Teaching Important Life Skills

These two just love their Daddy time. Nadine is especially attentive to the proper method:) 

Our new apartment!

Soo, this last week was a fabulous week indeed. Brian and I got a fabulous apartment in a beautiful section of downtown - a five minute walk away from our pastor (which is important, after all) and a ten/twelve min walk from First CRC. We sign the papers tomorrow and take posession on August 1st. I'm so excited! Here's a few pictures of the outside of our place - we have the second floor/attic.





Our street:

Another Doctor's Visit

We went to see Evan's doctor yesterday. He's pretty much convinced that Evan has asthma, and the little guy was wheezing pretty heavily yesterday. The doctor gave us some more medication to control the swelling in his lungs, which should work in about 5 days. Apparently this medication may increase the appetite....I asked if that was even possible with Evan!! He is still such a happy little guy...even after a big coughing fit, he's all smiles! I wish I could post you a picture, but I'm not familiar with these computers at school.

THose vanBreda Genes...

There is definately a little bit of their Daddy in these monkeys.

(This is Sarah... and you thought I was joking about blogging these babies:) 

One Year Old!

So your nephew/grandson is now one year old. He has been happy and giddy ever since you all were over for the party. He is so smiley - even at the babysitter's! He takes long naps there and is the centre of attention because he is the youngest. He has recently learned how to sign "Please" when he wants more food. We told the babysitter about this, and now he signs "please" when she's having her own lunch too - even after he's been fed!!

He is currently on inhalers because the doctor thinks he may have asthma. We have to give them to him twice a day and he doesn't enjoy it very much. We'll see the doctor again soon for a possible diagnosis. His weight gain is great now. He even has a little tiny gut!

It was great to have you all over for his birthday and we hope to see you soon.
Marya, Eric & Evan

The Influence of Veggietales...

Reuben: Daddy, I was thinking... [starts to sing] "I was lying in my bed..." and I was thinking that we should go outside!

What's worse than Disney's revisionist Pocahontas?

I found this at our local library...

Click on the picture to make it bigger. 

Nadine and Reuben

Reuben: La la la...lalala laaaa la la la laaala la-

Nadine: Hi Reuben!

R: Nadine. I'm singing a song. La la lalaaaa la la laalala...la l-

N: Hi Reuben!

R: Nadine! I'm singing! Laaa la lalala lala la la la-

N: Hi Reuben!

R: Na-dine! I'm singing! La la laaaa...lalala la-

N: Hi Reuben!

R: Nadine, please stop saying "Hi Reuben." I'm singing a song. La la la l-

N: Hi Reuben!

R: Daaaaddy! I'm trying to sing, and Nadine keeps saying "Hi Reuben!"

Me: Nadine, Reuben doesn't like it when you say that, and Reuben, why don't you try singing somewhere else?

R: [walking away to the bedrooms] Lala laaa la la la la....

N: [following] Hi Reuben! Hi Reuben! Hi Reuben! Hi...

My First Review!

I've had my first review of one of my blogs!

...Granted, it would have felt a little more affirming if it was for The Answerman, the one with all the hard work and research, but I'll take what I can get.

Steve takes a picture from his front room daily and posts it at his blog. I find that satisfying and humane. At 1/125 of a second per day we get to view a slice of life in the suburbs of common decency and care.

I had no idea I was this deep...

Judah Johannes

The vital stats:

Name: Judah Johannes
Birthday: 4:52 am March 26, 2006
Weight: 6 lbs 10 oz
Length: 20"
Hair Colour: Red
Looks Like: Reuben
Interesting trivia: Born with water intact. According to the
midwife, it means that he will never drown at sea. *whew!*

Getting Ready...

Well, we've plastic-wrapped our bed. We've got the herbal bath mixture prepared and frozen. We've got separate bags packed for our kids, as well as instructions for each of their routines. We've got Plans A, B, C, and D. We've got the baby's cradle assembled, and clothes ready. We've pre-registered at the hospital, just in case. Our (new-ish!) freezer is stocked with delicious suppers prepared by Sarah (and one or two by me).

All we need now is the baby....

Disappearing Snow

What with all this warm weather and all, we're down to just 1/2 an inch of snow in our backyard. Boo.

Humour

You really have to read this webpage. It's an interview with a search engine, specifically "Ask Jeeves."

Maybe it's because I've had a really long day today, but I laughed so hard I was crying, and my cat came and sat on our couch just to stare at me as I was giggling.

*whew* :-)

-Steve

Collingwood (but I wouldn't)

Well, we've returned from our time-share special up in Collingwood, and had a great time! It started out very dicey, as we left to Exeter to drop off the kids amongst warnings of freezing rain blanketing the entire southern Ontario region. Halfway to Exeter, it started to pour, but it was okay, 'cause the temperature was plus three.

We quickly unloaded the children, then took off in a vaguely northwestern direction following the incredibly detailed and confusing directions of Google Maps. We discovered something kinda neat-- did you know that it can still rain when the temperature is minus 5? It just means that the ice builds up faster on the vehicles and roads. Funny thing, though, we didn't see any cars in the ditch on the way up. It's as if there's a line in bad weather that makes even the most cocky drivers say, "Well, okay, now I think I should drive slowly and safely."

Anyway, we made it, and our van was just covered in ice. We even had to stop twice just to bang the ice off the wipers. Our check-in lady was very nice (and had a big, big, almost freaky smile), and sent us off with our key-card to our room.




























Our room. The promotional guy giving us this deal over the phone that was a timeshare but not, assured us that our room would have:

• two bathrooms
• a fireplace
• 28" flatscreen tv
• kitchen suite
• jacuzzi bathtub
• living room

Basically what you would conjure up in your mind when you pictured the presidential suite from the movies. So exciting!

Our first warning should've been that there was no elevator up to our 2nd floor room. The resort was in the 2nd year of a $16 million renovation, and our room was in the old section. We slid the key-card through the doorknob and stepped into a small room with two twin beds, a dresser, a tv, and a bathroom. Oops.

I went straight back to the nice smiley lady and told her of the situation (apparently the nice salesman promised some things he shouldn't have...) Anyway, she talked to some people, and within 5 minutes, we were on our way to an off-site condo that had all of the above amenities, plus a heat lamp in both bathrooms. Wahoo!














We spent the first day of our three day/two night stay just giddy at what happened, and what kind of a place we were staying in! We ate an unhealthy supper of prepared chinese fingerfood heated in our fully equipped kitchen, then in the morning ate a free breakfast buffet prepared by a professional chef (big, freaking waffles). As a storm gathered itself around us, we watched the olympics, took baths, read books, and enjoyed not hearing children for just a couple of days.

We ended our stay with another nice salesman attempting to soft-sell us a $30,000, 50 year membership to the whole group of resorts that ours belonged to. He took us to the new section of the resort to show us a typical condo we would be staying in around the world. Wow. It was like our condo on polished crystal and marble. Somehow we still managed to say no...

Anyway, we made it back to Exeter inbetween storms around 5:30, where I was presented with the most disgustingly original birthday cake I've ever seen, made by Rachel and her boyfriend.

-Yes everything was bought new
-Those are melted Tootsie Rolls

All in all, a very nice weekend.

Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty...

Yes, I have done it. Call me "Plumber Steve."

I have tackled the toilet, and emerged victorious. I have taught it its place-- I leak, not it. After replacing the gasket between the tank and the bowl (the flash of pinkish-red, look hard- it's there!), it thought it could best me by springing a new leak from its feeder pipe, but it was not to be.

With the words of advice from a Home Hardware (Home of the Handyman, Gary, actually) employee I valiantly and courageously removed the feeder pipe, and replaced it wth, that's right, a brand-new pipe. But not any pipe. No siree. This ersatz plumber was not satisfied with the status quo. This new pipe is a flexible pipe.

You can expect to hear of "Steve's Plumbing and Teaching Services" any time soon, I think.

I'm dreaming of a White Boxing Day!

So we had a nice little snowfall overnight, and today really feels like Christmas (which is handy, because we are doing our presents today). Santa already brought Evan a stocking full of little presents, but the wrapping paper was much more fun to play with/eat.

I took a picture of my lovely new piano and I'll have to get some help this week to post it so David can see it. You are all invited to come to visit and try it out!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you are all celebrating a joyous Christmas! I hope that the weather will cooperate with everyone travelling--rain at this time of year is not so great, and we don't want freezing rain! I will be going to Stoter's for dinner tomorrow.
Love you all, and I'm looking forward to next week when I can see all of you again. Can someone please bring a web cam so we can use it for David?

MOM

Just a thought----if you have a gift for dad, why not put it in a gift bag, rather than wrap it. It will be easier for him to open it that way.

I'm coming home!

Unfortunately I woke up at 6am this morning. this is unfortunate because of the fact that I shan't be sleeping for the next thirty hours. I was hoping to get a little more sleep to prepare. Oh well. See you soon!!!

Addendum #1

Hello everyone! Just thought that I would add a bit to my list--I've called it addendum #1, because there may be more....:-)

For Dad--socks
chocolate--something that is soft and smooth--like the chocolate oranges

For me--some new mugs--not too big

Hope you all have a good week!