Our Family & Our Life

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, 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, ... by 1.8 lbs!!! YAY Heather!!! I have to cheer myself on these days. I told Colin I lost the weight and then the Arsenal scored (currently Arsenal 1-0 Aston Villa) so the cheer really wasn't for me, it was for the Arsenal.... As I continue to pat myself on the back, the lose was due to watching my caloric intake and not much exercise this week other than stretching. I have just come back from the gym and all 3 treadmills were out of order so I did 35 mins. on the eliptical machine. Boring but I got through it... I'm back tomorrow morning and I should do some weights as well...

Dear Diary, OK, it's high time I did this so here it goes: I need to lose weight. To be exact my goal is to lose 37 lbs. by May 22, 2009. That's only 5 months away averaging 2 lbs. a week. Can I do it? I sure hope so. There will be good weeks and bad weeks but I'm hoping it will even out in the end. Why? The main reason being my blood pressure. Since my pregnancy with Isla it hasn't come down to my pre-pregnancy bp which was always 110/70. To be honest I haven't had it checked in a few months but I'm assuming it's still high. My dr. told me it may never go back to the way it was and may eventually go on medication. I definately don't want that so I am trying and if it doesn't go down then at least I know I did give it shot. I'll go to the pharmacy this week and confirm it but even if it is back down to 110/70 my BMI is still telling me to lose the extra pounds. I feel yuck because my clothes don't fit like they should. I was a

Dear Diary, I finally got my haircut and a colour this morning! Woohoo! (but no photos) It's been way too long and I was starting to suffer from stay-at-home-mom syndrome. You know, bad hair, too many sweat pants and puke on my shoulder... AND, we're going out for dinner with friends without Isla... I love her but it's nice to go out without stuffing your face and getting out of there in 30 mins. because little one is bored and whiney.... What a nice Saturday!

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, Two posts in one day, go figure but yet here I am. This morning after church we had the monthly fellowship meal followed by the second service before arriving home mid-afternoon. We fed Isla and hoped she would go back to sleep but no success until 25 minutes ago so here I am, dinner eaten, baby sleeping and I have free time to blog. First an update on our furry girls. When we drove back to Denver, we took them with us. Pearl was good but Dixie, well, let's just say she is not a travelling type of cat. At mom and dad's they were able to go outside most of the day if they wanted too but here they can't and they're both getting bored. My poor girls sit on the door mat leading outside and just look at me to let them out. As a consolation we let them on the balcony now again throughout the day and while we can trust Pearl not to jump we can't with Dixie, she is a bit more daring. Being on the third floor doesn't mean she won't try to jump and I certa

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