more changes....

Well, it has been a while but we've been quite busy since I've last posted. We have celebrated a number of family birthdays, I went away on an awesome staff retreat, we celebrated Harvest Fest (our church's Halloween alternative) and Ronel's birthday, celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and then last week
FOUND OUT THAT WE'RE EXPECTING!!

Yes, you read that right! I'm pregnant! I'm 5 weeks and 3 days pregnant and should be welcoming our new addition in early August!

  So far everything is going good and we meet with our midwife on Tuesday. We are both so EXCITED and Ronel couldn't wipe the smile off his face ALL DAY! 
It has been a lot of fun sharing our news with all of our family & friends.
I am so excited to have my first ultrasound and be able to see and hear our precious bundle! (don't have a date for the ultrasound - just super excited about it!)
(and I know that I still owe you guys photos!)

last 5 months in photos!

I'm trying to get caught up on posting photos of our latest adventures.... I'm just a couple months behind!!


I don't want to do it all in one post as that would be a very long and photo heavy post so starting Monday, there will be new posts daily with photos of our adventures since May.

I hope you will enjoy them!

new journeys.....

Ronel has now been in daytime English classes for 3 days and he seems to be enjoying it. We were unable to register him for the school location closest to us as their day classes were full. We signed up Ronel for night classes but after we got home, we didn't feel good about it as it was 4 nights a week and we'd have only had 30 mins together between me getting off work & Ronel going to school. I called Monday to cancel him for the night classes and to find out if there were spaces in another school not that far away. There was and Ronel started Tuesday morning. Because of the hours, he has to bus to and from school and he did very well navigating the bus system -- in the afternoon, he has to take the skytrain and 2 buses! I was definitely more nervous about it than he was!

This new English class is quite different than his old one and there are only 4 students which is nice as they will get lots of individual attention from the teacher. The students are all from varied backgrounds which doesn't allow for speaking in their native tongue (which was a huge pet peeve for Ronel at his last English class - most were Spanish speaking and would speak Spanish with each other on the break as well as during class time)
So for like 5 + hours Ronel is only speaking English, which is helping with his confidence level.

Life with both of us out of the house for a large part of the day makes our evenings seem that much crazier but it is nice for both of us to have time out of the house on our own and we also both have an hour or so alone at home which is nice to get things done on our own, and then we have our evenings together.

Enjoy your Thursday!

one year

One year ago I was in Haiti with Ronel preparing to fly home together .... It seems unreal that it was only a year ago that Ronel came to Canada. Some days it feels like forever and other days it feels like it has only been a few months!! In 2 months and 4 days we will be celebrating our FOURTH wedding anniversary. Even my mom had a hard time believing me that it has been that long already!

We had a great summer - spent lots of time with family & friends. And Ronel got to have lots of firsts..... drove a go-cart, went to Kids' Camp, went camping, got his Care Card! (this one is a BIGGIE!!), went to a Canadian emergency room (he wasn't the patient, I was), played mini-golf (and beat me!) and more that I can think of right now!

I know I promised pictures of many of these things and I have them, just haven't had the time to get them online!!! I'm hoping that once Ronel goes to English classes during the day, I'll be able to get better at keeping up with the blog when I'm on my break (since I won't feel bad about ignoring him while I'm on the computer!)

Yes, we are hoping that soon Ronel will be in full time ESL classes with ELSA.
ELSA stands for English Language Services for Adults. The ELSA program provides basic and intermediate level English training for adult newcomers to Canada.  He had his assessment test last Wednesday and they put him at a level 3 (there are levels 1-5) and then tomorrow we go to register him at the school closest to us that offers the classes when we want them and find out when he can start classes.
Ronel will be in class Mon - Fri  from 9am - 2:15pm. It will be nice for him to be out of the house each day and also learning more English. He's very good at studying on his own but the social interaction will be good for him. And because of the hours... he'll be taking the bus to and from class which will be a big step for him.


I hope you all had a great summer! and that you have a great September!

we've been busy...

it's been a while since I last posted, but we've been busy! We bought a new (to us) car at the end of May. We're now the proud owners of a 2001 Hyundai Elantra (which is a HUGE jump from the '84 Plymouth Horizon I used to own!) The next weekend, I took the car and drove to the States for our church's Ladies' Retreat. This is the first time I've driven my own vehicle and drove down 3 other ladies from my church. Since then, Ronel & I have been trying to get out and see things ever chance we get. Most Saturdays we have been going and seeing something! We've gone down to the Vancouver Aquarium, visited Stanley Park, gone to the Greater Vancouver Zoo, Iona Beach & watching the planes land out at Vancouver Airport. We have also enjoyed going to new places in the evenings and going for nice walks in the later part of the evening. We've been to Steveston and walked along the dyke, went out to White Rock Beach, walked the pier and along the beach and also went to Cresent Beach where we got to watch part of a movie(or maybe a TV show) being filmed.

I have lots of photos from these outings and will try and get them on here, but I've been trying to limit my time on the computer and there is only so much I can do on the computer each day -- especially trying to spend only an hour a day online!

Have a great day!

our trip to Vancouver Island

 Ronel and I on his very first ferry ride - Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay

 our morning at the Marina (there was a seal at the marina as well!)

Ronel's first touch of the Pacific Ocean (at Tyee Spit in Campbell River)

We had a fantastic trip to the Island! I got off work early on the Thursday, and we (Ronel, my mom & myself) headed out to Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver to catch the ferry to Nanaimo.  We had decided to take this route as the ferry times worked better with when I could get off work and it put us a 1/2 hour closer on the other side, as well as the ferry ride itself is a 1/2 hour shorter.  Ronel was quite amazed at the size of the ferry.  We drove up the inland Island Highway and arrived at my granny's house at around 9pm. We found our rooms and then hung out in the living room for awhile with everyone before heading to bed. 

We were up bright and early the next morning (like 6am!) and I went to see if mom wanted to come for a walk with us (I knew she'd be up... she's an early bird!)  We went for a nice walk in the newer neighborhood that has been built around my granny's house in the last 4 or 5 years.  We came back, showered, ate and then headed out to show Ronel around Campbell River.  We first headed down to Coast Marina and a lady told us there was a seal in the inner part of the marina so we headed down to see it. After that, we walked around a bit and then headed out to Tyee Spit to walk down the beach. Ronel touched the Pacific Ocean for the first time and Mom showed us the sandstone that can write on dark rocks.  We then went and got lunch and after lunch we headed to Discovery Pier to get some ice cream!

 Ronel took this photo of me with both of our cones in front of the carved wooden ice cream cone at the pier.

The cones were HUGE and took us awhile to finish but was SO worth it! We walked down the pier and then came back to the parking lot and sat at a picnic table to eat our ice cream. While I was eating my cone, I noticed that the table we were at had a plaque saying that this table was a gift from my mom's high school graduating class! I thought that was neat (and she didn't even know about it so I got to tell her about it)

After our ice cream we headed back to Granny's. We went out for dinner with Granny at her favorite place -- the casino! before heading out to my sister's place. It was fun to see my oldest sister & my husband together.... we hung out for awhile enjoying my sister`s gorgeous house! and then we went out to the porch where Ronel & I spent some time trying to capture some photos of the hummingbirds enjoying the feeders my sister has on both sides of her porch.

and that was our Thursday and Friday... more to come about Saturday and Sunday!!

on our way...

We are on our way to the Island (Vancouver Island that is!) for the weekend. We're traveling with my mom (and how sweet -- it's Mother's Day weekend!) and going to visit both sides of my family. First we off to Campbell River to see my Granny (mom's mom) & that side of the family and then on Sunday we're headed to Victoria to see my Nanna (dad's mom) and that side of the family. It will be A LOT of new people for Ronel. He's only met my Granny so far of all the people we'll see this weekend! 

 okay and the cool thing... right now I'm at the ferry terminal, sitting in the car on our laptop about to board the ferry and I'm blogging... The world of mobile internet is still new to me  and I LOVE IT! I'll try to post photos this weekend if I can, but there will definitely be photos on Monday! Ronel is about to take his first ferry trip... and we're taking Coastal Renaissance, one of BC Ferries newer boats 


Have a great weekend! I'm sure we will!

home sick...

so I've been home sick since Friday.... spent most of my weekend in bed. Went to the doctor on Saturday and got some antibiotics and a throat swab. Today I got the results of that swab --- STREP THROAT!?  Saturday the doctor told me I had to stay home for a minimum of a week (I said... so a week??)

while a week at home sounds nice... on day 4 of being sick, achy, and all around miserable, the thought of 4 more days sounds painful!

Thankfully today I am starting to feel better (well, everywhere except my throat) thanks in large part I'm sure the Ensure beverages my mom brought me so that I could be getting some nutrients & protein. Liquids were all I was getting down up until today. I'm about to try and eat Ronel's delicious CSC rice, (chicken, shrimp & carrots)

I'm hoping that tomorrow is another good day and maybe I can do something around the house... play a game with Ronel, stamp, organize, something, anything!

Ronel says dinner is calling my name so I am off......

Our Easter weekend

First off, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. I'm off today for Easter Monday so our weekend is still happening!

We started off the weekend by heading downtown on Friday. Ronel's been wanting to ride the SkyTrain so we did. Our original plan was to go to Stanley Park and take a horse drawn carriage ride through the park, but Thursday night the forecast was yucky so we decided to wait for a nicer day. We drove to the Skytrain station and parked, then headed off on our adventure. It was COLD and rainy but we were determined not to let that stop us.

We took the Expo line all the way to Waterfront Station and were planning on jumping right onto the SeaBus, but because it was operating on weekend schedule (due to the holiday) we had a 25 minute wait, so we got a hot chocolate at Starbucks and headed out to Gastown to see the Steam Clock. We got there just minutes before the hour, so we decided to wait and actually see it go off. It's been many years since I have been to the clock so when Ronel asked me if it was loud, I had to tell him I didn't know but from what I could remember.... yes?! Well, we both had a good laugh when it went off because it really isn't that loud!

After we were done there, we still had some time so we strolled through some of the stores which still had TONS of Olympic stuff left, all on sale. We had never managed to find something Ronel liked (He really wanted some Olympic souvenir) Well, we found way more keychains, clothes & various other items than I'd ever seen this side of the river, so we picked up a nice keychain for Ronel and then headed back to the SeaBus. As we were nearing the SeaBus terminal, we saw the SeaBus head out...we missed the SeaBus by like 2 minutes so we headed off in the other direction and kept a better track of time! We stopped and took some photos, saw the Vancouver Lookout at the Harbour Center (where we've decided we will go on a nice clear day --- I discovered we have a coupon for it in our Entertainment Values book), wandered up and down some streets and then needed a washroom, but because very little was open we couldn't find one so we headed back to the SeaBus terminal. We had a good laugh when we discovered that there were washrooms inside the SeaBus waiting area (not any washrooms upstairs though just outside the Skytrain/SeaBus areas!)

We got on the SeaBus and went across the harbour to North Vancouver and the Lonsdale Quay. We were both hungry by this time, so we wandered the stores outside but didn't find anything appealling, so we stopped and took some photos looking from the Quay towards Vancouver. I even managed to get a photo with the SeaBus in the background!

We then headed inside the Market at the Quay and checked out all the wonderful stalls inside. I love Markets like this! Lots of fresh produce, seafood, meats, cheeses and lots of choices of prepared food as well. We grabbed some some lunch and took it to go as we realized that it was minutes till the next SeaBus. Once we got back to Vancouver, we took our lunch and headed back to this neat little covered plaze we had found just up from the terminal.

We ate lunch and then it was time for some more fun shots!

 

Even though we were FREEZING COLD! we still had a lot of fun (as you can tell by that gorgeous smile & laugh on Ronel's face!) Using my Nikon DSLR it is hard to take a photo of the two of us by myself, so we decided to use these large and very shine poles that were in the plaza area. 

After we had finished lunch, we headed off towards Canada Place. We wandered through the connecting mall/food court (and realized it would have been easier & warmer to have gotten lunch there -- lesson learned!) Wandered around the outside of Canada Place, took some more photos (yes, I enjoy taking photos and Ronel is a willing subject!!... well most of the time! )

We then decided that it was time to head towards home (we wanted to be back for our Good Friday service) and we headed towards the SkyTrain. We decided to take the scenic route home and switched trains at Commercial Station so that we could ride the Millennium Line home (this has been around for awhile but it was also a first time for me on these section of the SkyTrain route) We then switched back at Columbia Station so that we could take the Expo Line back into Surrey.

This is Ronel sitting at the front of the train at Waterfront Station, waiting to head home

Saturday, we headed out for more adventure.... this time to Bear Creek Park. It was much warmer on Saturday and so we were able to enjoy the outdoors more.

Bear Creek Park has a lovely garden area and we wandered around, saw an East Indian wedding party in all their traditional outfits. We strolled through the paths, stopped at one of the bridges over a small pond to see the ducks, saw some squirrels and enjoyed all the beautiful flowers that are already out in bloom.

I also got to play around with my camera using this gorgeous tree full of  blossoms.

Ronel gave the weekend TWO THUMBS UP!!and we're not finished yet! It is not even 8am yet and we have a whole day ahead of us! Ronel doesn't have English class tonight because it's Easter Monday so we're going to enjoy our day together!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and that you remember why we celebrate this holiday!

HE IS RISEN!!!

settling in

well, it has now been a full month that we've been living in our new home. We are almost completely settled in, my craft area still needs some work and we're still working on some storage solutions, but we're starting to feel at home in our home.  Because the house is really new (like 2 months brand new) there is some settling happening and so yesterday our landlord had a drywaller in to fix some of the cracks that are starting to show in the walls. So now we have white spotted walls and are waiting for the painter to come.

Now that the sun has started to shine more around here, Ronel & I are looking forward to getting out and exploring more of the greater Vancouver area. Sometime this spring/summer we're planning on trips to the Aquarium, Zoo, Science World, Stanley Park,  and somewhere in there we'll plan a trip to Vancouver Island to visit my dad's side of the family.


for those of you who still check in on this blog.... thanks and I'll try to post more often.