Wednesday, June 28, 2006

congratulations to Renee and Geoff!

The twins are here!  Renee gave birth to their twins - a girl and a boy - last night!  Brooke Alexa and Luke Cormack weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz and 5 lbs 3 oz, respectively.  Brooke came first at approximately 9:24 pm last night and Luke followed his sister shortly at 9:43 pm.  Both babies and mom are doing wonderfully.  Congratulations to Renee, Geoff and the Moffat family on their new arrivals!

Brian and I hurried over to the hospital last night as soon as Brian's mom called to tell us.  We met the babies when they were just 2 hours old!  They are the youngest babies that I have met so far - so unbelieveably cute!

Brian's mom took lots of pictures, so I will post them up as soon as I get copies..

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

meet Dop Van Dop


We finally have a photo to share of baby Dop Van Dop.  Already looks like baby Dop has my nose!  Ai-yah!  Needless to say, we weren't told Dop's gender, so we'll have to wait a couple of weeks for another ultrasound.  It was very exciting watching the baby move around in my stomach.  He/she is an active little one - takes after his/her dad!  Hahaha...We haven't been able to feel the baby's movement yet through my uterus (that's a Navarik joke!) but we're told that we will start to feel it soon.

The u/s technician said that according to Dop's measurements, he/she weighs in at about 10 oz.  This makes me wonder why I have gained 15 lbs!  At 20 weeks now, I am finally reaching the end of wearing my "normal" clothes.  The pants that used to fit "loosely" are now uncomfortably tight.  I also now know why they design maternity pants to not have zippers/buttons/ties in the front...it's because you can't see it to do it up anyway!

Stay tuned as we find out more about little Dop...

Friday, June 16, 2006

to flour or not to flour


Can someone please tell me why they dust bread and buns with flour like this??!! As far as I can see, it serves absolutely no purpose except to irritate the person eating the bread because their hands get all flour-y!  I was just enjoying a perfectly good egg salad sandwich EXCEPT that it had a flour-y bun.  Now, there is flour all over my keyboard and mouse.  UGH!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

a question of honesty

The other day, a package was left at our door.  It was gift bag that was beautifully packed with printed tissue paper.  A card was stapled to the front.  The address was ours, but the name on the front was not.  The package came from a law firm and it appeared to be a thank-you gift to this individual.

Out of curiosity, we carefully pulled out the contents of the bag and we found a beautiful box of French milled soaps.  I've seen this brand of soaps in one of those chi-chi gift shops and I would guess that the box was around $20 to 30.

The question, of course, is what do we do with the gift?  What would you do?  I mean, it was sent to our address and just sitting at our front door.  As far as we knew, this person hasn't lived in our house in the recent past.  We can't very well send it back in the mail!  And it's a law firm anyway!  They can afford more French milled soaps! 

In the end, we decided to call the law firm and let them know that they had sent to package to the right address, but that person didn't live at our house.  We were not prepared to do anything extra with the package except leave it back at the front door for them to pick up, if they so chose.

Now, while we're doing the honest thing here, I have to honestly tell you, that I thought the law firm would thank me for the call and let me know that I can just keep it and they'll send it out again.  After all, how much does it cost to get a courier to deliver a gift, pick it up again and then drop it off somewhere else (and chances are that they will not find this person anyway!)?  I think that would cost more than the actual soaps themselves! 

Well, I couldn't believe it, but the law firm actually asked me to leave it at the front door and they would have a courier pick it up!  Seriously.  Now, I'm not talking about a private practice or a mom and pop partnership practice.  I'm talking about a law firm that describes themselves on their Web-site as "...a leading national business and litigation law firm in Canada. With over 580 lawyers ...".  Honestly, I'm a little shocked at how cheap a law firm can really be!

I think that I'm a fairly honest and responsible person and I feel pretty good that I make those kinds of decisions.  If I found someone's wallet, I would return it completely intact and I would hope that others would do the same.  I feel good about doing stuff like that.  But I can tell you that it was not "good" that I was feeling today when the person at the law firm said that they would be picking up their package.  I just felt a sense of shame for this law firm that they would be so cheap as to want their package back.  Remember that next time you get your bill of $200/hour for corporate law services...

Sunday, June 4, 2006

home sweet home!

We're back from France - we had such an amazing time (see photos here)! I just wanted to post a quick message to say we're back. In the meantime, here are thoughts to ponder:

1. I never thought that we could be completely incommunicado for 15 days! With the exception of a phone call to each of our parent's places about mid-way through the trip, we did not use the phone or internet for the entire trip.

2. Traveling while you're pregnant isn't the greatest. If I could do it again, I would have waited until I was later in my second trimester - so I could have avoided some of the nausea and fatigue.

3. Things we will miss about France:

- food and wine - I only did the wine tasting (I spit it out!) but Brian got to enjoy some good wine
- the history - Brian and I didn't realize that we would see so much history in the south of France! Thanks to our wonderful tour guide, Stefan, we got way more than we bargained for!
- the markets - the Rue Mouffetard market in Paris and the Uzes market in the south were awesome!
- the culture - from the class and sophistication in Paris to the friendliness and laid back nature in the Languedoc region, it was always such a vibrant atmosphere!
- the driving - this one is Brian's - he really enjoyed driving in the south of France. Paris was a bit nerve-wracking, but he loved the challenge anyway!

4. Things we will not miss about France:

- seafood from the Mediterranen - Brian discovered the hard way that he is likely allergic to mussels from the Mediterranean
- being away from our dog - we missed Nikita terribly!
- understanding more of the language - this one is also Brian's. I thought we did awesome, but Brian wished that he could speak and understand more.

Moto GP at Le Mans














Hanging out by Sacre Coeur after shopping!