geese gazing

It has been fascinating watching the Canada Geese. It's been years since we've been in Canada in the fall and seeing so many of these birds (which have actually become pests) has been so intriguing. Watching their formations as they've flown honking overhead our house has literally stopped me in my tracks many times. The other day I was stopped at a light in Winnipeg and there was a small gathering of geese on the lawn in front of the Canadian Mint. I thought that was quite fitting.

The wind has been absolutely howling the last few days but the geese are still hanging around. I saw some today trying to maneuver in the gusts. They seemed to be doing quite well considering the force of the breeze! I wonder when their inner clock will tell them it's time to go. With 5" of snow in western Manitoba today, I think it might be getting close....

guess who we saw?

Last Sunday evening we were treated to a concert by Sam Rotman. We were privileged to see him two times in Germany while we were at BFA. He is an amazing pianist with an amazing testimony. http://samrotman.com/testimony.htm

He has performed in 58 countries (some countries several times) and last Sunday he was in Canada, at the girls' college. He always introduces each piece he plays and gives some sort of description of what will be heard in the piece - like birds, or a military band.......
I had a chance to talk to him for a few minutes and I mentioned that I had seen him twice in Europe - at BFA. He has very fond memories of his visits to BFA and what a treat it was to hear this gifted man in concert again.

oma and opa

This rather insignificant-looking building has suddenly become rather significant tonight in the life of our youngest daughter.

Katy was called this afternoon to come and work at the German restaurant in town. Yes, it's true. We have a German restaurant in our French town and Katy now has a part-time job! She took her resume in several weeks ago just because, and today she got the call! We are all excited for her. The Oma of the restaurant told Katy that she could call her "Gutrud" or "Oma". And she introduced her husband to Katy as "Opa". We've had some good laughs about it all this evening and it feels so good! How neat. We are thankful.

well here they are

Everyone has been asking about the house so I'm finally posting some pictures. The garage door

was installed on Thursday and what a treat it is to be able to park in the garage. The real treat is that there's actually room in there to park our van and still get out of it!

Here are a few "before and after" shots. It's hard to believe that it wasn't very long ago that it looked like this:

Living Room Let's call this our "inheritance room". We have been blessed!

Front entrance

Kitchen

Dining room featuring some lovely furniture given to us by our landlords, Philipp and Christiane and the table and chairs given to us by some fellow missionaries.
The kitchen also has some good old German furniture which came from our landlords. The small table was the table we originally used when we moved into our house in Kandern. Just a few months before we left Germany I decided to refinish it in the colour of our new kitchen cabinets. We had doubts that it would work in our Canadian kitchen, but we love it in there! It has a stool and 2 chairs that I also refinished.

I love my new kitchen and feel so spoiled.

back in business

Last Tuesday work was started on the driveway.

On Thursday morning the men were here at 7:00 to do the pour. It took them 2 hours to get the bulk of the work finished.
A few hours later it looked like this.
What you can't see on this picture (because they aren't there yet) are the footprints of some little kid who just COULDN'T resist a quick scamper up and down this newly poured driveway. It was quite a mystery as to where the odd marks had come from, but on closer inspection it was quite obvious that someone rather small had made the permanent imprints! It makes for a story at any rate. Tomorrow the garage door gets installed and then we will lose the house wrap and have a real door. Now whether or not we will have room to actually drive into the garage will be another story!
The house is starting to take shape inside as well. In awhile I will post some pics. It has been a huge job but the frantic pace is slowing. I am thankful! And today a good Samaritan came and hooked up my German washing machine. It took him, let's say, 2 minutes. That's probably a generous estimate. I am SO thankful!

a quick update

Life continues at a rather steady pace. I have not been posting lately (you've likely noticed!) as we have no phone line at our new house. We moved ourselves "in" on Sunday evening and used the phone to make sure it was working. All was well. Monday morning I took Howard to the airport and when I got to the house the phone was dead. I have phoned MTS twice and they promise to come as quickly as possible, however, that could mean Tuesday at the earliest. So we wait and we hope that no one is trying to contact us. On a very positive note, I have found some very friendly people in this town (again!) who were willing to let me use their phone to contact the phone company. And I was also directed to the Canada Service building (remember, this is a French town so there are a lot of special federal government services here) and this is where I am sitting while I write this post. Free internet, free advice, free and friendly help. We are blessed! Time to head back to the house and finally settle the kitchen. The sink was finally installed this morning.
Howard is well and busy on his trip back to Germany/Switzerland. He is enjoying our town but it doesn't quite seem right without his family there with him. He has a full week of meetings ahead of him back in Kandern.