Bittersweet - Part 1

Our time with the Greentruck Bed and Breakftast has come to an end. It has been an incredible journey for the past 2 years, and I am thankful for every moment of it. But it is now time to move on. For the past 8 months Ben and I have been trying to sell at least one of our homes. Originally we wanted to sell our rental property, here in Ottawa. However after 3 offers fell through, and a month or 2 with little to no bites we decided that instead of selling the rental house we would sell our home at 23 St. Remy Dr. The main reason that we wanted to sell anything in the first place was to be able to simplify our lives. A lot has happened in the last  5 years, our lives have changed and what we were doing before, simply is not what we want or need right now. Ben and I have had rental properties since our 2nd year of marriage(we will be married 10 years next summer). It is something that brought us an income, and I didn't mind taking care of the properties. Ben is also pretty handy, so he was able to look after a lot of the repairs.

 However in February 2010 we had a little boy, and our lives changed forever. I was busy with Clayton, and trying to figure out how to be a mom. My life had changed in every possible way. The job that I loved and worked hard at, became very different, mostly because I was in a different state of mind. My job was no longer my number one focus. I had an amazing little boy to look after, and being stressed out at work was no longer worth it. I did go back to work between having Cooper and Clayton, but after Cooper I did not return to work. During this time I was still able to look after the rental properties, and we still had tenants who were paying. So having a rental property was still worth it. It was also right around the time that Cooper was born that we did all of the renos on our home and started the B and B.

The second major change in our lives during this time was that Ben changed jobs. And while we didn't think at the time that it would be so life changing, we now realize that it has been life changing. Ben's work has become a lifestyle for us. One that we love and one that we want to continue to pursue in every possible way. Ben's income has drastically increased, we travel more then we ever have before, and we have met some very amazing like minded people!

At the beginning of last year, we had our tenants leave, and they left the house a disaster and decided not to pay us rent for the last 3 months. While at the same time the tenant in our basement apartment decided that he didn't need to pay rent anymore. Both of these incidents cost us a lot of money, and we had just put an addition on our home. We were stressed about money.  The rental income we had come to rely on was no longer there. And we had used up all of our reserves to fix up the rental property, and cover for the months without rent. I wasn't working outside of the home, and Ben's business was just starting to pick up.

The B and B during this time was a constant source of peace  and encouragement. And it seemed that every time we needed just a little bit more money, we would have another guest come and stay at our home. It has been truly amazing to see how God has used the B and B to teach us 1001 things. The people that came and stayed with us, have been incredible. We have met people from all over Europe and Canada. One of our favorite guests were people from Germany. They stayed at our place for 2 weeks. We not only served them breakfast, but also ended up having a couple of dinners and beers with them. And they even took my sheets off the line when it started to rain and I wasn't home. They just became a part of our little family while they were here. We got to know them quite well, and when we go to Germany we will definitely be going to visit them. We had guests come who gave us gifts. They left us a pretzel kit and some yummy chocolates from their home town. They were really sweet ladies.

We had guests who stayed at our place a couple of times. There was one family who we really resonated with because they also had 2 boys. And it was super fun to swap stories with them. The old couples were the best. There was one couple who stayed here because they were visiting their grand daughters, and they wanted to skate the canal from end to end. And this man did it! I swear he was at least 65, he did it and his grand daughters didn't! He was a feisty one.

We had one older woman, who fell in love with our boys. I think that she had tears in her eyes as CJ gave her a hug when she went to leave. She was so happy that he gave her a hug! The couple who stayed with us last weekend gave us a huge compliment. They obviously noticed that our house was for sale, and they said after visiting with us for  a couple of hours that they wished us the best with our future endeavors and were sure that no matter what we did next we would succeed and we would do it well. It made me cry, because I believe that God was giving us one last parting blessing....

Stay tuned for Part 2

July 2013

Not really sure why I hadn't posted this one yet. But here is an update from July. Enjoy!

Wow, it is July already. Summer is in full force here in Ottawa, we had some serious hot, humid, sticky weather last week. I think there were a couple of days that got up to 40 degrees celsius! I personally love the heat. One of the best feelings in the world is being able to hang out outside with a glass of wine, in my garden, at 10pm at night, with my shorts and t-shirt still on. I don't have to grab a sweater, and there is no chill in the air. Love it.

The B and B has been slower this year than last. But it has still been great, at the end of June we had my aunt and uncle and their 3 kids come to our place and stay for a couple of nights. It was a ton of fun hanging out with them! My cousins are awesome kids! I am not entirely sure of their ages, but they were old to enough to take care of our kids quite a bit. They were super polite, and just a ton of fun. I had asked Clayton to get dressed for the day and when I went into his room about 3 minutes later, to see if he needed help, he was actually dressed!!!! That never happens, but Alicia, the eldest cousin, had helped Clayton choose his clothes and get ready. It was awesome! Thanks!!!

And we have had one other guest come in during July. They were super sweet! Overall I do wish it were slightly busier, but we don't have air conditioning, so it's probably a good thing that no one has come. They may not have enjoyed July too much had they stayed!

So you know the phrase "terrible twos", well in my experience it has been the "terrible threes"! Clayton was GREAT while he was 2. He had his moments of course, but overall he was pretty easy going, and listened well. However 3 is another story. Lately he has been saying NO a lot. And he screams when he doesn't get his way. And whines,, oh my goodness. I didn't know the whining would be so bad. Clayton has also stopped napping, which is good when it comes to bedtime b/c he goes to bed without fighting me. However when 4pm rolls around it it total chaos. Nothing is good enough and he fights me about EVERYTHING!!! Sheeshh,,, it has been a tough couple of weeks trying to get used to this whole new boy. I love the child very dearly, but I have had to learn about patience. I have learned a bunch about communicating with a 3 year old. Which I guess these are good outcomes, but the ride has been a tough one. It's a good thing that I love my kids so incredible much and that they are so darned cute! But seriously if anyone has any suggestions about how to deal with crazy 3 year olds, I am all ears!

Okay so here's a super cute story, the other day, I was getting quite frustrated with Clayton, I was yelling at him and just trying to get him to stop whining, but nothing seemed to be working. Anyways, Cooper realized that I was quite frustrated, and he made me pick him up, and then he grabbed my cheek, made me look at him, and then he gave me the biggest smile ever and honked my nose!! (something that we do a lot and always makes both of us laugh) Man it was awesome, it made both Clayton and I become happier and stop getting angry with each other.