Happy Anniversary

Yay us! 8 years. Happy to say we've made it this far. It breaks my hearts when couples break up and marriages end and without getting into that too much I am just so thrilled to have a handsome and hardworking husband who loves me, to have a partner to come home to everyday, and to be able to honour the committment we made to God.

Thankful

It is so good to be home and connecting with people. I love watching Gemma play so well with her cousin Ty, chatting with my sister, shopping with Baba, and watching Guinness smile at everyone. We've been very busy, trying to fit in as much as possible.

Lots of cultural things that are different between here and Taiwan.
1) I feel like I'm always invading people's privacy because I can understand their conversations. And it worries me that people may be listening to my conversations.
2) Everything is far apart here. We spend a lot of time in the car driving.
3) People drive WAY to fast here. I've rethunk my position on crazy Taiwan driving; it all seems so logical now and driving here seems so dangerous. Chris and I are pretty careful because we want ot avoid tickets and of course wrecking my dad's car he so graciously bought and lent to us. And when we are going the limit there is ALWAYS someone up our butt. Yikes.
4)I went to the grocery store yesterday, that was super overwhelming. One example is in Taiwan at our local grocery store we can buy one brand of granola bars, and two flavours: pecan crunch and peanut butter. Yesterday at Sobey's there was a 15 foot shelf stacked top to bottom with granola bars. Soft, hard, chewy, chocolate... I didn't know so many flavours existed! Same with yogurt: a 20 foot shelf of yogurts. I finally just picked the one on sale and went on. It made me realize how lucky we are and blessed to have so much. I mean, here I am picking out 1 of a 100 different yogurts and there are people in my city who won't eat anything today. I couldn't believe that with all that food there are starving people close by. I will be more diligent about supporting the local food bank and church food drives after this.

We are so rich! I am thankful for my healthy children. I am thankful for our awesome parents who are able to support us when we are home for the summer with lodging and food and cars. I am thankful for friends who don't forget about us, and a church that we can still call home.

I better go turn Oprah off now, before I go completely mush!

30

I am 30 tomorrow!

And isn't it so lame that all I want is for our friends to help us move this weekend. Seriously! That is all I need. The precious commodity of time, since I don't have enough I need some from my friends.

My other b-day present is always to print my pictures for the year. I already have a photo album and almost al the photos I want on a USB, ready to go to the print shop. I love pictures!

Too much change!

Life is crazy here, but a more scheduled crazy which is good. This time of year is always really hard because its the end of the school year, and people leave, and you find out that some students are leaving and not coming back. Most of the time it doesn't bother me so much; our core group of friends has stayed the same and well, this life makes you a little hard and closed off to a lot of new relationships because of the inevitable goodbye. But this year is hard because we are losing some really close friends. Teecy, a super dear friend is moving back the US. My coworker, the other music teacher who I have worked in tandem with for the last four years is also moving, to a small school in China. This one is really hard because our lives are very intertwined . She is the music department head and handles all the budget and inventory details, setting up riser details, awards, programs...so all of these things will be falling on my shoulders next year. She is also incredibly skilled and talented as a musician, much more than I am and so we are losing that aspect, too.

Other friends of ours also just announced they would be leaving Taiwan after their summer vacay in America, which means we will only see them for the next 2 1/2 weeks. This is a super hard one because they have been Gemma's best friends this whole year; her first real friends. Before last year Gemma didn't have any real close friends who she saw regularly and interacted with. They opened her eyes to what life with friends is like. And for me, this has been my first Mommy friend. Someone who has kids and I see regularly, and who I had good connection with. Nt to mention are biggest blessing in babysitting; they were always willing to take Gemma for the day or night or whatever. They were the ones who watched Gemma when Guinness was born. They are the cousin experience that Gemma is missing from home; eating together, fighting together, bathing together, playing for hours... So of course this is breaking my heart. But that is life. You have to put your family first (which is what they are doing) and I totally understand that. It just is hard.

I am back at work. It is exhausting. We are moving next weekend. Uggg. Nate comes back June 3, school ends the 5th, we'll be home on the 8th. Not to mention I turn 30 on Tuesday.

See you soon!

Busy!

We are busy busy here, just like everyone else.

Our church moved to a great new location, so that has taken lots of Chris' free time. Today is work day and we will have our first service there next week. I went to work yesterday afternoon, and aside from having to miss my nap it was pretty good. I came home and really appreciated my daughter, which was a good thing because Thursday was an exasperating day for both of us. 4 more days of mat leave, then 10 more of school.

Question: I am speaking this summer at Ranger Lake, and am working on a few ideas. The theme is Alive, and I am trying to think of some really interesting quirky items that would be interesting to 8-10 year olds that require batteries (the analogy being that some things need batteries to come alive just as we need God to come alive) Ideas?

Ouch!

Yesterday as we were leaving Guinness' dr. appointment, I felt a pain in my left side. All through supper it hurt, so when we got home I took a hot shower to try and work it out. After that I was so achy and fevery, and had these teeth chattering chills, so after tucking Gemma into bed it was off to the dr. for me. Wow, mastitis sucks! It came on so fast, and I was so wrecked, pounding headache, aching everywhere. We just went to our nearby ER, got a dose of anitibiotics and an IV, and when my fever went down after a few hours they let me go home. Thankfully a friend took Gemma for most of the morning/early afternoon and I had a long sleep, and a feeling much better. Still some tenderness on the left side, but not the constant pain. Fever and chills are gone. Thanks for praying everyone. Pray it stays away; they said if it didn't go away they would have to use stronger antibiotics which would keep me from nursing, and I would possibly have to be admitted, and that would be no fun!

The picture is during supper; a Guinness sandwich!

Things I Forgot About Newborns

1) How many diapers will be changed. He is ALWAYS soaking wet!

2) How tired I am. Uggg.

3) Don't leave barfed on clothes at the bottom of the hamper for weeks because they will get black mold spots on them. Eeeww.

4) I used to be a size 4.

5) The stroller with carrier is HEAVY!

Now that Guinness is finally asleep peacefully, it is 8am and Gemma is awake. 4 hours till nap time :)