Adventures of my life

2007-02-24T22:31:00.000-05:00

ATTENTION ALL BBC'ERS.....

Some of you may already know, but for those who don't...Doc Taylor and his wife Pat who are serving on the mission field in Swaziland where attacked last week in a home invasion. Below you'll find a link to their letter. http://www.naznet.com/community/showthread.php?t=9882

2007-01-28T19:13:00.000-05:00

A Conversation with Emmy

This morning, as usual we are running late for church. All that's left to do is brush emmy's hair, which is not a fun task. We're in the bathroom and I barely have the brush touching her hair and she's already crying, I start brushing her hair and she becomes hysterical. Of course, being late, I'm low on patience and tell her that if she doesn't let me brush her hair I'm going to cut it off...she says no maman don't do that....we continue further into the process of hair brushing...and I threaten again that if she doesn't stop squirming I'm going to cut her hair...she says fine go get the scissors...ugh! what a morning (and no I didn't go get the scissors...cutting her hair is clearly an empty threat)

2007-01-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

101 USES FOR TWEEZERS

No, I'm not going to post about 101 different uses for tweezers, although I'm sure there are that many. I'll just post about one.

This afternoon, like every afternoon, Emmy went down for a nap. However, nap she did not. She came out once cause she wanted (well needed) a bum change. She came out once cause she was done napping...I of course sent her back. On her third strike, she announced she wanted to cuddle. This being Dan's first day back at work since the holidays, I humoured her. As I pulled her up on my lap I noticed something odd in her nose. I thought perhaps it was some "yuckies". Nope it wasn't. I thought you have to be kidding me, so I laid her on the bed, took out the tweezers to see if I could get the "foreign" object out. I was able to (without harming her), out comes a twisted-up page out of her book. GROSS. I checked out her room. She had a few books on her bed and had ripped out some pages. Some of those having found their way up her nose. All I have to say is thank you for tweezers and thank goodness I didn't have to bring her to the E.R. this time (see post about raisins up the nose).

2007-01-03T10:25:00.000-05:00

It's a Sad, Sad Day.

Yesterday my sister-in-law called. We talk often so I thought nothing of it. Dan was talking with her and then hung up. This is unusual. Since we usually chat on the phone for a long time just to pass time. Anyhow, Dan hung up the phone and told me that Stayner church (our home church...at least until we moved...) we on fire. Now, Dan likes to pull my leg, so I immediately call Anne Marie back. She says it's true. The fire started sometime yesterday morning and continues to burn today. Because of the metal rough on the church the firemen can only hope to contain the fire, however, the church will be ruined. No one has been hurt physically. But emotionally it's a huge loss. The oldest part of the building was built in 1880, so it's been around awhile.

The congregation, although aren't sure where they will meet next sunday do have many options. And we know that God will bring good out of this. And they will rebuild.

It's more of the memories of events that happened at church that brings the feeling of loss. Our family has seen 3 weddings (not including those of friends), 4 baby dedications and countless showers. It was there Dan and I met. Where we were married.

The next days, weeks and months ahead will be difficult for the congregation. Knowing that friends and family are hurting so much makes me long to go home.

I hope to post about Christmas (which was really fun) in the next few days. But today, am just feeling a little too sad to accomplish that.

here's a link to the news cast about the church fire.

http://www.achannel.ca/home/news_38937.aspx

2006-12-14T15:44:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures of the girls that I took on Sunday. They are growing up so quickly. Violet will be 4 months on Sunday. She loves her big sister so much.

2006-12-14T15:24:00.000-05:00

A TALE OF DISCRIMINATION...

There once was a mother who wanted for her baby a beautiful laugh and learn home (in French of course). While surfing one night to her delight a deal at Sears she did find. "Hooray, Hooray" she exclaimed. Up the stairs she went, as quick as could be to call for a Sears delivery. To her dismay the man on the phone would say "I'm sorry the french one on sale...no way". "Why, Why?" cried the mother, "'tis toy discrimination, I say". Back down the stairs she went, her energy almost spent...to write a letter of complaint. A look in her in box the very next morning, revealed a reply, she thought she would faint. However, again to her dismay the email thanked her for her comments and that someone would get in touch ASAP. Patiently the mother waited as the days went by. Monday...Tuesday...Wednesday...Thursday...still no reply. Now annoyed the mother did call and to Sears she did cry:

"Toy discrimination, toy discrimination!"

The lady on the phone, cried "toy discrimination, not here at Sears? What an abomination!" What a dear soul, did what the man could not do, and gave a deal on the toy (in french) to the now exasperated mother. "Thank you and thank you" said the mother "My child will have a Christmas gift because of you".

That's the end of my tale. And true once again, is that the customer is always right.

2006-12-07T13:25:00.000-05:00

I QUIT!!!

I quit being a mom and a wife. Ok, well not really but I really. really want a break. We've been doing some light renos since moving in. My last project before the holidays was the livingroom. After three weeks (not a weekend like planned for) it is finally painted. I've hardly stepped foot in the living during this project. Dan has been in charge of getting things done while I take care of the girls. I could tell he was pretty tired last night but wanted to get the painting done so I told him I would clean the livingroom in the morning. It turns out that he hadn't bothered cleaning anything as he was working on the livingroom. Sure there was plastic down on the floor to protect them, but drywall dust had accumulated under it. He didn't bother covering up the piano (so I have no clue how it will ever get clean), and didn't do a good job covering the now-encrusted-with-drywall dust-couches. Now I love my husband, I love that he would work so hard to red0 the living room for me, I just wished he paid attention to the little details. I was so mad this morning while I trying to clean the mess --spent 2 1/2 hours and it's still disgusting--that if I had had the van I would've packed the girls up and gone to my cousin's house for the weekend, leaving a note for dan to call me when the mess has been cleaned up. I was just super annoyed (can you tell). There shouldn't have been any dust since I bought a special sponge-sander that if wet creates no dust....however he apparently opted not to wet it. GRRRR. I just had to vent. I was upstairs in tears because I couldn't get things cleaned and frustrated that it was preventable. I'm not sure this is the best forum to vent my anger but i think it worked...

So otherwise I haven't updated my blog in over two months...point form here's what's been going on....

1. We made the far move to Northern Ontario. I like my house...it will be better when it's up to my standards for decor (not some 80 yr old couple's standard)

2. Emmy had a hard time adjusting to the move, we experienced a ton of temper tantrums at first. Things are getting better with her, although we're still in the midst of the terrible twos.

3. Violet-Grace is growing. She's a much shorted baby than Emma-Rose was. She's such a joy. She pretty much sleeps through the night now, which is wonderful. (emmy didn't sleep through the night until she was almost 1 1/2). V-G rolled over last week. She loves rolling over. She's also a giggler. I LOVE hearing her giggle.

4. As soon as the living gets cleaned up, the Christmas decorations will go up. Hooray!

5. We've found a church. It's a small church plant...but very welcoming. I've even made friends! YEAH!

6. We bought the appliances that were in the house, since we thought it was the easiest thing to do. Our fridge died a couple of weeks ago and we had to replace it and seeing as we were replacing the fridge we figured it would be a good time to replace the stove since you could only use one burner at a time, with a wooden spoon or else you'd get shocked (and pretty badly too). Now we have nice white appliances as opposed to gross almond-brown ones.

7. I discovered a no-bake toblerone cheesecake recipe. That's definitely a highlight. Yummy!

8. As recommended by Kayla I bought the book The velveteen mommy. I'm halfway through....it's so good!

9. I really wanted to make it to 10, but I need to get some lunch before the violet decides she wants lunch. That and I have nothing else to say.

2006-09-28T07:52:00.000-04:00

Violet-Grace in her dedication outfit (mine when i was a baby). Below a picture of the sisters.

This is my house! Yeah! We get possession tomorrow! The girls and I will move up on SAturday. We have a huge yard somwhere between a 1/4 and 1/2 an acre. Lots to do, won't be back online for a week or two while waiting for the new internet connection, will post more about the move and house then!

2006-09-06T07:28:00.000-04:00

My Very Own House!

Just very excited to announce that we are putting an offer on a house today. My aunt and uncle went around Kap on the weekend looking at houses with a real estate agent. They narrowed it down to what my aunt thinks is the perfect house for us (once we have it decorated and set up the way I want). Dan went with the agent last night to look at it and 3 other options. Then he called me, I went over pictures and the fine details about each house (I never realized just how detailed my husband can be) and we chose which house we would put an offer on. I really thought I would struggle with not being able to see the house before we bought it, but in all of this I've had such a peace. Peace that passes all understanding. Cause it's not my nature to be so laid back about things, and I would think especially not buying our first house. I like to be in control. However, I'm also learning that things are better when I let HIM be in control. Will post pictures when our offer has been accepted.

2006-08-29T08:46:00.000-04:00

So time for another update.

Praise God! Dan was finally offered a full-time PERMANENT teaching position yesterday. He'll be teaching mostly math (his field) and a few other courses that may stretch him (history and english). His interview was yesterday at 1:30 and he was offered the job by 2:30. We are pretty excited. However, quite stressed all at the same time. The job is in Kapuskasing which is about 8 hours north of here. Dan will leave on Monday to be ready for the first day of school on Tuesday. I will move in with my parents for the month of september (until we can secure a house and I can move up). Also, having just had a c-section, I shouldn't go on a major trip (or move) for another 4.5 weeks. I'm dreading the time of seperation. My heart breaks when I think of Dan missing the first month of Violet's life and the effects of not having her dad around will have on Emma-Rose. It will be a difficult time, but the end result will be worth it in the end.

Violet-Grace is doing pretty well. She's finally started to gain weight. Hooray! She hasn't been able to latch on (the nurse thinks it's because she was too early) so I've been expressing milk and Dan and I take turns feeding her with a syringe. Her jaundice is clearing up (another hooray!), so soon it will be time to make the transition to her solely breastfeeding (again Hooray!). Emma-Rose loves her little sister and is really adjusting well to the change.

2006-08-21T23:31:00.000-04:00

Violet-Grace, about 24 hours old.

All ready to go home.

Big Sister and Little Sister. V-G is only 2 hours old here.

2006-08-21T12:06:00.000-04:00

Violet-Grace Ellen

She's here! We welcomed her into our family Thursday August 17 at 6:15 p.m. She was three weeks early. But even at that she weighed 7lbs 10 oz and was 21 inches long. Surgery went well. My anesthesiologist was hilarious, a regular stand up comic. Emma-Rose absolutely loves her sister (so much so that right she's supposed to be napping, but is standing in her doorway bawling her head off cause she wants to be with her sister). My parents brought Emmy to the hospital on Thursday night, as soon as Violet-Grace heard Emmy's voice she tried to open her eyes and was moving her head around to find the voice. It was sweet. My thoughts are all over the place and I don't think I'm making much sense...(thank you tylenol 3 and lack of sleep)...
Pics will follow...blogspot isn't letting me upload them right now....

2006-08-14T18:45:00.000-04:00

Family of 3 becomes family of 4 .... more news after Thursday....

Ok, so I'm not due until labour day, however, I had contractions for about 10 hours yesterday, was kept in overnight to be monitored. Things seem to be under control for now. A c-section has been scheduled for Thursday, so if all goes well baby #2 should be here sometime in the evening. I will try to post more details next week when I'm home from the hospital...now I have to follow doctor's orders and relax for the next couple of days. I had an ultrasound at the hospital, found out what we are having...but that's going to be kept secret until it happens...

2006-08-11T13:26:00.000-04:00

Life on the Crazy Side

It's been pretty busy around the Brander household. Dan's sister and family were around for the weekend so all siblings gathered at his parents house. It was a fun time, but 4 kids can get pretty noisy.

On Wednesday, Emmy and I went with Dan to Peterborough for a teaching interview. We would love to hear some good news from them. We are both pretty excited about the posibility of moving there and the dissapointment will be huge if the job goes to someone else.

I'm trying to get Emmy's scrapbook caught up before the new baby gets here...I'm almost done her first year (which was pretty thorough) and year two will hopefully get done too.

In the midst of everything else, I found out that a c-section will be in order for me. I was dissapointed, since I wanted a natural delivery but my new doctor went over the details of Emmy's birth with me--details I had no clue about and decided a c-section was the safest option. Besides, at this point, with just over two until baby's arrival, he or she is breeched. With finding that out, and knowing the we will likely be moving at the end of september, I've been on a mad craze to get the house packed up, leaving out only the absolute essentials.

Anyhow, both Dan and Emmy are having a nap so I'm going to sit back, have some ice cream and enjoy the few moments of peace and quiet, before going back to reality.

2006-08-03T08:23:00.000-04:00

SUPERCELL

O.K. so that's what the weather guys were calling it. Around 8 last night, I decided to go to Michael's to pick up a few scrapbooking items. I didn't want to go alone so I got my mom and Emma-Rose to come with. We had been expecting thunderstorms all day because of the extreme heat from the past few days. Anyhow, we went things were fine. We came out of the store and things weren't so fine. Imagine with me, if you please, you walk out of a store at dusk. Part of the sky looks like dusk (to the south--in back of us) and to the north is a thick jet black sky, as well as sheet of flying dust, dirt and garbage flying coming at you. That's what we came out of the store to. We get to van, low and behold we broke the door, can't get it to close. The wind is intensifying around us. I finally get the door fixed and start thinking, if this is a tornodo (or anything like it) we shouldn't be driving. We drive across the parking lot to McDonald's. My mom calls my dad to get him to check the weather and determine if we should drive home. He says the worse has yet to hit, so come home. We leave the McDonald's with an upset girl (who didn't get any french fries). We were almost home when the worst started to hit. Anyhow, praying for safety the whole way home, we did make it safely. Watching the weather network, we realized how bad it really was. Here's an article from Citytv.com it sums up what was going on in southern ontario last night:

Series Of Storms And Possible Twisters Tear Through Ontario
Wednesday August 2, 2006
Ontario's heat wave finally broke with a frightening display of nature's fury on Wednesday night.
A wall of thunderstorms raced across southern Ontario producing lightning, hail, damaging winds and potentially a series of tornadoes.
In the end, 150,000 people in the province were without electricity.
The line of violent weather stretched from Goderich to Ottawa with nearly continuous lightning and wind gusts of up to 120 kilometres an hour. Toronto escaped the worst, but there were reports of scattered outages after trees took out power lines in various parts of the town. Hydro crews were working on problems at Kipling and Finch and Jane and Lawrence, along with Harboroufront. All were left in darkness by the disturbance.
In Barrie, an uprooted tree fell onto a house.
"It was like a tornado or hurricane," said Barrie resident Gordon Stanich. "It was just unbelievable. I was down by the water because I'd run down for the boat and the boat was going all over the place."
At one point there were distress calls from ten sailboats in Georgian Bay, and in Eastern Ontario there were widespread tornado warnings with possible touchdowns near Bancroft and Smith Falls.
A potential microburst, if not a tornado, may have touched down in the Newmarket area, and in Renfrew near Ottawa, a Home Depot reportedly had its roof collapse.
What's believed to be a twister was seen by a weather spotter near Morriston, Ont. at the intersection of Highway 6 and the 401 during the afternoon. It was accompanied by heavy rain but didn't do much damage before it moved out over Lake Ontario.
Environment Canada called it a "very high impact severe weather situation" and advised anyone caught outside during the height of the storm to take cover.
The warning covered all areas of the G.T.A., including Toronto, Peel, Durham, York and beyond.

A few spots were also flooded by the heavy downpours, which dropped walls of water in just a few minutes.

The disturbance was caused by a cold front that swept in, replacing the hot, sticky and smoggy air that has been baking much of the province all week.

Forecasters say Thursday's weather will be more comfortable with a lot less humidity and highs in the mid 20s.

2006-08-02T13:44:00.000-04:00

Emma-Rose and her cousin on the back of a camel.

Emma-Rose playing Egyptian princess.

2006-08-01T09:05:00.000-04:00

Ontario, Yours to Discover!

Last week we went on a little road trip. Emma-Rose has been begging to go to her cousin's house. She always gets to see them at Grandma's house and they've been to her house, but she hadn't been to their house (atleast not in her recollection). After putting her off with another day we'll go visit Mattea, we decided to surprise her and go. There's no direct highway from Orangeville to Renfrew, so we decided to take some back roads. There are a lot of cute little towns and villages through central Ontario.

Emma-Rose had a blast playing with cousins. We went to Ottawa one day and took the kids to the Byward market (ok so they put up with that cause there was a major candy store involved...Emma-Rose has never been in a candy store--other than the corner store...it was so fun to see her reaction...we now have a few pounds of jelly bellys in almost every flavour imaginable). Then we took the kids to the museum of Civilization, where inside there's a Children's Museum. They had a blast! Emma-Rose was a little overwhelmed at first but got the hang of things half way through (see pics below).

On our way home we took more back roads to end up at the Hershey Chocolate factory, where once again we let Emma-Rose go nuts. It was fun. The self-guided tour was boring since there was nothing on the line and the prices in the Chocolate store weren't a good buy (could've gone to Walmart and paid the same price or less), but she just loved it. We turned a five hour trip home into a 10 hour trip, with back roads, many stops and potty breaks (for the maman, not the kid she's still in diapers).

It was kind of our last hooray as a family of three before the new baby makes his or her entrance. The whole in the van Emma-Rose was a super awesome traveler! Didn't cry, didn't complain and we didn't even have a DVD player. Anyhow, as promised a few pics from the trip.

2006-07-07T09:14:00.000-04:00

Random thoughts and updates....

a. Dan has an interview today at a school in Peel (a big city school board). As much as I don't really want to live in the city, at this point we'll take anything.

b. I found out that strawberry picking at 32 weeks of pregnancy = pain. A very frustrating thing since I LOVE picking. I usually pick about 100 litres. This year the grand total was 10 litres and I had Emmy help me.

c. Tupperware fridge mates are awesome. Right now I'm eating strawberries I picked last week and they're just as fresh as when I picked them. :)

d. Whipped cream on strawberries = a very yummy breakfast!

Not a very interesting post, but as I write this, I'm really more interested in the strawberries and whipped cream sitting on the desk.

2006-06-15T16:01:00.000-04:00

A VISIT TO THE LOCAL E.R.

Life with a two year old seems to bring unexpected adventures. For example yesterday. Emmy wanted to watch Barney (not all that fond of him--but sure why not). So while she's quietly watching barney and eating some raisins, I decide to check my email and a few other things on the computer (in the same room, not more than 6 feet away). I think all is going well, until she comes over to the desk and looking a little panicked tells me she put some raisins up her nose (like it was the most natural thing in the world to do--except for the fact that things were now uncomfortable in her nose). Just as she tells me this she starts sneezing and gagging. So I'm thinking she's really not kidding. I called my mom, who burst out laughing, since I apparently did the same thing when she was 7 months pregnant. She told me to call tele-health ontario, but to be prepared to be told to go to the e.r. After a short but funny (in retrospect) conversation with the tele-health nurse, Emmy and I headed off to the E.R. dept. (Of course I had to call the high school where dan works first cause I was supposed to run an errand for Dan and it may not happen depending on how long the visit to the E.R. room would take--the teachers in the math dept got a good kick out of it and some of the teachers with kids told dan their e.r. horror "my kid stuck this up their nose" stories).

There's nothing more embarrassing than going to the E.R. and telling the nurse (after she's seen patients with major problems -- like broken bones) that you're there because your otherwise healthy 2 year old thought putting raisins up her nose (a good storage spot?) was a good idea.

Anyhow, after a two hour wait (we were kind of low priority) and maman ready to loose her patience. We saw the doctor. And go figure, after examining her, figured that the raisins had probably already passed through her sinuses and down her throat and that she should be ok. Yeah, for a long wait for nothing. The funniest part was when the doctor admitted that his three year old did the same thing last weekend.

2006-06-09T09:11:00.000-04:00

A FUNNY EMMY

I know, I know...I don't post for a month and all of sudden two posts in one day. I just thought of something emmy did the other day that I thought was pretty funny and thought I 'd share it.

Emma-Rose is in the stage of learning different bodily functions. She's on a big blowing her nose kick right now. Cause that's what you do when it's runny. Anyhow, the other day she was less than impressed to be going to bed and the tears were just a flowing. Dan was attempting to change her bum for bed when from nowhere she says "WAIT! I have to blow my EYES".

2006-06-09T08:59:00.000-04:00

TIME FOR AN UPDATE

It's been a month since my last post and things have been pretty busy. Even as busy as life has been I really don't have anything interesting to blog about.

I'm doing some temp work for Stats Can doing follow up calls for the 2006 Census. Don't forget to fill yours out if you haven't already! The follow up calls are taking up more time than what I expected. I think Emma-Rose is feeling a little lost in this process (maybe ignored). The other day, I was looking up information on the computer to make my job easier and emmy was like "no make money maman" Talk about heart breaking.

Dan is in his last weeks of school. This year has flown by. However, with that comes another summer of applying for and interviewing for jobs, as this one was only a year-long contract. This summer is a little more stressful with a baby on the way. Mentally we need to be prepared for a new baby, new city (most likely) and new job all at the same time. Also, the big thing is if Dan gets a job in another area of ontario, there's a possibility he won't make it to the birth. Please pray for us this summer.

In addition to all that I know we will be moving, one way or another, so I'm trying to motivate myself to pack so that I'm not stuck packing when I'm ready to pop. But that's not working out so well.

so that's the update...nothing exciting.

2006-05-09T06:48:00.000-04:00

We're having a............?

Exactly, that's it. A whole hour with the ultrasound technologist and nothing. He couldn't determine for sure if we're having a boy or a girl. He could see the 4 chambers of the heart, the liver, the diaphram etc, etc...but he couldn't be sure if there was something between the legs or not! I was so incredibly dissapointed. The decision to find out the sex of the baby was a huge one for us. It wasn't until Saturday, that I finally thought for sure i wanted to know. Sunday comes around (yes Sunday, they do ultrasounds every day of the week at this hospital) and nothing. I have to wait and see what the radiologist says about the pictures and video, and reports all his findings to my doctor (who still hasn't gone over the results of my first ultrasound). Grrr.

In the technologist's defense, he was having a hard time keeping track of the baby to do his required measurements. Like, Emma-Rose this baby is an active one. yippee.

What can you do? I know I have 3 and a half months left, but I think I'm getting super nervous. My doctor hasn't given me good prenatal care and being in Canada, I just have to live with it and be thankful that I have a doctor. On monday, I go to my first appointment with the obgyn, since emma-rose was born via c-section, my doctor won't even talk about doing a vbac. So now it's my job to convince this obgyn in one visit that a c-section without good reason is not something I'm willing to do. The obgyn who performed my c-section with emma-rose is willing to discuss it and is in favour of a vbac, so if all else fails, I will get a referral to her and drive the 45 minutes to see her. That also means that I will have a 45 minute drive to the hospital when I have the baby.

Anyhow, that's what's going on in my neck of the woods!

2006-05-04T11:25:00.000-04:00

New Blog

I'm going to keep this blog going....so keep checking. However, in addition to this blog, where i just seem to babble, I've started a blog for recipes. Mainly for my benefit (since I write a recipe down and usually loose it), however, please drop in and see what you can use! http://lisasrecipebox.blogspot.com/

2006-05-02T12:10:00.000-04:00

Here's a cheesecake I made last summer with the second recipe....

2006-05-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

CHEESECAKE RECIPES

For either recipe use a 9 or 10 inch spring foam pan

1. Philadelphia Cream Cheese recipe

3 bricks of cream cheese (250g)
3 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla

crust: follow the recipe on the box of graham or oreo cookie crumbs

cream together cream cheese and sugar, beat in eggs one at a time, add vanilla. bake at 350 until the top is set (about 45 mins- an hour)....to avoid cracks on the top of the cheesecake bring cream cheese and eggs to room temperature before mixing together.

2. My favourite recipe (which i combined a few different recipes to create--although I'm sure it already existed somewhere out there)

3 packages cream cheese (250g)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (i think they're somewhere between 11-14 oz)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

crust: follow recipe on box of graham or oreo cookie crumbs

cream together cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk, beat in eggs one at a time, add in vanilla. bake at 350 for 45 minutes (approx). for best results cream cheese and eggs should be at room temperature

VARIATIONS:

vanilla--leave recipe as is (duh)

chocolate--melt 4 squares of semi-sweet chocolate in microwave and add to cream cheese mixture (i usually top a chocolate cheesecake with cherry pie filling and chocolate shavings OR fresh/frozen raspberries)

chocolate chip-- add 1-2 cups of milk chocolate chips (depending how many chocolate chips you want in)

marble--divide cream cheese mixture in two, melt 2 squares of semi-sweet chocolate and add to one of the bowls. Pour the vanilla cream cheese mixture into pan, add the chocolate mix in dollops on top of vanilla mix, use a knife to swirl it around...

There are other variations and other recipes....let me know if there's something specific you want to try (flavour wise) and I'll let you know if I have a recipe. Enjoy!

2006-04-23T06:40:00.000-04:00

Sesame Street Live

For her birthday Emma-Rose received tickets to see Sesame Street Live! Elmo's colouring book. Our tickets were for last night. Dan and I were supposed to take her into Toronto to see it, but he's pretty sick right now, so my mom came with (i think she was secretly delighted to come--since she was the one who bought the tickets). We get to downtown T.O. and on the side of the Hummingbird Center is this great big sign with Elmo on it (and I mean huge sign). I don't think it was until this very moment that Emma-Rose clued in to what we were doing. We had been telling her all day that we were going to Sesame STreet (her favourite tv program). After seeing that sign, all she kept saying was I wanna go Elmo's world, where's Elmo's World. Then we get out of the van after parking and start walking to the theatre and she's all like hurry, hurry see Elmo...she's was slightly excited. To say the least the show was INCREDIBLE. She loved it and you know what? both mom and I loved it to. Even at 2 Emma-Rose could participate in some of the things going on and she was completely in awe at seeing all of her favourite characters in real life. She had a blast. Of course, we couldn't take her to her first major musical without stopping by the souvenir table. We checked it out and then went to our seats. Then my mom saw some kids with the coolest light makers (I think I'll have to post a picture...) and my mom was like can I go get her one. Who am I to spoil Grandmaman's fun? So now this new toy is referred to "colours". There was no way Emmy was going to bed last night without her colours. I thought it was a pretty cool thing too. Of course I wanted Emma-Rose to have a more permanent reminder of her Sesame street adventure so I bought her a t-shirt with all the characters pictures and signatures on it. It could've been soooo easy to go over board and buy one of each thing there (but then I would be broke and that wouldn't be good). I can only imagine how much money was made off of parents this weekend there. At the same time, whatever, it's just money and what a cool memory we made. (We also got to capture it on camera, cause Sesame street allows camera use--pretty neat I thought).

2006-04-19T08:13:00.000-04:00

So it's been a while......a point form update (in no particular order)

1. Emma-Rose's 2nd birthday has come and gone--what a busy time! She was soooo excited for her birthday and now that it's passed she goes around saying not my birthday anymore

2. I'm into my twentieth week of pregnancy--hooray, half way there--and I"m finally getting excited, since I'm feeling this baby move, it makes the mornings spent in the bathroom seem a little more worthwhile

3. Have an ultrasound scheduled for the 7th of May, trying to decide if I want to find out the sex of the baby...any opinions on this?

4. Going to buy a recliner tonight, my feet and ankles have already started to swell, so Dan is spoiling me and getting a recliner (they're on sale this week at the sears outlet for dirt cheap--or else I don't think this would be happening)

5. All three of us are fighting a miserable cold...for me it wouldn't be so miserable if I could take something....anything other than extra liquids--cause that's what every expectant mother wants more of liquids...cause I don't pee enough as it is

6. I got to hang out with my brother and his girlfriend on the weekend, that was fun, we rarely get to see them since they're usually pretty busy and don't live nearby.

7. I went to a P & G sale this weekend, dragged dan out of bed early so we could drive to the edge of toronto and stand in line an hour before the warehouse sale began. It was worth it, had we arrived any later we would have waited several hours. We waited an hour (in beautiful weather)--last year when I went I waited 4 .5 hours in rain, snow and sleet (that wasn't going to happen ever again). Why wait so long or go early? P & G are the makers of Pampers, and always have them at their sales, however, if you don't go the first day, they run out of sizes. Anyhow, all is good, I have enough diapers to get me through potty training emma-rose and enough diapers for the new baby (atleast until the next p & g sale).

8. The Easter service at church was awesome, a group of people presented a dramatic reading, very moving.

9. As previously mentioned we are hopefully going to find a recliner tonight, to do that we need to drive to brampton (.5 hour away) where my parents live. My mom emailed and asked if we wanted to come for a bbq and leave emmy with her and dad while we went shopping, very nice.
I'm especially excited cause my mom is making chicken ceasar salad, which is something I'm craving right now...yummy

10. I wanted to have 10 points of updates, but as you can tell from #9 I'm starting to grasp at straws as to what to say....Oh I just thought of something...we have a girl's name, but can't even think up a boy's name that we like...any suggestions? The only guideline is no name ending in "er" cause then the first name would rhyme with the last name and that's too Dr. Seussish for me

2006-03-07T08:15:00.000-05:00

In the land of mini-van....

I took our Cavalier out on Friday to find out where our rent check had gone to (I apparently delivered it to the wrong house...oops 98 instead of 99--which is another story for another day). Anyhow, the car had trouble starting, which isn't unusual, however as soon as I got out of the driveway and onto the road I couldn't get the car going faster than 20 km eventually I got it to 40 km by flooring it. I'm thinking there's something really wrong here, but I had to find out what happened to the cheque. I had less than a km to travel so I figured we'd make it there and home again, which we did. I figured I must've done something to the bottom of the car when it scraped on some ice at the bottom of the driveway. Dan looked at the car when he got home, he figured the transmission went. We already had a mechanic tell us last year that there's a crack in the head gasket and who knew how long it would hold up. We started figuring that all the repairs needed now and in the very near future didn't make sense to do on a 1997 cavalier, so we went on the web to a used car dealer in Dan's hometown that he was comfortable buying from--their stuff is usually pretty new and out of our budget. However, when I checked on Friday they had a 2001 chevy venture with low enough kms that fit our budget perfectly. We went to see it on Saturday, bought it and picked it up last night. I'm pretty excited about the new wheels, as I was increasingly uncomfortable driving the cavalier cause it always seemed to break down when I was driving somewhere with emma-rose. In fact I was so uncomfortable that I wouldn't drive it further than I could walk back in a reasonable amount of time. Silly eh? Anyhow, so what did we do with the cavalier? Since my parents were the ones that gave it to me when they bought a new car, I asked them what to do with it...mom wanted to sell it, i told her she'd have to do it since they live in a city and would have a better chance to sell it, than I in a small town. My dad decided to have it towed to their mechanic to see what was wrong with it and then decide what to do with it. It turns out there was nothing major wrong with it...500.00 fixed it, but I'm not looking back! To the cavalier I say good riddance...and to the venture, Welcome to the family...can't wait to take you out later!

2006-02-23T10:22:00.000-05:00

Finally figured out how to post a picture and thought I'd post one of the wee girl...this was taken about 4 months ago...she's changed a lot since then...but it really like the picture

2006-02-22T12:59:00.000-05:00

Suffering the Mum-dumbs

Short post because I'm frustrated and hungry. I'm hungry because it's lunch time, frustrated because I just burnt my lunch to a stinky crisp...and still hungry. I'm finally starting to feel a little better and feeling motivated enough to set foot in the kitchen...a big struggle for me in the first trimester....silly me got side-tracked reading other blogs, forgot that I was making lunch and burned it...it's more than mum-dumbs, I think I'd call it the pregnancy-stupids. Hopefully things start looking up into my second trimester...or else I may altogether starve. (Not really, cause I can make toast and dan is an adequate supper maker).

2006-02-20T09:40:00.000-05:00

Keeping My Head Out Of The Toilet

There's my reason why I haven't posted in a while. I've been trying to keep my head out of the toilet. Morning sickness--don't know why they call it that...it seems like it's been all day sickness for me-- is the pits. Last week was the worst (I think my doctor jinxed me, since he was believed that being 3 months along things should improve....yeah right...), on the upside of it...Emma-Rose and I caught most of the olympic events last week. That was fun. She really likes the hockey games especially.

Last weekend we spent the day with Dan's family and his brother's little baby was there. Emma-Rose mothered him the whole day. She's going to be a great big sister. I'm looking forward to that. Meanwhile, 6 months to go...I don't think I'm looking forward to being pregnant during the summer. I wasn't with emma-rose and that was nice--at least for me cause in the dead of winter when I was boiling hot all I had to do was turn down the heat (really it was off completely--much to Dan's sadness). We don't have air conditioning here so hopefully it will be a cool summer (right cool summer in southern ontario...i must be dreaming).

Anyhow, my stomach is growling...again...must go eat....

2006-01-06T18:48:00.000-05:00

FISH and MOVING

Just before Christmas Emma-Rose really got into the movie Nemo. A few days before our big move out of my parent's home and into our rented house in Orangeville Dan started promising to get Emma-Rose a fish. It took a few days but she got the concept that she would get a fish. Tuesday morning she and Dan went out to buy a fish, they came home with a Betta fish. We put the fish in our aquarium and all it did was hide in the turtle statue it wouldn't do anything but hide, not even eat. Then I got to thinking, I'm a little like the fish. I was in a nice secure environment kind of crowded because of lots of people in one house. Then one day I move into a house with less people and lots of room (and lots of boxes to unpack). All I wanted to do is curl up into a ball on the couch (if I could just find it) and hide, I was so overwhelmed by everything. The next day we moved the fish into a smaller bowl and it seems to be doing better. When I got to thinking about it, I need to tackle this move a little at a time, really one room at a time. It's really worked out. The main floor of the house is all unpacked. My analogy may be a little off...but the lack of sleep and really early mornings this week are to blame for that.
Besides the silly analogy, the betta fish is still pretty boring...so on our journey to brampton today we stopped at a big pet store and bought some gold fish...they're a little more fun (well as fun as a fish can be). We actually couldn't buy gold fish in Orangeville...they were all sold out from Christmas (nothing says merry christmas like a goldfish).

2005-12-24T12:10:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas eve day and I just got home. Dan and I signed a lease to the house we're moving into on Tuesday. We really needed to move next week and were having difficulties making the changes, but everything has worked out. God is good. One thing I've learned through the last five months (and longer) is that God's timing is perfect, although it often doesn't match what I would think would be a good time line for things to happen, when I look back I see that His timing is perfect. I have seen that over and over again these last few months. I'm so thankful that God is in control, since left up to me everything would be a disaster. I know that I need to work on trusting God and not worrying so much about when things will. In the midst of the worrying and planning, the present often gets neglected. Much growth to do in this area.

Now that everything housing related is settled, I can enjoy the next few days of Christmas celebrations with little stress and focus on celebrating the birth of my Saviour and Lord.

2005-12-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

My first Blog

Ok, so here's my first attempt at blogging. First a quick update as to what I've been up to since graduating BBC, in case someone is actually curious, otherwise it's the best I could come up with today. I did my student in Belleville, Ontario from where I made connections to a teaching job in Bowmanville, Ontario (a little to the east of toronto) after my year there I ran away (ok so everyone knew I was going) to BC. There I spent six months in Fort St. John, subbing and working at the credit union (curious where that is? find the alaskan highway on a map it's between 45 and 60 km in from mile 0--it's WAY NORTH). Six months of no civilization was pretty much all I could handle and accepted a job at a Christian school in Wasaga Beach, Ontario (I moved there never having been there, rented an appartment I hadn't seen...which other than being an hour and a half away from toronto is pretty rustic, much like Fort St John, except FSJ actually had more civilization--joke was on me!). There I met Dan, who is now my husband. We have one daughter, Emma-Rose. Last year we were in North Bay while Dan was getting his B.Ed. He spent the summer applying, interviewing, and being rejected for teaching jobs. Though often discouraged we knew God would take care of us as he always does. The Friday before school started Dan got a job at a high school in Orangeville. Which is about 40 minutes north of where my parents live. Because of the short notice for a move, we camped out with my parents while waiting for a police check and a pay check and a decent place to live. Next week we are moving into a house...HOORAY! We are renting it for now, and that's ok...it may come on the market eventually and we're getting a pretty good deal. YEAH! I've been pretty bored while at my parents house, with not much to do, so at the urging of a friend of mine, I started up my own business. I bake and cook for people. It's pretty fun, really stressful but pretty rewarding. Speaking of which, I think I've spent enough time today on this blog, I have many orders to fill in the next couple of days as Christmas approaches.