Our little Luke

4.25.2006 9:48 AM 11 2009 Melanie 6 comments
Here he is, my sweet little nephew. Lucas Isaac Adrian, seven pounds, nine ounces, and twenty and one half inches long. He's beautiful, and it was amazing to be with Robyn all day yesterday. We (mom and me) went to the hospital at about nine in the morning, when they induced her, and got to be with her right up until she began to push, when we waited ouside the door, and got to hear the rest, including his first cry. It was completely incredible. What an amazing miracle. Robyn is a wonderful little mother, and we're all completely enchanted with this little one.
I'm proud, for some reason, even though I didn't do anything but sit there and fidget. I was so nervous for her, but she handled it like a pro, and even the nurses were amazed at how well she did. I've never seen such an alert baby. He was about a half hour old when these were taken, but he was looking all over, and quiet as a little mouse while he was passed around. I'm going back to the hospital again today, and I'm sure more pictures will follow. I was so glad to be here when it happened, and to be able to be one of the first people to hold him, after the mom and dad, and the new grandparents. What a beautiful little blessing he is.

Ladies and Gentleman...Gillette, Wyoming.

4.13.2006 9:21 AM 11 2009 Melanie 9 comments


Boy Sets Self On Fire In Alleged Gas Theft
April 10, Gillette, Wyoming

A teenage boy accidentally set himself on fire Wednesday morning after allegedly trying to siphon gas from a firefighter's car.
Police first learned of the injury after a 17 year old boy, and a 16 year old boy claimed that someone had thrown gasoline on the 17 year old boy at the Common Cents gas station, and lit him on fire, said Sgt. Rod Hauge.
The boy was taken to the hospital with second and third degree burns on his legs. Police were called to the hospital to investigate the incident, and later learned that the 17 year old spilled gas on his pants while siphoning gas. He then used a lighter to see how wet his pants were, and set himself on fire, said Hague.
Both boys have been ticketed with larceny.

Okay - does anyone else find it funny that the gas station was called Common Cents? Or that he caught fire while he was trying to siphon gas from a firefighter?
Wow - I love this town.

Summer Is Here!!

4.10.2006 10:11 AM 11 2009 Melanie 5 comments
I adore summer. I love it. Nothing in the world makes me happier than the thought of not having to wear socks for months on end. I had a wonderful weekend this weekend, maybe the best one since coming to Wyoming. Now, I have not forgotten my gripes about my funny little town, I'm sure I will rant about it again in the future. Above is a picture of the Tetons, in western Wyoming. I've only been there twice, but mark my words, there will be camping this summer, and lots of it. At least once here. On Saturday, Peter, as is custom in this house, cooked me breakfast (heart shaped, sunny side up eggs - don't those sound happy? I got him the heart shaped egg pan. It's awesome). I also got coffee and orange juice and smoked sausage served to me while I played Mario in my pyjamas. Then we jumped in the car and went to the mountains. We can get there in under an hour, and we hiked around, and tried to scout out good camping spots, while nearly getting our car stuck in some very deep leftover snow and huge amounts of mud. There's no cell service there, had we been stuck, we'd have had to dig ourselves out with a window scraper and a travel mug. I have no idea how we got through, but we laughed like crazy when we did. Peter all tense and trying to drive (those who know Peter can attest to that he's funniest when he's tense and frustrated.) and me screaming, "keep your speed up! you can do it! good work" and thinking, "yeah we're screwed. we're going to have to live in our car until July out here." It was just so funny. We stopped in a little town and got Italian soda's and hung out in the sunshine. Did I mention it was about 20-22 degrees all weekend? Glorious. We drove home and hung out, my friend Cary came over and we finished season 3 of the Gilmore Girls, and then I got to hang out with my sweet husband the rest of the evening.
Yesterday was lovely as well. Peter's mom is out of town, as is his sister in law, which left his brother Andrew and his dad alone, so we had a barbeque at the park after church (the only dark spot in the weekend. Nothing like a fire and brimstone service to make you thankful you're saved - if I even am... never mind.) The guys played baseball while I barbequed over charcoal, something I've never done. I hung out with my little niece, who is going to be four this summer, and is figuring out the finer points of being female. There's the "world is ending, I'm going to sit under this tree and look so very sad" bit. Brought on by being too little to play baseball with the guys. The famous withering look brought on when told that "no, you may not wander out of sight. You're too little. Come play over here." Aparently she's completely grown up now, I hadn't gotten the memo. She's hillarious, and obviously an only child. I love it. We played on the park, I went down slides, we "made water" with a cup of ice in the sun- fascinating. She seems to like me a lot, which is sweet. She named the moon after me the other day, I'm told by her mother. When she asked what the moon was named, Tia told her it was just called the moon. "We should name it....Let's call it Mel!" was her reply. What a kid. I'm still just a "pretty cool" conduit to her Uncle Petey, who should be made king of the whole world, he's just that great. She's completely enamoured, which is adorable. He taught her how to hit a ball with a bat, called "banging" but only if you're three, after that it's inappropriate, and I fell for Peter all over again. What is it about a hot guy with a little girl, teaching her a sport or something, that's so sweet? I got to lay on a blanket in the sunshine and watch them, and try to squelch the urge to "forget the adoption thing first, and let's have a bunch of babies!"
We came home late, after renting a movie, picking up a bottle of wine, and we made about 3 1/2 pounds of snow crab legs, which we bravely tried to finish, to no avail. It was delicious though, and they were seriously on sale, likely because no one in Gillette knows what to do with crab, simply because it's not a steak, or a piece of fried chicken...sigh. Either way, we had a wonderful evening, and watched a movie, which I tried to stay awake for. We fell asleep so fast that at 2am Peter woke up and had to turn off all the lights, set our alarm, and turn off the AC for our apartment. It was that nice out...Ahh, summer. I'm never wearing socks again! Life is so so good.

Anywhere But Here - But Preferably Italy

4.04.2006 11:23 AM 11 2009 Melanie 8 comments

I want to go somewhere. I can't seem to get out of my plane ticket phase. I want to go somewhere with Peter, and discover things, and take pictures, and try and find someone who speaks my language, so I can find a bathroom. I love being somewhere new. So I'm making a blogtrip. Peter and I play this game, "what would we do this week if money wasn't an object?" It goes something like this. We'd get up, and hop a private jet to Tuscany.

 We would spend the day wandering around little foreign streets getting lost. We'd find some great little hotel that overlooks the fields and wake up in the morning to see the sun coming up. We'd go and have lunch right here, and then spend the next day going to different wineries, and tasting really good wine, and snacking on little Italian delicacies.

And then, off to Florence. We'd take the train across the Italian countryside, spend one day and night there, and in that evening, get all dressed up and go out for a really fancy dinner. Then we'd stroll along Ponte Vecchio with a big cup of really great coffee, and hold hands. My feet wouldn't get sore from the fabulous shoes I'd be wearing, and I wouldn't trip or spill coffee down myself or anything that normally happens on a regular basis to me.

And the next morning, we'd rent a car, and fulfill one of Peter's lifelong dreams, other than being married to me. We'd go hiking and rockclimbing in the Dolomite mountains. We'd spend the day exploring the woods and rocks and streams, and we'd find a beautiful clearing and camp for the night. Peter would cook me dinner over a little campfire, and we'd spread out a big sleeping bag and sleep outside under the stars.

And the next day, it's off to Rome. We'd rent a moped and drive around and sightsee, and shop all day long. We'd find a little gelato place and sit on the Spanish Steps, right here, and eat our ice cream and make out in public like teenagers.


And what is a trip to Italy without Venice? This is our sunrise on the Grand Canal. That is Fabrizio, who will be our gondolier. He'll have a terrible singing voice, but the trip down the canal at sunrise is finally what we needed to get another sunrise boat trip out of our minds for good. We wrap up in blankets, with hot coffee, and a little pastry that we share. We spend the rest of the day, you guessed it, getting lost and having the time of our lives.

And then it's back to Tuscany to have a few more glasses of great wine before heading home. But wait, money is no object...and we've now fallen in love with this place. So we buy this villa in Tuscany, and pay for all our friends and family to come join us for two weeks. No one likes to get postcards of places they can't go, so this is the next best thing. Take this as your formal invitation to visit my Italian villa. I'll be waiting.

A New Blog

4.03.2006 3:26 PM 11 2009 Melanie 11 comments
I have been kicked off MSN. I'm highly annoyed. I can see my blog, I cannot comment on it, and I cannot access my owner page to add anything to it. I have to open it in Explorer, which immediately "encounters errors" and shuts off. I can't copy and paste to my Firefox browser, it just doesn't work. Stupid. But I got to start a new blog, so that's kind of interesting. And here you have it, my "first" post, which, I'm sorry to say, will also be a rant.
I have worked in customer service for a total of 6 years. Wow, that's a lot, now I feel old and annoyed. I have done everything from fast food to being a carnie, to finer dining, to now being the Head of Customer Relations for UniClear. Yikes, I'm aging with every sentance here. My point is this. I am always polite in a restaurant, in an e mail, to a bunch of sleazy guys wanting to pop balloons with darts in hopes of getting my number. I'm usually very sweet, regardless of what I say afterward. Over the last three days, I have had these three experiences:
- Taco Bell - they have NEVER ONCE gotten our order right. We can't go through the drive through anymore, it's worse for some reason. We went inside, asked for tomatoes on my taco, they said okay, charged me for it, and I moved to the side to watch the guys make it. No tomatoes. I asked if it had tomatoes, and I was shooed away. When I got it home, it also didn't have sauce. Dry chicken, some lettuce, a few hard taco chips, and that's it baby.
-Hastings Video. I am addicted to Gilmore Girls (I will delete male comments on this I promise - I know there's not a guy alive who likes this show). Hastings is the only video store that allows you to rent them. Disc by disc, $3 a pop. My friend Cary and I are watching, and go to get disc two. Nada. Since the price to rent is so high, and they also sell the whole season, we ask what it costs. $30, she tells us. Sounds better, and we don't have to stop watching right then. We get the season - nope -$50. So we don't rent it or buy it, and are annoyed at being lied to. We go back in the course of the next week and a half, but no bones my friend. Ours is the only disc not there. Last night we call before we drive over. "Yes, we have it. Sure we'll hold it for you" We get there and they have held the season of "Charmed" - stupid show. Gilmore Girls is there, somewhere in the store, but misplaced. We can't find it, they won't look, and also won't give me a discount for lying to me, and making me buy one disc of one season for $8. I'm annoyed, and spend the money anyway.
-Pizza Hut will not deliver to my house. It takes 5 minutes tops to drive here from there. There is a Pizza Hut down the street that will deliver, but they do not have wings there. I have to get in my car in the rain and drive to pick up my order. Which was wrong.
It's something about this town, I swear. You CANNOT get good, or even adequate service in a restaurant. I cannot have a Canadian cheque made out to Peter, that he can deposit at his bank. You'd swear you'd just handed the teller Nepali Rupees. They just stare at you. I can't find cheese here (unless it's made in Wisconsin) or perogies that are more than 50 cents a perogy. I can drive through a liquor store, but cannot get anything other than hard alcohol, or wine. Canadian wine, not a chance, Italian wine, maybe one or two. And worst of all, I cannot see the mountains, or the ocean, or a lake, or even a river. I feel completely clautrophobic.
I'm glad we moved here. We'll never settle down here. We couldn't. I will not raise my children in this town. Lord only knows how they'd turn out. All this all means is that I'm going back to YWAM. And then back to BC. And then I'm digging in my heels.

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