30 things I’ve learned in 30 years

I turned 30 yesterday, and thought I'd capture the event with a fun and inspirational blog post.
These might be things I've learned as a child, a teen, or in my 20s. I might have learned them in family life, or by living alone, in married life, or by living overseas. But one thing is sure: they're all things I've learned for myself in the past 30 years of my life!

1. Books are magical and once you open one, anything is possible.
2. If you're craving chocolate, don't hesitate to buy a few quality ones. You'll be satisfied much sooner with much less than if you'd bought an equal amount of cheap chocolate, and you'll feel much better, too.
3. Hymns are precious. Sing them often. Savour their words and hide them in your heart.
4. Once you learn what makes you happy in life, invest in those things and don't worry about all the rest, the ones other people think will make you happy.
5. Love people and places, and don't worry about the fact that, in so loving them, your heart may eventually be broken. It is always worth it. Especially if those you spent time loving are children.
6. 10+ years is too long to live as a foreigner.
7. Be open and willing to try new things. But, once you've tried something once and know it's not for you, don't be afraid to say so and stick to your own thoughts and ideals if people try to convince you against your will.
   (This goes for everything from food to organizational methods and everything in between.)
8. Travel. Near and far. Fancy or budget. In car, plane, boat, train, bus, subway, RV. It doesn't matter how or where. Just go. And take your kids with you often. It will be the best education you could ever give them.
   (If you travel in a foreign country, try to use the local language and currency as much as possible, and please research local customs and cultural practices ahead of time and do your best to respect them.)
9. Find a favourite Bible verse, or chapter, or book of the Bible, or Bible character, or all of the above, or some of all of the above. Reminding yourself of your favourite verse or Bible story when you need to hear it is invaluable.
10. Learn your love language and tell others around you what it is. And learn theirs, too. The best gift you can give someone is a gift in their own love language.
11. Always choose quality over quantity. (Thanks for teaching me this, Mum!)
12. Always bring a book with you on errands or pretty much whenever you leave the house. It will save you from boredom time and time again. (This is for any kid readers out there, although I've found it to be very true in adult life as well.)
13. Stop using the word "bored" or any derivative of it. If you're bored, find something to do that will keep you from feeling that way. (Thanks Mum and Gram for teaching me this!)
14. Such a joy and freedom comes from ceasing to watch TV or follow the news. Life becomes so much sweeter and worries fade away.
15. Learn an instrument. Any one will do. Learn a bunch if you want. And learn how to read music. It is a skill that you will use for the rest of your life.
16. Camp. Camp in all kinds of places. In absolute wildernesses and in your backyard. Take your kids. Teach them how to be self-sufficient in the wild. And for goodness sake, teach them how to make a fire!
17. Stop using the word "busy" or any derivative of it. If you're so busy that you feel the need to tell people about that fact all the time, it probably means you need to slow down a bit...
18. Keep all facets of your life organized. It will be so much sweeter and more joyful if you do.
19. Listen to the advice of those you love and trust. They only want what's best for you, and often times they know a good deal more than you.
20. Find a mentor. It could be a family member, someone from your church, a teacher, a neighbour, or someone from a club or group you attend. It's never a bad idea to have more trusted adults in your life to talk things over with.
21. Spend as much time as you need to choose your future profession. Research careers, do tons of job shadowing, spend a year or two at the start of college doing generals within a lot of different majors. You will not be wasting your time, but rather using it very wisely.
22. Never hesitate to pause for a good picture. The memories it will bring are precious. But don't get so hung up on taking photos that you forget to enjoy the moment in real life as well.
23. Sing as a family. Sing melody all in unison. Sing in harmonies. Just sing. Hymns, praise songs, kids songs, silly songs, learning songs, pop songs, songs in other languages. Doesn't matter what kind, when or where. Just sing.
24. Read as a family. Read a lot. And listen to audiobooks on long car rides and road trips. The memories from reading and hearing those books will last a lifetime. (I highly recommend the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. Hours of quotable quotes and great stories that truly tap into what it's really like to be a kid! The audiobooks recorded by Stockard Channing are amazing.)
25. Keep some kind of record of your life. Use a diary, journal, blog, photos, a combination or anything else. These records are so precious to look back on months and years later.
26. Spend time every once in awhile being creative. There are so many different outlets, so many ways to show creativity. Choose one, embrace it, let it embrace you. Move on to another if that one isn't working. Or choose a few methods if you need more than one way to express yourself.
27. Take time to explore in the woods, play in the rain, stomp in the puddles, build in the sand, swim in the water, climb up the trees, make tracks in the snow, hike up the mountains, and just be out in nature. Time spent this way is never wasted.
28. Make time for God. It can look completely different for different people, but take some time every day for communion with Him.
29. Build a community. Get to know those who live near you, who go to your school, who attend your church, or who you meet in any other way. Connecting with others is always beneficial.
30. Love your life and live it as fully as possible!

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Now it's your turn. What are some things you've learned along your life journey so far? I'd love to hear from you and glean nuggets of wisdom from your experiences!

*Idea from this post on Making Room

My wish...

Today marks one year since my Grandma took her last breath and went to sleep until Jesus comes. In some ways it has seemed like a long year, but in other ways it has really flown by.

If I could have one wish, it wouldn't be to have the opportunity to tell Grandma I loved her more often or to have spent more time with her or anything like that. She knew how much I loved her, and I knew how much she loved me. We repeated that to each other over and over again whenever we talked during the last few months and weeks before she died. Also, we probably spent more time together than most grandmothers and granddaughters do. I grew up only a few streets from her house. It was my second home during my childhood and teen years, and I always visited her and my Grandpa every time I was able to be back in my hometown. I had nearly 29 years of her in my life, which is more than many can say.

No, the thing I would wish for is that I could have had the privilege of being able to tell my Grandma that I am pregnant. Or even better, that I could have been able to see her hold and love my child. That I could have had one of those generation photos taken with her, my Mum, me, and my baby all together. That my children could have met her, gotten to know her, love her, and be loved by her.

I don't have that chance anymore, at least not in this world. But I absolutely cannot wait to find her again at the second coming and introduce my kids to her, to enjoy the prospect of them getting to know each other for all of eternity.

"Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. 22:20b)

Reading material

We have some new reading material.

Now we've definitely got our work cut out for us! :)

Ice bucket

This is a kiddie pool.

My two young charges and I have soaked ourselves in this pool at least once a week for most of the summer.

By soaked I mean, a 1-year-old vigorously splashing hands and feet in excitement (or sometimes frustration, when he got too cold) and chucking water toys all over the place, and a six-year-old slipping down the small slide to create waves, spraying me with water guns (yes plural, a small and a large), and dumping buckets of water over my head.

And did I mention that with only one exception, each time we went out to use the pool it needed to be filled up. You see that hose in the photo below? We used that to fill the pool. Guess how warm the water coming out of there was? Cold, you think? Try ice cold.

Yeah, pretty sure I've already fulfilled the challenge... Beat you to it, Jodi!
:D

Oh, and by the way, we had a blast!

*Pool in photos is upside-down and empty because I didn't take a picture of it other weeks (remember all that splashing?)
and this week it was emptied in preparation for the beginning of school and autumn.

____________________________________

Details: I was nominated by a friend. I am not officially nominating anyone else by name, but if you, dear reader, have not done the challenge yet and would like to be involved with cold water in some way, please do so with gusto and much creativity! (More info here.)

FYI - I do understand what the challenge is all about. I do think it is a worthy cause. I don't, however, believe in peer pressure, in relationships, society, or social media. For the record, I did not do the real challenge and I don't intend to (dunking in a pool of cold water multiple times a summer is more than sufficient :) ). I did not donate any money at this time, although when my husband and I are actually bringing in money rather than pouring it out to schooling, we may do so. We also may donate to other organizations instead that are dear to our hearts. Who knows, we may donate to both. In any case, if or when we do, it will be after much research has been done, and we probably won't let you know about it. Just thought you should know the truth about the details of my "doing" the challenge.

Five Minute Friday: Change

Change is hard for most humans, although moreso for some than others. I am part of those who have a harder time with change. Curiously, I have a harder time with small changes (setting up and sticking with a new routine, or trying out a new way to do something that I've always done differently, for example) than with larger ones (such as moving to another country for months, or making a big life change like getting married).

Within a few months, Jonathan and I will be in the midst of a change. He is set to finish his master's degree in December and we will most likely be moving to wherever he gets a job. This coming change is already affecting me mentally. Although I am glad he will be finished his schooling and moving into a new chapter of his life (and he is probably much more excited about it than I am!), I'm apprehensive about picking up our lives here in Maine where I'm finally becoming fairly comfortable and moving to a new place where we'll have to start all over again in finding a place to live, a new church family, new friends, new favourite places to explore, etc.

Change can be rather daunting (especially for an extreme introvert like me), but I must continually remind myself that change in life is good. Change keeps us from growing stagnant and set in our ways, change can invigorate us and help us to see things in a new light, and change can rekindle our lives spiritually as we learn to let God lead us to go where He wants us to go and to do what He wants us to do. And that is what I'm going to focus on for the next few months as we get closer to another big life change.

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My musings on the prompt 'change' for Five Minute Friday. Join in next week if you feel inspired!

Unfair

Today I learned that my Grandma's health is deteriorating. I went home to BC in November and was able to spend quality time with her, but even though I saw her then, after a lung cancer diagnosis and a stroke, it still comes as a shock to hear that she isn't doing well.

Gram and I at my cousin's wedding in 2011

Today I also learned that a child I knew, a child I held and hugged, a little girl with beautiful bright eyes and a huge joyful smile, died in a tragic motorcycle accident. Rahma was six or seven years old and had a loving and caring foster mother and a foster sister and brother. All three children used to live at Cradle of Love Baby Home, where I volunteered in Tanzania in 2010-2011. Their mother is the nurse at the baby home. And my heart just breaks for her and her family, and their devastating loss.

Rahma playing at Cradle before bed in Oct. 2010

Today I realize anew how unfair life is, and I long for heaven more than ever.

Today Christmas means so much more to me. In just a few days we will celebrate the birth of the King who destroyed evil's grip on this world, and who will one day return here to bring an end, forever, to pain and suffering.

And today I am grateful for His gift, and that I can trust Him in all things.

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Rahma, you will be missed by many. Rest in peace now until that day to come when He will wake you again.

Grandma, my thoughts and prayers are with you every second. I love you so much!

Five Minute Friday: In Between

In between. Like the PB&J in a sandwich or the blueberry filling in a pie. I'm stuck in the middle right now. Last June I had a job I loved. Then my time overseas ended and I came back to North America, but couldn't work while I waited for my green card. After months of sitting around trying to fill my time with small jobs for relatives, I finally got my green card at the end of April. But I'm still sandwiched between those two pieces of bread, the bottom crust and the top. With five weddings, and two small family reunions on both sides of my husband's family this spring and summer, there's been a lot of time spent traveling and not enough time staying in one place to start working in earnest.

But, I keep reminding myself, it's the in between times that, really, are the sweetest. What would a sandwich be without the spreads? Who would eat a pie without filling? I've been in between this year, but my life has been full of new experiences and exciting discoveries. Traveling in South Korea and Vietnam last summer. Driving a truck and trailer filled with my earthly possessions from BC to Maine. Moving our things into our first North American apartment together. Christmas at home in snowy BC for the first time in three years. Another cross-continent drive to bring my car east in January. Jonathan introducing me to new parts of Maine, and both of us exploring the area we now live in together. It hasn't been normal, but it has been memorable.

I'm ready to settle down into our life here now, come fall and the return of a less-hectic schedule. And I'm ready to have a job again, to have a routine to follow. This past in-between year has been crazy, but one thing I can say about it is that it's definitely been interesting. Normal and routine are good, but sometimes it takes chaotic and in-between to appreciate the more mundane parts of life.

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My musings on the prompt 'in between' for Five Minute Friday. Join in next week if you feel inspired!

Electrical pole fire in our back woods

On Monday of last week (April 22, 2013) Jonathan and I heard a helicopter flying near our house in the mid-afternoon. We occasionally hear small airplanes flying overhead after taking off from the tiny airstrip in Old Town, but this helicopter sounded a lot closer than those airplanes do. Suddenly it was right above our house, sounding like it might want to land right on top of us. I raced to our bedroom window and watched as a white and green helicopter circled our back field several times before landing near the woods. Then red shapes and bright lights over to the right of the small bit of woods that separate our landlady's land from the neighbours drew my attention. Fire trucks with their lights on. A streak of flame flared up in the woods and I yelled out, "Jonathan, there's a fire!" My excitement was not over the fact that the fire could potentially burn its way over to our hours, but rather that this was a prime picture-taking opportunity and we had a large helicopter in our back field. "Grab your camera! Let's go outside," I shouted, as I scooped up my small camera and ran for the door.

Outside I found a bush fire truck in our driveway and firefighters in yellow jackets methodically gathering supplies. Jonathan and I hurried around to the back of the house, and found our landlady's daughter, Patty, talking to a man. She introduced us to him and we found out he was our neighbour living to the left of the field. Then she filled us in on the fire. "I was washing dishes when I looked out the window and saw flames shooting up toward the sky. I called 911, but they weren't very helpful. They asked me all kinds of questions that didn't seem very pertinent to my reporting a fire. Can you believe they asked for my address, and when I gave them my mother's address here, they said they wanted my personal address, in New Hampshire?" Patty went on to tell us that after her call to 911, she called the neighbour and told him about the fire. His nephew is a volunteer firefighter in the town and he alerted the fire department to the fire. Patty and the neighbour then told us the flames were from an electrical pole that was burning.

Jonathan walked out in the field, but out of the way of the firefighters who had headed that direction, to see if he could take some pictures of the pole. Then another neighbour, Ken, the man who does odd jobs for our landlady, and another man drove up on some quads and asked Jonathan if he wanted to see the pole from a better angle, over by the house it was nearest, where three or four more fire trucks were congregated. Jonathan hopped on the back of Ken's quad and they raced away to the action. I found a place to sit down where I could see both the flames and the helicopter. The firefighters that had headed across the field had brought a water bucket out to the helicopter, and soon it rose back into the air again. I have a love of all things that fly, and I was thrilled to get a personal viewing of aerial firefighting. The helicopter headed off for the river, and returned a few minutes later with a bucket-full of water, which it dropped in the woods around the electrical pole (obviously not actually on the pole, though). Back and forth it went between the river and the woods, bringing buckets of water with it to ensure the fire didn't spread to the woods surrounding the pole. I sat in the dry grass of the field staring at the sky in awe as the helicopter appeared each trips and circled overhead. Far too soon the action was over, the flames on the pole went out (Jonathan later told me that the wind eventually blew the flames out), and the helicopter landed in the field again to return the bucket. I watched as the helicopter soared back into the air, circled around the woods several more times, making sure there were no errant flames, then left the scene. The excitement (especially watching the helicopter) was the highlight of the day, and actually of the entire week!

Helicopter landing to add on the water bucket (right after this shot I rushed from our bedroom to outside the house)

Firefighters heading out to the helicopter and to check the woods for traveling flames

Jonathan following to take pictures

Bush fire truck in our driveway

Jonathan talking to some of our neighbours

Hitching a ride to the real action

Another fire truck arrives

Helicopter making its first pass over the woods with the water bucket

Another trip with a full bucket

Dousing the woods

I caught a video of the helicopter on one of its trips back with water

I stole a few pictures from Jonathan, so I could share his perspective from the other side of the woods, too.

Fire trucks at the neighbours' house (Photo by Jonathan)

Pole aflame (Photo by Jonathan)

The effects of the fire after the wind finally blew it out (Photo by Jonathan)

Time at home

My mum and I had the most fun keeping my real intent for what I was going to do after my immigration interview a secret! Jonathan dropped me off at the Montreal airport in the afternoon after my interview. I flew home to Kelowna, BC and got in late that night. The next afternoon, March 12, after going with my mum on a few errands, we stopped at my grandparents' condo and I rang the doorbell. No one answered, so I knocked on the door. "Boom-boom-boom," called a voice around the corner. My grandpa! I jumped out of the door's alcove and rushed to him, my arms outstretched. His mouth fell open in shock. He had thought it was just my mum, knocking on the door for some reason, instead of just knocking once and going inside like she usually does.

Surprising Gramps! (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

Just as I was hugging Grandpa, the front door opened and my grandma said, "What's going on out here?" I leapt back to the door and squeezed her in a hug while shouting, "Surprise!" Her eyes almost popped out of her head.

Hugging Gram! (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

It was such a fun surprise and I was so happy that they hadn't gotten wind of it ahead of time!

Being in Kelowna with my parents, grandparents and younger sister for three weeks was just amazing! I had so much fun being back "home" for a few weeks. We spent time playing games together, eating great food, and doing lots of talking. I also got to help my sister, Bryn, do some wedding planning and the two of us and our mum spent two evenings at a wedding dress shop. Bryn tried on wedding dresses and I tried on bridesmaid dresses (sorry, no pics of that yet... :). I had so much fun getting to be involved a bit in her planning!

But it wasn't just a vacation, it was a working vacation. I spent a lot of my time helping my parents to do a bit of clean-up and organization in the house, something I've wanted to help them with for a couple years. We didn't completely reorganize the whole house, but we did make some good changes. Sometimes it's the small changes that you stick to that make the most difference.

All to soon my time in Kelowna was coming to a close. I want to post more about some specific things I did while I was there in the near future, but for now I'll just say that I had a wonderful time at home with family, but coming back to Maine was great, too. I missed Jonathan while I was away and it was good to be back. In the afternoon on March 25 I picked up my passport with my US resident visa stamped in it and all the paperwork that I would need to submit when I crossed the border. Jonathan and I decided on my return ticket, booked it, and figured out the logistics of him coming to pick me up. And now I'm back. And it's good to be back.

But wherever I live here on earth, there will always be that pesky business of missing people. When I'm in Maine with Jonathan, I miss my parents and relatives in BC. I miss my friends living all around the world. I miss the beautiful places I've seen and grown to love in my travels. But I am learning, ever so slowly, that no matter where I am or who I'm missing, I can be happy with the life that I have right now. That is the key and that's what I'm going to work on throughout the rest of this year. Being happy and content right where I am.

Immigration Interview

Phew, it's done!!! I completed my immigration interview and my visa was approved! So much has happened since my last post. Last Monday Jonathan and I drove up to Montreal. The next afternoon we walked to the building where I had my medical exam. For the two-and-a-half hours that I was in the office, most of that time was spent sitting in the waiting room. The exam was much less scary than I thought it would be (quite a bit less intense than the medical exam Jonathan and I had to have when we first got to Korea). I just had to do a quick visit with the doctor, get chest x-rays, and see the nurse, which included getting weighed, measured, having a quick eye exam, getting a blood test, and getting a flu shot (required for all people immigrating into the U.S. apparently). All of those things could have been done in about 45 minutes, but I had to go back to the waiting area between each thing. Finally I was allowed to leave, though, and it was quite relieving to have that all over with, especially the blood test.

That evening we drove to Ottawa and stayed with my older sister, Becky, who lives there. We had a great time visiting with her and seeing some things in Ottawa that we hadn't seen before, including going to a maple syrup farm! Fun! Friday the three of us zipped back to Montreal to pick up my medical results and do a bit of tourist stuff (a whole story in itself - we had quite a crazy day!) before coming back to Ottawa for the weekend. Sunday Jonathan and I drove back to Montreal and that evening I did just a little bit of freaking out about my interview. I spent about an hour looking through all the papers that I had printed out to bring to the interview with me, and reading the interview advice on the U.S. immigration website. Finally I went to bed and dreamed some pretty crazy dreams.

Monday morning we were up bright and early, checked out of our hotel, took our stuff to leave in our car in underground parking, and walked to the U.S. consulate. Jonathan had to wait outside since he had a backpack (a no-no to bring inside the building, even though I saw quite a few ladies with large purses and diaper bags once inside...). Jonathan found a warm lobby to sit in across the street, and I went inside the building. Guess what I did for most of the two-and-a-half hours I was inside the consulate? Yep, that's right, sit and wait. When my number was called, I went to a booth and gave the lady the papers she asked for (not nearly as many as I was told to print out and bring). Then I sat and waited for more than an hour before my number was called again for the interview. The lady I talked to there asked me only a few questions (where Jonathan lived, what he did, his major, how we met, and when our wedding was). Then after typing for a couple minutes and handing me back my original birth certificate and our original marriage certificate, she told me my visa was approved and I was free to go. Wow, I was so surprised that that was all there was to the interview! Happily I left to join Jonathan outside.

We did a quick walking-tour of Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal) and the Vieux Port (Old Port) area before heading back to our car and leaving downtown. Jonathan dropped me off at the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport and we said goodbye until I get my passport back with my U.S. visa stamped in it. I'm now waiting in the airport for my flight west to BC to visit my family for a few weeks. All in all, everything worked out great and I'm so happy it's over and we're nearing the end of this whole immigration process!

Final stages of the green card process

The day Jonathan and I have been waiting for since our papers got submitted in October 2011 has almost arrived. Tomorrow we'll be driving up to Montreal. On Tuesday I get my immigration medical exam done. Friday I can go pick up the results. And Monday, March 11 (the day after my sister's birthday - happy almost birthday, Bryn), I have my U.S. immigration interview.

Last Friday our lawyer called to go over last minute things and remind me to make sure to have all the papers I needed printed out or photocopied. She also gave me a mock interview and asked me about 30 or 40 possible questions. I found out that the real interview will probably last less than five minutes, I will only be asked 3-5 questions, and it will take place in a bank line-like setting (lots of people standing in line, waiting for the next available teller to be free). Wow, very different than what I was envisioning. I'm also very relived to know that I won't be in a room by myself with a scary immigration officer shouting all kinds of obscure questions at me (not like, say, the ending of The Proposal).

So with that knowledge, and the fact that I knew all the questions the lawyer asked me, I think I'll manage to get through the actual event. After the interview, all that will be left is to head home to BC for a couple weeks until my passport arrives by courier with the visa stamped in it. Then I'll fly back to the east, be reunited with Jonathan again (yay!), AND be able to move in my things that have been in storage at my mother's cousin's house since last August. Another few weeks or so after I re-enter the States and I should have my green card. Phew, I'll just be so glad when all of this is over!

Weekfull of awesome!

If you thought the big snowstorm of 2013 was the most interesting thing to happen to us this past week, you'd be wrong. A whole lot of other great things happened this week. Let me show you!

Monday
Both Jonathan's and my extended families do a Christmas name draw every year. I haven't known a Christmas without it, and I wouldn't change the tradition for anything in the world! When we got married, I was thrilled to find out Jonathan's family does it, too! This Christmas Jonathan's aunt and uncle sent us Amazon gift cards. Could there be a better gift for a young couple working to outfit their new apartment?? We were thrilled and knew we wanted to use them for things we needed for our apartment. We waited until most of the kitchen items we'd gotten for our wedding arrived, and then looked through our stash to see what we still needed. Below is what we got: a bamboo utensil holder, a bamboo flipper (to replace Jonathan's plastic one from college that was getting pretty floppy and useless), a can opener, a spice funnel, and a hand-crank paper shredder.

Our awesome Christmas presents!

I love them all, but guess which one I was most excited about?

Yep, the shredder, haha!

It's cute and little AND my arms get a bit of a work-out each time I use it!!

So then, what did I have to spend the rest of the day doing?? Why, going through papers from college and shredding those with too much personal info on them (like grade reports), of course!

How in the world did I get 100/100 on this French test when my essay had tons of corrections? 

Apparently drawing the Vancouver Olympic symbol was more important than
taking notes in World Religions... (as was writing notes to Jonathan)

The Recycle Pile at the end of the day

The shredded remains

Tuesday
So the big decision of my day was how to organize my office supply drawer. After we got the new utensil holder, we were going to give the plastic one Jonathan had from college (which was too small for our new silverware) to Goodwill. As I walked by it on Tuesday afternoon I had an idea that it could be repurposed into a office supply organizer, at least until I get the rest of my things. So before you know it I'd reorganized my drawer and loved the new look. Then I realized I hadn't taken a 'before' picture, and since I'm insane, I actually took a few 'after' pictures and then did another quick re-reorganize, putting all the things back the way I'd originally had them. The only problem was that I re-reorganized better than I had originally organized, and all the things fit into my drawer much better than they had at the start. So then I really had a dilemma: which option to choose? I just couldn't decide, so I left it up to my Facebook friends, haha. Most people voted for the silverware organizer, and I agreed that was the better choice anyway, since I was then left with the little white bins to organize the top drawer of my nightstand. Win-win, and now you get to see two pictures instead of one!

The reorganize (winner)

The re-reorganize (loser). Two of those little white bins are now in my nightstand
and the third is holding small cooking bottles in my kitchen cupboard.

Wednesday
Two awesome things happened:

1. A plumber/electrician from our church came over in the morning, and he and Jonathan worked together to fix our blocked-up washer drain. It took them two hours, but they finally got the blocked section cut out, then rigged up a new system with PVC pipes. Yay, we can do laundry here finally!! It is already a million times better than going to the laundromat. I am thrilled!
2. We finally found the perfect pantry cabinet!! For about a month we've been looking for a pantry cabinet to add more storage space to our kitchen. We even bought one from Lowe's, brought it all the way up the stairs, and opened the box before realizing that flimsy thing was not going to work for us. Back to Lowe's it went, and I started keeping an eye out for a cabinet on Craigslist. My vigilance finally paid off this week when I spotted a cabinet for sale right in a neighbouring town. We called and it was still there, so we hurried off to pick it up. Getting it into the house was a little bit challenging, but we managed (mostly Jonathan's doing, haha), and then we spent a good portion of the afternoon reorganizing our kitchen and putting all our nonperishable food into the cabinet so we could put more of our dishes in the other cupboards. Ahh, it feels great to have a kitchen space that is useful and comfortable for us!

Freshly-washed laundry air drying (our electric dryer isn't hooked up yet)

I love our new pantry cabinet!

Thursday
Valentine's Day!! I love Valentine's Day (but I'll admit that I love every holiday - even Groundhog Day is special to me, haha)! But, that's enough for now, so more on that tomorrow! :)

Snowstorm of 2013

We survived the big, bad snowstorm of 2013! Up here in mid-Maine the snow started coming down on Friday night and didn't stop until sometime Saturday night. Church was cancelled for us on Saturday, but our collegiate Sabbath School class decided to have our lesson study via teleconference. I was scheduled to teach, and while teaching a lesson over a conference telephone call is not the easiest thing in the world, we made it through and I think all the main points got across. After we said goodbye to our class members, Jonathan and I read some in Patriarchs and Prophets and mostly just had a nice relaxing day watching the snow come down.

Snow drift against our door

Our snowy driveway and yard

In the afternoon we donned warm clothes and headed outside where I made a snow angel (that got ruined as soon as I tried to stand up) and we walked down our road and took a peek at the main road nearby. While the temperature wasn't all that chilly, there were large gusts of wind that made it seem a lot colder than the thermometer read. After our short little walk, I was quite cold, so when Jonathan said he wanted to drive his van around a little bit to make sure it was still running well, I happily hopped in after the bit of snow at the front was shoveled away. We had seen several other cars driving around already, so we knew that if we got into any big trouble, there'd be people around to help us. We had no problems, though, as the roads were all plowed and cleared off. We drove around and explored the nearby Indian Island, home of the Penobscot Nation of native Americans. It was interesting and I'd like to bike around the island sometime when there's less snow on the ground. Once back inside we warmed up with hot chocolate and spent a cozy evening in our snug little apartment.

On Sunday we again ventured outside, and this time we were greeted with dazzling sunshine and a crisp blue sky! Jonathan brought out our snowshoes, taught me how to put them on, and we were off into the drifts. I'd never snowshoed before, but I found very quickly that it's not a hard skill to learn. I had a lot of fun and it was great to finally adventure around the property behind our house.

Small and big in fresh new snow

Jonathan breaking the trail

Me realizing that breaking a trail is hard work...

"Lazy Ali will you get up, will you get up, will you get up..."

After blazing new trails and exploring the fields and woods behind our house, we went around to the front of the house and started a snow fort in the giant plowed-up pile of snow next to the driveway.

Digging out a cave

Not exactly the kind of look-out hole we had planned...

The real look-out hole

Scared Jonathan

Help me get out!

Safe again

Ta-da! Presenting our snow fort!

We live in the top floor (minus the top-front section) of this old farm house

We had a wonderful  snow-filled weekend and we can't wait for the next good snowfall to grace our area!