MORE FUN!!

It seemed like a great idea at the outset to create a train layout for the office. That great idea turned into quite a bit of work!! That is OK since the final result seems to be worth it!! You decide and then tell us (with a comment). Lorraine bought her oldest "boy" a LEGO Christmas Train last year for Christmas! Can you imagine the surprise I had last year on Christmas Eve when I opened the present! It took at least 6 hours to put it all together.

This year Kevin agreed to let me use one of his train regulators and some train track for the layout. As was mentioned in another blog, the kids came over in early November for the weekend and made some houses etc for the layout.

Here is a video of the train actually running!

All things must be considered!!

As most of you know already, the main job that I have that buys us food, is designing homes. We do a lot of that!! By "we", I mean Brent, Kev and I do the drawings. So, this morning we were reminded on how important it is to consider Santa and his sleigh in our home designs! I think I might have to change a few of our houses now!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

What's a new office without new decorations! That's one of the fun parts of moving the business out of the house. Now I can justify getting more decorations! And another tree! The tree we actually bought last July when the Garden Shedde/Miracle on 46th Street was having a Christmas in July sale. It works just perfect for our limited floor space. And the Singing Family is also just right! No - the picture is not squished. They really are all tall and slim - like we wish we were! Really cool for our space up here. And old-fashioned ornaments on the tree to go along with our old-fashioned carollers. I've been just waiting to put it all out - no more storing them in the corner of our dining room at home! And there is a little village tree that lights up (with a little train of course) sitting on the reception counter along with our first poinsettia. And there are huge candy canes on the meeting room doors. And a "counting Danish Elf" by my desk showing everyone who comes in just how many more days til Christmas! And the parts and pieces of a wreath over in the desk area waiting to be put together and hung at the top of the stairs along with two pine boughs also waiting to be decorated and hung. (Next week!)

And don't worry - not all the effort has gone into preparing the office for the joy of Christmas! We have our home decorated too! And quite nicely I might add. We have lots of little treasures wandering around the family room on the plate shelf tucked in among the garland and lights. Very homey! But that is another whole blog! Right now enjoy our home away from home Christmas decor! Oh yes, there is Yule music playing and Pumpkin Spice candles burning during the taking of these pictures - those you will just have to believe me on!

Fun - here we come!

While I was busy painting and painting and sneaking in work for PJ here and there when I could, PJ was busy online shopping for Lego! (He worked too! Not all fun and games and no work!) Since the kids barely managed to make the houses they did a few weeks ago with the basic lego, Peter decided more Lego would be good. Hey kids, want to come build more houses? And there are still more packages to come! Fancy pieces!

19 pounds of basic arrived at the post office for pick-up yesterday. Some of it came from as far away as Florida. Some Grandpa must have given up his childhood passion and passed it on - or Grandma said "it's got to go!". Either way we get the fun of building! By the way - over morning coffee this morning we counted the box of black pieces - just for fun of course. About 1900 pieces - and some interesting ones too! Like I said - who wants to come build with us! Funny thing - we are still building!

Craft Sale 2007

The vendors getting ready and set up for the sale to start.

All ready for the customers - smile - cause this is fun!

Becky and Peter deep in some sales with customers - those ornaments went flying out the door this year!

Lots of "buyers" looking for just the right Christmas idea or gift!

And all that admission food donation! Two stove boxes filled and over 900 pounds in weight. And $1229.00 in cash donations. Pretty good for one day of customers!

Kevin is having FUN!

Yes that is right, when our son Kevin is at school it generally is fun for him since he is studying something that he has loved for a long time. Since he is in his second year at SAIT polytechnic, he is doing more exciting things than last year. Just today we received a video that shows a helicopter that they have been working on. It was necessary to start it, run it to full speed and then shut it down. It will be a bit noisy if you keep the volume up. We think it is just awesome and just the coolest thing to know the opportunities that he has at SAIT. In just a few weeks it will be a Harvard plane that they will run!!

Almost Like Christmas

Work First!

Official Lego Guard Dog

Serious Construction!

Kev and Kels looking for blue bricks!


Creative Brent and Kirstin!

BEFORE the lego came upstairs!

This past weekend all the kids were around at one time or another. It felt just like Christmas! For two reasons actually. And it wasn't because of the lack of turkey dinner, or snow, or presents - it was Christmas-y because there was lots of Lego playing and Christmas music in the background. Kirstin (between putting together bricks for a cute little red house) was downloading music onto our laptop in preparation for the Craft Sale coming up in a week and a half (Yikes!) and everyone else (but me and the guard dog) were sorting and building things for Peter's Christmas display to enhance his Lego Christmas Train. Brent made a working windmill and Kev and Kels made a white and blue "farmhouse". Brent even made a little outhouse (not sure where it went!). On Saturday Eric and Peter picked up the styrofoam for the base and somewhere along the line Becky made a funny looking Lego "man" and hid him downstairs to scare any unsuspecting person retrieving food from the cold room (there, I gave it away where he/she/it is!).

Before all the fun started though Peter went out on Saturday afternoon (Nov 10) IN HIS SHIRT SLEEVES to finish digging the garden up before the snow really does come to stay. When all was over it was a good weekend. And we still get to have Christmas for real yet!

My Take

Over the Fence! Good thing it does not say "Over the Hill!" You know, I have not posted anything on our blogs since way back at the start of our train station blog! It is about time you say? I agree too!

When we decided that "Over the Fence" would be a good name for our new blog, I thought that it would be an opportunity to just chat and just talk about things that are on our minds. You might do this with us if you lived right next to us and we would meet at the fence and just talk. I like that sort of format. It gives a neighborly feeling to the blog and I think that is important. We can chat about all sorts of things ya know!!

So to tell you about what has been happening lately, I need to explain this photograph shown above. Our business "PJB Design Consultants" was nominated this year (also in 2005) for "Small Business of the year award" for 2007 with the Lacombe and District Chamber of Commerce. We were honored to have this nomination for sure and were joined by two other businesses in this category this year. We did not receive the award this year which was a bit disappointing for sure, but that is the way it goes. Lorraine and I both felt that we made quite a contribution to the community this year with the construction of our "historical" train station, but it seems that may not have been enough even considering our other community involvements. This photo was taken on Friday night after the awards banquet in the new Lacombe Memorial Center. We are standing in front of the Donors wall.

It was fun to be there for sure and we had an excellent meal! I was even honored to be asked to say grace for the meal! Who knows, maybe next time we will be successful. Honestly, it is not that we want or need this recognition, it just seems nice to have your business recognized for the affect it may have had on the community.

Have an awesome week, and until next time, toodleloo. (is that a word?)

Here we are. A whole new phase of life. We've loved (for the most part) every step we've been through already and yet look forward to this next one as well. Over The Fence does not mean we are Over The Hill - so don't mistype the title looking for us! For us it means there is a whole new world out there waiting for us to explore!

When raising a family there are certain limitations in place in order to do the job properly. At times as a family you step out of the boundaries, but then September rolls around and you are back to routine and patterns for living in order to keep everyone's life running smoothly. This is a good thing. Things are different now. We are still participants in family life and dearly want to be part of our kid's activities, it's just taken a whole new look for us.

The building is done. At this point we are not heavily committed to a particular church life or ministry. We are right now free to go Over The Fence and see the world on the other side! And I think we started this new adventure with our little holiday in Victoria! By the way, what a difference 27 years can make! We spent our honeymoon camping on the island. Cold, rain water running under our tent and pinching pennies. We've been blessed abundantly to be where we are today!