Heading in to surgery

Today feels long as I dreamt about work last night. I feel like I’ve already been here and done this. Except my dream was clearly not based in reality; in my dream the CEO had a group of important visitors in. They were midgets, business midgets. They made a big mess & I had to clean it up. It was terrible. They all wore suits and managed to stay spotless; they were used to making messes and not getting dirty.



Paul and I are having a lot of fun in life. A few weekends ago we drove down to the states and slept in his parents van in a walmart parking lot. It was actually so much fun. We have friends over, we go out to visit friends. We play games. We laugh. We eat. We see our families, we go to work and school. We love to have people in our home, especially when we get to feed them and really especially when we get to have good deep conversations with them…though we also like to play games with them too.


Today is a busy day at the office. A bunch of executives from other locations are here and it’s neat to put a face to different names. It means that today is hectic, and yet when they are all in meetings it’s slow.


I’ve been doing pretty well at getting to bed on time since I started working here. I am usually asleep by 10:30 on a work night. I wake up at 6 and am out of the house at 7:05. This week though I have been up to 12:00 or 12:30 each night. In reality I don’t really feel that much more tired than normal; but as I am fighting a cold this is not a great lifestyle choice for the week. However there have been things to do, and people to see. I will be off work for 2 weeks starting Monday to have lower back surgery so at least I can rest then!


Yes, I am having back surgery! Since March I have been experiencing pain in my lower back/right hip. Really the pain feel like it centers in my butt on the upper right side. For the first 3 months they told me it was just a stress induced pinched nerve. Then when it persisted past my wedding and honeymoon they told me it was Siatica. Then when I couldn’t sleep next to my husband because the it hurt to lay in bed (though it hurt to stand and sit as well) they told me it “wasn’t that bad.” Finally I went to Emerg and got pills which actually helped relieve the pain for the first time in 4 months. When my GP saw that those pills were making a difference he realized it had to be worse than Siatica or stress. He finally had me sent for a CT scan in early July. This scan showed that I had a protruding disc that had fragmented and that the only way to clean out the fragmented pieces and keep the disc from protruding was surgery. This was discovered the day before I started a new job! The surgeon told me I needed surgery and that he would book me in for that night, as it was a fairly urgent surgery. However after 2 and a half months of not working I couldn’t afford to lose the job I had finally gotten! I asked the DR if I could do the surgery in the fall and still be ok on pills until then, which he said was fine. Then I went to visit my new workplace to explain what was going on. They very generously agreed to let me have 2 weeks off for the surgery and recovery sometime in the fall. Well that time is this coming Monday. I cannot wait! I have been in pain 6 months; through all the wedding prep, through the wedding, through the honeymoon, through job hunting, etc. Everyone said that the pain would be gone by the wedding/honeymoon. They said, “God is good, he will remove this pain.” Well God is still good but he did not remove the pain. Instead he used it to teach me. I have learned to slow down. I have learned to be patient and gracious with people in pain (especially when you can’t see the problem obviously). I have learned my husband is very kind to me when I am not feeling well. I have learned to be grateful for what is good, instead of complaining about what’s wrong.


Lessons aside, I am glad to be rid of the pain though 


So for the next two weeks I will mostly be at home. I have been prepping meals and PVR’ing TV. The recovery will not be bed rest. I will be moving around my home AND resting in it. My goal is to spend some time with God each day, to connect via phone or email with a long distance friend each day, and do every piece of physical therapy they give me to help heal. I will rest as long as they recommend and to my best ability follow everything they say to optimize healing.


Today I had lunch with a friend. I don’t know her very well yet but we have a lot of things and people in common. We go to the same church. We dress similarly. Heck, she was Paul’s only other girlfriend! In my head I think of her as a “dear friend” even though we are new friends. I look forward to getting to know her better. I love the start of friendships that you just know will be good. I look forward to figuring out how to make time for her in my life (on top of all the other people and friendships that are already a priority!).






Alright, I have a mountain of booklets to put tabs in, then bind in a binding machine. Woo!

Fall again

I am a strange sort of blogger; I rarely write (except in spurts) but I check every blog I follow every day. I only learned 9 months ago how to follow these and before would actually go through and click on every link to see if they had been updated. I love to read what my friends and acquaintances have to say and think about life. AND in THEORY I love to write. Something just makes it so hard though. My mind rejects the idea of writing being easy; despite the fact that it really is easy.

I am at work. I like my job. If I have to have a job and have to work somewhere; this is the place to be. People always ask me if I am happy here; and I am. They ask if I like my job; I do. They ask if it’s a dream job; and no, it’s not. A dream job for me would involve much higher pay, travel with Paul and full time availability to rest and build in to people. This dream job does not exist. That’s why it’s a “dream”. However, this job is definitely a gift from God – I love the hours, I love the pay, I find enjoyment in my work here and my co workers are nice. God has provided yet again.

I just looked back and realized that I never posted about my job. I got a job as a receptionist at a Uranium mining company. U1. It’s very exciting. I do administration and answer phones. I like the work. It’s right downtown overlooking Stanley Park. It pays what I needed it to pay and I get to dress up for work every day.

Biggest surprise in marriage? How awesome it is. I thought being married to the man I love and enjoy (Paul) would be really really great. It’s even better. Now I know it’s only been 5 months but whatever. I love my husband.

Speaking of Paul; my husband talks and reacts in his sleep. So for example one day he thought I was me about to turn in to an alien so he tried to get me to stop by pushing me off the bed and shouting at me not to do it. Thankfully I realized what was happening and managed to hop off the bed just before I was pushed off. This past weekend was my favorite though; I was awoken in the middle of the night to Paul doing pushups in bed in his sleep. He was giving it hardcore. It was hilarious to watch. Later he tried to save me from being sucked in to a vortex by pulling me across the bed. It is certainly adventurous to sleep in the same bed as Paul!

I love our home. We are 90% unpacked and settled. I still have some final things to go through but OH it feels like home. Our pantry is stocked to brimming. Our freezer has everything I need to cook the things I love to make.

I love our wedding pictures

Also I love my new family:

Life is pretty awesome

  

Now if only the courier I am waiting for would come I would be very happy. I need to send something to England in half an hour and I haven't yet received it!

Rainy, thoughtful day

Today is a rainy thoughtful day. I am warm, inside my house, happy with the knowledge that there is a beautiful rainy day outside and that shortly I will be catching a bus to UBC in it. I have warm tea, good music and a happy heart. 
I am so ready for our house to be unpacked and yet unwilling to do much to make that the truth. It's quite a tricky place to be. 
Still on the job hunt; applying to lots of places every day and wondering where I will end up. 
Still loving marriage. Very much still in the honeymoon phase....both always trying to do little things around the house to make the other person feel good. Last night I got up in the middle of the night to make Paul's lunch and prepare his breakfast for the morning as a surprise. When I woke up (after he had gone to work) he had cleaned the entire kitchen, left flowers for me and cleaned up all garbage and recycling. It's fun to try and love each other in practical ways.

I hope I get an office job. There are some clothes I would love to own but unless I have a place to wear them will never buy them. 
One week today I am heading off on a family/friend vacation to Osoyoos. Mostly my entire family (and for sure my entire Vancouver family) plus a bunch of our friends, and families from church will be there. We will eat, play games, lay on the beach and stay up late talking. I can pretty much not wait. 
I suppose I should start getting ready for the very rainy bus trip to UBC...thankfully I have rain boots, a rain coat, a bus pass, an ipod and a book. I think I shall enjoy the ride thoroughly.


Oh and I LOVE my new hair cut. Oh love.

Married, at home, job hunting...woo! The life of a unplanned stay at home wife.

Ugh..just wrote a post and it disappeared. Then tried again and it disappeared. Ugh Ugh Ugh. 

So I will try again.

Last time I wrote I was going to get married in 4 days. Now I have been married for a month and 3 days. This is awesome. I love being married. I specifically love being married to Paul. He is a pretty great husband. And a pretty great man. It was always so important to me that when I got married it would be to someone I could respect; and not fake respect, but actually really really really respect. It's great to have found a man like that. 

Enough of the gushy stuff. I promise I will post wedding pics and honeymoon pics and talk about both but am waiting for the pictures. 

For now I would like to talk about life. I finished my contract with EveryNation Campus Ministries at the end of April. I am currently job hunting. This means I have been unemployed the whole time we have been married. Weird. 

At this moment I have just found out that I did not get the job I interviewed for on Wednesday which is really unfortunate because it was a great job. I feel bummed. I had been so hopeful after a great interview. 

In other news...

I just finished putting my pantry together:

Isn't it beautiful? I love a well stocked pantry. 

This is where I am typing from now:

And this is my kitchen shelving which I love and will love even more once I find all my plates. Right now it has many random things in it:

And lastly my ever so helpful and organized tupperware stacked cupboard:

And now I will eat a mini pizza to console myself about not getting the job and then I will work my way through folding a giant, living room sized, mound of laundry. So awesome :$

4 days left

It's 3am and I am rarely up at this house. However, this is not a  normal week. Paul and I are getting married on Saturday. In 4 days time. AND while I have most of the major prep done there are still many tiny details left to finish. Until the last couple weeks I had not felt stress, and normally when stress has appeared over the past few weeks I could shrug it off. Tonight it was much harder. Though now, 8 hours of wedding administration later I feel much less stressed. I have completed my seating charts; the arrangement, the individual table markers & seating board. I had already purchased all the cardstock to go with these documents so this week I can, at my leisure, put these pieces together. I feel much better.

Sarah and I went out for Japanese noodle. It was tasty and strange. It was also pouring out and we got very wet and 'Sweet Love' Morgan came to pick us up. I love him so much. He told me tonight he is amazed at how much work I have done for our wedding and that he has some big plans to show me how much he appreciates me....things like having my ring engraved (which he accidentally told me) and other things I do not know since they are a surprise. i feel very loved.

Paul's mom comes to town tomorrow. More family comes to town Thursday. All family will be in town Friday. Friday we will decorate the reception hall from 9am til 1pm. Then myself and my bridesmaids will make bouquets from 1 until 2:30. Then we will get mani/pedi's at 3. At 5:15 is the rehearsal. 7pm is the rehearsal dinner for our entire family; 60 people! I am pretty excited.

(Weird, as I type this I just had a major flashback to writing a blog entry when Jenna was getting married with a similar timeline)

Saturday Paul and I will sneak away early to have breakfast together before our big day, and after we part ways there I will not see him again until I begin to walk down the aisle. Oh!

I am so excited to marry Paul. He is amazing.

And now I should sleep as it is 3:15am....and I have a staff meeting at 10am....I will be waking up at 8am, spending time with God, going tanning, then bussing to get my car....THEN going to the staff meeting. Phew.

2 weeks until the big day!

Today is the only day of my life that I will wake up and realize that in exactly 2 weeks I will be getting married. Weird.

With this in mind I set off on to complete a marathon of errands...all while hanging out with amazing women, of course. I met up with my friend Mila (Paul’s groomsmen Daniel’s little sister) for breakfast at Bon’s (home of the $2.95 breakfast) and a trip to the printers to price our programs and table numbers. They were more costly than expected. Mila, being amazing, came up with a cheaper and better solution. I am in awe of her genius.

After a painful (but timely) visit to a beauty salon (for threading & waxing—my face is so smooth now!) I met up with my dear friend Stefany. Stefany is from Quebec and soon she will be heading home (Oh I hate to have that be true) but she has been living here since June and I have so enjoyed getting to know her. She has been so huegely helpful at every step of the wedding process. When I needed a dress fitting, Stef was right there to tie my corset & take photos. When we needed to register for gifts but Paul was getting tired of walking around the store, I took Stef with me on my next trip. Whenever I have a day full of wedding errands that I know would bore Paul, Stef is always ready and excited to come along. So today, as Paul is away on his Stag, Stefany and I set out to kick some wedding errand butt...and boy did we.

Errands completed:

· Bathing suit purchased—Addition elle on sale!

· Sundress for honeymoon purchased—Reitmans (Thanks Nancy for both of these!)

· Fabric purchased for pocket squares (and later tonight sewn) - Fabricland

· Paper purchased for card box (and later tonight box was wrapped & decorated) - Micheals

· Paper purchased for table numbers (though later realized I am short 10 yellow pages of cardstock, eep. Will finish buying yellow card stock tomorrow.) - Paper Poet & Micheals

· Wedding shoes purchased—Payless on sale! Came with 70% off another pair of shoes + 2 necklaces for half price

· Tie purchased (for Paul) - Walmart (will be covered with orange material to make it match my sash)

· Wedding favors priced out (at Superstore—unless the grocery manager was wrong, and I kind of think he was, Lyndors are super pricey, yikes).

· Home Décor bought on sale in antique shop in New West.

· Marble Slab Creamery ingested on sale! MMMM

· Guest book/photo frame for signing purchased—Micheals, also on sale!

 On top of all this Stefany and I (with the help of our friend Candace—who is also amazing) made tasty pizza’s and potatoe skins. We even tried a new invention: perogie pizza with real perogies boiled, fried, cut up and layered right onto the pizza! Tasty! We watched ‘When Harry met Sally’ and SNL while cutting papers, sewing pocket squares and wrapping boxes. Productive and fun.

As I mentioned earlier Paul is away on his Stag. He is away with his groomsmen, best man and father. My stagette was about a month ago and I went away with 15 of my female friends. We both got to do what we love best for our time of celebration. I got to enjoy telling stories, drinking martinis and hanging out with great friends. Paul is enjoying being in the woods (despite the pouring rain), fishing and being with his 3 best guy friends and his Dad. I always miss Paul when he is gone but I enjoy hanging out with girlfriends, and doing girlie things. As I write I am still at Stefany’s house. We are having a sleepover with Candace. While the girls are sleeping I wanted to take a moment to update here. It has been such a busy few weeks that updating seemed stressful and a huge goal of mine through this whole process has been anything that is stressful gets left until it is no longer stressful.

After today the wedding is very much still under control. There are still things left to do: pick dance songs, pick worship music & pick reception music (I have been putting off everything music related). We also need to finalize our ceremony details with our pastor (my uncle) and create a run-sheet for the day so that we have a plan for every detail. There are a few other details still left to work out but mostly we are ready. It feels pretty great.

I am so enjoying this final time of being single, while looking forward to a future with Paul. I feel badly for him though as he is finishing this school semester. He is finally done with his papers but now is entering a week of exams. He could definitely use any prayers you would send his way! I am enjoying cheering him up. It’s fun to learn how to love him when he is stressed.

Alright, It is late, and I should sleep. Good night all!

2 weeks until the big day….Wow!

I will quickly add 2 photos:

1 includes Stefany and I and was taken in December, hence my long hair. But it does show Stefany and I enjoying each other. Normally Stef is the photographer so this is a rare treat, seeing her on the other side of the lense, hence how not recent this photo is. And the second is of Lyndsay, Candace and I at a sleepover 2 weeks ago at Stef's. It was a great evening, almost identical to tonight's great sleepover, minus the lovely Lyndsay who is having a sleepover of her own in Port Moody with other friends. 

Pictures 3,4 and 5 are of a very happy couple. 3 is us posing of so naturally in front of water. 4 is us excited for marriage *wink*wink* and 5 showcases how much fun we are. 

Vein? possibly. In love? Definitely

27 days to our new home!

27 Days until the wedding! Oh my gosh; it's so exciting. Seriously I can not believe that in 27 days Paul and I will be married!

Yesterday Paul and I found our new home! It is a basement suite at 39th and Cambie. For those of you not from Vancouver that means it is in a medium nice area next to Queen Elizabeth Park (a beautiful park in the middle of the city). It is a 5 minutue walk to the Skytrain (which is like our subway but partially above ground), the 41 Bus (which goes straight to UBC - Paul's school) and Oakridge mall (which has shopping, food and grocery stores). 

Google maps tells me I am close to family and friends:

Driving Distances:

to Jenna & Colin's (my sister & her hubby): 5 minutes

to church: 5 minutes

to my parents: 7 minutes

to my aunt and uncles (many of our friends live on the same street): 7 minutes away

Transit Distances: 

Half and hour to all the above places!! plus 40 minutes to UBC

The place is a basement suite, 1000 sq feet, 2 bedroom, giant living room, dining area, kitchen and bathroom. There is shared laundry and TONS of storage. 

To top it off we get all of that, including all utilities, for $850 a month! This is truly a real estate miracle. Our God gives good gifts!

The only negative is we don't get possession until May 1st (the day of our wedding) so we will have to move in on the 2nd. Any help would be appreciated, eep!

The following photos were taken quickly on my camera phone. They are blury and full of the current renters eclectic belongings. Please see past the decorating to the house itself. Though I love the red walls in the master bedroom! It's totally made me rethink our bedding!

Master Bedroom

Paul's Den & Guest Room

Small living space or Dining space

Living Rom

Bathroom - Lots of storage space!!!

Kitchen - brighter in real life

Dining Nook or shelf space

We are very happy. 
We are about to be married. 
We are very loved by our God.