In Memory of my friend

It was a year ago tomorrow that my childhood pet, Ginger passed away. She was one of the best friend's that I ever had. She was with me in good times and in bad. When I was sick she would sit by my side. She was a good pet. She was a beautiful cat and I think of her often. We miss you Ginger!

Australian Bound??

What would you do if your hubby had an opportunity to work in Australia for a period of either 3 months, 6 months, or 2 years?? On Monday, Ryan's work group was introduced to this idea that the Australian office is in desperate need of some help. Our interest has been intrigued and now we are just waiting to find out if he will be asked to go or not. There is quite a few that have a interest so it may not even come to Ryan being asked.

It is a scary thing to think that we could be moving away from here, and very far away from home. When I said to my mom that we could be moving she said, "I hope closer to home." I responded by saying, "actually it would be about 22 hours further away from home, by air" Yikes! We are so lucky right now to be close to family, and family is a big deal to both Ryan and I. So that would be a huge change. And yikes, to think of the phone bills!!

I really think that this would be a good change for Ryan. So I would want him to go. However, this could mean that we would be separated for some time and that would suck. I mean we lived through the summers apart in university, but we always got to see each other either every weekend or every other weekend. If he was to go for 3 or 6 months, I would try to go out for some length of time, but I highly doubt that work would hold my job for me, and then you have to think if risking my job is worth me even going over. Ryan says he does not want to go and leave me behind. It is all so confusing. Then if he got offered to go over for 2 years, that would mean selling the house, selling the cars, and putting all of our furniture into storage back in Canada. A lot of work, but maybe that would be easier in the long run because I wouldn't have to worry about my job. We also have no kids at this time and no pets. So that would make it easy.

We have always wanted to go to Australia, but we figured it would be for a vacation, not as a new residency/ work reasons. As well, Ryan would be starting work by the end of May, at the latest June 1st. Any advice? If anything, it would make for great blog-tales.

Congratulations Ryan

Ryan finally got good news yesterday; he got a promotion. Ryan is now a Senior Consultant.
I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard, and has been patiently waiting for this reward.
This came at the best time, as he was honestly feeling a bit unrecognized and under appreciated. This has given him a good boost for his morale and confidence. Well, yesterday I took him out to celebrate to Pizza Hut. Congratulations Ry, I am so proud of you!

Two Ducks out for a walk

Here is a photo of the two mallard ducks that were out for a stroll yesterday in our backyard. I saw a pair, a male and a female sleeping on our lawn on Monday morning when I left for work.

Images of Spring time

Here are some photos from our beautiful weekend. It was heavenly to finally feel the sunshine on my skin. We spent the day in our hammock, reading our books and enjoying the beauty of warmth and mother nature.

The legend of the ol' green sink lives on

Yes, you heard it right! Our old green sink with the ugly, tarnished faucet and the old "cottage-like" cabinet just got picked up. We put the garbage out at 5:30, and about 5 minutes ago we were sitting on the couch, Ryan watching Tiger Baseball and me reading my book, and I heard a car door shut.
"Ryan, someone is taking our sink!" Now, the background on this goes like this. Ryan SO called this event; He said when he put it out to the curb that it would be gone by morning. I was like no way does someone want this old sink, with toothpaste still in it. Well he was right.
As we watched the white van pull slowly away out we dashed to the curb and like magic the sink/cabinet is gone!
We laughed and then thought - geez maybe we should have kept it, thinking that if someone wanted it that bad it had to be a prized possession.
Live on green sink, live on!

A good recipe

On a lighter note, here is a good recipe that I made on Saturday night. I got it out of the May issue of "Everyday with Rachael Ray". It is called "Janet's Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake"

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and remaining 1 cup sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, then beat in the sour cream and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture, in 2 parts, until just combined. Pour half the batter into the cake pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar and half of the chocolate chips. Spoon the remaining batter as evenly as possible over the filling, spreading gently. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.
3. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Very yum-o! Lets just say I made it Saturday night and its all gone!

Making "sense of the senseless"

As I sit here and watch the Virginia Tech Convocation service for the innocent victims that were lost yesterday, I feel a great sense of sadness for the community of Virginia Tech. It was not too long ago that both Ryan and I were students in a university setting. We both agreed that we felt safe on our university campus, but in all reality this could happen anywhere.
We all use the word "safe" in our daily conversations. I use it when I have a patient that has fear in their eyes as a word of encouragement and comfort. However, how safe are we really? This is a scary thought when you realize that no place is safe. How can one explain this event, as there is no just explanation for this senseless act.
This event is the most horrific event to have occurred on a U.S. campus to history. Human life is not something to be taken lightly, as without warning it can be taken from you. My sincere condolescence go out to the entire Virgina Tech community, the family's who have lost their love ones, and the friends who have lost a friendship.

ac·com·plish·ment

NOUN:

1. The act of accomplishing or the state of being accomplished; completion.
2. Something completed successfully; an achievement.
3. An acquired skill or expertise: a singer known for his accomplishment in vocal technique.
4. Social poise and grace.

This weekend Ryan and I learned a lot about the noun of accomplishment. We decided that this was going to be the weekend, the weekend that we had been dreading. This was going to be the weekend of the "Bathroom Redo". You see this task is very overwhelming and scary for both Ryan and I because as most of you who know us would probably agree that we are not the most handy of people. And seeing that this is our first home project in the almost 2 years that we have owned our home says two things:

1. We bought a house that did not need a lot of work done to it such as home renovations, which leads to point number 2.

2. We bought such said house because we do not know the first thing about plumbing, electrical and other such said events that go along with most home renovations.

Ryan and I are both content with our home and we are very fortunate for the state of our home in which we purchased this home. However, lately I have been wanting to redo our master bathroom. Our bathroom is very small and the main color was a green which did not go with our bedroom that is attached to it. I wanted to make this room reflect more upon our personalities. We had originally wanted to get this redo done by February/March, but hey one month later isn't that bad for our first home project.

Now, I am sorry my fellow bloggers that I have failed you by not having a before picture of our bathroom. I thought that I had one from when we purchased the house but I guess I didn't take a photo of our bathroom. Anyways, here is some photos from our new bathroom.

Luckily I was off from work on both Thursday and Friday, so I got the painting done those days.

At first I really disliked the color that I had choose, but now I really like it. I also put in the new light fixture above the sink on Friday before Ryan got home.

So, Friday night at 6 pm we started our journey of our first home project. We started with Ryan removing the old sink/cabinet. This was a very cleansing moment for myself as I really disliked this sink, it was older wood cabinet with a ugly green sink and a tarnished gold faucet. Well, we took that out and did the very red neck-y thing of just putting it on our front porch for the weekend. At one point our front porch looked VEERRY red neck-y with the old sink, a ladder, a old tarp used for painting purposes, and my work out matt all thrown onto our front porch. I am sure my neighbours where about to call the housing association, oh well!

Anyways, so Friday night we got the sink out, I painted the area where the old sink was, we put in new flooring where the new sink was going to lay and got the new sink in. We did all this with one visit to Lowe's and were in bed by midnight.

We woke up early the next morning and again headed back to Lowe's, actually talked to the same man who had helped us 11 hours earlier. We came home and Ryan got the plumbing done for the sink and then he tackled the insertion of a new light fixture/ceiling fan. We sawed off drywall in the roof and worked with wiring and ducting and got our new ceiling fan in. What a proud moment it was when we turned the power back on and the fan motor worked and the light was illuminated.


We then started to finish our flooring and I worked on hanging up our new accessories from IKEA. With one more visit to Lowe's we finished our project at 7:30 pm on Saturday night. I had a home made meal on the table, beef stew and biscuits, and we toasted our success with a cold glass of milk. We were both shocked at how we got all our work done in one day. The exciting thing about this was that we had one more day to relax together! We got up Sunday and went to church together and then just cleaned up and finished a couple of small projects. Then spent the rest of the day cuddled up watching hockey.

I am so proud of my husband Ryan. He worked so hard and even though there were trying times he persevered and got the bathroom of my dreams completed. We learned so much this weekend.Thanks Ry - you are the best! I had a fun time working with you this weekend. We did successfully complete our bathroom and we did learn new skills in order to achieve these accomplishments, thus achieving the definition of the term accomplishment.

Today's Chores

Good morning everyone! Today is going to be a busy day. As you can tell from my previous post we are doing some home renovations here at the ol' homestead. We are trying to get our en suite bath redone this weekend. I am hoping on getting the walls primed today. I would love to have the room painted before the weekend arrived. Then we would just have to do the flooring and the cabinet. sink, faucet and light fixtures and such over the weekend. I would love to have this work all come together with the flick of a wrist, like a fairy. However, I have a feeling that it won't be that easy. Seeing that this is our real first home project it is definitely going to be an adventure with lots of learning.
I also have to make the journey to the homeland today. My work visa needs to be renewed this week so I am going to Customs to get that renewed. The nice thing about that is that I get to have lunch with Ryan because his office is right beside Customs.
Well, I am off to start my walls. Talk to you soon.

Stripped

Well, I have a confession. This past weekend, my husband and I stripped. And we hated it!
Have you ever tried to get stuff off that is very stubborn and you have to scrap at it over and over to just get it off. Once "stripping" is completed you are left with an base that is worn and ugly. I have heard that stripping can be thought as a very cleansing process. For us, it just felt like a drawn out process that took way to long to get to our result. I can't understand how one could enjoy this event. Oh well, at least we are ready for the next stage. Did I mention that what I stripped was wallpaper, not clothes! :)

Crisis Averted

Pheeww! Well, I waited and waited for my manager to call me back. I sat in a daze watching my shows of Martha that I had not yet watched. Then I decided that I had to call her again, because I know that sometimes she doesn't pick up her messages until later in the day and this waiting was getting unbearable. But, no answer again. So I left my cell number and decided to head to Meijer for therapy. Sure enough, while reading a label on "butter like spreads" my cell started to sing. I pushed my cart out of the path of others, reached for my cell and said a silent prayer. This was it, was I going to be punished or not.
My manager on the phone says "Kelly, Did you really think I would let you out of work that easily?" Pheewwie! She said that I have until the end of May to get my paper work in. So, I can still work as there is a 60 day grace period.
Thankful that I can work, I thought to myself; things always work out. I was so upset with myself this morning and for nothing. Everything has worked out in the end! I guess I could be upset with the fact that I had to spend 20 dollars more because I was late in renewing. Thanks for your thoughts guys! Talk to you soon.

Stupid Me!

Right now I am very mad, frustrated and mad at myself. Today I was getting ready to go renew my work visa at Customs and I was getting my stuff together that I needed to take with me. This includes my letter from my employer, my nursing liscence, my visa screen, my degree, and stuff like that. So I am digging through my box of goods and I find my Nursing Liscence which says expiration 03/31/2007. I was like, no way! This isn't right. I never got anything saying that my liscence was about to expire and that I needed to renew it. But sure enough, the grand old mail service has stopped forwarding my mail and it was sent to the apartment building that we lived in when we moved here. So bascially I had a nervous breakdown, tears and all. In fact my breakfast is still in the microwave right now - untouched. I frantically go online and try to renew, and it won't let me renew. So I get on the phone and call the department of health and really don't get much help there either. Anyways, Ryan helped me get it renewed. But now, I don't know if my work will let me work or if they will have to wait until they see the new liscence in the paper form. I am so upset about this whole thing. I am waiting for my manager to call me back, I left a message on her machine. I hope she calls back soon. This so sucks!

Conversations with a 3 year old

This is a conversation between our nephew Matthew(M) and his swimming instructor(SI).

SI: "Okay, boys and girls, who can tell me a pool rule? . . . . Matthew can you tell me a pool rule?"

M: "Yeh, . . . . No eating sandwiches in the pool"

SI: "Okay Matthew, why wouldn't you eat in the pool"

Now, why wouldn't one eat in a pool, what would be the logical answer to this question, because Matthew has it . . .

M: "Because you don't want your sandwich to get wet"

And there you have it. Remember, to keep it dry, don't take it in the pool.

Our Easter Weekend

This weekend we celebrated Easter because I have to work next weekend. We had my sister Pam, her husband Tom, and their three kids, Emily, Matthew, and Jillian, as well as Ryan's Mom and Dad and his Uncle Paul for the weekend.

Our weekend started off with a visit from The Easter Bunny. On Friday night, he came hopping by as we were grilling up our steaks. He had heard that Emily, Matthew and Jillian were going to be at our house for the weekend to celebrate Easter and he wanted to see if they had arrived yet and if they were behaving well. I told him to come back on Saturday and see what he thought for himself. Well, he must have been happy because the Easter Bunny arrived on Saturday night and brought them all kinds of goodies.

The kids arrived on Friday night. I wish I had taken a picture of Matthew's shoes at the entrance to our home. His shoes looked like they had flown off his feet, one in each direction, as they ran into our home in excitement of the weekend. It was so great to see them, so excited and happy to be here. It didn't take long for them to head downstairs and start playing games with Uncle Ryan. I went down at one time and Ryan was playing mini stick hockey with Matthew and a board game with Emily, all at the same time. Talk about multi tasking.

We woke up early Saturday morning with anticipation for our day ahead of us, as we were going to an Easter egg hunt that day. We boiled eggs and decorated them in the morning which was a lot of fun. Around 11 am, Ryan's family arrived and shortly there after we walked over to the elementary school for the Egg Hunt. The egg hunt was pretty fun as they searched and collected their eggs.



We then got ready for the Easter Feast. I wanted to make the Easter meal as healthy as possible because of my dieters, Mike and Ryan. So this years menu included: Spiral Ham, Scalped Potatoes, Herbed Carrots, Almond and Herb Coated Green Beans, Tossed Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts and dinner rolls. I think it was a pretty good selection and it tasted good as well. For dessert, I had those little individual dessert angel food cups with strawberries and a Apple Pie that was made by Emily's Choir as a fund raiser. Yum-O.

About 11 pm on Saturday night, Ryan was just about to call it a night when Uncle Paul said to Ryan, "Hey you've got a leak here!" Well, it wasn't no leak rather our 1st floor toilet overflowing!! OH yeah! Big time fun and big time mess. It must have been overflowing for about 5 minutes as there was water in the back hall and the worst of it, water running down into the basement! What a mess!

Last night, after everyone had left I missed them all so much. You go from a house full of people, where you feel like you are being pulled in every direction to just a house of two in a matter of seconds. My sister and I are best friends and I love having her around to spend time with. I am glad that we live close enough that we can see each other easily. But I am sad that we aren't closer so we can't go out and go for lunch or go shopping, or just hang out at each other's homes. I feel the same way about both of my mothers. It was nice to see my mother in law and have some time together yesterday.

The kids add another element in your life.Emily is the oldest of the three and she holds a special place in both Ryan and mine's heart. I think we expect a lot from her because she was the only child for so long and is a very intelligent girl. She gets very excited when there is new people around to "entertain for" and sometimes needs to be reminded to settle down. Both Ryan and I felt bad for having to "be on" Emily's case this weekend, but we just expected her to act more her age. We would have enjoyed spending more time with her playing games, and having fun instead of telling her what not to do, but I guess that is what being a kid is like sometimes.

Matthew is a very cute boy. He makes me laugh with his funny sayings and his comical acts.
As for Jillian, it was nice to have the baby in the house this weekend. To have a baby cuddle against you and fall asleep is very comforting and unlike no other feeling in the world.

Ryan and I are very lucky to have such wonderful nieces and nephew. We love them very much and enjoy their visits very much, and we both miss them already.

Prayer Bear

A week ago, my friend Heidi came down with her kids, J.J. and Will. It was a beautiful day outside with temperatures creeping into the low 80's. We sat outside and enjoyed catching up with each other.

Heidi brought me this "Prayer Bear."

For those of you who remember, my wedding took place in January and had a winter theme. Each of my bridesmaids wore a white faux fur stole and blue gloves. This bear was made out of Heidi's stole and is carrying her blue gloves and was given back to me from her in the form of a prayer bear. With the bear was attached this prayer:

"I'm your special "Prayer Bear." Handle me with care for I was made from your Bridesmaid's stole. A Prayer for your health, happiness, and many years of a loving marriage was said with each stitch on my face.

I thought that this was a really sweet gesture of Heidi to think of me and do this with her stole. I will cherish it forever. Thanks Heidi!