Ikea Home

January 22, 2011

I wish I had pictures to show you the amazing stuff that went down today.

The four of us got up bright and early to get a head start on the day. We quickly moved out of our serviced apartment. After two weeks of living there, we were ready to get out of there and move into our own place. Then, we made the drive to Ikea. Once we got there, we decided to check out a bedding store first - to get our mattresses to sleep on that night. Those were our first priority.

Three hours later, we had our mattresses, pillows, mattress protectors, pillow protectors, quilts, quilt sets and bed sheets all picked out and ready to go.

Then, it was time for Ikea. Andrew had arranged for a couple of people he had met at church last week to help with our move. They had offered to assist us with their trailer. Boy were we lucky we had them. All the furniture we had picked out filled the three vehicles we had there, plus their trailer. The mattresses even had to be piled on top of someone's van.

Once our huge load of furniture arrived at our unit, they all got to work and assembled all our furniture for us and within hours, our home was ready for us to live in. We didn't even have to ask. They just went ahead and did all the work.

We're so incredibly blessed to have this group of people. God definitely went ahead of us and prepared all these willing and resourceful people for us.

How else would you explain a group of strangers, some who you haven't even met, who are prepared to drive a fair distance to Ikea, wait while you find all your pieces of furniture, wait in line with you, and wait some more as you try repeatedly to pay with a credit card that isn't working for some reason, offer to use their credit card to pay for all the furniture you picked out, load all the furniture you picked out onto their cars, drive to your place, assemble all the furniture without asking for help, go out to pick up food for dinner, pay for that dinner, wash all your dishes so you have something to eat dinner on and wash all the dishes again afterward, and still offer to help you again tomorrow to move a fridge?

And on top of all that, they had originally offered to let us stay at their place for the night in case our mattresses weren't ready or our place wasn't ready to stay in.

We are so blessed. And we're definitely not alone.

The Night Before The Move

January 2, 2011

Our bags are all packed, repacked and ready to go.

Our boys are fast asleep.

So why is my mind still going a mile-a-minute even though my body is so tired?

Looking Back On 2010

December 31, 2010

At the beginning of 2010, I was filled with so much hope and positive energy. I knew this was going to be an amazing year and boy was I right. Our family has so much to be thankful for. We've reached so many different milestones and made so many wonderful memories. Here's a quick recap of our top moments of this past year.


Nathan learned how to ski!
This was important for both Andrew and I. Andrew's family likes to ski a lot and it was nice that Nathan could learn how to ski so he could participate along with them. It was important to me because unlike Andrew, I am horrible at skiing (and most other physical activities) and I know how much it sucks to be the one who's left out so I was glad that Nathan could pick it up so quickly. Nathan absolutely loves it and it's good exercise!

I finished school… again!
After graduating from UW, I still didn't know exactly what I was going to do with my life so I decided to take more school. Autism and Behavioural Sciences at Seneca to be exact. It was a lot different from UW courses and it was a challenge to balance school and home life to say the least. But after about a year an a half, I finally completed the program and received my certificate.

I got a real job!
The program I did required me to do field placements. Lucky for me, my final field placement lead me straight to my first real job. I was blessed enough to be hired on right away, and be put on a team with the most friendly and easy-going therapists at the centre. I really enjoyed my time there and I'll miss my work friends so much.

Nathan's week-long birthday celebration!
We knew we'd be trying for our second child and Nathan's fourth birthday would likely be his last as an only child so we decided to make a big deal out of it. Taking Nathan to Disney and Cocoa Beach (which turned out to be his favourite part) for a week was fantastic because right when we got back, we found out we were pregnant!

Andrew got into medical school!
This opportunity is something we've been waiting a long time for. When we received Andrew's acceptance letter, we knew it would be a big change for our entire family and that it would be a long and hard road ahead of us, but it was something we wanted to pursue.

We decided to move to Australia!
This pretty much goes hand-in-hand with Andrew getting into med school. It's going to be a big move and we've been preparing for it since June. We're finally counting down the days until the move and it's going to be a

Caleb was born!
On December 8, a healthy and happy Caleb Tsoi joined our family and Nathan's big wish was granted. He had been asking for a brother or a sister for a very long time now and after finding out he was going to get one, he waited very patiently for baby to come out of mommy's tummy. And now that Caleb's finally here, Nathan's being an awesome big brother to Caleb.

Moving out!
Our condo was the first place we've had to call our own and moving out of it is just as big of a deal as moving into it was. I had started my maternity leave a little early so I could get some packing done before Caleb's arrival. But my pregnant body was moving much slower than my brain wanted it to and by the time Andrew was finished work, we were so focused on Caleb's arrival. When moving day finally arrived, it took my dad and sister, Andrew's dad and us (when we didn't have to tend to our children) to pack up and move all our stuff out. I will definitely miss our first home, but not until my body stops aching from the 5-month-long packing marathon we just completed.


2010 was a huge year for us, for sure. But we're looking forward to what 2011 has in store for us.

Slow Down, Week, Slow Down.

December 13, 2010

I'm pretty sure no one ever wishes for a week to go by slowly, especially not the week before Christmas holidays begin.

But I'm wishing for this week to go by slowly. For many reasons.

1. This is Nathan's very last week at his first school ever.
My (not-so) baby boy looked like this when he first started:


And now he's like this:


He started off not knowing any other kids, really. And now he's a social butterfly.
He started off knowing just his letters and numbers. And now he's reading everything he can get his hands on. And writing!
He started off quiet and shy. And now, he's developed his own opinion and not afraid to share it.

Nathan has grown so much over the past two years, and a whole lot of it was due to his teachers and the environment they create at his school. I'm going to miss all the things he gets to enjoy there and all the ways they help him challenge himself.

And where else will you find teachers who give gifts to a student's family when they have a new baby? Because that's what they did for us and I was so touched by their gesture. Nathan's teachers have helped him grow so much these past two years. I'm probably going to miss his school so much more than Nathan will.


2. I'm not ready for Christmas
I know it's like Christmas has been "around us" since Halloween ended and I agree that I've been bombarded with Christmas advertising and Christmas music for a while now, but I'm not ready.

This year, we decided it would be best if we didn't put the Christmas tree up. With Caleb arriving and us departing soon after Christmas, it just didn't make sense to put ourselves through all that stress. But now, our home is lacking the warm glow of a Christmas tree we normally have around this time of year and we don't have anywhere to put our gifts! (And now, as I'm writing this, I'm feeling rather guilty that we aren't putting more effort into Caleb's first Christmas!)

With all the chaos of packing up all our belongings, making sure all our luggage isn't overweight, and the arrival of Caleb, I haven't had a chance to prepare myself for Christmas.


3. This is the last week before all the Christmas craziness begins.
It almost feels like we're on a roller coaster. This week is the slow climb up to the top of a big hill, and once we go over it, we'll be thrown into the crazy loops of one Christmas party after another.

We're just barely figuring out who Caleb is, and like our good friends have been telling us all along, having two kids is completely different from having just one. It's a lot more time management and a lot more energy. Especially when it comes to getting ready to go out, being out and judging when it's time to come home.

I want to be able to take it easy and savour my time with the boys this holiday season. I love the warmth of Christmas time and I'm hoping all the rush of the season won't take away from us enjoying it.

I especially want to enjoy it this year because at the end of this roller coaster ride, well, it's the end. And we'll be off to Australia.


4. I'm not ready for Australia.
There. I said it.

I think this whole time, I've been going through the motions of getting ready for Australia - getting all the paperwork done, packing up our things, making sure we only bring what we can afford to bring, but I haven't really got it in my head that we're moving our little family to the other side of the world!

And to make matters a little more difficult, we haven't completely finished packing everything up, we have a lot more paperwork to go through, and we don't have very much time before the offices close for the holidays.

Help.

Good People

June 23, 2008

In the midst of all the constant exposure to the over-commercialization of the wedding industry, the idea of people being like vultures, ready to strip us of all our money has settled in the back of my mind. I've lost sight of the fact that there are good people in this world.

These thoughts paralyze me. I am paranoid of every question asked of me. Are they trying to say something else? Does each coffee date have a hidden agenda?

But over the past few days, I have been graced with the presence of a few people who have reminded me that there are good people in the world.

The first was a perfect stranger. I had "met" her on the internet and we had agreed to meet up so I could see, and possibly buy a flower girl dress. On a trip from Thunder Bay, she agreed to meet up in Toronto at her hotel to save me shipping costs. Then, she welcomed all five of us into her hotel room so the flower girl could try the dress on in front of a full length mirror. And let's just say our stay wasn't exactly the shortest, but she was patient with us anyway.

The second was the flower girl's mom. She is just an amazing person who finds joy in everything. Seriously. We decided to have a play date for Nathan and our flower girl and met up at a park near our home. From the second we got there, she couldn't stop saying good things about the park. And it's only a park!

And the third (this is when my senses kicked in), was one of my bridesmaids. She asked me out on a coffee date and all I could think of was that maybe she had something she wanted to talk about. I fired question after question, trying to find out what exactly she wanted to get together for. In the end, she assured me that I was just paranoid and there was no need for me to mentally prepare myself. It was simply a coffee date to catch up.

Am I the only one who had so little faith in the human race?

Drown Out The Noise

November 27, 2007

It's around that time again - crunch time, the homestretch. Whatever you want to call it, it's here. And it's around this time when everyone's wound up tight, anxious about exams and intolerant of mistakes and distractions. It is now when the walls seem too thin, people talk too loud, walks seem too long and campus study spaces are just too few.

I was catching up on some lectures the other night and one of them was Social Psychology and Health. Part of the lecture looked at stress and how different amounts of stress affect health. Studies have shown that a constant stress from a roommate (or someone you see everyday) has been found to have a much more detrimental effect on mental and physical health than a more profound, but transient stress. I didn't really believe it at first - how can something like an nagging roommate be more stressful than something like a loved one dying? I mean, most of the time you can just deal with those little annoying things and brush them aside, but losing a loved one isn't something you can just get over.

But apparently that's not the case. The constant stress breaks down our systems (makes sense - it's like a repetitive use injury almost). So get rid of all those little annoyances, people, or they'll get rid of you!