Born 'n Bred Country Girl

I Just Can't Quite Make it Happen

2009-09-04T22:07:00.003-04:00

As i'm sure it is pretty obvious by my lack of posts, but the blog has fallen to the bottom of the list of priorities right now.

I just can't seem to make time for this little new hobby.

I also can't quite figure out how other people manage to make it happen.

This will be a busy fall/winter since we decided to keep my oldest home and wait another year to send him to school. Or rather re-evaluate our options, motives, choices etc. next year. Who knows what God has in store for us. A lot can change in the next 12 months.

I am however a fast reader and have no intention on giving up on reading my list of blogs that I enjoy reading. Right now I sit beside my laptop and get to scroll through the ones that I read while I feed my youngest. It's the perfect set up.

Anyhow, until I have some revelation on how to blog and keep up with the rest of my life, the blog will have to remain at the bottom of the list.

See you later!

2009-05-28T14:19:00.001-04:00

"Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character must be proven trustworthy in our own minds."
Oswald Chambers

The many faces...

2009-04-09T22:16:00.002-04:00

I just had to post these:

The infamous pout that all my kids do.
So heartbraking.
Thank goodness it doesn't happen often.

Now that's better.

My big girl turns 2!

2009-04-07T23:16:00.007-04:00

The birthday girl!

Sitting down for our birthday supper.

Making cupcake bites (thanks Bakerella!)

P was more into eating the smarties. I have no idea how many she inhaled.

Mouth chock full of sweets.
Yummy.

My mom was here to celebrate with us.

Happy Birthday big girl!

New crocs that LIGHT UP from Liz! Thanks Liz- P thinks now that she has to wear those on her bike because she got them all together.

Liz thought of my son too. Egg shaped sidewalk chalk.
Thanks Liz!

Closing her eyes waiting for her gift from mommy and daddy.

An elmo bike that sings! We're hoping this will ignite the fire to ride now that she has her own
since she was always trying to ride her big brother's.

Opening a special card from Ellie-Ma. It sings the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

A helmet from Ellie-Ma!

She's fully equipped.

Some birthday money from Great-Grandma! Thanks Great-Grandma.

I often pick up things for the kids that I know they'll like for when they get birthday money.
P got an aqua doodle with her money.
:)

And just like that we move on to another year. Wow.

Super Size My...........Coffee??

2009-04-07T16:50:00.004-04:00

Tim Hortons is predominantly a Canadian thing as you know. But as we crossed the border in Niagara Falls into the US of A we both suddenly craved coffee and the caffeine buzz we knew would follow (lack of sleep due to copious amounts of Rock Band can do that to you). Much to our delight we saw a Tim Hortons just off our exit for lunch which we happened to miss because of some directional confusion (not pointing any fingers). About 20 minutes later we happened upon a rest stop with a Tim Hortons in it. Yay!

I went in to order a large for my hubby and a medium for myself. I was really confused when I looked at the prices and saw that these coffees were more pricy than the Canadian version.

As I began ordering, I learned that OUR medium's were their SMALLS. So OUR large was actually their mediums. When I glanced up at the size charts I was astounded at their size of an Extra large coffee.

American Extra Large and Medium (of course we had to buy one!)

Trying to put it into perspective.

It was huge. And no he didn't drink it all.

Caffeine fix definitely satisfied.

Vacation Part Three

2009-04-04T12:58:00.009-04:00

Next stop was my Aunt and Uncle near Buffalo, USA. This stop was long overdue. We had hoped to go visit them last year but it never ended panning out. We vowed to ourselves that we'd make it happen this year.We had some nice quality time here. The kids really enjoyed Uncle Rei's crayons

P really enjoyed Aunt Dorothy's water filled doll.

Computers and sour gummy bears. Yum!
We ate soo much on holidays. It was so hard to say no to all the treats.

More computer down time in the evening. I just loved how we could all be doing our own thing but still together in the same room.

Aunt Dorothy and H.

My big little girl.

Chomping down on dinosaur eggs.
These were a must on our list of things to get while visiting.

They are candy coated chocolate eggs that have a dinosaur gummy in the middle.
We promised we wouldn't give up the name of the little shoppe that sold them.

Some group shots before we left. Poor Uncle Rei had his hands full.
He was pretty popular.

We tried for a family shot. :)

Back on the road again. Home here we come.

P looking for toe jam.
It's a thing my kids do when they have nothing else to do.
Just what you need to close off a good road trip.
Hmmmm Timmy's.

Vacation Part Two

2009-03-30T22:23:00.004-04:00

Next stop: Niagara Falls! We made reservations at a hotel there that was a package deal for the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark!

This picture looks like the one in the brochure. It was very cool!

The teen/adult waterslides. Lots of fun too.

This was a bit more my daughter's style. She's kinda like me when it comes to water.
We love it but can only last for so long. My husband and son could have been in the water for hours.
The park also had this big indoor jungle gym. They thought of everything!

We took a stroll around Niagara Falls.
We couldn't resist.

Good 'ol Hershey factory.

Then onto the third leg of our trip!

Vacation Part 1.5

2009-03-30T21:35:00.006-04:00

Here are the rest of the pics from our first part of our trip with Sarah and Marc. More Crazy Bounce:

Lots of Fun!

Vacation Part One

2009-03-20T16:43:00.012-04:00

This year we decided to venture out on a 22 hour round trip van ride. The first part of our trip brought us to Michigan where we went to visit one of my good friends Sarah who has since left Canada to be with the love of her life, her husband Marc.

See how dark it is out the windows? We took off at 5am.
Here they are watching veggie tales on the laptop.

Stopped at this little diner called Louie's for breakfast with Uncle Bo-Bo.
Saw this tin artwork in the window and thought of my mom.

Everyone brought their camera's on the trip.

Uncle Bo-Bo (aka Grayson) with his "hot" ride.
Another one for the books.

Driving again.

We made it!!!

I'm so serious here. LOVED rock band.

A shot of coffee in the morning (so tired from staying up late every night
touring with our band).

More Rock Band!

We hit up this crazy cool place called "Crazy Bounce".
It's a huge gym full of air bounces of various sizes.
Soooo tiring and sooo much fun.
Here my son is flying down one of the slides.

My daughter came down with a nasty cough and a fever while we were there that ended up lasting the whole trip.

Uncle Marc made her a smoothie because she wasn't eating much.
She loved it.
In retrospect I think her previous cold that hadn't quite gone away ended up developing into croup.
Thankfully she is fine now.

UGHGHGHGH i'm so frustrated....I can't seem to get the rest of these pictures to load...will try later. Anyone else getting an error??

You Know You're Slipping as a Parent When....

2009-03-16T20:15:00.004-04:00

You forget that while you were on vacation you happened to see your daughter stuffing crayons in her dress pocket and that you forgot to check if there were any of those said crayons still in her dress pocket when you did laundry three days later.

And that would explain why three loads of miscellaneous clothing have purple, blue and black crayon on them.

And just in case you were wondering uncle Rei, that is why you no longer have those crayon colors in your lovely clay crayon holder.

2009-03-02T22:41:00.002-05:00

"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground?"

I apologize for all the quotes. But these have just been popping out at me lately. Inspiring me and spurring me on as a mull various things over in my head.

Cool Art

2009-03-01T13:06:00.002-05:00

If I were even able to create something like this AND if my husband would ever let the van get remotely close to being this dirty, I would totally do this:

Dirty Car Art

*thought of you mom

food for thought

2009-02-28T22:03:00.002-05:00

"If you want your child to get the best education possible, it's actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school."
Bill Gates

Milestones

2009-02-28T11:14:00.008-05:00

It seems like over the past few days the kids have been doing certain things that are "ones for the books" as the expression goes.

First born:

I know it is hard to make out if you don't know what his first name is but this is the closest ever that he has come to writing his name.
This is a day later. Oh and I forgot to mention that both of these times he did these all by himself without anyone monitoring or coaching. He simply came to me with his paper and said "look mom, my name!"
This one he had help with the 'M'.
This is just so darn cute- the great smile and the deer in headlight eyes!

Our middle child:

I thought i'd try potty training. I've been putting it off for various reasons.
She was more than willing to go on the potty and we've had several successes and only two accidents!

I couldn't help myself. Her little bum just looks so cute in girlie panties.
She also discovered her tummy last night with markers.
This picture was taken today after a 30 minute bath and after rubbing some off on her pj's.
I wish I had remembered to take a picture when it happened.
Makes we wonder if tattoos are in her future.

The baby:

She's really taken to finding her hands and sucking them to death.

She's also doing quite well on her tummy time and love to sit up looking around
(trying to help her do it on her own)

We also got her ears pierced with her birth money from Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Rei.
So cute.

I started this post first thing this morning during my computer time and it has taken me all day to get it finished. It's just one of those days when things move very slowly. Sigh. How many hours until bedtime?

The New Doo

2009-02-27T21:23:00.003-05:00

It seems that after any monumental landmarks in my life, I go and chop off my hair and try something new. After I got married, after my firstborn, after my second born and now after my third born.

This time though I had been inspired by an old high school acquaintance to donate my locks to charity. This led me to the Angel Hair for Kids network. I wanted to donate locally and after asking around I learned about this great organization.

So I lopped off 10 inches of long virgin hair. And so now I look like this:

For those of you that know me well, I am not a big "hair" person. This new do has taken me on the new adventure of introducing a blow dryer to my hair AND a flat iron so that I don't have wings by the end of the day (trust me I tried seeing if I could do without it). These pictures were taken on such day. :)

I love my new hair cut. My scalp loves my new hair cut (my hair was heavy!). NO more going through an elastic a day (a weight thing I think). NO more super long showers washing and rinsing my mop. NO more ponytail in the way when I am sleeping. And NO more dandruff (something I get in the winter and during pregnancy). Sorry if that's too much information but who knew less hair (well for me) equals less dandruff. I suppose it has something to do with things being able to move more freely....I don't know.

My heads happy, I'm happy which means were all happy right?

In this house anyways.

Spring Fever

2009-02-24T15:52:00.002-05:00

I had this plant a poppy in a kit thing kicking around our house. You know the ones with the meshed up soil that you add water too and then you just pour in the seeds. The kids and I did that "activity" the other day. It got me thinking about the summer and how nice it would be to have some of our own vegetables growing in our backyard. I'm thinking maybe we might start some tomatoes and lettuce and maybe something else (not sure what though). I hope to put these thoughts into actions sometime soon. I'm not a gardener but I think I've heard this is the time to do these things.

I need to do some more research. Any tips?

Renovations #2

2009-02-22T16:14:00.005-05:00

Note: I started this post late November, but then life got the better of me and then we had a baby. So here it is in case anyone was wondering what we ended up doing.

The basement has been an ongoing project even before we thought of even touching the kitchen. It all started one day because our condo was paying to have a big dumpster come and take away trash for a late spring clean-up (June). So we thought we should capitalize on this free service and ended up tearing down one wall of old paneling and the whole ceiling in the basement (which pretty much fell down once that one wall was gone and no longer supporting a part of it).

Then came the multiple trips to Home Depot picking up huge sheets of drywall that we anchored to our little Volkswagon Jetta at the time. It was an adventure trying to get this stuff home.

Anyways we did it. Well, my husband did most of it. I'm a good support staff. :)

So here we are with more before and after pics.

We tore down all of one wall and ALL of the ceiling.

That light was the only light we had in the basement when we moved in.
My husband quickly wired up a second light so it wasn't so dark but it was very roughly done.

Below is a picture of part of the ceiling with the NEW pot lights installed!
What a difference.

The other side all drywalled and ready to be primed. And more pot lights!

The idea we had for the basement was to keep it our rec/play room for the kids but make it appealing for future owners as a den/office space. So we went with a more mature color scheme (although I did like the green, red and yellow myself).

So this is the final product minus a few touch ups:

So there we go. Just one more step towards increasing the value of our home for our future sell someday. And the kids have their playroom back! You should of seen their faces when they saw all the toys that had been put away. We were also able to purge some in the process in light of Christmas being just around the corner at that point.

Opening Gifts from Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma F.

2009-02-17T20:59:00.001-05:00

My brother decided to show up and surprise us the day before New Years Eve. He brought with him some gifts from the Great-Grandparents on my mom's side. Did I mention the kids got spoiled?
My kids LOVE LOVE books. Especially P. She is our avid reader. L loves to read too but he is more into games. He thinks he can read when he sees numbers and can tell us how many things are on the page. It's quite cute.

These books are perfect! Thanks Great Grandma and Grandpa!

Cooking

2009-02-17T18:37:00.005-05:00

I interrupt this Christmas reminiscing with my latest discovery!

It was my husband's birthday on the 6th. He requested his favorite meal and his mom's chocolate cake. So we got the recipe from his mom and I made the cake.

WOW! Amazing!

I don't think I had ever tried this cake before. If I had I am sure I would have remembered! It was soooo delicious!!
Soooo delicious in fact that I devoured almost the whole thing myself over the course of the next three days (hey at least it took me that long!).
Sooo delicious in fact that I had to make the cake again....yesterday!

Sooo delicious in fact that I started to devour this cake and HAVE to get it out my house SOON! So far I have managed to pawn some off on a friend that lives close by and I think i'll send the rest to work with my husband tomorrow. I just have NO self-control when it comes to this chocolate cake. I even left the glaze off this time in hopes that it wouldn't taste AS good and it would last longer. But no.

Anyways, I was feeling pretty good in the cooking department and decided to retry my husband's favorite meal (my Aunt Jennie's Chicken Delight for those who may be wondering). But I thought I would do some things differently this time .....and....wellll.....

It Bombed.

It just didn't taste right. My husband got me so paranoid about it not being cooked properly that we threw it out and decided to order in pizza.

Sigh.

I guess I can't expect to get it all right.

:)

Opening Gifts From Liz

2009-02-14T14:01:00.004-05:00

Finger paints and markers from my mom's friend Liz. She's an artist and is encouraging our kids' creativity. I love it!
(pictured are my husband's aunt and uncle)

Opening Gifts From Grandma S.

2009-02-14T13:48:00.006-05:00

Grandma S. sent up some gifts for the kids to open on Christmas. So spoiled. We opened gifts a day early on Christmas eve day with my husbands Aunt and Uncle. It was so nice to have them with us to share Christmas with in our home.

Opening H's gift.

A lovely Christmas outfit!

She sat here for a good two hours while we opened gifts and tested them out.

So cute.

A family book: Robert Munsch collection!

This new dolly uses all of H's things. P is such a little mommy.

We all had fun playing with the new remote control "Cars" cars. (My husband Aunt here).

Thanks Grandma S.!

Opening Gifts from Ellie-Ma

2009-02-14T13:27:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure why but we did wait until closer to Christmas to let the kids open their gifts from my mom whom they call 'Ellie-Ma'.

Perfect considering all the snow we've gotten so far this year.

Many a tea party we've had with these dishes.

A Backyardigan magic coloring book and some paints.

Many people have been receiving various artwork from the kids.

Thanks Ellie-Ma!

Valentines, Christmas and Mothers

2009-02-14T13:11:00.003-05:00

Well today is Valentines Day. I have been flipping through my Christmas pictures while my husband sleeps. He had to work a double shift yesterday/last night. So that kind of changed my/our plans for today.

Any how, I decided to look through some pictures and realized I had not yet posted the pictures of the kids opening family presents like I had told some family members I would. I apologize for those of you who are not family because the next few posts might bore you. But you get to see just how spoiled our kids were by everyone this year, you'll get to see the inside of our humble little home, and meet some of our beloved family!

We decided this past Christmas to stay local since we were having a baby and it proved to be a very nice, relaxing and special Christmas. My mom came up to be with us for the birth and to help out and it was a special treat having her with us for a week and a half.

Thanks mom for all of your help!

Optimism

2009-02-11T14:27:00.003-05:00

Winston Churchill once said, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

This came from my devotions today.

I think this is going to be my new favorite quote. And I think on the whole i'm an optimist...at least that's what I aim for.

Before Bed Thoughts

2009-02-10T20:37:00.003-05:00

* I think I want to do a raised bed garden in my back yard this summer. Maybe some tomatoes and herbs. Nothing too grandiose.

* Soccer registration is just around the corner. I am so excited for my son. I wish I could think of something fun to put my daughter in. Keeping my ears open for swimming lessons maybe in someone's backyard. I don't know.

* Been really feeling my heart being pricked with the idea of homeschooling my son. Sigh. Such a burden there.

* Excited for fondu night with good friends tomorrow night.

* Reflecting on a long overdue conversation I had with a friend today- so glad she is in my life. It's amazing how God has changed us and our friendship over the years but in other ways things seem like they always have been. Another sister.

* Participating in a 30 day marriage challenge put on by Heather over at More Than Survival, Choosing a Simple Life - been a challenge but worthwhile. I'm excited to see the fruits of my labor as I make these changes a habit.

Erin.

Books and Motherhood

2009-02-10T11:42:00.004-05:00

Lately, as a part of our bible study group, we've been reading the book "The Five Love Languages of Children" the follow up to Gary Chapman's first book "The Five Love Languages" (which I also just finished before my third was born).

I love love reading but haven't done so in a long time. And still haven't really. The books I read are mostly for some Bible study group thing or parenting course or other classes I might be taking at a particular time. None the less these books are my latest reads and I have found myself being challenged daily to be careful how I treat others.

The idea behind these books is that most people understand/feel/receive love the MOST in one particular way or language. The five languages being gifts, physical touch, quality time, words of encouragement and acts of kindness. For example, I feel most loved when my husband spends quality time with me. I know he loves me by telling me or doing things for me but it means the most to me when we hang out or watch a show together or do family outings. That's my love language.

Anyways, I have been reflecting on what my kids and husband's love languages are. My son is definitely physical touch and quality time! My older daughter seems to be words of encouragement and quality time. My husband is also physical touch and words of encouragement. And my youngest? She's still too young to tell.

In light of this i've been trying to speak their languages so that they KNOW in the best way possible that I love them.

My biggest revelation has been that since I have poured more energy into this experiment my kids are both more receptive to my discipline. There are less outbursts, less tantrums, more obedience, more love showing among siblings and to us parents, and more peace.

The books talk about "love tanks" and how we need to keep these full. So by keeping my kids tanks full of love by holding them, encouraging them, and spending MORE quality time with them they feel more loved and don't seem to take it as personally when I need to discipline them. It no longer sends them the message that mommy doesn't love them.

Now that I am a mother of three, the biggest challenge has been re-establishing our routines (the one that works for our house that is) and re-making time for everyone now that there is an extra person to care for.

It has been hard work. Emotionally and spiritually challenging but I am happy to report that after 9 weeks I finally feel like I have figured out a system where I am still doing my devotions, I am still spending time with God, I am still spending time with the kids and my husband, and I can still blog and have a relatively clean house on top of it all.

Thank you Lord for giving me the strength to push on and find what works for our family. Thank you that You have given me another child and with that the joy of being a mother to 3 little beings. Thank you for books that remind me how to be a Godly wife and mother. I thanks you for fellowship and the value that has in spurring me on to become more like you.

2009-02-09T22:17:00.002-05:00

This is my lame attempt at jumping back into blogging. I feel like I have so much to write about but so little time or rather I spend my time doing other things.

I think in honor of this new year and my new life as a mother of 3, I would like to redesign my blog....

Just for interest sake here's my latest favorite picture of the kids!

And then the aftermath. :)
Happy Monday!

Still Alive

2008-12-26T21:55:00.002-05:00

I haven't forgotten about my blog.
Life has become, as you can imagine, very busy now that baby #3 is here.
She was born December 8th.
Now that we've sort of gotten used to this organized chaos, I will be working on getting some pictures up. Sorry family and friends. :)

Oh and Merry Christmas (belated) and a Happy New Year!

Renovations #1

2008-11-28T08:24:00.006-05:00

Ok so no baby yet. I am now 38 weeks and counting. So I thought it was about time I just got back on this blogging bandwagon and got you all caught up.

As I have mentioned before, in light of a certain rodent in our house, we ended up gutting our kitchen and installing new cabinets.

Here are some pictures of the progress:

The right side of the kitchen BEFORE. We got a little demo happy before I remembered to take a picture.
right side.
Right side bottom done.

The tile went up too high so we started to tear it off. Only it took the wall with it. Hence the big hole.
Hole fixed.

Almost there!
Yay! Don't mind the dishes. It didn't take me long to move back in.
The right side is done. Just have the painting and tiling to finish. My husband did a great job.

The left side of the kitchen BEFORE.
All gutted.
Man I love the color of these cabinets!
My favorite section. We had zero drawers before. And we were able to miraculously find an already pre-cut section of counter top that just happened to match the counter on the other side.
And the finished product. Still have handles and painting to do but at least I have my kitchen back!!

Plus ...I haven't seen traces of or heard a mouse since! All worth it just for this reason alone.

Blah

2008-11-20T21:06:00.002-05:00

no baby and no desire to post anything right now.

definitely not for lack of things going on.

i'm just plain tuckered out right now and have been using my energy stores for things like getting food on the table and hauling myself up and down my stairs every time i have to pee.

pray for me that this baby comes healthy and if God willing soon. i'm 37 weeks and considered term. so anytime would be nice.

sigh.

My Apologies

2008-11-08T21:35:00.002-05:00

Going to continue to be away from the computer for awhile. Had a very nice week back home visiting family. Now we have visitors at our house for a week. My sister-in-law and her two kids are staying with us while she is a hunting widow. 'Tis that time of year.

Will post again when life settles down ~ at least we should get a break before the baby comes.

Bubble Wrap

2008-10-27T18:52:00.002-04:00

If anyone wants an idea for my son for Christmas. Here it is.
:)

Anyone?

2008-10-24T21:31:00.000-04:00

Some one want to explain the rational behind this?
I'm thinking it has something to do with "super powers".
Another phase.

Fall Fever

2008-10-22T22:07:00.003-04:00

I'm always on the look-out for fun things we can do together as a family. So I picked up a pumpkin the other day for real cheap and decided that since we won't actually be home for halloween we should carve it now.

I can't remember if we carved one last year or not but I do know that my son most likely didn't remember. This year both kids were very excited about cracking it open and seeing what was inside. Although, neither of them, were too fond of the "goo".

Check out the face on my son. We gave my daughter her own little bowl. She was very intent on finding all the little seeds.

I let the kids draw their own faces on the pumpkin with washable markers. It was looking like a face until my daughter had her turn.

Eventually my husband and I had our turns. Thus the end result.

My son was very excited with the end result. He wanted to leave all the lights off for the rest of the night. My daughter on the other hand became very leary and cautious of the pumpkin once it was lit up and dark. A transformation I don't think she quite understood.

Another fun, family night for the books. Cheap, simple and memorable. Good times.

Miscellaneous

2008-10-21T20:40:00.004-04:00

Kind of a crappy day here. The weather is gloomy and dark and cold and rainy. The kids are more irritable than normal (most likely overtired from our busy weekend). And its my late sister's birthday today. Just a lot of ugly mood affecting stuff going on here.

So I was flipping through my photo's I just put on the computer and thought i'd share some that made me smile.

Hope your day was more sunny than ours.

Lost and Found

2008-10-17T21:01:00.003-04:00

Two months ago I lost a set of keys for a couple of homes (mine included). I figured my daughter had taken them out of my purse, since she goes in there all the time, and left them somewhere in my grandparents house where we were visiting almost 4 hours away at the time.

It wasn't a really big deal. I was disappointed more about the actual key chain than the keys. So imagine my surprise when I received a call from our local OPP detachment letting me know they had a set of keys that belonged to me.

Turns out they were found somewhere on the main drag in our town by some guy who turned them in because they had an M&M meat shop tag on them. He figured they would be able to trace the keys back to the owner.

I was pretty excited to get my key chain back. Only, as you can see, my keys were no longer in one piece. I must have lost them somewhere in a parking lot because those three pieces you see used to be attached.

Never the less, I am thankful for that gentlemen that decided to turn them in and I am thankful to have my key chain back so I can stop blaming my daughter for "hiding" them somewhere.

Bedtime Snack

2008-10-17T07:44:00.002-04:00

I am not sure what has overcome my son's tastebuds, but for the last couple of nights he's been asking for carrots and dip before bed.

This is also one of the only ways he will eat carrots at present, so who am I to complain.

It's just weird some of the phases kids will go through.

To Do List

2008-10-15T15:38:00.002-04:00

I had my regular midwife appointment yesterday. We discovered that the baby is currently in a breach position. Nothing to worry about but it did get me thinking. We discussed the plan of action if the baby is still in that position in another month. If she is still breach then, depending on a few factors, she will most likely be born early.

This made me think that maybe I should get a head start on my to do list sooner than later.

1- do the official switch over of dressers and clothes to their respective rooms (my son and daughter will be sharing and the baby will have her own room)

2- spend more time/energy/patience getting my daughter used to her new bed in my sons room. This means having her actually sleep in it more than once.

3- figure out a way to get a nightlight in the hall so that the bathroom door can be kept closed at night time for safety.

4- spend more time getting my daughter 100% proficient at going up and down the stairs by herself (this way I will no longer need to carry her or spot her while holding a new born).

5- find a crib mattress to replace the one I stole out of the baby's bed to put in the toddler bed for my daughter.

6- stock up on little activities the kids can do by themselves while I am nursing and am the only adult in the house.

I am sure there is more, like packing the bags and stuff but for now these are some things I want to work on in case the baby comes early.

Eight more weeks to go!

Squeak Update 2

2008-10-14T18:11:00.002-04:00

So it appears that we have managed to somehow be rid of all squeaks. The van miraculously fixed itself. We changed a fuel filter and now the van is running a million times better and after a few days decided it didn't want to make noise anymore. So strange. We at least have the part in our possession if it should decide to start up again.

I can hardly believe 10 days have gone by since I last posted. In those ten days we managed to tear apart the kitchen and install new kitchen cabinets that we bought for a phenomenal price (otherwise I fear we would have no cabinets right now). While the walls were bare and the holes where we believe the mouse to have entered our house were open, we did NOT see any sign of our mouse. I set traps every night and caught nothing! So we sealed the poor sucker in there unless it decided it preferred living at our neighbors and is plaguing her with its presence.

We are still waiting for one last cupboard to arrive and when the kitchen is complete I will post our fun before and after pictures.

Squeak Update

2008-10-04T21:36:00.003-04:00

So I bought the traps but forgot to set them up last night. Talk about frustrating. I set them up this morning and so far nothing. Not even that same scratching sound. On top of it all we have for sure confirmed that the mouse was in the wall behind the cupboards underneath the sink. This means that it must be traveling between condo's which supports our theory about them not entering via somewhere in our unit.

I talked to our neighbor we share a kitchen wall with and sure enough she has had mouse problems this past week. I'm hoping that if we both set traps and catch the little bugger we'll both be better off. The only things is that she doesn't think its entering via her unit. I'm hoping to catch the guy beside her sometime and see if he has any mouse sightings in his place.

Anyways, in the process of tearing things apart to figure out where the mouse was coming from we re-discovered and realized just how badly warped and old our cupboards are. Things were crumbling as my husband was prying to get a closer look with a screwdriver. So now we have another project on our hands.

Oh and the van still squeaks. We spent so much of our time ripping apart the kitchen and figuring out solutions to this problem that we never made it to our friend's house to change the fuel pump in the van.

Only so much we can do in one day.

Squeaking

2008-10-03T20:35:00.003-04:00

This week has been a little crazy. It actually kinda all started at the end of last week. Friday past we took a trip an hour away to drive our old car, which we sold, to its new owners. This meant taking our new van (new to us anyways) for its first real spin on the highway. We also decided to make the trip more worthwhile so we called up my husband's dad (since they live in the same town) to see if they would be around for a visit.

All went well until we started hearing a strange squeaking noise from the back of the van. Turns out that the van's fuel pump was beginning to go. Thankfully, praise the Lord, we made it home that night after contemplating turning around and crashing at my father-in-law's so as to avoid a break down on the side of the highway.

Saturday and Sunday were long days since we dared not venture out with the van in case things decided to die on us. But then Monday rolled around. We had already ordered the part that we needed, only to discover Monday morning that this part was coming from British Columbia, not Toronto, like we had thought. Who knows when it would come in.

As I have mentioned several times before, one of the best things about fall is that our family has things that go on during the week. Things that require transportation. On top of that Monday morning I had my midwife appointment that I hated to cancel. So we decided to chance it and use the van this past week to get to the things we absolutely needed to be at.

Monday was my midwife appointment and our bible study. Tuesday we had gymnastics and another appointment that I had made to sell some kids clothes. Wednesday I had my health/nutrition class. By Thursday we had gotten so used to the van's noises and figured if it had survived this long surely we'd be ok to do other miscellaneous errands.

And here we are on Friday night. The UPS guy dropped off the parts this afternoon and our van is still working (praise the Lord!). So now we just have to be able to get my husband to a friend's house to help him move tomorrow morning and then over to another friend's house to use his garage so we can change the part. Barring any unforeseen trips to the store (more to come)

So this is the first reason this week has been busy.

Secondly, beginning Tuesday night my son began running a fever for no apparent reason. He continued to spike high fevers up until last night at around midnight. Today he is finally back to himself, although he still doesn't have as much energy as usual, he is eating now and has started to pick on his sister. So we've had fun nursing him back to health as well as wiping my daughter's ever dripping nose which also began Wednesday morning. I'm hoping whatever this is will be their big 'sickness' for the winter. My kids are usually pretty healthy.

Finally, as if there wasn't enough going on, last night while I was on the phone with my sister-in-law I witnessed a mouse running across my dining room floor and into our entry-way closet. Ughghg! We've had one previous incident with a mouse and it somehow showed up in front of the patio door, so we had figured it had squeezed its way in somehow.

The little bugger last night, however, appeared to come out of nowhere! I tend to obsess about these kinds of things. I love nature and am happy to have animals, pests, rodents galore OUTSIDE my house but not in it.

Last night I tore that closet apart only to have scared the mouse in behind the double jogging stroller, which now that I am pregnant, is a little hard to maneuver. Especially while one is trying to hold on to a broom with which to swat this mouse with. I ended up barricading the mouse in the closet overnight so my husband could take care of it this morning since he was working late last night.

This morning, though, the mouse was nowhere to be found! That stinkin' little contortion mouse must of made it through the tiniest crack between the closet door and the wall that I had actually contemplated duct taping shut, but didn't.

This afternoon while the kids were napping, my husband and I were in the dining room and we began to hear these little scratching noises coming from the kitchen cupboard under the sink. I swear this mouse isn't very smart. First the closet, then under the kitchen sink- we have no food there at all!

So we tore apart the kitchen only to find that it must be in the wall somewhere (how it got there baffles me again). This mouse is a little too evasive for my liking.

All I can say is thank goodness for a van that squeaks but still works because tonight I took a trip to Canadian Tire and bought ourselves some mouse traps!

One squeak down and one more to go! Well at least i'm hopefull that tomorrow morning we'll have taken care of that problem.

My Cutie

2008-09-28T15:01:00.003-04:00

With the cooler weather comes all the cute little outfits that have been passed down for my daughter.

Here she's helping me take the recycling to the road.
I wish I could remember what she was concentrating on.
She's a handful, but I still love her.

Scottish/Irish Festival

2008-09-25T15:51:00.002-04:00

Every year the town we live in has a Scottish/Irish festival. And since that is my primary heritage I like to show my support and venture out to see the bagpipes and fellow scottishmen/irishmen or woman in their kilts.

It's also an excuse to dress my kids up in their "kilts" (not our real tartan or even a real kilt for that matter but it's all I could find at value village- the real thing is expensive). Fun fun.

To Humor You

2008-09-24T13:52:00.003-04:00

My son is very good at dressing himself. But sometimes he misses the mark. And other times he really misses it.
Just thought this might humor you a bit on this sunny beautiful day.

Both legs are through one hole, meanwhile creating holes in other spots.

Randomness

2008-09-21T15:08:00.003-04:00

Time is flying.
But the kids are still themselves and cute as ever- most days.
I just love these two pictures.
Definitely insight into their characters. One at the computer and the other with pen on her hand and face.

Look like something daddy does much?

Fishing

2008-09-12T21:59:00.005-04:00

We've been slowly using up the remainder of my son's birthday money that he got in May. We couldn't think of anything at the time. Just recently it occurred to my husband that a fishing rod would be something fun for our son to have. It would also be a great bonding time for the two of them.

Fish #1- my husband knew of a great spot!

Fish #2

Reeling in fish #3

Reeling in fish #4...or was this number 6...I lost count.
I swear it was the same greedy little fish trying to eat all the worms.

Casting on his own....notice how there is no one close by...it looks like he's swinging a baseball bat.

This was also my son's first real experience with worms.
I'm ashamed to admit that. Man I can't wait until we live more in the country.
At first he didn't want any on his hook.
Then one escaped and so we told him he had to put it back.
His response was "my hands are going to get dirty!"
What a kid.
Anyways, he picked it up and put it back.....only after we told him we had some baby wipes.

My devotions today we're about making family memories. How appropriate. I know it is the little things that I cherish as memories from my childhood. May this be a constant reminder that its not about going somewhere grand or spending lots of money but its about who you're with and the quality time you have together.

Sometimes there is peace

2008-09-10T21:51:00.002-04:00

The kids have been playing pretty nicely together this week.
So nice.
Two of their favorite things are making picnics and making beds.

More Shoes

2008-09-09T08:39:00.002-04:00

I tell you, this girl and her, well not even her, shoes!

Whatever makes her happy!
After a weekend like we just had, it was like she was PMS'ing....already.
She was so cranky.
Oh wait she's always PMS'ing....did I mention those are her initials?
What a character.

The Demolition Derby

2008-09-07T21:08:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we went to our first demolition derby of the summer. Now that I think of it, it was our first demolition attendance in 3 and 1/2 years (since my son was born). Which is so sad in our eyes since both my husband and I grew up with demolition derby's at the local fair.

So we decided to venture out and take in a local expo that happened to be featuring a demolition on the saturday night. The kids weren't quite sure what we were doing. My son has played some "smashing games" on my husband's computer so he seemed to think we were all going to be playing some big game.

Watching the first cars pull in to determine the best decorated.
(check out their profiles....geez...you'd never guess it was a father and a son...phenomenal)

The Lighting McQueen car won.
My son was of course cheering for this one

I still can't get over how much they look alike here.
I think this was during the first heat of 4 cylinders. There we're some pretty good hits.

This was while we were waiting for it all to begin.

My daughter was more interested in the snack I brought.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. They're both mesmerized.

My daughter was about to yell something. She ended up getting into it a bit before getting really cranky and tired.

This made my son's night. He began to lose interest after the first couple of heats.
He kept begging to go over to where all the lights and rides were.

It wouldn't be a true fair experience if he didn't get to go on at least one.
I love how big his cheeks are here.
He was very happy.

And so we have it. The kids' first demolition derby. In our opinion it wasn't the best derby we've been to. I think we've been spoiled back in our hometown with great seating, huge crowds, lots of local drivers, good old cars, good rules, good hits, huge ring, and lots of fun. Here's to a town that knows how to do it right. Next year maybe we can go home and take the kids to a 'real' demolition derby.

The Impulse Purchase

2008-09-04T21:11:00.002-04:00

For the past couple of Christmas' my husband and I talked about and selected one gift that we would both benefit from. We had decided that this would be our gift to each other. It was the "Wii".

For those of you who have not yet heard of this new phenomenon of Nintendo technology, the Wii is a game device where you imitate the actual actions of whatever sport you are playing. Lots of fun and quite tiring when you get into it.

All of this to say that we never got our Christmas gift. Until about two weeks ago. My husband came home with it one night, deciding it was time.

We just so happened to be having company the following weekend so it made for some fun times. Plus my son was ecstatic. He is soooo into games and all that stuff and he had played this before at his Uncles' place.

I wonder who's more into it. My husband or my son.

Here's my son showing Aunt Dorothy and Ellie-Ma how it's done.
He's so random with his movements when playing this boxing game that he actually does quite well.

Lots of fun.

While it lasted.

In this case, all good fun came to an end. My husband started having some regrets about making this big purchase. So after a lot of thought we decided to bring it back. Turns out it was my son who was more traumatized by us returning it than we ever were. The whole way to the store he was begging me not to bring the Wii back. So cute.

I know we did the right thing and I hope one day he understands. I tried to make it a lesson on good money management. I told him that mommy and daddy thought we could spend our money better and that we'd wait to see if there would be any better deals. NOTE: we go garage saling so he understands what finding good deals means.

He seemed quite happy with that explanation. Until he realized that another deal meant buying something else.......that day! It took a little convincing that waiting was the best choice. I'm hoping his witnessing all this will one day help him make good purchases....or at least be big enough to return a silly one.

A quick recap of the month of August.....now that it's over

2008-09-01T13:24:00.006-04:00

September is here. I can hardly believe it. Three full months and a bit until my special day.

Anyways, just thought I would take the opportunity to post some pictures from our trip back home, the wedding we went to last weekend, and time spent with family at our place.

Fun with cousins in the pool at Auntie Crystal's.
Also really enjoyed their new treehouse in the background.

We got to help my mom pack up her bike for her big trip to a women's music festival.

We woke up early to see her off. :)

Quality time spent with Uncle Caleb.

On top of the fridge. There's a landing on the other side of the wall as part of the stairs.
It opens up to the kitchen.

My son letting us know he found Uncle Caleb at the wedding.

Dana, the beautiful bride.

Our attempt at a family picture. Not bad.

Not too sure what their doing but very intent.
My son with another one of his favorite people. His Uncle Rei.

My daughter, very serious at the reception (also very tired).

My son took this picture of his Ellie-Ma.

L to R: Uncle Caleb, Ellie-Ma, Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Rei

Great-Grandparents.

The bride's sisters- T and Ko.

Uncle Stu (another one of my son's favorite men) and Aunt Sue (bride's mother).

Celebrating Uncle Caleb's birthday early.
First exposure to sparklers.

Cake.

My son didn't nap on the Sunday we had guests.
He dropped on the couch right after everyone left.

Good Times.

Next to no back pains....anymore

2008-08-30T13:24:00.003-04:00

I have really been slacking in the blog department lately. Well lets see...its been almost a half a month. It's not for lack of things going on. We've been quite busy with an impromptu trip home, a wedding, some family outings, and visitors.

But up until yesterday I have been plagued with this awful, sometimes excruciating, lower back pain that shoots down my right side. Turns out it is probably sciatica. I never knew what that was until now. It appears that the baby has been putting an undue amount of pressure on some nerves which has made moving for any length of time very uncomfortable and painful.

So for the past couple of weeks I have had to lie down and rest while the kids have their naps. Which means I almost always fall asleep too (not a bad thing) so that I can at least have a break from the pain and make it through the rest of the day without hobbling around with a hot water bottle on my back.

Wednesday night I woke up to use the washroom, which is customary for me to do at least three times, and noticed that my whole stomach was pushing out on one side. It was quite a sight and uncomfortable. But I was tired. Thursday afternoon I had my regular appointment with my midwife and she discovered that the baby had since shifted from her head down position to a breached one (straight across).

Hopefully she won't stay that way until the end BUT my back pain is almost gone!!!!! Yesterday I didn't rest and managed to go to a demolition derby (more on that later) and sit on those awfully uncomfortable grand stand benches and I miraculously could still walk myself to the car!!! Thank you baby girl!!!

What relief.

And the kids are napping now and I am still awake. Maybe the coffee I had this morning helped but I'm not sore. Which I normally would be. Wooohooo!

It's the simple pleasures in life that make me happy.

In light of this joyous occasion here's a belly shot.

This is taken at 24 weeks. I'm massive. Almost already half way to my 50 pound total gain mark in pregnancy. At least it seems to fall off pretty quickly once the baby is out. Here's hoping we have a repeat performance.

Another simple pleasure.

DVBS

2008-08-14T08:14:00.002-04:00

Been busy this week with Daily Vacation Bible School at our church. My kids are still too young for the actually school part but the church decided to offer a mom's group with nursery for 0-3 year olds. PERFECT!

Turns out the lady in charge of the nursery has planned something special for them to do each day. They've had a little tea party/picnic, they've gone outside to play in the water, they've had lots of run around time and they've gotten dirty! What more could they want. Oh and there are two young teenage girls helping out that bring lots more energy to the room.

My kids come home WIRED! Especially my daughter. The room they are using for DVBS is the same room she normally goes in for nursery during church. And she NEVER comes out this pumped. Its such a nice feeling seeing the kids enjoy themselves and coming out excited about their morning away from me.

Not to mention how excited I feel about having a morning away from them! :) It's been really fun meeting new mom's at various ages and stages in their lives. It's also been a learning process trying to 'scrapbook' our crafts with them (so not my thing). Oh and not to mention the goodies we've taken turns bringing. Yum.

What a great week so far!

A blast from the past, in the present

2008-08-09T20:28:00.002-04:00

I find myself addicted to facebook. I especially love it when "friends" put up pictures of their lives, families, and of different events that they attend.

Today one of my old public school friends put up some pictures from a weekend at the Highland Games. A very popular and traditional event back from where I grew up. Within those pictures were people I haven't seen in YEARS! I found myself staring at their faces remembering what they looked like to me in grade eight compared to what they look like now. I also found myself wondering what their lives are like now. I wonder what they do for work, if they work. Do they still live back home or did they travel from some bigger city to be back where the action is? Are they too married and have children? Or are they still searching for that special someone? It was at this point that I found myself gazing into their eyes wondering if they are truly happy. It makes me sad to think that they may still be living without purpose, without God in their lives.

I don't know if anyone else does this but...I began to imagine what it would be like to run into these people again...maybe at our public school reunion (do people even do those?). Or even on a visit back home with my soon to be three kids running around. What would I say? What would they be like? How would it feel to either be way ahead of them in life or way behind (considering of course that for most people my age living the secular life, three kids is ten years earlier than where they would put themselves).

All in all, it was a very strange experience seeing all these faces again. It made me appreciate my life. I feel so blessed to be where I am today.

Satellite update

2008-08-08T07:52:00.003-04:00

I am sitting here now in front of the tube taking in the opening ceremony for the Olympics. I forgot to mention in my last post that this too was also big incentive/motivation for my husband. This is why he "needed" it when he did. This probably why he started a year ago, knowing it would take that long.

Gotta go. Starting in 15 seconds.

My not so birthday, birthday gift

2008-08-07T18:00:00.003-04:00

Last week was I celebrated another year of life. Ironically, my husband took advantage of this fact and decided that he too should get a birthday gift. So we got satellite. Not to mention that he has been begging for me to give in to this desire for over a year now. I guess I caved. It's been raining almost every three days here and we were getting sick of watching the same kids movies over and over again. It also would be nice to be able to click on the tube and channel surf while the kids were sleeping. Excuses, Excuses.

Anyways, one very rainy Saturday we packed up the car and purchased the satellite my husband has been yearning for. My husband is also installing everything himself so he's been working tirelessly at hitting the right signal etc. (you can ask him for the details).

We don't have a spade or shovel so he's digging the hole in the ground with one of the kids' plastic sand shovels.

It's a very curious thing understanding what a man will do when he really wants something.

This is probably night #5 of being outside and adjusting things.
And yes those are gigantic bubbles. The kids were out there playing.

It looks like he's looking right at me but really he has no idea I am taking his picture.
He's intent on our television screen that he's moved in front of the patio door behind me.

I must confess though, that it has been quite nice having t.v. in our house again. I kind of missed the TLC channel and the kids TREEHOUSE channel. My son missed it too. I figure it will come in handy when the baby is born since I will, once again, be up nursing several times during the night. Fun, fun.

Little Mommy

2008-08-06T08:51:00.003-04:00

While we were back home, the kids and I all shared the same room. My daughter, who sleeps in a big bed now, was finding it hard staying on her mattress.

This is what I overheard my son saying to my daughter when I came up to check on them one night:

"P** get in your bed!.......P** get in your bed! (frustration mounting)..... get in your bed!...... I'm gonna count (pause)....... you're going to make mommy angry (enter mommy)"

:)

Last Game

2008-07-29T08:14:00.003-04:00

Last night we had my son's final soccer game for the summer. More fun times. The other team was loaded with boys whereas our team has 2 but the other little boy has only been for two games. Last night was not one of them. All of that to say that the other team was a little aggressive.

It was good teaching game I found. My son is pretty good at taking off with the ball and scoring. He wasn't used to other kids actually challenging him on the way to the net. Last night we were encouraging him to get in front of the other team and use his feet to get the ball away from them. It was nice to see him keep trying and start to get the hang of it.

Since it was the last game. He, of course, received a medal which he is very proud of.

Till next year!

Baby #3- A Girl!!!!

2008-07-27T15:10:00.004-04:00

Got the printer hooked up and working so I could finally scan in the ultrasound pictures. She currently weighs in at 0.324 kg.

News to Come

2008-07-25T08:19:00.002-04:00

Well we had an exciting day yesterday....unfortunately I can't get my printer/scanner working right now so the pictures are going to have to wait.

Praise the Lord, though we were able to see what we feel is about 95% certain on the sex of the baby.

Let's just say......

My son was right :)

The Anticipation

2008-07-23T08:44:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is a big day for us. It's ultrasound day! I am getting very excited to see the baby again. I am also hoping that if possible, we'll be able to see the sex.

My son thinks its a girl.

My husband hopes its a boy.

And I .....well...I keep flip-flopping back and forth. So we'll see.

So it should be fun tomorrow. Not sure if my husband will be able to get an hour off work to come. But either way my son will be there. He's very excited to come to the doctor's with mommy to see the baby.

Just thought i'd share the excitement. Have a good Wednesday!

Just One of Those Peaceful Mornings

2008-07-21T08:03:00.003-04:00

This morning the kids were up early. So we came down, had breakfast and began our day. After some time on the computer I realized the kids were extremely quiet. Here's what I found:

I love that they love to read.

Here my son has his favorite right now, "Where's Waldo?"
My daughter has an animal book. If you ask her what they say, it's almost always "woof".

Let's pray this peacefulness is going to carry through for the whole day.
Nothing like a good start.

Summer Life

2008-07-19T18:33:00.003-04:00

The past couple of days my husband has been back to work. We were so busy doing family outings and activities when he was off, that now when the regular routine of our days are settling back in, life seems so boring. I guess that's one of the things about summer. You get a chance to do activities that you don't normally do the rest of the year.

I have been keeping a running list of outings I would like to see happen. We've done pretty well at crossing items off. Here's what's left:
-go to a demolition derby
- go to a fair
- take in a night at the local Speedway
- go fruit picking again....anything..maybe apples
- do a corn maze
- go camping one more time
- go to the local air museum
- go to the drive in theatre for a kid appropriate movie

I think that's it. Still lots of fun to be had for us this summer. :)

Anyone have any suggestions of other activities that we could do that don't cost an arm and a leg??

Some More Beach

2008-07-15T22:15:00.004-04:00

It was a great day!

A Glimpse into my Daughter's Character

2008-07-14T20:45:00.005-04:00

My daughter is developing into quite the interesting individual. She's a cutie though. She loves shoes. She loves to work the crowd. She loves to make her presence known. And she loves to do whatever her brother is doing.

Lately she's been doing this little thing when you ask her if she wants something. If the answer is "yes" she will shake her head 'yes' and then throw on this little angelic smile to accompany the nod. Sometimes she'll even get her hands up there cupping her chin with more angelic-ness (I know not a word but how else can I describe her theatrics).

We managed to get some of it on video. Minus the hand cupping. She's done it better than in this clip but I haven't gotten it on video....yet.

Here's some pictures of my daughter being herself:

"These boots were made for walking...."

"And that's just what they'll do..."

"One of these days, these boots are gonna walk all over you!"

Miss Princess here threw massive fits if you tried to take away her throne.
She just wanted to float and be a vegetable. She was not interested in swimming at all.

This is how we took her out of the water just to keep her happy.

Here's another little clip from the same restaurant.

Did I mention she likes to be heard?

Birthdays and Farewells

2008-07-09T08:36:00.003-04:00

On the weekend we were invited to two birthday parties. The first for a friend of ours whose son is turning 1! And the second for a little buddy of my son who is turning 3 and his sister who is turning 1! We had an awesome time.

My daughter enjoying the birthday hats.

The first party's birthday boy.

Second party's birthday girl.

Here's my son and the other birthday boy waiting for cake. They are so cute. They both have the same name.

This party was bittersweet. It was also a good-bye party for the family.
They are military and moving to Edmonton.
I'm going to miss them.
My son doesn't know it yet but he's going to miss his buddy too.

More Summer Fun

2008-07-07T15:23:00.010-04:00

And the fun continues.

My son and I went to the mall and waited in line for 2 hours to see Dora the Explorer.

Two hours for this photo-op.

It was worth it though. He was excited about it.

Here my son is trying muscles for the first time. Ellie-ma would be proud.

After lots of weird faces he decided he liked it.

We took a day trip to the Toronto Metro Zoo.

My son was pretty impressed by the rhinos.

The tigers were cool too.

My son also took a liking to these big creatures. He just had to get a close up view of the giraffe.

The grizzly was my favorite.

We also went camping.
This was before we left trying them out in the living room.

One of my daughter's favorite spots.

Cooking and waiting for breakfast.

She's saying "woof woof". We heard a dog.

Playing in the bushes. So thankful we didn't see any poison ivy.

No camping trip would be complete without s'mores. My son was all about making his own.
Notice the charcoal on his. He was very excited about being allowed to put things in the fire.

Here Daddy is trying to convince him burnt marshmallows aren't so yummy.
It didn't work.

We did a few other things that I didn't get pictures of. After the zoo we went out for supper at 'The Old Spaghetti Factory' in downtown Toronto. So yummy. I would of eaten so much more if I weren't pregnant and knew i'd be burping up tomato sauce the whole evening.

We also took in the local fireworks on Canada Day. We walked down to the marina after stopping at Tim's for a treat. It was a nice evening. The kids had fun playing and taking in all the colors.

Oh and we went strawberry picking. My daughter inhaled the berries where as my son we couldn't convince him to eat any. He was very task oriented insisting the berries go in the basket. Crazy kid.

Busy Summer Times

2008-07-05T09:46:00.005-04:00

So we've been busy enjoying the summer. Hitting up the parks, attending playgroups, going to the splash pad etc. My husband has finally finished his crazy work schedule (he had picked up some extras) and was off for eight days. Woohooo!!!! This partially explains my lack in writing. I would just much rather be spending time together as a family and getting some things done than being on blogger.

So this post will be a little bit of a catch up one for those of you that tune in to see what the kids are up to.

We've done groceries.

We've gone for bike rides.

We had more soccer. A less than stellar game. This was about all the running he did.

The fan club. Eating to her hearts content.

This is the same game. We thought that since he was having an off game he could just play in net.
Only that didn't last either. He ended up spending his time behind the net playing with the string.

We took a walk to a local Conservation area.

I'm going to have to frame this picture to remind them that they do actually love each other when they get older.

This is the big attraction at the conservation area- a huge boulder moved there by glacier movement.

So these are some of the highlights. I still have to upload the rest of the pictures off of the camera from the rest of my husband's time off. Have a good day.

Not Much to Report

2008-06-20T21:23:00.002-04:00

My husband has just come off of working seven days straight so I just found things to fill our days so that the time would pass quickly enough. He was off for two days so we got some things done around here. And now he's back on for four. So this weekend I am scrounging up things to do. I will let you know what I decide to do with our time.

Other than that, life is pretty much the way it is here. The kids and I are growing. I am fifteen weeks this past Thursday. We're slowly approaching the half-way mark. I am not sure what's more scary, the fact that we're almost in July and summer is half over or the fact that Christmas seems to be looming already or that in five months and a bit I will be holding baby number three!

Soccer Game #2

2008-06-17T12:51:00.005-04:00

CHAOS, PICTURE NIGHT, BRIBES and MORE CHAOS

Ok so it wasn't that bad....well maybe just a bit. I had fun watching parents coax and bribe their children to be good, sit still and smile for pictures tonight. It could of gone either way for us. Last night I was flying solo (the hubby was working) so I was just praying all would go well. And thankfully my son did wonderfully.

First their was the individual pictures which my son quite impressively went up when the coach called his name, sat nicely with the ball and immediately started smiling for the camera. I like to think that it's because we've been instructing him to listen to his coach and follow his direction. But really I think he was too distracted by the water park right beside us to notice how badly the other children were acting (and follow suit).

Then we did the team picture which as you can imagine was a nightmare trying to get 8 kids all sitting and looking and somewhat smiling at the same time. Notice the progression:

My son's second in from the right in the front.

Getting so close.

Those poor parents...she just would not sit down.

Almost....see that little red head in the back on the far right?

She didn't smile, but she got smarties for staying in the picture.

Then we played soccer.

My son decided the ball needed a little help. He took it and ran to their mid-field section.

He did great. I bribed too. I told him he wouldn't get any snacks with the other kids if he didn't stay on the field and show mommy he was working and running hard.
It worked.
FIVE GOALS LATER!
and one assist on our own net

I Think he's got the hang of it.

Here he is shaking hands with the other team.

Finally, it was time for a league picture of all the Under-3 teams. I said "pardon?" So the chaos began again. Not sure if it really ended.

My son's on the far left being hauled back around by our coach.

I think that's best they were going to get. If you notice there are only four red team shirts there. Bribes stopped working after awhile.

He didn't do too bad.
See the first girl in the purple second in on the right in the back row.
She's crying because the girl beside her on the left kept moving and pushed her off her chair.
She now has a big goose-egg on her head.
(my husband works with her mom)
Poor thing.

Till next week.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T08:13:00.002-04:00

Just a shout out to my husband and my dad both of whom have been excellent examples of love and joy and commitment and many other things to my children.

WE LOVE YOU!

In Memory....Always

2008-06-12T20:48:00.002-04:00

This is my sister, Shannon.

She is no longer with us.

It's been two years today.

She had a very special connection with my son.

We/I miss her terribly.

Today, like most other days, she was in my thoughts and heart.

Another Wedding, Another Trip Home

2008-06-11T19:43:00.006-04:00

A week ago today we took off back home where both my husband and I are from to attend a wedding of a close friend of ours. Any time we go home we have tons of fun visiting with friends and family. I miss home so much because of the people that are still there. Here are some pictures of our time there.

My daughter and cousin Billy.

My husband's two sisters with my son and cousin George.

They're so beautiful.

Some good 'ol fashioned badminton.

The two men in my life.

Swimming in Auntie Mandy's pool.

My son driving....a foreshadowing of what he'll be like when he's 16??

My son actually swimming on his own (with a lifejacket obviously) by the end of the day. Another proud moment.

Storytime with my brother. My son ADORES his Uncle Caleb.

The newlyweds!

Some of you will know who these people are.

The beautiful bride!

It's bittersweet isn't it? So nice to be back home but also so nice to get back to your own bed and own things. Our trips home always seem to go by so fast even if we were there for almost five whole days. Till next time...whenever that will be.

Soccer

2008-06-10T20:58:00.004-04:00

Well we went away again home for another wedding. I will have to post pictures of that later. But for those of you that have been waiting here are pictures of my son's first soccer game last night.

He was pretty stoked about playing and kept putting on all his things before we even had supper.

He's the RED team!

Taking a practice kick at the net during warm-up. He never missed the net.

He's there on the far left. He kept looking over at us making sure we were watching him. This was after he scored the FIRST and ONLY goal for his team. It was a proud moment for us and him.
Working hard. Gotta love the freezies the coach brought.

This what my daughter spent her time doing in between trying to get on the field to take the ball.

We saw a lot of this during the second half. He kept coming over telling us he was tired and needed a break. He was one of four other kids actually pretty willing to stay on the field. At one point during the game we only had one player on the field.
I wish we'd taken more shots. But there's always next week. It was fun watching the chaos. We are so proud of him. He didn't even try to pick up that ball with his hands. Already an athlete I guess.

Sick Again

2008-06-02T13:11:00.003-04:00

I realize I just told you all how great I was beginning to feel but now I need to take it all back. For the past four days or so (hence why I haven't posted since Thursday) things have gone way down hill. So much for all those nice foods that were sitting. NOTHING seems to be working now. So you can pray for me as I just take every day and sometimes every hour at a time, waiting to feel better.

Having said that, I have contacted my midwife today to pick her brain about a drug called Diclectin (not sure how its spelled). It is supposed to take away any vomiting and nausea. I go to pick up the prescription this afternoon and will try my first one tonight before bed. I am praying this will help me keep things down. At this point I have stopped caring what I eat cause I know whatever it is it will be showing up an hour later (even soda crackers). I am praying this drug will help get me past this hump until the nausea peters off on its own.

Almost there....will be 13 weeks on Friday approximately! Woohoo.

New Favorite Foods

2008-05-29T20:20:00.003-04:00

Lately I've been all about:

Cereals of any sort

Fresh sweet cherries

Toaster Strudels

Lemon and pepper flavored tuna on crackers

and Perogies

Gotta love the weird assortment of foods that sit well and stay down.

New Beds

2008-05-28T21:05:00.004-04:00

We had a visit from my husbands dad and his two sons a little while back. They brought with them a hand-me down bed for my son which meant we moved his old bed into my daughter's room for when she would be graduating to the next stage.

Turns out they were BOTH more than ready and super excited to have their new beds.
Some days I am just so not ready for them to grow up.

But then I remember they're not always this peaceful.

But she just looks so tiny in there. I can't believe my baby is in a big girl bed. :(

*sigh*

Alright i'm back from watching them sleep. Here's some pictures from their short but nice visit.

Grandpa brought presents for the birthday boy.

Very cool Lego rescue hero building thing that I have no idea how Uncle Bo-Bo (he was visiting again) managed to put together.

My Son VS. Mosquito

2008-05-28T09:18:00.004-04:00

Mosquito Won.

Poor guy reacts really badly to bug bites. I thought he may have grown out of it this year but no such luck. Weirdest part is the bite occurred way back in his hair above his ear. His whole side of his head swelled up and then spread to his eye. These pictures were taken at the end of day two. When he woke up in the morning he couldn't open it at all. Poor guy. Looks like the allergy medicine will be taking up permanent residence in the baby bag again this summer.

No Dentist for Me

2008-05-26T20:37:00.004-04:00

We had our pre-scheduled dental cleaning and check up a week and a half ago. But I copped out. I decided I probably wouldn't be able to handle the smell of all the cleaning stuff . I also decided I didn't feel like holding my mouth open for that long. And I also decided that in case I was sick that the dental hygienist probably wouldn't appreciate being vomited on. I thought I was being pretty considerate.

So I made my son take my place instead. He did great for his first time ever.
The hygienist started to do all the baby talk but it was making matters worse. We'd been preparing him all morning for what to expect. So we told her just to just go at it and we'd make sure he was good.
Plus we've been watching lots of the "Berenstain Bears Go to the Dentist". My son was a pro. It was a proud moment.

The Ultrasound Story

2008-05-25T20:42:00.002-04:00

Ok so here I am again. The kids are in bed and I thought since I have already promised to write more i'd get you all up to speed on my ultrasound experience.

I had my first ultrasound two weeks and a bit ago now at a local diagnostics center. I chose to schedule there because they could fit me in right away compared to the hospital that was booked right up to mid-June. Since I haven't had an official period, we wanted to get an idea of how far along I was.

So the center was interesting. I was greeted by a Hungarian looking man and a Pakistan looking man. Both of whom could not find my papers anywhere. Meanwhile, out walks this huge, tall, very white skinned, blonde haired, blue eyed German guy who then asks in his thick accent "is dis my patient?". Pointing at me. Yikes.

"yes" I said sheepishly.

I was a little thrown back. First of all by just the lack of organization this place seemed to be running under. And secondly by this huge technician. Plus I have never had a male do my ultrasounds before. Just weird.

After a lot of ruffling of papers, they couldn't find my requisition anywhere. So I called my midwife whom I couldn't reach. So then I tried another midwife's pager and got her. So she thankfully was able to re-fax the requisition so that I wouldn't have to rebook, go home and then find childcare for my kids a second time (which was not easy I might add in a town where we are still getting to know people).

So eventually it was my turn. My German technician acted very friendly and had some questions. So we chatted a bit. Once the ultrasound started he made a couple of other comments to which I went to respond to but was rudely CUT off when he said "uhh, just let me do my job" (imagine the accent).

Very odd man.

To add to the weirdness of this place, the room we were in was super small and wasn't like any hospital ultrasound room i've ever been in. There was just the one screen for the German technician and that was it. I couldn't see a thing. So I spent the next 15 minutes or so (oh and he was strangely fast) straining my neck trying to see something....anything. But nothing but some fuzz.

At the very end, after hearing him clicking and printing out some photos, he finally turns the monitor and shows me my baby. Very tiny. But we could see the heartbeat which is always a good thing. He then proceeds to tell me that he "thinks" i am around 8 weeks (which is what I thought and was hoping for) but that he's not sure " 'cause its my firrst time here at dis cliniq and i vill do the calculations laterr with da calculator".

what??? the calculator?? what in tarnations kind of technician are you??? (these are the thoughts going on in my head)

I politely thank him and b-line it out of there. No pictures. No concrete answers. Nothing. I left praying that my midwife would have the results by my appointment and that everything was normal and fine with the baby. Which I am sure it is. But it's always nice to hear those words. Even if they would be from some scary German technician.

So this past week, I had been gearing up for my visit with my midwife which happened on Thursday. BUT Tuesday I received a phone call from the diagnostics center asking me to schedule a second ultrasound because "They need more pictures". Whatever that means.

I got my midwife to call and find out what was going on. Turns out (like I had suspected) my German technician had done a lousy job and the radiologist was ordering a repeat ultrasound.

So I get to go back there.

This Friday.

Pray for me. Especially that I get a different technician.

Maybe i'll actually get some pictures this time.

Oh and just so you know after this I am NEVER going back.

Falling off the Bandwagon

2008-05-25T13:56:00.003-04:00

Well it's been quite some time since I last posted. Rather since I have felt motivated to post. I've just had no drive to get on here and hash out the day/week's activities.

But here I am....i've decided this week I am going to try and get on here and get you all caught up on what's been happening in our neck of the woods.

On another note, I'm happy to report that I am beginning to feel a bit better during the day and evenings. My mornings are still a little rough. I am keeping food down better now. I just snack pretty much all day long and it seems to be helping. I also have noticed a small increase in energy. So that's exciting.

That's it for now. Will post again soon.

"Stupid Butt" and Mother's Day

2008-05-11T20:40:00.003-04:00

Mother's day was celebrated early around here. My husband worked this weekend so we decided to celebrate on Thursday night by going out to a local fancy restaurant with the kids. My husband had also scored us a gift certificate there so it was an easy pick.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive my son decided that this night would be the night to try out some new colorful language he apparently, but not surprisingly, had picked up from some boys that play out front of our condo. Lo and behold, "stupid butt" was what he had picked up. Surprised, shocked and almost abhorred at what had just come out of his mouth, both my husband and I were like "WHAT did you JUST say??". Sure enough our ears had not failed us.

We found ourselves going from mystified to partially angry at the corruption that had just occurred to clueless as to how to handle this situation. I wasn't expecting to encounter this kind of thing until he had started school. So we attempted the whole explaining thing. That we don't use those words. That those words are rude and not good manners (manners is a big thing in our house that my son understands). That those words are dirty talk.

Having felt like we handled it pretty well we went on and enjoyed our evening only to be equally surprised when my son decided that he was going to push the issue further and try whispering his choice words to see if we were listening.

Again not entirely sure how to handle the situation. Torn between the possibility of ignoring it and hoping it will go away OR dealing with it now and setting the precedent for any other choice words he may pick up in the years to come. So we re-explained.

Friday was another day of testing for him. I decided that I was going to start threatening the bar of soap. Adding to our explanation that if he was going to talk like that, that I would have no choice but to wash his mouth of his dirty talk. That night while I was folding laundry, my son, who I might add has also REALLY been testing limits lately, decided to look me straight in the eye and test my soap threat!

With a smug little smile on his face he seemed quite pleased to accept his consequence of having his mouth washed out. So I got out the bar of Ivory and lathered it up real good. I stuck it in his mouth and worked it around. All the while this smug grin remaining. UNTIL he moved his tongue!

Words can not describe the priceless look of disgust on his face and the spitting that followed. I inquired if he would like me to wash it out some more. His head was very quick to indicate no. So I told him to take some water and rinse his mouth. So he took a big gulp and.....swallowed. No joke when I tell you that what followed was near convulsions as he worked to spit out the residue in his mouth.

Finally, he got that he shouldn't swallow the water. We did a little debriefing that seems to have driven home the point that we won't tolerate that kind of talk in our house. About 20 minutes later he came to me and told me he needed more water. I sent him to the bathroom to use the cup there and when I went to check up on him I found him gulping big mouthfuls of water and spitting them out.

Since then, I've heard him a couple of times saying "no stupid butt". It didn't seem to be directed to anyone. But i've been interjecting with "what happens if you say that?" He remembers.

Tonight though, we went to the park for a little bit and I heard him say it to some kids that were there. As much as I wanted to fly home and wash his mouth out again, I waited. Every one of the kids there were shocked that he said that and told him that what he said wasn't nice (they were older kids). I'm hoping that it might help that older peers have indicated to him that his words weren't nice.

So mother's day has been interesting to say the least. Just keeping me on my toes. Kids do say the darn'dest things I suppose. I remember my mom washing our mouths out with dish soap when we were younger. It seemed to have worked for me. Maybe not so much for my siblings but 1 out of 3's not so bad right? I'll have to adjust my tactics for the next ones.

Weekly Update

2008-05-10T20:38:00.002-04:00

I've been finding it so hard to blog every day lately. I have been plagued with fatigue and nausea like no tomorrow this past week. It seems to come and go, the nausea that is, but I have yet to go a day without vomiting. Oh the joys of growing a child.

This weeks was like most other normal weeks around here. I decided I was going to live at playgroup since I woke up most mornings super tired and sick. So we were there everyday except Wednesday and Friday. I love playgroup. Sigh. The staff are wonderful and helpful and completely sympathetic. The organization also supplies snack so that's a big bonus and less work for me. Plus, most importantly, the kids love going. My son has made some good buddies there and looks forward to his big boy play time. My daughter does her usual rounds. She likes the puzzles, the blocks, the big pasta bin (which is every mother's nightmare), and she LOVES the crayons. We're working on keeping them out of her mouth but for the most part she just likes to tote them around and occasionally make a mark on some person's artwork that was left on the easel.

Wednesday my husband was off work (yeah!) so we went grocery shopping. We also discovered/tried for the first time a little chip stand next to the grocery store. My husband and I both grew up near a town that is primarily Francophone. For those of you who have yet to experience French Quebecoise style cuisine, well you don't know what you are missing. One of these such platters being a true Poutine (pronounced 'puh-tsin' not 'poo-teen' -a pet peeve of mine). Every place we have moved we search out the local eateries and chip stands for the closest thing to what we know back home as the true poutine (it's a thing we do- don't ask). Anyways, back to the grocery store chip stand. We think we have found it. THE place to get a good quality perfectly cooked french fry with real cheese curds and a very tasty dark gravy. Oh and quantity! HMMMMMM. We have tried several places over the course of the past year and none has come close.

Friday we made a playdate with my friend Pam (the one with the son who has the same name as ours) at the park. The boys are hilarious. They talk and ask about each other all the time but because they are 3 they just have no clue about how to play together. One minute they're happy sliding together and the next minute they're throwing rocks at each other. They also imitate everything pretty much that the other does....even peeing. Out of the blue, Pam says to me "oh my goodness look at your son". Here he's dropped his pants to his ankles and was standing there in the middle of the park creating a perfect arc of pee for all to see. Next thing you know her son has dropped his pants and is straining to imitate my son irregardless of having to go or not. Crazy kids. I see we're going to have to work on getting my son to be a little more discreet when there's no bathrooms around.

Friday afternoon was also my ultrasound. I left the kids with some other friends who have 4 boys of their own. My son loves playing there. I'll share more on my experience there but for the most part everything appears to be normal. The technician was super vague and said he was going to do all the calculations later. But it looks like i'm about 8 weeks along which is what I was really praying for. I guess we'll be having a December baby. Here's hoping i'll be looking somewhat back like myself by Christmas.

And today was a normal saturday for the most part. I took the kids out garage saling. I just love looking at other peoples stuff even if I don't buy anything. My son found a gun that makes a grinding noise that a man gave him for free. I found a veggie tales placemat and a cute shelf for my daughter's room. It was a fun morning. We ended up at the same park that we had visited yesterday. Pam was there with her mother-in-law and husband so we joined them for a bit while the boys once again tried to sort out their issues. One day they'll get it.

Hope everyone has a good Mother's day tomorrow!

The Birthday Boy

2008-05-02T21:04:00.005-04:00

All week we've been gearing up for today- my son's 3rd birthday. We had the countdown going on and everything. Monday we went to mom's and tots to give my husband some time to recover from pulling a double shift. So that day went by quickly enough (plus we had bible study that night so my son got some play time with his friends). Tuesday we hung out with my husband and I took off in the afternoon with my daughter for a walk with a friend also to take advantage of Ben & Jerry's free ice cream cone day at the mall. So that day went by pretty fast. Wednesday we froze at the park with some friends but it still made the day go by. And yesterday we went to playgroup to again make the day go by.

Last night my husband's friend arrived. My son calls him Uncle Bo-Bo. This began what we told our son, was his birthday celebrations. You see when Uncle Bo-Bo comes to visit he brings his X-Box which my son is ALL over. He would live and breath any and all things electronic or video game related if you let him. Which I might add is part of the reason we don't own any of those things.....yet.

So when Uncle Bo-Bo went to park his truck after unloading all of his things (X-box, computer, electronics etc) onto our front steps, my son was left drooling in the doorway. I just happened to be in earshot when I heard a very excited and elaborate "WOWWWW!............(pause)......I ...so....Happy!".

"You're happy?" I say.

Without peeling his eyes off the merchandise he replies "*sigh* I - I-Games.......so...Happy". Poor guy was without further words.

So Uncle Bo-Bo has helped to make the start of his birthday very complete.

Today, my son of course rose early begging to go downstairs and play games. But we managed to tide him off because Uncle Bo-Bo is NOT an early riser. My husband had agreed to fix a friends vehicle this morning so he was taking my son out with him for some father-son time. When they opened the door, we found a package that the UPS guy must of dropped off while we were still in bed from Grandma S. (my husband's mom).

Here he sports his new hat and Lightning McQueen glow in the dark underwear. Thanks Grandma S.!

Thanks also to everyone that phoned to wish him a Happy Birthday. He was a little phoned out tonight for the last couple of calls. But for those of you he didn't talk long to he still jumped at the sound of the phone asking if it was for him. You guys made him feel special.

After helping Daddy outside, I took Liam to playgroup while my husband finished up and while my daughter napped. Uncle Bo-Bo was finally awake by the time we came back. It was game time. That's pretty much what he did for the rest of the day. Of course we forced him to eat and nap in there.

We did the big birthday supper thing for him this evening. He got to open his gift from us and of course do the cake thing. He was super happy. I love the following pictures:

I can hardly believe its been three years already. My favorite firstborn son!

Cancellation

2008-04-30T20:38:00.003-04:00

Got a phone call today from the diagnostic center where I was supposed to have my ultrasound tomorrow. They cancelled. What a bummer.
Now we wait for them to call again to re-schedule. This time hopefully it will be on a day when my husband will be off.
Who knows what God has in store.

This Week's Dilemna

2008-04-29T18:09:00.002-04:00

So Friday is my son's third birthday. We've kinda opted out of the party thing just cause we don't want to set a precedent .....well yet. All our families live far away so they won't be joining us. Plus we already celebrated with them while we were home.

The question is: now what? My husband is not working and we've thrown around a couple of ideas of how to spend the actual birthday day. But nothing has really struck us as the perfect thing to do.

Any ideas?

Day 3 of Trip

2008-04-26T14:29:00.009-04:00

Ok so i've gotten a little behind in chaptering our ten day trip home. Day three was my daughter's birthday. That morning, I was up surprisingly early considering I had been up late with the girls for the "girls" party at my husband's aunts. But none the less, sometimes no matter how tired you are you are unable to turn off mom mode even with a full rested sleeping husband beside you.

I had brought home an early birthday gift/late Christmas gift for my son from my husband's aunt whom I had just seen yesterday. They got him this really cool, never been seen by us before Plasma Car. Check it out:

The birthday girl of course had a present to open. This one is from Ellie-ma (my mom).
Both kids also got to open an early present from my husband's mom before we even came home. It arrived by courier the morning we were leaving. Just in the nick of time. Thanks Grandma S.

Today was also Sunday so we walked up the hill to our old home church and had a nice time of fellowship seeing everyone again. I know I shouldn't be, but I am always astonished at how big some of the kids are getting. It was also nice to see lots of new faces since we have moved away and also just since our last visit there. That church will always hold a special place in our hearts. Both my husband and I grew up and were married by that church.

After nap times we headed over to my husband's sister's house for afternoon cake and icecream which we followed with BBQ'd hotdogs and hamburgers to commerate both of my kids birthdays which are a month apart. Everyone on my husband's side was there. It was an awesome time. Here are some pictures from the afternoon.

Auntie Mandy gave my son a bubble machine for his early birthday present. It was and is still a big hit.

The birthday girl with two eager boys waiting to snuff out that candle.

Here we are with my baby who is no longer a baby. Little did I know though that I am carrying another baby in that plump tummy. Explains why I felt the need to cover up. NOTHING was fitting right.

My son and my nephew are 6 months apart. They're buds. Especially when waiting for chocolate cake to be served.

Before Cake.
After Cake.
The Boys working the Plasma Car. We toted that thing with us wherever we went. It was a crowd pleaser.
This is my other nephew. My daughter and him are 9 days apart. Here he's playing with her gift from Auntie Mandy.
We moved the party outside. This mound of snow was what was LEFT from the latest big melt. As far as I know its still not all gone.
The boys and the mud.
Uncle Dominique (husband's sister's bf) and nephew.
My hubby and his mom and the kids. That 'stache' is gone now thank goodness.
Sending the kids down the hill at the back.
My husband and his two sisters.
It was great fun! I miss being close to family. Thanks again everyone for the great gifts and wonderful company.

New Tools

2008-04-25T12:41:00.005-04:00

In light of the minor renovations we are doing to our dining room, my husband has decided that there has never been more of an opportune time to purchase several, now very needed, tools. One of these such tools has included a new and very powerful Shop-Vac. This baby has all the attachments, options and power that any man (well, at least mine) would want for a very reasonable price.

I thought I would show you just how he spent that first night with the shop-vac out of the box.

Here he is making a stupid pose, pretending to suck his hair off his head.

Here he is, not posing so much, with a stupid grin on his face now that he has no hair.

Ok so it didn't actually suck his hair off. He thought it would be fun to shave his head and have me hold the hose above the razor so that next to no hair would hit the floor. Thus saving him the work of cleaning up after himself once he was all done cutting his hair. Take a look:

Genuis?

Before all this took place, he also had fun tormenting the kids with its incredible suction.

And its air-blowing ability.
Here my daughter is very apprehensive. I would be too.
Time well spent no? :)

Explanations

2008-04-25T08:48:00.003-04:00

Alyson over at Proud to be Country, put into words perfectly what i've been doing a lot of lately. Its that since we've been home there just isn't enough hours in one day to do all the things that need to get done. I doesn't help that our house is one disaster area on the main floor because of some reno's that my husband is doing. So it is pretty much pointless trying to clean in there right now.

Back to Alyson. Today she wrote about choices. And that is exactly what i've been doing. I know that when I say 'yes' to one thing I essentially am saying 'no' to others. For example, when I say 'yes' to blogging at the end of the day when I am exhausted and really should be sleeping, I am saying 'no' to an extra half hour to hour of sleep (I get easily sucked in). All of this to say that, lately, I have been choosing not to blog or do some other daily things so that I do have that extra time to sleep or so that I do spend more time with the kids or with my husband or just so that I do have some time to do anything that isn't what I would normally do. Does that make sense?

I thought this might help to shed some light on why blogging hasn't been on the top of the list.

Now having said all that, I do have a second explanation. Remember when I posted about having Just One of Those Days and then preceeded to give you a wonderful explanation and insight into my bodily happenings? I'd like to share some more in that area.

It all started last week (our first week back) with..... THIS

Two Little Red Lines

So there ya go. Baby number 3 seems to be the reason for all the chaos and abnormalities that have been going on lately. This explains any previous unexpected visitors, although were not sure if that unexpected guest was really what we thought it was. Yadda Yadda.. enough with that.

Now that all family has been notified, with the exception with one who is away, I thought I would share this news and new blessing in our lives with anyone who reads.

So, not only have I been making choices to get the rest that I need and spend my few wakeful hours in the day doing something productive or more important than blogging, I've been growing a baby. And like we've been telling my son "that makes mommy tired because it's a lot of work.

The First Week Back

2008-04-18T20:59:00.008-04:00

So when I meant things were back in full swing I don't think I had any idea this week was going to end up as busy as it did.

Monday our first day back began with Mom's and Tot's in the morning which was nice but by 11 both kids were at their limits and starting to get super nasty so we cut it short. That night we had Bible Study which I decided to walk to with my NEW Double Jogging Stroller!!!! I am so psyched! It was the first official big walk with it and boy oh boy was it ever nice. We had it shipped to my Aunt's in the U.S since we were going to be going down there for her son's wedding and so they brought it with them to the hotel in Poughkeepsie (Day 8 of our trip) for us. Thanks again Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Rei!

Tuesday I was planning on going to stroller fitness with my daughter and then getting some errands done. Those plans quickly changed when she vomited....twice (also happened sporadically on Day 9 of our trip). So she went for an early nap and I ended up missing stroller fitness but took my son with me anyways to get those errands done. We called it an early night because we were all still so sleep deprived and exhausted. So we picked up some munchies and did a family movie night. We watched Horton Hears a Who with the kids. It was nice. I didn't like that they used the word "stupid" and "boob" in there but on the whole it was OK. After the kids went to bed my husband and I stayed up and watched P.S. I Love You and had a good cry fest. It's a sweet movie. Good reminder to appreciate what you have when you have it.

Wednesday, we woke up early and met my dad for breakfast at the local truck stop. He called during our movie night to let us know he'd be in the area and would have some time to kill before loading the cattle again. So we met up with him, ate, and then headed off to Home Depot to help the time go by. Loading cattle went fairly smoothly this time. This time I didn't forget my camera!!

In the cab.

She fell asleep in my arms so we lay her down on the bunk.

Showing Daddy the tractor.

Grandpa's truck.

My son always watches for Otis from the Barnyard movie.

Loading them up.

My daughter's face while loading. Not sure what's going on. But if you ask her what a cow says she now says a very clear "mooo".

My son's face while loading. Good times.

Thursday, I was determined to make it to stroller fitness and that's just what we did. I had both kids and I died. I am not sure if it was about half way in or not but I just didn't have anything left in me to give. It was quite pathetic. But anyways, not that I don't enjoy the mall walking I have decided that will be my last now that the weather is nice and we can get outside more. Plus I now have my own double stroller so I can go for walks now at my own pace (I have been using the mall double strollers up until now to get my exercise with both kids).

After stroller fitness, I decided to head off to Walmart and see what they had for kitchen sets. My daughter had her 1st birthday while we were gone (Day 3 of our trip) and when we got home all the mail that wasn't junk mail was hers. She was so blessed to get some birthday money so we thought since she always plays with the kitchen set at play group we could get one for home (plus my son loves it too). I had been pricing them out at other stores and hadn't yet checked Walmart and sure enough they had them on sale for an unbeatable price. So THANKS everyone for the birthday money. This is part of what you got her (there is still some money leftover):

It took me almost 3 hours to assemble. The kids were chomping at the bit waiting for me to get it together.

And today, Friday, well this morning I decided to walk to play group. The kids were very excited to be around other kids since it had been awhile. They had a special guest today who brought some cool games and stuff that my son enjoyed. We came home and had a pretty normal afternoon until I went upstairs to get my daughter from her nap to discover that, yet again, she was covered in vomit! I don't get this! It is so sporadic and unpredictable. So we got her all cleaned up and its been going on all evening. She finally conked out in bed so now I get the privilege of writing about it. So strange. My sister in law thinks it could be teething. Hmmm. I did hear her grinding her teeth. Any other ideas?

So here I am showered and waiting for my husband to get home from work. I just noticed that its a full moon outside tonight. Hopefully work wasn't too crazy tonight for him. Apparently, the boys he works with tend to be harder to handle on nights like these.

Here honey these'll make you smile.

My son being a mysterious. He wanted me to take this picture of him in the T.V. Crazy kid.

She wanted in on the action too.

Thank goodness the weekend is here and my husband is off. Yay!

Day 2 of trip

2008-04-16T20:12:00.008-04:00

Saturday was a special day for me. Turns out my husbands two sisters, a friend of his sister and his mom were all taking a trip to O-town to go wedding dress shopping for the elder of his two sisters. They had room in the car for me so I took off with them at 9am to have a girls day without any kids. What a treat!!! I also learned that we would be meeting up with my husbands aunt who lives in the big city and would later on that day be going back to her house for a girls party that she was hosting. Sigh....I was beside myself. A day without kids. A day without guys (nothing personal just a nice break). And a day shopping (even if it wasn't for me)! Plus I was officially off duty!

So the five of us loaded into the car and took off. My husband's mom treated us all to timbits and hot chocolate which was a nice treat considering my timbit fiend of a son wasn't there to devour them all at once.

After much loud music, laughter, and woman jokes (mostly involving spilt hot chocolate in a very inconvenient spot) we met up with my husband's aunt who I hadn't seen since her wedding last year. After pee breaks, smoke breaks for those who smoked, hello's and excited squeals we took off again to hit up the local Costco.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the simple things in life can bring us woman so much joy. We were all so stoked to take advantage of the sampling booths. We also had one cart amongst 6 woman who all shop for their respective households. Oh the deals that we found- pancake mix, pickles, flowers, party food (for later on that day), underwear, sandals. A little bit of everything. The poor man who rang us all through considering only my husband's aunt had a membership and we needed to keep track of how much we each owed her.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Costco they have a really cheap hot dog and drink special which we indulged in. Hmmmm. On our way out, we encountered a VERY rude man working there. This fired up my husband's aunt which in turn got us all fired up! He was lucky we were already at the car by this time is about all I can say.

We then returned to my husband's aunt's house to unload, pee, smoke for those who smoke, and regroup before taking off again to our first bridal shop.

I felt so privileged to be a part of this special process for his sister. A rite of passage for most brides. There were lots of laughs and opinions and negotiations and contemplations. Two of the bridesmaids were present (the sister and friend of the bride) and they too had fun trying out all sorts of weird and wacky ensembles with the exception of a couple of decent ones.

Not quite satisfied with what we had found we moved on to a second bridal shop. The bride's friend found a dress that turned out to be the most perfectly, stunning, elegant, classic wedding dress. Unfortunately at this store we were not allowed to take pictures but trust me when I tell you that I think the search is over. Wow.

A couple of people were getting a little shopped out so we split up and my hubby's mom, the bride, friend and myself piled into a car to do some more shopping. There was no way I was going to let this day pass without making it count to the fullest. It's not every day I am kid and husband free in a big city with other woman who have similar interests. So we headed over to Michaels (an craft store) to see what they had for wedding accessories, decorations etc. The bride discovered a great deal on do-it-yourself invitations. So she now has her invitations bought. Woo hoo!

Again, not wanting to waist any precious time we all headed over to IKEA. After some more cheap hot dogs we continued to paruse the isles. It was bliss.

Back at my husband's aunt's house we prepared for the nights events. The guests staggered in and we began our girls evening. The food was remarkable. I have two words for you: Chocolate Fountain! Phenomenal. Never have I tasted such a thing. This exceeded all previous experiences with chocolate fondu. I think bliss is my new word today.

It was a late night getting home. I think I was in bed by 2am compared to my usual 10pm. Once again I suffered the next day but like I have mentioned before....

It was worth it!

Can we do it again?

This is the only picture I took to remember this day by. Man I was definitely pre-occupied. This is Candice, the brides friend and one of the bridesmaids. She was our driver for the day and d.j. She was a lot of fun.

Ok i'm back...

2008-04-16T13:49:00.002-04:00

After being back home for 10 days and then a 2 day recovering from all the business, craziness and traveling, I am happy to be back home and enjoying the comforts of being HOME. Having said that though, I miss everyone we visited and spent time with. I miss all the wonderfully scrumptious home-cooking that was languished upon us. I miss not having to cook myself. I miss all the yummy meals out that we had. I miss not having to cook myself. Did I say that already? I miss just being back home where everything is familiar and holds much significance and memories.

But it's good to be home. At least for now....till the next wedding. It's that time of year.

I am looking forward to getting the pictures off the camera and starting to chapter what we did while we were gone and the memories that were created with friends and family. Good times.

Now that we're home though, life as we know it is back into full swing.

I'mm Leaa-ving on a Jet Plane....Day One

2008-04-04T22:04:00.004-04:00

Ok so i'm not actually going anywhere on a plane. Does our Volkswagon Jetta count? We got a phone call this week from my husbands mom presenting us with a deal we couldn't refuse. She offered to help us out with gas if we would make the trip home (almost 4 hours away) on my husbands 10 days off to visit with family and friends. So we packed up and left this morning and made the trip back home in rain, sleet and snow. On a side note, it always amazes me how many different weather systems you can drive through in just four hours.

So my blog posting may be a little scattered for the next 10 days. We are taking advantage of the neighbors wireless internet that they've so kindly forgotten to secure (thank goodness we're not hackers) so I am not completely isolated from the world wide web.

We arrived at my mother-in-laws to a super scrumptious supper. She loves to spoil my husband and so the rest of us get to enjoy the benefits of having him in our lives (he's a mamma's boy and proud of it). She loves it too! :) We then touched base with my mom so that we had keys to my grandparent's empty home that we use as our personal hotel. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma if you're reading (the kids are sound asleep and we're enjoying the peace and quiet a small town brings).

I did manage to dig out the contraption for loading pictures so I hope to post some of those over the next couple of days.

Have an interesting "girls" day planned for tomorrow. Will write about that later.

Till next time.

Computer-less

2008-04-02T21:04:00.002-04:00

Besides having a crazy abnormal woman-issues week, I am computer-less. Well not entirely but my computer is gone. You see Monday, while I was out at Mom's and Tots with my son, my husband was home while our daughter slept. I received a frantic phone call that a part on his computer had gone kaput and that I was to rush over to Future Shop immediately to pick up a new one so he could see if that was really the problem. Then he called back-false alarm.

I returned home to a sad and disgruntled husband who had confirmed that his power supply had died and it would need replacing......immediately. We managed to hold off for a day because on Tuesday we took a last minute trip to K-town to pick up his new power supply for an extraordinary price. All of this to say that, while we were there, we returned my computer to Best Buy to get it repaired under warranty because it had started making funny noises. We then learned that they would have to send it off for repairs. And so, I am currently unable to access any of my photos right now. For the family that read this blog, it may be a while until there will be new pictures of the kids unless, of course, I stop being lazy and find the contraption that can hook up to my husbands computer so I can get the pictures I just took off of my camera. But since I am being lazy and you can read here why that is, that'll have to wait until another day.

Today, besides my unexpected visitor, I also had my friend Pam and her two kids over for another play date. It made the day go by fast and it also kept my kids occupied. I love play dates. She brought us some homemade rice crispy squares. But.....there are none left....I ate them.... all.....well all that were left.....all.....six of them. I apparently have no self control today either.

To add to my embarrassment, I strategically planned a trip out of the house tonight to replenish my medicine cabinet and get my son a hair cut for a wedding we will be attending next weekend, so that we would be done just in time to meet my husband after work and give him a lift home. Only I forgot (memory loss) that he had told me he was working late for a co-worker tonight and he had to tell me to go home (just as other people were peeking through the window blinds at our exchange). Is nothing sacred? (never mind just my hormones speaking).

Off to bed with me. Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow is a new day (repeat until satisfied)

The Sequel- Just One of Those Days

2008-04-02T20:56:00.002-04:00

It's kind of embarrassing but I do have an explanation for most of the way things went yesterday. I happened to have an unexpected visitor show up today. A visitor I haven't seen in almost two years. This visitor explains why something just wasn't right, why I was irritable, why my hubby and I weren't on the same wave length, why nothing I put on 'looked' right, why I felt stuck in a rut, why overeating was not a good idea, and why I took longer doing things that don't normally take so long.

Sigh...the joys of being a woman. Or rather the joys of being reminded you're a woman. But today was a new day. A new day full of aches and pains. A day of headaches and sore joints. A day that I realized we have only expired drugs in our medicine cabinet!

Just one of the days.

Just one of those days

2008-04-01T20:11:00.002-04:00

Do you ever have one of those days where everything goes wrong?

One of those days when, from the moment you open your eyes and get out of bed, something just isn't right?

One of those days where, you just can't seem to shake of the millions of things that just so suddenly irritate you?

One of those days where you and your spouse are just not thinking on the same wave length?

One of those days when nothing you put on looks right?

One of those days when you overeat on your favorite food and you feel worse than you did the last time you did it?

One of those days when you get stuck in a rut and can't seem to get out?

One of those days when you just can't seem to be on time?

Today was that kind of day.

Praise the Lord, tomorrow is a new day with new beginnings.

Song Update

2008-03-31T22:01:00.003-04:00

Since I last wrote about my sons weird and diverse music tastes, he has added to his repertoire three more musical pieces. We now welcome, "Move It" by Reel-2-Real. It's a dance techno song that I walked into my friends Sarah's wedding to when they were announcing the wedding party. It's catchy and just has kinda stuck around the house and now resurfaced.

We also welcome "I Love Rock'n Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts to our house. I think my husband's the source of this one.

And finally, I have watched the new movie 27 Dresses and they play another very catchy tune "Benny and the Jets" by Elton John. Needless to say both my husband and I can NOT get it out of our heads. It seems like we're not the only ones. (What have we created?!?)

Welcome to our home.

This is him busting out some dance moves at a wedding this past summer.

Middle Child Syndrome

2008-03-29T21:47:00.004-04:00

Is it possible for a second child with no younger siblings to already have characteristics of a middle child? Does that go away if you never have any more kids?

I find myself constantly awestruck by my daughters personality that to me seems so like that of a middle child. Attention seeking being the big one right now.

Today we spent the majority of the day going store to store scooping up the bargains that make up our groceries (just how I do it). I happened to notice several strangers staring at my load only to discover that my daughter was flashing smiles at whomever would glance her way. Upon even closer observation, she seemed to wait until they were looking to flash her toothy grin. Unbelievable! Once she got them all "ooohh-innng" and "ahhh-iiinng" and pining over her she'd throw herself back and laugh.

Meanwhile, my son, taking this all in of course, would stare until they noticed him and try to engage him in the same playful banter. He would immediately covers his eyes and play all mute and shy. Which is pretty normal for him when he meets strangers.

This is a very strange phenomenon to me.

This of course is just one characteristic of the typical middle child. I think its a little too early to tell if she's an underachiever or loner or unfocused worker.

Bathtime

2008-03-28T21:01:00.003-04:00

Mommy to Son: Ok time to go give your sister a bath...
Son: I wanna bath too
Mommy: No not tonight. It'll be her turn to have a bath by herself. You had your bath last night.
Son: No I wanna bath too......

(silence as we walk up the stairs)

Son: Mom...I stink!
Mommy: lol alright then.

If Only I Had My Camera-Loading Cattle, Mall Walking and Boys Being Boys

2008-03-27T19:48:00.005-04:00

Today was a fantastic day. It was preluded (is that a word?) by my friend Lisa visiting last night while her husband and mine went to a work related meeting. We stayed up way too late...again. But this time for a legitimate reason-our husbands were out late.

After about 6 hours of sleep, I dragged myself and my son out of bed to go and meet up with my dad who happened to be trucking by our place. We met him at the local truck stop at 6:15am and proceeded to hop aboard to go pick up some cattle from a sale barn. He drives transport during the winter to supplement their income when their isn't any cash crop to bale or harvest from his farm. So today was a special treat for my son since my dad lives almost 4 hours away and it isn't every day that you get to travel in a big rig like his. Oh and I forgot my camera. I am beating myself up over this.

So we hopped aboard to accompany him to a local sale barn to load some cattle that he would be transporting to Pennsylvania. It was sheer bliss for both my son and I. My son was very quiet at the beginning, yet super bug-eyed and observing every thing and I was in my element. You see, we don't live in the country right now although, that is where my heart lies and that's how I was raised. Often I am compelled to take a drive north of the city to get my fill of the fresh air and scenery. I look forward to the day when I will return to my roots and once again relish in the country life. But for now this is what we can afford.

It had been a while since my last drive so today was the day. The smell of dead skunk and manure, bumpy narrow roads, lights on in barns as the farmer does his chores, small towns that were gone in a blink of an eye, good company and my son snuggling on my lap drinking it all in just as I was. I can't tell you how great it was to be able to see my dad and be out in the country both at the same time.

Once we arrived at the sale barn my son, by then, had become a little more talkative. He has watched the movie Barnyard numerous times and was so excited to see "Otis". *No photo ops this time* Only seeing that we were in a barn full of cows there were lots of Otis'. He then became a little concerned when he saw his friend Otis being loaded into the back of Grandpa's truck. "What they doing mom?", "Where's Grandpa?", "What's that noise?" and "MOOooooo-ooo!" were frequent words from his mouth.

I don't know about you, but what do you tell an almost three year old when his new buddy Otis is being loaded into the back of a trailer to be taken to a slaughter house x-number of miles away?

I chose the easy route-"Grandpa is taking them with him on a big trip". End of questions. But wait. "Me go too!" My son pipes up. "Ummmm.....not this time honey". Did I mention I can't believe I forgot my camera.

Moving on. While we were waiting for my dad to finish up some paperwork, my son got a little more comfortable in the cab of the truck. He decided he was the new driver. Man I wish I had had my camera. For those of you that aren't familiar with the insides of a transport cab, there are loads and load of buttons and switch and electronics. My son is a button boy! It was mayhem.I finally convinced that only Grandpa is allowed to touch 99% of the switches and that my dear son could be in charge of signaling. Phew.

When my dad came back he let my son help him shift and gave him the job of telling him if the lights were green or red. We were returned to the truck stop, we said our goodbyes and my son had his turn at the big horn. Ok so he was allowed to touch three things.

Next on the agenda was stroller fitness. I had invited my friend Pam to come with her two kids. The one who has a son who shares the same name as mine and who also shares similar personalities (ie. loves running). We had decided that I would borrow a double stroller from the mall to keep the two boys in so that they could amuse each other and if they did take off running I could be the runner to retrieve them.

So to say the least, I got my exercise today. Once they both warmed up the idea of having a partner in crime they got really comfortable running around after one another. Praise the Lord for money spending contraptions located at each entrance of the mall where we stop to do our respective exercises. I am now in love with lockers, Coke machines, photo booths, pay phones, and mall information computers. If only I had remembered my camera!

I am also in love with Sears. They have parked their lawn mowers outside their entrance to the mall which happens to be where we do some abs. Of course, boys being boys, they were all over those things like bees to honey! Just priceless.

What a wonderful morning......that I payed for the rest of the day. Both my son and I were zombie's when we got home. Only to find out that my daughter had decided to sleep in until 8:30 this morning. What are the chances of that?

Since I was the loser who forgot her camera on one of the best mornings in a long time. Here's a picture of that side of the family at Christmas.

Back: My Great Aunt, Dad, Son & Husband
Middle: Dad's Wife
Front: Me, Daughter and My Grandma