The Blessed Bunch

Yay - Almost December!

2007-11-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I love the Christmas season. The Christmas carols have begun already on all the radio stations, and that really puts me in a good mood. I'm almost finished my Christmas shopping and the Christmas cards are all sent! Now it's just time to enjoy the wonderful season.

The kids are doing wonderfully. They both like skating class though neither can quite stand on their own yet.....they'll get there soon hopefully! Josh is doing really well in swimming class and speech therapy. Kaia is enjoying ballet class and reminds me at least daily that she is a Ballerina. The problem is, this ballerina doesn't even know how to get off the ground though, so it makes it hard to do the ballet jumps. Mind you, she THINKS she is getting off the ground when indeed she is just getting onto her tiptoes. It's really cute.

Last night we had Tim's work Christmas party in Kitchener. It was great to finally meet some of Tim's coworkers and put faces to names. The food was yummy too! We had a nice time but we're a little tired today. It's not the best of ideas to have a party on a Tuesday night an hour away from home.

Little by little I'm getting more used to this working/Mom/wife thing. It's crazy how I am going continually from morning to night.....but I wouldn't change it. The kids just LOVE being at daycare with all the other kids and every morning they are eager to get there. My mornings start at 6am when I shower, get ready, get the kids ready and we're at daycare by 7:15am and I'm at work by 7:30am. I'm SOOOO lucky that Quyen feeds them breakfast......when Josh starts J/K in the fall I guess I won't be so lucky!

We have decided that we aren't sending Josh to the Christian school. There are various reasons, but it mainly comes down to how far away the school is from our place....also factor in cost and the fact that the public school by our house has a great reputation....we just feel it will be a good fit for him. He already has some social issues with his shyness, and so he will already know several kids at public school so that would make the transition easier for him. So, prayerfully, we have made that decision. He is enjoying Sunday school every week (as is Kaia!) so that is a blessing!

I'm such a BAD Blogger!

2007-11-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

Well, since we've gotten back we have just been soooo stinking busy and I haven't updated our blog. When we got back from the cruise I fell a bit ill, it was a bit of vertigo I think. Then we fell into Halloween where the kids were Dora and boots. They were adorable and had such a blast!

Then we've had ballet, swimming, and skating classes to keep us busy, not to mention work, church, Christmas shopping and life!!! We just have so little free time right now. Josh also is starting speech therapy next week so we'll be juggling alot until the end of the year. Such is life I guess!

Work is going well for both Tim and I and the kids are continuing to do fabulously. They love being at their home daycare and I enjoy being at work. We still haven't completely adjusted, but we are getting there.

Right now we are looking into sending Josh to the Milton Christian School (which is a private school) for juniour kindergarden....it's a big decision, so please pray for us that we will make the right decision. We just love that the teachings are Christ-centred and that the teacher/children ratio is really low.

Well, that's it for now. I'm in the process of working on our Christmas cards so watch your mailboxes :)

Cruise Vacation Day 7 - Cozumel, Mexico

2007-10-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up at 9am…..oh boy, am I ever going to pay for it when we get home and I have to wake up at 6am again! We woke up, ordered room service for breakfast and ate on our balcony as we watched the boat dock in Cozumel, another beautiful place! Last night as we were sleeping there was a major storm and the boat was a-rocking….so much so that our balcony door flew open! We could see the ocean water was very choppy which concerned as we would be snorkeling today. I quickly checked my e-mail, and it was a good thing I did as we got an email informing us that our excursion (privately booked – not through ship) was cancelled. I was pretty upset as I had done tons of research to find just the right excursion, and now it was cancelled……booo…..oh well, life goes on.

Shots of Cozumel from the ship

We got off the ship to figure out what we would do and we found some people who would bring us scuba diving again – score!! We were pretty excited about that, so off we went. First we again got all the safety instructions and signed our waivers. Then we were off. It was a rough, rough ride to the scuba spot, we were really crashing in those waves – yikes! We got all geared up and the scuba guy (I never did get his name) pushed us in backwards. This time we went 25-40 feet deep. Again, this was so amazing…..to be swimming around like you’re a fish in the ocean is unbelievable, how do you describe that? I kept floating up a bit, so the guy gave me extra weights to keep me near the bottom. Yesterday I was told that women are naturally more buoyant, LOL.

Some more scuba shots

We saw different fish than yesterday, but the most amazing thing we saw were the beautiful reefs, so colourful! This time there were no green eels attacking me, so I was happy about that as that is what I was most nervous about from the day before. We swam around and came up after 45 minutes again. It went by way too fast!! We got back on the boat and head back to shore, again, jumping and crashing through the waves which was nice and painful on the back and bum. Once ashore, we headed back to the ship to have lunch, shower and change, then headed back to land to do a bit of shopping. And then again headed back to the ship where we, yes you guessed it, napped. Later on we figured out that the motion sickness tablets we’ve been taking the last two days (for the small boats on the excursions) are what have been making us so sleepy – OOPS! I had no idea.

Us in front of the ship

After naps we headed up to the sports deck where we watched some flowriders, Tim played some basketball and then he did some wall climbing. He almost got to the top, but apparently he was too tired to make it to the top and he blamed the pills, who knows.

Tim climbing the wall

After that we headed back to our room to get ready and then proceeded to the Platinum Theatre for the show “In The Air”. It was basically singers and dancers swinging around and dancing and singing all over the place, in the air, the aisles, etc. It was pretty good and we enjoyed it. After the performance was dinner where we headed. The menu was our least favourite of the week, but we still managed to eat well. I had salad, talapia with shrimp, and crème brule and Tim had a fruit plate, steak and shrimp, and two pieces of banana crème pie. By the time dinner was over it was after 11pm and we were so knocked out still that we headed to bed. Looking forward to a relaxing day at sea tomorrow, but NOT the fact that it is our last day on the ship…..though we do miss our babies a lot!

In The Air show

Cruise Vacation Day 6 - Cayman Islands

2007-10-24T15:56:00.001-07:00

We woke up to the alarm at 7:45am and waited for breakfast. For some reason it didn’t come this morning, so we called room service and it seems they lost our order. So, we didn’t have time to make a new order so we had to “rough it” and eat breakfast at the buffet restaurant upstairs. We had a nice breakfast and then came upstairs to get ready for our scuba in Cayman Islands. Around 9am we were ready and we were in the terminal on our way to George Town via tender boats.

Once ashore, we had instructions to walk a bit and meet our scuba instructor in front of a church beside the Blue Iguana store. So we walked a bit and enjoyed looking at the shops and when we came across the church we laughed our heads off when we saw it was a Gospel Hall!!! So I took a picture of course. It was just a little quaint, church but was funnily located right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the waterfront touristy area. Our tour guide was waiting for us and told us we were the only ones on the tour that day, so that was cool. He drove us to a marina where we were introduced to our diving instructor named Ivan whose nickname is Divin’ Ivan.

The Gospel Hall

After a quick safety briefing on how to use our equipment (it was our first time scuba diving!) and on how to handle stingrays we were off on the boat. The water in Cayman Islands is SO BLUE it is almost unbelievable! You can see right to the bottom of the ocean, just stunning. So, we were boating along and saw a bunch of fabulous homes on the water and HUGE lizards (like we’re talking 3-4 feet long) on people’s lawn. Once we got to the spot we were to dive, Ivan anchored the boat and then it was time to dive!

A couple beautiful homes we saw along the way

We sat on the end of the boat and Ivan attached a heavy weight belt around our waists, then put on our heavy vest with oxygen tank and our mask. Then we stood up and just stepped out into the water. There was some air in our vest so at first we were able to float and just bob around and practice our breathing with the oxygen. Once we were comfortable enough he asked us to let the air out of our vests (by pressing a button) and we literally just sank to the bottom! Once at the bottom we were to get onto our knees and enjoy the sites. WOW! There were beautiful fish and of course, sting rays. Cayman Islands is known for sting rays. The sting rays were like dogs and wanted to play with us, they would poke at us and go above us and below us, it was just an amazing experience. Ivan fed them squid to get them to come around us.

Some Scuba shots!

We were down for 45 minutes total and it went by so fast. I couldn’t believe I was underwater for that long. We were only about 10 ft below the surface as it was a “Discover Scuba” class so we couldn’t go lower than that. But Tim and I definitely now want to get certified at some point…..the experience is just incredible. While we were down there we also saw a big green SCARY eel that made me scream, a barracuda, hermit crabs, and a bunch of other things. SOOOO cool, I still can’t believe we did that! Once we were done, we came to the surface, Ivan helped us onto the boat and took our stuff off and we headed back to the marina, then back to the boat.

Tim with Divin' Ivan

Us after the dive

Once in town we did a bit of shopping, we found a USB cable for my underwater camera, so that was exciting. We also took a shot of our ship (Liberty of the Seas) from the waterfront. We then headed back to the ship via tenders for a shower and a late lunch. We were so hungry from our swim!

Liberty of The Seas - our ship

After lunch we had a couples massage and “float” booked. So we went to the spa where we both got a 25 minute massage and a 25 minute float. A float is a bed that engulfs you in water, but you don’t actually get wet! It’s like a big blanket of water……very cool and very relaxing. This masseuse told me the same thing as the last which is that I'm very "knoty" and that I should get regular massages. My back was literally crunching. It was wonderful, though, to be pampered like that! We were so relaxed after our spa visit we headed back to the room where I attempted to read but I was fading fast and fell asleep way too late in the day (it was about 5pm!) so now I’m worried about not falling asleep tonight. While I was reading/napping Tim went to do his usual sports thing on the basketball court. When he came back I woke up and we started getting ready for dinner. Tonight is another formal night, and after dinner we don’t have anything planned (dinner ends past 10pm anyway), so we’re just going to relax a bit, maybe do some late night mini-golf, and head to bed at a decent hour as we’ll be out in the sun all day tomorrow in Cozumel where we will be snorkeling various reefs!

Us before dinner - darn closed eyes!

Cruise Vacation - Day 5 Montego Bay, Jamaica

2007-10-24T05:11:00.001-07:00

This morning we actually slept in a bit until 8:15am. We ordered room service breakfast again and ate it on our balcony as we watched the ship pull into Jamaica. We had a bit of time before our Jamaican excursion, so Tim went to participate in a golf driving contest (he got bronze) and I went and booked our next cruise – a Canada/New England cruise next October for 9 nights (this time we’ll bring the kids!)…..anyone want to join us?

Montego Bay, Jamaica (from our balcony)

The market already all set-up ready for tourists to shop

We then headed down to the gangway and stepped into Jamaica. It was chaos everywhere with all of these tour places and thousands of tourists, but somehow we found our tour guides who put us on an air conditioned bus. After everyone was on the bus, we started off, but it took about 40 minutes to just get out of the parking lot with all the madness going on. Crazy. Anyway, we drove about 45 mins through Jamaica and it was beautiful. We saw lots of houses, schools, jails, and farming land (mostly oranges!). Very pretty island! They drive on the left side of the road, so that was funny getting used to and a lot of the streets are really narrow and one vehicle going one way has to stop to let the other one going the other way get through. Finally we got to our destination - a forest in Montego Bay.

Once there, we signed a waiver and they fitted us with a helmet, gloves and a harness system and then we were on our way. We got a quick safety briefing on how the harness/pulley system worked and off we went to our first zipline. My stomach was in knots, but WOW, was it ever fun! I screeched the whole way across and it was only a little zipline. What a rush it was to be swinging through trees so high up! In between ziplines there were long hikes that definitely helped us to work off our breakfast….as well, our tour guides were hilarious (yeah, mon). There were about 6 or 7 ziplines total with the last one being REALLY long and REALLY high…..woooooo……..it was great just zipping across and looking around at the beautiful surroundings. We then took a group picture and headed back to the ship.

Group Shot!

We did stop to do a bit of shopping in the terminal in front of the ship, but we didn’t get much…..just some coffee and a Jamaican Dora for Kaia to add to her vast Dora collection. When we got back on the ship, we were famished as it had been about 8 hours since our last meal….we got a quick snack as we didn’t want to ruin dinner. Then we headed to our cabins to shower and get ready for dinner. For dinner we went to the specialty steakhouse on board called Chops. It was fabulous and I watched Tim consume the biggest piece of steak and biggest baked potato ever! Mine was yummy too, but I was boring and just got scallops, no steak for me. It was funny because when we were ordering they brought out all the raw meat to show us the different cuts. I forgot to bring my camera or else I would have taken a picture. After dinner we walked around a bit and we found an empty nightclub called Catacombs where we found this girl hiding out:

Shortly after was the ice show called “Encore”…..it was AMAZING. You wouldn’t believe some of the movies these performers did. We thoroughly enjoyed the show, though Tim was stuck behind a pole and missed some of it….it was was a packed house. After the ice show we went to a game show called “Love and Marriage” which was hilarious. They got three couples from the audience to participate: Newlyweds, a couple married 20 years and a couple married over 50 years. They asked the men and women questions and their partners had to try to guess their answers, much like the Newlywed game. We enjoyed the good laugh! After that, it was after midnight, we were zonked (no naps today!!! LOL) and so we headed to bed excited for scuba diving in Grand Cayman tomorrow!

"Encore" - and Ice spectacular!

"Love and Marriage" Game Show

Cruise Vacation - Day 4

2007-10-22T19:10:00.001-07:00

This morning I woke up way too early but I was too excited to sleep….I wanted to see the ship pull into Labadee, Haiti. So, I got up and headed outside onto the balcony in my pajamas and watched as we pulled into port. It was so beautiful! I watched the boats come out and help to anchor the boat. Tim was still sleeping, but he did finally decide to wake up, we ordered breakfast and ate it as we watched all the goings on happening on the island. We decided that we didn’t want to get off the ship today as we had already been to this island and we just wanted to enjoy more of the ship. We have three VERY busy days coming up, so we wanted one more relaxing day!

Haiti (from our balcony)

We went up to the sports deck again and Tim did some flowriding where I watched him wipe out again. I’m still contemplating doing this, we’ll see……We still need to try the rock climbing wall and ice skating as well. Just not enough hours in the day, especially when you’re reading as much as we are, LOL. Then we headed out for a swim. We had a fun, long swim in the solarium pool trying to work off our breakfast. We also went into the cantilevered hot tubs that were overlooking Haiti and that was very nice and relaxing. We then just lay out in the sun to dry off before lunch. For lunch we headed to Johnny Rockets where we were treated with a performance of Staying Alive by the waiters and cooks which was hilarious. For lunch I had a BLT, Tim had a chicken club with a chocolate shake and we shared a few onion rings.

Tim after yet another wipe-out

After lunch, we came up for some more reading and I had a nap again. I’m telling you, the sun just makes me so sleepy, I can’t help it. I feel like I’m 90 years old!! After my nap I was sooo excited to head down to the spa for my ocean massage. First I was covered in seaweed and wrapped in foil. While I was wrapped I got a lengthy scalp massage and foot massage. Then I washed the seaweed off and was given a deep tissue massage. The whole thing lasted 2 hours – heavenly! While I was in the spa Tim was playing volleyball and he competed in a “closest to the pin” golf simulator competition and won a silver medal, he was so proud!

Then it was time to go back to our cabin and shower and dress for dinner. Tonight we went to Portofino, which is an Italian specialty restaurant here on the ship. We had been there before the last cruise and it was everything we remembered it to be! It was 6 courses of the yummiest Italian food. I had way too much food to list, so I won’t bore you with my piggy details. Tim’s enjoyed his food as well.

Getting ready to eat our dessert – chocolate OVERLOAD!

After dinner we went for a stroll through the ship and stopped in the Promenade to check out the sites. After that we took in the musical comedy called “Ever After” which we enjoyed. Following that, we headed to bed REALLY excited about our day tomorrow in Montego Bay, Jamaica where we will be swinging through trees!

Us on the Promenade in front of a café

Looking down from the 11th floor

Pictures from the Musical tonight

Cruise Vacation - Day 3

2007-10-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up at 7 :30am feeling refreshed, excited and ready for the day. We checked out our cruise Compass (schedule for the day) and decided on what we would do for the day. As I showered, Tim ordered us room service for breakfast. Shortly afterwards, breakfast came and it was great. How wonderful it was to sit there and eat breakfast on our balcony watching the ocean, the Lord’s amazing creation, pass us by!

After breakfast, we lathered up in sunscreen and headed upstairs to the Sports deck. We made an attempt at mini-golf, but it was way too windy, so we gave up. Then Tim decided to be brave and try Flowrider. He made 3 attempts at surfing, he did better each time, but his surfing skills still need some major improvement. I’m still considering doing it myself, but I worry that it will bang up my already bad knees. After he was done surfing, we went to play some ping pong. Then we did some window shopping on the Royal Promenade.

Tim surfing on the flowrider

WIPE OUT!

Me mini-putting

Then we had lunch in the dining room where Tim had Fajita’s and Turkey Parmigiana and I had a made-to-order shrimp bowtie pasta…..very yummy yet again. After lunch and with very full and bloated bellies we went to get ready to go to the pool where we swam for a bit, then read books by the pool. On our way back inside we watched a bit of the belly flop competition, which was pretty funny. Tim then went to his dodgeball and ping pong tournaments while I stayed on the balcony and ready my book while listening to the crashing waves. At some point I dozed off, and ended up napping for about 30 minutes.

Kids splash pad / pool

Family pool area

Adults Only Pool

Tim came back very sweaty from his tournaments. His team won the dodgeball tournament, so he got a gold medal, but he lost in the first round of ping pong so he was disappointed in that. After that ,we just decided to walk around the ship. We realized that I forgot to pack my USB cable for my little (waterproof) camera, so as much as I’d love to post video of Tim on the Flowrider and pictures of us swimming, it will have to wait until we return. We may go check out the stores when we are in port to see if we can find one.

It was then time to get showered and ready for dinner. It was formal night and I was so excited, oh how I love dressing up and getting Tim dressed up! We had sent Tim’s suit and shirt out to be dry cleaned and pressed and it came back in plenty of time. So, we got all gussied up and headed to the Promenade where there were tons of photographers waiting to take our picture. We got a few shots and we’re hoping one of them turned out nice. I realized that my face was a bit red from the sun, and I put blush over that, so I think I looked a bit tomato-like, but oh well!

All ready for formal night

Cheese

While we were on the Promenade, the captain came down on this cool bridge that just appeared from the ceiling, very cool. He addressed the crowd, welcomed us on board, and introduced some of the main staff.

The Captain on the flying bridge

We then went to dinner which, once again, was fabulous. Tim had pear soup, sirloin steak, and for dessert this was a first for him, he had TWO FULL desserts – strawberry cheesecake and cherries jubilee. He was watching others eat their cherries jubilee and he asked for some as well. I had escargot and shrimp cocktail, lobster bisque, mushroom linguine, and a light soufflé. We were very impressed. We’ve been very good about not snacking between meals so we really build up a decent appetite. We are really enjoying our tablemates as well, it’s nice to have the same tablemates each night. We also loved meeting new people on the ship all day!

After dinner, all full and happy!

After dinner we headed back to our room to get into more casual attire. When we got into our room, our cabin steward, Sheldon, had made us a Stingray towel creature which was very cute. They make up your rooms in the morning AND in the evening here.

Our Stingray towel

Then we went to the singing/comedy show in the Platinum Theatre. It was this guy who did impressions of various singers, it was very funny, but Tim didn’t know who most of the people he was personating were, so I enjoyed it more than he did. My favourite was a Josh Groban impersonation, and also Louis Armstrong (So I think to myself, what a wonderful world!). By the time that show ended it was after midnight and we were really tired!! We headed off to bed. Another glorious day, how blessed are we???

Cruise Vacation Days 1 & 2

2007-10-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

We woke up on Friday morning SOOOOO excited about the days ahead of us. Actually, Josh woke us up at 5:25am, jumped into bed and asked “Is today Grandma day??”, so of course that eased our worries about him missing us! So after a few failed attempts of trying to get him back to bed, we were up and getting ready. Everything had been packed in the days before, so we just needed to tidy up a bit, zip up the luggage and head out. We brought the kids to d/c and we were on the road to Buffalo by 8am.

We arrived in Buffalo at about 9:30am, so plenty of time to shop. After driving around numerous places, we finally found a good spot to shop. We picked up some running shoes and dress pants for Tim, diapers for the kids, and some snacks. So we didn’t do too much damage (yet). We then drove our car to the parking lot and took the shuttle to the airport.

As is always my luck, we took off 30 minutes late and I was panicked because we had only a 35 minute layover in Chicago. So, we landed in Chicago around 3:05pm and our plane left at 3:20……more than anything I was worried about our luggage not making it. So we ran as fast as we could across O’Hare aiport and after about a 10 minute jog/run we were at our gate with 5 minutes to spare. That’s when we saw that we were delayed: 3:37pm……PERFECT……..our luggage should make it now. So, we boarded and took off and landed around 8pm.

We sat at that conveyor belt watching everyone’s luggage go round and round and never saw ours. My worst nightmare coming true, they LOST OUR LUGGAGE! So, we spoke to the American Airlines people and they told us that they would “try” to get it to us by the next morning. UGH. It was stuck in Chicago. At this point I started crying thinking that all of our luggage wouldn’t make it for the cruise. In the meantime, American Airlines gave us NOTHING, not a toothbrush, not 10 dollars to say sorry, NOTHING NOTHING…..Tim didn’t even have contact solution for his contacts. So, when we hopped in the cab, we got him to bring us to Walgreens where we picked up some essentials and headed to the hotel.

When we got to the Radisson, the guy at the front desk saw that I was crying and upset, so he said he would upgrade our room and give us free breakfast vouchers – WOW – and it wasn’t even them who made the mistake! That brought up my spirits a lot. Great customer service is alive somewhere if not at American Airlines. So, after a fitful sleep worrying about our luggage, I woke up at 5:30am and checked the status. SUCCESS….our luggage was in Miami and would make it to our hotel. We finally got it at noon with much relief. We changed into some clean clothes after wearing the same thing for over 24 hours, and we headed to the ship.

Getting onto the ship was extremely smooth and we were on by 12:30! Our first stop was Sorrento’s for an antipasto salad (my fave!) and some pizza. We then explored the ship a bit and headed to our room………SOOOO EXCITING…….a beautiful balcony cabin, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Our wonderful cabin

Again, our luggage hadn’t arrived to our room so we didn’t have much to do in the room. We read for a bit and then went to explore the ship again. Tim, of course, wanted to check out the Sports Deck. We saw the rock climbing wall, basketball court, Flow Rider (on board surfing), ping pong tables, mini-golf, and more. I then decided to go back to the room to read, and Tim played some basketball….he came back completely covered in sweat at which point I informed him that our luggage still hadn’t arrived and he would have to go to dinner covered in sweat. So, he went searching for our luggage and right before dinner we got it and were able to get dressed up.

Tim on the basketball court:

A shot of me - VERY TIRED!!!!!

Before dinner there was a show that consisted of some acrobatics and a comedy guy. It was fun. Then, we headed to dinner which was wonderful. Tim had Melon, house salad, prime rib, and apple pie and I had an onion tart, shrimp ravioli and chocolate fondue. Very yummy!

We didn’t finish dinner until 10:30, so we headed back to our room, organized a bit and went to bed as it was a LOOOONG day (that started at 5:30 am!).

Beautiful Sunset from our cabin

New Beginnings

2007-10-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

We have experienced lots of new beginnings over the last little while....

- Our beautiful niece Leah Elizabeth Marie Jones was born on October 22nd. She is stunning! Judy is doing well and we are so thankful for the answer to prayer.

- My new job is going really well. I started last week, and though at first it was tiring, we are getting into a routine and it is amazing. I am able to get home at 4 every day and still have lots of family time

- Tim's new job continues to go well.

- The kids are enjoying their home daycare. Every day they come home with so much to say about all the things they have done. We are SOOO very thankful to have found Quyen who is taking such wonderful care of them.

- We witnessed the wedding of Mark and Joy Regis on Saturday. It was a lovely wedding, and the first time we have ever tasted authentic chinese food. We pray their marriage is as wonderful as ours!

Today we went to the pumpkin patch and I took some shots, though as usual the kids were not cooperating, but this is the best I could get.

Mommy is going back to work!

2007-09-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true.....I'm heading back to work. I will be working at Psion Teklogix as a Configuration Management Specialist. The awesome thing is it is just 10-15 mins from home and my workweek is 37.5 hours. But, it's really hard to believe after so much time simply being a Mom and wife. Everyone keeps asking "are you sad??", and the truth is, that no, I'm not. Of course I'll miss the kids tremendously, but I'm really looking forward to heading back to work. I'm looking forward to showering and getting dressed up every day, I'm looking forward to socializing, using my brain more, and most importantly I'm looking forward to having one quiet meal a day. I've always been slighly envious of Tim's daily quiet lunch, now I get my turn too :)

We have found a home daycare for the kids that has worked out perfectly. The kids love her! We've done a few "test" days and they have gone so well, I couldn't be more happy. It will make going back to work all the easier. The good news is, either Tim or myself should be able to pick the kids up by 4pm each day, so we'll still have many hours together each day.....it's win-win for everyone! I'm just enjoying my last few days as a stay-at-home Mom.

Tim's new job is going great, he's really enjoying it. There is a huge learning curve for him with learning the different product.....I mean, a Blackberry is alot different than a security alarm receiver, but he is enjoying learning and meeting new people. I can't definitely tell he's happier, and that makes me happy. Not that he wasn't happy at his last company, just he was just really ready for a change.

Joshua is just continuing to thrive like you wouldn't believe. Just in the last few weeks he has done some wonderful things that he hadn't done in the past. His talking is really improving, and with that comes a newfound confidence in himself. It's just mind-boggling the difference. His newest thing is to put puzzles together, I'm not talking baby puzzles, but pretty involved puzzles....it amazes me! Also in the last few weeks he has finally figured out how to ride his bike and also he is colouring in the lines when he colours something in......just big changes that warms a Mother's heart!

Kaia is, well, Kaia.....LOL. No, she is awesome. She's just a jabber jaw, just talking CONSTANTLY, it's hard to keep her quiet. She is definitely going through some terrible two's with her temper tantrums. That girl knows what she wants! She just can't be reasoned with.....I'm not used to that because I could always reason with Josh. She really is a great little girl, though, and we can't complain. Other than the tantrums, she literally has a smile on her face constantly.....she is always happy and giggling, which is a complete contrast to Josh's constant serious state. We just laugh at the fact that Kaia is just like me (impatient, high energy, always on the move) and Josh is just like Tim (shy, serious, patient, laid back). Oh, and Kaia is starting to get a bit of curl to her hair....so there is hope that one day my kids may have a LITTLE bit of me in them!

And we're about to have a new neice/nephew.....we're (impatiently) waiting for Judy (Tim's sister) to deliver her first baby. Come on baby, Auntie Laura wants to go shopping!

And, as you can see, we are just 3 short weeks away from our cruise........soooo exciting, but so many other things to focus on at the same time!

OK, I really need to update this thing more frequently so that I don't have to type so much!!!

43 Days

2007-09-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

That's how many days we have left until our cruise. Oh.....I am SOOOO excited, I can't even tell you. Tim and I really need some time alone together to regroup and have some adult time. We are still working on our weightloss goals. I have 12 more pounds I'd like to lose before the cruise, and Tim has 7 more pounds. I think our goals are ambitious, but I am REALLY hoping to get there. I've been shopping for some new outfits and bathing suits. I mean, I've lost almost 50 pounds and have hardly bought any new clothes, so I think it's time.

Tim's new job is going well. At this point, he's just getting acclimated to it all. He got his Blackberry yesterday and was playing around with it. He has met some nice people already. He is especially enjoying the shorter commute, it gives him back about 1 hour per day!! I also have a couple interviews next week set-up. Hopefully they go well.

Kaia starts her ballet classes next week, so that will be fun. Other than that, nothing much going on with the kids right now. They do keep asking when we're going away so they can go to Grandma's house....ha ha! I did ask Josh yesterday what he thought of me going back to work and he said to me "We already have a job, Daddy goes to work! You no go to work Mommy". Oh, how sad. Hopefully it all works out.....we'll just keep praying that things fall into place.

Busy (fun) week & Tim's first day!

2007-09-04T04:08:00.000-07:00

So, as I type this Tim is getting ready for his first day at RIM. He's pretty excited. Today is just an orientation type day for him in Kitchener. He doesn't get to go to his actual office until tomorrow. Speaking of jobs, I didn't get that job that I interviewed for last week. I am chugging on though. I have applied for several jobs and hopefully something comes up in the next little while....we'll see. I can only apply for the next couple of weeks because we'll be going on vacation in about 6 weeks, after which point I'll re-focus on job hunting.

So, last week with Tim home was fun fun fun! We went to African Lion Safari and the CNE, and just hung out and had a nice time. We got the toyroom almost finished, still some tweaking to do before I will reveal the room yet.....stay tuned! Today we have the painters coming to finish up the outside of the house, hopefully that turns out OK as well! It feels good to have the house stuff almost all done.

Here are some pictures from our trips to ALS and CNE:

I had another Interview today!

2007-08-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

So, on Friday night I saw a posting for a job I may be interested in. It's as an events planner. So I submitted my resume Friday night, got called on Saturday morning and had my interview this morning (Monday). I think it went OK, but I guess I'll find out over the next few days. I feel I did OK, but the one thing I forgot to do was shake the guy's hand at the end and say "nice meeting you", so now I feel dumb. Anyway, I'll keep you posted!

Tim brought Josh skating this morning for the first time ever. It didn't really go so well....he just kind of pushed him around the ice. He'll keep trying though! Later we are going to visit Grandma (my Mom) and tomorrow we're going to African Lion Safari. Tim is home until Sep 4th, so, we'll have lots of free time!

Busy Busy Busy

2007-08-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

The playroom and ensuite have finished getting painted - WAHOO! That means that all the rooms in the house are officially painted. We also went to Ikea to pick up a couple of big shelving units for the playroom and a bed-chair thingie, very cool. I'll have to post pictures when it is all done....we're not there yet though!

Tim's last day at DSC was yesterday. He had mixed emotions leaving, but he's certainly extremely excited for his new job. The best part is that he's home with us for 11 whole days as his new job doesn't start until September 4th.

Tonight I am hosting a "Milton Mommy's" dinner with a bunch of local mothers in the area. There are about 15 that are supposed to be coming. I've spent the entire day re-arranging the basement and getting rid of toys into various places in order to make room for all these ladies. Then tomorrow Tim has a bunch of guys coming from Milton Gospel Hall for some football pool, I still don't understand the fun in that. They don't do it for money, just for bragging rights.....I guess I'll never get it, just like Tim will never understand my love for Figure Skating. Then after that we are heading to a friend's place for a BBQ. Fun fun.

In other news, Josh failed his very first swimming class on his own, poor little guy. It was because he is unable to pull himself out of the water and also because he won't put his head into the water. So, those are things we need to work on. Our plan is to bring the kids to public swim several times this year to get them more acclimated to the water, hopefully our plan works. Of course, Josh has NO IDEA that he "failed" his class, so I guess that's a good thing.

So, our plans for Tim's week off are just basically to play it by ear. We're going to go to the Ex with some friends one day, Tim is golfing one day (booo!), and other than that we don't have the week planned out. So, that's about it for now!

Swimming in Paint Chips

2007-08-21T09:32:00.001-07:00

So, we went ahead and hired a painter to do some painting jobs.......but he said he can come tomorrow and I haven't quite finished picking the colours, which is quite the problem. We are painting a bunch of exterior stuff, our playroom and re-painting our ensuite. Hopefully it all turns out OK. We are doing the playroom in primary colours, the ensuite in a pale, pale creamy yellow, and the outside of the house in a taupish/greenish colour....hard to explain, but hopefully it will all come together and I can post pictures!

Tim has 3 days of work left and then he's done at DSC, it's really hard to believe. I was always able to hear about the goings-on of my former workplace through him, and also I got to catch up with old friends at the Christmas party every year. But, now that will be no more! Crazy stuff! Hopefully his new job brings other perks, though :)

On the weekend we did go to the park and I got a few decent shots of the kids, you can see some of the shots here....you can click on them to see much bigger versions.

Goings on

2007-08-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

The remainder of the week was fun. We didn't really have too much going on, just enjoying some fairly quiet family time and running lots of errands. Yesterday morning I watched our neighbour's daughter for a bit in the morning and then yesterday brought the kids to ChuckECheese with our friends MaryAnn, Doug and their daughter, Ellie. The kids all had a fun time, though Josh was VERY scared of Chuck himself.....to the point he was shaking! As long as we avoided Chuck all was well. The pizza was yucky, but serves us right for eating pizza when we're supposed to be losing weight!

This weekend I am going to attempt to take some shots of the kids at a park of some sort, hopefully we can get some decent ones. We're going to pack and picnic and hopefully have a fun time, and then I'll try to sneak in some shots somewhere.......

We have someone coming on Monday to give us quotes regarding the painting work I'd like to get done. Hopefully we can get that done over the next few weeks. Then I'll have another thing crossed off the HUGE house "to do" list.

Big Decision

2007-08-16T04:20:00.000-07:00

So, I had posted that there were lots of things happening with me over the next little while. We had decided that I was going to open up a kid's shoe store, and were well on our way to doing just that. Then, the other night while I was signing Kaia up for ballet lessons it hit me for some reason that I would be missing out on so much of my kid's lives. The reasoning we originally had for opening the store was that, yes, in the beginning I would have to work TONS of hours around the clock........but the hope was that as the years went on, that my hours would get less and that I would have some flexibility. We prayed alot about it and were feeling led to do it.......but then the realization that I was going to be missing such a crucial part of the kid's lives crept in. Josh is only 3 and Kaia is only 2, and what a hard time to miss if I was working constantly. So, with a heavy heart, we pulled out of our decision to open the store. My dream of having my own business will have to wait......sigh........

On a happier note, as I mentioned, we signed Kaia up for ballet lessons. I'm VERY excited as I was a dancer myself for 10 years and I hope she enjoys it as well. For Josh, in the fall we are signing him up for swimming and possibly Dash sports (which is a mixture of a bunch of sports) and in the winter he will start skating lessons with Tim, and continue swiming as well. He is also starting once a week preschool program. So, our fall will be very busy indeed. Of course, on top of this he has Sunday school......so hopefully all of this will help him to prepare for junior kindergarden in Fall 2008.

Tim has just over a week left at DSC, then we'll have a week off. We haven't decided what we are doing on his week off yet, but probably nothing too exciting!! Our cruise is quickly as approaching (you can see my countdown ticker to the left)......but my waistline is not shrinking as fast as I'd like it to!!

Today I have to spend the big part of the day doing laundry as Josh spoiled not one set, but TWO sets of sheets last night. I'm not sure what's up with that. So I have lots of sheets to wash, on top of my regular Thursday laundry rotoation. Fun fun!!

The weekend

2007-08-13T04:04:00.001-07:00

Well, it is Monday morning and another weekend has gone by. We had a nice weekend. On Saturday we had Melissa, Mike and kids over....it was nice to see them. Baby Dezi is growing but still seems so small to me compared to my kids, he's a cutie. He has my chin which makes him even cuter of course, ha ha. On Sunday we had church in the morning which started off fairly well but ended with a bang with both kids freaking out and us having to leave a bit early. Will I ever look back on these times and laugh???

We also went for a long, long walk around the neighbourhood which was really nice. Tim and I are trying to drop some pounds before our cruise so we're stepping up our exercise. Tim would like to lose 12 pounds, and I would like to lose another 18. We have just over 2 months left, so I'm not sure how likely that is, but we are going to try! Tonight I'm going to try a kickboxing class with a friend and see how it goes.

Today I have a few things that need to get done:
- I need to call a couple of painters to get a quote on some minor work we'd like to get done inside and outside the house
- Clean up the inevitable weekend mess that seems to creep into the house every week
- I need to design some business cards and get them printed (more info on that later in the week.....)
- return some videos to the store
- start organizing the kids fall wardrobes, and start selling their fall clothes from last year

I think that's about it for now.......other than that we'll probably just go to the park, hang around the house, and then, like I said, I will try kickboxing later.

This is Tim's second last week of work at DSC, hopefully they are good ones!

Tim's new role

2007-08-11T03:15:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday after almost 12 years at Surgard/DSC, Tim gave his 2 weeks notice. He has been offered a job at RIM (maker of the Blackberry) and will be starting there in a few weeks. Of course, DSC will always hold a special place in his heart as it was his first and only job out of college and it is where he met me, but he's really excited about his new job. His title remains almost the same -- Embedded Systems Software Developer. The location is in Mississauga so it will be a shorter commute for him which is definitely a bonus. We are so thankful that he found this opportunity!

Yesterday we had a fun day. I brought the kids out to Alicia's Backyard (indoor playland) in the morning for a few hours on a playdate. Then in the afternoon we headed to the park for more fun. We are excited it is the weekend. Melissa, Mike and kids are coming over later and this morning we are headed to the market to pick up some fresh berries. I just have to wait for everyone to wake up as I'm the only one awake right now (6:30am).

I'm off to sip my coffee now!

My First Post

2007-08-10T03:48:00.001-07:00

Well, since there is so much happening in our lives I thought I would start a blog to try to keep ourselves, and everyone else, updated on our lives. God has really been working in our lives, and over the next few weeks you'll see some really exciting things that are happening with Tim and I.

Joshua and Kaia are doing really well. Josh's speech continues to improve each day.....he is still really shy, but that's to be expected (think of the legacy: Ted, Tim, Jeff!). Kaia, on the other hand will NOT stop talking (again, the legacy comes into play: my Mom, Nancy, ME!). They really make our lives so busy, but so wonderfully full. I have enjoyed being a stay at home mom, but that, as you will soon see, is probably coming to an end.

On Tuesday Josh had swimming lessons and he did really, really well. I can't believe he's growing up so fast! I can remember when he was this REALLY chubby baby swimming with Tim in the pool, and now he's this skinny toddler (darnit, the kid won't eat enough!) swimming on his own at swim class. Sigh, it goes too fast! Kaia had Kindermusik last night and she loves that. She sings and dances so loud and with so much abandon, it is amazing. She's really a sight to behold. She draws attention wherever she goes! We are currently deciding which fall classes to sign the kids up in, there are so many choices: swimming, sports, dancing, skating, gymnastics, music, crafts, and many more! We'd like to sign them up for at least one each, so we need to make that decision soon.

As for Tim and I, I will have to post and update as the days and weeks go on. Things are great for us, and I have appropriately titled my blog "The Blessed Bunch" as we just feel so blessed in our lives! The key, of course, is putting Him at the center of it all, and everything else will fall into place.

...Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. Jeremiah 17:7