For Love is the most powerful word and action, man was ever taught; Love is what we are and children are the greatest gift of Love.

    So, Jaa got me the new Fluval Edge 6 gallon fish tank for our anniversary! I love it so much! It is very stylish and contemporary and very calming and nice to look at. The design and the way it's engineered is somewhat sketchy because only part of the whole tank is sitting on the base that comes with the whole thing. Then another piece sits on top and together it creates a very stylish, modern look! Take a look at the pictures and see for yourself. 

   I don't have very detailed pictures of the base and every pieces that comes with it. Inside this black piece located at the back is a very powerful Hagen*Fluval Edge filter. It is made for it and you have to buy the one made for this tank. It's not very expensive and you would only have to change the filter at least once a month if you want to maintain a healthy tank and healthy fish. If you want more detail Google "Fluval Edge Aquarium" and you should be able to find detailed info about the tank itself and reviews. I personally love it!   The tank is all glass, it's the first 3D tank. There is a small opening on top where that top black piece is covering so you can access the inside for decorating, cleaning, and feeding the fish. The set comes with 2 small halogen light bulbs that gives off heat and provides ample lighting for the tank. I don't have a heater for my tank because I find that the halogen lights give enough heat to keep the water warm at 80 Fahrenheit. 

    I decided to use white sand instead of gravel for this tank. I don't really think that gravel will put the edge on this Edge and make it more stylish and high-end! We also have a 55 gallon with natural looking pebbles (I will talk more about it later on another blog.) My Fluval Edge has a few rocks, the one in the middle is an expensive "petrified" rock from Big Al's in Edmonton. It is the center focal point or the point of interest in this tank. It's a very nice rock. The other flat rocks you see are from another pet store and I've decided to stack them on corners. I have all live plants in this tank, no fakes. I have 2 live sword plants and 2 live mandos, and 1 moss ball. I love how my tank is set up. It's beautiful and I love staring at it!

   I have a thermometer in it to make sure that the temperature is nice and comfortable for the fish. In the photo above you will see two Bala Sharks. I have a few more fish in there now which you will see in the pictures below.

   Here you will see one of my bala sharks, 2 albino tetras (the white-cloudy looking fish), you will also see a small striped Severum at the back if you look closely. The Severum is a type of a non aggressive cichlid. He is small right now but will eventually get bigger. He will not live in this tank for a long time, I will eventually have to transfer him in to our huge tank. He is only here temporarily. Oh and if you notice there is a little fish on the bottom left hand side, that is one of my zebra danios.

    This is Molly the balloon molly! They look so cool, almost like a puffer fish =) I wanted to get a molly in the tank..and what better choice than to get a balloon molly..the coolest looking molly of all mollies!

    The Fluval Edge tank from another point of view! Oh, the tank is set on top of a wood and wrought iron wine/serving rack. Its a very nice little table to set our new tank. By the way, the fluval edge comes in three different base color, Burnt Orange, Black, and Pewter. I wanted a Pewter color so bad but every PetSmart in Canada only have them in Black. The only place that had them in Pewter was Big Al's in Edmonton BUT they were more expensive! The black isn't so bad actually..the sand and the rocks just makes it pop!

   A very nice picture of the bala shark. Of course the picture was taken by me. Too bad about the smudge on the tank that I didn't notice until after I took the picture. 

    If you can see, there's a tiny striped fish just above the petrified rock...that is one of the zebra danios. And if you notice on the right side, middle part of the photo there is a tail..that is the Pictus Catfish' tail. Unfortunately I didn't capture him in the photo because those darn catfish swim fast! They just never stop moving..ever.

    Well there you have it. Hope you liked my little blog about my little tank. Yes, I am trying to convince you to get one because they are nice and takes very little to maintain. Even if you want a bigger tank you can still have this. We have a 55 gallon fish tank and that didn't stop us from getting this. We love fish tanks, if we could have more we would. We are looking in to upgrading to a bigger tank eventually..probably next summer(2011.) It's our hobby and I don't think we'll ever get tired of the maintenance. 

    Fish tanks are so calming and if you actually do your research well you will find that fish tanks are commonly used for people that have stress disorders, youths that have issues, and its overall appearance brings Zen into peoples lives. 

*Much Love!*

My tattoos...

For Love is the most powerful word and action, man was ever taught; Love is what we are and children are the greatest gift of Love.

     I love taking pictures of everything! From my son being funny to the dog being silly and Jaa being..well, Jaa! I even let Braelan take pictures and believe it or not they do turn out good as well. 

This is Jaa being photographed by Braelan!

Hehe..Braelan's foot!

   I forgot to blog about my new tattoos! I finally got a foot tattoo on August 13th, 2010 and "Brae" tattooed on my wrist on August 31st, 2010. Notice the dates?? I know! It was weird because I never even thought of that until the day I got my wrist tattoo. My favorite number is 13! I know some say its the bad luck number but it's been lucky for me so far. So here's a picture of my foot tattoo...

   Foot tattoos hurt! This one hurt more in between the top of my foot and my ankle, other than that it was bearable. It took just over 2 hours and cost me about $300 (no I am not joking.) You can't see the whole thing in this picture but you should be able to on the next photo...

      Here you can see that it goes all the way up above my ankle bone and it also goes past my ankle bone. There was a lot of details involve and she had to take a little slow around the middle area because that it where it hurts the most. I must say though, I did not twitched or moved once..like I said it was bearable until the last 15 minutes of the session when my foot had become so swollen and raised. I love this tattoo!! It looks awesome and was definitely worth the pain. 

   The next photo is of my old tattoo..my very first tattoo that lasted about 4 hours and some. To be honest, I expected this tattoo to hurt because that is what people told me. BUT it didn't hurt that much at all! 

   It's a tiger/tribal tattoo. You can see the eyes if you look closely. Like my foot tattoo, there was also a lot of details involved with this one. I think the painful and most uncomfortable experience with this tattoo was the way I was sitting. It was a taller chair and I had to sit facing the back rest and had to lean towards it. I am short so my legs and feet were dangling down..and that became uncomfortable after an hour! This tattoo cost me $450! I couldn't sleep on my back for awhile but that didn't bother me because I'm a stomach sleeper. 

    This is one of my new tattoo. It is short for "Braelan", which is my sons name. This tattoo did not hurt at all, it was quick and it healed within a week! I love this tattoo! I was going to add his birthday (Sept. 28th, 2010) in roman numerals just below his name but decided not to because I have other plans. I want to get Braelan, Jaa, and my birthday in roman numerals and have it tattooed on my left shoulder (I already have a kanji tattoo on my right shoulder blade.) I want more work done eventually. Some of my friends say I'm addicted, I say "oh well". I don't have any other addictions. I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, I don't watch pornography, I hate shopping, really just no addiction but getting unique art tattooed on me. If people don't like then don't look at it =)

     I will update later when I get more ink done..which is real soon ;)

*Much Love!*

    

Our 6th year Anniversary

For Love is the most powerful word and action, man was ever taught; Love is what we are and children are the greatest gift of Love.

 Our 6th year Anniversary is on October 1st, 2010! After all these years; after all the challenges we've been through, all the happiness, laughters, tears and fights we've shared...we are still going strong! I wouldn't change a thing about us except that as we grow older..together..that our friendship and the foundation of our relationship will stay strong, stronger than anything in this world!

    Many have asked if we are married..or when we are getting married. We've honestly thought about it..but why now? We are perfectly content with our relationship status. We are practically married! We want to eventually get married someday..maybe we will when we are both 50 years old! Honestly that is not a bad idea at all. Just look at how marriage can turn a perfectly good relationship, sour. I don't want that for us. Sure it is nice to get married and easily drop $5000 or more on just for that one special day but right now we are perfectly comfortable with our relationship status. 

    I've witnessed a few marriages that had gone sour and ended badly. Many saw it as an opportunity to "steal" from each others riches and make one feel bad about themselves. Just because you've been dating for a few years or have known each other for a long long time even before you started dating and gotten engaged..you still don't know a lot about that person..not unless you've been together for 25 and some years, have lived together, have kids together, have gone through A LOT of challenges..and I mean a real "mean roller coaster ride" kind of challenges..it is not worth getting married and tying yourself into something you will end up regretting..or something that would end up to a divorce. Some may say that I am being negative..I absolutely am not! I'm simply being realistic and staying true to myself. Fighting and all that does not test your relationship enough..but having kids before marriage does!

   You and your husband are used to having time alone; You two are used to going out (alone or together..it doesn't matter); You two are used to being spoiled, both of you are used to having careers of your own...the list goes on. You see many couples that are divorcing after 25 years of marriage because they are just realizing that their relationship is over, there was nothing fun about it anymore. I want my partner I to be the opposite. I want us to go through all the hard times now and really, truly out our love to the test and see how far it will take us. Having a son together and putting my career on hold and being the one sacrificing what I have for both my son and Jaa is pretty hard to swallow sometimes. Sometimes I catch myself wondering what life would be like if I was on the other side of the fence...but you no matter what I think or fantasize..I still would not trade a day of my life for someone else' successful and "perfect" life. 

   So therefore I am not saying that I don't want to get married. I just prefer to wait for many more years to come and then tie the knot because I know that once Jaa and I have been together for 25 and some years and have put our love to test..then I can honestly say that getting married is like the icing on top of a beautifully sculpted cake! 

   I love you Jaa Carrigan!

*Much Love!*

   

Braelan's 3rd Birthday

::September 28th, 2010:: Late entry...
  
    Braelan is officially three years old! I love it! I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. Yes, I still miss him being small and dependent on me BUT this change is good. He is a lot more fun and such a little person! I can actually have small "little person" conversation with him without having to say "huh?" more than once! 
    We had to celebrate his actual birthday by ourselves because Daddy is working away during the week but he is home on weekends =) We had a nice birthday party for him the weekend before his birthday. He loved both of his cakes especially the train-shaped cake!

      The lady that designed his cake did a really good job! I loved it! But most of all Braelan loved it! For his actual birthday I got him a number '3' cake and three train-shape chocolate lollipop. He loved the lollipop and ate one all by himself on his special day..of course I took the other two lollipops without him seeing because I wasn't going to let him eat a lot of chocolate! 

This was his number '3' cake!

    I love everything about this cake! We still have some left of course..saving some for Jaa for when he comes home =) I took more pictures of Braelan's reactions and everything about his special day!

Just couldn't wait to start eating! ^.^

  Happy 3rd Birthday Braelan!

We LOVE you so much!

*Much Love!*

Little less blogging lately...

When was the last time I blogged...

Ok, I'm not going to lie and say "I didn't have time", or "I have been super busy", or "There is just not enough time in the day to blog"..I simply did not have anything to say..!

Well here's what's new...

-Jaa is barely home nowadays. He is between two jobs in Vermilion and St. Paul; he is gone during the week but comes back on weekends. Braelan misses him terribly and so do I. Luckily, we got to spend the whole week with him last week! His awesome boss suggested that Braelan and I should go up to St. Paul and stay with him in his "company paid for" hotel room. I was astounded more than Jaa when I found out that they would let me and Braelan tag along with him! It was a nice little getaway for us and I will forever be grateful.

-Jaa is doing really well at work. Needless to say he's been there for over four years and he is pretty devoted to his job (not that he isn't at home.) You can look at it both ways, the positive is that he is never a target for getting "laid-off" or getting "fired". He's never mentioned anything about leaving the company he's working for..not because he is happy or unhappy, he is very happy and content with his job. Jaa doesn't want to leave us at home by ourselves. We know that him being away is only temporary because he has another project here at home. He didn't want to be the kind of dad that his kid will never get to know. There had been many opportunities where Jaa could have worked for someone else and be away from home for more than 7 days (this was way back, before Braelan even turned one.) He would've made more money BUT he would've missed out on his son's daily progress. He chose to stay because he knew what meant more to him. I'm very proud of Jaa's success, although he has progressed slower than the others it was his good reputation and great workmanship that he never lacked. Anyways, (haha) his boss has decided to give him a company work van that he can take home with him and use everyday. He is not a journeyman yet, but his boss definitely saw his hard work and potential. It was well deserved!

-Braelan is almost three years old! My little baby isn't so little anymore. On September 25th, 2010, we had his 3rd birthday party celebration just with close friends and family. He was ecstatic! He received a bunch of gifts and he loved his "train-shaped" cake! We are very happy that it turned out right and everyone enjoyed themselves. His real birthday is on September 28th..(which is tomorrow!!!) I still can't believe that he is turning 3! Where did the time go?? He is super smart; he knows the different colors and shapes; he can count from 1 to 20 and knows the alphabet..all before he is even three years old! It brings such joy (and tears) to us. The way that he is becoming more and more independent and we can actually have real conversations with him! It is definitely amazing and I'm very glad that neither Jaa nor I have to miss out on this. Braelan also has baby chores, he likes cleaning up his room after he plays, he likes to hold the dust pan when we're sweeping the floor! He can go to the bathroom by himself and get up on the toilet without a step-stool. He can wipe his own bum (and I always check his bum to make sure its clean..and IT ALWAYS IS!) He is definitely growing and everyday I feel like he won't ever need my help anymore..it's a bittersweet happiness.

-Braelan starts Preschool! On October 4th, 2010 Braelan will start his first day of Preschool. He will attending once a week on Mondays for two hours a day. We took him with us when we registered and I know that he is going to love it! They have a huge indoor playground and they have their own lockers! Here's to the beginning of school expenses, volunteering, making lunches, not missing the parent-teacher meeting, recitals and practices, and years of birthday parties full of kids! =)

So overall that is all I have to say. I could talk about our upcoming 6th year anniversary..but that's not until October 1st..so I will talk about it then =)

Much Love!