37 days of life events

In 37 days our family has had some amazing life events.  Starting with the birth of our granddaughter Arya Elle Klassen.  How wonderful to experience the whole thing from the beginning to anxiously pacing in the waiting room on May 9th.  It amazes me how comfortable we are around this tiny baby.  I love watching everyone having a turn at holding her.  She is so beautiful.
Next event~ Gerry and I traveling to North Carolina for my sister, Nancy and Dan's wedding.  We don't travel, we drive to where we need to go.  So the airport was the big fear factor, and the details of getting there, car rental and that kind of thing.  But we did it, smoothly, calmly and no glitches!  And boy did we have fun.  Enough fun to say, we have to go again!
Event # 3~Amanda and Ryan moving to a much bigger place.  They got the key and the next day the boxes were flying out of the apartment and into the town house.  Walls washed, kitchen washed and stickers scraped off the doors.  They are not settled yet, that will take some longer, but they are in.  Amanda will work her magic and make that place look like a showroom before too long.
Throw in two showers, one for Arya at only less then two weeks old, a mountain of pretty and pink things to dress her in.  Another shower just yesterday for a beautiful bride to be, bake ware, beautiful handmade runners, towels and washcloths.  All to furnish a new home and a new beginning of a life together with the man of her dreams.
2 weeks countdown to the next life event, Hannah and Nathan's new journey  begins.  In the mean time we have our list and are ready to go.

Whirlwind trip to Medicine Hat

I am not sure why time in my head doesn't quite coordinate with time on the calendar.  I am often quite horrified these days at the reality of that.  Keenly aware that Amanda had two weeks before her due date, we do a whirlwind trip to Medicine Hat with the promise of even a twinge of labor, we will come back.
Leaving our lovely Okanagan  with whispers of spring popping up everywhere... to... here we are in winter again.  Good Canadians likely never take off  the winter tires until what...June?  Once through the mountians we were fine. And with expert drivers, I had no worries.  We were taking a load of Hannah's stuff, and Hannah of course to Medicine Hat.  She will drive a car back that she and Nathan purchased.
It was such a wonderful trip. It was fun to be able to see the place that Hannah and Nathan are going to be living, and all the work that was done and the shower gifts received. To see it in person rather then pictures does a mom's heart good.  We had nice but short visits with the Penner's, and then the Unger's, including Beth and Luke.  Top it off with a trip to Ikea and traveling with my best friend and you can't much beat that for a whirlwind trip.

Attempt at Trendy

Well for about 10 years,  give or take we have had our showers downstairs.  The main bath shower has leaked and not worked.  The tub and tiles were gold, in perfect keeping with a sunflower theme.  Finally after our insurance thing I had the bathroom painted white and got a nice shower curtain to cover the gold tub and tiles.  With a wedding coming up it means, we really should do some reno's.  First the tub and shower fixed, yes we got a lovely white tub, how novel!  Tile was next, how about white tiles?  I thought at first of plain white until I saw the basket weave ones at our local shop, Arden Tile.  Then do we do it ourselves or hire out?  Um hire out...Silver Creek Painting (Ruben Cervantes) did an excellent job of our bathroom, and our un-grouted kitchen and a few extras, well worth the money and saved us alot of time and headache.  So my attempt at trendy.  The bathroom is white, and everyone say's "What color are you painting the bathroom".  Um...it is painted, I like white.  I guess because all my other rooms upstairs are either blue or green, (except the spare bedroom and the en-suite,  they too are white)  it looks like I have yet to paint. My favored gray gingham shower curtain has gone by the wayside, it is too short, so off to look for another.  I did find one that is white (surprise) with a bit of gray.  Now to put the bathroom back together.  Well for now anyway, we still need flooring.  Seriously...does it ever end?  Will get some real pictures of the finished bathroom when it is done.

More spring cleaning

This time I have cleaned the "office/computer room".  Paper, more paper and why do we have so much paper stuff?  Get the glasses on, clear the floor, find a comfy chair and a good show on tv, because it is going to take hours and days to get through all this PAPER!  But after a few days it is done.  You know what the biggest temptation is?  Having another paper and rather then filing it in the proper place...I will just put it here "for now"  NOOOOO!   On another note of spring cleaning I like to move things around and it was time to put anything related to snow away, it is SPRING, regardless of weather.  I bought a little quirky thing for Hannah and Nathan, kind of a house gift and totally not practical.  The problem~I love it.  It makes me smile every time I see it.  I think it is mine and will have to get a replacement.  Pictured below, isn't it adorable!  Sorry Hannah and Nathan, think I just got myself the perfect dog.  (well really Sadie was my perfect dog, but you know what I mean)

My very own "snow day"

I had scheduled a cleaning job today, was kind of dreading it.  When I got there I found out they weren't expecting me until next week.  I did say the date, wrote it down and confirmed it, but they were still painting the place and it was a mess!  So I just did windows and will go back when the painting is done.  My very own "SNOW DAY".  Well I was pretty happy to have extra time on my hands.  Plus I would get to see my favorite daytime show, Marilyn Dennis which I never seem to get to watch since I work all mornings.  Wow...what to do?  Sew?  Shop?  Bake?  Hmm...how about clean?  Are you kidding me...but when the spring cleaning bug hits you just have to go with it.  Suddenly those snowmen have to go.  And hey...how about moving the furniture around while I am at it.  Well moving the furniture around sounds like a lot of work, but really I can only trade places with the sofa's, everything else pretty well has a permanent spot, but then I can vac under everything while I am at it.  NOTE TIP.  So when you move your furniture and  have the furniture legs dent your carpet, Just put an ice cube on the spot and let it melt.  Once melted you can rough up the carpet and the dent is gone, it works!  Then an idea... tired of the lamp and my bowl of off white vase filler stuff.  I am going to Target! A quick look and out the door in hand with a new lamp, lamp shade and green vase filler, all for $23.00, can't beat that!  I nearly skip to my van I am so happy.  So now I can enjoy a clean, organized living room with a new view of things, looking forward to spring. On to the next project!

A pretty book....

Well I have started a "pretty book", so no one detects what is on the inside...ugly thots.  It is something Laura has thought up.  I have always written when angry or upset, to get those words that swirl around in my head out.  Maybe once on paper, the darkness exposed to light and lines become answers and salve to wounds that seem deeper then they really are.  I know I am blessed.  But I have struggles too.   Empty nest is on the the way.  I have practiced it when Hannah was at school, but I knew she was coming back.  Easy to be gracious about something that doesn't really count.  So I am having a fuss about it on the inside, that somehow creeps outside of me.  I hate change.  I would love to have a regular routine of clean the house on Monday, laundry on Tuesday and baking on Wednesday, but who does.  Everyday there is change, some big and some small.  And life certainly isn't that way either.  And how boring would that be anyway.  I know that I will survive empty nest, all I have to do is look around to others that are already there.  I will pray that my fussing will give in to being gracious, I think God has his work cut out for him on this one.

Looking forward...

The good news just keeps rolling in.  Our next big news is we are going to be Grandparents in May!  Amanda and Ryan are expecting, and everyone is so excited.  It will be the first grandbaby on both sides of the family, which is so special to share the joy with the Klassen's.  The baby will have a big world of admirers to choose from.  Of course baby will be adorable, just look at how adorable the parents are.  We wonder if the baby will have dark hair, big eyebrows, hazel/ green or blue eyes.  What a fun time of life.  I really have to stop myself from going on a crazed buying spree and grabbing everything that is way too cute for words.  I have only bought one sweet sleeper, and starting to collect fabric for crib sheets and have a quilt on the go...that isn't too bad.
I must say I am nervous about being a grandma.  I am not exactly running to hold other peoples babies.  Not that I don't like babies, just from afar.  And usually when I am around babies it is at a baby shower with a gazillion people looking on, yikes!   But I have always been that way, even as a young mom.  Of course I love my own kids, thot they were and still are beautiful, and didn't worry about being spit up on and such.  I even liked a few other kids that I had at my house and felt fine with caring for them. Those kids are still among my favorites, and hold special memories of those times.
Gerry is a natural with kids, they automatically like him, perhaps it is not having a fear of looking silly that kids appreciate.  I think everyone has a different way of relating to kids and it all works out fine in the end.  So here we go, entering another new and exciting stage of life.

June 14th, here we come!

Such excitement at our house!   Hannah and Nathan are engaged!  It was so fun to be part of the planning of the location that Nathan proposed in.  We had known for a bit the date he was planning on.  Nathan was here for Thanksgiving and then coming back on the next Friday to surprise Hannah.
Laura and I hiked the day before and looked for the perfect spot on the Grey Canal, it is so beautiful up there, a long view of the valley, Swan lake and the wonder of Fall.  The girls had their plan, sister pictures.  So off they went, and pulled off the best surprise and captured it on camera.
Now we are into wedding plans.  Hannah is quite organized and has lots of ideas so it should be fun!  June 14th, here we come!

random midnight thots

It is 2:40 am, I am awake.  It was one very small random thot, not a happy one, but a complaining one that got out of hand, And now I am awake.  I am sure that in the light of day it will seem unimportant.  Or if I talk to Gerry about it, he will be able to talk me out of the complaining bin.  But here I sit, at the computer playing games of solitaire.  I am even having a midnight snack which is very rare for me,  insert commercial for some very good granola...Nature's Path~pumpkin flax, that sits on top of my yogurt and I am sipping camomille tea, hoping that the tea will soothe me back to sleep.  I fight with myself about things that bother me, things I really have no control over and things that in the big picture do not disrupt the whole world, just me and my sleep.
 I wish that Facebook had a different color on the chat thing that indicates that someone else was awake and wanting to chat until they too are tired and will crawl back in bed.  Or perhaps I could chat with someone as dense as I am about technology and when it says on Facebook that you are on the chat thing, you are and not that your phone is always on Facebook and really you are sleeping with your phone under your pillow.  Therefore no chatting with me after 11:00, I don't want to keep you from sleeping.  I don't even have a good book to read, which really sucks.  You can see how things work, from one random bothersome thot to a whole whack of other random thots that just take over.  There you go, a peek into the world of no sleep and not being very happy about it.  Back to the solitaire!

More then a $2.00 clean

As I walked into my kitchen with the light streaming in, I was horrified.  Every surface was grossly streaky.  The fridge, stove, glass cutting board (which I hate but have) the counter tops and the table.  Yes, I had given them a swipe, and you could tell. I clean for a living (or quilt money to be more honest)  Do I EVER clean that way for my clients...are you kidding me...NO!  I wipe, re-wipe, bend down to make sure I wiped, and then re-wipe and then go out of the room, one more look and yes will re-wipe again if necessary.  So why the $2.00 clean for the place I spend the most time in and appreciate when it is cleaned well.  I will have to put myself a little higher up on the importance scale because I love a clean house, whether if is for my clients or me.
While I was on the cleaning quest of the kitchen I did a bit more fall decorating.  How wonderful to have some great spots to put out all those pumpkins that I made and love.  Until next time!

It's Autumn!

It all started with wanting a new throw for the couch.  So the search was on, and I found a nice teal knitted looking throw.  Then I thot, well maybe I should get some new pillows to match the throw. So off to Fabricland to find the perfect fabric.  Then the whole decorating for fall began.  I almost dread it, putting it off until I just can no longer resist.  I had started picking up a few things here and there to add some new touches to existing collection of Autumn decor.  Like the cute white owl and the large green felt leaf.  I took my fluffy lampshade down and added a plain one and just wrapped some wool around the shade to make it look a bit less boring.  I love being able to put things together that didn't cost much if anything, switching things from one room to another.  The shelves that Gerry built are so perfect, how I love them!  They are the focal point of the room, and it is so fun to switch them each season.

So Autumn is here, enjoy!  Until next time~

Blog or no blog, that is the question.

I have been recently thinking of blogging again.  Hannah is a very active blogger these days and even though we are in the same house I enjoy reading her blog and seeing what she posts for pictures.  I often think that perhaps blogs should be somewhat profound, or very crafty, but mine is ordinary.  That is how I live, fairly ordinary.  I do have deep thoughts about life and where I am in life.  I do love to create things for others and my home and for farmers market.  So I just might begin to blog again.  Keeping it ordinary can't be that stressful, throwing in a project or two and perhaps even a profound word or so.  So here I go, onto blog world once again.  Sunny Thots!

Spring

Nothing like a new pillow that says spring!

I love my picture shelf!  So many ways to display some
of my favorite things.

Spring...I had hoped that adding spring to my house
might translate to adding spring to the outside!
Spring is coming,  we are not buried in snow.
There are flowers braving the cold.
And robins singing their songs.
Until next time~Terri

Quilt Retreat

Disappearing 4 patch

Maple leaf pattern

Coming home from quilt retreat always makes me a bit sad.  I am usually not quite ready to leave.  Once home I long for the company of my friends, long days of sitting at the machine, good food, lots of laughing and joking.  This time I even slept well, tried not to stay as late or be the first one at the machine in the morning.  It was a bit more relaxing.  I came home with projects all started and only one complete.  For the first time I did a lot of picking out.  I only had limited fabric, and didn't like what I chose...twice.  Thankfully I only had 6 blocks to pick out. Now I am on the right track.  And who is this quilt for...the downstairs spare bed, bother!  The pictures featured are some of the things that I worked on and need to complete and not even remotely in my color range!  I do like the fall leaves.  Quilt retreat is a good way to feel better about winter being nearly over, (I hope).  But also to be totally inspired, not only with projects, but with the wonderful blessing of a room full of truly beautiful people, inside and out.  Until next time~ Terri

Lost

I hadn't intended when I woke up this morning to post a blog, but here I am.  I think that my momma taught me that if I didn't have anything nice to say to not say anything.  Plus with a blog named "Sunny Thots" and when there aren't any, what is one to do?  My life hasn't been bad, just complicated and pair that now with January and February, not a good combination.  In January my dear husband would say, "what do you want to do"  and I would say I don't want to do anything.  I was tired and missing Hannah and having the family around.  Then comes February, my original thought was I will be better this month, I will make myself do things.  February 2nd is always sad, my mom's birthday and knowing that she is gone way sooner then I wanted. Now a double sadness as I took our dog Sadie into the vets, not knowing that later that same day we would have to say good-bye. Perhaps on the outside I don't look like one of those "crazy dog people", but I am on the inside.  Secret....I miss that dog every single day!  It plunged me into a new version of empty nest that I do not like.
I have taught my girls that when you say something mean about someone they have to say 2 things nice about them.  Kind of funny sometimes what they would come up with, but always lightened the mood.  Sort of a twist on counting your blessings.  So with the above crabby sort of blog I feel like I need to list a few good things to lighten the mood and let you know that really I am fine.
1~Hannah and her friend Cass here for reading break, oh how I love a household of giggly girls!
2~I am getting ready for quilting retreat, 5 well really 4 days of quilting, fun and great company. Tomorrow!
3~I do still love snowshoeing as long as it is not straight uphill right off the bat.(Went with the church group and thought I was going to die and hang up my snowshoes forevermore)
4~I am very blessed with my family and friends.
5~My dad is at home and doing well after surgery.
6~God is good all the time.

Believe what you can't see, which is that God holds you safely in his care not matter where you are and that he is unfolding his plan for your life.  You can't travel outside of his presence.

I'm back.  Until next time~ Terri

Where have I been?

Oh my, it has been awhile!  We had a wonderful summer.  Here are some highlights.
1~Hannah was home for the summer, she worked as Gerry's pilot car driver.  I thot it was an excuse to finally get a pick up truck, boy do we love that thing!
2~We got Air Conditioning after 21 years of sweating in the stinkin heat.  Of course we had already gone thru some pretty hot weather and to top it off having company as well.  They left on Sunday, we got AC on Monday....sorry!
3~Great family reunion at Moose Lake.  Add a little van break down just for fun.  We send the kids ahead, 5 hours waiting for John to pick us up from Tim Hortens in Olds.  Gerry goes home with Dave on the Monday, Tuesday back with the pick up, trailering the van, and home on Thursday.  I won't even mention the trip home...lets just say reminds us of old  times, ha ha.
4~We got an old camper, you know alot~ alot of wood paneling.  Gerry had a few slack days so we, mostly him, dug in and started a reno.  Primed, painted, new covers for the seats and cute curtians.  Fun shopping for stuff for the camper.  It looks wonderful.  Who used it first, Dave and Laura!  They said it was great. 
5~The jeep, my favorite of all Gerry's "toys".  We had a "redneck" date with Tam and John.  Explaination...Tams knee has issues so the back seat is difficult to get into, so she sat in front with Ger, and I sat in back with John, ha ha. 
Gerry and I had gone on a great ride on our anniversary, I only got out and walked once.  The view was spectacular.
There you go, some highlights of our summer.  Hopefully I will blog abit more often now!  Until next time~Terri

New blog

Amanda and I are co-contributers on a new blog called grass-cloth-green.blogspot.ca
  A few quotes from our new blog"....a mother and daughter always dreaming of new projects."  So true.  I always have something on the go and thinking of other projects to do, I must have passed this same mind set on to Amanda.   Another quote  "I just want to make pretty things even if nobody cares".  I love that! 
My biggest challenge on our new blog is not to be too chatty!  So hopefully our new blog will be varied and interesting, trying to show some of our projects, recipes, new books and a whole lot of other things.  I will continue this blog of course, got to be chatty somewhere!  Until next time~Terri

Inspired

Just recently at our church we had a wonderful display of quilts, and of course there are no pictures of it.  Anyway, the quilts are what we call "comfort quilts".  Every few years our quilting group gets together to make these quilts that we give away to those who are in hospital or very ill, or have lost a loved one,  from our church or the community.  There is alot of work before hand, gathering fabric, cutting them into blocks, putting together "kits" to make the day of assembly so much easier.  I have had the fun of putting some of the kits together, but missed out this year on the big day of the 9 to 9 quilt day.  We were in Saskatewan picking up Hannah from Millar.  But seeing our gym walls covered with beautiful quilts that will be so special to someone in their time of need  just totally inspired me.  We have a wonderful group of ladies, full of ideas and fun.  Such a blessing to be part of this special group and to those who work so hard to make things happen.

On the edge of spring

I have finally given in to the thot of snow happening randomly when I think it should be spring. Especially since it snowed on the first day of spring, just out of spite, I believe. I thot that perhaps it was a better way to deal with it rather then wanting to close all the blinds and crawl back into bed.
So here we are...on the edge of spring...and I make an amazing discovery. I have a conversation with my friend Pam about trying snowshoeing. The ladies of the church have been getting together for a few weeks and for whatever reason...fear...I don't go. So Pam calls me up, says they are in town and are going and do I want to come with them. Sigh....ya, come get me.
On a side note, and this will seem random, but I have been using all of Hannah's cast off deodorants, thot I had one more to go, but no. Great, I am going out the door to go and clean and need deodorant. The search is on, oh, I will use Gerry's, lovely. I love smelling like a man! Okay, so the phone call, my claim to non outdoor activities, is that I do not have winter clothes. I did about a week before purchase some EXPENSIVE hiking boots. It seemed more practical then winter boots and as my friend Pam says they will last all my life. So when you see me in the nursing home those will be the shoes of choice. So I had no worries about boots. The hunt begins, Gerry's long underwear, check, Gerry's shirt, oh I have one, should I wear one of his coats? Finally the outfit complete hoping it will work.
The amazing discovery....I love snowshoeing!! I went the next night, in the dark with Amanda, Laura and a whole bunch of ladies...love it. I bought snowshoes...two pairs! Now its spring and I may not go again until next year....but I will be ready! Thanks to Lise for arranging all the snowshoeing events, there are alot of us who now have a new "sport" for winter, rather then closing the blinds.

The Living room is done!

At last the living room is finished. Sometimes I have one idea about a spot and then it comes out so differently then how I expected it to. I love making little interesting places to look at in our home. I saw this frame idea on Pintrest, theirs is way better and bigger, but I still like mine since it fits with this cute bird. Another idea that has been on my mind is the picture ledge. I had wanted to put all of Gerry's Grandpa's and Mom's pictures in one spot rather then all over the place. I also wanted NOT to hang them on the wall so that I could change it up once in a while. Not only is the picture ledge a great way to do this, but also very cheap. For two 8 ft ledges we only spent $30.00. Now all the pictures are showcased and I think that it makes them feel even more special.

Here is the cushion to the couch, it will do for now, but am on the lookout for something spectacular!

I did have fun looking at sofa's. When all was said and done, looking at fabric samples I liked the original. Thinking that it would have to be ordered in, then the sales lady realized that the floor model was to be sold...perfect! The best part...Gerry loves it and actually sits on it! He hated our old couch. I am happy with the look of the living room and surprized at how everything came together. Now we can just sit and enjoy!