PS- Who's Adam's girlfriend?

A funny thing happened last week.  I trade emails with my missionary son in San Antonio, Texas every Monday.  Last Monday's email ended with "PS Who's Adam's girlfriend?".  I thought it was a funny question as Adam has been adamant that we not try to marry him off and he seems to spend all of his extra time either driving his new car or playing on the computer in his room. I decided to ask Adam if I should respond to Dax's inquiry with "Focus" or "HP/Dell" that evening.  When I posed that question, Adam got his "I'm busted" smirk on his face, so I knew he was hiding something.  After a few more direct questions, I pieced together that he not only had a girlfriend, but has had one for quite awhile. As an afterthought I reminded Adam that we have lots of space in our home, so if he ever decided it was serious, they were more than welcome to stay with us until they could afford or were ready for their own place.

His dad and I then asked for and received permission to Facebook friend  aforementioned girlfriend in Manitoba. That changed everything! By mid Tuesday Ron and I figured out that they had basically been trying to work out the logistics of how to get married for quite some time.  Tuesday night it was decided she and her 4 year old daughter would be moving here, followed closely by a wedding.

As the days pass, more puzzle pieces continue to fall into place.  I suspect some of the drives were so he could talk with Bri on the sly over the Bluetooth and the "computer games" were actually chatting with a certain young woman.  Bri's name has come up here and there, but has always been down-played. . ."she's someone I taught the new member discussions to. . .or oh she's just someone I met on my mission."

Now we are deep into rearranging and dejunking in preparation for adding another bedroom downstairs, as well as planning a nice reception. Oh, did I mention, we have just about a month to get all of this completed! When I asked Adam why he hid this relationship from us for so long, his response was something like he knows how much I love a challenge and thrive on making order out of chaos, so he was just doing me a favor (His father agreed with that assessment for some reason)- THE STINKER!!! Realistically, I think it had more to do with his job and family being in BC and her job/family being in Manitoba and trying to resolve that.  Ron and I had some of the same issues when I uprooted from California.  I have grown to love Canada as I hope Bri comes to love BC.

We are beyond happy to welcome a new daughter and granddaughter into our lives and our home. Now my insomnia is in hyper drive as I help them with wedding plans and figure out reno details while turning the house upside-down.  One good thing is the intensity of our busy-ness should mean it will also be short lived...and there will be a nice party at the end. :-)

Driving 101- Avoid the ditch

Saturday was a clear day with no frost and fairly quiet roadways, so I decided to take the youngest out for a little driving practice.

 

With several "Do you want me to drive to the school parking lot, and you can practice there?" and  "Are you sure your OK? " type questions we set out. Less than two minutes later we had the first lesson about ditches.  She failed to make the first left turn out of our cul-de-sac and was stopped by the muddy ditch across the road.  Fortunately, a good Samaritan stopped by with a few chuckles and a tow strap to help pull us out.  We then continued (with me behind the wheel) to the empty school parking lot for turning and braking practice.  It seems as though my 5th and final driving student will require the most "parking lot drill" time. I am thinking about investing in traffic safety cones, and lots of bubble wrap.

Seriously, I think this was one of those hidden blessings. . .there was no real damage done to anything except maybe a little hubris, but there was a definite reality check for a certain teen- driving will require her full care and attention.

More feathers

I visited with a few of our feathered friends at the estuary for a few minutes this afternoon. We even saw the golden eagle!

 

Always a nice day for the ducks around here. Yesterday morning it was buttermilk skies and today was a touch wetter than that.  I stopped at the estuary yesterday morning for a few minutes, then today Ron and I had a little picnic. While there I took a few shots of the locals.