Twenty-five years ago today, on April 13, 1982, Pake died.  Even though Beppe might not remember the date today, in the past it was always a hard “memory” day for her.  I thought I would remind everyone and post this old favourite picture of him. 

Hello Everyone:

We haven’t posted for awhile so I thought I would tell what’s going on in Drayton lately.  We have tons of snow.  Beth and Jordan have had many snow days.  So much that I think they should cancel March break.  Beth and Jord don’t agree with me though.  Today is another snow day but we sent them to school anyways because they had some tests to write and assignments to hand in. I have to pick them up at 3:30. You see we live in kind of a snow belt area and where the school is they don’t get as much snow as us.  So the school remains open for all the students who live in the cities and for us in the country,  the buses don’t run if it’s bad weather. 

Tomorrow Beth and Jordan are leaving to go to Europe on a 10 day Canadian Battlefield’s history trip.  There is 50 people from our school going which includes chaperones.  They are flying to London with a connecting flight to Paris.  They will spend 3 days in Paris and then move on to Belgium and from there to the Netherlands.  They return home on the 15th.  So that’s pretty exciting for them.  Hence the title for my post “a quiet march break”. 

Sid is busy at work.  He’s teaching a course this week to 32 people about drainage.  He teaches this every year usually close to the March break.  I have nothing exciting planned for myself but I’m thinking of spring cleaning the house.  Maybe I’ll lay down until the feeling goes away though.  It sounds like alot of work.  Maybe I’ll curl up with a few good books instead.

Jordan got accepted so far at 2 universites.  Carleton in Ottawa in Areospace Engineering and MacMaster in Hamilton in Civil Engineering. He also applied to Waterloo and is waiting to hear from them.  So Josh, Jordan would really love to have your input.  I know you went to Carleton but was it the same program as Areospace Engineering?  We want to know what you thought of the program, was it difficult, etc…  Jordan’s email is jordanvanderveen@hotmail.ca.  I’m sure he’ll have some questions for you.  He has until the end of May to respond to the university. 

Nick is planning to stay in Red Deer for the summer.  He accepted a job in surveying from a guy who plays on his hockey team.  He wanted to try something different and get some experience in another line of work.  He plans to move back to Ontario in August and finish his last year at university in  Waterloo.   Looking forward to when he returns.

So we are still planning to come down for Easter Weekend.  Is there a day planned when all the VanderVeens get together? I’m not sure if Beth and Jord are coming because they have taken enough time off of work because of this Europe trip.  Hopefully the weather improves by that time.

Bye for now

Arlene

For all the women:

 Cucumber

Cherry tomatoes

Black olives (canned and pitted)

Peppers (red, yellow and green)

Feta cheese (drain the water)

Red onion

Greek Feta and oregano salad dressing or Onion salad dressing (actually any salad dressing will do. My fav. is rasberry vinaigrette)

Chop it all up.

Arlene

This salad is really different and a nice change.

Hello from Drayton.  It’s Tuesday afternoon here and I’m looking in recipe books for some good Christmas recipes.  When I was in Red Deer I was inspired by my niece Heather Vedder.  She’s a good cook!  She made a few recipes that I haven’t made before and they were delicious.  We (my mom, sister Mary and I) had a wonderful time in Red Deer inspite of the cold temperatures and lots of snow.  It was good to see Nick again after 3 1/2 months. Jay and Heather were very good hosts.  Heather drove us all over the place.  We went to the Edmonton mall for a day and we went to the mountains for a day. We attended Heather and Jay’s church as well as Nick’s church.  We listened to a good Bomhof sermon.  We played a lot of games and did some shopping too.  (Well a lot of shopping)  Nick came home last week Wednesday and he’s staying until January 8.  This week he’s leaving to go skiing with his friends in Quebec and will be home in time for Christmas.   Hope there’s enough snow for them to go skiing!!!  Here in Drayton we have absolutely no snow, the weather man is calling for a green Christmas.  Just the way I like it! 

So I was wondering about the VanderVeen Christmas.  What are the plans exactly? I know it’s on Boxing Day. What time do we meet , where do we meet and what do I bring?  Can we get a room where Beppe lives?  Is all of lunch going to be bought or do we bring some salad with that?  Also are we doing the $5.00 gifts this year?  I will bring some snacks, goody’s and refreshments of the alcohol variety for afterwards at Ype and Gail’s.  Can’t wait til Boxing Day, it’s only one week away. 

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  Safe  travel for all.

From Arlene, my first blog.

Well its Sunday and it’s time to create a new post relating all the recent activities of the Drayton Vander Veen’s. Some of you may be aware that Arlene went to Red Deer last Tuesday with Mary Douma and their mom to visit Nick and Heather & Jay Vedder. She’s coming back on Wednesday and that’s only 3 days and 3 hours away, but who’s counting?

Beth turned 16 earlier this week, and after I brought Arlene to the airport, she wrote the test and received her G1 (or “beginners” for us older folk). And Jord’s high school volleyball season ended. For senior boys volleyball, they had the best season in Woodland’s history. They won District 8, competing against much, much larger schools. They then won CWOSSA (Central Western Ontario Secondary School Association) which brought them to OFFSA for the all-Ontario title for schools with less than 500 students. Unfortunately, they didn’t play their best volleyball there and finished in the middle of the pack. I have to say that I’ve really grown to appreciate watching volleyball - it’s really exciting.

Now some church news because this has been eating up a good part of my after-work time lately. The pastor we called declined and we were quite disappointed. However, our church has been talking about an building expansion project since 1999, but there was always disagreement about what to do. Well, last Tuesday, we finally agreed to build an addition to the church that would create a new fellowship hall, nursery, kitchen and meeting rooms. All together, the expansion and renovation of the existing facilities will cost about $1.5 million, so it’s a major commitment.

After this monumental congregational meeting, I decided to drive down the road to Conestoga Lake and I took a walk along the Lake to reflect on this major decision our church made. Someone took the picture below and I decided to post it. By the way, how’s the weather in Alberta? B.C.?