Two months already!

Well, we've been here for two months. This week was definitely quieter than the last which was nice, even though there's never enough hours in a day. On the homefront, I've done a bit of baking to stock up the cupboard. I have a gas stove and I find the heating/baking to be very even. I've learned that 350 degrees Fahrenheit is equivalent to 180 degrees celcius! Baking here is a bit trickier here as they don't really have good self raising flour, plus it's expensive, so you need to make your own with baking powder and salt. 

On Tuesday there was a Ladies Aid meeting. They organise and co-ordinate the fundraising ventures that take place and with the proceeds, assist the school with various items such as books, chairs, allowances for school excursions etc. Currently they are taking orders for apple pies with a special incentives this year: if you get 12 orders, you get one free pie. So Shantel has been around the neighbourhood and we have so far got 9 orders. They sell for $8 and are 9" pies. And for this venture, this Friday will be apple picking at an orchard in the area, then on Monday evening and Tuesday, it will be making the apple pies. So more on that next week.

Jared Bouwman had to go to Sydney for a few days last week, so Liana Faber (Kampman) asked if there was anything we would like him to get for us. So we put in the order for Moccona coffee, Nutrigrain, Vegemite and passionfruit in tins. Thanks Jared! We will use them very carefully!

And on Friday night, the Cornerstone Christian School had it's very first sleepover! Thanks to the Aussie influence, this turned out to be a wonderful event, which by all accounts, will be repeated! The weather didn't look too good in the morning but at 3pm, the rain let up and held off till 11:30pm or so. So the games, in particular, generals, worked out really well. The kids loved the game and clued in to its strategies, very quickly! And Steve had an hours' nap soon after getting home on Saturday morning!

Dinner in the RV while Steve and the two older kids were at the sleepover!

 Yes, we purchased an RV! This has the twofold purpose of one: our home for when travelling the country, and two: a homebase for any relatives or friends that may come and need somewhere to stay.

She's 31ft and we've named her 'Sunni'. In fact, we've named all our vehicles! The toyota is 'Sienna' and the Suzuki is 'Susie'. Sunni is 15 years old but in very good condition. I've been spending the last week cleaning her bit by bit and she's really coming up nice. When she's all done, I'll take a few photos of the interior. Our intention is to take her for her maiden voyage and our first little holiday in two weeks time when we have a long weekend coming up. I think its Columbus day?! So we are trying to get her all done by then.

And some photos of the last week:

The girls set up a play mat and then took a photo of it!

Making a card for Mrs Bareman's (Shantel's teacher) birthday

 Toys are really cheap - second hand that is! There is a store called Second Chance and Tuesday 10am is the time to go as they stockup on Monday. Most of the toys are either Little Tykes or Fisher Price and are mostly just a dollar.

Noah's Ark - Noah is missing and a couple of the animals are missing their mate! But the girls love playing with it all the same!

Piano with a wonderful selection of classical music. The girls will play with their toys and have this as background music!

Making something with lego and their music in the background

The weekend turned out really wet and windy. At 5:30pm Saturday Jaclyn had just put the pizzas in the oven when the lights flickered once and then went out. After confirming with Bernice that yes, it was all along the street, we went there for dinner as they have a generator! So we had soup, raisin bread and pizzas! Yum! And when we got home we still had no power. So with the aid of torches, we bundled the girls off too bed and thankfully, the hot water system is run by gas, so we could still take showers! And we went to bed early too! And in the morning, the power was still off. I think it finally came on around 11am. Just as well, because there was meat etc in the freezers and I didn't fancy a big cookup!

Sunday was still wet. We had Wielenga twice and visited the Buitenbos' for coffee and lunch. Hannah is Mrs deBoer's sister (from Rev deBoer) and Ray has a sister married to Des Swarts, both in Australia. It's amazing how most people do have connections. We could welcome Willem and Linda vanderven this afternoon who have come for the wedding of Elissa Bosveld! I believe a whole contingent are on their way for this event!

So that's it for this week! We continue to try and adjust to the yankee language.

You use a  flashlight, not a torch. 

Kids like suckers, not lollipops. 

And when going on holidays, you take a trailer, not a caravan!

Fall is certainly on its way. The weather has changed and is getting cooler.
The leaves are changing colour with lovely shades of red and orange. 

We thank God for His Goodness.

Veggie packs and applesauce!

It's hard to imagine we've been here for 7 weeks already! It was difficult leaving loved ones back home, exciting traveling to different countries and places, and interesting meeting new people here in the USA. It has (and still is) an adventure and there still will be more to experience as time go by.

This week has been busy (at least for me). Tuesday morning was the first Women's study society meeting (club). It was very well attended with over 40 women. At the same time,  Story Hour is held where all the 3-5 year olds attend a structured hour of listening to a bible story and doing a craft related to the story. There must have been at least 20 kids in there. Shantel and Taleesha fit perfectly in that age bracket so they were well cared for. And then there's the toddler room too which was also well attended!! We discussed the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians. It was a good meeting with no intros but we followed a study book discussing various aspects of the chapter. We started at 9:30 with a cuppa and finished around 11am.

I then had a haircut by a young mum, Andrea Bouwman, who does hair dressing in her home two days a week. She did a good job so I'll be back Andrea! Sorry no photos!

Wednesday was veggie pack day. This venture is school fundraiser. Orders for the basic and deluxe veggie packs are collected a week prior and based on those orders, the veggies are purchased. Basic packs include onions, celery, parsley and carrots and the deluxe includes the basic plus leek, cauliflower and peppers (capsicum). So the school kitchen which is very well equipped with everything big ie prepping bowls and tubs was a hive of activity with ladies chopping, washing, cutting and shredding. These veggies were then measured into a huge tub for mixing which was then evenly divided into ziplock bags. My job started as cutting onions till the onion cutter broke, and then I helped with the bagging. Most of us worked till school finished at 2:35 and we must have bagged at least 400 baggies! The bags sell for $2 each and once frozen flat take very little room in the freezer and are a great help when it comes to making soups, stir-frys and the like!

Cutting, chopping, shredding.....!

Taleesha and Vinnie helping me with the onions

The end product

Thursday was applesauce day. I picked apples from the two trees near our house and Bernice had a barrel of apples so we cut them up and cooked them where they then got pureed in Bernice's ridge didge machine. We then poured them in preserving jars and sealed them, all ready for the coming year. We got 37 jars of delicious applesauce so we were very pleased with our efforts. Thanks Bernice!

Photo courtesy of Shantel!

Taleesha turning the handle

And Shantel having a turn!

37 jars still needing a lid!

It's wonderful having all our own stuff! We're not really unpacking anything just yet but if we want something, we just ferret around in the boxes! It's like a treasure hunt except we know it's in there but not necessarily which box!! Taleesha loved playing with the toys today - Shantel was at school so she played very nicely on her own.

Do you like my shelving aka two boxes on top of each other?!

As I mentioned in my last post, the shelving got put in my pantry and also our wardrobes.

Before

After

No furniture

Our furniture

Tomorrow (Saturday), Steve will be part of the Lynden Classic Golf Tournament which kicks off at 12pm and finishes after dinner and a silent auction. Go Steve... you show 'em how it's done!!

We've been having some very beautiful days which has seen the farmers scurrying around cutting their corn. The trucks carting the cut corn to their bunkers are endless..... but rain is forecast so that will grind to a halt.

Week 6 - Sea container Arrives!

Our sixth week in the US is already over! We've had some beautiful, even hot (approx 36 deg celcius) weather. Gets quite warm in the afternoons. Thankfully it cools off in the evening.

The biggest event by far this week, was the arrival of our sea container. It came on Friday, 12pm and a two-man unload team came with it. They were very efficient and were also very impressed by the excellent packing done in Australia. 

Taleesha was the only one home so as soon as one of the toy boxes came out, I opened it up and she happily played with her toys!

We are very thankful that everything arrived in good order, and so far, we haven't found anything damaged or broken. Everyone happily went through their boxes and unpacked their stuff. We all slept very well that night on our own beds.

We got out early Friday morning to take the beds and furniture out the house, so that our stuff could go straight in its place. So housework was a breeze with nothing in the way!

No furniture!

The truck coming down the road

In the driveway

Our stuff taking up three quarters of the container, exactly the way it left our house in Aus.

Half emptied

Taleesha having a great time!

For now the boxes will stay in the garage

It is so nice to sleep in your own bed, sit in your own lounge chairs and sit at your own kitchen table. Not that we didn't appreciate what we had here, but there's nothing like your own! Gradually we'll empty our boxes as we acquire some cupboards/bookshelves.

On Friday evening Steve and myself went over the border and had dinner with Tante Fein, and cousins John and Veronica and Gordon and Betty. We went to Greek Islands which is a very popular restaurant and you need to wait outside till they have a table available for you, despite the fact that reservations were made! The food was delicious and after dinner we went to Tante Fein's for a coffee. So fun listening to all the reminiscing and the similarities between the families! We got home after 12!

Veronica and Tante Fein

Saturday we spent the day emptying a few boxes and just relaxing a bit. John V also put the shelves in the pantry and in our wardrobe. So nice to be things away in their right places!

In the evening was a dinner for all the Board and Staff members of Cornerstone Christian School. Another very pleasant evening.

Sunday we finally had a free morning to visit with Brad and Kristi Kuik! So interesting comparing stories as they virtually did the exact opposite to us. Moved overseas, rented out the house, committed themselves to the same number of years etc. Since they have just been back for a year, they could understand where we came from and the challenges we will experience and what they experienced back in Aus! 

The afternoon service was Lord's Supper. It was a joy to attend and be strengthened in the faith, that even though we're on the other side of the world, we could all be together as brothers and sisters of our Lord.

After the service, we visited Derek and Louise Willis and their family. Derek is Jaclyn and Stefan's soccer coach, where they practice one day a week and then play every Saturday morning. We had a very enjoyable visit and lovely food! We went home to a display of lightning and rain!

This week Women Bible Study starts and I hope to attend the day club. They also run Story Hour for 3-5 years at the same time also at the church, so hopefully Shantel and Taleesha will enjoy that.

Stefan needed a few parts for his ATV and is stripping the whole engine/motor down and cleaning it all and putting it all back together. He is doing this together with Derek Bouwman so he should enjoy that! Him and Jaclyn regularly help on the farm either feeding the cows, scraping the barns or doing the milking. They really enjoy the farm life and 'getting dirty'. I now have to order them boots so that they can really get in there and not worry about dirtying their shoes!! They come home with filthy clothes complete with manure splats, so these get bagged and kindly returned to Bernice who has a commercial washing machine and washes them for me!

For the rest, we are all well and settling in well too. This is really a big blessing and for that we are thankful.

Corn Morning

This morning a group of ladies went to Bernice's for a corning morning. We shucked 2 wagons of corn, then cut them off the cob (when raw) and later at home cooked them with a bit of water and margarine. They were then divided into ziplock bags and put in the freezer for winter. Had a great morning and lots of fun!

Shucking the corn; l-r Karla, Jeanette, Kelli, Louise, Trina hiding behind her mum Bernice

Cutting the corn off the cob

Corn off the cob

Fei, Shantel and Taleesha

Quick cook with water and margarine

Finished product ready for the freezer

It's been quite warm the last few days and of course, here there is no air-conditioning. Just a few fans if you can get hold of them!

Yesterday I went to Bellingham to run a number of errands. The main reason was getting the Sienna detailed and then Bea Kleyn picked me up and we picked up a Kenmore sewing machine from a lady moving to Australia! We also scored a few more items that she just wanted to get rid of ie hair dryer, fan, heater, and some other bits and bobs. We also went to Costco (bulk buy) and packed the little electric car to the hilt. We had loads of fun!

Taleesha is 3!

Already in Australia, when the birthdays were happening in May and June, we kept telling Taleesha that her birthday was going to be in America! She was quite proud of that fact and would happily tell anyone if they asked. Well, today was the day! Our baby girl  turned 3 years old in America!

It was certainly different celebrating without any family around! But we invited some friends to join in the celebrations and we had a lovely morning!

The day already started around 6:30am when Anthea face-timed so she could be part of the fun and celebrations.

She received several cards and package from Australia as well as an e-card. Thankyou!

Her overseas mail!

Going through the parcel from Anthea and reading her card

Some photos of the day. Apologies for their poor quality - used my iphone.

Her kitchen/cafe setting

And the other side

All ready for shopping with her 'new' cart

Unwrapping all the gifts

Blowing out the candle on her No. 3 cupcake

Making chains with fruit loops and macaroni

 Here they are proudly showing off their creations!

Claire

Vincent

Kyle

Taleesha

Shantel

AnneMarie

Liana

Kaitlyn (she normally does wear a shirt!)

Ty

Gletzing: l-r Trina, Shona, Bernice, Corrie and Bea

Little Miss and her pressies!

Typically, she didn't like all the attention, but she enjoyed her day nonetheless! 

May God continue to bless you in the year ahead, as you adjust to new friends, different accents and a whole new world! We love you lots!

And on the home front, all is going well. The kids are adjusting to school, I'm adjusting to life in America and Steve is adjusting to teaching American kids!

Kids eat cookies (not biscuits), you take pictures (not photos), 

you use the bathroom (not the toilet) and shoppings go in a cart (not a trolley)! 

Fun, fun, fun!!

The past few mornings we wake up to heavy fog which doesn't lift till about 10am. 

View from our lounge. You can only barely see the outline of the house across the field.

Across the road, the second hay cut turned into marshmallows! 

These get loaded onto a trailer and stored as food for winter.

Marshmallows!

 And finally, our container hopes to arrive on Friday so we are all super excited!