Manitoba so far

I'm in Manitoba for a couple weeks. It's been good so far. Although I figured the drive could be done at every big city, I still enjoyed the drive. I took about an hour and a half of breaks and took it easy so my neck / shoulders wouldn't be too sore.  I think the highlight of my drive was stopping at a rest area and going for a camera walk. The smell of the flowers were amazing - it smelled like clover honey! I took a picture of the bathrooms because I thought the buildings looked interesting and really out of place, but then realized they were the bathrooms. Haha. I got a great picture of a dragon fly, but I'll have to wait to post it until I'm back home where I can upload my pictures. I'm not using my own computer for online work here.

I spent my first few days with my family. I've played a lot of the Pigs game - where you throw 2 little rubber pigs like dice and get points for how they land. I also took my nieces and nephews to the Steinbach parade. It was actually a lot of fun although originally I had no desire to go to the parade itself. But, the time with my nieces and nephews is what counts and if that's what they want to do, I'll do it with them. I saw the forecast and I realized there was very little chance the rain would stop, so I prayed that despite the dismal forecast and the unlikelihood that the rain would stop, that it would stop in time for the parade. I didn't think the kids would have a lot of fun sitting in the rain and as much as I love rain, I wouldn't either. And, it stopped just before we needed to leave!

On Friday, I went to see the movie 'Inception'. It's a great movie and it was good to see my friend. On Saturday, I went up to Gimli with my old Life Group. There were some not-so-nice glitches to the beginning of our trip, but the day was great overall! In Gimli, just after I got out of the car, I looked up to see a couple from my church in Calgary who had just moved out here. It was great to see them and quite an unexpected surprise. The day turned out great! The weather was hot - over 30 degrees, muggy, and perfect weather to get into the cold water. I got a little sun burned, but not too bad. We didn't actually spend time together as the big group in Gimli itself. I was with the couple who I drove up with and another friend - the one I went to the movie with. Later, most of the group went up to Integrity Foods near Riverton for wood-fired pizza and a time of relaxing and connecting. If you ever get a chance to go to this place, I highly recommend it! This pizza is awesome and so is this iced mint tea (this time with red clover). I had the Mediterranean pizza. It was good, but next time I don't think I'll hold the olives. I generally don't like olives, but I remember the flavour they give this pizza and this flavour was missing. I tried the bison and mad garlic one and the Southwest pizza as well - both also great choices. It's pretty close to Hecla Island, and for those who like to be on the farm, there are a bunch of farm animals around. Interestingly, my aunt and many of her family were also there so I talked with them a bit.  On the way back to Winnipeg, and then on to my parents, there was an amazing lights show in the distance. Beautiful oranges, beautiful lightening strikes and also beautiful glows across the sky. I stopped to take some pictures, then realized I left my camera together with my ID and other important pieces in Winnipeg. I also realized I left my stick (cane) at the farm. Argh. I guess that means a trip into Winnipeg today just to get it as I need these things and tomorrow won't work. I won't get the cane back, though, until later this week. Hopefully I can arrange to see some friends to make the trips into Winnipeg worthwhile.

Oh, and in other great news, I have a referral! I thought for sure I'd lose the referral because I'm away for a couple weeks, but in the end, they needed to delay a couple weeks because one of the team members is away on holidays as well. This will be a complex case and a good challenge. Hopefully this referral will work out and not fall through. And, hopefully I will get some more referrals and business in the next month. I'm starting to get concerned about my finances.

For now, I'm looking forward to this next week. It will most likely have some very stressful moments, but I still think it will be a good week.