Dykstra's South in the Great White North

We made it!  After the kids Christmas program Sunday night we left for our big Christmas trip, driving all night to southern Oregon and reaching our destination at 8:30am. The kids slept most of the way and we only had to make 3 stops. Our favorite quote on the first leg of our trip was Keely, 5 minutes into the drive..."Oh!! I forgot to fall asleep!". As we went through Sacramento we hit 100,000 miles in our trusty Saturn.

When we arrived at my parents they took over so Geoff and I could get some much needed sleep. About 8:30pm we left for the 2nd leg of our journey being well warned by all we met of the impending road conditions we would face along the way. Outside of Salem the roads were pretty dicey but Geoff did a great job driving through the snow. There were no lanes visible because the snow covered everything, but thankfully visibility was good and it wasn't actually snowing at the time. When we neared Portland the signs told us we needed our chains so over to the side of the freeway we went, in between big rigs. Geoff put the chains on "Dykstra style" (a.k.a. in shorts) at 1:30am. The kids stayed asleep the whole time!

We crawled through the Portland area and were finally able to take the chains off when we shortly after we entered Washington. The scenery was beautiful though! (except for all the spun out cars in the mounds of snow on the side of the road). After a breakfast break at a McDonalds with an indoor playground we had another two hours in the car and made it safe and sound to Geoff's parents on Tuesday morning at about 11. Phew! We just made it between storms. It snowed all night on Tuesday and then most of the day on Wednesday....somewhere between 18 to 20 inches. We celebrated Christmas eve with Geoff's family and then spent a mellow day at home today since the Christmas service was cancelled at church due to snow.


Here's a glimpse of some of the fun we've been having!


The boys in the snow.


The girls gathered bowls full of snow and we poured good 'ol Canadian maple syrup over the snow...mmmmm!

Sin and Snow

This day has been filled family fun in the snow!

As I looked out the window this morning and viewed the freshly fallen snow,
I was reminded about this passage from Isaiah,
and it even more reminded me of what we are really celebrating as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ this Christmas!

"Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the LORD,
"Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
(Isaiah 1:18)

Praise the Lord for His work, and our forgiven sins! GTD

Double Thanksgiving

One of the great things about being an international family (yes, being Canadian counts as being international) is that we get double the holidays! We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving early in October with a nice crowd of 15 people and a modest 28 pound turkey affectionately named "Turkey Lurkey" by the girls. Here are a few pictures of the day from Abbie's artistic perspective.

We also celebrated American Thanksgiving yesterday with our good friends the Koontzes. What fun to have double Thanksgiving!

Last month we also celebrated Keely's 3rd birthday. We spent a day at Disneyland as a family and then a few weeks later had a birthday party for her with some friends. Fun times!

Check out the picture on the left...who knew the Winnie the Pooh ride was so intense??

School Days

The day has finally come. We now officially have a kindergartener in our house! Abbie started school 2 weeks ago and is very excited to be a "bigger" big kid now. We have embarked on a great adventure as we do kindergarten together at home.  I'll write more at a later time about the details of life but since it's been such a long time since we've posted I'll give an update in pictures for the time being! We are all in school mode as Geoff is busy with his Level II nursing classes, Abbie in kindergarten, Keely doing home "pre-school", Leah figuring out how to integrate school and home and get some sleep somewhere in the mix and Silas learning about new teeth, rolling over and wooing the general population with his cuteness. 

Having fun learning about Math with Unifix cubes.

Learning about buoyancy.

Our story for week 2, "Lentil" by Robert McClosky

Robert McClosky illustrated "Lentil" using charcoal. This was the girls introduction to using charcoal as a medium for drawing. They enjoyed it!


 Here's the 3 kids talking about how much they love learning together!

Silas sporting his very own tooth. And yes, it's a sharp one!

Promised Photos

As promised - here are some peeks at our most recent adventures:

Silas has been perfecting his smile.

1 Little Monkey jumping on the bed!

1 Little Silas with 1 Little Monkey

Riding the dinosaurs...

Abbie with a fellow cave dweller.

Keely tries talking to the goat...

Dippin' Dots fun!  Thank you Grandma!

Grandpa holding Silas

Abbie on stage...

Keely in the Kitchen

Silas showing off his blue eyes.

What Geoff has been learning...

Here we are, 2 months into the summer break at Biola University and as I reflect on the past semester it feels like a year ago already!  I write with rejoicing in my heart for God's faithfulness through provisions and affirmations during this semester and as I look back upon the things I have learned this semester, I praise the Lord for the each of the days that He has provided for me to learn to serve in His kingdom as a nurse!  May He use this training for His glory in the future!

The overwhelming theme of this semester was oncology, or the study of cancer.  It is amazing how God is at the helm of our lives, it became very clear at the start of this semester that I was not going to just learn about cancer out of a textbook.  My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer just about the same time the semester began, so the introduction to oncology became personal right away.  

During the semester my hospital rotations (clinicals) were in various departments at the City of Hope, Beckman Research Hospital in Duarte, California.  We served for 5 weeks in each area of medical/surgical oncology, hematology, on a shorter stay/overflow oncology unit.  I had the opportunity to meet, talk with, pray with, and simply serve a variety of patients at a variety of stages of their cancer experience.  I had an opportunity to witness several blood transfusions, as well as several stem cell transplants.  I also witnessed extreme pain, hurt, loneliness, and several other aspects of cancer nursing that I will not soon forget.  

Each shift I tried to ask my assigned nurse what advice that they would give me as I go on into nursing.  My favorite selections were: to remember that nurses are serving patients who are real people (made in the image of God), not lab values or diagnoses, not room numbers or simply just part of my job.  The other favorite was to recognize and be grateful for the fact that Biola student nurses have excellent faculty.  

This nurse had no Biola affiliation or history whatsoever and she spoke plainly of having over the years observed the faculty from Biola teach in the clinical setting in such a way that doesn't scare, bully, or trap the student in mistakes, rather they seek to provide a learning environment that is safe for both the patient and student, that allows the student to learn along side of RN's and that challenges the student to make the most of their student clinical opportunities.  Many of my teachers have clinical experience with the material/concepts they teach or have had firsthand experience with the pathophysiologies (illnesses) that they are teaching about.  This makes the teaching so much more valuable and I, along with the aforementioned nurse both have observed that God has provided great instructors for Biola.  I am not sure how many of my instructors will ever read this, but I praise God for them, and recognize that it is no coincidence that they are where they are today, but for God's work and hand in their own lives, they serve Him, and in doing so, minister to and encourage student's and other RN's in the process.  

As a follow up, my dad just got his first blood test results back, and thus far, they indicate that his first cancer treatment was successful!  Praise the Lord with us!

I am looking forward to the coming semester!   I am working on completing some Bible classes by correspondence from Moody Bible Institute, and in the coming semester, I join my class as a Level 2 nursing student!  We will be covering theory and clinical sessions of:  Advanced Medical/Surgical nursing (trauma stuff), Mental Health Nursing, and Nursing of the Older Adult.

Thanks for your prayers!  We are making a family prayer update letter soon, and will post some pictures of our latest adventures!  

Geoff, for the family.

Adventure Week

Last week we all participated in one of the highlights of summer time at church. Abbie has been looking forward to Adventure Week since the end of last years Adventure Week! The theme this year was "Set Sail" and the stories were all boat and water related Bible stories. Every night before the program there is dinner for $1 a person! It is so wonderful to see how our church really functions as a body and it is so evident during Adventure Week. Different Grace Groups (small home groups) prepare and serve dinner and lots and lots of people volunteer as teachers, game leaders, etc. Check out the link to a video that will let you have a glimpse of what we were up to last week. (There is also a great synopsis of the week under the video). Each member of the Dykstra clan can be find in the video if you look close....Silas and I are hanging out on the "poop deck" a.k.a. the nursery rocking away, Geoff and Keely are on the playground and Abbie has a nice shot with her friends Noah and Rachel.
http://www.graceevfree.org/Hidden/AdventureWeek2008Video/tabid/190/Default.aspx

Happy Canada Day!!

From 3 little Canadians.

Canadians DON'T have naps!

Today at nap time.............

Keely: "Canadians stay up at night. Canadians don't have naps."

Me: *laughter*

Keely: "Why you laughing?"

Me: "Because Canadians DO have naps"

Keely: "Not Keely Canadians."

A Peek at our Week

Here's a small glimpse into the many, many, many, conversations we've had the past week.....

Abbie: "Mom, when I grow up I want to be a princess at Disneyland."

Me: Keely, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Keely: "A mommy." *smile*

We started "pre-homeschool" this week with some friends to get our kids excited for kindergarten in the fall. Abbie has been so excited to start "school". On our way to our friends house ("school") Abbie asks with a quivery voice: Mom, were you scared on your first day of school?"

On talking about favorite colors:
Me: "Keely, what's Silas's favorite color?"
Keely: "Ummm, fizzy."
Me: "No, what's his favorite COLOR?"
Keely: "STARKITCHEN!!!!!"

Smilin' Silas

"Hiya!"
"Aww, schucks!"
"Say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
"It's sure fun having giraffe pajamas!"
"You wanna piece a me?"

5 Years Old!

Abbie turned 5 years old on May 27th! We can hardly believe how fast these past five years have gone by. Some friends of ours were able to sign us in to Disneyland for the day and as Abbie said at the end of the day: "Mom, I had a magical day!"

Several of our friends were able to join us at Disneyland for the day. Abbie didn't quite understand that not all her friends have Disneyland passes and to hear her ask anyone and everyone she knew if they could come to her birthday at Disneyland, you would have thought that we rented out the park!

Abbie, Noah and Peter all rode Splash Mountain for the first time. Here was the conversation I had with Abbie afterwards:
Me: "Abbie, did you have fun on Splash Mountain?"
Abbie: "Yes!"
Me: "Do you want to ride it again?"
Abbie: "Noooooooo!"

Abbie and Princess Aurora (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose)

All in all, we had an exhaustingly fun day at Disneyland!!

We love Silas!

It's been 4 weeks since Silas was born! We all love him so much. Abbie told me last week, "Mom, I just fell in love with Silas!" and Keely loves to give him kisses. He is such a mellow little guy. He is also a great eater and a great sleeper (sometimes he even sleeps 6-8 hours at night!) He doesn't like messy diapers or being in his carseat though, but who can blame him?




Silas and the girls are glad to have Daddy home for the summer (as is Leah!) Geoff finished his second semester of the nursing program and is planning on spending much family time this summer. He'll post some thoughts/reflections on this last semseter soon.