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

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.