Sorry to all who got a suspicious email from me yesterday. Looks like I was one of the many yahoo accounts that got hacked. I've changed my password and am hoping all is good now. What is it with yahoo accounts getting hacked? My password was quite secure, I haven't signed on in public or on a public computer...is it something on the yahoo side since hundreds have been hacked?
Anyway, all should be good now. Enjoy your weekend!!
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Need a laugh?
A few years ago I attended a women's retreat where they brought in a comedian, Tim Hawkins, for a late night comedy show. I remember thinking he was really funny and was reminded of him this week when I heard one of his jokes on the radio. I ended up finding various clips on youtube and showing it to the hubby, and we watched clip after clip and laughed so hard until we had tears in our eyes.
It turns out that you can buy his DVDs online, or just download a digital copy for $5. Let me tell you that this is money well spent. He is a Christian man so his jokes are clean, and although he does have some church jokes in there I think he's hilarious whether you're a Christian or not. We downloaded our first one last night and again laughed until we almost cried. We are for sure going to get all of them - it's the same cost as renting a movie but it's absolutely wholesome and clean fun...we truly have not laughed like that in years.
My only disclaimer is that I recommend watching only a few youtube links...quite a few are available for free, but they are portions of the DVD and are much funnier when they're in the context of the whole thing.
But, just so you get a sample, I've included one of my favourites. I hope you enjoy!
It turns out that you can buy his DVDs online, or just download a digital copy for $5. Let me tell you that this is money well spent. He is a Christian man so his jokes are clean, and although he does have some church jokes in there I think he's hilarious whether you're a Christian or not. We downloaded our first one last night and again laughed until we almost cried. We are for sure going to get all of them - it's the same cost as renting a movie but it's absolutely wholesome and clean fun...we truly have not laughed like that in years.
My only disclaimer is that I recommend watching only a few youtube links...quite a few are available for free, but they are portions of the DVD and are much funnier when they're in the context of the whole thing.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Can you feel the love?
We tried something new this year for Valentine's Day. I read about this idea around Christmas in the Thriving Family magazine from Focus on the Family (which I totally recommend if you don't have it) but couldn't remember all of the details so we just made it our own.
The Sunday before Valentine's Day, we each put our names in a bowl and then drew names. (If you got your own you had to put it back and redo it). Anyway, once we all had names drawn the game began. Our goal was to have a week of love...each person was to show love in a special way to the person whose name they drew. Then, on Friday (when we celebrated) we would guess who had our name, and we gave little prizes for guessing right.
The interesting part of this game is that nobody wanted the other person to be able to guess who had their name, so everyone was being honouring and loving to EVERYONE, just to be sneaky. It was the most peaceful week in our house ever. The girls were stumbling over themselves trying to put away each other's plates and toys, or leave surprise notes or treats. We even went to the dollar store and each of the girls bought something for their special someone with their own money.
On Friday, we decorated the table, had a fancy steak and lobster dinner (G and E had chicken nuggets), and we ended it with a chocolate fondue. Before the chocolate fondue, we exchanged our little gifts, and guessed who had our names. It was a super fun week and I think we have started a new yearly Valentine's week tradition! :-)
The Sunday before Valentine's Day, we each put our names in a bowl and then drew names. (If you got your own you had to put it back and redo it). Anyway, once we all had names drawn the game began. Our goal was to have a week of love...each person was to show love in a special way to the person whose name they drew. Then, on Friday (when we celebrated) we would guess who had our name, and we gave little prizes for guessing right.
The interesting part of this game is that nobody wanted the other person to be able to guess who had their name, so everyone was being honouring and loving to EVERYONE, just to be sneaky. It was the most peaceful week in our house ever. The girls were stumbling over themselves trying to put away each other's plates and toys, or leave surprise notes or treats. We even went to the dollar store and each of the girls bought something for their special someone with their own money.
On Friday, we decorated the table, had a fancy steak and lobster dinner (G and E had chicken nuggets), and we ended it with a chocolate fondue. Before the chocolate fondue, we exchanged our little gifts, and guessed who had our names. It was a super fun week and I think we have started a new yearly Valentine's week tradition! :-)
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| The girls with the man in their lives...for now... |
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| Mmmmmm....chocolate fondue, fruit and my precious girls. What could be more fun? |
Monday, February 11, 2013
Hair Extensions
Hi all. If you remember, I have experimented with yarn braids a number of times, and have had hair extensions put in her hair once by a professional. It is always a lot of work on the front (if I'm doing it myself) and back end, but I absolutely love the look and the low maintenance required.
I have recently stopped one of my part time jobs (which I'll explain in another post), and as money is a bit tighter, I thought I would try putting in hair extensions by myself. I went to Images and Shades, and sadly, they were out of the kind of hair extension that I wanted to buy. (I had planned on buying straight hair, braiding it in, and then curling the fake hair in hot water at the end). The next best thing that I could find was buying already curled hair.
Well, what seemed like a good idea in the store actually messed me up a lot when we got home. I had no idea how to put this stuff in...if I separated the fake hair into three strands, the ringlet totally got fuzzy, and if I left it just as one and braided it with her hair as the other two strands then I didn't totally know how to deal with it when her hair ran out. The saleswoman had given me some tips and recommended a special hair glue, which claims to be OK for your hair, and is supposed to come out easily.
After messing around for quite a while and feeling like a total failure, I finally figured out how to put it in. (Oddly I can't remember how now, but I think I wrapped the extension around the base of the chunk of hair I was using, then used the extension as one part of the braid, and used her hair for the other two pieces. When her hair ran out I put in a little bit of the glue, and then just let the extension fall naturally from there).
Once I got a hang of it, it actually didn't take too long to put in...maybe 4 hours? (I had already detangled her hair, and washed it when it was in its previous style of box braids, so it was already parted and ready to go).
This was the final look:
The hair lasted pretty well. I did very minimal maintenance (other than spraying it daily, doing a conditioning wash occasionally), and fixing up a few strands that slipped or got fuzzy.
I decided to cut it after a few weeks, and I liked this length much better. This is what the hair looked like after almost 5 weeks. It still looked pretty good, but I always have such issues with knots at the base of her hair after I take her extensions out that I thought I should deal with it before it got much worse.
Taking the hair out was much easier than yarn braids...it has more slip to it than yarn. HOWEVER, I still had a big issue with the knots at the base of each braid. It seems that if I leave extensions in for more than a few weeks, the hair sheds, then mats together and basically fuses into a little clump. It takes tons of conditioner, tons of finger detangling, and then tons of comb detangling until I work through it all. If anyone has advice, I would LOVE to hear it.
Now I'm back to her natural hair, which I love, but it gets fuzzy after a week. I am going to use a new gel that my friend recommended...if it helps keep the fuzzies down I'll be sure to let you know. :-)
I have recently stopped one of my part time jobs (which I'll explain in another post), and as money is a bit tighter, I thought I would try putting in hair extensions by myself. I went to Images and Shades, and sadly, they were out of the kind of hair extension that I wanted to buy. (I had planned on buying straight hair, braiding it in, and then curling the fake hair in hot water at the end). The next best thing that I could find was buying already curled hair.
Well, what seemed like a good idea in the store actually messed me up a lot when we got home. I had no idea how to put this stuff in...if I separated the fake hair into three strands, the ringlet totally got fuzzy, and if I left it just as one and braided it with her hair as the other two strands then I didn't totally know how to deal with it when her hair ran out. The saleswoman had given me some tips and recommended a special hair glue, which claims to be OK for your hair, and is supposed to come out easily.
After messing around for quite a while and feeling like a total failure, I finally figured out how to put it in. (Oddly I can't remember how now, but I think I wrapped the extension around the base of the chunk of hair I was using, then used the extension as one part of the braid, and used her hair for the other two pieces. When her hair ran out I put in a little bit of the glue, and then just let the extension fall naturally from there).
Once I got a hang of it, it actually didn't take too long to put in...maybe 4 hours? (I had already detangled her hair, and washed it when it was in its previous style of box braids, so it was already parted and ready to go).
This was the final look:
I decided to cut it after a few weeks, and I liked this length much better. This is what the hair looked like after almost 5 weeks. It still looked pretty good, but I always have such issues with knots at the base of her hair after I take her extensions out that I thought I should deal with it before it got much worse.
Now I'm back to her natural hair, which I love, but it gets fuzzy after a week. I am going to use a new gel that my friend recommended...if it helps keep the fuzzies down I'll be sure to let you know. :-)
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Ethiopian Feast
We have been trying to make our own Ethiopian food for awhile but just haven't gotten it right. Injera has been the most intimidating thing...we were just too afraid to try it.
At our last Amharic language classes the wife of the instructor was kind enough to show us how to make a few recipes, so we thought we would try it again. Although it didn't turn out perfect, it was actually pretty good. Mebira was super excited to eat it, and had it for a few days afterwards as leftovers.
The one thing we haven't figured out yet is doro wat. This is my favourite Ethiopian food but we just can't make anything close. If you have some recipes that you'd like to share I would love to try it again.
In case you don't have a good injera recipe, ours uses 1 cup teff, 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup oat flour, 1 tsp yeast. Mix that together and add hot water until runny (a little runnier than pancakes). Let sit on the counter for 6 hours, then pour a thin layer into an electric frying pan at 350.
At our last Amharic language classes the wife of the instructor was kind enough to show us how to make a few recipes, so we thought we would try it again. Although it didn't turn out perfect, it was actually pretty good. Mebira was super excited to eat it, and had it for a few days afterwards as leftovers.
The one thing we haven't figured out yet is doro wat. This is my favourite Ethiopian food but we just can't make anything close. If you have some recipes that you'd like to share I would love to try it again.
In case you don't have a good injera recipe, ours uses 1 cup teff, 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup oat flour, 1 tsp yeast. Mix that together and add hot water until runny (a little runnier than pancakes). Let sit on the counter for 6 hours, then pour a thin layer into an electric frying pan at 350.
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| It actually had those bubbles - I was thrilled. Our instructor told us to salt the pan first...let the pan sit with lots of salt on it, then remove the salt. We don't know why, but somehow this seems to help the injera turn out better. |
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| Our version of a wat. It was actually butter chicken since we have pretty much given up on doro wat. |
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| This is Mebira's favourite dish, although she said we still didn't get it quite right. We'll try again... |
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| The rolled up injera, ready to go. |
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| Our Feast - butter chicken, red lentils, shiro, and spinach. Yum! |
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Christmastime was here
In case you were wondering, we didn't do a Christmas letter or cards this year. I'm not exactly sure why...I just wasn't very inspired. So no, you're not on the naughty list...I was the naughty one. :-)
This year was probably the best Christmas ever. The kids were old enough to stay up late and not be grumpy the next day, yet they still were young enough to be super excited. Here are some pictures to sum up the last few weeks:
I've mentioned before about our favourite snacky suppers around the tree that we try to do at least once a week in December. I'll start with that:
This year was probably the best Christmas ever. The kids were old enough to stay up late and not be grumpy the next day, yet they still were young enough to be super excited. Here are some pictures to sum up the last few weeks:
I've mentioned before about our favourite snacky suppers around the tree that we try to do at least once a week in December. I'll start with that:
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| Mebira, putting together a veggie plate for our snacky supper. |
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| December 23rd...almost Christmas! |
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| We each pick a Christmas carol or two, blast the tunes and sing along. |
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| Yes, it's December 23rd but I thought we could sneak in one present early. :-) |
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| Christmas Eve - the big night for our family. Here we are at my brother and sis-in-law's house with my side of the family. Such a fun evening! |
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| The newest member of our extended family, Jasper. |
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| Reading the Christmas story...on an ipad. That was a first. :-) |
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| The girls and their wonderful cousins. |
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| Our happy family. |
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| Time to dive right in. Mebira got a ton of Barbie stuff! |
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| G got an e-reader for Christmas - a big highlight. |
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| An ipod dock - a huge hit. |
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| Christmas morning stockings |
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| Mmmmmm....Christmas morning breakfast with fresh berries, cinnamon buns, and bacon! |
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| We saved a present for Christmas Day. |
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| This Christmas has been great because M and E are so happy playing with Barbie stuff all day, and G is reading and reading and reading on her e-reader! |
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| Some rare downtime for E. |
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| G and her e-reader. |
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| Mebira got a few Barbie colouring books and has been colouring for HOURS over the holidays. This is her favourite place to colour...on the floor. |
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| Arvid and I were a little stressed to make the turkey. Thankfully, it seemed to turn out quite nicely. |
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| Before dinner Caesar with my bro-in-law! |
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| Arvid and his sister, Lynelle. We are sad that their parents are no longer around to celebrate with us, but we are so happy to keep up the Schimke tradition each year. |
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| Eric provided some much needed instruction on carving the turkey! |
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| We play charades in order to determine who gets to open presents first...if you can get it right then you get to open first! |
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| The 7 girl cousins hanging out. |
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| So proud to have such amazing nieces and daughters! |
Friday, December 7, 2012
Canadian!
Well, we are nearing the end of four years' worth of paperwork! As of October 30, 2012, Mebira is officially a Canadian. We received her Canadian citizenship paper last week and are now in the process of applying for her passport, and then all of her adoption related paperwork is FINALLY complete! Seriously...there has been so much...never ending piles of papers, checklists...from the day we made the decision to adopt until now that it just feels bizarre to finally be done. :-)
(For those of you keeping track, we came home PRV, applied for her citizenship in May/12, and received her citizenship less than 6 months later. The website is estimating current wait times as 22 months so I was THRILLED to get it so soon. Hopefully we will be done with cross border interrogations now. What is it with the power trips those customs officers are on, anyway? OK, I digress...)
I haven't posted much lately as life has been busy. Thankfully, things are looking up a bit...many of the things that our kids were struggling with are starting to stabilize now. I honestly think that anxiety in one and identity/adoption issues in the other will be lifelong issues that will increase in intensity and settle down again in waves. For now, I'm enjoying a bit of a breather and time to get ready for Christmas. I've had Christmas music on steady since October (and I only pulled it out once or twice in August and September) so I'm glad that the rest of the world has finally caught up. :-)
I also haven't posted any pictures because our camera has been missing since September. I have a sneaking suspicion it got thrown out with the wrapping paper after the girls' birthdays since we haven't seen it since. Good news, though - we got a new camera so I'll attach a few pictures.
(For those of you keeping track, we came home PRV, applied for her citizenship in May/12, and received her citizenship less than 6 months later. The website is estimating current wait times as 22 months so I was THRILLED to get it so soon. Hopefully we will be done with cross border interrogations now. What is it with the power trips those customs officers are on, anyway? OK, I digress...)
I haven't posted much lately as life has been busy. Thankfully, things are looking up a bit...many of the things that our kids were struggling with are starting to stabilize now. I honestly think that anxiety in one and identity/adoption issues in the other will be lifelong issues that will increase in intensity and settle down again in waves. For now, I'm enjoying a bit of a breather and time to get ready for Christmas. I've had Christmas music on steady since October (and I only pulled it out once or twice in August and September) so I'm glad that the rest of the world has finally caught up. :-)
I also haven't posted any pictures because our camera has been missing since September. I have a sneaking suspicion it got thrown out with the wrapping paper after the girls' birthdays since we haven't seen it since. Good news, though - we got a new camera so I'll attach a few pictures.
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| Finally a Canadian Citizen! |
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| We love her little afro. I had her hair in a bunch of box braids and I only had time to take them out so I left it as an afro for a few days. It's adorably cute but man do I pay for it after in the detangling process!! |
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| I LOVE my girls!! |
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| This was on the night of Arvid's Christmas party. We had a wonderful night being wined and dined - it was such a treat to get out and be spoiled! |
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