Birthday Party....Take Two!

Two weeks ago (probably my last post) I posted about Larissa's birthday party that didn't happen because she was sick with the flu. It was just as well considering it was cold, I think the only really cold day we've had this winter, and windy. Just down right miserable, really. Not a bad day to be sick with the flu actually. Today was the rescheduled date, and it happened! No one else in our family got sick in the last two weeks and the morning started off with a very bright-eyed, bushy-tailed birthday party girl! The sun was shining brightly and the hoar frost was beautiful, all signs that the day was going to be great!

First thing on the agenda was gt-ing behind the quad. None of the party guests had done that before so we were not sure how the girls would like it. Would they find it fun or would they be too leary of being pulled on two skiis behind a quad?

As you can see there were smiles on everyone's faces. One girl fell off her gt, stood up and said, "He could go faster!" (Ron drove the quad.)

While waiting their turns the girls played "Capture the Big Brother". Hmmm, a sign of things to come??

They were a little disappointed when it was time to go inside. The only thing that got them inside was the promise of cake! The girls played for a bit while I melted the chocolate discs needed for the girls to make their own chocolates. I don't have pictures of the girls making their chocolates, I was too busy helping! Here is the final product.

Pink and purple chocolate, every good thing for little girls! It was then time for cake. Thankfully it survived the freezer for two weeks. I knew they would freeze fine, it was a matter of the cupcakes getting jostled around and toppled in the freezer while trying to get what was needed in and out of there for two weeks.

The party was a hit! I heard a few of the girls say they were going to ask their moms if they could get a quad and GTs!! I'm guessing I won't be a favourite amongst the parents for a bit....at least until the next friend's birthday party when they do something really fun there!

Here is Larissa with her friends!

A Sick Birthday Girl

Last week Saturday was Larissa's birthday but the weekend was booked with moving friends home from Iowa so we didn't officially celebrate her day with her school friends, that was supposed to be today. This morning at 10:30 (2 1/2 hours before the party was going to start) Larissa confirmed that her tummy did indeed feel upset. She didn't perk up right afterwards either so I thought it must have been more than excitement for her party. I asked her if she felt better or if we should cancel her party. She chose to cancel the party. She's sick. She doesn't even feel disappointed that her party is cancelled. She's most definitely sick!

Larissa's rainbow cupcake cake with a sun and cloud. She designed it and picked all the colours, I just had to put it together. (Now that I look at this picture the cake looks like it's disappointed the party is cancelled too!)

So now instead of having seven girls running around our house giggling and screaming and crafting I have one girl lying on the couch. Poor thing. She looks pretty cheery in this picture. That's her. She can be on death's door and she will still have a smile on her face!

As for the rest of us, we're good. Ron & Nathan will go work in the shop. Bethany has a birthday party for a friend to go to. I will enjoy the fact that my clean house will stay clean! I also have a cup of dark chocolate chai tea and a good book to enjoy. Other than a sick kid, it sounds like a pretty good day is ahead of us!

Seven

Seven. It's an age that seems so grown up. You're not a little Kindergartener anymore. You know how to read. You can get yourself ready for school with very few reminders/distractions. You are learning how to play the violin, just like your dad! When asked to do something it gets done, to the best of your ability. You want to do things independently, and most times it works! You are creative. You are smart. You are kind. You are gentle. You love greatly and easily. You cry when others cry. You laugh when others laugh, even if you don't quite get it! Your sense of humour is hilarious. Your smile is genuine. Your eyes sparkle. You understand sarcasm (mostly)! You came into this world on the coldest day of the year. Quickly. With the cord wrapped around your neck. Twice. Cried instantly. For days. Dare I say months! Thankfully you haven't been as dramatic as when you entered this world. Not always. You are a joy. You are maturing into a beautiful young lady. Inside and out. We love you Little One. Thank you for being part of our family. Thank you God for blessing us with our Larissa.

The End

This week has been the end of something quite significant in our life. Not only is it the end of the year but it also represents the end of a generation for our family. When Ron & I met we had six living grandparents between the two of us. This week we said farewell to the last one. Granpda D was the only great-grandparent our kids knew well. Nathan was two when the last two great-grandparents passed away, also at this time of year, and we still had one great-grandparent left so the loss, even though it was felt, did not feel as signficant. This was a death that we had to help our kids process. We have three kids and those kids process things in three very different ways.

Nathan doesn't say too much or ask many questions. He is more reserved, quiet. I just know when he's thinking of great-grandpa. At Grandpa's viewing Nathan wanted to see Grandpa, leave Grandpa's hat in the casket with him.

Larissa cries. Larissa always cries to show her emotions. Happy, sad, frustrated, Larissa cries. Larissa wanted to look from afar. She thought Grandpa's casket looked like a very big treasure chest. She smiled with tears in her eyes when she realized it kind of was, with a very big treasure inside of it.

Bethany, well, she talks, asks questions, and then goes about her day as though she hasn't heard anything you've just said. Then, when you think she's completely forgotten about everything that's happened she's asking more questions that have come from the answers she was given an hour or more ago. There is never a question that she is afraid to ask.We would tell Bethany that the part of Granpda that made him Grandpa would not be at the funeral, just his body would be there. Will his head be there? We didn't think of the literal aspects, that takes a four year old! Where were his legs and feet? (in the closed part of the casket) Why couldn't he feel her touch? (he is dead) Why did his eyes get glued shut? (that was thanks to her uncle who got technical in the process of what happened to Granpda after he died because she apparently already knew what happened to Granpda's spirit)  If Grandpa lives with Jesus and Jesus lives in my heart does that mean Granpda lives in my heart too? I think Bethany touched every inch of skin that she could reach. She would stroke Grandpa's hands, poke his cheek, touch his chin. Touch is very important to Bethany.

Ron gave a tribute at the funeral, his words are better than mine. Grandpa D, afterall, was his Grandpa. Here it is.

Our lives all come to an end at a time that we don’t get to choose. What we do get to choose is how we live our lives and how we treat others. The legacy that Grandpa has left will stick with us for a long time.  He was a true man of God that was a living example of how we should live our lives.

My siblings and I spent some time over Christmas telling stories about Grandpa.  I think my brother summed it up best.  “Grandpa was a wise and kind man and when he said something, I knew I should remember it”.  He usually said very little, just sat in his brown checkered rocking chair with a smile on his face taking it all in.   He rarely showed any emotion other than looking pleased with us grandchildren.  I never saw him angry or even looking frustrated although I’m sure he had opportunity or reason to at some time.  Anyone remember the smell of that melting plastic boat on the woodstove downstairs while we were having supper?  I do! 

He was always interested in our lives, both when we were young and in school and later when we had kids ourselves.  He came to countless choir concerts at MCI and grads.  There were also countless band concerts by all the grandchildren in the living room at Christmas and Easter that were a prerequisite before any presents could be opened. He always asked about our kids and always looked quite pleased to hold another great-grandchild in his arms for the first time.  I think he came out to Rivers nearly every harvest since his last harvest in Lowe Farm to have a ride in the combine and was always interested in our crops. Did you know that this summer yet, Grandpa went to the local MLA to tell him how they should solve the CWB debate that has raged all summer and fall!   He still read the Co-operator up to a few years ago and there was always a FreePress and Time magazine in his apartment so we could always have a discussion about farming or US presidential politics.

Grandpa always struck me as being a progressive thinker.  He was ready to move out of his house sooner than when he “needed to”.  How many people of my generation can brag about their 80 year old grandfather learning to use a computer.  I feel so sorry for the adult ed teacher that taught him about computers here in town.  Although he was a progressive thinker, there was nothing fast about Grandpa except for how he took his naps.  10 minute naps were not uncommon and my dad remembers timing one nap at exactly 3 minutes and him waking up and stretching like he had just slept for an hour!  Grandpa did everything slowly and carefully.   Before we could eat breakfast during a sleep-over,  Grandpa would do devotions out of the Rejoice devotional book.  It took him forever to find the correct date, thumb through his Bible (this one that fell off the roof of his car into a puddle on the way to church) for the correct Scripture passage and then S L O W L Y read the devotional.  That would then be followed by an extremely long prayer and then we could eat.

The chicken at family gatherings when Grandpa cooked often looked suspiciously like the fried chicken that was being served at Chicken Chef that day.  A few of us were sent to Chicken Chef to pick up supper one evening.  We announced that we were there for the chicken for Grandpa Dueck, and we promptly left without even thinking about paying and they never said anything.  I’m sure he settled up with them the next day at coffee as he seemed to be on a first name basis with everyone there.

One thing that I found fascinating about Grandpa, as did at least one of his great-kids, was his experience as a Concientious Objector.  Just last week, I saw copies of his correspondence from the Canadian government ordering his appearance in court to make his case for why he would not serve in the army during WWII and then his instructions on how to get to BC on the train to the work camp. How many of us have had such a test of faith where we needed to be extremely resolute and confident in our faith in Christianity and in our stance on peace. 

Hopefully, all of us grandkids can carry on the legacy passed on to us by Grandpa.  A legacy of wisdom, kindess, slow to speak, slow to anger and a love of Christian service.

Aufwiedersehen, Grandpa

The end of an era

The house trailer finally left. There was one delay after another, thankfully none of them had to do with us, but the trailer is gone. It was supposed to leave weeks ago but between mover illness & breakdowns and very high winds it sat on our yard for much longer than anticipated, much to the dismay of the new owner. Funny thing is that after we moved out of it the kids had no desire to go back in it to look around and neither did I. Ron was in and out of it numerous times to unattach the addition, unhook electricity, make sure the plumbing didn't burst, etc., etc., but I think he didn't really feel a desire to be in it after we moved either. Here are a few pictures of that day:

The house trailer being prepped to move. This was a few days before it actually drove away.

The trailer had to sit beside the shop for a couple of days. The wind got up to close to 60 km/h, the shingles wouldn't have handled going down the highway!

New homeward bound!

Just our little addition is left. Bethany at first thought the house trailer had shrunk! I then reminded her that we saw it drive down the highway so she then realized that it hadn't shrunk. I told her this building was where our playroom, office and storage room had been. She was very surprised, "Our playroom was in there??!!" I always assumed she knew the addition wasn't originally part of the house trailer, I thought it was quite obvious from the outside, but she never put the two together. Her house was always that way and there was no need to see it as two separate buildings. The addition will now be converted into the farm office. The plan is to move it beside the shop and give Ron's parents their room in their basement where the office currently is.

We have settled quite nicely into our new home. Ron commented the other day that it was hard to remember what life was like in the house trailer and Bethany has no recollection of what it looked like on the inside! Nathan and Larissa don't mention it at all, it's like it almost never happened. Almost. We had a great 11 years in the house trailer, it served its purpose well, but now we have said good-bye to our old friend knowing it will continue to be a great place for its new owner.

Grey Cup!!

Our farm won a trip to the Grey Cup this year and Ron & I were the lucky ones to go!! I love sports. Ron loves how I can turn on the tv and it can be the last 2 minutes in the game and I'm as intense as if I had been watching the entire thing! We don't follow any sport fanatically, we enjoy watching them but don't follow who's where in the standings or if one player has been traded for another or who really shouldn't be playing the sport any more, etc, but we were very thankful and excited that we could go watch the Grey Cup. It was in BC this year which was really nice because that meant no sub-zero temperatures as the stadium is indoors and BC still has nice weather at this time of year, minus the rain!

We landed at 7:30 pm so that didn't leave us any time to do much that evening after we got to the hotel, picked up our prize packages and got settled into the room. We did use the hot tub but if you know Ron you'll know that that's just a given when we go to a hotel! We did wander around the hotel and attached mall but the shops were all closed. The hotel lobby was filled with gingerbread houses that with a donation to a charity you could vote for your favourite creation.

This house greeted us in the lobby. It must've been 9 or 10 feet high! It was not eligible for voting.

This one won first place, it was beautiful. I know the girls would've chosen this one as their favourite too! (these photos were taken with my ipod so they aren't the greatest)

The view from the 20th floor (or the 19th seeing as there wasn't a 13th floor in the hotel)

Saturday it rained and rained and rained some more. We wanted to go to the Aquarium and Granville Island. We had planned on walking part of the way to the Aquarium from our hotel along the sea wall and then hop on a bus the rest of the way to the Aquarium. Turns out the busses weren't running that morning because of the parade and any taxi we saw had people in it so we walked the entire way. I'm not sure how far it actually is but in my shoes that weren't made for purposeful walking, only browsing speed, it felt like it was at least 10 miles! It's probably more like 2 or 3 but however long it really was my feet hurt by the time we got there! We saw some really good exhibits and shows at the Aquarium, they have shows every 15 mins and they are full of information. Here are some pictures (taken with the ipod):

The beluga whales liked to swim upside down.

This little guy swam right up to the glass to look at Ron & I as though we were the exhibit!

Some funny looking land animals at the aquarium!

When we were finished at the Aquarium we hopped on the bus, which was back in service, back to our hotel to dry off and warm up a bit before we hopped back on the bus to Granville Island. We walked around there for a while looking at the different shops. There weren't too many Christmas buskers around, I think the rain kept them away. That was too bad, we were really looking forward to hearing some different kinds of music.

After Granville Island we hopped the bus back to the CFL headquarters where different events were taking place. They had bands playing on an outdoor stage but they were the only ones sheltered from the rain so there were only 5 people standing in front of the stage listening to the bands! The Olympic Cauldron was lit and CFL alumni players were signing autographs. There were other things going on that are too long to list!

The Olympic Cauldron

Milt Stegall signing autographs for someone I don't know! I wasn't willing to stand in line for over an hour to get his autograph. I realize that doesn't seem like a long time for some of you diehard fans but we had to keep moving to keep on schedule for our day.

We then met my cousin for supper and saw her new place. She moved to Vancouver three months ago so it was great to see where she lives!

Sunday was game day!! I woke up early I was so excited!! We wandered over to the stadium shortly after lunch and just took in what was going on. The crowds in the streets were calm yet excited. Everyone was in a good mood and when you met someone wearing your team's colours it was a bunch of cheering and high fives. When we got to the stadium we didn't know where our seats would be, we were expecting nosebleed seats because we didn't think they'd give good seats to non season ticket holders. Well, we were wrong! We were 5 rows up from the field in the end zone that ended up having most of the action! It was also the end zone that the teams used to get to their dressing rooms so we were right there for the team introductions!

Pregame warm up with Wally looking on.

I think this was field goal #3 for the day.

Proof that we were actually there!!

The haze in the above photos was due to the pyrotechnics during the halftime show.



Nickelback on stage during the halftime show.

Another one of my cousin's won a trip to the Grey Cup and it turns out he was sitting about three rows behind us! I went to talk to him during halftime and he had been staying at our hotel too. It's so funny how you can be in the exact same place as someone else and you never see them. The Bombers had been staying at our hotel too. We saw them often and even talked to Glenn January in the hot tub for a while the night before the game. (Hopefully we didn't ruin his routine too much that we caused them to lose!!) Again, I'm sure we've disappointed some diehard fans but we didn't get any autographs. We were trying to be respectful and not bug them after their long practise days trying to get ready for the big game. That and we didn't always recognize them, they look different in regular clothes than they do in their uniforms and helmets, and if they aren't interviewed regularly by the media we have no idea who they are!

We had a great time and are so glad we got to go. Of course this means that the next time the farm wins a trip somewhere it won't be us who goes. Ron just hopes it's not a trip to Hawaii!!





India & CFGB

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting Arun from India. He was in Canada through Canadian Foodgrains Bank speaking at 20 banquets and 5 schools in 28 days! He works with a food aid nonprofit company in India who is connected with CFGB and had been asked to come and share with Canadians how their donations help the people in India. He felt he was quite inadequate for the job for a couple of reasons: 1) he worked in the field with the people of India, he wasn't an executive of his organization and 2) he had to speak english to english speaking people and that felt really intimidating for him. Both Ron and I said to him that he seemed like the perfect person for the job because he worked in the field and could see exactly how the people were affected by the money they received for their farm/food projects. Also, he spoke english very well, he chose all the right words and his accent was relatively easy to understand.

Arun said he was pleasantly surprised by what he saw of Canadians in his experience. He had been told that Canadians just eat junk food, eat at fast food restaurants and can't make their own food! He said he had been in a few restaurants but they were not fast food, they were good food, and any homemade food he had was very good. He was very impressed when he stayed with us and found out we ground our own wheat for flour to make our own bread. He said people in India didn't make their own bread, the big factories just made it and brought it to the stores and markets. Score one for Canada!! Arun had also been told that Canadian children were very disrespectful and because both parents work in most households the kids didn't know how to act and they got whatever they wanted. (I'd like to know where "they" get their information from!) He stayed with one other family on his tour besides ours and he said he thought all the children in those families were very respectful and the parents were doing a very good job of raising them. He also said the children in the schools he spoke in were very attentive to his presentation, asked good questions and were very well behaved. He wasn't sure where all of the misconceived notions of Canadians were coming from. I'm so glad we will have someone in India to say not all Canadians are how they are portrayed to be!

After hosting Arun I was very excited for the projects he is doing and wanted to go see for myself. I think Ron was feeling the same way too because he asked about the snake situation in India. Arun said there are poisonous snakes in India but they leave you alone for the most part and the people aren't scared of them because they know how to take the poison out if someone gets bit. Ron then asked how many snakes there were. Arun said there weren't many, if he were working in a 60 acre field there might be one or two. That was enough to discourage Ron from ever going! I might have to just take the girls and go sometime!!

Having Arun stay with us was just as educational for us as it was for him. We learned that there are 1.21 billion people living in India and most of them (I can't remember the percentage 85% maybe) are living right at or below the poverty line. Clothing, perfume and food are all inexpensive there, from our perspective, but there are many, many people who can't afford to eat. Arun wanted to buy a gift for his wife so he bought her two bottles of perfume for $80. After he bought it he did some quick conversions to rupees (Indian currency) after he remembered he was paying in Cdn $ and discovered that would feed his family of three for a month! He promptly returned the perfume, he said his wife would kick him out of the house if he spent that much money on perfume! In India you can buy very good perfume for $1 and when a couple gets married the bride is given special perfume that is about $5. Very good coffee in a very expensive restaurant is $0.25. Arun couldn't believe that people would pay $1.50 for a cup of coffee here let alone $5 for a specialty coffee at Starbucks! It's hard to imagine that there are people living in poverty in India when the prices seem so affordable to us but they also make very, very little compared to us too. Arun had been working for a pharmaceutical company, making 15,000 rupees a year and took this job to help with those in poverty and is now making 1,500 rupees a year. One Cdn dollar is 50 Indian rupees so basically he went from making $300/year to $30/year just to put everything in perspective. Arun refused to buy clothes because most of them were made in China. He said if you live in India you don't buy anything made in China! He searched high and low for something made in Canada and couldn't find it. I don't think he was looking for food products so then it's very hard to find. He spent his last few days in the city so maybe he did find something from Canada that was affordable for him there.

We are so glad to have had the opportunity to have hosted Arun. The kids were fascinated by him. Nathan got to spend the most time with Arun out of all three of the kids and they really hit it off. Larissa only got to see Arun for a few short minutes before school one morning but she was full of information and questions! Bethany liked showing off for Arun and at times just sat and stared at him. Arun has a daughter Bethany's age so he understood her personality perfectly! I sure hope we get a chance to do that again!

Arun in his borrowed winter jacket. He was so glad it wasn't colder than the +3C (37F) he was experiencing in Canada!!