Small Group

Jay and I have been part of a small group for the last five years. For those who don't come from a church background a small group is just that. A small group (I would say no more than 10 people) who gather together once a week (or possibly more, or less) and get to know each other, pray together, study the Bible and partake in delicious snacks (well maybe a little less delicious without Lyn's snacks, haha).

Over the five years our group has entirely changed. We started out with one group of people, then when we heard some friends were looking for some group members we decided to join that group about three years ago. Since then we have had a few steady group members and seen some others come and go from the group. I think it's just the nature of the small group. Especially a small group of people who are in the age bracket that we are in. There are a lot of people who are starting families or whose work situation is such that they don't always have the same evenings of the week free.

Looks like this year we will be starting nearly from scratch (us and one other couple will stay the same). It's definitely nice when you get comfortable with a group of individuals and can share your hurts and joys with people who will comfort or celebrate with you. Not that 'new' friends won't do that, but there is a certain comfort with people you know. That being said, I am kind of excited/anxious/curious to see who we will find in our small group this year. We have made some great new friends in the last couple of years in our small group and I look forward to making more new friends. I am not exactly sure when we will start up small group for the year, but I am looking forward to it.

Our yard

I took a few pictures of our backyard today. I posted them to a facebook album and if you click on the link below you should be able to see them.

Pictures of our Yard

I am quite pleased with how our yard looks. It is a nice place to hang out :)

The Perfect Meal

If I were going to have the perfect Chinese food meal I would have to go to a few different restaurants. It is a shame that we can't get all our favorite dishes at the same restaurant. Until recently our favorite Chinese restaurant was Genesis. We are always looking for good Chinese food that does not have MSG in it. Genesis does not use MSG. My sister and her husband also look for MSG free restaurants because my bro-in-law gets migraines. They recommended the Tsui King Lau restaurant for Mother's day and we quite enjoyed it.

I think my perfect Chinese/Asian meal would include:
ginger beef from the Tsui King Lau (TKL)
shanghai noodles from Genesis
Peking sweet and sour pork from Genesis
salad rolls (I haven't had any spectacular ones in Saskatoon, but have had some awesome ones at a couple of Vietnamese restaurants in Calgary)
Vegetarian or California sushi rolls from the Samurai

That would probably be enough food for one meal, haha. But I really like the ginger beef at TKL restaurant. They actually use nice tender beef and fry it up crispy and then the sauce is quite unique. Most ginger beef I have had at other places, the sauce was pretty much just a sweet and sour sauce with a bit of ginger in it and the beef is sort of chewy. This one is quite a bit different in my opinion. However I don't recommend the lemon chicken at TKL. My nephews love it, so we ordered it when we went there for mother's day. I am pretty sure they make their sauce with Sheriff brand lemon pie filling mix. That's what it tastes like. I love lemon pie, but not so much lemon pie with breaded fried chicken it.

Two Costcos? Haha Costcos

Last week I went to the nearest insurance place to get a package policy for the new car. When I was chatting with the young man who was telling me about the different packages to choose from he asked if I had heard about all the different stores that would be opening up in the Stonegate development in the next couple of years. I said, no please enlighten me. I wasn't sure how he knew these things so I was pretty skeptical. He said there will be a World Gym opening up in 2010 (which I knew about), ANOTHER Boston Pizza opening up near the World Gym (do we really need 5 of them in the city?!), then he said we were getting a second Earl's restaurant (not sure I believe it) and finally he said he had heard that Costco had bought some land out here and would be building in a couple of years. I have a hard time believing that, though I do think that Saskatoon could support two Costco stores (Calgary only has 2 Costcos!).

Sidenote: When I was in massage school I had a friend who would call Costco, Costco's. I corrected her once, and she seemed quite put out with me. So now Jason and I always call it Costco's and laugh.

Today I decided to look online and see what I could find. I went to the Smart Centres website and was pleased to see that we are indeed supposed to be getting an Earl's restaurant out here, right next to Tony Roma's. I was also interested to see that they are supposed to be building a Shoe Company store next to Golf Town. The Costco is still up in the air. However I read on the News Talk 650 website this morning that they will be expanding the Stonegate Walmart into a super centre by March of next year. So I guess that takes care of the problem of no grocery store out here. Though, honestly, I think I would rather drive a little further to avoid supporting Walmart. I think they will be handy for 'emergency' groceries, but definitely not day to day purchases.

I have to say I had no idea how many businesses would pop up around us out here. I sure appreciate having access to these stores though.

Uninspired

That's how I have been feeling lately in regards to this blog. I just feel like the little snippets I have to say are not so interesting that someone might want to read them. Life has been going on. Nothing too terribly exciting in our lives.

I am enjoying the car a lot! I was rather disappointed that Jay was unable to get into the passenger seat when he tried on Saturday. It's not his fault, but we were both very much looking forward to me taking Jay for a ride, but a four door car just doesn't have the necessary room he needs to get in. I finally get a car with doors that open nice and wide but now the frame between the front and back doors is in the way. I wish I were a super woman and could just pick him up and throw him in the seat. But we would probably both end up on the ground. Me with a back strain and Jay with a bruised tailbone, or a concussion or something worse. I guess we'll just have to let Jay do the driving for the two of us.

My aunt had surgery the other day to remove a tumor from her colon. She was diagnosed with the tumor a few months ago and has gone through a round of radiation and chemotherapy. Next step was the surgery, and once she has healed up from that it's round two of chemo. This time it's a stronger dose so she will lose her hair and will probably be more sick than she was the first time around. The surgery was a success, they figure they got all the cancer removed, however they had to remove enough of her colon that she will have a colostomy bag for the rest of her life. She is in her mid 70s. Quite a life change but we are just all so glad the cancer had not spread further than it did.

Cancer is such a horrible disease. It scares the heck out of me and I know it runs in my family. My grandpa died of cancer and my dad's oldest sister died of cancer. Now the second oldest in my dad's family has cancer. I think of my dad who has smoked for at least 40 years, and at times probably close to two or three packs a day. I just can't imagine not quitting smoking with a track record like that in my family. But I have never smoked, I do not know how hard it is to quit. I am not going to live my life in fear of cancer, not going to go to what I would consider unnatural lengths to avoid it. But something as well known to be carcinogenic as cigarette smoke, I will do what I can to avoid.

My very first filling

I got the first filling of my life last night. I was at the dentist in July for a cleaning and they had been keeping an eye on a spot on my tooth for a year or so and decided it should be filled, even though it was still a fairly small cavity. I am glad that I am 28 and have never had a cavity. I think I owe that fact to good genetics more than anything. I have been told that some people have more acidic saliva and get more cavities and some people have more alkaline saliva and tend to get more tartar buildup. I think I fall into the second category. I have always brushed my teeth regularly but have have been a sporadic flosser. I usually will floss for a few weeks after I go for a cleaning, then usually only when I get something stuck in my teeth that I can't get out with a toothbrush. I should really floss regularly, but I suppose I just get lazy with it.

My filling wasn't a terrible experience. I have only ever been frozen in my mouth one other time and that was to get my wisdom teeth out. I had all four extracted at once, but they were all through the gums so it wasn't dental surgery and I didn't swell or bruise. I had quite a positive experience with my wisdom teeth removal. But it was quite weird having my entire mouth frozen. My filling was in a top tooth on the right side. When they freeze the top of your mouth it is much more localized than on the bottom. The dentist even used some gel to numb the gums before she stuck me with the needle so it wasn't too bad at all. I felt quite numb so she started drilling. Suddenly I felt something that felt like a bad sensitive tooth attack. It wasn't unbearable but I didn't think I should feel anything so I made a grunt (the best I could do with the rubber shield and apparatus to hold my mouth open). She added a little more freezing and gave me a few minutes for it to take effect. Then back to the drilling. I would say it felt the same, like a bad sensitive tooth while she was drilling. I just assumed that maybe that's what it was supposed to feel like since she had already given me two shots of freezing. So I wrung my hands and endured a few minutes of the drilling then the filling part was a piece of cake. I honestly thought I might feel more pain once the freezing came out last night but it felt just fine. I have found today that every now and again I get a little pang of sensitive tooth pain, but it is fairly minor. My jaw is a little sore from having it propped open, and my gum is a little tender where I got the needle. I hope that I am able to take good care of my teeth so that I will never need any major dental work.

On another note, we are going to try one of our kohlrabies for supper. We grew tomatoes, kohlrabies and cilantro this year. We only managed to get four kohlrabies to actually grow. Two have gotten to a reasonable size and two are quite small yet. We have a good crop of tomatoes but they are all still very green, and the cilantro is two feet tall. We have used some in our cooking throughout the summer. I love cilantro! I think next year we should try a few different herbs. Maybe some basil or oregano.

Bye bye Wii

If you have followed my blog since last October you will know that after getting a taste for playing Wii I begged Jason to get one as my early Christmas gift. He of course gave me his blessing to buy one (who wouldn't want to be done 75% of their Christmas shopping by October??). I was quite excited to get it, especially after having to do a lot of calling around to actually find one in stock in the city. But like so many things that a person wants and uses for a period of time, the Wii started get used less and less frequently. In the last few months I have used it maybe once or twice a month. I started to wonder if I shouldn't look into selling it.

I didn't know what the market was for used Wiis so I thought, just for fun, I would put up an ad on Kijiji today. Within a few hours I had at least five offers to buy it. Of course some people offered $100 less than what I was asking, and one person offered $50 less than my asking price. I figured that with the interest I had generated I would be willing to take $25 less than my asking price. I am certain that if I would have waited until October or November of this year I could have gotten at least another hundred dollars for it. But I wasn't doing it to be greedy, just looking to make a bit of money and let someone else enjoy it. I was able to make a deal with a lady this evening who's 14 year old son was interested in buying it. I figure why not let a 14 year old boy enjoy it, rather than let it collect dust, except when my nephews come to visit. I imagine they might be rather disappointed that it is gone, but now that they have their own, they can definitely get their fill at home.

A New (used) Car!

Just about a week after we made the deal on this car, it is ours. I didn't drive much today, just to work and home then out to get some gas. I am still getting a feel for the car but so far it feels good to drive. I have been browsing through the owner's manual just looking to see if I can learn about the features the car offers. The driver's seat has a few more adjustments than I am used to, but I think I have them figured out now. I also learned that the car has a telescoping steering wheel and rain sensing windshield wipers. I look forward to driving this car around the city and hopefully taking Jay for some cruises. I am interested to see how far it will go on a tank of gas. My hope is at least fifty kilometers more than the Grand Am did. I am so glad that I have a husband who likes to do funky photography. No boring snapshots for this car! :)

Fare Thee Well Grand Am

Last night Jay and I headed over to a nearby parking lot to immortalize the car that we have owned for a little over four years. It is a 1998 Pontiac Grand Am GT that we purchased in 2005 for me. It has been a good car. Until now, it has not required any major repairs (just one frustrating water leak, and one ABS sensor). We always said we would keep it until it started costing us money. So now it is time to say goodbye to a car that has served me well in the last four years. Fare thee well Grand Am. I hope that your next owner will treat you well and that you will be cruising around Saskatoon for years to come.

Frustrated

I just got a call from the specialist I saw in May about my hyperthyroidism. He called me because he got the results from my blood work earlier in the week and apparently my thyroid hormone levels are too low. I was starting to wonder if they weren't too low.

Rewind to the beginning of July when I was in to see my GP after her office called to say that she wanted to see me about my blood work results. I went in to see her and she said my thyroid numbers were much too high still so she upped the dose of my medication (from 450mg to 600mg per day). I did not feel terribly confident when she made that move. I had just been in to see Dr. Sharma, the specialist, about a month before that and obviously he thought that 450mg was the correct amount of medication for me to be on. When I was with my GP she had to get out her medication manual and read up on Propylthiouracil, as it sounded like it was a fairly new medication that she was not familiar with. After reading in the manual she figured the dosage should be upped. For the last month and a half I have been taking the higher dosage. In that time I have noticed myself put on about 15lbs and my goiter has gotten quite large. I wasn't sure if my numbers were getting back to normal, but I did wonder about the goiter. I assumed that once things were back to normal that my thyroid would also go back to normal.

I am glad that Dr. Sharma called me today. I sure didn't hear anything from my doctor's office, however I do have an appointment booked for next week with my GP. I am considering canceling it. Dr. Sharma told me to go back to the 450mg and to go for blood work again in another month. I have a feeling that my GP will not have anything to add to that, and I don't particularly feel like her being paid for a pretty useless appointment. But then I almost feel like going in to see what she tells me to do. Then casually slip in the fact that I had spoken with Dr. Sharma and tell her what he told me to do. I was quite impressed that Dr. Sharma called me at 5:30pm on a Friday.

Wow

A friend of mine, who works with Real Choices Crisis Pregnancy Centre, posted these videos on Facebook. What a story!

Newest Addition

We bought a car today! It was quite an easy process and in the end we paid only a hundred dollars more than we had potentially envisioned spending. We did decide to trade in my Grand Am and even did pretty well with the value we got for it. We dealt with Rob Paterson over at Ens Toyota and he was a decent guy. He has been selling cars for 21 years and he made everything feel quite smooth. I can only imagine some of the people he deals with. It reminds me of when we were trying to sell our condo privately and this older woman came in and had a thorough look around then I could totally see a change her in demeanor and she put on her 'bargaining face'. She started throwing numbers around and all we could say was "If you would like to make an offer you have to fill out an offer form." She never made an offer. I can only imagine the demeanor of some people who go onto car lots, though I am sure there are still a number of the car salesmen out there who have given the entire profession a bad reputation.

Anyway, getting back to the important part... My new car is a 2005 Mazda 3 GT. It has 33,000kms on it. It is a pretty blue. Automatic transmission (though it has a manual mode on the shifter). CD Player. ABS. Keyless entry. Sunroof. Air/Tilt/Cruise. 2.3L 4-cylinder engine with DOHC (very peppy!). Tinted windows. I am sure there are more specs I could give, but it's a pretty car, and once I actually get it (next Tuesday or Wednesday, I was told) I am sure Jay will take some pictures, or I can take some snapshots at least to post. I think it will be a fun car to drive and I am getting pretty excited to get it.

Buying a Car

It is an interesting process. So much psychology involved, or so it seems. I have been looking up some articles online about the best way to negotiate a good price on a car you want. Most of the websites I have found will say, no matter what happens, don't be afraid to walk away from a car. As soon as the dealer knows that you want a car REALLY bad, they will use it to their advantage. Do not become emotionally attached to a vehicle that you want.

That is what I am telling myself tonight. I found a car I REALLY like today. It has low mileage on it, not a bad price (a bit higher than we were hoping to spend), and it felt very nice today on the test drive. I took Jay back tonight to show him the car, and he agreed that it is a nice looking car. We are hoping to go back to the dealership tomorrow evening and hopefully hammer out a deal that is to our liking. That is the part that scares me. Maybe not scares me, but intimidates me. I am pretty sure if I wasn't married and wanting to buy a car I would find a trusted male friend/family member to take along and do the haggling for me. I have never been good at dickering. Even when I go to a garage sale, I see a price tag on something and expect to pay that price. I know that car dealerships expect people to dicker. I know that the asking price is the most they expect to get for the car. It is not actually the value of the car. Of course they need to make some money on the deal, but I believe they have a lot more wiggle room than they like us to believe.

One of my coworkers was telling me the other day that she has gone as far as to take a car for a test drive and drive it on to a different car lot and tell the sales man there that the other guys would give her this car for $xxxx, how much are you willing to drop your price on a comparable car? I think that takes more guts than I have. One of the tactics that I read about for negotiating was shopping around at other lots and finding comparable cars with lower prices. The problem I am having is that most cars I have found while shopping have significantly higher kms than this one does or fewer options. It is hard to find something entirely comparable with a lower price than what this car is set at. The other thing they said is to make sure you find out what the actual value of the vehicle is. I managed to find a site called VMR Canadian Used Car Prices. When I entered the particular car I am looking at, with the features that it has, it was only about $700 more at the dealership than that website said it should be worth at this point. So I hope we are able to talk them down a little bit at least. I don't want to walk away from this car, but it is just a car, and there are other cars.

3 minutes in the life of Kiwi

Wrestle with Jay and chew on his arm (and hug it with her front arms).

Dig in the blankets to find a toy that she thinks is under there.

Make sure there really isn't a toy under the blanket.

Get caught looking under the blankets and give me an exceedingly cute look when I say, "Kiwi, what were you doing?" in my sternest 'mom' voice.

Pretend to rest, but she is really ready to go for another round of play at a moments notice.

We cannot believe the change in her personality since she finished her steroids. She has so much more energy and is as frisky as a little puppy again. She is such a good little dog! I am glad her lumps are gone and she is healthy :)

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Jay and I went to see the movie this afternoon. I think it was alright. I need to stop having these high expectations for the movies. When the book is over 600 pages it is difficult for them to squeeze it all into a 2 1/2 hour long movie. I did however find (with input from Jason, who hasn't read the books) that the storyline was fairly coherent with fewer holes than the other movies seemed to have. There were just so many things they left out, or did not stress the importance of. I know they are making the seventh and final book into two movies due out next year, I believe. I hope they are able to explain things and wrap the story up in a way that leaves the fans feeling satisfied.

I didn't expect to cry at the end, knowing the ending ahead of time, but I still did. I was surprised that they didn't include a funeral scene for Dumbledore at the end, but I guess it was just one more thing that was not entirely necessary that was left out. All in all a good movie, lots of action (a little too much teenage angst/romance/'snogging' for my tastes).

One thing that has really bothered me in the last couple of movies is the disappearance of Dumbledore's 'half moon spectacles'. They are mentioned quite often in the books, and they were there faithfully in the first few movies, then just disappeared. I was also sad to see that Professor Slughorn did not have the walrus type mustache that is described in the book. If I am not mistaken also the Felix Felicis potion was supposed to look like molten gold not clear liquid. Just small details, but ones that bugged me.

Test Drive

I went for some test drives this morning. I went back to Wheaton and decided to test drive a 2005 Chev Cobalt SS, a 2005 Chev Malibu Maxx, and a 2006 Pontiac G6 Base. I have only ever test driven my current car, so it was an interesting experience. The car salesman that we talked to briefly yesterday asked me if I wanted to go by myself or if I wanted him to come along. I figured, he might as well come along because he might be able to point out some features that I was unaware of.

When I test drove my Grand Am, the salesman was a young very chatty guy. I don't know if I even really had the chance to learn too much about the car. It seemed like the drive route was very short, and I felt very nervous. This morning things felt much more laid back. Maybe it's because I am four years older and wiser. I think it also helped that the salesman was about my parents age and was fairly quiet during the drive. Only pointing out a few different things in the cars.

I took the Cobalt out first. The Cobalt SS is the version with the most bells and whistles. I have to say I wasn't that thrilled. I didn't expect to be, I had a bit of prejudice against them to begin with, but wanted to give them an honest try. Someone we know drives one and swears it's an awesome car, and maybe for her it is. I found in the 10 minute or so test drive that the seat got quite uncomfortable fairly quickly. I found that I am used to a V6 engine, and though the 2.4L 4-cylinder engine was quite peppy it just felt like it was straining a bit to get up to freeway speed. I also found that the suspension felt very stiff and we hit some bumpy places along the way that felt pretty rough in that car. I don't think it's a terrible car, but for the cost I would not choose it. Maybe in a few years once the price drops it would make a good starter car for a young person.

Second I took the Malibu Maxx. The Maxx is their higher end version with a good number of options. I right away felt that the seat was quite a bit more comfortable. The acceleration with the 3.5L V6 was very nice. It was a smooth ride. I have never driven a hatchback before and I felt like I was driving a very large car (even though it's not much bigger than my Grand Am) because the back window was so much further back. The back window was quite small and the rear visibility felt a little limited. One of the options that this particular one comes with is a built in DVD player in the back seat. I guess I would have to start going on road trips with more kids if I got that one ;) It was an interesting shade of green, sort of a silvery, mossy green. I don't love it, but I don't think I can afford to be picky about colours.

Last, I took the Pontiac G6 Base. When I heard it was a base model I was sort of skeptical. However it had a good number of options for a base model. The one thing it didn't have that concerned me a fair bit was ABS. I thought that they were as standard as daytime running lights, apparently not. I would say that right away it felt quite comfortable. The G6 was Pontiac's replacement for the Grand Am. It definitely felt much newer, but it felt a lot more similar to my car. It has the 2.4L 4-cylinder engine, which is not my preference but like in the Cobalt it was quite peppy. The suspension felt much smoother. I noticed when I went to get out of the car that I really had to duck my head to avoid hitting it on the door frame. Good thing I am not taller or I don't know if I would fit in that car. It's not that it's so small, it just seemed like I was sitting up fairly tall in that car.

I did not buy a car today. I do however like both the Malibu and the G6. I would be interested to try test driving a G6 with a V6 engine to compare how it feels. I was VERY impressed with the amount of cargo space in the Malibu Maxx. I think I could probably put Jay's wheelchair in the back without taking the wheels off. Also the back seats fold down and I am sure there is enough room in there to put a queen sized mattress. Haha, maybe not quite, but it is very spacious. Not sure how easily Jason could get into the passenger seat of that car, but if he could we could pack a month's worth of stuff and drive to Hawaii. Okay maybe not, but maybe we could drive to Vancouver at least ;)