Lifehouse Skit

I just stumbled across this great little skit on YouTube, done to Lifehouse's "Everything". Maybe it was just because I love the song so much, or maybe I can just totally relate with the spiritual struggle, but the video made me cry!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA
The beginning is a little cheesy, so bear with it a while.

-Sharon

No More Trees...

Our trees were cut down last week, and we spent the weekend hauling the branches away in our new little utility trailer. Isn't it cute?Perfect size to tow with our little car :)

Anyways, here's the before:

And the after:

And while it seems sad to cut down perfectly not-dead trees, they were very close to the house. We have so much more light now! It was kind of like living in a forest before, and they lost TONS of needles in our gutters and all over our yard...I picked them up right before it snowed in the winter, and I took out FOUR wheelbarrows full of needles this spring! Cutting them down was also integral to our plan for our yard. You see how there is a large slope on the left side of the house? Most of it is coming out (it is really a pile of dirt between our house and the neighbors) and what can't come out will be held up by a retaining wall. This is for two reasons: 1) The hill is slowly eroding and falling down more each year, sending large amounts of water to puddle around our foundation and 2) we will gain a side yard about 15 feet wide that we might be able to use as a driveway. Our current driveway is coming out, we hate how it takes up the whole yard.

An excavation company is coming next week to level our whole yard out, so there will be even more changes to come soon.

And spring is here! My lilacs are blooming:

And there are even some tulips the previous owner managed not to kill:

And just because she's so cute, here's a picture of my dog Pepper with a new toy we bought her (which is a neon pink monkey that left neon pink fluff all over my living room):

Best Way to London?

Now Playing: Shrek Soundtrack

Take 60 seconds to do this, it's great.

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type "London" in the second box (the "to" box)
6. click on "get directions"
7. scroll down to step #24

Hehe.

Good things on the horizon...

Now Playing: "Paralyzed", Finger Eleven
Well, after months of searching, Frank has a job! It is only a 5 month paternity leave, but it's a job! He will be working for the city as a computer tech, very similar to my job. And while it's only 5 months, there are a lot of technical jobs at the city - maybe something permanent will come up while he is working there. What an answer to our prayers!

Life is chugging along...we have a dumpster in our yard again (what a familiar sight!) and we will be spending the long weekend getting rid of all the junk in our yard, ripping down what's left of our deck, and possibly pulling the crummy siding off our garage.

My sister is graduating from the Art Institute of Vancouver this month, I'm so proud of her. She does special effects on movies and the like. Her first job was working on the TV show "Fallen" which is coming out soon, I think. That job is ending soon, and she will then be working on Doctor Doolittle 4 & 5. I didn't even know they made #3! Hehe. Nothing like direct to DVD movies. Frank & I can't make it to her grad, but she is coming back to town soon, so we'll see her then.

Due to Frank getting his job yesterday, we went out and bought a Wii (that was the deal - if he got a job, he could have a Wii...). It's really fun! We only have Wii Sports right now, but it's cool. I'm pretty good at bowling, but I suck at putting in the golf game. I'll have to figure that out. We were lucky - we looked all over town for a Wii, and finally at Wal-mart we walked in, and there were 2 people ahead of us, and the clerk asked if we wanted one too! I guess they received a shipment of 15 Wiis at 2:30pm that day, when we got there it was 5:00 and there were only 4 left! And I made a Mii that looks just like Frank. Hehe.

I was introduced to facebook last week. It's online friend-finder sort of thing. I had originally not thought anything of it, because there are a million of those types of services online and I don't have time for all that. But, facebook is cool. And I couldn't believe how many people were on there! So many people. It's fun to catch up on what people are doing that you haven't seen in a long time.

And in other news, Jane is coming back to Canada! Yay for you, Jane! Give us a call when you're in town :)

Woo Hoo...

Now Playing: Dixie Chicks, "Fly"

...we finished the floors upstairs, so it is liveable! Yay. We unpacked about a million more boxes:

And now we have an office:

And a guest room:

But, all is not perfect. We have another guest room, but the floor in there is still not finished. There are no baseboards or trim around the windows, and our upstairs bathroom looks like this:

Yup, all is not well.
But my dining room has beautiful panelling:

..and I received lovely flowers for Valentines Day :)
And I'm currently painting the kitchen island so that it doesn't look really weird anymore:

...everyone always looked at the island weird when they came over, and asked if it was supposed to be like that! It used to have a huge gap in the middle where the 2 cupboards met, so we finally got around to putting in electrical plugins and panelled the sides. It still needs toe kicks, as does the rest of the kitchen. We'll be working on this place for a long while yet :)

Still Renovating...

Now Playing: Jars of Clay, "Good Monsters"

We're still renovating, but our house is starting to feel a lot like our home! We're currently refinishing the floors upstairs, they will be varnished by the weekend and then we can start moving the rest of the stuff from the basement up there! Plus, we're getting a couch donated to us this week, so our living room won't be quite so sparse.

Frank is still looking for work, but had 3 excellent leads this week...we'll see how they pan out.

We just found out that we're going to be an aunt and uncle again! Patty is pregnant, and due in September.

A new Lost is on tonight. I am really loving the new episodes. I was worried for a bit, the show was getting kind of stagnant, but it's really picking back up again. We also have recently given in and purchased digital cable and a PVR. It's really great getting to watch what you want whever you want. It's nothing like regular old cable.

We took an excellent course through our church on the weekend: the Good $ense Budget Course. It really opened up our eyes to how to manage our money. We are going to start paying a lot stricter attention to where our money goes, and how much we put aside for the future. What I really loved about the course was it's no-nonsense approach to consumerism: if you don't need it, don't buy it. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. I was shocked by the statistics they quoted on consumer debt, and the public perception that credit card debt is unavoidable. Anyways, we highly recommend it.

Blast From the Past...

Now Playing: Switchfoot, "Oh Gravity"

Buy this CD! It's awesome. It came out the day after Christmas, and I looked everywhere for it after we came back from Mexico. I finally found a copy at London Drugs. Anyways, it's really good, a little heavier music & lyrics than their previous stuff, but still fun...

Wow, I was flipping through a bunch of old photos - it was fun! Want to see some?

Frank & I, in June 2003. Time sure flies...

And on our honeymoon, Sept. 2004...My friend Mary and I (and my dog!) in 2003 (this was before Frank & I were dating)...Our engagement photo, March 2004...

And if you want to go REALLY far back, here's me as a baby...

My sister and I (to be honest, I have no idea which one it is) in 1987 or '88...

If I had any photos on this computer of Frank as a baby, I'd show them to you in a flash, but I don't, sorry.
And here's one of my grad class in 2001. I'm front and center (don't ask how that happened) in the navy blue dress...

I love Picasa, it digs up all these old photos I'd forgotten about!

Some Work Laughs...

Now Playing: Jet, "Shine On"

I've added our Mexico photos to the sidebar - enjoy :)

I love Dilbert.

Playing Catch-up...

Now Playing: Jack Johnson, "In Between Dreams"

Well, I feel bad about how few house pictures there are on here. I mean, in the last picture all you can see is studs! So here's a brief cronological view of the kitchen/dining room:

September 27th

October 9th

October 14th

October 16th

November 11th

November 13th

December 2nd

December 17th

Here's a couple more of the rest of the house, in it's current state:

As you can see, the floors upstairs haven't been refinished yet. There's still a lot more work to be done...but Frank is home now (he quit his job - did I put that in here?), so hopefully lots will get done.

I also added some pictures of Yori & Patti's wedding in the "2006 Weddings" link under Photos on the right ->

Photos of our Mexico trip to come :)