"When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours - we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness... and call it love - true love." Robert Fulghur
Dr. Spike the second: Marc Dr. Spike-future-in-law-the-third: Dan (no this is NOT an engagement announcement)
Disclaimer #1: This is Dad's UNMAINTAINED hair (i.e. directly out of bed/the shower). Disclaimer #2: The original idea for this post belongs to Mama. Disclaimer #3: Dad, you can't get mad because of disclaimers 1 & 2.
Last weekend, my Uncle George passed away after a brief fight against cancer. My parents and Carlynne and I are flying to Toronto tomorrow for his funeral. I know there's an obituary that describes his life and family, but I'd like to write my own little obituary from the perspective of a niece.
Uncle George and his wife, Auntie Bea, have lived in Toronto for many years. Uncle George was a Professor of Theology and retired in 2004. It seemed to me that he was involved in everything and made several contributions to both the Banner and the ICS (Institute for Christian Studies) magazines as well as publishing books of his own. To add to all his publications...he's met he Pope on several occasions. I do believe they even considered each other friends!
In December of 2005, Uncle George's colleagues published a book called That the World May Believe: Essays on Mission And Unity in Honour of George Vandervelde.
On a more personal note, Uncle George was a very sincere and caring man who showed genuine interest in his nieces and nephews. At family gatherings, he would seek us out and ask what was going on in our lives. When my family visited Toronto, he showed us all around and snapped tons of pictures of the whole trip. I always feel like a celebrity around Uncle George because he's constantly putting his photography skills to use. Good thing he passed this trait on to his sons, so family events can still be well documented!
Carlynne and I enjoyed exchanging emails with Uncle George and will definitely miss his emails which were an enjoyable mixture of fun and wisdom. He had a great sense of humour (which he also passed down to his sons).
I know I speak for all my siblings (and cousins) when I say I am proud to be called a niece of Uncle George's, I love him, and I will miss him.
Since today is Daniel's birthday, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about this multi-faceted fellow. This job should be fairly easy, as pictures of Daniel is something that there is definitely not a lack of.
Welllllll, I’m in the middle of my first placement for speech pathology working at a specialized and internationally recognized stuttering institution. It's an intensive clinic that works all day every day for 3 weeks with people who stutter. And…I love it! It’s been almost 2 weeks and we’re already seeing a huge difference. It's totally inspiring. I can't imagine having a stutter so severe- it's completely debilitating (and that's why I hate when people make fun of stuttering). It’s soooooo satisfying that we’re able to make such a difference in these people’s lives! I’m lovin it… my supervisor….colleagues….secretary….clients…I love them all!!
After this placement, I’ll be working at a hospital working with both acute and rehab patients. Then from April to June, it’s back to Lethy for me where I’ll be working with pre-school and school-age kids. I sort of have a feeling that the hospital placement may kick me in the butt (at least initially), but I’m still looking forward to it.
After June I’ll be DONE, then in July I’m getting MARRIED, then… uh… I’ll let you know when I know!
Why get 1 roll of toilet paper when you can get 36?
Carlynne and I share the upstairs bathroom, and this toilet paper is for us. We're both gone all day everyday (at work/school), and I'm moving out in March. But still....why buy 1 roll of toilet paper when you can buy 36?!
This is about an autistic boy who realized his dream when he played in the last 4 minutes of a basketball game, and scored 20 points. I love this story.
This post was inspired by Duane, who posted a heart warming story of his own. Thanx D.
This starts before Christmas, but it's still a Christmas party! A few friends and I had a little secret Santa Christmas party:
Top left to right: Ann-Marie and Christie Bottom: Lyndsay, Kendra, me, and Nancy
This is old news, but just before I went home for Christmas, I graduated...
Mom, Dad, and I
Dancing up a storm baby.
Two days after I got home for Christmas, I had surgery (a hernia repair). I had a consult appointment and wasn't expecting to get in right away, but I let the doctor know that it would be the best time for me (as I can't take time off during my placements and didn't want surgery anytime near our wedding date). The doctor was wonderful and said, "How about tomorrow?" Done!
Me post-op and ready to be wheeled out of the hospital!
Every Christmas we have a "Greidanus-Grypma" Christmas where we get together with good family friends of ours. I went to bed early (as I had surgery the day before, didn't sleep at all that night and was POOPED), but this is everyone else playing killer ping pong. It's become another tradition with our families.
When Carlynne came home for the holidays, we took Niko (Marc and Kylie's dog) for a "hip hop walk". Carlynne and Niko were doing some hip hop moves on the ledge. The picture doesn't do it justice.
Every year our family makes gingerbread houses. We used to always devour all our own candy, but since we've, um, matured, we've been choosing families with kids to give each of our houses to.
Left to right: Carlynne, Kylie, Marc, Lowell, and I.
This was Lowell's first time taking part in our traditional festivities!
Shareen and I both wrote about this a bit already, but since Shareen and Craig couldn't come home for Christmas, Lowell set up a Skype Christmas for us. We had the video camera going on our end, and we both had mics and speakers, so they could see us and we were talking as though they were there. It worked out really well!
Marcy was the primary videographer.
Carlynne gave Lowell the Monsters Inc DVD for Christmas (as well as the sweater he's wearing). She gave it to him by hiding Mike Wazowski in the closet, then hinting in her poem to him to check in the closet. Cute hey? Carlynne crafted that little character herself.
Kylie is modeling my Christmas gift to her!
Marc and Kylie are making coffee before they head to Kylie's Mom's place for the rest of their Christmas celebrations. Marc has Niko's leash on his head (although I'm not too sure why:)
After our Christmas Eve gift opening with our family, I decided to make guacamole for Lowell's family as we were heading there on Christmas Day. However, I ended up trashing the whole giant batch of it because I was following the instructions religiously and blindly. The LAST ingredient was salt, and, not realizing it was a typo, I put in 2 TABLEspoons of salt. I had Lowell test it, and he said, "Hmmm...something tastes wrong...perhaps it's too limey?" "Oh!" I proclaimed, "Salt will counteract that!" So I proceeded to add another full TABLEspoon. Then my Mom came in and I had her taste test it. After grimacing and barely swallowing it, she broke it to me, "This is not edible. It's WAY too salty!" Well crap. It wasn't salvageable either, so I had to dump it all. When I was trying to get some sympathy from my Dad, he said, "Well, haven't you ever put salt in anything before?" Hee hee, he makes me laugh.
Then it was off to Carstairs (guacamolelessly) to celebrate with the Taylor clan (both immediate and extended families).
Lowell's niece Katelyn in her santa gear. So cute.
A shot of gift opening with the Taylor's.
After an eventful ride back to Lethbridge on my own (I hit the ditch, bla bla bla), Christi and Andrew came over with their ADORABLE daughter Abby. Here's my Mom and Abby:
Carlynne, Dan, and I went cross country skiing, only I didn't actually ski because we didn't locate my boots. But I still walked along with them and took fun pictures. The video is of them walking across a busy Lethbridge street with their cross country skis. It was amusing.
On the 29th, Marc, Tara (one of our roomies), and Sam came over for a hot tub party. Funny how we were in Lethbridge for a short time and ended up spending a lot of time with friends who live IN EDMONTON. Silly us. I already posted about this, but I MET SHELLEY!!! Her and Fraser came over and we had fun fun fun. My Mom took more pictures, but they're on her camera at home.
And back to Edmonton to celebrate New Years! We went to Dan's place with a bunch of people and had a very elaborate fondue with a variety of sauces that Dan and Carlynne made up.
This crab became part of the fondue. It was very real and very alive. Eek. It's holding a knife here, and it also bit Daniel. Hee hee:)
Cheryl and Tim are acting for us to finish off the paper eating game. Yes, we ate paper.
And the final news of the holidays....AARON AND MEGAN ARE ENGAGED!!! Aaron lived with my parents for 2 years (I was there for the first year) and these two kids have basically become a part of the family. I'm PUMPED that they're getting married. All these pictures capture a lot of my wonderful holiday, but definitely not all of it. It was so GREAT to be home.
Now that I'm back, real life has smacked me upside the head and free time shall be very sparse from now until the end of June.
This blog started as an engagement announcement, turned into a travel blog, then became a way to journal life with two boys and a pooch. Oh but that’s not all. Lowell has amped up the blind cycling, and he and his pilot, Mark, have their sights set on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics! In addition to Lowell’s cycling, Lowell and I have been capitalizing on many golden opportunities since being cast on season 4 of The Amazing Race Canada. Life has been a wonderful gong show, and I hope to give you a taste of it here.
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(More regular updates on Instagram @JulieLowellCAN)
Top left to right: Ann-Marie and Christie
Mom, Dad, and I
Dancing up a storm baby.
Me post-op and ready to be wheeled out of the hospital!
Left to right: Carlynne, Kylie, Marc, Lowell, and I.
This was Lowell's first time taking part in our traditional festivities!
Marcy was the primary videographer.
Carlynne gave Lowell the Monsters Inc DVD for Christmas (as well as the sweater he's wearing). She gave it to him by hiding Mike Wazowski in the closet, then hinting in her poem to him to check in the closet. Cute hey? Carlynne crafted that little character herself.
Kylie is modeling my Christmas gift to her!
Marc and Kylie are making coffee before they head to Kylie's Mom's place for the rest of their Christmas celebrations. Marc has Niko's leash on his head (although I'm not too sure why:)
Then it was off to Carstairs (guacamolelessly) to celebrate with the Taylor clan (both immediate and extended families).
Lowell's niece Katelyn in her santa gear. So cute.
A shot of gift opening with the Taylor's.
This crab became part of the fondue. It was very real and very alive. Eek. It's holding a knife here, and it also bit Daniel. Hee hee:)
Cheryl and Tim are acting for us to finish off the paper eating game. Yes, we ate paper.
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