Ahhhhhh...so quiet in here....

It is such a nice quiet moment in here today. Yesterday I was anticipating the arrival of the boys at this time. A good time was had by all. The Pizza's were very well received. The Oreo cake from the superstore was a BIG hit. .....my kind of cake....and all the boys are going to home and tell their mom's that my stove can't make cakes.....it has nothing to do with me. All the other food that comes out of the oven turns out fine, but cakes....well....I've decided that I'm just not going to put myself through that anymore. The superstore has much more success in that department, and for $9.99.....I can't make it for that. I'd rather make chocolate mousse from scratch for the same amount of time.....oooooh, now I'm having chocolatey thoughts again.

The weather was fine and no one had to sleep over. The boys live all over the place and it took an hour and a half to bring them all home. SO I was glad the weather was clear and dry. I could go 70km/hr on the gravelroads.....and there was a fair distance to go....oh, I sure hope Ray doesn't read my blog today..... It was so much fun to bring them home and listen to their chatter amongst each other, and to ask their opinions on different subjects. They're getting to be quite mature at times.... It was a good hour and a half.

Apparently the weather has not been so wonderful out East. Hope you all get power again soon! I had a nice chat with Tineke this morning and she related the fact that the kids hadn't been to school yet this week. Neat!! Glad you all have a generator. We have a tiny one that can at least keep the furnace running if something happens. That blackout a couple of years ago put Ray into survival mode. He fires it up every couple of weeks to make sure it is always ready to go. Our hot water is heated by natural gas so we always have hot water.

I finished my work at church for the week and it looks so nice and clean everywhere. It feels really good to have it all done.

Craig's exams went well and he is using his free days this week to visit with other friends who are done with their exams. They went to watch a movie in London this afternoon and had a great time.

I had lots of card ideas while I was working so I think I shall head into that part of the house for a while.....

Party On Dudes

We are celebrating Joe's birthday tomorrow....it's so exciting. Many boys will descend on the house after school tomorrow and we can't wait!! Lots of fun things are planned and now it is just up to the weather to cooperate with us. That's out of our hands. Quite a wind in the forecast and unpredictable precipitation. Kind of fun too though....

I hope to make some cards tomorrow. I went to see the stamping ladies on monday and that was fun. I got at least one card made, and had no illusions that I would accomplish more than that. Mostly I go for the fellowship and the laughter. A great way to start the week. I dutifully put my things away when I got home and started a little project in the studio that I am still working on.

Ray's folks left for the sunny shores of Florida yesterday and will be away for 3 weeks or so. They came for supper on Sunday, for Joe's birthday and they joined us for Cadet Sunday combined service in the afternoon. Afterwards we went home and had some supper together. That was nice too.We had porkroast, with rosemary, mashed potatoes and baby carrots. And rolls and stuffing. Two little extras that just make it such a nice meal.

Little Lambs was this morning and I suspect there IS a storm in the air as the little people were full of beans!!! So we had a rousing game of duck duck goose in the foyer. We left a note on our downstairs room door that said "We are playing a running game upstairs. See you there!" One of the little girls went to town and decorated the sign with hearts and flowers, and boys and girls. It was so cute. The game quickly escalated into tag (The word tag would imply a light touch with one's hand to catch the other person.....our little people tags resemble more of a full body contact smash....accompanied by a You're it....and then the denial....Nooooo, you didn't catch me! I can never figure out how they get away with that....)and finally full out galloping around the fellowship hall. A great day to be a little person indoors. The funniest part was that they eventually tired themselves out competely. Red cheeks and huffing and puffing....in need of a cold drink of water.

So that's what's new and exciting around here....a few busy days coming up....I have two days of painting coming up, so I have to move my cleaning up a day too, no biggie. There's a seminar in London to attend that we are really looking forward to. And then it's hockey time again for all the gents around here. Last saturday I had to bring Ray's skates to the arena. It appears that he left them hanging on the hockey tree where we hang the equipment to dry. Our boys were not quick to let him live that down. There were several wives who stayed to watch so I did too. Joe was watching a movie at home and put himself to bed. Craig was already at the game. It was lotsa fun to sit in the stands with the ladies, under the heater and cheer . Not much jeering.... It is fun to watch the guys have fun, and poke fun at each other. Most of them don't take it too seriously.

Well it's time to warm up some of those garlicky mashed potatoes and find some veggies....TTYL

Happy Friday

Yeay!!!

What a fun day it's been, dear sweet people out there!!!

So fun to read your comments today. Way to go Anja!! Posting pictures is very easy...if I can figure it out...anyone can do it. Just use your digital camera and ask your resident teenager how the technology fits together. (Anja is one of my Monday morning stamping friends, and the mom of one of Joey's friends from school!) The only way I learned some basketball rules is by Ray explaining what all the whistles were for. You just have to watch it often....that's why I still know very little....

My teenager turns 15 this summer!!!! Dianna....just want to warn you. One of these days you will wake up and have a teenager of your own. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you! Joe turns 12 tomorrow. I hope my mojo returns in time for me to make a marvelous card for his birthday. My boys are no longer little lads. They are large lads. Craig almost looks me right in the eye, well two inches to go but soon I will no longer be the second tallest in the house. It was bound to happen. Joey is not far behind, always about a half a head taller than everyone else.....Maarten, his friend, is about the same height, maybe a bit taller....

Craig will be home any minute and I can't wait to see how his first Grade 9exams went and how he feels about the amount of studying he did. Perhaps it was sufficient, perhaps he will say it wasn't. He will be honest, one way or the other. I love when a mature comment tumbles out once in a while, these occurences seem to be on the increase. Ray calls them "lucid moments". When you hear in their voice that they do hear what you try to teach them. So when you tell them something for the 18th time....be sure that eventually it filters through. Persevere. It's soooo worth it.

We've been home alone all week, while Ray was on an audit in Windsor. The whole schedule changes. I have to be the first one up in the morning. That has actually been kind of nice. It gives you a whole hour more in your day. (Peculiar eh?...how getting up an hour earlier makes your day an hour longer....) Lovely sunrise again this morning.... Sent the boys off to their buses and headed off to work. Cleaned. Gave someone a ride. Came home. Cleaned the potties. Got my eyebrows done....Ray's coming home today you know! And I should go and have a shower. Joe's at a birthday party. Craig has movie night at youth group tonight....I imagine we will go and do some groceries. A lovely....non eventful evening.

Hope your weekend with your loved ones is great...


I am going to PEI for the last week of February. Arriving the 24th and leaving the 1st of March....a little whirlwind visit....but it will be such fun. I am looking forward to it. There are a multitude of details that have to be taken care of before I go BUT... one thing at a time.

Cloud White

Yesterday I had the fun of painting the playroom, soon to be office, in Greenbriar Beige. It's soooo cool!! All the window frames and casing and trim had their primer covered in Cloud White. I missed one piece of trim and then I am done.

Today it was church cleaning day. The first thing I had to do was to shovel the snow that has fallen in the night. It was good and cold, but the kind of cold that is totally exhilarating. The snow was the soft, fluffy kind that is just such fun and so easy to shovel, and everything looks so clean when you are done....just like the other day. But what stands out is the beautiful sunrise that I got to watch. The sky lit up in all colours of pink, peach, purple and orange. The GOD of the universe cares for me and I love His sense of humour because the only way for me to ever see the sun come up is for it come up at a decent time! Meaning....sometime after 8...I am not much of a crack of dawn person... ( I would see it if it came up at 7:30 too, but I could enjoy it's full splendour by being outside in it today.)

I got the church done in good time and in the afternoon I went to clean at Pastor Koole's and then I picked Craig up to go and see Joe's basketball game at school!!! It was such fun. Joe and his friend Maarten made the practice team, not the game team and they were really excited that they got called up to play. Woohooo. They played really well and the game ended in a tie, 28-28. I guess our school beat that team really soundly last time they played, and the coach gave some players the day off and called the younger boys up, who managed to hold the other team to a tie. I thought that was so neat. It is a much more fun game to watch when one team is always within one basket of the other team. It's nice for the other team too because it's so discouraging to lose by a ton of points!

Craig had a study day today and has an exam day tomorrow. Then Monday is a study day and Tuesday is another exam day. Then he will be done with finals for the first semester. At the basketball game I found that it is quite common for there to be a lack of urgency for studying in the student....the only sense of urgency is the one felt by the parent witnessing multitudes of studybreaks. Apparently it was good that I was out of the house working all day:):) He called me at church and asked if he could warm up some chili for us to have for lunch, ready to eat by the time I got there. That was a big treat!!

It is such fun to read the possible names for the new room. I was thinking of that sleeping on the beach feeling but wouldn't want people to track the sand out of the room. :):) Before it becomes a full fledged guestroom it will be Joe's room while our Korean exchange student sleeps upstairs in Joe's. Joe feels like this is a dream come true, and cannot wait for it to become a reality!!! A great feature for potential guests is the queen sized bed that will occupy the room....so if the prospect of your feet dangling off the edge of the double bed upstairs has been the major deterrent for your visit to the DeBoer's .....you needn't resist any longer!!! Book now...to get the week of your choice!!

For all those faithful readers who have been unable to leave comments..... I think if you click on the dark blue bar at the top of the blog on the "create blog" section.....you can create a blogger account and should be able to leave a comment. Your next step could be to create you own blog, but you don't HAVE to....It's just like a hotmail account and I think you have to leave an email address, but I have never had any spam generated by giving my address there. So...don't lurk any longer...join the fun and see if we can't talk YOU into blogging too!

New Jackets

If you were a window sill in my house today, you would have received a coat of primer. It is the first of many coats of primer to seal in the bleeding stain. I had to stick with latex, since the alkyd fumes cause much malaise around here. And we want to avoid malaise and malady at all costs. So we do a few extra coats.
In the near future the sills and trim will become Cloud White (CC-10 benjamin moore). The trim used to be that dark mahogany stuff....nice....in the 70's. But this is 2008! A new coat....or jacket....

We are moving the office to the playroom and the office will become a guest room. I think a suitable name must be found for this special room...Maybe I should host a contest....name the suite!?! I like the names at Randall and Elisabeth. How chic.... We're painting the office Greenbriar Beige, chosen by Ray. The foyer will become Buckhorn (chocolatey brown....MMMMMM!) and the guestroom Driftwood (a different flavour of chocolately brown, maybe a bit more toward Mocha!) While we are on the topic of chocolatey things....I must admit my secret addiction to ZERO bars. Have you ever had them...or am I the only one, or doesn't anyone else dare to bare their soul. You can buy them at Giant Tiger or Dollarama. Yummo....sigh...I am weak.

Winter has arrived again and Strathroy received 10-15cm of snow today. I am caught up with my shovelling nicely. I figure....better now than in June. I might grumble about it in June. Right now it is January...it's par for the course, and all that fresh air is good for me!!! I shovelled in my spring coat because it becomes very warm, very fast....best to dress for the occasion. It was rather nice painting in my t shirt watching the snow just a'comin' down. At one moment we couldn't see the house at the end of the street. We usually gauge the snowsquall by whether we can see the convenience store or not... Now that's a white out.

The boys and I all have catechism tonight. The boys in the church ed and the grown ups have the second installement of the "discipleship" series. A new curriculum from Faith ALive Rescources, way cool. It is being offered at two different venues, at two different times. And the youth group is following it too. All together there are 65 people doing the study. Our Sunday morning services have messages based on that week's theme. It's really neat. Most people I have talked to are really enjoying it. It is the first small group experience for some people and I hope it really catches on!

Well...that said....there is shovelling to be done and my recruits are upstairs. Off we go...

PS Thanks for all the offers of lodging and hospitality!!!! I love it!!! But....Tineke had already offered to be my hostess while the deal was still in the negotiation stages. I am counting on having lots of coffee visits throughout the week though!!!

I'm Sooooo Excited

I just booked a ticket to go to PEI for a week!!!! From February 24 to March 1. I had looked yesterday to stay from Saturday to Saturday but by today the price had changed already! So I decided to book it before the price went up even more. Yeay. (i better not keep checking incase the price goes down....:(

Max went home this morning. :( It's very quiet upstairs now. So far there isn't as much change in Blixie as I would have expected. She has less spots to lay around now that all his soft comfy towels are gone. We miss him already because he was always at the top of the stairs to see who was coming up or to watch you go down.

Ray made pancakes for lunch. He totally rocks at that and it IS his specialty! They always taste better when someone else makes them :):):)

It is now time to go and make some cards. I ought to plan a meal but.....I got some neat ideas from the "PeaNut" gallery and must go and get them out in paperformat. (TwoPeasInABucket is an online scrapbooking community).

Just wanted to share my fun news with you!!!

Yippeee!

I only have one more load of laundry to do!!! And then I am sort of caught up. It's the little things in life EH?

I finished work for the moment and got to walk the dogs in the fields behind the railroad tracks. That's just down the street, which is really cool because within five minutes you feel like you are in the country. Just don't look over your shoulder because there is a transformer station there and the occasional 146 car freight train blows by....other then that it's quite serene actually. You take what you can get.... The pups are fine. Blixie was a bit sore while we walked but mostly because she was running. So she slowed down and the limp disappeared. You squeamish people might want to skip this next sentence.....I found the missing claw on the step this afternoon after we returned from our walk. There is a crevice at the edge of the step where it is cut to fit around the deck post. That must be where the incident took place. Yuckie and ouchie all rolled into one. I wouldn't go up the steps either if I was Max! He has decided that it is okay to use the front door right now. There are two concrete steps and then two carpeted ones.....not too strenuous.

It was fun cleaning at church....it didn't get too dirty after the last time I was there. It was good to have coffee with friends at break time, and just chat about life. Things that get you up and things that get you down. Good to have someone to discuss that with or else it gets stuck in your head.

The latest fun addition to my work routine is the use of my MP3 player. I got it for my birthday and have just now had some time to figure out the technological wizardry that is involved with getting music on there. I told Ray what a great Christmas present it was but he reminded me that I got it for my birthday!!! That's pretty bad but quite indicative of how the free time situation is around here(somehow work always gets in the way....hmmmmmmm). First Craig had to walk me through the technology....yes I have entered the season of my life where my son has to show me how to run the gadgets around the house. I know...I didn't think I was that old either. But there you have it.

So....having a device right on me sure is saving me a lot of time at work!! I can pop it on as soon as I have my coat off. I used to have to go to my bag, get my CDs out, get the radio from the cupboard, put it in the sanctuary, plug it in, put a CD in, go back downstairs, get my cart, go up in the elevator, and get to work. Now I just get the cart, go up and sing and dance and mop. Way less hassle. And when i'm done I just return the cart to my "office" downstairs and go home. I can keep the music playing while I walk home. I don't have to put the radio away or pack up my CD's. I must admit, though, that I am a little more self-conscious about belting out a tune without the sound of the actual song cranked up just a little louder than Princess. There's a little more hummin' going on.....unless I KNOW I'm there alone.

Way fun....I have an "office" and a "studio". Spaces to call one's own.

I did a little research today into what would be involved with a little trip to PEI in the spring. I'm so excited!!!! Nothing is for sure yet but we did find out that our Korean exchange student will arrive in the first week of April at the earliest. That leaves plenty of time to schedule a little get-away for me! Woohoo....

I was wandering along through the blogs earlier and have found no reference at all to the big surprise Randall was working on before everyone went home for Christmas....so in my mind's eye you all shared one room in that triple decker double bed bunk bed. (try saying that 3 times real fast!!)

And that fuzzy pink pencil is very becoming, Matt, but I fear it will not fit in your toolbox. You sure won't easily misplace it though and that's what it's all about.

Must go and reheat dinner. Yummo!

Tragic

Much chillier today and brand new sprinkling of snow to boot. Yes...boots on again.


Last week I took the recycling at church out in my tshirt. This week the noteworthy part of the recycling is that someone brought the blue box in for me at church. The sweetest thing. If people only realized how little it takes to brighten someone's day.


I've been painting for the past week and a half. It seems that the busyness of life doesn't let up much. It's tragic how little time there is for things like cardmaking and blogging. But....it has been a lot of fun though to paint with my sweet friend Helina. Our only complaint was the lack of caffeine....so today we brought our own! We play music all the time...sometimes just listening to CBC, wondering what Eric Friesen or Jurgen Goth are serving up. The most fun musical moment was when we were playing a three CD country music set. Each CD has a Kenny Rogers song on it. The Gambler, Lucille, and Coward of the County. You'll be pleased that after 20 years I still know ever word. That's part of the legacy of growing up with brothers.

Tomorrow morning I will clean the church. There is a family lunch at noon and the memorial service is at 2. A funeral.

Having Max is still fun. Blixie has some sort of mishap the other day though. I'm not sure what happened...and if you're squeamish at all you probably want to go onto the next paragraph.... but somehow the outside toenail of her left hindpaw was ripped out. Boy does that ever bleed! It was almost five pm and I gave the vet a quick call for first aid pointers. The "nurse" said the best thing to do was to walk her in clean snow and if that didn't help to stop the bleeding...apply a baking soda paste. So we tried the first tip but ran out of snow...there was just a sprinkling and it was only about a 1/2 cm. So we encouraged her to lie still and made up some paste. That worked better. She doesn't seem to be suffering any lingering ill effects. But now Max is refusing to go up and down the patio steps....We can't figure it out. That is the only problem we are experiencing with Max. Other than that he is just lovely to have. He stays in the dining room without any barricades, unlike some other dogs we have dogsat.....so hopefully he will get over his fear of the stairs soon. I might have to whip out some shreds of sandwich meat. Blixie cannot resist hotdogs, she'll do ANYTHING for those....

Any advice and helpful tips would be much appreciated. And if you just want to say hi that's fine too!!! I look forward to being around a bit more......

Walking on the Wild Side...

I just had to let you know....I took out the recycling at church with no coat on!!!

Actually it's not that wild....but it being the beginning of January, and winter and all....it really SHOULD NOT be 16 degrees outside at 9 oclock at night!

Having Max over is lots of fun. He is a BIG DOG and has a BIG bladder, which takes a LOOOOOOONG time to empty(and that's all I'm going to say about that). I wish I had lots of funny stories to tell you but he is just a sweet big lug. Very boisterously excited when you get home...but what a warm greeting! Much nicer than an empty house!!

Blixie and Max together are doing great...but with the mild weather she has decided to dig up the back yard. I had to clean this afternoon so they were home alone. They don't seem to mind the weather! Max doesn't fit through the doggie door since he is at least a 70lb+chocolate lab, so the only adjustment to be made was to leave the whole door open instead of just the hatch on the doggie door.

I get to paint again this week after teaching Little Lambs tomorrow. It'll be fun to see all those little people again. Have a great day! Love ya!

Happy New Year

Wow...2008 already.

Hope everyone had lovely holidays and visiting!!

It is almost back to normal but a few days of vacation left. Craig is on a sleepover (well...more like an "awake-over!) and Joe has a friend to play with this afternoon.

I finished work for the day and am waiting for a phonecall. Tomorrow I don't have to go to work because I finished it this afternoon. That's so 'citing!!!! Oh...there was the phonecall! Now I am just waiting for my dog friend Max to be delivered....he's staying over for two weeks. It'll be fun to see how that goes! He came for a visit last week to see how it would go...

The heavy snowfall warning is no longer in effect. There was heavy snow on New Year's day and the next day but it missed us! The area to the west of us got quite a bit though....just depends on the jet stream....

Hope you all have a good day! I am off to make some cards!!