Monday, February 14, 2005

Be my Valentine

Today we went to Loon Lake to visit. We went to the house of a couple from the church and spent a couple of hours at their place and had lunch. Then we were off to visit the church. It is so cute! Such a lovely building. It's too bad that there isn't a hall of any sort (or running water for that matter), which would really make any sort of Sunday school much easier. It will be interesting to see how things work out there. It's really hard to wrap our heads around 2 parishes....

With today being Valentine's day, I made a nice breakfast for my Valentines. Eggs, ham, hash browns and (pink) pancakes. Rob got heart-shaped eggs, done over easy. That was harder than I thought it would be...the cookie cutters I used were still pretty sticky despite all the cooking spray. Oh well. Rob brought me some lovely flowers and got dinner for me. Nice.

Tonight, I was invited to join in at a Women's service in town. Apparently, the United, Anglican, Lutheran and Catholic churches have a little annual gathering. They do a service, then have fellowship and sign up for secret prayer sisters for the year. Neat idea, and I was pleased to be asked to go. Well, I was pretty much the only woman there of child-bearing age but that was ok. Really nice women, and I'm looking forward to praying for my prayer sister over the coming year. At one point, they had us stand up and state our names. It was really funny when I did - there was an audible buzz of "that's the new minister's wife" and other such comments. Small town, and a new person really seems to stick out. Apparently the day we arrived in Meadow (as we now call it), the A&W was buzzing with the news.

We have officially kissed any anonymity we ever had goodbye.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

the first week in Meadow Lake

We have now been in Meadow Lake one week. The night we arrived, our contact from the parish called and invited us out for dinner. Very nice! We got to finally meet her and her husband, and I got to meet one of the women from the search committee as well. At the restaurant, we also met the pastor of the United Church in town, and Flo, the Salvation Army captain for Meadow Lake. The next morning, Rob was at the house really early for our things to arrive. Strange about being in SK, they don't do daylight savings - we dropped Rob at the house by 8:30 am and the sun was just coming up. However, late sunrise makes late sunset!

I got our long distance, high speed internet and all that phone stuff hooked up with Sasktel. I also called the cable company and they came out to hook us up on Wednesday. Still need to get the car insurance thing taken care of - and say goodbye to our BC plates!

People are really friendly here. Really. We have already had a couple people from the church stop by. One man and his 9 year old daughter came by on the Monday night and helped us unpack. Well, he helped us unpack, his daughter kept Isaac occupied! Another member dropped us off some meat and potatoes. The church also had some basic food stuff here for when we moved in. Also, the pastor of the Alliance Church came by to say hi this week too and invite us for dinner.

We went to Holy Trinity's shrove Tuesday dinner and got to meet lots more people. They are really excited about meeting us, and they all seem to love the kids.

We also checked our our local coffee shop. Both of the women working there (one is the new owner) attend the Alliance church. Not bad coffee, and it's a cute place. It's no Starbucks, but they do know all of our names!

For church this week, we went to the Alliance church. Isaac loved the worship music, and he knew most songs. He stood on his chair, held our hands and sang along. It was so cute, I have to say, to hear him sing Hallelujah along with the praise band. Once again, lots of friendly people at the church. We were asked out to lunch by the women from the coffee shop, and they treated us to a nice little lunch there. I mentioned that I worked at Starbucks and they are all over having me come in and make sure they are doing things right. Too funny. Apparently, the owner has only been in charge since Feb. 1, and they are really new to this whole thing. I may just have to take them up on that...especially since my espresso machine seems to be broken again!!! I have to call Saeco in the morning and tell them that I need them to fix it again. So glad there is a 6 month warranty on the repairs! Just have to have that latte fix!

There is lots of work that I would love to do on the rectory. It needs some TLC in the basement for sure. They are talking about renovating the kitchen come summertime...I really hope they ask me for lots of input...ok, I will probably give it anyhow!

Have to run and finish up Rob's Valentine's gift!

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

long time no post

it's been ages since I've been on here. The last 10 days have been crazy for us. But now we are in our new home, I can't say settled there though. Maybe I'll just give the highlights of our trip here.

Feb 1. Vancouver. Isaac had his evaluation. Apparently he may have a 3 month delay in some areas of his speech development. However, combined with the areas he is ahead, he averages out ahead of his age. He just isn't a talker. Um, I needed an expert to tell me that? Oh well, we know for sure. She recommended a preschool as a good way for him to need to use his verbal skills more, and was totally shocked that he is showing early reading skills at 30 months. Then a goodbye with Mike, and off to Garth and Mary's place. Leg 1 of the trip - 60 kms. It was great to visit with them, and Paul and Tammi came over too. Girl time in the hot tub, all is right with the world.

Feb 2. Omnious sign. Isaac throws up just beyond Hope. He's a mess...why didn't we think to bring the Gravol? Changing a kid by the side of the road in rainy fog by a rushing river really makes one have to pee. somewhere along the way I started to cry when I realised that there wouldn't be a *on the way back* for this trip. Then we saw a rainbow, took it as a sign that things would look up. But then again, after a big vomit session in the back seat, there wasn' anywhere to go but up. Purchased Gravol as soon as we hit Merritt. The drive was perfect weather-wise. It was snow-free and dry pretty much the whole way past the toll booth, better than the last time we were on the Coquihala and it snowed in May. Stopped for the night in Revelstoke.

Feb. 3 Again, amazing road conditions. I really feel that God was watching out for us, the roads could not have been better in June! Revelstoke to Okotoks. A couple of stops once we hit Calgary for crying kids, but it wasn't too bad. Great to see Scott and Corie...oh and a load of laundry too. Isaac loved playing with Jake (their puppy for those not in the know). The work they are doing in their basement is exciting, and the painting and stuff they have done to their house looks great too. They seem so happy in Okotoks - I hope that we can be that way in Meadow Lake.

Feb. 4 Snow on the highway from Calgary to Edmonton. Not great conditions, but not terrible either. I was tired by the time we hit Edmonton too and we were all done with the car. did some grocery shopping and I cooked dinner - nice to have a suite - and it was nice to eat homemade food again. I get tired of restaurant food so quick.

Feb. 5 West Edmonton Mall. Shopping and play day. Thank goodness for the rental strollers shaped like cars. Not only did Isaac love to be in it, it had a great sized storage bag. Totally worth the $5. I finally got winter boots (on sale no less)!

Feb. 6 Drive home. Wow, that sounds strange. The roads were good, except when we were close to a large truck. They caused lots of blowing snow that made visibility really poor. Took a minor detour off the highway to some small town (can't remember the name). Bought breakfast. They had the world's largest pysanka there. What a claim to fame. (pysanka= those Ukrainian Easter eggs)