4th of July

Fruit kabobs to celebrate the 4th of July! These went like hotcakes at the BBQ we attended! And, they looked very similar to the picture I followed. Double win for me!

Anniversary camping trip

Husband and I recently celebrated our sixth anniversary. We decided to go camping to celebrate the occasion. We camped in the Blue Ridge Mountains and had a wonderful time. The weather was absolutely perfect for camping. The setting was beautiful. We went on hikes. We visited an old homestead/farm. We read a lot. We relaxed.  Best of all, we had no cell phone reception so we were able to unplug for a couple of days and just enjoy being together without any distractions.

The Great Smoky Mountains

A couple of weeks ago, we headed down to Tennessee to spend a couple days in Gatlinburg and The Great Smoky Mountains. We had so much fun that as we were driving home, I was already planning our next trip down there! It is a beautiful park. We hiked to a couple of waterfalls. During one of our hikes, we saw a BEAR!! He was off the trail a bit, and seemed more interested in finding some food than the people walking by. The weather was perfect as well. We saw some ice on the rocks on the side of the road in some places, but no snow or ice anywhere else. As we drove back home, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset. It was a great ending to a great weekend.

Forecast gone wrong; very, very wrong.

Last night we went to bed knowing that we would wake up to a dusting of snow. The forecast called for light snow, followed by mid-morning rain. By 8am, we knew the forecast was wrong, but we had no idea how wrong it was. It snowed all day, finally ending around 5pm. When it was over, we had about 6 inches of snow. So much for the "dusting" they called for.

Taken about 11am. This is our front yard and the road.

Definitely more than a dusting!

The poor tulips! I hope they still bloom.

Ice and water on some tulip shoots.

Robins mean spring right? Not so much.

I cut these daffodils from our flower bed on Saturday. I like how they looked in front of the window with the snow falling outside.

Because it was spring snow, it was perfect for making a snowman!

Duck lips!

Ouch!

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The wood stove claimed me as its first victim this week. Thankfully, the burn isn't too bad. My arm BARELY brushed the stove and I got to cold water right away. It will probably leave a scar though, so I should come up with a cool story about how I got it. Any ideas? Oh, and don't worry, it won't happen again (I hope).

Little house on the prairie?

The house we moved into has a wood burning stove. We absolutely love it! It heats up the house quite well on the cold, cold nights, thereby cutting down our use of the heat pump. We often joke about hauling the wood to the fill the wood box, saying we are living like they did in Little House on the Prairie.Well, except for the fact that we have electricity and our bathroom is inside the house! A common refrain around our place is "I'll get the wood, and then I'll milk the cow and churn the butter." We have both become very proficient in building fires. That old boy and girl scout knowledge is coming in handy!

Husband doing the hard labour bringing wood in from the wood pile.

Feb. Catch up

One of my goals for this year was to post on this blog twice a month. Well, as you can see, I've already failed at that! I guess I shouldn't have such lofty and unachievable goals! Haha!

This month has been a busy one for us. Our biggest news is that we have moved to a different place within the same city. A retired couple in my church left this month for a 23 month mission in the Philippines. We are renting their house while they are gone. It has been an absolute blessing to us. We went from just over 800 sq. feet of space to just over 1900 sq feet. It is a beautiful home in a nice, quiet neighbourhood. We love it! Moving was a hassle (as always) but we had great help this time so everything was loaded and unloaded in less than an hour.

We also enjoyed a huge snow storm this month. One Wednesday it dumped 8 inches of snow in just over 18 hours. It was the most snow in this area in 4 years. We didn't get our street plowed until around midnight Friday morning! We were stuck at home for almost 36 hours. That was fine with us. We used the time to unpack and get settled in. We also took the opportunity to meet our new neighbours as we were all out shoveling together. I had 2 snow days off of work, plus it happened right before a long weekend, so I enjoyed an unexpected 5 day break from work. Can't complain about that!

 This is our road! Not much was getting through that snow.

 Husband shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled. Poor guy!

 Our snow covered backyard. 

This month also marked 7 years since Husband and I met and started dating. To celebrate the occasion, Husband sent me this gorgeous bouquet at work. It made my day!