Touring the Town

Seeing as how we have started our initiation to the city of St. Catharines by getting into the local newspapers, I thought I would continue to familiarize myself with the various parts and services now available to us. Today I decided to visit one of the local hospitals with one of my managers from work. He played Solitaire on his palm pilot in the waiting room while I got the grand tour of the Prompt Care department. They gave me a really cool bracelet with my name on it and everything, and before I left Dr. Nour even gave me six stitches and a few bandages. Now I am at home trying to do laundry with one hand and feeling a bit bad that my hospital tour has made me unable to work till 6:30 like I was supposed to.
Maybe tomorrow I'll check out the police department.

This is my new bracelet

Five Seconds of Fame

Having lived in the city of St. Catharines for all of three weeks now, we decided it was about time to get officially introduced into our new community, and we thought the best way to do that was to get ourselves into the local paper. So, this week, Mike was interviewed by Niagara this Week, and I had my photo published in the Standard, St. Catharine's daily newspaper.

<-------- Rachel's article----------- Mike's article --------->

I'm underneath the "A" in "STAPLES"

In other news, the other day I came home from work, did some grocery shopping, and then left to pick Mike up at the school. Apparently the kitten (yes, still nameless, but responding well to "Kitty") had quite the time when we were out, discovering the joys of grocery bags.

What? I had nothing to do with this mess!

And now, for a word from the cat: Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyhhhhhhhxz.tl;XZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzlkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Not so interested in posing for the camera

New Addition!

Just to go along with having everything in our lives suddenly new and different, we took a trip to Fonthill last night to pick up a new member for our family. He is extremely amusing to play with, and just as amusing to watch as he amuses himself with random things around the house. We don't have a name picked out for him yet, but we're working on a list - it'll take a few days to see what kind of name will suit him. He's seven weeks old, and very very cute as you can tell! Perhaps if we aren't cute enough for people to want to come and visit us, our new kitten will lure friends and family to drop in :)

Aww! Yes, he got on the kitchen table by himself. We quickly realized tablecloth + kitty = potential mess

Endless fun

Well, maybe not so endless

Three Weeks Later Report #3

Feeling the need to get away after the busy-ness of the wedding and moving, Mike and I decided to take off to upstate New York to camp in the Adirondacks last week. Leaving Wednesday morning, we drove for many an hour down the I90 until we reached our campsite on Eighth Lake, The next morning we packed up again and headed northeast to see what we could see. Running into some rain, we headed for Lake Placid, where we discovered the COOLEST bookstore, which specialized in old books and tobacco. We spent quite some time there, musing through their collection and enjoying the atmosphere. When the rain stopped, we headed off for Buck Pond, where we set up tent for the next two nights. On Friday, we went to see Whiteface Mountain, where we drove up nearly to the top, and hiked the rest of the way to the peak. What a view! It is the fifth highest peak in NY state, and on a clear day you can see Quebec. It was definitely the highlight of our trip! Suffering from a severe case of bad-map-itis, we drove just shy of 200 kilometers that day. With about 10 miles to go on our way back to the site, Mike saw a sign reading "Whiteface Mountain - 14 miles" A word of warning to anyone out there who plans to camp in the Adirondacks: buy a GOOD map!! Saturday morning we hit the road again for home. We drove and drove and drove, and finally we got home. Back to work! Mike has been at Heritage for a few days already, going through materials and getting his curriculum in order. I started work this morning, learning lots of new things and meeting lots of new people. And so life keeps moving on!

Expert firewood-chopper hard at work

Our new favorite bookstore - too bad it's so far away!

Here we are at the peak of Whiteface Mountain- pretty high up!

A view from the top - if you look REALLY hard, you can see me! (top right corner)

Michael enjoying the view with Lake Placid in the background

It got very cold at night, into the mid 30's F, so bundling up was necessary. Unfortunately, we only brought one coat between the two of us, and that one was even by accident.

Three Weeks Later Report #2

The second big thing to report is that we have moved into our new house! With much appreciated help from our family and a few friends, all our belongings and furniture were carefully loaded onto a big greenhouse truck on one of the hottest, stickiest days of the summer. We caravan-ed it down to St Catharines with the heater stuck on full blast, unloaded everything into the house, and started organizing and settling in. Now, two weeks later, there are still a few boxes scattered here and there that haven't been unpacked, but on the whole this little house has been transformed into our first real home, and quite a cozy little one at that. We are learning new things everyday about our new surroundings: the random one-way streets, the convenience of close-by shopping centres, the cozy feeling of clock bells every hour, the sirens and trains of the city. We have yet to capitalize on the convenience of weekly garbage pickups, receive our first bills, or discover how the local library works, but we look forward to the many new discoveries which await us.

Yay! Our new keys!

Crossing the threshhold!!

Danielle and Mike building our new BBQ

All our earthly possessions are in that truck!

Eating our first BBQ with family

Three Weeks Later Report #1

Whew! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, throwing us into joyous celebrations, a new home, a new city, and new jobs for both of us. Excitement, anxiety, stress, fun, and happiness all thrown into a big pot and mixed around.
The first big thing to report is CONGRATULATIONS to Jeremy and Sarah on your wedding! We hope and pray that you will continue to grow closer together as you go down life's path hand in hand. The wedding was beautiful, and the whole day went so well. The bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome, and the bridal party looked wonderful. And, I must say, was that hall ever decorated well :)

Mr and Mrs Jeremy and Sarah Mulder

Bridal Party, pictured in Park Vander Deen

Mr. and Mrs. John Deere