Signed, Future Crystal

Ten years ago, I received a letter. As I held it, my hands tingled with a strange excitement. It was battered and torn and looked as though it had been in the Canada Post system for a good while. The return address was from "F. C." and as the curious anticipation grew, I slid my finger along the edge to open it, only to find it was to me, from me - that is, from "Future Crystal". It was a rather lengthy letter covering everything - where I'll live, who I'll marry, who my kids will be and what will happen between 1998 and 2008. Chris and I had just begun to date when I received this letter so it couldn't have come at a more timely moment.

A segment of this letter was written specifically about mine and Lise's relationship. This was an exciting part, too, since I didn't know her at all at the time and was a little sheepish around her. Okay, A LOT sheepish around her. She was Chris' "cool" sister and I definitely wanted to be on her good side. The contents of this letter have really helped me over the years and since it's Lise's birthday in a couple of days and she's moving very shortly and it's almost 10 years to the day that the letter was written, I thought it was an appropriate time to share the contents of the letter to see just how accurate I was - or am - or whatever. (This time travel thing is confusing my postpartum brain)

"....And then there's your friendship with Lisa. I say 'friendship' because it's really going to become one. Although you're going to be sisters-in-law, you'll be so much more than that.

Don't get me wrong, there are going to be some rough times. Lisa's going to go through a teeny tiny rebellious phase where all you'll be able to do is shake your head and wonder what's so great about this VandenBerg dude with the dreads. But it won't take long until she's through that. And it's all uphill from there.

When you live in Charlotte, she's going to come visit you a bunch of times, although you always wonder (and still do) if it was because she wanted to see you or Rick Joyner. You might never know....

The best times you're going to have with Lise are when you come and visit Winkler. You'll play a lot of games (Kaiser will be your favourite but Lisa was never very good at it), eat a lot of yummy food (especially some of her dishes) and slap her bum a whole lot.

Maybe one of the most important aspects of your relationship will be your excellent ability to shop so well together. Make sure you hold on to her if only for this reason! She has an excellent sense of style and class and you'll both love Sirens [okay, there were a few things in the letter that were a bit off, but you get the idea - weeoooo weeeoooo weeooooo] You'll be a great shopping team and these will be some very fun moments.

Most importantly will be the good times you have talking. Lisa will be one of the most understanding, compassionate, loving set of ears you will have. She'll listen to your thoughts and feelings and always have something encouraging to say. There's this thing that's called MSN Messenger and when you're in Russia, you two are going to use it a whole lot. You'll wait all day until Lisa "signs in" just so you can say hello or hear a funny story. She will always make you laugh and this will be one of the greatest sources of life to you during this time.

So make sure make sure make sure you hold on to this girl! Buy her cool presents, babysit her boys, bring her lots and lots of food, WHATEVER IT TAKES, make sure you don't let this one slip away. She's one of the good ones.

Now, when the aliens land and come to take Danny DeVito and Christina Aguilera away......."

That's pretty much the gist of it anyway. So although Future Crystal had a few things wrong, most of them were pretty spot on. And I was right, I'm sure glad I hung on to Lise. She's a real keeper. Love ya Honey, Happy Birthday!!!

Around the World in Three Months

We've been gettin' a little stir-crazy here at the Loewen house. I, for one, have been dying to get out of Canada. Apparently, so has Rubes. She's been reminiscing about the good ol' days in Russia lately and talking about the great times we had in Finland and Estonia. After quite a bit of begging and pleading, we packed our bags and headed out.

Rubster had so many memories of the Motherland but all of them were in my womb so we thought she needed to see what life was like on the other side. Here's Rubes with her Russian hat on. She packed on a few extra pounds before we left because she remembered all too well what the food was like. Can you say 'potatoes' anyone?

Since we were in the neighborhood we flew over to Romania. Here's Rubster in an orphanage there. She really wanted to experience life as the locals do so she crawled into one of the cribs. Wow, Rubes, doesn't look too comfortable but you still manage to have a smile on your face.

Lastly, we visited Amish country. This was Rubster's favourite part of the trip. She churned butter, milked some cows (gave mommy a break for a change) and rode in a horse-drawn carriage. The mending and knitting class was just about to start when we had to pack up our things and leave.

She was a bit bummed out that we had to go back home but as we trotted off into the sunset, Ruby was already planning her next big trip: Papua New Guinea. She even got an XL Hanes at Wally's so she's ready for the occasion.