Saturday, November 29, 2008

I want it, I need it, I have to have it

I had told myself that I would NOT go shopping on Black Friday. I really meant it.

If not for the sake of our limited budget, then, definitely for the sake of my lumbering pregnant body. But I could not get the woes of my sock drawer out of my head. I really needed new socks that didn't have holes in them or were thinning and that I could wear to a friend's house and not feel utterly embarassed when I removed my shoes.
So, I got up on the dreadful day of shopping and went shopping. Yes, for socks.

I took my time, didn't rush, didn't get to the sale until 8:30 am. Memories of crazy agitated ladies jamming their carts into my legs flashed through my head. But I was pleasantly suprised that people were pleasant and cordial and polite. The crowd began increasing around 10 am because the end of the sale was near. That's when I took my tired rear and got out of there. With more than just socks ;-D.

When I read about this story at Wal Mart (which, by now you've probably heard a dozen times), I was incredulous. Hey, I'm all for saving a few bucks! Especially if one is trying to be wise and budget saavy. I went out to buy half-priced socks anyway. But, really? Why would someone not stop if they saw a person being trampled to their death? God, save us all. What is Christmas anyway? An orgy of spending and getting to make us happy for one fleeting moment?

I could be disappointed that we don't have much extra money to spend on gifts this year, but actually I'm not. Maybe this year we'll finally let the truth of that Blessed babe's birth sink in deep.


A few weeks ago, we received a toy catalogue in the mail. I put it aside for Gracie to browse, reminiscing about my childhood when I would pour over those pages for hours, dreaming about all the new toys I could have. Of course, Grace was thrilled and even went so far as to mark the pages of things she liked. But then a day went by, and two and three, and I noticed that she was carrying the catalogue around with her and looking through it 3+ times a day. "Hmmm, maybe that wasn't such a grand idea of mine" I thought. I debated what to do. Do I give her a big lecture on wanting and greed and lust for what we don't have? Do I just sneakily throw it away when she's asleep? Do I just ignore what I see? But isn't what I see an indicator of what may be in her heart? It's in my heart too.

The same day we received the toy catalogue, we received a World Vision catalogue. It's pages are full of children and testimonies and animals, clothing, water, etc. that you can purchase for families. I had the brilliant (or divinely inspired) idea to sit down with Grace and read through it with her. We talked about those children and what kind of toys they played with. We talked about how many toys we have. Now she is excited that we are going to spend $30 and send a family 5 ducks. We may spend more and send some soccer balls and care for orphans.

Of course, we will still thoroughly enjoy our girls' faces lighting up when they open their gifts on Christmas day, but my prayer is that the getting wouldn't be the goal. May the Light of the world be evident in our homes this year.


~ christa jean


P.S. My husband suggested that we should name our baby boy Jesus if we give birth on Christmas day. What do you think?





Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A new little person to bless the world

Introducing...
~ Jackzen Rian Vidan ~

Born November 20th
He was a whopping 8lbs, 8oz.!
Beautiful in every way.

I've been busy being an auntie, swaddler, diaper changer, lactation consultant, house cleaner, organizer, and lots of other fun duties!

WHEW!

I'm super tired, super sore, feeling sick, and have the biggest dose of pregnancy brain ever. I can hardly remember the last thing that came out of my mouth, but whatever it was, I'm sure I said it out loud so that I could remember not to forget it! HA!








Babies are such a miracle. I will never outgrow the feelings of awe.

~ christa jean

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Belly Mamas

WE'RE LARGE AND WE'RE IN CHARGE!!!
















And we're hungry!

Ah, the adventures of crazy pregnant women.

We love our bellies for the miracle of life on the inside, yet despise those same bellies for all the trauma they put us through.

FIE on you, Heartburn and Cankles!

We will survive, though! Send us some prayers.
*My sister's water broke today, around 5pm. Please do pray!*


~ christa jean

Nine Years of Lovin'

Today we celebrate 9 years together!
We've come a long way from those crazy honeymooning days.
Our love is deeper now.
It withstands life's hiccups. It grows stronger through weak times.
We have seen each other at our worst and chosen to love still.
Now, here we are, 9 years along the road, 3 pretty daughters, 1 babe in heaven, 1 boy child about to show up, doing our best to follow Jesus as He leads us to our real Home.



On our honeymoon in Disneyland!


This past Saturday we decided to go out and goof around town together. I mean it when I say goof, because that's what we are now, quite a pair.
We began our Anniversary Festivities with the most romantic and exciting stop... Target. We stopped in to pick up some diapers candles and maternity lingerie... ahahahaha! Our next stop was really special ~ the Post Office.
Then we headed over to one of our favourite places in the area, Bridgeport Village.
I am extremely fortunate to have a man who loves decorating and home improvement projects. He also likes to shop with me, and what better fun than browsing at Z Gallerie and dreaming about material things?

Sharing a plush bed with a mountain goat.


I lust after this green velvet couch set. Green with envy for sure!


Hubby decided I needed an upgrade on my diamond ring. I chose this size.


Ho ho ho, my posh new earring line.



Perfectly fitting for the Christmas King.

Then it was time for the anticipated event...
A 30 minute couple's massage at the Coldwater Creek Spa.

The attendant leads you through a door, past water trickling, a passageway to relaxation. You are robed and slippered and taken to the Relax Room. Sink into the luxuriant chair while warm wraps encircle your neck. Slip your feet into a eucalyptus soak, sip your delicious mint tea with a hint of chocolate.




















Now, this is where it gets comical. One of us, who will remain un-named, understood the attendant to say it's more unhindering to be nude under the robe, while the other understood her to say choose for yourself which is more comfortable. So, as we entered the massage room and were given instructions to remove our robes, crawl under the down blankets while the massage therapists step out to ready themselves, the giggles broke loose. We could barely stifle the laughter when they returned and the soothing music began.

I kept hearing my husband talking throughout the massage. Bits and pieces of his words kept floating over to me, things like "my back's a minefield" and "you're finding all the owie spots" and "Hey babe, how's it going?" I mumbled something through my drool and thought, he must be nervous or something.
Then I couldn't stop thinking... it is really hard to quiet your mind! I had to tell myself a few times to desist from composing blog posts in my head! Stop already, sheesh! And then the dreaded heartburn decided to make it's appearance and the baby starts to hiccup and kick my ribs... well, at least the first 20 minutes were great.

We were led back to the Relax Room for more tea and neck wraps.
I highly recommend this spa. I have had a pedicure and a massage now, and they were worth every penny! I would go back this week if I could... it's that good.
They gave me a thousand dollars to say that. ;-D


By this time we were famished and drove to Outback Steakhouse to feast. We were given a $50 gift card to this restaurant and free babysitting, all from our lovely babysitter. She really is a considerate and giving gal. What a dear!
I wouldn't say we were totally impressed by their food, but it wasn't bad and it was free!


We concluded our evening by catching a video at home, during which I promptly fell asleep on the couch. The perfect ending to a romantic evening!
Next year I won't be pregnant and maybe we'll be sailing on the French Riviera!
Wherever we end up, we'll be one more year in love.
~ christa jean

Monday, November 17, 2008

Pantry Raid!!!

My ingenius friend Tiffany came up with the idea to do a before and after showing of our pantries (not panties). This, of course, causing us who wanted to play along to have to clean up our pantries!

Luckily for me (or not so luckily), I don't have a true pantry in my house. Those items that would look lovely in a pantry, are all spread about in different nooks and crannies.

Also luckily for me is the fact that my house has to be extra specially clean and organized right now, due to it being on the market and people calling to walk through at any moment. I have to assume that those very people will open my cupboard doors and medicine cabinets and look in my closets to see what they can see, right? So, I went crazy organizing about a month and a half ago and now my cupboards and "faux" pantry look great!

Here are my after pictures...

This is out in my laundry room. I love these shelves! I store most of my hospitality goods out here, not a lot of food items. Although, I do have some bulk items in that little closet, like a huge bag of dried organic dandelion leaves that I don't even know why I bought and don't know what to do with now. I'm sure it was for some home remedy that I was going to brew up (cackle, cackle).




This cupboard is in my kitchen and looks mostly nice. Every time I go to IKEA or the Container Store, I want to spend loads of money on canisters and bins to make it look even nicer! I loved how Kathi's cereal bins looked in her pantry, she found those at Winco. I have another small cupboard for more spices and another cupboard with cooking/baking items in it. Oh, and that one other cupboard with snacks... I didn't want you to see that one, because it is empty of food and full of candy from the Harvest Party!




Here is a look into my tea and coffee cupboard. Ugh! I despise the insides of my cupboards (built in the 70's), but the outsides are a nice creamy yellow. What I really wanted you to see are the new tea containers I found at IKEA. I love them!!! I used to have a little tea display box for when guests came over, but it only fit a small amount of tea bags and then this cupboard would be full of the leftover teas in their boxes, flying out at me every time I opened the door. I may need to get a couple more of these boxes, because I was out of my favourite teas when I filled these.

Here is the closeup look of these little bins. Love em!

And that concludes the tour of my "faux" pantry for today.

Thanks to Tiff for hosting the Pantry Raid!

~christa jean

Thursday, November 13, 2008

And the Winner is...

WoW! Look at all my participants! ;-D
Did you feel like you were in a fishbowl this morning?!

Here is Grace, ready to draw that winning number!

Drumroll, please....
WOOHOO! Commenter #1 ~ K'LYN !!!!
Who says #1 never gets picked?!

Now, let me know which earrings tickle your fancy and I will deliver!
Thanks to all who played with me and said such nice things.
I *heart* comments!
And I *heart* you!

Have a joyful day!

~ christa jean




Monday, November 10, 2008

Happy 100 to me!

To celebrate my 100th post and all the fame I've received (har har, snort!), I am holding my very first contest!

Aren't ya sooo excited, ecstatic, elated?!!
Aren't I so silly? I love finding adjectives that begin with the same letter! And I really love ending my sentences with exclamation points!!!

Okay, there was that one other contest, but I was partnering with my "fairy blogmother" as she is so rightly named. Speaking of that gal, I owe much thanks to Darcy over at Graphically Designing for the transformation of my previously blah blog into this hip and fashionable space! She's become so famous now, I can hardly keep up with her! But, I got to shmooze with her and tell her she rocks and she never once made me feel like an imbecile even when I revealed my computer un-savviness to her.

Sooooo... what is the prize, you wonder?
What better to bestow upon you than a very special piece of gorgeousness from my Collection of jewels! And, because I'm so nice, I'm giving you a choice between delicate gold with Swarovski crystals and grape cubic zirconia orrrrrrr dainty silver with blue chalcedony drops and mini crystals.

















How are you going to win, you wonder?
By leaving me loads of comment lovin'! And that means even YOU, you lurkers out there who read about my life and never say a bloomin' thing! You must like me if you keep coming back... so, tell me! ;-D Even if it's as simple as, "Hi, you're cool".
And, no, you don't have to have a Google account to comment on my blog, just sign in as "Anonymous", but don't really be anon, at least sign your name, or I'm not sure how you'll win.

The contest will end Wednesday the 12th at midnight (PST), at which time some random generator (or my 6 year old) will choose from the list of commenters! I will post the winner Thursday the 13th and then said winner and I will work out the delivery of goods details.

Are you game?!!! Let's do this!
Now go show me some lovin'! ;-D
~ christa jean

Friday, November 7, 2008

My cup overfloweth

When we lost our baby in February, we were met with such an astounding amount of support. People brought us meals, gave us money, gift cards, flowers and more. My heart still wells up with gratitude when I think of the love and generosity shown to us during that sorrowful time.

Now, it has been over 3 months that my husband has been unemployed. This is the longest amount of time he has ever been out of work and believe me when I say, men need to be the providers. It is innate in their being. When there is no job to include in his identity, who is he? It is easier, at these times, to believe the lies that come sneaking in... lies that whisper "You're no good, you have a poor work ethic, what a failure you are, what a loser of a man."

Thankfully, by the grace of God, we know the truth and the truth sets us free to believe in something greater. A greater plan. A deeper knowing. A calmer abiding.
A broader horizon. A stronger trust. A truer faith. A sweeter love.

There has been such a stripping away of all the junk, a deep cleaning in our minds and the beauty is that we are sharing in it together. Our need has driven us to our knees each morning in prayer together. After desiring this to happen for years and years, now it finally has... hm, funny the way it had to happen.

While this has been such a stretching, stressful, trying time, I would not trade it or wish it away.
In fact, my heart overflows with gratitude at the Lord's dealings.

Does not the shaking come so that the gold may shine forth?

I cannot conclude this without mentioning the support we have had once again this year... I just shake my head when I ponder it all.

~ Numerous meals have been brought to us
~ Bags and boxes of groceries left for us
~ Almost every other Sunday, someone hands us a check
~ Gift cards, movie tickets, free babysitting
~ Prayer and encouragement and loads of it!

A bounty of organic produce from our neighbors!!! What a treat!


My cup truly does overfloweth.
I shall not be in want.

"I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread."
~ Psalm 37:25 ~
~ christa jean