Okay, I suck at taking care of fish!  I was at a dessert night at the Free Methodist Church in town last night.  Manna was playing for it, and for their centerpieces they had live goldfish in bowls.  Each table was allowed to take them home, and noone else wanted them, so I took them.  So we had three goldlfish - a little orange one named Mikey, a larger orange one named Jack, and a orange and white one named Otis.  Graham woke up this morning and found Otis floating at the top of the fishbowl.  Then this afternoon, my Dad came over to use our computer to file his taxes on our Quicktax program and he went into the dining room and said, "One of your fish is dead."  It was Mikey, poor thing!  So I flushed him.

Jack is still holding strong, but who knows.  I want to get a beta fish again.  They are so much easier to take care of.  They don't eat too much even if the food is there, and they don't die in less than 24 hours!!!!!

Anyway, Graham and I are doing well.  I've been really busy lately, and feeling a little worn out, but it will pass!  I miss the days when I could do whatever I wanted.  But having a real job kinda puts an end to that!  I have a little more freedom than some people which is nice.  Don't get me wrong, I am still REALLY enjoying my job!  But I'm just realizing that ministry is a hard job, as I'm sure a lot of you know.

Graham's still doing well in school.  I'm going to Calgary in May to take Alliance History and Thought at Ambrose University College.  I have to complete it to officially be finished with my accreditation through the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  I have a TON of reading to do for the class, but I'll survive it I think.

I'm defrosting some chicken in the microwave and just heard it beep, so I should probably go tend to it!

Ciao.

When people say that church ministry is a 24/7 kind of thing, they were right!  I am really enjoying working at the church, I just know that I'm going to be super busy for fall and winter this year!  Choir is starting up next Wednesday.  I'm really excited about getting that started, but a little nervous too as I have never had my own choir, so I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to directing.  I think that my 25 hours is going to be stretched into full time!  We'll see what happens with that though.

Graham has about 4 weeks left in Saskatoon he thinks, and then he'll be going to do a job in Humboldt, SK.  I think he'll be staying in a hotel, so at least we'll be able to talk easier and it won't cost anything.  I have really missed him lately.  It's just nice to come home to someone, or know that soon after you come home your husband is coming home from work too.  And I enjoyed having someone to cook for!  During the winter Graham will hopefully be on EI so that he can just take some time off.  He has been accepted to SIAST for the Electrical program, but we're just waiting to find out when he can get in because there are quite a few people on the wait list.  We're hoping and praying for February.  So if you think of it, pray that he'll get in for February.

After the busyness of Christmas is over, we're going to take a trip together.  Hopefully I'll be able to take about 10 days off so that we can go somewhere hot and relax for a while.

Since Graham's working up by Saskatoon right now, we went up there on August 31st to celebrate our anniversary, which is on September 2nd.  September 1st was Labour Day, so he didn't have to work that day.  So we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Saskatoon.  We had a Whirlpool Suite.  It was a really nice room and we had a relaxing evening.  We went to Moxie's for a nice supper and then spent some time soaking in the tub and of course some you know what!    It was so nice to have some concentrated time together just the two of us.  On Monday we went to see a matinee at the theater and then Graham took me out to his job site to show me what exactly it is that he does with that big machine!  I sat in his track hoe and he explained how all the controls work and stuff.  It was pretty neat!  I can't imagine operating a huge machine like that!  Then we went to get him some groceries and went and had supper with Faith and Allison.  Then I dropped Graham off at the campground and came back to Moose Jaw on my own.  It was hard to leave him, but it was nice that it was a short work week.

He's been struggling with being happy with his job.  He doesn't mind the actual work, it's just the living conditions that he hates.  I saw his room last weekend and it is tiny!  And that trailer is a mess!  I was scared to sit on the toilet in the bathroom because I swear it has never been cleaned in like 5 months!  YUCK!  Graham cleaned it off for me so I could go pee!  Haha.  So he's just really looking forward to being home and eating good food and having a better bed to sleep in.  And of course to be around me again!  I have decided to avoid at all costs planning anything on Friday nights so that when he gets home we can just have a relaxing evening together.  He's usually really exhausted when he comes home, and doesn't feel like doing anything.  So Friday nights is our night from now on!

Anyway - I think I'm going to curl up on the couch with a good book and go to bed early.

Ciao all!

Well this summer has not been the most exciting time - mostly because Graham's been away during the week every week for work.  He's been in Saskatoon for the last 3 months and will be away from home for another 3 months or so, depending on the weather and how much work they get.  It's very hard having him away all week.  I'm sure that it's harder for him to leave home than it is for me to stay home without him here.  He sleeps in a trailer with a couple other guys in a little single bed and has pretty much no personal space.  He has his own little room but it's tiny, so he tells me.  This past weekend when we got home from our trip to Washington (will talk about that in a minute), he was telling me about the comments that the other guys on his site say to him.  Mostly dirty jokes and stuff, but they also say things like "How do you know what your wife is doing when you're not around."  And sometimes they say a lot worse things in that regard.  That gets him thinking about it, and he worries.  It's getting harder and harder for him to leave every week.  He's home on the weekends, but that's the only time that we get to spend together.  He doesn't call me during the week because he thinks that that will make him miss me more!  Poor guy.  I really feel for him, and I can't wait until we have more time to spend together in the winter when he is home.  He's going to take a couple months off and then go to school hopefully in February for the Electrical Program at SIAST here in Moose Jaw.

Anyway, we got back on Monday night from our trip down to Washington to visit family.  Graham's older brother Arlen and his wife Kristy live down there.  They have a 2 year old daughter, Theya, and now twin boys who will be 2 months in a couple days.  Landon, Melanie, Gordon and Linda were also there this past weekend.  We got there on Friday morning at 8:30 and went straight to the Abbotsford Air Show.  It was fun, but I got burnt soooo bad!  I put sunscreen everywhere except for my legs because I have never in my life burnt my legs before!  Of course guess what happened?  My legs got burnt pretty badly.  They're all swollen and still pretty pink today, but the burn doesn't hurt too much anymore.  Mom thinks that I have 2nd degree burns on them because they are swelling up so much.  If the swelling doesn't go down by tomorrow I'm going to go to the clinic and find out if they can prescribe an anti-inflamatory or something to help the swelling to go down.  It doesn't hurt, just very uncomfortable!

So one exciting thing that happened this summer is that I started my new job at the church.  I am the Music and Worship Director at Moose Jaw Alliance Church.  I work about 25 hours a week and have my own office and everything!  I lead the worship teams and also will be directing the choir this fall.  I also will oversee a Sunday night worship time geared towards Young Adults.  And we will do two big productions, one at Easter and one at Christmas.  So that will be a very busy time of year!  So that has been good so far, I've been at it for a month.  I am called the Interim Director right now because I have to have my approval done through the Christian & Missionary Alliance before I can be considered an official employee of the church.  All of my documentation is in, I just have to do my interview probably sometime in September.  That has me a little nervous and I will spend a lot of time preparing for it, but it will be good for me.

Well, I'm working from home today and just taking a break, so I should get back at it.  I am still working for Window Works twice a week and I'm at the church three days a week.  It's a good balance, but I think that the church will keep me busier than 25 hours a week!  We'll see!

Ciao everyone!