The First 9 Months

2012 – Married life so far (from Richard's perspective)

Hey guys! We just wanted to give you all an update of our lives, so we’re sending this brief synopsis of our lives to you. We will try to give an update at least once every 6 months.

Since the wedding, Olivia and I have been travelling quite a bit. First, we traveled to Orlando, Florida for our honeymoon and got to go to all the Disney World parks. However, before we got there, we had quite the adventure catching planes. After our first flight, we were supposed to connect to another one and it was about suppertime, so we stopped by Taco Bell for a quick meal. Then, we found out that our connecting flight was actually at a different airport! So, we had to run for twenty minutes only to be late by 1 minute. They gave our seats away 10 minutes prior to boarding and we got there 9 minutes to boarding, so we had standby seats if anyone else missed their connecting flights to Orlando. We did get there eventually, at around 12:30 in the morning. Then we somehow were able to rent a car, despite being 4 years under-aged. Once we got that, we made our way to our hotel, only to find that we were 1 year under-aged to sign in; however, they understood our situation and allowed us to sign in anyways.

My favorite park we visited was probably the Animal Kingdom. They had a full on man-made safari where we got to have a tour and see all sorts of exotic animals…I’m sure you got to see a lot of them on your trip to Zambia. We saw anything from hippos to crocodiles to lions to rhinos. Olivia got to have her picture taken with Pocahontas (the person acting as Pocahontas was pretty weird, at least in my opinion; it weirded Olivia out too, lol). Besides that, my other favorite park was the water parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. They had the world's largest man-made wave pool and a slide that went almost straight down, dropping around 120 feet. Also, at Typhoon Lagoon, I got to swim with some sharks including what looked like a tiger shark and some hammerheads. It was pretty fun.

After the honeymoon, we headed to Alabama for a quick after-wedding reception for her family that couldn't make it to the wedding in Wyoming. So, we dressed up again, me in my suit and her in her dress. Once we flew back to Wyoming, we picked up our car and headed to my parents for a brief stop before we traveled 13 hours north to Grande Prairie where we spent the next 2 months in the bush. Olivia's worker's visa never came through, so she stayed around camp, helped out in the kitchen, and entertained herself with movies and writing during her down-time. I headed out to plant each day and looked forward to seeing Olivia every evening to retire to our tent for the night before waking up bright and early again, only to do it all over again. We had a few interesting days, with extreme weather (many of the planters were on the verge of hypothermia on one of the days, and I got a minor heat stroke on another day), and heading to town on our days off.

At the end of the season, I got tendonitis and had to cut tree planting short. We packed up that night and headed back to Coaldale for 2 weeks before we headed out with my parents to New Tribes Bible Institute in Waukesha, Wisconsin. On the way we were able to stop at Mt. Rushmore and get a western picture of Olivia and I done.

After 4 days of traveling we reached our destination and got settled in. It all seemed a little overwhelming at first but we quickly adjusted. I had to quickly get used to spending a lot of money that first week as we set our studio apartment up to live in. We had so much stuff to buy, I could feel the stress mounting in me, but I had to let it go and trust my parents and Olivia with what we needed to buy and trust God to take care of our budget. Then, we got 4 days of Orientation before classes began and we were thrust into the campus life at NTBI. The classes really weren't a problem since both of us have taken all the courses before at JHBC in Wyoming, so the only difference was us getting involved in campus ministry, which is where they divvy up all the tasks to all the different students to clean the school, thus saving costs on enrollment and tuition. The other thing is they wanted us to get involved in evangelistic outreach in the community, so we have become involved in our church and I'm looking into a children’s ministry right now. Olivia is nannying a 4th grader for a family and I get to tag along and play Halo with him occasionally.

We didn't do much for Thanksgiving besides eating out, but we were able to go down south to Alabama for Christmas and spent 2 weeks with her family.

Christmas break: J Well, it started out with it snowing the night before we left. We woke up at 6:00am and got on the road by 7:20. We made our way through Chicago and down through Kentucky and a few other states before reaching Alabama. It was a 13 hour drive before we made it to her grandma’s place. Her grandparents there own a bed and breakfast with a lighthouse that is often reserved for newlyweds; however, because we were making this trip a surprise for everyone, we ended up sleeping in the living room futon with her uncle on the couch perpendicular to us. It was an interesting first night. The only people that knew we were coming were her mom, oldest younger sister, and her aunt, so everyone else was caught by surprise. After a few more family Christmas parties, we trekked another 4 hours south to her parent’s place in Newton and spent the next 2 days there before we headed back up 4 hours to meet up with her biological father and that side of the family. We sure surprised her dad! We ended up staying the night at Olivia’s aunt and uncle’s place before heading back to Newton the following day. During the next week and a half we did opening presents, horse riding, metal forging, some reading, and even got to take part in a tri-birthday party. Olivia, her father, and her sister Shelby all have their birthdays in January, and so they decided to celebrate all 3 together before we left on the 2^nd of January. We got to play laser tag, go in a gyro-chair (even though I was over the weight limitJ), go wall-climbing, and roller skate with Olivia’s family.

After saying goodbye to everyone we started our trip back home to Wisconsin. We decided to break it up into 2 days so we wouldn’t have to do 17 hours in one day, and it’s a good thing we did. Our car was having major torque problems and so we were losing a lot of power climbing all those hills in the Appalachian foothills. A few times we even had to turn our hazard lights on and drive on the edge of the road to let the rest of traffic pass us. Once we made it to our friend’s place, we told them about the trouble and initially diagnosed it as transmission problems, even considering replacing the whole transmission. However, we wanted to be sure and so had it scanned for problems and discovered that the catalytic converter was shot, being completely clogged up, essentially making our engine run like I was putting the brakes on even though I wasn’t. So that was a bit of a relief, so instead of it being $1000-$2000 to repair it, it was a bit over $500 (Thanks to some gracious benefactors our bill was covered. It was an answer to prayer and we greatly appreciate them).

While we were there, we both got to help out around the farm/acreage and become part of the family for 4 days. We got to shoot their guns at some targets they had set up in their back field and enjoyed getting to know them better. We even got to be a part of our friend’s sister’s birthday party and paint a bowl and plate that we now use! It was a fun time of relaxation, despite the pressure of fixing the car. They were very good to us and we appreciated them and their help a lot!

We finally made it back to Wisconsin and had a week or so before classes started up again. Now, we’ve begun our next semester and have already done Dispensationalism, and are now in the midst of Christology, Life of Christ, and Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). Dispensationalism was a fun class, although Olivia would disagree. We had a project in which we had to draw out the different dispensations within the specified criteria, so Olivia drew hers out and finished in a few hours. Well, I love photoshopping, so I decided to make a photoshopped diagram outlining all the dispensations, so it took me closer to 20 hours to finish, but the end result felt like it was worth it.

Anyways, now we’re trying to get more involved in our church, so we’re thinking of signing up to help out in their children’s ministry of 1^st-5^th graders. This year has been a growing experience, to say the least, in trusting God. There have been several times when we have felt our budget crashing in on us, and suddenly unexpected help comes ensuing the unforeseen bills. We are so grateful for all the generosity of those around us who have been so willing to invest in our lives. We know that if God wants us to become missionaries through this route, He will provide. Please pray for my permanent residency, that the government would process my papers quickly and approve them soon. The sooner I can work the better.

Here’s to an amazing first 9 months of marriage!

Richard & Olivia

Tree Planting Day 46, July 19^th, (Shift 11, Day 4):

                Happy Birthday Garrett!

                We woke up this morning and I was so warm I didn’t want to get out of bed. But I got up anyway, and got Richard ready for his last day of the shift. So far the day has been chilly (for me) but sunny. J I hope he has some good land so he can enjoy this weather. lol

                Once the dishes were done I did the chores, all but the laundry (we’re going into town tomorrow so they’ll really get washed then lol). Then I sat down with Lesley and one of the planters who stayed home and we talked about living in apartments and bachelorette parties. lol

*

                I went out and played football with Lionel then hung in the hammock and read my Bible for a while.

                Richard came home and he was so happy. It was the last day of the shift and he just felt like he had had a good day. I loved it! He was all bubbly and happy. J First thing in the morning I had snuck a note in his lunch box; he got it around lunch that day and apparently it really lifted his spirits. J

Richard’s Blurb:

So, just for clarification, I actually wake Olivia up every morning…once she’s up, then she makes sure I get ready, lol. Once she’s awake, she’s up and going…I don’t work quite like that, lol. I am very slow in the morning because I don’t usually quite wake up until I’m at the block, which is around 2 hours later, lol. My chore is waking her up; she takes it from there J

Oh, and today, as we were driving to the block, we saw a random car stuck in the muddied up roads and then later on we saw an old pick-up truck stuck as well. We saw some guys trying to get it out (I think they were going to the oil rig camp up the road), so we stopped and helped them out. Apparently they had been stuck since 2 in the morning (that means they were waiting for help for around 6 hours)…pretty brutal.

Tree Planting Day 47, July 20^th, (Shift 11, Day Off):

                We got up first thing and headed into town again. We dropped off the laundry and went to breakfast at Tim Horton’s, went back to move the laundry over and then stopped at the movie theater.

                Shelby had told me that the new Batman movie came out on our day off so we went to get tickets before they were sold out. As we pulled up we saw that the theater was already open! (Normally they don’t open the doors until noon.) We went and noticed they had a showing within the next 30 minutes so we bought tickets and took our seats. The movie was amazing! We both loved it; they did a great job carrying the quality of the last two movies over into another one. Richard said that this trilogy ranked up there with the Lord of the Rings. I don’t necessarily agree but they are really very good. lol

                After the movie we grabbed our laundry, had a snack at DQ, and went to get the groceries. Then we hurried over to McDonalds so we could use the internet. We bought Richard some wrist braces. He’s been complaining of them hurting the past shift so I thought we might as well get them now before they get worse. He wore one of them all day and said he could really feel a difference.

                We headed home not long after dinner…at A&W, go figure lol.

                On the way home I saw a coyote run across the road and a little bit further down I saw a van on the side of the road. As I passed by I recognized Rhett. So I woke Richard up and told him what was going on. He had me turn around and we went back to see if we could help any. As we pull up Richard gets this huge smile on his face as a man steps out of the van. He looks at me and says, “That’s Shaun.”

                Shaun was Richard’s foreman last year. He moved to Bermuda after last season to be a teacher but came back to Canada for a family reunion and decided to stop in for a visit. Richard was so excited to see him.

                After introductions were made we went to go take a look at the van. It was completely out of oil so Richard gave them the extra he had in the trunk of the car. We checked the oil and then tried to start the vehicle. Still nothing. Rhett had taken off to get someone to come help fix it so Richard and I gave the two girls that were traveling in the van a ride back to camp. From that point on Richard drove. J

                While we were in the car one of the girls asked to hear mine and Richard’s love story. Richard and I laughed and I asked her if that was what she really wanted. She said yes so we informed them of our friendship in college, courting long distance, his proposal, and then the wedding. Lol poor girl didn’t know what she was getting into. They loved it though. They were asking questions and laughing and commenting so I guess we didn’t bore them too much.

                Once we got back to camp, we unloaded the car and headed to bed.

Poor Rhett and Shaun didn’t get back until 2 a.m.

Tree Planting Day 48, July 21^st, (Shift 12, Day 1):

                Up again with the alarm; we’re on the early shift but thankfully it’s only for three days. J All our clothes were clean and fluffy which felt great! We got ready for the day, Richard put on his wrist braces and then headed out to work.

                One of the planters stayed home because she pulled a muscle in her back so she helped me by drying the dishes as I washed them. Shaun came in and talked for a while. We talked almost all day, all of us in the cook shack, about every subject to do with tree planting and how our summers were going. It was great! I was so distracted. lol I didn’t get much done today because I had so much fun talking to Shaun. lol

                I got to go out with Lesley and Bonnie to go try and walk on Bonnie’s slack-line (tight rope). It was loads of fun and now, sitting down, it still feels like my feet are wobbling underneath me. lol

                I didn’t have really any chores today because the laundry was done yesterday. So I just kinda hung out. Now I’m scrambling to make sure everything is done and ready for Richard to get home…which should be any minute…lol I was such a slacker today. lol Oh man! 

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                So, Richard comes home. Greets me with a kiss and then tells me we’re leaving. I was so shocked I just kind of stared at him. He has tendonitis in his right wrist (his planting hand); it takes a while to get over and we only had a few days left so he decided it was time to leave.

                After dinner we made some phone calls to make sure we could stay at the places we had planned to spend the night at even though we were moving the date up. We packed up everything that night and went to bed with nothing in the tent but our clothes for the next day and our sleeping bags.

Tree Planting Day 49, July 22^nd, (Shift 12, Day 2):

                We headed out first thing after breakfast.

Well, that was an unexpected end to my time in the Alberta bush tree planting. Slightly anti-climactic but hey, we can’t all live in the movies. lol We spent two days in our travels home. We stopped in to see Vicki and Nathan (Richard’s sister and brother-in-law) at the West Edmonton Mall where Richard took me on the world’s largest triple loop indoor rollercoaster. We walked around for a while and he bought me a pocket knife for my two month anniversary gift. J hehehehehe I got him a ten minute aqua-massage. Then we met Vicki and Nathan at Boston Pizza, had dinner and went to see Spiderman again (they hadn’t seen it yet J).

                After the movie we got a tour of their house and then headed to Justin and Ashley’s (brother and sister-in-law) for the night. They were gracious enough to house us in their spare bedroom and feed us breakfast the next morning. Meanwhile, Richard and I are reveling in the fact that we had a shower inside (with great water pressure), there were fluffy towels, and it got dark when we wanted to go to sleep! Oh, but above all, there was a bed. A wonderful comfy bed with covers and pillows, and we slept on it! Woohoo! It was great! lol J

                One thing interesting did happen that next morning. Richard and I went to take a shower. About half way through he starts messing with the shower curtain and pulls the whole thing down. The next few minutes were spent scrambling trying to find the missing piece that fit on the end. We finished the shower with me and Richard trading off holding up the curtain while the other rinsed. Then we put the rod back together and wedged it back up onto the wall. Our first time back in a civilized shower and we break it! lol

                After breakfast with Justin and Ashley, we headed out so that we could make it to Three Hills by lunch. There we met with Grandma and Grandpa Tiel (Richard’s grandparents from his mom’s side), had a wonderful lunch and gained a jar of candy for the trip.

                Back on the road we stopped, not too far away, at the Tyrell Dinosaur Museum. We tried not to spend too much time wandering around but ended up staying for over an hour. lol (If anyone knows Richard and dinosaurs they would understand why! J) My husband took so many pictures of the dinosaur bones that he killed my camera! lol We loved walking around and critiquing the evolutionary thinking in all the exhibits. lol

                It took us until about 7 to get to Richard’s parents’ house. We had dinner and then headed over to see Grandpa Reimer (Richard’s dad’s dad lol). Once we left there we came home and unpacked the car a little and fell into bed….exhausted.  

                We had a great trip and a great summer (At least I did lol)! Now we are here in Coaldale, Alberta, Canada preparing for college. J I can’t wait!

Tree Planting Day 36, July 9^th, (Shift 9, Day 5):

                It was another mild morning. I got Richard ready to go and then sent him off. After that I came in to do the dishes. While I was washing Bonnie stood up and said she was going to leave and go take a nap. Not long after she left Lesley started feeling water dripping on her. We thought it was from the ceiling and was checking it out trying to figure out where the water was coming from. It stopped for a while so Lesley sat back down and then almost immediately jumped up and squealed. At that point Bonnie comes in the door with a water gun. Apparently there had been no leak; it was just Bonnie shooting Lesley. lol 

                There weren’t many chores to be done, because we’re headed into town to do laundry so April and I sat and talked for a while. At about noon we started hearing gunshots, 5 of them. We both jump up and look out the door to see what in the world is going on. Not far down the road we see Brett, his wife Marie, and some other guy standing on the side of the road looking into the woods. Brett has the gun in his hands and they’re pointing and looking at something off in the trees. I decide I’m going to go check it out and start walking that way. When I get about 2/3rds of the way there Brett shoots again. When I get to them Marie comes hurrying over. “It was a bear. He had gotten tangled in the tent material (almost like a net) for the trees. He was too aggressive for us to try and untangle him so Brett had to shoot him.” She looked so worried (we have a lot of animal lovers in camp); I just laughed and told her that where I come from that bear would have been shot a long time ago. She smiled, relieved that I wasn’t upset about it. We’re hoping that it was the bear that had been getting into our tents and stuff around camp. So…I got to see a bear, up close. It was a cute little black bear.

                The other guy that was here comes from the company who owns the one that we’re planting for.  He took the carcass and is going to dispose of it far away in the woods somewhere. I asked why we didn’t just skin it and eat it (shows you where I’m from lol). They said that because bear is not in season, if anyone caught us eating it or storing it we could get in a lot of trouble. Whatever…I still think we should have done something with it, fed it to the dogs or something.

                After that not much happened. It is one stinkin’ hot day; if the wind wasn’t blowing it would be pretty unbearable. The guys are supposed to come home a little early today so that they can all go into town for the night. There’s nothing to be done in the kitchen because they’re not making dinner tonight, seeing as everyone is supposed to go into town. Thankfully, I know the cooks, so if Richard still doesn’t want to go in tonight I know what we can and cannot eat. J We’ll see what happens…

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                Lesley, April, Brett, and Marie all left around 2 to head into town to get the grocery pick. That left just me, Bonnie, and a couple of planters here at the camp.

                Not too long before the planters were supposed to come back we get a visit from a Fish and Game officer. Apparently, someone driving by saw Brett and them dealing with the bear and called it in. So, now this officer was here asking a lot of questions of Bonnie specifically about the bear. He was not very happy that it was shot and you could tell. Once he and Bonnie left to go tour the camping area I hopped on the phone and texted Brett to let him know what was going on; his answer…”Oh boy.” (basically J)

                The officer walked around, talked to the planters that were here, and took pictures of the camp. He wasn’t too happy about all the bear attractants in the area. I totally understand when it comes to the tents and stuff but here around the cook shack we can’t help it. We need the gas and it was 100 degrees outside that day, of course the doors and windows were open while we were cooking!  

                As the officer was walking around I tried to make conversation with him. These guys are packing! lol He had a nine mil. on his hip with 2 extra clips, a night stick, a knife, a tazer, and two     sets of handcuffs. I asked him what all he had on his belt and he started naming them off and pointing them out. When he mentioned he had two extra magazines Bonnie turned to me and whispered, “What’s a magazine?” I suppressed a smile as I told her it was a holder for his extra bullets that he could just slide in and out of the gun instead of having to load one at a time. Well, the officer heard me talking to Bonnie but couldn’t hear what I said so he asked us what we were talking about. Bonnie spoke up. “She’s just explaining to me what a magazine is. I haven’t had much exposure to guns but she’s from the U.S. so she’s pretty familiar with them.” I busted out laughing (ah the reputation us American’s have, I’m not helping it at all! lol) as the officer looked at me and responded, “I’m sure she does. You’re probably carrying one right now aren’t you?” I just laughed and told him no. 

                The planters started showing up about the time the Fish and Game officer left. I got Richard all cleaned up, we had dinner, and then went back and spent some time in the tent talking and playing on the computer. Once it had cooled down a bit we went out to take a shower. We sat for a little bit around a “camp fire” some of the planters had started (the rest had gone into town for the night). Jeremy played his guitar and sang a few songs (very depressing…about framing someone for murder and how the human race keeps fighting over land) while everyone sat around and talked. When we couldn’t handle getting eaten by mosquitoes anymore we went and took our shower.

                Then we headed to bed so we could get up pretty early the next morning to head into town.

Tree Planting Day 37, July 10^th, (Shift 9, Day Off):

                We got up pretty early, for a day off, 8:30…ish. lol We got dressed, packed up our stuff we would need for the day and jumped in the car. We dropped the laundry in the wash and headed to Tim Horton’s for breakfast. After changing the wash to the dryer we went to Wal-Mart to grab the grocery items we needed.

                Poor Richard, lol, he looked like a man following a woman around shopping. lol He had needed a new pair of boots (the ones he had are now completely worn out) so we did that first. I had wanted to get a pair of cotton gym shorts to wear on these really hot days. I knew they would be in the women’s section but I didn’t know exactly where to look. Richard decided he was going to follow me as I’m zigzagging through the racks trying to find them (this store is still under renovations so everything’s not quite where it’s supposed to be yet lol). I could just tell by the look on his face that my husband was tired of walking all over this section to check all the racks. I laughed and told him we could go if he was ready, I didn’t think I was going to find the shorts anyway. He got quite a bit happier after that as we headed into the checkout line.

                While Richard was checking out I went to customer service to see if they could do something about our missing movie. I wasn’t too optimistic but figured there was no harm in asking. I handed them the case and explained what had happened. They were very nice and told me that I could get another one, unfortunately they were out. Instead they gave me a five dollar gift card that I can use later on groceries or something. lol Oh well.

                 After we were finished shopping we headed to the movie theater to pick up our tickets for the movie that night. The new Spiderman movie is out! The last time we went to the movies it cost a little over 20 bucks for two tickets to a 2D movie. We pulled up the prices and notice that they were quite a bit cheaper and this is for a 3D movie. It was Tuesday! lol We had forgotten but the movie theater offers special ticket prices on Tuesdays, it was great!

                We went to get our laundry next. As we pulled the clothes out of the dryer a blue pen fell out. I groaned as I started pulling out clothes and checking them thoroughly for any ink stains. I thought I had checked the dryer before I put the clothes in but apparently not. Someone had left a blue pen and a white paint pen in there. Thankfully the ink really only got on work clothes and underwear. I did get some on my favorite Camp Victory shirt but…oh well…now it’s just a work shirt. 

                Lunch was at A&W (it’s Richard’s favorite, as you can probably tell lol). I wasn’t very hungry so I just had a salad. Then we went to McDonald’s to get on the internet. As soon as everything was checked and some messages sent we went to the movies.

                Amazing movie, by the way, we both loved it! It is one I would seriously consider paying to go see it in theaters again. It was really good J

                We had dinner at Quizznos (another one of Richard’s favorites).

Richard’s blurb:

As we were checking out Olivia said she was only going to get a soup because she wasn’t very hungry. I looked at her astonished, “You’ve hardly eaten anything all day!”

“Yes I did” was her reply.

“Like what? Two donuts, a salad, and now a soup?”

“Three donuts” she corrected me with a sheepish look on her face.

“Oh” I laughed. “Three donuts; do you hear what you’re saying?”

She just laughed at me and told me to leave her alone. lol

That woman, lol, I don’t think I’ll ever understand how she can eat so little…

                Anyway….after dinner we headed home, this time I was driving. lol After we unpacked the car we headed to bed. It was a great day off J

Tree Planting Day 38, July 11^th, (Shift 10, Day 1):

                New work shift, cold morning, early shift but all the clothes are clean and fluffy, we’ve got some extra snacks, and Richard has new boots. J lol (It’s also a nice day, not so hot as it has been and we’ve got a wonderful breeze blowing to keep you from getting too hot.)

                You could definitely tell that it was the first day of a new shift. Richard and I got up a couple minutes late (we couldn’t muster up the strength to push out of the sleeping bag) and were the only ones up and moving around. Normally there’s four or five people making lunch when I get in there and at least one or two eating breakfast once we get into the cook shack. But this morning this was not so. If I hadn’t heard last night that we were on the early shift and then watched Richard set the alarms I would have thought we got up too early! lol As it happened, people started trickling in as we sat to eat our breakfast.

                After breakfast I got Richard ready to go and headed in to do the dishes. There’s no laundry to do today so I just cleaned the tent up and starting writing on this. I watched a sermon by David Platt while I ate lunch and then headed into the dry bus to get something.

                While I was in there a squirrel came running in the door and froze when it saw me. I slowly sat down as he ran out. Not too long later I saw his head peek around the corner and then he hesitantly started toward the back of the bus, all the while with his eye on me. I watched as he jumped in a bag and pulled out nuts and ate them one by one. lol It was pretty cool J Someone had left a bag of trail mix (which they were told specifically to clean up last night *sigh*) in a duffel bag with a broken zipper. I sat and watched the fuzz ball for a bit and then headed back to the cook shack to finish the sermon. 

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                Once the sermon was over I pulled out Wordless. For those of you who don’t know, Wordless is a story I’ve been writing since I was…12? I would have been writing on it the whole summer but for some reason my computer was being dumb and said I needed to download a newer file converter before I could open it. So, when we went in to town I downloaded the converter and now I have my story back. J

                I was enjoying being back with my characters so much that when I looked down at the clock I was shocked to find that 4 hours had passed! Wow, the day went by fast. lol I hurried to pack everything up and get ready for Richard to get home.

                They came back on time, in fact, Richard and his crew were the first ones here! It was great. J We had dinner, took a shower, and headed to bed. It was still so warm when we went to bed that Richard couldn’t stay in the sleeping bag! lol He finally got in to escape the gnats but otherwise he probably wouldn’t have. lol I was fine J

Tree Planting Day 39, July 12^th, (Shift 10, Day 2):

                Again we were the first ones up and moving around! lol Poor Richard broke his belt…again. lol The pin holding the buckle to the leather came out making it fall apart in his hands. After discarding a few ideas involving twine I realized that I could wear his pajama pants. I know that sounds random but that means that my hips are about the same width as his (not sure what that means but I’m not going to think about it too hard lol). I ran to the tent and grabbed my belt. Sure enough it fit. Now I normally had to wear it on the last hole and even then it was still a little big but it fit him perfectly. I told him he better not ruin my belt because it was the only one I had. lol

                Even though we were running a little behind on getting in to breakfast we didn’t have to rush to eat and we got out on time. J I got Richard ready for work and then started getting his water ready. It was at this point that we realized his red 3.5 liter Colman brand thermos was missing. We looked for it everywhere and finally came to the conclusion that someone picked it up thinking it was theirs (he never put his name on it, should’ve caught that one). He still had the milk jug of water so I wasn’t too worried about it. It’s not supposed to be as hot today and yesterday he didn’t finish all of the water so I think he’ll be ok.

                I got him off on time and then headed into the cook shack to fix his belt. I pieced it all together and then threaded some twine through the pin hole in order to hold it together. I tied it really good and then wrapped that with duct tape. J (I’m such a redneck lol) It holds really well and I’m slightly proud of myself. lol I hope it works, we’ll check it tomorrow.

                As soon as all the planters left I did the dishes and then got started on my chores. Now I’m doing my computer work. J

*

                I wrote on Wordless until just before Richard got home. At about 6 I started cleaning up all my stuff and then headed outside to hang out until he got home.

                It was turning out to be a nice evening. The wind was blowing softly and it wasn’t quite so hot so I started looking around for something to do. It was then that I spied a nice sized rock and a piece of 2x4 about 3 feet long. I took the board and laid it on top of the rock and then spent the next hour or so trying to balance with both feet on the board on top of the rock. It was so much fun! I got to the point where I could stand there without falling and then I tried spinning. J I made it all the way around once without touching the ground! Oh man I was having a blast. When Richard got home I showed him and he gave it a try. Of course he showed me up but hey, I’m not a skateboarder. lol

                We ate dinner, took a shower and then headed off to bed.

Tree Planting Day 40, July 13^th, (Shift 10, Day 3):

                Richard stayed home from work today. We got up right before the late shift left and had breakfast. Then, while he went and got some more sleep, I did the dishes. Once I was done with them I headed to the tent to wake him up and ended up falling asleep with him for another hour! lol He would not get up and finally I decided that “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em”. lol We got up right before noon and headed in to have lunch.

                After eating we left so that Bonnie could finish up her jobs in the kitchen. As we were walking back to the tent I suggested that we pull out the hammock. Oh man it was great! My parents got it for us for Christmas and I think we hung in it for 3 or 4 hours. Just swinging and talking. It was so nice J

                We got out of the hammock right sometime before dinner and watched The Mummy. Then we had dinner and went to bed.

                Oh yeah! They had a costume contest that night. It was so funny. There was a Mexican wrestler ( who was wearing really tight and bright pink and yellow spandex), a nun, a knight, a millionaire, a hippie (I think…), a mechanic, Joseph with his Technicolor Dream Coat, and a couple of girls who emulated planters from previous years who had memorable personalities. lol It was pretty funny to see all the costumes. 3^rd place got half off camp fees, 2^nd got cheese cake, and 1^st place got some unknown amount of beer. lol  

                Once all the festivities were over we headed to bed. J

Tree Planting Day 41, July 14^th, (Shift 10, Day 4):

                We got up bright and early. I got Richard ready for work and sent him off. We did have one funny incident this morning. Richard had taken orange juice with him to work on Day 2. I figured it would be ok to leave it in the dry bus on day 3, it was a nice cool day and it was in the shade. But no. Richard got into the dry bus this morning to grab his water bottle and found that it had a crack on the bottom. The pressure had built up so much from the day before that it had bowed out the bottom and a small crack had formed. Out of that small crack came a nice steady stream of fermented orange juice.

                Thankfully, after the bottle was emptied and cleaned the bottle resumed its normal shape and the cracked closed itself. Still I think we’ll superglue it tonight just to make sure. lol               

                We still haven’t found his thermos and I’m beginning to doubt we will. I sent him out with the milk jug of water again and now I’m wishing I had given him two. Apparently it’s supposed to get up into the high 90s (32 C) and I really don’t want him to get dehydrated. Ah! Oh well, I just hope it doesn’t get that hot, so far it hasn’t but the day’s not over yet.

                After sending him off I headed back to do the dishes. Poor April has Laryngitis and is stuck in town recuperating. Meghan, a planter with kitchen experience, has taken her place for the past two days doing the breakfast shift. She does most of the dishes for me! lol I get in there and there’s not much left, it’s great! lol J

                After doing the dishes I got my chores done and cleaned up the spilled fermented orange juice in the dry bus. lol I also helped Bonnie zest oranges for some kind of orange cake that they’re serving tonight. Now I have this big off-yellow stain on my pants that smells like oranges. lol 

                Brett is out fixing the bear fence so that it would actually keep a bear out, lol, and he said that they have the internet it’s just not hooked up. So, hopefully, we’ll have the internet up and running soon once he gets done with the bear fence. Apparently that’s the priority. lol

*

                Richard got home on time; we had dinner and then sat around and talked for a while. The next day was a day off so we could stay up late and not worry about it. We went and sat in the hammock for a while and then took showers somewhere around 9. We sat up and talked until about 11 before we were finally able to go to sleep.

                Oh yeah, we also found Richard’s thermos. We were sitting outside talking while we ate our burgers when we saw Eldon cleaning out one of the Fists (brand name of the cargo truck the planters use). As I watched, he started throwing things out that had been left in there by the planters. One of those things was a red thermos. I told Richard I thought it was his so I went over to take a look and sure enough it was. Someone had used it for a couple days and then had left it in the truck they had ridden in. So, now Richard has his thermos back and we’re both pretty happy. We also made sure that his initials are on it now so that no one takes it again. lol

 Tree Planting Day 42, July 15^th, (Shift 10, Day Off):

                Like any other day off we spent the morning sleeping until about 11. Then we finally decided to get up and have breakfast. At about 5 in the morning though, Richard’s alarm on his phone started going off, we had forgotten to turn it off. So he gets up and starts scrambling around looking for it. It had been left in the pocket of his pants outside the tent in one of the chairs. lol Sawyer woke us up at about 8 or 9 barking like crazy. Oh man the dog would not shut up! We could hear other planters who were trying to sleep in as well yelling at him to shut up. lol It was kind of funny now that I think about it. J

                I’m so glad today was the day off, it’s been raining on and off all morning and it doesn’t look like it plans to stop anytime soon. At least this way all the planters can be inside and not out there getting soaking wet while they’re working.

                After breakfast we headed back to the tent. It just happened to be Sunday so we watched a sermon together and then had our own little prayer time.

                Then we headed into the cook shack to watch a movie, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, after which Richard got some really good ideas for his thesis thing he’s writing on the law of consequences, so he worked on that for a while. I showed him some of the other stories I’ve been writing on recently and then he helped me get some ideas for one of them.

                We sat up until 9 or 10 discussing theology and ideas for the story. I had a blast, though we did chase some bunny trails. lol I think we ended our conversation debating on the nature of who the Nephilim were. lol It was great fun! J

Tree Planting Day 43, July 16^th, (Shift 11, Day 1):

                Again, here we are at the beginning of another shift. lol We’re on the late crew now so we get to sleep in. Woohoo! We got up, had breakfast, got ready for the day and I sent him off with a kiss. J He headed out with Andrew today (another one of the foremen) so I’m not quite sure where all he’ll be going. Andrew normally has the “special” assignments so no one really knows what all they’re going to do when they’re sent with him.

                I did the dishes and found out that it doesn’t matter how many or how few dishes I have it takes me two hours to do them. lol If I don’t have that many I play and talk, if I have a lot I buckle down and get it done. Well, at least I’m consistent. lol

                The company came in today to inspect the camp. Brett’s kind of under a lot of scrutiny now after the whole bear incident. So everyone was scrambling last night and this morning to make the camp spotless and ready for inspection. lol

                Now, my chores have been done. The tent is clean, the clothes are drying, and I’ve had my Bible study. So, now I’m sitting in the hammock enjoying the wonderful weather we’re having today. It’s slightly cool outside but still good enough for a t-shirt. There’s a nice cool breeze blowing and some cloud cover so you don’t get overwhelmed by the sun. Great day! Now if we can just get the squirrels to shut up…lol

                Speaking of which the bold little buggers are beginning to explore the cook shack! Bonnie has had to chase several away from the door as they stick noses in to get a whiff of the food! Buddy, another new dog in camp, had one of the squirrels treed the other day. Every time it would start towards the ground he’d run over and chase it right back up into the tree. lol It was so much fun to watch.

*

                After Richard got back we hung out for a bit in the hammock so that the temperature had a chance cool down before we took a shower. We brainstormed on some story ideas for a bit before we went to sleep.

Tree Planting Day 44, July 17^th, (Shift 11, Day 2):

                Ok well, I think I’m ready to stop getting up this early in the morning. lol It’s gotten to the point where my body has set an internal alarm clock and I now wake up before the phone goes off. This is not cool! I hope it doesn’t continue for too long after we leave here! Oh man! lol

                My poor husband was so out of it this morning. I don’t think he really woke up at all while he was still in camp. I had to nudge him every now and then at breakfast to remind him to keep chewing. lol But he still got ready with a little time to spare, much to my surprise. lol I thought for sure he would be running to the van at the last minute, but no. J

                They have some heli blocks again today so everyone left about the same time. We were still eating when it flew over the cook shack and landed on the other side of the road. It was really loud and reminded me of the fly-overs at home.

                I came in and did the dishes, washed the laundry, and cleaned the tent. Then I went into the cook shack to eat lunch and watch a sermon. About half way through Bonnie decided to sweep and mop and asked me to leave. So I went and laid in the hammock for a while (I fell asleep lol). When I figured she was done (when I woke up lol) I headed back in and finished the sermon. Then I finished off the studying I had to do and worked on this.

                So far today it’s been bright and sunny but now all of a sudden it’s gotten really cloudy. We’ve heard some thunder and I’ve had to bring in the laundry because it started sprinkling. At least it’s cooled down some though; it was pretty hot again today.

                I also found out today (shh, don’t tell anyone) that we only have two more days left of this shift and then a three day shift after a day break. Once that next shift is over we head to the next camp. The cool thing is that they don’t want to break camp and then set it up again for just a few days at the next camp. So, they are giving the planters the option of staying in hotels or at a public camp ground near the planting site. A restaurant near the hotel where the planters could stay is offering catering for us and Bonnie is going to work for them while we’re there. Richard’s not going to want to stay at the hotel because you have to pay for the room yourself and then the extra camp costs for food but it’ll be great to move to a camp ground.

                 April left yesterday (she was still sick and it wasn’t getting better so she went home) and Lesley…

Ow! A mosquito just bit me on the ear! What is up with that? why the ear? dang it, now my ear itches…

 …will be leaving very soon to meet her boyfriend. I’m so looking forward to this new camp site, we’ll still have to pay camp costs but Bonnie thinks it’ll have running showers and real bathrooms. I really hope it does. I started cheering and jumping up and down when they told me. Lesley laughed and Bonnie smiled, apparently they did the same thing when they found out last night. We all agree that a camp site like that is luxurious compared to what we have here. lol Oh man, I can’t wait to tell Richard! Once we get to the new site we’ll only have 7 days of planting left. J Then we head back to Richard’s house in Coaldale for a week or so before we road trip it to college.

                I can’t believe the summer is almost over. I spent so long looking forward to it that it doesn’t seem quite real. lol Now I’m about to head off to college with my husband…whew, where has the time gone? It seems just the other day that I was home, and single, trying to figure out how I was going to pay for college so that I could go with my boyfriend. lol Funny how stuff changes.  

*

                It started thunder storming about an hour before everyone was supposed to come home. Crew after crew showed up but Jeremy and David’s crews were still missing. I overheard one of the foremen that morning talking about how they would be doing heli blocks and I remembered them saying before that the helicopter doesn’t fly in bad weather. I waited in the cook shack for what felt like forever. Several of the guys were teasing me about Richard having to spend the night on the block, that he wasn’t coming back, or that the heli had crashed and they were all dead. They’re so mean! lol

                He finally did come back though. J The heli had picked him and his crew up and then flew really close to the road just in case they had to land. But he made it home safe and soaked. lol I had his hoodie waiting for him so that he could get out of his wet shirt. We ate dinner, took a shower, and headed to bed.

Tree Planting Day 45, July 18^th, (Shift 11, Day 3):

                Today started out well. We got up and get ready for the day. Somehow we lost one of Richard’s bandannas so now he only has one, which means that I wash it was soon as he gets home and hope it dries by the next morning. Unfortunately, because the air was so wet from the rain last night, the bandanna was still soaking wet. It dried pretty quickly in front of the dry bus heater though. J lol His hoodie was still a little damp too but I dried it too so it was all nice and warm when he put it on. J Thankfully, I had washed his other pair of pants so he was able to change pants and have a nice dry outfit to head out to work in today (even his shoes dried out!).

                Once I got him sent off I did the dishes and then sat with Bonnie and Lesley for a few minutes talking. The next thing I know, Bonnie starts throwing chocolate rocks at Lesley trying to ring her mouth. So for the next ten minutes or so Bonnie through chocolate while Lesley and I tried to catch them. I got two, Lesley got none; hahahaha (I am the Master Commander! J).

                After the whole chocolate escapades, we were talking and noticed a squirrel that kept peeking it’s nose in through the screen door. So, we set a trap for it. We baited a rice crispy box with some kind of peanut butter, chocolate, rice crispy concoction and waited for the squirrel to come back. He slowly followed the trail of food into the box and I jumped to close the lid. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough. He shot out of that box so fast! lol It was so funny.

                Well, that was so fun and work so well that we decided to try it again with a better container. We took a big bucket and baited it with the same stuff. We then had two squirrels fighting over it. One of them jumped into my lap and was trying to get in the bucket that way; the other took off running around in the cook shack! I was so close to getting that stinkin’ squirrel. It was walking along the rim of the bucket but I didn’t think I would be able to push it in and close the lid fast enough so I left it alone and lost my chance.

                Bonnie thought it was the coolest thing ever that I didn’t freak out when the squirrel jumped into my lap. She said she probably would have screamed and tried to hit it. lol I told her about how I used to work at a squirrel refuge so I’m kind of used to them jumping on me. J lol Anyway, we had a blast for two hours trying to catch these slippery, bold squirrels. But then, all of a sudden, they ran off into the woods and we didn’t see them again. We found out why just a few minutes later.

                I had just gotten back from cleaning the tent and was trying to get the laundry done when it started raining. At first it was just a sprinkle so I figured I’d be ok. But then I started seeing lightening off in the distance and the thunder was getting pretty loud. So I headed inside with Lesley and Bonnie. Boy am I glad I did! lol That was a thunder storm worthy of Alabama weather. It was so loud and the lightening was striking it seemed right outside. The thunder was shaking the window panes and the rain was pouring. The storm didn’t last very long but it soaked everything. lol

                Once the rain had passed, I headed back out to finish the laundry and it’s been a bright sunny day ever since. lol I hope all the planters are ok and that they didn’t get hit by that. It would be pretty dangerous out there in a big open field with that much lightening striking all around.  (The only cover they have is a tarp.) If they did get wet at least the warm sunlight and the slight breeze will have them dried out pretty quickly.

*

                It thunder stormed the rest of the day, pouring down rain up to the point where everyone came home. The earliest planters were an hour late; Richard came in at 8:40. The first thing he told me after giving me a kiss was that he was not taking a shower, he would wash his face and arms but he was going to bed. lol As he got all his stuff unpacked and changed his shoes I went in and made his plate for him.

                We ate dinner, got him cleaned up a bit, and headed to bed. It was so cold though that we were both shivering. So we snuggled real close and I burrowed deep into the sleeping bag…we got so warm! It was amazing, I slept so well. lol

                We also found out one of the reasons why everyone was late coming into dinner. Lionel (one of the planters) got stung by a bee or something and, though he had never had a problem before, started having a really bad allergic reaction. When his throat started swelling they flew him out in the helicopter and took him straight to the Emergency Room in Grande Prairie. He came back later that night but he spent most of the day in the ER.

                Anyway, that was why they were behind today. They had to plant so many trees but the trees are delivered by helicopter so some of the guys ended up waiting an hour or so for more trees because the chopper was busy taking Lionel to the hospital.