July 30, 2007 by Rick.

Claudette and I are both screwing around on the computer a bit!!!  Tonnes of “higher priority” stuff to do and yet here we are, weak willed and messing around & procrastinating.

We had a neighborhood block party on Saturday and all had a fantastic time! We closed down either end of our short road and set up the lawn chairs, a massive sound system, a water slide and an extensive buffet table.  Ann & Nat organized everything, and the whole neighborhood as well as many other friends from town (plus Hay Rivierra!) joined in for a great socially relaxing time. Troy kept (somehow???) getting wet and went through several clothes changes, while the rest of the kids ran rampant around the houses playing all sorts of games. It was initially organized as a send off party for us, but turned into an awesome gathering for all to socialize and have fun at! I’ll upload some pictures shortly to the pics.jamesworld.ca gallery.

We met with our tenants last night and went through all the things about the house (and neighborhood) that they need to know. That stuff is all set! Now we just need to finish a bit of packing and cleaning…   We head off to High Level tomorrow (Tuesday) just before noon to spend the night there. We plan on meeting up with the Gauthier’s for the night and visiting a bit before they come home the next day and we head on to Edmonton. From there we have a week for errands and a bit of family visiting and goodbyes before flying South to Costa Rica on August 9th. Whew!!!

Posted in 2007-07 to 2007-08, Pre-Trip and Travel | 4 Comments »

July 30, 2007 by Claudette-CJB.

Well, I’m done work!!! It’s really hard to believe, a whole year off and no newborn to take care off.

One more day, we leave tomorrow. The house is not as clean as I would have liked to leave it for our renters, but the girl’s have been fantastic in that they said if we didn’t get to it, it would be fine. Whew! One less worry.

Now I have to figure out what we need to pack, and what can and can not fit into our suitcase/backpack for a full year? However, I did read a piece of advice the other day which should prove helpful. It stated that “Some people stay in the same place and change clothing everyday, while others bring less clothing and change places ever couple of days”. I believe the latter will be the model that we will be following.

Anyway I’m now procrastinating so I better get to the packing, but I will post a list once I figure it all out! Claudette

Posted in 2007-07 Pre-Trip | 2 Comments »

July 29, 2007 by admin.

Sunday, July 29, 2007
 Well firstly I would like to thank everyone who came out to our going away party! (Thanks especially to Ann and Natalie for all your organizing, sorry you had to miss it Nat.) Thanks very much again for all your well wishes and especially for your contributions to the “Get Rick out of jail fund”.  He has reassured me that we won’t need it, however there are some that said we should have start taking prediction on our blog.

I think everyone agreed that the street party was a great idea, and that it should become an annual event. So I’m now looking forward to the 2nd Annual Partridge Ave Street party when we get back. I would also like to thank Claire-Anne, Brian and Georgia for coming from Hay River to the party. It was a great surprise, although I guess, Rick knew you were coming but forgot to tell me. He knew that I would have probably freaked out about the house not being clean. HA! HA!  As it was it worked out we had a great time. Today, we even hosted Brunch with the Keizer’s and the Kearley’s, and relaxed drinking beer on our driveway all day.