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

Is it a Little Breezy in Here?

So, today I was at work, changing out of my biking clothes into my work clothes, and I learned something new about my not-so-new pants. Apparently, they have been washed too many times to remain extremely wearable. Yup, nice big rip, in a strategic location, resulting in a higly awkward situation for me. Trying to be creative with staples, tape, and the cut-off top part of my socks didn't result in a suitable remedy to my problems, so I made an emergency trip to the Dollarama for some needles and thread. Thankfully, it was the last day for those pants anyways since I'm working in aisles for the next few days instead of receiving. Why couldn't they have given up the ghost tomorrow instead?

Time Flies Like an Arrow; Fruit Flies Like a Banana

10 days left until we hit the road with all our stuff and start our new life out in St Catharines! It's crazy how time has gone by so quickly - it's been a busy two months since we bought our house on Victoria Day. We've started to do some serious packing - our storage room is organized into boxes, the books are off the shelves, anything hung on the walls is now packed, and the cupboards are getting emptier. Time is getting filled up with meetings with lawyers, insurance agents, bankers, and plumbers, and a long "to do" list seems to keep getting longer. Today is our last Sunday in Rehoboth - it feels weird to have people come up and say goodbye. Of course, we'll be back for visits every once in a while, but its strange to realize that contact from now on will be so limited! I was born and grew up in this congregation, and it's sad to leave. But of course, exciting to be moving to a new community, a new church, and a new city, meeting lots of new people and starting new jobs.
But before all of that "new" stuff begins, we've got an exciting week ahead of us. Although we have felt quite far away from all the planning, we hope to help as much as we can with any last minute preparations and details for a most exciting event coming up this very Saturday!! We are very much looking forward to attending Jeremy and Sarah's wedding, witnessing the vows they will make to each other, and celebrating with them the beginning of their new lives together. It's hard to believe that the day is almost upon us, and we are so very happy for them!! Congratulations guys! I'm sure I'll be posting a few pictures.
Anyways, it's Sunday afternoon, and I have about a hundred pages left to read in my book. The unfortunate thing is, in our packing frenzy last night, it was tucked away in one of the boxes that can be found in the pile which is taking up 1/3 of our living space. I'm really hoping it's near the top!

Our Living Room

Smaller

Either the rest of the world is a little bigger than normal today, or else I shrunk 5% overnight. I noticed this phenomenon this morning, when I was at work. There had to be a reason why I kept tripping over skids, boxes, and my own feet. There had to be a reason why all the skids that were delivered today seemed so much bigger than usual. There had to be a reason why everything was so much heavier today. It's just got to be that the size ratio of WORLD to RACHEL was meddled with overnight and the result has been an increase in clumsyness. Put yourself in my shoes for a moment: suddenly the juice jug on the refrigerator shelf is that much higher up than it used to be, and the door is that much bigger and easier to stub your toe on, and obstacles are that much harder to avoid running into. It's been an interesting day. I wonder if I'll be even smaller tomorrow.

Mike and his newly shorter wife

Mike and his newly shorter wife tomorrow

Our New Pet

Our exciting new news of the week is our new pet: we got a dog! When we first got him on Tuesday, he was very small and quiet. Now, it is Friday, and although he is still very quiet, he has grown quite a bit. He will be very cheap to feed, because he doesn't eat, and he will be very easy to clean up after, also because he doesn't eat. Apparently, he is supposed to grow to 400 times the size he was when we got him, but he seems to have stopped growing, at least for now. He doesn't take up a lot of room and doesn't require a lot of attention at all, so he should be all right being at home by himself when the two of us are off all day at work. We haven't named him yet but if you have any great suggestions, let us know.

On another note, here is our new fridge decoration:

I got this at work on Thursday when Walter Gretzky came to the store. What an exuberant man! He had brought a signed Gretzky Oilers jersey with him to give to an employee who was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few months ago - you may remember me posting about that quite a while ago. She is a big hockey fan, and she was really touched to know how much support and friendship she has among the staff at work. It really is a very supportive community with genuine concern for all the people holding the team together. It really has been a blessing in disguise to work for this company, for where I imagined it would be a job to "get by with", I have really enjoyed working with people who are not, shall we say, within the Bubble. I have learned a lot there, about other people, about the world, and about myself, and for the most part it has been a good experience to see what it is like working in a non-Christian environment. I know that at least a few people have noticed that there is something a little different about me, and it has been challenging to answer their questions in the best possible way. Explaining things from the ground up is not as easy as it may seem from a distance, especially when you're not so good at teaching. I know that I can rest in the assurance, though, that the Lord can still work through my bumbling attempts to accomplish His purposes.

Stolen Idea

With our digital camera off on a landscaping tour day, I find myself home and at the computer without photography to help me with my next post. So, probably because I've been out of school for over a year now and forget all those "school rules", I have fallen victim to an offense which university students are so often warned against: stealing an idea. But since I found the result somewhat entertaining, I have decided to overlook any misgivings about not being original - I googled "Rachel needs" and here are some of the more interesting results:

1. Rachel needs to have blush that is very bright and colorful.
2. Rachel needs some good thoughts.
3. Rachel needs guidance and normal supervision.
4. Rachel needs help when she enters Manhattan's meat-packing district to help three transvestite hookers find out who murdered one of their friends.
5. Rachel needs £5000.
6. Rachel needs to throw more bacon parties, so we can see her and the lil whipppersnapper more often.
7. Rachel needs time to chill out after classis is over.
8. Rachel needs a patient family that will be able to provide her with unconditional love, structure, guidance, and security.
9. Rachel needs to be killed by the Joker.
10. Rachel needs to buck-up.
11. Rachel needs to come to Europe tooooo. She nice!
12. Rachel needs to compare this article with one from a different newspaper.
13. Rachel needs to type the first letter of the word.
14. Rachel needs an escort for a charity ball.
15. Rachel needs to have two million dollars in order to not sell her husband's company.

And just to see what my hubby needs, to see if we can help each other out somewhere:

1. Mike needs a date
2. Mike needs a new van
3. Mike needs a nice general wash in the middle 2/3 of the stage
4. Mike needs a life
5. Mike needs your help.
6. Mike needs a new home!
7. Mike needs to pay more attention to detail when it comes to numbers
8. Mike needs to be told that he is an adult
9. Mike needs to be famous... and fast
10. Mike needs to be around real people.
11. Mike needs a helmet
12. Mike needs to update the bulletin board on the second floor
13. Mike needs to get a girl from the hospital
14. Mike needs no food
15. Mike needs to step up and run smash mouth football.

He's Baaaaack!!

Oh no. I'm hearing "check one two, check one two" from the backyard, and I know that means trouble. I came home from work today at the usual time, and plopped in front of the computer to check email and catch up on some blogs. The daycare below us is closed at 5, so usually things are just wrapping up when I get home at about 4:30, and you can hardly tell we live on top of a childcare center except for the playground equipment outside our windows. I noticed at about 5:15 that not only were the kids not yet gone, they were much louder than usual, and there seemed to be an inordinate amount of noise and activity going on. I figured out that there must be a daycare BBQ today, which made sense when I looked at the parking lot and noticed it was stuffed with parental cars. Ok, I thought, a BBQ is fine, I can deal with a little noise. As long as Chester the Clown doesn't show up like he did last summer, I'll be fine. Last year, Chester came in his full glory, dressed up in costume, telling (apparently) hilarious jokes, and pumping out the Barney music. By the time he left, my brain had turned into a watery mush and I was curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor, holding my ears closed. Another look outside confirms it: Chester is here, and Chester is here with a vengeance, although this time not as a clown but as a sequin-y magical man and his name is Marvin. Help!

Marvin and Emma With A Magic Handkerchief

Golf

After a particularly long and busy day at work today, I headed off to the Knollwood golf course with a group of other employees for a late afternoon golf tournament. Well, actually, let's not consider it a "tournament" because I don't have a chance in the world at winning anything if we start getting all competitive; instead, it was a golf game. Isn't golf all about fun anyways? I had an enjoyable time, golfing with the managers, and wishing we were the ones who had splurged on the golf carts and were having fun squealing the tires. We were the last of our group to play through, and by the time we got to the last hole we had an audience sitting by the hole, laughing and commenting, but mostly laughing. I was glad that my best drive was for that hole! Pictured is me, taking a fantastic shot in the sunset.
Full day of work + golf = sore feet

Crayola

Come back in time with me to when you were a kid. You're in a creative mood, and you pull out the markers and the paper, and you spread out your stash on the kitchen table in preparation for an afternoon of drawing and coloring. You decide the first picture you will draw will be of your house. So you draw your house, although it probably doesn't look much like your house because your house probably isn't square with a triangle on top. But it'll do.

Now that your house is done, what else could you draw next except your family? So you draw Dad and Mom, yourself, whatever siblings you might have, and perhaps even the family cat or dog. You encounter a problem, though, when you start sifting through your markers to bring some color to your paper. Your skin tone will have to be either white, yellow, orange, pink, or some variation of the three, which unfortunately doesn't work too well with markers. Perhaps drawing people with markers is just an impossibility?

An impossibility no longer. I received a shipment of Crayola products at Staples this week, in which I discovered a new box of markers meant to solve these coloring problems. They were called "Multicultural" markers, and they included eight skin-tone colors including Tan, Beige, Tawny, Gold, Beige, Bronze, Terra Cotta, Mahogany and Sienna. Gone are the days where children present their parents with family portraits where each family member appears highly sick with some strange skin disease - now realism has become an option. Well, perhaps an idealistic realism - I think I'll do a self portrait with the "Tan" marker . . .