Hello everyone and welcome to another heartfelt episode of The Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to be on the top ten list of wanted presents from Santa. This poses a bit of a problem for Santa because he thought he would have to make them all laptops which meant flying in those specialised elves from Apple and IBM etc which is quite expensive. Then on the eve of production he had a brainwave and instead he collected all of their email addresses and subscribed them to that world-famous blog. Why don’t you follow Santa’s lead and give the gift that wont be returned: “A 52 week subscription to The Thursday Blog” by entering in your email address to the right of screen.

So it is now Christmas Eve and all of the mouses have finished making their pancake and flapjack batter for Christmas Day, so therefore are not stirring…

Now… where were we……. oh that’s right, we’re on the edge of a cliff hanger. My Princess and I are in downtown Amsterdam, fighting like it is the local custom and we are trying to fit in, and then My Princess did something so unexpected that it left me with my jaw open. All will be revealed in this exciting episode called :

“But I Want Ribs – Part 2″

There we were, tension mounting: my Princess who did not know she was pregnant, was so adamant on getting ribs that she didn’t care if we had to cancel a prior arrangement that had been set in stone for months. Me, who also didn’t know that she was pregnant was adamant that we were not going to stand up about 50 people that we all excited to meet us. We argued and just at the point that I did one of the stupidest moves in history that a male does when talking to his partner – putting my foot down – she did the thing that shocked me. She walked away!

We are in the middle of the city of Amsterdam; there are a million people walking past us, our friend and guide and only connection to safety (becasue I had no idea where he even lived let alone how to get there) had moved away a little bit to give us some space, and she had walked off into the crowd. Using the same logic – I walked off after her.

Now I don’t want to elongate the story because I want to get to what I have learnt (besides not putting my foot down). After we had made up (which is the best part) and found our guide (after making a $45 roaming mobile/cell phone call), I realised that there was a certain part inside of me that was hurting. This was a feeling that I hadn’t felt before and I did not like it.

Fast forward to the last few weeks and this feeling has resurfaced. My Little Princess was tired, really tired but for some reason she couldn’t fall asleep. I was holding her in my arms and she started to cry. I was rocking her and singing to her because she had enjoyed that before, but on this occasion she kept crying and crying. Minutes would pass that felt like hours and her crying got more intense and I started to struggle. On the outside I looked calm and composed but that thing inside of me was screaming in pain. My Little Princess exhausted with crying didn’t stop and started to gasp for air becasue she was finding it hard to breathe because of the crying. This is where I broke down. The pain was too much and I cried out to God for help as I held her in my arms.

I found out what the pain was. The pain was not being able to provide for those who I dearly love. My Princess wanted ribs and I couldn’t give it to her and it hurt me that I could not. My Little Princess was upset and overtired and there was nothing that I could do to help her and the pain was excruciating. Now these were not critical situations – my Princess had a craving which most pregnant ladies do; and My Little Princess was overtired which is normal for a 2 week old. At the end of the day they were fine and no harm came to them, but it still hurt me.

This brought my thoughts to those less fortunate then I. Those without jobs, those without health, those without homes and those who live in poverty. I believe that the most painful thing to a man in the third world is not that he is hungry, or that he has had his leg blown off by a landmine…but it is when his little child cries because they are hungry and there is nothing he can do about it. That pain I would do anything possible to avoid.

We should all be extremely grateful that this pain is not in our everyday lives and be encouraged to help those for whom it is.

May you be blessed this Christmas and enjoy friends and family. I will leave you with this – only last week I called my wife and asked if she would like me to get dinner for that night on the way hom. It was over a year later and for the first time since she said “I think I would like ribs”. I thank the Good Lord that this time I could get it for her.

Have Fun and Merry Christmas

Dan.

Hello everyone and welcome to another special epsiode of the Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to be claimed as a national treasure by more than one country. In fact for years numerous countries have tried to claim it as their own. England sent their Navy, Russia sent their Army, Japan sent their Ninja’s and the US sent Nicolas Cage. To date no country can claim it as their own but Nicolas Cage did get 2 movie deals out of it.

I really hope you enjoyed last weeks episode. The little story was incredibly hard to write as I couldn’t use any words that started with vowels unless they were in the code. By the end I started to lose the plot  - changing words that started with a vowel to words beginning with an E only for my Princess to point out E is also a vowel. Also I checked it over 10 times to see if it would work and every time I would yell “darn it” because I would see a word not in the code that started with an M and for some reason I was convinced that M was a vowel. I would calm down, start checking again, see the word “many” and go “Oh, I give up this is too ha….. oh”.

Today’s episode is a ponder on just how fortunate a good-looking guy like me is. Forgetting that I am married to the most beautiful woman in existence, and that my Princess and I have a daughter that makes grown people in the street stop and start convulsing with weird noises of “ohhhhhhh it’s a ohhh it’s a ahhhhhh” – if we leave that aside because that puts me in the “luckiest guy on the planet” category; I am still very fortunate and I believe there is a chance you may be too.

This all starts with a request from my Princess in downtown Amsterdam. This episode is called:

“But I Want Ribs – Part 1″

It was August and instead of battling a cold winter in Sydney we were enjoying extremely hot weather in the only place to be during June to November – the northern hemisphere. My Princess and I were visting a very famous and close friend of mine – Spronky – in Amsterdam. We arrived early that morning and we had something planned for later that afternoon so we caught a bus into downtown Amsterdam. Now Amsterdam gets a bad rap from time to time and I was scared it was all going to be drugs, rock n roll, and everything in between. I started closing my eyes every 2 seconds because I would see big signs saying “XXXX” and I thought it was a dodgy shop. There weren’t a few of them but every shop had  ”XXXX” and I would stumble passed, eyes closed. It wasn’t until my friend had finished laughing at me that he explained that “XXXX” is their national symbol, had nothing to do with dodgy businesses, and I was currently standing outside a supermarket. It turned out that all the dodgy bits were contained in one small section of town which I appreciated.

On the way walking down the streets we saw a restaurant advertising ribs. It was only 11:30am so we walked passed it. About an hour later we had walked a long way down the road and we were fairly hungry so we looked for some places to eat. We were undecided and then my Princess said “let’s get ribs”. It sounded like a great idea but we couldn’t find a restaurant near us that did ribs. We decided that because time was short we would catch a bus up the road and get off near the ribs place. We did so but it took some time and it was quickly getting to the point where we needed to catch a bus back to Spronky’s place to get to where we were going in the afternoon. We were meeting all his friends and doing some crazy Dutch activites called Polder Sports so we could not be late. We got to the Ribs place and they let us know that the ribs would take 45 mins to cook, but we could only spare 30 mins.

“I am sorry honey, we can’t get ribs” I said sympathetically.

“But I want ribs” She said slighty forcefully.

I will point out at this time that my Princess was about 3 weeks pregnant with our son Sam -(my boy in heaven) yet neither of us knew it. This means we were tackling cravings – pregnancy cravings. I don’t think either of us were prepared for this argument.

“Honey, we don’t have time for ribs. We need to get something else.”

“BUT I want ribs.”

“I know you want ribs, but I can’t give you ribs.”

“BUT I WANT RIBS” (Notice how all the words are now in capitals. Talk about creative writing!!! She didn’t really say those words, it was a bit more civilized but this is the gift of the conversation)

“Look, you are NOT having ribs.” (Notice the capital ‘Not’, someone is getting angry)

“BUT I WANT RIBS NOW! (Notice the addition of the ‘NOW’. Genius.)

What happened next was something so profound that it defies all human logic and could only happen when both parties were fighting immaturely and one of them, actually we can say both of them, had hormones going crazy.

What happened was…….

…To be found out next episode of The Thursday Blog, your mid-week guide to life!

Hello and Welcome to another satisfying episode of The Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to held hostage by kidnappers. They demanded someone pay them 1 million dollars to have it released. It is common thought that they should of asked for a higher sum, as the demand was instantly met by a billion people all giving 1 cent each. The kidnapper was later found and the money returned when his mother turned him in, totally ashamed of what he had done. She is an email subscriber of The Thursday Blog.

Well what a week it has been. This will be the last week I am writing whilst being on leave from work and what an awesome experience it has been. I really wanted to place a lot of importance on the arrival of my daughter so I worked really hard then took a month off. My work amazingly gave me 2 weeks paid as Paternity leave (which is a whole new level of leave – time off for me because my wife went through and did all the labour) and then the last 2 weeks as annual leave.

My time off has been amazing. I have been doing a combination of attending to My Little Princess and sleeping. My Princess (my wife, not my child hence no “little” in front of her title – not to say she is big but compared to My Little Princess she is huge) … (I feel like I need to re-open the bracket to point out that My Little Princess is 3 weeks old so anyone compared to her is huge but My Princess’ size is not huge compared to a woman her age and she falls into the much sought-after category of perfect)…(I am really glad I re-opened the bracket last time… this time though was not necessary)…and I are having a lot of fun and love our new family.

Anyway enough about me, let’s talk about you. In fact I have a story for you inspired by My Little Princess. I have been doing a lot of thinking whilst staring for hours at my bundle of joy. I have been thinking about when I was a child, I was so reserved. I was afraid of rejection especially from people that deep down I didn’t even care about. It took me years to develop the confidence to be myself and start exploring life. If I could tell a story to that little boy that I was so many years ago, this would be it. A simple short tale with a powerful message – Enjoy.

‘The King’s Message’

The story starts @ the kingdom called Norrid, situated near the sea where the breeze could be sold for millions. Dan who was male, young & had the world @ his feet lived here. Fast-forwarding through my story, we notice Dan finding himself standing within the kingdom’s palace.

“Hey u” said the big security guard, “are you here to help the King?”. ‘Help the King?’ Dan thought, ‘Surely someone like me could not help’. For Dan thought himself to be common & not unique…but then the burly bouncer pushed him through the door and Dan found himself standing beside the throne. The room was extravagantly breathtaking & he was speechless. The King said “Do you like my room?” with cheeky grin.

“Amazing!” stuttered Dan.

Then the King lost his smile “this land’s troubled young knight & we need your help”.

“My help??… Knight??… These terms have not described me before Your Majesty”. The King’s grin returned. “Adventure stands before you my son.”

“Your Majesty, for years my heart has eagerly yearned for such things, but my dreams have faded, there’s nothing but the simple life that awaits me. You must search for someone different my King.”

The King’s grin ceased & fury mixed with love filled his face. “If what you see before u sits the King with His power, you need to listen to my message & you need to understand…….

The message that the King had for Dan is the same message He has for you and me. To find out the message re-read the story above and search for all the words that start with a vowel. There lies your 12-word message.

Have Fun with your Adventure.

Dan

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to another thrifty episode of The Thursday Blog – the only Blog in history to be pleaded by Google to let them put ads on it. It is nothing personal Google, I just want to wait and see if you are a reputable website that will still be around in 6 months or so.

With a new born things but still on time off from work I do get a few hours each day to think and to write so I tried something new this week. I wrote a really practical episode about Performance Skills that could be really useful to any public speaker, MC or performer. Seeing The Thursday Blog is Your Mid-Week Guide to Life, not a practical way to improve performance skills, I decided to give it to anyone who wanted it. So check it out and read all the other fantastic posts by the regular writers: Miss Sarah, Mike Vogel, Cadu and previous guest blogger at The Thursday Blog – Sam Luce.

Now I got up to one other thing this week that makes such a good story, so I am going to give it to you and you can derive your own life lesson from it. This is because we are going to observe something so complex, so ingenious, so dare I say impressive (I guess I dare) that the different applications are so numerous it cannot be contained in the 800 word self-imposed threshold. We are going to delve into:

‘The Inner Workings of a Criminal Mastermind’

I am not condoning breaking the law but what happened last week was so good I could make an exception. It is like when the Oceans 11 team rob a casino, even though it is against the law you can’t help but love it. The person who did such amazing thing last week was “me” and the number of laws broken were “0″…but what I did was so brilliant that it seemed to be illegal and a bunch of high-priced lawyers still won’t admit that I am not in the wrong. It all started with a phone call:

“Hello Toys R Us”

“Hey, its Dan”

“umm………… do I know you?”

“No, I just wanted to pretend that you should know me for a laugh”

“umm…… ok”

“Wow, no sense of humour yet working in a toy store, good choice”

“What?”

“I said ‘Can I speak to the video games department…that would be choice”

“…………. Hello Video Games”

“No, the name is Dan you must of mispronounced it”

“umm……………… do I know you?”

“Fortunately no, now are you selling the new Mario Wii game?”

After a little while the guy let me now that they do sell this game and it was at the low price of $70 AUD – a good $9 cheaper than anywhere else. I asked if I could get one tomorrow and he said there was plenty in stock so come whenever. I drive out of my way to get to this centre the next day and pick up the game. The guy scans it and tells me it is $80. I explain that I was told it was $70 and he said “oh yeah, we had a 3 day sale. It ended yesterday!!!”

Slightly gutted, I decid to go upstairs to a store called JB HiFi because they had it for $79 but more importantly (because I am not that cheap) I had a gift card there. I found the game and saw a sticker saying “trade in 3 Wii games and get this for free”. Now usually video game places have a list of 30 games they will accept but after questioning the staff they have a list of 70 games they don’t accept (the ones that came out in the first few months of the wii) and everything else is good. Here is where enters the mastermind. The next series of events seemed to happen very quickly.

- I went downstairs to another game place

- I raided the bargain bin

- I found and purchased 4 Wii games for $80 that seemed to be not too old.

- I removed all the stickers

- I went upstairs and presented my stash with fingers crossed

Not only were all of them not on the list therefore were able to be traded, but he scanned them individually and 3 of them were worth $15 so we used them as the special 3 games to get Mario for free. This made a $79 purchase only cost me $60 but the 4th game scanned up as being worth $27!!!! I needed to buy a $25 gift card for a secret santa gift anyway, so they gave me that and $2 in cold hard intelligent cash.

The mastermind had beaten the system and is now current investing in his next task: winning the Mario game.

Have Fun

Dan

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to another close-to-perfect episode of The Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to spark a national protest. In the country of Sweden the government blocked the site www.thethursdayblog.com due to the amount of visits that were taking place and slowing down the entire nation’s broadband network. The people protested and chanted “we will go back to dial-up if it means we can have the Thursday Blog”, so the government quickly reinstated access.

Well what an amazing few weeks it has been in my life and on this Blog. I asked 2 amazing friends to be celebrity writers for the last 2 weeks because I was sure that my baby was going to come, therefore making me unable to write due to crying with happiness. The first week I was wrong but the second week I was right; and my child sent my Princess’ body into a rollercoaster of sensations (a fancy word for pain) to mark her arrival.

To help me through the journey down the untravelled road of labour I decided to twitter the birth, live. This helped me to know that there were hundreds of people following what was happening and thinking about us. Now I have a lot more readers of this Blog than who follow my twitter so I am going to share that with you now in an episode called:

“It has begun”

Two weeks before she was due I let everyone know that when my Princess went into labour I would send a single tweet (online message) saying “It Has Begun”. Well I reminded everyone every day that it could happen any day now, as we counted down to our due date. Well 12 days after our due date, at 4:30am in the morning, I was able to finally send the much awaited tweet…

4:30am – It Has Begun

6am – We were travelling along fine then her waters broke and it all went to another level

7:30am – Really intense 90 mins. On our way to the birth centre (hospital)

8:00am – At hospital, being admitted straight away. She had a contraction in the hallway.

8:30am – Took 20 mins to get an antibiotic needle in. Not fun.

9:30am (2 tweets) – Ok, we are 4 hours into established labour. It got really intense but she has got in the bath and that helped a lot.

-My Princess is truly amazing and the midwives are happy with how she is going.

10:00am (3 tweets) – Been in the bath for about 90 mins and the contractions are now really intense. My left ear is hurting a bit and I have nail marks on my hand.

- I have been sent out to eat something for 5 mins so I don’t faint. It is now 3 mins and I am now going back to the battlefield.

-You can’t keep me away from my Princess!

11:30am – Please Pray Now!

12:30pm (3 tweets) – Ok, there were a few complications and everything now is fine. She needed to be transferred to labour ward and given an epidural!

- It has started to work and the pain is going away. Praying that no more medical intervention is needed.

- She is over halfway there, this baby will be born today (18/11/2009).

1:15pm – Ok praying time again. We have to have a quick test to see if she can keep going naturally with no operation.

1:30pm -Test Done. If result below 4 all good. 4-5 worrying, retest in 30 min. Over 5 = emergency caesarian operation. Our result: 1.3! Praise God!

2:30pm – Had to re-test due to the movements of the baby and scored a 2 which is great. My Princess is now fully dilated!

2:40pm – They have turned off the epidural and waiting for sensations to push to start! This is really happening!

2:50pm – My Princess is having her cannular (drip) changed. They have tried 3 times to get it right. Each new try, another massive needle. Not fun!

3pm – My Princess is amazing and doing fine. I am now wondering like crazy if it is a Boy or a Girl!

This is where the tweets stopped. Over the next 71 mins my Princess and I faced one of the toughest challenges we have ever faced (that’s another story) but it was all worth it to send the next tweet:

4:30pm – IT’S A GIRL!!!!!

At 4:11pm on the 18/11/2009 Grace Kera Lee-Archer blessed us with her presence and I couldn’t be more happier that life will never be the same again.

Have Fun.

Dan, his Princess, and his new Little Princess

I'm the luckiest guy in the world

Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, children of all ages welcome to the world famous Thursday Blog. The only blog in the history of mankind to win a Daytime Emmy for best Costume Design mostly because as I type this I am sitting at a local Starbucks wearing a chicken costume pecking at a latte and enjoying free wi-fi.

In introduction, I am Sam Luce and I blog at samluce.com. I have known Dan for at least 1 solid year, which makes me close enough to get an invitation to his Bar Mitzvah, but not his Christening.

It is with immense privilege I announce that I will be blogging for the aforementioned Master Lee-Archer.

Upon thinking of Master Lee-Archer and his Princess’ present circumstance I thought I would tell you a story about…

The Complications of Multiplication.

You might be saying to yourself, multiplication isn’t that difficult. I watched a rather awkward film in health class in the 8th grade. I’m sure you are thinking ‘I can figure out multiplication just fine’. To that I would say, I am sure you can and heaven help us if you do.

I remember when I married my Princess discussing a five year plan to having kids. The truth was I was nervous to have kids. I wasn’t sure if I would be a good father. I didn’t know what kind of world they would be born into; then as the years wore on I worked with loads of kids of all shapes and sizes; good kids, bad kids, in-between kids, and so my nervousness turned to fear.

By the time our five year anniversary hit, we began to seriously talk about having kids. It was all part of our plan. I however had been a kids pastor for about 7 years at this point and was very afraid of having kids – after seeing some kids turn out great others not so great – I was frightened because there seemed to be no formula to it. I feared I couldn’t control the outcome and I didn’t want to just have kids because that’s what you do after you get married.

That fall I experienced the loss of a family member for the first time in my life, my grandfather, who was killed in a farming accident. At his funeral I knew that I was going to have a son. I knew that having kids was part of God’s plan. I came home talked to my wife and she agreed.

Within a couple of months my wife took a test that confirmed she was pregnant. We were ecstatic – there is nothing like the feeling of looking at a test telling you that you are about to bring a life into the world. Our family and friends shared our joy. Thirteen weeks later we found out our baby had died. We were crushed.

Fast forward 6 years and we have 2 boys and a baby girl. Being a father has changed everything. I still struggle with fear from time to time, but being a father has helped me trust God in ways I didn’t know were possible. I read my bible with different eyes. I am blown away that Abraham would lay his hopes and dreams on an altar of wood because he trusted God. I am blown away by the redemptive gift God the Father gave to us in Jesus. I am blown away that Jesus would come to earth and dwell in the mess of humanity.

So many times I have noticed in so many areas of my own life that when God is challenging me to grow, to multiply; I flinch out of fear, I do nothing and don’t grow in those areas till I come to a place of trust in who God is.

For those of you still trying to have children, don’t quit believing and don’t wait. Be a father now. We live in a society torn apart by fatherlessness. You don’t have to look far, at work, at school, or in our neighborhoods to see that there are people who need someone to love them for no reason at all.

To Dan’s Princess you are blessed because even though I may not know a lot about Dan, I do know this – your new baby is going to be blessed beyond words to have a father like Master Lee-Archer that will fill your house with laughter and love!

Have Fun,

Sam

Welcome to the Thursday blog, the only blog since the late 90’s to recieve an honourary doctorate from the school of hard knocks.

So because the owner of this blog and part time Donkey mechanic Funny Man Dan has been in premature labour since Sat afternoon, oh his wife is fine, he is the one being a little premature, he has asked me to write this episode of the Thursday blog, the only blog since… Oh did that part.

In introduction, I am David Wakerley and I blog at [Kid Inspiration]. I have known Dan for at least 6 years, which makes me close enough to get an invitation to his wedding, but not be in the Bridal party.

I thought that I might compose something in the inmitable style of the aforementioned Sir Dan of Lee-Archer, or at least a pale imitation. For we all know that a pale imitation is still better than a fake tan. Today’s topic is one I am very familiar with… Giving Birth… To dreams. So I present to you:

A tale of a womb and a man.

One great metaphor (what’s a meta for?) for seeing your dreams come to pass is birth. We talk of ‘birthing dreams’, or with animated eyes describe ‘the day that a dream was born inside’ or the moment ‘our dream came to life’ and wax lyrical on the envisioned future to come for the lives of the generations to come.

But like I fully expect my 3 year old to say at some point, like I must have to my mother. “Where do dreams come from?”

There have been over the last few hundred years many schools of thought. Rationalism, communism, humanism, consumerism, antidisestablishmentarianism… The list goes on… No really just check Wikipedia.

Within the Judeo-Christian tradition there are many schools of thought on just how to live out ones faith in the world and this blog is no different. Why just yesterday I could have sworn I saw this post down at the local ‘rose and thistle‘ boasting how it was predestined to be written by me. Then other times it has a life of it’s own declaring that the content contained within was directed solely by its own decisions.

Is this life just a entrance exam into eternity where duty rules over beauty, or is life the pursuit of happiness and all things pleasureful? Do we direct our paths or does a supreme commander move the troops on a giant Risk board.

I realize that my hypothesis warrants words written in the thousands and yet I would like to work instead in hundreds, so at this juncture let me suggest that the dreams in your heart reflect your world view, your beliefs about reality. The Psalmist even promises that if we delight yourself in the LORD he will give us the desires of your heart.

The capitalist dreams of capitalism, the baptist dreams of baptism. Our hopes are based on memories, family, influential relationships, media, the books we have read, TV shows we have watched. I still to this day want to diffuse a bomb using a toothpick (thanks Macgyver!)

If our dreams are born of stimuli then it matters what is stimulating us. Like a addict and his addiction, we are drawn back again and again. What you feed on, you desire more of. You can lead a horse to water, but if it wants canapé’s then it won’t drink. There is nothing exciting about watching a movie where the plot revolves one mans struggle in post war Poland to make a car payment. We like our dreams bigger and our movies grand.

I think we were created for grand dreams. Not simply a life of servitude but servanthood. A life where the dreams are so big that the work they create give our labour meaning and purpose. That is our serving… living to see the grand God inspired dreams birthed.

If your desires lead you to down a road with only you at the end? Maybe you need to experience some withdrawal from your usual diet.

Withdrawal is simply separation… if you take some time off from the white sugar diet that fuels your current desires and start by juicing two oranges, an apple and some wheatgrass your taste buds will start to crave other foods and get a taste for the finer things in life.

The best dreams involve others.

The best dreams are tough.

The best dreams are impossible.

I hope this little meditation was enlightening, for I hoped to in some way reflect on the life times and work of Funny Man Dan. There is genius yet to be birthed and creativity yet to be sparked and I like a the student of the master have simply filled in a little while and like the great improvisers on ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ have asked my invisible audience “Can I have a suggestion for a style of blog post?”

Have Fun.

Dave

I can’t remember what she said………. I think it was yes

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages…Welcome to another almost perfect episode of The Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to be included on the rider for such bands as The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, U2, and Simply Red. Simply Red doesn’t tour anymore therefore does not get a rider but he still requests it if his wife asks him if he wants anything.

So for those of you who are new readers, welcome to the show. I am going to try and bring you up to speed. This blog is about life and all the wonderful joys and challenges that that topic brings. It is not necessary all about my life, but I use my life as a launch pad because it is the easiest thing to observe seeing as it is mine. So by reading this blog you may get an insight into how I am feeling, or the thoughts I am mulling over but not necessary what is happening in my life.

A few hard-core facts have been shared: (1) I am married to a beautiful Princess who has the ability to stop time with her presence, make the coldest heart warm, all while cooking a fantastic mac cheese. (2) We are expecting another child, our first to join us on the outside and it is due in only 8 days.

Because no doubt the next few episodes may be about the latter I want to give you a story about the first fact. I want to share the story of how we got engaged. Today’s episode is called.

“How a hopeful romantic gets a Princess to marry him”

Notice I said hopeful not hopeless. The difference is I was hopeful for something in the future that was special, loving, exciting, intimate and that feels sooooo good… You know what I am talking about……..that’s right……………. Marriage! Oh, what were you thinking??

It was a balmy afternoon in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Our amazing church had to hire the massive convention centre located there to have church because at Easter it is so packed they need to do something. My Princess and I had just finished attending a service and we were walking out onto the forecourt. At that point I asked her to close her eyes so that I could give her her Easter surprise. When she closed her eyes I ran away (what a man!!!)

As she opened her eyes there was standing a friend of hers with a single wrapped rose. She told my Princess what she loved about her, and how special she was. Then the friend gave her the rose and gave her a hug. After that had happened, behind her another friend was waving at her. She walked over to him and he said how much he appreciated her and gave her a rose and a hug. Then behind him were another 2 people ………

23 roses later she had completed a complete lap around the waters of Darling Harbour, gone over the bridge and ended up at a car park. She had seen so many important people in her life and they all let her know how special she was. The final five were in order of importance, being her pastors, then her best friend, and then her parents. Her parents told her to get in the car and drove her to a mystery location where I was standing armed with guitar. The darn thing was out of tune but I still managed to sing to her the only song I have ever written. Then I asked her a question: “Jasmine………. What do you envision for the future of our relationship?”

Now you might be thinking “what a strange question”. She was thinking the same thing, so let me explain. While we were dating we found a book called “101 Questions to ask before you get Engaged”. This was something important to us and we decided to meet up every week specifically to go through it. Well we thought it would only take 6 months max but the questions were very deep sometimes, that it took an hour to get though 3 questions. So a year later we hadn’t finished. We were close; we had 5 questions to go. So the night before I was going to propose, I called her up and said I had some leadership questions that I wanted to go through with our leaders and I wanted us to answer them. So without her realising it we got to question 100. Therefore when I asked her what she envisioned for our future, I was asking her Question 101! When she said “Marriage”, I pulled out the book, showed her that we had finished it, then threw it away, got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.

I can’t remember what she said………. I think it was yes

And now that Princess lies beside me, wrapped in a cocoon of beauty with our child moving around inside of her. Our dreams are coming true and our family is growing.

Have Fun.

Dan

Hello everyone and welcome to another triumphant episode of The Thursday Blog – the only blog in history to be printed out, shredded, and then finely chopped and used as an ingredient in a MasterChef challenge. They say that it gave the taste of direction. This proves not matter how you consume it The Thursday Blog is your mid-week guide to life.

Well what a week it has been. Since I announced that my friendship was over with IKEA, they have tried to fight back. In fact when I was walking down the street a bunch of Swedish Hit Men came after me with guns. Fortunately for me the guns were from IKEA and they couldn’t understand the instructions to self-assemble them.

Onto today’s episode which can best be described as like a swimming pool – deep and refreshing. The episode is called:

“You can never tell”

Has time ever stopped for you? They say time stops for no man and yes the clock still ticks, but there are times when you will experience one minute that takes an hour. There are a list of things that can cause this phenomenon: the birth of a child; or the beauty of a bride-to-be walking down the aisle (especially if you are the one she is walking down to meet). These times are amazing and moments that can be cherished for a lifetime.

Other times this phenomenon of “stopped time” is not as joyful. People who have experienced tragedy will know too well of what I write. A bad doctor’s report; a loss of employment; or untimely death of someone you love, are only a few things that have this effect. Time cannot only stop for an hour but for weeks, years, and for some time is never the same again.

This episode is dedicated to those who are hurting…yet chances are that you are not actually that person. It could be people you know; friends you spend time with; family you love; or someone in the same room as you right now. The scary part is, you may never know their pain.

I once heard a paramedic talk about what they do when they arrive to a trauma scene. There are generally two types of casualties. The first are screaming in pain. They may have broken bones and screaming at the top of their lungs. They are not the people who the paramedics attend to first. The people they go to first are the silent people. They have been in the accident but they are standing upright and just being quiet. They could even be standing with the crowd watching and to anyone else they could seem to be perfectly ok. These are the people who are most at risk. The screaming peoples’ lungs are working so they can wait…but the silent ones could be internally bleeding and no one would know.

There are many people in our world who are hurting and you would never know what was happening in their world. They may be going through something for a short season or maybe it has been happening for some time. People ask if there is a solution for it…I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know what helps.

It was 5 years ago that I found myself a walking casualty, and a man came up to me who I knew. We started talking and he asked me what was wrong. I told him that everything was fine. He asked again and I repeated my answer. For some strange reason he kept asking until something inside of me changed and I felt safe to talk and I did and it felt good. Did it “fix” me? No, but it sure did help. How did he know? I don’t think he did necessarily; but he did the most simplest thing…he asked.

You may not know what people are going through but you can always ask.

Have Fun

Dan