Welcome to Smallville, Alberta

Ukrainian Christmas

2009-01-17T17:44:00.003-06:00

For those who don't know, Andy's family is Ukrainian. Yes, I know, our last name doesn't sound Ukrainian. That's because it's an Anglicized version that was adopted when his grandfather immigrated to Canada. I thought it was time we celebrated our kids' heritage by observing Ukrainian Christmas on January 7th. Plus, it justified still having the Christmas tree up.

We didn't observe it in the most traditional manner, which includes a twelve-course meatless meal, one course for each of the twelve apostles. Twelve courses?! I'm lucky to have the meat, potatoes & vegetables all ready at the same time! We did our own version of the meal - cabbage rolls, perogies, & kubasa. We also included wheat bread, because traditionally the Ukrainian people bring into the house a shaft of wheat, or didukh, to symbolize prosperity for the next year.

The birth of Jesus is central to the Ukrainian celebration, so I set up a little nativity scene as our centerpiece, and surrounded it with our Ukrainian "matroshka" or nesting dolls. Ukrainians will often place straw under the table to remember Jesus' birth. We used hay and put a small amount in the nativity scene. In some parts of the Ukraine people decorate eggs for Christmas, just as they do for Easter, so I included a painted wooden Ukrainian egg as well.

Calvin was disappointed to discover that he wasn't receiving any more gifts, and yes, he still had to go to school, but we still had a lovely dinner with a bit of meaning to it. Perhaps next year I'll start preparing a little earlier and include more traditions and traditional food - but there still won't be twelve courses!

Christmas

2009-01-05T21:08:00.006-06:00

Wow, I really have no excuse for not blogging for so long - just laziness! I could catch you up on various bloggable events that happened since last summer, but I'll just start with the recent (Christmas) and continue from there.

We travelled to SNOWY B.C. for Christmas! We visited Victoria (our favourite city) for a couple of days before Christmas, then travelled to Ucluelet for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. We have a favourite little 3-bedroom house we like to rent there. I knew there wouldn't be any decorations there, so I brought along a few. That's a fake fireplace tacked on the wall, and check out our cute little tree, which I bought in Victoria. It has one little decoration on it, also purchased in Victoria. We hung our stockings on the coat rack with care, knowing that Saint Nicholas would soon be there. We enjoyed lovely pastries from a favourtie Dutch bakery in Victoria, and I even cooked a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We played games, walked on the beach and on the cliffs above the beach, and enjoyed family time together. I feel kind of ... snobby, saying, "Yeah, we just hung out on the beach Christmas Day." Never mind that there was snow on the beach....

We visited with Andy's family on Boxing Day & the 27th, and with my family on the 28th & 29th. The kids both stayed in Abbotsford with their friends for New Year's, while Andy & I travelled to Salmon Arm to welcome 2009 with Shawn & Joanne. In between all of that, I got to spend a little time with my favourite 4-year-old in Abbotsford and her family. Thanks for taking us in, Langs & Depners!

One of my New Year's resolutions is to do a better job of blogging, so here's to getting a good start to 2009!

Updates

2008-09-18T21:45:00.002-05:00

We've been computerless for a couple of weeks, but now have a great new FAST computer! I will take time later to post some photos of our last month of summer, but for now, I thought I'd update you on my newspaper article.

It was published last Saturday, with a few edits to the opening paragraphs. Click here to see it online.

Follow Up to My Blog on Cultural Heritage

2008-08-21T20:05:00.002-05:00

Not last blog but the blog before, I wrote about my lack of a cultural heritage - but my wealth of a spiritual heritage! I submitted the article to the Edmonton Journal, and I just received word that they are going to publish it! It will be in the religion section, which comes out on Saturdays, and I'm not sure if it's this week or not. When they publish it, I'll post a link to the online version, if possible.

Just thought I'd let you know!

Summer Vacation

2008-08-13T23:20:00.006-05:00

Due to my work schedule and Janelle's (she's working at Extra Foods), we didn't get a "real" family vacation this summer, but we did take a three-day weekend and make the most of it.

We went to Drumheller, where we visited the dinosaur museum, a reptile refuge, and the world's largest dinosaur - which we climbed to the top of so we could stand in it's mouth.

On our way back to our motel (which was in Three Hills) we stopped to enjoy the view and Calvin found some gophers to feed. We also took a VERY tiny ferry across the Red Deer river.

The next day we went to one of our favourite places that we've visited most summers for several years - Guzoo Animal Farm. The big attraction for us is the opportunity to interact with animals one wouldn't normally be able to pet. This year we held a baby skunk, gave a lion cub a tummy rub, and petted a wolf cub. We also held more "traditional" animals, such as newborn kittens, guinea pigs, and bunnies, plus petted animals in the petting zoo part - alpacas, llamas, cows, donkeys, sheep, goats, pigs, a chicken, dogs....I think that was all. If you know anything about our family, you know we all love animals!

We left Guzoo and headed for Calgary, where we splurged on a nicer hotel with an indoor waterpark, which is where we spent the evening. Our motel in Three Hills had a waterslide too, but nothing like the one in Calgary! Sorry, no pictures - I was having too much fun!

The following morning the kids and I went to the U.S. Consulate so I could register them as American citizens born abroad. There are now officially 3 dual citizens in our family! After that, we went to Calaway Park, Calgary's big amusement park. Again, no pictures because I wanted to ride the rides, not lug my camera around!

Although it was a short trip, it was a great time together as a family!

At the Royal Tyrell Museum.

Calvin with Brittany the Burmese python at the reptile refuge.

World's largest dinosaur in Drumheller.

Gopher feedin' and riding a little ferry.

Skunk, lion cub, and wolf cub.

For those of you on Facebook, there's more pictures on my profile.

Cultural Heritage

2008-08-04T23:45:00.003-05:00

I apologize for not blogging more regularly! My two excuses are: 1) we haven't done anything bloggable; and 2) we forgot to take pictures even if we did. Having said that, I did do something bloggable today, and no, I didn't take pictures. But I did have something I wanted to share with my world after my experience today. Hence, I am blogging. It's a bit different than my usual blog.

Today I went to Heritage Festival. The various ethnic groups represented in Edmonton erect tents in a local park and offer for sale samples of their food and crafts, while their assorted musical and dance groups perform. It a huge festival with over 50 different cultures participating, and I absolutely love it. Today's experience is what prompted this VERY LENGTHY blog! So read on....

I've lived in a culture where dark skin was common and white skin was the minority. That created a subculture of whiteness. If I met another pale face, skin colour alone was reason enough to smile and say hello. Their reply may have been in Swedish or German or with an Australian twang, but our lack of pigmentation was enough to create a cultural bond.

Currently I live in a different country than the one in which I was born and raised. There are a whole lot of other people groups that can claim the same. There are many that were born and raised in Canada but still identify with the country in which their parents or grandparents were raised. I saw them at Heritage Festival today. I should be able to do the same - join up with all the other transplanted Americans and celebrate our heritage. But what exactly would that be? We can hoot and holler about our country's birthday three days later than the Canadians, and we can eat turkey six weeks after them. Other than that, what's really different?

When it's necessary - at a world exposition, for example - both Canada and the U.S. can come up with the perfunctionary "cultural" pavillion. We dutifully exhibit our aboriginal culture, complete with native food and dances and art. And after that? Well, we start showcasing the cultures our ancestors brought with them from somewhere else.

I watched the Iranians spontaneously break into dance outside their booth today - took a break from cooking and selling stuff just to party together. There was no choreographed dance, yet they all knew the moves. The Congolese people did the same thing, grooving together and singing along in unison with words no one else would understand. These peoples have culture, a shared heritage of song and dance that only they truly know and understand, unique to them and their country of origin. We don't have that. I don't have that.

I miss that unity. I miss at least being bonded for a moment or two through sharing a skin colour. Today I explored the traditions of my Swedish grandmother, the origins of my Irish maiden name, the location of the Ukrainian village of my husband's ancestors. And there was a certain satisfaction in being of not just one cultural heritage, but of those and several others. Yet I didn't identify with any of them. No shared language, no common dance, no familiar music.

So with what culture do I identify? As I am wandering through the Heritage Festival or the world exposition, what sounds, what sights, what words would draw me in, would excite me, would cause me to join in the festivities with strangers just because we are of like mind? And then it came to me. I do have a cultural heritage with which I strongly identify. A culture of thousands of years of traditions deeply loved and treasured by those who share in it, but often no more than a passing curiosity to those on the "outside". A culture of values, of music, of history, even a dance of sorts. What am I? I am a Christian. An evangelical Christian. A Pentecostal Christian.

If I heard the latest Hillsongs United chorus, I would be drawn to the "pavilion". If they played "The Old Rugged Cross," I would sing along. When the people stood to their feet, raised their hands high, and closed their eyes, I would join in - no choreography needed. With these people, even though they are strangers, I belong. I get it. I get who they are and what they're about, where they've been and where they're going. I am one with them.

My Christian culture is deeply satisfying to me. There is no other cultural heritage that so profoundly defines me as a person. Ultimately, there is no other culture that even matters to me. In the end, this is the only culture that will remain, the only culture that will bind together forever those of us who are identified by it. In this reverse culture we are joined by a common future more than a common past, an expectation of a homeland we haven't yet reached rather than a land we have left behind.

Maybe it’s not such a sad thing after all, not having an identifiable cultural heritage. Where I’ve been doesn’t matter as much as where I’m going anyway. So for now, I enthusiastically embrace my Christian culture, and when I get to our homeland, I’m joining with my people to sing and dance and talk and laugh and eat – forever.

My Own Room

2008-06-04T22:52:00.004-05:00

I grew up sharing a room with my sister. I moved from home to a college dorm where I shared a room, and from there I got married...and shared a room. I've wanted my own room for many years now! Don't get me wrong - I don't want to sleep in a different room from my hubby...I just want a space to put my stuff the way I want to put it...a place to hang out. Well, after renovating the basement and moving Janelle's room downstairs, I claimed Janelle's former upstairs room as my own. It is mostly my stamping room, where I've organized all my craft supplies for making cards.

I also decided to display our Build-a-Bear collection. Some of them are mine; most are Janelle's and Calvin's.

Janelle's 16th Birthday, Parts 2 & 3

2008-05-31T23:57:00.003-05:00

As I promised (warned?) you, Janelle's birthday was an ongoing party that wrapped up today. Well, wrapped up except for the inevitable shopping trip that will occur soon so she can spend all the gift cards/cash she acquired from her very generous friends.

Wednesday, May 28, was her "real" birthday. I brought her lunch, cupcakes and a helium balloon to her at school at lunchtime. She was happy & embarrassed all at the same time, but she said that having to walk through the halls carrying the balloon got her more birthday greetings than she's ever had at once in her whole life.

After school we sat her on the couch and gave her our gift - a laptop computer.

She was absolutely shocked and thrilled! She's been saving for one for a long time but was only halfway there, so we decided to reward her for her diligence. We figured a 16th birthday deserved a bigger than usual gift. I made a special dinner for her that evening and we had cake.

Today she invited her school friends over to hang out, watch a movie and eat food (much of which her friends brought!). Here's Nadine, Sharaya, Julianne, Ellen & Janelle. Two other girls weren't able to make it.

I am, of course, so very thankful for Janelle, and also for the many great friends God has blessed her with here in Beaumont.

The Month of Janelle

2008-05-23T13:21:00.002-05:00

We've renamed the month of May. Get used to seeing blogs about Janelle! She turns 16 on May 28, but the celebration is lasting more than one day.

It started with a party with her "church friends" (this is pretty much the entire grade 8-12 female population of the church). For those of you who are familiar with Hillsongs United (a Christian worship band), they have created a feature length movie highlighting the band as they tour around the world. They had a special "pre-release" one-night-only showing in movie theatres across Canada (it comes to the U.S. later - we're more special up here!!) last Wednesday night. So Janelle gathered her church friends for pizza and presents at our house, followed by a trip to the movie theatre. It was, apparently, "AWESOME"!

This is the gang before the movie. Don't they look like a real quality group of young women? Janelle has great taste in friends!

OK, here they are looking a little less normal.

That's Ashley, our youth pastor's wife, on the far left in the back. Janelle invited her to come, but told me I wasn't invited. Janelle's exact words: "Sorry, Mom, but Ashley's way cooler than you."

The others are (left to right):

Back row: Fraikua, Janelle, Karyssa, Marriya

Front row: Cari, Amanda, Marissa

Look for more updates during the month of Janelle as she celebrates with the family on the 28th and her school friends on the 31st!

A First Time for Everything

2008-05-20T10:43:00.002-05:00

Her first smile...her first step...her first day at school...the first time she brought a boy home...her first driving lesson...her first scratch on the van...

This is our little girl polishing her first scratches out of the van after her first driving lesson with dad. Brake...gas...they sort of feel the same until you step on them. Jumped a curb in a parking lot and hit a chain link fence, which fortunately stopped her from going over the 6 foot embankment on the other side.

Andy's blood pressure has finally returned to normal about 24 hours later.

Mother's Day

2008-05-19T22:38:00.004-05:00

I don't have any photos from my Mother's Day, although I had a lovely day. I do have some photos from May 18th, when we went to Red Deer to celebrate Mother's Day with my mother-in-law, and also celebrate her birthday.

On Mother's Day my daughter woke me up by bringing me breakfast in bed! And not just any breakfast - a 3-egg omelet with onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms & cheese, plus toast and juice. Wow! It looked like something I'd order in a nice restaurant! She had walked to the store the day before and bought some of the ingredients with her own money. I was very pleased!

After church we went to brunch at one of the local golf courses. Yum! Andy & Calvin both gave me cards, and Calvin made me a coupon book. Amongst the normal coupons like "Good for one hug", there's one that's good for "One frog hunting". Interesting...

Mother's Day for the last several years has meant spending the evening enjoying the finale of one of my favourite TV shows - Survivor. It was a great, completely relaxing day!

Below are photos of my family & my mother-in-law with her little dog, Millie. We went down to their house and brought all the "fixin's" for a BBQ. It was lots of fun together, and nice for my mother-in-law to be able to relax in her own home rather than going out, but not have to do anything. Both of my kids helped cook mushrooms and make salad without even being asked! I didn't even know Calvin could cook mushrooms, but he did. A really nice day for everyone!

We went to the zoo

2008-04-05T20:07:00.004-06:00

Friday was a glorious day. Andy & James both had the day off work, so we went to the Edmonton Zoo. It's small, but cool. Most cool of all, look what we saw just walking around the zoo!!

Yep, an elephant! Her name is Lucy, and apparently she goes for daily walks around the zoo. We couldn't touch her, but we got close (like 10 feet away).

We saw lots of other animals too, but that was definitely the highlight of our day.

Take a good look at the picture below, and click on it so it gets bigger and you can read the sign in the background.

A python just for children? Who knew? And it's on an educational program. Yeah, I bet....

Note how wonderful the weather appears in our elephant pictures. It looks like we're on the savannah right there in Africa.

Then we woke up this morning to this:

Good old Alberta, where the seasons run backward....spring, winter....I'm afraid of what might be next.

Birthdays & More

2008-03-07T12:15:00.003-06:00

Life was so busy happening, I didn't have time to blog about it!

February 27th was Calvin's 14th birthday, and my 11th (yes, 11th - think about it...you do the math) was February 29th. Our good friends the Greeks were here for our birthdays. We spread out our celebrations over a few days by going out for dinner at Red Lobster and going to the mall (girls went shopping, guys went to a movie), but on the days of our birthdays we stayed home, ate cake, opened presents, and playted Canasta. Joanne & I also went out for lunch with two ladies from my church who also had birthdays the same week.

One of the coolest things for me was getting a $30 gift card to Winners from the Greeks. Okay, getting the gift card wasn't really any cooler than the other presents I got...what was cool was the sale they had at Winners when we went shopping there! For $32.55 I got a pair of jeans, a pair of casual pants, a pair of dress pants, a blouse, and two sweaters! The ranged in price for $2.00 (sweater) to $10.00 (jeans). Not bad, eh?!

While the Greeks were here we went to the car show in Edmonton, but I didn't take any pictures. The pictures would have all been the same anyway - Janelle sitting in the driver's seat of every convertible in the building. I remember when we used to go to car shows and Janelle would hop in the backseat and check out the cup holders. Times have changed....

One more photo just for fun - here are James, Calvin & Brendan roasting hot dogs in our fireplace.

The more there is to blog about...

2008-02-25T17:13:00.002-06:00

The less time there is to blog!

We got an AWESOME seat sale, so the kids & I flew to Abbotsford for five days in the middle of February. It was so much fun to see friends and family, but it seemed there was never enough time to spend with each one we saw. For me, the highlight was seeing my mom and sister for the first time in almost a year.

Unlike many of my blogging friends, I took almost no pictures! I packed my camera around with me from house to house as I visited, and took a total of 7 pictures. One of them is posted above, of Janelle with "my" Emma. The other photos were all taken at the Small family get-together (which we are famous for!) and I posted them all on my Facebook page, since that's where all the Small's hang out.

Now we're into fun number two: the Greek family is visiting for a week or so! Ah, Canasta....it just feels so good (even if the girls lost the first game). I won't promise you any pictures of them, but at least I told you they visited!

Snow

2008-02-13T17:41:00.004-06:00

Yep, we have snow. This is Alberta after all. Just thought I'd show you the results of a "blizzard" that came through town. The newscasters called it a blizzard, but it wasn't like I'd read about in books. It was really windy, though, which caused the big snow drifts in these pictures. It wasn't all that exciting for us, actually, because when we lived at the edge of Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford, we commonly got snow drifts at least six feet high. This was about the same, but a bit colder. Calvin had fun though - he's standing on top of a big pile of snow, a combination of a snow drift and the snow we've been tossing off our driveway all winter. He and Connor dug it out and reinforced it with boards, so now they have a very roomy snow fort.

We love pets!

2008-01-28T21:57:00.000-06:00

Our trip to Pet Expo:

Saturday for family fun we went to a Pet Expo in Edmonton. At a pet expo you can buy all sorts of supplies for pets, as well as see lots of animals. They also had a petting zoo, which is where these pictures were taken. The strange little animal that Calvin is petting (yes, that is his hand) is a WALLABY! How cool is that!! There was also a camel you could ride -- for an extra $10, which we decided not to do! Calvin petted a chicken until it fell asleep, and I made friends with one of several baby goats that were 2-4 days old (that's what the sign said). And when we were all done, we went home to our own "petting zoo".

Pretty winter trees in our front yard

2008-01-18T22:51:00.000-06:00

Why you should NOT get a kitten.

2008-01-18T22:48:00.001-06:00

New Year's Eve

2008-01-18T22:33:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!

OK, I'm aware that it's the middle of January and I'm just now posting New Year's Eve photos. Maybe I'm celebrating Chinese New Year's!

After sitting around moping a bit and wondering what we were going to do on New Year's Eve without our Canasta-playing and potato-cannon making friends, we decided to start a new tradition. We headed into downtown Edmonton for the big fireworks display.

The party was at Churchill Square, which is surrounded by City Hall, a library and several other important buildings. So important I can't remember what they are. There were hot dog vendors and guys selling glow-in-the-dark 2008 glasses. There were bands we'd never heard of performing all around the square, both in the buildings and outside. And there were about 50,000 people. OK, I actually have no idea of the real numbers, but you get the idea.

But get this - it was orderly and family friendly and fun! No drunk rowdies (the cops were stopping people coming into the square and sending them politely away if they had been imbibing) and only a tenth of the amount of pot smell that you get at an average Abbotsford city fireworks display. This is Alberta, after all. It's too cold to grow pot.

Most wonderful of all, there was a huge nativity display right outside city hall, complete with live sheep! I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but on the wall of the building behind the nativity scene it says "Edmonton City Hall." Now THAT'S something you won't see at Vancouver city hall! I love conservative Alberta.

The other picture (not the one of sheep, manger scenes, or people you should know if you're reading this blog) is of the inside of city hall where there was a concert happening. I love the cool coloured lights on the glass pyramid ceiling!

It was cold but not too cold, the fireworks were AWESOME (every bit as good as Vancouver's Celebration of Lights, which is not an easy thing to top) and the people were friendly. We had a really good time.

2007-12-26T21:02:00.000-06:00

Just a few pictures from our annual Small Family Christmas gathering on Boxing Day (Alberta branch this year). We met up with Andy's brother Ernie & his wife Marie & their boys, Josiah & Charlie, at Grandpa's, Grandma's and Lorne's house in Red Deer. Sorry I didn't get pictures of everyone - I think I was too busy eating.....

There's Janelle in a head lock with Grandpa & laughing with (at?) Charlie (he is SO cute!), and Calvin with his bestest buddy Josiah who absolutely ADORES Calvin, and a picture of Grandpa's pride and joy - his nativity set ("Did you get a picture of the angel? I climbed up there myself to put it up. Did you get a picture? I wouldn't let Lorne put it up; he might fall. I climbed up there myself. Did you get a picture?")

Christmas Food Picture

2007-12-26T20:57:00.000-06:00

I made a turkey dinner for the four of us for Christmas Day. That may sound very normal to you, but for me it was a very proud moment! Those who know me well know I am not a cook, and I don't like cooking really. So for me to cook a turkey (for only the second time in my life) with all the trimmings was a major accomplishment - and I actually really enjoyed doing it! After dinner I cleaned up everything and we played Simpsons Monopoly (one of Calvin's gifts), followed by a trip to see the lights on Candy Cane Lane in Edmonton - a big disappointment; it should be called "Candy Cane Lame". Oh well, we had fun in the car and the kids were laughing hysterically all the way home while tickling each other - a happy family memory!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

2007-12-25T15:21:00.000-06:00

The gifts are open and the turkey's in the oven. Everyone is playing with their gifts (except Andy, who's playing with Calvin's gifts!), so I thought I'd take a moment on the computer to update our blog and my Facebook page. We've had a very happy morning, and last night after the candlelight service at church, we invited over a new family whose first Sunday at the church was this past one. They moved here a week ago from Maple Ridge, and we thought we couldn't leave them all alone on Christmas Eve! We had a great time with them and their 4 children (between the ages of 2 and 6). It made Christmas Eve feel very special to share it with friends, especially ones with little children - my favourite!

We're looking forward to a fun & relaxing day at home, going out to look at Christmas lights tonight, and then tomorrow visiting with Andy's parents and brothers and their families in Red Deer.

So....Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

2007-12-17T22:21:00.000-06:00

I was trying to take a photo of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, but Raymond the dog kept getting in the way. I just love how happy Calvin looks and how pretty Janelle is, so I thought I'd post the picture anyway, even with the big, black blob in the front!

Christmas Pageant

2007-12-17T22:04:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was our children's Christmas pageant at church. This was a first for me - writing the script (just using verses from the Bible spoken by narrators), choosing songs, and then coordinating all the other aspects that have to come together to make it work. I was amazed at how much I LOVED doing this! We have the most amazing congregation here - I never lacked for volunteers, and in fact had people coming up to me asking how they could help! The whole service went SO well, and I was very appreciative of all the people who helped make it happen.

Calvin helped me with "crowd control" for the elementary school kids, and Janelle worked with the preschool teachers to lead "her" kids (ages 18 months to 3 years) performing a song for everyone. So cute!! (the kids as well as Janelle :-)

Comfy Cozy

2007-12-10T22:22:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd post a picture of our home looking very Christmasy with it's lights on in the snow. Although it looks cold outside, inside it's comfy cozy.....
Yesterday afternoon after church and a nap, we built a fire in the fireplace, put out plates of cheese, crackers, & candy, and played a family game of Monopoly. We had the Christmas music playing in the background and the decorations up. It was the perfect holiday atmosphere, and the whole family had a great time playing the game and getting along so well. Janelle won - she even beat Andy!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2007-11-27T13:07:00.001-06:00

Sunday night Andy and I came out of the home our small group was meeting in and I was surprised to find there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground that wasn't there two hours before! The weather forecast has mentioned snow almost every day for the last two or three weeks, but it never amounted to more than a centimeter and it always melted in the next day or two. Sunday it came to stay. I'm told by those in the know that this is it - no more bare ground until April!

When we got home from Bible study, the first thing I noticed were footprints in the driveway - BARE footprints! My foolish son, I thought. But no, it was Shawn & Joanne Greek's foolish son who went outside in his bare feet, just for fun! Keep in mind that it was about -17 outside, not factoring in the wind chill! The kids were inside in the process of bundling up to go sledding (at 9:30 p.m. - no school the next day). So off they went, first down our sloping driveway, then to the park 3 blocks away, which has a substantial hill. They lasted about 20 minutes before they realized that snow in Alberta is not the same as snow in Abbotsford! Janelle said she'd never seen her legs that shade of red before....

Yesterday was -27 in the middle of the day with the wind chill, and it's supposed to be getting colder over the next few days! Let me sing it again - Baby, it's cold outside!

A Unique Cultural Experience

2007-11-26T12:51:00.001-06:00

This past week Andy's uncle (his father's brother) passed away. Although Andy hadn't seen him or talked to him in over 25 years, because the funeral was in Edmonton, we went out of respect for Andy's dad. What a unique experience!

Andy's extended family comes from a Ukranian Orthodox tradition, and the funeral was conducted by a Ukranian Orthodox priest. The entire service, with the exception of a short eulogy by Andy's cousin, was sung in Ukranian. The priest sang a portion, answered by the congregation, led by a female singer. There was plenty of sitting and standing and making the sign of the cross. Those of us who were not Catholic/Orthodox and/or who did not know Ukranian just stood there respectfully. The priest was not much older than us, but he was apparently straight from the old country, as his English was extremely limited.

The internment was at a cemetary several miles away. When we drove into the cemetary, I was stunned. I knew Edmonton and the surrounding area was home to many Ukranians who arrived here in the 1920's and 1930's, but the cemetary was like a trip to another country (actually, the whole day felt a little like that!). There were literally thousands of tombstones engraved with Ukranian names. About half were in the Ukranian alphabet, the rest were the English tranliteration of the Ukranian names. It was an incredible sight.

The funeral was great time to get together with relatives - Andy's brother Chris & his wife Melody came out from B.C., and their daughter Stefanie & her husband Justin came up from Three Hills, AB. Andy's dad and younger brother Lorne came from Red Deer. After the internment, everyone was invited to lunch at a hotel. It was a great time of meeting Andy's aunts, uncles, and cousins, and even a few of Andy's dad's cousins. I never knew Andy had all these relatives! It was a lot of fun. And of course they served cabbage rolls and perogies. We learned how to write Andy's family's original last name in Ukranian (it sounds a bit like Small, which is what Andy's great-uncle came up with when he landed in Canada), and heard lots of family history. I absolutely loved it!

And to top off the day, Andy's dad, brothers, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew-in-law all came to our house to hang out, followed by a trip to WEM for shopping and dinner - a great ending to a great day.

We went away for our anniversary...

2007-11-12T16:57:00.000-06:00

and we didn't take any pictures!

But we thought we'd let you know we had a lovely dinner at Tony Roma's a lovely night at a hotel in Edmonton with a jacuzzi in our room, followed by brunch this morning.

It's lovely to be at that stage where the kids can stage by themselves and get themselves off to school alone too (yes, in non-union Alberta, today is not a holiday).

Halloween 2008

2007-11-02T15:51:00.001-06:00

Calvin & his friend Connor amassed great amounts of candy trick-or-treating, while Janelle and four of her friends gathered at someone's house to watch a video, and James, Andy & I stayed home to hand out candy. James bought and carved his own pumpkin.

Hubert the cat greeted people at the door (this photo was taken from outside looking through the screen).

And here's the loot! James is....well, James didn't go trick-or-treating, but he somehow ended up with candy....

This 'n That

2007-10-26T19:25:00.000-05:00

There were several things lately that I wanted to blog about, but I was busy, and I misplaced the camera for a while, and then we moved the office twice in order to lay the carpets and I didn't have the card reader hooked up for a while. So, in no particular order, here are a few things I wanted to share with you!

Thanksgiving weekend the Greeks came to visit us - and they brought their Segways! All of us except Janelle took a turn or two toodling around the neighbourhood. Calvin loved it the most - he and Shawn went all over town, through the cemetary(!), to the corner store for slurpies. Here's Calvin getting ready to take off. I'm not sure why I have that look on my face with my hands on my hips! Probably giving one of those motherly "be careful" lectures!

This is our mountain ash tree in the backyard. Andy thought it was so beautiful he took a picture of it. This was only a couple of weeks ago, and now it's completely bare. Fall is gorgeous here but way too short!

A couple of weeks ago Janelle went with the youth group on a "photo rally" at West Edmonton Mall (WEM for all us locals). They had to follow a series of clues to find certain stores and then take a picture of the storefront to prove they found the right one. This is Janelle with her friend and partner for the game, Marissa. They obviously were taking photos of more than just the stores they were supposed to! She had a really fun time with Marissa, who was one of the first girls she met the first Sunday we were at church. They're the same age, in the same grade, and live about a block from each other on the same street!

So how was YOUR morning??

2007-10-26T19:18:00.000-05:00

This is what we woke up to today! Ain't Alberta grand?

He Cooks, He Cleans -- We'll Keep Him!

2007-10-21T00:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight James made dinner for the family. He offered to do it, and I was happy to say yes! He walked to the store and bought the ingredients himself - steak done on the BBQ, couscous, rosemary foccacia bread with vinegar & oil, and chicken gumbo soup. Wow! Yesterday after dinner he got up and just starting cleaning up, including emptying the dishwasher and reloading it. And all James has to do is look at Calvin and Calvin jumps up to help him!

I could get used to having a James around here!

A Very Large Surprise Package

2007-10-17T18:22:00.000-05:00

Today after I picked up Calvin from school I told him we had to drive to Nisku/Leduc to pick up a package. He was a bit confused, but I kept him from asking too many questions by distracting him with lots of questions about school. When we turned off the highway and headed for the airport, he said, "Okay, tell me what's going on." I said, "You guess, and I'll tell you if you're right." He replied with one word: "James." Yep, James Greek was coming to stay. We had a very large surprise package to pick up!

When the Greeks came to visit for Thanksgiving, James asked about moving here to live with us, getting a job, and starting a new life in Edmonton. We were open to the idea. Calvin was ecstatic. After the Greeks returned home to Salmon Arm, we adults had several conversations working out the details and deciding if this idea would work - if it would be the best thing to do. Then came confirmation in a couple of ways: the day after James returned home, he was laid off at his job, and the next day I discovered a seat sale on West Jet - $75 from Kelowna to Edmonton. He booked his ticket that day.

Then came the tricky part: keeping all this a secret from Calvin! Calvin was calling James every single day and telling him, "You HAVE to move here!" I finally told him to stop bugging James. Of course, by then the flight was already booked, but Calvin didn't know that!

James bought a one-way ticket, but has a general plan of staying for a couple of weeks, checking out the jobs and the community, and deciding if this is the life for him.

I'm thrilled to have one of my "other" sons here - or maybe he's a nephew? And Calvin's happiness level has just improved 100%/!

I Voted!!

2007-10-15T20:43:00.000-05:00

This picture is from when I became a Canadian citizen this spring. Today I put my new citizenship to use and voted in Canada for the first time in our municipal elections. It was a very proud moment for me! After all these years of telling Andy how to vote, I got to do it myself.

Yep, We're Still Alive

2007-10-11T17:53:00.001-05:00

I understand if you all stopped checking my blog! I'd give up too if the blog stayed the same for a whole month! I really have no excuse, but I do apologize!

At the moment I can't locate my camera, so this will be a photo-less blog. Here's a few highlights from the last few weeks:

- Emma came to stay with us for about 10 days, which meant we also got to see her parents briefly. We had so much fun with Emma - going to a kids' carnival at our church, jumping on the trampoline, playing at the park, going on the rides at West Edmonton Mall. We miss her and already want her to come back!

- We made new friends! I met a family at the church when they were registering their son for our children's program. After they'd come for three weeks in a row, I thought, "Somebody better invite them over so they feel welcome here!" And I thought that "somebody" should be me. We got along so well with them! I love making new friends.

- The following day we were invited to the home of more new friends, also from the church. They have a beautiful new home on a lake nearby. They own a large acreage with lots of trails and places to explore. We brought our canoe and ended up leaving it there. They can use it any time they want, and it gives us an excuse to invite ourselves over again! They also invited over another couple at the same time - a couple with a baby girl! Aahhh, my baby fix for the day....

- Janelle started a new babysitting job once a week for two little kids. It gives her a steady income of $20 a week.

- I'm totally loving fall in Alberta! It's sunshiny and crisp but not cold, and there are way more deciduous trees here than in Abbotsford, so it's beautiful. I never really cared for fall before, but I like fall here better than summer! Kind of nice not to have rain and wind and clouds. On the missing camera are photos Andy took of our trees in our yard - I'll post them soon.

So there's a bit of an update! Don't give up reading my blog - I promise to be more punctual!

Life in Beaumont

2007-09-10T21:41:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of the important places in our town that make up the routine of September for us.

This is the center of our life - our house! I planted the lovely flowers in the front myself (quite a feat for me; I'm not a gardener!). Our house is a constant "work in progress". This week Janelle painted the gate to our backyard, and we bought light fixtures for downstairs. Carpet for the basement is next!

This is the reason we moved specifically to the town of Beaumont. This is our church, Eaglemont Christian Church. The building in the picture is phase one. It's our sanctuary/gym for now, and eventually we'll build an actual sanctuary in between the gym and the road at the front of the picture. This is where I work for a few hours a week typing for our pastor. Andy is on a committe planning a men's retreat, and on the rotation for setting up and taking down chairs each week (the pleasures of meeting in a gym!). Janelle has just taken over leadership of a new department created within Children's Ministries, "Tots Town" for children ages 18 months to 3 years. She was able to choose what toys to stock the room with, and each week prepares the story & craft for either her or one of the other teachers to use. She absolutely LOVES what she's doing! Calvin helps out in Janelle's class or mine, which is "Kidz City" for grades 1-6. Both kids attend the youth group, and I've recently joined together with several other ladies to begin "Connections: Coffee & Conversation", a morning coffee time for ladies. We love our church and love being a part of it. Next on our involvement: joining a small group in the next couple of weeks (just trying to decide which one).

This is "the" church in town, the Catholic church around which this town was built in the late 1880's. This is the focal point of Beaumont. It sits on the "beau mont" (beautiful mountain), which is a slight rise in elevation compared to the surrounding wheat fields! When people give directions in Beaumont, they always start by saying, "From the church you go...." and everyone knows which church they mean!

And finally, Janelle's favourite place - the high school. I took a picture of Calvin's school too, but it didn't turn out. Janelle has liked school (for the most part) since we moved here. She made friends quickly, but complains that the kids in Beaumont don't take their studies seriously enough. She came from a school of 1600 in Abbotsford to a school of 800 here, and finds that the casual atmosphere here isn't as conducive to learning. Calvin struggled with school when we moved here; the move has been a huge adjustment for him. After much prayer, I am relieved that he is off to a good start this year. He had one good friend he hung around with all summer, who is also in his class (there's only one Grade 8 French Immersion class at his school, with only 14 kids!). That made the start to the school year much easier. The first day he made friends with the only 3 girls in his class, one of whom is new to the school this year. He's very excited about some of his classes, especially Outdoor Education - biking, building snow forts, rock climbing, curling, archery, skiing, etc. He still has his moments of being sad and wanting to go "home" to Abbotsford, but he seems to be more enthusiastic about life here in Beaumont.

And there you have it - a "small" glimpse of life in Beaumont!

Pig Roast

2007-09-03T21:42:00.000-05:00

Now here's the food picture to beat all food pictures! One whole roasted pig. We also had salad, baked potatoes, and dessert, but they weren't nearly as interesting!

One of the families from our church hosted a pig roast at their farm. We had a great time "pigging out" and playing with all the animals. Janelle went horseback riding, but somehow I missed getting a photo of her on the horse.

You'll notice that most of these pictures are of Calvin with an animal, or playing (that's my friend Dawn pushing him on the swing). There's a reason most of the pictures of of Calvin: this was the first thing since we moved to Beaumont that he's been excited about. He could hardly get to sleep the night before. He absolutely LOVED everything about the farm and he wanted to stay there. One of the girls that lives there is the same age as him and they get along well, and her mom is also becoming one of my good friends here, so we're invited to come back. I'm sure we'll take them up on that offer! It was good to see Calvin behaving like his usual crazy, happy self!

Dinner Theatre with Friends

2007-08-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday night our new friends, Lyle & Denise, invited us to join them at Jubilations Dinner Theatre at West Edmonton Mall. The food was great, the entertainment was fun, and the friends were awesome! Lyle & Denise were one of the first couples we met here -- I think it was our first or second Sunday at church. They've been wonderful to us ever since, and the more we get to know them, the more we like them! We also found out they like playing cards -- that's next on our list of things to do together!

Jasper

2007-08-23T13:44:00.001-05:00

Yesterday my long-time great friends, Lorne & Rita Forsberg & their daughter Laurie, who now live in Wetaskiwin, picked me up at 6:30 a.m. to go to Jasper for the day. Andy was working, and the kids are both currently in B.C. staying with friends.

After a picnic lunch at the base of the tram, we took the tram to the top of Whistler Mountain in Jasper. Here we are at the top. From the top of the tram, we hiked another 1.5 km up another 600 feet to the summit of Whistler Mountain. Here's what the trail to the top looked like, partway up from the tram station.

Along the way we saw some wildlife. Here's a little pika, and if you look closely in the other photo, you'll see a grey bird nestled in front of the rock. That's a ptarmigan.

The view from the top was breathtaking, of course. You can see the town of Jasper in one of the photos. The snowy mountain in the other is Mt. Edith Cavell.

And here's proof that I made it to the summit!

When I was a child and we visited Jasper, I remember a large Jasper the bear statue. Friends of ours who also remember him from childhood tried to find Jasper in the town a few weeks ago and were disappointed that he was no longer there. But I found the original Jasper at the base of the tram! Here we are, reunited at last.

After our trip on the tram, we drove to Miette Hotsprings and spent a couple of hours soaking there. After dinner in Hinton, I finally arrived home at 1:30 a.m.! I loved every minute of it, and I would love to go there again. Anybody coming to Alberta soon? Let's go!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (A Composition in Six Parts)

2007-07-25T22:28:00.000-05:00

Part 6: The Lang's Visit Us in Beaumont

We had to hurry home because the Lang's were coming to visit us! We arrived about 11:00 p.m. Wednesday, which gave me just a few hours to sort the mail & restock the fridge & get ready for the Lang's arrival at dinnertime the following day! Andy had to work part of the time that the Lang's were here, but Dan helped him chop up a trailer so Andy could have the afternoons off to continue our "vacation at home". We BBQ'd the first night they were here, then spent the following

day at West Edmonton Mall's waterpark. The following day Emma stayed with me while the Lang family & Janelle, my medical doctor wannabe child, went to visit the hospital where Josh Lang was born. Andy, Calvin, Emma & I then caught up with the others at the Alberta Legislature Building, where we waded in the public pools & had a picnic.

Here's Calvin with Ethan & Gabe, and Josh.

Love that picture of Calvin!

The two girls -- Janelle & Emma.

Our friends Jenn & Dan!

After one more visit to the mall (I stayed home & played with mine Emma), the Lang's packed up their RV & headed south.

And then vacation was over. Time to clean the house & go back to work.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (A Composition in Six Parts)

2007-07-25T22:17:00.000-05:00

Part 5: Abbotsford again, & Salmon Arm

We headed back to Abbotsford on Sunday, where we picked up Calvin from Logan's house & went back to the Depner-Lang's for one more night. I got in a little more time with "mine Emma" -- one more visit to House of James!

Then it was off to Salmon Arm, where we stayed 2 nights with Shawn & Joanne Greek. We brought Gabe Lang with us. We got there just in time to celebrate Shawn's birthday. That's James Greek next to Andy in the photo, and Gabe in the front row giving the party a two thumbs up!

Joanne and her sons James & Brendan work at the same hotel in town, so we were able to use the hotel's outdoor pool. Ah, refreshing! But after a couple of nights playing cards, it was time to head home to Alberta.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (A Composition in Six Parts)

2007-07-25T22:01:00.000-05:00

Part 4: Victoria

The day after our family reunion Calvin left for Bible camp on Vancouver Island with his good friends Logan & Gabe.

Andy, Janelle & I headed for the island too. Andy had a trailer to chop up in Victoria, and Janelle & I went on a "real" vacation -- sleeping in, eating out, visiting all the tourist traps, shopping, lounging by the pool, having manicures & pedicures....Seven days in my favourite city!

Here's the Lafarge cement plant where Andy chopped up a trailer. I took this photo from a foot ferry that Janelle & I took to a historical house.

Here is my beautiful daughter having afternoon "tea" on the veranda of the Empress Hotel, and posing in front of Craigdarroch Castle. In between is a photo of our most exotic meal -- an appetizer of Louisanna alligator! It was really, really good!

Thursday Andy's brother Chris & his wife Melody came over for the day. Andy took the day off work and we went to the Royal B.C. Museum. The Titanic display there is amazing. We wandered around the inner harbour and ate dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Andy, Janelle & I ended our trip to the island by taking in the firework display at the Butchart Gardens on Saturday night.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (A Composition in Six Parts)

2007-07-25T21:51:00.001-05:00

Part 3: Small Family Reunion

We had a pool party at Andy's sister, Melody's, house in Coquitlam with all of the Smalls that live in B.C. - plus two nieces who live in Alberta but came out for the reunion! That's Melody & her husband George.

This is Andy's sister, Barb, and in the pool are cousins Ryan, Luke, & Calvin. That's Calvin & Ryan below. Looks like Calvin got a sunburn!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (A Composition in Six Parts)

2007-07-24T23:14:00.001-05:00

Part 2: Abbotsford

We spent the next few days in Abbotsford, enjoying the Lang-Depner "hotel", which included an entire 3 bedroom house to ourselves, and use of a swimming pool! Thank you, Judi, Dan & Jenn!

Janelle took the camera to a sleepover with 4 of her school friends from Mouat Secondary. These are just a couple of the great photos she took.

In the meantime, the Langs graciously opened their home & pool to about a dozen of Calvin's friends. They spent all day playing in the pool and in the Lang's big backyard. It was a very special day for Calvin. I got to visit with Daryl Cote, the mom of Calvin's friend Logan. She even bought Starbucks frappaccinos for Jenn Lang & I! Now THAT'S a good friend! Thanks, Daryl!

Because Janelle had the camera, Daryl & Jenn took photos at Calvin's party for me. I'll post some when I get them.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (A Composition in Six Parts)

2007-07-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

PART 1: The Journey from Alberta to B.C.

We travelled to Kamloops the first day and spent the night with the Denbrabers. They were awesome hosts, and it was refreshing to visit with them. Thanks for your hospitality, Len & Leanne!

The next day we continued on to Abbotsford, stopping on the Coquihalla to take these lovely photos. The odd green one? Those are tadpoles that Calvin found in a pond!

July long weekend

2007-07-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

Canada Day we went to church in the morning. Afterward Andy said aloud what I was feeling: ECC feels more like "family" every week. We really love our church.

One great thing about where we live: fireworks! The kind you set off yourself. They're available for sale year-round. We aren't supposed to set them off within town limits, although the town was pretty lenient about it on Canada Day. When we get our own acreage outside of town, we're having fireworks every month! Of course, we took advantage of these great laws and purchased a bunch of fireworks on Sunday afternoon.

One not so great thing about where we live: it doesn't get dark enough for fireworks until after 11:00 p.m.! The town fireworks started at 11:00, and the sun was still setting behind the fireworks. The sky was light blue with yellow on the horizon. We took Calvin's friend, Conner, with us to the park where the town set off their fireworks. The fireworks were, um, well, very small-townish!

After the town's fireworks, we went to a school yard and set off our own display. We're pretty sure some of ours were better than the town's!

Holiday Monday we did LOADS of gardening and painted the first coat on the garage door. I'll have photos of that later.

We're off on a holiday to B.C. tomorrow. Will blog later!

Mo's Awesome Weekend Part 2

2007-06-28T23:15:00.001-05:00

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

2007-06-28T22:45:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-20T21:10:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-06-20T00:06:00.001-05:00

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

2007-06-15T23:18:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-11T22:56:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-08T18:32:00.001-05:00

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!

I AM CANADIAN!

2007-05-29T16:53:00.000-05:00

Today I became a Canadian citizen! I've lived in Canada longer than I lived in the U.S. so I figured it was about time. Andy & I attended the citizenship ceremony at Canada Place in Edmonton. There were 71 of us becoming new citizens. Three of us were Caucasian. It was kind of cool! I sat next to a young woman who was Columbian by birth, but raised in Lebanon and had Lebanese citizenship, and was now getting her Canadian citizenship after 4 years in Canada. And she's married to a Venzuelan with Canadian/Venzuelan citizenship. My story was decidedly boring compared to most people's!

I was able to take my Bible with me to swear my oath on, so that was special. We repeated the oath after the judge, first in French, then English!I received my very own signed copy of Pierre Trudeau's greatest work, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in both official languages. I also got a little maple leaf pin and a flag. Woo hoo!

Here's me in the atrium of Canada Place after the ceremony. We sang "O Canada". Andy said it was the first time he ever got emotional singing the national anthem!

It was such a great experience, and I'm proud to say I'm Canadian, although for those who are wondering, I am still proudly an American citizen also.

My "baby girl" is 15!!!

2007-05-28T23:09:00.000-05:00

Janelle Marie Small turned 15 today!

We celebrated with dinner at Milestones.

We gave her an Ipod Nano.

We also gave her a new shirt, which she wore to school but not to the restaurant. Her daddy gave her two dozen roses, and she got $$ from her grandma, and text messages from her cousin Ryan and the Langs (and her mommy!), a phone call from her Auntie Colleen & Grandma, and talked to her best friend Sarah. Janelle said it was a happy birthday.

I apologize for the poor quality photos; I had to use my cell phone camera because I forgot the digital one at home. So....I've included my favourite photo of her, even though it's a year old. She hasn't changed that much!

Happy Birthday, Nellie!

Awesome Weekend!

2007-05-23T20:24:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our new look! I was just bored with the old.

This past weekend was a holiday weekend here in Canada. The kids had no school Friday or Monday. Janelle flew to Abbotsford Friday to spend the weekend with her best friend, Sarah Olsen. They went to History Maker in Chilliwack together with the youth group from APA. She had more fun than she could put into words! She flew home Monday night. BIG thank you to Daryl & Nina Olsen for picking her up and dropping her off at the airport, feeding her, and taking care of her.

While Janelle was away, Andy, Calvin & I drove to Kamloops/Salmon Arm. Our good friends the Langs were in Kamloops visiting their good friends the Denbrabers, who are also our friends. Got that? We dropped off Calvin in the Loops Friday night so he could stay up all night playing video games with Gabe & Mark. It was wonderful beyond words to see Len & Leanne & Dan & Jenn, and to get a sleepy hug from "mine Emma"! Andy & I continued on to Salmon Arm that night.

Saturday morning we slept in, then enjoyed brunch with the Greeks and Janus & Judy, other friends of ours from Abbotsford who are in the process of moving to Salmon Arm. In the afternoon Andy & I drove back to the Loops to spend the rest of the day & evening with the Langs & 'Brabers. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in Salmon Arm, so I have NO PICTURES of our time in Kamloops, or of the very special people there! I spent the afternoon playing with my Emma, which filled up the empty space inside of me for a little while (hopefully until July when I see her again!). After giving her a bath and settling the kids in with pizza, the adults went for dinner at Chapters restaurant. No, not the bookstore. It's a great restaurant with an awesome view. Back at the Denbrabers, we picked up Calvin, said some teary good-byes, and headed back to Salmon Arm. It's hard to put into words how much that visit did for me. It's good to be with friends that love us!

I DO have photos of Sunday! The Greeks, including their boarder, Greg, and Shawn's sister and her son, and us were able to go out on the lake on a "party barge". We brought the party with us -- Shawn went shopping for food -- all junk food, with the exception of lunch meat & cheese. Yea, Shawn! It was the most fun, relaxing day I've had in a long time! I got a little sunburned, but that was okay. We cut the motor and drifted in silence for a while, then later beached the boat at a provincial park for lunch and a bathroom break. The boys all took turns piloting the boat, which meant a lot of circles and figure eights and other bumpiness.

We got back about 2:30 p.m., too late to catch the matinee of Shrek the Third. But no worries! We know the manager of the theatre! He gave us a private screening, complete with complimentary popcorn and pop. Thanks, Shawn! We topped off this absolutely perfect day with a great dinner at Pillars Bistro, the restaurant at the hotel where Joanne works.

We headed out early Monday morning to get back in time to pick up Janelle at the airport. It was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time!

Another Son

2007-05-16T19:33:00.000-05:00

Last night -- no, wait, this morning at 2:00 -- Calvin & I picked up Brendan Greek at the airport. His plane was supposed to come in from Toronto at 11:00 last night, but was repeatedly delayed and finally touched down at 1:53 a.m. Calvin happily missed school so he could sleep in, then hang out with Brendan all day.

Brendan and his brother James are like other sons to us. Our families have been close friends since they were little boys, and they've spent countless hours with us. Both of them (Brendan a little more) have lived with us for short periods of time, especially during the summers a few years ago. Brendan is now 22 and just finished his third tour as a lighting tech with Seeds dinner theatre, travelling throughout the U.S. and Canada raising money for missions. He's home for the summer and still deciding what to do with his future (click on the "Brendan" link in my list of fellow bloggers). He's here with us for a couple of days, then we're all travelling to his parents home in Salmon Arm on Friday. We're coming back Monday, and we're trying to convince Brendan to come back with us and live here for a while!

As you can see in the photo above, the boys have been enjoying one of their favourite things to do together! Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, Calvin couldn't find the WD40 to make the fire really interesting!

Mother's Day

2007-05-14T12:21:00.000-05:00

This post will definitely be more interesting to Andy's extended family, but the rest of you can read along if you like!

Most of Andy's siblings, including us, went in together on presents for Andy's Mom for Mother's Day and her birthday, which is today. We had the privilege of delivering the presents since we now live about an hour and half from his parents and his brother Lorne (he's in the background of the photos). Because we had our own family plans on Mother's Day, we went for a visit on Saturday.
Here's Mom with her Larry King Live DVD, which I designated as her Mother's Day present.
We all bought her the two newest Gaither DVDs for her birthday gift.
I bought little candles in the shape of letters to spell "MOM". I was going to buy cupcakes, but I forgot. When we got there, Dad brought out a pack of cupcakes he's just picked up at the store, complete with a little "Happy Mother's Day" plastic decoration, so it worked out very well!

And this goofiness......I took another photo of Dad and he wasn't smiling very well, so Mom told him to "show his teeth". I assumed she meant to smile more, but no, she meant this -- stick out your dentures! Very funny!

My own Mother's Day on Sunday was very relaxing and great too. My family gave me a lovely gold cross necklace before church. Church was really nice -- several mom's gave testimonies, and it was nice to get to know a few more people that way. Each week we feel more like part of the church. After church we went to our favourite brunch buffet at the Nisku Inn. At home I read and took a nap while my family did yard work. Then Andy & I drove into Leduc so I could get a latte and buy stuff at Canadian Tire. We ordered pizza in the evening while I watched the 3 hour finale of Survivor. A great day!

Da Sistahs Wonderful, Wild, Wacky Weekend!

2007-05-09T23:33:00.000-05:00

"Da Sistahs" are Barb & Melody (Mel), Andy's sisters, Melody (Dee), wife of Andy's brother Chris, Joanne Greek (adopted into our family -- we've decided Andy & Shawn are brothers), and me. Sisters-in-law and best friends! Below is Dee reading her new Bible, a gift to each of us from Barb.

Our weekend away started with a lovely room at the Podollan Inn

where Joanne works at the front desk. We had "special privileges" because of her, including plush white robes for each of us. Jo also decorated the room with candies, chocolate on each pillow, wine and roses. Oo la la! Thanks, Jo! Friday evening we went to a FREE showing of "Lucky You" at Shawn's theatre, complete with free popcorn & pop! Thanks, Shawn!

Barb bought us all matching Bibles and also a great book, "Pathway to Purpose". We received the books about 6 weeks ago so we could read them, then spend time on the weekend discussing what we'd read. Mel, Dee & I sat out on our lovely poolside patio and had a neat time sharing what God is teaching us through the book.

Saturday we spent SHOPPING! Who knew how much shopping you can find in a little town like Salmon Arm?Of course, we had to stop for lattes! In the picture above, that's Jo to my left, then Mel, Barb, & Dee.

Below, Jo puts the finishing touches on her "facial". Barb sells Mary Kay cosmetics, so she brought along a ton of stuff and we all did make-overs. Just like high school sleepovers... Thanks, Barb!

And then there was dinner! Unfortunately, Joanne couldn't get time off work while we were there, because she'd just booked off time for her trip to Niagara Falls the week before, so she had to work 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. each day. Saturday night the rest of us went for dinner at the Greek restaurant where James (Jo's son) works as dishwasher. When we got back to the hotel we hit the hot tub, then went down to the lobby to play a much-too-rousing game of Bible Blurt (I totally rocked everyone!!). We would've been kicked out of the lobby if anyone except Jo had been on duty! Instead, she started throwing little candies at us, which started an all-out candy war. If our children ever behaved that way in a hotel, we would've spanked 'em all soundly and sent 'em to bed!

Andy & Calvin went to Salmon Arm too. They spent the weekend hanging out with Shawn & James and watching free movies at Shawn's theatre. Sunday morning the guys joined us for brunch buffet at the restaurant at the hotel. That was followed by a walk on the pier (and more lattes -- iced this time because it was hot and sunny!) Here's one last picture of Da Sistahs before our sad hugs good-bye. Until next year, Sistahs!

What I did today

2007-05-08T23:43:00.000-05:00

I got a sunburn too.

I'll post soon about my fabulous weekend with "Da Sistahs"!

TIMBERRRRR!!

2007-05-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, it finally feels like home here: it's raining!!

But before it started raining, Lumberjack Andy went to work on our front yard. Yesterday he and Calvin chopped down two smaller trees. Today he took down two trees about 20 feet high. He hooked up a chain between the tree and his cube van. After he made the initial cuts in the tree (with his new chainsaw), I pulled the van forward until the tree fell down. Fun! Our yard looks much bigger now and we have lots of firewood for our backyard fire pit and wood burning fireplace. I'm looking forward to planting flowers and shrubs in the next few weeks.

OK, do any of you other bloggers have problems moving your photos around on your blog? I was going to put another photo on here, but I can't place it where I want it. I keep trying and trying to move it once it's posted, but it will not move. BTW, I hate the way the photos always paste at the top of the blog instead of where I leave my cursor. Any suggestions?

Tomorrow we're off to Salmon Arm for a ladies' retreat with "Da Sistahs". That would be my sisters-in-laws (Andy's 2 sisters & his brother's wife) from the coast and Joanne Greek, our "adopted" sister who lives in Salmon Arm. These are some of my closest friends, prayer pals, mentors, etc. We've planned our own little retreat at the hotel that Jo works at in Salmon Arm, complete with gifts and devotional times, as well as hot tubbing, shopping, and free movies at the theatre that Shawn Greek manages! Andy & Calvin are going along to hang out with the male Greeks. We planned this before I moved, and I can hardly wait! Check back next week for the blog about it!

A Day at the Museum

2007-04-30T20:21:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-27T23:49:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-04-22T00:11:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-04-19T10:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-14T22:27:00.000-05:00

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....

2007-04-14T00:36:00.000-05:00

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'

2007-04-11T23:25:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-10T13:06:00.000-05:00

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!