Stettler

 We drove south east to Stettler today, in the worst snow storm we've 

seen all winter.  Seriously, it was blowing horizontal. We drove out

to have lunch with the Robinson's, our senior couple.  They are 

helping the Stettler Branch.  They visit the members and work 

with in-actives.  The branch really loves them and they are making

friends all over town.  We met them at Boston Pizza, had a 

nice visit and a tasty lunch.

They drove us to the church and we took some pictures. 

It's quite a nice building, for way out in the boonies. 

Gorgeous trees, don't you think?

Here's the front view from the road, it's quite large.

The ride into town was very scary, we went the direction the GPS

took us and it was more on the backroads.  The roads weren't bad

but it was blowing and drifting snow, so when we passed any oncoming

traffic the snow would blow up and we would have moments of

white out.  Needless to say,  I was a nervous wreck by the time we 

got there.  We took the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth II, freeway) on the 

way home, it was much better.

Mission Temple Day

Yeah, we finally got a chance to take our missionaries

back to the temple for mission temple day.

We were able to attend the special 8:00 am session they

open just for the missionaries, with a group of 9 sisters

and over 32 elders and just us, we were the only couple.

It was totally awesome!!

Elders leaving the early session and elders coming to the 11:00 session

take time to stop, catch up on old friendships,

and pose for pictures taken by Sister Campbell.

What a wonderful sight, I love spending time with our missionaries,

especially at the temple.

Speaking of. . .

Speaking of, well speaking.  We were asked to speak at

The Bonnie Doon Stake young men's winter camp.

We had leadership training all day, then drove about an hour

and a half west, where the camp was being held near 

a lake.  We spoke in a gazebo, covered with tarps and

 heated with several space heaters, the room was pretty warm, 

it's the foot of snow that I had to walk through in my heels 

that made my feet freeze and go numb while I was speaking.  

We both spoke on missionary work, of course.   I shared with
them some of the stories that the elders shared with me about

people that had influenced their lives and helped them get on
their missions.

Then I took a few minutes to share with them some ideas 

about what they can do now, to prepare for a mission 

down the road.  I think it went ok.  After we were both

finished, they presented us with a gift.  It was this beautiful

glass paper weight (pictured above) with the Scouts Canada logo
and a wolf howling at the moon.  And they also gave us each a
wrist band and a patch with their theme, designed by one of the
scouts.  They were very nice and generous.

Wile E. Coyote

While in St. Albert we decided to take a look around

and look what we found. . .

a coyote, Wile E. Coyote, all alone.

He was awesome, made me feel right at home.

All those coyotes that howl at night behind our house.

Walking Man

Oh no, the walking man is missing, where did he go?

He should be there, on that platform, walking on his treadmill.

In his Santa suit or his Oilers uniform.  Where is he?

You can even see the plug hanging off the platform, where he's 

supposed to be plugged in.

St. Albert

We went to St. Albert today for a district meeting and decided to

drive around and take a look at the city.  We are trying to get around

and see some of the cities in the area of our mission.

St. Albert is a beautiful city, and one that I would like to spend more time

in.  They have beautiful neighborhoods and huge homes.  Homes that

I can only dream of.  But I can always dream.

Here is our new home, I love it and so does Chris.  The best part is this

front courtyard, with garages on both sides.  I don't think we would

need two garages so we would make the other side into an awesome library

or game room.  I like it!

This is a better view, I love the doors and the entry and the courtyard,

I love everything about this house.

I didn't love this one as much, but it's HUGE!  The garage could be 

our home by itself.  At least it's fun to look.  We can't wait to bring

Tyler back to look at these houses next time he comes for a visit.

District Meeting

We attended a district meeting today in St. Albert.  It was an interesting

meeting with these elders, we learned a lot about each one of them.

This sign was on the Relief Society board, I really liked the

sentiment behind it.  Just don't mind the poor spelling.

Valentine's Day, Sweet!

Happy Valentine's Day!

What's Valentines Day without sugar cookies.

I loved it when Mom would make her delicious sugar cookies

and decorate them with little flowers and pink borders for

all the kids and grandkids.  Yum!

I made Mom's sugar cookies and used my cute sprinkles

and I tried several other new recipes for the incoming elders

and for a few other missionary gatherings.

I made an almond cookie with a cream cheese frosting,

they were ok, but not terrific.  Will I make them again?

That's the real question.  As of yet, undecided.

I tried another one with a really good flavor, made with

maraschino cherry juice, but they cooked up really ugly.

Then I tried the torte cookies, the base has made with coconut 

with raspberry jelly sandwiched in between.  They were pretty 

and tasty, they might just be a keeper.  We'll see.

Roses are Red

I received a dozen roses for Valentine's Day, Chris surprised me with 

them when I got home from shopping.  They are beautiful.

I love to get flowers, anytime for any reason.

And these roses were gorgeous and smelled wonderful.

Puzzled?

A new year and time for a puzzle.  I love to put on a new

puzzle after all the Christmas decorations have been packed

and put away.  I find it very relaxing and therapeutic.

It's like quilting, but since I don't have time to put on a quilt,

this is the next best thing.

This puzzle was borrowed to me by the Bayly's, President

Bayly saw that I had a puzzle on last year and he said they

 have lots and I can borrow one anytime I want.

Sister Bayly brought me three when she came visiting teaching.

This one, she said was really fun, so I gave it a try.

It was a puzzle of doors, 6 doors.  It was short and wide,

4 feet wide.

It was one of those puzzles that went together really fast.

I had a ball, the pieces just fell into place.

This is the final, finished puzzle.

I actually did this puzzle first.  It was a little harder, it took

me a great deal longer, but I enjoy the challenge.  I love

puzzles, and I like borrowing, then I don't have to buy new ones.

A Loving ZLC

I went all out for February's Valentines Day.  Some of the

elders requested BLT's.  That sounded pretty straight forward

 and rather easy, just cook up a little bacon and toast some bread.

I spent all morning cooking and getting lunch ready.

I wanted to make a fun dessert, so I started with chocolate 

dipped strawberries to add to the dessert plate.

Nice!

Then of course, because the elders would notice, I made

fancy chocolate filigrees to put on top.

During the "fish bowl" the assistants took my suggestion and

played the "block" challenge.

They took my blocks, put them in a basket and had both teams

pick a representative from each team to spell out a saying.

We had to make sure it was fair, so we put the blocks equally

in the bottom of the basket so that all the letters were down.

Here's the board for the fish bowl game.  Categories, 

Preach My Gospel, Scriptures and the dreaded question mark.

This is the saying, LUCK O THE IRISH, that little blob

at the end is supposed to be a shamrock thanks to Elder Bodine.

The first team took 1 minute 40 seconds to complete.

The second team took their turn, they

  took a little longer than the first team.  Sorry!

Back to lunch, I thought it was going to be a no brainer, but for the 

first time, I was not ready, so I put the elders to work.This is the salad 

assembly line.  Elder #1 is dishing the greens, Elder #2 is sprinkling 

on fresh strawberries and Elder #3 is pouring on the poppyseed 

dressing and topping with sugared sliced almonds.  Very nice, the 

salads looked awesome.  We ate them before I could get a picture.

So, I'm serving BLT's, chips, broken glass red jello, the salad 

and dessert, crepe wrapped ice cream with chocolate and caramel

drizzle, raspberry puree, whip cream and the filigree, with a

chocolate dipped strawberry on the side.  Voila!

After lunch I was exhausted!  But I still had Valentines to do.

I thought it would be fun to give all the elders Valentines.

 I found some cute cards and bought little dig 'n dips as a treat.  Then 

wrote them all out with their names and signed from President and

 myself.  It was kind of fun, I haven't done something like that for 

years.  At least since Courtney was in elementary school.

Ok, now for the question of the day, what is wrong with

this picture?  I'll give you a hint, count the pairs of shoes.

If you can see, there are 17 pairs of shoes, we have 12 zone leaders,

2 assistants and 1 president.  Someone's brought an extra pair of

shoes for the shiny shoe contest.  Elders, elders, elders.  You

don't mess with Sister Campbell.  I fooled them, I gave them all a treat

today for Valentine's, I wasn't planning on doing the shiny shoe

contest today.  Ha ha, gotcha Elder ___________!  The

name has been withheld to protect him from the other elders.

He could be in serious trouble, at least from me.

I think the Valentines turned out really cute, even the cards were cute.

They all picked up their cards and treat on the way out.

Someone finally played with the poetry magnets on the fridge.

I've waited patiently for weeks, of course there is hardly anyone here.

  Kind of creepy.

Ahh poetry!

"you & I are not diamond dinner laugh time, yes"

"this honest tender heart, desires to marry a flower stand, later! Ok!"

Beats me?

Sweethearts!

Here are our "sweethearts", in their gorgeous

dresses for the Valentine's dance.

Courtney and Kaitlin, cutie patooties!!!