Martin and Wieska's Blog

Moved

2011-04-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

I've had some trouble with blogspot - getting pictures uploaded, etc., etc., so I decided to move our blog. You can come see us at www.martinandwieska.wordpress.com

My excuse for the wait...

2011-04-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

...our computer is broken. I had managed to choose which pictures I'd post of Justin over the past year, and then it quit. When I get access to my pictures again, I'll be back :)

When he came home...

2011-03-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

...Martin said something along the lines of,

"They say the best way to love your kids is to love your wife."

And so I got flowers from my husband on our son's birthday.

We are loved very much - and I'm so very thankful :)

Some random thoughts...

2011-03-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

...because it's been a while :)

These beautiful flowers (my very favorite kind) are thanks to my secret pal who spoiled me for a year! It was fun to finally find out who she was - I had no idea this time! It's so much fun when I can't guess :)

My new secret pal has already spoiled me with a super thoughtful gift. I think she's fantastic already! I love the secret pal thing we do at church. Not only cause it's fun to be thought of in extra little ways, but mostly cause it's fun to think of fun little surprises for the person I have!

That nice little cold bug has been making its rounds at our house too these last few weeks. Of the 3 of us, it seems to like me the most, and isn't quite ready to leave - even though I'm past ready! It's not so bad though, especially if I start looking at some of the crosses others are bearing, and so while I look forward to feeling better, I'm trying to keep it all in perspective.

Justin is nearing his 2nd birthday, and I really just can't figure out where this past year went! It's amazing how fast it goes. I hope to share a few pictures of the past year next week when we celebrate his birthday. Maybe if I promise another post I'll actually do it? :)

We are on the countdown now to meeting Baby #2!! Hard to believe we have less than 10 weeks until my due date. In many ways, this pregnancy has gone incredibly fast. For the most part, I'm feeling well, though I'm starting to feel those normal aches and pains of the third trimester. I've also developed gestational diabetes, which has been a bit of an adjustment, but we are thankful for good medical care that not only caught it, but also is helping me to manage it. I do get some extra ultrasounds out of the deal, and I kind of like that idea :)

I've made my "list" of things I'd like to have ready before the baby comes, and so between the regular stuff of life, we're trying to chip away at that. One of those things is moving Justin into a "big" bed, so we'll see how that goes! We're open to tips to make that a smooth and happy transition for him :)

One last thing to share - and that's about the study we're doing with our women's Bible study. If you ever want an eye-opening and soul-searching study, may I recommend "Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins we Tolerate" by Jerry Bridges. I'm so grateful for a group of women to get into God's Word with.

And I guess that's all for today :)

Our goofy boy

2011-02-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

Just a fun picture I took yesterday. Playing with a basket on his head. He thinks he's pretty funny. We think so too :)

Some entertainment for the day

2011-02-02T12:56:00.000-08:00

After delaying for quite a while, we finally decided to agree with our neighbor about taking this tree in our backyard (right on the fence-line) down. (I didn't think to take a picture until after they had started).

Considering that the trees is what Martin loved about our property when we bought it, this was no small decision :) But it was a pretty high and top-heavy tree - and I admit, I got a little scared anytime we had some significant wind come through.

They started at about 9, and were finished by 5 - all evidence except for a bit of sawdust gone. Pretty good, if you ask me!

Justin enjoyed watching them work.

The even more open view of the mountains is fantastic... hopefully we won't miss the shade in our backyard too much in the summer!

This time last year...

2011-01-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

...we were making daily trips to visit our new little boy.
...we were on the hunt for a carseat for him.
...we were converting our office into his bedroom.
...we were so eagerly anticipating bringing him home "for good".
...we had no idea that 1 year later we'd be having a routine doctor's appointment to check up on our 2nd baby.

Wow.

What a year it has been! We thank God for all He has blessed us with and pray that He will lead and guide us as we move into this new year and all He has planned for us.

Happy New Year to you all!

Like Father, Like Son

2010-12-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

One of the words I would use to describe my husband is "enthusiastic". It comes out in lots of ways - those of you who know him well, know what I mean.
Last night we enjoyed some special family time with his side of the family. We made it a "kid-focused" night, where we promised them games and just some special fun. Martin got right into it with these kids. It's one of the things I love about him. He takes the time to play all kinds of fun things with them - just 'cause he remembers how much he loved that kind of thing when he was little.
One of the games last night was the good-old, "find the item in the room while everyone told you if you were getting hot or cold". As usual, Martin got pretty caught up in the game - letting the kids know if they were freezing cold or burning hot or somewhere in between.
At this point in the game, someone was "so burning hot!!!!"
Which brings us to Justin. One of the ways we describe Justin is also with the word "enthusiastic". Again, those of you who know him well, know what we mean by this. Sometimes, he gets so excited, he vibrates. Quite literally. It's one of those things we've wanted to capture on camera many times, but somehow the camera just isn't ready in time. He does this over a good throw of his ball, food, Christmas lights, etc., etc. It's really quite funny. He also does this if he notices everyone else in the room getting excited - even if he doesn't have a clue why. And that's what happened last night. He got so caught up in the excitement, this is what he did:

You really have to actually see it happen to really know how funny this is - but this picture really does capture most of it.

Like father, like son?

Amazing :)

Thanks, Leanne, for these great pictures ;)

And thanks to everyone else for a really fun night together!

Snow

2010-11-29T07:48:00.000-08:00

First snowfall of the season, so we went outside to enjoy it a bit. Justin had to learn to move well in his big snowsuit, but once he got the hang of that, he enjoyed himself thoroughly. Until his hands got too cold because he didn't keep his mittens on :(

Being home

2010-11-20T20:43:00.001-08:00

Last night I worked a night shift. As much as I enjoy being back to work for a shift here and there, I think the best part is being home the next night. I so love being home with my family.
To top it all off, the wood stove is on, and I think I might just go curl up on the couch with a blanket and a book. Sounds positively delightful :)

Overwhelmed

2010-11-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Again. In fact, that might actually be an understatement.
Because Martin and I were wonderfully surprised to find out that we are expecting our second child! And this time we know the due date! We are praising God for this miracle - and also still trying to wrap our minds around it :)
To be honest, I struggled with how to word a post like this. Simply because I did not want the specialness (is that a word?) of this announcement to come across as more or less special than this one. Because they are equally special. Just different. I can't put into words how thankful and humbled we are to be able to experience both adoption and pregnancy.
Though we are excited to move forward in this journey, there are some things that I had grown to treasure about the experiences we have had (though I can not deny that there were some painful days along the way). Of course, I treasure our precious son Justin, who we can not imagine life without anymore. I also treasure the fact that God used that time to grow us and stretch us in ways I know we would not have been had we not gone through those years of infertility and the adoption of our son. And I treasure the people we met along the way, some of whom we developed wonderful friendships with - friendships that I hope and pray will continue. We are so thankful for those people, and will continue to pray that God's grace would surround them, as it did and does us.
If all goes well, we are very much looking forward to welcoming this baby the middle of May! We are fully aware that God is in control of this little life too - and we commit this child, as we have committed Justin, and our whole lives, into His care.

Precious Memories

2010-10-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

We just received these pictures the other day. The very first day we met and held our boy. I just had to share. Definitely precious memories.

Just pictures

2010-10-19T14:58:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to get these up for a little while - but for some reason, blogspot wouldn't let me. Anyways, here's a few pictures from the last month:

A family picture to remember Justin's baptism September 26

Discovering the fun of slides

Story-time with Daddy

So intrigued by horses in the field behind our house

First sit-down movie - Franklin couldn't keep his attention for long, though :)

The most efficient way to eat snacks when Mommy puts them on the floor instead of in a cup

It was a good attempt...

2010-09-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Martin has wanted to hike to the top of this peak - Yak - for a long, long time.
(Not to worry, there is a hiking way up, it's not only for rock climbers :)

So on the holiday weekend, we decided to head up there. Before leaving, we already had a small problem, and that was that our printer did not work. Yes, that is related to hiking. You see, we get our directions from the internet, and so we usually print them out so we know where we're going. But, since it didn't work, Martin just jotted some of the "main points" down. And away we went.

We spent quite a bit of time - about 45 minutes - just trying to find the trail head. Finally, I spotted some flagging tape. And what else could flagging tape mean, but a trail? And a trail it was - or maybe not. I don't think either of us have been on such a rough trail for a hike before.

But there was lots of flagging tape and it was going in the right direction - up the mountain. So we hiked. For about an hour and then we came the the base of the rock face.

We stopped for lunch, and then carried on. Unfortunately we ran stuck. That nice trail with so much flagging tape ran us to a dead end. So, after about an hour of trying to find our way up (and a little melt-down from me when we were climbing a part that I thought was too steep - a story in itself), we actually gave up on the hike. For this time. At this point, we were more determined than ever to go home, read the directions well and get to the top of the mountain some time soon.

Anyways, despite not getting to the top, we had a fantastic day. Justin took one short nap in the backpack, and was happy the whole day.

Turns out we should have taken a trail further up the road - sounds like a pretty uncomplicated way up. Now we know.

Oh yes, we did get a beautiful view of Needle Peak from this side. It's fun to think that we've been at the top of that!

Amazed

2010-09-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

At the gift of new life! I had the incredible honor and privilege of being there for the birth of our newest niece, Zoey Hendrika. I can not find words adequate to describe how special it was for me to be there.

Thank you Soph and Jeff - I will never forget that day.
And congratulations! We pray God will bless you with joy and wisdom as you raise your precious little girl!

Isn't she beautiful?

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. ~Psalm 139:14

Walking!!

2010-08-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the video won't upload... so here's a picture of Justin taking some of those first cute, unsteady steps.

A Swim at the River

2010-08-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

A beautiful evening for a picnic supper and swim at the river. We love that we live within biking distance of places like this.

Newfoundland

2010-08-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

I figured it's about time I showed you a few of our pictures of our trip to Newfoundland. A trip across the country like this is one of those things we've talked about... but never really thought we'd do it anytime soon. And then my brother got married there. Made for a nice excuse to go out there :)
I was a little nervous about travelling for almost 10 hours with Justin over night - but he did really well. He definitely didn't sleep his regular 12 hours, but he did manage to sleep several hours on the plane. And, even with this lack of sleep, he was a very well behaved, happy boy. I really didn't have to worry about anything.
We spent the first part of our trip in the town of Gander, where T & L got married. We had a most wonderful host family while we were there. We slept in their RV, ate a lot of our meals with them, and just really enjoyed being with this family! When I discovered a stain on Martin's shirt for the wedding the day before the wedding, C even took care of cleaning it for me! Justin also very much enjoyed this family - especially their 12-year old son, J. He took to him instantly. One night around midnight (since a 4-hour time difference affects a little boy's ability to sleep), J had Justin laughing harder than we've ever seen before or since. It was a real "belly" laugh - and one of the cutest things ever. Too bad we didn't get that on video. But that will always be a fun memory!! Thanks again L's for everything!!
When we weren't doing wedding-related things, we spent some time with my family just seeing some of the country there.

Note: Martin wanted to find a place with "open ocean" very bad. We missed the spot that was recommended to us to stop, and decided to stop here instead. Martin and Dad got some great shots... but the girls got attacked by hoards of crazy little bugs! Don't think we'll ever forget that ;)

Gander also had a new splash park there that Justin enjoyed very, very much! He had the most fun the first day we went there, but of course, I forgot my camera that time. He had fun this time too, though - so here's a few pictures of the fun he had in the water there.
Of course, meeting Uncle Thys & Auntie Leah was a highlight of the trip too. My picture with Justin & Leah didn't turn out, but as you can see, Thys knew how to win our little boy over: food :) This is them at the rehersal dinner.
And the whole reason for the trip:
Congratulations Thys & Leah!!
After the wedding weekend was over, we headed out with just the 3 of us for the rest of our time away. The first day, we spent some time in St. John's - we did the "touristy" things and saw Signal Hill and Cape Spear.

The most easterly point in North America

We stayed in the little town of Tors Cove in this house. The owner was very friendly, and when he heard we wanted to hike part of the East Coast trail, he offered to have us drop our vehicle at one spot and then he drove us to the next entrance point so that we wouldn't have to go back and forth on the same trail. That was great, because it gave us time to do another part of the trail a little further on that day as well! Here's some pictures of our hiking day. All that ocean air tuckered this little guy out.

He slept through the rest of the hike, getting transferred

into the carseat and then for the next hour or so until

we got to the next part of our hike.

Enjoying a campfire at the place we stayed.

The next day we headed back for home again. Again, Justin did super well - thanks mostly to Martin - I just didn't seem to have the right touch this time :)We chose a little longer layover in Calgary so that we could visit Martin's mom & dad for a couple of hours. Mom found a nice park near the airport and packed a delicious picnic lunch. It was so nice to see them and get to have a break in the long day of travelling.

Back at the airport, waiting for our next flight.

Coming home was so nice! It was especially fun to see Justin go check out his favorite play spots in the house. He has 3, and he raced (yes, he still crawls, but he's pretty quick) from one to the next to the next!

Thought I'd share...

2010-08-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

Ever have it that you don't know exactly how or what to pray? I'm thinking I'm not the only one, so when I came across these helpful lists, I figured they'd be a good thing to share. There are at least 3 things I like to pray about and for everyday. One is to praise God; one is to pray for my husband; the other is to pray for my son. These links are 31-item "calendars" that list different things/ways to pray in these areas. Of course, we're not limited to praying only these things - but they are a great place to start. And I'm sure these lists can be used for others in our lives too - not just our spouse and children. Anyways, hope they are helpful for you too!

"Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16

Complete

2010-08-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Seven months minus one day since we heard about our precious boy; six months and sixteen days after he came home, we got that special phone call from the lawyer's office to say that the adoption order has been granted!! I nearly cried - got pretty choked up. I can't say I expected that response from myself, but I guess this is, and always will be a sensitive spot for me. Our sweet boy is now legally our son, and we are so excited that the process is complete! To set the record straight, it's not that as of Wednesday we view him any different, he's been our son in our hearts since day one, but there's just something special about it being finished!
Adoption has a bitter-sweet element to it though, and while we are thrilled to have this little boy and call him our son, we also remember his birthmom. {I once came across a blog where the writer beautifully acknowledged her daughter's birthmom, and (with her permission) I too want to do that - though I'm not such a skillful writer.} We think of her as we celebrate, knowing that she very likely feels her loss each and every day. We hope that she will always know that she is a very special and important part of who Justin is, and that she holds a special place in our hearts. We can not describe what an honor it is to be given a child through adoption; to have the opportunity to meet Justin's birthmom, and have her ask us to be the parents of her little boy. This selfless act of love that she made for him (and for us) is something we will always respect her for. Despite other "options" she chose to give Justin life, and we are forever grateful to her for that and for entrusting her son to us.

Again, we realize God's hand in bringing this all about, and we praise Him! And pray that He will help us to raise our son to His honor and glory.

We celebrated this special event in typical Martin-Wieska style: with ice cream. And, while Justin was and is completely unaware of the end of "the process" he thoroughly enjoyed the treat :)

Coming Home

2010-07-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

We love coming home to this place. Especially after being gone for a while. The pictures are mostly for those who don't live close by enough to be able to come see us here.... I took them a few weeks ago now, and the wave petunias in the flower boxes have exploded! Hopefully the gazanias and geraniums planted behind them will catch up soon so that we can actually see them again :)We had two very good trips away - one at youth camp at BBWC, and one in Newfoundland to be at my brother's wedding and see some of the country there. Justin was a fantastic traveller. Got a bit of a cold the first trip, but otherwise handled the non-routineness and long airplane rides like a trooper. Will share more on those trips later.

For me, the week will finish up with the "regular" things around here. Laundry, baking, cleaning, work in the yard, etc. All the good stuff of being home :)

Grateful for these moments

2010-06-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

The other night I had one of those special moments with my boy in the "routineness" of life.
Justin generally loves to go to bed... it's really only teething or still being hungry that usually makes him not settle well for the night. But that night, though he seemed so tired and ready for bed, he just didn't seem to settle the way he usually does... and so I went back to his room to see if I could start to figure out what might be bothering him. I picked him up, and he quieted right away... and for the next few minutes he just snuggled. Then, kinda suddenly, he started to look over at his bed - usually a sign that there's no place he'd rather be than there. So I figured I'd try lay him down again... though I didn't really think it could be that easy. But it was. Thumb in mouth, and Ruffy in his other hand, he settled right off to sleep, just like that.

All he needed was a snuggle.

And I was hit again by how truly blessed I am to be a mom. I'm so grateful for the many moments like this one that I now get to enjoy. The kind that I looked forward to for a long time - and that I hope I never take for granted.

All boy

2010-05-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

We thoroughly enjoyed the nice summery days we had here - and did lots of work outside. Justin loves to be outside too... and one of his favorite things is to play in the dirt. Typical boy. If it was nice outside today, I'd take some pictures of some of the work we've been doing here... but it's not. So in the meantime, these ones will have to do!

Accomplishments

2010-04-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

We've all been busy over here...

A few pictures should be pretty self-explanatory about who's accomplished what:

The coffee table is complete and in the living room.

The roman shade is complete - just don't look too closely :)

And this little man has discovered how to pull himself up on furniture. He has now also accomplished getting up to his feet, but on this particular day it was his knees, and he was so very proud :)

One!

2010-03-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Justin's first birthday!!
We had special but simple celebrations as we enjoyed this special milestone with him.
Saturday, my family came over for dinner.

Enjoying his first ever piece of cake. Not even that messy!

Trying to find his present from Nana & Papa.

Sunday, we enjoyed another simple but special time with Justin's cousins, aunts and uncles on Martin's side - but I forgot to take a camera... so no pictures of that one :)

Winter Camp

2010-03-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Martin took a Friday and Saturday a few weeks ago to go winter camping with a few friends. Winter camping is one of those things you either think is a fun and exciting experience, or one that you wonder why in the world you're sleeping in an igloo when you have a comfortable bed only about an hour's drive away...

Of course, Martin is on the side that says this type of adventure is fun :).
Friday was spent hauling the stuff up and then building the igloos, eating supper, sitting around the fire, and then going to bed - though that didn't necessarily mean sleep for some :(.

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful, clear day - perfect for snowshoeing up Zoa. I hear it was a lot of work getting up (3 hours of climbing) which was rewarded by gorgeous views and then a fun 1-hour trip down.

Sleeping...

2010-02-25T13:12:00.001-08:00

...with Ruffy :)

Ruffy is the stuffed animal that Justin has slept with ever since he came home from the hospital. We're told it used to be bigger than him ;). I'm hoping that it will be one of those "special" items that stay with him. You know, one of those items for his "special box" when he decides he's too big to sleep with it one day. Anyways, we checked on him one night, to find him sleeping soundly with Ruffy on his head. So very cute.

Speaking of sleep... I thought I had finally finished the roman shade for Justin's room - so that we could take down the blanket that's been hanging there to keep the light out while he naps during the day. But apparently, now that I figured I was a pro at making these curtains (this is my fourth one), I made quite a disaster of it. We went to hang it the other night, and discovered that it was sewn totally crooked. I'm quite disappointed. I'll have to take a bunch of the seams out and try again. Will let you know when I'm finished :).

New Adventure: Swings!

2010-02-09T19:44:00.001-08:00

This past weekend, my sister, Rianne came out to meet her new nephew. We had a fun weekend of family time. One sunny afternoon, we took Justin to the park and put him in the swing. It was super fun for him and also for us :)

A little hesitation?

Nah, not really... this is fun!

Even better when I'm sitting forward in the swing!

(Although I think it looks uncomfortable)

I mean WAY better!!

Side-tracked by the shiny bolt...

Some fun with Auntie Rianne

(Yes, Martin had to look twice too - we're actually twins born a few years apart :)

A couple projects and a smile

2010-01-26T11:20:00.001-08:00

Believe it or not, in the middle of the time of waiting for Justin to come home, we had some time that we had to fill - and we thought we might as well make it productive time! Martin had a few days off at that time because of the Christmas/New Years holidays, so he took the opportunity to make our coffee table. It is almost finished being sanded, and then is ready for staining. We were pretty excited about how that turned out!

I used some of those evenings to make a diaper bag with some of the extra fabric I had from Justin's crib quilt... and was pretty excited about how that turned out too! (I used this pattern.)

And, just cause now that our life isn't the same without our little guy, a blog post without a new picture of him wouldn't be the same either, right? I think this is the best ever smile caught on camera. He gives them to us lots... just not usually for the camera... enjoy! :)

Meet our little boy!

2010-01-16T17:23:00.000-08:00

Here he is... I know, we're biased, but you have to admit, he's cute :) What an incredible couple of weeks we have had! The transition time went very well - we praise God for answered prayer in this! Justin took to us very easily, and his foster family is wonderful! They were so helpful in making this transition as easy on both us and Justin as they could. We are so grateful for their time and help through this.

The first couple of days, we just spent some time at Justin's foster home... we would feed him and play with him...

On the second day, we got to take him for a walk... it was cold, so we bundled him all up. :)

On Friday, we had our first "family outing". The Mission White Spot will always be a great memory for us! We wondered how many people could tell we were new at this, but we didn't mind... we enjoyed every minute! Justin was really intrigued by his dad drinking his milkshake:Tuesday was the big day!!! He came home!!! We had a wonderful evening together - and that night, we peeked into his room quite a few times... he is really ours! We're still trying to wrap our minds around that.

Since then, we've had many fun moments here. He's a very happy little boy, who loves to sit on a blanket on the floor with his toys, or just roll around on the carpet... he "bobbles" and flails his arms and legs when he gets excited... we could go on and on! We are so much enjoying all his little antics and giggles. One of my favorites is what happens when we turn on music. I know, he's not the first to do this, but he's ours, so in our minds, it's extra cute :)

Anyways, I won't go on anymore. We praise God for how things have gone, and look to Him to help us as we take on this role of raising our son. We thank you all for the wonderful support we have received - it has been truly overwhelming.

"The Call"

2010-01-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

A phone call can change your life. 2 months ago our family went through an experience with my (Martin) mom and her brain tumour which significantly impacted our lives. Last week another phone call took place that will again significantly impact our lives. As of today, we are beginning the process of bringing a little son into our home and into our lives. The last week was full of expectation, excitement, lack of sleep, and much joyful anticipation. Today we met him for the first time and immediately he won his way into our hearts. The day was full of visiting and phoning as we shared the news with those close to us and we look forward to some good sleep tonight. If all goes well, we hope to have him with us by the middle of next week.

As we enjoy this time of excitement, we also eagerly anticipate the joy and challenge of parenting. We read earlier this week something from John Piper and we agree with him in this that our greatest desire as we bring up this little boy is that he becomes someone who makes much of God in all the joys and challenges in life.

I won't continue on tonight - our heads and hearts are full right now.

Snowshoeing... and stuff :)

2010-01-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

Martin has found a new sport to add to his list of favorites! Lucky for him (and me) I enjoy it too :)

A couple of weeks ago, we went up to Falls Lake with one of Martin's co-workers and his wife. We had a really great time with them! Definitely something we plan to do again sometime. If you ask Martin why this made it into his list of favorites, here's what he says: "This way, I can summit mountains in the winter too!!"

A couple of other things:

*The coffee table is under construction... and almost complete!! By tonight it should be ready for sanding and staining!!

*And... most important of all...

We get to be an aunt and uncle again!!! This time on my side of the family!! We are thrilled :) Praying that the pregnancy goes well, and looking forward to meeting this baby in September!

It's time...

2009-12-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

...to set the record straight. I have to say, it was fun reading all the comments my last post caused :). But I should let you all know that my impatience was more with all the legitimate things that prevent us from getting that coffee table made, than with Martin not doing his part. I have a list of projects too that are waiting to be worked on, and that's just life. Slowly but surely, we'll get things done... only to create another list of projects to work on!
This last week, Martin has been busy installing a laundry tub and fixing the dryer venting. I'm so glad for all the work he does around our place!

2009-11-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

Isn't this a lovely piece of pine?

I think so. Mostly, because I'm picturing the nice new coffee table it will some day be transformed into. Some day!!

We've got mail!

2009-11-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

In our new mailbox on our new fence!

This fence is something we've been talking about for a while now... We've had trouble on occasion with the neighbors horses coming on our yard. Their heavy footprints leave some ugly marks, and so we wanted to find a way to prevent that. A split rail fence sounded like a great idea - I didn't want anything that made our cute little house look like a jail. And then when I was visiting a sweet older lady from our church, I found out that she had some split rail sitting in her barn that she wasn't planning on using. A free pre-aged split rail fence! How great is that? So, Martin & his dad spent a bit of time the last few weeks digging holes and putting in the fence. Our ugly, old, green, covered in moss mailbox was in the way, so it got pulled out - yay!!! Another thing we'd been talking about doing for a while. Our new mailbox is nothing really exciting (except for the red flag - something our old mailbox didn't have) - but it's a big improvement from the last one we had!!

The fun of wrapping

2009-10-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

My dad is one of those "brown paper bag" gift-giving people. Makes sense... why spend an extra $5 or more on something that just ends up in the garbage? Might as well spend those few extra $$ on the gift and skip the wrapping, right? Right.
But how do I combine that thought with the fun of wrapping something up all pretty and fun? I have to say - I have as much fun now with the presentation of the gift as I do buying the gift.
There are tonnes (and I mean tonnes) of inexpensive ideas for gift wrapping on the internet. I admit, I sometimes spend too much time looking... but it's fun to see what I can find.
Last year some time, I was looking for a fun (but inexpensive :) way to wrap a little gift for some girls. I came across this idea - and pretty much copied. Here's mine:

A little while later, I took this idea a little step further. I just changed the measurements on the box part to make a bit bigger box, and then made a lid for it using the same concept. Then I "prettied" it up and added a matching card.
Having said all that... I have to admit, I still use brown paper bags on occasion. I bought a whole package of lunch bag size just for gift wrap. But I can't help adding a little ribbon or something to it. Still inexpensive... still fun!!

A bit of everything

2009-09-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

I've managed to stay busy lately with a bunch of things. Of course, some of the more "routine" things of life have started up again - weekly youth meetings, violin lessons, Bible study, etc. Always welcomed after the summer, but it still somehow takes a bit of an adjustment to get back into the swing of it all.

I've done a bit of jam making again this year. My strawberry jam took me two tries. Martin and I really wanted to have sugar free jam - and since I'm stubborn enough, if it takes 2 times to get it right, then that's what I'll do. It tastes pretty good, although a bit different (more tangy) then all of that sugar loaded jam.

Yesterday a friend came over and we canned peaches. Also a sugar-free variety. Don't they look fantastic?!

Today I will attempt the peach jam. Again, sugar-free. Hopefully I can do it in one go this time :)

I have also been spending a bit of time working on the crib bedding for the little one we are waiting for. I had seen something with brown and white polka dots - and absolutely loved it - and I was determined to find a similar fabric to work with. It took a bit of hunting - but I found it... and I love it!

Figuring out what exactly to do with it was a different story... but thanks to some tips from others, and my mom's quilting expertise, this is what it's looking like so far. You'd never guess that I spent a very frustrating morning looking for the brown and green borders... and while they're different than what I had in mind at first (why would a store have every color of corderoy except for a nice chocolate brown??) I'm liking the result. I'm currently working on hand-stitching around a few of the dots to make them "pop" a bit (not my idea - but a suggestion that I absolutely loved!). I'll be making a roman shade to match it - I'll show you that when it's done.

Anyways, on to making jam, doing laundry, cleaning gutters, etc. I've got another full day ahead!

A day with my brother

2009-08-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

It worked out well to be camping a bit more north in Ontario, because it meant we were only an hour and a half away from my brother & his fiance. So the day after we got to the campground, we took the day to go spend time with Thys. Leah was working that day, so she could only join us for supper. We had a beautiful and fun day - spent mostly on a lake near his house.

We spent a couple hours here - relaxing on this little spot on the beach
or playing frisbee in the water.

Then we cruised around in his little boat for a while. This

area is beautiful! We were trying to imagine how amazing

this place would look in the fall!

Thys had mentioned something about cliff jumping quite

a way down the lake - a spot we didn't have time to go

to anymore that day - but then we came across

this little spot - and the boys decided it was also a

great spot to jump from!

Checking it out...Taking the plunge!The view from the topWhen we got back, Thys and Leah made us a delicious dinner.

We finished off the day with a campfire and s'mores and pie - even though we were still stuffed from dinner! It was a good day.

Camping in Ontario

2009-08-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason we picked these particular days for our trip to Ontario was to join in on the annual camping trip with a few of Martin's cousins and their families. We had a fantastic and relaxing time together at Arrowhead Provincial Park.

We were pretty proud of this setup! Martin & I had

our own site a little ways down - but we spent the

majority of our time at J&M's site... they had all the food!! :)

Since J&M did most of the planning and looked after us

so well - we figured it was only fair if we at least took

care of doing the dishes!

A little hike/walk we went on

Checking something out with Uncle Martin

Snack time after our walk

We spent most of the afternoons at the beach

And then came the rain...

They had a little interactive thing about logging, so

a bunch of us went there - a little change of scenery

from our tarps at the campsite. They had a couple

little games to play - so that's what me and Zach

are doing

All the mom's had been prepared - and so the

kids got to go from site to site to do a different

craft - coloring, painting rocks, etc. It kept the

kids entertained well. Martin & Joel took the chance

to play a game of chess.

Some one had this brilliant idea so we could still enjoy our

campfire that night! The rain actually let up for the whole

evening - so we didn't end up needing them - but

it looked kinda neat!

I guess that sums up the camping part of the trip! We considered going home on that really rainy day, but were glad we stuck it out. We had really looked forward to camping with everyone - and we weren't disappointed!

The trip there

2009-08-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Ok. Over 3 weeks since the last post. Wieska's been busy so I (Martin) thought I would fill in for her this time.

So, our vacation....

I have come to realize that vacation is really a privilege and a blessing. I am sure there are many in the world who do not think of vacation or holidays like we do. We were very thankful to have the opportunity this year to go to Ontario for 10 days.

We left on a Thursday night, catching a red-eye flight across to Ontario. We stopped over in Calgary and had a quick coffee with Wieska's sister, Rianne, before we continued to Toronto.

Arriving in Toronto we had rented a car from a place that was about 5 miles from the airport since it was less that half the cost of renting directly from the airport. So, we picked up our bags and went to find a taxi. That was easy until the driver told us it would be $30 to drive us 5 minutes away! We dropped that idea and decided to take the city buy - except that there were over 5 city buses at the airport. After asking questions we located the right bus which took us close to where we wanted to be. As we walked the remainder of the way, a lady stopped and offered us a ride which we gladly accepted. Renting the car was a smooth process and we hit the road toward Chatham - the place where I grew up. We didn't last long, however, and found a rest area where we caught some much needed sleep.

After 2 hours of sleep we had a quick lunch and carried on only to be stopped by a flat tire 15 minutes later. Problem was, our beautiful little rental car had a spare tire but no jack - and Wieska wasn't strong enough to lift the car while I changed the tire. Thankfully we were near a rest area and could borrow somebody's jack

Notice the nice dog poop I managed to step in with my right foot.

With the little donut on the tire we managed to find a tire shop only 20 mintues away and they had a new (used) tire on the car in a few minutes. So we carried on without incident to Chatham
We dropped in on a few people in Chatham - one being my old friend back when I lived there. It was good to drop in and catch up a bit.

We also visited a few of my old teachers from school back then. Following our visits we grabbed an ice cream and decided to drive the 2 hours to Mitchell so we wouldn't have to do any driving on Saturday. We arrived at Joel and Marianne's around 10:30 pm. glad to be done our travelling stint for the weekend.

Youth camp

2009-07-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, youth camp this year was fantastic! We had great weather, great youth, great cooks and other volunteers, and just an all-around great time!
There were three activities to choose from on the Friday and Saturday... canoeing, hiking, or the "lazy day" of going to the Othello tunnels and then just hanging out at the beach at Kawkawa Lake.

There was lots of time for other fun and games too:

One of the biggest hits was the "slip and slide" that a couple of our youth came up with. The camp is built on a slope, which was perfect for this! They spent hours on it!

We also used it in a relay-type game of "Ultimate Spoons". Definitely a fun twist to that game! (Going around the crates down the slip and slide, running for a ball, putting an olive in our mouth on the way to popping a balloon for a ribbon inside it and then running up the hill for a spoon!)

I got to spend my birthday up at camp this year. They decorated the dining hall for me... and this was my "breakfast birthday cake" :)

As the intent for this weekend was not only to grow in our relationships with others, but also in our walk with God, we also spent some time in His Word. The theme for the weekend was "Denying the power", which is a little phrase taken from 2 Timothy 3:5, which says that in the last days, there will be people "having a form of godliness but denying its power". The focus was on powerful godliness - what prevents it, and how we can have it. Definitely practical and relevant.

We had a fantastic bunch of youth come out for this - and it was a tonne of fun getting to know them. Of course, something like this can only happen as a team effort... and so again, thanks to those who met with us several times to plan the camp, those who volunteered to chaperone and help out with driving, etc., our fantastic cooks, and our speakers. Camp wouldn't have been the same with out each one of you!

Where to start...

2009-07-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

We've had a few busy but fun weeks the last while... and I'm trying to figure out how to best tell about them. The second weekend in July was youth camp, which was a fantastic time! After that, we had a few days to clean up from that and pack up for the next thing... our trip to Ontario! The last few years a group of Martin's cousins and their families go camping out there, and we figured it would be fun if we could book a trip to Ontario around that time. Finally this year it worked. It was definitely worth looking forward to this trip! There was lots of driving and visiting (some of Martin's old acquaintances from when he lived out there, his brother and family and other relatives, my brother...), but it was relaxing too.
I think I'll just do what I did last year after our vacation and tell about it little bits at a time.

I discovered...

2009-07-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

...that I really enjoy digital scrapbooking! I've been thinking about doing this for a while - but didn't have a good program for it, and just wasn't sure if I'd like it. Our adoption profile had to include some picture pages, and I had to make several copies of it, so I figured it would be a good time to try it out. A friend of mine let me know about a great Costco coupon that made the program I wanted (Photoshop Elements) much less expensive - which is always nice :). Then another friend of mine told me about an online course that was super helpful! I'd recommend it to anyone that uses photoshop.

What I love about digital scrapbooking:

you can make anything any color you want
all the freebies you can download - free paper, embellishments, etc, etc!
you can do so much more with your pictures
it's way faster (for me anyways)
NO MESS!!!! I think this is my favorite part. I can work for awhile - then just save it and close the program - no pile of papers sitting on the table for days until I finish the layout!

Here's a couple of the layouts I made while taking the course:

Some fun parts of camp planning

2009-06-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

We've learned over the past couple of years, that whenever we're planning a youth event, we should have as good an idea as possible of what's involved. Right now we're planning a youth camp for a couple of weeks from now - which includes an option for canoeing. We had heard about canoeing the Harrison River, but hadn't actually done that ourselves yet, so we decided to go out on Saturday with a few of the others involved in planning and see what it was all about. We put our canoes in at Harrison Lake, and then paddled down the river for about 17km to Kilby. It was a fantastic trip! Beautiful scenery, and a fun group to hang out with for the day.

We did meet up with a bit of wind, so there was some harder paddling - but not all of it was intense paddling - as you can see from the pictures :).

We found a great little spot overlooking the river to eat lunch.

Hopefully the campers that sign up for canoeing enjoy it as much as we did!!

I'm back.... I think :)

2009-06-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I think I'm going to be getting back into this blogging thing. This has definitely taken a place on the back burner the last couple of months. I was rather occupied with another big computer project until June 3... and so that took up any spare time I used on the computer. You could say I was a bit of a perfectionist with the project - which made it take pretty long - but I think I had good reason to spend a lot of time with it.

The project was our profile that is currently with Hope Adoption Agency. We are praying that the letters we wrote and the pictures we put together for this special book will touch the heart of a birthmom who is looking for a family to place her child with. This means that after several months (which is incredibly fast, by the way) of going to seminars, completing a lot of paperwork and a homestudy, we are now simply waiting. It's an up-and-down kind of thing. Super exciting on somedays, and overwhelming on others. The "surprise" factor is hard for me. Not that I don't love a nice surprise - I do... but this one feels sometimes like I want to know when we get to be parents. But that's not how it's meant to be... and so we will wait for God's timing on this and trust that He knows what is best for us.

As for the rest of life... things have kept us busy. Lots of yard work the past month or so - which as been a lot of fun. Our backyard (thanks to my gardening friend) looks fantastic - and is pretty low maintenance now. And the window boxes are all planted up again too. I'm not sure I'm super crazy about them yet. I tried something different than last year (not sure why - cause I loved my window boxes last year) - but we'll see how they look as the plants get bigger. Hopefully they'll turn out alright. And just cause a blog post is just a little more fun with a picture, here's one of my window boxes last year. I know I put a picture of them right after I planted them last year here, and thought it might be fun to show you what they looked like at the peak of the season! Enjoy!

So weird...

2009-04-15T01:24:00.000-07:00

We were at Martin's mom & dad's place on Sunday night - when a really weird thing happened. Martin had gone to the car to get something, and came back in to say that when he closed the door - the whole back window of our car caved in! Now, if you know Martin at all, you know he likes to make up kind of random, less than believable stories - so at first, I did not believe him. But he convinced me (and everyone else) to look outside - and sure enough - there was a big huge hole in the window! Nothing hit it... all he did was shut the door!
Weird.
Anyways, we're glad for comprehensive insurance coverage - and a place that could have it fixed the next day.

Spilled Milk

2009-04-11T09:31:00.001-07:00

On occasion, you might find us being less than our usual mature selves at home :). One night last week, when we were eating supper, Martin thought it might be fun to balance a jug of milk on his head. Please note, that it was a full jug of milk - only one glass had been poured from it yet.

Of course, me, thinking about the possible mess, thought maybe this wasn't such a good idea - and so I told him as much. Martin didn't seem to think it was a problem - the only thing he wanted at that point was "a flat head" so that it would be easier to balance!

When he finally decided to give up on the whole balancing thing - he thought it would be fun to scare me into thinking he dropped the jug of milk. The only problem is, he actually did drop it! At first, I thought for sure it would have split open - but lucky for him - the lid only came off, and so not too much milk was spilled :). (Note the jug of milk in the picture.)

He was feeling just a little foolish at the end of this - and so rushed to get something to clean it up with. I decided that having a picture or two of him cleaning up his mess would be a good way to capture this memory! No use in crying over spilled milk, right?

Good food for thought

2009-03-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

I've heard this little "story" before, but I got it today in an email, and thought it was worth passing along. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to you!

Malachi 3:3 says:
"He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:"He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered,
"Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it."
If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

One of Martin's recent projects

2009-02-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am, putting in a blog entry as well. My little entry here will be very brief. The last few months I have been working on a little bar that we could put in our youth room at church - a place to hold the food and drink and some other misc. stuff. More importantly, my hope was that it would be another way or place or setting to have conversation. So, I tackled my first project with Eddie Visscher - one of the junior high youth in our church. We got together a few hours every month and just did a little bit at a time - having a lot of fun while we did it. We were satisfied with the end product as we are both amatuers at this kind of thing. I give most of the credit to Eddie for his work on this. He did almost all of the nailing - while i just held everything in place. I forgot to take pictures of the progress - but here is a couple of the finished product wn in our youth room at church .

A few fun little changes...

2009-01-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

Not that they're super exciting or anything, but I thought I'd show you anyways! Whenever I take down our Christmas decorations, I get this urge to change up some of the decor in my living room... and this year was no different. The changes aren't huge - all the furniture is still in the same spot... but I changed my coffee table centerpiece, and made some changes to one of the corner shelves.

I had found this basket on clearance before Christmas, intending to fill it with pine cones and a candle in the middle. I got a candle in it, and an evergreen garland around it, but somehow the pinecones never made it! Oh well. I decided to find a way to use the basket for the rest of the year too, so this is what I did! I got the garland as a Christmas gift, and then just bought the wicker and some other kind of cool looking balls. Then I took some strips of fabric and wrapped some styrofoam balls to finish it off. I'm happy with how it turned out! The pictures of my coffee table are a little deceiving... it's not usually totally clear like that. It seems to be the collecting area for any books or magazines we're reading through... but for the sake of the picture, I cleared off the table!

As for the corner shelf, I had seen some pictures in a scrapbooking magazine, and came up with this. I found the twigs for the vase at a greenhouse, and just added a bit of color with the "pick" from one of my favorite little home decor stores. The quote on the front of the album says "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years" (Abraham Lincoln). We saw it at my cousin's place when we were there, and liked it - and I couldn't decide on a picture to put in the spot, so I figured the quote would be just right!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

We are looking forward to this year! Of course, we don't know what will all come our way, but somehow a new year just feels like a "fresh start" and we're excited about that! I'll be sure to keep sharing "glimpses of us" every now and again.

I thought I would start this year off by sharing a message that I read recently. It's by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, from Revive Our Hearts ministries. She is a gifted speaker and author - I have been so blessed by her ministry! This message spoke to me... putting things in perspective once again. Before I share that message, I also want encourage any women out there reading this to take part in the 30-day True Woman Make-over that she put together as well. It's a study through Proverbs 31, 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and Titus 2:1-5. All you have to do is sign up, and you'll get an email with the link to that day's message everyday! It's taking me longer than 30 days, as I'm not able to do it everyday, but I am learning a lot from this series so far!

Anyways, on to the message I mentioned earlier:

"Are you content not to be recognized, not to be appreciated, not to have people make a big deal about what you’re doing because you’ve accepted the goal for your life that you will make Him to be known? Your goal is to make Him to be seen, to be great, and it really doesn’t matter then what others think about you.
When Mary prayed her great prayer in Luke chapter 1, verse 48, she said, “[God] has been mindful of the humble state of his servant” (NIV). She did not see herself as worthy of the favor of God. She knew that it was all of God’s goodness and His grace that He was using her. She really had the spirit of John the Baptist. Remember how he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, ESV).
Are you willing to decrease—to be less known, to take the place of humility—in order that He can increase? You can never go wrong on the pathway of humility because it’s not about us—it’s all about Him. It’s about what God is doing through His Son Jesus in our world, and we’re just instruments.
Some time ago I remember meeting a woman who was a well-known violinist in an Eastern European country. She talked about this matter of humility, and she held up her violin and she said, “It would be foolish for this violin to think that it is anything.” She said, “What makes it something is when someone who knows how to play it begins to play it.”
Then she said, “We are as that block of wood in the hands of God, and if any beautiful music comes through our lives, it’s not because we were anything. It’s because the Master knew what to do with us and how to use us as simply an instrument in His hands.”
So we realize it’s not about this block of wood. It’s about the Lord who wants to make beautiful music through us, reflecting His glory to others."

God bless you as you go into 2009!!

A little trip to Nelson

2008-12-12T12:28:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we went to Nelson to spend the weekend with my cousin. It was a nice relaxing visit. We did some hiking (of course), some shopping in the "cute little town", went to Ainsworth Hotsprings, and did lots of reading! We didn't take a lot of pictures, because we forgot the camera, but we used Monica's camera when we went on our hike, so I thought I'd show a picture of that.

Amazing encouragement!

2008-12-03T11:03:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I'm really not so good at updating this blog regularly! Sometimes it's lack of time, and other times, it's lack of imagination... and I don't know what to post! Anyways, this time, I thought I would just share something that I have been so encouraged by lately. We are in the middle of making a pretty big decision... and we so much want to do what God would have us do in this. We have been making a conscious effort to bring this to God, and these are some of the things I have "stumbled" across this past week.

Psalm 16

"I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

Psalm 25

"To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in You I trust, oh my God.

Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God, my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.

Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him."

Isaiah 30

The beginning of the chapter, God tells us that there are consequences when we just choose our own plan - not following Him. But then, look at these verses!

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!

Oh people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as He hears, He will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'"

I am overwhelmed by His promise to lead and guide all those who trust Him. It was just such an amazing confirmation to us that God hears our prayers, and will give us direction! We truly serve an amazing and loving God!

Over-wintering Geraniums

2008-10-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hello!

It's been a while, so I thought I better get back on here and update bit. We've been doing a bit of our fall clean-up around the yard, and I remembered that I told you before that I would tell you all how I saved my geraniums over the winter last year. It totally worked, and this year I had beautiful, big geraniums. I'll definitely do this again and again. A friend of mine told me how, so I won't take the credit myself - but I figured it was info worth passing on!
Step 1: In the fall (any time now), dig the geraniums up, and shake off the dirt. Then set them in a box (not too tight, you want air to be able to get at them). Store the box in a cool, dry place. That's the first step... pretty easy!

Step 2: In February, (sorry, I don't have any pictures of this step), you'll need to cut the roots back. They will be fine (like hair). After that, plant them in pots. If you have a sunny place to put them, that helps... but they need to stay inside. Water them as needed.

Step 3: In March, you need to give the plants a "haircut". They will have grown quite a bit, and you want to cut them down to about 3-4" plants. Don't throw the stalks that you cut off away... those can be set in water, and they will root. The plants in the pots will make big plants, and the stalks will make smaller plants that are perfect for window boxes, planters, etc. Still keep them inside for the most part. I put them outside if we had a sunny warm day, but then took them back in at night. Once the stalks have rooted well, and there's no more frost, they're ready to be planted outside! Enjoy!

Just before the "haircut".

After the haircut.

The stalks are rooting...

And here are a few pictures of what they looked like at the peak of the season:

Murtle Lake - Day Five

2008-10-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back to tell you about day five!

It had rained all night and the rain continued off and on until early afternoon. Because of that and the fact that we knew today was a shorter paddle, we decided to give ourselves a bit of a later start. We were back on the water at about 11, and canoed for about an hour. It was the one day we had to have our rain gear on for the trip - which was way less than we were expecting!

The wind started to pick up a bit, but it was going in the right direction for us, so we decided to stop and rig up a sail for the canoe.

Wouldn't you know that it stayed windy for the entire time we were making the sail, but as soon as we got back on the water, the wind died down. We kept it up for quite a while, hoping the wind would pick up again, but that didn't happen, so eventually we took it down (it was a bit hard for Martin to steer, and for us to keep our paddling coordinated with the sail in the way).

We got to the same campsite as the first night at about 2:30. After debating if we should just go home this afternoon already, we decided to set up camp again, and just spent another relaxing afternoon here. The sky actually cleared in the evening again, and we enjoyed our last night on the lake.

****************

There's not a whole lot to say about Day 6, so I'll just include it here. We were up early, because we wanted to get the portage over and done with. At first we tried to carry the canoe while we carried our packs with all our gear, but that didn't go so well, so we still ended up doing it in two trips. The handle system we had figured out on Day 3 worked pretty good, but it was still awkward. We added some straps to it and placed those over our "outside" shoulder - that distributed the weight a bit better, and we managed to do quite well after that. It still took us about 2 hours to get everything back to the truck.

When we were hiking on Day 2, we had gotten pretty excited about what kind of "real" food we were going to eat on our way home. We had decided on eating at Triple-O's for lunch/supper in Kamploops and then having icecream at DQ in Merritt. We had totally looked forward to this, and we were not disappointed! The burgers and ice cream tasted so good!

We arrived home by late afternoon, cleaned everything up, and had a good sleep in a "real bed"!!

Murtle Lake - Day Four

2008-09-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is what we woke up to on Thursday morning!!! We were so excited for this beautiful day!

The lake was calm pretty all the way back down the whole north arm - we had a little bit of wind, but not much. Here are a few more pictures of this beautiful lake! It was so calm the reflections were amazing! Pictures really don't do it justice.

We decided to head into the west arm and see how far we would get. It had started to cloud over, and we had to paddle against a pretty strong wind down here, but it was kind of fun to be in the waves! We thought we got around half-way down the west arm... only to find out the next day that if we had gone for about another hour, we would have made it all the way to the end! Oh well. In case you're curious, if you look at the map in the last post, we got to the campground with the #5 nearest to the left side of the map. We figured out that on average, we paddled about 4-5km/hour - we had paddled about 25km that day! Needless to say, we were pretty ready to set up camp and rest.

It was a nice campground and nice evening, although still a bit cold. After supper (tuna casserole) Martin decided to go for a swim - but since it was kind of cold, and the lake stayed shallow here for a long way out, it ended up being more of a "dunking" and straight back out! There was no way he could convince me to get out there. I had a hard enough time warming up when I was dry!!

And just a random note to end this off:

The sound of loons calling is an amazing sound! We loved to sit and listen to them call back and forth to each other!

Murtle Lake - Day Three

2008-09-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Today, after a good sleep and a good breakfast of scrambled eggs and bannock, we started canoeing at about 10:00. It was quite a warm morning, and the lake and mountains around us were beautiful!

We stopped for lunch at one of the campsites and sat on a rock by the lake to eat lunch. It was beautiful to see the sun shining on the water - I tried to get a picture of it, but I couldn't really capture it as well as I wanted to. Since fruit leathers were a staple for us, Martin decided he should do an ad for them. That's what that picture is about :)

We made it to the far end of the north arm by 1:30. After setting up camp, we tried to find an easier way to carry the canoe - knowing that Saturday morning we'd have to do that portage all over again. We managed to find some nice small pieces of drift wood that we tied to the yoke that would function as handles. It seemed to work pretty good. After that, we just read for a while. It was a nice (although cool) afternoon. The evening was as usual - eating supper (Fettecini Alfredo with chicken), and then sitting by the campfire again before we headed off to bed.

I know I've said it already, but we were amazed at the scenery in the north arm of the lake. We had Murtle mountain right in our "backyard" and many other beautiful mountain peaks around us. There were also quite a few waterfalls - a nice sound to fall asleep to!

Even though it's a bit hard to see, I thought I would include a map of the lake. The numbers at the campsites indicate how many tent sites there are. The first night we were at the "6" site at the bottom right. The second night we were at the "6" site part way up the north arm (by the two red hiking trails on the map). The third night we were at the "4" site at the very end of the north arm.

Murtle Lake - Day Two

2008-09-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a cloudy, cool day. We woke up early, had pancakes for breakfast, packed up, and were canoeing by 9:45. We got to our next campsite (the one we had planned to get to the first day) at around 11:00 - a shorter ride than we thought it would be. This campsite was our favorite of all of them. It was near the lake, and also had a nice stream running right beside it.

We set up camp, ate lunch, and then went hiking up Wavy Alpine Trail. In Martin's words (he keeps a daily journal on these kinds of trips), "This trail was a grind. Similar to Elk Mountain only longer." But we got some great views at the crest. You could go further up to the peak, but we didn't have time, so we headed back. We actually didn't stay up there long... just took some pictures and headed back - it was SOOO cold up there! It started raining a bit on our way down, but thankfully that didn't last long.

We had to canoe about 5 minutes between the campsite and the trailhead, so for the way back I decided that I wanted to learn how to steer the canoe. I'm not so good at that. The 5 minute canoe ride was a lot longer as I zig-zagged our way back. Martin laughed at me pretty much the whole time, but it was fun to try.

We had shepherd's pie for supper and a nice warm campfire... and the sky totally cleared during the evening. So nice!

Murtle Lake - Day One

2008-09-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

We woke up to a clear blue sky - awesome weather to start out this part of the trip! Packing up and driving to Murtle Lake went just as planned (although the gravel road was a lot worse than we expected - the picture doesn't really show it). We reached the parking lot at 12:00 - and quickly got ready to head down the 2.5km portage to the lake.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse at that point. The cart that we had been so excited about failed us :(. Martin had tested it at home pulling the canoe over rocks and bumps and all kinds of things - and everything was fine. The only thing we didn't do, was test it when it was full of our gear. We expected that the PVC glue would hold. We were wrong. We took about five steps with the loaded canoe on the cart and one of the glue joints gave... we had a collapsed cart. Figuring we could fix it and carry on, we spent a long 2 hours making several unsuccessful attempts to fix it.

At that point, we decided to just walk everything in. First our gear, then the canoe. That was another long (and awkward) 2 hours. The canoe is HEAVY! And the portage trail was not level as the brochure said. In hindsight, we should have just gone back down to Blue River right away (1 hour on a gravel road) and rented a cart. But we didn't. Oh well. We finally got the canoe in the lake at 5:15.

We paddled about 15 minutes to the first campsite we saw, and decided to just stop there so we could set up camp and make supper while it was still light. It was a bit of a disappointing start to the trip, but we did our best to not let it get us down. We did have a beautiful day - and this was a beautiful place!

Long weekend at Clearwater KOA

2008-09-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

We had planned to start our canoe trip on Monday (Labour Day), but we didn't want to spend too much of Monday driving (Murtle Lake is about 6 hours from here), so we decided to spend the long weekend in Clearwater.

We left Friday afternoon in the pouring rain. And I mean pouring. It finally cleared up in Merritt, and the drive from there to Kamloops was nice. As we left Kamloops, we hit a bit of a wind storm... bad enough to knock the canoe off the foam blocks. Totally scared us, but the canoe did stay on the roof. We couldn't find the foam blocks anymore, but we found a 2x4 laying on the side of the road, so we covered that with Martin's rain pants to protect the truck from more scratches, cinched the canoe down again, and carried on. The rest of the drive was uneventful. :)

Saturday we had an awesome day - the best part being the trip to Helmcken Falls. It was amazing! The trail actually took you to the very edge of the canyon with no fences or anything. Not a good place to take little kids - but very neat for us! It's hard to get the sense of how high these falls are on a picture, but we had to try!

Sunday we went to a little community baptist church, where we heard a message on James 2. The pastor there had been a youth pastor for 14 years prior to coming to this church, so it was good to talk to him about that for a while. We really enjoyed being there.

The Clearwater KOA is a really nice campground. We enjoyed our time here and would come back to this campground again!

By now we were super excited for the next part of our trip... it'll be fun to share it with you!

We had a GREAT holiday!!

2008-09-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hello! We're back from our canoe trip - and we had an awesome time! It was good to get away for a week with just the two of us - it was relaxing and fun! The weather was cool, but mostly dry so that helped a lot!
I thought for the next while, I'd just add a post every few days to share a bit of our trip with you. Doing it this way will also help me remember the trip a bit better when I finally get to doing some scrapbooking about the trip (since I know I won't get to that anytime soon :).

Getting ready...

2008-08-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

Our canoe trip to Murtle Lake is coming up... and to say that we are excited would be an understatement!!

Besides just normal camping prep, we've had to dehydrate our food and make a canoe cart. There's a 2.5km portage to get from the parking lot to the lake, and a cart will definitely make that part of the trip easier considering the gear we'll be bringing in. We could have bought a cart, but Martin found a plan online to make one - and we thought it would be a fun project. I forgot to take pictures until it was almost done, but here are a few anyways. It's meant to be collapsable (is that a word?) so that we can fit it into the canoe when we're not using it... but not quite as much as one of the pictures shows! We thought we would try it out before glueing the pieces that need to stay together... and as soon as we started moving the canoe, it totally fell apart! Kinda funny if you ask me :). But it's fixed now, and all ready to go!

We underestimated...

2008-08-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

...the length and grade of the logging road to the trail head for Mount McGuire! A little while ago, our friend Melanie asked if I wanted to go hiking with her some time. I thought it was a great idea... and when we decided that the holiday Monday worked best, that meant Martin got to come too! He thought it would be fun to try another new hike... the last one (Needle Peak) turned out good, so why not?

Weren't we in for a surprise! About one kilometer down the logging road, a bridge was washed out, so there was no way for a vehicle to cross. We debated going on a different hike, but figured we'd just stick to this one. We had our bikes with, so we thought we could just bike the logging road, and then start our hike. 4 1/2 hours later, we finally got to the trailhead. We did part of the hike, but we were so exhausted, and the trail was so steep, we decided to just turn around. Kind of disappointing, because the view from the top would have been amazing! We did still have some beautiful views of the mountains - and we definitely created a memory for us!! Martin wants to try it again sometime... but he'll have to find another hiking partner for that...it would take quite a bit of convincing to get me to hike that logging road again!

Walking the bikes...too steep to ride----we left the bikes here-------This is where we were headed!

Beautiful view of Mt. Baker! ------------Super steep hill!! ------------------------Reward for the work - quick ride down!

Hey girl!

2008-07-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I was pretty excited about how this one turned out. It's just a fun little card to give to a friend pretty much any time! The stamp is from Close to my Heart, and I got it from my mom when she gave me all her scrapbooking and stamping stuff - and it had never been used yet! I was excited to find a good use for it!

It's really a pretty simple card - some cardstock, strips of patterned paper and some brads! I colored the stamped image with pencil crayons... I don't own any of the fancy markers - and this did the trick.

That's all! We have a busy Saturday, so I better get going!

Some birthday thoughts...

2008-07-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

Friday was my birthday... 28 years! To be honest, in someways it feels weird getting closer to 30... but mostly it doesn't "feel" like anything... it's just life. And I'm blessed! God has given me so much and I'm so thankful!
I had a really great weekend! I got tonnes of notes and emails and calls from people - I was pretty overwhelmed by it all... it was great!
Martin and I went camping to Emory Creek - which was so relaxing and fun! Then on Saturday we went on a short little hike up Mt. Lincoln. It was a nice hike... but it didn't really compare to Needle Peak a couple weeks ago! Oh well - we had fun!
One of the things that hit me most the last while as I realized I would be turning 28 soon, was that my mom was my age when she came into our family. I can't imagine doing what she did at my age - picture me with 4 kids, age 9-4! Seeing it all from this perspective has given me so much more respect for my mom... and thanks to God for giving us someone who was willing to do this for our family! The road hasn't always been easy, but Mom, thank you so much for all you have done for us! I love you!
It's a tradition in Martin's family to read the Psalm coordinating with your age on your birthday - so this year, that means Psalm 28 for me. My father-in-law highlighted vs 6-7 for me - and I'll end my post with those verses:
"Blessed be the LORD, because He has heard the voice of my supplications (my cries for mercy)! The LORD is my strength and shield; my heart trusted in Him and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him."

A card for the "cupcake challenge"

2008-07-05T09:27:00.001-07:00

Two posts in two days??? Well, I had time to participate in Taylor's Cupcake Challenge this week, so I had to quickly post the card I made.

There's not much to say about the card - I think if you look at it, it's pretty self-explanatory. I don't actually have cupcake stuff, so you'll notice I never use cupcakes for the challenges... it's actually not a requirement for the challenges - it's just a theme that Taylor likes to use.

Anyways, that's all for today! Apparently we're re-organizing the office today, so I better go help :)

Needle Peak - best hike ever!!!

2008-07-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yup, we even figure that this hike tops Cheam! What we liked best:

it was fun to just get out there and do something like this
it was an absolutely beautiful day
there was a lot of variety - some steeper hiking in a forested area, nice walks along the tops of ridges as we made our way over to the peak, and best of all - rock climbing! it was the kind that didn't require any climbing gear - and it was so fun!
incredible views!! we saw Baker and all the coastal mountain ranges - and to the other side you could see the more "rolling hills" of the okanagan.

There was still quite a bit of snow up there - so that provided a bit of an extra challenge - especially on the way down as we totally lost the trail and ended up having to do a bunch of bushwhacking as we tried to find the trail again!

It really was a great day - we'd recommend this hike to anyone!

That's the peak! ------------------------ Some steep parts... ------------------- Some snowy steep parts...

See the "chimney" on the right? ------ That's what we climbed up! ------------ Sitting right on the peak

A card, the flower beds and something strange...

2008-06-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Just thought I'd post a couple things today. First off, this card. I actually made a few of them - this one is for one of the girls in our youth group who is moving to Alberta this week. I just changed the sentiment for the others so I could use them as "thank you" cards and I also made one into a wedding card. I used last weeks cupcake sketch on Taylor's blog - I thought it was a fun one to work with. On this card, I used a tag for the sentiment, but I since got a new template for my circle cutter, allowing me to make 1/8" matts, so I used that for the others instead. The big circle is cut from chatterbox scrapbook walls paper and the rest is either bazill or some other scraps I had. The ribbon is from my big box of ribbon I got at Costco.
As for the flowerbeds - here are some pictures of the front garden. I'm not the greatest photographer, and the flowers are just starting to fill out, so it's hard to give you a good idea of what it all looks like, but we're happy with how they look so far. We've started putting in a bit of a sprinkler system in the front beds to help us keep them watered well... and that's a project that we'll add to over the next few years. Just in case you want to know - we planted impatiens in the corner with the barrel... and the bed by the tree and our welcome sign as red salvia circling around the tree, yellow marigolds and a few purple wave petunias in the middle, and then alyssum (spelling?) around the edge.

As for the strange thing...
When we bought our house, most of the landscaping was in bad shape - and we pulled almost everything out, except for a few things, including two "rose of sharon" bushes. We haven't really done a whole lot with them, just pruned them back each year, because they seem to grow really quickly. Anyways, this year, for some strange reason, only half of this bush/tree is budding! We didn't do anything different to one side compared to the other - we can't figure out what happened! Oh well... it'll be interesting to see what happens to it next year!
Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow we are going hiking for the day - we're going to check out Needle Peak. Should be fun! Hiking is something we've talked about a lot, but not really done much of. It'll be fun to get out there and actually do it!

A scrapbook page

2008-06-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... it's been a long time since I posted. Life just gets busy, and so I just haven't gotten around to it. I also know I promised pictures of the newly planted flower beds - but I also haven't gotten around to that. One of these days I will!

For now, I will post this latest scrapbook page I did. I actually took the layout from Valerie's sketch blog, and used Sketch #48. Another sketch blog that I found that I really like too, is called Stuck! - and I'll probably be using that one quite a bit too! This page is significant because it means that I'm finally finished scrapbooking my wedding! I have a few pages that need a little fixing up here and there, but it's mostly finished! It only took me 5 years!! Haha. As much as I enjoy scrapbooking, I admit, I'm ready to scrapbook anything besides my wedding pictures! I bought a couple of new scrapbooks at Costco the other day - and am looking foward to filling those up.

It's not the favorite page I ever made, and these pictures aren't the greatest... especially the reflection of the flash on the first picture... but oh well... it'll have to do!

A quick update...

2008-06-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

It's nothing too exciting, but I thought I'd just quickly update the blog.
This week I had my first two days of orientation at the new hospital! It is absolutely incredible! It's huge, and the new technology will make our job so much nicer! It is super exciting to be a part of this! The move is planned for the end of August - so less than three months left at MSA!

Other than that, we've just been doing some more work in our yard. The front flower beds have been topped up with nice new soil again, and this afternoon we're going to plant the flowers. Fun! I'll post pictures of that next week sometime. For now, I figured I'd include this picture of my flower boxes. This picture was taken the day I planted them, and they've already started to fill out quite a bit! I'm pretty excited about them this year!

I decided to add this other picture of us just for fun. This year is my 10 year grad reunion, and we had to hand in a recent picture of us. Me and my sister tried to edit a picture of us that I had, but that didn't work out as well as we hoped, so we just went in the backyard, set the timer, and took this picture! We're not professionals by any means, but it's not too bad, if I may say so myself :)

ETA: the link for the "new hospital" has been corrected. Sorry!

Another little project I've been working on...

2008-05-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

I've told some of you that I've been working on a little project... and here it finally is! For the past couple years, I've tried to put a recipe binder for my friends who are getting married. It was something that someone did for me, and I am really glad I have a binder to store all the recipes I get from the internet or from friends, or where ever.
I use a binder that has those clear pockets on it so that I can decorate the front cover - just to make it a bit more fun.
I've been asked to give a bit more detail about the projects I put up on the blog, so here are a few of the details:
You'll recognize the paper from the little monkey card I posted a while back - from wild asparagus. I traced the flowers from a chipboard stencil I bought from the dollar store, and then used my Coluzzle circle cutter to cut the centers for the flowers. I also used my Coluzzle for the ring in the top corner. By the way... I think this is the best circle cutting system ever! I love how it has a whole bunch of sizes in one little template, as opposed to a punch where you only get one size.
I used my scalloped scissor for the blue strip, and used my paper piercing tool to make the little holes in it.
The word "recipe" (for both the front and the side) was printed onto cardstock on the computer - I typed each letter in a textbox, and made the background color of the boxes brown. I cut them down to size after printing them, and then I sanded each square just cause I like the texture it gave.
Hmmm... i don't really know what other details to give. I think the rest of the project is pretty self-explanatory.

Hope you have a good weekend! We're planning to do some yard work and have a youth event - we're looking forward to both!

He jumped!!!

2008-05-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Martin had the opportunity (thanks to the College & Career group) to go bungee jumping! The group had planned to spend a day at Wildplay Element Park - doing a high ropes adventure course called TreeGo. They also have bungee jumping and a King Swing there. Anyways, a few weeks ago, the group was talking about our plans, and some were talking about how they were going to jump. Martin said that he would jump, but he thought it was too expensive for the short thrill. Well, the group "jumped" on that (haha) and told him that they would pay for him to jump. And so he couldn't get out of it now! He went back and forth between being excited and nervous... but he did actually do it! I captured most of it on video. Unfortunately, when he actually left the platform, I was watching him instead of the camera, so it's not on the video... oh well, most of it is there.

I included a few other pictures too - we had such a fun day with this group. If you ever want a fun day trip with a group of friends or family, we highly recommend this! It's in Nanaimo, but they offer a free shuttle service to and from the ferry, so you can just walk on the ferry - just makes it a bit less expensive, so that's nice!

A quick little canoe ride

2008-05-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning, we went to the Sumas River with one of Martin's co-workers and his wife. It was just a short little trip, but it was really nice! We dropped our canoes in at McDonald Park (at the end of No. 3 Road) and canoed along the river for about an hour. We went under the highway, and turned around at the little rest area along the highway between Chilliwack and Abbotsford. We'll probably do this one again some time... it's nice and close - and just a quiet area (except for the part near the highway) - which we love! It would be a great summer evening thing to do - we could just pack along a supper and stop for a picnic along the way. Anyone have access to a canoe and want to come along sometime?
We managed to avoid the heavy rain that came later in the day - we had a beautiful morning for canoeing... not too hot, not too cold! Being out there got us really excited about our canoe trip we're planning!

Sneak Preview...

2008-05-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

Yea for spring!!! We're having such beautiful weather! And guess what that means at our house??? We finally get to plant our window boxes and flower beds. We are pretty excited about adding some color to our place again. Here's a sneak preview of what we'll be planting - hopefully I got enough for everything - our window boxes, hanging baskets, some of the flower beds... and if there are any left, we have a few planters that can be filled. We'll see how it goes. For today, I'll be focusing on the flower boxes, hanging baskets and one small part of my flower bed. The rest has to wait because we still have some tulips and daffodils around - and I won't have time to deal with those (I think it might be best to let them sit for a while anyways, even though they're looking kind of messy now). Anyways, that's all for today - I'm so excited to get out there and start planting!

Two in one...

2008-05-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Today I had a bit of time to do some cardmaking! A fun Saturday morning for me! One of the cards I had to make this morning was a baby card for a friend... and here it is! I've been meaning to participate in Taylor's "Cupcake Challenges" for a while now, but just don't usually get it done on time to enter it into the contest. I decided that today I would use the sketch for the baby card... two things at once... such efficiency! :) The patterned paper is by "wild

asparugus", and the monkey is just a clipart picture I printed from my computer.
Just a quick note about commenting on our blog... we love to receive comments - but I didn't realize that the default setting was that you had to have a google account to do so. I have changed that now, so you can comment as "anonymous" if you would rather not set up a google account.

It's gardening time!

2008-05-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

We're pretty excited to be seeing this nice weather again... and are planning a bunch of work in our yard. The flower bed in the backyard is a project we started last year - we put just a few plants in there and bought a couple of trees. I can't remember the name of the one, but this one is a flowering plum tree - and we picked it because it gets nice little pink flowers in the spring.
On Saturday, while I was sleeping (I was between night shifts), Martin shoveled a layer of a blended topsoil over the whole flower bed, just to give the plants some extra nutrients and give us some nice soil to work with... so now it's all ready for planting! Eventually, we want the whole thing (it goes around the perimeter of the back yard, along our fence line) to be nice and full of all kinds of different perennials - some tall, lots of flowers... but it's a bit hard to know how to plan that all out.
Yesterday, a friend of mine lent me a book called "Mix-&-Match Gardening" - and it helps you plan out pretty much any kind of garden! I'm pretty excited to go through that and pick out some different plants. I'll update every so often to let you know how the garden is coming!
Another fun project I'm working on that I'll post sometime in late summer, or early fall, is wintering geraniums. This same friend also taught me how to save my geraniums over the winter, and how to go about getting them started again. I'm taking pictures of the different stages in the process, so that I can post a "tutorial" of sorts - in case you want to know how to save your geraniums! It's kind of fun, cause they get bigger and bigger every year!

From our kitchen window...

2008-05-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

We don't have much of a view from our kitchen window, so last year Martin decided to put up one of these finch feeders. Now we regularly get to see these gold finches and pine siskins right by the window! They're kind of fun to watch - the gold finches eat upside down! We have big cedar trees right there, so they hang out in those quite often too. The gold finches actually look out of place... a tropical little bird in a cedar tree! Anyways, I thought for today that I would show you a couple of pictures of these little guys!

Love, honor, cherish, treasure...

2008-04-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we celebrated our 5th anniversary! We didn't do anything extraordinary to celebrate, but we are still thankful for the great years we've had together so far - and we pray God will give us many more!
We were talking about our marriage the other night, and trying to choose some of the best memories we have so far...there are lots to choose from! (Some funny... some more "normal"). We both decided that our backpacking trip to Mt. Assiniboine (in the Rockies) is at the top of the list! Another thing we have really enjoyed in our marriage are the times that we just end up sitting and chatting like best friends - usually over supper... We are blessed with a wonderful marriage and friendship, and we are thankful.
These are some pictures that my sister, Stef, took of us a couple of years ago. I put them onto these 8x8 canvas' (from the dollar store) and they hang in our room. They're just a fun way to remind us often of the vows we made!

Our canoe...and some plans

2008-04-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

Last year, my dad found an abandoned Clipper canoe. He helped Martin do some fibreglass repairs on it - and then we got all new hardware for it and repainted it. It was a fun project to work on last summer.

Once it was finally all finished, we took a trip out to Widgeon Creek to go test it out. We had such a great day! (except for the part that we went the wrong way for a while - and didn't realize it until we had been paddling for over an hour!!) It was just so peaceful and quiet. Even with our detour, we had time to do a short little hike to some beautiful waterfalls... it was great!

Anyways, it got us thinking to do a longer canoe trip some time. We thought we'd make that our summer holiday trip this year! We're planning to go to Murtle Lake. It's in the interior of BC, in Wells Grey Provincial Park, and it looks like a beautiful place! You can see a picture of it here. We can set up camp right on a sandy beach - and have a campfire right along the water!

Thinking of you...

2008-04-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

I made this little "thinking of you" card a few days ago. I had seen a this contest on the weekend, and was hoping to get the card finished in time for it, but that didn't work out. I just couldn't sit inside working on the card on Saturday when it was so beautiful outside!! The contest required that you use 4 specific colors for the card - there were no other specifications... so this is what I came up with. I was pretty happy with the result!The colors were Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Gable Green and Soft Sky. I didn't have the exact colors by the company but I found my own that worked pretty closely. I liked what the muted pattern on the green paper added to my card. The little flower stamps are from a set from wal-mart I think, and the butterfly is from a Close to my Heart set. I inked the edges of the white cardstock before mounting them on to the colored paper. I punched some orange eyelets through the green strip across the top and then tied the little squares to that. The "thinking of you" sentiment was just printed on the computer, and then I inked the edge of that too. Each piece that's placed on the light blue is attached with a little piece of double-sided foam tape (I get mine from the dollar store in the hardware section) - just cause I like the effect of the paper being slightly raised. At one point, I asked Martin if I should use green or orange eyelets for the top (I just wanted another opinion) and he was at a loss - this card thing just isn't for him :)

A fun manilla folder album

2008-04-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

I love to scrapbook and make cards. I don't always take much time for it - but I still love it! Most often, I find my ideas online from other creative people who share their projects... just so you don't think I have all these wonderful ideas on my own. For this project, I wanted to give a family that we babysat for a few days a little memory book of our time there. I was looking through the Taylored Expressions blog, and found this idea. You can find the instructions here. Each section has a pocket in it, and inside the pocket, I put a few pictures. Some are just single matted pictures, but for the "nice" and "silly" girls sections, I used little accordian-folded strips of paper with several pictures on them. It's an easy way to tuck lots of pictures into a small space! I marked each item that could be slid out of a pocket with a little piece of ribbon. I had a lot of fun with this project... I'll for sure be making one of these again sometime!

Birthday Cake!

2008-04-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Martin's birthday! He likes the celebration to be on the simple side... so we did just that. My parents took us out for dinner one night, and then we had Martin's family over for Sunday dinner last night. Seeing the strawberries out lately, I decided to make a Strawberry Mousse Cake. I combined a couple of recipes for that - one for the cake - and one for the mousse. Martin thinks I'm crazy to be taking pictures of everything these days, but I just think they're fun things to share. Tomorrow I'll share a little project I made for someone a little while ago!
Here's the links to the recipes I used:
For the cake: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/242107 (this whole recipe actually looks good too - maybe someday I'll try it!)
For the mousse (& the cake assembly): http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=8393 (if I could master sponge cake, I'd use this cake recipe too... but for some reason, mine never turn out - that's why I used the other cake recipe)

More music at our house!

2008-04-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

I got a new violin! I used to play (when I was 7 or 8), but haven't really thought about it since then. Until this past Christmas. We went to the Micheal W. Smith concert - it was a classical Christmas concert including a 60-some piece orchestra. I didn't know I liked that kind of music!! Anyways, I saw the violinists, and it really made me want to pick it up again. So, after thinking about it for a while, we decided I could rent one for a month. I got the first Suzuki book in the series, and just started playing. I love it!!! Martin is patient with my amateur playing, and we've even played a few songs together! (He has a keyboard that he loves to play.) I'm trying to be patient with myself; as with everything else, I want to be good at it right away! I might eventually get a few lessons to improve my technique - but for now I'll just go on teaching myself. Anyways, since the month went good, we decided that I could go ahead and buy my own... it's just a really basic one - but it will do the trick for now.

Reorganization...

2008-04-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

A little while ago, I decided it was HIGH time I create a little more order with my scrapbooking supplies. I took some ideas from friends organization systems, and set out to buy another shelving unit (I already had one of the white ones) and some extra baskets. This is what I came up with! It was fun to arrange it all! My paper is now organized in a way that I can find it easily. The solids are arranged by color, and the rest is arranged by pattern (dots, flowers, stripes, plaids, etc.). I was pretty excited by how it all turned out!

Some spring color

2008-04-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited for spring to come! Last week, when we saw some sunshine, I couldn't resist going to the greenhouse to buy a few flowers for the planters by the front door. It was fun to work with flowers again! Our window boxes all sit empty still... I'm looking forward to be able to fill those again - they're one of our favorite things about our house! This year, we added some brackets to the window boxes - we really like the look of them - they're very simple, but that's the way we like it!

New to this...

2008-04-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I'm new to this whole thing, but I so enjoy reading other people's blogs... so I thought I would try it out myself. Sounded like a fun way to keep people updated about what we've been up to. Hopefully I'll post something fun and interesting soon! Thanks for looking!