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::Andrea's Rambling Notes - once from Japan, now from Canada::
::Author::  Name::Andrea From::Small city/town, B.C., Canada I am a short girl from the west cost of BC, Canada and I am a proud Canadian. I went to Japan in 2000 because my Dad told me I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't. He was right. I lived a good life found my husband from the other side of the world and have a beautiful daughter. Basically we lead a pretty normal life filled with normal ups and downs. We both come from different cultures: me Canadian, him Chinese. Living in Japan was a real eye opener about who I am and about the people I associate myself with. I lived and loved in Japan but the time to move on came upon us and in May of 2006 we left and moved to Canada: a huge move for us all. We are now trying to start up again, remodel our lives and create our future for our family. I now feel like a tourist in the country of my birth, my eyes see different and my life will be forever changed. This blog is my notes and observations of our life, our changes, our adventures and new beginnings. Welcome. View my complete 
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Saturday, November 07, 2009 Movies Lill'Miss had her H1N! Shot yesterday. She was a total star. The nurse looked at her all funny than looked at me – "umm she is really good." She didn't flinch scream or cry. I was so proud of her. I get mine next week if I can make an appointment.
She is watching "The Princess Bride" right now. I love that movie!! I am so happy she enjoys it too. I just found "The Never Ending Story 1 and 2" at Price Smart Foods of all places. YAAA!! Now yesterday we watched a brilliant movie. I really enjoyed it. The Wind in the Willows – but with real people not cartoons. The Badger was Bob Hopkins. It was brilliant!!! I enjoyed every minute of it and Lill'Miss was giggling right along with me.
K got to get her to brush her teeth so we can go and get hub from work. Sigh. Late nights. Yuck. Now for your viewing pleasure I found these and OMG I could not stop giggling the entire time!!!! Labels: in my spare time (hahaha)
Posted by (Top)Andrea::11/07/2009 ::
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Skating Queen Lill'Miss is skating SOOOO much better!! She was skating so so earlier in the year but it is amazing what a summer can go for development. Today she graduated up to the bigger kids group which she held her own very well for most of it and then fell hard on her tail bone and was pretty miserable the last 15 minutes but she finished. That and too much sugar last night. AUGH. But she is skating so well now. It is brilliant. She does not have to be a figure skating star – we just want her to be able to feel confident to put on a pair of skating and take off with her friends and have fun whether that is ice skating or roller bladeing. You see I cant do either and it sucks. I wish I could but I have reached that point in my life where I know that I can hurt myself and I don't heal as fast as I used to. Knowing that can really hold you back.
Posted by (Top)Andrea::11/01/2009 ::
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 Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Technorati Tags: [learning to skate] Labels: Lill'Miss
Posted by (Top)Andrea::11/01/2009 ::
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Lill'Miss was Snow White this year. She looked so cute. She got to wear her costume to school on Friday – which she thought was WAY cool. Then yesterday while she was out playing with Grandma and Grandpa J I decorated the front porch with spiders and the pumpkins Lill'Miss and I had carved the other day. Lill'Miss actually carved the one. She cut it and everything. Where I grew up it was country – there were no trick-or-treaters out our way. We drove to town to go trick-or-treating. So we never decorated. Well we live in a townhouse complex and all the country kids drove out to our place now. I am making up for lost years by decorating and always having candy for the kids. I enjoy it a lot!!! I think my mother is enjoying it as well. The last couple of years she comes over and looks after handing out the candy while I take Lill'Miss around. Well this year mom decided to have a bit of fun. HAHAHAHA She came with this long black blanket and hid behind the end of the porch and was wearing black gloves. We turned all the lights off in the house but the pumpkins were all out and lit. Then we left the front door cracked open a little bit. Mom had bought this Spooky Halloween Recipe book the other day and it had a spooky sounds CD inside. Well the sounds freaked out Lill'Miss but they made my mom and I wring our hands with glee. We turned that CD on set to repeat and had the sound cranked. Unsuspecting kids walked up the stairs and would knock on the door – then my mom would sneak out her black hands from behind them and scare the crap out of them. Then give them some candy. Mom did that for over an hour and she had fun.
Posted by (Top)Andrea::11/01/2009 ::
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 Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Technorati Tags: [Halloween 2009] Labels: holiday time
Posted by (Top)Andrea::11/01/2009 ::
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Fireplace Below is our new flat screen fireplace that we just got. We love it!! We put it in the TV room in the basement. It is awesome. Even has fancy mood lighting. LOL
Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/30/2009 ::
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 Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/30/2009 ::
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Photos below You see our new office with the floor not finished yet. I need to hang my pictures to make the walls more friendly.
And the other picture is crazy Lill' Miss with a cut upper lip. Didnt bleed too long but she insisted on a Band-Aid. She refused to tell me how she cut it as she did it in the bathtub and was obviously doing something she should not.
Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/29/2009 ::
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 Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/29/2009 ::
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 Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/29/2009 ::
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I finally have internet on my computer in the basement!! Yaa!! No more fighting with hubby over the computer. No more dealing with 90%of the computer being in Chinese. AUGH! Brilliant! I am now waiting for like – forever – for Norton Antivirus to download so I have that peace of mind.
Lets see – update So far we are all healthy – knock on wood – I felt crappy this morning with quite a headache but I popped some Motrin and went to Booster Juice for a fruity drink and a shot of Matcha and I felt TONS better after lunch. Hubby driving update – ugh – not good – he has failed 4 times now and the last two times he has failed for very crappy questionable reasons – eg: stopped too quickly at a yellow light. UMMM you will fail him if he goes through the light!!!! AUGH. Needless to say he is pretty pissy about it but we will keep trying. Sigh. Lill' Miss is in the Strong Start program and she absolutely loves going to school. We are having her treat it really like school and she has to get her butt out of bed and go even if she is tired. She is learning some discipline that way. So many of the parents just show up when ever. I don't really like that. I know that not everyone can make it – it is extremely difficult to be there the whole time but we have made a commitment to it and we have found a way to work around it. We have noticed a difference in how she is socializing already. Even her teacher pointed it out the other day. It has been a very good experience for her. We are plugging right along with our basement. We finished the drywall on the walls in the bedroom and I spent a long time very very carefully sanding and resnading and fine tune mudding and it looks pretty good. It is all primed. We need to get the drop ceiling done before we can build the closets that we have in mind. Then we can paint etc. We picked the wall paper we are going to use as a feature wall above the head board. It is very pretty. We have an idea for the paint but not totally set on it yet. Now we just need some money. Lol Christmas is coming – augh!! Not ready at all for it. Haven't figured that out yet. I am going to try to blog more often now that I have internet on this computer. Too fun!! I am going to enjoy this!!!
Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/29/2009 ::
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not a good idea Helping your husband learn to drive - ya - not a good idea if you plan on staying married to the guy. Not smart. AUGH!! He failed on Monday - bombed big time. He claims he was nervous. He better pass on the next test cause I dont know how much more our relationship can take. Technorati Tags: [learning to drive] Labels: our life
Posted by (Top)Andrea::9/23/2009 ::
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I am still here - sort of. Hi It’s me. I am alive! I know April last post now September – pathetic I know. Who knows how long it will take me to actually post what I write on this page? What have we doing doing? Well what haven’t we been doing would be a little more like it!!? Let’s see….. May and June – planting tons of plants. My garden flourished and our back porch looks very pretty. We were working slowly away on the basement and last month we got my office area finished. In August Hub and the Little Miss went to China for two weeks to visit the grandparents out there. They had an absolute blast. Little Miss was spoiled rotten and went to all sorts of fun places. She also came back from China speaking full sentences and long conversations in Chinese. It is just amazing to listen to. She will turn to me and speak English and then turn to her daddy and start a whole conversation in Chinese. She also likes to translate for me. Quite wild. While they were in China I took off to LA for 3 days to visit my wonderful friend Janet. Janet and I met in Japan and I just love her to bits. I went to LA with no plans what so ever – I just wanted to be there and hang out with my friend. We had a blast!!! I even got to see Penny!! Haven't seen her in YEARS!! And due to the extreme heat wave in BC at that time LA was actually cooler than Canada!!! What is up with that?!?!?!?! I guess the biggest bit of news is that I didn’t bother waiting to be laid off work – I quit. They were kind enough to actually lay me off. The drive – 45 plus minutes there and then back every day was really starting to get to me. I was really dreading that drive every morning. I was getting home so late I was not picking up Little Miss from day care until 6pm. Supper didn’t happen until 7 and forget trying to do anything. Sigh. I started my own little secretarial type booking keeping business. I do mostly secretarial type of work for three clients and I am loving it. Basically all of my work is in Abbotsford but that is a very short drive away. I am usually finished by 3pm every day – sometimes earlier –and I have plenty of time to actually go home and start supper and do laundry and clean the house BEFORE I pick up my kid. I can bring her to swimming lessons at 4:30 twice a week now rather than try to fit it in on a Saturday. The money is less but the trade-offs are worth it right now. There is enough to pay the bills and that is all that matters at this moment in time. So ya Little Miss is in swimming again – which means some exercise for me and omg I am in desperate need – she starts karate next week and skating begins again in a week. I am going to look into some sort of music something for her next year as well. She is growing up into a little miss let me tell ya – she can be a snot sometimes. Ahh the f^^&*^&g fours!! I tell ya. Four going on 14!! AUGH!! And the really big news!! Hubby’s boss bought him a car – an automatic – thank god – so he started learning how to drive finally (my car is a standard - we tried and we are not going down that road again for a good long while) and he goes for his drivers test in two weeks. He did it once already but failed due to not enough shoulder checking. He is doing much better now and I really think he will pass. Today he drove to Langley and we went to this competition BBQ thing – not as exciting as I had hoped – and then drove around until I could find this Korean Supermarket I spotted once. FOUND IT!! Love it!! Going to be going there more often. Ten million times easier to drive to Langley to an Asian shop then all the way out to Richmond!! I guess I should take some photos and post them as well. I will work on that – promise – I do – really!!! Technorati Tags: [long time no talk - sorry] Labels: family outings, our life
Posted by (Top)Andrea::9/13/2009 ::
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Happy 6th Birthday It has been a very long time since I did a proper post. I could not have chosen a better day to finally post again – it is my blogs birthday today. Six Years Old!! WOW! I have been slack lately. I will make excuses to being busy, occupied elsewhere, enjoying my long hot baths too much, and recently the fan going on the computer. Actually it is gone right now and sounds terrible. The sides are off of it to prevent overheating. It goes to the doctor on Thursday.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Lets see where to begin. Most of our life has been centered on Miss Ji's activities, house renos and Island 22 Horse Park clean up. Miss Ji continued with her skating classes and became a star. She got really very good and very confident. She was starting to actually look like she was skating rather than walking on the ice. She was very proud of herself. She earned two badges from her skating teachers. She decided – she told us very loud and clearly – that she was ready to start karate again. So the dojo was offering a pre-school class starting last week. I took the morning off to bring her and she was excellent. She even wore her uniform with pride!! I would so proud of her. Today she went again – her Grandpa J brought her and she was just excellent again. She really likes it. Then Grandpa J and Grandma J brought her golfing. Yes my four year old has now officially started golfing. They bought her a set of golf clubs, not the plastic kind, real metal golf clubs with little golf socks covering them and a real carrier. They went to the driving range and then did some putting today. She was really great they said. She was standing properly and trying hard. She starts swimming lessons in a couple of weeks too. Busy girl! The swimming is more for me. When she has swimming lessons that is 30 minutes that I can actually swim by myself and do some exercise. My body is sorely lacking and in dire need. I even went so far as to buy a bathing suit from Victoria Secret. Eeek. A full piece by the way! No skimpy stuff for this gut! Then there is the house. Hmm Lots going on there. We currently have many projects on the go. We are working on putting trim and painting a new shelf for above our new side table.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Hubby has planned four shelves on our kitchen wall. Working on the trim and paint for that. I have discovered I SUCK at mitring. Just Suck.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing I have started painting my pantry doors with magnetic paint so I have somewhere to stick things. I had bought this cheap huge canvas print from Home Sense to use as a push pin board. I even glued the cork to the back but hubby saw the painting and really liked it so now it is hanging on the kitchen wall never to be used as a push pin board. I wont tell hubby that I pushed in a couple pins near the top as a test. Lalalalala. Work in the basement has been slow - one pay cheque at a time. We have finally got all the doors we need and I am almost finished the insulation. Now we need the drywall. I have been trying to revive many of my plants that did not make it through this cold winter. I have a big jug of mould killer for my poor camellia plant that got attacked by black mould. I have a good hour of cleaning there. I don't think my huge lovely rosemary is going to make it. I am going to give it a fighting chance though. All of my sage died and I am now seeding a bunch to start over again. My garden looks a little bare at the moment. Work has been crazy busy due to lay offs and all the work heading my way. I think my job is still safe for now. I am being watchful though. Hubby's job is doing great. Even through these supposedly hard times the restaurant where he works is packed. He has been guaranteed a job for five years as they just bought him a car (we pay all the other bills though) so that he can learn how to drive better and then have that freedom when he does get his license. Ok gotta go – Miss Ji needs a shower. I just downloaded a whole bunch of photos so I will come back and post them into this post for you. I pass this billboard every day on my way home - makes me chuckle every time.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
Posted by (Top)Andrea::4/14/2009 ::
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interesting video I dont know about the rest of you - but trying to wrap my head around the ins and outs of the credit crisis that hit the USA and in a ricochet wave effected us up here a bit, can give me a headache. My aunt sent my this link to a VERY INTERESTING and well done video explaining the credit crisis in layman terms. Worth check it out: A simple explanation of the credit crisis Technorati Tags: [credit headaches]
Posted by (Top)Andrea::2/28/2009 ::
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 Technorati Tags: [cute]
Posted by (Top)Andrea::2/28/2009 ::
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yucky white stuff My bulbs have been pushing through and my crocuses were showing some colour. I was considering removing my snow tires in a week or two AND THEN IT SNOWS!! And not a little oh no - a blasted blizzard!!! DAMN Ji had a great time with it though. I have a photo to post later of a snow man she and grandpa made yesterday. Hubby didnt come home last night. To get home both of us have to drive the hellish Sumas Flats. It is a terrifying section of the high way prone to tons of ice and white out conditions. I left work a couple of hours early and went though it in the daylight so it was okish. I have driven it when it was worse. What normally take 45odd minutes to get home took an hour and a half just to our carpooling spot. My back was sore last night from the tension. I do love my car. I didnt want hub coming home through that in the dark. NO WAY. He and his boss camped out at the bosses cousins last night. No probs. So I didnt leave for work till after 9 this morning as I had to get Ji to daycare and everything. Slid right through a stop sign on the way to daycare. About 4 inches (no exaggeration) of ice all over the roads. The little angels on my shoulders asked the guy stopped at the other sign to wait for me to do my side ways slide through. We waved at each other as my car slipped on bye. Then I slide through another sign onto a busy road after dropping of my kid. That one had me paniced. But the angels again made sure the road was clear for me. I am thanking all my good luck buddies today. It was a long very slow drive into work later this morning. We had no quames about driving 50 on the freeway. Hell even slower sometimes. In between Chilliwack and 200th street exit (a good long distance) we counted 46 I repeat 46 cars in the ditch. Nuts Plainly nuts!! Technorati Tags: [snow blaaas] Labels: our life
Posted by (Top)Andrea::2/26/2009 ::
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Finally a post – gotta catch up First my dearest daughter just got the bathroom floor soaking wet. AUGH! Life has been interesting. We started working on the basement's last room. We have two windows there now and 90% of the framing is up for a bedroom, office area and storage closet.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Hub wants to make this bedroom a very Japanese themed room. We will see. We are definitely planning on putting a lighter coloured bamboo floor in. It will look very nice. Keeping with the lighter colours and now with windows you won't realize that you are actually in a basement. We will move alone slowly as the pay cheques come in. But it is doing well so far. I bought myself a mannequin off of EBay. First thing I have ever bought from there and I can tell you that I have no plans to ever do it again anytime soon. I did not have a great experience with it. I did get my half mannequin though. I recently found a tall stool to set it on. The Kendo costume that I found at a recycle shop in Japan finally came out of its bag. I love it!!  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing The kendo stick was a present from my dear friend Fumiko when I left Japan. I found this seat box at the same store I found the stool. It is perfect in Ji's room to stuff some of her out of control toys into. Cleanliness in her bedroom is not a priority for her. Sigh. I do try.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing The quilt she got from her Grandpa and Granny for her birthday. It is covered in dragonflies. I love it.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing She got this jacket from her NaiNai's (Chinese grandma) boss of all people. I am actually a little jealous. It is a very nice coat.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Hub has been learning how to drive. He has been practicing mostly with my step-dad's massive Dodge Ram 3500. Kid you not!! It is an automatic so he finds it easier to drive then my little Toyota Echo because it is a standard. Sigh. He must learn though. He actually drove it quite well the other night. Not too bad with the shifts. The stop and starting in first is a little interesting still. Darling Ji says she doesn't like driving with daddy because he hurts her neck with all his jerkiness in first. Lol. He didn't find it funny. Soon though. I am watching darling Ji brush her hair. She has been learning how to brush it properly. She is growing so fast. I had a rough week a few weeks ago. I was a witness/person in the wrong place at a freaky time and it unsettled me. I learned a lot about myself and how I react in a pretty freaky incident and I am proud of myself. I was cool as a cucumber but shaking like a leaf. I shook on and off for a week. It still pops into my head every once and a while but I don't shake anymore and I am sleeping ok now. I had a rough week of sleep after it happened. Just could not turn the incident off in my mind. I am not going to go into it anymore than that. My family and close friends know what happened. It is not something I am going to put up here. I am going to share a lovely photo that a good friend of ours sent us. It is his wedding photo. Some of you who knew me in Japan might recognize this guy. Hub and I just love him. He is a wonderful person and we are both so incredibly happy that he has found someone special.  Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing Labels: our life, the new house
Posted by (Top)Andrea::2/20/2009 ::
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