Earthquake in Haiti

This afternoon, just before 5pm EST, there was a major earthquake just off the coast of Haiti. From what I can find online it was a 7.3 earthquake with 2 major aftershocks of 5.8.

I have been able to find out that friends of mine that live in Haiti are okay, but we have not been able to reach any of Ronel's family and so are praying that everyone is okay. Most of Ronel's family is more in the middle of Haiti in the Artibonite Valley so hopefully they didn't get much of the effects of the quake. I have put in an email to the mission where I & Ronel both used to work to check on how they are and have asked if they could have someone check on Ronel's mom. Hopefully we will hear more news soon, in the meantime, please keep all the people of Haiti in your prayers!

Happy 2010 to you...

Ronel & I had a wonderful Christmas - we spent the morning with my "other" family (friends who have become like family) and then went to my brother's house for Christmas with my family. This year my grandma and cousin joined us (they both live out of town) so it was kind of nice to have them with us. It was so nice to be able to share that all with Ronel -- it was his first "Canadian" Christmas and I think it went well. Boxing Day we were up early and out of the house for some Boxing Day sales! We went to Talize (a thrift store in town) and they had 50% off everything used (they do sell some new items)and we scored. They have some great clothes and we found some items that still had the original tags on them, but they were in with the used items! Ronel & I both got quite a few items of clothing and some of them we paid barely anything for! Most of Ronel's clothes were all well known name brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, etc. We got him some really nice dress shirts and more pants. I got some skirts, and more "nice tops" - ones that I can wear with jeans and look nice or dress up with a skirt or dress pants. We spent almost all day at Talize - finding items took us about an hour then we spent most of our day trying on the items... they have a 5 item limit and were strictly enforcing it -- you could try on more but you had to get back in line. We didn't have a problem with it cause everyone had to do it. When we were finished we headed home to clean up and then headed over for our second turkey dinner!!! Our friends where we spent Christmas morning have their Christmas meal on Boxing Day so that Christmas day is one of relaxing... I actually quite enjoy it and it means I get two Turkey dinners each year!

Our vacation time (both of us didn't work Christmas Eve until today) was one spent together, enjoying each other's company, watching movies, relaxing and just being together. New Year's Eve we had plans to spend it with friends, but mid day Ronel asked if we could just stay home and so we did. We watched movies and just hung out. It was actually quite enjoyable and we even made it past midnight! (actually we made it quite a bit past midnight as we started a 2nd movie at 11:30 or so~ )

We are both looking forward to what 2010 has in store for us, and as I told one of Ronel's cousins - this year already looks better than last year because Ronel is here with me!

We wish you all a wonderful year filled with God's richest blessings for your life!

snow pictures as promised!

Ronel seems to enjoy the snow and can't believe that this isn't a lot of snow! For the first time, he actually was cold and only after he stuck his hands in the snow (see photos below where he's laying back in the snow) Unfortunately the snow has stopped falling and it is now freezing rain that is falling, so we'll see what the roads & sidewalks are like tomorrow morning!
Enjoy the photos of Ronel's first ever look at snow (at 36 years of age!)

Ronel's first look at snow

shovelling the snow -- Haitian style
no jacket and a dustpan

Sitting in the snow, just outside our door.

This is the photo Ronel wants to send back to Haiti
He went out into the lawn and laid down in the snow!

Enjoying his first snowfall -- it was 9 cm deep (3 1/2 inches)

the sky is falling.....

okay, so it really isn't the sky, but white stuff is falling from the sky! Yes, it is snowing here. Ronel got his first snow experience on our way home from church yesterday, when it was falling while we were walking home. A snowflake even fell in his eye!

It didn't accumulate much, probably only about 3-4 cm, but they do forecast 10-20 cm for tonight, but it will turn to rain for the rest of the week so I don't expect it to stay around long.

Ronel called Haiti yesterday and spoke to numerous family & friends, and he kept telling them that so much snow had fallen, and I kept telling him to say that it was just a lot for him, that it was really not much at all. Especially considering what the eastern parts of Canada & the US have gotten already this year!

I do have a photo of him standing out in the snow that I will post later. I'm hoping to be able to catch a better one tomorrow morning on our way to work.

Merry Christmas to all

I know it is early! This weekend was the Celebration Services at our church and since Ronel & I were both dressed up, I thought we should get our photo taken!

Here we are in our Christmas finery in front of the Christmas tree at church.
We are looking forward to our first Christmas together in years (I think the last Christmas we spent together was in 2004 and we weren't even engaged then!) and Ronel's first Canadian Christmas! Our calendar is already full of various Christmas related activities and events and I'm hoping we get a little bit of snow sometime this holiday season!

some photographic evidence of Ronel in BC

One of Ronel's new favourite activities! Having some "uncle time" with the boys. (we are aunt & uncle to the sons of my good friends) We get to spend lots of time hanging with Thomas because we both volunteer in the nursery at church on Saturday nights and he's currently the only baby but hopefully that will soon change and we have some new babies due soon.


The following photos were all taken on our adventures letterboxing with Mom and my sisters. We went to Burns Bog the first time (photo of us in just tshirts) and then we went to Belcarra Regional Park which is gorgeous and I have quite a few shots of Ronel that I absolutely love! It is so much fun to take photos of Ronel cause he gets into it and it is like a mini photo shoot!
















posing down beside the bay.






My mom took this photo of us. The first couple of photos we took with Ronel in front (because, yes I am slightly taller then he is) but I didn't like them, so we switched and I like this one, I love how Ronel has his hands in my vest pockets (trying to keep them warm.... it was a tad chilly that day!)












This is one of my favourite photos of the 40 or so I took that day. I love how Ronel is looking right at me and the beautiful fall leaves behind him.












I wanted Ronel to stand beside the tree - he decided it would be more fun to jump up and sit on a branch!








Our first "family outing" - this was on our nephew's 5th birthday. We enjoyed the sunshine in early October!

quick overview of the past few months!

Well, October and November are both behind us now and so I'll try to do a quick look back.

October --
we were pretty much settled into our place by early October and even held a family dinner at our place -- 12 people in our place! We celebrated Thanksgiving twice - first at my aunt & uncle's home on the Saturday and then with friends on Sunday, it was fun and Ronel enjoyed all the turkey. The week after Thanksgiving, Ronel started English class at a local church. He has been enjoying it so far but we are going to look into a program that is a free English program run by the government -- It would be a full time class - 5 days a week and they have 3 locations quite close to us, 2 within walking distance and one that Ronel could bus to.

Also in mid October, Ronel started working - it is a small part-time job at the same place I work, tearing down and setting up for our infant care room as it is shared with the youth and so it gives him some time out of the house and some money. He has also been doing odd jobs for the daycare and it has been helpful to my boss and also great for us as it means more money.

At the end of October (the 31st to be exact), we celebrated Ronel's first birthday in Canada! He also got to experience his first Harvest Fest at the church complete with fireworks. He also got to enjoy the whole "waitress singing to you" experience when we went to Red Robin's with friends for his birthday.

We also spent a couple of Sundays out with my mom, sisters and my nephews enjoying the local parks.

We spent our first anniversary together on the 11th of Nov. and spent most of the day moving the remainder of my belongings which were still stored at my old place. I finally have all my craft stuff here and can craft again!!

and that pretty much brings us up to date!!

we are still alive!!!!

Well, Ronel & I are alive and well! When we moved into our suite, we didn't move my computer as it is an older desktop PC and our suite only has wireless internet and my computer couldn't connect wirelessly so we didn't rush on moving it. I spent some time trying to get the wireless to work and it didn't. We finally moved it in, along with all my craft stuff and then the computer crashed during a power outage!! Well, we are now the proud owners of a laptop, so no more wireless worries and we are back online!!!

update on us...

Well, so far it has been a packed couple of days! I am off till Monday so we have used these past three days to the fullest!
Thursday we went shopping, went to work/church to meet people and also went and looked at a basement suite, which we did rent, effective immediately! So then Friday was spent cleaning the new suite (with the wonderful help of my mom & sister), going downtown to apply for Ronel's SIN card -- which was successfully completed!, and then home for dinner and then back to the suite to clean some more (and on each trip we moved some boxes of stuff I had packed waiting for our own place). Today we went and visited friends and saw their new home and Ronel got to meet some more new people -(I've been trying to do introductions in small groups so that Sunday won't be so overwhelming with introductions at church, especially of people who are close to me) after that we came home, packed the van with boxes (had my mom's van) ate lunch and then headed to the house to unpack. My mom met us there to switch vehicles and we got permission to paint from the landlords. We unpacked some of the rubbermaids into the kitchen which was a lot of fun cause quite a bit of it was gifts from my bridal shower and other gifts I gotten over the years which have never been unpacked before! Now we are off to a friend's 30th birthday and more new people for Ronel to meet!

look!!

This is what the Citizenship & Immigration Canada website says today about our application!

 

Permanent Residence Application Status : Complete

RONEL CLEDOMIN entered Canada at P.E. Trudeau International Airport on September 8, 2009 and became a Permanent Resident.

Yeah!!!!!!

We arrived in Vancouver yesterday at 5pm to see the wonderful smiling faces of my family -- my mom was there, my brother and his FIANCE (it happened while they were on vacation and then I was in Haiti so it was a surprise for me yesterday! but I'm so happy for them), my youngest sister & her husband and my younger sister and her two boys (her husband was unfortunately at work - he works evenings)

We had an uneventful trip and were glad to be finished with flying! We all went over to my brother's house to eat and hang out. It was fun to sit with my family and have my husband with me.

Ronel says that it has been a big change but he's glad he's here.

I will try to write more about the trip and everything soon but for right now, I'm going to go settle in with my hubby, unpack and run some errands (we need to apply for things like Ronel's SIN, medical, etc...., plus pick up some needed items like a sweater, etc.) and then we'll stop in at work and church so he can meet some more people and then meet my mom later on....


so have a great day! I know we will!!!!