Snow and Pancakes

We've had our first snowfall of the season here in Vancouver!  I've forgotten how pretty it is to see snow! Having lived on the coast of North Carolina the past 9 years, I've seen a snowfall only about 3 or 4 times so it's soooo neat to see snow! :-)  It was just a light dusting of snow and it's pretty much all melted by now.

Here are some pictures from around our neighborhood:

Backyard

side of house

cone shaped evergreens

park near our house

Our basement!

entryway

backyard again

park again

And what could go better with a snow day??  Lemon Poppy Seed pancakes topped with strawberries!

Southern Food and Hospitality!

Fried chicken, mac and cheese, sweet tea, hash brown casserole, banana pudding, cold oven pound cake....yum!  Who doesn't love southern food? 

This past weekend we hosted a Southern foods party for our friends here in Vancouver.  It was so nice to practice hospitality and have friends over! When we first moved here to Vancouver a good friend of mine from Wilmington encouraged me to start practicing hospitality as soon as possible to start making it feel like a home here. Great advice...it is indeed good for the soul to open up your home to others!

In preparing for the supper, I found it's hard to find some common southern ingredients:  White Lily Flour, Pinto beans and Luizanne tea!  Especially the tea!  I went to Safeway, Walmart, Superstore, and a few other places and couldn't find "normal" black tea anywhere.  All I could find were flavored teas and "Orange Pekoe" tea! I was pretty disheartened and shocked that they didn't sell the tea I needed.

After doing a little research though,  I came upon an amazing discovery...apparently "Orange Pekoe"  tea IS normal tea!  Who would've thought?  I thought it was an orange flavored Asian tea.  I'm happy to know I can make sweet tea here in Vancouver.  Hope any other southern sweet tea fans living abroad can learn from this mishap. :-)

Here's the one picture I took from our southern evening.  I need to start taking and posting more pictures!

I found these flowers at a local produce store/market on the way home one day.  What do you think they are??  (I'll post the answer after I have a few guesses!)

Remembrance Day



source


On November 11 we observed Remembrance Day here in Canada.  Remembrance Day (similar to our Veterans' Day or Memorial Day) is specifically designated to honor and remember those soldiers who served during WWI, WWII and other wars.  Around the city, you can see many people wearing red poppies as a symbol of remembrance.

This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend a Remembrance Day Service with the residents of the Retirement Community where I work.  We walked down the block to St. John's School to be honored guests at the service.  It was such a great and humbling experience to attend such an event with those who were alive during the WWII era.  One of our residents is originally from Holland and was in the Dutch Army during the war.  He was there when the Germans invaded his country.  He was there when the Gestapo patrolled the streets. He was part of the underground resistance movements. He had friends executed.  Remembrance Day he said, is especially hard for him. As it is for so many people whom the wars have changed and affected.

The service that day ended with the reading of this poem:

In Flanders Fields
 By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD
(1872-1918) Canadian Army 
 

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Rain and London Fog Lattes

We're beginning to experience the typical "winter" weather here in Vancouver.  Clouds, a little rain, more clouds, grey skies, and some more sprinkles of rain.  Sounds lovely eh?

It is however a lovely day to try out a new warm beverage!  And since I've already spent all my "fun" budget money for the week on a pumpkin spice latte yesterday, it's time to bring out my Port City Java Batista skills!  I made this drink called a "London Fog" latte!  It was pretty great!  Here's the recipe:

London Fog Latte

• 1/2 cup of Earl Grey tea concentrate (Steep 1 bag of tea in half a cup of water for concentrate)
• 1 tbs of vanilla syrup (I used french vanilla since it's what I had)
• 3/4 cup of steamed milk

....and Viola! You have a fun new drink!

Happy Halloween!

Hello friends and family!  Sorry it's been a while since my last post.  I've been super busy with work these past few weeks and haven't really felt like blogging.  I'll try to do better. :-)

Last week was a pretty busy week for both Matt and I.  He had A LOT of work (Hebrew Test, OT test, and etc.) and I worked a few more extra days and hours than I normally due to cover for a co-worker who's been out. Thankfully this week is back to normal!!! (or normal as it can be here in a foreign land)

Yesterday we celebrated Halloween like any couple without cute kids to dress up or a party to go to by eating sushi and listening to the sound of fireworks!  The sushi here in Vancouver is super cheap and very good, so we enjoyed our Halloween despite not dressing up and eating candy!  Something interesting about Halloween here in Vancouver is the fireworks.  Apparently they are really big here...more so than for any other holiday it seems.  We occasionally heard fireworks and saw firework sale stands the week leading up to Halloween. Then on Halloween night you couldn't relax because all the bang...boom...pop...sizzles going on outside! Interesting eh?

House update:  Still no renters...and not too much communication from our property manager lately either which is a little frustrating.  So y'all can be praying for decisions concerning our house, property manager, and etc.  Having our house not rented is still pretty discouraging for us. Especially with so many people back at home and in Vancouver praying for it to be rented and all the contacts we've been emailing.

We've been going to a church called Granville Chapel here in Vancouver and they've been teaching from the book of Daniel the past several weeks.  This past week, we learned about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace and the unshakable faith that they had in the Lord. (Daniel 3:1-30)  One particular verse that stuck out to me in the sermon was versus 13-18.

13 Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, 14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? 15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

Daniel 3:16-18

When the Lord doesn't answer my prayers, I want to handle things more like Rack, Shack, and Benny. 

The Lord is able to rent our house out...and even if he does not, I still want to trust him with where he has me here in Vancouver.

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesdays are now my "Saturdays" since I work on Saturdays. (don't feel sorry for me though, I play Wii Golf with cute elderly people on Sat.)  It's really nice to have a day off during the week to get somethings accomplished, but it's taking some time to get used to such an irregular schedule.  I have my calender constantly with me to keep myself on track.

My new job is continuing to go well.  The residents I work with are super sweet and very encouraging.  The classes I teach have remained very full despite the transition and the residents keep telling me I'm doing a great job.  It's so good to hear positive feedback. 

Working with any population, kids, adults, the elderly, you're bound to have some funny stories.  Here are a few amusing stories from my work week.

One of the residents, who is the sweetest lady in the world next to my Grandma Betty, falls asleep quite often.  She even falls asleep during the middle of my Sit Fit class!  Several times!  It's so hard not to giggle or smile when I'm teaching and all of a sudden I hear a weight drop to the floor and see her dozing off in class!

Another resident whom I work with plays the piano every Friday evening for everyone. Lots of people come and sit around the piano to watch and listen to him play.  The funny thing is, he doesn't really play the piano.  He "pretends" to play it.  He plays a cd or record in the background and pretends to move his hand along the piano keys like he's actually playing it!  I asked him one day about his "piano playing skills" and he told me, "I don't really play the piano, but they don't seem to know that"

I'm sure I'll have more funny stories for you as time goes on...

Update from Matt

Friends,  If you've ever been new somewhere, where people only have a glimpse of who you are, and it feels like everything is just slightly off, then you know how we're feeling.  I don't want to dwell on problems of new, but please continue to pray for us to find places to know and be known.  For financial stresses to dissolve, and for good friends.

What I'm excited to tell you about is my new part time job.  Library janitor.  I don't mean to brag, but its kind of a big deal.  I get to run a vacuum, dust books, and enforce the no food/beverage policy.  For four hours a night twice a week, I get to be as quiet as a mouse hopping and bopping around the John Richard Allison Library at Regent College.  Sometimes if its really slow, I get to make sure the books are in the right order, and if it's really busy I get to help the circulation desk.  In all seriousness, I'm really grateful for the extra income and mostly tedious mindless work.

Finally, a quick report on classes.  I've been reading quite a bit, mostly historical overviews of the early church and background info on the Old Testament.  Did you know that Constantine was baptized an Arian (the heresy claiming Christ was not God; refuted in the Nicene creed)?  Or that the monastic movement was a grassroots attempt to flee an increasingly power-hungry church?  
I've got my first (moderately) big research paper coming up and a fill-in-the-blank midterm on half of the Old Testament.
Hebrew is still hard.  I got back my first test and got a C+.  Not good enough.  A fun fact as you read the OT, the word "melek" in all its various spellings is the word for king.  That's why so many kings and court officials are named Abimelek or Melech or Ebed-melek, etc.

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