Holidays, Home, Happy

In 12 short hours I will be boarding a plane that is BC bound!!  Yippee!!

My brother is getting married on Saturday and I'm oh so excited for them!

And then I have a whole week of connecting with friends! 

This morning I'm quite excited. And don't like the fact that I have to wait ALL day to board a flight. At least I'll be working so it will go fast.

Off to BC!!!

All for now.. I'm sure you'll hear more about it later.

 I LOVE Fall. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that it's probably my favourite season.  The leaves are stunning. The sky is often blue. And it's cold and crisp. Love love love.  And Fall is made even better in Quebec because of the vibrancy of the leaves.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the slow transformations in the colours of the leaves. Plus I live in the Laurentians, which is rolling hills FULL of trees of all different colours. It's beautiful.

We have a lake on the property where we are, so the other day I grabbed my camera, my lenses and did a little trek around the lake to be a bit creative and have some fun.  It was absolutely wonderful. I love just stopping and looking up and seeing all the different leaves. 

I am continually amazed by creation.  This week that has been added to as the students have been going through the book of Genesis.  I have had the honour of leading some video classes in the evening, and I have been reminded again and again of the incredibleness of our Creator.  And how amazingly He designed the earth and the surrounding universe.  Perfectly fit for life but also one of the best places in the galaxy to explore and discover the galaxy. 

Daily I am reminded of how God's characteristics are reflected through His Creation. So I just wanted to share a few photos with you of what I get to see every day!  

This weekend we are hosting a big cross country race.  It's been neat lately to see how doors in the community are opening to build relationships. Anyway, we have about 70 people coming from the community so it's exciting!  

And in less than a week I will be home for my brother's wedding!  I will miss the end of Fall here and time with the other staff and students, but I am SO SO SO SO excited to be in BC for nine whirlwind days!  It will be great to celebrate with my brother as he gets married and also to see and catch up with my lovely friends and family!

This week all the staff also hosted a progressive dinner in our homes.  There were four different groups of students that went around to the different houses of the staff and it was so wonderful to be able to fellowship together and enjoy some wonderful food!

That's all for now! Hope you are enjoying the Fall wherever you might be!  I hear the temperature is supposed to get up to 21 degrees at the start of next week!  Enjoy the weekend!

Canoes, Cirque, Cleaning

 Okay, so my blogging hiatus did not last long. I got internet in my room and since this is now a bit more accessible, I'm excited to be back at it in the blogging world! And I look forward to having time to catch up on all your blogs as well!

I have now been here for two months!!  Crazy how time flies!  August and September have been a whirlwind and have been difficult but wonderful all at the same time.  During the end of the summer, I enjoyed all the different conferencing groups we had in, and enjoyed a lot of free time. Our 17 students have now been here for almost two weeks and so as I am readjusting to a new schedule, I am loving getting to know the students and becoming more and more comfortable with my role here. 

I live with three other girls and am blessed to get to know them and become their friends!  I love our impromptu night chats, song making up, cleaning parties, pickle eating fun and prayer times together. 


Because there's a million things I could write, I decided I would just post a few pictures from the last few months and let them tell a bit of the story of what I've been up to. Enjoy! And keep your eyes open for more posts from me in the future!  (And Elsie, I would love to be your pen pal, just email me your mailing address!)

Hanging out with my amazing roommates and enjoying a large cleaning party of our new home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing with the kids around property

Taking as many pictures as possible of this little munchkin.

Having photoshoots with canoes, people and dogs!

Hanging out with Jenn during her visit and celebrating her engagement to Dave!

Connecting with wonderful friends visiting in Montreal

Showing visitors around the amazing and beautiful Quebec City

Enjoying FREE outdoor cirque de soleil under an overpass during the summer in Quebec City

Visiting with a good friend in Montreal

Hanging out with the kiddos who take much better underwater pictures than I.

Enjoying the Fall colours changing and the incredible beauty of the endless hills of mixed colour!

Getting to know my roommates and going for drives to enjoy the Fall.

Enjoying this little munchkin and all the other kids!

Pen, Pal, Periodically

Not sure if anyone reads this blog now that I've neglected it for so long!

Just wanted to write a note that I probably won't be blogging much. Partly because internet access here is difficult. And also I stare at a computer for a lot of the day at work and it's the last thing I want to do on my day off or once I get off work.

That being said, I wanted to let you know that every once in a while I send out an update/prayer email, so if you want to be added to that list, let me know!

And secondly, as Elsie noticed in a previous post, I do love to send letters. It's a life goal of mine to bring back the art of letter writing.  So, if you would like to also get back into the art of letter writing, let me know and I'd love to become your pen pal!  I like to send photos with my letters and other fun things, so if you want to keep in touch that way, let me know.

Things are going well here. 17 students arrived on Friday and now I'm adjusting to what life looks like during the Bible School year as a staff member.

Hope you are all doing well and perhaps one of you will become a penpal someday soon!

Fernie, Friends, Fair

On Day #2, we finished driving across BC and I waved sadly to say goodbye. On the way, we kept our eyes peeled for strange and unusual things we could take pictures of...

...like this pair of dice at pair-a-dice campground. Clever.

...like this giant oil rig (pic doesn't do it justice) with the fernie sign. Lindie and i were both quite thrilled to go to Fernie. We had both never been and had always heard about it. It did not disappoint.

...like the largest truck in the world in Sparwood, BC. If you don't think the truck really looks that big, check out me standing in front of the tire...

...like the Alberta border!

Upon arriving in Calgary, Lindie had a baseball game, so Jenn and I went out for ginger beef. We ended up having ginger beef, ginger squid and ginger chicken. It was tasty. I said bye to Jenn knowing I would say here in two weeks upon my arrival in Quebec where she would be visiting for the summer.

All in all Day #2 was great. We kind of forgot to factor in the time change while driving... but we took note of that for future days.

Castlegar, Cousins, Chairs

On the first day of our road trip, we were welcomed with absolutely horrid weather, but excitement as we set off on our journey. My friend Lindie was gracious and wonderful to fly out to Abbotsford to join me for the first four days of the roadtrip.

I have some wonderful relatives who live in Castlegar, so we decided to take the Crowsnest Highway and travel that way across BC. Like I said, it was rainy, but we were in high spirits as it was the first day of the roadtrip. As we approached Osoyoos, we kept seeing these giant chairs everywhere, advertising for some resort. had there not been barbed wire in front of it, Lindie probably would have climbed up it for a photo. Thankfully, we found one perched on a rock and so ran out of the vehicle in the rain and snapped a shot. Ah the joys of roadtrips!

And oh the joys of swinging suspension bridges where there is no one yelling at you not to run or shake the bridge. And even more fun when there's people who hate suspension bridges walking across it!

Visiting with my relatives was pretty fantastic. They always visit us and I had never visited them so it was nice to actually be in their neck of the woods for once! We had a lot of laughs and fun. We went down to the river and snapped a lot of fun pictures as well! All in all it was a fantastic first day for a roadtrip and the next day we were on our merry way! And apparently now I'm posting about my roadtrip in chronological order. Hooray. Stay tuned for more.

Sailing, Sunny, Sunscreen

One thing I'm thankful for by being in Quebec is that I have wonderful relatives just one province away! I am excited that they will hopefully drop in for a visit and that I will be able to go visit them at some point as well!

The weekend I was there, it was absolutely beautiful weather (probably some of the first nice days of my entire roadtrip.. bad weather seems to follow me around). We went to Lake Erie for the day and relaxed on the sailboat!! After a few hours of sailing, we anchored, made lunch on the bbqs that were on the ship and enjoyed swimming off the side of the boat.

I love sailing. I really know nothing about boats and nothing about how to sail, but I'm thankful there are people that do know and that are willing to have me join them on their sailboats. So if you have a sailboat, let me know and I will join you for a day of sailing!

And there's something magical about water. And just having a day of relaxing on it. But there's also something about sunny days on water and lack of sunscreen. All in all a bad idea. I got quite the burn. And quite the peeling ordeal after.

On rainy days I like to look at these photos and fondly remember just relaxing in the sun on a sailboat in the middle of a lake that is so huge you think you're on the ocean.

Friends, Family, Fun

I have a lot of friends scattered around the world, and as I've mentioned before, I was so blessed on my drive across Canada to visit some of them.

I love friendships that pick up exactly where they left off. You may not talk to the person in between, but you are able to connect as before. And I love seeing my friends in different stages of life.

My friend Tammy moved to Ontario a couple years ago and I was so excited for the chance to visit with her, because since the last time I saw her, her and her husband have two little girls! How wonderful to connect with a long-time friend, connect with and love her kids and get a sneak-peak into her life.

I love seeing the faithfulness of God displayed in the lives of those I love. It is a testimony to me, and I'm sure to many around. And I love seeing how God has been faithful to Tammy and how He has now blessed her with two amazing and precious little ones to care for.

It was a good mix of relaxing, connecting and just enjoying being together.

And now I apologize for the randomness of my posts. I don't really feel like posting my trip in any coherent, orderly fashion, so I will just post random days and hopefully you will enjoy the photos and thoughts. :)

Aqua, Average, Anne

I enjoyed every single day of my road trip thoroughly. I loved driving through all the different provinces and some states and seeing everything around me. I loved visiting friends and connecting with them. I loved seeing my friends' new children that I had not yet met.

My final day of visiting was one of my favorite though. I knew that saving Anne for last would be a great idea, because we always seem to have a great time.

It began with the simple desire to go for sushi. And for sushi we went. And we ate far too much. But it was delicious.

And then the day turned into a water tour. What's a water tour you might ask? Well, it's where you think of anything that has water, cram it all into one day and make a tour out of it. And thus the Aqua Tour of 2011 began at a sushi restaurant in Hamilton while drinking water.

The water tour involved waterfalls, rivers, lakes, pools, drinking water, drinking beverage that originally must have had some water used to make them, rain and umbrellas.

I laughed the entire day. I took in some of the beautiful places we went to visit. Do you ever have those days that reach the epic list in life as some of your favorite days? This would be one of them.

Good friends, good food, a lot of laughs. If time permitted, I would share more photos, but these will give you an idea of the fun that was had.

And the day even ended with a bee getting stuck in my bathing suit and stinging my bum three times. Lovely.

Creatures, Cross-Canada, Calgary

As I write this I have an incredible view Duluth, Minnesota and Lake Superior in the background. The main reason I decided to stay in Duluth on my journey (other than the fact that it was about halfway between two of my destinations), was because I knew it as a city from a board game I play, called Ticket to Ride. The city does not disappoint. It is beautiful with its brick buildings, brick roads and the views of the lake from every point.


The trip across Canada has been marvelous so far. I have seen moose, cows, bison... well, maybe they were a bit too large to actually be real, but those are the kind I like, because they don't run in front of your vehicle.


The first four nights were spent in Canada with stops along the way in Castlegar, Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg. My friend Lindie joined e as a wonderful roadtrip companion for that part of the journey. Then my mom few to Winnipeg and we drove down to North Dakota to visit some relatives near Bismark. Yesterday I headed to Duluth and today I will drive through Wisconsin and Michigan on my way back to Canada.

I have been able to connect with so many people on the way and I am reminded of how incredibly blessed I am. And how many incredible people there are in the world. And that I am priveleged to know a few along the way.

Now I'm by myself and the one thing that makes me sad is that I wish I had someone to share this part with. Because the drive is beautiful. So much to see. And funny signs. And funny things I think of and tell myself (and boy do I laugh heartily).

The one downfall (besides being alone), is my indigestion issues seemed to have sprung up again. Not so fun on a roadtrip... so if you think of it, please pray for me about that. Oh, and also, if you'd like to be on my prayer email list, let me know your email and I will add you!

So for now I say good-bye to Duluth and look forward to visiting two new states that I have yet to see and hopefully I will find some more larger than life community moments along the way (those large pointless things that seem to have no purpose but to give people like me immeasurable joy).

Happy Trails!

Transition, Tuned, Thoughts

So much has been going on, that my mind is overwhelmed when I think about blogging about it.

What could I blog about?

I could blog about the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, getting stuck downtown and watching everything happen and the feelings of sadness and shock that permeated the next few days.

I could blog about packing up the remainder of my house, locking the doors and driving away from the place I have called home for the last three years.

I could blog about my last couple weeks in BC and all the activities and gatherings that have been keeping me busy.

I could blog about how incredibly blessed I am with amazing family and friends who love me and care for me. Friends and family who I will dearly miss and am sad to leave.

I could blog about what's coming and the excitement related with my two week road trip across Canada and what awaits me upon arriving in Quebec.

Instead, I just wanted to say hello. I'm still alive. And preparing to have every single aspect of my life change. Maybe I will blog about all the things above, maybe I never will. Time will tell.

For now, you may not see me for awhile. Or perhaps I will randomly post photos from my road trip from my phone. Maybe I will keep blogging, maybe I won't.

For now I'm leaving time to think and reflect and be.

So you may see me soon, you may not. So stay tuned.

Birthday, Blessing, Beautiful

June 21st is a special day for many reasons. First off, it's the official beginning of summer, also it is the longest day of the year as far as sun exposure goes. But even more importantly, it's my mom's birthday!

So today we shall celebrate life with her! She is an amazing woman that is such an incredible blessing in my life. She is a blessing to her children and grandchildren and to all she meets.


{I absolutely love this picture of my mom and I... I took it as a quick snapshot in the bathroom and then realized the background wasn't good, so we took some in the room.. but I loved the bathroom shot the best. Makes it even more candid! And oh the wonderful lighting that a bathroom offers!}

I'm thankful I have a mother who loves to travel, because we have so much fun traveling together, but also because I know she will come out to visit me a lot once I move!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom!!

Donkeys, Darlings, Down

Every time my mom babysits the wee ones, they walk to see the sheep and the donkeys. I get the chance to come along every so often and love it. They are precious. And how wonderful to have our own little petting zoo down the road.


The donkeys are "ee aw's" and when you give them grass they go "chomp chomp" (at least according to the little one).


And we like to wave at the people on the way. And stomp in the puddles.


I find it amazing that I walk I could do to the mailbox would take five minutes, but when you do it through the eyes of a child, you can take 40 minutes. And enjoy those 40 minutes more immensely than you ever could the quick, rushed 5 minute walk.


A good reminder to see through the eyes of a child and enjoy every moment. :)

Also, today we are celebrating the little man's birthday as well. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to him!