Brrr.... no heat!

Woke up 4:21 am Tues. morning to the familar "click, click, click" sound that usually signals the furnace coming on but it never kicked in ... it was non stop click, click, click". I mentioned it to Andy when his alarm went off at 5:30 - he went to the basement to investigate and pronounced a service call was definitely in order. Of all days, why this one, the big day had arrived! CREW Calgary's AGM for which I had been gearing up for weeks, pouring over & refining my speech, thinking through every possible contingency in the event the special resolution to amend the bylaws (which required 75% approval by the members) didn't fly. I decided to keep warm by working out and once 7:30 rolled around started calling around to get someone in to check the furnace out. No luck ... apparently our home was not the only one without heat! After booking an appointment for Wed. afternoon I headed off to work. Unfortunately, the new furnace will not be installed until Monday (Oct 22) so Andy built a fire tonight to take the chill off. Believe me, without any heat, getting out of bed this morning was particularly unappealling. I was snug as bug in bed, toasty warm with the quilt tucked up under my neck. The only thing cold was my nose! You know, I really couldn't tell any difference between the temperature in the kitchen and the fridge when I opened this morning! Ahh... but we're a hardy family and are taking this in stride!

Happily the AGM went off without a hitch. We had the exact number of proxies needed to augment the number of members in attendance to bring the vote to 75% of the members, all in favor of the amendment. The special resolution was approved! I cannot believe how quickly my presidency year has passed by - a strategic planning meeting is planned for mid November after which I move to "past president" role on the board.

Fall photo - R&T

After enjoying a delicious meal of home-made pasta (tagillate with a lamb) lovingly made by Andy, I took this photo of Rachel and Tyler October 13 (surpisingly, at Rachel's request! she wanted an updated photo to post on the church website). As evident by this photo, these newlyweds (can you believe how quickly the past 10 months have gone?) are happy and enjoying life to the fullest.

CREW Convention - Denver

Once I was reassured by Rachel early Wednesday morning that she was out of the woods and on the road to recovery I booked a 2:30 pm flight to Denver. I arrived at 5:30, grabbed a cab to the hotel and met up with fellow Calgarian, Kendra. We went to the CREW Convention Marketplace (trade show) and joined Kareen for some nibblies, entered the draws (didn't win a thing) and had a chance to chat with other Canadian CREW members. Afterwards, Kendra, Marian and I went for dinner at the hotel and called it a night. My room was "upgraded" to a suite with a murphy bed (because they gave away my king size room I had originally booked for Tuesday night). It was an interesting room - twice the size of a normal room, with a dining room table & 6 chairs, fridge and serving area, couch & 2 chairs!

Following the CREW convention, Marian and I were booked on the same flight home, at 8:55 pm. We had some time to kill before heading to the airport so we headed off to an Outlet Mall nearby the airport. Our first stop was at a juice bar (top photo) where Marian checked her vmails - she was over the moon to hear that she landed her largest deal ever (worth $1 billion)!! Way to go Marian!

We managed to fit in concurrent makeovers at Sephora's (middle photo) and concluded the staff in that store have way too much fun! After checking in at the airport Marian managed to sweet talk the United Airways rep at the gate... she asked him whether it would be possible for us to sit together - he said he would see what he could do. We grabbed a bite to eat returning to the gate 10 min. before boarding and he managed more than just arranging our seats together - he assigned us seats 1A & B - a free upgrade from economy. Needless to say the 2.5 hour flight was very comfortable! (bottom photo taken on the plane just before we landed - 11:30pm). This is the 3rd CREW convention Marian and I have gone to and somehow we always find a way to fit in some quality shopping. (certainly doesn't hurt that the Cdn dollar is at par with the US for the first time in 30 years.) I couldn't imagine going to a CREW convention without her!

Fall Splendor

Took these photos today during my lunch hour - just a mere 5 min. walk from my office. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, but all too often our fall season is much too short lived. It seems to me the trees are holding onto their leaves a little longer than usual. I especially love the red and orange hues which are hard to find on the prairies ... my childhood memories of autumn come from living in Ontario where every year we watched the green leafy leaves of the maple trees turn to rich red. It's hard to find a tree in our fair city whose leaves turn any color other than yellow and various shades of gold but occasionally you'll see bursts of red amongst the shrubbery as seen here which I absolutely love!




I am so thankful for being reminded of God's faithfulness while capturing these images. Today was a particularly difficult day for me. Rachel had not been feeling well since the weekend and I knew that Tyler took her to the hospital last night around 9pm but I was in no way prepared for his call this morning around 9:30 am to advise they were still at the hospital and that Rachel could possibly undergo surgery. The CT scan suggested her appendix may need to be removed but the tests were "inconclusive". Rachel had been given IVs and was not allowed any food or drink (standard pre-op procedure).

I'm sure any mother can relate to the feelings of helplessness I felt - there was nothing I could do to "fix" the problem. Moreover, it was her husband who was at rightfully at her side, not me which was also a new experience for me. I was to fly to Denver today to attend a conference and despite reassurances from Rachel that I should go and that she'd be fine, I just couldn't do it. After taking a walk and thinking it through, I decided to cancel my outbound flight, with approval from my boss who was very understanding and supportive of my decision. Seven long hours after Tyler's first call, he called me with an update to say that the doctor did not feel it necessary to operate and they were letting Rachel go home. My prayer is now that whatever it was that caused her all this pain and grief has run its course and that she'll be back to herself in short order!