Grateful Eight

1. Time to get out and go to the pool with John, Zech and our nephew Cody! I didn't take my camera, so no pictures this time. But Zech is such a water baby and just went absolutely nuts!!
2. That our belongings arrived in Vancouver from Australia and the ship didn't sink or get hung up in the Hong Kong Harbour again!
3. For Easter dinner with family on Easter Monday!
4. Fruit, fruit, fruit. Zechariah is such a fruit eater and lately it seems to be the only thing that he likes to eat.

5. The Passion that my husband and I both share for our faith!
6. Finding a Biblically solid Church! It still amazes me, how many churches out there do not stand behind the Bible 100%. It is a scary movement - "the emerging church" - that is doing a lot of damage!
7. For the Teen Challenge organization. What an amazing testimony of following God's plan and reaching so many people with horrible, deathly addictions!! We just had the Teen Challenge group at our church this morning. They are celebrating 50 years. It was so amazing to hear these testimonies. I have always had a real passion for kids and today's service really affected me. I just couldn't stop the tears! There seriously was not a dry eye in the church! God is so amazing and His miracles never cease!
8. For our Saviour Jesus Christ! Enough said!

Bet You Didn't Know

Bet You Didn't Know -

Crystal at Be the Change You Want to See had this meme on her blog yesterday and I thought it would be fun. If you ever get a chance to stop in at Crystal's blog, she has some pretty amazing photos of their trip to South America. It is a place I have always wanted to go and now after seeing her photos, especially the ones of Iguazu Falls, I think we may need to start planning!! And yes even after the last bit of traveling, we still want to travel more. I think once you have the travel bug, it never leaves! :o)

Plus, right now I have a bit of time to kill while my boys are napping and still haven't got around to getting some pictures to upload, so here are a few random facts that maybe you knew and maybe you didn't.


Let's see...rules first.


1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago:

I was in Lansing, Michigan attending Lansing Community College as part of the NAFTA trilateral exchange program! I was living with the Rooker's (my American family that has always and will always hold a very special place in my heart!) and I also had an internship at the College working in the Mail and Reprographics Department.

Five things on my to-do list today:

1. Do my Devotions!!!
2. Finish cleaning the place we are staying at.
3. Call my Mom and see when she is leaving to come visit us!!
4. Make a plan of action for some fun, family time today!
5. Find all of our necessary documents to give to Customs. All of our stuff has arrived from Australia and we have to go to Vancouver to retrieve it on Monday.

Snacks I enjoy:
1. Chocolate (yup I love chocolate!!)
2. Popcorn
3. Fruit, fruit, fruit (I can't wait until the fruit season starts here)
4. Nachos, guacamole and salsa
5. Cookies


Things I would do if I were a billionaire: (like I have never thought of this--especially lately! :o)

1. Well, first I would pay off our debts, buy a house and pay for our schooling (John's Degree/Medical and my Master's--ESL Education) and travel, travel, travel!
2. I would help out family and friends. There will be a small little "surprise" involved to ensure that they appreciate and don't take the financial help for granted! :o)
3. It has always been a dream of mine to open an Orphanage/School/Medical facility in a country that God led me to and that desperately needed something like this. I have dreamt about this for a while and yes there is a lot more to this story and let's just say that it led both John and I to realize that God meant for us to be together.
4. I would continue to support Compassion International and I would also love to visit the kids that we sponsor! They are such blessings in our life and I just love hearing from them and their families!
5. Do more for starving, abused, deprived children. Anytime we hear or see children anywhere in the world that are suffering it brings us to tears. I just want to do more for them, especially more so now that we have our own little guy!

Five of my bad habits:
1. Not stepping out of my comfort zone enough!
2. Not getting out and running enough or exercising period enough!
3. Arguing (ask John)
4. Not spending enough time with God!
5. Not doing enough in the community or at church to help out, because I always think that I won't make a difference!

Five places I have lived: (I will start from oldest, but won't make it to present day)
1. I grew up on a farm near Thorsby, AB
2. Red Deer, AB
3. Lansing, Michigan, USA
4. University of Lethbridge Residence
5. Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

(I've moved around a lot, I have even skipped a few places on this list and haven't even finished--Mexico was almost 8 years ago!!)

Five jobs I've had:
1. Babysitter
2. Submarine Captain at West Edmonton Mall's Deep Sea Adventure
3. Coffee Barista, Second Cup, Edmonton International Airport
4. ESL Teacher in Mexico and South Korea
5. Real Estate Advisor, PWGSC (Federal Gov't)

Five people I want to know more about (a nice way of saying TAG!):

I won't list five, as there are a few of you who I know read my blog, but don't actually have a blog! Maybe this will convince you to start a blog??!! Especially you, Melanie!! I want to see more picture of my beautiful nephew and of course of you and Cory and the "happenings" in Alberta! :o)

Grateful Eight

This week I am grateful for:

1. That Christ is risen!! Easter has never been a big holiday for me until these past few years. Our church put on a series called "All in one Week" and it started on Palm Sunday. It really made me think about all that Christ endured in his "last" week. I am so grateful for the sacrifice He made for us on the cross and for the hope He has given us when He rose again!
2. For good health. Zech was pretty sick last week and after a trip to the emergency and a trip to the Walk-in clinic, he was diagnosed with Bronchittis and given antibiotics and he is feeling so much better! It is really scary when you know something is wrong but they can't communicate to you yet! Plus there are so many all over the world who are in really bad health and we are so thankful it was just a cold gone bad!
3. For three years of marriage and many more to come! While we have our ups and downs, we know that we love each other and that we are supposed to be doing this journey together!
4. For House sitting once again! We are now in our second house, what an answer to prayer!
5. The telephone and internet! How awesome that we have this technology to stay in touch with friends and family all over the world!
6. Chocolate covered Macademia Nuts!!! Thanks to Jay and Missy who just got back from Hawaii!
7. Good weather! It really has not been terribly cold since we arrived back from Australia. Plus the snow has been gone for a while now and the green is just starting to come!
8. Our new Mini Van. Well it is not new, but new to us! We bought a 2005 Nissan Quest Mini Van and we LOVE it! Nope we are not Mini Van snobs and after riding in my Sister and Brother-in-laws, we knew that the Mini van was the next vehicle for us!

Sorry that there are no pictures with this post. We can't get internet with our laptop, so we have to rely on someone elses computer. I am working on getting photos for the next post!!

Three years ago.....

I married the man that God intended me to marry!! I am so blessed to have this wonderful man in my life. While we have definitely had our struggles and our hardships, there is no other person I would rather take this Journey with.

As hardship and struggle have been a part of our Journey, what better way to start our anniversary than with a trip to the Emergency ward. Zechariah had a temperature of 104 (or 40.1 C) last night. We gave him a few doses of tylenol and nothing seemed to bring the fever down, plus this was a dangerous zone to be in, so off we went to the Emergency. They did pretty much the same thing that we did, gave him more tylenol and fluids. But it is better to be safe than sorry! It is also interesting going to the hospital with no medical!! Yes, that is right we can't get medical here. We have to wait three months. So I imagine the bill to come will be interesting!

God is great and provides for us and takes care of us!! I just keep reminding myself of that, and feel so very blessed that we have eachother and that we are pretty healthy!!

So with that, here are some favourites from our wedding. We were so hungry and tired by this point and we still had quite a few hours before we were going to eat. So, we took a breather and stopped at Orange Julius. Our photographers, just kept snapping!! I love these pictures because it is always a great reminder to just take time to enjoy one another and the simple things in life!! I hope you are all having a great day and are taking time to enjoy the simple things!!

Grateful Eight

I have decided to do a list of things that I am grateful for. Heather always does a Sunday's Seven list and there have been other people who do things like Friday's Five, Saturday's Six or Thanksliving on their blogs. I have always liked these lists! They have always challenged me to think of things that I am grateful for in my life.

So why did I decide to start one now......??? Well, it has been a crazy past few months, with these past few weeks being even crazier!! We have learned a lot of valuable lessons, which I am really grateful for, but I have been really down lately and have really been struggling. So rather than let these things continue to get me down, I have decided that it is high time to start listing off the many blessings I do have in my life.

Now why did I choose "8"?? Well 4 is my favourite number, but I couldn't just do 4 things, I needed to challenge myself a little more, so 4 + 4 is 8!!! :o)

So this week I am grateful for:

1. Arnott's Yummy Tim Tam cookies. I loved them in Australia and made a point of shipping some back with our stuff, but we can now find them here in Canada. Superstore here in Kelowna had them!! They are so yummy!!

2. Mail from our good friends in Australia!! I miss them so much!! We got a Wiggles DVD for Zech and lots of great scrapbooking stuff for moi! I don't know if you can tell or not, but most of the stuff is "Aussie" themed so that I can scrap book our time in Australia!! Thanks Kirrily and Suzy!!!! I am still waiting for my scrapbooking stuff to arrive!!! :o(

3.) House Sitting. We will be house sitting for the next three months!! Saves us a lot of money!

4.) New Friends.

5.) Family. We are so grateful for our family who has helped us out so much this past month.

6.) My Sweet little boy. Even when he is mad at me! He is such an amazing little boy, with a real soft, caring little heart!!

7.) My wonderful husband who is such an inspiration to me and always challenges me to go deeper with my Faith. I love our talks, I love our goals and I love that we have the rest of our lives together to have more talks and reach our goals!

8.) Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he made for each and every one of us when he was nailed to the cross!!

Welcome Jaia Mamin Ramkissoon!!!

Rita and Glen just had a sweet little baby girl last night. We have been waiting for this little bundle of joy to enter the world.

She was born on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 @ 10:30 pm. She was 8 lbs. 6 oz. and 21 1/4 inches long. Mom, Dad and Jaia are doing great. Yet another great pregnancy and delivery!! Keeps giving me hope for next time!! :o)

She is so gorgeous!!!

Spring has Sprung!

The weather here has been really nice over the last few weeks. It is still a little chilly for us, but we have been attempting to get out and enjoy it. Now that the snow is gone, Zech is a lot happier and more willing to go outside!

We have had some Spring showers; I love the smell of Spring Showers. Grandpa has been mowing the grass, raking the dead grass and has the garden all ready to go. And yes you will see some green grass starting to poke through.

I think that Mom (Grandma) and Aunty Elaine will have some nice green grass when they come during Spring Break!

Giving Mom some leaves and rocks. He decided to eat a handful of rocks! He saw me coming to get them out of his mouth (which is a daunting task now, since he has all of his teeth in except his 4 two year molars) and he swallowed them!! I still can't believe he swallowed them!! Little monkey!!!
And this is what happens when it is time to go home!! I have one stubborn, strong willed child! Don't worry we are working on the tantrums, so this won't happen out in public in the middle of a busy shopping centre! :o)