BOO


























did i scare ya? yep, after a 2 month absence i am definitely back! i hope some people still check back here from time to time! well, what have i been busy with?? i have been living with my brother (sherwood), sister-in-law (joc), and 2 nephews (isaiah and luke) for the last 2 months. i've been living with them as a part-time nanny type of thing. my sister-in-law is expecting their 3 child in the middle of august (although isaiah was born 6 weeks early and luke was 12 weeks early....so there's no knowing when this baby will actually be born!) it has really just been a ton of fun, and time is FLYING by so fast! my days basically consist of me playing with my nephews and then doing a few house hold chores each day. my nephews have asked me a couple of times "are you an adult or a child?" they just can't figure out how i look older, like an adult, yet i just play all day long, like a child. they are just so precious!


other than nannying i have been (for the most part:)) loving planning my wedding! it's 4 months away (4 months from yesterday to be exact). for those of you who don't know eric, let me just say this: he is awesome. it hasn't completely sunk in that i will be his wife soon....but i am super excited for this adventure!


hm, well, other than that i just recently read a book called "The Shack" and it was really really good. really got me thinking about how i view God and challenged me to stop putting him into a box! God is God and yet i manage to create an "image" which i think He should fit into. man, i've still got a long way to go!!


well, i can't think of much else to write, so instead i'll leave it to pictures to fill you all in with the latest happenings of my life!
(hint: you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

Luke hard at work colouring (we do a lot of this!)

Isaiah and his "important face"

Lukester having fun at the zoo

Woo hoo! my sister Ruth and sister-in-law Joc. babies, babies, BABIES!!!

This is what happens to Eric when he comes to visit me.

I took some family pictures for Ruth a couple of weeks ago, enjoy!

Ruth, Brian, Shiloh, and ???

I get lots of loving!

Luke took this picture of himself....it cracks me up every time.

Mr.Lukie

My niece, little miss Shiloh. she is the most "little girl" i have ever met....that statement would make sense if you knew her!

Luke posing for me :)

This last year i took an African dance class with 2 of my friends (Kyla and Char). After my DTS i really felt challenged to try new things...things that i say i can't do...but really i've just never spent time doing it! Dance class was a BLAST! we had SO much fun together....although the closer it got to our dance recital the less fun and scarier it seemed!! here are some pictures from the nerve racking event:
i am saying "yep, they're all clapping for us. we're so awesome!"

Char, Kyla, and ME

my beloved nephews and niece....just joy.

ok, that's it for tonight, folks!! i hope you enjoyed it....because it took a while!

Blessings.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEAUTIFUL BIG (as in older, of course) SISTER!!!

Happy birthday, Ruth! You are a bold, beautiful blessing! I love you!!


p.s.
yes, i stole all of these pictures from your blog.....but seeing as i'm the one who took them all i figured it was a forgivable offence!

if you:
a) do not live in Niverville
b) do not have facebook
c) do not read Ruth's blog
d) have not talked to anyone close to me in the last 30ish hours

THEN: you may not know that yesterday after church ERIC PROPOSED TO ME!!!! surprised?? maybe not.....but i was!!!! wow, how amazing! it hits me every couple of minutes that i am actually engaged to be married. i will be a wife. a wife!! wow. here are a couple of pictures from the happiest day yesterday:

we're cool

shiloh just cannot believe that i'm engaged!

so how did it happen? well, to be honest...i've told this story A LOT/MANY/TONS of times already...but i would love to tell it again! we had church that morning & immediately after the service finished our friend Char came up to us and said "ok, so i have a hankering for hanging out with you two and a bucket of chicken. so how about we go to the city, buy some chicken and hang out in a park somewhere." i was totally down with that...but Eric didn't seem too excited about it...so i was like, ok, no chicken or whatever! no big deal! but when Char gets an idea in her head....she gets an idea!!!! so she kept on bringing it up & i guess eventually eric had to take her aside & say LET IT GO!! so we slowly made our way out of the church, talking with friends, etc. and then Eric came up to me and said "oh, i just talked to my Aunt Em & she has some sunday school stuff that i need for teaching sunday school next week." i had no idea...so i was like ya sure, let's go there! ****note to you readers, this was all a ploy to get me out to the country near the railroad tracks**** so we're driving to his aunt and uncles house, i've never been there before, which is a good thing b/c it turns out we were going the LONG way there. just before we get to the train tracks eric starts looking at the heat gauge on his car & asks me if it looks like his engine is cold. ok, so i know NOTHING about cars....but it looked pretty normal to me! so i told him it looked fine, but you know, he was so sure it just didn't feel right, so we stopped in the middle of the road (note: it was a dirt road, so it was ok to stop in the middle of it) he popped his hood and then started looking at the engine. "hey, Mel, come and look that this!" so i get out of the car & start looking at the engine. i look at him and realize that he's on one knee and asking me to marry him!!! WHOA! i think i said "are you serious???" a couple of times & then finally YES!

we spent about 1/2 an hour at the rail road tracks...trying to get it all to sink in, we were quite unsuccessful, so we then made our rounds telling family & then friends all the happy news! :)

so there you have it! there will be an october 2008 wedding. xoxoxox

3 reason i should post today:
1) today is the first day Niverville temperature went over zero degrees celcius
2) i haven't posted in 2 months
3) if i don't post on here i will spend the next half hour wasted on facebook.

i think thoes 3 reasons are suffice! Well, i don't really have much time here. i'm waiting for my sister ruth to pick me up for us to go to quilting class together, but i was just looking at my blog and came to the shocking realization that it has been 2 months already since the last post! seriously....how does that happen?? oh well! i'm back. i don't have any pictures to post right now as i am using crystal's lap top and all of my pictures are on my parent's extremely slow computer. i have no patience for slow computers.

well, the count down is on: 23 more working days at Solomon's Porch and then i'm off to Winnipeg!!!!! wow...only 23!

well, what do you know....i found a few pictures on crystal's computer from the last month...here here ya are!



i think i'm watching Flight of the Conchords in Crystal's room here....BEX and HELEN, do you know Flight of the Conchords?? they're kiwi & hilarious! kiwilarious! if you have..."brett you've got it going" on is my favourite...and if you haven't, "brett you've got it going on" is still my favourite.

Crystal and i on our way to Steinbach. sometimes it's fun to go somewhere other than winnipeg...and steinbach is always that other.

TOBY MAC!!!! i forgot to write about this earlier!!! about a week ago i was invited to go to a Toby Mac concert which was happening about 4hrs south of us (in the US of A)....free tickets to see Toby Mac! oh my goodness! it was SUCH a blast!!


ok, well i have to get going now! see you in another 2 months ;)

i'm BACK! *phew* i'm sure many of you weren't sure this day would ever come....or maybe you've already lost all hope in me coming back & aren't even checking here any more. i hope not. b/c if it had come to that, then you would be missing this. so yes, i have been a terrible blogger the last couple of months. the only post i've made in the last 4 months was about socks. :S Mmhm, great post, i must say....but still quite sad considering the amount of time that's passed.

ok, so i have a wide variety of picture to share with you all! some go back to september! i know...it was MONTHS ago, but i really wanted to share them with you, especially for you Borgen peeps, i want to give you a bit of a picture of what my fall/winter has been looking like:

Shoshannah & myself on her birthday- early September.

YOUTH:
here are some pictures from the first youth event of this year...we have formal bowling! so much fun! Me and one other lady drove ahead of time and step up a little area in McDonald's. we set up table clothes & candles, with little "reservation" signs for the tables.

Chris- our youth leader serving us our supper!

Here are a few pictures of the Christmas party.

Darcee and Chantelle

A bunch of Senior guys.

Here are some pictures from Halloween. hehe, can anyone guess what i am??

if you guessed "fly in a flyswatter", then you would be RIGHT!






and now.....let me tell you about Manitoba winters....

ok, so i think that picture says a lot. we have actually had a pretty good winter. not too cold...that is if you don't count this last week. every day this week the average temperature has been -40 (with windchill) brrrrrrr! i remember being cold in Russia....but i'm seriously starting to believe that it's colder here.

My beautiful niece and nephews

(shiloh, luke, isaiah)

December 16-20 I went on a road trip with Eric, and Charlotte! we drove 14hrs (pretty much straight, except for short gas & bathroom breaks) i added a little map to give you guys a bit of a picture of the distance we went. our friend sho (picture of her at the beginning of the blog) is doing her SBS (school of Biblical Studies) out there and we decided to drive out there, spend a couple of days hanging out, and then bring her home for christmas break!

here we GO!

(Sho, Char, Me, Eric)

We spent one day in Banff, and decided to go the the hot springs. Problem? we didn't have bathing suits! lucky for us though, they rented out these beautiful bathing suits that must have been make in 1930.

Paul and Myself

we spent one evening with my cousins Jon and Paul. I haven't seen these guys in at least 4 years....so it was so awesome to spend time with them again

sho and char trying to take nice pictures of the 4 of us....eric and i were not cooperating.

and now CHRISTMAS TIME!! I had so much fun this christmas! Spending time with my family & Eric's family-decorating gingerbread houses-going christmas carolling-and just the joy of Christmas spirit! i love this season! what a joy!

Steph, my mom, and joc in the kitchen

Isaiah- he keeps on growing up!

Steph

the 3 cousins- shiloh, luke, and isaiah

me and lukie hanging out :)

all the family stuffed into our little living room :)

so that's all the pictures for now, friends! i haven't mentioned it on here yet, but this summer our family is going to be increasing by 2 new little babies! My sister Ruth and my sister Jocelyn are pregnant!! i will be moving in with joc and my brother Sherwood in April- helping them out around the house & with their 2 little boys. So i'll be living in the big city...which will be something totally new for me. but i am excited for the change!

ok, i'm all blogged out now! hopefully i will return sooner than i have been :) hopefully!