The Zoo

We went to Calgary for the night on Friday, partly to look at the pricing/quality of the cabinets/flooring at Ikea, but mostly just to get away. So we made the most of it and met my parents on Saturday. We had a picnic, went to the zoo and then had dinner at Chianti's (a fantastic little Italian restaurant). Here's some pics of the day: Kevin and Atalie look at the mountain goats. As you can see, the giraffes were Atalie's favorite animal. The rainforest exhibit. The otters were lots of fun (so she seemed to think) The black bears were dukin it out. A last look at how much sleep she got that day. We had a great day and had the pleasure of a (mostly) silent ride home!

A real date?!!

It's true! Kev and I will be going on a real live date tonight!! WOOHOO!!! Dinner and hotsprings. It would have been dinner and a movie but our local theatre is closed for 2 weeks for carpet cleaning (how funny is that?). I know you're all likely thinking that hotsprings are more romantic than a movie anyway, and you're probably right. But what you may not have thought of is that we go to the hotsprings on a regular basis with atalie, but seeing a movie is not possible without a sitter for our little bug, thus a rarity. Oh well. The time away is just as appreciated regardless of the activity. The only disapoitment is not being able to enjoy a glass of wine with my dinner out :( aw well. 4 more months :)

A weekend away.

As I mentioned earlier, I went to Calgary this past weekend with my fantastic friend Devon. I stayed with Deanne as she was having a going-away party and I just had to be there for it! Kristie showed up too:) :) so the three of us had some time to catch up and just be. Boy do I love those girls. Girlfriends are irreplaceable. Devon and I shopped till I almost dropped Friday evening:) Really, it was four hours of scouring the mall and I could barely walk as we left... so I went to the doc today and apparently I may have caused some inflamation with all that walking. When you're pregnant your joints loosen and your hips actually move out about 1/2 inch - thus the reason for any akward, clumsy pregnant women you see tripping over themselves for no "apparent" reason. Anyway, she advised I avoid anything which escalates the pain and take extra good care, as the next 10 weeks are the most critical - more so than the last 8-10. So no more lengthy shopping trips or walks up and down the road to the river for awhile. Anyway, here's a pic of myself and two of the fabulous girls I grew up with:) Deanne is in the middle, she is going to Guatemala for 5 weeks to learn spanish for her job; Kristie is on the left and she just left to travel Croatia/Ireland for 3 weeks. I on the other hand, travelled 3 hours back to Invermere to see my husband and daughter and wouldn't trade it for Guatemala, Croatia or Ireland - unless of course, they were there:)

A weekend away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it?! I almost can't. I haven't spent a night away from Atalie yet. Kevin and I have probably had a night or two apart (although I can't remember when) but generally we do everything and go everywhere together. Is that normal? Maybe it seems wierd. I guess we've just always been friends and always enjoyed doing the same things together. Of course having similar schedules works well... and when you have limited funds you tend to plan any "away" time as good times together. Plus you can't really go far when you have a little one. But not tomorow:) Devon and I are going to Calgary together for the weekend! My longtime buddy Deanne is having a little going away party, as she'll be leaving for Guatemala next week, and she invited me to come (to the party that is:)). My automatic response was, "shoot. too bad i can't go." And then that thought was interupted with, "wait - why not?". We're not building a house yet, I haven't delivered a baby yet (and have 4 months to go) and when that all happens I simply won't have time to go anywhere alone for, well, likely quite awhile. I had a good laugh at myself after Devon and I had planned out our weekend a little. We decided to try to get to Calgary before rush hour, which leaves us an hour or two to scour the mall before Deanne gets home from work. The thought of this was so exciting I could barely stand it. A mall??? A real mall?? Who'da thunk that small town life could affect a person so much:) So although I don't really have much $$ to spend, I'll enjoy the hunt of at least one good bargain. Yea! Aaaand, my other longtime buddy Kristie is also going to be there, who I haven't seen since July 2005 (shocking I know!). It's all too exciting for words!

Buuuuuu

Atalie loves birds ("buuuuuuu") so I took her down to the lake this morning to see the huge flock of ducks that were huddled along the shore... of course they dispersed somewhat once they heard us (Atalie) coming ;)

Little lasagna hands allllll over!

Here we have our little "meat and potatos" girl, chowing down on lasagna. She was determined to smear it in her hair and everywhere else she could possibly reach... she must cleverly know that means it's time for a bath... which she looooves! Little stinker. In other Atalie news, a person would think we let her watch MTV (music television) all day or something. She's got more moves than Madonna. She does this adorable little shoulder shrug - one at a time - perfectly in time with the music (well, that lasts about 5-10 seconds at a time)! I'm stunned. Any of you who know us know that neither Kev or I dance... not well and not seriously anyway:) Attie doesn't even have to have music playing, as long as you clap your hands a little she'll start to jive around. Totally priceless!!

In reference to "Blessings" Post

Hmm... perhaps I should have called that post "Blessings and curses". I've had numerous comments (not all were on my blog) and conversations about this, following my entry on the topic. I've truly enjoyed discussing this and hearing similar/different viewpoints, but have been getting the idea that perhaps I wasn't sending quite the message that I was going for. I'll try to sum it up again, hopefully much simpler this time. I think that we must be careful what we say, as the devil takes full advantage of our words and can use them against us; I think that a simple sentence can bring upon curses in peoples lives when said either as fact or fiction. The point is, he's out to destroy and the fact that we most often to not see the spiritual realm is something I think he takes advantage of. For example, if I were to have said to Kevin this morning, "Bye love, have a good day... make sure you have your cell phone incase your truck breaks down!" what am I setting him up for? I'm not only verbally letting the devil hear my doubts to take advantage of (which he WILL do - either by putting further doubt in my mind the rest of the day; or by placing doubt in Kevin's mind; or by letting a dear run infront of him while he's reaching down for his coffee cup; or perhaps he'll get creative and mess around with the engine so that it breaks down), but I'm also doubting God's ability to keep that vehicle running. So I'm suggesting that instead of saying the above, I should say something like, "... make sure you take your cell phone, drive safe and pray that the truck keeps running for a long time yet!" This way we are telling the devil that he has no hand in our circumstances by taking an active step of faith, rather than saying the first thing that comes to our heads and then silently hoping God will come through. We are also practicing discipline in our language, which re-trains our minds to think in a pattern of faith and hope, instead of doubt, fear and worry. Also, I still haven't been able to find that verse. I heard a friend quote it the other day so I'll have to tag him down and get it from him. I believe it's in Proverbs but perhaps I'm missing it b/c I read a different translation. Hm. I'll get it yet!

The waiting game...

Well chapter one is over. I got a call from the bank today, saying that our mortgage application was declined. Very disapointing, I will admit:( Especially when you've got all the plans in the works - quotes, blueprints, interior ideas... but we're not giving up just yet. We have a friend in Kelowna who is a mortgage broker and I remember him telling us that banks are pretty stiff when it comes to getting a mortgage; and having worked in a bank (the same one that just turned us down infact) I know that they exist to help you help themselves - their key priority is to protect themselves in any case, with lots of rules and tight stipulations. Now don't get me wrong:) I have no hard feelings against banks, just frusterations wtih their policies & procedures. So on that note we're starting from scratch with finances, and we'll have to start from scratch with the lot offer as well... which will be a nice break actually, as the realtor was constantly breathing down my neck about the finances. So I'm off to call a mortgage broker, in hopes they'll be a little more flexible. So please continue to pray with us as we figure this out. Thanks all!!!

Kiddie Pictures

The girls and I finally took some pictures this week. We headed out to the ranch where our hubbies are working and took some pics with our kiddies:) The first one is a view of the ranch where Kev works, then eventually you'll see our groupie picture with myself with Atalie, Devon with Zackery (hiding in the backpack), and Jen with Gabriella.

Windermere sites:)

I think I'll miss this place more than I realize, as we have to move out next month. I must have seen at least 10 eagles fly by our house, over the lake today - whether or not they were all the same eagle I can't really tell;) There are so many around here, it's unreal!! They're busy catching fish and pulling up seaweed for their nests. I got a picture of one eating a fish up ontop of a telephone pole this evening and thought I'd post it. It's with our little point-and-shoot digital of course, so it's certainly not the best quality (!) ... aw well.

Another visit to the doctor

I went to see Dr. Dibb today. She's my new doc here in Invermere - she's extremely laid back, has a friendly small town attitude about her and kinda dresses like she's going out for a walk or grocery shopping or something:) Gotta love the Kootenays. Anyway, she's fantastic. I had a regular prenatal checkup this morning, as I am now officially 20wks. She reviewed my ultrasound results and mentioned that the radiology clinic happened to reveal the sex of the baby on the form(!)... which apparently, they have NEVER done. So she said anytime I want to know I can. Eegad, why the temptation????? Kev and I decided that this one would be a surprise b/c we chose to find out Atalie's gender before she was born (mostly my doing as I wanted to prepare with some girlie clothes and girlie decorating in her room). So I stuck to my guns and said, "no. we'll wait." Shucks. Curiosity is killing me! Anyway, she also mentioned that the plecenta is slightly lower than it ought to be... which isn't the norm. It is supposed to move upward as the baby grows but can occassionally move downward towards the cervix, which, in worst case scenarios, would block the "exit" on delivery day. However, the radiologist didn't request a second ultrasound (only 1 is necessary in most pregancies) so she said it's nothing to be too concerned over. But just to be on the cautious side she's sending me back for a 2nd ultrasound at 30wks. I don't mind though, it's fun seeing the little babs grow and flale around, even inspite of the hour drive with a full bladder. Other than that, everything looks great and the baby weighs 10oz, exactly average. So as far as predictions, I'm going to be brave and say that I think this one is a boy; Kev isn't making any predictions, which may be smart really. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it were a girl... who knows???

Blessings

So I know that I've had a farely light-hearted blog site. That is until now. I feel like posting something a little more serious today. It is long, beware. A friend and myself were sitting out on the front deck this afternoon, basking, uninterupted, in the sun, as our lil' children slept. We've been having a series of conversations about words. Here's what we've been thinking: There are 32 references in the back of my bible which relate to the word, "Word(s)". There is one verse which speaks about "words speaking life and death", however, I can't seem to find this verse in any of those 32 references (does anybody know where that verse is??). Anyway, to jump ahead a little I'll begin with an example: Kev and I have experienced extreme difficulty financially - both before and during our 4 years of marriage. So many things have gone wrong at the exact wrong times. I remember often saying things (in frusteration, or just jokingly) like, "Just our luck" or "of course" or "should have seen it coming" or "why me?" or "we can never get ahead"... sometimes we'd find ourselves saying things previous to having experienced those unfortunate incidences such as, "with our luck" or "just wait, this will happen just as we're getting ahead"... sometimes we'd even bring God into the situation by saying things like, "why doesn't God provide?" and "it's just not mean to be"... the list goes on and I'm sure some of those are familiar to some/all of you. So we began to take our situation very seriously, as we had had enough(!). Financial burdens were taking over our lives and making us miserable. We began to pray daily about this, infact it was more like 10-50 times a day - whenever it popped into my mind anyway. We declared victory, blessing and favour over our lives and renounced the devils plans otherwise; we asked God to protect us and deliver us from this debt we unknowingly got into; we asked for wisdom to know how to handle our finances and speak to us in every area which needed addressing. Soon we were given opportunities to speak with people who were knowledgeable in the area of $$. We also decided to tithe, regardless of our situation (which i MUST add, did not seem to make a difference at first or even soon thereafter, and we were very tempted to screw the whole idea as we continued to go into further debt and became more stressed, regardless of where our money did or didn't go). It was an all out war! But there was one aspect which was quite exciting about being at war. It was knowing that God had already won victory and even though we were feeling the utmost frusterated at this point, the air would clear and we would come out ontop. It seems that God gave me a burst of hope knowing that He was there inspite of what we felt and saw. What fun:) In the "end" God gave Kevin favour at work with a raise or two (not huge or anything); he kept us healthy and able to work; he brought us an opportunity (and very large leap of faith!) to invest in a condo, which we sold 6 months later and cleared our debt completely; he gave us wisdom in purchasing a reliable vehicle; he showed us how to invest our money for Atalie's future as well as our own; and now he's given us the opportunity (and once again, VERY large leap of faith) to build a home in which we will continue to invest both our finances and lives in. Now, after that length story I'll get to my point: Words do speak life and death. I once belived that prayer should solve everything (it was a very long time ago I admit, but it's always a long developing process out of those ways of thinking). However, prayer is and isn't enough. It is a necessary part of our relationship with God, thus our lives on earth - but unless we act on God's voice in that conversation, it simply isn't enough. So when it comes to us listening to & obeying him, why do we choose to compromise his abilities by saying things which bring upon disaster in our lives? I considered today what kind of things I say in the span of a single day, and I was shocked! I have spoken about colds and flus as though they are simply a part of life which are to be delt with as we get them. Now realistically, we all know that viruses are carried physically, thus everyone is suseptible. But why would I invite that into my life by making verbal assumptions? And what about vehicles breaking down? Sure accidents happen which aren't always our fault, but why send out an invitation for the devil to tinker with my vehicle so that it breaks down the next week, or to bring along someone in my path who happens to be talking on a cellphone instead of watching where they're going? Then there's disease. They are not understood and have brought so much death and suffering that this topic seems unbearable to even bring to the surface - however I can't help but think of the fact that my Grandma died of cancer, and that i once heard cancer skips a generation... where does that leave me? Well, if I have a choice in the matter I'm going to do everything I can not to get it. That means speaking life and health over my life and renouncing any ties to disease which the devil may have tried to bring down the line of genetics; it also means living a healthy lifestyle and not expecting God to work miracles while we work so hard against them. Here's another example, a sort of silly example, but a good one:) I had alot of dental work done when I was younger, and I know full well the misery of sitting in that chair for hours, listening to the drill buzz in you ear (uuughck, makes me shutter!). So when the dentist told me, as a teenager, that I would probably need to have my wisdom teeth removed in a few years, I panicked. My panick lead me to pray harder than ever, praying for those stinkin teeth to grow in straight and for God to make plenty of room for them, with no hastles in the future whatsoever!! Currently, they've all come in and I've had no problems. Many have advised that I should still get them removed b/c of horror stories they've heard of the teeth growing into sinus cavities, etc etc... but I'm sticking to my choice of victory. And that silly story brings together my thoughts: Why do we settle for average, or less, when we can take a risk of speaking blessing into our lives and have so much more?! Okay well that's all. That's my sermon for the day:) or perhaps the year:) .. we'll see.

Todays events... please excuse the run-on paragraphs, as blogger refuses to acknowledge "enter".

Well, today was a good day. Infact, it was a great long-weekend follow-up sort of day. Kev is now working 10-hr days, which means he gets every Friday off to make up for the extra hours worked. And since it was a holiday on Monday, it was super duper long!! Anyway I had my ultrasound today, in Golden, at 11:00am. Golden is about an hour and a quarter drive from Invermere, so you can imagine the pain of driving along a bumpy winding BC road (nothing like Alberta's perfectly paved, straight roads) with a litre of water in my bladder. Thankfully, the lady doing the ultrasound was very reasonable, and kind, and she let me empty it a little (nobody in Kelowna let me do that with my first pregnancy ultrasound!). I forgot how detailed the exam really is! They measure absolutely every tiny body part, count each & every finger & toe, take pictures of every organ and limb at least twice (from every angle possible), and then finally allow the family (kev & attie) to come in for a little baby tour. It was fun! Kev took some time off work to come with me, which I really appreciated - it would have been a little lonely without him, staring at our tiny innocent unborn little babs all by myself. Not something to experience without your spouse. Atalie was bored immediately following the first picture of the baby, but was intersted again when the lady gave her a cute little bracelet when we were about to leave. You can see it in the pictures below, it's one of those flourescent ones us girls used to collect in the 80's/90's and wear until they fell off. The trip to the hospital was followed with a trip to McDonalds (mmm!!!) for lunch, which is always exciting, as we don't have one in Invermere. Seriously, I know. But it was. I got home to discover a message from our mortgage lady at BMO. Yeaa!! Finally, the results... much awaited results. When I got in touch with her I learned that we had to do some more figuring, not b/c of numbers or budgets, but b/c of CMHC's regulations on builders mortgages. To make a long story short, it seems that this will still likely turn out to be okay, but she has to re-submit our application, appearing with two different loans. Odd, I know. But we think it may work. So that means another few days of waiting - hopefully Friday will be our day for good and possitive answers. And I must add that this experience has been rather interesting... a mix of emotions and QUITE the learning curve(!). Waiting on mortgage/realestate results has been extremely easy-going and completely stress-free for me, I'm guessing b/c those are things which are out of my control and I trust that God will grant us favour and give these people wisdom in dealing with our matters. However, learning the building process and doing the phonecalling for quotes has been all too frusterating as I often don't really know how to ask intelligent questions on topics I know sooooo little (or nothing) about. Learning is something which I have to take control over and force myself to do, otherwise none of this will happen. God was gracious in giving me a brain but seriously, I wonder if I even know how to use it sometimes. It can be frusterating to be the instructor of a course you know nothing about - ie. building a house from scratch. So that was my day. Good. Relaxing. And lately I've even been feeling excited about all the fun details of building a house. Carpet, paint, cupboards, layouts, etc etc etc. It's fun:)

Pics of Atalie

Here's a few pictures I took today. Atalie let me sleep in this morning, which means I had no time to make her bedhead less bedheady - you'll have to excuse her cute little morning doo:) The first two are of Atalie and her new carebear which she got for her birthday... she wasn't too sure about the talking bear but was interested nonetheless:) These next two are obviously her peaking through her Little Duckling book, which she loves! She has really taken to books (we only allow her free range with the cardboard-page books, as the rest would likely be destroyed) and loves when you read to her - although you don't really get much reading done, as she loves to turn the pages rather quickly:) Upside-down always makes for a good read;)

Easter Weekend

All in all we had a great weekend:) As I mentioned, my Mom & Dad & brother came to visit us this weekend. We watched movies Friday; Saturday we slept in (till 8:00), hiked the hoodoos, went for a drive, walked by the lake, ate lots of turkey and sat out on the deck enjoying the lake-view... aaah, exactly what a long weekend should be! Atalie has been somewhat of a bear with her awful teeth coming through. But she has her moments of delight - she's quite the giggler, looooves to babble, and really loves music(!!!!). Just tonight she had us doubling over laughing as she danced to music - okay, it wasn't really music at first. Kev and I were describing to the fam. how cute it was when she'd get going to a song that has a good beat - so I displayed by singing "Old McDonald" and clapping my hands, and to our surprise, it was enough to get her excited and start a jig. Once she got going we put some better music on (she seems to like Delirious, or anything quick with a solid beat) and she pulled out allll the moves!! She did the shoulder shrug, the hip wiggle, the elbow jiggle, the slow and steady sway, the bounce, the foot tap, the hand slap... she even did a little move which requires her to sit down, bend over and toss her elbows back and forth while kinda shaking her head and moving her shoulders around. Wow! I've never seen so many moves:) We got some of it on video but I'm gonna have to figure out how to upload it onto blogger - which I'm terrible at! In the meantime, here's some other pics of the weekend (and I'm not going to try and coordinate comments with the pictures, as blogger just messes it all up anyway). I'll mention that the first couple you see with a lake are taken just infront of our house on Windermere Lake. After that it's mostly at the Hoodoos National Park close to Fairmont.

question!

Okay, so I guess things are working now. Great!! You'll notice I've played around with some colour;) However, I'm wondering why all my posts are running into each other. For example, you'll see below that the comments above the first 3 pictures have to do with atalie's birthday, then immediately following the last sentence there's a new sentence which belongs above the next set of pictures for kevins birthday... and so on and so on. then there's paragraph structure, which is absolutely everywhere. anytime i hit enter for a new paragraph it still shows up immediately following the previous sentence in the previous paragraph. ?? it's all shmushed together. this is very annoying. solutions?

pictures too?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!! wowwee!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a few pics of attie's birthday weekend, but unfortunately forgot to snap a few more with the digital... most were taken with my film camera so you'll miss out on some good cake pics. shucks. that's okay, here's some cuties of the big birthday girl!! The theme of Kev's party was wigs. Some forgot their weigs but the ones who brought them looked hilariously wicked:) Good times. -oops about the sideways picture of kev and his cake - too difficult to change it after uploading all the other pics around it. oh well. I have a before and after shot of the weekend. Cute little attie in her cargo capris on the deck, enjoying the warm spring sunshine; and Monday morning with a foot of fresh snow... uck! Here we have little pumpkin, lounging around with a bit of a fever and feeling crumby. She sits in this chair for hours at a time these last few days. Doesn't seem to mind either.

trying again

... - shocking - ... ! can you believe it???? i'm seeing what i've written on the screen! wow. so much to say! can i say it all before blogger disapoints me again? Better begin! Okay, well... two weeks ago was Atalie's very first birthday - my only regret is that I didn't initiate a round of "Happy Birthday" before she attempted to "blow" (touch) out her candle. Otherwise, it was a great day spent with friends and family. She was overwhelmed with gifts and has been exploring her new toys ever since:) Our trip to Lethbridge was all too short - and too quick! I was driving to and from town all weekend long, running errands, grocery shopping, getting a haircut/colour (which i discovered my stylist cancelled and didn't bother to inform me. ugh. thankfully a kind girl happened to have a moment and fit me into her bookings... the short story)... then there's always visiting to be done, which is the highlight of course, but seeing so many people makes for less quality visits unfortunately. The next weekend (last) was Kev's big 30th party, which was kept a surprise for a whopping 3 months, all the way up to the moment everyone yelled, "SURPRISE!!!". Can you believe it?!?!? These people are awesome! Best kept secret yet:) We had a bbq, a fire, lots of birthday cake, a million pots of coffee, and lots of good friends/family to share it with:) :) All in all, a great day! This coming weekend my family is coming to visit us for Easter... yea!!! We're doin the whole turkey dinner thing, lots of lounging, some games or movies perhaps, and likely a visit to the hotsprings:) Always promising. Atalie however.... has been one miserable little one year old this week. She's been teething like crazy - I think there must be more than one coming in. Plus she had a fever on and off for a couple days, even today a bit. Tylenol has been her best friend, although I try to only give it when she seems unable to bear the discomfort. She's mostly just lethargic and needs lots of attention, hugs, cuddles, story books, other means of distraction, and much much more... she doesn't eat much either and milk is her 2nd best friend. I've spent the last few days sitting and holding her while she sleeps b/c otherwise she doesn't sleep well, has too short of naps, thus is very very very cranky and I can't get anything done anyways... so I enjoy the moment of cuddling and usually nod off with her:) To top it all off she had four needles (4 big pokes in the legs!) on Wednesday. Her sweet chubby little innocent legs! She screamed like never before and was probably wondering why I just sat there, holding her down and letting it all happen... poor little pook. What a mean mommy! Anyway, life goes on (thank goodness!) and soon she was thrilled to shake the little "distraction" bell sitting conveniently nearby for all the poor little babies who cry during these episodes. In other news, we are moving ahead with preliminary plans to build a house. (how was that for a newspaper headline aye? ehh??) I've been working my butt off the last few weeks to come up with numbers and figures for estimates, running to and from the bank, the realtors, kev's work (which is a 1/2hr away on a nasty backroad, just so he can sign papers), the floor store, the hardware store, checking emails, sending faxes (at 1.50 per sheet!!!!!), photocopying plans, drawing plans (apparently I, along with my Father and husband, are now architects), picking siding, shingles, da di da di da... the list goes on. Busy! Much stress at times. We currently sit patiently waiting (really, actually, patiently) to hear back from our mortgage lady at the bank. We're waiting to hear if CMHC (the bank has to go through their insurance company before approving you when you put less than 25% down on any mortgage) will approve our budgeted amount, compared to our financial means. The numbers we've come up with were WAY higher than expected, but we think we can afford the payments if approved. Besides, the bank makes you give estimates of every last material and labour cost, even if you're planning to do it yourself. Thus, you end up with a much larger mortgage than necessary - which is okay, b/c this means there's room for error or changes along the way, as we'll be saving money in the labour area. When all is said and done, we can even put what we don't use back into the mortgage to shrink it down a bit... but when you think of all the possibilities: a deck, a finished basement for guests to sleep and kids to play in, a garage, a garden shed, a fence (whoda thunk a fence would ever take priority?!), a little sod, a nice sectional to watch movies on (we have one couch right now), etc etc etc... it becomes very unrealistic that any of it will be put back. So that's that. We should hear back by Tuesday or Wednesday. Pray please:) Thanks. Well, I'm off to bed as my daughter wakes daily at 7:30am -which isn't bad if you go to bed when she does, but it's a little late at the moment. Good night!