A Wonderful Saturday

Last Saturday I went to pick Rachel up for our pedicures and she dressed her 3 boys up in their suits and they brought me flowers because I'll be away for my birthday. So cute and I TOTALLY wasn't expecting that. It was a wonderful suprise. Thanks, Rae!

Getting pampered is the best, isn't it?

Our view from our chairs. Utopia Academy is a great, cheap alternative to some of those insanely expensive spas. No, I'm not getting paid to say that.

Aaaaaahhhh, the parafin wax.

I opted for the French Pedicure.

That evening I went and met with some blogger buddies. I had known Keri and Kori from when I was in Grade 8, but only because they lived down the street from me. We weren't smart enough to hang out back then. :) Rachel I've known from church for many years. We were in the same Sunday School class (oh the things she remembers me writing on the black boards), but again, didn't really hang out. It was so nice to chat with these beauiful ladies and get to know them better. We arrived at a local eatery around 6:30 and by 10:30 we decided to call it quits and meet up again another day.

Here's Rachel and Keri.

And Jennie and Kori.

One of my usual meals at Earl's. Chicken Quesadillas with fries and parm dip. If you've never had the parm dip, you must try it next time you're there. It does cost 50 cents, but it's SO worth it. Dip away, my friends.

Rachel and I shared this wonderful dessert. They had some fancy name for it but it was pretty much a warm, gooey brownie with caramel sauce and ice cream. It was REALLY good!

Keri had the Carmelized Lemon Brule and ...

Jennie had the Raspberry Sundae.

We had so much fun and told lots of great "get to know me" stories. Jennie told one that I really can't share here, but here are the reactions.

Then Keri had her own story and Jennie was the one to react this time.

Thanks for joining us, ladies. We'll have to do it again soon! Unless of course that dream I had comes true while I'm in Greece and then you'll have to come visit me there!!!

Well everyone, that's it for me for the next month and a bit. I'll be off exploring the Mediterranean, so I'll see you at the end of summer!

Run For Water in pictures

On June 1, Abbotsford hosted the first Run For Water. It was a 5 km, 10 km and 1/2 marathon event that raised money for the village of Amedo in Ethiopia. Thanks to everyone who attended, ran, sponsored or just gave a donation, we raised almost $15,000.

We were told for a first time event to expect maybe 250 people to register. With about a week to go before the event, we were up to 350. By race day we were up to 700. Isn't that incredible? Wonderful advertising and word of mouth helped this event become what it was.

I personally want to thank all my friends who volunteered their time (very early in the morning) ran the race (takes a lot of training - depending on which race you did ;), donated or gave something to the event, sponsored our event or someone who ran in it, or just did some leg work for us before, during and after the event. It really couldn't have been such a success without you.

I think a lot of these pictures speak for themselves.

Not only did we have the race going on, but we had kids games galore, face painting and Greg Neufeld even came and sang for us.

This is the team of board members who put many hours into planning this event. From left to right:

Rob, Dave, Don, Kelly, Ken (it was his brainchild), me, Peg, Harj, Darren and Stan.

Soon afterwards we had a party to thank those who sponsored us ... yes, that's a roasting pig.

It was a wonderful event and I am truly honored to have been a part of it. I haven't decided yet if I'll be on the board next year, but if I'm not on the board I will either be volunteering or running in it. I hope to see you all there next year!!!

End of the lane

Before Camden became "the Inner City" it was booming. RCA was there (see building below) ...

Campbell's soup headquarters was there (actually still might be) ...

and then (and I'm not trying to be racist here, this is actually what I learned in class when I was living there) all the white people moved out when people of different races started moving in. They built a bridge over the river to Philadelphia and people pretty much bypass Camden now. Very sad. Camden is really trying to build up it's image though. They've built up the waterfront and lots of people go running there now and a lot of concerts are held in Camden as well. I really hope it's able to get back on it's feet. It has a very special place in my heart.

The house below was the one I mentioned previously that was built by Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. It's right beside UP Headquarters and is very nice.

The day after Linda left, Lisa and I took it easy, went to the mall and of course had to go get some water ice. Mmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmmm.....

We drove around Camden and I took pictures.

This is the Ben Franklin bridge that connects New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

And just a stone's throw away is Philly. Sing along with me ... In west Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days ...

Lisa took a few days off work and asked what I wanted to do on Friday, my last day in town. She suggested going to Atlantic City (which is about 45 minutes away) and I said that would be fine with me. Then, at the last second, she said, "Why don't we go up to New York?" Hmmm, let me think about it .... YES, PLEASE!!! Lisa doesn't really love going to New York, so I was very surprised and happy. Since she's waiting for her Green Card to come through, she can't drive her car, so guess who got to drive in the Big Apple? Yup, me!

I absolutely love it. Lisa had been to a little coffee shop in SoHo that she wanted to go to again, so off we went in search of it.

Along the way I snapped pictures (yes, while driving) of things that mean something to me. I don't know if you've ever watched Project Runway, but it's one of my favorite shows (check it out at http://www.surfthechannel.com/). They always show this sign during the show, so I was happy when I saw it. I would've LOVED to have gone to the fabric store they always go to on the show, but I'll save that for next time.

This bike just made me smile when I saw it, so I had to take a picture of it. I love the "grass" at the bottom of the basket. This was parked right outside the coffee shop.

This lovely specimen was my breakfast/lunch. Doesn't that look amazing? It was almond french toast with strawberries and bananas. YUMMY!

And Lisa had her coffee drink. Then we sat and read our books for awhile.

Until we decided to get back in the car and try to find the section of the city where the celebrities shop. We drove north from SoHo, past Grand Central Station (picture below), then turned west for a bit and ...

came back down south through Times Square ...

past the Empire State Building ...

(don't forget that I'm still driving - not bad pictures, though, hey?) and past my favorite building in NYC ... the Flat Iron Building. I just love this building. I have a framed poster of it that looks like it was taken in the 50s and it looks so sentimental.

Then we ended up parking blocks away from where we had parked for breakfast, but that's ok, I got to see parts of New York I wouldn't have gotten to see if we'd stayed put. Lisa was in the mood to shop (a few blocks over from where the celebrities shop), so we split up and went our own ways for an hour or so. I moseyed on over to the wealthy streets and hoped to see someone famous. Well, it was not to be my day in that regard, but I still enjoyed my walk and people watching.

I saw this shop and thought of my blogger friend, Lovella.

I took yet another shot of the Empire State Building, from afar, this time.

Lisa is Irish, as I mentioned before, and you know how when someone bugs us or teases us, we say, "You loser!" which sounds so sophisticated ... not! Lisa's version is to say, "Ya tart!" With her cute accent, it sounds a lot better than loser, let me tell ya. When I saw this store, I thought of her.

I would've liked to have gone inside, but it was about time to meet Lisa again, so I walked back to our meeting place ....

took another few pics ....

stopped to buy this ring ...

and listen to these guys sing ...


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Then I met up with Lisa again and we walked some more. We found Betsey Johnson's store. She's a really wacky designer. We went in just to say we went in but there was nothing in my meager price range in the store. :)

Then I went back to that spot where I took the last pic of the Empire State Building because I thought it would be a good one to have as my background, but try as we might, we couldn't get it to show up. Weird. I guess I should really read what all those flash/lighting buttons on my camera are for.
We didn't want to get caught in traffic or get home too late, so we said goodbye to New York (for now) and jumped back in the car. As we were merging, I saw this sign and thought it was funny, and literally two seconds later someone cut me off so bad that I honked. Luckily there were no cops around to give me that $350 penalty.

We realized we didn't have any pics of us together from our excursion, so when we got back home, we placed the camera on the dash and took this (you thought I took this one while driving on the freeway, didn't you?). I'm not THAT reckless.

In the morning I packed up, said goodbye to Joyce and Georgie ....

to Camden and Lisa's wonderful North Camden row home ...

and Lisa dropped me off at the airport.

Lisa and Joyce - thank you so much for letting me stay at your place for a week. It was SO great to go back there and still have some friendly faces to greet me. Lise, I love you and miss you and am praying for your Green Card and living situation. We know it's in God's hands and that He'll reveal it to you in His timing.

Well, my blogger friends ... Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me. Now it's time to make some new memories. Have I told you that in just over a week I leave for Greece, Egypt, Israel and Turkey? I CANNOT WAIT!!!