Thursday, April 12, 2007

Grrrrr....... Blogger won't let me upload the pictures for this!

Hmm,
So apparently I was being a bit optimistic when I said "Happy Spring" last post.
We had a snow day last week, with the most snow we've had all winter!! It was quite pretty though, but definitely would have been more enjoyable in February!!
Another storm tonight, maybe no school tomorrow(?), and yet another storm on the way for Sunday, yikes!!!!!
The kids have another week off school next week, which means no hours off for us, but also overtime (yay!).

I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago, this is a picture i took the first day. Not so sure how I like it, kind of looks like a mullet sometimes, but a bit of a change I guess.

I've been looking for a multi-vitamin, but they all look like horsepills to me, and I'm TERRIBLE at swallowing pills, so I found Viactive, they're little chocolate-cherry chews. Way better, only now I have another problem....I want to eat them all at once!!! Only one a day, but they're really good, and I'm always craving sweet things! This is taking some self control.

Anyway, taking one day at a time, and learning to love the little things in life, like how my dog tries to bury his bone by pushing things on top of it (like seatbelts in the car, curtains, the carpet, anything that's around!), the way his puppy head smells, the fact that we have new curtains in the living room (first step to redecorating!), that i get to go to the gym most every day, that it is sometimes sunny here, that my husband is here with me (that's a pretty big thing actually), and that I do get to laugh a lot, no matter how bad it gets sometimes.

I guess those are all things to be thankful for, but I still can't wait until the summer comes!!!!
take care, miss you all
gem

Friday, March 30, 2007

recently...

So i know, i'm a terrible blogger, but here's the thing..... our life right now basically consists of our work, since we are here 20 hours a day, basically every day. our work is at times, HILARIOUS. a lot of the time actually. but......we can't post about it, because of confidentiality and all that. Therefore, i neglect the blog, 'cause i have nothing to post.

Anyway, let me see, what happened on our 6 days off this month? Well, my ma and pa and brother and sister came down to visit for a couple of days, to see Switchfoot in Boston, to shop, and to meet their new grandson/nephew Barkley :)
It was so good to see everyone, and Barkley behaved himself on his first weekend away, despite being smuggled into the Days Inn, with no pets allowed. He fell right asleep as soon as he got in the room, but I was working myself up into an anxiety attack, worrying we would be found out, so we had to smuggle him out again and he spent some time in the car. So, it was great to see everyone and show them some of the sites (aka stores) around Portland. Switchfoot was also awesome, if anyone gets a chance to go see them, it's totally worth it, they put on a great show.

ALSO, there is a big festival here in August (I think), called Soul Fest, with basically every christian artist you can imagine (except Delirious, we missed them a couple weeks ago). It's three days, we're going camping, it's gonna be a great time! everyone should come. I mean it.

This past weekend, we took off for the Great White North of Fredericton, to hook up with Sarah and her beau Peter. It was a really great fun, relaxing weekend. Joe was very grateful for another guy to hang out with, I think we could have left them for hours quoting Napoleon Dynamite, Borat and The Family Guy and playing country songs, pretty funny! Of course, Barkley made the trip too, and settled in well after a brief period of madness. We went to Aldo and Elna's church on sunday, and then to their place for lunch, so it was great to see them again too. All in all, a great weekend, SO good to see some friendly faces, we miss everyone so much!!!


Some random pics with Barkley:

A'ight, I guess that's it for now, I'm sick today, probably sneezed 50 times and used half a box of kleenex in one day! I knew it was coming though, always with the beautiful weather! (although i'm glad, 'cause CB got a huge dump of snow in the last day or two)

Anyway, everyone have a happy spring!!

Saturday, March 03, 2007

more puppy pics!

Just some more of our new puppy, we've renamed him 'Barkley', for various reasons. Only thing is, he doesn't bark, so hasn't lived up to his name yet!






Thursday, March 01, 2007

Our new baby!!!

Well, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, 'Uno'!
He's a six month old beagle, and we just picked him up from the animal shelter today. We had been looking into getting a dog for a long time, and had decided on getting a beagle. We contacted some breeders, but wanted to check the shelters and see what they had. We went a couple of days ago, and there he was, waiting for us!
He's the cutest little thing I ever saw, these pictures do not do him justice! He fits in great with the house so far, and he's gonna come with us everywhere from now on!
p.s. Joe got all his hair/beard cut off, maybe i'll post pictures of that process soon!




Sunday, February 04, 2007

......

apologies to the bloggers............facebook stole my soul.

Monday, January 22, 2007

I Hate Dial-Up

So I just tried for 40 minutes to post 4 pictures on this blog, and nothing happens. I hate dial-up, with a passion. I'm so frustrated!! On the positive side.... found my camera cable!!!

Monday, January 15, 2007

___ Years Ago I......

I stole this off Sandy's blog, I am in a bit of a homesick/memories mood, so this should be fitting!!!

25 years ago I... was three months in my momma's belly. i don't remember much of this time, but it was pretty cozy, and I didn't have many things to worry about.

20 years ago I... was 4 years old. I had a baby sister, and I think another one on the way. I do remember when emily was born, me and naomi and my dad sat outside on the grass outside of the hospital and made daisy chains. that's pretty much all I remember. oh, and i had a bowl cut.

15 years ago I... was 9 years old. At this point, we had moved from Scotland to England. Hmmm... I now had a really cute blonde baby brother too, I wore a uniform to school, my best friend was also named Gemma, I used to have sleepovers at her house, and her sister would put make up on us and we would have dance parties. Then in the morning, she would give us makeup black eyes and I would go home and try to convince my mum it was real. I had to go to orchestra practice for violin every saturday morning, and I would come home and watch Top of the Pops. I had a really bad english accent.

10 years ago I... was 14. Grade 9??? Hmmm.... well, I wasn't one of the cool kids, that's for sure. Although I probably did get glasses and grow my bangs out around this time. Which my mum did tell me would make me look like a skinned rat, but I think it turned out pretty well. I was on the basketball team, most likely the worst player on the worst team, but it was fun. People who know me now, think this is very humorous. Especially my husband. I was super involved in church, camp and youth group, and made my absolute dearest friends during these years. Sarah, Cass, Dor, Jack, Saskia, Sandra, Susan, Natalie, all those girls. Even now, I feel I am more myself and at home with these people than with anyone else. I miss you all!! (The holidays got me a little homesick!)

5 years ago I... was 19. Umm, I think at this point I was back in CB, living in Margaree with Ran and Shelley. I'd spent a great year working at a youth hostel in Amsterdam, was planning on university, but about a week before, I ditched those plans, because I felt God calling me to work with the youth at my church. So a place to live and a job dropped into my lap, and I moved to the valley. Such a great year, getting to know R & S, charles and monica, hugh and tracey and all their beautiful kids, who I love SO much! the best kids in the whole world come from margaree! this was a great time of learning from me, and i had some awesome times running the youth group. I was disorganized, but I gained so much from having people there for me when I was that age, that it was great to be involved again. shelley and melissa, you were hilarious, it was great getting to know Dor better then too. And I had my first car, 1986 Loretta the Jetta. Broke and left me stranded several times, I had to crank the alternator up with a crow bar anytime I went up a hill, and eventually had to wire it in with wire from a jiffy pop bag of popcorn. Good times, good times.

3 years ago I... was 21, in my second year of university at MTA, sackville, nb. I LOVED my time at university. Got to be roommates with the Jackster, had hilarious times, trying to do simple ratios in the phone booth under the stairs, almost peeing myself, keeping the quote board filled, making funny videos. I miss you like crazy, jack!! I made so many new and awesome friends there. My residence was only about 30 people, and a bunch of us are still great friends. sally, kris, janer, lanners, jac, beaver, tonya, joe (my future hubby), brad, tom, neil, liz, liz 2, fahreen, christine, marley, vanessa, and many significant others later on. Wow, I was so blessed to make so many great friends. I switched from BSc to a BA, learned so much in and out of my classes, was a residence monitor, had a role in my first real musical, my grades weren't so hot, but the experience was worth the thousands of dollars, hahaha!!!

1 year ago I... wow. this was a big one. I worked at CBBC as program director for the summer, it was so good to be back, so blessed. My fiance Joe came for a visit for a couple of days and stayed for 5 weeks as my 'assistant'! We had been in residence together and friends for 3 years before that, so cool. we had the most beautiful, fun wedding day outside, in Ran and Shelley's field, my cousins came from Scotland, we had a great celidih, the best day ever, surrounded by family and friends, marrying the man I love so much. We moved into an apartment with our two kitties, i finished university and graduated, BA major international relations, minor biology. The same day I graduated, I became a Canadian Citizen. worked in halifax for a few months, loved my job, then we moved to MAINE!!!! oh yeah, we moved eight times in a little over a year. So ready to settle down for a bit!

So far this year I... mostly just worked. All day, every day, except for every second weekend. Getting to know our three 'kids' (14, 16 and 17), a lot of frustrations and challenges, but learning a lot. We did join a gym, and so far we are still excited about getting off our lazy arses and into some resemblance of physical fitness. Spending lots of time with Joe!

Yesterday I... had the weekend off, and we had to stay in a motel. It had a king-sized bed, but we had to check out by 11am. Joe and I read some of Brennan Manning's 'Abba's Child' together, then wandered Portland's mall and stores for the entire day, 'cause it was bad weather, and we had nowhere to go. Went out to eat at TGI Fridays, which was a disappointment (so far Applebee's wins hands down), and wasted the day away until our return to work at 9pm. A pretty frustrating day all-in-all. We miss our friends!

Today I... got up at 9, gave meds to all our kids, tried to stop them arguing and making bad decisions and teach them how to get along with people and learn daily living skills. Bad weather again, so we watched movies. Martin Luther King day, so a holiday here anyway. Actually pretty relaxing, compared to last week, which was quite a challenge! after they went to bed, did some blog stalking, got a little homesick and watched some of the golden globe awards.

Tomorrow I will... get up, get the kids off to school, go grocery shopping, have a couple hours to go to the gym, have lunch and a shower, and then pick them all up from school and direct their every move until bedtime. then probably watch a bit of tv and go to bed early.

In the next year I will... work a lot, hopefully pay off a lot of student loans, probably buy too many useless things, learn a lot, hopefully make a positive impact on these kids, go to naomi's wedding, go on our honeymoon finally, camp and hike a lot in the summer, enjoy being with joe, make dreams and plans for the future, hopefully find a church and some good friends here.

In the next minute I will... check in with the golden globes, take a shower and hop into bed. 'night.

hey everyone!!!
so, i went to finally update today, and post some pics on this long-forgotten blog, and realised that our camera cord is nowhere to be found. which probably means that it did not make it into the good ole' US of A at all. so that is pretty poopy, no interesting pictures AGAIN. i don't even read other people's blogs, unless there are pictures! i'm so hypocritical.

some interesting tid-bits.
- most people in maine do not know where nova scotia is, even though the ferry goes directly from portland (where we live) to nova scotia. the man at the driver's licence place did not even know that nova scotia is in canada. he said he thought we were our own country. come on man, you work for the government!! shouldn't you know these things???
- for some reason, most of the stop light intersections will not let you turn left when there is a green light, right beside that green light is usually a lovely red arrow prohibiting this. why? when there are no cars, shouldn't i be able to go?!!!
- you can't use debit everywhere. i have to carry cash again, and i don't like it! plus, it always looks like i have a money, 'cause it's all the same color, but usually it's only ones, so disappointing.
- it takes 3 weeks to get your license and your bank card, 'cause they have to print it. i guess their printer is really slow.

anyway, for the most part, we are enjoying our time here, sometimes it's just funny to think that canada is more advanced than the US in some ways :)

on our weekends off, we have spent a LOT of hours in the mall, 'cause we don't know what else to do. we had to stay in a motel this past weekend, and check out by 11am on sunday, so we had to find somewhere to hang out until 9pm. this was actually quite exhausting, we were glad to get home to the three kids!! we miss everyone at home like crazy, it's pretty impossible to meet people here with our hours, but we're hoping and praying!!
we're not sick of each other yet, so that's good, we've spent every moment of every day together, but i'm super glad joe is here with me, i love him!!!

some random thoughts those were, but hopefully we buy a cord soon.......
take care everyone