May I Have This Dance?

Three of the four children I have today just went down for a nap! It's almost quiet on the western front! Whether they all nap or not is a different story.

Before the nap, Daniel and Rebecca decided to practice their dancing. It's so cute that I had to videotape it. The first one, Daniel lifted Becca a few times; the second one is how they usually dance!

Do I see future "Dancing With The Stars" contestants?!

First Snow!

Family Time

Sunday afternoon, lazy day. I'm babysitting but she's napping. The kids brought out the train set and had fun! Notice how well they are sharing! (Let me know if the video doesn't work)

What God Has Joined Together...

This is a rather long post, so grab a cup of tea (or coffee), settle in and enjoy the read!

This past Friday (Nov. 9th) Jeremy & I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We decided to go away for the night so Jeremy booked a room at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa. We've been there once before 5 years ago - Daniel was only 1year old - so we thought it would be nice to go back there. It's a little closer than driving to Vancouver, less traffic and more scenic.






Jeremy took Friday off work. I had one babysitting job that day so we had to wait until early evening to leave. Jeremy picked up our wonderful babysitter while I was getting ready. We decided to have supper in Abbotsford before heading. That way it would felt like our anniversary celebration started right away rather than driving for an hour first. We checked out a restaurant, "The Bavaria", that has been completely renovated and greatly improved. We loved it and highly recommend it to anyone (not so much for kids). From there, we headed out to Harrison. We got the hotel, checked in and our adventures began!

When Jeremy booked our room over the phone, he specifically asked for queen-sized bed. He was told that they couldn't guarantee us one unless we booked a certain kind of room, all for the same price as the double-bed rooms. So that's what he booked. Well, we got to our room and sure enough, there were two beds but they were both doubles! Not what we wanted. Now, please note, we are not usually ones to complain about things, but this was a time to do so. We phoned down to the front desk and were politely told that we could upgrade to a queen-sized room for $25 more. After trying to explain that we booked a room with a queen bed and didn't get one, and the lady "not getting it", we decided to change rooms and accept the $25 increase.

After we got settled into our new room we got ready to enjoy the hot spring pools. We found the outdoor pool and joined all the other guests in the 102 degree water! The air was cool and there was a fine mist with light drops of rain. (It reminded us of when we vacationed in November with some friends and sat in the Banff Springs Hotel hot springs pool. It was lightly snowing that night. So cool!) We enjoyed the relaxing water despite the kids playing noisily in the other outdoor pool. Then we went attired in our bathing suites & bath robes to the Island's Bar to order our desserts (thanks to the hotel staff for the tip). After changing we went back to the bar to enjoy our desserts.

Now, in keeping with our blog website name, our adventures continued! Backing up a little, I had been having bad headaches for a few days and Jeremy had one on Friday. Getting enough rest seemed to help. Because we didn't want our headaches to come back, we wanted to make sure we got lots of rest. So, you can imagine how frustrated we were when we had to call down to the front desk at 1:10am, asking them to send someone up to tell our neighbors to be quiet. We had two young couples (early 20's at the most) sharing a room next to us. They were laughing hysterically, thumping, banging, running up & down the halls (earlier in the evening)...! Aaaaggghhhh! I just wanted to sleep! Thankfully the hotel staff came and took care of it. Finally, we could go to sleep! Then at 5am Jeremy's cell phone rang alerting us that there was a message. Now, who would phone at 5am unless there was an emergency? Of course, there wasn't any cell service in the room so Jeremy, still half asleep, went down to the lobby...outside...outside to the parking area...still no service...outside to the far parking area...finally, service! Oh, by the way, picture all of this while it is pouring rain! Jeremy fought through all this to check his message. "Please enter your password...you have one message..." Jeremy waited nervously for the message, "Oh, sorry Jeremy, I have the wrong number!" Aaaggghhh! Wrong number?! Oh, Jeremy was frustrated to say the least! And wet! He came back to our room and had to get a towel to dry off. Thankfully we were able to get back to sleep and even slept in. So much for having a good night's sleep, though! Oh well! Life goes on and we determined to make the best of our time anyway.

After a relaxing morning, we checked out. Many thanks to the lady who helped us check out. Jeremy explained our whole queen-sized bed situation to her and she promptly took it off our bill. After a pleasant conversation with her we left the hotel. Now, to find something special to buy for our kids and to get ourselves something to eat. We quickly found the kids' "surprises" and went in search for some good cheap food! We found a wonderful little restaurant and enjoyed good home-made food.

It was time for us to start heading back home. The wind was blowing, it was getting cold. Okay, fine, let's have one more adventure! Jeremy left the van lights on and the battery died! We got to have some quiet time sitting in the van waiting for the tow truck to come & jump our battery. By the time the van was running (thank you to our private insurance!) it was time for us to head home. When I think of all the things that went "wrong" it seems like we shouldn't have had a good time, but, we were able to take each situation in stride and enjoy our time away -just the two of us.

On our drive home, we reminisced of how our relationship began. Looking back, I realized that making one decision can change the whole course of your life. During my first year at Columbia Bible College I had to do a community volunteer service project. I chose to volunteer at a kids' club that met at a low-income apartment building. I enjoyed it so much I continued helping during my second year. Little did I know that Jeremy would transfer to CBC and volunteer at the same kids' club as me. That's where we met -in the "Dungeon" as we affectionately called the dingy, smelly room in the underground parking. If you had told me twelve years ago that this new guy would be my husband and I would be celebrating 11 years of marriage with him I wouldn't have believed you! But, that's the beauty of how God works!

As Jeremy & I talked about our first few dates and when we were getting to know each other I got those excitement butterflies in my stomach! It was such an exciting time getting to know this man and realizing that we had so much in common and were very compatible. And now, after one year of dating and being engaged (the picture is of us right after we got engaged) and 11 years of marriage, we are still in love and anticipating the next 11+ years of marriage. At the rate time is flying by it will be here before we know it! And I can't wait!

I love my husband for all the big things he does: works hard to earn enough money for me to stay at home with our kids, loves to spend time with his son & daughter and wife, is passionate about his ministry within our church; and for all the little things he does: goes out in the pouring rain at 5am to check a cell phone message just in case it's an emergency, fixes the broken toilet seat, fixes our van, encourages me to laugh more, takes charge of supper on Sundays, makes sure I get a break from being a Mom...the list goes on and on! God gave Jeremy to me and for that I'm forever thankful.

What God has joined together, let man not separate.

Friends!

Well, a couple weekends ago I went to our church conference's Ladies Retreat. It's an annual event and I try not to miss it - hey, a weekend away without kids, cooking & cleaning, staying up late, laughing, reconnecting with friends and with Christ?! What could be better!

This year Jeremy took the Friday off from work and I was able to juggle things with my babysitting jobs, therefore enabling me to leave in the afternoon instead of my usual "after supper" time. It was great, driving up with all the ladies. We stopped for supper at a restaurant in Hope (the camp is just a few minutes outside of Hope). Mmmmm! The food was good and the pie was even better! Good memories!

(Cassandra, Shauna & Christa)

Then, we chugged off to the camp - full tummies and all! And what a great weekend we had. My only disappointment was that I was so tired from all the babysitting I had been doing (I had just finished working for 14 days straight). I managed to stay awake for a bit (okay, 'til 1am!) - chocolate & pop has a way of doing that! But once that sugar wore off, I was done! Apparently there's some rumor going around that I was asleep in 7 minutes and that they weren't able to get to sleep right away because of me! I have no idea what they're talking about! (Wink! Wink!)

(Bonnie & Yvonne)

Our friend from church, Laurel, spoke at our retreat this year. She spoke on redemption; specifically, "Jesus, our Redeemer". It's a word that isn't often used but has a lot of meaning to it. Basically redemption means: "to deliver from sin and its consequences by means of a sacrifice offered for the sinner". So basically, if we believe Jesus is our redeemer then we believe that He has freed us (forgiven us) from our sin. He is the only one who can do that for us because He died on a cross and three days later came alive again. When he died, he took on Himself all the sins of the world - past, present & future sins! What a load! What a gift to us! And if we accept this gift, then we can live in Heaven with Jesus after we die!


Laurel reminded us ladies that all of us are beautiful in God's eyes. Why? Because we were made in His image. That was a good reminder for me to see other people (particularily those I might not enjoy very much) through God's eyes because they are made in His image as well!

(Some ladies I DO enjoy!

Yvonne, Leslie, Marlene & Laurel)

(Shauna, Me, Christa & Bonnie)

One of the songs we sang that weekend had some words that meant a lot to me.

"This is my desire, to honor You
Lord, with all my heart I worship You
All I have within me, I give You praise
All that I adore is in You.


Lord, I give You my heart, I give you my soul
I live for You alone
Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake
Lord have Your way in me."


On the Sunday morning, we had communion together. The word communion means: "to converse or talk together with profound intensity". I left that weekend encouraged to continue forward in my Christian walk. My desire to connect deeper with God grew stronger too. As I spend time reading my bible and praying I am excited about conversing with profound intensity with God.

The Heart of a Child

We have just had a time with our children that makes us proud to be their Mom and Dad!

It all started a couple weeks ago when Daniel came home from school, took off his coat & shoes, went to his bedroom and promptly came out with one of his superhero costumes. He quickly informed me that "we need to send this to the kids in Africa who don't have any toys". That soft part in my heart melted as he said those words to me. That he would care enough about the boys and girls in Africa (the only country's name that he knows that is poor) to run to his room, pick out one of his favored toys and be willing to give it away - wow! I had to explain that we can't send them a superhero costume, but that we can certainly buy some toys to send. He was satisfied with that.

Then at the last minute on Friday morning, Daniel reminded me that this was the last day to bring the gifts to school for the kids in Africa. Again, I had to redirect him and gently let him know that it was okay. We could buy some things this weekend and it wouldn't be too late. Once again he was satisfied with that. His urgency and enthusiasm confirmed in me that this was something our family had to make a priority.

Yesterday we went shopping with our children to buy enough gifts to fill two shoe boxes, one for a boy Daniel's age and one for a girl Rebecca's age. We shopped for toys, toiletries and some school supplies letting the kids each pick out things for "their" box. After a few reminders that "we aren't shopping for us" we managed to get the things we wanted. These shoe boxes will be shipped off in the next week or so to Operation Christmas Child and from there they will be given to a boy and a girl who don't have anything. We are trying to instill in our children what it means to give selflessly, knowing they won't get anything tangible in return.

This evening, we put the things into the shoe boxes. It took a bit of rearranging but everything fit! Phew!!! Both of our kids were very protective of "their" box. Then, Jeremy found a video clip on-line from Samaritan's Purse (Operation Christmas Child) and we showed it to the children (we've tried to include it at the end of this post - hope it works!). Part way through the video, Daniel was making some noises. I asked him if he was okay and he said, "It's okay. I'm crying because it feels good!" Wow!!! We stopped the video and took a moment to clarify what he meant. He let us know that he was fine. It made him feel good knowing that we are sending toys to a boy and a girl that don't have any. What a sensitive heart! After we finished the video clip we prayed over the boxes and asked Jesus to take these gifts safely to the boy and girl; that Jesus would bless the gifts and the children who would receive them. It was a wonderful bonding time as a family.

If you would like more information about Samaritan's Purse / Operation Christmas Child please visit http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/.

Eight Weeks 'til Christmas!

A few years ago I bought a book called "Simplify Your Life" by Marcia Ramsland (http://www.organizingpro.com). The title itself seemed to shout out at me! It is a book on getting organized and staying organized. There are a number of concepts that I have tried to adopt (I think it's time to blow the dust off the book and refresh my memory!) but the one that has stood out to me the most has been the chapter called "Simplify the Holidays".

Marcia writes, "Every year, one particular event occurs eight weeks before Christmas. Do you know what that is? It is Halloween. That event is important to note because you can use those eight weeks from October 31 to December 25 as a structure to annually simplify and strategize your preparations."


It has taken me a couple years to really implement it, but last year I decided to follow Maricia's guidelines and it was wonderful! Usually I am mailing my Christmas cards around New Year's - one year it became a Valentine's Day letter because I sent it out so late! But last year, I had all my Christmas letters out by the first week of December! What a relief to know that was checked off my list of things to do!

So, with yesterday being Halloween, I thought I would share with you something that really helped me last year. Marcia suggests creating an eight-week holiday calendar with the days of the week at the top and the week number (8 weeks before, 7 weeks before, 6 weeks before...) listed down the left side, adding Christmas week and New Year's week as well. Then, fill in important dates (Halloween, Christmas programs, dinners with friends & family, Advent, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve...). Doing this helps you to see the next eight weeks at a glance.


Then Marcia suggests the following:
8 weeks before: shop & wrap 1/3 of your gifts
7 weeks before: shop & wrap 2/3 of your gifts
6 weeks before: finish shopping & wrapping gifts
5 weeks before: start planning for overnight company & vacation time
4 weeks before: put up outdoor decorations and write Christmas cards
3 weeks before: Set up the Christmas tree & decorate indoors; mail gifts & cards
2 weeks before: attend & host parties; bake & clean
1 week before: grocery shop for Christmas meals & make final preparations


She adds more info and tips but that is the general idea of organizing the next eight weeks. I really liked how I could look at my organization calendar and see where we had time to get together with friends (including those we don't often see throughout the year). And I didn't feel stressed wondering how everything was going to get done. I knew that this week I am concentrating on finishing up shopping for gifts and wrapping them, and that next week I don't have to think "what are we going to buy ???".


If nothing else, I hope this post helps you to feel that there is a way to not just survive the holidays but to really enjoy them and to have time to remember why we celebrate this time of year.