Camping Season is Just Beginning!!

Okay, so camping season for this year is actually winding down, but camping season in terms of the seasons of our lives is just getting started for us! We have purchased an RV!!! Yahoo!!

This past weekend (the 21st) we picked up our trailer and took it to Vanderhoof to put it at Barry's mom and dad's for the winter. Our brilliant plan was to put it under the roof/carport area that they used to keep their fifth wheel. So, we get there and we're looking at the RV and at the carport - the RV is too high!! There's no way it's going to go in. We ended up parking it in the "corral" (fenced area where they used to keep horses).

We would really like it to be under some sort of cover for the winter, because we get pretty major winters around here, so we have made a reservation at a former dairy farm in Vanderhoof who is now using their "milking barn" for RV storage. We planned to go back to V-hoof (which is a 7hr round trip drive from Mackenzie) on the 13th of October to pull the trailer 10km down the road from my in-laws to the storage place. I know, that's a whole lot of driving for very little pulling. That was the plan until God sent us some angels in disguise!! Our dear friends Desiree and Duane are also going to store their trailer in Vanderhoof for the winter, and they have soooo kindly offered to pick up our trailer from Barry's mom and dad's place, tow it down the road and park it in storage for us!! We are so blessed to have wonderful friends. No 7 hr drive to pull the trailer 10km!!! Don't worry, Mom and Dad Candline, we will come back for another visit once the townhouse is renovated, but right now, it's a race against the clock to get these renos done.

So, thank you Desiree and Duane, we owe you guys big time!!!

Well, I'm off to phone the storage place and let them know that our trailer will be arriving tomorrow.

God Bless,

Laura

Boys Really Are Born Like That

So, Matt went for a play date with his friend, Aliyah, the other day. They have been good pals for a few years now (so, basically half their lives). We typically do a joint birthday party for Matt and Aliyah, and Desiree (Aliyah's mom) and I spend lots of time together, so these two are very much like siblings.

When I went to pick Matt up after his day with Aliyah, Desiree told me this funny story that I thought I'd share with all of you.

Aliyah, "Matt, you're going to be the husband and I'm going to be the wife, so you have to call me sweetheart all day."

Matt, "Okay, 'Liyah."

Aliya, "No, Matthew, call me sweetheart."

Matthew, "Right, sorry 'Liyah."

Do you think that poor little girl was just about ready to pull her hair out and strangle her "husband"?! My gosh, at four years old he already just says "yes" without listening and drives her insane!

Hope you chuckled,

Laura

Demolition!!!

Oh my goodness! We took possession of our Peach Tree Estates Townhouse, and we have started to rip and tear!

Okay, so I'll tell you our plans from the top level down.

Top floor: This is where the bedrooms and main bath are. We are going to put down all new flooring (laminate in the bedrooms, tile in the bathroom), new vanity, medicine cabinet in the bathroom and new light fixtures, plus a fresh coat of paint throughout.

Main floor: This is the kitchen, entrance way, half bath, and living room. We are toying with the idea of knocking out the half bath to make the kitchen larger. In any case, we will put in new cabinets, counter tops, flooring, light fixtures and paint. We are also scraping the stalactites off the ceiling and re-doing it. Might not sound like much, but so far it's been a heck of a lot of work.

Basement: Play room, laundry and storage. We are knocking out a wall, moving another one four feet over to make the play room larger, putting down new flooring, cabinets for the laundry room and storage (using the old kitchen cabinets) paint and new light fixtures. Again, it might not sound like much, but just wait till you see the before and afters.

I have taken a few "before" pictures of the upstairs and I wanted to take some of the kitchen as well, but before I got over there with my camera we had a moving mishap. I had asked Barry to empty the freezer before we moved it. Hmmm. We moved out of 607 Babine Drive on a Sunday, and on Tuesday morning I went over to the townhouse to do laundry. I walked in and was greeted by a terrible smell. A freezer tray of meat had been left on the counter and it had proceeded to thaw!!! The blood had seeped into the corner seam of the counter top, under the sink, even under the cabinet under the sink, creating a need to remove the counter tops, cabinets and some of the linoleum IMMEDIATELY!!! So, needless to say, destruction took precedence over any photography/blogging needs. I'm glad that we were planning to tear all that out anyway, if it had happened on my new counter tops I would be madder than Cruella De Ville.

I'll keep you posted on the goings on and will try to snap a few pics of various stages.

Have a blessed day!

Laura

Moving Day

So, on Sunday, September 16th we officially moved out of our house and into the basement suite next door. We were blessed by having a group of guys from our church come over and help us (even though we really didn't move far, and we only moved the stuff we will be NEEDING between now and the completion date). The purchasers are graciously allowing us to leave most of our belongings in the basement of "our" house - thank you Clarkes!

We will be staying in the basement suite until we are finished renovating our townhouse. We're planning a pretty major reno, so we're hoping to be in our "new" home around the beginning to middle of November.

After all the moving was done and I was driving Matt to a friend's house to play, he filled me in on his take of the afternoon's events:

"Mommy, you were very bossy at those mans. You know better. You are not the boss of them. You need to be polite and STOP frusertrating them."

Wow. In the busyness of the afternoon I didn't even realize that Matt was carefully noticing that the men did the carrying and Mommy did the telling them where to put things. I hope he takes his own "bossy is frusertrating" advice.

I've posted some pictures of our "old" home so that you can see where we lived, for those of you that haven't been here to visit us.

Blessings,

Laura

Company

I decided to take Matt out to Warren and Angela's today. They have five acres out in the country, two horses and lots of wonderful leaves which create the perfect place to take a picture for our Christmas card.

We pulled up to the house and I must admit, I was driving without my glasses. Not completely against the rules, but probably not the smartest idea I've ever had. I'm squinting into the sun and I see this large black "dog" shape on the deck, next to the BBQ. I think to myself, "When did Warren get a huge black dog? Jeepers, they're moving in a few weeks, I didn't think now would be the time to get an enormous dog." Just then, the "dog" turned its face towards me, and sure enough, it was a bear. I'm not even so sure it was black, it might have been a brown one, but in the sunlight it was pretty hard to tell.


He looked at me for a few minutes and then wandered behind the house towards the corral. The horses, Gus and Tank, were less than impressed. Matt and I drove down towards the barn and sat in our truck watching him for a few mintues, with Matt saying, "Mommy, close your window, he will bite you with his sharp teeth!". The bear sure didn't worry about our prescence, or the fact that the horses were around. We took a few pictures and then headed home, even though he did wander to the other side of the fence, I still wasn't about to let Matt out the truck. No pictures for us that day!

Blessings to all,

Laura

To The Rescue!

We have been having some wonderful weather here lately, bright, sunny warm fall days. We decided it 's way too nice to be inside so we headed off to the park to meet some friends. Matt was riding his big two wheeler bike (with his training wheels that are too far off the ground, so they rarely touch the pavement anyway), and I was jogging along beside him. We had been there about half an hour when Matt came screaming towards me absolutely bawling his head off. He had his first bee (wasp) sting. It got him right on his neck and started to swell up pretty much right away. Poor guy.

We decided we needed ice cream therapy, so my friend Desiree put her two kids in her nice big double stroller and I coaxed Matt back onto his bike. Thank goodness we didn't have far to go, every time Matt moved his neck the sting would start to burn again, he would bawl, close his eyes and swerve all over the road like car bait!! We made it to the rec centre and the ice cream place was CLOSED! Figures. So, we left the bike there and headed to 7-11 for a slurpee (by this time some sort of treat was needed by everyone involved). We accomplished our mission and just had the kids settled on the grass outside the rec centre with their slurpees when I spotted the Purolator truck at the church. Everyone who lives in Mackenzie knows that Andy Barnes, the pastor of our church, drives the Purolator truck. Yay! Desiree sees me eyeing it up and reads my mind, "I have no idea how else you're going to get Matthew home. There's no way he's going to ride his bike all that way, and you'll have nothing but a battle on your hands if you push the bike and try to make him walk. I'll stay with the kids - you run and ask Andy for a ride." What a good friend.

Off to the church I go. I tell Andy our tragic tale and he smiles kindly, "Let's go."

Once back at the slurpee picnic I pick up Matt's helmet and tell him that Mr. Barnes will drive us home in his big van. Matt has been having some trouble with the whole Mr. /Mrs. concept this summer. He calls both men and women Mrs. Probably because most of the adults he's around just happen to be the moms.

He looks up at me and says "Mrs. Barnes?" (Mrs. Barnes is Matt's pre-school teacher).

"No, honey, Mr. Barnes. Remember how the girls are Mrs. and the boys are Mr?"

Moments later we are home safe and sound, Andy is unloading Matt's bike from the back of the Purolator van and Matt smiles at him and says loud and clear, " Thank you Mrs. Barnes the boy one!"

So, after that whole big long saga, THANK YOU Mr. Barnes for saving the day!

And for the rest of us, ice cream really does make everything better.

Happy Birthday Steph!

Sunday, September 9th was Stephanie's 20th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Kiddo. We love you and pray God's richest blessings upon you. "...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

God has a wonderful plan for your life, and we look forward to seeing you pursue your dreams and fulfill your potential.

First Day of School

Wow! Matt is a big four year old now, and Wednesday was his first day of pre-school. I can't believe how fast his "at home" years are going.

He was so excited when he woke up that morning, he actually ate his breakfast with no song and dance, just got right down to business and then wanted to get dressed and brush his teeth right away! We were ready half an hour early, which is nothing short of miraculous for us, considering that on the days I get called in to teach I usually drop him off at the day care (Grammy Shirley - the most wonderful care giver EVER) in his pyjamas, unfed, and still blinking the sleep from his eyes, (that poor woman, bless her).

While Matt loves the routine of going to school and he's very eager to listen and learn, his teacher did tell me that he does not want to have anything to do with the writing table. If he could bypass that one and go straight to the "hammer" table, he would spend the whole free time hammering and building away. Hmmm...sound like Daddy's little buddy?:)

I'm off to pick up the boy of the hour from school day #2.

Blessings,

Laura

War Falls

This past Saturday we were set to work hard all day - sorting, pricing stuff for our garage sale, and packing. At about 9:30 we received a phone call asking us if we were interested in a day of fishing at War Falls. Okay, the truth of the matter is that our dear friend Andrea is nine months pregnant and her hubby thought it might be a good idea to drive down a dirt road and then go for a hike. All things considered, not a bad idea, really. They are more than ready to meet their next family member!! The sun was shining and there's just something about Labour Day weekend that screams "Summer is Ending!" So, we took off the work gloves and headed out for a day of fun.



Did we ever make the right decision! Our little Matt had a great time with a group of his friends, Barry got to fish with his buddies, I had a nice chat with the Moms and got to hold a beautiful baby boy! No - not the newborn, one of the other families has a four month old bundle of joy.



We drove out towards Carp Lake, and walked along a beautiful trail to get down to the falls (the only bad part was coming back up).



Our friend Keith (the mastermind behind the plan for the day) compiled a video with some of the shots that he took that day, make sure you can hear it, the music is beautiful. Hope you enjoy!