Mo's Awesome Weekend Part 2

Going to the Ladies' Retreat was only half of my awesome weekend. The other half was visiting with other family and friends.

One of the people I was most looking forward to seeing in Abbotsford was "mine Emma". Emma is my very special 2-year-old friend. She calls me "mine Aunty Mo" so I call her "mine Emma". I stayed at her Grandma's house, which is right next door to her house. The first morning I was there I was awakened by a little pig-tailed bundle of joy running down the hall and into my room. She jumped up on my bed and hugged me for a long time. Then she looked at her mom & grandma and said, "I found mine Aunty Mo!" Aahhh, I love waking up like that! That's "mine Emma" and her big brother, Ethan, in the photos. Ethan is 6 and he read to me from his new Bible. I was very impressed!

I visited my favourite Christian bookstore & coffee house, the House of James in Abbotsford, twice. I took Emma shopping at the mall for "pretties" (jewelry) & shoes -- and ice cream, just before dinner (Aunty's privilege). I had my traditional Monday morning breakfast with my sisters-in-law, followed by shopping. I dropped in to visit my friend Paula & played with my other little 2-year-old friend, her daughter Faith. I also got to play with her smiley, happy 3-month-old son, Silas, who was born two days before I moved (I got to see him in the hospital when he was less than 24 hours old). I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of Paula & her kids, my sisters-in-law, and my good friend Judi, whose house I stayed at. Judi was my boss for five years before I moved. That's a pretty good boss -- when I come back I stay at her house!

It was such a fulfilling, happy weekend, and it felt good to see people and places that are familiar and comfortable. I was pleased, however, to feel excited about coming back to Beaumont -- it actually felt like I was coming "home"!

Mo's Awesome Weekend

This past weekend I travelled to Abbotsford to go on the APA WOW Ladies' Retreat, and visit with "mine Emma" and her family. It was such a privilege for me!

The retreat filled me up inside, spiritually and emotionally. I felt so loved and accepted by everyone, and I was excited to see every one of the ladies.

I can't post all the photos I took (56 of them, I believe!), so I chose a couple of the ones that I am in. On the left is me with my good friend Nina Olsen.

This is one with Barbara Wade. Barbara didn't know I was coming, and I wasn't sure if she would be there, but I was certainly hoping so! She and I met 15 years ago, and she's someone I've always been able to share my heart with. This weekend was no exception!

We stayed at Cedar Springs in Sumas, WA. It is in an absolutely beautiful setting, as you can see from the photos, with scrumptious food -- which I also photographed! For those of you who are on Facebook, the rest of the photos are in an album on my Facebook page.

It was a great weekend of seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and meeting with God. I came home refreshed and inspired to minister here at my home church.

My Daughter the Artist

Janelle has always enjoyed art and has been pretty good at it, but this time she amazed everyone! In art class everyone was given a hunk of soap stone and had to choose from one of several items to carve it into. She chose to make a bear. She's been giving us progress reports on him all semester. Here, finally, is the finished product. We were very impressed! Apparently so was her art teacher. The teacher wanted to keep the bear to use as an example for future students, but Janelle wouldn't let her. Instead the teacher took a whole bunch of photos. Janelle made the bear to give to her best friend as a birthday present (so if the best friend's mother is reading this, don't say anything!).

It was a very ferocious rabbit!

This giant bunny was in our neighbour's yard when I took this photo. Yesterday I saw him in our front yard. These rabbits are HUGE compared to the little brown bunnies I occasionally saw in Abbotsford. They are all over town, and not very shy. I see them in parking lots, on the road, in people's yards, and at the schools -- pretty much everywhere. I think they're jack rabbits. When we first moved here in March they were almost pure white. Now they are turning grey. Kind of cool!

Saw a dead gopher on the road by our group mailbox yesterday, but thought you'd probably rather not see a picture of him! Some wildlife is better left unphotographed.

Dessert Night

Once again, I forgot to take pictures. What a boring blog!

Tonight we had people from church over to our house for the first time. A few weeks ago, in a moment of cheerful euphoria, I signed up to host an unknown number of people for a "guess who's coming to dessert" night. This week I panicked and wondered what on earth I had been thinking!

I LOVE hosting parties or casual get-togethers at my house. I miss having a houseful of people every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night like in the good 'ole days in Abby. But that was when I had a nice big house, and the people coming over were people I knew, people I knew who wouldn't judge how fancy or clean my house was. I didn't know these people or what they might think of our funny little house.

I worried for nothing, of course. The people were warm and friendly and the conversation flowed. My plan was that as long as the house was clean, all I had to do was put on the coffee and smile, and everyone would feel at home. It worked. Our house isn't new or big or fancy, but people feel welcome.

We had two couples here tonight: Lyle & Denise Kuny, one of the first couples we connected with here, and Gordon & Marilyn Bohn, who used to live in Abbotsford. Tonight was just one more step in making Beaumont feel more like "home".

And now in other news: I'm coming to the APA Ladies' Retreat June 22-24. I'm so excited!

Victoria

Andy & I just arrived home from Victoria a few hours ago. We absolutely LOVE Victoria! It's been our fav weekend getaway for many years. When we retire (or even semi-retire) that's where we want to live.

We forgot the camera. I thought of it as we were going through security leaving Edmonton. Oh well! We took one cell phone photo, and that's it up there at the top of the blog! That's me with a big bear outside a touristy gift shop on Government Street. Oh yeah, I'm holding a Roger's Chocolates bag. No trip to Victoria is complete without a stop at Roger's Chocolates. Or three stops, like we did.

We shopped lots but bought little, drank lattes twice a day at a different coffee shop each time, spent hours at the Royal B.C. Museum in the Titanic display (that's TITANIC, Dan Lang, seven letters!), ate dinner at Chandlers (THE best seafood restaurant in Victoria), lunch at our favourite breakfast/brunch restaurant, Jonathan's at the Royal Scot Hotel, and dinner the next night at Romano's Macaroni Grill.

The whole weekend was just so relaxing and refreshing. Good thing, too, cuz we left our kids home alone, and we came home to a huge mess!

Playing Catch Up

I can't believe it's been this long since I blogged! So sorry, folks. Have to admit, I got a little caught up with my newest "toy" -- Facebook.

Andy & I lived in Cranbrook, BC from 1989-1992. One of my closest friends from there is Rita Forsberg. Shortly after we moved away from Cranbrook, Rita and her husband moved to Quesnel. We've seen them infrequently throughout the years.

Rita & her husband, Lorne, are both originally from Westaskiwin, which is about a 40 minute drive south of here. They still have many relatives there, including their daughter, Laurie. Laurie was one of the "kids" in the youth group Andy & I led in Cranbrook. She's all grown up now and I'm proud to call her my friend.

Last month Rita gave me the most exciting news: she and Lorne are moving back to Westaskiwin! They dropped in to visit Andy & I when they were in the area house hunting a couple of weeks ago. They moved to Westaskiwin at the beginning of June, and today Rita, Laurie & I had lunch together at a wonderful little restaurant in Westaskiwin (they have espresso drinks there!!!). I am SO excited to have such a close friend living so close by again!

Of course, I forgot to bring my camera, but I was able to dig up this photo of Laurie from a couple of years ago!

In other breaking news:

I finished painting all the trim around the doors in the basement (except the room housing the guinea pig & rabbit). I've started the doors & should have everything done next week. It's such a great sense of accomplishment!

This is a "before" picture of my dark and dingy hallway. The white trim is already making it look brighter, but I'm going to save the "after" picture until the doors are all painted and rehung, we replace the carpet & hang new lighting fixtures.

Tomorrow Andy & I are flying to Victoria for a romantic getaway. I'm looking forward to renovating my marriage for the weekend instead of renovating my house!