Pushing toys down slides is great fun! / $2 Wally Burger

I went out just in time to meet Eric, as I didn't want to wait in the chilly -1 weather! We listened to the Shell Busey Home Improvement show, and then I asked how Bible Study had been - he said it was good, to which I responded that Christon's email had sounded too religious in tone for me, haha. Eric wondered whether it was a problem in a Bible Study-related context... maybe it was my mood when I checked the email, I said. When we got to church, the sanctuary was pretty crowded - we managed to find seats, though. After service, I asked him whether he were going to the Newcomers Lunch - he could have told me LAST WEEK that he was going when I asked the same thing! Spotted Tim talking to Randal (ugh - he was the Scripture Reader, which is why I wished Eric were even LATER picking me up), so I had to wait - Tim said that there weren't any tickets for the event, so I told Eric to remind me later to save $5 for it next week. I spotted Grandma outside talking to her friends, so made sure to say hi to her. Auntie Catherine thanked me for buying the toy cars for little Mattias - I'm sure he loved them if he couldn't wait to open them, hahaha!

Said hi to Victoria, Vivian, Karen Lew, and Lincoln before heading over to say hi to Wesley - he was with Raymond (ugh), Enoch, and Eric. Talked to Hien and Hung about the Daniel girls' awards - pretty funny stuff, including the video! Then I noticed Jon (who said Jeremy was sick - no Mexican mole!) and Harmony talking to a new white guy; later (because he went to Pho with us before the meeting), I learned that his name is Paul, he comes from Toronto, has been here for seven months, and figures that "God led [him] to this church!" Oh dear, overly religious people who feel the need to insert "God" and "Jesus" every other sentence! :P [I have friends who do this - mainly via FB status - and I love them to death, but REALLY, guys?!] Later, I told Eric how I felt about that, and he (perhaps wisely) said nothing.

Got distracted by Helen and her sons Nicholas and Cory - the kids love babies, so wanted to see a lot of baby Marcus, who was being carried in by Dylan. Unfortunately, he didn't look too happy since he wasn't too entertained by me / Acer / his mom Karen I. / anyone else around. Eventually, I went upstairs to Toddler Sunday School - Ada, Margaret J., Mattias, Ashley, David, Evelyn, new kids named Andy and Anastasia, Ramen, and Shira were there for a pretty full class. (I saw Daniel on the way there, and asked where he'd been yesterday - turns out he went bowling with the T&Ts for fun!) Mattias grinned at me as he was pushing toys down the slide; he said "butter! chicken! bread! shoe!" to me, haha. During storytime, he took off his shoes and put them on his hands - we don't DO that, kid! Hahaha, he's still cute!

Afterwards, I went downstairs (briefly getting distracted by Sean and Conor S. poking each other) to find out what we were doing for lunch. While I was looking for something in my bag, someone slapped me on the butt! Of course it was my sister, with Lisa in tow! While I scrounged around for the candy conversation hearts, I told Lisa about the $10,000 wall - she seemed impressed by the church building in general. When I found the candy, Steph laughed at the messages on it: "Here's one for you that says MOM!" HA HA HA. Eventually (after I noted redrum's start :P), a bunch of us went to Pho since Christon said SushiHolic was full (partially because of the girls planning the Daniel guys' appreciation night) - they wanted to carpool by gender, but I refused to do such a thing. I am not a girly girl, after all! (not that Jen / Harmony / Deb ARE all such, but still...) Steph, Lisa, Grandma, and the parents went to Tsui Woo (of course!) - I noted that Grandma held the stair railing on her way to the sidewalk, so YAY!

I had to sit near Raymond at the restaurant (and beside him at the AGM!), AND next to the new guy (who was at some stage of sickness) - if I get sick this week, I'm blaming HIM! Since the consensus was that Raymond should pray for the entire table, I decided to ignore that in favor of starting on my food. For some reason, we talked about hitting deer (lots of venison!) and moose - from there, the conversation progressed to spotting black bears, brown bears, and grizzlies / climbing a tree / polar bears. I contributed that I knew a few people whom I wouldn't mind getting mauled by a polar bear (I know - very helpful :P), but that Enoch was NOT on that list! He was like "Yay!" hahaha. Then he DID ask me how it was going - Eric and I sympathized with his really busy life, and I genuinely meant it when I said it was nice to see him out. We were all set to jaywalk across the street again when Dylan called out to Jon: "But what about your sister?!" I responded half in jest, "He doesn't care about me... I thought this was well-established!"

At the meeting, I occupied myself by reading the annual report (what kind of name is VERNUS?!) and starting on the werewolf book. Since it ended earlier than I thought, this was good - I said hi to baby Joanna on the way out before Eric had to drive Cindy home. (they talked about how Eric should have a Cantonese name, teaching, Stephen Harper, education, health advisors, and more) Afterwards, Eric reminded me about that pesky 50% attendance requirement - I couldn't remember why I'd skipped the first Bible Study with the new groups, but have since looked it up. He also thinks I shouldn't have mental health days - TRUST ME, I NEEDED ONE! Then he bugged me about letting go of stuff, and being drunk and high - AS IF! At home, Teunis and I just talked about the Hundred Mile House server, Caller ID, feelings, radio songs, looking for stuff like a power adapter, and more. Then I called Steph, who told me about $2 burgers this week at Wally's Burgers in the plaza next to the respite centre. Nice - I could hop on the 430 for that! (she also says Mom and Dad are moving into an apartment since they can't handle stairs anymore - good luck with downsizing all the stuff in the townhouse!)