an introduction, to me...mr. DT.

folks, i'm gonna be honest. i have only posted on this blog what has seemed to be the most appropriate expression of my personality. humor. emotion. eloquence. best summarized in one word: "ROAAAAAARRRRR!"
having previously roared my little taylor heart out, on Saturday, June 30, 2007, today i will begin an intermittent appearance in this blog...finally putting the 'danny' in 'haileyanddanny'.

to begin...
so i just finished my first 4 hour shift at my new job, the urban barn. i survived the day and rewarded myself with a tall americano misto immediately. i deserved it. we all deserve it. anyways, just a few interesting tidbits about my day.

1: i work under a manager, a pretty 20-something girl named "hollis". yes, hollis. last name, "terr". haha. jokes. hollis terr. i know what you're thinking - she should be selling hoodies and tshirts and tank tops, not furniture! in high school i once worked for a guy named abe. i was told to call him "mr. ricombe".
2: apparently boss hollis doesn't like being summoned with "holla hollis!!", nor does she like to be called "boss hollis".
3: i have an assistant manager named "sam", who is also like just pushing 20 and seems really quiet and nice and kind, except for the RAGING dragon/flower/something-i-can't-quite-figure-out tattoo the size of a bowling pin in her back. but she is nice.
4: i also worked with the following: bonnie, liane, leona (props to mrs. sharman), and another girl who i can't remember a name for. it is a female affair. except for this MAN. the rooster has entered the hen house. for the record, nameless girl was literally crying with laughter in the tiny stock room when i went to get my jacket when i finished my shift. she had her cellphone to her ear, but wasn't saying anything. just laughing. lets call her "crazy", until i find out her real name.
5: i get a whopping __% off discount at the store!! can you guess? you'll win a prize!!!
6: it is remarkable to me how much urban barn items polka-dot my house. i didn't realize i'm living so urban and so barn.
7: i am exceptional at the BS of furniture sales. i was told to walk around the store for an hour or so to familiarize myself with the product. in that time i somehow helped three customers - a lady looking for an end table made entirely of mirrors, another lady and her mother looking at couches, and a nice young girl wanting a present for her friend. i am hoping, that on the weekend these ladies come and buy all of their items and i get the commission. and hopefully they bring their friends and family as well. i need all the sales i can get. but seriously, i'm already "helping" customers? i have NO idea what i'm doing.
8: i am now the "light guy". leona has assigned me the task of pointing and positioning the lamps in the store. there are like literally a bazillion lamps in the store. i am excited. i will softly sing worship songs as i do the work, primarily songs with a metaphor of "light". "come light the fire again" "this little light of mine" etc.
9: parking is ridiculous. i put my new tiny toyota to the test ( t t t t t ) in a parallel park that involved me getting out of the car at least 6 times to check for space. but i made it fit. oh yes. anything for free unlimited parking. huzzah.
10: i think i'll like this job. i hope i like it. it will probably take a few weeks...months...to get up to speed. i hope it pays well enough. we'll see!

just thought i'd give ya'll an update of my work. you can pray it continues to go well. thanks!

[oh! and for the record, hailey, my wife, and the other half of 'haileyanddanny' is a drop dead gorgeous bombshell knockout one-of-a-kind woman. she is pretty times a bazillion. just for the record.]


heart.
dt

Face Lift

Well I figure its about time I changed our pictures on this thing.  I guess I just got in a rut that way... for about an ENTIRE year.  A facelift is nice now and then, if its free.  And if it doesn't make you look ugly... or like you have fake lips or cheekbones.

So here's the latest.  We are NEARLY settled.  Nearly.  Let me count... okay... 11 boxes left to unpack, relatively small, but probably all filled with stuff we don't really need.  If we've lived this long without it...who's to say there is actually something important inside those 11 boxes?  It's tempting to think maybe we should just throw them out, without checking what's inside.  hmmm.  I'll ponder that.

So now that you know how many boxes are left to unpack, let me get on with some more important news.  Well....I started school- Travel and Tourism Business Management.  And so far so good.  Small class of girls, FIVE of us to be exact.  For the business side of things that is.  The travel portion of our learning starts in April, where more students will be joining us, so until then I am literally learning about motherboards and RAM, and microprocessing chips, and the insides of the computer.  All extremely interesting, might I add (sarcasm noted).  However, I am really enjoying myself nonetheless.  I also started a new job at a local Travel Bookstore in my area and I love that too.  Who wouldn't want to talk about travel all day long with other people?  The only problem is that it is difficult for me in the sense that the most exciting place I will be traveling to this year is EDMONTON.  That's right.  I heard it is -41 degrees CELSIUS there right now.  For all you Americans, just have a cat nap in your freezer, and you'll have an idea of how cold that really is.  So needless to say, as much as I enjoy talking about the Hawaiian islands with some customers... I am also secretly slapping them across the face in my head.  (kidding, slightly...)  Danny just got a job at a store we both love called the Urban Barn.  (a modern home furniture store) We're quite excited as this month has proven to be difficult on the job search front for Danny.  Looking for a job outside of ministry and liking it, AND getting paid decently is not as easy as it looks.  I am proud of him for giving this a go, and I think he'll do great at it!

Vancouver in general... great city.  We are happy here.  Nothing awful has happened since the last kicking of our car incident or the thieving of our laptop.  We have since had our computer replaced, and also, have bought a new used car too. 2007 Toyota Corolla.  We will probably keep this car for a total of 5 months.  Oh the things I let my husband do.  How many cars have we owned since we've been married now?  Oh right, FOUR.  It's his thing... not mine.  As long as he's happy that's all that matters.  BUT... as much as we like our new car, we are walking more here, and spending more time outside.  I even started shopping at little independent markets for our fruits and vegetables a couple blocks away.  True story!  The weather is quite pleasant too.  We went for a walk around the harbor and for lunch and coffee yesterday!  Wouldn't be doing that in Edmonton.  Let me see... what else?  We have found a church with great teaching and a younger crowd, so we are probably going to join a small group there.  We are still deciding on that though.  But its nice to have found a place that we MAY be able to call our church home.  Anyways, as you can tell, the novelty of living here, still hasn't worn off... but I do count my blessings every day.  I feel like we are supposed to be here right now, and its just really affirming to feel that way.  Things are relatively good.  So we are happy!

I will post more pics soon! Hope everyone's January is going delightful.

Thanks a MILLION

Thanks to you all for your patience. As you all know we have been in the process of MOVING over the last 2 weeks and I have not had internet access really at all, so that is why I haven't written. We are getting internet tomorrow hopefully, so things will get better soon. Here is a point form version for you to fill you in on what has been going down in our lives.

1. Christmas was super fun and hard all at the same time. We were juggling families, trying to fit in all our goodbye's with friends, and preparing for our move, all in one breath. Merry Belated Christmas to you all!!!!! I hope everyone had such a good one!
2. We spent the night in Kelowna on Boxing Day, at Danny's Grandma's along with his parents and our sister Darla. They helped us move out to Vancouver, so that was AWESOME and SUCH a big help. We eventually made it out here where we proceeded to move in all our boxes, and do some painting too! I will post photos soon!
3. Our cousins from California were up for new Year's so we took them to Stanley Park (a giant beautiful park near the ocean), and while we were out on a 20 minute walk our car was broken into and they stole our laptop and some of our cousins things. It was a sad sad day. There was no sign of breaking and entering, so they got in some secret way...Thankfully insurance kicks in and we give them $500 for the deductible and then we get a new laptop. AND we have all our photos on backup (Praise God), so we are safe in that respect. But still super bummed.
4. I had school orientation the other day and met my small class of girls! All girls! It was good though. So crazy to walk into the school and its all about travel. I start tomorrow and I am lookin forward to it!
5. We went to church today and there are tons of ppl that are from Edmonton that go there...so strange! It was good though...awesome teaching, and really young crowd. Its in a movie theater. So we are going to go again next week. Its really close to our house, and on a really cool street. We'll give it a shot, and make a decision in the future if we want to make it home.
6. The job search is slowly coming along. I am hoping to get a job at this place where they sell travel literature and it is just jam packed full of cool books on literary travel... I love it! And its only blocks from our place! Danny is hunkering down this week to look for something for him now that we are more settled.
7. Someone kicked our car the other day. Long story short, the other day we were stuck in traffic by a train and we didnt move our car up 2 feet as this man rudely honked at us to do so, so once he eventually got passed us, his friend got out of the car with fuming rage and proceeded to yell at us, punch our window, and then he kicked our car. He was psycho.
8. I am eating a delicious chocolate banana loaf right now.

So that is all for now folks. I promise when life becomes more normal I will write more!