Closer to Normal

Its been about 2 weeks since I blogged and things are sort of getting back to a more normal routine...sort of. I'm afraid I wasn't very positive on the last post - but my mental picture is getting better thankfully! We are slowly settling into our temporary home, although I'm not certain I'll feel at home until I have my own kitchen again! The latest word on our house is that it should be available by the end of November, but I'm not getting any hopes up just yet - I'll believe it when we're moved in! I just hope that happens before Christmas, as I was REALLY looking forward to entertaining in my own house over the Christmas holidays!

Its beginning to feel a lot like winter around here now, with every night reaching below zero and daytime highs staying closer to freezing every day! There has been a bit of snow fall, although not enough to really make the ground white yet! The winds continue to puff frigid air from the northwest at 30-60km/hr almost every day, but we must enjoy this while it lasts and remember how nice the fall was when we're stuck in the middle of -30 January!

Over the weekend I drove up to Saskatoon for the annual vet tech conference to get some continuing education hours. It was great trip - but it wore me out - I guess it all started on Thursday when I was up at 3:30 AM, worked 12 hours and didn't go to be until 11 pm. It was a cold day of exporting and a lot of driving that day, but thanks to my winter clothes(which made me look like a beast from a fairytale I'm sure!), and a thermos full of strawberry vanilla tea, I was warm all day! That evening I meant to finish packing for my trip, but Andrew came over with little Liam and I spent a couple of hours visiting and fussing over him instead!
I slept in on Friday morning and didn't get off on my journey until 11:30am. I stopped in Brandon for lunch at Tim Hortons and got very sick within an hour of eating...needless to say it was a bit of an uncomfortable trip from then on as my entire digestive system rebelled! I reached Saskatoon around 7pm but spent a further half hour getting lost and driving around the city before arriving at my hotel. After checking in and a quick shower to try and refresh myself, I headed down to the conference area to register and browse the trade show. Upon receiving my registration package, I was informed that all of the hands on sessions for the next day had been cancelled, thanks to a strike by the university employees. I was rather disappointed as this was one of the reasons I had travelled so far for the conference, but I decided to make the most of it! My room mate from college was to share a room with me at the conference as well and she arrived a little later in the evening and joined me in browsing the trade show. We picked up lots of information and free goodies from the different reps and got some good sales talks from them as well! Over the course of the evening I ran into a total of 6 of my college class mates, which was nice - its neat to see where different people have ended up. Lynz and I were joined by Janelle and Mark as we browsed the trade show and after the trade show had shut down and Mark had left, the three of us went up to our hotel room to visit. Lynz and I stayed up until 3:30am....just like being back in college!! Saturday we enjoyed many informative speakers, and a day sprinkled liberally with snacks, more browsing and more visiting. The culmination of the event was a nice banquet on Saturday evening with an awards ceremony which was to be followed by some entertainment - the entertainer however, did not arrive, so we were forced to seek our own entertainment - more visiting upstairs until after midnight! We said our good-byes to all of our other classmates and called it a night. Sunday morning dawned with snow...apparently - as there was still snow in the shadows by the time we were up and at-em around 10 or so. Lynz and I made our way to Montana's for brunch and said our goodbyes from there. The drive home was long - as I was tired, and somewhat bored with driving by this point!! Thankfully, I made it home by 9pm even after a few stops for refreshment and to break up the monotony of the road ahead of me! The Lord graciously kept all the deer in the ditches and me between them!
My lack of sleep caught up to me yesterday as I somewhat dragged through the afternoon at work. I was in bed by 10 last night and feel a lot better today!! I am glad to be home safe and sound, and was much encouraged by the good visits I had with my fellow classmates - I miss some of the friends I made at school, and wish I wasn't so far away from them all, but such is my life it seems - I'm far away from a good many of the people I care about - sometimes I wish we were back in the old days when people didn't move very far apart very often....but I guess this is life!

Oh, before I close, there's one other exciting piece of news, I saddled Riata for the first time on the Sunday before last. She did very well, didn't even seem to mind the saddle being there, although she sniffed it and the blanket curiously before I put them on. I even let the saddle almost fall off her a few times before I got the cinch tightened, and she didn't spook. I expected her to at least kick or buck once or twice when I started working her with the saddle on, but not even one little flip of the hoof! I just hope she is this well behaved when I go to ride her for the first time next summer!!
I'm posting this with the joys of high speed Internet as I wait for Julie at work - its kind of nice to have a chance to just sit down and type on a computer that actually responds properly!!