The Adventures Continue

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Freezing cold photo's -20 to -30 temps

Some shots of us in the great white north!

Marcelle standing on the frozen Ft. Sask River

Doug kicking the frozen snow off the walk

On a walk through a winter wonder land

My nephew Jon, Marcelle and I at Christmas time

Christmas in Edmonton, photo taken by my nephew Jon. Thanks Jon

Way up here in the frozen north

Well it has once again been a while since our last blog update and so much has happened I do not know where to begin! Isn’t that the way it is, life gets a little bit busy and a myriad of things happen that you want to write about. You think to yourself “I should update the blog and remember to put that in” then life’s little things get you busy and … Then the next thing happens and you think the same thing and as you make plans to do it you remember the last thing that you wanted to put in here and you think to yourself “I will do the last update and then add this one!” then life’s litt… Too make a long story a little shorter, I have decided to sit down and abbreviate all the little things that have happened and move on to the new things that keep coming up as we go! So this is a brief run down of life in this branch of the Redmond/Grech family line! Well we rushed to Malta from Belize and sent Marcelle’s passport to Rome just in time. When we got it back from Rome the visa said we had to be in Canada by Oct 1, 2008 as her Canadian visa for residency expired then. We rushed to pack up our lives in Malta and booked tickets to Canada. Once in Canada we spent a couple hours sorting out Marcelle’s paperwork and presto, she is now a resident of Canada! Wow! It looks like we will have to stay here for 3 out of the next 5 years so that she can then write a test (that most of us Canadians would fail) to become a Canadian citizen. When we have fulfilled the obligations of citizenship we will be free to come and go as often as we like without the limitations that we now have on our time and rights re Marcelle in Canada. That will be nice as we can then continue this wonderful adventure that we call life and visit our friends abroad. Once in Canada we visited in Kelowna for a couple of weeks, bought a mini van (great deal) for $3000 less than it was worth, drove to Alberta (where we felt that we were being led to go) with all our stuff in the van. We stayed at our friends cabin in a beautiful place called Gull lake for a few days (they were in Malta at the time). Then with some very wonderful friends in Delburn Alberta. We had met and stayed with them during our time in Belize as we joined them there in the important work that they have so fruitfully laboured at for so many years. Our time here in Canada so far has been a fantastic adventure of discovery for Marcelle and even for me as I have never lived in Canada as a married man. So many aspects of existence here in my home country are new and different to me now. To see so many things through the eyes of my wife as she experiences what to me would be mundane or expected, she finds wonderfully exciting or aggravatingly frustrating as each experience presented its self. If you are open to it, there is wonder in even the smallest or seemingly insignificant things, when you see them again for the first time through someone else’s eyes! While at Delburn, we thought that we would be watching their house while they were back in Belize for six months. As we looked for work there and in the area, I found a job posting in Edmonton (a place neither Mars nor I wanted or thought about going) but it would give us a place to stay for very little expense and provide us with money while I went to school. We went for the interview and it turns out that although we were not very keen about the job we applied for, they thought that we would be perfectly suited for two other positions in the company! The details are a good subject for another blog, but in the interest of expediency (too late) on Feb 2/09, I start a new job as a maintenance supervisor and Marcelle has been offered a very good position in the same company! Thank you Father! Not only do we both have work in these tough economical times, we have both been given good stable jobs at the same company! We drive to work together and have 30 - 45 min every morning just to ourselves. Again, thank you Father for your provision and favour! So that brings us up to date on the little things that have been happening along the way in this amazing adventure that we are all on called LIFE! Thanks for reading and we will blog again soon! (Hopefully :) Love Doug & Marcelle

Saturday, September 6, 2008

What is next?!?

Well we are back in Malta visiting with Marcelle's folks and getting ready to move to Canada! It was a very quick trip and time here as we have to be in Canada by Oct 1 2008 so we have been quite busy here. We are not sure how long we will be living in Canada but we are optimistic that it will be good for us. I am looking forward to Marcelle getting a taste of what life is like in Canada and honestly, after almost 4 years of bouncing around the globe I am looking forward to being home and surrounded by things I know, the people I have been missing and some peace & quiet (if I can)! It has been educational, exciting and a total adventure! I left Canada a single man looking for adventure and following the calling that I felt God was putting before me! Now almost 4 years later I am on my way back home for a few years with a beautiful, talented and amazing wife with many countries, experiences and memories of people, places and things under my belt. I did not plan or think it was possible when I left Canada. So many very good friends we have met along the way and that we are so blessed to have in our circle of friends now and hopefully forever! It is late and we are planning to go scuba diving tomorrow so I will sign off for now! Love Doug & Marcelle

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Last day in Belize

Well today is our last day in Belize! It has been a very good experience for us and for me has been a dream come true! I have always wanted to live in the Caribbean and now I can say I have! I even have a Belizean drivers licence! We are looking forward to seeing our friends and family in Malta and Marcelle is real excited to see some of the old FH kids as well. Well I guess that you are not kids any more but to Marcelle you will always be her Firehouse kids! We cant wait! Our friends Jeff & Shira are off to the States for a few months. We had the privilege of driving them up into Mexico to catch their plane. We drove to a town called Playa del Carmen and the family caught a bus to the Cancun airport from there. It was a real good trip and we were blessed to have had the opportunity to go. We did some cave diving there in things called cenotes. It is a Mayan name meaning sacred cave. They are very large, very old caves on the Yucatan peninsula that have over the years caved in and then filled with rain water! It was so cool with the underwater stalactites and stalagmites all over the place not to mention our first experience with a halocline(the layer where fresh water on top and salt water on the bottom combine making everything hazy). We both had a blast and it felt good to do something for ourselves before we leave. At the moment we are packing all our stuff into what we will take to Malta and what we will store here in Belize, we are trying to sell our Isuzu trooper and today we have to either sell or take the motorbike to a friends for her to sell. We are busy but I just wanted to stop by to update you all on what we are doing. We are scheduled to leave here at 11:00 am Belize time on Friday and we arrive in Malta on Sunday morning at 2:30 am Malta time! I hope we can get some sleep this time! To all in Malta, we will see you soon! To everyone else, please remember that we love you and think of you often. We appreciate all of your love, prayers, support and encouragement. We would love to hear from you anytime so if you would like to leave a comment here, please feel free to click on the comments section at the bottom of this (or any) box. However, we would also love to hear from you via email. Till next time Doug & Marcelle

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Well it looks like our time here in Belize is done for now.

We are in the processes of packing up all of our stuff here, selling our truck and moving to Malta for a while! We are flying out of Belize on Friday the 4th and will be in Malta on the 6th at about 2:30 am. Yet another hop across the pond! We are looking forward to seeing everyone and swimming in Marcelle’s beloved Mediterranean Sea! Marcelle is so excited about seeing everyone in Malta, spending time with her mum & family, not to mention going to a beautician, wearing high heals, buying cheap apples (they are $1 each here) eating “nice pizza”, gbejniet and rabbit (a traditional Maltese meal). We are not looking forward to getting used to the new Euro currency as when we left, Malta still had its Lira and now has changed. Everyone there has already got used to it so we will look like we are rally slow. I suspect the whole feel of life there is going to be different?!? We will see! Thanks again for visiting our BLOG, check back as often as you would like to see what is happening in our continuing adventures!