CELEBRATION

As of Today at noon I am officially certified as a level one Insurance Agent in the Province of Alberta. I passed my test with a 79% (you need 70% to pass) so I'm pretty happy with that.

Yay!!!

Christmas Time at Our House

Well folks Christmas is almost upon us here in Grande Prairie as I'm sure you're all aware of :) I must say that this Christmas is VERY different than last Christmas but I am reminded of the things I learned while overseas about keeping the purpose of Christmas true and not getting caught up in how commercial our culture has made it. However, I am also thinking through all of the traditions and I must say that the gift giving, the decorations, the family gatherings are a great way to celebrate this special day. It helps us to keep Christmas special and not forget the amazing gift we received in the baby Christ. That in mind I've included a few pics of what Christmas looks like at my house and I encourage you all the enjoy the holidays for all their worth as you remember it's all to thank Jesus for being humble.

Merry Christmas

Life Goes On...

And on... and on.... Current items of thought:

Joel (my brother) had his interview with the Canadian Military and will be starting boot camp in January. I'm told he's not an official member of the army until he starts boot camp so he's still a civilian for now :)

Insurance Level 1 Exam coming up. Because I work in an insurance office, I am required to get my level one broker license. The binder for studying is huge but I am slowly plugging my way through it. It's been a while since I've been in school, I've decided.

Christmas is coming. I'm so excited by the nice white blanket we have outside as I've been missing out on this part of the winter season for quite some time now. It's just so pretty. :)

I think that's all thats worth mentioning at this moment...

Date Night

Halloween

Hey, I think I'd like some feed back on this post so please add a comment. I'm in a dilemma as a Christian here. It's all about Halloween.

I've been struggling through this for a few weeks and now on the day I must say that I felt sad that I chose to miss out on the fun of wearing a costume to work today. It looked like so much fun and all the costumes were so creative and just plain funny.

I guess the way I was looking at it was this... Halloween has some not so nice origins and why would we as Christians want anything to do with something that celebrates exactly what we DONT stand for. Death, witches, ghosts, all of that may just be cute little kids dressed up but we know that it actually does mean so much more than even they know.

However, does that mean that we need to boycott the whole thing? Is this like the "eating food sacrificed to idols thing"? or is this a little different? My office today seemed pretty harmless but again... If I dress up then I'm just like everyone else who doesn't think twice about Halloween right?

That is my little rant for now, please let me know your thoughts, I'm just curious to see where other people I know stand.

Thanks

Young Adults fun night

These shots are meant to be 3 series' that portray a story... enjoy...

New Photo's on Click

Check out some new photo's on 'click'

Camping with Rhonda

On the september long weekend John and I got to escape for a brief moment and go camping with my dear friend Rhonda. This is our story...

First Snow of the Season

Well folks.. there you have it. I guess summer is over and theres no point in hoping that it will get nice again. It was only about 1/4 inch on our deck but it was there. I was actualy pretty excited since it's been a while since I've actually been in snow but many up here were pretty disgusted. Oh well. "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"

:)

Wow, time does fly...

This is mostly an ode to Steve my brother in law who said that my blog was getting boring since we haven't updated it recently.... So Steve... this blogs for you!

This weekend we had a mini family reunion in Jasper for the Gall clan. All the duo's plus mom and dad spent two nights at the Pine Bungalows. It was a wonderful weekend complete with Maligne canyon, Jasper town shopping, beautiful lakes, rowdy games (thank goodness for silent Pit) and relaxing hot springs. It was all in all, Wonderful! Fun was had by all.

The pictures should sum up our adventures... Enjoy.

A New Start... Again...

Big news people!!! I (Andrea) found a new job. As of Wednesday August 22 I will be working full time for Phoenix Insurance in Grande Prairie. This is actually a really cool God thing for the obvious reasons of God providing once again and also the unobvious reasons that he takes such good care of us in ways we don't always expect. My new job is 3 blocks from our current basement suite. John and I have been thinking and praying about whether we needed to get another car or if I should continue to take the bus in GP. That was working okay but there were at least 2 places I'd been with Mayfair when I was temping that the bus didn't go to. That makes things a little difficult. This new job relieves all that as I will be able to walk to work even in the worst of times. :) What a blessing, God just takes such good care of us!

I don't like unpacking

That's all folks, the cold hard truth. I don't like unpacking. I have to make way too many decisions about where to put things and where the couch fits best...

However amidst all this, ever so slowly, progress is being made... There is actually room to sit on the couch now and there is more than just little trails through the boxes to each room... :) Just barely!

Soon, soon we shall post pictures! I promise!

WE MOVED!!!!

We've officially transferred our stuff and ourselves to our new basement suite! Last night we attempted to sleep there for the first time amidst all the boxes and mayhem. As soon as it is cleaned up a little bit we'll post some pictures of it so you can all see where we live! I'll also email a new address to everyone today that is in my contact list. If you somehow got missed just email us and I'll respond! We don't have a phone yet, and obviously no internet but that will come I'm sure!

Pictures of the Day

I think that the world needs to see these pictures and I know that not many people even look at this now that we are back in Canada and that these pictures may not mean much to those who don't know the people in them but they are special to me so enjoy!

Awesome week with Anna

This past week my sister-in-law has been up visiting and I must say that we have had quite the time together doing all kinds of crazy things! Here is a list of what we've accomoplished.

1. Rollerbading (almost every day, sometimes longer than what we expected)
2. Canoeing (on the Wapiti River, very fun! Glad we got out before the hail)
3. Pic-nic in the rain (with Mel & Pete, and Mom and Dad at Pipestone Creek)
4. Shopping (for my birthday) (yay)
5. Gone to a bridal shower
6. Toured our new Basement Suite
7. Made cookies (peanut butter, so mom had to leave the house)
8. Went to church...
9. Ate lots and lots of watermelon (with Roll Kuchen, fried bread, menonnite meal)
10. Played with my new deep fryer. Watch out for cheese rolls when they explode :)

So as you can see we've been having a blast and she's not gone yet so there are more adventures to come. Today there is lots to do so I should go! We get to move into our new suite this week so we are going to go do some cleaning today!


This photo is a result of Anna getting water dumped on her head (by her brother... John... my husband... that rascal)and I am pouting because of the last picture in which I am only 1/2 in.

Today's Accomplishments

Today I turned my yogurt container inside out. :)


Oh... and I got paid to scrapbook... :)

yay!

Light up My Night

So this past weekend John and I were able to go out to Alberta Beach with his parents to celebrate Grandma Gall's birthday at his uncle's cabin on the lake. (confusing enough?) It was SMOKIN hot there so it was nice to be on the lake and John enjoyed doing a little tubing and skiing :) with his cousins. The second night we were there we had the most amazing lightning storm I've ever seen! It was crazy! Middle of the night but light up like day and seemingly constant lightning every 5 seconds. It was amazing! John got up to take some pictures (with lightning striking that often your chances of getting a shot are pretty good) Well he got a few check them out on click. If you can't view the slide show click here.

Not a cloud in the sky...

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY! Honestly, it is gorgeous here in GP! I'm sure it's wonderful other places too (and depending on how you handle heat, you may not think it's wonderful either) I however, happen to think that it is marvelous out there. As I was eating my lunch in the park in GP with my friend Heather, she commented that there was actually not even one cloud in the sky. Forget not that this is the praries so to say that we couldn't even see one cloud no matter where we looked, that's pretty cool (hard to understand for all you BC-ites, I know, breath deep and the chlosterphobia will pass). :) All of this was actually just a prelude to echo what Heather said to me this morning! God is good! He didn't have to give us blue sky, or the ability to hear beautiful music, or the ability to relate to and converse with the awesome God of the universe, but that said, we know he did all that and more! What a good God! If you've forgotten, just look out your window... if it doesn't hit you at first, keep looking!


P.S. I spotted this the other day and it made me laugh, click here.

Ode to Bryony

Today, this is who I am missing. Bryony. Now for those of you who don't know her, you are really missing out. She's sweet, lovely, and a dear friend. She is also the quietest person I know! :)But that ends up being one of your favorite things about her, especially when you see her not being quiet and it shocks the living daylights out of everyone around her! :) Bryony is also a brave soul... she married Toban. :) (JK Toban, you know we love you too! I just can't help it) She is beautiful, intelligent, and a great listener! This is my ode to Bryony. I love you girl and I miss you!

How I know I'm a hick from the stix...

Well folks, this last weekend I returned to my roots (whatever) and lived the hick lifestyle. Bla Bla Bla... basically I went to a mud bog. Now for those of you who have no idea what that is, it's essentially when grown ups get to play with real trucks and cars in the mud. Technically it's a huge mud pit that is created specifically for this, that is used for races to see who can get through the pit and in the fastest time. Comical, to say the least. Here are some pictures. Rest assured, I probably wouldn't have gone if my brother wasn't one of the competitors. He is the muddy one :) riding a quad. Enjoy. If you can't view the slideshow below click here.

4 Years Already!!!!

Can you believe it! 4 Years! John and I have been married for 4 years! Crazy! This is the very first anniversary that we weren't at Qwanoes so that was pretty significant in and of itself! We went out for a very nice supper at Gullivers in Grande Prairie, many a date was at that restaurant... :) Anyways! Just wanted to let you all know! 4 Years!!!!

What to do when your bored?

Well folks. I have a job (Andrea), it's a temp job through Mayfair which means it only lasts until friday, but that's okay because I get paid. The kicker is that my job this week is to cover phones for leader energy. This would be fine if I had any other responsibilities, but why train me to do these other things if I'm leaving on friday right? So currently my only job is to wait for the phone to ring. NOW. I've been pretty busy this morning. I think I may have even hung up on someone once. I didn't know what to do with two calls at the same time and I had one ringing back and lines were flashing so in a panic I pushed a button and... oops... :) I'm pretty sure he was the same guy who phoned back 2 seconds later, and sounded a little irritated. :) oops. Anyways, so I'm a little bored. I downloaded computer risk, which is really fun until you've beat all the different scenarios. SO if you have any ideas of simple things I could do to beat the bordom please post a comment. I'd like to see how creative you all are! :) I've got a phone :) basic office supplies, a phone book, bottle of water, notebook, computer/printer, 2 electric heaters, and a fairly large receptionist lobby and desk. :) I'll post the best ideas! Have fun!

A Place to live

Well folks, once again, God pulls through, :) of course, and provides us with a place to live! Of course John just happened to be at the church when this guy Jason Wood was at the church who was just then looking for someone to rent a house with them (they'd take the upstairs, us the downstairs) and it just happened that Gail, the lady who John was talking to knew this and connected the two of them... yeah... orchestrated. That's what I think. Anyways, it's the right price in an older house and will suit our needs just fine.

Just wanted to let you know, but keep praying for our job situation. I've got a few potentials lined up, and Mayfair, the temp agency I worked for before is going to line up a few 'temp' jobs while I wait.

John is re-arranging his idea's of what he wants so who knows what will happen. We have a few ideas and will let you know what comes of them.

That's all for now!

Pssst

Check out the new pictures on our photo page 'click'. They are from our trip down south to visit/work with John's sister & brother-in-law.

Southern Alberta

So crazy as we are after the wedding we headed down to stay with John's sister and her husband. They have their own business (with his parents) and they asked if we'd come and help them out for a little while. We've had lots and lots of fun and an adventure or two along the way. For example: One of the jobs we've (mosly John) has been helping with is re-doing the roof. We'll with the two of them up there it did take a little while and for the most part we had really good weather. A couple days ago, with the end in sight, the guys (with the girls) were working hard, right into the evening to try and get a little more accomplished. We knew that it was forcasted to rain and we wanted to get more roof covered. Well, as we were working we could see this thunderstorm coming. We could see the lightning and hear the thunder so we worked even harder. Well, we were getting pretty close when the first rain drops fell on us and with in seconds we were completely soaked. IT POURED. Literally. We were soaked, right through to the skin, our jeans were completely wet and we looked like we had jumped in a pool with our clothes on. Well, since none of us had dry clothes to put on to go home in we traded our wet clothes for coveralls. I wanted to get a picture of us while we were still so wet but we were cold and it didn't happen so the picture is of us over a puddle wearing our flattering outfits. Steve's Dad is in the background.

Anyways, so we will be finishing up here on Monday and will make our way back up to Grande Prairie, with a few stops on the way!

Great Canadian Welcome

Well we are back in Canada now (have been for 2 full days) and let me tell you, we couldn't have had a better welcome. We arrived in Edmonton around 11:30 PM on Friday the 18th and then slept a night and then drove home to Grande Prairie. That day (the 19th) was John's dad's birthday so we went to town to have dinner as a 'family' (my parents included) While we were there a pretty major thunder storm happened upon us and there were huge crashes of thunder, bright streaks of lightning and get this... hail. There was enough hail out that it looked like it had snowed and then while we were driving home it got cold enough that the rain started to freeze and the roads got ridiculously icy.... our great Canadian Welcome on our first day home!

It's been nicer since then, although not as warm as Thailand, but at least no snow :) We've had lots of fun showing pictures and maps and just seeing family and friends again! There are still a few people we haven't had a chance to connect with but I'm sure the time will come! It's looking like we'll be pretty busy with wedding stuff and John's brother and his soon to be wife have offered to let us stay in their place while they are gone on their honeymoon (for a month) :) so that will help us out a lot as well. Today on this holiday Monday we are just hanging out with the family.

Homeward Bound

Hello from the Bangkok Airport! We have now begun our trip HOME! Yay! We have a few hours to wait here before we fly to Singapore for an overnight and then we get on a plane and fly accross the 'pond' back to North America. Thailand was awesome! We were spoiled in Indonesia but Thailand was good too! My coolest thing was that I got to ride an ELLEPHANT!!!!!! It was soooooooooo cool. We have lot's of pictures that we'll post later. Did you know that Ellephants are hairy? I didn't. The 'driver' was pretty funny and he got off and let us sit right on the ellephants neck, his ears kept flappning into my legs and the hair was really prickly but it was sooooooo cool. Our ellephant was a 12 year old named noh uhm. He was pretty stubborn at times :) as most 12 year olds are :) We also enjoyed lots of swimming! at least 2x per day, and John actually snorkled himself out! We didn't get seriously burnt but we did get a little colour (not really) as it was cloudy for the most part. Well, I guess that's all for now, we still have 7 hours to wait for our next flight and who knows how bored we'll get before then :) Neither John nor I slept much last night, so maybe we'll find a quiet corner in the airport... (not likely)

Bye for now!!!! Next post? Singapore? San Francisco? Grande Prairie? who knows!!!!

The Adventure Never Ends...

Well folks we have now enjoyed on night on our little island of Koh Tao and it is pretty good. We have both come to realize how good we had it when we were in Indonesia as the hut and food was cheaper and the snorkling and beach was better. Needless to say Thailand is very interesting and we are enjoying this little 'vacation' before our Vacation is over. The train from Bangkok to Chumpon was uneventful and fairly sleepless for me (John slept well for some reason) We left Bangkok at 7:30 PM and the train arrived in Chumpon at 4:00 AM. We got off there transferred to a bus which took us to a waiting room where we waited until 7:00 AM for our boat from Chumpon to Koh Tao which arrived around 9:30 AM. After some fierce negotiating with our driver we caught a taxi to our little resort which was an adventure in and of itself. The 'road' was EXTREMELY rough to the point where your brains shook and you wondered how we were going to make it. We were even riding in a fairly new 4X4 truck! Anyways, when we arrived we checked into our room and then jumped in the ocean! Oh we may have eaten somewhere in there I can't remember when.

Anyways, today is a little bit cooler and there are clouds overhead. We thought it would be fun to rent a kayak and paddle around a little but the sea is pretty rough today so after 1 hour and almost sinking... we headed back to the beach. Now, don't get me wrong, the boad didn't almost sink because of rough water... it had a hole or crack shall we say!!! About 1/2 an hour John says... um, i think we're sinking. He was sitting in the back and the back end of the boat was almost level with the water :) It was a little bit crazy. We made it back to the beach but the inside of the kayak was almost 1/2 full of water when John emptied it out. Since then we've just bummed around, it's still pretty hot but we're surviving...

Canada looms in front of us now, we're getting pretty close! time wise anyways, were actually further away now than we were in New Zealand. I'm getting pretty excited!

Barely in Bangkok!!

What I mean by that is a bit of a story so here goes!

We started planning this trip to Thailand about 2 months before we left New Zealand (or maybe even less, I can't remember) and there was a lot of shuffling and re-booking and stuff. We had to re-book our flights to Canada, then make bookings to Bangkok and then we wanted more time so we re-booked everything again. In the process our flight from Singapore to Bangkok somehow got missed. Not by us but by the airline. So when we got to the ticket counter after a long day in Singapore we found out that our flight was still booked for the next day (meaning we would have to wait a whole day in Singapore again (and overnight) without a booked hotel and we were pretty tired (that's another storey) Well the lady there said she would do her best to get us on the flight (standby) and we would just have to wait. Well we waited until 8:30 (the flight left at 9:00 until she said anything to us and then we got the good news that we were on and rushed through security, customs, and onto the plane! What a crazy day! I thought we were going to be stuck in Singapore (which isn't that bad really) but no, God had it under control once again (go figure). We arrived in Bangkok and found a taxi who took us to our hotel (with much confused miscommunication) and we had a pretty good nights sleep. The jet lag right now means that we are exhausted around 7:00 Pm Local time and are awake around 5 or 6 AM. Today we were supposed to get on a train to Chumphon but the 8:00 am one was full when we got to the station! We now have all day in Bangkok and we don't really know what to do with ourselves! Alas I have found an internet spot (1 Baht per minute and $1 Canadian is 29 Baht, you do the math!) so we thought we'd send a little email home!

Okay now I can tell you the storey of our day in Singapore! Well we woke really early and since we had all day we got up and wandered around. We found a good place for breakfast (ordered something off the menu, that we really didn't know what we were getting) at a little Indian restaurant. We then proceeded to a shopping center called Mustafa Center. When we first walked in the shop we found was the LARGEST jewlery shop you've ever seen. Literally, it was MASSIVE!!! Gold neckaces and big babbles EVERYWHERE!!!! John and I both kinda stood in awe for a few seconds at the vastness of the gold in every direction! We found a little grocery store and it is really quite fascinating what you find in grocery stores in other countries. Its funny what "Westernized" things you find. After shopping we packed up and headed out for a walk around the 'city' we decided that we wanted to go to the bird park, which on our map didn't look that far. We figured out the sky train thing and got to the end of the line (which looked close :) Well there were busses but we didn't really know what we were doing so we started walking! Well... 3-4 blisters later and a long HOT walk, we found the bird park and were almost too tired to walk around and see the birds! We especially enjoyed the Penguin display because it was cold inside :) Well we were smarter on the way back and took a bus and then the sky train (quite sophisticated really) and that brings us to the airport and the confusion with the plane tickets...

So that's all the news to date. Today, now with our new train, we don't leave until 7:30 PM on an overnight train (dissapointing since we wanted to see the countryside, but oh well). We'll see what adventures we can come up with today.

Oh, P.S. we also got to ride in a Tuk Tuk today. CRAZY!!! what made it even more crazy was that the guy didn't know where he was going and I'm pretty sure we drove in a few circles until John pointed out where we wanted to go! :)

P.S.S. It's a good thing that I've used blogger for a while because today here in Bangkok all the script on the screen is in Chineese Characters and if I didn't know where the 'sign' in button or the 'new post' butten were I wouldn't have had a clue! It's kind of like when you change the language on your digital camera and you have no clue how to turn it back to english because you can't read any of the menu's :) ??? Fun fun...

Until next time.... :)

WE SOLD OUR VAN!!!!!!!

This is a tribute to how God is faithfull and knows exactly what we need, and WHEN we need it. Our trade-me auction ended Monday night with only one bid that didn't meet the minimum price we had set. We felt pretty discouraged but decided to offer it to the person that bid for $3000 (we were asking $3500) When he didn't respond by Tuesday morning to that offer we figured he'd changed his mind. Not too long after we got an email saying that he had indeed accepted our offer. The next tricky bit was to have him look at the van (including the side door which we didn't mention online) and figure out how to get the money into our account before we had to close it before we left the country. Well today he met us in Matamata (a nearby town) and took it for a spin, liked it, drove us straight to the bank where we got the money all sorted and put into Canadian dollars :) and then he drove us home and took the van with him! What a relief to have that all over and not have to worry anymore. Not that we ever really had to worry because God had it all in control. He knew what price we would get for it and when we would sell it too! Thank goodness!

Well, thanks for all your prayers, next step... get to Auckland, then Singapore, then Bangkok, then Koh Tao, then back to Singapore, then San Fancisco, then Edmonton!!!!

Back at Finlay Park

Well, we've made it up the North Island, back to Finlay park where our New Zealand Adventure first began. It's been good to see those friends again and catch up.

We've begun the 'van selling' saga now. You can check it out on Trade Me which is the New Zealand version of Ebay.(If you spot any typo's please let me know!!) We also have signs in the windows and if it doesn't go on trade me there is an Auction in Hamilton next Tuesday (2 days before we leave) YIKES!!!

It feels very wierd to say goodbye to all these places that are special to us here. It's been very good, very fun, and completely amazing to see another culture so like our own but so different at the same time. Those of you who I will see right away when I get home, don't make fun of me because I've picked up quite a few 'kiwi' slang words although no matter how hard I tried I couldn't pick up the accent. :)

Anyways that's all from us for now! Next post will be our final goodbye probably (unless we sell the van, in which case I will be so excited, I'll probably post)

Crossing Over

Well, today we will be leaving the South Island to head back into the 'north'. We were hoping for some nice weather to do a bit of the Able Tasman track before we left the south island but to no avail, it's cloudy and threatening to rain. Oh well. We've had a great trip from Invercargill north including a curious look at these weird shaped rocks on the east coast (as well as a meal at a great seafood restaurant) spectacular views of Mt. Cook (sunny and blue skies) We've had all great overnight spots so far (the free one's are best) and we must say that those little pic-nic spots along the main roads here in New Zealand are great! The one cool campground we stayed at was just outside the Mt. Cook village and as we went to sleep we could hear the glaciers groaning and crashing.


Please keep praying for us as the stress of our whole lives changing again is weighing on us. There are several things that need to fall into place quite quickly here so please pray that our van will sell easily, that our final plans for Thailand go smoothly, that our flights home are un-eventful, and that a place to live and jobs are found relatively easily once we are 'home'. I guess you can also pray that we will adjust to living in Grande Prairie again too!

2 days on the trail

Well, we are back in Invercargill for re-fueling and a bit of laundry after our most amazing hike through beautiful forest and amazing waterfalls (not to mention the scenery of mountains all around us) We got all packed up and headed back out to Fiordland National Park where we purchased our 'hut' passes and then set out. We had originally planned to do two nights in two huts but the weather forcast wasn't that great and we found out it's $40 per person per night to stay in these huts so we camped one night in our van in the park and then set out the next morning. Our packs were fully loaded with enough food and clothing, sleeping bags, water, etc for the trip, meaning they weighed in between 11-15 kgs (24-33 lbs) mine being the lighter of the two. The trail was amazing, there were plenty of little huffing and puffing stops as we climbed up and up and after 7.5 hours on the trail we reached the MacKenzie Hut. Please note that it wasn't 7.5 hours up or I would have died. On the way we passed by the Earland Falls which were amazing at 80 meters high and though it was quite foggy and we couldn't see any of the amazing mountains all around us, there were plenty of beautiful sights along the way. The next day we were quite sore but being that we were in the middle of nowhere we had to walk back out so we set out again! The weather was better so we could see much more of the scenery and it was breath taking (or maybe that was just the hiking with a pack part?) Anyways, it was a beautiful walk out (again 7.5 hours) and we even did a little side trip up to Key Summit. The clouds parted just enough for us to glimpse the almost 360 degrees of mountain view all around us. I've included a link here for more info about the Routeburn track. We didn't do the whole thing only from the divide to Lake MacKenzie and back but you can check it out here.

All in all it was wonderful and we think we'll try to do another walk or two like that before we leave New Zealand. It's so worth it (plus it's good for you). Today once the laundry is finished we'll attempt to head towards Dunedin and then Mount Cook on Saturday! We'll let you know what adventures we find along the way!

Goodbye Invercargill

Well the time has come once again to say Good-bye. You'd think that after a while you would get good at this but once again it's not easy to leave the people and places that we've come to know and enjoy. We've been blessed by the friends we've made here, especially the Conway family who have adopted us as part of their family almost and let us live with them for the past few months. We've had jobs some that we've enjoyed more than others, and we've even been blessed by the local church family. Now it's time to move on.

The day after tomorrow we are planning to head to Te Anau and do a bit of a tramp. We've never really done anything like that but we're excited and getting lots of coaching from the 'locals' about how to do this and what we need. That will be a few days and then we'll drive around in our van, seeing what we want to see, driving when we want to drive, sleeping when we want to sleep, the simple life really.

Please continue to pray for safety for us as we travel, and that we would be able to sell our van easily, enjoy Thailand, and get home safely. I won't be able to post much in the next few weeks but we'll do our best to let you know what's going on.

What did You do for Easter???

Another adventure has come and gone… Easter Break. It was absolutely amazing. Ben, John and I
spent 3 nights and two days living on a boat (with the occasional stop off to do a walk or swim or something) We drove up to Lake Manapouri which is about 2 hours from Invercargill and is in the heart of Fiordland. Fiordland is like Jasper and Banff put together and less touristy. The mountains and the roads out there are WILD! The lake that we were on was amazing and the beauty

of the mountains all around us is hard to explain other than to show you pictures.

I’ve never slept on a boat before so that was an adventure in and of itself but all in all I did well. The lake was very calm most times so I didn’t get sick at all. It was fun to cook our meals and sleep and play games etc. all on this fairly small (don’t tell the Conway’s I said that) sailboat. There were only a few hitches along the way being that the rudder broke on the second day due to a massive wake from a large boat that we weren’t really expecting to hit so hard while we were trying to go ashore a little island. The boys managed a wonderful recovery and temporarily fixed it enough to continue our adventure. One afternoon we also decided to climb what they call “The Monument”
The photo with the rocky face cliff poking out the top of a hill, yeah that’s it. Climb it we did (although I thought I was going to die more than once, it’s about 500 feet UP the whole way). Some bits, as you can see from the other picture, are also quite steep and you need rope/chain to climb up.
That’s one very large step for this inactive office girl. The last day that we were in Fiordland we left our little boat behind and headed for Milford Sound, which is a major tourist stop in New Zealand but is also a very wild bit of the country. I couldn’t believe the number of tour buses on the road as we drove. It was crazy. It was also a fascinating road. Quite windy and comparable to a non-major mountain pass like going from GP to Prince George or something with a massive tunnel through one mountain they couldn’t go around that leads to this inlet (look it up on a map, you’ll find Milford Sound). There’s really nothing much else there than several boats that you can go on a tour of the sound, you can rent kayaks and a few room motel? Not much else. Anyways it was beautiful and we got to see one of New Zealand’s famous mountains, Mitre Peak.

All in all, the trip was absolutely amazing. An Easter that we’ll never forget I’m sure. Now it’s back to work (for Andrea anyways) The bottom fell out of the wool market and John is no longer employed, so I’m left to bring home the bread. I only have 5 shifts left and then off we go again to the freedom of our little van. Hey if you think of it please pray that God would be continually guiding us as we finish up our time here in New Zealand, try and sell our van, and move back to Canada (with a side trip to Thailand). There’s a lot of stuff up in the air and we don’t really know what’s next for us. We know we can trust God’s got something up his sleeve but in the meantime, it’s a little unnerving. Thanks!

Thailand here we come!

We'll I told you I'd keep you up to date on what was going on so... I just printed off our e-tickets for our flight from Singapore to Bangkok. Pretty good deal considering we paid for them using our travel rewards points from our visa. :) We did have to set back our arrival in Canada by a few days because of some complications with re-booking flights but all in all it went pretty smoothly. SO...

We are officially going to THAILAND! Now we just have to work out all the details. For example where to stay how to get there, what to do while we are there, what to do with our 'other' luggage that we don't want to bring with us (like warm clothes!!!!) What kinds of vaccinations and med's do we need that we don't already have and can we get them here without paying an arm and a leg? The list goes on and on.

We have been looking into the idea of taking a train trip. Apparently the train lines there are pretty good way to travel and it would be a good and exciting way to see a country and get to a destination in style. We don't know how to go about getting that set up so we shall see what happens. All John want's to do is go snorkling again (and that's the last thing I want to do) and all I want to do is ride an elephant (which John told me is also lame but I don't care) :) I went out and bought the Lonely Planet book for Thailand and it's been pretty helpful so far.
If for nothing else than to learn about Thailand and get to know what we are getting into (at least a little).

Anyways that's all for now!

Where can we go next?

Well folks, keep your fingers crossed or pray or whatever... I'm in the process of trying to make our flights work out so we can stop over in Thailand on our way home. Right now it's all kind of in limbo as the amazing travel agents at Thomas Cook Duncan pull flights out of thin air. They are honestly amazing. It all gets kinda messy when you try and change your international flights that have been booked for ages, two months before you fly on them. Things are booked up, on these days and not on these... and so on. We're just trying to find a match that works. I'll let you know if it all works out or not, but here's hoping. We'd really love to stop over there but if it doesn't work out maybe we'll just pop over to Australia instead. We'll see! Once you have the travel bug I think it's like a virus that never goes away??? I'm not sure on that but I'm suspecting it's true. It seems wierd that we're looking at the end of our time here. It's gone so fast!

Once we're home we will be heading back to good old Grande Prairie to stay for a while at least???? who knows. We're hearing that housing is pretty crazy up there right now so you can all pray that we get somewhere to stay that's not CRAZY in price (as much as we love our parents for letting us stay with them...) We'll both be looking for jobs as well when we get back.

We'll folks it's a beautiful sunny day here in New Zealand +25 in the shade and I don't want to be inside anymore so I'll tell you more later! :)

Worlds YOUNGEST Shoplifter!!!

So I was thinking that this memory deserves to be posted. The other day in Kathmandu (during the sale) we were really busy and there was a LARGE man who came in with his little girl (about 2 yrs or so). The father had picked an item out and the little girl wanted to hold it. Well the item was no sooner placed in her arms then she turned and ran out the door. The father had looked away for a moment and hadn't really seen her escape route so when the security alarm went off all eye's turned to see who the "theif" was. Instead of some helpless shopper who had been unlucky we all saw this father (who looked like a big security guard) pick up his little girl from out the door and carry her right back into the stoor, stolen item and all. Everyone in the store had a good chuckle, So did I. I hope you will too!

That's all for now.

Good News!!!

So after the crazy mayhem of the first weekend of the Kathmandu Sale has passed, I am still alive, albeit, barely (at some points) and I am now making 50c more an hour! (bringing my pay rate to $11.50/hr) Hows that for cool! My boss told me I was doing such a great job she decided to give me a raise! That seriously made my day! She also told me that even though I was just a couple weeks short of getting the staff discount (you have to be there for more than 3 months) she would give it to me anyways! John's really excited about that and is eyeing up all the really expensive things like Goretex rainwear and -21 down sleeping bags that are regularly $850.00 or so ($320 ish with the discount)

I would like to add that I am officially just a wuss. Here I am whining about my long hours and how tired I am (I'm quite good at that) and I failed to remind myself and all of you that my amazing husband works from 5:45am to 6:00pm everyday with minimal days off that are sparradic at best doing heavy physical labour. The prize for most hardworking husband officially goes to John! :) He also makes $6.50/hr more than me :) so his hard work is ...more rewarding??? shall we say?

Finally some photos :)

So this is going all the way back to John's birthday. This was his cake :) and the next photo is us (with our van) on the beach for John's birthday!! The rest of the photo's are some random shots of our most recent explorations. The one that is hard to see what it is... is a penguin. :)

Kathmandu Easter Sale

Well for the sake of a post I thought I'd let you all in on my crazy work schedule for the next 5 days. The BIG easter sale starts on Thursday the 15th with a members only day and then for the general public on Friday. Well, this means that my hours are as follows

• Thursday: 8:15 am - 9 pm
  
• Friday: 8:30 am - 8:30 pm
  
• Saturday: 8:30 am - 6 pm
  
• Sunday: 9 am - 6 pm
  
• Monday: 8:30 am - 6 pm
  

That makes for a total of 47 3/4 hours over 5 days...standing...on a concrete floor...with insane amounts of people pushing their way around the store...etc...

I'll let you know how it goes. :)

A day off together...

Well, today John and I both had the day off so we hit the town... Our van's warrant of fitness had just about ran out (in New Zealand all vehichles need to pass an inspection every 6 months) so we took it in to get inspected and it only failed on one thing. The balance of the rear brakes. So we took the van to a local shop and got it fixed (for more than we expected...) and finished up the inspection with a new warant :) yay. While we waited for them to fix the brakes we walked around Invercargill. Wandering through the shops looking for... absolutely nothing in particular.

That's not entirely true. I wandered through a lot of "dress" type shops in hopes of finding the perfect "sister-in-law" of the groom dress for the wedding that we will be attending a week and a half after we get home. I haven't found a complete ensemble yet but I'm hoping to get something over here :) Other than that we just wandered around 'browsing'.

When the van was finished we went in search of panel beating shops to get quotes on fixing the side door that was bashed in before we bought it. One guy said it wasn't worth fixing and is supposed to call us with a price on a new door. The other shop hummed and hawed and then gave us a quote of around $1000 to make the door look like new again. YIKES! John will do some calling around to find out if he can get a door himself, but we'll see. We may just have to sell it as it is... bummer. That will most likely make it harder to sell but oh well.

All in all that was our day, it was just nice to hang out together for a day. I've been feeling a tad bit homesick the last little while since we've both been working. Ah well, the big Kathmandu sale is coming so I won't have time to feel lonely pretty soon! We were briefed the other day on the big sale and it sounds pretty intense. I don't really know what i've signed up for here but I'll keep you posted. Anyways that's all from us for now...

No change to report....

We'll since we have now settled into the mundane life of the working majority we have much less 'adventure' to report. (smile) Oh well, we are still enjoying being somewhere new and I still find things that are done differently or said differently everyday, much to my amusement. For Example...

A customer of mine came in and, with a new Zealand accent, told me she was looking for a sponge bag. I, momentarily confused gave her a very blank look and so she asked again but this time she called it a toilet bag. Now pardon me for not clueing in right away but with all the technical hiking gear my mind went "EW that's disgusting!!!" I didn't say it outloud, but I think my face showed I was still confused and stunned. Finally someone else behind the counter rescued me and took her to where the bathroom bags/toiletry bags were, much to my embarassement.

Anyways, that's all for now...

Keeping Busy with NEW Adventures

Well, the time has finally come where John and I are busy once again! You'll never guess what we are up to :) We've decided to become farmers so John is training to be a wool presser with Ben and comes home smelling like a sheep. He's enjoying the work for the most part but does come home tired and leaves home very early (ie: 5:30 am) I on the other hand started today at Kathmandu, which is an outdoor gear store chain here in New Zealand. I will be trained in all aspects of the gear in order to sell it which is a little daunting but oh well, I'm sure I'll do alright. My job is only part time for the moment so in my spare time I've decided to volunteer at the riding for the disabled society. Yesterday was my first day of that and I actually really enjoyed it. I've never worked with disabled or handicapped people so it is an interesting challenge for me. I worked with the sweetest little girl named Taylar who was just amazing to watch her enjoy the horse and being in control of it. With my love for horses it's a perfect mix (although I did get bit once, and stepped on as well, so I'm not sure if I love these horses). Well, Today is February 14th here so happy Valentines Day to you! Know that ultimately you're loved by your creator and his valentine is in the palm of his hand. :)

Well that's all for now but thanks for your prayers in this area and we'll let you know how it all works out!

P.S. Corissa I got your card yesterday! Thanks, it made me laugh and blessed my heart!

...Hope in a Crucified Man...

Last night I had the opportunity to go to a "concert" of sorts put on by 'Tear Fund' New Zealand (associated with Compassion International) They had Graham Kendrick (songwriter) and Tony Campolo both doing what they do best and it was a really enjoyable night. One of Graham's new songs is called... "I put my hope in a crucified Man" and he spoke a little about how we are meant to live our Christian lives through our everyday actions and dealings. He even mentioned on our blogs so I thought it would only be right to respond by commenting here that I do put my hope in a Crucified Man. Tony Campolo was challenging as usual, even though his main challenge was to sponsor a Child, his message still rang true that we are called as the people of God to care for the poor and the needy. He spoke of his many trips to third world countries and seeing the face of God in the little malnurished children. We are called to treat those little ones as God in the flesh so we can respond on judgement day that we did feed, clothe, visit and help the needy.

He also challenged us to live in the Power of God as we are promised that the same power that dwelt in Jesus Christ and rose him from the dead is now living in us. The same power! He referred to the story when Jesus was in the crowd and the woman came up and touched his robe. Jesus asked "who touched me?" and his disciples laughed at his question. Jesus replied "somone touched me and I felt power flow out of me" Tony Campolo said again that this is the same power that Christ says now lives in us.

I was encouraged by his message and I wanted to pass this on to you! We are called to serve an awesome God who gave us his power to live life to the full.

Can I hear an "Amen?"

A Day in the Life of us...

Well, after a recent conversation with my parents, I wondered how many other people didn't know what our day to day living arrangements were. So I decided that I would try to communicated what a day of ours tends to look like.

Currently we are living with Ben Conways Parents, Bruce and Lois. They have been gracious enough to let us stay with them while we look for work and get settled. We have also discussed staying with them a little longer term (boarding with them) depending on what we feel like once we have income (if we ever get income). The Conways have 3 boys and all have moved out leaving them with 3 empty bedrooms that are never all empty (from what I can tell) as they always have something going on here! (Very generous people) Since I have been at home a fair bit I have done some cooking, a little tiny bit of grocery shopping, and a few spurts of cleaning. John mowed the lawn the other day and was helping Bruce with maintaining his boat. Even John has been helping out with some of the cooking and made the best BBQ chicken I've ever had the other day! We have been attending ICBC (in New Zealand that is the Invercargill Community Baptist Church not their Insurance corporation) and enjoying that!

Day to day we usually sleep in until around 9 or 9:30 and then once up we try and decide what we should do for the day. We have done a fair bit of exploring on the nice days and I have read more books (on the rainy days) than I have in years. We've gone to many of the local beaches, day walks, and touristy things. We've also spent a few of our days job hunting. We are usually home for the evenings, playing cards or whatever. Really we are just waiting for jobs to appear and in the meantime getting a little cabin fever-ish.

We still have our van that we are mostly just using for transportation right now but it is still all set up and ready for a trip should we decide to go on one.

We'll I think that should give you a better idea of our lives as of late. Please keep praying for jobs for us! We would appreciate that!

Answer's to the Questions... and more...

Not to leave you waiting long of course here are the answers to the few extra questions. My (Andrea) answers will have to do... :)

Did you get to have a Bithday cake?

John did get a birthday cake, I made him a very nice and moist Chocolate cake
which he enjoyed very much. (so did I)

Do they have dairy Queen icecream cakes in New Zealand? (25 candles would melt it pretty fast anyway!)

Chalk at least one negative point up for New Zealand... they do not have Dairy
Queen here and thus no Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cakes. Sad, Sad, Story...

Do they call BBQs Barbies in New Zealand or is that an Aussie expression?

They do call BBQs Barbies here from time to time but not always. I think it
is more common in Aussie land but you could here it hear from time to time
:)

Well there you have it again folks... On to new news...

Today John went sailing with a couple of the guys which I think he enjoyed very much. You'll have to ask him for more about that. I stayed home to read a good book, watch a movie and clean the oven! What a day! Well I did get most of my book read, the movie was good (The Queen, in theaters now here and very interesting), and the oven is free of its grime, with only one tiny casualty... my arm got in the way. As I was cleaning I reached inside to wipe off the back and bumped my arm against some of the chemicals. I went to the sink quickly to rinse it off and noticed I'd bumped in another place as well but when I rinsed that spot off, my skin washed away with the water... Its a tiny spot but I was considerably grossed out and felt a little sick for a bit. Now it just looks like a white spot on my tanned skin. OH well... I've handed out more resume's now and am waiting for a call again! We wont wait too much longer before we'll have to move on or get more desperate for work. I really don't relish the idea of working at McDonalds or something....

John also got the opportunity to go caving the other day (since I am so fond of caves I turned down the opportunity) which he also enjoyed! I guess they are pretty cool caves that you can just wander around in. Anyways thats about all for us. Sorry about the lack of pictures, we are again finding it hard to post pictures so you'll just have to wait!

25 Years...and counting

So this past week we have over here celebrated John's 25th birthday (on the 25th of January making it some sort of a very special Birthday)

To give you a better picture of how John saw his birthday I've proposed a question and answer post. I (Andrea) will be the questioner and John will the the Answer'er'. :) Please feel free to add your own questions after :) in the comments.

Q:What was your favorite part of your birthday?

A: Opening the gifts from Andrea. She bought me a merino wool t-shirt (New Zealand fine wool) and mini binoculars.

Q: How was your birthday different in New Zealand?

A: There was no family around me (except for Andrea) and the weather was very different that usual.

Q:What did you do to celebrate your special day?

A: We had a BBQ outside :) (and we went to the beach)

Q:What was the weather like?

A: Pleasant (a little windy but sunny and mid-teens)

Q: What did you miss about a Canadian birthday?

A: Seeing family

Q:What are your thoughts on being 25?

A: Well officially insurance companies now seem to believe that I will be a more responsible driver (as rates go down at this age). Who told them that? If only they knew the truth. :)


Well folks there you have it.

One Week Later...

What a week! We have just returned from our time at the Lake Johnson Junior camp and it was wonderful! John and I were both “tent leaders” and we really enjoyed our time! I had three campers and a co-leader in my tent and John had 6 boys in his tent on his own. It was a classic case of more girl leaders than boy leaders. The camp is situated on a sheep farm just north of Queenstown (which is the New Zealand version of the town Banff), which borders a small lake called… you guessed it…Lake Johnson. The area that we camped on was littered with little sheep droppings, which did smell sometimes, and we had the occasional sheep wander through. The campers slept in canvas tents (similar to the ones Peace Country Pioneer uses at the base camp) and there were two small shed type buildings, one which was the “cookhouse” and the other was used as storage. We had “long drop” washroom facilities as they call outhouses here and a large “marquee” style tent that served as the dining/everything room. There were 30 campers or so all together and we had a variety of activities including kayaking, hiking, bouldering (rock climbing without ropes to a restricted height) and gold panning. We had four teams that rotated through these and we drove the kids to a local tourist town which originally was a gold rush town called Arrowtown and did our own panning there. A few of the groups thought they found some gold but my group took our findings to the gold shop where we were told we found “fools gold”.
One of the days/nights we did a camp out at another local lake. The boys went one night and the girls went the next and the day between this we did a 3-4 hour hike through some local trails. I was glad that we waited until the 2nd half of the week to do that long hike because it’s been a while since I’ve done a lot of physical activity and man was I sore. The pain slowly passed as we continued to play lots of camp type wide games and lots of short walks here and there (short being 1-2 hours or so). On the last full day of camp we did an outing with the kids and took them to town where we did a short treasure hunt type game through town (that I got to plan with another girl) and then we took them luge-ing. It was really fun and the kids loved it. Over all the camp was a great experience and it was good to be involved in yet another camp, just to add another experience under our belts and to see how they do camping here. I really enjoyed the size of the camp and how I could get to know the whole staff team and I did manage to learn all the girls names and half the boys names. I had an awesome tent of girls. We had a lot of fun (the 5 of us) Vanessa and Emily were from the same town and knew each other before camp and Christine was from Germany and her mom and her brother are in New Zealand for several months to have a cultural experience and learn English. That was a bit of a challenge as we had to work at understanding each other but for the most part it was really fun! Emily was our resident gymnist who faithfully did her “gym conditioning” almost every day while the rest of the kids had free time. Many of the girls enjoyed watching her do all kinds of bendy things with her body and some really cool things like handstands and flips. Vanessa was my little talker and kept the tent lively when she was around. We had many a giggle together. Rachel my co leader and I had lots of fun getting to know each other and Rachel found it very entertaining to “learn” my Canadian accent. I did instruct the whole tent to call their “woolen hats” toques but I had to give in and use all kinds of kiwi words in order to be understood. For example it’s tea instead of supper and supper instead of bedtime snack. I got some funny looks when I got that confused. My favorite part of camp believe it or not was leading the campfire silly song sessions. I taught the campers all kinds of fun songs, some they already knew and some were brand new. We had ‘heaps’ of fun! Well that’s all from me, here’s John’s rendition of the week.


Well I have to say that I had a very good time getting to know everyone, sharing ideas and leaning new songs and games. I also have to say I make a pretty poor rugby player. But I can’t say they didn’t try to teach me. It was a beautiful little spot for a camp. I really wasn’t sure what I would be able to help with as far as activities went, so I just winged it. I took two groups tramping around the lake, that was an adventure in itself since it was quiet cliffy around one side of the lake and it was hard to tell which way to go so I ended up running ahead a few times to scout it out. We made it back and the next day went much better. The next day went with my team gold panning. A few tried it out but they got bored pretty quick, and what do you do with a bunch of bored kids at a little rocky stream? Build dams! The next day I drove a team to the spot were they were doing bouldering which was just that, giant boulders in a field at the base of the Remarkables mountain range. My forearms were dead after doing it a few times. Quiet times and study times went better than I could ever have hoped. My boys decided they wanted to read different parts of the bible and ask questions about it. I did my best but they didn’t make it easy. One of the boys wanted to read revelations so we started at the beginning and read the letters to the churches, which was cool. I had a great time at the camp, and hopefully we’ll be able to do more sometime. Next, our plan is to try and find some sort of work. We’ve had a lot of fun but it’s time to pay some bills. So hopefully something will come up soon. We’ve had a few people mention fruit picking so maybe we’ll try that… we’ll see?

First Post of 2007

Well it is now officially 2007 and starting tomorrow John and I will be joining up with our friend Ben Conway to do a weeklong Scripture Union camp. We just returned from our “Christmas Break” camping tour which was wonderful! We had tones of fun hanging out with our friends Milly and Lindsay as we toured around the central south island. New Years eve was a tone of fun as we hung out around a beautiful lake and dancing with sparklers after our glorious countdown to the new year. It was exciting to for the first time in our lives be in the part of the world that celebrates the New Year first. It was crazy to think that by the evening of the following day our families were just beginning their own countdowns to the New Year. I guess that’s what happens when there is a 15-hour time difference between home and us. Anyways that’s an update on us, and what we’ve been up to lately.

Last but not least can anyone tell me what’s different about this picture?