Lord, send me...or not.

Day 4 - Monday August 13, 2012

Wow. I woke up today and I realize that in exactly one week from now - I will be facing between 12 and 19 Grade two students. I am SO conflicted about how I feel. I am really anxious to see my new homeland but I received an email yesterday saying that renovations have been done and they’re waiting on furniture to arrive - so we won’t be moving into my house today. We will have a temporary place to go and I’m hoping we can move in tomorrow while Mom’s still with me. I’m not expecting to have my phone/internet right away so I’m not sure when I will be able to update you all. Thanks again for your faithfulness in reading, caring and praying! Much love to you!

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So, I changed the name of this blog entry because we actually spent another night in the largest Saskatchewan city of Saskatoon! Apparently the Lord had other plans...I was happy to slow the trip down a bit - as I was starting to feel more anxious about the move. It was nice to just have the chance to stay in another motel and call a few friends.

pre-hill-spillage

We woke up in good time and headed to Canadian tire to have a safety check done on Mia (that’s what I’ve named my SUV by the way). Also, I’d like to point out - this is the SECOND safety check since I’ve gotten her because I’m in a new province...oh joy. Anyway, we dropped her off and headed to McDonald’s for breakfast. (Also, the man working at Canadian tire grew up on a reserve and had some interesting warnings for me too...still - exciting!) Mom and I took our McDonald’s breakfast to a nice, grassy hill to sit and enjoy for a few moments...It wasn’t long before I looked over and saw my coffee spilled down the side of the hill. I was really looking forward to enjoying that coffee so we headed back into McDonald’s for another. I told the man at the counter what had happened and said I’d like to buy another medium, two cream. He started to get me another coffee (in a larger cup, might I add) and after adding the cream, he turned to smile at me and as he stirred I noticed he was spilling my coffee all down the front of the counter... “Oh, you’re spilling it too!” We kinda laughed and he gave me the coffee for free. (It’s probably one of those “you woulda had to have been there” moments - but Mom and I had a good chuckle.)

We went to Cabela’s after McDonald’s (apparently the Saskatoon location is one of a very few in Canada??) We looked around and of course, it was a perfect photoshoot location! After getting my picture taken with the Grizzly bear...an elderly man was there with a young girl and he smiled at us, so my mom made some comment like “some will never grow up!” The man responded with a smile and seemed to encourage my youthfulness, so we carried on.

We spent a lot of time walking and sitting around on Monday, so much so that my Mom got a blister on her foot. We shopped at Mark’s work warehouse for some teacher clothes and after that I received a phone call from my boss saying that since my furniture hadn’t been delivered, (and wouldn’t be until Wednesday) I might as well stay in Saskatoon another night and drive up on the Tuesday. He explained that he’d also be in Saskatoon to pick up two other new teachers. This was quite a wrench in our plans...since Mom could only stay with me in Patuanak until Wednesday morning (because she then had to fly to Quebec for Sol’s graduation!) At this point, Mom was pretty disappointed but we both really rolled with it. We took the Canadian Tire shuttle to pickup the rental car that Mom had booked and we enjoyed a chat with the driver, who speaks french and knows people from where we’re from. During the ride to the airport, Canadian Tire called to tell us that since the Toyota was JAM-PACKED with stuff, it would have to be moved so they could complete the safety check. UGH. Thankfully, we were getting the rental so we could move most of it into Mom’s car. Turns out my vehicle needed a wheel alignment (wow, things add up QUICKLY when you ‘grow up’). We stocked up on more home/car supplies from Canadian tire and filled two carts at Walmart with home essentials. We crashed at a nice sketchy little hotel that Papa found us and grabbed pizza for supper. I was so happy to sleep.

pretty thankful for this desk chair in Canadian Tire...