Birthday Boys

Michael and his brother celebrated their birthdays together by going toboganing. Their birthdays are only one day apart (plus 15 years). Looks like they had a good time! Michael got to test out his new winter gear, that we purchased in preparation for our trip to Europe.

Cate's Baby Dedication

Well, our neice had a baby dedication and as doting Auntie & Uncle, we had to be there. It was really neat to be there. There was quite a few babies/toddlers there, partly because the church was going through transition and so the last one before this was a few short weeks before Cate was born. The random picture of Michael is just to show off what a good dresser he's become...isn't he hot?

Happy New Year!

For those of you who didn't get this in the mail:

Here's what it said on the back:

Hello!

2008 was a year of milestones & adjustments. Esther completed her Bachelor of Human Ecology in May & became a career woman in the fall, at Siloam Mission.

This past summer we took as much time as we could to hang out together, including Folklorama, where this picture was taken. We also completed a house project together, turning our office into a media room. This summer we got bicycles & spent time riding around Winnipeg admiring houses.

Michael spent another dedicated year keeping trucks on the road & wheels turning.

We have been enjoying our church family & Getting involved in teaching preschool. We’re so thankful for the friends we’ve made here.

We hope that your holidays were memorable & we wish you a very Happy New Year!

Michael & Esther

Christmas Party - appetizers & open house

This has become somewhat of a tradition...

Christmas Cookie Bake!

Val & Allison joined me this year for soem Christmas baking! Yum!

playing at auntie & unlce

This is Sofia, she's almost a year old and almost walking. She discovered that Michael's lunch box worked quite well as a walker...too cute!

Hanging out with Uncle Michael (who is playing pacman on PS1).

the OTHER job, that I still haven't told you about...

Well, thanks all for being patient. I'm now in my fifth week at the other job, and you still don't even know what it is! This is also my first week of full time work. The first four weeks were three days a week. This week I also started taking the bus. So far I've been extremely fortunate, because the weather has been really amazing. Although the bus I'm supposed to catch is either usually very late, or seems to skip a round. On Monday it was a balmy 18 degrees C! I've barely been needing a jacket to get to work, never mind mitts, scarf & hat.

Are you getting impatient yet? I'll start with my title, since it's ridiculously long, and everyone at work has fun teasing me about it. Adminstrative Assistant to the Executive Team. Doesn't that sound important? I suppose it is too, it just doesn't seem that important because it involves being organized and for me that is just so natural.

This is my tag, pretty official, eh?

Where is this job with the long title? At Siloam Mission, that's where I work. In a lot of ways, I feel like I found a job that gives me the best of both worlds. A place that relates to my degree, allows for awesome opportunities to network and makes use of my administrative skills. Pretty cool, eh? I report to the COO, but am available for anything the SAO & CEO need me for as well. The COO and I work together well which is really great.

I'm also learning a few other roles within the organization as a back up person for reception, medical reception and donation processing. This keeps me engaged, because my head is so full of new things.

October proved to be a really crazy month as I juggled three jobs, this one, the Stradbrook one and finishing up at TMR (where I've been doing the books since March).

So, there you have it, you finally know what I'm doing! Here's a picture of me at the end of the first day.

pumpkin carving

This year we managed to find some time for pumpkin carving...with Dan & Jenn, Chris & Allison. We had a good time. Any guesses as to who carved what?

Michael did the mountain scenery on the far right, and I think Jenn did the middle one, Chris & Allsion did the left one.

happenings in October...

So, I mentioned that October was crazy, and it really was. Michael is too embarrassed by this to let me post a clear picture of this, but I couldn't resist putting up in some way or another....

I suppose in fairness to Michael I won't say much more about it, but if you'd like to venuter a guess, feel free to.

Another project for this month was dealing with our garage floor. Our first winter we noticed that it was sinking, because we painted it the night we got possession, and there was a now a gap between the wall and the floor where the paint used to meet up. We let it go another winter, which was probably good, because it sank some more. A total of 4.5 inches I think it was. Anyway, we had it jacked up this fall. Here's the pictures:

Last, but not least. We grew lot and lots of hot peppers this year. So, we harvested them as the frost threatened, and decided to dry them. We tied them altogether on one long string and then had to come up with a good place to hang them. Michael thought this would look good:

Thanksgiving at the Cottage...

Well, it seems to have become a tradition.  How many times does something have to happen to be considered tradition?  Michael and I spent our first Thanksgiving when we were dating at the cottage with Henry & Shirley, his sister Angela and my Mom.  That's where Michael said the "m" word to me (marriage).  It's also where we went out in the row boat and he broke an oar in his efforts to get back to shore asap when the rain started pouring down!  Since then, we've spent every Thanksgiving that we've been in Manitoba there as well, I think that makes it a total of 4 times.  

Dan & Jenn joined us this time.  Mostly the weekend consisted of good food and lots of relaxing.  The weather wasn't too great, so we spent most of our time indoors by the fire.  Reading, doing homework or knitting, depending on who it was.  Dan & Michael did go out for a hike and got soaked, but had fun apparently.  

Unfortunately, I really don't have many pictures, probably because nothing eventful happened, and the few that I have aren't that great, but just so you have something to look at I'll include them.  We had turkey dinner, but in a very untraditional format.  It was BBQ turkey roll ups.  Turkey pieces that were pounded thin, and rolled up with stuffing inside them.  Yummy!