Poison Oak

So, what's Poison Oak? Well, it's stuff that makes your cute little girl's face get all big and blotchy and puffy until her eye almost swells shut. Where can you get some around here? Well, to be honest, we're not sure. Last weekend we were at St Malo so we assume that's where it came from.

Camping at St Malo

On Tuesday July 5, we all jumped into our truck, drug our old camper to the St Malo Provincial Park and set up our slum for a 3 night stay. We were expecting hot, muggy weather like it'd been the week before. Instead we were suprised by the perfect weather and, though we did use bug spray, we found that the skeeter problem wasn't as bad as it had been the last time we'd been there.
Below, Daniel soaking up some rays.
This is the only time that Dan's parents don't have to worry about how sticky he'll be by the time he's done his sucker.

Justin, fishing for minnows.

Charity, dumping water on Dad while he sits in the water with Dan

Christmas Lego

This is the Lego set that Justin recieved from Grandma and Grandpa Pauls for Christmas. It's a pretty serious car accident when you need to call in the water bomber to put it out.

Snapy Re-Location

The other day our neighbours excitedly came to the door telling us that they'd found a "schultkrrate" (a turtle for the rest of us anglophones). In only a short time the critter was at our house and names were being tossed around (including Speedy, Franklin and Shellty). When we educated ourselves about Turtles we learned that he was a Snapping Turtle. We assumed that since he's (she, how would you know?) got a shell that probably measures 5" long he probably wasn't from the wild. We've never seen a turtle that large around here. Come to think of it, we've never seen a stray turtle on our street before.

However...

1. We weren't finding appropriate food for "Snapy"
2. We have a track record for killing pets.
3. Dad hates reptiles. (note welding gloves in pictures to come)
4. Today we learned from a friend that he has seen turtles of this size at the Winkler Golf Course.

Therefore...

It was decided that Snapy would be best off in his natural habitat (away from Dad). So we headed out to find a spot in the creek. Chris was content with the idea of tossing him in the creek by PM Elias but Nettie would have nothing less than the luxury of the golf course. We found a nice curve in the creek and released him. Within minutes he was submerged and gone. Many tears were shed on Snapy's behalf and a prayer was said for his future. Charity was the reassuring force for the family of mourners. "We'll find a nutter Snappy" she reassured her crying older sibblings. Daniel showed little emotion but we know he was hiding it behind his soother. It took the healing power of McDicks for the sobbing to end.

Salem Excursion

This morning Justin and I went to Salem Home to help move people to and from the chapel, for their morning service. Many people were excited to see Justin. One resident actually had excitedly commented to her daughter that she thought she saw "one of her sons here".

When the service was over and everyone was delivered back to their ward, we got into a conversation with a 59 year old man with Parkinsons. In the course of conversation he told me of how he'd given his struggle with Parkinsons to God a few years ago and "hasn't had any problems since". It took me a little off guard. How can you say that you haven't had any problems. You're in a wheelchair man! But he was right. God is working in him and he stood and walked across the floor to show us that he can now walk. Something he couldn't do for 12 years...and he was giving God the glory. -CP

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

It's Kaitlyn's fifth birthday today, wow has time gone by fast. Not only is it her birthday but she also had her very first day of school today! She has had a very exciting day!!

Kaitlyn had a birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa Dyck's on friday; it was loads of fun and VERY LOUD.

The kids played Bingo with real prizes, thanks to the Aunties.



We ate cake!
















Made really loud (somewhat annoying) noises!!!
















Ate ice cream sandwiches!!








Played with Balloons!!

Kaitlyn brought cupcakes to school today to share with her class. She came home so excited that she got to do everything first in honour of her birthday. The only thing she was disappointed about was that she never got to wear the necklace that each student has to wear when they leave the classroom to go to the bathroom!

Now the only thing left is a birthday supper that she picked...noodles with schmaunt fat! How much easier does it get??

End of the Spear

Last night Nettie and I watched the movie "The End of the Spear". It's the story of Steve Saint, one of the men who was killed by the natives in Equador in the 50's along with Jim Elliot. Following their deaths, two of the missionary wives as well as one of the children decide to continue the work that was begun and risk their lives by facing the same people who killed their husbands in order to bring them to Christ. It's a really good movie, though the writers didn't include the gospel, which in light of the subject of the movie, missed the point. Though it's a little violent for young children, I'd recommend it to anyone. It'll be available at the Winkler EMMC library once we return it. -CP

Take a look at the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja2v42z44Bs&feature=related

Peelin' Apples

Free Ticket!

FREE! One free ticket to next weekend's Beth Moore Simulcast at the Winkler EMMC. Ticket includes a coffee & muffin breakfast as well as lunch. The first woman to contact us gets it!

The Decision

This evening I told Justin and Kaitlyn that they could stick in a video for a few minutes before bed. I told them that I didn't want them both complaining about what the other picked. "You guys agree on something and we'll put it in." I told them. As I was working in the next room I heard "We've watched enough girl movies this week!" and a lot of resistance from the other party. "You guys are going to have to work together if you're going to watch anything at all!" I shouted from the other room. Finally it became an all out fight. Of course it then came down to the unreasonable dad...who promptly closed all movie opportunities for the evening. I'd like to end this by saying that they both learned a valuable lesson about co-operation...but time will tell if they did. -CP

Is he crawling?

So, after a few weeks of pushing himself around backward and getting stuck under furniture, Dan is starting to move forward, but would you say he's crawling or not?

Zucchini Pie

5 cups Zucchini
3/4-1 cup Sugar

2 Tbsp Minit Tapioca

1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine zucchini, sugar and tapioca in a pot. Stir. Let stand until juice starts to be released. Stir as you bing it to a boil over medium heat. Boil hard for 1-2 minutes. Mix in cinnamon. Pour mixture into pie shell. Place the top layer of rolled out crust over the filling. Bake for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350F bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!!

Katie's New Look...

A few weeks ago when Kaitlyn was asked what she wanted for her birthday, her reply was, get her ears pierced. So today we took her to Shoppers Drugmart to get her birthday present early. Here's her new look:

Human Nature at Work

This is a video taken just over a year ago, keep your eye on Charity.

Daniel

Decided it was time to introduce Daniel to the Blogging world;

Daniel James Abram Pauls

December 29, 2009

Daniel at 7 months

Time goes so very quickly!!

Tribute to Uncle Ben

I grew up living a half mile from Uncle Ben and Aunt Joy’s place. Uncle Ben is the uncle that we had the opportunity to get to know well. I think we often took him for granted because he and Aunt Joy farmed together with my parents and so he was always around. If Dad wasn’t around we’d just pick up the two way and ask uncle Ben. Some of my earliest memories of him include the bachelor pad that he and Don Gerbrandt shared in Purves, that green sprinter that he used to drive and a lot more hair than he was sporting recently. Uncle Ben taught me to wink and he taught me to spit.

Uncle Ben always enjoyed both building and playing games. One day when I was quite young Uncle Ben was lying on the floor playing a game with someone and I was busy going back and forth, climbing over him to go upstairs. He then informed me of the bears that live upstairs at grandma and grandpas house. My trips upstairs and over him were over for the evening.

When Uncle Ben and Aunt Joy built their house on the farm in 1986 I was still young but able to help too. I remember the day that Uncle Ben badly needed a tool from my parents place a half mile away so I got on the mini bike and drove home. When I described to Dad what I was looking for he laughed. Apparently Dad didn’t have a board stretcher to lend out.

Mike and I were both surprised the day that Uncle Ben told us that he was a pilot. We’d never known that before. Then he explained to us that with his backhoe he could pile it here or pile it there.

Uncle Ben loved Aunt Joy and his children: He was fascinated with Anthony and Nicole when they were born; he delighted in his little “skippy” and you would often see Eric with him in the tractor.

Uncle Ben was always inventive. He built a rope swing for the pool and a nice play structure out of a large hydro spool. As a steel worker I’ve always been amazed at Uncle Ben’s ability to look at assemblies in two completely different pieces of junk and amalgamate them into one big useable piece of junk. After every election he was sure to cash in on the wealth of election signs that were littered around the country. He used them for everything from go-carts to sun visors as long as the Liberal and NDP signs were not pointing out where people could see them.

A good joke or story never went unnoticed and he never wasted his energy stifling a laugh. He usually made sure that they were better the 2nd time around though.
My brother Mike spent a summer hoeing trees, and in payment received a Honda XR 80 which he drove for a lot of years. Uncle Ben and Aunt Joy had a lot of trees to hoe.
In the way they farmed together Dad and Uncle Ben taught us the ‘ours’ concept. Dad and Uncle Ben worked really well together. As we discussed this together Beth commented that with some of the equipment, she didn’t really know who’s it was, Dad’s or Uncle Ben’s. It seemed that Uncle Ben held all that he owned in an open hand. Both his time and possessions were free to be lent out and free to be used by God. This was evidenced in the hay that went to camp, the commitment he had to working at clubs, the camp workdays that he participated in and the many times that he lent us a truck, a trailer or other stuff.
I’m so glad for Uncle Ben that he’s in heaven now. I’m so glad that we don’t need to worry about him, but rather about ourselves and how we’re going to do without him. So what about heaven? Isn’t that just something people say at funerals to make themselves feel better about their lost loved ones? What did Ben Pauls do so good that he gets to go to heaven? The answer is quite simple: nothing. Uncle Ben was a good man to be sure but Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That means that all of the good that Uncle Ben did wasn’t enough to buy him a ticket to heaven, he still fell short of the glory of God. In Ephesians 2 we’re told that our salvation is a gift of God given to us through our faith in Jesus. Uncle Ben isn’t in heaven today because of the good man he was, he’s in heaven today because he accepted that gift from God as a youngster at Winker Bible Camp. The good that he did was his response to the gift God had given him. If you haven’t put your faith in Jesus Christ then you’re not prepared to die. I don’t believe that Uncle Ben knew it was his time to die. His tractor door was open and the radio was on. It was a routine type of day but Uncle Ben was ready. Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Are you ready?

The 2010 model

5+1=6
That's the email we sent to our friends recently. Yes we are expecting. Hope to meet the next edition in Jan 2010.

Wordless Wednesday

What a blessing....

They're growing up.

I'm not sure how God accomplishes this, but our kids are growing up. It's fascinating to see them develop, learn and change. It's fun to watch their excitement and hard to see them learn in their dissapointments.

Justin is 6 now, in grade 1. He enjoys school...I never liked school. A few weeks ago we were listening to CFAM to see if school was on or off. "Is my school closed?" he asked. "No. School is still on." "Yessss!!" he replied. (If I had done this, my parents would have rushed me to the hospital to have me checked out). It's fun to see Justin enjoying his friends and classmates. He's very social. Justin is a little man with agressive play habbits but with a soft heart. I love to listen to Justin pray. I'm always amazed at the depth of his prayers, prayers that are not copies of what we pray but prayers that reflect his own gratitude and concern.

Kaitlyn is 3 going on 15. She's a girl. She likes to dress up, she likes to be cute. When she get's dressed up for church on Sunday she likes to present herself to Dad. Dad enjoys approving of his little Cutester. I think people view Kate as being older than she is because her speech is very advanced for her age. Though she pretends to be shy sometimes, in reality none of our kids are. Katie is very bold and has a powerful personality. We're excited to see how God will use her in the future. In the present it creates regular showdowns when deciding "who's the boss". Dad vs Cutester can look very similar to planets colliding.

Charity is our resident 1-1/2 year old goof. She's at that stage where she's either sleeping or "on the move". For quite a while we've noticed that Charity has a twinkle in her eye (I can never figure it out, she's got very dark brown eyes that are...bright) and a smirk in one corner of her mouth. Over the past two months or so I've heard Charity say "Daddy" to her mom (when I was out of sight), but she would never call me Daddy to my face. "Can you say "Daddy"? I ask. "Mama" she replies...every time. When we're praying together, often she'll say "Amma" (her version of "Amen") a few times before we're done. I guess she's not a fan of long winded prayers.

I'm blessed that I can honestly say that I like my children. I like talking with them and being with them. I enjoy their characters and personalities. I find it exciting to watch them turn into something new...daily. In the past I've been scared of praying for faith because with faith comes trials. I'm seeing that the benefit of faith far outweighs any trials that God may put into our lives. My prayer for my kids is that they will become people of faith and people of prayer.

CP

Our long weekend

This last week I took some time off of work and we headed to the Winter Fair in Brandon on Thursday. The kids had a good time with the "Through the farm gate" portion of the fair, petting animals etc. We were happy to be able to spend some time with Grandma Pauls, Grandma Irving, Trevor, Jamie and Brooklyn. Thursday evening we made the second leg of our trip to Saskatoon to help Netties sister Anna move back to Manitoba. Since everything was full in Brandon anyway we spent the night in Virden. As I was checking into the motel I asked about the "Infestation Warning" with a picture of a maple bug that was on the wall. The lady cut eye contact and then said something about how good it is that they die in Winter...I decided not to tell Nettie until we left the next morning.

On Friday we headed out to Saskatoon with a 3 hour lunch break at Chuck-E-Cheeses in Regina. The kids had a great time playing games though we'd all had our fill by the time we left.

We had a good time visiting and packing stuff up with Anna, our van was full to the ceiling and we had some extra stuff roped to the top. We left on Sunday after the farewell lunch at Anna's church. We'd done a 4 part drive to Saskatoon which we did in one shot on the way back. The kids were good the whole way back (the movies helped...Thanks grandma P). Nettie had to talk to me to keep me awake toward the end of the drive. We arrived home shortly after 1am. Even though she was asleep we could hear Charity quietly giggle as we put her into her own bed. I didn't blame her, I felt the same.

CP