Footsack

Goin Home

2007-07-13T07:36:00.001-07:00

In a couple of hours I am leaving to go back home to see my mom and dad. As you all know by now, Dad is in the hospital and not doing well. I have prayed many years for Dad's healing, that he would be well and that he would be able to see. I have watched in agony as my dad got slowly worse. I don't want to get into the theological debate right now about why this is happening. It isn't important right now.
We have spent many wonderful times with Mom and Dad when they would come to the island. One of the first places Dad always wanted to go was Cathedral Grove. He said he felt close to God there. He loved the falls as well especially in the winter when they were roaring down the gorge with such power you could feel the ground shake. He always wanted to go to the beach when it was storming to see the waves crashing. There is something very special in all of those things. You feel God and you see His wonder in the nature He created.
It's hard for me to think about the fact that I will never go to Cathedral Grove with my Dad again. I can't imagine my life without him. What is worse for me to imagine is the pain and the sorrow that my parents have shared these last years and especially these last few months. Susan has shared with me how one day he couldn't get up from the table and he wanted to go and lay down. He asked mom to just help him to the floor. Mom told him he couldn't just sleep on the floor and he told her he couldn't make it to the bed. She told him that Susan was there and they would help him to the couch. They eventually got him to the couch and mom struggled to lift his legs up even though he told her not to bother. When she finally managed to get him comfortable he put his face into his hands and he cried. Then she knelt there in front of the couch and put her face in his neck and she cried with him. There are many stories like that that just break my heart. The pain my mom has gone through as she has watched the husband she had loved all these years slowly fade away is unimaginable. The burden my Dad has felt he has been to her is so sad it breaks my heart.
Can I imagine our lives without him? No I can't. But this is not about me, this is about him. All his life he has lived for one thing and that is to see His Lord and Saviour face to face. And his eyesight will be completely restored there. He will leave his wheelchair, his cane and all of that behind him. He will walk and talk with Jesus. And this is what I imagine his face to look like when his eyes are opened and he sees Jesus face to face.
I Love You Dad.

Life Changes.

2007-06-20T08:26:00.001-07:00

"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!

2007-06-14T16:29:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-06-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

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.

INJUSTICE!!!!

2007-05-31T05:19:00.000-07:00

John has been bugging me about posting something new and wondered if I had a life outside of Luke :\ Sometimes I wonder the same thing. This is kind of about Luke but more about the idiots who run our country and province in this case.
Yesterday Robyn had an appointment with an investigator from Welfare. They don't call themselves that anymore because the name is too derogatory so they are now called Income Assistance. What a load of crap! They give Robyn $945. a month to support her and Luke. (sorry Robyn to let everyone know what you get but I have to to get my point across) She also receives $360. from Child Tax Benefit. So in total she gets about $1300.00 Her rent is $770. She has a two bedroom but it has a washer and dryer in the suite so she doesn't have to spend money on Laundry so we thought that all things considered it wasn't a bad deal because that would cost her about $40 a month. She has to have a phone because her security door works through her phone. That's $50 for a basic phone. Her hydro is about $60 a month, car insurance is $110 a month, internet is $55 (she got her cable cut off because it was too expensive) Her cell phone is $60 at least. (Rogers are a rip off but she's on a plan and can't cancel)
So these guys do the math and find out that they are not paying Robyn enough to live on and so they haul her in to talk. I go with her. We are told that I cannot as her mother, help my child out. She is living way beyond her means and has luxuries that you are not allowed on Wefare. Oh sorry..."Assistance". She does not need a car. I told the woman that we lived over 1/2 and hour away and for us to come in and pick her up and take her grocery shopping, to appointments and all of that would cost us way more than to just pay for her insurance. Sorry.. wrong answer. She can't have a car. She also can't have internet and she is allowed $570 for rent which has to include utilities even your phone so technically to live within their budget, she has to find a place to live for $400. I asked her where on this entire island can you find a place to live for that much. She just smiled and said she had clients that live within their budget but their address often says Haliburton or Harewood and they are not two bedroom. They are bachelor or one bedroom. She's not allowed her own room. That is also a luxury I'm told. I told her I would rather pay for my daughter not to have to live down there because it is not safe. She is a single mom with a baby for crying out loud. I had friends that lived there and they were scared to come home at night and all they listened to all night long was screaming and fighting and sirens. Now I have to send my daughter and grandchild to live there. She asked me if I was expecting this money back and I was honest and said 'no, it is a gift'. Sorry wrong again. The correct answer is yes. I am not allowed to gift my child money every month. Only the odd time but if it's on going then it is declared as 'unearned income'. Well are you not after all called income assistance? NO! They are deducting dollar for dollar all of it off of her next check. They are nice enough to let her pay off the other 3 months but last month whatever I gave her is all coming off next check. So now next month she is getting about $500. I asked her how she expected Robyn to live on that even if she did move. That leaves nothing to live on and won't even pay her rent. It will be very obvious once again that someone must have helped her. Then they'll haul her in there again to find out how she survived on $500 because they know it's impossible. All she said to me was that I had some hard things to go home and think about.
But get this. Here's the real kicker. Eddie who is native also gets $900 a month from the same government. That is not to pay rent or bills or food or any costs especially that of a child. No, that is just for the poor boy to have some spending money for the month because he goes to college which is really stressful and all. So they pay for his ENTIRE tuition. And it's not a student loan. How would he ever pay that back? That would just cause more stress. So they just pay for it all and give him $900 a month just to spend and just because he's native. Now this is not a rant about natives (I'll save that for another time) but this just burns my butt. And they'll help him stay living on the north end because you can't put the likes of him down in the south end. It may not be safe. Heck he's a big enough and he's a guy and he'd fit right in down there! No lets instead send a single mom with a baby to live down there but don't give her a cell phone or a car. Those are luxuries. Ohhhhhhhhhhh I am just so mad.
Now if Robyn was an unfit mother, they would take Luke away from her and pay some other person over $1000 a month to look after him, and give this person all the help and support they needed. But they won't give it to Robyn. This is not a rant against foster parents....Margaret. (I'll also save that for another time :\)
I asked the lady how I was to watch my daughter live like this and she had no answer other than 'assistance is there to help people who are down and out and if we make it too comfortable they will stay on assistance. I understand that but to allow $400-$500 for rent???? You can't rent anywhere for that. She agreed but said if they paid the going rate, then they would have to be paying people in Vancouver $1000 a month for rent and that is just not right. So people cheat the system and they wonder why. People start selling drugs and they wonder why. Jails are filled with 80% reoffenders and they wonder why. They spend more money on those guys per month too. Also another rant I'll save for another time.
So Robyn is giving her notice today. She has to give her car back cut off her internet, move to a small bachelor pad or at best a one bedroom so now she'll be at least 45 minutes away, and I am not allowed to help her out anymore unless I get way better at figuring out how to cheat the system. I am just so angry and last night at our home group we talked about what it looks like to be angry and not sin. Right now I'm not sure I know what that looks like. Any help would be greatly appreciated and any prayers you want to send up our way would be great.

Mother's Day & Summer Fun!

2007-05-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

These pictures did not post in the order they were supposed to but...that's blogger I guess. I know that if you are savvy enough, you can move them around on your blog. I tried it once and deleted the pictures so I will not try it again. So you'll just have to view them out of order.
This is Luke playing in our pond in our back yard.
Happy Mother's Day Mommy!!
(this year he was big enough to help carry the present)
Do you like my card Mommy? I put a nice hand print in there for you cause I don't know how to write my name yet.
Just hanging out on the grass.
What a happy boy you are. You just love being outside.
Going for a walk.
Mommy helping me play in the pond.
Splish splash...this is fun!
But this is way more fun.
What is all this stuff stuck on my feet?
I love watching the waves come rolling in over my feet.
........and sharing mommy's ice cream. What a fun day we had at the beach. I can hardly wait to go again.

Luke's First Birthday

2007-05-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

He wasn't too sure about the whole cake thing although he was very excited about the candle. Typical little boy.
Oh yeah!!!! This is sooo exciting!!!!!!
As soon as he touched the cake and got icing on his fingers that he couldn't shake off, he wouldn't touch the cake anymore. Robyn had to actually get him to even taste it.
Eeeewwww!!!!!! I don't think I like birthday cake!!!!! (not your typical boy)
Awwww! Nope, he sure didn't want to eat that cake at all. Another Reagan here!

He was very happy playing cards. A very rare picture of Luke with Great Grandma and Grandpa.
What a big boy you are already.

THE BEACH HUT IS OPEN!!!

2007-03-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's true.
The beach hut is open and we had a wonderful time there. Out here it's just as exciting as Christmas. Last year Luke was only a couple of months old so he didn't really appreciate the beach but this year he loved it. He even loved to pick up the rocks. Typical Boy!
Of course he has to taste them to make sure they were okay.
Auntie Mellie had just as much fun as Luke did and got to show him the seagulls which he loved.
Here we are with our coffee...yes life is good. Luke had eyes only for the ice cream.
He was not interested in looking at Auntie Mellie who was trying to take a nice pictures. He just wanted to look at the water.
He just loved it outside but of course wanted to continually run to the water.
There are so many things to discover on a beach.
So now that the beach hut is open, I may not have as much time to post. I may become like Jen and do it just once a year. LOL .......no, now I'll just have so much more to post about :) :)

It's Official!!!

2007-03-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

It is now official!!. Luke is walking. I guess that means that he is now a toddler as he is toddling everywhere. What happened to that sweet baby boy that was so little such a short time ago? As you can see, he is very proud of himself and excited that he can walk all by himself.
It's also official that he is the cutest little guy. I love that kind of serious look that transforms completely when he smiles.
It's official! Luke is the smartest 10 month old baby I have ever known. Here is is reading one of my books. And he can read upside down no less!
It's official! I am going back to school. I have embarked on a very scarey adventure and am going back to school. I am going to try very hard to become a property manager. It is a one year course so I have a bit of time to hopefully figure out if my old brain can learn new things or retain anything of great importance. Heck I was excited when I learned how to copy and paste! I think that is the last thing I really learned that was of any importance. Sad! I think since Luke is so smart and can read upside down, he will be my new tutor. I sure need one.

Its Official!! Spring is here and I don't care what anyone says or what the weather does. It must be doing something right since my crocus's are growing like mad and I have some other flowers that are also blooming all over my yard. And it was +13 today so that is good enough for me. (besides...if I don't tell myself it's spring, I'll lose my mind and I have precious little to spare)
Aren't they just the most beautiful little flowers. They even survived the one day of snow we had last week. YES we had snow just last week.
I don't know what these are but they are flowers and they are growing in my yard so that makes them beautiful.

These ones look like they took a bit of a beating but they are still trying to bloom and grow and they give me hope. I sometimes feel a bit beat up too and if these little fragile flowers can still bloom with the crap weather we've had, then I guess I won't give up just yet.

A 'Play" Day???

2007-02-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

The other day Connor and Ethan came for a visit. Luke doesn't get much of a chance to see kids his own age so he was quite fascinated by Connor. I think Connor was quite excited to have someone his size to play with. We did get them to sit for just a mintute so we could get a nice picture.
Connor thought that Luke's head made a nice drum and it was just the right hieght too.
Connor soon found out that his 'drum' didn't really like it and they both toppled over, Connor falling right on top of Luke. As you can see, Luke was not impressed.
Then Ethan tried to cheer him up by running and trying to jump right over Lukes head. Ethan didn't quite make it. I think that was it for Luke's patience and the play day kind of ended.
Then when Luke was feeling a bit better, he came over again and showed us how he learned how to play hide and seek. He loves to play.

And he sits with the blanket or arm rest cover or whatever he has, over his head for a long time.

He's also learning how to walk. Here Uncle Peter and Auntie Mellie are helping him to walk, or should I say run. He's always in such a hurry that his body goes way faster than his feet.

He sure is happy trying though even if he goes too fast.
He also loves to play in the dirt in my plants. If only it would warm up a bit so we could go to the beach and he could play in the sand. I can hardly wait.
He can't figure out what he has in his hand. Oh well, just eat it if nothing else.

Oldies But Goodies

2007-02-21T09:49:00.000-08:00

IKnow this picture is a little blurry. It's OLD as dirt. Can you make out who is who? The hair styles and the glasses might confuse you a bit. I know you will all know who this is but who is the woman behind him with the ...ahem....beer.
Look at these two sweet boys. I think by the look on his face, the water might be a bit chilly.
Gotta love those glasses. Notice the....ahem.....smokes she has sitting beside her?

Love that horse! Awwww!! How sweet.

Spring Has Sprung.

2007-02-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

I wsa begining to wonder if spring would ever come. I know it's only February but to me it's been a long winter and I am ready for some warmer weather. Last week I noticed something different in the air. You know that smell that tells you winter is finally over. I went to my patio door and looked down and alas, there it was. My first sign that it was true. Spring has sprung. I have a bunch of new grass shoots and a tiny little flower almost ready to open.
I also noticed that a lot of my shrubs had new shoots too so I just had to take a couple of pictures to prove it to all of you and to remind myself that the world doesn't suck too bad after all. Even Save On Foods has fresh tulips and daffodils out by the front door. Oh that made my day!!
But not as much as seeing this cutie patootie. He is now standing all by himself and he's always so proud of himself. We all are too.
This one is just because I love this picture. I love the way he always crosses his feet when he sits. I could just squish that little guy.
Here he is again showing his mommy and me how good he is at standing all by himself. As soon as you help him up, he wants to let go of your hands. He can't take a step yet but he sure loves to just stand there. To think that soon the Beach Hut will be open...YEAH!!! and he'll be running around on the beach this summer instead of just sitting in his car seat. He is going to be so much fun this summer........and yes, now I know for sure that summer is coming soon. Oh the joy!!!!

Home Again

2007-02-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know Nadine, this is a picture of her and her new fiance Zack and his son Tyler. For those of you who don't know Nadine, she is the daughter of Ken's cousin Helerine who I was staying with while I was in Florida. I left on Jan 23rd and arrived home on Friday afternoon. I was just leaving Helerine's house when the tornado hit there. I was very fortunate that it hit to the east of us as it was predicted to hit right around the area where we were. We woke at 2:30 am to very heavy winds and lots of thunder and lightening. We had to leave her house for Tampa at about 4 am to get to the airport on time and the farther south we drove the better it got. I left there at 6:45 am with no problems and only heard about the tornado after I got home. All in all, I had a good time away but was very anxious to get home to see my adorable little grandson whom I had missed a lot.
Here he was climbing into my suitcase before I left.
Now that Luke is crawling everywhere, he especially loves to pull all of my books out of the bookshelf.
Here Auntie Mellie turned him into.....Aunt Jamima??
I did visit Universal studios while I was out there and it was very interesting. I don't think it was worth the $83 US that I had to pay but it was okay.

2007-01-02T22:23:00.000-08:00

Here is one of my Christmas presents. My dear hubby had these blown up for me and they are beautiful. They made me cry. I felt like a shmuck crying on Christmas morning with everyone watching but I couldn't stop. They are so amazing and as you can see they now hang on my hallway wall where I walk past them at least ten times a day.
These pictures all loaded backwards so you really should start at the bottom but this was Christmas Day after all the excitement of presents and people. Luke had a bath and was ready for bed.
What a little angel. Looks just like his mommy here.
Although Luke just got his first two teeth in the last week, he still has a lot more to go. Poor little guy.
This was taken with Ken's amazing new camera. We took a lot of these amasing pictures of him trying to catch the water. He sure loves his bath.
He could stay in that water for hours. Takes after his mommy there too.
This his his little riding zebra that he loved to sit on and here all the noises it made. It looks like he may also be a little cowboy one day.
What an amazing little zebra and an amazing little boy riding.
Of course with the way he loves his bath, he had to get a lot of bath toys too.
This is Christmas morning and since it was his first Christmas, everyone wanted to watch him open his presents but Uncle Peter and Auntie Mellie were a bit late so Luke decided to have a bit of a nap on the gifts since he couldn't open them just yet.
And this is actually Christmas eve. He could hardly wait.

Although there were more people at our house, Luke as you can see was the center of attention. He is such a happy baby and just made Christmas this year so much more fun. His smile just makes everything all right. I love you Luke with all my heart.
Happy New Year to you all.

Christmas Pictures

2006-12-21T10:02:00.000-08:00

Can you beleive I am posting twice in one week?? I know! It is amazing.
Just a few pictures of our favorite little boy. If you look really close you will see his very first tooth. We are all very proud. He's been working on them for about 5 months so it's about time.

The very best stocking stuffer ever!

Opening his very first Christmas present ever from his great granny Crause.
Hey hey!! Look what I got everyone! (it was a very cute outfit and we were all surprised at his reaction here :)
He is much happier with his little giggle bug.

More Christmas pictures to come soon. I will try to do a few more before Christmas since I can't seem to figure out how to load more than 5 pictures at a time. If anyone can help me out there that would be great.

Before and After.

2006-12-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

Here are just a couple of before and after pictures of my house. I have changed almost every room in the house but haven't taken some of the after pictures yet so if you want to see more changes, you will have to come over to see them. I will be posting some pictures of our Christmas party's so keep checking back. Hopefully I'll get to those in the next day or two.

2006-11-21T06:33:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-17T07:30:00.001-08:00

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!!

2006-11-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-11-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-11-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

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.