New House Pictures: Episode 2

And the Main Event: The Main Floor!

Living Room:

The Dining Room and Kitchen:

And don't want to leave out the Basement:

Here are the plans of what it will hopefully end up looking like:

For more pictures check out this post: New House Pictures : Episode 1

Baby's First Christmas

One of the special things about D coming to live with us this month, is that he gets to be with family for his first Christmas. Not only that but hes almost walking!!!! December 24th marks the first day he was taking 4-5 steps all by himself!

Not that you can read it, but his shirt says Baby's First Christmas..and the grinch tree we got from our new neigbor in Maple Ridge.

 D and Grandma

 Uncle Paul got D the gift of the night...a 'Cars' plush ball

Opening blocks  from auntie Katie

And Here is D excited about walking!

Helen

My grandmother Helen died this morning. It was a long time coming, so although there is a sadness, it was expected sooner or later, and we rejoice that she will be freed from a body that caused her pain and a mind robbed by alzhiemers.

My memories of my grandmother in my earlier years was that she was always hospitable, there was ALWAYS someone visiting grandma and grandpa. And she always made lemonade and ALWAYS had icecream in the freezer for us. It has been a great many years since those memories, as she has been deteriorating before our eyes for some years now, but the legacy she has passed on, of being hospitable, beleiving in education and being proud of being a women and trusting God.

 

New House Pictures: Episode One

FINALLY...here are a few of the pictures!

   The Office/Guest room with the new blackboard wall, just missing the red cutains... Gotta love that ikea sofabed as mentioned in this post: SofaBed

Love having upstairs laundry:

The Main Floor Bathroom:

One of my favorite rooms in the house...a comfy peaceful space, the Master Bedroom (and master bathroom and master closet):

Teething

Teething is an evil thing. Whose idea was it anyways to make cute little babies experience such tremendous pain...for extended periods of time, topped off with a fever? Oh and don't forget the drool...its absolutely everywhere! Hopefully some teeth show up soon!!! 10 months old...its about time!

In other news: at 10 months D is standing on his own, says BA for bottle, and loves to wave goodbye to anyone who will wave back.

Peek a boo

D is such a happy baby. He is settling in fairly well, and we are all happy for that. He crys pretty much only when he is tired (or wakes up and doesnt want to go back to sleep). One of his favorite things to do is play peek-a-boo....especially if you hide behind a wall or a couch. Having him around has reminded me of how much energy it takes to be around babies (I especially noticed when i went to a christmas party tonight and forgot the belt for my dress and my lip gloss...oops.), but it is so much fun watching how excited he gets about each new thing he explores!

Mister D

Some of you may know, some of you may not know, My brother (and his girlfriend) had baby boy last February. For the sake of this blog we will call him D. D came to live with my parents for a while to give my brother a chance to get his life together enough to take better care of his son. This has been a huge change for the family, but it seems like D is settling in quite well and is a cheerful easygoing little boy. It's an exciting time getting to know my nephew who until this point I had only known through photographs, as he is already 10 months old!

Here is a picture from when he was a newborn

Here is D today: 10 months old. 

Engagement Photos

So I realized, I didn't actually get around to uploading our final 10...so in no particular order...here they are for your viewing pleasure!

People of Walmart: a sign of the times

I stumbled across this, and some it shocks me, but what shocks me more, is the amount of photos it shows that i percived as fairly normal....not too out of the ordinary when you go to store....and even more so at stores like wal-mart, target, zellers, etc.....

What a wierd era we live in, we have fought for the chance to have rights, vote, to express ourselves, to have roles as individuals in society and as an individual...and this is what we do with it.

Craigslist and stupidity

we were at ikea today looking at sofa-beds and we decided we like this one:

for 279.00 (Beakdown: 100 for the frame, 130 for the mattress and another 50 for the cover)

so think to myself, well since we have no money and dont have a house for another week an a half lets look on craigslist and see if we can find one.

so I come across this one:

IKEA SOFA BED WITH LOVAS MATTRESS ** IN AN EXCELLENT CONDITION - $250 (DOWNTOWN)

wait...so you are telling me a used one your going to charge me all of 20$ less?
  So then I email them, just because I'm curious to see why this person thinks they can ask so much for it so I sent them the following email:
　
Hi I noticed your add but its almost the same price as in the store, im wondering if you would take 100$ for the whole thing since it has been used and obviously not the same value as it would be new....if not i'd much rather buy new as would everyone else who sees your ad. Thanks.

And they reply this:



I think you are talking about the frame alone ... Anyways 150 ia really low price .

so now, not only will they not listen to reason or answered as to why its so expensive, but they are making thier frame 50$ MORE expensive then a new one at the same store they got it at
so I emailed them back and said "ok well best of luck selling it, but maybe you might have better luck if you didnt try to sell something more expensive then a new one"

If you search ikea on craigslist there seems to be lots of that

I want to scream: stop posting every day, theres a reason no one is responding, its called overpriced!!!

that person has posted the same add every day since october 24th
And they still have a sofa-bed a month since they have started posting that hasn't sold.
 So in honor of these wonderful people I would like to post the following article:

Common Sense: Helping You Sell Your Furniture on Craigslist
http://www.authorpalace.com/internet/tools-and-resources/free-stuff/common-sense--helping-you-sell-your-furniture-on-craigslist.html

It seems as if most people have forgotten how to use their common sense; either that or they just don't have any or don't care. Either way, if you want to use Craigslist.org to make money selling your old home furniture, use common sense before you list your couch or whatever it is you are selling. Why? Because common sense goes a long way.

For example:

No one cares about your custom-made dining room table. In fact, the only two people in the entire world who do care are you and the jerk who overcharged you to get that table customized (wait he doesn't care anymore because he already got your money, so it is down to you). Custom-made furniture only means something to the person who ordered it. To everyone else, it is just another dining room table.

Do not list your furniture on Craigslist until you are actually ready to part with it. This is common when people are getting ready to move. They want to be prepared, so they offer their old bookcase for $5 on Craigslist. A seller gets all excited as it is exactly what they wanted, but they are mad as heck because they can't come and get it for another week. Listen, if you have a really good item to sell on Craigslist and are selling it for a fair price, it likely won't even last 24 hours on Craigslist anyways, so wait.

No one is going to believe you paid $6,000 for a designer couch. Why? Because if you did you sure as heck wouldn't be selling it on Craigslist. For $6,000 everyone is going to rightfully assume you would keep that couch until it was literally standing on its last leg (meaning you would be lucky to get rid of it for free). Don't try and pull a huge number out of nowhere just to make yourself look good or to try and get more money. Sorry, but it won't work.

Another reason why it is important to not inflate your price on Craigslist is because buyers are smart. Don't make the mistake of assuming Craigslist buyers are stupid because most are anything but. You might be surprised to hear that they know how to perform a standard internet search just like you. Guess what this means? It means that they also know how to price compare. So, that TV stand you are selling on Craigslist for $200, the buyer can tell within minutes that they can mosey on down to Wal-Mart and buy the SAME thing for only $100. By the way, if your buyer had a temporary lapse of judgment and decided not to price compare until after buying the item, don't think you are in the clear either; expect some hate mail.

Never, never, and I really mean never list your furniture for sale on Craigslist without including a picture. So, you don't have a digital camera? Ask a friend, your brother or sister, or better yet go knock on your neighbor's door. Don't use not having a digital camera as an excuse. There are thousands of other couches listed on Craigslist with pictures included. Buyers will just go to them instead. After all, you may be selling a nasty couch covered in stains that isn't even worth the trip to see. On the other hand, you may be selling a like-new couch for an amazing price, but no one will ever know.

A place to call our own

We got it! We've put down a deposit, inspection went well....we now have a house!!! :) So excited! A little over a week till move in day!!!!

(see last post for more details!)

House Hunters

Its kind of strange when real life echos all those reality house hunting TV shows. As much as I am  excited to be looking at houses, its kind of the last big indicator of growing up. Wait...rewind...yes. We are looking at houses. Yes its  bit early considering we are not getting married until May, and Paul is in a lease until April...but its a buyers market right now and interest rates are at all time lows so we thought we would take a gander and just see what is out there. However we were not planning on finding anything that we loved and that met our very  low budget...but our awesome realtor pulled through and found a house that's EVERYTHING we could want and is one of the cheapest we have looked at yet!!!So all the sudden the casual seeing what is out there is put on Fast Forward.....to see if we can actually get the approval and get the place!!! Its a daunting task, especially since we know that at that price the house won't be available for very long!! Hoping that everything goes well this week and the mortgage broker can help us make it work. If so we could have a house before Christmas!!! And get to face the bittersweet task of home ownership, and growing up. 

Positive Adoption Langauge

 Language in Adoption. 

Being adopted, I didn't really think of the impact of language in a systemic way as judgement, but now that i am older and look back, it does have a huge impact on how that child views themselves. I remember when i was younger people would as if i knew my real mom. I remember thinking that was such a strange question, what could you possible mean my real mom...as opposed to my fake mom? Both my mom's are quite real...neither of them are ghosts or figments of my imagination. This list from http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/pdf/PositiveLanguage.pdf is a tool for you to rethink your own language around adoption to be more child friendly and less judgmental.

Positive Language                     Negative Language
Birth parent                                                                Real parent
Biological parent                                                        Natural parent
Birth child                                                                 Own child
My child                                                                   Adopted child; Own child
Born to unmarried parents                                         Illegitimate
Terminate parental rights                                            Give up
Make an adoption plan                                             Give away
To parent                                                                  To keep
Waiting child                                                             Adoptable child; available child
Biological or birth father                                             Real father
Making contact with                                                  Reunion
Parent                                                                       Adoptive parent
Inter-country adoption                                                Foreign adoption
Adoption triad                                                          Adoption triangle
Permission to sign a release                                       Disclosure
Search                                                                      Track down parents
Child placed for adoption                                          An unwanted child
Court termination                                                      Child taken away
Child with special needs                                            Handicapped child
Child from abroad                                                     Foreign child
Was adopted                                                             Is adopted

Unacceptable

How I love technology

FAIL: trying to write my paper and my laptops power cord is shot. Not Cool

This was the initial comment i made this morning when i went to begin my paper. What fallows is the frustrations of the day:

 

...so then i spent a hour and a half looking for a cord went to future shop to find out they didn't open for another hour...waited...found one at a computer parts store (three stores later), it didn't work. took it back. found out i need to replace the whole charger, and that the only way to get one is through dell....went on dells website, found one (70$ later) but it wont get here for 2 weeks...meanwhile i have a paper due on Tuesday and will be confined to a stationary computer to work on it, and looked up my warranty to see if it would cover it...but my warranty expired September 31, 2011....AHHHHH

ADVENTURES

Life takes on many adventures, some of which we go along for the ride, others which we must go alone. A while back we decided to start tracking our adventures together over the past year and a half.

This map always impresses me that in such a short space in time we have actually gotten to explore a good chuck of land and places together, but I cannot wait to keep adding and expanding this map!

Skookum

What is the wierdest whim purchase you have ever made? I'm pretty sure ours is Skookum, our wonderful hedgehog.

Now, As much as I love this funny little guy, hes not as easy as he looks. For the first month we had him he remained curled up in a spikey ball and woud 'huff' if even your shadow got anywhere near him. I was pretty close to deciding that a hedgehog was the worse decision ever those first few weeks. However, we have learned a few tricks, like not trying to wake him up before 10 (pm), and letting him eat and run on his wheel and poop BEFORE we try and pick him up. Also leaving the lights off or low so he cant see shadows significantly helps, but now we have the opposite challange. Insted of being a ball of prickles, now he tries to run and he can run FAST!!! Good thing we got him a silent wheel so he doesnt keep everyone up all night when hes running his marathons! Also he loves his hat. He has a toilet paper roll in which he sticks his head in and then runs around with it on his head, he even tried to take it into his wheel this morning! What a silly Skook! He's still quite fearfull of being picked up, but once you have him then he is fine, hopefully in some more time he will realize BEFORE we pick him up that he is going to be safe!

OCCUPY

So with costs of living rising, jobs being harder to find, the government bailing out corporations insted of people. OCCUPY has set in. Starting on Wall Street and speading to the rest of north america, people want to see change happen. I have struggled with the idea of a protest that says, things are wrong, but doesnt offer a solution. So I went in search of what it is exactally that people are trying to say.






Occupy Wall Street

Adoption

My life has been leading me to advocate and be somehow involved with children who are familyless for a long time, starting at birth, when someone adopted me, and a love of children to public relations for an orphanage in Mexico, to a career path of social work.  Love for people is a top priority to me, and unconditional love for children who otherwise will grow up in a series of temporary families just seems logical. I am currently doing a practicum at an Adoption support and advocacy group and have learned shocking things. Like there are huge numbers of children in foster care that ARE adoptable! That teenagers are adoptable...and they WANT to be adopted! and that foster parents burnout rate is so high, often because they have children who have backgrounds which involve a lot of pain, that they deal with insolation as the community, and the christian community, has not taken a bigger role in issues of fostering and adoption or even supporting those who chose to. If anyone sees this and has questions about adopting, please please contact me, or check out some of these resources:

www.bcadoption.com
www.waitingtobelong.ca
http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/adoption/adopt.htm
http://www.theprovince.com/life/Tattooed+teens+want+families/5387124/story.html
http://youtu.be/fifvmBnUWWw





We all want to belong from Focus on the Family Canada on Vimeo.

One amazing year and many more to come!

July 10th, 2010.

No I am not crazy and thought that we are a year behind. I am but commemorating the day that changed everything.  At a time in my life which included much grief and heartache, God was faithful and good.
Im always a little bit hesistent to tell people how we met....after all how do you tell friends and family that you met on a day you would do anything to erase? A day that epitomized the level of mistrust and hurt and sin my life and that I threw away friendships and morals for the sake of what?
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.-2 Timothy 2:13

God has always provided for me, and I have never doubted that. In fact it has probably been one of the reasons I had been so upset with God...He had stripped me of everything that I wanted....but never once failed to give me what I needed...he had taken my life long dreams of overseas work away, I had just gone through a failed relationship, and in my rebellious nature this justifed my motiviation for living for me, for associating with people who influenced me to let go of my morals and just "enjoy my 20's". Now I don't have anything bad to say about those people, and i wish the best for every single one of them, but i recogonize that my association with that lifestyle, was not pleasing to God, and was leaving me feeling empty and lonely, dispite being with people every weekend till 1 or 2 in the morning.  I was hurt by people, and felt betrayed by God. BUT.......
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

But God used a night that i had intended for self indulgence, and pleasure...and gave me a gift. Crazy eh. Why would a God who calls for holiness, respect, faithfulness, give me...a sinner in the depths of my sin...a gift? I am competely blown away by this every time I think about it, every time I look at my amazing fiance...What kind of God takes a night intended to throw everything hes given you back in his face...and says.."here, i have something special for you". What kind of love is this, God places a christian, who is patient, and loving and everything i could ever want...in a limo beside me on the way to a bar, and ignites a desire in him to want to know me more.
...in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

As I sit here one year later, Engaged to the most amazing man I have ever met, finally going to school to become qualified to work with people in need, spending my summer working for a church. I am humbled. I feel like the prodigal Son who has been welcomed back home by a father with open arms...a father that should be holding me responsible for the hurt i have caused him when I took what he gave me and squandered it, but he has recieved me insted with open arms and has said....guess what. I love you, i want the best for you, and im going to give you not only my love...but im going to give you a earthly demonstration of it in a man who loves you enough to marry you. And in less then 11 months...will give me the great feast and a wedding.

Thank you Paul for seeing potential in me when I was in a bad place and loving me to enable to be who I want to be, and thank you God for giving me such an amazing gifts because of a love so strong that it cannot fail.