Our new Front Door

I can't find a decent picture of our old front door, right now, because I'm at work. But this is the new one. It still needs some trim both inside and out but it sure is a lot nicer! I used to have to fight to get my key in and out of the lock because it was a copy of a copy and now it's so easy. Thanks to Dad Helder who helped Reuben install it.

Hadassah Sings her ABC's

Names

Is it weird for everyone when they meet someone with their name? I feel like my name is really unique (not necessarily in a good way, I'm still undecided as to whether I really like it or not) so I don't meet people with my name very often.
This morning I had to find someone named Irene and I walked into this sea of cubicles and someone said "can I help you find someone?" and it was really strange to say I was looking for Irene. It was kind of an out of body experience.

I'm an Aunty Again

This is my new computer desktop picture.

Welcome to my world, little Micah Timothy! Guess what? I already love you and I haven't even met you. This is very sad, I know. But I will see you in 2.5 weeks and maybe you will be able to give me a smile by then!?

He was born on October 29 to my little sister, Diana.
His happy siblings are Hadassah(2.5) and Nethaneil(1.5).

Micah loves getting kisses from them.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a crazy day. I got some Islam "gospel" tract in the mail at work. All the way from Alexandria, Eqypt. That's right...addressed to me specifically and had my current work address on it. I googled it and apparently a lot of people working at University's around the world get the same thing. It was in French, too. Weird!
Then, when I got home I decided to make Chicken Parmesan and Scalloped Potatoes for dinner (well, I had decided to make it on Friday night when I was making my shopping list). Never do this, especially after a long day at work. The recipes I have are from close friends so I knew they would be good but I didn't read them too clearly before I started and seriously, each dish takes about 6 pots/pans/baking dishes to make!!!! And many steps. I was unprepared:(
And then, to top it off, I went to lift up the tin foil to check on the potatoes in the oven without an oven mitt on because I know that tin foil doesn't get really hot and I can usually touch in with my bare hand. Yeah, well, there was steam. And just for that one second that the steam touched my finger caused such excruciating pain for 2 hours! I immediately put my finger under the tap running water and yelled for Reuben. He googled to make sure we were doing the right thing, which we were. But all the sites were saying it should cool down within 15 - 20 minutes and it didn't. I ate dinner with my finger in a cup of cold water and then I sat on the couch and kept trying to take my finger out of the water but after about 5 seconds it would feel like it was on fire so I'd have to plunge it right back in. So, I burned it at around 6:10pm and finally, while talking to my sister on the phone at around 8:30pm, it felt ok to take out of the water. sigh!
I showered with my hand in a washcloth...that was interesting...
This morning, it's ok, tender but not blistering so that's good.

What adventures will I get into today.
By the way, the food was amazing!!!!

Being Accomplishy

Today is an accomplishy day. Last night, I whipped up a batch of overnight french toast and we had that for breakfast with orange juice and a cappuccino from our Tassimo. Reuben went to go help out at the manse so, I made some muffins and then I pulled out the paint and did one coat of Munroe Bisque in our den (the front room with the bay window) and on our staircase wall.
Then I went to Bulk Barn and when I got back, it was so beautifully warm and sunny that I did what I've been wanting to do for the past couple of months. Clean out the car! I vacuumed it and washed down the inside. I couldn't wash the outside because we already put our garden hose away for the season. We need to rustproof the car soon so I'll wait till that's done before I bring it to the carwash.
After some general clean up and making of dinner, I am so ready for relaxing.

Elyssa turns 2!

My neice, Elyssa, turned 2 yesterday so my sister had us and my parents over for supper. I made her some legwarmers for a present. She didn't like them but I think they just didn't feel nice on bare legs and also, she was very interested in the present she had just opened from my parents (a Playmobile set of a catamaran sailboat with female sailor). Since I only made 1 legwarmer to see if it was the right size, I have to make the 2nd one now. This is a nice project because it hardly takes any concentration at all. The legwarmer is all one colour and has no increases, decreases or fancy yarnovers to worry about.
The unfortunate thing right now is that I hardly feel like knitting because by the end of the day my wrist and hand is very sore. I use a mouse and type all day as part of my job. sigh!

Anyway, here's a video I took last night of Elyssa. She can say Micah really clearly (Diana's new baby for those who don't know) but for some reason the end got cut off.

What I've been up to lately

This is one of my favourite meals to make. My parents, sister, brother-in-law and neice were over for dinner and I had bought this really cool plate at Winners so I decided to put the whole meal on it. And it worked out great! It's oven-roasted sweet potatos, pork tenderloin and broccoli with bacon.

Below are the pictures of our latest efforts in our house. We've been living with that patched wall for more than half a year and it was very satisfying to get some paint on it, finally.

And we both absolutely love the Rhubarb colour. It's very warm and inviting. You can see that we also got a pendent light for the pass-through into the kitchen. We still haven't put pictures up anywhere in our living room so that's on the list too.

This is a little sweater I knit for my sister, Diana's baby. Although, I did take it out once to start over, it was a very easy piece to knit and because of the thickness of the yarn, it was very quick. The buttons are my only concern. I used some that I had in my button box...which is basically buttons I've stashed from the clothes I bought where they give you extra buttons. So they don't match. I think it looks kinda unique but I hope Diana does too.

Cute Kids

Elyssa (niece, 23 months)

Jacob (cousin once removed, 10 months)

Reuben (husband, 25 years)

Kitchen Reno UPDATE

Instead of duplicating Reuben, you can check out his blog for updated pics of the kitchen!!!

Days 24-27

I've been in Winnipeg since Friday afternoon so I haven't been able to see the progress in the kitchen. On Friday and Saturday, they worked on the ceiling. Reuben sent me some pictures and it looks amazing! I was going to post the pictures but I think we'll wait until it's more finished because you will all be blown away! The ceiling is totally different than anything you've ever seen! I'm so excited to come home and see it.
I think today they are going to do some painting and then putting the dinette/office area together.
I'll be heading home tomorrow.

Day 23 - the floor

 

 

 

Day 22

Mudding of drywall joints and laying down of plywood subfloor was accomplished yesterday. Along with scraping off the last of the wallpaper border in the dinette area.

Day 21 - cabinets

Our living room is stuffed with Ikea boxes and put together cabinets.

Day 21 - Drywall

Here's some pictures of the drywalling being done in the kitchen. The opening is into the dinette area.

Photo recap

In case you're curious as to the progress; these are the photos after the plumbing and electrical work was done last week. You can see all the nice new wire snaking around the room as well as the clean capping off of the sink pipes.



You can also see the new ductwork near the ceiling that we had to do because we widened the doorway into the diningroom.

Here's the ductwork that we put in to vent our hood fan to the exterior wall since our stove is being relocated to the interior wall. We had a recirculating hood fan before (which we never used) so we had to punch a hole in the outside wall and put in the vent ourselves. Well, actually another friend of ours, Reuben VP, did it. Thanks Reubs!

Day 17- 20

DAY 20 without a kitchen. It hasn't felt too long but that's mainly because my mom has graciously provided us with dinner most nights. On Saturday, we tried our hand at bbqing pizza and french fries. They had a slightly smokey flavour (ie. a bit charred):)

On Friday, our friend, Brian came over and helped Reuben wire some things. Then on Saturday, Reuben managed to get the floors spotless of dust and garbage and I managed to give the rest of the house a "thorough going over" (I think that's a quote from Anne of Green Gables but I'm not sure which part).

Reuben's dad arrived this morning and Reuben was up early moving the phone jack and prepping some more. I think there is some drywalling happening today. Also, my brother is helping Reuben to pick up the cabinets from the Ikea warehouse this afternoon. I'm so excited to see all the boxes. Although, I'm not looking forward to having them all in the living room. I think breakfast is going to be interesting tomorrow morning.

I'll keep you posted.
ps. My brave 35-week pregnant sister, Diana, is driving here from Fergus today with her 2 kiddies (Hadassah, age 2 and 9 months and Nethaneil, age 15 months). They are staying the week.

Day 10-16

Since my last update, not much has been done on the kitchen. We went to Sandbanks for the long weekend and left the mess behind.
But today, we got the call that our cabinets are ready to be picked up! And Reuben's dad is busy cutting the slats for our ceiling.
Our countertop, sink and faucet are also in. Reuben's dad will be bringing it all with him on Monday when he comes to install everything.
Tomorrow, our friend is coming to help Reuben finish up the wiring and tonight we are going to buy our hood fan.
Many pieces slowly coming together to form the jigsaw puzzle that is our kitchen.

Camping: Sanbanks

Beams from our living room ceiling ready to be burned.

Celebrating Reuben's birthday!

Our shady spot.

Karin and her brother.

Gorgeous sunsets.

My crazy husband doing a jig on the beach.

Our accompanist.

The long road home.

Day 9

New window.

Day 8

Day 6 was a Sunday so we rested from our labours. Day 7 saw nothing accomplished as we were at a meeting all evening. Day 8 was yesterday and while I went to the movies (Julie and Julia, very cute!) Reuben and Carl got down to business on the plumbing. They removed our sink and tap and installed some piping. Apparently, the venting was in the wrong place.

Day 5

On Saturday, Reuben and his dad made the pass-through opening in our kitchen. They also widened the doorway into the diningroom. There is so much more light that gets let into the livingroom now. There are windows in the diningroom and livingroom but there is a big maple tree that blocks a lot of the light so it can be quite dark in there.

Tonight, our friend, Carl, is coming over to help Reuben redo some of the plumbing in the kitchen. Apparently, the venting for the sink was done wrong, originally. Did you know that it is critically important for your drains to be vented to the outside so that none of the smells come into your house? Something about a build up of gases...blah, blah, blah. You learn a lot when you own your own home. At least I have been. Reuben knows all this stuff already.