Best Ever C.O.Visit!

I haven't blogged in awhile, and it's because we have been really busy! We have finally gotten our own Sign Language C.O.! What a HUGE difference. When we had the English ones, it just didn't fit. But this week, we were HUGELY blessed! Our small, but amazing group needed this boost!

This was our Saturday Public Talk group. The deaf and friend visitors are mostly up front. Jim and I are carefully positioned in the back. Front and centre is woman I have been able to study with while a sister was away for a month.

At the 1st Meeting on Tues, I wanted to meet them. I tried to be very proper and wait.....
Finally, last one in the hall to meet Sister Donaldson. I signed to her, "I patient, want to meet you." She hugged me and I knew we were going to have a great week!

We were blessed with an English Pioneer Meeting, though. (Thank you! Thank you! Brother Donaldson!) I was just praying that I would be able to understand what he was signing this week because I so BADLY wanted to get the most out of his visit.


Our Pioneer meeting was missing 3. (1 on vacation, 2 have a family member gravely ill and sadly missed the entire week. But we will share what we learned with all.) He helped us focus on working with the arrangements by ...watching those DVD'S!! and how we should be BOLD, and STUDY STUDY STUDY!, and Commenting with our hands WAY UP! Our newest Pioneer next to me, her 1st ever pioneer meeting! She was ECSTATIC!

From Left to Right: Brother Donaldson, Me, Scott D, Kim A, Isaac and Joanna (back from Kenya for 6 mos), Evelyn C (our other US sister from California) Kristin and Jens K.


We just had to take this next picture. With some missing this week, we were together all week. It just made us so close! It was like a party week, for sure. This is our "Sisters" group. 4 of this group were out every day.

From L-R: Me, Kristin, Chris, Joanna, Sharen, Kim & Kylie, Katrine, Esther (our aux Pio for the month). (Sharen, Kim, Esther and I were out every day this week. )

And the reason for the awesome week:

Now, for me, it felt like I was back home! They are from the US, so that was fun for me. And just as LIVELY as they can be. Of course, sign language is always active. But when we were meeting for service and he was dancing and signing the song "I will survive!" we laughed so hard, it brought tears to our eyes!
We had a Starbucks "incident" and she was explaining: Sistah! You have to go in and tell them, "You should give me a free cup of coffee and they should also give you a $10 gift card!" That ain't right!" If you can imagine!

And if it's good, "That's just the Bomdiggity!"
Or, her explanation of what she did at the Pioneer school when she introduced herself. (Her husband was one of the instructors) She said, "My name is Sharen and I sleep with one of the instructors!

That says it all!

No where but in Jehovah's Organization can you meet people on Tuesday and cry when they leave on Saturday because you will miss them so much!

True BIZ awesome!

This is NOT what fun looks like.

Unfortunately, this is 4:00 AM! And I am up against my will. And I have actually been awake for 1 1/2 hours, just finally gave up the effort to sleep!

I

This is day 3 of this cold and I have taken everything possible to allow me to

sleep, breathe and stop aching.
I want to be out in service and I am stuck at home with this, my new friend:

I decided a picture of the used ones was not something I wanted to show people.

Now, I am hoping that you feel sufficiently sorry for me.

I'm sure this will pass. Soon, is all I hope.

Sneeze, sniffle, sneeze sneeze.

7 out of 9 was a good thing.

We had the AWESOME opportunity to visit with 7 of our 9 grandkids.

Do you think they should have entrusted us with their care?

Well, you know they were content!

And look at my face! Am I afraid of the challenge ahead or are they?

These people actually left us in charge! With a smile!

(What did they know that we didn't?)

And here is the smile afterwards!

New Friends and New Names.

We had Gma's pancakes for breakfast. Same old recipe. I showed Micah the OLD cookbook. I think it looks like I poured the pancake batter on it, it looks so bad.
Then Jim wanted to study the WT with the boys. (LONNGGG study but the boys endured.)
The boys are enjoying sign language a lot. Again, they prepared hard to answer on Sunday. Darren's 2nd answer was " Old friends bad influence. Need new friends."
Micah's answer was " People know you United (Connected with) Jehovah". He wanted to make sure he used Jehovah's name in his comment. It's a challenge commenting on camera, but they did it! Not a bit shy about it.

Since they put so much effort into signing at the meetings, they saw everyone at the meetings have sign names and wanted ones of their own. A sign name is one that a deaf person gives you. Usually they know you well and give you a name fitting your personality, likes, etc. Joan and Joe are a deaf couple in our hall the boys met. Joan gave most of us our sign names. The boys tried to meet them and talk with them at the meetings. So, Joan gave them new sign names! What an awesome gift! Darren's is a D like a tall sign, and Micah's is an M on his dimples. So, the next time they go to a meeting in ASL they can say in sign, "Hi my name is (M or D). I'm learning Sign Language."

After the meeting we were invited over to friends. for pizza and fun. Micah and Darren are enjoying their boys, Tristin and Austin. Julie is one of our regular pioneers and Houston is an huge asset in our congregation, great at techy stuff for ASL.

After Pizza, enjoying a 4 way WII game. Great pizza and fun!

One more day in Winnipeg. We will try to pack as much in as we can in one day. I don't think they are bored anyway! Monday sledding and packing for home. :(

Fun and a Friend with Bunnies.

We finally have snow! Not just a dusting. It has been one unusual winter without huge snow drifts. I think we were just sharing the fun with all the provinces and states around us. So, Gpa Jim had a huge job snowblowing all of it. But he had a willing helper!

Once the driveway was cleared we went to our Human friends home. (Jim kindly did the neighbors. We thought he must be away because he is usually on top of things, only to find out he was sleeping in!)

Our "Human" friend has 4 bunnies. If you look at her face, you can tell, she LOVES all of them!

That is an "Awe" face, not a bad picture! We even got to feed them a treat.
After good food and good friend time, we went shopping, (Boxing day and we couldn't pass up all the deals out there.)

I GOT MY NEW WASHER AND DRYER!!!

Well, I do have to wait for delivery, but on Jan 9th-Bob's your uncle! I will have them!! YIPEE! Now, if I only had them to do the boys laundry, we would be happy campers you can bet!

Simple Ways to Keep 2 Boys Busy

TAKE THEM SLEDDING .

GIVE THE (almost) 14 YEAR OLD A VIDEO GAME TO GET HOOKED ON.

AND GIVE THE 8 YEAR OLD A HARD HAT AND A BALL TO STAND ON!

Music to my ears.

These are some musically inclined boys! We were playing pick-up-sticks and it ended up being a jam session-practicing their rhythm I guess. The game went by the wayside, for sure.

So, I decided to call over a person with a bit more music ability than I have for sure. It was a fun Friday! Except maybe for his son to the far left. I think he has heard his Dad's singing a few times.

And some more new friends to remember. Madison, Wayne and Matthew (Played Guestures and Madison is awesome! She helped our side win!! )