"We're never moving!!"

Don't be alarmed by the title of this blog, it is simply a quote from my Husband on a rare occasion of pure, sheer excitement and joy, and should not be taken literally.....maybe.  Let me explain myself.  Yesterday, on a gorgeous 20 degree and sunny mid-October afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the above seasonal Autumn weather by spending the afternoon outside by the lake carving pumpkins and fishing!  As I was cheerfully cleaning out the pumpkin guts while Andee threw some casts, a fellow fisherman who was fishing nearby waltzed over with the biggest bass I had ever seen!  We were chatting with this man earlier about our doubts that this lake really had any good fish, and he came over to prove to us that beautiful fish were indeed in this lake!  I even held the fish and posed for a picture!  Crazy!

After this, Andee's curiosity and determination to catch a trophy bass grew substantially!  And when the same man came over with a second bass, we knew we had been fishing with the wrong bait!  We expressed this to the skilled fisherman, and he ended up giving Andee a brand new spinner that he had just purchased!  What a nice man!!  Andee quickly attached the new lure, and with new found hope and excitement, began the bass hunt!  We also finished carving our cute little pumpkins, just in time for Halloween!!

After we finished carving our pumpkins, Andee decided to move closer to the spot where the man found these bass.  We shifted down the lake only slightly, and Andee cast his rod.  And that is when he caught him.  The biggest bass that he or I had ever seen, and probably will see; the Monster Bass!!  Andee guesstimated that this guy weight upwards of 5 pounds, and we got the photo evidence to prove it!  Turns out, all that was needed was some colder waters, and a spinner lure!  After Andee released his prized catch, in his excitement and disbelief, this is when he shouted the phrase "We're never moving!!"  And if you know Andee, showing any form of real excitement is quite a rarity!  He even suggested that he loves fishing more than he loves, wait for it............watching TV!! *gasp*  We finished off the afternoon by catching a second huge bass, not as massive as the first, but still massive!  Andee was so excited about his catches, that he decided to throw a few casts in the morning before work to start the morning right, and low and behold, another huge bass!!  Amazing!!  PTL!!

To add to our awesomely fun weekend, on Saturday we went to a Pumpkin Festival about half an hour from our apartment!  There were hay rides, a corn maze, pig races, lots of food, a petting zoo including a zebra and a gazelle, baby farm animals, and lots and lots of pumpkins!  It was a pretty warm afternoon, with the sun shining for most of the day, and we had a great time enjoying a Fall/Halloween themed outdoor event!  We had forgotten how much we loved Fall!! 

After this weekend, Andee will be starting the second half of his rotation, and will switch from the clinic to the hospital!  Which means that in 7 weeks, we will be headed home for the holidays!!  See everyone soon!!

My Favourite Kind of Town...Lisle!

Hello again!  It has been a while; we have just been so "busy" adjusting to our new life in Lisle, Illinois!  Haha!  And I have to say, we love it here!  Lisle is part of Dupage County, which is about 40 minutes from Chicago, and is the perfect balance between small town living, rural suburbs, and big city closeby!  For example, our apartment complex has nature trails, steams, and lakes all around, (small town feel) but the apartment itself is extremely modern and amazing, and you are never more than a few minutes from fast food or a department store (suburbs), and Chicago is just a short drive away!  Very similar to back home, but it's America, so you know everything is bigger!  The weather is also very similar to home, but tends to be a bit warmer on average, which is great for me!  And our apartment complex is almost always warm!!  And when it isn't just a little bit of heat warms up the apartment in no time!  Yesterday evening, with a low temperature of 4°C outside, I slept in shorts and a t-shirt, and was too warm to sleep with all the covers!!  BEST FEELING EVER!!  It was like St. Kitts in Illinois!!  A warm Diana is a happy Diana!

Andee is quite busy with his first rotation, with a few nights of late hours and very few breaks!  My former "night owl" Husband is now asking to go to bed between 9 and 10 pm!  And of course, I am happy to oblige! He generally gets the weekends off, but worked both days last weekend, and Saturday of this weekend.  It is a pretty demanding rotation, and he will need a good Holiday break in December!

I have also been volunteering twice a week, Tuesday and Friday, at the Church, helping out a couple of the Pastors who don't have assistants!  I'm also attending a Women's Bible Study and Small Group on Wednesday mornings!  It has been wonderful volunteering, as it is very fulfilling to see direct correlations between the work that I am doing, and the impact it has on those I am working for, as well as freeing up time for the Pastor's to assist and help others in the Church who need their time!  It also keeps me busy during the days, and I have met so many wonderful people that work there!  There are a bunch of ladies around my age that are amazing, and it is a lot of fun working with them!  And since it is volunteer work and I'm still not making an income, we are trusting God to provide for all our needs, and we know he will!  Here is a picture of a few of the ladies from Church celebrating Maria's Birthday at Red Robin, Yum! 

On Andee's time off, we have really enjoyed exploring the beautiful nature, critters, and fish that surround our apartment!  On a nature walk we are very likely to see geese, ducks, turtles, and jumping fish in the lakes, and chipmunks, squirrels, birds, otters, and even a beaver on land!  Also, since the apartment is next to a golf course, Andee has made a habit of collecting golf balls that were hit just a little too hard, and end up in and around the stream!  Hopefully we will get to use them next summer!  When Andee is working, I like to explore the area and do some Bible Study outside!  I'm planning on enjoying this as long as possible before winter comes!!

Andee and I have also tried our hand at fishing, since we are surrounded by lakes!  Unfortunately, I think these fish have gotten wise to fishermen, and are very picky with what they will eat!  We got a tip to use hot dogs, dough, and other interesting bait that the fish love.  The result?  Hot dog dough seasoned with garlic powder!  Disgusting to us, delicious to fishies!  We did manage to catch a few little guys with Andee's dough concoction, and Andee made me a stick fishing rod to catch some of the little guys that were hanging out right at shore!  So, it ended up proving the most effective to use a stick, some fishing line, a hook, and some hot dog dough, dangle it right at shore, and quickly catch a little hungry fish!  A little smaller than what Andee and Trevor are used to at "Bass City" on Cameron Lake, but still lots of fun!

Andee and I were also able to try out the tennis courts on one of the warmer days in September!  The courts are beautiful and very well kept, and my swing is getting much better thanks to my Husband/Coach!

After a few years of skipping Autumn, Andee and I have realized how beautiful and fun this season really is!  Of course, I mean real Fall, aka the end of September, and October.  Anything later than that and I consider it to be Winter.  Andee and I walked up the Ski Hill a couple times to see a great view of endless trees and lakes!  The leaves are slowly changing all around us, and I am so glad to be spending time with the Hubby outside!

And of course, one of our favorite pastimes, feeding geese and ducks!   A couple pieces of bread is all it takes for a swarm of birds to realize you have food!  We had forgotten that geese are pretty aggressive, and they are a little terrifying when they get too close, haha!  And the sound of Canada Geese honking and flying around is one of my favorites! 

Andee and I also celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving on Sunday evening!  They were out of Turkey at the grocery store (as if we were in Canada...), and so I ended up cooking a roast chicken!  Also the usual sides of mashed potatoes, squash, carrots, stuffing, and gravy!  There was so much extra food, that we had Thanksgiving for 3 nights, and Chicken Tomato Orzo soup tonight with the leftover leftover leftover chicken! Yum!

Well, I suppose that is all you need to know about our new home!  Come visit us!!

Illinois!

And so we have moved again!  After 4 nights of living in hotels, getting our bearings, exhausted skype calls, and moving a car and van full of stuff, we are finally all settled in our new home!  Let's start from the beginning....

On Monday, we left early in the morning to start the drive to Illinois!  We crossed the boarder and obtained our temporary visas, and then continued on our way in the U.S.  We arrived in Illinois at around 3pm, and headed straight to the Towers at Four Lakes, an apartment complex in Lisle, Illinois, to check out a few apartments!  After visiting another apartment and talking it over with each other and with God, we decided that the Towers at Four Lakes was the apartment for us!  We started a 7 month lease starting on Friday the 14th, and then went on our way to find a hotel to stay in for the night!  But of course, it couldn't just be that easy, could it?  There just so happened to be a convention going on for the next few days, and every hotel we attempted to check into was fully booked for the next 3 days!!  So, after 3 hours of driving aimlessly and stopping at hotels and debating sleeping in our car, we finally had a place to sleep!  Upon telling Andee that they were completely booked, at the very moment someone called to cancel their room, and she gave it to us!  God is Good!! 

The next few days consisted of shopping for apartment necessities, finding hotels, and getting all the paperwork and everything together for our apartment!  It was a tiring and expensive few days, but we did manage to make a somewhat smooth transition into America!  A plus to the few long and annoying days was looking forward to all the American fast food restaurants that we have been dying to try!  We hit up Chick-Fil-a, Panera Bread, Long John Silvers, and a few others that were very yummy, but we waited for my parents to arrive to check out the most delicious and exciting restaurants!!

On Wednesday though, we took the day off to celebrate my birthday at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago!  Zoo trip courtesy of some birthday money from my family!  The Zoo was amazing, with so many interesting animals that I had never heard of, and lots of popular animals such as Leopards - Amur, clouded, and snow, tigers, penguins, polar bears, giraffes, and tons of fish, reptiles, and birds!  It was so amazing!!  And to top it off, it was 29 degrees Celsius that day!  Perfect for walking around and enjoying the animals!  We also experienced our first Chicago Hotdog at the Zoo!  Loaded with relish, mustard, pickles, hot peppers, tomato, and onions, it wasn't exactly my favourite food in the world, but at least we can say that we tried it!  Andee loved it though, and was craving another one later that week!  Overall, an excellent day in Illinois!

On Friday, my parents drove all the way from Ajax with a van full of apartment goodies for us to furnished our new home!  We got the keys to our apartment, and started sorting out all the stuff from our car, and at 3pm, my parents arrived with big smiles, hugs, and lots of stuff!  We were SOO excited to see them!!  After loading all the stuff into our apartment, and setting it all up while my parents found their hotel for the night, we headed to the Golden Corral Buffet for a delicious dinner!  It was amazing!

On Saturday, we headed to a few stores to buy things such as a TV, and a few apartment furnishings that we needed!  For lunch, we headed to Whitecastle, which we have deemed the most delicious fast food restaurant so far in America, even rivaling Canadian McDonalds!!  Of course, we had to try all the little burgers, chicken rings, and fries, and all 4 of us were in agreement that Whitecastle is Amazing!!  We will have to head back there soon!  In the afternoon, we explored the grounds of our apartment on a beautiful warm and sunny day!  As the name suggests, there are 4 beautiful lakes around the property, surrounded by Muskoka chairs, nature trails, and much more!  A wonderful afternoon! 

After all the exploring, we were hungry for a good meal, so what else could we get but Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!!  We had all been anticipating this popular and famous meal, and we were certainly not disappointed!!  The pizza was absolutely amazing, as were the appetizers of fried deliciousness!  We even had leftovers and Andee and I to enjoy the next day!  We decided that this meal was to celebrate the move to Illinois, Andee starting Clinicals, and my Dad's retirement!!  It was an amazing experience, and I am so glad we were able to experience it with my parents!  We really hope they come back and visit us soon, now that they are both lazy bums like me!! 

It took us a couple more days to get completely settled into our new apartment, but now that we are set up and able to take advantage of all the fun things you can do here, we are really enjoying our stay here!  Some added benefits to our apartment - not only is it warm and beautiful inside, with stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, and plush carpeting, but there is so much to do!  In the summer and early fall, there are 4 outdoor pools to enjoy, nature trails, boat rentals including paddle boats and canoes, with lakes stocked with lots of kinds of fish, tennis courts and volleyball courts!  Year round there is a gym, and a free breakfast in the morning on weekdays, and in the winter, there is a Ski Hill with a lodge a few steps away from the apartment!  And the best part - all of this is FREE for renters and their guests!!!!  (I am trying to entice you to come visit us....I hope it is working!!)  Amazing!  PTL!!  (I took some apartment pictures, and our beautiful lake view, but it actually looks much better in real life, the colour is weird in there....I guess you will just have to come visit and see for yourself!)

On Monday, Andee started his Internal Medicine Clinical Rotation at Adventist Hospital in Hinsdale, Illinois!  Upon further investigation, the Hospital is Seventh Day Adventist, and they promote the healing ministry of Jesus!  Amazing!  Andee is enjoying his rotation so far, which is outpatient internal medicine, and in 6 weeks he starts inpatient, which will actually be in the hospital as opposed to a clinic!  He also looks spiffy in his dress clothes and lab coat - like a real Doctor!  Only a couple more years to obtain that degree!! 

Just yesterday, Andee and I decided to take advantage of the limited amount of warm weather we have left, and went for a boat ride and some fishing!  Since Andee gets off early on Wednesdays, we were able to enjoy one of the last beautiful Summer's day (still summer just barely!), and we are enjoying our little apartment more and more!

This weekend we are going to visit a church or two in an attempt to connect with some people from the area, and to hopefully get involved with some volunteer work for me!  Please pray that everything goes well this weekend!

So there you have it, Illinois!  Like what you see?  Come visit anytime!!  In the meantime, Skype and Facebook us to let us know what you are up to!  See you soon!!