I've Arrived

So, I've arrived in Canada! It feels weird to know that I'm not living in Oregon anymore, but it hasn't quite hit me yet. I still feel like I'm here for a visit.

The train ride was uneventful, which I am SOOOO grateful for! No coughing or puking from Lizzy at all! We had beds this time and the cost was well worth it!

Now I'm anxiously waiting for Adam to finish his exams and come join me in the best country in the world! (not that I'm biased at all...)

Packing... sort of.

I'm leaving to come home to Canada in 3 sleeps (as I tell Lizzy) and it's coming up fast. I've been trying to pack and plan and clean all at the same time and the result is that I have done little and the house is a huge mess (and has been for days). I would include a picture, but really, I don't want to scare anyone!

I'm starting to feel the emotional weight of leaving this great ward and all our wonderful friends and the emotions of having a baby come in only 4 weeks! I teared up and almost bawled when I saw a picture on a friend's blog of Lizzy and her good friend Matthew and the comment that Matthew would sure miss Lizzy. She's going to miss him too! I try to remind myself that we'll be back in the area in February, but that feels so far away.

Anyway, Lizzy and I are leaving on the train Monday afternoon. We'll spend a wonderful 18 hours on the train! I hope Lizzy isn't sick again this time! Adam is staying a couple extra weeks to finish his exams, pack and clean. I'm really trying to get some things done for him so he doesn't have to do it all himself, but I'm afraid I've been horribly lax. The plan is to get a lot done today (and laundry) because tomorrow is Adam's birthday and we want to do something fun. When Adam is done down here, he'll drive up to my parent's place in Raymond and then a couple weeks later, he'll be on to Prince Rupert, BC and his first rotation. I will join him with the wee little ones when I feel ready to fly. Poor guy, Adam will be spending 12+ hours in that big ol' suburban, and then have to unpack, while I get fly for just a couple hours.

Well, I should be packing, but instead I'm blogging and I just heard the washing machine beep. I must bid adieu!

Baby Shower

My two really great friends, Tiffany and Kathy, put on a great baby shower for me Wednesday night. They did such a great job!!! They decorated with blue streamers and had lots of yummy fruit, icecream and a great brownie that Kathy made. It went over fantastically well! Thanks girls! I love you! Kathy created her own version of Mad Gab using baby phrases for the shower. She couldn't find any on the internet, so she made them up herself! It was great and so funny!

I got to sit in the comfy chair all night. Awesome!

Quite a few ladies showed up and I am so grateful for the many good friends that I have made in Forest Grove! Thanks ladies for the cute gifts and all the support! I am starting to get pretty emotional when I think about leaving. I only have just over a week left before I leave to return to Canada to have the baby and then we go on rotations for school. I won't be back in Oregon for 9 or 10 months and I'm sad to leave all my friends and the great ward here in Forest Grove.

Easter Egg Hunts

Easter morning Lizzy found that the Easter Bunny had left a surprise!

She was very excited to find some Sleeping Beauty dress-up slippers. She absolutely loves them and wears them all around the house.
Here she is with her treats from the Easter Bunny.

We were lucky the day before Easter to be able to go to two different Easter Egg Hunts. Lizzy had a blast! And got a lot of treats!

A family in our ward put on an Easter Egg hunt for the kids in the ward and they had tonnes of eggs. They also gave all the kids little buckets with shovels to gather up the eggs in. Lizzy insisted on picking up the eggs in her shovel and carrying them to her bucket. Here she is bringing an egg to her bucket. She was running and trying to be as quick as she could find more and more egss.


Checking out her loot! Look how many eggs she has! Her bucket was overflowing!

Colouring eggs and showing off her creations.

Here's the other Egg Hunt put on by the group that I belong to called PAVA. My friend and I had fun putting the eggs together and then hiding them in the park. But it was more fun watching all the kids hunt for the eggs. They get so excited, it's cute!

"Look at what I found!"

After the hunt, the kids played at the park. Lizzy is so brave and she showed all the other kids how to slide down these poles by her arms. It was the first time I've seen her do that and it was quite impressive for a 3 year old! She's fearless.


Well, we had a great Easter weekend and Lizzy had so much fun. But we do miss the good Canadian chocolate.

A Resolute Pot of Gold

Adam performed in Optorock again this year. This time twice. He performed an original guitar solo that he wrote called "Resolute" to rave reviews! It was really awesome and I'm so proud of him. Here is the video I took on our little camera. I hope the quality is all right and you can hear it.

Here is the other song that he performed. Adam wrote the music, his friend Guy wrote the lyrics and they played it together with their other friend Ben. It was really a good collaboration on all their parts. This one is called "Pot of Gold" and is about finsihing the National Board Exams, and how those exams infringed upon their holidays, especially St. Patrick's Day.
These guys always write such good songs together! This is their third Optorock performance with original songs. They oh so totally rock!

Rejection... again!

Pooey! Another rejection letter for my writing. It's frustrating, but I know I just need to find the "right" fit. But I wanna find it now!

As a side note, it is 74 right now (23 celsius). And I'm loving it. At least the weather was cheerful. Yesterday was 78 (25.5)! That was a tie for the record high in Portland. But it's supposed to rain the rest of the week. Blech.

The Beach!

Today was an especially beautiful day! The sun was out and hot, and it prompted us to head out to the beach.


"The beach in April?" you say. Yes. We had some beautiful weather of late, and I hope it stays. Sorry to brag, but I really can't help it. It feels so good to finally have some Vitamin D!

I went with a 3 other friends and their children and we enjoyed the warm day. We slathered on the sunscreen (and luckily didn't get burned), put on our hats and swimsuits and played in the sand and ocean water.
Lizzy had a blast, and so did I!