Scribbles in the Sun

My favourite worship song in Spanish at the moment....

I've been trying to slowly sort through some photos and sometimes I laugh because I can't remember why or when I took some of them.  But I came across this one and I thought it is fitting... "La Gran Aventura"....The Great Adventure.  Life is certainly an adventure these days!  If we haven't been in contact recently, then you might not know that I'll be heading back to Caracas on July 31 for another term.  Already having lived in Caracas for 3 years, I'm excited to go back to see friends, familiar sights, and eat some of my favourite foods again.  But at the same time, a lot has changed....some friends have moved away, and some of those treats are a little harder to come by these days.  Living in another country and culture isn't always the "adventure" it's cracked up to be...there are frustrating, difficult days in amongst the great days as well. However, I really want to live these next few years with the attitude of 1980-something S...

Just an update that I had a great time out in Summerland BC!  It was so good to be with the Hieberts once again, and Lukas and Mackenzie survived my caretaking.  I was also able to have a visit with Murray and Michelle Derksen (our Regional Developers) in Kelowna, and made a few new friends along the way. Plus, the weather was great, and although a little chilly at times, there was no snow and I didn't have to wear a parka! We also talked a lot about Caracas, and our return later this coming summer.  My thoughts have been turning back to Caracas more often, and the other day when I was grocery shopping, I came across this cereal: I've never noticed it on the shelf before (although I don't make a habit of buying sugar cereals....ok, I do buy Golden Grahams on occasion. And Mini Wheats. Ok, never mind.) but as soon as I saw it, I realized it looked so familiar....in fact, I think it's basically the same as a Venezuelan snack I buy (again, "on occasion"): O...

I'm off on another whirlwind adventure tomorrow....this time to Summerland BC where I'll be looking after Chris and Angela's boys.  I'm so super excited to see everyone after almost 7 months of Hiebert withdrawl!   I'm attempting once again to polish my ninja packing skills and only take a carry-on because I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay for baggage that just a few months ago was free.  Harumph.  I'm quickly realizing that Canadian packing is different than Caribbean packing; a few sweaters and jeans take up waaaaay more room than tanktops and shorts in a suitcase!  But I'm determined.  I may wear the same 2 outfits for 10 days, but I'll make it happen.  Here is my suitcase all packed up! And now after closing the suitcase, I'm hoping I might make it to Edmonton in time to look for a new carry-on....the handle and wheels are all of a sudden misbehaving on this one!!! P.S.  I sent out a newsletter yesterday AND made a blog post toda...

So I've been mulling this over for awhile....and I even wrote the idea for this blog a few weeks ago on a grocery list and I've had to hold onto that outdated grocery list ever since.  I finally have a nice quiet morning to sit online and I really want to throw out that piece of paper today, so here I am blogging.  I've shared with a few people the awkwardness of moving back to Canada and trying to figure out greetings again.  In Venezuela I'm used to greeting people with a quick kiss to the cheek....well, more of an "air kiss"....and if it's a friend, that's usually followed by a hug. Of course, coming back to Canada, there's no better way to alienate people than by going around kissing and hugging everyone.  Now I'm confused; do I hug? Shake hands? Do nothing?  When I was talking about this with a friend, they mentioned to me that they felt people don't even shake hands very much anymore.  And I think that might be true, I've had my f...

As many of you know, I'm now back in Cold Lake, Alberta for my home assignment year.  It's been interesting getting used to being back for more than a week or two of holiday!  The local Walmart and Canadian Tire stores are still quite overwhelming but I'm definitely loving the short amount of time it takes to get around town!  It was a beautiful fall, and it was great to enjoy my first fall season in 4 years!  However, fall leads to winter and winter leads to snow.  There has been snow here for a week or two now and I'm getting re-acquainted with shoveling and  scraping car windows...Winter has lost a bit of it's romanticism for me!  I do look forward to celebrating Christmas with snow, and I pulled out my decorations yesterday in hopes of getting some decorating done this coming week. Sometimes I look through the Venezuelan news headlines, and this one caught my eye today:  A group of women made the world's largest hallaca !  This is like ...

Good news for the week:  we got our cedulas as well as the ID needed to sell our vehicles!  Thank you so much for praying!! Our paperwork is now all in place and the last few hurdles to jump are packing, moving my belongings to the Hieberts, Meetup group tomorrow, arranging to sell my car, a bit of last minute shopping and finally getting on the plane on Friday.  Still feels like a mountain of thing to do, but I'm thankful for a quiet day today to work on it. Of course, I love all things 80's ESPECIALLY hair bands so you will forgive me for posting the following video that came to mind while I was writing this.  What would the day be without some cheeziness from Kelly?