What we're up to - Photo Blog

These shots are in no particular order since I am inept with blogger photo uploads.

Above: Eryka with the new babies Syd brought from Hepburn.
During the visit from our Winnipeg neigbors; Syd, Kinka, and Abby; New friends, old friends!
Liza and the Kilcona choir did an awesome job on Easter Sunday.
The robes were great!

Mixin' up the cousins!
What do you do with the abundance of Easter Chocolate?

Have a fondue! Syd and friends had one last week.

Somehow, a mini airsoft war happened inside our house.

Owen decided to prepare himself. He's a good pacifist.

Tina and I made pumpkin cupcakes.

Daniel's Angels?!

The cousins, Easter Weekend in Wpg.

Syd and Eryka.

Breakfast with lots of great friends!

Karen made Resurrection Cookies.

A while back, we made la tire - French canadian toffee in the snow.

Trev came over. But his head was on fire, so he didn't stay long.

A visit at Memere's - those are all the grad photos of her grandchildren.

I'm way up in the top corner.

TJ's first guitar lesson. Ted was proud.

Next post in the works: some reflecting about women and leadership and Have you seen the most recent Macleans?!?

Lenten Journey (kelly)

I usually try to observe lent in some way. The purpose isn't to give up something, but to have a deeper identification with Christ's journey to the cross. Very early this season, I was not feeling very lent-like. I was searching within myself for sombre feelings, but instead kept bumping into these jubilant, buoyant feelings. It was like the inside of me was saying :"I know the end of the story! Easter is coming! All is well, there is a Redeemer and I'm redeemed!" But I still kept looking within, wanting to connect with the Redeemer's journey somehow.

Well, it wasn't immediate, but after very few days, those buoyant, joyful feelings were gone. Disappeared! All of a sudden I was trying to re-connect with those emotions and I couldn't hardly remember them! I felt like I was sinking deeper and deeper, farther from joy. My prayers felt empty, unanswered, and things in my days were definitely darker. There was a heaviness that I just couldn't escape. It lasted until recently, when I've slowly started to feel more like myself, and I've had a sense of connecting with God again, which I really missed!

This morning it dawned on me: my lenten prayer was answered.. I did journey towards Easter with some concept of sorrow and grief. Even some doubt. I know my griefs and sorrows are not much compared to what Jesus faced as He moved toward the cross, but I definitely have a deeper sense of his progression, and I have a little, wee taste of what abandonment he felt as the Father turned His face away.

Joy is returning, but I am so thankful for an opportunity to experience a smidgin of what was experienced by someone else on the whole world's behalf. I'm thankful that no one ever has to endure that again. And when Easter morning gets here, I'll be ready.

Imagine that, ready for Easter and not a pink egg or chocolate bunny in sight!

Randoms

Just some random things that have been going through my head this week:

Hope
Back when I worked at ICYA, we did a lot of discussing about our organizational vision and values, and the most often discussed concept was HOPE.
Hope, we realized, was the missing ingredient in the inner city. It was missing from individual lives, from families, from schools, from every place frequented by our youth. It was missing from their relationships with peers, teachers, parents, and other community members. I've never forgotten those discussions about what a difference hope makes, and what a emptiness there is without it. I've realized that the presence of absence of Hope is significant to all of us.
This week, in my own life, I have rested in the HOPE I have simply because I'm a child of God. Some things have disappointed me, and some things have surprised me, and some things have saddened me .. and I've felt HOPE in all of it. Not immediately, but ultimately. Hope that comes from knowing that as I abide, His plan does come together. The reality that it seldom (ever?) ends up like I've envisioned it just makes the HOPE sweeter and maybe even deeper.

Cuts and Curls
The local salon in Hepburn is one of the best things about living in this town. I love it there! Its sort of like a tv show, a place where locals gather. One day I called the school and left a message for Owen to go for a haircut later. He went, and didn't pay, (he had money) saying that his mom would look after it later. I did go in later that day for a tan, and paid Owen's tab. I hardly ever go there without running into someone I know. (and I've only lived here for six months!) and no matter what, either Jackey or Leslie is always there and they are ALWAYS in a great mood, super-friendly and happy to see everyone! Another reason why Hepburn is unique and a great place to call home!

Leading
I think/read about leadership, and I found this quote recently as I navigated away from the Emerging Women site: (regarding The Road to Spiritual Authority and Leadership):

"It is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. It is attained by confession of sin, and much heartsearching and humbling before God; by self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold uncomplaining embrace of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified. It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but like Paul, by counting those things that are gain to us as loss for Christ. This is a great price, but it must be paid by the leader who would not be merely a nominal but a real spiritual leader of men (and women), a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth, and in hell." - Samuel Brengle, Salvation Army (this text was quoted here)

Thanks for reading. Have a great week! Looking forward to seeing our Winnipeg friends and family in a couple of weeks, as we're heading out there for Easter in a couple of weeks!

an awesome saturday (by syd)

yesterday was great!
so ... on friday katelyn (bushman) slept over and in the morning we went to the hair salon and came back watched the grudge 2. then we went to the church to help for a funeral then we made choc milk and bradon (Owens friend) asked if he could have some and so we made some "concoction" of :

vinegar - cocoa - hot sauce - bbq sauce
and it was so funny when he drank it!!

then we went on a walk and for some odd reason we couldn't walk dexter and i let go of him and chased him all down main street it was strange. we came home and make milk shakes and home made oreos they were yummy -- it was a great day!:)

love u, god bless, from: syd

oroantral fistula (a post by Brendan... finally!!)

It's time I emerge. I had to kind of lay low after the Grey Cup, and now I'm back...with a weird kind of medical story of which I'm sure most of you have heard by now, but I'm telling it anyways.

It all started over a year ago when we still lived in Winnipeg. Man was I sick. I remember the first week that it really hit, I thought I just had a really bad flu and that I just needed a few days laying around watching movies. 6 months, 2 emergency room visits, countless doctor and specialists appointments and several courses of antibiotics later still no real progress. I was beginning to believe that it was all in my head (as did some others, including my doctor!) So we move to Saskatchewan in August and I'm not really feeling much better but I have decided that maybe this is life for me.

Fast forward to November, when Kelly informs me that it's time to go the dentist. When the doctor is examining my mouth I mention to her that I had gotten a root canal a couple of years earlier that I didn't think was done properly, so she took an extra x-ray and discovered that the root of that tooth was infected. I thought we found the problem and that all would be well after the molar was extracted. So we made an appointment for January and that was that.

I arrive at the dentist for my extraction and all goes well until...as she is rinsing the hole where the tooth was, the antiseptic was going up into my nose. She stopped, asked me to sit up and promptly told me that the infection had eaten a hole in the bone that separates the mouth from the sinus cavity and that it also eat through my sinus membrane and that I'd have to go see an oral surgeon. Two days later I had an appointment booked for a consultation.

I arrive at the surgeons office, ready for my consultation. They take me into the room and I immediately notice the tools and needles sitting on the tray. A nurse comes in and asks me if I'm allergic to Ibuprofen or penicillin. I'm starting to get nervous at this point ... this was only a consult wasn't it? If you know me at all, you know that I'm crapping my pants at this point.(sorry for the word crapping but it's only one of two words that fit the situation) So the dr. comes in and asks me to lay back so he can put the freezing in because he was going to do the surgery right away. At this point I ask what the surgery involves and he responds that I probably don't want to know until after and that I could have some laughing gas if I liked. I said no (of course) and all I heard was "I've never made any friends doing this" as he jabbed the needle into the roof of my mouth. Thirty minutes later he was done, and I was on my way to the car. Basically the dr. sliced a few layers of the roof of my mouth, folded it over the hole and stitched the skin down.

Three weeks later, one trip back to get my stitches redone, 20lbs lighter, and I finally ate something.

It's now been almost two months and man do I love eating again and besides the crater on the roof of my mouth, I feel good. Better than I have in a long, long time, actually.