Dec.12th: The Moving Truck Arrived

This was the day that I hoped would run smoothly. Once again I was sadly mistaken. We knew that at least one piece of our belongings would be too big for the living room, our queen size hide-a-bed, so we figured it could go upstairs in the spare room, guest room cum computer room, we should have had a tape measure with us when we bought the house!

Not only did the couch not fit in the living room the movers could get it no further than the kitchen, that's right, if we wanted to have this piece of furniture in our house it would have to live in the kitchen. Why you may ask? The back door opens into the kitchen, from the kitchen we have the door down to the basement, the opening to the front hall and another opening into the living room. The hall and living room through arches are only 28 inches wide, 2 inches narrower than the normal 30 inches. There was no way that couch was going anywhere and definitely not upstairs. Now it may still fit into the basement but that is full of boxes so we have not yet tried.

The couch was not the only piece of furniture that the movers said could not come into the house, and we could think again about taking anything over sized upstairs:

The Freezer: we had two in Nipigon, sold the smaller of the two; what a mistake that was. The freezer was supposed to go into the basement it is now on our enclosed front porch. The movers said it would have to stay on the deck with the couch but Richard insisted that it be placed in the porch. Richard had to remove the lid in order for the freezer to fit through that 28" opening, but it did to the surprise of the movers.

The Triple Dresser: I own a full bedroom suite of solid wood, this is just one of those pieces. The movers refused to even try and get it up those stairs, so it was placed in the dinning room until we could decide where it would live. The triple dresser is now in the basement it is part of the utility room and probably will remain in this house when and if we ever move again. Richard with the help of Lynda managed to get the dresser down those steep stairs and into the utility room. It will be used to house Richard's tools and any paper and laundry supplies. I have to manage with just the tall boy and bedside table to house my clothes.

The Queen Size Beds: Now the movers tried to get our mattresses upstairs but they gave up. "There was no way," they said, "that those beds are going to live upstairs." The mattresses were placed in the dinning room and the box springs where placed on the porch. Later that evening with the assistance of Pat and Merv (our first hosts), who kindly came around after work to help us move in, and Richard managed to get those two queen size mattresses up the stairs. Mattresses bend, box springs do not. We had to purchase two split queen box springs, I did not know there was even such a thing. For the first few nights we slept on our mattresses on the floor.

My Computer Desk: This piece of furniture was dropped as the movers took it out of their van breaking a caster, (this was not the only dropped item). Again the movers said it would not go up those stairs; Richard said we should take it apart, the movers still did not figure it would go upstairs. But it did. We are still trying to find the correct casters to replace the broken one.

Several of our boxes were dropped by the movers many of them marked fragile. We had one box of commemoration mugs which ended up dropped several times, I was surprised that it appears only two of the mugs broke. I have yet to check other boxes for broken items. I'm sure there will be others.

Everything except for the couch made it into our new home. We have boxes everywhere, the movers where not very good at placing boxes in the basement, or any other room for that matter, tidily. Boxes marked 'soft top' had other boxes placed on them. Boxes marked 'fragile' where not handled carefully. One bookcase arrived only fit for firewood, every shelf was broken.

I usually take our moves in stride but this one wore me down to the point of tears. I was tired of hearing the movers state; "That's not going to fit." "There is no way we can take that upstairs, downstairs." "The box only rolled once." "... replacements can be bought anywhere."

Before all the items were unloaded I was crying... Everything had been done so quickly, The purchase of our new home, packing, traveling, painting and moving in. I had reached my maximum stress load. Thank God for Merv and Pat. They arrived after everyone else had gone to find me dejected and Richard at the end of his rope. The first order of business was to get our beds set-up, upstairs. The three of them push, pulled and folded those two mattresses up those stairs, they accomplished one of the things that the movers said would not happen. Pat made the beds for me. Then she helped with putting some sort of order to the kitchen so we could at least begin the long task of unpacking. By the time Merv and Pat left we had a beginning or order to our home. The tears had dried and once again I was excited about our new home.

The Family and Christmas arrive... next installment.

The Move Continued

Friday December 5th: we settled in at our Hosts home; which was our home away from our new home for the next four days. Determined to get some rest but also get our home ready for receiving our furniture. Basically this would mean painting a couple of the rooms. Lloyd from Redeemer Church would be helping us with the painting. Lloyd was one of many who had been helping with the various tasks that needed to be done at our new home before we could move in.

Saturday morning we headed out to do some shopping and then headed to our home to be. I was overwhelmed with how clean everywhere looked. If you remember from the pictures of the house it was in quite a sorry state. Several of the ladies from the church had been in a cleaned everywhere. The carpets had been removed and the floors ready to receive the laminated boards that we had chosen to replace the filthy carpets. The floors are lovely, the walnut colour looks very rich and was a great choice. As we went through the house we took note of all the wonderful work that the ladies and the men had done for us:
All the magnetic winter windows were in place.
The carpets steam cleaned.
Nails and screws and tacks etc. taken out of walls and walls patched.
Furnace and ducts cleaned.
Sink and faucet replaced in main floor washroom.
Appliances in their place from a Sears delivery.
I'm sure many other items of repair were all complete by the time we arrived.

All that was left for us to do was to paint the upstairs orange bedroom and the living room. We had gathered some colour chips and decided on the ones we liked ready to get paint the next day or Monday.

That was it for Saturday. Sunday afternoon we went to church. Monday with Lloyd's help we bought primer and began the job of painting the upstairs bedroom. In the afternoon we delivered the motor home to it's winter parking at a small farm south of PA. In the evening I headed to the Church for the LWML Christmas Dinner.

Tuesday Richard and I went to and bought the necessary paint for the two rooms. Lloyd was already working with the primer upstairs. We realized that a second coat would be required on the downstairs room. So off to supper we went, we had an invite from Neale and Janette. After supper we began with the second coat on the living room. Lloyd had finished the upstairs room which was now blue and had begun to help with the living room, which will be a mint green.

Tired but feeling well pleased with our work of the day we headed back to our hosts. Rowland greeted us at the door, he had been worried about us as they did not expect for us to return so late in the day. We had been given a key to their house and did not realise that they would be concerned about a late return. With many apologies we went to bed as the next day would be an early start the furniture was arriving the following day, Wednesday.

That is a whole new story.

Day Three of the Move

Finally a few moments to let you know how the move played out at least day three!

Day three we were up really early; waited for the Ontario Power guys to move their vehicles in order to move the motor home out of the parking spot we were in. Once on the road we decided to see how far we could drive, actually how long I could manage. The walkie talkie batteries were died so no communication between our two vehicles. That was fine, Richard had a plan, if I needed to stop for any reason I was to turn on my flashers, which he would see, and pull over at the first opportunity. Well it sounded good until I actually tried to gain his attention. I needed a washroom break;
flashers on...
1 1/2 hours later...
I was desperate...
finally my signal was seen!

We decided that because of the perishables in the motor home we would munch as we drove; lunch consisted of chips, chocolate and water. At about Roblin, Manitoba I once again needed a washroom;
flashers on...
1 1/2 hours later and a few horn beeps...
I was almost beyond desperate...
On no! Where was he pulling off...
A Superstore Gas; no washrooms here...
He had still not seen my flashers or heard my horn...
Quick instructions we are going to Wal-mart to buy batteries and to use their washroom facilities; he was filling the motor home, unlike a car that fills very quickly the motor home takes forever because it has a huge tank. Finally we headed for Wal-mart. We decided to continue traveling, eating as we drove; supper consisted of chips, chocolate and water.

In Yorkton we change our positions; I drove lead with my flashers on and Richard drove behind me with his flashers on and no headlights. We traveled the rest of the way to Prince Albert. When we reached Malford, Saskatchewan I buzzed him on the walkie talkie (yes we did buy batteries) and told him he better chat to me as I was finding it really hard keeping my focus on the road. We pulled into Prince Albert 15 hours after we had left Kenora, Ontario.

First we had to find our new home and drop the cats off and leave the motor home outside the house until the following day. We did take some of the perishables into the house but not many. Then we headed for Mervin and Gerdie's home (our hosts for the next few days).

The Move; Day Two

We received a wake-up call from the front desk at 6:30 am. Now that should have given us plenty of time before daylight to prepare for another day on the road. Richard first had to load the car; after waiting for the elevator for at least 5 minutes, he came back to the room not for the next load; but to ask me to ring down to the front desk and find out if there was a problem with the elevator at our end of the building. That sorted; Richard soon had the car loaded ready for today's drive. While he was loading I had breakfast; yogurt with a packet of oatmeal cereal mixed in; of course we didn't have a spoon handy or a bowl; so I used what was handy, a plastic cup and two stir sticks.

We checked out and Richard walked to the Motor Home and I drove the car. Once at our home on wheels I spent time with our two furry friends; Wyneken and Katie, who were not too happy about being left alone all night. The heater did stay on; so at least that was good news.

The next order of the day was to figure out how we were going to defrost the inside of the motor home windshield; as you probably know using the conventional scrapper does not work very well. Richard figured he could drive it with the small amount that was clear until I had the brilliant idea of getting the hair dryer from my case and using that to clear the windshield. As you can imagine we did not get on the road at first light. We ended up being at least an hour later than we had hoped for.

We traveled for a couple of hours when Richard pulled off the road; he was so cold. He only had on his leather jacket,a tee shirt, jeans and shoes; not really appropriate clothing for minus 13 with a windchill factor to bring the temperature down to -23.

We eventually pulled into Wal-mart in Drydan where Richard went on a shopping spree. First a Parker, then a sweatshirt, glove/mitt combination, and a pair of Solaris boots. We had lunch at McDonald's and then back on the road. Because we were not out of Northern Ontario the sun set really fast. We reached Kenora in time before Richard was illegally driving without headlights.

While he was registering us in at Days Inn the headlights miraculously came on; we laughed saw the irony of the situation but parked the motor home anyway. After unloading the car we headed over to the restaurant for supper.

The day has not yet ended; Richard remembered that he had forgotten to bring in the items that require refrigerating from the basement of the motor home; this turned out to be a good thing because the furnace had gone out. There was no way we can leave the motor home without the furnace running as we have all our liquids, canned food, etc. in there to say nothing of our two cats who also require the motor home to be kept at a minimum temperature. Richard is still not back in the room which means it is not just a case of relighting the pilot light, it may mean the propane has frozen in the bottom of the tank. Richard has taken the car and gone to Canadian Tire to purchase a portable heater. The motor home has to be at least 10-15 degrees all night; I would hate to think of the mess if things freeze, to say nothing of our poor babies.

Richard is back from the store; the propane is flowing, the air is blowing, but there is no heat from the furnace. We do not know what the problem is but for now Richard will turn off the furnace and propane and plug in the heater for tonight. Tomorrow is another day, we have a 5:30 am wake up call in place. Let us pray that tomorrow the adventure will be more of just many hours of driving with no mishaps.

First Day of Move

What a day it has been. Richard was up early ready to finish the packing. He woke me with a cup of coffee at 7:30 am. That was the easy part of the day. The movers were an hour late arriving. I know nothing unusual about that; but when you are anxious to get everything packed and on the truck an hour makes a big difference.

The motor home was parked on the driveway ready to add all the food, liquids, can stuff etc. Oh; and all the items we would require on the road. Everything appeared to be running fairly smoothly until Richard decided it was time to start the Motor Home in order to warm the interior of it so nothing would freeze. Famous last words; start the Motor Home. You've guessed it, it would not start. Brennan Fords were called out to assist us as they had recently fixed, or supposedly fixed our electrical problem enough so we would be able to move with the vehicle. While all this is going on the movers are busy loading their truck.

Did we get the Motor Home running; yes and no. Yes but it kept cutting out and Richard felt it prudent to just plug in the oil pan heater, but to shut off the motor. I went out for lunch. Janet had kindly invited us out to give us a break from the upheaval that was going on. Richard decided to stay and sort out the vehicle problem while I was gone.

Most of the house was loaded and the movers told us they would be another couple of hours and there was no reason for us to stay waiting for them to finish. They would lock up the house once everything was loaded. You know I was never more glad of a decision than that one because the adventure had only begun.

The Motor Home, once again would not start; Brennan's were called out yet again, the problem was found. The solenoid that Brennan's had put into the vehicle was too small so overheating and cutting out. They could order a larger one from Thunder Bay and get it by tomorrow. The only problem with that was we would not have any beds to sleep on; they would be on a truck in Thunder Bay. A few phone calls a quick walk to Canadian Tire and ride to Allen's Auto but nothing that would work. the solution was to by-pass the solenoid altogether; as long as we remember to switch of the batteries when we stop; if we stop.

We were finally running and on our way. First stop was Crystal Springs to fill the propane tank and gas up both vehicles. Now we have our next problem; the propane tank valve would not close so propane was leaking out. A quick phone call by the service station attendant to find out what he could do to fix the problem. With methanol and a screw driver they fixed that valve. That wasn't the end of the problems for today. The head lights went off but we managed to get them back on until about a mile or two down the road. Richard let me know we would have to pull over as once again he had no head lights. As we sat there wondering what to do next our moving truck pulled up behind us. They had wondered if they would meet up with us or not.

What was the solution: The moving truck traveled in front with it's four ways on and I traveled behind with my four ways on and we limped into Thunder Bay. Yes we made it as far as Thunder Bay. One and a half hours away from Nipigon. We are booked into a motel until day light arrives.

The motor home is plugged in; the heater is on low enough to keep our cats warm and to stop anything from freezing. The car was emptied of all it's items that could freeze. Now we rest until the morning for our second day of our moving adventure.

The Boxes are Packed

The day is just about here. Yesterday we spent the whole day packing. Even with downsizing over the last couple of years we still have more boxes than you can imagine. I had help with the packing yesterday which I was so grateful for. By the time I fell into bed last night there wasn't a part of me that did not hurt.

All that is left to pack is my computer which Richard will put in it's boxes just as soon as I have finished today's list. First: read all messages of the last few days. Next: catch up on Evette's Blog and Laura's Blog. Then: write a quick blog... and this is it.

Our poor cats are in a dither as to what is going on. Their daily routine is no long there, their food and water are in the wrong bowls. Their comfy blankets packed away. To say nothing of all the boxes that are in their way.

Tomorrow the truck will be here to load all our worldly belongings. We will put all the liquids, food etc. in the motor home, the movers will not take any of these items. Most of our frozen food will have to be given away as the freezer in the motor home is very small.

Once the rooms are empty I will sweep them out and close the doors for the last time on this house that has been our home for five and a 3/4 years. Another chapter will start, in a new town, in a new house, this time a house that we have purchased. We have gone through many good byes. Friday I finished work, being unable to complete all that I wished to get done before my last day; but then work is never done.

Hopefully we haven't forgotten to do anything that needed to be done before we move from here. Medical records, Dental records, medications have all been handled. Cancelling the phone and Internet still have to be accomplished but we can do that tomorrow while the movers are loading everything.

We say good bye to Nipigon and within the next three days we should be in Prince Albert beginning another phase of the life God has mapped out for us.

The House is Ours

Our New Prince Albert Home

Front Door View

Our plans will be to remove the two ceders either side of the front door. Remove a lilac bush to the right of the house behind the spruce trees.

Side View

The spruce that is touching the house will be removed and also the elm on the side that has the power lines running through. All these trees have closed the house in and caused moss to grow on the roof. The flashing on the porch will have to be replaced with a flexible type of flashing so there is room for the porch to move during the cold weather.

Back view with shed and deck rails.

There is a lot of painting that has to be done outside but first the old paint needs to be scraped a sealant to be put on the wood then repainted.

This is the back Decks

There are some rotten boards to be replaced a set of steps also need replacing and more sealing and painting.

This is the living room

The fire place can not be used and has been closed up. We may eventually take the front tiles etc off and bring it back to the original fireplace but use a natural gas fire with a new flue placed up the chimney. The carpets will be removed in this room, the dining room and hall-way, it its place laminated boards in walnut colour will be layed.

The dining room

Other than the flooring this room we are going to leave as is. Unlike the living room the decor is livable and not too dirty.

Kitchen

Other than a good clean, the addition of appliances, repair or removal of the dishwasher as that one leaks, we will not be doing too much with the kitchen.

This is the porch.

There is no heat in this room so really a waste of space. As funds permit I would like to have this heated and open it up from the dinning room with french doors making it part of the house. For now it will just be a very large boot room.

The stairs to the second floor

The hallway will have the floor done and of course some fresh paint.

This is the upstairs landing

Again other than paint we will be living with this as it is, even the painting will not be done until next year.

One of the 3 bedrooms

All the bedrooms have this awful paneling on the walls and carpeting. For now we will live with this. The plan in the future is to remove the paneling and decide whether to repair the original plaster or put gyproc board on the walls, then paint. Remove all the carpets and replace with laminate board floors, using area rugs by the side of the beds.

So there you are, our new home. The ladies of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Prince Albert are going to clean the house, remove the carpets on the lower floor and arrange for the laminate boards to be laid. We should arrive the first week of December and take up residence.

We are really excited about our move but we still have all our packing yet to do. As I will be working up to November 28th most of the packing will fall on Richard's shoulders. We had one offer of help today from one of our church ladies here, I might just take her up on that offer.

A CALL

Richard has received a Call from Redeemer Lutheran Church, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to be their Pastor. We have had a whirlwind of activity since receiving the Call. The first thing was to receive the actual documents, then Richard announced to the congregation here in Nipigon that he had received the Call and requested the following Sunday off to allow us to travel to Prince Albert (PA)to see if we called find ourselves a home.

We left Nipigon on Thursday, October 30th, arriving in PA Friday afternoon. We had contacted a Real Estate agent earlier in the week , we gave him a quick phone call to confirm our arrival and see about viewing houses on Saturday and Sunday. Not being familiar with PA we were reliant on our Agent to find suitable houses in safe areas. This left us with a lot of houses crossed off our list. The first house we entered, we loved. It was a two storey, 1912 built house. We just loved the character of the house. On first viewing we did not really notice how dirty the house is and how much need of TLC.

We viewed many more houses, most not really suitable mainly because they only had two bedrooms; having children with families we really did need at least three bedrooms. We did see a three bedroom house which would have been great, we were curious why it was priced so much lower than many other comparable houses we had viewed. Our agent talked with the current resident of the property we were soon enlightened why lower price. Right next door there was an apartment block with residents who would have made this a very undesirable neighbourhood.

We returned to the first house we had seen on several more occasions that weekend, we also included our host and hostess to view it with us. On the subsequent visits we began to see how dirty the house was and how much work there would be to bring the home back to it's original glory. Were we really up for this task? We decided to place an offer and see what happens.

We had constantly sought guidance from our Heavenly Father and felt this home was meant for us. We discussed our best offer, considering the work, condition, lack of utilities being on during the past several months, general neglect and lack of appliances, a suitable figure was arrived at, now all we had to do was wait. The offer was accepted with our two conditions; one being able to obtain a mortgage the other for us to arrange having the house inspected. Tuesday we were once again at the house discussing with our house inspector the possible problems. He was very thorough, the bottom line and main question; was there any major reason why we should walk away from this deal? His answer was no, but to realise there was a lot to be done, some items as soon as possible, but most could be completed over several years.

The final obstacle was our financing. This was our biggest frustration. We chose to deal with the Royal Bank, having dealt with them for a good number of years. Our first appointment was made on a day when the bank was closed. That's correct the central banking centre for the Royal Bank made us an appointment on the day that particular Branch was closed. More phone calls another appointment was booked for Tuesday. It wasn't until he had finished setting up our new bank account that he informed us he did not handle mortgage applications and would have to pass our paper work to their local RBC Mortgage Specialist. Now we were really beginning to worry. We were heading back home on Wednesday and we still did not know if we could get a mortgage in place by Nov 12th.

Thursday we were back home in Nipigon. We had not heard from our Mortgage agent so I phoned to see how things were moving along, only to be told she did not have enough documentation and could I fax some additional papers. My nerves were really frayed by this time. I faxed everything on Friday and then we waited. It was not until that evening Christine contacted us to inform us our mortgage had been approved. That was our final hurdle. We have a new home to move to in PA.

As you may well realise from reading this that Richard will be telling our congregation that he has accepted the Call to Prince Albert. Prince Albert congregation will also be told tomorrow that he has accepted their Call. All that is left to do is arranging the move and that will be another blog. Photo's of our new home will follow shortly. Oh and yes I did hand my letter of resignation in at work on Friday morning. I will work until November 28th.

The Promised Pictures

Zachary

Contently sleep on his Daddy

Zachary after his bath time with Mummy


Zachary with his Great-Nanny Lane (my Mum)

Chase Chase contentedly sleeping at home

Chase's first car ride
Chase with his big brother Kegan

A Much Slimmer Richard

The picture he is standing by is a Tapestry I made for Evette which she will take back once she is back living in Canada.

A close-up of my much trimmer husband.

I'm extremely proud of all my grand children, if only we lived closer to them all. I'm also proud of the fact that Richard has slimmed down and is managing to keep the weight off. Who would have thought that a condition called sleep apnea could play such havoc with minds that the hormone imbalance can occur that affects the bodies ability to recognise when we have had enough to eat. This is still an ongoing battle for Richard but now he eats items that are healthy and non-fattening. He is still over weight but he needs to loose the weight slower now than he did in the beginning. He has basically stabilized so time for us to buy new clerical shirts for him that will fit his smaller size.

Proud Nanny to Chase

That is correct; we now have a third grandson.

Chase Joseph Mensch arrived on his due date, September 25th; weighing in at 9 lbs 2 ozs. We thank God that he arrived with no complications.

Richard received a call on Friday which he promptly relayed to me at work. The details were minimal, to quote Richard; "some guy phoned and said Lynda has had her baby, it's a boy, 9 pounds something and his name is Chase." That was it we then had to wait for Lynda to phone with more details.

Saturday; Richard once again took a call, this time from Lynda. She was phoning to give further details and ask how to spell Joseph, this was her Grandpa Joe's name (Richard's Step-father). Lynda felt it appropriate to name this child after her Grandpa Joe. So we now have our new Grandson's full name: Chase Joseph Mensch (at least we think he will be a Mensch). Chase was born the large size of 9 lbs 2 ozs. Lynda said it was almost drug free until the very last moments. There are no more details; remember Richard (a man) took the call. Where was I you may be asking? I was at work, yes, at work on a Saturday morning.

I have no other details and no pictures to show. So there you are three grandsons to be proud of: Kegan, Zachary and Chase.

Proud Nanny to Zachary

Zachary Dallas Morland

September 12th; 7lbs 7ozs

Isn't he adorable! Smiley phoned late Friday evening to inform us of the birth of our new grandson. Evette had a tough time, Zachary had to be delivered by emergency C-section within four hours of her being induced. Zachary's heart rate was slowing and he needed to be delivered quickly. Due to the speed of his delivery Evette is suffering a lot of discomfort. They are both home and doing as well as a new Mum does when she brings her first child home.



Evette looks so good here that you wouldn't guess at the trauma she had so recently gone through. She looks lovely holding her first born son.


This is Zachary in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Cambridge Hospital. The tub is a feeding tub until Evette is up to nursing him herself.



I'm finding it really hard not being able to go and hold my new grandson and be there to help Evette. Actually she probably wouldn't want me there so soon after coming home from the hospital.

And not to forget the proud father. The similarities in Zachary to his father are very noticeable. Richard looks so comfortable holding his son here that you would never believe this is his first child.

The hardest part of all this is not being able to go and see my daughter and her son. Christmas is not too far away; Evette, Smiley and Zachary will fly out to Canada to spend time with us. Then they will fly to Victoria to spend time with her father. Actually Christmas does seem a long way of, but I know it will come soon.

I now know how my mother felt when Evette was born here in Canada and Mum in England. Now it's my turn to have a daughter giving birth in a different country from where I live. The world is small until you have a major event in your families life and then the distances once again are vast.

The new Richard

I'm doing these new posts in order of occurrence.

Richard has been working on loosing weight, as all our friends and family know he had managed to increase in size until he was well over the 300 pound mark. One of the side effects of having sleep apnea is weight gain. Having finally being diagnosed with the condition Richard's health has been steadily improved. Many of the things that had been put down to stress and depression are actually side effects of having sleep apnea (http://www.sleepapnea.org/info/index.html).

Sleep apnea is a condition that stops a person going into a deep sleep because they stop breathing for a few moments in the night. Richard's index was 60, that is 60 times per hour he would stop breathing. We believe that he has had this condition from the late 1980's to early 1990's. After we were married in one year he put on 100 pounds. Now for a guy who is 6ft three that really isn't that much especially as he was under 200 pounds when we were married. As the sleep apnea progressed be became more tired and eventually never felt as if he had slept so was constantly having to take naps. At it's worst he was going back to bed withing a couple of hours of getting up in the morning, then again in the afternoon, he was always tired. His brain was not having time to rest to produce the necessary hormone that tells us when we have had enough to eat, so he would eat almost constantly. He could not concentrate for very long, was anxious and of course could not cope with even the smallest of problems to say nothing of the big ones that come with being a Pastor.

Richard was diagnosed finally in November 2006, and began to feel better withing weeks of buying the Cpap machine (http://www.sleepapneastore.ca/index.html). He was like a different person. As we all know extra weight is hard to loose and it was going to be a struggle for him to loose all the excess that he had gained.

In September 2007 I spent time with Evette in England and she passed on to me her old Slimming World Books ( http://www.slimmingworld.com/). You would never believe how quickly following this eating program made the pounds drop away. On September 6th (Saturdays Richard weighs himself) he announced that he had officially lost 100 pounds. That is just under a year from when he began the diet.

One of the hardest things for me to get him to eat was fruit, he now eats fruit like it's his new junk food. We have a hard time keeping enough fruit in the house. I also could never get him to try vegetables other than corn, peas and beans; he now will eat broccoli and often uses it in his cooking. He no longer eats everything that has been cooked so now we often have left overs that I can take to work for lunches. He has done amazingly well.

You are probably wondering about his sleeping during the day, very rarely does he need to take a nap other than on Sundays, but then all Pastors that I know take a nap on Sunday afternoons. He deals with stress so much better. It is like having a new man about the house.

A big thank you to my daughter who passed me those books and to Pastor Edmund Mielke for recognizing that Richard probably suffered from sleep apnea and to all those who have encouraged him on this road to new health.

This is Richard taken in 2007 not quite his largest but pretty big non-the-less.

This was taken in July this year while we were on vacation he had lost about 90 pounds at this point in time. I will add another picture of how he looks today so remember to check this blog again.

New Vehicle

After arriving back from our last vacation we collected our car from the repair shop. In total the repairs cost just over $2,000, that includes the replacement parts purchased elsewhere. This was money we did not have, so the L of C had to be used. Richard and I had business in Thunder Bay a few days later although the car worked something did not feel right. We did not use the car over the week-end but had to go to Thunder Bay for a dental appointment on the Monday. We got just a beyond half way and kathump, kathump something was drastically wrong, Richard said the steering didn't feel right. We pulled over, a very nice person stopped and offered to take Richard to the truck stop at Pass Lake, I stayed in the car. We were towed back to Nipigon placed the car on Brennen Ford's lot (this is were the repairs had been done). The next day we were informed the struts had gone and would cost a further $600.

We are talking about a 1992 Plymouth Acclaim I would normally not agree with Richard to have the work done, but the mechanic said "breaks etc. wear out and the car was basically sound apart from that". With that recommendation ringing in our ears we said go ahead and make the repairs. Another $600 though was out of the question. Richard left me to deal with the situation.

Unbeknown to me Brennen Fords had a new owner and that is who I spoke to the following day. I told him that I would never have had the first lot of repairs done if their mechanic hadn't assured me the car was basically sound and now to have the struts go after only using the vehicle twice was not a car in basically sound repair. Brian agreed to make good and suggested we come a look at a couple of used vehicles on their lot.

I must admit that Brennen Fords (Brian) did us proud. We decided to purchase a 2006 Ford Escape XLT. This vehicle appears to have had only one owner and was still under warranty until October 31st which meant we could add extended warranty. The Salesman did not know about the deal Brian had offered us, which was $2,000 off the price of one of the used vehicle. Quite a deal as it meant the price Paul told Richard was not inflated to reflect the $2,000 trade in.

Here it is, our new car.

We love the versatility. With the drivers seat being powered I can adjust the seat to meet my needs completely, if only Richard would let me drive once in a while. Richard has never had such a new vehicle, it is his new toy. You should see him every time he finds a new gadget in the car, he's like a kid in a candy store.

This new vehicle will mean that Smiley and Evette will not have to rent a car at Christmas as this one will have enough room in the vehicle for them and the baby. If all the luggage won't fit in the back then we always have the roof rack which we intend to purchase a lockable box for.

The downside of this new vehicle means we have five years to pay on a new loan when we only had three months left on the motor home loan. There was no way we could be without a car and I refuse to put anymore money into a 1992 vehicle.

Richard's Friday Swim

The Flower of the Day

Tansy

This is a picture of the entrance to Grand Marais harbour. (It was taken a few years ago.) You may ask why I have included it with this years photographs.

On Wednesday, after Richard had completed his work-out at the Pump House, he came back and decided a swim was in order. The waters of Lake Superior are definitely not known for their warmth, on the contrary they are very cold even in the height of summer. I noticed that quite a few of our neighbours were watching him, one couple were using binoculars, they were very concerned because of the distance he had swam out. I assured them he would be fine , although I must admit I was a little concerned he was out so far. That was Wednesday.

On Friday Richard once again went to the Pump House to do his work-out, on his return he went for a swim. He was gone for some time so I decided to see where he was. To my astonishment he was heading for the lighthouse (see first picture). I lost track of him so went inside to grab his binoculars; realising that once again the neighbours were keeping and eye on what he was doing. He made it to the first light house.


The speck to the side of the lighthouse is Richard, having climbed out of the water to take a rest. The people who were at the lighthouse talked with him for a while. Then he was back in the water heading, you've guessed it, not back to shore but to the light on the other side of the harbour entrance. By this time I was watching through binoculars most of the time. There was one point when a boat was coming into the harbour and heading directly toward him. He told me he was a little concerned but they did see him in time to adjust their course.


If you look very carefully you will see him walking on the wall from this light beacon. He was definitely the talk of the campsite that day. He was told they had never seen anyone swim across the channel before let alone swim back again. I'm sure someone must have done it in the past. Needless to say I was happy once he was back on my side of the harbour. He was tired but exhilarated that he had accomplished his goal with no ill effects.

What did I do on Friday? I sat outside knitting, went for a short walk around the campgrounds and just generally relaxed. The following day we were packing up to head back to Thunder Bay. Richard was preaching at a church there on Sunday.

Our One Hike

The Flower of the Day

Indian Pipe

I was so excited spotting this plant on our Thursday hike. The flowers droop their head as they open and look like a pipe hence the name. Richard laughed at my excitement at finding this specimen.

We started our hike on a gravel path that was marked suitable for a wheelchair. There were several well beaten rough paths leading off of this main one. One of these side paths led to this decking where people could have a BBQ and secluded party.




This was part of the view from the decking area. To reach this spot we climbed over rocks and roots, not difficult for the average individual but a real challenge for me. I was not able to take the path that continued on from the area. Richard and I back tracked to the easy path. The following series of pictures are me working my way back, I might add, with no assistance. I was thrilled to say I managed it alone.

We checked all the other rough paths from the easy one only to be turned back because of the steep grade, which I could not manage. After leaving this area we ventured into the primitive camping sites and tried other trails. As we hiked we slowly ascended above Grand Marais campgrounds to eventually have this view of the harbour. During our many shots of the view a yacht came sailing into the harbour this is the one for your enjoyment.

During our explorations of the areas surrounding the campgrounds we came across this wonderful area of Fireweed, Tansy, Daisies and tall grasses. I wanted you all to see how tall the plants had grown so Richard kindly went behind them and stood, he is 6 foot 3 inches. (A flower amongst flowers!)

I found quite a few varieties of flowers to photograph. We were hiking for a good 2 hours afterwards I felt so good, but tired. I've come a long way with my walking since September 2000 when I first had a below-the-knee amputation. Most of the credit goes to Richard for his encouragement; and for buying me the hiking poles that have given me so much more freedom.

This picture does not do justice to what I was seeing; the green of the Tansy, beige grass and then the grey of the almost dead tree. I could not resist taking a photograph of the effect.

Thursday night the moon was beautiful reflecting on the harbour waters. The whole scene was peaceful. God had provided just what we needed to relax and de-stress.

Wyneken's Freedom

Flower of the Day

Evening Primrose

Wednesday was another day to sit, knit and read. Richard to time to go to the Pump House and work out. He purchased a 10 day pass as it worked out cheaper than a daily pass, which would net expire for a year. He also went for a swim in Lake Superior when he arrived back home.

We decided to let Wyneken out for a roll in the dirt. We will probably live to regret the descision but it was so cute to watch him. Of course I did not think to do a video of his actions until he had had enough.

Even with my cuting part of his face off he still looks cute!

Here he is resting after his roll.

After we finished eating our evening meal we went for our walk around the camp grounds. This was another restful day.

Relax and Relax Some More

The Flower of the Day

White Campion

This is the only picture for yesterday. Instead of going for a hike down the nature trail we opted for walking into Grand Marais. I took a couple of pictures of flowers, this being the only one I can name, I did not take any others.

While in town we stopped for a frozen custard treat and watched the waves on Lake Superior. Then we walked up to the grocery stores for some additional supplies. We go through a lot of fruit, as we do not have our car with us this time (it being in the shop for repair,) we can only carry so much fruit and other food stuff back. Although the day was fairly overcast with a strong breeze blowing off the lake, it was not cold, neither Richard nor myself wore coats or sweaters.

Once back at the motor home I sat outside knitting. The order of each day is to relax, I could add the picture from the previous day of me knitting. It is important that both Richard and I take this week to unwind from our stress filled lives. Richard has taken a short membership out at the local gym, and spent time there on Monday and will on Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are for either a hike or a walk into town with me. On the days Richard is at the gym I take short walks around the campgrounds to ensure I don't sit infront of the computer too much.

FIRST VACATION DAY

The Flower of the Day

Hemp Nettle

Here I am. The question is: are we squatters or campers?

We have one of the prime sites and the first place we always check when we arrive in Grand Marais. When we arrived on Sunday we drove down to the front and bingo this sight was open; we moved in; you have to just love this view of Lake Superior! (Picture taken from beside the door of our motor home.)

The weather was lovely and I took the whole day to just sit outside and knit. What am I knitting? Let's see it's baby blue, does that mean it's for a grandson?




Katie loves to look out the door of the Motor home; she would not venture out even if we allowed her to; she is a true scaredy-Kat.

Just a short walk from our parking spot is this view of the Grand Marais Harbour.

The first picture is a misnomer, the camp ground is lovely, every so often you come across a plant box like this and the flowers are absolutely gorgeous. This box is just one spot over on the corner.

Yes, I'm still knitting and relaxing, that is the order for this week of holidays. Relax and bring the blood pressure down.