Be Still?!

Last night Jonathan and I ventured out to St. Martins to a retreat centre. We had already postponed this once due to babysitting and almost cancelled because, you know, we're "so busy". But we went. Here's how much I have to learn about retreating. I kept thinking, what are we going to do? There's no radio, there's no TV...it'll be just us in a cabin in wintertime, it'll be dark when we get there...so we brought my laptop and rented a movie. Yep, you read that right. Well, thank goodness that Ken and Fay (who's centre it is) know so much more about retreating than we do! We get there and the woodstove has a fire going and they've addressed a card to us and given us bookmarks that outline how to retreat and just be still. I'm so glad they did. I poured Jonathan and I each a glass of sparkling grape juice and we relaxed and we talked. (Imagine that). We never did watch that movie and I can honestly say that today, I feel so good, so relaxed (the bubble bath I had this morning helped too). I didn't even want the radio on as we drove home. So thank you Ken and Fay for your Breath of Heaven cottage! To see more click here: http://inthestillness.ca/

Miniature Earth

Thank you Lisa for sending me this link: http://www.miniature-earth.com/

Think Fast

I love riddles and challenges...click here for some fun! http://www.richstevens.com/flash/iq.swf
BTW I scored 9 out of 11

Welcome Baby Chapman!

I received the much anticipated and very exciting news today that my friends, Jill and Dave (and little Andrew), have a wonderful new member of their family. Aaron Luke Chapman arrived in the world on January 15th and Mama Jill reports that everything is a-ok! Congratulations Chapmans and welcome to the world little Aaron!

Where are the Hippies?

I am a huge fan of The Amazing Race, it is the only reality show that constantly grabs my attention...mostly because I love travel and seeing other cultures. I had a feeling that they would look to do an All-Stars show sometime soon and I was right. Season 11 (premiering in February) is going to be an All-Star edition. So who do you think of when you think Amazing Race All Stars? Well, I got 4 pairs right on: Rob and Amber (of course, how can you do a reality all-stars without them?), Uchenna and Joyce (the only previous winners of The Amazing Race to be in for All-Stars), Charla and Mirna (can be a little annoying, but memorable in a more pleasant way than not), and David and Mary (the coalminer and his wife, very endearing). I'm kinda amazed at who isn't there...most notably: BJ and Tyler aka - the Hippies. I'm also not looking forward to watching Dustin and Kandice again (annoying beauty queens don't get any easier to like). There's one pair that has never raced together before but met on the show: Danielle and Eric. I didn't start watching the show until part way through season 3, so I can't comment on any of those racers...and there are no teams from seasons 4, 6, and 8. No teams from the family edition is understandable, probably the worst season of the Amazing Race. But there were some memorable teams in those other 2 seasons...I guess with couple breakups and all you can't re-cast some people. Season 4 was particularily memorable (the virgins, the clowns...). I also suppose you wouldn't want to relive some particularily abusive racers (anyone remember Jonathan? poor Victoria!).

Here's the cast (any predictions?):

Kevin & Drew
Lifelong Friends ("Frats")
Season 1 (4th Place)

Ozwald & Danny
Best Friends ("Cha Cha Cha")
Season 2 (4th Place)

John & Jill
Formerly Dating
Season 3 (5th Place)

Uchenna & Joyce
Married
Season 7 (1st Place)

David & Mary
Coalminer and Wife
Season 10 (6th Place)

Charla & Mirna
Cousins
Season 5 (6th Place)

Rob & Amber
Married
Season 7 (2nd Place)

Teri & Ian
Married Parents
Season 3 (2nd Place)

Eric & Danielle
Dating
Season 9 (2nd/8th Place)

Joe & Bill
Life Partners
Season 1 (3rd Place)

Dustin & Kandice
Beauty Queens ("Blondies")
Season 10 (4th Place)

something about 7 months

7 months must be the turning point in pregnancy. I went back to work this week and most people have asked me how much longer I have to go (5 weeks of work, 8 weeks of pregnancy). And every one of them seems surprised by the answer. ("That's still aways away!") Am I that huge really? There must be something about 7 months of pregnancy that makes people think you're almost ready to go, even though you've got another 2 months to go. Is this because we don't often see 9 months pregnant women around? Are pregnant women in movies designed to look 7 months pregnant when their characters are 9 months? I think I'm doing pretty good overall...I feel good, I'm right on track with weight gain and baby growth...and I still fit all of my maternity clothes with room to spare yet (I know I'll need it, I remember 38+ weeks from the last time around!)

Happy Birthday Grandma

Now that I know how to post video (YEAH!), here's one that Jonathan and Elijah made for my mom for her birthday last November

Jeff Foxworthy - Redneck Stomp

I think most people are aware that I was converted to country music about 7 years ago (something I swore I'd never do when I was a child...who knew?). Well our local country station broadcasts the Jeff Foxworthy countdown each weekend and I have to say I'm hooked. In fact not to long ago, we rented one of his comedy DVD's from Quality Convenience (if you live uptown, you know that Quality is the place to rent DVD's...if you haven't discovered that yet, it's the place with the hula girl out front on King Street). Oh my gosh, I can't remember the last time I laughed so much, I had tears running down, he's that funny. Here's a taste of his humour, if you haven't discovered him yet.

My Pet Peeve today

Some of you may know that our computer crashed last week...we seriously thought we lost everything (and when you've been meaning to back up your photos onto disks and never actually did it, it's a hard lesson to learn). Well, praise God because we have our computer up and running again (and now have backed up all our files onto disks) and thanks to Kevin and Rob and others and Jonathan's persistance!
Of course the first thing I wanted to do today was check my email and was had that mini-euphoria confirmation that people like me and here's proof because look at all my email. But here's my beef...I had 3 times as many emails in my spam inbox and 3 spams made it through Yahoo!'s spam filter into my regular inbox...and one of them was cleverly disguised as if it was from someone I actually knew! Argh! So all to all you spammers out there - get a life! Seriously!

9 weeks to go and all is well

A baby post update. Yesterday, I saw my baby doctor for what is now my every 2 week checkup. I was waiting back results for a couple of things and "praise God!" everything is good. The baby is growing right on track and appears healthy. I am officially not gestational diabetic! The only thing I have to worry about is my iron intake and am now on iron pills 3 days a week. So all in all, I'm pretty happy. Keep praying that all stays good!

New Year's Resolutions

I looked over my New Year's Resolutions for 2006 and remembered that it was to read Jane Austen. Well, I didn't read all of her books, but I did read Pride and Predjudice and loved it. Of course I loved it, I'd seen it in movie form a number of times (the BBC version is my favorite). So now I'm thinking of New Year's Resolutions for 2007. The standard ones are no good to me, I don't drink or smoke so there's nothing to give up there. I'm not allowed to lose weight (I'm supposed to be gaining about a pound a week for the next 2 months). I restarted my nightly praying well over a month ago and seem to have that down into a habit...so what is left? This is how I get into resolutions like "read Jane Austen"...maybe I should just continue with that one...every year for the next few years I should pick one of her books and read it. It makes sense really. I actually do a have her collected works sitting on my bookshelf just waiting to be read. I do this a lot actually. I have books that I want to read on my shelf that sit there for years and never get opened. Then I complain that I have nothing to read. When I'm really in a state I pick one of them up and am amazed that I'd never read it before. Recent examples include "Cold Mountain" (sat on my shelf for 3 years before I read it), "The Grapes of Wrath" (sat there for 13 years), and most recently "The Nun's Story" (sat there for 7 years). All very good books by the way. I just finished "The Nun's Story" yesterday. I originally bought it after it caught my eye in a used bookstore. I'd seen the movie with Audrey Hepburn and loved the movie, but then I never read the book. I wish I'd read it before, it was really captivating! I know I talk about books a lot on here! Maybe my blog title should have been something like Bookworm Kristen?