I posted this song last Christmas, but thought that since it is so uplifting I needed to post it again. This is a recording of some poor soul singing O Holy Night. I think he must be a trained singer because he breaks all the singing rules so perfectly. There's no other way to describe this than "painful."
The first time I heard this, the brother that showed it to me said, "imagine yourself as the pastor of a church, and this song was the special music right before you had to come up and preach. What would you say?"
I don't know what I would say...probably go straight to prayer.
(you might want to grab a box of tissues if you're listening for the first time and if you're a musical person, it may just be too much for you...try to make it through)
Listen here
Friday, December 14, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
another site
I just created another sight where you can be kept up to speed with things concerning the baby. Look to the links section of the blog and you will see it listed as "philthecarl.mac"
Later!
Later!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
the nursery project
Well, it's done - praise the Lord!
Here are some pic's of before, during, and after.
Enjoy!
Here are some pic's of before, during, and after.
Enjoy!
Friday, August 24, 2007
fun sentence
Here's a fun sentence I just came up with. See if you can understand it (I believe it's a legitimate sentence).
The cool cool cooler cooler cooled cool coolers coolly to out cool the coolest cool cooler cooler to ever cool cool coolers.
The cool cool cooler cooler cooled cool coolers coolly to out cool the coolest cool cooler cooler to ever cool cool coolers.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
superior hiking trail is superior
I just got home from a three day/30 mile trek up the Superior Hiking Trail in northern Minnesota. The SHT starts in Two Harbors and follows the lake up to the border of MN and Canada. We put in on CO RD 6 which is in Little Marais and hiked north to the Caribou River Wayside Rest. I went with my good friend Josh - this was his first backpacking trip, and he did 30 miles! Great job Josh!
Here's the breakdown of the trip. The first day was a 10.5 mile trek to Egge Lake (also the highest elevation of our trek - 1800 ft). Along the way we passed through many different habitats. One exciting site was the view from the top of Wolf Ridge (pic #1). Once we arrived at the campsite, we ate and were able to watch the beautiful sunset over Egge Lake (pic #3).
The next day we hiked further north to Sonju Lake where we had lunch and filtered some fresh water for drinking and cooking. We pressed on further not really knowing where we would camp that evening. We had a site picked out, but it was an aggressive distance away. We came within the borders of the George H. Crosby Manitou State Park where we came to the understanding that they had 17 sites along the river. We decided to reserve on of these sites, and we were so glad we did. This was one of the most beautiful sites I have ever stayed at. The Manitou River runs through a deep ravine and his huge boulders throughout the river (pic #4). The banks are clothed in large, old trees of various types. Our site was about twenty feet from the river where there was a small waterfall into a fairly large size pool. It was so beautiful!
The last day we had a leisurely 8 mile hike to the Caribou River. This hike however did contain some very steep inclines that humbled us. As we were walking up, we got closer and closer to the clouds until we were in them (pic #5). The wind was really blowing that day, and we thought that it might storm. It never did rain. We finally came to the Caribou River and put in for lunch on a large, flat stone in the middle of it (pic #6). Following lunch, Josh and I decide to hike up the Caribou without our packs and do some rock hopping which was very fun. Eventually we had to hike down the river and meet our ride back to our trail head. My extremely gracious mother-in-law came to meet us from Grand Marais to give us a lift - she is so wonderful!
The weather and lighting was amazing the entire trip, and the fellowship was even better. It was so great to get to know Josh more and deepen our relationships as brothers that we may sharpen one another to better glorify our Heavenly father who created and owns all that beauty we saw on our hike. It's amazing to think how God's beauty is so glorious we need glorified eyes to view it!
View from Wolf Ridge
Josh at the summit of Wolf Ridge
Sunset at Egge Lake
Josh filtering water in the Manitou River
View from Horseshoe Ridge
Lunch on the Caribou River
Here's the breakdown of the trip. The first day was a 10.5 mile trek to Egge Lake (also the highest elevation of our trek - 1800 ft). Along the way we passed through many different habitats. One exciting site was the view from the top of Wolf Ridge (pic #1). Once we arrived at the campsite, we ate and were able to watch the beautiful sunset over Egge Lake (pic #3).
The next day we hiked further north to Sonju Lake where we had lunch and filtered some fresh water for drinking and cooking. We pressed on further not really knowing where we would camp that evening. We had a site picked out, but it was an aggressive distance away. We came within the borders of the George H. Crosby Manitou State Park where we came to the understanding that they had 17 sites along the river. We decided to reserve on of these sites, and we were so glad we did. This was one of the most beautiful sites I have ever stayed at. The Manitou River runs through a deep ravine and his huge boulders throughout the river (pic #4). The banks are clothed in large, old trees of various types. Our site was about twenty feet from the river where there was a small waterfall into a fairly large size pool. It was so beautiful!
The last day we had a leisurely 8 mile hike to the Caribou River. This hike however did contain some very steep inclines that humbled us. As we were walking up, we got closer and closer to the clouds until we were in them (pic #5). The wind was really blowing that day, and we thought that it might storm. It never did rain. We finally came to the Caribou River and put in for lunch on a large, flat stone in the middle of it (pic #6). Following lunch, Josh and I decide to hike up the Caribou without our packs and do some rock hopping which was very fun. Eventually we had to hike down the river and meet our ride back to our trail head. My extremely gracious mother-in-law came to meet us from Grand Marais to give us a lift - she is so wonderful!
The weather and lighting was amazing the entire trip, and the fellowship was even better. It was so great to get to know Josh more and deepen our relationships as brothers that we may sharpen one another to better glorify our Heavenly father who created and owns all that beauty we saw on our hike. It's amazing to think how God's beauty is so glorious we need glorified eyes to view it!
View from Wolf Ridge
Josh at the summit of Wolf Ridge
Sunset at Egge Lake
Josh filtering water in the Manitou River
View from Horseshoe Ridge
Lunch on the Caribou River
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
SE Asia 2007
We've been home for a week now. We had a amazing trip. Here's some pictures to look at for now. I'll do some more specific posts later.
Picasa pics of SE Asia 2007
Picasa pics of SE Asia 2007
new house
Well, we didn't get a new house, but it sure looks like one. Here's the story.
Back in May a fellow was coming door to door. I hear the door bell ring, so I answer it. He says, "hey, my name's Ted, I'm not selling anything." So I listened for a while. Turns out he works for contractor that goes around residential neighborhoods looking for houses with hail damage. They do free assessments and if they find damage, leave it up to you if you would want to make an insurance claim. I thought, free look for damage, go ahead.
After they had a look, I realized just how much hail damage was present on my roof and siding - I didn't even know and I'm in the field of remodeling (wasn't paying that close of attention). The only thing binding with this whole deal was that I pay my deductible and use their company to do the work.
At this point I could have declined them and looked into doing the work myself, but after I got to talking with Ted, I discovered that they were believers and that comforted me. They really have turned out to be great people.
So I had an adjuster come out to assess the damage. He went over the whole property with a fine tooth comb and $16,000.00 later, I decided this was a good deal. I made the claim, and I now have a new roof and siding. There were a few hiccup's here and there, but all and all a good experience.
Here's the sweet part. When Emily and I bought the house we knew that we were going to have to put some money into the roof, and siding if we wanted to make house look better. This is our third summer of ownership and we were just gearing up to drop about $4000.00 just into the roof. Ted showed up on my doorstep the week I was pricing out materials to do the work myself. As you know, I'm job searching, and that money we had saved for the roof has really helped us during this time of financial need because of unemployment.
The Lord is faithful!
Back in May a fellow was coming door to door. I hear the door bell ring, so I answer it. He says, "hey, my name's Ted, I'm not selling anything." So I listened for a while. Turns out he works for contractor that goes around residential neighborhoods looking for houses with hail damage. They do free assessments and if they find damage, leave it up to you if you would want to make an insurance claim. I thought, free look for damage, go ahead.
After they had a look, I realized just how much hail damage was present on my roof and siding - I didn't even know and I'm in the field of remodeling (wasn't paying that close of attention). The only thing binding with this whole deal was that I pay my deductible and use their company to do the work.
At this point I could have declined them and looked into doing the work myself, but after I got to talking with Ted, I discovered that they were believers and that comforted me. They really have turned out to be great people.
So I had an adjuster come out to assess the damage. He went over the whole property with a fine tooth comb and $16,000.00 later, I decided this was a good deal. I made the claim, and I now have a new roof and siding. There were a few hiccup's here and there, but all and all a good experience.
Here's the sweet part. When Emily and I bought the house we knew that we were going to have to put some money into the roof, and siding if we wanted to make house look better. This is our third summer of ownership and we were just gearing up to drop about $4000.00 just into the roof. Ted showed up on my doorstep the week I was pricing out materials to do the work myself. As you know, I'm job searching, and that money we had saved for the roof has really helped us during this time of financial need because of unemployment.
The Lord is faithful!
first things first
There are now three Carlson's in this family. This picture was take back in April. Emily is expected to have the baby on December 8th. Lord-willing the baby will come a day late so we can still participate in the Gamble Family Christmas. We have had our second ultrasound and after seeking much counsel and opinion, did not find out the child's gender. There were many reasons for this, but I think mostly Emily and I didn't have a strong preference and wanted the surprise and anticipation (nothing against parents who choose to find out). We're going to be extremely happy either way.
Have you heard of the new gender neutral pronoun? The word is "Hu" and it takes the place of "he or she." It really is tricky to refer to the baby. Emily and I have taken to either referring to the baby as "Heshee" (he/she) or "Dia," which is the gender neutral pronoun in Bahasa Indonesia. We do have names picked out (no we're not telling), but that isn't really that helpful since we don't know the gender.
At some point I'm going to start a separate blog that you can link from this blog after we have the baby so you can view pics and keep up with the new family addition.
Gamble Family web page
Gender Neutral Pronoun
a long time's past
Hello,
I realize my long absence may have caused some of you to quit checking my blog. At the same time I realize that technology is so fancy these days that you can subscribe to my blog, and IT will tell you when I've posted - pretty stinking cool!
Some reasons for my absence. As some of you may know I'm on the hunt for a job. I'm spending a lot of time on the computer, and I didn't want to spend any more time than I had to. Though it has now gotten to the point, because of the Lord's great faithfulness, that I need to post some of the amazing things that have happened to us over the past few months.
I'll post as soon as I can.
I realize my long absence may have caused some of you to quit checking my blog. At the same time I realize that technology is so fancy these days that you can subscribe to my blog, and IT will tell you when I've posted - pretty stinking cool!
Some reasons for my absence. As some of you may know I'm on the hunt for a job. I'm spending a lot of time on the computer, and I didn't want to spend any more time than I had to. Though it has now gotten to the point, because of the Lord's great faithfulness, that I need to post some of the amazing things that have happened to us over the past few months.
I'll post as soon as I can.
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