Tobogganing

Yesterday Michelle, Richard and I headed out to seven hills for some good old fashion entertainment. Michelle and I have been talking about going for a long time since the hill is a walking distance away and we finally did it. We had so much fun! When we arrived there was another group there and the hill looked SO big that we almost turned around and went home but we went and had a blast.


The three of us after an hour of sledding. We are starting to get tired and cold and ready to go home.

This is another of Richard's attempt at photography. Its not to bad but I did edit it and crop it to make it look a little better. You are improving Richard!

The cute couple. They did not want to take this picture but I think it turned out good!

I love most aspects of sledding but not everything.

Pros - Flying down the hill going as fast as you can , with your adrenalin running wild.

Cons - Once at the bottom you gotta go back up.

Pros - Piling at many people as possible on a little sled and attempting to make it to the bottom.

Cons - Not being able to control the sled and sliding into people by accident.

Pros - I think sledding is the only sport that can bring out the child in any person. As you head down the hill you can help but let out a laugh or a scream.

Cons - It is the only time you are super hot and super cold at the same time.

Merry Christmas

This year we had a very nice Christmas together. I don't really have a lot of time (we are going sledding soon) so I will leave you with some pictures.


I think I made this in grade 1 or 2 and every year it goes up. I think most of our decorations have been made by one of us girls.


This is a good picture of my mom and dad.


Richard tried to take a family photo but it didn't turn out that great. This is the best one I could find.


Michelle and Richard.


And Shauna got a SN*GGIE for Christmas. The blanket that has sleeves. WOW.


All the young people wearing our crowns.


Michelle setting the table.


Preparing our delicious meal. Yum Yum.. Thanks mom and dad.


After dinner Uncle Art and Aunty Alice, and Uncle Tony and Aunty Carol came over for pie and munchies. It was a great end to a great day.

Sorry it was a little boring it will be better next time.

Chapati

During my stay in Uganda I wrote plenty of emails complaining to family and friends about how I was starving in Uganda. About how I could barely swallow the food and how much they tried to feed us. But I was not entirely truthful. I didn't hate all the food. There was one type of food I could not get enough of; Chapati. It was so delicious.



This is Mindy, Richard, and Anne making them in the kitchen in Uganda. Everyone in the house had a turn trying to make them, except for Nandrie and I. So today I looked up a recipe and tried to make them for myself.


First I mixed flour, water, oil, and salt together and let it sit for half an hour.


Then I rolled them into balls.


And rolled them out to fit in the frying pan.


Then I fried them up till they were cooked. Flipping once.


Don't they look good! And they tasted authentic too!! Next time I am going to us my George Foreman grill and hopefully it will be faster and maybe taste even better.

Warning: In Uganda this recipe would only feed one person, but in Canada it would probably feed a family of 6.

Differences

When I came back from Uganda it was almost a culture shock coming back to Canada. It wasn't the huge things that bothered me but all the little things that we did without realizing it. This really hit me hard when we were planning the Christmas concert. Rev. Pols asked us to include all the Bible history and catechism classes so at the first practice they all showed up but the whole time they complained and whined about how they had other places to go, so we let them go and practiced with just the lttile ones. The next sunday not a single one showed up. They refused to participate and the parents told them they didn't have to if they didn't want to. It was only because on the sunday of the concert Rev. Pols announced the concert and called them up to the front that they came. Very slowly.

Once they arrived at the front the just stood there. They didn't participate. They didn't sing, they just stood there. Not all of them but a lot of the older ones. (The little guys sang there hearts out and were so darn cute they stole the show!)

When we were in Uganda the school had a choir. There were kids of all ages and grades and all the kids wanted to be in it. The problem was there is a small fee to enroll and not all of the parents could afford it so not all of the kids could be n choir. You should have seen all of them they would try to sneak in or they would stand outside of the circle singing alone or just watching with longing in there eyes. And you should have seen the kids in the choir they sang with all there hearts they knew what a privilege it was to sing in the group.



Aren't they adorable? They sing with out being self conscience or without worrying about who is going to see them. I wish the girls and boys in our church would realize that they look more foolish when they don't sing then if they do.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Amanda and I have been going to the stores trying to find a quailty artifical tree at a low price, but after weeks of searching we realized that our best bet will to be to try get one after Christmas. So ths is our temparory fix. He he he.. poor plant!

Christmas Concert

Tomorrow is the date of our Sunday School Christmas concert. The butterflies in my stomach started days ago and as tomorrow draws closer they are seemingly multiplying. I have been busy all day filling paper bags with goodies, making bulletins, and making last minute calls and I am exhausted!



While these don't look to amazing I assure you they are filled with many many goodies that I am praying the children with enjoy.

Shauna came over today to help with them and she happened to bring another project along. Her work is having a crew incentive box and they wanted her to decorate it. This is what we came up with.




Hehehe.. I hope Shauna's work is happy with the box, it took us a long time!

And lastly, we finally got the candles from the Partylite party. I am very happy with them and we lite them immediatley. They smell delicous!




Only 13 more hours till the Christmas concert. I better get some sleep. I hope it goes well!!

All I want for Christmas is....

...this...



This winter had been expecially cold with weather into minus forties. Brrrrr.. The cold even seemed to come into our house making it impossible to warm up even with a pile of blankets. That is why it would be awesome to have one of these babies. I would like to introduce to you the Nomis heated hoodies. Just read this description;

80% Cotton 20% Poly. Nomis custom made heated full zip hoodies, with allover print, heavy embroidery on chest, lined and super think with 3 coil heater in body, heavy embroidery on chest. Washable, comes with battery pack. Size Guide inches M chest 42, length 29 from back of neck to hem L chest 46, length 31 XL chest 52, length 32

Doesn't that sound amazing!

Hehehehehe.

I just thought that was cute!

Today was the last day with kids this year and even though I adore all of them I am glad for a break. This year has been a very stressful year and the past couple of weeks have been trying. We finally got things calmed down in one room and the other room started to go wild. Sigh... it never ends. Luckily with the bad also comes some very cute moments.

G - "Can we go outside? Please we haven't been outside forever.. "

Me - "Sorry buddy its to cold outside still. Maybe tomorrow."

K - "Ya G its minus 100 degrees out there..... AND THATS WITHOUT THE WINDSHEILD!!"

Undiscovered Tribes

I found these pictures a while back and am still amazed every time I look at them. This is a tribe in South America near Peru, I think, that have never had any contact with the civilized world. They flew over with a biplane and this is what they saw.





These people had never seen a plane before so when it flew over they got dressed up, painted them selves red (meaning war) and were ready to take down the giant bird.

That is truly amazing.

Farwell

There has been a lot chnages recently in our household. First of all, Amanda has moved into a fourplex in St.Albert with my cousin Christina. We moved her out on Saturday and since she only had one room we didn't think it would be that big of challange. It was around 10 0'clock at night when I finally made it home and we hadn't even unpack! It was crazy! She had a lot more stuff then any of us thought she had but we got it all there eventually. Its a new exciting chapter for Amanda and Christina and I hope they will do well together.

The second thing is; I"M GETTING MY OWN ROOM. This may not seem exciting but after 20 years of sharing my room with Shauna I need my own space. She hasn't moved yet because she is painting and putting in new flooring before heading over there but she is trying to hurry the process along as fast as possible. She is just as excited to move as I am to see her go.

The third is that Jamie might be coming over and building a my mom's long awaited linen closet and maybe redo the bathroom. We took the tiles off the wall before we had the flood and we have been waiting to get it fixed ever since and now its happening.

And last but definitely most important. 7 SLEEPS TILL CUBA!!!! HIPP HIPP HOORAY! I'm excited to see you again Jolene.

bye bye

Rings

For my birthday last year my mom gave me a ring. It is pink and has 2 little white dimonds on the side and I love it. Today at work I was playing dolls with Julie and Daniel when they noticed my ring. Julie was carefully inspecting it when she suddenly declared, "When I grow up I want a ring just like yours." Daniel looked at it and with a serious expression he asked "Did you have to kiss a boy to get it? Because thats gross."

It was so adorable.

Whoops

I'm not very good at keeping up with this blog. Sometimes I think about it but I never feel inspired enough to write. Sorry. I have a little more time now that we have finished our play, which I'm happy to say was a good success!! We made enough money to rent a bus down in the Dominican for a whole week for the missions people so it turned out pretty good and people were already talking about 'our next one' which will probably happen in 5 years from now :-P

I am happy to say that we are officially going to Cuba we are leaving on March 30 and going for a week.. YAY!! It's starting to feel a little real ever since Shauna came home from DR and told all her wonderful stories. I know it won't even be comparable since she did hard manual labour and I'm staying at a resort but I think we will both have equal amounts of fun. I'M SO EXCITED JOLENE!!!

Anyway I don't have anything else to say so I will try to write again before my trip. bye bye

Oops

I just realized that I have not updated my blog for almost 2 months! Sorry. I life has been going by so fast and I never seem to have the time. I have some awesome news. I am going to Cuba for spring break with Jolene. My face has a permagrin and I can't wait till its time to leave. I have a feeling its going to come quickly because I have so much going on in this month.

First off on sunday we went to Ponoka to visit Jessica and see her wedding and honeymoon. It was amazing. We left right after our church service and headed to the Ponoka church. It took a little longer then we thought it would and we were a little late. whoops. so we walked in and it was packed because there was a baptism and the only spot was in the front centre. It was a little embarrasing but we survived. Then we headed to there house it was really cute.

Second, this morning my parent, mitch and jen left for Mexico. I'm a little jealous but I kept reminding myself 59 days to Cuba! They come home next monday and Jason leaves for Jamaca..

Then the saturday after is the Alberta wide Young Adults retreat which should be fun and the weekend after is our dinner theatre and the weekend after a couple of us are heading to Neerlandia to see there dinner theatre. So the next couple weeks are going to be full and fun so hopefully the time passes quickly and I will be on a beach in Cuba in no time.

PS I hope your having fun in Mexico mom!