A week in review... from the garage floor.

I can hardly believe how the time flies! It's hard to believe I haven't written in almost 5 days. I've tried numerous times but haven't been able to get to the point of completion of a thought let alone a coherent sentence (right Dave? lol, he edited my last lengthy late night post and this one too).

Anyway, here's a week in review. You might want your tea for this one :)
Monday was gorgeous, so we went to a local duck park and escaped a near attack of suspicious and over protective Canada geese. Beyond that, Monday is a blur.... I had some great 'God times,' along with a workout in the evening at an outdoor Bootcamp that my friend, sister and neighbor, Sarah runs. The girls came with me while Dave researched where to take our car for some much needed care.

Tuesday was the first beautiful sunny day that we've had since we rolled in 2 weeks ago. We were thankful for those gorgeous days, but since then we haven't seen very many mountain tops. Today, it was a mountaintop day! To start the day, we had my cousin Rachel over with her little man Sammy. It was nice to finally get to know my cousin, who has lived here in BC her entire life. Her little guy, Sammy is a day older than Kara so it was neat to introduce them as well. I'm excited to see more of my BC family in the months ahead!

After lunch we decided to head to Harrison Lake, a beautiful alpine lake surrounded by mountains with a small lagoon/reservoir like thing, a sure place to take our visiting friends and family. After Emily had her initial scream of terror when touching the water, the girls played for a couple hours - digging in the sand and throwing handfuls of mud at each other and into the lake.  It was a relaxing afternoon.... after after which we paid the price: due to missed naps, the girls fell asleep at about 5pm and then didn't wake until close to 7pm. That night they were up late "partying" with us and since then it's been a bit of a struggle to get them back into routine.

A face off...

Kara's a little unsure...

Emily watches from the shore, several feet from the "dangerous" water.

Daddy helps ease her in.

 Look at the mountains (the pictures don't do the white caps any justice)!

Snack and making roads in the sand... remember this Porringa family?

Eventually, the allure of the mud won Emily over!

Wednesday we woke early (despite the late night) and headed off to our first Chilliwack Birthday party (It wasn't our first BC birthday party though - Dave and I enjoyed celebrating Charis' birthday back in January when we were interviewing!). The party was for one of our landlords little girls, Leah, who is Kara's age (I think she just turned 3). Anyway, the party took place in their beautiful backyard and their indoor pool, quite a uniquely beautiful house! The girls did well with all the commotion of about 15 other kids and 5 adults, but were not too fond of the pool. Much to my chagrin, Emily screamed and clung to me every time I so much as brought her near the water, and Kara was a leach around my neck for the 15 minutes that I forced her to endure..... we will have to get some more swimming practice in at Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's house while we are home in St.Catharines.

That afternoon Kara and Emily had normal naps but woke up a little grouchy and generally sad. "I want to see my Grandma's" was Kara's complaint to which Emily replied Bapa Bapa. Skype has been a life saver for times like this and although it's definitely not the same as a hug it feels a bit like a long distance hug. I truly am thankful for the advances in technology which make our cross country divide a little less dividing.

That evening we had a couple, Jon and Bonnie Esau, and their little 2 year old Callie for dinner. This lovely family shared with us about their upcoming move to Thialand where they will be serving as missionaries for 10 years. It was really great to have God-centred conversation as well as some laughs about parenting with this young family, who I'm sure will become dear friends of ours in the months to come. Both Dave and I really enjoyed our visit and I'm happy to report that my 3rd serious attempt (something more than sausage or hot dogs) on the BBQ was a success. I now kinda know how to do grilled veggies with goat cheese and pork on the BBQ!

Thursday started out as a blah day because the rain clouds rolled in again. Really we had nothing to complain about as the last 3 days were gorgeous and sunny. Not too hot, but warm enough to wear our summer clothes and even play in the water. Thursday we dedicated to getting our licensing arranged, car fixed, laundry and clean up. It ended up being a great day as I listened to a couple really encouraging and helpful sermons while I cleaned up the kitchen and folded laundry.

Thursday for dinner we had company again but this time it was the couple that we met our first Sunday in Chilliwack, Pam and Dan. It's such a God thing that after just two visits we already feel so comfortable with them. It might help that they are from Ontario, Christians, knew Graham a little, are great with our kids, super helpful to us, and to top it all off- Pam is a year ahead of Dave in the residency program, so they can talk about everything medical. Praise God! Poor Dave, he has been going a little batty waiting for residency to begin. Although we've had some great family time and really enjoyed exploring a bit he's really been missing the "man factor" is his life. Wednesday night with Jon Esau will hopefully result in a round of golf next week and a Thursday with Dan will likely turn into a game of squash in the weeks to come.

That night, the girls refused to sleep. I don't know what kept them up but for the first time in awhile it didn't really bother me at all. I loved rocking and then laying with Emily and Dave and I took turns lying with Kara until she nodded off as well. Emily was up late into the night hanging out with us in the Papasan chair. I have included a few pics for effect :) I kept thinking... these times will soon pass. One day, our girls will be out late with friends and less excited about spending their evenings in our arms :) . In short, God has yet again provided for our specific needs.

It had been 2 hours of rocking... so we gave up and she joined us for tea.

But she was NOT sleepy.

And it didn't seem she was hurting...

Little scammer just loves her parents to herself!

Tylenol saves the day again, back to bed for Emmerson... this time, no complaints.

Today is Friday, it's been raining off and on all day but for some reason today still seems so bright. Perhaps it is the way the clouds seem to be wrapping their arms around the mountains, or the way the sun insists on shining through the dark clouds even if just for a minute or two. The clouds are dark but yet there is light all around the mountains in places where it seems that the sun is winning the battle of the sky. I'm not used to this rain yet, but I am slowly starting to adapt. For example, we played with chalk in our garage today while the rain teemed down around us. It was kinda peaceful and the girls thought it was cool. "Hey Mom, we're not getting wetter!" Kara said to me. Emily just ran in circles with the pink chalk she was liberally adding to the floor. :) And that brings us to now... I'm sitting here watching my girls and blogging from the floor of our garage and thanking God for simple days like today.

Prayer Requests for the Week (Since I have hardly said much about what God's been doing here)...
- The situation with my Dad. No details needed. Please just pray for him. Father's day was weird and prompted some e-mailing.
- For Dave as he begins his last week of 'vacation' before Residency, his first week as Dr. Heywood is just around the corner and holds all the expected feelings of anticipation for him.
- For the relationships that we are making here, that God would be in them and that we'd continually rely on his perspective and direction. It's interesting thinking about who it is we will be doing life closely with when there are so many people we've met in the past almost 3 weeks!
- Huge praise for the awesome package we received today from the Heywood's, complete with love letters and outfits for the girls! So fun!

Checking out our super sentimental album from our small group is a almost daily activity!

Outfits from Grandma and Grandpa H

P.S.... Kara is singing right now "I cleaned the rain! Nice and clean! I cleaned the rain, nice and clean, nice and clean!" and Emily is humming along. Duets, is in their future, I can see it!