~Ode to Julia~

Presenting..."Julia Churchill" ...beautiful blonde, highly talented, very hilarious, source of much joy and laughter in my life... :) We had some absolutly HILARIOUS times this summer and I would like to highlight just a few for you... There is a lot to be said for laughing so hard you almost pee your pants, and as only Julia can experience, laughing so hard her collar bone hurts!


Our VERY FIRST morning in Edmonton I forgot to tell Julia that the toaster is frigged and doesn't pop naturally...the result?? Christiane jumping out of the shower in a towel, Julia standing wide-eyed in a room full of smoke, both of us running around, to the buzz of the fire alarm, waving dish towels & opening windows to disperse the smoke, Christiane opening the backdoor of the appt in hopes that the door down stairs is open to wisk the smoke out side...it wasn't...So Julia & Christiane scream in unison as the BUILDING alarm FOG HORN goes off...Christiane tries to find clothes to put on, Julia yells "Well, we're off to a good start Chris!!" and we both fly out the door onto the lawn and wait for the trauma of telling the Fire department what happened!!...Thank the Lord, the firemen never did show up.


Do you suppose the leason was learned for us?....

...Well, not quite... (oh the laughter) Rumor has it that Dorjan Draper also burnt toast one morning at the Happy Place, but I was at work, and Julia was sleeping, so we didn't get to photo document that event!


We also invented the "Guess Who? Psychology" version and stayed up until 1am playing it one night...

What is it? you might ask...well, instead of asking the same boring questions like "does your person have blue eyes?" you ask "is your person a youth pastor?"...it is amazing how often your interpretation of what profession someone might have according to how they look is the same as someone elses!! We laughed SOO hard that night, and ended up making up the life stories of every character on the board!

Then there was the night that we were up late waiting for the TreePlanter girls to come into Edmonton...it was like 11:30 at night and we both were in the kitchen, I was cooking and trying out a new recipie...people, never put apples in your soup!!...anyway...we were chatting along, minding our own business when all the sudden we heard a VERY large banning on our front door...AHHHH!!...did we ever scream!! Then we laughed so hard and felt stupid, cause the girls were sucessfull in freaking us out...so we grabbed the 2 biggest knives that I own and crept up to the door "Mission Impossible"-style to freak THEM out!! So, when we were in position we flung the door open and gave our most intense war cries (apparently forgetting that it was so late at night and eviction could have been an issue)...but the hallway was empty!! Julia went outside to find the girls while I was left in the appartment to think....we hadn't heard any footsteps rundown the stairs after the bang...the girls car wasn't outside...hummm....I was getting freaked out and finally Julia came up the back stairs of course finding no girls...creepy!! What are the odds that we'd be pranked really late at night...on the third floor...with no audible footsteps on a night when we were actually expeciting company...??!!! It was much later that Julia opened up the hallway closet only to find that my Bath and Body Works bag full of stuff had fallen off the shelf onto the floor....Banging the closet door the whole way down!! OHHH!! We found our Prankster, felt really stupid, & laughed so hard that Julia's "COLLAR BROKE??"....and the TreePlanters didn't even come until the next night :P Julia "took care of things" for us though, and that bag got the punishment it deserved!!-as you can see.

We had fun last week babysitting Julia's cousins: Jane-4 and Kate-2. We watched "A Bugs Life" with them and at one part when the scary grasshoppers came to get the ants Kate slapped her hands on her face and yelled "Oh, no...OH NO!!" it was SO cute! Then we gave them a bath and got them into bed. When I was helping Jane get her jammies on I asked her "Jane, don't you wear underwear to bed?" she answers, and I quote..."Oh no...I go comando!" :)


We spent a really fun day at the Edmonton Heritage Days Festival (like a Multi Cultural Festival) a few weeks ago...it was a SUPER hot day, but we took 4 hours walking around and in all these different booths from around the world...Seriously, this festival is Hudge...I'm pretty positive that almost every country in the world has a booth here...there are hundreds!!!

Umm good food. Collectively we ate, Ugandan, Ecuadorian(of course), Hungarian, Korean, Hawaiian, Fijiian, and I can't remember the rest! These pictures are of a really yummy "Elephant Ear" (pastry) from Hungary...Sooo yummy!!

On the walk home through the River Valley that day a golf cart came wizzing past us with 4 young guys on it who called out asking if we wanted a drive home...we were trying to maintain our dignity in case they were making fun of us or just being rediculous...and were doing alright by just ignoring them until Julia got a bit too close to the edge of the path and almost took a nose-dive into the Saskatchewan River!! She let out a good girly yelp, grabbed my arm and we both put on a good show for the boys in the golf cart! A day in the life of Christiane & Julia :) Not long after that we strolled past a big bush full of Choke Cherries...humm. I'd never tried one before so Julia convinced me...yuck! They are nasty! So then I dared her to take a handfull of them and chew them all at once...she did...12 of them-all down the hatch! It was one of the funniest things I've ever watched cause she bit them like 5 times, then opened her mouth so I could take the picture and she couldn't close it again!! Her mouth was so dry (choke cherry effect for those of you who have brians enough not to try them!) that her lips got stuck of either side of her braces and she was drooling all over her face...if I hadn't been concentrating so hard on not peeing my pants, I could have also gotten a picture of her bent over a bush spitting them all out with tears in her eyes! We still laugh at this story when we think of it!! haha.

I have quite a few pictures that we took from Julia's last day of work at Booster Juice...needless to say she was VERY excited. I'm afraid (although I'm sure you are relieved...this is getting super long) that I don't have any hilarious stories to go along with them...I think we'll have to convince Julia to start her own Blog so that she can tell you all about her cute and crazy customers and rediculous "Star Trek" boss!! Of course...my FAVORITE Booster Juice photo is not quite "Blog appropriate" so I'm afraid you'll have to bribe me in order too see that one--just don't tell Jules :)

Just look at this crazy girl...how could you not have just an amazing summer with HER around!? My next blog post is our pictures from our incredible trip to Jasper...beautiful and breath taking... I love you Jules-hope you know that. My Cup Ranneth Over all Summer Long...the Lord knows how to give Good Gifts to His Children, and your presence this summer in Edmonton and the Happy Place was certainly a Good Gift Sent from Above for me (James 1:17). XOXO... I CLEARLY miss you already!

Bush Babes :)

Check out these chicks :) Who woulda thought that they'd last all summer in the sun, rain, heat, mud, solitude and torture that IS tree planting!! I'm am so impressed with these girls every week when they pile into my appartment dirty, slightly smelly, but with smiles on their faces :) They have been a great blessing in my life the past 2 months when they show up on the door step for their day off. Between sleeping in, the worst Farmer's Tans ever, Keltie eating cookies, doing laundry, falling asleep in church, Sheilagh getting her wisdom tooth pulled, Krista using my phone to talk to Josh for hours on end, Keltie eating more cookies, trips to the Market, eating with Nadia, Mandolin saronades by Amber, Krista's "Christmas Toe" nail clipin at East Coast and Ethiopian Resturants, Keltie doing my dishes, Krista's midnight Birthday Party, Slushie runsgs, "Sheil's Morning Happy Song" on my keyboard, random matanee movies about Piarates, and dang good company and conversation...I have loved having them around!! :) Seriously girls I have been blessed watching the three of you (plus the other 3 girls) get along, encourage each other, make fun of each other, and genuinely love the people you are around this summer :) You have served Christ by serving each other. Thanks for the laughs and the memories, and for sharing all your stories...you are my bush wacking heros :) Only one Question remains... "Sheilagh and Keltie...what ARE you doing NEXT summer??" :)

HomeWard bound...

Well, it all started with driving a really sweet rental car down to Calgary to pick up my sister who had blown in on the winds from South America :) After having not quite enough time just the two of us (sorry Mom and Dad) the parentals drove up in front of my apartment building a few nights later...right after Jay and I got home from watching one of my favorite movies..."Live and Become"---seriously SO good. Anyway, after like 6 months the fam was all together again for my momentous Graduation from Nursing on June 9th :) Yay!! It wasn't overly thrilling at the time, and as I said to everyone who asked me once I got home...I think being a "real nurse" will only really hit me in September when I don't have to go back to school! :) We went out to celebrate at my favorite restaurant "Langano Skies" afterward. Then, the very next day actually, the four of us all piled into our Van and headed out on our week long road trip back across Canada and the US to finally land in Nova Scotia...

The trip was long but very fun :) We made as many stops as we could to visit friends and family along the way... We stopped in Regina, Sask to see Joshua (aka "Shua")-my cousin, who is a youth pastor at a church there, and to see Dr. John Barkman-the pastor of the same church, who was my dad's favorite teacher, football coach, and mentor when he was in high school :) We also got to see Deborah Hubble which was a wonderful surprise since I hadn't seen her in like 3 years, crazy!

We carried on from there down to the States to see my cousin Jennifer and Eric Dreier and their 2 boys Andrew and Devin. This was my first time meeting Devin...they are both very active, very cute, and provided quite a bit of entertainment...especially when wrestling with Dad on the floor...I wish I could put that video on my blog! We were also able to tag along to Andrews swimming lesson and Erik's Softball game! While in Iowa Janna got to see one of her good friends Sara (used to be Tyrell), who is pregnant by the way...very cute :)
**oh yeah, I drove in the scariest traffic ever when we went around Chicago...I've never seen so many 18 wheelers in my life...I was surrounded!! AHH! We also ran into car problems right after we got into Canada, dad burnt his hand on the wheel which was over heated from what ever was wrong, then we tried to track down somewhere to get it fixed where they eventually told us nothing was wrong! Alright...so we carried on...

From Iowa we hit Toronto (after Janna visited with Angela from Ecuador for 45 minutes in a gas station parking lot--as you can tell we weren't picky as to where we met up with people...just so long as we got to see everyone on our list!) where we stayed with another cousin Sonya and Pat Watanabe and their gorgeous girls Sydney and Jada :) We went to gymnastics with the girls one morning-so precious-and then to Chucky Cheese, where I think Pat had more fun than the girls! :) That night for supper we went out with Luke, yet another cousin :), saw the computer that he built from scratch (wow! mind blowing for me) and then practically force fed the guy chocolate at dinner not remembering that he really doesn't like it! Sorry Lukie! Then we drove a wee bit further to one of the Great Lakes (that mom was convinced was Salt water...hilarious...sorry Mom, couldn't leave that bit out!) to stay with Mom's cousin Judy and her husband Roger...who I must say are some of the funniest people...ever :) We laughed so hard we cried :) Good times all around!...oh, and their dog rings a little bell by the door when it has to go pee...quite a sight let me tell you! :)

The next morning we hit the road really early, and I got to visit with my Friend Dawn for 45 minutes at a Tim Horton's in Kingston Ontario. That was a really great time since I hadn't seen her or talked to her in like a whole year since she left Edmonton! I sure miss having you around here Dawn. A few hours later we pulled up in front of yet another Tim Horton's in Hudson Quebec to hang out with Craig Silver for a while! I hadn't seen Craig in 2 years so that was a blessing, and he got to tell us more about the mission trip he was planning with his youth group to Argentina :) exciting. Our trip was almost ending as we neared New Brunswick for another meal at...yes, you guessed it...Tim Horton's (actually, I coped out and went to Subway...I can't do Tim's 3 times in one day!) We also basically Hi-jacked a cheese factory somewhere in NB about a half hour after they closed...we arrived in the parking lot-Dad and Janna were VERY excited for Curd...and dad went to go in and the place was locked!! Horrors! I've never seen dad look so desperate (we'd timed our trip around when this place would be open!). He pounded on the door and the very nice manager man came and let him in...he didn't speak too much english, but was extremely nice. They were make "tomorrow's curd" in the back so he packed up dad's order right on the spot!! Hometown Maritimes I tell ya! Anyway, it think that I've never tasted anything so "fresh" in my life...I was almost sick...that cheese was still "Mooing" I tell you!! Might as well have sucked on an utter..yuck! I couldn't eat it... Oh, we saw one moose and like 3 dear (alive) and a few dead... and dad almost got run over by a car when he stopped to...well, I'll spare you a few details ;) Needless to say...never a dull moment on a Fox Family Roadtrip!

We stayed in Fredericton the next night, went to the market (tradition) on Saturday morning-best Souvlaki in Canada, saw the rest of the cousins, and met Shauna's first baby Hannah, also saw Sarah and John for the first time after their wedding, got to see Steph Esson (Fox) but have yet to meet Matt, her husband. Anyway, we had lots of fun yet again, laughing and carrying on as we always do...I vaguely remember something about "tighty pinkies"?? It's all a blur of laughter anyway :)

Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief as I drove the van across the provincial line of Nova Scotia and saw the beautiful sign... finally :)

Janna drove as we winded our way through Fall River and into our drive way...only to find a big "Welcome Home Janna & Chrisitiane" sign and some of our best friends running out from our Garage...My Cup Runneth Over...I'm back :)

Happy Canada Day!!

Yay! Happy Canada Day (on July 1st)...

Went to watch the fireworks with Julia, Paul, Amy and her two friends, after a REALLY yummy meal that Paul made...only hours after landing back in Edmonton! The fireworks were really good, as you can see, and I got to play with the settings on my new camera...turned out not too bad! :)

California...5 months later :)

So...as I promised 5 months ago...here are some pictures from my time with Kim DeVine in California! I really do have a good excuse you know... I didn't have a digital camera, and after receiving one for Graduation I took pictures of my pictures so that I could finally put them on my blog :)

I spent a week with Kim in February and had such a great time! I hadn't seen her in like 3 years...way too long, and it was SO good just to have time to talk, go to Barnes & Noble (plan our big trip *wink*), and finally see her world down there :)

Every afternoon I'd go with her to the Tutoring Center which has been her heart beat for the past two years! The Center was started to provide a place for inner city kids to go after school, play with friends in a safe environment, get homework done with extra attention from volunters, have a healthy snack, and have FUN :) It was a really neat experience to meet these kids that I'd heard about, to help them with their homework, and watch Kim keep a "tight reign" and have a blast with 30 kids all at the same time :) She has a gift--but's that just my opinion :)

There was one little boy that I helped every day to learn english (quite a few of the kids come from Hispanic families and some struggle in school becuase they don't know enough english to excel). His name is Eduardo and we had a lot of fun :) I would hold up these english flash cards that he would have to read and tell me what the spanish equivalent word was (turns out he could read and pronounce the english words just fine...but had no idea what the meaning was...which was why I was trying to get him to tell me the spanish word too). I would go over all the words with him 3 times, and the ones he kept getting wrong we'd go over until he got it right! He would laugh at me when I made him do them again, but much to my surprise, the ones he kept getting wrong were the ones you'd think were the easiest...like "I" and "you." One card I actually drew on to help him remember, it was "up" with an arrow...but he never would remember it anyway...and we would laugh alot...he has a beautiful laugh :) This picture is of Eduardo...he is pointing..."up" :)

Kim and I also had a little fun of our own! We went to San Francisco one day...did a little shoping, ate some clam chowder by the pier, looked at Alcatraz from afar, got lost trying to find some crazy steep & winding street that I don't remember the name of, ate some of the best chocolate I've ever had (then almost threw up :), went to the top of a hill where there was this lighthouse/church (can't remember!) and a really awesome view of the city and the stars ("Orion where's your belt!??"--that's for you Kim), ate more Salt Water Taffy than I ever could have imagined, and of course, crossed and took pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge :)

That wan't it though...we also went to a Farmers Market, had coffee with Sara (a girl from our Hall at BBC that I hadn't seen in 4 years), went to youth group, had a tour of the Jelly Belly factory, shopped some more, did some detective work on the computer...but that is top secret isn't it Kim :), went to the gym (had to do something healthy after all the Taffy, Jelly Belly's and Ghirrdelli Chocolate!!), AND watched "Run Away Bride"--an absolute must tradition :)

Overall, as you can tell, it was a wonderful time...This girl is a huge Blessing in my life...Highly Esteemed by God and me :)

"I am doing a new thing...will you not be aware of it..." Isaish 43:19

So, as most of you have figured out by now, my life in the past 2 months has taken a big turn in direction. I had been hell-bent on coming home to Nova Scotia (after 5 long years...) and dispite the offer given to me by the U of A Navs, I was not interested in sticking around Edmonton for another year :) I managed to play my ignorance card for most of the year and pass off even praying about what the Lord might have me do, for no other reason than that I didn't want to give Him an opportunity to tell me to do anything other than "go home." Well, one Sunday I went out for lunch with Paul Tan (UofA Navs staff guy) and Simon (a visiting England Navs staff), and in typical Navigator fashion Simon was asking some very sincere and throught provoking questions about my future heart for fulltime missions in Africa and what that would "look like." I could answer a lot of his questions cause I had thought about many of them before...but, by the end of lunch I was feeling a great need to go for a "walk and talk" with the Lord! The Holy Spirit was moving in my heart and showing me just how un-ready and lacking in conviction and vision I was--not the best way to head into a life of Kingdom Service! During this walk and talk the Lord was just showing me that I needed to BE in a place where I could be poured into and developed so that I could be that much more effective and useful to Him when He finally unfolds the ministry that He has for me down the road...and even now. As I thought about this I realized that at home in NS, the people available to trian and develop me for ministry were few (well, there are lots of people, but, those people have other focuses-the church, the youth, jobs...)...but here in Edmonton, there were 3 people just waiting for me to say "hey, do you think that I could stay and learn from you guys...be trained and equiped in Ministry?" Are you Kidding me!? That's THE purpose of the Navs ministry! "Ok God, You win...I'll stay" :) He'd given me some verses a few days before, and they'd only really made sense in that moment. Isaiah 43: 18-21 (you'll have to look 'em up!) says "I am doing a new thing...will you not be aware of it..." And this was Just the Beginning of the "New thing"...
(Next few Blog entries will be about the Navs conference a few weeks ago...they are the next steps in the Lord's new thing in my life...and by the way, I decided to obey the Lord-as if I had a choice!- and stay in Edmonton for further equiping in ministry until December...or longer if that is what He wants for me...I'll keep you posted :)

How the West is Won...Somewhere Else West 2006

So I decided that I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and go out of chronological order if I'm ever going to fill you all in on my life! I was trying to wait until I could scan some England and San Francisco Pictures...but that is just taking forever and I don't want to be 3 events behind!! So, I have lots of pics from this Navigator's conference from the first week in May, so I figured, I'd get going...at least on that! :)

So the Conference is called the Title of this blog entry (it's too long to type out again), and it was held in southern Alberta in Cypres Hills. It includes all the campus Navigators groups in the West, there were over 100 people there, and it was really great! The theme was "Western/Country" as I'm sure you are realizing as you look at the Picture of the facility...looks like something out of an old western movie huh? Anyway, we had a speaker from England and his wife-Rod and Helen Green-who were just wonderful. Helen on more than one occasion was such a blessing to me in converstaion, speaking truth into my life and just being used of by the Lord. Rod spoke on Daniel that whole week and it was really good--made for some really wonderful discussion in our small groups!

There were lots of things going on...workshops, the speaker and worships times, sports, horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, free time in the afternoons to just hang out with people, small group times (there were 8 girls in my group, plus Kathy Blacklock that was our Staff person), a hot tub, 9 baptisims, a barn dance,--oh, and a freak snow storm for 2 days!--... it was a really jam packed week! Fabulous people to get to know (and you know me...I'm not too social!!). I can also tell you without a doubt in my mind that it was the most exhausted I've ever been in my WHOLE life...emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. It was rediculous! God was at MAJOR work in me...pointing out things that needed fixing, issues that I was unaware of (some that I was aware of) that I needed freedom from, learning things about who He is and what that means for me in our relationship, being challenged and encouraged by the people arround me...You know that phrase in Psalm that seems to be repeated quite often..."The hand of the Lord is heavy upon me..."--Well, that is how I felt the WHOLE time! It is both exhaustingly horrible and wonderful all at the same time. Hard to explain. I'd like to tell you some of these things that He's been showing me (IF I can...it is hard to put into words, and I'm still trying to figure it out too!!)...

More to come...

WELCOME TO ALCATRAZ!!!!!
(actually this isn't Alcatraz, but hey, girls can pretend can't they!?)

This is just a glimpse as to what is to come people... this is the only picture that I can get on here at the moment... technical difficulties, you know :) I'm headed to Southern Alberta on Friday for a week long conference though, and once I'm back I'll devote a whole day to updating my blog I PROMISE ! :) Thanks to all you old faithfuls who check it regularily ! Miss you all like crazy!

Oh, by the way... I am OFFICIALLY and LEAGLY a Graduate Nurse :) Finally! Yippee!

Love you all... Christiane Fox GN ...heheheh (5$ more an hour people...you'd be smilin' too!!)