Mo's New Look...

Mo's lookin' good and feelin' nice and cool with his new summer do.

Chillin' under the kitchen table. Sometimes you just gotta rest your head.

Yup, he's a boy... and a working boy at that. Mo last week got to honeymoon with an Edmonton girl back at his childhood home near Fort McLeod. He was so exhausted when he got back to the city the next day.... what a tough life!

Hanging out with Chad and Sharon's daughter, Olivia, pre-haircut. Olivia loves reaching out to touch Mo's nose and paws.

Cat-like Qualities...

Neither Chryslyn nor myself are really "cat people," but we may have to get used to the idea, as Mo starts to show more and more feline characteristics. In addition to his tendancy to pounce cat-like when playing with his ball, Mo also has decided that window ledges are a good place to hang out! Don't ask how he balances.... We're not really sure (though he's not always successful).

Mo's Best Friend...

Mo sure likes playing with his Bouvier friend from down the block, Howard (even though Howard is three times the size). Howard belongs to our friends Matt and Alisha and can outplay Mo every time!

Introducing Mo!

This is Mo, the new addition to our family. He's a 10-month old Australian multi-generation Labradoodle pup. We have become his guardians, which means he will be living with us but working as a stud for his owners from time to time. He comes from Puppy Love Labradoodles, which is a very nice family who breed multi-gen Labradoodles on an acreage outside of Fort Macleod. Occasionally, they get a guardian family to keep one of their breeding dogs so that it can receive more love and attention. Mo will work as a stud for three years before he is neutered; at that time, ownership will be transferred completely to us and he will be ours to keep for life!

Mo is a very gentle, cuddly dog. He's been very well behaved so far, even though his name suggests he may become known for his criminal behaviour (...According to the breeder, MO stands for Modus Operandi, as in a perpetrator's M.O. So far, however, Mo's biggest crimes have been thieving Chryslyn's slippers and socks. Generally he is a very good doggie.)

Despite being so hairy, Mo is considered non-shedding and is hypoallergenic. He's very handsome and attracts a lot of attention when out on walks. However, this is probably the longest his coat will ever be, as he will soon be getting a summer haircut.

Play Time

Although we bought Mo several toys, his favourite is definitely one which we had in great supply in the house already.... It just so happens that his favourite toy is also one of my favourites! He's quite cat-like with his tennis ball, pouncing on it and swatting at it with his paws. He's a quick learner... I've already taught him the basics of fetch, although he tends to lose track of the ball fairly quickly with all that hair blinding him.

Although Mo is generally very gentle and timid, he does LOVE to run up and down the stairs. He's a teenager, so he's still fairly clumsy and sometimes wipes out, but generally he's getting more graceful with practice, often successfully jumping from the third or fourth stair the rest of the way down.

Cuddle time with Chryslyn!

A Working Dog!

I had to do some weekend work at the school today, so Mo decided to come along. He was excited to sniff all around my classroom, and managed to find a couple of jujubes and a jelly bean hidden in the nooks and crannies... He quickly surrendered them all to me, though! Such a good boy. Once he got bored of all that, he surprised me by hopping up on this shelf so he could look out the window at the rain and curl up by a computer until I was finished my work!

The Pysanka Process

In case anyone doesn't know and is interested how Ukrainian Easter eggs are created, these photos of my latest creation more or less show the process. The top photo shows the egg after being almost entirely covered in melted beeswax. In order to "draw" on the egg, you cover up any areas you want to remain a colour with a stylus filled with melted wax before dying the egg the next darker color. This preserves that portion of the egg from being died any further. You continue adding wax to the egg until you reach your final colour.

In this case, the egg had wax applied on white, and then was died and had wax applied on light yellow, dark yellow, orange, blue and red before being dipped in black. Wax didn't need to be applied to the black areas, as it was the final colour. As you can see in the top photo, sometimes you can see the colours a bit through the wax, but other times, if the wax burns a bit, it goes on rather black, entirely covering up the colour underneath.

The final step is melting the wax off, which I do in the oven, and then wiping the egg clean of any wax to reveal the vibrant colours underneath. It's a pretty amazing moment. If you ever played around in that seldom used dark room/photo lab in your old high school, it's kinda like that moment when you dip the exposed photo paper in the developer fluid, and the image magically appears out of the whiteness.

On a final note, as we all know, colour is relative to the colours around them. I'm quite pleased with the results of this egg, except for the pinkish tone that is supposed to be orange. I swear, when the whole egg was died and sitting in front of me, it looked reddish-orange. But up against the dark yellow and scarlet red of the final egg, it turned out pinkish, which was not my intention! The dying process is always a bit of a guessing game, especially when you are trying to combine colours to create other colours that you're too poor to buy!

More Pysanky

My latest creations... Making pysanky is a very soothing, relaxing, therapeutic hobby...

Easter

My first attempt at pysanki in probably 14 or 15 years! My wife's cousin's wife here in Lethbridge got interested in doing Ukrainian Easter Eggs through a friend at her work, so the two of us split the cost of some supplies at introduced the Friesen extended family to Pysanky at the family Easter gathering this year. The smell of the melting beeswax used in the process quickly took me back to my childhood... I love that sweet scent. And it was fun infusing some Ukrainian culture into the Mennonites!

Honeymoon...

The honeymoon is set!!! We will be going to St. Lucia and staying seven nights at the Sandals Halcyon in the Caribbean. Looks like a beautiful place with many adventures awaiting... Sea kayaks, snorkeling, scuba, sailing, zip lines over the rainforest canopy, rainforest mountain biking, waterskiing, hiking...






These are the Pitons... Apparently quite famous twin mountains (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), rising from the waters on the southwestern shore of St. Lucia. Our resort is on the northwestern shore, so I really hope we'll get a chance to get down there and see them... maybe even climb to the peak of one. I'm guessing they are about 30+ km down the coast from our resort. (The entire island is only 620 square-km.)

The Boys...

I'm excited that we're having a small wedding party. My groomsmen will be my two great friends who accompanied me on the West Coast Trail the summer before last. I've had a lot of good friends over the years, but these are the two guys who I've always kept in close touch with, despite the strain that time and distance can often put on friendships. They are faithful and encouraging friends whom I will be honoured to have stand up for me this summer.

Daron is my buddy from Salmon Arm, where he works as a youth pastor at an E-Free church. He and his wife Shauna are expecting their first child in late August. He also has two brothers getting married in the next few months, so it's going to be a busy spring/summer for him! Daron and I have been great friends since being roommates back in 2000 in Taber. Here's Daron checking out wolf prints on the beach during our hike on the WCT.


Bryan and I have been buddies since 1995 during my University of Saskatchewan days. He works as an accountant for a builder in Vancouver, and lives with his wife Rhianna in Langley. No kids yet, but their dog MJ keeps them busy. Here's Bryan negotiating a log bridge on the WCT.


Chryslyn will have just two attendants as well -- her longterm friends Hillary and Jessica. Interestingly, both of her girls live out of town as well! Hillary lives in Ontario where she is dating a great guy named Mike, while Jess lives in Calgary with her "hilarious in unexpected comments" husband Mark.

"Our" colours...

I've been told what our colours are.... haha.... Actually, apparently we had a conversation and I agreed, although I don't really remember that happening.... Doesn't matter... Whatever Chryslyn wants will be great.

So she's introduced me to "damask".... I didn't know what this was until a week ago. She wants black and white damask with yellow accents/highlights. Of course, this may change as she does some fabric shopping, but that's the idea so far...




On another note, I've been deep into research on honeymoon locations. PEI and Quebec were early contenders, but I think we've narrowed it down to Cuba and Belize now. And as of tonight, I'm rooting for Belize... Ecotourism.... Still beautiful resorts, but more secluded and environmentally friendly, with some really cool adventure possibilities.... Snorkeling, scuba diving, zip-lining above the rainforest canopy, tubing through cave rivers (that one kinda scares me), touring ancient Mayan ruins, ocean kayaking, jungle hiking, mountain biking. And of course, gorgeous beaches for R&R...