Nothing like Company for Easter!

It's been a busy few week (actually, a busy year), but now it's Easter weekend, and Mom and Dad and Lisa are here, so that's really nice.  They arrived on Thursday, which gave me just enough time to get most of my Easter preparations done at the church.

The weather has been pretty rainy all winter here.  Locals tell me this is the norm and the sunny winters I've had for the last two years.  I don't mind the rain, but it was getting to be a monotonous.  Luckily this weekend, or at least on Friday, the weather was great, and we were able to get out for a walk on the beach in between naps.

Allie was out for a visit in January, for a couple weeks, which was great.  She got a cheap flight on New Years Eve, but landed in the afternoon, so we were able to be back in Tofino for celebrations with Jeff and Kirsten and some other friends.  It was right after she flew home that her dad died really unexpectedly, and thanks to the Bishop and a colleague who filled in for me,  I was able to go there for ten days to be with Allie.  It was nice to spend so much time with her in January, but the reasons weren't great for part of it.

Since coming back it's felt a little hard to catch up. The time between Christmas and Easter is when a lot of church meetings happen, and when our annual reports and statistics are due, so I've had a lot of paperwork to do, some of which even got done!

But for right now it's nice to have Mom and Dad and Lisa here for a bit, and have the sun out!  If the weather holds, I think we're going to try for a beach fire later today.  

Delightful Visitors

I had a couple of unexpected but very welcome visitors yesterday. Two of our most faithful blog stalkers, Scott and Jovita, stopped by to say hi. Jovita was in Victoria for a rugby trip, and they were driving by when Grace ordered them, via text, to stop. After a brief confusion about the relation of my cottage to the cemetery, they arrived. We had a nice visit - always nice to see them!

Last week was very busy - we had a clergy conference upisland on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a conference run by the Red Cross, on creating safe environment - really about abuse free environments. It was a great conference, really helpful, and on point. It was held in Duncan, which is about 45 minutes from Victoria. I drove both days, and brought along a carful of clergy.

Then on Thursday and Friday I filled in at the church office (the secretary is on holiday), and drove Don, our blind priest, on his afternoon visits. All this meant that I didn't get to working on my sermon til Saturday, which I swore I'd never do. So, I lasted about 3 months.

Alone Again

All of my visitors have left, and I am back to just me in my house. It was really good to have Will and Laura visiting, they are really easy company. Will arrived on Saturday night, and Laura on Tuesday. Henry and Laura were waiting for me when I got home on Tuesday. It was really good to see Henry again too, I think the last time I saw him was just before Christmas. We went out for dinner at Rigoletto's since I needed a baked rigatoni fix.

I had supper with Vicky on Wednesday, she and Dick left on their cross Canada trip. I am quite jealous of them, it sounds like a wonderful trip.

I talked to Darrell at work again today, to see what the status of the hiring tickets are. We had agreed that a July start would work if they were able to hire at least one new BA. We talked in the morning and he said they did not have one resume, my heart kind of sank. But then this afternoon he let me know they have 60 resumes from the college hire program. What a relief, so it is starting to feel real, that I will be able to work part time.

I went to see Jon, my financial guy on Thursday, to let him know that I was planning on going part time, and make some changes to my direct debit stuff. He agreed that my plan is good, it is always nice to have people agree with you.

Lots of Company

for me in the last week. Theresa and Geoff came last Thursday, and stayed until Sunday, Grace came over Sunday night for supper and to watch the Race with me, then Wednesday Henry came for a visit. Well actually he is still here but I don't expect to see him much this weekend as his girlfriend is in town from Lethbridge and they are hanging out at his girlfriend's aunt's (Dawn Kunyk) for Thanksgiving. Wednesday night Grace came over and the three of us went out for dinner. Sam had a midterm, and he was getting ready for some co-op interviews, so he could not make it, and Allison had a meeting scheduled that night, so could not either.

It has nice having Henry stay, it feels as though it has been a very long time since I have seen him, and it is good to get to know him again.

As Theresa said I worked last weekend, and I am happy to say we went live with the new verison of the software on Monday. Of course it was a week filled with all kinds of issues, trying to get things stable, and people used to the new way of doing some things, but all in all things were good. I only have three more weeks left at the Terrace building, then I move up the hill to the IBM office for 6 months. Some people have already left the project, so I moved to a spacious new desk. My team lead Jeanne, went back to Kansas, and I moved to her spot, as I am the now team lead for Benefits for warranty. Don't get too excited for me though, I am also the Benefits team, since everyone else went back to their Ministry or IBM. Our Team Meetings are very quick, I get consensus every time, and no one talks back to me.

Winter has started, we got snow last week, and it feels quite cold, at least in comparison to the week before. usually when we get snow this early it does not stay, but I am not too sure if that will be the case this year.

Only four more weeks until we leave for Scotland, I can hardly wait.