Beauty in the small things

Stir crazy

2012-01-31T19:14:00.000-08:00

So I'm pretty much losing my mind, I've adjusted as much as I can to not living in my house, although I'm still very anxious to get back home I'm trying really hard not to stress about it. However there is one thing I'm not adjusting too......boredom. If I were at home I would organize something, a room, a cupboard anything that needed to be organized. I have noting here to organize so that's out. I would rearrange furniture or the way books and objects are displayed on my bookshelves, hmmm no bookshelves and the furniture is pretty much where it needs to be in order to fit. Start a project, make something cool for the house, again, I have nothing here to use, to make anything with. I can't even bake because that would mean having to haul all my baking stuff here. Ahhhhh I'm going crazy, my creative juices are being blocked. And the worst part about it is how I'm compensating, oh yes, that's right I am trying to fill the void, the problem is that the void filler is coming in the form of online shopping. I mean I am reading and exercising and going for walks but I'm also ONLINE SHOPPING eeeek. Not good not good. Maybe I need to take up Sudoku or online scrabble. Any suggestions ?

my oh my

2012-01-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday morning and I'm sitting on the couch looking out the window of the 22nd floor condo we're currently living in. It looks right out onto the city and the Saskatchewan river. It's quite pretty but it's not home. Just over a week ago the main floor of our home flooded as a result of a mishap under the kitchen sink. So now our home, floor less, without cabinets or furniture or the sound of my little family sits empty as it waits to be fixed. I'm 100% a home body and then add being pregnant into that equation and you get someone who isn't adjusting well, and as it turns out I'm pretty sure that although the chubster is social like his dad he's a home body too so he is not adjusting well either. It's been a really hard week and a half and I'm wondering how I'm going to last for, potentially, another month and a half sigh. I'm trying really hard to count my blessings and remain optimistic but it has been and continues to be a struggle.

Remeber me

2011-12-12T04:22:00.000-08:00

O.k. this has probably been my longest blog drought yet, you know it's been long when it takes you 3 trys to get your password right :/ The Chubster has a hit a rather lengthy needy stage, which basically means no computer or phone if avoidable while he's awake. I'm sure many have experienced this stage but basically what happens if you try and partake in these activities and he catches you is a mini barbarian arises and things get a bit crazy. The kind of crazy you would rather just avoid then deal with. I have been assured that this stage typically goes away around 17 months, however given that the chubster is only 15 months old I'm yet to feel comforted by this number.

Anyways, I'm here now thanks to my over active brain that decided to go on a rampage at around 5 am this morning leading me to give up on going back to sleep around 6 and lugging my butt out of bed and straight to the kitchen to make myself some coffee.

For those of you who haven't heard chubster #2 is planning an arrive late may which is the primary reason for my brain going into overdrive, so manythings to consider. Which 2 child stroller should I get, Should I work a bit more so that I qualify for mat leave pay, where am I going to put all the crap in the spare bedroom, I should organize the basement so I can put all the crap down there and so on and so on and so on. I wish that those were actually the only things waking me up but the list continues for a few more pages sadely enough, Is it just mean or does anybody else have this problem.

All that aside things are going really well, I decided to Decorate for Christmas mid November this year since it seems like Decemebr is such a crazy month and so far it has made me really happy, this year I've really enjoyed the Christmasy feeling in our home apposed to past years where I have waited, not had the time, and then felt ripped off because I didn't have the time to enjoy the ombyonce of Sparkling lights on the tree and the smell of Christmas cookies flooding the house. I love this time of the year :)

Well I think I'll wrap it up for now, just incase your bored, I'm hoping for some more time to blog this month, preferably not at 6 am but atleast it's nice and peacful in our house with no distractions. Enjoy the Holiday season

eeek, only one week

2011-10-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

There's only one week left of October, oh man oh man. This might not have any significance to anybody else but what it means to me is I only have 3 weeks left to complete my fall purge/organization. I'm a little OCD when it comes to certain things and organization and clutter in my home are two of those things. Piles of papers and stuff give me anxiety and disorganization leaves me fluster and frustrated. So in order to avoid these things I have to stay on top of them. This fall I'm finding it to be the worst ever because the hubster works so much in the summer and now with the chubster it leaves not a great deal of time for me to get done what I want to get done. I think it's also so bad because last year I had just had a baby and physically coun't do anything. But this year is different and Christmas is coming and I like Christmas to be about relaxing and enjoying and celebrating and not about melting down because I can't handle the caos in my house. So the list came out and my progress definetly needs to increase. So here is a little glimpse of my " to do" list

1. Organize and purge pantry
2. Organize and purge spare bedroom
3. Sell car, desk, and couch
4. Collect cloths and shoes for community living
5. Organize walk-in closet
6. Paint dresser and chairs so I can park in garage
7. Force hubster to hang TV on the wall and get cords off the ground
8. put up shelves and drying rod in laundry room
9. drink a starbucks and take a nap

Oh man I'm tired just thinking about it all, well hopefully I can pull it off and by the middle of November all I'll have to worry about is Christmas shopping, Christmas decorating, drinking more starbucks, taking more naps and BAKING, oh how I love baking :)

And Breath.....hold that thought

2011-10-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

Fall is here and thanks to the wind most of the beautifully colored evidence has blown away. The GREAT NEWS is that we managed to just sneak in before the leaves were forced to vacate their cozy tree branches and we spent a beautiful fall morning with out favorite photographer Heather Fritz having family pictures done. Now I am eagerly awaiting the the email telling me they are ready.

I always love the coming of fall, it is by far my favorite season, even though some years it's longer then others. The warmth of golden yellow, burnt orange , and crisp apple red adorning the front doors of homes in the form of a festive wreath, the comfort of those body warming meals that re-surface in your menu planning and the smell of the air, I think that is my favorite. I also love bringing out the comfy cozy sweaters that go so well with your favorite pair of jeans. Yup, the best season by far. Oh and of course we can't forget Thanksgiving mmmmm Turkey time.

Since I married my stud muffin of a husband 4 years ago there is one element of fall that I keep telling myself I love until I remembered that I am not being truthful with myself. I always look forward to fall because that is when life starts to slow down. NOPE, that is a big fat LIE that I have been telling myself every single year and then fall comes and it gets busier. Where the heck did I come up with this ridiculous notion. My Hubster is a carpenter who works in the area of concrete. We live in a province where it is cold for a pretty solid 5 months, and we're not talking just a little cold. SOOOO being that fall is the predecessor to winter life gets really crazy because everyone wants to get there concrete work done yesterday not tomorrow and so starts my favorite season minus my favorite man and that part of fall really sucks

The hubster bought me a Nikon D3100 for our anniversary, completely surprising me and I have loved every minute of it. HOWEVER I really did want to learn how to use this fancy camera so that I could take the best pictures possible of those special day to day moments. So when the opportunity was graciously given to me (by Heather Fritz my favorite photographer) to join her SLR class that she teaches I jumped on it like my hound dog on a poppy diaper ( a gross story that I will not share YUCK). So on these beautiful fall days that are void of my Mr. Hubbalicious I have been practicing and practicing take pictures on the manual setting of my camera and although I'm no professional I can honestly say I will never use automatic again. And then maybe when winter shows it's snowy face we (me and the hubster) will return to breathing, relax and I will then attempt him how to use this fancy piece of equipment. In the mean time here are a few pictures I've taken on the manual setting of my camera

The Chubster

The Chubster's buddy Tyler

The Chubster swinging

My favorite things of the summer

2011-08-15T06:20:00.001-07:00

I know it's been awhile, but my excuse is a good one.....SUMMER, it's been so nice here that I've been trying to soak in as much as possible which means all spare time has been spent doing yard work, going for walks, going swimming etc. The thing is when you live somewhere like Saskatchewan, a place where you never know how long the winter is going to be when you get an amazing summer like this it absolutly crucial that you don't let it pass you by....so I'm not. I do however know it's been a long time so I thought I would come back and share some of my favorite things of the summer.

Rider Pride ice cream, yup this province is CRAZY about they're football team. Doesn't matter how great or how crappy (like this year) they're doing this province loves to cheer them on. Decked out in green the fans are loyal. So we know have this yummy ice cream, mint mixed with cookies crumble. What could be better then that

The Black and Decker mouse sander, a good friend of my grandmas and now a good friend of mine. If you do a lot of furniture refinishing this is the baby you need to get. Pretty sure it changed my life a little bit. $39 at home depot

Cookies and cream shake oreos, I'm not going to lie I have a weekness for the special edition oreos. I also love the mint ones when they come out :) they're especially good frozen

I found this at The Jammery while I was in Kelowna in July and it is AWESOME. The Healthy dressing bottle. I like to make my own dressing and this is really cool because the recipes are right on the bottle. $9.99 at the Jammery (try the all you can eat waffles with fresh fruit preserves while you're there)

Luminarc glass bowls with lids. 13 bowls, 8 lids, $14 at Costco. Need I say more

Bahama Blue spray paint by rustomleum, and of course my lovely freshly painted flower pots. I was worried the color might be too vibrant but it's not and I love them

Fresh market apple anti bacterial foam soap from Bath and Body works. You seriously want to eat this soap when you smell it. I bought 3 bottles I love it so much

O.k. anybody you ( A) has hard surface floors (B) has a drooling baby or kids in general or (c) a doggy needs to own this. Vileda spray mop. It come with a bottle attachment that you put your own solution in. 2 tsp of cleaning product of you choice and then water. You snap the bottle in and you're ready to spray and mop. And then when you need to clean the pad you just pull it off and throw it in the was. It's really quite brilliant and the best part is you don't have to buy anything else in order to use it. $24 at walmart, but I've seen it go on sale for less

Well that's the end of my favorite things for the summer, I'll try not to wait so long before I blog again BUT who knows how long until winter comes so no promises. I also has a very special little boy turning 1 in a month so I'm also working to plan that specail day, but I will be back :)

Dominique

Hello Summer

2011-07-06T14:35:00.001-07:00

Summer came this year, THANK YOU JESUS. The last time summer came was 2007 a.k.a the first year I lived in this new found land(to me at least) known as the prairies. O.k. well I guess technically summer did come in 2008 and 2009 but to be fair it was dressed more like spring for most of it.And last year summer only came for the month of October, weird right. This year it's warm and beautiful and the blue skies have no beginning and now end and it's wonderful and I'm so happy I could dance, but I won't because I'm not a great dancer, I'm not even good at faking at being a great dancer. Anyways YAY SUMMER

Photo frustration

2011-06-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling a little sad today :(

I've started scanning through my photos of the chubster in hopes that I can motivate myself to put them into a photo album. I found myself more discouraged and dissapointed then smiling during this process. I should be smiling ear to ear because of the cutest face staring at me in every photo

Our camera is BRUTAL, and what sucks is we looked into the ratings and everything about this camera and it really has been a dissapointment when I consider the good reviews it got. So now I'm sad because super cute pictures like this one below will never be what it could have been

So I've now to come to conclusion that it's time to buckle down and make an investment so that my picture memories are no longer a dissapointment.

I'm looking at the Nikon 3100 however I'm open to recomendations, that is as long as they come along with a reason why your recomending it :)

I love vacations

2011-05-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

Joel's Cousin got married on the May long weekend. We've known since last year that the wedding would be coming and that it would be in Toronto so as soon as a date was set it was marked on our calender.

My two favorite men wearing matching ties

The Newest Mr and Mrs Rempel

Admiring the water at Canada's Wonderland

Going away is always refreshing, especially when it's to a new place a good distance away from home. So we packed our bags and headed to Toronto for a week and I have to say it was a great trip. There is so much to do in Toronto and May is a great time to go because there are blossoming trees everywhere and the air just smells so sweet. That is one of the thing I actually REALLY miss about BC is the Spring. You don't get too many blossoms here and the air does not smell sweet, so even though we where on the other side of the country from my original home there was a part of me that felt like I was at home.

This guy was real, SO CRAZY, he moved to Elvis music as though he was fake

The Hubster and the Cubster with the original Stanley cup

The Chubster was awesome and seemed to enjoy the trip as much as we did and he even slept well in the play pen, this was a first and what had me the most nervous but he did great. The wedding was beautiful and the weather was perfect, we saw lots and got to spent time with the family which was also great. All in all it was a great vacation and we would go back forsure.

The is were I found him, hiding under the bed

Picture wall

2011-05-10T20:22:00.001-07:00

So this is my 3rd time writing this post becuase 3 times my entire post deleted for no reason apparent to me. I'd like to say I love technology but sometimes I don't

anyways, being that this is my 3rd time around and have lost my excitment due to frustration here is what I did with all those frames cluttering up my floor. O.k. I'm actually still really excited about it :)

Before

During

After

Yay for getting something accomplished

Commitment issues, the first step is admitting it

2011-04-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

So one of thing that I'm passionate about is decorating, however when it comes to certain areas I have serious commitment issues. The first commitment issue is in the placement of wall decorations/art/pictures. I Hate redoing things. I am not a trial and error person, it's not how I learn and it's not how I decorate. I observe, watch, take notes and then when I think I've got it I proceed, obviously if I fail I will try again BUT I do not practice trial an error as a means of figuring things out. This is poseing a problem as I have accumulating pictures and pieces of art leaning against walls and piling up in corners and it's time to start putting them in places instead of letting them collect dust. I hate hanging things on the walls because if I don't like where I've placed it then I have to patch the holes, repaint over the hole and then hang it again in hopes that I like it. The second commitment issue is color scheme. My problem here is that I LOVE color so commiting to one color scheme gives me a bit of anxiety. What if I chose a color scheme, go with it and then don't like it, then I have to do it again, which as I mentioned in commitment issue #1, I don't like to redo. I mean if it's a couple years later and I'm ready for a change then that's fine, then I'll redo it but, right away, no way, I have other projects I want to do so I want to love it the first time so I can smile when I walk buy and not feel stressed out about hating someing and then feeling like I HAVE TO fix it right away. anyways, why am I sharing this, good question, who knows. O.k. the reason I'm telling you this is because I have to tackle both of these issues sooner of later if I A. ever what my kitchen/dinning room to be done and B. so that my guest room looks like a guest room instead of a storage unit. So I'm going to tackle these to areas in the next couple weeks and hope for the best.

Bad days come around and everything crumbles

2011-04-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

To day is a really bad day. When these days happen I just fall apart and everything comes to a meeting point of brokenness. It's hard to explain the joy and pain that comes along with being a mom. When I look at my little boy I'm amazed by how perfectly he was created, he has his own little quirks and personality and watching him learn new thing is the greatest thing ever. He giggles at the funniest things and offers anyone that comes his way a smile. I am so glad that he is in my life and when I'm away from him I miss him terribly, but there is another side of it too. The side of feeling like a failure; failure because despite your very best effort sometimes there is just nothing you can do to make things better. So far my history of not being able to make things better is quite vast and on days like today the guilt of these failures just consumes me. I couldn't push my baby out, I tried, I tried for a really long time and then they had to get him out. I remember the nurses and doctors flooding into the room and all of them doing something to me, the oxygen mask went and they unhooked me from one machine and hooked me up to another and then we took of running down the hall. I remember shaking uncontrollably because off all the drugs in me while they worked behind the tent . I was completely helpless. Then I couldn't feed my baby, again I tried long and hard and did everything I could because those stupid "breast milk is best" commercials made me feel like I was letting my child down because I had to give him formula but he was starving, they don't talk about how to deal with that in pre-natal classes. So I was on medication and I pumped and I did everything and nothing worked. Then I found out he couldn't have milk after 2 months of him being in pain, so we had to put him on special formula that was worth it's weight in gold, and I was angry because I couldn't seem to get anything right. These last couple days we've been teething pretty bad so we wake up whining and miserable and spend the entire day this way. Today I'm struggling to handle it because there's nothing I can do which bring this flood of past failures to a head and I get overwhelmed and angry and frustrated and I just wonder what is wrong with me. I'm not sharing this to make you feel bad for me, I sharing these things because this is what I'm dealing with today and I want to real about who I am and what I'm dealing with and I tend to go into "I'm fine mode" when I actually talk about what I'm struggling with. So I'm optimistic that tomorrow will be better but as of now, today is a bad day.

Going a bit crazy

2011-03-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

It feels like this winter is lasting forever, it really has't been that long when I consider that it really didn't start feeling like winter here until the end of December, however it has been cold....REALLY COLD since then. I'm totally feeling like a prisioner in my own house, which is not a great way to feel, but really when you spend too much time in one place with no change of scenery and what feels like no fresh air it's like not getting enough oxygen to your brain and you stop functioning. Atleast I do. I always knew that this would most likely happen once baby came along and sure enough it has. The problem is that it's really hard to motivate yourself to lug your beloved child around when it's -20, -30 and especially -40. You have to bundle them all up and then once you get where you're going you have to unbundle them only to re-bundle them all over again. It's a lot a work, and if I'm honest my little guy is not all that torerable of the process once let alone 2 or 3 times. Oh and he hates being in his car seat, always has and doesn't seem to want to grow out of the hatred either, so if you can imagine adding to the lack of motivation a baby who hates being bundled and hates being in his car seat, it pretty much can just be an all around unpleasent time. So what do we do when it's cold...we stay inside...and pout. So I'm going crazy, and quite frankly I'm getting a bit crabby, o.k. a lot crabby. I just want to go outside for a nice walk or atleast take a nice deep breath outside without my nostril icing over. I commented to my friend on the phone today wondering what people that live in places that are cold all the time do, she kindly pointed out that we are those people, so I guess the answer would be GO CRAZY, stupid ground hog, I thought you said spring was coming early

the fact of the matter

2011-03-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

The hubster went away this last weekend (insert sad face here) I hate it when he goes away. This was the first time he had gone away since the chubster was born in September and I was dreading it. On prior occcasions when he was going to be gone for a few days the first thing I would do is make myself a list of things I wanted to do while he was gone. The primary reason for doing this was to keep myself as busy as possible so I didn't have to think about the fact that I was home without him. So as the weekend approached I started to make my list, organize the pantry, clean the garage, shovel the snow off the deck, re-arrange the picture wall, wash the floor. Ambishus ? probably, but I figured I could get a couple of the tasks done at the very least. Well the fact of the matter is......the only thing that got done was I washed the floor, and I did that last night at 8pm :(

I was so sad, I had such high hopes of accomplishing, well anything and I really didn't accomplish anything. What happened? well the chubster happened, this dear, sweet, most precious gift of mine got wind of my to-do list and wanted nothing to do with it. I love being a mom but there is something I have to tell you. HAVING A BABY REALLY DOES CHANGE EVERYTHING (this is a good thing, but takes time to ajust to). I have always been a very organized and planned person who likes her lists and scheduals, the hubster is not organized and in his words " I don't make plans". Now is might be a long shot to say this but it seems to me that the chubster is alreay taking after the hubster and the two have joint together in an alliance that goes against everything that I know to be me.

So what do we do about this predicament ? Well, apparently we accept the fact that my love of lists may continue to be apart of who I am, as long as I can accept that those list may take A LONG TIME to complete. And as far as being organized, well I can try but chances are that my efforts will be foiled by the dynamic duo. And once again, the fact of the matter is I'm out numbered.

The Hubster and the Chubster in there matching superman shirts,

A title comes to an end

2011-03-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

When I first started blogging I figured that the name I chose should capture a bit of who I am, which got me thinking, who am I ? Well this question lead to a whirlwind of thoughts, obviously I'm a wife,and a daughter, a sister, a friend but going a bit deeper who am I. What am I good at, what do I love, where is my passion and so on. Well the answer I came up with was " I don't know". Great, well what am I suppose to do with that. I started to realize that I've never really known who I am, correction, I knew who I was but I was so busy thinking that I needed to be something or someone else I couldn't accept the answer to that question. Well today I feel like I can answer that question and I think I owe that to a friend of mine who just blogged a bit about her life. Anyways in reading her blog I realized that I'm not the only one like this, that's great news :). So for the last 3.5 yrs I've spend wondering and wandering and wondering as I'm wandering about who I am, what I'm good at and were my passion , so here it is, this is who I am

I am all over the place all the time, my mind is constantly on the go, I love to create. I love to sing and make music,I love to paint pictures that are beautiful, cook and bake food that is amazing and full of flavour. I love to decorate my house over and over again with things that cost little but are beautiful, I'm excited to grow my own veggies and make my own baby food, I love to capture memories through pictures (even though I don't take great pictures) and find hidden gems in things that are quickly disposed of. I love to love and encourage and find the good when all you can see is the bad. I'm really not very good at any one thing but instead I'm a little bit good at lots of different things and that's o.k. Career wise I don't know what I want to do with my life because I get bored easily and the thought of doing one thing for too long sounds like a job and I don't want a job I want something that I can love doing everyday. I love the simple and beautiful which makes sense I guess because my husband says that's one of the reasons he feel in love with me, because I'm simple and beautiful ( I know, he's a keeper ). I want to show my kids that life is good even when it's hard and that there is so much more to do then watch T.V. and play video games. I'm not smart but I work hard. I'm not always sure what I want but I do know what I don't want. And most importantly I know that I'm valuable because of all of these things. I use to think that if I didn't have a good job with a fancy title then I was disposable, but now I'm realizing that you can always be replaced in your job and that title can be taken away, but you can never be replaced as a person which means that that great job with the fancy title isn't as important as I thought it was.

So there it is, I wondered as I wandered and now I think I am were I was always intended to be, and I have to say I like it here. And I'm still a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and now I'm a mom, but I'm a lot more then just those things and for the first time I think I'm genuinely glad to be who I am. So now the process begins in finding a new name for my blog, a task much harder then one would think, but I'm up for the challenge

mmmm guacomole

2011-02-25T10:41:00.000-08:00

I saw this recipe on a one of my favorite cooking shows and have been wanting to try it for weeks. Well today was the day and let me tell you, I had to stop myself from eating it all it was that good.

Recipe

2 Advocados

corn off of one cob of corn ( you can use frozen too just let it defrost first)

1 lime

some finely diced onion, rinsed

fresh cilantro

sea salt

Mash advocados, add corn, onion, cilatro, juice from lime and a sprinkle of sea salt. It's super easy and super delicious.

SOOOO GOOD

Mondays are fundays

2011-02-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

Some Valentines day love yum yum

Happy Valentines day Daddy

Swimming on Family day

life is tough when you're so cute

mom there are better things to look at then the camera

Sunday Afternoon

2011-02-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday afternoon and a perfect one at that. The hubster and the chubster are having a nice little afternoon nap and the house is silent so I thought I'd plop myself down on the couch currently residing in our dining room and blog. Once again it's been awhile, obviously I should have added "blog more" to my list of New Years resolutions, I guess I technically still can . Speaking of New years resolutions, I feel like I'm doing pretty well, however I not going to do an update on those until the end of February.....assuming I remember that I want to give an update come the end of February.

So life has been pretty average around here, at least I think it's been pretty average, there are good days, bad days, easy day, hard days, fun days and boring days so I think I would consider that pretty average. Although there are days where I could easily pull all my hair out I am constantly amazed by our little bundle and the amount of joy he brings me. It seems like he's growing so fast and learning so much. I told my husband the other day that I'm actually kind of amazed how much I love watching him learn, you can almost see them process things and then comes the light bulb. Giggling has also become a more frequent sound, and one of my favorites, along with one noise that we call the Pterodactyl. Teething has been going on since Christmas but we're yet to see one pop through, his mouth was kind enough to give him a really nice 2 day break from discomfort this week which was amazing, almost all drool stopped and I don't think there was even one minute in the day when he wasn't as happy as could be.

Joel entered a snowball competition that went on a few weeks ago and his team won so they have been practicing to go to Edmonton for the BIG competition. I still find it funny that Canada has started up with this snow battle sport that oddly enough originated in Japan but maybe I should be more surprised that in a place that has so much snow and were winter lasts so long that they didn't make it a sport sooner. Anyways, as funny as it I'm proud of him and his team for dominating :)

As usual I have a million projects on the go, however given my track record for updating you on the progress or completion of those projects I have decided that I need to just blog about the process and the completion of those projects in one blog. So those blogs to come....and since I'm adding "Blog more" to my list of New Years Resolutions I'll say that those blogs are to come, I'll even try for some this week.

well there's the update, I think I'll go and take Honey the hound for a walk in this beautiful weather. He's is another cute picture of my precious cubster to leave you with :)

This is the stocking Grandma Rose gave him for Christmas, it fit perfectly ;)

New Years Resolutions

2010-12-30T12:16:00.000-08:00

So it's that time of the year when we start to think about the things we'd like to do and the improvments we would like to make.These past couple of years I haven't really made to much effort to make new years resolution, maybe because for the most part I felt content, and because it was usually march before I realized we were actually in a new year. This year is different, I feel like so much has changed that I need to have so goals for the new year, so here they are

#1. LOSE THIS BABY WIEGHT.

#2. GET RID OF OUR CREDIT CARD.

#3. RELAX MORE

#4. READ MY BIBLE MORE

#5. LEARN TO COOK NEW, INTERESTING, AND HEALTHY DISHES

#6. START A MINISTRY TO HELP NEW MOMS WHO DON'T HAVE THE SAME SUPPORT SOME OF US HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH

So there they are, there are more but these are the big ones, I'm really looking forward to 2010 there just seems to be something different about this year. Usually around January February I feel really crappy, it's cold, holidays are over things just seem a little blah but so far every day has seemed great, the sky is blue, the sun is shinning, I love my husband and my baby and my friends and family. Really there's nothing bad that I can complain about, well I could complain about the cold but I'm not going too :) I' you're all feeling good about the new year

Christmas time in Kelowna

2010-12-27T19:32:00.000-08:00

So we've been in Kelowna since last monday, it's been so nice spending time with my family and friends. We decided to start the holiday off with Mr. Isaiah starting to teeth, of course he wanted to start early and of course be wanted to start the first day at grandma and grandpa's. The poor little guy all rosie cheeked and drolly. If getting use to a new place with so much excitment wasn't enough he had to deal with that too. We're now in week two he has cought a cold, my poor little guy is so tough and dispite his pain and discomfort he still gives us lots of smiles.

Grandma loves to play with Isaiah and of course Isaiah loves it when she plays with him, grandpa also gets down on the floor and makes silly noises and faces which he loves so much. All the great grandparents have now met our little man as well and they love him to pieces, even my 95 yr old grandpa reached out to let him hold his fingure.

So much has changed here, all my friends who have had babies in the last year that I've gotten to know via pictures on facebook are getting so big and are so much fun. I must say my friends have made so pretty dang cute kids. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful women in my life that I can feel like I haven't even been apart from them even though it's been 1 -2 years since I've seen them. It will be so sad to leave and I wish I had more time

Today my mom and I hit the mall, and I definetly hit it hard, I think my husband quivered a bit when he saw the bags come through the door at the end of our 5 hr shopping trip. What a good man he is, he watched are sweet baby so that I could go and get some cloths that made me feel better about my self. After baby body has been a huge struggle for me so I was looking forward to the boxing week sales.

well we have 4 days left here and it is going to be a busy 4 days, still lots to do and people to see. Pictures to come when I get home.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the new year

Just a few of my very cute little boy

2010-11-26T12:59:00.001-08:00

new winter hat to keep his little ears warm
he's a monkey :)

Grandpa bought this hat for daddy but I thought I'd like to waer it

Bedtime

2010-11-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

what is it about bedtime that is such a struggle for little ones. I really shouldn't complian being that my baby, once asleep, stays a sleep for atleast 7 hrs at night. This is amazing, I never thought 7 hrs could feel so good however the struggle everynight to get this guy to bed is making me want to pull my hair out. We've ( we being Isaiah) recently decided that once about 7:30 hits there is no such thing as happiness, he doesn't want to be held, he doesn't want to be put down, he does however want to fuss and cry and make very dramatic presentations. For example at the present time I am sitting here listening to my baby cry as though life it's self is ending. diaper changed, check, belly full, check, really there is no such reason for the unhappiness. So I pick him up nope still mad, Isaiah I say, you are tired, you have been for the last 2 hrs so make this easy for me and you and let yourself go to sleep. Call me crazy but 11pm is not an acceptable bed time. Just so you can understand my frustration I'll let you know that I just threw a calculator across the room because I am going crazy, Please just go to sleep before your mother is bald just like your grandpa, hmmm I wonder if grandpa is bald because I too decided that I did not want to sleep when I was tired. Well the good news (and by good I mean the news that drives me crazy) is that we have fused and cried away the last 2.5 hrs bring us back to feeding time and you guessed it an 11pm bedtime. I love my child more then anything but I'm ready to check myself into some sort of institute.

Mooooooo (The noise a cow makes)

2010-11-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Life with babies is ever changing, ever day they look a little bit different, get a little bit sweeter, smile more, laugh more and it's wonderfull, but, they are also some not so sweet things. These things include trial and error with nap times, trial and error with bed times, getting your baby enough food because you don't make enough milk, painfull gas and so on. Obviously I'm speaking from my own experience, which, to say the least has given me quite a variaty to hurdles to jump but many mountian top joyful experiences as well.

Eating has been a big thing right from the beginning, for him and for me. I don't make what he needs which has been tromendously hard to deal with but after a few dozen breakdowns over a can of fomula I've mostly come to accept the fact that this is the way it has to be, beside it's not about what I need, it's about what he needs and he needs food so he can grow and if that food is formula then that is what we have to do.

Anyways, so Isaiah is a 1/4 feed breast milk and 3/4 formula. We use a Hypoallergenic formula because he didn't react well to some on the other stuff. I thought all was good but he still seemed to have some really bad episodes through out the day which I assumed made him a colicky baby because it fell under so many of the symptoms. There's no explination for why babies are colicky and to go along with that no real answer to fix it, basically you're suppose to accept that you might not beable to make it go away but try and make baby comfortable. o.k. I tried that, for the record it doesn't make it any easier on mom knowing you might not be able to fix it and a few dozen breakdowns more occured. 3 days ago we had a horibble day, and when I say horrible I mean capital letters HORRIBLE, I was beside myself I didn't know what to do but we survived the day..barely, got him to bed ( we have been blessed with a great night time sleeper, once we get him to sleep that is) I crashed and that was the end of that. 6 am came when I was awakened by the "I'm hungry cry ". I sat there feeding him thinking/praying that this day would be better, I knew he'd go back down for a few more hrs so I debated whether to just stay up and get some things done incase it's another bad day but quickly told myself not to be stupid. After I put him back down I went to put the formula in the fridge and there it was, the milk jug and it hit me. I had a milk allergy as a baby, maybe he does too. So that day I stayed away from the moooo and guess what, he was a completely different baby, happy for more then an hour, napping, smiling. Thank you Jesus <3 I eat a lot lot of dairy and just that bit that he got from my 1/4 breast milk was making him so unhappy an in pain. SOOOOO glad we got that figured out, now to figure out what I'm suppose to eat with out my favorite food group, I never realized just how much of our food has dairy in it that you'd never even think of. Oh well all that matters is my baby is so happy now which means so am I :)

Big Blue

2010-10-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned in my last blog, now that I'm on the mend and starting to feel better I would really like to start accompishing things again. Heavy lifting is still not recomended, which I'm o.k. with becauce for some reason the thought of heavy lifting scares me. So instead I have to find all things that don't involve heavy lifting to accomplish. The good news is there is still a lot to be done in our house BUT I think I'll start leaving the building stuff to my hubby and spend more time focusing on the decorating part

my first task is what I like to call big blue. What is big blue ? well it's the wall in my kitchen, it's big and it's blue and it's been haunting me since we moved into our house in March. I've been hopelessly contemplating what to do with it with no such luck. I've had a few ideas which where quickly shut down by my husband for some decent reasons. You see big blue happens to be a wall that has the majority of our duct work running through it causing my ideas to be shut down, one being that we don't really what to puncture the duct work with what would be recomended to hang the heavier items I dreamed of displaying and two being that because of all the duct work the stud finder will not work properly making it very hard to be certain we'll hit wood and not metal, tear. However I'm drying my tears because I've finally got the perfect thing.

TA DAAAAA

o.k. maybe it's not that exciting to you but it is to me. This is a picture that was taken during our belly photo shot of a canola field in bloom. The beauty of Canola has fasinated me since I moved here so I'm so excited that I can bring it into our home. So no heavy lifing involved, actually no real work involved because I'm having this picture split into 3 pieces and printed on a canvas' to hang on Big blue. Problem solved, I love the picture, it will be big enough to fit the scale of the wall and light enough to hang with picture nails. I'm so glad she will no longer be alone :) I'm not sure how long it will take to get these lovely canvas' but hopefully sooner then later will be the name of the game.

next project, our master bedroom, more specifically a head board and some side tables

* as a little side note "Yay Mandi and Travis, I can't wait to meet her, you'll be the best mommy and daddy ever. I'm so proud of you " *

Better late then never

2010-10-18T12:02:00.001-07:00

If you haven't already I would like you to meet the new man in my life , born September 11th 2010 at 6:34 am wieghing 7lbs 20z and perfect in every way.

Hopefully this is my re-entry to the blogging world, I have wanted to so many times but if I'm honest have felt like I'm not sure what to write. Life with this little guy is amazing but when I look at my days they're mostly composed if sleeping, feeding, changing diapers and enjoying the little smiles this guy sends my way. I clean my house, and run errands but aside from that I have not yet tackled any projects, but I hope to soon. I ended up having to have a c-section so my body hasn't been ready for much more then what was mentioned anyways but we're on the mend. Daddy is smitten and loves snuggling and kissing Isaiah and Isaiah gladly excepts. Honey the hound dog also loves the little guy, although would still like to go on more walks, and whenever Isaiah starts crying will promptly come and find me and then run back to Isaiah and stand close until I arrive which is so sweet. And in case we haven't been blessed enough October has been stunning and it makes me so happy and more and more in love with our creator of such beauty.

Waiting Patiently

2010-09-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've blogged, probably an obvious statment if you read my blog. There's really no one reason but rather a few that have compliled in the past few weeks. I started my mat leave a month ago which kicked of the tornado of things to get done in my house keeping me pretty occupied, I can't find my computer attachment for my camera which is vital for any pictures that I've taken and would like to share and I just like to blog with pictures not to mention I've got the attention span of a 2 yr old, all things that have kept me from sitting down and writting something.

Due day was yesterday, there's this part of me that thought since it was due day I would just wake up and baby would be ready to come out. But I also knew this wasn't realistic, babyies don't operate this way, they come when they are ready. So now we're one day past and I'm still ready and apparently baby is still not so we continue to wait patiently.

pregnacy has not been a walk in the park for me, infact if I'm honest I wish it were a step I could have skipped, but again, things don't work this way. These past couple months have been especially uncomfortable and I'm just ready to be done. Joel on the other hand wishes I could be pregnant all the time, why I don't know because I haven't always been that pleasant to be around, but then he also would like it to be over for my sake.

so the week is continuing and we're both atticipating our new little bundle of life and trying to be patient. I'm still as distracted as a 2 yr old but have resigned from doing much more then tiddying our house do to extreme roundness, fatique, and the mere fact that I don't really have any motivation at this point. I'm exhausted and took 2 naps today, and when I think about the fact that I probably took to naps in total over the past 9 months it makes me laugh that on 9 months and 1 day I decide to take 2 in one day, turnign a new leaf I guess. I will however continue the search from my camera cord so that when baby Rempel does arrive I can share his beautiful face with you.

Love of my life

2010-08-16T19:34:00.001-07:00

I always struggle in the summer because this is Joel's busy time of the year for work, and with baby on the way he's been going going going. I don't know if I can say I fully understand the drive of a man who wants to provide for his family, just as I don't know if he can fully understand it when I tell him that providing is not just about money. I do however understand what it means to love someone so much that you want to do as much as you humnanly can for them.

With a TO-DO list as long as Santa's list, paired with the "stop denying it, they exist" pregnant hormones, my emotions have been hit hard when it comes down to how little time I've had the to spend with Joel this summer. It's amazing how many things come into light in regards to level of importance when the only thing you're dying for is some genuine quality time with the person you love. I was missing Joel sooo much last week, which lead to brokeness, which lead to one of those talk you just have to have, which lead to the greatest weekend ever. Nothing special, but so special at the same time. We spent Friday afternoon working around the house together, went for dinner and picked up some groceries and a movie for the lake, woke up Saturday packed up and headed out, just relaxed and enjoyed each others company, walked our doggy, watched some movies, slept in (o.k. Joel slept in, I don't ever sleep in and it's the worst), spent some more time together, headed back to town, got home and changed and went to The Exhibition which was SUPER FUN. I honestly can't remeber the last time the 2 of us just spent the weekend together, enjoying our relationship. It reminded me of the reasons we feel in love wth each other.

One of the things that sticks out the most from when we were being mentored (pre-marriage) was when our mentoring couple told us to work towards a place where if we lost everything, we would have everything we needed in each other. As I sat on my bed last week crying because I just missed my husband I realized that we're at that place in our life were we seem to have everything, but that really doesn't matter because he is all that I want and when we get to spend time together, just the 2 of us I feel like I'm on top of the world.

Thank you Lord for the blessing of this man I am lucky enough to call my husband.

Oh Canada

2010-08-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wonder why we're so blessed here. Why are we so privileged to live in a country like this? We have freedom and food and beautiful homes and landscaped yards and medical coverage and gourmet dog food and closets full of cloths. Every time I read a headline lately I feel this overwhelming flood of emotion, every time I opened the paper to another animal covered in oil I'm disabled because of my tears, earth quakes in Haiti leaving things distroyed and millions dead or without homes and food, flooding in Pakistan killing thousands and warning of disease to follow. I mean there have been some pretty crazy things all over, here too, but not to the same extent or maybe we're just better equipped to deal with them. I feel overwhelmed by the blessings that comes with our country and wonder why us and not them. I realize many are quick to blame God, but I don't, I just keep thinking we were given this earth to take care of and wonder if these disasters are a result of us neglecting this precious place we call our planet. I read about injustice and wonder how things could/would be different if we were more involved with each other. Unfortunately in that same sentence I'm overcome with fear and questions of how, how do you change something that has been in place for years. I feel like we're not caring for our planet and we're not caring about each other and that scares me. A lot of the time when I speak of fear in my life it's not good because it's the type of fear that gets me in a corner and numbs my body. But that type of fear I've recognized as being from Satan, this this fear is different, maybe it's not even fear. It's a feeling that makes me think about how I spend my time, or pay attention to what it is that I'm complaining about, how much waste I make, the way I treat people. Every little personal action makes a difference is what I'm realizing and this applies to human race and our planet.

Anyways, I feel like I'm cramming too many thoughts into a short blog entry and it may not make too much sense, but I guess I just needed to say it out loud in words.

Blog frustration, please help

2010-07-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

In general I'm not overly good with technology which often lead to frustration, which leads to broken mouses, which leads to the reason I now buy the cheap corded mouses. Now I'm not sure if this is me (I hope it's not because it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to set up a blog page) but can anyone tell me why I keep losing eleiments of my blog background, specifically my picture ? It's there for awhile and then it goes black and dissapears. Currently the top of my blog should have a picture of tulips to the left and then red to the right all behind my title and saying. When I first go to my blog it's there and then POOF picture and color red gone and black replaces it.

now I know some of you can relate, and some of you can't but aside from the frustration/anger that I generally feel towards my lack of understanding about technology and how this all works correctly BUT being give or take 5 weeks away from having baby the emotional reaction of choice lately has been tears tears and more tears. I JUST WANT SOMETHING TO WORK BEFORE I HAVE A COMPLETE BREAKDOWN

Cherry Muffins with crumb topping

2010-07-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Makes 16-18 Muffins

Ingredients

Crumb Topping
- 1 cup all purpose four
- 3 Tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 6 Tbsp melted butter or margarine

Muffin Batter

- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 canola oil
- 3/4 whole milk (I used skim and it worked fine)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup pitted cherries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 and line 18 muff cups with paper liners
2. Make the crumb topping: In a medium bowl, combine the flour with the brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the melted butter, then pinch the mixture until it forms pea-size clumps
3. Make the muffins: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs and canola oil and beat with a hand mixer on slow speed until combined. Beat in the milk and vanilla. Add the flour mixture all at once and beat on low speed until batter is smooth. Stir in cherries
4. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and then sprinkle the crumb topping on top of each. Bake for 30 min or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick comes out clean (my oven baked them in 20 min so make sure you watch). Let cool for 10 mins and watch husband devour half a pan in 15 min.

*note* you can also make loafs out of this recipe, I made 24 muffins and 1 loaf with a double batch

and now you all know my oven needs to be cleaned. You should also no that won't be happening until baby is here and bending over isn't so much work

It's a dog's life

2010-07-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

So I woke up this morning and noticed that my dear doggy Honey was not on her bed. I immediately wondered what kind of trouble my dog could be getting into at 7:30 in the morning. So I, in a sloth like manner, got out of bed and wandered down the hall and down the stairs to find this

rough life hey, it's too bad she woke up because she was so cute when she was asleep with her head resting on the pillow, sigh, now get off my couch you little bratt :)

If you're ever in Saskatoon

2010-07-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Not that Saskatoon is a hot vacation spot or anything BUT if you happen to be in the neighborhood I thought I'd share some of my favorite places to eat with you

1. KEO's Kitchen: Thai food, most amazing Pad Thai and Curry, and I've NEVER liked curry until I tried it here

2. Los Palapas: South American food, the food in general is just really good but they serve the most delicious Bean salad with there meals, made with garbanzo beans, it doesn't sound like much but trust me, it's good. The cocnut margarita is also really yummy ( virgin of course, no alcohol for baby)

3. The Cupcake Conspiracy: Cupcake shops are booming and up until about a year ago we didn't have any and now we have 2 but this place is the have to cupcakes place. My favorite is the Area 51, Vanilla cupcake with Mexican vanilla icing, sounds simple but it is to die for

4. Boston Pizza: o.k. everyone has Boston Pizza but I have recently discovered there Brushetta pizza and LOVE it

5. Moka Coffee Bar : well it's a coffee place where the drinks are made with love by it's owner Lynn, they serve frozen hot chocolate and the most decadent yummy desserts

6. Alexanders : Sweet and Spicey Thai wings are yum yum yummy and they're crispy and saucy, located accross from the U of S I'm pretty the serving staff are mostly students who need more sleep because the services is really hit or miss but the food is good and the restaurant does have a nice atmosphere.

7. Soulios : A gourmet grocery store/restaurant. Everything is fresh and local and delicious. The specialty ice teas are delicious and the fresh baking also takes the cake

Anyways, there are just a few of my favorite places to eat IF you're ever in the neighborhood.

Pregnacy Update ( with Picture for Mandi)

2010-07-12T11:21:00.001-07:00

So we are give or take 8 weeks away from meeting our little man, and oh so excited. I honestly feel like I've been pregnant forever so the fact that the end is near is so exciting. We're both just ready to hold our little baby in our arms, although Joel has expressed that he wishes I could be pregnant forever, I do not share this desire with him. I am nothing but officially round, o.k. well I've been officially round awhile now but the bigger baby gets the harder my stomach gets which is very strange, and you know in cartoons when the characters get hungry and there stomach makes that wavey movement, that's what it looks like when my very active boy moves around. So here are some facts thus far.

Baby : the size of a squash and as big as 4 lbs

Weeks : 32

weight gained : 24 lbs

Belly circumference : big

Peeing schedule : at least twice an hr (you probably didn't care to know that but too bad)

Weeks of work left : 4 WOO to the HOO

So another 8 weeks to go and lots to do. The nursery is almost complete, just waiting on one special element that SHOULD have been here already but it's not. Once that special something gets here I'll share some pictures.

Joel and I made our "House to do" list for what we want to get done before baby gets here and it's only 32 items long, CRINGE. I knocked off 5 items on Saturday so that felt good but there's still a lot of little tedious things to finish before we can declare our labor of love is finished.

I decided to take mat leave sooner then later, one because of the amount of things to do and 2 because my body is tired and doesn't want to come to work anymore. The job I'm in was never planned as a permanent job, so the fact that I'm not coming back means that next year how pressing it is that I return to work 12 months to the day will depend on the obvious, finances. So that will be played by ear and if I'm honest, the thought of having some time to myself before baby comes is an awesome one. So 4 weeks exactly

and here is a picture of the little man taking over my body. I tried to get my head but the lighting and the places that I had to rest the camera just were not cooperating so big Belly is all you get.

A soft sweet song

2010-06-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

So I was up at 4am this morning with the worst heartburn I've had to date in my pregnancy, and do you know how I feel about heartburn, well it's not good we'll just say that. So what does one do when they are up at 4am with no chance of sleeping, obviously she makes cookies.....with M&M's ( it's probably a good thing that I had heart burn or I would have eaten the cookies fr breakfast). Anyways, while I was baking at 4am I came to 2 conclusions, the first being that cookies make your house smell amazing and I wish my house always smelt like fresh baking when I woke up (hence the "when I wake up" part. I don't want to be the one doing the baking that early too frequently). The second conclusion is that despite my disappointment with being awake at 4am it is a beautiful time of the day, the sun is waking up, the sky is such soft calming colors, the birds are singing soft sweet songs and the air just smells so fresh. The first conclusion wasn't enough for me to forget about how much more I would rather be sleeping then bonding with my my kitchen aid, but conclusion #2 took my breath away. I've been feeling a lot of anxiety lately, blame it on the pregnancy, blame it on the weather, blame it on the mere fact that I'm a woman, but blaming it on any of those things has not helped me deal with it one bit, but this morning as I opened the kitchen window and my senses were overloaded with God's creation, there it was, the calming of my soul, the "peace that surpasses all understanding" taking over my body. There it all was, there He was, just outside my kitchen window, Jesus, patiently waiting for me to see WHY all this anxiety has been unnecessary.

Conclusion #2 you were well worth the heart burn at 4am and Conclusion #1, please don't get my husbands hopes up of waking to that smell too often.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7

a change of life, a change of hair ?

2010-06-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like different stages in your life are in need of different hair styles. Maybe it's just me but this is how I feel. I feel like because life is changing maybe I should be too, which I am ...on the inside, but maybe the outside should be changing too and hair is easy to change. When I got married I decided that my " most of my life long hair" needed to go, so I cute it short which I thought I would never do. Since then I've felt on many occasions that I wish I had my long hair back. This feeling only lasted long enough for it to get a little bit longer when I realized that I actually like it short a lot better. At one point I tried the long in the front shorter in the back, which I really liked, but only when I straightened it, my curls are way too temperamental but that's no different then with any hair style unfortunately. Anyways blah blah blah, I know get to the point.

THE POINT IS, baby is coming and it's time to change my hair again. I need a mommy cut. Right now I'm sporting a none hair cut because it needs to be cut...soon, but if I were to describe it, it is about shoulder length with no layers and a bit shorter bangs in the front. So these are a couple of the cuts I'm thinking of going to both sported by the lovely Jennifer Hudson (it was so nice of her to offer to model them for me don't you think)

hair style #1

hair style #2

they're both pretty similar but I think #2 is a bit longer and the layers look a little crazier. But they're both pretty nice I think.

which one do you think would be better ?

big, big , big, BIG

2010-06-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

As in baby and mama are getting big, wow, I never knew one persons stomach could grow so much in just over a week but it can and it did. I'm actually at the point were my belly is actually kind of in the way, but I'm sure I'll adjust, probably around the time for baby to come but adjust none the less.

me, baby and my sweet doggy
This is the size of baby according to The Bump, and let me tel you, this egg plant is kicking up a storm today

Summer Lovin'

2010-05-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

So last weekend was not a good one, and as much as I'd like to share why, I'm not going to. Although I will say, when you are prego and having a bad weekend you WILL undoubtably read the section in the baby book that says " you should now be emotionally functioning like a human again" so what your saying is I can't blame this really bad stint of emotional turmoil on being pregnant, well that's just great THANKS A FREAKING LOT :)

anyways, since last weekend was a total write off I figured this weekend I had better get my act together. Joel was away on a youth retreat and my doggy was passed out cold from the heat very early in the day leaving just me, all by myself. As usual, when Joel goes away I make a list that is at least 100 items long. I felt pretty good about what I got done but I burnt out pretty fast

so what did I do, well for starters I cleaned. Fun right, but it had to be done. Emptied some more boxes, also very fun. And then I painted some stuff that Joel built for me last year (yes I'm very behind) and I sanded down an old dresser/change table that Joel Auntie begged us to take away and put the first coat of paint on it. And then I burnt out and instead of working I decided to go down to the river with a friend for some ice cream and hot dogs. That really burnt me out so after that I crashed hard.

here is the dress/change table pre-painting

and the old nobs

(You'll have to wait for the after picture)

Josie and Tyler eating frozen yogurt down by the river

24 weeks + the river ( and yes of course Josie and I planned to wear the same colored shirt)

and this is the super cool old double decker bus that sells yummy yummy ice cream and hot dogs

and this is my yummy hot dog, the ice cream was also very yummy but I was so busy enjoying it that I forgot to take a picture

Bad Blogger thoughts

2010-05-13T13:10:00.001-07:00

Definition of a bad blogger : Dominique Rempel

I totally have blogging spurts, I'll blog like 3 times a week and then nothing for however long. So basically this is going to be a blog of random thoughts as an attempt to try and make up for the fact that I haven't bloggged for a while . Does that even make sense, who cares I'm pregnant. I wonder how many times I can use that as an excuse ?

Baby thoughts first

1st thought: Baby is now the size of a papaya and I am 4 fruits/veggies away from giving birth to a watermelon

2nd : Joel felt baby kick for the first time this week, it was very exciting. He gave him the biggest kick I've felt yet

3rd: Progress on the nursery, very very slow, but I am refinishing an old change table this weekend so I'm pretty excited about that

House Thoughts

1st: It's true, when you move into an unfinished house it takes twice as long to finish it

2nd: I'm soooooo done with muddy floors and ready for some grass in our backyard

3rd: Some how I'm constantly unpacking boxes but the pile doesn't seem to be getting any smaller

Pregnant Thoughts

1st: I love fudgeeos and have 4 different kind of ice cream in the freezer

2nd: We're going out for dinner tonight with some friends, BUT not till 7:30. I can't wait that long to eat dinner so I think I'll have some ice cream topped with fudgeoos

3rd: How have I not gained more weight, not that I'm complaining. I'm sure that will come back to bite me when I weigh myself tomorrow.

Just Thoughts

1st: I love my husband

2nd: I'm looking forward to walking by the river this weekend in + 27 weather, that's right +27. So happy

3rd: I'm ready to no longer be working in an office of all men. There have been no deaths yet but I still have 3.5 months and I'm not making any promises

Baby of mine

2010-04-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

Week 20 -21 was a big jump. I should have known it would be because no sooner was I telling my girlfriend that my belly hadn't grown in almost 3 weeks,then pop. It was a 3lb week which doesn't seem like it would make a big difference but it did. I'm now closely (and I mean very closely) approaching the double digits in the weight gain category and I'm finally looking just prego opposed to looking like I'm just getting chubby.

We also had our Ultrasound and got to meet our little man yesterday, that's right "It's a Boy". I thought it was a boy all along, but I still wanted to make sure in the ultrasound before I went to town in in the nursery. Now the fun can begin and things could, nope they will get a bit crazy. In theory I should finish getting the rest of house finished, buuuut since that list never seems to end I probably won't.

Here he is, so cute :) I can already tell he has my little stub nose and Joel's lips

Friday afternoon...snore

2010-04-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoons at work seem like such a waste, especially when it's SOOO very nice outside. So I guess this blog entry is my attempt to make it through the last 45 min of my work day.

Tomorrow is suppose to be the first of a 3 day span where we're supposedly going to hit 20 degrees WOOHOO. Weather man do not toy with my heart for I am pregnant and frequently on the verge of tears for no apparent reason.

I have a 9 item list of things to get done tomorrow, most of which I'm excited about, however for this reason I'm hoping to convince my hubster that tonight is East Side Marios and movie night. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE :)

We'll see what happens

As eager as I'm sure you are to hear all about my "To-do" list, I'll spare you the boredom. With the exception of the one task that I am more then excited about, despite it's simplicity

I'm planting my first potted tomato plants. I bought some seeds for both rainbow tomatoes and cherry tomatoes MMMMMM and I can't wait till I can pick them. Tomatoes are the one food Joel refuses to eat, which is fine with me because that just means more for me. However he does LOVE (and devour) Salsa like it is water. So with all of my delicious tomatoes I plan to make my hunny lots and lots of Salsa this summer. Last year I made 12 jars of salsa. Joel was skeptical at first, but 2 weeks and 12 jars later he thought that me making salsa was the best idea in the world, soooo I'm hoping I can grow ALOT of tomatoes because I'm going to need to ALOT more salsa.

well 45 mins left has turned into 20 so that's pretty good, annnnnd my hubby called and has agreed to the evening events so I am HAPPY

Have a great weekend

First trip to Babies R us

2010-04-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

So like most shopping experiences I probably should have expected it, but I didn't, I did however laugh. If you wondering what the heck I'm taking about I'll tell you right now.

My first experience with my husband's shopping style was when we were putting together our wedding registry. Suddenly he was missing, "Joel, Joel, where are you? Oh " there he was, in the back of Home Outfitters, testing out the message chairs, and then later on swing in a hammock. Pretty typical of our shopping trips, if there's a comfy chair/bed/swing, that's where my husband will be. This applies to Christmas shopping, grocery shopping and now baby shopping. Please see exhibit A.

Exhibit A: Busted

Exhibit B : Dominique we need this chair

Exhibit C: because I thought it was funny :) Such a good daddy

So there it is, first trip to Babies R us, an all around positive experience. However thanks to my husband I now want one of those Glide rockers, this wouldn't be such a big deal if they didn't cost $400, that's a far cry from my $150 rocker from ikea. Maybe I'll win the lottery, but probably not since I never buy lottery tickets which typically causes a problem in the winning department.

Base layer

2010-04-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

The building is done so I guess I would classify this next part the beginnings of the making of our home, the base layer is in (a.k.a the furniture). I was worried that it wasn't going to feel homey for the first little while but it does feel homey and I'm glad to finally be in and functioning, or semi-functioning.

Dinning room and Kitchen

Living room

front entry
(the door will be painted once it's warm enough outside to take it off)

Aside from the mess of boxes upstairs that I need to tackle, there are some other small things that need to be completed and then the fun/hard part, hanging the pictures and other wall ornaments. I didn't think this would be tough but I look at what we have and realize that everything was purchased for a certain place in the old house. Not that that's a big deal, but I'm am finding it a bit more challenging deciding where things should go in this house. I know it will all come together, but until then my walls will be bare.

Hello baby bump

2010-03-30T09:18:00.001-07:00

So here it is, the first belly picture, do I feel funny having this picture taken ? Yes I do, but oh well. So here is some info on the pregnancy so far

weeks along : 17 ( tomorrow)
Size of baby : an onion
weight gained : 5 lbs
Food cravings : just food in general, sooo hungry all the time
Belly gained : enough that my pants are being help up by an elastic and belly band at this point
Nursery progress : None

so there it is :) Joel got to hear the heart beat about a week ago so that was very exciting. All in all life is good and we're very excited to meet this little baby of ours.

By Faith

2010-03-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

The last seven months has been one of many ups and downs, contracting the building of you're own house while working full time was a lot to bite off for 2 people, but it's done now and all though at the moment I can't say I'd do it again, I wouldn't give up the experience and the growth that came along with it. At the beginning Joel and I sat down and set some "guidelines" in regards to our life as a married couple, as individuals, and as followers of Jesus. Although I have to be honest, during these last 3 months we have failed at all of them. Our time together, alone and with Jesus has really suffered and I am feeling the weight of it crashing down on me. There is still aways to go with putting our home together and finishing the landscaping but that's the easy part and it's time to get back to a normal life where we have time to go on dates, hang out with friends and get back into the word. All of the busyness has really had me thinking about what is important in my life. I need to spend good quality time making memories with my husband, we need to laugh and learn and eat with friends, and I NEED Jesus everyday. As we stumble into church (late) on Sunday morning for the last little while I've been listening and trying to take in the words that the Pastors share with us but at times have found myself so spiritually dry that I can't understand. I started to think about my faith and what it means to me but I was having problems getting those feelings past the feelings part. I couldn't verbalize, I couldn't write, they were just stuck inside my brain with no where to escape to. But then we sang this song a church a few weeks ago and I LOVED, it filled me up. And then we sang it again this weekend and again, I just want to burst. There are just something about the words that just shake me (in a good way) to the core and I realize that this is my faith which I have bound up with busyness over the past months. So you can read the words but hopefully I can figure out how to post the youtube video to my blog

By Faith

Words and Music by Keith & Kristyn Getty & Stuart Townend

By faith we see the hand of God

In the light of creation's grand design

In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness

Who walk by faith and not by sight

By faith our fathers roamed the earth

With the power of His promise in their hearts

Of a holy city built by God's own hand

A place where peace and justice reign

We will stand as children of the promise

We will fix our eyes on Him our soul's reward

Till the race is finished and the work is done

We'll walk by faith and not by sight

By faith the prophets saw a day

When the longed-for Messiah would appear

With the power to break the chains of sin and death

And rise triumphant from the grave

By faith the church was called to go

In the power of the Spirit to the lost

To deliver captives and to preach good news

In every corner of the earth

We will stand...

By faith this mountain shall be moved

And the power of the gospel shall prevail

For we know in Christ all things are possible

For all who call upon His name

We will stand...

Not the finished product, but a start

2010-03-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some in progress shots, I deffinetly just left all the crap in the pictures because the honest truth is I was too lazy to move it all :) I have high hopes of my house looking like a home in the next 2 weeks, being that I have a baby showered planned for next Saturday things better go well. There nothing like a little motivation to get your pictures on the wall.

Looking into the Dinning room/ kitchen (with a freshly mopped floor, very nice)

Downstairs bathroom, not an easy one to take a picture of

The Entry way

The hallway, pretty exciting I know

Looking down at the living room

So there's a little something, I'll do the upstairs next and then some final product

almost, but not yet

2010-02-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

I know I know I know, all you want is pictures and they're coming I promise, but not quite yet. Curse at me if you must but taking pictures of one big mess is just not fun. Being that we kind of forced ourselves into being finished and gave our notice for the end of the month we'll be moving next weekend, whether we're ready or not. I'm sure this event will be a gong show at best and I will do what I can to capture the humor of what will be taking place, as long as you promise not to judge.

Anyways, I know Dominique blah blah blah. Since I am letting you down as far as house pictures go here are some pictures of some items I would like to purchase in the next couple of weeks for the house. When we got married we (a.k.a. Joel) decided we weren't going to buy any new furniture until we got a house or our own, I have to admit that I whined and when the couches Joel's Aunt and Uncle gave us started to reveal the fluff from with in I committed to painting the outside of Joel's grandparents 2500sgft bungaloo + attached shop (I never want to do that again) to raise the funds I needed to get my new couches, take that sweet heart. Anyways, we have the house which means "Joel, I'm going shopping " wahaha. Yes these particular items are from Ikea which Joel is skeptial of because of our coffee table which has proven to be less then quality but they are what I like so there :)

Wardrobe

and side table

Progress Update

2010-02-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

Soooo it's been a very long tiring couple months but these last couple weeks have been really bad. Despite this I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. We gave our notice to our landlord on Sunday which means we have set a deadline of Feb 28 for the house. Maybe a good idea maybe a bad one, we'll see. So the next couple weeks will be even busier as we try to get the house finished but I'm ready to kick it into high gear, one last push....I think.

I haven't really posted any pictures mostly because I keep forgetting to take them, I was all gung ho at the beginning but yes it's true, the excitement of building does dwindle a little bit about 2/3 of the way through, especially when you're doing so much work your self. It's not really that you're not excited any more, it more that you tiredness is over taking your body and you stop caring about everything except sleep.

so here is the progress update. Painting done (with the exception of the closet and pantry), railing installed, lights being installed, finishing package taking over the 1st floor, cabinets here and ready to go in once we get the finishing package sprayed, flooring on the way, awesome friends keeping us sane, mini eggs stocked and T-minus 24 days until blast off

And this is what I am dreaming of

oh and one last update, Chandailier that I loved and had dreams of, shut down and wall paper only available in one place in canada, annnnnd it's on back order so I'm doing pretty well

Mish Mash

2010-01-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

I hope whoever reads my blog can keep up with the thought process that I'm going to make an attempt to put into writing in a coherent manner. If you can't follow me it's not your fault for this is merely and attempt on my part.

Do you ever feel as though there is a part deep within that is on the verge of being changed forever. A part that makes your head spin and turns your stomach into a mess of knots a causes your brain to be a thick cloud thoughts, ideas and questions. It makes you dizzy, you need to sit down. Somehow you need to figure out how to continue with everyday life while working out the mess that is brewing inside of you.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not having a break down of any sort, more like a break through. Can you remember the first time you realized you weren't a kid anymore, you didn't fell like a adult, but you most definitely were not a kid. Well, I guess I can officially say I feel like an adult. And I say that because I have always thought you became an adult when you became aware and understood what is going on in the world around you.

Yesterday our local News Talk radio had a " care for Haiti" phone-a-thon or whatever those things are called were they raise money. In the 1st 1/2 hr they raise $8000. At the end of the 12hrs they had raised over $600,000.00 dollars. The Sask schools are having a penny/change drive and there challenging the other schools. I think I heard this morning that the kids had raise $20,000.00 in change. With both of these events the Govr't had agreed to match the amounts raised. $1,240,000.00, I'm not great with numbers but that's a big one. Now bare in mind that this is only 2 of the methods being used as a means to raise money. What hit me is that we are gathering these large amounts of money and it keeps on coming. What hit me is that this is the largest relief effort we will probably see in our life time. What hit me is for the most part this money is our pocket change. Do you understand how much money we spend on ourselves? I didn't, but I'm starting to and it hurts.

I read a blog yesterday yesterday that was written by a missionary in Haiti, her and her husband work at an orphanage there and they were far enough away that there community was not shook the way Port au prince and some of the closer communities was. She said that the word on the street is that " God doen't like Haiti" she knows and I know that that couldn't be farther from the truth but she understands why they feel this way, most of us would feel the same if we came from the poorest country in the world and our home was just shattered by an earth quake. The truth is that many people feel that way here because they don't get what they want when they want it so heaven forbid they were actually from a place were there was actually a really reason for there faith to be rocked.

Yesterday I felt proud that our nation was pulling up it's socks and doing something. To day I'm feeling a bit angry because I'm realizing the resources that we as everyday people have and we so often do nothing with. We have the ability to turn things upside down (in a good way) for these suffering countries but it take a natrual disater of great proportions for us to actually do something.

I work for a concrete company and the other day a man was in here who at some point had actually worked on some of the buildings in Haiti. He worked as a labourer but being in the industry he realized that a lot of the concrete they used to build those many buildings that collapsed killing so many were missing some very key elimints. We have the knowledge, resourses and the money to help, what we don't have is the understanding of what it could possibly be like to come from a coutry that is trying to make do with what we have. And we don't have that understanding because we have everything.

I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the people of North America use this as another reason to be angry at God but here's the thing , The people of Haiti are poor but we are not. Have you ever considered that God has actually given us everything we need, we're just selfish. Have you ever considered that WE had everything HAITI needed, but we kept it all to ourself. It's a lot easier to blame God then it is to realize that we could lived without something so someone else can have clean drinking water, or live in a building that is made out of concrete that has the proper re-enforcement.

whether you agree with me or not, these are some of the toughts keeping me up at night, tieing my stomach in knots, making my head spin and filling my head with a thick cloud.

"I " is for Ice cream

2010-01-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Today is suppose to get up to + 4, woohoo, and then we're suppose to have above average temperatures all week. I'm not sure what that is actually going to equate to, but I'm hoping for the best.

Whenever the whether starts to get nice I immediately start to think off all the wonderful things that come along with it, most of which include heat, however today my mind went straight for ice cream.

I love ice cream, I always have, but I think a lot of it comes back to many happy memories of heading to down town Kelowna with my Besties, standinging line for some delicious ice cream from Moo Licks and walking along Okanagan lake. Deffinetly one of my favorite things to do. People roller blading, pick nicking, swimming, eating ice cream, mmm so good.

anyways these thoughts of ice cream made me think of a gadget that I am wanting to purchase

This is the Kitchen aid Ice cream maker attachment, and I'm DIEING to own it. Joel says I'm being dramatic about my love for this kitchen accessory, but I think once he has experienced all of its glory and the delicious ice cream that I will create with it he will realize that I am not be dramatic enough .

Mint oreo mmmm

Blackberry mmmm

If I already owned the ice cream attachment I think I would most likely make these for Joel Valentines.

What would you first thought be if.....

2010-01-08T07:33:00.000-08:00

........you walked into my dinning room and spotted this light fixed hanging over my table

You might be thinking "who would buy that" because that's what I said the first time I saw it at Home Depot, but then I started thinking about it and I had to go back and see it again. That is when my strange love for it developed. Be kind, I know it's kind of different, but isn't there's just something about it. Maybe if I show you the bigger picture it will help you visualize it's hidden potential.

does this help? Maybe not so much

My thoughts on the New year

2010-01-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the New Year. To me January 1st feels brand new, the slate is wiped clean and everything is reset.It's a time to start fresh. If I didn't accomplish it last year then I throw it in the mix of things to get done this year, however its level of importance is not yet determined until I put it up against the new things I want to get done this year.

Now don't be confused, I hate NO I loathe the months of January and February, reason being, it doesn't seem to matter where you are these month are just not nice and either they're cold or wet or both. YUCK

*Side Note* Mandi am I allowed to copy you and put colored words in my blogs?

My 1st year of marriage was also the first year I ever made a New Years Resolution, annnnnnnnnd I never accomplished it. Why you ask ? Well, because I had forgot that I had made a resolution whoops :)

Last year I made 2 resolutions

1. To lose the the weight that I gained when I went on the Depo Shot (a.k.a. birth control a.k.a. horrible nightmare that no women should consider as an option) My Doctor, who was a man, made the suggestion because I was having bad side effects caused by other types. He said this had no bad short term side affects. For women WIEGHT GAIN IS A SERIOUS SIDE EFFECT. Anyways I gained 15lbs on that and last year I accomplished my 1st resolution to lose that wieght woohoo

2. To do something for myself. When I moved here I felt like I left everything that I loved to do in Kelowna and was having a difficult time. So I started taking classes to become an Education assistant. I'm still working on it and loving it. It's a slow process because I'm working a the same time but I'm in no hurry. So Resolution #2 accomplished/ in progress

This years resolutions are less about me and more about us (Us being me and my hubby)

1. Spend less time working and more time making memories.

2. Be intentional. Joel's a fairly die hard man who loves adventure, and I pout. I pout because I wish we loved to do more of the same things. So we've agreed to meet in the middle, I'll do more of the things he loves without pouting (assuming he can remeber that unlike him I have not walked on Glaciers, slept in snow huts, climbed mountins and so much more) and he'll try not to yawn and fall a sleep doing the things I like to do. Good deal, I think so, but I'll let you know next year :)

anyways, there are my thoughts on the new year. I know the new year brings something different for everyone, one of my BFs dread it, and for some it probably doesn't matter one way or the other but for me I LOVE IT

Time out

2009-12-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas has past and all through the house, every corner's been covered and I can't find the couch. Piles of paper and ribbon and bows, my head is spinning and so are my toes. The hussle and bussel it's time for you to end. There must be some peace and quite just around the bend.

I'm not ignoring my blog, there just hasn't been any time and for that reason I'm taking a TIME OUT. I thought I would post a few pictures of the last week. I never did get my house fully decorated so I thought I would up the anti and add some pretty ribbon to the gift

this year to make up for it.

Oh Christmas tree Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches.

I was trying to get creative with my picture placement but it's not really working for me so I think I'll go back to good old fashion centered pictures. still not working the way I want arg.

O.k. now I' frustrated and and calling a quits, after these cute pictures of my niece

Super cute right :)

Well it was short, sweet, and posted about a week late but I'll be back tomorrow or maybe Wednesday with my New Years resolutions

1 of many conversations

2009-12-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

I love to decorate. Joel on the other hand would rather build something then worry about things going well together....so he says. Exhibit A: a typical conversation between Joel and I when it comes to decorating.

D: Joel do you want to see what I've chosen as my inspiration for the _______ room?
J: Sure, but I'm sure whatever you've chosen is fine
D: Well I know it's fine, actually it's more then fine, but it's your house too so I want it to be as much you as it is me
J: O.k. but just so you know I don't really care
D: That's what you always say, just look
J: o.k.

a second passes

J: yah I don't like that
D: hmmm kind of what I thought "I don't have an opinion" indeed does have an opinion
D: So what do you like?
J: blah blah blah ( the blah represents whatever object we happen to be talking about, lets say Cabinet door style for example)
D: Soooo what's in your grandma's house, that's not going to happen. Besides, you only like that because that's what you grew up with

anyways you get the idea. Basically this has been every conversation about the interior of the house thus far. We have come far since our conversation about oak doors with an arch in the front, and since then I have come to the, suspected, conclusion, that our combined decorating style would be classified as Modern Rustic bringing us to BIRCH TREE WALL PAPER. This will be appearing in a room in the house which I will not disclose at this point, however I did want to find out what you thought of it. So let me know

No words needed

2009-11-27T09:06:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas time is here

2009-11-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

O.k. maybe Christmas time isn't quite here but I just love Christmas so much that I can't contain my excitement any longer. There is just something about this season that makes me giddy, I think it's a combination of things like drinking Caramel apple spice by the gallons, my love for baking and decorating my home, snow frosted trees reflecting the sparkle of Christmas lights and not to mention the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who I happen to love a lot. I have goose bumps just thinking about it. Anyways our life is a little chaotic this year with building a house and going though our current house deciding what is needed and what is not in a fashion that still allows us to move. I have to admit that because of the chaos I pondered the idea of not decorating this year because we have such high hope of moving into our new place so soon after Christmas......but then I came to my senses and realized that I was being ridiculous and not decorating is not an option. So I will be decorating and so I thought would share a bit of what you may see at our house come the 1st of December.

Joy is my Theme this year and I love this set up....so I think I'll copy it

This tree is very similar to the style of ours but I also love the ornaments in the window

Last year I made this amazing Gingerbread house with a good friend and her amazing mom, this year I think if would be neat to make a white one.

I love bells. I think lining the path to our house would be so charming, unless Honey thinks they're balls to play with and takes off with them. That would not be so charming.

What I love about winter

2009-11-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

Moving to Saskatchewan has caused me to render up some feeling about winter that I will not share because the mere thought of them bring tears to my eyes. However I will share the wonderful things that the changing of the seasons brings to us that putts a smile on my face and fills my heart with joy

#1: Blankets to cozy up under

#2: I'm not a huge fan of hot drinks but Apple cider I love, especially with whipping cream and caramel ;)

#3: As I drove through our soon to be new neighborhood yesterday I watched as families put up there Christmas lights... I love the twinkling of Christmas lights

#4: Christmas baking (this is my favorite cookie)

#5: Snow angles

#6: Snow covered trees, so pretty

#7: And of course Eloise, this was my favorite Christmas Story when I was younger and now it's been made into a movie, it's a children's movie but I love love love it and watch it several times every Christmas

An Electrical experiance

2009-11-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

So 5 very long days, 1 Electrician, 1 Carpenter, 8 trips to Home Depot, a large amount of fast food, a bag of Halloween candy, at least a dozen energy drinks and 1 visit from the police (apparently people don't like it when you're still working on your house at 3am oooops) later our house is now wired and ready to go. One of Joel's closest friends came in from Alberta to help us out and he did an amazing job.

Michael and Joel Hanging pot lights with my friend Plumb bob square pants

Michael's 400th trip up the ladder

many wires

Many Wires from a different angle

House Pictures

2009-10-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Since I told my friend Jo-anne that I would post these pictures 2 weeks ago I figured I had better actually do it. Nothing to exciting yet but we're getting there. We did finally get our door which was back ordered so I am really excited for that because I love my door.

The Front (you can't really see the door but trust me...it's pretty)

and the back

the inside is a tad bit caotic so I have yet to get any decent pictures of anything in there...maybe next week :)

Numbered Wine glasses

2009-10-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

remember the DIY Hurricane a couple posts back when I had great ambishions for a busy weekend, well here is the result of one of the projects.

So here they are, hand etched wine glasses

a close up of #1

A still and quiet Place

2009-09-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

This week Joel (my wonderful and dashingly handsome husband) started his 1st 7 week stint of in class learning in his carpentry program. I felt like a proud mom as I loaded up his backpack and handed him an apple as headed out the door. O.K. so there was no backpack and he doesn't like apples but I still felt like a proud mom. As he drove away I entered the world of being, for the 1st time, the primary financial provider of the house. I thought to myself "o.k. Domnique time to bring home the bacon, lean bacon, but bacon none the less" It's day 4 and aside from my stress level being unusually high do to a lot going on and a lack of time on my hands I've found myself sitting here...at work... pondering the concept of a still and quiet place.

When life gets busy and as a direct result stressfull I tend to lose the ability to filter out the not so important from the important. I usually find when this situation comes about that my creator lets me go just long enough to really make his point. Well this time around he obviously didn't feel it so necissary and gave me what I call a God smack. It's pretty much the equivillent of running down the hall, your body going one way and your head turned the other way and just as you go to aline your head and your body it happens......you run right into a wall, which for the record I have acutally done and will never forget how quikly my actions were put in check.

" Be still and Know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" Psalm 46:10 (ESV)

God Smack translations

Be Still = Dominique slow down, breath, take a sip of water

KNOW = I love you, trust me, take my hand

I will be Exalted = Dinner can wait, laundry can wait, cleaning can wait, everything can wait, I have so much more to offer

The Picture above is of Joel just outside our cabin doing his favorite thing.....fishing. Since the day I meet him he has said that being in God's creation is where he meets Jesus, it's his still and quite place. I'm not sure that I've found that still and quiet place that I undoutably meet Jesus but until I find that place I'll continue to accept the randam places like at my desk at work that I do meet Him.

Plans for a D.I.Y. hurricane

2009-09-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting at my desk at 2pm on the Friday before the long weekend counting the minutes until I can escape from my desk and head home. In order to pass the time I've decided to write about some of my plans for the next 72 hrs of freedom. I love long weekends when we get to stick close to home because in Saskatchewan, the land of lakes and cabins, people clear out of the city at a rapid pace leaving behind quiet streets and the perfect time to shop and walk by the river and enjoy a slower pace of life...it's amazing. Joel's family also owns a wonderful cabin on a beautiful lake and I love going up there...but not when everyone else is up there also. So here I am anticipating pure bliss. So what's on the menu for the next 3 days? Well first of all what I've been waiting for my entire life (o.k. that's a bit extreme), the designing of our first kitchen. We'll meet with the cabinet lady tomorrow morning and hopefully soon I'll have a picture of what life could be like cooking in a kitchen that will fit more then one person. The thought of being able to cook with my husband seriously gives me goose bumps. Also, I have some big plans for some DIY (Do-it- yourself) projects. Joel thinks I'm crazy and wishes I could join him in his weekend asperations of being a bum but I'm thinking not. He's been working really long hard days so I will support him if that's what he would like to do, he deffinetly deserves a break. Anyways, here are a few or 4 of the projects I have planned for the weekend

Project #1: Joel has been building a beautiful bench and coat hanger type thing for our front entrance so we're/I going to paint that and then I'm going to look for some fabric to make a bench cusion.

Project #2: turn some plain, nothing special, cheap wine glasses from wal-mart into something I'm very excited about. I saw this done on someone elses blog and I had to have some, so now I will...hopefully, assuming nothing goes wrong that is :/

Project #3: Joel's great aunt gave me all her canning stuff so I was thinking I would like to try and make Salsa and maybe some jam. I've never canned before so the outconme is to be determined

Project #4: last but not least involves some cheap lanterns I bought at Ikea, I'm not sure what the plan is with these yet so we'll just have to leave that one as a mystery

anyways, I've successfully wasted 47 minutes and at the same time figured out how to get paid for writting my blog. Although I tend to complain at times about my job it deffinetly has some perks and I am very blessed by it.

I'll keep you posted on my weekend progress.

have a great long weekend

The pieces of our puzzle

2009-08-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

As Joel and I have ventured into an exciting stage of our life, that being the blessing of building our first house, we've found ourselves in a place of awe and excitement of how great our God is. Building a house is stressful and tiring and overwhelming and exhausting and exciting, and thrilling and not to mentioned stressful, o.k. I already mentioned stressful but I needed to re-emphasis ....and we're only on step one haha, oh boy. Anyways, back to our great God. When I met Joel he was a student, maybe not what you would picture a student to be but a student, he was a part of a program called Outdoor leadership, and while I was sitting in a traditional classroom his classroom was scaling a mountain, kyaking, guiding and a lot of other crazy stuff. I'm not much of an adventurous sort but I loved this about him, even before I realized I love this about him. I was calm and collected, didn't like to stick out, not overly out going but still confident. To most everyone, including myself, we were polar opposites, but there was still something or rather someone who brought us together. Joel brought me to the clouds and I brought him back to earth, we were pretty different but we also balanced each other. It's been a struggle finding things we both love to do but there are a few, and all that really matters to us is that we get to do things together so the fact that we don't have that much in common in the way of hobbies feels pretty insignificant as far as things go.

It amazes me how God creates 2 people so unique and so different and some how they are still perfect for each other. I'm not saying life is perfect or that circumstnces are perfect , but I am saying that there is undoubtibly some one who knows what they are doing and we have been given choices that allow His perfect creation to produce something beautiful. Joel and I work really hard for our marriage and our relationship, we were told from the very beginning that it wouldn't be easy but it would be worth it.....and it is definetly worth it. Time is put aside to spend time with each other, conversations are had to keep us on the same page, encouragment is given to help the other person to become all that they can be, praise and thanks is given to remind us not to take advantage of each other, and a love is given because it was given to us. As Joel and I work to build a house that we will than make our home we've realized how our puzzle fits together, I love to decorate and he loves to build thing, I love to cook and he loves to eat, he wants to venture into the wilderness and I want to make sure we have the map and GPS, these are the some of the pieces of our puzzle, individually they don't always make sense, but everytime we find two that match we get closer to seeing the beautiful picture our creator painted for us, and for this I feel blessed and in complete awe.

2009-08-07T15:55:00.001-07:00

o.k o.k. o.k. I promise I'll produce something blog worthy, but maybe not yet. Until then I thought I would share some excitement. We've finally started to build our house yay. After a month long battle with the city over an engineers stamp we got our permit on wednesday morning and by wednesday at 6pm Joel had our footing set up and poured. Eager, yes we are :) Joel is now on his annual fishing trip and he can rest easy because it is pouring and that would have been not too good. Anyways, here's is a couple pictures of the production. Have a great weekend everyone.

Joel and Zac attack Rempel

Mt. Rempel
That's our Pad, haha, I'm funny and I'm positive none of you got that bad joke but that's o.k.

For Melissa and Mandi

2009-06-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this blog because two of the most influential girls in my life have requested I get my rear in gear. I realize I am guilty at times of Blog neglected, but sometimes I have a really hard time deciding what I want to blog about. There's lots going on in my head(sometimes too much) so that is not the problem, the problem is my incapability to make decisions. Here is an example of how I deal with not being able to make up my mind. Two weeks ago I spent a fabulous weekend with some girl friends in Edmonton, our primary goal being shopping and more specifically, shopping at Ikea. There is just something about that place that just makes you happy, maybe it's the multi level building full of stuff to personalize your home, or maybe it's the fact that everything is reasonably cheap. For me it's a dream come true because personalizing my home is one of my favorite things to do and well Joel is more of a conservative spender it becomes the perfect place of comprimise. Anyways, back to my inability to make decisions. So as the four of us approach the curtain isle I see the curtains I would like to purchase for both my Living room and master bedroom. Two colors are visiable from a distance, both of which I think are quite nice. As I get closer I realize there are a few more colors in the bin behind and they are quite nice as well. I pick up the ones I want right away and start heading away, and then it starts "Actually maybe I would like the other color" so I grab the other color and head on. I walk by the material "Maybe I should make curtains out of this fun material" goes through my head "oh and maybe some pillow cases too". I finally pick the material I like and they're out, o.k. so my desicion has been made, I'll go with the pre made ones. But then I start to doubt the color again. At this point I see the girls sitting on a bed at the end of the isle, o.k. so it's time to make a desicion so what do I do. I put back all the colors and walk away that's what I do, I can't pick so I won't get any. So there is the way I make desicions. Anyways that essenstially is the reason for my blog neglect, I can't pick a topic to write about so I don't write anything, it's a great trait I know. Anyways, now that I'm finished yammering about my less desirable personality traits we're going to move on.

5 things I want to do everyday

1. Walk or play fetch with Honey our hound dog
2. create a little bit
3. Just sit and appreciate what I have
4. Show Joel I love him
5. spend time with Jesus

5 thing I want to do this summer

1. Spend as much time at the lake as possible
2. Have a big BBQ with friends and watermelon and lemonade and games
3. Start building our first home
4. Plan a trip to New York
5. Purchase a fire pit and chairs and paint the chairs red :)

If you have a blog I would like to know the 5 things you what to do everyday and the 5 things you want to do this summer

Dominique turns 19, o.k. I'm 24

2009-06-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Upstairs fondue resturant where I had my 24th Birthday supper with 9 blessings (a.k.a my husband and friends)

Short room and a long table makes these pictures hard to take, but there we are

Nice presentation, time to cook

Hi Jen and Josie

We chose the hot rock cooking method, Daniel and Alisa are happy about this

This is Erik and Yuriko, and Joel and Jeff

mmmm.....Chocolate

I like this picture, Yuriko takes great pictures

Meet Chloe

2009-05-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

May 23, 2009

Here's a few pictures from the baby shower we had for Chloe at our house.

Flower cup cakes with butterfly sprinkles

Chloe and mommy Cynthia (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to turn the picture)

Daddy's little Girl

Tiny foot prints

Some new outfits

Proud Uncle Joel

Some family loving the baby

Time to go

Praying for Olivia

2009-05-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

I guess you could call this the post that no sister-in-law ever wants to write, but after praying long and hard about it I have decided it's what I need to do. Most of you who read this are my closest friends who I have experience happy and sad times with. My details will me vague, but please know that this situation is serious and I ask that if you feel lead please pray

Olivia is my 15yr old Sister- in-law, she is the 15yr old that you look at and say "she's not 15, she must me older" but she's not. She's stunningly beautiful, has a infectious personality and a love for people and children. She has a lot going for her, however bad things have crept into her life and although her mom has worked hard to keep her from those things, at this point her family has been out sourced.

This past weekend Olivia came to stay with us for a few nights, as she had a decision to make. A decision to make a change that will save her life. She did not make the decision we had hoped and prayed for.

I don't feel as though I am a naive person, however knowing that something horrible exists, and then seeing it first hand is a completely different can of worms. There are no words for the brokenness I felt this weekend as I witnessed a life style and realized how helpless I am.

I can't write any more, it's too hard. Please just pray for Olivia and our family as we try to support and love her.

It's been awhile

2009-04-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

So life has been a little bit crazy, I feel a little bit like the world is spinning and it's only a matter of time before I have to walk a straight line. And for anyone who who has star spun before you know how easy it is to walk a straight line after spinning for that long; wobble to the left, wobble to the right and then you're on your face which is followed by hysterical laughter. Being a kid is so much easier then being an adult.

The weather has started to get nicer which means my husbands life gets a lot busier and in turn, my life as well. On the other hand work for me is still not as stimulating I wish it was. I started doing some distance schooling in February which has been great, but difficult as well. The course work itself has been fantastic, which I hoped for,however, what I didn't expect was the seed of desire it placed in me. It will be at least a year before I'm certified as a Education assistant, and while at first that didn't seem too long, now it seems forever. I've come to the place where getting up in the morning to go to work is the hardest part of my day and I count the hrs until I can go home. I feel useless and discouraged and like there's no place to go. I know it seems like the simple solution is find a new job, however it's a little bit more complicated then that at the time being.

On a more exciting note, it looks like we might get to build a house after all. And I can't even begin to tell you how blessed and humbled I'm feeling by this new occurrence. We won't be %100 sure until next week so at this point I'm going to leave it at that.

Well as much as I wish I had more to blog about right now, unfortunately some of the repercussions of the world spinning is a lot of your thoughts get jumbled and thrown all over the place. I will however try to keep everyone a little bit more informed in the future.

Daffodils make me smile

2009-03-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

This winter has proven to be the longest, coldest, and unending
winter ever

But thanks to the Cancer Society I have these beautiful flowers to cheer me up. Sorry about the picture quality I took it with the camera in my computer.

Yum Salad

2009-03-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Joel's cousin Andrea made this amazing salad last Saturday and since then it has come to be my most favorite salad, and my lunch today. I feel as though I should give others the chance to partake in this delicious salad and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Yum Salad

Spinach
crumbled feta
craisins (orange flavored craisin taste good in it too)
Slivered almonds
Cuttie oranges (or mandarins)
Balsamic vinigerette dressing

Like most green salads you can just eyeball how much you mix in, depending on your preference and how many people you're making it for.

Not for Children

2009-03-11T07:35:00.001-07:00

There is this long standing debate as to whether or not video games, T.V. and movies affect the development of young children, it does, it doesn't, it does, it doesn't. Back and forth, up and down parent's, child care providers, scientists and so on can't seem to make up there minds whether it does or doesn't. Well, my stand point on the debate is, if it affects 23yr old then it most certainly affect a 3 yr old or a 10 yr.

Joel and I spent the past 3 days in Edmonton and during this time we went and saw the new "super hero" movie The Watchmen. This was possibly the worst movie I have seen in a very long time. The rating of this movie was higher then the average super hero movie, but we were optimistic being that every other movie like this has been pretty good. We should have payed attention to the rating. It was violent, gruesome, disturbing, not to mention the sex scene that made me feel uncomfortable, and I'm married. I was disappointed and so were the 6 people who left in the middle of it. But more then my disappointment of the movie I was disappointed with the parents who brought there daughter who, if I was guessing, I would say was probably 4. I covered my eyes for lengthy portions of the movie because of the gruesome blood and violence. At one point Dogs are killed by one of the Watchmen because a man(who was then also killed) had chopped up a little girl (probably 4 ) and fed it to his dogs. They don't show the girl being chopped up but they show were he did it, the blood and the knives and then they show the dogs fighting over the girls leg. It's one thing for Joel and I to decide to go to a movie rated 18A, but it's a completely different story when a 4 yr old has to go because her parents want to, if you can't find someone to take care of her while you're at the movies, then you don't go. What the heck were they thinking, and what the heck is the movie theater thinking allowing this. I'm sorry but obviously parent's don't always know what the best thing for their children is and if they don't have the common sense to realize that young minds are shaped by a lot of what they see and hear then they're living in denial, and I'm not taking about the river . It's no wonder kids are becoming increasingly violent etc. It makes my heart hurt because I'm afraid that there are some kids who don't stand a chance because they're being increasingly exposed to movies, not limited to, but like the Watchmen.

Some of my Favorite things

2009-03-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

Soooooo, since I don't seem to have much to do at work today I thought I would share some of my favorite things. I always loving hearing about other peoples favorite things, especially Oprah's, so here's my list.

1. So clearly I'm a chick-flick, feel good movie kind of person, bet here's are some of my fav's some new some old.

2. The Secret Life of bees, I love it, I could read it over and over again

3. Kind of random I know, but I like them all a lot

4. $5.00 for a drink can be considered kind or pricey, but when enjoyed with a friend it becomes cheap therapy.

5. Smells so good, and feels so nice

6. I love to cook and she has some great recipes.

7. SUSHI, Joel never liked it until he met me, and now it's one of our favorite dates

8. Red Nail Polish

9. When I worked at Rocky Mountain I was lucky enough to get to make some of this stuff and I love it.

10. Joel and I love to watch Criminal minds

R.I.P. Mesha

2009-03-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is mesha, my childhood doggy. She had to be laid to rest a couple of days ago. She was a wonderful friend and I'll miss her wrinkly face.

He likes, now She likes

2009-02-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed that when you spend a lot of time with someone you start to become more and more like them. I have found this to be especially true in marriage, my marriage to be more precise.

One day I was cooking and made a comment in regards to a particular food that Joel, until meeting me, never liked to eat but has since classified as a favorite. Some of these foods consist of Asparagus, Sushi and Feta Cheese. These are some of my favorites so as far as I'm concerned it has worked in my favor that he has discovered a love for them as well. However, I started to think about the foods that I have learned to not hate(it's not a love, it's a non hate) that I seldom if ever ate before meeting Him. These foods consist of Kraft dinner, Pizza pops and Chinese food. I'm assuming that this is one of the goods and bads that come along with being married, that being that Joel starts to eat food that is good for him and I, I eat food that is really bad for me. Perhaps this is why my pants are too small and Joel are too big, oh the Irony.

A couple of other little things that we have taken from each other are:
My outdoor appareal has increased 100%, but his shoe collection has gone from 1 pair to 8(and he thinks about what pair he wants to wear). I like watching Holmes on Homes and He likes watching Reba. I have discovered that action movies are awesome and he no longer thinks romanic comedies are all bad (it's a start). It just goes to show that our influence is a powerful thing, however it's not powerful enough to convinve Joel that shopping is a good thing. But we're only 2 years into out marraige, there's lots of time :)

Who needs patience when you never have to wait?

2009-01-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

We've been raised in a society that doesn't have to wait for anything. We have microwave dinners that are ready in under 5 minutes, drive through restaurants if we don't have time to get out of the car, high speed internet and the ability to search for info on more then one subject at a time, all -in-1 printers that not only offer the traditional service of printing off standard documents but now also allow you to photocopy and hook up your camera and print off your pictures. Who needs patience when you never have to wait?

For the past year there have been a couple of things Joel and I have been praying about, the first is that we would really love to build a house and the second is that we would also like to do some more schooling. It has weighed heavy on our hearts for the past 10 months that it wasn't the time. Being patient is hard enough when you know something is going to happen, like a vacation that has been payed for and seats have been booked, but it's even harder when you come to recognize the things you really have now control over. A year has past and it's been tough but so good at the same time. I think about the struggles and frustration and am amazed how God has used and continues to use them to grow us.

For awhile it seemed like every time I turned around one of our friends had purchased a home or was building and I struggled because I so desperately wanted a place to call my own.It's not fare...right? Or every time we were feeling restless in our jobs amazing things were happening in the work places of others. I want that....I can have it... right? I'm sure we've all been guilty at some point of wanting something that others are getting. I realized the other day that sometimes we're so busy being impatient and wanting what other have right this moment we forget to be grateful for the many blessings we have been given.

Often I forget that God's timing is God's timing for a reason. If it was my timing then being late for work and leaving early every day wouldn't be a problem.I forget that never once did He promise us we'd get everything we wanted. And I forget that He never said it would be easy.I get frustrated when things I plan don't workout or I have to wait, and angry when things hurt me. While I'm so busy Forgetting what He did, and does do for me, and while I'm busy being frustrated and angry I forget that God's timing is perfect. He doesn't sit up in heaven and plot out how he's going to disappoint or hurt me. He waits patiently for me to come to him , he waits patiently for me to remember that bad happens and things aren't perfect because of sin. It's my choice to recognize God's perfect timing and allow him to work in my life and it's my choice to recognize the blessings. Bad things have happened and I've been hurt, frustrated and impatient. BUT, great things have happened and I've been blessed, encouraged and full of joy. His timing has proven to be perfect to me, even in my impatient forgetful world.

You buy a dog a toy and it plays with Broccoli

2009-01-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, Joel and I have a large puppy. This is Honey our 11 month old redbone/bloodhound. Weighing in around 85lbs and standing at 5ft maybe taller on her back legs she makes her presence ever known. We were told she was a lazy breed of dog but have since then come to disagree...strongly disagree. Although she has a basket full of tug-a-toys and things to chew on, Honey finds joy in the simple, things such as a single piece of broccoli stolen from me as I was cooking dinner.These clips are a little glimpse of a moment in the life of our dog Honey.

The Broccoli Part I AND II (Watch the 2nd clip 1st)

Another year

2009-01-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

Well apparently 2009 has arrived and once again I find myself asking "where the heck did 2008 go". Joel and I returned home from Kelowna early Wednesday morning and was promptly greated by the bitter cold weather that I had hoped would dissapear while we were gone. As I mentioned in my last post Christmas was different this year but it was still good. We were imbraced by friends and family, and all though it was quiter then usual it was still wonderful. We spent Christmas eve with some close friends of the family which is always full of fun and accumpanied by lots of good food, goodies, and many laughs. Christmas Day started early in the morning with stockings, presents, Pancakes with Wipping cream and Stawberries, a game of monopoly(my least favorite game in the world) followed by Joel my sister and myself rushing out the door to visit the geandparents. We drove to Penticton where we would spend the afternoon/evening with my grandma and grandpa DeRoche and my Auntie Jo and Uncle Jim. Once again there where many laughs, way too much food, full stomachs and not to mention my grandpa. As you can see he was up to no good as usual.

Joel was really happy when he opened his new skies. This made me happy because I was sure that he had figured out what he was getting for Christmas, I guess I'm sneaky enough for the sneaky club and he had no idea. On Saturday we drove up to Silver Star to spend the day with Jeremy and Amber, and Joel got to test out his new double clackers. We had a really good time visiting. Amber and I drank hot beverages by the fire while Jeremy and Joel braved the cold.

On Sunday Morning Joel and I got to pick up my mom and dad from the airport. My dad had open heart surgery on the 22nd and we were really happy that he was able to come home before we had to leave. I cooked my second successful turkey in celebration of them coming home and ruined my second batch of stuffing.It's a good thing that it's the thought that counts because the stuffing was really bad.

As you can see below my dad is wearing The Riders grey cup shirt we gave him last Christmas, it only took open heart surgery to get him to wear it :) Anyways, our trip to Kelowna was great, although I wish we could have stayed longer so I could helped my mom and Dad out, deffinetly the worst part of living 2 provinces away. Please keep my Dad's healing and my mom's strength in your prayers. Until next time, keep fit and have fun.

A different kind of Christmas

2008-12-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

I think not matter who you are, how great or horrible your life is, whether you celebrate for the Reason (Jesus) or it's just a fun holiday Christmas brings its up and downs. I love Christmas, most importantly to me, its the time of the year we celebrate the birth of my savior, it's a time for family and friends, not to mention it provides me with a wonderful excuse to do an exorbitant amount of baking. Last Christmas was the first time I had ever been away from my family for the Holidays. Joel and I had just gotten married the summer before and financially we just couldn't swing the ridiculous cost of flying home. I was sad, but o.k. at the same time, Joel's entire family is here and it was my first Christmas experience with a big family and I loved. The eating and visiting started the minute Joel's Auntie, Uncle and 2 cousins got off the plane, aside from them everyone else lives in Saskatoon. We were so busy, I was never given the opportunity to feel sad, or bored, or sleepy and especailly not hungry. I wish I could have been with my family last Christmas but since I couldn't I have to say I have been blessed with some pretty amazing in-laws and I had a wondeful Christmas

This year Christmas will be different. Christmas is in Kelowna, I'm so excited to see my family and friends but a turn of events has slightly altered the traditions of past Christmas'. Roughly a month ago we found out my dad would need to have heart surgery. My dad has a bad heart valve and I think him an my mom always knew he would eventually have to have it taken care of. Well eventually turned into now, he was short listed I guess you could say and later turned into sooner. Dec 16th my mom and dad will be flying to Victoria and then Dec 22 is heart day, and the day we get into Kelowna. It's one of those bitter sweet situations, it's amazing that he got in so fast which means he'll be able to get back to leading a normal life sooner, but in the same breath we won't get to spend Chrismas with my parents. We'll spend Christmas eve as we traditional do, Christmas eve service at church and then off to my second family's house for the eating portion of the evening,and then we'll go to my Grandparents for Christmas Dinner but there's still that little sting in my heart that really wants my parents to be home. Growing up was always the same, Christine would get up way ealier then me and wait eagerly for me to wake up, I think when my dad couldn't handle my sisters excitment anymore he would wake me and my mom, I secretly knew he was as excited as my sister. Mom gets the garbge bag ready to collect the wrapping paper which once looked pristine and perfect under the tree, but now looks like nothing but a giant ball of crumpled up color. If it's our year to have Chriatmas dinner the grandparents would be there and my Grandpa DeRoche would be dressed in some Christmas outfit. If you can pictures a big cuddly man wearing a yellow turtle neck paired with thick red suspenders a glowing rudolf nose and a Grinch Santa hat that sat high above his head that's my grandpa in one of his many special Christmas outfits. My dad would sit at the base of the tree and we'd all gather around him. Mom and I would open our stockings followed by my dads favorite part, handing out the gifts. Everyone had to have a gift to open at the same time. When we finished opening our gifts my dad would start cooking, my mom would sit at the table and work on her puzzle, Christine would be eating all (an I mean all) her candy and chocolate, and on the off chance she couldn't finish it all she'd proptly hide it so we couldn't get it, and I would rearange the living room so that we could move once again and then proceed with something else. Although Christmas this year will have parts that are the same a big part will be different. This year will be Joel's first Christmas away from his family(who he's really close with), which I think will be harder for him then it was for me, so I have to try and make the day special for him and for my sister which is a bit intimidating. I know Christmas will still be wondeful, just different.

Feeling frustrated

2008-12-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have those day, that turn into weeks, that turn into months? Well I do, and have been for the past two and a half months all because of one stupid insignificant turn of events. Everyone has little quirks that they can't seem to give up, mine is having to have a tidy/clutter free house and paying bills on time. Right now my houses is not the problem. Two and a half months ago, 2 days after our warranty expired, our computer decided to take a rest. Since the company wouldn't fix it I decided to take it to the computer shop that takes care of our computers at work. Bad idea. They told me all it needed was a new power source and I should have it back in about 2 weeks.Excellent news. Well and month passed by and I decided to call and they told me someone had picked it up., so I responded with "who? because it wasn't us", they panicked and scrambled and came back on the phone to assure me that they actually still have it. Fantastic.That was great but it wasn't fixed. Now I'm not a computer dependent person but I do rely on it for things such as paying my bills and transferring money for our rent which comes out on the 1st. So as long as this story has the potential to be I'll get to the point on my frustration. I have missed more bill payments and bounced more cheques then I ever have in my entire life ( which is a lot when you've never missed a payment or bounced a cheque), and the anxiety it's creating in me is ridiculous. I'm blessed with a job that gives me a lot of freedom and a computer to use, however I'm not blessed with a good memory. So alas I get to work and have forgotten the bill that needs to be payed, and then I return home to realize I have forgotten to transfer our rent resulting in another bounced cheque. I guess the good news is our computer is fixed and really if the only thing I have to worry about is a couple late charges then I'm doing not to bad. So in the words my father "that's life sweetheart"

A hodge podge of recent events

2008-11-25T11:12:00.000-08:00

Where to start, I guess the beginning would work. So I think it would be fare to say that the past couple weeks have thrown some bends in the road. The first surprise to grace my ears with its presence was that my daddy has to go in for open heart surgery.He needs to have a valve replaced and they want to do it sooner then later for a couple reasons. First, overall he's pretty healthy and it's obviously better to do these things when you're healthy and Second the lucky guy is taking his music classes to Italy in the spring. And just to clear things up, he's lucky because he gets to go to Italy not because he has to have heart surgery.Anyways, apparently it's not that serious of a procedure but come on, its heart surgery, that's a pretty important organ. He's been on the Hospital since Sunday having some test done and it ends up that he also has a lung infection. Please keep him in your prayers

Sunday was a busy day at the KGH because my dear friend Melissa's husband also was taken in . Matt sufers from colitis, but there are some other pretty serious things going on. I can't share to much but he's not doing to well and he will probably be there for a while. Please also keep Matt and Melissa in your prayers. I so easy it is to take our health for grantit and it's hard to understand what my mom and Melissa are going through.

Switching gears a bit, I'm been working for Joel's family business for the past year as a receptionist and as great as they've been to work for and as generious as they have been to us I've really been craving a job that challenges me more and has a place for further learning. I had applied at this paricular dental office and was feeling really encouraged and then found out today that they gave the postion to someone with past experience. I totally understand there decision but it's still hard to take. When I moved to saskatoon I figured that going back to school wouldn't be such a big deal, however, much to my dismay I've discovered that the programs I was interested in are not offered here and I'd have to go to Regina in order to take them. This doesn't exactly work for us. However, on an exciting note Joel got in to Carpentry and because he's been working under a journeyman carpenter he will be credited for all his hours which will make the program shorter. Either way, whether the program is 4 years or less he's so excited which makes me happy. He's always wanted to build a house for us and our babies (eventual babies that is) and he's so happy that'll he'll be able to do that. We're praying about starting our house next year but in the mean time we've been blessed with a great home.

2008-11-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

So this is my first attempt at embracing the fact that I'm a part of a generation that is supposed to know everything about computers and technology, so far so good, but I'm still feeling a bit intimidated by the concept of having my own blog.

These past couple months have really got to me, and the reason being is I can't actually remember September or October happening, they both just seem like a blur. Joel and I were both blessed to have the past 4 day off and as Monday approached I realized how much I love having unspoken for time to do everything that doesn't always happen during a typical week. I could get my errands and cleaning done and still have time to relax. Joel is always on my case because I have a really hard time just sitting down, there's always something else I need to do whether it be this that or the other. Life happens so fast and before you know it, it's the middle of November. I'm realizing I'm not loving what I've allowed to become normal in my life, the hussel and the bussel, a constant need to remain occupied. I've struggled for a good part of my life with the question of "what am I supposed to do? what is my purpose?" and I'm realizing that every time I've cried out to God , cried in my room, cried in my husbands arms I've never just stopped. "Be still" I hear it all the time, and have heard it for as long as I can remember but I still make the choice to busy myself. Christmas is coming, my favorite time of the year, but this year I want Chrismas to be different. This year I want to go into the Christmas season with a quite heart and be still before my saviour, the same saviour that came so that I can have life; a life full of meaning and not just bills, shoping lists, cleaning supplies and every other excuse I could use to keep me from just being. I don't think I can stop life from happening so fast and realizing all the above hasn't given me an instant answer to my personal struggle of what will I be, but I can atleast make an effort to be more intentional with how I use my time. It's a start, and you have to start somewhere so I'm going to call that progress.