the way things used to be

this picture was taken without the intention of ever posting it on a public blog for all the world to see. honestly. i was striking this pose just for my hubby 2 years ago while on vacation in kauai. i remember seeing the picture later and thinking how ridiculous i looked. i see the picture now and honestly can't believe that was me! so its been nearly 7 months since i pushed tristan out of my belly. for some reason, i thought my belly would have recovered from that by now. i know that they say ..."it takes 9 months for your body to grow so large and 9 months for it to shrink back to its former size" but i'm getting a little impatient. never mind that my weight gain over those 9 months totalled 65lbs! i've never really had a problem with weight before in my life, so having these last stubborn 20lbs clinging to my frame is tempting to me to hide in tentlike clothes so unflattering that i'd be a great contestant for the "what not to wear" show.

after FINALLY realizing that nursing was not helping the weight "just melt off" as so many promised, i began exercising in earnest: i now walk every day. :) okay, okay so i know that walking may be seen as such a cop out for exercise, but i have a phobia of gyms and running poses a bit of a problem due to the whole nursing thing. (won't go into more detail about that) i walk for 30 min every day up a very steep hill near my house. and i push tristan in the stroller and sweat like a piggy, so i KNOW i'm getting a workout. that helped me get to the weight i'm at now, but i've plateaued again. i've considered walking up 2 very steep hills instead of just 1, but 30 min is all tristan seems to be able to handle in the stroller at the moment (he's getting into a bit of a whiny phase.) and so, i am very reluctantly starting a new eating plan on monday. our friend miriam who lives in victoria gave me a book called "eating alive". miriam is slim and oh so healthy and full of energy, so i read the whole book and then went to the health food store and bought the oddest ingredients like kelp and sea salt and brown rice (who the HECK eats brown rice??!) to make these meals for the next 3 week that will apparently detoxify me and help my body begin to digest food better etc. etc.

i made a chocolate cake last night with the most scrumptious chocolate icing and i plan on devouring it before monday begins. tonight i plan on finishing off the bag of chips sitting in the pantry and may steal a couple of josh's oreos as well.

speaking of josh, he never really felt better after returning home from canada. after sleepless nights with fevers and aches and coughs, he finally saw a doctor yesterday who diagnosed him with pnemonia. my poor husband. so i am doing my best not to touch him much and josh is doing his best not to touch tristan much for fear of one of us getting the same thing. we even have separate towels for drying our hands now!

will let you all know how the new eating plan turns out.

O Canada!

we had such a lovely time on our trip up north. our visit was long overdue! even though i spent 24 years of my life in the lower mainland, i found that i've grown so accustomed to the landscape down in san diego that i was constantly oohing and ahhing over all of the green. my thirsty eyes drank it all in and josh made sure to take lots of scenic pictures. this sunset picture was taken from my parent's driveway one evening.

on saturday my entire family got together to get our family pictures taken at the Imagemakers studio. it was the first time that sarah got to meet her cousin tristan! my sister cherie was kind enough to straighten my hair for me...i can't remember the last time i've spent any time on my hair, so that was a treat :)

later that afternoon, josh tristan and i made our way to gardner park. i was honestly very surprised that so many people wanted to see us! it was great to catch up with my friends, many of whom i haven't seen since our wedding 3 years ago. 4 couples showed up from my old care group and we ALL have babies that were born within 6 months of each other! this picture is of my fellow bloggers leah, lovella and jennifer. sorry, korinne, that i didn't grab you for this picture!

on monday we headed for victoria. tristan was being a bit cantankerous on the ride there, so i nursed him to sleep in the ferry while josh went out on the deck and got some amazing shots.

once in victoria, we found our friend miriam's house and she took us out to the ocean before returning for a delicioius authentic italian meal with her family.

that evening, i put tristan to bed in the hotel while josh and miriam did a little sightseeing. once tristan was asleep, miriam stayed in the room while josh and i walked down to the parliament buildings. they were all lit up and the sunset was gorgeous! every streetlamp had hanging baskets just overflowing with flowers. we were both looking forward to meeting up with leah and her family the next day, seeing the sights...

...except that the next day, we awoke to POURING rain. we were completely unprepared for that type of weather...no umbrellas, no jackets...so we ended up meeting at an indoor mall before catching the ferry home. it was quite disappointing to be in such a beautiful place, but unable to enjoy it. however, we had a nice lunch with leah and fern and the kids. leah and i found a photo booth and, after barely managing to fit inside of it together, the pictures showed that we are no longer the young svelte creatures we once were. every pose was horrid and half of my face was chopped off in most of them! we both had a good laugh after that.

back in abbotsford, we had 3 full days left before returning home. we took advantage of having cara and sarah still in town and enjoyed hanging out with them. we even got some sweet smiles from sarah, as shown in the picture above. i was also privileged to see cara's sister aimee and her husband lance and meet their adorable twins, eva and elijah! i even got a hug from kathy :) we visited house of james and i was happily surprised to see so many familiar faces still working there. my cousin jennifer joined us for church with her 2 kids, and also came over for coffee on thursday.

on friday, darla and i spent the morning chatting away with each other. you know a friendship is true when it doesn't matter how long it's been since you saw one another; you just pick up right where you left off. she joined my family for a lunch of roll kuchen and watermelon (lovella's recipe was deliciously divine!) which i believe she will be posting pictures of.

while i was busy socializing during the last few days, my dear husband was Sick with a capital S. he had a fever and couldn't sleep and just felt completely miserable. despite feeling so low, he told me that he was glad that he was sick and not me, because i was able to so thoroughly enjoy my visit to my old home. yeah, he's a keeper ;)

fabulous vacation

well, we're in canada and having a great time! today is our last day here and i can't believe how quickly the past week has gone. i've had a chance to see so many dear friends and TONS of family (we had a family BBQ on sunday and nearly 50 people showed up!) on monday we took the ferry to vancouver island to see our friend miriam and her family. unfortunately we were unable to do much sightseeing as we awoke tuesday morning to pouring rain! :( fern and leah and their kids were in the area, so we met up with them at a mall in victoria before coming home. the past few days have just been more relaxed....chilling with the family. andy and cara and sarah are down from princeton, so we are hanging out as much as possible. this is the first time that our entire family has been together since my and josh's wedding 3 years ago!

tristan has been doing amazing. on the flight here he barely made a peep and was in a pretty good mood all day despite having nearly no sleep for 12 hours straight!!! he has fallen in love with my sister cherie and is being very generous with his charming smiles. he's adapted well to taking naps in a "strange" place, the key to which we found was making sure the room is so dark that he can't tell that he's not at home!

today darla is coming over for a coffee date and my mom is making lovella's recipe of roll kuchen for lunch. josh and i just may go out for dinner (alone!!) though he's been feeling quite sick, so we'll wait and see how that goes. like any fabulous vacation, i could easily stay for another whole week, but my true home is beckoning and soon we will leave this land of vibrant green and arrive back into the land of various shades of brown and gold.

i've got so many pictures to post, but they'll have to wait a few days...

details..

i have been informed that it's rude not say what time we'll be at the park. and i've reluctantly agreed to say that we will be there at 1:30. i cannot promise that my child will be a happy child if he misses his nap, but then you'll just all be able to get a sneak peek into the reality of my life!! so, 1:30pm on saturday july 14th at gardener park in abbotsford. hope you see many of you there!!

and for those of you who don't have access to tristan's picture blog, he now weighs 20lb 13oz. ..no wonder i nearly fall over when picking him up!