Happy belated Canada day and beforward July 4th!

We are back in Saskatoon. I was excited to find out upon our arrival that my uncle Pete and aunt Marj were also staying at my parent's house. We have always been close to them, visiting a couple of times a year and auntie Marj has always been my auntie inspiration. I hope that Imogen feels the love I knew. A gift from auntie was always like getting a hug full of love. I still have a gift or two that she sent and cherish them.

The weather was perfect, we lazed in the sun all day and my baby- Emora is now a perfectly roasted marshmellow brown, but on her arms and legs only.

My sister is now on vacation and then on maternity leave, so she doesn't have to go back to teaching for over a year, which means we now get to see each other as much as we like- in other words, very often. My niece is still acting shy around me, but I think time will cure that. Emora is still clingy to me and me only and I'm hoping time will cure that too. We have been bouncing between Fort Qu'Appelle and Saskatoon like a never ending tennis volley. My heart is in both places and while I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to unpack and get into our own little routine in a place of our own, I also realize that it's super nice after more than a decade of being away to just get to hang out and be family again. I know if we were unpacking and renovating, we wouldn't be in Saskatoon for a week at a time, getting to be around my parents, brother, my sister and her family.

Brian is working for Jenn and John, which is great. He is figuring out prices here and they are very laid back about his timing on things so that we can run to our non-home in Fort Qu'Appelle and do paperwork stuff there too as needed. We are still working on a few major things like HOUSE, SK id cards and switching over our license plates. These have been our big mountains to move, but I think I felt a budge, so there is hope.

Dancing, reading and playing chess

Victoria is going on a mission trip with her aunt this summer, so we are trying to make the most of every moment we have with her, like right before bed dance lessons!
Ivan has been fascinated by chess for so long and always begs for me to teach it to him. I can't stand chess and don't know it well at all, so I'm glad we are in a house full of gamers who are eager to teach him this my not so favorite game.

Books are great wherever we are of course! I always grab a few as easy entertainment for wherever we are. Saskatchewan has a new province wide library system I am totally pumped about. I can get and return books anywhere in the province and get them shipped to where I am. Plus they have good sized French kid's books sections to supplement and expand our own collection.

Beach in town

Fort Qu'Appelle is located in a valley that has 4 lakes in a row, so there are several beaches. This beach has part of the trans Canada trail that borders it. I so loved walking along the path and breathing in the beauty. There is a small children's park here and beach volleyball, bathrooms, a boat dock, soft grass and beach area. Apparently this is not the popular beach because it is very rocky, so it does hurt our feet to walk on and not many people swim here, although I always see a few brave souls and kids playing in the water and for sure on the dock. I like it because we can walk to it from in town. I love to walk to where I need to go and if/when we find a house in town, we can really walk everywhere we need to be including here. How awesome to come here and get refreshed!

We do need to go to the other beaches too and see what all the hubbub with them is about. We saw one last year and it was nice, and I remember visiting another in 2004 when we first came to this area to visit my cousins on our way back to Abilene.

(I experimented with the photos here and think I was able to resize them on my mac, so that they could upload, thanks to your persistent requests for the bigger sized pictures. Hope this works!)

Front row seats

In Saskatoon at my parent's house.





My brother succumbed to the constant barrage of "read to me, read to me". It's nice to have so many other readers readily available!



The kids and their cousin Kellen set up their chairs so that they could watch the baby robin take his first flight. While Brian ran to get the camera, it did just that. It was fun for the kids to see first the bright teal blue eggs, then the hatchlings and momma feeding them and now independence. Definitely one of my favorite things of being here is the nearness to nature.

Today we made a yellow brick road. We really did. Michael (my cousin's husband) had a pile of bricks beside his dog kennel. The path gets very muddy and he had boards on it to walk on. His eventual plan was to use the bricks for a path way or cover, so today we did it and it looks great. I'll need to take a picture of it I guess ;)

Wanuskewin pics.

We walked along such a beautiful cascading stream, ate smoked bison and slogged through wet bogged down trail, flooded with rain. It is still raining a lot here, making everything green and the mosquitoes unbearable.

heading out again

We are heading out to Fort Qu'Appelle again. It seems like we go back and forth about once a week. We are going for a couple of reasons. One is that a super awesome friend is visiting her mom in Regina and we are going to get to see each other. I haven't seen her in about 7 years. She and her husband live up north and they now have 3 children I have not met, nor has she met ours. I am so looking forward to our reunion. And we need to check our mail. We have been waiting on so many important things to come in like our bank cards and Brian's permanent status card. Until we have those, we can't get our ID changed to SK or our plates changed on the vehicles and we only have 90 days to do that in. That seems like a long time unless you consider that nearly a month has already gone by.

I am the director!

Ivan loves to work and help with anyone doing anything. Dominique does not. She would much rather enter her imaginary world full of play. But I try to get Dominique to do age appropriate tasks from time to time.

Today Ivan was delighted to help me hang laundry on the line, but he wanted Dominique to help too. I figured it was time she did do a little. Here's how it sounded:

Ivan- "Mom, Dominique is not helping!"
Angela- "Dominique, go help Ivan hang the clothes."
Dominique- "Well...ummm.... I'm the director."
(I snicker and let her play some more, who can resist her with that kind of imagination?"

Ivan- "Mom, Dominique is still not working!"
Angela- "Dominique, go help." (She doesn't budge, so I start to count "1"
Dominique- under her breath- "I don't LIKE to work!"

She hangs about 2 socks and goes back to playing.




Dominique to Emora- "Emora, I am the director, you are the worker. I sit here and watch you work. Go get the socks and hang them"
Emora goes to the hanging apparatus and pulls several pieces of clothing that Ivan has carefully hung, off and puts them in the hamper.
Dominique- "Good girl Emora!"
Angela- "She's supposed to take them from the hamper and hang them up"
Dominique- "OK, Emora, take the sock from the hamper and hang it up"
Angela- "Dominique, directors DO work, they actually have lots of work to do"
Ivan- "yeah, if you don't want to work Dominique, you have to be the queen"

teeth problem over!!!

Today is a happy, happy day. The day before we left, Ivan and Dominique went to the dentist. They said Ivan needed 2 crowns and 2 fillings over a 2 day procedure and that Dominique needed 2 small fillings. They wedged Dominique into their day, but didn't have time to do Ivan's. I've been quite stressed over his teeth since dental is not covered here, but chatted with a long time friend of our family who is also a dentist and she said she'd do the work for free. Today she had a cancellation and we were able to get in. It was a beautiful facility with no wait, she was so nice and then the miracle- his teeth were perfect! She said "honestly, there is no work for me to do here" and kept saying how nice his teeth were, that there is lots of space between them and that they are in great condition. She also asked if the other dentist was young. When I said that it was always someone different because it was a big corporate type kids dentistry place, she recommended getting just one dentist so that we could trust that person.

No kidding! The first time they said Ivan had 7 cavities and filled them. Now I wonder if they were even there. When Dominique had hers done, as they were working on them, they kept saying how small they were and even took one of them off her work order. It makes you wonder if they were just cashing in on medicaid's pay all policy. Or maybe they really did get WAY better? or something in between? Who knows, who cares, I'm just glad to have someone for once tell me that his teeth are great and not to worry.

Dad thinks my pictures will upload without prob. on his computer, so we are testing it out. If so, you should be able to see the big picture by clicking on the ones posted.

Some nice, some not so nice

Ivan- " I like it that my water in the van is still cold when I come back to it"

Dominique- "I like grass with no stickers"

Angela- "I like laying in the sun and not sweating"

things we don't like- the huge ferocious mosquitoes!! They are so mean, and hurt and love me non stop. The kids aren't bit near as much as me. I think these mosquitoes are descendents of the ones from when I lived here. They were told that there is one with sweet blood to drink and now that I have returned they have reunited to take a taste!

We went to Wanuskewin with mom on Aboriginal day. It was free and they gave us hot dogs, juice and cake! We got to see a demonstration of a teepee being put up with explanations as to the symbolism of each post. It was amazing how everything they do is in worship. Then we went on a walk and met a woman who showed us several herbs and plants and told us what they help with and another lady from the reserve dad taught at ages ago who was smoking bison meet, that she shared with us. They were so super nice and it was great to hear their wisdom and bent on things. Then we walked a trail part of the way. It was so beautiful, and we all wanted to walk all day, but wisdom told mom and I that the trail had a return path and we couldn't do it carrying them all back due to their exhaustion, so we cut it short.

Tomorrow Ivan has got an appointment with the dentist who is going to do his treatment for free!! (or discounted). She's going to assess what their plan of action will be.

Tonight the kids are giddy over their first sleep over with cousin Imogen. Good times.

I know the pictures are small. Dad thinks they may upload better on his computer. I'll check it out, otherwise, I may have to wait until our computer is set up and I can figure out a way to shrink down my huge pics without having to take them through facebook. OR maybe the connection will be better in Fort Qu'Appelle than what we had in Abilene.

My winning prize and prayers for open doors

Right before we left Abilene, my friend Olivia gave us a challenge to make a picture of us in purple as a way to raise awareness for Lupus. The winning entry won a prize of a pick of Olivia's pictures. Tighe and I won, and this is the picture I chose. It reminded me of Saskatchewan and I thought was very telling of our move up here. Saskatchewan is called the land of the living skies and is a mass producer of wheat and other crops. We have felt that the door was open for us to move up. Olivia posted her thoughts inspired from the picture and I thought they were also very telling as to our state in life right now. We bid on a house but didn't get it. I am having a hard time leaving it alone at that, but I also remembered that the first time we tried to go see it, the realtor was able to get the key from the keypad lock, but the tenant had accidentally locked an extra deadbolt and the door was closed to us that first day. Then it was closed again to our offer. Now we need an open door. I'd love to get to settle in. So here's my challenge to those of you who pray up storms, we need a breeze of gigantic force to open this door for us with regards to a home. As for work, Brian has some right now, so that is good, but he will be needing something in Fort Qu'Appelle, so you can pray that up too. We have had one door swing open for us. There is an amazing dentist at my parent's church who volunteered to work on Ivan's teeth probono. I don't know if it will be completely free, or if we'll have to pay for the materials, but anything will help. I've made some rough estimates and it would be overshooting it widely to guess that what he needs would cost about $1000. Thank you, thank you Lover of our souls for providing this amazing gift to us!!

We had such an untraditional life in Abilene and it's easy to fear that the amazing things in our lives had something to do with our location, or our friends, but our trust lies elsewhere and we know that our maker resides in all the universe, so I try to focus on that rather than numbers. Then a dear friend here stated so plainly that I have always had favor here in Saskatchewan and that I would continue to have favor. So now we need some housing favor and work favor ;)

Or in the words of Olivia

Gateway to Dreams

Inspired by Grace Photography "Gateway to Dreams"


I've been walking, but mostly searching

Aren't we all?

No one ever told me you spend your whole life "journeying"

I thought when you are an adult you actually "know" something

How funny,

How funny,

we don't

but would I want to anyway?

What is the secret to those who live well?

If they would just whisper to me their jewel, I'd treasure it within gilded delight

How they fade like morning fog

there, and then not

Is it even possible to become this?

Oh God, let me live not as though a door is closed in front of me,

but that there is one You've placed in my reach requiring faith...

...to open.