Thursday, June 21, 2007

A Compliment

Someone asked me if Elijah was my brother.

Would that be considered a compliment?

Would it still be considered a compliment if it was a 3-year old who asked me?

Monday, June 18, 2007

Competition

Today was blood donation day. And finally, after a long period of time, I was able to join in.

Cris donates blood faithfully. I am not so faithful. My excuse for this is a valid one though, because you aren't supposed to donate when you are pregnant and there is a waiting time after you are no longer pregnant that you are not allowed to donate. For me, this waiting time is longer than average because my blood type is RH negative, so I have to get a shot when I am pregnant in case my babies have RH positive blood. This shot (Rhogam) is actually a blood product, so I have to wait a year from receiveing this shot until I am eligable to donate again.

Today I was finally eligable. I gave my 37th pint of precious blood. I was pretty proud of myself. 37 donations is not too shabby.

My bubble was burst, however, when I saw Cris getting his picture taken with a piece of paper saying, "Congratulations and on your 50th donation."


I used to have a competition with Cris (not really a competition though, since he didn't know about it) as to who could donate the most.

I was always 1 ahead of him because I donated the first time without him.

Then, my iron level was too low for me to donate one time. So we were par with each other.

Then, I was sick one time when we were scheduled to donate. Down by 1.

Then, a miracle happened and Cris' iron was too low, so we were neck to neck again.

Then, I got pregnant. And I was surpassed.

Then I got pregnant again. Now I am totally defeated. I will never catch up.

Oh well. I've been pregnant twice...grown 2 babies from 2 cells to almost 20 pound curious balls of fun. He will never beat that! I win!!

14 years later

Today is the 14th anniversary of Cris and my first date together.

Is it weird that I know that?

Is it weird that I sort of celebrate it by thinking about it all day long and patting myself on the back for persuing the fabulous Cristin Block? (It was I who took Cris on a date...to see Jurassic Park...and it was awesome! Not only that, but it was my first date ever.)

14 years later, I am so thankful for Jurassic Park and the $20 that I spent on a movie date instead of buying food for the rest of the month. It was so worth it!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The O.C.

I must say that God did a great job when he made the Oregon Coast. White sandy beaches, a pounding ocean, huge rocks jutting out of the ocean...

...What more could you want? What else is worthy of 391 pictures taken on our camera? (I know that probably doesn't seem like much to you, MJ). I LOVE the ocean!
It turns out that Toviel loves the beach. As in, he loves to eat it. It took Elijah a little longer to warm up to the beach. The first day there I asked him if he liked the sand. "No," he said.
"What about the ocean?"
"No, I don't like the ocean," he replied.
"Oh," I said. "Well, is there anything at the beach that you DO like?"
"Yah," he said, "I like our car."

By the end, though, he was having lots of fun.


Being in the States, several differences between Canada and the USA struck me that I never noticed before (not that I spend oodles of time in the States or anything)....

1) They don't have coffee shops. They have espresso shops. And they all seem to be drive-thru espresso shops.

2) Cement. Tons and tons of cement. Their on and off ramps to overpasses extend ten times as far as ours. And they stack their roads! One on top of the other!

3) 4 lane highway? What's a 4 lane highway in the states? Probably a side street. Their highways are 8 lanes wide.


We traversed 3500 km in just 4 days, which was probably the worst part of the trip. Driving 4 entire out of 9 days away sort of sucked. What amazes me, apart from the fact that I survived that, was that my kids survived it. Not only did they survive it, they survived it with little to no fussing.
Elijah watched the Cars Movie a thousand times (well, he actually just likes the watch the races, so he watches the beginning and then fast forwards to the end and does that over and over and over again), and Toviel slept about a thousand hours. I would say that there was a few minutes of fussing here and there, but I think I probably fussed just as much.
By the end of the trip, I paid little regard to the speed limit and saw 2 cars ahead of us on 2 seperate occassions take the fall for us. So we didn't even have to pay for our speeding permit. :)

Monday, June 4, 2007

Incommunicado

Okay. Is that a real word? Incommunicado? Did I even spell that right? Incommunicado? Does incommunicado mean that I won't be communicating with anyone for a while? If it does, than I will be incommunicado for the next little while. Whatever. I don't have the energy to try to figure out if my spelling and word choices are correct or if the word I chose to use even exists. It sounds vaguely familiar to my fogged over mush-mind.

I'm totally excited because we are going to the Oregon Coast. How cool is that? It's totally cool, that's how cool. I can't wait to taste the surf and dig my toes into the sand. This is the first "real" vacation we have ever gone on. Well, I guess it's our second if you include our honeymoon to Edmonton (???). We have never gone on vacation where our destination wasn't to visit extended family. This time, we are only passing through extended family to get to our final destination. Don't get me wrong....I like to visit family. But every once-in-a-while (I guess that translates into every 10 years for us so far) it's nice to go on a vacation just with our family, and do vacation-y things like stay in a campground and at a hotel on the beach.

I bought Elijah some sandals a couple days ago and he immediately began his "I don't want to put my feet in the water" banter. And I'm pretty sure I can read Toviel's thoughts and I think I heard him say "Throw me in the ocean, baby! I'm soooo ready for it!"

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Aging Gracefully

I recall not too long ago I saw a commercial on TV for some anti-aging cream. There was a relatively famous person promoting this anti-aging cream (not too famous because I didn't know who they were, but famous enough that they put her name on the corner of the screen along with her age). What got me was this woman was 27 and she said something about fighting the signs of aging. Twenty-seven!!

Aging at 27?, I thought. Really?

I got thinking about it and started to feel a little down since I'm 32 and haven't really thought about the whole aging process and how I do have fine lines all over my face. I looked in the mirror and was quite surprised to see how these lines of expression have snuck up on me. So I've been thinking (in a very unserious, non-commital way) that maybe I should look into some skin care regime, or at the very least, some simple makeup!

This got thrown out the window last Sunday when a congregational member of our church came up to me after the service when I was holding my 2nd born child and kissing him all over his head. She said, "You the bass player aren't you?" "Yeah!" I smiled. It's nice to be noticed sometimes. "Wow!" she said, "I thought you were a teenager, but I see now you have a baby and can't possibly be a teenager." I smiled and said, "Thank you!" emphatically.

I know her statement is actually quite ignorant, because I CAN be a teenager and still have a baby, but that's not the point. The point is, she thought I was a teenager, which would make me at the most 19 years old. But, I'm 32. So now I don't feel so bad about the fine lines on my face.