Will you be my Valentine?

Zach and I celebrated our second Valentine's Day in Grenada yesterday. I didn't get the usual dozen roses that I got most other years (along with yummy chocolate), but instead I got some gifts straight from New York City!! How much better could it get?! Zach got me this really cute mug from Starbucks and a necklace from H&M, which he picked out by himself (can you tell I'm proud?!). The reason that I didn't get flowers hinges mainly on a story that I must share which happened last year right around this time. A poor, innocent, unsuspecting Zach walked into a flower shop just down the road from us (which by-the-way is the only florist on the island) and asked how much the roses were. The lady behind the counter said, "30EC (it's about $13 Canadian)" and Zach said, "Oh, for six?" to which the lady replied, "No, just for one.". Zach looked at her, picked his jaw off the ground, and said, "Well, how much for the six then?", thinking, well six should be a bit of a deal. The lady told him that the six would be $180 EC, she obviously was lacking some business skills. Zach nearly lost it, he is Menno after all. He just mumbled a, "No thanks" and walked out. He came home and, after explaining why he had no flowers for me, felt like a bit of a cheap-skate. He then told me that I could use the money for shopping purposes when we got home, which I was completely in favour of! So this year he decided think ahead a bit and take matters into his own hands. This year I was the one to not buy a gift (or think ahead and get one from home), so I guess we're even:)



Me displaying the gifts I got from Zach.



There was a heart in my coffee, I thought it was pretty cool. You know, it being Valentine's Day and all...
And no, Zach didn't put it there. He's good, but not that good.

I'm baaaaaaack!

Well, it has been a while since I have updated, so a lot has happened. I'm back in Grenada and have been since the 31st of January. It was great to see Zach again and I think that he felt the same way. Or maybe it was just the fact that he had his cook back...who knows! Anyway, things are back to the same ol' here and to be honest, it feels as though I never left. What a scary thought. I walked into our apartment for the first time and I got this strange feeling like I was home, weird! I never thought that this would feel like home to me, but it is getting there (just in time to leave again for good in four months). I guess I won't really have a sense of home for a long time, another scary thought! I have no clue as to where we will be next year and it is a strange feeling. We might go to England to do some clinical rotations, or we might go straight to New York, or New Jersey, who knows. It is actually a bit of a liberating feeling to have our future so wide open, who knows where God might take us?! Weirdest of all is that I was the BIGGEST fan of staying in Abbotsford (my home town) for the rest of my life. I hated the thought of change and could not picture my life anywhere else. And here I am, thousands of miles from home and contempaleting, with my husband, (why does it still feel so weird to say that?) if we will go to the US or England, just cuz we can! Life never ceases to amaze me. Well, enough philosophical talk for now, back to life here. The best news of all is that I have not seen one cockroach since I've been here! And to think I spent all that money on buying roach traps when I was home?! We are going to set them up anyway, just in case this is some sort of grace period they are giving me. Zach is still working like a maniac, as usual. Wow, he makes it really hard to blog about him, he never does anything out of the ordinary for me to report. I burnt myself at the pool the other day, aparently you can't go out for the first time in six weeks without sunscreen (yes, I know this is bad). Well, I have to get back to another hard day of reading and TV watching!

Pictures from home

Marcy and I, not sure what got into us?!


Zach and his dad during one of their many Crokinole games (who knew people still played it).


Zach and I on Christmas Eve.


Myself, Karla and Marcy at Dennis and Anna's wedding.


One of the many snow shots I took for Zach, he was already in Grenada when the snow finally decided to fall :(

And because I couldn't fit them all on one post...

A view of St.George's from the plane as we flew out.


Zach and I in New York City in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree (Notice how happy I look? It has a lot to do with the big shopping bag from H&M and our first trip to Starbucks in months!!).


Typical Christmas Gong Show at the Kliewer's!!


The Klaassen family on Christmas Eve.


My cat Berndt and I spooning in front of the fire, our favorite place to hang out!

Ode to Marcy

Well, apparently Marcy was a little miffed that I didn't write about her in my latest blog entry. So here's to you Marcy, it's all about you... I've been staying at my parents house with Marcy for the last two weeks (my parents are in Paraguay for two months) and we have been having a blast. Well, maybe I should say, she has been having most of the "blast". I've been cooking and cleaning for her and doing her laundry. It's like I'm still in grenada taking care of someone, but with colder weather. We have also been addicted to Dr. Mario on Nintendo and have been playing it every free moment we have (which ends up being at midnight most nights!). Marcy, you have made this time away from Zach a whole lot easier, so thank you! I'll miss our late night "gaming" and our numerous trips to Starbucks, not to mention sharing a double bed with you at night----Ohhhhhhhhh really!

Four days left in the land of milk and honey!

Yes, I know that it has been a while since I've last posted, but I've been really busy here in Canada. For those of you who don't know, I stayed on in Canada while Zach got the lovely treat of going back to Grenada alone. As you can imagine he was pretty excited to be going back alone, but I'm sure he forgot about me as soon as he got back to school (until he had to make dinner for himself that is!!). Things back home have been great. I got to relax after the Christmas rush, see some people I never would have had time to see in the two and a half week break we were supposed to have, and hit up Starbucks every single day (I'm not going to lie, sometimes twice a day!!! What else are student loans for?!). The snow has been the greatest blessing (for me anyways), I love snow-love it! Zach was so jealous that I got to see snow and he missed it all completely. And I love the cold, that is the best part. When you come from a place that is 35C plus every day, you welcome a bit of cold. Anyway, I have only four more days here and then it is off to sweating my @$$ off again! The best part is going to be able to see Zach again, three weeks apart is a tough one, and we get to do it all over again in June, yay! Well, the next time I'll post I'll be back in Grenada, what a scary thought!

Friesen-Dyck Wedding (that's right, Friesen-Dyck!!!)

Our good friends Dennis and Anna got married on December 29th and Zach and I decided that, aside from our own wedding, it was one of the best that we had ever attended. The wedding was beautiful (as you can see from the pictures above, don't you just love the dress?!) and Zach and I had a really great time. The ceremony was held at the King Road M.B. Church and the reception (dinner and dancing) was at the Ramada Inn in Abbotsford. Now if any of you know Dennis, you know that it was really wierd to be at HIS wedding, the guy does not really enjoy attending weddings. But to see him at his own, you would never have known it. He (and Anna) had a grin from ear to ear the whole time and at the end of the night he couldn't stop talking about how much fun he had! Anna was a gorgeous, calm bride and from what I could tell, and from the stories Zach told (he was a groomsmen), she wasn't Bridezilla at all! Way to go Anna!!!! (I had had at least one Bridezilla moment at my wedding, sorry again Marcy!) All in all it was a great wedding and we had a blast dancing the night away with the new Mr. and Mrs. Dyck. Congratulations again guys!