Mothers Day weekend

This weekend was a good one! We started out by having a relaxing day Saturday... pancakes in the morning and yard work in the afternoon. Atalie had a blast sitting on the deck watching Daddy mow the lawn, then trim the hedges, then mow it again (this is Lawn Master art coming into play) ;) Well, truthfully there was quite a bit of "stress", shall we say, between the pancakes and yard work. Getting the lawn mower out of the garage was quite the effort, as it was tucked behind all our storage boxes in the very back... Kevin came out stinking like gas and grumbling about a sore back b/c he had to lift it over his head (thus the gas smell - poured out all over him). Saturday evening I got to go for the first cruise of the season with Kev, then we had some friends over for a bbq and fire (complete with smores!!!) in the backyard. Sunday was also pretty good, inspite of a lack of sleep from the night before. Mom :D got breakfast in bed ~ french toast, orange slices & tea!! We headed out for lunch after church and came home to spend the reeeeest of the day indoors, as it was quite a wet, droopy day outside. We're ending it off with a trip to DQ :) YEA!! Here's some pics from the weekend:

Summer Fun (in Spring)

Most of these were taken today. The one of Atalie and Kev BBQing was last night (burgers..mmm!). It's been so nice here lately that Atalie and I have been summerin' it up outside in our shorts and tanktops:)

Something nice :D

Taken today. As you can see, Atalie is learning how to use a spoon, and another spoon, and there's even a "dipper" in there, which is supposed to help them learn the hand-mouth coordination... she chose all three:) Taken last weekend ... we appreciate our weekends so much here!! It's fantastic living infront of the lake and going for walks now that the weather is sunny and warm! Kevin works four 10hr days so he gets Friday, Saturday & Sunday off. Yea!! Atalie loves to climb all over her Daddy and will take any piggyback ride she can get. Taken after opening a belated birthday gift she got in the mail from her good friends in Kelowna. She was very pleased to get some new shoes ("soos") and pj's... the shoe thing seems to be quite the fascination(!), I think it may be the velcro. Taken from the kitchen window as we were making french toast last weekend. This little guy hung around each time we came outside and didn't even mind me sneaking up to him outside while he was taking a sunny nap!

Change of plans

So... I'll put our rental situation in a nutshell: we had to be out of our current house by May 15th and were in quite a rush to get packing and find a place to rent. So when we got a phonecall on Sunday saying that a place suddenly became available, we thought that finding something so soon was an answer to prayer which came at just the precise moment. But come to think of it I think we were just excited to have found something so quickly (which we needed!) and thought it might be foolish to turn away from the opportunity at the time. I spoke with the landlord again today to confirm some housing/moving details and well, our (lengthy!!! one-sided) conversation just didn't sit right with me. It's one thing to have an "odd" neighbor who you happen to see once in awhile as you're pulling into the driveway, but it's another when he lives in the same building as you, is home all day, likely very lonely b/c he obviously doesn't know how to carry on a two-sided conversation with another human being, and has a key to your suite... not to mention me being home alone with 1 (soon to be 2) little ones. Don't get me wrong, he didn't say anything too inappropriate, but he sure has a habit of saying whatever strange thing comes to his mind and rambling on for any amount of time (he's retired - at a young age). And what's interesting is that up until this very evening, I would have been the first person to say "well just b/c he isn't very social doesn't mean he's a bad guy" or "I don't want to pass judgements on him based on 2 conversations" or worse "I'm sure nothing will become of it, we just need to trust God" and "with God I have nothing to fear". Now I say that those last two are the worst b/c I think that the knowledge of God's desire to protect us can lead us to make foolish decisions based soley on that fact - when really, two means of protection which He has given us are the Holy Spirit (intuition) and a brain (which include intelligence and logic). If we ignore those two very useful tools we are only getting ourselves into trouble. It has been a weakness of mine to put "too much" faith in God (meaning, misdirected blind - blinder than a bat - faith) even though it is often with great intentions. As well, I make too much effort to give people the "benefit of the doubt" (perhaps this means putting others feelings before my own safety, which is not always heroic - especially when responsible for little ones). I have learned that if something inside of you wants to say no, you just go ahead and say it! So I used my God-given "tools" this evening. I called our current landlord and he graciously agreed to let us stay until the end of the month, sacrificing his vacation time here over the long weekend. And when Kev got home from work I simply explained my concerns to him, telling him also that I would leave the decision in his hands, and if he decided not to take this rental place, he would have to call the landlord b/c I had had just about enough meaningless conversation with this creepy dude for one day. :) And to end the story, I'll tell you that I was quite relieved when Kev agreed not to take the place... complete peace, even joy!!! Woohoo!! A good solid choice! And that leaves us waiting... again... and trusting... again... that God will provide something BETTER than our first option! So please, keep prayin:)

We found rent!

So the title is true. We found a place to rent today. I had talked to someone who had an ad in the paper about a week or more ago. He originally said he had found tenants but I guess he ended up kicking them out a week later... so he called us:) It's quite a distance from Invermere (25min. South) but is significantly closer to Canal Flats(10min. North), where we'll be building. In the end that is what counts (and it is cheaper than anything in Invermere). We had to laugh as we were walking through place (duplex style house) today to have a look. It's a one bedroom with a large livingroom, small kitchen, average size bathroom and has a common entrance with the owner. The funny part is the owner. He's a character alright... kinda reminds me of our old neighbors in Kelowna - real "characters". I was a little surprised to walk into the main entrance and see, what looked to be, a rather scraggly stuffed open-mouthed squirel hanging on the wall. ??! Good Lord! How's that for character? We also couldn't help but notice the 70's decor throughout (orange carpet, yellow curtains, low to the ground mix-matched furniture, oversized heavy matching bed frame, night tables & dresser). Also extra character I suppose... which is okay in the end b/c it gives us extra incentive to build this house - and fast. So that's our new-found living space. Thanks for all those who have been praying!

Spring has Sprung! Woohoo!!!

So I decided to put up a picture of the tree in the front yard. It's beautiful!! The colour green must come in a million different shades and yet not one seems to be captured quite accurately... And how exciting to see a rainy day. Really! Refreshing and crisp. Less allergies. Warmer than winter but cooler than summer. All the benefits! It also means summer is on its way of course. Very exciting! And speaking of new things to come we are moving along in the course to getting pre-approved for our builders mortgage. It should happen within the next week, I'm guessing... Our rental agreement is also up in two weeks, which means we need to find another place to rent until the house is built. It's interesting that not one place within a 20km radius of here is available under $1200/month (and there's only 2 of those right now). Since we simply can't afford that we're praying for something we can afford... and waiting:) I guess I'm not in a panic b/c I've learned time and time again that our time is not God's. He is mysterious (!), he is in charge and he knows what's best. So whether the best is not yet available, or whether he's chosen to stretch our faith a little more, I'm okay. I can't help wondering if he sometimes gets a kick out of how rediculous we can be when things don't happen exactly when we expect them to. I can imagine him moving his grand scheme of our lives about, while we run around like chickens with out heads cut off in an absolute frenzy b/c we have lost complete control. Well, since when has being in control ever really worked for us anyway? And exactly where have our expectations come from? Who knows?! Whatever happens, it will happen. That's all I need to know. Infact, it's kind of nice having someone else be in control & doing all the work (until packing and moving time that is!). Hmm... to avoid people getting the wrong idea when reading my theory of "someone else doing all the work", I should perhaps mention that we have been scouring the classifieds, calling every last one, putting our own "need to rent" classifieds in, checking every local billboard and asking almost everyone we know about any available rent - all for months now (and we are NOT picky - belive me!). It becomes difficult to find reasonable rent in this particular town of 5,000 b/c 2/3 of the homes are owned by vacationers who alllll move back May-long weekend, when the population begins to rise to a whopping 30,000... and I must add that throughout my phonecalling I've discovered that most people seem to either want us to sign a year lease (which we can't do while building) or think they can charge an arm and a leg (perhaps b/c realestate is doing so well? dunno). But we've put a notice in our local church, asking people to please call us as we need to find something asap. So we'll see:)