We're having a heat wave...

a tropical heatwave.  When the heat hits like this in Ottawa, I really struggle to remember why I ever moved here.  This week has been around 30C with a humidex of up to 41C.  There have been power outages and generally cranky people and kids who have been stuck indoors or risk getting steamed outside.  I hate humidity.  The sticky-icky feeling is not for me.  But that all being said, I've no reason really to complain.  For one I have central air  which works quite well except in our bedroom which is on the top floor.  Not all that surprising really.  I don't have to go to work.  I can take really cold showers.  Thank God for our deep well.  And, I've got a basment which remains cold no matter how hot it is anywhere else and there is a tv down there.  The other night it was even cool enough outside for Art and I to do some stargazing.   So really nothing to complain about especially when I have all of Febuary and March to complain about snow and slush.

Our summer thus far has gotten off to a great start.  Art was awarded a big job and has had to take time off work to finish it.  However, he is having a great time doing it and we've had a little extra spending money.  Totally nice.  I was able to get our windows cleaned in the house which was a great relief to me.  It was worth every penny to have someone else come in and do it.  There was no way I was going up that high on the ladder again.  I was also able to start cleaning out all the junk we don't want anymore.  Mostly knick knacks and some other dollar store junk, have all been removed from a couple of our rooms.  I even got a morning out with the ladies to see a $1 movie.  We also had friends come out for Canada day.  It was super nice as we played Trivial Pursuit, ate way too much steak, potatoes and cake and watched cool fireworks in Arnprior.  So all in all a good summer has been started here.  Hope yours is too!

Time flies...

when you are having fun.  So May must have been fun because I hardly remember it.  We had another Men's breakfast, attended birthday parties, Art was working, stained the deck finally and I'm sure a whole host of other things that  were fairly mundane.  One of the most exciting things was that we got a new cat.  We named her Cicia (Keet-cha).  She was named after a cat who was Art's little sister's while they were growing up.  Cicia was a wonderful addition to our family.  She loves to play and be sucked up.  Her orginal name was cuddles and it was descriptive of her but too cheesy for us.  Besides unlike our Oliver she didn't know it.  Oliver and her instantly disliked one another.  For over two weeks there was hissing and fighting.  Finally Oliver decided to like Cicia but like any little brother in a family he gave up fighting and decided it was more fun to pester her.  He would wait until she curled up under a chair and sit on top of it and reach down with one paw smartly smacking her head.  Cicia would hiss and Oliver would run.  Now you have to understand Cicia is at most 7-8lbs and Oliver closer to 15lbs or more.  So it was funny and we laughed at it a lot.  Cicia was also chased by Oliver from time to time but spent most of her time getting upset with our other huge and dumb cat.  In the end however we decided it wasn't fair to have Oliver pester poor Cicia and offered her to a friend of ours.  They had been thinking about getting a cat for their family.  She loves it in her new home and has three adoring fans to pet her constantly.

Last Thursday Art and I got tickets to go see the Newsboys.  It was quite the concert with Audio Adrenline opening.  They were the first band I had ever seen in concert.  Way back when with the youth group in Marion, Indiana.  I remember how proud I had been that I went to see them!  Things have changed for them and now they are really into worship and working with charities to support the poor in Haiti with their Hands and Feet project.  However, it was so cool to hear "Big House" again live.

Newsboys themselves have changed with another old favourite of mine Micheal Tait formerly of DC Talk taking over for Peter Furler.  I still remember a good friend of mine drooling over him in highschool when they came out with their Jesus Freak CD.  I won't mention names.  They have quite the new CD coming out.  Their sound has changed a bit but I still love them and they put on a amazing show!  Art had a great time watching them as well and now is complaining that the CD sound is not as good as live. 

To follow our concert time Art and I went to our seperate retreats.  I went to Ladies retreat at Camp Iawah near Westport.  It brought back so many good memories of GBC and even smelled similar.  Though they didn't have neon green carpet or beer caps on the ceiling tiles as decorations.  I got to play dutch blitz, stay up into the wee hours, hear a great speaker and have non stop eating for two days.  Art had his retreat at a friend's place whose wife was also attending Ladies retreat with me.  So from all accounts they gorged themselves on pop, pizza, burgers and chips, played a lot of video games and generally had a fantastic time.  None of us can wait for next year!

Our boring lives

I've been hoping that the blog inspiration fairy might drop something into my head these past couple of weeks but so far no such luck.  Our lives as we would have it are pretty darn boring and frankly I'm not complaining about it.  I'm sure we've had more than our fair share of excitement over the last few years.  We or should I say Art has been busy trying to clean out the garage.  This is attempt probably 100 but this time has really done the trick.  He was finally hit with the fact that he can "Macro" organize now and "Micro" later.  So he has built himself shelving and sorted and stacked until we actually have a recognizable space in the garage.  Truly amazing.  Now the real trick is to see how long it will last.

My favourite season just began last weekend and it is so much earlier this year than ever before.  Yes, garage saleing season is in full swing and I managed to hit a couple last weekend while Art and his buddy hauled rocks from a nearby build.  This summer he plans to make a front walkway under our deck.  I managed to score a couple of good deals and we even made it to a movie.  I had gotten a two for one movie pass from a friend and we were off.  I was so sure it was going to be a cheap date night.  I mean how could it cost more than twenty bucks right.  Oh the lure of 2 for 1 was deceiving and we had to stop for dinner and bought outrageously over-priced popcorn and drink.  I guess it is a good thing we don't go to movies that often but we had a nice time out nevertheless.

Sunday I came down with a bad cold.  I had hoped by taking it easy and not going to church that I would prevent it from getting worse.  Apparently, this was not to be.  As by Monday I felt like I had been run over.  Thankfully I am finally on the mend but I really could do without hacking every few minutes.  It's the one thing that really annoys me about being sick.  That and being congested.  Art has taken pity on me and bought me beautiful flowers.  Yeah, he's a keeper.  :)

Spring!

I can say that for first time in a while I feel happy and calm.  It never ceases to amaze me how small changes in one's life can make such a huge difference.  Over March break for instance I got a hair cut which made me feel much better about myself and it was worth every penny I paid for it. 

One of my runs had the addition of a new student and I had already felt pretty overwhelmed with six students in the van ranging from JK to GR.8.  I was wondering how to handle it when my boss called and switched my overloaded run with a much smaller and younger version.  It also included a student I had last year who has down syndrome and whom I adore!  This has totally uplifted my spirits and makes me a much happier woman coming home from work instead of stressing out from mediating between two sets of siblings and the older and younger kids. 

Temperatures are rising at a uncharacteristic rate which makes the house feel much warmer and the sunshine only adds more happiness to my life.  That and the feeling that I am actually making a difference in the kids lives that I work with.  One teen I take has a severe form of ADHD.  Last year he was quite uncontrollable but this year has really blossomed into a more responsible kid.  Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but really much better.  He struggles with the understanding of the necessity of personal hygiene.  So today we had this talk on what not brushing your teeth does to your gums, teeth and to your chances for a girlfriend and he really understood.  So now he has promised to brush at least once a day and floss at least once a week.  I know it doesn't seem like much but this kid was brushing on average about once every couple of weeks and no flossing. And so it goes.  Winning some battles and losing others but overall making a difference. My only wish is that I could help them more than what I do.  It's often hard when I know what types of homes some of these kids go back to every day.

Art too has been enjoying the effects of spring.  His energy has been a bit more reknewed with the onset of warmer weather.  He has been talking about building a lean-to to cover our wood for next year and many of his other plans for the house and property.  This weekend the clean up will commence with stacking and piling first on the agenda.  Oliver our cat is enjoying the return of the birds and spends many hours in the window chirping at them because he wants to go out and hunt them.  He has also been meowing quite a bit to go outside on the deck to chase this and that but I've only let him out thus far on the balcony. He'll just have to be satisfied with that.

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March Break

Well so far it's been a good March Break.  We haven't had too many strenous tasks on our plate.  I've started into my spring cleaning mode and I've already got two bags ready for the Sally Ann.  I also got around to digging out my clothesline.  That's right I had to dig it out of the ice or what was left of it.  After the first snowfall we had very high winds which snapped the aircraft cable.  When I saw the chewed up end I could hardly believe that it happened.  I had assumed the tightner had let go but that was not the case.  The snow has been disappearing quite quickly this year which is just fine by me except I know that soon I will be delgated the lawn mowing chore.  It doesn't happen to be on Art's favourite task list and so I usually wait until the grass is knee high before I give up on the idea of him mowing the lawn.  Too bad the City of Ottawa wouldn't let us have a goat.  We've also been unseasonably warm at 10C and today is supposed to reach 15C.  Praise God for those beautiful temperatures but too bad it makes me want to run out and buy new patio furniture which I can't afford.  Maybe next year.  :)

Today was my ladies Bible study at my friend Joy's house.  It's always a good time and today was no different.  The one bad thing however is that there are way too many tempting sweets and I ate a lot of them.  But they are so dang good and it was just so fun to sit and chat and munch.  There is usually about seven or eight toddlers running around at any given time but none of them belong to me and so while everyone else has to run after their little one I can sit and watch.  I'm sure at some point the tide will turn but for the moment it's fun. 

Tomorrow we are expecting our friend's child for an overnight visit.  For some reason he loves to play with Art.  I guess I shouldn't be so surprised since Art loves everything a seven year old does.  Video games, lego and of course lots of unhealthy food.  So he wanted to come and stay with us and we of course agreed that he could.  It should be fun to have him around. 

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Our Newest Addition

Well it finally happened when our car repairs exceeded the amount we paid for the car.  We bought our little 1993 Mazda 323 almost three years ago and affectionately named her "Ezrie".  She has truly been a great little car.  Even though the car is the size of a postage stamp it held more of Art's junk than any other vehicle I've ever seen.  Not to mention this vehicle came along before zoom zoom but man did our little Ezrie have zip.  On that little four cylinder she could really move in and out of traffic and took off the starting line faster than all who thought they could take her.  Boy did we see some jaws hit the floor when we beat some larger more powerful cars! In the summer you just rolled down the windows and took her for a spin remembering what driving should be.  Though she had no power steering she gave us that work out we needed and talk about a fuel saver.  Did I mention that we still haven't had to do any main engine work?  It's all been changing orginal stuff like exhaust etc.  All we can say is what a car. 

One of my favourite memories though of Ezrie was when Art asked a boy from our church to go open the car and retrieve a tool.  After waiting about five minutes the boy came back and said he couldn't figure out how to open the car as he must've lost the button somewhere and couldn't find it.  After just about laughing to death Art explained the dynamics of a manual key opening.  We will be sad to see her go even in our joy to our latest addition.

So when we discovered how much it would cost us to repair her we decided it was time for something a bit newer.  Something that would haul and have zip and would be for the first time for us less than seven years old when we got it.  So the search began.  We tried trucks to no avail.  It had zip but no room in the cab.  We tried cars but they didn't have power.  Until that is when we finally found our "Lizzy".  She is the newest member to our garage, a 2005 Mazda 6 wagon.  She does it all and she is black.  Which to Art was one of the more important features.  We are excited to have some more zoom zoom in our life and we hope Ezrie can enjoy retirement after 17 years of hard work.

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Our busy couple of months

I've been waiting for the mood to strike where I feel up to summarizing the last couple of months that I haven't gotten around to documenting.

Art's 33rd surprise birthday party on Nov. 1 went off without too many glitches.  He was quite surprised to see the many cars crowded into our driveway as we walked up.  There was much well wishing, eating and talking.  He had a great time and it was fun for me to surprise him again!

Though I can't remember the exact date Art was also voted in at our church as Deacon and Property care chair.  His term came into effect over New Years and I think he is quite happy about it.  I know I am very proud of him!  In the last couple of months he over saw the renos of the two Pastor's and Secretary's offices.  It was nice to see him motivate people.  He also has continued with his many side jobs which have kept him from home along with the reno more than I'd like but I guess I will endure.

Our furnace saga has continued being a nuisance.  We had two more delays on our contract and then errors and finally a cancelled contract entirely.  We are actually now mostly living in the basement closer to the woodstove to keep warm.  Though we were able to spend a relatively warm Christmas upstairs and that has cheered us up.

Christmas was good. On the second week in December I headed out to the tree farm to pick out our tree.  Art came down with a bad cold this year and I left him at home in bed.  I did pick out a nice one and enjoyed decorating it even if I forgot to take a picture.  Ollie our cat also enjoyed our tree this year.  He has thankfully never tried to climb it but took great joy in running across our great room and sliding on the tree skirt.  It was quite funny actually.  Art was quite adamant that we would not eat turkey on Christmas eve this year since we were invited out for Christmas day so I made him roast beef, mashed potatoes, kapusta(some sort of polish sweet and sour cabbage) and sauteed carrots.  He was quite happy with that and the maple fudge he inhaled afterwards from Penny's fudge factory not far from here in Fitzroy Harbour.  He liked his gifts (three seasons of Babylon 5 and some clothes) and I mine (tickets to see Mamma Mia).  We sat down right away to partake of the exchange and enjoyed ourselves completely.  The next day was filled with more food then I could imagine at our Pastor's house and games.  It was a nice treat for us as we are both away from our families.

New Years was a rather boring affair but we made the best of it watching movies late into the night and pausing to see the fireworks at midnight.    We also watched our very much missed Air Farce but sadly it just did not seem as funny.  Anyway, until next time...

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