Lofty Goals

I wanted to write a blog post tonight but as I laid down to do it (this may be a large part of the problem) all I felt like doing was sleeping. So I took a picture and this will be my post for tonight.

We'll be blogging from Amsterdam in a couple of days. See you all then! (Will we really see you? No, so you will see us then. Wow, I'm tired. Kylie

sweep the leg

today we noticed a telling dichotomy: while kylie has anxiety about moving to kenya, i have anxiety about going to walmart. we stopped there today to get things like pens, tape and razor blades (just so you know - there is now a mach 3 turbo which exudes vitamin E and echinacea with every stroke). i can't handle walmarts or malls; i get twitchy and irritable and start looking for the exits or at least a couple stray rays of sunshine. when we were in uganda a few years ago kylie met me at the airport after i had already been there for a month. we drove to our hotel in the dark and in the morning i made the mistake of introducing kylie to africa by way of owino market, one of the noisiest, biggest and most chaotic marketplaces in africa. bad move marc, just because it sounds great to you doesnt mean that it won't completely overwhelm your wife with sounds, colours and unpredictably ubiquitous demands on her attention. muzungu! muzungu! fresh goat? you try, just killed, no flys! lady, you wear this dress! you need new clothes! you want to change money? good rates, i get cheap. all legal. you need taxi? my brother has one. brand new! no accidents! muzungu! how are you? where you from? you like uganda? my cousin was in canada. do you know him?

dumb move on my part eh? i was thinking something along the lines of "kylie likes shopping and stuff and i like africa, this is where our interests intersect." maybe not on the first day.

anyways, if you have been around my parent's house recently you have probably heard me repeatedly singing "Sweep the leg, johnny... sweep the leg, jooohnny..." over and over again. it is solely because my friend chris introduced me to this music video by no more kings. it features all of the original actors who played the cobra kai. if you have seen the final tournament scene in karate kid more than 10 times, or perhaps even if you have only seen it once you will love this video.
GET HIM A BODY BAG JOHNNY! YEAAAAH!

goodbyes

well, this week we (read kylie) packed up all our belongings into boxes and on friday we had our strongest friends over for a pizza and beer (and moving) party. all our wordly possessions fit onto one side of our friend chad's old milking parlour.


we covered it all in tarps and locked the bikes to the floor. goodbye possessions! we'll see you soon.


the next day we went for one final walk by the fraser river this year. goodbye island 22!

on sunday we drove out to golden to introduce niko to his new home. i forgot to take pictures of julie, but we took lots of julie's dog josh.

these pictures don't do him justice, but josh is the most handsome golden retriever we have ever met, and he is even more of an attention suck than niko. it was extremely difficult to say goodbye to niko while he was smiling and wagging his tail and wondering where we would go for a walk next; typical happy clueless niko. we know he is in good hands though and will have a great time with josh and julie and all their friends hiking and biking and pulling julie around town on my longboard. goodbye niko! we will miss having a big huggable fuzzball around.

goodbye warm smelly and green chilliwack! we will sure miss you, but soon we'll be back.

Introducing . . . Snow White

When I was in highschool a lot of people told me that I looked like Snow White because I had fair skin and dark brown hair. I went to the hairdresser today to get highlights but after talking to her I decided to get my hair dyed back to my natural colour. I have highlights for quite a while now and the colour right now is a couple shades darker than my original colour and I am amazed at how dark my hair is. I truly feel like Snow White now. There's one other difference, can you pick it up?

Good times cubed!

We have been having a great last week here in Chilliwack. Even though we have been busy running around and doing things we have also made time for enjoyment.

Last night Marc planned a lovely surprise date for me. We went on a Scavenger Hunt around Chilliwack and ended up at a great Italian restaurant where there were two lovely bouqets of flowers waiting for me. We had a great time on the Scavenger Hunt (even though it took me awhile to get some of the clues) and it was fun to get away from our barrage of packing.

The first clue led me to a treed corridor down our street that leads to the park. The clue was hidden so well that I could not find it and when Marc took the flashlight and pointed it, it still took me a while. It led me to Save on Foods (now Pricemart) underneath the wheel of a shopping cart.


After that we headed to the library at the hospital and found the next clue hidden in the extremely heavy "History of Medicine" textbook.

The last clue said to head to my favourite restaurant (Bravo). Unfortunately it was closed on Mondays so we headed to a new Italian restaurant which was excellent. Marc had phoned ahead to the other restaurant and found out they were closed so brought the flowers to the new restaurant instead.


Today our good friend Steve came out to help us pack and pack we did! Marc and Steve packed up the garage and then we tackled the kitchen. We also enjoyed a nice walk with Niko. Here are some pictures from our walk.

Look at the crazy sky in the above picture!

Lastly, to cube the good times we had a potluck tonight with our small group. We will sure miss this group of people and their support and friendship while we are gone. We know we will still be able to keep in contact with them but we will sure miss our once a week meetings!

A Chilliwack staple

To commemorate our last Sunday in Chilliwack I decided to pick up pie from the airport for Marc and I. From the airport you say . . . . yes the airport. It does sound a bit odd but the little cafe in the airport here (think extremely small airport, little cessnas) has amazing pie. In fact their pie is so famous some people fly in only for the pie. The airport slogan is "I fly for pie."
(Marc MAY be working tonight and I MAY have eaten my share (and maybe a little more than my share) before he got home but come on people, he's working the late shift and the pie had just come out of the oven!)

When Marc and I moved to Chilliwack we asked around about where to eat and almost everyone told us to get pie from the airport. We actually had pie on our first night in Chilliwack at the resident's BBQ. From then on the airport pie has been an important part of our time in Chilliwack. From resident BBQ's to Marc's surprise birthday party to date nights to our first anniversary in Chilliwack the airport pie has been a staple in our life here. It also prompted me to start making pie the first summer we were here (the fruit here is amazing too) and now I think I can say (without too much conceit) that I make a damn good pie. ;)

We have also introduced friends to the decadent Chilliwack pie. Our friend Jarrid even went so far as declaring that he would have a piece of pie every day of his BC vacation. I believe he managed every day but one. I made two pies, we had some airport pie and his friend baked a pie. When Jarrid was here in January he bought a whole pie from the airport and took it to his friends in Kelowna. (You can pick up a whole pie in a glass plate if you order 24 hours ahead of time.) Jarrid told Barb (the amazing baker of the pies) that he probably wouldn't be back with the glass plate for a year or more and she said that was fine as long as she could keep his $5 deposit!

My last airport pie for a long time was well worth the extra calories!!! mmmmmmm

And your Niko fix for the week. Hope you all had a great weekend!



P.S. Thank you for all the comments on my last post. A special thank you goes out to all you multiple section commenters. I did find a skirt yesterday so I think I will be good for now. Kevan - I have checked out your blog too, love your pictures and Alisha I'm glad you read our blog and I don't mind you commenting at all! Nancy, we will check out that market so thank you for the advice!

Jelly Bellies, Skirts, Oprah and a Birthday!

Wow, what a title. That is an eclectic mix of information for a post. I always seem to post in spurts of information. I have been thinking about posting about jelly bellies and skirts for a couple of days (deep, I know) and then watching Oprah today gave me a lot more to say and a special someone is celebrating a birthday tomorrow so of course I have to mention that. PLUS this is an interactive post, what more could you ask for?

Just like the organized teacher that I am I will put headings on my sections.

Jelly Bellies
Yesterday Marc and I were walking Niko and I was wearing a coat I have not worn in a LONG time. I put my hand in the pocket and low and behold I found a package of jelly bellies. I have no idea where they came from or how old they were but Marc and I split the pack and it just left us wanting more. (I had 6.5 and Marc had 4.5, I'm not sure he knew I had more than him. :) I was the one doling them out!) We decided to go to Save On and buy a bag. Eating jelly bellies and buying them from Save On reminded us of our past experiences with jelly bellies and they are quite momentous. Let me share!

The first time Marc and I purchased jelly bellies from Save On we were in university and had just discovered these flavourful morsels of perfection and we found them in bulk! Well let's just say we went a little overboard and ended up spending over $20 on jelly bellies!!

Our second memory involving the jelly belly involves touring the factory. When we went on a road trip to California five years ago we stopped and had a tour of the factory. It was fascinating to hear about how the jelly bellies are made but the best part was all the jelly bellies we got to eat. We also bought two large bags of 'Belly Flops' which are jellybeans that are deformed in some way (think extra big ones!!!) and they are sold in large bag for $10 each. What a deal!

Here comes the interactive part. What's your favourite jelly belly flavour? Mine is pina coloda. mmmmmm

Here are some pictures of the JB factory. We don't have a scanner so I had to take a picture of a picture so the quality isn't that great.


Skirts
I am not really a skirt or dress person. I prefer dressy pants if I have to dress up (even though I am wearing a dress in the above pictures!) I have to get a couple of skirts before we go to Kenya and they need to be below the knee. I have been shopping a couple times but haven't been able to a skirt that is not too short or too long. Any suggestions people? Where can I find a mid length skirt?

Oprah
Did anyone catch Oprah today? I have not watched in a long time but I caught today's episode about child slavery in Ghana. It is estimated that 1 in 4 children in Ghana have been sold into slavery by their parents. It was heartbreaking to see video footage of these boys who work 14 hours a day and survive on as little as one meal. Their eyes are dead. It was extremely overwhelming and sad to watch and I wanted to turn the TV off. I forced myself to watch it because it is something that the world community needs to be aware of and also as we are going to Kenya and I know that the poverty and tragedy there will be distressing and I will not be able to turn it off. I am excited to go to Kenya but I am also aware that the heartbreak we encounter over there will be very difficult to deal with at times. Hopefully I will be able to stay positive and focus on the people we are able to help. I'm sure I will be writing a lot about this while we are over there.

Birthday Girl!
Okay let's end this post on a positive note. My lovely sister in law Shareen is leaving her early twenties behind tomorrow. There is some mourning I know but also a lot of excitement at what the late twenties will bring. Believe me Shareen, the late twenties are DA BOMB. ;) (You can say things like the da bomb and people just laugh at you like you are old trying to be young.) hee hee Hope you have a great day! We love you!!!!! :)



Okay people comment away. I will think EXTRA highly of you if you can comment on each section.

Top Ten Things I love about moving

10. Not having to clean my house! Right now I don't really feel the need to do things like vacuum, mop, clean the bathrooms or all other things domestic because we are leaving next week and there really is NO need to mop the floor right now. It will just get dirty again. I took this a little to the extreme when we were moving from Edmonton. The summer before we had to leave (so one FULL year) I was thinking about organizing our closets but after thinking about it I decided that there really was no point because we were moving in a year and then I would just take everything out. So having a dirty house now is nothing compared to having messy closets for a whole year!

9. We get to visit with a lot of our friends! We have been having lots of wonderful goodbye dinners and great visiting with friends and family. Here are some pictures from one of our goodbye dinners last week:


8. Purging. Moving always makes us get rid of junk we have collected over the past couple of years. I went through my teaching stuff today and did a big purge. We have also thrown out/given out a lot of stuff we have not used in the past two years. I'm not sure what we will do when we settle somewhere since it takes a deadline for my to get my act together. Maybe as I mature goal setting and self discipline will become more important. ;)

7. Shareen and Craig come to visit us! We had a few snafu's after trying to get out to Victoria to see them (things like the volvo dying and work scheduling problems) so they were kind enough to come to us. We spent a great day with Shareen walking on Jericho and Wreck Beach. Thankfully there were no nudies on Wreck Beach because Niko does like to sniff. ;) I wanted to share this picture from Wreck Beach with you all. The purples and the pinks in the sky did not appear so brilliantly until the picture was taken but you can see a definite pinky hue in the picture. So pretty!

6. Spending time with Niko before we go. (Remember this is things I LOVE about moving so I must put a positive spin on it!)
5. I get to do really long posts like this one because I am a procrastinator and I really should be packing up some odds and ends but instead I am telling you how I LOOOOOOVE moving. I must just llloooooove moving instead of LOOOOOOOOOOVING it.

4. Everyone wants to help! We have lots of friends coming over to help us move our stuff next week. I'm sure they are coming to help us out and not just for the pizza and beer I offered them after.

3. Lots of baking. I am trying to get rid of all the food in our cupboard so I am trying new recipes. Tonight we had pot stickers for dinner. I have been very reluctant to try them but they were excellent. I also used all of our icing sugar, chocolate chips and peanut butter to make these Reese Peanut Butter Bars.

2. A new camera. We did not get a new camera because we are moving but we did get one around the time we are moving so this counts. Like I mentioned several times in the past couple of months, we have been without our camera for 14 weeks. 14 very long weeks! (That is another post though.) The company decided they could not fix our camera so we picked out a new one yesterday. We picked this one and are very happy with it. Here is some evidence:

I especially like this one!

And the number one thing that I love about moving is . . .
1. That we are not actually moving! We have found some renters who are willing to be very flexible. We are going to Kenya still of course but our renters need furniture so we are able to leave a lot of our stuff here. We are so happy about this because it cuts down A LOT on the amount of packing we have to do. They are also willing to be flexible about a move out date since we don't know when we are coming back. We are so thankful that we found someone!

That ends my post. I'm going to eat a peanut butter bar. mmmmmmm

Freak Plane Crash Ruins Lulu Lemon Jacket

MG - AP on the scene

At approximately four o'clock on Friday afternoon an unidentified cargo plane crashed on Spanish Banks beach in Vancouver. Local academic Stephen N. was the first on the scene; "I feel privileged merely to witness this calamitous cataclysm, and assure you that I will forever keep the memory of this event as an important factor weighing in all my daily decisional algorithms" commented the UBC postcolonialism expert. Visiting dogwalkers Shareen and Kylie, emboldened by the sturdy police safety barrier, approached for a better view just in time to receive the full concussive power of a load of fertilizer (possibly destined for nearby Chilliwack grow ops) that had been soaked in jet fuel and ignited by the pilot's still functioning cellular phone. Although no one was seriously injured in this freak occurance, there was one loss that would cool the lattes of west coast hipsters on both sides of the Straight of Georgia. "It's absolutely ruined!" opined Shareen, an admirer of Lulu Lemon's impressive stretchiness and fitness assuring minimalist logo, regarding her all weather stylish streetwear Lulu jacket. "I mean, how can I hope to fully align my shakras and embody the confidence needed to be the best me I can be if there's two holes the size of a loony in the hem of my freakin' jacket? Hello? Look at this! They're not even symmetrical!"

Ummm, Yuck and stinky fridges and weird tendencies

Marc is in Hope working for the weekend (48 hours, an extra long shift!) and I am home packing. I am actually really happy with the pace of my packing. We are leaving Chilliwack two weeks from today and the only things I have left to pack is the kitchen and the garage. (And of course odds and ends.) Last night I did not feel like cooking for one so I ordered some Vietnamese Rolls with shrimp from our local restaurant. They were excellent but this morning I am not feeling so hot. I was just thinking about seafood and how absolutely unappealing it sounds right now and I walked into our office to do a post and look what picture greeted me on our desktop:

Now the actual reason for this post is actually along similar lines. Like I mentioned I still have not packed up the kitchen and of course our fridge still has food in it. Right now I think the fridge needs to be cleaned. I am not sure though. You see I have this problem. I cannot stand the smell of fridges (or a lot of other things for that matter) but fridges in particular really sully my nostrils. To combat this problem I have a little trick - I hold my breath when I open the fridge. This is not just our fridge, it is all fridges. So if I have opened your fridge I guaruntee that I have held my breath. In fact it is automatic now and I don't even think about it. Marc always laughs at me because if he talks to me while I am opening the fridge I sound really nasally.

I also hate opening someone else's fridge and seeing all sorts of butter/yogurt/sour cream containers. I really dislike opening what I think will be vanilla yogurt mmmmm and it turns out to be cold chili. blech! Cold food in a deceptive container falls into the worst ever smells category for me. I know that this is very strange but I just think I have a very strong sense of smell. (My brother does too!)

Anyways, not sure why I just shared that with the world but I think I am putting off cleaning the fridge but I will prevail! Here I go . . .