Pre-Wedding

How do I describe the last 2 months? I am certainly not a good enough writer to be able to describe all the wonderful little details of our wedding adventure... but for the sake of those that were not able to join us for our wonderful day and so that I may continue to write "Just to Claire-ify" I feel the NEED to catch you up.

So here we go...

The 3 weeks that I had in Canada before the wedding absolutely flew by! I was forever making lists. Sometimes the same list as the day before... just on another piece of paper! One of my sisters teased me about my compulsive list making when she was cleaning... she said, "I've piled all your lists together... I think there's about 17... and they all say the same thing!" It's true they likely did, and there likely were that many! But it's just how I do things!

My lists and I spent the first week and a half with my family and then Joe arrived and the craziness began. We had one week to get as much stuff done as possible before his family arrived. Joe was a trooper... even though he was totally exhausted from his travels he worked so hard and helped me get soooo much done in a very short amount of time.

Things were finally starting to settle (not fall) into place... The seating chart was almost done, the favours were finished, the program and song sheet were complete, my final dress alterations had been made, gifts were almost wrapped, etc, etc, etc...

Of course I was stressing out and crying more often than a person should about the tiniest little things, but things actually went pretty well considering the limited time that Joe and I had in the town we were getting married in. My family was so great too... everybody helped whenever and wherever they could.

People kept asking me if I was getting nervous and I would respond, "About getting married? Absolutely not... but about all the little details that I think I'm forgetting... YES!"

Joe's family arrived and I have to admit we were a little worried that our families wouldn't get along... I know it's sounds crazy, especially if any of you have met either of our families. But our worries were for nothing. They hit it off!

Two nights before the wedding we all had supper together at my parents' house. (My family of 9 plus significant others and children + Joe's family of 8 and the best man) The food was good and we had a great night... and then it got even better...

We had been trying to organize a time for Joe's family to go skating but nothing was working out until that night. In a short amount of time we found enough skates for everyone and headed to the arena. Joe's little sister made her first (and second) snowball! Most of Joe's family ended up with some sort of bruise the next day, but we had sooooo much fun! The evening ended with hot chocolate and laughter.

The day before the wedding seems like an absolute blur. But these are some of the highlights of what we did...

Girls:
Got our nails done
Went for lunch
Picked up wine glasses
Picked up my dress
I packed for our 3 day honeymoon... and I tried to pack for Australia

Guys:
Played Pool
Picked up tuxes (don't even get me started on all the things that went wrong with those!)

Rehearsal Dinner
Wedding Rehearsal
Put out favours at reception site (so many people helped it was great!)

There was also a lot of crying in the midst of it all that day... I'm a big suck.

I eventually went to sleep that night and thought that I would toss and turn all night and wake up with a giant zit and a big cold sore... but I didn't... I also didn't realize as I was falling to sleep that night that the next day was going to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

And Now For Something Fun!

One of my favourite things to do is play games... brain games in particular. I love trivia, word games, brain teasers, puzzles... and the list could go on... I basically love anything that makes your brain work and is not just about luck.

My old roommate Sarah found this website with lots of brain games on it... check it out at your own risk because it's really addictive! www.lumosity.com

Joe and I have been playing a lot word games lately and I love it! They're easy to teach, simple to play and they work for a wide range of age groups. Mom used to play word games with us when we were kids... she would always win because she's crazy smart (and I'm not just sucking up... she is!).

Here are a couple of my favourites...
What you Need:
Paper
Writing utensil(s)
Something to Time with
A Dictionary (optional) it depends on how competitive you are!

Word Game #1 (Mom's game)
Pick a word... preferably a long word. Write it at the top of each player's page and start the timer (2 minutes or whatever you choose). Write down as many words as you can using the letters from the word. You cannot use the same letter twice and all words need to be at least 3 letters long. No proper nouns. Compare lists like in scattergories (if you both have the word it doesn't count toward your points) add up the number of words you get. Pick another word and start another round!

Word Game #2 (Borrowed from Lumosity.com)
Player 1 chooses 3 letters that can be used to start a word (ie. cra - crack, crab, etc) and writes it on the top of Player 2's page and starts the timer (2 minutes or whatever you choose) Player 2 writes as many words as possible beginning with those 3 letters in the alloted time. Then players switch roles.

Want to make it more difficult??... When trying to come up words players are limited to 5 words of each number amount (5 three letter words, 5 four letter words, etc) Any words beyond 5 of each are crossed out and do not count toward your total.

Have Fun!

Just to Claire-ify.

Time is Flying!

I realized a couple of days ago just how little time I have left before I leave to go back to Canada! AND how quickly the time that I have left is going to fly by! Here's the inside scoop on the next 13 days...

Today...
Dinner out with Joe and friends and "The Night of Nights" Footy Show
Tomorrow...
Joe's baby sister's First Holy Communion
Mon-Fri...
Pack my stuff for Canada and for the move to our new house (Oh! BTW we know where we're living... details in a future blog)
Sat 28...
Football in Jamestown and then off to Adelaide with Joe to speak at a youth minister's night-thing
Sun 29...
Joe's mum (mom) is hosting a "Kitchen Tea" (wedding shower) for me!
Mon 30...
Leave Port Broughton with everything packed for Canada... retreat prep meeting that night
Tues 31...
I'm helping with an all-girls retreat in Adelaide
Wed 1...
Hang out in Adelaide while Joe's at school... and DATE NIGHT (right Joe?)
Thurs 2...
Leave on a jet plane! Arrive in Canada in the evening (Canadian time)

And then even more fun begins when I get back to Canada! Can't wait! Just to Claire-ify it's 35 days until the wedding! woot! woot!

It's Been Too Long!

I'm back! It seems like forever since I last wrote a blog... it's been about 3 1/2 weeks actually! So much has happened since then... we've been very busy... I'm sorry it's been so long.

Well, here's a blog I wrote the week of July 26th.

Best Clo-Em Ever!
On Monday night Joe and I had the privilege of taking Miss Emma Fradd out for a farewell tea (dinner). Emma will be leaving on Thursday to travel to Canada to serve as a missionary with NET Ministries of Canada. Emma is a crazy-awesome musician and will be a part of a team/band called "Massive Worship", that is committed to "evangelization through music". They will lead retreats and music training sessions (among other things) across Canada. We are very proud of Emma and we know that she will do many great things over the next 10 months of service.

Side Note: Joe and I met while I was working for NET and he was serving as a missionary on a parish based team in Ottawa.

We had a great night! Our drive into Port Pirie was beautiful! I feel very blessed to have such beauty on my doorstep while we're living here... Every few minutes I would say to Joe, "Oh look! Isn't that pretty?!" The sun was setting and the sky appeared to be constantly transforming from one beautiful painting to another.

We picked Emma up at her house (a little later than planned... There was some miscommunication about where we were actually meant to pick her up... my bad!) and headed toward our destination. But it was closed. So... we started driving toward our alternate restaurant when Joe abruptly turned into an angled parking spot on the main street (FYI: driving down the main street of a town and pulling a u-turn to drive back the same way that you came is called, "Chucking a Main-y" around here) Joe had found us a wonderful Indian Restaurant... I LOVE INDIAN FOOD! It was a very small place that wasn't fancy at all... but as soon as you walked in and smelled that beautiful aroma you knew that the food was going to be great.

And it was! We are most definitely going back to that place!
Our meal was accompanied by story-telling and jokes... here's one for you (my mom told me this one): "What's the difference between Roast Beef and Pea Soup?"..."Anyone can roast beef" hahahahahaha!

But the night was not to end there! No! After a quick stop at Wooly's (Woolworth's: a grocery store) we went and planted ourselves in front of a fire at another restaurant/café with some wonderful coffees and played cards. After a bit of goofing off outside the restaurant our night concluded with a short time of prayer outside of the Port Pirie Cathedral.

Our wonderful night ended a little bittersweet, as we said goodbye to our dear Aussie friend.

Just to Claire-ify... We Love You Emma!

P.S. In June of this year Joe and I inherited the nick-name "Clo" thanks to our friend Sarah. And Emma has taken quite a liking to the name, hence this Blog title being Clo-Em.

P.P.S. Emma's service with NET Canada is a volunteer position and she is in need of people to financially support her and the work of NET. If you would like to support her you can check out NET's website for more information: www.netcanada.ca

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie... Rules Football

In 1857, Tom Wills, one of the founders of Australian Football, returned to Australia after schooling in England where he was football captain of Rugby School and a brilliant cricketer. Initially, he advocated the winter game of football as a way of keeping cricketers fit during off-season. (www.afl.com.au)

My soon-to-be-family and the town of Port Broughton, SA are crazy for Australian Rules Football... or footy as they call it. I'm willing to bet that about 98% of the boys/men in town have played or are currently playing footy.

Every Saturday during footy season, the entire family loads up and heads to wherever the games might be played that day. And check this out! It's a whole town event! And a family event! In the morning they start with the young ones and work their way up! so, let's say you have children who are 8, 14, 18, 24 and 27 (like my future family does) you don't have to divide yourself to get to all their games when they're all in different places... because they all happen in the same place! And the same goes for the girls Netball... the courts are always within walking distance of the football oval.

So, you may be thinking... "I have no clue about Aussie Rules Football." Well, neither did I before I came here, but it's actually not that complicated.

This is what I found on Wikipedia... not the most reliable source, but I think they got it right...

The object of the game is to score by passing the ball between the goal posts, with the highest score being awarded for kicking the ball between the middle two posts. The team with the higher total score at the end of the match wins.

Players may use any part of their body to advance the ball. The primary methods are kicking, handballing and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled, for example players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground. Throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball.

Unlike most similar sports, there is no offside rule, and players can roam the field freely. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick (with specific conditions), are awarded a free kick. Australian rules is a contact sport, in which players can tackle using their hands or use their whole body to obstruct opponents. Dangerous physical contact (such as a pushing an opponent in the back), interference when marking and deliberately slowing the play are discouraged with free kicks, distance penalties or suspension, depending on the seriousness of the infringement. Frequent physical contests, aerial marking or "speckies", fast movement of both players and the ball and high scoring are the game's main attributes.

It's pretty straight forward when you watch a game... or 5 as it usually is for me every Saturday.

Last Saturday was particularly great. Broughton/Mundoora played Jamestown/Peterborough...

Joe normally plays in the B Grade, but last week he was called up to play in the A Grade! (The A grade is basically the top players in the town... every week the roster can change depending on who is picked to play)

And... for the first time ever 3 Button Boys played in the A Grade together. Joe (27), Chris (24) and Tom (18).

Although the team lost it was great to see the boys play together.

Just to Claire-ify.

Oh, and P.S. Thanks everyone for the comments! I love reading what you think!

Cat-holic???

This week Joe is in Adelaide for a week-long class for Uni... so I'm here in Port Broughton with the rest of the Family.

Every Wednesday we walk to the church (which is about a 1 minute walk away) for Mass and Rosary. Tonight when we were leaving the house their cat "Tigger" decided to walk with us. The cat followed us all the way to the corner where it decided to stop for a good stretch on the road. Then the almost-12-year-old cat jumped up and ran to catch up as we rounded the next corner just before the church.

About 5 minutes after we entered the church, Tigger came in and eventually made his way up the aisle and into the sanctuary. Joe's little sister picked up the big ginger cat and carried him back outside.

But of course... the cat came back.

My 8 year-old-future-sister-in-law was in the sacristy preparing to altar serve at Mass, and chatting with Father when the cat made it's way back up into the sanctuary again so she was too busy to usher him back outside. So we just left him and figured that he would eventually get bored and leave.

But he didn't.

He sat quietly on the back pew for the entire Mass!

We didn't hear a peep from him until he let out a giant sneeze at the very end! And then when Mass was done he walked home with us!

My future in-laws had said that he's done it a couple of times before, but hasn't done it for years!

If you'll notice in this picture, he has a slight wound on his neck... I guess sometimes it does take rough times to make us turn to God!

Just to Claire-ify

Around the Twist

Growing up in Ontario we watch a lot of shows on TVO (It's one of those publicly funded TV stations) and one of them was "Around the Twist".

I didn't really think about it at the time but it's an Australian show, an award-winning children's show actually! AND... the other day I found out that Joe used to watch it when he was little. I think it's so weird that Joe and I were into the same things even as kids, but on the other side of the world.

I learned that the show was based on a book series written by Paul Jennings. Joe apparently loved his books as a kid and still has a bunch of them. And funny enough his little sister was reading one in school!

After a little research, I've learned that the show was primarily filmed at Split Point Lighthouse, at Aireys Inlet, Victoria (about 125km from Melbourne). It was produced at 4 different times with 3 different casts between 1989 and 2000. (In case you were interested)

The show was about these kids who lived with their dad in a lighthouse. They got into all kinds of mischief, most of which now seems pretty strange... There was a lot of super-natural sorta stuff, ghost, etc. It was also kinda rude now that I think of it... but as a kid I just found it hilarious!

BUT... the best part was the theme song. This version is a bit different, but if you're questioning whether you've seen the show or not, have a listen to the song... once you hear it you'll know if you had!!!

"Have you ever... ever felt like this..."



Just to Claire-ify.