Life goes on, even in all this snow....

You're right, snow is the subject matter again, we keep getting more and more and I think we have broken a record this year. We've enclosed more snow pictures, so you can judge for yourself! Neighbours were busy helping each other get out of their driveways, wallowing knee deep in snow. The snow plows can't possible keep up, but we sure are happy to see them come into our neighbourhood. Wonder how much more we will get before winter is over?

Earl's step father passed away on Fri. Jan 25th. We were amazed he live as long after the hip repair surgery he endured. He was a remarkable man and would have celebrated his 99th. birthday in April, had he not fallen. All his family members were just under, or just over, 100 when they passed away, including his parents. You will remember that Earl's mom died less then a year ago on March 1st. while we were in Brazil. Another generation has come and gone, and we're next in line. Mom and dad were both mentally alert and physically able to get around without help. Elmer and Marlene, Earl's brother and sister-in-law drove from Lander and picked up us and daughter Pat, and we drove to Alberta together. Considering the road conditions, we were fortunate to get there without any hold-ups, but did get to wait for an hour and a half on the way home. The crew was blasting to see if there were any avalanches waiting to happen. Almost all of Grandpas Meckelborg's surviving family was there, so we got to see most of the relatives on Earl's side of the family. We had a good time celebration dad's life, he was a vibrant Christian and live a good and long life. We are getting excited about our trip to Brazil when we get to see all our friends again. Like Lynn always said when she was a child, I love to go on holidays, it's just the long trip I hate. I can relate to that, seats in planes are getting less spacious all the time ... or are we getting bigger and bigger as the years go on! Lynn is our second daughter for those of you that don't know, she and her husband Dwight are missionaries in Mozambique, you can see her blog and read all about the at ... lynnlagore.blogspot.com Blessings to all ....

Winter with lots and lots of snow

Here we are just waiting for Spring, seems to be a long spell between winter and Spring! We have had more than our share of snow, and Earl has really developed his shoveling skills. But if he doesn't do it I make him walk with me, and he prefers to shovel snow! So far it hasn't been too cold though. We have already purchased the tickets for our trip to Brazil, we use air miles for one and buy the other. One has to start real early though, if you don't, you run into some serious problems. Last time we did that, we couldn't get on the same flight till we got to Houston Tx. But we think we have it fixed better for this trip. We plan to be gone from March 15th to April 28th. From there Earl will be going to Mozambique with Lynn & Dwight, who will be in Brazil with us for two weeks. I will be coming home .... I hope not alone. If we can manage it, Luke may just get his work permit by then and he can come back with me, that would suit me better. We usually don't both go to Moz. it's too costly, too tiring and too long for both of us to be away from home.

Earl's step father fell and broke his hip, he is 98, and that's not a good time to fall and break a hip. They operated on him and are trying to keep him mobile, but that's not easy. Just today we heard he has come down with pneumonia so we're all apprehensive. You will remember his mother passed away almost a year ago in March when we were in Brazil.

Our grand children, Russ and Amanda spent Christmas with their parents in Mozambique. They only had 10 days with them, but that's all you need when you are really homesick! they got home safely, though not without a few hitches. Our other granddaughter Ruth and husband Ruth Royden spent Christmas in Salmon Arm so we got to see quite a bit of them, they are always such a joy to have around. We get into some serious doctrinal discussions, and she thinks her grandpa (especially) has all the answers ... don't tell her differently! Not any other newsworthy items to write about so till next time ...

Christmas is over and we survived ...

We haven't updated for ages so we hope you haven't all given up on us! we had a wonderful Christmas, and probably about as stress free as it can get. Since half of our family lives in the far flung corners of the earth, we had a nice quiet day that ended up at the local theatre where our son-in-law runs the projectors. We all had a private showing of the Chipmunks. Lynn & Dwight's are in Mozambique and their two kids who are both in the U of A went there for Christmas. Mom and dad had accumulated enough air miles to bring them over! They had a good time even if it was only for 10 days. Coming back wasn't so great, they got bumped in N.Y. the by the time they caught another flight out, they missed their Calgary Edmonton connection. A friend picked them up OR they would have spent the night there. Amanda's luggage got lost in all the shuffle. Our other grand daughter and her husband came from Seattle and they are always such a joy to have around and usually have some weighty subject they want to discuss with grandma and grandpa. They made the rounds, just to keep things even, between her Royden's parents, Pat and Eric's and our house.

Our Brazilian Luke that spent 06 months here went back to Brazil on Nov. 1st. He had applied for an extention of his visitor's visa, but it takes immigration forever and a day to get back to their applicants, so in desperation he decided to go back in case they didn't grant him one and he would lose his return fare. His extention came just a few weeks ago, over 3 months after he applied! He is dying to come back, we tried to get someone to sponsor him so he could get a work permit, but weren't successful. Lots of people need employees, but they don't want to bother going through the government and doing all the paper work. So we are trying another route! He said a soon as he stepped off the plane in Brazil he knew he shouldn't have returned. He just loves Canada and says he wants to spend the rest of his life with ... is that a compliment? Anyway he was such fun to have around!

We are both well, and plan on going to Brazil again this Spring, and Earl will continue on to Moz. to give Dwight a hand with building and maintenance. I will come home, can't both stay away that long or our yard will turn into a hay field. Also there's the added expense we can't afford.

Pat & Eric are both fine, she has just undergone surgery and has to have more done. So she is recovering slowly ... they went in from the front of her throat, so she has a nice scar to show off! Not too much else to report, I'll try to keep up better with this blog and slowly but surely we are getting the hang of managing it .... Blessings to all

Pictures to view .. from last blog

Still Landscaping, how much longer ...

Well, this entry is a bit late I must admit, then I went to update two days ago, and it somehow goofed, and it didn't get posted, so here goes again. Yes, Earl just got the last bit of heavy duty landscaping done before the snow blew in! It's amazing how big our yard is ... like everybody else we though the bigger the yard, the better. What we didn't figure on, was the amount of work we would have to put into it. But, we're finished now and it looks wonderful! Except you will have to wait till Spring to see it now. Everyone in the family is well, except Earl's step father Leonard Meckelborg, he fell and broke his hip ... not good news for someone who is 98 years old. They did surgery to fix it and so far so good. You will remember Earl's mother passed away last year in March, she was 93, and mentally alert till the day she died. Whenever we would visited them and asked Leonard how he was, he'd always say 'I don't know I have no one to compare myself with! Remarkable people!! Christmas is upon us and this year it will be quite quiet, ours usually are. No more small kids or grand kids around to liven things up, maybe we will live long enough to have great grand kids, that should liven things up again. Ruth & Royden will be here this year and it's always such a pleasure to have them, they are such a 'have it all together' couple and always such a blessing to us, their commitment to the Lord is wonderful to see. Our other two grandchildren Russell and Amanda are both studying at the U of A and are going to Mozambique for Christmas. Lynn and Dwight had some air-miles burning a hole in their pocket, so they decided to put to better use. They leave Dec. 18th. They are both doing very well in their studies, both love the Lord, and we are extremely proud fo them both. Pat & Eric are well, Pat just had surgery on her back and is recuperating, she'll be off work for 3 to 6 months. The pain hasn't lessened, but the numbness in her arms and hands is gone, and so are her headaches, so she is very happy for that. Eric has been such a great helper and taken care of the house the dogs, and everything else Pat usually does. I will be going on here another day and adding some pictures ... when I get help from Pat! Till next time ....

Where has Autumn gone?

Since coming home from our trip we're busy trying to beat the snow and get our yard ready for the winter. All those nice flowers in big pots that graced the front of our house in the summer, are now frozen and wilted and have to be plucked up and chucked. Trees that weren't meant to be planted under the overhang of the roof where they never catch a drop of rain, have to get a real good watering before winter, shrubs need to be cut back, and the lawn has to be mowed one more time before it gets covered in snow. It's amazing how much work a yard takes to keep it looking decent. I can't believe that Adam and Eve didn't have t0 work by the sweat of their brow before they got kicked out of the garden of Eden, which incidentally, I hear was somewhere in present day Iraqi.

Everyone in our family is fine, Pat had a rather complicated back surgery on Oct. 29th , everything went well, and she is now recuperating and has to take it easy for a few months. Eric has picked up the slack and is taking good care of her by doing all of the usual household chores what a good, kind husband she has, and son-in-law we have.

Lynn & Dwight are in Mozambique and hassling the usual problems and challenges of the very third world country they live in where things rarely work the way they're suppose to! Their two children, Russell & Amanda, both in the U of A , got through their mid-term exams and did very well as usual. Russ already has a job waiting for him in Lloydminister AB/SK beginning the first of the new year I think! He's in the co-op program and has the advantage of working his way through university! He'll be moving to Lloyd, and that means Amanda will be alone in the apt. in Edmonton for eight months. She will sure miss him, they are such good friends.

Lucas Lara (Luke) is back in Brazil and we sure miss having him around. He was always cheerful, upbeat, and was most helpful around the house and yard. He also helped us so much with missions stuff, doing up videos etc. Our Portuguese correspondence to Mount Horeb in Brazil was not nearly so difficult as before! He would like to come back to Canada ... just loves our country and wants to make it his home. Hopefully he will be able to do that, and we will try to facilitate the process for him. We're almost into the flurry of year-end events and can hardly keep up going to all the different events we bought tickets for! Our church has grown in numbers and there's a lot more work involved in keeping things running smoothly. Besides our pastor, we now have an associate pastor, a youth pastor, a Children Ministry director, and believe it or not I have the title of Social Convener (not just sure what all this title entails) but I'm learning. At least I still feel reasonably useful. Earl is just going to town on the backyard and it's looking nicer and nicer all the time. He really does have a touch for design ... he's just never had much opportunity to express it before! ... so nice of you take the time to read our blog ... please leave a message anytime.

Gone and Back Again

On Sept 21st. we left Salmon Arm headed to northern Alberta with our little Lasharo RV with hopes that it would take us to our desired destinations with quitting, it is twenty years old and doesn't owe us anything. We planned to visit churches in LaGlace, Manning, McLennan AB. Then head further south and east to Belbute, Weldon, Regine (for conference) and Porcupine Plain all in SK. All was well till we left Mannning, we got as far as Fairrview, and the Lasharo decided it had had enough and packed it in. So there we were between nowhere and nowhere. We had a good reliable van in the garage at home but that was now 1400 kms away. Fortunately for us my nephew Dan Litke and his wife & Karen live in Fairview as well as a very good Brazilian friend that we always stop to visit when we go through. Dan & Karen invited us out for dinner and as we walked into the driveway Earl commented on the car sitting in his driveway. It was a Chrysler Intrepid, "it's got just the motor I need to adapt to the imported Lasharo diesel. It didn't take Earl long to inquire where he got the car and how did he like it. Dan told him he just got it but he hit two bears with it a few days ago and the insurance company wrote it off. Earl perked right up and said he would be interested in paying Dan for the wrecked car if the insurance let him keep it. Dan would only find out the next day. Then we told them of our dilemma, somehow Earl had to get back to Salmon Arm and pick up the van. The next day Dan called and said Earl could have the car if he wanted it, the insurance company didn't want the thing. He also said he and Karen were planning to go to Sicamous that week end to see their friends, and if Earl wanted to drive the car home, they would follow him in case anything went wrong ... but they couldn't leave until Friday 5 pm. So that's what we did, Earl drove to S.A. and back, a 2800 km round trip. The car ran well but the trip was brutal, he only got in 4 hours of sleep between Fri. and Sun. where we had another service to go to in McLennan. Luke came back to help him keep away. There were two very groggy guys sitting in church that Sunday, but we managed to stay awake through it all. The RV is parked in Dan's yard, and the motor for it is in the little red car sitting in our driveway in S.A. What fun, but the Lord must have had thing already worked out before all this happened ... who else would have given us a free motor. And it also takes care of any extra hours of leisure Earl thought he might have this winter. The nice thing is he now has a nice heated garage in which to work. We are so grateful to Dan & Karen. And, we managed to stay and help our Brazilian friend finish some jobs on her newly moved house. Other than that we enjoyed visiting with friends and relatives all along the way. Earl even got to sit on the tractor and make a few rounds in out friends field. Daughter Pat just got out of the hospital after back surgery. We are all praying for a full recovery, and hopefully some relief from her constant pain. Lynn & Dwight are doing just fine in Mozambique, their kids are doing very well in University in Edmonton. Our Brazilian boy wasn't able to find a sponsor so he has gone back to Brazil. We will keep looking for a sponsor and hopefully he can come back some day soon. We will surely miss him, he was such a wonderful guy, so kind and considerate, and he lit up our lives. Now we are hunkering down for the long dreary winter. But we have a nice new furnace, warm blankets, lots of homemade jam in the pantry, and enough money to buy whatever else we need to get us through the next four months! That's it for this round ...

We went a-cruisan

Well, summer is about over and we've had a busy time. We, the Schalm siblings rented a huge houseboat for seven (7) days and tried our hand at boating. First we all had to find a place to sleep, that was easy. But there were choice sleeping rooms, and we didn't get one, but ours was okay after all, and we actually slept fairly well. If you really want to know whether you get along with your siblings and their perspective husbands and wives, after very many years of living apart, try a houseboat trip! It is a fool proof test of tolerance and patience! There were 15 on us in all, all over sixty (6o) except for three young'uns! I think they got quite bored but they knew better than to complain! The fist night was a sort of trail for us, we docked the boat but didn't secure it very well. During the night a strong wind bless in and soon I could hear all sorts of commotion on deck. I thought, "how inconsiderate of people to be slamming doors and talking so loud while the rest of us were trying to sleep". I looked at my watch ... it was 3:00 am. Exasperated, I finally got up to give them a piece of my mind. Here was captain Eddy, first mate Gerry and second mate David, and a friend Bruno (he and his wife Margaret came along for the ride) all rushing around trying to save us from sure disaster. Our ropes had snapped from the strain during the wind storm and we were adrift and quickly approaching another houseboat. Fortunately our neighbour was already awake and aware of our plight, got out of his warm bed, went out into the howling wind, fired up his motorboat and towed us back to our mooring spot. Quickly the guys fastened our ropes again and this time took much more care. Wide awake but anxious to get more sleep we all went back to our sleeping quarters and were drifting off to sleep when the scenario was repeated, the ropes had come lose again! Again most of us were up and offering what good advice we could think of at that ungodly hour of the morning, and trying to help our crew get a handle on things. Again our next door houseboat neighbour came to our rescue and helped us get things sorted out, at one point he was suspended like a clothes line with his feet on one boat and his shoulders on the other keeping them from apart. Finally we got squared away, the ropes as tight as we could possibly get them. It was now 5:am and we were reeling from the loss of sleep we'd suffered and were heading back to bed when over the din we heard, "For Pete's sake, can you all just shut up and go to sleep and let others do the same". It was our youngest sister Wilma ... she'd slept through all the excitement and thought we were just out to rob her of her sleep! She honestly had no idea that we were in grave danger and about to collide with another houseboat, and Lord only knows what damaged we might have sustained. We teased her about that the next day. Luke really enjoyed the first four days, but from then on time sort of dragged for him and the other two young'uns we had aboard and they got quite bored. It's luck Wilma and Rinska, (Eddy's wife) came along, they kept him busy on the water slide, flying into the deep cold water at breakneck speed ... or learning English. Those two sure made a hit with him. We will have to think about bring over a few more just like him for them to enjoy! All in all we had a very good time, read an entire book out loud called 'Butter Down The Well' by Robert Collins (a boy's perspective of growing up in Saskatchewan in the hungry thirties).

We also sat around a camp fire every night and chewed the fat, and ate too much of the wonderful food everybody had a hand in making and preparing. All we lacked was enough sleep!! But then that's not the worst ... most of us seniors can sleep whenever we want to and always managed to make up for loss of sleep! Edith who orchestrated the whole event did a fabulous job and we commend her and owe her our thanks.

Well, I wanted to update my blog because we are leaving for a trip visiting churches in northern AB. and SK. and won't be back for many a day. I'm enclosing a few pictures for viewing. Tchau!!

Here, There, and Everywhere

Guess it's time to update this blog. We have just been so busy. We spent a week visiting Ruth & Royden in Seattle and Amanda joined us and had a good time with her cousin. Seattle is a hip bustling city but I'm glad I don't have to drive to work there every day. Ruth is a nurse and works in a clinic ... Royden is an animator and has a neat job ... he will be famous some day. Already some of his free lance stuff is being printed and sold in Christian bookstores. And Ruth is the best little cook around! Luke ... our adopted son is here and hoping he can get an extension on his visa ... just loves Canada and says he wants to stay and make this his home, get married here and have lots of kids. I tell him just tell that to immigration ... they'll love it and let you stay! His English is almost perfect and he's popular with everybody. The Schalm siblings got together and rented the biggest houseboat on the Shuswap from Sept. 08 to the 16th. It's off season and so we pay much less. At high season they rent for over $ 1000 a day, there will be 17 of us aboard. That's the closest Earl & I will ever get to taking a cruise so we're really looking forward to it. The we leave for Sexsmith AB. on Sept the 21 ... the first stop on our itinerary trip. We will be visiting churches in Alta. and Sask.Will be home again on Nov. 01. God is so good to us and this summer we were able to get a central air conditioner put into our home.We though we would be putting up about $ 4000. but when the men came to install it they found the air exchange on our furnace was cracked and so we ended up putting in a new furnace! The old one just squeaked in under the guarantee so we will replace the part and try to sell it. The new one has a much longer guarantee and it much more efficient. These spec houses for sale usually have the cheapest appliances on the market put in, and one can sort of expect this sort of thing. But we are just glad it's done and God provided and we managed to pay for it ... that's what counts! Pat and Eric are well as are Lynn and Dwight in Mozambique. Amanda and Russ just starting university classes tomorrow ... Amanda in her second year of Biochemistry, and Russ goes into his third year of electrical engineering. Amanda turned 19 today ... what a clever and beautiful grand daughter she is. Russ is a strapping young man, but of few words. He never asks questions but at least he answers ours! Until another day .....