Thursday, May 30, 2013

Loved This


Many years ago, I was told that the best way to protect your
children as they go out into the world, is to pray for them
on their way out the door.  This is what I always pictured.
I found this sign at the Riverbend Stake Center.
It was hung up in the room where they hold seminary.
Awesome!  Just how I imagined it.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Zone Conference, The Finally!


This will be my final zone conference post, the next zone conference 
will take place in September and we will be long gone by then. 
I take pictures throughout the entire three weeks, four weeks this time,
we took a break in the middle for Heather's visit.  So I just put the 
pictures on willy nilly and I'm going to explain them as I go.  Hopefully
it will all make sense.
I started this interview session by giving everyone a hug.  A "hugs"
candy that is (I found the hugs at bulk barn, so I was pretty happy) 
and a warm fuzzy.  The warm fuzzy's are the bright colored balls 
in the yellow bucket.  I told each missionary to take a warm fuzzy and
put it in their pocket, then whenever they saw it or felt it they would
think of me and they would know how much Sister Campbell loves them 
and they would get a warm fuzzy.
After the hug and warm fuzzy, I put them to work.  I wanted to make sure
I allowed every missionary to have the opportunity to do my going home regiment.
I've done most of these things with the going home missionaires since
I've been here, so why stop now.  There were four things I had them do,
one more, but it was optional.
I started with having them sign my apron.  Cutest and best idea ever.
Then I had them sign my photo mat.  The plan is to put a picture in it 
of the Edmonton Temple that President has taken.  I got this idea
from Patriarch Henderson, something he showed me at his house,
from his mission in California.  I just improved on the idea a wee bit.
I only started this about a year and a half ago, so I'll need to take it
to the reunions to get all the missionaries to sign it.
Next, I had them sign my book and asked them to share with me 
something that would help me remember them.  Something that was
uniquely them.  I gave everyone their own individual page.

Then I had them sign my Book of Mormon.  I've been doing this
from the very beginning.  Someone gave me the idea along the way.
So what they do, is find their favorite Book of Mormon scripture, underline
it and write their name in the margin.  This will be a real treasure for me.
All of our missionaires, sharing their favorite scripture.  If their scripture
was already underlined, they could sign their name along side someone
else or they could look for another unused scripture.  Most liked to have their
very own, so they would get pretty clever at finding a unique one.
Of course I put our my table of "pantry purge". Got to get rid of everything
before I go, so I'm not leaving the new president's wife with a lot of
unused, expired food.  I'd rather the missionaries use it, if they can.
I even put out some fun church pins my sister Jo sent me in a package.
They got a big kick out of them, they were the first to go.
For a treat, I made white cake and a texas sheet cake and served milk.
The texas sheet cake again was the most popular.  I had to make one for
each day of interviews.  So I made six sheet cakes in all, only two of the
white cake, just not as popular.
We have to break up the interviews and conferences, because they are
so large.  So we started with interviews on Tuesday then moved into
a combined zone conference on Wednesday.  This is their session of
fish bowl, they are armed with scriptures and ready to play.
They are all searching madly for the answer.

Lunch was appreciated and served up a little different.  I "liked" it.
They had everything on the tables, we just had to sit down and eat.
No waiting in line or fixing our plates.  Well done Ed North sisters!

After lunch, we took the group picture.  We just took one and emailed it to everyone, 
because we would be there all day if we took one with each of their cameras. 

Then we took a picture of all the "sisters" in the group, yeah sisters!

We had a little extra time, so I did something that I have been wanting
to do for a while now.  I wanted to get pictures of ties, all kinds of
ties.  I'm still trying to collect my perfect rainbow of ties, but that's
another post.


We had a group with paisley print, a group with striped ties, stripes from
 upper left corner to lower right.
And a few more of the opposite, upper right corner to lower left stripe.
A larger group had the more popular plaid print tie.
We also had some with the very handsome solid tie.  

The other thing I had them do, during interviews was to voluntarily
donate a tie for my quilt.  Only if they wanted to, but many of them
came through and I was thrilled.
This is what our elders do in their free time, I was pretty impressed.
They make homemade ties and then make designer labels to sew 
on the reverse side.  Looks just like the professionals.
Silly Elder Stephens.
We took a week off and started all over again with Riverbend and 
Millwoods.  I added the candy from the candy machine at the mission
home.  Just not getting eaten.  So I brought it to put on the zone leaders
table, see if they can get rid of it.
The apron is filling up quite nicely.
More cake,
more milk.  I remembered it this time, left it in the fridge at home last week.

This is a funny story.  Elder Scarlett and his companion brought a 
box of cinnamon buns that were given to them by a member.
Half way through the morning, he (Elder Scarlett) decides he's
going to have one, gently heated in the microwave.  Well I watch the
whole thing unfold.  He puts the bun on a styrofoam plate and pops
it into the microwave.  Well breads or pastries only need about
10 seconds of heating for perfection.  Well he put it in and it ran and 
ran and ran.  It smelled really good at first and then it started to smell burned.
And this entire time I'm thinking, that's been in there for a really long time, but 
didn't say anything.  They're big boys, right, they know how to use a 
microwave, or so I thought.
Gorgeous companion ties,
looking very dapper.
Then we moved on to Red Deer, and you'll never believe what
they had planned for us there.
They had made up a room for each of us.
This was my room, I've never had my name on the board before,
or balloons, they blew up balloons for me, lots and lots of them.
And the balloons came with a surprise,

President had his own special room, with a decorated door.
See?  It was so great of them, we felt so special.
Elder Vega and Elder Kipp even brought a bunch of their own ties,
 just in case some of their zone elders forgot to bring one to donate.
They are beyond awesome.
Here is some of the mail, letters and packages, for Red Deer.  They
love their mail, remember that families, send letters!
Just a sampling of what they are getting in these infamous packages.
Candy, of course ties and a pinata?  Who sends a pinata?

We had quite the tie cutting ceremony, they all saved the tie cutting for
zone conference, instead of interviews and lined the hall so I could cut
them all at once, they even had ties for the sisters.  So Cute!
All our missionary cars lined up for zone conference

And our last and final zone conference, ever, in Grand Prairie.
Oh how we've enjoyed the past three weeks with all our wonderful
missionaries, oh how we will miss their antics.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Sherwood Park Building


We've been here for almost 3 years and I have never taken a picture
of our own Nottingham building, until today.
I sent the zone leaders outside to take a picture while we were having
interviews for zone conference.
This building is an exact duplicate of the Marriott chapel I went to
when I was young.  When I first entered the chapel, it was like coming home.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Construction


Today we moved on to a zone conference in the Ed North stake.
Apparently they are doing a little construction around the building.
Wow, they are doing a lot of construction.
The whole place is torn up.
They even had a wooden walk way to help you get in the front door.
I'm not really sure what they are doing.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Cards!


Okay, so some habits die hard.  I came to Canada knowing that
I would pick up a deck of cards or two, or three.
But this is ridiculous!  Ridiculous but soooo much fun.
I found lots of Canadian ones, patterned ones from Michael's,
I even got a free deck from Montana's restaurant. 
Hello Kitty, I love Lucy, Indiana Jones and 00

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Ties, Ties and More Ties


When someone goes on a mission, even a president, the only
gift for birthdays or anniversaries that you can give them
is usually a tie.
Well, President Campbell has plenty of them.  All colors and designs.
I have my personal favorites and he has his.  He has a lot of really sharp ones.
He has paisleys, stripes-right to left and left to right, solids, polka dots,
checked and many, many more.  He has over 65 ties in all.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Spring?


Yes, I do believe that spring has finally sprung!
Things are turning green,
flowers are starting to blossom
and birds are starting to sing.  This little guy was so cute and so blue.
I went to pick up Lorna and she had this gorgeous bush in her 
front yard.  I have waited so long for this, the winter has gone on
forever.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Please Pull Over


We tried to capture this on my camera when Heather was here,
but it was getting dark and we were moving so the pictures didn't
turn out.  So when I saw this article in the paper, I had to show it
and explain.
In Strathcona County, or Sherwood Park area where we live, they have
these random checkstops.  That's not so bad, but it's the way they do it.
They have all these police cars pulled off to the right and they will
stand out in the middle of the freeway, that's right, the freeway and stop
cars, motion them to pull into a spot by a police cruiser and check for
drunk drivers.  We actually passed one of these on our way home from
stake conference, Saturday night session.  It was pretty funny because we
were all driving home in suits and dresses.  Not quite the crowd they were 
looking for that night.
They do this all the time.  We've passed several of them since we've been up 
here, Courtney and Chris have actually been pulled over before.  They
ask you if you've been drinking, you tell them no, and they send you on 
your way.  It's a crazy process, but I guess it works.
Especially the fact that they pull people over on the freeway.  They stand right 
out in the middle of the road.  I don't get that.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Mission Home Is Our Home


When we moved here from Utah, we brought a few things
to make this house our home.
Family pictures, books, a few figurines and lots of gifts from
some of our missionaries and our conferences. 
More pictures, vinyl sayings on tiles and a cheburashka
from Russian.  I picked up the Canadian Scentsy burner
while I've been up here.  Pretty cool huh?
A "family" vinyl sign, hanging on the wall.
My candy machine, but do you think they will notice
if I take the grandfather clock home with me.  I've really
grown fond of it.  I will definitely look into one when I get home.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

IKEA!


I love IKEA!  It has been one of our get-a-way places that we've
frequented.   It's close, it's interesting and it provides a nice, inexpensive
dinner option.
After the temple, I had some errands to run and things to pick up,
so I started at IKEA.
I had a swedish meatball lunch and picked up some things for the mission
home and a few things I've had my eye on.  I could walk around there
for hours and I almost did.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Right on Target


Well, they are finally here, the first Target stores to open in Edmonton.
We've had to wait our turn, while they opened the first ones back east.
The openings have been highly anticipated, if by me alone.
I have been so curious as to how the stores will look, be run and
compare to the ones in the states.

The first flyer, yah!!!!
 Very nice.
  And cute things.  You can sort of get an idea of the pricing.
But this, this is something you won't find in the states,
at least in the Utah stores.  Let me explain.  Many of the 
Zeller's stores were two levels, so when Target bought them
out and redeveloped, they kept the two stories.  Making this
little innovation  very necessary. 
Somehow they have to get the shopping carts up and
down the two levels, so they put in this ingenious contraption.

You push the shopping cart, or buggy, as the Canadians 
call them, through the little doors, then the belt catches onto
the cart. . . .

and up it goes.  Then you hop on the escalator
and follow it to the top.
Then when you're done perusing the departments on the upper
level, you bring it down the same way.
On the opposite side.
Not a bad invention.   We were very entertained, sat and
watched people go up and down for several minutes.
We'd shop there for the entertainment value alone.
Not really.  We didn't buy much and didn't spend much time
there, too excited to get back and shop the ones at home instead.
Better prices and I won't have to figure out a way to get it home.