This post is going to end up a little on the random side. Why? Because.
First this is my 555th post. This month will also mark 4 years of blogging for me.
In 5 days it will be 10 months ago that we arrived in here Saudi Arabia, and I have spent every single one of those days here at KAUST or in Jeddah. I feel like our home is here, for right now. But in 16 days we will be arriving back in Canada for a 2 month visit/holiday, and I am very much looking forward to that!
Now the real reason this post if titled "Because" is because that is Corban's new answer for many things. This video also features one of his favorite t-shirts, he likes to always point out and talk about what is on his shirt.
And because we have 2 other totally cute kids here is a bit about them too. :)
Corban is not in this picture because A) he is sleeping and B) if he were there he never will sit still for photo booth fun.
Now Marin on the other hand... Can't you just picture her Facebook profile pictures, or whatever social networking thing is popular 10 years from now? She has a blast making silly faces for the camera and laughs her head off at all the silly pictures she takes. P.S. I added a couple other pictures to this collage as evidence as to where she gets this from. ;)
There is also one other little Marin tid-bit that I have been meaning to share. You know how you sometimes get "shiveries", where your body gives a little shake and you get goose bumps and feel a little cold. Well anyway Marin refers to that as "turning her brain on". I think that is too cute.
Speaking of cute, Jeriah sure is!
He has started making this "Ahhh" noise and it cracks me up. :) He is also starting to kinda get the hang of moving his hands to crawl, instead of just army crawl of launch himself forward.
Thanks to those of you who left me comments about the new blog look. It is a work in progress, I am picking away at it and playing around, it is kinda fun. :)
On Saturday the kids and I had an adventure of sorts, I say it that way because it started out bad, but ended really well. One of the things that I was hoping to do before moving away was meet Jay, she and I have been reading each others blogs for almost 2 years, she also lives in the lower mainland so we live reasonably close, a whole lot closer than we will come next month! Ian was away for 5 days over the weekend in KSA for another faculty meeting and as it turned out Jay's husband was also gone on a work trip the same weekend. It was great because it gave us both something to do for the day to keep our minds off missing our men. Anyway the plan was for us to meet at Centennial Park in Ladner at 11am. According to Google maps it was an hour drive, I printed off the directions and the kids and I were out the door with all our gear for the day and a picnic lunch by 9:40am, plenty of time, or so I figured. The first 1/3rd of our trip was easy I had driven that way before, but then Google failed me! It had not accounted yet for some recent construction at a very major point of our trip and I was unaware of this. I followed what the instructions said but with the new road way system that is now in place I was sent down the wrong road with no way of getting back. The road I was on I had driven before, not lots but it was a little familiar. I watched for cross roads and when I got the opportunity I pulled over and got out the 10+ year old map book we have in the van. I found where I was and had a general idea of where I needed to head to get to where we were meeting Jay. So off we went. We drove for a while longer and still I was not seeing the roads that I new would get me to where I needed to be. We pulled over again this time to ask for directions, Corban had thankfully fallen asleep and Marin was doing awesome. The man that helped us ended up giving us bum directions and again I knew I was going the wrong way when the road signs began to tell me I was heading to Seattle! (Sorry Belky I was not prepared to come visit you, we had no passports with us!) So we pulled over, we were in White Rock. I pulled out the map book found where I was and called Jay to tell her we were going to be late and ask if she new how we could get to where we needed to be, she was not super familiar with where I was but pointed me in the right direction. Corban woke up at this point and I gave both of them a cookie and kept going. Marin had been talking with me pretty much the whole time and when we got lost that became the main topic of conversation. She was worried, but told me it was okay, that we could just go home. Poor girl, she did so well the whole time, she kept me from freaking out. We pulled over again a ways down the road to ask for more direction, this time they were really good ones! We were finally on a road that was part of my directions. Marin at this point announced that "It sure is nice to be going the right direction!" So on we went, we took the correct exit and followed the instructions, that then failed me again! I did what they told me to do I stayed right like it said I should. I even said to myself "stay right I write with my right hand." But as I went down that road I just new it was wrong, and I was right. I turned around again and went back to where I had made the "wrong" turn, I called Jay and I told her the land marks I was near and she thankfully new exactly where I was! She then stayed on the phone with me for a bit and got me on right track again. As we drove along I was talking with the kids telling them what road we were looking for next and whatnot, Marin was helping me she called herself my "lookout". We were looking to turn down 12th St. I was telling them the street names/numbers as we passed them, I then heard her say. "Where is that sneaky little 12th st.?!" We finally got to the park only to realize that Google failed me AGAIN! It brought us to the park but to the pedestrian entrance at a dead end road! There was no parking lot in sight! What the heck! So I called Jay again and she told me that there were signs for another park a little ways back that is right beside Centennial Park and that that is where the parking lots are. So back we drove. Finally, we arrived and I parked the van and finally, we got out of the van, an hour later then we were supposed to arrive. Marin and Corban did SO well, I was and still am super impressed that they were as content as they were. Jay and Ariel came over to meet us and we headed to the beach. We had our lunch and then the kids enjoyed some play time together in the sand. They got along really well and Ariel got a preview as to what having a little brother will be like. :) Jay is expecting #2, a little boy, 2 month before I am due. Us moms had a great time chatting about a variety of things and snapping pictures of the kids.
We attempted a "nice" photo of the 3 of them and it worked pretty well. In this picture they were clapping, Corban had a rock in his hand and when he clapped it fell out, they all looked to see it fall between his legs and he of course had to get it back.
We went walking in the tide pools, and it was fun to watch the kids enjoy them. After some more time playing in the sand Jay and Ariel took us to see the "secret garden". It is this beautiful garden that one of the local people has created in a public easement behind his property, it is open daily for people to walk through and enjoy. The kids thought is was a pretty neat place, Jay and I enjoyed all the flowers too. :)
The 3 kiddos in the garden.
After our time in the garden it was 4pm and time to head for home. Jay said she would lead me out of the area and told me were to turn off to get me to a road I knew would get me home, we figure my Google maps instructions were useless so between the 2 of us we got me and the kids home. The trip home was smooth sailing and it only took one hour. So that was our adventure. Thanks for meeting us Jay and Ariel and showing a beautiful new park, for waiting and extra hour for us and for helping us get home again. we had a great time with you both. :)
We have a stat counter on the blog, two actually. You can see evidence of one near the bottom of the side bar, it has been there since sometime in November of 2006, I added it five months after I stated the blog. I added the second one, Google Analyics in March 2008. I find it interesting to look at the stats and see the keyword search phrases and words people use while looking on the world wide web that end up bringing them to our blog. Many of the search words and phrases contain our name Foulds, people looking for us, a extended family member or someone else who shares the same last name as us. There are also lots of hits with people looking for Dr. Ian Foulds, or variations there of. (If that is you here is Ian's work bio.) What I have found really interesting the past little while though is the traffic we get from people using keywords that contain KAUST. I'll give you the break down with some numbers.
December 1st 2008 was the first time KAUST appeared on our blog. Since then we have had 4751 visits to the blog. Of those 4751 visits 791 have been keyword visits. Of those 791 visits 363 keywords or phrases have been used. Of those 363 keywords 92 keywords have contained our last name so 25%. Also of those 363 keywords 113 have contained the word KAUST so 31%. Breaking it down a little more of the 363 keywords or phrases (many get used multiple times) 368 individual visits have contained our last name that works out to 47%. 245 individual visits have contained the word KAUST and that works out to 31%.
So are any of you still with me? I am not even sure it I am still with me, but whatever, it is late. Clearly we are getting a lot of visitors looking for KAUST information, I think that is neat. What I like even better though is that some of the people searching for KAUST who found our blog have contacted us via email (address on the side bar) or left a comment. We have had a chance to start getting to know each other and share information and experiences about our big move before we even get to KAUST. It will be nice to not all be complete strangers when we get there. :)
So if you were searching for information about KAUST and you arrived to this post then contact us or leave a comment and say hi. :)
2 days short of a months ago Jen tagged me with a meme, "Five things I like about being a Mom." It has taken me this long to get to it not because I needed that long to come up with five things, but because life over here has not been exactly normal. Which you all know if you've been paying any attention to this here blog. :) I always knew I wanted to be a mom, and I really do love it! I can think of nothing else I'd rather do, and I mean that. So onto Five things I like about being about mom: (I am putting random pictures in this post from the last 3 times we went to the park with the camera.)
1) I love sharing these 3 cute little people with Ian, and knowing that he loves them just as much as I do. That together we will raise them, enjoy them and support them and each other.
2) I love knowing that God chose me to be their mother and Ian to be their father. That He gave us these 3 sweet little ones to us.
3) I love watching Marin and Corban play together, to hear them laugh at each other and to see them working together to do something.
4) I love snuggling in bed with them in the morning, giving them tickles and hearing them giggle. (Let me just add that I am not as big a fan of this if they wake up before 6:00am.)
5) I love that they each have their own personality, likes, and dislikes, but I also like seeing where they are similar. It will be fun to see how Baby Foulds #3 will fit in.
So now I am done that list and I still have many more pictures left so I will write a "kid list". 1) Marin used such grown up phrases sometimes times and it makes me laugh. Examples: "That's just nonsense" and "If you insist".
2) When we told Marin she was going to be a big sister again she got a big smile on her face, but looked a little confused. We asked her if she knew what that meant. She said "Yes I am going to be big big."
3) They both love to go on outings, to playgroup and on little adventures. When I say okay guys lets go and head to the door they both run over and grab their shoes, and Corban does his little happy dance. Then they stand eagerly by the door waiting for me to open it. As soon as I do they burst out and look for the sticks they left outside the door from our last walk.
4) When I say to Marin "You are the cutest girl I know" she replies with "You are the cutest Mommy I know." 5) Today Marin and I were talking about Baby Foulds #3, she would like a little sister. I asked her if it would be okay if we had a baby brother, she said no a sister. Hmm, so I explained to her that when she was in my tummy we didn't know if she was going to be a boy or a girl and then she was born and God gave us a little girl. Then I told her the same for Corban, but that God gave us a baby boy. I told her that God made the decision and that he always makes good decision. Her response, "God decided on a baby girl."
6) Corban has been really enjoying the Praise Baby DVDs we have, he sits on the couch and points to pretty much everything that comes on the screen asking "Dat? dat?" 7) We have a baby gate downstairs blocking the kids (Corban) from getting to the front entrance, kitchen and bathroom. When Ian comes home they both run over to it. Marin yells "Daddy!!" and Corban yells "Dah!!" As Corban is running over he does his happy dance and then peeks over the edge of the gate. They both stand there waiting for big hugs, it is really cute!
8) Marin has been eating really well for quite a while now, she likes salads, especially Caesar, she loves the croutons. She loves her carrot sticks and cucumber slices too with "dip-it" (ranch dressing). She loves green beans too, actually she really isn't fussy at all and will eat most anything.
9) Corban has taken a liking to helping with the laundry in the past few days. He takes the clothes out of the dryer and puts them into a basket for me. He thinks helping is really neat and gets a big grin on his face after every item he puts in the basket.
10) Corban's current favorite books are "Polar Bear, Polar Bear what do you hear?", "Panda Bear, Panda Bear what do you see?" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?" He will read them to himself too and when he does he flips that pages saying "rah, rah, rah." just like we would say the syllables for the words.
So there are my 2 little lists and a bunch of pictures of our cute kids. :)
Oh yeah I almost forgot I am supposed to tag 5 people to make a "Five things I like about being a Mom." list too. So I tag... Jay Belky Heather Rachel Elizabeth
If you've already been tagged with this meme and I have forgotten, sorry. :)
Hi! Have you been wondering where we are? We are still here, though as you can imagine/have your own experience with, I am much busier and I have much less "free time". Our Easter weekend was literally a long weekend, Corban had a growth spurt and ate a lot! And along with all that eating came a lot more pooping and peeing, his diapers couldn't keep up. Many loads of laundry were done this weekend! We went to the zoo on Friday, it was a bit of a "gong show", Ian and I have not yet totally mastered the art of handling 2 children. It was also quite a bit colder than forecasted, and pretty busy due it being a holiday. I did try and take some pictures but not many turned out and the ones that did where just of the animals and I know that most of you coming here at this point are here to see our 2 cute kids. :) Speaking of pictures there was a picture opportunity that I am kicking myself for missing! The 4 of us were walking along and all of a sudden a very cheerful voice called out "Are you the Foulds Family?" I looked up and recognized from pictures who it was. It was Megan, she and I read each others blogs but have never met in person. Now we have and I didn't get a picture! Duh! Anyway, hi Megan! :) I guess it was kind of a "blogger weekend" Rachel was in our neck of the woods on Saturday and stopped by to meet Corban. Marin was napping while she was here and Rachel was lucky to be child free for the day so we got a lovely little visit in. :) This weekend Marin "gave up" her soothers. By gave up I mean she bit a hole through the last one she had and we aren't buying anymore. Last night was pretty sad, there was a lot of "I need my soother!" coming from her room. Once she fell asleep though she slept well and she managed to fall asleep for her nap this afternoon with out a single tear so...
Okay so enough with the babbling here are the pictures I promised. :)
Corban has been awake a lot more the past few days and I got some flash free pictures of his cuteness. He even made some faces for me. :)
Yesterday afternoon the weather was actually nice and sunny out and both kids and I were able to get out for a walk and some fun at the playground.
Marin loves looking in all the flower beds for "cokeses" (crocuses) and other spring flowers.
At the playground she told me that she would teach Corban how to go down the slide when he gets bigger. Here is her demonstration.
We are working at getting a non-blogspot url set up, I am hoping it wont cause any problems in you all finding us, but if we go "missing" for a few days do come looking for us. :) The new urls that will point to us are: thefouldsfamily.com and www.thefouldsfamily.com (the www one is not quite working yet)
My new blogging buddy, Kami tagged me with a meme. I have seen this one on quite a few blogs the past few days and now it is my turn. I am to create a list of 7 weird/strange/interesting things about myself. Here goes.
1) When it is dark outside I must have the curtains or blinds closed. It freaks me out if they aren't, anyone could be looking in and I can't see them.
2) I can lick my own elbows (one at a time).
3) I used to be able to touch my elbows to my toes when sitting with my legs out in front of me. I haven't tried in a long time, and now with a prego belly I am not going to try.
4) I have to really concentrate to say the words jewelry and rural for them to come out sounding right.
5) I hate cold pizza. Yuck!
6) I don't like pop, it hurts my throat to drink it.
Megan tagged me with a meme. To spice is up a little I will also answer for Ian and Marin too.
Four jobs I’ve held: 1. worked at a cheese factory, did many different tasks 2. worked in a flower shop 3. receptionist at a day spa 4. returns coworker at IKEA
Ian: 1. worked as a electricians assistant 2. engineer on multiple co-op jobs 3. TA (teachers assistant to a professor) multiple times 4. Student (who actually gets paid money)
Marin: 1. laundry assistant to mommy 2. baking assistant to mommy 3. lugger of milk jugs 4. super cute kid (ongoing, never ending)
Four movies I can watch over again: (I don't really watch movies over and over) 1. Father of the Bride one and two (I have really fun memories of watching theses movies with friends back in high school) 2. Shawshank redemption 3. Lord of the Rings Trilogy -extended version ( I love my husband) 4. Shreck (all of them)
Ian: 1. 12 monkeys 2. Lord of the Rings Trilogy -extended version along with ALL the extras 3. Man on Fire 4. Fight Club
Marin: (she does watch them over and over) 1. Praise Baby -Born to worship 2. Baby Faith -God made Families 3. Sesame Street -1 2 3 Count with Me 4. Praise Baby -Praise and Smiles
Four places I have lived: 1. North Canoe Salmon Arm , BC 2. South Canoes Salmon Arm, BC. 3. Coquitlam, BC x 2
Ian: 1. New Westminster, BC 2. Indonesia 3. Sorrento, BC 4. Salmon Arm, BC
Marin: 1. Coquitlam, BC
Four t.v. shows I watch: 1. Lost 2. Amazing Race 3. The Office 4. Stargate/Stargate Atlantis (Again I love my husband... and now I am hooked)
Marin: 1. Elmo's World 2. Play with me Sesame 3.Franklin
Four places I’ve been on vacation: 1. Mexico 2. Tofino/Ucluelet 3. Netherlands 4. Thetis Island
Ian: 1. Australia 2. Fiji 3. Africa 4. Tofino/Ucluelet
Marin: 1. Mexico 2. Salmon Arm 3. Edmonton 4. Blue River
Four favorite foods 1. Tim Tam slams (to see a video (and many others) click here) 2. eggs 3. pasta 4. strawberries
Ian: 1. steak -medium 2. Blackberry pie (speaking of which I should make him one... and then post the recipe!) 3. peanut butter and honey on toast 4. nachos and cheese
So I have given into “peer-pressure” and started a blog. I had been thinking about it for a while and finally decided to give it a try! It was a little harder then I thought, but I am getting the hang of it and I always have Ian to help if I can’t figure it out by myself. I hope I can keep it up, I am sure Marin will give me lots to write about and LOTS of pictures of post. It will be fun I think!
