Life Changes.

"I really hate this hat, I'll have you know!"
"I am taking this hat off of my head".
"Can't anyone see how much I hate this hat and give me a hand here?"
"Fine I'll wear the dumb hat".

This one is just to show his little tongue that he always sticks out. Typical Braun baby. He reminds me of Jake when he does that.

And now back to my title of this blog. LIFE CHANGES! Yes it has. This year has been a big year of changes. Last year at this time, I was just getting used to the idea of this little bundle of joy in my life and that he was my grandson. I was a grandma! In July Ken closed most of his business down and we listed our house for sale. In October I went to move Melanie and Peter back from Wyomming. It was so wonderful to have all of our kids back on the island. Then our house sold and I made the heart wrenching decision to sell my horses. (In the end I donated them to a Christian camp) Then we moved into town and I had to try to get used to a small house, neighbors RIGHT in your face all the time, I had no horses, no dogs and I even had to take Molly our farm cat to the vet to have her put down. She was 11 years old and we had had her since she was 6 weeks. I don't even like cats but that day I cried. Then Jan came and I decided that I couldn't sit here any longer and mourn what I didn't have. I signed up for a course through the Uof BC to become a property manager. Let me tell you, you need to first take a law course to understand half of what they are trying to teach you. It is very intensive and hard. Even Ken struggled to help me with some of the stuff. But since I had paid huge money for this course, I kept plugging away. I had been praying for a while about it and just feeling like I didn't want to finish it. I felt so horrible about it though. So one day I am talking to a lady in church and she tells me she is managing a Michael Hill Jewellery store and is looking for another person to manage. I told her I would keep my ears open. But for the rest of the day, I kept thinking about this job and the amazing pay and benefits and all but I have no retail experience at all. A couple of days later I emailed her and told her I was interested and she called me in and ....to make a long story short, I started my Manager In Training yesterday. It is a lot of hours and some of it requires me to go to Vancouver but I am in the work force for the first time in many years. It feels weird sometimes and when I look back at the last year, there have been many changes in my life. Some amazing and some...well not so amazing. All in all, God is still on the throne and he is still good. I have sometimes doubted that.
C.S. Lewis, after his wife died of cancer said this.."The tragedy is not that I would stop believing in God, but that I would start to believe such terrible things about Him." I have never forgotten that. I can't because sadly I am reminded of it many times in my life when my thoughts want to go that way.
So that is what is going on in my life.
I am also not leaving blogger to go to facebook. Although I do visit there blogger is my home. Hopefully I will still have time to post on my days off.

Fun In The Sun!

This is a gooey duck. You can't really see what it really looks like but it is butt ugly. Even worse. This one is hiding under some seaweed. They pop up like this on the beach everywhere and they are filled with water...somehow. Sooooo...........this is what you do.....
You stomp on them. This picture isn't very clear but if you look close you can see the water shooting up.
Unfortunately, sometimes they get you. It's almost like they have eyes or something.
One of these got me right in the butt.
Some of them don't spray very much...
But some of them will get you right in the face.
As you can see here.....
So that is what I did for the afternoon. It is the greatest passtime....stomping gooey ducks. But there were so many today that now my calf is really sore. Oh well! It's still a lot of fun.

God is Good!

For those of you who have read my last post, I would like to tell you all what has been happening. Robyn left a comment and said she has found a place. Let me explain.
Before Robyn even had Luke, she has wanted to live in those apartments. The complex is beautiful. So when Luke was 4 months old, she calls to see about an apartment there. The landlady says there is one but the waiting list is 32 people long and they are geared more for seniors and told Robyn that basically it was useless. They didn't want kids in there.
Robyn is very discouraged. We told her to pray about it and if this is where God wanted her, He would open the doors. A few days later, Robyn goes to apply. The landlady is away and the sister is there. She is very nice to Robyn but also tells her there are 32 people ahead of her. A few days later Robyn gets a call. You guessed it! The sister had tried to call all 32 people and they were either gone, already moved or something and at the end of it all, Robyn was the only one left. She got the apartment.
The landlady comes back and she is mad. Tells Robyn she never should have got the place and when Luke is one, she is going to have to move regardless because he will be too noisy and if Robyn disturbs her 'good' tenants below, there will be trouble. Since then, she has been nasty to Robyn. Even told her she shouldn't go barefoot in her apartment.
One day Robyn very briefly parked in the visitors parking and it just so happened that Kathy walked by and told Robyn if she did it again, she would get her car towed. Robyn has been given two noise warning, one just a few weeks ago and it was because Luke was sick and cried at night. She was told that one more time and she would be evicted. It's been fun.
So now Robyn had to go and give her notice. I thought Kathy would be elated to have her out of there. Robyn goes to talk to her and tells her she is moving and does she have a 1 bdrm available and if possible on the ground floor.
Now this is where things got very interesting. Kathy says she does have a 1 bdrm but it is already gone. Then she says she will talk to the lady and ask her if she is willing to take a different one because the ground floor would be better for Luke so he can't disturb anyone below and how perfect it would be because they actually have a little boy living right above that apartment so with Robyn below, it won't matter if he's loud.
Robyn tells me this and I am in shock. Then the next day Kathy calls her and tells her that the woman is willing to switch so if Robyn wants it, the place is hers and she can move in on the 20th. The rent is $630 but Robyn said she was willing to live without a phone and internet and do what she needed to do to make up the other $60. I call the lady at the Ministry to ask if this is okay and she says yes. Even gives me a few 'tips' on how to basically cheat the system legally to help Robyn out. I can buy her 3 months supply of diapers as a gift. Pay her cell phone, bring her groceries instead of money and a few other things.
With Robyn moving on the 20th, Kathy said she would give Robyn some money back because she won't be living in her 2 bdrm for the whole month so this should make up for the money they are taking off her next check. Plus she gets some back on her damage deposit since that won't be as much either. So things have worked out okay. It will be a bit tough going but it has been amazing to see this unfold so quickly.
I have been convicted these past few days of my fear of what will happen to her and my anger at the system. I usually come out fighting first instead of retreating to my 'corner' and asking God what I should do. Isn't that so like our kids when they were small. I so remember trying to get them to calm down so I could talk some sense into them. Now sad to say, God was telling me the same thing. To calm down and just ask Him to help and to remember that this is not that big of a problem for Him. Today I had to call the lady at the ministry and for some reason I did not feel this was going to go well. So I decide to go and pray first and I picked up the new devotional I got for my birthday on Sunday and the title of the very first devotional in there was 'In God You Can Trust' with this scripture.
Psalm 9:10...'Those who know Your name will trust in You, for You Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You"....Amen to that. The call went very well.