Waiting and pictures

So Conrad had his two interviews last week and now we wait...and wait some more. Hopefully we'll know soon what the Lord has in store for us.

Lot's of pictures to share today!

Here is the bag/purse I made for a friend. It was a lot of fun to make - very rewarding. I even put a zipper pocket in it!

I cut Anneke's hair last week and it looks so much nicer. She never keeps anything in it all day (usually because she wants to bike and her helmet isn't comfy with it in) and ends up looking like a "rag-a-muffin" as my Mom would say. So short it is again and now if the ponytail comes out it doesn't look so bad. And see the missing tooth! She's only 4 yet - isn't she too young for this?

Here are the kids having some sort of tea party on Sunday afternoon. It's not that often you see all three playing the same thing together. Tessa's getting older though and she's starting to get what playing together is.

And something very exciting...I finished the top of Anneke's quilt! Yea! I still have a long way to go in layering and quilting it (I'm a bit nervous about the quilting part) but it's very exciting to have it this far and I love it!

Recognize the corner fabric Jennifer?

April already

Time just flies doesn't it? Well, I did have a wonderful week with Charlene here and Conrad and I really enjoyed our time away. Conrad was at a conference for most of the Friday and part of Saturday but I enjoyed myself immensly :). I found a Jo Ann fabric store only a minute from the hotel and a quilt store a couple minutes futher. I'll just say I have a great time all by myself for hours in fabric stores. Here is some of what I bought:

The middle is fabric to make an outfit for Anneke (apples and stripes) and skirts for the both girls (butterfly and ladybugs with stripes). The left side are some remnants I picked up and the bottom two on the right are a couple fat quarters I just liked. With the other four on the right I hope to make a diaper bag. So much fun - just not sure when I'll do it all... I bought a bit more fabric but I sent it in the mail to a couple people so I won't post it until I know they received it :)

Here are a few pictures from my birthday that week. I was spoiled and had a nice day! The cake was made by a friend. I had just commented at her daughters birthday a few weeks earlier that it would be so much fun to be a kid again - look what I got for that!

All my flowers...

Conrad was gone again this past weekend for an interview that he had today. He'll be home in the morning and then on Friday morning he goes again for another interview and should be home Saturday night. Then it's waiting time again to see if anything comes of them. I will be very greatful when this process is over and we know what will be happening in the next few months.

We're still alive

I just got an anonymous comment that it's been a month since I posted anything... I don't know how many people actually look at this but if you do, you'll be glad to know we are all alive and well!

This past month has been busy with normal, everyday things as well as a trip to Calgary for an interview, waiting to hear back and then finding out Conrad didn't get that job. That was a bit of a disappointment but it was very short lived because the same afternoon and the next morning we heard from two other universities in Alberta. Conrad will be going away twice for interviews the beginning of April. Hopefully by the middle of April we will know wether we're moving this summer or staying here for another year.

This month was full of birthday's in our families. Two brothers, one sister, one brother-in-law, two nephews and mine, still to come this week. So "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" everyone. It is our prayer that we all continue to grow in faith and knowledge so that we may serve our Lord in all circumstances.

This coming week will be an exciting and fun filled week. Charlene is coming to visit for a few days with Helena and then on Thursday I'm going with Conrad to Cornell for a few days. A wonderful friend is taking the kids for us! I'm really looking forward to it.

And now a few pictures to make looking at my blog a little more exciting...

Anneke and Lukas playing "Animal upon Animal" - a fun game for kids and adults


Anneke washing dishes for the first time by herself. It took her a long time but she did a good job and enjoyed it. How long do you think that'll last?


Tessa on the toy shelf pretending it's a bed. I remember doing this when I was a kid!


A few crafts I made this past week. The first is a headband I made for my cousin and the others are "crayon rolls", one with markers and the other pencil crayons. They are fun little projects to make

My travelling husband...

...and look what happens when he's away! With lots of quiet evenings lately, I have all the blocks of Anneke's quilt finished. It all needs to be pieced together yet but on this picture it almost looks like it is :). I'm very, very happy with it so far.

This month Conrad's going all over the place. Last week he was gone for 5 days, over the weekend, for a conference. That was the longest he's ever been away and it was really strange on Sunday. Now tomorrow he goes to meet his Supervisor and will be gone until Saturday night and then next week he's gone from Thursday to Saturday for an interview. I must say, I'm grateful it's not always like this!

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.