Everyday life

Well, it's the last day of January already and we've had a fairly uneventful year so far. Anneke, Conrad and I came down with the flu at the beginning of this week but we seem to be over it now and the other two didn't get it (yet).

We've heard from a couple Universities and Conrad has had two phone interviews and will be going to Calgary for a follow-up one at the end of February. We haven't yet heard back from the second interview if he get's a follow up one for it. He's also sent off two more applications. So, we continue to wait (most of the time patiently) to see what God has in store for us. Conrad does have his post-doc for one more year but we are both really looking forward to the time when he has a long(er) term job.

The rest of the month has filled up with regular day to day activities. Here are a few pictures:

The other day I was making apple cake and the kids were all eating the peels. The cake is a recipe from my Mom and I remember eating all the peels while she made it then!

Lukas. What a wonderful kid! He has a very different character than the girls. He will often be on the sidelines watching, not saying much but can also get very angry when Anneke doesn't let him talk. He's very spontaneous with his expressions and movements and often makes us laugh. Yes, he doesn't listen very well and cries and gets angry quickly too but we keep working on that. He also has a tremendous amount of concentration, at times, for a three and a half year old. Here he is, colouring. He spent most of a day going back to this picture, colouring very hard and making sure no white spots (as the kids call it) were showing. If you look at the pictures you can see him switching hands because his hands would get sore from pushing so hard.

Tonight we have the Pot girls here for a sleepover. They assumed they would be sleeping together with Anneke and Lukas so we went for it and thought we'd try it. It's 9:00 now and I still hear them. We'll see if it works...

Quilting

I did make a couple more bags from the same pattern as mine. I made them a little smaller and on the one I made a "Friendship Star" block for the pocket and the other I added the stripe a couple inches from the top.
This one was for my Oma...

This one I made for my Mother-in-law


I also finished my table runner! This project is the one that my sister and I surprised eachother with when we went to BC. We both had two of the same fabrics but made whatever we wanted. I hand quilted this one and really like the way it turned out.


And now I've started on a project I've been planning to do for a long time. A quilt for Anneke. I've been collecting purple fabrics for a few years and after finally getting all the 2" squares cut I'm starting to piece it together. I am making a pattern called "Road to St. Louis". So far I have all 768 squares into 4 patches. It's coming along much quicker than I had thought. Here are Anneke and Lukas watching and saying, "This is my favorite fabric of all of them!" But then when the next ones come through another one becomes the favorite.

A whole chain of purple...


Today I spent the day doing a machine quilting coarse. It was really nice and I learned a lot. We made this square doing some straight stitching and the rest free motion. I found the hardest trying to follow the feather pattern in the middle. I think machine quilting just needs lots of doing and the better you get. It's pretty hard to see on the pictures but maybe you can get an idea.

Happy Birthday's to my In-laws!

Sunday was Conrad's Dad's 59th Birthday...


and Monday was his Mom's big 6-0!

What a blessing from our Heavenly Father to reach such milestones in your lives. Our prayer is that you both continue to grow in faith and live to glorify His name even with the struggles of daily life!

I have a few pictures of some finished quilting projects but our computer is extremely slow lately when it comes to down and up-loading them. So that'll be for another day.

2008

Wishing all a blessed New Year! It is our prayer that we all may grow in faith and glorify God in our daily tasks this coming year.

We had a very nice holiday. Conrad was home mostly which was really nice. On Christmas day we had a worship service in the morning followed by a singsong with the choir (of which I'm part of) performing a few pieces, a few solos and some congregational singing. The rest of the day we spent with friends and had a very nice, relaxing Christmas day. On Boxing Day we had a potluck with my relatives in Ontario. The rest of the week was spent playing games, quilting :), reading etc.

Now it's back to normal, well mostly. The kids were all sick with fevers and colds for a few days but seem to be on the mend today.

The last few weeks

I have a bunch (lots) of pictures from the last few weeks. I'll post them starting with the most recent.

Today we had a lot of snow - so much that church was cancelled this afternoon.

Anneke's bright red cheeks from the cold!

At the begining of December we made a gingerbread house. The kids had fun helping.

The finished product.

It was even more fun to eat it though (a week or so later). After eating all the candies they were sucking the icing.

Look at that tongue!

After finishing my quilt that's hanging on the wall now I made a bag with fabric I bought in BC when I was with Alisa. It was a lot of fun - I think I'll make another bag (or two...or three!).

With some of the leftover fabric I made a headband for Anneke. I had seen the pattern for it online somewhere and wanted to try it out. It worked great - I think I may be making more of these too :)

A few weekends ago, the last weekend of November, we drove to Cornell where Conrad is doing his post-doc. He had to do a presentation so we decided to all go and then drive up to Ottawa afterwards and spend the weekend there. It worked out really well. The weather wasn't great and on the Friday evening when we were driving from Cornell to Ottawa we ended up staying in a hotel. We had a really nice time in Ottawa with Chris and Charlene and also got to visit with my cousin Linda and family.

Taghannock Falls, Ithaca, NY. This is only a few minutes away from the University. It is a beautiful place! The pictures are really light - the sun must have been shining right at the camera.

Tessa was very intrigued with Helena

On Saturday Chris and Conrad took the three oldest to the War Museum while Charlene and I stayed with the little ones and spent some time with just the two of us. It worked out great!

Driving home again. It was a pretty tense drive with snowy roads but we made it home safely.

Finished!!

Yes, I am finished the quilt I've been slowly working on for the past year! It feels very good to have if done and hanging on the wall. It warms up the room and fills in the spot where our piano was. I'm pretty happy with it overall - I learned a lot along the way. But...if a beginner quilter ever comes to me wanting to do something like this for their first big project I think I would deter them from a pattern as intricate as this. :)

The first snow

Yesterday morning we woke up to the first snow of the year. It was just a little bit but the kids played in it for a couple of hours. So much fun!

We said goodbye to my parents yesterday. It's always hard to say goodbye but we had a really nice week with them. A few pictures...

Tessa remembered Opa and Oma from the summer time and gave them lots of snuggles over the week :)

We went to St. Jacobs on Thursday. One lonely horse and buggy. It was a pretty cold day to be driving far in that.

We spent some time at the lego store for the kids after we walked all through the market

On Friday we went to pick Conrad up from school so Dad and Mom could see the University.

The view from Conrad's office.

Look what I found!

Or, rather, "who I found"...

After I had put the kids to bed I went down to the basement for a while. I heard Lukas come out of bed so I called up to him and told him to "Get back in!" He complained a bit but then I never heard him so I assumed he went back to bed. Well, 20 minutes later I went upstairs and I was about to go check on the kids when I almost tripped on this little guy. I can't believe he fell asleep there. You'd think it was more comfortable in bed!

Fast forward a few weeks...

There hasn't been anything too exciting over here the past few weeks. Let me think... Conrad's sent off a bunch of applications for jobs for next year. We'll wait and see what comes of that. I'm almost done on of my quilts. Yey! I'm just stitching down the binding and then I'll be finished! Oh yea, I've almost forgotten already, Conrad and I went to Statford a couple of weeks ago for a night. It was really nice. We stayed at a B&B and watched "Oklahoma". The play was great!

Today my Dad and Mom are flying out for a visit! We'll see them Saturday or Sunday because they are in Toronto for a day first, and then they're here for a week. We're looking forward to that!

Here are a couple pictures of our littlest girl. She's growing up so much, a little stinker.

Graduation

Yesterday morning Conrad graduated and officially received his PhD! It was a long and boring ceremony but he walked across the stage and was hooded by his own supervisor, which was really nice. It’s a bit strange because he was done months ago and now he graduates so it’s a bit anticlimactic. We had a few people over tonight to celebrate – we had a good evening (chocolate fondue ...Mmmm…. don’t you wish you were here for that??) We plan to go away next Friday for a night too which we’re really looking forward to. I hope you all have a blessed Sunday!

Toddlerlogical

The other day I over heard this conversation between Anneke and Lukas:

A: "Do you want to play house Lukas? I'll be the Mom and you can be the kid, but the Daddy's not here because he's dead."

L: "No! I want to be the Dad and you can be the kid and the Mommy's dead."

A: "That can't be Lukas because Daddy's are older so they die first."

Now that, folks, is what I call Toddlerlogical!

Exciting mail, free fabric and a finished project!

One day last week I went to get the mail and this was in it:

Not very often do I get something fun like this in the mail! This already made it a great day but then later in the afternoon the courier came to the door with my order from ConnectingThreads! What an exciting day!! I had ordered lots of thread as I didn't have much cotton thread. I bought a neutral set, a bright set and a few extra of the natural. In the sets they were only $1.59 per spool of 1200 yards and separately they were $1.99!! I don't think you can get that anywhere else. I have to thank my sister for telling me about that place. Anyways, in order to pay only $7 for shipping I bought a charm pack (what a hardship :) ) and some 1/4" tape.



This morning at quilting JW had brought a whole bunch of fabric she didn't want after cleaning and sorting her fabric closet. I found a bunch of stuff to build up my collection! First some fabrics that I know one day I could use for a quilt...

Then two pieces of a bright, tropical print that I thought would be really fun for some beach dresses for the girls, or maybe even backing on my bright quilt one day. We'll see...

The last pieces are an orangy-peach and green of the same fabric. My first thought was skirts or summer pajamas for the girls...



This last picture is of my "nephew" Ben. I had promised to make PJ's for his birthday back in April but I just finished them tonight! I guess it's better late than never and it's just in time for the cool weather. I was glad they fit! Isn't he cute?