30 years ago today

happy 30th birthday andrew!


me, andrew & our cousin alexa (who is 2 weeks younger than me)

i feel so terrible! i forgot to call andrew on his actual birthday. i NEVER forget his birthday. i guess i usually call early in the morning so he was wondering what happened...my only excuse was i had a bad night last night, only 5 hours of sleep...i hope that gets me off the hook!

anyway, andyroo, its been a great 27 years and 9 and a half months of knowing you! i hope you enjoy these images of our childhood. these are the only good pictures i have of you at that age (mom? do you know what age we are in these photos?).

love you big brother xo

amanda

derek & diedre love you too but they didn't forget your birthday like i did, so don't hold it against them :D happy birthday from them too.

work is right around the corner

i just got my first official invite into the project website for my new job. i will be a contractor with Stir Communications Group. i don't know what jobs will be given me yet, but i have said i'm available as of feb 1st for 12 hours a week. i'm feeling pretty excited about it now. for awhile i felt like i had forgotten all my internet marketing learning. However, after doing some reading i noticed that not much has changed as far as Search Engine Marketing goes since i've been on mat leave. i feel confident and ready to take on new challenges.

we celebrated my brother's 30th birthday on saturday (his birthday is tomorrow, jan 31). it was really significant for me since i've known him my whole life and he has been such an important person to me. derek's 30th is coming up in a month and a half and diedre's first birthday is in 27 days!!! derek's parents are coming out for her birthday so that should be really fun :)

i should probably go do pilates since diedre is still napping (just over 1 hour so far).

ciao

times are changing

its so exciting to see the changes going on around us. diedre is changing and that changes our schedules too. she requires more interaction and attention as she hands us book after book to read, or crawls over for a hug every couple of minutes. its such a blessing and so amazing to see the changes in her. learning new words, practicing sounds, falling asleep easily (yay!!!). i feel so thankful for the time we've had with her so far. what an amazing experience this has been. to have a daughter, to be a mother. i love it.

i cant help but feel a little melancholy over the times that have gone by, the newborn stage, the little bitty clothes, the helplessness of a little baby. now we see her learning some independance in how she plays and explores her world. she's growing up and she's only 10.5 months...it goes so fast. wowsa. but it is inevitable of course. so i'm ok with that too. she is still very little and has so much to learn. these are fun times. times of change.

no movie before bedtime

well, no movie yet...and its 9.20pm...

oh well, i did manage to bluff my way through a blog redesign :D

i found that fun piece of art on a free blog skins site and then figured out how to set up the regular blogger template inside of it. i hope the inner scroll bar doesn't annoy anyone too much (oh, i guess thats bad for marketing!) but i couldn't figure out any other way to incorporate that funness into my blog.

ciao

alone, listless, breakfast table in an otherwise empty room

well, i've been feeling like i need an away-from-home hobby that i can do and give derek an opportunity to hang out with diedre alone. however, derek has hobbies, so he always comes up with an idea first, which leaves me at home alone with diedre instead. joanna and i were trying to come up with an evening idea that we could do once a week, but thats on hold for now because it would cost money and there is too much going on right now (mon-thursdays are busy for either us or them).

derek is out climbing tonight with ben. diedre went to sleep really easily tonight so i have a chance to blog, but i really wanted to go climbing. he thought it would be nice to go out just as "the boys." i guess i could go out when he comes home ha ha. i had so much fun last time we went climbing. derek, ben, diedre & i went. since you have alot of rest time when you go bouldering it worked out really well. i figure derek didnt want to take turns watching diedre at the gym tonight...

i was seriously considering training for the sun run, but there are several obstacles to overcome:
i would prefer to run/train with derek since he has more running experience and is a good motivator. diedre needs to be watched by one of us so running together is a problem.
we could see if the local gym that offers childcare for $2 would take her while we run, but i'm worried that they require that the parents remain in the building (which would make sense, in case of emergency).
maybe this would be a goal better preserved for next year when my mom & richard live near us. wow, the things you can't do when you don't have family nearby.
derek thought maybe we could get together with andrew & heather once a week to run (girls watch the kids, guys run, then switch)...but i guess i want to have a plan to be able to run more than once a week.

i guess i am definitely getting prepared mentally to begin working. i am having so much more energy now that diedre is sleeping all night through (well, most nights, unless i think its 5.45am when really its 2.45am like i did the other night! oops). i have been doubting my ability to jump back into internet marketing or other work tasks lately. However, i find that when people ask me what sorts of things i might be doing i seem to be able to come up with a really good answer (although its pure speculation since my friend hasn't gotten back to me for sure about anything specific for work yet). so thats been making me feel like maybe i still do know my stuff inspite of having a year off!

we are trying to rent out our suite right now. its a scary thing. we really need to get the place rented but we have only advertised at five local churches (last sunday being the first time). i hope we get some more interested after tomorrow (sunday). derek is still working on cleaning it up and touching up paint. he wants to lay tile in the washroom before renting it too, so it looks like it might not be ready until february anyway.

well, i spoke with my brother about the website and he advised me to make a mock-up using the Paint program so i did that yesterday. i think it looks pretty good. i'm looking forward to having something up so i can get going with my company. i have filed so many "nil" tax returns in the last two years, its pretty bad. oh well, at least my company has survived beyond one year!

well, i just hope derek brings home a movie tonight ;)

a new role

well i am officially NOT going back to work full time at Campus Crusade for Christ. i worked there since september 2002. it was a place where i feel i grew up alot.

i got excited today thinking that i can continue to be around for diedre full time. that i can watch her as she learns new things and be there to teach her.

i hope to do some part time work with my friend's company but that wont be right away (since i still have time on mat leave)...and of course there's still choice climbing, my sadly neglected venture.

i own the domain and my brother said he'd make me a website so i paid for hosting and then when i asked him about it he said "don't you have frontpage?" so i guess that's that for now. i'm pretty sure he doesn't read this blog but i know he's really busy so i don't want to pester him with my website need. i would love to learn some basic stuff to be able to get one going but at this point, i don't have a clue how to design one from scratch.

anyhoo, its freeing and exciting to know i wont be going back to "the office" even though there were many good times. i think i will do well at a flexible and varied schedule. i like change and variety so this should work out well, a little parenting, then a little casual work during nap times or when daddio is home to play with diedre.

i have been thinking a bit about how this will change my social life though, so we'll see if adding work into the mix will stress me out. i don't like stress and i hope to be able to avoid it. i figure the main thing i'll be giving up is naps. then derek cant laugh at me and say "how many naps did you have today?" or when i say "i'm tired" and he says "me too, and i didn't get a nap." i don't get alot of sympathy from someone who often gets up before me, works a physically demanding job and then comes home after dark. i must say i do prefer the commute from diedre's room to the living room better than having to drive 20 minutes to an office.

anyway, i'm not sure i'm totally making sense here, but probably michelle and my mom will read this, i don't know if anyone else does...its late so i guess i'll go to bed.

i am feeling very thankful tonight for God's patience with me and love, for derek my match, and for diedre my bright star. my heart is welling up with affection. ciao

live to work or work to live

i have always been a work to live kind of person...now that my maternity leave is ending and we've decided money is a little tighter than we previously anticipated, i am faced with the "need" to work a little.

i had a conversation with my previous employer and since i'm not returning full time there is no position available for me there. he did say they would keep me in mind if any projects come up that i can do from home over the internet.

i spoke with my former boss, who left the company the same time i did last february. he asked me to send him my availability for the next few months and he said they will most likely have some work i can do for his company too. this option is more immediately promising because he is going down to 4 days a week so there is a definite need for contracting work out.

i was pretty down the few days i had between thinking that i got the royal boot from the company i'd been working at for years, just b/c i can't commit to working full time (the legal obligation of giving me back the same job was as far as they were willing to go because they are trying to cut back on salaried positions). but after talking to both of the aforementioned people i felt much better. i felt at first like all my years of good work were just forgotten and that was that, but now i feel that they did value my work and would be willing to work with me again someday.

anyhoo, with all the exciting things going on in my "real" life, its hard to take anything else too seriously. we are so excited to observe diedre's changes and the beginnings of talking and walking. fun times!