In the month of thanksgiving, we would like to look back on a rather eventful year and count our blessings. We got married in September, honeymooned at the sandy beaches of Greek Islands, survived the crisscrossing scooters at Champs Elysees in May, and visited Ben's hometown of Shek Loung, China in July. In terms of personal achievements, Spring is the champion of the house this year. She's gained her much deserved CMA designation after 2 years of hard work; AND she's gone from a green skiier to one who scoffs at dark-blue slopes. Watch out all yee black-diamonds out there! Spring's coming in 2007! As for Ben, well, I don't think I achieved a whole lot!



Now that Ben's back in study-mode as he pursues his Master degree in Software Engineering; and Spring's settled into the usual month-end/quarter-end/year-end routine at work, it's hard to believe or recall that we've actually had so much fun this year until we started counting our blessings on this blog space. Behind all these wonderful events that happened in 2005-2006, the sun never failed to rise, nor did our senses that we count on everyday to appreciate our Father's world ever failed us in any unexpected way. To that end we are truly thankful.

- Ben

SEPTEMBER 2006

Well, it was our 1 year anniversary and our fellowship celebrated with us – it was such a surprise. Thanks for remembering Auntie Pat :)


Shortly after, sis and Wil flew in to celebrate Dad’s 60^th birthday, didn’t do much but had a good time. On the day of my dad’s birthday, we went to Church, went to this studio to take family pictures, then dinner at a nice restaurant. Just plain good time with family. I hope we have many more get-togethers like this in the future.



After that, I was super busy with Rebekah and Ian’s wedding. Rebekah and I have spent so much time throughout the year preparing for the wedding, it’s been hectic but we had a good time. I'm waiting for the new bride to send me some pictures so I can upload them!

AUGUST 2006

Back in Calgary… Within a week we came back to Calgary, we headed out to Three Hills for summer conference. I went in without much expectation and came out refreshed. The speaker reminded us not to slow down serving for Christ, especially when we’re still young!

Camping was fun but too short, only one night. We hiked for four hours to the top of this cliff, it was steep!!

My legs were sore for two days, I know, I’m really out of shape. BBQ started too late and we ended up still bbq’ing the last batch of meat when there’s no light out. We had to use our flashlight to check the rawness of the meat. It was fun though. Then we watched a movie and went to bed… chilly night, I was shaking for like two hours!!! so glad none of us got sick!!

JULY 2006

We spent a week in China teaching English. It was an awesome experience. Ben and I joined 3 other Canadians to form a teaching team. We had approx. 130 student. We met some very nice people and they are so eager to learn English even after working so hard all day. They're all so nice to us and showed a lot of interest in our Canadian life. We have learned a lot from the factory staff whom we served. Having separated from their families an rather young ages, many of the workers we met developed such strong and mature personalities that we came to admire.

After spending a week teaching English at Da Ling Shan, we went root-seeking - to Ben's hometown Shek Loung. It is only 1.5 hours of train ride from the HK border.

At night we went to dinner with relatives whom Ben has not met in over 15 years. They all seem to know Ben by association to 阿權 (my Dad).

We followed up the dinner with a trip to the nearest foot massage therapy establishment. For as low as $35 RMB, you can buy 70 minutes of foot and body massage! That is a ridiculous amount of effort to earn 5.00 CDN, and I wonder what percentage of that the masseuse will actually pocket...

On the second day in Shek Loung, we visited grandfather's birth place. Essentially, that's where the Law family lived in grandfather's generation and many more before him. I wonder what I would be doing today if grandpa had decided to stay in Shek Loung way back when... perhaps the first Chinese astronaut would be 羅碩斌? 呵呵...

JUNE 2006

Project of the month: Making invitations for Rebekah & Ian’s wedding. Don’t realize how much work it involves!! Thanks Mom for making my wedding invitations last year… she did them all by herself!!!

MAY 2006

Paris! That’s definitely the highlight of the month!! I had such a good time with my sister and family. My parents were super happy. Family is truly so important. Realizing I haven’t been living with my sister for 10 years and probably won’t have the chance to live in the same city again in the future is tough. Ben had a good time too! Well, how can he not be happy when I’m around?!?! Haha. Ben has learned a new side of me – the little-sister me! I had such good laughs with Ben, sis, Wil and mom and dad. Amazing! Such a trip doesn’t come by easy, I’m thoroughly thankful for it – thanks Dad and Heavenly Father for their plentiful provisions!

Gotta remember how we attacked Champs-Elysee at an angle!!!

May 13 (Sat)
Depart Calgary to T.O.
Met up with sis and Wil at T.O.
Depart T.O. to Paris

May 14 (Sun)
Arrive Paris
Caught taxi on arrival to hotel
Check in
Shop for lunch (crepes)
Luxemboug Quarter (Garden)
Fountain w/ 4 ladies holding globe
Catabcombe (underground skulls & bones)
Check in & wash up
Dinner @ Chez Jenny for Mother’s Day dinner

May 15 (Mon)
Breakfast @ café across the street
Garden Tuileries
Conconr Plaza
Alexander III Bridge (toward Champ Elysee)
Metro to Champ Elysee
Lunch @ Brassierie on Champ-Elysee
Arc de Triumphe
Metro back to Tuilieries for Musee Orangerie (no success)
Church of Madgadlene
Millionarier’e supermarket, snakc on bench
Opera House
Grande Café

May 16 (Tue)
Breakfast @ café across the street
Saint Coeur chuch
Moulan Rouge
Italian lunch @ Montmarte
Notre-Dame
Invalides
Napoleon’s Tomb (no success)
Rue Cler – roast beef snack
Dinner @ Rue Cler

May 17 (Wed)
Breakfast at Hotel
Metro to pick up van
Ben drives to hotel
To Arras
Lunch @ hotel @ Arras
Arras town hall, church, walk, shop
To Bruges
Lost in Bruges, trying to find hotel
Dinner @ Brassarie 1900 hear hotel

May 18 (Thur)
Breakfast at Hotel
Holy Blood Church
Musee Governige (Flemish Art)
Church of Our Lady
Lunch @ Brassereire de Cafedral
Brewary tour
Bike to Windmills

May 19 (Fri)
Breakfast at hotel
To Young Bvan Eyck Statue
To Doummon chocolate shop
To Paris
Arrival @ Repulize hotel, check in and east (crepe)
Drive to Foch Avencenue to return car
Trocaderal
Eiffel tower
Dinner @ Le Troufel (duck)
Boat cruise
Trocaderal pictures

May 20 (Sat)
Breakfast to Lafeyette
Shop
To Les Halles, shop
Louvre
Dinner @ LEI

May 21 (Sun)
Versailles! Bike ride

Dinner @ Rue Cler (intimate restaurant)

APRIL 2006

Another quiet month because Ben’s still studying but we managed to go skiing for the last time this winter :) We skied 5 times this season, it’s record-breaking!!!! I started out the season with green and now I’m dark blue, yeah!!!

MARCH 2006

John Fellowship camp - first time since many years. It felt great to know that they all had fun. Praise the Lord for the great turnout. I think the youth had lots of fun, praise the Lord for that.

FEBRUARY 2006

It was a quiet month. Ben started going to class to complete his Master degree in January and he usually spends Saturday afternoon’s to finish his homework. Here’s a picture of him working away on the weekend… And what do I do while he’s studying? Out with friends of course!!!

JANUARY 2006

Ben’s company treated the entire company to a ski trip and a night at Rimrock Resort. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join the ski trip because it was year-end at work but I did manage to tag a ride from his coworker to join the dinner at Rimrock. We got a room with really good view. This is a picture of me waking up early in the morning to finish some year-end work …

DECEMBER 2005

Christmas! Family came over and had a good time together at our house. It’s always nice to celebrate special occasions with family at home. Eva came by to drop off her Christmas present to me :)

NOVEMBER 2005

Well, while my parents and sis were off to HK, Ben and I (with Connie and Jack) went to Edmonton for my CMA convocation. Thanks Connie and Jack for being there! One of you was caught napping during the ceremony in camera, but that’s ok. It’s very very nice to have you guys there. Thanks Ben for giving me so much support when I was busy with CMA meetings and homework.

This is My Father’s World… Ben and I took John Fellowship to a hiking trail that leads to a waterfall in Kananaskis. It’s just before deep winter and the trail is completely covered with snow but the sun was out so it was warm. We all had such a good time and were in awe of what beautiful nature our Heavenly Father created.

OCTOBER 2005

Thanksgiving dinner was the 1^st family dinner hosted at our house. It was a warm family time. We all have so much to be thankful for. Ben and I are always happy to see our parents enjoy themselves and have a good time.

We had a lot of people coming over to our home this month. It’s nice to have friends and family over and have a good time.

SEPTEMBER 2005

What can we say… what an exciting month!! Many thanks to our friends who came from great distance to attend our wedding. Ben and I are so so so thankful for each one of you. We are also so glad that you were all there to share our joy and celebrate the big day with us. Such an amazing day, so much love and blessing from you all. Thank you for making us a special couple. Ben and I are simply happy to have each other.

Honeymoon destination: Greece

and our new home....