Things I Haven't Done In A While....

It has been such a delightful week...so many things I haven't done before or in a long time....like:

• sleep in a pink room with frilly curtains
• sleep under a fluffy fleece Dora and Boots blanket
• watch Island sunsets
• hug my sister every morning
• gather with all my siblings
• make cards after my naps
• go to a school play (Aaron was the dragon!)
• talk Friesian whenever I want and someone in the room understands
• use seven digit dialing
• have a daily wine spritzer
• make supper for my sister and her kids
• sit in an airport and people watch
• get Cassie hugs and Aaron high fives
• attend a grand opening at the Webkins Club fort, complete with rainbow ribbon cutting!
• have lunch with the crew from the farm
• make cards with my sister and sisters in law, and Damaris
• colour in a colouring book with juicy markers
• find THE purse I've been looking for for months!!!!
• pack and unpack...and pack again 8(

And numerous other things too. And these are things I will miss next week. But....I will get to see my sweetie and kids again. It will be good to be home again... When I am home I miss this place....and when I am here I miss home. This is my world.

Arrived!!!

I thought I would inform everyone that I have arrived safe and sound. The flight was delightfully bland. I think it would have been better if my book was more intense.....It was a treat to have my MP3 player along and have some worship time. It was neat to think that the God who loves me, loves all these people in the terminal, whether they acknowledge Him or not.

My whole family was at the terminal in Charlottetown when I got off the plane and it was neat to get such a wonderful warm, Island welcome. Very convenient when your plane arrives right after church lets out! I'm going to try that again sometime!!!! We joined together for lunch at Swiss Chalet and I am currently in Tineke and Cassie's room give you the play by play of my day.

I am so excited to inform you that I will be stamping with my sisters in law tomorrow morning in honour of the long standing Monday morning stamping tradition back home. They have been reading about the fun of my Monday's in my blog regularly and I hope they can experience it a little bit! I'm going to show them how to make chipboard shapes.... I thought that would be fun. Can't wait. Coffee will be ready at 10:00ish! I'm so 'cited!!!!

Finally

The day I leave is almost upon us and excitement is mounting. Always bittersweet because there will be much missing.

Everything is packed except for the few things that are still drying on the laundry rack downstairs. Maybe I'll just have to wear those items:)

We didn't get too much strange weather out of the storm on the weekend. Church went ahead as usual with some bare pews due to the icy roads.... It poured for most of the day and lots of water came into the basement until we averted the flow of the drain spouts, many of which were frozen solid and spewing water toward the building instead of away from it. Some sand was brought in and dumped against the foundation in spots and miraculously it stemmed the tide. I borrowed a wet/dry vacuum to help suck the water off the carpet and after two or three days it dried out.

We have had a lot of sunshine since those rainy days and are loving it!!! Blixie spends a lot of time in the house while I am at work but for the last two days she spent the afternoons in the hot sun on the deck on her cushy dog bed. Next week she will be outside a lot more and we'll plug in her heated pad on the super cold days. (I know....a dog with a heating pad...) It keeps the water from freezing too....

I hope to relate my days out East here too. Handy that you can access it from anywhere!!

Our Share

Well....we certainly have had that haven't we....our share of winter. Don't you love it!!!!???
Last year we hardly had any! So this is really cool. There is another storm moving up from the south, and we'll have to see what drops out of the sky as it moves on through. I have about 30kg of salt left and 40kg of calcium chloride. Hope that's enough....

In the Fall, I often find myself dreading the start of winter. But once it's here it's actually kind of nice to get out there and shovel. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I must admit that I prefer it to weeding.

We are having a typical weekend. And things are winding down. I realized that by this time next week I will almost be on my way. Woohoo!!

It was a fun Valentine week around here even though Ray was in Windsor almost all week. He had left little things around the house for me to find, and also left clues on the answering machine as to the whereabouts of different treasures. Some things sat right under my nose!! He buys good chocolate!!! My secret sister bought great chocolate too! That was so fun to find on my stoop! Ray also gave me a movie (A Knight's Tale) and a Best of Roy Orbison CD. He had also cut my favourite crossword out of a newspaper at work for the past week and surprised me with them on one day.... Not all crosswords are created equal so this was SUPER treat! I made Ray a nice roast beef dinner, banana muffins, and oatmeal choc chip muffins. And I took the afternoon off to straighten my hair. Yes, that's how long it takes from washing to final smoothing balm application.... I had to pick him up in London on Friday afternoon because no one from London was in the office. That was a lot of fun with great tunes. We figured out that the car kit for Craig's discman can also be used with an MP3 player. Now I just plug the jack into my MP3 and off I go....

It's the little things......
I'll let you know how the weather turns out.

A Great Day

It is a beautiful white world over here and finally a bit milder weather. I must admit I am not a BIG fan of -20 degree weather. I even put on my snow pants to take the dog out at night before bedtime! That would make me a bit of a weenie. But...to each her own!

We got about 15cm of nice fluffy snow last night so after the boys went off to the bus I shoveled the driveway and headed off to church. I love the subcontractor who shovels the church out because he always seems to be just finishing when I get there. This is good because then I can get into the parking lot with my car, instead of getting stuck in that pile the snowplow dumps when they clear the street.

I love living on THIS side of the street. When the snow plow comes by, it always does the right hand side of the street first. The blade takes 3/4's of the street's width and deposits the snow on the right side of the street. By the time the plow comes back.....there's only 1/4 left and that trickles onto the end of our driveway. See??? I LOVE living on THIS side of the street. Now mind you...when you get a foot of snow....you still get quite a dump on the end of the driveway....but at least you can see over it. :):):)

So I shoveled at church and had finished the north side where the sun never shines. There was a thick layer of ice on that sidewalk that is just nicely breaking up. I think I will go and sprinkle a bit of salt there this afternoon and take advantage of this mild weather to get down to the cement.

This is my life....but the best parts of the job this morning were the sun shine....and Ray's Uncle Henry. He came by with his tractor lawnmower/snowblower.....He blew out a whole section at the side of the church that would've taken me hours! He also finished clearing off the front step with his little wonder machine!!! It was soooo great. I gave him a big hug as he was leaving. What a treat to NOT have to shovel that!

I started out in my snow pants, fleecy and spring coat, headband and big fleecy scarf, but by the time I was finished I was down to the jeans and spring coat. Soaked down to my hempie en broekie. NO...I wasn't shoveling in my undies. The weather wasn't THAT great.

I have been very busy playing scrabble online in case you were wondering where I've been. That and playing Minesweeper. DON'T even start! It is actually nice to have a week that's not too busy. I made cards on Monday with the ladies and yesterday was Little Lambs. This morning after shoveling was my once a year appointment with the doctor, and we all know you can't show up straight from shoveling. And since Uncle Henry saved me all that time shoveling I can go and get my hair done this afternoon. I called the spa to see if they had an opening and they asked if I could come at 2:30. SURE! So I'm off to finish the shoveling and then off to the spa....at least THAT makes my life sound a little glamorous.....

Fog Day

Today there is no school for anyone in the family. There was much jumping for joy and planning for the day went into overdrive. Not a soul here upon my return from Little Lambs....
Yes...a real Southwestern Ontario phenomenon....no school due to heavy fog.

I sense there will be some paper crafting in my afternoon.

Joe came home yesterday and I immediately apologized for not remembering his class' chapel. He said, "Oh that's okay Mom, I didn't want you to see me in that dorky costume anyway. They changed my idea so much that it wasn't anything like it started out....." Hot chocolate was ready and waiting on the table ...all was quickly forgiven and forgotten.

We'll have to see what the rest of the day and evening brings. The church has one flooded room due the thunderstorm and heavy rain through the night. And....tonight....has freezing rain and snow in the forecast. What an interesting mixture that could turn out to be....we'll keep you posted if we keep our hydro....maybe it will be my turn to post pictures....maybe not!

Make Some Music....

Monday morning and this week got off to a great start. I know that it officially started yesterday and that was a lovely day too. We had a great message in the morning....

Since our pulpit is vacant we have been having lots of guest pastors. We are enjoying the "smorgasbord" immensely. The pastors have been very willing to preach on our theme of the week as it relates to the Discipleship program we are following in our Bible study every week. The morning's message was about how we are God's handiwork...."created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do..." (Eph 2:10) The pastor challenged us to "get a life"... the life we are created to live and do the works prepared for us...
The children's message was especially illustrative....one of our youths brought in her saxophone. In and of itself, it is but a piece of metal. It's maker intended that a musician would blow air into it and make music with it. God created us to do the very same....and He breathes His Holy Spirit into to us so we can "make music". Sometimes we are so concerned and preoccupied about getting the notes right that we forget to make the music. Some of us are timid musicians and some of go at it with reckless abandon....can you imagine what that might sound like? Wow...

This all comes at such a great time as I have been wrestling with something....it's so interesting to get little nudges in church, or at home, or while listening to a song.... very interesting indeed. Coincidence??? I think not...

And it's only the beginning of the week!!!!

I must admit that I forgot about chapel this morning. Joe's class was in charge, he helped come up with the main idea and had a lead role.....and I forgot. I was making cards. I shall ask Joe to come up with a suitable penance, since I have given him a very hard time about forgetting the newspapers at school.... sigh.... The roller coaster ride that we call "motherhood"....

I made some really nice cards though and am going to go and sit and make some more.... I'll make sure to have some hot chocolate ready when Joe gets home....and hopefully the rain will hold off until the papers get delivered.....