www.HardlyContainTheExcitement.com

As I was laying in bed last night, I heard sounds that I don’t usually notice; probably because I am already asleep when I crawl in/get carried to bed. The sounds, to me sounded like someone was moving around on another floor. The familiar sounds reminded me of the sounds of my home, the house I grew up in.

Then the heat kicked on and it made me think of another sound/moment from my childhood. My brother and I used to run to the heat register when the heat kicked on. We used to sit with our backs up against the piano, and our legs stretched out, sharing a side of the vent. In recent past, I’ve tried to sit there, and don’t know how 2 of us ever fit there, because as it is, I have to fold into thirds to fit in the tiny space.

All of these sounds are striking me harder than usual, and my Canadian “eh?” is appearing more in my vocabulary because in less than 24 hours I’ll be landing at the Detroit airport, on my way home for the first time in almost a YEAR! Crazy!!

www.TheComfortsOfHome.com

16 Days from now I will go home for the first time in a year!!!

I miss HOME!

I don’t even care if it looks like this!!!

and this backyard

and this street, and this front porch

and these people!

and this dining room

and this backyard

and this back porch

The last time I was home was Christmas last year. For a person who used to go home anywhere from biweekly to a least every other month, that is a LONG time. 

I do miss my family, but with Skype and Phone calls, I don’t miss them as much as I do just being at home; sitting on the couch, pouring milk into a glass out of a bag, watching TV with my family, snuggled in under the fury blankets.

This will be a new experience for me because I’m going home to a new kitten! I can’t wait to hold her in my hands!

There is another thing I can’t wait to get in my hands and that is a Tim Horton cup and Timbits!!! and a Boston Cream, and a Honey Crueller and a Canadian Maple.   I also can’t wait to eat one of these from Dairy Queen!!! ooh and maybe a Panzarotti from Andy’s Pizza. I hope there are enough meals in the long weekend to eat all that food. I also hope my mom isn’t offended that I don’t want home cooked meals (I can make anything she can make {better)!!  Not really on the “better” part, just had to say it. 

Really I just miss Canada, and my house, and my friends, and my family, and my church, and my people.
   I haven’t seen Steph in a year, or my Gospel Text people, or my church people. I’ve only seen 1 of my oodles of cousins, and even the people I have seen once since then, isn’t enough.

You know who else I miss that I’m gonna see in 16 days????

these people +1

The Colours of My Room

The room I grew up in was my room my whole life. Although the 4 walls never moved, the room changed looks a lot!  When I was just a wee baby, my mom decided to paint the light grey carpeted room a “dusty rose” however either someone mixed the paint wrong or named the paint wrong because it came out HOT PINK!!!! So I had a very pink room for the first couple years. I barely remember this so I must have been young when my mom turned my room into a Victorian magazine. The bottom third of my room was thin stripped pink & cream wall paper, with a very florally border above the stripes. I want to say the top of the room was also pink?? Mom correct me on that??

Then I got old enough to make my own decisions and that’s where it got crazy! I was still in Public school so I was probably 12 year old, when I told my mom I wanted to paint my room lime green!!! She just about had a cow!  However the amazing parents that I have let me do it! I got really creative! That might have been around the same time as the “Floor Incident”.

What is that you ask? well that’s a whole other story but I will tell it to you anyways!

My parents were having the hard wood refinished that was under the carpet in the living room and the old wide pine hardwood that was in the kitchen/dinning room replaced to match it. We went on vacation and put all of the furniture in my brother and my rooms. The fridge happened to be in my room! In that fridge the floor workers stored their lunches….also in the fridge was a pitcher of red Kool-aid that one of the workers lunches pails accidentally caught on and spilled all over my light grey carpeted floors! AND HE DIDN’T TELL ANYONE! Crazy right??? So we get back from vacation to a beautifully hard wooded house and one big deep red stain in my Victorian bedroom.  Once the owner of the flooring company learned of this, he offered to replace the carpet in my room or re-do the hard wood that was also under my carpet. My parents left it up to me to decide! I wasn’t crazy I did grow up in a classy house so I made the right decision and picked the wood!

Back to Lime Green!! I, being the grown up that I was at 12 years old picked out 3 colours that no one in their right mind would put together today…. lime green, pastel purple and a pastelly-blue-almost periwinkle. I came up with this crazy idea, that who knows where it came from, because Pinterest wasn’t around then…. heck the internet was barely around then! I painted the bottom the light purple with a darker shade of the same purple sponge painted over top. The Top 2/3rd of the room was the Lime Green and the border is where it got crazy!  I had 4 of my best friends forever come over and we painted the bottom of our feet, rolled around on a computer chair and placed our feet wherever our initials were on the wall.

I remember I had a sophisticated sticky-note system: something like: KP – P, MK- B, JI – G, etc. which stood for Katie Porados -Purple, Mandy Kenney- Blue, Jessica Isherwood – Green. I think the 4th person was Laura Goulden but I sadly can’t even remember!! I’ll have to go back and look at pictures! I’m still friends with Mandy and still sort of friends with Laura, Jessica was my best friend for YEARS and I should write a whole blog about that.  Katie was a really “cool” girl thought she was best friends with Mandy, but that is iffy, again a whole other blog!   I was the 5th set of feet around the room and I also put 1 hand print on the back of my door surrounded by 1 foot of each girl! I remember that if I could remember the order of the feet pairs I could always figure out who’s were who’s because Mandy had the biggest gap between her big toe and her next toe, so I would find hers and go from there!

notice the hand print on the door

The next transition of my room came as the final transition. I wanted the room to be empty for wedding pictures of me in my dress in the big amazing floor to ceiling mirrors, but I wanted a rich colour on the walls and I promised my parents I would do all the work!! However sadly due to immigration stuff I had to stay in the USA up to my wedding so they ended up packing up my room, and painting it (every parents worst nightmare).

My brother was moving in so we agreed on a colour that would work for the rich wedding pictures as well as make him happy to live in that room until further notice…. We decided on a burnt orange, and after the wedding he painted all the trim a tan colour!

The Basement

This is one of those memories I’ll never forget because as soon as I light a wood burning fireplace, I’m transported right back to the basement of the house I grew up in.

The basement, now home to a new guest bedroom with a gas fireplace on the wall, and the laundry room was once our main living space. The upstairs living room used to be full of antiques and was more of a formal living room.

There used to be an ugly green and off-white-ish sort of couch as well as a burnt orangish red lazy boy chair.

There was a large hutch, which I believe is still there that used to hold our box TV and if I am remembering correctly it had a dial to change the channels. I remember watching cartoons and Sesame Street on it! I remember my dad coming home for lunch and us RUNNING upstairs

Most of my memories stem from looking at pictures of my childhood which might be why I LOVE pictures so much! But we had many birthday parties down there. We had a long table set up along the front side of the house of the basement… There are home video’s of these parties and I love seeing my Grandma in them!

We also used to have Christmas down in the basement. We used to get a REAL Christmas tree that went in the basement every year and the fake one in the living room upstairs. The one down stairs had all the goofy, animated, colourful ornaments and the bead strands. We also have a wood burning fireplace in the basement which is why we lived down there. Once we got the “fake” one upstairs the downstairs ceased to exist as “the” hang out place.

My brother and I used to make some forts down there that were pretty cool! I remember a series of tunnels we made with the amazing cardboard boxes my dad used to bring home from work! I need to remember to bring home random stuff like that for when I have kids!

I also had a fancy tea party birthday down there one year!

I remember falling in love with  Kristi Yamaguchiand Scotty Hamilton‘s backflips there, snuggled up under ugly but warm (yellow, brown & orange zigzag striped) blankets, sipping cocoa, replacing wood in the fire. Such wonderful, wonderful memories!

One year I hosted a big dinner for 21 girls! It was formal attire, and it was a full turkey & potatoes spread on Valentines Day! After dinner we had an awards show in the basement that Carrie helped me plan! We had a red carpet lined with Christmas lights, and a podium! We invited Anne – the Youth Leaders wife, and we even had entertainment; Nikki & Nicole sang a duet! We gave each girl an award based on something from their personality!  That could be a whole other blog post as well!!  But here’s a picture of the senior girls from the party!!

www.WhatADay.com

Today was good.

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.
                                     – Psalms121  (also check out vs. 5-8)

A few minutes ago I was sitting in my car, 2 minutes from home listening to the choir music for the fall season as I had been the whole way to-and-from CO Spgs. On the way to CO Spgs I was in such a rush to get to the airport on time to pick up my cousin Terry who was in town for business. He had a few hours to spend with me, his favourite cousin and I was excited to see him. On the way home I was in no rush and had time to reflect on the whole day.

Reflection:
This morning I arrived at church at 7:45, as I had been chosen to play a mom (of a 12 year old) in a skit that went along with the message. Today begins a series on Generosity and in the skit I played the wife of a very “not-so-generous-but-fake-generous” man. In the sermon this morning our Pastor was so passionate about his message that I thought he was going to fall off the stage. (more on that later)

After getting my cousin checked into the hotel (his prison for the duration of this international business conference), instead of going for coffee or dinner like we had talked about, I took him to Garden of the God’s.   Now I have been there about 4 or 5 times since moving here in January and the first time it was amazing… all the other times it was rainy and I’d seen it before. But, it is still an awesome wonder that I want to share with everyone but it’s “awe-someness” in the real sense of the word had worn off for me.

However on this visit, seeing it through my cousin’s eyes, who only had 2 hours to experience the beauty that we have now known to call home, and the little boy he turned into, in this one of God’s coolest garden’s blessed my heart. We were all over those gorgeous orange rocks, climbing in crevices and up vertical walls of rocks. He took on challenges his mother would have had a heart attack over and his wife would never let him try but by golly he was so proud of himself!

 When we left the hotel he told me he needed to be back between 6:00 and 6:30 and then when we got there he said “well, I could be a little late”…. and once we were climbing all over he changed his story to “I should at least make an appearance”.  Our very first weekend in Colorado and Nick said about Garden of the God’s “I’m going to drive out here all the time, climb to a quiet private place and read God’s word!” It is such an AWEsome place.

I got Terry back to the hotel about 6:36 and started on my way back home. At 6:37 the sun was so bright and about to make its plunge behind the mountains and WOW me with their beauty.

When the ray’s peak over the top of the mountains, it takes my breath away with its unspeakable beauty. By the time I was home, the mountains were solid colour shadow’s in 3 or 4 depths.

Does that make sense? I am in awe of my surroundings here….Spending 2 hours with a cousin who is more like a big brother to me made me miss home, the flat, flat city that I call home. It made me miss home more than a week with my parents because I got just a taste of home. However, it made me realize how incredibly lucky I am to live here in this amazing part of the world where God’s majesty is just thrown all over the ground. I can take 1000’s of pictures and each one is worth a thousand words but they still can’t describe the beauty of MY God.

So what does this have to do with generosity and our Pastor’s message this morning? Well, he was falling off the stage to express how even if we had won the 656 million dollar lottery this spring that, in reality to all God has given us that would be NOTHING. We are richer than a mega million lottery could ever provide and by rich he didn’t mean money. We have been given breath, and relationships with friends, Family and A CLOSE PERSONAL relationship with the GOD who created this whole gorgeous amazing world just for us. If you like spending other people’s money rather than your own, realize that everything on this earth is from God and he has given it to us! (I’m not going to do his rant justice so here’s a link to it and it will soon be posted online).

We have learned a lot about generosity in the last couple months… wanna know how? Have all your income taken away. When my job was out-sourced at the end of June, I knew I could pay rent for July, but I didn’t know where the money was going to come from to pay rent in August. Nick is in school full time, and I was making the bucks to keep us fed and housed. We moved here not totally sure that we would be able to survive on 1 income alone…. but for 6 months WE made it work. For the last 2 months GOD has made it work. We are living completely on faith and looking to God to provide for our needs. HE has provided food, HE has provided some temporary work and some babysitting jobs, HE has moved family to give us money. HE has provided generous people to help us out.  For the past 6 months and 20ish years I’ve been self-sufficient. I didn’t need God. I could work to make money to feed myself, to clothe myself, to get me from point A to point B and point L.

But God brought us so far away from home to teach us to depend on HIM.
Knowing Him, there is no greater thing!

Therefore, when this song, which I’ve heard and sung and led the congregation in Worship so many times came blaring through my car speakers… I began sobbing uncontrollably.

All I once held dear, built my life upon,
All this world reveres and wars to own;
All I once thought gain I have counted loss,
Spent and worthless now compared to this.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing.
You're my all, You're the best,
You're my joy, my righteousness,
And I love You Lord.

Now my heart's desire is to know You more,
To be found in You and know as Yours,
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All surpassing gift of righteousness

Oh to know the power of Your risen life,
And to know You in Your sufferings;
To become like You in Your death, my Lord,
So with You to live and never die.

I am NOTHING without Christ and Knowing HIM is the best.

www.updateOnMyLife.com

What to do when you’re babysitting 2 adorable little boys who are both asleep; recount how your life is going….

After a week of barely seeing my husband due to our opposite work schedule of the first part of the week and then the fact that he left me to go fishing in Pennsylvania, on a male bonding fishing trip. He goes every year, but this year was more important. While he was gone, I mostly worked, with a little traveling in there. I worked at the Jackson Sam’s club instead of my usual club, and then I had a date with myself. I got crafty,

watched a movie I had never seen before, made my self a luxurious dinner (Campbell’s soup), gave myself a shoulder massage, oh it was fun. I had to work on Saturday too, but afterwards I drove straight to Canada.

My Uncle, who I grew up with, grew up and moved away. He lives many hours from home and so I don’t see him enough. He was in town to pick up his wife and son who were camping near the area, and stopped in to see my Gramps who is in the hospital. Soo I hung out at home, had one of the best hamburgers EVER. Enjoyed a whirpool bath. I took a tour of the new Kingston Park. It is very cool! It’s to bad I’m not a kid anymore. While I was there, I totally ran into MANDY!!!

Sunday I went to church where I was reminded of how wonderful my home church is! I miss it, I miss the people, their worship is amazing! After church, we had a family lunch (Terry/Linzy/Peyten, Markie/Krystal/Markie Jr., Steph and my family). Again we had those amazing burgers! Yum!!! We played Apples to Apples because Markie had never played! It was a lot of fun! After that I went to the hospital to see Gramps. He told me I’d gained weight, he also told me he has lost 32lbs. Not cool! I told him the next time I see him, he better not be in a hospital.

So after seeing my only remaining grandparent in the hospital, I then drove to Monroe to say goodbye to my best friend. Ooh did I mention I was missing my Nick whom I hadn’t seen in 4 days. It was a rough day, I shed some tears.

After I got home, my husband was excited to tell me all about his fishing retreat. I listened like a good wife and then he told me he had only gotten an hour of sleep the night before so despite the fact that I missed him dearly and wanted to spend lots O’ time with him, we went to sleep.

This weekend was Thanksgiving in the Oh Canada!!!

Ooh How I love my country, my family and my home!  This is a taste of my backyard and home in the fall! For dinner we mashed all of our family together, we invited the Austins (who brought their other extended families…. ) and we invited the Fosters (who brought their extended families….) We had a pumpkin carving contest!! Nick and I finally went to the apple orchard which I’ve been wanting to do for I think at least a year!!!!



Michael’s Pumkpin!!



Britt’s Pumpkin!



This is my apple crisp pre-oven!! Yummy!!!



Britt Reaching for an Apple







Nick’s Apple



Nick & Britt at the Apple Orchard!!!

  

www.Daddy’s1stSolo.com

Here’s the thing this weekend we actually did something! Friday night we got Nicks bike, then we did nothing with it yet. Saturday we went to North Bay Park, which is home to those cute little islands and bridges that you can see from Hwy 94! For 6 years, I have driven past them always saying that I want to go there…. So we finally went. It was about 6 miles from our home! While we were there we were like we want to share this place with someone, and the people we thought of most that would enjoy it, is the Eccles – and then each of our parents! I have a ton of pictures, my shins hurt from the good little hike that it became, and the wildlife we saw was fantastic!

Then Sunday morning, I drove home to surprise my dad. He was singing his FIRST SOLO ever at church and I was so proud! He had been practicing sooo much, he’d sung it in my ear over the phone a couple times, he practiced it on the plane last weekend – we was constantly preparing! There is no way I could miss that! So I arrived in Chatham about 30 minutes before church so I hung out at my parents house until about 3 minutes till the service. I snuck in the back door, then Terry saw me in the overflow and asked me if my dad knew I was there… he did not so Terry helped me sneak into the sound booth and I helped him out doing power point which worked out well because I could hide behind the computer screen. My dad didn’t even see me until after his solo was over which was my hope! I did however record it from beside the computer screen, behind the glass part of the booth… but Blogger isn’t letting me upload it….so here are 3 links to the video in 3 parts:

Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzg-xjgLduA
Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H99LqkFtf_E
Part 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv8LdTCg5xw

My mom knew I was going to be there and she couldn’t even see me. So when the solo was over and the next song was going, I popped out so that he could see me…. When he finally did, it was hilarious! He put his hands on his head, dropped his head in disbelief and then rolled his eyes! He couldn’t believe it! Total Success!!!!

The rest of the day we enjoyed lunch with the fam – which of course included Steph and Bessie, and then Dad and I went for a walk, check to see if Jaspreet was home, she wasn’t. Then checked to see if my 7th grade teacher was home, he was. So we chatted for a bit, I don’t think I’ve seen him since I was engaged so that was cool!! Then we walked back home, where Terry, Linzy, and Peyten so we visited with them! He is sooo cute! After they left, we went back to the park (with Bessie in-tow) where we originally planned to walk – possibly for the last time as I know it, as they are about to begin massive reconstructive surgery on the park. After the walk, Bessie, Dad and I watched “The Blindside” – for Bessie’s first time, as my mom and her team were providing a meal for a co-worker whose mom passed away and the funeral was today. I eventually had to return home to my man whom I missed a lot while I was gone, which is pathetic because I saw him in the morning.

I’m very excited for the bike ride we are supposed to take today which is now Monday!

www.aLongAwaitedWedding.com

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Aaron and a girl named Nikki who met in kindergarten. They spent their childhood as best friends. They we to the same school, hung out with the same friends, the love the same sports (kind of), went to the same Sunday school, and respected and cared for each other. Then, everything began to chance. Childhood turned into adolescence, simple turned into complicated. John N. Given Public School turned into CKSS. Friendship turned into …?

They didn’t know either.

All they knew was that they couldn’t stop thinking about each other. It wasn’t long (or maybe it was) before Aaron asked Nikki to be his girl. Thus, boyfriend Aaron and girlfriend Nikki began a new chapter in their story. A year passed and Aaron and Nikki followed where God led them…. Apart.

Aaron in Bible school._____________Nikki at McMaster University.

With their future unknown, this new journey seemed more like a dark tunnel with no light or end.

Aaron and Nikki persevered.

Although they made different friends, pursued different careers, served God in different ways, and grew up to be two very, very different adults, they both realized they couldn’t be any more perfect for each other. After five years of laughter, tears, long distance, airfare, gas money, phone calls, letters, weekend visits, long awaited date nights, and lots of prayer…….Light: Love.

Finally this love story continues as……

Rolando and Annabelle Ancheter and Mark and Anne Ottaway requested the honour of my presence at the wedding of their children Kristine Ann Ancheta and Aaron Leslie Ottaway, Saturday May 1st 2010 at 1:oopm at Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Could that me more cute?????

For their first dance – they each wore wireless microphones, and sang a highschool musical song to each other…. while dancing!!!! In a speech Aaron said that in Grade 1 he told his dentist that he was going to marry this girl named Nikki. I bawled like a baby at the wedding!! I got to see Mandy after 10 months!

www.everydayChoices.com

You know how when you get home from work, you don’t want to do anything!!! You want to sit on the couch and do nothing. But alas, there are dishes to be done, laundry to be washed, hung to dry, folded, stuff to be put away, things to find, papers to file, bills to pay, surfaces to dust, dinner to cook. You know all that stuff that you don’t want to do.

But we have to do it.

Every day we have to make choices.

I’m soo sick of doing all of these things already, and I am just getting started in life.

After Nick went to work last night, I wanted to do nothing but curl up under the blanket with my hot bean bags…. but I made the choice to do the laundry, the dishes etc. I got a lot done last night, but I left 2 things to do tonight, and it is 12:25 and I haven’t done them yet…

Another thing I hate about choices, are the ones that involve other people. Here’s the deal…. this coming week is the birthday week…. starting with my brothers on Saturday, mine on Monday, and Nicks on Thursday… this is where it gets heart. Now you might think I meant to type hard, but no I meant heart.

Saturday, we’ve been invited to a wedding. So have my parents. Nick has to work Saturday night so if he were to go, we’d have to leave Canada half way through the reception, and he would have to sleep most of the day away. Since my parents are also invited, my brother would be left home alone on his birthday – not cool!!! Sooo I’m taking my brother as my date instead of Nick. How sad!!! It hurts me.

For the last 3 years Nick has been a part of our birthday celebrations… 20 years just my brother and I have shared the birthday celebrations but 3 year ago that became the 3 of us celebrating together. Nick has become just as much a part of that celebration as my brother.

Since I’ll be home the logicial thing would be to have a birthday dinner on Sunday – the day between mine and my brothers birthdays…. but…. what about Nick? Thats what my heart keeps saying.

Sunday, I’m gonna hang out with Carrie – it’s going to be a girls day. Nick gets guy-days all the time so this is my going to be my opportunity!

But what about Nick? I don’t want him to be left out, but this midnights thing is ruining it for him.

I am really excited about this being our first married birthday’s together, but I’m already feeling bummed about it. The midnights are going to screw that up too, but Nick will be at work on the midnight of my birthday….. and then end of it…. He told me what he wants for his birthday, and I have told him what I want, non of which are exciting because there are going to be no surprises…. (except what Mel got me).

Our parents are giving us money which we are putting towards buying bikes, and bike supplies (ie. Helmets, Chains, Bike Rack for the car). So that’s exciting…. I really hope that we use them lots!!! It’ll be great exercise, but it will have to be after 7pm most nights, either before or after dinner.

I know this has been kind of depressing, but I’m feeling sad about the birthday celebration deal-i-o… and I needed to get it out.

So I have an idea, I’m gonna see what I can do about it.