A Month of Miracles

One week without Internet and so much has happened. Where to start? Let me just say, though it pains me to think it, I am now officially a fish out of water. What can she mean by that? Well it means I will have to shed my scales and learn to swim on land for a few years because we bought a house in the small town of Tofield, in the middle of nowhere Northern Alberta. A small hick town with one small grocery chain is not my dream neighbourhood, but we felt good about settling here. It's a house we could afford, and the right size for a future family. My job is here; a job I enjoy with great co-workers whom I respect. We are starting to feel apart of our Branch family at church. Jon enjoys the drive to Edmonton for his work and we are far from too many city distractions, though we can catch a movie or concert anytime we like. Winter has just begun late in the year and it has hit us with a frozen furry that would even put Mt Everest to shame. The last two hours of church was canceled because of the extreme cold, the leaders feared cars wouldn't start up again. - Ours almost didn't.

But I have gone off topic. Let me start from the beginning. November 20th we met with lawyer to put an offer and deposit on a house. Two weeks later we finalized the purchase and it was ours! This is where the pictures come in.

December 2nd we had a light dusting of snow a couple days earlier. This is a picture of us and the moon setting. We are heading down to Camrose to meet with the lawyer one last time to sign the papers and give the final deposit.

Turning to the East we took this picture to show the rising sun on our special day. Miracles had begun months earlier when we first found the house but decided not to get it thinking it was too big. When we got serious again about buying we hoped it was still available and it was! Another Miracle was driving down to Camrose the 1st time (40 minute drive) and getting half way only to realize the cheque book was missing from my bag. We didn't have time to turn around, fortunately, days earlier I felt very strongly to put an empty cheque into my wallet. ( which I never ever do!) SO there it was, a blank cheque just when I needed it.

Friday December 4th there was a huge blizzard. This was our possession day but since I had been called into work and that night our Church put on a Nativity Display also with Jon and I singing in the choir we decided to move in Saturday morning.

We had tons of help from the church. Many braved the 'over a foot' snow drifts to come help us. Some had to shovel themselves out just to drive over. We got yummy house warming gives such as 2 loaves of warm homemade bread, a lasagna with garlic bread, and a whole cheese cake with strawberries!

Our Little friends didn't mind the new place either!

Whitey ( we didn't name him) Sings the Addams family Theme song every morning. Sometimes he throws in the Theme from the Andy Griffith show for variation.

As for the inside, much of our furniture is hand me downs, which suites me fine! I like the challenge of getting everything to look nice even when they may not match.

Our lovely living room is a mixture of hand-me down and borrowing. I will soon have to give up my precious painting, lamps, chair etc. to my parents as they will now need them.

The Hallway - Thrilling

At the end of the hall are the bedrooms. This is the master bedroom. You do not get to see the other rooms as they are disastrously messy.

This is the little bathroom off the master bedroom.

The sink.

This is the main bathroom off the hallway.

A full view of the Kitchen.

A view from the back.

A view from the kitchen into the living room.

side view.

Buying this house was a miracle. It truly has been a month of miracles, especially the miracle of the Lord's birth.