Today was Max's birthday so I took the boys to the Keg for dinner. I spent $75 per hour to have some conversation.
A good deal, no?
Then we went to Chapters. And as we walked in the door, the greeter said to Clint, "Are you here for the Anne Murray book signing?"
Hahaha. He had no idea who she was. Burn.
1 point for the greeter.
Three things I'm thankful for:
1. The internet. Not only did Dooce use her blog to showcase Rebekah today, but John Acuff (Stuff Christians Like) and Abraham Piper (22 words) used their blogs as well to raise $30,000 to build a kindergarten for kids in Northern Korea today.
Makes me proud to be a blogger.
2. Wednesday is Remembrance Day. Which is like getting a Saturday in the middle of the week.
3. Rays of sunshine on wet, blusterly days.
Shalom,
Monday, November 09, 2009
We Sat Around the Table and Talked for Almost 2 Hours
So Proud ...
... of Rebekah. (Rachel's sister.)
Those are her cards being showcased on Dooce's blog today!
Have you bought a set yet?
Happy 19th Birthday, Max
He was born in 1990, but digital photography wasn't an option for me until 2005, so this trip down memory lane is mostly recent.
Here he is in Versaille:
Max and Jon being badass:
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Rainy Saturday
Friday, November 06, 2009
Heading Into the Weekend
Three things I'm thankful for:
Thursday, November 05, 2009
I Start to Think and Then Change My Mind
You know how that goes ...
You get a thought, and you start to explore it, but you don't like the path it's leading you on, so you abandon that line of thinking and go off into fantasy land instead and before you know it, you've got a second husband and a newer vehicle and it doesn't matter if you're the next one laid off because he can support you. And he sings. Plus he knows what to do about the light fixture in the kitchen that keeps flickering and the lawnmower that doesn't start. And if you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound - so you carry on with the fantasy and guess what? You weigh 120 pounds and have perky boobs too.
Three Things
I'm thankful for:
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
I Need Light, Bright, Warm Evenings.
Otherwise I just put on my pajamas at 5 pm and hibernate all night.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Randomness
1. New photos of my cousin's twins, Anna and Noah:




2. I'm not sure how I feel about the new "all natural" coloured Smarties. No blue. No green. Just alot of brown and red.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Canuck's 3. The Other Guys - NOTHING.
For Val's birthday, I took her to the 'nuck's game. Drew and a friend celebrated with us as well.
And the Canuck's? Got a shut out for her.
Going to the games is always fun. Seeing a winning game is even better. But getting a shutout? Well, that's just like getting an early Christmas present, isn't it?
Of course, the best part in the whole 7 hour event is the drive to and from Vancouver... so much time to talk.
Three things I'm thankful for:
1. A great weekend. Thanks for letting me talk yer ear off on Friday night, Andrea. You are a good listener.
2. A fun (and mostly safe) Halloween party on Saturday night. Thanks mom and dad for letting us invade your place (again, for the 24th Halloween in a row.)
3. A great evening in Vancouver. Thanks Val, for having a birthday at this time of year.
Shalom,
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Power Outage + Eight Hour Battery in Laptop = Movie Night
Halloweenie
I'm over at my parent's place, somewhat overseeing Drew's first mixed party. The view from the deck was stunning earlier this evening: Mandi, too, is having a party tonight. Hers is taking place upstairs, although they did come down and ask, "Aunty Jane? Can you take some pictures of us?":
Three things I'm thankful for:
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Didn't go to U2 tonight like the rest of my facebook friends...
I went to a book club meeting and I bet it was wayyyy better.
Don't you love good discussions?
This book prompted quite a few of them:
Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Books
2. My job
3. The country I live in and the century that I was born in.
Shalom,
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Cutest Greeting Cards, EVAH
My friend, Rachel's sister, Rebekah, is the artsy one. (Wayyy too many commas, yes?)
I encouraged y'all to buy her art class's calendar last year, member?
Well, she's finished school now.
And illustrating children's books, painting stuff and designing cards.
These are too, too cute.
Get some.
Time to Update the Cabin
Mandi, Drew and Daryl spent Friday night at Cultus so they could be upandattem first thing in the morning. Cint, Max and I arrived in the afternoon. Julie had been there during the week to get things rolling.
The cabin, which has been showing signs of wear and tear these past few years, needs some love. Tough love.
So with hammers, screw drivers, elbow grease and determination, dad`s `gingerbread` mouldings were removed. Despite the fact that I took 300 photos and kept being called back out to the lake to see how the sun was lighting up the trees on the far shore, I DID contribute to the project by weeding the gardens. It`s an annual job, sadly.
This morning we sang a song with words that said something like, "if we didn't sing praises, the rocks would shout His name"... and that's what I think the trees do in the fall. They are using all their splendor to praise His name:
(The neighbour's weeping willow)
(Our weeping willow):
Happy kyackers on the lake:
Happy boy walking on his hands:
Their proud mom is holding the camera.
A barenaked house:
All my life my dad had a workshop filled with sawdust, tools and mouldings. He was happiest when he could putz around in there, being creative and messy, designing 'gingerbread' for the Victorian homes he wanted to build.
Leading Through Conflict Tour:
On Monday we were in Moncton, Tuesday we were in Toronto, Wednesday in Edmonton and Thursday in Calgary.
Here are some images from the busiest week of my life:
Sunny and warm in Calgary:
This is Sharon. She also taught. She rocks:
Calgary, behind the church:
... and across the street:
I Heart Prince Edward. The Island.
For the three of you interested in the rest of my photos from last weekend's adventure on PEI - here are a few of my favs.
I left my cute little inn at 11 am and made my way back towards New Brunswick. Not wanting to drive out on the same road I drove in on, I took little detours whenever I found a highway that looked interesting.
Mostly I was hoping for a shoreline drive.
Found one on Hwy 19:
Loved these big homes on a penninsula. Obvious lack of large trees: Don't you love this:
When the sun came out, it lit things up brilliantly:
Some folks sell pumpkins at the side of the road, others sell fire word at the cemetery:
Max's camp name at Stillwood was Argyle:
A little ways down the road was this park, and seeing I was hoping to get some Atlantic beach pics, I thought I'd drop in:
I drove down this road:
and was the only car in the parking lot.
Clearly this park is for families with children, right?:
There is a set of stairs INTO THE OCEAN.
The water is deep there. Like way over your head deep.
The entire park is on a bluff that drops into the ocean.
WHO BUILDS PARKS LIKE THAT?
(Hey! I thought. We have a Victoria on our side of the country's island too.)
More churches. But because the weather was overcast, and because it was uber windy, they stopped looking 'quaint' and started looking haunted.
Finally found a light house:
'nother church. This one wasn't baptist. Know how I can tell? THIS denomination added the red paint:
(I guess it matches the red roads.)
By the way, this was my travelling companion - a seat full of maps:
Obligatory spooky grave yard pic:
and abandoned homesteads:
(Low tide means that boats are not in the water.)
The park attendant told me I was the last visitor to the park of the day (and I think the only visitor to the park that day) so she let me drive through for free:
Each day 100 billion tonnes of seawater flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy during one tide cycle - more than the combined flow of the world’s freshwater rivers!"
If you ever go to New Brunswick, check out the National Park. It's probably breathtaking in the spring and summer.
I was thinking I'd have some lobster while in this lobster-fishing-village, but there wasn't a single restaraunt open. So I had McDonald's when I got back into Moncton.
And just as the light was fading, one last church-with-steeple pic:
I'm Home
Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Safe travel experience.
2. Clean house. (Thanks Max and Beau.)
3. Clint's willingness to pick me up from the airport.
4. Beautiful drive to Cultus this afternoon.
5. All three boys helped with clean-up day at the cabin.
6. Friends.
Shalom,
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
I Should Own Comfortable Shoes, Shouldn't I?
Oy.
You'd think I was walking across Canada on my own two feet the way they are complaining tonight.
And my eyes.
When did they get so old and tired?
It probably didn't help that I reading a tiny googled map (printed by a printer with very little coloured ink left in the cartridge) while driving on an unfamiliar highway in a foreign city through reading glass lenses covered in hairspray during rush hour in a vehicle that I had never driven before.
Other than that?
This has been a fine adventure. I've learned so much. My jedi-master believes I have been well-trained in the art of negotiating upgrades in car rentals and hotel rooms.
Glad I took the first two days to sightsee and explore. Because since Monday morning? All I've seen are hotels, rental cars, airports and airplanes, the interiors of a few churches and Darren, Jim and Sharon.
And ask me about conflict.
I've heard the first two hours of the seminar three times in a row. So I can identify it. And can list the four unhealthy ways that people respond to it. But I'm always on my way to the airport as they finish up, so I still don't know what a redemptive response to conflict is. Trying to avoid it is not the right answer, I'm guessing.
But tomorrow I'll sit through the second half of the teaching and will be an expert at conflict resolution by 4 pm Mountain Standard Time. It's just that easy.
Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Free upgrade to an executive suite tonight. I have two televisions. And haven't turned either of them on.
2. Going to be in bed by 11:30 tonight. Whoo Hoo. 7 hours of sleep.
3. Facebook chat.
4. My travelling companions.
5. Rachel's surgery went well. Thanks for praying.
6. Katie Ekkert is home, after getting H1N1 flu in Japan.
7. It's a Pro D Day on Friday.
Shalom,
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
It's Midnight. Am I in Edmonton?
Whoa.
My head is dizzy.
Just got back from picking up Darren, Sharon and Jim from the airport.
Need to call the front desk for a 6:30 am wake up call.
You should see the bags under my eyes...
Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Jim, Sharon and Darren
2. Hotel beds (maybe this has been mentioned already?)
3. Edmonton highways. So civilized, totally unlike the roadways in Toronto.
G'nite,
Monday, October 19, 2009
It's Like 12:30 am in Toronto and I have to get up in 6 hours.
The Toronto leg of this adventure has been less than satisfying, unless of course, you are my boss and you're sitting beside me in a Dodge Caravan on the freeways that you grew up on, laughing at my inability to navigate through 12 lanes of traffic at 10 pm at night in a vehicle that is foreign to me. Yeah, then this is all a funny day in the life of a traveller.
They gave me a Kia because the vehicle I reserved from Moncton, after talking to the National Car Rental clerk IN PERSON wasn't waiting for me at the Toronto airport. Oh, no. My vehicle? The one I ordered online and confirmed in person? Was waiting for me in some random city in NEW FOUNDLAND. So they gave me a Kia that "would be fine, mon" for 4 adults and a ridiculous amount of luggage.
I took the Kia out to Acton (an adventure all on it's own. I circled the Toronto Airport THREE times before I made it out to the highway) to sniff and snuggle baby Micah (who fell asleep in my arms) and then drove back to the airport to pick up Darren, Jim and Sharon. But I missed the exit because I was praying that God would somehow make the trunk bigger. So I had to go onto another three-thousand lane highway and circled back to the airport. And then I got stuck on the 4th floor of the parking garage and Darren and co. were on the main floor negotiating a bigger vehicle and I had to leave the airport and come back in again to get to the car rental return place and then I drove the van and kept turning on the windshield wipers when I really was trying to turn on the headlights and we all started laughing and I couldn't see the highway because I was laughing too hard and the windshield wiper would pass across the windshield every once in a while and Jim observed that "maybe it would start raining eventually and when it did we'd be ready" and the last thing I'd eaten was a bagel at 7:30 in the morning and traveling is just so glamorous.
Anyways,
I'm getting ready for bed.
Goodnight.
Three things I'm thankful for:
1. My traveling companions are good sports.
2. I got to hold Micah. And he was soft and cuddly and perfect.
3. Hotels beds. Have I mentioned how much I love them?
Shalom,
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Please Pray for Rachel
Her blogs are over there ->
(books I done read and the bouyancy of citrus)
She's having surgery to cut that cancer out once and for all...
Thanks
Should I Blog? Or Deal with the Messages in my work Inbox?
Ok. OK. Just a quick one: Did you know that there are alot of dead people over here?
And they are buried next to the church.
Just like in the movies: I can't even begin to tell you how many cute little white churches with adjoining graveyards I stopped to photograph. After about 3 dozen, I stopped getting so carried away. Seems little white churches with big steeples aren't all that rare around here.
This is the front door of my place in Charlottetown:
And I took these pics on my walk-about:
This was right across the street from the inn:
This was one section of The Great George (where I stayed):
This is my living room where I watched TV:
Saturday, October 17, 2009
This is a busy little town...
This is happening.
Plus a cruise ship pulled in.
Lots and lots of folks walkin around.
Feeling very safe.
This? Is not Harlem.
This where I'm staying, by the way.
I KNOW!!!
Airmiles is paying for it.

















