A Day at the Museum

Don't worry -- nothing came alive!

The kids had a no school today, so we decided to go to the Royal Alberta Museum. Those of you who know your way around Edmonton will laugh to know that it took me almost 2 hours to get there from Beaumont, and included going to St. Albert and the University of Alberta. Those who don't know Edmonton -- that means I got WAY lost! And that was with a map.

The museum was quite fun and we practically had the place to ourselves. We saw lots of stuffed animals (not the Beanie Baby type!), rocks and minerals, live bugs & a snake, dinosaurs (okay, fake ones), and one of my favourites: a model of a rotting, dead rat about three feet long with bugs and maggots and stuff all over it. I've included a photo for your enjoyment!

I think this competes quite nicely with Kori's and Dan's food pictures they always post.

We got a little lost coming home too, but ended up on Whyte Avenue where we ate dinner, and then I managed to drive straight home without any wrong turns or weird detours. It was a nice day, good to get out and do something fun!

Dog Park

We finally have great weather here, so I've been taking advantage of it and getting outside for a while every day. Sometimes I walk Raymond, the dog, around the neighbourhood, maybe stop in at the Mac's store. Other days I take him to the doggie park. These are pictures of our beautiful off-leash dog park. It's right on the edge of town and it's named Freedom Park. The day I took these pictures Raymond and I had the whole park to ourselves, which is unusual. Today there were 8 other dogs, and yesterday there were 9. It's a doggie paradise: dogs to play with, occasionally gophers to catch, water to play in, and it's fully fenced. It's a great place for me to meet people too. I don't know the names of all the people I've met, but I know their dogs' names!

Raymond's not the only one making new friends. This week Janelle went over to her new friend Nadine's house after school to watch a movie, and Calvin was invited by TWO GIRLS to hang out at the town-sponsored Youth Center after school on Thursday. He had a great time playing games, eating free food and hanging out with a bunch of kids he knows from both of the town's middle schools. I'm starting to breathe a little easier now that my kids are making friends. Janelle complained this week that her social life is cutting into her "alone" time -- she spends all her time at school talking to friends, walks home with friends, and then goes to their houses after school. She was never this social in Abbotsford!

We still all miss our "old" friends, though!

We have a social life!

Tonight our church sponsored a "guess who's coming to dinner night". One couple hosted three other couples for dinner, with each family bringing part of the meal. No one knew whose house we were going to, and the hosts didn't know who was coming.

We had the most awesome time! We all laughed and talked as if we'd known each other for a long time. I felt like we were having dinner with a group of our friends from APA, not like people we had just met. The best part -- the hosts couple have a two-month-old daughter, Kailey! I got to hold a baby! (My life just isn't complete without little kids in it to love on.)

There's two photos so that you could see all of us. The couple standing next to Andy & I are our pastors, Marlo & Miriam Jenkins. The young couple on the left are the hosts & parents of the little baby.

Welcome to our world!

So THIS is what we woke up to this morning! My fellow Albertans keep assuring me that this is NOT normal weather for April. It's just that we moved here at the end of one of the worst winters in a long time.

For comparison's sake, here's a photo of what we did on Saturday. Janelle, wearing a tank top in the lovely warm weather, raked 11 bags of leaves and debris in our unkempt front yard. Photo of blister on her hand to prove how hard she worked.

But I still like living here! Here's a few reasons why:

• The Save-On Foods has a Second Cup coffee shop inside the store -- and grocery carts with cup holders!
• None of the grocery stores charge for their carts.
• I can't walk to Save-On Foods, but I CAN walk to the chiropractor, dentist, doctor, Sobey's grocery store, post office, convenience store, bank, etc.
• We have wide open fields that are beautiful.

There are more reasons but that's enough for now!

Furniture & Fire

Two really good things!

God is so good! Earlier this week during my quiet time with God, I mentioned to Him that it would be nice if I could have new living room furniture to match my newly-painted walls. I didn't really think that was possible, but I thought I'd mention it! The house we are living in was bought to "flip" -- it was a cheap fixer-upper that we intend to fix up and resell in the summer as a way to make money to help us get into our ideal house on acreage outside town. Everything we've been painting and buying has been with the thought in mind of how the house will look when we're showing it to prospective buyers. My 15-year-old floral couch and loveseat didn't match with the image I wanted to portray to buyers!

Today we "accidently" discovered a garage sale around the corner from our house. The first thing I noticed was this gorgeous sofa with a price tag of $100. I commented on it to Andy and said, "I wish we could buy it, but we wouldn't be able to find a love seat or chairs to match."

"Oh no," said the garage sale lady, "It comes with the matching love seat. It's in the house."

I looked again at the price sticker. "One hundred dollars for both of them?"

"Yes," she said, "and it comes with the matching pillows."

So here's the love seat, in my living room! The sofa is across the room.



The garage sale was such a "God-thing". We got the sofa/love seat, kitchen table & 6 chairs & matching hutch, TV, dresser for Janelle's room, and window air conditioner all for $265, plus they threw in the couch pillows, 2 lampshades, & a wall mirror that matches the dresser, all for no charge.

On top of that, Janelle made friends with the granddaughter of the couple running the garage sale, and now the little girl's mom wants Janelle to babysit. The little girl, 9 years old, has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, and also has an 8-year-old little brother. Janelle is SO happy! She misses babysitting.

Calvin built a really big fire in our backyard fire pit, and we finished off our awesome day with a hot dog and marshmallow roast -- one of the wonderful benefits of living in Alberta!

And Hubert makes 7....

Pets, that is.

Meet Hubert. No, not the kid with the goofy grin. That's Calvin.

Hubert is little and fuzzy and only 6 weeks old.

When we first asked the kids what they thought about moving to Alberta, Janelle said, "Sure!" Calvin thought for a few seconds, then asked, "Can I get a pig?" At the time we were intending to buy an acreage, so we said yes. Because we bought a house in town instead, Calvin got a kitten.

Where we got Hubert is a story in itself! I wish I could've taken pictures!

We saw an ad in the paper about kittens for sale. Calvin and I drove into downtown Edmonton to a seedy little apartment building along a road of 50 other seedy little apartment buildings. Shirley let us in. She was probably 60 but looked 80. She smoked the entire time, hacking and coughing and talking in a raspy voice -- usually to herself about stuff Calvin and I couldn't quite understand!

Shirley is the ultimate crazy cat lady. At least 3 adult cats and more kittens than I could count were running amok in her filthy, smoke-filled, greasy-smelling, ran-down one-bedroom apartment. Hubert was the only cream or orange kitten we could find after 2 weeks of looking, so we really wanted him, but he had runny eyes. Finally we decided that even if he was a little bit sick, we would take him to the vet and make him well. Shirley would've just continued letting him live in the filth with all his inbred relatives. We're just suckers for poor, pathetic animals that need rescuing.

So Hubert is home, checked by the vet and basically healthy except for his little kitty virus, which will clear up in a week with medication. He bonded instantly with Calvin, crying whenever Calvin leaves him. This should complete our animal kingdom, at least until we buy acreage. And then......Smallville Petting Zoo!

Trailer Choppin'

So this is what Andy does for a living. The past two
days he's been working on destroying this trailer.
This isn't what he did to it; this is how it came.
He says the trucker had a bad day. Ya think?!

By the time Andy's finished with this thing, it will be cut into pieces that fit in the back of a one-ton cube van. He'll resell the axles, wheels, etc. -- whatever's still useable. He hauls the cut-up metal into a recycling facility here in Edmonton and gets paid for it.

That's how we've been making our living for the last several years, and we moved here partly because there's more trailers to chop in Alberta.

The Big Move

Welcome to Smallville!

We finally did it! We are now Albertans. We left BC March 23rd in 2 moving trucks, a minivan, and a pickup truck, accompanied by our good friends Dan and Jennie Lang, and 6 pets. We arrived at our new house the next day.

Dan & Jenn stayed for 5 days and did an AWESOME job of painting the upstairs of our house. They taught me how to fix and paint all kinds of things. I never knew I could take off the bathroom cabinet doors, repaint them, install new hardware and hang them all by myself! As Jenn would say....Woo Hoo!

So here's the before and after photos of our living room. I still need some artwork for the blank walls. New furniture would be lovely too, but not in the budget!

Janelle's quite happy with her school. She liked it from the first day. Calvin's still not sure. He hated school in Abbotsford, and says he hates it here too, although he also says he's made friends here. Keep praying for them!

I'm still unpacking, painting, cleaning, and shopping. Andy's working today, chopping up trailers. We're getting to know people at our new church (if I were a more experienced blogger there would be a link right here!). Our pastor called Andy this weekend to go to Tim Horton's with him, so that was cool.

So....welcome to Smallville, Alberta!