- Hawaii -

I went to Hawaii in February with Henry and his family to celebrate his parents' 25th anniversary. It was the best vacation of my life.


Beautiful lush green trees and mountains, red, pink, purple and yellow hibiscus and orchids, ocean, beaches, sand, sunsets, rock, caved-in volcanoes . . .

We spent quite a bit of time on the beaches, swimming, boogie boarding, kayaking, soaking up the sun, and snorkeling. One day we went to see the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour. Another day we spent at the Polynesian Cultural Centre. We also checked out the shopping centres at Waikiki. On Sunday we attended an Independant Reformed Church in Honolulu, and then later drove to the northshore and watched the waves pounding on the beaches and sea turtles venturing close to shore. Henry and I had a pencil drawing done of us by an artist on a campstool on the sidewalk the last day we were there.

But for Henry and me, the best day was February 22. That morning we all piled in the car and headed out with our swimming gear on to find Lanikai Beach, which is one of the best beaches on Oahu. On the way, we stopped to let Henry out with his wonderful camera, as there was a view he wanted to get.

When he came back, we went down to the beach. The beach was beautiful - fantastic - awe-inspiring - I can't think of a word to comprehend it. I stood in the ocean for the first time in my life, felt the waves tugging at my feet and the warm breeze through my hair, breathed the salt air. We swam. The water wasn't as warm as I thought it might be, but it was nice. It's different swimming through such big waves. Later, we took out the boogie boards. A boogie board is like half a surf board with a lead that velcros to your wrist. We took the boards out past the breakers, watched for a big rolling wave, and then threw ourselves onto the boards, riding the wave in to the beach. Once I got the hang of it, it was great fun, very exhilerating.

We basked in the sun for a while, not too long, but long enough for Henry's chest and back to burn quite hard. Then Henry decided it would be funny to throw me in the water. He picked me up and started toward the water, but lost his balance and started to run. Eventually, he fell, landing beside me in the water. I was ok, but his knees and one ankle were skinned rather badly.


Later that evening, Henry and I had to drive to town to pick up stamps for my post cards I wanted to mail out. He was quite definite that no one else could come along. On the way, he asked if I would mind if we stopped at Alala Point in Lanikai, where he had taken those photos earlier in the day. Once there, we took lots of beautiful photos. The sun was going down on the other side of the island, reflecting on the clouds in a rosy glow. The breeze was a little cooler after the sticky day, and the waves were crashing over the rocks on the point. Henry took a number of photos of me against the ocean, trying to capture the spray with his camera. A fisherman nearby took one of the two of us.

The sky was nearly all dark, and we were the only ones around the point, so we headed back up the bluff to the car. On the way up, Henry casually mentioned that he wanted to take a few more photos from the ledge overlooking the ocean. So we found seats on the ledge and I opened up his camera bag for him. He wanted his telephoto lens, he said, so I took it out of the lens pouch and gave it to him. He took some more, then asked for the wide angle. I took the other lens pouch out and opened it. Inside there was not a lens - there was a small blue velvet box. I was kind of in shock for a second, I think, until Henry took the box. He turned to me and apologized that he couldn't get down on his knees (because of his fall earlier). And then Henry Bosch asked me to marry him. I believe I said, "Yes! Yes!" even before he was quite done.

Henry and I are both so incredibly joyful and blessed to have each other. We thank God for His guidance.

Resurrected blog

Hey, Fowks! I'm back! I finally have internet access again. Hope to post soon.

Six months . . .

On Friday, Henry and I celebrated six months of courting. Since we both have birthdays coming up soon, we decide to make this a big thing and not worry about the birthdays.

So Friday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, working away. I looked up and saw a bunch of balloons over my cube wall, coming my way. They were red and white, some of them said "Happy Anniversary" on them, there was one with "Love" and a rose on it, and the best of the bunch was a big transparent balloon with about fifteen smaller balloons blown up inside of it. The balloon delivery guy stopped at my desk and said, "Congratulations! The card says, 'Happy Anniversary. Love Henry.' " Then he set the balloons down in my cube, explaining how long they would last and how to transport them.

By this time, all of the legal assistants from my department were gathered around watching. My face felt like it was on fire, and I didn't know what to say. Then the balloon man asked me, "What's your favourite colour?" When I told him blue, he took out a few long balloons from his pocket. He blew up three balloons and proceeded to make a balloon sculpture, a pink heart with a blue and a green swan inside, with their beaks touching.

Four of the lawyers had joined the crowd now, and everyone was watching and oohing and ahhing. I heard one lady say, "I'm giving my husband an earful when I get home tonight." My lawyer, Helen, told me, "I didn't even get balloons when I had my baby." The balloon guy left, and the crowd dissipated, but not before several of them told me I had to hang on to my man, and another had said, "I hope you're still around when you have your one-year. I want to see what he does then."

One of the funnest (!) things, though, was getting on the subway after work with my armload of balloons, my backpack, and my bag. Uhhuh.

When I got to Henry's station, he was waiting for me with a huge grin on his face. I think he enjoyed the balloon surprise as much as I did. Once at the car, we loaded the balloons in the back, and as I stepped into the passenger side, I found another present. There were six red roses on the seat for me.

Then Henry told me that we were going for dinner somewhere. We were both dressed up, as he had asked me to take good clothes along for after work. The place we went to was Ric's Grill. Ric's is in a re-furbished old warehouse downtown Edmonton. The decor is neat, the service fantastic, and the food delicious.

Later Henry and I drove to West Edmonton Mall and wandered around for a while, visiting a few stores there. All in all, a very nice anniversary.

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

I spent Christmas with Henry's family. The day before Christmas, we had the Smeding family over. There were 17 of us for dinner. We had turkey and ham and lots of other stuff. Henry rotissiered the ham. We first studded it with cloves, then while it was baking, he basted it with a mixture of apple cider, dijon mustard, apricot jam and brown sugar. It was the best ham I've ever had. After dinner, we had our gift exchange. To decide who got to pick first as well as last, we had a shuffleboard tournament. I almost won. :-/ It was the kind of gift exchange where you can steal items from other people, up to three times. Lots of fun.
Christmas Day I didn't feel that well, but we had a quiet day anyway. Boxing Day was the Bosch Christmas dinner/Bosches' 25th anniversary dinner. There were 52 people there altogether. After dinner, we had a chocolate fountain fondue with pineapple, grapes, banana and apple. That was fabulous! Later we also had a gift exchange. It's funny how you can get a pretty accurate glimpse of someone's character through a gift exchange like that. I enjoyed getting to know some of Henry's family. Some of them are real characters. Mrs. Bosch's brother Brian and his family from Winnepeg came later too.
On Tuesday, which was actually Mr. and Mrs. Bosch 25th anniversary, Henry and Alyson and I gave our gift to them. It was a small scrapbook summing up their life together. In the afternoon, the three of us went to Ikea for a little window shopping. Then we rented The Importance of Being Earnest. Great movie. To celebrate their anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Bosch went out for dinner to the La Ronde in downtown Edmonton. Henry and Alyson and I and some others joined them for dessert. The La Ronde is at the top of the Chateau Lacombe above the river valley. The entire restaraunt revolves once every hour and twenty minutes. That was a pretty special way to celebrate 25 years.
Wednesday, I went shopping with my mom and Julie and Jessica. There were lots of Boxing Day sales on, and we picked up some deals. Henry met us for lunch at Tim Horton's. One thing that bothered me that day, it was December 28, and they still had Christmas music playing. I felt like singing very loudly "...Santa Claus has come and gone."
Thursday and Friday I worked. Henry went to Jasper skiing with a few friends on Thursday. Friday we were let off work early, so we got to my parents early. Alison and Steve came for the weekend too. We had our family gift exchange Friday evening. I was given a mug tree and six triangularish mugs to hang on it, as well as a Twisted Whiskers notebook and notepad.
On Saturday, the men worked most of the day on building a huge pile of scrap wood and other stuff for a bonfire. Mr. and Mrs. Doige and Fiona came in the evening and we went to church for our Old Year's Eve service. After church, we had the biggest bonfire I've ever seen. Dad called our friend who is a volunteer fire fighter and lives close by to let him know it wasn't a house fire or anything. That was lots of fun. We started off the New Year with singing and prayer altogether. None of us stayed up late this year. We were all pretty tired.
Overnight I developed a fever and sore throat, and I had to stay home from church on Sunday. I spent the whole day in bed. This morning Henry took me to the doctor to get checked out. I have tonsilitis. Not the greatest way to spend a holiday and the beginning of a new year, if you ask me. Ah well, I guess it's partly my own fault for letting myself get run down. Henry went home this afternoon. Today Emily and Julie and Jessica went skiing to Rabbit Hill in Edmonton with a group of young people. They haven't come back yet.
This is post is a little rambling and quite random, which I can chalk up to Advil and penicilin.
Anyway, I wish you all God's blessing in the coming year.