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This is just a quick blog to say Happy Slapsgiving Everyone!! Enjoy it!
*sigh* I wrote that because that seems to be the first thing I do before I blog. *sigh* I’m not really sure, but that’s the first time I noticed it. I have been terribly uninspired to blog as of late. I’ve been up to my armpits in school and final papers, and I should probably be doing that now, but I needed a break. Anyone want to finish my paper on the dictionary? no takers? tough crowd. Understandable though. I don’t want to either, but it’s going to be handed in by Sunday, so I’d best get it done done done.
I’m looking forward to this weekend. Once the pressure is off for a bit that’ll be nice. I have my finals to study for, but I’m never as anxious about finals as papers. weird huh? oooo I ordered our Christmas present today from airmiles. I cant tell you what it is because I have to forget until Christmas. We decided to use airmiles to get something for each other this year and save some moolah for something else. We were getting pretty close to a ticket to somewhere far away, but only 1 ticket, so we’ll keep saving I guess.
Emily will be home from daycare soon. I’ve missed her alot lately because I’ve been working on school soooo much. I look forward to squishing her oodles when she gets here!want to hear the funniest thing she’s said lately? My mom was watching her and she had a bit of a rash on her bum so she had some cream put on and was getting a snack before bed. She looked up at my mom with this funny look and said: “I farted in my cream!” I’ve been laughing about that all week. Anyways. I’d better keep working on school until Em gets here. I wont get much done after and Heroes is on tonight too! woot!
Happy Thanksgiving! We had our dinner yesterday with both my family and Morgans. It was really nice. I even ate some turkey. Just a little bit though, my last meat experience wasn’t so good. I felt fine though. We had a game of Apples to Apples and then a rowdy game of Quelf too. It was a really fun night.
Roxy is good at Quelf with her hand in a bowl of water.
I’m waiting anxiously for my first Linguistics paper back. I definitely don’t think it was my finest, but I was having such a hard time finishing it off that I ended up settling for whatever and handing it in. I was hoping my teacher had a boring thanksgiving and marked my paper, but no such luck. sad. I have another midterm this week, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping it will go well.
I know this is short, but Emily will probably wake up soon and I want to spend her evening hanging out with her before we go back to daycare tomorrow. mmmm pumpkin thing…
I have no idea what she said to them, but it must have been funny.
That is all.
What am I going to do with her??? My 2 year old is being a little terror at daycare. So much so that I have to go pick her up in an hour after nap time. She’s making everyone crazy. But the thing is, she only does it on days when this other little boy is there. Shes a perfect angel the rest of the time. Like ridiculously perfect. I have no idea what to do about this whole thing. She likes the other little boy, but not when he comes anywhere near her. He doesn’t hurt her or even really take things from her. She just goes ballistic on him. She lies and says he hits her even when he isn’t there that day or is in another room. Its just bazaar. So not like Emily. I’ll be the first to admit,she isn’t perfect, but honestly what is up with this whole Jekyll and Hyde thing. More like Jekyll and HIDE! AHH! I’ve been reading things about sibling rivalry and trying to figure out what might work. Anyone have any thought??? Anyone??
Anyways. I’m working on a paper this week about how McDonald’s wants the dictionary to change the meaning of the word “McJob” to mean something more positive and less….true! Its funny. I find it interesting that McDonald’s can even request a change in definition. Doesn’t that seem wrong in so many ways. Making up what you’d like the definition to mean. I could demand that we change the definition of idiot to mean beautiful happy one, but I’d still get punched for calling someone that…or at least glared at. Anyways…yes I’m writing my final on the dictionary and yes I’m somewhat excited about it. sweet huh? weird huh? yes! Ok well I have to go get Em soon so I’ll talk at you later.
I love freecycle. I wish I lived in a bigger place so that my freecycle group would be bigger. I’ve gotten boxes of kids clothes and lent out my maternity clothes. I like the idea of buying or getting things used and way cheaper. I just don’t always think there is a good reason to buy new things when the old ones are perfectly good. Some things are better to buy new…like underwear. seriously. But other things are better to shop for used. I love second hand stores for the same reason. My favorite used to be Value Village, and I know it’s almost sacrilegious to say “used to be”, but their prices went way up and I cant always find stuff anymore. Maybe that’s because in high school the little boys t-shirts were so much cooler than they are now. Especially because they don’t fit anymore and I’m not as “into” superheros and skateboard. ooo that was a fun faze. I don’t miss its. My favorite thrift store for Emily is called Mulberry Lane and it’s in Kamloops. They have EVERYTHING! I’d shop there all the time, but its a couple hours away, so it’s not so convenient. Anyways, All this to say that there is a lady who has a teacup yorkie to give away to a good home on freecycle. I looked up pictures and I think I’m in love.
How could I not be in love. Seriously… Ok so theres a few things to deal with first. Like the fact that our appartment has a “no dog” policy. Slight porblem, but I figure they allow inside cats and a tea cup yorkie is even smaller. I’ve found some different kinds of bark collars that don’t use shock. My favorite is the citronella mist one. Anyways. That’s the most pressing problem, but aside from that the next thing is whether or not it would get along with Emily. I think Emily would like it, but Id need to make sure she wouldn’t hurt it and it wouldnt hurt her. So yeah. Im in love. I ‘ll probaly have to get over it, but humour me.
Ooo look whats coming up!!
My little darling is currently screaming at the top of her little lungs. It’s much past bedtime and the tiny tot feels the need to scream DADDY! I’m feeling slightly bad for her, but she really just needs to go to sleep. She doesn’t normally do this. Turkey. Anyways. Its my 5th Anniversary tomorrow! Can barely believe its been that long. Wow. 5 years, 5 houses, 5 vehicles, 5…you get the idea. We went to loon lake for the week to get away and have a relaxing time. That we did. We went boating and quading and read books and just had a great time in general. I always love the lake in the fall. It’s so beautiful! The leaves are starting to turn and the air is crisp. Here’s a couple shots for you.
Morgan the
Quad
I quad!
Hadn’t played Sorry in years.
Heres the view of the cabin from the water.
The view from the end of the lake
Ok so back to my 5 year anniversary. Here’s a little blip of our story for those of you who don’t know Morgan and I very well.
I met Morgan on the morning of September 11th 2001. Not exactly a great day to meet, because of the whole twin towers thing, but a beginning is a beginning. We went to the same bible college, but I went the semester after he did. I’m glad of that because I’m pretty sure school would have been lost to a pair of golden eyes, some baggy jeans and an eyebrow ring. Morgan moved to 100 Mile the very next day and began working at my church as a youth pastor. Then he started working for my Dad. Not in some kind of Jacob working for Rachel’s Dad kinda way though otherwise he’s still have 2 more years before getting married. And Roxy wouldn’t have been happy about it either. Look it up if you want to understand that one. Genesis something. Anyways. I continued on a school being very studious and excited to learn more about God and get to know him (God, not Morgan. That was later in our story).
I finished school and went to to do a 6 month practicum out at Lake of the Trees Bible camp. I spent a little more time getting to know this young city guy because I was only half an hour away now. Besides being VERY good looking this coffee carry young guy had an amazing voice. I think I fell in love with his voice first. He could have sang the phone book and I would have thought it was amazing. That same September I moved back home and began working for my parents. Working with someone gives you a whole new look at their personality and the way they deal with different things. It was good chance for me to get to know the things about Morgan that make him happy and the things that tick him off. I think lots of people get into relationship having no idea how the other person deals with anger. I’m glad I knew up front that Morgan was on of those guys who deals with anger well. I may have been stuck with love, but I wasn’t planning on being blind to those kind of important things.
On March 27th 2006 I hinted to Morgan that I liked jazz and that there was a jazz concert coming to town. Little did I know that Morgan had done more than plan on a jazz concert. He talked to my dad! What guys does that these days. Seriously. Did I mind? No! Morgan asked my dad if he could date me. My dad then proceeded to laugh in Morgans face and suggest he ask me first.So that Sunday Morgan and I went on our first date to a Donny Clark Jazz concert. It was a night to remember. The jazz was great, but it had nothing on sitting near Morgan. Im lame I know. For the record, most people get over that lameness in 8th grade. Morgan was my first boyfriend. Last too. haha. Somewhere during the evening, after the concert between Tim Hortons coffee and the Lion King Morgan grabbed my hand and never let it go. Six months later we got married on a beautiful day 5 years ago tomorrow. We spent the last 5 years getting to know each other, but I imagine we will spend the next bazillion doing that too. And, Im still in love with his voice!
I’m going on vacation tomorrow!! Every year we go to Loon Lake either the week before or the week after our anniversary! I’m really excited. We didn’t think we were going to be able to go, but we are now! I really didn’t want to just give up our time away. Its like a tradition. A five year tradition already! The only time I think I’d ever give up my week at the lake would be if we were world traveling somewhere. I could make the sacrifice for a week in Europe. Plus we get a baby holiday too. “Aunti Dano” is taking Em for a couple days so we will actually get to relax. We thought there was going to be more people out at the lake with us, but no one else could come. Sad:( But I’m still excited. We are going to take oodles of delicious pictures while we are gone.
Ok so here’s the best news in forever. The doctor said that on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being cancerous and 5 being cancer free, my grama is a 5!!!!! Cancer is gonzo!Bye bye! asta la vista baby! Our prayers have been answered! God did what no one else could have. Ahh. I could freak out Im soo happy about it.Woot Woot!
There is alot going on this week and next, so I’m going to try and stay ontop of it all and keep blogging, but no promises. I hear the stairs, so I think we have to go film the video announcements. check out the last few here. They are funny.
20 minutes to blog…can she do it? Who knows. I messed stuff up this week with school and handed in 2 assignments late. oops. It’s a good thing its the first week of school or I’d be toast. So then I had lots of catching up to do yesterday. BUT, catching up is not possible when one is taking cold pills and has no reading comprehension what-so-ever. You’d think by now I’d know pseudoephedrine doesn’t go well for me, but I was feeling sooo rotten I thought Id try it. Talk about fuzzy head. Ahh. Today is much better. I skipped the meds and downed the vitamins and Cold FX and garlic and stuff like that.So I’m feeling a fair bit better today. My voice is still being compared to various muppets, but otherwise I’m ok.
So here’s the low down on Miss Emily. For those of you who aren’t into talking about plumbing issues, you’d better skip to the post before this one. I’ve decided to be a bit more candid about the med issues Emily is having. Purely because I’m having a hard time finding much for information on other kids who have had the same problems. I hope some other Mom can find this blog and be encouraged.
Emily has been plugged up basically since birth. We don’t know if that’s a problem because she was a preemie or what. She is the worst constipated when she’s teething. That’s about the only thing we can pin down on why this keeps happening. She’s 2 1/2 now and we are starting to really look for answers. we’ve been to the ER so many times because Emily ends up in crazy pain and we cant do anything about it. Doctors all say She’ll grow out of it, and hand us a prescription for some drug. Originally we tried the different things they said to try, after all, they’re Doctors right? She’s been on antibiotics, Lactulose, Stool softeners and everything in between. I finally got really fed up and talked to my go-to advice girl, who should really consider being a dietitian or something, Leah. I read a bunch of things and Leah suggested some, so we stopped all the meds and Fought with food. Emily eats amazing, but its still not helping. She’s still in pain, and now she’s pushed herself so hard shes given herself a kind of tear in her bum bum.Ouch
So we went to the Pediatrician in Kamloops on Wednesday. I was seriously hoping for answers. But I think now I have more questions. She gave us a prescription for PEG. It’s just a better version of the same old stuff from everything I’ve read. But we are being referred to Children’s hospital. We will have a consultation there to see if Em need surgery and a biopsy. Then we will have to go back down again for a surgery and maybe a repair of the damage to her innards.Scary? yes! My poor little monkey might need surgery to fix this deal. If she does need surgery, they will most likely remove a piece of her intestines or something. I know, no fun. Still glad you decided to read on? Doubtful.
So that’s were we are at with my little princess. Here comes a couple of trips to children’s that I’m not looking forward to at all!
Hi! My name is Miss Dessa, but my friends or toddlers who get mixed up call me Odessa, Muhdessa, or just Dessa. I’m about 2 feet tall, I have brown curly hair and purple eyes. I love to be pushed around in my stroller. Being run over by it is also fun. I don’t mind it when my best friend Emmy carries me around by my hair or foot. Me and Emmy have so much fun together. Sometimes Emmy is sad because her last best friend was “sucky” and she needed to get out of that bad manipulative relationship. I tell her it’s ok and whisper silly things to her when she’s sad.
Emmy and I go everywhere together. We only met 2 days ago, but it feels like we’ve been friends forever. We know practically everything about each other already. I know she likes food, and she knows her shoes are WAY bigger than mine. I know that she likes to dance around like crazy, and she knows that if you pull my hair really hard pieces come out. I know that she prefers to sleep on the floor instead of in her Big Girl bed, and she knows I REALLY need to be in the kitchen while she’s eating. We are BEST friends already.
I’m really glad Emmy’s Mommy and Daddy let me stay with them now. Before I moved here I used to just “hang out” at the toy store down town. It was kinda boring before, but now everything is so exciting. I’m really looking forward to Christmas and Emmy’s birthday and going to Bible College. Wow, I just love my new BEST friend.
Cold Turkey. Something I craved non stop while I was pregnant. Something I dont eat as a vegetarian. A way many try to quit smoking. Many things come to mind when I hear the phrase Cold Turkey. But few brings such terror to my mind as todays Cold Turkey. Emily bit through her sucky yesterday, so we gave her the spare. Then she bit through her daycare sucky today…Sucky time is over. So she had a nap today at daycare without a sucky on the promise of a prize when she slept nicely without a sucky. So I went to Facination Street, which is like heaven for games and amazing kid toys. Probably the best toy store ever. They have Melissa & Doug wooden toys and Playmobil and those amazing Schlech animals that look oh so realistic…but I digress. I bought Emily a special Doll to replace her sucky. Its a soft doll, so she can sleep with it. Morgan pointed out that its her first doll with hair too. Weird. OH and I had a weird moment in the store. Want to know something that will make you go “whaaaat?” The blonde doll with blue eyes was $5 cheaper than the slightly darker skinned doll with brown hair. I wanted to ask why that was, but I thought it would be more fun to assume the worst and blog about inequality and how brunettes get a bad rap. So because a blonde doll wouldnt even fit in our dark haired albiet paste white family, AND because Im Scotish and like saving a couple bucks, We has the curly haired brunnette who goes by the name of Miss Dessa! Miss Dessa is our strategy for helping Emily to get over the sucky issues. She’s plenty old enough to get rid of it anyways. She’s 2 1/2 and Her speech is great, but it will definitely lose something if she keeps the sucky. Plus her teeth will suffer eventually too. So to avoid the ironic Speech Lady with the speech problem kid, lets ditch the sucky. There. Done and Don-er. Oh pray…
I just got back from the health food store. I love the health food store. I could look at misc stuff forever. I automatically assume it is all healthy for me too. At least I know enough to read about stuff before taking it and jumping on the ginko wagon. Some stuff isnt good for everyone. But I have my staples. Emily’s Organic Dermamed baby soap. Yay for a break with exzema. I love the Hazelnut Hemp Heaven Granola. Breakfast of Champions. Mix it up with some All-Bran Buds and a scoop of Hemp hearts. mmm. Yummy. They also have these Halva nut bars that are fantastic and tastey. They have Kleen Kanteen Water bootles too, which I’ll be getting whenever I can bring myself to swallow the price of them. But thats another rant. BPA-Free. Seriously. Anyways. I always enjoy going to the health food store.
Well Its time to go introduce Emily to Miss Dessa. Hope this isnt terrible blog worth tomorrow. Oh and I actually went to Spin class this week!
We got a new camera! YAY! We were going to wait alot longer before we bought one, but it was on a great sale for labor day weekend and we managed to sell our Sony for WAY more than it was worth…Just Kidding other mum!Hope you have a great cruise with a new camera! Looking forward to great Alaskan pics!! so anyways, we got a new Digital SLR. I think we’ve settled on Pictoria for a name, and then we can shorten it to Piccy! Haha. 
Here’s a tasty morsel from our new camera!
It’s been a long, but very fun weekend. I spent most of it in the kitchen. I baked 2 cakes and made a massive sushi meal. I made 6 types of sushi. Dynamite Rolls, California Rolls, Kappa Ma (cucumber), Futo Maki, Caterpillar rolls(Shrimp), and Coco Maki (in honor of Coco’s birthday. Guacamole rolls). I have now fallen in love with Coco Maki! There’s not much else I’d love to combine than Sushi AND Guac!We also got given a deep fryer(bad idea!) So we made Tempura Veggies too. They were great. Oh and Edamame beans too. It was a full Japanese meal. I think our house might still smell like deep fryer. I’m thinking about deep frying all sorts of things. mmm, but I’ve been eating so good, I don’t want to throw that all away.
Sushi Fondant Cake! Mmm.
I made a cake for Danielle to welcome her back too, but It didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped. I don’t have a good picture of it either. But it was fun to make. I think I’m getting better at making Fondant cakes. I had some pre-packaged Fondant I was going to use, but it tastes so Blah. If I’m going to put effort into creating a masterpiece, it’d better taste good too.
The first bigger meal we’ve had at our house. That’s me desk we are eating on. To be used for school starting tomorrow! AHHH.
There. That makes me feel better.
I’m really enjoying having a new camera to play with. I’ve been learning so much since I took that class at Yellowstone.
Well I’m not feeling very editorial today, so I think I’ll got take more pics or clean up or something. Or maybe deep fry pizza…mmmm or Mars bars!. No Courtenay dont do it!!
I’m not sure how to tell you the story of my Journey, so I’ll give you some pics and tell you the story behind them.
This is Blakes RV Park about an hour south of the Border. Having waited in the line up for an hour and a half, we decided to shop, and didn’t make it any father the first day. That was all nice, but it decided to pour for the night and we had to sleep with a tarp on top of our blanket cause the rain was coming in the tent. It was blowing the rain sideways. Ahhh too cold. Oh that and we forgot to bring blankets. So we bought one a target, but it was still to cold.
This is the best hat store ever. It was so fun to take pics of us in the hats. The store was in Leavenworth, WA. Its a little town that says if you want a business there, you have to make the store front look Bavarian. How cool is that.
Plant Head
It was a very cool thing to drive through Wenatchee and meet up with an old friend of mine from Jesus School. I didn’t have a phone number or anything, but I had and address and our GPS did the rest. It was a short visit, but I’m soooo glad I got to see Crys.
We went to the Museum of the Rockies in Boseman, Montana. I haven’t been to the one in Drumheller, but this was super awesome for me. I love dinosaurs. Plus they had sci-fi costumes. The original ones. Loved it.
Old Faithful!
We had the most awesome time in Yellowstone National Park. We froze our butts off, but after purchasing the last sleeping bag in Yellowstone, we enjoyed camping at 8000ft. We got to take a photography course while we were there, which was sooo amazing. I’ll tell you all about it when I get the pics back in another week or two.
I had to touch the steaming stream that was flowing away from Old Faithful. Morgan is very proud of the fact that he took me to one of the few places on earth that smells just like eggs. ew!!
I couldnt get the camera to capture the colours I wanted, but I think you get the idea. This is bacterial mats where stuff grows because its warm there. Kinda icky, but the colours were unlike anything I’d ever seen before!
Wow I guess that leaves alot out of our trip. Like the sweet Motel we stayed in on the way back that actually had a train track right above it and half burned out blinking Motel signs. Or like the (I cant believe I’m blogging this…) sign in Montana for the World renown International Testicle festival. That caused laughter for many many miles. Thats life on a road trip. Gotta love it.
Thought you should see the project we worked on at the Digital Discipleship Tekskool.
This is the newest reality series, Reality Tek!
This the video my group worked on at the end of the week.
Like my homeless guy debut?
I think I’ve officially done one of the many things I’ve always said I would never do. I took a pair of scissors to Emily’s hair. AHH. I know, what was I thinking? After several bad haircuts from my dad, I always said I wouldn’t do that. I was forced against a wall. We couldn’t ever find a time to get her in for a hair cut, and the last time we tried to get it cut, Emily freaked out. So It was either me or a Mullet!! Realistically, no haircut I gave her could be that bad right? Actually I think I did a pretty good job. I don’t have any pics for you cause she went to bed. I’ll get one tomorrow. I have to run to the store, but I felt I needed to own up to my broken “I will never…” So there you have it. Crazy Courtenay….
After a week of go go go go go goooooo, Im finding it hard to just chill out. I suppose that’s normal for me, but still somewhat annoying. Im bloggin while I wait for Emily to wake up from her nap. We are going to go return some computers after that, but we want her to sleep well first. Last nights film festival went really well. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think we’ll have to do that again sometime. Who knows, Tek skool could happen again. Clean up hasnt been as exciting as it could have been. What am I saying, clean up is always lame!
It feels good to have a computer again. It’s weird to give it up for a week, but still run a tech skool and need a computer. Im looking forward to getting my office back to normal soon too. I’m getting sick of the crazy mess. Our office has also been taken over by the misc stuff from Emily’s room too. This whole transition into a big girl bed is nice, but it has it’s costs. I cant just leave everything in her room anymore. I like it that she’s been so great in her bed though. I think we’ll even take the crib down now.
I think it is official too, Emily is Potty trained. YAY! She even stays dry over night somenights. Oh man thats going to save the bank in the diaper department. She stays dry during naps and just wears big girl undies all day. Its so great. Thank you Thank you Tracey! It wasnt working so well before she was at daycare everyday. consistence is the key!
So here I lament the fact that my baby girl is not a baby any longer. Nope, she’s not. Wow the last 2 years have changed her so much. she keeps saying things like “Remember when I was a tiny tiny baby?”. All I can say is “yes I do”. Well I think she’s getting up now. laters.
I’ve been working my butt off all morning, so now I’m taking a break. It’s the first day in forever, that we didn’t have to get up and go somewhere. Emily woke up at six, so Morgan went in and told her to go back to bed. Her big girl bed makes it harder to do that, but she went with it. We all woke up at 9am! I haven’t slept in in a long time. Even if Emily sleeps in I usually still wake up and drag myself downstairs to make coffee. So sleeping until nine was a nice surprise.
I wasn’t super trilled with something Emily learned at daycare, but then I realized it wasn’t at day care that she learned “Cry baby Cry Baby, stick your head in pie baby!” It was on Kronk! Ahh, apparently I need to pay more attention to the little things in movies. Because she does! Silly little pickle!
Coco is home! No more nothing to do nights! She brought me some great books from Quebec. I’m excited to keep working on my French. I’m still not really sure why I need to learn French but I do! So that’s what I’m going to do. She brought me back a bilingual Bible as well, so now I don’t have to carry 2 bibles around. I like that.
Morgan and I have been renting older movies lately cause there isnt anything new thats good with now. As if we need one more dumb horror movie or teenage sleep-with-the-football-team movie. I don’t like those anyways,but it appears there are oodles of them out right now. I’ve been into alot more action and sci-fi movies too, so moregan likes that. less romantic chick flicks! haha. I liked the Chronicles of Riddick and Pitch black. A bit of language, but good storyline. I only said noodlenoodle a couple times in Pitch Black. We watched V for Vendetta too. I thought it was unbelieavably Orwellian (like the book “1984″). Morgan didnt know what is was about at all, but he though it was going to be some slasher movie, and I was like…um I dont watch those. Again, a couple of not so great scenes, but still a great story line. There were some weird things in it too like the religious intolerance and the dictators symbol is a cross with an extra line. Definitaly some spiritual parallels in it.
I think I’m going to go make something to eat. mmm
mmm Mango!
We have this tech skool coming up next week. I’m getting all excited about it already. We are doing discipleship and film, photography, design, and lots of other media thing. Its going to be really fun. I’m still working out some of the details and classes and stuff, but it’s coming together pretty good.
I’ve been reminiscing about high school and life before there was high speed internet and digital cameras. Ok we those things existed, but I never had them. I was looking through my old yearbooks and reading the o-so-profound things my friends wrote in them. It was really interesting to look at the changes that have happened in the lives of my friends and acquaintances in the last 10 years. Yep I said 10 years. crazy I know. Not 10 years since grad, but 10 since Jr. High. In grade nine I wrote this beside my photo. My future plans are to star in a Star Wars Movie. Wow. Can anyone say social problems? How about bad hair cut? I also said my biggest advice was to “Face piles of trials with smiles!” Wow. Over optimistic maybe? Nope, jut being myself. I can safely say I can still live with that advice. Being called Igor tho, not so much…Happy that one didn’t stick.
So I started scanning old pictures, because I realized that almost all of my high school pictures aren’t digital. I have some amazingly awesomely blackmailable pictures. The only thing that keeps me from using them is the knowledge that there are MANY of those same blackmailable pictures of me out there too. Scanning takes forever, but I managed to finish the album of pictures from My camping trip with Leah. If you are on my facebook, the whole album is there, but I’ll post a couple for you to see here too. Here’s a bit of our camping story.
Gotta Love Fishing!
Climbing Perkins Peak
When I finish scanning old pics, you’ll see some more. Oooo I got a water cooler in my office. It make hot water so I don’t have to run up stairs ever half hour for tea. I’ve been drinking rooiboos tea ALL day for the last week. It’s too yummy. I’m still drinking too much coffee, but that’s the way it goes with me.
Well anyways. I’d better go accomplish something.
I’m not even sure I know where to begin. This whole blog thing started out as an 8 minute’s a day journey into journaling. hmm Journey Journal. I like that. For the last couple weeks I’ve been making myself work really hard at getting things done, and left behind all the things I felt like doing. The worst part is that I think my kitchen is still a mess and my laundry still needs doing. Its pathetic really. Part of the problem is that I’ve been juggling computers and finally have myself set all comfortable on the computer at work, but this computer at home is all a mess again. I don’t do well with mess. I’m too AR for that. Anyways enough lamenting my time losses lets get down to business. ooo where to start.
Emily has a new little cousin! Morgans Cousin’s Chris and EK had a beautiful Baby Boy. I can hardly contain myself in waiting to hear what his name is. Soo cant wait for a serious snuggle. Congrats and way to go EK!
Emily’s still having a hard time with mosquito bites going all crazy and swelling up. Im not sure what we are going to do about that, but I’m doing some research to see if there is anything else we can give her. Last week she got bit on the eyelid and here eye swelled shut. It was ok, so I left her with a babysitter for a few hours, but it got much worse, and even though we were out of cell range our babysitter called Hiedi and they took Em to the hospital. Again! Poor little duck. I think she’s developing a taste for benedryl. She keeps asking for it now. She cringes when she takes it, but for some reason she bucks up and just takes the stuff. I wish the child chewables were enough for her to take.
The last few weeks has proved to have some VERY interesting conversations with Emily. Heres a few for you, so you get the idea.
This one was in church. She was siting in between Mitchell(12) and his cousin Vasti(3).
Vasti: I sit by Mitchell?
Emily: (puts her hand on Vashti’s shoulder) “Im Emily, and he’s mine.”
Scary for a mother I know. haha.
This one proves she’s been at daycare a bit too much. When asked her name Emily responded: “Emily Grace Payette.”
We went to Loon lake last weekend. It was soooo relaxing for me. I got to hang out with my gramma, who is seriously kicking Cancer’s big fat butt! And spend some time with Poppa. We went swimming and played cards. It was really nice to just relax for a while. Plus it was beautiful at the lake. I even Suntanned, which I never do because I dont want to look like old leather, and I dont really have time ever. Plus I burn like a lobster normally. I think I had one of those moments that continues to happen to me. My mom kindly pointed out that I had something on the corner of my mouth. “Food?” I asked, wiping one side of my mouth. “Other side” my mom said. So I licked it. What she failed to mention was that, not only, was the”something” on the otherside of my mouth, it was also a bug! So I licked it. ewwwww. But, lucky for me, I got to make My Mom and my sister cry laughing late at night. How Special.
Emily and Poppa, Getting a life jacket for the boat.
En route to the boat with daddy.
My big girl. 2 and 1/4 years old.
She wants to put ponies in daddys hair.
Morgan went to Kamloops today and brought me home a present. Firstly, I love presents!! Its a Magic Bullet!!! I’ve wanted one forever! I love them oodles, but its all together rather frivolous because I have a great blender already. The thing is, that the magic bullet is so compact and fantastic. So I made everyone smoothies after dinner. They were yummy x 10! But then, what happened. My daughter who is pretty stinkin close to being totally potty trained has to pee. So morgan takes her to the potty and she does her business and gets a treat. Then I decide I’d better at least get the dish washer on, and start doing dishes. I forget that my smoothie is waiting for me. Calling my name even. Well apparently I offened it, becuase when I reached over top of it to get something, it leaped of the counter and…well…let’s just say it was an instant replay of the time I dook the mixing beaters out of the shortbread while still on high speed. EVERYWHERE! I died laughing right there. Morgan thought I did it on purpose,but then he realized it was just as funny as I thought it was. mmm blueberry walls.
oops I just realized that I don’t think I cleaned it off those paintings. haha.
This week has been an up and down week for me. The last couple actually. Camp SumMore Fun VBS, was sooo fun, Prepping for Tekskool is really fun too, but in the middle of all of that I had a memorial to go to.
My friend from High School Jamie passed away from Cancer. It was really sad. I was really sad. There have been a number of young people who have passed away in the last couple years, but I haven’t known any of them as well as I knew Jamie. we were percussionists together. We were in sports together. We had classes together and we even worked together in the mall when I worked for my dad, he worked a few stores down. Jamie was a really great guy. When he was 14 he started coming to youth. He had cancer in his eye and so we were praying for him alot. The cancer took his eye, and Jamie stopped coming to youth. It was really hard to have a prayer answered no. Then when the cancer came back earlier this year, I was praying again. I was really unsure why that would happen again to such a great guy. I know the right answers to those kinds of questions, but its still hard to hear. The best part of Jamie’s story was that the pastor who did Jamies service said that he spent time with Jamie in the month before he died, and he was 100% confident that Jamie was able to re-connect with God and get things straight before he went home.
I have many more stories to share with you, but tonight I think I leave it at that. Laters Jamie, We’ll see you in the blink of an eye. Luv-a-bud Perc.
I tried to blog yesterday from my ipaq, but it was awkward, so I just lay there, staring at the ceiling. I pinched something in my back and I was pretty much in agony yesterday. I managed to get some work done today, but yesterday was a write-off. Soo anoying. Then the drugs helped alot more today so I could relax, but then I pushed it and it got worse again for a while, so I’ve been taking it easy for the evening and its been alot better. I went to a surprise birthday party tonight, but I wasnt sure if the surprise had been given yet because I was the second one there. So I just pretended I stopped in after work and picking up Emily. It was at Lana’s house and even though people kept showing up, she still never got it until Kim said “Surprise! Happy Birthday” It was funny, cause she was just content to have everuyone over without even thinking about it that way. We had a really nice time and some seriously yummy cake. I held baby Zay-Zay for most of the time, which made me think all the more about having a baby. the good thing about hangin out with all girls is eventually everyone talks about their part of a pregnancy nightmare, so I got to cuddle and talk about puking forever. Makes it slightly easier to let go of the maternal notions. Why does everyone have to ask”Whens the next one” over and over. It’s not like we dont want another baby, its just that the timing is all wrong, thats all. so lay off old ladies! I dont see you volunteering to potty train…
which is actually going pretty well. she loves her new strawberry shortcake panties. So I took them to Traceys, so that during the day she can use them for potty training. emily was so cute yesterday after Mk picked her up from daycare. She said “gues what Im wearing daddy? Tracey’s Panties!” I think he may have died laughing right there. Between that and her new joke “why did a chicken cwoss da ftweet, to get to the udder side!I made you laugh, didnt I?” Its too funny.
She ended up back in her crib again last night. She kept opening the door and chatting it up. Lil turkey. So after being warned she ended up back in her crib. Se was super mad, so tonight long before bed, she kept reminding me that at bed time she would sleep in her big girl bed and not open the door. Way too cute.
My cousins are coming up this weekend. There’s a show n Shine, so my parents will have a BBQ and we’ll hang out. I’m looking forward to it. Well I think my back has had about enough with this evil chair, so Im done for now. ooo I forgot to mention that my office is finnished!!! well mostly, a few touch ups and putting everything back in it, but the flooring is done now too!! YAY!! Thanks Nate and Handsome Morgan!
I really need to work at kicking my own butt. I skipped my spin class today, again. I missed Monday too. I shouldn’t because I still pay if I don’t go and because I know its good for me. Summer is just so hard to keep on track with exercising and eating healthy. That and ICE CREAM. brutal I know. Why does ice cream belong in summer. or in my freezer. Mmm Cotton Candy Oreo Blizzards! Thanks Roxy! I sometimes wish I had someone like Emily has to be in charge. So even when I whine they could say “I’m sorry sweetie, that’s not good for you” “You need to eat your vegetables” Do you want an apple for dessert!?!!!YAY!” I think I’d do a lot better with that. I think I need a personal Salad Chef. I like salads, but I usually keep myself to busy to make them. I did have a leaf of my butter lettuce that I’m growing though. mmm tasty!
The big girl is still sleeping in her big girl bed. This morning , 20 minutes before my alarm would normally go off, Emily walked by our room and said “Hi Mom!” and headed for the stairs. AHH. I snatched her up and brought her back into our room for some snuggles. I was definitely not ready to get up yet. And when did she start calling me “Mom”. The name is “Mommy!”Silly little monkey!
I have Leah to thank for the ridiculous song stuck in my head today. Thank you for suggesting I let Em watch the wiggles on youtube. WHY! Cold spaghetti Cold Spaghetti!!! At least Emily loves to sing and dance right?
I’m kinda sad today because I found out that another one of the kids I went to school with passed away. His name was Jamie and we were good friends in Jr. High and fellow Percussionists in band too. He was a really nice guy. Stupid Cancer. It’s pretty hard to have people your age die. You expect that because you are young you have loads of time to worry about that kind of stuff later, but I guess that’s why the bible describes this life as “but a breath”(psalm 39). I can’t possibly know how many days and moments I have left to live, but I know that I plan on using them to the fullest. I truly want to see as many people as I can come to know Jesus before it’s too late.
Well before I spend to much of my day feeling melancholy, here’s some picks from the last week.
oh and I miss you already Coco. And Danielle, Come home soon!
Emily Loves the creek at the Park and it’s stinky mud!
Oooo Cold
Headed for the Swings!
Emily and Auntie Coco
Emily Loves her new Big Girl Bed
Cheese!
Emily spent the fist night in her big girl bed that we picked up on the weekend! At about midnight we checked on her and she was fast asleep on the floor. It was so cute. She had all her teddies on the floor with her. So I put her back in bed and she managed to stay the rest of the night in bed. But the most amazing part was when Emily came into the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth in the morning. She said “good morning sunshine!” and I said “Where’s daddy”? Silly me. Assuming someone went into her room and let her out. no no no, the big girl opened her first door today too. ahh. The end is nigh! I have a couple pics of her in bed before she went to sleep, but for some strange reason my computer wont read the CF card today. figures.
I’d like to keep blogging, but my big girl needs some dinner dinner, so maybe I’ll be back later.
Well here I am. I was going to go to the church tonight because we have one of our missionaries here, but Morgan just called to say he was fixing a harley and can’t get home till later. So I think I’m up the creek without a paddle on this one. Oh well. What to do what to do. Maybe I’ll go for a walk. yeah. ok see you later again!
I finnaly found a decent toddler bed on Craigslist for Emily. Its a Yellow VW Beetle bed. Its pretty cute. I found a few really nice wooden ones, but they never phoned me back or they were tons of money for something simple. I really didnt want a disney cars bed or some fluffy princess bed, so I was totally stoked to find this one. It’s in richmond too, so my in-laws can pick it up for us! Here’s a couple pics. This is for the tiny tot who can get out of a playpen no prob and is close to getting out of her crib too. AHH another transition is comming!
Well? what do you think?
So I got my hair all chopped off! Well a fair bit of it anyways. I have the before and after pics for your very much sight fulfillment. Leah is a fantastic hair cutter-er. I can style it pretty weel already on my own. I made Morgan do the back for me for Emily’s Grad last weekend because I’m just not that coordinated with a straightener yet. I’m getting so much better though. Patience is my key!
Before (ooo you can see Leahs new Tattoo!)
After the fabulousness.
I love it!! It’s the first real hair cut I’ve had in years. I’d also like to note, that leah has been my person stylist since highschool when style also meant SPIKES!
I’m entering a contest this week to win another Bags for Zaza bag. I love mine soo much that It’d be sweet to give one away too. The best part about the contest is that its really simple to enter. You just leave a comment on my friend Leah’s blog and you are entered. So you should enter too. This is my favorite online contest because I actually know the girl who made it and who’s giving it away AND she won’t spam me ever! 
This is called The Hounds of Baskerville. Its super cool. Comment away!
My week looks pretty busy, but I’ll try to get some new pictures of the little girly and my new hair cut up sooner than later. Who knows?
This is me painting in the office. Acctually this is my taking a break because I pulled my quad hopping up and down on the ladder. I finnished cutting in on all the walls and the ceiling so I’m letting Morgan roll. That’s our deal. I cut he rolls. It works. He hates cutting and has no patience and I dont care either way. Our office is begining to look fab. I wish we’d taken better before pics. I have a few general pics taken in the office before hand so I’ll see if I can find any of those for when it is all done. I dont think I’ll even want to move the desks and stuff back in. It’ll look way to pretty without all my junk shoved in there.
This morning on our way to work we stopped at Timmys as we often do. I wanted to try one of those new strawberry donuts. So When Morgan asked what I wanted I said “a bagel and one of the new pretty strawberry fluffy-flower donuts”. Unfortunately Morgan is a smart cookie and he new I was just trying to see if he’d order using the words “fluffy-flower”. I think it would have been ver macho of him to order a fluffy flower donut! On the Courtenay Donut rating scale from 1 to 10 (1 being a donut dipped in marzapan dropped in a pile of hair and burnt with flaming diapers to 10 being a gooey milk chocolate covered honey dipped Boston Creme cooked to perfection, still warm) The Fluffy Flower(strawberry blossom…still a girly name) make about a 6. Its a bit sweet, but it tastes better than it looks. Re orderable? Probably. It still has nothing on smile cookies!! oo I wonder when Smile cookies come out…
I’m torn today because I realized that I couldnt go to both a funeral and a grad tomorrow. There isnt enough time between them to go to both. I’d have to leave in the middle of the funeral to go to williams lake to the grad. Its hard because we know we need to be in williams Lake, but we’d really like to pay our respects to the Family. Especially because I’ve adopted Rudi Guiliani’s “Weddings are optional, Funerals are mandatory”. I’m glad my parents will be able to go to the funeral tomorrow. Maybe I can send a card with them or something.
ooo Morgan just yelled “Its done!” from the office. Oh happy day! Now theres only flooring and trim left to do! Yahoo! Back to work I gooooooo
Our renos are coming along nicely, but taking much longer than I’d anticipated. I was just going to paint, but we’ve ended up doing dry walling and we are doing flooring now too. It’s going to look great when we are done, but I’m already bored of all the extra work. oh. That’s in our office at the church. I forgot to mention that. So anyways, thats why I havent been around much in the blogosphere. I’ll post some pics when we are all done the renos. Then we’ll start on our house.
I guess reason 2 for being too busy to blog was actually that my computer had a sleepover in Kamloops at future shop to get fixed up. Something odd about it needing a tattoo. haha. Who’d have thought I’d have a punk computer. Even my computer has a tatoo. Maybe it needs a piercing to go along with that.
I had a great time on the weekend with Leah, Silas, and Ikey and Juliet. And Mark and Shannon too. Leah chopped off half my hair! I don’t have any pics of it yet, which is good because my flat iron just doesn’t cut it for doing my hair. Leah is sending me one soon. Hurry Leah! But its super awesome. No one recognized me at church. So that was cool.
Today we were driving home for the 108 and Emily was about to melt down and she growled and said “I’m feeling really really bad right now. I’m sooo frust-er-ate”. Morgan and I had such a hard time not laughing at her cuteness. She showed off last night at the Russ Rosen and Graham Ord concert. She stayed up late and while the band was packing up, she said hi to Graham Ord. This is what she said to him
Em: I’m Emily. E…M…I…L…Y…
Graham: you can spell. How old are you?
Emily: abcd fghijklmno…that’s it!
Graham: wow you are smart. Can you count too.
Emily:1
Graham:2
Emily: 3 (etc. all the way to 10)
It was soo beyond perfect. I love when she shows off. It, of course is never ever when I ask her too. haha. typical. Well. I’m tired already cause I’ve actually made it to spin class this week. Three times next week! There I said it and I signed up so I’m going! I did great today. double time! Here’s some pics from last weekends day at the wild life park. It was soo much fun. Emily loved the animals and the spray park. How great is it to watch an Eagle tear apart a bunny in front of 10, 2-4 year olds. Talk about great timing for the bird exhibit. eww. oh and when we rode the train by this moose Morgan said “Emily, that’s a Moose” and she looked up at him and said “No daddy, that’s a fox”.
Emily’s Wagon
Emily Crashed out
Morgan and Baby Lochlan
Emily’s Train Ride
Emily at the Spray Park in her “babin suit”
My Bike Guy!
I’m not entirely sure, but I think the last post had the most comments ever. Yay.
Emily is adjusting to daycare alot better now. I think she really likes going. Now she’s getting up in the morning and saying “I’m going to Tracey’s House today!!” I love that she like it there. Its really hard to be away from her so much, but I’m really happy that’s she’s ok at her daycare and not constantly saying “Jordan hit me”. That little dude has issues.I’m glad she doesn’t go to the other daycare anymore for that very reason. It was a good daycare, but Emily and Jordan didn’t get along all that well. I’m thinking he’s going to be one of those bully kids. No she just plays all day with Nathan and Luca. The only thing I’m not liking is that she’s learned to scream. I mean really scream. It’s getting old fast.
Yesterday one of my youth came over after school and hung out until worship practice. Emily wouldn’t say her name right. She kept calling her “on-taya” instead of Montaya. It was cute. This morning she kept asking where “Mon - a - taya” was. Emily said two things yesterday that were in serious need of blogging. In the morning Morgan was gone to a prayer meeting and Em asked where Daddy went. So I said he went to pray. She looked at me with a cheerio stuck to her face and said. “oh ok, he went to Jesus’s house.” Then at dinnertime Morgan bumped his chair into the dishwasher and it startled him. Emily said “It’s ok daddy don’t be scared”. Morgan asked her if she was being Dr. Phil and she said “I’m going to be doctor Phil!!”, which is better than last week when she said she was going to be a plummer.
So the updated status of my bag for Zaza is that I didn’t get the Highlanders song, but I’m getting a custom made bag. It will be similar, but a bit different. Plus as a bonus I get a matching ipod case! Yay Jennie! For those who missed the last blog, read this. Go buy a bag. They are super useful for all kinds of stuff. Mine will end up carrying all my tech stuff sometimes and diapers other time. I’m thinking I’ll use it alot for school in September too. My ipod will love it’s case because it’s getting all scratchy too. I’m thinking about getting another bag or two to give as Christmas presents. They are just so cool and it’s for a great cause.
Emily and Poppa. He’s telling her some great tale.
Ahh how I love summer. Today was pretty stinking crazy at work, but I loved every minute of it. Especially my lunch break tank war with Coco. Have you played Wii tanks? Its fun. I went to the after school club again today. I love hanging out with all the kids there. They make me laugh so hard. There’s like 40, 10-12 year olds just hanging out. I played soccer for a while with them and then we made a human pyramid. I’m still sore from being at the bottom of a falling tower. They showed me how to do a cart wheel too, which is really funny because now that I’m 25, a cart wheel isn’t all that useful anymore. Why couldn’t I have been able to do that in elementary school when things like that were important. I ask you why?
A sister of a friend of mine is selling handmade bags to raise money for her sister-in-law who is adopt a child from Columbia. They have affectionately called the girl Zaza until they actually meet her. I have a big soft spot in my heart for adopting kids. I’d love to adopt a kid from another country. Ooh should probably not have told Morgan that in a blog. hmm. I don’t know if that’s something we would ever do, but I totally support anyone who adopts kids. I think that’s really really cool. So anyways. Jennie has actually been a friend of mine for alot of years because I was her baby sisters best friend back in the good old days and we are still good friends even now. Jennie makes these awesome bags and I’d describe them, but you should just go and look because they are awesome and you should buy one. I put my name on a cool one named after the book “The Highlander’s last song” by George Macdonald. I think it was claimed before me, but I’m holding out hope of getting it. They are an awesome price for a sweet bag too. So anyways go there and buy a bag for Zaza.
It’s late and I should go to bedm but I wasnt really paying attention and drank an XL Timmys coffee at 10 on our way home from Vernon. So needless to say, but I’m saying it anyways, Im not that tired. I think I’d be more tired if I hadn’t alreadt decided I wasn’t going to spin class in the morning. I knew that by the time I got home, It’d be pretty late for getting up at 5:30 and busting my butt. Thursday Morning will come soon enough. We had a really nice day today. Emily slept in and we drove to Vernon to visit my Grandparents. Emily was so excied to see Poppa and G.G., that she kept asking every 2 minutes if we were at G.G.’s house yet. We had a good visit with them, and even got to see my Aunt and uncle too. My grama has low grade non-hodgkins lymphoma and is currently undergoing chemo. She is doing better right now, so that’s good. It was good to be able to pray for her in person and get some good hugs in too.
Well I think I’m more tired now. Yes it’s been only 10 minutes, but Im good and relaxed now, so gnight.
This is me at the park today. I made Morgan take some pics of me so I had some new ones for my profile on facebook. Plus I lost more weight and don’t want my pictures to look any fatter than they need to. YAY spin class!!
I’m starting to get really excited for History Maker. It still seem strange to go to the coast instead of Kelowna next weekend. I thought I’d write a list of 10 things that I’m excited about for History Maker
- We are staying in a hotel! No tents for us this year! We are staying at the comfort inn in Abby, so thats where my car will be if Pluckmama feels the needs to egg it.
- We have several new Christians and new youth. I remember my fist youth conference. It was a “wow” moment. I’m excited for them.
- I’m hoping to plan it so I get to know a few girls I haven’t had a chance to get to know very well yet.
- We’ve got a 15 passenger van! Yay for needing to take a smaller carpool.
- Deliriou5? and Stellar Kart are going to be there. I quite enjoy them both. I’ll admit I’m sad that my favy bands are at YC Edmonton instead.
- I’m excited that I won’t have to eat fast food because %90 is meat, and I don’t eat moo’s anymore.
- I’m excite to hear the speakers and watch the youth understand different things.
- Did I mention the hotel?
- Driving tunes!!
- I think my favorite thing about Youth trips is acting my age…or maturity level I guess. I just love having fun!
I’m headed back to the Spirit comes with power conference! Laters.
I’m taking another day off today. I should probably be doing school or something productive, but I don’t want to. I like that my idea of a day off includes working half of the day . *left for 6 hours*
Ok so then I ended up working through half of the day. I’ve been fighting with typesetting posters and stuff this week. It’s been a pain in the butt trying to get everything to print. I’ve really enjoyed the project though. I think I’ve learned alot through this project. I’ve been looking around alot for ideas and concepts and thing. I found 2 great sites for helping my with ideas.
CreativeMYK.com
Church Marketing Lab on Flickr.
Both of those sites offer critiquing of work too. I put up a screenshot of the GDS website we’ve been working on and god some good feedback from that, and I’m planning to put up my posters for feedback too. *oops I got side tracked again. *I really need to stop multi-tasking while blogging. seriously. Anyways. I’m working on a few projects right now, here’s the one I finished today…Just the poster.
I think it’s funny that PluckyMama should post pictures of Silas when he was a baby today because I’ve been feeling rather maternal lately. I went to visit Lana and Kris in the hospital today. They just had baby # 2. If you remember their oldest was four days older than Emily and very much apart of our baby journey 2 years ago. I kept telling myself that I was super stoked tha