5 posts tagged “ken's wedding”
So, the wedding rehearsal is tomorrow and then Halloween is just a couple of days after that. What an exciting time!
I had a chat with Michelle last night and she actually doesn't have a valid reason for not starting college on time, but she is dead set on taking a year off between highschool and college.
Do any of you have advice for her?
She has her budget worked out and as it turns out the girl that she's planning on sharing the apartment with is the daughter of a single mom. If things go poorly for the two girls the mom has offered to move in with them to help pay the rent and take care of the day-to-day chores.
I think I'd take that offer too. There doesn't seem to be a down side from Michelle's point of view. My big concern is that once she stops being a student it will be impossible to go back. Without a college diploma it will be difficult for her to move much past twice minimum wage.
The more I think about it the more resigned I am to accepting her decision. There doesn't seem to be a lot that I can do. If I choose to make her life difficult then she'll move out now and not even finish highschool. If I do manage to force her to go to college, then she won't apply herself and it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Yuck.
Hmm.
I'm thankful that we're allowed to pray without concern for protocol. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." In everything simply present your requests to God. Cool.
I'm thankful for the gift of sight. I love photography - it brings me a lot of joy to see something beautiful and then capture the feeling of the moment with my camera. Sight allows me to drive, to work, to enjoy a movie, to see Sherry smile, to watch Michelle's creativity. Sight allows me to bask in the beauty of God's creation.
I'm thankful for warm clothing. There are far too many people who dread fall and the cold, wet weather that it brings. No one deserves to be cold and thankfully I don't usually think about it. I'm very thankful that I can venture outdoors on a cold, wet fall day and not have to suffer.
Even if they're tiny little things you really need to celebrate when things go your way.
One of the things that I've been dreading doing is to register my video cameras with the Border Guards (the Canadian version of the US's Home Land Security Guards) so that I can bring them to Michigan to do Ken's wedding.
Sherry and I took ten minutes to write down all of the serial numbers on a Sample Form Y38 that I downloaded from the Governments web site. Then I drove to the border and parked by the Currency Exchange booth (our plan was to buy tokens in US dollars since it was a full $5 per roll cheaper than the Canadian version. I bought seven rolls - which should last us a year and won't go up when the toll does in January.)
I walked across the road to the Secondary something where the paperwork is handled and told the guy I needed a Y38 and showed him my sample one with the serial numbers on it. He stamped my sample form, signed it, had me sign it and sent me on my way. The longest part was crossing the road! Cool.
Ok, so it was a minor victory, but it could have gone so much worse. I should remind Paul to register his camera. It's a week today.
We had a really fun meeting at work today.
I know - that's an oxymoron, right? Well, not really. John came in as an outside consultant on a project that my boss (my brother) and I are working on. Turns out that John is an old friend from my highschool days and teaches the Impromptu Comedy class in town.
What a fun meeting. Tonnes of cool ideas came out of the meeting and it was fun too (did I mention it was fun?)
Well, my weekend awaits. Tomorrow is date night and I think we may go down to the river to watch the submarine races. I _love_ the submarine races!
Oh, I think I may have over commited this year.
We have a wedding for a friend that starts a week from tomorrow. We live in Canada and he lives in the States. That
means that all my hardware has to cross the border. *sigh*. Apparently a form Y38 will make that easier. Now all I have to do is get one.
I'm putting together my teaching notes for Excel and I'm still trying to keep all of our clients at work happy. And Vader and the house and Alpha and Quick Bite and our Kinship and my new friends AND my old friends.
We've trimmed out almost all of our TV time and I have very little time for my hobbies (unless you count Vader, and I guess you could...) Yikes.
At least our budgets are working out and everyone is healthy - that could make a real mess.
I feel bad for some of my Vox buddies too -- MeeShell is really struggling and it makes me a little sad (and mad).
No deep thoughts for today - I'm just trying to keep my head above water until my class notes are done!
So, what is happiness?
One of my neighbors asked the question "are we really happy" and that got me thinking - what is happiness? He's going to abandon the pursuit of happiness now and pursue Joy instead.
The only problem that I have with Joy is that it's fleeting - I have moments of profound joy and times of extended joy, but I joy doesn't last.
Peace is also an interesting thought to play with. However, I think I need to clarify that in my view there are several different levels of peace. The absence of war is peace. Quietness is peace. Stillness is peace. But the Peace that I'm referring to is more the peace that only a relationship with God can bring.
I've read The Book - I know how the story ends and I know I'll end up in a far better place at the end of my life. That brings a deep sense of balance, of welbeing, of security and ultimately - Peace.
I truly believe that every good character trait is made possible by a deep sense of purpose, of destiny and in this sense - Peace.
Anyway, back to happiness. As I was writing on September 12 - when I'm doing what I was created to do I'm truly happy.
My goal in life is 60-40. Sixty percent of the time I want to be doing the fun things that I was created to do: Love my wife, enjoy my family, worship, work hard at what I'm skilled doing, learn, grow, play, laugh, sing and dance. The other forty percent of the time I'll do what is required of me: clean the bathroom, put out the trash, deal with difficult clients, discipline my children, clean up my messes and generaly maintain what I need to.
If I can stay in the "This is what I was created to do" frame of mind then I have a deep sense of satisfaction, of fulfillment and I really believe that I will be Happy.
I wrote on my friend's blog "To be truly happy you must find yourself doing what you were created to do." and I think that sums it up. (Are you allowed to quote yourself?)
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In other news: I'm once again on the wrong side of 190. :-( At least I'm flirting with 190 and not 220 like I was.
Today our company is going bowling.
I'm going to be handing out full size chocolate bars for Halloween. I love seeing how excited the kids are when they look in the bowl and there's nothing but good stuff to chose from.
I love thinking about travelling Europe. We have about 40% of the money saved now and more coming every month. Hopefully 2008 or 9. I've started researching already.
Ken's wedding is a little complicated now - the timing doesn't work for everyone. Hopefully we'll get that nailed down shortly.
I'm excited for the new TV season (is that shallow?) -- We love wathcing "heros" and "lost".
I had another painless migraine yesterday.
I love Sherry.
Wow, I managed to get a stress-free day in! Yesterday's programming day went extremely well (although I did find a major snag with Excel 2007... bummer). Supper was a combination of fresh and leftover food and Michelle didn't come home, so there was absolutely no drama yesterday. It was really, really nice.
Ken called last night to firm up the details for his wedding. We videotape weddings for fun and profit and we'll be giving
him his video as a wedding gift. We've also arranged for a still photographer to come down with us to do the stills as part of the gift (Ken's a really good friend).
It's a little complicated getting to the wedding to make the timing work. It would be best if we could all take Friday afternoon off work - but I don't know how that's going to work out with Paul... I'll do some e-mailing today and find out what's up.
It was nice chatting with Ken, and it'll be fun spending Friday with them before the ceremony. It looks like a bunch of people from here will be headed into Michigan to attend this thing... hmmmm - I wonder if Paul could car-pool with one of them...?
It looks like I have a bit of organizing to do - at least I have a couple of days to get it worked out.
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Sometimes I wonder if I taught Michelle everything that she needs to know. I've taught her to think on her feet - to see the motivation behind the things that she's being sold (or told). I've taught her to ask the questions that will keep her from being sold a bill of goods. We've taught her the value of money, how to budget (her money and her time) and how to run a household.
I didn't teach her to obey authority blindly. That would have made this year a lot easier. And there'll be times when she doesn't understand why a boss tells her to do her job a certain way (and there may not be a good reason), but the boss *will* have the power to fire her.
Hmmm.
