New Kitchen!!!

The kitchen is the one area in our house that we had put off. Most of the rest of the house has been renovated...like...painted the whole house, new windows, new flooring in the livingroom, hallway and basement, new shingles, new soffit/facia/eaves/siding, porch added on....it has all been done slowly as we could save up the money and has been a really joyous experience. So this was the time to save up BIG TIME to tackle our disgusting kitchen. The cupboards were painted this bluey grey (not a nice one) with painted hardware, and grimy countertops, and wasted spaces.

(before picture)

It took Casey and I about two months to finaly come to a decision with cupboards and countertop.

So Friday evening started with ripping out the old kitchen. That actually was the scariest part for both Casey and I, but it turned out the go really smoothly. Everything came out without any problems. (Casey might want to include that I did infact put on hole in the wall with the butt end of the hammer. Other than that there was no problems.) No damage to the drywall or ceiling that some paint and sanding wont fix. Casey even let me use the hacksaw to cut off the plumbing under the sink. Yeah for me!!!We ended our Friday with a picnic on the floor with the kids. Not so healthy chips & dip, and jalepeno cheese & crackers, and grape juice. (OH!!! I really need to add that the flooring is yet to be changed. So the kitchen isnt actually all done. So when you see the nice new pic's remember the floor is not done)Here the boys have gotten the bottom cupboards all lined up and secured, and now trying to figure out the countertop. Unfortunetly we did have one little chip in the countertop that we caused, but we wont be telling anyone where it is.And DRUMROLL please.......

BOOM!!! The final kitchen. We gained four inches on both ends of the countertop and what a huge difference this made. We gained countertop space, as well as cupboard space. We also gained the new microwave which has a fan in it. New sink, and new taps (which I LOVE) I cant wait to cook my first meal in this kitchen tonight.

This is a close up of the countertop and cupboard. Not the best of pictures, so if you really want to see, you have to come over. (Phone first so I can be dressed :o)

We do have all the small things yet to complete, like painting, changing light fixtures, flooring, adding a plugin for the new microwave....does it ever end!?!

So huge hugs and loves to Casey for working so hard to provide for this big reno. He is an awesome husband.

Figure Skating Competition

Figure Skating Competition on February 15, 2009 in Eastend, Saskatchewan.

Here are all the girls from Gull Lake that came. Back row - Emerson, Sara, Leah, Dakota,

and Front row is Tianna, Gina, Kayla

I've been trying to upload the video, but it wont let me. So Ihave no actual pictures of her Elements part, or of her actual program that she skated.Opening Ceremonies.

After the skating was over, they each recieved a metal and their report on how they did. Great moment for all of them.Sara standing on the podium, holding her flowers that we got to throw on the ice when her program was over. Then little boys would skate and gather them and hand them to the girls.

So proud of Sara, and I cant wait to watch her skate for more years to come. Next, practicing for her skating carnival here in Gull Lake March 22. You all are invited to come and watch.

Here Fishy Fishy

Eric got a new fish a couple of weeks ago. It is one of those long bottom feeders that look like half catfish and half eel. They are creepy. (insert shuttering here) It seemed that as soon as we walked in the door, Rhyme could smell it even in the bag.

Once that fish hit the water, Rhyme spent the next couple of days watching that fish very closely. Even taking a few swats at the tank too.

Sara's 9th Birthday party

So I am going way back in posts here, to end of January sometime, when we had Sara's Birthday. Now we branched out this year and tried to do something different and brave. Sara invited 7 friends over, and they had supper & cake together. They then played a small game that I had planned. I pre-froze four shirts (dunked them in water first, then froze). They broke into groups of 2 (yes Eric had to play to make teams fair). They had to see who could defrost their shirt the fastest and put it on. The only help they had was the furnace (when it did turn on). They were very creative in ways to defrost it. There was lots of giggles, and brrrring. Once the shirts done, there was some Wii playing, then we proceeded to the movie theatre.

The Tales of Despereux was playing and all the kids enjoyed the show. After the show, all the girls stayed for a sleep over. They did very well. I was expecting loud, giggling girls till way into the night, but I was able to go to sleep by 1130pm. So this was a very successful birthday party, and we would do it again.

answered prayers

Oh my goodness! Has it really been since Jan 19th since I last posted. Eek! So sorry.

We have really gotten back into praying together as a family, and trying to make God our priority again. It felt so lonely and hard to be away from God, and we are so thankful that He is still here with us.

Anyway, a quick little story for today. It has been 2 weeks since we lost Eric's Nintendo DS. This has bothered me 1) b/c they are expensive and I really didnt want to dish out the cash again and 2) I know it came into this house and it is in here somewhere! So on Saturday, I finally was feeling really frantic about it, and couldnt stop looking for it. I looked everywhere. Our house has been turned up-side down and then put back again. It was no where to be found, and my heart was feeling really distressed about this. So, Casey finally said, "We need to stop this! What did we use to do in situations like this?" And Eric was quick to answer with "Pray". Yeah, we use to pray about everything, big and small. So we all stopped, Me, Casey, Eric, Sara, Jada, and Kate (my niece) and we just prayed together, that we would find it, or if it was gone that we would have peace about that too. WELL.....10 minutes.....literally.....we are in the van on the way to the movie theater and I turn on the interior light and say, lets look!!! SARA FOUND IT sticking out from under a seat. We had looked in the van several times already. God is so good. Little miracles are so great. We are so thankful that God hears us even in the small things.