Winter Wonderland

This Christmas we got over 2 feet of snow! It is absolutely beautiful. We live on a pretty quiet street that has a lot of mature trees. So going for a walk or a drive is just amazing, the snow on the evergreens is magical. Yes it does make it a little bit more difficult to drive, but it is truly beautiful. I often think that I would love to live somewhere warm for the whole year, but when we get a snowfall like this one, I just know that I would miss having the snow. The snow is also a lot of fun to play in. The snow banks are really high, they are definitely taller than my oldest son Clayton. Clayton and Cooper stayed overnight with their grandparents this week, the night that we got a lot of snow. My dad and Clayton went outside to play in it, and Clayton literally couldn't walk in the snow, so my dad ended up putting him in a really big snow shovel and pushed him around! I wish they had got a picture! Ben set up a slide in our backyard, and a path to the slide, so the kids have had a blast going up and down that. The same morning that the kids were at my parents place, Ben and I went for a long snowshoe. We went to a place in Ottawa called Bruce Pit. You can walk your dogs in there, and there are a lot of different paths. Ben and I didn't want to go on the beaten paths, since we had snowshoes, we figured we should make our own. At one point we had no idea where we were, we thought we were headed towards our car, however when we asked a couple of guys that we ran into, they said we were going in the complete opposite direction!! Oops!!! The snow was so fluffy and light, and the trees were  very picturesque, at times it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains somewhere. It was great and a nice treat to be kid free for a  while. 

Previously I have posted pictures of Ben's man cave, in the fall, but here it is in the winter. Doesn't it look cozy? It also gives you a good idea of just how much snow fell this week. 

This is the view of the backyard from the Maple Room. Today was a perfect day with the clear blue sky, and the sun shining!

This room is really great at this time of year because there is a fireplace. It is so warm and cozy being able to sit inside by the fireplace, with a good book, and just look out at the view. I could spend hours in here!

One of the coolest things about Ottawa during the winter is Winterlude. This is a festival that celebrates winter. In Ottawa there is the Rideau Canal, and in the winter it is the world's largest natural skating rink. One of the biggest attractions for Winterlude is to go for a skate on the canal, and while you go for a skate, you can't leave without getting a beavertail. This is another Ottawa tradition  It's a pastry that typically has cinnamon and sugar on it. There is nothing like skating and then warming up with a beavertail and a hot chocolate. The beavertail gets just a little crispy from the cold, but still warm.....mmm so good.

There are a lot of other things to do in Ottawa during Winterlude, but the other 2 more popular attractions are the ice sculptures, and Jacques Cartier park. If you are in town you definitely need to check them out! The festival runs for almost three weeks in February. Febraury 1 to 18! For more information check out the website,
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/celebrate/winterlude

And of course our Bed and Breakfast would be the perfect place to stay while enjoying the fun of Winterlude!
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/celebrate/winterlude
Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Time

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year. It's a great time to be with friends and family. There is always a lot of good food to be had. I looove food, so that is very exciting for me. If there is snow, it's usually very beautiful, especially the snow covered evergreens. The decorations are beautiful. There are always a lot of fun parties happening! And most importantly we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I think that our pastor on Sunday morning said it best, God did not send Christ, so that we could have a holiday. God sent us Christ so that we could have life! A life full of love, grace, hope and peace!

This past weekend we started off our Christmas season with a bang! We had 2 potlucks. One was at our church. It was a lot of fun. There is always good food and a ton of laughs to be had. This year we had a photo booth, with props for people to put on to take their pictures in. There were santas, and elves, and reindeers!! It was hilarious! Then on Sunday, Ben and I hosted a Christmas party for Ben's team. It was great. This is the first year that we had our own team party. We had over 25 people come!!! That means our team is growing and that we have some really amazing people in our lives who we are getting know, and who we are having a ton of fun working with!  The food was also amazing; there was some chicken that was just incredible, as well as some homemade dumplings! So good.

For our party of Sunday I decorated our house all Christmasy and stuff. Here are some of the decorations that I put together this year. This is an idea that I got off of Pinterest. It's not exactly what they had, but I was working with thing that I had in my house. I didn't want to have to go out and buy more things. I love it because it was easy to do. All  I had to do was spray paint some wine bottles we had around the house, and then put some pretty flowers in.

 I think that this is the smallest Christmas tree, that we have ever gotten. But it fits perfectly in the space. After getting this smaller one, I am not sure why I ever felt the need to get  a bigger Christmas tree. They just take up a lot more space. Clayton helped us decorate this year. He was so excited to help! It was great! He put all the hooks on the decorations, and he put the beautiful "star" on top, his choice...

Here you will see our stockings. We really only had(have) three, but it didn't seem right not to have anything up for Cooper, so we added an Elmo slipper that we had lying around the house for him! It's so little and cute!! Today a friend of mine asked Clayton what he wanted to get from Santa Claus, and Clayton's answer was that he wanted a stocking to put on his foot!!! The story behind that is while we were putting up the stockings Ben put his on his foot like a sock, and then of course Clayton proceeded to put his stocking on his foot. Monkey, see monkey do right. Anyways I guess Clayton thought that was pretty cool, and that was what Santa would be doing with the stockings.. I am not sure he fully gets Santa yet....

Anyways I hope you enjoyed the blog today! I really do hope that you enjoy your Christmas season, and that you have a ton of fun while you are celebrating this absolutely wonderful time of year! And if anyone would like to come on over for some breakfast just let me know, we would love to have you over! Blessings!

Check out the man cave!!!

I am happy to report that Ben's man cave is pretty much done. And it turned out beautifully! Ben said that it is better than he would've expected. The only things that we need to do to it still are painting and decorating. Ben put up a desk that he made out of his old snowboard, I doubted at first that it would work, and that it would look good, but it does. It's actually pretty neat. We painted the walls white, and the railing up on the loft, blue. We are going to for a bit of a seaside theme. Ben still needs to make the coffee table, he has this old skim board that he is going to make into the table. It should be neat too!  Ben had his first sleepover in the cabin with Clayton. He said it was good until Clayton woke up at 5 in the morning, and was so excited to be in the cabin. He was like, Dad, we are in the cabin,Dad look at the trees, Dad the railing is up... and he just wouldn't go back to sleep no matter how hard Ben tried to get him to.  Too cute!

Also if anyone is ever interested we are renting it out as a Bed and Breakfast room. The loft is super comfy, and it is very cozy. However there is no bathroom so you would have to use the bathroom in our house. But if you ever want a little bit of a different experience please just let me know!! 

Here are the pictures. The outside is complete except for a little bit of painting. I learned that you can't paint exterior paint when it's below 10 degrees otherwise it doesn't set properly, and it will chip a lot quicker. So that part has to wait until next spring. 

 This is the snowboard desk that Ben made, keep in mind that we still have some finishing touches. Pretty neat though eh? And of course Ben put up his knives and other "manly" things that he had lying around the house.

This is another wall. I was going to make this wall a little more decorative and pretty, but Ben found these skis on the side of the road, and thought they would look good. Again, it's pretty neat. It gives the whole cabin a cozy ski lodge type feel.

 Aren't the skylights awesome! They let in so much light, and the view when lying down is really cool!! It's really great having the railing up there because now the kids can sleep or play up there without falling!

We painted all of the walls white, and we are going to leave the ceiling it's natural wood color. Again this mirror was found on the side of the road. And you can see the outlets where Ben hooked it up so that we can have a TV in it if we want to.

So ya that's the man cave. It's really awesome. Ben is going to be taking some time off at Christmas and we are going to be hanging out there a whole bunch with the kids, I can't wait!!!

Greentruck bed and breakfast had a great October. There were a total of 16 nights booked, so it was awesome! We had a gentleman here from southern Ontario, who was here on business. He knew my mom and was helping her with some fundraising work that she does with the local Christian high school. There is this game that is called Dutch bingo, that you play if you are dutch and you go to a Christian Reformed Church. Basically you just ask the person you are talking to, whom you have just met,  if they know your cousin, for example, that lives in their area, or you ask about last names, have you heard about this person etc. And usually if you ask enough questions you will discover that you know some people in common. So it turns out that this guy who stayed with us knew Ben's Aunt and Uncle who live in Brampton. And he was able to let them know that he stayed with us! It is such a small world!!

This past weekend we had our first return guests! How cool is that?? I was super excited that people enjoyed their stay so much that they were wanting to stay again! They were a great couple too, they have 2 boys as well, a little older than ours are right now, but the story swapping was great. We learned a thing or two about raising 2 boys.

All in all the B and B is going very well. We still love it and are super excited about what is going to happen with it as time goes on!

If anyone is looking for a place to stay in the Barrhaven area let me know!!! 613-608-0565, or greentruckbandb@gmail.com

A few great stories!!

As you may know from reading our blog from time to time that as much as I use this blog to promote our B and B, I have also started to use this blog as a way to tell our story and let people know what is happening in our lives.  This entry will be a lot about what's been happening in our daily lives and maybe it will entice you to want to come and have some breakfast with me and my amazing family!

This morning I went over to my sister's place and we hung out with her and Simon, her son. Simon is only 3 days older than Clayton, my eldest son, and the two of them play together really well. We went to the park for a bit and then we went back to Ang's place for some lunch. We had cut up some watermelon, put it on the table for the boys, and then went back to finishing making sandwiches. When we peeked our heads in the room to see what the boys were up to, they both had their hands folded and were praying. Clayton was thanking God for food and friends, and if I remember correctly Simon was thanking God for friends and watermelon. It was a very precious moment.

This is what happens when I turn my back on CJ for a moment, and he has a large container of Cinnamon in his hands, I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to let him have the Cinnamon in the first place!!!  I tried to save some of the meatloaf but meatloaf and Cinnamon just aren't really a good combo....

A couple of weeks ago, my mom, sister, all the kids and I went apple picking in South Mountain, we didn't end up picking too many apples, the boys were not super interested in that part. But there was a great wagon ride, the boys were obsessed with the tractor. There was a tether ball, which if any of you know my mom, you will have to ask her to tell you about how it went when she played with the boys. And there was a large straw play pit, the kids loved jumping and playing in that! This is a picture of me with the boys picking apples. Cooper really enjoyed eating the apples.

My parents have a whole lot of land, and we all love going out there for a four wheeler ride. Clayton can't go there without getting a ride. This picture is a little red neck, I know, but I love it, and clearly so do Ben and Clayton!!

We have such a hard time getting a family photo done where all of us were looking and smiling, so this was the best of the 20 attempts that we made, at least 2 out of the 4 of us are smiling!!

Cooper is our youngest son, and man he is cute. The poor little guy has had a rough couple of weeks, but he is still super calm and happy. He has been teething like crazy. He now has 6 teeth and 2 more are just starting to pop through on the bottom.

He is just learning to take his first steps!!!! He started the week off by being able to take 2 or 3 steps, and tonight he took at least 5 without falling!! He is so great!!

And this is him with his Daddy, just after taking a bath. He is pretty good with his words too! He says momma a lot, but he often will say "hi dad" when Ben comes home or into the room. It is really sweet!

So that's what's been happening with the boys lately. Let's talk about Ben for a bit.  This past week Ben and I had the opportunity to go to SMD academy in Johns Creek, Georgia. And man, this was an incredible experience. For those of you who don't know, SMD is the level in Ben's business where he now officially owns his own financial service brokerage. This is a huge accomplishment, very few people actually make it this far with World Financial Group. To give you an idea, there were only 15 people, from Canada in the last 6 months who qualified for this promotion.(there are about 6000 licensed agents in Canada) As a reward for making it to SMD, WFG puts on this academy. There are 2 parts to the academy. The first part is recognition, all of the SMD's get applauded for their hard work. And the second part is training. We received some of the best business training and info that we have ever heard or gotten before. It totally prepared us for what the next steps in our business should be.

I just want to share with you one of the coolest experiences that we had while we were there. Once we got to John's Creek, and checked into our hotel rooms, there was a bus waiting outside to take us to the WFG head office. So we all got onto the bus and drove over. Once we got there, just outside the building,  the president of the company, and 2 founders of the company were waiting to shake our hands and say congratulations. And as if that wasn't enough, they literally had the red carpet rolled out, and we walked into the building where the foyer was lined with head office staff clapping for us as we walked through.  Seriously what other company does this for their top leaders!! And then to top it all off, they had an amazing dinner set out for us with wine, the fixings and dessert! It was one of the most exciting moments, and one of the most humbling experiences that Ben or I has ever had. 

The bed and breakfast is also doing really well. October has been a great month so far. We have had 6 people come and stay with us over the course of the month, and I know that I have said this before, but it is so neat being able to meet people from all over with all different kinds of stories. Every single person has something that is unique about them, and it's just so fantastic being able to get to know people over breakfast, even if it's just for one meal. This past weekend we had 2 ladies staying, who were studying homeopathy. I have heard about it before, but didn't really know what it was all about, so it was really interesting learning just a little bit more about it.

This week we have a couple staying here who used to live in Ottawa back in the 60's, so it is really neat being able to hear their perspective on Ottawa now versus what it was like back then. It's been fun hearing some of their stories.

Just for fun, I'll leave you with a couple of quotes, and the name of a good book to read. The name of the book is "I Dare You", and it's written by Joyce Meyer.

And here's some quotes that I thought were great. The first one is from Rich Thawley, the main speaker at SMD academy.

"I am grateful for the opportunity everyday that I can be the best that I can be"

And the second is from the book I mentioned above.

"Let God fight your battles while you remain at rest, trusting Him."

These are just 2 really great quotes that push me to be just a little but better everyday!! Hope you enjoyed!!

October is going to be great and Ben's man cave is almost done

This past weekend we had a bunch of family over to our house because Cooper, our youngest son was baptized. One of Ben's aunts asked us if we knew we wanted to build and run a B and B in our home when we had originally bought it. At the time, the thought of a B and B or any home based business had never even entered our minds. We hadn't even thought about additions or anything like that. We just really liked the space in the house and we loved the size of our backyard and the privacy that it has. So I told my aunt that we don't really think things through and we don't think about things very long we just do them! And that is certainly the case with the B and B! But it has definately turned out to be one of the best things that we have ever done.

So far in October we have 15 nights booked between the 2 rooms! Which is awesome. I still have yet to figure out if there is going to be a pattern for when it will be busy or slow. I really wasn't expecting October to be busy, but I did think that July and August would be busy. And I was wrong on both accounts! July and August were not very busy, but October is going to be. Go figure!

Ben made it into the SMD academy for his business! For those of you who do not know, that  is a huge honor. Because Ben achieved his SMD promotion this year, he is going to be reconginzed at a world class event in Georgia that is put on by WFG. It's an all expenses paid trip, in the middle of October and I get to go along for the ride!! It's going to be an amazing time. And then at the end of October we are going to be going to Mont Tremblant for another huge WFG event. Our Ottawa office is hosting a Super Saturday training event, and there is also going to be an awesome team party while we are there. It's going to be a great weekend!

All in all October is going to be a very busy month. It is just incredible to see how our businesses are growing and are becoming more and more successful. God is continually working through us and is making some really awesome things happen in our lives.

Over the last couple of weeks our backyard and B & B have been transformed yet again. We have been busy trying to get the cabin(aka Ben's man cave) completely weather proofed and ready to move into. The outside of the cabin is almost done. We still need to put up the veranda and paint some of the outside walls, but I think other than that the outside is done! It is looking very, very good!!

Gardening - who knew it was so much work! I have discovered that I am a big fan of perenials, that's the flowers that you plant, and then they just keep coming back year after year! I have to make sure that I water them, and cut off the dead blooms at the end of their season, but other than that they pretty much take care of themselves. Annuals are pretty easy too, they just bloom in season, and then they die and then that's it.  But then there are other plants, and I have no idea what you call them, but you have to dig up the bulbs and put them somewhere warm enough so that they don't freeze over the winter.  I didn't know that you had to do that. I still am not sure how many of these plants I have in my yard. So far I know of one. Although it's a bunch of work, gardening is great. I love that when you work on it you can see results pretty much immediately.  The yard looks better every time Ben's parents and I do any one small thing. We planted some grass this week, and it just looks fabulous. It does take years for the roots of plants to take, and then for the plants to grow and create flowers or blooms. The first set of plants that I have took 2 years to bloom!! I guess gardening will aslo teach me some patience!

Our backyard is looking awesome, our businesses are growing, our kids are cute, and wonderful, and our families are truly amazing, what more could we ask for!!

Hmm,, what to write about?!

I wanted to blog today. I haven't written anything in a while, and I just thought it was time to write and give everyone another little glimpse into the crazy life of Greentruck B and B. However I didn't quite know what to write about, so I asked Ben, my husband, what to write about, and he said to write about how awesome our life is. So here goes..Our life is awesome. We are so blessed and cared for and loved, and most days I try to be grateful for that, but it is so good for me to write this now as a reminder of these many wonderful things in our lives. First of all today is Ben and I's wedding anniversary. We have been married now for 8 years. I honestly can't believe that it's been 8 years already. Ben and I have had our share of adventures, challenges, and joys. He is an amazing man. I can't love him or thank him enough for all of the love that he has showed me over the years. I am not always the easiest person to live with so his patience and constant kindness is something that I could not imagine my life without. I love you Ben!!

We have 2 wonderful children, who I also can not imagine my life without,,although sometimes I would like to!! I would get to sleep in every now and again. Clayton is our oldest boy he is 2 and a half. Cooper is our second baby and he is 8 months old. Clayton is happy and very empathetic. He has so much energy and just loves life, and loves to laugh. Cooper is so easy going. He loves to smile, and he loves to snuggle! He is just learning to crawl and move around. Man he is fast! And Clayton is learning new sentences and new words every single day. The 2 of them get along well and make each other laugh everyday. Being a mom is a very joyful and wonderful experience. I am so proud of both of my kids!!

This past weekend Ben and I participated in the MS bike tour from Ottawa to Cornwall. It was amazing. We biked 110km on Saturday. It was so great for Ben and I to spend 2 whole days together without the kids. We got to talk to each other about things besides kids stuff, and we got to do something active together, and then we spent Sunday going for a drive. We went through the States and did a little shopping, and then we had lunch together. I can't say enough about how awesome it was to be a part of this great event. I would encourage anyone who is interested in doing it to talk to Ben or I. It was a really well done event!! And it was super great way for Ben and I to relax and just hang out together.

Ben has been working with a company called World Financial Group for the past 3 years now. And this has been awesome. He has grown himself so much. We have been challenged and grown together so much. We have been encouraged to live our lives to the fullest and not be afraid of risk, but to go out there and fight for what you want out of life. Sometimes, this has been tricky because Ben and I don't always think things through we just kind of dive in with both feet, and then have to sort our way through the consequences, but overall it's been great. We have been able to help families with their financial situations, and also have been able to learn a lot about starting up your own business and what it takes to make it work.

I have started up the bed and breakfast over the last couple of months and while it has been a little slower than I would have liked, it's been a learning experience, it's been a challenge and it has shown me what I am made of and what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it. And I love it. I love hosting people in our home. I love hearing people's stories. And I love having my own business. I love being home with our 2 boys and still be able to bring in some cash. I wouldn't change a thing. We have always loved our home and so to be able to share it with other people has been a true blessing.

We have an amazing network of people in our lives that I just can't say enough about how God has truly blessed us through all of these people. Our families are incredible. They are always there for us and for the kids! They are loving, happy and very giving. I know that they are there for us no matter what we end doing,, and we have done a few things that may have caused a grey hair or ten. Our friends from WFG are incredible people who have always encouraged us and helped us in our business journey!! And all of our close childhood friends are wonderful. I have amazing friends who I can run with, drink wine with, hang out with my kids with, and people who will help me whenever I need it! I know that I wouldn't be who I am today without any of these people in our lives.

We do have an awesome life. We have so much to be thankful for. Overall the last couple of weeks there have been a series of events in our lives that have caused  a lot of stress, and it is so easy to get caught up in all of the stress and craziness and business of life. It's easy to say that things are awful and that life is busy and so tiring. However God has reminded Ben and I a bunch over the last couple of weeks that He is God, he has things under control, and as long as we are willing to lay our lives before him he will take care of us no matter what. And the craziest thing that I have learned is that I really don't have to worry. Not about a thing. He will, by his grace take care of everything that we need in our lives, and that is even when we screw up.

And here are a few more pictures of what is happening in our backyard.. Enjoy!

So ya, all in all our life is pretty darn awesome. Thanks Ben for the advice!!

Here's the Pictures

In my last post I mentioned that I would take some pictures and post them. So here they are. I can't keep up to all that is happening some of these pictures are already out of date!! But enjoy!!

The first one here is the awesome table that I got at a garage sale. I love the color of the orange tiles!! It was a plain wood table when I got it, so I painted it white and voila! I would love to say that the hydrangeas in this picture are mine, but they are not. They are from my good friend Kate, her hydrangea bush is absolutely gorgeous,, you will see mine a little lower, not so gorgeous yet.

The previous owners of our house had left us this rain barrel. It was never hooked up properly, nor was there a spout to get water out of it, so it just wasn't functional, but it works really well on the deck for pure decoration!

This is the walkway from the back of our garage. It's all flat stones that Art and Sylvia have pulled for us from various places along their travels. And you can also see the cedar rail fence here. Not only does it keep Marley in the backyard, but it look great too. There will be beautiful and full gardens all in the wood chips some day,, this gardening thing takes some time apparently.

 Another angle of the fence and the gate into our backyard.

Oh man, my mother in law told me the name of this, here's how I think that it's spelt, phlox. Hopefully I got that right.  These pink ones bloomed first and now we are starting to get some white ones as well.

 And these are my hydrangeas....

Here's a hosta. This one did really well. It was even transplanted in the middle of the summer, but it stayed super green, and full, and actually bloomed quite beautifully.

This is the base of the cabin that Ben's parents are building for Ben. He wanted a bit of a man cave, so this is what we are doing. It's being made all out of recycled wood either leftovers from the addition, or other wood that Ben's parents have collected and no longer need. The cabin will be Ben's space, but it's also going to cover in the hole where the dead cedars are, so that our yard will be completely private again. The front of the cabin will have a small porch and huge windows. I went to my parents place last week and picked out some windows and doors. They had tons of them in their old barn that they didn't need, so I went and choose some out! That was really fun too. There were all shapes and sizes and colors. I am really excited about the door. It's this old red door that is solid wood, and has a ton of character. It even has the old glass window to go with it. It's going to look great!

Another angle of the backyard with our fire pit! Don't worry we haven't used it in a while. It's been way too dry!!

Pretty!

We received a whole bunch of flowers from Ben's parents really good friends, this was one of the lilies we got. Isn't it beautiful!

Night time at the Stenferts.



Man it's HOT!

Wow what a crazy couple of months. I don't even know where to start. Everything just goes by so quickly and all the days just seem to mix together, and for the most part I don't even know what I did yesterday!! Life has been really good though. There is nothing to complain about except for maybe the heat. We do not have air conditioning so it's been a bit tough to handle. The boys are champs though and seem to be making out alright, they each have their own fans. In total we have 6 fans throughout the house, so it is bearable. The other night Ben asked me to hose him down just to cool off before bed. It was pretty funny!!! And thankfully we have one set of parents who has a pool, and the other set has a lake, so we have definitely spent some time there! Thanks mom and dad!! Also our neighbours have a pool and have very kindly offered to let us swim there whenever we want; so that is awesome too!!

What else has been happening at Greentruck B and B? Well June and July have been pretty slow months. We have had 2 bookings. They both went really well. One was an aunt and uncle that I haven't seen in years. It was really neat to catch up with them, and hear how they are making out. They got a chance to meet our 2 little boys, so that was really great!! My grandma actually suggested to them that they come and check it out; it's really great to have family supporting us and encouraging us along the way.  And the other couple that we had come through were from Switzerland. They were on a road trip all through the eastern part of Canada. We were a short stop along the way for them! Again, they were very kind and very easy guests to have in our home.

Our backyard has once more been transformed.  I will post pictures later on this week, but we finished the fences and gates in the backyard!!! Yeah!! Marley, our dog can no longer escape, which I am sure that all of our neighbours are thankful for. She is an escape artist and is always looking for a new way to get out of the house. She would get out often and terrorize the neighbours with her high pitched, really annoying bark.  Even once the fence was up, she dug several holes under the fence and still escaped! But I think, I hope that we have gotten all the holes plugged up now, and it would be a huge challenge for her to get out. We'll see!

We planted a whole bunch more plants where the temporary garage was in the backyard. The plants look a little pathetic at the moment because we transplanted them a little too late, but some of them are blooming, so they will live!! The lilies bloomed, the hydrangeas bloomed, the hostas bloomed and just today we have a new pink flower blooming. I have no idea what it's called. I'll have to get back to you on that one. And then just this week, we put in some mulch and more stones for a pathway. The pathway looks great, and the mulch really cleans up the space.  I say we, but really most of it has been Ben's parents, Art and Sylvia, doing all of the work. We all brainstorm for ideas and they are very good at getting things done! Thank you!!

The foundation for Ben's cabin, or man cave is up. Again this is thanks to Art and Sylvia. Oh, if anyone has windows that they would like to get rid of, we need 2 matching ones for on the front of the cabin. We have most of what we need, it's been fun collecting all of the wood, windows, and supplies over the last couple of months. It's also been fun trying to come up with ideas for decorating it. We are going to go with a seaside home theme. So we are going to paint the walls white, and then there will be sea blue accents, and some dark browns in there too. There will be space for a desk, a small fireplace and a loft. Oh and the latest great idea is to put in sky lights! It's going to be so wonderful! We don't really have an office in our house right now, so the cabin is going to be office ish, but mostly it will be Ben's space where he will be able to relax and unwind. 

I was out garage saling a couple of weekends ago, and I found this great table that has orange tiles on the top of it. It's like a Spanish orange. The legs were just plain wood. But anyways I picked it up and painted the wooden parts of it white, and now it's on our deck and adds a cool color and an outdoor kitchen space. I still need to work on getting the right decorative stuff around it to actually make it a kitchen, but it's a great table, and it was a fun project for me. 

Well I think that's about it for now. I will take a bunch of pictures this week and post them by the weekend so make sure to check back to see all of the cool things that are happening!! And if anyone needs a place to stay in Barrhaven just let us know!! We'd love to have you.

We made it, oh and some more random thoughts

In my last post I was talking about the craziness that was the last week of May for us, and I am happy to report that it all ended went really really well!! It was such a pleasure to be able to host people in the B and B. Our friends from Germany left on Sunday, but not before having one last beer on Saturday night! And our guests from New Jersey left on the following Tuesday, after visiting Omega park. Our guests from Calgary fell in love with Clayton and loved getting his goodbye hugs! Everything went smoothly; and thankfully there were no more hospital visits.

On the Tuesday morning after the guests had left. I hosted an open house of the B and B for my dad's real estate office. I figured that the Realtors from his office might have to help people from out of town to find homes, and if they liked the B and B they could recommend that people stay at Greentruck instead of at a hotel. Or they might know clients who are moving to a new home but would need a place to stay before their new home was ready...It was a great success as well. There were about 12 agents that came through and I heard nothing but positive comments. And believe it out not, it has already worked, I  received a referral from one of the agents this week! It was really great; Thanks Dad for putting that together!

If there is anyone who is interested in me putting an open house together for a group of people just let me know, I'd be happy to put it together for you. It's really simple, I put out some coffee, tea and yummy breakfast treats, and then I give people a tour of the B and B. It's a lot of fun and it's a great way for people to come and check out the place and then if people like it they can send me some referrals or stay for a night themselves.

It's really amazing how life turns out sometimes eh? I have been chatting with Ben and a really good friend of mine, who also just turned 29, about how we are almost 30 and how we are surprised about what we are doing. We were also wondering what happened to the last 10 years! But if you had talked to me when I was entering university I would have said that at 30, I would be a career woman of sorts... I was thinking about becoming a lawyer, or a business owner. I had wanted to own a small retail shop for a long time. I didn't really think that I wanted kids, I wanted to travel. I definitely didn't think that I would come back to Ottawa, at least not as early as I did.  And well, look at me now! I am a very happy mother of 2 amazing boys, who make me laugh and cry pretty much every single day. I stay at home with my kids. I am a business owner, so that part was right. I live in Ottawa. Oh and my husband is also a business owner in financial services, and if any of you know Ben, that is not something that I ever in a million years would have thought would happen. Just to give you an idea of how different things can turn out, we almost went to Thunder Bay for Ben to be a youth pastor. But you know even though things are not in any way what I would have pictured them to be, I am truly happy. My heart is very full most days, and I just can't believe how blessed that I am. Even though sometimes things are a little crazy and a little overwhelming I can't really imagine my life any other way.

In the first week of June, after the May craziness I really missed having guests over. I missed chatting with other people and hearing their stories over breakfast. I didn't miss the cleaning, it was nice to not have to clean toilets every day. But overall it was a great 2 weeks and I really thoroughly enjoyed having people stay in my home!

What a week!!!!!!

Right now I am in the middle of the busiest 2 weeks that Greentruck B and B has had yet. I have 2 guests who are here for 2 weeks, and then the other room has been booked for 7 nights during the same 2 week period.  The first week went smoothly. Breakfast was made on time. I was able to keep the rooms clean. We had the balcony finished and ready for our guests to enjoy. And I had a pretty good schedule and rhythm set up. It was busy and the kids were rambunctious, but it was fun, and I was really enjoying having guests over. Then on Sunday morning I woke up and I couldn't really move my neck and moving my left arm made my neck really sore. I tried to take a shower to work out the "kink", because I figured I had just slept on it wrong, and it would be ok. But that didn't really work, I couldn't clean my hair because it was hard to lift my hands. And then I  had a really hard time getting dressed, Ben had to help me put a shirt on. So I was pretty worried and Ben and I had to figure out what to do. I really wanted to go to the hospital so I could know what it was and try and get it fixed as quickly as possible. However we have 2 small kids that needed to be taken care of, one of whom I needed to nurse, not easy when your neck is in pain. And I had to make sure that our B and B guests had breakfast. Thank God for my family. Ben called my sister and brother in law. My sister Angela is a nurse, so we figured if nothing else she would be able to tell me if I needed to go to the hospital or if I could just stay home and stop freaking out.  They were over within about 15 minutes of us calling them, which was awesome because this was at 7:30on a Sunday morning! And Angela asked me whole bunch of questions and she said that it would be a good idea to go to the hospital and get it checked out. Once we had decided that I should go to the hospital,  Ang and Jay just sorta took over, which was great! Jason promptly started playing with CJ, and Ang asked me what Cooper would need and what I had planned on making for breakfast.  Then she started getting breakfast ready, while Ben and I went to the hospital. I left the house knowing that even if our guests were a little surprised to see their new hosts that they would get the best service and that everything was taken care of! Thanks Ang and Jay!

Thankfully my neck pain was nothing serious. The doctor told me it was just really bad muscle pain, and spasms, there is a fancy name for it, but I forget that already.  And that the only thing that I could do was rest and take some medications. He said it would take about a week to go away and that I would just have to deal with the pain as much as possible. Needless to say I am happy that I went to the hospital, figure out what it was and get some medication to make it feel better. My neck is still pretty sore today, 2 days later, but at least I am able to move it better today. I can actually look to the left today as long as I don't move to quickly!!

I am now able to make breakfast, and tidy up the rooms etc. It is really amazing how I take for granted the small things in life. Being able to dress myself, nurse my 5 month old, make breakfast are things that I just do because I can. I never think about how much moving my neck is involved with all of these things.  And I also again realized how blessed I am with the family and friends in my life. My in laws came over yesterday to help out and then they ended up taking CJ home with them, so that I could rest! It's been really quiet at my house today, I don't know how I ever thought only having one kid was busy!! But it's been a blessing. I needed to be able to rest and take care of my neck.

Our guests have also been awesome!! They don't need or want a huge breakfast every morning, so that is really nice with my neck being sore. And, get this, they cleaned up our back deck yesterday while we were out, when it started to rain. We had left toys out and laundry on the line. We came home and it was all cleaned up and the laundry was folded and off of the line!!  And today they offered to get groceries and things like that for me because I can't really drive! It's been incredible the help and support that we have gotten from friends, family and our b and b guests!! Again God has truly provided and helped us when we needed it through the wonderful people in our lives.

A new balcony and learning to garden

Our house has changed yet again, and we are so excited about it. Every time that Ben and I look at our house and yard, we think about all that we have done to it we realize just how blessed we are! It's amazing that we have been able to do all that we have. We are very close to being completely done the entire renovation!!! We have to put up some siding and finish off the interior of the garage. Which I guess  is still a lot of work, but it seems pretty small compared to everything that we have already done. Here is a picture of the balcony well on it's way to getting done.

Over that last couple of weeks, Ben's parents have helped out so much! They have helped to build the balcony, planted flowers, picked rocks, landscaped and decorated our yard. Let me just say that the balcony is awesome, it adds so much more living space onto the Maple room and it's a peaceful place to sit and watch the sun go down. The balcony also created a separate entrance for the Maple room. Right now it's still a little tricky to go in through the back of the house because our rock path beside the house is not completely done, but once that path is done, people will be able to use the balcony as an entrance instead of going through our house, if they so desire. I also went out and purchased a couple of hanging baskets and put them onto the balcony, it's look so beautiful!  Finally after several days of hard work Ben's parents, Art and Sylvia were able to sit back and enjoy a nice glass of wine on the beautiful balcony that they built for us!!

 

It looks pretty good right?!! Lately I have also decided that I am going to actually give gardening/landscaping a chance. It's not something that has really ever interested me before. It always seemed very finicky, and like a lot of work. You had to know all the plants, and which ones were good in the sunlight, and which ones were not good in sunlight.  Oh and don't forget about the weeds! But I have decided that having a nice garden, and being able to enjoy the garden outweighs the negatives of having to plant one and work on it. I think it also makes a difference because I am home now and I love being outside with the boys, so gardening gives me something that I can putter at. I still have a lot of learning to do, but here are some of the little projects that I have been working on with the help of Art and Sylvia, they are awesome at these kinds of things. We have begun to make a rock pathway to the backyard. It will be a much easier and nicer way to get into the backyard.

I have planted a whole bunch of annuals, just for some color.  You can't really see it in this first picture, but there are a whole bunch of purple flowers right at the edge of the lane way.

We put an old bench in our backyard for some decor, it was Art's idea, and it looks really neat. I tried to transplant some flowers, they are the ones in the pots,, so far they are looking pretty dead,,, but hopefully they will work out!!!!

 Ben put up some teekee torches, and we(Ben's dad) are starting to put up a gate so that the kids and the dog will have to stay in the backyard.

Everything is starting to look really great! It's been an adventure and it's been a lot of fun!! Currently we still have a big storage tent up in  our backyard, it has everything from our garage in it. The next step in the "making our house pretty stage" is getting that out of the backyard and putting a garden in there!!

Provision

I think in my last blog post I was writing about how the B and B has not been as busy as I would have liked it to be.. well my prayers have been answered! As of right now I have 15 nights booked for May, and I have a potential guest for another 3 nights! How awesome is that. And the other really cool thing about this, is that all of the bookings have been made through the B and B Canada website. The site is amazing! I do think that word of mouth and networking is very powerful for starting up new businesses, but I just can't get over the visbilty that we have been getting through the website! So if there is anyone else out there looking to open up a B and B, you need to get your information on the B and B Canada website.

We sorta jumped into this thing with both feet not really sure what to expect, but also knowing that God was working through us and would make it successful. I have definately been a little bit stessed out about whether or not it was going to work, but God has provided for us through these May bookings. And every time I am not sure if it's going to work or am not sure what is going to happen next God has just given me little reminders of the fact that it will work, and that he is with us through this whole journey. He has shown me over and over again, in the last couple of weeks that he will provide the people and the income that we need to make this thing work! I just need to continue to believe it and get to work!

A couple of weekends ago we had our second guests come to the B and B, besides family and close friends. And it went really really well. The couple was great! They were easy going and very friendly. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to serve them some breakfast and get to know them a little bit more. They both gave us compliments on how well the food tasted and how comfy the room was!

I can't wait to see how May turns out with our guests!! Wish me luck!!

We are Officially Open for Business and some more random thoughts!

The Bed and Breakfast is now open! We had our first guest, and it was wonderful! I just wanted to get the word out there as much as possible to say that we are ready for anyone who needs a cozy place to stay. The rooms are fully decorated and have anything that you might need!

While we were building the addition there was always something to be done. We had to paint, and build and shop and clean etc. etc. And I think that I expected that as soon as the renovations were done, that we would have guests every weekend, and it would be crazy busy! However that has not been the case. We have had a guest and we have a couple of bookings, so it's very promising and exciting! But I just want it to be busy! I love being at home with my boys, but I also really enjoy having something besides looking after the kids to work on and challenge me in a different capacity. I enjoy being able to focus on something besides being a mom. I know that business will come and at some points I am sure that I will be so overwhelmed and wonder what the heck I was thinking about wanting to be more busy, but at this point I can't wait for that to happen! I feel like I should be doing something more to get more people to come and stay at the B and B. This past week I made up a brochure. My mom started it for me, and I went to their place last week to finish it up. It turned out really well, and I was able to get out to some of the local businesses and pass it out. I went to the golf course, hospital and funeral home. It was a lot of fun actually, the people that I talked to were excited about the idea and were willing to suggest the B and B as an option for family, friends, and the brides that they deal with. Again, hopefully that will bring more guests in! My plan is to go out a couple of more times this week! Wish me luck.

Anyways if anyone needs a place to stay in Barhaven please let me know! We will be offering a friends and family discount, so just give us a shout if you are interested!!
613-608-0565
greentruckbandb@gmail.com
www.bbcanada.com/greentruck

An Update on GreenTruck B & B

We had our first guest last week! It was really great. The people that came were family of a friend of mine from Toronto! We had met them once before at a wedding, but that was it. So it was neat to be able to host someone and hear their stories! They decided to have breakfast served with us at our dining room table. It was really nice to chat with them. They were interested in Ottawa as well, as the daughter is potentially going to be going to Ottawa U. They had reserved both rooms, which was great! So as Ben and I were putting the finishing touches on the rooms, we turned on the water and noticed that one of the toilets was leaking...eeek!! We called the plumber right away and they were able to come, however there was a hole in the toilet. How does that happen, a brand new toilet and it had a hole in it??!! Unfortunately the plumber was not able to get a new toilet in time for our guests, so they had to share a toilet. Thankfully they were ok with that. Other than that I think that they enjoyed their stay and had everything that they needed. And don't worry the toilet is now fixed and ready for anyone else that comes to stay with us.

Every time I check my e-mail, I get a little bit excited that maybe there will be a new reservation for the B and B. So far we have 2 other reservations. We were supposed to have someone come and stay this week from Tuesday to Saturday, however they cancelled at the last minute today. I was pretty bummed out about it. I had just done all of my grocery shopping and cleaned the house, and put new sheets on. Only to have them not show up. If people need to cancel they should really give more notice that 10minutes!! There is a lot of work that goes into making sure that a room is ready, so ya I was bummed out. But on the plus side, my house is really clean! And the rest of the week will be a little more relaxed, as I won't be needing to make extra breakfast. As for the other reservations we have someone coming at the end of March and someone coming in September from Switzerland. I am really excited about that one! It's going to be really cool to meet someone from abroad.

We have put a lot of time and energy into the B and B, it's great to be able to see some of the fruits of our labour!

The Open House is a Success!!!

This past Sunday I had an open house for the bed and breakfast for our neighbours, friends and family! It was AWESOME! We had 22 people come and check out what we were up to. I had set up some breakfast food on our dining room table, and we gave tours of the B and B to everyone that showed up. The tours went great, every single person loved the rooms and gave us so many compliments and encouragement. It was really exciting for me to be able to show people and to get some great feedback. For the food I baked some scones, some egg strata, some muffins, some french toast with brie and pear, and a fruit salad. And of course coffee, tea or juice was served with it. Again all of the comments on the food were great. From the comments that I got I would have to say that the egg strata and the scones were the favorites.

It was a really great event and a good way to get the word out about the B and B to the neighbourhood. It was neat for my neighbours as well because there were a couple of people who were able to meet some of their fellow neighbours for the first time! This open house was a bit of an experiment for us to see if people would like the place, but also to see if I would enjoy taking people into our home. And I loved it! It was great to be able to host people and to chat and learn just a little bit more about everyone that came through. Saturday and Sunday morning were crazy insane days trying to get everything set up. At that point we still had a lot of painting to do, we had trim to do, we had decorating to do, we had kids to look after, Ben had to work.... I had pretty high expectations of what I wanted the place to look like, and I just wasn't sure if it was going to be done. I was nervous and very tired, but thankfully God gave us the energy and the resources that we needed to be able to get everything done. We got it all done, and everyone loved it!

I need to thank a lot of really great people in my life for the help that they gave. Without it I wouldn't have been able to get everything ready. I am not very good at asking for help even when I desperately need it and all of these people just came and did what they could. I am very very grateful. Nathan worked hard to make sure that all of the finishing trim, cleaning, and set up got done. Nathan's wife Margaret came over on Sunday morning to look after all of the kids so that Ben and I could just put our heads down and work. Kate, a great friend, came over on Saturday and helped me cook the egg strata, scones and cleaned my kitchen! I may have to have her come over to make egg strata on a regular basis! It was awesome. I need to thank my wonderful, caring sister Angela for coming over after the open house and cleaning up the kitchen for me. It was spotless and I was able to put my feet up. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I seriously couldn't have done it without you


Here's what the place looks like! Enjoy!!