Singing in the rain - long overdue!

Waaayyyy back in September, an event of some significance took place. Nope, it wasn't the first day of fall or even Super Saturdays at Sears... but rather my 31st birthday and the renewal of an event which i hope would become a tradition in life! I was just reviewing the forecast/recorded weather for that weekend and it talked a lot about showers, rain, fog and wind. Hmmm... ideal camping weather, is it not? Perfect for setting up tents, unrolling sleeping bags and sleeping under the starry skies! Heehee... what a total opposite! I have a hard time believing that that was only a month ago! Wow, so much has happened since then!

To be honest, the weather all the way up to my birthday weekend was fantastic and the weather after my birthday weekend was great but somehow, the weather on those three days we picked to go out into the great yonder was stuffed full with rain and rain and more rain. It rained all early evening as we headed up to good old Port Burwell - sometimes so hard that Lauren, who was trailing us, was unable to see us and we (Laura and I) who were leading, were unable to see anything on the road in front of us at all. We kept saying to each other "it'll pass" or "it's probably not raining at the park" or "it'll dry up, the forecast said so" and other hopeful little statements. We paused for a break in Simcoe, to nourish our hungry bodies and buoy up our dampened spirits. A fateful choice, we decided to soldier on and see what happened... at the very least, we would pack up again and head home - that's the good thing about being only a short distance from Hamilton.

The rain played with our psyches the whole way there - stopping now and then starting again with a very great vengeance as if trying to wash us away! But at last there was the familiar park office of Port Burwell and some bemused park officers waiting to receive yet some more crazy campers. We sloshed ahead to our site and a mighty fine one it was. Large enough for a couple of semi-trailers, it would easily accomodate three wet girls. In a perfect break between rain storms, we quickly and efficiently erected our tent and did what we

thought was a commendable tarping job.

However, as we were just arranging ourselves in the tent for bed,

the heavens opened again and it became painfully clear as the puddles in the corners of our tent grew with each passing moment that we would be unable to pass the night in our little shelter. So in a flurry of sleeping bags, airmattresses(i like that better as one word) and flashlights, we betook ourselves to the shelter of Mom and Dad's van. We were so thankful we had it to shelter us otherwise we would have been up the campsite without a paddle!

We crammed ourselves into the van (thankfully also all the seats were out in the back!) on top of the air mattresses and played cards, tried to find ways not to breathe (three people in one van heats things up pretty quickly!) and shared a margarita in the rain! What memories!

I think maybe between the three of us, we may have managed 1.54 hours of broken sleep! Quite a feat to be sure.

Sweet dreams in the front seat!

All cozy in the back of the van!

The three intrepid rainconquerors!

Sleeping beauty wrapped in blankets!

Saturday morning dawned kinda cloudy and overcast but not raining thankfully! What would we do? Pack up and head home or stick it out? We came to the conclusion that if we tarped everything up well, that we would be able to stick it out so that is what we did. We took down our rather structurally unsound job of the previous eve and set ourselves the task of tarping the site with the end goal of making a job worthy of Dad's approval! (he is the master tarper in our family, our campsite is usually decorated in blue!)

Is that an ex-Calvinette that i spy? Just look at those knots!

Just look at the angles on that - see it and be proud!

And we managed it too! We were so proud of ourselves and man, we had right to be since there was not one area of pooling or collapse throughout the entire next day and night! Wow! We knocked our socks off to be sure!

The word for the rest of the weekend was "damp" but there was still a lot of fun had. We taught Laura how to play Carcassonne and got her thoroughly addicted! Yah! We also played Word Thief - another great game! Sugar sandwiches were part of our food from last year and that good tradition was renewed again. We didn't eat much all day, just grazing and drinking lots of coffee!! Yum! Around 3pm, Lauren left us to our own devices and Laura and I betook ourselves to the beach. What else do you do on a rainy day!? It was so wet and windy - such a contrast with last years weather, it was hard to believe that it was the same weekend!

Aah, well, more memories right? We will probably never go to the beach when it was so wet again. Our saving grace was that it was warm. Had it been cold, we would have contracted pneumonia and would have been in hospital instead of in our tent! So we had more things to be thankful for again!

I was thankful also for great friends who stuck this weekend out with me! We had been looking forward to this for quite some time and to have to cancel at the last minute would have been difficult indeed. So thanks Laura and Lauren for creating yet more Port Burwell memories with me - site 118 again next year??

Last year at Port Burwell, on my birthday weekend, we went swimming!
This year, at Port Burwell, on my birthday weekend, we went to the beach!

And it was wet! I suppose this could be called swimming? This is the parking lot!

This is my foot - gotta wash your feet before bed! Yeah right!

Lauren was looking a mite wet!
The three drowned rats!

Moving day!

Green Meadow is the place to be! So goes the song that my friends were singing as they moved me into my new abode! And so it is. After a summer full of worrying about housing prices, offers, counter-offers, home inspections and other various and sundry concerns, i find myself now the owner of a home! At times, as previous posts have indicated, that is alternately a scary, cool, intimidating and wonderful thing. Sometimes all of those things and more in the space of a few minutes! I thought i'd just show a few pics from my dedicated moving crew - i apologize if any of my faithful laborers were missed in the pictures - if anyone has pictures from that day - i'd appreciate it if they could shoot them over this way! I want to thank everyone who so ably and willingly helped me on that day. My thanks come from the bottom of my heart!

Dad toiling away with his

poor nose stuffed up with

kleenex as his allergies

decided to act up big time!Perched on the front steps of my new abode - feel free to come and visit!
The moment of truth - does the key fit?? There's no going back now!

Carina and Laura toiled away to get my books put away on the shelves

and things look great! The Book of Praise is in its proper place thanks to the girls and all my other favorites are on display. It is such an odd thing not to be living exclusively in my bedroom, but rather to have an entire house through which to strew my belongings. It is also amazing just how many things you need to buy in the first few days - here's my list...

- a broom

- chair foot coverers for the hardwood floor

- a good set of screwdrivers

- toilet seats

- shelves

- mats for the front and back doors

- new locks

- a rake, shovel and other various garden implements

- etc, etc, etc.... the list goes on and on!

Mom working hard to pull up the carpets - lurking underneath was nice hardwood floor which with some hard work, should look great!

Brenda, Nicole, Carina and Helen toiled away in the kitchen, cleaning out the outdated cupboards and finding spaces for all of my stuff - apparently i have too much stuff according to them!
One of the first things we did in the house was to take down these lovely wall ornaments - i would look at them through the window whenever i drove by to and from work and vowed that that would be the first thing to go - they now rest temporarily and gingerly on my wall in the "70"s corner of the basement...
All of this stuff had accumulated in the old place - i didn't really think i had that much but apparently it is a lot more than i remembered or expected!

The old apartment, the cupboards as bare as Mother Hubbards!

The girls in the basement, surrounded by a sea of boxes - taking action and throwing things out - but wait, i might need that box from the hair dryer i purchased in 2002! At one point i heard lots of commotion down there and these two were hard at work bashing each other with foam and whatever else happened to be at hand!

Where do i begin?

Phew... what a month! It's hard to believe it's October already and yet as i sit here at my desk, it's easy to believe. The skies are clouded over but that changes every five minutes it seems. It can't seem to make up its mind whether to rain or be windy or sunny or cloudy so things are rather in upheaval out there! Kinda feels like my spirit today. In a state of upheaval.
Thinking...

Wishing...

Wondering...

Crying even...

Sometimes on overwhelm!

It seems the weather is matching me. Like it knows where i'm at today. Kinda mellow, kinda happy and relaxed drinking a nice comfy mug of hot chocolate, wrapped in a warm fuzzy sweater with my Dutch klompen slippers on my feet... knowing that most of my boxes have been unpacked in a sorta organized manner... but knowing how much work there still is to be done... that i almost feel guilty sitting here and pecking out the words to describe roiling, whirling, sometimes absent thoughts. The sun is out now and is warming up my little abode and making me feel hopeful again. Why do i let myself get so down! I worry and fret about things, sometimes not even aware that i am doing it, yet where does it get me? An ulcer, an unproductive day and no further ahead. I suppose i'm also sad about the Dutch family leaving again. We have had such a lovely time with them all and you always wish it could last! But we can't hang onto time, only the memories we made in that time and hope that we enjoyed that time to the fullest! I'll enclose a few pics of the lovely October skies which surrounded me yesterday! Enjoy!

Again...

I know, post overwhelm... but there's lots of things to catch up on and not so much time to do it in. Because as you see, by this time tonight - if all will have gone well and there were no major hitches, i should have taken possession of my house and moved the majority of my possessions into its four outdated walls. I'm excited, truly, i'm finally getting there - i do believe for a while i kinda ignored reality and pretended i hadn't really done such a thing as purchasing a home - i might have been on overwhelm - i might still continue to be for the next few months - i'll just need my dear friends and family to haul me out of such wallowings!
I am scared - that i won't keep up payments, that i'll miss bills, that i won't keep things up like they should be kept up, that i won't manage to get the renovations done that i'm been dreaming of - but then again, i know i shouldn't be all that pessimistic since God will provide the strength to get through this too - and this isn't a trial - it is a joy, despite all the grumblings... i just suppose having slept for the last night in this house on Glover and remembering all the memories here - i am reluctant to leave that too - another chapter over in life - yet another one to begin - another step on the journey per se.

I love company so feel free to drop in, my friends and family! I would love to have you over for tea and scones (wait, that means baking right? hmm... okay, tea and Oreos would do? Heehee - seriously, i do like baking - just haven't had much time to do it lately!)

Anyhow, i'm got to go and finish the last of my packing, organize my day and take down the shower curtain - all seems so final eh? I'll see you in green meadows - what a name!! I love it!

Images of Curacao - long, long overdue...

In the fair month of August, my dear friend Carina and I betook ourselves on a vacation. Not a strange thing to do in August, by all accounts and purposes, yet this one had a twist - as most of my vacations do. We decided not to go camping or up north, but rather to head out on a Caribbean vacation (is it Caribean or Caribean? or is that like tomaytoes or tomatoes?). We were headed for the island of Curacao... Curacao, you say? Where in the world is that? Is that like beside Africa? Nope, my geographically ignorant friend (said lovingly since i formerly only had a vague knowledge of its location as well), it is off the coast of South America, about 40 kms away from Aruba (the most well known of the former Dutch holdings!)

Who goes on such a trip in the summer? After all, it's already hot and sticky at home, why do you need to travel far away to get that kind of weather - you'd be better off to go in the middle of February when you need some sun and a tan to make everyone else jealous. Well, as i've seemed to spend most of the summer inside at work or such and since it's been relatively cool and not so sunny when i was off, a tan was a welcome side effect of the trip!

Mind you, we did crispify ourselves several days - whilst snorkeling about the reefs - forgetting that salt water probably magnifies the effect of the sun's rays on parts of our bodies which had up til then had limited exposure to the damaging effects! Hence i ended up burning the inside of my arms and a little strip down the back of my bathing suit where the top rode up without my knowledge. Suffice it to say, we walked like little old ladies as we stepped off the plane in Buffalo! But we were grinning from ear to ear as we had had a wonderful time! We had enjoyed some of God's wonderful creation, we had had a lot of fun doing lots of new and exciting things - learning about Curacaoan history, going snorkelling in azure blue waters, poking around the capital city of Willemstad, and absorbing local island culture and life. Altogether a truly worthwhile experience and well worth the hours of peeling when we got home! I've included a mishmash of pictures to give you a little clue as to our adventures there!Watching the waves crashing in at Boka Pistol on the northern coast
Two very hot and sweaty girls in some very hot temperatures!

We were blessed with a couple of gorgeous sunsets

At the floating market in Willemstad, there were some pretty big knives!

Wouldn't want to make this fellow angry! We think he was cutting up a tuna!

That's huge!

Pity you can't snug up on this picture because it shows our little rental car,

totally abandoned in the middle of the wasteland between the coast

and the mountains, the ground was just too rough for good old gutless Speedy!

Curacao is very arid and desert like in it's vegetation, there were cacti

and prickly bushes all over the place to be avoided at all costs to

avoid nasty encounters!

The back porch of our rental home - where we spent hours just chillaxin' and reading and writing journals (nope, we still aren't home yet Carina!)

One day, we tried to get to the ocean - you wouldn't think it would be a

very difficult feat on an island but all the beaches seemed to be pay-as-you-go

or inhabited by creepy men asking for money - in our desparation to

dip our toes into the sea, we strode through the casino and resort as if we

were guests there and managed to finally locate the elusive sea!

Here's Carina looking posh!

One of several iguanas who chose to inhabit the backyard of our rental house -

we fed them lettuce and tomatoes and watched them in some wonder -

what large lizards but oh so skittish!

Okay, it's been eons.. I know

My own private little oasis...

Yep, you're right, it has been eons since i last posted, or at least a month and two days... i apologize greatly, i did keep meaning to post on here but always something else came up in the way or i wasn't inspired or i didn't have time. Time, that seems to be the killer, doesn't it? The more people i talk to, we agree that it flies by so quickly! But i suppose we should just treasure each day we are given and enjoy the things that are put in that day for us by One who knows so much more than us how short time on this earth really is and how one day we will no longer worry about time! Won't that be a strange concept for us time-driven people?

Anyways, enough waxing eloquent and philosophical, an update on my life over the last month is in order. Hmm... i'm not sure i remember back that far - memory loss is a problem, it seems. Now where was i??
Well, okay, where to start? Part of July and August, i spent being sick. No fun. Who manages to be unsick all winter and when the summer time rolls around, pulls a massive chest cold out of the bag and decides to have it for a flipping long time? Me, apparently. Thankfully, i'm mostly over that and so that is a reason for thanks!

I had another visit to my little house to be on the Hamilton mountain... i have been totally busy with getting decorating books from the library, comparing paint and fabric chips and dreaming about how my house will look in twenty years when i finally am finishing decorating and renovating, etc. I am also quickly learning just how expensive it is to buy a house - there are tonnes of hidden costs... my poor pocketbook (well, do i really have one of those? I have a purse, does that qualify?) is getting a real cardiac workout this summer/fall! But i am getting excited - only 14 more days until i get my keys! Then it will probably be more real for me... i still sometimes can ignore the fact that in two weeks, i'll all of a sudden have to be a responsible home owner! Arrgh, responsibility makes me cringe at times! But it could be fun at the same time - my own house to do with what i like! And believe me, i've got lots of thoughts and ideas. The whole interest in decorating is rather foreign to me and probably amusing to my family and friends because i have ignored that aspect of life for rather a long time now! I'm going to post a few more pics of my new abode - please feel free to send along your design ideas. I'll need all the help i can get!My room with a view! My living room, stuck in a serious time warp.

A collection of holiday memories

Pete and I hanging out at Grundy Lake
Two weekends ago, i had once again the priveledge of heading up north to spend a weekend at Grundy Lake Provincial Park about four hours north of Hamilton. My whole family was coming together for a time of much needed rest and relaxation in the wonderful wild northlands of Ontario. Mom and Dad, Rach, Mike and Peter arrived on Wednesday and set the whole place up - the familiar blue haze of the tarps prevailed over the site as i pulled up on Thursday afternoon, relieved to be up there instead of in the city worrying whether my offer on a house had gone through or not. It was so nice to see my family and spend time with the people i love the most in the world! I've put a few pics up here of our weekend so you have a little taste of our vacation. Enjoy!Arriving at Grundy Lake after a long drive
You never know what you might find hanging out in the trees!

Rachel's shoes got a little wet and this apparently was the way to dry them!

Pete and Opa reading Seek and Slide in the Garden, his favorite book!

Two blue-eyed beauties!

An amazing sunset! Pastor Van Olst talked today about seeing God's handiwork

wherever we are and I truly saw His glory in this sky!

Pete and Oma hanging out at the beach, enjoying a dip of the toes in the water!

Mike and Rach took me on a fishing expedition to the distant Bucke Lake, nearly a half hour journey through weeds and swamp land, trekking over beaver dams and not "looking at the lights", tracked by vicious mosquitos and deer flies who seemed to have ceaseless appetites for human flesh and hoping against hope that there would be a lake at the end of the journey as promised. Mike caught himself a pike after a dramatic wrestling match and the joy on his face was cool to see! We towed Ugg back to camp and had him for dinner and he sure was good! Fun times!

A magnificent sunset!

I did some drive-along shootings of the awesome skies that i saw along the way up, there was some dramatic weather and some interesting meteorological phenomena.... some strange sights in the northern skies... i knew there was a constellation called Crab but here was a lobster!

Another great sight...it's amazing i didn't drive off the road as i admired

the skies along the way!

So that's a little sampling of our vacation... just whets my appetite for more next year!