26 and then it all goes downhill...

i have been forgetting things lately. i mean, a lot of things, many of them very important. for instance, about a month ago i forgot the keys to open the store one sunday. my poor boss had to leave church and drive to work so that he could open the door for me. oh, and let's not forget the time when i left the door to the safe open all night long (kind of a miracle i still work there, eh?) on monday josh told me to return some dvd's on my way to work. did i return them? oh no! i forgot! that same day i also forgot to bring a change of clothes to work for our girl's night that evening. my dear husband not only went into town to return the dvd's but also brought my clothes to his mom so that she could bring them to me. the very first year we were married, i forgot josh's birthday. i could not, for the life of me, understand why he was in a grumpy mood that morning just because i told him "haha you have to work today and i get to hang out with your sister" oops. (kind of a miracle i'm still married, eh?)

i have forgotten my best friend, darla's birthday 2 years in a row. try getting out of that one. (um, i know we've been friends for like A MILLION YEARS, but which day were you born on?) thankfully, she has been gracious enough not to take me off of her A-list. and then today, it happened again. i was merrily checking out the 100 different blogs i like to check out and came to rose's and completely froze. my mind started whirring: "what day is it? what month is it? what...?" and then i realized the awful truth: i forgot leah's birthday! and we were JUST on the phone the other day, which makes it worse because i never said, "so whatcha doing for your birthday?" which makes it obvious that i forgot! (of course, the very belated card will be another clue)

i will not try to compete with rose's ode to my friend, but i will, very lovingly, say to leah that the ode i wrote to her way back on march 3rd of last year in my blog archive is still all true today. i just went back and read it and got all mushy feeling inside again. i do love you and hope your day is WONDERFUL!

we had easter on sunday. we'll be gone for easter weekend ( I INTERRUPT THIS SENTENCE TO SAY...ONLY ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL WE FLY AWAY!!) so decided to do the family thing early. we had such a fun time, as we always do when josh's family gets together. the kids were excited beyond belief to find their easter baskets and look for eggs in the backyard. we had a delicious ham dinner and a ton of candy....lovely.

i cannot hold this in, i'm so grateful that i have to share it. God has been so good to us lately, blessing us financially. about a week ago i found out that i'll be getting a VERRRRY generous bonus from the company i work for! on tuesday we found out that our tax return is quite a happy amount! and just today josh called me from work with the great news that he got a raise!! i am not writing all of this to gloat, but to say that we are overwhelmed with thankfulness to God, who has taken care of us so wonderfully.

time to work on books for the library...

EASTER BASKETS!!! 

finding easter eggs (I was the official "easter egg bag carrier") 

showing off their loot 

riding high on uncle stew's shoulders... 

kaylee then insisted on carrying uncle stew on her shoulders! 

and just because...

...i survived work and am now home with a few free moments, i'll have you all know that i alphabetized my links links. specially for you, leah

jet-puffed sugary goo

i am sick. if anyone would care to call me, you'd hear the voice of a sick girl. and yet, i am going to work, just as i went to work yesterday in a body that feels as if it has been hit by a pickle truck. oh sure, i could call in sick, but i won't. my boss is a very nice man, HOWEVER, he was in the navy for nearly 10 years and the word "sick day" is not in his vocabulary. there are exceptions, of course, like if i really had been hit by a pickle truck, i'm sure he'd ask no questions. or if i was vomiting every 10 minutes or so, i know he'd be fine if i stayed home. even though i would get a sick day if i asked for one, i really don't want to hear the disappointment in his voice. yes, i am a people-pleaser (not to mention a perfectionist) and at times i think this is detrimental to my health.

so i'm sick, but i don't have to leave for work until noon. josh is working with his dad today, so i decided to make him rice krispie squares. of course, he doesn't know what rice krispie squares are; they are rice krispie treats to him, but whatever. rice krispie square require very little time and energy, plus they're one of his favourite things, so what a perfect thing to make when sick. found some old, stale marshmallows in the bottom of a bag and, without thinking, popped one in my mouth. i actually enjoyed the unique chewiness that a stale marshmallow has. the fact that my nose is so clogged that i can't taste anything probably added to the enjoyment. so i popped the other 6 or so into my mouth and had a decadent moment with a mouth full of sugar. i really have no idea why i'm writing this. did i mention i am sick?

tomorrow will be our family easter because we will be overseas for the real easter weekend. it's been sunny and warm, so we're looking forward to seeing the kids outside looking for hidden easter eggs. jessica and rob are also coming up early to go to church with us! it will be a fun day. i'm making mashed potatoes. i really hope my nose unclogs before tomorrow so i can taste things.

my mom and dad are back from their trip to scotland. check out cherie's blog for some cute photos...it was their first time leaving the continent! and they loved it! 2 MORE WEEKS TILL WE LEAVE!!!!

since i do not have adorable children to take pictures of, nor a growing belly to show off, i will end with pictures of my fat cat oliver. enjoy.

oliver, my chubby kitty. 

steel eyed dinosaur

just a quick post while i am hurredly attempting to juggle writing my parents a "welcome home" email, check out a few blogs and order my arbonne skincare products that i am so completely addicted to now (nearly had a fit when i sqeezed the last few drops of cleanser onto my palm today)

josh and i went to the david gray concert last night...the one that we were supposed to go to in october, but it was cancelled due to mr. gray's throat sickness. well, it was SO worth the wait!! it was at the copley symphony hall, which was nice and intimate...more like a theatre atmosphere. josh owns all of his cd's, so we knew all of the songs. if you remember my post from october, josh and i fell in love to the sound of david gray, so most of the songs have strong sentimental value. it was very romantic. i even got a t-shirt! it says "you're the one i love" on the front (the title from one of his songs)

the ONLY bummer about the concert wast that i lost a bet. i lost big time. on the way there, we were trying to remember how david moves his head when he sings because we have one of his concert dvd's and his head grooves, seemingly of it's own accord! josh really thought that he moves his head from side to side, whereas i thought that he only moved it up and down to one side. okay, i realize that this is sounding a little bizarre, but to us die-hard david gray fans, it was important. so we decided that if i won the bet, josh would have to go for a sunday afternoon walk with me down to the park. if josh won, he decided that i would have to wash his truck...wearing a white t-shirt...(without the necessary undergarments)...while he would sit there and watch me. i just KNEW that i was going to win. there was NO WAY that david would actually move his head back and forth from side to side...it'd look to dumb!

first song starts, a hush falls over the crowd. the spotlight is on david, sitting at the piano, singing away and then...his head starts to move. it was moving EVERYWHERE! honestly, it looked at times as if he was one of those little plastic bobble-headed toys, i don't know how he does it without hurting himself. and my heart just sank. and josh's heart just soared. please don't drop by unannounced on the next warm, sunny day. there is a dirty truck out there who's owner is very keen to have washed.

happy st. paddy's day!

...and i AM wearing green, without even planning on it, pointed out nicely by my EXOTIC friend leah, who lives in thailand! i was on the internet the other morning and who pops up on my msn messenger, but LEAH!!! i hadn't heard from her in forever, so it was so great to chat with her. plus she has this way cool headset that she wears with a webcam, so i can see and hear her...she can't see me, though, so i still have to type. i told her i felt like the retard with a chalkboard strapped to my chest, having to spell everything out while she just chatted away at her computer. was really cool, but i think i'm going to get myself one of those stylish headsets so i can talk back and actually laugh instead of having to say HA HA.

ANYWAY, i'm really just writing this blog for leah, cuz she told me she was going to check out my blogsite and i'm just making sure. so, you'd better comment, leah!!

in other news, I HAVE THE DAY OFF! except that it's pay day, so i still have to drive the 45 minutes to work to pick up my check, but will reward myself with a quick stop at target. we're having a couple of friends over for pizza and dvd's tonight. josh is the BEST pizza maker EVER, and we need another pizza pan, so off to target i go. then it's time to put edith piaf on again and become that graceful cleaning machine i was a few weeks ago.

oh! my parents are in scotland and i FINALLY heard from my sister. she says they're having a great time, but it's very cold and snowy. my dad is finding astronomy meetings to go to (never would have guessed) so he is busy with that, so my mom and sister are probably going to take a train down to england to see the lake district which i told my mom she HAS to go see. so far, it sounds like my father has not attempted to dance a jig....yet. i'll keep you posted.

does anyone think i use caps too much to emphasize certain words? leah d, you don't count cuz you do too.

i hope you all are feeling very irish today. i know i am.

no rest for those who sleep in

so, i allowed myself to sleep in until 7 this morning and was rewarded with vivid and slightly disturbing dreams. one was that i went to scotland to see how my folks were doing and found my sister completely drunk out of her mind and my dad attempting to dance a jig with me (both of these things would never happen in real life, by the way.) my next dream involved nicci, rose and leah driving down to visit me in a very old teal colored car. they came in, said hi, and drove off to "see the sights" without me. they did, however feel it necessary to drive by my house every hour or so, waving madly, and then drive off again. needless to say, i felt very left out.

it's supposed to rain again this weekend, which we are very thankful for. our pond is getting bigger and bigger and we're hoping to be able to swim in it again this summer! the snow level came down quite a bit last weekend (i had some snow mixed with rain hit my windshield in ramona one evening!) and now the higher hills (i guess you could call them mountains) surrounding us have a lovely dusting of powdered sugar on them. feels like home.

mother always knows best

my mother has always told me, when it comes to making meals for guests, "never EVER make something that you haven't made before." in the past, i have always heeded her words. sunday was an exception.

we invited a couple to our house for dinner on sunday. it was long overdue, as they had invited us out for dinner last summer and treated us to a delicious feast of things we had never before tasted, like escargot and baby octapus. now, i ask of you, WHAT IN THE WORLD do you make for people who are used to eating fancy food? i don't know how make fancy food! i mean, i consider lettuce wraps kinda fancy, but...nah. so i thought of a few things that i had made before that had turned out good, but none of them seemed quite right. josh even voluteered to make his yummy chicken cordon bleu, but she is jewish and i wasn't sure if she eats pigs or not. well, sara came up with a great idea. (and it TRULY WAS a great idea, sara) she had a recipe for prime rib! she said that she had made it once before and it was super easy and super yummy. i ask josh what he thinks. his eyes light up and he tells me, "baby, if you make prime rib, you will be my hero!" alright! bring on the prime rib!

so, prime rib is fancy, right? it sure costs enough! i carefully planned out my menu and did all of the necessary groceries. prime rib, roasted vegetables, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls and caesar salad, plus an appetizer. as soon as we got home from church, i set to work, chopping vegetables like crazy. they called us to get directions, had just been to their Purim carnival. when josh hung up the phone, he said, "why do i get the feeling that they're bringing their kids with them?" sheer panic. only 2 lbs of meat. how many kids do they have? i remembered meeting 2 little girls. josh suggested making hot dogs for the girls. BUT HOT DOGS AREN'T FANCY! okay, calm down, breathe, and let's get the prime rib in the oven.

the recipe suggested that, for medium rare meat, to cook at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes per pound. that would mean to cook it for 40 mintues, right? i set everything to time the meal so that the aroma of the meat would fill the house just as they would enter it, and that it would be ready 15 minutes later. lovely.

they pull up. josh and i both peer out the window, trying in vain to see through their darkened windows whether or not they brought the kids. couldn't see. went outside to welcome them and OH NO! THEY BROUGHT THE KIDS! i said the quickest of "hi's" and tore back inside, my heart racing. i grabbed a couple of extra place mats and plates and scooted everything over on the table to fit 2 more places and just finished as they walked in the front door. okay, so i'll just eat half a piece of meat and everyone will get some.

smiles and hugs and OH NO! i had remembered 2 little girls. they had one little girl and 2 more not -so -little - girls. one of whom was a teenager!! crises alert! not enough food! oh shoot, the appetizer! i got the feta-tomato topping out with slices of french baguette, secretly hoping that they'd fill their tummies up in the next 15 minutes and not be hungry for dinner. i then set to work getting ready to mash the potatoes. potatoes done, timer beeping, i take the meat out and then stuck the meat thermometer in...the little red pointy thing on the thermometer was NOT moving! i looked at josh with a look that must have been laden with distress and asked him to come and look. he looked and confirmed exactly what i saw: thermometer not moving. meat not hot yet. it was then that our guest informed us that when she makes prime rib (which sounded like it was a common occurance) it takes nearly 2 hours to cook. blood draining from face. throat constricting. okay, so maybe our thermometer is broken. i grabbed the phone and called the only logical person to call in such a crises: the giver of the recipe, sara. she told me that their meat was done after around that long and to stick my thermometer in hot water to see if it works. i stuck and it worked. put the meat back in the oven, and turned the temp. up.

i could not sit. i had to pace. tore lettuce for the salad, paced, timer goes off, take the meat's temperature yet again, the red pointy thing MOVED!! but only a little bit. okay, back in the oven. apologize to the guests, pace some more until josh basically forced me to sit down. timer goes off, meat is almost done!! gladness filled my heart, boiled water for the beef broth. bit of excitement where the guests are sitting...seems that their daughter is allergic to oliver. tears streaming down her face. she is told to wash her hands and face and stop picking up the cat! timer goes off....red thingy moves enough!! meat is done!!! okay, now let it rest. steam veggies, put now-cold mashed potatoes into the oven, stir beef broth into wine for au jus, put rolls in toaster oven. breathe. smile and laugh at jokes being shared, say "no thank you" when asked if i need help. the end is close at hand.

everything is nearly ready...josh is cutting the meat and i am getting the salad ready when UH OH! oliver just threw up on the carpet. josh runs to wipe it up before it can ruin anyone's appetite and suddenly i am being asked whether we have any benadryll since the girl's allergies are not getting any better, so i rush off to find something for her, forgetting to turn off the toaster oven. found some pills, rush back to the kitchen, blow away smoke, discard burnt rolls and scoop roasted veggies into dish, only to find that they are CRUNCHY!!!! at that point i realized that i was incapable of caring any more, so i served crunchy veggies and didn't say a word about them.

apparently, the meat was delicious, the whole dinner divine. i have no idea if everyone had enough to eat. i have no idea if the meat was too tough, or the potatoes too garlicy. all i know is that i made it through, and i will NEVER EVER make something for the first time when we have invited guests for dinner. next time, i am determined, we will go to d'carlos and allow the talented chefs there to make our prime rib for us.

after the guests have left and the dishwasher is full, josh kisses me softly and tells me "you did a great job" "am i your hero, now?" i ask. he smiles, "of course". i take a deep, contented sigh. it was all worth it, then. so, who's coming over for dinner next? i'll make my delicious prime rib for you!

2 adorable birth control pills

so, yesterday i took care of kaylee and john for 5 hours. i told sara they were my "little birth control pills" josh and i were so wiped after they left, that we went to bed at 8.30! okay, so we're wimps. we did have fun, though. after i cleaned up the mess that was made from a plant being knocked over, we went over to sara's to play with her kids. then uncle stew got home, so back home we came, taking the necessary walk around to pond to say hi to the horsies and greg the goat. then we put on a dvd for "quiet time"... wishful thinking! josh and i lay on the floor while kaylee brushed my hair, john bounced up and down on josh's stomach, then kaylee pretended that we were her children and got blankets and pillows for us and called us "babes." everything was going wonderfully until john began to ask for his blanket ("mee mee") and i realized with horror that i had forgotten it at sara's house. no amount of explaining that he would have it soon could ease his pain. he held onto my legs while i was trying to make dinner and howled. poor little guy. milk and shrek proved temporary distractions, but sooner or later he was at my legs again wailing "mee mee!" when gran appeared at the door to take them to her house, the darkness lifted and he was, once again, a giggling happy little boy. somehow, he must have understood that gran was going to get his mee mee back.

i steamed broccoli in the pot that had boiled dry. if i'm dead in the next 24 hours you'll all know why.

WE'RE FLYING TO SCOTLAND IN 4 WEEKS!!!! plans are coming together rapidly now...we are meeting up in york with some old friends from capernwray. one of them is now a youth pastor and has asked josh to give a message to the youth at his church one evening! i told him he must be famous (josh's testimony is absolutely amazing) i think i'm most looking forward to 1. seeing my sister, cherie, 2. seeing the castle where josh and i met 3. the lake district 4. meeting all of josh's scottish relatives. getting giddy already.

need to make breakfast now...finally caved and bought spinach and added it to my yogurt banana smoothie (if zandra and aimee can do it...) it was great! the color was a little disconcerting at first, but i felt so healthy and it didn't taste spinachy at all! i even convinced the kids to try it telling them it was a shrek smoothie...they wanted to finish it off!

"uncle stew just finished brushing my hair and now i'm going to bounce on his stomach until he feels sick!" 

a blog

i felt inspired by darla to change my profile picture. the other one was too perfect looking...this one captures my normal look, hair afrizz and all. i really did NOT feel like cleaning the bathroom today, so i popped edith piaf into the cd player, as my real simple magazine suggested, and suddenly i was transformed into a ball of scrubbing energy. i took to that toilet with a forcefulness and grace i have never before experienced. actually scrubbed behind the toilet this time (maybe for the first time?!) so, that is done and now i have time to sit and finally READ BLOGS which is my favourite thing to do. well, okay, almost my favourite thing to do.

i have a question for all you home-ish know-it-all-people out there: if water in a non-stick pot accidentally boils dry on the stovetop, is it alright to use it again? i remember reading somewhere that the teflon gets warped and makes putting food in it dangerous. i got a wee bit too involved with tweezing my eyebrows this morning and forgot all about the water i was boiling for my oatmeal until it was rather too late. oops. it's my best little pot too, i'd hate to lose it.

well, thanks to everyone who encouraged and prayed for me awhile back when i was having problems getting motivated with starting the church library. since i wrote that, i've been back to the library a few times to sort through and catagorize the books. i've already "catalogued" 30 books (i use the word catalogue loosely) and the best part is, a wonderful helper came out of the woodwork! mrs. neal called my house and left a message on the answering machine letting me know that she'd love to help get the library started. so i called her back and as soon as i told her who i was she said "yippeeee!" turns out she is a recent widow who is looking for projects to occupy her time. she blessed me with a donation that enabled me to purchase all the supplies we need to get started and, just this morning, i dropped the first 30 books off at her house so that she can get them ready for the shelf. this will make my job so much easier!

after that, i had the most lovely "phone date" with my cousin jennifer. jennifer and i never really got to know each other much growing up, but since she's moved to oregon, we've started getting in contact, first via snail mail, and then via email and blogs, and finally, over the phone! it was so great chatting with a member of my family whom i've always kind of known, and now we're friends! now, there's a chance she and her family may come down to visit us! HOORAY! ! we had so much to talk about, as she is just starting out on her relationship with God. i'm looking forward to many more great talks in the future, and seeing her grow as a believer. i'm about bursting right now, i feel so blessed.

there have been so many new blogs popping up that i can hardly keep track...will add the links soon. hmmm..i may need to organize my links a little better cuz they seem to be getting out of control over there. anyhow, off to take my fluffy, clean sheets out of the dryer and make the bed. sleeping on fresh, clean sheets is one of life's little pleasures.

this is the ONLY old embarassing picture i could find! honestly, i must have burned them all. i was probably 10 years old here, holding a baby chick. i especially loved the pattern on the sides of my jeans, and my gorgeous powder blue dangly earrings. this, my friends, is why my hair will never see a perm again. 

okay, there's a story behind this one. see, darla and i had put my paren'ts comforter into the top drawer of their dresser, expecting that the picture was going to be taken close up, so you would only see a lovely floral background. ummm, nope. we must not have communciated clearly enough what we wanted to my mom, who took the picture.  

this picture was taken sometime in gr. 9 in the back of leah's parent's "marijuana green van" check out the hot canada 3000 headphones. we were on our way to kelowna. 

current embarassing pictures...when josh and i were in hawaii, we got dubbed "Team Short Bus" by rob and sis cuz we couldn't kayak as fast as them. the top 2 pictures are of me demonstrating how a Team Short Bus person enjoys shaved ice. the bottom one is of my delicious looking mosquito bites that i aqured on that trip, and then i just had to add an embarassing picture of josh to even things out (since he took all of the other ones of me) 

age 12. cold sore and all. 

my most embarrasing moment

big news in ramona that i forgot to mention on my last post is that it rained on monday! lots and lots of nice, wet rain. goodbye dusty roads, hello green grass! it's amazing how quickly things green up around here after a good rain. tuesday afternoon josh and i went down to the pond to see how high it had risen and i snapped a few pictures of things clean and things green. after going for so long without rain, it kind of feels like God looked down on us and decided that we needed a hosing off.

in other news, i have added yet another link to my list. i feel it's proper etiquette to only add the links of people who have commented on my blog. i commented on sarah's blog quite awhile ago and FINALLY she got around to commenting on mine! sarah is an old friend from highschool who may just be the only other person in the world who is as un-athletic as me. she's married and has 2 adorable kids...check her out.

directions from seargant blog writer (aka leah) commands us to write about our most embarrasing moment. whenever embarassing moments are brought up, my mind immediately flits to one, then flits right away again because it was SO humilitating i almost can't think of it without blushing all over again. it's awful, but, since i know that my readership consists mainly of females, i will write it out for you all to empathize with.

it was grade seven. i was at that cruel, awkward age when i wanted so much to grow up into something pretty, but i could tell from looking in the mirror that there wasn't much hope of that happening. i had a great big space in between my two front teeth, my bangs were in the process if being grown out which meant pulling them back in a hairband, exposing my widow's peak, and the glasses i wore had purple frames. combine that mixture with the fact that the uniform i was required to wear to my private school consisted of powder blue sweat pants and a sweatshirt. not much room for beauty there. despite feeling awfully insecure, my girl heart was "in love" with a boy in my class, even though i knew full well that i would never have a chance with him. one day we were doing some sort of science lab in our classroom that involved looking at things through little microscopes. our classroom didn't have enough microscopes for everyone to use one, so we were taking turns, girls first and then the guys. the object of my affection was sitting on the floor behind me next to his friend as i stood and bent over to peer at whatever it was i was looking at (i do not remember what it was, since the humiliation i experienced has blotted out all other recollections of that day), i heard some muffled laughter. i turned around to see my crush and his friend giggling histerically, trying to cover their mouths so i wouldn't hear. being at that self-concious age, i knew at once that they were laughing at me. i excused myself to go to the bathroom, turned around, looked in the mirror and vowed i would never walk into that classroom again. i had started my period. from the looks of things, i had started it many hours ago, since the stain was huge, had already dried and turned a horrible shade of brown. what could i do? what could i POSSIBLY do? thankfully, the school day was almost over. i went to my locker, got my jacket and tied it around my waist, then went and sat outside to wait for my mom to pick me up. i don't even remember what my teacher said the next day. all i remember was vowing never to look at those boys ever again.

clean blue sky 

sunny daisies 

apple blossom 

happy march 1st!

i'm writing this morning just to remind everyone that it's march, which sounds so much lovelier than februrary. also, i just got a great big cold sore on the very center of my bottom lip. i asked josh if it had gotten any smaller. he looked real close at it and said "it looks like a zit." that's exactly what i wanted to hear. so i'm icing it right now in hopes i'll begin looking a little less like bubba from forest gump.