Helped Welcome another Fallen Soldier Home in Canada

Today was the day that Cpl Tyler Crooks of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada was to arrive home.

He was killed on his birthday on March 20, 2009 in Afghanistan. Cpl. Crooks and three other Canadian solders were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near them during a patrol in Zhari District, west of Kandahar City, Afghanistan.

He was due to arrive after 3:50pm in the Town of Lincoln. We originally had decided we would stop on the Victoria Avenue bridge in Vineland to pay our respects with the Jordan Fire Fighters but got word my brother and his team of Fire Fighters from Vineland Fire Department would be at the Tufford Road bridge in Beamsville.

We had just got home from shopping in St. Catharines when two Jordan fire trucks and a police car passed our house. We quickly drove to Beamsville, parked the car and met up with my brother.

What we saw when we arrived.

At this point it was announced over the fire pagers that the ensemble of cars that were to arrive were in Toronto. We weren't moving.

Me waiting.

Bob waiting


Some of the crowd waiting

It was reported approx. 45 minutes to an hour later that they had hit Grimsby

The traffic started to get very scarce until there was no traffic at all on the highway in the oncoming lanes.

and then shortly later the lights appeared in the distance.

The group of cars with flashing lights got closer.....

It was amazing to see the opposite side of the highway traffic slow and pull over.

And they got closer and everyone on the bridge fell silent

Cpl Tyler Crooks -- thank you for what you have done for all of us!!!




Hands waved out of the limo at our bridge immediately following the hearse that carried Cpl. Tyler Crooks.

Bob and I were not able to attend the drive-by that happened for Warrant Officer Dennis Brown. This is the least we could do, pay our respects to another Fallen Soldier.

Received my Yellow Submarine Bag, I love Ikea & Another Fun Day Metal Detecting

So, on Friday, I received my Yellow Submarine Messenger Bag which I purchased from a store on Etsy named HIPPIE STRIPS I had researched some stores that sold a Messenger Bag made of materials I liked and came up with her store. I told her exactly what I wanted and voila, she did it!!

On Saturday morning we got up and headed out to IKEA -- LOVE THAT STORE!!!!!!!!! The house we moved into is basically like a blank slate and we are thinking of idea's of how to decorate it. Bob's old house was full of colour and we want to do that with our new house.

The following are photo's of items that we really liked. Not sure if we'll incorporate them into the house we are in. We'll see.

First, in our upstairs "party room" we have a bar fridge. We were looking for something interesting to stick upstairs and put the fridge on.
Bob really liked the above but it is too tall.

This might work, but really isn't colourful.

This definately would need a staining or paint job.

We saw the following and instantly thought it would be in our kitchen if we ever had money to add on to the side and redo the cupboards.We loved the colourful dishes they had!

This was very cool -- they were pieces of fabric on Canvas.

Very colourful carpet!

This would be perfect for the front porch and has storage undernearth.

Again, very nice and colourful!

Since we don't have closet space, this would be perfect for hanging coats on.

Bob also wanted to look at items for the bedroom.

He really liked the colours here! It wasn't in our budget for this month.

This would be cool if I could paint it a bright colour!

This would of been good for the bedroom side table but it is way too short.

I LOVE this yellow cabinet!!!!!!!!

Some crazy throw pillows Bob really liked.

Some more fun colours!!

I actually overhead a man telling a woman how cool he thought my Yellow Submarine Messenger Bag was and another lady stop me to ask if I had made it. :o)

We then went home, packed the car and headed off for our Metal Detecting Adventure.

A day at Prudhommes Wet 'N Wild / Victoria Hall in Vineland Station, Ontario, Canada 03-15-09

The weather was to be awesome today so last night it was decided we would go metal detecting with Steve & Nadine. The phone call came around 8:30ish asking to meet them at a local Tim Horton's for breakfast. After our showers we headed out and beat them to the coffee shop. After a fun discussion about where we should go, we jump into our cars and drove around to the old Victoria Hall as it had caught on fire in the early hours of March 10th.

If you click the above photo it will take you to a photo album I took of more photos of this building.

And a following is a video that a good friend of my brother's (Bryan) took along with more photo's of the actual fire when it happened.

We saw other people inside the old Prudhommes Wet N Wild Park where I had worked one summer as a teenager so we decided to pop in and take some shots. SO weird!!! Everything is overgrown, very sad.

Click the photo above to go to my mini album of how the park looks now.

This is how it looked prior

After walking around and reminiscing we decided to go metal detecting.

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT OUR DETECTING STORY.

After hours of detecting and including a nice coffee break thanks to Nadine, Bob started to feel weak since we really had not eaten anything all day except for a muffin. It was decided we would part ways and go off in search of food and head for home for a nap and a day of relaxing and painting. After all, I had a special request for a painted frame, so I should get that finished before the end of the day and Bob is practicing his Guitar Hero.