Blog Envy

I read A LOT of crafty blogs.  I love them all but there is one thing I hate about a bunch of them...

Some of them are really successful, that's not what I hate, I admire that and I'm happy for them.  Some of them are so successful that companies send them free products to test out.

Here's what I hate, when my favorite crafty blog gets a new tool that there's no way I can purchase.  It means they'll start doing all these amazing projects that I can't re-create.  There are two items specifically that I would love to own but never will, one being the Silhouette.  It's a digital cutting tool, you can cut vinyl or make cute fabric transfers, the options are endless.  Make It and Love It got one and keeps making the best looking projects.  She also just got this cool device called an Accuquilt.  I'm not a quilter but this little machine makes me want to become one.  If you are a quilter you may not want to look at this project, the envy will set in.  I can just imagine all the great things she'll do with this.

Lastly is all the blogs that get free canvas prints sent to them.  I love the look of your photos turned into Canvas but it's just so darn pricey.

In general I don't enter giveaways.  The chances of winning are super slim and it does nothing but get my hopes up, these awesome products are good enough that I go ahead and enter and then I'm sad when someone else wins.  Maybe one day I'll be the lucky one.

Marriage

Today's post is a bit of a space-filler but stay tuned for details on the Lethbridge move that is slowly falling apart.

Marriage

1. When was your engagement? March 23, 2007 (maybe the 24th). We called all of our family right after and then we got to go to an activity where all of our friends were. It was fun to be able to tell people so quick.
2. When is your marriage anniversary? June 30, 2007
3. How long have you known your spouse? 5 years ish? Most of those years I didn't know him well though, we were friends for about a year and a half.
4. How long did you date before you got engaged? 3 months. I know it's crazy short. I used to hate it when people would say, "When you know, you know". I thought that was hogwash, you can't know you love someone in 3 months. And then I knew and I didn't want to wait. I like to think it helped that we'd been friends for so long.
5. Where did you meet your spouse? The first time we met was pretty unmemorable for the both of us, it took us a long time to come up with it. I was playing my clarinet in a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Brad came to sub on the drums for a practice or two until he left on his mission. The meeting left no impression on either of us though. While on his mission I happened to become friends with 3 of his siblings so we naturally ended up in the some of the same places when he got back.
6. What is your spouses full name? Bradley Earl Wiebe
7. Do you have any children? Catie Mae is coming in September
8. How many? Just the one that's still cooking
9. Do you have any pets? Nope. We're going to be those mean parents that don't let their kids have any pets, we don't like dogs and Brad's allergic to cats. One day maybe we'll let them have goldfish, in a bowl though, no fancy aquariums.
10. Do you own or rent? We rent though we move at the end of the month and the new place we had lined up just fell through. Hopefully we're not homeless or living with my parents.
11. Do you live in the country, city/town? City unless we end up at my parents, Magrath is definitely a town.
12. What is your favourite activity you do together? We love spending time together, it doesn't really matter what we're doing as long as we get to do it together. We do really love going out for dinner though.
13. Do you have a favourite vacation spot? Brad would definitely say Shushwap Lake but I'd probably say Disneyland or Hawaii. I want to take him to both eventually.
14. How many siblings do you have including in-laws? Oh man, this is getting complicated. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister, they're all married except one brother. Brad has 1 brother and 4 sisters and they're all married so that gives me a whole lot of in-laws. If you add them all up it totals 17 siblings and in-laws.
15. What church do you attend? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
16. Is this the church you got married in? We got married in the Cardston Alberta Temple
17. What town is your current address? Calgary, AB though as I mentioned we're heading down to Lethbridge soon.
18. Do you work or stay home? I work for another 4 ½ weeks and then I get to go on maternity leave.
19. Where did you go for your honeymoon? We went to Puerto Vallarta. It was amazing but I don't think we'd go back, next time we'd go to the other side of Mexico, we've heard such great things about it. The beaches are supposed to be way nicer.
20. Leave a piece of marriage advice: My favorite piece of advice is given on the wedding day, "May be today be the day you love each other the lease." I like that the amount you love each other grows more every day.

Marrying Brad was the best decision I've ever made, I look forward to lots of years of fun together.
L

Two Years

On June 30th Brad and I celebrated our second anniversary. This year was especially casual as we were out at the lake all week. We did go on an anniversary canoe ride but I didn't want to let to day go by completely unmentioned.

Here's a list of 24 reasons (one for every month of marriage) I'm thrilled I married Brad. Sorry if the list is boring for everyone but Brad.

1. He was perfectly willing to stop to let me pee twice as many times as usual on the way to and from BC.
2. Everything to do with Catie, finding out about her, hearing her heartbeat, seeing her tiny feet. It's all made me love him so much more.
3. He kills all the spiders for me.
4. He makes me laugh with his unique silly-ness. It's a shame I'm the only one that gets to enjoy it.
5. Is so helpful with packing, unpacking and getting ready for our next move.
6. He often will put his face on my belly and try to get Catie to kick him in the face, so cute.
7. He's willing to share a DQ Blizzard with me because they're just a little too large for both of us.
8. He loves to play softball with me.
9. Is the kindest person I know.
10. He appreciates me and is always quick to say thank you if I've done something nice for him.
11. He does the majority of the laundry and is happy to do it.
12. We share the same ideas on parenting (not that we know anything about it yet) and we're excited to see how we do together.
13. Sometimes his hair does this awesome flip thing in the morning if he's slept on it wrong, I like that.
14. I can ask him any question, no matter how stupid and he'll never make me feel dumb. He explains things to me so clearly without being condescending.
15. No one makes better cookies.
16. Doesn't complain at all about my super annoying pregnancy snoring, even when it keeps him up at night.
17. He drives me to work every morning even though it makes him 40 minutes early for work. In two years he's never once complained about that.
18. If he's not at work he insists on picking me up after I'm done work, even if it's not convenient for him.
19. I'm happiest when it's just the two of us together and so is he. We're excited to make it the three of us.
20. He likes to surprise me by doing things he knows I'll like, like doing the dishes or the laundry.
21. I don't know how he does it but he drinks water so loud! It glug, glugs all the way down. I like that he has random quirks like that.
22. When I'm sick he won't let me lift a finger, he insists on taking care of me the best he possibly can and would go out and get me anything if it would make me feel better.
23. He loves new electronic toys and has to find out every possible feature or cool trick available on said toy
24. He's super musical. I love to listen to him sing and I love that he's so talented.
25. He loves me in a way no one else would. Listens to me, is super affectionate and looks at me different than everybody else. No one makes me feel better about myself than him.

I'm so grateful for the two years we've had together and I can't wait to see what the future brings.
L

Here Come the Newlyweds – Season 2

Brad and I were thrilled to discover that this reality show was getting second season. In general we are not fans of this type of show but this one is different. A bunch of newlyweds compete for money and get voted off the show but the difference is none of them are whores, they mostly all like each other, there are no dramatic fights and they do fun things together.

For example, the other day the men wore boxer shorts, were blindfolded and then their wives had to direct them to their clothes. The fastest man to get dressed got immunity. Only they were in a room full of junk and the wives would just make them run into lamps and boxes and it was hilarious and good natured and everyone laughed and had a good time.

This season it seems they're trying to liven the show up just a little bit so there was of course a challenge involving bugs. They had set up this kitchen and coated it in cockroaches and grasshoppers. The couples each took their turn going into the room, scooping up as many bugs as possible (using only their hands) and depositing them back in a jar outside for 30 seconds. The couple with the most bugs got immunity for the week.

Here's when I come to a point in the rambly post.

The first couple gets up to go and they know they're in trouble, the husband is beefy and tattooed but the wife is very afraid of bugs. The get the start signal and run into the room where the husband immediately starts scooping up bugs while his wife freaks out in the corner, just as she's saying she can't touch them, she can't do this her husband says probably the most loving words she's ever heard… Just get the door. So their system went, they'd run into the room, he'd gather the bugs, she'd open the door so he could deposit them in the jar. I was so impressed that he was never once impatient with her or upset that she wouldn't help. He understood her limitations and appreciated the help she could offer. If that's not love I don't know what is.

So there's my marriage lesson for the day learned from TV. Appreciate each other's strengths and weaknesses and sometimes be satisfied that all your spouse can do is "open the door".
L

(and speaking of bugs, don't check out Andrew's post on spiders, it is worse than you think it will be!)

Anniversary

On Monday Brad and I celebrated our one year anniversary.
Funny how it seems like just yesterday but at the same time hasn't it always been this way? It's strange to think of a time when we weren't married, of when I didn't see him daily.

To commemorate the day here is a list of things I've learned from Brad

• Nothing is greater than having a ticklish husband
• How to neatly wrap up a microphone cable / extension cord without any twists
• Neither of us likes Pizza by the Yard
• If there's a squirrel / bird / gopher it MUST be chased
• He always puts me first, always gives me the best of everything. I think maybe to him my happiness is more important than his own. I'm trying to be like that.

If only everyone could be as happy
L

New Ideas about Love

I just read this interesting article on marriage and read three things that I wanted to remember, I figured what better place to put them than here.

The first is a little depressing,
"In a series of studies over 13 years, Gottman and his researchers observed couples from the first few months of marriage through the birth of a child. This year, he announced that 67 percent of the couples in his studies experienced a drop in relationship happiness in the first three years of a baby's life (and were twice as likely to divorce)."

67 percent is a staggering number! I was really surprised that it was that high. To avoid that he talks about how important it is become a team early on, before the baby comes and make sure there are no pre-existing problems.

The second point was a really good idea I thought. Peter Fraenkel, a doctor talks about how some couples are so busy they never have time for each other. He also suggested that scheduling time together wasn't much better as it just made for one more task to add to your already busy schedule. He suggested coming up with a list of 60 second pleasure points. These are all things that can be done in less than a minute like telling a joke, one long kiss, etc. Couples are encouraged to send a quick text message or e-mail links to a funny website or a restaurant review (and a note: "Let's do takeout from here tonight?"). I think those are cute ideas that would let you stay connected to your spouse.

The last thing I liked was how they talked about not waiting until you have a really horrible relationship before you try to fix it. They suggested three questions to ask yourself at least yearly:

1. Does my partner feel safe being emotionally vulnerable with me?
2. Does my partner feel accepted?
3. When I feel that life is yanking the rug out from under me, can I go to my partner for nonjudgmental support?

If you answer no to even one of these then there is a serious problem.

Brad and I have a great relationship but these are great tips to make sure it stays that way.
L

Valentine's Flowers

One of the many perks of being married, guaranteed flowers on Valentine's Day, lucky me!
L

Overheard at the Dinner Table

A little back story.

1. Brad and I are pretty good at taking our lunch to work, 90% of the time we take leftovers from the previous nights dinner. I usually cook but occasionally Brad doesn’t work as late so he’ll make our dinner.
2. Brad works at our bank so he does most of our banking, he also checks our account fairly often and knows what’s going on there.

Brad - "The handy thing with working at our bank, I can tell if you liked the dinner I cooked last night. How was your Ginger Beef?"

Me - "Oh crap! I was hoping you wouldn’t check. I meant to pay with cash but I left it at my desk."

Brad- "That’s okay, I went to Subway."

No more Pizza by the Yard for us :)
L

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Like every little girl I had visions of being a figure skater... whom among us didn’t?
Not surprisingly that didn’t really turn out but I did used to really like to skate. I thought I was pretty good too, definitely comfortable on the ice, it was one of the very few sports that I actually liked to participate in. My Mom liked to skate so I have lots of memories of skating at the local arena. The Young Men and Women used to go skating on the Fish Pond sometimes too, I even remember a bonfire on the ice one year. Those trips always involved the standard scalding hot chocolate.

As I got older and eventually moved away from home the skating trips became non-existent and it was years before I laced them up again. Then I started dating Bradley who really likes to skate and we liked that it was something free we could do in the winter for a cheap night. So we took my old, too small skates and turned them in to (traded them in for) some really great new skates that are actually comfortable.

Last year we started going skating at local rinks but we purchased the new skates a little bit late so they weren’t used very often and since I hadn’t skated in years I really wasn’t good.

This Saturday Brad and I decided it was time to pull out our skates so we headed over to Olympic Plaza. We had such a great time and we even managed to go right before the ice was zambonied, meaning we got to skate on such smooth ice after. I was really pleased with how quickly it came back this time. I was much more comfortable than I’d been last year.

So I have a few skating related goals:

1. Be able to stop like I used to. You know, hockey style. I used to do it no problem but it’s definitely going to take some practice to get back there. I can’t stop at all anymore.
2. Skate often enough this year to be a decent skater.
3. Find others who own their own skates so we can go together.

These aren't exactly like mine but they're pretty close. Nice eh? And way better than those silly white ones.

L

Entertaining Overload

I just can’t seem to help myself, I keep inviting people for dinner! It’s an addiction really...

So far we’ve had two of Brad’s siblings with their spouses
Dave and Naomi
Janine and Chris
(I held off inviting Dave over for tonight)
I’ve already extended an invite to Al and Janae
I want to invite Ian and Jenn
I tried to invite Nathan and Jenn but they couldn’t make it
Ryan was suppose to come over last night but that fell through

There’s still a whole list of others in my head just waiting to be invited. I love having a home with Brad that we can invite into and the new BBQ and the Wii have only made matters worse. If I didn’t mention you on that list, don’t worry... I’m sure your invite will come though I’m trying to pace myself.
L

Great Name Change of 2007

And so it’s started...

The marriage certificate came in the mail the other day. I can begin with my long list of name changes. I started with my name at work, that’s all done.
The list of what I still have left:

1. Social Insurance Number
2. Passport
3. Drivers License
4. Telus & Telus Mobility
5. Our Utilities
6. Our Lease
7. The Bank
8. Air Miles
9. Credit Cards
   

Married ladies out there? What am I forgetting?
L