Article in local Catholic paper about SPO

Great article today about the Saint Paul's Outreach School of the New Evangelization in The Catholic Spirit, the Archdiocesan newspaper for Minneapolis/St. Paul. It features a young college student which many of you know and a good friend of mine, Teresa Looker.

God is moving in powerful ways here in this Archdiocese and in many other pockets of students all over the country.

http://thecatholicspirit.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=2312&SectionID=37&SubSectionID=&S=1"e

Swimming in the River and Picking Apples

On my day off today, Jill and I and the boys made our way to Afton State Park and to Afton Apple Orchard. Located just 25 minutes from our home, we were able to spend the day hiking, swimming, and picking apples. What a blast. Days like this were one of the reasons we were so excited about moving here to MN. The first 8 or 9 pics were of our hike at Afton State Park and of our swim in the St. Croix River. The river separates Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The last two pics were from Afton Apple Orchard.








Andrew, 6, Christian, 3, Malachi, 2. Adam - not in picture. See below.

Aquarium

2008 SNE

The last ten days have been amazing. God is raising up a generation of college students who are fearless and equipped to tell many about the "love of God in Jesus Christ." It is astonishing to see God's transforming love work so powerfully and thoroughly in the lives of His young people. Today, more than ever, it seems God's call to college students to be His soldiers, His laborers, and His witnesses of the Gospel is being heeded by so many.

Some of that "many" were at the annual School of the New Evangelization. There were 141 students from 10 different states, and 4 countries.

338,000 hours dedicated in total. That's 141 participants x 10 days x 24 hrs/day.

Students do want to make a difference and they are willing to sacrifice time and money to advance the Gospel. It is so exciting to be a part of this little movement as it begins to make some ripples and some waves on many campuses across the country.

Caught "gum eyed"

Under the cover of darkness and away from the watchful eye of Mom and Dad, Christian decided (in the backseat of the van) to do more with his gum than chew it. For some reason he thought his gum could double as sunglasses and triple as earrings.

This was quite a sight to behold when we returned from the Mall on Sunday night. Whenever you don't hear much from Christian you often have much to fear. He does more damage with his mouth shut than most can do with their mouths a flappin'.

I have to hand it to him - while he didn't enjoy the icecube removal method - he sure did learn a lesson. I think. Only the next piece of gum will tell. And that one will probably be found on the ground. It's his favorite kind: "Gum'n'dirt"

All we are going to catch today is...

Seaweed.

There are a lot of things I admire about my son, Andrew, but one of the most endearing attitudes he possesses is "never say die." For about a month he has wanted to buy a fishing pole. We have a lake right by our house and apparently there are fish in there. There's a wonderful dock for him to fish off of, and it's all within about 5 minutes walking distance.

Well, Andrew, being the venture capitalist that he is - found a way, not sure exactly how, to secure a $5 kid fishing pole from the Neighbor's garage sale early this morning. So, after untangling the line, gettting fed up untangling the line and finally cutting the line with the scissors, and reassembling the hook, bobber, and sinker - we were off. Andrew, Christian and I were off to the pier with our kiddie fishing poles. Christian has a hand-me-down Scooby Doo fishing pole that Andrew discarded a year ago - after getting the line mercilessly entangled.



And to make a long story short - we arrived at the dock (without any bait mind you or a fishing license) and as soon as Andrew attempts to cast his line into the water - SNAP! Something caught on something which got knotted up with something else and before you know off into the water flies the bobber, hook, and sinker. Bummer. The line snapped as did all of Andrew's hopes for a great fishing experience. But never to be dragged to far down in the mire of life's difficulties, Andrew bounced back.

He hoped and prayed and waited for his bobber to drift to the dock, but to no avail it was stuck in the seaweed. (It's the little red ball in the middle of the pic)


And then when that hoping and praying got old he decided to take the issue into his own hand.


He found some bait that he could tie onto the end of his line - a dead little fish that had bellied up next to the dock. (see below - that little thing Andrew is fiddling around with is the dead fish)


Somewhere along the line Christian too had lost his line and decided to join Andrew in looking for dead fish. He found one of his own, but was never able to be as resourceful as Andrew and hook it onto his fishing pole.

I think one of my favorite parts of the day was seeing the other parents with their kids take a look at Andrew and then doubletake when they realized he was using a dead fish as bait. I would just sort of shrug - so as to say "I don't know? This is his deal."

Was our fishing trip a success? Did we catch any fish? I guess it all depends on who you ask.

The Dark Knight freaked me out

Whoa! Saw The Dark Knight this past weekend. Still a little bit haunted.

Heath Ledger might have played the scariest villain ever. Or was that the devil himself? Not sure. It was a film that begged for the dawn to break and after waiting and hoping and waiting and hoping, it never came. Even as all of your pent up nerves were shot as the Joker toyed with one victim after the other, the hoped for dawn never brightened the horizon.

Having said that - Ledger certainly stole the show and his performance alone was worth the price of admission. Not only did he play this role with absolute brilliance, he was one of the first ever "believable" villains in a comic book movie. No cheese. Just a really evil bad guy with no conscience in sight. Just looking for as much mass destruction as possible.

So with this brilliant performance, a "believable" bad guy, and a decent plot - what more can you ask for? Well for me I am looking for, even expecting, that the dawn will finally break, but that never came. Maybe I am getting old or I watch too many episodes of The Berenstain Bears, but I only get the feeling that another villain is being hatched elsewhere as the Joker hangs from the rafters. Evil is never totally vanquished. That's probably how Hollywood studios like it, and to a certain degree I think this movie (in it's darkened state) was an apt portrayal and commentary on the culture of death that surrounds us. Except that in this movie people seemed to be fed up with crime and death (even wanting the vigilante Batman to be brought to justice), which, unfortunately, is a little bit more than we often see around us here in the real world.

As a Christian I now have a new picture of the devil (when I need to conjure one up) and also a greater hope to live for heaven - our promised home that is being prepared for us beyond this "valley of tears." At least I can take that away from this latest superhero movie to weasel money out of my pocket (on opening night of all nights).