Snorting cat?

There was a new little male kitty in our house, Simon, and my females were not too impressed.
But I had no idea that a cat would snort like this!

cold thoughts

Today I walked out of my house to start my car and thought "O its nice out here" , I walked back inside and looked at the thermometer to see it was -25 ....that is quite a few degrees warmer than yesterday....you know your from Saskabush when.....

Other thoughts:

Its hard to sleep comfortably in a single bed with 2 cats

The toilet and floor is sooo cold in the morning when you have no heat in the bathroom

The plumber is not going to fix my furnace until probably Thursday (waiting on parts)

Radios are dumb when they die in the middle of the night and the charger won't work either

My duck shaped hot water bottle is my hero

Running space heaters all night makes it hard to sleep for fear of dying by fire

God is everywhere, He knows my thoughts, my hopes, my fears, my frustrations

I am in His hands

Brrrr Frozen ME!

Right now it is just after lunch, the sun is shining, but it is -31 degrees outside!!!! The pic above was taken yesterday.... and I thought that was cold! To top it off I have no heat in my house...but at least my car started. These temps also do not include wind chill...which when you live where I live you always have wind!

Last night I locked my cats in the storage/furnace/laundry room where they usually go for the night, unless they are being unusually calm. I didn't sleep very well, kept hearing wierd things, things bumping around upstairs...I kept telling myself its just the cats...forgetting they were in the storage room. I realized this when I woke up to my alarm this morning...still don't know what I was hearing. So strange.

I also realized that it was freezing cold in my house. I opened the door to let my cats out of the storage room and much to my surprise did not get hit with the usual heat wave. It was actually colder in the room with the furnace than in my room! I went outside, started my car then went upstairs to start the coffee...thats when I noticed the thermometer on my fridge read 14 degrees INSIDE. Brrrrrrr! So I turned up the heat and went for a hot shower. The furnace never kicked in. I immediately called my landlady, the plumber SHOULD be at my house today. But there has also been a water line break in a large building in town, so I am not counting on anything.

I just got back from lunch, no sign of the plumber and it is now 13 degrees in my house..there is ice an snow on the INSIDE of my doors and windows, but at least the sun is shining in I guess.

I am praying that the plumber will come and fix my furnace before tonight! I plan to borrow a space heater, put on my long underwear, moccassins and a big cozy sweater and curl up under a bunch of blankets until he comes. Please come soon Mr. Plumber, Please!

Hunting Season

It had been two years since I last got to hunt. So I was super excited when my dad told me he took a whole week off work to come to Sask and hunt with me!

He drove out Sunday night, I had the hunting licenses/tags and habitat certificates all ready to go for hunting whitetail deer. They were such a pain to get....I couldn't believe that Frontier, Climax and Shaunavon had none...I had to drive to Eastend to get them. Anyways...we went out hunting Monday morning purposely being picky..since we had the whole week. No need to rush, might as well try to get a big buck. We decided to drive West of Frontier and head South of Claydon. We saw about 60 whitetail does within the first hour and 2 small whitetail bucks. At one point we actually ended up down at the US border, but we mostly saw Mule deer down there. It was even fun just driving around watching for deer. We also saw a TON of antelope, which we nicknamed Melons. They are so funny looking.

Around 11 am, we turned down a gravel road only to see a No Hunting sign, so we turned around to head back but were met by a truck at the corner. The man in the truck owned the land and was more than willing to let us hunt on it. He just likes to know who is out on his land. He also told us that if we went straight we would see some old buildings and his son had shot a big whitetail buck lying between the buildings just last week. So we thanked him and headed back down his road. As we came over a little hill we could see the old buildings, and much to our surprise we saw a good sized rack of antlers sticking up between the buildings. We stopped the truck. What should we do......sneak up from there.....drive up the hill an sneak back....go slow and make the buck stand up so we can make sure he is a whitetail...hmm.... We finally decided to drive past and up the hill, stop at the top and sneak back. During our sneak back to the edge of the hill, we started out walking, then crouching, then crawling, then wiggling on our bellies pulling ourselves with our elbows! LOL! Amazingly the buck never saw us (and we never got dirt in our rifle barrels)...I guess we did a good job of sneaking......and we had a pretty good view of him, he was facing us, lying down. We still could not tell if he was a whitetail or a mulee, so dad told me he was going to get on his knees to make the buck stand up. We had been peering through our scopes for a while now, and my eyes were starting to go crosseyed! I had to look away and close my eyes for about 30 sec, but then I was ready. Dad kneeled, the buck just stared, then dad did a little dance on his knees, LOL, and finally the buck stood up. IT WAS A WHITETAIL! ha ha, so obviously I shot him :) It was great. I was so excited!

So after field dressing the deer, we loaded him into the truck and cruised around a bunch more to see if we could find one for dad. No luck, we didn't see anything but antelope. We got home for lunch about 3 pm. Then made a phone call out to a friends house with a shop where we could hang my deer to skin it. We made plans with them for supper and decided to head North of town and look for deer until then.

We drove on the back roads north of the valley and crossed the highway. We didn't go far until we saw an old abandoned farm yard with some old buildings and lots of bush. There was a small circle of bush with an old building, then a larger circle surrounding it. If I was a deer, I would live there. Sure enough as we drove past we saw a small whitetail buck. Dad took a shot at it, but it had moved just as he shot. We drove to the other side and scared it back into the bushes. Then I left dad there and drove back down the road twice. He then texted me to push bush for him...walk through and scare the deer out. So I parked the truck and started walking through. As soon as I got out I heard a really far off rifle shot....which got my heart racing. I kept walking and was about to cut through the bush into the larger circle when a whitetail...all I saw was the tail....jumped about 5 feet to my right! Scared me almost to death!!! So I stopped for a minute to listen for rifle shots....nothing. I continued through the bush....about half way into the middle of the outer circle I heard 3 rifle shots to my right, and dad came into view. He was motioning wildly that he had got something and for me to go get the truck. So I jogged back, got the truck and pulled up beside him. To my (and his) surprise he had shot a good sized 5x5 whitetail buck!! So I must have scared out a larger one than we had initially spotted!

By then the sun was starting to set, so we headed to our friends house, had supper and proceeded to hang the deer off of a tractor to skin and cut the meat off them. So we finished our week of hunting in the first day. But there was still lots of work left to do....

Tuesday was my birthday :) .....I spent the whole day washing and cutting up deer meat with my dad. But then in the evening a bunch of friends from Frontier and Shaunavon threw a surprise birthday party for me....AND it was actually a surprise. Good work guys, lol!

I had an awesome week, but now I am back to work for the weekend, O joy.

...kids

This is sooo funny....I have to share!
I got invited out for supper the other night by a family with three little kids. I know them from church and their kids are soo cute. I got to know them a bit during VBS in the summer but I haven't spent a whole lot of time around them.

Anyways...during supper we were discussing random things and I said to the kids..."Guess where I am going after Christmas?? ....its across the ocean.....I starts with South....."
At this point one of the little boys says "SOUTH DAKOTA!!"
"no...its across the ocean..."
the next guess was "Europe!"
Then before I could say anything the littlest boy says "EUROPE! EUROPE IS A PLANET!!!"
ha ha! It was priceless.

A little while later I asked them "Where have you traveled to before?"
They all piped in and said "We've been to Consul!" and one of the youngest ones added that "Consul is as far as flying across the ocean to South Africa"
It was soo funny. Definitely the highlight of my week.

Scriptures

Here are some scriptures that have really been encouraging me lately:

Psalm 139:3-4
You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest.
Every moment you know where I am.
You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.

Psalm 139:16
You saw me before I was born.
Everyday of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Romans 3:22
We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in the same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.

Romans 11:36
For everything comes from him; everything exists by his power and is intended for his glory. To him be glory evermore. Amen.

Romans 12:12
Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful.

1 Corinthians 7:17
You must accept whatever situation the Lord has put you in, and continue on as you were when God first called you.

1 Corinthians 7:34
In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be more devoted to the Lord in body and in spirit, while the married woman must be concerned about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband.

1 Corinthians 15: 58
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

2 Corinthians 7:10
For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind that results in death.

Galatians 4:7
Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.

Ephesians 2:8-10
God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Ephesians 3:20
Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.

October fun

I have had such a busy month. Full of fun events and trips, its been great.

I started out the month with a trip home to visit my family for Thanksgiving. Sadly my brother who lives in Saskatoon did not make it out. We went to Body worlds in Edmonton and it was amazing. My cats successfully killed one of my mom's plants.. she probably has 10 or more...so that is pretty good considering.

In the middle of the month I chopped 6 inches off my hair, and also had a hair dying party with Shantel and Lianne. Of course we had to carve pumpkins for Halloween, so me and Shantel had a pumpkin carving party. We roasted pumpkins seeds...and burnt some of them (I always burn them). We entered our pumpkins into a pumpkin carving contest at a local grocery store with high hopes....sadly neither of us won, but it was fun anyways. We also watched the Amnityville horror the night before Halloween. Good times.

Then Halloween weekend me and a bunch of girls took a road trip out to Calgary to visit our good friend Sarah. It was a really fun weekend. Here are some highlights:
We stayed up late every night talking
We went to Aussie Rules -I don't think I will ever be able to sing the song Mony Mony (however its spelled) without laughing...or ...Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog...
We ate a box of 100 (technically 98) mini chocolate bars in 3 days...there were 6 of us, but still.
We drove in downtown Calgary and amazingly only got turned around once, but arrived at MEC 10 minutes too late!
We were almost side swiped in Calgary traffic
We dressed up for Halloween for about 10 minutes and didn't take any pictures!
...hmm...I can't think of anything else, but it was sooo much fun!

In addition to all the fun, God has been teaching me some lessons. He is showing me what great friends I have, I am so thankful for my friends and family. I am, as always, learning to be patient. God is also encouraging me through my friends, that I am not alone. We often have the same struggles, we worry about some of the same things. I think we need to reach out to one another more often. Ruin the devil's attempts to make us feel all alone, unwanted and unloved.

I LOVE ALL YOU GIRLS!

Cat Pee

Wouldn't you agree that all good days start with cat pee. LOL ....I hope my day gets better.

I was cleaning the litter box this morning before I took the garbage out when both my cats came into the room and sniffed the litter box. They also both tried to get in...which is frustrating for me cuz I am trying to clean it. I push them away and to my surprise I turned around 20 seconds later to see Tigger peeing on the floor!!! I would have expected her to be a little more persuasive about getting into the litter box, like at least a little meow or something, if she had to pee that bad. At least it was on cement, which means the clean up was not a big deal and neither of them stepped in it. *sigh*

This event made me 10 minutes late for work. But at least I have fairly flexible hours so I will just stay 10 minutes later at the end of the day.

Surprisingly I am not frustrated or angry or upset, I am actually laughing as I write this. Maybe because two of my friends have had worse experiences with my cats and their bodily functions. Eh Marian and Courtney....?....ha ha!

My Childhood

I thought some of you might find these funny. Me and my little sister have been laughing all evening while reading through some of my old journals from Grade 1 and 2. I will type the entries out exactly as they are written. Enjoy.

Mon., Sept 14, 1992

I hath to bruthers
I am the big sister
Wee hath one cat.


Thurs., Nov. 5, 1992

a long time a go my
bruther pooshed me
aganste the dish wosher.
I cut my self.
lucly it was not
bleeding. I woned a bondade. But my mom
said "NO." But it
hert. But I still
cood not get one.
the end.

April 1992

a cat slept in a
dogs slepting plas
the dog shrast the
cat up the shree
and away the cat got


I have A Little Brother
By BreAnn Schmidt

I have a little brother
He snores when he sleeps
He has lots of baddreams
he colls mom asleep.
I have another brother
He pinches and he
scraches and I
like my brothers
because there so
sweet.


Mon May 11 1992

wunts there livd a tercee
it was thaks giving
and he was a fat tercee
he noo that he was
goona be etin bi
peepl and then the boocher
he was skered be kus
he cood heere the gerinder
going and he was eeten
good by tercee good by.


Ha ha, I thought the last poem was very appropriate since I am home with my family for thanksgiving and we will be eating turkey...... good bye turkey good bye!

Uneventful

Well, I haven't blogged in a little while, but not too much interesting has been going on. I had kind of a rough week last week. Today is Monday and I am going to make sure this week is better :)

Last week many many things were frustrating me, and especially last Wednesday it felt like everything was just piling up and I couldn't get rid of it.

But this week I am going 'home'. If I consider Stettler, where I have never lived, never gone to school, don't know anyone except my family 'home'. sigh. I hate being asked questions like Where are you from? or Where is home? I honestly don't have an answer. I guess 'home' is wherever my parents are, but I am from all over. People in small towns don't understand this. It is strange for me.

Anyways, I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving. I can't wait for Turkey dinner and we might even be going to Bodyworld in Edmonton! And that is the closest I am ever going to get to a Cadaver Lab, which I think that EMTs should get to do, but we don't.

One funny thing that happened to me last week, was I lit one of my oven mitts on fire! I have been cooking on my own for 5 years and this is the first time I have ever lit anything on fire. So I figure that is pretty good.

Wow, I have typed a whole blog without talking about my cats...that pretty amazing. HA HA

Wondering

Sometimes I wonder what I am doing down here. What the heck am I doing in small town of 200 people in South West Saskatchewan. How are the plans that I have in mind for my life ever going to happen down here. I know that God has a bigger plan, God sees the big picture. God brought me here. But I hate not seeing the reason. All my friends are gone, on to new and bigger things. Why can't I leave.

God obviously brought me here. He dragged me out of Calgary three years ago, then opened my eyes and let me see very clearly why I had to get out. I don't think I could've got myself out if I had stayed, and it might have been too late.

I started working and completing more schooling 45 min north in a town of about 1800 people. Then this job opened up. I wasn't even considering it until my boss told me I should. That this might get me some good experience and I should at least look into it. So I did. I applied for the job, telling God that even tho I had just moved into an apartment 2 months earlier, if I was offered the job, I would trust Him and take it. I didn't want to move AGAIN. But God opened that door, and I walked through it.

So here I am. I have been here for 1 year and 4 months. It has been hard. God provides and I have more than enough to keep me busy. The community is great, the church is welcoming and supportive. But my childhood dreams are not falling into place as I had planned. Again I know God has His own timing. I need to continue to be patient. When I have been feeling the worst God has brought people into my life that have been lifting me up and encouraging me. But its still a struggle.

I don't feel called to go anywhere else, I am both content and restless here. In the past God has put an idea in the back of my mind of where I could go, where I could just SEE if there was a job opening or something. Right now there is none. I feel I need to stay, for now. It is hard to be content when everyone around me is moving forward with their lives. I feel like I'm stuck.

There is a song that keeps coming into my mind called Use Me Here. We used to sing it in one of my old youth groups. I think maybe as far back as Grades 8 or 9.

Use me here, where I am
I'm not gonna pray anymore that you'll change your plans.

Despite my fear, I place my life in your hands.
The future can wait, tomorrow might be too late.

So Jesus use me here.

Entertainment

I think there was a vacuum nearby....

Just thought you might enjoy some cute pics of my 'kids' LOL

Needles!

Here are some pics of us learning to do IV's in our PCP course :) ....I almost passed out from that because they had to dig around in my arm cuz my vein disappeared. They kept lifting the needle up under the skin to see where it was, it was both disgusting and cool at the same time.

So yesterday I went to Swift to get my shots for South Africa. Marian only had to get two shots so I thought it might be about the same for me. Well, thats definitely not the case. I have to get SEVEN altogether. I got three of them yesterday, two in my left arm and one in my right.

Its kinda funny that the RN decided to put two in my left arm cuz I am right handed, but only the one in my right arm hurts, my whole arm is stiff and sore and I hardly slept last night because I was feeling sick. I feel like crap today too. Arg!

I got Hep A IM (intra muscular) in my left arm and Polio SQ (subcutaneous ...into fat) in my left arm and then I got Typhoid IM in my right arm, and that one freakin' hurt!!

Actually I almost passed out from the Typhoid one. The RN gave me the other two then I turned to give her my right arm and when she put the needle in something weird happened. Its hard to explain but it felt like something exploded in my arm and it went all quivery inside, then as soon as that happened I started sweating and the room started to get fuzzy and I knew I was going to pass out. So I put my head down and took some deep breaths and the RN helped me to the bed and I laid there for a long time. It really sucked. I didn't actually pass out, but I hate that feeling. Its only happened to me once before after someone digging around in my arm with a needle trying to find my vein to take blood. But that time I actually did pass out.

I have to warn every nurse who trys to take blood...do not dig around in my arm, you can poke me 3 times if you have to but don't dig around! lol. I think it stems from my childhood, because I clearly remember being held down while they were trying to take blood and couldn't find the vein. They just kept digging around inside my arm hoping to hit a vein, and I was screaming. Not fun.

the wonderful thing about Tiggers....

I have been thinking for a while now that my cat Feliz could use a friend. Then last weekend I decided to browse through the animals of various SPCAs. I found a cat on the Saskatoon SPCA site that I loved..... So wednesday we stopped in there, and when we first arrived we couldn't find the cat anywhere! But then the people working there realized the cat was in the back room...for some unknown reason. She is an 8 month old female, orange tabby and even though she is 2 months younger than Feliz she is already bigger!

I have decided to name her Tigger :) and she hopefully gets spayed this week.....unless she is prego, then obviously not. But we don't think she is......

Tigger and Feliz are getting along ok. Half the time I can't tell if they are playing or fighting. They chase each other around like crazy, then every once in a while I hear hissing and growling. So, I think they just need time to get used to each other. They aren't ready to be together 24/7 yet. And Feliz is pretty jealous of the new cat. She won't even purrr when I pet her right now. O well, she'll get over it!

I am also getting rid of my Degus....they were kind of my 'cats' before I could have cats. So they are getting kinda neglected, and there is a teacher who phoned and would like them for her classroom. That will be Perfect!

Get Fuzzy

.....this made me laugh....

VBS

Well, I just finished a busy week teaching VBS at the church. I don't think I realized exactly what the job would be when I agreed to be a teacher. Here is a summary of my days...they might be a bit mixed up cuz I can't remember everything, it went by so fast.

The first day of VBS my group was ALL boys. It was probably one of the busiest days because it was day 1 and everyone had energy...including the teachers, which is good. In our site tho, we had a toy gun hanging on the wall, NOT a good idea, especially with a group of all boys. Everyday I had decided to go around the circle of kids and get them to tell me their names, ages and something they like to do. I think everyone that first day liked video games the best.

The next day I had a mix of boys and girls...it went well. I can't remember any details that day....but there were lots of out-of-town kids.

I think it was the 3rd day that I had another group of all boys....by that time we had hidden the gun that had been on the wall, it was much too distracting. But a few of them brought their own guns. And when I said that I liked gopher hunting I got a huge cheer from all the boys and that was pretty much all they wanted to talk about the rest of the morning.

One day I had a 3 year old in my group (that was the youngest the whole week). And we had just finished the bible story about Jesus washing his Disciples feet. I asked the kids why Jesus might have done that for them? and this little 3 year old starts telling the whole crucifixion story, about how Jesus came into the world and died on the cross for our sins. It was amazing, I think the smartest kid in the class was this 3 year old!! We joked about him being the teacher, lol. It was sooo cute.

Day 4 I think, we had a group of all girls, and surprisingly they were the best behaved group of all. It was actually a struggle to get any kind of reaction out of them! They were all shy and quiet. I think it was a nice 'rest' day because the last day was crazy.

The very last day we had the biggest group of all, 11 kids in a tiny classroom that was boiling hot and everyone wanted out. We had to have at least one helper at the door keeping everyone inside and catching the kids that tried to sneak through.

Our craft also required glue and with 8 - 11 kids sharing one glue container and not enough room around the coffee table for everyone, glue was EVERYWHERE. The kids loved it tho, one of the first questions I would get asked in the morning was if this was the site where they got to make the barn.

It was so neat to see, by the end of the week the kids were starting to ask more questions. In my group we also did the story about Jesus feeding the 5000. At the beginning of the week, the kids were just like, ok cool, God did a miracle. But by the end of the week the groups were starting to think about it. I was getting questions like How could that be possible? Maybe each person just had one bite...or maybe they were BIG loaves of bread and HUGE fish. Ha ha. It was great to see that things were starting to sink in and they were actually thinking about what they were learning.

It was a great week all in all. Some days were more challenging than others, and some days we laughed a lot more than others.
By the time Friday morning rolled around I was exhausted and had mixed feelings about it being the last day. The week went by really fast, even tho the mornings stuffed in a hot classroom sometimes seemed to last forever.

I made lots of little buddies :D . At the beginning of the week I was doing really good at remembering names, but by the end I basically gave up. There were just too many! And now I know most of the kids, but I have no idea who their parents are, lol.

And I still have all the little songs stuck in my head.....
My life is better, so much better, my life is better with you!
So much neater, so much sweeter, my life is better with you!
..... I don't think they will ever leave, ha ha.

Schteee-catzz

Introducing the new edition to my feline ravaged home. All my other plants are dead except for one which is in 'ICU' aka the Computer room with the door shut at all times. I named this cactus Schtee-catz (German - shoo cats) because its spikes should deter my cat from touching and killing it... and after 5 days, Schtee-catz is alive and well. Hopefully it will stay that way...although other cacti have drowned in my care.

My Return

I am home. I am back to work. But I don't really mind, I was actually starting to dream of getting ambulance calls. I figure it is probably a good sign to like your job enough to dream about it.

After being gone on Holidays for 3 weeks I came home to my garden overrun with giant weeds. Baby wasps are swarming my front door... AGAIN...this happened last year too. I hate wasps. My furnace is broken....although its not like I need it to be working yet. The sink in my basement is plugged beyond all hope. All my plants are dead...but they basically were before I left. But I better add that none of this was the fault of the sweet girls who were taking care of my place.

When I walked into my duplex it was obvious that my cat, Feliz, had not been impressed by my absence. All over my kitchen floor were little chunks of carpet. Luckily they were only from her scratching post which she tore to shreds. Also, many of my ornaments were on the floor....even one of the candle holders which normally sits inside a shadow box on the wall. Surprisingly only one ornament was broken...it was a ceramic cat and I had already broken its match, so it really didn't matter. I also did a fair amount of flea-marketting while in BC, so I have nicer ornaments to replace it with. Ha ha.

It really is nice to be home, kind of lonely after being with my family for 3 weeks straight, but relaxing at the same time. Plus I am really excited that Marian will be moving back on Sunday!!!! AND we have our plane tickets for South Africa!!!

Pictures from BC

Here are a few of my own pictures from beautiful British Columbia :)
The last half of our trip was quite exciting. We hiked up a mountain and slept there overnight on a tarp. Most of the hike was in the dark and we definately scared something big in the bush, but never saw it. We also floated down a river on little blow up mats or tubes. And on our journey home we went on a Glacier Tour in a helicopter...it was AMAZING!