Snow Storms and White Outs

I would like to know the connection of my teaching a Bible Class on Tuesday nights and blinding snow storms that hit the same night.

Last winter I taught a Precept Study that lasted 6 weeks. I had it every Tuesday night in Exeter. Exeter is about 30-35 minutes from our house. Of the 6 Tuesdays, only one night did NOT have a snow storm. I drove in white outs both ways on 5 of the 6 nights, by myself. Between St. Marys and Exeter is farmland. On both sides of the road you have open farmland. The wind blows unhindered across the road, making it hard to see when it is snowing.

Two days ago, on a Tuesday, I had the first of my Precept class at a home near to Exeter. As far as the weather, it was only lightly misting rain when I drove out of my driveway and out of St. Marys. As I turned on the highway to Exeter, it started to snow, heavily. I couldn't believe it. We have not had any snow and I thought it would be at least November (4 days later) before we would start having snow.

I almost started to laugh when I saw the snow coming down heavily. To top it off I had only worn a light fall coat and had my summer type shoes on. I just have a hard time putting summer shoes and fall jackets away.

I thought the snow might be finished by the time the Bible study was over, but no such luck. Before leaving Jan's house, I found the snow scrapper and cleared the front and back windshield. So, the white out weather is upon us. Once again the Lord will prove Himself faithful in His care for me as I drove to and from Bible Studies.

Jackson in Chicago

What do think of when you hear the word fuzz? Until two years ago I would never have thought of it in connection to a two year old boy. At an early age Jackson would pull the cotton batting from his car seat and brush it across his face, with his thumb in his mouth. Every time he goes to bed he has to find some fuzz. He hunts until he finds some. His Mommy has a winter sweater that he loves to snuggle into because of the "fuzz" on it.

Today we went to Hobby Lobby and we were looking at a display with Christmas trees. Below the trees was cotton batting and some of it had fallen on the floor. He saw the part on the floor before either Alysa or I saw it. He immediately said "Fuzz" and picked it up. So he held it the rest of the time we were in the store.


Jackson is a happy, delightful little boy. He loves to jump, climb, run, laugh, sing, etc. We went to McDonald's for lunch. Between eating fries and his hamburger he was climbing and sliding in the playland there.

Right now he playing with a toy that sings the alphabet. He is playing it over and over and over again, holding his fuzz. Yes, it could definitely get on your nerves (the toy, not the fuzz).

Maddie in Chicago

It is always a delight to come to Chicago to be with Maddie. She is a 6 year old and is full of energy, imagination, joy, laughter, etc. Yesterday Alysa, Jackson and I took her to school. I hadn't seen this school before, so Maddie showed me around it and then introduced me to her teacher. There is a beautiful chapel at the school. She enjoys being there every day. She is even learning to do power point on the computer. I only learned to do power point several months ago. It won't be long before she will be teaching me things.


We received a package in the mail yesterday from Aunt Shirley. She knew I was here and sent me several things, but also included some things for Maddie and Jackson. Maddie called Aunt Shirley to thank her for the outfit for her doll, Sophie. She looks so grown up talking on the phone.


Every morning Maddie decides what she will wear to school. Today she also wanted Mommy to put her hair up in braids.

Crane (bird) on the roof

One day last week we were eating lunch and I looked out the patio doors and there was a crane flying and it landed on the roof of one of the houses behind our house. I grabbed the camera and went outside to take a couple of pictures. It was so unusual to see it sitting on the roof. I thought you might like to see it.

Lunch in Exeter

The last day that Shirley, Virginia and Bobbie were here we drove to Exeter to have lunch with two good friends from the Stratford Church. Jan and Gail work in Exeter. We met them at Eddingtons at noon. It is a restaurant that is in an old two story Victorian house. We had a lovely time with them over a delicious meal.

One thing Exeter is noted for is their white squirrels. The only other place that I know of that has white squirrels is Olney, Illinois. We drove around Exeter to see if we could find some. There is a small park close to the church and as we drove up we saw two of the white squirrels. We jumped out and began snapping their pictures. I've been wanting to get pictures of them for quite a while, but keep forgetting to take my camera when Jack and I go to church in Exeter.


There were also a couple of tourist stores that we went into. The temperature was around 70, just the right temperature for walking around town. Virginia found a baseball cap with Canada on it that she had been wanting to get for Clyde, and it was on sale. Here is a picture of the four of us. This is a small park right down town. A man sitting on a bench at the park offered to take the picture.


We found it necessary to check out the Tim Hortons in Exeter. Just needed to see if it was the same as all the others we had visited, after getting Shirley and me a diet coke from McDonalds. Exeter is only about 4,000 but has a busy highway that goes through it, so they have a McDonalds.

Circus Peanuts and Outback

From the time I was a child I have loved Circus Peanuts. These peanuts are a marshmallow type of peanut (not regular peanuts). I can't get them here in Canada, so I asked Shirley to bring me a couple of packages along with some candy corn. Of course, both items are pure sugar, but there are times that you need sugar. She does not like either of these things at all and under protest brought them. Alysa also just can't stand them or their smell. They just don't know what is good.

Bobbie and Virginia both love the peanuts and candy corn. We had to laugh when we opened the package of circus peanuts. Shirley had an awful expression of disgust on her face. She and Bobbie were sitting on our deck and Bobbie was eating some peanuts and I got a picture that I thought would be fun to put in the blog.

On Wednesday night we decided to go to the Outback Restaurant in London. It is my favorite restaurant. I'm not a big beef eater, but I do love their steaks, along with their salad and baked potato. They also have unlimited refills of diet coke in cold frosted mugs. Diet coke is always best if it is very cold when you have it. A must when going to Outback is their blooming onion. It didn't take us long to eat the onion. I heard that calories don't count when you eat it with friends and family.

Jack was a good sport and drove us to London to Outback. He was at the mercy of four women.

Visits to Tim Hortons

On the way to St. Jacobs Shirley and I needed diet cokes, so we stopped in New Hamberg at McDonalds for a fountain coke. They have my favorite diet cokes. Across the street is a Tim Hortons. Virginia is a coffee lover, so instead of buying coffee at McDonalds, we had mercy on her and drove over to get her some good coffee. It was the beginning of many times going to Tim Hortons. They also have great donuts there, many different kinds of them.

We used just about any excuse to go there. Unfortunately there is one thing that I am disappointed in when I go there. They only have Pepsi products. I must write the owner of it and request they change back to Coke. But I must say, I do love the pastries they sell. Also, their chili is my very all time favorite. You can get a meal deal there that includes the chili, a bun, drink and some kind of donut for only about 6 dollars.

Bobbie found that she really liked the cappuccino. She and Virginia also bought coffee to take back to family members. We used the excuse that we needed to buy more coffee for them to take home several times. Also Virginia bought one of their thermos mugs to take home. One thing about buying this, the first time you buy it you get the coffee free in it. Then she decided that Clyde (her husband) might won't one and she didn't want to be fighting with him over the one she was taking home. Another excuse to go back to Timmy's. Shirley loved the hot chocolate. Jack often gets hot chocolate when we go there.

I don't get family here often, so it was so lovely to be sitting there enjoying an apple fritter (or blueberry fritter) with them, just laughing and enjoying ourselves. Maybe its a girl thing.

Sewing Napkins

When Shirley and I get together we always have some project that we want to do. We laugh about her keeping all of us busy with various things, but we love all that we do with her. She just doesn't like to sit and do nothing. Over the last year she has made cloth napkins for family members and friends as gifts and so I thought it would be a good idea to make some cloth napkins when she came since they would be here a whole week.

I have a friend that has apple decorations in her kitchen and dining area. I asked Shirley to see if she could find some apple material for us to make some napkins for Cindy (lives in Goulais River, Ont.) She found the material and brought it. She actually found two different prints of apples and brought them both, plus she also found a piece of material that had fall leaves on it that would make beautiful napkins.

Shirley got us organized. She cut the material to the proper size, Bobbie and Virginia pressed the edges of the material and then I did the sewing. We didn't do it all in one day, but spread it out over three days, I think. There were 14 napkins of each of the apple material and 12 napkins of the leaves. The leave napkins Shirley gave to Virginia.

One thing that turned out great was that my friend, Cindy, and her husband and son actually were coming for a visit two days after Shirley and the girls left on Friday. I was excited to be able to give her the napkins so soon. Cindy loved the napkins. She and Ron left this morning to go back up north. I'll include a picture of Cindy in this blog.

Another thing Shirley likes to do is bake. We had some bananas that were getting old so she baked some banana bread. The recipe has cream cheese in it and is very delicious.

A Family Visit

I always look forward to family coming for a visit. On October 3rd my sister, Shirley, and a cousin, Bobbie, came for a week's visit. They brought with them a friend of Shirley's from College, Virginia. Shirley lives in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Bobbie lives in Nashville, Tennessee and Virginia lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Shirley left Ft. Smith on October 1st and drove to Memphis to Virginia's and then on Thursday drove to Nashville to Bobbie's. On Friday they left Nashville and drove 700 miles in one day to get here. It was a very long day for them. When you are traveling with others the time goes quicker, plus they had a book on tape they listened to (Yes, I know you don't end a sentence with a preposition, but it just works sometimes.)

St. Jacobs is a Mennonite community and is always a great place to take visitors. On Saturdays they have an outdoor market that is interesting to walk through. We got up Saturday morning, ate breakfast and then left to go there. It is about an hour and 10 minute drive. At the edge of town there is a peanut shop called Picards. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera-so no pictures of it.) We love stopping there because they sell all kinds of flavors of peanuts and have samples of all of them. Some of the flavors are ranch, dill pickle, salt and vinegar, BBQ, salsa, etc. You can make a lunch out of eating peanuts.

From there we went into the small town to walk through the different shops. I was a little disappointed because some of the shops there were changed and clothing stores were in their places. Anyhow, there were several shops that were the same. My all time favorite store is called The Weathered Gate. It has beautiful dishes, decorations, purses, candles, etc. in it with good prices. If I am looking for a gift for someone I usually can find it there. Since it was Saturday and nearing the end of tourist season, it was very busy every where we went. After going through the shops we drove down to the outdoor market, which is about a mile from the edge of town.

There are two big buildings at the market that have crafts, meats, baking, crafts and a great deal of other things. Outside you could buy fruits and vegetables, maple syrup and more crafts. A number of the Mennonites were there selling their items. It is interesting to see them in their outfits, and to see the horses and buggies they drive. There was a long line up for lunch most places there, but we found a little restaurant where we got a sandwich, and good fries and of course, diet coke for me.

More to come in other blogs.

Hockey Night in St. Marys

Tonight we went to the arena here in St. Marys to watch the grandson of our best friends (from Goulais River) play hockey. He is 13 and it was so fun to see him out there skating and body checking. At this age they are good skaters and handle the puck pretty good. The game was exciting to watch. They were playing against a team that is one level higher than them. It is always good to have these games to help you get better. Last year Rene's team won a Silver Stick Tournament, which is very important.

Between the 2nd and 3rd period the Zamboni came out on the ice to clear it. The ice gets pretty gouged up during play by the skates. This reminded me of a joke I heard years ago. "How did the Newfe (not sure how to spell that) get killed while he was fishing? A Zamboni hit him."