Ta ta Tevie!

Today was my last day of work...HELLOOOOOO SUMMER!!!

Because I'm not returning to the school, my team prepared a farewell for me. It included a very well-written poem, and a book that the kids made. First for the poem:

Julie, Julie
With your eyes so blue
SLP at Tevie
We will miss you

Off to New Zealand
To soak up the sun
Sight seeing and working
We hope you’ll have fun

The kitchen will miss
Your burning displays
Of coconut in the morning
Our hall was in a haze

You are creative and kind
And really cute and fun
Tevie was lucky to search and find
A lady second to none

We wish you well
Both students and staff
Please email and tell us
Where you take your path

We bid you good-bye
And hope you may have a rest
Please know we may cry
Because you are one of the best!

Sweet hey? Now for some of my favourite pages from the book that the kids made.

The afternoon kiddies (who are 4 & 5 years old) finished the sentence "My wish for Julie is..."

My wish for Julie is a gingerbread man for a friend:

My wish for Julie is lots of fruit to eat:

My wish for Julie is a bird for a pet:

The morning kids (who are 3 & 4 years old) completed the statement "I love Julie because..."

I love Julie because she colours with me:

I love Julie because she hugs me:

These kids are hilarious, and oh how I will miss them. Yesterday was their last day, and it was a very emotionally exhausting day. Add that to the physical/mental exhaustion that I was already experiencing, and you get Julie crashing on her bed for 2.5 hours after work. That felt good.

Now Lowell and I are lean mean packing machines, and this post concludes our blogging experience from this condo *sniff sniff*. We'll start our new blogging lives at Carlynne's house, then my parents house, then...drum roll please... NEW ZEALAND!!!

It’s the end of an EARa!

I mean that very literally and also just a regular amount of literally.

The very literal reason is this:
When I was at the dentist a couple of weeks ago, the hygienist asked me to take out the earring at the top of my ear for the X-ray. “No problem!” I said. “I’ll just shove it in my jeans pocket here temporarily.”

The following week, I put my hand in my jacket pocket, and there was a lone stud. ‘Why the heck is there one earring in here?’ I thought. ‘Oooooh right. Carlynne wore this jacket. It must be hers.’

A couple days after that, I put my hand in my jeans pocket, and pulled out a (different) lone stud. “What the heck?” I thought. “Another one?” I didn’t even try to think of a logical explanation because it seemed so ridiculous, so I tossed it.

Last Friday as I was putting headphones on, I noticed no pain. Normally, I have to navigate the earpiece gently around the earring because it’s quite tender when pushed. And THAT’s when I realized that I tossed the earring that belongs in my ear. Too late... the hole was completely grown in! So that, folks, is the very literal end of an eara (by the way, pun obviously completely intended, and also SO funny and not at all lame!!!)

And PS Carlynne, I have an earring of yours.

Now for the regular amount of literal explanation.

The countdown is on. This is our last week of married life in Edmonton as we know it. Friday is my last day of work, and Monday (June 30th) we’re Uhaulin-it to Lethbridge. After shoving our stuff in storage at my parents place, we will return to Edmonton to live with Carlynne until her wedding. After her August nuptials, we’ll go back to Lethbridge to live with my parents until our plane whisks us off to the faraway land of New Zealand on August 19th.

This weekend was spent packing up our place, and writing reports (for work). I’m actually really enjoying the packing (and I secretly don’t mind the report-writing either). I’ve been ruthlessly going through everything and organizing it like crazy so when we return to Alberta at the end of our yearish long adventure, it will be easy peasy to unpack. I’ve been keeping things clean as I go, and it’s really very satisfying!

We’re super sad to be leaving our beautiful condo:


With our beautiful view:


But we’re excited to live here:


With this cool dudette (wearing my Mom's shades from the 80s) :


Did I mention that neither of Carlynne and I will have work or school, and Lowell will have both? Poor guy…

So to sum up my current feelings: excited, nervous, happy, sad, delighted, scared...and a leeettle overwhelmed!

Cool Bananas!

Well folks, we have booked our one-way tickets to NEW ZEALAND. We’re jetting on August 19th, and returning WHO KNOWS WHEN! Likely in about a year (give or take a couple of months).

I have not yet secured myself employment, but it is in the works. I am officially a member of the NZSTA (New Zealand Speech-Language Therapists' Association), so employment shall follow before too long (I hope). Lowell’s plan is to continue his Masters (it’s a distance program, so it’s all good), and perhaps get a job for just a couple days a week so I don’t have to work full time (who wants to work full time in NZ?!?!??!)

We (well, I) will wear things like this at places like this:


For SURE we will do lots of this:


Hopefully we'll get some of this in:


Or maybe even this:

And for sure this (maybe even with Carlynne and Dan if they come visit!)...


...ALL IN ONE DAY!

We can hardly wait :)

Zak & Ave

On Saturday, our good friends Zak & Avery tied the knot at the ever-so-quaint Strawberry Creek Lodge just outside of Edmonton. We (Marc, Tara, Dan, Carlynne, Lowell and I) left Carlynne’s place by 9:30am in the pouring rain.

(yes, I am wearing jogging pants under my skirt. Not to worry though, I didn't wear them the WHOLE day...just the majority of it.)

The ceremony was on the deck, overlooking the lush wooded area. About 80 guests witnessed a beautiful wedding ceremony that fit Zak & Ave to a tee.

There are stairs hidden in all the tree-ery which the girls made their fabulous entrance from (and the boys entered from the same thing on the opposite side) :

Exchange of vows/rings:

"You may now kiss the bride!" :

Lowell snuck this picture of us singing:

Receiving the blessing:

Aw, look at the happy couple:

The rain held off for the ceremony, but came pouring down between the wedding and reception. This weather did not deter us from taking a walk around the beautiful Strawberry Creek, or our desire to set off Daniel’s rocket, however. We launched the rocket….and lost it. Some farmer will likely find it, and hopefully have his own launch pad so he can get full use out of his lucky discovery.

The rocket is set up:

And ready to blast off...

But it didn't go the first time! Our impatience got the best of us, so we snipped the cord of the rocket's ignitor and held it against the car battery:

The take-off scared the becheezies out of us, and the rocket vanished. The boys unsuccessfully searched a muddy field looking for the rocket:

The reception began at 2pm and consisted of delicious food and very thoughtful and well-articulated speeches. I was truly impressed by every individual that spoke/presented. There were no painful or awkward moments at all (which is a tad rare for weddings- but a real delight!)

Kevan & Duane were the wedding photographers and did a fabulous job (as usual). We got to see a preview of the wedding pictures, but now they are on Kev & Duane’s blog. Here are the boys hard at work:


Are the fun times now over? NOPE! Kev, Leah, Duane, and Karyn came over for a sleepover! We took advantage of the calm weather and went for a 2 hour romp through the lush River Valley. We then came home, ate, chatted/laughed, watched some You Tube videos (of course), then headed to bed. I didn’t even touch our camera because when there are photographers extraordinaire in my presence, I let them take care of the documentation. So, here are the pictures of our walk provided by the ever-talented K&D!




CONGRATULATIONS ZAK & AVE!!

Carlynne, M.D.

So, 7 years of vigorous post secondary school work has finally paid off for my sister.

Here she is, ladies and gents. Carlynne, M.D.


In the evening, Mom, Dad, Dan, Carlynne, Lowell, and I went for celebratory beverages at Hotel McDonald. It’s a historic/architectural landmark in Edmonton (and you also may recognize it as the setting for Lowell and my engagement eons ago!)


Very Vanity Fair...After the bevies, we stepped outside to snap some shots.


With the proud parentals!!Later that evening was the grad banquet. It was a pretty classy affair! It was held in the new addition of the Shaw Conference Centre. The South/East facing walls are GLASS, so you can look out into the beautiful river valley.

Here's a little sampling of 2 of the 18 or so courses...


The evening was lovely, but that did not conclude the fun/craziness of the weekend! More to come on Zak & Ave's wedding...

Congratulations again, Carlynne. What a feat!!!