A week of holidays...

Nathan and I have been home from the wonderful land of St. Laurent for four full days now and boy, are we glad to be home. We are almost in the middle of a week of holidays right now and are loving every minute of it! Monday morning, we started our holidays off with a refreshing sleep-in till 11:00. I can count on one hand the amount of times we have ever slept that late since getting married. (You friends with children can moan with jealousy any time now!) It was a wonderful start and has only gotten better. When I'm on holidays, I relax by first getting things done and then looking at what I did with satisfaction. On Monday, I started the day by mowing the lawn (which was in need of a mow by then). Then, Nathan and I walked Lennox around town paying bills, getting groceries, picking up the mail and doing the things that we hadn't done for a week. We caught up. Then, Monday afternoon, I decided that we'd lived without fresh bread for long enough and I mustered up the energy to bake bread and buns. See, we normally have home-baked bread in the house (because I LOVE to bake our own) but when the house was so hot for the month of July, I didn't feel like heating it up another 10 degrees by turning on the oven. So, after a month of store-bought baking, we finally enjoyed home-baked bread, and boy was it good! We also took some buns and a loaf of bread over to our friends, D & M. What's the fun in baking if you NEVER share???
This morning was another sleep-in but only til 10:00. (parents...this is your cue for another moan) We went and got the mail first thing and then Nathan rented some video games for his new PLAYSTATION 2 and I washed the car. Now, please nobody feel bad for me because I am productive on my holidays and Nathan relaxes by playing video games. Really, I am much more relaxed if I've done something and Nathan is much more relaxed if he just turns his mind off and does nothing for a week. I'd much rather my husband returns to work next week and actually feels like he had a break, than having him do things around the house and him feeling like his holidays were useless. So anyway, I washed the car and then cleaned the kitchen and living room and re-organized our freezer. It was so nice to just sit back and know that the car and kitchen and living room and freezer were all clean and I didn't need to worry about them. Then, this evening, we went out for supper to Boston Pizza with our friends, D&M. It was so nice to just sit at the table for almost two hours and talk and just be with friends. It doesn't happen nearly often enough. Maybe that's because we can't justify spending $35 on eating out all that often...
So tomorrow is day 3 of our holidays and we are heading out for a day trip to Grand Forks, ND. I've never really been there (just drove through) so I'm excited to see what it has to offer. Plus, I have two coupons from Nathan's mom (Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works) so hopefully I'll be able to use them. It's the same distance to Grand Forks as to Winnipeg, so we're going for a change of scenery. Should be fun. But on that note, I should be going. It's 10:45pm and I just came to the church to check maps for fun shops in GF. Gotta get to bed so I can get up EARLY (9:00am) tomorrow morning! So long for now!

Enough of Big Bird...moving on...

I'm tired of seeing Big Bird every time I open up my blog (to check other people's blogs). Time to post again. It'll have to be short, but here's life:
My brother just arrived back in Canada from his 6 month trip to Australia. He landed in Winnipeg, so my parents drove out to pick him up and we had a family supper/evening. That was really good. I always love to hang out with family. They're wonderful. It was also recently my mom and dad's 25th anniversary, so our supper was to celebrate that.
This weekend we leave with a group of about 10 youth to St. Laurent, Manitoba. Every year for hundreds of years (about 18), our church has gone up there and put on a week of VBS for the church there. We did this trip last year already, and, to tell you the absolute truth, I'm not looking forward to it very much. Last year, I struggled to find my place and never really did, so I'm anticipating a long, hot, tiring/exhausting, struggle of a week. I'm really trying and praying for a better attitude, and it has improved ALOT in the last couple weeks, but I'm still not terribly excited for it. So I guess I'm asking for prayer...for energy...for patience...for finding my place there...for not to hot weather, so that we don't die...prayer is so important. Thanks.
The week directly following St. Laurent, we have holidays. We don't have any definite plans for them yet, but both of us are not going in to work, so it will be a much needed break. I'm really looking forward to it.
So that's our summer so far...staying busy, even though we don't have the youth program running...enjoying life, but looking forward to a break soon.

Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away...on my way...

Does anyone else sometimes miss Sesame Street? I guess Nate and I need to have kids, just so I can watch stuff like that again. Sesame Street, Under the Umbrella Tree, Mr. Dressup...oh the good old morning line-up of quality children's programming. Of course, who needs kids to justify watching these shows? If I would notice when they're on, I might watch by myself anyway, without kids! Of course, nowadays kids aren't allowed to play in the street anymore...

Well, I'm not seeing green...

So, for those of you who are wondering...my open house went alright. The weather was perfect (only a few small drops of rain on Saturday). And I had some people stop by...one in particular who I might get together with this fall and have some scrapbooking/stamping evenings with (inviting other ladies too - this alone may make the open house worth it). As far as sales go, they weren't great, but that's alright. It was mainly an advertising weekend (advertising that I'm here and that I sell scrapbooking supplies) but that goes a long way (let's hope!). So here I am today, looking at numbers and profit and seeing the deadline for my minimum sales approaching quickly and wondering how big an order I make on faith that I will sell some of it (and getting a huge headache quite rapidly). The start of these home businesses are TOUGH!!! I thought people would be flocking to me with all of their scrapbooking needs as soon as I started up! Just kidding...I didn't really think that, but I did hope that doors would open a bit easier than me having to push and push and hope for the best. You know? Anyone out there (Rachael, Kelsie, Marsha) have any advice for a struggling business owner over here? I'm open to any tips/encouragement/words of wisdom that you may have!

Yay, the sun's coming out!

I must say, when I woke up this morning and the sun wasn't shining and I heard rain on the radio, I was a little disappointed. See, today and tomorrow I am having a Creative Memories open house at my place and I was really hoping to have it outside (because how many people go to open houses when they are inside and they have to knock?!). I know I don't. I'm hoping that this open house will be productive. So far, I haven't made any money (well...does negative money count???) with this whole Creative Memories thing. I'm hoping this weekend things will turn around at least a little bit, because I don't know how much longer I can keep up if I'm not making sales. There's only so far backward you want to go before you start going forward again, right? I'm about at that point. Oh well. My up-line was gracious enough to lend me some of her stock that I can sell and then replace at cost. It might be a good chance to hold even or gain some ground. Also, maybe me being visible will spread awareness that I am a consultant here in town and bring in some business. If anyone thinks of me this evening or tomorrow, you can pray that people will come by and that the open house goes well. And that it doesn't rain over 2nd Street this weekend.

On the Road Again..

I just can't seem to stay away from the car this month. After getting our second oil change in a month, Nathan and I packed the car AGAIN and headed off to the lovely Saskatchewan. This is my third trip to Saskatchewan since the beginning of June. Surprisingly, I don't loathe the words "road trip" yet. I still love the idea of getting into a car and taking off for a couple days! It is especially good when I'm with my honey. He's wonderful to travel with.

So this time, we're in Hepburn again. It is the weekend for our annual EMMC convention. There is always something for pastors before the whole thing starts, so we drove up yesterday and the whole thing starts today at 1:00. It is very convenient that convention is in Hepburn this year because it was not hard at all to drive up the day before and have somewhere to stay. Nathan's parents live in Hepburn, so we are crashing there.

Another advantage of driving up a day early is my being able to see my friend, Marsha. After driving 10 hours from Altona to Hepburn, I dropped Nathan and Lennox off, packed a smaller bag for myself, and drove another hour and a quarter to PA (Prince Albert) to see my wonderful Marsha. I am sitting on her couch right now (she's at work) and looking around her beautiful house and thinking what an honor it has been to be here and to sit here all evening until the wee hours of the morning talking weddings and marriage and LIFE. It's always way too long between those talks. But it's been good to be here. Short, but better than nothing, right?

Well, I should get going. In a couple hours I head back to Hepburn and to start the first of four days of sessions and meetings. Fun fun. Hopefully I'll be able to stay awake!

We're back!

Our trip to Saskatchewan was wonderful! Lennox travelled SO well! (Why were we worried?) The first hour heading out he seemed pretty whiny, but after that I think he just resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't getting out. After that, he looked pretty sick and uncomfortable the rest of the way, but didn't have any "accidents" in the back seat, so all was well. On the way home, he was an old pro and we only had to stop twice in ten hours. Not bad at all. It's such a relief to know that he can travel well and that we can take him with us when we go places! He did wake up this morning with swollen eyes though...anybody out there know anything about dogs? We don't want a huge vet bill if we don't have to have one...advice?

Back to the trip...it was great. The wedding was beautiful. You know when you go to a wedding and it is just so perfect for the two people getting married? Well, that's how this one was. It was two friends who were in Nate's freshman class. And because they were both at Bethany for 4 (read 6) years, there were tons of Bethany alumni at the wedding. It was SO good to see people we hadn't seen for a while. It was mostly people that Nathan knew who were there, so we ended up hanging out with his friends and their wives/girlfriends/baby for the weekend. It was such an encouraging time of just being ourselves (outside ministry and responsibilities and everything) and catching up with friends. I can't communicate how good this weekend was. It was a blessing to be there.

Now that we're home, there's tons of stuff to do around the house. Unpacking and doing laundry. Mowing the lawn (which I LOVE). Weeding (which I need to do but don't enjoy at all). Baking (buns and bread...because fresh is much yummier than bought). Piano lessons (I started teaching about a month and a half ago...I LOVE teaching...). I should also start thinking about how to make my Creative Memories business survive over the summer months. It's been painfully neglected over the past two months (when youth got busier) but hopefully it will be resurrected this summer and grow quickly come fall.

Well, I should get going if I'm going to get everything done today! Talk to you later!

Going to Saskatchewan...the promised land...

Thanks for your comments about Facebook. So am I right in summing it up by saying that it's about connecting with long-lost people and looking at pictures? I'll have to explore a bit more and get hooked one of these days... : )

So today, Nathan and I are heading out to Saskatchewan for a wedding. Two of our Bible school friends are getting married. It'll be great to see a bunch of familiar faces again. I always look forward to that. I was just at a wedding in Hudson Bay three weekends ago and saw some faces from high school. Now I get to see faces from Bethany. Could life be any greater???

This time we're taking Lennox with us for the drive to Saskatchewan. 10 hours in the car with a dog. Hmm...are we insane? Hopefully he'll sleep most of the time and not have too much...shall we say "doggie-smells"? I guess if worst comes to worst, we'll leave him there (at Nathan's parents') and pick him up in two weeks when we're back in Hepburn for the EMMC convention. It'll give him a chance to recover and by then he'll have forgotten the "badness" of the car. Maybe?

Well, I've gotta get going and pack. I'll let you know how the trip goes when we're back!

Facebook...

So, I've gone and done it. I've registered with Facebook. Now all I need to know is why? I haven't quite caught on to the "wonderfulness" of it yet. Can someone please help me out? What is so great about Facebook???

Not Responding

Now that computers have been common in households for about 15 years, and the internet for 10, you'd think that they would have them pretty close to problem free. I've been sitting here for half an hour already, and all I've done is check my account balance (internet banking) and add 6 people to facebook. The rest of the time I've been waiting, watching the "Not Responding" appear and disappear on the top of my screen over and over, all the while not being able to do a thing. Couldn't they have this fixed by now? With all this technology, you'd think they'd have home computers working a bit better and faster than they do. There's my rant for the day...
Moving on...
Last weekend I was at my friend Cheryl's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. I was there alone, without my other half, but it was good to see friends again that I hadn't seen since my wedding or before. It was also wonderful to be in Saskatchewan again. I hadn't been in Hudson Bay (my hometown) in summer since '05 and never there for more than one full day since my wedding (May '05). It was high time for a visit! Everyone who was in town for the wedding was invited to the rehersal supper out at the farm where Cheryl grew up, so it was a good chance to be surrounded by friends again. It really emphasizes how much time has passed since high school though. We've all moved on...we're getting married and working and school-ing...it's fun to catch up and see where everyone is. So encouraging.
This week, my parents were out. They came down to help shingle our roof. It took the guys one full day to strip and re-shingle the roof. It's taking more than one day to recover though. Nathan is pretty sore, and, though dad didn't say anything, I'd say he's hurting pretty bad too! While the guys were on the roof, my mom and I went to the local greenhouses and bought some plants. Then we spent five straight hours weeding the flower bed and getting it ready for flowers. Then we planted. It's nice to have our backyard and roof looking a bit more put together! Now we're looking forward to the siding coming on and getting our grass looking a bit less patchy. Then, we'll be able to sit back and enjoy our yard and house's makeover and ponder what the next thing to do should be! I'm sure we won't be able to sit for long without another project...a deck maybe??? Hmm...