Cracking the Parental System of Encryption

Like all parents, we spell words when we don't want Grace to understand what we're talking about. It has always flied over her head. But since she is studying her letters at kindergarten, she's drawing associations now. Yesterday when I spelled a word out loud, Grace was indignant. "I can't understand what you're saying when you spell it," she complained. So our system of encryption is going to collapse; the writing is on the wall. Grace is now aware that her parents employ subterfuge, and she will soon unlock the secrets of spelling. And of course we can't come up with another system, since Grace is a language sponge and learns language much faster than we do.

Tigger and Tiger

Halloween is just another excuse for cute photos. Here's Tigger and Tiger. Tigger is feeling sick and not very smiley these days, so this is about the best smile he can muster.



Tigger and Tiger went trick-or-treating through the seminary apartments, up and down flights of stairs until Aimee cried "uncle." They met up with some of the other families and they all went together in one large pack of adults and miscellaneous animals.

Happy Halloween

(Pictures taken at Zoo Boo at the Como Park Zoo.)

This One's for Eric

I'm not sure where Aimee and I went wrong in our parenting (there are many possibilities), but regardless, I'm disappointed to say that Grace has joined the Empire:

Learning Her Letters

Grace is learning her letters in Kindergarten. She also loves drawing - here's a sample of her latest work, "Portrait of a P":

The Struggling Leaves of Autumn

As we walked to the coffee shop on this sunny Autumn morning, Grace got very excited and shouted, "Daddy - look! Those leaves are going to fall." And sure enough, it looked exactly like the leaves were struggling to free themselves from the tree like caterpillars from a cocoon.

It's Moving Time

For a temporary few days, we have 3 apartments (the new apartment, the one we're moving out of, and the apartment where most of our stuff is sitting in boxes). I think that must be an unofficial Luther Seminary Housing record.

Pastor Jami is visiting and staying with us for a wedding. Two other friends are visiting Luther Seminary this weekend, too. All together there are 13 members of Gift of Grace in the Twin Cities this weekend, so we're just going to call it Gift of Grace East.

Apartment Update

We just got word that our apartment is going to be ready on Friday, October 26.  Pastor Jami is in town this weekend for a wedding, and he is staying with us, so this is good timing.  It would be awkward with him joining all of us in the family bed.

 

Nelson

 

Weekend Highlights

Here is some footage I took yesterday and today of the kids.

Apple Jack Orchards

Whereas in Washington we went on an annual pilgrimage to the Pumpkin Patch, in Minnesota we pilgrimaged instead to an Apple Orchard.



We sat Holden down on an Alaska-sized pumpkin.


Grace joined him.


And then Aimee had to join in the fun.


Here is Grace on the cow-ride, in a string of cow cars being towed by a tractor.


We had a fun afternoon wandering in apple orchards, eating, walking the corn maze, petting farm animals; and to dispel anyone's illusions of an idyllic family after all these cute photos, since we returned to our apartment we have been rewarded with nonstop whining and complaining.

Tuesday

From the Onion's lead story today: "Tuesday's arrival stunned a nation still recovering from Monday's nightmarish slog, leaving some to wonder if the week was ever going to end."

So --- Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Scenes from the Weekend

Aimee was studying for much of the weekend. We still managed to get some pizza and some mediterranean food as a family. The rest of the weekend, the kids were with Dad at home and visiting the Como park and zoo:

A short story by Grace and Aimee...

"A pig escaped from its cage. The pig's farmer came running and
said, "Where is that pig?" Back in the cage the piglets cried and
cried. They were hungry for mother's milk and their eyes were
dripping down and the horse comes wailing, "Stop!" The farmer's blue-
eyed daughter gently cradled the piglets in her tender embrace. His
other daughter carefully had a ride on a horse out of the cage.
Resentful and regretful, the sow returned to raise her brood."

Late thirties

Today, I have finally stepped out from the latter stages of my mid-
thirties into the early stages of my late-thirties. As to my exact
age, simply multiply 984 by four and divide by two, then subtract the
result from the current year.

Thank you for the warm birthday wishes from each of you.

Apartment Update: November

We will not be moving into our apartment until early November.  Seminary maintenance would like to do some significant work on the apartment, including turning the second kitchen into a closet area.  Since we’ve waited this long, we can wait a little longer.  So we wait and wonder: what is in all those packed boxes that we have been living without for a couple months now?

 

It's Summer in Central MN

That is not technically true, of course.  It’s October.  But in Saint Paul we have seen heat in the 80’s and high humidity for the last few days: shorts and t-shirts weather.  The sort of weather that makes you retreat to air conditioning.  Everyone assures us that it will be cold soon.

 

Nelson

 

Karate Lessons Give Child Self-Confidence To Quit Karate

On second thought, maybe enrolling Grace in Karate Lessons wasn't
such a great idea after all.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/karate_lessons_give_child_self

Grace in Karate/ Self-Defense Class

The poor karate instructor attempting to teach children some basic karate moves and self-defense skills, while at the same time attempting to teach them how to listen and instill a modicum of discipline.