Rock Climbing Well, I took the plunge and tried rock climbing today-- thanks to my friend Nat. I haven't done it since grade 11 gym class I think it was. Anyhow, it was fun but unfortunately is painful on the pocket, especially if I seriously want to get into it. Still not sure I'm willing to spend $18 regularly to take up this sport, but it was challenging and a great activity for winter exercise. I didn't take any pics, but that's probably a good thing as I'm sure they wouldn't have been too flattering! Nat and Vince were very supportive and encouraging, although, Nat perhaps a little too supportive by refusing to let me down until I completed one of the climbs...it was brutal. I was glad my knees held on and was grateful for my knee braces. I wish they had shoulder braces too! I'll take my chances on that one. It's been a while since I blogged. Life is going well and is busy. I ventured out on public transit last night to pick Lena, my roommate, up at the airport. She'd been away for about 3 weeks for the holidays. I still have my Christmas tree up and should take it down soon but it isn't totally bare yet so I'm putting it off. On Thursday I started taking guitar lessons at our community centre so we'll see how that goes. I'm having to unlearn bad habits so it's challenging. If I keep up with the rock climbing and guitar lessons I should have pretty caloused strong fingers. I've been encouraged that I have been able to increase my running time, although it seems to be a pretty fine balance with my knees to not overdue it. Passport Friday I applied for a new passport, so by February I should be free once again to travel the world. My next trip is likely to be down to Georgia to see my newest niece. She's due on January 26th and hopefully won't arrive early as my mom is flying back on the 26th to help my sister out. That will be my 3rd niece. My poor nephew will have to get pretty tough with so many sisters to harrass him. Work Work is going fairly well. I've mainly been working at the rehab hospital here in Vancouver, Holy Family Hospital. It's quite the variety to cover there as a casual OT but it keeps life interesting. Working in neuro and ortho lately. I'm really enjoying my coworkers there and we have quite the supportive group. I should have consistent work through to the end of this month and beyond that I'm not sure. Missions Looking forward to going to Missions Fest this year. Still am praying and wondering about working overseas. Currently I feel I am where God wants me to be. I have been excited within the last week or so with the interactions God has enabled me to have with neighbors and friends in my community. I am praying and trusting that God is doing a work in each of their lives spiritually. Christmas 
Dan and Lorinda 
You really had to be there to fully appreciate this Nativity scene. Daniel's narrative was rather memorable as you can probably imagine. Amazing what becomes entertainment. 
The perils of the 4 fingered hand! (honestly was not intentional) 
Goerz Family Christmas dinner (with Grandma Gray added for good measure!) 
The cousins played (Trains? was it) and then I guess decided to try to make up for lost time and stayed up till about 4:00am!! Thankfully I had a day to recover before the Wiebe gathering. 
Julie and Jason's girls. I succeeded in getting Kiera to sleep and Hannah seemed to be enjoying her pencil crayon chair I bought for her while enjoying her Princess dress and gold necklace gifts as well. She was so cute. 
The 27th was the Wiebe gathering and then my uncle and aunt and I slept at my Grandma's house. In the morning Robin (in the middle-my cousin) and Derek (my cousin) and Louisa (the other girl in the picture-Derek's new wife) came over for breakfast. Wow, I look hung over in that picture. It was fun to have a chance to see them again. Robin came down a while before Christmas and stayed at my place. We went to see the Black Mountain concert which was a night I won't soon forget! I won't go into that story. A Car for Christmas! Christmas was good. It was fun to see extended family after quite a while of not seeing many of them. I was thrilled to actually have a white Christmas this year. I was also really grateful for the blessing of having my friend's car to use during the Christmas/New Years holiday. However, it was rather bitter sweet since it died on me 3 hrs before I was supposed to pick my friends (the owners of the car), up from the airport. I am in large part likely to blame as it had a rather severe oil leak which I guess I hadn't succeeded in feeding requently enough to keep it happy. It also was low on radiator fluid I learned later as it overheated. I also managed to slip it into the wrong gear while I was driving, so there are many potential causes of the breakdown and the resultant area damaged is also potentially rather broad and serious. Thankfully I managed to pull off the road, albeit, into the bus stop zone! I was at the opposite end of Vancouver to where I live, which was not ideal. A nice young guy stopped to offer a hand and was even trusting enough hand over his bottle of wine for me to hold. He recommended buying radiator fluid and then retrying it after filling it up. He was on his way to the pub and let me know I could find him there if I needed further assistance. ( I didn't take him up on his offer). After putting in more oil and radiator fluid another man stopped to check if I needed a hand while a police car drove up behind me. I commented to the man that the police would make me tow the car. I went over to chat with the police and they must have heard my comment as they assured me they wouldn't make me tow it. They tried to contact a police friend who had a similar car and is good with mechanics but he wasn't available. The one policeman attempted to start it but was unsuccessful. I commented about the police usually being at my building or something to that effect, and when they found out where I lived they told me there had just been a shooting on 25th and Fraser with 3 men shot. ( I believe that same night) That's only about 8 blocks from my house! Anyhow, they decided to push me across the street to at least get out of the bus stop. They began pushing and quickly questioned whether I had the brakes on. I quite confidently responded that I didn't. They continued pushing exclaiming about how heavy the car was. Then the cop finally leaned in the window (if I recall right) and informed me that my e-brake was on!! Wow, did I feel brilliant at that point. I laughed and they made me aware that they weren't really needing more of a workout; )We managed to park it across the street. I got out and asked them if they always wore bullet proof vests. They looked kind of surprised by the question and asked if I was going to pull out a gun now. They were good humored about it all and rather amused. They asked me what I planned to do and said they unfortunately couldn't drive me to the airport. That's a shame. That would be quite the welcome home for my friends eh? Anyhow, they offered to drive me to Tim Hortons (now that's true Canadian policement for you) or somewhere. I decided to take them up on their offer as I had yet to hear back from any of my friends and didn't feel like standing in the cold. I got into their car and commented about at least getting to drive in a police car and they said, oh so now you want to drive the car?! I quickly realized my common mistake of saying drive instead of ride. I proceeded to get in and was inept at figuring out how to put the seat belt on. They somehow didn't seem too concerned and let me get away with it. I spose they wouldn't exactly give me a ticket.... Anyhow, they commented that it was nice to interact with someone normal, and I quickly challenged whether I qualified as normal. They dropped me off at Tim Hortons on Broadway and I went to Calhounes where I plugged in my dying cell phone and began calling more people in an effort to arrange a way to get my friends from the airport. Thankfully, my friends Forest and Nat were returning from Capilano just in time and came by to rescue me. We were just about to pull onto the road when I realized I didn't know where my cell phone was. Nat tried calling my number as I ran back into the coffee shop in time to hear my very identifiable ring ("incoming call"). I unplugged it and noted the smirks on some of the patrons faces. I gave them permission to laugh at my expense and ran back out. Forest drove me to the airport, picked up my friends, who were not aware of the situation as their cell battery had died and they hadn't received my numerous messages. My friends were very gracious and we managed to enjoy catching up while they ate Vietnamese food at the restaurant next door to my place while we waited for her parents to drive out from abbotsford to pick them up. I went out with my friend's husband and dad across town around midnight to attempt starting the car, but were met with no success. By the time they left it was about 1:00am! I hope you survived reading that long saga of a story. The end is yet to be determined. Despite my mechanic friend's efforts, the car is still sitting, sad and lonely across town. It really is a rather frustrating story despite the situational humor at the time. At least if nothing else, I hopefully lightened up the night for the policemen. It also reconnected me with my mechanic friend whom I hadn't seen in a long time. Well, I should head for now. I know not all of you who check my blog probably cared to hear all that detail....but that's the benefit of a blog....you can skip what you want and I won't know the difference. | 
