The Newlyweds

Been a while

2009-01-08T11:20:00.002-07:00

Wow...it's been a long time since we posted anything...Facebook seems to have taken over everyone's lives, we seem to do all of our updating and picture posting there now! So if you're on Facebook, you'll find links to our profiles on the side bar. If you're not...why not? Hehe just kidding...if you're not on Facebook and are still following this blog, post a comment to let us know! Maybe we'll still come up with something to post now and again...

Have a great New Year everyone!

May Long - Monday

2008-05-19T21:55:00.004-06:00

Well, Monday it was back to work! Scott finished the path, and my job was to sweep the sand around on it so that it filled the cracks...you can see here how much fun I'm having...

The finished path!

Once we had everything cleaned up, it was time to plant! Here's the two gardners surveying a job well done. :)

A few garden shots...

Tomatoes...

One of my other projects for the weekend was getting our end tables stained and varnished. Here's the finished product!

We also made and stained a shelf to go above our sink to have some greenery there. The pots on the end are oregano and parsley. Somehow, almost unintentionally, we managed to get a stain that matched our cupboards!

May Long - Sunday

2008-05-19T21:44:00.005-06:00

On Sunday we headed up with our friends Brad and Kendra and their daughter Anika to Echo Dale, a park near Medicine Hat.

Unfortunately, there was no swimming to be had, as this is a man-made lake that's drained every fall, so I'm told. So all I had to swim in was a muddle little puddle...

But as you can see, I was determined. This is me SITTING in the deepest part of the lake... (right in the middle)

We still managed to have a good time, with a fire and weiner roast later.

Anika enjoying the outdoors.

Scott enjoying a hot dog. :)

Kendra and Anika

A couple shots of the coulee we were in.

May Long - Saturday

2008-05-19T20:53:00.004-06:00

Well, we had an eventful long weekend! On Saturday we set to work getting our garden area ready to be a garden! You may remember this picture from last year...this is the "before".

A neighbour gave us a bunch of leftover paving stones from a project he had done in his yard, and for a while we've wanted to make them into a little path in our yard. This was the weekend! Here was our rough estimate of what it would look like:

We've got the flags up, ready to get this path laid!

Hard at work....

Almost there!

While Scott was working on this, my project was to clean out the shed from all the stuff the previous owners left. Here's some of the junk that was in there....

Sweeping out the emptied shed!

Uncle Danny in town

2008-04-17T20:02:00.005-06:00

Lisa's Uncle Danny was in town today so we met for lunch at the Boston Pizza. He was out promoting the Sandman hotel he manages in Cranbrook, BC to golf courses in Alberta.

New church building, Easter in Manitoba, and Flames Game

2008-03-31T21:16:00.006-06:00

Well its been a while since we posted to the blog so I'll do a catch up post for March. First off you can see some pictures of our new church building (Taber Evangelical Free Church). When Lisa & I started going back about a year ago they had just purchased the building and were in the process of selling the old building. The old building sold very quickly to a Mennonite church from Vauxhall - so quickly that they agreed to buy it last summer and share it with us until the new building was ready! So finally we moved in - our first service was January 27th and the 0fficial opening was March 16th. We'll probably be working on the finishing touches for the next year but its a pretty amazing transformation of the old Home Hardware building.

Next was visiting family in Steinbach, MB for Easter. We arrived Friday night and left Sunday night after diner. A quick visit but still very worth it since I'm approaching my busy season at work and won't be able to travel until fall. We got to play with our niece for a bit. Below are a few pictures from the visit.

And to round it out we went to a Calgary Flames game! It was the Tuesday after Easter. So after traveling over 2500kms round trip to Manitoba we headed out the next day to Calgary and back (600kms round trip). It was a long drive back (getting home at 1:30am Wednesday) but it was definitely worth it. I won the tickets from a raffle by Taber Minor Hockey to raise funds for the provincials in Peace River (about 1000kms north of Taber). These weren't just any tickets - they were Top Shelf. Donated by a local business man they included premium parking, full diner before the game (with the president of the Flames coming by to answer any question anyone dared to ask), and premium seats behind the goalie. If you have a lot of money you can buy these tickets anytime for only $600 each. That's not a typo. I really meant six-hundred. Each. Amazing time and they won too! It was a playoff style game as they are vying for the top and they were playing a team (Vancouver Canucks) that is also vying for the top.

West Edmonton Mall Waterpark!

2008-02-20T21:21:00.002-07:00

This past Family Day weekend Lisa & I went to the West Edmonton Mall Waterpark. We spent over six hours in it just going on waterslides and playing in the wave pool. The wave pool (in the foreground) turned out to be a lot more fun than we thought. We rented tubes so we could join in the carnage when the waves come. One time I ended up behind Lisa when I started in front of her! (Oh and by the way - we didn't take our camera with us - this is just a picture I got from the internet.)

We went on all the slides that were open - some were closed due to renovations but it meant $18 rather than $30 admission (each). The red one was open. We built up our nerve all day to go on it until finally i said - nope, not going on it. Lisa said yup, I'm gonna do it. On our way up to the purple one I accidentally continued up to the red one. So i thought i'd at least look at what it looked like from up there. After about 5 mins i finally decided to go for it. Funny thing was there were no lines for that one so we just got on and went. It was the fasted ride i've ever been on! Lots of fun! And by the way - its a 100' drop. its hard to see from the picture but you go nearly straight down for the first 50' Imagine a 45 degree angle and then cut that in half.

Travelling to Idaho

2008-01-29T21:37:00.001-07:00

I was gone to the University of Idaho Potato Conference last week in Pocatello, ID. It was a long drive - about 900km - but it was beautiful for most of it. For about 500kms you drive through the mountains. The road conditions were pretty good considering that they are mountain passes. Here are a few pictures I got on the road. You'll note that for some I pulled off the road to take while others I did not. However - I have a mini-tripod that I put the camera on and duct-taped it to the dash so taking pictures was no harder than changing the radio station - just turn on and hit the shutter button.

Auberge Brown

2008-01-12T10:44:00.001-07:00

I was up in Old, AB (45mins north of Calgary) for the week taking a Certified Crop Adviser Course at Olds College. I chose to stay in a Bed & Breakfast nearby the college. It was amazing. I could walk to classes everyday and walk downtown at night for supper. And of course I got gourmet breakfast every morning. It was only $60 per night compared to about $100 per night at the local motels. The house is about 100 years old and it feels like you are stepping back in time staying there. The key to my room was an old skeleton key! How cool is that? I have a few pictures below of my room. They have some more on their website. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it.

http://www.brown-residence.com/en/index.php

Christmas 2007

2008-01-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

For Christmas this year we went back to Manitoba. We did lots of visiting with friends in Winnipeg when we first arrived and then settled into Lisa's parents place in Steinbach for the rest of the week. Below are a selection of some of the pictures taken.

Me checking out the amazon.ca box and wondering what it was that Lisa got me ...

... and to my great joy it was a book all about tea! 400 pages of the Story of Tea. I love it. Already have 1/4 of it read.

Lisa admiring the shiny package from me ...

... only to find out sometimes shiny packages don't have what you think :( (there was actually a gift certificate for a spa in there (in the form of money, my plans to get it in Lethbridge were foiled) but I needed a more creative way to give it to her.

The sweaters that Ryan gave to me ...

The cashmere sweater Dave gave to Lisa ...

Cadence (our niece) playing with the gift we gave her :D

The a cross-stitch blanket for Cadence that Lisa slaved over for the past year

We were all tired but we had to go for the little-kid-in-big-hat picture (a Growers Supply hat I might add).

And finally the new word of the trip was horFrost ... this is what it means - when ice fog sticks to trees and makes beautiful scenery. It also is the name of a restaurant that we went to in Portage la Prairie on the way back. Some old friends of Lisa's from Steinbach started the restaurant in August so we decided to try it out. Its really worth it to check it out if you are in Portage some time :D These pictures were taken in Moosomin, where we stayed on the way back home.

Growers Christmas Party

2007-12-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

Growers Supply does things in style. The Christmas Party was at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park on the Alberta side at Elkwater Lake Lodge & Resort. We were treated to a 9 course meal lasting approximately 4 hours and a stay in the hotel for the night. Below are a few pictures to get a feel for the night along with a picture of Lisa & I from a hike in the park the next day.

More snow!

2007-12-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Our yard is looking very nice now with a few snowfalls. The temperature has stayed around -10C to -20C so it has not melted and kept the sidewalk clear (where people have shoveled) and crunchy (where they have not). Very good walking weather. I love snow & cold so I've had many enjoyable walks out so far this winter.

Butter your bacon, boy

2007-11-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tree 63 was in Lethbridge on Saturday so Lisa & I headed to the concert. It was a great concert, pictures didn't come out so well but here's one to show a bit of what it looked like. Amazing sound for only three guys. While at the concert we both decided we were hungry and we'd grab some fast food on the way home. Well, the concert ended a little after nine so we decided to just go out to a restaurant for some appetizers ...

... and we found some. Sirloin bites wrapped in bacon served with garlic butter. Yup, you read it right - butter your bacon, boy! They were good! We also had some wings with them too, just to be really healthy. Earlier we had be contemplating getting the platter but then decided that that was really too much food. The place we were at had many rooms off to the side and for some reason had windows that opened out into the main area. Well, long story short some guys on the other side were trying to figure out how to open the window and banged Lisa on the head. They were very apologetic and Lisa was fine but they really, really, really were sorry. So, when their platter came out, we sampled it.

And a couple non-sequiturs. A sign of the times - there is only one phone booth, the outside two no longer have phones in them, they are cell phone booths.

And finally - another sign of the times. Websites - that's old. Make sure people find you on Facebook! Notice how the website is just small little letters and Facebook takes up 3/4 of the sign. Anyways, that was our Saturday night.

Kananaskis

2007-11-15T17:48:00.001-07:00

This past week was the PGA meetings (that is, Potato Growers of Alberta) in Kananaskis, AB (MAP) It is a beautiful area right in the Rocky Mountains. Here are some pictures from the event and a video of sunrise on the mountains from my hotel room.

Sunrise to Sunset

2007-11-07T10:03:00.001-07:00

My work camera has a time-lapse feature so I set it up in the window one night to capture the backyard. If you watch the snow on the roof & the grass you'll see it melting. Also of interest is seeing the lights in one of the back houses come on and seeing the garage lights coming on and off quickly (when I left in the morning and came home from work).

Snow!

2007-11-06T21:54:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since a blog posting ... not that there hasn't been anything going on, its just that it usually didn't involve pictures. Here are some pictures from last Sunday on my walk to church (Lisa was driving handi-bus that day). The picture of the church is not ours - its the Anglican one one block south. It was much more picturesque that day.

The snow is almost gone now but it was great to see it this early in the season.

House Tour Videos

2007-09-28T16:23:00.000-06:00

The Backyard

View from the street

Inside the house

Tour of the outside of the house

2007-09-03T22:21:00.001-06:00

I'm trying to get video in the posts but it doesn't seem to want to work ... I'll try again tomorrow night.

nice house to be beside ...
not our cat ... the neighbours ... but he hangs around the place a lot

always one place with room for improvement - this is behind the backyard - a separate place for a garden, which looks like it has had better days
the garden area to the right ...

Tour of the inside of the house

2007-09-03T21:25:00.000-06:00

What we've been up to

2007-08-25T09:10:00.001-06:00

Since it been nearly a month since we last posted I'll do a quick update post. I was having problems with blogger getting the pictures uploaded, seemed to take about 4 tries to get them all up. It seems to randomly decide not to upload certain pictures. Anyways ...

On July 27th we went to the Robin Mark worship concert. Lisa had won the backstage passes so here we are with Robin and the gang. From left to right is Mike Leblanc from CKVN; Michelle (the whistle player), Lisa, Scott, Robin, the bass player, the drummer :), and missing from the photo was the keyboardist ... who showed up later.

Lisa was more interested in talking to Michelle about whistling than Robin so that's what she did for the 30 mins or so we were up there with the band. I talked to Robin and the guys for most of the time ... for a while we talked all about potatoes - the Irish love their potatoes. They were especially interested when I told them that the big producers around here are Japanese and Dutch ...

A view of the concert from the front row ...

The very next day we moved into our new house .... exhausting weekend. Anyways, we did it. We've been in the new place for 4 weeks today. Its still a work in progress but we're sure it'll be ready for the house-warming we want to have in September. With my work slowing down now I have more energy to work on the house and get things in order.

And finally we celebrated our first anniversary by going out for lunch at a cafe out in the country. They produce most of the food they serve. We had an amazing view of the flower garden and the strawberry patch while we ate. Unfortunately the camera battery died just before we were going to ask the waitress to take a picture of us!

Steam Engine through Taber

2007-08-25T08:14:00.000-06:00

Another thing that happened was a steam engine through Taber in mid-July. We were not able to get tickets but at least we were able to see it. It ran from Medicine Hat to Lethbridge across the high level bridge (there was an earlier picture of this in February). It is 1.6kms long and 96m high. They claim it is the biggest of its kind in the world. Amazing too because it was built almost 100 years ago. Hopefully the video works for you (press the play button in the bottom left, it'll take a while for it to load depending on your connection).

Pig Chase!

2007-08-01T19:51:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, the youth at our church hosted a pig chase at the farm of a family from church. They dug a trench and got it good and muddy, and in pairs, we had to get all four legs of each pig off the ground. I had a few battle scars from that - good times! :)

The trend continues...

2007-07-11T20:17:00.000-06:00

Well, since CHVN has a sister station here in Lethbridge, CKVN, I figured I should continue the trend of calling in to win things! My first win here was a big one. Check it out!
(click on the picture to make it bigger)

Visitors from home!

2007-07-01T20:19:00.001-06:00

Mom and Dad are out this weekend, so we took them touring this afternoon. Here are a few highlights!

Scott and Dad looking up at a wind turbine

Scott showing us the tricks of the trade

Change of plans

2007-06-30T09:48:00.000-06:00

Well, our realtor asked us today if we minded if the people we're buying from changed the possession date...to earlier! It's fine with us, gives us a little more breathing room for moving. Our possession date is now July 13! That's in 2 weeks! We'll probably do a little painting that first week, then move in July 21, and get our current apartment cleaned up and checked out the following week. So things are moving quickly!

Woohoo!

2007-06-29T21:53:00.000-06:00

Well, the home inspection is done, and besides a few regular wear-and-tear things, it looks good! We removed the condition from the purchase agreement, and we move in July 27!

One step closer...

2007-06-27T20:48:00.001-06:00

Well, we got some good news today...the people we want to buy from found a house!!!! They've removed that condition from the purchase agreement, so now all we need is the home inspection, which is happening Friday. We're almost there!

More on the house...

2007-06-24T20:42:00.000-06:00

Well, in case any of you were wondering how the house thing is going, well...we're still waiting. The original agreement stated that the offer was accepted on the condition that the people we're buying from find suitable housing by June 23. Well, their realtor contacted our realtor, and it looks like there's a house they're interested in that's being listed on Thursday. So, we extended the deadline to July 9, but hopefully we'll know before then. We've also pushed the possession date back to closer to the end of July. Hopefully everything works out!

Stereo

2007-06-11T14:13:00.001-06:00

The Taber library is moving to a larger building and so they had a sale last Saturday of old stuff they didn't need anymore. I went there to buy a desk (which I did) but something else snuck into the truck too. We now have a bigger stereo than either of us ever had in our college days :) I've been able to hook the FM receiver up to our antenna and we get excellent reception on it. Also, the DVD/VCR is hooked up through it so now we have really good sound for movies. In case you are a geek - it is a Technics system (tape recorder, reciever, turntable, and speakers) and the speakers are 40W each. Quite a jump from our current 8W speakers.

Nothing else new with us. Still waiting to hear if the owners of "our" house have found a house for themselves yet. We've still been watching the listings and there really hasn't been much out there - most stuff is at least 50 years old. So we don't feel we are missing out on anything by just waiting.

Our new house!

2007-05-26T21:40:00.001-06:00

Well, it should be as long as all the paperwork goes through and yada, yada, yada ... the offer is signed but we are just working out the little details before it is finalized.

The house is a split level so it looks bigger inside even though its only 800 sq. ft. (but since two levels are below ground it is more like 1600 sq. ft.). It is 3 bedroom and 1 1/2 bathrooms. What I love the most about it is yard. It is hard to see it but it actually goes back another 15' or so beyond the fence - for some reason the far back is fenced off separately (garden, maybe?) . Anyways, the lot is pie shaped so it is 36' at the front and 63' at the back but the incredible thing is that it is 172' deep! Most times you are lucky to get 120' or maybe even 150'.

Wind Mills (the old fashioned kind)

2007-05-26T21:25:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Lisa & I went out for a drive around Southern Alberta and ended up at the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park that borders Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, it was rainy and cloudy and so the scenic outlook was up in the clouds. Hopefully we'll be able to get pictures next time. Below are some pictures from the journey. The windmill museum in Etzikom was a fun little detour to the trip. Also, we stopped to get a picture of an old barn for Grandpa!

Wind Turbines

2007-05-14T20:19:00.000-06:00

There's lots of wind out here and there's big business trying to harness it for power. The pictures tell the story best. You'll notice in the second picture a black dot at the bottom - that is Lisa! You'll see a closer up one of her in the next picture to show just how massive these things are. Enjoy.

These are a couple of pictures I took at a different site where they are building them. In the second picture compare the size of the truck to the pieces - this is a large heavy duty truck and it is dwarfed by the pieces of the tower.

Sushi, Monster Trucks, & Motocross

2007-05-05T22:08:00.000-06:00

At about 4:30pm Friday all of a sudden Peter, the General Manager of Growers Supply, realized he still had tickets left to give away to the the Monster Madness show in Lethbridge that night. Growers has a box in the arena for entertaining clients. No one else at work was interested so I asked Lisa what she thought about going - to which she replied "Can we go for Sushi?". So ... she got sushi, I got Monster Trucks. I love sushi as long as its not raw (she loves sushi when it is raw). I got to relive some childhood memories. Lisa got to see something totally new.

What was new for the both of us was the Motocross. The pictures below are fuzzy but you can make out the tricks they were doing in the air - crazy!!! After seeing a few of them do this and being amazed at what they were doing, Lisa decided that although it was amazing and cool, our kids would never become Motocross racers. :)

Potato Planting

2007-04-25T21:26:00.000-06:00

Here's a couple of pictures of a planter ...

Barb & I are out now checking the accuracy of the planters. Barb is the other agronomist at Growers Supply. First, we mark off 10' of row and then we rake the top of the hill off.

Then we get right down in the dirt and dig the little seed pieces up ...

Then we measure the distance between each drop and record and doubles, triples, or misses. From this we can determine the accuracy of the planter in both spacing and in percent drops. It will vary for each variety but usually they are targeting 12" +/- 3" so anywhere from 9-15" is acceptable.

Irrigation Pivots

2007-04-25T21:18:00.000-06:00

Out here, if you want to grow potatoes, you have to irrigate. My numbers may be a little off, but we only get about 12" of rain a year, and you need about 20-30" to grow a crop of potatoes. Irrigation water is collected from rivers and runoff from the mountains. Most farmers use pivots to irrigate. They are anchored in the centre and pivot around the field putting on about a half inch of water on per cycle (one circle takes about a day). You can see by the comparison to my truck how massive these things are. As the season moves along I'm sure I'll be posting more pictures of these things in action.

Rain, rain, rain ... and snow

2007-04-19T16:13:00.000-06:00

It's been two weeks since we posted and there really isn't much new. We went to Manitoba for Easter (1200km one way, all driven in one day!) and that was a lot of fun. Things were gearing up for potato planting here this week and then it started raining yesterday and isn't supposed to stop until tomorrow. There are reports of snow around here and we've seen some wet snow falling as well. So ... we won't be doing much until at least next week.

Happy!! Happy!! Joy!! Joy!!

2007-04-02T22:11:00.000-06:00

Christian Radio is coming to Taber! It launches Tuesday morning at 7am and we'll be listening. All of you from Winnipeg may recognize the logo ... it is Golden West behind it so it is the same people who run CHVN (95.1) in Winnipeg.

Big Changes!

2007-04-01T21:00:00.000-06:00

Well, my life is about to change a lot...no, we're not having a baby. :) I have a job! I'm starting tomorrow (Monday, April 2), as an Optometric Assistant at the Taber Vision Centre. I'll be the main person at reception, plus I'll stock office supplies and contact lenses. I'll also be doing pre-testing and contact lens fitting. It's very different than anything I've done before, but I'm looking forward to it!

Other changes - I've decided to start selling Epicure! I'd mentioned at one time that I was thinking about it, and I've taken the plunge. I'm also starting a 6-week diet plan through Curves tomorrow, so it could be a stressful time!

That's about it for me for now!

The Travesty of Grace

2007-03-26T08:48:00.000-06:00

I encourage you to check out a post from a friend of mine:

http://pinkthunderpuss.spaces.live.com/
"The Travesty of Grace"

I met Lou on my train trip in 2004. I think she has nailed down grace better than anyone else. I think it also helps that I know her personally, rather than just a writer.

Scott.

Canmore on Google Earth

2007-03-21T16:25:00.000-06:00

As an addendum to the previous post ... the road we climbed can be seen on this image from Google Earth (click the picture to see a larger one). We were about 5600' up, Canmore is 4300', and for reference Ha Ling Peak is 7500'. This image from Google Earth is looking due West, the images at the bottom of the previous post would have been looking due East. I highly recommend getting Google Earth (free at http://earth.google.com ) and checking out Canmore for yourself. When you put your mouse to the top right corner you can move sliders to zoom in/out, change your angle of viewing, and your direction.

Canmore

2007-03-19T21:39:00.000-06:00

A housemate of mine, when I first moved out to the West, told me that pictures don't do justice to the mountains. We agree; however, we'll try to give you a glimpse of our weekend to Canmore.

Lisa worked at the Rundle for the summer in 1998 so that was the natural place to come back too. The nice thing is that this is low season ... so good rates!

We went for a tour of the expensive houses on the north side. We were able to get up pretty high and we were pretty impressed with the view ...
Here are the three sisters (above). You should recognize them from some of the first pictures ...

Next we wanted to go to the south side and see the view from the Nordic Centre. This is where some of the Olympic games were played in 1988.

We got up there and then we found we could go higher ... if you look carefully you can see a road going along the right side up towards the tower in the centre ...

We are getting up pretty high here ... so much so we are almost in the clouds! (Low clouds, yes, but still clouds).
Ha Ling peak (above).
This is as far as we went on the road, the tower is just off to the left

And when you turn around you have an amazing view of Canmore!

How about this for ice fishing?

2007-03-13T15:27:00.000-06:00

Lisa & I were at the Ag Expo a few weeks ago and we saw this handy machine out on machinery row. For farmers the most common use would be for digging for fence post holes ... but I'll bet it would be real handy out on the ice. (I had my work camera with me but it took me a while to find the USB cable around here to get the pictures off).

I just have to say...

2007-03-12T11:05:00.000-06:00

...I did my first Curves workout today! I want to get some physical activity in my life, and this is pretty fun so far!

Beyond that, not too much new around here. Scott and I went to the E Free Church again this past Sunday, and I went to a couple ladies events last week. It looks like we'll probably settle there, though we want to check out this one church that does home services.

Scott's still reading, going to meetings, and reading some more, getting ready for the season to start. I'm looking for a job, I've applied for a few already.

Well, that's about it for now, we'll update you as things happen!

Lisa

Edith Alice Bezditny

2007-03-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Edith passed away last week, suddenly. I worked with her at her home in Steinbach from 1999-2002, and I spent an evening there once a year at Christmas time (when the regular staff had their Christmas banquet). She was a feisty Ukranian woman who loved to tell stories about her family. She called me Lisa Vinegar (Riediger), and when I got married her and another staff came up with Lisa Pepsi (Gillespie). I knew her for 10 years and I will miss her greatly. What's especially hard is that I'm out here and can't be there for her funeral, or to comfort the other ladies that live at the home. Below is a picture and her obituary.

EDITH ALICE BEZDITNY

With great sorrow and disbelief, we announce the sudden passing of our beloved daughter, sister and aunt Edith Alice Bezditny, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 at the St Boniface Hospital.

Edith leaves to cherish her memory, her loving mother Alice Bezditny; four brothers: Ed (Joan), Bill (Olga), Peter (Shirley), Ernie (Lena); three sisters: Olivia (Doug) Marsh, Irene Doyle, Phyllis (Don) Martens; nieces, nephews, and numerous cousins.

She was born on July 16, 1961 at the St Pierre Hospital and was raised at the family homestead in Pansy, MB. Edith was a cheerful person, loved to have fun and always had a smile on her face. The last 12 years of her life were spent with Association for Community Living (ACL), of whom the caregivers were loving, understanding and compassionate towards her. Being Ukrainian, she admired her culture and especially loved Ukrainian music. She admired the things God had created around her, and enjoyed life to the fullest. Her family and the Gospel were the greatest joys of her life.

Edith had a soft heart, kind smile, gentle spirit and an abundance of love she shared with everyone. She will always be remembered deeply in our hearts, cherished in our souls and forever in our memories.

In Heaven she will be greeted by her father John Bezditny, sister Sally Petryk, sister-in-law Florence Bezditny, brothers-in-law Don Doyle and Bob Marsh, and nephew Nathan Bezditny.

Our family wishes to extend heartfelt thanks to Dr. McCarter and the staff on the second floor (ICU) at the St Boniface Hospital for all their loving care and kindness. Many thanks to all the caregivers at ACL for their excellent care and love that was provided for her throughout her stay at the residence. God bless you!

Pallbearers were: Dwayne Petryk, Kristin Bezditny, Josh Doyle, Matt Doyle, Jason Martens, Ashton Martens.

Prayers were held at Birchwood Funeral Chapel, Steinbach, MB, on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. Funeral service was celebrated on Thursday, March 1 at 10:30 a.m. Father Gregory Zubacz and Deacon Leon Twerdun officiated. Interment followed at the St. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Pansy, MB.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Edith's memory to ACL, 395 Main St., Steinbach, MB, R5G 1Z4.

Go in peace, Edith. We love you and you will be in our hearts forever.

Flowers!

2007-02-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

Look what my wonderful husband brought home today! Now if only the vases weren't still packed...

Some things don't change...

2007-02-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

Even in Alberta, +7 is Slurpee weather! First one of the season!

If this is all I have to post about, I need a job... ;)

Another church experience

2007-02-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well, we decided to try another church today, and we went to the Taber Evangelical Free Church. It was quite different from our experience at New Life last Sunday (was that only a week ago??). They have 2 services, but they've bought an old hardware store that they'll be renovating to make a bigger building. They hope to be in there by Christmas but it will probably take longer.

Anyways, the service was great, though shorter than we're used to, only an hour and 10 minutes. It has a very similar feel to Bethesda, we felt very comfortable there. After the service we chatted with a few people, and the pastor and his wife had us and a couple others over for lunch. We stayed there a few hours, had a really good visit, and learned a lot about the church and about Taber itself. We'll likely be going back there. In the course of discussion I was asking about music at the church and they asked me if I played piano, and I admitted that I played guitar. Then they got that same light in their eyes that Curtis got when he met me 4 years ago. :) I told them I was taking a break from that kind of ministry and that when I was ready I wouldn't be shy about getting involved. They also seem to have a good youth ministry and ladies ministry. We'll keep you posted, but this looks like it could be the one!

Not much else going on, Scott's job is going well so far, he's mostly reading and learning about potatoes. I've been chilling at home, I'm going to start looking for a job soon. I found out today about a career centre that Taber has, so I think I'll head there next week. I'm also looking into becoming an Epicure consultant. They sell spices and dip mixes and kitchen stuff - some of you may recall the wings party I had a while back with them. We'll see how that goes, I think the closest consultant right now is in Medicine Hat.

Anyways, I've rambled long enough, if you're still reading at this point, you must really love us. :) We miss you all, but we're also excited about the life we're starting here. We're also excited that The Amazing Race is starting tonight. :) And that tomorrow is family day and we have the day off (not that it matters much to me). Have a good week everyone!

Lisa & Scott

Settling in

2007-02-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, my mom flew home yesterday, Scott's at work, and I got to sleep in today. I guess our new life in Taber is really underway! We'll post updates as things happen, in the meantime, here's a fun picture from when Mom & I went out for lunch yesterday. I noticed the knife at the table was sticking to the other utensils. I asked the waitress, she said they have a magnetic lid on the garbage can so that utensils don't fall in. It was kinda fun. Keep reading!

Lisa

We have furniture!

2007-02-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

That's right, our stuff arrived today! We were greeted with this sight around 10am:

I was driving Scott to work, and he finally got ahold of the movers, so we stopped in, Scott got his truck, and we headed home to get things ready.

The beauty of using movers is that for the most part we could just stay out of the way:

And then we watched the neighbour shovelling his driveway...and dumping the snow onto our yard! We thought this was terribly funny, and it was tempting to go shovel the snow back onto his driveway. ;)

Once the movers piled all our stuff inside, we set about getting things organized.

This is what it looked like at the beginning...it seemed pretty hopeless...

And this is where we managed to get it tonight!

*You'll notice the wicker basket in these pictures...that wasn't actually ours, but the movers couldn't figure out who it belonged to, so now it's here! I keep expecting a snake to come out of it...

We still have boxes everywhere, but they're under control (or hidden in closets) for now. We'll work at getting everything unpacked or stored over the next few weeks. This place is temporary (3-6 months, hopefully), so we only wanted to unpack the essentials. Our place isn't huge, and we'll have to eat off tv trays (no room for the kitchen table), but we've managed to make it cozy. We probably won't post as frequently now that we're settling in, but we'll try to update once a week or so. Thanks for reading!!

Lisa & Scott

Who pressed the pause button?

2007-02-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

Still no stuff :( ... Originally they told us the latest it could be would be one week from pick-up, so tomorrow is one week. Anyways, we'll see. They've told us the driver will call when he's on the way, so we just keep the phone on.

We went to the New Life Church today. It was an experience. Once it had reached the 2 1/2 hr mark we decided to leave ... It was a guest speaker today ... so we'll go back again one more time when its the normal pastor to get a fuller picture of the church.

We've been doing well on our air mattresses with foam toppers. We have some cooking appliances - a stove top tea kettle, a coat hanger for a toaster, and aluminum foil roasting pans to cook frozen stuff in. The tea kettle and one-cup coffee maker have already paid for themselves in the amount Timmy's we would have bought by now. We are definitely not starving. Its nice to not have to be going to a restaurant all the time.

Pray that we will get a definite time for our stuff and that it will arrive soon.
Pray for my first day of work tomorrow. I talked to my boss tonight and he knows whats going on so its fine. There's nothing much to do around here so I might as well go and get started at work. When the movers come I can just come back.

I think that's all for now. Talk to you all later.
Scott & Lisa.

Still waiting...

2007-02-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Saturday at suppertime, and we have yet to hear from our movers. So, as it turns out, the air mattresses were a really good investment! We figure if they haven't shown up by now, we won't see them till at least tomorrow. We headed into Lethbridge today to grab some more groceries, and I picked up some pots, seeds, and soil to try my hand at flowers. :) Anyways, the picture below kind of sums up our situation right now, we dragged our air bed into the living room so we'd have something to sit on besides the floor. Here we are checking our e-mail, and I'm eating my strawberry mini-wheats out of a plastic beer cup. I hope we get some dishes soon...

Lisa & Scott

Coulees & Train Bridge in Lethbridge

2007-02-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

In Taber

2007-02-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Only an hour or so drive today to Taber. Luckily we were able to meet the Shaw guy and get our internet hooked up, which is why we are able to post tonight. The stuff is supposed to arrive tomorrow now (hopefully :) ). Anyways, so for today we just did some grocery shopping, got some cleaners, and started doing some cleaning that still needed to be done. We were going to stay in a hotel for the night, but then realized that if we spent the money on air mattresses and sheets at Walmart we could just sleep here for the night (and we'd be all set if the stuff didn't come for a few more days).

See you all later,
Scott & Lisa.

Medicine Hat

2007-02-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well we made it to Medicine Hat today. It was clear driving until about Swift Current when we hit the snow (mainly just blowing snow). The movers don't arrive till mid afternoon tomorrow (hopefully) so there's no real push to make it to Taber. Fortunately the motel we are at in Medicine Hat has internet! Enjoy some pictures below.

On the road again ...

2007-02-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

The Maple Leaf Plant in Brandon.

The Assiniboine Valley just west of Brandon.

Stopping to watch a train (the camera took it amazingly clear, this train was really going about 100km/hr).

In Regina you can see your dog run away for 3 days (we are still 20kms away at this point).

Some potash mines in Saskatchewan.

Just can't wait to get on the road again ...

2007-02-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Just had to get some pictures of the tractors along the highway by Moose Jaw ...

What 40 below looks like

2007-02-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

A cold day for a move

2007-02-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

The screen shot below says it all. Unfortunately the thermometer was already packed away. I wasn't even able to go out for a walk (because of the movers arriving at 9am). However, I can still say I experienced -40C.

As of writing this post, all of our stuff is somewhere between Winnipeg & Taber, supposed to be arriving on Friday afternoon. Lisa & I are in Steinbach staying at her parents place since Monday night. We're heading off tomorrow to Taber, starting our new life. I think we're just ready to get there and start getting settled. Pray for good weather for the drive, not only for us but for the movers as well (so that they are on time).

I'm not sure when we'll post again, it depends on when we can get internet set up and have time.

Until next time,
Scott & Lisa.

Parking - Scott's Secret Talent

2007-02-01T23:03:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things to do on the farm was to park things so close together in the shed that you couldn't see light between them. Or, to park so close it looked like you didn't know you were that close (even though you knew exactly what you were doing). You can take the boy from the farm but you can't take the farm from the boy. As you can see, I was able to park with less than a foot clearance on either end of the car. It took a little maneuvering but I got it. No car was bumped in the process of this parking job.

Not much other news. We're just packing and running around tying up loose ends. Last weekend was our weekend of parties as the church, family, and friends all had good-bye parties that weekend.

Stay tuned for details of the move!
Thanks for the reading,
Scott & Lisa.

Comments

2007-01-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

Just a note: When you leave comments - please sign them! We love getting comments, but we also like to know who left them.

Thanks,
Scott & Lisa

A place in Taber

2007-01-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

I went out this week to find a place to live in Taber. We're just renting now until we have some time to buy our own home :) Housing is very tight. This was the second last rental left in town for the month. There may be more show up in the next week but most people said it would be very unlikely. We just have the top floor of the house. The bottom picture shows how wide the streets are in Taber - I don't know why but every street it at least four lanes wide through all the residential areas! It definitely makes parking easy.

Pictures of Taber, AB

2007-01-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

This is where I'll be working ...

The Rogers Sugar Plant.

Some shots of the downtown.

-33C

2007-01-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

One thing I hoped for before we left for Alberta would be to have some good, cold, Manitoba days. I got my wish :) The thermometer below shows -33C ... that's actual temperature, not windchill. (Click on the photo for a larger one to see the detail.)

I went out for a walk this morning so that I could fully enjoy it (really, I love this weather!). Its so invigorating to breathe in air that is that cold.

To Calgary & back in a day

2007-01-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Below are some pictures of my recent trip out to Calgary. I arrived at 9am local time and was on the plane again to come back to Winnipeg by noon local time. Why was I out there? I was flown out for an interview with Growers Supply Ltd of Taber. They mainly deal with potato growers and the job I was interviewing for was to do the agronomy - scouting fields for insects & disease, taking tissue samples for nutrient analysis, taking soil tests, and recommending pesticides for use on their farms.

If you haven't heard already - I got the job! So ... Lisa & I are currently working at telling people around here and starting to think about how real moving to Alberta is. Over the next few weeks we'll try to document the process and in a month or so you'll see lots of postings documenting our new home. Stay tuned.

Looking at Winnipeg from the northwest corner.

Portage la Praire - note how winding the Assiniboine river is.

I believe this is the escarpment that runs through Manitoba (yes, there is an escarpment). It roughly cuts through the southwest corner of the province from Dauphin to a little west of Carman. I was told by a train engineer once that the escarpment and the Qu'Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan are the hardest climbs the trains have to do in the whole of western Canada. Yes - that even includes the mountains. For the most part the railroad skirts around or through the mountains (I've taken the train through them, there are very few tunnels).

Sunrise over the clouds, somewhere in Saskatchewan. Since we were flying west, the sun rise lasted almost the entire length of the flight.

And here it is - Calgary! You can see the sunrise reflection off the mountains in the background. The interview was entirely in the airport, I never even made it outside. I'll be back (and hopefully Lisa with me) in a few weeks to look for a place to live (in Taber) so I'll get to breathe some of that Alberta air then.

SNOW!!! (part one)

2006-12-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Yup, its been a while since we've posted to the blog, but we're gonna try to do it more often from now on. We woke up this morning to a phone call that church was canceled. Yup - canceled. After shoveling my way out onto the balcony, I put a ruler on top of the BBQ to measure the snow - it just barely stuck out the top! We've had a very gentle snow over the past 24hrs, with most of it coming lastnight.

You should be able to see some snow angels in this picture. Lisa & I were out to the Starfield concert lastnight. After having a fun walk around downtown in the snow we did some snow angels in front of our balcony just before coming in. Of course, there was only about 4" on the ground at the time and another 8" came overnight, but you can still see them.

SNOW!!! (part two)

2006-12-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Some more photos of the snow ...

The balcony with the blue tarp (covering my bike) is ours ...

So now you can see why church was canceled - even if people could get out (and most residential streets will not be plowed for a day or two) they wouldn't be able to park anywhere. (In case you are wondering, we live so close to the church we can see it from our balcony so I decided to walk over to see if anyone showed up. Only one other person was there, who lives about as close as us, so we chatted for a while then headed home once we knew no-one might show up.)

6 sofa beds plus 2 dozen mattess equals ...

2006-10-15T19:37:00.000-06:00

This is the Fall Retreat ... why is there snow?

2006-10-15T19:31:00.000-06:00

Youth Retreat Pictures ...

2006-10-15T19:01:00.000-06:00

Some sites on the trip home ...

2006-10-09T21:29:00.000-06:00

They specialize in steak, pizza, chinese and greek ... what was funny is that when we went in the parking lot was packed. By the time we left we were the only ones there (the church crowd / coffee crowd was just finishing up when we arrived, apparently).
Cool shot ..

Alley & Chris's Wedding

2006-10-08T21:20:00.000-06:00

Here is the setting for the wedding. The ceremony happened on the left and the reception on the right. Amazing building!

The view from the porch of the Retreat Centre. Its a Saskatchewan mountain (aka a valley).

Outside shot of the Retreat Centre.

Rouleau, SK

2006-10-07T21:10:00.000-06:00

Dog River Hotel ...
Liquor & Insurance ...

The Foo Mart (note: not a real grocery store - its actually a chiropractors office. There is a note on the door clearly explaining this)

And finally ... the Sunfire in front of the the Dog River Police Station! Actually, its now a tourist stop with clothing and gifts ("The Stoop"). The original use was as a bank.

Corner G & the Rub

2006-10-07T20:49:00.000-06:00

It was a cold, rainy day ... but here we are! Standing at the pumps with the Ruby in the background.

We were told by someone in town (Rouleau, SK) they stopped filiming only a week before we were there (as you can see from the lack of signs). But the most important thing - Sunfire in front of Corner Gas!

Poor people of Dog River don't have clear cell phone service because the elevator couldn't be knocked down ...

Just a set from behind ...

We're still alive!

2006-09-23T18:11:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone...well everyone who's still out there, it's been a month since we last posted and most of you may have given up on us. :) For those of you still out there, we haven't actually taken a lot of pictures in the last month, but here's what we would have taken pictures of if we'd thought of having the camera:

Youth started up again for Scott, they had a pool party which was a lot of fun. They're heading to the corn maze on Friday, I think he's going to bring the camera then. But here's what the pool party might have looked like if the camera had been there...(I've taken some...locational liberties here)

We also went to Irish Fest, but I found a picture on the website that had the backs of us right in the corner of the picture. I've circled where we are for reference:

Well, I'm sure I could do more, but my photoshop creativity has run dry. We'll post more when there's something new to post! Take care!

Lisa & Scott

Honeymoon pics by the lake ...

2006-08-23T19:32:00.000-06:00

Here we are by the lake for our famous self portraits ...

... Lisa out on the dock ...

... Scott enjoying a fire ...

... and the stars - oh! were they amazing ... the longer you looked the more and more layers showed up. One of the few times I've managed to be out in an area away from all light pollution AND have the moon not out. One night we were able to catch about 3 or 4 shooting stars.

Honeymoon Pics

2006-08-23T19:24:00.000-06:00

Here we are in front of the cabin ...

The view from the cabin ....

Lisa peering over the bedroom balcony onto the patio ...

... and a close-up encounter with a humming-bird - there were lots of them by all week.

Wedding pictures from King's Park!

2006-08-19T22:22:00.000-06:00

Thanks for taking these, Colleen!

More wedding pictures...

2006-08-19T22:21:00.001-06:00

More wedding pictures...

2006-08-19T22:21:00.000-06:00

More wedding pictures...

2006-08-19T22:20:00.000-06:00

More wedding pictures...

2006-08-19T22:19:00.000-06:00