Where to start???

Waiting...

Waiting with a smile...

Taking the oath of citizenship!

Getting my citizenship certificate and card!

We did it!!!

Cool pics with the judge and mountie afterwards:)

Not sure what Elyssia's message is here:)

I added this one because it was cute.  Scott was taking apart the piano, but they thought it was a great place to sit.

  I'm not sure where to start... So much has happened in the last couple days.  I would post a video of my taking the citizenship oath, but our video is kinda grainy and doesn't have sound.  I might take the disc to Walmart and see if they can put in on a disc if it's better quality.
  So, getting ready to go to Saskatoon was a process in and of itself!  It seemed like there were a lot of things to remember, even though we were only going away for one night. I was thankful that the CIC said I would be okay without the permanent resident card.  Such a relief!  We drove into town, put gas in the car, got some books from the library and bought some snacks for the trip.  Then we stopped by McDonalds before heading to meet Scott.  He worked a full day and left his car at the Goff's house.  The drive to Saskatoon was actually pretty quiet.  We were excited, but a bit tired after the long day.  I forgot to mention that we did school and I gave the kids a bath before we left.  We found the motel, checked in without too much trouble and actually stayed in for the rest of the evening. We watched the miners rescue, which was an amazing process!  So thankful that they were all okay.  Then we let the kids watch a couple episodes of Franklin before going to sleep...  Sleeping the night before a big test was another thing.  I fell asleep and slept soundly til around 2:30 am.  Kiersten woke up to eat and then she went back to sleep.  I, on the other hand, had too many fact running through my mind to fall asleep. I got up and took a shower.  Amazingly enough no one else woke up. I then sat up thinking through things and praying for the Lord to give me a calmer spirit:).  Around 5:30 Scott woke up, by then I'd done my hair and he went out to get something for breakfast.  We relaxed until a bit before 8.  We had a couple hours, so we stopped at a store to get some bread , cheese and fruit in case the kids got hungry while I was taking the test.  We got to the CIC building and when I checked through my papers I discovered that my expired passport was not with the other papers!!!  I'l admit that we panicked a bit.  We went in, sat in the waiting area, filled out the paperwork for the missing PR card and asked the lady about the passport.  She said that I HAD TO HAVE IT to get my citizenship.  I had a newer passport, but the older one had some significance.  Scott kept looking while I nursed Kiersten to sleep.  He dumped out the diaper bag and Praise the Lord, the passport fell out!  I was so excited and thankful. By this time I was even more shook up inside.  Nervous about the test, but trusting that the Lord would help me.  When we were all called in to the testing room, Scott took the kids into the waiting room. The test was NOT what I expected.  It didn't have many questions that I thought it would.  Much of it was worded differently than in the study book.  I'm not bragging when I say this, but it was much easier than I thought it would be.  I prayed before I started and had the 20 questions answered in about 5 minutes. I double checked it to make sure they were all circled correctly, signaled the lady and handed it in before leaving the room.  I waited about 10-15 minutes before the people started coming in.  To be honest though, I was probably the only one taking the test that spoke English as my 1st language.  Many of them said that they had problems understanding it because of the way it was worded. I got to know a lady from Ukraine and a family from China while we were waiting on the results.  They were all very nervous about the outcome.  There was one family of 4 called into an office, but the rest of us were left standing there.  A couple minutes later the moderator came back in and said, "Congratulation! You all passed and are welcome to attend the citizenship ceremony this afternoon!"  Yay!!! We were all so relieved:)  I was sad for the family that didn't pass though.  I thought that maybe they would be questioned and passed if their understanding of the questions was verified, but they were not part of the ceremony, so I have to assume that they will be retaking the test.  I'm just praising the Lord for the way that HE took care of everything and it's just such a HUGE blessing to have it all taken care of!
  After the test we went to get some lunch and find the library.  The ceremony was in the basement auditorium of the Saskatoon Library. I have NEVER been in such a big library.  The kids section was almost the same size as the entire O.H. Library:)  We had about an hour before check in, so Scott took the boys upstairs to look at books.  Our library system just merged with all the libraries in Saskatchewan, so I could now check out books in Saskatoon and return them to our local library:)  It was amazing!  I probably could have stayed there all day!  The three older ones loved it too.  There were toys and cool chairs and a HUGE assortment of books to amuse them.  I did end up checking out about 10 books.  I would probably never buy books if we had that big of a library.  The good thing is that I can order them all online now too.  I left Scott with the older 3 with Scott while I went down to check in.  It took about 30 minutes, then we sat down and read several kids books while waiting for the ceremony to begin.  It took less than an hour once they did start.  There were 67 people getting their citizenship that day.  Very exciting.  The kids did really well, in fact Garrison was so good he went to sleep:)  I was a little disappointed that he didn't get to sing O Canada with us and get a picture with the Mountie, but overall it was a good experience.  He even had us take the oath in French. Now THAT was amusing:)  If we'd had it on a paper in front of us it would be a lot easier, but it was hard to repeat it after the judge. Caleb sang his little heart out, which had me laughing instead of being emotional at the meaning of the ceremony.  I was surprised by how well he knew and pronounced the words too.
  After the ceremony  we headed to the Christian bookstore.  I was given a gift certificate for my Birthday this summer, but this is the first time I've been to Saskatoon since then.  It was fund to look around and the kids were able to pick out their Bible covers as a Birthday present from my mom.  I'll have to take pictures and post them later.
  We went to Denny's for supper before leaving the city.  Caleb succeeded in knocking over his water 3 times.  The first two times the lid stayed on, but the third time it got Scott wet and the floor was quite wet. Thankfully it was just water, but it still wasn't a pleasant experience.  We managed to still enjoy ourselves, but were quite relieved to head home after such a long day.
  So, today it's back to normal, with a few things to look forward to in the immediate future.  First we must do our school for the day, then it's on to the weekend activities.  Elyssia has requested cupcakes for her birthday and since we're planning to celebrate tomorrow instead of Sunday, I will be trying to bake them sometime today.  We're praying for Scott as he has a deadline with the job he's working on.  They want it finished TODAY!  They neglected to tell him that they were having their wedding in the backyard tomorrow.  He found out from the siding guys on Wednesday! Way to put the pressure on, eh?  Other than that I'll be filling out my Canadian passport form and renewing Garrison's which means a trip to to pictures done and sent out on Monday.  Scott is super busy next week and has meetings each night on top of that.  It will make things interesting, since I have a ladies bible study on Monday night, but we'll get through it and enjoy it for the most part:)  So, it's off to the real world I go, leaving this virtual one behind, hoping to accomplish everything that God has for me on the beautiful, sunny Friday Morning!  Hoping to take our little, soon to be 6 year old girl to the http://www.nilgiristeahouse.com/Tea House sometime in the near future...