Broccoli....and lifes little lessons

Yesterday, while I was in the grocery store getting some veggies and elderly lady came up to me while I was getting broccoli and said, "You know, you can eat the stem."
Well, whadda ya know? Someone else knows my secret! (okay, its not a secret. Its a widely known fact.) I let her in on another one of my secrets. When you cook the broccoli, you can use the water to make soup!
I know this woman was trying to be helpful and spreading her knowledge. But does she know who I am? I am a home cooker! I make as much as I can from scratch and reuse as many elements of my meal as I can. I try not to waste anything. I reuse water from potatoes to make buns. I eat the broccoli stems. Tonight, I used my roast beef water to make gravy, borscht and beef-barley soup. I used one roast and I'm getting at least 4 meals out of it, plus a meal of leftovers for Dan. I make bread, buns, bagels on a regular basis.
It was a nice piece of advice...one that someone else's Grandma taught me a decade earlier. Perhaps another random Grandma will teach me something I didn't know. I love your little bits of advice.

An Olympic Journey

On Friday, we braved the sunshine (so tough!) and headed out to Vancouver with the children. We took the sky train in from Surrey and got to watch the enthusiastic faces of two young ones first ride on the train. We went to Robson Square in hopes of catching the BC Pavilion during a quiet moment. But the hour long line up deterred our efforts, as did two screaming children. Consolation prize? Toddler hockey. Not really making up for our saddened hearts, we also went to see the Olympic clock and wait in line to get our photo with the Bobsled (more child meltdown ensued....explain patience and waiting your turn to a two year old whose used to getting his own way....) Using our trusty Starbucks map (with a few Olympic additions... the Starbucks sign completely obscured Robson square...), we made our way to Pacific Center's Igloo and polar bear display. We went inside to use the facilities, and found a much less busy bobsled that we could climb into. Coming out, we went to the Salish carving demonstration, where we met some "friends" from the parking lot at King George Highway. We bummed around, taking in the sights and sounds and various smells of Robson Square before we headed home. In the parking lot at King George, we were stalked to our car by hoards of drivers, vying for our parking spot. We ended up parked between two rather large trucks, both hogging the lines on the wrong side of the spot, rendering us all but immobile. We shimmied our way into the SUV, having to throw the children in through the trunk and buckling them up from behind. We narrowly missed both trucks in our efforts to back out of the spot....needless to say, both will need to adjust their mirrors. (thanks Dan for moving them!) We made it home, with two quiet children (okay, they were sleeping) and a nice sunburn as a souvenir. Oh those elements!

An Olympic Journey: in photos!

How lame is that?

My slippers match our furniture! Thanks to Grandma Neuman for the homemade slippers and Dad Dueckman for the chair and ottoman! Perhaps our family is conspiring against us.....its all a little too matchy matchy for me!

There is nothing sexier.....

....than a Dan in a kitchen. Yep. It's true. After almost 3 years of marriage, it still makes my heart pitter-patter and my stomach growl.

A moment of Patriotism

This past Friday, we got the opportunity to hold the Olympic Torch (not on fire) at Dan's work. Some lady, did a presentation about her experience as a torchbearer. It was a neat experience and pumped us up for the opening ceremonies later that evening.

We sat together on the couch, in awe of what we saw on our television. In a moment of patriotism, we stood in our living room as the national anthem was sung. We watched the many nations come out, guessing which country they were from, as the French name was pronounced first. We proudly watched the Georgian team walk by to a standing ovation to a crowd at BC Place, in honour of their fallen comrade. We also stood for the Olympic anthem, which was a bit disappointing as we only understood a few of the operatic lines that were sung. We enjoyed the theatrical element of the opening ceremonies. Although, true to prairie fashion, their segment was repetitive, long and boring (in a phrase, describing the prairies to a tee). We laughed at the hydraulic failure during the most important part of the ceremony; the lighting of the cauldron. We were impressed by the choices that the Olympic committee made for flag bearers and Torch lighters. We loved the Aboriginal elements, and were impressed that those dancers kept on dancing for over an hour as the countries marched by. Three and a half hours later, we finally turned off the TV, after enjoying a free night of exciting Olympic coverage.

The Russians AREN'T coming!!!

Thursday 11 AM: Arrive at ARC with children in tow, with hopes of seeing members of the Russian Figure Skating team. We stand in line. Make way up to special viewing area. Hopes dashed. Practise cancelled due to Russians going into Olympic Village.

Thursday 3:50PM: Arrive 10 minutes before practise is scheduled to begin, in order to get good seats. We stand and wait. And wait. And wait. Hope is fading along with energy levels and patience.

4:32 PM: Must leave to pick up children's mother from school. Still no skaters. Told there was a mix-up and practice starts at 5pm. Amanda starts to wonder if the Russians do free childcare.

5:13 PM: Arrive with children and mother, eating McDonalds french fries (since any other fast food wouldn't be allowed, as they aren't official sponsors). Finally see Russian figure skaters. Only to see the pairs team leave the ice and see one man remain on ice. Children loose interest in 0.5 seconds. Dan and Amanda are too exhausted to move. They watch skater (and children).

Hopefully, we'll see the torch. The first time we go. And the only time we go. Maybe the children are bad luck......

Come-In Community!

A few weeks ago, we had a married couple over for the evening (hi Matt and Rachel!). After a lovely dinner, the husband departed for his evening class at CBC while the wife and us decided to do a bit of baking. In just under 2 hours, we had collectively made: 2 dozen carrot muffins, a big batch of chocolate chip cookies, a batch of double chocolate chip cookies, and white chocolate raspberry scones. At the end, we divided the loot in half and called it an evening.
This past Sunday, another couple (hi Dan and Amy) were telling us about their new mattress that they got from a thrift shop for their two year stint in Abbotsford as MCC Service workers. The problem was that the mattress smelt a bit stale and like cigarettes. So, we offered up one of the many bottles of Febreeze we had collected in order to help alleviate the problem.
A few months ago, we got a knock at our door. It was our upstairs neighbour (hi Emily and Zoe) asking if we had some obscure baking item that she could borrow. Of course we had that crazy item, and lent it to her.
Even today, we got a call from a couple asking if they could borrow some tools to fix their bike.

So the point of all these stories is to provide examples of community that we are in, intentionally or otherwise. We've thought a lot about community recently, how important it is and what it is that draws us together. One of our friends asked us how our church was. It was interesting to note, that we talked about the community within the church as one of the main reasons that keep us there. The service, music, doctrine weren't that important to us. In fact, without the community that we have found at Emmanuel, we probably wouldn't have chosen this church to remain at. We can find service, music and doctrine at other churches, but the sense of community that you build into is hard to replace.
One of the things we love about our friends, is their ability to make themselves at home in our house. They are comfortable enough to rifle through our cupboards to find themselves a drink, a snack or some item they wish to borrow. This is something that we feel is an essential part of our lives and our home. We try to maintain an open door policy, which extends to our cupboards and freezer as well! We love that we have a friend (hi Colin) who comes to our place to relax, to take a nap on our bed, and to unwind from a stressful life.
We have found ourselves entering into a deeper sense of community. Its one that shares its resources, time, experiences and abilities freely. Its a community of giving, rather than taking. Its comforting to know that when you have a need, you can rest assure, that you will find fulfillment within your community. And in our experience, we have found the most fulfilling and rewarding part to be the giving. We love watching our friends faces when they walk away with a bag full of cookies, that barely make it to the car, let alone to their homes. But we also love to see the unexpected gifts that meet a timely need in our own lives. We truly believe that this is the way that God intended it to be. When you look back through Acts, you see people living in a true sense of community, sharing all they had, just like we are attempting to do nowadays.

It is February right?

Did I miss a few months and wake up in April? The calendar says February and the thermometer states that at noon it is currently 9 degrees, making its way up to 12 for the afternoon. Its ridiculous!

Yep...that's a window open. In February!!!! And I get to hang my laundry outside!



The groundhog earlier this week says that we'll be having another 6 weeks of winter. If this is what winter is like, I'm in! Bring out the Capri's and shorts!

Side note: The east just got hit with a HUGE blizzard! Ha Ha! And we're well into Spring...

Famousness!!!

We finally made it! We're famous!
Okay....reality. We are on the web, in pictures that people from all over the world are going to see. (thanks to the Olympics). Check us out! All of these pictures are from our summer trip up north on our Jetboat Adventure Tour just outside of Williams Lake.

http://www.aboriginalbc.com/ Check out picture #4 and 5. Those are from our tour this summer.

Also, check out my mom's picture! (The second picture is also from our tour!)

http//www.hellobc.com/en-CA/SearchResultsListings/ListingsDetails/BritishColumbia.htm?CATID=5039&LOCID=3&KWDS=&NBY=False&FLID=3&PN=1&PID=4558417