HELLO APRIL!

White again!

April has arrived with more wintery weather.  The ground is white again this morning but it won't last long with plus 5 temperatures forecast for today.  I'm off to the library this morning and it looks like it's back to boots this morning after getting used to going outside with shoes the last while.

I enjoyed a trip to Moose Jaw with Laurel and Ashley on Tuesday.  I even worked in a doctor's appointment in Weyburn on the way.  My blood pressure was on the high side that morning so I decided not to make use of the very warm water at the Spa.  We had lunch with my niece Tanya, her husband Jody and son Kelsy.  Macy and Madison had lunch had school but we got to see them for a few minutes later that afternoon before they left for tryouts for the ball team.

At the Spa, Laurel met her good friend Holly from high school days at LCBI. Holly's two children, Rachel and Ian, were along so it was good to meet them and enjoy supper together at Boston Pizza.  Holly and husband Dallas live near Bretton, Alberta.  I even got to visit with my neighbour, Gail Fonstad, as she and Ron were there for their 36th anniversary.

We got back to Milestone around seven after  following a new house down highway 35 for quite a few miles.  Laurel wasn't pleased to get a stone thrown at the windshield from a semi that we met!

Ashley was all excited when a stray cat showed up at their farm on April Fools Day.  She promptly named it "Brittany".   It got another name when her brothers determined that "Gary" was a more suitable name for this cat.  Ashley stuck with her choice and this cat may go by the name of Brittany Gary!  This morning the cat is gone so it was an April Fools joke I guess.

I guess the biggest news of the past week came in an email from Todd.  I'll post part of it here.

" I have decided to take a job at a Folk School here in Norway. It is a Christian Folk School owned by a Lutheran Organization and is located in Førde Norway(200 km's north of Bergen on west coast). My job will be working as a volleyball coach and youth worker. A folk school is a place where many Norwegian students go after high school to take a year to explore their interests, live away from home, travel, and be in a very social environment. It would be like an LCBI except the extra curricular activities are the actual school subjects that you take during the day. Each student picks one major area as a subject......like Dance, Music, Volleyball, Beach Volleyball, Outdoor Life, Photography, Triathalon, Soccer, Mission Work. Then they take 2 electives ranging from cooking, needlework, hiking, painting, choir,skiing,mountain biking, golf,  drama....etc. for 4 hours per week.  There are around 80 Folk schools in Norway and this school experience counts as credit points for future study at a University or College.  
  
The job will be starting on August 1st, so we will have some time to prepare for the move. I am excited for the chance to combine my youth ministry degree with my volleyball experience. Kristy is applying for jobs down there, but hopes to be involved at the school in some way. Nora will be able to attend the barnehage (owned by the Folk School) on the school campus. 
  Thanks for your prayers and support!!! Here is a link to the school in english.....    http://www.sunnfjord.fhs.no/english /  "


Todd is able to take a year's leave of absence from his present job with Swire in Kristiansund.  His boss even offered to ship a container of their belongings to a Swire port near  Førde.  Todd and Kristy plan to rent out their house for this first year.  It is close to the hospital so would be ideal for staff that come to work there for short intervals.

I am happy that Todd has chosen to take this job that will make use of his training, both in volleyball and his degree in youth ministry from Briercrest Bible Institute.  Keep them in your prayers as they make this move from Kristiansund after living there for almost eleven years.

Now that April has arrived I decorated my pencil tree with Easter symbols.  The twelve plastic Resurrection eggs in the orange carton each contain symbols of Easter - a donkey,a crown of thorns, a piece of linen ...... with the last one being empty to represent the empty tomb.  I will hide them when the kids are here at Easter and open them in order of the events of the Easter story from the Bible.

My Easter tree with a dozen "Resurrection Eggs" beneath it

Please keep my nephew Jason and Marion's son Rhett in your prayers as he faces more surgery on his face on Friday at RUH in Saskatoon after being bitten by a dog last month.  This surgery will involve skin grafts, tough for a little guy to endure (and for his parents too!).  Rhett will be kept in the hospital for seven to ten days.