My How Time Flies

I knew that April was going to be a busy month.  But, I can't believe how quickly it disappeared!

We had planned months ago to have Easter dinner at our house, with my family.  It is usually just easiest for us to host family dinners.  Then Jason has access to a good bathroom, and doesn't have to worry about being hauled up and down stairs.  We also thought it might be nice to have Jason's parents up for the weekend, as we hadn't seen them since we shared our big news at Christmas time.  We did have a nice visit, but the weekend was full of work projects and cooking/tidying and hosting 18 people for Easter dinner on Saturday.  But we did get to enjoy a nice Easter brunch at the German Cultural Centre on Sunday morning before they headed for home.

The biggest project of the weekend was getting the baby's room set up.  Dale and I spent probably 4-5 hours on Saturday assembling a dresser and crib from Ikea.  I am really pleased with how they look, and I am sure the dresser will be used for many years to come.  Because of the setup in our house, the baby's room will be in our spare bedroom, so we had to move the guest bed out of there and into the rumpus room area of our basement.  Then I had the great idea of moving our old leather reclining couch into the baby's room, as place to lay/sit/feed the baby.  I don't know if I had done any measuring, but for some reason, I assumed that we would be able to get this behmoth of a couch around a 90 degree corner in a hallway.  I was starting to doubt that it would be able to be moved into there.  But my ingenious father-in-law and father made it work, and the couch is now in that room.  We did figure that by the time we are ready to move the couch out of that room, that it may need to come out in pieces.  We will see, haha.

Also, months ago, we decided, that since we will be sticking close to home this summer, that we would like to get away for a weekend to Calgary while I am still feeling good enough to go.  We chose the weekend after Easter, expecting that we would have some nicer weather, considering it was the end of April (haha, right!).  We did have fine weather for traveling, but the Saturday that we were in Calgary it rained/snowed for the better part of the day, and just was cool and not all that nice.  Thankfully on Sunday the sun came out and we were able to get outside a bit and enjoy some fresh air.  We did a lot of shopping on Saturday, which is always hectic and tiring, so I was glad on Sunday that we had a much more relaxed day.  We went and hung out at a small farmer's market just north of Calgary, that I stumbled upon after Jason Chadney recommended a coffee shop to us.  The coffee shop's first location was at this little market, and now they have 3 or 4 other locations in the city.  It was nice to browse and talk to the vendors and try a lot of generous samples. 

In the afternoon we ventured in to downtown Calgary.  We had always avoided downtown, as it seemed kind of intimidating, but after our trip to Vancouver and Seattle last summer, we felt pretty invincible, and Jason did a great job getting us around the city.  We spent the afternoon checking out the Core Shopping Centre and walking down Stephen Avenue to the Olympic Plaza.  It was a much more relaxed day.  (Except for the fact that the only bathrooms in that mall are on the 4th floor (in the food court area) and there was only ONE freakin' elevator that EVERYONE wanted to take.  So usually it was at least a 5-10 minute wait to get on the elevator and it was always packed like sardines in there.  Seems like a pretty big design flaw :P

I also decided a couple of months ago that I should tackle some of the continuing education credits that I need to get before the end of next year.  Since I will likely be tied pretty closely to home until at least next spring, I started looking closely at any of the course offerings that were coming up.  There was one, that was kind of expensive, but was three days long, and would give me just over half of my required credits.  So, I believe I will now only need about 10 more credits in the next year and a half, which seems much less daunting.  There are even online courses that I can take for free to get one or two credits, so that is probably what I will do next year to fill the rest of the requirement.

My course was this weekend, and was really good.  It sounded somewhat interesting, so that is why I was willing to jump in and pay the money for it.  It was called Ligamentous Articular Strain Technique for the upper body and extremities.  I am not sure that I will incorporate every technique I learned into practice, but will definitely be using my clients as guinea pigs in the next little while to try out some of the things I learned.  The guy who taught the course was really engaging and down to earth, and I think I would be willing to take more courses from him in the future.

So, now that those three very busy weekends are behind me, I feel like I have some time to breathe, and relax and prepare for baby.  There is not THAT much that we need to do or prepare.  I need to pick up a few things in the next couple of months, but I feel better now that baby's room is painted and furniture is set up.  We are taking prenatal classes through the health region starting at the beginning of June.  They run for one evening/week for three weeks.  I hope that they are interesting and informative.  Time is really flying by....and I think this baby is going to be here before we know it!  And life will change....but that's okay :)

Thoughts on Vancouver, Our Hotel and Mr. Strokey

Thoughts on Vancouver

• Vancouver is a lovely city with lots to see (I would definitely go back, I want to see more!)
• There were more hills than we anticipated.  I knew it was on the coast and that there were mountains close by, but wow, there were some crazy steep hills.
• There are no freeways in Vancouver.  Seems so odd to see a city this size without a large network of freeways.
• For the most part, we found the traffic fairly manageable.  There were times that it was slow moving, but it did seem to move.
• I was surprised to be able to find parking easily everywhere we went.  I was also surprised at times to find free parking (ex Granville Island and Vandusen Botanical Gardens)
• It was cool to be surrounded by such diversity.  There were a number of times we looked around and were definitly in the miniorty as caucausians.  We have had a pretty sheltered life in Saskatchewan, though we do have a lot more diversity than we used to.
• It was my first time seeing the ocean.  It was beautiful (though, I would like to see a tropical ocean...).  I enjoyed being at Stanley Park, Granville Island, etc where there was water and lots of boats docked.  Just something you don't see on the prairies.
• I assume it's because of all the big hills in the area, but we found in Vancouver and Seattle they had some really tall bridges.  It was kind of freaky going over a bridge that was so high!
• We were a little confused at first with all the green blinking traffic lights.  But soon figured out that they were places where there was pedestrian controlled crossing.  So they would blink green until a pedestrian pushed the button then they would turn red to allow them to cross.  There were also a lot of speed bumps on roads in residential areas.
• I had heard about the number of homeless people there from friends who had been.  We were asked a few times for spare change, mainly when we were down by Canada Place.  But we did see a sidewalk just full of homeless people as we drove by in another area.  Definitely something that we don't see a whole lot of in Saskatoon...

Our Hotel
We stayed at the Holiday Inn and Suites North Vancouver.  I tried to research each hotel for our holiday and found a couple of options in the Vancouver area that seemed to offer good accessibility.  In the end it came down to the Holiday Inn because I liked it's location better, and it seemed nicer overall.  When we pulled in Sunday night I was immediately impressed by the exterior of the hotel.  There were beautiful flower gardens and big evergreen trees all around.  Right by the front entrance there was a fountain and just across from that was a little man made waterfall next to a totem pole.  The lobby was very classy looking.

 (Biggest hosta I have ever seen!  It was probably 2-3 feet tall!)

Whenever we stay in a hotel on a vacation I always hold my breath until we see the room.  You can only tell so much about a room from photos online.  I had emailed with a staff member a couple of times to learn a bit about the setup of their accessible room with the roll-in shower.  It looked like a spacious room with an ideal setup.  When we entered the room we were not disappointed.  The bed height was perfect!  We have learned that the height of the bed can make or break a hotel experience for us.  If Jay cannot get into the bed, or really struggles to get in/out, it really makes for a frustrating experience.  We also realized that if the bed is not the right height, it makes it impossible for him to get in and out of his shower chair.  Thankfully the bed height in our hotel was ideal.  The room was very spacious with a king sized bed as well as a couch that could be pulled out for more sleeping space.

 (The view from the door of the room.  The door on the right is the bathroom door.)

 (Nice granite vanity with a roll under sink.  They provided a basket of extra bath mats because as you see in the next photo, the shower curtain was too short so you ended up with a bit of puddle on the floor after showering.)

 (An extra little 'kitchen' area with a microwave, fridge and sink.  It was handy to have an extra sink.)

 (The height of the bed and distance from the wall.  If you look closely you can see that the bed should be against the night stand, based on where the headboard is mounted on the wall.  Thankfully the bed was on legs so I could slide it over a few inches.)

 (Nice, spacious room.  Under all of our stuff was a foldout love seat and a coffee table.)

 (There was a nice desk/office area and another small table for sitting to eat.)

I think the only down sides to the room were that the roll in shower was a bit small, and the setup of the shower was not ideal for use with a shower wheelchair.  However, we were able to make it work and Jay was able to shower.  Also, the side of the bed that Jay is most comfortable transferring into was a little too close to the wall.  Thankfully, I was able to slide the bed over a few inches, which allowed him to get his chair beside the bed.  Other than these things, the room was so quiet and the bed was comfy.  Even though on two of the nights we stayed, there was a group of high school kids staying in the rooms around us, we heard them a bit until 10pm then it was quiet (the hotel gave me a call shortly after I had booked it, to let us know that this would be the case).

Mr. Strokey
 That is the nickname we gave to the GPS that we borrowed from my parents.  I know we could have used our phones for GPS while in Canada, but thought we would conserve battery life for other things, and use the GPS.  It did well, as long as you had an address for it to navigate through.  However, we found that it had difficulty when we got into downtown Vancouver.  I don't know if it was the tall buildings, or just too much interference from other electronics, but it would lose it's position and you would be in the middle of a road, nowhere near a corner and it would be telling you to turn right, etc.  We commented that the GPS was stroking out, and from there started to call it Mr. Strokey (it has a male voice).  Thankfully we also had a paper map, so we had an idea of where we were headed, but it was nice to have the GPS when we missed a corner or something, so it could reroute us quickly.  We did not ever end up getting a paper map of Seattle, so we depended on Mr. Strokey entirely in that city.  We would usually look at a map online before leaving the hotel, so we had an inkling as to what direction we were headed, but the GPS was our navigator.  After driving in Seattle, I believe that having a paper map would have been next to useless with all the exits/on ramps/weird corners, etc in that city.  Thankfully he did not seem to have a problem in Seattle, and we made it to all of our destinations in one piece.   

West Coast Vacation - Part 2 - The drive to Vancouver

We set out on June 15 with me behind the wheel with a destination of Hinton, AB.  It is about an eight hour drive from Saskatoon, not including stops along the way.  It rained the better part of the way, but I appreciated that we had a divided highway all the way to Hinton.  It was a positive experience for Jay as a passenger, as it was mainly flat, straight roads, so he was able to enjoy surfing the net and posting pics on Instagram while we traveled.  There were no major excitement during the trip.  Except for one deer that ran across the road a good distance ahead of us, the drive was uneventful.  I think the anticipation of the next two weeks of activities helped the boring day of travel pass and it didn't feel too bad.  I have never driven that far before, and other than a little stiffness, I felt pretty good.

Our hotel in Hinton was not spectacular, but thankfully we were only spending one night there.  The bed was comfortable enough, and the room was clean.  The hotel was not terribly accessible, but I did write a review on Trip Advisor to hopefully help others avoid this hotel who might be looking for accessible hotels.  We ordered pizza in to the hotel from Gus's Pizza, and it was a really loaded pizza that was tasty, but maybe a bit heavy for our first restaurant meal of the trip.

We set out at around 7:45 the next morning as we knew it was a longer drive to Vancouver than it had been to Hinton.  The nice thing about this day of driving, though, was as soon as you pass Hinton you are into Jasper National Park with some amazingly beautiful scenery.  Even though we spent about 11.5 hours on the road this day, the scenery and the need to pay close attention helped the time to feel like it passed quickly.

  I had heard people talk about the Coquihalla Highway before.  All they really said is how the traffic moves quickly through that stretch of highway.  No one prepared me for the insane slopes and the heavy, fast paced traffic (three lanes going each way, 110km/hr speed limit, but most people probably going 120+).  There were a few moments when my heart felt like it was in my throat.  I knew that this was a seriously crazy highway when every so often you see a runaway lane.  And most of the runaway lanes were gravel and had tire tracks in them....which means people have had to use them.  Crazy!

(I took this video after we had driven the steepest part of the highway and through the tunnel.  This might not seem too bad, but it was steep!  Also, apparently by this point we were down to two lanes, and didn't have cars on all sides like we did earlier)

Once we made it through the craziness of the Coquihalla, it seemed like smooth sailing. Even though by this point we had been on the road for probably at least 10 hours, we were still feeling pretty good. Once we got to Abbotsford the traffic slowed to a standstill and we crawled a couple of kilometers in 40 minutes. I was not feeling very happy about that.

According to the sign we still had about 65km to go to Vancouver and by this point we had been in the van for about 11 hours. However, after 40 minutes the traffic started moving and we were wondering what had held us up. The crazy thing about traffic in big centers is there is often no sign of what caused the holdup. No accident, no car broken down blocking a lane. No, just no traffic movement. We were baffled, but happy to be moving again. It was a quick little jaunt after this to our hotel in North Vancouver and we were happy to arrive.

West Coast Vacation - Part 1

I would like to write a series of posts about our vacation, and share some photos so I can look back and remember our time away.  I think if I wrote it as one post, it would be a small novel, so I will try to sort it into a few manageable categories, and write a few posts.

A couple of months ago we started to think about our summer holiday.  Since we didn't do much of a holiday last year (Drumheller and the lake) we wanted to do something fun this summer.  We threw around the idea of going down to the states, or Calgary or Edmonton.  But we have done Calgary and Edmonton a lot and looking at driving upwards of 12 hours just to see Mount Rushmore seemed kind of underwhelming.  I talked to a client who has been living out in Victoria off and on for a couple of years, and she drives back and forth to Saskatoon quite often.  She said she can usually drive to Vancouver in about 17 hours in good weather.  We started to talk about it, and thought that if we could handle the driving, that we would love to see a new city, and see the west coast.

It took a lot of consideration, because 17-18 hours of driving just to get there seemed like an awful lot.  But the more we talked about it, and were able to figure out a way to make Jay comfy as a passenger in his van, so we could share the driving, we decided to go for it.  We had initially thought that we would go to Vancouver then on to Victoria then down to Seattle before heading home.  When we started looking at the number of days we would like to spend in each place, our trip was starting to look more like 16-18 days long, which seemed like too much.  We ended up settling on a 15 day trip that included two days of driving to Vancouver, four full days in Vancouver, driving to Seattle, four full days in Seattle, then a stop in Spokane, Great Falls and Lac Pelletier (at the cabin) before heading home.

It was a bit overwhelming thinking about packing up and leaving for two weeks because I think the longest we have ever been away is for a week.  It took some planning, and we wrote many lists, but I think the only thing we ended up forgetting was an umbrella that I had purchased especially for this trip!  (Thankfully we had almost perfect weather, and didn't need it!)  When the trip was done, I realized that I had over packed in a few places, and could have packed more in others.

Shhh

Sorry things have been so quiet here lately.  I often feel like if I were to sit down and write a blog more often that they would all sound the same. 

I have had a couple of pretty slow weeks with work.  It was looking like this week would pick up, then in the last couple of days I have had four cancellations.  Most of them re-booked, and I appreciate having advance notice for cancellations, but it makes for a slow week for me.  My next appointment isn't until Friday afternoon now.  Next week is looking better since a number of the cancellations from this week re-booked for next week. 

I am hoping to get out once the wind stops blowing like crazy and hand out some more flyers.  I did some down our street last week and I have had one call already.  If this works, I will keep handing out flyers in the area.  I would still like to put an ad in the community newsletter, but missed the June deadline and will be ready for the September one.

I booked our summer holiday last week.  We are going to take a trip out to Drumheller for a couple of days in July.  Our plans include taking in the Tyrrell Museum, Reptile World and going to see Anne of Green Gables at the dinner theatre in Rosebud.  After that we will drive back to Swift Current and spend a few days out at the cabin before heading home.  I am sure it will be a great week!

I think otherwise, our summer will be spent relaxing out on our deck as much as possible.  These few precious summer months are so short and we need to savor them.

Day Trip

This weekend, we are taking a day trip out to Emma and Christopher lakes to visit some friends and family.  I am excited to go!  We don't often take day trips....and honestly, I don't know if there is much around here that is worth day trip-ing to see, or maybe I am just uninformed.  I was thinking if it is going to be as nice as they are saying that it might be fun to take a bathing suit along, just in case :)

I always get this amazing excited feeling when I turn off the highway to go through Christopher Lake and as I approach the Camp Kadesh sign I get butterflies in my stomach.  Just so many great memories and times spent at that place.  Hopefully it doesn't pour rain like it did last time we were there.  I look forward to visiting with Arleen and Arlen!  It will also be fun to visit with Jason's aunt Doreen at Emma Lake.  We haven't seen her in ages!

Summer Holiday 2011

Warning:  This blog post is really long, and quite boring.

After we knew that the new van would arrive in a timely manner, we decided to book a hotel for four nights in Calgary for our holiday this summer.  We had toyed with the idea of a trip to the USA, but after humming and hawing about it, and not knowing exactly how long the new van would take to get here, we didn't get around to getting passports done in time.  I felt like going to Calgary after trips to Edmonton the last two summers.

We left on Monday morning with me behind the wheel!  I figured that I would not be entirely comfortable driving the new van in Calgary, so thought if I drove the first leg of the trip, and then we switched after a few hours that I could give Jay a bit of a break from driving, but still allow him to do the driving in the bigger city.  I think I did pretty well.  Except for the farmer that decided Monday morning would be a good time to take his auger for a trip down the highway.  When I finally got up the courage to pass (I am sort of wussy with passes that are even the slightest bit iffy) I ended up having to pass him and one other car in one shot and the distance between the two was a little greater than I first anticipated.  I ended up going close to 150km/hr by the time I got passed them both and tucked myself back in.  All the other passing was fine, even on a moderately busy highway.  We stopped to eat our sandwiches at Oyen and that is when we switched driving positions.

When we got to Calgary it was around 5pm so we headed to our hotel, The Glenmore Inn and Convention Centre to check in and unload.  We got to our room, their "barrier free" room, only to find the bed was about six inches too high for Jay to be able to transfer himself into it.  *sigh*  Also, they told me that they have a roll-in shower....I don't know what they think a roll-in shower is....but that was a tub, which in no way can be rolled into.  Thankfully we didn't waste the effort of bringing along his shower chair!  As for the bed we went and talked to the front desk and they paged the maintenance guy to our room.  While we waited for him, we figured out that if they could remove the bed frame, with the box spring and mattress it should about the right height.  I pulled the mattress and box spring off the frame and found it to be attached to the wall with 2 screws.  So when the maintenance guy came, he took the screws out and took the bed frame out of the room and helped me put the box spring and mattress back down and it was almost ideal. 

The hotel itself was decent.  The bed was comfortable and the room was clean.  The location of our room was not ideal (ie right next to the bar/restaurant, the first room at the start of a long hallway with lots of people walking down, and also right near an elevator), however, we left the bathroom fan running, and the fan running on the heater/air conditioner unit and it allowed us to sleep quite soundly. 

The first night, after we checked in we headed over to Joey's Grill (used to be Joey Tomatoes) in the Chinook Centre.  We ate there three years ago (I have been a few other times with other people too) and we always enjoy it.  Jay was a little adventurous and had a lobster grilled cheese and just loved it.  I had a shrimp curry dish that was SO tasty.  After supper we meandered through the Chinook Centre but didn't buy anything.  I think since I was there last there is a Victoria's Secret store (I only took a quick peek inside, and couldn't believe how HUGE it is) and a Williams Sonoma.  What a great store, though kind of pricey.  If I had lots of money I would stock my kitchen from that store.

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early and headed for the Calgary Zoo.  We probably spent a good 3-4 hours there and I have to say the highlight was seeing their baby giraffe, Jengo.  He was born in February, so he isn't teeny tiny, but still awfully cute.  We had lunch at the zoo, and were reminded about how awful their cafeteria burgers are there.  Note to self:  if you have lunch at the zoo again, have a hot dog....I figure hot dogs are pretty reliable even if they are sort of low quality.  After the zoo we headed to Market Mall to look around.  I bought a black cardigan from Jacob.  I had been wanting a light cardigan for a while, and this one was $20 and I think is pretty nice so I got it.  When we were done browsing at the mall it wasn't quite supper time yet, so we decided to head over to the Signal Hill box mall to look around.  They have a Shoe Company store over there and I wanted to check it out.  We also looked in a few other stores before deciding to try the Phoenix Grill.  We were impressed!  There were multiple things on the menu we wanted to try, but being the suckers for burgers that we are, we both ended up ordering off of their promotional burger menu (only available on Mon and Tues).  I had something called the Tropical Turkey burger....it had mango salsa, cole slaw, and an orange soy glaze on a whole wheat bun.  It was really tasty!

While we were eating our supper at the Phoenix, it started raining, lightning and thundering.  Then the hail started.  Thank goodness they were just tiny little hail stones so no damage to the new van.  When it seemed to be letting up we made a dash for the van and headed back toward the hotel.  As we drove there was some pretty intense lightning and thunder and VERY heavy rain.  Heavy to the point that we were considering pulling over, but thought we would just take it slow and keep going.  We were headed east down Glenmore Trail when all of a sudden the traffic came to a screeching halt.  We weren't sure what was going on until we started to see people pulling over to the side and realized that it was flooded under the McLeod Trail overpass on Glenmore Trail.  There were about 5 cars ahead of us and I could see a couple of cars stalled out in the 2-3 foot deep water.  Somehow a firetruck managed to pull it's way through the traffic and blocked access so no other yahoos could get stuck in the flood.  We pulled over right to the right hand side of the road and waited and waited and waited.  Finally, after a little over an hour it had drained enough to allow us through and we were on our way back to the hotel for the night.  So thankful we didn't get stuck in the water!

Wednesday we had planned to meet up with some friends in Banff for the day.  We had gotten an email Tuesday though, that due to some car problems they wouldn't be able to make it too Banff, so we were flying solo.  It's a nice, and surprisingly quick drive into the mountains from Calgary.  When we got into the park our first stop was Lake Minnewanka.  I had heard about an accessible boat cruise of the lake (I believe they had said it is about 27km long).  We went to check it out, and while it wasn't ideal, I was able to get Jay down to the loading dock.  There were some short, though ridiculously steep ramps to get onto the different sections of dock, but I was told that the cruise that we had arrived for at 11am would be their most accessible boat.  And sure enough it was almost level with the dock when it was next to the dock.  The problem was, that when you were on the boat there was bench seating on either side with an aisle in the middle.  If Jay would have sat in the aisle, no one would have been able to get past him.  So we opted to sit in the back, over the motor, which was incredibly loud.  We shared the back part with an older man who fancied himself to be some sort of photographer.  He came back and right away opened up the big window in the back so he could get better pictures.  Though he was rather unsteady on his feet, and I had quite a few visions of him falling head first into the lake as he leaned out the window and walked from side to side to capture different photos.  All in all, it was a neat experience.  I don't think it was worth the price we paid, being that we could barely hear anything the guide was talking about during the ride.  It was loud, and cold with the windows open in the back part of the boat.  We probably should have pushed our way up to the front and just sat in the aisle, but we didn't and so it wasnt' as good as it maybe could have been.  However, Jay got to go in a boat, which is a pretty rare occurrence for him.

After our boat tour we were happy to get back in the van and crank up the heat to warm up and cruised around the Banff area a bit.  We were quite surprised just how busy it was in the town of Banff.  So many people walking on the sidewalks.  After a quick lunch from Subway we headed out to drive to Johnston Canyon.  I hadn't heard much about it's accessibility, other than the path to the lower falls was paved.  I thought that was a good sign.  My sister commented that she did the hike with her youngest son in a stroller, so I thought we would be okay.  When we got there, it didn't take us long to realize that we would be silly to go much further than we did.  After a super steep push up the very first part of the trail, we decided that we should probably head back before we get into trouble further down the path.  *sigh*  Jay was able to get down to a little river with a bridge and get some nice photos of it.  Mountain streams are so pretty.

When we got back to Banff we drove over to the Banff Springs Hotel and that is quite a sight to see!  It is so posh looking.  I would love to see inside!  I had read about Bow Falls just behind the hotel, so on a whim we pulled in to see if it was accessible at all, and it was!  The was fun.  We hung out there for a while as it rained off and on and had a good look and took some photos.  By then it was getting to be supper time so we headed to the Old Spaghetti Factory for supper.  It was delicious!  I wonder if we will ever get one in Saskatoon?!  I am sure they would do great here!

Thursday's goal was shopping!  We went to Ikea in the morning and spent an hour or so browsing.  We came away with some spice jars, a mirror, a blanket, some curtains for Karen and a 5ft long stuffed snake for Kiwi.  We also bought some nice Swedish food items, like chocolate bars, Swedish fish candy, blueberry syrup and flat bread cracker thingys.  After Ikea we went to Cross Iron Mills mall.  It is a relatively new mall just north of Calgary and I really enjoyed it.  I couldn't believe we ended up spending about five hours there.  We never spend that much time at a mall!  We had lunch in the food court then went to check out Bass Pro Shops.  It is such a neat store!  Even though I am not at all into hunting, fishing, or camping.  It is a sight to see with all the stuffed animals and the fish tank and the waterfall.  Pretty neat!  We spent the majority of the rest of the shopping looking for a hat for Jay.  He tried on a LOT of hats, but settled on one from Le Chateau, and I think it makes him look very handsome :)  I ended up getting a new pair of jeans from the Gap Outlet store there.  We decided to have supper that evening at Big T's BBQ.  I ate at that restaurant with my family after grandpa's funeral and I thought it was quite good.  Jay enjoyed it too.  He was adventurous and tried some catfish.  I tried a bite, and really it didn't taste any different than any other white fish I have had.  I had smoked chicken breast and it came with cole slaw, baked beans, onion rings and corn bread.  Mmm I love corn bread :)

We had brunch at our hotel Friday morning then we were on the road by about 10am.  We drove through rain most of the way home.  Other than a couple of very inconsiderate drivers (ie being tailgated at 100km/hr by a semi) it was a pretty uneventful drive home.  It was good to get home and see Kiwi.  She was so excited to see us.  Holidays always sneak up and then disappear so quickly.  It was a good week, and I am glad we were able to go and enjoy ourselves.  The new van was a really nice vehicle to ride in on the highway.  It has plenty of power for passing, and nice smooth suspension. 

Home

It is good to be home.  Holidays were good, and I will write a more detailed outline of what we did after I have had a chance to rest and recover a little.  I know, I know, holidays are supposed to be relaxing.  But I would say for us, since our lives are pretty laid back to begin with, holidays are a lot more 'go go' then we are used to.  Still good, but busy!

I will leave you with a photo of Jay at Bow Falls in Banff.  We were thrilled to find a waterfall that was actually accessible.  Jay got some awesome shots of it, so I am sure he will share some in the next while over on his site.  But here is a glimpse of what it looks like!

I see dead people...

We went to the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina this weekend to take in the Our Body: The Universe Within display. Well we actually went to Regina to participate in the baptism for our friend's son, but thought we would kill two birds with one stone. The display was very interesting! It reminded me a bit of going to the cadaver lab when I was in massage school, without the stink of formaldehyde.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it is a very extensive display of specially preserved whole cadavers as well as partial specimens (ie upper limb, lower limb, organs, etc). I have always been fascinated with the human body and learning anatomy and physiology. I think initially looking at the specimens I felt like they were made out of plastic but when I mentally realized that they were actually real people at one point....well it disturbed me on some level. Seeing things like hair on the skin and fingernails grossed me out more than seeing a body dissected apart. However, I was able to look past the grossness of it to have a great refresher course in anatomy.

After we were done looking at the display, I would estimate we spent about an hour looking at it, we went to see an IMAX movie. I love IMAX! I wish we had one in Saskatoon. We saw the show Wild Ocean which was about the migration of the sardines along the east coast of South Africa and how all the different predators (ie dolphins, sharks, seals, birds, humans, etc) all gather together and the ocean is alive hundreds and hundreds of these predators to have their feed of sardines. And the shoals of sardines are incredibly large. From an aerial view the sardine shoals looked like an oil slick on the water. What a cool documentary!

Lazy

I can't believe I haven't blogged for 2 weeks! Haha. I wonder if anyone still checks this space. I really haven't been THAT busy, I just sometimes wonder if anyone likes to read my droning on about my boring life. :)

After we got home from Jasper we had a few days at home. I did some housework and some reading and went berry picking (yummy fresh strawberries and saskatoons). Then on Wednesday we headed out to Swift Current and on to Lac Pelletier until Saturday. We really didn't do much out there. We did a lot of relaxing on the new covered deck out there. I read my book and we visited and I took Kiwi swimming. I managed to go for one run out at the lake but it was really warm by 9am and there are lots of hills and no shade, so I didn't get too far before I figured that I should turn around and head back while I still had some energy to spare. We, as always, got fed amazingly delicious food :)

Once we were home, we had a couple of days to recover before I went back to work last week. We went to see Inception on Monday and it was really good! It feels like it has been ages since we saw a good movie based on a fairly original idea. Tuesday it was back to work after two awesome weeks off!

This past weekend I headed out to Carrot River with my parents and my sister to go to a celebration of my Uncle Elmer's 80th birthday (that's my dad's oldest sister, Judy's husband). I had not been out to Carrot River since my grandma's funeral 5 1/2 years ago. A good number of my cousins and all of my aunts and uncles were there (dad has 7 remaining siblings out of 10). At the birthday celebration there were close to 100 people including family and friends.

They had the party out at their 'farm' which is a piece of land that belonged to Uncle Elmer's family when he was a kid. There is no farm house on this section of land, but it is set up beautifully with lots of trees and a number of garden plots where family and friends of the family plant huge vegetable gardens. They have also built a couple of very rustic (ie no running water or electricity) cabins on the lot with a couple of good old fashioned outhouses.

I couldn't believe how big and beautiful the gardens are! Someone told me that my cousin Ron (my oldest cousin, he's 3 years younger than my dad) and his daughter Collette (she's my age) planted 400 tomato plants! Can you imagine?! They were kind enough to let my sister and I each pick a few veggies that were ready, so we got some carrots, kohlrabi, onions, beans and a couple of tiny cucumbers and zucchinis. I couldn't believe how tall their corn was. Must have been at least 10 feet tall! I am such a city girl.....easily impressed by the idea of growing vegetables.

That takes care of the last couple of weeks.....in case you wondered if I had fallen off the face of the planet :)

Edmonton and Jasper

Now that I feel that I have a chance to recuperate from our trip I will share some of the details of the trip. (Warning: This is likely going to be a really long post.)

We left for Edmonton on Sunday morning and got into town around 2pm. Since it was too early to check into our hotel room we had decided to go check out the Edmonton Zoo. We found our way there and I have to say it wasn't too bad. It was definitely not as big/extensive as the Calgary Zoo. I would compare it size-wise to the Saskatoon Zoo but it definitely had a lot more exotic animals. I would say the highlight of the zoo visit was being about 3-4 feet away from an uncaged elephant. They were moving her between two buildings and we just happened to stumble on her between buildings so Jay got some pretty cool pictures of her without a cage in the way. After that we went to check into our hotel (same hotel and same room as last summer! I have to say there is something nice about a familiar hotel...knowing what to expect). Then it was on to the Olive Garden for supper. YUM! Amazing food! Then back to our hotel for an early night so we could get on the road to Jasper early the next day.

Monday morning we headed to Jasper. I always find it interesting to travel a highway that I have never traveled before. I wondered how long it would take before we started getting into the foot hills and when we would be able to see the mountains. It was a rainy day so we finally got our first glimpse of the mountains in Hinton. I have to say that Hinton is a very smelly town. We could smell it miles before we even got there. We didn't know what we were smelling until we saw the big pulp mill when we drove through the town looking for a nice place to park to eat our bagels that we had liberated from the hotel's free breakfast offerings. We finally settled on the Canadian Tire parking lot. We then carried on the last short stretch to Jasper. I have to say we were quite awed by the mountains. Both of us being prairie kids through and through and not having been to the mountains since we were in our early teens. They are so big and beautiful! We drove around Jasper a little bit then decided to see if we could locate our cabin. We managed to find it and even though it was at least 2 hours early, we stopped in to see if our cabin was ready and it was. We quickly unpacked and headed to Pyramid Lake. Very nice place. And while we were there the sky cleared up and the sun came out. We stumbled upon a ramp that lead down to a bridge across part of Pyramid lake to a small island with some benches and paths on it. We hung out there for a while then headed back. I can't remember exactly what else we did after that. But our cabin had a kitchenette and we planned to prepare/cook most of our meals, so we headed back there for supper. After supper we strolled around the group of cabins where we were staying (which just happened to be right beside the Athabasca River) and called it a night.

Tuesday morning we planned to drive down the Maligne Lake road. We headed off down the road and stopped at a very nice look out point with a gorgeous view of mountains. After taking some pictures and just taking in the awesomeness we carried on. I was pretty sure that Maligne Canyon was not going to be very accessible, but we stopped in just so I could take a quick look. I soon realized that there would be no way for Jay to maneuver the path so I walked down for a few minutes and took some pictures and headed back to the van and we carried on. The next stop was Medicine Lake. It is a neat lake because, from what I read, it nearly disappears at certain times of the year because it drains into underground river systems. When we were there it was quite full and looked deep. Part way around the lake we saw a bunch of cars pulled over at the side of the road and figured that could only mean there was some sort of wildlife near by. We stopped and looked and couldn't see anything. Jay told me to grab his camera and zoom in as much as I could and see what I could see. I finally was able to see a little head swimming across at the far side of the lake. I wasn't sure what it was until it came out the other side and I saw the side of it and could tell that it was a female moose. We carried on our way and eventually made it to Maligne Lake. It was a nice lake with some walking paths. I think their big thing is boat cruise tours (which I emailed about and found out it's not accessible). We walked a bit even though it was starting to sprinkle a little then headed back to a picnic spot we had seen on the way in that was next to a river. I think the highlight of driving the Maligne Lake road was just the magnificent scenery and mountains. They are right next to the road and are so big. You feel so small when you are driving next to them. I think this drive was one of the favorite things we did in Jasper. Once we got back to Jasper we planned to drive south on the Icefield's Parkway to check out Athabasca and Sunwapta falls. They were beautiful, however not very accessible at all! So that was a fairly wasted hour and a half of driving. Again the driving is gorgeous in the mountains, but we had done a lot of driving by this point and it sucked to get to Sunwapta falls and find that it was pretty darn inaccessible :P We drove back to our hotel and then headed to a local restaurant called Evil Dave's Grill for supper. The food was good, but pricey. After supper we went for a walk around Jasper. They have some neat architecture!

Wednesday morning brought my rafting trip! It was a lot of fun! Jason dropped me off at a store in Jasper where I would be picked up. There were 18 people plus three guides in the three rafts that went on our trip. After we got dressed up in all our gear (wet suit, booties, fleece jacket, rain coat, helmet and life jacket) we headed out to the Sunwapta river. It was a 40 minute drive from town to where we got in the river. They then went over some safety protocol with us in case we fell out of the rafts. There were six people in each raft plus one guide who did most of the major steering with long oars. I was in a raft with four people from Australia and one girl from Edmonton and myself, our guide was from Quebec. The first fifteen minutes on the river were relatively calm waters just to get used to being on the river and to practice some of the different commands (ie paddle forward, backward, lean in, etc). After that we spent another 45 minutes to an hour in pretty steady rapids, some bigger than others. I have to say that I was pretty nervous to go rafting, but that I never once felt unsafe in the raft. Even though I was sitting on the edge of the raft with nothing to hold on to. I just had my feet tucked in under the cross support of the raft and the raft itself is pretty sturdy. When it was time to get out of the river, it was only about 500m from the top of the Sunwapta falls. Our guide said it's very important to back paddle when I tell you to or else we may end up having to swim for shore. It was a little unnerving to see 'Danger: Falls 1km ahead' signs on the side of the river. And we went floating right past them. But we got out and I am still alive to tell the tale.

After that, our plan was to head to the Jasper Tramway to go to the top of the mountain for lunch. By the time we got there, and purchased tickets there was about a 45 minute wait to get to the top. When we finally got loaded up (those trams felt a little like a can of sardines!) it only takes seven minutes to climb all the way to the top. We got off and felt a little dizzy. It feels like you are on top of the world. We wandered around the boardwalks up there a little and looked around then it started to sprinkle a little so we headed back toward the building where we caught a rumor that there was a 45-60 minute wait to get back down. At this point I went in to see where the restaurant was and realized it was upstairs and there is no elevator to get to it, so we decided to get in line and wait to go back down. While we were in line it started raining a bit harder and even snow/sleeted a bit. When we finally got back down we were heading for the van it started pouring on us! We were pretty soaked by the time we made it to the van. By this point it was about 4pm and neither of us had eaten lunch so we decided instead of cooking supper at the cabin we would go out for supper. We went to the Jasper Brewing Company and had really good burgers and fries that were a lot more reasonably priced than Evil Dave's was.

Thursday morning we headed back to Edmonton. We got back to town around 2pm and headed over to West Ed Mall. It was super busy and the excitement of it from last year was just not there. We had a couple of stores we wanted to check out (Bed, Bath and Beyond was much less exciting than I thought it might be....it was just like Home Outfitters) and once that was done we decided that we still had time to check out Ikea before supper. We did that, and picked up a few items before heading to our hotel to check in. Then off to the Cheesecake Cafe for supper. I had a delicious pizza that I am sure if we ever end up back at that restaurant I will order again. So good! And of course some cheesecake....Mocha Kaluha, yum!

The next day we headed for home and made it to Saskatoon by about 3pm. We were excited to see Kiwi and she was even more excited to see us. It was a good trip, but it's always so nice to get home :)

Summer Holidays

Alas we have again arrived at the time of year when we must start thinking about our summer holidays. This year we are contemplating taking a tour of a portion of the Rocky Mountains. I told Jay a couple of summers ago that you can't call yourself a photographer and NOT go to the mountains, haha. It will be a fair bit of driving for him, but I don't think we will plan to be in any sort of rush, and hopefully wouldn't need to do more than about 4 hours of driving per day. Some of the places we are considering are Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and some of the sights between there. If anyone has any nice suggestions of things we would just HAVE to see, feel free to leave any ideas you have. This is all very tentative right now. I don't even have time booked off of work yet. We were considering doing it in June though, because I have noticed that hotel accommodations tend to be a bit cheaper in June vs July or August.

Happy Anniversary to us!

We just got back from Temple Gardens Mineral Spa in Moose Jaw. We headed out there on Sunday afternoon and stayed two nights to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary (which is on Friday January 22nd). First of all I would like to say, it has been a long time since I drove down to Moose Jaw and it is quite a pleasant, quick two hour drive from Saskatoon. When we got into town Jay showed me around some of his old hangouts and where he used to live (he went to SIAST there for two years after high school). Then he took me over to the mall. Let me say, wow, what a crappy mall. Haha :) I think I am spoiled to live in Saskatoon. Not that we have all the best stores, but I think the mall in Moose Jaw was smaller than the mall in Swift Current. Thought it did have Zellers, Pennington's and Sport Chek which are not in Swift. After killing a bit of time until check-in time at the hotel we headed over there.

I checked us in and we went to locate our room. It was in the skywalk wing, which was just fine but we had to go down a lot of long hallways and use two elevators to get from our room to the pool. Our room was very spacious (though the bathroom could have been a bit bigger, it was not a designated wheelchair accessible room, because that room had two double beds and we preferred to have one bigger bed), with a nice low king sized bed that was ideal for Jay to transfer in and out of. The mattress was a little old however and I could feel springs poking me when I rolled from side to side. I found the bed in our $70/night, run down, Super 8 motel in Calgary more comfortable to sleep in. Oh well!

The first night we went down the street to Nick's Place for supper (at the recommendation of Jay's dad). We could see why he recommended it. As soon as we got there, Jay remembered having gone there when he lived in Moose Jaw. They are quite generous with portions and very reasonably priced. After our supper settled I decided to go for a dip in the wonderfully warm pool. It was lovely! I even wore the bikini I bought this summer for the first time in public and did not feel self conscious!

Monday we had planned to sleep in then get up and get Jay in the pool. We had checked it out the first night and the pool did indeed have a ramped entry and a pool chair. I went down to get a pool chair so Jay could transfer into it from the bed and should have realized it was not going to be an easy feat. It took a LOT of pushing and grunting to get it up to our room without someone in it. I guess because it is a pool chair they don't grease the bearings or look after it, because that thing handled a million times worse than a shopping cart. Once Jay got into it, I could hardly push the thing. However after a lot of grunting and groaning I got it down the many long hallways and down the one elevator and up the other elevator and into the pool. I have to say that their ramped entry into the pool has got to be more than the legal 1 to 12 angle! However once we got in, it was a very nice relaxing swim/float/hang out for over an hour. Then we decided it was time to get out. It just happened that my aunt and uncle were staying at the spa at the same time as us and they just happened to be at the pool at the same time as us. Uncle Hans helped by pushing the pool chair up the ramp and I pulled from the front. I did okay until I got to the top of the ramp and slipped a little bit, but thankfully I didn't hurt myself or Jason. We got him out. It wasn't so bad. We realized at one point during the trip down that the chair seemed to handle better when being pulled backwards, so I pulled Jason down all the long hallways and into and out of the two elevators to get back to our room, backwards. Then there was a pretty harry transfer to get out of the chair. I was almost ready to go and find a strong man or two to just hoist Jay out of his chair into the bed, but finally managed to find a way to help Jay get out of that silly pool chair! It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed swimming with my hubby :)

I think if we go back and hope to go swimming again we would do two things differently. As much as it would be a little extra work, I would consider bringing along his shower wheelchair. It is also meant to get wet, but he has a lot less trouble transferring in and out of it, and it handles somewhat better than a shopping cart. I would also make sure he put on a life jacket before we went in the pool. We didn't think of this until he was already in the pool and it is really hard to get a lifejacket on in a pool when you can't stand up. So we just did a really half-assed job of it, but it did help keep his head above the water.

After being in the pool for that long and all the work of getting in and out of the pool we rested for a while then had lunch at the restaurant in the hotel. After lunch we weren't sure what to do until our supper reservation at the same restaurant. We decided to go walk through the casino. That is only the third time I have been in a casino and I have to say they all really look the same. Just a bunch of zombie like people sitting at their slot machines pushing a button over and over and over. Just for fun I plugged $5 into a penny slot machine (one that you could actually pull the handle!) and I ended up getting up to $17 but then lost it all, but probably played for at least half an hour to forty minutes! Jay decided to try a different machine and plugged in $5 and the machine took it in a matter of ten minutes. We decided to head back to the hotel. We just read and napped in our room until it was supper time.

We had planned to have a nice meal in Moose Jaw because we were given some money from Jason's parents for our anniversary. We ate at Harwood's Dining Room and had a nice meal. I had pork ribs with a wonderful light maple glaze on them, and Jason had these orange crepes filled with marscapone cheese and crab with shrimp and scallops. It was a very nice leisurely meal. I had another swim before bed last night and we headed home today at lunch time. All in all a very nice little holiday :)

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best as we start a new decade! Happy 2010 to you!

We're baaaaaack!

It was a very nice Christmas spent with Jason's family this year. It is always so quiet and low key when we spend Christmas with Jason's parents. There are only four of us. It almost seems a shame to cook a big turkey for just four of us. However, we all LOVE turkey sandwiches, so we are glad to have lots of leftovers! We had fun playing our new Simpsons Scene It game as well as a new one called What's Yours Like? Very interesting game that really makes you think.

Monday December 21st we had supper with my family. They all came over and we had Chinese food. It was very yummy! Even though when I called to order I was told it would be an hour and a half for delivery, so we decided to just go pick it up. It was hot and fresh and delicious! We also exchanged our gifts. For a number of years we have been drawing names and only buying one bigger gift for a specific family member. This year I got my dad's name and I got him a shirt, some cashews and an indoor/outdoor wireless thermometer/weather station thingy. He seemed to like it. My sister drew my name and she got me a professional hair straightener. I love it! I should have got one years ago!! It does such a nice job on my hair. Makes it very straight and smooth. I have been using a cheap Conair one for a few years and it would always pull my hair and didn't really make my hair smooth. This one is great!

I was also thrilled to get diamond stud earrings from my hubby! They are beautiful and I have worn them every day since Christmas. They are small enough that they can be worn daily, but big enough that you can see them. They are nice and sparkly and make me feel very pretty :) Thanks sweetie! I also got some perfume, some kitchen utensils, baking pans, toiletries, and a number of other really neat things. I know Christmas is not just about getting presents, so I have to say I was so happy to be able to actually surprise Jason with a gift! Usually it is hard to surprise him! I bought him bright headlight bulbs for his van, as he has commented in the past that he would like to have brighter headlights. He hadn't mentioned it for quite sometime, but I had remembered him mentioning it so I did some homework about them and went for it. He was very excited and surprised :)

Merry Christmas to All

We made it to Swift Current safe and sound. The roads were just fine, a little busy, but I don't think there were any drivers who passed us in an inappropriate/unsafe manner. We even got on the road a half hour before we were hoping to.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy yourself no matter how you choose to celebrate :)

Bring On Christmas!

I think I am pretty much entirely ready for it. This may be the earliest that I have been totally ready. I am done shopping, wrapping presents, baking, decorating. What is left? I guess just sit back and enjoy it.

Tomorrow evening I am going to see Little Women at Persephone Theatre with my mom and sister. I wanted to go see it when I heard about it and thought it would be a fun mother/daughter activity. I also figured since both my mom and my sister have birthdays in December that I would buy their tickets for them and call it their birthday presents. Easy shopping! We talked about it and figured it would be fun to do supper out before the play, since it doesn't start until 8pm. Mom had the bright idea to pay for supper out for Robin and I as birthday gifts because my birthday is at the beginning of January. We are going to the Second Avenue Grill! I am very much looking forward to it!!

This Tuesday, me and my two coworkers are going out for supper (Ethiopian food....should be interesting!) and then bowling. This will be the most elaborate 'Christmas party' we have had at work since I started working there. I am looking forward to it. The three of us get along well, so it should be a fun evening. Then on Friday of this week we are doing a cookie/baking exchange. Each of us is giving the other two, four dozen cookies or squares or whatnot. That will add a great variety to my goodies to share with others this holiday season!

Then I don't have any specific holiday related activities until the 21st. We are going to get together with my family that night to celebrate Christmas, since Jay and I will be in Swift Current on the actual day. We are having mom, dad, Robin, Lorne and the boys over to our house for Chinese food and our gift exchange. I love having an extra Christmas celebration. It helps to spread things out so it isn't all concentrated into one day.

We are heading to Swift Current from the 24th to the 27th. I imagine we will come home well spoiled and filled with amazing food. It is hard to believe that in only three weeks Christmas will be done for another year. Then I have a 29th birthday to look forward to. Oh and our trip to Hawaii Moose Jaw in January to celebrate our 5th anniversary. That will bring us up to nearly the end of January. Hopefully having a number of events to look forward to will help the winter pass quickly. Hopefully...

Christmas Tree 2009

After a LOT of frustration, a couple "For goodness sakes!", no swearing (thankfully), and a bit of fishing line, here is our 2009 Christmas tree. I decided that I would like some garland to put on the tree to help fill in some of the gaps. So I ventured out to Walmart (on a Saturday, four weeks before Christmas...I know I am a little crazy!) and got some pretty shiny silver garland. I am happy with how the tree looks. Here's hoping it stays upright!

Holidays - Week 2

Week one has come and gone. It was a nice balance of busyness in Edmonton and some relaxation when we got home (slept in until 10am today, ahhhh). Also today has been about getting ready to go to Swift Current tomorrow and out to Lac Pelletier. I am so looking forward to some lake time. No obligations, no worries, just pure relaxation (and good food, mmm).

I think all that I need to do to get ready yet is get a few things together, paint my toenails, mow the lawns, water the lawns and flowers and pack the van. We bought a hose today for the tap by our deck and I was using it to fill a pail to put some water on our cedars (the landscapers finally came yesterday and fixed up a few things in our yard that needed fixing, including 2 new cedars!). Kiwi came over and started drinking out of the hose and got her face all wet. Then she backed up and put her bum up in the air like she wanted to play so I sprayed her with the hose. She ran away, but then came back and wanted some more. When we were done I went in the house to get a towel to dry her off and she took off like a shot running laps on the back lawn around the tree and back to the fence to dry off. We call this the schnoodle 500 and we have not seen it since she was on her pills to get rid of the lumps she had. She has so much more energy since she has been off those silly pills! But no lumps!

I had made an appointment to take my car in yesterday for an oil change and to get a seasonal inspection done, since my brakes had been vibrating when coming to a stop from high speeds. The results of the inspection were certainly discouraging. I don't know all the technical details off the top of my head, but we were given estimates for upwards of $3000 worth of work that my car needs. I had no idea..... And I am pretty sure that most of the things that need doing are not the types of things that have gotten worse if I did ignore them for a while. There is a coolant leak, and something with the suspension, and front brakes (rear brakes should be done soon too), a belt, and a few other more minor things. We are waiting to hear back from a friend who is an owner of a shop in Saskatoon just to get his opinion if the estimates that we were given were ridiculously high. Even if we were to do the most important things on the list we would probably be looking at $2000 for a car that is maybe worth $5000. We are considering trading it in for something new. I know that we wouldn't get nearly as much as it is actually worth by trading it in versus selling privately, however after the pain in the butt of trying to sell the Buick privately a few years back I would rather just get rid of it, if we are going to.

I have been praying about going to Hawaii. I asked God if it wasn't supposed to happen that he would make it clear. I think getting Angie a new car is slightly more important than going to Hawaii. :( Okay God, I hear you even though I don't want to hear you. But I know that having a reliable car is important, especially since I can't just hop into Jay's van any time I want and take it for a drive.

I have NO idea what sort of car would be best. I thought I would have my car for quite sometime yet. We drove through the auto mall today just to see what cars are even out there. It is hard to know what to buy. I don't think we are in any great rush, I doubt my car will stop working tomorrow, but at least we need to start doing some research and praying for God to provide the right car. This car I have now, we have had it for 4 1/2 years and have barely put a cent into it. We always said we would keep it as long as it doesn't start costing too much.......I guess we are at that point now. It still looks so nice and it only has 120,000kms on it (it's a 1998 Pontiac Grand Am GT). But I guess lots of cars look nice on the outside but have some major issues on the inside.

Pig snout anyone??

As you can see by the thrilled look on my face, I was so happy to find fresh pig snout in the grocery store. I have searched high and low for it to put in my pig snout casserole, and here it is. Or maybe not.... :P