Ian

Yesterday was my wonderful husband's birthday, and so I decided to dedicate a post to him. I would have done this on his birthday but I spent all day with him, doing nothing special in particular, but just being together.

This past week has been crazy. We drove to and from Shuswap lake three times, then on friday night, my cousin Shelly and her fiance Ian stayed over night at our house. On saturday, my cousin Terista got married to Jerry and we drove all the way to preditor ridge (past vernon) to go to the reception. After all the drving and visiting, my Ian was so tired, but still so happy. Saturday night (really sunday morning) when we got home from the wedding, Ian just looked deep into my eyes and told me that he is so happy to be a part of my family and that now he is my family. This blows my mind to think that the man I love more than any one else is now my family. I love being married to him!!! I thank God that Ian is in my life. I loved him as a friend, and now even more so as a husband.

I can't even express in words how happy he makes me. Its just this feeling that has no description other than pure joy. It's a joy that makes me cry when I look at him and he looks back at me and I can see that he loves me. It's a joy that makes me want to be by his side forever.

I'm just sitting here in awe and I feel wordless.

Ian, I love you.

I Hate Gutters

It's not so much the actual gutter that I hate. I don't hate the look and they really are handy to have I suppose. I just hate the fact that everyone wants them due to the good economy and alot of construction. I hate that my husband works ALL the time installing said gutters on houses. I hate that I never know when he is going to come home and can never plan anything. I hate that when he comes home at night all he wants to talk about is gutters.

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that he loves his job, but seriously, how can a stupid aluminum scrap be more important than the person you love?!!!!

My Nephew is 1!!!!!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY HUNTER!!!!

We love you and we are very glad that you have been in our lives for one whole year already. I love watching you grow up into a little person. I'm excited for the many more years to watch you grow up.

A Worldly Home

Our bedroom. The most boring room in our house. It has a nice bed but no bed frame. REALLY old dressers that do not match. And there are no pictures on the wall. SO we decided to paint it. And that is what happened two weeks ago. Ian and I painted our bedroom Roasted Pepper.
Then we proceeded to find fabric to make curtains. Ian was not very happy about this venture but I made him go with me and in return he could go to the HOME DEPOT. We went to WalMart and Ian was the one who found very cool fabric. It is red and white with black japanese type flowers on it. As a result of the fabric, we decided to make our bedroom Japanese style as well. I am going to paint canvases with japanese writing. Words like love, happyness, etc. Ian is going to make a bed frame that is low the ground, square, and black. Our furniture doesn't match, so we're going to paint it, black.

So that will be our bedroom. For our living room, I am trying to go for an African theme. Ian got an African drum from Phil and Beka for Christmas and I went to centre the decore around that.

For my kitchen, I'm going for more of a french style. French cafe style most likely.

Our office has a nice Southern British Columbian theme. Nice blue walls. A desk with a computer. A fish tank. A painting of a schooner. A model schooner. Ahhhh yes. Good old Southern British Columbia.

Anyhow, that is all I can really think of now for decorating. This is my way of seeing the world without having to leave the comfort of my own home. I need to try get a Venice themed room. As long as it is not the basement.

Baby Fever

There was a time in Ian and my very early marriage (like we have been married for so long right now), where Ian had baby fever and he wanted to have one so bad and I was all against it. I somehow managed to shake that idea out of his head and I wish that I knew how I did it to use it on myself. That's right, I have baby fever.

There are just so many women in my life who are pregnant or just had babies. And it seems that when I turn the corner some other friend of mine is pregnant. It makes me so happy for them but it also makes me incredibly jealous. I wish I could just stop this silly nonsense. I mean, I just bought a house and work is going really well but I know that now is not the time to be getting pregnant, but I still crave it so badly. It doesn't help that I have all these adorably neices and nephews that I adore. I just want one for myself. I used to babysit my nephew Hunter to get over my fever but instead he just makes me want one all the more.

Goodness, what is a girl to do?!

50th Post!!!

So, as some of you may know, two weekends ago I(kristin) went to edmonton to do my practical evaluation. I was gone for two nights, and though I missed Ian, I was doing okay, until I failed my practical evaluation and then I wanted to just go home and be with him and cry. I'll give more details on the failing in a sec. Anyways, tonight Ian had to go to Lilloet for one night for work, and I'm in our new house, all alone, and so sad and missing him. Point to my babble is that it sucks when you are the person who is left behind. It is very lonely. I miss you Ian! *weep weep*

Right, so further on my evaluation. The instructor that I was supposed to get was sick so I got the head instructor who was really tough on me(more so than the other instructors were on the other girls). I was nervous to begin with and I have a case of test anxiety, she did not make it better. She made me feel really awkward and uncomfortable and so as a result, I screwed up BIG time. I can't retake my practical evaluation until september which means I have to miss all the my classes that are in the summer time and finish them all next summer. I can take a few this year so I will not be gone for such a long period of time.

I am both happy and sad about all this. I'm upset because I don't get to be an assistant this year AND in 2007 the canadian dental association is making it mandatory for new CDA's to take a test in order to work in all provinces. Blah, more tests. But I am also very happy because of our recent purchase of a house, I wasn't really able to afford school, missing work, and a house. Plus, I didn't want to leave my husband for so long, especially in our first year of marriage. It wouldn't matter if I wasn't the one being left behind. I would miss Ian. I guess God does things for the best. I'm young, I have lots of life ahead of me. When I'm 60, will I really care that I had to wait 1 more year to become an assistant. No.

Speaking of work and all, it's getting late and I need sleep in order to function at my job. So g'night y'all. Tee hee!!!

~Kristin

Back in Black

Just a short post to let everyone know that we are officially at our new house! We are getting settled and are close to having everything unpacked i think. Expect some more posting soon!

ian

264 Hollyburn Dr.

THIS JUST IN: The mortgage was approved! We're ready to rock and/or roll. So excited.

i've decided (i'm ian by the way) to upload some pictures of our new house for all the folks who read the blog. Some of these pictures were taken by the realtor who listed the place and some were taken by Rudy Suppanz of Gold Seal Property Inspection Service. If you're looking for a good home inspector who will tell you everything you need to know, then talk to Rudy. I've got his number if you want it.

The first picture is the exterior of the house. As you can guess, our half is the one with the FOR SALE sign in the front. The tall half. The cool half. Anyways, as you can see, the exterior is finishe with stucco and wood siding. This can all be changed thanks to my wonderful ties to the exterior renovation business. We'll see. We've got a 2 car side-by-side driveway, very handy for a two car family like us (though i may be selling my car).

Next is the front yard. We don't really have much of a yard here, which is really ok with me because A) we don't have a lawnmower and B) less work for us. There are some nice little garden type things here, as well as a spruce tree, a baby apple tree and a teeny tiny rose bush.

Check out this next picture. I never really looked at the backyard, and from the house you don't see too much because it slopes down towards the back. But this is sweet. I'm seeing this for the first time too so we can all be in amazement. As you can see, there are some stairs as well as some nice flat areas which would be perfect for building, say, a gazebo. Or maybe even a pergola! I've always wanted a pergola. There are also some garden areas here. The current owner was telling us what sort of stuff we could find in the gardens, stuff she had planted. But it was all too much to remember so i guess we'll find out what is there when it all grows. First on the agenda for the backyard though is to Dewie-Proof it. He jumped through a hole in the fence at Fran and Henry's that was like 3 1/2 feet off the ground. Circus dog.

This picture is a strange view of our deck. From the roof. But we have a deck!! It's pretty nice. Initially there was a concern about insurance and the height of the railing, but that's no longer an issue. The issue now is that the pickets are 5" From apart and should be more like 4". There are several things we can do to fix that so it's all good. It's a nice little deck and has a very nice mountain view. It gets morning sun only so it won't get sweltering hot either. Perfect for barbecueing (sp?) and whatnot (I hope you're enjoying my random links. I know I am.).


The next photo is of the entrance & downstairs bathroom. That's right folks, the place has 2 bathrooms! It's incredible, i know. The entrance has some little wooden spindly thingys that i don't particularly enjoy. We'll see how long they last. The entry and bathroom both have ceramic tile floors, very classy.

Next we'll journey to the living room. Here we'll see that there's a wood-burning fireplace. This is a nice added bonus for some extra heat or added romance. Laminate floors extend from the living room at the front of the house to the dining room at the back. The kitchen, which we'll see next, has ceramic tile floors.

The kitchen, as i mentioned, like 5 seconds ago, has ceramic tile floors. The cabinets are very nicely painted and seem to be in great condition. the countertop looks pretty new too. The kitchen contains a fridge and stove as well as a dishwasher. The stove and dishwasher are 2 years old, the fridge is 5, the washer and dryer, which we won't see on this tour, are one year old (pretty cool too, a stand up model). Kristin loves this kitchen. Ian loves that Kristin loves this kitchen.

So basically that concludes the tour, simply because we have no pictures of the upstairs at all. The inspection didn't really cover anything like that and they didn't show the bedrooms in the real estate listing. Needless to say, though, we are very excited about moving in. And, we get to move in on the 29th! That means that everything has to go through very quickly, so we are still not really out of the woods. I think all that's really left is things to do with the lawyer and switching things around with titles and whatnot. Keep praying for us and thanks for sticking around for this lengthy tour of our house. Have a great day!

The Real Deal

Ian and I have posted before that we had a house that we were going to buy, and then we didn't end up buying it due to misunderstandings of the seller and the buyers (us).

But now, that is all changed. Ian and I have found a house with the help of my dad and Ron VanBuren (our realtor). It is a half duplex on holleyburn. It big and perfect and has a fenced in backyard for our Dewie. It has a sundeck and even a workbench for Ian. It has appliances that are all within 1-5 years. The kitchen is perfect size for me. Our bedroom is a good size with a walk-in closet!!! And the living room is bright and cheery and has two big windows with a WOOD FIREPLACE in between.

Last night we made an offer on it and we will get it for 187, 500. Not bad for the compared prices in this town. So now all that's left is our subject tos and then we have a house, and we will have possession (hopefully) by april 29, so that we can move straight from where we live now to the new place. The owners now were going to leave in two weeks anyway.

EEP! I'm so excited. This was just another God send thing. He is just always looking out for us. Helping us find the perfect place when we were in despair about ever finding it.

So, PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Big Marital Step

Awwwww. How cute. A young married couple's first illness together.

This morning, Ian and I both woke up feeling very nauseous and dizzy. No one else that we now is sick like us, so it wasn't anything we ate because we have been eating at my mom's house for the last few days. I would really like to know why we are sick.

Ian called in sick today and I should have but I didn't. I went to work and felt awful. All I had the whole day was water to drink and then at about 2 I had a juice box and had a hard time keeping it down. I did though. Ian ate some crackers in the morning and then threw up. In the afternoon he ate a lot of crackers but he threw that up as well. When I came home from work, I passed out on our bed, I slept for about an hour and now I am feeling quite a lot better. I'm eating crackers right as I am typing this and they are sitting nicely in my tummy, for now. Ian is feeling worse, however. He is still in bed wishing that he was better.

Hopefully you soon will be baby!

Kristin

87

Today my grandpa would have been 87. He died last year, February 2nd. He's gone but not forgotten.

ian

Silent No More!

hey! it's ian! i know i haven't blogged at all in weeks, so here's some updates!

Yay!

not much is really going on. we have to move out so we are kind of looking for a place to live. we don't know for sure if we want to buy or rent, but finding affordable places to rent or buy is a challenge in this city. especially if you make a combined income of just under $50000. i am leaning towards buying, for a few reasons: 1) its our place, so we can do with it what we want. 2) we can have our dog (99.9% of the places that are out there for rent say NO PETS. the other .1% are on the north shore *yuck*) 3.) renting just stinks, because you're throwing your money away.

those are all the reasons. there is one duplex we are/were looking at but haven't actually seen yet, which is only like 130,000 (believe me, that's good for a half duplex) but it's been a real challenge to get in to look at it. also i saw this one house that is 135000 and has a nice yard so maybe that would be nice. i don't know. sometimes i panic about it, but then other times i could really care less. mostly i am just kind of looking around and if there's something that interests me then i will think about it a lot. but i'm not panicking.

speaking of work (oh, i wasn't speaking of work? whatever), i've been working a lot lately. longer days mean longer hours. it's good and bad. lots of money rolling in on payday, but i'm tired and dirty and won't get to see my wife very often. but it is a lot of fun running a machine that eats aluminum and poops gutters (for those of you who don't know, i work for Continuous Gutters, we build and install custom lengths of aluminum gutters and downpipes). in the sun all day, different location every day, what more could you want? more money. a new tool belt. ladders that work. a cow-orker who shows up every day, never hung over. a radio. that's about it.


well this has been fun, hasn't it? we've shared some laughs, we've delved deep into my personal life. good times, good times. have a great day!

ian

On My Way to CDA!!!!!

Today is the deadline for having all my school work finished and being registered for my practical evaluation on April 22. I wasn't certain that I was going to finish in time but I did!!!!!!!!! I finished it all. 11 tests in less than 3 weeks. 6 months-1 year to finish this school work and I did it 4 weeks. I'm exhausted and oh so happy. The rest should be a breeze, or so I'm told. No more tests, that makes me want to sing for joy. God is good, sometimes freaks me out with last minuteness but I knew that me and Him could do it.

Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts and support!

~Kristin

Tragedy

My little Gilligan didn't make it.

Yesterday afternoon Gilligan was cold and he wasn't moving so I freaked out and called my mom and she said that I should take a warm face cloth and wrap him up. I did this and within a half an hour he was back to normal. Well at night at about 8:30, he again wasn't moving so I did the same thing, but after two hours he still wasn't movingand he was stiff. I put him back in with his mom and decided to wait until morning to see if anything had changed and it had not. My poor little bunny is no longer with us. Its just so silly. I know its only a rabbit, but it made me so sad, I just cried and cried and cried. I was so excited to save him and now he didn't make it. He was just so small and cute and his little eyes couldn't even open yet and his little ears were so sweet. How could I fall in love with something so small that isn't human and that I only knew for one day? Maybe I'm just crazy emotional right now.

~Kristin

More Bunnies?

Yesterday was a wonderful, beautiful, sunny, and warm day. In the afternoon, Ian and I played some frisbie with some friends, then we came home. It was such a nice day that I needed to be outside more, so I fed the two bunnies that Ian and I have and decided that it was time to go get the bunny cage from my parents house and clean up the sundeck(where the bunnies were roming free). In the short 20-30 minutes that we were gone, Thomas(our girl bunny) had had 3 more baby bunnies. However, they were not all snuggled warm in the house, they were lying all over the place. We were very sad about more dead baby bunnies.

So we went out with a broom and shovel and garbage bags to clean up all the poop and dispose of the deceased baby bunnies. We cleaned up the first two and they were definitely dead, but the 3rd bunny kept moving his legs a little when we touched him!!! Ian and I decided that we needed to try save our little baby, so we took a tupperware container and put some shavings in it and took him inside to where it was warm. About an hour later I went to check on the bunny and he was wiggling around looking for something to eat! Our new bunny survived!!!!! We named him Gilligan ( a good survivor name).

We then decided that Thomas needed to be with her baby, so we took her inside and made her a cozy little home in a rubbermade bin and with a cardboard box where she could hide and keep Gilligan safe. This morning I saw her feeding him!!!! I am so happy that at least one baby is still with us. I show pictures of him when he is a little less ugly. He is alot cuter today than he was last night.

Also, I am bunnysitting Anyssa Gill's bunny, Cairnie. That means that yesterday morning I had 2 bunnies and last night I had 4.

It's a zoo in here!!!

~Kristin

Tests

So here is the update on my tests.

I wrote them all including my final. I passed all of them except for one, dental reception. I have to rewrite this test on monday when schools are back from spring break. I will not find out the results of my final exam until that test is written and marked. I am coming very close to my deadline. That test will be written on the 2oth, received by the school by the 21st and then marked. My deadline is the 22nd of march!!!! So I better have passed that final exam, which I am thinking that I did. And if all goes according to plan, I will be done my school work and just need to go to Edmonton for my practical courses and then I AM A CDA!!!!! Oh, that sounds heavenly. My brain and body can't wait, this is taking way too much out of the two.

Well I'll try to keep you posted on what's going on in this house.

~Kristin

P.S. I got 99% on my prosthodontics!!!! (that is crowns and bridges, etc) Woot honors!!!!

Lack of Blog

Sorry for the not blogging lately.

I've just been so busy with school. That is all I have been doing. Seriously, yesterday I left the house for 20 minutes to go to the chiropractor and that was it. The rest of the day I just stayed home and studied. My brain hurts. I have to get back to it now. I promise I will talk to you all more on the weekend because I have this weekend off!!!!

~kristin

My Strength Comes From The Lord

My head is just spinning!!! I needed to come blog just to give my brain a few seconds of no dentistry. I have been doing school non-stop lately. It is tough because I feel like I cannot keep going but I know that I must persevere because I now only have until the 22nd of March to get all my tests and assignments sent in to school and marked and passed. What is really stressing me out though is that the school where I write my test has spring break not the next week but the one after that.

This all means that I have 6 tests to write and then my final all before next friday!!! I'm really stressing out about all this. I have a fear that I am not going to finish. I'm not sleeping well at nights because my mind just will not stop thinking about all the things I have to do in a short period of time. I just spend my days praying to God and studying and I know that He will see this all through. Right now my brain and test are all in His hands. I persevere because He gives me the strength to. I still need more strength though. Please keep praying for me. I need it sooooooo much right now.

Ian and I also decided not to buy a house right now. We stopped looking and trying to get mortgage stuff in order because I just could not handle it. It was too much stress with the amount of school I have to do right now. As well as, we just don't have the money right now. We are going to wait a few months to a year to find something to buy. That way I can focus on one thing at a time.

Oh....feels good to vent. My head is feeling a bit better now. Well, time for more studying, test writing, and assignment doing.

Love Kristin

We Lost It.

We didn't get the house. Due to alot of confusion and misunderstandings, the house went to some other people. Ian and I are very sad about this. But we aren't that worried. We believe that God will be with us and allow us to find just what we need.

I just never realized though how emotional finding and losing a house could be. As well as all the financial things to deal with. I am just exhausted with everything I've been doing. Real life is tough. I wouldn't change my life, but I sometimes wish that things could be easier and less stressful

~kristin

HOME Hunting (as in not just a house)

This is (hopefully, God willing) our new home. It is a half duplex on waddington. My father (Henry) made an appointment for Ian and me to see it on thursday. We loved it when we saw it, I especially loved it, the place felt like home instantly as I walked around it.

Funny story about this place and its previous owners. My aunt lived in THIS very house many years ago. The owner who is selling it now, I recognized when I saw her but I could not put a name to the face. Later as we were touring the house, I saw a cupboard with her kids names on it and I instantly remembered who she was. They are a quite well known family in the dentist office that I work in.

Anyways, so this house has a good size living room and kitchen, two bedrooms, one bathroom, a big rec-room downstairs, and a BIG laundry room that Ian wants to change into his new BIG shop. And the most wonderful part, a nice big, fenced yard for Dewie.

Another couple actually made an offer on this house on thursday and the owner called us to tell us about it. She said that she was holding them off until she heard from us because she really wanted us to have it! The awesome thing is, is that what Ian and dad and I were discussing what we were going to put down as an offer and it was higher than that other couple! ALRIGHT!!! So, what we really have to do now is figure out mortgage stuff (blah) and save, save, scrimp, and save for a down payment. Thank God for tax return. He he he.

We will have to see how things go. I really want this place. So please pray, pray, pray for us. I do not feel grown up enough for this. Oy vey.

~Kristin