Chinese New Year at Alpha

We've been running the ALPHA course on Monday evenings at our church since mid January.  ALPHA is a course explaining the Christian religion.  We start the evening with dinner, then a video or speaker and then we discuss the material.  It's been my pleasure to work with 2 other ladies and some volunteers to provide a lovely meal for our guests.  Last Monday was Chinese New Years so our menu was mandarin chicken, rice, oriental salad and for dessert I made some lotus flowers, filled them with trail mix and put them on a plate with a mandarin orange and a fortune cookie.  I was pleasantly surprized at how lovely they looked and tasted!!!  Lots of rave reviews about the whole dinner!

Super Bowl Sunday

We started the day by going to church.  Our youth Pastor announced that a 2 year old girl whose family attends the church next door to us went missing yesterday and after much searching they found her in a nearby pond, took her to hospital but couldn't save her.  We all formed small groups and prayed for the family and church family.... a pretty sad way to start Sunday worship!!!

This afternoon our daughter and son-in-law, and our second daughter, son-in-law and 4 grandkids came over.  We put the TV on downstairs and the TV on upstairs to watch the super bowl.  We put a bunch of appies into the oven and filled the kitchen island with all kinds of food to be nibbled on while watching the game.  After the game I put out a bunch of desserts and everyone ate more.  The phone rang and our friends D & G were in the neighbourhood so I invited them over for appies and dessert.

Very sad day, but also a delightful day to be gathered with family and friends!

Harley

The Ladies Care Group I go to decided to have a pot luck luncheon before we quit for the Christmas Holidays and that each of us should buy a nice mug and we would play a game and do a gift exchange.  Everyone would end up with a mug and we'd leave them at the church so we could use them every time our group meets.  Last Thursday one mug was missing...Harley couldn't be found!!!  Who absconded with him???  His owner was beside herself with worry!!!

At last...Harley was found!!!

First Earthquake in our new house

Dec. 29 about 11:40pm B and I were having a drink and in a pretty heavy discussion when the house shook like a big tree had fallen close by or a couple of big trucks had collided  nearby or a plane crashed at a nearby airport....dishes rattled, then I realized it was an earthquake!  4.9 earthquake centered not far from Victoria, British Columbia.  When we lived in Queensborough, earthquakes always felt more "rolling" like a wave...this was more of a THUD, followed by a bit of shaking....so, quite a different feeling.  Scared the heck out of us!!!  Went outside to check things out...the stars were so clear and bright....just beautiful and everything seemed so peaceful.  Now we hear that there was an earthquake near San Bernardino, California a couple hours earlier...still waiting for more updates.

Halloween

Last year was our first Halloween in our new home but we didn't get any little trick and treaters come to the door.  Felt quite cheated, but reasoned that since there are only houses that are close together and not so far from the road on one side of our street, we figured they'd go into the subdivision so they could cover more houses...and of course get more candy. 

This year we bought candy...just in case...and furthermore hubby said, "if no one comes we can eat it!"  I was so delighted when a knock came to the door and the familiar, "Halloween Handouts...trick or treat".  Three little munchkins were there.  A little while later more came, then later some "older" munchkins arrived....they had huge bags that were filled with so much candy, we were wondering if they would eat so much they'd be sick???  Altogether we had about 10 or 12, which wasn't a lot, but it definitely did feel more like Halloween!!!

Selling Gold

Last week or so we received a card in the mail saying that a company was coming to our area and they would buy any gold, sterling silver, old hockey cards, old coins...that sort of thing.  The card also said they pay better than other companies...true or not...who knows????  Anyway I didn't have much time to sort through stuff but we did have some stuff hubby found with his metal detector a few years ago.  There was a broken up, squashed ring, a small bent up gold band and one earring and a couple other things.  We weren't busy Friday afternoon and that day the sale was stationed at the hotel in the local casino, so off we went.  We were told a couple of the things weren't gold, but the 2 rings and earrings were and they said they'd pay us $90 for them.  We hadn't expected that much so thought it was a good price, so we took it.  Went down to the casino and I won a 2 for 1 buffet (to be used at a later date), then we played the slots and I was up $10.  Hubby was down $15 or so but then played another machine and won enough that he was only down $2...not too shabby for a afternoon's entertainment!!!!  Now I'm going to be looking through some old coins to take the next time they're in town. You sometimes hear of people finding an old original painting in their attic.  Wouldn't it be nice to find a real treasure??? 

Blood Moon

We were camped at our park in Birch Bay and I managed to get these pictures of the Blood Moon/Eclipse of the moon.  I really had to zoom in on it so that's why it's blurry.  Overall, I thought it was pretty good for my little "aim and shoot" camera... Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the full moon after the eclipse was finished, but the moon was really big and bright!!