The Cat Caper

 The other day, my grandma called, and said that I missed out on the most exciting thing that had happened in town.

It started on a normal day, Grandma was home in her apartment in the Senior Living Center, doing normal things, when a knock sounded at her door. Another resident asked her to go down to the garage because there was a cat in her car!

It turns out it wasn’t her car, but there was a cat under the hood of someone’s car. So, they went to work trying to get the cat to leave it’s hiding spot under the hood of another resident’s car.

They opened the garage door, so when it got out from under the hood, it would leave. The only problem is, when it left that hood, it went to the next car, and climbed under that hood. If you happened to walk by the open garage door, and didn’t know about the cat, you may have been concerned to see a few elderly women sneaking around from one car to the next, messing with everyone’s hoods!

They opened the hood to the next car, and managed to get it out, and it ran to the next car. They knew this car belonged to Sunny, so they called her down, and they opened her hood, and gave it another try to send this cat on it’s way.

The problem was, it took off, and headed for Grandma’s car! Before the ladies could stop it, it had crawled under her hood.

Now, this kind of excitement drew the attention of a few elderly gentlemen in wheelchairs who joined the chase to send the cat home! And together, they surrounded the car, attempting to scare the cat out of the garage, but no matter what they tried, and how much their wheelchairs squeaked, that cat refused to leave grandma’s car.

One of the gentlemen had a brilliant idea to call 911, so the call went in. The dispatcher was informed that it was not a human emergency, but a cat emergency, as a cat was hiding in the hood of my grandma’s car, and wouldn’t leave.

The local rookie cop was sent to aid the elderly in extracting the cat, but even after all his cat rescuing skills were put to the test, the cat remained under the hood hidden out of reach.

So, he recommended Grandma move her car outside, so that when the cat decided to leave, it could just run off. My grandma informed the officer that her granddaughter writes for the Trading Post, and there could be an article about his heroism! So, naturally, I had to write one.

But, that’s not the end.

The next morning, Grandma went out to her car, and low and behold, the cat was still there! After talking with some staff, they realized different people had been trying to get the cat out of the garage for three days! Bribing it with milk, and I was told they even tried bribing it with a fish, but the cat wouldn’t leave.

Since Grandma wanted to take her car up town, the fight to remove the cat continued. Following it’s apparent habit, the cat did eventually leave her car, only to run and climb under the hood of yet another car.

With broom sticks they attempted to remove the cat from this new car, and that’s when the chief of police drove by and saw some elderly women with broom sticks poking around a car that happened to belong to his mom, so, once again, the police got involved.

The cat was extracted from the car, and one of the staff took it home so it wouldn’t cause anymore chaos to the residents with vehicles.

So, there you have it, one of the most exciting things that has happened in the Senior Living Center this year. And, if you happen to live in that area, and are missing a cat, your cat may very well be the one causing all the excitement!

Random Snippets

The petunias in town are nicer this year than they’ve been for a while, and I love getting to weed alongside my nieces! 

Okay, so maybe I’m not quite this bad… then again… I can’t deny it either… 

Someone sent me this picture from my Mexico trip! So, a strange Mexican man who didn’t speak English came up and offered me a sip of his pineapple drink, and I took a sip! To be fair, he wasn’t a total stranger… he was the pastor at the church we were working with, so I felt like I knew him, even though we didn’t speak the same language. And that pineapple was amazing! 

Last week, Miriam and I attended a friend’s wedding.

The wedding was an outdoor wedding, but after it started raining during the ceremony, we moved it inside. It was still a beautiful wedding, and one I won’t forget soon. 

At the maze, we’re busy checking off lists to get us ready for open next weekend. One of my favorite jobs, is taking the Waxy Willow Trail. It’s always so peaceful in the woods, and looks great when it’s raked! 

And another random picture from Mexico someone sent me. I’m not sure what’s going on here… but I guess I was having fun! 

 

Canada!

Less than a week after leaving Mexico, I ended up heading up to Canada to do some camp cooking for Camp Haven North. 

The camp was located on a pretty big lake with no other people using it, so it was remote and SO peaceful. Unlike Mexico, there was plenty of water! 

 

Mexico!

 So, in July, I spent a few weeks in Mexico!

I was working with the Service Adventure program through ACE global ministries to minister to Christian schools in need around the world.

The first week, we were all together in a big group learning building skills, and working on our ministry presentations, and then the second week, we split up as teams, and went to six different areas of Mexico!

Some of the teams worked with orphans, or the elderly, but my school had a focus on helping single moms.

So, here are a ton of photos, and a whole bunch of random facts from my trip.

The second week, my team got to help out with a couple of different church services, and we did a special program for the kids with songs, a group Bible speaking event, and a puppet show. 

Our home base, was more desert like, but the mountains were so beautiful!

As we drove on the ten hour bus drive to our second base, we began to see a lot more green, and were told that the hurricanes had caused a lot of rain in the region, so we were going into a nearly tropical like area!

I have owned a ukulele for a little while, but hadn't really learned to play, so when the team sent out the songs, I ignored them at first, I mean I don't really play! But then, I decided to give it a try, and I spent a few weeks learning the songs we'd be using on the missions trip. It ended up being one of my highlights! Especially when I got to play in the Spanish Rondalla. 

I didn't recognize the fresh figs, since I'd never had one, but they were amazing!

Fresh figs, are nothing like the dried ones! There's nothing like being on a farm in Mexico, watching them prepare a lamb for supper, and eating fresh figs that you picked.

And when I say I watched them prepare the lamb, we did the whole process, right down to cleaning the intestines. Yes, I did try some of them, and how they were cooked, the flavor was great! But the texture was a bit strange . . . 

The farm had all kinds of cool stuff to see!

We built twenty-one desks, and a scoring station for a Christian school that second week. It was a lot of work, but also a TON of fun!

By the time we were done, we had it down to a science and worked like a well oiled machine.

Before we left, we got to design and decorate a few bulletin boards, and put up the charts the students will use, so it looked all ready to go when we were done. 

I wasn't expecting the second week to be in such a beautiful place, but I fell in love with that area of Mexico!

So, that sheep we ate? They cooked it in a hole in the ground over hot rocks wrapped in cactus leaves. When it came time to eat it, we didn't put it on a table, we all just gathered around with tortillas and grabbed a chunk. The pastor and his family were so amazing, and let us be a part of the whole process.

We did find time to hit a street market late one evening after a full day of work, and grabbed some supper.

When we joined back up at the home base at the end of the mission trip, we got to do a final mission event in the host family's town. They invited the whole town, and every team got to do something from wordless book, to singing, to puppet shows.

And of course, if you're going to Mexico, you need the real Mexican music experience too!

This was my team at our school the second week when we'd just finished the project. We took a few minutes, and each went around to pray over the desks we'd built, and it was really neat thinking down the road at all the students who could be changed forever sitting at those desks. We even had a girl on our team who'd gotten saved while sitting at her desk in an ACE school!

Marking, cutting, sanding, varnishing, assembling . . . we got it down!

Our host family did take us to some hot spring caves at one point, and that was incredible!

It was hard working with the kids, because all of it is in Spanish, and my Spanish is almost non-existent. Since most of my team was bilingual, they were great about translating for me, but when it came to working with the kids, I got to stand back, and hold backdrops, and do the behind the scenes serving. It was great in the moment, but at the end, when all the kids want to talk to you, it was hard not being able to communicate better.

 

The hot spring caves fed all the mountain pools as well, and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

The emphasis of the trip, was on being a willing servant for God. The servant talked about in Luke who did everything asked of him, and at the end, didn't expect thanks, because they were unprofitable, just doing what was expected. It's a great attitude, as a servant of God, when you can sit back, do your job, and not be seeking praise.

It was also neat, because I got to hear the testimony of a young man who is living for God today, who got saved because of a Service Adventure team ten years ago. It was encouraging seeing the fruit, and knowing that I got to be a part of this incredible ministry!

All in all, it was a great experience, I learned a lot, I tried dozens of different foods I'd never had before, and I made lots of friends from around the world. But I was very thankful to come home to our shower and tap water! :) 

The International Peace Garden

 Located near the geographical center of North America, the International Peace Gardens is is on the border between North Dakota and Manitoba. 

My pictures are out of order here… but on the drive out, we went by Lake Bronson. I grew up going to the Galilee Bible Camp facility on Lake Bronson so you can imagine my surprise when the lake was gone! Apparently, they drained it to replace the dam and it should be back in a few years. 

Then, on the drive home, we saw this bear just chilling in the ditch. 

The cafe at the Peace Gardens has several nods to Canada, including borscht, deep fried perogies, and multiple kinds of poutine!

The entire park had a line down the middle so we could wander between the US and Canada. 

It wasn’t in full bloom, because of the time of year, but it was still beautiful!!!

One of the most impressive parts, was the conservatory. With over 5,000 species of succulents and cacti from around the world, it was hard to believe this has been in our backyard for years and I hadn’t heard of it! 

We did a lot of hiking through the Turtle mountains, took a ton of nature pictures, and overall just enjoyed the beautiful day! 

It’s not often my sister and I have work off on the same day, so when we do, we make the most of it. And a 4 hour drive? That’s just part of the adventure!