scary answering machine messages...

on Tuesday July 24th I went to Austin for a baby shower for Angela and as I pulled on the driveway I could tell that Michael wasn't home...which is a little irritating, since he should've been home from his softball game already. When I opened the door, I discovered his worn clothes strewn about the entrance and confirmed that he was not home (my irritation level has gone up a few notches by this time). So, I put down my purse and go to the answering machine...which is dutifully blinking red to let me know that there's a message. I push play and hear this message, "This is Jacelyn, Michael's coach's wife. Michael got hit in the face with a ball" (at this point my stomach does something funny and I suck in my breath)...the voice continues, "but don't worry, it's ok, he's conscious. We're taking him to the dentist to get him stitched up, call me on my cell." Needless to say, all feelings of irritation have disappeared and been replaced by great concern. I called and found out that they were in the process of stitching him up and he should be home soon, I didn't need to bother coming down. So I waited and waited, it took almost two hours. When Michael got home he explained that it was because the dentist was such a clown (as in funny) that all the laughing amongst everyone made the stitching take a little longer than normal. The dentist even cleaned up the nasty scrape on his leg from sliding for a base while they waited for the freezing to kick in.

For all my nurse friends, I'll now go into more details of the wound, if you don't want to read this paragraph, skip it. Apparently Michael was going for a low grounder (hit by a very big & beefy man) that must have caught some kind of edge and bounced unexpectedly high, catching Michael in the mouth. His tooth punched right through him bottom lip, Michael told me he had to pull his lip off the tooth. He also had a half inch deep gash in his upper lip. We don't know exactly how many stitches there were, a few in the top lip, a few in the bottom and one on the outside. The craziest part is that Michael didn't have time to eat supper that day, so he was really hungry and now he couldn't eat! He could actually barely drink either, but he managed to get down a smoothie.

The dentist told Michael to talk as little as possible for the next 24 hours. Well, that's not exactly easy considering what he does for a living (he talks on the phone all day as a dispatcher). The trouble was that his boss was out of town, so Michael had to go to work or there would be no one there. So, I went with him! I got to be Michael for a day! It was pretty interesting explaining to people what happened and repeating everything they said to me on the phone, so Michael could tell me what to say out of one side of his face, and then I would say it into the phone. I have to say it was nice to see what he really does though.

The pictures show the progression of his injury from the night it happened, the day I went to work with him when it got really swollen and the day after that when it started to come down again. He looked totally normal by Sunday, and has been kissing me again since two weeks after the injury. :)

bc in july

ok, so our trip to BC was a whirlwind of visiting with people. Thanks to all of you who took the time to see us, it was great! We really appreciated the warm welcome we got from many of you! Unfortunately I don't have that many pictures as proof, but here's a few courtesy of Sylvia, from one of the picnics we had (thanks Syl).



Another highlight for us was Coldstone's! We made the trip down to Bellingham on Wednesday, which was the hottest day we had while we were there, (it was apparently a balmy 38 degrees celsius) in a car that doesn't have air conditioning (affectionately nick-named "the donkey"). Boy did that ice cream taste good when we got there! Mmmmm-mmm.

weekend in courtenay...

Ok, so we had a long day of travelling to get from Winnipeg to Courtenay, BC (that's on the island, for those of you who aren't sure, and it's about half way up the inland coast of the island). My Dad informed us at the airport that he had booked a marine tour for the next day at 8am, gulp! We arrived in Courtenay totally exhausted, having spent nearly 24 hours travelling by plane, car, & ferry, but were greeted by very friendly B&B hosts, and a beautiful place to stay. It's called the Baywood House, and we highly recommend it! In the backyard, which faces the bay, there's a beautiful garden patio with a fire pit, too bad I don't have a picture of that.

The collage of pictures is the suite that Michael and I had to ourselves, gorgeous isn't it? Anxious to get some rest and be ready to enjoy the boat ride, we crashed pretty much right away. The boat tour was a ton of fun, the guide was a great story teller. We got to see lots of wildlife: sea lions, seals, bald eagles, seagulls (does that even count?), and hold an octopus! The guide had prawn traps that we got to pull up and keep the catch from (that's where we found the octopus). So, he showed us how to take off their shells, and then promptly popped the fresh meat in his mouth. So, Michael and I sampled that as well. It has a pretty sweet mild flavor, it's the really really slimy texture that requires some blocking out to avoid the gag reflex kicking in.

The rather ugly looking teal green fish in the middle is a link cod, which was unfortunately just a little bit too short to keep, but it was fun to watch the guys catch it! The lighthouse is one that is actually still manned by real people who live there all the time, which is less & less common these days apparently.

If you're wondering why we went to Courtenay it was for my cousin Luke's wedding. It was a great weekend relaxing, and helping out with last minute details, since nearly everyone was from out of town.

If you look closely at the bottom right of the picture below, you'll notice the corner of a white blanket. This was one of the last minute details that I took care of. Heather wanted a white blanket for the flower girl to sit on so she wouldn't dirty her dress (not that it helped, the flower girl was sitting on the edge of it and digging in the dirt during the ceremony!). Anyway, I went to Walmart in search of a plain white baby blanket, but there was no such thing. So, I checked to see if they had white fleece and they did, so I bought a metre, and borrowed the scissors from the lady who cut it to cut a fringe into the edges, and then we tied the fringes into knots, viola! a blanket!

introducing....Cate!

Hello! Yesterday Michael and I got to meet Cate Elizabeth Enns, our new niece. It was pretty exciting since this is the first time Michael and I are auntie & uncle! Cate was exactly 7 lbs, 19 inches and born on June 26, 2007.

my handy man at work...

Michael and I talked a bit this spring about some kind of a garden, but didn't really have the time or space to do it. But we did get inspired to make some flower boxes after visiting Hubert & Brenda (Michael went over to help them lay some sod, and they have a lot of flowers at their house). So, we stopped at the store on our way home for some dirt and picked up tomato & pepper plants (the tomatoes are for me, the peppers are for Michael) and headed home to start building. We actually found a pattern for flower boxes online that we liked, and we used the old pallets we have sitting in the backyard from moving here for wood. I helped Michael a bit with the cutting, but he ended up doing most of the assembly himself. Aren't they awesome boxes, we thought they turned out pretty good for coming from scrap wood!

introducing tereré to our life group...

one of our last life group meetings for the summer was a "mennonite faspa potluck" complete with introducing the group to tereré. A few of them have little or no Mennonite background and some have, but had never had the cold version of the drink. It was good fun watching people's faces in reaction to the taste!

the count down is on...

Hi. I finished the course I was taking in May, got an A! I'm currently in another course for the month of June, we meet every day for 2 hours for 4 weeks and then it's over, kind of like the class in May. I wasn't planning on this, but after the chance to go to BC, I looked at the course offerings to see if I could rearrange things in such a way that I wouldn't be in classes in July, so we could come for a longer stretch. This class has been much easier, it's an Intro to Marketing class. All we have to do is write a mid-term & final exam, as well as participate in two research studies (that part is worth 5% of my final grade!). It has been a really interesting course...I think I might take another marketing course next year, we'll see. I have one thing to say about summer classes that I really don't like: taking public transit! This past week they cut down to summer schedules (from spring schedule, which I thought were already pretty pathetic). Anyway, this means that the bus I catch which normally comes every 7 minutes is now coming every 22 minutes, so it gets really really full of people (this morning we stopped picking people up about 8 stops before the university, I think we passed at least 40 people who had to wait for the next bus). The crowded part wouldn't really be that bad...if people brushed their teeth and put on deodorant, but they don't, and the smells become quite strong when you are squished in a bus like sardines! On a more positive note, one thing I really like about summer classes, is reading my textbooks outside in the afternoons, enjoying the breeze and nice weather while I work on my tan! I think that's all for now...Michael and I look forward to seeing many of you soon!

father's day face painting...

on father's day there was a show & shine in the church parking lot, it was pretty good fun, except for the downpour we experienced halfway through the afternoon. they had clowns, and also a big bouncy playground thing for the kids. since it wasn't likely that they'd let me jump around, I thought I'd at least get my face painted. The clown's name it Watt, he made me laugh so much I could hardly relax my face enough to let him paint!

may long weekend...

so for May long weekend, Jenn and I managed to tear ourselves away from the books to go to the cottage for the weekend. Henry & Shirley look after a cottage in the Kenora area and asked if we would like to join them in exchange for some labor from the guys. We all agreed it'd be a lot of fun, so we went.

Hooray we're comin to BC!!

Hey look this is my 1st enrty on our blog!! Which we have had for almost a year, so listen up! Esther has a GUN to my head!! This is serious business. We are coming to BC for almost 2 weeks in the begining of July. We are going to Esther's cousin Luke's wedding on the Island and other than that we will be in Abbotsford. We were not (who thinks wern't should be a word) planning on coming to BC before Christmas this year, but Esther's dad made the decision for us and gave us tickets to BC, which we are really excited about. Thanks Dad! We would love to see those of you who live in the area. Send us an email if you remember who we are and have interest in seeing us flat landers. This is Esther typing...I'm hungry, it's time for night lunch, so I'm cutting this short! (I'm craving my ice cream with shreddies, bananas & maple syrup!) over & out! P.S. -Esther's not pregnant she always eats ice cream this way. And she is hyjacking this update to be more acurate! Have a good weekend! Michael