Monday, September 27, 2010

Our First House Adventure continued...

After looking at about 40 houses, some of which we liked A LOT...





We're 99% sure we found the one! (we'll leave a 1% chance that things don't work out)

We made an offer, they countered, we accepted and now we're going through the process of working out financing, getting the house inspected, etc.

We love this house! It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a dry, usable basement (which is surprisingly rare), a fenced in back yard, all appliances (and some furniture) included, and it's in a good neighbourhood. It doesn't need any work, but could use a few little things to make it perfect for us :)

I am SO looking forward to painting and decorating and making it ours!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Our First House Adventure!

On July 30th we moved into an apartment here in Lethbridge. The apartment was nice! The building was not! The police showed up and told us that they were there at least once a day if not more to respond to domestic problems and that we shouldn't stay there any longer than we had to. Also, we were told before we signed the lease that it was a non-smoking building (we always ask because I have allergies). It turned out that people could smoke anywhere they wanted in the building!
So, we got out of that lease on August 3rd (the soonest we could).
We had one month to find a new place so we decided to go to the bank to find out if we could possibly get a mortgage and buy a house.

They said yes!

We started looking at houses in Stirling, Alberta (since we LOVE it here!) but quickly realized that there was nothing in our price range.
By 'nothing' I mean this is the best we can afford in Stirling:


We didn't like the idea of our first house being a trailer that needed work. So we looked at our other options.
- buy a condo in Lethbridge?
- buy land in Stirling and put a pre-built home on it?
- buy a small house in Ontario?
- buy a house in Nova Scotia?

We carefully researched all of our options and finally decided that the best one was buying a house in Nova Scotia where we could easily afford something like this...

or this...
(by the way, both of those Nova Scotian houses are cheaper than the trailer in Alberta)

We are currently packing all of our stuff and we will be leaving for Nova Scotia sometime this week.
We are VERY excited to look at houses and pick out the one that will be our first home!! :)
We will miss our Alberta people, but we look forward to lots of visitors!


Thursday, July 1, 2010

My Famous Recipes!

I entered a cooking contest last month and created two new, interesting and healthy recipes.

Creamy Bacon Pasta Salad



Leftovers Lasagna


The Creamy Bacon Pasta Salad came in 3rd and is in the Catelli online cookbook and the Leftovers Lasagna came 9th but was the only recipe featured in their emailed newsletter!
How exciting! :)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Weather

There has been some crazy weather the last few weeks.
It was great for photographic opportunities!

Before the storm:


After the storm:




This is one of my most favourite times of the year because the Lilacs are out! I LOVE Lilacs!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Spring Snow

Generally, I am not a fan of Winter. I don't like the inconvenience of snow. Although I do love some things about Winter. I love Christmas, winter photography, and fireplaces.
I am generally a fan of Spring because I know that Summer is only a few months away.
One thing I do not enjoy AT ALL is a huge blizzard in the middle of Spring!
All the snow was gone, it was nice and sunny and warm, you could see the buds on the trees, we had an Easter Egg Hunt outside... and then all of a sudden, we had a blizzard that knocked out the power for almost a full day and the internet for 3 days! The snow came on Tuesday night and we STILL have a yard full of it.

It did allow for some cute pictures though... so I guess it wasn't 100% horrible.

Snow on April 14th


Lely in her sweater

Steve has started an advertising business called Day Media Inc. He recently etched the logo onto a glass! It turned out really great!



Friday, April 2, 2010

Easter!

Since I can't be home for the traditional Easter egg hunt with my family, I decided to make my own Easter eggs!


I made a batch last week as a test. I decided they were a bit too big and that I am, for some reason, unable to smoothly dip things in chocolate. I did a bit of research and learned about tempering chocolate which I'll probably try next time.

I bought some foil candy wrappers at Bulk Barn and I think they look CUTE!
I'll be bringing them with me to Steve's family's house this weekend.


Steve loves them! I love them too, but I made this batch bite-sized because they're quite sweet.

Here's the recipe: