hooray for high speed internet!

we just got hooked up and i've wasted no time in posting a video on tristan's picture blog. unfortunately, we haven't taken many videos since moving, so i'll have to get on that. enjoy!

7 random things about me

thanks for all of your ideas re the christmas tree. i had originally thought we'd just get a "Charlie Brown" type tree this year and put it on top of the tv or something, but much to my husband's consternation, i've changed my mind and want at least a 4 footer. which is, by the way, small for us! we'll just have to teach tristan how to be gentle and hopefully i won't find too many pine needles in his diapers! i especially loved corinne's idea of a child friendly nativity, so i may have to add another thing to tristan's christmas list. :)

i've been tagged by sorlil!
Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

1. i don't like dogs. now, before all of you dog lovers become hysterical and vow never to read my blog again, i must remind you that i never said i hate dogs, i just said that i don't like dogs. this is a fact that i usually keep to myself since i seem to get all sorts of weird, questioning looks when i share it like, "how can you NOT like dogs??" well, i'll tell you why. they're annoyingly noisy, they're smelly and if they're not the aggressive type that look like they want to chew your face off, then they're the enthusiastic type that either leap up onto your chest digging their claws in, or they go straight to stuffing their snout between your legs. if we ever do get a dog, it will be an outside dog. period, full stop.

2. i am a people pleaser. anyone who knows me well will be nodding their head right now. not only am i a people pleaser, but i'm also a bit of a perfectionist, which can be a lethal combination. i used to nearly hyperventilate anytime we had people over for dinner because not only did i feel i had to make a delicious meal that everyone would love, i also felt that every speck of dirt had to be eradicated from the entire house before their arrival. oh yes, and the perfect mood music had to be playing softly in the background at just the right volume and candles had to be lit here and there to add to the ambiance of a warm and inviting home...well, three and a half years of marriage to a man who frequently gives me reality checks has cured me of my extreme perfectionism. however, a part of it still lingers and i believe it always will. i will not be enitirely satisfied with life until i can make a batch of homemade cookies that josh will go gaga over.

3. i cannot stand to have josh touching me while i'm asleep. lucky for us, he can't stand to have me touching him while he's asleep. so every night, we cuddle and talk a bit, then kiss and say "night night" and we each roll away from each other to the outermost corners of our huge bed.

4. i was so painfully shy as a child that when my parents had guests over, i'd run to the living room and put my head underneath the couch with the rest of my body laying motionless on the floor. i guess i thought that if i couldn't see them, they wouldn't be able to see me. in kindergarten, i was too shy to raise my hand and ask the teacher if i could use the bathroom, so instead i quietly peed all over my navy blue jumper and onto the bean bag chair i was sitting on. when the teacher asked me in front of my classmates if i had peed on the beanbag chair, i shook my head as my face grew warm. of course, i didn't think to hide the fact that my outfit was soaking wet. i'm no longer painfully shy, but that shy little girl still comes out at times. oh yes, and even though my kindergarten teacher embarrased me horribly that day, i still named my cabbage patch doll after her: brenda.

5. i adore claire danes. ever since grade 8 when leah and i watched the first episode of "my so called life" after school, i have been a huge fan. i think she has such an interesting beauty that i tried to capture numerous times with pencil sketches in my highschool art book. i haven't seen every single movie she's been in, but i'm getting there. i suppose you could say i have a sort of crush on claire. not in any romantic way, of course, but in the way that i'd like to think that we'd be great friends if we ever met. i think audrey hepburn would have to be my all time favourite actress, but claire danes was my first favourite actress.

6. i don't really drink soda (or pop, as i used to call it). i'd really rather eat my calories than drink them, plus its so sweet it makes my teeth hurt. once in awhile i'll take a swig of josh's pepsi and that will do me for a good week or so.

7. i am very picky about Christmas traditions. probably a lot of it is due to the fact that when i moved here, i felt as if i was losing a whole lot of what was familiar to me. so every Christmas while we trim the tree, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" has to be playing. every december i have to read the book "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. and every Christmas Eve josh and i snuggle under a warm blanket while watching "Its a Wonderful Life" which is my all time favourite movie.

i now tag

jennifer

lee (who is LOOONG over due for a post)

korinne

aimee

zandra

charlene

sarah

blood pudding, anyone?

due to the curiosity of my many readers (sarcasm inserted here), i thought i would further explain the whole "full english breakfast" thing. i tasted my first english breakfast in all of its glory while at a quaint bed and breakfast in edinburgh, scotland in 2002. we had a weekend break from school, so i spent that time with school friends trudging up and down princes st. taking in all that we could in that short amount of time. for some reason, that breakfast has always stood out in my mind as a highlight of my trip. during the visit we took to scotland and england in the spring of 2006, josh and i heartily enjoyed sharing the full english breakfast experience with his folks. that was the first time i sampled blood pudding (also called black pudding) and didn't much care for it. upon returning to north america, josh's dad often reminisced about the delcious breakfast and decided that we should attempt to re-create it in our own home. brad (josh's dad) knows of a wondeful british shoppe that carries many authentic british delicacies (for a steep price, of course). he purchased the necessary items to make a meal as close to the real thing as possible. namely: bangers (sausage), fried mushrooms (ew), beans on toast (we tried to fry the bread like they do in the uk, but it didn't work out too well), blood sausage, eggs, and bacon, which is more like canadian bacon than american bacon. we didn't bother with the cooked tomatoes, since none of us really care for them. josh cooked up the whole meal for his folks and gramps, and it was DELICIOUS! i'm not really a fan of the blood pudding, probably because i know what's in it. here's a definition from wikipedia:

Black pudding or less often blood pudding is a sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. The term blood sausage (first attested in 1868) is a North American term that may be a translation from German "Blutwurst". Blood sausage has become a useful term for similar blood-based solid foods around the world.
Pig or cattle blood is most often used; sheep and goat blood are used to a lesser extent. Blood from poultry, horses and other animals are used more rarely. Typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, sweet potato, barley and oatmeal.

we ended up with tons of blood pudding left over (big surprise), so if anyone would like to try some, just come on over! i think we just may have to start a new thanksgiving day tradition of eating a full english breakfast, since we don't celebrate thanksgiving until the saturday after anyhow.

thank you so much for your prayers for tristan. he still has his shrieking episodes, but they don't last nearly as long and his night wakings are less frequent as well. i did some reasearch on night terrors, and found out that if you wake the child up during a night terror, he will have a much more difficult time calming down. that would explain why it took him an hour and a half for him to stop crying the first night. i'm not positive if he is suffering from night terrors, but it it seems as if a lot of what is described is the same as what he is doing. he's also come down with a nasty cold, so is all around more weepy (and drippy) than normal, so i hope that once it clears up, he'll be back to sleeping through the night again.

other than that, i'm STILL unpacking (feeling as if it will never be done) and also beginning to get into the christmas spirit. i'm excited to experience tristan's first christmas, though i know he won't have much of a clue about unwrapping presents and all of that. i'm also super excited that my mom just booked her ticked to fly down here for tristan's first birthday on january 1st. she is arriving on the 31st, so will be able to stay with him while josh and i get to ring in the new year together! last year we didn't go out for new years since i was beyond sick, with no idea that i'd be popping a baby out the next day! wow, i can't believe my baby nearly isn't a baby anymore. it will be wondeful to spend a week with my mom, i can hardly wait!

here's a question i have for everyone who has kids: what do you do about the christmas tree? we want to get a small one this year, but aren't sure how to keep tristan away from it. any genius ideas?

please pray

i am so thankful to have this network of caring friends that i can rely on when needed. please pray for tristan, i just spent the last hour and a half trying to console him as he screamed mercilessly. i'm not exactly sure what is bothering him, but i have a bit of a hunch. before we moved into this house we were informed by a friend of ours who owns a property on this same street that the former occupant of this house was a practicing witch. combine that with the property manager's disclosure that there was a death in the garage, and you sort of get a creepy feeling. though we didn't sense any odd presences in the house, we had one of our wondeful pastors join us on moving day to pray with our family over the house.

however, since we've moved in, tristan has been having sleep issues that have been getting progressively worse. at night time he'll wake up suddenly screaming at the top of his lungs. and i don't mean just crying; i mean screaming. usually it just takes me going into his room and reasurring him that its okay in order for him to fall back asleep, but the past few nights its been getting more difficult for me to settle him and sometimes he'll wake up four or five times. this evening it was the worst ever, i just couldn't get him to stop crying. i sang and prayed and sang some more. after about 30 minutes of this, josh helped me by taking him into our bedroom where he finally calmed down enough to give us a few shaky smiles. we took him back into his room with a little light on and josh prayed over him, i read him a story, then back into bed he went. he started crying as soon as i turned off the light.

after another bout of singing and praying, he finally fell asleep, which is what i'm also dying to do. but i really wanted to ask all of you out there for peace of mind for tristan. i have no idea if there is an evil presence in his room that is causing him to be afraid. honestly, i'd much rather have it be tummy issues from the orange i fed him after dinner. but i'm feeling a bit desperate and would appreciate your support.

thank you so much....oh yes, and there are a few new pictures on tristan's blog.

we made it!

we're all moved in, though far from being unpacked. my days consist of getting as many things unpacked as i can while tristan is sleeping, then desperately trying to keep him from "helping" me unpack while he is awake. he's been acting up a bit this past week, and i can't say i blame him. we've all been a bit stressed and tired. he's quite whiny and clingy and strong willed. and he does this thing now where if he wants our attention, he shrieks at the top of his lungs. wouldn't have been much of a problem when we lived at our old place, but now we're in a duplex and i don't want our new neighbors to hate us. there have been issues with our phones, washing machine, oven, blinds (rather lack of blinds), vcr, etc. and i could rant on and on about it all, but tomorrow is thanksgiving and so i won't. instead i'll be thankful that i find myself running up and down stairs a million times a day because its a good form of exercise. i'll be thankful that we live smack dab in the center of town because now i can walk to do errands instead of driving. i'll be thankful that we suddenly have people living in very close proximity because God could use this as an opportunity to share His love. and i'll especially be thankful that our belongings were not burned in the fires, and that we have found a place to live and that we are safe and healthy. thank you God.

and now, i'm going to finish unpacking the kitchen so that it will be ready for the "full english breakfast" we'll be serving josh's folks tomorrow for brunch. on the menu: beans on toast, eggs, bacon, bangers, blood pudding, tea (of course) and some mimosas to sip on. mmmmm...

moving

so, we're moving this weekend....i will be SO glad to have it all done with. we don't know what we're going to do about the internet connection yet, so i will probably be MIA for awhile. hopefully we'll be able to find a good deal on high speed now that we'll be living in an area that has DSL.



tristan's 2 top side teeth have poked through, which gives him a grand total of 6 teeth. he has taken about 5 steps on his own from one piece of furniture to another, but still prefers the security of crusing around things. with all of the boxes piled high around here, he has plenty to explore! his hair is beginning to curl in the back of his head, which is too adorable for words. he is becoming more and more snuggly with us, often stopping during his play to cruise over to me and lay his head on my lap, before returning to his toys. he also really enjoys looking at books by himself, now that he's mastered turning the pages. he talks to himself while doing this in a different sort of voice, as if he's reading the stories. once in awhile he'll chuckle at one of the pictures. i honestly have a hard time remembering what life was like before he arrived and i'm so thankful for the privilege of staying home with him.



will post from our new place hopefully soon!

things i will miss about where we live

...and this is only just to name a few.

this just in:

tristan took his first steps yesterday!! he took 4 steps unaided from josh to me. neither of us can wipe the proud smiles from off our faces.

still packing like a madwoman, so not much time for blogging.