People I love...

Ohhh, after almost a whole year I was back in Alberta for 3 weeks in April/May... it was SO good for my heart! So many people I've missing being with, talking with, praying with... *sigh* So good.

Here are a bunch of Pictures of me with some of the people I love!

Sure didn't get to see enough of this one... this is my Amy :D


Kelly (a friend from U of A Nursing) and her boyfriend Jeff came to visit me at the Navs conference... they live in Medicine Hat - I was great to connect with them.

Our Girls Small Group from the conference... Wonderful group of women - we learned a lot together.

Me and Nabeel (Jabbour) - he spoke at the conference... wonderful man

Kristen and I - new friend from Ontario :D (excited for you to come visit Kristen!)

Me and my Gen :) Love you girl - praying for you this summer...

...And this is Craig :)
This was actually a hilarious day, cause we can just never get a picture of us that looks natural or good of both of us at the same time... we must have tried this about at least a dozen times... good grief :D Excited to have you home again soon!

This is Me and Erika - my favorite and terrifying Nursing Instructor who thinks I'm Amish :D

Me and Emily Rudd, my hilarious friend who always gets Earl Grey tea, even at Steeps where there are like 100 flavors... tisk, tisk :D

Me and my Taul Pan (real name? Paul Tan) ... (oooo, and my Mazda 3 rental in the background - yay!)

Simon and Renee (finally, a picture without me in it!). These are 2 of my favorite people. Thanks you guys for the talks, times of prayer, and encouragement. You are both such a Blessing.

Phil and Marcia Leskawich (Marica is also known to me as my Gandolf* coming to save the day on a white horse... long story, let's just say these 2 have been an advocate for me in times where I really needed one!) Love you both.

Whew... you've made it to the end... last picture... me & Paul, and Langano Skies Ethiopian food :D Mmmmm... best way to end the trip... seriously, we were on our way to the airport!... Priorities!

Feeling Loved...

Well, this post is dedicated to all the crazy people who helped plan and were a part of my dramatic 'welcome home' day in Edmonton! Our car drove right from the airport to Langano Skies, my favorite Ethiopian restaurant... this I thought might happen :) But, there were like 13 people there... that I wasn't expecting. After eating yummy food that I've been craving for like, a year, we started the drive back to "the Happy Place"... only, on the way I got blind folded and kidnapped! Again, not expecting that! Then I proceeded to try not to barf as I was driven around the city, after 7-8 hours of air travel already that day, with my eyes covered :P Then I was lead by the hand into a building that I couldn't figure out (back at the airport maybe?), up an elevator, down a dark hallway... (what the heck?), entered another room (more light in this one), and was instructed to "sit" while my blind fold was whisked off to reveal that I was in... "The Africa Room" of the Fantasy Land Hotel, in West Ed Mall! Hilarious... the girls had talked about renting the room for a night last year before I moved home, and now, there they'd gone and done it... I have hilarious and wonderful friends :D

Everyone who had been at Langano soon "re-arrived" and the rest of the evening we spent laughing, hanging out, playing Bolderdash (thanks to Pam... she ALWAYS wants to play Bolderdash), and then, Camile (who apparently organized most of it) started handing me little love notes that people had mailed or email her, from home or across Canada. This was a prayer shower for me before I went to Sudan! I felt loved :) They'd organized for Janna to phone from Ecuador, and I got to talk to Julia, Pedro, Luigi, and Coco :) My Cup Ranneth Over!

A while later the boys all left, leaving the girls to hang out in the hot tub and stay up late talking into the night :) - I died earliest though...that time change is a killer :P We had a great time, lots of laughs and I really felt loved and very blessed - which, I'm pretty sure was their goal :D

Springtime Happenings

At Peggy's Cove with My Daddy :) We saw Pilot whales that day!

Joanna's 'Bachelorette Party'!? Just kidding, restaurant error... it was just her 25th Birthday instead!

It's that time of year again... mmm, fruit :)

Next blog update... My trip out West... stay tunned!!

Paul Brandt Concert!!

I got tickets to the Paul Brandt Concert for my 25th Birthday from Mom and Dad! It was here in Halifax early February - Julia and I went and reminisced about our by-gone Alberta days and singin' along with Paul while drivin' through the Rockies :)

The Concert was Great (and I'm not even a big concert kinda girl!) and I just super enjoyed how much he interweaves his Faith in the music... probably most of the people had no clue he was quoting Scripture in almost all the songs. Good fella'.

Here's us with our brand new CD's... cracked 'em open for the drive home :)
One Song on my CD is really good... I think I'll blog it sometime cause it just really resonates with me... anyway... stay tunned :D

Miss you Jules!! Love ya ;)

Feliz Ano, 2008!!

My deepest apologies to those of you who know the meaning of this word (ano) without the ~ on the "n", when it would mean "year" ... "Happy New Year!" I do not mean to offend, I simply have an old computer and can't figure out what command or key sequence will give me an "N" with ~ on top :P

Anyway! Enough trying to dig myself out of hole ... pardon the pun...haha :)

Happy New year! This year, in keeping with our new tradition from Ecuador, we celebrated the passing of 2007 with an "Ano Viejo" (again, my apologies)... an "Old Man" to burn as a symbol of forgetting and moving on from the regrets of 2007.

Beth and Janna (although, mostly Beth) made him... his name is Ivan Malo, and the choseing of this name has a story, although, you'll have to ask my sister about it -I don't feel at liberty to publish it all over the internet :)

Here he is burning away, our old man... in Ecuador everyone lays their Ano viejo's in the middle of the street to burn (they are filled with newspaper/straw, and firecrackers!) them on the stroke of midnight. We set ours alight at 1 am in Canada, which is 12 midnight in Ecuador.

Luckily no cops came running to our house and no neighbors complained at the Roman Candles that came shooting up in our back yard from the lap of Ivan Malo !! :D

Christmas 2007

Well, I seem to be getting so far behind that I need to speed up the entries!! Over Christmas we had the privilege of having Nanny and Pappy over for a whole week and all to ourselves :) We did our usual Christmas morning thing, breakie down by the fire while we slowly open stockings (knitted by Nanny many moon's ago :) and gifts... it was really nice... here are a few photos:

Ok, my Nanny has to be one of the funnest people to buy a gift for - especially if the gift is clothing or jewelry ;) She guesses what it is first (a trait my mother is also annoying good at), then gasps is surprise, then goes on and on about how you "shouldn't have" or it's "too nice" for her to wear, or "it must have cost so much!" but at her first chance and with not much prodding she's got it on, showing it if with a big grin loving every compliment and soaking up every ounce of attention :) She is SO funny... she knows it too :) And at 81 years old -she look amazing in just about anything!Aren't they just wonderful? :) Pappy is trying on his new Christmas duds, and Nanny is in her housecoat, all ready for bed - she made me crop the photo so no one would know ;) oops!
Shortly after Christmas we went up to New Brunswick to visit the family up there... We made the traditional stop in at the Fredericton Market on Saturday morning and stood in line -despite the show- at our favorite Suflakie stand... mmmm...
This picture is of Hannah, Shauna & Ben's first girl, she's grown a lot since the summer! We hear that she is an awesome singer, and knows all the lyrics to the Gaither Vocal Band CD's (like a good member of the Fox family ;) but we couldn't convince her to sing for us... too many eyes watching I guess... at least she's humble about her talent!
This is the newest edition to the family, Gracie (Shauna & Ben's 2nd girl). It was our first time meeting her, she is really sweet :)
Played "Memory" with Sydney and Jada (Sonya & Pat's 2 oldest girls... Payton is the youngest and I don't have a good picture of her this time around...), watched their 1st ballet recital on video, and read story after story... :) They are SO much fun.
Apparently Christmas of 2007 will go down in the books for being the year of babies! While we were in Fredericton my cousin Sarah and her husband John announced that they were expecting a baby in 8 months and 28 days! Sarah told us all the day after she took the test! hahaha.. they are just a tad excited :) Sarah and Jeremy Marsh also made their announcement and little baby Marsh is to arrive in August! Another cousin, Stephanie and her hubby Matt are having a baby in June... this picture is of her and Jay when the 3 of us met up at Tim Horton's one afternoon in NB, on our way to PEI...

And that was Christmas 2007!

Traditions...

One of the nice things about living at home again is being around for all the Traditions :) You know me and Traditions... we go back a long ways and aren't so easily separated ;)

Mom and Dad making our yearly "Almond Butter Crunch" Christmas Candy - they've been making this since before Janna and I were born - now THAT's a tradition ;)

Look at us being helpful... we always get the important job of painting on the chocolate -this year we got a bit confused I guess... Janna seems to have chocolate fingernail polish even!!


Decorating our Christmas Tree











The MacIsaac Christmas Party - every year my Nanny's side of the family has a big gathering in O'Leary PEI, of all her brothers and sisters (15 at one point -less now), their children, grandchildren... and on it goes... not everyone can make it every year, but the show must go on! year after year after year after year... perhaps it's from this side of the family that I got my affinity/need for traditions!

Nanny and Pappy and grandchildren (at least the ones present)

Christy and Pappy
( just in case you are wondering at the name change... My Pappy has called me "Christy" for as long as I can remember -it's his nick name for me, not "Chris"- "Christy" and he's the ONLY one on the planet who's allowed :) (even strangers or patients when they get my name wrong and call me Christy, they get the whole story... "sorry, you can call me Chris or Christiane... but my Pappy is the ONLY ONE who calls me Christy"...)

Of course, another tradition that goes without saying and is sorely missed when one of the families is away... That is the Bryant/Fox Christmas Eve gathering :) We have pictures of this event from WAY back... one where I'm holding Jamsey in my lap and he's pretty new! Here's a few pics of our 2007 Christmas Eve, with EVERYONE present (no kids were in Africa, Australia, or Ecuador!)

That's most of the "pre" Christmas ones (that come with pictures anyway ;)

Here comes Santa Clause, Here comes Santa Clause...

Woah, sorry about the delay people! Finally here are some pictures from the Holidays! These are the "leading up to Christmas" ones :)

Our Wednesday Morning Ladies Bible Study - the highlight of my week!

Carol sing at Peter's house... awe I love our Church!

Baking with our small group Youth Group girls

Kristen making rice krispy squares










Laurissa packing up boxes of Christmas goodies to be delivered to special people

This is most of our YG girls (grades 9 & 10) From left to right, back to front: Me (Christiane), Regan (Rudolph), Erin, Fiona, Kristin, Heidi, Laurissa (kissy), and Cerys :)
This picture was taking at the Christmas party after our "gift that keeps on giving" night where we walked around Spring Garden Road (downtown Halifax) giving out gifts to random people we felt the Lord put on our hearts - we had a blast... my favorite was the 2 ambulance drivers we waved down at a stop light... they probably thought someone had died! haha, they just got chocolate instead :)

Janna and I spent a day in Tatamagouche with Sam, one of our all-time favorite people. She had just recently had a baby in November, and this was our first time seeing little Danny :) (and first time meeting Marcus too for that matter! AND my first time getting there without getting lost -haha!)










He's just beautiful - and she's such a proud mommy :) It was SO good to see you guys!

And this final one is of my Nanny teaching my Dad how to make biscuits for our Seafood Chowder on Christmas Eve! I love this picture :D