Snow & Christmas CD's

Well as I've spoken to various people in Vancouver this weekend I have heard rumour that Vancouver may be getting just a bit of snow (a foot!). Well we got a bit of snow over night but not a lot. Of course the snow that we got weeks ago is still here and will be here until March probably! It was really cold here this weekend and of course that meant the perfect weekend for Saskatoon to host the Vanier Cup at their outdoor stadium! So yesterday afternoon thousands of people including my housemates bundled up and went to watch the U of S Huskies lose to the other team (Laval I think?). It was something like -21 and -36 with the windchill, yikes!
Today thanks to reading Celia's blog I found out that Sufjan Stevens had released a Christmas CD and so I called around and found a copy downtown at HMV so now I'm all set with Christmas music! I also went to Costco and bought timers so I can plug in my car tonight, it'll be the first time I ever plug in a car!
Two more weeks of classes and sooo many papers to write so I guess I better stop procrastinating and get back to it!

Windchill & Other Stuff!

Well I'm slowly learning what "windchill" means. We had a couple of days where it was beautiful out and above 0. I even walked along the river last night for an hour and was able to take my toque off for most of the walk. Well today it changed dramatically. It was -8 when I left the house this morning and when i walked across the soccer field from the parking lot to the seminary I thought my nose was going to freeze! Later in the morning I went out to go across campus to go to STU (Saskatoon Theological Union, the three seminaries together) worship at the United church seminary I didn't wear my toque, oops! Right now it is -13 and -22 with the windchill. I've never experienced such cold winds.
We had a bit more snow last night and are supposed to get more over the next couple of days, yuck! I've been asked a few times now if I'd rather be boiling my water or dealing with this weather. I would rather boil water any day! This has definitely been an interesting part of my experience here. I'm hoping to go ice skating outside this year, I've never done it in my life. I got a pair of skates for free and so I hope to try them out sometime soon.
School is getting really busy. As I lay awake last night trying to fall asleep I realised that I had 11 papers to do in the next couple of weeks. This is probably not even all of them, yikes!
Two and a half weeks of class left and then one week of exams (only 1!) and final papers (only 1!) and then I fly home on December 15. I will be home until Jan. 1 and then I head back to Saskatoon for two days and on January 3 I head to Peru! I'm really excited about this trip. I get back on January 20 and then classes start January 22. It's going to be a busy semester.
One more thing I have to do in the next couple of weeks is get my applications for CPE programs in so I can do that next summer before heading out on internship next fall.
It's already been a busy year and it's just going to keep getting busier!

Update 3 Friday

My brother seems to have recovered fully and was released from hospital today. He is at home and will be returning to work soon. They found a hole in his heart but it is apparently a pretty common condition. He will be taking aspirin daily and will follow up with a specialist in a few weeks. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Update 2 Thursday night/Friday morning

There had been some hope that he would be released last night but the specialist hadn't had a chance to look at the test results from the doppler test and so he was kept overnight again. He is on the neurology ICU at VGH.

Cat Photos

Well I promised pictures so I took some this morning before I left for school. Here are the two feline residents of my Saskatoon home.

This is George - he has been called "big boned", "the largest cat I've ever seen" and just plain "awesome". He's adapting fairly well to our newest addition to the home who arrived on our doorstep exactly one week ago tonight.

In the picture below you can see George & Blue "playing". This is Blue. In this picture it becomes obvious why his name is Blue. He's a cutie but certainly moves faster than George. Fortunately he doesn't have the strong desire to go outside like George does. He's done the outside in the cold thing and knows a good thing when he sees one!

Update

I spoke to my mom a couple of hours ago and she was waiting for more test results. They found a hole in his heart that apparently 20% of the population have and can be treated with either surgery or aspirin. So far they think that aspirin will do the trick. There was still one more test to do but if it all came out ok they were going to discharge him tonight. He still has some weakness on his right side but it sounds like his speech is better. Now begins the long road of recovery.

Please Pray

I received this news from my mom a few hours ago. I have talked to her and we are still awaiting test results. My brother had been gone for tests for about 3 hours when I talked to her. Here is her email:

Thought I should let you know that Dave is in VGH undergoing tests. He is doing much better today. He had a stroke last night that affected the right side of his body, making it difficult for him to move his arm or leg, and slurring his speech. Fortunately I was home and he called me. He was transported by ambulance to VGH and they admitted him and gave him a CT scan and other tests. His major arteries were clear and there was no bleeding in the brain. They were about to administer a strong anti-clotting medication (TPA, which causes massive bleeding in about 5% of patients, but was the treatment recommendation of the neurologists involved and was approved by Dave) when most of his ability to move and speak returned. The treatment was altered to 4 aspirin and at about 3 a.m. he was admitted to the neurology ICU, which is where he is now. They are doing a Doppler to check his legs (for clots, I’m assuming) and an ECG to check the heart.

Ryan and Jessie (Dave’s girlfriend) are there now, but Dave had gone for tests when they arrived. I am at home, but plan to go in this afternoon or whenever he is back in the ward.

God was watching over us, because I was supposed to be out at a dinner meeting and had decided not to go because I had Book Fair stuff to complete and I have a bad cold so I went home. Ryan and Pam had just left before Dave came home from working at SportMart. He and I spoke downstairs for about 10-15 mins., and then he headed upstairs to get some paperwork he needed to complete. That’s when he called me. He had planned to go to Jessie’s but then she decided she would come here. He could have been home alone or driving, so it could have been much worse. Right now we re in a holding pattern until the doctors complete the battery of tests. I’ll let you know when I know more. In the meantime, prayers would be welcomed.

I will post updates as I hear more.

First Week Back Highs & Lows

Reading week seems so long ago and I was reflecting on my week last night and realised that a lot has happened this week so I thought I'd post a bit of a rundown.
Monday - can't even remember, worked in the library, wrote a paper
Tuesday
Lows - felt really lonely and isolated at school, I always struggle with Tuesdays and Thursdays because of the classes I have those days but today was a particularly rough one.
Highs - came home to find out my housemate had planned a Halloween get together and wanted me to be involved as well, yay! We had pizza, monster's blood drinks and c carved pumpkins. Went out for coffee with a sem friend and we talked about everything, it was great! Got an email from a VST friend letting me know she'll be in Moose Jaw for internship starting in January, so excited!
Wednesday
Lows - another day with a friend arriving on my doorstep in tears, talked about death and dying in pastoral care and counselling
Highs - ummmm not so many
Thursday
Lows - found out I had been left out of a social event (on purpose)
Highs - fantastic workshop on anxiety in a system/community, went out for dinner with 10 other sem students and wound up at the same restaurant as the principal of the Anglican seminary who paid for our entire meal, what a surprise!
- Came home to find out my roommate had found a kitten outside (see previous post, one cat two cat George cat blue cat)
Friday
Lows - ummmm??? immunizations - see highs, overwhelmed with the amount of work to do for next week
Highs - meeting about Peru trip to learn about what immunizations we needed, realised we leave for Peru in 2 months exactly, girls' night - Settlers of Catan wahoo!
Saturday
Lows - talked to a friend and learned that she had had a miscarriage the night before - praying for you my friend.
Highs - went to a workshop on the new hymnal, looks great! Got a paper done! The temperature outside got above 0 (0.8), it's even warmer today!
So that's my week, so full of highs and lows. I guess that's why it seems to have been such a long week!

One cat, two cat, George cat, blue cat

Last night we had a bit of a surpirse at about 11:30. My housemate had just come home and heard a cat crying outside our front door. She opened the door and there was a little kitten crying away. So we now have two cats in the house. Some of you may not know that our resident cat is George a "big boned" black with some white cat, who has lots of personality. "Blue" is our new little kitten with mostly off white fur with light and dark brown patches and one blue eye. I'll take pictures soon and post them.