I love my new bathtub.

This past week Josh and I had a brand new soaker tub and shower surround installed. It is divine. 

MRS.

I have officially been an MRS. for 11 days. It has been 11 days of fun, laughter, watching TV, putting together bookshelves, getting a new couch, doing laundry, cooking supper, finding the library, kissing, trying a new church, getting a job, taking the bus, buying groceries, and being in love.

The wedding weekend was full of fun, family, cousins, mini-golf, Gitch Fest 2009 and much love and laughter. Thank you to my aunties and cousins for all of your help: with the cooking, decorating tables, cleaning up, etc etc. The list goes on. I love you!

My new job at Thyme Maternity starts tomorrow morning with orientation, and then I will get onto the schedule (part time) for next week. I am excited about my new job! I think it will be a lot of fun. I will take the bus to work - it's a very short bus ride, maybe only 10 minutes driving in total.

My east coast life has just begun, and so far it is lovely.

46 1/2 Rodney Road

I've been in Nova Scotia for 1 week, and have basically melted away here in the humidity. Josh and I seriously contemplating the purchase of an air conditioner - our upper floor apartment is pretty hot, especially when you're hauling boxes, painting old, ugly bedroom furniture (which turned out great!) and putting up the shower rod for the 18th time because it keeps falling down.

Otherwise, the apartment is great!! 46 1/2 Rodney Road is the upper floor of a 2 story house. We are right off a main street, beside a pub, and seconds from a bus stop. Right up the main road is SuperStore, Staples, Reitmans, Bulk Barn, Wendy's, McDonald's, Winners, and a liquor store. Everything we could ever want. It's not the quietest neighborhood, due to the main road nearby, but it's not terribly loud, either. The pub next door is not a loud place, so I don't anticipate too much trouble from them.

We are allowed to paint, and I think next week we will start. We'll only do the living room and the bedroom, so it shouldn't be too much work. We did paint Josh's ugly old bedroom furniture (circa 1965), and it turned out well, I think!

Tonight Josh and I have our first marriage counselling session with his pastor, Reg.






See more pictures here.

home again home again

I have arrived at home safe and sound. All of my flights were perfectly on time (some a little early!) and I heard the pilot and everything was just super. I met up with Uncle Dave and Auntie Lynda in Hamilton airport, so that was very lovely and helped pass the time! Mom and Amy, and Auntie Deedee and Julie met me at the airport so that was a wonderful surprise! We went out for dinner and then headed home, getting into town at 11:30 last night. I had a great sleep in my own bed and today saw my dad and Clarke. Have yet to see my very pregnant sister-in-law Alison, but hope to see her this afternoon sometime.

I have very mixed feelings about being home at this point (even thought it's still early, I know). I was very sad to leave N. Ireland and was in tears on and off the entire flight home. The people I met there and the family I lived with were so special and wonderful, and it's hard to leave that. And it was Ireland for heaven's sake! How sad to leave such a beautiful country. Although I do love the prairies. So, I guess I need to give it a few days/weeks before I start getting into the swing of things again here at home.

it WAS christmas in killarney!

yes, i am aware that it's already January 4th. Happy New Year! i spent New Year's Eve playing "Guitar Hero" (a video game) where you have to try and play the song on the screen. i was actually very very good. better than clarke, anyway!

christmas in killarney was cold and snowy and wonderful. we played and did puzzles. ate and drank chocolate milk. played games...Apples to Apples, Clue, Double Series. we watched "national lampoon's christmas vacation" and laughed till our stomach's hurt. we celebrated amy and donny's engagement and enjoyed the one day we had we clarke and alison before they headed to saskatoon. we took pictures and looked through Avon brochures.

it was a wonderful, wonderful 10 days...which actually stretched into 10 days + 1 bonus day for mom and me. my flight was cancelled out of winnipeg, which caused me to miss all of my other flights, so i was put up in a hotel for 2 nights and had all my meals paid for. mom came back into winnipeg on wednesday to spend the day and night, and to see me off on thursday morning. we had a fun shopping day (she bought a red chair), we walked out of a movie ("National Treasure 2" - BORING), we slept in a king sized bed!

now it's friday and i'm back in N. Ireland and it's pretty good, but it's hard not to compare how i feel at home to how i feel here. guess that's normal. it'll be good to get back into routine and normalcy.

it was good to be home.

our christmas...alison opened a bottle of lotion and it squirted up her nose...we refer to it as the "albino booger".

the boys in their new Carhartt jackets, dad in a snowmobiling mask, the girls in our new pashmina's, mom in her new dressing gown.

amy and i on a trip to Rolla...beautiful hoar frost on the trees and beautiful girls in the car!

mom's new red chair, our little red house, me and a big king sized bed in my hotel room in winnipeg!

home again home again

tomorrow i go home.
i am so excited.
i'm sure i won't be able to sleep tonight, out of excitement.
i have a day off today, and am not sure why i didn't book my tickets for today. guess i wasn't thinking. oh well, tomorrow will come soon enough.
i have packed my bag and i think i am bringing far too many clothes. that's always the case. you just never know what you might want to wear.
tonight i am giving the girls their presents - i am quite looking forward to this. i hope that they like the slippers i got them, and the children's Bible and Veggie Tales DVD.
tomorrow will be an early start, as my flight leaves at 6:45 from Belfast to London. then London to Chicago, and then, finally, Winnipeg.
i'll be seeing some of you soon, and am looking forward to it.

2 weeks and counting...

today marks the 2 week point until i leave for Belfast! that's right, 2 weeks from today I will be driving into Winnipeg, saying goodbye to the Fam and saying hello to Europe! i am quite excited and of course a bit nervous, but am quite looking forward to meeting Neil and Joanne and their girls Caitlin and Lauren. i can't wait to see my room, the house where i'll be living and the city that i'll call home for the next year...or longer?? who knows! anyhow, i'm done work on the 10th, so i will be glad for that.

in other news, i've bought a laptop! it's a Toshiba. that's about all i know about it! clarke picked it out for me and i went with it, seeing as i trust his computer skills much more than i trust mine. so far it's working well. it has Windows Vista on it, which is quite a bit different that Windows XP, so that will take some time to get familiar with. i'm in the process now of importing all of my CD's into iTunes, as my laptop will serve as my stereo while i'm in Belfast. here are some pictures taken on the webcam on my laptop!

little red house

the siding has began and the house is slowing turning red! the boys and uncle johnny came to help and everyone stayed for supper (Saturday Night Pizza) and Mya and Gabby were there, which is always fun! Mya is big into biking lately and when she wants someone to push her around, she puts on her helmet which almost guarantees someone will go and roll her around the yard.

THE DECK!!

okay aunties and cousins. here is the long awaited reveal of THE DECK. i have included several shots covering various angles so hopefully that satisfies everyone! i think this weekend the siding for the house will be going up, so that is very exciting! and yes i will post pictures of the finished product. should look really nice!!

only in killarney

this afternoon, me and mom were in the car in the parking lot of the mall here in town. mom is starting to back out of the parking spot. here is how our conversation goes.
Mom: Leah, what is in that backseat?!
Me: Where? (I'm frantically looking into our backseat)
Mom: What is that? Over there!
Me: WHERE?
Mom: (pointing and laughing) There!!
Me: Is that a COW???
Mom: It's a cow! Or is it just the head?
Me: (while mom is driving by slowly) That is a cow in the backseat of a car.
Mom: (laughing hysterically) Is it moving? It can't be!
Me: This cannot be happening!
Mom: This will be a GREAT story for tonight at supper! They'll never guess!!

So yes. mom and i saw a COW (calf) in the backseat of an old white bomb of a car! it even blinked at us! what a sight. so we get home and say to the Fam we have a guessing game for them (we often do this).
Me: Okay, me and mom saw something today in the mall parking lot that you will NEVER guess. it was in the backseat of a car. Dad, this is something that even YOU will have never seen!
Amy: 2 people having sex.
Me: No.
Dad: A cow in the backseat of a car.
Me: What! How did you know that?

It turns out that Dad knows this guy who puts cows in his backseat to take them to the vet. apparantely my dad has seen everything. i have never seen anything so weird as a huge cow's head looking at me from the backseat of a car.

playing dress-up

Auntie Deedee and sister Amy playing with Garage sale finds.

over and done with

today was the last garage sale we will ever have! we have decreed it. at least we had a lovely day - bright and sunny. we did a pretty steady business, made about $350 - pretty paltry compared to last time! but i really didn't care, at least it is over and done with. we got rid of a lot of stuff, which really was the main goal! after expenses for various things throughout this process of raising money for Haiti, i will have $265 to send to Children of the Promise, as a gift. i am really glad this garage sale is over and done with - so is the rest of my Fam.


Julie brought some gourds to sell - they were flying off the shelves!!


we also developed a new game to play during the dull moments of the day. we split into 2 teams: Deedee, me and Abbey, against Mom, Amy, Julie and Chloe. one team member would go out into the garage sale area to check out the merchandise, and get one item in their head (the rest of their team couldn't look) and come back and draw that item on paper. the rest of their team had to watch what they were drawing, then run out and find the item. we didn't really have a time limit, but of course it was all done in a frenzy. this picture is of a page of our drawings...a family of artists we are not! not sure how well it will publish, but you get the idea!! we think we could adapt this game to a casual indoor game, but there could be complications, as running in small spaces isn't always the best idea.