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.