Praises

On Friday a friend of mine, Esmerelda, asked me if I wanted to sing a song with her and her sister for the missions conference. I was really excited when she showed me the song and it was a Victorios Valley song. It is so nice when you move to a different country where everything is different to find something familiar. That got me thinking about other things the Lord has done...that may seem like simple little things but they are important to me...

As everyone knows I love crocheting and every Wednesday night Mrs Gordon and I crochet together while our husbands watch tv. God has given me a crochet partner. When the girlies from the dorm sent me Anne of Green Gables I thought I would have no one to watch it with but when a couple of my friends saw it on the shelf they got all excited about it and started quoting lines from it. I have someone to watch Anne of Green Gables with. God is so good in how He cares about the little things.

But my biggest praise for today is what I got in the mail yesterday. I have received my extension for my visitor's visa. This means I have permission to stay until August 19 (when I will either apply for another extension or else have my permanent resident by then). This also means that I can apply for health care. Praise the Lord!

"A Sandy Moment"

This is sorta a random post. Saturday night I was shredding cheese for some poutine and I looked down into my dish and I was like no way is this enough cheese! So Shane and I went out to the store to get cheese. Well...after grabbing ice cream, rasberries, chips and banana milk we got to the cheese section and got two things of cheese. When we got home I started to open the cheese when I saw right next to my cheese dish a buncha cheese. Turns out I got distracted while shredding my cheese and forgot about the other half of the cheese waiting to be shredded. We would have had plenty without going out. When I told Shane he shook his head and said, "I really need to start a 'Sandy Moments' book.

Happy Birthday My Tom!

I found a cool picture of a hot air balloon that looks like a birthday cake but I couldn't figure out how to get it on here...so picture it in your head. Happy Birthday my Tom!

Caleb Is Learning

This story is for my Tom. I thought of you as soon as it happened.

Caleb and Addie have been doing really well learning body parts lately. I was sitting across from Caleb practicing yesterday. I asked him 'Wheres your hair?' he quickly smiled and grabbed the hair on his head. Then he stopped smiling, sorta tilted his head, scrunched up his nose (his confused look) and grabbed the hair on my arm. Hehe. He was so confused why there was hair on my arm, too!

So that's my silly story that made me think of all the times my Tom picked on me for having hairy arms.

Guitar

Last night Angie and I had a good time with the guitar. First we had her guitar lesson which started around 7:20 or so. We were finished by 8:15 then worked on a song she had written. She had all the words written out and what note was to be played above the words. So we started putting the notes on a staff. We had to figure out what kind of note it would be (how long it would be held out) and other stuff like that. By the time we were completely done it was 5 pages of music and 9:50! We couldn't believe how fast time went by. Neither of us had ever done anything like that so we sorta learned together how to do it. Sometime this week we are going to finish it. We didn't figure out what chords should be used yet. So we are excited to see it all out on paper finished.

Invited to Speak

Well, I am praising the Lord as I have been asked to speak at a ladies conference in February. It is going to be held in Aklavik and hosted by Mrs Noland. Her and her husband (along with their family) have been missionaries there for about a year I think. Mrs Noland called me last night and asked me. The theme is going to be Women In God's Service. I am very excited and also very thankful for the opportunity to speak. Praise the Lord! I am so thankful that He opens doors for us to serve Him even when we weren't looking for a door!

I am so thankful for my Shane and all he does for me. I am truly blessed to have a husband like him.

Bumpy Road to Aklavik

Friday night Our youth was invited to Aklavik. There the Nolands (who are missionaries there) were hosting a youth night. So Shane and our pastor organized it so that we could bring the youth. We borrowed one of Shane's dad's vans and Pastor drove for us. We headed out for the ice road (the only road to Aklavik) around 5:30 Friday night. The ice road is very bumpy this year. I am told it is the bumpiest anyone has ever seen it. It's bumpy cause it wasn't plowed correctly. So anyway a trip that normally would be 1 hour and 20 minutes or so turned out to be around 2 1/2 hours. I sat in the front row with Shane so the ride wasn't so bad for us...but the girls in the back got thrown around a lot.

Once we were there we went to the youth night and had a great time. We went to the Nolands house for supper afterward. Mrs Noland had some soup that was gluten free for me. It was yummy :-) The ride back to Inuvik was better than the ride to Aklavik. We left around 11:30 Friday night and I got the front seat this time because I am pregnant. hehe. Shane and I talked with Pastor for the first 45 minutes or hour then we both fell asleep the rest of the ride. I didn't wake up until we were pulling into the gas station in Inuvik. By this time it was 2:30 Saturday morning. We were exhausted...so exhausted that we went to sleep as soon as we got home and didn't wake up again until 2:00 in the afternoon. It was a tiresome night but well worth it. I had a great time going to Aklavik and riding the ice road for the first time.