World AIDS Day - Dec 1st

At work on Dec 1st we got to take a field trip! We all piled into a couple of buses and headed to Seattle. We were able to go through the One Life AIDS exhibit. It was incredible to walk through the life of one of the children and what he or she experiences. It is more than any of us could imagine having to deal with in a lifetime. I was "Stephen" from Uganda and I was forced from my home at night by rebel soldiers looking for children to serve in their "Lord's Resistance Army." These rebel soldiers take children as young as 7 yrs old and train them to use guns, brutally threatening and beating them to make them obey. They even take girls to use the guns as well, and to be used as sex slaves for men. It is horrendous.

I appreciated the experience of walking in the shoes of one of these children. It transforms you into their home, their culture, and their experiences. Hopefully it transforms those that walk through to know they can do something about the atrocities. This exhibit has been touring all over the US to make people aware, so we can put an end to it.

Watch a video of the AIDS experience
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Thanks for reading.

Happy American Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving here at our house, again. It was a much smaller crowd this time, which made for a much less stressful dinner. There were only six people all together, so we had good times of playing games and eating. We had way too much food! I am used to cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 15 or more, so for only 6 we had a huge feast. But I figured that way we could all have leftovers. One of the nice things about having Thanksgiving at your own house means you can have pretty much all of the leftovers, so it was nice that we had enough for everyone to take some home. David's brother likes to have people over because he likes to do a lot of the cooking. He brought the pies: a sweet potato-pecan pie (drizzled with chocolate sauce), and a pumpkin pie. I had a tiny piece of the pecan, it was very good! I am allegedly not eating desserts right now (or trying not too)... This was an idea that started a couple of months ago with a friend (Syd) who tried to have her and her kids not eat desserts for six months, and then she would give them $200 if they made it. Well, they have since dropped out, but I started it along with them... fully knowing I would have to go through the holidays. So, I'm doing a pretty good job - only having eaten a tiny piece of apple pie at Canadian Thanksgiving and now a tiny piece (and not even all of it) of pecan/sweet potato pie at American Thanksgiving. A debate has come of it, though. Are donuts considered dessert or not? I'm basically cutting out all sweets, so I was reprimanded on the second week for having 2 bites of a donut. Most people feel donuts are breakfast foods and are not desserts. However, since I am cutting out all sweets, there are some that feel they should not be eaten. I said NO today when I walked by the donut area - every Saturday some brazen lady brings donuts. Anyway, I'm getting off topic - this is risky for me to put my idea on here because now I'll have to be even more accountable to not eating sweets!! There's already enough people around work that know and will give me a hard time if they see me eating something I shouldn't be. The girl I sit across from at work loves it because it means I have to share ... or just give it to her.

Back to Thanksgiving: the games we played were fun. David's family usually don't play many games, so I was surprised they were happy to play with us. The holidays are really the only times when they will play games, but usually it's bridge (they are a smart family!). I haven't completely got the hang of bridge yet, but I think it takes years to really master anyway. We played fun, easy games... Catch phrase, Apples to Apples, and a game called Whoonu - a super-easy, learn-people's-favorites type game. Uncle Forrest even joined in on the games!!

We at WV were fortunate to have both Thursday and Friday off but working in the call center meant we had to be there today, Saturday. Yesterday David and I were thinking about going to the early morning sales but didn't want to sacrifice sleep that much, so we went in the afternoon but still didn't get too much shopping done. I was planning on going skiing/snowboarding with some friends this afternoon, so I switched my shift and worked from 5am to 1pm. (early morning, but I love having the afternoons!) However, apparently there isn't enough snow on the mountains for night skiing, so they don't want anyone running into rocks or something on the slopes. We'll do it another time.

It's a beautiful day, I'm going to go enjoy it!

Study

i'm part of a girls bible study. we're going through 1st and 2nd timothy. we just met tonight and we met here. it was nice, i love having a house that we can use for ministry and meeting in to grow and encourage others in our faith. we studied the last chapter in timothy (chapter 6) and one of the big things that struck me in that chapter has to do with contentment. in our american culture it is really hard not to fall into the trap that "leads many into ruin and destruction." i want to be able to use what i have for God's glory and be content with what he's given me. it's good to be smart and save, but the key is to not hold things very tightly. i'd like to think if everything was taken away from me, i'd still be able to praise God. afterall, it is just stuff.

the other thing too, talking about respecting our 'masters' or leaders or employers, it's so easy to do everything properly when their eye is on you, but what is above reproach is when no one is watching and i'm still doing my job to the best of my ability and as i should be because i should be doing it as unto the Lord and not for men. these are very common thoughts, but they were good reminders for me.

Fingerprints of God

Right outside our bedroom window we can enjoy the sunrise every morning. This particular morning God had a great idea with the fog settling on the ground and the sun rising softly behind the trees. David captured this shot after taking my grandparents to the airport. I can feel God's love as I see shots like this. I am so thankful for the beauty all around us.

A few more pictures

Here are a few more pictures. Our master bedroom we painted this pretty blue color, and the master bath is a yellow color, but I'm still not sure I'm going to keep it that way. I don't know yet if it like it well enough. The bonus room is the one with the TV, and in the other set of photos it has the red wall which is opposite the TV.

We are so blessed to have so many friends help us out so much that first weekend we got the house. That first Saturday we got all the painting done except for the master bath, which was started the next day and finished a few days later. Thank you to all our amazing friends!

Pictures!

Finally I am able to add a few more pictures. My grandparents are visiting right now from Kitchener, Ontario. It's fun having them here. I think it's a good motivator to get things unpacked and ready for guests when you have them in right away. Everyone is always quite forgiving, too, when one room is a total disaster. My dad's parents travelled out west on a train that took them from Toronto to Vancouver with a 2 day stopover in Edmonton, AB. They have had a fabulous time. They came with another couple who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. The train sounds much like a cruise ship, with phenomenal service and food all hours of the day.

These pictures are mostly of the downstairs. It shows the colors we chose for the walls. There is one picture of the bonus room. We do not yet have much furniture for that room but it works great for an entertainment/TV room for now.

New Home

pictures of the dining room and kitchen.

the hutch actually looks normal now that it's in a more spacious area.

thanks to mom and dad g. for the thoughtful housewarming gift. This beautiful fall arrangement came on the first day we were here, when we were just getting started on painting. They were dropped off by the sweetest old man who just loves to make people's day. Wouldn't delivering flowers be such a fun job? :)

Canadian Thanksgiving was a blast. Unfortunately the camera battery was dead, but we've got great memories of the evening. I must say it was so nice to have so much help in the kitchen now that more than 1 person can be in there and not feel cramped! I had it nice and easy this year, I felt completely relaxed. I was also told that this was the best year yet because of all the space we had. It was great! After dessert was served and the bellies were filled, most people stayed for a rip-roarin game of Wild Hoopla. David's brother Dane and their dad, Dan stopped by on their way home from the football game convieniently to pick up Joen's laptop, (which David was supposed to fix sometime during all the festivities) and even more convieniently Dan and Dane were hungry for some leftovers! I made a turkey frame soup today after work. The bones had been boiling overnight and cooling during the day, so the meat was easily taken off. We'll see how it turns out.

Canadian Thanksgiving!

Another year, two thanksgivings! Gotta love having an international marriage! Of course, the REAL canadian thanksgiving was this past monday but we were right in the middle of our move, so we are having it this weekend. It sure makes us work harder getting everything set up and put away, but it's a lot of fun.

"I'm thankful for my health, my childhood, and spell check. I'm thankful for our new hot water tank and how we no longer have to coordinate our dishwashing with our bathing. I'm thankful for the wide range of flavors potato chips come in--mesquite barbecue in particular. For platform shoes. For coincidences. I'm thankful for all the people who ever left, in those dishes by the cashier, a penny I later used. That I don't know everything that people say behind my back. I'm thankful I was born after the advent of indoor plumbing, and after the popularity of corsets. I'm thankful for insect repellent, nonstick pans, and Velcro. I'm thankful that people in real life don't spontaneously break into song like they do in musicals, and that some weeds look like flowers, and that at the end of a really bad day there is sleep. I'm thankful for maybe."
adapted from an Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I'm thankful for Thanksgivings. I'm thankful for turkey and stuffing and Marie Pat's sweet potato recipe. I'm thankful for my husband, my family, and my friends. For my job, the work we do, and the countries in which I'm from. For those less fortunate and all I learn from their happiness. I'm thankful for our new house and the moving company that helped make it our home. I'm thankful for changes of seasons, cozy fireplaces and hot apple cider. I'm thankful for email and voip. I'm thankful to my God and Savior for each day He gives me breath.

What are you thankful for?

jumping on the bandwagon

I had a different blog site and I haven't really been good about writing on it. I have been great about posting pictures there of our brand new house as it was being built, but I haven't yet figured out what to share of all I'm thinking about everyday. Anyway, so I've really been enjoying other friend's blogs and think it might be fun to have one of my own that people can actually comment on (the other one made a person sign up to post a comment). We'll see how this goes.

Setting up house

ok so the wait is over... now the work begins! David and I have been building a house for 6 months or so... no, WE haven't been doing the building, but we've been having it built. We just had all our furniture moved yesterday, so we're super excited about it! We have been staying here for the past 5 days and over the weekend we got all kinds of painting done. I will have pictures of the walls painted and the furniture in very soon, but we have to clear up all the boxes first. We (as in me and a bunch of friends - I don't think you'll catch David in a pair of painting overalls to save his life!) painted the living room, dining room, kitchen, the master bedroom, and the bonus room on Saturday. David was busy with putting up blinds, helping his dad put in the garage door opener and he also started to put in door handles and knobs for the cabinets. It's so exciting... for US, but scary for our cats. Mario and Luigi have been used to living in one place for their whole lives, so this move is causing some anxiety and stress! They stay in hiding: Mario curled up in the litter box, and Luigi under the bed. I'm sure they'll get used to it soon. I HOPE anyway, otherwise we'll have one very stinky cat and one extra large super-size-me lazy lug!