"Canal Days" are coming soon!

This weekend, July 31st to August 3rd is Port Colborne's annual "Canal Days" with lots of stuff happening down West Street, along the Welland Canal ... including many various vendors, buskers, midway rides and amusements, the tall ship Empire Sandy, canal rubber duck race, a car show, craft show, kite show, concerts, and much more! OM's two offices are both located along West Street. Sometimes they participate with a display table or some way to raise money for a missions project or something like that, but not every year.

2009 marks 180 years since the first Welland Canal was created by William Hamilton Merritt. Also, "50 years ago the Welland Canal was amalgamated into a larger network of waterways along the border between the US and Canada. The Welland Canal was made wider and deeper and grew to accommodate larger ocean-going ships. When this project was completed in 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway was born, connecting the Canadian and American cities of the inner Great Lakes and the whole of the seafaring world."

The long road "home"

... to where I grew up is ONLY about 6000 km round-trip =)

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~Saskatchewan Scenery~

Song: "This Is Home" by Switchfoot

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Posted by Brenda

More Summer Stuff...

Harv's garden today

Melissa and friends off to camp (yesterday)

Sonja playing baseball (last night)

Jordan had a great time at Camp Kahquah's 2-week CREW program. He just came home two days ago. They worked a lot (kitchen duty, cleaning, etc.), attended sessions and actually only had an hour of free time a day...however, he made lots of friends and really enjoyed the experience. Here's a funny story ...they were led on this 8 km hike for an overnight camp-out and their destination was actually right across (2-minute walk) from the camp! lol =)

Rachelle is doing well at camp and the food situation is working out great for her, thanks to the wonderful cook! Rachelle still has all of her allergies ... to peanuts, milk products, eggs. She tires out (as anyone would) from all the kids and activities but she still really enjoys it and loves working at camp ...and the breaks help.

Early yesterday morning Melissa hopped on the camp bus for the 5-hour trip up north. I'm sure she'll have a great time at BLAZE this week! I think she will be in Rachelle's cabin again (she was last year as well). She was excited that her friend from church was going with her the same week. ...So much coming and going at our house these days!!

I don't think I've mentioned that Sonja signed up to play co-ed baseball this summer. They've tried to set it up to be more for fun than competitive, but they do have play-offs sometime in August ~ there are six teams. Weekly games are Sunday nights. Anyway, Sonja seems to be enjoying it and she's improving her game, too :) Some of the players are really good ... a lot of them are her friends or students she knows from school.

The weather this summer has not been so hot. Literally, it has been so chilly it almost feels like winter to me. No one wants to go swimming in our pool when it's cold and the water is cold too. Yesterday Sonja went to the beach (Lake Erie) and she said it was too cold to swim.

Harv's garden is doing well as you can see in the photo above. So far we are still eating mainly lettuce and onions from it, but eventually we'll have tomatoes, a few potatoes and I think peppers too (maybe some other things as well that I'm not aware of).

Soon we have to start planning more and packing for our trip out west. We really look forward to seeing our families! We now have a girl living at our house who came to work with OM Canada for 2 years. Her name is Karen. She just arrived on the 8th of July and she's boarding with us, so while we are away she will be here to look after our house. She'll probably enjoy the peace and quiet :)

Well, that's all that comes to mind for now ...

"Extreme Makeover" Bedroom Edition!!

These past two weeks while Jordan has been away at camp I repainted his bedroom and fixed it up a little. We just thought the blue was a bit too bright and kiddish for his age ~ he helped me pick out the new color before he left. It was hard trying to find a color that went okay with his bedding which is only three years old and still in perfect condition (from IKEA) ... and by the way has a claim to fame, lol =) ... see the photos below. The one on the right is from the movie "Firehouse Dog."
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Also, Jordan doesn't have much space in his room so we got him a mates bed with drawers underneath. He'll be surprised as he doesn't know about this. He comes home tomorrow. As far as the paint job the pictures don't really do justice ~ I actually think it turned out really nice, better than what the pics show.
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Honestly, I do not know how a house can be built and completely finished inside in one week, even with a lot of people doing the work! It's a good thing I don't paint for a living because I am extremely slow. In the time it takes me to paint one room other people could probably paint 3 or 4 rooms ... or a whole house! Oh well :) I should also mention I had to repaint the ceiling because three years ago I had put on these stupid glow-in-the-dark planet decals which left marks after trying to get off the sticky mounting tape. I strongly recommend not putting things like that on the ceiling..
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Jordan's room BEFORE ("Blue Wave")...

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...and AFTER ("Whipple Blue")...
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Something that's interesting yet very annoying about Jordan's bedroom is that there is only one power outlet and it's in a weird location half way up the wall along with his light switch (near the door). We don't know why this is except that our house was built in 1912 and some things have not been changed since then. For all we know his room could have been a bathroom way back then. Anyway, Jordan has a lot of things to plug into the power outlet, believe me ... so with the help of extension cords running behind his bed, we've managed to plug in 8 items so far, leaving one plug free on the wall so it can be used for other things like a battery recharger, etc. The cords are all in a nice tangled mess hiding behind his dresser, where no one can see it! :) The power bar behind his bed also has room for 2 more items if needed, although it's not quite as accessible. It's an interesting dilemma, that's all I have to say!

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"Everyone Loves Marineland!"

There's a place I know in ONTARIO...

(1998 Promotional Video and Theme Song)

Yesterday I took Melissa & three of her friends to Marineland in Niagara Falls as we all have season's passes through their school year-end trip. Gotta make the most of these! I know summer will fly by and I don't want to let this opportunity get away on us. So, we went early for 9:00 AM and there was hardly anyone there until the afternoon. It was great! It got busier in the afternoon...and HOTTER. It was a beautiful day though ~ couldn't have asked for better weather. Got a little sunkissed...the temp was nearly 30 degrees! We walked A LOT too, which was okay but by 5:30 PM our feet were pretty tired.

We went on lots of rides ... well, mostly the girls did while I took pics, but I did go on a few. Dragon Mountain Rollercoaster and the Sky Screamer were great! Fear of heights anyone? I loved it =) ... you have to keep your eyes open though or you miss the thrill. One of the girls' favorite rides was "Magic Experience" (aka the Bear Ride). We also watched King Waldorf's Stadium Show starring dolphins, walruses and sea lions. The best part is that we can go again anytime we want this year for FREE! Yeah!!! =)

Here's a few brief video clips of some of the rides we went on, starting with "Magic Experience" ...

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...and here's a slide-show of pics from our day!

Toronto Challenge

Right now at this very moment (from July 4-18) is Toronto Challenge ... an exciting evangelistic outreach happening right here on "our doorstep!" Just to give you an idea of what it's all about, here is part of a report from our Associate Director of OM Canada:
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"What does a Canadian, American, Irishman, Ethiopian, Burmese, South African, German, Scotsman, Phillipino, Jamaican and Tanzanian all have in common? ...These are the nations that are represented this year at Toronto Challenge in sharing Christ. We have 45 participants this year and we praise the Lord ~ after one day of ministry we have already seen 2 people accept the Lord and over 100 homes visited! Many of the families have requested a follow up visit."
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Please pray for physical strength for the whole team as well as the host church and their Pastor.
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...and another one's gone!

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So ... early this morning Jordan boarded the camp bus ... he's off to participate in the 2-week CREW program at Camp Kahquah!! Have a GREAT time, Jordan!! =)

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Meanwhile, it's "Detective Week" for the 8 to 11 year-old campers at "NOVA" ... praying Rachelle's first week of cabin leading goes well, that the kids have an awesome week of making friends, doing all kinds of fun activities & learning more about God!!! =)

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