Susan's turn to write

Hello to everyone in internet-land!

Yes, it's Susan, making a debut post on the Musical Pots blog!

Jason and I have been extremely busy lately, with Christmas-related activities making our lives so crazy that Christmas has been the furthest thing from our minds. Somehow, despite that, it came, and on Christmas morning we found ourselves amidst new hats, lots of chocolate, David Letterman books (yes, more than one. turns out we bought it for each other), and other goodies.

My gift-related highlight was the fact that Jason organized people to get money for my savings project of a piano instead of getting big gifts for me. I was able to go out to the Yamaha store yesterday and pick up a nice little model that fits nicely into the apartment. Thank you to all family who helped out with that!

We've enjoyed dinners with Jason's parents, grandmother, brother and sister-in-law, played games and just had time to relax.

As far as I can see, it's been a good Christmas.

Why don't you tell us about yours?

Update

Well, the start of November brought a new job for me. The Salvation Army has decided to take a different direction with Emergency Disaster Services for the city of Edmonton, placing it under the direction of Edmonton Temple. I have transferred to a new position with the SA, moving over to Community and Family Services in Edmonton. I will be taking on the position of Chilren & Youth Ministries Coordinator there. I'm really excited about the opportunity and the challenges that I know it will bring. This is now my fourth position within the Army since May 2006.

I won't actually be taking on the duties associated with my position until January. Over the next month and a half I will be learning all the ins and outs of C&FS's main downtown location including emergency food hampers, intake, warehouse work, other programs and assisting with Christmas programs in December. Once I do begin children and youth programs in January I will be working mainly out of the satellite offices in the northeast part of Edmonton.

In other news, Saturday afternoon I suddenly became quite sick, and after doing some prelimary research, we placed a call to the local Health Link number. After describing my symptoms to the nurse on the phone I was urged to immediately make a trip to the Emergency Department at the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 5:20, where I registered and took my place in the waiting room. After about 3 hours, I was finally taken in to a bed to wait for a doctor to see me. The nurse recognised that I had lost a lot of fluids and hooked me up to an I.V. I then waited several more hours to have a doctor decide that I had stomach flu, order some more fluids and then send me home...and in total it only took about 8.5 hours! I've been at home resting and regaining my strength since. I don't get sick often, so I find the few times I do get sick particularly unpleasant.

I am now feeling much better and am looking forward to getting back to work on Wednesday. I spent some time cleaning around the apartment today, doing some laundry and eating real food (yay!). I even went out and got some groceries!! I'M BACK!!!

Back together in Edmonton

Many people may be aware that I spent two weeks in Galveston, Texas with The Salvation Army on disaster relief deployment in the wake of Hurricane Ike. I left Edmonton on October 6 and got back home on the 19.

It was an interesting experience for me. It was my first time being away from home since we got married and it was difficult at times, but the work was rewarding (and very tiring). I was able to participate in a variety of duties during my time there including distributing food from canteens, cleaning canteens, cleaning Cambro containers (used to keep the food hot), driving a shuttle van to pick up new volunteers from the airport in Houston, and distributing food hampers and cleaning kits at a social service centre.

I also spent one day in Cyrstal Beach, a community on the Boliver Peninsula - a ferry ride from Galveston. The Boliver Peninsula was hit particularly hard by Ike and the communities are devestated there. It was a very difficult day that I will not forget any time soon. Click here for a USA Today news story from Crystal Beach.

I am glad to be back home now, but will hold on to this experience for a long time. It was a valuable time for me and I learn a lot from it. It affirmed the value of the Emergency Disaster Services ministry of The Salvation Army in me, and I feel privileged to be a part of that ministry.

One month since the big day

It has been a little over one month since we were married in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, and a very busy month at that. We have flown back to Alberta, drove down to California, spent a week near Malibu and then drove back to Alberta.

The wedding went extremely well, with an intimate group of family and friends joining with us to celebrate the beginning of our lives as a married couple. My grandmother, Commissioner Margaret Waters, conducted her very first wedding. We were very greatful to her for making the journey out from Ontario for the day. Others from both Susan and my families traveled to be with us, and we are greatful to everyone who could be with us. We have our photos back from the photographer and will be posting them on Facebook shortly.

Our trip to California was lots of fun. We drove south via Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California. We were able to visit with Susan's cousin Tammy and husband Jeremy near Portland on our way down. We also met their two children Maya and Declan. We had a great evening together. We also camped in Humbolt Redwood State Park in northern California amongst the world famous Giant Redwoods which was an amazing experience. If you happen to be passing through Miranda, CA make a stop at the Avenue Cafe. We had an excellent supper there.

During the last day of our drive south we passed through San Francisco, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on our way into the city. Our GPS then got confused and took us back across the Bay Bridge to Oakland.

We stayed at the Salvation Army's Mt. Crags Conference Centre near Malibu. We were able to go for a nice walk through Malibu State Park (formerly 21st Century Fox's Century Ranch, where classics such as Planet of the Apes was filmed). We swam in the pool (getting pretty bad sunburns in the process). We spent a day at Disneyland where we braved such adventures as Star Tours, Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain (I didn't particularly enjoy the 50 ft. drop). We also rode the SS Mark Twain and I got pulled into a street performance. Susan also enlarged her hat collection at the Mad Hatter. We stayed into the evening and enjoyed the parade at the end of the day.

Our trip north took us through Arazona, Ohio, Idaho and Montana. Our longest day was a decent 1200 km drive from the camp to Ogden, Ohio just north of Salt Lake City. We enjoyed a nice relaxing stay the Great Falls KOA camp ground before coming back to Canada.