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pnrokker
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Country: United States
State: Maine
Gender: Male
Interests: Hunting, fishing, swimming, camping, singing, most other things outdoors. I wish work was a hobby sometimes and not something I have to do all the time, like it or not.
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
6/11/2003
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| Ok. Here's the scoop on the new baby, complete with pictures on my photoblog and all. Kaitlyn Alexandra Johnston was born on Thursday, November 30th at 4:16 p.m. She weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and was 21 3/4 in. long. You can't see it in the pictures, but she has a very full head of hair, which I think she probably gets from my side of the family. Anyway, Marci and I came home with her today at about 1:00 in the afternoon, and have spent most of the day so far lounging around. Hope we sleep ok tonight too.
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| And actually, I added some photos of Katahdin to my photoblog, because I'm not sure if it got added to my actual post or not. So...go check it out
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| Wow, it's been so long since I've updated that Xanga looks different. I guess that says something...actually, what it really means is that I'm really bad at staying in touch with people. Ok, so summer was good...now that it's fall I guess I can reveal at least that much info. Marci's got about two more months before the baby comes. It's a girl! Um...other things that people may not know...not thinking of anything...See, this is why I 'never' update. Not much happens in my life that's really worthwhile repeating by typing. I think everyone who reads this pretty much knows everything I just said. I pretty much spend most of my time at work, which is never anything interesting enough to tell people about. One of the things that I did while I was home was climb Mt. Katahdin. I first did it with a friend in '05, and it was one of the most physically challenging days of my life. Also, very amazing. We both said that it was a one time thing, but I decided to do it again, just for the heck of it. I took my 17 year old brother, and two of his friends. Only one of the three had climbed it before, and he had gone straight to the summit and back. We took the shortest, hardest trail to the top. About 4000 feet in elevation gained in 1 mile of trail. So, pretty much straight up. The thing is, you have to park 4.5 miles away from where that trail starts. Then after the strenuous climb to the top, we went along the 1 mile trail to the other peak. The trail is a ridge that's called "knife's edge". That's because in some places the trail is only 6 inches wide with very steep inclines on both sides. At bottom I've posted a picture looking into the valley from midway across knife's edge to give you some idea of what it's like. Not only were we hiking along this precipice, there were wind gusts of an estimated 60 miles per hour coming from the valley. My camera bag at times was literally parallel with the ground because the wind was blowing so hard. All told, we hiked about 11 miles worth of trails in about 8 or 9 hours. I want to do it again next summer. All I can say is that being on that mountain really makes you feel tiny. It puts you in a better perspective of how big the earth is, etc. And even though I got a bad sunburn because I didn't put on any sunscreen, and my legs hurt for weeks because I'm really not in that good of shape anymore, the sense of accomplishment that hiking can give is totally worth it.
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| Another busy week in the CIU cafeteria...but I am glad that Columbia
Conference is over. I am also glad for the opportunity to work as much
as I do. Sometimes I wish that I had more free time for myself, or to
spend with my wife, but I don't have any complaints, because I knew
what I was getting into when I agreed to take the job. 60 hours a week,
minimum. The good news is that I will get two weeks paid in the summer,
and I'm tentatively planning two trips, one to Iowa, and one to Maine.
Hopefully it will be nice weather in Maine when we go, but I don't know
yet when we will go. Either way, it's bound to be better than the
armpit of the South (sorry to all of you who like Columbia, but I will
always be a 'Yankee' at heart"). Besides, during summer it does feel
like living in an armpit. Anyway, work is going well, and I am getting
more and more used to to job. Time definately seems to go a lot faster
at this job than any other job I have had. Some days are really busy,
while others are really slow, but you have to take the good with the
bad. Since work is practically my life now, I really don't have much
else to blog about.
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| I've come to believe, or rather, experience, that God has a sense of humor. I find myself thinking that He likes to laugh as though mildly amused at out tendencies, but not at us in a malevolent way, when we as humans make plans for our futures as though we can control what happens to us, or as if we have any idea what is going to happen to us tomorrow, or even today for that matter. Don't you think that from God's point of view, which is omniscient and outside of how we view time, that it would be funny? I say all this because I find myself setting goals for my life, for my marriage; saying things like, "in three to five years", and thinking about my future as if I was reflecting back on a trip, not planning for one. Things happen in our lives that are unexpected for us, but God has known that they are going to happen to us since before we were born. It's weird for me to think about that. I can't comprehend it, and it doesn't sit well with me sometimes. Just thinking about it, I'm reminded that God knew that my brother was going to kill himself two year ago, yet none of us had any idea until it happened. Sometimes as humans we tend to question God's motives for letting things like that happen, or try to figure God out. We ask ourselves questions like, "could God have prevented that?", but all we do is weaken our view of God. We as humans don't have a right to question God about things that happen to us, or demand answers. Most likely, we will never get them, but will come away with a sense of bitterness because God isn't answering us. In my situation, I turned to God for comfort, and found in Him, someone that I can always turn to when I need comfort. God taught me so many things through that tragedy, but I still don't feel like God caused it, or let it happen to teach me a lesson. I feel like God cried as much as I did over it, and was beside me to draw me nearer to Himself. Even after unexpected things happen to us, we still pretend that we can predict what will happen to us tomorrow, and base our plans on those predictions! It's all quite humorous. Life is funny like that. | | |
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