Born 'n Bred Country Girl

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.