Boxing Day

After feeling a little dejected at having a very green Christmas day we awoke on Boxing Day to find this...

Nat, Mike, Mom and Dad then left to take Mike to Ottawa airport so he could fly out to Urbana, where he was playing. Daniel and I stayed behind and took Phoenix out in the snow...

and then we took Kira for a walk, and a quick run around the baseball diamond across the street...


In the afternoon we headed to Fairview the shopping centre to spend our Christmas money and as you can expect it was packed with boxing day bargin shoppers.... then later in the evening we went to catch up with the Wilsons which was lovely.

Christmas Day

So since we were all here and having Christmas I thought that I'd take some pics of our day. I think that everyone is now pretty full from lunch, Natty and Mom are sleeping and Daniel and Dad are in the basement playing Mario cart and Mike had to go out to collect some stuff ready for his trip to Urbana tomorrow.

I think think this evening we will be eating apple pie and ice cream (cus we were so full from lunch we didn't eat the dessert) and then we will play both Clue (Nat's new game) and Monopoly (the bristol edition, which is Dad's)....

We move in to our house on the 1st Jan (a week today) so I'll post some pics of that once we have an internet connection... Here are some pictures from today...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

With things slowly winding down for "that time of the year" I thought that whilst I had the chance I would write a very quick message to wish anyone and everyone who reads this a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Daniel & I will be in Montreal for Christmas with Nat & Mike, and Mom & Dad (who are driving up from the States on Saturday). I will try to get some pictures posted of our first of many Christmases in Canada, and if you take any pictures of yours please email them on...

Take care, and if I don't post again this year I'll definately do it at the start of next year.

Gill x (& Daniel)

Week 3...

Unfortunatly not a lot to report this week.... Daniel is in to his first full week of Canadian Employment and although the hours are not really all that socialble I think he is enjoying it. Tomorrow I start work too (Whoohoo!!!) for a company not far from where we are living at the moment (which is about to change so stay posted!) and I cannot wait to finally be out of the house for a reason other than to pass the time of day - I was starting to go stir crazy but have been revived again now as tomorrow draws near...

I am worried about one thing though... my hours will be from 8am - 5pm (so I will leave the house at about 7:20ish - so I'll be up at about 6.20ish...) and Daniel's are officially 10.45 - 8pm however he usually gets up at about 7.30am and gets home about 10pm.... so there is quite a high possibility that we might not actually see each other for most of the week.... and just get to catch up on the weekends. This will be quite strange as we have not actually been apart for apporx the last 4 weeks!

So yeah apart from the work thing we went to see a rental house yesterday that we have filled in an application to take. Its not somewhere that I really love but it is clean, has all new appliances and since we don't want to spend the money that we want to put into a new house in a years or so's time, I know that its going to be functional... I'll send pictures once a) I've taken some and b) I have an internet connection hooked up.

Okay I think thats all our news for now... Will try to write again soon but will probably be towards the end of the week..

Gill x

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this weekend we're in Montreal for a bit of a break from all of the things that we have been sorting out this last week and today the heavens have opened and there is approx 3" of snow on the ground!!! whoohoo!!!
Nat and I are going to go out in it for a bit, probably take Kira for a walk, and also Nat wants to put out this raindeer thing that they have so... I'll put more pictures once we've done that... for now, here are a few I took earlier :)

Landed (Pics)

So after we landed last saturday evening Nat and Jacqueline whisked us away to the house where we are staying to drop off our stuff but then we went to see the cirque de soleil (sp?) but we kinda forgot to take pictures during the show as it was kinda dark so here are some pictures at approx 10pm Canadian time (3AM!! english time! - check out the bags under the eyes!!!)

LANDED!!!!!

HELLO!!!

I know that firstly we have to apologise for taking so long to write but things have just been quite busy here with settling in, getting a rental car, getting all the correct paperwork so that we can start applying for jobs etc... as well as getting new mobile phones, we even drove downtown yesterday afternoon - well Daniel did - quite the experience!!!!

Phoenix arrived safe and sound also... he is having to stay in the basement at the moment until we have our own house as the lady we are staying with is actually allergic but she was willing for him to stay down in the basement so for that we are grateful.

Today we are going to go to the employment agency and try to find work, not sure what kind of jobs are around really so I'll have to update you on that later.

I know that a few people had asked for lots of pictures but I couldn't get pictures up on the internet yet as I have to kind of re-install the camera driver but I'll be sure to put lots up as soon as I can k...

I think thats everything for now... we're fine. We've been eating Tim Hortons for breakfast everyday so far (Sorry Em, Chris, Caroline, Wayne and all the others who might wish they were eating there also!!)

We have got mobile phones and I'll put the numbers below, as far as I know it doesn't cost much more (if anything more) to text than if would if we were in the UK so...

I'll try to get the picutres up as soon as I can as I said, I'll probably do that on here so check there soon k..

Mobiles including country codes
Gill: 001 613 808 4654
Dan: 001 613 808 5078

Also, if you did want to send us mail, its best to do it to Nat & Mikes house please email me for the address

Right... back to finding jobs etc...

Take care,
Love Gill x (& Dan x)

The Final Countdown

Hopefully you too will now be humming along the tune in your head like we are here!! With now less than 24 hours to go before we fly off to new horizons we are....well actually not really doing a lot. Friends and family are mostly all at work and we are just tying up a few loose ends with bank stuff and cramming the last few clothes into the suitcases!

Thats it really.... See you in .... about 30ish hours!!

Gill & Dan xx

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Also - just a few pics from bonfire night...

Moving... or not...

Well it was quite a long time now that I wrote on here so just wanted to keep people posted on where we are with the move.

We found out on friday that the buyers solicitor has been on holiday for 2 weeks and the person standing in for him has raised some rediculous queries which are making the sale drag through. We had originally stipulated that we wanted to complete no later than the 17th (this coming friday) having exchanged contracts earlier this week but it is lnow ooking more like the middle of next week before we complete - cutting it fine much?!?!

So everything that seemed to be going swimingly to begin with is more than a bit messed up and Daniel is now contemplating buying our tickets regardless of whether we complete or not and if he has to cancel his ticket and just send phoenix and I then he has said that he will do that.

I write to you sat on the lounge floor (which is causing me to have an ever increasingly numb bum!) since we have no sofas cus they were collected by the shippers on monday. House is very empty and am not sure if we are coming or going at the minute!

I know that we will get there - eventually I'm sure... just don't much like this very strange feeling.... Will write again soon if we've still not gone anywhere... gotta go stretch the legs...

Gill

Little Pumpkin!!

We never did anything for halloween whilst we were growing up and I know why that is, but when you see pictures of kids in costumes like this one, you can't help but love these holidays so that they actually get dressed up ya know.. How cute?? This is Kyra (McKnight) in her SO cute pumpkin costume. Can't wait to see you in person Kyra! x

So Long, Farewell.....

Daniel and I have been going through a few things like what we should be getting rid of and selling off etc and we've decided that one of things we should get rid of now is the broadband internet connection. So... I think that this might be our last post for a while - maybe our next one will be on the other side of the pond - in our new little apartment in Ottawa... hmm... can't wait...
Until then....

Gill xx (& Daniel)

Finally

So more than 2 weeks after it was actually sold, the SOLD sign finally went up today. We think that things are actually moving along although we've not actually been told anything officially.
So Natty - that's it... it finally went up - that's all for now...

Bless....

Just shows you what paperwork does to a company eh? - Taylors have today put up a For Sale sign - more than a week after it actually went on the market - and 4 days after we accepted an offer on it...!! oh well at least the neighbours will have some idea that we're off now, I did think that we'd just be gone one day and no-one would know how or when... "sniff..."

All gone....

We're sold!!!!!! - well the house is... kinda... although there has been no official signing or anything as yet, we have accepted an offer on the house and they are coming back tonight to negotiate on appliances etc...
All mom and Dad's hard work (& ours!) has paid off!!

Things are now a little strange again - we go through stages... like when Daniel got his visa we were very excited and wanted to leave right away - then we remembered that we still had to sell the house so feelings of excitment are quickly replaced by the - "oh no more work" stage and then we get to today and having accepted an offer again we are on cloud nine - "we're going to Canada, we're going to Canada", and yet there is the looming fear of SO much to organise between now and then.

We are still very excited but slightly overwhelmed.

Again we can only thank God that things have gone so well in our decisions to move, and the various processes to get us to this point. Our friends at church cannot believe that things have gone so fast but keep re-assuring us that it can only mean that this was the right decision.

Wicked!!! - See you all (well the Canadians that read this) at Christmas!!!

Gill x

On the net

Got a second page on the internet now! - House is on the market & on the internet now although there are no pictures of the inside as we still need to approve those, but its there!! - whoohoo!! I'll keep you posted as and when things progress.

Viewing

So no sooner have Mom & Dad left the country back to the States (their flight was at 11 this morning) than we get a telephone call and have got 2 veiwings - on our first morning on the market. A lady who the agent is taking around this afternoon due to us both being at work and then someone is coming to view it on Saturday morning - whilst Daniel is at work - so I'm gonna have to be the one to show them around, that'll be something new for me!!
So yeah, if you could pray for that cus I'm a bit nervous about that and also we're praying for any prospective buyers, it'll be up to someone making aquick & resonable offer that determines as and when we are able to move so...
Ta,
Gill x

Lost Wedding Pics

Whilst visiting my grandparents last week I found some pictures from our wedding that I had never seen before that I thought were funny (Nannie & Beverley) &I really like the one of us cutting the cake as we didn't have one so I thought I'd just insert them here...

Going Ape!!!

This morning a few of our youth group "Shrib" went to Go Ape. Go Ape is like an adventure centre where you wear a harness and climb about all kinds of obstacles about 30ft+ up in the trees!! - we had a really great time - Here are a few pics of us "going ape".

A whole new world

Well it's been a long time coming but I think that we are finally about there. This week Mom & Dad came up to Leicester (on monday night) and we have worked non-stop from tuesday am until friday pm - here are the results!








A massive thank you to both Mom & Dad for all of their hard work and spuring both Daniel & I on at times just to get things completed - we very much appreciate it. xx

Iain & Laura's Wedding - 10th Sept '06

Yay what a day!!!

If you have been following our blog for a while you may remember Daniel's comments following Iain & Laura's visit last January.

Well this past Sunday Iain and Laura tied the knot - here are some pictures...



Huge congrats to Iain & Laura - you both looked fantastic & the dancing was amazing, with much love, hugs and prayers for your future, Daniel & Gill xx