2018 in Review

2017 brought the sale of our property 
where we had lived for 29 years, 
the move was horrendous, 
& we were very happy when it was over. 
(and the started the 4^th house on the first lot we lived on in Kelowna)

January for me was spent settling a little and catching up on desk work I had neglected during the move.  For Hector it was clearing the stuff he had stored on our own property (neighbouring the acre we had sold) because the purchaser didn’t like the looks of it and called the city.

February, we got out of here!!  We bussed to Seattle for a few days with Ron and Tiffany, then one week in NY visiting Hector’s sister Cindi & family.  One week in Florida included the 75^th birthday party for sister Ruth.  Nine days in Michigan with Royce and Michelle, during that time we drove an hour down into Indiana, to visit my pseudo-family.  We had a great time with them all.  Arriving back in Seattle, Ron & family brought us home stopping along the way to pick up a door and some lights from our pseudo-son Edgar.  An hour after our stop, 20 min up the steep Coquihalla mountain pass, the traffic came to a halt, and the road was closed behind us.  We sat there 3 hrs, while they cleaned up an accident on the other side of the divided hwy.  While waiting about 6 inches of snow collected.  They opened a single lane plowed, and we all followed a tow truck traveling below the speed limit, which was good… No one could pass and blind us in a cloud of snow. 

Pseudo-Family 
In a general sense, it refers to any group of people who are not actually related 
to a person, but who care about and protect that person 
as they would a member of their actual biological family.

March and April, for me were spent doing desk work and getting ready for the tax man to come do up my taxes. Hector was finishing the new house. In the mix were several trips to Vancouver to see Hector’s brother Art who was in hospital with subdural hematoma, (same thing Hector had after his accident in Guyana in 2015) The last week of April we went to Seattle to spend a couple days with Royce and Michelle as they were on their way to Arizona for a family vacation with her parents, brother and his fiancé.

June was a trip to Vancouver to meet up with Ronald and the kids and we all visited Art. Edgar and family joined us Saturday afternoon and evening.  July, we made a trip to Alberta to see family and celebrate my aunt’s 90th birthday. Ronald and Leah flew up to join us and we all had a lovely time. We skipped our church camp meeting at Hope BC as none of the kids could be there with us this year.

August 26^th, we met Mai & Matt at the Seattle Airport, 
and spent 3 days with them at Ronald’s place.  
Then Hector flew to Florida for his niece’s wedding, 
I went directly to Michigan to meet our 5 day old 
newest grandson “Jesiah Hector”
(pronounced like messiah) 
–Hector is in honour of both his grandfathers, 
(both called Hector, but not legally named that.) 

At 2 am when Nana finally arrived... He was awake and his parents were exhausted.

Hector joined me after the wedding,
we could only stay a week.
We had to rush to back for the quickly picking up
chimney season,
and to get a couple more days with Mai & Matt.   

They drove our van from Seattle to Vancouver
and used it for several days on business and visiting friends,
then picked us up at the Airport on September 7^th.
They came home to see our new house
and have some bonding time with us.
They flew out of here on the 11th.

Auntie Mai & Uncle Matt visited Jesiah in September,
on their annual leave.

After 33 years, we had been trying to sell our business for over a year, finally in mid-Sept the 9^th interested party turned out to be the perfect couple!!  He trained under Hector for a month, during which time he paid Hector to “work for him” and everything above the expenses he put into paying for the business, and he is now, “The happy owner of John’s Chimney Sweep!”  He calls himself “John Jr”.

I answered the phone for them a while, but his wife quickly caught on to the office work and how to answer the phone, and soon we transferred it over to her, and that was a relief.  

October, having the business sold, allowed us to be able 
to grab last minute tickets to Florida 
at word that Royce’s father-in-law passed away on Oct 21. 
Which was followed 2 days later 
by a car crashing into the family home early in the morning
while everyone still slept.
The devil is out to kill steal and destroy, 
it seems the Figuroa family, 
(possibly Royce) was his target that week.

“Praise God” Kathy, Michelle’s mom, although injured in a fall due to the stairs being demolished, suffered non-life threatening injuries, it could have been a whole lot worse.

We were in Florida till November 4^th, 
when Hector flew to Guyana, South America 
to work with his brother on an evangelistic series.  
The same day I went to Michigan to be with Royce 
till Michelle and her mom came on Nov 11^th.  
I helped him with cooking & cleaning, & just being there. 

Ronald, Tiffany & kids came on Nov 15 
for the weekend to see the new baby.

  Sunday, we had an early Thanks Giving dinner and invited my Indiana parents to join us.  They got to meet Tiffany, Jadon & Leah, for the first time, as well as baby Jesiah.  We had a wonderful time, and it was so good to have them with us for the afternoon, and so hard to say good-bye.

(My Nancy-mom) Nancy Hile with Jesiah and Jadon.

Monday Nov 19, Ronald’s family and I drove to Chicago and caught flights out at 8 am.  They went to Nebraska to spend Thanks Giving with her family, and I came home to Kelowna.  It was great to be back in my own bed!!

I have organized some boxes since home.  But have a long way to go!  I need time and space to sort, sell, throw, or give stuff away.  I am not going to stress about it.
Que Sera, Sera

Right now (Dec/Jan 2019), we are working on getting Royce’s house ready to re-rent for Jan 1^st.  It was left very clean, but a lot of damage to repair, and total repainting is needed, and I have to find and approve the new renters.  (UG!!!)

December, Hector is safely back from Guyana.  They had a successful series of meetings, with 12 baptized the last weekend, and more to follow bring the numbers up to about 30.  Property has been found to buy for a church, so next will come the building project.

Christmas this year?  No idea yet.  We could stay home, drive to Ronald’s, or go back to Florida to attend Jesiah’s baby dedication.  I am not ready for another trip, I would just like to hunker down, do my own thing, and pass the winter.  I haven’t been able to sew anything that takes more then 10 minutes for such a long time, and I have painting materials I would love to (find) and use, I still have a lot of desk work to do that has been pushed to the side (but needs to be done before April).  Staying home could be a “real good thing”!!!

Whether the Baby of Bethlehem was born in December or Spring, let us remember, he came with the special purpose of giving each of us the opportunity to accept His love, and His invitation to spend eternity with Him.  May we commit to spending time learning of Him and His ways in 2019, so that we can each answer YES to the questions in the lyrics below.  

2017 in Review

Odiyar’s Year in Review

2017 has been a very busy year.

In the fall of 2016, someone driving by noticed our big property, he call and asked if it was for sale.  I told him “everything is for sale for the right price.”  Long story short, after months of negotiations, we did sell, but not to him, as he wouldn’t meet our asking price.  We ended up sub-dividing off the irregular corner and sold one acre, which included our house, but not my parent’s house, where my cousin Darla lives.  The deal was complete June 15, they gave us 6 months to pack, clean the yard, and move. 

Needing a place to live, we decided to build the last of the 4 houses on the lot down the road, so we could move into it.  We struggled to get the plans completed in April, permit in place, home warranty, a builder, etc.  Of course all took longer than we would have liked.  Our goal was to have it complete to move into by Dec 15.  Finally got the footings in by Mid-August. 

I made 2 ice cream cakes, and we celebrated Leah and Bapa’s Birthdays Jan 7th in Seattle, Hector’s brother Wailu, sister Ruth and niece Arlene, came from Florida for the celebration. 

In April, Hector and I celebrated our 35th anniversary by babysitting Jadon and Leah while Ronald and Tiffany went to Arizona to celebrate their 10th anniversary.  We had a great time with the kids, they were so good!! 

Early June, we went to Florida for our niece Marsha’s marriage to Kenny.  We had a nice time.  Upon arrival back in Seattle, we waited 2 days for Royce and Michelle to arrive, and then we traveled back to Canada together, stopping in Vancouver for a friend’s son’s wedding.  Back in Kelowna Royce and Hector started working on cleaning the yard, and Michelle did a great job, of taking care of the kitchen, while I took care of other business, like getting quotes for all the trades of the new house.

 Mid-June, the 4 of us went back to Vancouver to pick up Mai & Matt, and then we all went to Ronald’s for about a week of “Family Vacation”.  There we celebrated my Birthday by going to Crystal Mountain and riding to the top by gondola, and later stopping at Baskin Robins for Ice Cream.  At the end, we all returned to Kelowna. 

L-R: Matt, Mai, Leah, Michelle, Royce, Hector, Beth, Jadon, Ronald, Tiffany

The July long weekend, was the 100th anniversary for our Adventist school, which I attended for 10 years, and my kids attended for 12-13 yrs.  We had a great weekend.   Mai & Matt were the last to leave on July 7th.  I was not able to start packing until after the family had all left, as you can’t have the house 1/2 torn up when you have 10 people for a weekend.  But when I started it was “pack till you drop”!!  I counted rooms, and scheduled one room per week and systematically stuck to it.  By the end I had pain in the ankle, knees, hips, shoulders, and neck, nightly I had to take pain killer to sleep. 

As summer flew by, it became apparent we would not meet our building goal.  Just when the stress of not having a place to move was getting extreme the boys that were renting the house we built last summer gave notice to move out the end of Oct.  That was a great blessing, as it is a larger house, and it gave us 6 weeks to move.  We relaxed the building push, and concentrated on the flood of chimney sweep appointments that were coming in.

  Picture below is the stage it is at right now, inside the gyproc is done, and ready for paint, flooring, and finishing. You can see the corner of the house we are in on the far right of the picture.

Mid Sept we thought we had a buyer for the business, who we trained, but last minute, they changed their mind, leaving us with the extremely busy month of October doing chimneys, instead of packing and cleaning.  I was able to keep my packing on schedule, but Hector fell way behind in yard cleaning.  Thankfully he was able to find a helper for about 6 weeks, then in Nov when it slowed down some, between jobs, they both came and worked on the yard, or on moving stuff I had packed.

We took our last load out of the house about 11:30 am on Dec 15, and by 2 pm, the new owners were knocking down trees, and in the next couple days all the buildings except the house were demolished, and carried off in a bin.  If you google “Taylor Place” Kelowna BC, you will find the concept drawings, which still have to be approved by the city. 

This move was an overwhelming job.  We are now in the new house, but definitely not settled.  Just getting here was such a long stretch of never ending work and stress that at this point, I don’t care how long the boxes stay packed.  It seems like everything needs to be done at once, but I do what I can and skip the rest.

Hector had carefully stored some items that he wanted to keep or that he intends to sell when there is time to do so, on the property that we kept back, which boarders the property sold.  The purchaser, decided that he doesn’t like the looks of the stuff stored there, so he called the city, and now we have to meet their requirements and clean up all of that.  Hector has found a garage he can store some of the stuff, and we are taking more out to our rural property.  Unfortunately, it has now snowed on all the stuff, and things are frozen down, or together.

Royce had wanted us to come spend Christmas with them in Michigan, but we had to complete this move, (and now this extra clean-up).  We were not sure how it would all work out, and didn’t have the time to search for tickets.  So we are not going until we know we have met the requirements, and are sure we are free of trouble. Hopefully we can leave by early Feb??

Thank-you to all of you who have already sent out Greetings, and newsletters. 

Our new address is:  (and picture of the house we are now in)

374 Taylor Rd, Kelowna BC V1X 4G2