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Long Time No Blog · Oct 23, 05:07 PMBraeden is 4 today! My little baby. All grown up. Speaking of Dairy Queen, little Toby (who will be 2 in mid January) is saying short sentences now and when we gave him a bite of Braeden’s ice cream cone he said “wuv ice creams” over and over. I had a job interview yesterday for another position at SFU, this one with the History Department as a Communications, Recruiting and Fundraising Officer. The interview went well and I think I made a good impression but only time will tell if they think I’m the right person for the job. I think it’s the perfect job for me! And it’s part time – 3 days a week – which is great. Wish me luck. Happy Birthday Braeden! |
Toby Speaks! · Mar 10, 03:40 PM
We are also really excited to take posession of our house in Nanaimo on Friday. We will be going there for the weekend to take posession and interview renters (we have had 7 inquiries so far and at least 3 of them are very serious.) We will then be going back for Easter weekend and all of the next week to camp out in the house, have our “POSESSION PARTY!!!” and take care of a bit of work that needs to be done. I can’t believe we have a house now, and on Vancouver Island no less. I am looking for part time work in Seattle but have been off to a slow start. I have also started applying for a few jobs here and there in Vancouver. Back to the working world for me. It will break my heart to leave my babies and not see them all day but I suppose I should consider myself lucky since I’ve been able to stay home since Braeden was born. I suppose it’s time to re-enter adultland. Did I mention that spring makes me sing? |
Toby said his first word today!!! He was clinging to my pantleg while I was on the computer and he said “baby.” This is his first big word (we’re not counting mama, dada, no/neh and uh-oh.) Another truly cool thing about it is that Braeden’s first word was “toto” which is the Swahili word for baby. He said it while pointing to a baby in a stroller back in old Nairobi-town. I should check Braeden’s baby book to see how old he was when he uttered his first words but I think he was about 14 months which is how old Toby is!Whale Soup · Feb 26, 11:48 AM
I love Hawaii. Pictures don’t do it justice. The place we’re staying, the Mahana, is fantastic. The sound of the waves, the view from the windows, the sunsets….sigh. It’s heaven. We explored a bit the first day but we were pretty tired from our 4am departure so we didn’t do a whole lot. We have since discovered that there is so much to do on this island! We haven’t spent any time sitting by the pool yet because we’ve been out and about. Sunday we rented some snorkel gear then headed back towards the airport to drive around the north side of the island, which you’re not supposed to do with your rental car because it’s supposed to be a rough road. It was not a rough road, just really narrow and unbelievably gorgeous. Lara took some amazing pictures. We stopped and bought “the best banana bread on the planet” which is arguably true, then went for a little hike down an impossibly green slope to a blow-hole in a lava bed that looked much like what I imagine the moon looks like. The blow-hole was pretty cool too – water from the ocean sloshes into a cave and, when the waves collide at the right instant, water shoots out of the hole. Fun stuff.
We headed back to our condo, picked up some steaks and had a late bbq. A great day. Yesterday was “drive down south” day where we explored the south end of Maui through Kihei and Wailea. Now I know where all the really rick folk go in Maui. Wailea is suuuper swanky…so we drove right past and went as far as the road can go and what did we find? A lava field! The road winds through the middle of this huge field of red volcanic rock. At the end of the road is a series of rocky bays with the most crystal blue water we’ve seen, and the biggest waves I’ve seen crashing against black volcanic rocky shores. We hiked along to find the really big waves and watched a group of surfers for awhile. I’ve never seen really good surfing up close. It was really cool to watch. After that we thought our day on the beaches was over but we stopped at one more and it turned out to be a gem. More huge waves and the guys decided to jump in with the boogie boards and got pounded by the waves. A lot of these waves were 8 to 10 feet high and they would disappear in the pounding foam then the boogie board would pop up, then finally a head. They had a great time. We finally called it a day, went home to shower and clean up then headed out for another late dinner. It’s strange to have so much time to myself. This feels like more of a holiday than any trip I’ve ever taken. Nobody to feed, change, pick up, wake up for in the middle of the night. Day upon day of doing nothing but finding ways to entertain myself. We’ve seen a lot of kids here and there are so many things we’ve done that made us think Braeden would love it here. Toby would love anything… I woke up missing my babies keenly. I would really like to have a little hug and a squeeze from my boys. Today we have nothing planned. We’ve been spending a lot of time in the car so I think it would be a good day to do absolutely nothing. Or not. Ahhh, the freedom… I love Maui. |
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Here I sit, in front of the huge window of our condo looking over the rolling waves, palm trees waving in front of me and I can see a whale about 300 feet off shore slapping it’s tail on the water, over and over and over. This time of year there the humpback whales abound and they call it a whale soup. After an uneventful flight here we picked up our jeep and as soon as we hit the coast we stopped at a viewpoint and saw whales breaching and spy hopping. It was amazing. Margaret in the snow · Feb 3, 10:04 PM
After that we drove back into town to take Margaret to church. We discovered that there is a “Kenyan International Community Church” in south Seattle. We went in with her for a bit (it was two and a half hours long!) and it was really interesting. They sang, waved their arms in the air, clapped and danced for the first half hour. It was also really interesting to be in a room of only Kenyans again – it sure brought back a lot of memories. Margaret seemed really happy to be there. I think it will help a lot with her homesickness. They talked quite a bit about the terrible situation in Kenya and it was really sad. Despite really enjoying the music, after about half an hour the kids were getting pretty squirelly so I took them home while Jess stayed at the church with Margaret. All in all a fun Sunday. I’m looking forward to another week with a bit more freedom, our new date-night on Wednesday and starting my job hunt. Lala Salama. (Sleep peacefully) |
We bought a house!!! · Jan 30, 01:27 PM
“This super spacious house is centrally located in North Nanaimo, close to shopping & schools. It hides a great number of features. An open floor plan greets you. Attractive living & dining areas with laminate flooring. A lovely bright & cheery family room with wood fireplace off the open kitchen, built-ins include fairly new wall oven, counter top stove & dishwasher. There are 3 generous size bedrooms on the main. The downstairs features an amazingly large 3 bedroom suite. A huge living room with an exceptional high ceiling, also, a gas fireplace. Rented below market rates. This house was renovated 3 years ago & has been well kept.” In other very exciting news, Margaret arrived last night and we’re really happy to have her here. She seems pretty excited about being here and I hope she adjusts well. It’s so different than Kenya. She’s supposed to be taking today to get over her jet lag and get used to being here but I can’t get her to stop cleaning. I often forget that Kenyans are a lot tougher than we are and they’re used to working hard all the time. I’m looking forward to showing Margaret around, having date nights with Jess and we’ve even scheduled one sleep-in day on Saturday mornings! This is the life…now I have to go out and get a part time job to pay her salary. Take care friends, oh and Mike, thanks for your comment. I was very happy to see it. :) |
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Well, we finally made our dream come true and we bought a house on the island! Our new house is in the Uplands neighbourhood in Nanaimo and we’re very happy with it. It’s got 3 bedrooms up and a 3 bedroom basement suite with 10 foot ceilings! It’s huge! The whole house is 3200 sqare feet and was completely renovated a few years ago. It backs onto a ravine and is in a really great neighbourhood a block away from an elementary school. We hope to move there in 3 or 4 years and will rent it for now. Here is the realtor’s description of the house: