Hoarders Paradise

Let me start by announcing that we have some exciting news! Carl and I are pleased and overjoyed to tell you that...

Carl got a job!.....Were you expecting me to write something else? (Sorry if we got your hopes up there Opa). As of May 9th, Carl will be working for the Government of Ontario as an intern planner! We really appreciate everyone's prayers, we really feel that God was in control of this the whole time. This job was the last job in Kingston that Carl could have gotten that was relevant to his schooling. Not only is it in Kingston, but it's in a beautiful area right by the water that is in walking distance from our place! He is looking forward to the experience! He, and it seems everyone else, are done school for the summer!

Carl and I went for a walk the other day around the "student ghetto" and no joke, at every house there was a moving truck! I wish I had taken my camera because it was a sight to see! If people weren't actually moving, they were scouring the streets for good finds! You could definatley furnish your house for free at this time of year in Kingston! It was a hoarders paradise! Besides a fan, we didn't see anything else of use to us! We'll do some garage sailing in weekends to come to hopefully find some cheap bikes and possibly a dresser (if not, the bookshelf we have seems to be working :)

In other exciting news, we have our first visitors coming at the end of the month! We can't wait to see Nick and Andrea!!! Then, not even a moth later Ryan (Funk) and his girlfriend are heading out our way! We can't wait to introduce everyone to Kingston!

As for the rest of our week, well Friday night we got all fancied up and headed to our friends Eric and Mary's for a wine tasting night with other young adults in our church. One of the guy's knew a bit more about wine than the rest of us and lead us in a sampling of various wines from various regions. It was fun and interesting and just a nice night out!

The weather has been warming up and although we've had numerous thunder storms, a wild wind storm and some rain, we've had some gorgeous sunny days! A few have been quite humid which makes me nervous, I just hope we don't get to many of those days, you just feel damp all over! But the grass is finally green and the trees are beginning to bud!

We keep thinking that at this time next year, we'll be heading home too! I am already day dreaming of the big BBQ I am going to plan with all our friends and family as a welcome home for ourselves...I'll send out a save the date as soon as I've picked one!

A Royal Affair

Ok, so I'm not usually one to get to involved with the royal family and all their affairs but I do like weddings! So when I was asked at work if I'd like to come in early and watch the royal wedding live, I thought "ahh what the heck, it'll give me something to blog about!". So on Friday morning, my alarm went off at 5:10am and my friend Julie was here to pick me up at 6:45am! We arrived at the bank where 3 other ladies had breakfast cooking, the coffee on and our royal table set!

We put on our princess crowns and watched the magic happen!

We ooo'd and awed over Kate's beautiful dress

And got caught up in the romance of it all! It almost felt like we were there...

In some ways, we felt that we actually had better seats than the people who had camped out for several days just to stand outside!

It was nice being part of the fairytale for a few hours (I think he's looking at me!)

And I wish Will and Kate all the very best!

Happy Easter!

Hoppy Easter! I hope everyone had an eggcelent Easter, spending it with family and friends and that you each had time to consider the true meaning behind Easter! Our Easter weekend started out with a nice surprise! We received an unexpected parcel from the Easter Bunny full of chocolately goodness...It just doesn't feel like Easter without Mini Eggs and Cadbury Cream Eggs! Yum!

Since I got Friday off work, we decided to take advantage of our long weekend! On Friday morning we met our friends Kris, Kellie and Carolyn for a farewell brunch! Carolyn has headed home for the summer where she is doing an internship and Kris will be heading to Toronto for his internship! After a lovely meal, Carl and I headed to our weekend destination...

We were really looking forward to a peaceful and relaxing weekend so we booked a room at Bed & Breakfast near the falls.

We both imagined Niagara Falls to be somewhat of a sleepy, quaint town where we could enjoy the falls, take a peak in some local shops and enjoy the laid back atmosphere...Guess we should have done our homework! Don't get me wrong, the falls were beautiful...

Beautiful Niagara Falls!

But the town was not what we expected! Although we've never been to Vegas, we feel that on a smaller scale, it was comparable! The town offered everything you could dream of, wax museums, "Ripley's Believe it or Not", multiple haunted houses, Burger King with Gorilla's on top, arcade games, casino's, a giant Ferris wheel and lot's of noise! It was more like a nightmare for us!

I have to admit, I did enjoy the Hershey's man...Just wish he was real milk chocolate and that I could eat him!

Although we weren't to keen on staying downtown, we decided to grab an over priced bite to eat and wait to watch the lighting up of the falls! I'm not sure that it was worth waiting for...

That's Carl, sarcastically enjoying the view of the florescent falls with his favorite hotel in the background - the one with bright multi colored lights cascading down its side. Ooooh we just loved how humans have changed such natural beauty into an ugly, overpriced, adventure park! I think we would have appreciated the falls a lot more if we had to hike in to see them, or even if it just wasn't so done up the way it is! Ah well, we headed back to our B&B for a good nights rest and a new day ahead of us...The new day started with a delightful breakfast made by our lovely B&B hosts, Li-Li and Kevin from Taiwan!

Homemade crepes, with fresh fruit, home baked bread, an artistic latte, bacon, eggs, orange juice...The breakfasts were definitely a highlight! After filling our bellies, we headed off to Niagara on the Lake, stopping at one of many wineries on the way!

Along with Inniskillin, Peller Estates and Jackson Triggs, there are upwards of 30 wineries in this area! We arrived in Niagara on the Lake and breathed a sigh of relief, this is what we were looking for!

A quaint town, right on the water, with beautiful views, little unique shops and to top it all off, temperatures into the 20's! Definately warm enough for our first ice cream cone of the season!

We enjoyed the afternoon, checking out the town, relaxing on the waterfront and playing some cards! It was beautiful! I was somewhat sad to leave, especially knowing we were heading back to crazy town! But we decided to embrace it and went somewhere crazy for dinner!

The following morning, after devouring another one of Li-Li and Kevins fabulous breakfasts, it was time to head out. But before we could get out the door, Li-Li wanted a picture of us with her dog Dino.

Before reaching home, we had to make one more stop - wanted to see if our buddy Wayne was around...

Unfortunatley for us, he must have been out enjoying his Easter!

Canuck Fever

With the background sounds of hockey and Carl's yelps and cheers, I will try to write this blog. He sits at the kitchen table with our laptop, watching one of the many play off games! You know you're a dedicated fan when you have to stay up until after 1am (because of the time change) to watch a full game and you have to watch it on a laptop! I guess you also know you're a true fan when you help your wife decorate cookies and they turn out like this:

Carl says they are the Sedin Bunnies, #33 and #22...

My cookies came out a little different but we each had fun decorating! I couldn't find any Easter cookie cutters so we went with round eggs and ginger bread men with homemade ears to make ginger bread (sugar cookie) bunnies??? - hey, it works!

So besides hockey and cookies, there isn't much new to report! Last Saturday we went out for a fancy dinner with the 1st and 2nd year SURP (school of urban and regional planning) students. It was the farewell dinner for the 2nd years and kind of an end of the year celebration as classes are officially over! All the 2nd years are now looking to find jobs as the 1st years all look to find internships! Carl has another interview this week for an internship in Kingston!

What else is there to write about besides the weather?! It was really nice here for a a bit last week with a high of around 18! Then it turned to rain and today we even saw a bit of snow (as I hear some of you did at home as well!). Even though I am not quite convinced summer will come this year, we have booked several campsites at various sites for the summer and a kayaking trip! Our plan is to explore something new every weekend this summer! I can't wait!

The results are in!

In November I started a new job with the bank as a Personal Banking Officer but, in order to keep the job, I had to write an exam on mutual funds. In between working at the bank and working at Starbucks I have spent the last 3 months studying like crazy for this exam. I know a bunch of people that have written the exam and failed or failed numerous times so I was terrified! I knew it was going to be hard and that I needed 60% to pass! The test was on everything from mutual funds to the business cycle to economics to other investment funds and uuuggh just writing about it makes me shudder! I had been thinking about when I fail what I would do, quit my job, pay to re-take the exam, how many attempts would it take me? I took the day before the test and the day of the test off work and studied and prayed - the only way I was gonna pass this thing was by the grace of God! Finally, it was time to write the test! I told all my friends here, our bible study group, my mom (who rounded up a group of people) to PRAY! I had three hours to write a 100 multiple choice exam with no bathroom breaks! I took the full three hours and as I answered each question, I circled it if I had to guess or if I wasn't 100% sure that I had answered it correctly. Don't laugh at me but I did this to prepare myself if I was gonna fail...I counted all the ones I circled and sure enough, if I got them all wrong, I will have failed. I checked for my mark everyday after writing the exam and braced my employer for bad news. This past Tuesday my manager was bugging me to check my mark but I didn't want to check it at work, see that I had failed and then have to go to my next job and fret about it all night. So I left the bank and went to work at Starbucks and got home around 10:30pm. I knew if I didn't check, my manager would be on my case in the morning to check at work. So as Carl was telling me something about his day, I logged on and interrupting Carl in mid sentence I blurted out "I GOT 74%!!!!". Carl looked at me quizzically wondering what I had just said and when he realized he jumped out of his chair, raised his hands in the air and shouted hooooray!!! Or something like that.....So yes, I passed with what I am going to call flying colors and am so so so relieved that that is over with! So thank you to all those who were praying, I honestly feel I couldn't have done it without ya! There is still lots of training to be done in my job but I should officially be off the training program by the end of April, although I feel like it will take at least a year until I actually feel like I know what I'm doing!

In other news, Carl and I celebrated April 1st by getting sushi like we did 2 years ago on that day when we got engaged. My sweet husband even bought me flowers and we had to take pictures just to make this blog post more exciting!

Carl has his last class for the semester tomorrow! After that, its 2 exams and then he is on his way to freedom! He is still on the hunt for an internship and although the pickings are becoming slim, we are optimistic that God has something in store.....Right God?

Other than that, we received a fun date night package from mom and dad Funk filled with candy from our favorite candy store! I think we were supposed to save it for the date night with the movie but it kind of disappeared quite quickly! I'd have to say though that receiving mail is probably one of the most exciting things I look forward to on a day to day basis, unless of course its just bills...Carl and I are looking forward to a weekend away for Easter but you'll have to keep reading the blog to find out where we are going!