Merry Christmas #2

Finally! A Christmas that hasn't snuck up on me! A Christmas where I'm not panicking to get my shopping finished or my gifts wrapped! Having my family's first Christmas in November really helped me get "in the spirit" early and jumpstart the Christmas planning.

This Christmas (the December one) is bringing many "firsts":

- the first time the Christmas tree has been up for so long that I'm actually getting bored of how it's decorated (I haven't re-decorated it yet)

- the first time I've had to DUST the presents under the tree

- the first time the weather has prevented me from putting up Christmas lights (maybe that's a good thing, to avoid problems later!)

- the first time I haven't been stressed out about the holiday season

- the first time I've baked Christmas goodies 3 times

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Don't forget to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus!

You're Everywhere

Like the rain that falls to the earth below
Watering the seed to grow
So it is with Your precious word, oh Lord
It won't return until I know that

You're everywhere
You're everywhere

Like the wind that blows and no one really knows
From where it comes or where it goes
So it is with Your Holy Spirit Lord
Falling down on us to show that

You're everywhere
Like the rain that's falling
You're everywhere
Like the wind that's blowing
You're everywhere
Like the sun that's on my face
I feel the warmth in Your embrace
Your are everywhere

My Lord, now I truly know
That I could never go from Your presence
My God, You are everywhere
From the lowest depths to the Heavens
You're always there

- by Third Day

The War Zone

Here are some photos of the wind storm.

Make sure you check the previous post for the photos of the hot tub cover.

I'll huff and I'll puff...

Whoa.

Everyone alive out there?

Last's night's wind storm was the worst I remember!

I went to bed at 10 and by 11, I was awoken by the sound of some crazy winds. I slept on and off until about 3, when the real chaos began.

I lay in bed calculating the angle at which the 80 foot tall cottonwood tree we have in our backyard would fall at, when the high speed winds would obviously be blowing it down. My answer was: right on top of our bed! It's only about 40 feet away from our bed, and directly up the hill. I ACTUALLY thought that tree was going to crash down and squish us.

I spent the hour of 3:00-4:00 completely freaking out. With every CRASH on the roof, and every "BANG" against the window, and every CRACK of the tree branches falling to who-knows-where, I was startled. Sometimes I just jumped, like when someone's hiding behind a wall and jumps out and screams at you when you pass. Other times, I'd jump to my feet, find my glasses and open the curtain to see what was happening. A few times I even ran out of the bedroom to avoid the coming danger.

After an hour of this, I heard this massive crash! THAT'S IT!!! I jumped to my feet, grabbed my pillow and headed to the other end of the house to sleep on the couch. Maybe I'd be able to get some sleep there. But I still found myself running to the window every time I heard something sinister.

15 minutes later, Colin emerges from the bedroom with his pillow and a suggestion to sleep on the futon in the piano room. At least it would be quieter in there, as it's on the other side of the house.

It was quieter, and we did eventually manage to get back to sleep after hunting for an alarm clock with batteries (the power went out), until the sound of a waterfall from our overflowing gutters outside the window woke me up at 6 for good. At least it wasn't a scary sound. The wind seemed to have died down by then.

We got ready for work, but before we left, curiosity got the best of Colin and he had to go into the backyard and survey the damage. I watched from the bedroom window.

The BBQ had taken a field trip across the patio, but at least it was still standing.

There were 10 foot long branches littered across the lawn, not to mention the plethera of smaller ones. A war zone!

One of the huge branches was on top of the hot tub, so Colin wanted to move it off.

He grabbed the 5 inch diameter branch and lifted.

Nothing.

He tried harder.

Nothing.

He put his foot on the hot tub cover and yanked the branch. The branch had speared through the brand new hot tub cover!!


As he pulled, more and more branch came, along with some sawdust and styrofoam. There must have been at least 3 feet of it INSIDE the hot tub. There was still water in it though, so it doesn't seem to have injured the hot tub itself. Just the cover that we bought, um, 2 weeks ago for $____!!!!


So, as I stood in the cold wind and rain waiting for my train, and watched the sky light up with pretty arcs of blue and green from exploding transformers around the city, all I could think was...at least we stayed safe.

Happy Birthday Colin!!!

Today, December 8, is Colin's 29th birthday! I have the day off, while he has to go to work. Something wrong with that!

Last night, I asked him what the best or most memorable moments of being 28 were. He thought for a moment, then got that mischievous smirk on his face and said, "I caught lots of salmon this year!".


It wasn't quite the answer I was expecting, but, he sure did! His new years resolution was to go fishing every month, after all!


As I also reflect on his past year, I thought I'd share some of my favorite photos of him as a 28 year old.

Every year I know Colin, I find out more and more about him. This year, I found out that he has pirate in his blood.




Like usual, Colin got himself involved in many adventurous situations!



And some, dare I say, dangerous ones? (Please note the crazed smile he gets in potentially dangerous situations!)


And some, just plain fun and relaxing!



You're thinking...doesn't Colin ever WORK? Well, yes he does. He is a very hard worker!



For the past 5 years, Colin has been able to share his birthday with Justin, whose birthday is on the same day, same year...but Colin was born first, right Justin?? For the first time in 5 years, they won't have a joined party, and we'll miss him :-(
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!!




Colin, I hope you have a great day today! I'll spare everyone from the mushy stuff...it'll be in your card! I pray that your last year in your 20's will be filled with lots more, fun, adventure and excitement!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

A Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday I was in a bad mood.

Let me start that again.

Yesterday I was in a FOUL mood. I was growling at everyone I talked to, which luckily was only 5 people the whole day. I don't get like that too often, lucky for all of you!

We had to run some errands in the evening, and all I wanted to do was be unconscious in my bed (after a dip in the hot tub, of course). Alas, we skipped from store to store, all over the city.

Then Colin wanted to go to "The Po". That's Roth language for Home Depot. I think we call it "The Po" because we go there so often, we don't want to waste our breath. Come to think of it, I think we should OWN half of the Po's shares by now.

I was not too happy about going to The Po, but I scowled and bared it. We went to the "Hot Tub Electrical Components" aisle, to which I exclaimed loudly "I am SO SICK of this aisle!!".

Unlike most trips, we were in and out within 8 minutes. GASP! I love the new self serve checkout, by the way.

So we are driving down the road and Colin sees that a new store "Petland" has opened. Conveniently, right next to The Po. So he drives into the parking lot and stops the car. I get out of the car, slam the door and head to the store, as I exclaim (rather loudly again), "This is gonna SUCK".

Colin said, "Well, at least with THAT attitude, you have nothing to lose".

ZING!

I was expecting a store reminiscent of Petcetera, ie: some fish in dirty cages that kill all the other fish in our tank because of their bacteria, some poor stinky cats, and a bunch of pet food.

I went in anyway. The first thing I see, was:

Three little boxer-terrier cross puppies gnawing on a little purple dinosaur toy. They each had a part of it in their chops, and were stretching it 3 different ways!

YEAH! Go puppies! RIP THE THING TO SHREDS! Let's hear you sing "I love you" now, you cocky purple dinosaur!

Next cage, there were 4 of these (the brown variety, some sort of schnauzer cross):

3 males and 1 female. You could easily tell because they put pink collars on the girls, and blue collars on the boys. The 3 males were CONSTANTLY attacking their female friend, and man, was she ever holding her own! She was NASTY! One would walk away and she'd chop her jaws right into it's butt! GO GIRL! I was on her side for sure. I have never seen 4 puppies so animated!

The next cage calmed me down. Good thing because I was acting like I was at a WWF game. I saw 3 calm, beautiful Golden Retrievers:

The cutest puppies in the world, hands down. I want them all. They fit in a stocking, don't they?

There were more puppies than these. Some poodles that were so curly that you couldn't tell where their head was, some pomeranian puppies that looked like a fuzzy popple. There were also a few cute cocker spanials. Unfortunately, my outlook on cockers has changed. My family gave my mom one for her birthday one year. After a diagnosis of a blood disorder, a disappearing garden, and a queen size blanket that we'd find pieces during "pooper scooping" time, the decision was to give her back to the breeder to find a new family, where she promptly ate all their steel wool.

Cute, but not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

This was our favorite cat at the store:

Don't let it's cuteness deceive you! It attacked your hand every time you got close. But it kept it's claws in, so it was more like a friendly hi-5.

Speaking of attacking hands...

Colin's pretty good at ticking off animals. He's not MEAN to them, he just knows instantly how to "press their buttons". Like this parrot, who tried to bite his finger, and then complain about it by squawking bloody murder until Colin backed away:

Since we have a large-ish fish tank, we are no strangers to the fish sections of the pet store. So we expected to see the same fish as in all the other stores. Au contraire! There were different kinds of lizards, this chameleon......and lots of fish we've never seen. Look at all this guy!

There were so many of them in the tank, and each one had its own personality. One just stood still with it's claws wide open, ready to pinch whatever came near. The smallest one would ram into the biggest ones and try to pick a fight! Why do small thing always try to pick fights with big things?

We must've watched these silent battles for 15 minutes before we decided it was time to leave, at which point I said "but, but, can we go look at the puppies one more time?"

I left that store with a beaming smile from ear to ear! Then I got in the car and began to eat my words.

Thanks Petland, for the trip to the zoo!

And thanks, Colin, for putting up with me, and not leaving me locked in one of those cages.

The Tales of a Big Tub

Even before we moved into our house over a year ago, we started talking about how nice it would be to have a hot tub in our own backyard! So many benefits! Relaxing in it while it snows, relaxing in it in cool fall evenings, relaxing in it before bed to make us really sleepy, relaxing in it with friends...

So 2 weeks ago, we found a good quality one in Craig's List for a reasonable price, so we bought it! The guy even delivered it right to our driveway!

Everything was going so smoothly, until...we had to move it into the backyard.

For those who don't know, we live on a hill. The driveway has a nice slope to it, and the path connecting the front to the back yard is composed of broken slabs of concrete.

Colin got his parents, brother, and a skateboard to come over and help out. We're all like "Um, Colin, don't we need more people?".

We got our answer and started moving it.

The skateboard was the dolly.
For half an hour, we tipped it onto the skateboard and steadied, pushed and pulled it along the sloped driveway, up 3 stairs, and along 30 feet of the broken concrete. We stopped every few seconds to readjust the skateboard, move some plywood pieces to make the ground more smooth, and to suggest to phone some friends to come lend a hand.

But we persevered...until...
The wooden skirting of the tub was quite rotten, and this was the part that was resting on the skateboard. Finally, the skirting gave way and the skateboard broke right through it!

Great. Now we didn't even have anything to rest on the skateboard to wheel it any further, so the hot tub sat for a few days.

That Saturday was "wiring day". Colin pulled yet another skill out of his hat and played "electrician" for the day! He installed 40 feet of wire from the circuit breaker to the opposite corner of the house. The wire had to go between the basement ceiling and the upstairs floor. I didn't even know this was possible, but he had it done within 3 hours! WOW! He amazes me.

In the same day, Colin also managed to rebuild the broken side of the hot tub while it was still on its broken side, so it was ready to move! Heeding to my suggestion, friends were called and were booked for the next day.

"Hot Tub Moving" day comes (one week after we purchased it), along with a foot of snow on the ground! Since we do not have a sleigh, it was impossible to move it any further until the snow is gone. If this were a normal Vancouver snow storm, it would all have been washed away by rain the next day. But this was not a typical vancouver storm, so it sat for a week, collecting snow, instead of warm water and lots of people.
A week later, we had plowed enough snow for moving day to happen. So 3 eager friends (eager to help, and eager to use) came over to help Colin move it the rest of the way.

It was going smoothly until...
Yup. The newly improved skateboard dolly went through the side of the skirting AGAIN!

Luckily, that was the only problem, and now the hot tub sits upright!
Colin wired it to the circuit breaker.

Colin did the "chemical work" to clean the water, and then we waited (rather impatiently) for it to heat up to 103 degrees.

Yesterday evening, the wait was over! We went in twice! Ahhhh.....it felt like we were on vacation!

Hot tub party, anyone?