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December 18, 2006
2006 Christmas Letter
December 2006
Merry Christmas!
What a year! 2006 will always be the year of "the accident." It would be impossible to talk about our year without stressing the significance of the event and how it has shaped Courtney and our family. Courtney has said a number of times that despite the trauma, doctor visits, permanent health issues, and stress, she doesn't wish it didn't happen; we’re refined through fire. She could truly sense your prayers, and knows that God used your love and support to keep her focused on healing and all there was to be thankful for. I can honestly say that she has had very few days of emotional fatigue and frustration; in fact it has been significantly less that I expected. It has been a long road, but I've been continually amazed at her strength, optimism, and faith through everything. She is definitely my better half.
Courtney’s schedule and activities are 100% back to their pre-accident chaos. She's involved in a couple bible studies with friends, volunteer work at James' school, cooking meals for people at our church, spending time with friends, etc. With the exception of laundry and ironing, she loves every minute of it. I have to assume she doesn't like ironing because I'm not even sure she knows what one looks like.
James is halfway through his first year of kindergarten, and turns 6 on February 9th. We're thrilled that he's able to attend Redeemer Classical School and is doing really well. He struggles with the same thing I did growing up, incessant talking and movement, but he's managing to learn despite these challenges. He learned to ride his bike just before Thanksgiving, so I'm already planning a mountain bike training regime. He loves to play pirates and knights, but hasn't quite figured out the whole chivalry thing when dueling with Emma. He's a bright boy with a great imagination.
We just celebrated Emma's 4th birthday on December 3rd. It's hard to believe that she's only in preschool, and won't be in kindergarten for another 1.5 years. She's in the 95th percentile for height, so it's easy to have the unfair expectation of 5 year old behavior. We have to remind ourselves daily that she's only just 4. She's still as sweet and precocious as ever. Emma loves the color pink, and anything Hello Kitty. In fact, she's asked for a Hello Kitty gun when she grows up. She loves playing with her baby dolls and kitchen, but she can hold her own playing pirate and climbing trees with the big boys.
I'm also doing really well. At work, we just completed the first phase of a project that we've been working on for about a year that culminated in the public launch of a new Amazon website (not related to retail). It still needs some work, but it's been well received and is a fun and challenging project. I still mountain bike regularly and recently joined a gym to keep from turning into a cupcake over the winter. I managed to lose about 10 lbs through exercise, and have started to put some of it back over the holidays.
Once again, thanks for all of your prayers. Please continue to lift up Courtney as there are still a number of doctor's appointments in the near future. It's been a while since I posted a detailed health report on my blog, but I'll try to do that soon. You can look for updates here: http://mark.veerman.com. We hope you have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
Love,
Mark, Courtney, James and Emma
Posted by mark at 7:41 PM | Comments (0)
December 9, 2006
Christmas Music
I love Christmas Music.
My friend Jason Harrod is a fantastic singer/songwriter from North Carolina. He just posted a couple of his renditions of two popular Christmas songs for download on his website:
http://jasonharrod.com/news.html
I'm also providing them here since they're free:
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
They were on a multi-artist Christmas album released a few years ago called Gift, A Weathervane Christmas Collection, I don't think it's still available. Anyway, on that cd were Jason's two songs and two songs by the Vigilantes of Love (VOL). Those two songs by VOL have become my two favorite songs on my playlist every Christmas. I think Bill Mallonee of VOL is an unbelieveable songwriter and given the obvious glut of writing on the theme of Christmas, it's pretty cool to see new compelling lyrics.
Those of you that know me, may know that I'm a stickler about digital rights and think that copying music without paying for it is illegal and wrong. However, in the spirit of Christmas, I'm going to post these two songs for you to listen to. If you like them, Bill Mallonee has a Christmas album that includes both and a few more (I don't have it so I can't vouch for it). In fact I don't know if it's even still available, so ... enjoy!
Sing Angel Choirs
On to Bethlehem
Merry Christmas!
Posted by mark at 8:47 PM | Comments (6)
UnSpun
11 days ago, on November 28th, we launched UnSpun by Amazon. This is the project that I've been working on for some time now. It's been a lot of work, and I've been VERY busy. There are a ton of new features that we already have planned, but I think the initial results are great.
It's a site of lists. Lists of movies, places to get Thai food, songs, pastimes, celebrities, quotes, etc. Anything that can be ranked is on UnSpun or *should* be on UnSpun. You can create your own lists, and then fill them with your opinions. The community will add their opinion as well. Check it out, add some lists, vote some items up or down, and have fun. It's really addicting.
Be warned, there are some lists that are of a sensitive nature and you should just ignore those. We're still trying to figure out how to handle potentially offensive lists like Euphemisms for Sex, Quotes from Sex and the City, Top women you'd leave your partner for, etc. However, there's a ton of *useful* lists that need your opinion.
You can see lists that I've created and ranked here:
http://unspun.amazon.com/user/mveerman
Please let me know if you have any suggestions. It's obviously a beta release, so it's in constant evolution and any feedback (picks and pains) are welcome.
Posted by mark at 6:18 PM | Comments (0)