Blogelemy

Letter from the Bush Girls to the Obama Girls

I saw this on Josh Griffin's Blog and had to share.  I found it touching and inspiring:

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Poll: When will Baby #3 arrive?

Random Update

Here's a random update on what is happening in my world, in no particular order:

• We are expecting our third child to be born any day now.  The past few nights I have gone to bed wondering if I would be spending the entire night in bed or would I be rushing my wife to the hospital.  Greta thinks that it will be this week.  We both hope that we aren't spending Christmas in the hospital
• We are still uncertain of this babies name.  We have three names we like more than any other name right now but we haven't committed to any of them.
• Our son has done well with his transition of bedrooms down to the basement.
• Our student ministries team is completely focused on the New Years Eve all-nighter outreach.  We are trying to convince students to do something they (or their parents) don't do, buy their tickets early.  We feel that if students have their tickets in their hot little hands then they will be more apt to invite friends than if they waited until the last minute to see if something better comes up.  The way that we are doing this is through a "VIP experience".  We will be drawing names of those students who have already signed up and give them and a friend of their choice a variety of VIP perks (speedy registration, food vouchers, special transportation to our venues, premier seating at the rally etc...)
• I'm wondering if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have quit for the season.  The last two losses have been yucky

My thrifty wife...

My wife, Greta, is excellent at saving our family money.  Take yesterday as an example.  We went bowling as a family in Eden Prairie.  We had a coupon for free bowling for two hours, shoes and a pitcher of Coke.  Subtotal for the day: $0

After bowling, we grabbed some ice cream at McDonald's (with a playland of course).  At McDonald's we had four sundaes.  Then Greta and I thought it might be fun to watch a movie after the kids go to bed.  So, we checked out "Baby Mama" from the Redbox.  And of course we had a code from Inside Redbox.  Total at McDonald's $4.

So, I realize that this isn't new math but it cost our family $4 to go bowling, have a cone at McDonald's and rent a movie.  Thank God my wife knows how to save!

Our Tenth Anniversary

Today is my ten year wedding anniversary with my wife, Greta.  It is honestly hard to believe that it has already been 10 years.  We dated throughout college so it has been a total 14 years of being in a relationship with her.  It's really fun to think about how things were ten years ago compared to how they are now.  Ten years ago we lived at the Seminary Village at Bethel Seminary, learning how to live with each other.  Today we still have extremely adventuresome lives, our adventures are just a little different now than they were ten years ago.

For our anniversary we were going to take a cruise this next winter but with expecting a new addition to our family that plan was put on hold.  Instead we will be going to see the play "Wicked" at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis this December. We got great seats!

Ten years and 2.33 kids later I am still overjoyed for the bride that God has chosen for me. She is an excellent mother to our children, helper in ministry and still very much my best friend.  I look forward to the next ten years!

Random Thoughts on my Last Name...

Our six year old son just memorized how to spell our last name, "Barthelemy".  Which if you ask me is quite an accomplishment.  I'm pretty sure that I was at least 9 before I mastered it.  Hearing my son repeat the spelling over and over made me think again about this crazy last name that was given to me.  So, here are some random thoughts as they apply to my last name:

In Biblical times the prefix "Bar" was used to define the person as a son of someone else.  So Barjonah was son of Jonas, and Bartimaeus was son of Timaeus.  I should be able to conclude that Barthelemy is son of "thelemy"?  But I'm not really sure who "thelemy" is.  Okay, this thought was useless!  I promise these will get better.

A lot of people ask what nationality the name is.  To which I have no idea.  I'm not sure who it was that traveled across the pond several years ago and where they came from.  I have come to discover that there is an island in the Lesser Antilles that is a territory of the French by the name of St. Barthelemy.

When I was a little older than my son, my last name was a curse that I carried.  It was a huge target that other kids would use to make fun of me.  The classic name was "Barf-all-over-me".  Man, did that sting when I was in 3rd grade.  I have come to embrace this name and actually think it is funny, I usually share this with junior highers and give them permission to call me this.

Speaking of pronunciation, there are multiple ways I have heard this name pronounced by family members, friends, telemarketers, graduation announcers and co-workers.  I really don't get hung up on how people pronounce my last name (because I really don't know which way is correct).  Personally, I leave the first 'e' silent. So, it is pronounced  'Barth-la-me'

It wasn't until the magic of Facebook that I realized how many other people were blessed with the same last name.  Like many names, there is a Facebook group entitiled, "My last name is Barthelemy"  Currently there are '80' people in this group and I only know 3 of them!

All this to say, isn't it great that my 6-year-old can spell his last name!  I can't help to pray for him as he carries this name through the brutal elementary years!

Something to be proud of... (kind of)

We had some friends over last Friday for a bonfire.  We had a great time and ended up inside playing the Wii.  Here is a video of our son playing Pastor Travis and his wife Stephanie.  Our son held his own and won most of the races!

Mario Kart Fun pt. 1

Mario Kart Fun pt. 2 (Our Son's player is in the top right corner)

Our son found worms...

I laugh every time I watch this video so I had to share it.  Here is our son describing the worms he found in the front yard.

Blue Hues

This morning I started to touch up some of the paint that we put up on the walls last fall.  What started as a little bit of touch-up became tearing baseboards out and opening several cans of paint.  In an attempt to paint over marker in our sons room, I neglected to pay close attention to which can of blue that I grabbed.  After I painted several spots I noticed that it didn't look like I used the right paint.  So then after conferring with my wife we decided that I had used the living room paint in my sons room.  So, since I had the paint open and the brush with that paint on it, I decided to touch up the paint in the living room.  This led me to the conclusion that it wasn't the living room paint that I had used in my sons room (or now the living room) I was using the bathroom paint.  After figuring all of this out I labeled the paint with a Sharpie and fixed my mistakes.  There's an illustration here I know it...

Home Projects

So, we are still working on things around the house.  My dad has hung a chandelier, put a light and switch in our master bedroom closet, fished out the toy lodged in our bathtub drain and almost completed the additional closet in our basement.  I have helped a little but nothing near the level of work he has put in.  His ability to finish projects has greatly outpaced our budget to pay for them!

MOA

My daughter is addicted to Nickelodeon's  Backyardagains.  After going on a date with the Junior High Pastor and his wife at the Mall of America we learned that they have de-Snoopied everything at the mall and have replaced it with Nickelodeon characters. So, there is a Backyardagain ride that we took our daughter to this past weekend. Let's just say that she loved the characters and was okay about the ride. She kept a FIRM grip on my arm throughout the ride.