Spring Break

Hello! Finally! Our internet STILL isn't working at our house. So I brought my computer over to our classroom for the specific purpose of updating our blog! We had a VERY relaxing and enjoyable spring break. We our friends, Greg & Erica and their kids, Brett & Mariah, come along with us. We started our journey on a Friday at 3:30pm. The trip to our home in PA is usually 7 1/2 hours... but this trip ended up being around 10 1/2!! There was a blizzard that decided to travel along with us! We went an average of 40mph on the highway, and once we got to the backroads - it slowed down to 15mph! It was soooo... fun? Hehe. It was memorable to say the least! We arrived home early in the morning that Saturday and went straight to bed!

Andrew and I woke up a couple of hours later to head off to Grandpa and Grandma Stasukevich's! My Grandma is famous for making teddy bears. And since we hadn't told her we were expecting, I made a shirt to fit a teddy bear that said "I love my Great Grandma!". Andrew gave it to her and said "We need a teddy bear for this shirt we made". At first she thought it was for MY great grandma - but I informed her that SHE was now a great grandma!! It was pretty fun telling them! Aunt QZ came too... and when I told her, she wasn't surprised at all. But she did admit that it was a scary thought. =) Good thing I like honesty!!!

While we were there Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt QZ had a little bday party for Andrew and I! She figured she would get us both as once, since Andrew's bday is only a couple months away!

Hanging out with Dad and Mom

John Hower brought over his trophy for this year... I'm so jealous.

On Sunday we had an open house for people in our church. It was a good group of people... and of course we set aside an hour or so for shooting. Here I got to shoot Ed Kiefer's .44 - I even hit the targets!

Big Man - Little Gun

Dad showing me how to shoot his little .22

On Tuesday I went to my friend, Debbie, for a birthday perm! It looks a little funny here, but it turned out REALLY nice. Thanks Deb!

And of course I had to spend some time with my favorite people in the world!
Uncle Bob and my cousin, Jessy, came over to hang out throughout the week. My other cousin, Sam, came over too - but I don't have any evidence on camera!

Em, me & April (She looks excited, doesn't she?)

On Wednesday we went with the Stephens (Greg & Erica) to the Statue of Liberty.
It was everyone's first time, except me. Andrew REALLY liked it - which made it all worth while.

Greg spent a little time where he belongs...

Andrew and I at Ellis Island

The Statue of Liberty (up her dress anyways)

We got home from the Statue around 6:30pm. And when we arrived our nephew, Phil, and neice, Dorie, were waiting for us! Andrew and I built a fort with them in the living room and camped out for the night! It was a fun time!

Then Thursday my parents, Stephens and Uncle Bob had a little bday party for me!

Greg made me a cake that looked like an Oreo, because... well... I eat them ALL the time!

The cresendo of our break was taking Dad out for a birthday dinner. His birthday is about a week before mine. So we treated them to yummy night of dining at the Olive Garden. What I'm wondering though, is why I don't have a picture of the birthday pair - Me & Dad!

Got Kids?

Well - If you asked us that a little more than two months ago - the answer would be no. But that HAS changed. I'm two months and a week along... I know I could have said 9 weeks... but that doesn't sound as long. =) We have known for about 5 weeks, but wanted to keep it a secret for a while. We were trying to hold out for 3 months, but we just couldn't keep it in that long. We'll be able to meet our little child in late October. And for those who are wondering, we will be continuing on with our schooling next year.

So yes - we've Got Kids. Or at least one.

New Tribes Bible Institute of Waukesha, Wisconsin

Well, Well, Well. Its about time I got on the stick with this blog. We got back from our trip last Wednesday after all! We started our trip to the New Tribes Bible Institute of Waukesha, Wisconsin on Saturday at 3am. Talk about getting little sleep. Liz drove her car and we slept in the back. But have no fears! Kay Zu was keeping her company up front. =) We went to the school to inform them about the Missions Training Centre here in Canada.

Liz - a good driver - except we did get pulled over once, because she was from Kentucky (seriously)

Kay Zu - she was fun getting to know while we traveled with her. I found out she really likes Wendy's.

Andrew - Pretty much the hottest guy ever, even when he's sleeping

Me - really excited that we're entering into Chicago (my favorite city)


Me, Liz and Kay Zu - waiting to eat pizza at Gino's



Mitch, Grayson, Claussen and I - Two of our friends that were in my class at Bible school stopped in at Gino's to see us. It was awesome getting to see them again after a year.



Kane - a guy

After we were done eating in Chicago we made another 2 hour drive and arrived in Waukesha, Wisconsin. It was weird being "home" again. The group of students and staff who came to speak at the Bible school went to Applebees for dinner. While there Andrew and I enjoyed a large drink - virgin of course!

While we were in Waukesha, we were able to get together with some friends who live around the area. Sunday night we enjoyed pizza and poker. A Bible school classic. Don't be offended. We don't gamble - we're too poor for that. =)

Paul & Katie - Have a two week old baby. They are continuing on with Pioneers. They want to open up a work in Peru.

"The poker group minus Chris"

Chris - The poker champ

Lorna, Baby Alisha, Me, Brittni, Naomi, Tamara - This is the "mailbox picture". Every semester 5 girls from our class would get in front of the mailboxes and get a picture taken. Who would have thought that 5 of us would all be in the area at once?

Lorna - married to Tim Sutton. They have a 3 month old baby, Alisha. They plan on attending the Missions Training Centre of Canada in 2008.

Brittni - Finishing her last semester (she had left and come back). She is planning on attending the Missions Training Centre in either Canada or Camdenton in 2009.

Naomi - She drove two hours to see me! She is attending the Missions Training Centre of Camdenton this fall. She desires to serve in Indonesia working in the guest house.

Tamara - She works at the Bible school as a secretary.

Better late than never...

Better late than never, eh? Two weekends ago we went with the Hanover Missionary youth to snow camp! We stayed in a building that was previously a Roman Catholic Church. The church ended up being vacant, and so the community bought it and built multiple rooms on the second and third floors. Since it was so old, it was quite drafty, but we had a great weekend none-the-less.

One of the highlights was a game called "arbitrary retrobution". I won't explain the whole game, but when someone was sent to "jail", they were sent to me and Hiedi (another youth leader). Hiedi and I then were to duct tape individuals/groups together in odd positions. They then had to make a small hike to another leader to be freed! It was great fun!

Another highlight was the "Banquet". Everyone dressed up, even the guys! Here I am with a couple of the girls in my small group.

Yes, we're still alive!

We've been greeted with the phrase "you're still alive!" lately.

It all started with Leah wanting to go sledding. Then I thought, hey, why not camp out in a snow cave. So I told Andrew. And obviously he thought it was a GREAT idea! So on Friday afternoon Andrew made a huge pile of snow and compacted it. Then him, Leah and I started carving it out. Let me be honest with you though - Leah and I did about 5% of the work.

Andrew did the other 95%. Just because it was my idea - didn't mean I had to do the labour.

We arrived at our snow cave around 9pm to "set-up". In other words, we shoved our sleeping bags inside the "snow cave" and headed down the Liz&Leah's house to watch a movie. The movie ended around 12am, and we headed up to our cave for the night. We all got inside, and were very warm. Warm, but cramped. About 3:30 in the morning Liz&Leah moved into another snow cave. (Our classmate, Ace, was/is in the process of building one for his family) This allowed more room for Andrew and I. In the process of moving though, my sleeping bag got wet, which meant I was no longer warm. So I moved in with Andrew. I was again nice and toasty - but he says I was "hogging the room". To make a long story short, all of us left in the morning to warmer houses and warmer beds. Andrew is making modifications to our cave, so that we can sleep in it this week. And the girls are coming back up with me next Friday - so I'm pretty excited about that. But yes, we are still alive. I hope you can all rest easier now!

Here Mr. Claussen is pretty proud of his hard work! And I am too!

Leah, me & Liz are pretty proud of our sign too!

It reads "Claussen/Flemings Cave. No Tresspassing!"

Here we are in our cave...

Notice how close the ceiling is to our face?

Claussen+Car=Catastrophe

Andrew and I have had 4 different cars within the year we've been married. That's not saying a lot for either our capabilities to use one, or our choices when it comes to buying one. Out of four cars, we only bought one. The other three were given to us. But as we're coming to find out... perhaps its worth the expense of buying one, rather than repairing the ones given to us. Andrew made quite a bit of money last summer... yet about 1/4 of it went to cars. We've spent more repairing the things, than we did buying the one we bought.

So what is the history with our car situation, you might wonder? Here's some fun facts...

Car #1 - 1992 Ford Escort "Yoshi"
Given to us by Andrew's sister, Kim. It was a beat up two door. And its bright blue colour reminded us of Yoshi, which became the car's name. Yoshi was Andrew's bachelor car before it became a "family" car. Being a bachelor car meant it traveled long distances and was treated in a bachelor sort of way. The car was doing very well... until a month before we got married. At this time the alternator bracket broke. So my Dad and Andrew devised a wonderful solution... stick a piece of wood in place of the bracket. You should never allow a man to make a "temporary" fix, for it will remain, until 20 years later you realize, the solution was meant to be permament. And so the piece of wood remained... for months. And occasionally it fell out. Which would leave us stranded... and this happened occasionally. Also Yoshi didn't like sitting still *aka* it wouldn't idle. If you stopped for a mere second, Yoshi stalled. This encourage bad driving... such as not coming to a complete stop. Since this car would never pass Pennsylvania inspection and was unreliable (and the alternator bracket couldn't be found in a junk yard and was no longer produced by Ford) we gave it to his younger brother. You see, it was still suitable for a bachelor.

Car #2 - 1994 Honda Civic "Sonic"
This car was also given to us by a couple in our church. Most of the car was a navy blue colour, and then some of the doors, and the back bumper were a grayish colour. Since this car had an issue with accelorating (in other words, your grandma's car would beat us at a green light) we gave him the ironic name of "Sonic". (After the cartoon). If you don't know who Sonic is... you need to be beaten. Anyways, Sonic was given to us because he had blown a head gasket. Andrew and I put the money into it to fix the head gasket. Then a few weeks late the struts went... so we replaced those... then it started leaking fuel like a baby drools. We'd put in a full tank of gas and lose half of it pulling out of the gas station. I took it to three different mechanics... and none of them wanted to touch the lines, because everything was rusted so badly, they were afraid the whole thing would fall apart. I don't know a lot about cars - but if a mechanic refuses to work on it, its gotta be pretty bad. So that car is presently sitting on my parents' lawn. And in about a week will be taken to the dump.

Car #3 - 1994 Pontiac Grand Am "Booger"
This car is the car we purchased. I bought it from a friend. It was a forest green, which rewarded the name "booger". The second day of owning it the starter went. So we paid $175 (cheap) to get it fixed. This should have been a sign of worse things to come. And by golly, it was. It worked like a charm (after being repaired) until 3 months later when we headed home for break. (You can read about this in our last blog). The engine seized. Which meant, bye bye lovely car. At this point - Andrew and I decide that we should have spent the money and got the Forrester we wanted. It would have been cheaper.

Car #4 - 1994 Crown Victoria "Vikki"
I have known this car since I was about 16 or 17. My parents had fixed this car (yet again) and decided to keep it for people to use. And we happened to be those people after Booger died. So we took it happily. It had a lot of quirks, but I was fimilar with them, and it was okay. But there were some new issues that "Vikki" picked up on the way to Canada. Accelorating "without permission" was one of them. I was going up a hill once, and was slowing down, when suddenly it sped up. Vikki had/has some issues, but we're trying to work with her. And since being up here she has decided to leak brake fluid. Put these two together and its not an amazing combination. Well, we needed to run to the grocery store... and she had been behaving, so we took her. That was a mistake! Andrew put it in reverse in the grocery store parking lot and she went flying without permission. And she flew right into an old woman's van. The van - got squarshed. Our car's back light is badly damaged, and the side doors are dented - but Vikki is made with medal, so she did pretty good. I can't say the same for the van made of plastic. I don't know what it is with us and cars, but I'm looking into buy a horse and buggy from the local mennonites. Surely they have one for sale.

Christmas with the Claussens!

Well... Christmas break is now finished, and we're back at school. I have gotten several requests for a new blog, and obviously I wanted to post about our Christmas break. But how do you pack 24 days into a simple blog that explains what we did, but is short enough to keep your attention? Sooo I decided to tell you about the 9 most interesting days (summarized of course)! I hope you enjoy the post and all the photos!

The 15th - the 1st day of break (the trip to PA)

Andrew and I started the 7 hour drive down to Pennsylvania to surprise my Mom and best friend, April. About 1 1/2 hours into the trip we heard an unusual flapping noise come forth from the engine. (Not a good sign) So Andrew had me pull over and he checked the oil - it was full. Hmm... well we kept driving and stopped at a "Canadian Tire" and paid to have it looked at. The oil is fine they said... but they didn't say the same for our poor ol' engine "its not a matter of IF it will go, its a matter of WHEN". Oh goody. Keep in mind this was our third car this year - and we just bought it four months ago. This is not something we expected. He said we should just drive it until it dies. So - at this point we had two options:

1. Try and drive the 2 hours back to school...

2. Drive an hour in order to cross the border, drive as far as we could,

and use our AAA when we broke down

We chose 2. We drove for an hour or so... crossed the border (the car was knocking so badly by this time that the border patrol officer made me turn off the car) - and about a 1/2 mile after crossing - the engine seized. Too bad we don't have a cell phone. We walked 10 minutes to a hospital of some sort and they let us use their phone. After 45 minutes of a AAA agent named Betty suggesting "cheap" ways of getting us and the car home - Andrew and I decided we would use our 100 free towing miles, and be dropped off wherever that 100 miles ended - and figure things out from there. We walked back to our car, and there was a trooper parked behind it. Her name was Christie - and she was a BLESSING! She let us sit in her warm SUV and she called AAA (she said they come faster for cops). It was a good thing she called! AAA had actually cancelled the call because I gave them the name of the road in Canada - not in the USA. (the road changes from 405 to 190 when you cross the border). We told her of our dilemma and how it would be too expensive to tow it back and waaay to expensive to fix (1500+) and that the ideal solution would be to sign it over to a junk yard. She canceled the AAA and called an old friend who worked for a tow company. He agreed to take the car and wave the tow fees as payment. Then Christie (the trooper) drove us to the police station, ordered us a taxi and sent us to a car rental place - so that we could drive home that night and still surprise Mom and April. (I had informed her of our plans) Through all of this Andrew and I were in awe - God had orchestrated a beautiful series of events to take care of us that night. I'm thankful that he allows us to be free from anxiety - I can't imagine how we would've handled the situation if we were anxious the whole time! Instead God gave us peace - and we enjoyed riding in a quiet nice rental car - and we got to surprise Mom - she was speechless for an hour!

The 16th - Seeing friends and family

I made the mistake of surprising my mom BEFORE April. The first thing she did the next morning was call EVERYONE and tell them I was home - this included April. I didn't get to surprise her, but as soon as she found out she came over... and amused ourselves with an abnormal hat...

Then later that night we had my sister, Amber, and her two kids, Philip and Dorie, over to open presents! It was soooo much fun seeing them opening Christmas presents!

We also had a family, the Vancotts come over for ice cream and the movie, Cars.

Sara Vancott (in the picture below) is studying to do missions work with WyCliff!

Sara with her dad, Forrest - and my dad, Lindsey, with me

The 17th - Family, family and then friends


Andrew and I went to see our nephew, Philip, and niece, Dorie, in a Christmas concert Sunday morning. They sang Away in a Manger. Philip was singing loud and clear! They both were sooo cute! In the picture below, you can see Dorie was keeping herself occupied on stage with the other girl's costume!

Later that afternoon we went to my Grandpa and Gram Stasukevich's house to surprise my Aunt Q-Z (she was making cinnamon rolls with Gram). And we sure surprised her!

Sunday night we were able to have some good friends of ours come over to play games and eat ice cream (ice cream is a Neild tradition!)

Me, April & Emily

The 18th - Breakfast with Pops & Christmas with the Fassler family

On Monday my Pops took my mom, sister, Andrew and I out to Stables.

I ordered my normal hot chocolate with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top!

My Pops

The Stables is about a 2 minute walk away from the elementary school that my cousin, Sammy, attends. So I decided to go and surprise her! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get into those schools now a days! At least I know she is protected!!!



That night my Uncle Bob came over with his girls, Sammy & Jessy and we celebrated Christmas!

My sister, Crystal, me & Andrew

Me & my best friend/cousin, April

The 23rd - Under Seattle

By this time we were in Seattle Washington. And since I was new to the area - I got to be a tourist! My MIL (mother-in-law) took me on the Underground Seattle Tour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground This website tells you how the Underground Seattle came to be - it's quite the interesting story!

The first story of this building is now underground, and the second story is now at street level. We got to walk through the actual first story of this building during the tour!

My MIL, Beth, and me

The 2nd (of January) - Goldmyer Hot Springs

Andrew's family decided to take us up to the Goldmyer Hot Springs. Although this is a tourist attraction, you wouldn't think it was by the trip you have to make to get there. First you take an hour drive on a road that has huge potholes, and in some areas - overtaken by the river. Then at the end of the road there is a raging river - with no bridge. At this point you have the option of "wading" and getting swept away or hooking up a pulley system to the existing cable and make yourself a diaper (not a baby diaper). Then you have to pull yourself across or hook up two ropes and have one on either side of the river and have someone pull you across. AFTER this, you then make the mile hike in snow and ice to a little cabin where you pay a $12 fee... and then you have another 1/2 mile hike in snow and ice and you are there!

My BIL (brother-in-law), Jonathan, hooking up the pulley system

I'm preparing for take off

My MIL getting ready for take off

The little cabin where you pay

(this isn't a picture I took, I pulled it from the internet,

when we went, everything was covered in snow!)

The entrance to the Hot Springs was a 4'x4' hole

This is taken from the back of the cave. It went back about 25', was 7' high and 4' wide

My SIL (sister-in-law), kim, and me in the cave

My FIL (father-in-law), Phil

The 3rd - Dinner with Brian and Jocelyn Richards

Some friends from NTBI live 10 minutes away from Andrew's parents. So they invited us over for dinner and we played Settlers of Catan!

The 5th - Fort Warden

Just like the title says... we went to Fort Warden

Andrew and our nephew, James

My BIL, Jonathan, isn't happy about something

Don't let the picture deceive you, this tunnel was pitch black - you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face!

My SIL&MIL

A neat picture of Andrew & I

They balance eachother out, eh?

He'll make a wonderful father one day

Since our 1st year anniversary was in two days, and we would be flying, Andrew's parents got us a cottage for a night that overlooked the sound!

The 6th - The Dungenus Spit (a giant sand bar)

We went to see the Spit and all the driftwood that comes with it!

He sure loves being a Grandpa!

Andrew, Jonathan, Kim & Me on a piece of driftwood

The 7th - Our 1st year Anniversary!

We were on the plane in this picture!

Wondering why you didn't see any pictures of Christmas day - I forgot to take any!!! Hopefully Kim or Beth will send me some, and then I'll post them! Thank you for reading!!! I hope you had a great Christmas and make this New Year count for the Lord!

Christmas Concert in the community...

Every year New Tribes Mission of Canada puts on a Christmas Concert in the community hall. All of the first year students spent the morning decorating the hall on Tuesday (with the direction of staff of course!) and then we held the concert in the evening. I was able to participate in the choir, which was a ton of fun! It was a fun night, I was definitely tired by the end though!

All I want for Christmas... is YOU [baby]!

Mariah, Erica, me and Liz

The Glidewell girls - you've never seen such cute, well behaved girls!

Mariah & I - sisters in Him!Me and my beautiful friend, Joy
Liz (my southern belle) and I

Niagara Falls

Last Saturday, Andrew surprised me with a day trip down to Niagara Falls. I've gone to the Falls every year since I was about 12.. and I absolutely love them! It is also the first place Andrew & I kissed! =) The Falls were GORGEOUS! Especially with all the beautiful lights. We also were able to drive around the light display! It was a VERY nice surprise from such a loving husband! I'm so thankful for Andrew.

The beautiful Falls, all lit up!








It's $180 for a 45 minute tour!! Needless to say, we did NOT ride! But it was a neat shot...

American Thanksgiving

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! My (Amberlynne's) parents came up from PA (Pennsylvania), along with my Grandpa Bruce and sister, Crystal. Andrew's brother, Jon, drove up from Chicago to spend the weekend with us too!!! We had Thanksgiving dinner in our apartment - with all the stuffing, potatoes, corn pudding, turkey and cranberry sauce you could ever hope for!! Matt and Joan Gunther (staff and neighbors) joined us, and so did the Stephens (classmates)! In all there were 13 of us crammed around two small tables! We could barely open the fridge!! After dinner we cleaned up, and Joan let us use her sink to do our dishes... we don't have running water in our apartment! We played "Mexican Train" and "Crominos"... and then it was time for Christmas presents. A little early you say? Well, I'm not going "home" for Christmas, so my parents and I did Christmas while they were here! We got the usual things like; socks... toothbrushes... deoderant... BUT at the bottom of my stocking there a set of keys. Every year my parents put something in my stocking that doesn't make any sense until I open another present later on. Well... they made me turn around and close my eyes... and when I opened them... there was a guitar!!! Greg Stephens asked me if I knew how to play... and the answer was no!! I had mentioned to my dad earlier this month that I wanted to learn how to play. So what do you know? Now I have the tool, and slowly I'm making progress! =) I've got a great dad! And mom too... you should see all the food that she made for dinner and brought up for Andrew and I!!! My Grandma had also sent up a present for us! She had gotten us cast iron pans!!! I was soo excited!! Overall... I think this Christmas was the best ever! Thanks for coming up and visiting us! And thank you for the guitar Dad!!! You're the bomb diggity! =)

My Marmie

Jon & Andrew

Grandpa Bruce cutting the turkey

Andrew & Jon wrestling...

Erica Stephens, Marmie & Joan Gunther doing the dishes

Crominos

Matt must be losing...

Isn't Erica beautful?!

The best daddy in the world...

Youth Group Outing...

Andrew and I have been working with the youth group at Hanover Missionary Church. We go every Friday night from 7:30-10:30pm. We head up a "small group". All the youth in our group are in 10th grade... which is an exciting age!! A couple of weekends ago, we had a "sleep-over" with our small group. We went to watch "Flushed Away" in the movie theatres, ate dinner at McDonalds... Then all the youth came back to our apartment and played Taboo, Uno. We had devotions and then we crashed!!! The girls ( there were four of us - squished in a 9x7 room! ) Then the guys slept in the kitchen. Then in the morning Andrew made everyone waffles!!! We took them up to "Jungle Camp" and took them all home... then Andrew and I slept... =)

She's got quite the talent... smelling her own feet!
These kids have mad skill =P

ladies christmas party

Here are some pictures from our Ladies' Christmas Party that we had tonight! It was food, fun & fellowship all wrapped into one!

If you're wondering about the picture at the top... I had put my camera on a timer... and I didn't quite get there on time! =) As a result my foot is rug burned... but it's such a good picture - make sure to look at everyone's face!

Our First Christmas tree

Andrew, Brett, Mariah & I went out on Saturday to get a tree! Andrew cut one down for us, and Mariah cut one down too!!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! Here our two of our nephews, James and Elijah, in their costumes! Aren't they as cute as the dickens? (James is in the top pictures and Elijah is in the bottom pictures)

Aquire the Fire

This weekend Andrew and I were leaders for "Aquire the Fire". It's like a mix of the "Word of Life Superbowl" and "Kingdom Bound". Falling Up, Skillet &
KJ-52 performed. Here are some pictures...

Happy Birthday Philip!

Today my nephew, Philip, is 5 years old! Happy Birthday Dr.Chubs! We love you!!!

Last but not Least...

We're so cool.

girlie day - part 2

Here are more pictures from our ladies day out... but these ones were taken at Starbucks. The top picture is of me, Leah & Liz. They are both in my class - and we were all estatic about getting Starbucks!!! (Keep in mind the closest Starbucks is about an hour away!) Everyone in my car got a Java Chip Frapp, hence the picture on bottom.

girlie day

I was able to spend alllll day with the ladies today! It was so much fun. We went mini golfing, had starbucks, window shopped at the mall and had some yummy food at Weber's restaurant!! Here are the pictures from mini golf... From top to bottom: Me&Ruth (daughter of staff); Me&Liz (student); Joy(student),Joan(staff),me & Mrs.Yvonne(student); Leah (student) & myself; and my favorite picture of the night! (Joy being herself!)

A visit from Andrew Peterson...

We had a good friend, Andrew Peterson, came up to visit this weekend! It was so awesome seeing someone from home!! He had his entire car packed with food from my parents - and that is never a bad thing! We really didn't do much, just hung out... watched movies and such! We miss him already!!! We thank God for such good friends!

dumb&dumber

Last week the some of the guys got together to watch Dumb and Dumber, I ended up watching the last part. That movie is a classic.

Here are some pictures from our Canadian Thanksgiving with our 1st year classmates! As you can see, we all enjoyed our food!

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!! ( Canadian Thanksgiving that is ). We had two yummy meals this weekend, with all the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes that we could manage getting into our stomaches! We had dinner on Sunday at Vern and Holly Dyck's house. The Whatleys , Stephens and Jason were there with us. Then on Monday the first year students got together and had a potluck thanksgiving dinner. Kimbra made some awesome jalapeno poppers, and Liz made AMAZING broccoli casserole and pumpkin roll. I got to bring some stuffing and bread ( both recipes from my mom, so of course they tasted REALLY yummy!!!

Canoe Trip!!

Canoeing!

Hello everyone!!! Yesterday Andrew and I got to go canoeing with a bunch of people from school. It was so relaxing... we got to see the leaves of fall, pick some yummy apples - and we didn't flip once! As soon as I get my pictures developed and on CD, I will post some on here.

Construction

Every day from 1:30 until 4:30 we have a class called Practical Training Class ( PTC ). For the last four weeks, I have been on a team of 9 working under Hank Demark. And we have been building a duplex!! We started building walls and partitions for the basement... and now we have the second floor walls and partitions done and are currently working on the roof!! It's been an exciting time for me, getting to use nail guns and the saw. =) Here are some pictures of us working on the basement walls, and also the bridging. I Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Top to Bottom:
Erin and Julie helping out in the basement,
Me, Erin doing bridgework,
Me, Erin and Julie doing bridgework,
Norm and John nailing down plywood

Construction

Here are some pictures of our construction work!!

candid class photo

This is a picture of our class... you can see us in the third row...

Lake Huron - Bruce Peninsula

Andrew and I on the coast

Looking down from the cliffs

John and Andrew wading in the freezing water

Isn't that the bluest water you've ever seen???

A couple of weeks ago, we took a day hike with John and Rosie Kniowski ( fellow students ) on the Bruce Peninsula trail. It was absolutely gorgeous! It was the most clear blue water I had ever seen. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

We've decided to join the blog world...

Andrew and I decided since we're here ( Canada ) and most of you are there ( USA ), we would join the " blog world " in order to keep you updated and a part of our everyday lives!!! We hope you enjoy what you see... and forgive us if we are a bit slow to adding pictures and information... we've never done this before!