Excitement!

I am so many exciting things happening these days that sometimes it is hard to sleep! Firstly, I am three months into my new job and I love it!! I feel right at home and I am enjoying all the new energy, ideas, meeting many new people and working in team ministry. It's great!

Tomorrow I am listing my house on the market. The last week has been spent staging/de-cluttering and cleaning. The photographer comes tomorrow and then the first open houses will be this weekend. Here's hoping for some wonderful person to come along and put an offer out there!!

Sunday will be my covenanting service which for those you not familiar is like an installation worship service between the new congregation, the new presbytery (region) and I. There will be three choirs singing, a great reflection by a good friend and colleague and following worship there will be a potluck dinner. I love community dinners! Adding to the excitement, three cousins from Washington will be driving up for the day which is a big deal because my parents aren't able to attend.

Today I look forward to hanging out with a couple of friends. We are going to check out Main Street in Vancouver.

Guatemala Photos #1

Finally some photos from Guatemala!! I was there in July and spent two weeks on an education tour. Guatemala is a country that is squished between Mexico, Belize and Honduras.Population of about 13 million.

Photo 1:

is of one of the many active volcanoes in the country. I think there around seven in all. Mother nature gave us a great day for a great photo.

Photo 2: is a great photo if I do say so myself! Taken in Antiqua at one of the ruins we visited. I believe this was a church or cathedral that collapsed during the last major earthquake in the 9o's?

Photo 3: was taken in San Lucus Toliman, a pretty little town. I forget the name of this flower but it had an incredible smell. So beautiful!

Photo 4: Eggs! We visited an amazing chicken project which supports an addiction centre. This project was started by a Vancouver man. Unlike North America, fridges are not used.

Photo 5: This was in Guatemala City at the first hotel we stayed at. The corn tortillas were incredible!!!

Condo Staging

The wedding was incredible and I will post photos soon but for now I must update you all on this week's project. Tonight is the night that my realtor comes to "stage" my condo in preparation for the photographer. My realtor hires a professional photographer to take photos of my house so that it can be officially listed on the market. I can hardly wait. I've been working sooooo hard on making my house look pretty and presentable. It was always presentable but there is something about creating space in order for it to engage others. I keep thinking of the displays in department stores and IKEA. Last week I bought new bedding and pillows and yesterday I spent the entire day changing my house around. I must say it looks really good. Tonight should be fun!

First Wedding, here we go!

I leave tomorrow morning on a road trip up to a valley about three hours from my home. Saturday I will officiate my very first wedding for a beautiful and amazing family. The ceremony will happen in a small little barn on the "Schoolhouse Farm". I can hardly wait! I've been preparing for weeks, practicing every night and last weekend spent an entire day sewing a stole (like a sash) to wear over my alb (like a gown). The service will be short, probably a half hour followed by dinner and a dance. Sunday morning I will wake up as the sun rises and drive home just in time for worship. It's our big fall kick-off Sunday so I can't miss it. What a great weekend it will be.

Friday Ferry Adventure

Today is the final day of Kid's Camp and then I am off for a three hour ferry adventure but I will be home tonight. I'm not going anywhere to stay. How does that work you think? Well my friend's child needs to get home from Victoria and can't be on the ferry without an adult so I volunteered to take the ferry over at 4pm today, meet up with the child at 545pm and take the 6pm ferry back. Sounds like a pretty great opportunity to have a couple of hours to find a sunny spot on the boat and dig into a new book. We'll have dinner on the way back and my friend will meet us on the other side with treats in hand. A Friday Ferry Adventure to kick off the Labour Day long weekend.

Kid's Camp

This entire week I have been really busy at work with Northwood's annual Kid's Camp week. It's kind of a mix between camp and vacation bible school. The theme this year is "Going on a Safari" through story, song, crafts, food, games and fun! Other than one first aid incident involving lots of blood and eventually stitches, everything has been going well. Outside of camp in the wee hours of Tuesday morning somebody lit the church dumpster on fire so that made for an exciting story yesterday. This Sunday worship will be led by the children and it will be a celebration of Kid's Camp. It's going to be great!

Mini Golf & Milk

I love being "Aunty Kerry". Obviously I have no siblings but being an aunt to my friend's children is the most amazing thing to be! I have been blessed to be involved in the lives of three boys since the day they were born. Back in June we set aside August 29th as a big outing day with the 11, 6 and 4 year olds. We spent a good part of the day at Castle Fun Park (a great big arcade/game place with everything from mini golf to baseball, boat racing and bowling). It was a great place especially as there was something for everyone. I had fun practicing my swing in the baseball area and I fulfilled my aunty duties, partnering up twice for go-kart runs. I think I had the brightest helmet on in the entire place and the bumpiest car on the track but it was fun!

After lunch, we went on an entirely different adventure. Another friend of mine is apart of a farming family and I made arrangements for us to visit her dairy farm during milking time. The boys had never been to a farm before so this was an exciting experience! We saw baby cows including the newest ones just three months old. We fed "teenager" cows some dry food consisting of corn and oats. We watched the first set of 90 cows get milked including one that was 123 days into her pregnancy. I think the milking was the coolest part of our visit and the boys talked about it all the way home. It was fascinating to see how quickly one cow can be milked; roughly four minutes producing 20 liters. This was my second visit to the farm and I can't wait to go again!