Busy

Wow, our life has been busy. Over the weekend, we had company for Sat. night so I spent all day Saturday catching up on housework. I just don't have time to keep things up during the week so Saturday is always a big chore day. This includes grocery shopping which I always leave to the last possible moment because making that list is such a challenge. I can't do my shopping without a list. I'm just frozen and I end up buying really weird stuff just because it's on sale. While I was doing house chores, Reuben spent all day at the manse with some other guys from our church (and one lady) getting it ready for our new/ex pastor, his wife and son who are moving in in August.
So, we didn't get much done on our own house as far as projects go. On Monday night and last night, Reuben didn't come home until 11:30pm. He worked late on Monday and yesterday he went, with his co-workers, to the opening ceremonies of a Retirement Home they designed up in Pembroke. I was invited too but was recuperating from a cold so I didn't want to go.
Tonight, we are babysitting our neice, Elyssa, while her parents sail their boat in a race at the Sailing Club.
Then, on Friday, we are heading down to southern Ontario for a wedding. Our friends, Erica and Brian are getting married. I'm pretty excited because the reception will be at the Warplane Museum and we all know how much I love airplanes!:) Should be hectic but good. Hopefully, we'll get to see a little bit of Hadassah while we are there as Diana and Mike will be at the wedding, as well. My parents will be in town too, for a different reason and will be taking Hadassah with them for the day.

That's our life in a nutshell. No time for the house at the moment. While Reuben's parents were here, Reuben's dad installed our new sink and tap .... I will post before/after pictures soon!!!

More Gardening News

So, we didn't know when we bought the house but we actually have a gardener on retention. He pops by once and awhile to see how things are going. Sometimes, we'll come home from work and all our plants will have moved around. Doesn't this look nice?! The tall, spindly thing is a Serviceberry bush. It'll grow to 7 metres and have a 3 metre diameter. It's going to look really nice, once it has a chance to grow some. The other low bushes are transplanted from beside our garage. We're planning to expand our front walk into a patio.

This is what the corner looked like just after we moved in. Improvement, non?
By the way, our gardener is my Dad.

Nieces in Comparison

Nieces are wonderful things. I got to hang out with Elyssa a bit last night and she has started to "talk" saying "ahdahdahdah" instead of just screeches. I thought, I wonder what Hadassah was doing at the same age? So I watched some videos of the two of them and it is remarkable the similarities in their growth and range of motions. Both are/were starting to squirm across the ground, reaching for things, rolling over, playing with fingers and toes in their mouths and "talking". Here are some pictures of comparison.

Hadassah - 6 months old - June 2007 Elyssa - 6 months old - May 2008

Elyssa is now doing this cute waving thing as well. She's starting to communicate more and more and it's pretty awesome! At the end of next month, Diana and Mike will have another little one and the process will start all over again. Here is a picture of what Hadassah looks like now.

TulipFest 08

Reuben's parents were here this past weekend and we managed to catch the end of the Tulip Festival at Dow's Lake on Saturday morning before the rains came. It was beautiful!!

News of our Garden

I've been dreaming about having herbs again. If you can remember when we lived in our appartment, I tried to grow herbs and they just withered and died. Probably because I neglected to water them and also because they didn't get any sun. These herbs I got from Lydia and they are doing remarkably well. I have already trimmed the chives and frozen them in an ice cube tray. There is also thyme (the tall prickly looking one), mint (shorter, darker green one) and oregano. I also got some lovage from Lydia. It's planted elsewhere but is also doing fantastic. Lovage smells like Maggi (the stuff Dutch people use to flavour tomato soup). I haven't picked any yet. I actually haven't used any of the herbs yet but I will.This is the cedar hedge that Reuben and Eric (new friend of ours) planted a couple weekends ago. It makes our backyard look much more finished and green.

These are the other perennials we got from Lydia's family. There is a clump of Shasta daisies, some lilies in the front there and some other stuff that I can't remember what's it's called but it's all doing quite well. This is on the side of our house where we get tons and tons of sunlight and with the rainy weather we've been having lately, the plants are loving it. Against the house you can see our rose bush/vine that was here when we moved in. It had grown up to the kitchen window but didn't seem to be doing so well so I pruned it right back. Hopefully, it will rejuvinate. Also you can see the huge clump of rhubarb against the house. It's still growing and producing, which is great!

Picture Recap

Our Mother's Day gift.

Little toque for Keylin Elizabeth


Fun and Games with Friends

Signs of Spring - our flowering apple tree

**all pictures courtesy of Reuben who has a better knack at these things than I ever will.

Rhubarb farming

You will never guess what I did yesterday and the day before?? I harvested rhubarb! Then I chopped it up and made rhubarb crisp and rhubarb coffee cake. I can see why people find gardening so exhilarating!! The past week or two we have had to water our newly planted cedar hedge and newly planted perennials and I find it so relaxing to come home and get out the hose and just stand and water the plants. I don't know what it is but I could get used to it. And there is such satisfaction in eating produce that has been grown in one's own garden. Besides the fact that it's free!!!

Dinner at the Keg

Happy Birthday to Me!

I get really excited about my birthday. But the oxymoron of it all is that I hate getting older. Figure that one out?!
When I was still living at home, we had this tradition that the birthday girl/boy would get woken up by the rest of the family singing Happy Birthday and bringing in presents and breakfast. I treasure that memory. Now that I'm married, and my husband doesn't believe in breakfast in bed . . . we are making new memories. Being woken up with a soft "Happy Birthday" before I even remember that it's my birthday is pretty nice, even if I don't get breakfast in bed anymore:)
This morning when I got to work (I really don't think we should have to work on our birthdays), I found that my boss had left a bouquet of irises and tulips on my desk with a note. Soooo nice!

Here's to a great rest of the day!

Bathroom Fixtures

Do you see the sink and tap I posted on the side bar over there? They've arrived! With any luck, Reuben's parents will be coming down on the May long weekend to install them. Isn't that amazing?