being homeowners

 Two weeks ago we had another brutal wind storm in the night.

It absolutely howled and at one point I heard something come

winging down off the roof and hit something on the ground.

In the morning we weren't surprised to see the ground littered with shingles

and I wasn't surprised to see the damage from what I had heard in the night.

A shingle had hit the railing leading down from the porch

and the blow had broken one of the posts.

 Today, after many false attempts, the roofer arrived to patch up the patch.

He said that the companies making the shingles are using less tar

to prevent the shingles from sticking together in the bundles.

As a result, the shingles aren't bonding together as well once they are on the roof

and when the wind blows - so can the shingles!

It wasn't exactly the kind of thing we wanted to hear.....

At least for now the roof is back in one piece and 

we're looking forward to calmer times ahead.

it's not for the birds

 

Dorm parenting can be a challenging task.

During our years at BFA we saw even the strongest dorm parents grow

weak and weary

beneath the weight of the responsibility and sheer

hard work

of keeping up to keeping legions of teenagers

happy.

  Of course there are moments when dorm parents actually have

time off.

That's when they do something - anything - 

to regroup, rest and relax. 

 One dorm dad that we had the privilege to get to know

took this time to let his creative juices

flow.

And flow they did.

He basically transformed his dorm called 

"Storchenblik" - "View of the Storks"

into a work of art.
(The dorm is situated in a small village with a stork sanctuary
and there are storks and stork nests at almost every turn.)

He filled the dorm with pictures like these

and even refinished furniture and painted walls - 

all in this funky, storky theme!

Last year when Howard visited BFA

dorm dad, Jim Paterson,

gave Howard some note cards of his prints.

When those came home I was quite sure that they

would never be given away!

I finally found a frame a few weeks back

(the Thrift Store comes through again)

so I could get some of those cards displayed properly.

What a gift to us

and yes, another wonderful memory.

If you want to see more of Jim's work - click here.

I highly recommend the Bible Picture book.
Your entire family will LOVE it!

cleaning with style

Don't you love receiving something as a gift that you would never buy for yourself?

A "new" friend here in our little French town

gave me these lovely rubber gloves for my 50th birthday.

I would never have looked twice at them in the store but

I love them.

I don't think I've ever used rubber gloves as much

as I have these.

I'm not sure why that is, but I do feel pretty stylin' when I wear them.

And this morning was no exception.

What a great gift

Thanks, Terry!

and so it goes

 The warm weather trend continues.
The skies have been glorious.

The weather amazing.

However.

We have become spoiled.

Dare I say - weak?

When we dip to -10 overnight we feel the chill.

We bask in the + side of 0 very often.

"Now this is winter" we say - 

still wondering if "winter" will ever arrive.

And snow?

What's that?

I hope we're ready for what's sure to be ahead....

Enjoy today!

got it

A few months back my bloggie friend, Lovella, had a lovely drying dish mat

featured on her blog.

I looked at that and thought - I want one just like that!

I wrote to her and she told me that she had bought it at

Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Well.

I knew for a fact that Winnipeg didn't have a BB&B.

I checked the internet.

They wanted $10 for shipping a $6.99 item.

Wasn't gonna happen.

Hmmm. 

I guess I would wait until we went out to Edmonton in February.

Then.

We decided to do what most Canadians who live close to the US border like to do.

We took a day trip into North Dakota to the small city of Grand Forks

for some after Christmas bargain hunting.

We had a few things on our lists but not much - really.

This would be our first such trip and it was really just an exploratory one...

But then - I saw the store.

I zipped in and VOILA!

There were the drying mats - right at the door.

Amazing.

Price?

$4.99

With the exchange? 

$5.10

Was it worth the trip!

You betcha!

the puzzle

 On a Thrift Store outing a few weeks ago

the girls happened upon a treasure.

They had gone there in search of a puzzle to work on

over the holiday and came home with a gem.

After Katy set out the border

Howard and Beth soon joined in and it started to take shape.

I resisted as long as I could

but the puzzler in me soon took over and I was hooked.

And the result?

Beautiful.

It brought back special memories of some

wonderful winter weeks we spent in a Swiss village very similar to this

during our years in Europe -

not to mention all the "together time" we had these days

as we pieced and puzzled.

Not bad for $1.