Our Family & Our Life

Dear Diary, Today it's Thankful Thursday with Iris from Grace Alone . Go ahead visit her blog to see what she and others are thankful for. Like Iris, I am thankful for His Word. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Colin and I this year are reading the Bible cover to cover and I have already found many verses that I have taken to heart and can apply to my life. Ps. 4:4 "In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds search your hearts and be silent". Words of comfort. Ps. 5:12 "For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surrounds them with your favour as with a shield". Words of admonition. Matt 4:17 "From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near". Also as I read everday, I am struck by the great comfort and love that He shows to those who remain faithful to Him. I'm thinking of Noah, Abraham and Job in particular. He has done that for Colin, Isla and I also throughout 2008 and even

Dear Diary, Well, this is my first ever "meme", 7 things you don't know about me . Thanks Mia for "tagging" me! I admit it took a long time to come up with seven things because I'm a rather boring person but I managed to come up with the following 7 things: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Like Mia, I share my birthday with a celebrity, Ed McMahon. The old guy who now goes knocking on doors giving away money for Publishers Clearing House. I wish he would start knocking on my door! 2. My favourite flower is a tulip, and no, it has nothing to do with the dutch blood flowing through my veins. 3. When I was a kid, my brothers used to use me as a human football. The dent in the wall in the basement bedroom at mom and dads is the outline of my head. Don’t worry, I was OK, it was just soft dry wall! 4. I have visited at least 12 different countries in my lifetime and lived in 3 different countries. Please no more! 5. My first car was a 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier, g

Dear Diary, Happy 46th Wedding Anniversary! From Colin, Isla & I, we pray you have many more happy years together! God bless! <p

Dear Diary, In terms of my fitness routine, last week went well. By Thursday I was exhausted and decided to start the year with a day off but it was well deserved, I was either at the gym or at the pool everyday before then. The other exception was Friday. I was going to go to another aquafit class but I woke up 5 minutes after the class started so I did my regular cardio workout at the gym instead. Weight loss to date, 5 lbs. and 37 lbs. to reach my goal weight. My plan this week is already off to a rocky start. I was going to go to the gym this morning with Isla but the stroller is in the van but the van is in Denver with Colin. Monday - cardio Tuesday - weights Wednesday - aquafit class Thursday - day off Friday - cardio Saturday - weights and swimming with Isla

Dear Diary, I've been doing some research into my ideal body weight in relation to my height and bone structure. The experts say I should be 130 lbs. To be honest, I don't think that is a weight I can maintain, so I have decided on a more reasonable 135 lbs. ~ 5 lbs. less my original plan of 140 lbs. . To date I have lost 5 lbs. so really it's like starting all over again and I'm back trying to lose 37 lbs. rather than 42! Wow, that's a lot weight, eh! I'll keep on posting about my battle with the bulge and I frequently update my weight loss ticker on the bottom right column. Please keep praying I stay motivated and see this challenge to the end.

Dear Diary, Isla has completed her first swim lesson today! Her first swimsuit! She has never been in a swimming pool so we were a bit uncertain how she would react. Well, we couldn't have expected a better response. She swam like a pro! Colin brought her in the kiddie pool and she looked at me as if to say "Mom, why are you making such a fuss, I've done this my whole life!". Too cute! She was so confident in herself. Even the instructor was surprised to hear she had never been in a pool before. We were also taken back how remarkably buoyant she was in the water. She hardly touched us and was floating on her own. She was able to kick her feet and splash her hands and wasn't afraid to get her face and hair wet (she didn't go under water). Since she had such a good time we will definitely be bringing her back for family swim time once her "lessons" are over in February. Colin and I had a good time too and it keeps in line with our desire to spe

Dear Diary, I was reading my 2nd post from yesterday and realized how depressing it was. Yikes! 2008 was a hard, stressful, emotional year hence the very negative post. It wasn't our best year and we do not intend to carry forward the negative momentum into 2009. We are looking forward to 2009 and intend to have a positive attitude as we face it on. Just to let you know, no resolutions this year, only lifestyle changes. What is the difference? Resolutions are broken by January 21 and the changes we intend to make our meant to last a lifetime. They will become part of our everyday life and so ingrained in our routine we don't think twice about them. Kind of like making coffee in the morning, we need to do them! First, we intend to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and everything in between in 2009. Our pastor has challenged the congregation to read the Bible everyday and even provided special Bibles (for a small fee of $2.50) that breakdown the chapters to be

Dear Diary, How was 2008 for us? Well, as you can imagine, it was a mixed bag of emotion and throw in a load of stress too. I think it is safe to say that with the exception of Isla's impending birth, just about everything that happened in 2008 was not in our plans. I said to Colin last week that it would be nice to turn the page on the calendar and everything would be as we want it and forget 2008. If only it would be that easy but we believe God doesn't give us more than we can handle. The year started with me going to a OB appointment only to find that my BP was through the roof. The dr. that saw me was ready to check me in the hospital and deliver Isla but thankfully the senior dr. didn't think that was the right course of action and decided it would be better to send me home and have the midwives monitor my BP at home. This worked well for about 5 weeks until my BP went so high the midwife had to call the hospital and send me in. That was Valentines Day. Three days