inability to hold up his head, and because of all the time he spent at the hospital James got a wicked (New Hampshire word) bad flat spot on the back of his head. The helmet helps reshape the head--he will have to wear it for a couple more months. It smells like a mixture between sweat, vinegar, and cheese. Not all the alcohol swabs in the world can take away the smell--oh well.

Enter Ivory Tower

If you haven't noticed, I haven't written in a while. Right now I am in the heat of battle with my classes at seminary. My "Introduction to World Missions" course has been sucking every spare minute of my life away. I have never had a class that has expected so much work out me. I have literally given up every aspect of my life to merely do the minimal work for the class. I have never had a class that has pulled me away from what is most important (family, ministry, etc.) as this one has. I have been studying from 8 am till 10 pm, Monday through Saturday (Ok, so I don't go straight through: I take a 30 min break for lunch and an hour break for supper). The good thing is that I have learned a lot. But, as a result, I have not been writing much on my blog. This class will be over in less than two weeks--until that time I will not be very regular in my writing. In the meantime I will be putting up pictures of James and stuff like that (I know, thats the main reason most of you come here anyway.)

Please pray for me during these next two weeks. Pray that the Lord would give me supernatural ability to get all of my work done on time--pray that I would produce quality work. Most of all, pray that I would retain it and that it would be useful for ministry in the future. Pray for Kristal as I am not able to help much with James. Pray for Kelly (my mother-in-law) as she is having to pick up where I cannot help.

Also, James is doing really well. Please continue to pray. He is starting to get congested and is throwing up again. We are praying that he is not coming down with RSV again (the doctor said it was a possibility). Aside from all of this, he is really progressing. Kristal has been working with him a lot lately on his motor development. She is such a good mommy.

Anyway, pray for me as I enter my theological ivory tower divorced from the world, family and ministry. I have already been in the tower for a few weeks and cannot wait to get back to normalcy.

Stellar Ornaments!!

Here is a picture of James in front of our HUGE Christmas tree. Last year (Our first Christmas as a married family), Kristal and I started an ornament exchange tradition. It has been a lot of cheap fun. I have posted pictures of all of the ornaments that are presently on our Christmas tree. The tree is sorta bare right now, and will be until we are married long enough to collect adequate ornaments.
I hope you like the ornaments. I am sure that you will not want Kristal or I to pick ornaments for your tree after you see them all--we value humor over asthetic appeal!

WOW! Kristal got this fine specimen for me this year. It takes up about 3/4 of our tree. My wife knows a good ornament when she sees one.

I stumbled upon this beaut in the crafts department in Wal-Mart. It was not made to be an ornament, if you can't tell. Do you like the ornament string--it is gaudily twisted scotch tape. I am confident that Hallmark will soon be calling asking me for future ornament creation advice.

I gave this one to Kristal last year. Actually, I got it for her because I thought it was cool. Every single one of his limbs have been broken at one time or another. Super glue has saved this prince's life.

Kristal got this for me last year--It definitely enhanced the romantic essence of the Christmas season.

This is James' first Christmas ornament from Kristal and I. This also was not created to be an ornament--it is a simple Christmas rubber duckie. I have an eye for ornament potential. I thought Kristal was going to hate it when I brought it home. She didn't! Rather than hating it, she simply poked some holes in it's head and ran a ribbon through to hold it on the tree. This ornament is evidence that we could conquer the world together if we really wanted to.

John and Kelly (the in-laws) gave this to us as a family ornament. Moose are our favorite animal.





Mommy Kristal got this ornament for James. I could never in a billion years buy something this cute. If I got him an ornament, it probably would have been a miniature basketball, hatchet, Greek New Testament ,or soemthing along these lines. Oh well.

And there you have it! Our 2007 Christmas ornament collection. Next year I will add our new ones.