October 19th, 2006

Today is the 19th, of October, and it's suddenly dawned on me just how long ago it was that I updated my blog. I'm not sure why that was, it wasn't for a lack of stuff going on, true I've also been pretty busy at work and hadn't much time, but for the most part it was probably because I just didn't feel much like blogging.

Before I give an update though, I wanted to mention that today is my baby brother's birthday, well he's no longer a baby, Stefan is now thirteen. I couldn't be more proud of both my brothers, they've grown into the kind of brothers that make not having a sister not such a bad thing after all, and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I still think that I am in denial at times that they are growing up, at times it seems so very fast. I was sixteen when Stef was born, Bunny was eight, so to both of us he'll always be the baby, he's also the most mild mannered out of us three, the most understanding and tolerant and it can be argued that he's also the most mature one... even though we've got years and years on him. ;) So happy, happy birthday to my baby brother.

In other news. it's been a busy few weeks. Unsure about my commitments at work it hasn't been easy trying to accomplish much on the weekends. We spent a very quiet Thanksgiving at home this year, on the Monday my parents invited us over for dinner, and Kev & I played a game of Balderdash with my brothers after dinner but other than that we kept a very low profile.

The thanksgiving service we'd had a few weeks back for the house went well. In everything we've done together, we've acknowledged god's intervention - he seems to be always looking out for us, so it seemed very fitting that we continue to acknowledge his presence in our lives, ask for his continued blessings and welcome him into our new home. It was also the first time the family had gotten together in a while so that also meant a lot to me. For the meal, I ended up roasting potatoes & baking quite a few pieces of chicken. I served these with a vegetable stiry fry, garlic bread and two trays of chinese noodles and rice. Turns out that, as expected, it was just the kind of thanksgiving meal that was welcomed by those who attended. :)

And with that the month of September ended.

I spent the first weekend in October working on our housewarming evite [which mostly involved ensuring I had the correct email addresses for everyone and more importantly that I didn't forget anyone], and also planning what to have on hand for folks to eat. So far we have about 30 folks confirmed as attending, I've structured it as an open house event where people can come and go between the hours of 1pm on the 4th and 1am on the 5th, the idea being that we want to encourage folks to come out to visit at various times during the day, not just in the late afternoon, so as to maximize our time with everyone and ensure that we get to visit with and devote a decent amount of time to everyone. So the invites are out, the RSVPs are rolling in, I've got a menu planned and I've still got about two weeks before the actual party, which is fine, because as Bruce so kindly pointed out, it's being planned for four days after our fiscal year-end at work. :)

Last Saturday night we took a break from working on things around the house and headed out to Emma's place for a few hours of board games and general merriment.

On Sunday I got up around 8:30am, which is considered late for me as I'm usually up with the sun in the mornings, I grabbed my toothbrush and went to look out the front window as I brushed my teeth - I'm still not quite sure why I did this, part of me thinks that I was subconsciously wondering if the leaves on the tree in our front yard had turned as yet. Turns out, it was a good thing that I bothered to look outside because there dangling in front of me was a piece of the fascia from our roof. I guess the wind had a field day with it and it eventually tore right off - so we're now in the process of finding someone [who isn't going to charge $250] to climb on to our roof and nail it back in place. Fun times. :)

Tonight being Stef's birthday we're heading over to my folks for dinner, tomorrow is going to be spent working on stuff around the house and then on Saturday we're hosting a birthday party for Stef, to the tune of 21 kids and 15 adults. Can you say super busy?

Plus we're still doing little minor stuff around the house on the weekends, there are a few cupboard shelving in the kitchen that I want adjusted to make things more practical, Kev has also replaced two of our ventilation fans so far, so he'll probably be tackling the third one on Sunday. I also want to paint a few of the interiors of the under the counter cupboards in the washrooms but not quite sure if to put that off until the spring when we can paint with proper ventilation... maybe I'll do that and make my winter project the tearing down of all the wallpaper in the kitchen... I think Kev's still trying to figure out what to do with the shower door for the new bathroom, he's convinced that if we continue to have a shower door that opens towards the bathtub area we're going to end up with rotting wood again from a) all the water that leaks off the door as it swings open and b) water leaking off us as we step out of the shower. A mat on the raised bathtub floor solves problem b) but not necessarily problem a).

In the meantime, we're still waking up earlier than we need to because of having to share the one bathroom and I find myself crashing even earlier at night because of it. Fun times, fun times in Hoppland. :)