in pieces

Our dear friend Sandra has been battling breast cancer in Vancouver, and our close friends Wade and Joanna (along with many others) organized a huge night to help fundraise for her and to celebrate her birthday. Below is an email that Joanna sent thru to me, as well as a link to the CTV news coverage of the event! Check it out. Sandra is amazing in so many ways, we share a god-child (Eleanor) with her, and for those of you who read my blog, she is the one that helped to teach me about cake decorating . She is truly beautiful and amazing at her work. Happy Birthday Sandra, Love you to pieces - and praying for you constantly. Message about Truly Beautiful Thank you everyone for such an amazing evening last night. It was so much fun to see all of Sandra's friends celebrate with her. It is my incredible honour and joy to let you know that at this point the gifts and pledges made to help Sandra total just over $12,300.00! WHOO HOO! This amount far surp

Spring just passed and I celebrate NEW HAIR And an abundant garden!

Leigh's birthday was last month, so I'm a little late getting this out,(yup that's a soccer "MUD" cake) and I also wanted to make a post about the friends that Leigh and I have made here this past year. Most of them came to Leigh's birthday - So here's killing two birds with one stone. We pooled our money together and got Leigh his own beer brewing kit. Not the yucky "box kind" you can get at the grocery store that gives most people headaches when they drink it, but the real honest to goodness beer - an "art form" for sure. Similar to wine making...so tedious! There's already a batch going. Sarah and Justin got Leigh the rest of the Grolsh bottles he needed so he was happy about that! Most of you in Canada know our friends Simon (L) and Ben (R) from YWAM. Ben will be married by the end of the year to a Canadian girl from Edmonton, and Simon is.... well just Simon - and that's why he's awesome! We had a lot of fun at the

Hallowe'en isn't celebrated here in Australia, and for that I'm actually thankful. I miss seeing the kids dress up (they look so cute!), carving pumpkins is great fun...and who doesn't love trick-or-treating? But I find I actually struggle with the history of the celebration. From what I can understand, it started around the same time Jesus came 2000 years ago... T he Celts celebrated the New Year on November 1st, marking the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. (this info received from this link) Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred . On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth . In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier fo

So for our 3rd anniversary we went to check out the grampians mountains! We had such a great time. We did quite a bit of hiking - which our legs are really thanking us for, and we had a wonderful relaxing time at the Grampians Chalet with in-room SPA! I made Leigh a book about "our story" for a gift Stopping in the "grand canyon" on the way up to the Pinnacle. The Pinnacle! - We made it all the way - and yet I couldn't go all the way out there on that!  I managed 10 ft from the railing or so! I HATE HEIGHTS! The Flowers Leigh gave me - they're beautiful!!! View from the Pinnacle Our chalet! McKenzie Falls A rainbow! Shadows Man! I love that guy! Boroka Lookout The view from the Boroka Lookout Hiking Trail Inside our chalet

It's September, and my mother in law informed me yesterday that it's time to plant our gardens! How exciting. I love plants - watching them grow, and of course eating all the yummy veggies that grow in the garden. I remember growing up, weeding so much garden - my mother had a field - a field of potatoes to plant and pick, a field of peas, uggh! I hated picking peas and BEANS. And worst still was the shelling of the peas or making the french cut beans, then blanching them, and packing them into the freezer for winter. Oh but I sure loved eating them all up! Sometimes making myself sick! It's strange to think that we are in spring now. Weird how seasons "go" with certain months around the world. I certainly don't think of Sept as a "spring"month - nor a time to plant a garden! When I think of spring I think of March and April - rebirth, new growth, the beginning - tulips and Easter, crocus', the sun warming the earth, calving, the smell o

So, I've been busy filling out forms for my immigration interview that I had yesterday. We've decided that this will help in the future should we decide to settle here, but also this will help greatly for continued access to Australia - which I will definitely need now and for the future. This is the size of APPLICATION! yikes - lots of information. Please note the extreme work that went into organizing and filing that puppy. Also here are all of our "photographic evidences" tabbed and in chronological order. I went into all this, thinking this was going to be hard work and not easy - not to get worked up about it, but just to do it. It's the same "talking to" I give myself before entering the Metrotown mall in Vancouver around Christmas time - just breathe...It will be all right! The interview went all right. We are just waiting on a few things to come in - an Australian and Canadian police check, and a health records check. I've done all the

After class last week - I took some pics of the kids! Aren't they cute!? (mouth full of biscuits -cookies- and all!) I have a pretty great job!