Tag: brookswood

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Be The Best.

Seeing through listening.

I had a very unique experience on Saturday.

AC (Auntie Cathy, aka Cathy AJ Hardy) was in the remote Mission studio of Philip Janz doing some vocal tracks for her upcoming release.

She invited me to drop by and Philip was gracious to let me take a few pics  and shoot a little vid.

Philip is a very accomplished musician and producer in the gospel genre and beyond with awards he probably won’t tell you about, but you can read about them on the web!

I love music and the process of creating.

What makes Philip so unique is the ability to really understand music from a musical perspective and also be a technical master.  Watching him work was very interesting.  He was a blend of technician, music coach, manager and orchestra leader.  He knew what small part he wanted recorded and/or changed and then had a vision of how that would affect the whole piece.  You need a lot of vision and skill to do that as well as get the best from the musician or vocalist you are working with.

It was as if Philip was seeing everything through his ears if that makes any sense.  The part I like most in the vid is seeing him twirl his pen as he listens to Cathy lay down a vocal track.  He’s feeling every note and nuance making decisions on timing, pitch and understanding of how he’ll use that piece of the puzzle to help Cathy tell her story.  Very cool.

Talk about Be The Best.

Oh yah…AC is coming out with a new album.  That is VERY COOL too.  There are some fun songs.  There are some DEEP songs.  There are some songs sung with Chris is mind.

I loved what I heard…and I can’t wait.

Here’s a very little sneak peek inside the work of a master producer and a pretty cool musician…(yah, that’s high praise coming from an older brother…)

The other thing to watch for in the vid is the emotion that comes through music.  Is it possible to be happy and sad at the same time?  Is it possible to be feeling the deepest emotions of loss yet feel the powerful strength of hope for the future? Yup.

You can catch all the updates on Cathy’s updated website and her blog.

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Be The Best.

It’s the moments…

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.

Interesting.

I thought the curved wall going downstairs was a little bare.  I mumbled something to Ingrid about wouldn’t it be cool to have a saying written in text on the wall for something different.

Within a few weeks she had researched, ordered and received this vinyl lettering and most importantly picked out this phrase which I hadn’t seen until it went up on the wall.

I love it.  I think about it every time I head downstairs.

Are milestones important?  Birthdays? Yes. Anniversaries? Yes. Other stuff? (you know what I’m talking about…) Yes.

But really, what’s most important?  It truly is the moments.

As we look back at all of our very treasured memories with Chris and Max as they grew up, so many of the amazing times were simply moments that happened!  Whether it was a three year old Chris climbing a ladder to see his Dad on the roof (true), or the moments of victory at a lacrosse game or the fun and silly times of picking out a Christmas tree, those moments are like gold.

The one thing you need to make moments happen is time.

I remember as young father thinking about how many Dads didn’t get to know their kids because they were so busy or work schedules that were hard to control etc etc.

I am a very busy Dude, but family was ALWAYS first.  Therefore, we made sure we had THOUSANDS of moments.

Those moments are what continue to feed us and help us on our way.

As I was watching that Disneyland video last night I was getting choked up myself.  Those moments were so pure, poignant and unanticipated.  I think that is truly what makes them special.

Anyhoo…another smart decision by that good wife of mine!

Rock your weekend.

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Be The Best.

American Idol, Disneyland and a Port Moody trail.

These three things have a lot in common, at least I hope they do because I’ve committed to that as the title of this blog post.

I caught some of the ‘new’ American Idol last night with new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez joining Randy Jackson.

As the contestants did their thing they were either ‘sent to Hollywood!’ or rejected.

What struck me was the excitement and pure joy from the families of the young singers who made it to the next level.  You saw Moms and Dads hugging and jumping and crying.  For a moment I thought about lost future memories.

During a commercial break I saw an ad campaign being used by Disney.  They actually take real home footage from parents surprising their kids about going to Disneyland or at the resort itself.  You can see it here.  It’s all about making family memories.

That brings me to Port Moody.  During the Christmas break I visited a dear friend and former colleague (now retired) from BCIT, Sandie.  She was sort of like the ‘mom’ in our Registrar’s Office Department for many years.  One of the things she had by her desk was a bulletin board full of pictures of staff and their families.  Of course it grew over the years.  It was an amazing place to see the passage of time.

We look a walk along the shores of the inlet at Port Moody.  What a great place.  The reason I’m telling you this now is I look literally 15 minutes last weekend to put the following faux movie trailer together using the images from that walk.  It’s in the newest version of iMovie which comes on every Mac.  This isn’t really a Mac ad, but sort of is.

The point is that memories are amazing.  All of the great memories we’ve had together as a family are helping now in our darkest hours.

I’m simply blown away at the ability of today’s technology to take these memories and put them into a format that is useable, fun and easy to do.  I decided to use the movie trailer template and have a little fun so you could imagine what you can do with your family memory video footage!

Have a great day.

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Be The Best.

Interview with God?

Ever thought of having an interview with God?

I think we’ve all probably had a few questions we’d like answered from time to time.

Over the past months we’ve been supported by people of all faiths, backgrounds and cultures.

It’s been amazing.

Last week we were sent this link to this Interview with God.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but once I started the slide show thing-a-ma-jig I watched till the end.

Each question and answer is thought-provoking and could be pondered for hours or days.

I thought I would share here.

http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/

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Be The Best.

Yogurt and Toast.

All day long the texts, emails and comments kept rolling in.

We appreciate everything and all of those thoughts and prayers!

The Brookswood gang dropped by in the late afternoon and we had a very unique opportunity to toast Chris.

As I’ve mentioned before, Chris had the ability to eat yogurt without a spoon.  He would sort of squish the bottom of the yogurt cup and slurp and drink the yogurt, usually in one ‘fluid’ motion.

We know there are young readers of this blog and as parents we’re not endorsing this form of yogurt consumption!  We were just happy Chris and Max would pound back yogurt instead of cake.

In this picture you can see the toast just getting underway.  Including yours truly taking the picture, that was an even dozen toasting Chris with a yogurt salute and down the hatch it went.

Ingrid was left wondering how it could be done as she ended up with yogurt in a few places on her face.  I know Chris had a laugh at (or with) all of us!

What an amazing day it was.

I’ve got a few more stories to tell you so tune in tomorrow!

We ended the day knowing that Chris would be very, very happy…and we were too.  As tough as the day was, it was really incredible.

Who knew yogurt was made for toasting?

Ingrid, Cooper, Marshall, Cam, Lucas, Beau, Alan (front), Dylan, Jesse, Max, Devon
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Be The Best.

Happy Birthday Chris!

So many people have told us or emailed us about how they thought of us over Christmas.

I know so many more think of us often and are thinking of us now as we mark what would have been Chris’ 18th birthday tomorrow even if they don’t or can’t tell us.

We are exactly the same way.

We’ve been following the story of the Berg family in Mission and Gillian Berg’s amazing strength and very real highs and lows as she takes care of her family and slowly moves forward with each day.

You can follow and support with your thoughts and prayers through: http://gillianb-journeying.blogspot.com/

The reason I say we are the same is that our hearts go out to Gillian and her family, but we don’t know them personally.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them, but we haven’t verbalized that to them.  For now we will support by reading, caring and praying.  Just as we’ve done, she can see by the blog views how so many people are supporting them.

We know that’s what people do for us all the time.

As we approach Chris’ birthday tomorrow, we don’t have any big public events happening.  A few of his school buds will drop by.  As a family, we’ll head to our favourite steakhouse for a big steak dinner and piece of ice cream cake.  Chris was a fitness and health food fanatic, but he would eat steak and ice cream cake…and we’ll have some in his honour tomorrow night.

So the question is always, what can I do?  What should I do?  I don’t know them very well, or even if I do, I’m not sure what to do.

Here’s the solution.

We’d ask everyone who reads this blog to do some little thing in honour of Chris tomorrow.

Here’s a few ideas.

1. push-ups – even doing one or two in his name would be cool

2. make a toast when you have dinner

3. hug your kids

4. hug your parents

5. eat some yogurt (he would eat probably 4-6 per day)

6. wish him a happy birthday verbally

7. cook some eggs (yep…he ate a LOT of eggs)

There’s a few ways.

I’m sure you can think of more.

Drop us a comment if you want to share.

If you don’t, we totally get it and we want to say thank you for the continued support.

Randy, Ingrid and Max.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!

 

Jan 09 - Chris turns 16.

 

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Be The Best.

18 reasons I love my son.

1. His smile

2. His bear hugs

3. His appetite

4. The way he lit up a room

5. His passion

6. His desire

7. His intensity

8. The push-ups!

9. His lacrosse skill

10. His humour

11. His loyalty

12. His sense of team

13. His love for others

14. His eyes

15. His music

16. His focus

17. The goal to Be The Best

18. Every moment we shared on this earth and our joint hope for the future

What would be Chris’ eighteenth birthday will be celebrated this Friday, January 14.

The grief rolls in like waves on a Hawaiian North Shore surf.  It is fierce and beautiful at the same time.  We know that the level of pain can only exist because of the depth of love.

And for that we are strangely thankful.

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Be The Best.

Guest blog – Rev Jake..aka Grandpa

I’ve asked my Dad if he wanted to jot a few thoughts down for the blog from time to time.  I think it’s a beautiful tribute to his grandson and Faith in general.  Keep rockin it Dad!  Heavy…and good.  Thanks.

————–

Unspeakable! This word occurs only three times in the New Testament, and could also be rendered as indescribable (NKJ), or inexpressible.

I was thinking of this word as I thought of Chris.

All of the words spoken or sung or written since that dark day of March 25, 2010 cannot adequately express what is in our hearts: there is something inexpressible here.

The raw emotions, the feelings, the conflicting thoughts cry out for resolution, but there is no resolution.

The thoughts of our hearts end with questions rather than periods; they are questions that have no answers.

The trauma of all that happened has left us dangling in space.

We are on the wrong side of the door of a mystery, of something inexpressible.

A human life is inexpressible.

Chris’s life was and is inexpressible.

The Christ-gift that came at Christmas is declared to be God’s unspeakable gift.

(2 Corinthians 9: 15)

This Christ, the ultimate Creator of life, declares all of our lives invaluable.

The Christ presides over Chris’ life even now, in a divine continuum, even while we mourn Chris’ departure from us.

The indescribable Christ weeps with us now in our pain, and desires to lead us through the valley of the shadow until we too shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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Be The Best.

Calgary or bust.

Over Christmas I had a bit more time to look at some history and came across this article featuring a quote from Chris.  I love the comments about team.

Funny story leading up to this tournie.  The team was raising funds to go to Calgary and had received the ‘ok’ to stand in front of certain liquor stores with jerseys on and request donations via a donation bucket.  (don’t ask why…it was easier than a car wash I guess…!)

Anyways, Chris and his buddy Brett Dobray were at a store and I noticed that they would get some people stopping and donating, but many would pass on by.  That is to be expected.  Lacrosse is a growing sport and people didn’t have an emotional connection as they might with hockey.

I had a marketing thought.

I made up some signs that said, ‘help us beat Calgary’ and ‘we’ll bodycheck an Albertan for $10’.  You should have seen the difference!  People were stopping….and donating and donating some more.  It was incredible.

What was the difference?

All of a sudden there was an emotional connection.  In BC, people love (usually in good nature) to bash Albertans!  Hey, when we’re out of the country we’re all brothers and sisters!  It’s like a brotherly competition…just watch the Canucks and Calgary or Edmonton and you get the rivalry.  It was just amazing to see people engage emotionally and then with their wallets as they connected with the BC vs Alberta challenge.  All of a sudden they felt like THEY were going to be playing simply by donating $10 or $20 bucks.

The boys loved that story and that experience…seeing how words and approach could make such a difference.

Secondly, those boys DID play for everyone of those donors and played their hearts out, winning gold, with 6 members of that team representing BC nationally later that summer.

Here’s the full story:

July 2007

The Langley Thunder Bantam A1’s traveled to Calgary over the Canada Day weekend. Forget bull riding at the Stampede, they were there for some hard hitting, fast paced box lacrosse action. Perhaps the actual thunder storm on Saturday night was a good omen for the Thunder, as the young men (just completed grade seven and eight) took on competition from all over Western Canada.

Saturday match-ups had the squad take on the Sabrecats from Calgary beating them 11-3 with Adam Gallen earning game MVP for a strong offensive performance. The Thunder continued by defeating Saskatchewan’s provincial team in the afternoon game by a score of 9-2 led by game MVP goaltender Ryley Brown who’s saves propelled the offensive charge and final decisive score.
Sunday’s games featured a strong Red Deer team with Langley prevailing by a score of 7-5. Game MVP Chris Friesen had a strong defensive showing against a physical opponent. In the afternoon game, Langley fell behind a skilled Calgary Axeman team, but rallied from a 3 goal deficit to chop the tournament defending champion Axeman 10-7. A brilliant goal and full game hustle earned Will Vandenhooven the game MVP. Having gone 4-0 in tournament play, the Thunder headed into the gold medal game against an all-star team from Calgary called the Hornets.
The game lived up to the hype with the first period ending tied at zero. The Hornets came out stinging in the 2nd period and opened up a 2-1 lead with two Langley players in the sin bin with the period ending. The Hornets capitalized on the 2-man advantage at the beginning of the 3rd by netting a goal and opening a two-goal lead. If it were not for the heroics of Ryley Brown, the Thunder goalie, the score may have been much higher. Instead of folding their tents however, the Thunder rallied led by team wide explosive defensive performance leading to goals by Brett Dobray and Michael Messenger. With the game tied Adam Gallen scored a timely goal with 1 second left on the shot clock. Langley then iced the cake with a massive defensive effort during pure pandemonium breaking in the Thunder zone. With the Hornet goalie pulled for an extra attacker Brett Dobray flew down the floor with two Hornets all over him and scored a diving empty netter for a final score of 5-3 for the Thunder.
Chris Friesen, the team captain stated, “We have been working hard at team play. Working for each other and working together. I think we did that throughout this tournament and the results we achieved were excellent”.
“I’m proud of each member of this squad. Everyone played hard and played together”, added Coach Sean Beasley.
Next up for the team is the Provincial Championships hosted in Langley this year which will be held July 18-22.
Six members of the Langley Thunder Bantam A1 team will also be representing BC in the National Tournament in August in Ontario.
Full story from lacrosse association website with picture.
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Be The Best.

Vacuums…the update.

Some of you remember Chris’ buddy Tanner who spoke at the funeral last year (feels weird to type ‘last year’).

Tanner was aiming to defy all odds and open a vacuum business at the age of 17.  (He has family in the business, but this venture is all his own.)

Here’s the background post if you want a reminder.

Well, I finally got out to see Tanner today.  We had a coffee and chatted about business.

Yes, he is still aiming for that GED and that will happen in due time, but my goal today was to help Tanner with a business thought or two as he makes his way.

I was very impressed with his shop and most importantly, his attitude.  He really is developing a great brand at Newport Vacuums…one that is devoted to service and customer experience…and he’s doing this all himself at 17.

So our conversation was how to manage growth…and growth is coming with a record sales month in December and I’m sure more on the way in 2011.

In the months before Chris passed away he asked if I would help his buddy Tanner, who I didn’t know well at the time, with some business/management conversations as he was seriously looking at putting school on hold and pursuing a business.  Chris was concerned about the choice, but he was wanting the best for Tanner. That was Chris.  Looking out for his buddies.

Chris…the answer was yes then and yes now.

The paths that Chris’ high school friends take will become very different over time.  That’s even happening now.  Many of his buds are prepping for graduation and then college, travel or just exploring the next step.  Tanner found his next step early and although it’s not an easy road, I’ve seen many businesses that are not led by someone this focused and enthusiastic on becoming successful.

I put together a little vid of today’s visit.

If you need a vacuum, you can take a shot on this kid with some solid confidence!

ps…website is still a work in progress, but you’ll get the jist!