Bathroom.

So we have our things moved into the new apartment. I would say we are moved in but I have unpacked two boxes and only cleaned the kitchen cupboards, so we are SO not moved in.

We have big dreams for this place. Because we are renting from someone we know, and because we are paying so little, and because I am home alone and was expecting to be bored, we decided we would paint. And by paint, I mean the entire place pretty much. We are also talking to who we are renting from about doing the floors, but that's a whole other case of worms.

The first room we are starting with is probably the one we cannot stand the most and where a good coat of paint is most needed. This is the black bathroom, yes black with glow in the dark stars. Now it may not be so bad if my name was the name written in glow in the dark stars on the wall, or if you could see what you were doing the shower (how did these people ever shave?), but its much too dark for our liking so we are painting.

The goal is to paint the trim white, three, or maybe in the end all four a light grey, if three then the fourth a slightly darker grey. These then would be the same paints used in the bedroom.

Prior to starting however my goal this week is to remove the stars, remove all screws, putty and then get started on the trim. Have I mentioned that I have never done this before. So I have googled and googled and got a pamphlet from Home Hardware, so really my hopes are, how hard can this be? My opinion will most likely change when I update with (fingers crossed) a final product next week, including before and after pictures! We are hoping the transformation is drastic.

Case.

I struggle with decisions. It is most likely my biggest downfall. I hate deciding anything that has a long term impact or will influence/impact others.

So I was in need of a new iPhone case, for my new phone. I searched and searched online trying to figure out which one was exactly what I wanted it to be. Did I want hard? Soft? An Otterbox? A screen protector? There were too many options. I was slightly overwhelmed. I started looking before I even had my phone and after the phone arrived I had still yet to purchase a case.

In the end the phone case I chose was a result of need. I went all of Thanksgiving weekend worrying about my phone knowing I needed a case. It wasn't until Monday (the holiday) that Brent and I finally had time to go and look for one because I ruled out buying online due to time of delivery. While walking into the store I then had the misfortune of having the phone fall out of my pocket. The small scratch on the side of the phone made me even more desperate for a case. Walmart had two styles to pick froma nd three different colours. The choices were limited and that was what I liked.

I went with a pink case. It is soft and rubber. Thick enough to be protective and has a texture that isnt super anoying. In the end I have a case for my phone. It cost a little more then I wanted to pay (ebay is so cheap compaired to stores). But I have a case, my phone is safe and I am happy with the end result.

The issue now is that I have to worry about picking a case for my new MacBook Air. I cannot decide AGAIN what type to get. I know I need something and so the decisions begin. I think I want purple. So that much is decided. But I SUCK at making decisions. Why must there be so many options?

Update: I bought a case. The first case I came across in a store designed for the 13 inche MacBook Air. It was cheaper then online (bonus) and was super cute (hot pink with white polkadots!) so I bought a new protective sleeve for it thanks to Winners. So, when provided with limited selection (ie when you live in Chatham) I am a successful and pleasant shopper!

Success!

When everything works out it is easy to wonder why we ever stressed in the first place. God provides. God always has a way of everything working out.

With that said. Life updates. Brent is in Vaughan. He has a month to month lease on a room. Huge answer to prayer. Brent is able to put in as many hours as he wants, which results in him keeping busy and being able to make a fair bit of money. Brent got a raise. (Europe soon anyone!?!). These are all areas that God has provided more then we could even dream.

I have been blessed spending the past week babysitting my wonderful niece. To be honest, I love babysitting. I love finding new things to do each day and keeping super busy while having fun. Last week I got a call, an answer to prayer in so many ways. I got the job at the library! I will be starting October 29th 30th (thanks to not being able to get my police check done without getting my license changed), which is also wonderful because I will be able to spend another week babysitting and moving into the apartment.

Speaking of the apartment is another wonderful way God has provided. We were able to find a place to move into on such short notice. The rent is manageable even when Brent's room rent is taken into consideration and the location is safe and close to almost everything I need. I am so thankful to be back in Chatham even with Brent being 4 hours away, I feel like I am home and it feels great.

So I am going to try and remember this next time I stress over what life may hold, and I know I will stress. I always stress its the way I am. But next time I do, I plan to instead go to God in prayer and remember that it may not be my plan, or how I want it to work out, but that God will work it out in the long run.

Matthew 6:25-27  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?"

BathTubPaint.

Today during bath time while babysitting my niece I decided to spice things up. I am a pinterest enthusiast so I continually saw these great ideas for bathtub painting. I figured why not go ahead and try it and while Miss J was eating breakfast, Aunt Stephie was making bath tub paint. The recipe is easy, and to be honest after knowing what the ingredients were I winged it a bit.

The rough directions (every receipt I found was different)
1 cup baby bubble bath (or shampoo as long as it is clear) (I used a mixture of both as there wasn't much left of either)
5 tbs corn starch
Food colouring (key part is to not add too much, we may currently have a blue tinted baby, OOPS!)

So mix them together, but them in baby friendly bowls and go to town. I made about half of this amount and it was more then enough. We are going to actually save it (in tupperware type containers) and use it for another bath time.

It was wonderful, after Miss J realized it doesn't go in your mouth. She had fun painting the walls of the tub and rubbing it all over herself. The great part was it wiped right off of the tub and had I not had such a strong blue it would have come right off the skin as well (You can hardly even tell). Another great part is that even though she may have taken a hand full and immediately put it in her mouth, it was ok for her to eat, not great for her, but not bad for her. She didn't mind it in her mouth, although she did manage to blow a few bubbles, and she was able to quickly realize that it didn't go in her mouth, but she didn't mind it.

So bath time today was even more fun then normal. I even enjoyed the goopy feeling and playing with it with Miss J. So I highly recommend trying it. I would not have done it with children any younger then what Miss J is so my only recommendation is ages 16 months plus. I personally cannot wait to do it again.

The finished paint product. If only you could see her tummy, it is all blue and she loves it!

The art. 

Moving.

So for those who have not heard, or for those who did and we still did not know a hundred percent where we were moving, it will be CHATHAM!

We are happy to be heading back to be closer to family and friends and have job prospects on the horizon. Some doors have opened and some have closed and as a result we feel Chatham is where we are currently called to be.

Brent will be staying in Vaughan, he has found a room to rent close to where he is doing a freelance position and will be coming home on weekends. This is obviously not an ideal situation, but we are going to make it work. He will be gaining wonderful work experience and making some money to help us out. This is just temporary, only a month or two and therefore just a season that we will make it through.

So the boxes are packed (for the most part), the truck is rented and Friday morning we will pack it all up and head back to Chatham. I am excited to finally be heading home. It may just be temporary again, but we have come to terms with temporary. We have learnt to keep our moving boxes, that investing in good packing tape is worth the hassle, that we need to purge the things that are unnecessary or unused and we need to be ok with change.

So Saturday morning-ish we will be unpacking in Chatham. This being said all those who wish to help should contact Brent or I. It would be greatly appreciated  We do not have much, but even just one or two trips up the our apartment would be helpful.

(Random thought while finalizing packing. I am pretty sure Brent has more polos then I do underwear. He seriously has more clothes than me. I feel a need to shop. Or down size his polo collection.)

Sick.

We move on Friday. We have packing to do. Errands to run. And Brent has to work.

We are both sick. Mine started yesterday night, spending hours in the washroom about to be sick, stuffy nose, sinus pressure, sore throat and a cough to go along with it. Brent texted from work today saying that the stuffy nose has now hit him. I have zero energy, and feel light headed. I can't even get myself to stand for more than a few minutes.

I hate being sick. I know most people do, but I especially  I cannot stand having no energy when there are a million things to be done.

I guess this is what I get for kissing a runny nosed little baby. But honestly, who can resist such a cute little girl who loves stories and kisses?

Morning story time with Uncle Brent.

Wake up call. 

Thankful.

I complain a lot. I stress over EVERYTHING. I see the bad in ever situation and I think of the worst case no matter what.

I am however thankful. Not just because it is thanksgiving, but because sometimes I just need a really good phone call to remind me that no matter what everything is going to work out.

We will no matter what happens, have a place to live. I am assured that whatever happens in a week (btw we are looking at apartments in Chatham now, YEY!) we will have somewhere to live. Even if it is a trailer in my brothers front yard, the offer is there and we will have somewhere to live.

We will have food to eat. Never in my life have I been without food. We may buy what is on sale, and rarely eat out, but in the end we also never have to go without. Never are my cupboards ever completely empty with no options. We are blessed to have food and this thanksgiving I truly appreciated it.

We have friends and family. We have people we can all no matter what to help us, no matter what. We may fight, we may not get a long sometimes but we have people. Our people. We love our people. And this weekend we are so excited to spend some time with our people. We realised how lucky we were at our wedding to have those who loved us surrounding us. We realised after we were married those who came to our aid, those who no matter what were there and who were always just a phone call away. If you are reading this, we love you and words cannot describe how much we appreciate you!

We have money in the bank. It may not be much, it may fluctuate greatly, but there is money in there. That makes us richer then a large portion of the world. I stress about money more then anything. I get frustrated because we cannot always go where we want to go, or buy what we want to buy, but in reality we can do more then many people in this world. I had the opportunity to participate in sports as a kid. I realise now that many kids do not get this opportunity. I went to school with food in my stomach everyday and had new clothes at the beginning of every school year. I had multiple pairs of shoes and if my jeans had holes its because I wanted them there, not because we could not afford new ones. I am blessed and have been my entire life. We have debt yes, but we are trying to manage it.

We have a God that no matter what provides and I think for that I am most thankful. I have been stressed. I have no clear picture of the future, but I know it will all work out. I know it will be ok eventually.

So this Thanksgiving as we eat turkey with friends and family, we are thankful, not only for these things, but also for so much more. We really are lucky and blessed and we may not always see it, but it is true.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My little turkey, Miss Jemma enjoying Thanksgiving number 1.

Hunting.

Tuesday night we started the apartment hunt. Well we started a few weeks ago, we looked online at places to live in Chatham and then with a sudden and quick change of events we started looking online in the Richmond Hill/Vaughn area.

The process is stressful. The thought of again drastically increasing our rent is stressful and the idea that I do not have a job during all of this is again stressful. I hate the feeling of being in transition. I want to work, but I want a job that means something. I also hate waiting to hear back. Life would be a lot easier if I knew that Brent would have the full time position in Richmond Hill. It would be easier also if he knew he wasn't going to get it and that we both were successful at the library in Chatham. But who knows. Apparently life is not supposed to be easy. *Shock!*

So the hunt began. I picked Brent up from work and in the course of 2 hours we visited 5 3 apartments. The first was out of budget when you added on all the extras, like parking and internet, the second we didn't hate, and the third we loved, kind of.

The issues we have come across are numberous. First, I am not working, I feel like I have no job prospects in the area despite my searching. I think I am going to try for retail, I would enjoy a non comission based retail at a store I actually like. But to find a job I need to know where we will be living to know where I can apply. (but all of that is besides the point). Without a job, it seams like no one will let us rent. I do not have a letter of employment. This is bad. Second, when looking at apartments I knew I had heard of the area Jane and Finch. I could not figure out why. I googled it and turns out its the area with the highest level of gang crime in Canada. No way we are living there.

So again we are searching for apartment prospects. We are searching, we are finding, but no one seems to want to call us back. I am starting to get depressed. I am frustrated because we are looking for yet another apartment in an area I do not want to live. I want to be home. I want to be in Chatham, or well anywhere other than Toronto. I hate Toronto.

We are still searching. Searching for jobs and searching for a place to live. The countdown is now at 8 days to figure out EVERYTHING!!!

Sorry, I am stressed. I just hope that in the next few days I can write an update that says everything will work out. Everything always works out. I just need to have faith. So join me in prayer. We need to figure out life.

Joe.

So I am picky when it comes to makeup. I hate trying new things and being disappointed. Makeup is not cheap, you cannot try every brand of eyeliner before deciding. I got spoiled a few years ago at Christmas and received numerous Shoppers Drug Mart gift cards. They went to a brand new makeup collection. I went with smashbox after doing a lot of research and LOVED it! Now however, without the gift cards, the cost is too much and I need pretty much new everything.

I am not one who goes by the every six month rule, I have a tendency of waiting till its gone, I know its bad. Lately my eyes have been itchy when I wear my make up so I figured it was time for new stuff.
I had heard good things about the Joe Fresh line. The marketing was nice and I LOVE the packaging and design. Not to mention the colours are great. So I figured I would give it a try.

I bought what I was in desperate need of, mascara and eye liner. Then I splurged and got some lip stick. I went with the lash define mascara, the gel eye liner and a rose coloured matte lip gloss.

On first try, I loved the mascara, it does exactly as it says, it separates and gets on every lash. The lipstick I am not sure is my colour, and I think due to my lips being dry is a bit flaky, but the colour and matte-ness of it is fantastic. The eye liner is another story. I wanted to get the liquid liner, but as my research told me, it is hard to find in stock, which was the case. Instead I went with what I have come to love in the smashbox version, a gel eyeliner which you then put on with a brush. At first try it went on thick and has some chunks. More attempts are required to see if this changes, if not, it is garbage.

The prices are also great, the lipstick was $6, the eyeliner $6 and the mascara was $8. Then to top it off there was a $3 off coupon when you spend $12 or more. These prices when shopping around were typically $2 less then low end brands like Covergirl and Revlon and about $10 or more less then the brands such as Clinique and Smashbox.

So after a number of uses I have come to some conclusions. I LOVE the mascara and would definitely get it again. It goes on exactly like I wanted and lasts all day in all types of conditions. The eye liner, I will use but an not a huge fan of. You can certainly tell a difference with this compared to the smashbox type I am used to. The lipstick with nice lips is wonderful I have come to wearing it most days.

In addition I bought some Joe Fresh nail polish. It was the exact colour I was searching for, a dark charcoal and again the price was right one for 4$ or 3 for 10$. I am used to using either OPI or Essie, so my standards are relatively high and other then being a fantastic colour and only requiring two coats, the nail polish does not have much going for it in my opinion. The brush is nubby (short and thick), and it chips pretty much the day it goes on. I feel like that could be alleviated with a good top coat, but I don't like to do that.

So overall, I guess it is hit and miss with Joe products, however for the price compared to top of the line options, I do believe that it is worth trying them out.