3 Weeks old - We survived!!! (so far)

Yup, it's true. Raglan is 3 weeks old already. I can hardly believe that the time has gone by so fast on one hand and on the other hand... I'm shaking my head in disbelief that we actually survived. Don't get me wrong Raglan is an incredible baby. He naturally goes around 4 hours between night time feedings allowing me to sleep just a little bit longer and by two and a half weeks had already gone up to 10 lbs 5 oz (diaper included). Feeding is going well, I'm within 6 lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight, and we are slowly figuring out how to 'handle' this stage of Raglan's life (just in time for him to change and throw us for a loop). We've been pooped on, thrown up on, cried on, slept on... It's been fun and frustrating and everything in-between but from what I've heard we are pretty much par for the course in that regard. :) John and I have been SO blessed by friends and family since his birth. It's humbling to know that there are so many generous and giving people out there and it inspires us to be more generous in the future in response.

This is a picture of the Raglan coastal area of New Zealand which Raglan is named after :)

Our beautiful boy

Mom got a little bit creative with Raglan's hair :) and almost caught a smile on film :)

Raglan with his uncle Pete

Thanks Grandma Gall for the cool "shoes" they fit just right :)

World... Meet Raglan Owen

What more can we say other than... look at our beautiful baby boy!!! Raglan Owen Gall was born on October 29th 2008 at 2:02 am. He was 8 lbs 7 oz and 23" long. Mom and baby are both healthy and thing are going well at home. So there you have it :)

The BIG day...

This will be short but just in case someone is looking here for information, I have officially gone 8 days overdue and my doctor decided that inducing me is the best option at this point. I went in to the hospital at 7:30 AM today and after an hour of monitoring I am now home just waiting for the contractions to increase :) That said we should have a little bundle of joy to hold by tomorrow (at the latest) in the wee hours of the morning... but hopefully sooner than that. We shall see...

The waiting game...

So I think this will be the last of my prego photo's. My due date is October 20th which is quickly approaching. I'm still doing very well health wise and I actually feel pretty good too! All that's left is to wait for this baby to make an appearance. My mom is joining us here on the 18th and hopefully the baby cooperates and shows up shortly after that (not before...) The rest of our families will come down once the baby is born. I'm not sure when we'll find time to post baby pics here but keep watching, they'll come eventually :).

Baby Love...

Of Fall and Fast Approaching Changes

Well folks, it's true, fall is here. I know because we got our first skiff of snow yesterday. Now don't panic... it was just up high on the mountains that surround my fair town but it must mean fall is here. Plus John could see his breath when he left for work this morning!!! Yikes. With fall means wet weather and mud in the landscaping business so John is learning to adjust his gear to accommodate this change away from "overheating". We are definitely getting settled in down here. Making friends and getting into a routine. We are really enjoying another couple that we met that loves to play games as much as we do and that's been really fun. We've started attending a "small" group (of about 11 couples if we all came at once) which we are loving and I think I've finally got the Chilliwack bus routes figured out... (now if I could only figure out the drivers I'd be set!!) John and I have lately been making the "final" preparations for our upcoming life changing event. I finally packed my hospital bag and we bought the few remaining items they require you to have with you in the hospital :) I also yesterday did a load of baby clothes/blankets!!! Oh those tiny socks... way too cute!!! I'm having a hard time believing that in a few short weeks there will be a little someone to put those little items on. Yes it's true we are now counting the days until this little one makes an appearance. We're at 27 days until the due date now. I'm still doing quite well and still feel Oh SO blessed to have had (having) such a nice pregnancy. My friend Catherine (who is also prego) and I have started doing water aerobics together twice a week which I am thoroughly enjoying (minus our crazy instructor) and my doctor tells me every appointment that he's quite pleased with my progress. Well, that pretty much sums up where we are at right now. All together we are doing wonderfully and are excited for this next adventure! And what an adventure it will be ...

32 Weeks and Counting

It's official. I am 32 weeks pregnant and the countdown is on. The pregnancy is still going extremely well and I consider it a HUGE blessing that it has gone as well as it has so far. My biggest complaint would have to be that I've had heartburn consistently, but that's pretty minor I think in the whole scheme of things.

John and I are home again now having finished our time house sitting. We really enjoyed life on the farm and free eggs and that sort of thing but it's super nice to be home as well. While house sitting we had the blessing of several guests including John's brother and wife (Pete and Mel), John's parents, my dear friend Heather, and my cousin/sister-in-heart Corissa.

We also had the chance to spend 4 days in Oregon with John's family as our summer family vacation/reunion. We rented a house on the beach in Beverly Beach, OR and enjoyed everything from crab fishing to kite flying to shopping.
We had lots of fun and already are making plans for next summer's grand Gall adventure.

Other than that we are well and are in prep mode for baby and just regular life with work and friends and family. Just yesterday I sorted through the baby stuff that I already have and put it into piles by age so that I had out only that which would work for a newborn. All the adorable 12-18 month outfits can be put away for now I think! :) I also re-arranged our bedroom to see how the cradle would fit for the first little while when the baby room is occupied by parents and other visiting relatives. I think I've got a working model but we still need a dresser/change table so we'll see how that's going to fit in our already crowded bedroom. It's been raining here for the last 2 days and that's a welcome relief for me as the 30 degree weather was a little trying. I spent as much time as possible at the lake with friends and took cold showers as necessary (which was often). Don't get me wrong I love summer but a little rain now and again is nice :).

In other news we've been enjoying the produce of our garden lately. My lettuce finally made an appearance and my carrots are SO nice and sweet. Now we are waiting on the corn, which should be ready soon, and the ONE bell pepper that showed up. I think there may be more coming but I'm not sure. Oh and I can't forget the broccoli. My strawberries seemed more concerned with populating my entire garden with little strawberry runners than producing fruit but we have enjoyed all of 3 ripe strawberries this season.

Life on the Farm

Through a series of long lost connections John and I came across an opportunity to go and house sit for a month for a family that live about 5 or so minutes away from our current home. So we are currently living it up out in the country. They have a bunch of chickens, a lovely dog, and a huge garden so it's not all fun and fancy free but it's pretty nice, we must admit. Mornings come early at 6 or so to go out and feed/water the chickens but it's not too bad. After all, the free eggs, fresh raspberries and veggies from the garden are pretty nice perks. :) I told my work that I would be unavailable during that time so I'm at home with the dog, watering the garden, collecting and washing eggs, etc... oh and growing a baby... :) Life is never dull around here! :)



Here I am at 25 weeks...

So my photography class has pretty much wound down now but here are a few that my classmates took of us on our last outing to Minter Gardens. They are kind of fun! I have a few more to put on 'click' so check those out too!


Summer has arrived in Chilliwack, Finally. It's been absolutely beautiful here with nice temperatures and sunny days. I've actually had a job for the last few weeks working temporarily with Abbotsford Mental Health unit. That's been an interesting job to say the least! but I've enjoyed it as well. Next week will be my last week there and then... summer holidays? :) We have a few visitors that will be gracing our humble abode and we are looking forward to our trip to Oregon with the Gall clan! Of course we are also thinking that man... if we are this busy time will fly and all of a sudden it will be October and baby will be here! Our grand total of baby gear so far consists of two boy's outfits, 2 pairs of shoes, and a few of my baby dresses, one onsie and 3 pairs of socks. We are SO READY!!! :) lol. Anyways I think that's all for now!

What's Kickin?

So as I type this the baby is kicking away or at least moving around. About a week or two now I've been feeling these 'movements' and it's quite fascinating for me! John even got a chance to meet our little one's kick the other day as the baby gave him a good bump as soon as John put his hand on my tummy. Things are still going quite well as far as the pregnancy goes. I've been feeling great (when I get enough sleep) and from how things feel, the baby is getting along just fine. Other than that we are doing just fine! It's been REALLY rainy here for a while now so I'm ready for some warmer weather and sunshine but I just keep reminding myself that it's not snowing or -40 so I can be content. It's funny because people down here are commenting on how it feels like January but I just smile. That's all from us!

19 Weeks

There you have it folks!!

Adventures with Mel & Pete

What a May long weekend we had! I must say it was AMAZING!!! John's brother Pete and his wife Mel came out to see us and we had an absolute blast with a few mishaps along the way. The plan was to head over to Victoria, rent scooters, zip around town, see the sights, and just enjoy ourselves. We decided to rent scooters because we weren't going to take our car across. My (Andrea's) organizational skills went completely sideways and well let's just say there were a lot of 'what now?' moments. Everything minor like parking in the wrong spot at the ferry (we thought we were in the right place) to the major adventure of finding plan 'B' when you arrive at the airport at 6:27 for a flight that takes off at 6:30 (oops). Overall it was an amazing weekend and we had tonnes of fun at every turn.
At our favorite restaurant, there was a live band. We REALLY enjoyed that treat! They called themselves a Hebrew swing band. It was very cool music, sung in Yiddish??



Oh and let's not forget the fun we had on these baby's. Not exactly roomy but they worked :)

Weekly Updated Photo's on Click...

So I (Andrea) am taking a class at the university here in Chilliwack so I will have a bunch of photo's to display once again. Instead of putting them on here, each week there will be a new batch on our page 'click' around Monday or Tuesday so check 'em out!

Woosh, Woosh, Woosh

That's the sound of our little baby's heart beat that I got to hear yesterday. After finally finding a doctor in Chilliwack that would take me in, it is finally feeling a little more real. All is well according to Dr. and mom is feeling much more re-assured knowing there is a REAL baby in there. However you'll have to wait a little longer for pictures as there is absolutely nothing to see just yet. :) Anyways, hearing the heart beat was the coolest and that's my story. :)

Finally... Pics of our new place

This is our beautiful kitchen. We're loving the big patio doors :)



On the other end of the kitchen, our tiny living room. Complete with cute electric fireplace.



The next few are of our bedroom/Computer room/piano room/craft room and the list goes on. Just about everything that didn't fit in the rest of the house is in our bedroom, which you can see is a little bigger than usual.









And of course the ensuite.

Of Snow, Job Applications, and Spring

Yup that's right it snowed here this morning. None of it stayed on the ground but the 'rain' was suspiciously 'thick' and white-ish. The long awaited kitchen is soon to be ours. The electrician is coming tomorrow to put the plug in the wall for the stove and the stove is supposed to arrive tomorrow too! The down side to this whole kitchen thing is that we have lost all the nuts and bolts to our table and chairs. Without them our dining set is useless so.... if anyone has seen a yogurt container with odd nuts and bolts in it... please let us know :). We're short a few :).

John is still enjoying his job, and I have so far handed out 2 resumes with another to go out today. We had a wonderful easter time here in the valley. We went to an Easter production at Willingdon church with my uncle Stan and then had a massive meal with John 'n' Helen and Trent 'n' Nicole. My aunt Helen always goes a little crazy when she's cooking for company so this time she certainly outdid herself once again.

Of spring, John tried his hand at pruning on Monday. He did some reading online and then went to work on the apple and plum trees in our yard. There are still 3 more tree's to go but we think he did a pretty good job on the 2 he did get done. If any of you have some tips on pruning please let us know :).

That's all of an update that I've got for now, hope you all had wonderful Easter's!

New Contact Info

I sent out an email this morning with our new phone number and address. If you didn't receive that and would like to please email us and let us know!

Beginning of Spring in Chilliwack

So today in my miles of free time I decided to take some pictures of the trees in our yard to show how spring is coming down here. The first one is of one of our apple trees! I can't wait until I have apples to make into yummie pies.

The Job Hunt Begins

Ok, so after a week and a half in Chilliwack, and not much unpacking ready to be done, I'm getting a little stir crazy. :) So I think it may be time to get a job. John's loving his job (every minute of it) and I would love to think that both of us could be that blessed so... I'm hunting. The problem is that I REALLY don't know what I want. I know that I don't want to head back into insurance, and well of course MacDonald's is out of the picture, I decided that Starbucks just wasn't my style, and well what does that leave? I'm thinking about looking into temping if they have an agency in town, but I haven't seen one advertised anywhere yet. Maybe I'll take some clases at the University College of the Fraser Valley??? But what would I take??? So many decisions. I just don't know. I'm still interested in something photography but I'm a chicken and don't really know how to start into that. I've tracked down a few photographers in the area but I couldn't quite pull myself to email them just yet. We'll see. Maybe I'll take a photography class first.

Anyways, that's whats new with us today :)

Out of Alberta and into BC!!!

Well folks, here it is, our first post from BC. I had to include some photos especially for mom Gall who isn't convinced that there really isn't winter down here even though it does snow on the RARE occasion. Our trip down here went well. My parents will arrive on Sunday with the trailer and all the rest of our stuff. Right now we are living with my Aunt and Uncle as we work together to finish off the suite that we will be renting from them. That's all the news from us for now. The photo's are the view from our back yard and John working in our back yard. :)

Andrea

Moving Day

Well folks, the big day is almost here. We've got most of our belongings in boxes and soon we will be heading down the highway SOUTH!!! Even though it's been sun tanning weather here in GP for the last couple weeks (very unusual for February to have any temperatures around the 0 mark) we are looking forward to spring in southern BC. Today was our last day of work and now it's full steam ahead for packing, cleaning, and moving out! We're pretty excited for this big move but the reality of leaving our friends and family behind is setting in a wee bit...

Anyways, that's all for now!

A new Car wasn't enough

So John decided to get a new job as well.

Yup, more big changes are on the way for us Gall's. We just cant seem to sit still very long. We're hoping this time will be a little different. That said you must be wondering what I mean... well, this new job is in Chilliwack, BC. So we're moving once again. John starts at the beginning of March so we will be moving sometime around the end of February.

Aside from the fact that we will once again be FAR from our closest friends and family, we are SO EXCITED about this move. John is really excited about the job and we're ready for a new adventure out on the (almost) coast again.

For all of you who are living out in that general direction, we are soooo excited about having the chance to connect with you again and I can't wait to be involved in Qwanoes in some shape or form once more. If you are going to see Ken Bayley let him know I'll see what I can do about helping out on the ferry this coming summer! :) hee hee

I'm not sure what I'll be doing out there. I don't think I'll jump at any chances to do insurance again as I'd have to take more tests I believe and it wasn't something that I really loved anyways. I'm hoping for a chance to learn some more about photography so if any of you know of anyone who's looking for an assistant photographer that is willing to take someone on to learn then let me know.

Well that's all for now folks! We will keep you posted :)

New Car...

Yup, it's true, the olds died... sort of. So we bought a new car. It's a 2004 Toyota Corolla. It's pretty in black and a five speed :).

Pictures to come...

Pray....

Hey guys,

I just want to put up a quick note to ask for prayer for some friends of ours. We know they're going through some hard times in their marriage and could use a little extra prayer right now. They are both Christians and there have been some definite spiritual attacks of late. Pray for them please!

Thanks...

Response to Halloween Post

Well folks,

I got a few responses by email to my question about Halloween but all were sent to my email in an effort to stay anonymous. So I will keep it that way but I'd like to post some excerpts from each in the hopes that it will spark some discussion. If you don't want anyone to know it was you, comment anonymously. (see Halloween post in October if you missed out on the fun)

Thanks,

We went trick or treating and we went to at least one community Haloween party and my memories of them are vivid and they were great fun. So I too, feel like Haloween has some fun aspects to it. One of my new jobs now is to be an aid to a handicapped girl who works in the IGA Bakery a couple of days a week. When we went to work yesterday I was blown away by the costumes. The whole staff of the store was having a contest to see who could wear the best costume and there were some excellent costumes that left you wondering who was inside it. I agree with you Andrea, it would be fun to be a part of that. Is it like the food offered to idols? Good question. Is it all wrong just because fun is the only redeeming feature it has? We do egg hunts at Easter simply because it's fun. It also has diddly squat to do with the real meaning of Easter. Is that ok simply because Easter is a Christian celebration and we are celebrating the real meaning of Easter? A large part of Christmas is also just for the pure pleasure of giving and recieving gifts and eating scrumptious food. We could celebrate Christmas without any of that and yet we don't. So I guess it's because there is no Christian aspect to Halloween that so many feel we have to shun it all. I don't know what the answer is either but Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) and I went trick or treating this year.

...we did NOT go trick or treating and we did NOT dress up as witches & ghosts but where we did hand out candy at the door and we did go to “alternative” parties. Fast forward to life as an adult with kids. Suddenly this non-issue in my life became something that needed to be “figured out”. Add to this mix a husband who was raised in a non-Christian family who has great memories of trick or treating, dressing up, pigging out on candy the next day, etc.

We have always kind of thought that we wouldn’t “celebrate” Halloween (ie go all out with the decorations or have our kids dress up like goblins) but that we would allow them to have fun with it, trick or treating, dressing up as fun characters, that sort of thing.

So anyway, all this to say, I am kind of confused myself. Last night we took our witch & our solider out trick or treating, they had a great time, we took them over to see the Grandparents (who happen to live on the best trick or treating street in the whole wide world where almost every house is decorated to the hilt with pirate themes and scary ladies jumping up from the porch, and there are people (& even a fire truck full of firemen) all hanging around outside on their lawns cooking up pots of witches brew etc.) & Great Grandma at the old folks home where all the old ladies oohed & aahed and we came home with great loot and it was just plain old fun.

as belivers we have looked for ways to separate ourselves from the world for fear that we will be a bad example or we may even be drawn into an unholy life and so we disconnect from the very people we wish to bring the Gospel to.
Several questions come to mind.
How strong are we in our faith?
Do we become salt and light to the world without being in the world?
Where did Jesus hang out and with who?
What if "Jesus followers" would dress up for haloween (maybe in an angel costume, tee shirt) with a large emblazoned question across the front, and simply ask some poignant questions such as, does satan exist? Would that not create the possibility of a great discussion?
In short I feel that it is high time for believers to look for ways to engage our culture and look for ways to do so in a CHRISTLIKE manner and so have a connection to lost people rather than be AGAINST them or what they stand for or enjoy. I think we need to begin to explore what and how they perceive our disconnect and opposition.

Happy 2008

There is so much unknown road ahead in 2008 but the sun is shining!