HEE, HEE, HEE

Who would have thunk it! John Travolta. (Courtesy of: http://celebedge.sympatico.msn.ca)

KITCHEN RENOS

After years of careful planning (LOL) our kitchen it finally nearing completion. I've been learning a lot of new skills throughout this whole process. I always wanted tiles like this in my kitchen - it's like a dream come true.
Just for comparison here are a couple of before pictures:
Step 1: sand the wall board in preparation for tiles.
Step 2: apply glue and tiles.
Looking good so far.
Tahdah!!! Grouting is complete.

All that's left to do is the trim. Looks so much better.

DREADING IT!

Finally! A dream come true for Hannah. She has been wanting dreads for a few years now, but we wanted her to wait and think about it because it is not something that you can just take out easily. So, after much thought we decided to order the products needed to make the dreads. They arrived on Friday and the process began.

Step 1: Section the hair into one inch pieces. (This was done amidst a couple ambulance calls, but it was done nonetheless.)
The sectioning is complete. Looking good already.
Step 2: Backcomb each section like crazy until the hair is a hopelessly tangled mess. We finished this after 12:00 am!Step 3: Apply wax to each dread and then heat the wax to melt it into the hair. Step 4: This one goes on for days and days - roll the dreads a LOT to get them to stay into place and get nice and tight.As beautiful as ever!

TAKING A BREAK TO BAKE

Amidst all the mayhem of renovating the kitchen it was suddenly discovered that we were out of bread - a complete disaster! So out came the breadmaker to create some delicious bread.The aroma of baking bread got Josh thinking about cookies. He baked some wonderful chocolate chip cookies. He had to make a special "large" cookie for himself.
Is your mouth watering yet?

OH SO MANY CUPBOARDS

For the past 2 years it has been in the plans to renovate our kitchen. This has been the week that we finally began the project. After removing all the doors (22 doors and 5 drawers) we set to work sanding them. We also had to fill one of the handle holes on each door since the handles we liked were a different length.

Since we had easy access to all the cupboards the girls spent some time organizing the cupboard contents for me.
Then is was time to fix around the dishwasher and sand everything ready for painting.Painting at last!
Here I am putting all the hardware back on the cupboards.
Josh was a great help when it came to reinstalling the doors.
Brian did his part too.

Tahdah!
Now to stage 2 - a tiled backsplash and finishing the pine walls. Stay tuned for more pictures.

AND YET ANOTHER WEEK...

I know everyone has been anxiously wondering where we have disappeared to. I'm sure you are all asking yourselves what could possibly be occupying their time up there in the great north. So, to put your questions to rest here is the answer - we have been building! We built a fence around our septic field - I even have proof of the great event:

Brian is getting ready to make cement for the posts:
This was another "learn-as-you-go" adventure. LOL.Next year we will attempt to grow grass in the area.

About 5 minutes after we completed the fence we had an ambulance call - our missionary's wife had gone into labour and needed to be medivaced to Whitehorse. To really complicate matters, her husband and 3 of her kids were on their way back from Alaska and she couldn't reach them. So here she was in Ross with her 6 year old and she was being sent to Whitehorse. They don't allow them to take extra passengers on the medivac plane either. So after settling her daughter in with some friends for the night and driving to Faro to get her off we arrived home after midnight. Then yesterday we went to Whitehorse to take their vehicle and their daughter. We were planning to go anyways, it just happened a day earlier than expected.

Now we are all settled at home and ready for more home renovations. Watch for it!

CATCHING UP

Wow! It has been ages since I've posted anything - I've been too busy living the life and haven't had time to post about it.
So here are some of my favourite pics from the summer.

The girls and I had a day at the spa. Here are my pampered feet:

Brian and I rented kayaks for a day on the lake in Peachland. We took a long, wavy trip out to Rattlesnake Island:
Naomi and Hannah at Granville Island:


Aaron and Josh putting on a play at the Larnder talent show:

Hannah and the giant Ginger:
Naomi and Hannah making cherry jam:

Shopping with Mom and Dad at Costco:
After spending some time having fun and Alison and Tim's house we travelled towards home. On the way we stopped at Liard Hotsprings. The first night we arrived they were full but were letting people camp in the day use area. So we pitched our tent in the middle of the playground area along with about 8 other tents. The next day we moved into a regular camping site. The girls were very absorbed in their books:
Brian was too:
We had a fabulous vacation, but it sure feels good to be home again.