a bit of change for the new year

so i've got time to change my blog layout, but no time to post pictures from canada, you ask? yes, this is true. i felt that with a new year only a day away, it was time for some changes on my blog. i'm still not completely happy with it and may tweak a few things, but i've GOT to say: don't you just LOVE those cornflowers?

i've got 2 separate cd's of pictures that i've got to go through, choosing my favourites to blog (and its really quite difficult finding tristan-less pictures that are blog-worthy as well) but, in the meantime, you can check out my White Christmas 2008 album on facebook if we're facebook friends.

that is all for today. i've got loads to do between now and tristan's birthday on the 1st.

p.s. i just realized i've got a a lot of "i got's" on this post. don't i?

christmas in canada was simply wonderful...

...more words and pictures to come.

i've been tagged!

Anneliese over at http://foreverythingaseason.blogspot.com/ tagged me to do a picture post.

You're supposed to do the following:

1. Open the 4th picture folder on your computer
2. Open the 4th picture and post it on your blog.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

the above picture was taken in 2005. left to right we have me holding kaylee, jessica (josh's sister), and rob (jessica's husband) holding johnny. it was jessica's birthday and we had just been to kauai a few weeks earlier with both rob and jessica. for her birthday, josh and i bought her a collage sort of picture frame idea (that she is holding) and we had filled it with pictures from our trip. the reason why we are all laughing is because one of the pictures in the frame is this one:



which i have already posted in the past, but if you're not a long time reader, i'll just have to ask you to click on the picture to enlarge it and then check out jessica's hippie style armpit, courtesy of rob's artistic talents in photoshop.


now i get to tag 4 people:

stephanie


miranda


jennifer


meredith


since we're going to be in a whole other country this christmas, josh's family decided that they just couldn't celebrate the big day without the 3 of us, so we are all celebrating christmas with them this saturday. since rob, jessica, kaylee and johnny live about an hour's drive from us, they are all coming here tomorrow night and we'll get to have a little sleepover with the kids. i'm calling it our christmas dress rehearsal. we plan on waking up at 5am (which is no different from any other day where tristan is concerned!) and driving over to josh's folk's house to wake everyone else up. so, today sort of feels like the eve of christmas eve. and the best part is that we'll get to do it all over again with my family next week! i'm seriously so giddy about all of this that i don't know what to do with myself. perhaps i need to lay off the eggnog :)

chilly

i've already posted my status on facebook as "heidi is eating sugar cookies and wrapping presents" but so far that is a lie. i got caught up in the net of bloglines while posting a new video to tristan's blog and then somehow became ever so slightly inspired to write a new post of my own.

the snow level has dropped significantly over the past few days and, though i doubt we'll see snow here, it is CHILLY outside. and inside, due to the fact that our central heating costs a fortune to run. we have a little space heater that we bring upstairs and then back downstairs depending on where we're planning on spending most of our time. this chilliness is a good thing because i'm hoping it will help us climatize a little less dramatically to the bona-fide chilliness of the great (and hopefully white) north that we'll be visiting in a few days. snow is predicted for the day we land, so prayers that it won't be too blizzardy for the plane we'll be in would be appreciated.

last night was josh's company christmas dinner at a local restaurant. the last time tristan had someone either than one of us attempt to put him to sleep was a year ago at josh's last company christmas dinner. (i am slightly ashamed to admit that.) that evening, we arrived home late to find a happy little boy snuggling with his gran on the couch downstairs. anyhow, josh's mom (known around our house as gran) is well loved by our little boy, however, she seems to be more well loved by him when we're around, if you know what i mean. before we left, i showed gran the order of things in his bedtime routine just in case she wanted to attempt putting him to bed. she assured me she wanted to give it a try, but i still completely expected him to be wide awake with her on the couch watching "woody" (also known as toy story) when we got home. i was totally fine with him staying up past his bedtime....i'd rather have him up and happy than in his crib screaming his head off. as we were leaving, heart-wrenching sobs escaped tristan's mouth and i could hear him walking up to the front door after we had closed it, crying his little eyes out. i knew he'd get over it and josh and i both had a very enjoyable evening out. when we arrived home, i opened the front door and peeked around the corner into the living room, nearly saying "hi buddy!" when i noticed that tristan was no where to be seen. gran had a sly smile on her face and proudly announced "i'm GOOD!" apparently, he had stopped crying within 30 seconds of our leaving and never made a fuss afterwards, even when she put him into bed. this is the beginning of a new era!.....well, an era that will last about 6 more months anyhow! it may be possible to spend a night away for our 5th anniversary after all :)

tristan's 2nd birthday is just over 2 weeks away. he has never been much of a talker of "real" words, though he babbles constantly. i haven't been terribly concerned about this, knowing that boys especially can be slower in the speech department. well, the past few weeks it seems that he's learning a new word every day and its so much fun! he loves our "tee" with the lights that go "off" and the "mummydaddybaby" in all of the nativity scenes. he proudly carries his used diapers to the "tashhhh" and when he's got his "choo" (thomas) shoes on he's ready to "go! go!" into the car that says "beep". he can be a little bit gassy at times and always makes sure to let us know that he is responsible by pointing to his behind and saying "toot!" with a big smile on his face. the other day, he "tooted" while in the bathtub which, as you know, makes lots of bubbles. his eyes got really big and he said "toot!" then smiled and pointed to me and said "mommy!" he was totally trying to pin it on me. i told him i didn't toot, so he pointed to josh and said "daddy!" hmmm...not sure where he gets that sense of humor from...

he's also been answering "no" to pretty much any question we ask him. he adores the little california clementine oranges (similar to the mandarin oranges we'd get at christmas in canada) and if we ask him in the middle of stuffing his face, "tristan, is that orange good?" he'll immediately reply "oh" which means no and he'll shake his head. i caught a bit of that on the newest video i just posted on his blog. i'm sad thinking about taking down our tree and all of the ornaments because i don't think he'll understand that christmas is over. i think he'll expect us to keep that dorky looking little tree forever and i can already see the look of disappointment on his face when we'll go into kmart only to find all of the blow-up snowmen and santas and reindeer and decorated trees all gone. however, i'm hopeful that this season will leave some lasting impressions on him that he can take with him into his next year of life. as i was reading to him from a Bible story book about the birth of Jesus, he pointed to the babe in the manger and said his new word of the day: "jeeeez". i'm thankful that Jesus is not merely a decoration that gets packed away for 11 months out of the year. He is the one thing out of this whole season that is for now and for eternity and i love that my son is going to be learning that.

frugal friday

due to demand for the return of my oh-so-popular frugal friday posts (okay, so my cousin jennifer said she missed them) i have decided to comply and write a short and sweet one for you all today.

i enjoy frou-frou girly drinks at starbucks. i'm not much for strong cups of black coffee or plain old cappuccinos with no added flavor. give me a vanilla latte or a mocha with lots of whipped cream and i'm a happy girl. i can't remember the last time i stopped at starbucks for a coffee....its got to be at least 6 months ago because at times like this, the only treat i don't feel guilty about indulging in is a 99c ice cream cone at mcdonalds once in awhile. one drink at starbucks equals like 6 ice cream cones and that's just not cool.

with the holiday season upon us, my taste buds have been craving the sweet satisfaction that only a peppermint mocha can bring. unwilling to part with so many precious grocery dollars, i decided to do a little at-home experimentation to see if i could duplicate the yumminess in my own kitchen. to tell you the truth, i could have just gone out and bought one of those peppermint mocha flavored creamers, but being the good frugal girl that i am, i wanted to see if i could manage to make something out of the ingredients i already had at home.

first, i brewed a small pot of decaf coffee that i found in the cupboard. it was already opened and the freshness was questionable, but that's the only option i had since i'm staying away from caffeine. i put a bit of tristan's whole milk into a very large mug and stirred in quite a lot of hershey's chocolate syrup. i added the coffee to my "chocolate milk" mixture and then carefully poured in a couple drops of peppermint extract. (unfortunately, i wasn't careful enough and accidentally dripped some of it onto the counter. the fumes from it cleared my sinuses immediately and caused my husband to holler at me from upstairs, wondering what the smell was all about)

was my homemade peppermint mocha attempt a success? well, in a blind taste test i can assure you that 10 out of 10 participants would be able to tell my drink from the starbucks original. a duplicate it was not, but a festive, tasty drink that cost me mere pennies, it sure was!

americanisms vs. canadianisms

speaking of differences between my old and new homes, i was amused to find this post in my early archives. i hadn't even been married for a year yet and was, at the time, shocked to find that there still were differences in the american language that i hadn't found out about yet. oh, if only i knew the discoveries that were to continue for years down the road! just the other day, while telling josh the one last thing i wanted for christmas, i mistakenly referred to it as a "housecoat". josh, who was reading the paper at the time didn't even look up from the article he was reading; he just said, " i have no idea what that is." i'm used to this happening from time to time, so i searched my brain for a translation and the only word that came to mind was "bathrobe". sure enough, that was the magic word that made sense to him. i had to clarify that i wanted a fluffy bathrobe, though. in my mind, bathrobes are those terrycloth type things you wear after a bath or at a spa. a housecoat, on the other hand, is something warm and cozy that you put on over your pajamas on christmas morning.

along with learning new words for things, i also have been corrected many times by mispronouncing certain words. the funniest ones i can remember are "jujubes" and "decal" (down here they say "dee-CAL", which always makes me giggle). then there's also "asphalt", "southern", "process", "again","shone", "diesel", and, of course the very obvious "about".

and while we're on this whole topic of differences, may i dare to address the differences in etiquette? keep in mind that i know i have a lot of american readers and i am definitely NOT trying to make it sound like canadian manners are superior. i'm generalizing here when i say "american" because i've only known this small corner of america so intimately. there may be other places in the unites states which say and act quite differently.

okay, so the first thing that i still can't quite get used to is the whole shoes in the house scenario. i don't understand the reasoning (besides laziness) for wearing one's shoes in a carpeted home, but here it is done in nearly every home without a second thought. its always fun when i have canadian visitors staying over because i get a kick out of the little row of shoes that they leave near the door.

the other one that i hope i never grow accustomed to is the use of the word "huh?" instead of "pardon me?" kids often ask "what?" if they want something repeated and i've noticed that if i say "pardon me?" to most children here, they have no clue what language i'm speaking!

the last sort of etiquette-type difference that shocks me the most is the lack of knife usage while eating! i think that people here mainly use a butter knife for buttering bread and a steak knife for cutting steak. other than that, its forks or fingers (usually both). we were invited to a neighbor's thanksgiving dinner last week and the table was set with ONLY forks! i still have no idea how to eat with only a fork, its a special feat that i have yet to accomplish. i sort of looked around to see others sawing away at their turkey with the side of their forks and scooping the last bit of mashed potatoes onto their forks with their fingers. when nobody was looking, i stole the butter knife that was resting on the butter tray and used it for the remainder of my meal.

i must add that, however proper and tidy canadians seem to be, there are two things that americans win at hands down: friendliness and food. i've heard americans say that people in canada are oh-so friendly, but i've got to say that i've found it the other way around. perhaps its because i moved to a small town which definitely has its share of small town charm, where the people are warm and welcoming. the food, well i tell you i don't know what i was eating before i discovered things like carne asada and red beans & rice and jambalaya and cornbread and in-n-out burger and the lettuce wraps at pf changs! okay, so there sure are things i miss about food in canada, but the variety here is really spectacular and i can tell you right now that you haven't even tasted real mexican food until you've had it this close to the border.

and so, when i found out that the word "housecoat" isn't used here, i subtracted it from my vocabulary just as i've done with countless other words. i've traded in pop for soda, buns for rolls, wieners for hot dogs, chocolate bars for candy bars, celcius for fahrenheit, postal code for zip code, zed for zee, garburator for garbage disposal, cutlery for silverware, icing for frosting, icing sugar for powdered sugar, summer holidays for summer vacation, serviettes for napkins, toques for beanies, timbits for donut holes, chinook for santa ana, pablum for rice cereal, eaves troughs for gutters, homo milk for whole milk, brown bread for whole wheat bread, soother for pacifier, runners for tennis shoes, and washroom for bathroom. (and i'm sure i missed a whole bunch, not to mention the irreplacable words like eh and loonie) but the thing that i love the most about changing bits of my language is the ability i have to change it all right back within days of stepping foot on canadian soil. i just can't seem to manage the canadian "about" any longer. :)

a couple of cutes

oh wow, your comments from my last post were REALLY nice! i was totally thinking twice about posting that picture because, to me, it looks as if my face is about 15 months pregnant and when i compare it to my 12 week picture from my last pregnancy, well.....i feel sad inside. your comments truly helped make my day, so THANK YOU!!

i've got the makings for a blog post rolling around in my brain, but i'll save it for later and share a couple of cute tristan-stories instead.

while shopping with tristan and my mil on black friday, i noticed a penny on the floor near the checkout. i pointed it out to tristan and he picked it up and put it in his pocket, just as we've taught him (i've found all sorts of things at the bottom of my washing machine lately). half a day later, we're in the car with josh, going to another store to find some more deals. josh quickly ran into the bank to deposit a couple of checks. tristan was concerned when he left and in a panicked voice asked me "daddy?, daddy?" i explained to him that daddy was going into the bank to get some money out. (he wasn't actually taking money out, but i figured tristan would understand it if i put it that way) tristan was quiet for a moment and then i heard him squirming around in his car seat. i turned around to find him digging around in his pocket, for the penny he had found, which he then presented to me with an open palm and a proud smile, "daddy!!!" it was so darling i had to thank him profusely for offering his very own money to daddy, but i told him that it was tristan's money and that he could keep it. he reluctantly put it back in his pocket.

yesterday tristan was climbing up onto the couch next to me to watch "polar express" and one of his flailing legs caught the side of a glass of water which spilled all over the couch and the floor. of course he didn't do it on purpose, so i wasn't angry at him, but i kept saying "oh no!" while i was on my hands and knees mopping at the carpet with a towel. i felt two small hands on my back just then, rubbing back and forth while saying "awww", just like i do for him when he falls and hurts himself. it was so sweet that i didn't want to move, i just wanted to stay there and savor my son's innocent compassion. but of course i just had to look into his earnest little face and flash him the biggest smile (with tears in my eyes, i admit) and say "thank you, tristan!" that was enough for him to realize that i was going to be okay, so he ceased rubbing my back and proceeded to try to climb atop it as if i were a horsey.

the same, normally chipper little boy is now having a troubled nap...i can hear him coughing all the time, despite a dose of cough medicine and a humidifier in his room. he had a pretty rough night last night as well and i'm just trying to keep getting him to drink and eat, though he wants to do neither. i hate it when he's sick, but i am thankful that he's going through it now and not in 2 1/2 weeks time which is when we'll be in canada! can hardly wait :)