Pictures Tell The Best Stories

Well my mother & I just got back from a two week trip to Edmonton, we went there for the SAM annual banquet & my cousin Bernice's wedding. These two events were a week apart which is why we were there so long but we made good use of our time and a great time it was. First of all no men came with us, my dad is in Mozambique helping out my sister and brother-in-law get their house built on their new mission property. Eric was under the gun to get the in- floor heating in his garage laid & the cement poured and Luke had to work. So mom and I drove all by ourselves to Edmonton and back but the real challenge was in navigating the streets of Edmonton itself. You see our husbands have always been the navigators while mom and I would sit with our nose in a book, oblivious to all, plus we both have a pretty bad sense of direction. So we bought ourselves a city map & with many hand drawn maps given to us by friends we actually got to everywhere we wanted and needed to go with only a few unplanned 'side trips'. We were quite proud of ourselves and were able to 'recover' (so to speak) from our 'side trips' without too much ado!

Our SAM computer tech & sound support guy took his job very seriously!!

But he also manged to have some with his sister
(my favorite niece, Amanda) & good friend Carey.

Mom doing what she does best, speaking about the Lord's work
at Mount Horeb in Brazil & moving people to tears. Me included!

Of course Sunday after church was family lunch time at theBeijing restaurant where Russell impressed us by eating jello with his chopsticks

Actually what you can't see here is that the jello didn't quite make it INTO the mouth.

Okay that was a practice run.............. I know what I did wrong & THIS time the jello will make INTO my mouth.

Yep!!! He did it!!

And of course we spent time with our good friend Ruth Martz who takes us in & makes us feel so at home when we're in Edmonton.

And of course spending time with one of my favorite girls was a top prioity.

And then there was the wedding, and a beautiful wedding it was.

Isn't she a beautiful bride?!

The groom's parents

P.S.
Hopefully I'll get the garage pictures up tomorrow :)

Forced Inactivity

O.k. I know I haven't blogged in a verrrry long time, even my sister has stopped trying to lay the guilt trip on me so what does that tell you? I could use the excuse that I was just too busy during the summer which wouldn't be a lie............ but then I thought well 'everyone is busy some even busier than I am & they still blog!' Unfortunately my conscience wouldn't allow me to use that one so for lack of a good excuse that I could feel comfortable with I've decided honesty is the best policy. Huh!! Who would've thought eh? I guess it's just because I've been downright lazy plus the fact that I've never been a writer, unlike my mom, sister, niece & nephew. They are very faithful with their blogging & I avidly look forward to their latest entries. I especially like it when they post pictures which my sister is so faithful with. Mind you when you lead the kind of exciting adrenaline filled adventurous life my sister & brother in law lead there is always lots to blog about along with exciting pictures to look at. Just go read her blog & you'll see what I mean!

I am currently off work recovering from surgery & have lots of time on my hands as I have strict orders from my 'doctors' (including my husband) to do NOTHING more strenous than a daily walk for at least 6 weeks. Mind you, now that Luke is no longer here serving as my mother's personal administrative assistant taking care of all the e-mailing, newsletter updates, child sponsor letters, thank you letters, brochure planning & designing, conference & church power point presentations, itinerary planner, computer tech, computer teacher (as well as chief dishwasher, grocery shopper,, window washer, lawn mower, house cleaner get my drift?) AND number one 'go fer' I have a sneaking suspicion that my mother is cooking up ways to keep me busy :/

I am finding this inactivity a little trying as I feel like I'm off work & have all this free & it's the perfect opportunity to get alot things done that I've been wanting to do the house & yard. I have a 'to do' list at least a mile long........... seriously, just ask my husband! But here I sit playing on my computer, reading books, going to movies, spending quality time with my dogs, having coffee with my friends. Life is tough sometimes, what can I say? I just have to do my best & remind myself that I have been contributing to society for a good number of years already so 'don't feel guilty Pat'.

My very special niece Amanda who came to visit us this summer

Good times, good food, good conversations, lots of laughter at Ruth & Royden's in Seattle

The inlaws & the outlaws you can guess which is which :)

A very special father in law

Ruth is so lucky not only to have one great dad but to have two great dads!!

And last but certainly not least............who said grandma doesn't like dogs!!!!

Work Eric, Work!!

Well Eric has been working like a madman & has made great progress on our retaining wall. It's looking so very nice don't you think so? I told him I would like to have a wall like this built all around the backyard, needless to say his response was a look of 'are you off your rocker?' Well, actually........ yes dear I feel like I am....... most of the time!!! Unfortunately these Alan blocks are quite expensive & the work is heavy, dusty & time consuming but oh the results!

Remember how it looked 'before'?

Each Alan block has to be filled with small rocks the trench you see behind the Alan blocks also has to be back filled with rock. This is to make sure the retaining wall is good & stable & won't come tumbling down one day if we have good sized downpour which loosens the bank it's built against.

This actually happened a short while ago to a brand new house that was built in my friends sub division. The owner had built a multi thousand dollar 10 foot retaining wall out of these bricks in his back yard but hadn't done it properly. We had a major rainfall a while ago & the whole wall came tumbling down. I guess it sounded like an earthquake when it happened, the scary thing is he has small children & thank the Lord no one was in the backyard when it happened or they would have been killed instantly.

Now don't you agree the perimeter of the backyard would look awesome done all in Alan block?

One day, or so I'm told :) all the 'stuff' you see in our back yard will magically disappear (into the new shop) & we'll actually have a back yard again. I've been busily dreaming & planning what I'm going to do back there when the day comes, I can hardly wait!!

Luke, Luke, Luke...........

As most of you know we lost my brother Luke in Brazil when he was only 17. Many years have passed since then but the pain of losing him, although tempered by time, will never go away for my family. He was my baby brother, eight years younger than I & three years younger than my sister Lynn. Of course with the age difference between us my role was 'the bossy big sister' &
he would do whatever I asked him to.

But............ Lynn & Luke became great buddies as they grew up & as my 'little' sister grew older & wiser she would counsel Luke. "You know Luke just because Pat told you to doesn't mean you have to" or "Pat can't boss us around Luke she's NOT our mother" or "come on Luke let's just go in your room & we'll close the door so Pat will leave us alone" or "Luke just tell mom that Pat's being bossy again & mom will make her stop". Unfortunately she quickly undid all the good training it had taken me several years to instill in Luke. He was no longer in awe of me & quickly realized his favorite sister Lynn was right & obediently followed in HER footsteps when it came to dealing with me. Yep!! Those two were as tight as thieves & I'll never forget how ticked off I was at them. At Lynn for giving Luke such bad advice which he oh so willingly soaked right up & at Luke for switching his allegiance from me to her.

Now many years later we have another Luke in our family, or as my mother says 'the Lord has given us another Luke to love & enjoy'. And enjoying him we are indeed! This Luke also hails from Brazil, when he was a tiny tot his mother taught at the Mount Horeb school & he attended kindergarten there. In 2005 when mom & dad were in Brazil for their yearly visit they became reacquainted. He was now all grown up & mom didn't even remember him until he reminded her about his mother.

It didn't take long & Luke was well entrenched in mom & dad's hearts & lives, if you have the privilege of meeting Luke you'll understand why. Luke was 17 when he reconnected with mom & dad, the same age as our Luke was when he died. Luke's birthday is in April the same month as our Luke's birthday. Coincidence??? Some of you may think so but WE think God had this all planned. Luke also had a burning desire to visit Canada ever since he was a young boy.

Well he's here in Canada now & has very quickly become a much loved member of our family. He calls mom & dad "mom & dad" refers to me as his Canadian sister & entertains us with his great sense of humor. He has spoiled mom & dad, as a matter of fact I suspect he's ruined them for good & that they will now expect the same quality of service from me! Thanks Luke!! He helps mom with all the housework, the dishes, the grocery shopping, the gardening, her computer work,etc etc. He agrees with everything mom says & when I disagree with her he says "Now Pat you should listen to mom because you know she's right" "(thanks Luke) of course saying that doesn't earn him any brownie points with me! He & I have long talks about all the stuff that you can talk to 'sisters' about, you know, girls & stuff. He opens the doors for us, won't let us carry anything, won't let us sit in the back seat of the car & the list goes on. He is very well mannered & well behaved (well, most of the time :) And as I often walk around in a bit of a daze most days trying to look & act like I REALLY DO have it all 'together' & am a normal functioning woman WITH my wits about me, Luke will look at me, sadly shake his head & say "Pat, Pat, Pat......... you are confused again." I just turned 50 ladies so those of you around this age should know what I mean!!?? If you don't, beware, because your turn will come! Other friends of his in Canada who met him while they were visiting at Mount Horeb also want a piece of his time. We do get a little jealous because you know..... he's ours..... but we do reluctantly share him.















We recently took him to Kelowna to catch a flight to Edmonton. There he spent a few days with the Bentrude's who took him to the Calgary stampede so he could see some real Canadian cowboys. Now he is with Alda, another fellow Brazilian, volunteering at her church's summer youth camp.

We hope you are having a blast Luke but hurry home cause we miss you & it's more fun going to the movies with you than it is going alone!

Building Walls

Well things have been happening around our house, actually outside our house I should say. Eric & our neighbour got together bought some (a lot of) Alan Blocks & made a beautiful retaining wall. It took quite a few long grueling days but doesn't it look pretty? There was a lot of prep work before hand to ensure that the wall wouldn't come crashing down some day. Each block weighs 80 lbs, the house to the left is our neighbours as you can see his backyard is coming along nicely. One day our back yard might look like that :) The next phase is to build another retaining wall between our back yard & Eric's shop. This is what that area looks now ummmm...... not so pretty huh?

Of course all of the 'going's on's' around our place are very closely scrutinized, it's all oh so interesting & we'll spend all day on the deck making sure that everything looks good.

On Wednesday while the guys were working on the wall I got out the lawnmower & mowed the lawn then pulled a bunch of weeds that were growing through the fence around the dog run. We've also had these boulders sitting in our front yard, that Eric & I hauled off of Mt. Ida, for two years now. Eric finally rigged up some contraption with a winch & cables & arranged them nicely so I decided to pretty them up!! I dug & raked & moved rocks (the smaller ones of course) & planted & placed decorative accents (old boot etc) which I moved around & around & around until they were exactly how I waned them. By the end of the day I had a sunburn & was very tired. Surprisingly enough my neck & shoulders didn't bother me at all, when I think I'm going to get them fired up it doesn't happen & when I don't think they're going to get fired up............ guess what!!

We run the show in this house & don't we know it!!

From left to right Betty Boop, Gizmo & Taz