Hey guys,
It is finally Friday, It has just been the slowest week at work. We all really want it to be Friday and all we talk about is everything we are going to do on the holidays. My evenings however fly by. We are sort of ready to go. I have the big suitcase packed with all of my clothes. and all the presents are by the door. My apartment is clean too!!!
We have decided to wait until tomorrow morning to leave since it is nicer to travel during the day. So that is all good and I have another night to sleep in my own bed.... yipee! the only bummer is that I am missing a girls night. My friends figured out that tonight is the only night that will work to get together... And I just dont think I can make it... so thats too bad. Life goes on though.
Anyway, I have to go to work I just wanted to leave a note in case anyone wandered by. Have a great day and I love you all so much. Have a Merry Christmas and Ill talk to you soon
Love Amanda

Wednesday WOW!

It is already Wednesday! I say that like my week is going fast...but really it is not! What a slow week and work has been alright but a little more frustrating than usual. Las tnight Matt and I got one more present that we kinda forgot about and we got our present for each other since we are going to exchange before we go to PEI. I couldnt find ANYTHING for that guy. So I will be going again after work today, He even tried to help me at the end and we still couldnt find anything. The plus side is that he took me out for supper to Mikes. I didnt even have to cook when I got home, that was really nice!
Other than that, I am sitting here and I really should be getting ready for work and I am driving myself today SO I have to drive slow and I wanted to pick up the pictures from Wal-Mart. I dont even know if the photo place is open but Wal-Mart is open 24hrs during the week, which I think is alittle ridiculous, I would really like to go there at 3:00 in the morning and see how much money they are losing. They would have to have quite a few staff just to be there in their little stations. haha... anyway that is Wal_marts loss.
Anyway I really should get going. I hope you guys have an awesome day. I just wanted to touch base with you guys because I am not quite sure when I will be posting again! It's quite busy around here and I can only imagine that you are all hustling and bustling to get ready for the coming week. Dont forget to go grocery shopping early... you really dont want to stand in a reallly long line up with a cart of groceries or find that they dont even have any cranberry sauce left. As you can also tell I am really procrastinaing today.
It is really cold out too... going to be -25. yep..cold. Hopefully that means an inside day at daycare. Although it is quite cold inside too so I am wearing my tights under my jeans and I am also wearin my hot chilly socks... so I am prepared, thank goodness for thermal socks!
Alright I am really leaving. I may post again soon and then again... I might not! So Merry Christmas and love you all!
Love Amanda and snoozy Matt (but he deserves a good sleep in day) LOVE YA!

PS Matt is really happy with how all the exams went.... ALLL! yipeeeeeeeeeeee!

More Snow!

I think we got a lot more snow again. I'm not really sure how much since I havent actually been outside since I got home from church. You will be happy to know that I completed my entire list except for one little thing that didnt really matter anyway. My apartment is so nice and clean and tidy. All my laundry is done, my fridge is clean and my floor is very clean. It is such a nice feeling.
Today I spent the day watching Christmas movies on the womens network and now I am watching the season finale.
Even though it has been a lonely week for me, I actually learned to be ok with the solitude. I did have the TV playing Christmas movies the whole time but I think that is all part of the adjustment time. I was also able to get a lot done since I was at home anyway. So all in all it was a good time but I will tell you one thing I am going to be really glad when i have Matt all to myself again. :D :D :D.
He writes the last one tomorrow at 2:00. Then he is going to pick me up from work and we are going to his Uncle Jim's for supper. I think that will be a lot of fun for us and I dont have to cook either. Tuesday is my Christmas Party at work, santa is going to come and bring all the kids a present. So that should be a lot of fun and work is generally quite amusing for me, it is the place where I can be really silly with other people. . . hehe.
I know that I have been all over the place tonight and I apologize for the rough read. But I hope you have a really great week and that you dont forget what Christmas is really about Jesus and Family... not about the presents.... well... kinda hehe. Love you guys all so much
Amanda and Matt too...

PS I really miss reading all your blogs... hint hint... and you can pass the hint onto caleb and damaris too! Still love you :D HEHE

Saturday!

I could have written last night and you would have had something a little more interesting to read, but I just didnt feel like it. I played text twist and some mouse clicking game instead and just made horrible use of my time. Matt was busy studying until well after I went to bed and he is leaving to go study again now with Barret and Alex. It will probably be late agian tonight. Its ok though since i have to babysit a few houses down and that should keep me busy. Plus I have a whole "to do" list... I even typed it up and it has little check mark boxes beside each thing. It sort of ended up being a wish list, but if I actually work hard I think I can make a large dent in the list and it will keep me so busy I will hardly notice that I am here all by myself :(
Other than that our lives have been very boring... haha. Im glad that Matt is studying so hard. He thinks he did well so far and hes hoping to do really well on his last one on Monday. Then he is planning to enjoy some solid down time. I think a lot of skiing is in the plans... which means I am being dropped off at work really early. :) Thats ok though and on thursday night I am going skiing with the girls from work. Melissa doesnt know how to ski so Denise and I are planning to teach her. then Friday it is homeward bound.
Alright... time for me to get on this list. Love you all lots and hope you have a productive day.
Love Amanda

You guys are TOO funny!

Hello Friends (as we like to say in daycare)
I have to stick up for Matt a bit and tell you that I did put the picture of the classyest decoration on the blog. :D I have a snowman candle think and snowmen ornaments all over the place and angel ornaments hanging off the flower pot. :) I even think it looks a little tacky. But I love the balls in the vase. :D hehe and I think the other things add an element of christmas. :)
I had a pretty good day at work today. We were outside a lot and it was so nice. We had about another 5cm of snow last night so it was fun to have some fresh snow.
Anyway. That was my day! I should go and get ready I am planning on going with some friends out for hlaf price appetizers and I dont have to babysit tomorrow after all... so hey... why not. Plus Matt is studying and I shouldnt interupt him so what better way to leave him alone to get his work done. Although if it were me I would really like it If he stayed home just to be there. But since I just generally despise being home alone... I think he wont mind. Have a good night and I love you all lots.
Amanda

Hello!

It was so nice to hear from you all! It was a nice surprise to have 6 comments! :O) things here are going very well. Matt has another exam tomorrow and then on Thursday and his last one next monday! It should keep him quite busy. its ok though. I have to babysit on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday night. So I wont miss him as much.

Sorry for alarming you by not posting last night. I cooked supper and then ate it and then washed the dishes while Matt studied and then I made stew to put in the slow cooker for todays supper. It turned out to be really yummy and a lot less dishes since I am going to put the crock pot in the fridge with the leftovers. hehe.

I had a pretty good day at work. I got my days off at Christmas confirmed and I will be home for New Years too! yay!

After I write I am planning on making some cards... christmas and thank-yous. I got a christmas present from a daycare parent yesterday. It was a gift certificate for shoppers. I thought it was very thoughtful and useful!

Oh! and last night I pulled out my box of christmas decorations and just put them around the apartment. Matt thought it was starting to look a little tacky, but I put my christmas balls in the vase and I am the most happy with how that turned out. I even took a picture of it so that you could visualize what I did. Other than that I just put some of the other ornaments around the room. It looks pretty good. A little more christmassy. I dont really feel like I am missing out that I dont have a tree though. I have one at work and there will be one on PEI too. :) well I am going to enjoy what is left of my evening. Love you all lots.

Matt and Amanda

Its already 5:30 here and I have a little mess beside me that I have to get cleaned up really soon. I was making bags for our yankee swap. I didnt want to spend money on a bag and I leftover wrapping paper since I didnt end up needing any for pakje night. I thought I would become resourceful. I am showing the better of the two. I think it will do the job. haha. Now I have a little mess beside me to clean up too. :) I thought I would put a little update on here for my faithful readers. I couldnt let you down!

I wasnt feeling too good yesterday. I am not too sure what was wrong but I was feeling pretty nauseated

it was about 3;30 before I was feeling any better. So that really sucked because I was planning to get so much done and I really didnt feel like it. I did manage to get the house clean before Matt and I went to town. He went to study with Barret and I went because I had to babysit at 8. Matt came with me babysitting and we rolled bak in the door at 3;20AM. Who's great idea was this babysitting thing anyway??? Anyway, it was all good and I have a lot more energy today than I did yesterday so that is good. Matt is really busy studying again today with Barret. We picked Barret up after Church and they have been here studying since then. They are working very hard... and I feel a little bad for them so I keep feeding them stuff... hehe. I even got a nice action shot of the two and they were so into things that they didnt even notice that I took the picture. The whole table is covered in books, Binders, and papers. It will be nice when they are finally done. Matt has almost a week before we go to PEI to really relax and destress. He is planning to spend a few of those days at Crabbe.
We had a really good church service today. We had the pastor come from Milford CRC, he was really good. His sermon was about how we can only have real Joy through Christ. He was a really great speaker and he was so easy to understand and follow. I hope that the church can find someone like that for our church. That would be just so awesome. A lot of our friends werent at Church or they left right after because they are all in the middle of exams so I guess I am a little left out of the whole loop. But I have still never written an exam. In Holland College they are called tests and I studied with my friends half an hour before and maybe the afternoon before. It was mostly based on in class learning and I was a good listener. hehe. Well I think I will see what I should clean up yet and then I think I will wrap the presents in the bags and have another thing checked off my list. Have a splendid day and I will see all of you in like two weeks.
Love Matt and Amanda

It is really quite late and I must get to bed but I thought that I would take advantage of this actually working today. This is what everything looked like after the snow.

This is what my walkway looked like. I was walking out the door ready to leave for work and Matt had just made a path to the car. But good news... I wasnt even late. :) I love you all and hope you have a really great day! Love Amanda and MAtt

I was really excited about sharing some if the pictures from our big storm with you. But for some reason blogger wont let me upload them. That is a little dissapointing. I had a pretty good day at work. We decorated for christmas and the daycare looks really great. the kids had a lot of fun decorating the tree and now we are working on making our own decorations for the tree at craft time everyday. Th ekids and I are also loving the snow, Denise and I shoveled a sledding hill for the kids. It cant even compare to the ones that Dad has made for us in the past. I hope there is a good one there by the time we go home so that I can show the kids what a real hill looks like. :D.
I decorated a cake for the bazaar tonight since i had GEMS tomorrow night and the Bazaar is on Friday night. it should be a lot of fun. I will let you know what kinds of exciting things there are to do there. The Young Adults are going to auction themselves off for a day of work. The money is going to go towards the renovations the church is having. Since we arent regular tithers we thought it would be a good way to help catch us up a little.
Well I should go to bed. please pray that Matt will have the ambition to study and retain what he is learning and reading. We would both really appreciate the prayers a lot. love you all and i hope that you all have a really great day!
Love
Matt and Amanda

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It started little snowing this afternoon and the kids were so excited. We took them outside but in no time they were all shivering and cold since the snow was wet and the wind was blowing and it was still snowing. Matt drove me to work today since our winter tires are still in PEI. We do have good all season tires though and Matt went slow and steady all the way home. I still have to work tomorrow morning no matter what and It is still supposed to be snowing and the wind is supposed to pick up too. So hopefully we get there and back in one peice.
I was supposed to be at a Training workshop tonight about infant development and how to encourage that development. The course was going to be 15 of the 30 hours that I need to retain my early childhood staff certificate. It was cancelled due to the storm and they are planning to reschedule the whole course for the new year. That was a big relief in a way because I just really wasnt up to the busyness right before Christmas, and obviously they werent either since they were so willing to push all the way to 2008.
Matt and I ended up having a really good night though. He studied while I cooked. I made homeade pizza but I had to wait for the dough to thaw out. I get the bakery dough from the superstore and it is really quite yummy, thanks to Tante Alice I know all about it. I really like my homeade pizza's. matt and I put everything on it... well that we have. green pepper, onion, salami, pepperoni, ham, pinapple, tomato and sauce and cheese. yummy! I was also going make lasagna and I had the sauce made and realized that I had forgotten to buy Lasagna noodles. SO I made spaghetti instead and then I mixed it altogether and topped it with cheese and put it in the oven. It looks really delicious, it is for our lunch tomorrow.
So that is our evening in a nutshell. I really enjoyed my evening and I am so tired that I think I will just plop myself into bed and sleep away all my tiredness. Love you all and have a super night
Love Matt and Amanda

Our Hiking Adventure

Our day started out really great. We actually got up in time. Last week we overslept and were 5 minutes for church. Thiss week we made it nice and early, I think we were even fifteen minutes early, mostly because we had to do the advent and we wanted a good seat. When we arrived we were strongly ecouraged to leave on our winter jackets because the church was out of furnace oil. whoops, I thought it was pretty funny because everyone was sitting there hunched in their winter coats. Scarves around there necks and if you were lucky, mittens on your hands. Our Advent reading went well and it was all good.

Last night we had a really good biblestudy and the question came up of how we are growing spritually in our church and we really admitted to each other that we never share our own personal failings and really encourage and pray for each other. So today we were going to encourage each other to listen in church and really focus on what the sermon is about and such. So that was really encouraging. So I was sitting in church really trying hard to listen but it is amazing t how easy your mind travels along when you are trying to focus. The minister was talking about the painting of the last supper in Italy, and how the colours are fading and they are spending a lot of money to try and restore it and then I was sitting there thinking about the art gallery that we went to and where they store paintings at the Confederation center. Suddenly I was just like... Where.. did THAT come from. It was kind of funny how distractable I really am.
After church we went to Joas and Lisa VanOord's for a hike and supper. we went to a really nice water fall. We drove to the snowmoblie trail and took that all the way to the waterfall. When we got there we made a nice campfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. The waterfall looked really neat. It was freezing everywhere. Then there is water running over the frozen part. I know that is a horrible description but maybe if you click on the picture you will be able to see the real thing a little better. So that was our day. We had so much fun. It was a little cold but once we got going we warmed right up. The people here are really great. I just love hanging out with them. We can be serious but we can have a lot of fun too. We are about to go to "cards" we really just go and play games. I think it is going to be an early night though because Matt and I are both tuckered out. We had a busy weekend, but we have all our christmas shopping done and the presents are wrapped. I met a new family that I am going to babysit for and things could not be going better if I wanted it too. If God thought of ways to make it better... that I just cant even imagine. I would totally be up for that though. I just wouldnt want Him to think I have had enough if He was planning even more. Anyway. Enough of this rambling. Hope you enjoyed the rare illustrations. Have a super awesome week and I love you all oodles.
Love Matt and Amanda
PS there are a lot more pictures on facebook.

Quick Post

Just thought I would leave a quick note so that you wouldnt get all worried about me! Can you belive that it is already Saturday? Time is going by so fast, it is really scary sometime. I was sitting at work eating my lunch thinking that pretty soon I will be eighty and I will be wondering where in the world my life went. So I sat there and really enjoyed everthing about the moment I was in. But then I remembered I still had to clean my whole room and then I was rushing again. haha
Matt was hired on at Crabbe Mountain teaching skiing. He is pretty excited about the season pass. A requirement for his employment is that he does an hour session to work on his own techniques and keep up what he already knows and maybe even learn some new stuff. He is happy about that too, he said it will give him a nice chance to really focus on his own skiing. He is busy studying right now and I am about to clean the house and then I am going to call Mary. I already talked to Dianna today too. It should be really fun to be all together in like three weeks. But dont worry, I am planning on enjoying my time until then and not rushing anything.
Other than that things are so awesome. I cant even describe how happy I am and just hearing from all of you really makes my day... so keep commenting.
Alright. Matt needs the computer and I should get some stuff done too. I love you all SO much and I really hope you just have a wonderful day!
A dumptruck load of love,
Matt and Amanda