May

One more week of April left.

We are still working on the new rental. Only the half bath needs one more coat of paint, then all the walls are done and only trim needs a new coat of white. Jack is hanging those last pieces of trim this week and then he will move on to laying a concrete slab for the air conditioning unit, before he hits the plumbing. After plumbing its flooring, then clean up the dust and get it rented. I am still hoping for a June 1st rented date, but Jack got a really bad head cold this week that cost us 2 days work. I know I could have gone over their and at least painted but I like having a partner for company and direction, and believe me I found enough catch-up stuff to do at home.

May for our family means the last month of the school year before the new one begins, we switched to whole year schooling last summer now going 3 weeks on 1 week off all year, it just works better for our family.

I also have a half marathon booked with a friend later in the month, I did a local one at the university in town just the other weekend and finished in just under 2hrs 5 minutes (for 13.1 miles).

You know the drill, read on down till you hit the title "April" then you know you are all caught up!

Take a LOOK at HER NOW!!!

Here she is all done up in her new coat of ivy!!! we had people driving by slow for days in awe of the improvement
Here is a picture of what she looked like before in case you have forgotten.

Even though siding has taken up half our fix-up budget, I would say it was totally worth the investment. I love the crew that we hired, they did work for us at our current home as well and they are fast, efficient, accurate, respectful and clean, something that I am discovering after doing a few Reno's now is a EXTREMELY HARD COMBO. TO FIND for those of you local who need siding its the "Clevenger family" highly recommend them, yes their quote will be higher than others but the work is done right! and most importantly its done.

You have no idea how many times Jack and I have tried to hire something out only to do it ourselves because we are so frustrated waiting for the workers to come over and do it. Then there was the dry waller who not only smoked in my house he stomped out the cigarette butts in my floor (yeah I know a new one was going in but still that's rude). Plus he got drywall mud all over Jack's new job site radio that I got him for father's/birthday, and he didn't even ask to use it, or try to clean it, or apologize for it. Okay, okay, ya I still have issue with that guy! I am working on letting it go, truly I am, but believe me I would never hire nor recommend him, and oddly enough I can't even remember his name that is how good an impression he made on me.

All that said, I love the look of the home now and can rent it without feeling like a slum Lord who is bringing down the neighborhood.

What I bought with my Birthday $$$$

I actually just bought the Jillian "yoga" DVD for my birthday and the new 6 lbs weights, but I had to show you my whole collection of Jillian so I could tell you her workout DVDs rock!!! she is as hard on you as you see her be on biggest loser, and they really do work. I am now much more of a help to my husband when it comes to lifting awkward items (like the second hand gas stove we bought last week for the new rental)
This is my baby, my new toy!!! I get money every year from my dad, and in laws, and Jack and sometimes my English grandmother. I am not as quick to spend it as I use to be, now I put a lot of thought into my purchases. For instance with this watch I researched the different models on line. I had the more pricey one earmarked (or in my favorites as it is in cyber world) when I decided to borrow a friends who had the model pictured. I was worried the big face would bother my wrist on long runs ( I am the queen of chaffing and its not pretty). But I wore it for 3 weeks on long and short runs and not a chafe mark, and no signs of irritation, so I got my own!

For those of you who are not a running crazed fool, this watch is like taking a treadmill computer with you, it tells you distance by using the satellites, and it tracks your speed and time.

You can also use it on bike rides. I finally got my bike out this week, and love it oh how I miss it over the winter, I love biking more than running (yes that is possible), problem is sometimes I get so into daydreaming when biking that I forget to look where I am going and when I look up I have problems finding my way back home, BUT that is what the cell phone is for, to call Jack to rescue me by looking up the road sign for me, so I can figure out my way home. Aha technology, you either love it or hate it, for me mostly I LOVE IT!!!

A Sunday to Be Remembered

Sunday April 18Th 2010 will be a day this family of five will mark as a very memorable Sunday indeed. It started out as any other, waking up kids, grabbing clothes, breakfast and bibles and heading out the door to church. But this Sunday the service ended very different. Truly it all started on a Thursday evening in Aiden's AWANA class where their teacher taught them what baptism meant, and Aiden told his teacher he understood what it meant and could he please be baptised. That lead to a call I received several days later from his teacher, which began many a discussion in the van and in the car and around the dinner table as to what baptism meant. By Easter Sunday dinner, both Aiden and Courtney decided they wanted to ask the pastor to be baptised, by the end of the 10 minute car drive there, Thomas decided he too wanted to follow this step of obedience to the Lord.

So after Easter communion, I took all three of them forward to tell the pastor about their decision and set the date.

We celebrated the occasion with a BBQ at our house with their friends and their parents, 5 families in all plus ours. Now six families sounds small till you start to add up everyone's children! Luckily it was a very nice warm day so the kids played mostly outside.

Kid friendly items were served, hot dogs hamburgers, chips, cookies and cake. The drink of choice was over 11 different types of soda to suit all tastes.

Proverbs 14:26 He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge

A family tradition "wacky cake" topped with truffle icing and decorated with M&M's , Aiden came up with the color scheme "red for Jesus blood shed on Calvary" and "blue for the waters of baptism (the orange is because the package didn't have enough red!
Thomas

Aiden

Courtney