Home for Christmas...

...and it's a wee bit chilly!! I flew into Winnipeg last night and was quickly reminded of how lucky I am to live on the west coast (and how much of a wuss i've become!!) Today, it was the wind that was viscious. Temperature wise, it wasn't too bad, but add the wind and it's a whole new story. Pictures from Christmas with the fam will come later, but for now, here's a snowy scene from today that will hopefully cause you to be thankful and warm in your house!!!

tis the season...

...for christmas plays at church!!!
Pammer's niece Maya (age 8) had a solo and 2 dance numbers (she was very excited about it!!) Here's one of the dances, Maya is in the middle

And here she is singing

I don't actually know any of these kids in the nativity scene, but they were all really cute and i thought the cow costume was a nice touch!

And of course, gotta love kids waving at their parents!!!

wrapping fun!

tonight i helped Pammer wrap her christmas presents, because she had a ton to wrap. But first we decided to play with some of the presents! She got some puppets for a few of her nieces and nephews (don't worry, i'm not ruining a surprise, they're ages 4 and under, and therefore not blog readers...lol!). anyway, we had a great time! Here i am enjoying a conversation with the dogs, cow and moose.
Clearly, someone said something funny...
But suddenly, they turned on me and began attacking...

Animals 1, Laura 0

And then it's back to being friends again

and after all the fun and games, some serious wrapping was actually done!

and the snow kept coming...but then it warmed up...

After driving home Saturday night in the CRAZY winter conditions mentioned in the post below, there was no way I was putting my car on the road on Sunday. So Pammer and I decided to get all bundled up and walk to the mall/grocery store, which isn't too far from where each of us live. I brought my backpack so that it was easier to carry our purchases home. We took a little detour to Mill Lake because i figured there'd be some good picture taking scenes, and it was quite pretty.



But what was to happen to all this snow? Was it to stay around and allow me to stay home from work on Monday? Alas, no....the Pineapple Express blew in and brought a whole lotta rain and warm temps...and when i say a whole lotta rain, i mean LOTS. This is the parking lot at work today, just after noon. You can see my cute little car there and it is in the process of becoming an island....it's a bit hard to tell, but in the foreground of this pic, there's quite a bit of water. The parking lot drains were no longer draining, something to do with how high the water in the river right behind our building was (see picture below this one)...so the parking lot was slowly becoming a lake (hard to believe that when i drove onto the lot at 8:30 this morning it was still covered in snow!)

And then as you can see out the back of our building, there's lots of water!! There is normally a walking path that runs through about the middle of this pic (sort of where that row of grass is). And in the foreground, it's usually all dry. All this to say that YAY i got to come home early today!!!!! The water was right up against our building and there was a worry with regard to electrical stuff or something....no matter to me, i got to come home!!

Weekend 'O Fun in Vancouver

On Friday after work, Pammer and I headed into Vancouver to hang out with our friends Mike and Jen. We went out for supper at an ever-so-ethnic restaurant called Sanafir which served a(and i quote from the website) "tapas menu offering exotic flavours showcasing North African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranian and Indian" cuisine. We concluded our evening with some homemade Americanos and a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. Pammer and I stayed the night, because then we could assist in the condo-Christmas-decorating that was to happen on Saturday!

We all awoke to a light dusting of snow. This is the view from Mike and Jen's window. The snow was not to deter us, however, and us girls fit in some shopping while Mike went to help a friend move. Here's Jen and me striking a pose infront of a fountain

And the ever-so-famous (and ever-so-expensive, thus also ever-so-controversial) Olympic countdown clock..2010 here we come!!!
We stopped for a bite to eat and to warm up at Caffe Artigiano

And then it was back to Mike and Jen's where Mike whipped up a wonderful appetizer-style dinner

Cheers to us putting up the tree!
After dinner we hung out a while longer, and by this time the snow was falling quite steadily. Pammer and I headed back to Abbotsford, driving in some shady shady road conditions. You know I'm a prairie girl and love the snow, but add in hills, ice, other bad drivers and a new car i really didn't want to crash into the ditch and you can understand why I was so tense and scared!! We got home safely, right around midnight, and boy was I happy to go to sleep!!

And thus concludes a wonderful time in Vancouver!!

Mazzy's first snowfall

Welcome to a new series I like to call "Mazzy's First..." Just because I don't have children doesn't mean I can't celebrate the "first's" of something important to me. And since my car (aka Mazzy the Mazda) is my new baby, I will now be sharing its monumental milestones with you all. Yes yes, make fun all you like but excuse me for trying to have some fun.

Anyway, the lower mainland got its first taste of winter this week. It didn't last long (but the second blast is likely pending this weekend) but it was cold, snowy and beautiful on Monday night.


And now I share with you: Mazzy's First Snowfall (and a few more pictures I took outside my apartment)

Christmas is coming!!

So after dealing with the fiasco described in the post below, it was time to move on to preparing for the next delightful holiday season.....Christmas!! Now I realize that it's not even December yet, but Pammer and I were sitting around last weekend and after looking at the calendar, decided that there just won't be much in the way of free weekend-time in the next month, so if her Christmas tree was going to go up, it had better be now!! So somewhat spontaneously, we decided to just start decorating! We got into comfy pj's, poured glasses of red wine, got to work, and had some fun!!!

All in all, the finished product was beautiful (though it did take us 2 days to complete, as we had a small issue with some christmas lights not working...) and it feels quite festive!!!

when bad pumpkins happen to good people...

Well my lovely pumpkin carvings you saw from my last post sadly did not last forever. Indeed I actually forgot about them out on Pam's deck (whoops!!) and let me tell you, they went downhill fast. And then after I noticed their sad state, I avoided them longer, because plain and simple, they were GROSS! But finally, I had to deal with them...and I wasn't about to go in without protection.

Luckily I was able to find some gloves and a mask...
All right...all systems go....time to move....
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! So disgusting!! Who knew pumpkins could rot like that....the one on the right was so mushy and soft that my fingers went right through it when i tried to pick it up....it was not an enjoyable experience!!!!!

I do not approve of this task....

But don't worry, I cleaned up the mess...and learned my lesson...next year i will have to pay attention to my little pumpkins and dispose of them much quicker!!!

coming soon...i promise....

hey everyone....I promise I WILL be posting soon...I just have to find the time to upload some pictures.....thanks for hanging in there!!!!

pumpkin carving 2007

Well it has become a tradition over the last few years for me to find fun/somewhat difficult pictures to carve into my pumpkins. It is getting harder to one-up myself every year....i'm not really sure what i'm going to tackle next year...

I carved 2 pumpkins this year: The Mona Lisa and Calvin & Hobbes...i think both turned out pretty well.

Here are my 2 pumpkins side by side

A close up of the Mona Lisa

I spent today carving my Mona Lisa and hanging out with the Unrau's (my friend Pam's sister and family). Here are the results from an afternoon of hard work. Maya (age 8, with some help from papa Chad) carved the dog in the middle, and Kassie (age 12) did the horse.

A few nights ago, when i tackled my Calvin & Hobbes pattern, I spent the evening hanging out with my friends Kristi and Dominic. Kristi carved the cat all curled up for a nap and Dom carved some sort of Transformer-type thing

Another shot of Calvin & Hobbes

And just to remind you what i've had to top from the past 2 years: Last year i carved the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin

And the year before, it was Jesus, though this isn't the best shot, you can still get the image

So, I have a year to figure out how to top all this next year....!!!!

a little cap and a little gown

Well, it is now official...I walked across the stage this weekend, donning the cap and gown and everything...and i have graduated. From now on, please address all written correspondance to "Laura Kendel, MA" tee hee!!

Anyway....my parents came out from Winnipeg for the big event. Pammer and her parents also wanted to show their support and add to my cheering section, so the 6 of us headed for Seattle, did some shopping, went out for Thai food, stayed in a hotel, and had a great weekend!!!

There were a bunch of cameras snapping shots, but so far i've only uploaded pics from my camera, so here are a few shots of the big event...more to come later, once i get pics from the others.

Here I am, post-ceremony, in my loverly cap and gown, with my diploma and a beautiful bouquet from the famous Pike's Market
The table of diplomas

Shaking hands with the school president, who i think looked like a Joker in that outfit....

With my "adopted family", the Hieberts

And with my proud parents (who provided the financial backing, allowing me to get to this place....)

Pondering...what does the future hold... (or thinking about my beautiful new car...!!)
My flowers....so pretty!!

Thee Diploma