Evidence of a Road Trip?

most recent charges on the MasterCard bill:

1) Avis Rent-a-Car
2) PetroCan
3) Days Inn Mississauga
4) Ultramar (gas station)
5) PetroCan
6) Tim Horton's
7) Tim Horton's
8) Tim Horton's
9) Esso
10) Esso
11) WestJet
12) Eso
13) Tim Horton's

:)

Back in Town

Trip went well!
Details to come.
Flight was late.
Looming deadlines called for wee hours of the morning.
Coffee is good.
Sleep is better.

Gone 'touring'
Doing that a lot lately.
Diggin' the extra income
but not the extra stress.

A little prayer for my wife?

I know, I know, its been a long time since I popped my head up on this blog, but this is really important...

My beautiful and talented wife has a an amazing opportunity to talk this afternoon with an organization that's been in her heart for a very long time. True, her time is booked pretty solid over the next bunch of months... But after that we have a big opening to pursue some of our dreams. Keep her in mind, about 1:00pm ET.

(Side note: On my 5 1/2 hour commute into work this morning, I realized that I've been averaging about 40 km/h over the last 40 hours, even when you count in time spent sleeping. Yikes!)

(And: Oh yeah! If you can believe it, she packed me a lunch for work today, and took it with us all the way to Toronto to make sure I'd have it, if I had to drive straight in to work today, which I did. I'm pretty spoiled.)

Like I need more evidence that my husband knows best...

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, I just wanted to stay in bed.

Muffled voice from under the covers:
"I don't want to go to church. I want to stay here"

Stern voice from a well dress handsome husband:
"The car is leaving in 15 minutes, you'll be in it."


So, we go, and wanna know who gave the sermon? World Vision's director of church relations.
If you know me, you'd know that I'm a pretty big fan of World Vision, and you'd know how pumped I'd be if our pastor invited us to join he, his wife, and this gentleman from World Vision for lunch.

Yeah, try super pumped.

You'd also be sure to guess that when offered a tour of Canada's head office in Mississauga and maybe a chance to meet the nutrition team if we were ever in the area, I'd nearly fall over.

We followed up with that lead, and started infiltrating the organization, arranging dates, and getting contacts, but things got hectic in a hurry for everyone involved. The opportunity seemed to be slipping, I kind of thought I didn't stand a chance.

Then, by "chance", after one of our presentations in front of the church, a fantastic young couple came to talk to us about CR, our work there, and how maybe they could be involved.
In this conversation we learn they are visiting from Mississauga.
We mentioned we wanted to visit there soon.

"Why?" she asks.
Well...

"Oh, World Vision! My mother in law is on the board of directors of there, let me take your e-mail and I'll pass it on to her..."

God opens doors, doens't he?


Long story short: Guess where we are going next week?!?!

Scenes of the night

.



When we were up cranking out some work last night, we heard some yelling going on outside (approx 12:00am). This was strange, considering our quiet town is usually, well, quiet at night. We couldn't hear what exactly the man was yelling, but Tom figured it was a boater trying to navigate to land (the canal is only a few meters from out place) and when you're talking or shouting on a boat on the water it tends to carry. So we carried on with out business.






BANG!!!




Lights flicker, I thought for sure someone was shot. (12:23am)

{We were scheduled to walk to campus yet before the night was out (a few meters the other direction), but there was no way I was leaving now.}




BANG!
BANG!


And eventually...

Sirens




My word! Our safe quiet little town!



So I went to visit the washroom, and a little something outside the washroom window caught my eye.









That's a little over a block from our place.






The town's power went out.



Some of our neighbors began taking things out of their apartments and filling their cars to leave. I was like, Tom??? We listed our most valuables that had to come with us if we were evacuated... They were all electronics!!!! lol!

We were never evacuated and we eventually got to bed. Quite the excitement for our quiet town.

Bean Burgers

Just in case anyone missed it, a few of us have a recipe blog goin' on over here.
I just added Tom's amazing bean burgers... check 'em out for a healthy alternative to ground beef!

Watoto

We had the pleasure of attending a Watoto concert last night. These kids are amazing... And so are their stories. I cried all evening.

I think Pastor and Mrs Skinner, the founders of the Watoto organization, are shining examples of how one person can make a world of difference. These orphans (found in dumpers, outdoor toilets, on the doorstep, or escaped from a boy's army) are brought into a loving home, given an education and supported until they graduate university! Now this does have the potential to change a nation.

Our church sent a mission team to Watoto late January. The 13 church memebers built a classroom on the gorgeous proporty owned by the mission and the money we raised pays the salary for two school teachers to teach in it. Each child at Watoto requires 8 sponsor families giving $35 a month in order to support them until univeristy graduation. The recession is taking it's toll... Some sponsors have withdrew their monthly pledge, food costs are rising, and the orphang is becoming overcrowded from the greater amount of children being abandoned during this difficult time.

Yes, Pastor and Mrs Skinner have done amazing things, and are a fantastic example of pouring one's life into serving others.. But they could not do this without the help of generous people around the globe. And without the help of generous people, babies are going to have to be turned away. I can't even get my head around that.



And just last week I was complaining about the rising cost of my coffee...

Debut of Darling Dobie

I've been given permission to share with you a poem that a young friend of mine recently composed. She's in middle school, and amazing with words. I'm sure you'll agree! She was looking for some feedback on her recent work, so we decided to publish it here on the blog.

Let her know what you think!

Tears to Stars

I was reborn today, but in doing so it means i died,

and as i wept for my earthly self, the lord sat with me and cried,

he cried for every time i rejoiced and every tear I shed,

every time I was hurt, every drop of blood i bled,

i asked him why he cried and he answered me with this,

"am i happy for you, now you can join me in bliss,"

i felt a pull, he took my hand, as we began our ascent,

the lord was kind enough to show me parts of my life as we went,

he showed me the times when i had sinned and when i saved,

I'm shamed to say, my road of life is with sins, paved,

we slow to a stop as we reach the golden gate,

we look back upon my life as it's done we wait,

"have you anything to say about the life you left behind,"

"no" i say "i am forever yours as you were always mine",

he smiled and pushed the golden gate ajar,

i am in his kingdom now, I know he can never be far,

still i weep but i know soon I'll stop to cry,

and as my tears burn my cheeks, his burn in the sky.

Darling Dobie, 2009

Does this bug you?

A Little Something I'm working On

Holy Macro!

I've been holding off on publishing some photos of my new kick for a while now, just cuz they aren't that great yet. But I figure if I have to wait until I've mastered apeture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, depth of field, and the rest of it all at the same time (and lets not forget focusing, framing, lighting...!) you'd never see them. I can tell I'm getting better though... Now I can at least look at my photos and name what's wrong with them!! lol.

Oh well, this way we can all see my progress (um, hopefully).

Now all I need to find me is a few crazy bugs, flowers, and sunshine. Where do you suppose a few of those are hanging out?