Bruno!

This is the dog that we were dogsitting! He is very funny but not very nice to people he doesn't know....I promise I will write a longer post later but today I don't really have time!

A fraudulent scheme and a rat to redeem....

Last night Steven and I scoured the internet searching for pets that wouldn't require as much responsibility as a dog. I have been really wanting a dog since we got here, but it just doesn't seem to make any sense with all the travelling that we need and want to do. A cat would be the perfect fit considering their independance and their need for attention being much less than a dog. Except that my whole entire family is allergic to cats and to have them over to our house would require them to be on allergy medication....making them not feel good or like themselves.

The pets we looked at (and laughed at) were birds and rodents.....we first looked at parrots, and then doves, a canary, and even a pigeon! (coo coo coo!) Then we were looking at guinea pigs, hamsters, and ..........RATS???? What???? Here in the states you can own rats as pets??!!! Oh yes you can! And they are extremely intelligent! Apparently, according to Wikipedia and other information on-line, you can train a rat to come when it is called, do tricks, and be litter trained! Apparently it is common to have pet rats that do not bite you and so you can sit and cuddle with them! (lol) So, Steven looks at me with this totally interested face...and I was a little shocked because I know what he is thinking! He wants a rat!

Apparently they are sanitary because they are domesticated and looked after. They are bred in clean sanitary conditions and are not picked up off the street or anything. The wild rats are different than these pet rats (according to Wikipedia) So they get their shots just like dogs and cats do! You still keep them in a cage and bring them out to run in their ball and hold them just like you would treat a hamster....except that they come when they are called! (how cool is that??!!) I am thinking I would like to have a canary.....I'm not totally sold on the rat idea, not totally against it either. But we would have to sneak that rat into Alberta! We would have an illegal pet! Sounds kind of on the dangerous side......

Your thoughts on this matter would be appreciated!

Confusing Communion in a Strange Denomination!

A long long time ago (yesterday ) in a land far far away (Kansas City) two seasoned experts on the practises of Communion entered into a strange denomination of which communion is only a shadow of the CRC.....

Ok, so yesterday was sunday and that time of the month....(no not that) It was communion at church! SO....

SCENES FROM LAST SUNDAY:

Narrator: The Pastor's wife introduced herself to Jessica and Steven after church and learned about their situation. She was interested about the fact that they had been married a mere 3 weeks at that point and was curious to know more about us. She then asked....

Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): So did you go to any other church's since you have been here?
Steven: I went before Jess came to a Luthuren Church.
Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): Oh, how did you like it?
Steven: Well it was ok, it was a little weird, the Pastor sang the litergy and the whole congregation all drank out of the same communion cup.
Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): Oh, Ok, (laughing) so you didn't like that.....
Steven: I didn't do communion because it was a little too weird for me at the time...
Narrator: Steven, Jessica and the Pastor's wife continued to talk and it was a friendly conversation indeed.

THIS WEEK AT THE SUNDAY SERVICE:

Narrator: Steven and Jessica enter the church and converse with members of the congregation. Topics such as bible Study, babies, Kansas City University winning their previous game- (college basketball) were all discussed. After the congregation sits down and the service begins....Steven and I notice something at the front......something on a table.....something I hadn't done since I was in Edmonton....something looked a little off.....Could it be.....no wait.....it couldn't! BUT IT WAS!

A Half Loaf of Bread and a SINGLE CUP OF GRAPE JUICE adorned the table for COMMUNION!

Steven looked at me....and I looked at him....it was pretty obvious. This communion was going to be a weird one.

Steven just couldn't believe that he had said all those opinions about communion at last weeks service without experiencing communion here first.

So the worship starts and then ends (it was lovely) and the sermon begins and finishes off (very powerful....meaningful...) and then it started. Communion. And I have done Communion many times....but never like this. I was very concerned I was going to get sick! What if I got a cold sore! So then the Pastor organizes people to stand around the table at about 8 at one time.....Steven and I happened to be in one of the front rows....so we went first with a few other people. So they passed the loaf around and you were supposed to rip off a piece. So we did that. We were very much concentrating on the bread and passing it around when to my surprise I saw the big silver cup of juice coming my way! I quickly downed the bread and Steven did as well....we both looked at eachother and I took the cup in my hands, raised it to my lips and took a sip....and Steven gave me this nervous awkward look and took a sip as well.....wWell, when we passed it to the next person they

dipped
their
bread
in
the
juice
HOW EMBARRASSING! Yeah, so we were the only ones to sip the juice (we had no bread left to dip anyway) and everyone else very sanitarily dipped the bread in and then ate it........we walked back to our seats and Steven could not stop laughing. He was shaking our bench! He just could not stop thinking about the fact that we sipped out of that cup and that everyone else had dipped the bread! We poisoned everyone with our germs! We also were laughing that we were the crazy Canadians who thought that this possibly wasn't a communion but a lunch and left the communion table full of bread and juice mustaches around our mouths like children....

Nobody mentioned it to us afterward....but we were still laughing about it after the service....I guess I'm going to watch and listen more closely the next time I'm in a strange church and communion begins in a strange way....

Honeymoon pictures

The honeymoon was really really fun and relaxing! We went skiing, dogsledding, shopping, had a fondue dinner and even went to a dinner theater! Very memorable time!

Good Evening to you all

Hello! Today I made Steven lunch, (this is a recurrent request from him) and I really don't mind making him lunch as long as he is patient if I'm late to meet him at his work. After the lunch with the rest of his co-workers, Christina and I (another wife) decided to walk "Truffles" (their dog) and pick up some stuff for the home at Target. It was my first time at Target, and I was quite overwhelmed (It was a super-target, not that different from a super-walmart.) Except it looked a little like a department store. They had 33 tills with about only 5 cashiers available to serve us. It had a pizza hut, starbucks, and another restaurant that I cannot remember. (CRAZY BIG!) Anyway, we had some delicious starbucks and I had a Cinnamon Dolce Latte, thought you might want to know! (It was abnormally platable! (acceptable or agreeable to the palate or taste; savory: "palatable food.") So maybe that latte wasn't savory per say but it was a tasty treat..tasty enough to get recognition in a blog! Ok, ANYWAY, we shopped around this extravagantly large and profusely vast target for a few hours....and I picked out some really nice dish sets and the cutest glass pitcher, I just had to get it! Yup, Target is an interesting place.

Steven and I both have been asked why in the world we would move to Kansas City, coming from Canada. The people just say, "what? isn't that place supposed to be so much better than here??" One lady even asked why in the world Kansas City.....I have yet to quite understand these comments....Kansas City is not the greatest place I have personally ever been to....but it is so much different from home. It really isn't that bad. But I will give everyone more of an opinion once I have been here longer than 2 weeks.....considering I have only been here for a mere week and 3 days....oh dear....I'm starting to miss home....not the weather....just the people.

So on that sad note.....

Aloha.....which means hello and good-bye! which means apsolutly nothing.

p.s. Steven and I are a few blocks away from 2 liquor stores.....which are the same chain under the same name. "Berbiglia" Isn't that a crazy name??? It is spelt how you say it. Whenever we talk about Berbiglia we often say it several times because the name is so strange! Berbiglia Berbiglia Berbiglia..........Berbiglia Berbiglia Berbiglia..........Berbiglia Berbiglia Berbiglia..........ok I'll stop!

oh good grief!

This is a picture from my bachelorette with all the cousins! Thought I would throw that in here with the rest of my random post!

Read what I accidentally almost posted on someone's wall. If you read it carefully, it makes me sound so crazy!

"Yeah, school is all done and I graduated from Grant MacEwan from the Social Work program. I worked after school till I got married in a group home and now I technically can't work here at all! "

It makes it sound like I got married in a group home, and not only that I got married in a group home, but because I did, I cannot work in the States! So there is some mixed up thought process! Good thing I read that before I sent that out! When I read it after I wrote it I burst out laughing! How embarrassing! I will be asked if I had the ceremony in a group home, and what kind of a person would do that anyway? So strange. So there is a mistake for you to laugh at!

Today Steven and I had lunch, I made him a lunch and brought it over to him. It was pretty tasty and Steven ate whole wheat brown bread! I was pretty excited about that. Although the bread here is considerably sweeter here than in Canada, it is something that I keep noticing.

Also, the drivers are so angry all the time! Everybody honks at eachother, and it's not like Canada, people here honk ALL the time for anything! driving too close, not moving exactly when the light is green, all that kind of stuff. Makes me a very scared pedestrian. Although I wouldn't compare it to the Carribean countries who just honk their horn for honking sake, the people here are actually pissed!

So two American insights for the day. The bread here is made with more sugar, and the drivers are considerably more angry than in Edmonton.

So Relieved

I am so glad that the wedding is over. Seriously that was one of the most stressful things that I have ever done and I guess now that it is over I am much more happier! I enjoyed the day, (the beginning of the ceremony I was feeling extremelely nervous) but it got easier and easier after that. Maybe that is why I don't mind being here, because it is such a relief after planning for that day for so long! (Well it seemed like a long time!)
This past weekend we rented a truck and spent all day saturday furniture shopping at the most amazing furniture store ever. Nebraska Furniture is just phenomenal! Very cheap prices for things that are cheap and then they also have some really nice stuff as well that is priced appropriately. The store is honestly twice the size of Ikea easily. They have really nice stuff for interior decorating as well. Steven and I picked out a small kitchen table and 4 chair set, a computer desk, a dresser with a mirror, and a toaster! One of Steven's coworkers, Tim, agreed to help us move this stuff up the three flights of stairs to our floor. Another one of Steven's coworkers, Eric, gave us a couch so we moved it on saturday as well to our apartment with Tim's help again. (I totally could not have moved the dresser or the computer desk up all those stairs! So I am really thankful that he did this for us.) Right now our apartment is coming out of dissarray from the do it yourself assembly that took place all day yesterday by mostly Steven. The only thing we did not complete was putting the mirror on the dresser - definitly not as big of a priority as the kitchen table and chairs! We went to "Lowes" which is set up very similar to Home Depot, and we bought some hampers (thank you Joni!)...no dryer balls yet, some appliances, (electric frying pan, waffle maker, blender, sorry christine, no sandwich maker yet!) and some basic cleaning and organizational supplies. We needed two carts in the store and it was nice that we could make use of our truck again! We plan on buying a vehicle hopefully in the next two weeks. Things are coming together and having my own place with my own stuff feels wonderful!
Easter was nice, we went to the Good Friday Service at the "Revolution" church and it was nice, and the Easter morning Service on Sunday went really nice as well. We signed ourselves up for a small group on tuesday nights so hopefully that works out well. The church had hidden 99 Easter eggs around the sanctuary and the kids had to find them during the greeting, it was pretty funny.
Today I have to return the truck :( and do laundry using our new laundry baskets! Thanks again Joni!

p.s. I bought the nicest shower curtain! Makes this place look like a classy establishment!

p.p.s. Can you tell I am sooooo pumped about all the new stuff I just bought! And there is still so much more stuff that we need still! Shopping is sooooo much fun when you have money to spend and things you need!