Our Canadian Adventure- Sunday Funday

What a wonderful Sunday it has been! We woke up to beautiful weather (60 degrees, bright sunshine, blue skies)! We planned on attending North Burlington Baptist this morning, but showed up at 9 when Sunday school was supposed to start and no one was there. We enjoyed a walk through the church community garden where we found corn stalks taller than us!

Yesterday we had passed by Calvary Baptist Church. Since NBBC didn't have anyone there at 9, we drove over to CBC and worshipped with them. It helped that the name was the same as our own beloved Calvary! We met many nice people. We even had lunch with three other young couples we met. Church is a little different here. There were about 75 people who attended. They don't have Sunday school, just life groups during the week. We enjoyed worshipping with Calvary this morning! They have a great heart for the community of Burlington. 

After lunch, we came home and our neighbors were out on the street with all of their children. I just love it! We chatted for a while and were invited to dinner. Unfortunately, we still don't have our belongings, so we couldn't contribute much to dinner. We did run out to a chocolatier and bring some chocolates as a thank you. We love the community and were thrilled to be invited!

Oh if only I had taken a photo of the awesome meal we had! Our neighbors Gina and Emil had the dinner at their house. They have two sweet children, Christina and Matthew. Gina made homemade pasta, meatballs, and sausage and peppers. The other neighbors that came were Robyn and Wes who have twin boys Jackson and Jamson, and Sarah and Dan who have a daughter named Ireland.  We also had shrimp, garlic bread and desserts galore! 

We played this fun game called "Hands Down". It's an iPhone app. You should check it out! We are truly blessed already by the friendships we are building with our neighbors! I am overjoyed!

Our Canadian Adventure- The Weird Things They Do

We are quickly learning that there are some differences between the US and Canada. I started compiling a list since we're been here (for only two day...ha) and am ready to do part one of the blog post on weird things Canadians do. So here goes! 

1. Their milk comes in bags. The two times we have been to the grocery store I  have laughed until I cried about this. You get four bags per gallon (for you math wizzes, that's a liter of milk in each bag)

You simply by a milk pitcher, pop the bag in it, cut the corner and everything works out just fine! 

2. They tell you the temperature in Celsius. Luckily I have a genius for a husband so I never have to think. Someone tells us the temperature and he whispers it in Fahrenheit to me. :)

3.  Not only is everything in liters vs. gallons, but gas is advertised in cents rather than dollars. Like I said, these people are weird. (And I love it!)

(Yes, once again if you are a math wiz, you realize that our gas is very high)

4. It's not a restroom or a bathroom, it's a washroom. 

(This was a photo from our trip to the public library! Yes, I had to get a library card!)

5. Our landlord handed us a garage key. A what?!? You mean you have to open the garage by hand?! Yep. Luckily amazon sells garage door openers for very inexpensive. I'll be ordering one once I get back to the US and showing these Canadians what luxury is. Who wants to get out in the freezing cold and open a garage by hand?!

6. There are no mailboxes in front of houses. They are all down the street! Luckily ours is only four houses down. 

7. Who needs toilet paper when you can wipe with a Kleenex? Luckily, the stores sell my Cottonelle! :) 

8. Trash. So instead of pick up trash a week like they do in Tuscaloosa, trash comes twice a month. (What the heck am I supposed to do with stinky diapers....ew). Recycling (plastic, paper and aluminum) comes once a week. Compost also comes once a week. So the neighbors tell me with those two bins, we shouldn't have much trash. However, don't have too much trash or you'll be charged. See the sign below we found at the library. 

9. Currency. Of course this is different. You should see me at a store just putting out my hand with all the coins and telling them to take what is due. Haha! I shall learn soon enough. 

10. Phrases

In America, we say "um". In Canada, they say "eh" or "right". In America, we say "about". In Canada, they say "aboot". In America, we say "xyz". In Canada, they say "xy zed". 

That's all for now! Stay tuned as we discover more Canadian-isms!

Our Canadian Adventure-The House

We successful made it from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Burlington, Ontario. We crossed the border and got our Visas with no problem! That was a huge blessing as we heard of many problems we could have. Here we are crossing the peace bridge:

Thankfully once we got across the border the grey clouds cleared and we had bright sunny skies! 

Now time for the fun part! After getting into Burlington, we met our landlord and got the keys to our house! I'll show you a few pictures, but our things won't be delivered until next week so you get a bare house :)

Our neighborhood! It's wonderful! There are small children EVERYWHERE! The neighbors on all sides of us were out with their children after school riding scooters, power wheels, strollers and more! It was awesome! There is also a community center opening in the spring that will have an outdoor water park, playground, football fields, soccer fields and a library! I'm pumped! 

Turning onto our street for the first time! (I was a little excited!) notice the beautiful skies! 

Our Canada home :)

A few pictures of our street (making sure you get the entire experience):

And finally the inside:

The living room 

The kitchen 

The stairs to the basement and upstairs where the bedrooms are. 

The mini backyard 

The dining room. We get to pick out the chandelier which I'm pumped about! 

The half bath (or washroom as the Canadians call it) on the main floor

A view coming up the stairs. To the left there are two bedrooms. Straight ahead is the laundry room (thank goodness it is not in the basement like the other houses we looked at!) to the right of it is a guest bathroom. To the right of that is our bedroom and bathroom! 

I hope you enjoyed the house tour and the first part of our Canadian adventure! Chow for now! :)

Harper Creek Boutique

As I've posted before, I LOVE to see, smock, monogram, appliqué, etc. pretty much if it involves a sewing machine or sewing by hand, I'm going to enjoy it! I took a class last week on heirloom sewing. Stay tuned for pictures of Brylee's coming home (heirloom) dress! I am working on it now and having a ball! 

I just thought I would show you some of the fun I've been having with my embroidery machine, so here you go!  

Backstreet's Back, Alright!

You read it right! The Backstreet Boys are back together and on a world tour! Lucky for me, they came to the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater! We got a few friends together and enjoyed a wonderful evening outside reminiscing on being 10 year olds again. BSB danced and sang just as wonderfully as I remembered! Here is a picture from when I was in 4th grade and went to Las Vegas to see their Black and Blue Tour along with a photo from the show last week! 

Here is a link to the set list we heard (ignore that it says Jacksonville...we heard the same songs!):

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/backstreet-boys/2013/veterans-memorial-arena-jacksonville-fl-2bc674e6.html

Our Exciting Adventure

Over the course of the next few months, much will change. Obviously we will be preparing and meeting our sweet daughter Brylee. We will be a family of 3. I will be a mom. Matt will be a dad. We will lose much sleep. We will lose much sleep. But to add more change (drumroll.....big news coming), we are moving to Burligton, Ontario! Yep, moving to another country! Matt has accepted a promotion with his current company in Northport, which is headquartered in Canada. We are excited, nervous, happy, sad, anxious, and about a thousand other emotions. We are thrilled for a new adventure and an adventure it is. I think at this point we are both tired of filling out immigration paperwork and planning the move. Thankfully, we have movers packing and unpacking us. But who knew it could take up to two weeks for your items to arrive at your new house after they pack and move them!? So the plan is for the movers to come this Friday and pack us, come Monday to take our things, and in my perfect little world, to deliver them next Friday. Matt and I will leave next Wednesday (ahh one week.....crazy!!), take two days for the 14.5 hour drive, cross the border and go through immigration on Friday morning before meeting our moving truck that afternoon. We have much to do and people to see before we leave, so off I go!