random things

tagged by michelle

Ten Random Things About Me:
1. i have never broken a bone in my body.
2. i saw my kneecap (it was very pearly white) when i was 16 and skinned my knee down to the bone.
3. i went through a short punk phase where i'd wear my hair in these weird nubby rolls all over my head.
4. i only started snowboarding so i could get to know this guy i had a crush on in grade 10 (and also to make andrew happy).
5. people always tell me i'm 5'9" even though i'm 5'6.5" (people have argued with me about it, and we take out the measuring tape...and i'm still only 5'6.5").
6. i was never afraid to tell people how much i weighed because they would often think i was 20 lbs lighter than i actually was.
7. i used to be really good at math until grade 11 when a bad/mean teacher told me i was stupid and shouldn't be in the contest math class.
8. i like my natural haircolor.
9. i didn't learn to tell time until grade 5 or 6 (i just didn't want to know...i didn't care).
10. i went to the national level for public speaking in French, in grade 7. le concours d'art oratoire (i still have the t shirt).

Nine Places I've Visited:
1. Ottawa, ON
2. Peterborough, ON
3. Toronto, ON
4. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
5. Reno, NV
6. Penticton, BC
7. Seattle, WA
8. Smith Rock, OR
9. Silicon Valley, CA

Eight Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. see mike knott in concert!
2. Get a Bachelor's Degree
3. enjoy rockclimbing again
4. Have another baby
5. Become a Grandmother
6. travel
7. go on a real shopping spree
8. be prepared to die

Seven Ways Derek Won (and keeps winning) My Heart:
1. love God and want to live for Him
2. be very patient with me
3. let me know when i do something you don't agree with
4. give me lots of hugs & kisses & verbal affirmation
5. be a good daddy
6. be fun & upbeat
7. be understanding & kind

Six Things I Believe In:
1. the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit
2. encouraging & bringing out the best in other people
3. a lasting marriage
4. work to live, not live to work
5. Breastfeeding
6. wherever you go, there you are

Five Things I'm Afraid Of:
1. getting into a car accident with diedre on board
2. That diedre will get hurt or sick and I won't be able to help her
3. being all alone in the dark
4. disappointing people
5. death (i'm working on that one, but since having a baby, i don't like to think about it...but i know i should be okay with it...)

Four of My Favorite Things in the Bedroom (no extras in my room yet, we just moved!):
1. bed
2. clothes
3. heat
4. body pillow

Three Things I Do Everyday:
1. say i love you to derek & diedre
2. give hugs & kisses to derek & diedre
3. try to acknowledge God in all things

Two Things I Hate:
1. when the play areas for diedre are dirty from pets (i hate finding animal hair on her cheeks)
2. that i'm too easily insulted. lately i've really been thinking about how much i dont want to pass that on to diedre, its such a burden!

One Person I Want to See Right Now:
1. my mom

i tag my mom

fall

apparently i've been tagged by leah for saying she's a bad blogger...i think what i actually said was "you're the worst!" but Leah, you'll be glad to know, you are not actually the worst. i think the worst right now would be my friend rose--may 15! was the last post. yada yada busy lives, we've all got busy lives people! its about priorities, and if giving a glance into your life is not a priority...then i guess thats when you become a bad blogger...ok anyway, onto the taggingness

top 10 loves re: fall
1. changing leaves
2. blackberries wrapping up the season
3. long weekends (sep, oct & nov all have statutory holidays--still cool even if i'm on mat leave cuz then derek is around more)
4. wearing sweaters feels cozy
5. rain :S
6. the grass dies :S
7. can't just sit outside on the grass (it might be weepy from the rain) :S
8. house is colder :S
9. husband will want to let the animals sleep inside cuz its getting colder :S
10. have to start making fires again to keep the chill out of the house :S

ok, so i could only think of 4 things i like about fall...and #2 isnt even that good of a thing since i love blackberries. fall just seems to be so much about death. plants die, leaves die, grass dies...then it starts to rain alot. hmmm anyway, i love christmas time and then we're heading back to spring.

feeling quizzical

find your inner PIE @ stvlive.com

theological quiz

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 96% Neo orthodox 79% Reformed Evangelical 71% Fundamentalist 64% Roman Catholic 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Emergent/Postmodern 43% Classical Liberal 43% Modern Liberal 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

i guess i better look into what John Wesley and the Methodists have to say...that sounds like a good band name. ha ha

i don't really understand how those percentages breakdown...any ideas? the only thing i can think of is out of the number of questions that could peg me as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan...i responded to 96% of them...

anyhow, i saw this off of pernellog

july 19 - a very special day

i've been pretty stressed out lately because of all the house stuff...it has not been a simple or straightforward situation in the least. i've spent so much time in the car (and poor diedre in her car seat) and thats added to my stress too. i was really trying to keep a good laissez-faire attitude and trust that things will work out as they should, but i guess my mind did not always have that control to stay cool :)

anyway, we signed our subjects removal at 11.10am. there was a lot going on with this deal and so even though we removed subjects we were not sure it would work out b/c we were past the deadline. the sellers failed to produce a document in time and delayed our final approval so we were not able to sign off last night at midnight...the sellers would not grant us an extension, so we were kind of taking a stab in the dark, to see if they'd still let us buy the house. so our realtor faxed the signed contract at noon and we waited.

i later found out that joanna had her baby around the time we were signing!!! she had a boy, Gabriel (middle names pending) 7lbs 21 inches. i went to see him in the afternoon. he was really cute. looks similar to david did as a baby.


here's joanna yesterday!

at 7.40pm we got the call from our realtor saying he received a signed fax from the sellers accepting our subjects removal. we got the house! how exciting! we take possession sept 24.

i am especially excited about two things:
we get to get rid of our junk.
we get to hang family pictures in a central location rather than in our bedroom (like we have done here b/c of our housemate).

yay!

a new place

i've been running around like crazy trying to get the details organized for us to buy a house. since derek is working and the sellers only gave us 3 business days to remove subjects, i'm hustling--big time. but it looks like it worked. tomorrow we have a building inspection and then we need to decide if we will take the house. its pretty exciting to be heading in that direction, and scary too of course :)

i never thought the day would come when we could buy a house...well thats not entirely true, i figured the only way we could is if God made it happen b/c we had such debt and seemed like this was so far off. but here we are, it could happen tomorrow. wow

learning curve never stops

well big life lessons are happening these days. God is showing me what i already know to be true but gap out on frequently: He can be trusted :)

how great to have such a patient God to love and teach me. i want to be like that too. a safe and patient person to trust...for diedre and derek and anyone else in my life.

today was a great day. a family day. a challenging day.

peace

MIT helper

2 hours til bed

i have a fairly relaxed style of parenting...diedre is the boss and so i pretty much just respond to her cues. so that means, tonight at 4.30 when she was really fussy and wanted to sleep, i helped her go to sleep. then she woke up by 7.30 and i had to help her go to sleep again for a couple of hours. it was very tiring, my back hurts from bouncing/rocking her...but i don't regret it. i like holding her. she is so precious and so nice to look at. i am planning to try to teach her how to go to bed by herself when she is closer to 6 months old. not far off yet.

i am so insecure sometimes that when people say "oh, you do that??" or if i hear them bad mouth people who have to rock their babies to sleep, i feel bad, like i'm doing something wrong. its amazing how as a new parent, i was totally inexperienced with babies but i had to learn to listen to some people/advice and let other stuff go.

it is the ultimate test for a people pleaser. there will ALWAYS be someone who disagrees or disapproves--and thats exactly what my personality hates. i want everyone to like me, respect me, support me. but it can never be that way. so fending off my inner thoughts and deprecations is totally necessary so i can focus what diedre actually needs from me. i say that diedre is the boss now, and although it can be hard sometimes, i love my new boss, she's the greatest.

peace

its been some time

A Call to Holy Living
1 peter 1.13 So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ. 14 Obey God because you are his children. Don't slip back into your old ways of doing evil; you didn't know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God--who chose you to be his children--is holy. 16For he himself has said, "You must be holy because I am holy."

i've been really struggling with an old issue...that of over eating and body image. i think its really important now that i have a daughter to really get a handle on these things. i want to teach healthy body image and healthy eating. not gorge and guilt. so i asked God to please help me with this. i learned how to eat well and think right about myself and food, now i need help again. thank you that my value is not in these things.

INTRODUCING the salmon speaks

it is my pleasure to introduce the salmon speaks. I decided to launch http://thesalmon.blogspot.com for several reasons:
1. the name is quicker to spell than "amandajsalmon" & i have been wanting a shorter name for my blog
2. it is more general and apt for derek, so he can proudly share it with his friends too
3. i have a good email address that will help establish the branding of "the salmon" as i spread the word
4. i am anticipating preparing my Christmas letter and it will be great to include the email addy and the url that are both "the salmon"

I will be focusing on updating "thesalmon" from now on so please add it to your list of blogs (i will probably update "amandajsalmon" from time to time, but not necessarily as frequently).

thanks and enjoy

peace.

Miles stands up

derek helping miles stand..soo cute...i love my nephew and husband! derek's gonna be a great dad.

Babysitting Miles Grey

I offered to babysit tonight while derek went climbing with the boys...however, the boys were not up to it, so derek came to babysit with me.

derek was so good with miles and was able to calm him down. he would give him to me and then miles would get upset again. eventually miles slept and i held him while he slept until andrew and heather came home.

Michelle, this ones for you!

a funny thing happened today, it snowed nov 29 04
Well Michelle asked me what winter was like in BC earlier TODAY.

I emailed her and said the weather is fairly warm, doesn't really hang around below zero that much, and it might snow, but don't count on it...

I was going to take a picture of what winter looked like around here because I wrote that its that fall brown colour, kind of been wet and ugly...however, I was proven wrong again. Ok, I know, I'm not in control, I don't know everything! how humbling

Proud Grandma

kalen & grandma at the shower

Happy Hour

these girls sure do love babies! here's kristin, rose, miles & joanna at Kalen's baby shower

Kalen's Baby Shower

heather, miles & mom roy

living room jam time

derek & shawn & ben are jamming right now as i type. its fun to listen to them. ben is the shredder, shawn's on bass, derek on acoustic. they've gone back and forth between Christmas carol medleys to some of their old hits from back when they used to jam weekly.

i'm waiting to go to a baby shower for my friend Christie...i'm so tired and sore from all the moving i did today. i emptied a huge bookshelf and comandeered a room-switcheroo. marks room is now in the front office area and his former room is our new storage room. it is much more spacious than the last storage room...probably b/c andrew and ben moved the deepfreeze out...andrew apparently looked like a robot from Starwars with a big freezer on his head, covering his body with only legs sticking out--said ben (rob, trivia question for you maybe? do you know what creature that would be?).

it will be interesting go to hang out with all girls (except for babies) after being the foreman (woman) to the guys all afternoon today.

anyway, another page in my nesting diary for the arrival of our new little one. I have two count downs on my whiteboard at work: one for baby, one for Christmas, since i'm not at work today: 2 months 27 days til baby's due date & 28 days til Christmas...YAY to both.

ciao

benjammin'

chillaxin' after a hard afternoon of worky work

blond ben

here's ben taking his break too from moving stuff to the garage and between rooms in the house. Derek and Shawn went to get the doghouse for Sparky from Leah's parents house and i was the boss lady for andrew and ben...poor guys.