Some befores..some afters, guess.









PS. Sorry about the lack of quality, took some in the day, some at night and yeah, just wanted to take and be done. So I guess that means you just shouldn't frame them. :D

Welcome to my world. I assume you're either here for links or a new post, so I thought I'd try and provide both, as I do on occasion. Mostly so that I don't become labeled as defunct. :D

Hm, what have I been up to? Mostly spring type things. Painted the kitchen and hallway, raked the rocks from our front lawn (we get tons of them there, courtesy of the City of Prince George and it's gravel trucks and snow plows), planning for this the garden, spring cleaning, kids clothes sorting and the list goes on and on. Such a busy time of year, but being active can be quite..hm, fulfilling? Something like that.

Belinda and I took the kids skiing today with a home school group, that was something. Belinda and Geneva stuck to tobogganing, while the kids and I strapped on skis and hit the slightly mushy hills. It was the first time for all three of us, so after some brief lesson, we were left to fend for ourselves. I must say, being able to help them while helping myself was quite the task, but by the end we were getting the hang of it..kind of. They weren't however very successful with the T bar, but hey, at least their necks aren't out of joint. :D After 2:00 the kids had had their fill, so I went up with the G's who were also there and Mike gave me many helpful pointers so that by the time I made it to the bottom (neck still in proper alinement)I was starting to gain better control. After that point we returned home with our nice sunburnt faces, although maybe I should say rosy faces, sounds less cancer causing and more positive. :D Forgot to give a thought to the sun, oops.

As for this next week I'm leaving on Thursday to house/doggy sit for my Aunt Debbie in GP. Should be a nice time, and plan to take a few things along with me to keep me busy. So after almost two weeks of that I shall return home to build another compost box, rototill the garden and anything else that requires my immediate attention.

Okidoki, I'll try to post a few pictures of the kitchen, in its new shade of pale yellow and all if its messy glory. :D

Have the blessed Lord's day. :)

Jody

THE GREAT DANGER OF
Covenant-refusing
AND
Covenant-breakin

"Men deal with God as it is reported of Cnidius a great Architectist, who building a sumptuous Watch-Tower for the King of Egypt (a Tower to discover the rocks to Mariners) such was his craft, that he caused his own name to be engravened upon a stone in the wall, in great letters, and over that stone he caused it to be plastered with lime and mortar, and upon the outside wrote the name of the King of Egypt, as pretending that he should have all the honour. But here was his cunning: he knew that in time the water would consume (as it did) the plastering, and afterwards his own name and memory should appear and abide. Just so do most people deal with God and with his religion, and with the public. If we look without doors, we shall see nothing written but pro bono publico, &c. All their discourse is for the better promoting of Godliness: but if we could look within, we should see written, Pro bono privato, &c. All their designs are for to promote themselves. They monopolize and engross all to themselves, as if made for themselves. Where this sinful self-love dwells, there dwells no love to God, no love to thy brother, no love to Church nor State. This sinful self-love is the Caterpillar that destroyeth Church and Common-wealth. It is from this sinful self-love that the public affairs drive on so heavily, and that Church-government is not settled, and that our Covenant is so much neglected. Of this sin I cannot now speak: but when God shall offer opportunity, I shall endeavour to uncase it before you. In the meantime, the Lord give you grace to hate it as hell itself."

"And as for Jesus Christ, who is the Angel of the covenant: are there not some amongst us that un-god Jesus Christ? and is it not fit and equal that God should un-church us, and un-people us? Are there not thousands that have sworn to be Christ’s servants, and yet are in their lives the Vassals of sin and Satan? And shall not God be avenged of such a nation as this? These things considered, it is no wonder our miseries are so great, but the wonder is, that they are no greater."

Me, hyper? Never. :D Thanks for this one Laura. :)

You Are an Iced Coffee

At your best, you are: hyper, modern, and athletic At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you're out with friends Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Life never ceases to progress, the latest news as most of you probably already know (yeah, I guess Mark and B beat me to the punch, haha) , is that Martin and I starting courting last week. :D Hm, what to say about that..it's a very nice change, nuff said. :)

As for the rest of life, been keeping pretty busy with the same ol'. Trying to be more effective in my sewing, designs etc. Oh, and yeah I was going for Hollie Hobby with the hat Dor, so nice to know I succeeded. :D

Was supposed to take the kids skating yesterday, but thanks to everything being alone the lines of "the same ol' " are van is in the shop again. I'm not sure what's wrong with it now, but Mark said it was making some loud, clanking, unpleasant noises. Last time ( I don't believe I mentioned it) a belt that enables you to use the power steering fell off, thanks to having driven through deep snow, who knew? And who knew that the same belt also enables the battery to recharge? So yeah, thanks to Bench Mark we got some kinda belt shield put on so that we as Canadians can do what Canadians do best..drive through deep snow (with battery powered vehicles). So yeah, hopefully they'll have the new problem, whatever it is, fixed before 2:00 pm today so that I can pick it up for Belinda, then drop it off for Mark. All things considered yesterday seemed to iron out, because with skating off I was able to go to Teresa G's to help her with some prep for some company they were having. So that was handy, and skating will have to wait until next week or some time when our van randomly decides to work.

Been enjoying beautiful weather, and since I don't consider any post complete without a weather update I shall proceed to expound. :P Today is partly cloudy with a high of 3 C, and we're supposed to have highs of 8 C on Friday and Saturday. So yeah, the roads are nice and clear and hopefully our driveway will be too, before the ice on it kills someone. Perfect weather for walking to pick up a van. :D Yeah, spring seems to be is on it's way and I'm hoping it stays.

I may post some other of my baby dress pics, but I'll put that off for later..some time, day, or month.

Well, back to the drawing board.

Jode

Yahoo, blogger is working again, and I'll try to do a posty post soon, just not right now. :D

Hey guys, here are a few pictures I took earlier. Sorry they're not better quality. :D I was going to post a couple more, but they'll have to wait as blogger is being stupid. :)

This math lesson was thanks to the courtesy of Chris and slashdot, I hope you found it as informative as I did. :D

Home again, home again. 1 and 1/2 months, 6 weeks, or 41 days in sunny Albany. Now I'm back to snow,and a low of -13c. Still not too bad considering that it's February.

My trip home went pretty smoothly. Shawn, Tam (Dor and Amos camped out at Manda's) and I took off for the Montreal airport at the energetic time of 2am. Thankfully we managed not to be killed by the crazy Montreal drivers, phew, the way they drive makes every second include a "that was a close one". On my first flight I was pinned to the window of my window seat thanks to two French business guys with broad elbows. Needless to say, wasn't quite enough room to comfortably take a nap, but I was able to watch some Olympic Hockey and flip through various pointless channels whenever the guy took his elbow off of my controls long enough for me to make the switch. For the first two flights I took a nasty decongestant, the means to the end of preserving my hearing (yeah, I'm sick). But alas, by my third landing (they threw in a stop in Kelowna just to make my day) not much was helping my ears. By the time I landed in Vancouver my one ear was in a fish bowl and unwilling to clear. It did however clear that night when I was sleeping, and yes I was very thankful. On another traveling note, is it just me..or does it happen to anyone else that when traveling, whenever you put off getting food for the next stop you can't find any food? Pretty much all the next stop affords are chips, chocolate bars, and stale muffins at highly inflated prices, when the prior connections had 50 places to eat at. Okay, enough ranting. :)

So yeah, I'm back and totally wiped out from my cold, but I will recover all in time. My most profound pity goes out to everyone (especially little Mr. Amos) who has this cold and to everyone who will get it. Seems like quite a few people here are still recovering from the nagging cough that took on the titles of Bronchitis and Pneumonia, so I'm already feeling guilty because of the likelihood that I've come back just in time to share this latest treasure.

I've done a little sewing since I got home, but I forgot my notebook in Albany that had the list of questions and such that I need to answer on the Canadian side for our business, eh heh. So need to get Tam to send me the pages or something like that.

As for my actual visit too Albany, a lot of it (the details lot) has already turned into fog, so I'll simply touch on the highlight of how wonderful it was to be there with my sisters, brothers, brethren, nephews, niece and that we were around Amos long enough that he allowed us to hold him for long periods of time. :D Got to hang out, veg, listen to Lemony Snicket audio books, and work. I think all and all it was a pretty profitable visit.

Well before I make this so long that it's daunting to read, I'll sign off. :)

Hope ya'll have a great Lord's day.

Jode

Here I am, posting to you from Manda's :) As you may have noticed, I've removed some dead blog links, if you believe any have been removed in error, please feel free to let me know. :D

So yeah, here I am. :D Staying the night and returning to Tam and Shawn's tomorrow. Gonna go do some fun things, like..quilt, and watch a movie, and talk, and eat Jolly Ranchers while drinking Earl Grey tea(that is now nearing the tempture of lukewarm bath water). :D

Tam and I have been sewing up a storm over the last couple of days. Working on a pile of baby dresses to sell on Ebay (DV). We thought Ebay would be a good way to test out the interest before we get a site hooked up and all that jazz (I'll see what I can do for posting pictures. Maybe Em will consent to be our beautiful little model and Manda our photographer, eh Manda, what do ya say? :D Other than that, we've gone to see a business couselor, and our appointment went really well. They're doing some research for us on what we need to have in order to sell textiles. We've already learned most of what we need to know (or at least a good start of it) about getting our LLC, permits, taxes, trademarks, and regulations. I still need to look into the Canadian side of things, but so far it seems ( I hope, I hope ) to be a pretty smooth process.

In other news, we're really looking forward to the arrival of our dearest Dor and Amos, who will hang out with us for days and days, and we'll all four of us be able to veg to the drama of Our Mutual Friend. Still missing B though, just another sign that we aren't living in a perfect world. :)

Well, off to quilting, talking, and my cold tea, just thought I'd stop for a minute to drop a note. If nothing else, it'll be a good record for myself in a few years when I look back and try to remember how on earth I spent my time in Albany.

Chow,

Jode

I'm It ("It" as in tagged, not "It" as in "Cousin It"[as though you were able to make that mistake])

4 jobs I've had in my life:

1. Cleaning at the dairy previously referred to by Manda and Tam. Of course I was only 5, so as to how much help I was, I'm not entirely sure. I do however remember scrubbing the walls with hot soaping water and almost being flattened by a cow. :D
2. Goatherdress, chicken tamer, and one of the egg ladies. Ok, I admit, the chickens weren't that wild, but can you blame me for trying to make it sound interesting? On the animal note I also fed calves and forked hay for my Uncle Dave.
3. Morning cook, for the Pantry Family Restaurant.
4. Jode of all Trades.

4 movies I could watch over and over:

1. Pride and Prejudice (A&E)
2. Our Mutual Friend (BBC)
3. Oliver Twist (also BBC, the newer version)
4. Les Miserables, Little Women, or something of that sort.

4 novels that should be made into movies:

1. Scottish Chiefs
2. The Woman in White
3. Northanger Abby
4. Mansfield Park ( I demand a remake!!)


4 places I've lived:

1. Grande Prarie (Grovedale), AB, Canada
2. Athabasca, AB, Canada
3. Fort Nelson, BC, Canada
4. PG, BC, Canada

4 TV shows I love to watch:

I don't regularly watch TV, but when I do have the opportunity (a rare day) I usually watch the more craft oriented shows, Jag, The National, or something else almost at random.

4 websites I visit daily:

1. http://keepittoyourself.blogspot.com/
2. http://baby.dohms.net/
3. http://www.occluded.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.ignorantly.blogspot.com/ (only to use my links. :P)

4 of my favourite foods:

1.Chicken Alfredo pizza from Romeo's - their crust is perfection (but their crust wasn't perfection last night)
2. Seafood pasta, with some kinda cheese sauce
3. Busy Salads
4. Apples, usually accompanied with some pb or
a slice of cheese

4 places I'd rather be right now:

Happy where I am. :D

4 people I tag:

Cheryl
Lyd T.
Irene
Cadet

Yup, I'm here in Albany and have been since last Tuesday evening. :D Everything is going great, cept that I am soo tried (that when reviewing this I found that I had written "tried" instead of "tired", I think I proved my point, eh?) right now, but who can I blame but myself? If you're looking for an update, check out Tam's blog

And now for a little more of an update. Yesterday was the Lord's day, and it was a very nice one. The temperture dropped which added a few difficulties to the day, but I think everyone handled those with lots of grace and ...warm mittens. After the fellowship meal, Ed, Hannah, Ethan, Tony, Shawn, Tam, Jen and Co. and myself took ourselves over to the Ang H's where we had an evening of visiting and lively discussion. Then upon returning home we proceeded to stay up late, thus the tired part.

Today was nice, I offer no more details. The End.

Jode

Always hard to believe what can happen in a year, in a day, or even a moment. A year ago yesterday, and life hasn't been the same since. God gives and he takes away; the same year He took my dad but gave us Em and Amos. Ah yes, 2005 had its many rocks, but I'm sure it must have had its roses as well. I suppose the fewer roses there were among the stones the more fragrant their scent and the most thankful we were to have them.

Psa 118:17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. (Dad reminded himself of this verse quite often when he was in pain, and it certain is true, thanks be to God. :) )
Joh 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Yesterday was also the 17th birthday of my cousin Clint, so a happy birthday to him, although I don't think he has my blog link. :)


Just about done packing for Albany ( :D :D :D) and wrapping some "must do's" up, so I had better get back to it.

Jode

As I lost a lot of detail/quality in the combo below I thought I would post them separately. :)

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Hidiho. Well it is now the end of December, fancy that. Just had a visit from Jord, Dor, Amos and Martin over the weekend. They arrived on Saturday and departed on Wednesday morning, but even burning the midnight oil and the candle on both ends didn't stop the time from flying. Visited about dozens of things, half of which I will likely never recall, but that still leaves the other half to both remember and muse over. :) Monday afternoon we girls went shopping, while Jord and Martin went to visit with Mike. That evening was spent at Rod and Milly's and Tuesday afternoon at Cheryl's. Now it's time to recoup by catching up on my sleep, duties, and can't forget to pack.

Had Mark's 40th birthday party on Saturday. Wow, I've known him for slightly more than half of my life. It was a nice party, good company, conversation, food and what more could be desired?

12 days to my trip Albany, woohoo! :D

Well, I would call this "the long and short of it", but I think "the short of it" is far more fitting. :D
Tata

Jode

A few recent pictures:


And I didn't even say cheese, what's with that?

"Oh, a picture of me??" After all of his attempts to get every shot, I think he earned it. :D



Note the stylish pockets.

Here you are Tam, finally the sling pictures . :D Forgot to cut the threads..oops.

Look, it's a camera! I thought I'd try to fit her in the sling the baby way (just for the fun of it).

Everything fit, but for a foot.

Worn two different toddler ways.
Baillie's very own computer invention. Who needs windows when you can draw your own screen? She now has about five flip pages tape to the top of a monitor, so she can flip sites.