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This summer has flown by and I'm not sure what I accomplished really other than some cleaning but it seems to me I was quite busy. Much more than I had thought of course. My big plans involved cold drinks, long evenings on the deck and of course relaxing. Maybe that didn't happen but I did get a couple of good days in there. The last couple of weeks I've met up with the ladies from Church and we did a beach date. It was terribly fun and though I spend half my time chasing one toddler or another it is very relaxing and satisfying. This week I have been prepping for our camping trip. I've pulled out our sleeping bags and tents and supplies and gadgets. It's so worth it when we get there but it is the getting there that's difficult. So hopefully we manage to stuff it all into our little car and enjoy our way to Northern Ontario and the Bruce Peninsula. After this trip is done then I will be home only one more day and head right back to work and I suspect that day will be a busy one as well. So I'm going to enjoy the last days of summer but sitting on my butt and avoiding the mosquitos!
We are quickly realizing that half our summer is gone and not half of our to-do list has been done. In fact we have added a couple of things here and there. For one we finally came to the conclusion that we could no longer do without eavestrough. So we priced it out and found a guy who will come and get the job done. This summer has had so much rain it comes pouring in through all the little cracks and unfortunately for us right into two of our doors. Made quite a little mess and now we are working away at fixing those things. We seem to this year also have much more "natural" nuisances like ants and earwigs come visiting us. I know this is also because of the large amounts of rain which is forcing them to higher and drier ground but it is quite yucky and somewhat disheartening. So we have been busy bees caulking and taping and leveling things out so the little bugs can stay outside where they belong. We still have a heap of firewood to deal with and brush yet to be burned and not to mention holes to be leveled out and a retaining wall to be built in the next couple of weeks. I also need to find time to sew up some insulated curtains to help keep out old man winter. So hopefully we can get 'er done in time. Bus training has been fun. Kelley, my friend and teacher has been taking me out in byways of Ottawa saying, "Turn left, turn right," and most importantly, "Watch your rear(edited for content) end." I'm learning how to use all my mirrors and turn tightly and so far I am doing pretty good. My next lesson involves railway crossings and backing up. Today, I got to take it out on the road and got the bus up to 80km/h so that was pretty exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time. I felt every bump and felt quite weird but Kelley is a good patient teacher. I didn't put my "rear end" in the ditch once. I also drove by some kids who were happily waving to me as I was learning how to get in and around. I made my last trip to Montreal last Saturday hopefully for a while. I didn't get lost and managed to pick up my crew and head home. However, when we arrived at 7:30 the plane was supposed to come in PE Trudeau at 8:00pm so we waited in a parking lot until then. The lead van driver said we should go right in and pick them up as they would zoom right through customs. We went in and this was not the case. We found a spot and put on our flashers. The airport authority told us to move our vehicle and I was told to loop around until my employers came out. Finally, after ten times around just as motion sickness was really setting in for me another driver suggested we phone and tell them we would come back when they called. So we did and left the airport but by the time they called us to come back it was 9pm. The lead van took a wrong turn and though the following vans mine included made the correct procedure we lost the luggage van for approximately 20 minutes. The airport authority saw us and remembered the big white van and questioned us for it's location and still forced us to move out before she got back to the airport. So we had an extra stop in Hudson at Timmy's to welcome the crew back from Guatemala. Luckily we did not have so much rain this time around and I only had to slow down once and we made it home just after midnight.
Well last week the sun shined down on us here in Ottawa. Every day was sunny even if it did from time to time get windy. I was helping out at our churches daily vacation bible school. I'm not sure what prompted me to do this since it was a crazy time. Monday started out with wind. It was nuts. I was trying hard to teach a lesson when the wind ripped off the top of my tent. The men came to fix it and whoosh it was gone again. Needless to say my lesson was not too effective. The rest of the week though was less windy and much warmer. We reached temps of 25C+ and it was wonderful. The kids (all 197 of them) had a great time. As I was in charge of the missions tent we had some local missionaries come to visit with us. A guy from Open air Campaigners did some sketchboards which the kids loved! We made pillows for people recovering from heart surgery in the Ottawa Heart Institute. The only problem with that was the kids wanted to take them home. We had short term missionaries to Guatemala come and speak about their trip and then we made first aid kits for them to take with them. Lastly we had a member of our congregation who works for Campus for Christ (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) speak about ways the gospel can travel around the world. It was honestly very cute as many of the kids come from immigrated families. They were going to tell their families in China and India all about Jesus. Over all it was a success. Last Saturday as DVBS was coming to a close and most were starting to recover from the week I was driving the team to Guatemala to the airport in Montreal. I was told to pick up my counterparts at their homes and be at the church for 3:30am. I did so but I was scared. I never have really driven in Montreal and my french on a good day is really quite bad especially when I can't read the signs for more than a second. They promised me that I would be in the middle of the convoy and we would be fine. Somehow I ended up at the end of the convoy but it worked out better. I was able to see my companions turn off first and then follow them. Not to mention the lead van was actually quite a lead foot. We faced terrible rain on the way but we all made it there. I was so glad to get there because at one point I had no idea where I was on the road but just kept pressing onwards. I made it back home for 10am and crashed. It totally felt weird since I had gone to bed at 8:30pm got up at 1:30am worked for eight hours and went back to bed. I felt like there was an extra day in there. So far this week has been a bit rainy although we did have one good day to straighten out some door problems we were having. I was also starting my bus training. I got to drive it in a parking lot and practice turning and backing up. At first I was quite nervous and frankly I never went above 40km/hr but all in all it went really well and I am much more confident now. I get to try it next week too so it should be fun! Art is busier than ever and though I have probably seen more of him this week he is still out working every evening. September does not promise to be better as that is usally his busy season so I really wonder what that will be like.
I'm pretty sure I have at least a vague idea of how Noah must have felt on the ark. It's been raining most days lately. I should say we have been blessed the last two days with beautiful temperatures that I would have even liked to have gone swimming if I would have time. But then again in those brief moments of sunshine I needed to get gardening done, lawn mowing, weed eating and enough laundry done to take advantage of that lovely dried outside smell. So here I am on another rainy Saturday feeling much akin to the ducks. But again I guess I should be grateful that there is no snow.
Well the last day of school ended up being very hot and humid. I dropped off the van after my last run in what could only be described as thick weather. It was so hot and humid it was hard to move an inch. However, I enjoyed a nice evening to myself as Art went to a BBQ at church. I was ecstatic as I had a waiter bring me my every whim in an air conditioned room and then enjoyed coffee at Chapters along with a good book. Friday was another day however and I already had a list of things to be accomplished. I went right away to apply for EI and get groceries and pay bills with my last pay cheque. Then I came home to prepare for a garage sale we were having the next day. Saturday we got up early again to have our garage sale and Sunday we still had to teach our last Sunday school lesson. It was a pretty jam packed start to my vacation. I was sure things would start to slow down last week as I only had one appointment scheduled and one of our favourite holidaysCanada Day smack dab in the middle. I was wrong. Last Monday I went to my yearly optometrist appointment and she found what seemed like a tear in my retina. Since I was also experiencing floaters and small flashes she became quite concerned and the next day I had an appointment across town with the opthalmologist. After dialating my eyes and putting them through all kinds of tests he was also quite concerned and scheduled me in on Thursday for an appointment with a retina specialist. I started to get worried because this meant laser surgery on my eyes. I've never had surgery before and I didn't want to start with my eyes. Canada day was not the most normal of days either since Art went to work on a hardwood job while I got to start cleaning up the messy house which had been much neglected during my last couple of weeks. But thankfully Art came home early enough that we could head out to the Arnprior fireworks to enjoy a bit of Canada day. After a lot of worry my appointment came up with the retina specialist. After sitting and waiting for hour and a half the doctor took me in and thankfully announced what the other two had thought was a tear was actually a pigment change in the retina. He explained that the pigment change was in the shape of a typical tear but it was absolutely nothting to worry about. I was ecstatic and made my way home immediately. Friday I got to help Art with a hardwood job he was working on and I was finally able to start to enjoy my first real day off last Saturday. So far this week I have been busy organizing and putting away things that have not been tended to for way too long. Although the weather here has been cold and rainy I am hoping that it will change yet to a beautiful summer. Next week I will be busy again with helping out with DVBS and some bus training but I guess the busy parts of our lives never really end do they?
There is only a mere five days left in the school year and frankly they cannot seem to pass quickly enough. I thought for some reason that this past week would drag but surprisingly I am left wondering where it went. I am not complaining however because I am exhausted. All those early morning wake up calls and the late nights waiting up for my beloved husband are catching up with me. Last week was especially hectic for me as I was trying to prepare for a baby shower I hosted last Saturday and had a appointment with my Endocrinologist. Much to my disapointment I found out that I had just passed the line into diabetic territory. They are not concerned because my sugar remains stable and they assure me as long as I continue with my diet I should never require insulin or drugs. In fact they were pleased that I now was over the line because it gave me access to the help of diabetic clinics which I was never able to qualify for before. I'm not really sure if she just inflated my results to get me additional resources. The baby shower went quite well. It was a bit smaller this time but that was due to the timing of the year and the cases of flu which were circulating around. Nevertheless, everyone had fun and enjoyed playing games and eating from the chocolate fountain I think Mom was quite happy which for me is the main part. This was number four in this family but we all made casseroles to fill her freezer with to feed her young brood instead of the usual presents. She has an unusally busy family as they are all 5 and under. Although Art has been quite busy himself with his various jobs he has still managed to carve out a couple of special things for me. He brought me flowers last week and paid full price for them. If you know Art at all you would know what a sacrifice this is for him. :) He also managed to take me for a side trip to Carleton Place on Sunday to go and look at the river there and peruse the shops. This was great since I needed a little down time. Then Monday he promised me that he would get to some things done outside for me. Weedwacking our ditch, trimming the edges of the front lawn and attaching this and that for me. When I got home and saw it wasn't done I wasn't very pleased to say the least and when I saw the note apologizing because he had been distracted electronically I was furious! When I came upstairs though and saw the note on the new to us laptop he had set up it all made sense. I was so happy we finally had a computer that wasn't a beast like his old one that I instantly changed my tune. All in all life is good. Boats are popping up on the river and my flower beds are taking off. I was very pleased to see a lilac planted last year blossom this year. I'm looking forward to the summer months ahead.
Ottawa lately has been rather wet and on the chilly side. This has meant that many of Art's regularly scheduled jobs get moved to a less wet day. But since the days have usually been half sunny and half rainy it doesn't deter us from venturing out to garage sales. So we head out fairly late for garage sales at usually 9:00am and look for deals. When we first started doing this Art had a strange adversion to other peoples stuff coming into our home. But when he found out that haggling was involved it seemed to change his mind and also because I can clean most anything to look like new. Now I have to convince him that we really don't need this doo dad or that thingie ma bob but all the same it is a very fun hobby. I can't say that we've done all that much in the last little while. Art works almost every evening and every weekend. But amazingly enough he still found time to install my clothesline in a very precarious place. He scares me every time he does something crazy like that but nevertheless I am grateful. It's a totally awesome clothesline and I love the smell of clothing that comes in. We passed our final Electrical saftey authority inspection with flying colours though I guess it really had nothing to do with me. Art did all that work and I just handed tools from time to time. The inspector took a look at Art's electrical box and said, "That's some cadillac wiring." I've told him for the past couple of years he picked the wrong field of work. We've helped out friends who needed small repairs of stuff and I even got some time to spend with ladies from church. A mini retreat in the hot tub was great and then I got to go shopping for clothes the next day which I haven't been able to do in ages. I continue to putter in my garden and am preparing for the strawberries to be bought and frozen for use during the year and then veggies and who knows what I can do yet. There is only a couple of weeks left until the end of the school year and I am looking forward to lazy mornings and the two months of solid work to be done here. It'll be a great change of pace from getting up early and driving all day. I still enjoy my job but I really could do without the 5am wake up call.
I can't really say for sure what has occured in the time since my last post. Mostly because everything seems to be moving at incredible pace. In the past couple of weeks Art has been working night and day. Literally. He has had more phone calls for jobs in the last month than I think he has ever had in seasons of work. What is spurring people to do jobs now is beyond me but I guess they figure if they can't go on vacation they're going to make the house pretty. This has worked out fairly well for us since we can live on his cash and put everything else towards bills. I was ecstatic to see my daffodils come up and start to bloom. I have already begun to think how I will rearrange them next year to make them look prettier and how I want to add tulips and hyacinths. I keep telling myself to be patient but it is hard! I've also started planting seedlings for my veggie garden which will be the new addition this year. I'm so excited about it. Now I will have fresh herbs and veggies. All the plants which were so wonderfully divided for me last year are also starting to poke up and make themselves known. I will continue to add to them this year and I've already got some flower boxes in mind to make. Maybe this weekend. A couple of weekends ago while Art was out on a job I had the pleasure of going to the Women's show. It's a day all about how much free stuff I can shove into a bag. It is times like this when Art says I am a true Greiss. Cheap! I taste tested my way throught lunch. I drank smoothies, ate popcorn, tried crackers, spreads, pasta, pudding, rice, soy milk and ice creams galore. I also managed to put more than my fair share of free samples into my bag, won a flash drive, picked up some reusable shopping bags, took every coupon and enjoyed the seminars. All in all I make sure I get my money's worth and then some. ;) Last weekend we had a Men's breakfast here and then all the men headed out to help a church member move her junk out of our basement into her house. We had about 12 or so men come and eat their way through homemade waffles, topped with syrup, berries, kiwi and whipped cream and bacon, sausage and homefries. The only problem is that they ate so much that they didn't feel much like moving their butts off the chair let alone someone's stuff into a truck. Somehow they managed and when we arrived on the other end the owner offered us pizza and cake. I think we all rolled away with overly full tummies. Now we are looking forward to the long weekend. Art is working again but I will be free to do as I like which is always a great position to be in. Look out garages sales here I come!
Art and I got quite excited about the warmer weather that was coming last Saturday. I so badly wanted to hit garage sales and get up and about early to start working on our property. I should've known better as I tried to wake Art who is not a morning person. "Art we have to get going to all the garage sales!" I said. All I received in reply was a grunt. I pestered, poked and prodded until a very annoyed Art got out of bed and took me to a couple of sales where we didn't find anything. This made Art even happier as you might imagine. In my defence we did go to TSC one of his favourite stores and Canadian Tire one of his other favourite stores. I managed to get some groceries and a new watch battery. The temperature all morning was starting to climb along with humidity and by the time we got home around 1pm it was already too humid to do much and the bugs pretty much sealed the deal. Art was not too impressed with me. Monday was supposed to be hotter and it was. We reached a whopping 30C and even with the breeze it was still warm. The humidity has been fairly high all night and again we are sweating it out. I can see the rain clouds starting to move in so it can only mean the end of the heat wave and while I am glad for warmer weather I'd like it to arrive a bit more slowly.
Alas, our slightly less hectic life I guess could not continue at it's current pace and again I am a construction widow. Oh, some wives deal with hockey and others football but I lose my man this time of year to renovations. I don't really mind too much to tell the truth. Though I'd much rather see my handsome hubby at home terrorizing Oliver our beloved cat I'm happy that he is out doing what he loves. I know deep down in my heart that sitting at a desk does not make my husband very happy. He finds much more satisfaction in swinging a hammer or using his power tools which he collects at an alarming rate. Really does one man need so many gadgets? But then again am I much better with my kitchen tools? Last weekend did not end up being as restful as I would have hoped for as we jam packed about a weeks worth of stuff into it. Saturday morning I was priviledged to attend "Women's Unlimited" a ladies conference being held by the Fellowship Evangelical Bible Churches of Canada. The main speaker Roseann Coleman talked about how we as women need to pass down our stories of God's faithfulness in our lives to basically everyone we meet. It was an interesting day and actually quite a funny day. I really enjoyed myself. Art of course spent his day on the jobsite doing odd jobs for a lady in town. We met afterwards for supper at our friend's house and talked with them until midnight. The friends were great and the food fantastic! Tortilla soup is very yummy if you are ever of the inclination to try it! Sunday morning I woke up with one very bad headache. It made for very bad timing as our potential new Pastor of Family Ministries was supposed to be preaching. I however stayed in bed while Art went to listen to and meet him. By the time he got back somewhere around 1pm I was still in pain and after feeding him some lunch headed back to bed. By four I was finally feeling semi-normal but still a bit fuzzy. So we went back into town for a meet and greet dessert evening at our church for the new candidate. I was a bit out of it but for the most part I think said the right thing at the right time. Thankfully, Art brought me back home to tuck me into bed and I woke up yesterday morning feeling much better! Art did not however get the benefit of sleep I did since I was sick he had put off some of his work to tend to me. He stayed up most of the night finishing a project to be delivered yesterday morning. Somehow he completed it and stayed awake the whole day and even made it to a church property care meeting last evening which lasted from 7pm-11pm. I am not sure how he does these things but somehow he manages.
I'm guilty of it. It's true. I made a whole Easter blog without making one mention of the reason for Easter. I truly do know that it's not a celebration of bunnies who happen to lay eggs but a celebration of what our Saviour did for us. Yesterday, although a bit late in the quiet of the aftermath I had more of a chance to reflect on that. The total signifigance of Jesus' death and resurection. His perfect life for my sinful one. Not such a great trade in my opinion but only by His grace that He freely gives are we saved.
It always starts out that I invite a couple of people over and then feel guilty about not inviting this person or that person and then I end up inviting over twenty people. Today was no different. We set our Easter potluck today for 13 adults and 7 kids. It began with our bi-weekly Wendy's dates we have with two families from our church. We usually head over after church every second Sunday to hang out and enjoy each other's company without putting stress on anyone to clean up. Since our Wendy's date ended up on Easter I thought why don't we invite our friends over for a potluck making it easy for everyone. I supply the turkey and the roast beef and everyone brings the rest. Then I decided this person was by herself and that family doesn't have any other family in the city and next thing I knew I was fretting about how many chairs I had. I ended up calling the rental shop and placing an order on Good Friday and making a Saturday mad dash into town to pick up more groceries and the rentals. After a hectic shopping day fighting the Easter traffic I came home to mop and vacuum the whole house. I of course had forgotten that one of our friends has a cat allergy and I needed to make sure any surplus hair was out of the house. Thankfully, Art was there to lend a hand and did some cleaning as well. Then I prepped the roast and the turkey for cooking today. I got up early and did more rearranging to allow for our guest dishes and worried some more that I would run out of food. I worried needlessly as I saw the food pile in. I should have worried about more space for all the food instead of the amount of it. There were deviled eggs, potatoes, broccoli salad, another potato dish, two types of veggies, bread and rolls and....that was just the main course. For dessert they brought cupcakes and icecream, trifle and carrot cake and far too much for anyone to eat. It was so delicious I couldn't even fit everything I wanted onto my plate. The kids had an easter egg hunt, played Wii and ran around on our deck generally making a joyful noise and a pleasant mess. The adults talked and laughed and kept nibbling away at all the goodies and had a wonderful time being with each other. All in all it turned out to be a wonderful time and worth every minute of stressing!
Weather wise things here have blossomed into a beautiful spring. Temperatures have steadily been rising to 10C every day. While we are still seeing some smaller lows in the evening overall its been great. It melts all day and dries all night when it is not raining. Even with the rain it has put Art and I into a great mood. We have been busy spring cleaning, finishing some of those unwanted tasks we didn't get around to last fall and in the early planning stages of our projects for this year. My daffodils are pushing their way out of the ground and I've seen some tulips starting to sprout which really means to me that spring is here! With spring here it seems that commitee meetings are also popping up everywhere we look. I am the chair of the missions commitee and there seems to be a whole host of things going on with that now. Also, I am the missions co-ordinator for Daily Vacation Bible School in July and working in the kitchen there so yet more meetings. Art is busily involved with Men's ministries meetings, men's breakfast planning and the new ministry he started called the Burning Bushmen. Essentially a bunch of guys going around to help with various small building and repair projects or things where they need "man" power free of charge. It's been great but we seem as always to have our hands full. My bus has also had the addition of one student and it has meant the loss of an hour of down time before my afternoon run. It now has lots of stops and starts which has been making it a extremely long day for me. I now go from 6:15-9:00, 10:30-11:30, 12:30-13:30, 14:20-17:00. I am hoping to get used to it but I am thankful that the next few weeks will be shorter.
Recently as I have posted we have lost a good friend and a Godly man. Last Friday was also an important day in this family as we remembered a interesting and colourful family member. It was the second anniversary of the day that Art's Mom had passed away. We very carefully had planned a fairly busy day for Art where he worked on a job with a friend's son. It still hurts to remember she is gone even though we know she is in a much better place than we could ever dream of. I'm sure that "Mom" is looking down from heaven shaking her head at us from time to time when we miss her. My own mother has had a blip on the radar as well with a mammogram alarm and I wonder what she will face in the coming months as we await test results. It seems sometimes that hardship and sadness is all around us but yet hope.
Finally, I have some rest and there are about a million things which I have ignored this week so far. Like cleaning the office. It just seems so cluttered that I am afraid to step in there. So I ignore it instead. I've gotten all the laundry done. Curtains washed, bedding changed and for the most part everything put away. I need to mop the floor again but I'm sure it will still be waiting for me tomorrow when Art is out. Not that I've had any lack of things to do. On Monday I was busy with cleaning and an afternoon appointment. Tuesday Art had a meeting with Pastor and I a morning chat with a friend and her baby. She has been quite swamped lately as little "Adam" can be quite demanding of her time. So I took him for a bit and she could enjoy her shower for a change. Though at the end I handed back a screaming baby it was a quiet time for most of it. In the end he knew I was not Mommy. We went out for lunch together too before heading home. Wednesday, Art had to go back to his real job and I again was busy spring cleaning, paying bills, buying groceries and even enjoying some time outside on the balcony. Art has taken vacation for today and tomorrow and we have a full day of relaxation planned at the Greiss house. Yes, no major projects, sleeping in to the fullest extent and I think a nice breakfast will be in order as soon as Art decides to get out of bed. Tomorrow he has a side job to do and Saturday he is helping with a painting job for our church so we will take it while we can. My break is wrapping up way too fast but I've enjoyed the time we've had and the recharging of my batteries.
On Friday, March 10th a new life came into the world and in a small way ours as little Christian Pierce made his arrival. Our friends Chantal and Jeff were quite ecstatic to have him finally as he was a bit overcooked I think. :) Since they go to our church we will be quite happy to hold onto to him and play with him and his big brother and big sister. On the following Sunday, Art and I were invited over to a friend's house for lunch. We were quite spoiled with subs and Art's favourite broccoli salad. Art liked lunch so much we ended up staying for dinner too which again was one of Art's favourites Bacon cheeseburgers and more broccoli salad with as much Coke as he could drink. Poor Art is feeling deprived these days as I have cut everything back in our house. Only the occasional bottle of coke makes it in and we've been eating a higher protein diet with less carbs and little sugar. He has slowly gotten used to whole grain pasta, brown rice and a lot more veggies. Thankfully, we have found our way around some of these things with non-sugar pudding, jello and some other interesting recipes. Unfortunatley for him this is the way it will be around here for the next little while. He's really been good about it as the doctors are quite concerned that I will become diabetic and has prompted them to insist on a low sugar and low carb diet for me. In order to support me in this he too has taken on the diet. What a fine man I have here! On Monday morning we received news that our friend Jim who had been diagonsed with Pancreatic Cancer just over a month ago had passed away. It was a sad time for us as he was our deacon at church and someone we both admired. I don't think that I've seen a more Godly man than Jim. His quiet and gentle spirit will be very much missed by us, his wife and his family. Our biggest regret is that we didn't spend more time with him while we had the chance. It made us remember that our time on earth is short and we should take advantage of every opprotunity. The rest of the week seemed to crawl as I was anticipating March break and the freedom it would give me for a time. No 5am wake up calls and Art even agreed to get his own lunch at McDonalds so I wouldn't have to make it. I'm sure that there is no ulterior motives in that either. ;) We attended Jim's funeral on Saturday and it was a time of deep sadness. I was so impressed by Jim's wife Jean though who raised her hands to God thanking him for the time she had with him. 40 years of marriage she said. "I had my first date with him at 13. I guess I made a good choice all those years ago and I know I'll see him again." What a difference it makes to be a Christian wife knowing that while you miss your husband you still have that hope of seeing him again. Now I am on March break and enjoying the time that I'm sure will fly by. So for now I'll drink my coffee and enjoy the weather and try to get a million things packed in before the weekend. :)
Thankfully life around here has slowed down a bit and I am not in the process of pulling out my hair. This weekend we had the pleasure of taking our friend's daughter to piano lessons while they were away at a marriage conference. It was an interesting experience to be the one sitting in the chair rooting her on. Afterwards we had things to do like get a new telus service for our cell. Our contract was over in December and we continued on with our current plan because we were unsure of where to go next. Ultimately we decided we don't use the phone that much. Really only for emergencies or phone calls in the city and it was best to get pay as you go. We did and cut our bill by 75%. The lady who switched over our plan was amazed that we only used a whopping 27 minutes last month. Frankly, I was surprised we used that much! Sunday we didn't have to teach Sunday school since it was our monthly reprieve and actually got to sleep in. It was wonderful. I was so happy to be able to lounge around in bed until a blissful 9:30am. We had a nice breakfast before church and when we got there Art was the greeter so I went to find people to chat with before service. I found my friend Anna who I chatted about the marriage conference with and when Art came in he scolded us. I guess we were getting a little loud and giggling. We tend to have lots of fun together. Art and Anna's husband, Nathan also hang out together and there are times when we pull them away from each other so I guess all is fair. Anna's three kids are like part of our own family especially since our own neice and nephews are way out in the wilds of Winnipeg. Recently the youngest who is almost three was chatting with her sister and said, "Daddy can fix anything...with Uncle Art." We just about died with laughter as Art tends to fix things at their house with their Dad. Other than being a bit cooler again, this week has been fairly uneventful with the exception of my doctor's appointment with and endocronologist tomorrow. It took me about a year to get the stupid appointment and of course if conflicts with my job. Fortunately Art will take over my bus run since it doesn't conflict with his hours. Should be interesting to hear the result of Art locked in a van with 5 ADD and ADHD kids!
Things since last Saturday have been hectic. I'm not sure what has come over everyone around me but meetings have been scheduled and commitments have to be honoured. On Saturday I had to get up early for an 8:30am meeting at my church in Kanata. I dreaded it because I am not actually the chair of my committee and I had to drag my butt out of bed before 8am on a Saturday. It really sucked since I love sleeping in the one day a week I can. Five days out of every week I am up at the crack of dawn or before. I am usually warming up a van or doing misc things to get ready for my day of picking kids up or dropping them off. On Sundays I get up early for Sunday school where I teach a class. The meeting was scheduled to be three hours long and I was sure that no one could talk that long. I dragged Art out of bed to drive me there since we had plans after lunch together and there was no sense in picking him up again. He was none too happy about it but somehow I made it only about 5 mins late. The meeting flew by and I realized that indeed people could talk that long and it could be enjoyable. In fact they talked longer than anticipated and I was rushing to my next event. The next event was a lunch out with two of my friends from highschool. Much of our talks have changed from card playing and intellectual discussions on politics to stories on being a wife, mother and our university days. I admit as teens we were probably a bit more gun ho the topics of the day then most of our giggling female counterparts but I still remember those days fondly. It's always so much fun to be with them and recapture that part of my history and see it all now through different eyes. After chatting for a long time I called Art and we had plans to go bowling that evening with his union. They were offering free bowling and free pizza. Anything free in our books is the event to attend. So we did without hesitation. However, the four hours of shopping that was "forced" upon us while waiting to go for our free event wasn't so cheap. Whenever, we hit that part of town we inevitably end up spending money on clearance items. This again is what happened as Art stumbled upon three lamps for our great room that were exceptionally cheap. The bowling on the other hand when we finally arrived was cheap. We got there and found we could not choose our own lane. We were forced to bowl with a family of five that we did not know and when the pizza finally came we were only able to get two slices each and a can of pop. I guess sometimes the old adage you get what you pay for really does come true. Sunday I was teaching my Sunday school class and I had to present a missions moment in the main service. After the main service was a soup and pie social for which I had prepared a soup and by the time we left it was already quite late. I was ready for bed by the time I got home. Not the most relaxing of weekends by any stretch of the imagination. I was positive that this week no matter how crazy would be more relaxing. However, I was WRONG! So far I been without my regular school van for the last three days as mine has been in the shop being saftied and repaired. Instead I am stuck in the mother of all vans. We call it Ram man after a He-man character we watched on cartoons as children. Yes it is that big and that strong. In this van I ran out of gas on my morning run due to a faulty gas guage though I didn't know it at the time. I was forced to wait twenty minutes in the cold while my boss arrived with a mini-bus. Then my poor husband has caught a cold. I've been busy feeding him soup and tea and making him gargle salt water in between runs and when I crash on our sofa at night. Then tonight I had to bring home my boss after a accident that happened on one of our runs. Thankfully no one was hurt and it was not the driver's fault in any way but it did make me late coming home to my sick husband who had gotten incredibly bored all day stuck in bed. So this has been my life this week thus far. I am so glad that March break is coming soon!
On Friday I had a course that was set out for me by my company. Skid control and collision avoidance. The first two hours were spent in class learning the physics behind your vehicle. Fortunately, I had a husband who was quite aware of most of these forces at work and I realized that I had already put many of his suggestions into practice. The main one as always driving with the conditions. The second two hours were spent on a snow packed parking lot swerving in and out of pylons and ultimately fishtailing the back end on purpose and getting back on track. Driving backwards through the pylons wasn't nearly as easy or training my mind to look elsewhere when he was pointing at a direct spot. I still had fun and gained some experience anyway. Later that same evening Art and I went out to see Leland Klassen. He's a christian comedian who is known for his "freakishly large hands". Art actually laughed and it was some good clean fun that we haven't had time for during the past couple of years. I was a bit disapointed because Art was late leaving from work we couldn't go to a sit down restaurant for supper. I was forced to eat fast food. Oh well. Maybe next time but he did surprise me with a wonderful Hyacinth instead of my usual Asiatic lilies for Valentines day. It is one of my favourite stinky flowers. Stinky in a good way. I think in his advanced age he is becoming romantic. Last Saturday was frankly just a lazy day. We enjoyed the time we had together and he cleaned out part of the basement and I cleaned the house for guests we were having on Sunday. He of course didn't let me know we were having guests until the wee hours of the morning before we headed to bed on Saturday. On Sunday we headed out with our friends for lunch at Joey's only. It was nice to be served for a change and then everyone headed out to our place after lunch was over. We ended up with two extra guests and I was glad that I had planned extra food for them just in case. We hung out with them until 10pm and I even got to sleep in on my second family day last Monday. Art and I didn't have to go anywhere so that was quite nice. The rest of the week has been clicking along at it's usual hectic pace and already the weekend is in sight. I only wish I could sleep in on Saturday instead of heading out to a Church meeting at 8:30am.
I'm not sure where to start this dijointed blog because lots of little things have happened but nothing really signifigant lately. I guess that's why I have not really updated lately. Well there have been no major disasters of late but the temperature has warmed signifigantly here for Febuary. We have enjoyed up to +9 the last few days. One day that was supposed to be freezing rain actually turned into a beautiful sunshiney day. Thank you Ottawa Carleton District School board for letting me stay home and get paid. On that day Art and I lazed about not doing anything in particular. This is very odd for us as we have a million projects on the go at any given time. However, since we were both home for a change we decided to put away the projects and enjoy a boring day. We awoke late. I had already gotten my stay home call at 6am and promptly crawled back into bed. At 10am I still seemed to have difficulty convincing myself to get up. Mostly I had to bribe myself and my husband with pancakes. Lately this has been our favourite breakfast treat. I make them from scratch and they are so nice and crispy around the edges. After we downed breakfast we managed to get some work done. I was working away on reading my book and Art actually having to work from home did so. I was free to putter as well and at my own pace made us snacks and lunch but for the most part laid on the couch with our cat Oliver. When Art finished his work we decided to try out the new games table. So we started a game of scrabble and while I'm not allowed to tell anyone the outcome I'm sure you can guess who won the game. :) It was all in all a great day. Yesterday and today we have been enjoying the reprieve from the cold weather. It felt like spring and I was even able to shed my winter jacket for a while. I'm sure this will change overnight as lower temps are predicted. Tomorrow I have a new course that I am taking during the PD day. Collision avoidance and skid control. Should be fun to put the van into a spin but I hope I don't freak out at my instructors. I don't tend to do well with people in the vehicle as I am learning a new skill. During my driver's test for instance the examiner told me to turn left and I turned right and then did it again. She wasn't very pleased with me. Valentines day is also sneaking up on us. Art has never been big on the whole valentines thing since it is just a bunch of commercial hype but the last couple of years he has bought me flowers. This year I get a comedian, dinner and flowers. How 'bout that? I can't believe it! Should be a fun evening.
Well today was supposed to warm up to +4C and give us some nice rain showers. While it got a bit warmer but I don't think it was quite that warm. Today however I hosted another type of shower altogether. A baby shower. It was a blast as 18 women and 13 kids crowded into my great room and chatted and ate and played games! It never ceases to amaze me as I watch women get so competitive over winning a game. One game I played was the crossing and uncrossing of the legs game. Each lady gets a clothespin and if she spots another crossing or uncrossing her legs she gets to take her pins. The one with the most pins wins. One of the women crossed her feet and said, "You said legs, not feet." and got away with it on a technicality. She didn't end up winning the game but it was still hilarious to watch the ladies say I saw that. Chantal the lady I held the shower for got a good haul I think and she seemed to really enjoy herself. I'm so happy that she did and that we as ladies got to hang out.
Art and I have been feeling a bit blah these last few days. Not that we don't have things to do or friends to hang out with but it has just been cold lately and even with the sunshine we are tending to run from house to vehicle and back again all the time. It means Art is up several times a night feeding the ever hungry woodstove and often I wake up paranoid that he has forgotten to set our only alarm clock to 5am to get me up on time for work. We've had plenty of activity this week. Monday Art was tutoring math and I was cleaning to start preparing for a baby shower this weekend. Tuesday we had our washing machine repaired and our couch. Thankfully both repairs were very easy and just amounted to rebalancing and a small clip that I had lost to make the couch recline again. Art also started to repair the large hole in the wall he made to fit our new couch. Wednesday Art took me out for all you can eat ribs a very nice surprise as I had dreaded cooking. Tonight Art is at his Man course and I am on fire feeding duty until he gets home. There are about a million things I need to do before Saturday such as cleaning out my fridge and mopping the dining room and media room but I just can't seem to find the motivation to get me started on the task. Hopefully tomorrow I will find more energy!
Sunday we were invited again out to lunch with two other families in our church and a new person who whom we had just met as well. So out we went. All twelve of us crammed into whatever seats we could find and had a great time just chatting up everything from DVD's we had to electrical work. We had a fantastic time and completely lost track of it as we were in the restaurant for over two hours. The poor kids got bored silly and one decided that he should demonstrate this by making a hat out of his kids meal bag declaring he was a pharoah. I thought it was pretty funny. After our lunch was over we realized it was 3:30 and only two hours to our first Superbowl party. Art and I don't tend to be the sports watching types. Neither of us seems very inclined towards sports in general. We do happen to enjoy chicken wings which was being offered and had a great time enjoying those with other couples we knew from church as well. In fact I don't think many people watched the show since we were all so busy eating and chatting. In all there were ten adults and 6 kids. 5 of them were 5 and under which made it all the more fun. It was a busy day that started quite early and ended quite late but worth it!
It started out as a good morning. It really did. I got up early with Art and he took me out to breakfast and then we were supposed to hit the road to Petawawa where we were going to pick up a "antique record player/radio." We made it to MacDonalds and ate our breakfast and swung into The Country Store and scored a few good deals on tools and everything was roses. We enjoyed the trip to Petawawa. It was picture perfect weather. Snow topped all the trees, it was fairly warm and we chatted the next hour or so on the drive. It was wonderful. I had envisioned us putting this record/radio in the backseat and driving off to Petawawa to peruse their stores and have lunch out. Sadly this never came true. My Mother who had bought this thingie for my step-great uncle had described it to me as a small antique radio/record player which was in perfect shape. It promised to be a beautiful thing to bring home and well worth the drive. When we arrived however, we saw something completly different and because of our good manners praised it and said we would give it a good home. The veneer was peeling badly in some places and actually had some mould growing on it. It was not exactly an antique either. The other thing that glared at us was that it was not a small item that my mother had claimed it to be but in fact quite the opposite. When we got it up the stairs we tried this way and that to no avail. It would not go into our car. We became frustrated as we tried to put it in our vehicle and more so since we were then forced to latch it onto the back of our car standing up in the trunk. As we drove away it made a horrendous noise which we realized later was the record spinning as we were going along. It sounded much like fingernails along a chalkboard and frankly began to fray our nerves. Our day was going from picturesque to horrendous. We decided to make the best of things and stop in at a few stores in the quaint town but none of them seemed to lift our spirits. We finally got hungry and decided to stop at a chinese buffet we had gone to while we were still dating. As I went up to the door I realized that the lunch buffet was only served to 2:30pm and it was 2:15pm. Disapointed I headed back to the car. We decided to try and salvage our day by hitting Liquidation world in Renfrew but even there hardly a deal to be found. We headed for home having given up on our day with only hope for a better tomorrow.
Yes, while I was in the library yesterday evening I stumbled upon the book "Blogging for Dummies." It was hard for me to believe at the time that anyone would need a book so they would know what to write in their blog. Seeing as how you are supposed to blog on your own life and your thoughts it should be easy right? Maybe not since for the last few days I've done squat. I'm sure most people do not care that I've gotten up, gone to work, came home, went back to work, came home again and so on. Maybe I should go pick up the book just to see what it said. On another note the OCtranspo strike is over after 52 days without buses and it will take approximately 14 weeks to get them all back up and running. Art will be without his carpooling mate Peter. I will have to contend with transit buses on the road again as arrogant as ever. While I won't miss the extra traffic at all I wonder if the people of Ottawa should band together and strike on them. Yep, not set foot on a bus saying we did just fine without you!
This morning was mostly spent puttering and phone calls to get various things done. But for some reason I had a skip in my step. Lately, Art has been leaving me little "SHMILY's" in different locations and today I found it in the fridge as I was hunting up breakfast. SHMILY stands for See how much I love you as we were reading in a story recently. It really made my day to know that he was thinking of me. I also was overjoyed at the warmer weather today and the promise of spring. I keep thinking of flower gardens and sitting out on the deck and planting. I can't wait! It's still far away and there is supposed to be more snow coming tomorrow but I'm sure time will fly.
Yesterday was supposed to be a stay at home day to get things done around the house. I'm not sure why this never seems to happen. Usually, Art plans something without my knowledge or vice versa and we end up going out. This time it was his fault. He planned to pick up some books downtown in the market that were being given away for free. So since we were already that far into the city I asked if we could stop in at Salem Storehouse our Christian bookstore to get some tickets for a comedy show I wanted to see. Since we were there we dropped into Salvation Army to look at any new books that might be up for grabs. We find it to be much cheaper than Coles or Chapters and find the best books! By the time we left there we may as well hit Rona since again we don't get to this area of town often. Rona was having a 50% off sale all clearance items in a certain area and of course we ended up sifting through that and blowing our extra spending money. Our little trip that was supposed to take a couple of hours morphed into about 5 hours out on the town. Although it was fun we didn't get much accomplished. Today we got up early for church as usual and headed to teach our Sunday school classes. Art teaches the teens and I teach grade 3 and 4s. We had met a new couple last week after church and I headed right up to them to chat. We chatted for at least half an hour before we decided to go out for lunch. Then on the way out I met up with some of my other friends and invited them to come along as well. By the time we made it to Wendy's there were ten of us scrambling to find tables. It was a lot of fun and hopefully we will get to do it again soon!
Today I was super excited. I got a call on my CB this morning that three out of five of my second run would not be on today! That meant only two to take home tonight and though they were not the closest to me I would still be home in record time. One of them informed me on the way to school that he would not be on the bus either. So I was down to one. The guy who was left happened to be the farthest from the school and thus from me as well. He is usually the last drop off and the first pick up so he was excited too that he would be the first home. However,when I arrived at school no one came to the van. Strange I thought so I pulled up to the teachers to ask what had happened and found out the last student had been signed out. I quickly pulled out and drove home to my comfy warm house to enjoy an hour of free paid time! That's always the best free time in my opinion!
Art before we got married bought a 1998 Nissan Maxima. Those were the days before house bills and hydro and all the other bills we have since incurred. It was really his dream car. Black sleek exterior, plush leather heated seats, bose stereo and of course a standard transmission. At this time it was a pleasure car. We used it for dates on the weekend and grocery shopping. Maxamina as she was named had the good life. Before we knew it we were building a house and poor Maxamina got roof racks. We then hauled everything from lumber to hotwater tanks on that rack. In the trunk we piled tools of all sorts and eventually they ended up in the back seat. In one year we racked up around 24000km on our car. We have continued to put Maxamina through her paces as it became the commuter car taking Art the 50km each way to work every day. She hardly ever gave us problems. Oh there were the brakes which Art is notorious for going through and a brake line which gave us quite a scare but really no engine problems at all. Through time and oxidation there devleoped some rusty spots here and there on our beloved car but she still moved like a cat. Finally last year I was in desperate need of a car for work and little money to pay for it. One that could carry a hockey bag and two kids without problems. That was when I learned to drive standard as much as I tried to convince Art of the archaic nature of manual transmissions. He bought another car for him to commute in and I was stuck with driving Maxamina. We had our differences of opinion for sure as I was learning. Stalling is never pleasant but over time and practice I began to love my big Nissan. I soon learned how to drive without so much as a hesitation on take off. On Saturday however, during a trip to Quebec, Maxamina met her match. Yes, a large block of ice ripped off her exhaust pipe making her sound like a tractor. Now what is left of my emergency money will be put into fixing it. So now I will be broke instead of my car.
Art is at his Man course tonight (really Quest for Authentic Manhood). He goes to hang out with all his buddies from church and discusses the role of the Christian man to his wife, family and in his workplace. It actually has been a great course for him and for us to talk about. It also means that every Thursday from the time he starts it is a night to myself to do as I please. This week I actually get to sit here on the computer as long as I want and multitask as much as I want. I'm also busy keeping the woodstove burning as it is supposed to get down to -30C tonight without the windchill. I've already done most of my stuff to hit the roads tomorrow. I put the van to bed in the garage and plugged it in so it should be easy to start. I also made a loaf of bread for sandwiches and started to tidy up. Later I may even have time to sit down and watch tv but we will see. I'm sure that all my plans will not happen. I'd love to start that sewing project and play Zelda and get the laundry done and do a bunch of baking but one thing at a time right. So maybe I will just start with what's for supper?
Until what you ask? Well my birthday of course. Yep, for all you people who need to rush out and purchase me that expensive gift or send money my birthday is on Friday. Last year my birthday being my 30th was filled with a bit of apprehension. I wasn't quite sure how I would feel crossing the mark but it came and went with barely a blip on the radar. So I am still excited to see how my 31st birthday will turn out. It's supposed be cold on Friday. But then again that has been the norm around here for the last little while. I have been whining quite a bit about the -14 and -20 weather we have received until today when I realized it could be a lot worse. With windchill today it was a nippy -46C as I pulled out of the driveway. Even my heat on full blast couldn't keep the van warm this morning. Since we knew it was coming we've been quite busy banking the woodstove and keeping the temps of furnace set quite higher than normal to offseet the cold to come. I was quite comfy getting out of bed this morning and for the first time in a long time forced to shed my duvet unto the floor because I was hot. Thankfully, Art had the foresight to order more wood which was delivered in two loads on Saturday and Monday evenings. We have been stacking and carting wood in the house and outside all weekend. On Friday I will also be hanging out with friends of mine at the works and devouring a wonderful hamburger which I enjoy each year at this time. The works is a a gourmet burger joint which makes the best onion rings in the city and top notch burgers though mine are almost as tasty. They load them up with anything and everything from Kraft dinner to more standard fair like blue cheese in your choice of meats or non-meats. So even though I will have to face the frigid temperatures to get my favourite meal it will be worth it for the company and the food.
The temperature has dropped recently and also dropped a whopping 20cm of snow onto our declining snowbanks. Just the other day I was commenting on how little snow we had left after our recent warming trends but not now. It made for a chaotic driving day yesterday as school went on as usual. In fact I'm beginning to think I should take the guy who decides a snow day out for a tour with crazed children to see what it is really like. It can truly be a very "exciting" ride. Mostly it is me saying, "Sit down, put your seatbelt back on and please no screaming!" The screaming part comes in a whoop of joy as I am skidding towards a snowbank. They repeatdly ask me to do it again. For some reason they can't understand why I won't. Art on the other hand had other types of excitement for his drive in and drive home yesterday. For the last several weeks there has been a bus strike on. I think we are heading into week six in fact. Anyway, this has lead to a longer rush hour starting now about 7am and finishing around 10am and in the afternoon about 3pm to 7pm. Art has taken to going in a a bit later and leaving a bit earlier to avoid it. Yesterday he did so but because of the bad weather cars were still slipping and sliding on the road all the way to work. What is normally a 45 minute drive turned into 1.5 hours. On the way home besides avoiding all the crazy drivers out there his windsheild wipers stopped working. So there he was with 20 cm of snow falling and blowing across the car and he could not see. So his drive home was also changed to about 2 hours. Both of us arrived home at an unusual late hour and then after all that he wanted to go and shovel the driveway. After watching all these men in Kanata plow out their miniscule driveways with a snow blower my husband is out shovelling our 90 foot laneway by hand.
   Today was couch day. Earlier this year we had acquired a new to us sofa which was stuck in our basement. Wehad wanted it for a better great room sofa but unfortunately we couldn't get it up the stairs. It weighed about a million pounds. It is down filled believe it or not and made from an all hardwood frame. We are in the process of checking it for lead though as it seems even heavier than that. I will recover it at some point hopefully with some help from my Step-Dad who is quite handy at upholstery. Art has been talking about building a hatch forever but never really gotten around to it until yesterday. Our brand new couch was being delivered today and we wanted to get it up the stairs easily without damaging the italian leather exterior. He had fun doing some demo work to make the hatch which at this point really amounts to a large hole in the wall as seen above. He will make it into a more aesthetically pleasing door a bit later. For now Oliver can enjoy jumping down to the basement steps as much as he is enjoying being a lump on three different couches and several chairs. As for our brand new couch...It is as I stated 100% italian leather, Canadian made and reclines. It was an awesome boxing day deal which we could not resist! We bought it from Sears and I happened to know the sales ladies which also helped a little. Having this one means we can finally retire one of the ugly couches we had before. They did the job though and I can't complain about the functionality. This is also my birthday present from Art so I will have to suffer through not opening anything. But it is really a better present than I could have dreamed of. The leather feels like butter and the seats are SOOOOO cushy. I love it!
With the weekend behind me I've got another two months of steady work ahead of me. Early mornings and lots of winter driving. I am looking at the last remenants of Christmas and thinking I need to take everything down. It's too bad that we only get to drag the decorations out for three weeks of each year and the rest it looks so bare. I'm dreading the cold as I head outside and it is only going to be -8C this morning. But I can feel the dampness which makes it seem all the chillier. However, there are things that will warm my spirits even if I'm not too crazy about getting up early. One of my best friends from Bible College called and told me yesterday that she is getting married. I was so excited for her and of course Art and I are considering making the trip down to Lion's Head to see her big day. This will make the third wedding Art and I will attend this year. We've been married for two and a half years and these are the first weddings we will attend as a married couple. We can dance the night away three times this year. Febuary is also going to be busy for me in that it will be the second baby shower I will be hosting here and should be lots of fun for me to co-plan with a friend of mine from church. My other friend had her baby in December. A beautiful baby boy named Adam. I got to meet him for the first time yesterday as I had been too sick to hold him earlier and he is the most darling little thing. I've forgotten how tiny newborns are. He was so light as I was carrying him around and giving him a good cuddle. I handed him back just before he started to cry to get his diaper changed. Before I know it time is going to fly by and I'll be thinking of summer and avoiding the heat.
Well we partied like it was 2009 even if it was still 2008. Because it was -20C outside we did not go anywhere. There apparently were concerts and fireworks downtown but it wasn't worth freezing our butts over. We stayed and watched the woodstove and kept the homefires burning. Plus we had both really wanted to watch the last airfarce. Both of us grew up watching it and enjoying the Chicken Cannon. We were both sad to see a Canadian icon go. The last one though was one of their funniest ever! I made punch and more ribs than we could eat and we had various other snack foods to bring in the new year. We watched my favorite show Bewitched until just before midnight. We brought in the new year watching George Stromboloplous (who can spell that guy's name anyway) running around like an idiot. When we saw it was the new year we burst into Auld lang syne or at least the part we could remember. We had fun bringing in 2009. We didn't make any resoloutions but we know that this year is going to be even better than last. It too I'm sure will bring many changes and ones I'm sure will bring much excitement to our home. We are already planning chopping up firewood for next winter. Fixing crooked doors, adding more insulation and a new fireplace to the great room are all on the agenda. We will also be adding attic fans, and I will actually have the summer off this year. Two actual months at home! Retaining walls will be built and a pond put in. Terraced gardens possibly if we have time and energy left over. Even a cat tree for our ever mischevious cat Oliver. What a year this will be.
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