A little Whine

Hmm... it's sure been a long hiatus from writing. Argh, over a month. I apologize to anyone who reads this at all for the lack of originality and freshness in this page. My thoughts have grown stale in my head and have left me dry and longing for some rain to refresh my head... just like the grass outside which when you walk on it, hurts your feet and makes you need to wear shoes everywhere - i haven't built up any sorts of summer callouses as a result. I also am fast losing my tan which has faded away to nothing...

I am going to say it here... cause of a lack of a better place to say it... that i am lazy!!! I have been back from our trip to Europe for over a month and a bit now and i still can't seem to get back into the groove of life that existed before i left. It's like that groove has been filled in by time and now i have to dig it out again and i don't seem to have the stamina or willpower to do it. I have been a disappointment to myself as the queen of lack of motivation. Help!!! I so need a great big kick in the pants to make sure i keep going and doing what i'm supposed to do. I am so whining right now so i'd better stop...

I have exercises from my physiotherapist to do and i can't even seem to get them done and they're for my own good - just like exercise in general or healthy eating(what's that??) Okay, i'm done for now!!!

A moment in time

Across the field i saw him

He was capering, sniffing, searching

I was watching, waiting, listening

Two separate creatures

joined by a moment in time

He lifted his head and became wary

He knew he was not alone in the field

I stood stockstill, attempting not to disturb his day

Then....

He ran.

I sought to follow him with my eyes as he sped away into the woods

A flash of orange amidst the greenery

And then, there he was, on the path in front of me

Both of us stopped

Stared a moment

Pondering the other

and then

the moment was broken and

we went about our business

A chance encounter.

Home again

Seems like only yesterday that we trekked up the stairs to our business class seats at Hamilton Airport, heading off on an adventure of epic proportions, a month long odyssey in the isle of England and the wilds of Paris and the motherland of Holland. Seems like only yesterday the decisions of what to take with me in my limited space backpack were the biggest things i had to think of. And now, i sit here on my bed with a lovely cool breeze blowing through my window and i am almost at a standstill cause my mind doesn't know what to do. I likened it to a heart yesterday - sometimes the nerves in the heart can get too stimulated and they eventually don't know what to do and so they forget to send the proper signals to the heart muscles and consequently, the heart simply sits there and quivers... not sure what to do - a life-threatening situation. Well, i'm not in any sort of life's danger, but it does feel like i'm at a standstill... quivering and not sure in which direction i'm supposed to be heading. I know i have clean-up to do, i have committee work to do, i should develop my pictures (an intimidating thing in itself since we took so many - i'll betcha all told up it'll be close to a 1000!!!), and i should remember how to live my life. But what am i supposed to do first and how to do it? I've tried to think about a few things on this trip... it was very busy but i still managed to squeeze some thinking time in there.. must be a daughter of my mother!!

I've been thinking that we've passed through so many little villages and towns in England and in Holland and i've seen the lifestyles and life pace. And i must say that if it weren't for family and friends here, i'd be sorely tempted to abandon things here and head to a little village and set up shop there... i think i'm the sort of person who could be greatly happy with a simple little life - to work in a shop somewhere, to buy your groceries at a store where the owner knows your name, to walk everywhere, to slow down a little and enjoy the pace of life in a different zone. Why do we rush everywhere desparately, with our children and sanity flapping behind us? How do i slow down? How do i appreciate the blessings i have and be a blessing to others? How am i to serve best? So many things to think on and muse on and ponder... I pray that the heartbeat may reach its regular rhythm again and keep me going...

I've posted a few pics of Holland just cause i liked them and cause we had such a great time there. I spent the first night with family in Stadskanaal - Riksta and Johannes and their children - it was really nice to catch up with them again... and Bernadet and Marcel and their children, and Dinie and Alje came also... so we had a very gezellig afternoon all together. Tanan and Lauren came to pick me up on Sunday evening and we headed to Groningen for the night... always nice to chat with her and stay up late and drink yummy chocolate milk. Monday we bummed around in the morning and in the afternoon we got together with almost all our cousins and Ome Klaas and Tante Willy and went bowling! I didn't even think they had bowling alleys there but low and behold, i was bowled over!! Heehee! and afterwards we went out for lovely Chinese buffet with everyone. Heerlijk! We super enjoyed that.

In the picture are all our cousins, from the left, Hette, Jantine, Josha, Christine, Linda (plus a little one to come!), Lauren, Martijn and me. See everyone, we do have cousins! We just only get to see them once every five years or so.

We then spent a couple of days in Smilde, the town where my mom was born and raised and it was wonderful to spook around the haunts we used to have, a random plethora of memories

- walking on the schoolplein where we biked as kids and watched the meteor shower and sat on the carriers on the back of the bikes.

- visiting the deer and goat park in the centre of town and remembering coming here with Oma when we were young - i still can picture in my mind the coat she wore and that we were allowed to have some old bread to feed the ducks.

- visiting the cemetary where Oma and Opa are buried - an oasis of calm in a busy life - a restful, quiet place, all the memories of them come bubbling to the surface and it's difficult to be there but good. I miss them a lot.

- learning all about Smilde's history from Ome Klaas who is a big history buff and seeing pictures of a great-uncle of ours whom we never met because he was killed during WWII.

- eating yummy bread, eating yummy bread, eating yummy bread - i was in Fortinos here at home yesterday but nothing even came close to the warme bakker... i think i will have to import a warme bakker to Hamilton... i'll single handedly keep him in business

wandering in the fields on my uncles' farm

Then we headed on the train to Woubrugge - the abode of Ome Johan and Tante Tineke. We spent two days with them lapping up some other good aspects of Dutch life - yummy bread, walks along the fields with Aline and Joury, long heart to hearts on the beach at Katwijk and very yummy meals eaten with relish and a little more wine than we're used to ("i feel a little dizzy!"). Just spending time with family, getting to know them again (cause it feels we need to start over again each time) was wonderful - we miss family so much - enjoy your family if they are around! And both Tanan and Tante Tineke have so much resemblance to mom, it makes me do a double take sometimes - all three sisters are very different yet so much the same in mannerisms, facial expressions and character. We love our family!!

Apparently, we've taken a wrong turn at the canal and ended up in Australia, for what is that strange beast i see in the hertekamp? It appears to be a wallaby! Oddness truly.
And lieve Tante Tineke with Lauren and I op strand. We truly are blessed to have family who loves us and accepts us for who we are and are always happy and welcoming to us. We love you all right back!!!

So ends my epic tale of Hollandish things... we are back to life, back to reality, but the memories life on.

Groeten van de moederland

Groeten voor allemaal van de land van kaas en klompen, van windmolen en kanaals, van speculaas en all sorts of other yummy goodies...
We are now safely in the bosom of our family in the Netherlands after traipsing all over England and visiting the City of Lights. We muchly enjoyed our time in the British Isles having seen so much and having no idea that it was such a fascinating country with so much diversity and variety. I truly loved the countryside and the people and the history... oooh the history. I love knowing about the past and where we have come from as people and maybe giving us clues as to where we're going and what we would be like when history repeats itself as it does inevitably. Oh, boy, i'm now rambling which isn't so great cause i'm not sure where these thoughts will go. I'll stick a few pics in here from random things that we saw or did, in no particular order or style.

Lauren enjoying bangers and mash

Mr. Darcy (no further explanation required)

La Tour Eiffel said with a most appropriate french accent!

Okay, i'll stop with the pictures now... you'll most likely see some when we arrive home in just under a week... time has flown by but has also been good. I haven't missed home uproariously since i've had "home"with me for the last three weeks in the personage of my sister. It's been great to travel with her and share so many things with her and see her enjoying the whole travel experience. We've gotten along well (for the most part, she does like to hog the bed at night, a propensity i knew about from Quebec City last year!) and i've enjoyed having her unique perspectives on things and we've shared a lot of stupid little jokes between us... she being the Alpha Pigeon and the subject of a random spontaneous rap song, me being able to speak "sheep" and other such inanities. It truly has been fun. So now we just slow down a little, turn the intensity gauge down to a lower gear and enjoy family time - it's so nice to know we have aunts and uncles and cousins here, and to renew their acquaintances. I'm always envious of those with large families around them. So for now, tot ziens, fijne daag en ook Hartelijk Gefeliciteerd to my parents who are celebrating their anniversary on this fine day. Greetings to you all.

Enjoying the sun in Lyme Regis

I,m gonna be an aunt!!!!!

Hello all:::typing on a french keyboard is definitely an adventure::: keys are all mixed up and i;m totally mixed up in my letters so please forgive any mistakes::: Anyways, now that my dear sistern and brother in law have at last broken their news and their silence; i am priveledged and excited to announce that i am going to be an AUNT!!!! Am i excited or what!!!! More details to follow once i reach the home shores!!! hope you are all well; we,re off to Holland tomorrow arvo!

In a big English townie...

Greetings all from the huge and bustling city of London... yep, it's true, we've made it all the way from Edinburgh, Scotland to the great town of London. We haven't managed to run anyone over... we haven't managed to break any rules or get any speeding tickets or to transgress any other laws or statutes (as far as we know!)
I apologize greatly for the lack of updates on this site... internet access has been scarce, one hostel says the computers are broken, then we have no time to use it, then someone else is using the computer and so forth... but such is life and here i am at long last... for all my faithful blog readers.
I'm gonna make this short and sweet since time is a ticking away and time costs pounds and pounds (whilst i would like dearly to shed some -a near impossibility on a steady english diet of bacon and pastries!) are expensive.
I think i'll just summarize the last few days.... they've been busy, but thoroughly enjoying for most parts....
hmmm... i forget when i last updates... possibly sometime last week... maybe friday....
- saturday we hiked from Bakewell to Chatsworth House - where the latest movie of Pride and Prejudice was filmed... quite a hike in the rain and muck... but well worth it...
- Sunday we went to church at a local Brethren of Christ church... the people were super welcoming and we enjoyed the service very much... we then drove to Stow on the Wold in the Cotswolds.... stopping here and there along he way for sites... and breaks...
- Monday we were also in Stow on the Wold... but we drove to Stratford and spent the mornign and early afternoon there... we took in the sites of the town... including Shakespeare's burial spot and then drove aroudn the Cotswolds int he afternoon... returning to Stratford at night for a play - King Lear with Sir Ian Mackellan in the lead role (aka Gandalf from LOTR!!!!) That was amazing and we were so glad we did that.
- Tuesday we left the Cotswolds behind us and headed for hhmmm... i seem to be having memory blanks... hmmm... maybe yes, i think so, we went to Bath for the day and looked aroudn there heading to AVebury at night spending the night in a B+B and wandering aroudn the ancient standing stones at night... kinda creepy but cool!!!
- Wednesday hmmm.... we headed for Glastonbury and saw the abbey there in ruins and spent the night in a bit of a dodgy hostel... with a streethlight outside our window, moldy showers, creaky bed and lots of hippies...
- thursday we headed for the coast and an area called Lyme REgis - i'd highly recommend that. It was amazing, check it out on the web somewhere... amazing coastlines, fossils, cute houses, narrow roads and a most wonderful B+B
- Friday we collected fossils int he morning and headed for Oxford in the afternoon - quite a long drive but we made it... but we stayed int he worst hostel ever... self proclaimed as funky, it was a disaster... two little girls staying in a dorm with six sloppy boys... crazy!!!
- saturday we shifted house to a better hostel and spent a much nicer night... we wandered all over the town seeing colleges and graduates in long robes and having a grand old time in the old town, particularly amusing to watch all the kids going out to party at night in their skimpy clothes and crazy shoes and we were safely ensconsed in a restaurant with a glass of apple juice, ever the party chicks.
- sunday, today, we worshippped in the Baptist Church in Oxford with a very welcoming crowd... then wandered through town to watch the rowing and then headed on the bus to London...
So a very full week... lots done and seen but enjoyed immensely...
we miss you all and hope you are all well
Until we meet again....
(all typed in a snooty english accent of course!!!)

In a wee English townie

In a wee English townie, there were two wee lassies... well, maybe not so wee, but truly bonnie... And these two lassies were on a grand adventure, traipsing around england in a little conveyance benamed a Kia Carena which was a very valiant steed. It brought our lassies near and far, up hill and dale and across moorland and fells. They thoroughly enjoyed Edinburgh town mingling with the local Scots and struggling to roll their r's and eat haggis and fend off the highland cows who tried to lick their faces. They went up to Loch Ness where sadly they did not spot the elusive Nessie... but did have fun in the rain. Rain, yes, rain, seemingly an ever-present phenomenon in the UK. But thankfully there have been no steady days of rain, mostly periods where it's sunny, then windy, then rainy, then sunny... so the lasses are prepared for all types of weather.
They are currently residing in the small town of Bakewell in Derbyshire in a little youth hostel. They are also super hungry as they haven't eaten for several hours.. and will shortly be going in search of sustenance for their weary bodies having traipsed over moorlands and seen amazing vistas and narrowly missed many other travellers on the narrow roads.
Where have they all been and done???
- passed over the English/Scottish borderlands.. amazing sweeping views and a yummy chicken burger.
- walked alongside Hadrian's Wall and stayed in a very cozy bed and breakfast near the Roman fort of Housesteads...they ran around the grounds quoting things to each other in Latin - veni, vidi, vici... and morituri te salutimi.... and such... perhaps the ghosts of the Roman soldiers were listening.
- spending the night in the Lake District at a place called Grasmere.. the most amazing youth hostel they had ever seen! Looked like a castle... trekked up in the hills, saw a waterfall and spoke some 'sheep'.
- drove over the Yorkshire Dales and James Herriot country... who knew England was ever so big!!
- spend two nights with friends of friends in Yeadon... they were so welcoming and friendly... the lasses thoroughly enjoyed their time there
- climbing something each day... hills, steps, church towers.
- going into a cave with Blue John mining and experiencing total darkness!!!!
- exploring the medieval town of York and attending Evensong in the York Minster
and so much more... hard to remember it all... it's been a dazzling near week and the lasses are indeed tired but very happy.... they send their love to everyone at home!!!

Och... we're in Edinburgh

Greetings from dearest old Edinburgh... Och, it's beautiful here. The weather was on and off cloudy today and sunny at times and we are both thoroughly exhausted. We enjoyed a wonderful luxury flight from Hamilton to Edinburgh via Globespan and were by some little fluke, bumped up to business class. Well, i could sure get used to that idea... we enjoyed real cutlery, ceramic dishes, gourmet food and our own blankets and pillows along with lots more seating room than normal... nothing to sneeze at. We were soon whisked off to Edinburgh and landed at 830 am and were immediately helped out by some friendly Scots who guided our poor lost travellers to their hostel via the bus. Yep, a double decker bus!!! We sat in the front and had near heart attacks at the tenacity and fierceness of our driver. We were sure we would run over some poor soul but somehow we managed to arrive safely. We checked our bags at the hostel and then spent the entire day walking!!!! We saw Edinburgh Castle, toured it and heard the gun being shot off and saw the prisons and such. We walked the Royal Mile, saw the church where jOHN knox preached and then promptly proceeded to climb a mountain, literally. Yep our two unfit ladies climbed the rock known as Arthur's seat. The views were simply amazing. And if that weren't enough, we climbed another mountain/mound thing in the centre of the town and then finally our energy flagged. We bought some groceries and partook of a delectable and welcome supper of buns, chicken, fresh juice and pineapple... all costing an arm and a leg to be sure. We are now just doing a little update before heading off for a very welcome shower and sleep... on to the Highlands tomorrow!

sad...

This morning i set out for my torture session of walk/running. The sky was blue and the ground was dry and the sun was shining. I was huffing and puffing away already only two minutes into the ordeal when my attention was caught by a rustling in the bushes. I paused in my exertions,only too glad to have an excuse to rest, and saw to my sadness, a little rabbit. He was lying on his side under a bush twitching and frantically jerking about as if his legs didn't work anymore. He seemed to be frantic and was breathing very quickly. I froze, not sure what to do... if i had been a few minutes later or earlier, i most likely wouldn't have seen him there but now, now, i had an onus to do something, didn't i? I wasn't sure what to do, so i stupidly stood there and watched... should i have done something? I remember coming across a little baby bird, too young to be out of the nest really yet, but he was alone on the forest floor and Carina and i stood there helplessly, caught in a dilemma, do we kill him or just let him go? What would be the cruel or the right thing to do? In the end, we let him run away convincing ourselves that he would survive and be all right, while in reality he most likely became lunch for a hungry fox. I suppose in the end, if we hadn't been there at that time, he would have gone on his way, or this rabbit would have died without anyone to see him.
So i stood by the path, and watched the rabbit for a long while; he eventually slowed down and stopped breathing, the poor little guy. I wondered what his family would think, and why such a little thing, whom i had never seen before, could affect me so... but I suppose seeing any of God's wonderful creatures suffering is always sad. Thankfully, there is the verse about God tending even to the sparrows and He knows about this little rabbit too...

All my bags are packed..

All my bags are packed, i'm ready to go... okay, so i'm not... but it will come... Only 4 more sleeps till Lauren and I head off to good old England and a fresh set of adventures... no denying that we're pretty stoked about this and i'm sure the days will fly by before we head off. Our plane leaves from Hamilton Airport at 8 pm on Friday evening.. provided GlobeSpan is operational... i believe we are amongst their first flights to Edinburgh from there so here's hoping! So lots of last minute running around, finishing things up and packing and unpacking and repacking and such, all part of the travel experience. Three night shifts lie between myself and Friday evening so i will have to have everything organized by tomorrow afternoon - so i'd better shuffle off and see what sort of organized system i can make out of the chaos on my floor!

April showers bring....

Once upon a time, there were four young ladies. And these four ladies were determined to give themselves exercise and improve their physical health. Consequently, they all arranged to meet at a specific time on a specific date at a specified location in order to facilitate this goal. As they travelled towards their meeting place, the heavens conspired against them and opened the clouds to allow some raindrops to patter through. Our erstwhile heroines decided that this would not stop them. As they parked their vehicles, the skies darkened and the wind howled and the pace of the raindrops quickened. But firmly determined that exercise would still be had, the ladies stepped out boldly on the path, nary an umbrella or a raincoat to be seen.
Perhaps, these things would not have even been enough to keep the wetness out - a full body suit of repellent material would have been more in order as the rain had a persistently nagging way of completely covering them with an ever darkening hue of wetness. Soon, the rain was so heavy that the path was nearly obscured, the gravel was spitting up onto their legs and their hair was so wet that it dripped onto their noses and made seeing very difficult. But exercise was vital so the walkers persisted... no one was going to give up!!!

The gales of wind lashed the rain at the foursome and caused them to shake with cold and draw their breaths in with a gasp. At long last, two of our heroines decided that pneumonia was not a good way to start off the spring season, so unfashionable and unhealthy and they boldly resolved to head back to their cars. Unfortunately, their two companions wanted to persist for a while longer... but soon common sense won out and the intrepid foursome were making their desparate way back down the path completely drenched and looking for all the world like a quartet of drowned rats (except for the exceptionally toned legs!! heehee!). As they separated and were ready to depart for home, to seek warmth and shelter, the sun began to peek through the storm clouds, the rains let up and the wind slowed down. Isn't there some law about that by a man named Murphy?? Well, all's well that ends well. Fortunately for our girls, they were, none of them, witches to melt in the rain such as Dorothy's nemesis in the Wizard of Oz and there was nothing a towel and a dryer couldn't fix. All in the name of fitness!!!

It's travel time!!!!

Bring on your maps and compasses, your roads on the wrong side and your scones, your backpacks and suitcases, your zip-off pants and guidebooks and i'll tell you that we are about to tame England once and for all!!! My intrepid travelling companion, Laurenski and I are on the cusp of an adventure of a lifetime (if we indeed can manage to make it out of the rental car parking lot without major incident!!! - more on that in a few weeks!). In just 15 sleeps, we will be ready to board our little flight to Edinburgh and to take on the Scottish highlands in the footsteps of William Wallace, Rob Roy and Mel Gibson lookalikes in blue war paint. Much time has been spent in garnering information on the various destinations we will be hitting - among them hopefully Hadrian's Wall, Stratford, Derbyshire (home of the home of the fictional Fitzwilliam Darcy - the eternal romantic hero), Oxford, Bath and London. After blitzing through England and seeing all we can cram and stuff in two weeks, we will once again be on our way, winging over the English Channel to gay Paris and all the sights and sounds that accompany that great European Capital. We are most excited to be priveledged to see the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower and such... fun times lie in store! Then with the good old train, we head to the Motherland of tulips, wooden shoes and King peppermints to enjoy some good old family time and gezelligheid. We are both super excited and can't wait for what waits for us!! So many options and choices - kinda like those books i used to read whence i was a child "choose your own adventure!" Once we are done that whole whirlwind, we will be ready to settle down to regular life and attempt to assimilate once again into the workforce and the like, but our memories will live in our hearts and minds - oh boy, i sound way too melodramatic - gotta go now - probably that good old air at 4:09 am that is causing me to wax emotional...
Bon Voyage

Icing, High-Sticking and Bruises

Well, here at long last i am returned to the blogging world after an unexpected hiatus... caused by the interruptions of a thing called life. Yes and accompanied by a healthy dose of laziness! But here i am again - mostly to talk about a thing which is rapidly consuming a large majority of the Canadian population's interest. Nope, it's not the mating habits of harp seals or the peculiar camouflage techniques of the Arctic ptarmigan but rather that game which is known not as the "beautiful game" (i.e. soccer/football for the English amongst us) but ice hockey! Yep, it's the playoffs and so we are now immersed body and soul it seems in the armchair fan position. Currently, i am cheering for any team which is remotely Canadian - Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver, etc... though i suppose this really is rather ironic since most likely all the high scoring, bigwig players on the Canadian teams are likely American and vice verse for the American teams hence i should be really cheering for Texas or Florida or whatever other unlikely state that supports a hockey team (i mean, why in the world would there ever be hockey in Florida except for someone's brilliant invention of an arena with cooling fans and ice machines!). I enjoy watching the games now - i'm such an non-loyal fan i suppose... only coming on board at the last minute - i really should pick a team and be loyal to it and that's that - but i'm fickle and so with my fickle being, i cheer for whomever seems to be doing well at the time!
Anyhow, i digress - ice hockey is one thing - ball hockey is another world entirely. It was brought to my attention that as a ball hockey player - i have greater energy expenditures than the average NHLer. We are doing lots of running and shooting whilst ice hockey players have the great advantage of skates and being able to glide across the ice. Now, there are days when i glide - but it's usually due to tripping or the like - not a planned thing to be sure. But i'll argue that we are more tired - nothing at all to do with the fact that i am super out of shape and can't run worth beans and such. -Somehow i ended up in the face-off circle after yet another goal scored against us (i believe the score was no longer being tabulated after it reached the astronomical height of 82 to 0 or something vaguely similar to that!) and since i'm still not convinced which side i like to shoot on - i was playing with my lefty stick that night - hence i could only play well on the left hand side - if the puck dared to go over to the other side, i was lost! He was laughing at me since my stick seemed not to be on the right side but i won the face-off none the less! Yeah!!! I also managed to steal a few times from our opponents whilst whacking them firmly about the shins with my mis-managed stick. It's sure a good thing we don't really get penalties for tripping and such.
But all in all, hockey is fun. So bring on Hockey Night in Hamilton and drop the puck! I'm ready!

The Good Old Hockey Game!!

Well, all in the name of athleticism and health, of comradeship and socialization, i have joined a ball hockey team! I was asked by Carina, my roommate, if i wished to participate in such an endeavour and at the time it seemed like a spendid idea.... would help me achieve many things if not increase my athletic profile significantly. So there we were, two silly chicks, quavering in fear the evening of the first game, foolishly attempting multiple excuses to get out of their commitment but knowing deep in our hearts that we needed to do this crazy thing. We knew only a few souls at the gym and were surrounded by many others who appeared to be much more proficient at appearing to be expert hockey players. Both of us on the other hand hadn't played floor hockey since around grade five so any muscle memory that may have developed was definitely not in play anymore. We furtively peered around at our fellow team members and soon-to-be opponents, sizing them up and trying frantically to look like we knew what we were doing. We sadly lacked our own sticks and knee pads and so looked sorely out of place with bare shins and plastic gym stock room hockey sticks. I didn't even know what side of my body i was supposed to hold the stick on... was i a leftie or a rightie? I'm still not convinced that i've made the right choice but for now i'm sticking with the old rightie - seems the least awkward to me - that's what it's all about right? We ran onto the gym floor apprehensive about what to do and how to do it... where should we be? why is the other team scoring on us already only two minutes into the game? With our intrepid coach/organizer shouting out encouraging comments to the members of our team (most of whom had not played in many years either thankfully), our team replicated the Tim Horton's junior soccer leagues where all the players follow in a nice little clump behind the ball and don't spread out on defense. We have learned better since then but we still have lots of skills practise to work on. But to our shock and horror, it was the sad lack of physical shape that was the big problem. I experienced jello legs, a stitch in my side and complete breathlessness within the first 2 minutes of running around - how was i supposed to last beyond that time? But as all things in life should be - we took things a minute at a time, coming gasping off the court yelling "switch!" with the last remnants of breath in our lungs. We unfortunately lost our first game to the merciless score of 13-2 if i'm right (it's possible it was higher than that but i think they might have stopped counting at some point!). Our second game, last week, was a little better as far as skills goes and strategy - our team scoring right away 2 goals in the first few minutes (mine being one of them!!). Our opponents quickly pulled together and defeated us handily 11-2 but we did feel somewhat more into playing this time. So all teasing aside, it is a great exercise experience, we have met new people but we still have a long ways to go before the Women's Olympic hockey team is sending their scouts to watch our performances!!!

A Viticultural Experience

The whole gang!

Well, on Saturday afternoon, a group of intrepid girls set out for a little holiday to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a most wonderful and culturally enriched little section of good old Southern Ontario. The girls were most excited to be on an outing and to be able to enjoy each other's company for an afternoon. They piled into a vehicular conveyance and made their way at high speeds down the main highways in the direction of south. Much joy was had in the car partaking of vruchten hartjes and chocolates whilst a certain member of the group, no names mentioned, was tormented by the noxious odors of certain despicable black licorice candies courtesy of the ultimate favorite store in Grimsby, the Dutch store! However, once the pungent smells had been vented out of the car by some quick draw action on the automatic car windows, the situation improved noticeably. Soon enough, the car pulled into the extensive grounds of the Pellar Estate Winery and the females eagerly stepped out into another world. This was the world of sommeliers and flutes, of wining and dining, of bottles and corks and all things viticultural. The girls joined a tour hosted by a rather bulbous and rosy proboscused (proboscied?) fellow who seemed to have indulged in a little more than was good for him of his stock in trade. However, he did educate our heroines on the finer elements of wine making and tasting. He encouraged them to follow the five "S"'s - let's see if they can be arranged in proper order here!

• Sight - is it cloudy or clear, what colours can be seen in its liquid depths - seen by tipping the glass on its side (without spilling it!) and peering through it on a light background - does it have legs, meaning assessing the viscosity of the wine
• Swirl - involving swishing the wine around in the glass oh so carefully so that the wine does not slosh out the top of it - a feat which was difficult for some members of the group who tend to be a little on the clutzy side!
• Smell - inhaling deeply in the glass and trying to determine what other smells could be hiding in the wine - most of the group had difficulty overcoming the alcoholic smell and merely agreed with the guide when he suggested hints of honey or blueberries and the like
• Swish - a sip of wine is taken and swished around the mouth to expose all those tastebuds to the wine and to cleanse the palate!
• Spit or Sip - depending on how much wine the drinker is going to engage in - the options are spit - unnecessary in our books or sip - gently allowing a small amount of wine to slip through the teeth and sit in the little pouch behind the teeth whilst attempting to softly inhale some air to make little bubbles and enhance the wine tasting experience - a supremely hard thing to do without making a fool of one's self!

The budding viticultural experts!

Once a sample had been had of both a nice red wine and a very oily and foul-smelling ice wine(isn't that stuff supposed to be Ontario's best?), the group was led back up from the cellars into the real world in the gift shop (of course!!) where three intrepid members of our quintent partook of a wine tasting flight - seven little part glasses of different wines - after a little while, they sorta all ended up tasting similar and the girls realized somehow that they enjoyed white wine better than red, smashing all previous likes! Feeling nice and warm and giggly, with nice red cheeks, the fivesome departed the winery (with their lovely designated and feted driver) and went in search of some sustenance to slake their hunger. Some high jinks to work out the wine!

Life imitating art???

A fun time was had by all as they strode down the lovely quaint streets of Niagara-on-the-Lake and a wonderful lunch was gobbled quickly down by the hungry females. They then went in search of some sweets to finish off the experience and were lured in by the Cows icecream store to purchase delectable flavours of icecream which were enjoyed as they shivered their way back to their vehicle in the 3 degree air! Never a bad time for icecream!!! A wonderful drive home was a fitting conclusion to a hele gezellig dagje uit! Thanks very much ladies!!

A moment with a fine bovine!

Elijah and the mountain

I just would like to share a few thoughts from our sermon on Sunday evening. I unfortunately had to work a nacht dienst on Saturday evening and so missed the morning service but i was able to attend the evening service and was treated to a very wonderful sermon. We had Rev. Lankheet as a guest pastor and he spoke on the text of I Kings 19:1-18 about Elijah and his experience with depression and God's encouraging of his beleaguered servant and his subsequent call to service and action. The morning sermon mostly focused on the first 9 verses, while the afternoon service focused on the last half of the text where God has now encouraged and fed his servant and has now had him journey up to Mount Horeb aka Sinai where He gave the commission and law to his people so many years prior. There were several ways God could have spoken to Elijah but he chose to use a still small whisper to bring his message. Often times we look for a big huge thunderclap or writing in the sky to tell us what God is up to in our lives, but He often chooses to work through means we don't necessarily expect to bring His purposes to fruition. He mentioned that God is not a genie in a bottle, whom we can summon at our pleasure and command to do our bidding but that He is sovereign and almighty and will work in His own way. A line that kept coming up was "be still and know that I am God". So often in our lives, we get so busy and caught up with life and the things we think are important but don't take time to slow down and hear the still small whisper which tells us what we need to hear.

The other point that was brought up was that God chooses to use us to fulfill His purposes but He will ultimately work His plan in spite of us. This struck me as strange when i first heard it but i suppose it means that He is God and we are the servants, the ones He chooses and can use but doesn't have to. But the flip side is also this, that after He encouraged and supposed His weary servant, He gave him work to do and Elijah was not to just sit back and let God do all the work. He chooses us, chooses us to work for Him and chooses to use us for His purposes. What a joy to be a chosen one of God. May He grant us the ability to hear Him when He calls in that still small whisper.

Flying Giraffes and Marbled Peanuts

So what is on or in or around my little mind today? Well as you see... nothing too mature... just kinda goofy really, but it's fun to be that way sometimes, isn't it? I decided on a random title for attention seeking purposes and thus i am arrived at the present arrangement of words. Words... oh how i love them. To play with them, manipulate them and bend them to fit my purposes and ideas, is so fun! I was very blessed to have parents who raised me to love reading and literature and such... and so i keep reading, learning, doing crosswords (and the occasional Sudoku to which my friend Joyce got me addicted!) and reading the dictionary. Oh, okay, i'm not that crazy but i do have an acquaintance of mine who made it her goal to read a page out of the dictionary every day in order to increase her knowledge base (mind you, i'm not sure she made it much past acorn before the habit became old!). Reading stretches and works the mind and causes us to think outside the box. I have made it a point over the last few years to be more open in what i have selected to read, not merely content to swim around in circles in the same fishbowl of literary genre. Many many titles have passed through my hands and mind - Hardy Boys (who could not like them, those dashing heroes who always got in trouble at the end of every chapter - getting bashed on the head or tied up or the like - who could not like them!), Pride and Prejudice, The Black Stallion (not Black Beauty - just too sad for my poor little heart!), The Hunt for Red October, The Kite Runner, books by W.J. Vanderhulst, Scout, Brock and Bodie Thoene and their wonderful Zion series, A Walk to Remember (if you ever need a quick read that will make you cry!), Roald Dahl and so many others... But then there's all the wonderful books (i imagine they're wonderful) that line my shelves and make me look more literary than i actually am and which need to be read yet - not enough hours in the day it seems - someday hopefully i will get around to that.

But recently, hmmm, what have i read? I spent time enjoying Paradise Lost on audio cd. I fully believe i can write that title on my "read" list since it was unabridged and included all the words in the book. It was a fascinating story, detailing the creation of the world, the fall of the Devil and the subsequent temptation and fall of man and all the while, the threads of God's redemption plan woven right through. I realize that it is not all of a Reformed knowledge base but Milton's wording choices pleased my ears and tickled my literary senses. If you ever get the chance, give it a go sometime. Be persistant or do the audio thing, but finish it. A classic to be sure.

But then i also finished recently The Homecoming Man by Hugh Cook. He is not a long-dead British lad but rather a homegrown, Redeemer College associated author who writes of life as the child of a Dutch immigrant and his "homecoming". But it is also the story of his father's past, his history during the Second World War and the journey that he must make to come to grips with all of that and to find forgiveness. I cried when i read it - felt rather melancholy afterwards but realized the strong impact that our past can have on our whole lives.

I wonder what it is in my life that impacts me strongly now, what memories will live and form who i will be, who i already am? Sometimes i worry that my memory will not hold out for me - i fear already that i seem to forget really important things and remember inane little things like the way a certain thing smelled when i was young or the exact position i was in when something happened to me. I fear sometimes that i won't be a very good crime scene witness if ever i am required to do such a thing. I can drive down the same road twenty million times and not see something very obvious and along comes someone who has only gone there twice and they see the fact that there is an amazing tree or a wrought iron eagle that needs to have some sort of prank played on it or they see the obvious. Maybe that's the way it is with life, we need others around us to help point out the sometimes obvious and sometimes obscure things so we can appreciate things more. God did have a plan for how he meshed us all together, one part complimenting the other. Aaah, the master Designer at work, intricately weaving our lives together and creating patterns of beauty and richness. Uh oh, i now sound like the person who writes peppy little things for magazines and cards so i'll halt here and make this the ending of my babble. So i will end this little musing on literature and it's intellectual benefits and leave you to do your own reading of something more profound than this blog.

Thoughts on the sermon

Lukewarmity. That was the subject of our sermon this morning. Based on the text from Revelation about the church of Laodicea where the Christians were reposing in their wealth and refusing to be bold witnesses for Christ and for His gospel. A church whose members had lost their initial fire for God and who were now simply living a tepid and and substandard type of Christianity. The minister laid everything out so well this morning, explaining how John pulls in the aspects of life in that city - the fact that they were famed for their black wool cloth and how they had a medical school famous for its curative eye salve and for the wealth that was in the city due to good economics and the aqueduct which conveyed their water from its source in a hot spring to the city by which time the water was generally quite tepid. So many little historical details that make everything stick so well. I had to laugh when he reallys spoke to the kids and got into things talking about the bad taste of lukewarm water and how Christ was going to "spew them out" being translated literally as vomited out and the sound effects causing giggles to be heard around the sanctuary! And then applying it all to life and leading a Christian life had put me to thinking a lot. I know i fail in so many ways to uphold the name of Christ properly in my life and to live the life that He has called me to live for His glory. I know that i sit there in the pew convicted that my own life is lukewarm at best and whilst it has the appearance of wholesomeness (is that a word, if not, it is now!), it is indeed full of myself and not Him. I pray that He may work in me to root out the indifference and unwholesomeness there and allow me to be a clean vessel in which He can work and fulfill His purposes. I was to be a vessel for Him for whatever purpose He has for me!

TO Tripping

Once Upon a Time - so all great stories begin and so this tale begins... once upon a time - there was a father and a mother who were sadly in lack of something fun and educational to do upon a saturday morn. This was indeed a sad and desparate situation. However, to their great benefit, they possessed something which could remedy this dilemma without a doubt. They had an old daughter who dearly loved to create and be part of adventures. And she did not fail them now - she thought (for just a few minutes - her thought processes wheeled and whirred effortlessly) that she would take them to the capital city of their province. This was indeed an epic journey but one devoutly to be wished (a misquote of sorts from some sort of Shakespearean play somewhere along the line - my abject apologies to the bard himself). The mother in a wheelbarrow

So of an early hour of the morn, the trio betook themselves in the vehicular transportation of the day, Prunelope, along the highways and byways until they found themselves in the heart of the bustling metropolis. The sights and smells and sounds overwhelmed the simple country folk and they spent the first while just taking everything in whilst searching desparately for a place to situate their vehicle - a truly daunting quest to be sure! At last having secured a safe place for dearest Prunelope, the family betook themselves to the centre for cultural enrichment - the Art Gallery of Ontario (henceforth referred to as the AGO - a moniker which amuses the scribe of this tale to no end!). They were in the mood to see some artistic endeavours and analyze them and determine whether they were truly worthy of being placed in such an establishment. However, to their regret and chagrin, the AGO was under an intense period of reconstruction leaving the poor travellers with only a handful, a smattering of art pieces to be regarded. This truly was a grievous situation.

Nevertheless, our heroes entered the gallery and spent time perusing the sculptural efforts of Henry Moore and the limited supply of master works by painters old and new. The father stood in front of a certain painting examining it carefully and the daughter said to him "father, that's a Monet!". To which the father replied "oh really, it's good old Claude, eh? I think he's been framed." This remark produced groans of anguish, but also conveyed a rather indepth knowledge of the artist unbeknownst previously to the mother or the daughter and filling them with happiness that their paternal figure indeed was acquainted with the finer nuances of the art world. The mother happily spent her time comparing herself in proportions to the Rodin sculpture of Adam and was quite taken with the large size of the sculptures hands and feet, guessing them to be approximately a size "24" men's shoes. It was determined that Adam would indeed have great difficulty acquiring footwear.

The father and mother and daughter then proceeded to view the works of Emily Carr - a Canadian artist who worked largely amongst the native populations in British Columbia. She loved trees and forests and most likely was single-handedly responsible for the severe shortage of green paint in the area during her lifetime! The father, whilst in the midst(ooh, two "st" words in one sentence!) of a deep discussion as to the nature of a figure in one of the paintings had to be admonished by the security guard for gesticulating too wildly near the canvas itself and causing the silent alarms to be activated. Tsk tsk. Avoiding further encounters with the third kind, the family group finished perusing the exhibition and then proceeded to wander the city streets in an aimless sort of fashion attempting to blend in to the local culture and absorb the atmosphere of the city. They wandered here and there, creating weariness of foot and fullness of mind in such places as a costume shop (i so would love to have a costume party someday!), a glass exhibition with extremely intriguing glass pictures, Chinatown (where our heroes became dazzled by the countless bins of unidentifiable foreign dried foods - the daughter at one point scared that the bin contained dried baby birds due to a rather putrid smell but later determining that it was simply dried oysters. One can never be too careful!!) and Kensington Market.

The crepey man!

They partook of delightful culinary treasures such as a pesto sandwich topped with brie cheese, grilled chicken breast and tomatoes which was then lightly grilled to perfection, and a freshly made crepe with egg and ham. The crepe maker had a lovely little conversation with the mother about the finer points of creating perfect pancakes and the mother invited the chef over to her abode to make dinner one evening much to his delight! The family eventually came to the realization that their feet were dreadfully tired and were screaming for repose. So the long trek was made back to Prunelope who bore them safely home to their small town where they partook of a delectible dinner at a local chicken establishment (i mean that the establishment served chickens, not that chickens ran the place!) The father was unable to refrain from blowing his straw wrapper onto the lady behind the daughter much to her embarassment, leading to his ban from the restaurant swiftly and with all haste! The family at last reposed in their abode, having had their fill of intellectual, cultural and urban life for another year, or at least until the next time they were bored! And they lived happily ever after. The End.

Frozen Fotos

A few pics from my walk yesterday afternoon in the frigid air. I felt a bit covert since i walked over the whole frozen field and because all was nicely solid, i didn't sink in and i traversed the entire breadth of the open area without leaving so much as a footprint (minus the occasional holes where i would crash through weak areas on the icy surface but you catch my drift!!!)

A little thistle frozen in time

The Statue of Liberty incognito

Little soldiers on guard in the snow! (kinda corny eh?)

Guess who??? I played around with my camera for quite a while before the self-portrait thing actually had my face in the centre - the first few attempts consisted of my frozen fingers trying to position the camera correctly with minimal success and resulting in photos of the sky, my hair along, my mittens alone or just the ice in front of the camera itself. I'm sure passerbys on the road were wondering what was going on out there in the field. As a matter of fact, i am just considering now that perhaps i might have given a few people a bit of a shock lying there on the ground. Fortunately no good Samaritans had to trek out to see that i was still alive and not the victim of a random act of violence in the middle of a field!

Helen's birthday!!!

Well it recently was the anniversary of the birth of a wonderful friend of mine, Helen. She was very excited to celebrate the grand occasion of her 29th birthday - she's now in her 30th year and keeps on plugging!! We threw her a big old birthday bash last week and had over 20 people crammed into our little abode for a gourmet dinner of nasei (spelling??) and boerenkool and zuurkool and kroepoek and droppies (black morsels of disgusting putresence) and all manner of Dutch favourites. We were so happy to have so many people turn up and enjoy the evening with us. Thank you all for making it a great party! I still can't believe we had just enough food for you all and almost enough chairs!! Amazing! Helen, may you have a wonderful year and we'll have to get together once again next year to celebrate that milestone of ... dun, dun, dun (meant to be said sinisterly with a low voice tone!) 30!!!!

Karen and Helen

The gang's all here!!!

Father And Daughter

I cry whenever i watch this...

Thoughts and reveries

Hmmm.... where do i start and what do i write? What sort of thoughts will make their way to the murky surface from the bubbling depths of my mind? What will present itself as deep enough or important enough or silly enough to be written here? I have a lot of thoughts competing for the rights to be posted here but none are making their case strong enough to be released here. So i'll just blab on for a little while. First of all, i'm still glad it's cold. I might be the singular Canadian who is of that persuasion but i will say this - we live in a country that is considered a northern country - we have snowfalls during the winter and we have lots of stores who cater to our need to cover up our bodies and protect them from the chilly temps - hence we should have some cold weather to justify their existence and to harden ourselves to the elements - it makes us all stronger people!!! I know that there are those in my circle of friendship who would dispute this point hotly but i maintain that i enjoy the cold. I like to bundle up and to feel alive when the cold air hits my face. I especially like it after i've worked all day cooped up in a hospital sterile environment, my nose getting all plugged up cause it's so dry and airless and being unable to have direct contact with the natural world and then i am all bundled up and hit the back doors with my keys in hand and head out to my car and i am so happy with that initial rush of frigidity. I fully am prepared to admit that yes, i too become cold easily and appreciate our little warm fireplace as much as the next fellow, but i feel alive when i feel that cold. As per Calvin, it's the kind of cold that freezes your boogers!!! heehee!!!

Technogeeks extraordinaire!

As of Tuesday afternoon, Carina and I have officially joined the world of technogeeks extraordinaire! We had some nice gentlemen come to our house with their toolkits and pliers and clippers and wires and did some fishing around to hook us up to cable! We now have all sorts of fancy new things at our little fingertips. Things previously unknowst to us such as call display (no more phantom callers), call waiting (i don't like this but it is there), call forwarding, and best of all - highspeed internet! This means exciting things like Carina and I both being able to be on the internet at the same time, not hooked up to phone lines and such, able to watch tv with good reception and be on the phone all at the same time!!!! So i will be able to post lots of stuff on here and not wait about 14 hours whilst tapping my fingers impatiently on the desk and occasionally swinging my head in dismay at the slowness of our little connection line. So bring on your downloading files and your pictures, bring on your msn and facebook, bring on your phone calls and i will handle them all very capably and with utmost speed!

Too cute!!!

Just for your viewing pleasure... a friend of mine sent this to me and i thought i'd share it with anyone who would like a nice little picture!!! I'll not fawn over it too much but i thought i'd buck the trend of not blogging for so long and update like everyone else does. I'll stop horsing around now and let you enjoy.

Wanderings

"Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what i mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something."

LOTR Chapter 1

Bilbo seems to have hit the nail on the head with his little musing on his life. He has drawn a beautiful analogy to how we feel sometimes, inside, pulled in many directions but not really going anywhere. Spinning our metaphorical wheels in the mud and creating a lot of mess at times but not progressing, driving in any way. Not even sure of where to go and how best to proceed. I know that there is a plan and a path all marked out for us but somedays i feel like i don't even deserve to have that done for me. I ignore the author of the map and seek to find my own ways through the quagmires and tangles of life, often to no avail. And so, yes, here i lie, still in the same place after seven years, wondering what is to come and how to tackle things. I have desires to do so many things in life but don't seem to accomplish things. Yes, i know, i have travelled in a very real sense in many places and done interesting things, why can i not be content with that? Why must there always be something more? Something just beyond the grasp which entices and lures and even frustrates? There are so many things in this life which are wonderful, which God has created for us to enjoy which i wish to lap up, to soak in and to be a part of, yet the clock ticks ever onwards and i waste time doing silly things. Argh! I would like it to be said of my life that I served God and served Him faithfully. I suppose it doesn't matter how many classic books i've read or how many places in the world i've visited or how many friends i have, but if it can be said of me that i lived a life in step with my Lord, that is the ultimate accomplishment in life... and that not even of myself but only done through the Lord's having His almighty arm guiding me and leading where He would have me go. A bit like walking in the dark at times not sure where to put the next step but trusting your guide so implicitely that He would not lead you astray. Lead me Lord!

On the move again

Once again, the guidebooks are my daily bedtime reading, my dreams are filled with travel plans and my head is desparately attempting to organize some sort of schedule. Where in the world is the destination this time? The tentative plans for the moment are to head for the old world, for the head of the Dominion, to the fair isle of Engelande. My youngest sister Lauren and I are likely going to head over the pond to do some exploring and discovering and learning in May of this year. We are both quite excited about this prospect and can't wait to start making concrete plans. We have a few ideas about what to do and see but we hope to get together soon to make this all happen. So any good ideas y'all may have as to what to do and how to do it in the expensive land of England would be greatly appreciated.

Free Flying

Walking on a winter's morning

Quiet time

Footsteps muffled

Wind in the trees

Snow swirling lightly

Sun peering through the flakes.

The flock senses a change

A foreigner approaching

Interfering in the flow of the day

Take to the sky

Reel

Soar

Fly

Careen

And because one flies

All the others follow in a quivering group

A mass of black dots

Ebbing and flowing

Pulsing and undulating

Across a blue canvas

Following a random pattern

Landing here, then there

How do they know

Where their neighbour will turn?

A master is orchestrating this dance

In the sky on a snowy morning.

Surprise!!!

Once upon a time, there was a family. The family decided not to be at home, to ignore their oldest daughter when she came to grace them with her presence upon a lovely January morn. That family was rather silly to not be in attendance for this great event and so, thus, there were some dire consequences. The daughter, seeing that her arrival was not greeted with multiple hugs, kisses and other displays of affection, was put to thinking that perhaps she ought to ensure that in future there would be no such lapses in care for her. So she hatched a clever plan. Stealthily (i have no idea how to spell that word!!!) she gathered up the elements required for her little escapade. Dad's pants, a jean shirt, a winter cap, Lauren's pillow, a spare blanket, someone's winter boots and a little tuft of fake hair recovered from the play clothes trunk in the basement. All these items were cunningly fashioned into a replica man.
This man was then carefully positioned on the throne of the new bathroom (the adjective new being used loosely because it is now probably over 15 or 20 years old but that's the way it's always been referred to in this household). He held his own position remarkably well and decided since he would be there for quite some time, to start on the sudoku puzzle, joining the sudoku craze like half of the world! What a trendy fellow! And so he sat, and sat and sat (in the dark with the door slightly ajar to dismiss any suspicions which may initially have arisen). He was waiting for someone. And there came the first victim... Dad. He, alas, didn't scare too easily and he merely gave the daughter a phone call inquiring as to whether this was her handiwork or not. The daughter of course, firmly denied all involvement and was secretly glad inside that he knew it was her. For that meant that despite no one's being home, they truly did know and love her!
The second victim was not so fortunate or calm. The daughter had been on the phone conversing with her maternal figure and inviting her over for a cuppa tea. The mother assented and went to get ready to depart the homestead. Alas and alack, she opened the bathroom door and there was a mysterious presence in there with her! She screamed and proceeded to call the daughter back and create shrieks of terror and indignation on the phone. "You were lucky i didn't have to go to the bathroom any more than i did!!!" Hah, number two victim was a success. As was victim number three,the youngest sister. She likewise was alarmed and erupted with screams of fear as she discovered the man on the can. So the moral of the story is: Always make sure that you are home when the daughter visits to avoid any future surprises of a crazy nature.

Colorado Clips

Okay, so i've been home for over two weeks now and haven't posted anything. I know that's a bad thing... but what do you do when the poetic and bloggist muse has abandoned me in favour of warmer climates in the southern hemisphere of the world? I believe you might find her lounging on a beach chair with her mythical feet dangling in the azure blue waters of an obscure Caribbean island whilst the gentle zephyrs play with her golden locks and her treasonous eyes peruse the tranquil scene around her, the peace, the warmth, the knowledge that she doesn't have to work at all at the moment because those who normally would request her help are sadly unaware of her whereabouts.
Leaving our little muse in her beach chair, i shall proceed to speak of locales that have slightly different climates. Colorado, for instance. I made my sleepy way there on the 28th of December all by my lonesome. I managed somehow to remain awake enough to board the flight to Colorado and not to Barbados or other destinations (although it would have been significantly warmer, i just didn't pack for such an occasion!) I was met at the Denver Airport by Brenda and by Nancy's dad, Mr. Koning. They doggedly drove through weather that would give gray hairs even to a polar bear but finally managed to deposit us safely at Josh's Mom's doorstep. We were welcomed with open arms by the entire Koning clan and it was nice to see that they made it all in safely as well.

Friday morning saw a flurry of activity take place as we started working on the flowers and the dresses got last minute alterations and several other tasks were completed. Then we trooped off to the church to see what sort of decorating and food-serving opportunities there were. With lots of elbow grease, an occasional laugh and a large army of volunteers, the church was outfitted for the upcoming nuptuals. Then came the rehearsal during which we all practiced walking down the aisle to make sure we could do it without errors. We learn fast apparently cause then we were off to the dinner. Yummy shrimps made their last home in my stomach and then I was off on my own little adventure to pick my friend Joyce up at the Colorado Springs airport at 11 pm. Unfortunately due to the fact that Colorado Springs apparently has one of the worst snow removal crews, a normally 20 minute drive took me nearly an hour! Crazy even for a snow-hardy Canadian. But i found my aussie friend and was glad to see she arrived in one piece with her last minute plans. Friday night was spent at a hotel with Nancy, Brenda, Laurie, Joyce and myself all attempting to catch a few hours of shut-eye before the big day.

Getting ready for the big day!

Saturday morning - the big day was finally here! Nancy and her girls headed off to the hairdresser's to get fancied up and we sorta took over the place, snapping pictures and drinking tea and trying on the veil! Fun times! When we were all ready to go, the weather had finally cleared up enough for us to see some of those wonderful Colorado mountains (i'd post pics but apparently the computer's having indigestion at the moment and won't co-operate!). I kept teasing all the Coloradans that i didn't believe that they actually had mountains for the first day and a half that i was there since it was foggy/snowy and the peaks were hidden. But they emerged with all their proud towering majesty just in time! I love mountains. The last time i saw them was in the Alps in Switzerland and Austria. So awesome!!
Then we were off to the chapel to get married - or at least one of us was.... We got ourselves hoisted into our bridesmaids dresses and then a co-operative effort got Nancy all outfitted with wedding dress, running shoes and jewelry. She looked beautiful. Then pictures - smile, smile and smile some more! But it was all in good fun and we were happy to be a part of it all! The ceremony was at 2 pm and the bride wasn't late or early, just precisely on time! Nancy's nephews and nieces did a wonderful job as r0se-bearers and we didn't trip or fall or lose our bouquets or anything along the way. The ceremony seemed quick and then all of a sudden, Nancy was married!!! Oops, i should say Nance and Josh were married! Congratulations to you both!

Will it fit??Nancy looking radiant
The reception and dinner was lots of fun too... family provided a lot of special skits and entertainment and we were both amused by power-point presentations from both sides of the family. Extra entertainment was provided by the chocolate fountain!!! Fun times! Though i kept losing my bananas in the pool of brown delight! Oh well. By around 8 pm we had cleaned up and we were cleaned up. We were so ready to kick off our shoes and relax. We had a nice glass of champagne and lounged around at the hotel in a well-deserved break whilst Nancy and Josh headed off on their honeymoon to Hawaii!!

Sunday was church at 11:30 and then we did a little sight-seeing at the Garden of the Gods - a beautiful red rock formation. Made us feel like aspiring Ansel Adams' proteges! Lots of pics to be sure! And then New Year's Eve. We spent it at the hotel trying desparately to stay up to midnight but wondering outloud whether we shouldn't just celebrate Ontario's New Year so we could retire two hours earlier. Hmm.. we weren't too wise but stayed up to ring in the new year and then promptly went to bed only to get up around 3 am to head for the airport for our early morning flights. I said goodbye to the other girlies and climbed aboard a shuttle bus which drove me two hours north to Denver from where my flight was departing. And so ended another adventure - albeit a quick, whirlwind one, it was fun and made lots of memories. Hopefully i'll get the chance to come back and enjoy some skiing in good old Colorado.

Beautiful red rocks in the Garden of the Gods