The Copeland Ramblings

2007-01-22T22:18:00.001-05:00

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10 months!

2007-01-19T23:25:00.000-05:00

WOW! Can he really be that old already? He is growing up far too fast.

Canaan's first nasty injury!

2007-01-18T07:51:00.000-05:00

Canaan had quite the day yesterday. The whole day started off with a little poop taste testing... yuck! And ended off with a nice big cut on his hand. He was wondering around the house like usual... and he went in to the bedroom... like normal... but this time we heard a loud crash seconds after he went in... not normal... then he started to cry. Norman ran right in and picked him up. He seemed ok. But then he noticed the massive amounts of blood coming from his left hand. He had pulled a mirror right down on his hand... But our little guy is such a trooper. He screemed for maybe half a minute and then he settled right down. He only cried when we were trying to clean the blood off. Here is a picture...

Fun with our Photobooth

2007-01-16T07:29:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Adam (a childhood friend), my brother Ken and his friend Brenden came over to visit. It wasn't long before we were gathered around the computer making all kinds of strange faces. Check out the bizarre and sometimes scary creations:

Check out all of our outlandish pictures here
or watch the flash slideshow

Surprise Surprise!

2007-01-15T10:07:00.000-05:00

Usually on Sunday mornings while we prepare for Church we let Canaan crawl around the house. We know where he usually can get into mischief and we watch which rooms he ventures into. Yesterday morning I watched him hurriedly crawl into the bathroom which seems to be a favourite of his. A few minutes passed by and I decided to check on him. This is what I found:

I think the oddest thing was walking into a room to see him standing there. Not to mention the giant pile of toilet paper. We let him have another minute of fun as we scrambled for the camera. He seemed to be having a great time, giggling as he spun the roll.

Poor Chickens

2007-01-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

Health & Wellness week continues. Yesterday we had an opportunity to suture and give stitches. No, we didn't practice this one on each other. For this exercise we had chicken legs with slices in them. We had to do one stitch that was for deeper muscle cuts and one for cuts just through the skin. It was fun to try and to learn that this was something we could actually do if we had to. We have two more days next week with Faye during which we will cover malaria and how to run indigenous medical programs. We have thoroughly enjoyed our week of classes, it was a great start to the semester!

Health & Wellness

2007-01-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

One of the major struggles of living overseas is dealing with health factors. To help educate us about this our classes this week and part of next are devoted to 'Health and Wellness'. Faye Brown is a nurse who worked with New Tribes for many years and now works with Friends in Action, an organization that draws along side other mission organizations and helps them with physical needs. Faye travels the globe helping missionaries with medical programs and educating those in the training. Yesterday afternoon we had a little tutorial on how to read someones blood pressure, give a shot and also check their ears. Don't worry, we're only injecting saline :o)

Watch the video:

Click To Play

or watch it in High Quality Quicktime

Music: Teardrop by Massive Attack (House MD theme song)

2007-01-09T14:14:00.000-05:00

Once in a Lifetime

2007-01-07T23:22:00.000-05:00

You don't want to miss this one folks, a once in a life time event. I've been sporting a gotee for quite some time. In fact Debra has never known me without one, and she does like my gotee. She's seen pictures from my teenage years and is quite vocal about her thoughts on the subject. But, she let me do it just this once...

Click To Watch Video

Music: This is a Heart Attack - Blindside

Crawling

2007-01-05T16:18:00.000-05:00

Canaan has been "army" crawling for a few months now. =) But at the Los Angeles Airport Canaan showed us he can now crawl the "real" way! Such a big boy. He started doing so many things on our trip to California. His motor skills are developing really well lately. He walks really fast as long as he has someone to hold onto and he also pulls him self up on anything he can find.

On the flight home Canaan did marvelously. He slept most of the time. He wasn't too keen on the layover in the middle of the night (he wanted to be sleeping) but did really well. Thank you for all your prayers.

The next couple of days we will be busily getting ready for school to start on Monday. The unpacking is pretty well done and we are working on a project due on Monday.

Please also pray that we get our bodies back on to the eastern timezone. Especially Canaan. =)

~Debra

We Made It!

2007-01-04T21:08:00.000-05:00

20 hours after leaving the Rutledge home in California we finally made it home! It was a long red eye flight with a connection in New York and a lay over but we'll write more about it later, for now we have more important things to do - sleep!

Our Last Week in California

2007-01-03T02:11:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday we traveled up to San Luis Obispo for a Rutledge Family Tradition. Every year Debra's family visit with a few of Charlie's (Deb's dad) brothers and their families. This is my third trip up and enjoyed the time spent with Deb's extended family. One thing I'd been looking forward to was spending time with Justin, Debra's cousin. Debra and Justin were very close growing up and Justin has definitely welcomed me into the family. Justin is also a computer guy with lots of web programming experience and has been a great teacher. Justin designed his own site and actually ran it off of his own server at his house which I thought was pretty cool (yes, probably because I'm a geek). :o) During our day up there a bunch of us took a walk to CalPoly (California Polytechnic University) to look at a memorial. This memorial was dedicated to a team of football players from CalPoly that crashed in an airplane in the 1960s. Half of the team didn't survive. Debra's aunt Connie was with us on the walk and this was special to her because her biological father was one of those who died in that crash. She was only six weeks old when this happened.
We spent New Years Eve as a family but celebrated a bit early! At 10pm we let off all our streamers and poppers because our brother in law Gregg Bowcock had to get up at 3:30 the next morning for work. On New Years Day he worked 19hrs at the Rose Bowl. Gregg is a California Highway Patrol officer and was escorting the players and dignitaries such as the Governor of Oklahoma.

^ Our friend Jake enjoyed New Years Eve with us

Tomorrow (or today depending on your timezone) we leave for home! Our flight leaves at 7pm but it isn't until the next morning (Thurs.) at 9am that we finally arrive in Toronto. This is because of a connection through New York with a long lay over. Pray for Canaan as he flies all night with us.

Looking forward to see all of our Canadian friends!

Happy New Year!!

2006-12-31T17:54:00.000-05:00

(Sydney...Gregg and Kathleen's dog)

Bath time in Grandma's kitchen

Well, its been a while since I (Debra) have posted. So I just thought I would do a quick post. =)

We have been having a lot of fun spending some time with my family and recharging. It has been such a wonderful and needed break. I always love seeing my family. The best part of this break is that we have all mainly just been hanging out instead of being busy going places. We told my family before coming out that what we really needed and wanted was a break and time with them. And they listened. Its so great.

As you may have picked up from past posts we have all been fighting off colds and flus since we have been here. Seems like all of us have had it in some form or another. Some worse than others.

We have also had a great time catching up with our Church family. It has been nice to see them and have so good fellowship.

Well today is New Years Eve! I have no idea what we are doing today... but it will be fun. (Probably just hanging and and relaxing! YA!)

Keep us in prayer this Wednesday night. We will be flying out that night for a red eye flight with a lay over in New York. Pray that Canaan gets some good sleep and handles the 2 flights well.

Ok well I am sure you will be hearing from us again soon.

Debra

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2006-12-29T21:16:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Grandma Tami! We love you very much! You're an amazing mom, mom-in-law and grandma! We'll miss you this evening, thanks for giving up your evening to look after Grandpa.
Love you!

It's Going So Fast!

2006-12-28T23:04:00.000-05:00

Christmas break marches on and it's hard not to think about our return to Canada. We've had a very relaxing time and that is exactly what we needed after a tough semester at school. We've had a chance to reflect on our past semester, giving us wisdom on how to better manage our time and resources next semester. Most of the family has been kept busy this week recuperating from sickness. As we wrote about previously Canaan was pretty sick and thankfully he is now feeling a lot better. Deb's dad came down with flu-like symptoms on Christmas day and has been battling it since. Critter too is a little under the weather as well as myself. I make it sound like we're all dying, but it's not so bad. Thank you for all of your prayers for us as we regain our health :o) This weekend we are heading up to San Luis Obispo. One highlight from that trip will be to hang out with Debra's cousin Justin. Justin is a die hard Apple man so I'm sure we'll have lots of questions for him. New Years will probably be a family event just like last year, unfortunately Gregg will be busy all day escorting the teams in the Rose Bowl. And on Wednesday we will start our journey home. But hey, thats still a week a way, no need to think about that yet!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T19:54:00.000-05:00

Where ever you happen to be this Christmas we hope and pray that you have had a great day with family and friends and most importantly remembering the reason we call this day Christmas! God has blessed me beyond anything I could deserve, but the initial gift of sending his Son to save me by dying for my sins far outweighs all others.

Thanks for praying for Canaan, he is still a bit sick but has definitely improved since yesterday. His fever is down and his spirits are restored. He had a great time this morning playing with all of the wrapping, ribbons and bows.

After a lazy morning of gift opening we had an awesome breakfast of German pancakes (thanks Kathleen!) and later on a lunch of tri-tip. But the breaks not over yet! The Rutledge family gets Canaan for another week and a half, and now that the sun and warm weather is finally here we have some lost time to make up for!

Poor Little Boy

2006-12-24T18:54:00.000-05:00

Keep little Canaan in your prayers, he seems to have caught what I've been fighting for the last few days. He woke up this morning very congested, it continued to develop throughout the day. He now has a pretty high fever (102+). We were able to take him to a doctor who is friends with the Rutledge family. He listened to Canaan's lungs and checked him out. His lungs were clear and throat looked ok. So we're just going to keep him on the infant Tylenol and Advil and watch his temperature this evening.

This morning Deb and I had the chance to share what we've been up to with the Berean Sunday School Class at Camarillo EV Free. It was fun to answer their questions as well as tell them how much their role in our lives really mean to us. The Berean class has always been very encouraging to us and interested in our lives. They also had been raising money and saved up enough for us to purchase the French Rosetta Stone language learning program. We are very excited about this, it will give us a little head start on our language learning and help us fit in in Quebec a little easier next fall.

THANKS GUYS!

Family

2006-12-22T20:04:00.000-05:00

The best part of our trip is just watching Deb's family enjoy Canaan. Though they've loved watching him grow through pictures and video there is just no replacement for the real thing. Canaan too has had a blast getting to know his grandparents more and definitely has loved the attention. Times like these are special to us but at times sadden us when we think of someday in the future when we leave for Guinea. My own parents get to see Canaan every weekend and they still miss him like crazy. Going to Guinea on our own strength would be way too hard. We are thankful that it is God who has asked us to go. But He hasn't just asked us to go and left the rest for us, he has supplied us with everything necessary to accomplish the task. He is intimately involved in our lives and it is these things that allow us to carry on. And so we just take the moments we have with our family and enjoy them, thanking God for the opportunities we do have to be together.

Shocked!

2006-12-20T16:51:00.000-05:00

We are in sunny California! Well, it is sunny but not necessarily warm. Earlier today it was only 7.7C (44F) and we've had days lately back in Ontario Canada up to 14C! We finally pulled in late last night to a family eager to see the star - Canaan! We stayed up way too late and finally got to go to blissful sleep, hoping and praying that Canaan wouldn't get up at his normal time of 7am which would be 4am here. He did wake up but he went back to sleep until 7am California time. Grandma Tami took him and Debra and I had the chance to sleep in. Oh glorious sleep!

The biggest surprise today was an early Christmas gift! We were fooled into a phony scavenger hunt meant only to stall us so that they could set up our Christmas gift. And what was it? A Mac! Needless to say, were shocked! This is a real blessing to us, we've had trouble with our computer lately including daily overheating and a recent crash which resulted in the near loss of important pictures.

Thanks so much family! We are continually blown away by your love and generosity. We love you!

Christmas at the Copelands

2006-12-19T08:24:00.000-05:00

Today we leave for California! We are looking forward to being with our family in California and are thankful for the time we had this past weekend to have Christmas with my family. Sunday morning Debra and I were in the church Christmas play, it was a lot of fun. Tom and I were told old men by the well who always had an opinion on everything. Afterwards we went over to mom and dads to have dinner and exchange gifts. It is Canaan's first Christmas and Grandpa and Grandma Copeland got him a very special gift. He won't be able to use it right away, but it won't be long:

Canaan's very first Radio Flyer!

Our flight leaves at 5:40 this evening, we'll keep you posted on how Canaan does! Pray that he will sleep well during the flight.

~ Norm

Relax

2006-12-17T07:42:00.000-05:00

It's finally time for Christmas break, man have we been looking forward to this! This past Friday we had our last class of the semester, a wrap up of our CLA practicum. Yesterday was a busy but fun day of shopping and getting ready for the Copeland family Christmas which is today as well as for our trip to California on Tuesday. Debra and I are in our church Christmas play this morning, it should be fun :o) Actually, Canaan is in it too! I'm an old man and Debra is a towns person with her baby. I have a big white beard that Canaan just loves to try to grab. Afterwards we'll head over to my parents and have our Christmas dinner, and everyone will actually be there! We hope you are all enjoying the start to your Christmas seasons!

~ Norm

Congratulations!

2006-12-14T21:56:00.000-05:00

Congratulations Dana on the birth of your new little boy, Brennen Paul Hill! We look forward to watching him grow through your blog, thanks for sharing your lives with us! We'll be praying for you as all of you adjust to the latest Hill.

Check out Dana's blog : Boy oh Boy!

Canaan Had Fun Too

2006-12-14T21:51:00.000-05:00

While we were at our Christmas party Canaan was hanging out with Uncle Peter & Aunt Leah. Looks like he had a good time!

Finishing off the semester

2006-12-13T08:59:00.000-05:00

Last night was the NTMC training Christmas party! Like last year we socialized with deserts and then had a huge gift exchange. This year we had 54 people playing, four less than last year but still a lot of people for a gift exchange. Shane kept everything in order and the game went well. Last year I won a screwdriver set that I still use but this time its didn't turn out as well. I ended up with a women's devotional and a candle (no offense to whoever brought it) :o)

Today is our last day of our CLA Practicum, the last six weeks really have gone by fast and we can say that it accomplished in our lives what was intended. We saw the value of the culture and language learning technique we studied as well as learning extra lessons along the way that God prepared for us. Tomorrow and Friday we have lectures and then the holidays begin! We look forward to the break and the chance to see our family in California, we miss them!

On another note, check out our friend Dana Hill's blog, last night she went to the hospital to be induced and we are excitedly awaiting the news!

Happy Birthday Brother!

2006-12-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

This weekend we celebrated my brother's 23rd Birthday!
Wish him a happy birthday comment or email him one at kennyleecopeland gmail.com

Happy 23rd Birthday Kenny! We had a great time hanging out this weekend, thanks for being such a great encouragement to us!

The Elves are Spreading!

2006-12-10T07:14:00.000-05:00

People are being elfed all over the place! See who got elfed over at Lisa's House and then head over to Kane's Korner! Jannah, what have you done?!

You're Right Jannah

2006-12-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

This post doesn't need much explaining. Jannah posted yesterday about Elf Yourself. She shared her elfed version of herself and we sent her one of our own. She had this to say:

At 1:52 PM, Jannah said…
That's so funny! You have to post that on your blog...forget crawling, Canaan's a born dancer!

Click the Canaan Elf to see him in action

Check out Jannah's Off on a Tangent, there's always something fun to read! You'll often find Jannah's post in the 'from my reader' list in our side bar.

Try Again, Shall We?

2006-12-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Debra and I were both supposed to speak at our church in Shelburne: Deb had the ladies meeting on Saturday and I had the Sunday service the next day. I ended up speaking as scheduled but because of the nasty weather on Friday and Saturday the ladies meeting was canceled. All we had here in Durham was a lot of wind but the Shelburne area seemed to be hit quite a bit worse. Mom and Dad had no power for two days and their car narrowly missed being nailed by a falling tree. We were in Shelburne on Sunday and on a drive that afternoon Deb and I saw many houses with huge amounts of damage from fallen trees. It brought back memories of the ice storm of 1998. Mom's car was stuck under a tangled web of branches and fallen powerlines for most of friday which precipitated this message we found on our answering machine:

Click To Play

The weather looks like its going to cooperate so tomorrow the ladies are going to try and meet again. We'll see!

Christmas Concert

2006-12-06T19:08:00.000-05:00

Last night we had our annual Durham Christmas Concert hosted by NTMC. The auditorium was packed, probably a few hundred residents which is a lot when you look at the population of Durham. There was lots of great music and a message by John Challinor. The choir and others doing music have been practicing for months and their hard work paid off. The music was great and even more important was chance we had to share the true meaning of Christmas. During the concert there was a powerpoint being projected with the words to the songs, etc. The 1st and 2nd grade classes at the NTMC Academy drew all of the pictures for the backgrounds of the slides. Check out some of their Christmas pictures below, they're really cute!

Sneezing Panda

2006-12-04T22:24:00.000-05:00

We got a kick out of this video, poor mama bear!

Watch it a couple of times for the full effect :o)

It Finally Looks Like December

2006-12-04T21:52:00.000-05:00

This year my sense of time has been all over the map. Why? Because of the absence of snow! It has not at all felt like November or December. Finally yesterday reality hit and I was reminded of where and when I am. It snowed all morning and we have a thick beautiful covering. This past fall I put up a few bird feeders and have thoroughly enjoyed all the visitors that we've had. They don't go unnoticed, they like to make a mess and throw seeds everywhere! But it is fun to find millions of little prints all over the fresh snow:

It's interesting, until now the only birds we've had are blue jays, chickadees and the occasional nuthatch but the day it snowed we've suddenly had three more species join our group. Weird. Just behind our house is a brand new sledding hill, we can't wait to give it a try! Snow or not I hope that you are all enjoying your winter!

~ Norm

He always knows how to brighten my day!

2006-12-04T21:25:00.000-05:00

Norm sure knows how to brighten my day! He bought me 6 red roses today! (oh and a Twix bar... king size... he always puts a chocolate bar in with the roses!!!)Canaan has been sick for a few days and the inevitable happened... I finally caught it. Canaan and I get sick a lot. I must have passed on my weak immune system. But living here at NTMC we catch every single cold that goes around. If I don't catch it from my classmates Canaan, catches it from in the nursery.

So if any of you have any really good tips or wives tales or anything at all about boosting your immune system, please leave a comment! We would sure love to hear from you and get some practical advice! But seriously... please leave your name. Nothing drives me more nuts than anonymous comments! Even if we don't know you, leave a name or something. Thanks for stopping in and checking up on us.

~Debra

Splish Splash

2006-12-02T11:01:00.000-05:00

The picture from the last post inspired me to get some film of Canaan in the tub, don't worry, it's heavily edited!

Click To Play

For better quality select one of the formats below:

Quicktime | Windows
(to download right click and select save link/target as...)

His Oasis

2006-12-01T00:20:00.000-05:00

You can't tell from this picture, but our poor little guy is feeling sick. So far it just seems like a bad cold, the kind that's been going around campus lately. The usual congested / snotty / hard to breathe kind of cold. It's pretty late but I've been up with Canaan, he's had troubles sleeping. It's so sad, he wants to sleep so badly but just can't fall asleep when congested.

When rough days come bath time is Canaan's little oasis of fun.

Week 4 : CLA Continues

2006-11-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

Today we are half way through week four of our CLA Practicum. Forgotten what our CLA Practicum is? No problem, click here for a description. Quickly put, it is a chance to practice the culture and language learning techniques that we learned earlier this semester. For the past three weeks we have been comprehending nouns and verbs. This week we shift gears a bit and start on grammar. During this morning's session we used little people from some board games to acquire personal pronouns such as I, you, he, she, we, etc. It has been a busy, stretching time but we know that we are learning many valuable lessons. This weekend Debra and I are both speaking at our Church. Deb will be speaking at a ladies luncheon on Saturday and mine is during the morning service on Sunday. We are learning a lot but are looking forward to our green Christmas in California where we can rest our brains :o)

Visiting Blogger Friends

2006-11-27T17:17:00.000-05:00

This weekend we got to visit Jennifer Heemskerk as well as her husband and much of his family! I knew Jennifer in high school, but hadn't seen her since I was about 16. Deb of course had never met her. Not long after Debra became pregnant we found Jennifer's blog through a mutual friend and began to get to know each other. Jennifer has always been encouraging, we enjoy her comments! It's been fun watching their little girl Rachel grow, Rachel was born just a week or so before we found out that Deb was pregnant. It's great to see how blogs can be used to create new friendships and keep in touch with others when it might otherwise not happen.

Check out the Heemskerks at http://peacock24.blogspot.com

Family Thanksgiving

2006-11-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had our family Thanksgiving dinner! Debra worked hard in the kitchen for hours and hours to produce a spectacular turkey dinner, it was amazing! She pulled all the stops: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole and more!
We were all very appreciative of her hard work.

After dinner Ken came over and we went out in search of a little Christmas tree to put up! We wanted something small - we found what we were looking for! Canaan was very interested in this prickly thing that appeared in his house! Pulling out the decorations and deciding what goes where is one of Deb's favourite times of the year, she has so much fun. It's also a lot of fun to just watch her create. Our tree is decorated and looks beautiful. Afterwards we played a fun game of cranium and watched a movie. It was a great, relaxing, fun family day. I love having two thanksgivings every year!

Check out more Thanksgiving pictures here

Drop and give me 20!

2006-11-26T07:10:00.000-05:00

Definitely an MK

2006-11-24T15:59:00.000-05:00

MK: missionary kid

The MK culture is one that I've been introduced to over the last few years. Canaan was born into it. At eight months Canaan is already being exposed to other cultures...

click the picture to play

Quicktime | Windows | Flash
(to download right click and select save link/target as...)

Cultural Tip

2006-11-23T22:41:00.000-05:00

How to tell that you have three Californians living with you...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

One of the great parts of being married to an American is that we get twice the Thanksgiving each year! Though we obviously don't get American Thanksgiving off of school, we do have some visitors. Deb's sister Critter and her friend Lily have the rest of the week off from NTBI and are up until Sunday. The truth be told though, they are actually here to see Canaan. That's okay, I'm used to it. They arrived late last night and were able to listen in this morning on a bit of our Culture and Language Session this morning. We have decided to have a family Thanksgiving on Saturday since Debra will have more time to get everything ready. It'll be Deb's second time cooking the entire Thanksgiving meal and I can't wait! Critter came up last year, it's great to once again hang out. It's been a busy week, we look forward to a relaxing, fun family dinner on Saturday.

Critter came with a gift for her wee nephew. A brand new 9month sleeper. It's a great gift because Canaan is getting quite big for his 6 month clothes. The sleeper looks great, but we noticed something hilarious on the tag...

8 MONTHS!

2006-11-20T21:49:00.000-05:00

THEN...NOW...

Canaan is now 8 months old! Unbelievable! We are so blessed to be Canaan's parents! He has grown so much!

Stats on March 19

weight: 8 lbs 1 ounce
height: 20.5 inches

Stats now!

weight: 21 lbs
height: 30 inches

He has gained 13 pounds and almost 10 inches!

Boy do they grow so fast. Canaan is "crawling" all over the place and getting in to trouble! He also says mama and dada!
On that note, today I asked Canaan a question... It went something like this....

Mom: "Canaan, who do you want to change your dirty diaper?"
Canaan: "dada!"

We have never laughed so hard! Being a mom is the greatest thing in the world!

~Debra

Happy Birthday Grandma Sheila!!!

2006-11-20T21:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday! Hope you had a good one! We all love you and had fun celebrating your birthday on the weekend! Thanks for all you do for us!

Love,

Norm,
Debra
and Canaan

it was bound to happen

2006-11-18T17:08:00.000-05:00

Today the inevitable finally happened. I was playing with Canaan on the floor having a good time when suddenly I heard a little gurgle come from deep within his system. It was a warning sign I should have taken seriously. It wasn't long before a huge amount of green partially digested food came forth. The problem was how we were playing.... I was on my back on the floor with Canaan on my belly. Yep, right in the face. All through my hair, face, mouth - everywhere. I really have no idea how I didn't throw up too. I obviously had to take a shower, Canaan too had to get rinsed off, he'd also managed to cover himself in the process. The joys of parenting :o) He's lucky we love him so much.

~ Norm

MMMMMM!!!!

2006-11-18T12:55:00.000-05:00

Meal times are always comical in our house...

Click To Play
click here for low quality version

Music: Schizophreniac by Earthsuit

Download:

(right click and select save link/target as...)
Quicktime : High | Low
Windows Media Payer : High

Week Two

2006-11-18T10:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday saw the finish of our second week of our CLA Practicum. It has definitely been a challenge but as every day goes by we see the value of what we have been learning and it's effectiveness when it comes to learning another language and culture. On Wednesday Lidya took us out to a couple of her favourite stores: New Life Mill and the local butcher shop. It was a fun experience and we took lots of pictures which we used in later sessions to get new vocabulary. Yesterday we took a tour of her beef farm, they are definitely hard working people. Lydia doesn't know the meaning of the word retirement, she's always on the go. We are actually one third of the way through our practicum, it really has gone fast. It's been a very busy and tough part of our course but also an invaluable one. Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

Good Morning World!

2006-11-15T12:28:00.000-05:00

One things that we love about Canaan is that he is generally a morning person. He has returned to sleeping through the night, which has been great, we all feel a lot better. Even on nights where he cried and cried and hardly slept we'd still wake him up in the morning and find a huge grin. The schedule we have him on has been working out great with our new CLA schedule. His nap times give us a chance to file and practice our data which is usually quite difficult if he is up and playing.

Canaan will soon get to see his Aunty Critter! Critter will be up in a week with her friend Lily, we can't wait! Critter and Lily are in their last year down at the Jackson Bible School.

Trashmail

2006-11-15T07:05:00.000-05:00

Have you ever needed to do or get one thing at a website but you are required to sign up for an account? So you use one of your number of junk mail addresses that are for just such an occasion. I found this free service called Trashmail that will create a disposable email address for you to use. You can set the number of emails that will forward to you and how long the email address will last (in days). After either of those passes the disposable email address will be deleted. The best part is that they have a Firefox extension that lets you right click on the email field and get a Trashmail address pasted right in for you.

Ken Has Returned

2006-11-13T07:26:00.000-05:00

Ken returned from Vegas! Check out his posts about the trip here

Best Buds

2006-11-12T21:51:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we bought a blanket to be Canaan's special security blanket, he had other plans! Instead he picked out his lullaby giraffe :o)

Click To Play

Remembrance Day

2006-11-11T18:36:00.000-05:00

Today in Canada is Remembrance Day! We have a lot of American students in our class who each year have asked, "Why is everyone wearing those red flowers?" Remembrance day is similar to Veterans Day in the States:

The red poppy has been Canada's symbol of remembrance since 1921 and stems from Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae's famous poem, In Flanders Fields, which speaks to the fear that the war dead will be forgotten. Canadians, and others in countries around the world, wear poppies over their hearts leading up to Remembrance Day on Nov. 11 as a pledge that the deaths of military personnel have not been in vain.

Each year the country is filled with millions of Poppies, a symbol of those who have died in war. I read an interesting article yesterday about a group that is selling white poppies. The white poppy is supposed to represent peace though many are outraged that they are using the poppy and piggy backing on an important symbol. What do you think?

Read the article here

Winter's Coming!

2006-11-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

so we better get ready!

Unwind

2006-11-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhh, the weekend. I'm pretty sure our whole class is breathing a sigh of relief after our first week of CLA Practicum! As per usual mom came Friday morning to look after Canaan while we went to Lidya's house for our session. We kept busy through out the day but finally by dinner it was time to relax! We went to the Challinors for supper followed by games night! Well, originally it was just ladies game night in the class room, but some of us guys got together at John's to play Settlers. After a few rough nights with Canaan I wasn't able to stay until the end of the game, but I still had a blast! I'll have to find out how the game ended. We look forward to a relaxing weekend, a little bit of language review today but other than that just a chance to recharge our batteries.(Kane, Jim, James, John)

Culture Event

2006-11-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

This past week we've met each day with Lydia, our language helper, and have slowly been growing our comprehension of Russian nouns, verbs and phrases. Every few days we have what is called a 'cultural event' where we will all do something together, it can be anything at all! One of us will photograph the event and the next day we will learn objects and verbs from the event. This helps with vocabulary as well as learning Lydia's culture. It also does one more thing which is the key to our CLA Practicum - it develops our relationship with Lydia. The main tenet of our 'Culture and Language Acquisition' program is Relationship based. Everything in our program is to point back to relationships. Each session with Lydia isn't just drill after drill of words but it is also a time to get to know her. She loves to tell us stories of Russia and we learn a lot about her and her culture through it. Our culture event yesterday was how to make home made noodles! This is something she grew up with and continues to make for her family. It was great fun and we ended up with LOTS of noodles! We even had them for lunch afterwards.
Tomorrow I think we'll be baking something yummy!

Uncle Ken is So Cool!

2006-11-07T12:14:00.000-05:00

On his recent trip to Vegas Ken happened upon a perfect Christmas present for Canaan. This little race car jacket is the perfect gift from your mechanic uncle! Don't worry, it's pretty difficult to spoil the surprise for Canaan! Everyone needs an Uncle Kenny, Thanks Uncle Ken!

Catching our breath

2006-11-07T06:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was our first day of our CLA Practicum. To say the least it was an extremely busy day due to the previous weekend. Normally we'll have a two hour session during the day and then 6 hours of processing, practice and preparing for the next day. Because of our late return Sunday night we had an afternoon session yesterday but today we have an 8am session. That made for a full evening last night, cramming in all of our review, processing and preparing. Our language helper, Lydia is very friendly and encouraging. She doesn't even seem to get bored saying the same Russian words over and over again! :o) By the end of our session our brains were full but it was cool to see that our minds were already getting used to the foreign sounds. Here we go - day two!

We have Returned

2006-11-06T08:50:00.000-05:00

We're home! This morning at 1:30am we rolled onto campus after a busy but great weekend. On Saturday we left for Belleville to share at Hastings Park Bible Church missions conference, it was a long drive but we arrived at 4pm and began setting up for the evening service. Greg, Carly & the Whatleys took that service and did a skit that illustrated the need for clear, culturally relevant communication when it comes to sharing the gospel.
For the night our group was split up and we spent the night with various people from Hastings Park. Debra and I had the privilege of staying with Doug & Marilyn. Doug and Marilyn designed their home so that they could have a place for people to stay with them. We had an awesome time hanging out and getting to know them. Though we only met them this weekend we already are going to miss them!
On Sunday Morning we helped in the junior high sunday school class. I dressed up like a person from Guinea and did a little presentation on the country. Shane and Karen did the same on Indonesia and Panama and afterwards Debra played 'Who wants to be a missionary' with them, modeled of course after the millionaire game show.
For the Sunday evening service we gave our testimony and shared how God developed in us His heart for the world.
All in all we had an excellent encouraging weekend, the people at Hastings Park were very hospitable and very excited about what we had to share about missions.
Today we have our first session of our practicum, we'll let you know how it goes :o)

Whirlwind

2006-11-04T07:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a crazy week! We've been busy with a few things: getting our newsletter together, preparing for a missions conference this weekend and getting ready for our practicum that starts Monday.

What is our practicum? Well, we'll be putting into practice all that we've been learning so far in the realm of language and culture acquisition. For the next six weeks we will spend two hours a day with a Russian lady named Lydia. During our session we will use techniques we have studied to learn her culture and language. We will then spend 6 hours filing what have learned and also practicing and preparing for the next days lesson. It's a very intensive program, by the end of the first 3 weeks we will have around 475 words / phrases comprehended! The method we have been learning is very different than the traditional memorization technique, and its also much more effective! Though we will learn a lot of Russian language and culture, that isn't the goal. The goal is to practice and use the techniques we have been studying in class.
We look forward to sharing over the next six weeks how we are doing.

In a couple hours we are leaving for a Belleville to share at a missions conference! It's a long drive and you can be praying for us that Canaan will do well and that we have an effective time there. We pray that we will encourage our audience and remind them of God's heart for the whole world - that all would come to Him! We return on Monday around 1am, so that should be interesting! Canaan had his shots yesterday, they seemed to go pretty well and he hasn't had any adverse reactions, we are thankful that it won't likely affect our trip this weekend.

Thanks again for your prayers and support!

~ Norm

Fall Newsletter

2006-11-03T06:50:00.000-05:00

Our fall newsletter is finished! Check it out here.

Trick or Treat!

2006-10-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

Look who showed up at our house this Halloween!

Ken Copeland Featured

2006-10-29T18:27:00.000-05:00

My brother Ken Copeland was recently featured in Canadian Technician! Ken is a mechanic at Dufferin County Auto Centre, a very skilled mechanic I might add. He was interviewed for an article about the value and importance of your tools. Today Ken left for Las Vegas to go to a huge week long mechanics convention. When he gets back he'll have lots of photos to put up on his blog, check it out next week some time. Ken constantly uses his skills and time to bless us by constantly looking after our car to make sure that it is in fine running order. Here is Kens quote in Canadian Technician:

Ken Copeland, a 22-year-old technician at Auto Centre Dufferin County, in Shelburne, Ont., has been in the trade for less than five years, but he has a tool chest that many veterans would envy. He got it for a great price from someone who was leaving the industry. The collection was recently appraised at $72,000. “It’s the thing of greatest value that I own,” he says. “I figure I should get it insured – not just for the peace of mind but also for my bank, so they know what kind of collateral I can bring if I want to buy a house or a car.” He says knowing the value makes him all the more determined to protect them. “Fire... theft... you worry about it a bit. This building is pretty secure but you never know what can happen,” he says. “And then what would I do? I can’t come up with $72,000 overnight.”

Check out the full article here

A Cultural Experience

2006-10-29T07:08:00.000-05:00

On Friday night we thought that we'd take Jon Coe to a local cultural event - a hockey game! Another reason for going was that my home team, the Shelburne Muskies were playing the local Durham Thundercats. It was an entertaining game to say the least, at least 8 guys were kicked out of the game and the penalty boxes were usually over flowing. At some points the players would just drop their gloves as soon as the puck was dropped! Also fun was listening to some of the others around us as they cheered and yelled at the players and the ref. I'm pretty sure that if I was a ref in that game I'd fear for my life afterwards. The Muskies came up with a lead quickly in the first period and kept it for the rest of the game. The score ended up 5-1 for the Muskies. I couldn't cheer too loud, I was surrounded by violent Thundercat fans. Matt Gunther who was there with us threatened to turn me over to them. Yikes!

the full penalty box

Coeman Arrives

2006-10-27T16:50:00.000-04:00

Late last night a good friend of ours arrived for a visit. Jon Coe and I met over three years ago on a trip to Papua New Guinea with NTM but other than a short 10 minutes visit over two years ago I haven't seen him since. Until now he had never met Debra but through emails and our blog has become acquainted with her and Canaan. We have kept in touch over the years and it's awesome to get back together for a visit. Jon recently went on a trip to Asia and on his way home thought that he'd check out the two New Tribes training centres. Next fall he hopes to continue the training and is trying to decide which centre to go to. Jon also brought with him his brand new camera which is amazing! He let me use it to get some pictures of Canaan, here's our absolute favourite!

Check out the rest of the pictures I took with Coe's camera here

Prison Break!

2006-10-25T12:07:00.000-04:00

Last night we were invited to the Whatleys and to hang out and enjoy Karen's cappuccinos. We had a great time hanging out with them and some other staff couples, we got to hear great stories of their time in the training. Debra left before I did to check on the boy, but it wasn't long before I got a phone call. Our mischievous Gerbils had found a way out of their cage and I needed to get home to help! I ran home but thankfully Debra had got them all back in but one which I quickly rounded up. We thought it was all over until this morning at 6:30 I woke up to find their cage knocked right over! This time all three were on the loose. With the aid of a broom handle I was able coax them out from underneath the couch and the stove. They're quick little guys! I knew previously that I needed to get something fixed on their cage but just hadn't got to it, here's a little motivation!

In other news, Canaan is slowly doing better. Before he had been sick he had been sleeping through the night which was wonderful! Sickness put an end to that, he got in the habit of waking up a couple times a night. We are very thankful that he is now getting back into his old habit of sleeping through the night.

VOTE!

2006-10-23T21:50:00.000-04:00

Let your voice be heard! Dana is thinking about the name 'Shaded Red' for her salon. Vote on the side bar and let her know what you think!

Dada!

2006-10-23T21:00:00.000-04:00

Canaan has been developing more and more mobility but that isn't the only thing that he's getting better at! Over the last few days he's been getting quite proficient with his mimicking! Back in August he began to copy noises that he would hear from us. This past Saturday morning we brought him into bed and he began to say 'dada'! He said it over and over and repeated after us quite a few times. He doesn't yet know what it means but recognizes it and it is now a sound he knows! Grandma Sheila was quite proud of herself when she found out because it was she that drilled him with 'dada' the day before. He has also begun to say 'mama' mixed in with a slew of other sounds. We've been trying to catch it on video but he seems to instinctively get quite when he sees the camera come out of its case.

Despite lingering headaches and coughs we are definitely feeling a lot better. Canaan is back to his old cheery self and much more fun to be around! Last night was our first full night of sleep in over a month. Praise the Lord! Thanks again to everyone who dropped us a note of encouragement or brought by meals!!

Open for Business

2006-10-23T07:17:00.000-04:00

This weekend for the first time in a long time the entire family was able to be together! We had a little party celebrating the opening of Dana's salon. We have received emails and comments asking when she will be accepting clients, well, she is still finalizing a name (so keep your suggestions coming) but starting tomorrow she is open for business!

You can book your appointment by calling 1-519-307-1985

She has greatly appreciated all of the comments and well wishes she has received via our blog and will be picking a name in the next couple days, we'll let you know!

I kiss your feet, Mom!

2006-10-20T13:04:00.000-04:00

7 months!

2006-10-19T20:17:00.000-04:00

Today our little one is 7 months old. Time sure flies! Canaan is just about to start crawling. He constantly gets on his hands and knees and starts rocking back and forth. He is so proud of himself for moving around so much. He is not quite crawling but he does scoot around a fair bit! Today he pulled one of my plants over. I suppose it is time to "baby proof." Here are a few pictures of Canaan Joshua!

It's Going Around

2006-10-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

We just can't seem to shake this horrible cold that our family has been suffering from. Apparently we're not the only ones! Mom told us about this report from a local news station, it sure sounds like us! The Bottom line? It just has to run its course. Thanks so much to everyone for your generosity and help lately!

(click image to play)

Help Dana Out!

2006-10-17T19:13:00.000-04:00

My sister Dana Cook is a certified hair stylist who lives in Orangeville, Ontario. Last week Dana was approved for a small business loan so that she can start her own salon! She's renovated the basement and is almost ready to go... there's just one thing... a name! Dana wants help thinking of a name for her salon. She wrote today and asked me to enlist the help of our blog readers who were so generous when it came to naming our beta!

Hey Guys
I CAN'T think of a name for the salon, I need help! Could you post it on your blog or something and get some ideas? It can be simple I just don't know what will sound good.
NEED HELP!!!
~ Dana

If you have any ideas, email them to salon@normdebracopeland.org or put it in a comment! Need inspiration? Visit orangeville.org to find out more about Orangeville or check out the location of Dana's salon here.

Be a part of history, name Dana's salon! :o)

But Can I Eat Them?

2006-10-15T19:36:00.000-04:00

Today we picked up a bottle of bubbles while out shopping. Debra has wanted to blow bubbles while Canaan is in the tub for quite some time. He wasn't quite as excited as we thought he'd be at first... when he saw us opening the bottle he was sure that we were giving him something to eat. His eyes became saucers and he started to open his mouth as wide as physically possible. Sorry kid! In his defence the little bubble wand does look like a spoon.

Harvest Festival

2006-10-14T17:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday evening was our second 'Harvest Festival' here at NTMC! Debra helped to decorate the gym with hay bales, corn stalks and pumpkins giving it a real fall atmosphere, others signed up to put together booths, kind of like a fall fair. There were lots of games and contests as well as a BBQ. This year our roles were reversed: At the last Harvest Festival Debra was pregnant and couldn't stay long before she needed to go home. This year I was sick and went home early with Canaan. One booth did kid's face paintings, we couldn't miss out on that. Canaan had his face painted by Hemp, he definitely wasn't a fan of the painting process but he sure looked cute!

Then there was the kissing booth manned by an extremely creepy guy with funky teeth. Don't worry though, it was only a game to win these kind of kisses. :o)

It was a lot of fun and I wish I could have stayed longer!

Check out last years Harvest Festival

but at least we aren't in Buffalo

2006-10-13T13:17:00.000-04:00

At least two feet of snow blanketed parts of the Buffalo area early Friday, signalling a possible second record-setting day. ~ National Post

Read the article

It Has Arrived

2006-10-12T15:30:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the year again! Today marked our first snow fall of the the year and we might as well enjoy it! Around here though you never know, we could have snow today and warm weather tomorrow, it sometimes takes a while before the snow will stick. Debra always says that she enjoys the variety here - in California she pretty much always knew what it would be like outside: warm and sunny! Debra and Canaan stayed home this morning, I tried to go to class but at first break I went home because my fever seemed to be getting worse again. I don't get sick very often, but when I do I really appreciate that it doesn't happen often! We are very thankful for the flexibility of our teachers. When we miss class they are always willing to sacrifice their time and come to tutor us in the evenings. It is very important to them that we understand the concepts each day, THANKS GUYS!

Hiding Away

2006-10-11T18:52:00.000-04:00

What a day! Or days depending how you look at it. Last night after returning from the canoe trip Debra and I started to notice things like sore throats, sinus problems and fever. Debra seemed to have a fever and we tried to go to bed at a decent time and get some rest. At 12:30 I woke up with an extremely sore throat and a fever, I manged to fall asleep again until 1:30am but then woke up once more. This time though there was no turning back, for the life of me I couldn't go back to sleep! I felt sorry for Debra all night as I listened to her struggling to get a breath out. Canaan slept but whimpered in his sleep all night and finally at 4:30 woke up. I went in to check on him and both eyes were completely crusted shut! He looked so sad. Last evening before we went to bed we had a sense that things were coming our way so we called Mom and she showed up this morning to help out with Canaan. THANKS MOM!!! That was a big relief and Debra was able to sleep in, her fever seemed to leave during the night. We were able to take Canaan to the doctors this morning and get drops for his eyes. We hid out at home all day and hope to get to bed early tonight! Please pray for us as we battle the onslaught! Debra is still very congested and my throat and fever (101.3) are still present.
Thanks everyone for your support and prayers, we appreciate it!

As requested, here is a picture of the boy. No matter how sick or upset he is, a bath always helps. (He may shoot us later for putting this picture up :o)

~ Norm

Canoeing Down the Saugeen

2006-10-10T21:04:00.000-04:00

This afternoon we had our second class canoe trip down the Saugeen River. Last year was fun, but Debra was pregnant, so she has been looking forward to this year's trip. The weather was beautiful, we couldn't ask for a better day to canoe: it was sunny, not too windy and cool but not cold. We had a great time though our trip was marred by family sickness. Poor Canaan has pink eye, his little eyes look horrible! His eyelids are swollen and on top of pink eye he has a bad cough and cold! He was left at home with Key Zu who babysat. Debra and I too are feeling under the weather with sore throats, coughs and colds. But, we are thankful for the chance to get out this afternoon and enjoy the beautiful scenery, we got a few good shots of some beautiful trees. The water was low this year making a few areas difficult to get through, we got hung up a couple of times on large rocks but managed to get through. On one shallow part we were hung up badly and after finally getting ourselves loose we ended up going through some small rapids backwards! Here are a couple of pics from our afternoon adventure:

(check out last years group shot here)

more canoe pictures here

Thanksgiving Copeland Style

2006-10-09T08:06:00.000-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving! This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and we continued the Copeland tradition of a Sunday hike on the Bruce trail followed by the big turkey dinner! Just like l ast year we had some American friends from school come for the day and celebrate with us. Visiting with us was the Clutte rs from California, James from Washington, Kay Zu from Mexico, Hemp from Pennsylvania, Ruth from New Hampshire and of course Adam who is now considered part of the family. My immediate family were there as well except for Dad who was working but thankfully he made it home just in time for dinner! The hike was beautiful and we had a few great views over the changing trees. Debra took some great pictures of the fall colours.
Check out the pictures here.
Dinner was delicious as well as dessert - the night before Debra and Ruth made a couple of apple pies, they were amazing! By the time dinner was complete we were all pretty exhausted and settled down to watch a movie. It was pretty late by the time we finally arrived home but hey, Monday is a holiday!

The Hernia

2006-10-07T21:14:00.000-04:00

During our time in Jungle Camp we had the privilege of meeting Kirk & Yolanda Rogers. Kirk, Yolanda and their family are missionaries to Guinea West Africa with NTM and were back this summer on home assignment. Kirk shared with our class about Guinea and at the end of the presentation gave Debra and I a book entitled 'The Hernia' written by Rolf Engelbrecht. We began reading and soon discovered that we couldn't put it down! 'The Hernia' is self described as a book of "amusing anecdotes and cultural insights from missionary life in Guinea, West Africa". It really is a funny book but also gave us a very realistic look into life in the country of Guinea which we are headed towards! One of our goals before we leave for Guinea is to help our friends and family get to know Guinea. I wrote Rolf and asked permission to share some of his stories on our blog, he quickly wrote back giving us the go ahead. Rolf is a very encouraging person to correspond with which from a worldly perspective is strange considering all that he has gone through. In 2004 he was diagnosed with cancer and given a year to live and as he writes in his book he is "confident that everything is in the hands of a loving God" and is "at peace with the situation". Please pray for Rolf as he and his wife Danae continue to deal with the cancer. If you are interested in a copy of the Hernia they can be purchased here

Here is our first story from The Hernia:

No doubt about it, women are the "beats of burden" in the Guinea culture. It is not uncommon to see them walking along carrying loads exceeding 100 pounds balanced on their heads - without using their hands to balance the cargo, and with a baby strapped to the backs.

Even Guinean men acknowledge their propensity to pass any cargo carrying chores on to their women. Here is an indigenous joke on the subject, which appears to be quite popular in West Africa.
-------------------------
When Musa could stand the pain no longer, he finally dragged himself into to see the village 'doctor'.

Musa: It's my groin, doctor - it's really sore.

Doctor: Let me see, Musa. Oh yeah... I see... Looks like a pretty bad hernia.

Musa: It really hurts, doctor. I don't know where it came from. It just sort of happened.

Doctor: Well, do you remember overly exerting yourself recently? Any unusually hard work?

Musa: No, I don't think so... Wait a minute, now I remember... Yeah, that must be it... A few days ago me and two of my buddies had to lift a huge load of firewood. It was so heavy we could hardly get it up onto my wife's head.

Doctor: Oh yea, that would do it. You really need to be a bit more careful, Musa.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Behind the Name

2006-10-05T13:13:00.000-04:00

He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth-his livestock and all the people who had joined his household at Haran-and finally arrived in Canaan
Genesis 12:5

A lot of people ask how we came up with Canaan's name. Many ask us if we got Canaan's name from the Bible - one reason we like it is because it is a biblical name but we originally heard it a few years ago when we were in Bible school. In 2001 I went on a missions trip to Mongolia. When I arrived in LA for my trip orientation I was met by Mike Smith who, along with his wife Megan, were my team leaders for the trip. I had a great time getting to know the Smiths and we kept in touch after we returned home. In 2003 they had their first son who was named.... Canaan! From the moment we first heard it we really liked the name and wanted to use it some day. We met the original Canaan while in New Guinea, Mike and Megan led a work team that was in the same area I was working in. Our Canaan's middle name is Joshua and we picked that for two reasons: Firstly it is a family name, my great great great grandfathers name and secondly because in the bible Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan.

Check out Mike and Megan's blog here to meet the Smiths and the 'other Canaan' :o)

In 2001 after my Mongolia trip Mike put together a video of footage from the trip. If you're interested you can check it out below, it's long (27 mins) but a lot of fun!

I wanna move it, move it!

2006-10-04T22:14:00.000-04:00

Canaan has been trying to move around! He has been getting on his hands and knees... but his favourite is his hand and toes! Then he scoots himself backwards! He did some exploring all on his own today. He found the couch (mmmm tasty!) the laundry basket, and the toy basket... He also pushed himself back under the couch. His legs were totally under. It looked like a little torso hanging out in the living room! =) It was fun to watch. Needless to say I didn't get much done... other than watching Canaan have fun.

Check out more pictures here.

Puzzling...

2006-10-03T21:21:00.000-04:00

We completed our second day of grammar and I have to say that it's definitely been a stretching experience! We are given data sheets that contain phrases in a different language with the English translation next to it. It is our job to discover patterns in the language and chart these patterns. If you love puzzles this is the class for you! Debra has always been a puzzle enthusiast and has greatly enjoyed these 'grammar puzzles'. I used to buy her books of puzzles and now she's into Sudoku.

Canaan is slooooowly recovering from his cold though he is still quite stuffed up and has some trouble feeding due to the plugged nose.

On Friday we are going canoeing, we had a blast last year and look forward to this years trip, especially Debra considering that last year she was pregnant. Continue to pray for Canaan as he recuperates and for us as we adjust to a new class and schedule.

~ Norm

(click image to enlarge)

Look at my big blue eyes!

2006-10-03T20:45:00.000-04:00

New Class Tomorrow

2006-10-01T20:09:00.000-04:00

This past Friday we completed our last session of phonetics, for us it was both challenging and a fun experience. It was so interesting to study how the human speech apparatus works and see the order that God put into language. Tomorrow we start grammar! If you haven't noticed, we have section on our sidebar called 'What We're Currently Studying', we keep it updated with the topics that we are going over in class. Here is the description of our grammar class:

The purpose for this course is for the students to become familiar with a basic set of grammatical forms and meanings that exist in languages worldwide and to the terminology that is used to describe them. This is done so that:
(a) They will be able to take better advantage of, and understand easier, the language learning helps that are available to them, such as written material and consultants.

(b) They will be able to use the more basic grammar points of the language as one of several “road maps” to plan and record their progress through the language learning experience.

(c) They will be able to overcome the problem of “language shock”- expecting a second language to act like the students native tongue.

(d) The students will have a tool that will speed up their language learning and provide help in a specific problem areas

(e) And finally, so that they will have a good understanding of the relationship between “form” and “meaning” as an aid in any type of translation work.
- During the Applied Language Learning segment of the course they will build several of their language learning activities around different areas of the grammar of the language they are learning.

This first month of the school year has gone so fast! October is upon us and the leaves are quickly changing colours. This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, we'll have a nice turkey dinner at mom and dads and go for our thanksgiving tradition of a fall hike. We take advantage of the Bruce Trail which goes by their place, we usually encounter some breathtaking views of the fall colors. Check out last years Thanksgiving post.

House arrest!

2006-09-29T16:09:00.000-04:00

Hey all! Canaan and I have been sick most of the week...=( I only made it to class twice this week. It stinks when I have to miss class. We are under house arrest with nothing much to do. We have watched several movies and played games and rested. Oh well. Just thought I would update you. Please pray that I get better over the weekend. We have a big canoe trip next week that I really don't want to miss. =)

More Bugs!

2006-09-29T07:15:00.000-04:00

One of my life long interests I've had is animals. While my brother tinkered away in the basement on his dirt bikes I could always be found at the river trying to to catch an assortment of critters. My bedroom was always occupied by a handful of fish tanks that held everything from fish to newts to tree frogs to giant millipedes. Although this never happened, we always joked that I was the kid in the outfield during a baseball game who missed a ball because an interesting bug crawled by. Yesterday while working on the new duplex we found a praying mantis! They seem to be pretty rare around here so naturally I took it home with me! We did a bit of research and determined that our praying mantis is indeed pregnant. I kept her for a day and then let her go, she wasn't doing so well in the peach jar. I look forward to someday discovering new creatures in Africa with Canaan and marvelling with him at all that God created!

The praying mantis attacking the camera V

Giant Bugs in Google Maps

2006-09-28T08:14:00.000-04:00

Giant Bugs Attack Germany!

"...this bug has gone to meet his maker, and anyway, is only actually 1mm long! He reckons it’s a Thrips which was probably squished between a glass plate and the film during the scanning process." ~ Google Sightseeing

Giggly Boy

2006-09-27T17:31:00.000-04:00

Canaan absolutely loves being thrown up in the air... how much does he love it you ask?

Click 'play' to find out

Happy Birthday

2006-09-26T16:58:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Grandpa Charlie!
Hope you have a relaxing day, we love you and miss you!

Pop Goes Canaan

2006-09-25T21:01:00.000-04:00

Click the image to watch or download the video here
(right click and select save link/target as...)
or
Watch the low quality version

Am I cute or what?

2006-09-25T16:14:00.000-04:00

Thanks Gregg and Kathleen for the cute outfit! =)

It's Off to Work we Go

2006-09-22T22:04:00.000-04:00

Carrying on with yesterdays theme, I thought I'd try out a little more time lapse...

(click image to play video)

My Afternoons

2006-09-21T20:17:00.000-04:00

In the mornings we have culture and language classes from 8 until 12. But how do I spend my afternoon? Every afternoon we have what is called Practical Training Class (PTC) which takes on many different forms. It used to be called work detail, but the heart of PTC is not just work but learning new skills and helping keep up the campus. I have been on a crew that is constructing new staff housing. I have never built a house before so this is definitely a chance to learn new skills. When my crew started only the basement had been poured, it has been our job to frame the house. The next group will take over in a month or so and continue on. Hank Demark is the leader of my crew, he used to serve in Guinea so I enjoy having the chance to quiz him about his experiences there. The building that Debra and I live in was completed just this last May by Hank and many students, I didn't get to help with that building so I am thankful for the chance to get involved this time. Debra has an even more important job and just as busy an afternoon - she looks after our little one and works at home. I am very thankful that she gets the chance to be home with Canaan, though it is a lot of work - a tough afternoon with a baby can be much more trying then the worst of afternoons on PTC. Thankfully she absolutely loves her job :o)

~ Norm

Feed Readers Galore

2006-09-20T12:24:00.000-04:00

Over the last year and a half that we've had our blog we've enjoyed not only sharing our lives with others, but also keeping up with our friends on their blogs. We've even become friends with people we've never met through comments on our blog and been able to keep up with childhood friends while they are away at school. Everyone posts at different intervals, some quite often, some weekly and some not so often. There's nothing wrong with that but it gets hard to remember everyone's blog much less go there every so often and check to see if they have posted.

A neat solution to this problem is called feed. I won't get into technical details (you can read up on it here if you want) but feed is headlines sent out from websites to one place that you go to. So instead of checking 10 different blogs to see if there have been any new posts, you just go to your feed reader to check if any new posts have been sent to you. But it isn't just blogs that have feed. You can get anything from comics to weather to top news stories sent to your reader.

Have you ever noticed any of these symbols on websites you visit?

These buttons link to the feed address for the site you are visiting. You can take these addresses and add them to your feed reader. How do you get a feed reader? There are plenty of free online readers. The reader that we use and recommend is Google Reader.
Other options include:

When blogs are created with blogger a feed address is created with it whether the author knows it or not. For blogger blogs the feed address is always http://blognamehere.blogspot.com/atom.xml (obviously adding the blog name to the address). An example of how feed can be used can be seen at NTMC Blogs. NTMC blogs is a directory of blogs by missionaries and students with NTMC. The feed from their blogs is used to send their headlines to NTMC Blogs. Within Google Reader you can share your reading list with others and search for feed on any topic you'd like.

We've had a lot of questions about feed lately so we thought we'd share our thoughts and how useful we've found it. Comment if you have any questions. Enjoy!

UPDATE 9/29/06 ~
Google updated its reader and also put out this short clip explaining very clear and simply what a feed reader is, check it out

Happy Half Birthday, Canaan!!!!

2006-09-19T20:17:00.000-04:00

Canaan is now 6 months old! The best six months of my life. Being a wife and mommy is the best job ever! Canaan graces us with so much fun and laughter! Everyday I see a new face expression and a new sound he is trying to make. He becomes more of a little person everyday. He has been desperately trying to get across the room, he can do a complete 360 degree turn. He gets so excited to see his mom and dad! What a joy that is so constantly see someone so visibly excited to see you just for a moment! There is so much love and joy that I have no idea where to begin or end! I just hope you all get the chance to meet my precious little boy!

Happy Half Birthday, Canaan from your proud mommy!

Baptism & the Fair

2006-09-18T12:49:00.000-04:00

We had the privilege yesterday of attending my Uncle Bill's baptism in Hillsburgh. It was exciting to see him up there making a public proclamation that he is trusting in Jesus to take care of his sin. Uncle Bill is an interesting character, he's always been an awesome uncle but over the last year it's been thrilling to have our Saviour in common.

After the baptism and lunch we went to the Shelburne fall fair and entered Canaan in a baby contest! There were about 10 babies in the newborn to 6 months age group. They only had three categories: most hair, biggest eyes & parent-child look alike. Unfortunately Canaan didn't win but I was still really proud of him. The judges were going back and forth between him and another baby for two categories, so he did great! We later took in some of the fair events like the horse pull and car show. The horse pull was amazing! They had these two horses drag 7000 pounds of concrete! These were BIG horses let me tell you. I took a video of it and will get it up this week sometime. Later we went back to mom and dad's and hung out with the family, we always enjoy our Sunday afternoons there. We shot some more footage there for an upcoming video called 'Kenumentary', this way you can get to know the guy I had to share a room with for 17 years :o)

~ Norm

Hike!

2006-09-16T15:54:00.000-04:00

Today all the ladies in my class went for a little hike. It was pretty fun and a lot of neat scenery! I love going out and seeing of God's creation. The trees have already started to turn color for the fall!! It seems way too soon. =) I was thinking though how neat it is. God created the seasons and the turning of colors. I really believe he created it for our enjoyment and His, too! How nasty would it be if our world was grey all the time... Like a perpetual winter... yuck. All the colors, tastes, smells and sounds were for our enjoyment. God did not just make a boring nasty world for us to live in... but a beautiful one!

Here are a few pictures from my hike!

Phonemics

2006-09-16T15:40:00.000-04:00

Next semester we'll be studying phonemics. Phonemics is "a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). Whereas phonetics is about the physical production and perception of the sounds of speech, phonemics describes the way sounds function within a given language or across languages."
~ Wikipedia
For example, in english we differentiate between the 'p' in 'pin' and the 'b' in 'bin'. But we see the 'p' in pin and the 'p' in 'spin' as the same sound though they actually are different. The former is 'aspirated' while the other is not. While we see those as the same letter, in the Thai language they are seen as totally seperate sounds and will completely change the meaning of a word. Listen to each of those sounds here and see if you can tell the difference:

aspirated p as in 'pill' -> Listen
unaspirated p as in 'spin' -> Listen

I also saw this funny video on the blog of Jeremy & Beth Everson that illustrates the importance of knowing how sounds are understood in language:

Have to keep my mother-in-law happy

2006-09-15T21:13:00.000-04:00

As my mom-in-law requested, here's a picture of Canaan. Just like dad, Canaan seems to enjoy speakers and electronics.

Don't worry, he was closely monitored while playing with the speakers. :o)

Love ya mom!

Notice

2006-09-14T11:33:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, this week we're switching our blog over to the new blogger beta. In the next couple months it will be a mandatory switch so we thought that we'd get it over with now. Things might look funny for a couple days but we should have it all back to normal soon.

UPDATE: if you have any trouble commenting when you sign in using your blogger ID, make sure you hit 'preview comment' and then 'publish comment'. You should only have to do this once and from that point on everything should be normal. Blogger is working on this bug and it should be fixed soon. Alternatively, you can comment by using 'other' or 'anonymous'

if you notice something wrong that I haven't noticed, PLEASE let me know, I'd greatly appreciate it!

~ Norm