A Bullet in the Back...

Hey, just a quick update. Took Sami to the ER at South Bend Memorial last night (12/28) at about 6 pm because she was having severe pain in her lower back. Turns out that she has an 8 mm diameter boulder in her right kidney (if you need a point of reference, a 9mm pistol round is only 1 mm wider -- see picture), which is too large to pass "naturally", so after a night of severe pain, dry-heaving and the unpleasantries of being poked and prodded, followed by morphine, nausea medication, and the general fun of sleeping in a double-room (i.e. with another patient right beside her) and me in the "lounge" amidst the fanfare of stampeding visitors during all hours of the night, they took X-rays at 5:30 am and we're still waiting back to hear when they'll do the procedure to remove it (they'll push it back up into her kidney, and then attempt to blow it into gravel using sonic, high-frequency blast waves). If they can do it today (12/29), they'll probably keep her again overnight for observation and then let her go tomorrow sometime.

Our friend Melissa Parrish came over at 11 pm last night to stay with the Munchkins, and then Henry and Debbie came and whisked them away this morning to keep for a day or so until i can get Sami back home. Again, we have learned the critical value of family and friends this year, and think we would be quite dead without them.

I'll try to keep posted from this point forward, but there's no WiFi access at the hospital, so may not have digital access for a while. Thanks for all your prayers and your concern. We'll call and update or write here as we are able. Love you all!

-jack

Well I AM Part Cherokee After All, You Know!

So it sounds crazy, i know. Even with justifying all the martial arts and self-defense stuff that i do, throwing a tomahawk is "stretching it" as far as practicality is concerned, even for me ("Hold on a minute, Mr. Nogoodnik, i need to go get my trusty tomahawk before i let you mug me!"). I mean, it's not exactly the kind of thing you can just carry in your pocket or on your keychain as a personal defense weapon, right? Still, there's something romantic about it (in a Cooper-esque "Last of the Mohicans" kind of way), or maybe it's just the ever-thinning strains of Cherokee blood in my veins, i don't know, but either way, i decided to purchase a genuine "competition grade" tomahawk from Atlanta Cutlery as part of the gift card that was given to us by Rob "The Shogun" Wegner as an end of the year gift for service at GCC.

It's heavier than it looks, actually. It weighs about 1lb, 6 oz, has a sturdy handle, a metal counterweight near the head, and is VERY sharp. Along with it, i bought a "how to hurl 'the Hawk'" book by a guy who is reputed to know what he is talking about (he killed a 276 lb wild boar with a throwing knife from 15 feet away... photos are in the book of him holding the boar's head... so i'd say that he probably has a few good tips).

I'm actually pretty excited about learning to hurl it accurately as i understand that a "Hawk" is very similar to it's straight-edged cousin, the Bowie Knife. Apparently, a Bowie throws very similarly to a Tomahawk because the blade is heavier than the handle, and so the hawk-typical "end over end spin" is also apparent with the Bowie. So... once i have the Hawk down, i will probably try to see if i can graduate to a nice Bowie, and then all i'll need is a "Coon-skin cap" and a pair of "buskins" to go tromping around the woodlands of Tennessee. Then i can "kill me a bar, when i am only three" too... oh wait... too late! Dang! Maybe "kill me a bar, when i am only thirty three"! Doesn't sound as cool, but is probably more realistic. And if i can kill that "bar" with a Tomahawk, that will be REALLY cool... and if not, i guess i'll see how fast i can run because it would FOR SURE tick him off!

Just Click Your Heels Three Times and Say, "Pedicure".

As part of a pedicure kit that Peri received, she has enjoyed wearing these nifty little pink slippers, which she absolutely adores! I fancy to think that if she clicked her bare heels together three times and chanted, "There's no place like home", she could whisk herself back to our little pad from any location, Yellow Brick Road or not.

Creating Whole New Worlds... Out of Pipe Cleaners and Construction Paper!

One of Elijah's favorite presents was a compound art set complete with pipe cleaners and a quart bottle of glue. Shown here is E fabricating everything from Predator warship control panels to pipe-cleaner modern art. He came out with a piece of construction paper and several wadded up pipe cleaners glued to it and i said, "Wow, Bug, that's cool! What is it?" He looked at me with one of those "duh, dad!" kinds of stares and said, "Uh... it's just some pipe cleaners glued to some construction paper, dad...". Considering that most things he contrives are seldom what they seem, it always throws me for a loop when the answer is actually simple.

Well, At Least Her Hands and Head Won't Be Cold!

Peri received a cute little hat and gloves from Mim and Pip this year, and because she's been such a hat/glove freak anyway over the last month, was only too happy to don them immediately after opening them. The fact that she doesn't like to wear coats or shoes or socks will at least mean that SOME of her extremities will stay warm this winter, even if all the other important ones freeze.

Knick-Knack-Patty-Whack, Give a Dog a Rubberized Chew-Toy!!!

I will resist my urges to make pithy comments about "Christmas going to the dogs" (drat! i just did anyway!), here is Mina (our Dachshund, who, in the mind of at least ONE member of our family, serves no useful purpose to justify her existence) chewing on her newly prized Christmas present: a black rubberized chew toy.

Our Little Uncle...er.. "Aunt Sam"

Peri's ever present companion Elmo recently joined her in a recruiting and propoganda photo shoot for the US Army.

About that Team LMNtal Thing...

It actually occurred to me the other day that our web-site blog is called Team LMNtal, we sign things as such periodically, and have been operating from that "metaphor", and yet i haven't really ever explained it.

Well here goes!

I (Jack) was musing one day that our family needed some sort of "idiom" around which we could rally and think of ourselves. Life seems to be so much more than just "making the donuts", and the stakes seem to be so much higher than just floating through life as though nothing we did mattered.

Then we saw Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles and i had an epiphany! "Yes! That's it!!! That's how i feel about life! That's the motif we need and the metaphor that i've been searching for!!!" And thus began my quest to think of exactly what kind of superheroes we might be, both as individuals and as a family. Then i began to realize that we all sort of have very distinct ways in which we interact with one another. I, for instance, can really encourage Elijah, or totally "blow him out" in regard to his enthusiasm or motivation for something. He's high energy and i either feed that or quench that. Kind of like how a strong wind can either inflame or kill a forest fire. And then it occurred to me that we are all very "elemental", and none of us are quite the same. The more i explored, the more it occurred to me that the entire motif of earth, wind, fire and water really fit us, and so we thus adopted the Team LMNtal title, complete with cool names and anticipated "powers" as described below:

Team LMNtal Identity: Tnu Sami
Alter Ego: Samantha Magruder
Team LMNtal Function: Co-Commander
Cover Identity: Mom, Wife, Small Business Owner (Pimiento Press)
LMNtal Power: Water
Abilities:
* Assume the shape of any container or state of water (liquid, solid or gas) for the greatest advantage in any scenario.
* Control water wherever it may be found, either naturally (i.e. lakes, rivers, oceans, pipes, waterways, etc) or chemically in any compound or mixture in which water is a component. A natural practical joker, Tnu likes to play tricks on the other team members when they are sitting on the toilet.
* Combined with Noir Tado, Tnu Sami can summon tsunami force waves and control weather patterns.
* Combined with En Ferno, Tnu Sami can generate pressurized steam explosions, searing steam jettison of concentrated gas, or clouds of smoke "cover" for necessary scenarios. She is also about the only force on the planet who can calm, contain or direct En without completely quenching his flame.
* Combined with Peri Firma, Tnu Sami helped to create the ocean earthquake that yielded Team LMNtal's secret island hideout (Code Named: Isle Bethaire).

Team LMNtal Identity: Noir Tado
Alter Ego: Jack Magruder
Team LMNtal Function: Commander
Cover Identity: Dad, Husband, Missions Director, Think Tank Media Group business partner
LMNtal Power: Wind
Abilities:
* Harness wind for hypersonic flight, either individually or for the entire Team LMNtal crew. At this particular evolution, the "form" of said hypersonic flight looks an awful lot like a green minivan.
* Creating Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Typhoons or any other wind-based force of nature.
* Combined with Tnu Sami, Noir can generate tsunami force waves and control weather patterns.
* Combined with En Ferno, Noir can create instant, hyper-precise and massively spreading fires in any environment.
* Combined with Peri Firma, Noir can create "Instant Erosion" to form caves, tunnels or getaways in virtually any earthly environment.

Team LMNtal Identity: En Ferno
Alter Ego: Elijah Magruder
Team LMNtal Function: Demolitions
Cover Identity: Son, Brother, Kindergarten Helleon
LMNtal Power: Fire
Abilities:
* Spontaneous creation, conduction and control of fire, energy and plasma.
* Blinding speed of motion, thought, action and speech commensurate with the conversion of virtually any substance to pure energy through a form of "fusion combustion". He really saves on the energy utilities for the Team's Isle Bethaire hideaway!
* Combined with Noir Tado, En can generate devastatingly powerful "Firestorms" for large-scale destruction, in addition to instant, hyper-precise and massively spreading fires in any environment.
* Combined with Tnu Sami, En can generate pressurized steam explosions, searing steam jettison of concentrated gas, or clouds of smoke "cover" for necessary scenarios.
* Combined with Peri Firma, En generated the crystalline structures that form the actual walls, conduits, ceiling and fixtures for the "working" parts of the Isle Bethaire lair.

Team LMNtal Identity: Peri Firma
Alter Ego: Persephone Magruder
Team LMNtal Function: Security
Cover Identity: Daughter, Sister, Two-Year-Old-Titan
LMNtal Power: Earth
Abilities:
* The ability to generate defensive structures such as walls, trenches, towers or even entire fortresses out of stone or other terrestrial materials for Team protection.
* Possesses the ability to "tank", whereby she can cover herself with a thick, protective and virtually impenetrable and immoveable layer of rock that is immune to all forms of attack, coersion, pleading, threatening or enticement.
* Combined with En Ferno, Peri can generate magmic (volcanic) explosions in any environment.
* Combined with Noir Tado, Peri can mold, erode or fashion virtually any structure or object from terrestrial materials for the use of the team.
* Combined with Tnu Sami, Peri helped to create the ocean earthquake that yielded Team LMNtal's secret island hideout (Code Named: Isle Bethaire).

Merry Christmas! From Team LMNtal!

While this will probably NOT be the last entry for the 2005 year, we nevertheless wanted to take the opportunity to send out a very Merry Christmas to all of our friends, family and faithful readers! The year has been both difficult and positive, and we have learned a lot in the process of wading through it. We have...

... received a promotion!
... been able to quit the paper route and the cleaning job!
... marked our 8th anniversary!
... marked Sami's 34th birthday!
... marked Jack's 31st birthday!
... marked Elijah's 6th birthday!
... marked Peri's 1st birthday!
... gone to Los Angeles together (Origins Conference)!
... gotten pregnant.
... lost a child.
... started a family blog!
... been to India!
... been BACK to India!
... gone to India TOGETHER!
... watched a TON of Anime!
... worked on bringing a Kroc Center to South Bend!
... paid off a substantial portion of our credit card debt!
... switched cars, vans and vehicles around quite a bit!
... had friends remodel our house!
... learned a ton!
... laughed a lot!
... cried a lot!
... been tired a lot!
... enjoyed having friends and family be such a large part of our lives!

So... it's been quite a year, and again, from all of us here on Team LMNtal to you, Merry Christmas! We love you all!!!

-Team LMNtal

Making Spirits Bright... or At Least the Tree...

So we decorated the tree... or rather, attempted to successfully coordinate two "lightning bolts on a leash" as the excitement level converted to electricity could have powered a small metropolis for a month.

Finally decked in gold garland with ornaments of every sort, substance and color hanging from its plastic branches, we stuffed the cadre of presents under the base and are now just awaiting the sloooooooooow (er... at least in the minds and counting of said "lightning bolts") approach and arrival of Christmas Eve/Day before the packages will be suitably laid bare and plundered.

Don't Let the Fuzzy Fairy Wings Fool You!

When i asked Elijah what he was supposed to "be" in these pictures, he said, "Um... i'm not really an angel... i'm a monster of some kind." When i probed deeper, i was able to extract that the monster could fly, needed glasses for nearsightedness, and likes to wear a combination of tape and glue on its skin as a sort of "armor". Apparently, it's disposition is also rather unruly, but again, according to Elijah, it isn't necessarily a "bad" monster.

I personally think it looks like a mutated Victoria's Secret "Angel wear" add that had a bad genetics cross-over with Calvin Klein and Kid's Gap... but that's just me.

Welcome to Little Iris Hill!!!

On December 18th at 5:13 a.m., our friend Amy Nelson Hill had their little bundle of joy and named her Iris Adelaide Barlow Hill. Amy did great through the delivery, though they eventually, due to some minor complications, needed to give her some anesthetic that was stronger than the typical epidural, and her husband John was right there by her side the whole time.

We ventured up to Kalamazoo in the afternoon to wish them well, take John a 2 liter of Diet Mt. Dew, and sneak a quick cuddle with little Iris. She sure is a cutie, and they are all back home now doing well! Welcome to the world, little girl! You have great parents!!!

Down for the Count!

So... this picture pretty much speaks for itself.

All We Want For Christmas is ... Two Sore Thumbs!

So... rather than doing presents gallore for all of us individually, we decided to do kind of an early but comprehensive "family" Christmas present this year. After much research (so many choices now... PlayStation2, X-box, Nintendo Game Cube... or wait till the new releases of X-box 360, PlayStation3 or the Nintendo Revolution), we settled on purchasing a new Sony Playstation 2, partly because they are all on sale now (with the imminent release of the new PS3 and competition with the X-box 360, most people were jettisoning their old PS2's to make way for new systems), and partly because they seem to have the greatest offering of "family friendly" games that we can all engage and enjoy together.

With the system, we purchased "Capcom Classics" (a game with 22 "classic" arcade games from the 80's and 90's), and thus far, Elijah and Peri have done very well enjoying them. Currently, Elijah's favorite game is Street Fighter II (Hyper Fighting Edition), in which he dons the identity of Dhalsim (the Indian Yoga-fighter -- pictured here), and Peri's favorite seems to be Vega, the Spanish wrestler... or at least she likes to say his name and run around jabbing at things like he does.

We also, at the recommendation of our friend Corey Mann (who is a PS2 affectionado as well), found Champions of Norrath on eBay and have it arriving in a couple of days for us to play together.

"Extreme Makeover" Doesn't Even Do It Justice!!!

Oh...Wow! So here's what happened:

While we were in India, some very excellent friends of ours (operating in clandestine fashion) coordinated the retrieval of our house key from Sami's dad and spent several days totally remodeling two of the rooms in our home.

Living Room: We've always wanted to kind of go with the whole "Asian" motiff for our living room, but just have never really been exactly sure how to go about doing it. We have a Samurai Daisho (sword set), and some cool Asian pictures and knick-knacks, but we just were never sure how to go about the rest of it. Two of our friends, however, Mrs. Tracy Carlstrom, and Mrs. Shelley Arredondo, are visionary wizards when it comes to decorating, and they just jumped in with paint and trim and their own hand-sewn pillows. They provided Asian fabric-colored chairs, and cool end-tables, and a variety of cool other wall things and curios and curtains and rods and... wow... you name it! It was AWESOME!!! It represented us better than we could have done ourselves, and we have been amazed at the level of detail and excellence in their attentiveness and execution. It was amazing!!!

Bathroom: About 6 months ago, after a bizarre "Money Pit"esque string of mishaps every time we tried to "fix" our bathroom, Jack cried "surrender". The paint, the surround, the floor, the toilet, the ceiling fan (or lack thereof), the mirror, the... well... pretty much the entire room. A complete disaster. Nay, debacle of near Biblical proportions.

But no longer!!!! They came in (a small, highly skilled, Unspec-War unit armed with saws and hammers and other "tools of the trade"), and completely gutted the entire little area. They stripped paint, then created a dry-wall end to the tub, installed the surround, bricked in the window, installed a shower, put down and sealed tile, fixed plumbing, and then installed the ceiling fan (complete with switch) and mirror assembly. It looks amazing! We would never have thought it possible, truly!!!

I tell you, the whole thing was incredible! But more than being thankful for all the work and love and effort that went into it, we were reminded once again that more than anything, we have the best friends on the planet!!!

The Experience of a Lifetime!!!

Sami and i just returned from one of the most fantastic experiences we've had as a couple in quite a while... well... provided that you take having children, being a parent, having fantastic friends and doing cool ministry with GCC out of the equation, that is anyway.

We spent 15 days in India on a two part trip, the first component of which was to observe a Purpose Driven Church seminar attended by 1,400 indigeneous Indian pastors and resourced by/through our partnership with The Bible League and Purpose Driven International. It was a fantastic experience, and our Sr. Pastor, Dr. R Mark Beeson was one of the keynote speakers, along with Rob "The Shogun" Wegner and TBL's own D Rajendran! It was a tremendous success by every possible metric.

The second part of the trip was spent in Ipiturai, a small village in the "tsunami zone" on the West coast of the country (about 2 hours north of Kanyakumari City in the region of Kanyakumari), where we and a group of about 12 TBL staff joined Habitat for Humanity ground crews to assist in the building (or rather, rebuilding) of five homes in the tsunami-affected village. We used this experience as a "prototype" for doing more of these sorts of builds with TBL church planter partners in the future.

We blogged the whole trip, so if you want to see the full recounting, click here.

Our Budding Little Jedi Padiwans...

The other day, we had some friends over for the day (Elihu and Zion Carlstrom... children of our dear friends Blair and Tracy). Elihu is 7, and Zion is 10, and Elijah and Peri just adore both of them. Upon sending them outside to play for a bit in the afternoon, Sami caught Elijah, Peri and Elihu battling intensely with lightsabers and having a blast in the process. Interestingly, Peri actually held her own quite well, even against the two of them at varying points, although both boys were graciously chivalric in their allowing her to get some good hits on each of them. Elijah and Elihu as well play very well together and genuinely enjoy each others company.

At this point, we're quite sure that each will not only succeed in their applications for entry to the Jedi Temple for training as true Padiwan learners, and we will be quite proud of them as they proceed through the ranks until they achieve the level of Jedi Master!

No Sith, Separatist or other evildoer will stand a chance! We were thinking that their Jedi names could be Hokey-fun ThePokey and perhaps Veji Organic.

Elmo Pottie?

Sami came in to the living room today to see Peri wiping Elmo's "bottom" with a wet-wipe. When she came over to see what Peri was doing, Peri held up the wipe and said with a smile, "Elmo Pottie!!!"

I'm just glad we didn't have to clean up whatever it was that Elmo was needing to have wiped.

:-):

Of Classic Stories, Vampires and Cool New Anime!

Since we kind of feel like it is a family duty to spread the "good news" of Anime to our family and friends, you will have probably noticed by now that we not only consume a goodly portion of the exceptionally provacative media form from Japan, but like to talk and post about it often as well. Honestly, we try not to go TOO overboard on this as we recognize that most of our friends and family already think we're freaks anyway, but hey, when we find something truly exceptional, we still think it's worth posting.

Enter our latest dig-fest on Gonzo/Geneon's recently released Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. It's the classic story told by Alexander Dumas (book #3 in his famous trilogy which also includes The Three Musketeers -- one of my personal favorites -- and also The Man in the Iron Mask), but with some exceptionally well-done twists and turns. We have only thus far viewed volume #1 (episodes 1 - 4), but thus far, the following are things we have noticed:

1) First, the animation is truly novel. It blends modern cgi technology with what can probably only be described as a high-scale acid-trip to yield cells that "move... but don't move", which continually contribute to the other-worldly (if not completely surreal) feel to the whole thing.

2) Second, it takes place in the radical future. Some of it takes place in future-day Paris, but the series starts on "Luna" (i.e. the moon), where complex cities and city-life provide the old-world equivalent to Bohemian Paris or Rome. So you on the one hand have people dressed in what could only be categorized as the foppish detail of 19th century Europe, but at the same time are taking star-shuttles to interplantetary destinations and riding in carriages drawn by robotic horses.

3) Finally, there is something strangely amiss with "The Count". He doesn't eat with his guests. His skin is "cold... like a corpse". He appears to be immune to harm. And he has fangs... and pointy ears. So... that either means that he's really into CosPlay, or has picked up some vampiric tendencies somewhere in his "vast travels through space".

All in all, the vengeance-bent Dumas classic story is thus-far well represented, and we are looking forward to seeing how it unfolds. And hey, in my opinion, anything that blends classic literature, vampires, anime and science-fiction is probably a good candidate for watching just by having those elements present to begin with... but that's just me, of course. We'll keep you posted on the series as it develops... or you can just watch it yourself [hint-hint]!

What's the Hold Up????

Dear few and faithful readers! The "hold up" on our blog site the last couple of days has been due to the fact that we have misplaced the power source charging unit for our new Sony Cybershot. As a result, the poor little mechritter is temporarily dead. Hence, no new nifty pictures to upload of the things we've been doing.

But never fear! We are on the hunt, either for our existing one or for a replacement, and should be able to resume the posting of phun photos and other things shortly. We'll even go back and input pictures into a couple of the posts that we'll be doing over the next couple of days so that you can "read me now and look at me later" (because we're not here to talk... no... we're just here to Pomp [clap] you op!!!).

So now, consider yourselves informed... and in the mean time, you'll have to just be satisfied with text and jpegs that we pirate from the Net, alas!!!

The Great Jack-o-Lantern Quest: Part #2

Contestant #2: Vash the Stampede

Okay, this was daddy's idea. Vash the Stampede is the primary character in our favorite Anime series (Trigun), as well as our lost little guy's middle name. As a result, Jack thought it appropos to carve the likeable Christ-type into the pumpkin as a Jack-o-lantern.

Seen here are both Vash's characteristic face and crossed fingers, which represent his favorite "war cry" and motivation for his actions: "Love and Peace!!!". Dad went a little overboard, however, in insisting that we actually carve the Japanese Kanji writing characters for the words "Love" and "Peace" in the side of the pumpkin as well.

It also turned out better than expected, but it will be up to you guys to tell us which is best. Shown here are both lit and unlit Vash faces, as well as lit and unlit Kanji.

Le Birthday DuJour!

Six years ago today (October 19th, 1999), we were welcoming Elijah Kellen Magruder into the world! Since that day, he has grown to be an individual who is characterized by a razor-sharp mind, a vivid imagination, a tender heart, a mouth that runs even more than his dad's (which... granted... is pretty hard to believe), and a nearly tireless love of food and cooking. Ask Elijah what he wants to be when he grows up and he will probably tell you that he wants to be a chef... along with a Predator-US Navy SEAL-inventor-writer/actor. Shown here are picture of Elijah opening a children sized chef-hat and apron that his mom found on-line, along with a superb gourmet children's cook-book, which Elijah has already enjoyed pouring over to find delectible desserts and entrees.

Along with the chef-gear, he also received a cool telescope/microscope from Mim and Pip, a Predator action figure, and also had a great birthday party at Kindergarten in which he got to hold a globe and "rotate around the sun" (a candle lit in the middle of the room) to symbolize the 6 years that he has been alive. No, it wasn't an ancient Druid ritual or require that we sacrifice a chicken afterward. Yes, it really was cute, despite the pagan sound to its description.

It was a very good day!

The Great Jack-o-Lantern Quest: Part #1

Okay, so Jack is a little fanatical about Jack-o-lanterns, and since Halloween is one of the few holidays he believes worth celebrating, not just any Jack-o-lantern will do. As a result, each year has progressively become the all out quest to find the perfect specimen, and this year is no different.

So then, this year, we have....

Contestant #1: A Predator

This was Elijah's suggestion (not surprising), and we featured a carved Predator mask, complete with dreadlock carvings on the left, and the cut-out of a shoulder-cannon on the right. You may also notice that there is a clan marking on the "forehead" of the mask. This marking is equivalent to the mark used by "Scar" (the Predator who befriends Lex and helps her to escape the Pyramid of Death in the recently released "Aliens vs. Predators" movie) as an added feature of "realism".


You can see both the "unlit" and "lit" designs, which, quite frankly, we all felt turned out very well. Image of what one "really" looks like is also included below.