Currently Fearless By Taylor Swift see related

A 'lil update for y'all...

I tried to book someone for pictures next week and realized I could only give them an hour on thanksgiving monday, other than that we're busy all week. But not just with pictures, with things and stuff, and we're both feeling a bit drained. I'll have to look at things and see what we can cut out.

One thing we won't be cutting out, however, is Finn's first hockey game! It's killing me that I may have to miss it if no one takes my shift at the bike shop, hopefully someone will. That's another thing: I started working Wednesday nights again at the shop just for some extra cash and to keep my discount on bikes and boards, but Finn's hockey will be Wednesdays, and we're doing picture-related things every other night, so I may have to give up the job (again). That's ok though, working there usually costs more than it brings in.

Photos have started to take over our life; Dana's usually swimming in edits. This is good news, but again, adds to the strain.

We purchased an unusual ministry tool when we moved to our new pad. That was our lame justification anyways. So far it's been a great addition and we've had some good and important times and talks in there. I won't tell you what it is, you'll have to visit to find out.

Someone get married so we can see everyone again (and take your pictures

g'day

*that's right, we're listening to Taylor Swift lately, both albums.

New commute times:

By car: 1m 10 s

By feet: ~9 m

By bike: 45 s, one pedal stroke (after stop sign)

Time for bike is dramatically different on the way home.

I like my new house.

There have been a lot of changes going on in the Bay.
There have not been enough changes going on in the Bay.

See Dana's blog for details.

As you know, our house has sold and our house is bought. The new place is 13 blocks from the old one. It's a bit of a strange move, actually, and both of us have been moving between surety and unsettledness since the purchase was made. We're out on June 8th, and we're in on June 30th. This means that for 23 days, we are homeless. We'll likely stay with my parents; I'm hoping to build them a sauna while we're there.

You also may or may not know that D and I have become quite serious about taking a newfound love and hobby from affair to marriage, starting our own government-registered-PST-and-GST-collecting, client-base building, shooting, printing, and editing photography business.

It's scary.

We got the tax forms yesterday, and I'm preparing our first invoice for our first (paying) customer, which coincidentally happens to be TBMA, my other place of employment. I was the "official photographer" for the Folklore Festival, a multicultural showcase featuring food booths, vendors, and entertainment from dozens of countries and cultures. It was a really exciting shoot, actually, because I was given full reign and access to the event, which saw over 14 000 people attend over two days of festivities. It was also work! I was running all over the place with a heavy backpack on, and every-so-often the Festival Coordinator would find me or send for me to take a picture of this person or that thing. I had to be quick on the draw and professional looking: no fumbling with dials or apologizing for having to take too long or too many pictures to get it right. I think I got a lot of good pics, and I have to have a slideshow of them ready for Thursday night's board meeting; not nerve-racking at all.

It was a rush.

I love it.

Hopefully we get some more gigs soon; Dana has a few lined up for the coming months, and I think once our website (www.fioritofoto.com) is totally functional (Steve Bill's doing it up and it should be ready really soon) we'll have a little more action. I was asked just this morning if the website was up yet, as a coworker's friend is looking for a wedding photographer for next summer. Pretty exciting.

Anyways, the boys are still boys. I have to relay this story to you, I guarantee you'll enjoy it:

My Monday morning:

I traipse upstairs thinking no one is up yet (or should be). I am greeted by a mischevious Carson running to the top of the stairs (to the main floor). He was sneakily already up for who-knows how long, trying to get chocolate chips out of the corner-cupboard; luckily we had moved them.
I make him some oatmeal to eat while i jump in the shower. I didn't even make it into the water before I hear a maniacal bout of spitting and yelling and angry noises coming from the dining room. The bathroom door swings wide open (you get pretty used to that), and Carson comes in with a disgusted look and black spots all over him.

So he's making these faces and I'm trying to understand what happened

I go to the dining room and see the pepper shaker sitting there empty with the lid off and about one inch of pepper covering his bowl of lovingly-homemade oatmeal, with at least two big spoonfuls taken out of it.

Never a dull moment.

Wow, Nik's updating!

...you know what that means: procrastination!

i have so much work to do for my placement it is actually making me sick, read: i am up all night making lesson plans and all that fun stuff, so i feel sick in the morning, which comes a bit earlier every day.

BUT...i'm predicting a SNOW day tomorrow, which is ridiculous. I've already had two "ice days" in the last week, and there's already about 6-7 inches with more coming down hard here, so i shouldn't be complaining. i don't mind the actual teaching, it's pretty enjoyable to tell you the truth, and the kids are alright too (as is my associate teacher, a really good guy).

so our house is for sale and we put an offer in on another one and got all worked up that we were going to get this sweet, big house in our same neighbourhood for a steal-of-a-deal, but it didn't work out as of 5pm today. oh well, we're fine with that. and i say "sweet, big house" not because it's some mansion, but because it just had more elbow room than our current digs, which the boys find a way to make feel smaller on a daily basis.

no complaints, though, we've been blessed a lot in this house.

anyways, back to planning lessons. i'm teaching gr. 10 canadian history, 11 law and 12 law, so they're reasonably interesting at least.

peace.

What do you think about....

this?

http://www.musicboatonline.com/

At first I was like, "hmmm, cool. That'd be fun to take the fam on."

Then I was like, "hmmm, interesting. Is this really the face of North American Christianity? Is this what suffering for the sake for the Cross looks like?"

Many of us are going to go on a vacation/cruise/tropical respite at some point, right? Why not do it with 15 or so top Christian acts? Surely the atmosphere and camaraderie on board would be uplifting and encouraging.

What do you think?

That was part 1, part 2 goes like this:

  I am slaving away at work the other day, when all of a sudden, OUT OF NOWHERE, facebook magically pops up on my computer screen amidst the spreadsheets and, umm, other workish stuff. OK, facebook was open, but I use it for program promotion so gimme a break, k?!
   So anyways, a chat window pops up and a friend (cousin) of a friend asks me "what church do you and Dana attend?" Interesting. So I reply and she says "Do you think I would be welcome there? I've been reading the Bible a lot more on my own lately and am finding that the Catholic church just isn't doing it for me anymore. I need more and have a lot of questions." Awesome! So I invite her to church and fill Dana in on the matter; she sends her a message highlighting the where and when and how excited she is.
   Unfortunately, this person realized that they couldn't just shirk her Sunday School teaching responsibilities at the Catholic church and has decided to ride it out until the Spring, at which point she is no longer obliged to teach there. Fortunately, she has asked to come over and talk to D about some questions she has; they are planning to do that sometime this week.
   Basically, this came out of nowhere. This person mentioned during our chat that she admires the relationship Dana and I have with each other and with Christ. This person is also separated, but is not tied to the person Dana recently blogged about. Hopefully out of these marital breakdowns some eternal good can come.

Opportunities for sharing and living out our faith seem to be coming very quickly recently, as has oppression and attacks from the enemy. Finn has been having terrible nightmares, not even nightmares as he's not sleeping, and there have been a few nights now where our house has had a very "heavy" feeling. This has happened before in our relationship, but the correlation between witnessing opportunities and oppression has never been more lucid and immediate. I guess I should see it as an affirmation; I am trying to do that.

Prayers appreciated.