Our New Home

Its District Convention weekend and most stay in hotels in San fransisco. We are leaving in an hours time, so i wanted to get these pics up of our new place. Im still unpacking so not all rooms are on here, but i will update soon x




Our Yard/garden goes right around the house, below is the garage and the back of the house


This is our front room its carpeted and feels so nice... no dogs allowed..


On the fire place are a few paintings i have done recently more about that in my nxt blog
I have a big kitchen now with lots of work space for all those gourmet meals i make lol

We have a nice clean and cute bathroom... yey



More pics to come X

Moving Tomorrow

Tomorrow we sign our new lease, do a walk through with the letting agents, hand over our money, get the keys and start moving in! Im so excited. Aaron and I first new place together. The house we are moving into is across the road and 2 doors down. Im not sure if i have told you the story, if so well here it is again.

Aaron and I were told that the house we are in now was going into foreclosure and that date of sale by the bank would be from June 4th. We were anxious and everything we have looked at was just out of our price range.

We went to our Circuit Assembly and there we met Greg, he is our neighbour across the road and 2 doors down. Although he lives so close he attends a cong that is 25mins away, so we dont see him much. However circuit Assemblys are places to catch up. He tells us that his wife and he are having to move closer to work, Aaron lements that we will have to move too.. Greg says "well i dont suppose you want to rent our place"? Aaron and i look at each other and both say Yes!!! of course.. Most of the homes we have been looking for are $1000 -$1200 a month and $1000 is the highest we can go. So we ask the dreaded question how much is the rent brother? I was holding my breath, its the cutest blue house, 2 bed rooms and a double garage. Nicer than ours, and in better condition, its right in front of a bubbleing stream and has its own drive way. We dont here we are above the rd up some stairs, Its a night mare to park and a hassle to get to. Greg tells us that the rent that they are paying is $850...! wow.. no way... is that all.. We can afford that.. Right away we thank Jehovah.. Its that cheap as they want to keep witneses in the property. How good is Jehovah!!

Anyway im only 60% packed and about to make a start on the bed room..

I'd better go love to you all... XX

Finished the Banner! Phew!

HERE IS THE FRONT AND THE BACK OF THE COMPLETED BANNER







Close up of the moutains and pple skiing

BANNERS ON PARADE

One of the great things that is happening to me at the moment is that im working on my art. Im about to start teaching at the town all..The city have a schedule of classes that people run through them and in the fall i will be running some art classes. A sister in my cong wendy campbell, i stayed with her and her husband when i first arrived in the USA. Her husband and Aaron are best friends. We are regulary getting together every friday and working on art together, our aim is to gather enough work so that we can have stall at art events and the local farmers markets. Im really excited about it.

So right now im involved in a project called "Banners on Parade"

"A parade of painted banners will be on display on the light poles around the historic Courthouse and at various locations on Main Street from June through early September. These banners will be sold at Auction during the Artand Wine Festival on October 17, 2009. The proceeds will go to Art on Parade with a small percentage being shared with the individual artists. A panel of local artists will jury banners and awards will be presented to the top three banners. Every artist will
receive two tickets to the Art and Wine Festival, a $60 value!"

We had to submit a sketch of our design, which was themed "placerville past and presant" and any art related subject. My sketch was accepted and i collected my banner.. Here are some picture of me painting my banner..
Its not finished, but i have laid the base coats, i still need to work on alot of it. No details are in it yet and im going to adjust the size of the mountains and the area back there.. Ill post the finished Banner.




Me working on the shop fronts




Sketching my Shops



Showing how i get my sketches for my Banner



My Banner right now, hanging on the door.. its 5ft long..

Camping Time is here

It spring in California and everything is green. Not the deep green of the uk but a light bright green. Ill get some pics of everything blossoming here.. I love the Dogwood here its so pretty.
The only thing is that spring lasts about a month and then the sun burns everything up and its all brown and golden. Hence the name the golden State. Well one reason it has that name.

We are about to start our camping season. Last year when i was new here, even before i got married i was invited by Auntie Char to go camping in Sly Park. Sly park is about 20-25 mins away not far at all. It has a huge Lake there and camping spots. We spend our days, swimming, relaxing, walking, eating and playing games. Its Soo relaxing. I cant wait. Here are some pics of Sly park.

When we go ill post our pics.



sly park lake in the morning



A boat on the lake


this is were i swim and camp






this is were we camp..

CUSTOMER OF THE WEEK ...hee hee

Jehovah really blesses in the most unexpected ways.

Amanda and i frequent starbucks when we do early morning ministry. We are starting to cut back as its very expensive but when we can, and for a while we are there 3 times a week at roughly 8am.

Now and again id seen signs for CUSTOMER OF THE WEEK ! They would have the persons name and a little blurb about them, saying how much of a nice customer they are.. I was like, oohh that would be so cool, to be a regular customer and have the staff know your drink and you enough so that they make you customer of the week.

I had been joking with Amanda for months how i wanted to be customer of the week. Slowly over time the staff got to know us, our names and our drinks. It feels really nice when someone remembers you. You walk in and you hear, hey Emily how are you? Can i get your Latte ready for you?.. It sounds silly but its actully a really nice feeling, and it keeps you coming back, becuase they know your drink and make it the way you like it.. "a place were every body knows your name"..

Well one day i decided to take matters into my own hands and thought it would be nice for Amanda to see her name up there. I know it feels good to have someone know who you are and remmeber you enough so that you are given an honoury mention.. See Amanda and i are not overly outgoing and im not very good at beine preppy and happy, as those that know me well can testify too. So i reckoned positive action was needed. Amanda has been such a good friend to me i was hoping this little gesture would let her know how valued she is.

I popped a note into thier suggestion box and asked if i could nominate Amanda as customer of the week, and told them why she would be a great candidate. She LOVES starbucks.. Its really because of her we even come 3 times a week, She is one of the most important people in mylife here and is one of the top 5 who have been integral to my settling down in Placerville. Coming to Starbucks is "our" thing.. We have a chin wag and our Frapps. She is just awesome..
I wasn't even sure that they allowed customers to nominate, but who dares wins.. as Derek Trotter would say

!


Tuesday morning as usual we walk in and que up for our coffees... I see the sign and go bright red... HAHAH oh my gosh... there are our names for all to see... They decided to have us both as customer of the week and guess what i find out!!! It means we have FREE COFFEE too. I had no idea i just thought you have your name up for a bit.. WOAH...! how cool is that.

Sue and her daughter made the very awesome sign for us. They did a great job and i wanna thank them and the whole Broadway staff for being so cool. They are a great bunch of people and we really enjoying getting our coffee from them


SUE the manager of Starbucks on Broadway..

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GOOD NEWS

Ive just sent out a bulk email to everyone, but id thought id document this in my blog. I am now a regular pioneer. I found out via a friend in the cong, someone has let is slip and she congradulated me. I had no idea what she was talking about and then she realized i didn't know and was horrified. It was ok i was just relived to find out.. A few minutes later i started to cry. A wave of emotion came over me. I had not just been accepted by my elders but the letter coming back was confirmation that i had Jehovahs approval to pioneer. Not for a mintue did i assume that because my elders has signed my letter was it a automatic approval. Jehovah makes the decision, i knew it was the one thing i wanted to do more than anything. However only Jehovah knows if im ready and my heart condition.

This new will have more significance to my UK friends than my friends here, only because they have seen me come back into the truth, fight depression, shyness and a whole mountian of obsticles to get to this point. Of course all done in Jehovahs strength, i know that i do not have the strength to do what ive done. I know this is still the beginning the test is to be balanced, to stay poineering, to improve my study habits to do daily Bible reading. This is not the time for me to think ive done it! im here.. but rather to pull my socks up and live up to the prividge Jehovah has given me..

The wonderful thing is dispite whats going on around me, the financail trouble we are having (losing our home) i am the happiest i have ever been, i have the feeling of calm and peace. Its like i have my own little bubble and there is a storm raging around but i feel SO SAFE! I feel safe and its the most wonderful feeling.
TRUST in Jehovah and DO NOT lean on your own understanding.


oh and this week promises to be a great week. I get to go to the annual pioneer meeting on Friday then its out Circuit Assembly Sat and Sun and then the memorial... all within a 7 day period... woo hooooooooo..
X