Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving on November 29th

Katie invited two friends from school to join us and experience a

US Thanksgiving. Not too much different from the Canadian Thanksgiving. Katie told them the story of Christopher Columbus and the Mayflower. Pilgrims, Indians and the first Thanksgiving.
Interesting version....... It's hard to think back to second grade when you have Senioritis.

Laura, Danielle and Katie

Winter has come!

Bambi: Mother look! What's all that white stuff?

Mother: Why, it's snow!

Bambi: Snow?

Mother: Yes. Winter has come.

Our first snow!

The Branson Birthday Bash

She sure doesn't look 80!

We had such a wonderful time with Family! All of Mom's Brothers and Sisters were able to share in the Celebration!

Loyal . Ray . Alton

Joyce . Valdean . Bonnie

Dianne . Marlene . Pat

Sisters!!!!!
More Sisters!!!
The Friesen Sisters with 3 of the Lennen Sisters!!!!

We enjoyed spending time with Bill, Aunt Carol, Aunt Patti, Aunt Dolores and Uncle Dan as well. We saw six shows, did some shopping and ate a lot!

The weather was perfect and the Christmas decorations were abundant.

Most of all it was wonderful to catch up and visit with everyone.

Steve, Mom, Mike, Peggy and Tom

Firsts and Lasts

Last year was a year of "FIRSTS".

All the excitement of being in a new home, a new town

a new job, a new school, a new Country, etc....

As I am looking at this year it finally hit me......

This is somewhat of a year of "LASTS".

As Katie is diligently applying to Colleges

and arranging visits, we realize that we will soon

be empty nesters.

(excuse me while I go get the box of Kleenex).

We have so much fun with Katie and are so Thankful

that she has enjoyed all of the "FIRSTS" along with us.

The "LAST" time we will all be scurrying around putting a costume together! From Clowns to Pirates and everything in between, we have put together Fall Costumes for 21 years.

We know that Katie will be ready to go next fall when it is time, and we are excited for her as she looks toward her year of "FIRSTS", again and all the fun experiences that await her at college and beyond.

Falling Fast

I wish we could think of a way to keep the leaves on

the trees a little longer, but they are quickly finding their way

to the ground. This has always been a huge job in itself, but up

until now there has been a Gentleman taking care of mowing in the

spring and summer, and the leaves in the fall.

He turned 96 this year and his family thought it was time for

him to retire.

The weather has been so great this fall so far, so Ken gets out there

every couple of days and mows over the leaves, mulching them in with the

grass clippings.

Katie has gotten in on the fun as well!

Note the lawn in the background. Beautiful job Katie!

A Fall project

(Pictures taken last winter. No snow yet!)

There is a wonderful old house that sits in the middle of Camp.

It was built in the early 1800's and is the original "Farm House" that was used

when they started having Camp Meetings on the property in the '30's.

We are not sure when they "remodeled", taking the kitchen and dining room out making it all into a dorm with a comfortable living room. You can tell by the trim work which rooms were original and which are not. It is a shame that it was altered, but I am sure that it was out of necessity at the time.

The plan is to eventually restore it back to its original state, but I am sure that it will be several years from now. In the mean time, we use the building for guests. Each room has at least two beds and some even have washrooms. I often give tours to potential guest groups and the one thing that I have always had a hard time with was showing them the living room in the house.

I was determined that when things slowed down, I would see what I could do.

This picture was taken after I got started and thought;

"I should take a Before Picture".

It was also getting dusk, so the lighting isn't very good. The walls were white and very marked and dirty. The drapes were that '70's gold.

Lots of ugly furniture and random pictures hanging here and there.

My focus needed to be the QUILTS that were hanging in the dining room. These three quilts were made by families that come each year to Family Camp and are very special and important to those people. The quilts had served their time well in the dining room, but we felt that it was appropriate to now make their home in the Living room of the old house.

So this is where I started.

I discovered that what I was painting was old wall paper that had been painted over and over again over the years. Someday, when the remodel happens, all of that will come off and done right, but for now, one more, (actually two), layers were added.

Here are some after pictures.

It was a fun project and I enjoyed getting out of the office and up on a very tall ladder,

(12 foot ceiling I think).

We still need to do something about the furniture, but that will come soon, hopefully.

I am in the process of painting my office. Of course I forgot to take

"before pictures". I will try to do that before I tackle Ken's office!

This is a great time of year to get all these little projects done, besides figuring

out what to do with all the leaves! (next post).

Canadian Up-date

The leaves are just starting to turn here in our part of the world.

The air is crisp and

in just a few weeks it will be gorgeous.

I love this time of year. The busyness of summer is past

and we have settled into a normal routine.

Early September brought visitors! We enjoyed a fun time

with Ken's Mother, Elaine and Aaron, and Phyllis and Larry.

There is always someone who has to be left out when taking

a group picture. Sorry Phyllis. We did get to celebrate Phyllis' Birthday

while they were here. Our new favorite dessert spot,

The Symposium.

Come for a visit and we will take you there. Birthday or not.

September 12, 2010. A happy day for Mom and Bill.
Ken and Katie and I flew west for the celebration. It was a very special day!

Ken and Katie had to head home for school and work, I got to spend a couple of
extra days with Lisa. It was fun to be a part of her world for a bit. She and Heather (roommate), did a tea for Lisa's cousins and myself. It was delightful!

And then there is Chester. Still a puppy but now about 23 pounds.
There is nothing like a pile of dirty laundry to take a nap on. He is doing well and from what we see at puppy class, he is learning at a normal rate. Katie was afraid that he would be the "naughty kid"but he has been very good. Katie is doing a good job with training as well.

Brand new furniture! A gift from a very generous couple. We are amazed, and so thankful. We still need to decorate and add the finishing touches, but that will come. The room is no longer empty!

That is the update for this month. I will keep up more now that our life is

somewhat back to a normal pace

Young Love

There is a young man spending a lot of time at our house these days!

The new man in Katie's life has captured our hearts, as well, as we spend time with him. Ken definitely approves.

He has blond hair and big brown eyes.

He will be going into the Service, and already has his uniform.

Meet Chester:

Katie has always wanted a dog, but it hasn't been an option until now. She is raising Chester to eventually be a service dog for an autistic child. He will be in our home for 12-18 months learning basic skills and then on to more extensive training as he gets ready for his child. Katie and Chester will be attending puppy training classes each week for a while and then it will go to every other week. She is required to take him on three outings a week when he gets a bit older, (at this point, he is just learning how to climb stairs), malls, grocery stores, parks etc.... Even school when he gets older. The trick is to train him to not be distracted by crowds, traffic, other dogs, food and anything else that will affect his "job" when he gets older.

We realize this will alter our lives for a bit, but what a special cause. Service Dogs have always intrigued me and I am excited to see the process that makes a good service dog. Of course the breed has everything to do with it. Chester is a golden retriever/lab.

I have never cared to have dogs in the house, but our house is situated real well for this, as Chester will spend his time in the basement and will not have to go through the main part of the house. The great thing about this program is that the NSD (National Service Dogs), pays for food and vet bills. You can find out more about the program at www.nsd.on.ca

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today we woke up in Detroit Michigan.
One year ago today was the "day after" Katie's 16th Birthday.
One year ago today we sent Audrey, our special travel companion, off to fly home.
One year ago today Ken, Katie and I crossed over the Canadian Border to a new adventure.
One year ago today we arrived at our new Home in Guelph, Ontario.

It is hard to describe all the feelings that we each had.

Joy!
Excitement!
Gratitude to our Lord!
Some uncertainty!
Happiness!

The list could go on. We experienced Gods Hand so many times in our move and as we traveled.
He showed us over and over again His Faithfulness and His Loving Care.

As we look back over the year, we see His Continual Faithfulness. It is hard to believe a year has passed. A year full of exciting new adventures. We have been through an entire cycle of camp and conferences, an entire year of school, and an entire year of seasons.

We are still getting to know our new home and look forward to "year two" and all that God has in store.

To be in God's Will is the most wonderful place to be!

We thank you for your Prayers and are still looking forward to visits!

A Special Announcement

We are happy to welcome Bill Lawrence to our family!

Bill asked Mom to marry him on June 25th,

and she joyfully accepted!

Mom and Bill plan to marry in September

at Black Lake Bible Camp.

More Details to follow.

Spring Time

This is my small little edible garden. Strawberries, Raspberries,

Tomatoes and Rhubarb.

We will see how that goes!

Just in the nick of time

We loved driving around with California plates all this time. It was a pretty good conversation starter, but the time has come to turn in our cool plates for even cooler ones.

Registering our truck in Ontario was a long process that God had His Hand in once again. I will just say that because of the delays and complications, enough time went by so that we were able to avoid the Duty charges that we would have had to pay if we had registered our truck right away like we had tried to do. Everything just fell right into place the day before Ken left for California, May 27.

This was the last of the details that needed to be taken care of for our move to Canada.

From our Work Permits, to

bringing our belongings in, to

our Social Insurance Numbers, to

our Ontario Drivers Licenses, to

our Health Cards, to

Filing Tax Returns (both), to

The Vehicle Registration.

As I said before, God has gone before us every step of the way.

So much to be Thankful for!

Hard at Work

Lisa leaves Thursday to go back to Oregon after being with us for six week. She has been away from Salem for six months and is eager to get back to set up her apartment, see her horse and find a job before she starts her last year at Corban (now University). It has been so much fun having her here and

of course, the time has rushed by too quickly, but it has been so neat for her to be involved with the "everyday" part of our lives here. She has gotten to know the people we work with and they have gotten to know her. There have been coffee runs with her Dad, walks along the river, a little sight seeing and some adventures with Katie (tonight its Sushi and a move). There has been lots of laughing, good talks, and many moments to cherish.

She was able to earn some money and was a great help to us in many ways. She did everything from the dish room, to the lawns, (mowing, weed-eating, trimming), to working in the dining room, to setting up meeting rooms, to helping me in the office. I really don't know what we will do with out her!

Master Bedroom

People here thought that we would love our American Flag room. How fitting, we were from America. We would appreciate a bit of Old Glory over our heads when we slept.
Although the person who painted this ceiling did a wonderful job and I can just imagine the neck and shoulder pain that went with the project, we just couldn't do it.

Not only was the flag on the ceiling, but all the trim, baseboard included, was red and the blinds behind the sheers were navy blue. Very Patriotic! This is how we found the room when we arrived.

After

Ken painted the ceiling and the trim Swiss Coffee and we left the wall color a light taupe.

Some of you have heard the story about the Bed, but here it is again in a nut shell. It is always good to hear and remember God's Blessing and how He really does care about the little things in life.

After summer we drove to the boarder to get our temporary work permits and take care of some things, one of which was to buy a bed. We did some switching around with beds when we moved, as the double mattress that was Lisa's (which was mine when I was a teenager), landed in the dumpster before we left Palomar. The queen that was ours went into Lisa's/Guest room and we finally have a bedroom big enough for a king size bed. So the shopping began. We had kept some $ aside for just this purpose and in talking to the Chairman of the Board and chatting about what we were needing and wanting to do while in Windsor and Detroit, he said he knew a guy who owned a mattress store. He would give us a deal. Great! We headed over there the next day and chose our mattress. The owner said "You will need sheets and a mattress cover. Do you need pillows? OK." We were quickly trying to calculate as he was adding items to our list. We hadn't heard what kind of a deal he was going to give us, so it was a little unsettling. Well, to make a long story short, we walked out of there with out paying a dollar (or loony, if you will). It was his way of supporting our new Ministry and GBCC. It was such a blessing. Anyone who has gone to buy a mattress lately, knows just how big of a blessing it really was. it was delivered about a week later!

The reason we were looking to buy a king size bed, was the headboard that we had been keeping safe for all those years at Palomar, was built by my Dad. When we built our home in Nevada City, we had to cut down some beautiful Oak trees in order to build the house. Ken and Dad found a mill there in Grass Valley and Dad took some of the lumber home and built this beautiful headboard.

We still have to add the fininshing touches to the room, but we are happy with it. Oak is not really "in" right now, so we are having a little trouble finding things to go with what we have.

I am open to ideas.

Mothers Day 2010

Katie and Lisa treated me to lunch at PF Chang's

Some other special "Mom" pics from a few years ago.

So Thankful for our Mother's!!

Happy Mothers Day to all the special women in our lives!!!

Shop Class

We are very thankful for Katie's school. It seems that in Ontario they still offer those fun electives that we remember. Katie has taken shop class all year and has come home with some beautiful projects. The cutting board was first and then came the box. It was fun to hear her use words like Drill Press and Ban Saw, Planer, Sander and Table Saw. She even used a Dado blade.

It was all a little foreign to me, but Ken has enjoyed talking with her about all the tools and methods that she has learned about.

Katie has also been able to take "Food and Nutrition".

(We used to call it home economics).

The difference is that, even though they have a class room set up for cooking, they cook very little at school. Lately she has had homework assignments where she has had to make something at home and then we evaluate it. It is a wonderful system!

Gingerbread Muffins!!

The assignment: Breakfast food. She made French Toast with vanilla and cinnamon.

Love having Breakfast for Dinner!

It is too bad they didn't have these sorts of classes when Lisa was in high school. But then again, I don't remember "Fashion" as ever being one of those electives.