meet oliver

this is oliver. he was my second first anniversary present from josh. when i got home from work that day, i opened the door to the bathroom, and there was the sweetest little face you ever saw, staring up at me. since he was the runt of his litter, he was a little skittish at first and cried a whole lot. but the doctor lady came and got him medicines for his poopy bum and now he is ever so much happier, though he still sometimes gets skittish around josh. i'm head over heels in love with him and i'm pretty sure he feels the same way. he loves tearing around the kitchen floor, chasing his little cat-nip mice, and he also enjoys curling up next to us on the couch and just purring away.

in other, more sad news, 2 more of our fish have died. the first was our pretty little blue neon tetra. he left without a trace, not even a few bones. all we know is that he is no longer in the fish tank. the second was Nessie. she was our biggest fish, and we never really got to see her, as she hid in the pirate ship all day long. (hence the name Nessie, after the loch ness monster) lately, though, we've been noticing that she has been a little more social. we thought that she was turning over a new, friendlier leaf, but alas, she must have been mouthing the word "help" to us through the glass. we found her lying belly up at the bottom of the tank yesterday, with the sucker fish swimming over her body, grief stricken. by the way, fish don't necessarily float to the top of the fish tank when they die. neither Nessie nor Mr. Algae Eater did.

that's about all the news i can muster for tonight. now that i know how to get pictures from our camera to our computer, i'm sure i'll be posting a lot more soon. thanks, denise, for your faith in my brains. your comment gave me the extra boost to try and figure the stupid thing out (though i must admit that i came very close to chucking the computer out the window a few times)

later :)

sorry about telling you i was gonna post a picture and then didn't. well, i suppose if i was truly sorry, i'd have posted one. the truth is, i'm too lazy to read the manual on how to do it and i HATE getting frustrated with computers because they are smarter than me and seem to chuckle when i can't figure something out. i WILL post a picture of my present, just not yet.

i have one of the largest cold sores on my bottom lip that i have ever had. and i've had a lot. i whined to josh about it this morning, saying "why can't i just look like angelina jolie when i have a cold sore, why do i have to look like such a gimp?" he pointed out that in order for me to look like angelina jolie, my cold sore would have to be even bigger than it is. which is true. i just hate talking to people when i have one because i feel like they are staring at it thinking "ewwww" and when i talk, i feel like my lip is bigger than my whole face and that's all i can think about. i don't want to go to work today. (just slightly paranoid, perhaps?)

it has been hotter than hades here lately and really humid. i went out to water the flowers this morning at 7.30 and was hit by a wave of hot, sticky air. thank God for air conditioning (our old house didn't have AC, so we had to sleep on the floor downstairs when it got really hot). the other night, as we were leaving for josh's ball game, we saw something in the middle of the road, and pulled over to take a look. it was a TARANTULA!!! now, i know that these things exist in the world, though i'd prefer to think that they only exist inside glass cages in pet stores. but to see one walk across the road as if he owned it, when that road was the same one that I LIVE ON!..... i am so NOT okay with that. he was huge, and hairy and absolutely shudder inducing. we decided not to run over him.

josh totally kicked butt at the ballgame, by the way. a young guy sitting next to me, who was cheering for the other team saw josh, in the outfield, throw the ball and said to me, "your husband sure throws fast". i just smiled smugly and said, "i know". my baby rocks.

in less than one month, my mom and dad are driving down to stay with us for a few days!! i am very excited, though right now i'm a little frustrated because it looks like i'll be working all but one day that they're here. i have to talk to my boss this afternoon about that and see if i can switch one of my other days off. oh, i hope so.

well, off to get ready for work. will post picture, as promised, next time i blog.

if i must, i must

i have received specific instructions from many people that i MUST start blogging again, especially since many of you haven't heard an update about baby kaiyah. so i will, even though there are others of you that haven't blogged even longer than me (not saying any names, AIMEE, not to mention CHERYLENE).

first off, baby kaiyah. nearly 2 weeks ago tara and ian decided to take her home to be with them. the doctors were pretty much giving her no hope, saying that nearly her entire brain was dead, and that there wasn't much they could do. so she went home to be with her family for as long as she had left. and....suprisingly, she is doing great! she actually took to the bottle quite well and has been gaining weight! she is still absolutely tiny, of course, but everyone is thrilled at her progress. i was praying for a miracle from the beginning, and i think that one may have occured! thanks to all of you who prayed as well. i will keep you posted on her progress.

the other thing that i really want to blog about is my second first anniversary present. (which is driving my crazy at this particular moment) but i don't want to blog about it until i can post a picture, which resides in my digital camera. i just haven't taken the time to figure out how to get it from my camera to my computer. so. perhaps tomorrow morning i will post a picture.

today is a glorious day off after a long work week, so i am looking forward to relaxing out on the pond on my new blue inflatable raft that i nearly passed out on while blowing it up with my very own breath. i'd also like to go to the local salvation army and see if they have any puzzles for cheap. (our addiction is starting to cost us a lot) then josh and i are going to see charlie and the chocolate factory tonight...one of my most favourite children's books. hmmmm..looks to be a lovely day. :)

 

our second 1st anniversary

josh and i are lucky enough (or cursed enough) to have 2 anniversaries per year. i'm feeling rather cursed at the moment. why are certain days in a year so bloody important to females like me? why do we have to be so nostalgic? it doesn't seem fair, especially since men don't tend to see the importance, and then what do you have? a morning full of unspoken words and uncommunicated expectations mixed with a couple of renegade tears that my weakened floodgates could no longer hold. (much to my dismay.) could we just press rewind until the alarm goes off at 5.15am again? that would be lovely.

may 21st 2004 was the day that josh and i were married. i had just flown, the day before, from vancouver with a 2-week round trip ticket clutched firmly in my hand, heart beating like never before, hoping and praying that the customs people would not ask me why i was traveling to san diego, or worse, scan my passport and find out that i was engaged to an american. crossing the border with the intent to marry is illegal. rather than feel the thrill of adventure that day, i felt sick to my stomach until i was on the plane, descending towards the land of the free and the home of the brave. we had to get married this way so that all of our plans for the "big wedding" wouldn't be for nothing. we had been waiting for months for my fiance visa to come through, (my ticket to legally wed an american) but it was taking way too long, so we took matters into our own hands. to ensure that our wedding would happen, we got married a month and a half earlier.

unlike some quickie weddings that lack romance, ours was wonderful. my mom and sister and best friend all flew down to stand alongside josh's family and friends as we said our vows on the beach, bare foot and all.

july 8th 2004 was the day that josh and i got married...again. this was the day that i had dreamed of since i was a little girl, the day i had been planning for the previous 10 months. our favourite lecturer and principal of capernwray, rob whittaker flew from england to marry us in a little dutch village in washington. this was the big event and, even though i walked down the aisle towards a man that i already called my husband, i felt that none of the romance was missing. i was proud to re-state my vows for all to hear and to witness.

"this is my lover, this is my friend..." -Song of Songs 5:16

and if truth be told, i'd do it all again in a heartbeat. unspoken words, uncommunicated expectations, renegade tears & all.

i love you, josh stewart.

forever your,

~h

Pray for Kaiyah

kaiyah is a tiny little girl, weighing just under 3 lbs. she was born by emergency c-section nearly two weeks ago. her mommy, tara was on strict bed-rest because her placenta was in the wrong position, but unfortunately, little kaiyah had to come out much earlier than she wanted to, for fear of something else going extremely wrong.

when she was born, her little lungs were much stronger than the doctors had expected. she was a little fighter, but then it was found out that she is anemic...and then the valve coming from her heart wasn't closing properly...and then she had to have 2 blood transfusions...and then she got a blood infection...and now they have found quite a bit of bleeding in her brain. this means that, if she survives, she will most likely have brain damage.

please pray for kaiyah and for her parents, tara and ian thompson. they are going through a roller coaster of emotions right now. please pray for kaiyah's older brother, ethan, who is just over 1 year old. he has been having a hard time of being passed around to different relatives' houses so that his parents can make trips to the hospital. and please pray for tara and ian's family. ian is rob's brother (rob is our brother-in-law), so their family is our family and very close to our hearts.

"We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intecedes for us with groans that words cannot express." -Romans 8:26

thanks.