It's that time again... the 10th day of the month, when we take 10 photos for 10 consecutive hours. It's always fun. Today, I was working, so my photos may not be exactly right, time-wise, but I still had fun. I hope you enjoy them.  Missy says "Good Morning!"  Trucks full of potatoes waiting for us!  Hubby is bringing the car around...  An old photo of my brother, sister and I!  So, I am house-sitting for a couple in our church... These two plants looked lovely just two days ago, and now they are all shriveled up and sad looking! :( I think I killed their plants!  Peanut Butter & Chocolate Ice Cream!! For more great bloggers who are also doing the 10 On 10 photos, or if you'd like to join us, check out the linky party at Rebekah's blog!
What a day! Let me start about a week ago. My sister took her daughter, who broke her leg, to Fredericton to see a specialist, and in a round-about way became quite obsessed with Costco! Fredericton is about an hour and a half - two hours drive away from me, but we decided to split a membership, and maybe take a monthly or so trip down to stock up on things. It will especially come in handy at Christmas time, I think. So, this past Friday, we decided we'd take Saturday for a girls day out, and head to Fredericton to go shopping at Costco. I decided I'd Instagram our day, and share it here. The day started out well, and ended on a very different note. Please enjoy sharing our day.  On the way!  Roxanne, my sister, came up to pick Mom and I up, and we headed back to her place to get her two girls. Mom is always the pilot for these adventures.... it's just better all around that way, since she deals with the backseat drivers the best. LOL  Here we are, picking up two more girlies.....  A stop at Tim Horton's for breakfast. There were no Chocolate Chip muffins, but when I requested them, they brought one out for me. It was still warm, and gooey.  Crossing the Longest Covered Bridge in the World, Hartland, NB!!  We did stop at The Lighthouse, a Christian Bookstore in Fredericton. It's pretty cool, but I find that the Promises bookstore in Woodstock has better deals. :)  We made it!  We finished shopping and had some lunch. Mom didn't want me to take her picture, but I told her I was going to take it either way, so she could smile for it, or not. This is what I got. I think it's much better than nothing. :) These are some beautiful ladies right here!  Love the Canola Fields... :)  When we were coming home, we got the message that Gram, Dad's mom, was quickly deteriorating in health, and that the family had been called in. She had congestive heart failure, so we knew it was just a matter of time. While we were at the hospital with her, the boys did watch a baseball game.... Sometimes you need a distraction.  We came home for a quick BBQ, and then Dad went back to the hospital for awhile. Later in the evening, we went to Carl's Dairy Bar and had some ice cream. Then, we went to sleep, shortly after. Derek barely let me finish my ice cream before he was wanting to head to bed. In the morning, I found out that Gram had passed in the night. So, it started out as a beautiful day, and ended on a very sad note. We take joy in knowing, though, that she is now in Heaven with her loved ones, and that she is no longer suffering or in pain.  We love you, Gram! You brought a lot of joy to those around you.
So, my iPhone has a Weebly app that allows me to post from the phone! It is my first attempt, so let's see how it goes! I would love to share some photos of my day yesterday with you!
Today is Mom's birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Mom! Today is also going to be a very busy day at church because of VBS and so I won't get a chance to see her! So, Derek and I took Mom and Dad out for dinner yesterday afternoon. After that we just went on a little drive and it made me realize just how beautiful our province really is! I love this place, and sometimes I just need a reminder like I had yesterday.
 And we ended the afternoon with some ice cream! It was a lovely day. Random road trips are always fun, and I hope that one Derek and I get our own vehicle, we will get out and do it more often!
This past Sunday, Father's Day, Derek and four other individuals from our church were baptized. It was a beautiful day for such a wonderful celebration. We had a church BBQ at a camp owned by one of the family's in the church, and then had the baptisms in the river. Among those being baptized was my husband, Derek, who accepted Jesus into his life this past February, as well as Cliff, a kind gentleman who grew up with a Christian background, but did not really come to know Jesus personally until he met his current wife. There was also Trevor and TJ, father and son. Trevor is also a relative of ours through marriage, so it was nice to see him take that step and to have his family, and my aunt there celebrating with them. Also, there was Caleb, the son of one of our deacons. This deacon also happened to be the one who was assisting the pastor with the baptisms, so it was a special occasion for their family.
Here are some photos of our lovely day.
Maybe wondering how cold the water will be.
Our kind host, taking care of the hot dogs!
He's all ready!
Each person could have a loved one read their testimony for them. I read Derek's. It was actually harder to get through than I expected. But, praise the Lord, He has done amazing things in Derek's heart!
The deed has been done. :)
Pastor Michael gave Derek a handshake afterwards. Most of the guys gave him a hug after being baptized, but Derek didn't, he was too excited, and so this was what he got after it was all overwith.
I got to spend some special time with Ezra, Pastor Michael and Julia's boy. He's a cutie!
It was a great day, with wonderful family and our church family. It's so good to get to know everyone better through these experiences. We just grow to love them more and more each time. God has really blessed us, by directing us to our church, and by church, I really do mean the people. Since we have started attending this church, Perth-Andover Baptist Church, it was actually flooded, and now we are no longer able to use our original building, but are meeting in the gym of the elementary school, and tomorrow, we will have a sod turning ceremony for breaking new ground on the property where a new building will be constructed. It is all very exciting, but in the end, I know that with this group of people, our 'church' family, it is all going to be the same as always, and maybe even just a bit more exciting.
It has been a very relaxed, lazy, sick kind-a-sorta day in the Hanson home, but I did take some photos to share for the 10 on 10 photo activity! It's simple, really, take 10 photos for 10 consecutive hours on the 10th of the month to share. Mostly today I'll be highlighting our lovely fur babies.. I hope you don't mind. :) If you'd like to join with your photos on the 10th, you can find the linky party here! :)
Let me just say, this is not going to be an easy, or a comfortable post. That, though, is probably THE problem! Last evening I was having a conversation with a wonderful friend on Skype. This friend is on the opposite spectrum as me in terms of her weight, and health. She is quite thin, but still possibly struggles with her heathi-ness. She was showing me a book that she's working through, and the conversation went quite well, I thought. Later on, though, she did message me on Facebook to apologize for what may have turned into an awkward conversation. I would love to share with you my thoughts on a few things. First of all, no one likes to hear that they are fat. It hurts. When I was in Korea and the kids AND their parents called me a pig, yeah, it hurt. Then, when perfect strangers came up to me to tell me I should be walking and exercising, or the coffee shop owner telling me that I don't need the hot chocolate I ordered, I tended to get quite angry. Eventually, though, my focus shifted. I stopped thinking that I was being attacked, and realized that maybe I should be open to a conversation, maybe. Of course, it all depended on how the approach was done. There are many different diseases that can be caused by morbid obesity. Heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Cancers, High Blood Pressure, Stroke, etc. Yes, there are many. Sadly, no one really thinks too much about these, well, they do, but still, if the problem is addressed, then all that one worries about is someone's feelings. My feelings may be hurt, if you talk to me about my weight issues. So, please don't talk to me about what could eventually cause my death, right? Nooooo.... Even my husband, while we've come leaps and bounds from him being afraid to say anything to me, for fear of hurting me, to him feeling okay discussing this with me, gets uncomfortable. According to some statistics, America is more than 1/3 obese! Canada is following closely behind that. Clearly, that is a problem. WE HAVE A PROBLEM! In this society, if someone has a drug addiction or have become alcoholics, then the family can stage an intervention, and try to get the people help. In the case of morbid obesity, though, there's not often a lot of help offered. If there are some suggestions made, sadly, they are often hurtful comments, like, "You don't need that!" or like I heard someone say to a co-worker, "If you eat that muffin, it's going to add 5 pounds to your hips!" The support is not always available for people like me. Don't get me wrong. I know my family supports me. They are more than willing to help me in any way possible, to listen to me, and talk my situation over with me. My sister and I have done some challenges, and she's kicked butt, actually losing about 80 pounds in the last year. She tried the tough love with me, but all it did was stress me out terribly, and cause a lot of friction. So, what's next? I am not sure. What I would like to suggest is that we open up the lines of communication. Help people feel comfortable speaking with you about your weight issues. If you knew someone was very ill from cancer, or heart disease, you'd probably offer up your support, and prayers and ask them how they're doing. When we see someone dying a slow death from morbid obesity, though, we avoid the topic. We don't want to bring it up. Instead of avoidance, though, I suggest we talk about it. Everyone has some different ideas about what may work, or what may not, and if we are of the morbid obese group, then we need to stop taking these things so personally, and just address the issue, because clearly there is one. These last few weeks I've been watching the lastest season of The Biggest Loser. I didn't watch it when it was on, but have just been watching it recently. This last season was the "No Excuses" season, and I must say, many of this group have been driving me nuts! I am not sure if the editing is working around the excuses and trying to make them more real, but many of the contestants are just whiny, and have been very irritating. I do know who won, and I'm happy to say that Jeremy was pretty freakin' awesome throughout the whole season, but the others, wow. It's a new experience for me, I guess. I would hope that if I had that opportunity that they have, then I'd do all that I can to really rock it out and to stop making excuses and whining. Okay, so, here we go. Be open to the conversation. If you have something to say to me, please do so. I am open to the talk. If you are thin, but feel like you have to lose weight, I don't begrudge you your excess weight, because I know that any extra weight is hard on your body, and I know your story is your own. If you are also struggling to lose weight, then let's chat it out, and really try to support each other. This is a battle, and we can all overcome it!
Let's NOT make this be our future... We can overcome, if we keep the lines of communication, support and kindness open!
Today was a hectic day. I got up bright and early and had to get the dishes done so that I could work on this. Yes, that's right. I finally made this delicious looking Kit Kat M&M Cake, and used the Hershey's Perfectly Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe, with the Perfectly Perfect Chocolate Frosting to go with it. It was rich, but oh so lovely. It was a big hit at our.... family gathering, reunion, get-together...
Yes, a Fitzherbert family gathering. The purpose of this big do was because some of our relatives were home from out west. My dad's brother and his family live out in British Colombia, and Dad's sister and her family live in Alberta. So, the brother, his wife, and their daughter are home for vacation, and the sister, a friend of hers, the sister's daughter, a friend of hers, and the daughter's two children are home from Alberta. It was quite interesting. We also had a lovely cousin up from New Hampshire. He surprised everyone by coming up. We just love him so much. We also had a few surprise locals show up, including my dad's youngest sister, but there are just times when one needs to put aside hurt feelings, and do what's right for the sake of the community, and I think that's what happened. It was really heart warming. I love my family, and it was nice to catch up with them all, some of which I haven't seen since Grampie's funeral. Now, we can look back on a good time to remember out last get-together.
So, yes... I made this cake I've been wanting to make, my sister made a lovely Turtle Cheesecake thingee, and wow, there was so much food, it was just really hard to even try all of it. The highlight of the meal had to have been the BBQ'd salmon, though, and the delicious macaroni salad, from a girl who doesn't usually like macaroni anything!
Here are some photos of the gang.
Grammy getting some puppy lovin'.
My beautiful cousins, Tina and Britney.
We love Richard!
Most of the whole clan!
What's left of the cake.
So, that was it. We had lots of people in, which I think was more truly a testament to how well loved my grandmother is, and for that I'm very glad. She is a sweet woman, and deserves the best. I don't know how soon we'll all be able to get together again, but hopefully we'll have just as happy circumstances as we had today, with beautiful weather and delicious food again!
Man.. I so forgot to do this in April... and I did it in May, and am once again late putting it up. But, it's done, and here are my photos!
The concept is easy, 10 photos taken in 10 consecutive hours on the 10th of the month. Since this was a working day for me, it wasn't so simple, but I did what I could. I hope you enjoy the photos of my day!
I decided to make a chocolate pudding pie for lunch - dessert.
Our ride has arrived!
Lunch to accompany the pie. :)
Where the magic happens!
Ooops! Oh well, it still tasted great!
Mama had a rough day, so I got her these on the way home!
And that's all, folks!
If you'd like to join us in June, please check out the official site here.
I have a job! Having a job is great. It's not a glamorous job, or a very exciting job, but it is something to do, and it helps pay the bills, so I am very happy and very thankful. At my job, I am a potato grader. We package potatoes for stores, and restaurants and so on, and so as a potato grader it is my job to pick out the bad potatoes so that they do not get packaged with the good potatoes. There are times when it can be quite dull, and I haven't anything to do but think, think, think. That, of course, can sometimes be good, and at other times not so good. On the good days, I spend a lot of time in prayer while I'm working away, and singing songs of praise and worship. One such day had me realizing that I could share lots of lessons from work, share many of the things that I feel God is teaching me while I'm working. Today, I would like to talk about God's love for all of us!
You see, as part of my job, I have to be very picky about the potatoes I throw out. There are potatoes that are too big, too small, rotten, sunburned, or discolored, oddly shaped, etc. Sometimes, we feel the same way about people. We carefully choose our friends, and disregard the others, sometimes based on similar criteria. "Oh, she's too loud." or "He's too busy." are just some examples, not very good ones, I know, but that's just how we can be at times. Today, I am thankful that God doesn't treat us that way. In God's eyes, He sees us as all worthy of His love. It matters not to Him what size we are, what color we are, how spoiled rotten we may be, or how often we've let the sun burn our skin. Still, without question, He loves us more than we could ever fathom. He tells us "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." Jeremiah 1:5. How amazing is His love?! He knows exactly how we're going to turn out, and still He loves us. Today, I am so thankful for that LOVE. God is amazing.
I know, I'm late... it's been a hectic week! Here are my photos from last Saturday's 10 on 10. I hope you enjoy them. :)
I want to buy them all!!!!!!
If you would like more information on 10 on 10, or would like to join us, you can come check it out here.
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