Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Why I Can't Cook....etc

The reason I can't possibly cook right now is due to the fact that I have a couch in my kitchen, blocking my cutlery drawers and pots and pans cupboard. This is my front room...This is what I see when I walk in the front door. The plastic sheet hanging down is to help prevent dust from getting into that part of the house.And this is the livingroom....if you look really close you can see paint samples on the wall...we are having trouble deciding on a third colour. To get upstairs you have to squeeze past the piano and under the plastic sheet. Nice.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Busy Weekend

phew! What a busy weekend...we had my sister,her husband and 2 kids visiting this weekend plus I had my choir concert which included a rehearsal on Saturday. Here are some pictures I took on Sat. evening while the men were skiing/snowboarding.
I knit some thumbless mittens for Hadassah to wear with her Sunday coat.
I tried to get her to stand still and show me the mittens but the girl is a whirling dervish!!!
Here's my sis reading her daughter a book.

And here is my mom feeding Nethaneil a bottle.
I'll try to take pictures of our renovation chaos tonight to show you all why I can't possibly cook right now;)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Daily News

Well, my readers, I have begun a new job here at Carleton University. I am the Administrative Assistant to the Program Coordinator/Mentor at the newly formed Science Student Success Centre. This centre is designed to target Science students who are doing poorly in their studies during their first year at the University and to offer them guidance. Right now, I am waiting for my colleague to return from a Conference so I don't have a lot to do. Part of the job, though, is setting up a database which will contain all the student info and their grades in their first year Science courses. As some of you know, I did a lot of database work when I worked on Parliament Hill so I'm excited to get back into that a bit. My office is in the same hallway as my old one so while I am starting a new job, there won't be a huge amount of change which I am happy about. Working at the University has been really great so far and I'm really thankful that I can continue here.
As far as our house goes, we were in a lot of chaos in the last couple of days as we tried to get as much furniture out of the livingroom as possible. Our love seat ended up in the kitchen so that I couldn't get at my pots and pans or cutlery drawer. This was actually fine with me as I had a great excuse not to cook:) Andrew has finished two coats of mud but is now on a bit of a holiday so Reuben has arranged with him that he will come after school on Tuesday to finish the third coat. After that, we will be doing a lot of sanding and then priming!!! And then painting. So, for now, we've cleaned up a bit so that we can get upstairs more easily and my kitchen is more usable but by Tuesday it will all be chaotic again.
I'm also working on a pair of mittens for my niece, Hadassah...I finished one last night and should be able to do the other one tonight. After that, I plan to make a pair of fingerless mittens for myself...I just have to get to the yarn store.
And last but not least, the Broersma's are rolling into town tomorrow. Here's a picture preview from the last time we saw them.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Construction and Knitting Photo UPDATE

My Sunday project....mittens for my sister, Diana....completed.

As of this afternoon, this is one coat done. Not paint, taping drywall joints on the ceiling and wall. Two more coats to go and then a ton of sanding and then ...I can paint!! We picked out colors ... they are outrageous! I won't give it away until they are on the walls. One is the name of a fruit and the other is the name of something to drink. Those are my hints ... have fun guessing!:)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Construction and Knitting

As some of you have seen over on Reuben's blog, we have started some more renovations on our house. The last thing we did was put up a shed in the backyard. I really shouldn't say "we" as Reuben does most of the work. He had his dad's help though. Now we are starting a major project which requires our living room and dining room area to be uninhabitable for probably close to a month and if it's like any other renovation project it will be longer. We are replacing the ceiling (or covering up the ceiling with new drywall) and re-doing most of the tape joints (where the two pieces of drywall that make up a wall come together) with tape and drywall mud. Not only are we doing this in the living/dining area, Reuben feels that we should also redo the tape joints along the staircase and upstairs hallway.
I have been trying to help but it's hard work. It's kind of fun chipping away at old, dried up drywall mud but when you scrape your knuckles as I have already done a number of times, it's not so fun. I don't pretend to be any good at construction type work. I'm far too wimpy. The best thing I can do is make Reuben laugh because it's a frustrating process and he gets really serious about it.
We do have some help coming in. One of our friends from church is in University right now and has a Reading Week coming up. He grew up helping his father and grandfather in the drywalling business. We figured we could pay him a few bucks and have a semi-professional help get the job done better and quicker while staying within our budget.
Tonight, we are going to our friends' house for dinner. Church friends who recently moved here from BC. She is a certified Interior Designer and I'm bringing a couch cushion so we can talk color .. paint color. I'm so excited!!!!! I love dreaming about what colors we should paint our rooms. I love bold, rich, dark colors! I hope we can find something that will match nicely with our ugly teal couches. We will no longer have a stipple ceiling and I"m planning to have a hint of color in the ceiling paint as well which is also really exciting!
Anyway, so today the thing that brings me JOY is color and renovations! Seeing the good amongst all the drywall dust.
Oh yeah...and about the knitting. Yeah, not getting much done these days as I help with the deconstruction. I'm trying to get a pair of mitts done for next weekend when my sister comes down. I also wanted to have a pair of mitts done for Hadassah by then. We'll see.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Days of Joy - Day 4 - 7

Oops ... I'm falling behind already.

1. Warmer weather ... it's going up to 9 degrees tomorrow.
2. Seeing long lost friends.
3. The star treatment at the Cheshire Cat pub ...Reuben's firm is doing an addition for them so the owner knows Reuben. When we walked in there on Saturday night we were greeted personally and given one of the best seats in the house.
4. Singing the Beatles hits at choir practice last night.
5. Even though it's frustrating...starting some more renovations on our house. See Reuben's post here.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Legwarmer UPDATE

Here's the sweet girl sporting her legwarmers...

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Friday, February 06, 2009

365 Days of Joy - Day 3



1. A free ride to work and home again.


2. The news that we're halfway to seeing leaves on our trees.


3. A home-made exchange ... one pair of leg warmers, size 13 months for one knitting needle holder ... thanks sis!!


4. I just read some more information about that plane that went down in the Hudson River after a bird strike ... I'm so glad I wasn't on that plane.


5. Dinner plans with just the two of us.


Thursday, February 05, 2009

365 Days of Joy - Day 2

1. Fresh cup of coffee.
2. Warm boots.
3. Freedom.
4. Hugs.
5. Blog updates.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

365 Days of Joy

Ok ... so I've read this on other blogs and I think it's a great idea. I mean, who doesn't struggle with discontentment ...honestly, I'm not the only one, right? Anyway, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon to turn my thinking around. Everyday, for the next year, I will think of 5 things that give me Joy. Starting right now;

1. Sunshine ... finally some sunshine.
2. The days are getting longer.
3. Hanging out with my niece and sister last night.
4. Red hair.
5. A good job.