Our Family & Our Life

Dear Diary, On Valentines Day 2008 I was admitted to the hospital. My blood pressure was 140/101. Ummm, not good on any day but especially Valentines Day, six days before my due date. I cried (raging pregnancy hormones) when the midwife showed me to my bed and I really thought I would only be there one night for "observation". Little did I know. I left the hospital with Isla in my arms a week later on February 21. The day after I was admitted Colin brought me a sweet homemade Valentine card and took the day off to stay with me. What a sweet man and just one reason why he is my Valentine . Look what he bought me this year.... He surprised me again although on Thursday night before going to bed I reminded him to buy me flowers (he needs LOTS of gentle reminders).... but my Valentine still managed to surprise me Friday at lunch. This a much better Valentines Day. I'm home, I have my baby and I have my Valentine . Thank you for the flowers dear. I love you too

Dear Diary, Saturdays are the busiest days of the week, are they not? With Isla having swimming lessons until Feb 21, we have to schedule our outings around her lessons. They are going well and she loves them! This week she learned how to go below the water but the little miss wasn't co-operating, she refused to close her eyes. Work in progress but she went down the slide with her daddy. Here are some photos: After swimming we went to the park for a bit of fun... The last photo is a bit funny. Colorado grass in January is apparently rather prickly and the little miss didn't like it all, she cried. Poor girl... We went home for a spot of lunch and rather than go back to the gym (I was there at 8:45) for strength training together as we originally planned, we couldn't resist the summer weather and decided to go for another walk and pick up a few things from the store. By this time Isla was exhausted but she fought sleep, as usual. She finally slept after so

Dear Diary, I bought a bathroom scale this week. Not just an ordinary scale but the Biggest Loser scale and it was to come with the Biggest Loser DVD but it wasn't there. I'm writing a letter to get my DVD. Oh yeah, and it was on sale at Tar-get. I bought it for a couple of reasons. 1. Since we are still not in a position to get a pediatrician for Isla and get her checked out, I wanted to weigh her. 2. Also, I'm not sure the scale I use at the gym has EVER been calibrated and therefore unsure of it's accuracy. Despite my unfocused week, I managed to maintain my weight. Granted I did bump up the workouts and really watched my calories but this week, I've been a really good girl and the scale proves it. I'm down another 4 lbs. I'm not sure how I managed to shed those pounds but they're gone and never going back to my hips. Maybe it was water weight. My body is like a sponge. It also helps that we have blessed with summer temps. This week and Isla an

Dear Diary, Yesterday we had a really nice Thanksgiving lunch with Merlin and Janet Moore. We (Colin) cooked and they brought a delicious pumpkin pie for dessert. I could eat pumpkin pie all year long! This was Colin's first Thanksgiving ever since it is not celebrated in the UK and I think he enjoyed himself, even if it just meant getting a couple days off work. Nothing exciting has happened lately but we did finally get the van registered in Colorado. Out with the Ontario license plates and in with the Colorado plates. We went a few weeks ago to the DMV to get it done but we didn't get the right forms completed by Border Control when we crossed over in October. We had to go to a Border Services office near Denver airport for a VIN check and complete the importing forms. No hassle, no fee, no fuss ~ just the way I like it. Anyways, back to the DMV on Friday morning at 7:45 and we were out of there by 8 a.m. Now we have to work on our drivers licenses. I'm dreading this

Dear Diary, Today I'm in a rambling sort of mood. Things just come to mind and I think to myself that maybe I should blog about it. Bare with me, this is a long post of stuff floating through my brain. First an update, we didn't sell our house Larne . This is not the economy to make a lot of money, if any, from the sale of a house but what she offered us was a negative equity offer. We are going to have it listed again today or tomorrow and we pray that we have an offer well under way before January 5 when the tenants move out. There are " if's " right now running through our head ~ if we sold last year at this time our profit margin would've been MUCH more than we're lucky to get now ~ but selling and moving wasn't part of the plan last year so there is no sense beating ourselves up. Right now, we'll be happy just to get it sold and pay off our mortgage in order to move on. We'll have to start all over again but that's OK, we can do it, we

Dear Diary, We've had an exciting few days. OK, maybe not extraordinarily exciting but more exciting than usual. First off, a bit of bad news. On Saturday we learned that our tenants in our house in Larne are leaving in 60 days. That is a big concern because as of January we will be responsible for rent here in Colorado and our mortgage on the house. That is alot of financial responsibility and we are quite anxious to either rent it out again or preferrably sell it. Which leads me to the second bit of news. On Tuesday morning we received an email from our agent in Larne that one of the tenants wants to buy the house but the offer was VERY low. We know the housing market is less than stellar at the moment but honestly, the offer was almost insulting. We counter offered back but at this moment we have yet to hear back. I'm assuming it's not good news but I am trying to remain optimistic and patient. Please pray for me, patience does not come easily! The plan at the

Dear Diary, After my last post wherein I was "bragging" how Isla doesn't wake up once we put her down, she's been doing exactly that for the last two nights. Thankfully, not during the night, just the evening before she gets into a deep sleep. A funny little story about this... The other night Colin went to bed at about 10 p.m. as he was tired. I stayed up until 11ish and then as usual before I went to bed I checked on Isla. She had her head wiggled right in the corner of her crib but I didn't want to move her as she wasn't in danger of suffocating herself and she would only wake up if I did move her. I started to walk away from her crib and then I hear a wail. She was inconsolable! I tried rubbing her tummy, picking her up and even singing the "Isla, Isla" song. Nothing was working. Of course all this noise woke up Colin as our room is right across the hall. He comes in her room and does nothing, not even speaking. Isla saw him, smiled a

Dear Diary, We've been back in Colorado now for nearly two weeks and we're slowly getting settled and back into a regular routine. The boxes are nearly all unpacked (just waiting to buy a bit more furniture) and I'm working on decorating Isla's room. Since we rent we can't paint the walls so I'm adding bits of colour through wall hangings and her bedding. It's coming along and I'll take a photo maybe next week if I get it done. No snow yet in our area in fact just the opposite, the weather has been amazingly beautiful for this time of year. Today is November 1 and it was 75 degrees! We've trying to make the most of it by spending time outside when we can because I'm sure it'll be a long winter in the apartment. Last Saturday we visited Andersons's Farm and Corn Maze in Erie, Colorado with our church family from Park Hill OPC . The corn maze is huge ~ check out the link! We strolled through the maze and made it to about 6 of the 13 check

Dear Diary, I've missed posting on the blog but we've been busy... First of all, Isla turned 8 months on October 17, she had a baby wellness check up and she got another 3 teeth, all in one day (more about that later on in this post). Here she is on her 8th month birthday. Mom and I decided it would be nice to take her to the pumpkin farm and apple orchard down the road. She loves going for walks and "sings" while we walk... My little pumpkin in the pumpkin patch: With her mom: With her doting Oma: She loves animals whether it be cats or dogs, yes, even Tasha!! Before we left for Denver I took her to the dr. for a wellness check up. She is a peanut at 27 inches long and weighed 17.5 lbs ~ that is 1 stone 3.5 lbs. for those Brtis! She is right on track developmentally and is sitting quite comfortably but not crawling in the true form of crawling if you know what I mean. I wish I had a photo to post but the new thing is to go on all fours and "stand" on

Dear Diary, I am on my way back from England, however I have to go direct to Denver to help the guys out there until things settle down at Metro Taxis. They have been working 12 hour shifts recently. The system went live last Monday at 3.30am mountain time and since then Metro have done nearly 10,000 jobs on our system. Initally there were a few issues with people not really knowing what they were doing, but the more they use it the smoother it becomes. I hope to be able to fly up to Heather and Isla as soon as I can and then take a few days with them and drive back down to Denver in the Pontiac Montana van with some of our belongings and the 2 cats. That will be interesting getting over the border. Anyway the important thing is that I have my visa and I am on my way back to them. I do dearly miss them and when I call Heather I hear Isla in the background making all sorts of noises now. I guess she'll be saying 'mommy' soon.. Here is the picture that I had taken for the vis

Dear Diary, Well as I mentioned in my post yesterday, I was hoping to have some good news to report today. I do, sort of. Colin was in Dublin this morning for an interview at the American Embassy to get a 6 month business visa. He got it BUT since he was in the States for 3 months already they wouldn't issue it with a specific expiry date. That will be determined the next time we cross the border. It's not really what we wanted. We wanted the full 6 months and get back to a normal family life, some permanence in one location TOGETHER, just the three of us. We think they'll issue the visa for no more than three months as this visa is good for 6 months and we've used up 3 months but we won't know until then. It will take another 5 business days for Colin to get his passport with the visa back to him, then he'll fly back to Canada for Isla and myself and then we're thinking about driving to Denver. It's a 24 hour trip, without breaks, so it would tak

Dear Diary, My beloved flew back to us last Friday for a quick visit before blowing out to the UK for a month or so. The poor boy flew out of Denver at 8 a.m. and didn't arrive in Toronto via Charlotte N.C. until 6:30 p.m. What a long, tiring day but he still had enough strength to give his Isla all the hugs she needed! On Saturday we organized a Vandenberg family outing to Rockwood Conservation Area just outside of Guelph for a bit of canoeing and bbq'ing in the afternoon and evening. We couldn't all be there for various reasons but for those who were there, we had a good time, I think. Colin and I rented a canoe and so did the "orphans', namely, Emily, Benjamin and Matthew. Their dad was in Ohio for business and their poor mother was at home very sick with a bad chest cold. Hope you're feeling better soon, Loretta, we missed you! The orphans with Matthew in charge (scary!) Me, sittin pretty but I did paddle abit when ordered by you-know-who... Yup, him, my be