My wife is in her 19th week of pregnancy. In fact, so am I. It’s amazing. Pregnancy is amazing. All the intricacies and timings of this child’s development could not have been better planned by the best strategist or the best doctor. I have one word for ya — GOD. A purposeful, personal, loving GOD.
Now take a look at the most beautiful woman in the world…
Powered by ScribeFire.
Mid-week and the boxes continue to grow. I really doubt we will have a problem filling the house. (Not that I really want to fill the house…!) Harriet tells me this is the perfect time to chuck out lots of crap we don’t need. I can’t wait.
more boxes…
Our friend Cosette helping us clean the windows…
It’s hard work!
Powered by ScribeFire.
For those who don’t know, Harriet and I are moving out of our current one bedroom flat into a larger place. Harriet has spearheaded the packing charge and I have moved ahead with all of the logistical preparations associated with the move such as signing out of the commune, changing addresses with phone companies etc…
We plan on finishing up the bedroom and living room tomorrow night, and then finishing the kitchen on Wednesday night. Thursday will be the “final touches” evening and Friday, Lord willing, I will take Harriet on a fun date celebrating this exciting move in our lives and to relax before ‘the day’!
We have 8 people helping us move, clean and cater. I feel so privileged to have such a loving community around me. Go team!
Powered by ScribeFire.
“Thanksgiving”, you have come and gone again. Every year, you greet us with excitement and abundance. Each year, you leave — so swiftly, secretly and yet ironically, almost without notice.
This year Harriet and I focused our thanks’ on the PERSON who deserves the thanks: Jesus. For creating us, for providing for us, for protecting us, AND for always being close to us!
We had a great time together with Dave and Al n Fab’s friend Pierre. (Hopefully we’ll see him again, he is a great guy!)
Now for some important crucial stats:
- Start to finish cooking = 4hrs. (except the pumpkin pie which took another 50mns while we were enjoying the feast)
- Shopping = 1 good hour
- Planning the meal and the shopping list - 45mns
- Size of bird = 3.17kg
- Amount of sweet potatoes = 1.34kg
- Amount of green beans = 800g
- Amount of brown sugar = 440g
(Stats will be updated as I clean up the kitchen!!!)
Reflecting on this evening, despite the massive-SUPER-tasty feast we all enjoyed, I have been enjoying an even tastier feast: spending quality time with Jesus every day. The best thing about this Jesus-feast — you never feel hungry afterwards. Something no meal can do for you! (even the Thanksgiving meal will leave you hungry at some point… even if it IS a few days later!) Big ups to Dave for making dinner possible given the impossible time frame!
Some snaps for those interested.
Powered by ScribeFire.
It was an average, packed day when Harriet received a call in the evening. She listened and then exclaimed, ‘oh no’! Harriet doesn’t express that tone often so when she does, I know it’s serious. She moved the phone away from her face for a few seconds and whispered to me, ‘Opa passed away this morning…’
I felt my chest cavity caving in and remember it being a very dark, quiet moment. I felt like I had just been hit in the blind spot of my heart.
My grandfather was an exceptional man. From what I knew of him, regretfully little compared to some, he was a head-strong man with great dreams, and the rare ability to achieve them. He was a passionate man who stood for what he believed in. He was a generous man, with his time, talents and money. He pursued excellence, and lived it in every area of his life. He was a faithful, patient and loving man who always put his family at the top of his priority list.
It pains me to reflect deeply on my situation vis a vis him; I did not take the time, nor in many ways was I afforded it, to get to know my grandfather in the way I would have liked. By the time I recognized his talents, the value of his experiences and the tremendous amount he had given me, my relationship with my grandparents was in need of severe mending, mostly because of the distance time away from one another creates and my poor communication.
I am left now with the words and imagery that others share of their time with him. At his funeral on 4-5 November 2007, I found myself asking as many people as possible what he was like, what they found most inspiring about him and what they learned from him.
Although not a perfect man, he had clear leadership ability, patience, compassion and a focused mind throughout all of his 86 years with us. These gifts he managed were the foundation of the company he built into a world leader in industrial adhesives, Helmitin. I managed to get a hold of some documents (8.7MB) which celebrate some of my grandfather’s accomplishments and one of Helmitin’s brochures which briefly markets the company. Download and read them if you are interested.
Opa, my deepest respect to you for your passion, your determination, your impact and your love. You will not be forgotten.
Powered by ScribeFire.
OK so perhaps the fact that I got a newer used PC is part of the reason I have started giving our lovely blog more attention recently…
So much has been happening its hard to keep up with everything. I did get a hold of a Dell Precision 450 with a Pentium Xenon 3Ghz processor, 512MB RAM and an NVidia Quadro FX 500/600 PCI graphics card. So, after setting it up correctly, I can now actually do more than one thing at a time. Imagine that, running Skype, iTunes, Outlook AND blogging. Wow. Its actually a super performer, and much faster and capable than I initially thought it could be.
For those of you who don’t know yet, Harriet and I are planning on being parents at the end of April 2008. My beautiful wife is happily in her 17th week of pregnancy, and I am the first to say how quickly these past 17 weeks have gone. She has been an amazing warrior, despite the ‘challenges’ that a pregnancy can bring! I will soon have some photos up for everyone to see.
Pregnancy this means dealing with the reality of us living in a fairly cramped one bedroom apartment in Nyon and the reality of a third member of the family joining us. At Colombiere 3, where we currently live, location, price and coziness all get a 10, but size is definitely a problem. Harriet started doing some searching for 2 and 3 bedroom apartments in the area, as our budget is quite tight, especially with Harriet taking leave and my business not yet raking in the millions.
Long story short, God has landed us a HOUSE, yes, a house, with a massive kitchen and garden, right on the vineyards, just as we prayed……! for you to understand what a MIRACLE this is, you have to live here. the cost of the average 4 bedroom stand-alone house in this area is around 2 million Swissies, roughly 1.7 million USD and rental prices can easily hit 8K Swissies for a nice pad in a nice location. We have managed to rent this for just double what we are currently paying in rent. Unbelievable. We move in on 1 Dec.
Check back soon.
Powered by ScribeFire.
For the past 10 days, Joseph has been in town, camping out in our living room. What has he done, you ask? He has enjoyed ten days of intense preparation for his intensive month-long CELTA course in Rome, shopping, visiting friends, watching anime in his pajamas, playing Mario 64 on my N64 emulator, and drinking hot chocolate. All this before a stint in Orbetello for Christmas, and another few months in Canterbury. Will we see him next year in Geneva to live? We hope!
Anyhow, couldn’t have him leave without a few snaps!
Powered by ScribeFire.
