Wreaths, anniversary and dinners!

Well, it was a busy week again! Monday we had Emily and Sophia for the afternoon. Bernice was looking after the girls but since she coaches girls' basketball practice after school, they came to our place and played with Shantel and Taleesha. They had a ball!

Sophia did the cooking and serving while Taleesha sat in the diner

A tea party with fruit and M&Ms. Yum!

Very busy drawing pictures!

Wednesday and Thursday were wreath and swag day making. I went on the Wednesday. It was done in the Veldman shed which is nicely decked out with the wood heater in the centre, tables throughout one side, a kids corner, a bunch of chairs, and a kitchen area with microwave and stoves! The ideal setting for lots of cuttings and mess. We had orders to fill for approx 70 wreaths and just under 20 swags. So with Debbie Faber as my tutor (!), I was taught how to make my very own wreath. The first in my life!! There was cuttings/branches of fir, cedar, spruce and no doubt a few more and from that, you get bunches and lay them on a ring with spikes which you hammer down to secure. They need to withstand the 'shake' test because when the 'north westerly' wind comes howling your way, you don't want your wreath, or parts of it, to go with it!!! I managed to get three done. Lunch was soup and buns. It was a very enjoyable day with lots of chatter......and work!

The Shed. Woodfire on the left bottom corner behind the lattice

 A wreath almost completed 

My tutor Debbie on the left!

A stack of wreaths waiting the final touches of cones and a bow. Sorry it's a bit blurry.

Enjoying lunch

A completed wreath and swag

The wreath I 'earned' for getting more than 8 orders!

Hanging at the front door

And on Thursday we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary! Where has that time gone?

God has richly blessed our marriage and through happy times and sad, we know He is ever near and we pray for His continued blessing in the years ahead, also being away from Anthea and family and friends. Thank you for all the well-wishes and phone calls we received! Certainly different not having any family around! We had a roast dinner at home as Jaclyn had an early game of indoor soccer in the evening.

Roast dinner at home

1992

2013

In the evening Bill and Hester came for a cuppa, and later on Marvin and Bernice which was very nice. 

Friday was the scheduled bi-annual event of Dine and Dash. This is done in the spring and the fall. Everyone chooses to host either appetizers, mains or dessert and then you also go to the other two. So we hosted appetizers and had prawn cocktail, spring rolls and mini quiches with 3 couples. We started in prayer/devotions and then had our starters and then headed off to the next couple's place for mains. And at every place, we met up with a different group. We had gourmet (self cooking) at the Harvey and Lisa's which was great fun. And then our desserts was at Henry and Shirley with another bunch of couples. It was a great way of meeting up with people, most we had already met but in very relaxing setting. Great work organizers - it would have been a lot of work to make it all happen!

Gourmet for mains

Coffee and dessert

Saturday was our last session of bootcamp. Oh, getting up at 6:45am on a Saturday morning when it's 1 degrees outside, is hard! And an hour of jogging, squats, pushups and pushing weights along the gym floor makes a hot shower when you get home very relaxing! 

Today (which is still Saturday) Jaclyn and myself did lots of baking. Tomorrow DV is baptism and coffee social for  John and Janice's little girl, and so being on the roster for setting up and baking, I needed to supply 5 dozen of baked goods! So we made koek, brownies, muffins and boterkoek. I also experimented with my raisin bread and did half choc chips. Looks pretty cool and tastes okay too!

We celebrated our anniversary with a chinese dinner and then headed to church for a organ concert. 

Lovely way to finish off a busy week!

We continue to enjoy sunny but very cool weather! Very deceiving! We had rain one day last week and with the clear but cold nights, it turned into ice! So we had ice puddles, ice in the ditches and ice in the bottom of the tyre swing!

Do you remember this picture taken late September?

Here's another taken last week. Notice no leaves!

That's all for this week. Next week we have Thanksgiving and by the sounds of it, it's a BIG thing!

Thanks for visiting!

Mt Baker, a snowman and little Charlie!

Well, it's been another busy/eventful week!! Monday was a holiday for the teachers and students due to Veterans/Rememberance Day. We did a few jobs around the house, one of them raking the leaves around the tree and garden bed on the front. Stefan came with the atv and cart, and Shantel jumped in and packed the leaves! Stefan then hauled them away.

We then headed up to Mt Baker. Some of us had thick jackets, beanies, mittens and snowpants and so we were ready to test out the snow.

We went as high up as we could go (Heather Meadows) and after donning our warm things, headed for some snow. We soon learnt that 1. your hands get cold without mittens, 2. Without waterproof shoes, wet socks feels terribly cold and eventually very cold, 3. everyday runners have no grip and 4. kids boots instead of snow boots also lets snow in and consequently you get wet socks and cold feet!

Despite all that, we now know what to get! And we still had fun! We found an area that was level and Steve made a snowman with a little bit of help from the girls! Shantel just couldn't work it out. She asked, "but where's the snow?". I think she meant snow means it's snowing ie falling snow!!

We had a great time but Taleesha did not like cold and wet feet. We had taken a thermos of hot water and made hot chocolate and coffee to warm up again.

Then one Tuesday, the 12th, my sister Teresa and Alex had their long awaited baby, a boy, Charlie Adrian! So Connor has a brother! You certainly feel the miles being so far away and not being able to give a cuddle! He looks like a Selles to me!

Charlie Adrian!

We had women's study society again this week as well as wreath and door swag ordering for another school fundraiser. So Shantel was our little sales lady and she wooed her customers with a very convincing little speech and then hands them the order form and pen without any possibility that they might not want one. But everyone is very keen and generous, and so we got orders for 9 wreaths ($15) and 12 swags ($8). Next week Wednesday and Thursday we hope to make them in someone's shed all decked out with a fireplace and all. Should be very cosy!

It's steadily getting colder. Weather forecasts keep predicting 'possible' snow or snow rain but weather in Sumas is very unpredictable due to the mountains and valleys etc (or something to do with that!).

A new book, The Adventures of Curious George, arrived in the mail, so after her bath, Taleesha wasted no time in checking it out!

Saturday (today) Steve was doing some marking, and these two little monkeys thought they'd come and help him!

Stefan got this set for his birthday when he turned 4 years old and it continues to be a highlight. The girls happily hammered away for at least half and hour!

That's it from us. Thanks for visiting!

America is big!

For a while we've been observing how everything in America is big! Big cars (trucks), motorhomes, and even food packaging. So here's some pics of what we've come across so far.

A huge jar of Nutella

Jam, gerkins, 5 litres of disinfectant, and dishwashing liquid

Coffee anyone?

Bulk buys - from flour to rice to cereals and nuts. This is one aisle, there were four!

Crane fly against a 20c coin

Float plane

Halloween pumpkins

XXL bag of M&Ms

Tortillas - not 12 to a bag but 40!

Loo paper - 30 to a bag

Milk - one gallon (3.78l)

A truck or dually: from the back they look like a frog with the car
 body extending outward due to dual tyres on either side.

Motorhome/coach

Photo's a bit blurry but they're hard to catch! It's a truck with a loooong hitch

I thought it was just very interesting how so many things come in big packages! Stores such as Costco and Winco specialise in selling bulk and of course, it's more cost effective too, as long as you know your prices!

Hope you enjoyed this post! Thanks for visiting!

Needles and dinners!

At the end of every week, I look at my calendar and think, 'okay, it looks like a quieter week next week'! But that never happens! Somehow, the days fill up and the end of the week comes round again!

This week the two girls had their flu boosters and Shantel took it real bravely but Taleesha was already crying before they even started getting ready for her. Poor kid! They jabbed her twice, one in each leg. But that time she was full time crying. But a pretty bandaid and a sucker (lollipop) stopped the crying real quick and she was fine again. They both had their shots soon after arriving in USA but needed a booster, so the surgery sent out little reminder postcards informing me of their need to come back for their shots.

Friday night was our long anticipated gourmet/fondue dinner with the families (all related!) around the Rock/Hillview Road. We had taken our gourmet set along and even sourced a dutch to USA power adaptor! So when we were all ready to start cooking, we turned it on and waited for it to get hot. It was taking a bit long so we inspected it and realised that because our unit is for 240v and USA is 110v, there was not enough power to heat it up. So Steve went home and got the step up transformer which he was using for his organ. We plugged that in and turned on the switch and waited.....only to see the light switch off again. Checked the fuse and sure enough, it had blown! This time it was too many watts!! So Bernice got out her griddle (flat frypan) and we started cooking on that. In the mean time, Marty went to another relative down the road and picked up four more burners! So to cut a long story short: we had fun but didn't end up using our set! Food was great and so was the company. Thanks guys! Did I hear it was going to be an annual tradition?

Cooking on the griddle

Marty and Jo

Rick and Janice

Marv and Bernice

Mrs V mother of Marv

After going to bed past midnight Friday, the alarm woke me up at 6:45am for bootcamp..... So an hour of routines and exercise, and I was ready for the day! We did some stuff in the house, Steve hung his organ speakers, I picked up an upright freezer from our old neighbour, baked some raisin bread, and then it was time go out for dinner with Darryn and Bea. We went to Fairhaven, a quaint little town about 45 minutes away. Had dinner at 'The Big Fat Fish Company'. Great food and great company again. 

Darryn and Bea

After dinner, we drove around and spotted this cute double decker bus turned into a diner!

For the Perth metro Aussies, it just needs the word 'retirement' in-between!

We found a cafe sort of like Fast Eddys and had hot chocolates and sundaes!

We had fantastic time and it was great to catch up.

Thanks for stopping by.

Three months!

On Sunday, 3rd of November, we have been in Lynden for three months!
Where has the time gone! So much has happened, it just seems as if we've been here for ages!

So what all happened last week?

We had one day of wind all day, which blew a lot of the fall leaves off the trees. 

While it makes a mess, it also looks very beautiful!

Last week, we remembered/celebrated Reformation Day at the school. STAMP (students together achieving mutual purpose) organised a dinner where everyone takes a dish and either a salad or dessert and we had that in the gym. After dinner, there was a movie, "William Tyndale" and/or activities for the kids in various classrooms. It kept the kids off streets and no one home for the trick 'or' treaters! It was very enjoyable!

Halloween is a quite big here with the extremes of creating front yards into graveyards with witches, ghosts and gravestones. Very morbid and satanic. Mostly though its carved pumpkins on the front porches.

After a bit of convincing, I joined a 6 week bootcamp held in the gym at school. It's a bit hard to get up at 6:45am on a Saturday morning, but once there, we do a whole lot of circuit and aerobic type exercises. Asthma does stop me every now and then. Last Sunday I was so sore, just sitting down was agony. Can't be right: paying for torture. Anyway, the second time was last Saturday, and since it was so cold and miserable, a soak in our jacuzzi was just what the doctor ordered! Bliss!

Saturday was so wet, cold and miserable, that Stefan, who had to work on the farm, needed to change 3 pairs of jeans!!

Monday morning was a cold one. Sun shining, frost on the grass and -1 degrees. I took a picture from my phone to prove it!!

Frost on the leaves and grass (what hadn't melted yet!)

The back of the house and the canning room on the left

The lounge

And on Saturday, Jaclyn also had her driving test. She used Darryn Kleyn's electric car and passed with flying colours! She can't drive on her own yet, because they need their permits for a minimum of 6 months. She has the date all organised. February 16 is the day off to get her license!

Friday night we plan to have our first gourmet/fondue dinner. Hopefully I'll remember to take some photos and will post them on the next blog!

Thanks for visiting!