Pictures

This post is somewhat in reverse chronological order so to get things straight, go to the bottom and scroll up....sorry I'm too lazy to move ALL the pictures!



If we had a crane and a few hundred lights, this could be one enormous and beautiful christmas tree - but we'll just leave it to its natural snow covered beauty.

The front yard, a little more currently - taken Dec. 20th, Temp about -27C with windchill -37C or so...snow falling and north-west wind blowing....ahh, Christmas in Manitoba!

Another view...from the doorway.

The North wall of the bedroom - the accent wall I guess you'd call it, it all actually turned out quite well, its the nicest master bedroom we've ever had, what with the ensuite and lighted walk in closet its almost like a luxury house!! :D

I even have a mirror and lots of light!! Yay - its finished. We still have to build/find a cupboard to put beside the sink and cover up the pipes, but I am just happy that it all works!

Some shelving installed, and holders for towels, TP, etc installed.

The bedroom, complete, painted and moved in!! Hurray! Don't mind the spots on the camera lense...I don't know what happened really...

Cootie - the cute and mysterious and often crazy house cat.

Er, one pipe short of being fully installed that is!

The bathroom - primed, painted, flooring down, trim down, fixtures installed, yay!

Yes, I do have a baby belly, though it is somewhat easily disguised...thanks (or no thanks) to the ample bosom...I have choose to make it show for pictures :P

"Oh No, I've lost sight of my fellow herdmates, I must rush around like an idiot and make a lot of noise until I locate them...." The hardship of being more then 100yards from another horse...

Good to see them out stretching their legs...there goes Guthrie, with Riata close behind...as the sun is setting...

I really do hate this horse...Apache...but he's almost graceful when he gets into a lope....almost...as close as a gangly, long necked thoroughbred can be...its a good thing he's pretty quiet, or his other qualities...like being a major jerk to the other horses would have made him a goner long ago.

Then they decided to kick up their heels a bit.

Munch, Munch, mmmm frozen grass...

Sneef and Trevor looking out over the ravine.

After hunting season we let the horses out into the pasture rather then keeping them in the corral - of course the first thing they did was clean up any grass that was still sticking out of the snow...This is Riata.

Notice who's working and guess who is snapping pictures, can you guess who wanted this bathroom more badly!

Self taught plastering....nobody look to close when you come to visit!

Work in progress, drywall on in the bathroom, but no plaster yet...

The bedroom during construction in the bathroom....disaster area!

Not the prettiest site on a dull fall day, this is the barnyard with the few years of manure build up that was left behind, now nicely piled thanks to Pinky... notice the row of horse feed along the fence, within forking distance, but hopefully beyond reaching for the long necked thoroughbred...

Looking from the north side of the house to the east towards the garage. Off the the left you can see the edge of the flower garden that is between the house and the vegetable garden (which is further north)

The north/west side of the house...not the prettiest angle...

Looking southwest from the north side of the house, the little white building is kind of a chicken coop and then there is the barn beyond.

Looking south towards the loose housing shed/barnyard from the sidewalk up to the front door.

The front of the house, before the snow fell.

This is the living room with our new-to-us livingroom set and a view of the yard through the window.

This is just a random picture of the house - I figured I'd put up some pictures of what it looks like with our stuff in it... This is the bathroom, looking through the laundry room from the kitchen door.

Trevor with his favorite big toy - changing the drainage paths on the yard before the ground froze. We're still trying to sell this piece of iron...if anyone wants to push some trees/dirt/snow, etc, I'll cut you a deal! She's completely rebuilt and ready to go!

OK, so to begin with, this is sort of a before picture of the area that we turned into an ensuite half bath in our new house - except when this picture was taken we'd already stripped up the flooring and dad had done his part of the magic. This is what the bathroom looked like when dad left...plumbing roughed in...Mid October

A Long Time Gone.....But, Not Forgotten...

You know its been a long time since you wrote on your blog when you have to go back and see when and what you last wrote about....man, almost 3 months since my last post!! I can't believe it, but its been a really busy three months! We moved into our new place on the 27th of September (I had to look that up on the calendar too - time really flies - I can't believe we've been here two months now!!) We spent the first few weeks in a flurry of activity - with winter being just around the corner there was much to do inside and out. The last owners had left us a corral and barn full of a few years worth of manure, so that was high on Trevor's list of things to get taken care of before freeze up, along with some dirt work in the yard (changing the slope and filling in a low spot), a bigger garage door on his shop (so Pinky would fit in) and generally getting all of our stuff settled in and ready for winter - moving the horses, getting the dog house set up, moving hay, etc etc. Inside, I was busy too - unpacking, trying to find a place for things, scheming about renovations, etc - not to mention work for both of us and our normal commitments.
Dad and Diane came to visit for a few days in October and helped immensely with the one major renovation project that we wanted to do - a bathroom upstairs. Dad ran the plumbing from the basement up to the bathroom including finding the proper route and cutting holes in the floor/ceiling all the way to the top of the house and the vent stack on the roof. He did the major part of the work and we've been very slow getting the rest done. We finished the plumbing except for connecting to the drain downstairs - which we will do once all the fixtures are in place. We did a little wiring, put up the drywall and plastered, currently the plaster is waiting for a final sanding. The primer is sitting patiently on the stairs and the paint is resting in the bedroom. The sink and toilet are counting their blessed days of rest and the linoleum is hiding in a roll beside the bedroom door....now we just need the time to put it all together!
Besides renovations, we spent a good part of two saturdays in Prenatal classes - which were good for both of us - a chance to learn and discuss things is always good. Baby and I are doing well. The little one kicks and I smile...most of the time, now and then it gets a little uncomfortable and for the last few days something has been pushing on my sciatic nerve which is very uncomfortable, hopefully my chiropractor appointment will help tomorrow!
We had a nice weekend relaxing together, Trevor and I that is, as my work christmas party was in Brandon last night. The company pays for hotel rooms for all of the out of towners, so we took full advantage of the mini vacation - who knows when that my happen again. We slept in on Saturday, and got to Brandon just after lunch and did some shopping. I was hoping to get lots of Christmas shopping done, but not too much got done yesterday afternoon - I actually spent way more money on myself...unfortunately...being pregnant has been very frusterating for me in the clothes department - it was ok to begin with, some friends loaned me lots of stuff, but they're both shorter then me and not nearly as busty as I was even before I got pregnant - now that I've added almost 3 cup sizes to that, nothing goes around me - and even most maternity shirts look crazy because the empire waistline cuts across in the middle of the bust instead of below. I bit the bullet and went to Stages - a very nice little independent maternity/nursing/kids clothing shop in downtown Brandon. I've never spent money on clothes like this before....ack, almost $200.... I got a dress ( I desperately needed something to wear to the christmas party and any other occasion I go to between now and valentines day), and one nice top - which actually I am not that terribly crazy about, but everyone else says it looks good and it actualy fits, so I'm happy! I also got one bra and ordered a bra/nursing tank top - after much frusteration with bras I'm so glad to have one that actually fits - even if I have to face the depressing truth that its the largest size that company even makes!! The tank top is the most amazing piece of clothing I've ever put on - it actualy had support and looked pretty good, not to mention being my size and made for nursing - its going to get used a ton underneath lots of other things I think!! Too bad I had to pay $60 for it....I almost choked when I saw the price....but I think it will be totally worth it, and plus, since its white I can claim it for work I think! Anyways...a quick web search shows my bust size is bigger then many famous celeberties - including dolly parton....that is somewhat alarming....or depressing depending on what mood I'm in... Anyways I think its getting to be too late for me to write any more without risking some crazy rant so I shall head for bed...I'll be back sooner then three months this time I hope, and with pictures!

Pictures!!!

Since Andrew and Jamie are being very nice and letting me borrow their high speed internet I decided I should upload some pictures of our new place - I don't have all that many - I just took pictures of the places that needed help mostly - like this first picture of the beautiful front stairs - this is the view when you come in the front door - the 27" wide stairwell in all its 70's rug glory! I hope we can change this rug in the near future and also remove the wall on the left and put in a railing to open it up a bit more!

This is the front entrance - in all its glory too! I think we may end up with a freezer in the corner by the front door as there is no way we can fit it down the stairway to the basement and no other place to put it!
Besides needing a light fixture and a different color of paint (tis like a light minty/teal green right now) The living room is quite nice - with laminate floors it should be easy to keep clean! I plan to put my piano against the wall on the left - and hopefuly build a window seat in the alcove in the middle.
The bathroom is a room that will someday need some work - but at least its useable right now - its not rotten or moldy or falling apart but it is somewhat outdated and maybe a big worn as well as being cramped and lacking in the storage department. The bathroom sink is located in the laundry room, outside the room where the toilet and shower are - so someday we'd like to expand the bathroom enough to put the sink inside and add some cupboards for towels, etc.
This is the "Master" bedroom - its not very large - none of the bedrooms are - but it does presently have two closets - one of which has been wired for a bathroom and we would like to finish that bathroom right away as the thought of rushing down the stairs in the middle of a cold winter night all the way to the other end of the house while the baby is kicking me in the bladder doesn't sound very appealing to me!! I also think that potty training will be much easier with a bathroom on each level! This bedroom is also the only room in the house besides the stairway that has carpet. The other two bedrooms have linoleum as well as most of the downstairs.

This is the second bedroom - presently occupied by two girls - I haven't yet decided which room I want as the baby's room yet - this one is long and narrow and has a full sized closet with mirrored doors at one end.

Bedroom number three is definitely a boys bedroom - so it will work good if we have a baby boy- but it might be the spare bedroom for now as which ever room has the crib in it will also have an extra bed and I think this room may be two small for both!

On my way home from looking at the house the other night this is what I watched (and drove toward) my whole way home! I had never seen a funnel cloud so this one was quite interesting - watching it go up and down and change shape all the time. I was just hoping and praying the whole time taht I would get home before it turned into something big - thankfully it never did - it just petered out into nothing!

Trevor has been cleaning up the yard around here a bit - sometimes I think its just an excuse to use his big machinery and make fires- but the yard is begining to look much better! I guess its just a pass time for now knowing we'll only be here for another month or so! Practicing for his own place I hope!

Here is a picture of Riata - my two year old - she's starting to fill out quite nicely and her head is actually kinda nice I think - despite my earlier worries that she might be somewhat ugly....Don't worry - I never told her that!

Announcements continued...

I guess its about time I made my own announcement....I've been meaning to do this for a while, but since most of you probably already know, it seems rather anticlimatic...

We're pregnant :) According to the calendar, the munchkin should appear around Valentines day - or approximately 26 weeks from today. Now I know there is a fairly small percentage of babies who are actually born on their due dates, but I think it would be kinda cool to have a Valentines baby. Come to think of it - especially if it was a girl, cause then someday her husband would only have one less important date to remember because there would be two special occasions on one day! Ok, now I'm blathering....

Before I get the standard question 50 times or more - I'm feeling quite well - at least I am now. I still have a little more fatigue then normal, but then again me and summer never got along that well anyways! The last couple of weeks have definitely been a lot more comfortable since I've come into my second trimester. Everything has been fairly uneventful so far and we hope it continues that way! I got to hear the munchkin's heartbeat for the first time last week - so now it seems a lot more real - and since I'm pretty much in maternity clothes full time or at least using my Bella Band on a few of my pair of pants that I can still fit into - I can't forget about the new little life inside of me anymore :) I should be scheduled for an ultrasound in about a month - so I'm pretty excited about that!
Besides that news - I had a good trip to Idaho - spending lots of time with Amy and little Luke - and I got to see all the rest of my family except my grandparents who were elsewhere on vacation. I miss being around my family sometimes - and after seeing quite a bit of them all this year and not having any plans to go back it seems even sadder to be away now - especially knowing that the little squirt will be growing and changing so fast in this time when I can't see him very often :(
Anyways - here are a few pictures from the trip and the times before and since :)
Ok after waiting for 15 minutes for photos to upload....TWICE the same thing happened and blogger just displayed the "This Page Cannot be displayed" page.....so I just wasted half and hour with no picutures to show for it - I HATE the blogger photo uploader - I'll just upload them elsewhere and post a link....sorry.

Baby Eager has arrived!!

****Ok - so the real story - I finally got all the pieces of the puzzle together since I got down here - the communication was somewhat problematic. The Labor was induced at 9, water broke 11:30 ish and intense labor from then on in until the baby was born. Pushing was the part that was less then two hours. ****

Well after the normal time of waiting and anxious expectation - Amy gave birth to the first grandchild in our family yesterday! Luke Murray Eager was born at 5:21pm after a relatively short induced labor. He was 8lb 7oz and 21" long. Mom and baby are both happy and healthy - Casey was able to attend the birth as did my sister Jody. I'm really looking forward to going down to Boise this weekend to see the new little guy!! I hope he likes his cradle!



Here's a pic I stole from Becky - the only pic I've seen so far!

...

Hmm...I just realized that my last blog post was about my last trip to Boise, and here I am planning another trip to Boise...that means there are some blogs missing in between. First of all - you may ask why the heck are you going to Boise again!? Um...yes, three times in a year may be excessive, not to mention expensive, but I guess there's a first time for everything - and since it seems to be the only way I see my family, I'm making the trip yet again - although this time, for a very exciting occasion. You see, my sister Amy is somewhere in the realm of 39ish weeks pregnant (yes - I'm too lazy to look it up right now) and the baby will be here anytime now - in fact she's trying all the tricks to get the party started, and nothing is working so far. I had planned to go down there for the week after the baby's birth, but then I changed jobs and I had to change my plans to the 3rd week - then some major things came up in our lives, and I had almost decided not to go, however, circumstances changed again last week when one of my co-workers announced she was moving on to another job, and so the first week of August was again open for holidays. With some help from my generous father, the trip is now possible and I'm thoroughly excited to go to Boise again to be a part of one week in this baby's newborn period and be with Amy through a week of early motherhood. I am booking tickets tonight to fy out on the first of August and be home a week later.

Besides my impending trip to Boise, another major thing happening in our lives is the acquisition of our own acreage!! The property consists of a 98 year old house and barn, a double detached garage with heated, insulated, well lit workshop, a couple of loose housing sheds, a couple of graneries, a garden with fruit trees and a ton of asparagus, a beautiful ravine and some pasture land as well as a very nice shelterbelt of spruce trees. Here is a link to the listing with pictures and such. Its a great size for a few sheep and horses, hopefully a milk cow and some chickens and lots of garden space! We don't get possession until the end of September, but that gives us time to do some thinking and planning and means we'll be here until the calves are ready to be sold off of the pasture. I'm very excited about the move as this house is much better taken care of then the one we are in now and doesn't have the mold problem that this one has!
Other then that stuff and work, the last couple weeks have been fairly quiet, with me not having a lot of time or energy to do a lot of extra things. We went gopher hunting a couple of times, that was fun - there are hundreds of gophers in our pasture!! I also spent several nights last week as well as most of the day on saturday helping Andrew do renovations on their new house in town. We spent two evening scraping two coats of bad paint job off of the family room walls and then another night washing, plastering, removing hardware etc to get ready for painting - on saturday I put the first coat of paint on the basement bathroom walls, primed the two upstairs bedrooms and helped prime the living room, after supper, Trevor and I painted the our nephew Liam's room before calling it a night. They still have a lot of work to do before moving into the house, but its coming along nicely now and I was exhausted tonight so I opted not to go help this evening - MY house needs some attention and I need rest! I'm sure there will be more news in a couple of weeks if I don't get around to posting before I leave. I should dig out some pictures from the last while - but I don't feel like wasting half an hour uploading them - so I guess they'll wait for another time!

Summertime

It's been a long time once again since I posted last - but life has been full of many things and the pain of waiting on dial up Internet to upload pictures has been the last thing I wanted to waste my time on.

The a couple of weeks ago, I went on a trip to my friend Rachel's wedding. For people who were at my wedding - she was one of my bridesmaids- the one whom I met on-line and have only seen in person a handful of times (this was the 5th time). I was slated to leave on Wednesday afternoon - and Tuesday night as I made final preparations for the trip, I started to get a scratchy throat and some other signs of an oncoming illness. Wednesday morning I did not feel very good - and even at one point debated not going, since I had trip insurance and I knew I could get my money back from the ticket- but I really wanted to be there for Rachel - so I went again. After sleeping in as long as possible - I headed out, driving to Grand Forks where I planned to pick up some cheap American groceries and then get on the plane for Boise. I was feeling pretty lousy, and by the time I finished my shopping and boarded the plane I was pretty much worn out. Flying with a head cold is not fun I learned - the take off was fine, but the landing on each flight was killer as my sinuses were so congested that it took a really long time for the pressure to equalize in my head. I had a 4 hour lay-over in Minneapolis which turned into 5 hours with a delayed plane. We finally boarded at about 11pm my time and set off for the 2.5 hour flight to Boise - I tried to rest, but its hard to get comfortable on a plane with people all around you when you are sick...bleh. We landed about 12:30 Boise time and Rob was there to pick me up with his hilarious truck.... I'm sure he would prefer to use other words like hott, sexy or some other word, but I'll just refer to it as hilarious. We tossed my luggage in the back on top of a plywood ramp and a few other miscellaneous treasures that are often found in the bed of a pickup truck. Oh - let me explain, this is not just any pickup - but a 1978 chevy Luv....

The truck suits my brother perfectly as you can see by this picture of him...

I really love my brother - but I also get to laugh at him...actually with him - as he is very good at laughing at himself too :P

So why did I call the truck hilarious? well, besides what you can see in the picture, the hilarity is caused by the top speed of 50mph, the extremely slow turn signals, the two settings on the ventilation system (blazing hot engine air or regular outside air), the view of the road alongside the gear shift, the sunroof, the lack of a horn and last but not least, the roar of the engine at top speed which makes en route conversation consist largely of yelling and gestures....I love it...

So, off we go down the interstate out to Amy's house for the night - its about 1am....we're hungry, the only place we find open at the exit we take is a del taco drive thru - neither of us have been there before but its cheap and we're hungry - the service was great with a young man that has a wit to match my brother taking our order - that made for some laughs right there. For 7 dollars Rob got a massive combo of two or three different kinds of taco things and I got a breakfast combo of two breaky burritos with hashbrown things and medium drink (I forgot what Americans call a medium is what we would call an extra large - no wonder people get fat in North America - the cheapest food and drink is also the worst for you!!) . On the road again for Sand Hollow - we arrived to Amy's at about 2AM and said a short hello before falling into bed.

The next day I slept until almost noon - trying to get rid of the cold - it didn't work, but it did revive me. Rob and I ate lunch and visited and played with Amy's dog Katie until Rachel and Aaron arrived to pick me up for the last leg of my westward journey.

Aaron and Rachel were on their way home from Boise after running various errands in preparation for the wedding. The truck was quite loaded down with meat, alcohol, flowers and supplies for the reception. We made another stop along the way home to get a few more things - and for a stop at the coffee bar (Rach can't go too long without her java!! :D) I also made a 5 minute stop at payless for some wedding sandals - I had picked out one pair but on the way out I saw a really cute pair for $7 in my size, so I picked them up without trying them on. I found out later that they were really a size 7 - so they didn't fit well, and I ended up giving them to one of the other bridesmaids. Aaron dropped us off at the house along with part of the truckload of stuff and we got lost in the flurry of getting ready for the weekend's festivities. I met tonnes of people - family and friends of Rachel's mostly and spent the weekend at her house along with several other girls - it wasn't exactly a weekend of rest! After the rehearsal and dinner, us girls went out bowling and then had fondue and girl talk back at the house for our version of a bachelorette party. There are lots of good memories and great pictures from the weekend! Saturday dawned beautiful and sunny, but by the time Rachel's hair appointment was over, storm clouds were rolling in. We went out to the ranch and got ready and when the time for pictures came around it was windy, raining and there was thunder and lightning all around. We started doing some pictures in the house, and then it stopped raining long enough to go out and get all the pictures done that the family had wanted. We went back into the house to wait for the ceremony time, and it started storming again. We were all praying and waiting to see what the weather would do - and about 5 minutes before the time they were going to make the decision of whether to move the event into town, the sun came out and the clouds rolled up - it was amazing! It was actually hot standing out in the sun during the ceremony and during the pictures after the ceremony it started getting dark again, and at the end it started sprinkling and just the time we were all in our cars or at the house, the clouds let loose with a belly full of rain. It was really amazing how God worked it all out - we had just the perfect weather really - the rain kept the dust and the heat down and made the whole world sparkle a fresh green and we had sunshine for all the times we needed it - another reminder of His unending faithfulness! The wedding and reception went off without a hitch. I ended up leaving somewhat early, since Amy had come to pick me up and she didn't want to be out too late - but it was great to visit with her and my Aunt Bon on our trip back to Boise. So much for Amy's plan of not being up late though, as we spent a few hours talking - I think we went to bed around 2AM - and we had planned to meet the rest of my family in Boise for breakfast at 8(!!)AM the next morning. After a great breakfast at a little cafe on main street in Meridian, Amy and I went into Boise to do some shopping before I got on the plane. The rest of the trip home was long and tiring and when I fell into bed around 1AM, I was toast! I ended up calling in sick on Monday and sleeping in for 18 hours - it took me over two weeks to rid myself of that cold....but the weekend was worth it!

I've got lots more to blog about but this is enough rambling for one night!!

The quilt reveal

I've been planning this post for a long time and infact the pictures have been uploaded for almost a month - but I didn't want to publish it until Amy actually had the quilt in her hands - so now, after some procrastination - here is the final quilt. I took pictures of each square individually in an attempt to have a photo archive of the hand quilting that I did - but they are not the best quality photos, since I was just using my old camera - 3MP and no zoom...oh well - you can kind of see the detail!

Each square featured an oak leaf in the small corner piece, a letter of the alphabet and a curly-Q type thing in each rectangular piece and a main motif in the big piece. This is the first block in the top left corner of the quilt - featuring A, B, C

This is the second block - featuring D and E and a dog.

E, F and a horse head.

H, I and a horse shoe.

J, K and a kitty.

L, M and a lamb.

N, O and a chicken.

P, Q and a piggy.
R, S and a barn with a silo.

T, U and a tractor.
V, W and a cow.

X, Y and Z!