July 28, 2008

Good bye Old Car, Hello New

So, after 6 weeks of being without a car that we could drive, we finally have a new one! Horray!!! On Friday evening a friend of ours came and took our Escort away for us.

escort car

Last night we were able to pick up the volvo that we had looked at a month ago.

volvo car (If we are tired in the morning, we have a hard time spotting our car, it blends in so well to the trailer…)

I am so glad to be able to run normal errands again! David went with me to the local grocery store on Monday, and got to see first hand why I have been missing my regular grocery store. The prices are much more expensive and the check out lines were veeeeerrrrrrryyyyy slow. When I take the bus to the the store, I have just about a half hour to get groceries, check out, and be back to the bus to go home, or else I’m stuck there for another hour. We took 15 minutes or less to get the food we needed, and then waited in line for over 10 minutes before we got to the check out ourselves. At our regular store, the checkers often are taking the items off the belt faster than I can take them out the cart. A nice, no nonsense type of store. And cheaper.

Besides being able to do my regular errands again, we are glad we were able to get a wagon. It’s a bit bigger than our old one, but Lord willing we will be able to fill it up with kids some day. Now we are glad we can offer space to our friends when they need rides.

In other news, David is busy like usual, and worn out. He would appreciate prayer for real rest and recuperation. It’s been a busy last two or three months. He has been able to slow down a bit at home this past week, mostly because he was sick. He is still tired and trying hard to keep up with the work he has to do.

I’m doing well. Maybe trying to take on too many things and projects, but I am enjoying it all very much. Carving is going well. I am pretty steady with orders. God has been blessing my work and sales. Dutch lessons are going well. Slow and steady. The trailer gives me a lot of work to do. I am constantly cleaning and hoping to do more painting. The garden is growing beautifully. Of everything I planted, only the lettuce and endive didn’t survive. The peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and beats are doing very well!

front yard

Comment~ permanent link ~ • Category: [News / Rita]

Ice Cream Truck!

I’ve never seen the mythical ice cream truck. You know, the truck that plays music that identifies it from all other trucks in the world, and attracts all the neighbourhood kids for blocks around.

I had read about Ice Cream Truck in the “Family Circus” comic, but I have never seen one before.

In Fredericton we had the ice cream bikes that would hang around the Kiddie Pools in town, so I figure the truck must really exist too. But I didn’t have any proof.

Last week Saturday it was hot inside our little trailer, so hot and sticky that I was craving ice cream all day long. This past Saturday I went berry picking for two hours; when I was done I was thinking ice cream sounded really nice, but we still didn’t have any in the house.

Yesterday, Sunday, I still wanted ice cream. I was a bit crabby too, which wasn’t nice for David. We were having one of our involved conversations that happens to all married couples. We were trying hard to wind it down but it wasn’t easy when I was moody.

All of a sudden we heard this weird music coming up the hill from the entrance of the trailer park. I thought, “What in the WORLD is that?!” and, “Why would some one being playing ‘Do your ears hang low’ so loudly? I know there are kids in the park but….” Then David said, “Hey! Ice Cream Truck! Do you have any cash?”

The funniest part of this was that during our conversation I had said to David three or four times, “I really want ice cream.” and “I almost want to go to the store to get some ice cream.” David even said that if it would make me happy he would go to the store for me and buy me some ice cream. It was shortly after he said that that we heard the music.

So off we went on my first ever “Ice Cream Truck Chase.” Ah, the dilemma, which way should we go down the park? What if it’s coming up one side while we were going down the other? Would it even come up to where we live? It’s a small street. What if it was gone before we got there?

God is funny some times, I think he likes to make his children smile. The truck was nicely coming up the road as we were going down it. David and I had a nice stroll around the park while we enjoyed our Blue Bunny Ice Cream bars. (Yes, it was Blue Bunny too!)

We couldn’t help but wonder if God was just having fun with us. Wanting to lavish his love and grace on us in very unexpected ways. This is the first time I’ve ever seen or even heard an ice cream truck. It wasn’t something we expected at all in our little trailer park. It came just when I was longing for ice cream, and just after David offered to buy me some. How nice that it was coming to us at the right moment.

Thank you God for Ice Cream Trucks!

Comment~ permanent link ~ • Category: [News / Rita]

© 2005-2007 David and Rita Hjelle