Today’s Divine Appointment

I love it when that happens!

Early in the morning at 9:00, (for a homeschool mom anyway!) I was sitting in my van outside the house where Nora has a class for an hour. My computer was open and I was proofreading a PowerPoint for a seminar I give on choosing homeschool curriculum. I came to a slide where I have photos of different unit studies for comparison. One photo was the sole example I could find online of the contents of a unit study on Obedience by my all time favorite curriculum, Konos. The photo was blurry and pathetic, however I justified it by noting how many different colored blurry indistinguishable items there were… showing volume…. not detail… AT ALL. I recalled scouring the web for a better picture to no avail. Small size it is almost clear, but blown up on a big screen, it’s horrid. That’s the gospel truth. Here it is:

When Nora was done, we drove downtown and visited my friend, Ana, who is the kind soul who processes all the homeschool affidavits for Maricopa County. (Can I just say that the view from her 12th story office facing north was FANTASTIC including a community garden, three beautiful brick Catholic schools and Camelback Mountain! WOW!) As we were chatting I noticed a brochure on her desk for the Covenant Homeschool Resource Center, which I knew was also downtown. Mentioning that I had never been there (not mentioning that this is my 15th year homeschooling) she drew me a map and insisted that I go, as it was only three blocks away. Perfect!

Nora and I found the little hole-in-a-wall resource center and ventured inside. To say that it is crammed to capacity of curriculum and books and resources is the understatement of the century. Fuller than a centipede’s sock drawer.

Right away we found Nora’s science books for next year and then I started chatting with my friend, Janet, who runs the place. (She’s probably the one who crams all the books on those sagging shelves!) I inquired about her married daughter and come to find out, her and her new husband are living in Lynden, WA. Being very familiar with Lynden as we used to live right across the border in Canada, I remarked about how beautiful it is there. But that’s not all, Janet’s son-in-law is working at Trinity Western University… where Rick and I met and went to college. What a small world. (Sing with me, “It’s a small world after all… It’s a small world after all…)

Oh, it even gets better. As we were commenting about the coincidence of that, over her shoulder I spied the curriculum box for Obedience… the one in my blurry photo from earlier that morning! I promise you, I heard angels singing. She let me take it down and set it all up pretty and she even took the photo with her camera and emailed it to me. Here it is:

I love it when that happens! Thank you, God, for answering a prayer that was a desire of my heart, that I didn’t even pray. Amen and amen.

A Tribute to Our Homeland, Canada!

Happy Canada Day, eh!  Yes, July 1st is once again upon us… without much fanfare, sadly, down here in Arizona.  Not a Canada Day goes by in the Crosby household, however, without singing the national anthem, waving the maple leaf and using out Canadian table runner.  Yes, we actually do.  We’ll probably even listen to Bob and Doug’s Great White North song as well as the I Am Canadian song.  All true heartfelt melodies to our rich Canadian blood. 

In memory of our time in the Great White North (take off, eh!) here, for you, on this Canada Day, a photo tribute to the land in which we met, schooled, froze, birthed two children, played hockey, made lasting friends and of course, spent 10 year and had AWESOME gardens!

Rick and I met at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC., barely over the border.  I could literally run back to America in an afternoon, if need be.  Here is an enhanced photo of our campus.  The glittery blue water is more commonly known as “the swamp”.  But the greenness in the landscape is true as well as that train track on the lower right that ran FAR too close to our dorms in the middle of the night.

During college, we also lived in Fort Langley, a sleepy little historical town just north of the campus.  Again, we somehow gravitated to the train tracks…. unfortunately, much closer that time.  We lived in a basement suite at about 11:00 in the following picture, this side of the island. 

When we finished school, Rick accepted his first flying job in Fort Vermilion, Alberta, a dinky northern town nestled on the Peace River.

This is what we looked like when we took off our hoods:

Larisa was born while we lived in the North country, but we quickly moved south to the little town of Spruce Grove, Alberta, just outside of Edmonton, Rick’s birthplace.  It was an eight hour drive from the Fort… AND there was Taco Bell.  We had returned to civilization!  Whew.

We were only 15 minutes from West Edmonton Mall, known simply as “West Ed”, the largest mall in Canada.  It was sublime.  We spent many a day there shopping (obviously), seeing movies at the $2 theater, watching the dolphins, steering clear of Hooters and buying material at Fanny’s Fabrics.  There is even a gigantic water park to make it seem like you are really in some warmer climate in a balmier part of the earth.

It was in Edmonton that Austin was born and from the Edmonton area that we made our departure to my homeland, the United States of America, known in Canada simply as “The States“.  We have been in AZ for 12.5 years and we still miss Canada… from late May to early October.  Happy Canada Day, eh!

My Husband’s First “Line”

Rick and I met at Trinity Western University on the first day of “O” week in Langley, B.C.  We were in dorms that were paired brother-sister so the new students would have instant friends.  It worked!  First impressions are not everything in our case, as the things that impressed Rick and I were not destined to knit us together for all eternity.  He was impressed that I was a California girl and I was impressed that he admitted being from Wildwood.  That was the name of the psychiatric hospital not far from our school.  Hmmmmm.  Come to find out, there is a small town in Alberta also named Wildwood.  Rick and I enjoyed several meals together and toward the end of the week Reeko Suave showed up at my dorm looking for me.  Be still my pulsating heart.

A piece of tan-bark hit my third floor dorm window in the middle of a lazy afternoon.  My roommate and I both ran to see who it was… and there Rick stood, looking like a hobbit from three stories up.  I opened the window, all five safety inches that were provided, and said hello.  By this time, I was obviously enamored by his black wavy, shoulder length hair, because his first pick-up line should have been a red flag.  Rick yelled, “Hey, Babe, got any laundry detergent?”  With eyelashes fluttering, I promised to be right down with the white powdery treasure.

Now, please tell me, what type of guy shows up at college without laundry soap?  Or quarters to buy his own little expensive boxes???  I should have caught on, but I was waist high in naivete.  I don’t recall Rick ever borrowing laundry soap after that first time, but he did continue throwing tan-bark at my window for the entire year.  Was it a presumptuous ploy to spend time with me?  Was it a saucy scheme to win my heart? 

We’ll never know.