Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Our Little Home

Our little home. We are so grateful to the Lord for this place here on Ellis Ave. It is such a cozy little retreat for us, and hopefully will be a blessing to others in the days to come.
Our street going west towards Mt. Pleasant Road. It's about a mile from the Windmill, so it's a perfect distance for walking. James jogs to work often at 3:30 a.m. and returns home for his break around 9, and then we often walk back together in the afternoon...or if I am behind schedule, I walk by myself... :)
Across the street from us...our little mailbox where we get any mail that comes our way. :) I am so glad that we don't have any houses directly across the street; makes it seem a bit more country like for me. :)
Going east on our street - towards the country.
Our kitchen view, with the lovely curtains Chloe made us. Right next to the stove we have our portable dishwasher from Shane and Shelly, which is wonderful as well for extra counterspace.
The sink, where I do my dishes - and where James often helps me. :) You know me and my doing dish habits.... :) I am so glad I have a fridge right there, to hide any dirty dishes when others drop by... :) The coffee maker is from Brendan.
The other side of the kitchen - my Vita Mix, and Kitchen Aid. And my egg timer from Charissa-last years Christmas gift. :)
The view from the kitchen into the 'dining room', and the front door, and into the living room. I am so blessed to have Grandpa and Grandma Jost's china cupboard - it fit just beautifully!
Our living room, and our kind of Charlie Brown Christmas tree. :)
Our piano from Mom and Dad H. and above our couch (which you will notice by the way, I have been blessed with matching couches!!) is our beautiful wedding picture from Anne-Marie. A reminder to us and others, of God's faithfuless and love, in providing lilacs for our wedding. Such a special treasure.
Our tree, chair, and the stairway going upstairs, and downstairs to our back entry, as well as leading to the basesment.

Our office. Which is where I am sitting in right now, in that black chair writing out this little tour for you. :) It is two desks together which works great, so James has one side of it for his studying, and I have the other for scrapbooking or other perhaps creative endeavors I may do.
Going into our office...I think it's so neat that this room turned out kind of purple - our landlord picked it. :)
A view from up the stairs - not really that interesting....the door on the right is the office door.
From up on top of the stairs to down the stairs - our window, and tieback that Chloe made :), and our lovely tapestry from James and Heather. A beautiful reminder of the fruits of the spirit that we should be instilled in our lives.
Going upstairs - our hallway: the door into the yellow room is the guest room, the door to the left is the only bathroom, and the door to the right is our bedroom.
Our bedroom - with the curtains mom helped me to get, and the ties made by Chloe. Going into our bathroom. Mom H. was the one who gave me the idea of having cranberry accents in here, which I loved! Our landlord put a skylight right above the tub, which is fun, and provides a lot more light, which I am grateful for.
The curtains also made by Chloe. :)
The rest of the bathroom. There still is a lot more accents, decorations, and pictures to put up - I still have to go through a bunch of things in the basement, but for now, its working great. :)
Our guest room. The quilt on the bed was our wedding gift from the Collin family - a treasure to keep always! (and in my favorite colors!)
The other side...remember my hydrangeas? And our sailboat from Josh and Erin...
So there you have it, a pictorial tour of our little home. Hope that many of you can actually can come visit sometime. :)

Chloe's Visit

Chloe came and visited us for a few days, after her week at the House of Prayer, and being at Parliement Hill all week. It was so special to have my friend visit and share in our lives here.
Decorating the tree...
We went bowling in Burlington one night with a bunch of the siblings. Quite fun....though I did score the lowest of the low. :)
It was James, William and Tim that were getting the high scores of the evening...
Chloe was such a servant and she made some curtains for our house -we went shopping together, got some lovely fabric and she whipped up some beautiful window coverings for our house. (pictures will be coming next post...of those curtains and our home. :)
Chloe spent some time helping me at the Windmill - which was so fun and she was such a great help during this busy Christmas season. We got a few comments about looking similar - like sisters, which was fun - sisters in Christ!

Our Sixth Month Anniversary

We can't believe that six months has already gone by.... it has been so wonderful. :) To celebrate it, we went to dinner, where we got a free dessert because after we got this picture taken, it was mentioned to the waiter that it was our sixth month wedding anniversary... :)

And yes I'm eating a hamburger.... :) James went a bit more exotic in having a shrimp alfredo. It was lovely.

Our First Christmas Tree

Our first Christmas tree hunting....at our local Home Depot. :) It wasn't quite like going out into the woods in BC, and finding the perfect one, and then having a hot dog roast, and sledding time...but it was still fun. :) And I was with my husband. :)
Us and our tree - and me looking rather stilted...comes from holding the camera and trying to smile - James is so much better at it than I.
Pointing our missile to our van....which we used for transportation to get it back home...a lovely time.

Christmas at the Windmill

Just a few pictures of the Windmill, with it's Christmas decorations and giftware...
Our real tree.
The Christmas display.
The flowers...there is a few of the handtied bouquets I did by the pointsettas.




Friday, December 12, 2008

Mom and Dad's Visit!

Mom and Dad came to visit us just 5 days after we moved in - such perfect timing, and so fun to have them in our own home! They drove the long distance after attending a seminar in the states, and then spent some days with us. It was so delightful!

One of those days, I had to go to Mississauga, so Mom and Dad came with me on the 'maiden voyage' of me driving that far...which went well. They helped me 'shop' for items for the Windmill, and then helped me get some curtains and such items for our house later on in the day. It was kind of like spending the day in the city like old times....but better, cause I got to see James at the end of the day! :) Mom was so sweet to help me get items for our home, and they helped get some curtains up, and odd jobs around the house done.
Eating breakfast in our little home...
Traveling to church I think.... :)
Sunday Dinner with everyone...so fun to have some of both sides together again!
One night mom and dad blessed and took us out to a Chinese dinner, which was so special.
My wonderful parents whom I love dearly!
Us all. For some reasons Chinese resturants always have pastel tablecloths....it must be in the code of the Oriental Resturant Handbook.
The morning they left...dad's eyes are shut, but I still love this picture. My daddy is one of my heroes. And yes, our front door does come off like that. It's not hinged yet, so we just pick it up and move it whenever we need the front door access.... :)
Our last picture together right before they left the Windmill and traveled the long way. It's always hard to say goodbye to family - they mean so much - but I know we are both right where God wants us to be...and I am so glad I don't have to say goodbye to James anymore!

Our Second Home...

The time finally came, when we said goodbye to our little 'apartment' at 702 Mt. Pleasant Road, and moved to our little rental home on Ellis Ave... It was such a blessing to be able to stay with Mom and Dad and the brothers, and whoever else was there at the time, for those almost three months while we waited for our place to be ready for us. Everyone was so good about having us, from what was supposed to be only a week or two there, to 11 weeks. Made lots of memories at the Windmill!The Lord does all things well, and He used the time to teach me some things...He knows what is best!
Our front door entrance:
Our little suite (after we had cleaned it up, and moved all our furniture out... :)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Moving Day!

After almost three months of living at the Windmill, moving day came!! It didn't really feel like we'd ever get in at times, but in His timing, we made it. :) It was one exciting day to walk into the house, clean it up, and unpack our clothes, our wedding gifts, and items I hadn't seen for 7 months or more.... Our living room with boxes... We right away put Grandpa and Grandpma Jost's china cupboard in place, and I found one of my dishes from our set to set on it....couldn't believe that we were moving in....tears of joy!
Us in our new home. :)
We had some awesome help that day cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, the fridge that needed some major TLC, and hauling boxes up and down: The Eastons' - friends from our church came over in the afternoon, and really blessed us, and brought us supper. :) This is Rhonda (the mom) and her eldest, Morgan. They work at Circle Square Ranch which is nearby. The other three children did a lot of work, but I just didn't get a picture of them...they are all sweethearts and I appreciate them a lot.
After the Eastons left, and after the yummy supper with Ian (our landlord) Rob, and another guy Shayne, the guys set to work to get our queen box spring up the stairwell....it turned into a few hour ordeal, as they removed the top tread of the stairs, cut into the wood/drywall at the top.....and push and shoved...and after the dust had fallen onto our clean walls....they made it up. :) And a few minutes later, Henry (brother)called to say that William had a split queen box spring that is made to go up small areas....what you know after.... :) But the guys did such a great job and stuck to it, and I'm so thankful we have it upstairs - maybe to stay upstairs...
Unpacking....it's like Christmas! Such fun to be in our home, and rejoice in God's continued faithfulness together.
"As for me and my house...we will serve the LORD."