Meet the Parents, house

This weekend my parents came out to meet my house (and maybe a little bit to see us).



Thanks Mom and Dad! The house is slowly, but surely coming along. No really exciting photos to share with you from it.

I have also included a photo of Gord and I to show that maybe I was a little off on our hair lengths and may still have an inch on him and also to show you our bountiful crop of zucchinis.



These are just two of the several we have harvested this summer. The one I am holding produced SIX zucchini loaves last night. . . . Or could have if I would have had the energy to make six, but I made two and a bunch of muffins with half of that zucchini left over, okay? And might I add that they are terrific? Actually, let me give you the recipe, because everyone has spare zucchini lying around that they must use up. And it's healthy 'cause I always modify my muffins so I don't feel bad eating them. I won't even give you the real recipe, just the modified one. Here goes.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf (Muffins)

2 Tbsp flax seed meal
1/3 cup warm water

1 egg
2 cups sugar (I use splenda)
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup canned pumpkin (if you hate pumpkin, you can use applesauce)
2 oz baking chocolate melted (of course I use fair trade chocolate)

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

chocolate chips as desired

Start by mixing the flax seed meal with the warm water. Let it sit while you're combining the other ingredients and it will make an eggy paste. Combine egg, sugar, zucchini, pumpkin and melted chocolate in large bowl. Add flax seed meal paste. Add dry ingredients. Pour into two loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 60 mins. Easy.

Amazing Sights

This week was a very productive week on the house. We started siding and are now finished the horizontal planks with only the shakes left.

We also made time to have a little fun at Globalfest (which is kinda like Folkfest all in one place for you Saskatooners). Globalfest also features an incredible fireworks competition. Gord and are are both very cheap people so we've always gone within fireworks viewing range with equally cheap friends and watched for free. This year we sucked it up and payed the fifteen dollars and watched from within the park. I cannot explain to you the difference. So wonderful. I was like a child at Christmas and I couldn't help but smile, laugh and exclaim the entire time. We had a terrific time with our friends Keith and Amy and our friend Sharon who I hadn't seen in a long, long time. Thanks for all the laughs guys.




On a lighter note, I went in for a haircut today and it just kept getting shorter and shorter and now I am officially appalled to say that Gord has longer hair than me. Didn't see that one coming when we got married. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, right?
Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend and think of us toiling away on our home. Have a hot dog for us, will you?

And the demo begins

Well, we've spent the last four weeks completely demolishing our little house. It's quite messy work, you know. Just in case you're wondering why there really aren't many pictures of us, I'll tell you. I'm the one taking all the pictures and Gord is a very unwilling poser. So unless you want pictures of me taken by me, there will only be pictures of the house.


Framing in the new kitchen window.


Gord's parents helping put in the new beam instead of claustrophobic wall.


Back of the house pre tar paper.


Back of the house post tar paper.


My beautiful bay window.

Now that we're pretty much done ripping things down and have started building them up again, I get little glimmers of hope here and there. Overall, it's been a fairly exhausting process, but I'm excited about the end results. We are grateful for any little distractions you people are willing to offer us and we love when you come to visit. Please feel free to stop by any time. Some people have asked us when we think we will be done and our best guess is in about two months time. Hopefully, REALLY hopefully in time to go to our U2 concert without worries awaiting us when we return.

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies

To the few of you still checking in on this blog, you will recall that I promised pictures of the place we're renting. I lied. But it was a sweet little lie, because what I have for you today is something even better - pictures of the house we JUST BOUGHT!!! Yay! We're super excited about it. And not just because it's the most perfect house ever. Don't believe me? I'll give you a little tour.

The Kitchen

The Bathroom

The Living Room

complete with wood stove

One bedroom

and my personal favorite . . .

the archways in the basement.



Beautiful isn't it? Well, it will be anyway. It's just so hard to tell you what it will look like in two or three months time, but I promise you it will look nothing like it does now. (Okay, I might leave the arches.) Well, as I write this Gord is off working on the place with his Dad and I am home from work sniffling and coughing and never complaining like the stoic that I am. Be assured of two things: 1. You can't catch what I have over the internet, so it's okay to read this. 2. I will be doing frequent (as frequent as the work gets done) posts of renos.
P.S. Anyone with brilliant space saving ideas in our tiny L-shaped kitchen please reply.

Riverfolk no more.

Well it's official. We are no longer riverfolk. We have left our perfectly situated condo. We are now Bownesians. Which means we are still on my wonderful bus route but closer to our church/community garden and many of our friends. We are currently renting a duplex and looking for a house. I will be sure to post some pictures of our new place just as soon as I clear all the boxes away. I finally cleaned the master bedroom to immaculate standards so we at least have some sanity. After today I hope the place will definitely be livable.
Well that's all for now 'cause these boxes will not unpack themselves. New post with pictures promised shortly.

Happy 85th Grandpa!

Gord and I just returned from a most fabulous celebration for my Grandpa Campbell's 85th birthday. My Aunt compiled a lovely book of ever so many photos of my Grandpa throughout the years. I am including some of my favorites.

With his wife Evelyn at their 2004 wedding


In Uniform


The Three Kids: Duncan, Leslie and Wendy (my mom on the left)


Carrying my mom


Waiting and ready for the costume party


I just love these photos and I love my Grandpa. He's a wonderful man and a whole lot of fun to be around. Just in case you didn't catch the hilarity of my Grandpa, I'll give you one more example.



And on another note, we have now sold our house and will be looking for somewhere else to call home. No details yet. Just waiting. But not too long, 'cause we have to be out of here by the 15th of July. So if anyone has a spare room to rent for a month . . . or two . . .

in continuation of my last post

I tried to draw a picture of the following event in true Janiceblog style, but alas the same new system which won't let me upload photos also will not let me draw. Sigh. . .
In reference to my last mention of storing things in the oven in desperation for more storage space, I have learned this is not always a good idea. Whilst making an absolutely scrumptious looking chocolate peanut butter cheesecake, I discovered that while I thought I was preheating the oven, I was actually cooking my favorite empty glass 9 x 13 pan with matching blue tupperware lid for easy transport of baked goods. Oops. I now have a perfectly good glass pan with a muchly warped blue lid. My oh my. When will I learn? I'm just glad Gord wasn't home or I would have got a tsk tsk. Hopefully the smell of baked cheesecake will overtake the smell of burnt plastic by the time he gets home. I can hope, right?

Am I still alive?

Or am I just that pathetic of a blogger? Well, I am still alive, so I guess that just makes me pathetic. Also adding to that fact is the fact that our computer broke down and we couldn't get windows to work on it anymore, so I switched to a free program called Linux *shout out to Ben* and I can't figure out how to get pictures on it. Blast. Nonetheless, here is a little literary update on our lives, numbered, but in no particular order.

1. We are selling our house. So if you know anyone in the market for the best Condo in Calgary, let them know. And once it's sold, I must change the name of the blog as we will no longer be "Riverfolk". Sad, but true. In answer to your questions, we don't know if we will rent or buy after, but one of us (unnamed) thinks the market will crash and also does not want to own anything so we'll see where we go with that one.

2. We are taking Spanish lessons. Or should I say nosotros estamos tomar clases Espanol. Please feel free not to correct me if this is wrong. Just give me a stinking A for effort. And I don't know how to get the little accent on the N so forget about that too. Oh why did I even mention Spanish. We can barely count to ten. At least we try.

3. We have applied (and been accepted) with MCC to serve in long term service (2+ years). This is not actually as exciting as it may appear at first glance in that it doesn't mean we are actually going anywhere right now. It just means we could. . . if the right opportunity presented itself . . . and all the details worked out. . . Regardless this is something we are both extremely excited about, but at the same time we are trusting in God's plan and keep living life fully here in Calgary until something else presents itself.

4. After waiting and hoping for many years, we are finally expecting a new arrival. Okay, so the arrival is not new, it's just new to us. And they're not really coming here, just to LA. But the waiting and hoping is true - we have always wanted to see U2 live and we're just extra pumped that we get to see them in LA and that the tickets are quite unbelievable, that's all.

5. My brother got married to the lovely Tania at the end of March and a fun weekend was had by all. Jonathan looked like he was ready to bounce right out of his suit during the ceremony. I've NEVER seen him look quite so excited. I'm just happy that he found someone willing to marry him with all that he comes with (like a cabbage he's had in his fridge for 5 years and two moves across provinces). They are a lovely couple and I'm so happy for them and to finally have a sister!

Well, I think that's about long enough for now. As you can see, life has been quite eventful for us lately. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more pictures up soon. And now I must rescue my slowcooker soup from the oven where I hid it when we had a house showing this afternoon. Sometimes I run out of space to hide things and then I remember . . . . there's always the oven. *props to Gord and his parents*

The Easy Way Out

Merry Christmas to all of you from the two of us. . . in a two year old Christmas card picture. I said I was taking the easy way out, didn't I? Things have been delightfully crazy around here the past little while. I've been up to my eyeballs with baking and Christmasing. But no malls this year. No presents. No hustle and bustle and spending and noise. Just joyously fun and reflectful Christmasness. Taking time to wait in expectation for the arrival of a King. It's been wonderful.

We are absolutely loving the faith community we have recently become a part of. It feels like we've been with them for such a long time. It is just such a beautiful thing to find a community of like minded believers who share the same passion. We truly feel that God was leading us in an answer to our prayers when we found Awaken

We are excited to be seeing family and friends again this Christmas. Although we feel a stirring deep within us, we are now at peace with the road God has been leading us on. We are excited to be seeing some of you again and catching up.

And on that note, I'm off to watch more of this

which my momma just sent me in the mail. Thanks Momma (and Dad)

Winnipeg, thou art lovely.

Last weekend we had the chance to go to Winnipeg to for the wedding of Gord's cousin Ashley to Michael. We absolutely love going to Winnipeg to see his side of the family, so we'll take any chance we can get. The wedding was wonderful and adding to the fun was the fact that it's the first wedding I've been to in a while that I wasn't actually involved in. We did get to drive the wedding party around, but that was great because it gave us time with the bridal party that we wouldn't have had otherwise.


Ash walking down the aisle.


The Cake. So cool. It looks just like them and also, the cupcakes tasted amazing.

They also had a photo booth at their wedding like the ones they have at malls. We could all get photos taken and the bridal couple got to keep a copy of all of them. I'd post ours here if we had a scanner, but we don't, so I will attempt to recreate them for you.


The next day we had a golf tournament in memory of Gord's Grandpa and our cousins' beautiful little boy who recently passed away. It was a great idea and we had a blast hanging out together as a family. Afterwards we had a breakfast and awards ceremony.


Uncle Todd won "best golf outfit 30 years and over".


I won "looks most like Auntie Corina without actually being Auntie Corina". Maybe you'd have to be there, but since I started dated Gord I've been told I look like one of his aunts which frankly, I don't mind because she is one good looking lady. Again missing an acutal photo so I will enlighten you.


The resemblance is uncanny. How could I not have won the award?

The next day followed with a giant waffle breakfast for everyone. We got to hang out with our cousins Josh and Leah quite a bit which we just love. It was really great to see them and share with them again. All in all we had an awesome weekend and I can't wait to go back soon.

Fall is now here . . .

and it's beautiful outside. Here is the view from the balcony. It's my favorite time of year for running because I love the crunch of leaves under my feet.

We have been keeping busy with a variety of things. We went on a trip to visit family and friends in Saskatoon. We got to see many good friends and spent a day on the lake with my family. My camera battery was really low, but I managed to snap a pic of Blackstrap mountain before it died.

If you need help, the mountain is right in the middle of the picture. I love Saskatchewan. I really do.

Gord and our friend Lance ran a half marathon in Canmore. They had a great time.

And Shoshanna and I had a great time watching - not running.

We have been trying to settle in with a church and honestly having not a whole lot of luck. This leaves us (especially me) in a place of frustration and impatience. I just want to be serving and ministering in a practical way and it seems I hit a road bump at every turn. This has however, left me with much spare time for sewing, crocheting, baking etc. So if anyone happens to stop by, you will be greeted with a friendly cup of coffee and a fresh baked cookie. . . and maybe even a blanket.

Stampede with a twist

This year's Stampede brought my company's second annual Stampede party. Such a blast. And I ended up scoring a pair of tickets to the rodeo to boot. It was such a fun evening of line dancing, socializing, prize winning and stampeding. Our table was pretty lucky as we won rodeo tickets, a blackberry pearl and a free flight between us.
Me pretending I'm a hat person.

Chandra with her new Blackberry.

Some pipers walking down Stephen Ave.

Me with Ferida and Chandra on their last day at work.

Sunday was the annual Calgary Marathon which I conviced myself to run in for some strange torturous and unknown reason. But anyway, I did. Not the full marathon mind you - I'm not athletic. Just the half. Which makes it sound short. . . "Oh, I just did the half". People - it did not seem short. 21.1 Km is actually far. But I did it. And I have to say I'm proud of myself. Also for the fact that I was the ONLY person I saw wearing Russells, and Huskie ones at that. Eat it Lululemon. (I have a personal vendetta - ask me later).
Me and my Huskie shorts mid race.

The Finish - my favorite part. They even called my name. Official Time - 2:40:18

The post race stretch.

All in all a pretty productive weekend.

The times they are a changin'

Well, June 15th saw our church, Sema come to an end. A very, very sad end. Actually, it's worse now that we've gone to another church already and been moderately dissappointed. The actual weekend Sema ended was wonderful. We had a church camp out at a retreat centre and it was so much fun. We had some worship time and lots of food and games. This is the picture of Gord just after winning the sack race.


The closing of Sema is leaving us more than a little lost right now. The church community was so much a part of our lives.

At the beginning of June we took a little trip to Vancouver Island. We just needed some time to relax. We took the ferry over to Vancouver to meet up with good friends Rosanna, Elissa and Doug. Then we went for a hike at the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge.



Gord also celebrated his birthday that day.


The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at.


Gord and I did lots of hiking and even went for a canoe. It was just so beautiful.
Cathedral Grove. I must apologize to Gord for putting up this picture, but I love it.




Goats playing at the Little Qualicum Cheesworks.


Hard Ice Cream $1.49. Are you serious!?!?


Our last dinner together.