Christmas With The Pattens

Here is the pic of the kids. This one is first, as we all know that Christmas pictures are about how cute the kids are, not so much the parents. I am not too sure as to how or why JohnMark has the smile that he has, but I do know it has to do with a sister whose hand was behind him and moving. Just an aside-he is now fully mobile by whatever means he deems neccessary.
Our semi-annual family portrait. This was the nicest of the two, though not neccessarily my favorite of the two. I am thinking of putting the other one up at a future date and having a vote as to which is the cutest. Just to help the imagination, the other picture has Kenzie looking directly at the camera with a look of pure contempt. She in reality was just concentrating, but the look of muder was running through her mind. This one has both girls smiling nicely, but JohnMark isnt too sure.

Well, since we no longer have the internet at our house, my personal updates wont be coming as often. I will try to be getting them up before too much time between important things happen. To those of you who we normally send Christmas cards to, we will be sending them, but they may get there post facto. Better late then never in this case:) Feel free to email and let me know how things are going-AMP

Family Vacation Time

Well everyone, we are off on our annual vacation. We are going to Breezy Point for the annual hideout. We don't do a lot of the cold weather stuff, so we go up with my parents and brother, and sit around the fire, watch movies, eat popcorn, and go soak in the hot tub. YEAH!!

Anyone who is still around the Brainerd area please give us a call. We'd love to catch up with you. We will be there from 12/15-12/22. You can call either myself or Amy.

Steve- (507) 402-4530
Amy- (507) 402-4529

Merry Christmas

Recap of JohnMark's surgery

I must apologize in not getting specifics out about JohnMark's surgery. When he was born he was born with what is known as a hydrocele (pronounced hydro-seal). It is not entirely uncommon. Basically it is excess fluid around the testicles and there is a hole that goes into the abdomen so the fluid can pass back and forth. Obviously, there is a potential for some discomfort if it is not corrected. The hole can also grow larger and result in a full blown hernia. This condition usually heals itself and doctors frequently wait until the boy is around one year old before fixing it surgically. In JohnMark's case his was pretty big adn there is a family history of these things needing to be fixed surgically. There had also been a couple complications with his circumcision healing so the doctor fixed that as well.

A few months ago we knew he had been in serious pain repeatedly and our pediatrician referred us to the urologist here in Albert Lea, but reminded us that the urologist did not specialize in children, so if we didn't like what he said our pediatrician would refer us to a pediactric urologist at Mayo. The urologist at Albert Lea was not at all helpful and said JohnMark was in no pain because hydroceles do not cause pain. I have been told by some men that this is simply not true.
We were set to see the Dr. at Mayo at the end of September, but he had to take medical leave and the appointment had to be rescheduled for October. He saw JohnMark and was quick to admit that it was very likely causing him pain. Since it was causing pain and there was a family history of them not healing on their own and developing into hernias, he offered to fix it sonner than one year of age if we chose to do so. We did, and the surgery was scheduled for this week.
Hence, the reason we were at Mayo on Wednesday.

Jeremy (or Amanda), thanks for the comment. It didn't occur to me that Amy and I had not been publishing the details all along.

Following Him,
Steve, Amy, Abbi, Mackenzie, and JohnMark.

JohnMark's surgery

Well, JohnMark's surgery was a success. He came through it well, though he is a little sore, but the doctor thought everything was taken care of. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and well wishes.
Following Him,
Steve, Amy, Abbi, Mackenzie, and JohnMark

Comments?

To everyone and anyone reading the blog:
Please feel free to leave any thoughts or comments about any of the posts. It would be great to get some feedback and maybe even some lively dialogue started.

Have fun.

A Point to Ponder on the Present Playstation Panic

Before I embark on this post, I should note that to a point this post is done, or overdone as the case may be, with an intentional note of sarcasm.

Does anyone else think that this whole "gotta wait in the freezing cold for three days to spend a month's worth of pay to have a video game" thing is out of control? I mean, I'm really not THAT old, but nobody was at the store three days before it opened to buy Pong, Nintendo or Frogger. They went to the store and bought it once the store was open. What has happened to our culture, and every other culture in the world, that we are so obsessed about giving ourselves carpal tunnel and bad eyesight? Let's get real!!

I was honestly embarrassed when I read the front page of the local newspaper this last week. On the front page was a picture of two guys who had been waiting at Target for two or three days to get a Playstation. As I read the caption of the photo I realized that not only did I know one of these guys, but he was a fellow student from Bible College and used to teach junior high at a Christian school. Is this what we are teaching our youth about leadership, priorities, time management and stewardship?

In Psalm 40 we are exhorted to redeem our time. We know that the Lord's return is imminent and that we are accountable for out use of the time we are given on this earth. Let's redeem the time for God's honor and glory and not waste it away on material things that will pass away.

Youth Activity Ideas

I'm always trying to think of new, and of course bigger and better, youth activities for our youth group at church. At youth activities we generally have 15-25 youth from grades 6-12. Any ideas would be great. Obviously the best ideas will be not only fun, but lend themselves to a Biblical principle or lesson.

Currently I'm thinking about doing something along the lines of Deal or No Deal. Is it just me or is that an AWESOME show!! But since my brain is wired a little different, like there was any question about that, the part of the show that really intrigues me is the mathematics in figuring out what the probability is of the different values and how they decide how much to offer for the case. All activity ideas are welcomed.

Please remember, comments should be about activities; not how my brain is wired :)

Grandparent parents?

I have recently been very confused with the way county human service agencies seem to handle it when parents are not qualified to raise their young children. Can anyone explain this? Parents raise their children, but, for lack of a better term, mess them up. Whether it be through lack of discipline or lack of nurturing, or what have you, the parents raise children who, as adults, are irresponsible, immoral, and sometimes even in trouble with the law. For whatever reason these adult children have such poor parenting skills that they go out and have children of their own, usually out of wedlock, and start raising the children with even less guidance than they have. So what does the county do? Give the children to the grandparents. Does it ever occur to the county that if the parents were incompetent at raising their own children that they may very well be just as incapable of raising their grandchildren? Add to this the fact that most of these grandchildren have a number of years of negative training already under their belts. Why would the county do this when they know they are just going to perpetuate dysfunctional people who will continue to produce dysfunctional families and children? Because it shows the validity of their existence. Am I saying social workers are bad or unnecessary? Absolutely not! For those of you who do not know, my full time employment would not exist if it was not for social workers placing youth with our shelter/group home. This may be for behavioral issues or for safety sake. But over and over I have seen social workers put youth in placement but neglect offering other services that might be helpful such as counseling, therapeutic as opposed to psychiatric, or skills worker who works on social skills, or even basic mentoring.

I work in a field that would definitely be associated with human services, even though I am not a social worker, but this is not the majority opinion of most people in the field. Our society is unwilling to call sin what it is. It is not a bad choice, a small mistake or a speed bump. Scripture refers to our sins as the rags used to wipe sores from leprosy. How's that for a picturesque thought? When we realize that sin is SIN and that we are responsible for our behaviors, we come a long way.

We also need to remember that while parents are not responsible for the individual actions taken and choices made by their children, we can not ignore that Scripture clearly holds anyone in a position of authority responsible for how they lead those under them. Pastors are clearly held accountable for their leadership of the sheep God has entrusted to them (Hebrews 13). By way of principle this would also apply to parents, teacher, youth workers, etc. Too many times I see parents not taking responsibility for themselves, but conversely making their children not only take responsibility for the children's actions, but also holding the youth responsible for the parent's life. This week I had two different young men sit in the office with me and tell me that they believed they were directly responsible for the divorce of their parents. These divorces occurred when these young men were still small children, but their mothers had drummed into them that the problems were their fault. Another youth told me that he held himself responsible for his father's alcoholism even though he had barely seen his father in years!

Without true direction from God's manual on life how do we expect to raise children to be anything other than lost and separated from the love and will of God? Can unsaved youth become moral "good" kids? Of course. There is only one problem here. God doesn't require that our youth are moral or good. He requires that they be holy and sinless. This is the only method of entry into his presence. We must be perfectly holy and sinless either in and of ourselves or by proxy through Christ's full atonement.

We are always perpetuating a system. Is our parenting perpetuating God's system or the worlds? Let's get back to His Word and perpetuate His system.

Updated Pics of the Kids

Here is Abbi. She is now 4 years old, and very sassy. I had to recently cut her hair because she would not stop chewing on it. Personally, I think that this style hair works very well on her. Her favorite movie at this point and time is Newsies...though I have no clue why...LOL
Here is Kenzie (her name that she prefers now). When asked if she wanted her hair trimmed or cut short, she answered that she wanted her hair short. This disappointed me as her hair had been as long as mid-back. She is now 2 1/2 years old, and is VERY "Twoish". Her favorite thing to do of late is get into trouble...LOL
Finally, here is JohnMark, otherwise known as "Bubba". For those of you who have kept up with us over the years, you know that there is a Pooh theme. Abbi is Piglet (acts like Tigger), Kenzie is Roo (or Ru), and JohnMark is quickly becoming Pooh. I guess by default that would put me at Kanga. Now all we need is Eyore and Rabbit and we are set...NOT! With 4 guinea pigs and three kids, we have 7-I think we are set. Anyway, JohnMark is now 4 1/2 months old. He isnt sitting up by himself yet, but we have conquered sleeping the night through. Heis main mode of transport is rolling everywhere.

Well, that does it for this update. I am hoping to get on here a bit more and give more updates as time allows. Soon we should have pictures of the "pigs" up so everyone can see them.

Family Update

Well, its been a month or better since the last family update. Since the last time I updated, we have gone to a Twins game with JohnMark, been to a county fair twice, and made plans for our annual trek up to the State Fair. I will take each tale one by one.
First off, the Twins game. It was actually his second, but the first one that he was truely intersted in. Though I am not sure which was more interesting, the game or the lightrail train. The Steele County Free Fair was a fun trip. We found out JohnMark loves lumberjack competitions. Something to keep in mind for the State Fair.
JohnMark has got a nickname!!! He has opted for Bubba. The south is showing through:)
He also has taken to rolling over. This is only funny when he tries to crawl after rolling over.
Well, that is all the updates as of now. I will update after the fair:)

Picture Update

Here we are. Officially 3 1/2 months old. As I am typing this update, JohnMark is watching me intently. Even trying to help as it were. Since I have had so many questions as to when the pics were going to be updated, I figured I would do it now. So here we go.

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures. It shows his true interested side. On the whole, this is our normal attitude with life. Obviously, this picture was taken pre-teething:s


We are totally interested in something here. It is not that I don't know what it is, it is more the fact that there are about three options. The T.V. had something going, Abbi was getting into trouble, and he found the toys-all of this happening at the same time. His favorite sport of late is trying to (and effectively accomplishing the task) get either or both of his sisters into trouble. All it takes is a few words, a grin, and a giggle.....

Camping Update

In the time since the last update was put up, we have been camping once and been out to our church's camp twice. I will start at the beginning.
We went up to Northfield, Minnesota to Nerstrand Big Woods State Park. This was our official first time camping together as a family. It was interesting, and overall great. We learned really quick where all our deficincies are. Dependency was top of the list. We depended way too much on our friends to know where the garbage dump was, on fire being built, and thier kids to keeps ours occupied while food was being cooked. Thankfully, these things were no big issue in comparison as to what could have been. Steve was able to get the fire started second time out (and even able to keep it going during a rain shower the next morning!), there was a trail cut thru to the bathroom, the bathroom had family showers, and the garbage was just down the road. It could have definately been worse.
Anyway, once we arrived, and the fire started, I started the task of cooking and setting up eating arrangements, and Steve set to work on setting up the tent. After we ate, Steve and the girls went for a walk while I and JohnMark did the dishes. Once this was finished, we had Smores for the girls, and then showers. The kids went down after we got back, and then Steve and I stayed up a bit later eating our own Smores and then we went to bed. Sometime early the next morning it started to rain off and on. Steve was able to get the fire going, and keep it going while breakfast was cooked. To keep kids busy and parents sane, we waited out the rain while traveling over to Red Wing. We had a picnic lunch of sorts at a park in Red Wing, and were able to see a couple of historical markers in the process. After lunch, we headed back to the park, packed up the tent, checked out of our site, and then took a hike down a trail to see a hidden waterfall. We then went to look at the interpretive center (in the air conditioning).
That ended our camping trip. We have also been to our church camp twice this season, and both times have been great! The girls had fun both times, and both times we were able to hear the Word from a couple of great speakers. The second time out, Abbi managed to overshoot a swing and scrape up half of her face. She cried, and then told people about it as if it were no big deal.
So far that is the update on our camping season. We are not sure if we are going anywhere else as of yet. Hopefully there will be one more joint trip and one more family trip to go. We are already looking into next year and what all we are wanting to do. There is talk and thought of possibly going on a joint week long camping trip with some friends out in Ohio (though camping may be in Wisconsin), and also a week out at familiy camp. Keep checking in for further details:)

Camping Season Has Begun

Camping season has officially begun here. Unfortunately, we dont have any pictures from our first expodition to put up. Our first outing of the year was up to the Upper Souix Agency just south of Granite Falls, Minnesota. We made it up to the campsite in time to catch the first of a few storms that hit the area due to a cold front. The tent made it up in record time, and the campsite missed all the activity. This was not at all a bad thing either. The girls enjoyed the camping as much as they did last year, and JohnMark handled it pretty well for first time out. The next day we again dodged storms as we happened to be in WalMart at the time it hit. Our tent wasnt so fortunate this time around, as high winds blew rain up under the rain flap. This made for a messy clean up as there were more storms in the area. After we cleaned up and packed up camp, we went to a near by swim beach to swim. The girls again loved this idea, and enjoyed the ability to wade. JohnMark and Steve sat on the beach to enjoy the weather. All of this to say, we are heading out this coming weekend for another camping trip. This time around we are going to Nerstrand over by Northfield, Minnesota. We shall see how it turns out, and this time hopefully there will be some pictures to get up:)

The Girls

This is Mackenzie. For those who missed her birth due to graduation or my forgetfulness, she was born February 3, 2004. Those who keep track, yes, she was my birthday present:) At the time of this picture (taken in May of 2006), she was just over 27 months.
This is Abbi holding JohnMark. The fact that she is opting to hold him and is smiling while doing so is a MAJOR improvement from before he was born. She went around telling people that if the baby was a girl we would bring her home. She was a bit suprised to find the baby was really a boy instead. He has quickly become her buddy.
Here is Mackenzie with JohnMark. This was a relationship that I knew was going to be great. She went around telling people that she wanted a brother because she already had a sister. To this day, if someone at church wanders off with JohnMark, she can be heard telling people "my JohnMark is gone".
Here are all three kids together. This was one of the tranquil moments that I am sure will never repeat itself. All three are competitive by nature, so the fact that all three were happy at the time was great. The one thing that hasn't changed since this picture was taken is the kids closeness with one another. They are getting closer every day...which is a good thing:)

Our Newest Addition

This is a picture of JohnMark Kerux Patten. He is number three in our line of children...third time is a charm as they say...and we found that true with this one. After two girls I think even Steve was praying ferverntly for a boy. This was taken right after he turned 5 weeks old. Unfortunately he is in the middle of a growth spurt, so he thought that the camera had food in it. As he gets older, there will be updated pictures added to the site.

Introduction:)

Hey there yall!
This is our first ever blogspot. I am not sure how often it will be updated as of yet, but you will find pics of the kids, updates on our family and family life, and very possibly mussings from Steve on various things he has come across. I hope this site will be informative to all that visit it. Please let us know if you have any ideas on how to better it, and please be patient with us as we get this thing up and rolling.