Our First Wedding Anniversary

Wakefield, Quebec - March 16-17, 2007

Motel Alpengruss ~ our room

The view from our balcony.


Snuggling in front of our roaring fire!


Restaurant Alpengruss - fine German food ... if bacon and eggs count as fine German food.

The Wakefield Mill ~ now a hotel and spa retreat.

The Wakefield Pont Couverte (Covered Bridge)

Le Mouton Noir (The Black Sheep Inn) where we were privelaged to hear Great Lake Swimmers; an authentic southern Ontario band.

The quaint town of Wakefield in all it's snowy glory!

Surprise!

Guess who came to visit me this weekend? Lorien!!! And guess what else? We both inadvertently bought the same scarf and we have the same shoes too!! Pretty crazy! But not surprising. I think we have a lot of the same taste in clothing. Lots of people in high school used to think we were cousins. Don't you think we look alike? Maybe we did more in high school.

To tell the truth, she didn't come down just to see me. She actually came down for the baptism of her new niece, who is named after her. Our friends, Chris (her brother) and Charlene, just had a baby girl whom they named Helena Rochelle. Rochelle is Lorien's middle name. That's pretty cool! I would love to have a niece name after me ... wink, wink, nudge, nudge .... just kidding. I wouldn't wish my middle name on anyone!! yikes!

Anonymity

You will notice that I have added some more links to the side of my blog. This is mostly for my use, easy access to blogs I read regularly but they could also be considered as recommended good reading for those looking for somewhere to go after reading my blog. You might be wondering why I have just added these links. It's not as though I haven't been reading these blogs avidly every moment I can, I just feel sort of weird about putting the links on my blog. It feels as though I am exposing a bit more of myself by doing it. There's nothing to be embarrassed about by these links, they are all fine upstanding citizens, friends or otherwise.

In other news, I finally started working on scrapbooking our Wedding. It's very nerve wracking because I want it to be perfect but it's also fun because I do love to scrapbook and when the final product is great, it makes me happy! Here's a reminder of our wedding day.

YYC

Another trip means another blog post. This time our trip was business not pleasure, well, business for me, at least.

I had a 2 day training course and Reuben got some time off work to accompany me. We left on Tuesday evening around 6:30pm. The cool thing was that we boarded the same aircraft that my parents had just deplaned from (they were arriving home from Tampa). But we didn't actually meet up with them because they had to go through US Customs although we did see them through a window. Our flight was fairly uneventful, no turbulence and a bunch of interesting shows to watch on TV, although by the time we were landing I was getting pretty antsy.

We grabbed the shuttle to our hotel, the Country Inn & Suites and checked in without any troubles. Our room was quite nice, but upon arriving I realized that I would need to book a taxi for the next morning to get me to the training centre and when I called the front desk, the agent was really hesitant about actually being able to book one for me, which we both thought was sort of strange, I mean how hard can it be to book a taxi for a Wednesday morning. Well, about 20 agonizing minutes later, I get a call back that he had managed to book me a taxi so that was a sigh of relief. We promptly went to sleep. In the morning we partook of the obligatory continental breakfast. We had been quite happy recently with the development of "make your own" waffles at every hotel we had stayed at in the last half year. But although they provided this service, the taste was quite mediocre. How disappointing!

After breakfast, Reuben called the transit company and figured out which bus and train to take downtown and I climbed into my taxi and was off to training. The training was interesting. I met up with some old friends from back when I was working in Toronto for the Maintenance department and the trainer was quite engaging so all in all it wasn't a bad day. The only interesting bit was at lunchtime. They had told us we would be able to pick something up at Tim Hortons, which was just across the street. Well, it was a little further than just across the street and there was no sidewalk or lane to get there. We had to walk through a field and of course, it had been snowing since the night before and we were not wearing adequate footwear. I say "we" because there was another lady there from out of town who also had to purchase lunch. So, at least I didn't have to go alone. Our feet got quite wet!!

The training was done by 2pm so we hitched a ride back to the hotel and I hung out and watched TV till Reuben got back. We had agreed to meet at 5 but, fortunately, he came back around 3:30pm. So we watched some TV for a bit and then decided to head out for dinner. Not having a vehicle made our decision quite easy because there was only 1 restaurant within walking distance, Chili's. It's a Mexican Grill place. We walked around the block to get to it and then realized that there was actually a gate in the fence behind the hotel and we could've got out right into their parking lot from there. We did that on the way back home. Anyway, so it was a pretty nice place, quiet and they were playing the Senators hockey game. Reuben had a hamburger and I had this scrumptious garlic shrimp pasta dish. I had leftovers, which I thought would work out well for my training class the next day so we put it in a container we had and put it in our ice bucket full of ice to keep it chilled over night. That actually worked quite well.

The next day, I got a ride to the training with the other lady who was staying at the hotel. And Reuben took the bus/train downtown again. He went up the Calgary Tower. The training, again, was quite painless and I managed to score a ride to the airport after it was done. I met up with Reuben at the gate and we had an uneventful trip home even though there was crazy weather and it seemed like every other flight was delayed or canceled except ours!!!

So that was our trip. Stay tuned for the next one . . .

Stone Road Mall

Click on the picture below to see more pics of Hadassah on our little outing to the Stone Road Mall in Guelph on February 19.

Hadassah

New pics of Hadassah

Just in case you are wondering, I've posted some more pictures of Hadassah on my other site. Enjoy!

The Magic of Winterlude

There is something magical about skating on the Rideau Canal in February. Thousands of people flock to the Ottawa area for Winterlude every year. I think it's the city's biggest tourist draw. I guess we have to do something to help ourselves get through the long, cold winters. As I get older, Winterlude has less and less of a draw for me. All of my memories of skating on the canal are fraught with cold feet, sore ankles, sore back, cold nose, getting left behind because I'm too slow and just generally not liking the experience. The only good thing about Winterlude is the beavertails, those sticky, sweet pastries loaded with brown sugar, cinnamon and just a hint of lemon. But wouldn't it just be so much better to not have to eat them with your mitts on and your scarf sticking to your face??

Winterlude is a time for many gatherings. Our little church swells with visitors during this time. Family comes from far and near and friends jump at the chance to come and hang out downtown during this frigid time. I dread this time of year. As the only chance to hang out with people is to tighten up those skates and join them on the ice, where my feet invariable cramp up and I run out of energy all to quick. Nobody seems to understand the feeling of panic when everyone you know skates out of sight around a corner laughing with delight; not even realizing you are struggling to keep up. Being torn between wanting desperately to take off the dreaded skates and curl up with a mug of hot chocolate and wanting to join in the fun everyone else is having, that's the magic of Winterlude for me. Not very magical.

Tampa Take 2

I thought I would divide up the post a bit. So, read the second one first, ok?!!


This is me on Indian Rocks Beach just taking it all in!!!!!Here's Reuben taking it all in and then using this wash station to wash off his sandy feet.


Here's us in our Mustang Convertible!!!

Here's some pictures of downtown Tampa ... the sun came out in the morning and it was just gorgeous!


And if anyone asks us if it was worth it to go down for under 24 hours, we would both emphatically say "YES"!!! It was just so nice to get away from the cold winter air!! Stay tuned for our next crazy adventure!:)

Tampa

Well, it definitely is a wonderful life. Reuben and I decided at the last minute to go to Tampa this weekend. We just wanted to be warm and do something crazy! So, we hopped on the flight Saturday morning. It turned out that we flew with my friend, Kimberley, from work, Reuben and Jodi and Chris and Charlene Van Popta. They were heading out to Vancouver for Grandma VanPopta's funeral. Kimberley was going to Toronto to visit her family. Our flight was through Toronto, which was ok except we had a delay in Ottawa and we had to go through Customs in Toronto. We had to run to catch our flight only to sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half to be deiced. This was definitely frustrating but we were relaxed because we didn't have a huge agenda when we got to Tampa, we just wanted to be on the beach!


After this delay, our flight was uneventful and when we landed in Tampa and saw the snow-free, sunny runway we were so glad we had done this. As we exited the plane, we caught a breeze coming in through the cracks in the gate and were even more excited, a fresh, warm breeze! sigh! So wonderful!!!!

So after getting our luggage, we went to get our rental car and lo and behold they had a Mustang convertible available so we snatched it.




Then we drove to the beach, put our toes in the sand and even into the ocean(it was cold!!). It was cloudy and windy but still a lot warmer than Ottawa and we just basked in everything.

I made a QUILT

Here's a picture of the quilt I made for Hadassah.
I'll admit that Karin helped me quite a bit but I did all the cross-stitching and most of the sewing of the pieces together. YAY!! I hope she likes it.
We'll be going down for her baptism this weekend. Shhh!!! It's a surprise (the quilt)!:)

Tim's Christmas Poem

Check out Tim's Christmas Poem. It's simply amazing! Touching, really.

Hadassah Rein

My new neice was born! Check it out at http://diaryofanaunt.blogspot.com.

Our Holidays

Well, it's the New Year and time for a recap of our holidays. As my husband has done this with pictures, I shall do it with words.

Finally, a week off together since we've been married and did we ever enjoy it. On Friday, Dec 22 we stayed home and had a scrumptious dinner of ham and perogies along with a bottle of homemade white wine given to us by one of Reuben's colleagues. Then
we opened our gifts to each other.

Reuben bought me the most beautiful jewelry box from the Bombay company and along with it a necklace, which he'd found, which I'd lost on our honeymoon. I got him tickets to an Ottawa 67s game and a gift certificate for dinner beforehand.

The next morning, we had a scrumptious breakfast of waffles and then headed out around 12:30pm for Waterdown. The drive was uneventful and a lot more pleasant than when we drive at night. That evening we spent catching up with the Helder family with good food and a fun game called Hoopla, a variation of Cranium.

On Sunday, we did the church thing and for dinner we had a steak fondue with lots of different sauces, yum, yum. Then we exchanged gifts. We also had to write poems. Lawren had Reuben's name so he adapted a Spirit of the West tune and sang it to him. Reuben's mom had my name and she also got me a jewelry box!! I really like it to so I decided to keep it but also thought I could share it with Reuben as it's not too girly! We also got chocolate letters and other small things.

On Christmas day we went to church in the morning and then relaxed the rest of the day. We had Oma Helder over and had a feast of turkey and all the fixings!!

On Boxing Day, we got up and drove straight to Arthur to hang out with the Buist clan. My parents with Rich and Emma had driven up the night before and Karin and Josh arrived about the time we did from their shindig in Port Stanley (Josh's hometown). We had hors d'oeuvres for lunch and then dove right into the gifts. We always have lots of laughs at this time. This year, my dad decided to count how many gifts there were. Suprisingly, there were 101! Craziness. Well, our family has now grown to 11 people so it's not a surprise. The big surprise was that my Mom bought my Dad, a James the Butler. We have been eyeing this statue for so long that it has become a long running family joke. Come on over to my parents' place and you can see him in his rightful place serving my Father. I couldn't find a picture online.

For dinner we had lasagne and then just hung out the rest of the evening, talking and walking and playing Sequence. We drove back to the Helders that night.

On Thursday, we drove home during the day and except for the traffic in Toronto it was also uneventful.

For New Year's Eve we went to the Wildeboers and had a nice time with the church congregation ringing in the New Year.

Our weekend

Raclette at my parents with Mom and Dad Helder and Karin and Josh.











Us at the Museum of Civilization with the Parliament Buildings in the background. We didn't have a tripod so it's pretty blurry. We were trying to make a nice Christmas card picture but as you can tell, it didn't quite work out. Also it's freezing cold and pretty windy.









Reuben and his dad dress up at the Canadian War Museum. We had a really nice time there. If you're in the area you should really check it out. It's definitely worth it. We were there for 3 hours and we didn't get to see half the stuff.









Here we are outside the Canadian War Museum with another attempt at a good picture of us with the Parliament Buildings in the background. Again, very cold and windy. Oh well.










And this is our bench, finally at home in our home. We just love it. It fits perfectly and adds a nice touch to our appartment. Thanks Dad!!

School - UPDATED

Ok, so I was going to quit until my wonderful husband convinced me that he would take care of all our house chores until I was done. So I took a deep breath and am planning to dive into it again tonight. Wish me luck!

School

I don't know how people do it. 40 hrs of work a week plus a night class that includes hours of homework especially as the semester comes to a close and things get more advanced in the class. At the same time, Christmas is coming and you have a home to regularly maintain.

I've overstayed my welcome in this class.

Bye COBOL ... it was nice getting to know you but I hope I never see you again!

Wet Cement

Ok, so does anybody else like the smell of wet cement? I know this sounds really weird but I do like it. . . a lot! I love walking through the tunnel at our church, it's so old and cementy! One of the first times I noticed the smell was walking in the parking garage at Carleton University. I loved the smell as I climbed the stairs. And today, I noticed the smell again as I took my daily walk through the parking garage at the airport.
I tried to google it to see if I was just weird but I found one forum where they were talking about pregnant women and the weird smells that they like. One woman really liked the smell of gasoline!? Now that is crazy!

Our bench

Dad Helder is making us a bench out of an old church pew. It just needs a couple of coats of varnish and a way to get to Ottawa and we'll be able to sit down to tie our shoes. We can't wait to see it in place.
We plan to put a shelf with some hooks above it. I keep threatening Reuben that I will fill the shelf with nicknacks and hang dried flowers from the hooks. Wouldn't that be nice?!

Raleigh Pictures-UPDATED

I thought I would add some descriptives of these pictures.
This is my attempt at rollerskating. I look pretty confident don't I? Good thing you can't see me that well:)
While in Raleigh we did a quick tour of some show homes that were decorated. They were all quite lovely. This is Reuben having some fun.
Reuben has wanted to drive one of these since doing a project on it in highschool. It's a Lexus IS300. And it's my aunt & uncle's. So he finally got the chance.
While touring the Capital buildings downtown Raleigh, we got to test out some of their stationary canons.
These are some of the flowers blooming around the Capital building
My favourite cousin with my favourite man, what a sweet picture!

This is for my Mom

*This program is intended to collect savings account data
*and store it into a text file.

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. SAVINGSDATA.
AUTHOR. IRENE HELDER.
DATE-WRITTEN. OCTOBER 25, 2006.

*Maintenance Log
*Name Date Explanation
*--------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.
FILE-CONTROL.
SELECT PRINT-FILE ASSIGN TO 'A:\SAVINGS.DAT'
ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL.

DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.
FD PRINT-FILE
RECORD CONTAINS 36 CHARACTERS.
01 PRINT-LINE PIC X(36).

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
*All the variables needed for storing the data.
01 WS-SCREEN-SAVINGS.
05 WS-ACCOUNTNUM.
10 WS-ACCFIRST PIC 9(5) VALUE 0.
10 WS-ACCHYPHEN PIC X VALUE "-".
10 WS-ACCLAST PIC 99 VALUE 0.
05 WS-NAME PIC X(17) VALUE SPACES.
05 WS-AMOUNT PIC ZZZZZZ9.99 VALUE SPACES.
05 WS-TERM PIC 99 VALUE 0.

*Other variables needed for running the program.
01 WS-OTHER-VARIABLES.
05 WS-COUNTER PIC 99 VALUE 0.
05 WS-MORERECORDS PIC X VALUE 'Y'.

*Variables for printing data to the file.
01 WS-PRINTLINE.
05 PR-ACCOUNTNUM PIC X(8).
05 PR-NAME PIC X(17).
05 PR-AMOUNT PIC 9(7)V99.
05 PR-TERM PIC 99.

*Control variables.
01 WS-CONTROLS.
05 WS-SAVE PIC X VALUE SPACES.
88 SAVE-DATA VALUE 'Y','y'.

*Details how the screen will display.
SCREEN SECTION.
01 GET-ACCOUNT-NUM.
05 VALUE "PLEASE ENTER THE ACCOUNT NUMBER:"
LINE 2 COLUMN 2.
05 PIC 9(5) USING WS-ACCFIRST LINE 2 COLUMN 34 REVERSE-VIDEO.
05 VALUE "-" LINE 2 COLUMN 39.
05 PIC 99 USING WS-ACCLAST LINE 2 COLUMN 40 REVERSE-VIDEO.

01 GET-ACCTNAME.
05 VALUE "PLEASE ENTER THE NAME:" LINE 4 COLUMN 2.
05 PIC X(17) USING WS-NAME LINE 4 COLUMN 24 REVERSE-VIDEO.

01 GET-ACCTAMOUNT.
05 VALUE "PLEASE ENTER THE AMOUNT:" LINE 6 COLUMN 2.
05 PIC ZZZZZZ9.99 USING WS-AMOUNT
LINE 6 COLUMN 25 REVERSE-VIDEO.

01 GET-ACCTTERM.
05 VALUE "PLEASE ENTER THE TERM:" LINE 8 COLUMN 2.
05 PIC 99 USING WS-TERM LINE 8 COLUMN 24 REVERSE-VIDEO.

01 SAVE-RECORD.
10 VALUE "WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAVE THIS RECORD?"
LINE 10 COLUMN 2.
10 PIC X USING WS-SAVE LINE 10 COLUMN 37.

01 MORE-RECORDS.
10 VALUE "WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD ANOTHER RECORD?" LINE 12
COLUMN 2.
10 PIC X USING WS-MORERECORDS LINE 12 COLUMN 39.

01 ERROR-MESSAGES.
05 SCR-FIRSTERROR.
10 VALUE "PLEASE ENTER 5 NUMBERS BEFORE THE HYPHEN"
LINE 3 COLUMN 2.
05 SCR-SECONDERROR.
10 VALUE "PLEASE ENTER 2 NUMBERS AFTER THE HYPHEN"
LINE 3 COLUMN 2.

01 CLEAR-SCREEN.
05 LINE 2 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 3 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 4 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 5 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 6 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 7 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 8 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 9 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 10 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 11 BLANK LINE.
05 LINE 12 BLANK LINE.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.

CREATESAVINGSACCOUNTFILE.
PERFORM A100-STARTUP.
PERFORM A200-PROCESSRECORDS
UNTIL WS-MORERECORDS = "N" or "n".
PERFORM A300-FINALIZE.

STOP RUN.

A100-STARTUP.
OPEN EXTEND PRINT-FILE.

A200-PROCESSRECORDS.
* DISPLAY 'ENTERED A200 PARAGRAPH'.
DISPLAY CLEAR-SCREEN.
INITIALIZE WS-SCREEN-SAVINGS.

PERFORM B100-GETDATA.
PERFORM B200-SAVERECORDS.
PERFORM B300-MORERECORDS.

A300-FINALIZE.
* DISPLAY 'ENTERED A300 PARAGRAPH'.
CLOSE PRINT-FILE.

*I left the code in but commented it out because I can't get it to
*work properly.
B100-GETDATA.
DISPLAY GET-ACCOUNT-NUM.

* PERFORM WITH TEST AFTER UNTIL WS-COUNTER = 5
ACCEPT GET-ACCOUNT-NUM.
* INITIALIZE WS-COUNTER
* INSPECT WS-ACCFIRST TALLYING WS-COUNTER FOR CHARACTERS
* BEFORE '-'
* IF WS-COUNTER <> 5
* DISPLAY SCR-FIRSTERROR
* END-IF
* END-PERFORM.

* PERFORM WITH TEST AFTER UNTIL WS-COUNTER = 2
* INITIALIZE WS-COUNTER
* INSPECT WS-ACCLAST TALLYING WS-COUNTER FOR CHARACTERS
* BEFORE '-'
* IF WS-COUNTER <> 2
* DISPLAY SCR-SECONDERROR
* END-IF
* END-PERFORM.

* DISPLAY CLEAR-MSGS.
DISPLAY GET-ACCTNAME.
ACCEPT GET-ACCTNAME.

DISPLAY GET-ACCTAMOUNT.
ACCEPT GET-ACCTAMOUNT.

DISPLAY GET-ACCTTERM.
ACCEPT GET-ACCTTERM.

B200-SAVERECORDS.
DISPLAY SAVE-RECORD.
ACCEPT SAVE-RECORD.
IF SAVE-DATA PERFORM C100-PRINTVALUES.

B300-MORERECORDS.
DISPLAY MORE-RECORDS.
ACCEPT MORE-RECORDS.

C100-PRINTVALUES.
* DISPLAY 'ENTERED C100'.
MOVE WS-ACCOUNTNUM TO PR-ACCOUNTNUM.
MOVE WS-NAME TO PR-NAME.
MOVE WS-AMOUNT TO PR-AMOUNT.
MOVE WS-TERM TO PR-TERM.
MOVE WS-PRINTLINE TO PRINT-LINE.
WRITE PRINT-LINE AFTER ADVANCING 1 LINE.

Irene needs . . .to join in the fun!

Irene needs to make a decision: should she try to lose weight with a diet program again or should she see the psychologist? - woah, get with the program
Irene needs to pull together the information she has collected - hmmm
Irene needs a medication refill - definitely
Irene needs to push Harry - um ... Harry get over here
Irene needs to stay warm, it's sooo cold ... - oh so true, we haven't turned our heat on yet
Irene needs a new pair of shoes - and how
Irene needs to know how to win at slot machines - nah, gambling is bad
Irene needs purpose and reasons for living -- sometimes this is so elusive and sometimes it is staring at me from across the room
Irene needs to be escorted to upstate New York to deal with a more serious criminal matter - did something happen that I wasn't informed about?
Irene needs to update her wardrobe and get a new haircut style - oh yeah, Reuben better keep bringing home that bacon!
Irene needs to balance her home life with social endeavors - you know me, social butterfly.

haha ... that was a funny exercise!

Thanksgiving

here goes,
I am thankful for:

my hubby
my family
living in Ottawa
the ability to travel
my church family
friends close by
friend far away
the ability to dream big
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
wonderful, quiet Saturdays in which to get as many chores done as you want or don't want
jeans
hoodies
pasta
income
the color green
Ikea
God's love
freedom of religion
mountains
oceans
music
cousins to giggle with
books and time to read
hot showers
warm mittens
coworkers who are willing to drive you home
my soon-to-be neice/nephew
the Bible
scrapbooking supplies
the view from our appartment



peace be with you all.

My favourite thing

We just returned from another road trip. If you're here from Reuben's blog you'll see that he succinctly described our trip in a series of bullets. I don't have much to add. It was a fantastic time! Everything worked out wonderfully, as far as the plan went except for one thing ... the weather. We had read that it was 30 degrees and sunny in Raleigh when we left. When we arrived and for the entire weekend it was 17 degrees and raining. The exact weather we had just left behind us in the frigid north. Sigh! The grass isn't always greener. (As our friend, Joel, recently pointed out.

Ok, every time we go on a trip we have to tell my father what our favourite part of the trip was. So, here goes. My favourite part of our trip was roller skating!! Can you believe we actually went roller skating? Ottawa doesn't have any roller rinks. It's too bad because it's a lot nicer than ice skating. Why? You may ask. Because it's not freezing cold! At the roller rink you could get roller skates or roller blades. We all got roller skates just for old times sake. When we were younger, my parents had a basement with concrete in the laundry/work room part and we used to roller skate around down there. We'd run into the dryer to stop ourselves. And my cousin, Corrine (who we were visiting, in case you didn't know), used to do this with us. So we did a lot of reminiscing. We always do a lot of reminiscing when we are with her.

Speaking of which, Reuben and I have a really hard time listening to music together because there are only a few bands which we both enjoy listening too. My cousin, Corrine, seemed to have both of our favourites on her IPOD. It's so great when your husband gets a long with your favourite cousin. Anyway, that was just an interesting side note.

So, rollerskating was fun but it's more exercise than I had bargained for. My calf muscles and heart were hurting after just 15 min. You should have seen some of the 'locals' at the rink. There were these 40 year old guys with their wives, just whizzing around the place like they'd been going to the rink every Saturday night since they were 18. It was really cool! And then there were the young people just grooving and having a good time. The music wasn't too harsh either. All in all, a great way to spend a Saturday night in a foreign country.

Other good parts were the grits (mmm ... looks like Cream of Wheat but is eaten with salt and butter instead of sugar and raisins), the Parade of Homes and of course, the company.

Another successful road trip under our belt ... Winnipeg here we come. (Not a road trip, by the way.)

COBOL

hey everyone, I'm in my night class right now at Algonquin college. So, it's sort of boring because it's really basic right now. I don't know if that's because it's a college course or just because it's the beginning of the course and I've done programming before. You do need 2 prerequisites to take this course but I'm not sure what everyone else's background is.

The stereotype is that College is easier than University. Is that the case? Or is it just more practical than theoretical. Well, I'm just glad that my course is easy right now, I don't know if I can handle a full day's work and homework and school. I guess I'm not the first one to attempt it so I should be able to do it.

If this doesn't make sense it's because I'm half listening and half typing this blog. It's very distracting having the Internet right in front of me. I end up starting to look something up and totally block out the teacher and then realize I've missed something that could be important.

haha ... life of a student. This includes leaving your homework to the last minute!

Happy studying all of my fellow students!!

The Morning Routine

Mornings ... I've always hated mornings. The alarm clock sounds and you emerge drowsily from sleep to a new day. There is that moment when you just want to turn off the alarm and roll over and go peacefully back to sleep but then you realize that you must arise and face the day with all it's joy and trouble. I've never been one to ignore my alarm and oversleep. There is some sense of duty and of not wanting to disappoint that makes me rise and shine. Before marriage I was always a total groucho in the mornings not wanting to communicate with anyone. Living on my own seemed to encourage this mood. Now that I am married, sometimes I wake up grumpy and Reuben is happy sometimes Reuben is happy and I am grumpy. Oh wait ... I'm still the grump. Ok, so most days Reuben has to really encourage me to cheer up and be happy, get out of bed and face the day. He always thanks God for a good night's sleep and good jobs to go to. How come I find it hard to pray this in the morning. Having just woken up, it's hard to believe that I have had a good sleep. Especially, last night when I tossed and turned with a severe headache until 2 in the morning, when I forced myself to take advil and then tossed and turned the rest of the night but at least without a headache. But this morning Reuben woke up more grumpy then I've ever seen him in the morning. He's sick. He has a sore throat and we hardly spoke one word to each other.
I'm not sure what my point is. I guess I was just pondering the difference now that I am married and have to communicate with someone in the morning. About the fact that I love waking up with someone rather than alone. And that inevitably my day is better because of this.

Reuben's Birthday Weekend

It's time for another long and boring post. Work is very slow so I am going to write as much as possible because I have nothing to do here and I'm trying to make the day go by just a little bit faster. Anyway, it's almost lunchtime so that's a good thing.

This past weekend it was Reuben's birthday. We knew we wanted to do something special and since travelling is our specialty we spent some time working on where to go. Eventually, we decided on Brockville and Merrickville, both within an hour's drive of home. We had thought Calgary at first, to take advantage of my working at WestJet but then it was so far away and we didn't want to spend them money to go to the mountains so we opted for something closer to home. Plus we hadn't been to our own church for 4 weeks so it was good to be home for that.

On Friday after work, we headed out with our suitcase to Brockville. We took the 416 up to the 401 and got off the 401 at Prescott and then drove down Hwy 2 to Brockville. This was a little more exciting than the 401 as it follows the St. Lawrence river. There were some great views and great countryside homes to see! In Brockville we drove around to find a restaurant and ended up at the Brockberry Cafe. It is a small, family run business but the choice, wine and food were all excellent. We loved the wine we had, not sure what it was, something Italian! Reuben had his famous Philly Cheese Steak sandwich that he always gets and I had a great salad with Thai chicken and mandarin oranges. We had bruschetta to start so we were too full for dessert.

Then we checked into our hotel. It was a really nice room! I couldn't wait to give Reuben his birthday present (his actual birthday was on Sunday) so he opened it then. He was very surprised! It is a GPS locator. We've been having lots of fun with it!

In the morning, we checked out the complimentary continental breakfast and were dismally disappointed. There were some dry croissant bagels with jam. Some bread, muffins (not fresh). And coffee and orange juice. oh well, we filled up anyway. On the road we decided to skip the Brockville Farmer's Market and used our GPS to get to Merrickville. We had to pass through Smith Falls' and since Reuben had never been to the Hershey factory we stopped by and purchased some much needed chocolate. Then it was on to Merrickville. It was sort of a cool and windy day but at least the rain held off until we left. We toured around the cute shops, saw the locks and had some lunch at the Yellow Canoe cafe. It was a nice time, I'm glad we went.

On Sunday, we had a very fun dinner party at my parents' place. Ribs, chicken, fettucine, salad and a wonderful chocolate mousse dessert birthday cake.

Then on Monday we were supposed to have a church picnic but the weather was decidedly not picnic-like. So we grabbed all the food we had planned to bring and brought it to Mom & Dad's and had a smorgasborg dinner.

All in all, a wonderful and memorable weekend.

Book Survey

One book that . . .

1) changed your life: A Time to Kill by John Grisham, what horrible things humanity can do

2) read more than once: Lots of books, I don't mind reading books over and over. I've read all of Rosamunde Pilcher's books at least twice

3) want on a desert island: My Hardy Boys collection for sentimental reasons and maybe some survival tips.

4) made me laugh: Any Miss Marple book by Agatha Christie, she's so cute!

5) made me cry: Pretense by Lori Wick

6) wish had been written: i don't know what to answer for this, i'm not very good at coming up with ideas

7) wish had not been written: Anything by Catherine Cookson

8) Currently Reading: No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

9) Meaning to Read: more of the Bible

Pictures from Dina and Josh's Wedding

Melissa Bremer - Bridesmaid

Dina and her Father

Joel Muis - Best Man

Pieter Gelms, Jocelyn Ludwig and Brian Jager - waiting for the reception to start

Devon Hummel

Cutting the cake

Eating the cake

Joel and Jocelyn

Reuben and I


Someone was parachuting outside the reception

Whirlwind Weekend

Last weekend we drove down to southern Ontario for Josh and Dina's wedding. We had a fairly uneventful trip except for the long line-up at Wendy's and the gross public washrooms at the rest stops. But that wasn't unexpected, I suppose. We arrived at 9:15pm and after some snacks and chatting with the fam we headed to bed.

The wedding was at 11am in Brampton so we had a nice breakfast of pancakes and raspberries and got ourselves together. When we were about 5 min away, I realized I had forgotton to put my rings on and I really wanted them for the day so we turned around. We then realized we had forgotton a couple of other important things(I can't remember what they were) so we lost a total of 15 minutes. When you are late, Murphy's Law states that you must hit every traffic light on the way to your destination, which we did. Fortunately, we did not get lost. We arrived at the ceremony, in the nick of time. Stressful!

I don't have pictures uploaded yet but hopefully, I can get them before the end of the week. It was a beautiful wedding, a wonderful sermon, melodious music and tear jerking vows!:) Everything was great! The stand up reception was scrumptious, lots of yummy cakes etc.

We had about 5 hours to kill before the reception so a group of us went to Turtle Jacks, around the corner seeing as Brampton was too far away from our homes to go back in between. Jocelyn, Pete, Tim, Brian, Chris, Reuben and I sat at the pub until 3:30 or so. It was beautiful weather and good company. Then we decided to head towards the reception and maybe we would spot somewhere else to hang out on the way. Brian found The Bramalea City Centre mall on the map so we headed there. We walked around the mall for an hour and a half.

The reception hall was beautifully decorated. We had fun at the reception. The food was great! It was a bit warm at first but it cooled down later on. The entertainment was pretty good and it didn't end too late. All together a very nice day!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, thankfully we didn't have church till 11am because we weren't asleep until 1am the night before. We left again around 3pm. On the way, we picked up Josh's brother Scott from Brampton. We didn't end up leaving Brampton till 4:30pm because we miscommunicated about where we were meeting, but at least we found eachother.

This weekend we are going to Waterdown again. We have a Helder family picnic on Saturday as well as some birthday celebrations for Reuben, even though his birthday isn't till September 3.

A lonely weekend

I miss my husband! He has been gone for 3 long nights. Every August long weekend, he and his friends go camping. This year was no different. I've heard many stories of these trips which is the reason I don't go. Also, because it's camping. And haven't I done enough camping for one summer?! phew! Anyway, they went to Guelph Lake which is a good 6 hour drive for him, all by himself. He should be on his way home right now and I am anticipating it greatly! The problem is, I don't know when he will be home so it's the great waiting game. As mentioned previously, I am not the most patient person in the world so I am seriously hoping that he is home when I get there.

I've realized over the weekend that while I can manage on my own, as I have before. Life is very boring when you don't have someone to share it with. I miss having someone to talk to, someone to make decisions with, someone to argue with, someone to sit silently eating breakfast with and someone to pray with.

Reuben, you are loved and missed, come home!

More Pics

Reuben on Canada Day, Downtown Ottawa


Me on the Ferry to Cumberland

Travel Bug

Why do I have the travel bug? First, let's define this term "travel bug". I've read that it is "a certain restlessness to visit sites that till now exist only in the traveller's imagination". This sounds about right. I think that it is also a restlessness to just get away from it all. For me, it is sort of linked to my laziness, my love of planning and the way I grew up. My parents and I have been travelling our whole family existence.

Soon after I was born, my dad took my mom and I to Switzerland for 2 years. He was doing is post doctorate at the University in Zurich. My mom and I also lived in Holland for about 3 months while Karin entered the world. After we moved to Ottawa, I don't know how many times my father has been to England, France and Germany to colaborate with colleagues, sit in on thesis exams and give lectures at various universities in these countries. My parents have also been to Israel, Hawaii and San Francisco. My father has also travelled to many different cities in the United States and Canada, all in the pursuit or recognition of scientific discoveries. So, as you can see travel was a big part of my growing up.

As a family, we drove to Winnipeg and Taber, Alberta coming back by way of the northern States. We also drove back and forth to Burlington, ON countless times to visit relatives and friends. In highschool, I had the privelage of visiting Quebec City, Toronto and Boston.

When I finished University, I rewarded myself with a month long trip to California. I spent quite a bit of money doing this. I had no job lined up for when I came back. I think this would be the traits of a travel bug or wait am I a travel bug or do I have the travel bug:) Ok, so to rephrase. I think these are the symptoms of the travel bug.

I guess it was inevitable that I began to work for WestJet, an airline, in the business of travel. Since starting here, Reuben and I have gone to Vancouver, Edmonton and Victoria, not to mention the many flights between Toronto and Ottawa. Since dating, we have also gone to Halifax but that was pre-WestJet. This year we are still planning to go to Winnipeg, Halifax(again) and Raleigh. But we are driving to Raleigh, as it's a lot cheaper and less hassle even with a good airline deal.

I love to travel. I hope we can keep travelling. Our big trip for next year is Paris, southern France and Barcelona. We hope to travel with my parents and my Dad's cousin, Ina. We also hope to meet up with friends who are living in Holland but will meet us in Paris.

I could go on and on about travelling, maybe I'll write some more posts at a later date on the joys and also the hassles of travelling.

Camping Pictures

My toes on our early morning canoe and Reuben dismantling our sleeping structure.

Camping Round 2

Bon Echo is a beautiful park. It's about 2.5 hrs from our place. The campsites only take up a third of the actual park and there are 300 of them.

Why is camping considered such a wonderful pastime? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Also, if my husband is so enamored with it does that necessitate that I become enamored as well?

What's the point of bringing modern conveniences to the woods, like trailers, when you are meant to be roughing it?

I find, even in myself, such a contradiction between loving luxury and conveniences and wanting to get away from it all by living in the country and doing things simply.

So, our camping trip. Well, it was fine. Except for having to use the Ladies Room in the middle of the night, 3 times the first night. The weather was beautiful. The scenery was beautiful. Our air mattress didn't deflate, too much. The water was warm. S'mores are yummy but messy. The mosquitos bit and bit and bit forcing us to go just a little bit mad. The food, provided by my mother-in-law was plentiful and good. We had a romantic, early morning canoe on the pristine lake.

I really hate to say this but I am glad I don't have to go again till next year. I just love my creature comforts too much. I love not having to share a bathroom with other people not to mention a gazillion different species of bugs. I love not having to wear bugspray and then hopping in to bed soaked in the stuff. Oh wait ...I promised myself I wouldn't turn this into a rant ...

Sorry, Reuben.

Please save

The problem with the computer being that if you are typing a wonderfully, long and inspiring paragraph about important topics, it will invariably freeze on you and be unable to recover anything.

This just happened to me ... bear with me as I try to recover.

So, I beg and plead with you to please hit save if you are writing for longer than 30 seconds.

A long time

Well, it has been a long time since I've posted. Almost half a month. We've been busy. Work has been slow. There is not much to fill my hours here but I get by and it's better than nothing, I guess.

So, for the Canada Day weekend, Reuben and I went downtown Ottawa and stayed overnight on Friday night at the Radisson. WestJet uses this hotel to board it's airline crew when they have to stay overnight, so they give all employees a really good room rate. It was a really nice hotel and we enjoyed our stay there. For dinner, we walked down to the market and ate at an Irish Pub. I had a chicken boxty, which was sort of a chicken stew wrapped in a potato pancake. It was really rich and flavourful! Afterwards, we walked around some more and ended up eating some really horrid dessert at Carmello's on Sparks Street. It was really sweet!!! oh well. On Canada Day, we went to Parliament Hill and sat on the lawn along with thousands of others and watched the end of the Musical Ride on a big screen because we were too far back to see it even though it was right there. And then Stephen Harper and his family came along with the Governor General and her family. We heard a couple of speeches and a couple of musical acts. Then we walked over to Majors Hill park and checked out the scene there. We were really hot and the sun was beating down. I was pretty spent by this time.

We were signed up to help out at the Ottawa Mission for Men at 2 so we had to cut the festivities short and walked over there. We served food and cleaned up in the kitchen till about 5:30. Then we walked back to our car and went home. My parents came over with pizza and we went to Dairy Queen for dessert. It was a nice evening! They were meant to stay and watch the local fireworks from our balcony but when they didn't start at 10 they decided to go home. Just after they left the fireworks started so Reuben and I watched them on our own. There was a really big tree in the way but we could see the really high ones. It was still really nice!!!!

On Sunday, we witnessed little Zachary Hart's baptism. It was a really hot day, again.

Last weekend, we spent Sat morning with some friends from WestJet. They had organized a morning at Thunderbird Miniputt/Driving Range and Go-Kart. So we did that. It was hard getting up early and heading out there. And then it was really hot and sunny!! We had fun. Reuben really enjoyed the go-karting. I got off the track after 3 rounds. It was sort of uncomfortable and I'm just not competitive enough, I guess. Oh well. So then, in the afternoon we went shopping, which was fun! Oh and on Friday we both got off work early and went to see Superman Returns. It was decent! Nice cheesy love story and not too violent or obscene. Yay!

On Sunday, we got up early, again and drove to Montreal with Mom, Oma N, Karin, Josh and Emma. We went to the ERQ church in Laval where my cousin's baby Ezekiel was being baptized. The service was in French but they had a copy of the sermon in English printed out so that was really helpful. It was nice to see our Jager family again! Unfortunately, Corrine had to head back to Raleigh right away after church:( Whereas, we went up to Derek's parents' cottage, just north of the city. We had a nice afternoon. Good food and good fellowship. The weather was hot and sunny, again and so I tried to stay in the shade. I would have gone swimming but apparently, the bottom of the lake wasn't too nice to stand on.

On the drive home, we stopped at the Chateau Montebello for drinks. They made a mighty nice sangria!:) Then we got on the ferry at Masson and crossed over to Cumberland, Ontario. It was only a 5 minute ride but fun nonetheless.

This weekend we are going camping at Bon Echo. It should be another hot weekend so hopefully, it will be a great improvement on last time we went!!! I'll let you know how it goes.

Soccer

This is perfect!

Sweater Sets

Is "sweater set" one word or two? Ok, weird question, I know. I bought this sweater because it's cold at work but not that cold, it's summer. My sweaters are all big, bulky, winter sweaters. So, I found this really nice green one. And I love it. Although, it's sort of the type of sweater you'd have as part of a sweater set, but it only came with the sweater not the matching tank top for underneath. Anyway, I sort of feel old wearing it. I mean isn't it only Grandma's that wear sweater sets? Despite the fact that I feel old, I also feel good about myself. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure whether it looks good or I just feel so comfortable but still dressy. Usually when I dress up I'm not comfortable but today I am.

So, here's to comfortable sweatersets and Grandma's who wear them!!!!

Another baby!!!

Wow, I can't believe I blogged about Alanna and Brian's baby and not about Amanda and Derek's. Amanda is my cousin, one of the family of cousins that we grew up with in Ottawa. She lives with her husband, Derek, in Montreal. They had their baby on Thursday at around noon. Here's a link to Ezekiel's site with lots more cute baby pictures:) Congratulations!!!

New Hart Baby

Just wanted everyone to know that there is a new Hart baby!

Zachary Curtis Eelco Hart was born on Sat. evening. He is the son of Brian and Alanna Hart, there are more details and pictures on their blog.

Third Anniversary and Father's Day

Yesterday, was Father's Day, our 3 month anniversary and it was also really hot! Our church does not have air conditioning and Reuben doesn't handle heat very well. It's like he sweats but it doesn't cool his body off, he just keeps getting hotter and hotter. It's hard to watch because I don't know what to do for him.

We didn't do anything to celebrate our anniversary, just mentioned it. We're saving it all up for our one year. I'm wondering if anybody celebrates monthly anniversaries in their first year of marriage. I suppose it's sort of silly.

As for Father's Day, we planned a great evening meal including ribs, green beans, baked potatoes, coleslaw and the piece de resistance was my frozen chocolate mousse squares and frozen banana chocolate ribbon cheesecake. MMMMMMM!!!! It was all really good! Anybody want to come over for leftovers, we've got lots of cake left. This is because both my brother and sister, Diana, couldn't come. So it was just the 6 of us.

We got my Dad a personalized license plate for Father's Day. We've been planning to do this for about a year but just haven't got around to it. It says "dlta 4ce". This is what he calls his research group. Delta has something to do with enzyme activity. If you remember the delta symbol from calculas, it signifies change. Anyway, he was really, really surprised!! We can hardly ever surprise him but this time we got him. I think he really likes it too. It will come in 6-8 weeks. We also got him some golf balls for his upcoming trip to the Maritimes with Rich and a cell phone cover, which he desperately needed.

All in all, it was a fun day despite the heat!

Camping - UGH

Ok, so we went camping. My family doesn't camp. I've been camping maybe 3 times in my life and each time it's been so frigidly cold I said I'd never do it again. I guess my parents never camped because they never camped as kids. Well, anyway, they just aren't the type to think that it's an adventure. I guess that's why I have the same mentality.

Well, Karin and Josh have been going camping with their group of friends for the past 3 or 4 summers and this time they invited Reuben and I along. We thought it might be fun to hang out with these people and get some camping in. Reuben grew up camping every summer. He loves it, he's used to it.

The weather didn't promise to be very good and we just about canceled. At the last minute we decided to stick it out and go anyway. Even though as we were packing the car, it was pouring rain and 10 degrees. I was trying to be brave and stick it out for Reuben's sake.

The weather didn't get any better. Our air mattress didn't stay inflated. We couldn't go swimming cause it was too cold. We sort of wished we knew our fellow campers a little bit better as it would have made for better bonding.

The good things about the weekend (because I hate to complain about the whole thing) was that sitting around a fire really is very enjoyable (if you don't get smoked out). And hearing rain on your tent is quite soothing.

We nearly went home Sat night. It started raining again and I had just about enough of being dirty, cold and uncomfortable. I can't imagine camping for a whole week!!! But we toughed it out and stayed overnight.

We're scheduled to go camping with Reuben's family in July. What should I do? Any tips to make it more enjoyable.

Another fun-filled weekend just passed. We had our friends, Josh and Dina, over from Brampton. On Friday night we did some groceries so we'd have enough food to feed them. And then we cleaned up the apt and did some dishes. They arrived around 10:15 and we sat and chatted till about midnight.

On Saturday, we got up around 8 and the guys went to play a round or two of squash while I got breakfast ready. Homemade waffles with whipped cream, bananas and blueberries. Mmmmmm!!! Then we got ready to go downtown and left around 11am. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very nice and it pretty much rained the whole day. But we trudged through and toured around the outside of the parliament buildings until we were allowed to go inside. It was an open door day so we could go wherever we wanted. We went up the Peace Tower, saw the Memorial Chamber, the House of Commons and the Senate. And last but not least we got to see the newly renovated Library of Parliament. It's been under construction for 4 years. But it was worth the wait. It was very beautiful! I will try to get some pictures up soon or get Reuben to put some on his blog. After this we decided to get something to eat as it was pouring rain. Our original plan was to walk around the Market but it wouldn't have been much fun in the rain. So we went to Darcy McGee's pub on Sparks Street. I had an excellent Summer Tomato Soup and some fries along with a warming cup of cocoa. The rest of the day was spent in our apartment warming up, playing games, eating pizza and watching a movie.

On Sunday, we went to church and between services we went for a nice walk by the river. The weather was gorgeous, sunny, warm with a slight breeze! After second service we went to my parents' for dinner with Mike and Diana, who were also down for the weekend. Josh and Dina left around 7pm. We had such a great time with them! We hope to do it again soon.