An update of things:
* Most of my extra blogging time has been eaten up with Physical Therapy. It’s been more than 9 weeks since my lousy, no-good motorcycle accident and I’m still fighting with it. I’m hobblin’ like a goblin quite a bit less, but I’m still not able to do things the way I want to. Boohoo…cry me a river. A surgery is planned for my foot in 3-5 months – hopefully it won’t have to happen, but that’s the plan for now. The Physical Therapy is for my knee. I never knew how terrible 1 and 2lb weights could feel to a grown man.
* I bought a Volkswagen Jetta. It’s an 01′ Wolfsburg 1.8t for you VW peeps. Immediately, I joined a club of automotive weirdos that I had no idea even existed. Volkswagen people are loyalists like I’ve never experienced and I’m starting to understand why. This is a sweet little ride. 4 doors for easy access with the kids, but a 5-speed manual that is sure to get me my first speeding ticket in a while. Das ist gut.
* We’ve been enjoying the fall the same way most people with kids do, getting as many outdoor playtime sessions in as possible before the white death is upon us. There have been birthday parties, and Halloween parades, and nice days followed by freezing ones. Also, I can’t get Finn to stop singing Justin Bieber’s song Baby. Das ist nicht gut.
* Ava is starting to make actual friends, and now she’s asking about play dates and sleepovers. Her schedule is starting to hinder ours. On the left is her bestest buddy Alexa, and on her right is…some other kid.
* I’m certain these two are related.
* On Halloween, our church gave away over 300lbs of candy out by the street. We set up 8 6-foot long tables and covered them from end to end with candy and let kids fill up a small bucket with whatever they wanted. It was a lot more fun than having some kind of “Harvest Party” or some lame attempt where churches try to provide “Halloween alternatives”. Sorry, but those kinds of things just irritate the Holy Spirit right out of me. {POST SCRIPT: I don’t have any problem with having parties at church on Halloween…Harvest, Halloween Alternative, or whatever…so sorry if I offended anyone – My real issue is that the church still wants to take part in Halloween, but call it something else…even though it’s the exact same thing. I’ve even helped put together very successful “Halloween Alternative” events…I just can’t get over the church being afraid to call something what it really is.:END POST SCRIPT} Massive amounts of candy – Das ist gut.
* This concludes our broadcast day.
Your VW is 11 years old? And it looks that good? Please correct me if I’m wrong about the year. Have heard good things about the Jetta.
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Sierra says:
November 4th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
@Carol Alaniz, it’s only 9 years old…2001 model…but still looks darn good for being 9 yrs old!
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Your Volkswagen brings out some German word. Das ist toll!
Greetings from Hamburg, Germany
Yvonne
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Oh, no. Justin Beiber!
My youngest daughter is six and in the first grade. The other day I reminded her that she needs to pick something to take to school to share for snack.
I asked her, do you have any idea yet?
Her: I’ll take Cheezits, she says.
I was surprised and said, Do you even like cheezits?
Her: Eh, their okay.
Me: Than why would you want to take them.
Her: Cause everyone LOVES them. Their all like: CHEEZITS! YEAH!
Me: Huh.
Her: Yeah, and I’m like: (starts to sing) Cheezits, cheezits, cheezits, ohhhh! They like cheezits, cheezits, cheezits, OHHH!
Me: You mean like that one song by Justin Bieber?
Her: Yeah.
Sometimes she leaves me speechless.
Thanks for letting me share. Your comment about the song reminded me. I feel your pain
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I totally went as Snow White for Halloween, too.
My 9 month old was Dopey the Dwarf and my mom was the Wicked Queen.
The church events around here overran the actual trick-or-treating. There were so many events that I ended up with maybe only 15 trick-or-treaters. And I live in a subdivision where they used to bus them in. So YAY for your church for not taking the fun out of it!
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As my daughter would say Aaauuuggghhh gross Justin Beiber!!! But she’s 15 and could care less that the kid grew up 30 minutes away from us. As for the idea of a Harvest Party that’s just not right. We had a teacher in our city that decided that they were not celebrating Halloween, so as not to offend anyone. There was quite the uproar from the effected parents. I think if you don’t want to celebrate it don’t, but don’t force your opinions on other people. I love what your church did, let them be kids they grow up so fast.
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picture placement fail
The first pic of Finn makes him look like he has horns from his sister’s shirt above. Very cool looking car and hope you heal well
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Good idea Church! My church is one of the biggest in Houston and they were like EEKK HALLOWEEN! SINNERS! And I was like bring on the reese’s cups! We went to this fun neighborhood that has a costume party. Then all the neighbor-folk sit out on the edge of the driveway and hand out candies to the wee ones. It was a very good neighborly experience.
Anywhoooo, nice car.
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pity it’s not a TDI.
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I personally like Halloween alternatives. Our church (your church) has had quite a few and everyone was hugely successful. If they are well planned there’s nothing lame about them. They are fun and the kids like them. I’m not sure what you hate about them. The candy give away was nice but personally I much prefer the alternative party. I’ve gone 29 years without trick or treating and I’ve turned out pretty well if you ask me.
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I laughed out loud at the “are these two related picture”…oh my! They get their zoning and staring capabilities from their momma…
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Sweet ride. I just got rid of my ’05 GTI. I moved to a truck but still have the V-dub love.
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Good to hear that you are on the mend, and have a car, and my sympathies for your family affiliation with Justin Bebier (SP?)
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Are the “Halloween Alternatives” suppose to be better than trick-or-treat because trick-or-treat is somehow bad? Because I don’t really see how they are different. The kids still dress up in costumes and get candy. The last church I went to did Trunk-or-Treat and we were suppose to decorate our Trunks in honor of one of the Saints. We won the decoration contest two years in row. One year we picked the Patron Saint of Athletes — St. Sebastian and decorated the trunk with Bengals gear. Another year, we did St. Walburga who was the patron saint of Harvests and we decorated the trunk in Fall Harvest stuff. That was rockin’.
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Boy, I’d love that table of candy myself! A kid’s dream!
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We MUST rid our country of Halloween and its terrible EEEVVIIILLLLL!! Whatever…I love the phrase ‘irritates the Holy Spirit right our of me’…I must say that I agree. 93.3 starts playing their Christmas music on Halloween to offer a holy alternative to the bad halloween stuff…Yeah – Let’s sing about Santa Clause (who is a tradition of lying to your kids) and mass consumerism because all of that is surely more godly than Trick-or-Treat and costumes…Sorry for the rant…Can you tell it’s a pet peeve of mine?
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TheDan says:
November 4th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
@Helen, I am both anti-Halloween and anti-lying to your kids about Santa Clause. Both tend to ignore obvious moral flaws in favor of what is convenient and fun for the sake of tradition.
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Just happy to see a post from you! Happy November. Gosh, your kids are cute.
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Pastor Ryan,
Oh, I love you with the churchy harvest party! It’s ALL about the CANDY!!
Your children are beautiful…glad you are getting better. Enjoy them and your wifey Allison.
Miss your posts!
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I’m glad to hear your are healing [although slower than what you expected - a lesson in patience and persistance?] YEA Candy Rules!! I hate when people suck out all the fun of being a kid! Dress up is always fun — the glitter shoes are my favorite! Were there any leftovers from your ‘candy parade’?
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I’ve only commented a few times…but this one really moved me…HALLOWEEN ALTERNATIVES…blech!
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“Irritate the Holy Spirit right out of me” – classic line! BTW – Butterfinger, Reece Cups AND peanut M&M’s? I’d never leave that table!!
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Please Please Please…where did you find the sparkly red shoes..I know of a Princess who desperately needs them at Christmas
Your children are so beautiful!!
Fahrvernugen!!
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Ryan. I’m glad you’re progressing so well in your recovery. Mine is going quite well also. I elected to do my own physio at home. At my 6 wk post op appt with the dr I did a deep squat and came right back up. I thought the dr was going to pass out. I’m quite motivated. I won’t be riding again until Spring though. Nice car. I’ll be praying for your recovery. Happy Friday.
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- Keep working on that PT; it sucks, but it is worth it in the end.
- the Jetta goes 100mph before 5th gear; it’s awesome
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my church partnered with anouther and we did “Trunk or Treat” – basically opened the trunks of our cars – decorated and let the kids go trunk to trunk – it was a lot of fun!
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That my friend is a butt load of candy..
and I DO mean butt load !!
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I could not agree more with the “Halloween alternative” thing. If you’re going to celebrate Halloween, just do it.
Great pictures!
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Is it wrong that I still want to dress up as Snow White and want sparkly red shoes? And wow that is a lot of candy, so how many grownups snatched a few? I’m with you on the calling it what it is…never understood how this one big humongous church could rant about the evil of the day but hold a costume party with no dancing as an alternative. But that’s their right. As was the single guy who lived behind us who threw a loud party with the haunted front yard and gave away little cans of potted meat or vienna sausages to the kiddies…and they had no clue what is was.
You do get better, it just takes longer than you want it to.
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Amen to Halloween… It is what it is, right?
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Ava’s were hand me downs…but I think Target might carry the red sparkly shoes that her friend was wearing
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I LOVE the idea of picking a saint!
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I agree about the “Harvest Festivals.” I suppose churches could call it All Hallows Eve, then you’re bringing in All Saints Day. But if we’re supposed to go out into the world and live in the world, why can’t we also bring the world in to the church? Should we stop calling it Christmas, simply because the rest of the world celebrates a secular version?
As always, you get me to thinking.
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