Overdue Update

So let's start off with Greek Easter. It was great. The photo below is of the lamb on the spit. I had so much fun spending time with my friends two adorable kids. My friend was busy with other things so I was basically in charge of watching the kids.
The photo below is of when my sister was still in the hospital. We wheeled her to the patio door and then let her sit outside for a bit. She was becoming very tired of being in the hospital. Good thing she was only there for like four days. She would of gone nuts had she stayed any longer.


After she was released from Hospital she had to stay close by. So she moved into her brother in law's basement suite. It was a very nice set up. We each had our own room. Plus there was a bathroom and kitchen. The photo below is basically what she did for three weeks straight. She just lied in bed and watched TV and rested. Oh and did I mention she also gave me life advice. Like how I should wax my eyebrows and how I need to take the laundry out of the dryer right after it is done. :)
The photo below is one I took of Carolyn. She only let me take photos for like two minutes and she was so grumpy about even that. I didn't have to make sure I was getting nice photos instead I just had to take them and hope they turned out.


On May 14th Carolyn and I were picked up by her father in law at 6am and taken to the airport. First we dropped Carolyn off at the south terminal and got her bags taken care of for her. Then I got dropped off and had to wait a bit for my 9am flight. Carolyn arrived back home safely and is doing well. She had decided that she no longer needs to lie in bed 24/7. So she has been a bit more active and is doing fine. She is at 35 weeks and 2 days right now. At 36 she is completely in the clear and can have the baby in Creston. The midwife saw her yesterday and she said she is doing well. She is pretty sure that the baby will be born sooner rather than later. I am hoping for around 4:30pm on the 21st of June :) Because I will be in Creston then because I have a dentist appointment on the 25th and I am flying back into Spokane after Briefing Course.

So I have been back in Camrose for a week and have been working on getting some stuff done. I leave next Wednesday at 5:30 in the morning to head for the states. I will be there for just over three weeks. I am pretty excited about going back to Minneapolis.

I spent the long weekend in Tofield hanging out with the Langagers. It was a good time. On Sunday night Allison arrived. We went horseback riding on Monday with the youth group and it was so much fun. I was pretty happy. I had been wanting to go riding again for a long time.

Allison has been here with me all week hanging out. She heads back home tomorrow :( I am going to Edmonton for Friday and Saturday to help supervise the youth at the big YC conference. Then straight from there I will be going to Bethany's confirmation.

I have been pretty busy. Last night I went to bed early and probably fell asleep just after ten. It was amazing. The first time I had been in bed before 1am in over a month. It felt so nice to get such a good sleep. Plus I had the evening to myself which was nice since I hadn't had that in a long time.

I think that is all I am going to write for now.

Take Care

Sister Update and CLBI

So I wanted to post about CLBI but I knew it wouldn't be fair if I didn't update you about my sister first.

Carolyn and I are living in Coquitlam right now. She is on bed rest and is getting bored but is managing to stay happy. The only time she is negative is rare and it is usually about my clothing or my lack of waxing my eyebrows. Like I really care what they look like right now I hardly leave the house. Anyways it is going well. Right now it looks like I will be back in Camrose in less than 10 days that is as long as everything goes smoothly and she is able to be transferred to Trail or isn't going into labour as I am leaving for the airport. She talked to her midwife on the phone and she thinks the baby will be born pretty soon. She is dilated (2cm), almost completely efaced(sp?), and she has a short cervix so it will most likely be soon but who knows maybe this baby will decide to wait. I am hoping for a June 22nd birthday as I will be in Creston at the time to get my last two wisdom teeth removed. Carolyn has an appointment today so we went to it and also had a tour of the NICU cause if the baby is born soon it will have to spend a little bit of time there as it will have some feeding issues. It was good to go ahead and know what to expect. She showed us two babies that were born at 32 weeks which is what Carolyn already is. One was pretty tiny and had some issues. The other one was a decent size and mainly just had feeding issues. When Carolyn had an ultrasound 10 days ago they said the baby was already over 4lbs and was in the top percentile for size which is good. If Carolyn manages to make it full term this baby is going to be big.

So this post is longer than I expected so I am not going to post about CLBI tonight maybe later.

This is what is happening

So Carolyn was released from Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. She is in Coquitlam at her brother in-laws place. I am here in Mission staying with friends for a few days. My brother in-law is in town until Sunday so he is taking care of Carolyn. On Sunday I will be going to stay with her. She is on bed rest and can only get up to go to the bathroom. So she needs someone to cook, clean and get her things plus also keep her company and accompany her to appointments. I am not sure exactly how long I am staying yet. My parents are coming tomorrow so I will get to visit with them which will be nice.

CLBI grad is this weekend and I am a little sad about missing seeing my girls graduate but they know that I will see them when I can.

Sunday is Greek Easter and I am excited to be hear for the celebrations this year. I have been friends with Litsa(my Greek friend) for four and a half years now and have never been around for Easter because I live away. The one year it was at the same time as the non orthodox church I was in Pakistan. I remember I was in Islamabad at the time. I did get to talk to everyone on MSN and see them on web cam so it was kind of fun. I am looking forward to seeing the lamb roasting on the spit. I plan to take some photos so I will post them after. I am sure I will have the time to do it.

Thank you for praying everyday the baby stays in means less chance of complications. Carolyn said she had some contractions yesterday but please pray they stay to a minimum.

hopefully tomorrow

So we are hoping that Carolyn will be able to be released tomorrow. If she is then she will be going to Coquitlam to stay at her brother in laws. I am not exactly sure what I will be doing yet. But please pray for me I think I am starting to get sick from the lack of sleep. I am going to take more pills before bed tonight. Hopefully I can rest some in the next two days. I will let you know what happens.

UPDATE again

This is from an e-mail I sent around to some people.

So I have figured that since you all know about the situation that I should keep you informed about it. I just got back from spending most of the day at the hospital. About 11 hours. So Carolyn is doing well. She was tired today because the nurse woke her up every hour last night which was a little more than necessary. She also got a room today which ended up not being that great. It's a shared room and the other lady had her kid there and was super loud but then the nurse told her he had to be quiet and that he had to be picked up because no adults were there to care for him. It was a long day. So she has been told so far that she is on strict bed rest. She can get up and walk to the bathroom but that is it. If she wants to go to the lounge it is by wheelchair. So far things are good. Contractions have stopped and she is getting steroid shots to help the baby grow. She is at about 30.5 weeks. She has to stay in the area (possibly the hospital but hopefully her brother in laws place) until 37 weeks and then she will be able to return to Creston because it would be a normal birth by then that is if the baby doesn't decide to come sooner. Every day she doesn't is good and every week is even better. Tomorrow she has an ultrasound and various other tests and then hopefully we will know more about what is going to happen.

Thank you for your prayers

I must go now as I am very tired...I am hoping for a good sleep on the couch.

UPDATE

OK so my Mum talked to my sister and she is doing well. The contractions have slowed. She is also one cm dilated. I am leaving town in 10 mins and flying to Vancouver. I will try to let you know what is happening when I can. Please continue to pray for her and thank you for your prayers.

PRAY AND PRAY AND PRAY

People who are reading this I need you now more than ever to Pray

As you know my sister is pregnant and the baby is due June 24th she was in Kimberely for a few days at a work shop and her husband came and she wasn't feeling well so they went to the hospital in Cranbrook...and did they a stress test and she was having contractions and so they medi vaced her to vancouver last night. Right now they are trying to stop the contractions.

I am considering getting on a flight this afternoon. My parents said I should wait but I think regardless of the situation I should be going to Vancouver.

So people please pray I pray that God will burden your heart to pray throughout the day for my sister Carolyn and my brother in law Brad.

Thank You

Camrose

So I have been in Camrose a week today. Last week when I flew in my friends had mentioned they might be at the airport. When I got off the plane they were not there. But last time I came in at the Edmonton Airport friends were waiting at the wrong door so I thought I would wonder down and check. They weren't there. Oh well. So I went to the washroom and when I came out I ran into them. (Not Literally) It was fun there were 8 of them there. They had a banned with lots of things written on it which I actually haven't seen up close yet. I should ask them about that.

Anyways so I have started to settle in. I am working two days a week at the WMPL office and am looking for part time employment for the other three days. I have started to settle into where I am living but haven't yet unpacked.

I have had numerous "coffee" dates so far but haven't ordered coffee yet which is odd considering I like coffee now.

Jen Z and I have started walking around the lake in the morning. She is the one who has to be motivated because she has to drive over to my place and I just have to wait for her. We were both really tired this morning so we walked a little slow. Tomorrow will hopefully be better.

Six more weeks and I will be leaving to go back to the states for 3 weeks:D

Photo from http://www.tourismcamrose.com/

Tomorrow!!!!!!!!

So I am pretty excited that I get to see these girls tomorrow...I am so so excited...I can't even hold it in :D

2 DAYS!!!

In two more days I will be back in Camrose..I am excited to settle in and have some time to rest the last few weeks have been very busy....

It's Official

I am back in Canada after 90 days in the United States....How do I feel about his I am not sure yet...

WISCONSIN

So last week I went to Wisconsin with my two friends Debbie and Kristina. Kristina had to work on the friday so we were only able to go for 24 hours but still it was really fun. Debbie is from Wisconsin so we went to her house.

Of course we had to stop at the sign welcoming us to the state. I think Debbie is pointing to roughly where her house is located in Wisconsin.


We wanted the trip to be random . So I stopped us at this one rest area so I could take pretty photos of the water. Debbie and Kristina decided they need a signature post so here it is..

When we got to Debbie's it was around 10pm and was dark but the moon was very full so it was very bright. So we went for a walk with Debbie's mom. This is me signing the guest book along the trail.

Here we are lying on the lake. It was pretty solid or at least we hoped it was . We didn't go out very far and with the amount of snow still on the ground we were pretty sure it was still safe.


So when we got up in the morning , Debbie's mom brought us coffee in bed. We had an amazing view when we woke up. The sun was shining through the tress. Debbie's mom had to leave for work but before she left she mixed us up swedish pancakes, they were very YUMMY!


This is Debbie's house. In it an A-frame house that sits on a beautiful piece of property. The lake is located just below.


This is the path going from the house up to the driveway. Debbie's mom has to shovel all of those stairs every time it snows.


That is the lake through the tress which is a little hard to tell because of the snow but still beautiful.


So one of the first things we wanted to do was go to this guys place who has Maple tress tapped. Unfortunately he wasn't home.


But do you think we would let that stop us? or course not we found the path and went and looked at his trees anyways.


It was still cold so the sap wasn't flowing yet. I bet it is flowing today. Or will be in the next few days.


So this is mine and Kristina's signature pose. I look like I am in pain and that is because I was her belt buckle was digging into my hip.
After we checked out this guys trees we went to another place that is a much bigger operation. The guy has 4000 tress tapped and they all have lines so no bucket method which is common practice if you are actually trying to make money. We also were able to buy some from him which was fun.

After going around to all of these places we had worked up an appetite so we headed to this cute little place for lunch. It was very affordable and really good.
This was the view from the table we sat at.This was the ladies private kitchen. Don't worry Mum she doesn't have as nearly as many as you do.

After the girls wanted to walk up to the Highest point in Wisconsin so we did. As you can see by the sign it is under 2.000 ft.


I took this picture to show you how much snow there was on the trail.


This is the observation tower that is on the top of the hill.



I am surprised we got a decent photo of the three of us since Kristina gets tired of the picture taking and usually tries to sabotage them.


Here she is actually kind of posing. OK maybe she was just being silly and I saw it as a photo opportunity.

Of course what trip to Wisconsin would be complete without a trip to a cheese factory. So we drove out of the way to the closest one. We got to try and also purchase some cheese curds they were good.


So now that we had cheese curds what would we make with them? Yes we made poutine. The girls had never had it before. It turned out ok. I messes up the gravy a little bit but it worked.


So it was a fun 24 hours in Wisconsin. I feel like I got to experience Wisconsin. Thanks for a fun trip girls :)

Confession

So I find it really hard to be motivated to post when I have 0 comments. I know that is bad. But also life is crazy busy as I am trying to wind everything up as I prepare to leave on Monday. I want to post about my Wisconsin trip but that will have to wait it will take to long right now. I have at least organized the photos for it. AHH only 8 hours until I meet with my supervisor for my final evaluation. I need to go to bed.

Night

HAPPY EASTER!!

I am so thankful that today is a day of celebration. It is the day that we celebrate Christ's resurrection from the dead.

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance." John 20:1 NIV

I am so grateful that the tomb is EMPTY!! My prayer is that you would know that today is about more than ham dinners and Easter Eggs it is about Jesus.

QUESTIONS? Try here

Other Resources
Online Bible
Online Devotionals

Barnes and Noble

Tonight around 7 I decided that I should go and pick up the book for my book report that is due at the end of next week. So I knew the Christian book stores would be closed. So I decided to callThe third store finally had the book I wanted which wasSo I ventured off to B&N. I mis typed the directions and knew they didn't seem right. I knew I should of gone west instead of but I was hesitant to rely on my navigational skills. So after heading east I decided right away that I should of gone west so I turned around as soon as possible. After finally finding the store since mapquest screwed it up. It actually didn't take long I just circled the block and found it tucked away.

I then ventured inside the soter pictured below

trust me is does not look like that outside. Anyways it was the biggest book store I have ever been in. I have never been in one with an escalator before. It's not as big as Fox books in You've Got Mail but still it was big. So I wondered for like 45 mins since I had nothing else to do tonight then I finally went to the counter and purchased my book. I think it would be very easy to spend hours browsing the books.

Gotta run leaving for church at 6:10am and I need to sleep before that. Take Care

weather

Seriously I can't handle the weather anymore...It changes more often than I change my mind about what to be doing this fall.....It will snow then get really nice for two to three days it all melts and then it snows again and then it repeats....Just when you think spring is fully here the snow comes again....

Northern Minnesota

Last weekend I went on a very short road trip to Northern Minnesota and I thought I should post about it before I go on my very short road trip to Wisconsin today. I drove with a friend to her hometown six hours north called Karlstad.


See where that arrow is way north up by Manitoba. At the cross road of 59 and 11. We were there for 24 hours. It was kind of odd to be so close to Canada but now actually go there.

How close was I? Close enough that there was a sign telling me the direction to go.


And another one telling me how many miles to go


I know 34 miles is still a little ways but it was still really cool.

What do you do way up North? While Kristina and her family and incredibly musically talented. Kristina herself plays like five instruments or something like that. I was only able to witness her playing the violin and the Mandolin or and some type of dulcimer. Her younger sister who lives at home is also musically talented. While they made beautiful music together I took tons of pictures. I am surprised Kristina is still talking to me.


Kristina is playing the violin and Kirsten is playing the piano.


I love this photo of Kirsten playing the piano.


I also like this one and how Kristina is looking at her sister.


Kristina's dad playing the guitar.


Kristina's mom making us a very yummy and health breakfast.


Norwegian Heart Waffles (whole Grain) with plain yogurt, bananas and a grape type homemade syrup. YUMMY!! Kristina also had peanut butter on hers.

This is one of the stores in town. Lots of Scandinavian items inside it was pretty cool.


Kristina and I posing.

So I saw this picture below. And I was surprise and thought wow this sign has a drive through ATM. So I should of realized it said Teller and not ATM. But I am not really a some town girl. So I had to laugh when I figured out what it really meant.


It's literally a drive up teller. I have never seen this before. Oh the things you will see in small towns.

Gotta go or I am going to be late take care

I think it says it all. Today I will be wearing my new Irish shirt and clover leaf socks that my mum sent me in a package a month ago but I wasn't allowed to open until today.
Does anyone have plans today? A few years ago I went to a Irish Pub and listened to Music. I just did some research and there is a parade tonight. So maybe I will go to it. Have a great day.