Saturday, February 25, 2012

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.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

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.

Friday, February 17, 2012

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.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

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.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

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.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

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.

Monday, February 13, 2012

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.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

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.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

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?