ROUTINE

A whole month has been and gone and still nothing new here for anyone to read. Nothing really new happens in our lives. Monday to Friday I get up at 6:00, get ready for work, drink my smoothie, Richard drives me to the hospital where I start my day. I'm first to arrive at the business office so I turn on computers, open the customer window and turn the lights on in the front area of the hospital. Each day I work on numbers and more numbers, entering or reconciling it is all numbers.

At 4:00 Richard arrives to take me home, I'm usually tired, and have no desire to do much of anything. I try to check all my e-mail each day. I must answer any enquiries regarding the BOXALL name. I registered this name with the Guild of One Name Studies where I agreed to reply to all enquiries and collect all occurences of the name world wide. This name has many variants so could be written thus BOX*LL then you can add 'e' 'we' 'i' 'ha' 'sha' 'swe' or change it to be BOXOLD. I've probably left some variants out but you get the idea. So checking my e-mail each day is a must. Richard will call me for supper and I meander upstairs to see what he is offering today.

Richard is the chief cook in the house and a great cook at that, in September he started to rethink what he, we, eat. Having decided to loose weight he began a whole new way of looking at food. The food is so much more healthier but still very very good. I know I'm spoilt. Now if I don't get up from the meal and head downstairs again to my computer I spend the rest of the evening sitting in a chair watching the television. Richard usually heads to bed before me and I eventually will turn in about 10:00 as 6:00 comes pretty fast for another day of very much the same.

Hence what do I write about here. In two weeks Richard and I will be heading to Jasper for the Wedding of our daughter Evette. I am so excited on the 13th we drive to the airport and fly to Edmonton where Lynda and Kegan will meet us, Lynda is flying in from Vancouver with her son. We will collect our rented mini van and then drive to Jasper. The wedding is on the 16th and it will be the first time since 1999 that all three of our children have been together with us, so I am very excited. Plus of course Evette is getting married. There will be news and pictures to follow in a few weeks.

Christmas Greetings

A Blessed Christmas to you all.

May God's gift fill your lives as we remember the birth of

Jesus our Saviour;

Not forgetting the reason He came to earth;

That we, through His death, might have Life.

Christmas is Close

As Christmas draws near I feel more and more lonely for family. The norm, these days, is for a quiet Christmas with just Richard and myself, just the two of us. The children will not be home again this year. You would think after 15 years I would be used to it, but I'm not. Evette, Ian and Lynda have spent one Christmas with us in the past 15. I have not had a Christmas at home in England in 30 years. Used to the fact of not having close family around? No, I'm not used to that fact.

Before we moved to Nipigon we lived in MacNutt, Saskatchewan, in the area that Richard's Great Grandfather Wilhelm (William) Mensch homesteaded. Richard has many cousins of various degrees living there. The four Christmas' we spent in MacNutt was not quiet. We had many invites to extended family gatherings and friends, beginning Christmas Eve running right through to New Years Day. There was no reason to have a quiet Christmas. But I still missed our children, and my family in England, but we were busy.

This will be our fifth Christmas in Nipigon, Ontario, during that time we have had two invites during Christmas week, last year it was for Christmas dinner. Maybe we have just got old and tired, we have stopped making the big turkey dinner. No more crackers to pull and silly paper hats to wear. I write very few Christmas Cards and talk on the phone to less and less of my family. This year will be particularly sad as there will be no phone call to or from my big brother Steven. Hopefully the rest of my family in England will be home for my call to wish them a Blessed Christmas.

The one part of Christmas I always love is the Church Services. Christmas Eve is the traditional Carol Service, the final hymn is usually 'Silent Night' and the candles are lit, lights turned out and voices raised in one accord singing the old familier words;
'Silent Night, Holy Night,
All is Calm, all is bright,
Round yon virgin mother and Child,
Holy Infant , so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.'
as the last verse is sung I move to the back of the Church ready to leave before the candles are blown out. We do not have Christmas Morning Service here and I miss that opportunity to worship on the day we celabrate the birth of our Saviour.

Christmas for me is about families yet mine is so fractured.

September Trip to England

It has been some time since I last added anything here. I keep busy with work and my BOXALL One Name Study.

In September I went to England, primarily to attend my brother Steven's funeral, but I spent two wonderful weeks with my daughter and her intended, Smiley aka Richard. Although Evette did not have the full two weeks off work, we managed to fill our days with shopping, visiting and site seeing.

These three pictures were taken after Steven's funeral. The first one are his three children, Tammy, Robert, and Philip. The middle picture is me, Mum, Bill (brother-in-law), and Pat my sister. The third picture is Mum with two of her great grandchildren, Jonathan and Annie. It was a sad occasion that took me to England, but offered the chance to visit with my family that I so rarely see living here in Canada.

Evette also took me visiting with my Mum and my other siblings, Christopher and Keith, who were unable to attend Steven's funeral. If they had it would have meant that we were all together with our mother for the first time since Pat's marriage in 1964, albiet Steven was deceased, he was there in his coffin.

The first picture is of my brother Keith, the other is of Mum, Evette and Smiley and their dog Moose. I did not take a picture of my brother Christopher while visiting him as he was busy eating his supper. Visiting family was great and it gave Evette an opportunity to meet her uncles and basically break the ice so she would feel comfortable visiting with them again in the future.

My favourite piece of site seeing was visiting the church's that were used for baptisms in my BOXALL ancestors lives. We walked through the church yards amongst the headstones trying to disifer BOXALL family members no this was not successful. We managed to go inside the Singleton Church but not so lucky with the West Dean church.

These are pictures taken outside the church in West Dean, West Sussex and a headstone showing how weathered they are and very difficult to work out who is buried there.

This church is in Singleton, West Sussex, to actually go into this church, to see the font where my ancestors were Baptised, to see names of ancestors on the War plaque, to wonder the church grounds, was amazing. My family research started several years ago, and Evette gave me a very special gift, taking me to these two churchs.

This first picture is of the Devils Punch Bowl the picture really does not do it justice but it is a large depression in the landscape. We stopped at the tourist spot and had lunch and icecream. The next picture is of Ware Band, Evette plays cornet, they had an engagement to play so I went with Evette and took lots of pictures. The third picture in this series is of Emsworth Harbour, this is in the area I grew up and I had never seen the tide out this far. As children we always swam in the harbour, I saw signs up that said no swimming allowed so I gather no families are now found there swimming in the summer. I even stopped a couple to ask them if it was normal not to see the shore line, they told me it was these days but it was particullarly out a long way on the day we were tourists. It was great to share some of my childhood memories with my daughter.

These show me as the tourist. We tried to visit the Tower of London but got there five minutes after they closed the ticket office windows. So here we have the corner of the Tower and me posing with Tower Bridge in the background. The last is of Evette taking a few quiet moments on the train to read.

I had a great visit and thank my daughter Evette for making my visit possible. I love all the clothes I purchased on our shopping spree. More than that I loved spending the time with my Evette and Smiley.

"French!"

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated.You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's" Your Inner European?

This makes perfect sense to me considering I do think I have the best of everything.

First and most importantly I have God Given Faith to believe that Jesus Christ has done it all and I will one day be in heaven.

Secondly I have a loving husband who takes great care of me.

Thirdly I have children I am proud off.

Lastly I have my health.

What more could I want?

TAGGED!

Laura tagged me and I guess it's time I played! I guess I really should get this over with!

The rules of this are:
1. Link the person who has tagged you.
2. Tell seven true things about yourself.
3. Tag seven new people.
4. Leave a message with the person you have tagged so they know about it.

Now to state seven truths about myself............. not sure about tagging seven new people I think I only have two on my list...

1. I love to travel... although I can't really afford to.
2. I spent a year in the Salvation Army Training College when I was much younger.
3. Four years of my childhood were spent in a National Children's Home.
4. I wanted six children... but God only blessed me with two.
5. I'm very very spoilt by a wonderful man... thank you Richard.
6. I would love the opportunity to once more play in a brass band.
7. I hate housework but hate a dirty house more.

I can only tag one person but she has many that she can tag.
It's now your turn Evette Actually I think I shall tag Evette's friend Yvonne

Our August Adventure

August: Richard made arrangements for us to take our Motor home and meet up with Ken and Trish at Melville, Saskatchewan. Then we would travel together to Cyprus Hills, Saskatchewan. This is quite a trip from Nipigon, Ontario. We had not seen Ken for at least three years and Trish more like six years in that time they had increased their family by two. On our way to Melville Richard drove until we were in Saskatchewan (14 hrs), in order for us to be able to visit some of the parishioners from our last Parish. What a surprise we gave several of the members of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Landestrue, and Christ Lutheran Church, MacNutt. It was great to touch base with members of these two Churches where Richard had been the Pastor.
After the visits we headed down to Melville to meet Ken and Trish, from there we turned our noses towards the South-West corner of Saskatchewan. As usual this trip turned into another one of or adventures. As we were turning off Highway 1, only about an hour from our destination, our motor home died. Ken and Trish continued to Cyprus Hills and we sat waiting for a tow truck, several hours later we were towed into Medicine Hat, Alberta. In the morning the vehicle did start and the diagnosis; we needed a new fuel pump. The option was to stay another day there or take our chances or continue with our trip. As this was only a trip of 10 days we chose to continue knowing the risk of breakdown was always imminent.
Finally arriving at the camp site we found Ken and Trish and proceeded to set up camp. The whole trip was for Richard to take part in an Astronomy Star gazing convention. Richard had always enjoyed working out the constilations and wanted a chance to learn more, hence this trip. When we camp I try to do as much walking as I can, since becoming an amputee this has been quite a challenge. This year Richard purchased hiking poles for me and what a bonus they are. During this trip I got to try them out and found it how much easier to walk on rough ground while using hiking poles.We had a great time visiting with Trish and Ken although Richard found it very tiring due to all the very late nights he spent star gazing. Sunday arrived and we turned our noses towards home. We decided to travel through America this would be faster and the fuel is far cheaper. Our motor home is quite a gas guzzler. I had to be back at work on Tuesday so we had no time to waste. Just before the boarder I saw three deer and we were able to take several pictures.
Our adventure was not over, remember we had a failing fuel pump. The weather was really hot traveling across Montana and North Dekota, just before we crossed into Minnesota the engine began to die. Richard realising we were about to come to a standstill saw an abandoned building and coasted into the parking lot as he pulled the motor home around to the side of the building we did not realise the building had an overhang. Now this overhang was just high enough for us to go under but not high enough for us to pull the vehicle all the way through. We damaged the roof, a vent, and part of the railings from the back ladder. There wasn't much we could do so we waited several hours for the fuel pump to cool and then continued the trip.

This was not the end of our adventures, we had decided to keep north in Minnesota and not go through Duluth, so we stayed on Highway 1 (MN), we saw a road that would take us down and join up with Highway 16 (MN) this would then take us to Thunder Bay and home. What we didn't know was; there was a section of this road where there was a need for a detour.And what a detour this was. We are talking logging road, with lots of hills and bends, this is a gravel road, we are driving a 35 ft motor home, our speed was cut sometimes to barely over a crawl because of the washboard affect. I spent my time out of my seat closing cupboard doors and the fridge door to stop items from spilling everywhere. These two pictures really don't show the road to being as bad as it was. This detour was about 25 miles the section of road that we were driving around was 8 miles. Just another adventure for our annuals. We arrived home to a garden full of poppies. We were never more happy to see this array of colour as we pulled into our driveway and parked. So now we have two lots of repairs to be done on the motor home, the roof was going to be replaced anyway, so now we have to get it done, no more procrastinating.