Easter!

This year I made paska again, on Thursday before Bad Friday, it sort of hadn't occurred to me until last minute, because I was so busy with school. Anyway, I called Oma this time, to avoid any further mishaps like last year, and got some instructions and double checked my recipe. Turns out, it is supposed to be a soft, sticky dough (not like bread). It turned out much better!

We didn't have an Easter dinner at our place this year, but we had a big family gathering at Michael's parents place. It was really great. There was extra people compared to the usual 7. Grandma & Grandpa Peters were in from Ontario, Unlce Isaac was there as well as great-aunt Lisa. We had a big Easter hunt, which was a lot of fun, and reminded me of the Loewen hunts we used to have.

{I've been waiting to post this until I got some pictures from the rest of the clan, because of course we didn't take any of our own, but it seems no one had their camera out for the actual hunt, but here's some standard hanging out pics and a "tischbild" }

This is Cate, and the only evidence I have that we had an Easter Hunt.

The "tisch bild" (this means table picture directly translated, and it is something that my Oma Friesen almost always asks for at a family gathering, it's become a bit of a legend.)

new job...

The family tradition of book keeper lives on! Our friend Samuel who also runs a trucking/brokering business approached me to come and work for him as a book keeper/organizer. I thought about it a long time and talked with Michael about it (which was interesting and helped us have another communication breakthrough). I was a little nervous, knowing how in some ways Michael and this friend have very similar personalities and remembering how intense (read: many arguments) Michael and I had when I had to take over doing his trucking books for him. I decided to do it, but only 4 hours a week until school is over, and after that potentially more, as necessary, and until I find my education related employement. So far it has been fun, although the learning curve on a new accounting software is big (I find it way too easy to compare and complain). So, it is going well, I even got to shop for office supplies (I am a total dork: this is something I find incredibly enjoyable). I'm enjoying the challenge of understanding his business and helping him set up an effective filing system and way to handle all. the. paper. So far he seems to be ok with my bluntness on challenging the way he does things (but then again, Michael warned him, and he is paying me to help him be more efficient, a totally different situation than when I started doing the books for Michael!) So, unofficially this is my first gig as an organizer too, which is something I hope to pursue on the side. I have two other organizing gigs that I need to schedule in too, so it might take off sooner than I thought!

birthday boy...

Well, this year it's Michael's "golden" birthday, or whatever you want to call it (the one where he turns 27 on the 27th, it's really too bad I don't remember mine...). So, we celebrated with our lifegroup:



Horst of course remembered Michael's bottle collection, and found this unique one to add to the stash.

Our friends Francis & Janine helped me pull off a surprise party for Michael on the 29th. Michael had no clue and was not suspicious at all, until the first party goers arrived before he had left for his coffee date with Francis (of course the guys both got home from work late, cutting everything very close). Anyway, the couple had a baby, who was not a happy camper, so the crying child kept Michael from thinking too much about why these people had come over. The whole evening was a lot of fun!

see, doesn't it look like we are having fun?

reading week

Sigh...a beautifully wide open blank slate of time...so many important things demanding to be done...and I accomplish almost nothing on the to do list. Instead I spend all of that expanse of time connecting with friends that I haven't been able to spend time with because of the demands of being a student. Well, I have to say that I really enjoyed the leisure time, and I totally deserved the break! (this is my conclusion after a long self talk about the guilt of doing nothing).

Valentine's day...

So, this year we did something a little different on Valentine's Day, and it was fabulous. We went and served dessert at a coffee house fundraiser for a ministry that I think is just amazing. It's called House of Hesed, it is a place for people living with HIV to live and be loved by Christian people. Michael and I did this with a couple from our life group, who are really special people in our lives. We had a great time, almost better than trying so hard to come up with something romantic and cheap to do together (this usually leads to fighting anyway). We did do something else to celebrate Valentine's too, the day after... Michael took me to Cora's, a really cute country style breakfast/lunch restaurant here in Winnipeg (originated in Montreal I think and is making it's way west). I love going out for breakfast any day, but going to Cora's was even better. The menu is full of awesome choices, crepes, omelettes and waffles (some of which even come with nutella on them!). Anyway, we had a great time and enjoyed our food very much.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, the day that the season of Lent begins. Lent is essentially a time of preparing for Easter, it's 40 days long. Often people choose to give things up for the season of lent, chocolate, bread, TV, movies, coffee, you get the picture. I have never actually done this because I always miss the beginning of it, but this year our church had a service, so I remembered. I am posting this, and then I will not be on facebook until easter (because I find that it occupies far more of my time than it should). I'm still formulating what exactly I will all be giving up, but facebook and reading blogs are two of the for sure. I'm still not sure about the idea of not posting to my own blog. I'm also still praying about which food item to give up, I really want to give one up, because I think that will really make me uncomfortable. And this is kind of the point of Lent, to be uncomfortable, to give something up, so that I am more aware of my dependency on God and turn to Him instead of these distracting and comforting things. Also, for your information, Lent is 40 days long, but if you check the calendar from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday is actually longer. That is because the early church decided that Sundays would not be part of their fasting, because it was a day that celebrates Christ's resurrection. I guess that techinically I could do facebook on Sundays then, but I think I'm going to avoid doing even that. To be totally honest, it does make the idea of giving up a certain food a lot easier! Ok, I think that covers what I wanted to say. I hope you all have a great next 40ish days!

obsession

Hello everyone! Ok, so I have again picked up knitting needles after a long hiatus (our tenants didn't even know that I knew how to knit!). I have been quite enjoying it. Sometimes it prevents me from doing what I should be doing, almost like an obsession or compulsion. I have knit a handful of baby hats for some of my friends who have had babies (not for myself yet...).

and also a pair of booties from the leftover yarn...

and mittens for me...

and socks for me...

I've recently bought yarn for a pair of socks for a special someone who will remain unnamed until the socks are made. I also have on the go a cute little halter top for my niece Cate's first birthday. I also recently attended a yarn swap where I acquired a few balls of yarn that I am as of yet undecided about. I also one a door prize which was some fabulous mohair in a deep purple variegated yarn that I hope to make a sweater for myself with. Michael has finally broken down and agreed to let me knit him something, a sweater that we can both agree on, but I haven't picked out yarn yet.

Anyway, you can clearly see that the knitting has become a bit of an obsession (I got to a knitting group every other week) and have even been passing on the obsession by teaching others to knit! Wanna come over and learn?

confessions of an A.R. person...

Hi there folks, Some of you have made a few pointed jabs at the fact that I have not been updating my blog at all in the last few months. I keep meaning to get to it (to the point of pencilling it in my calendar), but as of yet have not. I have about 10 posts that I created titles for, some which I have made notes for, none of which are finished... I have a problem, I can't bear to have a big gaping hole of 3 months missing in my blog, and because of this, I am overwhelmed and unable to get past the looming sense of dread and actually write a post! Is that A.R. (which stands for anal retentive, a phrase I picked up in BC this last visit) or what? It bugs me that my archive doesn't have at least one entry for each month! I feel at least somewhat justified in my not posting because my life has been the craziest, and most hellish experience ever this past semester (school & personally), BUT the gaping hole also reminds me that I am failing miserably at leading the balanced life that I strive and ache to create. It is time to take action: I am going to resolve this problem by turning one of said titles into a published post every weekend. You are going to hold me to it. At the end of this I will feel better, and then I will set up some kind of goal or schedule for new posts. On a lighter note: I have gotten back all my marks from last term. I had straight A's!!!!! I have to say that this is a complete act of God because I was really having the worst time of my life. My head & heart were not in school mode, I didn't read textbooks, could hardly take notes, was just generally distracted and listless. I should not have gotten A's based on my diligence with school, and yet I got better marks than I normally do when I'm working hard and reading all my textbooks. So, praise God! (and thanks for teaching me the lesson that it's ok to let loose sometimes & not hold everything together, You really are Big Enough!) Disclaimer: I want you all to know that while I like to have at least a B in all of my classes, I do not cry myself to sleep when I don't achieve that, I have gotten some lower grades that I was quite proud of because I knew that I had worked hard and put in all that I had.

ice skating...

Ok, so this winter Michael and I had a new past time...ice skating. We managed to find my skates this summer (at my parents, where we had looked at least twice before) which had been missing since I moved home to BC in 2004. Michael also got a very very nice pair of skates for Christmas courtesy of myself and some gift money from his boss. (thanks Roger!) Anyway, since skating is free in Winnipeg on the river, we went whenever we could and whenever I didn't wimp out because of the cold. And, we skated in Austin quite a few times, thanks to Michael's Mom who bought a family pass for the season. So, guess what!?! I finally learned to stop! I feel much better about skating now that I don't feel like a mortal threat to everyone on the ice who might possibly get in my way. If you look carefully at the picture above you will see a circle that my skates made in the ice, that's how I used to stop, but spinning in a circle. Here's a clip to prove that I really can stop. (sorry that there's no river skating pictures...we are not very good at using the camera, even when we do remember to carry it with us!)

second week of classes...

Well, classes for my final semester as an undergrad student have begun. I am taking four courses that I think will provide a good mix of subjects. I realize I may bore some of you with this, but I find it interesting, so here we go. I am taking a Small Business Finance course, which I expect will have some personal application some day down the road (Michael would like to be his own boss again, and even I am entertaining the idea of running my own business as a professional organizer). Our major project for this course is to write a buisness plan, my group has chosen to do one for a self-storage company. I am also taking Consumer Behavior which is a continuation of the marketing course I took in the summer. I have the same prof which makes it really nice to know what to expect. This is course is pretty introductory, but it's interesting even if it is pretty easy in terms of course load. The course I was probably least interested in is the Family Violence course I'm in, this is also a second year course and I'm in it because it fit in my schedule and filled up the credits I still needed to get. The class has actually been better than I thought, although it's tough material to digest in terms of clinical descriptions of the types of abuse and so on (I have found this course harder to process than the death & dying course from last term). The prof provides excellent skeleton notes in powerpoint in class, so it's very easy to take good notes. For this very reason, I decided to be a volunteer notetaker with disability services, I scan and email my notes to them and they pass them on to a student in my class that needs assistance with notetaking. It is quite the motivation to take good, legible notes, and be in class everyday. And, last but not least is Pattern Development! I had no idea what this course was really about, I just registered for it because it is a course that I am required to take. It is a hands on drafting course. The first day of classes we were each assigned a dress form and we've measured them and will be developing actual patterns for clothing from the measurements and designing different garment patterns. It's been pretty interesting and relatively easy because of the sewing background that I have. The terminology and contruction techniques are familiar to me, which is a big advantage, some of my classmates are struggling. So, that's my courses in a nutshell. I think it will be a good term! For now, I must sign off, we're having pizza for supper tonight and it's time to get started!