Day 236 Thurs 08-27

Our priority today was a visit to our accountant in Red Deer. His office has been moved to the 'Millenium Center' - or, what was ('in our day') the Hudson's Bay. We now park in the parking lot for what used to be the 'Uptown Theater'.

I most remember this theater for two movies..... First, "Walking Tall" (the original) because it was the first 'R' rated movie I went to - and I was not yet 18! Jim was, though, so I was very close to 18. The woman at the ticket window let me through because it was 'rated R for violence, not sex.' The second movie that I remember from this theater was "Star Wars" (the original). Jim and our friend, Kelly had already gone to the movie and were so excited by it that they wanted me to see it as well. They convinced me that I wanted to go - even though I was due to give birth to Robert any moment and I was very afraid that my water would break in a public place. We stood in a line that extended from inside the theater out to the middle of the parking lot in order to get in.

Here, Jim is walking across that same parking lot - only this time, he had to pay to park there....







We went home through Wetaskiwin because Robert had brought a paper home from the bank for Jim to sign. It was a good excuse to say hi to the kids!

At home, after supper, Michael and Victoria came out for a visit.

Daniel serenaded us with violin AND guitar music. It is nice to have live music in the house again.

Kaden rode the 'trike' around the living room until his mommy put him to bed.....

Day 236 - Wed 08-26

The Muyaba's and their London family came over for the afternoon. Jim and I wanted to be able to spend a bit more quality time with G & M

It was a beautiful day - nice and hot - so we spent it outside, mostly.






Jim thought M looked like he'd enjoy running the tractor for a bit. It was a win/win situation....M got to 'be a farmer' and Jim got his west field plowed up.






Taliah is changing so much.....becoming a little personality.







Of course, Seth took his turn at 'driving' the tractor....






Actually, he let his Uncle give him a real ride on the tractor - and he didn't cry as soon as it was turned on!


TK takes a moment to contemplate life.....








G and M celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary today.

Daniel drove them to Leduc where they had booked a nice room to spend an evening all alone in honor of their special day.

After he dropped them off, Daniel went out to the lake to spend the evening with Mike and Victoria.

As his parents were driven away, Kathryn distracted TK by asking for a kiss......

Actually, he didn't need much distraction.....he was quite happy to be with his uncle and aunt.

Vinj and Kath and the kids stayed to have supper with us then hurried home to get TK to bed 'on schedule'.

Day 235 Tues. 08-25

Today I took time to pick out the books for Jim to read in order to fulfill his birthday gift to me.
For the full story there, check out this post on my 'other blog'.





He started by beginning to read Mrs. Mike.

DAY 234 Mon. 08-24

Our morning began with Jim and Daniel having a chat outside while Dan waited for Katie and Sherree to be ready to go. He then took them to Calgary where they had lunch with YWAM director Russell and then spent the rest of the day and evening with other friends before flying out to Phoenix tomorrow.








Daniel was home by suppertime.


Jim and I took my truck in to the dealership to have the thermostat changed out.

We picked it up again later in the day.

On the way home, we stopped to 'visit' with the two Pyrrenese sheep-herding dogs along the way.

Day 233 Sunday 08-23

We had a wonderful family day today.....we celebrated Daniel's return home as well as my birthday.

We were all happy to have the opportunity to meet and interact with Vinjelu's sister and brother-in-law, G & M

Scott wasted no time in getting over here to spend time with Daniel.....







Daniel was introduced to his newest niece......

It was great to get to know M and TK.....

And, of course, G......

One of the activities of the afternoon was picking raspberries - Dad, Jessica, and Victoria all took a turn at the berry patch with Jessica being the most serious.

A huge swarm of bees was spotted early in the day, buzzing around the barn. We were afraid they were going to take up habitation in the old hive in the barn walls which we had filled with insulation foam a few years ago. However, after 'resting' on the outside of the barn for a short while, they disappeared.



This photo is of the last small group of bees before they all flew away. Previously, the swarm had covered this corner of the barn about 12 feet high.......

Great Auntie Melanie and Uncle Ken brought over the 'Little Tikes' car, truck, and trike that Steven and Scott played on when they were little. Seth had been in the truck once before so he waited rather impatiently while Auntie and Uncle gave the vehicles a 'bath'.

These toys were a big hit with Seth and TK....and later on with Kaden as well.

Thanks, Uncle Ken and Auntie Mel!

Of course, since Daniel has been gone for 5 months (and he's lost 20 pounds), it was inevitable that one of his brothers would challenge him to see if he had gotten any stronger......

Andrew claims the victory but then HE walked away with a broken finger!


I was blessed with many lovely gifts, including these lillys from Jessica and Donny.....

.....and these roses from Rob and Lana and the kids......

It would not be practical to include photos from every aspect of our day on this blog, I'll just say that we all had a wonderful time enjoying one another. I was blessed by each and every person who shared the day with us.

We ended the evening around the fire - unfortunately, the temperature dropped to be awfully close to 0 C....... we were not very comfortable, but we are stubborn Albertans - it is AUGUST for goodness sake! If we want to sit outside at midnight, we WILL - even if it is only 7 C!

Although the air was pretty nippy, the sunset was very pretty and only signalled the end of daylight, not the end of the party.

Day 232 - Sat. 08-22

Daniel took Katie and Sheree to West Edmonton Mall for the day.

Jim was VERY sick - since he no longer needed adrenaline to get through the day, he kind of crashed.

I went for groceries - there is a party planned for tomorrow and I am not sure how long the Aussies are staying.

Also, today, I went to start up my computer (it had come with me to MT) and was disappointed (to say the least) to find that it thinks there is no keyboard attached to it. That is....NOTHING can be done that requires the keyboard.

Luckily, I can access an onscreen keyboard that works with the mouse - even more fortunately, the mouse works and the actual computer works so I am not completely destitute. But if I want to do anything that requries typing (like these posts) I need to use Jim's computer. Very inconvenient.

Jim actually worked at trying to find a fix for my computer ALL day. He should have been sleeping or at least resting, but he tried very hard to get my keyboard back for me.

Daniel and the Aussies came home on time for supper - about the same time I got home from shopping.

After supper, Jim summoned the strength to mix and form burgers for the party tomorrow.








I baked a couple cakes while Sheree had some computer time (she had her own computer) and Daniel and Katie watched a movie.....

In spite of everyone being a little on the tired side, we still went to bed rather late.

Day 231 - Fri. 08-21

Daniel had lectures again this morning so we were able to sleep late again. This also meant that we didn't get to leave as early as we normally would. But, the class was shorter than normal so we recieved a message by 10:30 that they were done and we could come over to pick them up.

Goodbyes were still being said in the dining hall turned lecture hall (the lecture hall was under renovation) but we patiently waited while Daniel and Katie made sure they talked to everyone they wanted to.

Both students were already packed and ready to load their bags into our truck, so once the goodbyes were said, it took very little time to get on the road.

Here comes Katie with some of her bags.....





Daniel works at getting everything in - and still leave enough space for himself to sit comfortably in the back seat.....









We were pretty full - good thing Jim fixed those back doors a couple months ago!







It was another beautiful day for travel and my truck IS a comfy vehicle for riding in. We had no hitches at the boarder (in fact, the Australian's travelling with us said it was the fastest boarder crossing they had ever made) (and these are YWAM lifers....they have done MUCH international travel).

Did I mention in an earlier post that Katie (of HMK) and her mom would be coming home with us for a few days? Katie's mom (Sheree) came to the US for a conference in California. She timed it so that her conference would be over and she could be in MT for the graduation. They have friends in Alberta - AND it has been Katie's life long dream to go to Canada, so they first asked if they could catch a ride to Calgary where they would visit friends. It turned into a visit at our house for 2 days then Dan took them to back to Calgary to stay with their friends there before flying to Phoenix for a stay with more friends......when you are with YWAM for years, you make a whole lot of friends all over the world!

Anyway, we had a pleasant trip with many interesting conversations.

We stopped in Red Deer for supper where we heard more about the details of 'outreach' over the table. Much nicer to visit face to face without the road noise and engine noise of travel.

We arrived home fairly late due to our liesurely supper.

Day 230 - Aug 20 - Thursday

I started off this morning by going to the grocery store.






I decided to take advantage of the fact that our room has a full kitchen and bought what we needed for breakfasts and snacks.

Jim slept quite late, which was good, considering how awful he was feeling when he went to bed.

Daniel had had classes until 11, so we had the morning to ourselves. We went to the base as soon as he texted us that he was through. There, we met Katie and her mom and then we all went in to the dining room for Chicken Ceasar Salad.

After lunch, we mostly sat on the deck outside the Student Center and watched all the activity. Daniel had a long conversation with Andrew while we sat there.

Also this afternoon, we had a nice long visit with Isaac - the husband of the couple whose home I stayed in when I went down to visit Daniel in June. I was glad Jim had the opportunity to meet him. Turns out Isaac has worked in the Alberta Oil Patch - for a company that Jim has hired often.


After our people watching, Daniel went to pack and hang out with his friends. We went back to the hotel so Jim could rest and be ready for the graduation celebration tonight.

Before we left again for the base, we walked across the road to the beachfront that belongs to our hotel.

Of course, I took some photos of the pier area.....

I've said it before, Flathead is a beautiful lake....

When we arrived at the home on the base where the graduation celebration was to be held, we were amazed and impressed by the beautiful surroundings.

A pretty little creek runs along the back of the yard....

The back of the house is a profusion of blooms.....

In fact, there were containers of flowers and flower beds placed in many strategic locations all around the yard. Much prettier than crepe paper and balloons for decorations!

We even had an extra guest or two!

The meal was as delicious as our surroundings were beautiful and the weather was perfect.

The ceremonies began with some speeches by the staff......

......during which we had some more visitors.....

yes, they are wild turkeys.


I think Dan was glad to recieve his certificate stating that he had completed the DTS.

Sadly, the outreach phase of Dan's DTS was wrought with strife and therefore was not as 'successful' as he would have hoped. He did, however, make a few very good friends as a sort of survival strategy.....

Here, he poses with Mai and Katie. They formed a trio dubbed HMK (Hutch, Mai, Katie) who supported one another throughout the difficult 8 weeks in Thailand and Cambodia.

Another student Dan became better friends with during outreach was Jonathan...

In spite of the stresses of outreach, there were some good times, as evidenced by this photo of most of the group being silly.....

In the end, Dan is thankful for the experience - not only the opportunity to experience another culture, but especially for the growth that had to happen in him as he dealt with the 'people problems' within his team.

The graduation evening was a fun time for the students - a chance to appreciate one another and the whole experience.