Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy New Year's Eve!!!!

Ahh it is New Year’s Eve and I am once again sitting at home not doing anything even slightly party like.

The fact that my cold returned with a vengeance is not helping matters at all. That and Li is actually working tonight and again tomorrow night.
Kind of puts a damper on things.


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I am not complaining as I am watching Jack Sparrow teeter around the screen as I write this. Yumm.
Hehe.

Lets see last year for New Years I had a young baby at home, but we did visit Kim, and the year before that I was very pregnant so my New Year’s for the last few years have been pretty much the same.
I will miss the Buddhist bells though and this saddens me.


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When I look back on this year it has been, well, a little chaotic to say the least. Lets see we…. Packed our things and left Japan, headed over to China for three weeks, moved to Canada and suffered culture shock, found a car, then found jobs, then went and bought a house!
We haven’t moved into this house yet as we still have a zillion little things to do with the renovation headaches but we figure in around two weeks.
Hoping. **sigh**

Tonight ToddlerJi was at her most adorable and sat and watched the NFL football game with her grandpa.


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Then she had a major tickle fight and joy ride with him that kept her awake past 9:30.


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She was wired for sound.

(The video is a little dark. It is more of a listening to a kid giggle away kind of video.)


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I am hoping that this means she will sleep in tomorrow (hahaha) as my cold racked body desperately needs it.

So

I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable evening. If you do go out I hope that you are able to read this tomorrow because you called a cab. Hugs and kisses from us!!

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::12/31/2006 :: 3 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Friday, December 29, 2006

morning giggle

While driving to work this morning, my last day of the year eeeekkk, I drove past this white work van. I recal that this van was for some door framing company and you didnt have to look too hard to see that this van was very dirty.
Some smart ass had climbed up the back of the truck and scratched into the dirt at the top of the roll door in very large letters was:

I wish my girlfriend was this dirty.

ahhh my morning commute giggle.

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--------------------------------------- Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Boxing Day 2006

Boxing Day!!!
Time to go shopping!!!!

NOT!

You couldn’t pay me to head to a mall right now.

Instead we were blessed with a short sleeping again and then headed over to our new house to finish the macktaking and try to hang curtain rods.
I say try because as this is an older place there is one of those traditional wood valances handing in front of the window and we need to buy an extra short screw driver. Li got it started but not in. He also worked on hanging the shower curtain rod but it has some rust spots on it. He tried cleaning it up but needs some oil to do it properly.

But we put some light fixtures back together again and ToddlerJi drove her bike all over the living room and kitchen.

Li is now making a very odd Chinese style coleslaw that involves fried onions. Actually doesn’t taste too bad. We will see how it goes over at Mom’s later for our Boxing Day dinner.

ToddlerJi is now asleep with a monkey on one side and a bear on the other. She is very content.

I hope everyone else is just as content and all are safe, happy and warm.

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--------------------------------------- Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas Day 2006

On Christmas Day ToddlerJi let us sleep in – a bit – then we did a house cleaning before Dad did his pancake breakfast.

After breakfast it was time to check to see what Santa had left for us.


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We were all spoiled – ToddlerJi especially.
Wow did that girl rake in A LOT of loot!!


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She had seen a Christmas tree last year but had no concept of its meaning. This year there were presents under the tree but before this morning she had NO idea that these could be opened and that there were things inside of them.
And what grand things there were!

I was actually very impressed with her present opening skills as these were her first wrapped presents ever.
Must be something that all kids have built into their genetic code – the unwrapping presents gene.


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She was so overwhelmed with cool gifts she didn’t know what to do with herself. Most of them I didn’t even take out of the boxes. All the part are destined to be scattered and I would rather they are scattered in our own house and her own room so I at least have some vague idea as to where they all might be. As soon as we move she will have Christmas all over again.
One toy a day sounds like a good idea. Or one a week, hmmm.
It is too much all at once otherwise.


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Li and I gave ToddlerJi a giant Curious George doll (basically a body pillow as it is almost as big as her) and she just Looooovvveeesss her monkey. She doesn’t call him George, she calls him monkey. I also got her a Curious George toothbrush, holder and cup. She thinks that is totally cool and teeth brushing time is fun.


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You see ToddlerJi LOVES Curious George.
Every morning her daycare lady turns on the morning cartoons to that crazy monkey and ToddlerJi races over to the TV in the morning, with a backwards wave to us, pulls us a cushion chair for her Teddy and another for herself. God help the other kids if there is not a chair left for Teddy. She has a hissy fit I tell ya. And then she sits and watches Curious George.

Someone put her little toy slingshot monkey into one of my step mom’s plants and ToddlerJi points up at it all the time going “ooohhh pretty monkey, hehehe funny monkey.”

After opening presents at Dad’s it was off to moms for brunch and more presents. This was a smaller affair I am happy to say and mom doesn’t have a Christmas tree set up, just a Christmas plant, so ToddlerJi headed straight to her toys room and was very happy to find even more toys to enjoy.

Her crazy Grandma bought her this grass skirt, a green rocking horse thingy and an MP3 player!!


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Not a real MP3, it is plastic but contains almost 300 songs on it. Crazy. She was having a great time trying to figure out all the buttons. Grandma also gave her a whole pile of books and puzzles so there are a ton of toys to keep her occupied for many hours to come.

My aunt gave Li and I this seashell looking glass dish that is just lovely, and mom gave us this lovely wood spinney platter thing that sits in the middle of a table and can hold cheeses, deserts, chips just about anything. It is very pretty. She also gave us a rosemary bush to put on our front porch.
Cool.
Our front porch is covered and faces south so it will be a very happy plant.


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We didn’t really do presents this year. We had a very limited amount of money and a large number of presents to find. We decided that instead of buying ten dollar meaniless gifts that would most likely be chucked we pooled all the money together and donated it to World Vision. I donated a bit over $200. I wish we had more to give but maybe next year we do. We put the money towards medical supplies for a clinic, school supplies for a classroom and clothing for 25 kids.
It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and still does as I type this. I got a phone call from them the other day thanking me for the donation. That made me feel good as well.
I may do that next year as well as some more local stuff. This Christmas season I started putting change into the Salvation Army box and bought the Children’s hospital teddy bears at the liquor store (both teddies). At work my boss sponsors about 6 third world kids and I was asked to respond to all of their Christmas letters. That really changes your perspective on things. One of our vendors at work also did a large donation to the Children’s Hospital rather then sending gift baskets what most people don’t eat.

After that I brought ToddlerJi home for a nap, her daddy stayed with her, and I headed over to the new place to macktack our pantry shelves. The stuff I found matches the whole decor of the place so well it is almost scary. I put it into the pull shelves of the kitchen as well. I need to head back to that store tomorrow after work and grab some more to put in to the drawers. It is going to make cleaning so much easier.

In our family Christmas Eve has always been dad’s side of the family, Christmas day a personal family/relax day, and boxing day mom’s side of the family.


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Most people, when they get married, need to find time in there to fit their spouses side of the family and god help them if their spouses side is divorced as well. It turns into a scheduling nightmare. I am blessed with in-laws who live in another country and come from a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas.
Let me tell you I am thanking my lucks stars and am quite aware of how fortunate I am.

I hope all the rest of you out there had a wonderful Christmas and found some time to yourselves to have a Peaceful Jouyous Christmas.


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Posted by (Top)Andrea::12/25/2006 :: 3 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!!!!!

Christmas Eve is always a little crazy with my dads family. It is when the whole family gets together in one house to eat a feast and talk away.
And Talk we do!
Non stop I tell ya. LOL.


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This year we were missing a couple of people – Uncle J and Aunt M and the girls went back east to visit Uncle J’s family and Aunt R and the boys were off on a family cruise and Cousin S lives back east. This meant there were oonnlllyyy 20 people in Dad’s house, not counting to kids under two – so I guess there were really 22 people there.

TONS of food – Grandma’s famous coleslaw (which Li thinks he may have figured out the recipe) and a whole slew of other foods. This year we added a fried potatoes dish rather than scallop potatoes and it worked great (Li made it) and a seafood fried rice dish that Li made with my one step sis in mind because she doesn’t eat meat.


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Went over great!


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And then we talked and talked and talked some more. Drank and drank and drank some more and the food just kept on coming in the form of deserts and snacks.
Ya - a typical Christmas family dinner.


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The only thing we didn’t do this year was open presents. Normally we do, although the presents are bought just for the littlest of kids and Grandma tends to sneak in a few extras. Only thing was that ToddlerJi finally requested to go to bed around 8:30 after playing none stop with her awesome cousin D.
Those two were crazy together and it was beautiful to watch.


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At about that same time my nephew keeled over in his mom’s arms and was no longer in tune with the party going on.


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Personally it was kind of nice not opening presents – more relaxing in a way. No pressure. Missed the present opening and yet didnt.


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(These were the only people that we could get to sit down all at once. The others hid at the word photo time. LOL)

I had a nice long bath after we sort of cleaned up and then had a comatose night sleeps. It was great to see everyone again and there are tons of photos but mostly of family.
Well a ton of ToddlerJi hehehe.
It was a nice evening.


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Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS tomorrow everyone!!!

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--------------------------------------- Friday, December 22, 2006

Make your own Snow Flake

I forgot about this site but Granny reminded me.
It ROCKS!!!
You can make your own snowflake and with every snowflake that you make they will donate money to the Salvation Army.
So come on all and
LET IT SNOW!!!!

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--------------------------------------- Thursday, December 21, 2006

giggle

Li just got a Christmas card from a guy at work. He had no idea how to spell his name.
He spelt it:
JaiLo
**snicker**

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--------------------------------------- giving you all the heads up

You know that Drop Shots photo and video hosting that I use for all my photos now? Well RIGHT NOW they are doing their amazing offer again for unlimited free photo hosting and unlimited video hosting of ten minute videos for $99 for a LIFETIME.
Just thought you would like to all know.
Here is the link.
Drop Shots

Drop Shots offer

I think you need to set up a free account first and then upgrade it to the lifetime offer.
I love it and use it all the time almost as a back up of my photos and they have a pretty good privacy protection on it.

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--------------------------------------- Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Holiday Train Photos

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--------------------------------------- THE CPR HOLIDAY TRAIN!!!!!

ToddlerJi, Li and I went to see the HOLIDAY TRAIN in Agassiz last night!!!!

I had no idea the thing existed but the lady I work with told me all about it and I had to go see.

Basically it is a CPR train that travels all over the USA and Canada stopping at all these little towns along the way to collect food and money for each towns food bank. The train is about 8 cars long and COVERED in Christmas lights!!
It is so awesome.

We missed the train as it pulled up and I really wanted to see it roll in but we were a little late. Next year I will do better.

One of the cars is special designed with extra large doors that pull open when they get to their spot and inside is A BAND! They do a live thirty minute concert with Santa walking around talking to all the kids.

This year’s concert people were WIDE MOUTH MASON!! And LISA BROKOP!!!! SOOOO COOOLLLL!!!!
It was a blast.

ToddlerJi’s eyes were all bugged out during the whole thing. She was pulling a two year old temper tantrum before that stopped as soon as she saw the train. “Oooohhhhh.”
We were all singing along and bopping to the music. A little half hour interlude just before dinner – the train pulled in at 5:30 last night – it was great.

It was the start of a family Christmas tradition.
I highly recommend you go and see it if it stops anywhere near your town next year.

I will post photos tonight when I get home from work. I was wrapping presents last night **grin**.
Right now I am at work pigging out on amazing cheesecake a vendor sent us. YUMMY!!!

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--------------------------------------- Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Dreaming of Santa

Wow!!

It has been six years since I have celebrated Christmas in Canada and lets just say that I am really not missing Japan right now.

Don’t get me wrong!! I love Christmas and all that it is but I did not miss the hustle, bustle and craziness. Not to mention the EXPENSE!
WOW!

Last year was actually the first Christmas in five years that I didn’t actually work on Christmas day. How weird is that? And this year I have three days of holiday. It almost feels wrong.
NOT!
I said ‘almost’!!

I have been checking out fake Christmas trees to buy for next year when we are in our own place. I know fake is, well, fake, but in a townhouse and not owning a truck a fake tree just makes so much more sense.

Li is not for buying a tree. He is a little against a tree. Too bad! I think he is getting a bit overwhelmed by the craziness of Christmas. This is his first Christmas in a Christmas country ever.
HEHEHE

My dad’s family Christmas dinner is at dad’s house and will have 20 people over. Li is shaking his head in amazement.

My moms dinner is thankfully not quite so crazy.

ToddlerJi has figured out how to say Santa perfectly now and the other day in the car she started calling out for him. Hehehe it was too cute. She doesn’t understand yet but she is catching on pretty quickly.
She just loves Christmas lights and points at them all saying “ohhhh pretty!”

She is starting to speak sentences already and it is freaking me out a little bit. She is growing up just too damn fast.

The terrible two’s have come upon us full born and she is almost like a person with dual personalities. The kid can change her moods in a heartbeat – sweet angel to devil incarnate and back again before you know what has hit you.

Ahh life is progressing just normally.

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--------------------------------------- Saturday, December 16, 2006

Santa dancing on a tile floor under a chinese light

ToddlerJi is having a nap right now.

She just got her booster flu shot and was dragged all over town by me. She was a great girl though and even helped me carry my purse into RONA while I was carrying two giant rolls of tile wire for returning.

Today she even visited Santa and had her picture taken with him. Mind you this was our second attempt at this as the first time Grandpa and Granny took her and she turned into Velcro baby as they were walking up to him.She was all excited before, then lost it at the thought of going near him.

For todays picture I had to be in the picture at my total unlovliest and ToddlerJi had to be given a candy cane to stop her from crying. Not the most beautiful photo ever but one with lots of memories in it.

We had lunch in the food coart, she was a little princess and then went to the lighting store to pick up our chandelier for the dining room. When we were in China this year Li had his eyes searching ALL the stores for those traditional Chinese latern lights. We didn’t find any until our very last day there and we lucked out big time! They were made of wood and glass!! No Plastic! Shocking! And CHEAP! They also came in perfect flat travel boxes. We bought two and the lighting guy in town charged me $25 to attach a light fixture inside with a chain so that it can be hung in our dining room. It looks really good and I am really impressed. Li is really happy about this.

Our house is going to be soooo Chinese looking – red walls with a Chinese lantern.

Hmmmm so the painting is done and it is a beautiful job. I am so happy with it. I need to get the window coverings in order now but it is all coming together. The contrast between the red living room and blue kitchen is so wicked but works really cool. Once the flooring is all in place it is all going to tie in together so nicely.

I need to buy door twangy things to keep our walls door knob dent clean.

The tile is being laid as I type this. It is going to look so sharp. EEKK! And the carpet comes on Wednesday. There are a few little things to do after that but it is all coming together nicely.

Except for the fridge problem. I have a very limited space area where the fridge can go. My main measurement problem is the depth which is very small and giving me a massive headache!! But I have a new stove and dishwasher.

Cell phone rang – the flooring guys and dad and telling me to make my beer run a tad bit faster. Lol gotta go.

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::12/16/2006 :: 4 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Friday, December 08, 2006

It is starting to feel a lot like Christmas.

Some forgotten photos.


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Blogger has this new thing going on but I have no idea what it is about. I have ignored all their little exclamation marks and what little I read said nothing is going to change with my blog so - I - Dont - Know. duh

I was going to write a post about poops but instead I am going to show you photos from tonights excersion.
ToddlerJi, Nessa (our exchange student) and I headed to Country Gardens Garden Center before dinner to check out the One Million Christmas Lights. WAY TOO COOL!!!
They have this driving path all set up and you pay ten bucks to drive around this awsome display of lights. It takes them two months to put it all up and most of the proceeds go to local charities.
I put ToddlerJi in the front seat (yes bad mom but..) and she had a BLAST!! She kept going
"oooohhhh LOOK!!"
Ya we had a great evening.
Here are some of the pics from tonight.


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You will notice that most of our winter snow has started melting away.
I am not complaining.
**grin**

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::12/08/2006 :: 6 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Monday, December 04, 2006

CHECK HER OUT!!

Our fellow Blogger, EXPAT, has been taking photgraphy classes and people, YOU MUST CHECK OUT HER STUFF!!
WOW!!!!!!

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--------------------------------------- Yaaa!!!

The walls are being painted!!!! YAA!!! I am starting to get excited now. Two rooms had their first coat on Friday and the painter was in there today. It is looking soooo coooollll!!!!

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