My visit with my sister

Last week my sister, who I haven't seen in over a year and a half, arrived in Vancouver.

She's been in Malaysia for awhile and there are a lot of different ethnicity's there, so her look has changed a bit. I barely recognized her. She really likes the saris now ... oh, wait ... that's not my sister. My sister's the one behind that lady. :) haha

It was nice to have no real agenda while she was here and just to chill and take our time everywhere we went. She's lived here before so it wasn't like when an out of town guest comes and you have to show them around. These were the only things she wanted to do: Go to Walmart and get treats for the kids, go to Wendy's for a Jr. Cheeseburger, go to Taco Time for a beef taco and go to Red Robin's for Clucks and Greens (all the really healthy foods - NOT!). Well, we ended up being quite lazy most of the time so we just stayed home and made our own meals, but here we are at Red Robin's. Since we didn't really do much, these are the only two pictures I took.

Brenda and Karen ended up joining us at Red Robin's, so don't worry, we're not those people who sit on the same side of the table even when they're the only 2 at the table. Not that there's anything wrong with that ... ok, it is a bit weird, isn't it?

When she asked her kids what they wanted her to bring them, she realized that they must deprive their kids of things because all her 7 year old boy wanted was his own pack of gum. Too cute! Ok, he was 3 when they left Canada so it's not like he remembers what he's missing out on, but I thought that was pretty cute. The girls wanted a few things, but they weren't too bad either, but it might be because they're all coming back this summer for a couple of months, so they'll get to pick up some stuff then, too.

The first night she got here we went to bed around 11:00 pm, so by 11:00 am the next morning I thought she'd died in the night because who sleeps for 12 hours anymore? When I poked my head into her room she made some weird moaning, stretching sounds, so I knew she was alive. Phewf! She apparently had been awake from 2 - 5 am adjusting to the jet lag. Poor girl, she was up every night at about that time. Only once did I have to go ask her to turn the TV down, and then I remembered that I had ear plugs. :)

We had a great visit and it was nice for it to just be the two of us. I always have to share her when the family's around, so this was great. We walked, we talked, we laughed, we cried, we shopped, we ate and then we prayed together before I drove her to her hotel. She was nervous for her course because as she put it, "Remember when you went to college and there were those married students there that seemed all old and geeky? That's going to be me!" Since this is a leadership course she's taking, I think the people there will all be a little older and on the mature side, so I think she's ok. Hopefully she had a great week. I was praying for ya, Jode! It's nice that I'll see her again in a couple of months so there was no crying when we said goodbye.

On a side note, having her here really put Leroy out (see my post from a few days ago). The first day and a half he seemed ok, and then I think he just wasn't sure what was going on. He stood and meowed at as for the longest time. Especially when Jode was sitting in the seat that I normally sit in. I think her being up in the middle of the night threw him off and plus I was blocking one of his sleeping places with my blow up mattress. I really don't think he liked that. The last day of Jode's visit I couldn't find him anywhere and after I searched for awhile I found him in the master bedroom looking out the window like this.

I can just picture what's going through his mind ... "What's going on here? When are my master's coming home? Why do these silly girls spend so much time here? Get out so I can have the run of the place!"

He has gotten pretty much back to normal now, so that's good. Tiffany didn't seem to take any notice at all .. but then again she really only moves once a day. Sorry Leroy!