Posted some new pictures on my Flickr page, available right here!

Last weekend, Phil and I headed down island to spend the weekend with his Aunt & cousin. We usually get to see Wanda, Al & Tra at least once a month (often more!) but have not seen them since July, since they went on an awesome trip to Israel and Italy. We try to spend every holiday with them in some capacity – and so when we went down we had Thanksgiving dinner (Al is always excited when we come, cause it usually means a bigger dinner, which we also enjoy!). We spent Saturday night with them, and came home Sunday afternoon. It was wonderful. Phil and Tra got to catch up – although no rough housing this time as Tra had just gotten all 4 wisdom teeth taken out. Wanda and I were able to catch up which is always so well needed, and wonderful!

In the morning before we left, we were talking about ‘where the wild things are’ and Tra went and got the book, we had story time on the couch – I read to Phil and Tra… then a little while later Wanda read to Al. Oh how I love that book! I am hoping to see the movie this weekend with Mom & Shannon.

Exams are now in full swing – I have 2 tomorrow, 1 Thursday and 1 on Tuesday of next week. I’m feeling pretty confident in them, but exams always give me a little more anxiety then I’d like. But, I feel that since I’ve attended every class, have very thorough notes and have done well thus far, I have nothing to worry about.

Anyway… next time I’ll be sure to post some photos of recent happenings! Actually, Phil should be posting some as he was out taking photos of the amazing fall colors we’ve been having!!

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

This thanksgiving, I was remembering a Thanksgiving many years ago … my dad worked shift work, 4 on 4 off. This one year he was suppose to be working, and I didn’t want him to at all. I wrote a special note for him to take to work, asking for him to have “Turkey Day” off, and was very thankful when he was home with us!

Like I said in my last post, we were hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for our youth group, I expected 15, we served 21!! I am still in awe that we fit everyone in our apartment. Everything turned out perfect, it was my largest turkey yet, and it was delicious!! Kids were happy, full and left smiling! The only down part was when our neighbours came up and talked to us regarding noise, but once we explained what we were doing they seemed better about it.

Last night we had dinner with the family, and again turkey was delicious, company was grand, and overall a wonderful evening.

This coming weekend we’ll head down to Nanaimo to celebrate Thanksgiving with Phil’s family. We have seen Wanda, Al & Tra since July so we are very excited to catching up and spending time with them.

Anyway, here are some photos from our youth dinner….

So, as you know, Phil and I lead youth with our church, and it is wonderful! Such a blessing and we are so encouraged by all these young people who are in our life. Since this weekend is Thanksgiving, we were throwing around ideas of what to do special for youth. We decided that we’d host a Thanksgiving dinner!! Now, lets be honest, when there is food involved numbers always grow, which I’m definitely not complaining about…. but here I am realizing that I’ll be making the largest turkey I’ve made yet — so here goes!!

Pray for me this week as I prepare dinner, pray for the youth as we’ve asked them to come prepared to share what they are thankful for in their life, and pray for Phil and I as we have the amazing opportunity to minister to these wonderful kids through living out our lives… and that is a HUGE blessing!!

A few questions we have and want your feedback…. you can leave a comment, or send us a message, but we are curious!

1. How old were you when you first owned a home?
2. What did you start out in? (apt. house. mobile home etc.)
3. Did you ever regret taking that step into home owning?
4. Has it caused more or less stress for you vs. renting (if you did rent)?
5. What kind of down payment did you have (5%, 10%, 20% etc. not actual amounts)?
6. Did you take your time and look around a lot, or did you jump right in when you found something that fit?

We’ve looked at MLS since before we got married, checking out whats available, seeing what’s around etc. We are not sure when we’ll buy, or what our plan looks like, but we are getting to a point in our life where we are also sure we don’t want to rent forever! Since we’ve been married (2.5 years) we have lived in 3 places – we do want to move out of the apt. but then we want to stay put for a while. So feeling out all of our options, renting, buying… living with parents (jk)! But curious what your experiences were like!