Our Savior Collage.

Our Savior Collage
by Montreal Ward Primary

While visiting our old ward (church) in Montreal, Quebec last week, I stumbled upon this very sweet collage of the Savior.  It was sitting gently against the wall in the primary (children's) room and was beautifully put together with clipped magazines and photos with a final touch of glitter in between any gaps.  I love it because of where I found it, that it was most likely made by the primary children,  and because it depicts so many beautiful stories centered around Christ.  I am hoping that someone from Montreal on facebook will tell me who came up with this fantastic idea and who created it.  So beautiful! 

The original is in full color, but I played with it a bit in photoshop and love the black and white.  I am having this printed and framed.  Good way to reuse all those old church magazines too!

Four kids, and snow all over the ground, will lead to a few bad days.  I was pouting woe is me less than a month ago, when I was having a particularly bad day.  To find something to be grateful for I said to myself at least my children are healthy.  This isn't to say I don't have more to be grateful for - it was just one of those days.  Not a day later, or it seemed, Hawk was throwing up everywhere, and then it was everyone elses turn - except mine, gratefully.  Saturday night, Hawk became sick again.  Right now I am watching him for dehydration and hoping that his little nibbles of food and the liquids I give him are enough.  I am grateful that he is not worse and that his little spark is slowly returning. Admittedly, it is harder to find my gratitude on days like today; but on a day like today, is when I need gratitude the most. 

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Roadtrip: Sharon, VT

Angela Johnson's sculpture of Christ carrying the cross.

While Lelly's SPT is on Hiatus, I will be posting about some fun New England Roadtrips that I have been planning with the kids this summer. Up first was a nice drive through NH and VT up highway 89 to Sharron, VT the birthplace of Joseph Smith - the first prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have been a member of the Mormon faith since I was three. We've visited his birthplace on several occasion with family and friends, but this time the kids and I ventured out on our own.

Nini, Cici, and I in front of the Angela Johnson's exhibit.

Our goal was to see Angela Johnson's Sculptures, the Healing Power of Christ. The exhibit was supposed to end on the 19th, but we were lucky to see that they carried it through the weekend. She was an opera singer for 20 years, before she felt she wanted to do more with her life and more to help others. She prayed hoping that she would be inspired and her answer was something she didn't expect. With no formal training and no experience in sculpting, her answer was to sculpt. Her sculptures are absolutely beautiful and inspired works.

Mr. T kicking back and enjoying our picnic.

After our wonderful experience, we headed outside for a picnic lunch. I make sure to bring a large blanket wherever we go, so that the boys can have time to stretch after all that car seat time. We pulled out PB and J sandwiches and cold drinks from our cooler and took in the beautiful grounds at Joseph Smith's birthplace.

Before we left, it was time to take a photo of all four of my little kidlets. Lining them all up wasn't difficult, but keeping my little Hawk still was another thing. My camera has about 10 photos or more of our little camera portrait adventure. This was the best but this is what most of the others look like...

Are you having a wonderful summer?

Have you been to Sharron, VT?

10 things of consequence.

Bird Inside house

#1. The bird in the above photo, is it outside or inside? This little guy flew through the chimney and found it's way into these fake trees in our window. It felt quite at home, with no plans on leaving. We opened all the windows and doors and it finally flew out with a little bit of help from Craig!

#2. Today (Sunday) was a huge day for us at church! When we moved to Montreal we attended a branch; which a year later merged into Montreal Ward and a separate singles ward. Today, we saw another amazing testimony of growth in the Mormon church in this area. We are a huge ward spread across the entire city of Montreal center towards east island Montreal. Some of the people on the outskirts of our ward boundary traveled two hours by bus just to get here - quite the feat when you are bundling large families up to spend four hours every Sunday in the cold - plus the three hour block. Now, these people on the east side of the island have their own branch!

Last year, the Bishop of our ward began praying and fasting that our ward would grow large enough to allow our ward to be split. In a matter of six months, 40 new people moved in the ward and today marked the 21st new member baptism in 12 months. It was absolutely amazing to see the growth of the ward in such a short time frame. We are happy that travel time will be less for the new branch, but sad to see them go.

Enjoying Natalie's dinner.

#3 I have been so blessed to receive so much service from so many very busy women. You never really understand how "it is" unless you experience what others have gone through. Best rest sucks! But, it's all for a good cause. I had a particularly sluggish nauseating day. It was 5:15 and I was heading downstairs to put something together for dinner. Kristin, another ex-patriot from the states, called and said she had made an extra batch of chili and could she bring some. I have learned not to pause so much when people offer their help, and promptly said - "that would great!" Her chili and a loaf of bread made a great dinner and saved me from my ordering pizza for dinner. That same week, Natalie, brought by dinner to us. We sat down and ate her yummy lasagna for a couple of days - the girls were so infatuated by the taste - they kept saying " this is the best dinner ever!" What sweeties! Natalie thank you! One thing that I don't get much of, which one friend has been so awesome to give so much of is - time. She comes over several times a week and chats with me. Wow, another something I've learned I should always give freely - time to others.

Monday night, sans dad, self portrait

#4 Craig had an overnight business trip Monday to late Tuesday night. We enjoyed being cozy and watching a movie I had taped from TIVO called the Babysitter's Club. They have been so awesome, I am just more and more in love with these girls. Which is hard, because I already think they are great! We had a lot of fun trying to get Nini in this photo. We finally got one, but I had to show this one, since it took so many shots to get her to get herself in the photo!

Rolfe and the girls.

#5. "They are mere shadows of themselves..." said my husband this weekend. Rolfe, one of our little dogs, was diagnosed with diabetes two months ago. He's 10 and has completely lost his eyesight. You won't find a sweeter animal. Our other dog, Inga, is 15 and both dogs will not likely make it through the summer. We've been trying to prepare the girls for their inevitable departure from our family to doggy heaven. My emotions are much worse with this pregnancy, so I know that it's going to be very difficult to let them go. Inga we got on our 1 year wedding anniversary - they both we'll be missed.

#6. Blog love and goodmail. Claudia and Kim Sue have been so gracious in sending goodmail up my way in Montreal. Everytime I see one of these sweet envelopes - I can't help but walk a little quicker to the mail box! Also, I have had a chance to finally get some of my own goodmail out - watch for it!

#7. Check out this link for some of the cutest blog layouts I've seen in a long time. They are easy to use and free. She does accept donations, it's worth it!

#8. Perhaps it's this pregnancy, but I can't seem to take a "cute" picture for the life of me. My self-portraits have become ridiculous. I will show my new hair cut, when I can capture a good photo. Picky, I know, but a girls got to look good - right?


#9. Is probably the happiest for me. After over 175 shots - I am now done taking injections. My butt is, shall we say, utterly and completely sore - healing time will probably take three years! Although it was hard, I had an end, and it was completely worth it.

#10. I've finished the biggest book I've ever read - Anna Karenina! It took a month, but I did it! I'm now on to the Book Thief, The Shack, and many others that I've put off until I could get through Anna. I'm sticking to a few smaller books - for now!

Missed Moments.

Botanical Gardens April 2008

I have been having my own serious case of blogger-i-tis; perhaps it's that I have been feeling under the weather, or that my whole family just got the case of the sickies. Here is a huge effort to mark those things that I missed:

1. Nini is now toothless! She lost her 2nd front tooth three weeks ago when she fell outside. It was a good thing, as it was quite the ordeal getting that first front tooth out. She is absolutely a cutie with her sweet little voice talking through those two missing teeth!

2. Culture night in the Montreal Ward was a fantastic success! Our turn-out at enrichment activities has been truly pathetic. We needed a fun way to bring all our sister's together for our first large enrichment activity this year. Montreal Ward is packed with culture's from all over the world, including the Philippines, Caribbean, Africa, Brazil, France, Hungry, Switzerland, Mexico, Italy, the states, and the rest of Canada. I had everyone make something from their home country, and if they wanted, they could bring something to display that represented the country they left behind. We also had an impromptu hula dance from our Young Women! It was simply fantastic!

3. The girls have been more fascinated by the whole self portrait idea. I'm not sure what fascinates me about this photo - but I just love it! The look on Cici's face and the few features of mine and Nini's included in the photo make it a really sweet photo.

3. We finally made it to Montreal's Botanical Gardens. All month long they were having a huge butterfly exhibit. It was so amazing. You walked into a large tented room fit with flowers and plants and tons of butterflies! I had one land on my pants, others had them on their skin. We also walked through the various other parts of the gardens - all on our yearly pass!

4. Easter wasn't as planned as I had originally intended. Life has been busy and I just haven't gotten things together as well this year. The girls were gorgeous in their orange dresses and sweaters and as cute as ever searching for their eggs. I found these cute Easter crackers at Loblaws for $9.99. We shared them with our home teaching family!

5. I have loved walking around our cabin when we spend a weekend away taking photos of any birds or animals that stay long enough in one area for me to take a photo of. I was completely stealth with this photo, creeping in slowly and taking a photo of this tiny woodpecker. Thank heavens for zoom lenses!

5. We had fun again this year helping our cousin with his Flat Stanley photos. Montreal is famous for a couple of things, one being that it is a city of steeples. There are churches like this everywhere throughout the city, so we had to take a photo of this one and just to the left we took a photo in front of our church too.

6. Nini and Cici are now riding training wheel free! They practiced several times this week with Craig right behind them. Then, boom - off they go on their own!

How are you?

Energetic children make great singers!

Primary program day

October 2008

Today was the children's primary program. It is an opportunity for children in the LDS church to show their parents and members of the congregation the things that they have been learning. This year's theme is I am a child of God. The children had the opportunity all year to learn about how they are children of God and what they can do to prepare themselves for baptism, being missionaries, the importance of reading the scriptures, and being kind and loving and that it is always important to choose the right!

Last May 2007, I was called to be the primary chorister for the Montreal Ward. The children were full of energy, lots of it, and it was difficult to figure out just how to best organize my time for such an active group of kids. The program last year was on the same weekend as our trip to London, I was extremely disappointed that I wasn't in attendance as I heard they did a great job! This year though, I wanted to make sure I was in town. I was so proud of all of them for singing so clearly and loudly! They did a great job and it was a pleasure to be in front of them and seeing their happy excited faces. The more I've served in this calling, the more I realize just how blessed I am and how much I love these kids and this primary. I am grateful that all that energy makes them great singers!

Have you had your primary program?
Do you have a similar program in your church?

OMMPD: Cici loves to copy her mom and gets so excited when we match or have like interests. I like to doodle and have recently purchased a pad of drawing paper. She loves to look over it and oooh and awwww of the little drawings, which aren't much, but to her - they are gold! Nini yesterday, after practicing on Saturday at the church for the primary program, if I could "please, please" be the one that helps her with her speaking assignment. The mother's day program last year was so scary for her that she got up in front of everyone and froze. I was three feet away from the podium, and was so glad that I could help her complete her little talk! Later that day in primary when the missionaries were talking asked a question to the children, Nini, who hates to speak in public, promptly raised her hand, and after being picked - answered the question! It was a great feat for her! Yeah!

A gift for a friend.

When we left California, our Relief Society President (who happened to be Lynn Gardner, lds author)handed me this book written by Marjorie Pay Hinckley called Small and Simple Things. I was very grateful for her thoughtfulness! When I opened the book the sisters of our ward had signed there thoughts and well wishes regarding our upcoming move and new life on thie inside cover - similar to a yearbook. Not only is this a fantastic book of thoughts by a wonderful women, but it is a remembrance of the people I left behind. I've moved enough to know that I won't communicate with every sister that I had known before moving. Their thoughts in this book remind of their spirit and how they touched my life.

The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.

~Marjorie Hinckley

The next time a friend or sister in your ward moves, grab your favorite inspirational book, pass it around among your circle of friends and ward members. It is a beautiful gift and one I know will keep and enjoy the rest of my life.

Do you have this book?

Starting my sunday posts...

I always have "big intentions" but have found myself in many instances not following through with them. It's a huge short coming I've faced since I can remember. I am an "on to the next" type of girl and find I have little patience for the nitty gritty details of some of my goals. My list of things I keep meaning to do is growing and I am fed up with it! One thing I have always meant to start is a Sunday Post, since a majority of my life and goals center around my church, going to church, and serving in my church. I am not good at the sharing my feelings in this regard, but I hope that I can bring a bit of what I have come to understand, learn, and experience.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I hope that this doesn't surprise anybody, or I might have to rethink how I've been posting! The reason for my religion wasn't by chance, but by divine guidance. I was adopted into an LDS Family when I was 3 1/2 years old. My birth parents were both drug addicts, my dad left, and my mom having been an orphan herself, relinquished me and my brother Richard when I was 1 1/2 and my brother around 2 years old. We were lucky to finally end up in the same foster home and be adopted by my parents into the same LDS family.

I remember as clearly as an almost four year old can remember the great peace I felt in going to church and later to the temple with my adoptive family. I hadn't understood what safety and security meant until these moments. I will always remember this as my first understanding of a testimony. I knew without a doubt that when we sang the songs in primary about Jesus, that he was real. Every time I recall these memories, I remember how much comfort I felt at being at church and how it has set my mind forever of where I will always go to worship God.

This was how I was introduced to my faith when was the first time you knew about yours?

Orderizing and GoodMail.

I know I've been posting like crazy, but I just don't want to miss anything! I am making great headway on my Me Room and can now see the floor. I've been working on putting all of our bits and pieces of our travels into one location. They are currently in bins and boxes throughout the house and in various cupboards. One of the things I've learned from all of this "orderizing" as I like to call it now - is there is no sense in having all of these items - if it's going to sit around in boxes. I have always had bit expectations for the things we've collected on trips, and although I've managed a few projects like this one - most still sit in all those boxes.

I kept a packet of the first hot chocolate I had in Europe. It was the best I have or will ever taste; partly because of the creme it was served with. The chocolate is circa 1998! The paper I kept from the first french pastry I ever had in Paris! I am putting all of these odds and ends into a binder, labeling sheet projectors like this 1998 Europe Trip. Very simple and effective for putting order to all my receipts, plane tickets, restaurant cards, magazines collected through the years.

Michelle M. at eternal corner sent this lovely goodmail! The necklace charm is so beautiful Michelle! The cards are perfect and...

the girls love, love, love those cute little yo yo's you sent! Look at Cici's face - so cute! Thanks for putting a huge smile on their faces and mine!

Somehow, my job as enrichment coordinator is going to turn me into a seasoned quilter. This is a puzzling fact, especially since I've never really made a quilt before. I made a few that were, shall we say, sewn without knowledge of quilting - but our ward will be putting out four quilts for June for the humanitarian services. The nearest quilting expert in our stake is two hours away - so my quilting will have to be done on DIY! Anyone with knowledge of quilting LDS services humanitarian baby quilts is welcome to extend your vast knowledge this way - please!

Do you keep odds and ends from trips?
How do you put order to them?
Do you yo yo, quilt?

A hug for him...

My daughter Nini said in our FHE prayer this evening, that He, speaking to Heavenly Father, should give President Hinckley a hug for her. It's a blessing to have seen the impact he has had on our church and how everyone perceives the Mormon faith. I am grateful for his love and compassion and ability to speak honestly and faithfully, to members of our church and to the media. I was devastated when he lost his wife years ago, as he was never timid at telling everyone how much he missed and loved her. It is a blessing for him to be reunited with her, although we will sincerely miss him. I know that there is a hug being given in Heaven just as I type this post!

I hope everyone is well and wish you the best.

They can't all be perfect pictures...

After church is always a hard time for the girls, they're hungry, tired of sitting, and all of us just want to relax. So, the last thing they need is their mum telling them that she wants a picture of everyone in their dresses. Unfortunately, mommy won out - and believe it or not - Cici did survive.

How many are watching this show tonight? Let's just say - I'm a little bit excited about it!

No more cutting!

Daddy's Home!

Friday we were determined to get our weekend started early by seeing the movie Enchanted. The movie was at 3:25, which meant, Craig - who has been working until 7:00 p.m. every night - had to be home for downtown Montreal by at least 15 til the hour to get to the movie on time. He will often choose a taxi over the train, because of the frequency of the trains do not increase until rush hour period - which isn't at 2:30 p.m. I told him to call me when he was close and we would be ready for him.

I so loved this movie! I think the girls were a bit confused that it didn't turn out like the regular fairytale stores they've heard and the fact that the characters weren't cartoon, also threw them off. They liked it, but clearly I think I liked it best!

All week I have been holding scissors in my hand cutting:

10 suns

30 stems

60 leaves

30 flowers

30 snowman circles

10 furry cats

10 hats

20 arms

20 mittens... lots of shapes, yarn, glue, Velcro all added up to the hope that I would be done with the 10 quiet felt books that our ward was doing as resources for families during sacrament. However, after all of this and all of my Saturday spent at the church - we just didn't have enough people to finish what we needed. We did finish several laminating projects and picture books though. I will post pictures of the quiet books when we are done and some Christmas projects next week.

While I was busy at the church, the girls had a chance to go out with Craig to McDonald's for breakfast and then to a Hobby store to pick up this:

We felt that it was time to invest in one of these babies. I remember taking our train out every Christmas and having fun with the fake smoke and seeing how fast it could go around the tree. It eventually decided it wasn't going to work one year and my parents didn't make the investment to get it fixed. Craig and the girls (although Craig particularly) had a lot of fun getting this to work.

Do you have a train around your tree?

Have you seen Enchanted?

Have you entered this week's contest?
Have you read the Day One Christmas story yet?

Roy the generous neighbor.

We left Friday for Acorn Cottage and I'm happy to report we had a great time - even without a single picture taken! Saturday morning at about 9:00 a.m. the same man who had brought us wood the last time we visited, pulled up in his white pick-up truck and began unloading a good amount of nicely chopped wood for us. Craig went out to meet him, and they talked for several minutes as he helped unload. I was very touched at his generosity in neighbors that are his strangers. What a nice man, and a good pre-cursor to this sunday's talk...

I felt a bit of guilt today as I sat listening with one ear on the stake conference speaker, and the other on one of my girls asking me to help her draw a heart. As moms, we learn to multi-task and I think I was doing a pretty good job of it today! The guilt came from an ongoing delema or question I've been asking myself as of late; What am I doing for others? I can't remember all of his talk, but I guess that's what happens when you have kids. The part that has stuck in my mind went something like this: It's not how many or how high a calling you've had or have - it's how many people have we helped, changed, affected, or served personally. I have felt very self-absorbed lately, with all our concentration on these fertility treatments. They've taken us away from our Sunday meetings, a time when I've really felt of service to my ward. This talk was a good reminder to me of the importance of our own selves and how we can affect those around us for good or for bad. I promise I am not preaching, this was something I really needed to hear!

This weekend I finally finished Mansfield Park again. The last time I had read it was in 1995. I had forgotten many details of the book, since the movie-if you didn't already know - is strikingly different than the book. One major flaw in the movie, is that Fanny's brother William is non-existant, extinct! They wrote him from the movie entirely and combined the imagination of Catherine Morland in Jane's Northanger Abby book. I felt a little dooped that I hadn't remembered these things when I first saw Mansfield Park. The BBC version, I remember following the book well however.

Needed comfort.

This is Carina, Brian, David, and Emily!
Home for good!

Yesterday was one of those, I can't believe I'm actually up days. The kind that drag on and one thing after another happens to add more discouragement. All of the hardships have been centered around my children, and I haven't felt inspired to share it all with you - well, just because. That's not a good excuse, but it is was it is. At the end of the day yesterday, I was a mess, the girls were finally in bed, and I was - like I said, a mess. I thought to myself how nice it would be at that moment to talk to someone - rather than stewing.

As soon as my thought was finished, the phone rang and it was my mum. I have always been a master at "holding it in", of being the "brave one", and putting on "a happy face". I held myself together, until my mom asked me about Cici and Nini, and that was when I gave up the brave face. She said, she just knew she needed to call me. I was very grateful that she listened and acted on her promptings. We had a really good talk, she listened, and gave some good "mommy" advice. I'm not the kind of person to stay too long in an unhappy mood, or dwell on a bad day. So here are some happier/brighter things to write about:

Do you remember the 3 swap that according-to-kelly put together? Well, I sent my swap package off late and my swap partner said she had everything ready but hadn't sent it yet. So, a week goes by, two, three and so on. I send another email to my partner and no response. About three weeks ago, probably less, I mention the swap situation to Kelly, who sends me the email with the address I had sent her. Well, this is where I call myself daft -again - and see that the address I gave had a totally wrong zip code. Quebec has alpha/numeric zip codes, and let's just say, I didn't proof the email. Anyway, with no response from my swap partner, Kelly, bless her heart, sent a swap package to me, saying that she didn't want my swap experience to be sour. It was such a lovely gesture, I'm not speechless - because that's hard for me to do - but I am grateful for her extra mile approach. It was a very fun package to open during a difficult week. Thank you Kelly :)

The girls nabbed the cute rubber cupcake holders w/feet!

Thank you to Mique for awarding me the "wonder woman award". I think it is such a great thing for other bloggers to nominate other bloggers for these - yet, I have been awful -no, terrible in thanking and awarding other bloggers these awards. I've never liked awards, because I feel they often leave people out or make others feel bad about themselves - because they didn't get the award. Am I alone in this? Either way, I will chalk the delay up to being a bit shy, but maybe we should just say that I'm lazy. So here I go, finally!

The first award I received was from Holly, called the rockin' girl blogger. Here are three bloggers that I feel deserve this award:

Amanda :) -I love her sassy and clever commentary and blog posts. Oh -and it's her birthday!
Lelly - SPT - need I say more! There is a lot of effort that goes into putting this on every week! If you haven't heard of it, check it out - it's very addicting.

Laura - A friend from Utah, I just love her fun and clever posts. Click on her link if you haven't checked her blog out yet.

Do you remember watching the wonder woman series? I just loved it. I loved that a woman could look good and still do so many amazing things. Here are my choices for the wonder woman award:

Barb - I love barb! She's amazing and talented and with four little monkeys, she's a very busy woman - yet every picture I've seen, she always looks amazing. What is your secret?
Rachel - Yet another mum, with three boys and a cute litte girl. She's so much going on, yet always manages to look great in every picture. What's up with that?!!!
Charity - She is such an amazing person. She has two girls, works, plays soccer, and still is just as beautiful a friend now as she was when we were growing up. She's got a lot on her plate right now and absolutely deserves the wonder woman award.

This is my favorite award and I can't wait to tell you who I pick for the nice matters award - and why! Here goes:

Donna is such an inspiration to me. She's happy, thoughtful, caring, and busy, busy, busy. I've rarely had a post that she hasn't commented in. She always manages to cheer me up. If I could hug you I would girl!
Jenny is the type of person you just want to be friends with. She's always cheerful, honest, busy, with time for everyone. She always leaves uplifting comments, which makes me laugh or say "thanks".
Marie - I love her posts. They are always centered around her cute children, the activities they do together, or the things they say. Her comments are always encouraging and fitting.

What is your outlet for "bad" days? Do you have them?
Do you hold things back from your posts?
Have you considered making your own award?

Home for good.

I just can't quite seem to pull myself together today. I've got a huge headache and little sleep - and now an hour before I need to pick the girls up. Yesterday was such a fantastic day. It was crazy busy. I pulled the girls out of school early and we headed to meet one of our senior elders and Carina at her apartment. We drove to the airport to use my van for all the suitcases and the other car for all the kids. I can't tell you how wonderful it was and how quickly Carina moved when her little ones came walking through the doors from customs. I'd never seen her move so fast. It was a beautiful moment.

I can't wait to show the pictures because I had to take the pictures on the camera's internal memory. I misplaced the card two nights ago and don't know where it is. I hope I can find it - it's got pictures dating back to our trip to Disneyland in June one it. The cord to download the photos is - hmmm, I have no idea! Anyway, I'll post more later when I can think more clearly.

Not this time, borsch, and a mission farwell.

Farwell Mission gift .

I don't want to overwhelm my friends with so many posts, but I also don't want to miss journaling the fun things we've been doing - just because we've been busy. Last night, I kept myself wide awake until 3:00 a.m. I wasn't sure why I couldn't sleep, but it just wasn't happening for me. Unfortunately, and for those keeping up with our fertility quest, the reason for my inability to fall asleep was because my cycle was starting again. It was a let down for sure, but I'm not going to get discouraged. After all, I've got Mique's good four leaf clover luck charm!

The girls headed to school and I headed for my morning run. I missed Thursday and Friday last week, but found it easier to run four miles today then any other day and that's with cramps! It felt really good and I'm ready for tomorrow. I quickly showered and headed to a party store and toys r us to find pirate themed stuff for the girls party. I found a couple things but felt it wasn't worth the expense and that I would shop in the states somehow before their birthday. I did ask a friend and she told me about a huge party store on the west end of the island that I'll try to check out tomorrow. I also have been a personal quest for jeans, and am happy to say I found a great pair at Jacob, a chain clothing store here.

Cici, Carina, Me, and Nini - selves portrait!

After school, the girls and I headed to Carina's home. She and her family had to leave their children in the Ukraine while the traveled here to Quebec in hopes of Quebec residency. They are absolutely your modern day pioneers. She's been separated from her children for about six months, one girl who's 8 and two boys 6 and 4. Her husband left for the Ukraine earlier this week and are returning with them tomorrow! This after she just received residency! Anyway, she was making food for her family and wanted to have us try Borsch (basically cabbage and beet stew). It was much better than I expected it to be! The girls were so sweet and told her how much they liked it and even ate a lot of it. I could totally tell they were putting on a brave face. It's not what they're used to, but they're Russian - so maybe they really did like it! I told Carina about our my online journal and she was only happy to get in the self-portrait spirit.

Pink leather bound Journal
Personalized inside cover.

Randomly put these inpirational stickers through top of journal.

After Carina's we headed off the island about 20 minutes, to our Bishop's daughter's fun little mission send-off get together. She's was called to go to Japan. I put together this journal, personalizing the inside and picture frame for her. She's been working toward this for so long, I just felt like I needed to tell her how awesome she is for sticking to her goal. It was fun, we stayed for bit and then we headed home. It was late, but we stayed up talking about their adoption story by using this book. It was a lot of fun, and I actually had them cracking-up. I said that when it was time for us to take them home, they handed me two cute naked babies (seriously) and I didn't know what to do! They thought that was hilarious. It was fun! Long day, I guess I'd better get going on a semblance of cleaning today.

What kind of gifts do you give at farwell's?
Where do you get your party supplies?


Distance goal: Wednesday (last week) 3 miles, Monday (today) 4 miles.