Report from Courtney coming all the way from Namibia!!

Hey!Honestly, this place is amazing. I've done my first build week (oh my god, so hard) and one patrol week. Too much happened to write in an email in the amount of time I have, honestly. But it was all amazing. Really. The desert is.... I can't even explain how beautiful. It compares to my love of the ocean, really. But its been 40 degrees in the SHADE some days. Shorts that when I first put them on were so tight, and after a week barely fit from working so hard and sweating so much. I really love it, though. I've made two amazing friends... Sam (from Switzerland) and I have been inseparable haha he's sitting next to me now, actually. When I first got to Swakop we were in the same room, and then in the same tents at camp, and now in the same room again lol He leaves soon though, and I'm upset. I don't know that I've ever spent so much time laughing and being involved and making people laugh. And the other is Carli.. she's great! She's one of the staff and we just laugh all the time. We are always joking around and it's just really great. She's given me a really amazing idea for my future, and when we drive the 4 hours back to base camp on Monday I'm going to question her about her schooling and everything. I don't know how I will live without this place, honestly. I hate being in town now, I feel really uncomfortable. I can barely sleep in a bed, with a roof because I feel claustrophobic without the sky. When I get home, I'm seriously sleeping outside. Every day. I can cook amazingly over a fire now, too. You have no idea. So we should set up a firepit and I'll cook bush-man style. It's.... so good. Really.I wish I could tell you about Patrol week! It was hard, and it took us days to find the elephants. But when we did... I can't even. I was sitting on the roof of a jeep with Carli and if I had reached out my hand, I could have touched them. Wild elephants. There was something wrong with one of the herds and we thought a cow and her calf were killed but it ended happily and they found them yesterday.There is just... so much to tell. My life is changing, really. Johannes, who started this (in the video we watched, he was the guy tracking), is giving me a whole new outlook on everything. Carli is too. I feel so different. Last night when we went out to dinner, Carli was saying how the first Friday that I was here and we all went out I was really quite. Already I'm different, talking and laughing. It's really great. I never want to leave this place.Oh! And the river came down on Friday!!!! We got to base camp (seriously, no showers. for a week) and everyone unpacked the jeeps so fast and just ran into the river in the clothes we were wearing. Everyone was laughing, splashing and playing. It was so perfect.Everything is closed here on Sundays except for Church. But if I can, the next weekend I'm here, I'll get more time online and send you a proper email. I'm okay for money for now, but I'm not sure. My binoculars broke, and my work boots fell apart because of the heat, so I have to get all of that. And it's more expensive to eat here than I had thought. But, we will see. I love and miss you guys!

I read the words of my oldest daughter, holding my breath. She's so alive that I don't want to inhale and disturb her universe.  How can a mother express what she feels when she sees such amazing joy and growth her beautiful child. The world will be a different place now and she's going to make it that way.  To hear her laughing and joking fills my heart with immense happiness. It will be so amazing to see her in  51 days.

Get ready for RIMS 2012

This is the event I will be attending in April and I'm super excited to do so.

Tromping with Elephants

Oh, it's been a whole week now - exactly - since my beautiful daughter, Courtney, left for Namibia to work with a volunteer organization protecting elephants. It's not possible for a mother to be more proud of anything or anyone as I am of her.

She's 22 years old and worked her keaster off to save the money to travel across the world to fulfill a dream. Courtney is brave to step so far outside of her comfort zone to spend 3 months with strangers, a very difficult thing for her. When she's in base camp, she sleeps in the coolest tree house ever!!! Oh, would I have loved having that as a child! 

There's no Internet or phone service where she is, so there's zero communication until she gets to go into the city every couple of weeks. She'll likely spend her time horseback riding and not be on a computer ;)

She took a journal with her to record, in her elegant and charming style, all her experiences. That will be the best book ever read by this ole lady!

I'm in awe of you, my girl! How simply wonderful you've made life and how honored I am to have been given the opportunity to raise, know and love you.  Thank you for being my daughter!

Check out this site.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to Saint John & KV Fundy Fiberistas

The first Tuesday of February 2009 a small group of ladies met for a "knight of knitting" at the Lily Lake Pavilion here in Saint John. It was something new that I was hoping might stick but not really sure if it would or how long the gatherings would last. Once a month, a small group of us would meet for an evening and slowly the group grew and more new friends joined. After a year, once a month was no longer enough and we wanted to meet more often. So we added a second evening at Starbucks East and then the group really started to grow and grow and bonds became stronger and stronger. We were meeting for lunch and at each other's homes and hooking up regularly on our Ravelry group.  In October 2010, our friend Trish opened her own store and gave us a place to call home.  Now we flock to her store (Trish's Crafty Corner & Scrap Your World) regularly - in the morning right up until closing. We meet at least every week because we love to spend time together. Plain & simple.

How is it that you can have 30 women of all different socio-economical and family groups together with no judgments, gossip or clicking?  Our group is from 19 to 60's; professionals to full time mom's; professors to policewomen; married and single; with and without children; different religious & political views.  We all vary so very much but yet fit so very well together. We've supported each other through deaths and births and everything in between. These gals make you feel welcome into the fold and you are never a stranger long. 

So thank you , ladies, for being just you and for celebrating our 3rd anniversary as friends last night. The food was awesome and the time together even more awesome.

Figuring out this Math thingy

Well, I was thinking I was a somewhat intelligent being but realized that now it's not possible cause it's not. It's just not possible to make Math make sense. What exactly is e and logeX.  Now, give me knitting math - easy as pie but really, how many logarithms does a person need?