Summer Ministry

 Randy Raccoon & Jr. Explorer take part in the wilderness adventure.

It's hard to believe the CEF Ontario summer wrapped up on Saturday! It was a whirlwind of a summer as usual, but especially since I had to handle the summer ministry on my own, since David is furiously working to finish up the house by August 30 (besides getting it to the livable point by August 1)...so his main time was devoted to camp.

We had some wonderful summer missionaries. What a joy to get to know them and work with them. I already miss them! Marian even came all the way from Syracuse, NY...yay for a fellow American! Welcome Home was on Saturday and she started school today (college no less)! What a brave girl! Shailynn & Marian worked really well together and even still liked each other after being together non stop for 6 weeks. Their longest trip was from Sault Ste Marie to Peterborough...15 hours of travel via buses and cars.

"Saul" came to visit on his way to Damascus

Mom & Dad working hard

 My parents came to visit for a week...We now have the upper cupboards up in our kitchen, the bottom ones were moved into place after this picture. Mom wiped them all down for us, along with washing our dishes at the apartment and packing boxes for us. She also came along with me to several of the clubs that I was visiting. It didn't seem like it'd been 2 1/2 years since they'd been here! It was fun to show them our house and the progress, since they hadn't seen any of it in person.

 Dad and David spent many hours working at the house. They were able to get so many things off of our "to-do before move-in" list. I think we tired dad out a bit as he tried to keep up with David. He did a great job at working long days, though. They installed our bedroom door, now there's just two more doors (besides closets) left for David along with the odds and ends of other things.

We took mom and dad to experience Canadian culture...eating poutine from a chip truck. We confused them a bit because we went to a "chip truck" that's not really a truck, unlike most of them around here. Dad didn't seem convinced that gravy on fries with cheese is scrumptious...poor American.

My Friend Heather

Please pray for my friend Heather. She has been in the hospital since Monday and they still don't know what's wrong...besides that she can't walk because of numbness in her limbs and pain that comes and goes. Her husband has been so attentive and caring to her, staying by her side constantly but it's a hard time for both of them. Please join us in praying for healing for her and wisdom for the doctors to find out what's wrong and how to help her.

Moving on to June

 Expressing my American patriotism for Memorial Day.

 We had expected to come home from our time away to finished drywall. However, we had to wait one more week until the guy was done. He did do a great job, though. Immediately after he left, we started painting. I had to take my pictures quickly before the mud look was covered.

 The rooms start to look like real rooms when the drywall is complete. We were able to finish painting by the end of the week (June 10). Thanks to Les our small group leader for helping us for a morning just days before leaving for Germany.

 From painting we moved to flooring! This is David at work on our kitchen tile. We just have to finish grouting it now.

 I have never grouted in my life. In fact, I have never seen anyone grout...until Saturday that is. I have now learned how to grout and did our bathroom. =]

Our bedroom is painted and has a floor. The problem with all the floors is that they're all filled with stuff- cupboards, saws, etc. I can't wait to see them clean and with living stuff, not construction stuff. 

So before we move in we David for sure needs to:

• Install the kitchen cupboards & adapt them to our kitchen layout
• Install the vanity & bathroom
• Put up railings (for occupancy permit)
• Hang light fixtures (Vaughan said he would!!!)
• GET A WELL
• Hang doors in the rooms
• cover the electric cable ditch with concrete
• whatever else the inspector says

 We're planning to move in by the end of July now...that will leave until August 30 to:

• Finish the siding
• Do the trim
• Lots & Lots of other things that I'm sure will come up

Myrtle Beach

David and I had never been to the ocean together, so when we realized the CEF Conference would only be a few hours from the ocean...it was decided. It works out SO well that our anniversary, May 24th is Victoria Weekend in Canada Day= a vacation day for us but not everyone else. =] It was the best 3rd honeymoon ever!

 David found a crab on our first day.

 Isn't he cute?!

 Another day he found a jelly fish that he caught with his boogie board.

 This is a sandcastle made out of jelly beans! Crazy!

 On our anniversary we went jet skiing for an hour. It was SO fun...especially when I got to drive.

 This is what David's hair looked like after jet skiing. You can't even see his sun glasses.

Too bad I couldn't take this conch shell home with me...it wouldn't fit in our car. It was SO wonderful to get away for a few days and not have to talk about CEF or the house but remember how to have fun hanging out together. We even got to see our friends Nathan & Audrey and their little boy on our way home.

International Conference

 We were so blessed to be able to attend CEF's International Conference May 16-20 at Ridegcrest Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina. It was so neat meeting with people from Nigeria on the elevator, praying with people from around the world and being encouraged from God's Word.

 Every mealtime we tried to sit with "old friends". One meal some of the people from David's CMI class got together. After 4 years it was so neat to reconnect with people from Oregon, Iowa, Michigan, Chicago, Alabama...

 This is me with my two favorite District Directors...Beth from Iowa who I interned under for 6 months and Karen from Wisconsin who led the CYIA training I attended for several years. (Neither of them were district directors then...but others have now seen the gems these ladies are that. I was so blessed to be mentored by them!)

And Chelsey...the dear girl that was one of my teammates to Burkina Faso, Africa (5 years ago?!!). Chelsey's dream was to go to Burkina as a full time missionary and after years of waiting and preparing she is getting close to see that happen. She heads to language school in Senegal this fall...her last step before FINALLY getting to Burkina Faso! I am SOOOO excited for her and so encouraged by her perseverance.

ELECTRICITY

After months of running off of a generator and all the annoyances and expenses that brings, we were thrilled to finally get hooked up to Ontario Hydro....yahoo for electricity! I never thought that I'd have my very own power pole. Isn't that cool?

I had to make a record of our meter reading 000000 as it will never happen again! After David plugged in the first set of lights I ran out to see if it had changed...no. After he used some power tools I ran out to look...nope. "Maybe it's free, I thought!" Eventually the numbers did change, but we don't mind. 14 cents a Kilowatt hour is way cheaper than $30+ a day of gas for a generator! 

Isn't it amazing that with electricity you only have to pay for what you use rather than running a generator just for a few tools. Isn't it exciting that you can use a crockpot and power tools and lights because it won't trip the generator?! It's like a whole new world has been opened to us! We certainly live in a blessed nation.

Catching Up

My dear husband seems to be starting a habit of forgetting my things at the CEF Ontario office. Last time it was my laptop, this time it was my planner. Since I was without my laptop for several weeks, I was without most of my pictures so I was unable to do the posts I'd hoped to. So here are some "catch up" pictures.

 We have decided on our siding colour...since our first choice of red was 3 times more expensive simply for the colour we went with green.

 Aaron helped David pick-up and carry-in our new Kijiji kitchen.

The upstairs is drywalled!!

With the help of the drywall lift, David was able to do most of the drywalling himself. He finished at 2:15 pm, came home, took a shower and we loaded up everything in the car for being away for 16 days and left for CYIA Prep Weekend. We hired a guy to do the mud and taping while we were away. We hope he's done soon so we can start painting on Saturday!

We explored the Trans-Canada trail that is about a block from our house and discovered some really beautiful places including this lake! What a neat surprise!

Election Day

May 2, 2011 was declared federal election day in Canada 5 weeks ago. Being an American it still boggles my mind that an election can suddenly be called and then held 5 weeks later. It has definitely been the dominant news on the radio (except for the day of the Royal Wedding).

It seems strange to live in a country that I can't vote in the election. I was sent a voter registration card (twice even)...but alas, I can not honestly check the box saying I'm a Canadian Citizen. What's sad is that I'm told there is typically a very low voter rate when it comes to an election. Especially, when the election seems to only be called because Parliament was made up of a minority government and nobody can agree. The predictions for this election have swung quite considerably over the last few weeks to the point that they don't seem quite sure what's going to happen today. 

Another strange thing I find is that a person only votes for one party, rather than voting for individual people. When I first moved here I wondered how in the world a country could function that way with so little choice...yet it seems to work...imagine! Previously Stephen Harper was elected Prime Minister (Conservative and reported to attend an Alliance Church) working with a minority government. Ok, I just realized I wrote that as an American. All you Canadians can correct me but what I understand is that actually, Stephen Harper was not "elected" Prime Minister, the Conservative party won enough votes that their party leader would be Prime Minister, but still not enough to have a majority.

Adding to the list of things an American in Canada finds strange  is that there are supposedly five "main" parties: Conservative, Liberal, and NDP (new democrat party), the Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party (leader not shown in the picture). The first three seem to be the main ones in the running this time. How do you have three main parties rather than two? People don't seem to have a lot of party loyalty but can actually be swayed to vote for other parties.

"Lord, I thank you that you know the rise and fall of governments. We are reminded so clearly that our hope can not come from a political party but only comes from You. I pray that you will be gracious to Canada and allow people that will make wise decisions to be put into office and that there can be agreement. In Jesus Name, Amen."

Insulation Mania

 We were so thrilled that the wiring is all finished and we passed the electrical inspection! Thanks to David's Dad and friend Vaughan!!! It was close. The guys had planned to come on Saturday April 16th to finish everything (officially this time, after three other full days of driving up and working) but amazingly their schedules worked better to change andcome on Friday, April 15. Just in case you ever wondered, the electrical inspector (somebody different than all the other inspectors) only comes to Muskoka on Fridays. Last Friday was Good Friday so we would have been waiting two weeks for an inspection and stuck without being able to move on. The inspector showed up just as David's dad was hooking up the meter base so David gave the inspector a tour of the house and everything was done just in time, a little close, but just in time! We are SO thankful for their help! They did a fantastic job! (Notice all the pretty electrical boxes that have been taped around.)

 Our life as progressed to insulation. I've actually enjoyed insulation (as long as you wear long sleeves and gloves).

 Tuck taping (the red tape) is even more fun than insulating.

Our whole upstairs is now insulated and has vapour barrier! The downstairs will hopefully be finished tomorrow.

These bags of insulation are no longer there. They have been expanded to 17x themselves and blown into the attic. Our ceiling looks like it's full of cotton candy. (You're jealous aren't you Stacy. =])