This is a picture of the pretty girl who lives at my house.

Fully Man

Well...it's nearly upon us. Just a few more days till the wrapping gets recycled, the turkey becomes leftovers and the flood gates of guilt over sweets consumed, burst open. And thank goodness; what else would drive us to the gym? This will be our first Christmas in our new house. It should be fun.



I picked out a tree and nearly had to dip into savings to pick it (I'm thinking of quitting this animation stuff and growing Christmas trees for a living). 55 Dead presidents so I can spend an entire evening on my back on my front porch trying to get our tree-stand to keep our tree upright while saying words that I don't think baby Jesus would care for. I'll be happy if I don't have to do that again for a whole 12 months.



But the tree is up! So are the lights. So are the random Christmas decorations. So is the Nativity. Which brings me to my thought of the evening;



The reason we sin is because we have a distorted view of God. We don't see Him as our Saviour. We don't see Him as our guide or our judge or our counsellor or our helper. I was sitting looking at the beautiful Nativity that our family bought for us last year and I realized that I've never seen a Nativity with a real baby in it. I don't mean 'live' baby, I mean real. A baby that's covered in slime and blood and screaming because it used to be warm but now it's cold. A baby with it's eyes shut to the light and the noise. A baby fully aware of the world it just entered.



Instead I usually see this. A blue eyed, blonde baby Jesus looking as though He's carrying the invisible gift of Salvation in His hands. The Bible says that He was "fully God" and "fully man". If He was truly fully man, He would've come into this world the same way the rest of us did - through pain. I don't think it questions the "fully God" part of his being, to be hungry, or cold or sad.

I don't actually think there's anything wrong with these Nativity's. They're almost all beautiful. I just think it's good to take a break from Christian coloring book every now and then and look in a real crib with a real baby in it, and remember what exactly it meant for Jesus to become "fully man".



Merry Christmas from the Lepps!

R.I.P. Hillary

I'm kind of fascinated with insects.

Ruth knows that there are certain things that will turn me into a little 8 year old boy. Comic books, reptiles and bugs, and big narly trees that seem like they were designed by God for climbing.

So recently I decided to commit the next 4 years of my life to drawing comics, while being kept company by a Dynastes Granti Rhinoceros beetle on my desk as a pet. This little guy went with me to work and back for the last couple months. Despite the obvious horns that are only found on the male of the species, one of my co-workers decided to name the beetle Hillary. Not sure if it was named after the 2008 democratic candidate or not, but the name stayed regardless of the beetles political leaning.



I ordered this little soldier from an online breeder. That's right; got him in the mail. What the breeder didn't tell me was that these beetles are seasonal. They literally never live past December. And so, last weekend Hillary gave up his spirit and died. He was a gorgeous little bug.

Hillary left an empty cage on my desk, so I'm back online ordering a pair of little invertabrate friends to inpsire my comics. I'll take pictures when they arrive. ;)

Halcyon

Well, if it's not obvious from the first picture, last weekend me...


...and Ruth...



...decided to drive up to...


...and treat our parents to a weekend at Halcyon hot springs resort. It's a place a where you eat, sleep, read books, maybe watch TV...but mostly... you sit in the hotsprings, surrounded by a fog of steam while snow flakes fall on your head. I would have pictures of that, but there were strangers there also and I assumed they wouldn't appreciate pictures of themselves in swim suits, with snow on there head...on our blog.





The chalet was great. There was plenty of space for us all, a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains, and no internet or phone service and only 5 channels.







Thanks again for getting the time off work Moms and Dads! Let's make it a tradition!

David Fields

David is my best man. He stood as my best man at our wedding, but to this day he continues to be my best man. He is the man who says he will pray, and then he does. He's the guy who's yes means yes and no means no. He's not just the guy who wore a matching suit and held the rings for me, he's the man who will call me up if ever hears that my marriage is in the rocks, and say "Royden, you made a covenant."



David is also a musician. We used to play in a band together called 'Skrap'. David was the guitarist. I was the lead singer. David still plays, he actually leads worship at his church. He's almost done his masters in divinity.

David and his family are avid hunters. They get their meat for the year from the forest. We used to practice in the cold room in the basement after a hunting trip. We'd be bundled in warm clothes, playing next to skinned, gutted deer hanging upside down beside us. I wish I had pictures.



While David visited, he convinced me to re-record an old song we wrote while we were in highschool. So we recorded a track of guitar and vocals onto his laptop, and then he took the recording to our old friend, bass player and back up singer (who is now in a real band about release their second album http://www.doubtingparis.com/) Ben Rogers. He sang some backup. David recorded a few more tracks of guitar, and the song never had any drums so we didn't call Shaun (sorry Shaun). I just heard the recording and it turned out really great.



Mark stopped by to jam and I thought this was a great picture of him. I'm testing out a flash for my camera.

David saw the decrepit state of my guitar and decided he'd re-string it for me. Well he didn't just restring it, he practically refurbished it. It was awesome. Thanks David, I'll try to play more for Ruth.



David's lovely wife Kathryn couldn't join us last weekend but we were able to visit them both on our way through Kamloops this past weekend where they fed us homemade deer stew. It was awesome.

We love you both. Please come back soon.

Proof

Just to help validate Ruth's post below...

VENT

Today I had a bad day. It started bad. It ended bad.
1. Woke up at 4am to the alarm clock that my beloved mistakenly set to 4 instead of 5
2. Got up at 5am after an hour of tossing and turning to hear a message from Ben Rogers asking where in the heck Dave was since he left our house at 3pm and hadn't made it to his house in Langley until sometime after we went to bed.
3. Left the house 15 minutes late for the gym and couldn't find my purse with my greencard in it anywhere. We're going to Canada *soon* and I need it to get back in the country.
4. Got to the gym and realized that I had my sports bra on backwards. Getting dressed in the dark has some disadvantages...but I actually thought it looked pretty hot on backwards. Since Roydie wasn't at the gym with me I decided I better put it on properly ;)
5. Finished my workout and hurried to shower and get to work only to find that the shower does not have hot water that early in the morning. I waited and waited and finally decided it was better to have a frigid shower than be late for work. It was finally warm when I rinsed. If I wasn't awake before I certainly was after all of that!
6. Got dressed and thankfully took a peek in the mirror before leaving the change room and realized that I had my shirt on backwards. That shirt, on backwards...not so hot.
7. Got to work and somehow got off on the sixth floor instead of the 5th.
8. Realized that my assignment at work and my mental state were not compatible and thankfully got my assignment switched but not before a few tears were shed. How embarrassing. Unfortunatly the person who swapped me didn't want my assigment either but gave me grace.
10. Sat in traffic for 3.5 hours to get home because no one in Seattle knows how to drive in the snow.

OK OK---It wasn't all bad:
1. 9am my beloved found my purse under the bed
2. 10am was relieved to learn that Dave arrived at Ben's alive and well (it only took him 8 hours to drive 2)
3. I laughed pretty hard with Dr. M in the procedure room this afternoon. We talked about the great deal he got on his Tommy Hilfigure (sp?) tie at Mervyns and arranged marriages (he's from India).
4. Listened to 'Move It 92.5' on my crazy commute home from work and danced it up in the driver's seat. I'm sure everyone around me driving 2 miles per hour thought I was nuts. I so want a disco ball for my rear view mirror
5. I don't have to cook dinner tonight since traffic was so bad. We're going to go out. As soon as Royden gets home. It's 9:30 pm and he's still in traffic, not even halfway home yet. He didn't sound so happy on the phone. I think he needs a disco ball.

The Millers

Josh and Brenda host thanksgiving at their place every year. It's usually a house full of people, a ton of food, and good company. It's kind of the thanksgiving for those who don't go home. This was our second year at the Millers and it was as good as ever.



I thought I’d take the time to mention what good friends these guys are to us. We do the kinds of things together that are reserved for married folk. Like invite each other over wearing practically pajamas and sharing a stiff drink in front of an old movie.



Sometimes we get together over wine and cheese and laugh about the quirks of our spouses, or speculate about the housing market. We have a verbal agreement to give each other a 5 week notice if there is a baby in the works (we’re the only childless couples we know).



They’re both a blessing to both of us, and we had a really awesome thanksgiving this week. Thanks Millers!

Hi Heidi!

What's buzzin cousin?

David and Kristy came down for a visit last weekend. We had a kind of spoiled weekend of rainy weather, failed attempts to park in Seattle, and aimless wandering in the mall to kill time before church. We still got to hang to together though. If you happen to be a regular blog reader you'll remember the last time they came to Seattle. --> http://roydenandruth.blogspot.com/2006/02/liebich-lepp.html

Those were the days before Heidi entered their life. Heidi is the kind of baby that makes me consider getting Ruth drunk some night.




You can read David and Kristy's blog here --> http://davidandkristy.blogspot.com/



Whitney also came along. She's another cousin from my Dad's side. We don't get to see her much so it was nice to have her visit. Come back anytime Whitney!



Excuse me while I go make my wife a margarita

2.0

Sometimes you just need an update.