The big girl is still sleeping in her big girl bed. This morning , 20 minutes before my alarm would normally go off, Emily walked by our room and said "Hi Mom!" and headed for the stairs. AHH. I snatched her up and brought her back into our room for some snuggles. I was definitely not ready to get up yet. And when did she start calling me "Mom". The name is "Mommy!"Silly little monkey!

I have Leah to thank for the ridiculous song stuck in my head today. Thank you for suggesting I let Em watch the wiggles on youtube. WHY! Cold spaghetti Cold Spaghetti!!! At least Emily loves to sing and dance right?

I'm kinda sad today because I found out that another one of the kids I went to school with passed away. His name was Jamie and we were good friends in Jr. High and fellow Percussionists in band too. He was a really nice guy. Stupid Cancer. It's pretty hard to have people your age die. You expect that because you are young you have loads of time to worry about that kind of stuff later, but I guess that's why the bible describes this life as "but a breath"(psalm 39). I can't possibly know how many days and moments I have left to live, but I know that I plan on using them to the fullest. I truly want to see as many people as I can come to know Jesus before it's too late.

Well before I spend to much of my day feeling melancholy, here's some picks from the last week.

oh and I miss you already Coco. And Danielle, Come home soon!

Emily Loves the creek at the Park and it's stinky mud!

Oooo Cold

Headed for the Swings!

Emily and Auntie Coco

Emily Loves her new Big Girl Bed

Cheese!

I WON!!!!!! YAY!!!!! I love to win at stuff! Thanks for making such an awesome bag Leah!! If you missed the point of this, read this first, then this.Happy Happy!

Well I've had quite the busy week. Tuesday was La St. Jean Baptiste Day. Quebec's 400th anniversary. So Coco had a party and made some delicious traditional Quebec dishes. She made Pate chinois (chinese patties). It's like shepherds pie, but with corn, and much tastier. I had the first meat I'd had since March. I was sooo not going to miss out on French cuisine. Plus Coco is a supremely awesome cook. Then we had two desserts. Puddding Chomeur and Sugar Pie. They were so fantastic I could barely handle it. Bon St. Jean!

Emily has learned to do somersaults this week. It's cool because she just decided she needed to learn it and so she did. I thought she was a bit young to learn how to do them properly, but shes really good already. She's not very good at watching where she somersaults to. she faces the coffee table, or a wall and tries to flip. There have been a few ouch's of late.

Our conversations have been getting funnier by the day too. At breakfast on Tuesday she shoved he mouth full of mini wheat's and said. "I'm going to beat you like a drum, I'm going to beat you like a heart" I just about died right there on the spot. Who taught her that one. SOO Funny!   she still insists that shes going to be Dr. Phil when she grows up too. Yesterday Morgan "did a fluffy" and Emily grinned and said "can I check it"? I guess thats what we say to her cause a fluffy is sometimes a poopy. It was priceless!

To continue with the "Courtenay does or says stupid things in public" Saga, this week we went for lunch with Russ Rosen and Graham ord and their band on their way back from the Northern Combine Tour.  Pastor Rick and Marci came too and Dustin and Coco. So I was telling Rick about this book a friends was reading and he asked me what it was called. This is what I said : "Does it really Matter!" Everyone looked at me. I quickly thought back to the words that had come out of my mouth and as fast as my face turned red I said " NO! The book is called "does it really matter"!!!! AHH. Thats not waht I meant!!. Infront of my friends and some pro musicians, I mouthed off to the pastor and my boss. Great. Brilliant. Way to be so cool court. Duh!It was really funny. Even more funny than the week before whn I poured raspberry vinagrette on my pancakes instead of syrup. Who puts Vinigrette next to whip cream anyways?? Just as a side note, that also happened at lunch with Pastor Rick and Marci. I think I'm begining to look like quite the dork. Oh well, better they know that now I guess. haha. Surprisingly, those weren't infront of Roxy, who normally see's all those things. Crazy I know.

Secondly. I was wearing my wedding dress to a formal dinner. It said wear your formal clothes including prom dresses and wedding dresses. Roxy wore my Prom dress and I wore my Wedding dress. I just like proving I can still wear it. Or I guess I should say, can wear it again because this bod was not so small post Emily. Or pre-Emily for that matter. It was at a ladies conference in May. Super fun taking pictures in a dress.

Emily has got it into her head that she's the boss and that she knows everything. On our way to daycare yesterday morning she asked me where Nanny and Grampa were. I said "Sweetie, they live in Richmond." She said "No. They live in Taco!" I'm not really sure what the correlation is between Richmond and Taco, but for some reason I was wrong about my in-laws geographical location. at least in her eyes I was.

We've started a huge reno project in my office at the church. We ripped off all the wall paper, the wood siding, the HUGE bookshelves and the nasty borders. I then proceeded to scrap wall paper booger-glue off all of the walls except where the wood paneling was. Neither Morgan or I had done drywalling before, but we had to learn because there were 3 big holes in the wall behind the wood. So we've done drywalling and filled the 6 million little tack and dart holes. As a side note: when playing darts, please use a dart board and not just a wall, Thank you! It's a fun project. It's turned into more work than I figured, but I'm excited for the finished project. I'm hoping we will be able to paint tomorrow.

I took part of the day today to finish my final exam paper for school. Now I am really out for the summer! I hope I did ok on my paper, but at this point, I just wanted it done! So here's to summer vacation! And now I'm going to go pick up Em from daycare.

I miss the little pudgekins. See she really didn't have a neck or wrists. This is from 2 years ago. Oh and I was referring to Emily not my Grama. haha

Emily was sitting in her highchair, where the great wealth of stories comes from, and she looked at Morgan and asked him "Do you want to see a trick Daddy?" Morgan said sure. Emily clapped her hands together and said "WOW!!!". Obviously someone showed Emily a slight of hand trick or something because it was so cute to see her try to recreate that without actually doing anything. She showed the trick again later in the day but added one thing to it. She put her hands behind her back and said "WOW!!!Its all gone!!!". She's making us laugh way to much.

On Saturday we are going with Jr. Glory House to Kamloops to the wildlife park. We've taken Emily to little petting zoos before, but not a real big Zoo. It should be so much fun. We have the church's new camera and our Still camera to take clips and pics with while we are there. There will be alot of other little kids there too from her class so there should be some great pics.

I just realized that in the midst of switching over my computer I hadn't put up some of the pictures I meant too. So heres a couple from the ladies retreat that I go to with My mom and sister every year. Note: if you get the chance, stop at Ella's Pizza bakery in Cache creek. It's worth it! Mmm

My new Shades

My Cousin Cydney Running in the Background.

Emily's playing in the sink - Yay my dirty kitchen.

]]> http://8minutes.wordpress.com/?p=561 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:38:27 +0000 Courtenay http://8minutes.wordpress.com/?p=561 I'm not entirely sure, but I think the last post had the most comments ever. Yay.

Emily is adjusting to daycare alot better now. I think she really likes going. Now she's getting up in the morning and saying "I'm going to Tracey's House today!!" I love that she like it there. Its really hard to be away from her so much, but I'm really happy that's she's ok at her daycare and not constantly saying "Jordan hit me". That little dude has issues.I'm glad she doesn't go to the other daycare anymore for that very reason. It was a good daycare, but Emily and Jordan didn't get along all that well. I'm thinking he's going to be one of those bully kids. No she just plays all day with Nathan and Luca. The only thing I'm not liking is that she's learned to scream. I mean really scream. It's getting old fast.

Yesterday one of my youth came over after school and hung out until worship practice. Emily wouldn't say her name right. She kept calling her "on-taya" instead of Montaya. It was cute. This morning she kept asking where "Mon - a - taya" was. Emily said two things yesterday that were in serious need of blogging. In the morning Morgan was gone to a prayer meeting and Em asked where Daddy went. So I said he went to pray. She looked at me with a cheerio stuck to her face and said. "oh ok, he went to Jesus's house." Then at dinnertime Morgan bumped his chair into the dishwasher and it startled him. Emily said "It's ok daddy don't be scared". Morgan asked her if she was being Dr. Phil and she said "I'm going to be doctor Phil!!", which is better than last week when she said she was going to be a plummer.

So the updated status of my bag for Zaza is that I didn't get the Highlanders song, but I'm getting a custom made bag. It will be similar, but a bit different. Plus as a bonus I get a matching ipod case! Yay Jennie! For those who missed the last blog, read this. Go buy a bag. They are super useful for all kinds of stuff. Mine will end up carrying all my tech stuff sometimes and diapers other time. I'm thinking I'll use it alot for school in September too. My ipod will love it's case because it's getting all scratchy too. I'm thinking about getting another bag or two to give as Christmas presents. They are just so cool and it's for a great cause.

Emily and Poppa. He's telling her some great tale.

As our landlord is walking by infront of our house:
Emily: "don't walk by my house!!"

To her Daddy in the morning after he taught her to say disneyland burned down.
Emily "Oh no, Gilda's house burned down"

To Daddy while Mommy is having a shower.
Emily "Mommy's washing her ankles"

To her Mommy while reaching for coffee
Me: Dont' touch that please.
Em: But I want to. I need coffee.

While looking at a wedding picture
Em: Mommy is a princess
Me: And Daddy is Mommy's Prince Charming
Em: I have a prince Charming. He's in my toy box

This one's my fault:
Em: "Oh Crap! Oh Crap! Oh Crap!"

I keep trying to remember because daily she says things that make me die laughing. Yesterday I ran up the stairs to get something before I left for work. Then Morgan came into the office. And then Emily came into the office too. Clearly the gate at the bottom of the stairs hadn't been shut. Emily waltzed into the room and said "Hi. I came up!" At least she's really good at stairs now. But the best part is that my lunch was sitting on the stairs and when I went to eat it later in the day, there were 2 tiny teeth marks in  my apple. Emily had walked up the stairs and stopped for a snack before continuing up. I haven't had a chance to post any pictures this week, but I'll get there. Here comes another busy weekend. Fun Fun!
 

I've been working on last minute details for this weekend. I'm really excited for History Maker. So much to do, so little time. So I have to go make dinner instead of blogerizing as I'd like too.

So antibiotics are go. I'm not a big fan, but I can't see my muffin sick like this anymore. Poor little sunshine. Ear drops are her favorite too. *Insert sarcasm here*. So here begins the next couple of days of meds and cuddles.

On a lighter note, the spirit comes with power conference at our church this weekend is going well. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I'll be able to stay longer. AND, I think Marie baked some of her cookies for tomorrows snack! Yay my favorite. I'll try to limit myself to 1 or 2, but it won't be easy.  Well, I'm getting tired and I'm not sure where yesterday started and today ended, so I should go to sleep.

In 3 weeks I'm going to the ladies conference that my mom and sister and I go to in Chilliwack. I'm super excited about it. At some point during the weekend we manage to get away and go shopping. A seriously favorite pass time of Roxy and my Mom. I like to shop, but they are pro's. So anyways. I wanted to think of a way to have a little extra cash to shop with so I made a deal with Morgan. For every pound I lose before I go he's going to give me $10. We already ruled out the loops holes of gaining it back and losing it again. Haha. So I have 3 weeks to work my butt off, literally. It's not that he's paying me to get skinny, I just needed some incentive to work harder at it. He already owes me $20! I would love this summer to be a summer I'm in really good shape and running and biking and outside lots. I'll keep you up to date on the challenge as we progress...or don't. hehe.

I got a Jorb! I got the summer student grant at the church. Morgan thinks it's fantastic because technically speaking I become his assistant. Riight. Cause I'm really going to make him pies because my job title is assistant. Dream on. So anyways. I get to spend the summer doing things I love! I'm really excited for all the time I'll have to work with youth and stuff. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing, but I start Monday and hopefully I'll find out more then. Yay!

Emily officially switches daycares next Tuesday. The day care she was going to was good, but they couldn't give me full time daycare and I needed 5 days a week to make it work with this summer job. And they were going to be away for all of August, so it just wasn't going to work out all that well. So now she goes to a daycare in the home of a lady from our church. She has great kids and during the day there will only be about 2 other kids there. She really likes it already. I think Emily is one of those kids who like anything though. Social butterfly that she is.

Random thought. Day before yesterday she shoved cheese up her nose and I had to get her baby nose snorker to get it out. ahh took my back to the good old baby booger days. She wasn't impressed, but I was like "Um...I'm not the one who shoved cheese up there dude!" Oh and this morning's cuteness. Emily woke up at 6:30, which would normally bug me, but I was at spin class and so she didn't wake me up. haha. Morgan went to get her and just brought her to bed with him so she'd go back to sleep for a while. When I got home from spin class Emily's door was wide open. I snuck into her room, but she wasn't in bed. My heart sunk. I opened our bedroom door and let my eyes adjust. I couldn't see her, but I could hear her sucky snoring. A little while later when I went in to wake Morgan up they were sleeping back to back under the blankets. It was soooo cute.

Well I'd better quit goofing around and finish this paper. Last class before summer vacation, which is just the weekend until I start at the church. haha

My daughter is the most demanding little girl in the world currently. Even just in the hour we were at Save-On tonight she was randomly telling other people what to do. Here's a few things she casually said while pointing her teeny little finger:

To a man in the produce department
"Don't put that in your buggy!!"

To a lady in an aisle
"That's rude, don't do that"

To no one in particular
"Oh my Goodness you guys are funny"

To her daddy in the checkout
"Don't pay for that!!"

To a lady from our church.
"Humpty dumpty did a BIG fall. I had bubba's birthday cake!"

To me in the aisle
"We don't want beans!"

As you can see it's getting worse. She is turning into a little bossy two-year old. AHHHH!!!

On a better note, I am obviously doing ok with my weight loss progress because last night at youth I felt I was supposed to preach on the Bride of Christ and strongly felt I needed to do just that in my wedding dress. So, I made a deal with God that if it fit, I'd wear it. I was absolutely sure that wouldn't be a problem on my part. No feeling silly at youth. So I came home and tried on my dress. 4 1/2 years later and the stupid thing fits! AHH. No I have to preach in a dress. Most likely the first and last time I'll preach in a dress. So there I am walking out of my office into the youth room to Pachelbel's Canon in D, Being all cheesey with my Extra special bridesmaid Coco carrying one of my seven layers of dress. It was pretty effective I think. My main message was just to be ready because Jesus is coming soon and he wants his bride to be ready. So, I'm hoping that the whole dress deal proved its point. If nothing else I'm happy that it fit again, because I know if God told me to wear the dress last year it wouldn't have happened. I haven't checked for a few days, but I'm pretty sure I'm only a pound or 2 heavier than when I got married! Here's some photos of my second wedding dress day.

Such a poser

Always wanted to play the drums in a wedding dress!

My Bridesmaid Coco!

Emily ended up coming to worship practice with us last night. All our usual babysitters were busy or sick.Normally she isn't very good at worship practice, and lately she's been going to bed by 8 or 8:30, so we weren't expecting her to do that well, but she did great. She fell asleep on the floor behind my drumkit for a while. That's my girl! then we put on her DVD player and she watched Kronk. She sat on Roxy's bass amp forever, just feeling the groove. She played in the nursery and whined a bit, but overall she did fantastic. I used to bring her to practice lots when I was on almost every team. She used to play in her playpen or I'd wear her in the backpack while I played bass, but she is just to busy for that anymore. She wants to Go Go Go. Her lip is doing alot better BTW.

Well I think I'm inspired to do some laundry and putter cleanup, so wish me luck. haha.

Emily's Party was soo fun. It was a little chaotic, but I truly enjoyed it. Coco and Roxy and I stayed up until almost 2am finishing her cake. I had experimented with fondant earlier in the week, so this is what we came up with. The theme was ladybug, so Coco and I put black spots on plates and cups and lanterns and everything. They all turned out nicely. I confuse myself because I never think of myself as being domestic, but I was stinking Martha Stewart last week.

Emily enjoyed her party. She is so funny around other kids because she is the active monkey by herself, but the more kids that come into the room, the more she likes to watch what they are doing. It's obvious that she isn't shy. I just think she likes things her way and the is rather organized. She's becoming rather bossy too. She's always telling other kids what they should and shouldn't be doing. On the weekend she even told Morgan "I'm sorry for don't-ing". It's cute. My in-laws came up for the weekend, but I felt like we didn't even see them because between being sick and Emily's party craziness we didn't even get much time to visit.

The gift-less party idea was a good one. We ended up being able to send a good chunk of money to our sponsor child in Uganda and Emily still got spoiled with gifts. Yay for grandparents. I think that's a tradition that we are going to keep. Emily never even noticed that she didn't get a whole wack of gifts because she still got some presents and she really doesn't need that much stuff. We already have no where to put stuff. So thank you to everyone who donated towards Kwikiriza! You make a big difference!

Oh and I'm still upset that Carley Smithson got voted off American Idol last night. She was my choice for American Idol. I thought the only one I would be ok with her losing to was David Cook. He's pretty flipping awesome. So now I'm sad, but I think she's still going to do well for herself. She's too good not to. Wow I'd like to kick myself in the head for being this lame. Here's to next seasons stuff to watch!! Oh and Leesh...I think we have revertigo!

Emily,
You are more than I ever expected you to be, and I expected alot. You make me laugh until I cry and if I'm crying you make me laugh. You make me crazy with your two-year-old antics, but I understand you are two. Your comedic timing is perfect already. The things you say are hilarious. I love to watch you sleep whenever I have to wake you up extra early. I love tickling you and saying "thoup" or "noodle pop" so you'll laugh. I love that you see Jesus in so many things even though you are young. I'm sure that you see angels. I love the way you pray for people and talk to Jesus. I hate giving you baths because you don't like washing your hair, but I love that you are getting over that. I love that your daddy puts you to bed and it is just "you and daddy" time. I love that you hate having food on your fingers and make me wash them off every five seconds. I laugh at how manipulative you are to get your own way. I love that you love cheesy broccolizey, greeney beanys and meat. I love that you are easy going and not shy at all. I love that you love going to church. I love the smirk you get on your face when you are doing something bad. That same smirk your daddy gets when he's about to win at cards or is thinking of something funny. I love that you have thick hair like me, but that you look so much like your daddy. I love that you sleep so well. I really enjoy reading books to you over and over and over. I'm so proud of you being able to go to Sunday school and daycare without a fuss. I miss you when I'm gone, but I love that you are so independent. I love that I was so scared to have a little girl, but I got you and wouldn't have it any other way. I am so blessed to have you little Emily Grace. My daughter, the princess, the hockey chick, the cuteness. I love you and I'm looking forward to watching you grow and grow.

From 2 days old - 5lbs 13 oz
to 2 years old - 24lbs + attitude

I had a frustrating night last night because I got a mark on a paper I'd worked really hard on and I wasn't happy with the mark. I've become such a perfectionist. I'm ace-ing Psych, but Ive got a C+ to a B in English and it's bugging me. I think its kinda funny that I'm bothered by that. Anyways. I think I'm going to get one of my friends who is an English teacher to look over my final paper. Just to give me tips and stuff.

To finish off todays blog I'm going to give you a few conversations we've had with Emily in the last few days. One of them even made me cry.

Conversation over breakfast:

Em: I prayed for Wendy.
Me: Yep, you did. Wendy is with Jesus now sweetie.
Em: I want to see her.
Me: You will one day.
Em. She's sleeping now. She's hugging Jesus.
Me: *Choking tears.* Yeah. She is sweetheart.

Conversation at bath time:

Em: I'm going to see the boys.
Morgan: What boys?
Em: Not THE boys. A boy.
Morgan: What BOY?
Em: At church.
Morgan:How about you see the girls?
Em: Nope, I see the boys.
Morgan: Say no dating Emily.
Em: No dating Emily!
Em: I'm making waffles!

Conversation with a telemarketer offering to lower our interest rate:

Morgan hands the phone to Em
Em: Hi Nanny!!
Telemarketjerk: *Click*

Conversation on the way to loon lake:

Bubba talking to auntie Roxy with Emily interrupting them.
Emily: That was a boat. *pointing at boat*
Roxy talking to Bubba : What?
Emily to auntie Roxy :TTTHHHAAAT WWWAAASSS AAA BBOOAAAT  AhTee Woxy!!
Everyone: *Laughing sooo hard*

So I thought about it for a bit and know I'm happy with my decision to leave curves and join this gym. I think partly it comes down to my quest for novelty. Secondly I think I've discovered something about gyms. Maybe they don't want you to know this. If you go to a gym where the majority the people are larger than you(not that I'm the smallest one there)...chances are you are at the wrong gym. Because then you are already winning the skinny butt race and you have no one to race against. So now I'm at a gym where wit the exception of the weird guy who was lifting weights when he should be dropping some weight before adding muscle, I'm the bigger one. Perhaps I should feel badly about this, but I've decided to consider it a challenge to myself to be one of the fit people at my gym. Hard work is gonna feel good. Lastly I'm excited about my new class because I don't hate it already.It ended and I wasn't out the door in a flash, I was smiling and feeling good. My legs felt a bit funny off the bike, but overall I was actually quite happy with everything. AND I never had a push yourself to keep running "I hate this.I hate this.I hate this!!!" moment. I never stopped pedaling. I may have sat down for more than the class did, but I never stopped pedaling. Ooo stretching afterward felt sooo good.

So then I'm home at 7am. Cool I have time for my new organic granola I picked up yesterday and some coffee. A little devotional time too. Spending some time wrapping my brain around the book of Hebrews. Which leaves me at 7:50am. No one is up. So I go back to bed for a nap nap. Ahh. The wonder of having a toddler who both sleeps in her own bed and sleeps through the night. So know its 10:30. The sun woke up and I am enjoying my regular morning coffee and email checking. Emily is singing to herself in bed and enjoying it, but I think it's time to get her up and start the daylight portion of my day.

Emily has 6 more teeth coming in all at the same time. Poor little chubby. She is becoming quite the sassy little girl. Spell it out "Attitude!" She holds her lips out and says "Nope", whenever she feels like it. Especially if I said yes to it. Its crazy that she's going to be 2 in a month and a half. I'd like to say I'm not ready for that, but she may as well be 2 already. I've already been making plans for her party and cake. I had so much fun making this cake last year, that I have to make and awesome cake again this year.

Tonight is my birthday dinner with my Family. We are having stir fry. I love stir fry! I requested brown basmati rice too. The rice can make or break a good stir fry. Honestly.haha. I already know one of the things I'm getting. Morgan is getting me Adobe Illustrator CS3. Nothing like getting a nerd gift for your birthday. I'm really excited about it because even thought is more tech-ey I find graphics to be a major art form for me. Its a form of worship, I think, to use the gifts God has given me for the kingdom.

Speaking of the kingdom. There are 2 new citizens in the Kingdom this week. And 1 last week too. We started a series at youth called the Gospel Journey. It shows the Gospel in a really basic, but challenging way. It's a reality show where this Pastor named Greg Stier (he's in my blogroll) takes this mountain trek with 8 youth from different walks of life. Some Christians, Some in the middle, and some on the opposite side. There's even a wiccan kid. Its really cool, non-shove-it-down-your-throat, way of sharing the good news. This week at youth 2 of the girls saw their need for something deeper in their lives and took that big step from death to life. It was an incredible night. I wish I could be there next week.

We leave for Rush winter youth conference in Kelowna tomorrow, and then on Monday head to the coast. Thursday we are in Redmond WA for a conference I went to last year. I'm so excited. Mostly because Morgan is coming this time, and because I know that it is going to be a great time of learning and revelations from God. THEN we get 2 days in Seattle all to our selves. Our last only-us true vacation was an overnight trip to the highlands in Scotland. It's going to be so great. I booked the coolest hotel on expedia.ca Hotel Max

Our room!

So bit of a weird week. Last Friday I told Morgan that I'm glad he doesn't want to be a mill guy forever and that one day we will find something better for him to do. He started work that night at midnight and at 9 am he phoned me from work to say good morning. It was then that he told me how good it was that I felt that way about his job. West Fraser let 51 people go this last weekend. Guess who was number 25? Yep Morgan. SO...needless to say(but I probably will) this week has been pretty weird. THEN, they told him he had a month left of his weekend shift. But then he got bumped off of that this week and worked Mercredi, Jeudi, and Vendredi (for the French speaking readers). On Thursday Morgan checked the schedule and is no longer on it. He is at least 10 people below the low man now, so the chances of him getting to work are nill. YAY!!! Ok so I probably shouldn't sound so excited about this whole thing, but I AM! Firstly God found Morgan this job with the perfect shift and good pay, so He will find him another. Secondly, Morgan gets to come to Rush Youth conference now and not miss my birthday or another Youth conference. Thirdly, He will be home with me and Em for a while while he finds something else. Fourthly, one phrase "Unemployed in Greenland!!". Fifthly, is a funny word. Sixthly, We wont have to worry about the mill messing up our vacation plans next month by switching his shift last minute.Although we weren't sure if we could go, we are pretty sure we still can. Seventhly, (I don't think I've ever listed things this far before, and my spell check says from seventhly on doesn't exist.) Morgan will be able to actually BE at church from now on, instead of leaving halfway through to go back to work. Eighthly, (ooo this is fun) I don't have to hate Fridays or Saturdays anymore. Ninthly, (gotta finish it up before I get to twenty-seventhly)I'm just really happy about it. And last but not least, Tenthly, (which apparently exists...weird language) I shall no longer have to clean up random piles of sawdust or put greasy clothes in my pretty washer and dryer...so there laundry! So this week has been kinda crazy, but who really knows what will happen next week right?

My testing-the-limits daughter continues to do just that. Her tiny hands seem to get themselves into much trouble lately. Between that and the demands of "I'm hungry. I'm always hungry. I want oatmeal." to "I don't want to eat that! five seconds later. Its getting old. I just wanted a cute cuddle baby. I seriously never signed up for a crazy toddler. I seriously love this stage though. It's just as tiring as any stage, but its probably way more fun and way funnier. Emily tells me jokes. Her favorite right now and just word people laugh at."Noodle Pop", "Th(S)oup", and "Shoehorn"(Thanks for that one dad). Probably one of my favorite things that the teeny tiny little girl did last week was her interesting way of asking for a toy. Danielle was over and was holding something Emily decided she wanted. Emily tried to grab it, but Danielle said "use your words, ask for it". So Emily lifted up her shirt and flashed Danielle, and said "I have it". Obviously she got her toy, and we had a good laugh. Emily has this amazing timing for her obscure actions. WHY would she do that? Don't now, but it was pretty funny. Speaking of Em, she is waking up so It's time for me to go play now...see you later.

Anyone want to buy a toddler? How about one who is unbelievable cute. Great Vocabulary. Eats well. Sleeps for about 13 hours a night. Tests everything her Mommy and Daddy say. Somewhere withing the last couple weeks Emily's feet grew 1 whole size and her desire to be independent grew 3 sizes. Suddenly she hanging off the ceiling yelling NO NO NO NO NO! Or at breakfast "I don't want cheerios. I don't like them! It's gross". Or in the living room "I not touching the stereo Mommy" while she reaches for my ipod. AHHH. Its not that she's being so awful, but its that crazy smile that goes along with her hand as she reaches for whatever it is she knows she cant touch. All that at the same time as she is being adorable and making me sing with her and read books all day. Emily's favorite song is Bubbly by Colby Callait. We have to sing it all day and Em demands that I take her upstairs to watch it on "Mytube". My favorite thing she has been doing is praying. Morgan prays with her before bed and they have been praying for Wendy Lutton and my Grama. She prays "Dear Jesus. Help Wendy(or Grama).Get better. Amen." Over and over. Or sometimes she prays"Dear Jesus. Help Wendy. Good Food. Amen".

Here is another clip from the best ever/worst ever audition from American Idol. This is another song I constantly have stuck in my head. Musical assault!

So about two weeks ago I filmed my newest project entitled “Got Your Nose.” I came up with the idea after I saw good’ol Spencer Hensel playing the leading role of Winnie The Pooh in a play here at Emmanuel of the same name. Or it might have been called The Merry Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, which is coincidentally the same as the alternate title to the project, which I made up while writing the credits. That decision had a purpose; the alternate title must be one that included the element of Winnie The Pooh without giving away any jokes; otherwise people searching desperately for pseudo-sexual Winnie the pooh films would never find mine except through the tags, and tags are never as good as titles for searches man.

The mechanic of the story by which my character suffers from a mental snap came about for no other reason than my girlfriend and I continually kept getting one another’s noses around the time I saw the play as children often do. One does this by placing the middle and index finger approximately 1.5 inches apart and reaching in a claw-like fashion for the other’s nose, it can hurt if done with skill.
I filmed everything in one day in the basement of Kate Noyes’ and Jake Quilty-Dunn’s apartment in Mission Hill. Jake played the character of the white rabbit who deus ex machina style shows up at the end and rescues the heroine, reinforcing the hetero-normative patriarchal need for all women to be rescued and need the help of men. Jake also plays all of the music in the video, including a cover of Tom Waits’ Innocent When You Dream on Neil Cicierega’s little chord organ, George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord on his own mandolin, and a very creepy original piece I have since titled Blood Rape on my own banjolin. Just to clarify, a banjolin is a legitimate instrument in its own right; it is a hybrid of a mandolin neck with a small drum base like a banjo, but it is not simply a hack and glue mishap of the two. And just to clarify once more, I know that Jake doesn’t actually live at Kate Noyes’ apartment, but he’s almost always there when I’m there, and they’re going out so they don’t really mind when I call it that, and saying Jake and Kate’s place just has a better ring to it than simply Kate’s. But that’s just my opinion.
The most important contributor to the project I have yet to mention so far is that of Jules, aka, J.L. Carrozza, writer, director, editor, and producer of his own low budget studio, Gen-Y Films. Jules shot and directed the entire project with only minimal help from me, for I was in a cumbersome bear suit and trying to focus as much energy as possible into getting into character. That is a lie, it wasn’t really hard to get into that character, but it was really fun to give the camera over to someone else who I trusted so I didn’t have to do everything myself. Filming went smoothly, Jake and Kate were a lot of fun all night, Jules had a lot of clever filming ideas that would have never come to me if I was filming by myself, and our lead heroine, Emily Grace, didn’t even mind being chaffed by the ropes we used to tie her up.
The project was originally going to be Kate as the heroine, Jake as the rabbit, and myself as the white rabbit, but once I got to the apartment, Jake took one look at the suit and refused to wear it. In the meantime Kate read through the script quickly and agree to do it, but so then it would be myself as Pooh and Kate still as the victim. Then we talked some more about the project and decided that if the reason I was having Kate play the female protagonist was because she was dating Jake so it would be more comfortable. Then we decided that even though Kate was willing to play the role, Emily Grace was too and so we decided to have her tied up so that I still had the comfort of a couple working together. Then I silently questioned why we had dragged three people and a bunch of heavy stuff from Emmanuel when I didn’t actually use any of the people who lived there. Then I figured that the basement of Kate and Jake’s place was creepier than anywhere I had access to at Emmanuel, and I justified my own flawed logic.

Jules came over the next Wednesday and we started editing the raw footage after dinner. He brought his portable hard drive and laptop so that we could transfer the footage onto his computer and work from there, but after about an hour and a half of trying to re-compress and chop up many gigs worth of stuff, I decided that we should just chop it up on my computer. Jules agreed.
Jules and I had decided while filming that the project really belonged to both of us now with him shooting it, me writing it, and both of us editing together. We also weren’t sure whose youtube channel to upload the project onto, but there was a pretty unanimous vote between us (all both of us) that it would get more viewers on mine. However, there were artistic choices that Jules wanted to make on the final cut that I didn’t agree with, especially when it came to the use of copyright protected music. Jules wanted to score the entire project with music that he didn’t own; I did not. The songs he chose were appropriate to the story, including one my favorites from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but I have been trying to maintain a strict no-copyright rule on my work. Jules also wanted to do a lot of heavy color correction, which I had no problem with but we ran out of time that night before Jules had to get back to the train. We decided that we’d make a rough cut of the video and he’d upload one version and I’d upload my own, each to our channels and each with our own little quirks. If you look, Jules’ is converted into a completely different format for wide screen than mine, and his color corrected is radically different.

The end result was pretty good. I got a couple of honors in “comedy” for the first day and people really appreciated the differences between Jules’ and mine. As of now I’m pretty sure it’s one of the biggest hits on Jules’ channel. I’m also pleased to see that a lot of people prefer Jules’ cut to mine, which I think is reflective of the fact that we both had equal hands in so much of the work before we even got to editing that a lot of the decisions Jules made while filming reflected well of and ran smoothly with the decisions he made in the final touches. Our two styles merged well and seemingly seamlessly, and so far it’s been a success for everyone involved.
One a side not, I just recently recorded a few songs, including a lot of original material, with Jake the other day. Also, Spencer went home twice this week and recorded some very promising recordings that will make their way into one of the next 1-3 projects. That’s all for now, I’ll update when there’s a new video.
Ryan

School has been going better. It feels really good to get some of done and handed in. I'm getting better at knowing what to hand in and whats expected and stuff. (note: I choose not to write in Formal English on my blog. It's not that I can't. Just a note to say even though I'm in English class I'm not going to act like it.) I have one teacher that I'm pretty sure I could give lessons to. She cant use the online schooling system very well and wont accept papers if they are formatted with new ms word.It has to be 97-2000 word. Does anyone even remember 1997?? Didn't think so. She also refuses to answer any questions I ask. I email her with basic questions and it looks like she sent my reply to someone else and I got someone else's reply. It seems to have nothing to do with what I asked at all. Oh well. I'm pretty sure this is going to be my hardest course for at least the year so I'm glad I'm doing it first and getting it over with.

I think I'm going to go take pictures of Emily playing and add them to this part of the post later when she's napping. ok Ill be back in a bit...

Emily right after she stole my cell phone.

My little CEO.

I run upstairs to punch some holes in this weeks recipes from Saving dinner. Then from downstairs I hear "Come downstairs Mom". I head for the stairs and look down to find a completely nude toddler. She says to me "I go potty". I'm like "ok we'll go potty. Hope she didn't pee on the floor". Thats when I see them. Turds!!! Everywhere!!! AND one of them got stepped in and smooshed into the carped, and is now presumably being walked all over the living room on a size 5 foot. I guess I took to long coming back. So I took Em to the potty and cleaned her all up and shoved her in her high chair with some crayons while I dealt with...eww. Sooo anyways I shampooed the carpet today. Another step ahead of the Flylady routine. haha. I was only supposed to shine my sink, but I got all crazy and shampooed the carpet. Even though it was necessary I still count it as a point.

I hate potty training. Actually Em is really good at it already. She's only pooped twice, but if I'm home all day she will only pee in the potty. It's harder when she's at a babysitters or something. She is too afraid to miss something, so she wont go. I bought her a potty book today. She loves that. And we got her Dora fruit snacks. Those are her candy treat. She's never even seen Dora, but for some reason she is in love with her. Its weird. I'm not even sure she'll ever get to watch Dora, but I'm ok with milking the "Dora" aspect of the treats for potty training. I figure she must have seen it once at someone else's house or something. I cant even figure out how she knows who Dora is. She calls her Doy-ra.

I rocked the drums last night! I played with my Dads high school guitar class for their concert. It was like three hours. It was so much fun. I was so impressed with how good some of those punks are getting. When my high school guitar class played anything they only picked notes on nylon string guitars and pretty much just played Louie Louie. These kids were awesome. I was a bit nervous because most of the songs I had never even heard except yesterday when I looked them up on Youtube. I hadn't played any of them before. The drums for Kryptonite by Three Doors Down is pretty tough to just go on stage and play for your first time, but It went pretty good. I kept losing my monitor, which was frustrating, but still ok. I have the theme song from Grey's Anatomy stuck in my head. They did such an awesome job of it. We even played on song I had never heard before. It's easier to do that with church songs than regular rock, but I'm glad it worked out good. I wore Roxy's big Flying V earrings just for dramatic effect. I'm trying to get the video off my camera, but the last time I did it crashed my computer, so we'll see how it goes.

Ok so seriously awesome movie...Stardust! I loved it. I think I can safely compare it to the league of such greats as Princess Bride and The emperors new groove. It ruled. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's a classic. I'm going to buy it next chance I get, otherwise It'll cost me a small fortune renting it over and over and over. Its the story of a Young man who heads across a wall into another world to search for a fallen star to bring back a piece for the girl he loves. His journey is amazing. He runs into what's left of 7 princes also seeing the star. Witches, Pirates, and even a goat turned into a man. How could that not be awesome. I want to tell you the whole story, but I don't want to ruin it for you. And for the record: Robert De Niro is my hero!

CWX™ = down 2.4↓

Made it to the gym again today thats 3 times this week. They were only open that many days, or I'd have gone another time. My back is a bit sore today. The squat machine has a hit out on me. That sucker is mean. Why I otta... It was a great feeling to make it so much this week. The fall was so hard to kick my butt. My whole body feels better already. I slept way better last night too. I decided to stop whining that my gym doesn't have any cardio and just use the treadmill we have here. I have to stop making excuses. It's like I've made my old gym into this perfect place where workouts were easy and all the machines were great and I loved it more than Disneyland. So not true. There was at least 2 machines that I loathed! They only had 1 elliptical so if it was in use I was out of luck. Although I kind of had a personal trainer and it was like 5 dollars cheaper a month, it wasn't Fitness World by anyones standard. SO. No more excuses Courtenay.

Emily made me laugh so hard I cried yesterday. She looked at me and said "18 months." I said "pretty close. You are 20 months" So she said "20 months". Then I followed that up with "How old are you?". Emily looked up from her high chair and said."I'm fine thanks, how are you?" It was one of the funniest things she's said this week. She got 2 Robert Munsch books and 2 Phoebe Gilman ones for Christmas. So we've been letting her read them. She's has gotten alot less rough on paper books. It's so fun to read full stories to her and especially the classic books that I read when I was little. So she walks around the house saying"Murmel, Murmel, Murmel" and "Jillian Jiggs pigs". It's really cute. I didn't even remember Jillian Jiggs until Jenny read Em the story with the line "Jillian, Jillian, Jillian Jiggs! It looks like your room has been lived in by pigs!" Took me right back to the good ol days.

My Feta Chicken with Zucchini turned out pretty good. I would probably add less lemon next time, but overall I quite enjoyed it. I took a picture for you. Tonight is Canton Beef. It sounds really tasty. I forget what the side dish is, but I'm sure that'll be great too.

Oh and here is the song that is stuck in my head...Thanks Morgan!*sarcasm*

Tonight is our first night with our new meal planners too. Thanks Grama! Got a subscription to Savingdinner.com for Christmas. Tonight is Feta Chicken and zucchini. It's gonna be delish. I'm really hoping it will help us eat healthier meals and keep our grocery costs to a minimum. Nothing like saving money whenever you can right? If It turns out pretty I'll take a picture.

Emily has decided she hates having water poured on her head. She used to do just fine in the bath with water on her head. Now she stands up and says "It's ok" and shakes her head. It's kinda sad. We are just going to have to figure out a better way to wash stinky's hair or else she'll have to keep showering with daddy. She was sitting in the tub playing with her toys and she started pretending she was cooking. Here is word for word her conversation with me.

EM: "Im cooking fish!"(she put her soap bottle in a cup and stirred it around)
" Oops I drinked it all"(drinks some bath water)
"I'm making more" ( fills the water up again in the cup)
(Then she offers me some and I pretend to drink it) "Ooops. Mommy ate it all. Silly Mommy. "

It was pretty hilarious.

We've started potty training! Em has already gone pee 3 times on the potty. As soon as she found out she gets a treat for going potty she was soooo excited to go. We can hardly keep her in clothes now. We bough some pull-ups and she likes her "special panties". The little dragons go all blurry if she pees her self. No poopies yet, but she hasn't had any while not in her bed either. So we'll see how this goes. If anyone has any tips they'd be much appreciated.

She's also decided she doesn't want to be fed at all. She will only eat if I let her "Scoop it iself". It's made for a bit of a messy transition, but she's actually quite good at it. She can even eat cheerios without making to much mess. She is best with yogurt or cottage cheese, but she will eat anything if she can "scoop it iself".

I think I'm going to make some Chai tea and fold laundry while watching Big Trouble with Tim Allen and Kronk!

Then we got back in the car with only 5 minutes to get somewhere that takes 10 minutes to drive. Oh crap we are gonna be late. I didn't even say oh crap out loud. Emily did. I laughed until I looked at the Gas gauge that let me know in a kind, mild mannered, way that someone I was so kindly bringing lunch had left the car on E after his excursion to Kamloops. But well probably make it anyways. Traffic is ridiculous. I got cut off so many times. I kept saying "No No No...don't do it man",but that wasn't working all to well.I followed the slowest guy ever out to the mill. Seriously if you can afford a NEW F150, you can afford winter tires. That's all I need to say about that.

10 minutes late for my lunch date with a coughing sneezing baby in the back and a grumpy sneezing mommy in the front. I'm sure Morgan was really happy to see us *Sarcasm*. Actually we had a really nice time. We took turns giving Em chunks of our subs and chatting about our plans for next week. It ended all to soon. My favorite part was when Emily was just talking to herself she said "Bye Bye uncle Nayfen driving a please car!"It made us laugh so hard. Can't wait to tell Nate his police cruiser has been renamed the "Please Car".

Anyhoo. I have a cold and I'm working on School so I'd better go. I'm not sure how much I'll blog this week, but I'll try and keep you updated on the events of Christmas 2 for Em-cakes. Many Pictures coming!