Alberta Pics

So finally some pics.. it has taken me forever because I kept getting frusturated as I was trying to upload the pictures.. I couldn't seem to get them all uploaded the way I wanted and if I did then somehow I messed up and deleted half the post.. so that became work for another day. Which has become tonight, I've been relaxing on the couch just looking at photographers websites and decided that I totally needed to get my pictures up here :)

So first of all.. I couldn't believe it, but John decided that he was going to go outside and help my dad and brothers do some work. Quite truthfully I really think he was bored and just wanted to do something. So there he was bedding corrals.. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that LOL.. so I ran out there and carefully snapped some pics while he wasn't looking. It was a little bit of a challenge since the cows didn't really want to cooperate with me.. they started moving around and every time they would get in front of where John was standing. Finally I got a picture that turned out, and here it is!

Of course I can't resist taking pictures of my cute little brothers either. They were playing Dog, and obviously as you can see here Nathan was the puppy and Joel has to give him something to drink. The only problem with this puppy was that he kept getting out of his dog house!! oh oh.. and then Joel would come running to me again.. Lise the puppy is out of his pen and won't go in.. HELP ME! LOL.. so what did I do.. help him of course.. finally I told Nathan that he had to stay in because I could get up every two seconds to help Joel. LOL :) Good times.. it was so fun to see them playing like that! I love my little brothers to pieces!! :)

Well as you can see my hubby's helpfulness didn't end at bedding corrals... Milking time came along and Jared convinced John to go out to the barn with him and Evert to milk. Worth another picture?? Of course LOL.. the surprises just kept on coming! I couldn't believe it. This time he did notice though.. it is pretty hard not to after all since there is only one opening into the milking parlour.. :)  The only part that his wife was quite horrified at was that he was wearing his brand new button up shirt in the barn milking.. :O Later I told him.. what would you have done if you had gotten manure on it.. umm he didn't know.. I told him well he would have wrecked his shirt.. cause try to get that stain out of it.. LOL.. His answer?? Well it didn't happen so what did it matter. Typical!

Willard and Joel.. Story time :)

Of course where else did you expect to see this Canadian Girl!!! Tim Hortons not?!? yuppers.. I had to have my second dose since being in Canada.. the first one happened at the first timmies as soon as we were in the airport before we went "home" on New Years morning.. bright and early! This is on the day that I did a photoshoot of Leanna. Yes pictures are coming up of that as well! :)

Finally another picture of my favorite little boys!  I sewed "half" (or more, since it is debatable that way) of their pajama's and they were both so happy. I did everything on them but the binding. Which I would have done if the last Saturday there hadn't been so hectic! It seemed like I ran from the one place to the next all afternoon. Totally worth it though since I saw a bunch of my friends and finally got some catching up in! Good times! :)

Update

Since I don't know what else to call this post than an update.. that is what it is going to be! :)

Anyway, so I spent sometime in Alberta which was great, but by the time I went back to Sunnyside it was nice to be going "home". At the same time you do adjust to being in your parents' home for a while pretty quickly.. at first it was a little wierd, but I definitely got used to it pretty quickly, which I didn't notice till I got back to our small home. The first morning that I was back it was really interesting waking up in my own bed again, and not on the floor between my sisters' beds like I had been doing for the past week. At the same time weirder still to be back in such a quiet house!

Anyway I'm going to have to do a post with some pics from up in Alberta yet.. but for now I'm just going to continue on with how my trip back home went etc.

So on Monday morning, it was time to pack.. and of course now I know there are several things I forgot... which wasn't to bad.. except I was almost sure my suitcase was going to be overweight since no carry-on's were allowed coming into the US ugh.. annoying rules.. but definitely understandable after the bomb scare! So that meant I was trying to stuff everything, including my regular carry-on amount into my suitcase.. not to much fun!

Once that was done it was time to run over to see Oma one more time before I left and say good-bye. Like usual that takes a little more time than you expect it to.. but you can't just run in and out either. She was busy washing dishes when I came, and then was also working on fixing the binding on a book cover, so pretty much just little things here and there. Her first comment to me was that now that there isn't someone constantly waiting for you and expecting you to get things done in a certain order you do whatever you want to first and last. Then we drank some tea, and talked some more. From what Oma said to me is that she really wants to come and visit us in Sunnyside sometime, we will have to see how that all works out, because someone else would have to take her. I did mention it to Mom and Dad so hopefully something can be figured out, because it would definitely be really nice if she could come down for a visit. Anyway as I was getting ready to walk out of the door, Oma being Oma figured she should give me a chocolate bar! As kids whenever we went over she would usually have a candy, and sometimes a roll to send us home with, or something else, and other times nothing LOL :)

Now that Opa is gone the whole family is definitely going through a big adjustment, and it leaves a huge empty spot. Coming over to what was "their" house and now is only Oma's house makes it feel pretty empty, rarely did we ever come there and not see Opa somewhere tinkering on something, or reading a magazine in his chair in the corner. Which we noticed over the last week has become Oma's corner now.  Or you would almost expect him to show up on the farm sometime to do the little things that he always did in the last few years. Feeding the calves, and dogs, moving the buckets of water from the front of the barn to the milking parlor. Even Oma said, that with his coveral's hanging in the garage at their place makes you think that he will be back and will put them on to go to the farm. Then for our family as well, Opa always walked across the field between the homeplace and his house, which we will never see again. There are so many memories that we are faced with all the time. Even though I'm not at home anymore, just thinking about it is really hard, at times more so than others, and I'm sure there will always be those memories!

Anyway, so when I got home it was time to head to Calgary, I pretty much pulled up walked in the door and walked out again! When we got to the airport, we stopped at Timmies to grab a bit to eat... and me for my last (in a while anyway)1/2 French Vanilla Cap, 1/2 Coffee. Then it was off to check in with the Airline. The lady at the counter took one look at my suitcase and asked if I could put it on the weigh scale for a minute so she could check what it weighed. ummm ya... 54.7lbs... eeekss, almost 5lbs over.. but like I had said to mom, Hey they aren't letting me take carry-on which normally weighs more than that. So that is what we told her. She told us.. you know that is a good reason. prints my luggage tag, grabs the Heavy Luggage warning and puts them on.. and away I went!

That is when I got to start the fun part.. Customs!! or NOT!

Anyway so like usual when you fly from the Calgary International Airport, when you come to the door opening for US Customs there is a officer there to great you and make sure that you are supposed to be coming through the door, but this time a little further ahead there was another one. Then you go fill out your declaration form and the into the line for Customs. All in all the line moved forward pretty quickly and I didn't have any complaints about it! Anyway.. finally my turn.. the officer asks me, So why are you going to the US. Me: well I live there, Him: Oh in that case.... and he looks up my info on the computer, yup you just received your status and don't have your card (freaky, or not lol but it all shows on his computer), he wants to know why I came back to Canada.. so I told him.. done deal.. welcome HOME!  Here's me thinking to myself.. umm that is so wrong!!! ya I live here, but to me Canada is always my home, not the US.. LOL! Oh well.. such is the way it goes! I won't offer any other complaints, at least I was allowed back into the country.. that is all that matters to me! :) Anyway then once you get through that there is a line and another bunch of customs officer checking you purses since you are only allowed to have a purse the size of an 8 1/2x11 piece of paper, and pretty much minimal amount of stuff in it. Anyway so that takes a while, then you drop your luggage with the luggage guys, and on you go to the Security area. Which is packed and taking forever! You pretty much had to take everything out of your bag/purse, laptop had to come out of its case... camera got looked over.. your jacket/sweaters and what not got a thorough going over and you got patted down by either a TSA officer or a Calgary City Police officer. Ladies got a lady and men got a man.. etc.. they check the bottom off your feet  etc etc. I was like WOW Security is def at an all time high...

Then came the wait.. since you have to make sure you check in through security on time with it being that tight that also means a long wait period before you take off in general :( Boo! But I was so glad that I had my laptop with me, because guess what.. Free WiFi!! YAY! LOL :)  Same thing for the Seattle/Tacoma airport.. since I had quite the layover there as well.. it all worked out quite nicely.. and then finally after a kinda bumpy plane ride to Yakima.. finally get to see John again... LOL :) All I can say is I think it was a long week for both of us! But definitely not a bad thing.. Absence makes the heart grow fonder as they say.. LOL :)

So that is that for now.. pics coming up sometime soon!

Alberta

Well, sitting in my parents' home in Alberta definitely brings back memories as well as feeling like it so isn't home, and I shouldn't be living here even if it is only for a week! So far things have gone well, even though there has been some hard times in between, like Saturday, the day of Opa's funeral. At the same time it has been nice to see most of the family, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and some of my friends!

So for the most part this week I've been finding something to do, or somewhere to go everyday. On Monday I stopped in to see two friends in the morning and had a nice quick catch up visit with them. Then at night we went to John's aunt & uncle to visit for a bit. On Tuesday we popped in to see Oma before we brought John to the airport and Opa & Oma Slingerland stopped in at the rents' place to see us, and then off to the airport we went!

From the sounds of things and from what John experienced the airport security is so not fun right now!! Ugh that is actually the part that is going to drive me crazy... I'm not worried about getting through or anything, just the fact that he said it took him about an hour to get through is insane... I'm just going to have to hope for the best! The fact that you can't have carry on into the U.S. is crazy though! So now I have to get a bag to put the laptop in and I'm going to have to carry my camera around my neck by the shoulder strap. :(
Slightly annoying but what can I do... such is the way it goes.. I just hope that I get everything into my bag and I guess if not.. well then I leave some behind and get it next time again! LOL :) For the rest he had no delays and made it home safely! :)

Anyway so then Tuesday night mom and all us girls were sitting in the living room busy crochetting, or actually I should say that at first I was working on our Family Recipe collection that I'm doing so that I can have all the recipe's that my mom uses, and I really want. I've  been making a scrapbooked recipe book on the Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio, which is a lot of fun!... eventually I got tired of that though so I started crochetting too.. slowly but surely my doily is getting bigger and bigger! Then we kinda got talking and I told mom that I figured the kind of calcium/magnesium that she has from BodyWise works better then the kind that I've been taking since we got married, which is from Nature Sunshine. So she told me that I could buy a pot from her... so OK sure whatever I guess so.. then Dad figured he had a better idea though! He said to me, hey why don't you get out of bed on time tomorrow morning and make Pancakes for me and then you can have the bottle of calcium for doing that! LOL :) I think mom figured I would get out and do it because that was almost to good of a deal to pass up.. whereas Dad figured there was no way that I would get out of bed at that time if I didn't have to. Too me it was too good to be true so guess where I was bright and early yesterday morning!?! In the Kitchen making pancakes!

Wednesday: So my day started with making pancakes. Then after breakfast I folded several baskets full of laundry and at 11 I headed into Lethbridge. First I ran into the quilt shop to see if I could find some fabric for an apron for Katrina(still part of her Christmas gift from me). Which I did find! :) (I think I might actually start on that today! Just cause!)  Then off to find out where Leanna works and go have lunch with her! We decided to walk since she is pretty much downtown anyway and there are choices galore! I told here I had no clue where I wanted to go, so she said there was a new place that she wanted to try out! The Schnitzelhaus..  turns out that it was very yummy!!! We both had a Cordon Bleu Schnitzel with fries... I so wish I had taken a camera along.. just cause it would have been fun! oh well I guess that is partly what happens when you have a huge DSLR and don't feel like dragging it all over the place! There are definitely several changes that I noticed downtown... Now they have a anna banana store, which I can't remember seeing before either, so we decided to go check it out! They have got some really cool furniture in there as well as some very cool kids clothes. The furniture comes with quite the hefty price tag though!! :( ugh.. bummer! LOL especially cause some of it is totally my style.. oh well, I don't have room for it in my house anyway!

Then I headed down to the ADRI where I used to work, since I thought it would be nice to see some of the people that I used to work with again! I still kinda keep in touch with several of them, so I guess that always adds a little more of an incentive to go see them! What was supposed to be a short visit ended up being a bit longer but oh well it happens and it was good to see several of them again! I sure don't miss the dumpy gravel road that I used to drive all the time though!! :) After the visit down there I headed over to visit another friend.. in Coaldale this time! Checked out her house and saw what they had changed after I last saw it.. and then had a nice long visit.... after which is was time to head home.  Definitely been keeping busy eh!?

At night Mom, Dad and I went to visit Oma for a while, and then it was time to get some sleep! I was super tired!!! It didn't help that I had a bit of a headache either... pretty much from being on the go all the time, and also partly from the stress from the last week or so! Finally caught up with me :( Oh well... such is life!

Immigration Update

Well I thought it was time for an update to everyone. First things first, I'm officially done with immigration due to nothing being short of a miracle. God truly does work in mysterious ways.




As many of you know my Opa wasn't doing well which was really hard for me since I couldn't be there to see him. He passed away on Tuesday morning. Once I got the phone call from Mom & Dad I started trying to find information to see if there was anyway that I could possibly make it home for the funeral. First I looked on the immigration website online, at first I couldn't find a phone # to call.. eventually I did, a 1-800 # but it did me no good since I counldn't find the info that I wanted. Then while Johns mom was here I suddenly had a brain wave. I asked her if she knew what the name of the lawyer was that John had spoken too before we started the whole immigration process before we got married. She didn't know but told me that if I had a telephone book for her to look in she could probably find it. So we figured out who it was. That meant time for another phone call. I called him, and got put directly through to him.. no questions asked(really amazing for a lawyers office, I would know cause I worked for one). I explained the situation to him, and told him that so far everything had gone really well, except now that my Opa had passed away I really wanted to be able to go home for the funeral but didn't know if there was that possiblity. He asked me how far along in the process we were. When I told him that I thought we were almost done, and had already had our interview he wanted to know why we didn't have them already. I explained that I had to submit another waiver and some letters, but had to mail them out yet and was planning to do that today (tuesday). Then he said..."who is the immigration officer that you are dealing with" I told him.. he said "Let me tell you what, normally I may never do this but I'm going to make you raise your right hand and swear that you won't tell anyone this phone #" So I had to swear and then he gave me the phone # for the immgration officer that we were dealing with. This made it possible for me to make a phone call that normally speaking would never have been possible because the general public doesn't get that type of information.



Anyway, so I called the officer and explained the situation to him. He then asked me how I got his phone # when I explained he said OK, and then told me that I could come and see him in the next day or so between 10-3. Normally the only way you get into the immigration office is with an infopass which gives you an appointment to come in. Since I had been planning to go shopping(do some groceries) with John's mom in the Tri-Cities we changed our plans and went to Yakima instead and headed to the Immigration office first. We got there around 11:45 and at about 12:30 I walked out of the office with a stamp in my passport, and had been told the my temporary permentant resident card(valid for 2 years) would come in the mail in 2-3 weeks. Rigth now I can't find words to express how happy I am, and yet so incredibly sad at the same time. It really is a answer to prayer...



We hope to travel up to Alberta on Thursday morning, leaving Sunnyside around 12pm or so, flying out of Yakima/Seattle/Calgary, and getting into the Calgary airport later that evening. From there we take a rental car and drive home. The funeral is on Saturday morning, and then John plans to stay till Tuesday morning and I stay till the 11th.

Sunnyside weather.!!!?! :(

Boooo I hate the weather here this winter!!! The snow was awesome, I'll take the anyday, but the last few days all I've seen is a drizzle of rain and lots of fog!! ugh!!

 Seriously I would take snow and cold any day over fog and rain in the winter!! Because that is just totally wrong, haha at least for this Albertan girl!! One thing is forsure, as soon as I can go home I'm going asap and hopefully there is some snow for me to enjoy :)

Finally I'm posting some pictures of the snow that we did have! :) I kept meaning to post about it.. just didn't happen, but I figure now it may as well go with this one :)

Immigration update...

Well, it is time for another one of those wonderful updates... what a thrill! or not!!! anyway it could have been worse so I won't complain, just time to state the facts so everyone knows what is going on :)

Yesterday morning we had an appointment with the immigration officer in Yakima.. which I think John was more stressed about than I was LOL!  Anyway, we got there in plenty of time.. checked in.. went through security.. (yup the joys) haha and of course there is always a first time for everything! the beeper went off for me :P I think it was because of my zipper in my boots.. but who knows!

We had to wait for a little while and then it was our turn... the interview went pretty quick, which amazed me to a certain extent.. but part of it was he only asked a few questions and it was pretty much like he had to do it because of protocol. He gave us another form/waiver that needs to be filled out and sent in before the 14th of January as well as, John needs to write a letter stating why it would be a hardship for him if I would be deported.. LOL! as well as some other minor things! The waiver that needs to be submitted is the part that has us going.. seriously that is a rip off!! $500+ dollars later! booo immigrations stinks! :P

So other than that.. things are looking pretty good, and hopefully that means that I will be able to have my papers in a month or so :) We were told that pretty much the rest of the correspondence will be done by mail.

That about concludes my update :)

I can't believe myself....

So yesterday.. I decided that maybe I should get the papers together that we need to take along to our Immigration Interview on Monday... anyway so I was looking around and couldn't find my "new" birth certificate... I was sure that I had gotten/seen it! Anyway.. I looked in our room, in the drawer where I keep that stuff.... nope not there :(... then to the office.. which was more of an interesting experience because there is why more stuff to look through in there.. anyway.. I dug through all the file folders, pile of receipts, and paper in there... no BC.. :( I was kinda starting to get a little worried, to say the least! Anyway then I went and looked in the kitchen in the papers that are on the counter..not there... behind the couch.. where there is a small pile.. not there... back to the office.. then to the bedroom... UGHHHHHH!!!

In the mean time my wonderful hubby started to look too.. we couldn't find it anywhere.. I thought well maybe it feel down to the bottom of the dresser.. under the drawers.. which apparently don't come out of there.. booo! Anyway you can't even get your arm down there to feel anything.. so John got a screwdriver and tried that... nope not there.... Man.. I was starting to get slightly stressed! But I had to go make supper... so that was that! Anyway after supper I looked a bit more in the office and then decided I'd had enough... and we had Bible study so we had to get ready to go for that anyway!

When we were on our way to Bible study I said to John... on a scale of 1-10 how stressed out do you think I am right now... LOL.. he said probably like 8 or so... which was exactly how I was feeling... I wasn't majorly freaking yet.. but getting pretty close! I told him that we really need to get a safe to store all our documents like that in.. not good to leave things like that laying around the house anyway!! Anyway got back from Bible study.. I looked for like 10 minutes again.. and I was like.. forget it.. enough for tonight! Tomorrow is another day!

This morning.. I didn't even start looking yet.. but decided maybe I should call mom and ask her, if it had been mailed to me or if she had brought it when they came.... LOL! Anyway.. she said that when they came they still hadn't gotten it.. and she had kinda forgotten apparently. She told me she was going to phone the registry because it was super weird that she didn't have it yet! They had told her they were going to mail it. Anyway, a few minutes later she calls me back! Ya, I called them, but they said they had mailed it.. not registered mail though, so they were pretty worried too.. anyway...... Mom remembered getting an envelope from the AB Gov in the mail.. that has Tax (or something stamped on it) so she had just put it away and never bothered to open it and look into it... When she got off of the phone with the registry place she decided to go look in there... TADA!!! my BC!!

I seriously don't know when I have been so relieved......... I was pretty freaked out by this morning... !!!!!!