Happy happy belated birthday, Paul

I discovered it had been about a month and a half since I had checked this out. Sorry Paul, as usual I remember birthdays but sometimes I don't act on that. I realized it as we were preparing for a parade. Our church has had opportunity to march for several years in the Columbia Heights Parade. We pass out candy, fliers about our church and have a float with the praise team on it. It's a lot of fun.

I suppose you Roseau Stynsbergers haven't had much grass growing under your feet, either. Wish we could have been there for JaNae. Congratulations again. Had a great time with Jonathan and family celebrating with him at his Open House, yesterday. Those tacos were great.

Ralph and I took a vacation. On our way down to Branson, MO we picked up a new tent camper in IL. We camped on the way down and had a great time taking in a couple of shows. One was called Pierce Arrow a group of male vocalists that sang country and gospel. They have one bass singer that has the record for singing the lowest notes in the world. He is in the Guinness Book of Records.

Hope you had a great birthday, Paul. Are you looking forward to an empty nest or are you getting lonely already? It doesn't always stay empty!

Jose is almost 2!

It's been so long since I've posted! José is almost 2! He likes wearing caps. He's talking, but barely. He loves cars, trucks, and tractors.

We're going to have another party! Please join us if you can make it. We'll do another BBQ potluck. Start around 2pm. Eat at 5pm? (July 4th)

Chickens.
Lambs!
Pigs?
Games.
Hiking.
Fire?
Singing?

If anyone can tell me why there is so much white space between this line and the table, let me know...

The Northern Light

My cousin, Gary Lindman, just sent me a note saying he found the enclosed pamphlet in the Soldotna Bible Chapel Library and he thought I might find it interesting. And suddenly I am whisked away to a long lost era. The Counter Culture was relevent. The Jesus Freaks were in the news. Mark and I were heavily involved in "the movement" As it unfolded in Alaska.



We were the creators of an underground newspaper in Alaska chronicling the counter culture Jesus movement. What Gary sent me was a long lost volume from that paper.






















The front page was drawn by a long lost friend Captain Lee Johnson. The back page was written by me and illustrated by Mark. Wow!

And if any young whippersnapper is thinking the production values are pathetic - I'd like to remind you that we did this long before the age of computers and photocopying machines. We really used typewriters and tried to correct our mistakes with "whiteout" as best we could.

Typical Alaska photos

The volcano was steaming pretty good on this clear day.Some newborn twins walked through the yard.
Emery is pretty excited about dandelions. Way more excited than me.

Regina Spektor

A friend from church handed me an issue of the Smithsonian magazine entitled "37 of America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences". She gave it to me because one of the 37 was Sufjan Stevens who I mentioned earlier. Well lo and behold but another of the entries was for another of my favorite new voices - Regina Spektor.

Sufjan wove biblical images and aspects of his faith pilgrimage into his songs. Regina doesn't do anything like that. I just like her melodic voice and the playful way she unfolds the lyric. You can sample her songs in the Imeem box or click the following link for one of my favorite songs. (Ignore the video - shut your eyes and just listen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTDRztaCCw

By the way before this I had left Ingrid Michaelson's music there for a few weeks. The main reason I did it was because Amy had included some of Ingrid's songs in her wedding video.

Jonathan Graduates

Jonathan is done and it was a great ending. His track team won the conference championship for the fourth year in a row. Their Ultimate Frizbee team finished third in state. Now he needs to find a job for the summer so he can help pay for his education at Gustavus this fall.

Other than that not much new here. Peter is still looking for a job. A few surveying possibilities emerged but they may not pan out.

Hey Mark, what are the job prospects in Alaska? Either boy, but especially Peter might be willing to take anything that paid a decent wage - given the current economic conditions.

Grandaughter visiting

Emery, Heidi and John came up to Alaska for a visit.
Lois Ann, Christoffer, and Emery
Emery dreams about going to the beach.
Grandpa giving crawling lessons.
Reading time.