at the fest

 This past weekend Howard and I were at the
Alberta Missions Fest in Edmonton.

 It was a good but very tiring time.

 There was a major snowstorm on Friday night and lasted well into Saturday

so apparently attendance was way down.

We wouldn't have known as this was our first time at this event.

There was a pretty steady stream of people and we did make several very

promising contacts.

Now we wait and see what comes of our time there.

There are still many positions available at several schools for this coming fall.

Check the TeachBeyond website if you're feeling the tug.

You may be surprised at what you find there.

http://www.teachbeyond.org/

snowbound

 A dump of snow like this overnight is a good enough reason to cancel school - 

which is exactly what happened today.

And it's another good reason to make some soothing comfort food

and spend the day inside -

and try not to think about the snow building up on the driveway...

I'm feeling very happy that my husband is home!

it's official - well, almost

 This morning we celebrated Katy's 20th birthday.

She won't be 20 until Sunday but as we'll be away for the weekend

we needed to get the celebrating in before we left.

 So it's not official quite yet, but soon we will be a family with no teenagers.

 It's hard to believe that this young woman is the same little girl

who often said to me as I was braiding her hair for pre-school....

"Mommy, I don't schink I'll go to schoo-yo today...".

 She loved to be at home with mommy and the thought of spending even a few hours

away from home was a painful one.

 Fortunately for her, big sister Bethany was in the classroom just beside her and was

often called in to "rally the troops" - so to speak.

 For Katy's 20th birthday

Bethany went above and beyond the call of duty

to "rally the troops".

She contacted many of Katy's special friends from around the world

and asked them to send a special message to her

for this important milestone in her life.

 The response was tremendous and the result....

...you can see for yourself!

valentine's day

 Beautiful roses from my daughter....

...and homemade wrapping paper from my husband

(with special stuff inside, of course).

Doesn't get much better than that!

a different kind of winter

 The snowmobiling boys have had to be a little bit creative this winter.

 They've had to stick to their quads and leave the other machines in the garage.

 We've come through another few days of real winter weather

but the wind is turning again and we'll be on the plus side of zero

by midweek.

And the sun will be glorious.

the greenhouse

 Sometime in November the greenhouse I posted about a few months back "came to life".

I was on my way home from the airport after visiting my mom 

and I could see, from several miles off, a strange glow in the sky. 

Remember - we live on the flatlands of Manitoba.

As I got closer I was sure it was a massive fire.

And even as I finally saw the source of the glow I was still sure it was a fire.

Then it suddenly occurred to me that it was the greenhouse.

Its "glow" each night has caused quite a stir in the community.

By now we're all quite used to it but it's still quite spectacular to see at night.

 By now the cucumbers grown in the greenhouse are in our local grocery story.

It's so nice to buy produce grown in Canada - or in our own backyard in this case.

The greenhouse was featured in a local newspaper awhile back.
Here's the link - complete with a video.

Good stuff.

 //www.steinbachonline.com/local-news/greenhouse-harvest-nears-dp2