Wednesday, July 29, 2009

13 days...

... the last 13 have been packed full and crazy! 7 working days, 8 days of busy family company and then overlapping with another 5 days of in-laws, as well as planning, cooking for and having Kevin's pretend 40th birthday party with all his side of the family, sending the kids off to Calgary, and then packing up to leave in the morning for a 2 night backpack just the 2 of us. Kevin's been packing for that and about the only thing I've added to the pile is my underwear, so I'm completely trusting him :)

You probably aren't going to hear from me for another 4 days because we'll be gone, then I work again. We'll have a couple free days before the kids come back. And then I'll have lots of photos to post! And then, I have 2 weeks of no work and relaxation and holidays. What happened to July???

The cherries are falling, falling, falling... I hope the birds eat them all while we're away :) It's so sad to see all the top ones from the tree just go to the ground wasted up. I don't want to be one of those cherries :( That's my dramatic comment for this post.

Tata... and maybe Auntie Tawa, you'll run into the kids at the Strathmore Rodeo or Calaway Park :) I don't know if Gramma will share them for a Starbuck's date. She's got every minute planned!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Smokeokanagan

Kelowna has a fire again. It's on the other side of the lake from us, but pray for the fire fighters and everyone's safety. It's windy!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

An Unexpected Friend

We had a great day on Beaver Lake with old friends. It has been absolutely years since our girls have met each other. We adults have seen each other more recently, but the last time the girls met was in 2003. It's really ridiculous, not because we live very close but more because it's really about the only friend I have that has girls the same age as mine!!!

Erin and Sarah, Vonny's youngest, are only 4 months apart and hit it off right away. They decided to take the canoe out. "I think they know what they're doing. They have life jackets on, they'll be fine." There is some adult involvement there...

They head out on the lake

And they're off
"I think that's them in the far distance..."
Jacob and Jessa doing some fishing from shore

"Gee we haven't really seen the other 2 for about an hour and can't locate them from shore, maybe we should go check on them. I think we'll bring our fishing rods just in case."
"Ya it's looking like fishing is more the goal than saving the girls.""Oh good, they did make it back to dry ground eventually and have some sunburns to prove how long they were gone on their adventure. " The boys showed up back about 2 hours later. They really weren't concerned about the girls at all were they?


4 girls hanging out on the dock, it's nice to be with girls for a change!
We brought Sara back home from the cabin they were staying at with the grandparents because they decided it would be fun. I think there are some girls falling asleep in the next room soon.... Funny how it feels so normal to have Vonny's daughter sleeping under my roof even though they really just met today :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Looking Forward....

to some days off... some bike riding, some shopping with my girl while the boys going fishing, meeting up with an old friend this week, some meal planning for a load of company next week, and it's supposed to be 37 degrees on Thursday. How about you?

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Cherry Stand


The kids were busy yesterday with the neighbor friends setting up a cherry/iced tea stand. There was some great teamwork going on! Boys making drinks, moving chairs and the girls making signs and "coordinating". They had more fun getting ready and planning than selling, sales were low, not a high traffic area... there were no Diego figurines in their sights (only Randi will know what I'm talking about).

I love the girls' signage! Nice job! We did have some buyers that came by this morning so that helped sales significantly. Don't ask me why Jacob was in fleece pants and long sleeves.

The nice display including samples.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Cherries...cherries... more cherries

I love cherries!! And finally I have some photos for you to go with the themed background! I just have a hard time describing the sheer volume of fruit we get off this one tree. I think of my fruit loving, garden loving friends! Kari where are you?? Oh right, you just had baby #3!

The photos just don't do it justice! We picked for about 2 hours this morning, and by we I mean me, Kevin and the kids for about 10 minutes. Erin is the official sorter/pitter, so her jobs come later on. It's really hard to get good red on camera, and these just don't look the right shade at all. Anyways, this is about 1/5 of the tree, or probably less. Probably about 50-60 pounds so far. We shall have a busy weekend making pies and freezing and pitting. Send your recipes my way :)



I keep telling myself, "Oh this will be the last one I should probably eat today", but when they're only fresh and in multitudes of supply like this for about 2 weeks, what's a girl to do? Pretty sure I've had my daily caloric intake today in cherries already! But oh the health!! Bring your pails on over!! I'd love to see you and have a nice long chat in the tree :) It's cool and shady up there, also a little sticky but not so bad this year, the birds have hardly been about biting into them, pooping on them, and spraying the juice around (imagine that party).

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

We're Back

Even if you didn't know we were gone, now we're home. We spent 2 rainy nights camping in the Shuswap. It cleared for about 2 hours and my wimpy self was DARED to go in the lake, and everyone ended up in the chilly18 degrees. Can't say it was feeling like a typical Okanagan summer! Kevin and the kids caught 3 fish! A productive 2 hours. But hey, what's a little camping without a little rain? It pretty much goes with hand in hand. A lot of s'mores were consumed by the fire and it didn't take much convincing for everyone to want to crawl into our warm sleeping bags a little early at night and read.

Erin's catches of the day.
Seriously comtemplating the water-he knows I'm taking a picture

Margaret Falls, my first photo where I actually made the water look "flowy", by manually changing settings. I'll post some of Kevin's later, but not for direct comparison :)

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Summer Sewing

Erin found a neat pattern online- who needs to buy a pattern anymore - so we headed to the fabric store and picked up this cute cotton print and she went to work (with very minimal assistance from Mom).

And came out with this:
Here's the close in for detail:Don't you love how the before photo is in my messy laundry/sewing/mud room and the after photo is in front of some beautiful flowers? I had no idea you could sew up those cute sundresses we all wore as girls with the elasticky top! And they're back in fashion. Quick and "sew easy"!

Friday, July 3, 2009

This Week in the Garden

A few new things are blooming and some cherries are ready to be picked!!!

Some sort of red lilies
My daisies and a puny painted daisy that has been in the ground 2 years and is finally giving me a bloom. What's up with that? Might be ready for a move once he's done blooming.
Lavender

Grace

Today I feel tired after a stretch of working, but a quick trip to the beach including a nap that just fell upon me there seemed to solve many of my issues. I pray for grace... I'm going briefly discuss work since that's what I've been up to lately, so bear with me.... I love working on plastic surgery, but as soon as summer hits, it's like people lose their brains. I get all sorts of interesting things and I see all kinds of variety in my work, but this week was about enough. Over the holidays, men like to get drunk and fight with each other, and so ensued 3 broken jaws, 1 fractured zygoma (the eye socket), a homeless drug used with an infection in his hand he has no idea how he got, and another VERY young man with a child and a pregnant wife who in a drunken rage put his fist through a fish tank damaging nerves, tendons, and an artery. And they complain, that nothing is fast enough, the care isn't quick enough, they can't get out of there when they want and that they have to WAIT for surgery. Well next time you decide to do these things... let us know a couple weeks ahead of time and we will book you a time slot. And then the other side of me thinks... these people need as much grace as the woman who has come in for the 3rd time with cancer in her breast that is being reconstructed, or the woman whose appendix needs to be removed and in routine blood work finds out she's unexpectedly pregnant.

I have a friend who came to know Jesus in her 20s, and she once told me a story. She used to be young and wild and crazy, had tried it all, and in her 3rd car accident, she and a girlfriend put their car into a tree. The ambulance came and rushed them to the hospital, where she needed to be stitched up because the back of her head behind her ear was ripped open. She describes how she was drunk and rude to the staff, and the word that rings in my ears, is how she described herself as a "pig woman". Beligerent and foul mouthed to everyone, the staff did not use freezing when they stitched her up (maybe they thought she had enough other things in her system, or maybe they just couldn't be bothered). And now her life is a miracle of God turning things around. And so it has saved my nursing care to people like that. I don't know where I am injecting into their journey, and what plans God has for them down the road, but is makes it a little easier to show them compassion.

Isn't this a beautiful moment?
I would like to be back in it right now, but I'll just remember.