Surprises On Whyte Ave.

So, right in the middle of 82nd Ave or Whyte Ave as it's called,

sits this hotel, it may not seem odd to you, 

but it is so out of character for where it is situated.  There is no room 

for parking, it's right on the busy street with shops all around it.

And besides, who would want to stay in a hotel where this one is situated.

There's nothing around it.  Don't ask me!

Homecoming In Reverse

I had a rare opportunity today, to see a homecoming in reverse.

Sister Kuroki's mother and younger brother are flying to Edmonton

today to spend a week with her in the areas she served in.

I offered to drive her to the airport, because she hasn't been

released yet, so she needed a companion until her mom shows up.

She was so cute, and so very anxious.

I watched her as she waited for them to come down 

the corridor.  It was so fun to be a part of her long awaited

reunion with her family.  We always see the missionaries off 

at the airport, but we don't get to see all the wonderful

reuniting's.  Today I was able to get a little glimpse.  

It was very sweet, her and her mother hugged and cried.

In Japanese, and with her daughter as her interpreter,

she thanked me over and over for caring for her daughter.

She was sincerely grateful.  I reiterated, that is was my pleasure.

Young Missionaries

"They're here"!

They were a little delayed, but they are here and making their way

 through customs.

Still waiting.  We usually wait, on average, of around an hour between

the plane landing and the missionaries coming out to meet us.

This is just a sampling of the luggage that they bring.  It's crazy!

We welcomed some of our first 18 year old elders, while the sisters

were still fussing with their luggage.

 We have two of our first 19 year old sisters

here too.  Ready or not, here they come.

You can tell when there are sisters in the group, see the curling iron.

It's a cold day in Edmonton, and the elders are helping get the 

luggage loaded into the trailer.

That's some pretty luggage, and yes, it belongs to one of the sisters.

We took the sisters with us and the elders went with the assistants

in the van to the stake center for lunch and training.

The office staff had lunch all ready for us.

I bought some new flavors of chips and brought along my heart

dishes to serve them in.

So cute, and may I say, very appropriate. 

I added some carrots and cut up the pineapple leftover from saturday.

And look at my cookies,

my very pretty Valentine cookies,

and homemade Oreo's, I decided not to make the filling pink.

But trust me, it was really hard not to.

Tasty morsels!

There's "Snow" Mountain

"There's no mountain, like snow mountain, like no mountain I know".

This is what happens, as soon as it starts snowing here in Canada.

They start piling snow into these big dump trucks and then take

it to various places throughout the city.  They dump it and pile it high.

Real high.  They even use bulldozers to push the snow to the top.

The crazy thing is, when the season is coming to a close, (no more snow)

the bulldozers start pushing the snow down again, to make it melt faster.

Now tell me that that one makes sense. Then when all the snow
is melted they are left with quite a large pile of rocks, pea gravel I would
call it, and they scoop it up and put it away for next year to be used on the
snowy roads again.  They don't use salt, something about it being too cold
for the salt to work, so they use gravel instead.  Reeks havoc with car windshields.

Here's another "snow" mountain in Clareview.  It's just northwest of
Sherwood Park.   Every city has it's own little mountain.
(but look at that blue sky, it's gorgeous)

 This pile is next to a theater, you can see in comparison just how
high it reaches, it's noticeably taller than the building.

Canadian Humor

Heather sent me this today, so funny!

Surprise!

We were Skyping with Tyler and Heather like we

do every Sunday evening.  They told us they wanted 

to show us a picture of their Sunbeam class, playing

in the coat closet before singing time, something they've done

many times before, so we didn't think much of it.

They were going to send it to our phones when Chris told them

they could just send it over Skype, so he walked them through how to 

do it and this is what we got.

The picture popped up and it took us only a second to process the picture, 

they took us completely by surprise, we had no clue.  Bless their hearts,

they've kept it to themselves for three months.  They told Courtney first

because they needed her to take the picture for them.  Then they shared it 

with us.  We were so thrilled and happy for them.   They were pretty 

excited themselves.  You couldn't have wiped the smile off Tyler's face,

even if you'd tried.  I've never seen him happier.  He will make a terrific

daddy!  And we are so happy that we will be home to witness it, first hand.

This is how they told their siblings.   

They invited them over on Sunday afternoon to give them 

some Valentine cookies that they had made them.

When the kids arrived at the house, they handed each of them their

own individual cookie with the appropriate "title", uncle or

aunt.  So cute, then they gave each of the couples a picture like

they sent us.  It was a wonderful day.

Courtney, Remember When?

Courtney decided to clean her room,

FINALLY!

But unfortunately, she became a little distracted.

First she found her baby blankie, she face-booked, 

"it's so little", was I ever this small.

Then she took a trip down memory lane and relived

her days as a "beauty" queen, or princess, Little Miss

Cherry Days, to be exact.  Look, it still fits.  Isn't she lovely!

Now she's really getting carried away, she found her baptism/Little Miss

Cherry Days dress.  She had to put it on, and yes it still fit, she even

got it to zip up, she is soooo silly, but isn't she cute.

And no, she didn't get her room clean, she had too much fun playing.

New Leader Training

Today we had new leader training at the mission home.

I made a little break out treat.  I got this idea from going through the 

MTC.  They used to have break outs between training classes, I loved

the way they treated us and how special it made us feel, so naturally

I wanted to do something similar for our missionaries, I wanted them

to feel loved and special, just like we felt.

I made cinnamon rolls,

orange rolls,

mini donuts from Sobey's,

a fresh fruit platter

and yogurt, then I serve milk and orange juice.  I know I don't have 

to, but I love doing it.  Our new leaders deserve it, they are in for a 

great deal of hard work.

Pretty Roses

I ran to the store to pick up some last minute things for dinner,

and when I got back there were roses on the counter.

Chris had to have slipped out while I was at the store, I was only

gone for a minute, but I know he didn't have them before I went.

Chris mentioned to someone, I think one of the kids, a few months ago

that I didn't like flowers.  Don't know where he got that from.

I love flowers, except when I find the receipt for them, ouch!

Right On Target

I had to take a picture of the new Target sign.  Target is taking over

all the Zeller's stores and converting them into Targets, I can't wait.

Hopefully there will be one finished and open before we have to leave.

Happy Valentine's Day

I took making this Valentine's day special, into my own

hands, the only way to get exactly what I want, right?

Besides, I have a flare for doing things up nice.

I started with chocolate dipped strawberries, I thought the drizzle was a 

nice touch.  They tasted wonderful, we finished these off, no problem.

Of course we had to have dinner by candlelight, we don't get to

do this very often with the missionaries.

I found this awesome loaf of bread at the store.

We opened a bottle of Martinelli's,

and I picked up a package of these awesome filet mignon steaks

at Costco, there were five pieces for about $20, but boy were they

worth every penny.  We cooked two of them tonight on the grill and served

them with sauteed mushrooms and glazed carrots.  They were the best

steaks ever.  Then we cooked the other ones for Sunday dinner.  Yum!