six months and counting for little Rozalia Anne or Robert Sigmund (Ziggy)

Well, well, well. Just look at these pictures of pregnant Amee. She is beautiful is she not! Pregancy fits well on Amee. Well let me tell you the story so far. It was a Thursday evening. I had just come home from church and was standing in the Kitchen. Amee had gotten home too and I was just standing there wondering what was for dinner. Little did I know what was on the menu. Amee loves sneak attacks. I am not kidding. She really loves sneak attacks. She loves to hide around a corner, wait till an unsuspecting victim walks by (usually me) and then scream and pounce. So unsuspecting me, wanting to know what was for dinner hers, "soooooo I took a pregnancy test this morning." It totally took me off guard. The way she said it I knew it wasn't some passing comment. How could that comment be passing anyway. "And" she continued, "It was positive." What! I couldn't believe it. "Don't get excited" she insisted, "I only took two tests." What?. "They were the tests that have a positive if you are pregnant and a negative if you are not and they were over 6 months old so they may not be accurate." She didn't want to get her hopes up, but I was sure after two positive plus's. Right there in the middle of the kitchen, I put my arms around my wife and cried I was soooo happy. Not one of those girlie cries, one of those manly cries. You know the ones where just a few tears came out. That's my story and I am sticking to it!
That was six months ago. We are three months away from the due date, May 18, and gearing up. I have read at least three large pregnancy books and have a few more on my shelf. To date, Amee has had a very good pregnancy with no complications. The baby is healthy and strong. In fact two nights ago when I put my ear to Amee's belly, that little bugger kicked me right in the head. I'm telling you that has to be my kid. We soon begin the baby classes and really gear up for baby's arrivial. We have decided to be totally clueless in regards to whether it is a boy or girl so your guess is as good as mine.
See ya'll again soon.

Ireland

So Facebook has deterred me for quite a while, but I realized that Amee's friends wantto know what we are up to as well so here we go. We had an awesome 2008. Our last post was all about our vacation to Prince Edward Island. Since last summer we have had two major events. This post is about our trip to Ireland. We are invited to join a group of clergy from our diocese to visit our companion diocese of Down and Dromore in Northern Ireland.
This really was a trip of a lifetime. We began our visit with good friends of ours Tom and Kathleen trees and left a few days before we were supposed to be at our first engagemnet and went to Dublin for two days. really one afternoon and one whole day. So the first evening we went to a local pub for dinner and guiness. The next day we bought tickets for a hop on hop off bus that did guded tours around the city center. We saw such sights as the guiness brewerey, the Jameson distillery, the Claremont hotel (Owned and operated by U2), a couple castles, Trinity college, the he'pennery bridge, O'Connell street, and a very touristy dinner with music and Irish Dancing.
Then we meet with our group and began our tour of the diocese. Amee and I stayed with a clergy family in a little suberb of Belfast called Carrowdore. We visited the Palace at Armagh (the traditional home of the Arch Bishop of Ireland.) we visited the church at Saul where St. Patrick started his first church in Ireland and then went on to the cathedral of Downpatrick where it is believed that St. patrick buried along with St. Brigid and St. Columba.
We finished the trip with a four day conference in the northwest beach town of Donegal. Donegal is famous for its wool and tweed. Amee bought a skeen of Donegal wool to make a baby blanket. We had an awesmoe 12 day trip, just look at the photos.

Prince Edward Island

What can we say about Prince Edward Island. We know that you do not want a long desription, but something concise and lasting. So here goes. The island is a paridse in the summer with red sand beaches beautiful, rolling pastoral landscapes and the ocean never far away. It is also the home of Anne of green Gables. We lived Annes life through visiting the real places she wrote about including green gables and Silver bush. We went to two musicals that chronicled Anne's Green Gables life and her love story with Gilbert Blythe. We also hiked, Biked, rode boats, fished, tried to eat the fish Rob caught, went to a Cailah(PEI's own version of a scottish bluegrass hodown, sat on the beach, visited lighthouses, ate lobster, shopped, went to a local church, saw where L. M. Montgomery was born, where she is lived and where she is buried, and we relaxed. The least thing we seemed to do was relax as Amee took us all around the Island (140 miles wide and 40 miles north south) we loved every minute of it and reccomend it to everyone. It is the second most beautiful place I have ever seen (Yosemitee valley is the first) but the most magical. You feel like you are in an L.M. Montgomery story just being there and somehow life is exactly what you always thought it could be. The best part is that we brought the magic back home with us and keep it in our hearts and our spirits. It was truly a blessed moment in our lives.

May Day! May Day

Ok, so it's almost halfway through may, but we have lots of good news. None of it is about having a baby though. Keep praying. First, Amee's broken arm is now fixed. She when through Surgery and three months of therapy, but she has graduated from therapy and is beating Rob with both arms now.
Second, we are 1 month away from vacation. We are spending two weeks on Prince Edward Island above Nova Scotia. It is the 100th anniversary of the publishing of the novel Anne of green Gables (Amee's favorite series growing up) and we are going to partake in the festival. All we have to do is get through a convention, a baccalaureate, a performance at our church by the covenant players, 8 churches gathering at our church for a confirmation service with our bishop and awesome Christian African leader Bishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos Nigeria, an end of year BBQ for our children and youth ministry and all the ins and outs of theministry.
Third, As soon as we get back, Amee's sister and her family are coming for 4th of July then as they leave Amee's Borther's family is coming.
Fourth, after they leave, Rob goes to camp for a week to help out and help develop a Christian Leadership and discipleship camp for high school students.
Fifth, Amee's parents are coming for a week in early september.
Sixth, and totally awesome, Amee and I are going with our Bishop to a clergy conference in Ireland. This will be the first step in Amee and I leading a teen missions trip to Ireland every year for a Christian festival and missions program on the streets of belfast Ireland called Street reach.

The Emptiness of Easter

Hey all,

Today is the monday after Easter and it is a cold yet beautiful day. Yesterday was wonderful in that it was an awesome ending to a busy, meditative and holy week. We in the Anglican tradition celbrate Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigils and of course the Celebration of Easter. So why am I writing about emptiness? Well, it's not about the emptiness of a cookie jar or empty lives that pervase our culture. It's a totally diferent kind of emptiness. An emptiness that fills our lives to the brim. It's the emptiness of the Tomb! Christ is alive, let Christians sing. No longer do we have to go through life in a daze or wonder why even though we try to fill our lives with stuff we are still empty. In Christ is life to the fullest. That is why I am celebrating emptiness and I do so by emptying myself to God so that he may fill it with His Spirit. God bless one and all

Ice Skating Throw Triple Sow unsuccessful

If you are ever in the Canadian capital of Ottawa in the winter and looking for some fun entertainment, every local will tell you to go to the Rideau Canal. What is the Rideau Canal. The Locals will tell you that it is 7.8 kilometers, not miles, of beautiful ice in which one can have awonderful time skating with family and friends. If the Longbottom's were telling you about the Rideau Canal, we would describe it as a death trap eagerly awaiting unsuspecting innocent americans in order to incapacitate their limbs. Oh yes the canal looksinnocent enough with it's 7.8 kilometers of uneven Ice, fresh water crocidiles, and the smatering of usable port-a-poties, but do not be fooled; it has the heart as black as the night.

On January 28th Amee and I went to Ottawa for an innocent day of fun ice skating, yummy chinese food and to take in the movie Juno. We were enjoying ourselves Ice skating. Both of us had had one fall a piece and were almost arriving at the halfway point, when Amee took a direct hit as she and Rob were attempting the elusive throw triple sow with a double toe follow up. She hit the ground and hit it hard. Rob had lost his concentration when he saw something shiny and naturally moved toward it. In an instant everything had changed. She heard it before she felt it, yet knew right away that something was wrong; terribly wrong. She could not get up or move her arm. In that instant of tragedy, Rob rose to the occassion by ignoring the shiny object lifting Amee in his Arm's and skated with her till they had found help. He dropped her off at the beaver tail stand and made a mad dash for the car. He only had to stop twice to catch his breath, wait in line to turn in his ice skates and drive the car to where Amee was located.

They drove back to Ogdensburg, without chinese food I might add, and went to the emergency room. We were refered to four orthopedic surgeons before one would agree to fix Amee's arm. She had a commenuted lateral fracture to her forearm right where it went into the elbow. This was a dicey and complicated surgery, but they had the right man; a Notre Dame Man. In Dr. Fatti's own words, Amee surgery was "Perfect". Now Amee is in her 3rd week of rehab and the Dr. and the PT say she is doing fantastic. We are all glad that she is healing so well. It will be a 6 to 8 month recovery time, but the Dr. believes Amee will just fine.

The Moral of our story is If Rob is your Ice skating partner, make sure ther are no shiny objects in the vacinity.