Blah.. it is weather to curl up on the couch!

So it is raining again believe it or not... haha for somewhere that they claim it hardly ever rains I've seen a bit in the last few days/weeks... mind you it doesn't rain like it does in AB but it is rain none the less and I don't mind.. just when it gets so cloudy and over cast you don't want to do anything.. so I'm going to have to motivate myself and get some stuff done today... and then I may go pick apples :) yay! I love picking apples!

Fog Clouds from above :)

Well this is what I saw a few mornings ago as I went to bring John to work... yuppers clouds in the valley.. so I hoped it still would be there when I got back from bringing John away.. and Viola! sure enough there it still was.. so I ran for my camera and took some pics :)

and Evert just FYI I used your nice big Zoom for some of them too :P

Saturday.. helping out..

Yup this is what I actually put together :) So the Valves for the irrigation system.. see my last Saturday post for the rest of the info! All that matters is I had a good time.. oh and ignore the pipe that goes slanted across the picture...

Learning to Crochet... yuppers!

Ok, so I finally decided that maybe I should learn how to crochet.. that was last week Tuesday, so last Wednesday I went over to John's Oma's and she started teaching me... my project is a doily... we shall see how it turns out... so far it is going pretty good.. and I'm enjoying it! She did tell me she thought it was crazy that I was starting with something so small/fine.. but I don't want to make afgan's because I for one don't like them and for two I would rather quilt then :) So anyway here are some pics.. :)

So that is my latest project :) it is a bit further now.. but I will post more of that later :)

Edmonton Regionals - October 20, 2008

Well after spending more time on the road and coming home tired again, it was still worth it all! Friday I left right around 4 from Lethbridge so I made it to Wetaskiwin around 9:30. That wasn't to bad on its own but then I still didn't make it bed till around 11 which I will admit is totally my own fault so I can't complain! I spent at least an hour on the phone with John and by then I was so tired it was time to sleep! I didn't sleep that great all night and then I had to be up at 6:30. I had to pick Lisa up at her mom & dad's place and then we needed to meet Heather by the information centre just before Edmonton... that was kinda arranged for around 7:30-7:45 and then at the Hotel where the event was at right around 8!
I got my dream picture with Shelli Gardner who is the CEO of our company and she amazed me. She had to comment on the purple thing that I had going that day. Which in the end was not totally planned out it just sorta happened! Then I was telling her about my wedding colors and stuff, and she loved the combo! Anyway enough of that! When I get home tonight I will post some pictures!
Then we were done earlier than we thought originally so I could have been home earlier but I needed to get pictures of the last few projects that were demo'd on stage so I had to wait in a line to get them which took a while! So in the mean time I left a little before 4:30 and then try to get out of Edmonton at that time without getting in a traffic jam... grrr.. So in the end I was really tired already and still had to drive 5 hours... I thought about stopping at the first Tim Horton's that I saw which was in Edmonton, but decided to wait since I had to add a bit of fuel somewhere along the way... (it is called following someone who you would expect to drive half normal but that was so not the case so in the end I used more fuel than I should have!) So Red Deer was the place to stop and then I had to get my wonderful cup of coffee to keep me awake and put a little more fuel in!
Anyway I got home in record time nothing crazy and not in the 4 1/2 hours that it usually takes me but that was ok, since about the last hour I talk to John.. other than the last 20 min or so but that wasn't to bad since I was almost home anyway! So pictures will be up later! :)

What a week!

Well, all I can say is that I've had a super busy week! Which is absolutely great because it sure beats sitting around all day trying to feel busy! Anyway so Sunday the 11th was my parent's anniversary which we weren't able to be there for :( In the end we knew that when we set the wedding date, but it is amazing how much more of an issues big days are when you've been away from home for a few months :( But that is the way life goes!

Anyway then Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving Day, which was also a very weird feeling not to have Thanksgiving day here! Yes maybe we Canadians are weird but almost as soon as Thanksgiving is over we get into the Christmas mood! At least that is at "home" if there is snow on the ground..! Hey have you guys started playing Christmas music yet :P haha! So I guess that about sums up thing #2 that I wasn't home for....

Then thing #3 was my parents' Open House for their anniversary, since it was their 25th.... and family pictures :( I'm going to post some in a separate link so everyone can have a peek! :) or if you are really curious now already go check out the family blog!

So for most of these days... or at least Tuesday I spent it at John's Aunt and Uncles place.. sure beats sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself! :P What did I do Wednesday...hmmm I don't even remember how bad is that! Anyway then on Thursday I don't think I did anything major either... Friday I cleaned John's parents' house and went to a lady from the church to start taking wall paper off of her walls... she had heard that I was bored and she had some work for me so tada... :P

Anyway that is a whole separate story and it kinda embarasses me to say this but I got lost on my drive out there :( I turned to soon and couldn't figure it out so I had to backtrack and go from there. The reason this embarasses me is because usually I'm really good with directions... but apparently not on Friday :(

Then Saturday morning John and I went with his dad to go pick some apples! Yay what fun! lol I've actually never really had the experience of doing this before.. wow there was some awesome sized apples on those trees though! So we picked a few pails and headed home to get some other work done! That was at the duplex, our place, we had to get some of the watering system in... so John's dad said to me.. are you going to help? and I was like sure why ever not... so there I was... I would say "glueing" PVC pipes together... but I'm not allowed to call it glue... oh that is right the teflon "stuff" is called Monkey Shit.. :P or Poop like my dad calls it hehe... anyway John's dad though he might be corrupting me but when I told him what it got called at home he figured it should be alright! haha!

Anyway so I had to put valves together with the Monkey Shit and then use plyers to turn them in all the way.. it was quite the process and I'm sure that if I did that everyday.. I would start getting some muscles again :P At least now I don't feel so wimpy anymore :P haha! Then I had to weld the PVC pipes together and attach the valves to sections of piping.... whatever.. I should have taken a picture.. who knows someday I just may! Then I had to add a few T's into the sections of the longer piping that goes around the base of the wall for watering the shrubs/bushes that are going to be planted there.. So that was Saturday morning!

Saturday afternoon around 1:30-2:00ish Cynthia and I headed to the Tri-Cities to do Groceries in Costco and WinCo! quite the major grocery trip since I hadn't really done major groceries since about a good month ago.. just picking up minor things here and there in Safeway.. but I've decreed that, that is a complete rip off! I bought 3 jugs of milk for lets say about $6... Whole Milk that is.. yup as a Dairy Farmers daughter I can't drink that watery milk... IMO that is just WATER!! not MILK :P anyway... so normally in Safeway the only Whole Milk they have is Organic... which is fine but it costs almost as much for one of those as it did for 3 in WinCo.. which is a complete 100% rip off! anyway so I took some out of two of them and put the in the freezer.. which I will unthaw again once I need them.. but at least that means less shopping trips to get stuff like that! now I'm wondering what would happen if I did that to Yogurt? hmmmm because then I could possibly buy some more in Costco and do that to.. oh well... 15 does last John a while anyway! So that is that.. anyway we got back around 5 or so... and that was the end of my busy day! Now I just need to try get some sleep so that I can get ready for my next super busy week!

Coffee? Who said that it isn't a good thing to get...

... 3 bags? LOL! Now I will have coffee coming out of my ears for another 9 months or so! The first bag I just finished grinding the last of it.. so we are getting pretty close to 3 months out of that bag right now :)

That is unless I get John drinking it as well.. which hasn't happened so far so I think we will be alright.. haha! :)

Anyway what happened is I asked my mom to get me a bag if she was going to Costco, which she was so she did. Anyway then John's mom went and did some groceries in Costco in AB when they were there and she got me two more bags! YAY! Thanks MOM(s)! xxx's

I'm officially about ready to scream..

Ok, so ever since I had a miscarriage.. actually before this was already a problem.. :( I should say almost as soon as I we pregnant! I got a ton of pimples.. like unreal, I don't think I've had that many since I was 15! Now they are in worse places too though :( I've got them all over my chin and in my ear lobes.. and no I'm not cutting them out the way I did a few years ago mom! So don't even go there :P haha.. and my chin and cheeks have them.. I guess all I really want to say is that it is royally starting to drive me crazy and I just want them to go away :( But wishing doesn't help I don't think.. so I guess I will have to survive somehow, even though it is annoying me to no end! :(

Officially having some pictures taken as...

Mr. and Mrs. John Van Wingerden... that aren't wedding pictures! :) Evert thought he had a good idea... he could go on the picture with John and I could take the pictures because I'm the photographer according to him.. LOL :) Ummm ya I think not... :P

Ummm excuse me Evert when you take pictures you tell people that you are going to do so and take normal looking ones of them :P

John says: Well can't I have one of those thinking pictures.. Alise says: No because when we want nice pictures that isn't allowed..

Mouse in the House?

YUP! Last night I was sitting on the couch when I heard something on the laminate flooring in the diningroom so I looked over and there was a mouse running on the floor towards the livingroom. He looked like he was going to head over to the bedrooms so I stomped on the floor which promptly scared him, so he ran back to the curtain and was hiding under that.. I closed all the doors and put towels in front of the crack so that at least it wouldn't be the easiest place for mousy to go.. then went to look.. he ran underneath the fridge, so I moved that and the stove but couldn't figure out where he had disappeared to.. so whatever that was that!

This morning I went to buy some bait and then put that out.. John went to ACE this afternoon and decided that he wanted to get traps because while I was at home I had seen it run from the bathroom to our bedroom and then to the bathroom and to the bedroom again.. later when I went to the bedroom I saw it run from under our bed into the closet.. hmmm so out went the traps with some almond butter on them.. and then tonight while Evert and I were gone about 10 minutes before we got home off went the trap by the fridge(there was also one in our room) and yup we had sucessfully caught our mouse!

Yay! One more thing done...

.. so this morning I had my fingerprinting appointment with the US Immigration Office.. It went really fast and it was super easy.. almost easier than you can imagine! Wow! Technology now-a-days.. but that being said it is almost scary too! haha :P Anyway so now we see how things go.... I wasn't super stressed about it or anything but the lady said to me.. "relax" and then later.. she said "you are sure tense" I'm kinda like sorry.. but I can't help that LOL!

More Honeymoon...

Well here is some more for those of you who have been waiting :)

Well.. I wanna quilt.. but do something fun for fall :(

I figure it could be nice to do something for fall/winter for on the table in the dining room.. but hmm no fabric in the right colors.. I guess I really just have the itch for something fallish... but I may be able to justify something.. haha.. we still have wedding money left and hmmm maybe... I mean it is for the house, but I will have to see! I love the idea that they had for a contest on the quilting blog that I have a link for on here.. and really how hard would that be to do!? Oh well we shall see, thinking about it I don't know if I have fabric's that may work.. some of the colors maybe kinda off, but I have another idea. It will be a matter of finding something that will work since it would be mostly applique anyway and then I would just have to come up with my own kinda design... hmmm my brain is working now! But first of all I'm going to get my curtains done! I have to get some fabric for the bathroom yet so one of these days I might just go do that!

The mail just ruined my day :(

Ok, so of all days to have the mailman bring me something I DID NOT WANT to see! Anyway so we got a letter back from immigration.. apparently according to them my Birth Certificate wasn't in the package.... What in the world.. are they blind? I know for a fact that it was in there because it almost was forgotten and then I put it in! So SHUT UP already and get on with it :( Anyway they will find something if they can that is wrong.. and apparently they also needed some other info from John so whatever.. but still I can't believe it :( BLAAAHHHHHHH!!!

Oh well I guess we get the info filled out and in the mail asap! Since I have the finger printing appointment on the 9th... ugh.. not looking forward to that but at least I have my wonderful hubby going with me! Still I think I better start taking vitamin B or I'm going to be stressing.. I know dumb but hey I can get stressed about random things... freaky to though.. I've never been finger-printed that I know of so... that isn't helping me right now.. Oh well I will get over it!

Quilting...

Well today's project was working on Dr. Czub's quilt :) I've got about at least one side pretty much done.. the binding that is.. so, so far so good.. now the race to have it done by Wednesday :) Once again I've had the sad reminder of why I hate doing the binding so much... yup mom there is a reason that every time I got to this part of a quilt that I would ask if I couldn't just use the sewing machine for that too :( Oh well I will survive!

The other day I had been debating about cross-stitching.. but nope.. as long as I hate anything that involves very close scrutiny when working with a tiny needle it won't be happening.. it is a good thing that sewing the one side of quilt binding on is the least that needs to be done to a quilt almost.... or I sure wouldn't be a quilter either!

Silent Waters - Simon Bullmann

Silent Waters 2nd version - Beautiful Ballad - Hf100 Test from Simon Bullmann on Vimeo.

Lisanne - You Raise Me Up

Lisanne - You raise me up from De Indruk | Audiovisuele Product on Vimeo.