Yesterday I did one of the hardest things I have done in my life. I watched someone drive away with my two most beloved horses. I didn't expect it to be easy, but I never expected it to be this hard. It felt like my heart was being torn in two.

The decision to sell them was made about a month ago when we decided to sell our house. To board them would cost about $750. a month and it just didn't make any sense to keep them. So I advertised them. A young girl and boy came from Quadra Island the other day to look at them. We rode in the pouring rain which was horrible and beautiful at the same time. It was to be my last ride. They said they would take them. I then found out that they are going to a Christian Camp. The camp is amazing. They have 235 acres and they are right on the ocean. I was invited to come out to ride and see them anytime.

I was so happy that they were going to such a wonderful home. When I first went to this Arabian farm by Saskatoon where all my horses have come from, the owner told me that he did not sell horses, but ran an adoption center. I kow what he means. You cannot own a horse for 14 years and then just sell her. I can't anyway.

So yesterday they came and took them to their new home. I cried. I sobbed my heart out as I watched them leave the yard and I felt so incredibly empty. If anyone were to ask me who I was in 10 words or less, I would say 'christian wife, mother and horse lady. I was no longer the horse lady. I don't own any horses anymore. I am not sure how I can function with such a huge part of my life gone. I can't grasp the concept of not feeding my horses every day, I'm not going to go and get hay anymore and worst, I am not going to ever go outside and have Mattanah call to me to say hi or I'm hungry or my waters empty or just hi here I am.

I am glad that today I am leaving this place. Everywhere I go here, and everything I do and everything I think is met with the silence of an empty pasture. I can't bear to be here any longer. Yesterday was also my 13th anniversary.

The Storm and Our New House

For and of you who watch the news, you must have seen that we were hit with a very bad storm. We didn't really get a lot of damage compared to a lot of people but it was bad enough. This is my poor plum tree. The wind just took it down. If I still owned this house, I would be devasted. Every spring that tree is loaded full of pink blossoms. It was so beautiful and now it's dead. This is theGrafton Ave that runs behind our house. This is the morning after when all the trees had been taken off the road already. Reagan and Carlie live about 15 minutes away from us and they of course were out of power so Reagan tries to go and get her in the middle of the storm. It took him over an hour to get through because of all the trees on the road. Luckily someone had called a friend with a chain saw and he came and went ahead and cut them out.
My fence or what is left of it.
This is our new house. Blue again. Much smaller as you can see but it has a garage which is a bonus.
This is the family room but we are going to use it as the dining room. Notice the lovely wallpaper. Today I start the tedious task of ripping that all off and as you can see it goes over the wall and into the kitchen as well. I hate wallpaper with a passion.
This is the other side of the dining room with a nice little gas stove. It works great and its gas which I like. I used to love the other ones so much better because you could hear the crackle of the fire but they are messy and this one is not and I just hit a button and it's on. How can you tell I am getting old.
I do still have a large bathroom with a jaccuzzi tub and that also makes me very happy. I don't know how I would get used to such small bathrooms after having such big ones here. Now I don't have to worry about it.
And this is the lovely pink carpet. I am some how going to have to get used to it but it really is going to be hard. I hate it so much I could just cry. Why oh why do people do this kind of thing!!!
This is my kitchen which is kind of a square box. Hummmmm. Not really sure if I like it more than my other one or less.

Carol if you aren't busy, I would gladly take up your offer to help. We are going to peel off all that paper and paint before we move in. Call me!!

We Found A House!!

As most of you know by now, we have sold our house and have to be out of here by Dec 1st. We have decided not to buy right now as prices are really quite crazy out here and we think prices will come down in the next year and then we will buy again. So we are going to rent. Scary in some ways. We haven't rented since shortly after we got married and I just don't like the thought of living in someone elses house. You just can't do whatever you want to anymore.
The house we are renting is in Qualicum Beach just a couple of blocks from the water which is very nice. It also backs right onto a golf course which is going to close in the spring so I don't need to worry about golf balls coming through the window. There is no fence right now and that doesn't thrill me much. Hopefully we can put one up in the spring.

I won't be able to look out of my window and see my horses anymore. That makes me sad and I am not sure how I will cope. That is why we are renting for now. I may just lose my mind living in town, or I may love the freedom of not having to look after them so much that we decide to stay in town. This is a huge test for us.
The house is very nice inside and has a double attached garage which makes Ken very happy. I think it's about 1600 sq feet which is about 1/2 the size we have now but that just means I have less to clean. Amazingly enough, it has a huge bathroom with a step up jaccuzzi tub which just made my day. But the worst part of all is that it has pink rug in the living room. WHO DOES THAT!!! I hate pink of any kind in a house, unless it's a little girls room. But PINK RUG??? WHY??? We had pink rug everywhere in this house too when we bought and I hated it. We had it all ripped out and changed last spring finally and now I have to go back to pink rug. I could have cried when I saw it. I will post pictures for you all to see as soon as we are moved in.

I am going to miss my house a lot. The people that are buying our house decided that the roof needed replacing so he asked if we would allow them to come in and redo it before they took possession on Dec 1st. We said yes. So the other morning we are in the bath and we hear a loud truck. Ken gets up to see and it's the roofers on our yard. Great. I am in the tub with my hair just washed and hadn't even shaved my legs yet when suddenly I had to get out and fast. We have a huge skylight in our bathroom so anyone on the roof can look right in. So much for my bath. I also have a huge skylight in my other bathroom and in my staircase and two in my kitchen.Arrrggggg!!!! I had no where to go. Skylights are great until you have to have your roof redone. Then I go into my computer room and they are banging so loud on the roof, it sounded like they had a bulldozer up there. And the language!! Ever other word was f*#* something or other. So I left for the day.
Today it's raining so they aren't coming. I am so happy. I get to spend a peaceful day in my house. One of my last. :(
Melanie is here for the day and she is going to help me do my shoeboxes. I am doing seven so we have a lot of wrapping to do. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Since Robyn's computer is down and she hasn't made a new blog for Luke yet, I thought I would just post a couple of pictures of him. These are all about a month old already but he hasn't changed that much.
He is such a happy boy and is still a very good baby. He cried the other day because he had a tummy ache and Robyn kind of lost it. She has no idea what to do with a crying baby as he never does cry. I mean really....never. He still sleeps about 12 hours a night except for when he had a bad cold and then he only slept for about 7 without waking up. Poor Robyn was so tired she had to come over for a nap so I could look after Luke.
I am very happy the God has blessed her with such a good baby. It's not easy being a single parent as it is, but then to have a cranky baby would be that much harder to cope with. He loves to jump in his jolly jumper but gets frustrated because he can't go anywhere. He is not content to just sit. When you put him on the floor he just rolls everywhere. I can tell already that he is going to be a very busy boy.

Other than Luke who is a constant source of joy and entertainment in our family, I don't have much else to report. I am looking forward to Christmas this year because we will have all of our kids home and now we also have a baby to buy for. That is exciting. I can hardly wait.
I miss all those gatherings when our kids were little and we all gathered in mom and dad's basement. I wish we could do that one more time. What a fun time that would be.

I'm back in the blogging world. It's good to be back but blogger is giving me endless grief. This is about the 89th time I have tried to load these pictures so before something screws up on me, I am going to try really hard to finish this post.

We have sold our house for all of you who didn't know. You all know that we became empty nesters this summer and so it's time for a change. We have only had 3 kids get married in just over one year and became grandparents so yeah...our life needs some change :] So we decided to list our house and see what happened and we sold it. I almost had it exactly the way I wanted it and now it will be someone elses. I don't know when I will have a house that I have liked as much as this one. Especially the bathrooms. The entire house was white when we bought it except the downstairs bathroom which was the one room we never did a thing to.

So here is our house. This is my kitchen, dining area looking into the front entrance at the back there. This is the downstairs bathroom, or at least part of it. The only part the matters and that's the tub. It's too big to get into one picture. The door there is the one that goes into the laundry. When Robyn lived at home, that came in very handy as she goes through towels like no one I know.
This is the front of the house but this was taken when we first moved in and so it doesn't show all the lattice work we did all around the flower beds but it gives you an idea anyway.
This is the bathroom off the master. When we bought the house, it was pink, pink pink. Enough to make you want to hurl. The enitre room was painted pink, the tiles around the tub were pink and blue, and there were pink boards all around the outside of the tub. The counter top was also pink. I wish I had before and after pictures so you could all see the amazing job Art did in here. I painted everything but Art did all the tile work.
This is my library which I am really going to miss. It is a very cosy room and I love it. Sadly I won't be able to enjoy it much longer.
So there are a few pictures of my house. We have to be out by Dec 1st and so far have found nothing to rent. We have decided not to buy right now as we really don't know what we want. We haven't rented in many years and I'm not crazy about living in someone elses house but I am going to try it for a while and if I hate it, then maybe we will buy again next fall when the prices drop again. Prices are insane here right now so it's a good time to sell.
I am going to quickly publish this before I lose it.

It's good to be back.