Im Back

I know I didnt write yesterday...but I was busy wrapping presents. Matt and I went shopping and we got all our Christmas presents! Then I was left with getting Matt a present. But we decided that we are getting enough that the things we get for each other will just kind of be put in a pile and since diesel is 1.23 a litre we can get that for each other. It is crazy how much it has gone up in the last couple of months. We're really hoping that it doesnt go up too much more.
GEMS went really well tonight. Our lesson was about friends and how Jesus wants to be our friend, but how willin are we to take time to be his friend and really spend time with Him. One of the girls was having problems with her friends at school making fun of her. So that was kind of hard to deal with in the sense that I didnt really know what to do. The head counselor ended up talking to her later on that night so that was all good.
Sunday is our first week of advent and we are lighting the candle of hope. Someone from our Biblestudy was asked to share a personal experience of hope. So I thought Matt and I would have a good one. This is what I have written so far:
"When Matt and I were getting ready to move to Fredericton we really hoped and prayed that God would lead us to a church where we would feel at home. God gave us more than we ever hoped for. He exceeded our expectations and gave us a place where we feel at home and part of it. From the moment we walked in the door we were welcome."
So what do you think? Do you have another word for "part of it"
Other than that things here are really great. We are both doing really well and I hope that you had a really great day! Have you all decorated for christmas yet? I know it is still early. But I would love to hear about it. Love you all muchly
Love Matt and Amanda

Good Morning!

I dont usually write on my blog in the morning before I go to work, but I have five minutes and I didnt write last night. So...here I am. Last night Matt and I went to see the movie August Rush. It was such a great movie. I was a little bit dissapointed with the ending, but when I thought about it I couldnt think of a better one either. Anyway... It was really good and I would highly recommend it!
Other than that Matt and I have a pretty busy day. I think Matt is planning to study and I am planning to go to work any second now. Matt has a meeting with the head manager person at Crabbe. I think it is more of an interview than anything. So hopefully that goes well. I have to meet with the people I am going to babysit in a couple of weeks. She really wanted me to meet her kids before I babysat them. Hopefully they are good kids and I wont dread the next couple of weeks. haha.
Well I should head off to work. I hope you have a really great day. Lots of Love
Amanda and Sleeping Beauty!

SMILE!

What a busy weekend! We went to the Pastor's farewell on Friday night, it was so neat to see how much impact the Pastor had on all the people and how the people in the church can really pull together to make a fun night. Every family in the church made a page for a scrapbook and it was beautiful. That would be an amazing tangible memory to have as a pastor. There was no place for us to sit when we got there and we almost just sat with people we didnt know but then the young adults made room at their table for us. That was really nice and I was so glad that they did too. We went to the Superstore after that because they had no tax from 9-12 so we got all the stuff that we normally pay tax on and got some Christmas presents while we were at it. I didnt really get Micaiah any toys but I dont think he will care to much. Anyway... by the time we got home it was late and I went strait to bed.
On Saturday morning I got up really early and started cleaning. Our place was very tidy, but since I didnt clean the apartment while I was in BC the dust and the dirt everywhere just collected. It was so nice to have everything REALLy clean. While I was cleaning Matt made Taco Dip for when we had Biblestudy here. After we had everything made and cleaned up we went to UNB for a clothing sale. A lot of things were half price and Matt got a really nice pair of Jeans that were long overdue. He was down to one pair of pants that didnt have a hole in them. Then we went to the Mall and there was a big sale at the Garage. I got a sweater and a t-shirt for $15 dollars and some Christmas presents too! So I have a good chunk of my Christmas shopping was done this weekend. Matts Mom came for a nice visit for a bit in the afternoon. and then at 7:30 everyone showed up for Biblestudy. We had such a great time and a really great study. I love this group that we study with. We really get in depth about what God expects from us as Christians in this world. Its neat.
This morning we went to church. Afterward we went to Opa and Oma Versloots for lunch again and we had a great time talking an laighing together and then Matt and I came home at 4 and just relaxed. We are going to go play cards in half an hour or so, so that should be a lot of fun too. Tomorrow is monday and then we can relax again. haha. I love the way my life works. Oh and guess what.... Matt and I are going to be in PEI from Dec. 21-Dec.30 Arent you SO excited?!!?
Love you all and have a super week!
Love Matt and Amanda

GEMS cancelled = First Thursday Blog :)

Hello all,
Unfortunately GEMS was cancelled today due to freezing rain. Really though... I am kind of glad. I am sitting in a comfy office chair at UNB while Matt studies. Barrett is going to be here soon too. We are at the Engineering library at head hall (just in case you were wondering) Today we did a little bit of Christmas shopping. I can honestly say that I am not having as much fun with it this year as I did last year. I think it was because I spent more last year. But this year I really don't have any good ideas. I finished shopping for Mary, but thats it. I never know what to get anyone. So if you know that I have your name ideas need to be forthcoming. .. You will get something you really waaant (said in my sweet "im really trying to convince you" kind of voice)
Other than that things are going really well. I had a good day with the kids today and I was reminded again of how much I love my kids. I was talking with Denise (the girl I work with) and we both agreed that we cant think of a job that you would laugh more than we do. :) I see so many picture perfect moments, but I cant really take pictures because I could never put them on my blog and there is no really good way to give them to the parents. So I think when I retire I am going to take photography... or when I dont have the energy to deal with kids all day. Isnt that a great idea?
Matt and I went to Walmart last night and I really wanted to get a Christmas tree.. but then we looked at it logically... and we arent even going to be home for Christmas... so we decided not to get one. I was a little dissapointed, but at the same time it didnt really make sense and we dont really have "the perfect spot" and honestly... nothing could compare to the way it is decorated at home and I just dont think mine would quite measure up. So maybe next year?
I cant wait to go home for Christmas. The way it is looking right now I will have that whole week of Christmas off. I cant wait to go home and see the tree all decorated and all the candles in the windows and all the garland things over the windows, on the mantle, and up the stairs. I cant wait to have pinapple punch and open presents. I just love Christmas so much and I cant wait for it to come again. So tell me... what are you looking forward to the most? I get to hold my nephew for the first time too... I think that will be so special.
Well ... I think I will go read my book. I havent really shared anything significant and maybe I got you a little excited for Christmas. Have fun decorating and Mom... I will really miss making centerpeices with you this year... maybe you could make one for me. WOW that is a great idea. haha. I love you all and I hope you have a super week. I probably wont write till sunday or monday because we have a farewell to the pastor tomorrow night at the church. Saturday Matts mom is coming for a visit and Saturday night we have biblestudy at our place and then sunday is church and whatever happens after that. Love you all lots!!!
Love Amanda and Matt

Thank you all for you warm welcome home. I really loved it. Getting back into the routine here at home has been really nice. Matt and I have been really rushed in the morning as we really tend to oversleep and not got to bed on time the night before because we just arent that tired haha. But my days are so good. It is so good to be back at daycare with my kids. I love them all so much and they still love me... isnt that just great for my self esteeem, haha. A lot of kids at the daycare all have the flu or a really bad cold. So there have less kids and it has been really the perfect week to get back into things. I am really sorry to cut this short. But I dont really have anything else to say and I talked to Mom and Dianna on the phone so I have that much less to talk about. So I am sorry if I dissapointed you but guess what? I still love you!
Love Matt and Amanda

So this is one of my lovely purchases from IKEA. (the duvet cover) Doesn't it just look so beautiful? It certainly added character to my room, I think i am in love with it. Just in case you wanted to know, Tante Jetty also has the same one in her house across the road. She bought it at the same time as me :)
We had such a wonderful trip and I think that I love to fly, but I dont love jetlag. There was just something about Westjet that we really loved, they say it is like being part of a family, we didnt really get it until we saw this: Isnt that just priceless! Matt loved it! We went to Vancouver on saturday, and I didnt have my camera but I used my cell phone so that you could see a little tiny bit of what we saw. we parked our car on one end of Vancouver and took the sky train to the other side. It was a great way too see the cityscape. The sky train isnt driven by anyone it just goes and automatically stops at all the stations through Vancouver. It was a fun way to see the city.
I dont have any pictures of Phil and Karina's wedding. I was at Karina's parents house before the wedding and their camera card wasnt working in their camera and we both had the same card so we switched and it worked. Now Karina's dad is going to put the pictures I took on a CD and send me my card back. So I am looking forward to sharing those pictures with you on another day.
Our flight home was a lot easier because it was during the day and when we were in the airport stuff was actually open. And we were so happy to be home in our own warm place. Phil has to pay for his own heat so he doesnt see the point in having the place nice and warm hehe. So I am nice and warm here watching TV, Matt and I had some salsa and I am feeling good. :) We got home at like 1:00 last night but it was a lot earlier in BC so we handled that pretty well. It wasnt so good this morning though. I still felt like it was the middle of the night at 9:00. I made myself get up though cause I didnt want it to be even worse tomorrow. We made it through church without falling asleep but we nicely came home and had such a nice afternoon together. So that was my day. Hope yours was great too! love you all oodles! Sweet Dreams!
Love Matt and Amanda

Home Alone!

I just thought I would leave a little note to let you know I am alive. I am home alone right now as the boys are on the Stag. I hope they come home soon, but I think I am going to crash anyway. I am pretty beat. I had such a busy afternoon. But the morning was great. Phil, Matt and Rinse went to a VW place here and I stayed with Marcel and cleaned up the house and polished four pairs of shoes and cooked some dinner. Dinner actually turned out really well and I was really happy about that. After lunch I hung out with Karina and we organized and got stuff ready for the wedding. We also picked up a friend of Phil's in Surrey. I am really tired and I think all of you havent read today anyway so you probably still have to read the IKEA blog which is way more fun. Alright. Love you all, have a super day and I will talk to you all soon. love you!

Today's Mission: Attack IKEA!

So I was pretty excited to go to IKEA today. I went with Tante Jetty and Janneke. They were supposed to pick me up at 9:00 but they were a litte bit late. We also went with Emma and Sophie and quite honestly I was really missing the kids at this point so hanging out with Sophie and Emma was pretty fun! I even got to push Sophie's stroller. She especially loved the kids area there, I took her out of the stroller and she started playing with another kid there. It was so fun. Janneke and Tante Jetty are such a blast, we just had a hoot of a time hanging out and shopping. Good Times for sure. I did manage to buy a few things at IKEA. I was planning on getting some things as Christmas presents for people... but I kinda forgot about that. I ended up having my eyes peeled only for Mom and I didnt even see anything. But I did find a nice duvet cover, some heat pads for the table, wrapping paper, ribbon, bag clips, and some nice cards. I couls have gotten so much more, but I had to think about room in my suitcase. I love the stuff I got and I am glad I had a chance to get there, the people that I went with definately made it worth so much. So that was really my whole day. I got home and Marcel, Matt and I made some supper and now we are just hanging around watching TV and stuff. I think I am going shopping again tomorrow and tomorrow night we are doing something for Karina and matt is going to Phil's Bachelor party.
I think matt mostly ran errands with Marcel today. They picked up the rentals from Moores, got some shoe polish, they got stuff for Phils BBQ/Bachelor party, He doesnt really want to tell me what else he did, not because it is top secret, I think he just doesnt feel like talking about all the boring little details... plus he said that he doesnt remember. He was ok with all the stuff I got at IKEA too... very functional stuff. hehe. So if you ever have a chane to go to that place.. You SHOULD!!! Love you all and talk to you soon... dont know when. but sometime.
Love Amanda

Happy Long Weekend...

I unfortunately do not take after my father in the picture taking catergory. I forgot my camera when we took our big excursion to Vancouver on Saturday. We parked our car in Surrey (just so you can at least look on a map Dad) and took the sky train right into Vancouver. IT was such a neat thing, There were all these little stations everywhere to get off and on and no one drives it. It is all electric. We purchased a day pass for $8 each and then we could ride the seabus, skytrain and the bus in Vancouver. We met up with Karina's Parents, Willem, Angela, Peter, Ella and Karina's other sister Sherri. We are just kind of Phil's tag a longs so we go to everything. haha. Albert, Karina's dad paid for all of us to go see "Sea Creatures" in the IMAX theatre. It was so nice of him to include us in the family things. After that Marcel, Phil, Karina, Matt and I went out for dinner/supper at a pub and we went SHOPPING. Rebecca would totally go nuts in this place. Their mall was like a whole street and everything is so big. It is so crazy. Karina and I had a lot of fun just looking at everything. The only thing I actually got was a pair of shoes at the ALDO outlet. So that was fun. I was getting so tired though. Jet Lag is a horrible thing. I just feel really tired all the time. I dont think that I am meant to be a big traveller. haha. We had a nice relaxing evening after that. I think I feel asleep on the couch. :)
Church was good too. Colleen and Grace were there for the believe in it girls tour. I guess it finally made it to BC. haha. So that was fun, we also saw Pastor Bart this church. So that was also interesting.
We went to Karina's Parents house after church for some soup. that was fun too. After that we went hiking up some mountain with a waterfall. It was a lot of fun. We went with Steph and Jordan... Phil and Karina's friends here. They are really nice and we had such a nice time with them. We went to their house after the hike so the boys could play some play station 3. They had a lot of fun. We came back to phils house then and put the stove and fridge back into place so that we could cook some egg mcmuffins for supper. They turned out to be very delicious. So that was a good thing. The rest of the night we just vegetated.. .and I fell asleep. hehe.
And now it is Monday afternoon. Phils parents came for coffee today and now they are gone visiting and PHil and Matt are cleaning the garage. We have a list of things that we are trying to get some things done before the wedding. Marcel is sitting here arranging a bachelor party for Phil and I am cleaning and blog writing. I loved all your comments and we will have to see if I can get the model number for the air mattress. It is really comfortable. I am not even waking up sore and the only thing keeping me from my beauty sleep is the time change stuff. bla! But all and all we are having a really great time here. I should have brought my winter jacket.. .but I am using Karina's so it is all good. anyway. I am going to head out. love you all
Amanda

We MADE IT! WOHOO!

Just wanted to let all you faithful readers know that we made it here. I think the best part about actually flying was the take-off, what an exhilarating feeking. IT was cloudy and overcast when we left and when you get about clouds... what amazing beauty. The sun was just setting and the clouds weere so white. It just gives you such an amazing feeling. IT brings to mind the words of a song... "the splender of the king, robed in majesty, let all the earth rejoice." It was kinda like that feeling, if you know what I mean.
So I seats were kind of first come first serve. On the way to calgary we were in seat 20e and f. We were righ behind the left wing of the plane. We had a stop in Hamilton but Matt and I did not get off the plane. We didnt want to get anything lost or mixed up. The plane we were on was going strait to Vancouver but we had to get off and wait two hours to catch another flight that was going to Vancouver. We made it though at about 3.00AM our time and I was so tired and so awake at the same time. We still had an hour and a half drive to Abbotsford. But good news... our luggage wasnt lost! Yipee!! When we finally made it to Phils he was giving us the grand tour and then I went to bed at 6:15 our time. So while you are sitting there eating your lunch, I still have the whole day ahead of me. It is 7:30 and I feel like I just got home from superbowl haha.
Its fun to be all together again with everyone, it is a lot of fun, and we just got started.
Other than that things here are going really great.. We are sleeping on an air mattress that stayed inflated all night and I am not even sore, which is a huge bonus. I slept well and I guess it is a good thing to get used to the time here right away. Ill let you know how it goes and I can't post any pictures because I dont have my cord. But I will when we get back to Fredericton. Love you all and cant wait to hear all your comments. Love you All!
Matt and Amanda

Busy Busy Busy

Matt and I have had a busy evening getting everything done. We picked up his suit in town. We got it dry cleaned AND the pocket fixed at Moores for free! Yipee! He also got a garment bag so that we can transport the suit without it getting all wrinkly. I am also putting some of my stuff in it too and I think we will carry it onto the plane with us. Hopefully it all works out well. I hope so. We also got some shampoo and wrapping paper.
My apartment is dusted but it needs a thourough vacuuming yet and I want to wash my bedsheets yet... dont know if that will actually happen. Other than that there are a lot of things laying around that have to be packed but I dont want to put everything in quite yet, but i need to keep things close by so I dont forget to take them.
So I have a lot to do yet when I come home from GEMS tomorrow, but I hope that it goes well and that I wont feel rushed, I also switched shifts with Denise on friday so she doesnt have to work longer because I am not there. So that should make things easier.
So that is what is going on here. I need to go finish up some stuff and I have to make sure I write out a forget me not list too. Love you all a bunch and I will post when I can get to a computer again, which might not be until we get home...just to warn you. haha. I love you all and I hope you have a super day!
Love Amanda
PS Tante Tetcy.. Matt got your card and LOVED it. So thoughtful. Thanks!

Rainy Tuesday

Hello All,
I just came home from babysitting. It was fun... but I am glad I dont have to do it everyday. It makes you a little more tired. Once I got home I perked right up though. I should keep it short because I need to get to bed soon.
Matt spent the day cleaning things up... he cleaned out the freezer and hung the picture of fall trees along a country road. He hung it on the wall above the shelf he made. It looks really good where he put it, he also made some time to study too... :)
I had a pretty great day. Me and my coworkers laughed about a lot of things.. those days are just so great. Tomorrow should be a really great day too. I have to start cleaning toys and stuff for when I go to BC. We already have a suitcase in the living room. It only has a few things in it. Mostly so that we arent really rushed to quickly get it done and forget everything.
Other than that things here are going really well. There isnt really any other news to share, things are going really well. It was really nice to go home and see all of you. Much Love,
Matt and Amanda

Under the Sheet!

Alright. Picture #1
The present looked a lot bigger on the shelf that Matt made but I was still happy to open it. We had just gotten back from PEI. We had no power and it seemed like it had been out for a long time since all the stuff inour freezer was dethawed and the stuff in the fridge was semi warm. I was looking forward to curling up on the couch watching TV and eating salsa. All my cozy plans were dashed in one flick of the switch. So that brings us back to the present under the sheet..now that you have the background. haha. What do you think it turned out to be?

Alright here is the picture of the box! I thought it was an exercise bike when it was up on the shelf. But I knew that it was a little too small to fit that picture so I opened it and it was a lamp for our living room. You have no idea how much I wanted one of these. It can be so bright with the big light on and so dark with the light off... so I was pretty syked for a lamp. but... there was no power. Matt put it all together but I didnt actually get to see it in action until three thirty this morning. haha. I love it.
This is my lamp in action this evening. I love the ambience it creates in my space! It was such a great present and I never would have thought of it. So today was great. We went to bead early last night because we didnt have the energy to play a game or do the things we usually do when the power is out. We talked about fun things under layers of blankets. It was fun. So with all that sleep I woke up earlier a lot happier and got ready for the day. It was a really great day. when I got home I had to cook all the stuff int he freezer otherwise it would have had to go in the garbage. So I coooked sausages, 7 pork chops, a whole chicken and some potatoes to go with it. So all our food is gone... the only thing left in the freezer is a melted Ice Cream cake and gross looking melted/frozen ice cream that Matt insisted we keep... I think I will stay away. I have to check out the fridge yet and see what went bad. It is a little easier to tell when fresh food goes bad. haha. All in all though I had a memorable birthday. haha.
So I guess that is it for today. I hope that you fared better in the the storm than we did. But o well. We will just have to do some major grocery shopping when we get home from BC I think it will work out alright. Tomorrow night I am going to babysit one of my daycare kids. So that should be fun too.
I am going to go to bed now. I will talk to all of you later and I am sorry you had to wait so long to hear from me... but I just couldnt help it. I love you all.
Love Amanda and Matt