Happy Birthday LiL Kate....

Hey girl - I know we had dinner to celebrate your birthday together - but thought I would be post a little picture and wish you a very Happy Birthday today.



Hope you had a great day with your family and friends. Love "The Stewy's"

Wow... check out this new feature...

Hi everyone. I was just reading about a new feature in Blogger. They have worked together with Picasa Web Albums so that every picture I post of my blog gets put into a photo album at Picasa. This means you can go to my photo album their to see all of my pictures in one album without reading all the individual posts.

They only have the pictures that have been posted since December but they are saying that the goal is to get all of the pictures that I have posted to the blog since the beginning.

You will find my blogs photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/Justaferrytripaway/JustAFerryTripAway?authkey=_LB3WaVLW4c

I have added a link on the right side of blog so you can go there anytime.

St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Now that we are settling into the Comox Valley I have decided to have a theme dinner every month. This month of course was St. Patrick's Day.

We invited our good friends and old landlords Bill and Dororthy over for our first theme dinner. Here are some pictures from our night.

As you can see we have green appetizers - all the veges are green, green dip and green olives.

Our dinnertable all set to go. Green green green

Even typed up an Irish Blessing for the table.

A walk back in time...

Awhile ago I talked about doing a post on some of the houses that our family has lived in over the years. Tonite I thought I would take a walk back in time.

When we got married we lived for about 6 months in an apartment building in Burnaby but after we found out we were going to have our first baby we decided to move into a bigger place. This duplex is in Newton (Surrey) and was Brad's first home. We lived on the left hand side and back then there was only a carport (no garage). My first 'Mother's Day' when Brad still in the hospital Tim and I went to a plant nursery and bought a few little shrubs for the front garden. I can't tell if they are still the same ones or not. Brad's room was the front bedroom upstairs (the window you see). Brad actually lived a few blocks from here a year or so ago.

When Brad was 2 years old we bought our first house. It was so exciting and we were so young. I drove around last summer and finally found the right street - check out the trees. It is actually quite a pretty street now with the trees so grown up. That is our house right at the end of the street.

The house looks pretty good up close considering it is almost 30 years old and didn't cost us very much money. We had a really nice backyard with some big trees for shade and some privacy. There was a half cul-de-sac at the end of the road and it turned right as you came to our house.

This next house is the saddest for me. This was a really nice house in a nice neighbourhood but no one has ever really taken care of the yard. Makes me kind of sad. Katie was born shortly after we moved in this house. And 5 years later the kid came along. Yes, that would be our baby TJ - I know, I know - he is all grown up now.

Looks kind of sad don't you think.. The row of trees along the right side are huge and should have been trimmed down and the front has no flower gardens to speak of.. sad sad sad. We built the garage in when we lived there because we need another bedroom when TJ came along. Brad had the bedroom right in the front of the garage.

This next house was probably the whole families favourite. We spent 15 years in this house.. we had some good times here.

Look at that nice green grass and all the flowers.. This picture was taken when the house was up for sale as you can see by the sign in the front. I think we all still miss this house in some ways.

Everyone should be so lucky to get to live in as great a family neighbourhood as this house was in. To live there all those years and have that stability of friends and schools was just such a blessing to us all.

History Continued...

But all good things usually come to an end. The kids were all finished school and I really felt that our 4 bedroom home was calling out for a young family to come and live in it. So we put it up for sale and that era in our lives came to an end.

The next house was something else. We bought it for an investment - it was a beautiful home inside (2 years old) but the outside was the saddest thing you ever saw. We wanted to redo the whole yard to make it as spectacular as the inside of the house was. The people who had built this place put all their money on the inside - which meant there wasn't anything left for doing the landscaping.

The front steps weren't even painted. We did get that much done and also Tim worked and worked on the back yard. The people in the neighbourhood would walk by on weekend while he was working and tell him how beautiful it looked.

These pictures were taken when we first moved in. The house had 4 porches on it. It really was something else. As beautiful as it was I never really felt like it was me so I wasn't sad when we sold it and moved. The big disappointment was that we never got the whole yard finished. Tim was well on his way to making it a very special yard.

Here are a few pictures taken when it was in process..

So now we have a new project.. We can hardly wait till the weather changes and we can get out in the yard. We will do this one as a team.. I don't do the building part but I am definitely going to be involved with all the yard work.

More pics from 'Family Week'

Our visit with all the kids was awesome. I have a few more pictures I wanted to post from the family reunion week. Chelsey was the master chef one night and her - oh so able assistant was none other than "The Kid". Needless to say the two younguns did a great job. Dinner was great.

Brad made dessert that nite also.. I don't have a picture of the dessert which is really too bad as it was absolutely delicious.

A picture of him and Kate.. oh my they are all growed up.

Chelsey brought a very special gift with her.. She painted a sign for me so that all will know when the enter "SHER'S BUNKIE'. I LOVE IT......

We found just the right spot for the sign.

Just so you all know.. Chelsey cut the wood out herself and painted everything on it - including the heart. We think she should go into business. Thanks Chelsey (I love it)

Snow in March... spring where are you?

Hi everyone. So I woke up this morning, the first day of March to snow. I took it pretty well actually - but the fact that the sun was shining beautifully all day did help quite a bit.

I took these pictures looking out of the windows in the bunkie.. I don't think I had ever shown you guys how long our driveway/lane is. This lane comes right down into our backyard and so that is why the garage doors face the back of the house and not the front.. I love not having to look at those big doors consuming your view when you look at the house from the front. It is a little long to shovel when the snow comes though.... These pictures were actually taken yesterday.

This one is taken from the window above the garage doors. You can see where Tim parks his truck. The fence isn't finished yet but it's coming.

This one is taken looking out the side window right into the back yard.

I took Jessie out for a walk this afternoon. That would be our 4th day in a row. I realized today that I am going to have to stop taking her on my big walks - it just takes too much out of her. I guess this means I have to go on two walks - a long one and a short one with the dog.

I am feeling bad tonite because she hasn't had supper and she is just curled up on the couch on top of the pillows and she is tuckered right out.

Poor girl... I feel so bad.

A story about a Hen named "HENRY"

Only in the Comox Valley... at least that is what I keep saying. Yesterday morning as I was cleaning up the kitchen and looking out the window I saw the cutest little red hen trying to cross the road towards our house. A few cars came by and were slowing down to look at it and finally it made it across the street.

I went outside and called and clucked and it came towards our house.. If you remember we have bush across from us which means we have no idea where it came from.

This was the first picture I took as it came onto our front yard... We could hardly believe we had this chicken in our yard. We got out some shredded wheat and raw oatmeal and corn and started feeding this lost little chicken.

It pecked around all day and by the afternoon it was snuggled on the front step and had a name. I didn't know at that time whether it was a girl or a boy so I decided to call it "HENRY -or- HENRIETTA". But HENRY it was. She ended up spending the nite under our front porch and this morning was up and busy all over the neighbourhood.

By this time I had found out that Henry was definitely Henrietta. She disappeared all afternoon so I thought she was gone and I didn't have to worry about her anymore.

Guess what - by this afternoon she was back - but she had a limp.. Somehow she had hurt herself during the day.

This is taken right in front of the house in the garden bed right up against the front porch. She was back... By this time all the kids are here and we are all watching her and begin to worry because she is limping and standing on one foot.

I decided it was time for action - so I got into the car and started driving around the neighbourhood.. I tried a few places before I went around the corner where I knew there was a big fat turkey because it had been on the road one day when I was driving by. I knocked on the door and talked to a teenage boy and told him our dilemna.. He said that they didn't have a chicken that colour but he would tell his dad and that they could likely add it to their flock no problem.

A little after that the boy and dad showed up and with a little help from all of our gang they catch 'HENRY' and take him home. At this point I came in the house and started doing a dance and singing out about how I had saved HENRY... Then TJ started copying me and everyone was laughing... IT WAS SO FUN....

LIFE AND TIMES IN THE COMOX VALLEY..... It is always interesting....

Kichen exposed....

Hey everyone. We are all having such a good time this week. Brad, TJ, Chelsey, Tim and I. Work is coming along great outside. They had to cut the day a little short today because of weather. But the guys were tired so it was good.

The kids and I went out shopping all afternoon. Groceries, dollar stores, London Drugs, etc. Oh, and of course a trip to Starbucks to start off the afternoon... It's all good.

Here are some pictures of the kitchen - I am not sure I every really put up some good pictures of it. It is hard to get them because the window across the front of the sink area is 4 feet high by 8 feet wide.. It is so light in there that the photos only work if you take them at the right angle.

This taken from the end of the hall looking at an angle into the kitchen.. The white door is the door to the pantry. I love the glass in the upper cupboards on either side of the fridge. And if you look closely into the corner you will see a flat screened TV. I can watch the news while I am making dinner. It fits so perfectly into that corner. Tim was so determined we would find just the right TV to fit in there and we did.

Got Jessie into the show... There she is our little girl resting on the kitchen floor. Hey - how do you like the floor anyway? I love the light floor - we had dark floor in the last house and it showed dust like you wouldn't believe.. oh it was painful. The hardwood floor is great because it has all kinds of different color shades in it... it's just natural oak but is different grades of oak which gives it a more random look instead of that perfect all the same (which I don't like). And as you can see - NO STOOLS YET....

This is the other corner of the kitchen... with the big window being between. I can't take a picture of it into the daylight and at nite if I take a picture you end up taking a picture of yourself reflected in window... I will definitely have to be getting some kind of window covering for this window before summer. And of course you can see the tray that I had them build into the cupboard above the stove.. I love how it turned out.. I must admit that is probably the one decision I made by myself that I am fairly proud of.... :-)

This is looking down the back hall where we just came from... good view of the transom window from this view.
The handles are all black pounded metal --- they are great.

Back Entrance pictures...

Hey everyone .... we have been so lucky this week - it was supposed to rain but each day it seems to hold off and give the guys the opportunity to get more work done outside. It is supposed to be nice tomorrow so I will take some pictures to show you the progress.

I have already shown pictures of the front entrance so I thought today I would show the back..
This is taken as you come in from the garage and down from the bunkie... the back door being on the left of course.
Looking past the back door and down the hall.. first door on the left is the coat room and the next one is the "water closet". haha and it is a closet.

We come around the corner and we can see into the kitchen. You see one of our transom windows here above this doorway. Kate and Chris gave me this sign as a gift.. I do love it. I zoomed in so you can get a closer look.
Talk to you all tomorrow. Nite

It's been a busy few days....

Hi guys! Well first of all I came down with a little infection... ya the bladder... not nice. I have never had that before and it took a couple different kinds of antibiotics before I started getting better. It kind of knocked the wind out of my sails for almost a week.

Then in the middle of that I had to get ready for a very special visitor.... Bubba - yes that would be our first born.. knicknamed Bubba by his sister when she was too young to say his name correctly.. This is his first visit to the Comox Valley. We didn't get to see him at Christmas for the first time ever because he had to work and now that we are a "Ferry Trip Away" it's not so easy to go over to Mom and Dad's for a quick visit.

I drove down to the ferry on Thursday to pick him up and on Saturday Tim drove down to pickup TJ and his friend Chelsey. They will be here all week and on Friday Kate and Chris are coming. . Am I a lucky mom or what. All my kids under my roof and in our new home...

Chelsey and I went to church this morning while TJ and Tim started work on the Pergola.
Christopher my son - look at all the fun you missed... hahaha. They worked 9 hours today and managed to get the 4 main posts in the ground and cemented.. As well as the crossbars for the posts closest to the house.
There is Chels being the great supervisor on the job.. lol

After church I invited my friend Laurel over for lunch - now for those who know and have been reading the blog from the beginning.. She is my long lost friend that I bumped into not long after I got here. Her husband worked with Tim and was the best man at our wedding. We hadn't seen each other for something like 20 years. To make a long story short to bring those of you up-to-date that don't know the story - I went into labour with Brad 2 months premature when I was having a sleepover at Laurel's house (our husbands were working out of town). Brad was almost born at her house.. And to top it off - Laurel is Brad's Godmother.

The best part is that Brad didn't even remember this story and did not know her. So this afternoon was very very special. Godmother meets Godson... too cool. They had a great visit and found they have a lot of similar interests.
It was a really great day... Church was awesome - the afternoon lunch and visit was awesome and the guys accomplished so much outside. It was also a very sunny day in the valley...

I will get back to you with that history trip but might not be till after the kids leave.. Will keep posting pictures on the pergola during the week and the visit with the kids.

Kitchen Stool Frustration....

Tim got a call from the store in Nanaimo today to say that they couldn't find those stools anywhere and didn't know when they were going to be getting any in. So now we have the dilemma of choosing the black leather (puffier - more cushioned) stools or waiting. Hummmmm.

We decided that wood was out because we have so much wood in the kitchen already - we need to add another texture.. we haven't seen any rod iron stools we like and they tend to be heavy which I don't like. What to do - what to do.. It's a bit disappointing but not the end of the world.

It was sunny a bit today... First times I have seen sunshine for more than 1/2 hour since all this fog started. I took Jessie for a walk for 1 hour and now hoping I haven't tired her out too much. I enjoyed it though.

I decided today I should look a little harder for pictures of Tim's fantastic Pergola that he built at our last house to prove to you all that Tim the tool man does know what to do with those new tools of his... And just think this new Pergola should even be better because of the new tools :-)


I will show some more pictures of that back yard and the transformation that Tim did in it someday soon. But pretty good job hey....

Well better sign off for today.. Try to catch you again tomorrow.. I am planning giving you a walk back in time to see "where the Stewarts have lived" over the next few days.. with pictures even..

We will have kids all next week so not sure how often I will get to post.. but will try to do a quick one with pictures of the guys progress... Can't wait to see all the kids.

My husband 'Tim the tool man'

Well - we have the wood ordered and now Tim has most of the tools needed to do the job. We drove to Nanaimo today to go tool shopping. Sears had a pretty good sale on a few of the tools Tim needed.

His new baby.... CRAFTSMAN® Professional^TM 10" Sliding Compound Mitre Saw with Arbor Laser. He also got a stand to put this baby on so it is at a good height for working.The second tool...
DeWalt® 10.0 Amp Reciprocating Saw
There - now you have it... the next chapter will be pictures of Tim and TJ at work using these tools to build our Pergola. What is a Pergola you say... I found a picture to give you an idea...

We also found stools for the kitchen today also.. should be a few weeks and then we will be able to sit around our island. We have looked and looked and finally found something we thought would work. This may not be exact but it sure looks like what we ordered.
Well there you go... the update from our very busy shopping day... We heard from Brad this weekend and it looks like we are going to get a visit from him also. Can't wait to see all the kids.

Had a great day & link to Floor Plans...

Hello everyone - I think today goes on my top ten favourite days in the Comox Valley. It started out by having company for breakfast. We had the couple we were renting "Cottage" from and now have become our very dear friends. Bill and Dorothy and Dorothy's friend from Victoria, Maurion arrived at 9:00 am for just the greatest breakfast - If I may say so myself.

The table was set all pretty. With purple candles and bright purple flowers that I can plant outside very soon. Check out the pics..

I missed having Katie here cause she likes taking lots of pics of people and food.. hahah


Oh - did I mention that it was an outstanding breakfast. The menu will be added to our list for visiting friends.. You have to come and visit to find out what it was... After breakfast the guys went outside and planned out the pergola and (what materials and design). We ordered the wood for that today so it will be delivered before TJ gets here. You know the guy with the muscles.. we love those muscles.

I had a request from an interested reader :-) for a picture of the floor plan of the house because she was having trouble figuring out how it all worked from the pictures. I thought it was a great request so I had to do some research to find out how I could make these files available thru the blog.

You just have to go to this address and scroll down a bit and you will see two files - their names are Main Floor and Upper Floor. If you click on them they will download a pdf file which you should have no problem opening on your computer.

The address is http://www.savefile.com/projects/1078345. Let me know how you make out Allison. I am hoping this will be very simple.

After breakfast we drove to Campbell River to look at wood stools for the kitchen island. Then we drove back to Courtenay and went to a furniture store and ordered a chair for Tim's Den. We only had sitting for 3 to watch movies etc. So we really needed to add seating for one more so when we have company we can sit in front of the big screen and surround sound for movie nites. The chair will be a couple of weeks but very excited about.