Fun with the Johnsons

Hello,

This is officially my second blog (I'm sure Luke is beaming with pride as he was always hoping that I would become a blogger...oh dear).

To add to Luke's summary of recent events, we spent two days in Whitebear SK where Luke'sparents own a Minigolf/Fruit stand/Petting Zoo/other misc items and participated in the Canada Day parade. We spent the afternoon at the Kenosee Super slides racing Luke's sisters down the slides and also listening to some random comments from Luke's sister Gina(11): "Will some of my freckles fall off eventually?" and "Did you know that cornmeal is made from Beetle eggs?" Gross! All of Luke's sisters are quite entertaining.

Brett also entertained us with some amazing piano pieces before we crashed for the night. Most of them were theme songs to video games (he's a gamer :) but they definitely sound impressive when Brett plays them. Brett also told us lots of funny stories from the group home that he works at.


I also recently attended a Princess Birthday party for one of my little 4 year-old friends. She is quite the cute little girl and she has become my favorite little person here in Caronport. She enjoyed being Snow White for the day and I enjoyed watching her excitement and joy.


I think most of our eventfulness is over for the summer, but I'm looking forward to spending time with friends here in Caronport.

Thats all for now. Enjoy the pictures!

Jenn

Catching Up

It's time to dust off this blog.

This has been one busy year, too busy even for blogging. To make up for lost time, I'll give a quick run-over of the 'goings on' since our last blog --- at Christmas time...

The second semester started with a bang, as Jenn met a mountain of work, helping professors and admin staff get set and running for the winter term. Jenn and I jumped back into school mode, as we both took in week-long classes (hers covering kenisological things, and mine exploring the history of evangelicalism). After that week, Jenn went back to full-time hours in the office (with a UofS online class on the side), and I went back to my busy 7.5 class schedule for the semester. Adding to these things, our social dance classes started up again, and we got involved with leading children's church. I got horribly sick for a month, but thanks to Jenn, I pulled through and actually got everything done on time.

In February, I took part in an intense 5-hour Crockinole tournament. Though I was less than healthy, I ended up in 2nd place. Not bad. In March, I prepared for and taught a Greek Exegesis class as part of my internship. It was on Colossians 1:24-29. (If you ever want to give yourself a headache --- and have fun doing it --- check out the academic discussion on Colossians 1:24. It's the stuff exegetical dreams are made of.) By the time April rolled around, I began to believe that graduating was possible. Way back in January, I contemplated dropping a class or two because I was afraid that the load would be too heavy, but doing so would push my graduation to next year. Definitely didn't want that to happen. So, with many 21 hour work days, and a sprinkling of all-nighters, my last assignment slipped into the box on April 10. What a relief!

Graduation was great. I finished with a BA in Biblical Studies.
My family and some of my best friends came for the event. It's a two-day affair at Briercrest. Day 1 is a banquet for guests, and Day 2 is the commencement ceremony. It was fun/hot/long/good/jubulitory. I was so honored to receive a lot of great gifts for graduating. My parents gave me a very stately bookshelf, my professor/internship supervisor gave me a cornerstone book in Greek studies -- A Greek-English Lexicon by Liddell, Scott, and Jones (a.k.a., "L-S-J", a huge 12 lbs book that will never by a bookend on my shelf!), and Jenn gave me the Nestle-Aland 27th edition of the Greek New Testament, and the Biblical Hebraica Stuggartensia (standard edition of the Hebrew Old Testament), the two texts which are the basis for all our modern English translations. So, I think that the biggest revelation I've had this year is that I'm a nerd, and I'm in for the long-haul...

For the summer, I got back on the Grounds Crew, and Jenn will continue her job right through the summer and into next year. We joined a softball team that won sometimes, but had a great time all the time.

For our anniversary, we snuck off to Field, BC, which is in Yoho National Park, 40 minutes from Banff. We stayed in a rustic, hand-built cabin, and explored nature for 3 days. We found some awesome waterfalls, some interesting rock features, and hiked around a lake. Jenn saw a black pig--I mean 'bear'... but who can tell the difference?

In early June we went to the opposite end of the continent, to Montreal, to visit Jenn's family. It was a great time of relaxation. We got to visit Jenn's grandpa Joel in Ottawa, which was great for me since I hadn't met him before, and even better for the family since Joel's health isn't what it used to be.

In mid-June we returned home to Caronport, and got back to working. Our days are filled now with grateful leisure as we reflect on all the good things God's given us, like good friends and nice weather, and just enough money, and good shows like "Chuck." Tomorrow we head out to White Bear to visit my brother and his girlfriend and Ogy, and the rest of the summer is splattered with weddings, camping weekends, and dreams about which graduate school is best.

That's it. I hope you're satisfied, Internet. Stay tuned for more, which will hopefully come about before another seven months goes by.

Take care out there.

Luke

Merry Christmas!

There is nothing more festive than sleeping in, playing Risk (and being severely trounced!), tank wars, drinking coffee, listening to some festive music, and simply relaxing! The last week has been pretty busy for Luke and I, but we've managed to sneak in some quality goofing-around time (not too hard if you're married to Luke). We're both on the brink of a busy semester: Luke with his 6 and a half classes and part-time job and me with my 2 classes and full-time job (did we really sign our selves up for all of this? :). I hope you all get a chance to sneak some Tank-Wars (computer game) or some other relaxing activities into your busy lives!

See you on the the other side of the holidays!

-Jenn

Christmas Musical, and a Musical Christmas

Our visit with my family was quite the "musical" one this year. We took in Briercrest's Christmas Musical, "Garret's Gift," which was amazing! The singing was phenomenal, and the story was really great as well. I'm impressed that the whole thing was an original, from the script to the song lyrics and musical arrangement. Though we slipped in 10 minutes late (as it an inescapable family custom), we really enjoyed ourselves.

Perhaps more significantly is the other aspect to this "musical" early-Christmas of ours. Jenn has wanted a keyboard for a long time, but it's one of those things that can't easily fit into a student's budget. Though we weren't officially exchanging presents during this visit, my parents brought in a couple of gifts. One of them was a music stand and a pedal. "What good are these?" we wondered. But then, with the same hesitant realization of a sixteen-year-old whose dad just gave a set of keys, we asked, "So... does this mean...?" Dad and I went out to the van, and sure enough, resting beneath the luggage, was the keyboard. We brought it in, and Jenn could hardly contain her excitement!

Because of its frostiness (as seen in the picture above), we had to wait a good hour before plugging it in. This is probably the best gift we could have received. The rest of the night was spent singing carols, and "make-fun-of-you" songs about Lacey's cellphone... We are now nicely equipped for plenty more musical Christmases.

Christmas Isn't Complete Without Toxic Pie

Christmas came early for Jenn and I this year. My family is heading to La Paz, Mexico for two months, and will be gone during the "real" Christmas, so they stopped in for about 40 hours on their way west and then south.

It wasn't your average family visit (or maybe it was... family things tend to be a little odd). By the end of the night, we were all convinced that our apartment was haunted! First, while playing some card games, the glass coffee table in the middle of the room cracked and broke without anyone leaning on it! Next, about half an hour later, we heard some clattering in the kitchen. When I checked it out, the margarine had somehow bumped the refrigerator door open, and had tumbled to the floor. The fridge had been closed for hours, so it was odd that it should burst open all of a sudden. Finally, our pies acted strangely as they finished baking. I always make the crusts, and Jenn always fills them. Usually there are no problems with this process. We've made, baked, and eaten plenty of pies since living here. But for some reason, when these particular pies were baking, all of our eyes started watering. When Jenn looked into the oven, the pie crust was dripping, and the drips burst into flame when they fell onto the element on the bottom of the oven! Jenn exclaimed, "It's like something toxic is in them!" After going over the ingredients, I realized the only oddity was that I used tap water instead of bottled water this time. We all know how bad Caronport water is -- it tastes so irony, and dries out the skin. But can it really cause a pie crust to drip flammable drops? Only science can know.

Whatever was the cause, it didn't the keep the pies from tasting good or from being eaten. It was great fun having family here, even if the occasion brings with it inexplicable phenomena ...

"I feel good!"

Today I stand atop a mound of smoking paper, looking across the vast land of laden waste.

In other words, my 20-page 1 Peter paper is done! Hallelujah! It was a lot of fun to research these past eight weeks, but finally it's handed in. I suppose this is a foretaste of what it will be like to graduate this spring... This feeling of freedom and relaxation and utter calmness. Sigh... what a feeling.

Of course, I do still have 8 papers (approx 70-80 pages) left this semester... so it's not like I'm finished, but for now, until I can get books for the next round, it's time to relax. And as my old friend Jimmy Brown says, "I feel good."

I'd like to thank my wife for helping me to get here today. Without all her constant encouragement and food-making, I doubt I would have survived.

Peace out.

The Holy Grail (so to speak...)

This weekend I was part of a story of drama and intrigue, disappointment and triumph, exasperation and joy. It was the story of one man and his quest for the renown Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon.

Not many libraries have a take-home copy of the LSJ. But UofS does. It's a beastly book, thicker than most lexicons. I have BDAG (a pretty intensive New Testament lexicon) in my personal library, but the LSJ has a much broader focus, incorporating non-biblical Greek into its range of coverage. It's a handy tool for doing word studies in the Greek New Testament. I'm currently doing that as part of some papers I am working on, so my need for LSJ was noted.

Anyways, we headed up to Saskatoon to see Paul and Darla MacDiarmid and their kids, Liam, Saryn, and new little Lewis. It is tons of fun playing with those kids. Liam is getting bigger, so it's not as easy these days to give him "Spaceship" rides in the laundry basket...

When we arrived in Saskatoon, Jenn dropped me off at the Library, and she headed over to the MacDiarmids' house. I went on an exciting book hunt. My first stop was the Circulation Desk. If you don't have a functional library card, even the most fruitful hunt will end up meaningless if you can't even take out the books that you captured. My card had expired, so I asked the kind ladies at the desk to reactivate it for me. It was tougher than I expected... The computer decided to hate me, and the information wouldn't update, and my card could not be renewed. Gasp! The supervisor lady, very apologetically, offered to save the books I wanted until Monday. By then the IT guys would be back to work, and they could figure out this problem. Unfortunately, I informed her, I would be gone by Monday. But, with a glimmer of hope, I asked if I could take books out on my wife's account. She said, surely I could. So I skipped away in search of the much-coveted LSJ.

I remembered the path well. Across the foyer, passed the photocopiers, down the hall, up the winding stairs, to the third floor, find the PA section, walk to the little open area, find the third section of the bookshelf, and look for the really big, fat, juicy one. And there it was. Fully available for my use. It's the black book in the picture above. And BDAG, as aforementioned, is beside it. It feels like a sacred place up there on the third floor of the Library's North Wing. There sit rows and rows of Greek grammatical, morphological, lexical, and syntactical aids. I love the smell of the old paper.

After a brief, and nearly emotional, moment, I grabbed up the Liddell-Scott-Jones (hailing all the way from 1854), and a good Greek grammar book by two German guys, translated by a Mennonite named Funk. With these two ancient treasures under my arm (or rather on top of both my arms because of their weight), I spun around to leave. Down the stairs, through the hall, around the copiers, across the foyer, and, what's this? The ladies at the Circulation Desk waved me over.

"We got it to work!" they both exclaimed. "Really?!" I enthusiastically replied, "That's super!" I happily turned the books over to be scanned and desensitized. It seemed almost appropriate that the due date receipt didn't want to print out... Computers these days... So one lady scribbled my due date on a piece of paper. As she did, she smiled and said, "Well, you better get 100% on that assignment of yours!" I promised them I would do my best. With a hearty "THANK-YOU!" I sat down once again at a computer and waited for Jenn to pick me up.

Ten minutes later, we were on our way to the MacDiarmids' for a Mexican supper, and some fun with the kids. We were on the road again by 8:30, and home just before midnight.

A good trip all around. My little book-shelf-on-wheels weighs about 15 pounds more thanks to my new (but very old) treasures. I hope it all comes together. All this book acquisition sure is a lot of work -- but oh so fun.

Take care everybody.