Category - Family

We had a wonderful time last night. We headed along to school for the Kindy and Pre-primary end of year concert and graduation ceremony.

James graduated from Pre-primary so next year he’ll be in Year One.

He had one of the main roles in last night’s play. He was the innkeeper who kept getting frustrated with people turning up on his doorstep, disturbing his sleep. They were all looking for Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus so he was kept busy sending people round the back to the stables. His costume was a nightshirt and a bald head with tufts of grey hair along the sides. Pauline did a wonderful job of altering a nightshirt to do the job. She also bought a skin coloured swimming cap and glued tufts of grey fur down the sides for his bald head.

I’m sure the rest of the class did a wonderful job but I didn’t see too much of them. My eyes were glued on James. He’s a wonderful actor.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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I was waiting until I could get a photo up to mention our wonderful Sunday.

Our 8 year old daughter, Emily, has been asking about baptism for a couple of years. Over the last few weeks her Junior Church leader has taken her through a short course explaining the symbolism of baptism and on Sunday I had the privilege of baptising Emily.

Emily was one of three girls who were baptised after our Sunday morning service. The other two were baptised by our pastor. One of those girls was his youngest daughter.

During the service Emily spoke about her reasons for wanting to be baptised. It was a marvellous day.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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Animals, fairy floss, dizzy rides and fireworks. They were all there.

We made our annual pilgrimage to the Perth Royal Show yesterday. Pauline took the kids and my sister in the morning and I joined the family mid-afternoon. By the time I arrived Emily and James had already stocked up with a few show bags. They’re pretty good actually. They work out what’s the best value before the show and then only get the ones they really want.

They both went on a few rides. Watching them on one dizzy ride started making me feel a bit dizzy. Pauline and I were standing off to the side watching James go through a range of emotions. Emily’s pretty good with that kind of thing but James can tend to start feeling seedy. The ride kept going faster and faster and James’ face kept alternating between happy and laughing – and eyes shut with a blank expression. We were pleased to see a big smile at the end of the ride. He loved it.

We stayed to see the evening’s entertainment inclding the monster truck and the spectacular fireworks. Everyone went home happy after a wonderful day.

Though I’m now thinking that cycling and walking use very different muscles. My legs are just a little sore after criss-crossing the showgrounds quite a number of times.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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James has an amazing ability to wind his big sister up and have her in tears at any moment. I think he enjoys the power of it all.

Emily cannot seem to take on board our advice to let it go. She bites at every bit of bait James throws out.

They love each other dearly but some times they don’t show it too well. I am constantly trying to get them to sort things out between themselves rather than running to Pauline or me everytime they have a disagreement. (They really do get along a lot better than this post may suggest but they do have their moments.)

It was wonderful this afternoon, after a few teary episodes, to see the two of them get together to play nicely. Not only did they play well but they took quite some time to create, practice and then perform a show in the back yard.

There was dancing and acrobatics, mainly focussing around the backyard swing set. Both did very well and made a big thing of highlighting each other’s performance.

It was a breath of fresh air and lots of fun to watch as they performed and encouraged each other throughout.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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Marriages Restored is a new blog you’ll find listed on the-journey.tk.

With so many marriages falling apart I’m sure that it serves a great purpose.

You’ll find lots of normal family stuff as you do on many blogs with several posts specifically targetting the fostering of healthy marriages. The sub-title of the blog is “Redemption and Restoration Following Infidelity in Marriage”.

The writers, Ben and Ann, say in their bio: We have undergone extensive restoration from infidelity in our own marriage. Having wrestled through the question of divorce, we know the fruits of battling through hard times. Our intimacy with one another, and our intimacy with God, has increased as a result of enduring this painful process.

In introducing themselves they say: Ben is Director of Pastoral Care at a large church. Ben graduated with a Masters in Business from the University of Missouri in 1985 and completed his Masters in Counseling in 1997 at Colorado Christian University. He has earned the designation of Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado.



Ann is a Pastoral Care Specialist at the same church. Ann graduated with a Bachelor of Health Sciences from the University of Missouri in 1985 and completed her Masters in Counseling in 1999 at Colorado Christian University. She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado.

We have been married almost 20 years. We live in Colorado with our teenage daughter and son.



Why not take a few moments to pay them a visit and say hello?

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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