Inside our new place

At long last... pictures from inside our home. Well, at least the inside of some of it. Some parts of it are not ready yet... we are still deciding where things go, etc.

Main floor: Our living room

Kitchen Angle #1

Kitchen Angle #2 (Notice lovely view of dumpster out the window...)

Front hall: to the left are stairs leading down into the basement

Upstairs: bathroom

That's all for now. Check back soon to see more. :-) Enjoy what's left of the long weekend before school starts back next week.

More Camping Trip Photos

Boots, the teething puppy

Roasting marshmallows

Karen & Patricia

Will's attempt at climbing trees in Algonquin Park

Family Camping Trip

Although a week has already passed since we returned home, I thought it would be worth it to post some pictures of our camping trip to Algonquin Park last weekend. David and I picked up Will and Vinna in Toronto (after some detouring in search of the QEW, which does not have an exit on the 401), and then met Gord, Ellen, cousin Vickie, Uncle Ed and cousins Patricia and Karen for a weekend of swimming, sunbathing, marshmallow roasting, reading, eating and relaxing. Highlights for the weekend included all the s'mores, Patricia and Karen's puppy Boots, who is just so cute (!!), enjoying the floaty chairs in the water, Vinna using her secret weapon to scare the bears away at night, and hanging out around the campfire.

Frisbee on Pog Lake

Sunbathing: Patricia, Vickie, Vinna

Relaxing by the fire... is this breakfast or lunch? (Will, Dave, Vickie)

This picture is the only one of me, so this is to prove I was actually on the camping trip. :-)

Johnny 5, Gord & Ellen's dog

Our little prune...

This last year has been one of ups and downs with sometimes more downs than ups. Through it all we never lost faith in our relationship or in God's ability to guide, strengthen, and protect us.
Now, since it seems fitting with new beginnings in a new place, we are pleased to announce that we are expecting our first child. We are looking forward to sharing our pregnancy journey with our friends and family.

Thus far, he/she is the size of a prune though not as wrinkly. He/she enjoys eating, swimming, and developing from an alien like good sized raspberry to a big strong prune sized lump.

Check back for frequent updates!

Frog Wars

So... the weather around here has been really wet lately, and although wet weather in Manitoba is conducive to lots of mosquitoes, here, it seems to be conducive to lots of frogs. We live in a quiet corner of the neighbourhood, a little distance away from the playground and the community centre... but in the back of our house is a wet, marshy area that is pretty bog-like, and which has been the scene of a broiling battle among the neighbourhood kids.
Team A is led by two brothers who never take off their bicycle helmets. The helmets are black and have red and yellow flames jumping up the sides of them... I think they have a bit of a superhero complex, because they catch the frogs with their bare hands. Team B is more sophisticated and is made up primarily of little girls, led by what seems to us to be the only white kid in the entire community. This team leader has an enormous butterfly net that he uses to capture his frogs. At last count, Team A was a couple of frogs behind, but then we saw the Team B captain being marched out behind our house to dump a huge spaghetti pot of frogs out into the bog. So, I'm not sure how that affected the tally. The kids are really into it, and are up to chatting about their adventures with anyone.
Other wildlife recently spotted in the area... bright yellow birds (don't know what they are) and an enormous ground hog, which scared the living daylights out of me when we were walking to Sobey's the other day. It looked like a miniature beaver scuttling along. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure... spoils of the frog wars.

George

Millie

Jeremiah

CLV North

Columbia Village North: Our New Neighbourhood
Here are some pictures of what our new neighbourhood looks like. Ethnically, it is very diverse, and there are many, many children running around everywhere. There are a few events planned for August, such as an End-of-Summer BBQ, where we hope to actually meet some of our neighbours. So far, everyone has been very friendly, and even the kids way and say hi, it will just be nice to put some names to the faces.

This is known by the locals as "the cornfield." Not sure if there's actually corn planted here or not.

A view of the back of our place with our little patio. We hope to get some outdoor chairs at least, so we can enjoy the outdoors sans mosquitos.

The view from our front door. Unfortunately, we have a dumpster in our front yard.

As you may notice... these houses all look so much the same. :-)

Our stuff has arrived!!

So on Tuesday morning, two movers, a big truck and all of our possessions showed up on our doorstep. Finally. I was already so sick and tired of sleeping on the floor. It was terribly humid, and having our front door open for two hours brought a lot of that humidity into our otherwise cool and comfortable house. Oh well. Now all of our stuff is here, if a little worse for wear, and we can finally start the process of settling in. There are still boxes standing in every room, but our bed is standing (hooray for mattresses!!), as is our couch, coffee table, etc. and we are no longer eating out of plastic dishes with plastic cutlery. Mission Move In Adventure Camping is officially over. Once we have the rest of the boxes unpacked and everything is in order, we'll post some pictures of our new home.

Our new place in KW

And now today, we moved into our new townhouse, on the edge of the married students' residence, right beside what they call the "Corn Field". It is so quiet here, you never hear a siren or anything. Totally unlike downtown Winnipeg. Our furniture is not here, and may not arrive for another few days... it is MIA in Toronto right now.

Our new house: Unit 277

Our Trip "Out East"

So... after a 3 day cross-Canada extravaganza with Team Adventure (David, Christine & Jeremy Kroeker), with a very stinky stop in Dryden (holy, seriously, this is the stinkiest town in all of Canada), we marveled at the Sleeping Giant in Thunder Bay,

Sorry, I know it's blurry... but you can make out the giant silhouette

Then, we made it to the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie), which is kind of like Winnipeg, in a lot of ways. At least it reminded me of Winnipeg. We also made a stop in Wawa, to look at the famous big giant goose:

Note Jeremy posing dutifully with said goose

Toben enjoying the air conditioning blowing up his butt in our Soo hotel

Then after a crazy, white-knuckle rainstorm, we made it to our accommodations in Kitchener... Toben felt right at home there. David & Jeremy went for a Canada's Wonderland Adventure, and what an adventure it was. They rode the Behemoth rollercoaster, apparently it is new and scary, went to the water park, ate the biggest hot dogs in the world, and ended up accidentally stealing some poor guy's shorts.

This is about as excited as Jeremy gets... rollercoasters...YAY!

Biggest. Hot Dog. Ever.

Giving it another try...

Okay, so we're going to try this blogging thing again, to be in touch with family and friends who are far away, and to have a bit of a record of our day to day experiences... Facebook is getting a bit too all-knowing, if you know what I mean. So here we go, planning to chronicle our life experiences for our family and friends, all of you who love us.
What has happened since we last posted:
1. We got married. It was a wonderful party and we had a fabulous time. :-)
2. We started new jobs, at U of W for me teaching German, and for David at a French immersion elementary school as an EA.
3. We dealt with and continue to deal with severe health issues... so many doctors' appointments...
4. In between we've tried to have some fun, too, going to concerts, painting pottery, watching movies and playing Wii.
5. We've both applied to schools in Ontario for the coming fall. We hope to be living in Waterloo come the summer time, Christine at U of W for grad school and David at Laurier for his education degree. We'll see what happens.
Keep in touch.

Long time no update

Yes, we are quite aware that it has been a while since last updated. The time seems to go quickly these days. Who would have thought that weddings would require so much planning? On top of this we both have been writting final papers and exams. In one word, busy.
Well, the wedding is just a little over two and a half weeks away and we still have quite a few loose ends to tie up. It has come together suprisingly well. By that I mean without too many headaches or stressful moments. I know Christine would attribute that to her impressive organisational skills but I would attribute it as well to my uncanny ability to multi-task. I have already told Christine that if I were a dinosaur in some other time I would have been a "multi-task-o-saurus." Since we did things at a slower pace we were able to spread the wedding work as it were over many months. This has proved to be quite the genius idea. Less stress = happier David and Christine. This weekend Christine is having her Stagette at Rachel's cottage or as people in Manitoba say "at the lake." I think the plan is to watch girl type movies, talk about boys, and paint each others nails or whatever girls do when they get together in groups.

In other news, we got an apartment, a cat, and a whole lot a sunshine here in the Peg. We take over the apartment on May 1st and that means that I will be moving in before the wedding so as to make sure the cat doesn't die. We will give out the address in due time. As for the sunshine, it isn't that often that Winnipeg can boast that it is the hot spot of Canada in April. Therefore, especially after a brutal beginning to the month, we are basking in the suns wonderful warming warmth. For me it feels even better when we get better weather than Southern Ontario. So often they are the envy of the rest of the country with their beautiful falls and perfect springs but this year we got one up on them! Chalk one up for Winnipeg.


Since I don't have any pictures to share regarding the wedding I thought I would post one of the most bizarre things we have seen in a while. A GIANT RABBIT!

A picture beyond all description

Kampen Shower

The table of gifts...

David shows off our new bowl collection...

Don't mess with me- I have a high-tech potato peeler!

(Almost) all the Kampen women

Cheerful Tante Erna :)

Yesterday, we gathered at Tante Helene & Onkel Heinz' place for a (non-surprising) shower which did have a few surprises in store... my Aunt Renate flew in from Calgary! Everything was decorated with balloons (and who doesn't like balloons?), and as my Tante Helene said: "What is a shower? Gifts and food!" So we opened gifts, ate way too much cake and were merry... thank you to everyone who came and participated. We are grateful for your love and support!

French Lessons

For a few weeks now, I have been spending my Monday nights with a certain cousin of mine who is learning (??) some French from me. Unfortunately, today will be the last time for a while because he is so busy getting good at other things, like music. For those of you who are coming to the wedding, you will be able to see him playing something beautiful on the piano... Merci Julian!

Happy Birthday, David!

His 25th year was rung in with roommates,

gluten-free cake,

and a very high fever...

Roomies: (l to r) David, Candice, Hartley, Suzi, Stef

Meet the Bridal Party... Liam

Liam Dunn is my cousin's little (I mean big) boy. He is going to do the very important job of carrying our rings to the front of the church. Although Liam lives in Calgary with his mom, Tracy, his dad, Kevin and his baby brother Caleb, he has been to Winnipeg a few times, and I was actually at his baby shower when he was very very tiny. We are so excited to have you as part of our wedding party, Liam!!

Brand New Baby Robinson

Lucas James (Jason?) Robinson

born February 11, 2007

to Jason Robinson & Michelle Baker

brother to Britney & Lorisa

Oshawa, Ontario

Lucas and Uncle David get acquainted

Grandma Ellen

Oh my goodness... he is so cute

So much attention makes a little guy sleepy...

... very sleepy.

France revisited

Near the end of the year in France my best friend Will decided to take a break from his art gallery in Toronto to spend a little BFF time in Bordeaux. We ate delicious food in Bordeaux, took the longest train ride ever to Bilbao, Spain and played soccer in the sand in Arcachon, France. Truly it was a BFF time. Here are a few pics.

Will tries to hold my hand. "I'm taken," I had to keep telling him over and over.

One of the best things one can find in Bordeaux, Potato doner.

Will in front of the Gugenheim in Bilbao, Spain.

Man the French were really, really short a century ago.

Anid now the wrinkliest dog EVER!

p.s. take a look at Will's gallery website. www.le-gallery.ca Whether you are interested in art or not it's worth a look.

where did that word come from, anyway?

show·er 1 (shour)
n.
1. A brief fall of precipitation, such as rain, hail, or sleet.
2. A fall of a group of objects, especially from the sky: a meteor shower; a shower of leaves.
3. An abundant flow; an outpouring: a shower of praise.
4. A party held to honor and present gifts to someone: a bridal shower.
5.
a. A bath in which the water is sprayed on the bather in fine streams from a showerhead, usually secured overhead: take a shower.
b. The stall or tub in which such a bath is taken.
v. show·ered, show·er·ing, show·ers
v.tr.
1. To pour down in a shower: showered confetti on the parade.
2. To cover with or as if with a shower. See Synonyms at barrage2.
3. To bestow abundantly or liberally.
v.intr.
1. To fall or pour down in or as if in a shower.
2. To wash oneself in a shower.

[Middle English shour, from Old English scr.]

Our Bridal & Groomal Shower...

Getting married wouldn't be complete without having showers. (Where did that word come from anyway??) Last Sunday, my aunts got together and threw me one... complete with presents, laughter and really good cake!! Thank you to Gina for hosting and Charlotte and Lorraine for helping to plan and everyone for coming! And actually, since most of them hate wedding showers, we decided to call it "The Rempel Family Gathering with Presents." I thought that was cute.

Two of my favourite women: Andrea & Mom

The uncles: Dad, Biff (aka Stan), Paul, Herb

Jeremy: Wow. That was awkward.
Me: Good grief, Jeremy. I'm related to you. What happens when a 'real' girl kisses you?


Lauren displays her art for a captive audience (Zachary, Hillary & Lorraine)