Adios Canada

Tonight is our last night here in Halifax. Tomorrow after church we will head to Bangor, Maine. It has been a great trip and we are all really glad we came. The kids have been absolutely incredible. Tomorrow we will have been gone exactly 4 weeks, and will take the next week and a half to get back to Texas. We have lots of pictures to share and will get those up as soon as we get home. We spent a week in Prince Edward Island--where Anne of Green Gables is set at--absolutely beautiful. We then headed to Cape Breton--it too was amazing--you will see when I get the pics up :)
Justin and I have been compiling a list of our top ten likes and dislikes of Canada--the complete list will be my next post, for now here are some words they "mispronounce" here in Canada:

Mazda--with a short /a/ on the first syllable
garage--with a short /a/ on the second syllable
Home Depot--said with the "pot" not the "po"
produce--short /o/
process--long /o/
coke zero--short /e/ in zero
presbytery--presbytry

Random other things:
There is no such thing as Canadian Bacon--they all laughed their heads off when we explain what it is.

They do not put parm. cheese or peppers on their pizza--again the guy thought I was crazy.

Poutine: Canadian "delicacy": french fries smothered with brown gravy and topped with cheese curds--sounds gross, but is Y.U.M.M.Y.!

Donair: Some kind of beef rotated on a pipe and carved off in thick slices (think thick Arby's meat) served on a pita with tomatoes and onions and donair sauce--a sweet creamy sauce--again, Y.U.M.M.Y.!


There are crosswalks in the middle of the streets--not at stoplights, so you really have to pay attention!

Bears are in the neighborhood.

Nobody ever seems to be in a big hurry.

Canadian cartoons are TERRIBLE....I'm talking hand puppets....

Canadian news--I would be a GREAT anchor woman in Canada :)

The people in the church here have been AMAZING--we have been so blessed getting to serve with them and by them this past month. The kids have made great friends whom they will miss greatly. Jed LOVES hockey and is pretty good at it as well and Jadyn learned to ride a bike without training wheels.

Thanks Canada for a fantastic trip!!! It's been a great adventure! A much needed time for our family to be together after a crazy hectic 3 years of Seminary--good to have Daddy with us 24/7 for 5 straight weeks! (Although I think he's ready to go to work!)

The next week and a half we will get to visit great friends, and we are TOTALLY excited to hang out with all of them!

Montanas-73 Odyssey-1

The vehicle of choice in Nova Scotia is......the Pontiac Montana!!! They are EVERYWHERE!!! Imagine our surprise! We could not GIVE away our Montana in Texas, here they are the coolest thing since sliced bread! Seriously people, from here to the store we see about 17. Guess how many Honda Odyssey's we've seen? ONE and it was super old... Maybe, we will fit in here.

But then again, maybe not! We like, I mean LOVE our network tv and cable, and I'm pretty sure I can't go more than 5 weeks without a chic-fil-a and a Target run. However, add me some Tim Horton's coffee and a Blueberry Fritter to my American life and all might be perfect! :)

The Edgar Family Adventure--Part 2 The Drive

We left on Sunday after church after our wonderful Community Group sent us off with a goody bag each of cookies, candy, drinks, and prayer over our family. A sweet send off left us feeling very loved. The week was spent spending nights at several old friend's houses who have been scattered all over thorughout our years in ministry. Our first night was in Springfield, Missouri, at Ian and his wife, Harper's, house left us pretty spoiled! Only a fellow New Mexican can fix you real smothered red chile burritos. It was DELISH! Great conversation that night was followed by homemade pancakes the next morning and then we were to Louisville, Kentucky.

We spent the night with the Miersma Family--Nick and Jenn and their 3 kids, Elliot being only 4 weeks old. It was great to reconnect with them. I hadn't spent much time with them since Justin married them 5 years ago then they moved to Louisville where Nick is going to Seminary. After Nick's mom spoiled us rotten, packed us a picnic lunch and sent us on our way to Princeton, New Jersey.

Justin's graduation was in Philedelphia, PA which is only 20 minutes away from Princeton, which gave us the opportunity to spend some time with the Taylors--Tyson and Cammie. Tyson is at seminary at Princeton and we got to hang out with his sweet wife and their 2 awesome kids for 3 days. Jed and Kale had spent some time together last summer when he and Justin went to NY for a few weeks and they met up at a Yankee game and hung out for the day, so Jed was glad to have some guy time with Kale. Justin's graduation was on Thursday night (side note: Can I tell you how proud I was of him as he walked across the stage...thinking back on our decision to leave Lubbock for him to get his M. Div. all the while working 4 part time jobs, taking 14-19 hours a semester and being a fabulous Dad and husband--I don't know many people who could do all that!) and we then celebrated at a fancy steak restaurant. As Justin was parking the car, I went in and requested a table for 6, she asked if I had reservations, I said, "No, is that a problem? Can we still get in?" As I look around the empty restaurant. She responded very ugly, "I can but I have to put you at a booth"." I happily replied, "Great, we LOVE booths!" Tyson and Cammie had said the worst part about living in New Jersey is the people just aren't friendly--in other words--it's not Texas! And, YES, I must agree!

Friday we left in the morning to make our trek up to Nova Scotia. We wished we had started keeping count of how much money we had spent on toll roads and turnpikes--HOLY MOLY! I have a thing about toll roads, but have gotten use to the ease of it on George Bush in Dallas--I prefer it now...BUT we had to get on and get a ticket then when you get off you hand in your ticket and pay anywhere from $1-35. It was crazy, and we kept having to do it. Thankfully, I brought a ziplock of all my "change" for me some coffee along the way--well, no coffee was bought with it--only the privlege of driving on these wonderful Northeastern Roads.

We decided we would try to go ahead and cross the border on Friday night instead of waiting until Saturday morning since we didn't know how many people would be going in to Canada for Memorial Day Weekend. We stopped at a gas station in Maine to ask if that was wise, how long does it take to get over the "border" etc, and they thought we were crazy for driving all the way from Texas. Then they said how lucky we were because it was unseasonably warm right now--folks, it was 50 degrees--I was FREEZING! I laughed out loud, and said "Oh, this is not warm!" We get to the border and drive up to this window at midnight eastern standard time. A nice man with a thick accent asked us where we were headed and why we were going-we don't think he believed Justin when he said he was going to "preach"... Then he asked to see our DRIVERS LISCENSE....really? I asked, "Don't you want to see my passport? I got it especially for this trip?" "No, just your liscenses" Talk about being bummed! I know I need it to get back in to the US, but I won't even have gotten a stamp on it! He then counted the kids--two of which were asleep--and we were on our way. We made it to the first city and spent the night at a perfect replica of a motel you would find on any horror movie--luckily the kids were asleep so we threw them in a bed and crashed!

TO be continued.....

The Edgar Family Adventure Part 1--Planning and Preparation

Last Sunday, we left Texas after church to begin our six week adventure to Philadelphia and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I had been preparing for this adventure for about a month. It is amazing the details that need to go in to taking a 5-6 week trip with 6 people!

Back in February, Justin came home one day and said, "Hey, what do you think about the family going to Nova Scotia for a month this summer?" I laughed and said, "Sure, why not". If you know Justin very well, you know that we (he) is ready and willing to go anywhere. He loves to travel. If it involves going out of town, he is your man....you also know that more than half the things we "plan" never come to fruition. So, he ended up emailing this pastor who had sent a message to Justin's seminary looking for someone to come fill the pulpit while he and his family go on a month long vacation. The "job" would include housing, a little bit of travel/food money, and the weeks free to travel the area. What a great opportunity for the family. We would never have dreamt of taking a family vacation to Canada. (side note, when J first mentioned Nova Scotia I really thought it was in Scotland...yeah, I know it's amazing I ever passed Geography!)

After the initial contact Justin made with Pastor Shearouse, he asked for some sample sermons, then we didn't hear from him. We pretty much forgot about it, figuring we weren't a good fit for their little congregation. Mid-March we get an email asking us to come. The timing all fit perfectly, as we had to be in Philly for Justin's graduation from Westminster Theological Seminary in May. So, the preparations began. Passports, pediatrician appointments, bills organized, money budgeted, who'd get the mail, who'd take Buster, how would we pack for 6 people-6 weeks, several different temperature changes all in our little van--details, details, details. I love them, Justin hates them.

The 2 weeks before we were to leave Justin had 7 papers and 4 finals to take. Needless to say, he was off the hook in the packing and preparing. Kathy let us borrow her HUGE suitcases which,trying to be organized, I had everybody packed and ready to go days in advance. Saturday night before we left, Justin decided to load the van--just to "see if everyone's suitcase would fit"....they didN'T. UGH, now I had to take everyone's suitcases back in and half everyone's clothes--this is when I got stressed. Seriously??? Everyone could only have 1/2 a suitcase of clothes? If we were in different circumstances I'd have had him march down to the Chevy dealership and get us a Suburban, but we aren't, and we couldn't. So, I had to make it work. Mind you we were going to be in hot, then cold and rainy, then hot weather again the next 6 weeks and to give everybody only half a suitcase was HARD! We managed. We might be wearing the same clothes over and over, but at least we won't be naked!