Life....Plain and Simple

Curls

2012-02-14T21:32:00.000-06:00

Dear Mom,

My hair holds a curl now. But I still won't let you curl my bangs.

Love,
Kathy

----

Growing up I had super straight hair that wouldn't hold a curl. My mom disliked that my hair wouldn't curl. I disliked my mom's attempts to curl my hair :)

Attempts to curl my bangs resulted in classic pictures like this:

Of course, other methods were employed in trying to get my hair to curl.

Like ringlets made with wrapping my hair around pieces of fabric, sleep on it overnight.....

Or the ever popular perm....yes, people, a perm....

Believe it or not I was excited to have a perm. It was back in the day when my mom got her hair permed all the time, and it was kind of the style....a style that was quickly fading out. It made me feel special. I don't remember the curls lasting very long.

Then puberty hit and the influx of hormones brought me this lovely wavy mane:

Every since I chopped off that crazy mass of hair I've avoided curls. And then the other day I was browsing around the internet and came upon this:

No Heat Curls

Apparently it's been floating around on pintrest. (I'm not on pintrest, I have enough other things to waste my time on....) You can find a tutorial and stuff on the Paper Momma's blog

I saw this and went hmm...maybe I'll give it a try.

I did a trial run on Friday morning which resulted in nice waves which were still intact the next day.

So I tried the real deal...

Showered at night and put the hair up. I tried two head bands cause I have thick-ish short hair....using only one head band didn't really work for the back of my hair cause the hair back there is too short.

Then the next morning I took off the head bands....(Eva wanted in on the fun!)

Crazy curls!...Had to be tamed with a few pins.

It was a fun experiment! And they lasted for 2 days. After having curly hair for 3 days, I went back to my normal straight hair today and it was a bit of a let down. I think I'll do curly hair more often.

Maybe Eva will let me try to curl her straight hair..... ; )

The Library

2012-02-09T16:11:00.000-06:00

I live 3 minutes from a large academic library, but I rarely use it now that I'm done school. We also live about 10 minutes from the town library and almost 5 years later I went there for the first time a few months ago. A sad waste of all of the books that are easily available to me....

We've started using our local library regularly. It's a nice small town library, half french, half english. We started going to story time a little before Casey was born. I wasn't sure if Eva liked it or not, but we missed story time this week and went to the library a few hours later and she had a big meltdown in the library because we couldn't go sing songs on the stage :) So I guess she does enjoy going.

Yesterday we went to town and she actually said "Look, the library!". And then she said that it had a rooster on the side of it, which it does. We've never talked about that before. And usually when she says Rooster she calls it a cockadoodle. That was a cool moment.

It can be a funny thing to read kids books as an adult. What I think of the books certainly isn't what Eva picks up.

One of the best books we've stumbled upon is The Very Itchy Bear by Nick Bland. It's truly amazing. I think I wanted to read it more than Eva. At some point I may have to buy this book. And if you read further into the meaning as an adult, it could have some interesting implications for life. Stop reading this blog and go and get it out of your library right now :) (...and then come back and finish reading the blog)

Eva's current favourites are the books about Douglas the bear.

"Hugless Douglas" and "Don't Worry Douglas" by David Melling. They are cute stories and have nice illustrations in them. And they don't get boring when you have to read them 5 times a day :) I highly recommend these ones. And I think a new one is coming out soon.

Eva also really likes Clifford the big red dog. But who doesn't like Clifford?

Her favourite book from our current batch is Peek-a-zoo by Marie Cimarusti. It's a cute, simple, peek-a-boo book.

If you want to teach your kids bad morals read Oink? by Margie Palatini. It had the potential to be a good book, but the end really messes things up. Kind of like "If you just play stupid then others will do the work for you"....not really sure I want my kid learning how to take advantage of other people. She'll learn that anyways, but I hope not from a story book. Don't waste your library time getting this one out.

The Very Ugly Bug by Liz Pichon is a super cute story. I didn't mind it at all. Except the very end. *Spoiler Alter* the book ends by an ugly male bug thinking that the ugly bug is gorgeous and they fall in love and have lots of babies. It made it seem like some sort of strange memoir. Like the author as a teenager was a an outsider and thought she was ugly, but then in the end people liked her and she found someone who loved her in spite of her ugliness. It was a little weird. But true in the fact that we all hope to have someone in our lives who loves us even with all of our ugliness. This is worth a read.....just skip the last 2 pages :)

If you are non French speakers like us, but have access to a bilingual library and want to have some more francais in your life I would check out the "Lulu et Poupadi apprennent a dire..." series. We've had out Bonjour and Merci. We borrowed one this week call "bebe chat a toujours froid" by Ophelie Texier it's part of a series called maman et bebe. What I like about both of these series is that that language is simple so I can (poorly) pronounce most of the words and I understand the story so I can translate for Eva. Plus they teach basic vocabulary throughout the story....especially in the bebe chat a toujours froid...you learn the words for socks, mittens, hat, scarf, etc. (incase you're wondering, I was too lazy to put in the accents on the letters on the french words.....)

I've hardly read any books since I finished school. I was just burnt out from reading so much. Lately with all of our trips to the library and Ken reading for his classes I've been feeling like I want to start reading again. I'm not sure I'm up for "academic"/professional type reading just yet, but I've decided to start with reading some biographies. I figure I like knowing about people's lives so maybe biographies are a good place to start. A better choice then eavesdropping on people's conversations at the food court in the mall :) I have an amazon order ready to go with some professional type books for work (thought they might be too boring to talk about on the blog, but if you really want to hear about them let me know), and Open by Andre Agassi - his autobiography. He's probably my favourite tennis player of all time and I've been wanting to read that one for a while so I figured I'd finally order it.

While I wait for my Amazon shipment I'm going to read a biography on Catherine of Siena. Catherine of Siena: A Passionate Life by Don Brophy.

Who is Catherine of Siena? I don't know, but I guess I'll find out. The description in the library catalogue sounded interesting, and she has the same name as I do, and I didn't feel like sifting through the almost 3000 books that were tagged as biographies in the library catalogue. I think she's a catholic saint. She died young. That's all I know, but I'll find out more soon!

What have you read lately?

Diamond Jubilee

2012-02-06T15:11:00.000-06:00

Well, somewhere in the midst of having a baby and losing my brain, I forgot all about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. I know, How could I have forgotten, right?!?

If you've been reading my blog for a few years, every now and then there's a post about the Royals. I'm not a Royal watcher by any means, but I am quite fascinated by them. Especially fascinated by the Queen. I think she's pretty incredible. And today marks the day when she became Queen, 60 years ago. In some ways it is kind of sad because for her, it's also the day that her dad died. I can't even imagine doing something for 60 years....let alone being Queen for 60 years. Which is why I'm blowing off dirty dishes, laundry, and supper prep while both kids are napping at the same time to write this blog post....

Look at this picture:

Doesn't she just look like the friendliest Grandma out for a stroll, lovin' on her people. I just want to run up and give her a hug.....but if I did that guy in the top right hand corner with the goatee would probably tackle me to the ground just like when the Giants defence sacked Tom Brady in the final drive of the Super Bowl last night.

Ok, now look at this one:

Look closely at the look on her face. It's like "Yeah, I'm the Queen, I'm a nice Grandma, but I can still kick your butt into gear if I need to, don't mess with me."

I think she must be an incredibly wise person. She must have seen and experienced so many things in her reign and in her life. I hope Prince William has been taking notes.

I'm glad that the commonwealth will celebrate her. She deserves to be celebrated. I think that she's probably had more influence on world events in the last 60 years than any other person. Yet, we would hardly know because it all happens behind closed doors.

Incase you missed her Christmas message this year, here it is, it's pretty great, you won't be disappointed that you watched it.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to hearing about some of the celebrations that will be happening this year. I've heard rumours that Prince Charles and Camilla might be making a stop in Saskatchewan, if it's true, there might be a road trip in my future....

Visits from Angels - A Family Update

2012-02-05T15:50:00.005-06:00

Z-dog:

Has once again been sheep herding for a few weeks. She loves the farm. We all got to go and watch her the other night. She's learning that things she may have been able to eat without any problems in her youth now cause her to be sick.....like snagging chicken bones that mom accidentally drops on the floor. She's now accepted the fact that Casey is staying and is trying to befriend him. And she enjoys being included in play time with Eva.

Mr. Jones:

He can smile! He's starting to outgrow the "newborn"-ness and is more little baby. He reached the 10lb mark and got a clear bill of health from the paediatrician. He may never learn to roll over because he's hardly on the floor for 3 reasons 1) He might get lost in the piles of Eva's toys that get spread over the whole house 2) Mommy can't protect him from Zoey all the time and 3) He wants to be held all. the. time. by someone who is standing. Mommy is his favourite person. He has an opinion about everything and makes it known. He's slept in his own crib in his own room for the last 2 nights. And he'll drink from a bottle if he needs to. Still doesn't sleep that long at night, but hopefully it will get better.

Miss E:

Ball of energy as per usual. She's talking WAY more and it's very entertaining. Now understands the concept of a library and the exchange of books. Has started to make some little friends and it's cute. Is currently fascinated with the days of the week and what we do on those days. If she's wearing something with a hood, the hood has to be up otherwise a meltdown happens. Currently survives on eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Whines a lot.....but we love her anyways. Starting to actually play "pretend" with her stuffed animals or little people....usually they're going to gymnastics or church, or they're going on a trip on an airplane or having a bath or having quiet time. Loved the candles on Daddy's birthday cake.

Daddy:

Now a year older. Having fun at school. Still dreams of being young. Started playing hockey. Needs a hair cut.

Mommy:

Sleep deprived. Smells like baby puke. Really enjoying staying home A LOT....wishing to never work again, but is trying to decide when to go back to work. Gets to do a little bit of work starting Tuesday with putting on a seminar. Prays for Eva to nap every day. Currently developing strong left arm biceps muscles and good legs muscles from standing all day and holding the wee one.

Family Date Night:

We have an abundance of Tim Horton's gift cards. So we decided to start having monthly family date nights. The other night we had our first one. We went mini golfing and then to Tim Horton's after. Super fun! Totally glad we went. Eva was the cutest thing ever. Casey drank a bottle. Ken beat me for the first time in years. I attribute the loss to post pregnancy hormones. (is there anything you can't blame on hormones?) Here's the video:

Angel Visits:

"Sparkly Trees" - Eva

We were almost in a serious car accident a few weeks ago. Man in large truck driving super fast on a twisty gravel road while talking on his cell phone didn't see our van. He was driving on the wrong side of the road (as in on the side we were driving on), Ken started honking, we almost had to drive into the ditch. But something kept us on the road and the other vehicle away from ours. We wanted to turn around and follow the guy back into town but we didn't. I thought about what would've happened if we had followed him back to town....my initial response would have been to yell at him for being so stupid...but then I thought that I would just introduce him to my husband and my kids and tell him that I would hope that whatever his phone call was about wasn't as important as the precious cargo in my vehicle. Thanks Angels.

Pretty sure Eva can see angels. I know, sounds weird to some, but not to us. When Eva was younger she would look into the middle of nowhere and wave and say hi. So we started telling her that if she saw angels she could say hi. She seems to be quite perceptive.....she is selective about who she says hi to. Often the strangers she says hi to look a little sad or down....perhaps they have angels with them. And Eva's been talking a lot about Jesus lately and how he's at the door and stuff. It's cute, but it's a great opportunity to teach. Plus we never really know what little ones actually can see.....

Anyways. Last night I was putting Eva to bed. While we were reading stories Zoey came into Eva's room. Zoey hardly ever comes into Eva's room. I assumed that the dog had to go to the bathroom, but Zoey just lay there contentedly. After stories I was putting Eva into bed and she kept asking "Who's that?" and pointing up to the top of her curtains. after we had a little conversation about who it was I said if you see an angel you can say "Hi Angel" and she did. Then I told her if she saw anyone else to say "Jesus says 'Go Away'" and she did. I left the room expecting zoey to follow. But she didn't she stayed in Eva's room, which she NEVER does. Eva called me in to her room last night probably 5 times (usually we only have to go in once or not at all). And every time she asked "Who's that?" while pointing up....so then we'd say hi to the Angel :). Zoey eventually came out of the room when Eva started bugging her. We figure it must have been an angel cause Zoey was so calm, if it was something else she probably would've been agitated. I hope Eva sees angels forever.

My Veggie Senses are Tingling....

2012-01-28T22:55:00.000-06:00

Miss E eats no vegetables. None. It's like she has this weird veggie sensing device in her mouth. Which lots of kids her age apparently have. We've tried hiding them in things, smothering them in cheese, having dip, etc. Nothing works. I made her a pizza and put some veggies on there....she picked them off. I'm not sure how she knows what vegetables are because she never eats them, but somehow she does.

There have been a few occasions where she's eaten veggies. One was when we were in the hospital with Casey and she was at the neighbours. I believe she ate frozen corn or peas. I chalk it up to peer pressure from our neighbours kids, who Eva adores. We tried giving her frozen corn at home...and she gave us a funny look like "why would I eat that?". Unfortunately sending Eva to their house for supper every night isn't really an option. Lately however, she will munch on tiny pieces of raw carrot! Yippee!! Today she ate 3 little pieces.....

(As a side note, she doesn't eat meat either....I know, you're wondering what does she eat?.... toast with peanut butter and jam, cheese, fruit, apple sauce, and anything unhealthy...cookies, cake, etc. But the other day I did get her to eat spaghetti with MEAT sauce. Small progress is being made!)

So I thought I would get smart and make a cookie with a vegetable in them. I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. So technically sweet potatoes are not vegetables, but starches, and they aren't actually that much healthier then regular white potatoes (according to what I read on the internet). But they have lots of good stuff in them that Eva wouldn't eat normally.

(Another aside. I've totally become a fan of sweet potatoes. We eat them quite a bit now. Recently I started making shepherd's pie with sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. And it tastes sooooo good! I don't use regular gravy either. I season the beef with some onion soup mix and then stir in a can of mushroom soup which makes the gravy - thank you perishky recipe for teaching me that trick. I think I'll make shepherd's pie this way forever! Seriously, try it, it's good, even Ken says it's awesome.)

Here's a link to the recipe.

These are quite possibly some of the best cookies I've ever made. Ken of course was skeptical - he doesn't like new things :). But I believe he had one bite and said "Man, these are awesome!". I replaced the raisins with chocolate chips cause we're just chocolate chip kind of people. There's also not a lot of sugar in these cookies which is nice.... only 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

I was all excited about the cookies. They looked good, they tasted good, and they were healthier then any other cookie I'd ever made. I asked Eva if she'd like a cookie....

WHAT?!? She said No to having a cookie?!? How could she possibly know what it contained?

Later, at snack time Ken just gave her two of the cookies.

As you can see she did eat them. And she said that they were yummy.

All in all a success. I will definitely make them again! There's a sweet potato in my fridge just waiting to be turned into some cookies :)

Next project....bread with veggies in it..... stay tuned....

The rest of today....

2012-01-19T21:48:00.000-06:00

The rest of today.... (which was actually almost a week ago).

I waited for the plumber.

They came, they couldn't fix anything.

I got the flu that night..... no running water + the flu = nastiness.

I prayed that Casey would sleep the longest he ever had.

Casey slept 7 hours! Which means he slept through the whole time I had fluish symptoms. The longest he's slept since then is 4 hours.

Saturday morning the plumbers came back, they made a little bit of progress.

At 4:30 they gave up and thought they would have to dig up our yard to find the problem.

We called the school to see if they had an apartment for us to live in, and they did!

So we moved into a little 1 bedroom apartment and it was wonderful. Seriously made me want to sell everything and move into a smaller place :)

We had such a great time, it was a nice retreat. Eva loved actually being able to see the trains that she hears all the time. And it was fun to camp out all in the same bedroom. There is something completely wonderful about falling asleep surrounded by your whole family.

Sunday no work was done. We went out with some friends, which was great! I just wish I hadn't been so tired.

Monday I went to a play date where Eva had a complete melt down and dumped a cup of water on the head of my neighbour's daughter....oh yeah, that was an awesome moment....*sigh*

The plumbers came back Monday morning and together with the school maintenance people finally found the source of the problem.

15 mins later we had running water.

Still some things to take care of with that situation, but for the most part it's taken care of.

I've spent the whole week trying to catch up on laundry and house work and sleep. Today I caught up :)

Last night I discovered our sink was leaking....which made the ceiling downstairs wet. The carpet is wet again in the same spot that we fixed over the summer.

The plumbing in our house hates us.

So there's the story.....

In all of this the only thing I was really concerned about was the financial cost of having plumbers around for 3 days.....especially when they thought they might have to dig up the water line.

We were taken care of in every way. Goodness was abundant.

Today...

2012-01-13T12:14:00.001-06:00

I stayed up too late last night.

There was a bit of an accident last night that left me covered in milk.

Casey puked on the bed.

The kids woke up a little earlier than normal. (which wouldn't normally be bad, but I stayed up too late last night.)

When we woke up there was no running water.

Thought that they were just flooding the ice rink again and complained that it was an annoying time to flood the ice rink.

Ken's coffee didn't brew properly.

I felt sad when I saw Eva with her short hair this morning (even though she looks cute)....I miss her crazy hair, it was part of who she was and I cut it off :'(

Casey cried all morning.

While I ate my breakfast I kept reading in Matthew chapter 15.

Jesus healed a bunch of people and fed lots of people again.

Obviously He didn't have anything to say to me today.

I checked my Facebook.

One of my friends had posted this:

I thought "Hmm...interesting"

Then I went to the bathroom (yes I remembered to do that today) and the toilet didn't flush.

We still had no water.

I called all of our neighbours.

They all had water.

Called the school and everything is fine on their end.

*sigh*

"Why God? Why?" (see above cartoon)

Remember Matthew 15 God healed lots of people...then "he had compassion on them" and fed them.

Think about all the ways God has taken care of me already today:

- Neighbours who invite my child over to play

- The community we live in and the people that work there who come to see if they can help us and bring us large containers of water

- That it is the water that's not working instead of electricity or heat, which would be far worse to live without

- That I did the kids laundry yesterday

- That I washed the dishes yesterday

- Feel comforted by the knowledge that we have a church family with a wide variety of resources who can try to help us if my fear of the plumber not being able to do anything comes true :)

Pray that God will have compassion on us and fix our water....for free or cheap.

Decide that God did have something to tell me today.

Try to remember that we are taken care of.....

Wait for the plumber to arrive.

Crumbs

2012-01-12T15:19:00.001-06:00

Believe it or not I've had two pretty good thought of a more serious nature this week. Yes, two in one week. Usually my daily thoughts that carry some weight go like this "Oh, it's supper time, I haven't gone to the bathroom since I woke up this morning...perhaps I should go." or "that diaper has been sitting on top of the piano for a long time, I must remember to throw it out today" or "it's supper time and I haven't brushed my teeth yet today, or my hair, Ken would probably like it if I did both of those things"........

Anyways, both of the thoughts are somewhat related to each other, which I will blog about at a later date. But I wanted to blog about the one I had today.

So this morning I read Matthew 15:21-28.

The Faith of the Canaanite Woman
²¹ Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”

²³ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
²⁵ The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
²⁶ He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
²⁸ Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

I have to be perfectly honest, when I first read it I thought it was kind of weird. I was nursing Casey, and Eva was watching VeggieTales, I was still trying to wake up....so one might say that it was not such a good time to focus on communing with the Lord, but I tried. My thoughts went something like this.... "Hmm...that's a weird response from Jesus. He's kinda being mean. We're supposed to love people right? Not be all...'you're a canaanite, I can't help you'....wonder what that's all about." And that was it.

Fast forward 6 hours to this afternoon. Eva was having quiet time and I was feeding Casey again, enjoying the quiet moment. And all of a sudden it hit me. Not necessarily the correct interpretation of the Scripture but as it applies to my life....

Did you know that I'm able to eat at the masters' table?

I am.

But you know what else?

Sometimes I don't think that I'm able to eat at the masters' table. And then I just settle for eating the crumbs off of the floor when I could be eating the feast that's on the table.

Sometimes I feel like all I'm getting is the crumbs from the table and for whatever reason Jesus isn't letting me eat the feast....like I'm sitting at the table, but I can't eat any of the food, and I have to wait and just eat the leftover or the crumbs after everyone else is done feasting.

But the funny thing about the crumbs off of Jesus' table is that they're still powerful.

The Canaanite woman may have only had some of the crumbs, but those crumbs were powerful enough to heal her daughter. The crumbs on my floor are powerful enough to annoy me when I step in them with bare feet.....certainly not powerful enough to cast out a demon.

And then I think......

Some times I purposely chose to eat the crumbs off of the floor because I'm scared to eat the feast on the table. I mean if crumbs are powerful enough to heal, then what's gonna happen if I sit at the table and eat. I know crumbs....I don't know feasting as well as I know crumbs....

crumbs or feast?

.....

Tradition! Tradition!

2012-01-08T22:22:00.000-06:00

Tradition! Tradition!

....10 points if you know what movie that's from.

It's from Fiddler on the Roof :). One of my most favourite movies. Kind of nerdy I know for an almost 30 something to love fiddler on the roof. *insert radom Kathy trivia here*...my most favourite movie is Legally Blonde.

If you have 8 minutes here's a clip to watch.

I try to watch fiddler on the roof once a year. I'm watching it right now! I won't watch the whole thing though because I need to go to bed.....(the new background is about going to bed, if I'm blogging chances are I should probably be in bed!) This year I will watch it in 2 or 3 chunks cause currently I don't have 3 consecutive hours to watch a movie.

Anyways, back to tradition

I just at the last piece of Vinatarta.

The traditional Christmas cake that Ken's dad makes for us every year. At some point I'm sure the making of the Vinatarta will fall to me. Perhaps I should start practicing now so when I do have to do it, it will turn out :)

I'm also eating ice cream - somewhat of a tradition. Every night before bed when I was a kid I had ice cream. It's one of those things that I look back on, especially now that I'm a mother, and say "Mom, I can't believe you let me eat ice cream every night!"

And now for the real tradition....

Fleisch Perishky

I try to be mennonite, but I'm not :) I'm not a great cook and I'm terrible with yeast. But I wanted to try making Perishky.

I received the Mennonite Girls Can Cook, cookbook for Christmas. I made the cauliflower cheese soup, which was great! and I made Fleisch Perishky. For those not exposed to mennonite culture, Fleisch Perishky are buns stuffed with a ground beef mixture. Very tasty. one of my favourite mennonite dishes, which is why I tried to make them. A good mennonite girl would have learned to cook from her mother from the time she was young, and she'd be able to actually pronounce Flische Perishky!

For starters, it took me most of the day. From 2pm - 6:30.....and I only made half of the recipe and Ken was home to take care of the kids (minus feeding Casey). Now, if I was truly the stereotypical mennonite lady I would probably have 3 or 4 children age 5 and under, not 2. I probably would've had the oldest one helping me and somehow still managed to make the perishky in a short amount of time while caring for my brood all by myself :)

They weren't a complete fail. In fact, they didn't taste all that bad. They were just tiny!

My dough didn't rise quite right. I think I added too much flour. They tasted like Perishky and and looked like Perishky. So Ken and I just nicknamed them mini-perishky.....and if I take a picture of them up close they don't look so small....

I'll try them again some other time, when I have more time and a whole day to spend making them! Then maybe I can level up in my mennonite-ness.

What's in a Name?

2011-12-01T13:34:00.001-06:00

Naming our kids was a big deal for me. I wanted the names to be nice and have good meanings.

We decided on Eva's name while washing dishes and talking about movies. Her name means Giver of Life. Her middle name, Ruth, is after my Grandma and it means Friendship. So one of our prayers was that she would bring life to people around her by being friends. We have truly seen that happen already. It seems like she can sense who needs to have someone say Hi to them or who needs a smile. She will often say hi to people who look little sad or lonely. and sometimes you can tell that one little hi made a difference for that person. I was also stuck on the name Ruth because of the spiritual significance of a line of women of faith that runs in my family.

We had a harder time coming up with a name this time. Nothing seemed to fit.

We were having lunch at McDonalds one day in August and we were talking about TV shows and movies, Somehow we got on to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We couldn't remember the name of the human guy character on the show. Ken quickly looked it up on his phone and we found out that his name was Casey Jones. We were both like Casey...that's an ok name, what does it mean? So once again, thanks to smart phone technology Ken looked up the meaning of the name Casey: Vigilant in War. And from that moment on, his name was Casey.

Source

I did have one reservation about the name Casey because of Casey from Mr. Dress-up. You know, the boy/girl child that lived in the tree.

Source

I quickly decided that none of Casey's friends would know about Mr. Dress-up. Only Casey's friends' parents...aka....people our age or older. So really it wouldn't be too much of an issue. And why would we name our kid after this guy/girl

Source

when we could name our kid after this guy.

Source

I mean, look at him, he's like urban Robin Hood! :)

And Yes, there's lots of teasing that could happen with the name Casey, but lets face it, kids are kids and they will be mean to each other regardless of their names.

Ken affectionately called him Casey Jones throughout the rest of the pregnancy. In fact we hadn't decided on a middle name until we were getting ready leave the hospital and had to fill out the form.

Casey's first middle name is John. It's Ken's dad's name. Once again, like Eva's middle name, it speaks to the significance of a line of people of faith. John means God is gracious.

Casey's second middle name is Alexander. This is a name that had come up in discussion a few times. And a variation of it came up when we were discussing girls names. The night after Casey was born Ken had a dream about something to do with defender of the people.....he still has never told me the dream so I can't comment on it. Anyways, the name Alexander means Defender of the People. So when Ken found that out it was pretty clear to him that that was the name.

So for Casey John Alexander we pray that he will be watchful for dangers in the "wars" that he will face in his lifetime. And that he will be able to defend others. It is because of God's graciousness that Casey is here and we trust that God will be gracious to give Casey the gifts he needs to be a vigilant defender.

Little Dude's Grand Entrance

2011-11-26T16:35:00.001-06:00

Otherwise titled, Casey's Birth Story.

If you don't want to read about it, don't :) Come back in a few days....

.....

....

.....

......

.....

Things I was wrong about:

a) The baby was going to be born really early - He came only one day before his due date.

b) The baby was going to be born during the first snowstorm of the year - He was born in an almost chinook like weather pattern...+ 6 the day before and 0 the day he was born....strange for the end of November in Manitoba

-----

Well it began on Tuesday. Tuesday I had no energy left. I thought this might be a sign that delivery day was approaching, all of my pre-birth spurts of energy had disappeared. I had a hard day with Eva and thought I would be pregnant forever. Although I kept reminding myself that I hadn't even reached my due date yet so I should just calm down.

That evening I had a doctors appointment. I went and he ask if I wanted to be checked to see if I was dilating at all. I said sure, why not? I was 1 cm and 50% effaced. It just made me happy to know that there was some progress being made.

As the doctor was leaving he said "Well, when you go into labour you won't waste any time". I wasn't really sure how to take that :)

I left the city, had supper out by myself, went and had a fun night at small group and then went home. It was an encouraging and relaxing end to what had started out as a difficult day.

---

Throughout my pregnancy and especially towards the end, Ken and I prayed for specific things. The labour, the hospital room, the nurses, the doctors, for a clam baby, that Eva would be taken care of, etc. I don't consider it a coincidence that everything we prayed for was taken care of in the perfect ways.

My only goal for labour and delivery this time around was to be calmer then I was with Eva....

-----

At about 2am I woke up to one awful, long lasting pain. I thought it was just because I waited to long to pee. So I got up, went pee, the pain went away and I went back to bed. At 4am the same thing woke me up. So I did the same thing. Except when I went back to bed I realized that the pain was coming again and that this must be the start of contractions.

I got up and wandered into the living room. Looked outside for a bit. It seemed like the contractions were coming pretty close together and were pretty intense so I decided to start timing them. Ken had put a contraction counter on his phone so I went and got his phone. I debated wether or not to wake him up...but there was something in me that said we needed to get going. So I woke him up at about 4:30AM and told him that he better get his bag packed :)

I laboured using an exercise ball while Ken got his stuff together and the last minute things for Eva packed up. We texted our renter to let her know that we were leaving and that Eva was upstairs. Then I got dressed and by about 5:45AM we were on our way to the hospital. I was very calm :) and I think I was managing the contractions very well...

We arrived at the hospital at about 6:20 AM.....thankfully we were just before the morning rush hour and we hit every green light except for one! I checked in at triage and the nurse hooked me up to a monitor. I think nurses must know when a person is close to delivering because the triage nurse worked really fast and she checked me right away. (Total opposite to our experience with Eva....must have been because we prayed....on the drive in I said to Ken we have to pray that I make it through triage...) I was trying to work through a contraction when she said how far dilated I was so I thought I heard wrong.....I had to double check....Me:"Did you say I was 8cm?!?"...Nurse:"Yes, 8cm".

Insert little mini freak out here. In my brain I went "8cm! Holy *?!*....guess I'm not getting an epidural.... Crap! I'M NOT GETTING AN EPIDURAL"....Then some how, miraculously (that whole prayer thing about being calm probably helped), I was able to keep myself calm and not freak out about not getting an epidural.

By 6:40AM I was in my room. A lovely LDRP room....once you're in you never leave....labour deliver recover postpartum all in the same room :). The nurse in the room was like "You guys look familiar. Was I here for your first birth?" We chatted a bit more. Then she said I feel like I know you from somewhere else, I'm from Grunthal. Turns out that she goes to the church where Ken helped with youth for a few years and we'd been to the church retreat a few times with her, etc. Thank you Lord for a great nurse! (*note, all of our nurses for our whole stay at the hospital were great!, but I think it's kind of neat who God put in our room to help deliver our baby)

Anyways. I had about four contraction between triage and now. I really felt like I had to push. So the nurse checked me and I still had a tiny bit of my cervix there. The nurse said my water would probably break any second, but it didn't :). I should mention Ken....last time Ken got to read a book cause I had an epidural....this time he had to earn his keep as back massager extraordinaire....he did a good job.

Insert minor freakout #2 here. I had one moment of doubt right about now where I was like "I CAN'T DO THIS!" But then I was allowed to push....that made everything better

During the next 2 contractions the nurse "helped my cervix along" and got it to go away faster. By now the doctor had arrived in the room. I'm guessing it was around 7:10AM. I met the doctor, she seemed nice and was young. Seriously that's all I know about her, cause she was in the room for maybe 25mins. She broke my water which was one of the best things ever. It relieved sooo much of the pressure. Then I pushed maybe 6 times and by 7:17AM the baby was out!

I have to say I was a bit stunned. I laid there with a baby on my chest thinking. "Oh my goodness, I just delivered a baby without any pain medication....that was sooooo not in the plan....that was so not even close to being the plan....I can't believe I just did that and didn't freak out, that is sooo not me." I was kind of in shock. And then I thought...."Good, it's breakfast time, I really want a chocolate chip muffin from Tim Horton's"....strange I know.

The doctor said I had a "scratch", but she put a few stitches in anyways. I think getting the freezing hurt more then the birth *lol*.

So from beginning to end Casey made his entrance in a little under 3.5 hours!

Then we got to enjoy some breakfast and a great view!

And yes, Ken did go and get me a Chocolate Chip muffin from Tim Horton's :). It really is convenient that the hospital has a Tim's in it!

-------

Some initial thoughts this time around:

- recovery from this birth versus birth with Eva is like night and day. So much easier to recover from this one. And I didn't get all swollen cause I didn't have an IV

- I remember holding Casey shortly after he was born and thinking "I don't think I want to do this again".... :).... only time will tell I suppose.

- I would still get an epidural if my labour would have been longer. Most people could do most things for 3.5 hours. I could not do a natural labour and delivery for much longer then that :)

- The Self Administered Medication program is awesome! I made sure this time around not to skimp on the pain meds for after :). Last time I was all like "I'm ok, blah blah blah". This time even though my pain isn't bad I'm all about keeping on top of the tylenol, etc :).

- The "after pains", darn uterine contractions that shrink the uterus back to it's size, were sooo much worse this time around. Seriously, the first day I would shake and get nauseous every time I fed Casey because of the pain. (Yes, this is after I did the hardest part without pain meds). Totally don't remember having that with Eva, but apparently it's worse with the second baby?

- We were allowed to go home the next day. I thought I would want to stay another night, but I'm glad we decided to come home. Sleep is just so much easier at home. In the hospital you're constantly disturbed to when the nurses change shift or have to check things, etc. It's their job and that's fine, but it makes it hard to sleep sometimes.

- Everything with Casey is going much smoother this time around. I think I'm in a completely different head space then I was when I had Eva and it really makes a difference.

- We're on Day 4 and I still haven't had my crazy crying breakdown. When will it come? Watch out people! It could erupt on you......

Changes

2011-11-21T09:15:00.001-06:00

No, no family changes, I'm still pregnant. Some minor signs of impending birth so at least I know it's on the horizon but obviously this baby is in no hurry to make its arrival.

The changes are in Eva.

We are on Day 5 of no TV and limited sugar. We are also on day 5 of no tantrums. About once a day there's a minor crying/whining moment that lasts about 2 minutes but that's usually due to hunger or fatigue. Not a problem. It's like we have a different kid who listenings and responds well. In fact most of the tantrums have been replaced by fits of laughter which are hilarious to watch. At some point I might try reintroducing the TV just to see if it's the sugar or the TV that really makes the difference. But for now no TV is just fine.

*note about the TV - Eva watched on average 30 mins - 2 hours of TV per day prior to our no TV test*

Things that have happened as a result of the above that I didn't expect to happen are a change in Eva's play and a change in her sleep. She has become much more creative and imaginative in her play. And now that there's no TV she spends time actually playing with all of her toys :). And she's happier to play independently for longer periods of time....which I foresee as a good thing with baby #2 making it's arrive in the next week (hopefully).

She's also been sleeping longer and better. She has "quiet time" in the afternoon. Over the last 5 days she's played during the first 30 mins of quiet time and then has fallen asleep for about 2 hours. On Friday Ken and I went on a coffee date...the sitter got Eva up at 3 from her quiet time and at 4pm Eva said "Eva tired, Eva go sleep"...she grabbed her blanket and got into bed and slept till 5 when we woke her up *lol*. Over the last 5 days Eva has napped from about 3-5pm. I worry that that's too late and by 7:30 she won't be ready for bed. But she is. by 7 or 7:30 she's yawning and tired again. She goes to bed without a fuss. She might read or sing to herself for a few minutes, but shortly after we put her down she's sleeping. And she sleeps right till 8am. Before doing the no TV/limited sugar thing it was a fight to get her into bed, she'd often play in her room until 9 or 10pm and then fall asleep after that. So it seems like she's more tired....perhaps from using that lovely developing brain of hers more...and it's taking her less time to wind down so she can sleep.

Another things I've noticed since implementing this experiment of sorts, is that she does things all by herself a lot more! She gets dressed in the morning by herself. She goes to the bathroom more by herself. She even inserts herself into family chores..... like loading or unloading the dishwasher, and she's actually helpful :)

So, All in all, this has been a huge success. Changed our child. And made life MUCH easier and calmer. Hopefully it continues.

On the food front it's been a lot slower. But we are seeing some slow successes. So far there has only been one meal that she's refused to try (chicken pot pie). She's at least tried all of the others. One night we had quesadillas and she was happily eating hers and then it was like all of a sudden she remembered that she doesn't like to eat and stopped eating it. Kind of like "wait a minute, what am I doing? I don't like food, why am I eating, I should stop". Yesterday at lunch she ate a quarter of a tuna sandwich and a little bowl of tomato soup. And at supper she at a whole small pancake and asked for more! So hopefully we'll continue to see progress on the food front. I'm just thankful that she's trying things....maybe after a while they'll become normal things to eat. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Last night after supper Eva and I went out for a ride in the sled (she rode, I pulled...yes I was secretly hoping that it would cause me to go into labour) to see the stars, it was fun. And who can resist a cute pink snow monster.... It was a nice moment.

The last 2 weeks

2011-11-18T08:40:00.001-06:00

Well it's been a while....or at least I feel like it's been a while.

To catch you up on life this might be kind of random. And long, cause I really just don't do short.

1) My friend Shannon came out to visit for a week.

....just kidding, here's the real picture. And Yes only 1 picture to document her visit..

The visit was great on many levels. We've lived in different cities/provinces for the last 11 years so it was cool to spend a whole week together. And she got a pretty good glimpse of my everyday life.....ha ha....and Eva's tantrums in all of their glory.

Having an extra pair of hands and some fresh motivation around right before baby comes was also awesome. We finished almost all of my to do list within the first 3 days of her being her cause she was just like "What's next?" and then would do it. And as all of you with children know, an extra pair of hands is priceless.....I'm not sure I really understood how awesome it was to have extra hands around the house until I had a kid. All of a sudden those tasks that take 45 mins really only take 15 mins. It's almost magical. Because of that I got to go get a hair cut and a massage and do a bunch of other things.

We finished my Christmas shopping and wrapped all the presents. In our shopping trips we hit up the new OshKosh/Carter's store in Winnipeg. Fabulous. They had a great selection and a lot of reasonable prices. In this pic Eva is sporting her new OshKosh outfit from Auntie Shannon:

Really we didn't do anything exciting just normal every day things.

2) I've completed everything I had down on my "TO-DO Before Baby Comes List". I finished the last item last night. Now I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I'm getting tired of keeping the house tidy :). Well not tidy.....but actually doing things right away that I would be prone to leave for a few days....like folding laundry. Anyways, I'm done. The stack of papers to be graded is finished, I'm all caught up on my business finances, my EI forms are complete, all of the closets and cupboards that I wanted to sort through are done, the house is clean (mostly), the floor is washed, christmas presents are bought-wrapped-mailed, baby clothes washed, bags packed, winter tires are on the vehicles, etc. All that's missing now is a new baby. It's not so much the new baby I'm looking forwards to, but the meeting the little human that's in me. I don't do well with pain and little sleep, so the new baby part isn't the super awesome part, but the new person part is pretty awesome.

3) I could be waiting another 3 weeks for the baby to come. I hope not. But if I go overdue then it could be up to 3 weeks. So in order to curb my boredom while waiting we've begun working on a few things with Eva. There are two things that we think it's time to tackle....1) Tantrums and 2) Eating.

I hate calling them tantrums....but "extreme moments of frustration" or "emotional disregulation" are mouthfuls :) Eva's tantrums are usually loud and involved laying down no matter where we are. Flailing, screaming, hitting and kicking me or pinching/hitting herself, general craziness. Exhausting for me. On Saturday we went over to the school and when it was time to come home she had a 25 minutes tantrum over putting her jacket on. Not joking.

So for the tantrums we are trying no TV and very limited amounts of sugar. We started yesterday. She only had one tiny 3 minute tantrum yesterday. No tantrums at quiet time, no tantrums at bed time, no tantrums at meal time, no tantrums when I asked her to put on a jacket, no tantrums when I asked her to walk, no tantrums over getting in her car seat, no tantrums when I told her we were leaving somewhere. It was a fantastic day. We'll see how today goes.

Eva is a sucky eater. I'm tired of her not eating and having to make an additional meal for her to eat. Seriously she only eats fruit, cereal, variations of bread, cheese, milk, and other beverages. And anything unhealthy like cookies or cake, etc. No meat, No veggies. So on Wednesday we started not giving her any other options then what we are eating for supper. On Wednesday she ate a bunch of potatoes and tried some corn in its frozen state. Thursday night she refused to try some chicken pot pie. So one success, one not success. I figure if we stick with it for a few days she'll eventually get the picture and start trying things.

4) We've been trying to play outside because winter has been late in coming. Although I think it's arrived? Maybe? We got enough snow to almost cover the grass and it's about -8 ish.

We went to story time at the local library. It was fun. Most of it was en francais which was kind of fun. They read 3 stories and sang some songs in between each story. The stories were read in English and the librarian translated them into French....so it was a mix. The songs were all in French. I actually understood a few of the songs so that was kind of neat to see that I still have some minimal skills. I don't think Eva really had a clue what was going on. I think she hears French at gymnastics, but probably not like she did at story time. I love that she gets to hear spoken French on a regular basis while she's so young. She did start doing the actions to one song though so that was good. We will definitely be going again.

I'm 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant. If this baby were Eva, it'd be born today.....just sayin'

Randoms

2011-11-01T06:44:00.003-05:00

It's 5:30am. I have heartburn. I'm hungry but I don't want to turn on any lights to find food. I have a dog who is suddenly incontinent.

How's that for randoms :)

I SHOULD be trying to sleep, but what fun is that really? And who wants to sleep when one could google information on canine incontinence at 5:30am? Certainly not me.....

The dog peed in the house 3 times last night.....3 TIMES!!! In the span of about 2 hours. So frustrating. And one of those times she peed in her crate. She NEVER goes to the bathroom in her crate. Cranberry juice is on the list of things to pick up at the store today. Hopefully it's just a simple infection. Either that or she's just super anxious for some reason.....like the impending reality that I will be giving birth very soon....

I seriously think dogs can sense stuff like that.

I'm supposed to wake up in 2 hours. I have an obstetrician appointment in the city this morning. Hopefully the wait isn't too long. BUT I have a sitter coming until 2pm so I'm thinking about starting my Christmas shopping if I have a few extra hours. I was planning on being done by now, but that obviously didn't happen.

Eva has gymnastics tonight. I think this is week #4. After only 3 weeks (2 weeks really cause the 1st week doesn't count) she can already do a summersault. I will attempt to capture it on the camera one of these days.

We dressed Eva up as a cow this year. She was pretty cute. We took her dressed up to the chiropractor's office and then to one house in our town. The secretary at the chiropractic office lives in our little town so we took Eva to her place. Ken was at the library so we stopped there before we went and handed out candy to the students who were studying....and to some of the other students who were hanging out in the lounge area watching the hockey game. I think she had more fun handing out the candy. Although she did look super cute walking down Alice's driveway :)

I love that she's "moo"ing in this picture

We have a real estate agent coming today to give us an evaluation on what our house might be worth. I'm excited about that. I think in an alternate life I might do something with real estate. Not selling though, it's not my personality. I could watch shows on HGTV like House Hunters or Property Virgins all.day. And I love going through open houses just for the heck of it, but I rarely get to.... So if you ever want to go open housing let me know :). We're not thinking of moving. We're doing a finance course and we're just at the point of assessing what our assets and liabilities are. We've been in the house 3 years now and I find keeping track of the value of a rural property is a little bit more difficult then keeping track of the value of a place in a city. So the real estate agent commeth......

I saw this on Facebook the other day. I laughed out loud.....Ken was home this time so at least I wasn't sitting alone on my couch laughing....

I'm curious to know what my superpower will be when I'm old. The Grandma's line just kills me every time I look at this!!..... probably cause something like that would actually happen.... like "whoops I just scored 100 points in one hand of scrabble".... bring on the superpowers

And lastly I'll close with some comments on my affections for dual flush toilets.

source

I love dual flush toilets. I don't own one. I wish I did. Especially when I'm pregnant. I go to the bathroom and if feels like I have a full bladder, but really just a little bit comes out. Yet I waste a whole toilet full of water flushing down a minuscule amount of excrement. Only to do it again 30 mins later. OK, confession....I don't always flush if it was just a little bit.....but if you come to my house or if I'm at your house I promise I'll try to remember to flush the toilet :) With a dual flush a more proportional amount of water would be used and then I wouldn't confess to the world that I don't flush the toilet every time I use it because I would flush the toilet every time I used it. If anyone wants to donate and install a dual flush toilet in my home please do.....

While I was searching for the the image above I came across this:

Source

Not sure how I feel about a sink and a toilet being combined. Just seems a little off. But it would be a great space saver....and it would also come in handy at other moments. I can think of 2 off the top of my head.

Oh! One of my bestest friends ever is coming in 4 days to visit us for a week!!! Super excited!!

source

(insert mental note to take pictures cause apparently I only have one, which is really old, and not very flattering of either of us....then you don't have to look at cheesy pictures of cats hugging each other and I don't have to post them on my blog)

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

The weekend away

2011-10-30T19:45:00.001-05:00

We went away for the weekend. It was super wonderful. I wish we could have stayed another night. Next time we hope to go on a long weekend so we can stay 3 nights and 2 full days.

We spent a lot of time staring at this:

We got a lakefront cabin. Awesome choice cause we got to be one with the lake the whole time. And it felt like we were the only ones at the place. So quiet and lovely.

Friday night on the way there a deer stubbed its toe on our car. There were SO MANY deer when we were driving there. I just had the feeling the entire way that we were going to hit a deer. And then a giant deer ran out in front of us, Ken slammed on the breaks, and it just just clipped the edge of our car. It broke the cover of the blinker (not even the light bulb, just the cover) and left one little dent on the front fender. We were very thankful for God's protection and that a deer didn't ruin out getaway. Hopefully the insurance company believes us that the damage was cause by a deer :).....cause usually when you hit a deer there's a little bit more damage then a broken light cover.

We found our cabin, quickly unloaded the car and proceeded to relax and watch a little TV and the end of the World Series baseball game. Then went to bed.

In the morning we woke up. Had bacon and eggs and enjoyed the view of the lake. We went for a little walk to the Marina and then went back to our cabin and sat outside on the rocks for a few hours. It was soooo warm. Ken made some sticks to use at the fire that night.

After lunch we walked the length of the beach to the entrance of the marina. Then came back to the cabin and vegged.

After supper Ken made a fire and we sat out there for a long time. Made smores and talked.

Then I took advantage of the GIANT jacuzzi tub and had a nice relaxing bath. The tub was humongous! When I showered I could take 2 steps from under the shower to the back of the tub where my shampoo and stuff was. Not to mention that when I sat down in it the top of the tub was at my shoulders. Eva could have swam in it. Watched a little more TV and hit the sack.

This morning we relaxed. Had a little fire in the fireplace in the cabin, ate cinnamon buns, went and sat on the rocks outside for a little bit, then packed up and came home.

The accommodations were simple but adequate. When we first got there I wished it was a little fancier, but really it was nice. Homey and relaxing.

It had a screen porch.

A fully quipped kitchen.

A little living room.

Two bedrooms each with a dresser and queen bed. Bedding & Towels also provided.

A simple bathroom....with that gigantic tub and dual flush toilet. (I have a fondness for dual flush toilets). On Saturday after noon a lady even came right to our cabin to see if we needed more towels.

And then of course there was the outside yard with it's lovely lakefront and fire pit.

All of this only 2 hours from home :) And during the off season it is very affordable.

We will definitely be going back. Hopefully on a yearly basis. We'd even like to go twice a year. Once with the kids and once by ourselves. I think Eva would have a great time out there....i could see her exploring the beach and collecting shells and rocks, playing with sticks and leaves, throwing rocks in the lake.... Oh, and it's pet friendly too so we could take Zoey. We even think that it would be a nice place to go in the winter.....hang out in a cozy cabin, do some ice fishing or cross country skiing.

Other then the deer nothing eventful really happened. The fridge at the cottage made this noise that sounded like Eva knocking on her bedroom door....I heard it in the middle of the night and I had to tell myself that it wasn't Eva :)

Eva and Zoey had an eventful weekend with babysitter extraordinaire. Eva got her face painted, jumped in a bouncy castle, and possibly went on a pony ride. She also exclaimed "All Done!" in the quiet moment when the church she went to this Sunday finished. And to top it all off on Saturday during her quiet time she pooped in her diaper, hid the diaper under her pillow and got poo all over her sheets :). Zoey decided to chase a cat while on a walk. So babysitter extraordinaire earned her money *lol*.... we love our babysitter, she's awesome....

That's all for now. Sadly it's back to real life. Now that Eva's in bed it's time to clean up the house, put the laundry in the dryer, etc..... already looking forward to next year's weekend getaway!

A black eye and a trip!

2011-10-27T23:50:00.000-05:00

Eva got her first black eye :)

I should've taken pictures a few days earlier when it was darker, but here they are....

The ironic thing about the timing of the black eye was that on Tuesday she came with me to the city where we went to my obstetrician appointment, the victims services department of Manitoba Justice, and to another family services centre. Good timing *lol*.

I'm all done my "career job" for at least 3 months. Yippee! I'm looking forward to the break from it.

Today I'm 36 weeks pregnant. Here's some pics.

This is me pregnant with Eva at 35 weeks:

And the most exciting part of the post is that Ken and I are going away for the weekend without Eva! Sooooooo excited. 5:30pm tomorrow can't come soon enough! It will be strange being away from Eva but we are so looking forward to sleeping and eating in peace. We're both looking forward to a bit of down time and two days of relaxation. I booked us a lake front cottage...horray for off season deals! We've had such a beautiful and warm fall that going to a lake at the end october is still totally doable, and the price of the whole cabin on the lake is the same price as a nice hotel room in Winnipeg.....easy choice, off to the lake we go!

Brussels Sprouts

2011-10-21T18:30:00.000-05:00

I can hear your reactions of "Ewwww, brussels sprouts" all the way through the internet :)

The poor little breed of wild cabbage really gets a bad rep for nothing.

A while ago I was bored of eating the same vegetable side dishes over and over and over. Carrots, peas, potatoes, asparagus, repeat. As far as eating vegetables in things, we don't do too badly...much better then we used to do 6 or 7 years ago. Now our veggie and fruit drawers are usually full of a colourful assortment of food. But the side dish is always a struggle.

Anyways, I was bored of the side dishes. So I decided to pick up the dreaded brussels sprouts.

Before this I had only eaten brussels sprouts once, at my sis-in-laws place. I thought they were ok, made a mental note that brussels sprouts didn't completely suck. And referred back to that mental note when I got bored of what we were eating.

The first time I cooked them I had to be careful because I live with a hater of all cooked veggies. Ken is still a bit selective with his veggie choices, but if I'm going to make him eat vegetables then it's better to serve them raw. But raw brussels sprouts would probably be gross.

I waited until there was a day when he would be home just as supper was ready and kind of surprised him with the brussels sprouts. His initial reaction was "Seriously, we're having brussels sprouts? I dunno..." Then I told him they'd be good cause there was cheese on them. That let to a mild decrease in the skepticism. However, when we actually ate them there was no question that brussels sprouts could be added to the list of vegetables that we eat. Horray!

Here's the recipe that I follow: Click Here
Super simple and yummy.

Tonight the brussel sprouts are paired with Honey Mustard Curry Chicken and rice.

I wonder what vegetable we'll try next...

Gymnastics

2011-10-18T11:38:00.000-05:00

Eva started gymnastics last week.

The first week the parents are allowed to stay and watch. After that no parents are allowed until the last class before Christmas break. I think this is great! With 2 year olds they do a 3 week trial to see if they'll be ok, we're pretty sure Eva will make the cut.

Last weeks class was one of the most overwhelming things I've ever been to. Probably 40+ kids ages 2-5 plus parents. Children screaming, parents talking, people chasing after their kids cause they wouldn't stay with the group, instructors talking, etc. Utter chaos. I was overwhelmed just watching....no wonder why tons of 2 & 3 year olds were screaming their heads off.

In the midst of all of this chaos we watched our little Eva. Parts of us wanted to swoop in and reassure her that she was ok and parts of us wanted to see what she did. And well, she did what she always does in situations that are a bit overwhelming for her..... she stood and watched. We did swoop in at one point when they were calling out names and dividing the kids into groups....a) because it was impossible to hear anything and b) Eva doesn't know what her first and last name are nor does she understand to go somewhere when her name is called.

During the warm up she stood and watched. Her group did the balance beam and jumped on this little mini trampoline. Because she kind of glued herself to her instructor she was up first on the balance beam. Not the best for her cause she likes to watch and learns really well from watching first. But she did walk on it eventually. The trampoline she had no problem with. During the cool-down she moved a little bit. And then she got a sticker at the end. When we got home she started doing the warm ups and cool downs in the kitchen, and she still talks about the sticker she got.

While I'm excited for her and think she'll really like gymnastics this is kind of new territory for Ken and I. The whole, no parents allowed thing is different this time. We leave Eva quite a bit at different things, church, kids college, babysitters, etc. But this time we're leaving her with strangers. To do activities that she knows nothings about. While we're not even in the building. It's not necessarily a "safe" place like the other places we go to. Last Tuesday when Ken and I were lying in bed we were talking about this and his words were that it was weird because he wasn't going to be there to protect her and one of his jobs is to protect her. I was disappointed that I wasn't going to get to see the progression of learning as it happens. I supposed this is a little bit like what it's going to be like when she starts school (possibly next September!).....or when she gets her driver's license.....or moves out of the house....or gets married.....

Ken made a little video in a movie trailer style of Eva's first time at gymnastics. In 10 weeks we'll show you the difference! (and yes, behind the balance beam is a crucifix. We live in a French area (instructions are given in French and English)...gymnastics is held in the basement of the catholic church.... enough said.)

Stay tuned for more gymnastics fun!

------

Just trying out the new blogger template. I like the look but I can't figure out how to customize it more. Like how to add my gadgets and just select one view to be the permanent view. We'll see how long it lasts.

Only 358 more days to go!!

2011-10-10T14:43:00.000-05:00

That's right folks, only 358 more days until I turn the big 3-0.

Source

I did celebrate a birthday last week. It was nothing to write home about. I got to spend the evening with friends and eat a yummy apple crisp and clean up a bunch of clutter in the kitchen. So that part was good! The spending the morning with 12, 2 year olds was interesting and tiring and probably not the best part of my day....

I'm not really a big birthday person. Don't need a big celebration or a cake or anything. Ken usually cooks me a nice meal. This year I requested eggs benedict. I bought myself some tulip and crocus bulbs for the flower bed....hopefully come spring they grow. Ken got me some flowers. And I chose a mirror to hang in our bedroom. That was all for turning 29 :) .... my mom sent a gift card so Ken and I can go out for supper one night.... I love gift cards, I would rather have a gift card to go do something like a movie or supper or something then anything else. Because we usually have to pay for a babysitter, date nights for us are few and far between because we can't afford to pay a sitter AND pay for whatever date activity we do. So if our activity is covered by a gift card, that makes the occasional date night a manageable expense..It's like having a 50% off coupon. anyways, I digress.

358 more days until I turn 30.

That seems weird that soon I'll be 30.

I'm learning that the importance of numerical age is a big load of poop. We all have dreams and aspirations and things we want to accomplish by a certain age or whatever. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't.

Life doesn't always work with our plans. And our life doesn't always match up with our expectations or societal expectations.

When I was in my late teens what I pictured myself as when I was 29, is certainly not what has happened. And I am ok with that. There have been things happen in the last 10 years that I could have never predicted would happen. I've had to make certain choices that I didn't know I would have to make or that I would WANT to make.

When I was in gr.12, if you would have asked me what my life would be like when I was 30 this is what I would have said: I'll be a kinesiologist, with a good education from a reputable mainstream Canadian university. I'll be living in a major city working full time with athletes of some kind and be well recognized in that city for the work I do. Financially independent. Own a home. Have a husband. Have a dog. Maybe have a kid.

Fast forward 11 years, one year before I'm 30, and this is me: I'm a therapist of the mind. I have a good education from a quality school that is not recognized the way it should be because of it's religious associations. I live in a TINY little town. I have two jobs that barely equate to working part time. I work with university professors and with people who are struggling with their lives in someway. I am not well recognized for what I do, in fact the two places I work for are relatively unknown. I am absolutely not financially independent. I do own a home and I am married. And I do have a dog and a kid.

I don't think I'm going to meet the expectations of my 17 year old self.

I did not expect to have to choose to change my educational path....twice....
I did not expect my husband to have a major career change when he was 25.
I did not expect to move farther west.
I did not expect to be financially unstable.
I did not expect to be raising children without being financially stable.
I did not expect to want to live in a small rural town.
I did not expect to stop working full time in order to stay home with my kids while they were young.
I did not expect to want to have kids before I was done school.
I did not expect to choose to have my career move at a snails pace because I think staying home with my kids for the first few years is so so important.
I did not expect to be the main income earner in our home at various times.
I did not expect to attend a church that is like the one I attend now.
I did not expect to go to bed at 9:30 on a Friday night.

I did not expect to feel so young when I was so close to being 30 :)

And a bazillion other I did not expects.....

Needless to say, I have let go of my other expectations of what life will be like when I'm 30 or even when I'm sneaking up on 40. Life brings what it brings and there is contentment to be found even if it's not what I expect.

My goals for the next 358 days are fairly simple, yet difficult:

0.5) Birth a child....this is pretty much a given, unless I'm an Elephant and don't know it...if I was pregnant for 2 years that might change the list!

Source

1) get our finances heading in a better direction
2) run a 5km in 30 mins or less
3) go on an extended vacation with my husband, alone without our children (we haven't been away just the 2 of us in over 2 years....this is the year people!....We went away for ONE night, but we had to wake up the next morning at 5AM so that doesn't count) It might not happen in the next 358 days, but by March 2013 we will have gone away.
4) become more intentional about a number of things relating to the presence of God in my life

I think that's all of my "birthday" type reflections....and all for now, until the next time I have something to blab about...

Laughs

2011-10-06T20:33:00.001-05:00

Usually I'm not overly ecstatic about what people "share" on Facebook. And a lot of times I honestly find all the sharing a little bit annoying. But this week in particular has produced a number of things that made me laugh out loud while I was sitting in my living room alone.

Here they are:

Not very nice, I know....but sometimes that's how I feel :P

My motherly skills of doing laundry are still developing.... When my mom comes to visit somehow the stains, etc seem to magically disappear out of our clothes, it really is a strange phenomenon.

Ok, so those were the ones that made me physically laugh....I also saw this which I thought was a good one to keep in mind.

Good week for Facebook shares.

Send in the Liberation Forces! (aka: a random rant on something I know nothing about)

2011-10-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, Saturday mornings...so great!

I feel like I slept in this morning, even though I got up at 8am. It's probably because being the old fogey that I am I went to bed at 9:30 pm, on a Friday night. Yup. By 9 I was done (so I was done mentally for the day at about 1pm) and ready for bed, Ken and I chatted, then I went to sleep.

This morning I read the paper cause we actually bought one....for this picture! We officially are residents of our area because we made it into the paper :)

And I ate a muffin from Tim Hortons. I love store made muffins. Oh, and it's a lovely sunny fall morning. Ahhh Saturday.

Right now Eva is spending 30 mins in her room because she was just one endless tantrum this morning. And she decided that it would be ok to have a tantrum and pee her pants instead of going to the potty. So yes....time to calm down in her room sounds ok to me. If she happens to fall asleep that would be just fine too.

OK, Onto the liberation forces!!

Every once and a while I like politics. Most of the time I think they're pretty annoying.... like right now, we have a provincial election on Tuesday. I read about the candidates in our area, I don't like any of them. And most of the the provincial stuff is centred around Winnipeg anyways....where we don't live. For example, one party is promising 3 new urgent care clinics in Winnipeg. Good for you. I live 10 minutes from a hospital.... a hospital that doesn't always have a doctor in it. That's right, a hospital without a doctor. At least I have some kind of medical care close to home, which I'm thankful for.

But I don't want to talk about Canadian politics today. I want to talk about American politics. Something I know nothing about. There's my disclaimer. I haven't research or read in-depth on anything I'm about it talk about. Most of it is media driven and we all know that the media is just as messed up as our governments. As a result everything I say could be totally WRONG, but that's ok. I'm just some average person who has maybe a 0.001% interest in the political happenings of the world on occasion (aka: when I think world politics has a high chance of screwing up my life)....if I'm wrong let me live in my ignorance, if I'm right in 5-20 years I promise not to gloat.

A lot of what I hear about the state of the USA scares the poop out of me. I think the US needs someone to come and liberate them from the crappy politicians & rich people who control the country. The things that are supposedly happening point right towards disaster in my eyes....

1) The state of education in some parts of the US: People who are less educated are less likely to be involved in or have the opportunities to be involved in the politics and the governance of their country.

2) The economy: If you're just focused on maintaining your basic needs of food and shelter, politics aren't high on the priority list.

3) Some states are apparently passing laws that make it more difficult/impossible for people living in the state to vote. Like if you are an ex-fellon, you can't vote. Or if you don't have proof of citizenship you can't vote. Or if you don't have an address in the state/ID with that address on it (aka thousands of university students) you can't vote in that state. Ummmm...does anyone else see anything wrong with this?

So the state governments are starting to prevent major groups of American citizens from being able to vote and creating a culture that won't care about voting. Sounds like a great plan to me!...a great plan if you want to control the country.

Isn't this going backwards? Didn't people fight for a long time for marginalized groups to have the right to vote? and now the government is creating marginalized groups and removing their right / making it difficult for them to vote. Isn't this kind of destroying democracy and creating some kind of skewed multi-person dictatorship?

Now lets talk about the rumoured desires to put a fence up between the Canada and US borders. Dumbest idea EVER. Ok so it is kind of a good idea if you're the one trying to keep the American public focused on the idea the terrorism is the #1 threat to the country so they don't notice all the other BS that the government is doing.

But really...that's a pretty big darn fence that will cost a lot of money. And the whole fence thing of course extends to the southern border of the US too....that I won't comment on cause I know less about the southern US then I do about American politics. Anyways, sounds like American protectionism is back in full swing (oh wait...has it ever really ended?). Instead of the Russians and the cold war, it's the terrorists. France built a wall (the Maginot Line) to keep out the Nazi army.....and we all know how well that worked out.

Why do these things concern me? Well because what happens in the US impacts Canada in one way or another. And I don't want to see my neighbours to the south fall apart. I'm not an American hater....there are just a lot of things happening right now in their country that I don't understand. And it's a little bit scary. The world is already unstable politically and economically and having a world neighbour that is more unstable then you are is a bit unsettling, especially when you depend on that neighbour in a lot of ways. And especially when that neighbour is bigger than you are.

And I'm not saying that Canada has it all together. Because by all means, we don't. We were government-less for a few months after the government was defeated in Parliament. We have politicians who are spending MILLIONS of tax payer dollars by using military air craft for personal travel. We have people in our country who don't have access to clean water. Our "middle class" is also growing smaller. There are marginalized people in our country who struggle greatly. There is talk about privatizing parts of our health care system. Our tax system still favours the wealthy. ETC.

However, at this point in time Canada seems more stable in a lot of ways then the US. How true of a reality that is, I'm not sure.

So that's the end of my rant..... I'm sure I probably offended some people. But it's just how I see it from my state of ignorance from inside my igloo :)....

If you're an American or Canadian government official who's reading this please don't put me or my family members on some weird "watch" list or "no travel" list. I do enjoy supporting the American economy by shopping at Target several times a year when the Canadian dollar is worth more then the American dollar.

And....Here's to world peace :D (quick name the movie)

A new stage of parenthood

2011-09-26T11:37:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favourite pictures of Zoey

5 Years ago on Labour Day weekend, Zoey joined our family.....

She was so little and we were sooo clueless about puppies :)

Once we found out that she had some border collie in her I read that border collies need constant stimulation. I had no idea how true that would be. Think about the attention that a 2 year old, only child wants and then multiply that by 50.....then you have a young border collie!

We had many adventures with her at the beginning. When we first brought her home she was scared to go down the stairs. I left her upstairs alone once to change the laundry and in the 5 mins I was gone she chewed up one of my text books. One day she cut her foot on something in our back yard and had to get stitches on her paw....and wear a bag on her foot to protect the bandage because the bandage couldn't get wet...and it just happened to be the middle of winter....not so fun.

We quickly did some training. Which of course she excelled at because she's super smart cause she's part border collie.

Things were going pretty well, then we moved to Manitoba and she went psycho. Like crazy psycho. Like attacking bikes and other dogs and being crazy in the house.... Maybe it was having to ride in the cab of the UHaul with me and Ken across 2 provinces. That would make most people crazy, so why not a dog?

Then we did some ultra hardcore training and started sheep herding and she became a wonderful super well behaved dog. After making it this far, we were fairly confident that we could care for a human child.....

After we had Eva, Zoey finally started to calm down....as in doesn't need as much attention and isn't as hyper. That was one sign that she was growing out of her puppy/young dog stage.

Then, this summer we reached the stage of being pet parents to a middle aged dog (5.5 dog years, so around 30+ human years). She gained 19lbs in one year, which is a lot for a dog (and human) to gain in one year. She's since lost about 10 of those 19 lbs! Zoey had been puking and gagging and stuff after every time we'd take her to the park. So we took her to the vet to see what was up. And really it all had to do with Zoey's age and us adjusting to it. Feeding her less food, exercising a little less intensely. A reality check that we are now pet parents to a middle aged dog.

We've made it through the young dog stage. Which I'm thankful for. The middle aged dog is much nicer/easier than the young dog. But we have learned that consistency in training must continue and that they need almost as much attention and exercise as a young dog. *Insert comparisons to parenting human children here*. Currently Zoey isn't as well behaved as she was 2 or 3 years ago. Partly due to the fact that we haven't kept up some of the training and Partly due to the fact that I'm pregnant. She gets a little clingy (as in has to be within 2 feet of me at all times or physically touching me....so annoying!) when I'm pregnant and more aware of who/what is around and in our house.

As we enter and adjust to this new stage it's made me think that I do not want to do this again. At this moment in time I do not want to get another dog. ever. Yes, there are many great things about having a dog and we've had many enjoyable moments and I like Zoey, but I grow tired of the massive amounts of hair that is left on my clothing and carpet. I grow tired of cleaning up poo. Spending money on the care of an animal, worrying about her behaving in public, etc.

It could be just the stage of life that our family is in too. We have 1 soon to be 2 young children to take care of. And in all honesty it's almost as much work to take care of the dog as it is to take care of Eva. So in reality maybe I should say that we have 2 kids, soon to be 3 :) And I clean up toys off the carpet every day, and will soon clean up baby poop again, and spend money on sending my kids of activities, and worrying if they're going to behave while we're at the store..... it really is very similar.

If I had the time and energy to vacuum every day, the hair might not be such a problem. If it wasn't a whole drawn out process to get me and Eva and Zoey out of the house for a walk, walking the dog might be more enjoyable. If our budget wasn't quite so tight it might not be such a big deal to do activities with the dog..... but right now all those things make me go, "no more dogs". Ken says it will get better when our kids are able to do things like pick up the poo, etc *lol*...but I don't know.

Ken wants another dog. Not right now, but before Zoey gets too old. He also wants an iPhone 5. I said he could either get another dog in a few years or an iPhone 5.... we'll see how that deal works out! I also told him I wanted an iPhone 5 for my birthday this weekend....he said I wasn't allowed :) (cause then I would have one before him...but I don't want an iPhone anyways).

Anyways, here's to the next stage of pet parenthood. I hope it's good and less stressful then the first 5 years. And I hope when the senior years approach that we clue in and learn quickly how to live with a senior dog. But I don't want to think about that yet. I will be sad when Zoey gets old and near the end of her life.

Hopefully we have many more years to enjoy you Zoey! (and then many many many years to enjoy the freedom of life without a dog :P)

Imagine, a great day!

2011-09-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

Today was pretty much a perfect day!

This morning Eva & I went and walked 5km at the Imagine Run. Well I walked and Eva got a sweet ride in the stroller. I was a little worried about taking Eva along, but she did awesome the entire morning.

This was our second year participating in the Imagine Run. Last year I ran the 10km and Ken ran the half marathon. This year they added a 5km event which was perfect for me because really, almost anyone can walk/run/wheel 5kms. There are a few things I love about this run....

1) It's in support of mental health - Mental Health really does matter at every age and stage of our lives, which is one of the reasons why I still chose to participate at 31+ weeks pregnant. For the past few year the proceeds have gone to the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba, they do great great work.

2) It's relaxed. As in you don't have to be a snobby runner with all the gear to come and participate. Everyone can feel comfortable participating from young kids to seniors.

3) It's fun. On the race route they have bands and drummers, etc. The people of Niverville sit in their yards and cheer, which is cool. They have lots of things for kids to do after you've finished your run. AND there's a free lunch for participants (a few dollars for others).

Ken couldn't make it this year, but I'm pretty sure it's an event we will attend every year. Some marathon events we won't do every year, but this event we won't tire of any time soon.

The weather was great today. Sunny and pretty warm for fall. I felt good on my walk even though I'm carrying 20 lbs more than normal on my frame and was pushing 40+ lbs of stroller and kid. Just under an hour to do the walk isn't too bad. Eva was super happy the whole way, very intrigued by all the people and music. In the last kilometre she kept saying "Eva run too? Eva run too?". Hee hee.... maybe next year my girl.

The craziest thing I saw was another mom...she had two kids walking/running with her and 2 kids (including a little baby) in a stroller. Yes, 4 kids. And she finished way before I did. Not sure if I could do that....husband would definitely be forced to come with me! And I saw this really old lady...probably in her 80s walking...I thought that was cool.

After our walk Eva and I spent another 2 hours having some fun. We checked out the petting zoo, which Eva loved. Got a balloon animal from a clown (this might make it in the Carillon...so we'll see if Eva's a celebrity in the paper this week). Eva got her face painted for the first time. And she went in a bouncy castle for the first time. The bouncy castle was the best thing ever in Eva's eyes. After she figured out how to jump properly I couldn't get her to come out. Seriously. I had to crawl into the castle and pull her out. After all that fun I went and got my free lunch and we came home.

Eva and her loot. The balloon flower was almost as big as she was. And the finishers medal was down past her knees :)

Eva had a 3 hour nap and I had a 2 hour nap. Then we spent a bit of time outside in the yard. I cleaned up the sandbox stuff and chopped down my day lilies. There were still blooming lilies on the plants! Hard to believe that I still had flowers at the end of September when it's time to clean up the yard for winter.

So great to spend all day outside! Eva is just so happy when she's outside. I think she gets bored inside, but outside there is endless possibilities for fun. The frustration level for both of us is way lower if we're outside. And an added bonus is that the house stays tidy :)

Here's to more wonderful days.

Eva and the Bump

2011-09-18T22:38:00.002-05:00

I am 30 weeks pregnant. (30 weeks and a few days cause it took me forever to post this blog)

In my brain 30 weeks pregnant is great. It's far enough along that you actually feel like the pregnancy is getting somewhere and people can tell that you're pregnant. And it's still far enough away from D-day that you have lots of time to enjoy yourself and accomplish things.

Currently I don't really have any symptoms of pregnancy other than a large bulge in my abdominal area that moves on occasion and some fatigue that results in temporary loses of stable emotions. There are some minor annoyances, but nothing serious. By minor annoyances I mean the position of the baby is sometimes uncomfortable. This baby has sat low through the entire pregnancy which means for the last 30 weeks every time I stand up I have to pee. I also get to experience the joys of sneezing and peeing my pants. Nothing makes you feel like a real woman like peeing your pants when your two year old doesn't :) When Eva says "Mommy panties dry, Eva panties dry too"..it has a whole new meaning! I guess Keegal exercises will be a definite part of my future!

One of my readers asked how Eva was responding to my pregnancy.

I think she could really care less. She is 2 after all, which is all about ME (or her). We haven't talked about it much with her. Just in passing. The last few weeks she's been talking more about babies. "Baby cry", "Baby seat", "Baby Toy". We have some baby things out around the house and she'll ask and talk about them. On occasion she'll say "Baby in mommy's tummy". So I think she has some understanding of what a baby is, but not much about the invasion of her space that is about to occur.

That's pretty much it as far as the relationship between Eva and the Bump.

The Bump is also no longer of the no name variety. We've settled on a first name. It came about over a conversation during lunch at McDonalds and it just kind of stuck. Must mean it's the name....came out of nowhere while doing a simple activity. (We decided on Eva's while washing dishes). It might draw us some flack from people who were alive in the late 70's to early 90's. But really none of this baby's friends will have a clue, just it's friends' parents. The middle name has yet to be determined.

I think we will still choose a name from the other gender just incase the ultrasound technician was mistaken. I actually had a dream last night that I went to see my OB and he said that the baby was the other gender! But that wouldn't happen cause as far as I know he doesn't have ultrasound machine in his office.

Eva is continuing to be her wonderful 2 year old self. This week she got on a kick about who's a boy and who's a girl. I have no idea where she learned about boys and girls. So we've been going over and over that Eva & Mommy are girls and Daddy & PaPa (Ken's dad is out visiting) are boys. She's also drinking out of a regular cup most of the time now. She's chewed her sippy cups so much now that barely and liquid can come out of them....and well I'm too lazy and cheap to buy new ones....it makes her really frustrated to try and drink out of the sippy cup so now she just drinks out of a regular cup. Definitely an easy way to make the switch :)

And now for what you all care about... pictures!

Here's one of Eva...

And one of the bump at 30 weeks & 4 days. I've been trying to get a picture where I'm actually wearing nice clothes, but I'm pretty sure I'd have the baby before that happened....so I'm in my cleaning/lazing around the house clothes :). And excuse the shadow outlining my body. As you can tell taking belly shots is high priority in our house....(not!....this is only the 3rd shot in 30 weeks)

Because comparisons are fun, here's me pregnant with Eva at 28ish weeks

Here's a video of Eva that I took about a month ago, she's saying "big sister".... and cheese, cause she didn't understand that it was a video not a picture :)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Back to School, Back to Work....

2011-09-14T12:25:00.000-05:00

Well, it happend. The fall came. Andtoday we even have matching weather! Not summer weather in the fall.

What fall means around our house:

- the end of unscheduled days of mostlyfun

- the end of quiet around campus

- the end of semi-high speed internet

- the end of easily available childcare

- the best weekend of the whole year(Labour Day)

- the reminder of why we need to go tobe early

- the re-establishment of consistentfinancial income

School started last week on Wednesday. The 3 day week was a big kick in the pants reminder of what life islike. Work? OH yeah, this is what it's like for both of us to work. Right. Forgot what that was like and all the craziness that comeswith it. Well, not craziness, but re adjusting to some kind ofschedule.

It usually means a new blog backgroundfor me too :)

With Ken's work & school schedulethis year it also means that I have to cook supper a lot more oftenthen I'm accustom to. I am not a very good cook. Ken and I couldcook the same meal and his would be 10x better then mine. Not even aweek into the new schedule and I already produced a completely suckymeal *lol*.....it was edible, but it certainly wasn't verysatisfying.

Some more thoughts for you if you wantto keep reading.

1) the blog background

a) On September first we lost all TVbecause of the digital/analogue switch thing. Which really wasn't abig deal because we only had 2 channels to begin with and we rarelywatch TV anymore. The sad thing about that was September 1^stwas Lloyd Robertson's last broadcast....and we missed it :( Totalbummer! I would have really like to know what kind of day it hasbeen. Yesterday Ken brought home our new box thingy that magicallyallows our TV to get the digital signal. And now we get 3 channels! A whole new channel to explore. What fun!...ok, not really, but it'sstill neat that now we get 3 channels. Still no CBC though.

b) As I was thinking about channelsand channel surfing I came to a bit of a revelation about my life. When we had satellite we would channel surf constantly. I'd watchpart of a program and then get bored of it and look for another, orI'd flip to a different channel during the commercials of the show Iwas watching. Anyways, I was thinking about this and came to theconclusion that, that was the way I spent most of my days. Flippingfrom one thing to the next without ever watching the full show. I'dhave a list of things I wanted to do that day and I just tried to getthem all done sporadically. This left me feeling overwhelmed andstressed and left Eva neglected and still everything did not getdone! So I've decided that I need to start “watching the full show”if you will. My day has natural breaks in it and each section can beused for something. For example, nap time is a good time for me tocheck my email and get some work done. Trying to check my email andrespond to it while we're eating breakfast is not the best time. Soanyways, I'm trying to figure out how to watch the full show duringeach section of my day. So far things seem sorted out until afternap time...then it gets a little fuzzy.

2) Labour Day is the best weekend ofthe year because that's when students come back to campus. I alsoenjoy the day they leave, but the day they return is fabulous. Ithink it's because the air is so full of potential....the potentialof what the year will bring, the potential of young lives. It alsobrings back some great memories of our college days, some of the best(and most difficult) years of our life. And there's usually freefood :)

3) I'm excited about fall weather. Ilove the summer and I love the heat. But this summer was SO hot andSO dry for 3 or 4 months that it's nice to have a cool day. Although today is more COLD than COOL. Similarto the arrival of spring after winter. That and I have 2 pairs ofshorts that still fit me :)....bring on pant weather!

4) While our goal was for each of us toonly work one job this year, I did go back to my job at the school. Which is fine. It just means that I have to remember to work alittle bit every day and connect with the people I work for on aregular basis. This is a big adjustment after 4 months of not doingso.

I have a few more weeks left of mycareer job before baby comes and it's busier then normal because I'mdoing a workshop...*insert minor freak out here*....for pastors*insert large freak out here*. I'll be fine. It's just a littleweird to think that I'm actually doing workshops....so strange. Youthink about it when you're in training, but then when you're actuallyorganizing and planning one it seems a little strange. Luckily I haveanother co-worker helping with it. But yeah, so that's going to makemy last 6 ish weeks pretty busy. And I have to remember to work onthe workshop material and not just show up to see my clients.

5) The added work stuff means that Iwould like to have some time away from Eva to actually work once anda while. But of course this is a transition time too for all of ourfriends and babysitters. So finding someone to watch Eva is a littlebit more difficult for a few weeks. It's not as easy as “I have towork, Ken is home, he'll watch her”. Now it's “I have to leavefor work before Ken gets home, who's going to watch Eva?”. Butit's been like this since we had her so it's not unexpected! Yetanother adjustment back to fall.

To my friends & their children whoare currently ill with the stomach flu: That is completely awful! Ihope you all get better soon! secretly I hope I didn't shake yourhand at church :) And I'll now consider wearing gloves everywhere I go...Although it doesn't really matter because Ken came home with the flu after work yesterday so our home is now infected too. Nothingsays “Welcome Back to School” like the flu.

High Intensity Laser

2011-09-05T10:03:00.000-05:00

My nephew, Eric, is pretty cool. He turned 8 this weekend. 5 years ago I wrote a birthday post for him...so since it was his birthday I thought I'd include him in a post again.

My husband, Ken, is pretty cool. He's 30. it's not his birthday.

My brother sent us this picture of a letter my nephew wrote......

I was thinking that someone should respond. Ken was thinking the same thing. Ken just happens to work at a high school with a fairly decent trades program. He scored some cool wire.

When I went out to BC with my mom this summer I took a long a package from Guinness World Records to be specially delivered to Eric.

Earlier in the day he was telling my mom how he had written them a long time ago, but that he still hadn't heard back from them. When Uncle Chris arrived at the house that afternoon he noticed a package sitting by the door and told Eric about it.

He could hardly believe that it came.....

opening the package and reading the letter....

This is what the letter said:

-----

Laser Department

Guinness World Records

338 Euston Road

London, UK

NW1 3BD

Dear Mr. Eric _____,

Thank you for your interest in our highintensity laser. It is an incredible machine. Unfortunately theinstruction for the highest intensity focused laser are kept secret.Only the creators of the laser have the instructions. Your wirecollection sounds very interesting. We have sent you some wires foryour collection, we hope you enjoy them!

Sincerely,

Laser Department Staff

Guinness World Records

---

What followed after reading the letter? Utter Disappointment.

Ha ha ha... the look on his face was so sad... poor kid. We had to talk up the wires to make them sound cool. Like on the casing for some of the wires it said that they were good up to a certain temperature and so we told him how hot those wires could get, and of course it was really hot because a lasers obviously get really hot.

Anyways, now that the birthday presents have arrived the wires are probably old news and discarded into the "uncool" pile. That's ok, that's what happens. Sorry we couldn't send the real instructions for the high intensity laser!

Kids are fun :)

We interrupt the regularly scheduled blog post

2011-09-03T16:01:00.001-05:00

to bring you a brag fest about my husband.

a) Like I EVER have regularly scheduled blog posts

b) If me bragging about my husband is annoying or whatever to you, skip this post, there'll be another post in a few days about something else :)

-----

OK, so pretty sure I made the best decision of my life by marrying Ken, he's totally awesome.

First off he spent his entire August trying to get the basement done. The actual work probably only took 2 weeks because of our unhandiness, but the other two weeks were spent with tracking down a contractor who never showed, etc.

So he turned this mess:

Into this loveliness:

With very little help from me. I kind of figured that cleaning mold and doing labourous work while pregnant wasn't the best idea. I did screw in the drywall and paint and help with the carpet. And provided moral support and clean underwear.... all necessary things.

Plus he continued to do the normal things he does like watch Eva, cook supper, etc.

A pic Ken snapped after he gave Eva a bath

Not only did he exhibit his handy man skills, he also has some serious shopping skills.

Eva needed new shoes. So while I was getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist he went with Eva and bought her some new shoes...

I think he did a good job. Not that it surprises me because Ken has a thing for shoes....the man has more than 15 pairs of shoes. (I KNOW!). I kind of have a thing for shoes too. New shoes are like haircuts they make me feel awesome.

Then yesterday there was a whole fiasco with the carpet cleaner. I had rented a carpet cleaner, but it didn't work right....as in it just made the carpets wet. I spent 11 hours on Thursday cleaning the basement suite to get it ready for our new renters and it still had dirty, wet carpet. I thought that it wouldn't be a problem, I'd just take the machine back to the store in the morning and get another one....well apparently other people don't understand the meaning of a 24 hour rental. As in you have to return the machine 24 hours from when you rented it. They didn't return the machines!!

Yesterday I was rocking this fashion accessory

My head seriously felt like it was going to blow up. I was even desperate enough that I took tylenol....usually when I'm pregnant I don't take anything, but I was pretty much unable to function. I'm feeling much better today, but my nose is congestion central.

So I felt like crap and then people weren't returning the carpet cleaners, it was getting later and I was being all pregnant and hormonal and freaking out cause there was still dirty carpets in the basement and all of my hard work would have been for nothing if there were still dirty carpets when the renters moved in the next day. And what did Ken do? He drove all the way to Steinbach (the next closest town with carpet cleaners) again for the second time that day to get a carpet cleaner. Then he cleaned the carpets :) Way to save the day Ken! (The people did eventually return the carpet cleaner at 8pm....the store is going to give me my money back for the broken machine....)

OH, and he just made me this for lunch.....

yeah, my husband totally rocks. It was definitely worth fighting off all the other girls to get him!

*side note* The basement looks awesome! It's so clean! Both of us were a little giddy that it was done and looked so nice. We were like "I hope the renter's parents come"...ha ha... horray for "we're responsible adults" moments. OH! and while we were cleaning we found a key that locks the main door to our house! so now we can actually lock up the house if we ever need to. *end side note*

Catch Up

2011-08-24T21:57:00.005-05:00

Last time I think I left you with

8 braids +2 days =

well this is what it equals:

Fun crimpy hair. Trying to crimp a 2 year old's hair with a real crimper might be a disaster so maybe when she's like 5 or something we'll see if we can find a real crimper. It was fun for the day anyways....

------

As of tomorrow (Thursday) I'm 27 weeks pregnant. Perhaps I should take another belly picture. I feel like I should be more like 34 weeks or something. It's probably a good thing that I'm not though. This pregnancy has be a lot different then Eva's. I've gained quite a bit more weight. I'm way more tired. My body is way more sore. And the energy spurt that you're supposed to get during the 2nd trimester never came :) But really it's just another normal, average pregnancy so far, which is great! Baby is a lot more active now which is fun. I found out when my first appointment with my OB is.....then I had to change it because I'm busy that day....and his next available appointment was 2 weeks after my scheduled appointment. Wow. So I think I see him for the first time when I'm like 34 weeks....which means I'll probably only see him three times. I'm ok with that, I'm sure he'll be ok with that too. Last time he told me not to come so often cause I lived out of town and just to see my regular family doctor instead. I'm guessing that as long as things stay average it will be the same this time around.

-----

Eva is her usual self. Lovely, Fun, and Crazy. But aren't the majority of toddlers a little crazy? At times I feel a little sorry for Ken cause he has a crazy pregnant wife, a crazy toddler girl, and a female dog that's going a bit crazy. Poor guy..... anyways, back to Eva. Eva is pretty much all daytime potty trained!! yahoo!! the only time we do diapers now are during sleeping times. In my head I had declared her potty trained cause we did everything in our normal routine without diapers. But then we went grocery shopping the other day and guess what!!..... yup.... Eva peed her pants while we were going through the checkout. Awesome. The store must have been too exciting, and I wasn't paying attention to the time and then I'm just packing up the groceries and I hear Eva... "Potty", 2 seconds later there's a little puddle on the floor. Oh well, we both survived. And it's not the first time some kid has peed in the grocery store. Mental note for next time, go to the bathroom before starting to get groceries! And as Elmo and Grover say..... "Accidents Happen, and That's OK".

----

Zoey is going bonkers. As in behaving like she did 3 years ago before we did the crazy intense training with her. Ok, so not nearly as bad as she was then, but... still crazy as in going after other dogs and people on bikes. It's very maddening. Not sure what to do. Might have redo some of the training segments. She also had this weird indigestion thing happening last week....I'll blog more about that later. Ken wants another dog in a few years. I don't know if I'm ready to commit to another dog.

----

Ken is awesome. He's been working on our basement really hard. After the contractor bailed Ken did/is doing the rest of the work himself! And he super cleaned the shower downstairs, it looks WAY better. We also put new flooring in the bathroom downstairs. I asked him to let me know when I could go down and wash the floor....and he came back upstairs and said that he already washed it cause he didn't want the sewer fumes (the toilet was off so we could do the floor) to make me sick :) Aww... what a guy! Yeah, he's had to do everything do there himself cause I'm pregnant....which means I probably shouldn't be scrubbing mould off the walls and stuff. But I got to help with the flooring. So that was good. Yeah, he rocks....

-----

Speaking of the toilet. So Ken went to put the toilet back on this morning. It wouldn't go back on *insert minor freakout*. Calls the plumber & leaves a message. Goes outside only to discover that the plumber is next door and was planning on stopping by our house anyways to looks at the heating ducts. Yahoo! what great timing. So he ended up putting on the toilet. Which he couldn't put on properly because the toilet is just that old. it's on and doesn't leak, but I guess it's a little wobbly. I haven't gone down to check it out yet. Unfortunately when the plumber was putting the toilet back on he broke the float cause it was so old and corroded. So our renter (who came back from vacation today) can't use the toilet until Ken fixes the float tomorrow. Lame.

----

The official fall panic has hit our household, or me anyways. I'm not sure why, but every year it's like school starts in 2 weeks and we have a bazillion things to do! I'm a little stressed out. Partly by my own doing. Somehow because I know school is starting I get this weird burst of "EVERYTHING HAS TO BE DONE RIGHT NOW!!!!" Even though it doesn't. For example, figuring out how many Continuing Education Units I still need for my Association membership. Does not need to be done right now, they aren't due until May....yes 9 months from now. But for some reason I'm all freaky and I have to know right this week. *lol* Silly me. It's like I'm going to be in hibernation mode for the next 4 months so as of September 1st everything has to be done.... which it won't be, and it never has been. But that's just the way my crazy brain thinks it should work.

Our September calendar is actually looking pretty empty which is strange/nice. October is going to be super busy. I look at the October calendar and I'm already dreading that month. How 'bout we just fast forward to the beginning of November please and thank you. (I'm sure at the beginning of November I'll be asking for time to rewind!)

-----

I decided to go back to my job at the school this year again. Should be ok I think. My career job has picked up again this month which is lovely. Last month I billed the company for $68....of which I only take 37% as take home pay. This month will be much better :).

-----

I'm trying to decide what to specialize in. When Ken goes back to school full time in 2 years or so, that means I'm going to have to work a lot more then I do now because once again I will be the main income earner! So having a specialization in something would be helpful if I'm going to work full time in my field. But the training might take 2 years...so that's why it's on the radar now.

I think I have an idea what I might like to specialize in and found a good training program. Now it's just to decide if it's actually what I'd like to do and figure out how to pay for it. The cost of the program is very reasonable. It's just the travel that would be killer. The cheapest I think I could do the travel for is $800-$1000 per trip. And I'd have to do 8-10 trips in 20 months. So really I'd be paying way more for the travel then for the actual training. I could do the travel a little bit cheaper if I drove....but it would take me 2 days to drive one way. Which means 4 days (driving) + 2 days (in training), so almost a whole week I'd be away from home... which means I'd miss work for weeks, and what do you do with 2 kids when you're gone for a week and husband works?? Grandparents might come once, but they certainly aren't going to come 3 times in 2 months! And for the cost of paying a babysitter for a week, I might as well just hop on a plane and fly and just be away for the weekend.

So if I decide to do it I really need to be committed to working in this specific area of the field cause it's going to cost at least $15,000. But hopefully because of the training I could have more clients. I did a quick google search and it didn't come up with any other therapists in Winnipeg with this specialty....although I'm sure there are, they probably just don't need to advertise on google :). And I could use the training to "level up" my association membership which I've been thinking about doing anyways. This is one of those things where I feel like I have to decided about it now, when I don't really need to. And it depends on if I'd even be accepted into the program too....

If you've read this far and are the praying type, I'd appreciate some insight from someone else if you happen to have a word for me in this area (or any area).

----

Ok that is tons for tonight!! The dog went to bed, which means I should probably be in bed too. hope I gave you nursing moms something mindless to read during the middle of the night feedings!

Questions for the Universe

2011-08-13T19:06:00.003-05:00

How come as soon as you've made a decision something changes and then you have another decision to make?

- If I didn't have to make so many decisions I'd have a lot more time in my day! We decided to stay with our variable rate mortgage, but then the bank called yesterday and now they can give us a really good rate on a fixed rate mortgage. I have a love hate relationship with the unstable global economy. Love = having a super low interest rate shaved about 5 year off of our mortgage. Hate = is the low interest rate going to stay or should we lock in...oh the uncertainty

How come I can come up with a bazillion and one names in the opposite gender for our child?

- yes, we know what we are having....with reasonable certainty. And no, we are not telling (that includes you mom :P). Ken really wanted to know so I decided that I was ok with knowing. I didn't find out at the ultrasound cause Ken wasn't there so I had the ultrasound tech put it in an envelope and then we went on a date after he was back from the manventure and opened the envelope. Opening the envelope was kind of anti-climactic. And to be honest I was kind of disappointed....no disappointed in the the gender, but disappointed that some of the things I had been looking forward to with the other gender may not happen. ANYWAYS.... I'm feeling a strange sense of urgency to find a name for this baby. I can come up with tons of names for the other gender, but none for the the gender we're having. Together we've come up with a few that we like, but none so far that has been THE NAME. So this baby may still be born nameless even though we know who's coming out.

How come I have motivation to do everything that I need to do in 2 months from now, but no motivation to do the things I should do now?

- I have all the motivation in the world to wash little baby clothes and set up the nursery, etc. BUT it's kind of early to do that....I haven't even reached the 3rd trimester yet *lol*. No motivation to clean rooms or go through closets or clean up all of the clutter or any of that stuff.

How come no one wants to do small home repairs?

- It's like if I'm not completely renovating an entire floor of my house no professional wants to help me. Seriously universe, some people in this world are just not handy and need other handy people to fix small things for them.

How come my husband is the awesomest man alive?

Why can't we be on summer vacation for 10 months and work for 2 months?

-------------

In other news.....

I think Eva might be officially potty trained, but I'm hesitant to declare her so because if I do then she'll probably start having tons of accidents or something....cause that's the way you seem to work sometimes universe! And cause we haven't really tested it in all of our typical situations.

Our friends had a baby yesterday!! I'm super excited for them. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of little children, friends having babies is so exciting now that I'm not jealous of them :P. And another one of our friends will be welcoming their newest bundle very very soon.

I've also decided that it's a good things that a lot of human beings were programmed from the beginning with the desire to procreate. Otherwise the human race would have become extinct long long ago. Ken and I were reminiscing about our life pre-child.... we had an awesome life. Not that our life isn't awesome now, it's just completely different. It seems people say that you'll forget what your life was like without kids once you have them. I haven't forgotten, there are definitely things I miss! We could have easily been a couple who never had children. Although when people say that once you have kids you wouldn't trade them for the world....that part is true for me.

I'm doing an experiment involving Eva's hair, eight little braids, and 2 days :).... I'll post the result tomorrow.

Lazy Sunday

2011-08-07T19:46:00.003-05:00

Today I actually sewed something. I know it's been a looooonnnggg time since I sewed something. Last weekend I thought I would sew, but I didn't. Now I have a few things that I really want to get cracking on.

So today while Ken was working and Eva was napping I made these:

Hooded towels.... Big, thick hooded towels.....and because Eva grows so slowly they'll probably fit her till she's like 15! Bonus! I bought these towels on sale last summer with the intentions of making some hooded towels, but I never got around to it. So FINALLY I made them and they were super easy. Even with half a brain (the other half being designated to the baby) I only made 2 mistakes and cut my finger with my scissors. So I figure with a fully functioning brain these would be easy peasy. And they were QUICK! I loved making them because they were so easy and fast to make. Can't wait to make more. But before I'm allowed to buy more fabric I have to use more of what I have, which unfortunately doesn't include any more towels.... :(...... Although I might need to raid the linen closet to see if there's a towel to make a hooded towel for the new baby :)

Here's Eva modelling them...

I can't decide what one I like best. Ok, I like the one with the dinosaur spikes the best. It's totally cute. I was debating whether or not to add eyes to it, but I think I like it just with the spikes. The bear ears are cute, but I think it's the color combo that makes it not quite as cute.

To make these I used a combination of a few tutorials that I found online. The main pattern I used was from Make and Takes. To add the bear ears I looked at Make it and Love it. And to do the dinosaur spikes I looked at A Pumpkin To Myself for a little inspiration and direction. I didn't make a frog, but I think it would be super cute....so check out this frog towel tutorial... maybe next time I'll make the frog.

Eva went to bed early cause she refused to try her supper (a whole other blog post about how times when you don't have a hot clue what to do as a parent SUCK....and you're not sure if you made the right decision....). And Ken is still at work for another hour. Which means... I'm going to work on my first quilt.... yes, it's true, please don't die of shock. I cut the blocks out 2 weeks ago and so tonight I think I'll stitch them together. What fun! And sewing during a thunder storm is probably much safer then surfing the internet.

Hope you all had a good weekend!!

The End of the Man-Venture...

2011-07-27T23:09:00.003-05:00

Today is the last day of the man-venture!!

Now that the man-venture is ending I find myself thinking "Oh good, now that Ken's back all this stuff can get done" and I'm panic-ing a bit because it seems like there's a lot to get done before September!! Not that it all has to get done, but there are a few things that need to be done before September. While Ken was gone it was like, well, I'll start the process but it can wait till Ken gets home. Now that Ken's home some of the things really can't wait anymore. But I don't want to be all crazy on Ken when he gets home...."Hi Honey, Glad your home! Here's the 10 gazillion item to-do list let's get crackin'". That would be a dumb end to the man-venture.

In a lot of ways it felt like Ken was gone for a month, but in a lot of ways it didn't. My mom was out for over a week and then I went to BC for over a week. So really it was only Eva and I for one week. I think if my mom hadn't come out and taken us back to BC the time would've felt really long.

What I missed the most was the ability to connect on a regular basis. Email just isn't the same as phone conversations or in person conversations. We did get to talk on the phone pretty regularly but with the time changes it was often late at night when I was really tired or for 10 minutes before one of us had to run off to some activity. And it didn't help that as soon as Ken got back into cell phone range, I lost my phone. I thought I would miss his help with the daily chores of the home because he does A LOT, but I didn't. I was fine, and nothing was overwhelming during the week Eva and I were on our own.

I'm sad that I didn't get to share the experiences that Ken had. But I'm glad he got to have them.

Someone asked if I could explain to their wife why a man-venture was such a great idea.....

I'm not really sure if it's the man-venture itself that's such a great idea, but maybe it's the intentions behind the man-venture that are important.

I appreciate my husband. I'm thankful for all of the things he does for me and for our family. I'm proud of some of the changes that I've seen in his life over the last few years. I also know that we haven't had a lot of time for "downtime" the last 2 years.

Sometimes I think I get caught up in the thinking that Ken doesn't need downtime because he leaves the house every day and isn't stuck at home with a child all day. But really, just because he leaves the house doesn't mean it's downtime. It seems like when mom's leave the house and get together without kids it's like this little mini celebration. But when dad's do that it's like "oh yeah, he's just going out again.".... but that's not it at all. Guys need to get out too and have some "celebration" time away from their work and their families.

Anyways, because we haven't had a lot of down time lately, and because I think my husband is awesome, and because I know that he's a dreamer and I know that he has an itch for adventure, I knew that having him go on a man-venture would communicate some of my love and appreciation for him in a way that words couldn't. Some guys wouldn't like to go on a man-venture, they'd feel loved and appreciated if their wife told them to go golfing an extra time this week or something. But I knew Ken would LOVE to do a man-venture, to see and experience something he'd never done before.

So, all that to say, it's not really about the man-venture. It's about making sure that as wives we say and show our love and appreciation for our husbands in a way that they will enjoy it. And hopefully husbands will do the same for us.

When I think about a man-venture I also understand that it won't work at any time in life. The timing has to be right.

-I think if we had done this earlier on in our marriage it would have been a bit of a disaster.... I would have been cranky, lonely, and completely resentful. I would have had an "Look at this awesome thing I did for you, now you owe me" attitude and I would have held it over him for a period of time .."you were gone for a whole month so...blah blah blah". And Ken would have been much more reckless in his choices and expenses....which would've annoyed me more :) Pretty sure that's how it would have gone. Thankfully we're smart enough now to realize that those may be our initial reactions to things, but they aren't helpful for the success of our relationship.

-Right now we are both physically and emotionally healthy, there have been times in our life where we have been far from that. And if we had done a man-venture during those times one or both of us would have felt completely overwhelmed and both of us probably would have made some really bad decisions.

-If we had done this during Eva's first 6 months of life it would have been a disaster. I found the newborn stage hard. I needed my husband home. I would have felt completely abandoned if he had gone on a vacation.

-If we had done this right before some kind of other major transition -moving, house buying, etc. It also would've been a disaster.

-If Ken only had 2 weeks of holidays a year and he spent them all on his man-venture that would make me mad. Because of our jobs we end up having lots of time to potentially spend time together if we plan for it so throwing in an extra long vacation isn't too damaging to our "family time".

-A man-venture of this scale isn't an every year event. Maybe a once every 10 years event. Smaller man-ventures can be more easily accommodated.

-Man-ventures of this scale can only be done as long as the partner staying at home is properly supported in the man's absence. Like I had my mom around. I paid some teenager a few bucks to mow our lawn every week, Ken made sure the vehicle was in good working order before he left, etc.

I'm glad that we were able to do this. I'm glad that the timing was right for it. I'm glad that my friend will be home tonight cause I've missed him and I love him and life just isn't quite the same without him.

It's a good thing.....

2011-07-26T09:39:00.002-05:00

that there's a higher power watching out for me when my pregnant brained self isn't being "supervised" by my husband or mother :P

The troubles started after Eva and I got home from BC.

On Friday we went to the nearest grocery store to pick up a few things for the week and I locked us out of the house. Now, our house is almost impossible to lock yourself out of. Prior to Friday I would have said that it was impossible to lock yourself out, but now that I've done it I know it's possible. I was shocked when I pushed on the handle and it was locked!

Then on Sunday I put my wallet....it's actually a zippered pouch....on the top of the car while I put Eva into her seat. And then I drove 25 mins to church. I got to church, reached over to grab my wallet from the passengers seat, and then had a moment of OH CRAP!....yup, that sinking sudden realization of what had just happened.

I decided to wear some new sandals to church that morning. They had those sticky tag things on the bottom. One of them was coming loose. I decided to pull it off, I looked at it and it said size 7. I thought I had bought size 6's. I looked at the one on the other foot and it said size 6. So my sandals were 2 different sizes!

OK. So here's where God comes in. Some people would say that it was just lucky coincidences, but I think that more often then not there's more then coincidence behind situations.

Shoes - I had been debating between buying the 7's and the 6's because the size 6's were almost too small and the size 7's were almost too big, but they both fit. The size 7 sandal I have is on my left foot, which I think is my bigger foot. So it's fine and I don't have to take them back.

Locked out - Because our house is nearly impossible to lock yourself out of, that also means that it is quite easy to break into. So 2 minutes later we were back inside.

perhaps these were just coincidences. However, the wallet is a different story.

So on my way home I kept an eye on the roads to see if I could spot my wallet. I was hoping it would've just fallen off on the gravel road between our house and the main road. I put Eva down for her nap then walked the gravel road. No luck.

Then I thought maybe someone else happened to see it and pick it up, but they were still at church and would bring it over later in the afternoon. afternoon turned to evening.... no luck.

I was thinking that if I could find anything out of my wallet I would want to find my driver's license. Mainly because I would probably have to pay to replace my driver's license. And without a bank card or visa I didn't really have access to any money. I did have some cash at home. But I would've needed it to get me through the week until Ken was home. And I didn't really want to drive without a license all week. Everything else in my wallet probably would've been free to replace...bank card, costco card, visa, health card, etc.

After supper I decided I should walk a bit farther. The dog needed a walk anyways. So off we went to the main road. Hoping that I would find something and that the wallet didn't fly off on the major highway. I was pushing the stroller looking at the ground. Then all of a sudden something caught my eye. It was a picture. My ugly mugshot on my drivers license! I could hardly believe that I saw it. Manitoba driver's licences are a beige color and well, weeds and plants on the side of the road are often browny so they blend together quite nicely. I was sooo excited! I was like... thank you Lord! If I don't find anything else at least I found my license.

I kept walking and didn't find anything else. So I though, I'll check the other side of the road. And then I found one thing after another. Even the gold chocolate coin that Eva got in her pirate pack from White Spot! All stuck along the weeds right at the edge of the road. Some things were a little further into the ditch, but everything was there. Including $60 in dollar bills. Somehow the force of speed or other cars or whatever must have opened the zipper and everything came out. It's pretty amazing that it was all there considering how windy it is here. And it was a blessing that it happend on Sunday because there aren't very many semis that drive down the road on Sundays...and a semi going 100km/hr would scatter little plastics cards and the like much farther then regular cars.

So we went back home and Eva went to bed. I realized that I still didn't have my health card or my cell phone. So I went back out and I was able to find my health card. But not my cell phone. I found the back casing of my cell which would've popped off when it hit the ground but not the actual phone part or battery.

Since then I've been out every day looking for my phone but have had no luck finding it. I'm beginning to think that either it got smashed into a gazillion pieces by a passing vehicle, or some type of animal thought it was shiny and took it.

Even losing my cell phone isn't a bad thing.

a)my phone didn't work properly and the battery was dying. I had my phone turned off cause the battery doesn't last long when it's on...so I couldn't call it to see if I could hear it in the ditch. But anyways. The phone needed to be replaced.

b)I'm eligible for a free phone upgrade in a month anyways so that's good. Although because I don't have my SIM card they might make me cancel my contract and get a new phone/contract. I haven't looked into it yet. And it'd be nice to have all of my contacts easily available for my new phone.

c)I've been debating what to do with my cell phone. I had a blackberry. I LOVED being able to get email on my phone. But it's very expensive for a plan. And with our goal of us both only woking one job, me going on mat leave, and growing to a family of 4, our expenses needed to be cut somewhere. So I was debating just getting a cheap plan and phone...talk and text kinda thing. Cause I don't really NEED email on my phone. Well, actually I don't NEED a cell phone at all, but I do most of my communicating with babysitters and other people through texting so it is a useful convenience. However, I find the more conveniences that I have in my life the more time I waste doing meaningless things. So maybe this is some kind of affirmation that a fancy cell phone isn't really necessary for my life.

Even though I realize all this stuff about my cell phone I'm still out there walking the ditch looking for it and whining to God like a 3 year old about why He let me find EVERYTHING except for my cell phone. In fact I even thought "you know God, it's pretty awesome that you kept everything on the side of the road for me to find, including all of the cash, BUT the story of how great you are would be way cooler if I found my cell phone too." Yeah, I know..... and the Let's Act Like a Toddler/Disgruntled Teenager Award goes to yours truly.

The fact is that God IS great regardless of my finding my belongings or not. I could have found nothing and He'd still be great. Although, in all of my "ignorant of the plans of the world" human-ness I still think it'd be cool if I found my cell phone too....

well I should go... Eva's pulling the stuffing out of the couch cushions and showing me all of the sheep....

Manventure non-jealousy post of the day....

2011-07-16T16:02:00.003-05:00

Eva and I finally made it to BC. It wasn't nearly as terrible as it had the potential to be. Eva did super awesome the whole time. She only watched one video a day (45 mins long) on our 6 hour driving days, and two video on our 8 hour driving day. And she continued to go on the potty beautifully! In fact on our 4 day trip I think I only changed 3 diapers. Yahoo!! And she played super awesome with her cousins.

I am tired. The days were very long. Usually Eva is in bed by 8ish...ever since Ken left and my mom came it's been more like 10 or 10:30, so I've been going to bed later and I'm tired now. But a few good days of sleep should help.

So apparently today Ken tried this:

image source

Muktuk - whale skin and blubber.

And I'm sooo not jealous. (Ok maybe still a little jealous because of the cool experience, but not jealous at the same time). I'm not jealous because I'm in BC..... which means I get to eat here

Kelly O'Bryans tonight I'm going to eat, drink, and be Irish for a few hours! If you're in Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, or Prince George....go eat there, then you can eat, drink and be Irish too.

We'll also be having a meal here. Apparently there are also locations of White Spot in Calgary and Leduc, but it feels like a BC thing. I'll be having the BC burger with fries...their fries are the best with vinegar. Maybe I'll order Eva her first pirate ship if they still do that. As a kid I remember the kids meals always came in this cardboard pirate ship....it was cool.

Two of my favourite resatraunts.

It's a shame I'm a little bit too early for peach season :( Otherwise it'd be a perfect food trip!

Another manventure non-jealously moment today was when Eva and I and my mom were hanging out in the back yard this morning. I was sitting on the lush green grass without swatting mosquitos or ants or other various bugs....ahhhh....so nice!

Manventure jealousy post of the day......

2011-07-12T08:08:00.000-05:00

This is what I will see for hours and hours today.....

Beautiful Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

This is what Ken will see today....

(image source)

Yes, the arctic circle. WAY cooler (no pun intended) than Saskatchewan.

Randomness

2011-07-09T13:49:00.003-05:00

I don't really have anything to say about the manventure today :)

We got to talk to Ken last night, that was fun. He's not homesick anymore which is great. And is having a great time in Dawson City. Can't wait to read his next blog and see some pictures!

Thursday marked the official half way mark of this pregnancy. I would have posted a 20 week picture, but Ken has the camera up north so you'll all just have to wait. Although most of you see me in person so you know what I look like. I'm getting more excited now that I feel pregnant and look pregnant. This is new territory for me....pretty sure I didn't look pregnant with Eva till I was like 7 months *lol* My ultrasound is on Monday...fun times :)

We also went shopping in Grand Forks on Thursday. Eva did awesome on the drive there and back and shopping all day. Found some good deals on clothes for her. you know, $2 or 3 for t-shirts, $5 for jeans....yes please :) And with the dollar being so good they were actually cheaper then that. I got a few new maternity clothes. I'm excited about that. I like new clothes in general, but these ones are especially good cause most of my maternity clothes from when I was pregnant with Eva are too big! The shirts are fine, but bottoms were much to big...as in a whole size to big. Mom got a shirt too and some stocking stuffers. And we had a super nice border guard who didn't make us pay any duty.

We've been out pretty much every day this week which is a definite change for me. Usually I'm at home most days. Today we're just at home though so it's nice. A day to recover so to speak.

I think that's it. With all of our outings I haven't had the energy to do another Manventure post. But maybe one will get done later this weekend.

Manventure jealousy post of the day.....

2011-07-06T08:50:00.001-05:00

This is where I showered this morning.....

minus the bamboo cause this picture is a few years old.

This is where Ken relaxed today on his manventure.....

hot springs in the middle of the forest. *insert jealousy here*

(on a side note, check out the super muscle man on the left hand side of the picture! *lol*)

There are two bright sides to my situation.

1) I won't smell like sulphur or whatever the mineral is when I'm done my shower.

2) I don't have to worry about a bear attacking me in my bathroom

The last time we were at these hot springs we arrived at the campsite just as the ranger was closing the gates. He wouldn't let us in because we were tenting and he had been chasing a bear around the campground all day. He told us to camp in the overflow parking lot directly across the highway. Not sure, as far as protection from a bear goes, what the difference was between sleeping in a open gravel parking lot next to the forest and sleeping in a campsite (other than the parking lot was free!). That night we walked through the forest in the dark to go for a dip in the hot springs. Of course we went in the morning too so we could actually see where we had gone the night before.... and really, when there's hot springs in the forest you can't go just once!

Manventure - Part 1

2011-07-02T14:31:00.000-05:00

My husband has embarked on a manventure. You can follow his blogging here - it'll probably be a bit sporadic later on due to lack of internet/cell phone service. I'm sure I'll write a bit about the manventure here too....probably mainly about my jealousy :)

What is a manventure?

According to the urban dictionary the definition of Manventure is:

manventure	22 up, 5 down
	man·ven·ture Pronunciationman-ven-cher 1. an adventure characterized by manliness or extreme masculinity. 2. an epic journey only undertaken by men, or very masculine women. 3. a strenuous task which only individuals naturally equipped with a legitimate, large penis can endure.

Ken's manventure is more along the lines of definition #2. An EPIC journey. His journey can easily be undertaken by a woman, but it is a pretty great journey. In my definition I would also add something about freedom from responsibilities (no work, no family, no household chores)

We've been having lots of people ask us questions about why he's going and why he's going where he's going and making lots of different comments. So I thought I'd write some of the things down on here.

Ken is gone for a month. 30 days approximately....could end up being more depending on how the trip goes. He's travelling from Manitoba to Inuvik, NWT. I believe Inuvik is as far north as you can drive in Canada. He actually has 5 weeks to complete the trip, but plans to do it in 30 days.

1) Why is he going North??

Answer: I'm not really sure why he chose north. Probably because it's some place he's never been before and not too many people go there. 7 years ago we drove to Alaska and our trip through the Yukon was AMAZING. Personally I would go vacation in the Yukon any time, it was beautiful. I can only imagine that other parts of the Yukon and North West Territories would be just as spectacular.

This is us in the Yukon when we were young:

And really, who wouldn't want to see this:

(follow a herd of cariboo - the creature that graces some of our Canadian currency - through a mountain pass? yes please!)

and this:

2) He's gone for a whole month??

Answer: Yes, a whole month.

He has a job where he has summers off (best thing in the universe....after you've had summers off I'm not sure how you would go back to a regular job). So he doesn't have to work for 2 months. That helps with being able to take a month to travel.

It also takes a significant amount of time to drive there and back. Sure you could do it faster, but really it's safer, especially when driving long distances alone, to take your time. And remember, you want to have time to stop and look at things like this:

We only have one child right now who is young. It's easier to leave a young child for a long period of time then an older child (or so I think). Eva will eventually realize that daddy isn't around or that she hasn't seen him in a while, but she has no concept of how long a month is. I think with an older kid they would ask all the time about daddy and cry that he was gone, etc. And let's face it, the more children you have, the harder it is to go away. With the arrival of #2 in a few months, it was really now or maybe never.

For me, my month will go by pretty fast. My mom is at our place for almost two weeks, then Eva and I are driving back to BC with her. Then once we get back home I'll only be alone for 8 days, which is hardly anything.

3) Why is he going on a manventure??

Answer: The question you really need to ask is, why not go on a manventure? Seriously. How many of us would like to just be free to go somewhere and only have 2 responsibilities (1. still be faithful and respectful of your wife & 2.return home alive)? Probably all of us. Seize the moments people...moments of freedom are hard to come by unless we intentionally create them.

I think going for a significant amount of time really allows you to relax and enjoy the time. I know when we just go away for a week I often feel like I need another vacation by the time I get home.

There are also other reasons that started the whole manventure thing....

1) we've both been working really hard for the last 2 years - both working 2 or 3 jobs, plus having a newborn, plus me finishing my masters degree, plus Ken going back to school, plus regluar life stuff...house, church, friends, recreation. We are tired. Tired people need rest and refreshment. A manventure can = rest and refreshment.

2) Ken had Eva for 2 weeks this year while I got 2 weeks free from her. I wanted to return the favour.

3) Ken turned 30 this year. I totally failed at being a cool wife and did NOTHING for his 30th birthday. He didn't even get cake. 30 is a big birthday, you should do something cool. Like take a manventure.

4) He's going alone??

Answer: Yes. This was one of the things I insisted on. If he was going to go on a trip like this he had to go alone. A trip like this can be cool and fun and all that stuff. But it can really be a whole lot more. 30 days by yourself, most of those days spent in relative isolation from everything except nature has the opportunity to allow a person to really recharge, reflect on themselves, and put parts of their life in perspective..... as long as you allow yourself to go to those places.

Because we have a bunch of friends and family across western Canada. And because Ken basically spent weeks and weeks of his summers growing up in Northern BC he will be doing a bunch of visiting on his travels. And many gracious friends and family will let him sleep in their homes and feed him. If I were on this trip, this would be the hardest part. There's something about visiting with friends/family that live far away that makes me pine/wish/long to have them closer..... a sadness about what is lost through geographical distance. I don't know what it's like for guys. I assume it's kind of similar. We often come home from trips out west and say to each other "I miss my friends/family"...or "I wish we lived closer"... *enough on this subject, it's making the hormonal pregnant woman cry*

That's enough question/answers for today! I'll do another post with some more questions and answers soon.

If you have anything you're wondering about in regards to the manventure feel free to ask! Leave it in a comment or send an email.

The week

2011-07-01T13:43:00.005-05:00

On Sunday I baked......

Lesson learned: don't forget to grease the pan!

On Monday we took Eva swimming at the public pool for the first time....

Lesson learned: use the family change room

On Tuesday I found Zoey reading....

Lesson learned: animals are way smarter than humans and will one day take over the world....once they learn to to grow opposable thumbs :)

On Wednesday I found a grey hair....

Lesson learned: numerical age means nothing.

On Thursday my mom came...

(What? you think my mom would let me take a picture of her cleaning?)

Lesson learned: when you're older, boredom is apparently cured by cleaning

On Friday I sent my husband off on his manventure...

Lesson learned: ??? To be determined

Happy Canada Day!

Potty Training and other things....

2011-06-29T14:05:00.003-05:00

So I did some internet reading after my previous post....and it's totally normal to hear the heartbeat in more then one spot if there's only one baby. After reading that I went back to my "ok, we're probably just having one" mode :) Still a few more days till the matter is settled.

-----

My mom is coming tomorrow! Woot!

My husband is leaving for a month in 2 days! *insert mixed emotions of booo! and yay!*

----

I have to work today. Which is normal. I've just been having a bad attitude about work lately. Not sure why. Good thing I have a 2 week break coming up!

----

We started officially potty training on Monday last week and it's going really well I think! Just taking it nice and slow. We bought Eva her potty a year ago and it's been sitting out in our house ever since, so we've had 11 months of "potty awareness" and a few weeks of experimental potty training around Christmas time. But now it's time for the real deal.

The first few days kind of sucked cause I had to watch her like every second cause I didn't know when she would go, but she caught on really quick.

I think I've mentioned before on here that I'm all about gradual change (mainly for my benefit so I don't get so worked up and frustrated). So we started with just half days of trying to use the potty. We did mornings, cause that's what works for us. From 8ish - 11:30 we'd do no diapers. Then I had a few days where I knew we were going to be home all day and all evening so then we switched to full days (minus nap time).

My goal for this beginning part was just to help Eva learn the sensation of what it feels like to go pee and then for her to learn what to do when she has that sensation. I'm not going to lie, this part was soooo tiring for me. Not really sure what it was like for her...but having to watch her every.single.minute. sucked. I got nothing else done for 2 days. There was also several bouts of crying/screaming cause she didn't know that she could go pee on the potty.

BUT by Sunday, she was fine with going pee on the potty and will go there by herself when she has to go. She says "Potty...Quick Potty..." then goes and sits down. Yesterday we only had one accident all day! (but that accident was when she was wearing shorts so it doesn't really count....I'll get to this in a minute)

During the half day potty training days we'd watch videos with Eva. Specifically these two:

Now somehow through watching this video she developed a love for Elmo. So we went and bought the Elmo Potty Time video. It's actually not a bad movie. And Eva likes to watch it. So that's her reward for doing her business on the potty. Usually she only watches it once a day, cause watching it 5 times a day would be too much! Luckily Eva LOVES to wash her hands. Seriously, just letting her wash her hands is reward enough for going pee on the potty. Sometimes she'll go, we'll wash her hands, and then she'll try to make more come out cause she wants to wash her hands again. Works for me! and it's free! Please Lord let the love of washing hands continue forever....

We have yet to have a poo on the potty. Which is ok. She usually only goes once a day anyways. (I can hear Eva's 12 year old voice in my head...."MOM I can't believe that you wrote about my frequency of pooing on your blog!!!"). It's kind of funny to me though because when we did a bit of potty training at Christmas she would go poo on the potty but not pee. Oh well, it will come.

OK, back to the accident while wearing shorts. So far all of our potty training has been done with a bare butt. No diapers, no training pants, no panties, nadda.....just cute naked baby butt. It seems like as soon as we put on shorts or pants Eva no longer recognizes the sensation of having to pee. This is the next order of business. Learning how to pull down pants and go pee. On my way to work today I'm going to stop in the city and buy the cheapest cute little girl panties I can find :). Hopefully she'll catch on just as quickly as she did with the bare butt training.

Another step on my list to tackle shortly is how to pee on a real toilet. Lets face it....peeing on a little potty is an entirely different thing then peeing on a real toilet. Especially when you're still practically the size of a one year old :). Lots of people skip the little potty thing and just to regular toilet and that's cool. I think it removes one step out of the whole process!

This step is a big one for me because if Eva is doing so well at the house then I'd like to continue to try potty training outside of the house. *Insert deep breath to prepare for more embarrassing mom moments of child peeing in public places* And you can't really do that unless you can pee on a regular sized toilet.

Another reason why this step is a big one for me is because Eva is starting to refuse to wear a diaper. Since before Christmas changing her diaper for me has been a real challenge (She let's Ken change her diaper, but he's not here all the time). We're talking tantrum throwing, running away, screaming, kicking, hitting.....I've seriously had bruises on my arm because Eva's kicked me while I was trying to change her diaper. If you walked by my house and heard the screaming, you'd think I was harming my child, but in reality I was simply changing her diaper. Now that she's tasted the freedom of no diaper I think she craves it more *lol*

Originally when we started the whole potty training endeavour I was under the mindset that night training would come later. I was fine to hold off and wait until she was day trained. But Eva has other ideas I think. Yesterday Ken went in to check on her while she was napping.... and she had gone pee & poo in her diaper at some point, had taken it off, and was sleeping. (Thank goodness she didn't smear the poo everywhere!). So, I guess she no longer likes having a dirty diaper and is capable of taking it off herself. Guess we'll see what happens with night time training! Better go buy a second set of sheets for Eva's bed!

Ahhh...potty training. Yet another experience that will increase my motherly wisdom through many many mistakes and wrong assumptions. Bring it on.

Eva enjoying some potty awareness time a year ago :)

Race Day Recap

2011-06-25T09:48:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I'm almost a week late getting this post written and anybody who reads my blog has probably already asked about our runs :), but that's ok.

So it seems as though running in the Manitoba Marathon is becoming a Father's Day tradition for our family (although at some point I'm sure we'll get bored of it). Last year Ken ran the half marathon. This year he did the half again in addition to running the first leg of the Marathon Relay. And I joined him and his co-workers in running a leg of the Marathon Relay.

Each year we get a little bit better at executing our Manitoba Marathon day. You can read about last year here. When going to large events I like to have a plan in order to keep things simple and calm. This year close to 15,000 people ran in the different events, that's just RUNNERS, not including spectators.

So anyways, this year we got a hotel in the city so we didn't have to get up till 5 or 5:30. So we almost got a whole nights worth of sleep! We also left Eva with our wonderful neighbour so we didn't have to worry about her. Those were two fantastic decisions.

Here's what we looked like pre race at almost 6AM.... you can't really see my belly, but that's ok :)

Ken went earlier to get to the start line. I met up with the rest of our relay team and we headed to our exchange stations.

Ken's goal was to finish the half marathon in 2 hours 10 mins. Slower then his PB, but faster than last year's time. And he was dead on with his time. He finished in 2 hours 10 mins and a few seconds. That put him in 1600th and something place out of almost 4000 people :). A sub 2 hour half marathon (which is a great time) gets you into the top 1200..... it's kind of depressing when you think about it that way. Anyways, Ken said he felt great about his race. His body felt good the whole way and he didn't start to feel fatigued until about mile 11. So much better than last year!

Our relay went well too. Our team was called Ken and the Superettes. For the last 2 years Ken has worked at a gas station on the weekends called the Superette. All of his coworkers are girls. Almost a year ago, one of the owners passed away suddenly. So Jerrica decided that it would be a cool idea for them all to run the relay event in honor of John. For the relay you need 5 people. One of the girls at the store didn't want to run, so I said I could be their 5th member. I didn't know I was pregnant yet :). So anyways, I decided that I could still run while pregnant as long as I had the shortest leg (4 miles). Our team goal was to finish before they closed the course and to not come in last place *lol*. And we accomplished our goal! We finished in 5 hours 25 minutes as the 7th to last team. All of us ran well for us which is what matters. Jerrica even set a PB on her leg! Woot!

Here we are in action:

My goal was to run my 4 miles in under an hour. I had 2 goals. One was to finish in 45 mins if I was having a really awesome day, the other was to make sure I was done in an hour. Well I wasn't having a great day for whatever reason. Before I even got out of the exchange zone my legs were tired. Even though I haven't gain a lot of weight I notice the difference in my legs running with a bit of extra weight, and running takes A LOT more effort then it ever did before. So I made my goal and handed the bib off to Hayley in 57 minutes....that included a stop to pee too :). I can now say that I peed on Portage Ave, how many people who weren't drunk can say that? *lol* So I was happy with my time. Glad I had my own water bottle with me. It wasn't hot, but I need more hydration while pregnant then the two stations on my route.

While I was at the exchange zone before I ran I decided to use the washroom. I was waiting in line and the two people behind me were also pregnant. So we had a humorous chat. One of the ladies was 33 weeks so she wasn't running and was just like "I can't believe you guys are running". And me and the other girl were like yeah, but we wouldn't be running at 33 weeks! I didn't say how far along I was and the other lady said to me "I don't think I'd be running if I was as big as you" And her and I are only about 3 weeks apart Ha ha ha.... so I guess I must have looked pregnant.

Anyways, it was a super fun day. I really had a great time! The only bad thing about the day was the shuttle buses. They were late or non existent. Ken almost missed the start of the race cause the busses were late. And then I got stranded at a relay station because a shuttle bus never came. People had been waiting 2 hours for a bus at the relay station! One FINALLY showed up but get this, it could only hold 5 people.....there must have been close to 40 of us waiting. People were getting really mad and getting taxis and calling for rides and stuff. I finally called JJ and Hayley, who drove all the way across the city to come back and get me. We made it to the Stadium just in time to see Jerrica finish. I'm totally a fan of using provided transportation, but when it doesn't work, it sucks. But overall still a great day!

And here they are, Ken & the Superettes! (minus me, the honorary superette, cause I had to go get Eva). A great picture! Go team!

Monday Hair Cut Day!

2011-06-20T21:18:00.004-05:00

Today was Monday.

The day after the Manitoba Marathon events. I'm feeling pretty good. My shoulders and hips are a little sore, but not bad. A little bit more tired then normal. Ken is really tired. He went to bed at 9. So I figured I'd blog. But not about the race....I'll do that tomorrow or another day.

I got my hair cut today :)..... I love hair cut days. It's the morning after that I dread because then I have to attempt the new hair by myself. And I always use too much shampoo the morning after because I forget that I have half the hair!

I have bangs again. That might take some getting used to. But I think the cut is pretty cute.

I never ask for a specific style when I get my hair cut, I give my hair dresser free reign. I haven't really had a bad hair cut. I've had maybe one or two that I didn't really like, but they weren't bad hair cuts.

Anyways....

Cause I know my mom will want to see....

Here's a before picture:

And some after shots:

Miss Eva was having fun accessorizing her hair the other day too

----

I had a Dr. appointment today too. Ken and Eva came with me and heard the baby's heart beat. It was fun.

My twin paranoia is really high now. So the Dr. listened to the heartbeat for a long time. Way longer than normal. And she had the little wand thingy in two different places on my stomach (not far apart, maybe like 2-3 inches apart.....). Can you hear one baby's heart beat in two different places?? And yeah, she listened for a long time.

Then she said.... "the average heart rate was around 155". Ok so I know nothing about baby's heart beats, I'm assuming a heart beat can fluctuate a bit, but still.... "the average heart rate".... ummmmm......yeah.

AND THEN she said. "At your next appointment we'll discuss the results of the ultrasound". I've never had a doctor say anything about discussing the results of anything before. Maybe I just haven't had good doctors *lol*. I don't think I ever heard anything about the ultrasound with Eva. I also had an ultrasound of my liver done a couple years ago and I never heard anything about that either. Usually it's something along the lines of "if there's a problem we'll contact you". Mind you I've never asked about any results either...

So now I'm wondering, does she suspect twins? Cause apparently it's kind of hard to detect two baby heart beats unless you're looking for two. Really skilled Dr.s can do it but not every Dr. can (according to the internet). And I think my Dr. is the type where if she suspected twins she wouldn't say anything until it was confirmed by the ultrasound. If it was something life threatening she's share her suspicions...

I'm probably just making this all up. Cause really there's like a 99% chance of there only being 1 baby. But still. That would just be a CRAZY happening!

Ok, enough of my crazy brain rantings...... time to join the husband and get some zzzzz's.

Cookie Time!

2011-06-17T14:11:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Eva and I baked our first batch of cookies together.

In the morning we made the dough. What kid doesn't love dumping measuring cups full of stuff into bowls and cracking eggs? And it's really fun to try and stir.

Then we went about the rest of our day while the dough chilled in the fridge.

After supper, the real fun began! Time to roll out the dough and use the cookie cutters :)

Two year olds have no concept of strategically placing the cookie cutter for maximum dough useage. I had to re-roll the dough out many many many times :)

I was actually surprised at how well Eva did with the cookie cutters. She totally understood the concept and did it all by herself. But when it came time to actually put the cookie on the baking sheet she was not too impressed.

Then of course for a bed time snack we had freshly baked cookies and milk.

In retrospect giving an almost 2 year old sugar cookies for a bedtime snack was not the most brilliant thing to do. She didn't fall asleep until almost 10:30pm!!! Usually she's asleep by 8 or 8:30.

Most of the cookies are sitting in the fridge waiting to be iced. I would love to be stuffing my face with those cookies. But instead I'm filling my face with as much pasta, protein, fruits, veggies, and water as I can manage in preparation for Sunday. Pretty sure this 4 mile run feels like running 6 miles pre-pregnancy. I'll be happy when it's over :) Then I can eat all the cookies I want.

Randoms

2011-06-16T13:38:00.002-05:00

1) Eva ate a piece of broccoli and a piece of carrot this week! I just about had a heart attack. Perhaps her eating habits are changing *crosses fingers*. Eva has some kind of crazy vegetable detector in her mouth where if even the tiniest piece of vegetable entered it she would spit it out and eat the rest of whatever the vegetable happend to be in/on

2) We're gonna give the whole potty training thing another go. Still kicking myself for not doing it at Christmas time, but I'm ready to tackle it now. This morning she peed on the floor right beside the potty. Then all by herself she went and got a cloth and started wiping it up. Interesting.

3) Pregnancy with #2 has been really different. With Eva I was researching different things all the time, car seats, strollers, birth options, names etc. Making lists about what we needed in the house. Organizing different things everyday. This time I'm just like.... oh yeah, we're having a baby, that's nice. I'm sure I'll probably get to the point where I have a list of things we need to pick up, but really all that will probably be on it is soothers, newborn diapers, and a warm (winter) sleeper. That's all. The rest we'll get after it's arrival.

4) Baby #2 seems destined to be nameless. It's not for lack of thinking about baby names. Just nothings has really stood out yet. Any name that I like doesn't fit with our last name. Examples: Simon, but then he'd be Simon Peters....as in Simon Peter from the Bible. No thanks. Or Philip or Paige, but then his /her initials would be P.P. That would be great in school don't you think? It's not too worrysome really. I mean the name Eva wasn't even on our radar until probably 2 weeks before she was born. And we'll have 2 days in the hospital to figure out what his/her name will be.

5) It's been 3 days since "oopsy job" ended, and MAN, what a difference it's made. I have so much head space it's crazy!!! Now thinks like cleaning and laundry don't seem overwhelming. It's so nice! I've even done extra things, like bake and read and make appointments and talk to people. Pretty sure I'm super looking forward to this "only working one job" thing.

6) Less then one month till my ultrasound. Still haven't decided if I want to know the gender or not. Ken will be in the middle of no-where up in the Yukon/North West Territories, so he won't be there to sway my decision *lol* I'm still leaning towards not knowing.

7) Ken and I are leaving Eva for the night (YIPPEE!!!!!). The downside is that we have to go to bed at like 8pm cause we have to be up at 5am to get ready to run in Manitoba Marathon Events. So maybe in August we'll actually have to leave her somewhere for a night or two and go on a real get-a-way (one that involves sleeping in). I think after 2 years we're long overdue for a trip away just the 2 of us.

8) Only 2 more weeks until Ken leaves on his month long adventure! Super excited for him and super jealous that I'm not going :) Trying to suppress the fears of him getting killed by some crazy person in some remote campground on the arctic tundra. Should be an amazing trip!

9) Monday should be a good day. Doctor's appointment AND haircut!! Woohoo.... as i've said before getting my hair cut is one of the best things EVER.

10) I had my contract review & renewal at work yesterday. And my last official day of work before baby comes is October 31st. And then my return date and work hours will be determined after the baby has arrived. So thankful for a flexible job!

11) I learned yesterday that just south of us are wild GIANT SNAPPING TURTLES!!! Check out this video that Ken made yesterday....he almost ran over it in the car! Crazy. I had no idea.

Just have to say...

2011-06-13T21:47:00.003-05:00

that today was a great day.

It started out with Eva sleeping in till almost 8:30. Then I got an email saying that I was all done "oopsy job" (YAHOOO!). Eva was super well behaved for most of the day. I cleaned the whole house. Got caught up on the laundry. Had people over for supper. Baked banana bread. AND the day that was supposed to be rainy turned into a gorgeous evening so I've been enjoying the peace and quite on the porch all evening.

The best "at home day" I've had in a looooong time.

Chicken!

2011-06-12T17:05:00.005-05:00

(image)

Chickens are kind of cool. And since I'm all about my blog being educational, I thought I'd share some facts.

- One chicken can lay about 300 eggs per year

- They only lay one egg per day

- Eggs are made in an assembly line type thing over 14 days, if something happens, like it

doesn't have water for one day, then 14 days later it won't lay an egg. Weird huh?

Ok so I don't know if my facts are right. But we'll just pretend they are :)

Ken and I have actually thought about having a small flock of chickens. But we still need to do a bit more looking into things.

Anyways, I'm supposed to be talking about dead chicken, not alive chickens.... so on with the show!

Every once and a while (more in the summer) when I'm feeling particularly lazy about cooking we pick up one of the pre-cooked rotisserie chickens from the store.

You know, one of these:

(image)

On a side note, when I was googling for pictures, this came up:

(image)

Kind of along the theme of what I'm writing about today, but I certainly don't have 101 Things!

Ok so last week we picked up a chicken and they had some sort of "deal" where you got the chicken, a loaf of french bread, and a container of salad for $12. So it's not that bad cause I think the chicken by itself is $8.

I decided to see how many meals for 3 that we could get out of our chicken, bread, and salad.

Tuesday supper:

- Rotisserie chicken, potatoe salad, veggies & dip, french bread

Wednesday lunch:

- Chicken sandwich on french bread

Wednesday supper:

- Chicken Enchilladas

Thursday Lunch:

- Chicken soup

The soup was half fail, half success. The night I made it, it looked like soup and tasted really great! However, as it sat in the fridge over night the barely absorbed almost all of the liquid, making the soup turn into more of a barley stew. It still tasted good. But after one bowl I don't really want to eat it again.

Thursday supper:

-bruschetta, veggies & dip, salad, left over enchilladas

And we still have some of the salad left to eat and used on sandwiches and stuff for the next couple of days.

All in all, that little chicken went a long ways!

-------

I just got back from runnning 5 kms. And I wasn't any slower than the very first time I ever ran 5km...and this time I'm 16 weeks pregnant. And this is the longest run I've done in probably 4 months. Go me!!

Fair Fun!

2011-06-11T13:20:00.003-05:00

We've lived here for almost 4 years. And we've never gone to the Niverville Fair. Seriously it's like 15 mins up the road, lots of people go to it. We've just never gone. Not sure why. But we decided to go this year.

Friday night they have a whole wack load of free food. You pay $12 to get in and then the food from 6-9pm and all activities (minus rides) are free! And cause Eva is under 3, she's free :)

So we started our evening by watching the Diamond Disc Dogs. Honestly, I was expecting more. I thought they'd be better. They were just ok. They didn't really do anything that spectacular, lots of the tricks were repeated just with a different dog. And most of the tricks, we could easily teach Zoey to do, or she already knows them. But it was still fun to watch, and Eva liked it.

We explored the kids tent a little bit, Eva got her first balloon animal. A nice clown made it for her. She was pretty excited about it. Then she chewed on it for a while and it popped. A good source of entertainment while it lasted! She had tons of fun watching the kids "fishing".... when we had to leave the fishing pond she had a little tantrum, but the only one of the whole night!

Then it was on to food! We each had 2 pork sandwiches, a jumbo cookie, chicken wings, mini donuts, ice cream cones, fried wontons, watermelon, and Eva stole french fries from Jerrica. We were pretty full! We even missed out on a bunch of food booths cause we were just too full! This morning Ken said he was still full *lol*

We watched some cool motorcross guys do big air jumps. Saw Matt Falk (?) - i think that's his name, he's a comedian. He was pretty funny. Walked through the Show n' Shine cars. Ken went on two rides with some of our friends from church that were there. And then we watched the Fireworks at the end of the night. The fireworks were pretty good! They were probably better than most Canada Day fireworks I've seen.

After the fireworks Eva and I headed home cause it was almost 11:30pm. Ken stayed to watch the concert. Some guy who used to be the lead guitarist of Korn....Brian "Head" Welch. Then our friends dropped him off half way home and a sleeping Eva and I went and picked him up.

We made 2 mistakes last night.

1) we didn't bring jackets. On the way there I was like "oh I forgot my jacket"! But we were like "well it's not going to rain so we won't need them". Except we completely forgot that once the sun goes down it gets cold! Duh!. And Ken had just cleaned out the van a week ago so none of our sweaters or jackets were lurking in the van. Luckily I was wearing jeans so I wasn't too cold. But Ken was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt so he was pretty cold by the end of the night. And thankfully the second set of clothes for Eva had been in the diaper bag since spring so it was a long sleeved shirt and pants!

2) Eva and I should have left before we went to see the comedian guy. I think the last hour/hour and a half was too much for her. She wasn't fussy, but I think she was just sooo over tired that she wasn't feeling all that well. The fireworks kind of bothered her. She puked a little cause she guzzled almost a whole bottle of water. So yeah. Next year, going home by 10pm :)

But all in all it was a great way to spend the evening and half the night!

I QUIT!!!

2011-06-09T13:59:00.003-05:00

I quit!

Well not really, but kind of..... I quit "oopsy job". YAHOO!!!!

OK, so I have to mention that I have to call it oopsy job because I'm not allowed to talk about it on facebook, blogs, etc.

So anyways I called my supervisor this afternoon and told him that I wouldn't be able to do the 4th and final round of the job. And, much to my surprise he was totally cool with it. He was just like "yeah, we figured this would happen for a lot of people. I'm going to find out in a few days how to terminate employment because you don't want to quit, quitting looks really bad if you're applying for EI". Sweet. My Supervisor's a good guy.

So now I just have approximately 14 law breakers to track down and then I am D-O-N-E, DONE! Maybe I'll have a party. Or a date with my husband.

-----

Ken and I took Eva back to the swings last night. I think her tantrum earlier in the day (read yesterday's post) was because I wasn't pushing her high enough! My goodness! How high does an almost 2 year old on a big kid swing need to go?? Apparently really high! Like 5 1/2 feet high.

Today we went to the swings and I told her if she had a tantrum that we would go home right away. No trantrum :).... and she swung happily for 45mins!! Pretty sure if I swung for 45 mins I would puke. That kid is addicted to the swings. And to movies. Maybe that's a good balance? *lol*

----

I'm going to call today and try to register Eva for gymnastics in the fall. A little town about 15 minutes from us runs gymnastics and they can start when they are 2!!! PTL for activities that will take 2 year olds. Cause my 2 year old runs and jumps and climbs, and swings from the table, and tries to stand on her head, etc.... And trying to release that energy when you can't go outside because your body parts will freeze off is challenging (especially since we'll have a new born this winter). Pretty sure she'll like gymnastics. Pretty sure I'll like her to go to gymnastics. And the Bonus is that it's actually fairly inexpensive! And it might make a good Birthday present and/or Christmas present (head's up Grandpa).

OK, that's all today.

I'll have a fun post coming up in a few days. All about chicken.

And just incase you forgot that you wanted to eat chocolate ice cream, here's a reminder....

The unexpected and other stuff

2011-06-08T13:13:00.004-05:00

The Unexpected:

#1: I get to go on a vacation this summer!! Yippee!! I didn't think i was going to get to go anywhere this summer because I took the trip out east and Ken is going on a road trip to Inuvik. So I thought I'd just happily hang out at home with Eva. My mom decided to come out for a visit in July. And then Ken had this amazing idea...."why don't you drive back to BC with your mom and then fly home". So that's what Eva and I are doing! We're going to drive back with my mom and get to visit in BC and then fly home just before Eva turns 2 so she's still free. AND there was even a seat sale!! So my flight back was only $134 + tax. So that was unexpected and exciting!

#2: I get 3 days in a row off work! No clients booked today (which kinda sucks cause then I don't get paid, but I'm tired so the break is welcome). And the higher ups at "oopsy job" needed a few days to get organized before the final round. So that means that for the next 3 days I actually get to see my husband!!!!!! so exciting! For the past six weeks almost every time he gets home from work I leave to go to work. That just does not work for us at. all. So I'm looking forward to days off.

#3: Usually we sheep herd with Zoey but for the next 3 weeks herding was cancelled so we got the opportunity to go to agility class instead. I've always wanted to do agility with Zoey but we were always busy that night or else there was a huge waiting list, so we did herding instead. But it totally worked out this time. What makes it even better is that it's something that I can do with Zoey! I don't like to go in with the sheep when I'm pregnant. And the times when I have gone in to do sheep with Zoey it just doesn't work...Ken is much better at it. Anyways, Zoey and I went to our first class last night and it was tons of fun!

Other Stuff:

I finally got a good picture of the new bird:

Instead of cleaning the house during Eva's nap time today I opted to blog and eat this:

Right now it's a must have for me :) Don't worry, I'll work it all off when I go for a run tonight....but working it off doesn't really matter right now. And I ate it while Eva was sleeping because I didn't want to share...... Now you want to eat chocolate ice cream and cookies, don't you?

This was my lunch:

Chicken sandwich on part of a baguette with potato salad. It was yummy.

I accidentally tripped Eva today and it resulted in this:

oops. I might as well tell you the whole story cause I know you have nothing better to do then to read it *lol*.... So Eva, zoey, and I were walking to go and play on the swings. Eva was running down the road and then this truck came. We hardly every have cars on the road during the summer by our place. So anyways, I was running to catch up to her to make sure that she didn't run out in front of the truck and I accidentally caught her heal with my toes and down she went. She cried for maybe 10 seconds then wanted down and proceeded to run the rest of the way to the swings.

The continuation of the story is that going to the swings was a HUGE mistake. I'm a big fan of setting things up for success. Well, I'm not sure what I was thinking today because I decided to go to the swings a) 10 mins before lunch time and b) right before we left Eva was standing by the door rubbing her eyes saying "tired". Both of those things point to disaster, not to success. But for some reason (maybe that it wasn't raining) we went anyways. Not surprisingly the trip to the swings resulted in several tantrums, the last one being the one where I carried a screaming Eva from the swings all the way back to our house where she laid on the floor screaming for another 5 minutes. Then we had lunch and she went to sleep :) My favorite tantrum of the whole experience was when Eva would sit on the swing and say "push", I'd push her, and then she'd start screaming, kicking her legs, and yelling "PUSH, PUSH,PUSH" while she cried. I could not figure that one out for the life of me. She wanted a push, then she didn't, I didn't push her the way she wanted? I don't know *lol*. We should've done things in reverse..... lunch, sleep, swings. Oh well! next time....

Well, I think that's all for today!

Pretend to be cool, listen to some good tunes,

and smile.

Back to the Birds!

2011-06-03T12:58:00.004-05:00

It seems as though I do an annual post about birds. This year I'm hoping to do more than one :)

I enjoy that we live in a place where we can enjoy the natural wildlife and live in peace with them. (Except for the squirrels that have invaded our crawl space....not loving them so much).

So, last year I posted about our barn swallows, Malcolm and Lucy. Now, last years story had a bit of a tragic end so hopefully this year will be better! We had read last year that barn swallows will often return to the same site year after year to nest. Of course we're not 100% sure if it actually is Malcolm and Lucy, but none the less, a pair of beautiful barn swallows is calling our garage home.

(image)

Although, they still didn't use Ken's make shift nesting cone. But they're building the nest in the middle of the garage this year. Last year they weren't aggressive at all if they saw us they would fly away, it seems to be the same this year. It's kind of nice to know that we won't get attacked when we try to get into the vehicle!

This year we have a new pair of birds. I'm pretty sure they are house Sparrows. I did a bit of reading online and I'm actually not too sure if I want them around. People didn't have very nice things to say about them. We tried knocking down the nest once, but they just rebuilt it. Soooo we'll see how it goes. We're hoping they'll eat all of the giant spiders that tend to frequent the front of our house in the summer. And maybe eat some mosquitoes too. I haven't been able to snag a good picture of them yet, but this is what they look like...

(images)

Basic ordinary birds. This is the sucky picture that I have of the female I think...

and believe it or not I actually saw them doin' the nasty on the front porch the other day.... seriously looked just like this!

(image)

It's not everyday that one gets to witness some birdie procreation happening.

So hopefully the birding season goes well at our house this year and I'll have some pictures of little baby birds to show you in the next 4-6 weeks!

And just cause my little fledgling rocks here's a pic of her....

Sometimes I'm smart....

2011-05-31T10:47:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I'm smart.

I was thinking about my business bank account and how I had saved money for taxes and stuff. Well, after I paid my taxes this year I had a lot of money left over. As in my taxes were less then what I had saved for them. I had been thinking that I would buy a computer or an ipad for my personal and business use. But then I started thinking....

(image)

the thinking part is usually when I realize that sometimes I'm smart :)

I started thinking about retirement and RRSPs. We don't have any RRSPs yet even though we probably should. In my books I had a column marked CPP. Now CPP isn't really a tax, it's a deduction that most people have taken off their pay cheques so when we do retire we have some pension money waiting for us.

My dream retirement property might look something like this. (image)

Now, being self employed, I don't have a pension plan. But yet this whole time I'd been saving money from what I make working in my CPP column. Then the other day I thought "hey CPP stands for Canada Pension Plan, but I don't have a pension plan, maybe I should be putting my CPP money into an RRSP or some kind of investment". DUH!! And the bonus is that will be good for my taxes next year cause you can use the money you put into an RRSP as a deduction for taxes. Double bonus.

Now I just have to find time to get to the bank one day to set up an RRSP. And also to lock in our mortgage so we stay 7 years ahead on our mortgage amortization.

And in another stroke of sheer brilliance, I washed ALL of my bras this morning.... guess I'm not going out for a few hours *lol*

sending some smarts your way today!

(image)

Update Time!

2011-05-25T10:49:00.004-05:00

Well, it's been a long time since I blogged!! Time to catch up.....

1) I went on a trip to New Brunswick and PEI. It was probably one of the best trips I've been on EVER. It was just so refreshing and relaxing, exactly what I needed it to be. Pretty sure vacations alone will be on the agenda every year. Now to figure out how to work in a kid free vacation with Ken..... little bit harder when family isn't near by. Anyways, I went to see two of our friends get hitched. AND to spend 5 wonderful days with one of my besties, Kim! It was nice to hang out with her for 5 days and she even let me sleep in her ultra comfy bed :)

It rained every day I was there. But really, I didn't expect it to be sunny, so it wasn't disappointing. And the purpose of my trip wasn't to do and see everything touristy, it was to relax and see Kim. Next trip will be to see everything in addition to seeing Kim!

I killed my first lobster....well I killed 3 of them actually and learned how to eat them, that was pretty cool. Also did the Anne of Green Gables thing on PEI, that was fun. I think it would be neat when Eva is around 10 to read the Anne of Green Gables books, watch the movies, and then go on a mom and daughter trip to PEI to see it all in person. I also had my first experience at a bed and breakfast, super nice! I will try bed and breakfasting again.

2) On Sunday I turned this

into this.

It was my first attempt at something like this. And it turned out ok. I think it looks better in the picture, but that's ok. I used this tutorial at Ruffles and Stuff

3) Round 2 of oopsy job (see previous post) has started. It's not as bad as round 1. I'm not looking forward to round 3 and 4 though. *sigh*

4) Ken and I celebrated 8 years of being married yesterday. It doesn't seem like 8 years. It seems like more, but in a good way....in a "haven't you always been part of my life?"

I like that we got married young and are growing up together. Maybe one day we'll feel grown up *lol*...it's not looking like that's going to happen any time soon though!

5) We're considering buying a new vehicle. We LOVE our van, but one of our goals this year is to reduce a lot of things in our lives. The van is not the most economical vehicle. Our gas bill with both vehicles combined is around $130-170 per week. If we could reduce that, it'd be great. And we're thinking that with 2 kids we still don't NEED a van. Yes we would have a lot less room and would have to pack and transport things differently, the sacrifice might be worth it for a few years. Then if we decided to have more kids or if we had a greater financial base we could upgrade to the van again. So we're looking......

6) Eva is pretty rad. She's talking a lot more...more at home then in public. And she's started to sing along to some songs. Zoey and Eva have repaired their relationship :) Horray! Now we just have to teach Zoey to respond to Eva. Eva likes to say "Zoey come!" but Zoey doesn't listen. And Eva likes to boss Zoey around.... "Zoey, NO GRASS!!" (zoey don't eat grass)..... hopefully eva's sibling also won't mind miss bossy pants (BTW, she gets the bossyness from me). She still has brilliant tantrums, I'm kind of expecting that they won't ever go away *lol* I picture her being 13 and acting the same way. She's started this new thing that when I tell her no or not to do something she'll purposely go and bonk her head on something.... not so cool! Eva probably spends 3 hours a day coloring....she LOVES coloring.

7) New baby seems to be doing fine. I had my first Dr's appointment on Friday, this baby has a happy little heartbeat. Different then I remember Eva's being. Maybe because this time I was 13 weeks at my first appointment and with Eva I was 11 weeks.

I'm seriously amazed at how different pregnancy is handled across Canada and in the US. Some places you get like 6 or 7 ultrasounds, you're induced because your Dr. is going on holidays, convenience C-sections, etc. I'm thankful that the professionals who care for me are happy to let things progress without medical intervention if medical intervention isn't absolutely necessary. This time I was actually given a choice to do the maternal screening thing where they test for downs syndrome, spinabifida, etc. (So yeah I probably spelled those all wrong). Last time my Dr. asked if I wanted to do the test but she was like "you probably don't need to cause of your age and low risk"....this time I was given a piece of paper to take for the blood work if I want to. I'm fairly certain I won't bother with it. In some ways if there was a problem it'd be nice to have a heads up, but the outcome of the test wouldn't influence anything else for us. That's kind of the same reason why I go for the one and only ultrasound that they offer in our neck of the woods. Just to make sure things are ok....it wouldn't matter to me if I had an ultrasound or not I can wait 9 months to "see" my baby, but it's nice to know that things appear to have developed well. That's enough of a rant on that.

8)I started running again. In 3 weeks I have to run 4 miles as part of a relay team in the Manitoba Marathon. It wasn't too awful. I can tell I haven't run in 2 months. I hope there's a bathroom on my section of the route :) I barely made it through 1 mile without peeing my pants and I went right before I started my run! I got new running shoe, they aren't as nice as my old ones...it makes me sad :( I loved my other running shoes, but they don't make them anymore and my other shoe aren't good for running in anymore.

9)My contract is up for renewal at work. This means that I have to research all the stuff for mat leave benefits. It's a little different for me cause part of my hours come from self employment and I'm not sure how they want me to count my hours....it's not like I have an ROE. So I get to figure all that out. I think I want to be done after Thanksgiving. I'm ready for a break.....I just don't care as much as I used to and that's not a great thing when my job is to care for people.

10)We're going to see U2 on Sunday night. Should be a fun time....and it's a double date! Looking forward to the night out WITH Ken. Hopefully the weather is ok!

I think you're all caught up now..... Time for lunch!

oopsy!

2011-05-03T13:19:00.002-05:00

oopsy is one of Eva's favorite words right now. She used to just say oops or uh oh, but now it's oopsy with the "eeee" sound. Same with Horse....now it's horsey.

So a while ago I mentioned that I had an interview for another job. Well I got the job. And I accepted the job. But I think it may have been a bit of an oopsy.... :). The job is fine and the money is great. But the stress and chaos that it creates for me and in our family is just sooooo not worth it. Totally throws everything off balance. Then things just don't function as nicely. And then life kind of sucks.

So I'll finish my stint with them.... it goes till the beginning/middle of July. It's like 1.5 weeks of craziness, then .5 of a week of semi busyness, then a week or two of nothing. Then it repeats itself. We'll make it through, I just have a bad attitude about it...which I could probably change if I really wanted to.

So that's my big oopsy...unbalancing what was a good balance in the family functioning. Oh well, lesson learned (maybe...hopefully?).

another oopsy was assuming that I could go out with Eva to MCC to look for a long skirt with out her having a temper tantrum. I need a long skirt cause for the above mentioned job I have to go to 2 Hutterite colonies. I think I have to go to both of them twice. I figured if I at least wore a long skirt maybe they'd like me a little bit more. Anyways, yeah, Eva had multiple crazy tantrums in the store and then I had to carry her screaming all the way down the street. Fabulous. Oopsy....don't go to MCC right before lunch.

I almost got the van stuck in the mud 3 times yesterday.....oopsy! Mental note, if the road looks too muddy to drive down, don't try to drive down it in a van, borrow a tractor instead :)

Ok that's all for now. I'm supposed to meet with a client right now so I guess I should go.

Random Babbling (aka avoiding work)

2011-04-25T15:05:00.004-05:00

Thought I'd type and see what comes out.

I do have work to do....and I did start on it, but then I realized that I'm going to have to start my report from scratch instead of basically copying the format of a report that I'd already done. A slight bummer. Then my brain got tired and stopped working so I ate some chocolate. Now I'm feeling a bit more awake!

I'm feeling a bit more like my normal self the last several days. After the college school year ends I always get into a bit of a funk..... kind of like I'm so tired cause I've worked long hours for the last 4 weeks and have been so stressed out that I can't function so well and my house is chaos, I've eaten frozen pizza for every meal for the last two weeks, I have no clean clothes, and no desire to do anything about it because I'm so tired......that kind of funk...so I end up just sitting on the couch for about a week almost incapable of doing anything productive. I was like that for the last week or so.... Wednesday at work I had one of my most terrible sessions in recent history. So by the time I got home Wednesday night I was in a full on pitty party about how awful my life is. I wasn't too happy about that so I did some praying that night. And Thursday morning I woke up and have been feeling great and like myself ever since! PTL!

I've actually been more productive in the last 5 days then in the last month. I've managed to keep the house tidy. Do the laundry (including folding the clean clothes and putting them away). Clean the whole house. I even washed the kitchen floor! Do the dishes every night. Empty the dishwasher soon after it's done washing. And cook meals. I know..... normal things that people do, but these are pretty big accomplishments in my household during the month of April, ok, who am I kidding, these are big accomplishments at any time in our home :)

We even had friends visit us one evening. They live in Saskatchewan now and it's been a few years since we'd seen them. Cindi was one of my bridesmaids. I'm glad it worked out for them to come.... it was awesome to hangout for a bit. Anyways....they came over. And I totally didn't freak out about all the things that I wanted to get done. I just did them. And it was fine, I wasn't rushed or anything. And I even made supper....Ken made the pizza dough, but that's it I did everything else. Which is unheard of because 99.9% of the time if we have people over Ken cooks the entire meal. I also baked cooks from scratch. I don't think that's happened since before Eva was born and I went on a crazy baking spree.

The rest of the weekend was great too. Very relaxing. Good time to spend as a family without anything pressing happening. The weather was gorgeous. A great time celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and all that it means.

Some random reflections from weekend events

1) I need to bake more often. I know I probably say this every time I bake. But really. It takes hardly any time at all to whip up a batch of cookies. We're talking 10 mins plus baking time. Is it really that difficult to take 10 mins and bake? Probably not. But do I do it? no. I want to, cause I like to bake and I'm not half bad at it. Will I?.... to be determined.

2) Washing my floor made me nervous. The last time I was pregnant and washed my floor I went into labour. Enough said.

3) I have no idea what to do about my jobs. I want to keep my counselling job....but I hardly make any money at it. I like the work I do at the school, but I think I'd need to spend at least half a day in the office and that would require finding childcare for Eva during the fall semester. I despise arranging childcare for Eva even though there's lots of people around to do it. My job marking papers is ok. But lately its seeming like a lot more effort for not a lot of return.

I think the conclusion that I've come to is that my brain cannot handle switching between 3 jobs, being present for Eva, and managing home (paying bills, cleaning, laundry, etc). I get overwhelmed and then I end up getting very little done because I'm just constantly thinking about everything that needs to be done and trying to organize it. Even with Ken's help (cause he does tons) it's just too much. There's no way I could do it with 2 kids (which God willing will be reality come November).

I know I'll keep my counselling job for sure. That's just not something you give up. But as for the rest I have no idea. This is also combined with the fact that at some point in the next few years Ken is going to have to go to school full time. Which probably means not a lot of income from him :) So I guess we'll just have to wait and see how God is going to provide for us.... should be an interesting adventure like always.

4) Pizza leftovers are awesome

5) Eva LOVES cookies. Too bad she doesn't love other kinds of food.

6) It's beautiful running weather. I need to start running again so I'm prepared for my section in the Manitoba Marathon relay. I have zero motivation to go for a run...actually, it's less then zero....like - 20 on the motivation scale.

7) Eva's been waking up between 6:30 and 7am. During the week Ken is up before then so he takes care of her and I get up between 7 and 7:30. And you know, I actually like being up that early. We've also been good about going to bed by 10 or 10:30. So that helps when the morning starts early. Yes, 7 am is very early for me :)

8) Eva's hair is long enough to braid! yay!

Ok, a long enough random post.

Time to eat cookies, cook super, and maybe go for a walk this evening....or take a drive to cast our vote!

I'll leave you with a picture of my handsome family on Easter Sunday

'cause you don't know just how weird we really are

2011-04-16T20:48:00.005-05:00

Most of you know that we're kind of weird. Well you know that Ken is weird. The jury may still be out on if I'm a little strange or not :) But let me show you some of the other weirdness that goes on in our home.

Let me introduce you to what we affectionately call "Blood Tea". It's actually Pomegranate Green Tea by President's Choice. It's pretty good.

Step One:

Choose a white bottomed cup. Boil water and pour over tea bag.

Step Two:

Watch with excitement as the "blood" seeps from the tea bag turning the water red!

Step Three:

Allow time for tea to steep.

Step Four:

Stir, tea will turn black. Add whatever sugar or milk you desire

Step Five:

Scoop tea bag out with spoon. wrap the string around the tea bag, squeezing some more flavor out, leave the spoon and wound up tea bag sitting in a random place in the house to dry, say thank you when your wife cleans it up the next day :)

Step Six:

Enjoy your cup of Blood Tea.

----

If you're going to eat pretzels apparently they taste the best when you eat a whole fist full at once.

----

When the sun shines through the window take advantage of any and every opportunity to nap in the ray of sun. Even if it means sacrificing comfort.

The bonus of sleeping crammed in behind a rocking chair is that little people can't bug you.

-----

This isn't weird, but I had to share it anyways. Eva's really into straws right now so we picked her up some straw friendly cups....and she needed some new cups cause she's destroyed her sippy cups. We were at MCC on Friday and found this gem. Two of them actually.

Totally cute! Hurray for the 80's for making such cute things, like me, and Ken, and these cups.

Sorry, I have to work that day...

2011-04-12T19:22:00.004-05:00

In honor of the election debate that's on TV tonight I thought I'd do a little rant on something that doesn't matter :)

(*note, this means that you shouldn't take anything I say in this post after this point too seriously)

*side note, right now they're talking about crime & crime prevention and policy blah blah blah. Wanna hear my crime prevention strategy? Of course you do. My crime prevention strategy is to treat my child right, maintain a great relationship with my husband, teach my child the value of human life and how to care about other people, be an example for my child of valuing human life and caring for people we come in contact with. Then hopefully in 20 years she won't be canada's newest criminal.... anyways....on with the show*

As we all know, the royal wedding is coming up in a few days.

the happy couple : image source

And we all know that Canada is part of the Commonwealth. I'm not sure that's taken all that seriously these days, but I think it's pretty cool....a part of our present and our history that I'd like to see stick around. Anyways, so naturally, as we are part of the Commonwealth, the leader of our country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper gets an invitation. SCORE! Invitation to the wedding of the century! Talk about an awesome perk of being Prime Minister.

If you live in Canada you should know that there's an election happening on May 2nd. The wedding is on April 29th. Pretty close to one another.

Now, PM Stephen Harper sends back his RSVP to the wedding and says.... "Unable to attend"... WHAT?!?! That's right people. Mr. Harper said NO to going to the Royal Wedding. Who would do that? Ok, I understand you're super busy with the whole election thing. But really? It's the Royal Wedding!

I guess you could argue that he should say no because technically he's not really the leader of Canada anymore because technically the government has been defeated.

You could argue that he really should be in Canada to lead his party to victory, do some last minute campaigning, etc. And that's a responsible decision given the circumstances.

But whatever reason you come up with, it's the Royal wedding. The Queen of England invited you. You don't say no the Queen. I'd be like if I was going to be given the Order of Canada or some other big award and I said...."oh sorry, I can't make it to the ceremony, I'm working that day". You'd all think I was crazy for not going to accept the award.... but saying no to the Queen is like 10 times worse.

I think it's quite an honor to be invited to the royal wedding, even if it is out of courtesy or tradition or whatever because Canada is part of the commonwealth. I think Canada should be represented at the wedding. I think Stephen Harper should've gone. Take the last flight there and the first flight home. And really, I think we all know that the Conservatives are most likely going to win again.... so how much campaigning do you need to do in the last 2 days.

Now on to the real issue.... Laureen Harper.

image source

If I was Stephen Harper's wife, Laureen (I had to look that up on google), I would be sooooo MAD! I mean a royal wedding only happens once every 25-30 years and my husband just happened to be the PM of Canada and get an invitation..... I must be the luckiest. wife. EVER. But then Parliament goes all crazy, defeats the government, and all of a sudden I can't go to the biggest event in the last several years. I would have some mean words for Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton. And then I'd probably whine and beg my husband to go even though there's an election.

And I'm sure almost every woman would love to buy a nice dress and a cute hat and see the Prince get married. And it's sad that, just because the leaders of our country are acting like toddlers and having a temper tantrum because they aren't in power and they didn't think the Stephen Harper "shared" the budget, Laureen has to miss out on the royal wedding.

So who is the real victim of this federal election? Not the tax payers who's money is being wasted, or all the people of Canada who have to put up with some of the stupidity of our government. The real victim is Laureen.... can't buy a new dress, can't buy a cute hat, and can't attend the biggest wedding of the last 20 years :'(

Rant Complete.

P.S. If anyone important just happens to read this, I would gladly go on an all expenses paid trip to England to attend Prince William and Kate's wedding so that Canada would be represented :P

I'm not dead....

2011-04-09T16:28:00.002-05:00

Just a quick blog to say I'm not dead :)

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed the last 2 weeks with everything that's going on. Mainly marking papers. It's my own fault. I let a few classes sit there and then all of a sudden it was the last week of school and I had 500 assignments waiting to be graded. Sucky. Pretty much all I've been doing other than eating and breathing is grading (seriously...Ken even did the laundry this week). I grade until I feel too guilty that I haven't interacted much with my child and then I stop grading and play with her. And of course cause it's a new season and a stressful time of year I ended up getting a bad cold....which makes sleeping difficult which means I'm extra tired. Then add normal work, an active toddler, husband, home, and pregnancy on top of that. So I've been feeling stressed, tired, and uninspired to write a blog. It's a good thing my husband is awesome and does extra without complaining.

I'm now down to approximately 200 assignments left to grade. I had the best sleep I've had in 2 weeks last night. My cold/cough is a bit better today. So hopefully the trend upwards continues. As of a week today the semester will be OVER!

I was kind of freaking out about the semester ending because that means I'm out of one job. And also with my other job I don't have guaranteed pay anymore. What does that mean? Well that means we're out about $600 a month that I have been making....now as of next week it's all gone. So I just said a quick prayer about God providing for us and that afternoon I got a call for some temporary work....so we'll see if I get hired.

I don't even have a cute picture of Eva to put up today. Sad. She's been extra cuddly since she got back from Vancouver. Which is great cause I love Eva cuddles, but it's hard to grade papers when you have a squirmy toddler on your lap. We watched Bambi for the first time the other day. It was fun. I fast forward through the scary parts, but Eva enjoyed all the animals.

As far as I know baby #2 is still doing fine. I'm nauseous for good portions of the day. The last two days haven't been as bad, so I'm wondering in the nausea was increased by stress and lack of sleep or part of sickness. Other then that I've been trying to figure out eating... if I don't eat soon enough I feel sick, if I eat to much I feel sick.... and the line between feeling fine and feeling sick is very small. I've had a few times where I felt like eating something specific right now! After I got home from work on Wednesday I had to have a baked potatoe, so at 10pm I made myself a baked potatoe. A few weeks ago all I wanted to eat was meat, I'm done with that now. The smell of grilled cheese makes me want to puke. I currently have a strong hankering for piroshki? perishky?(sp?) (meat filled buns). I do have a recipe for them, but I don't have yeast and I think they require yeast. Perhaps I should look at the recipe. I don't really have the energy to cook them right now though. I'm hoping they have some for sale at the gas station (Ken's working there tonight and sometimes one of the bakeries in the area has some for sale at the gas station). I'm glad I'm eating and want to eat a variety of things. With Eva all I wanted to eat was hot dogs, everything else made me feel sick, so I ate hot dogs and not much else for the first 3 months of pregnancy with her. My doctor's words were "During the first 3 months it doesn't matter what you eat as long as you're eating" *lol*. At least this time there's some variety!

That's all for now....

Home Alone... (a long post)

2011-04-03T20:53:00.006-05:00

This week Ken took Eva to BC for 5 days..... they had a great time hanging out with Grandpa!

Eva got to ride Grandpa's new tractor

Eva and daddy went to Vancouver for the day to visit with Grandma Susan (Ken's birth mom). It was the first time Eva and Susan had met.

They had a fun time at the olympic cauldron where Ken and I were a little more than a year ago...but a whole lot closer this time!

What did I do while I was child free for 5 days. I cleaned and painted :) Those 5 days were glorious! they could've been gone for another 5...and then I would have missed them *lol*.

I got this great idea that I should clean (shampoo) the carpets. So we move pretty much all of the furniture into the kitchen/dining room. And I cleaned the carpets. I decided since the furniture was all moved that it would also be a good time to wash the walls. So I did that.

Every spring I get the itch to move. This year Ken and I decided that we would switch our bedroom and the guest bedroom/office. This required a new paint job for our new room. 2 of the walls were bright orange, curtsey of previous owners, which was kind of cool for an office, but not so great for a bedroom. So we went with one wall dark purple and the other walls a cream color. We think it looks great! Now we just need to find stuff for the finishing touches (artwork, new bedding, etc.).

So I thought I could get it all done in 5 days. I was wrong! I got most of it done. I just didn't get all of the junk from the office sorted. So that's what Ken and I did yesterday. We sorted through piles of stuff. Have a trunk full to go to MCC, about 4 big bags of garbage and two bags of recycling. It was a lot of work. I also have a new best friend....a 4 drawer filing cabinet... pure wonderfulness :). Once again our home is almost clutter free. Just the bathroom and kitchen are left to clean and purge!

Oh and while I was moving furniture around we also decided that now would be a good time to set up Eva's big girl bed. She's been wanting to sleep in our bed lately so, we decided to give it a try. She's done beautifully!

The first night we put her down and she came out about 15 times in 1.5 hours, we just kept putting her back in. Then she fell asleep, woke up once in the night and that was it. In the morning she knocked on her door to get someone to come and let her out :). Last night she didn't come out at all and went right to sleep and slept all through the night. This morning she stood in her doorway and was yelling "Mommy! Daddy!" and then we called her to come to our room. Tonight she went right to sleep again. Woohoo! Nap times have been hit and miss, but I'm sure we'll figure those out.

All of this was great timing because about 3 weeks ago I found out that I am pregnant again! Yippee! So, God willing, we will be welcoming another bundle in November. I'm about 6.5 weeks. Starting to get some good symptoms now of fatigue, nausea, etc. Oh and we can't forget the mood swings...basically if you aren't feeding me I hate you. *lol*

We know they say you should wait to tell people because the chance of miscarriage is so high. But 1) we were way too excited this time to wait to tell people 2) I found out so early that to wait 9 WEEKS to tell people would be torture and 3) since having Eva my whole perspective on the "keeping a secret" has changed, a miscarriage is a loss, it's not something that needs to be embarrassing or shameful. It's a loss that causes pain and sadness.... not sure why we would keep that a secret from the people in our lives. I don't think that losses are something that only a couple or immediate family should have to work through on their own. AND of course everyone will have a different feeling about this matter, but this is just mine at this particular moment in time.

Another reason we decided to tell people is cause I feel like I'm showing... if it's later at night or if I've just eaten. Which is the majority of the time because I eat ALL. THE. TIME. I know they say that you show earlier with your 2nd baby...but really? at 6 weeks?......

What do you think, am I showing earlier?

19 weeks with Eva:

Baby #2 @ 6.5 weeks

ok, enough for one day! Later friends (& blog stalkers)....

This is my life....

2011-03-21T23:01:00.003-05:00

Today I wore the same underwear as I did yesterday (ewww!) because of this:

That would be 5 loads of clean unfolded laundry that I didn't feel like digging through this morning. Eva also went to bed in her clothes instead of pj's because I was unable to unearth a sleeper from the mound of laundry. Tomorrow I will fold them cause if I don't they will sit there until Friday and then it will be laundry day again.....

My straightening iron decided to stop working so I've spent the last several days with slightly crazy hair. Today was the worst. I wore a toque inside while I was at work for 30 mins. I got really warm. It was hardly cold enough to wear a toque outside today, but yet I was wearing a toque INSIDE.

After coming home and putting Eva down for a nap I went and shovelled dog poo for an hour.

We were terrible at picking up after Zoey this winter and now we are paying for it. The snow is starting to melt which means the dog poo HAS to be picked up now otherwise our front yard will be a nasty mess of wet grass and dog poo puddles. Except the poo is very intermingled with the snow, so when you shovel the poo you end up picking up tons of snow. But you have to shovel it because it's not frozen poo anymore. Frozen poo you can just pick up, soft poo you have to shovel. If it was our back yard, I wouldn't be so worried, but it's the front yard.... the yard that says "welcome to our home....would you like some poo with that?" I make 12 grocery bags of lots of snow and some poo....and I did about 3/4 of the yard.

Then I started getting lightheaded and shaky so I decided to stop and go inside. Who knows if it will ever get finished....especially since we're suppose to get a bunch of new snow in the next two days.

The ironic part was on Sunday during the sermon it was mentioned that when you're angry shovelling poo onto your fields is supposed to alleviate anger. Well...apparently shovelling poo off of your fields when you're not angry, does not alleviate your anger but rather increases it. That's right.... while I was out there in my day old underwear, awful hair covered by toque, shovelling poo all I could do was mutter to myself about how I SHOULD NOT BE DOING THIS! (even though Ken and I could've prevented this moment). And how I was missing out on a perfectly good nap time by shovelling poo. I was thinking how in a few short months or years when Eva doesn't nap anymore I'll look back at this moment and think "I chose to shovel poo when I could've napped or read a book or relaxed, etc." BAD choice (not really, but in my physical and mental state at the time it seemed like a bad choice). And to make matters worse, that morning I was reading in the Bible about how our words need to be encouraging....I wasn't being very encouraging in my head to myself or my husband.....

However, after I came inside things started to improve. Eva had an extra long nap, so I still got to nap for 45 mins! I got to got and get miss happy pants up from her nap.
I made Naan Bread Pizzas and Wings for supper.
Did something creative. went and watched a friend play Volleyball. ate ice cream. And wrote a blog. So half good day, half stupid day....I'll take a 50/50 day.

Here's hoping I put on clean underwear tomorrow, maybe that will signal a better day ahead!

Happy Birthday Zoey!

2011-03-17T20:33:00.004-05:00

Zoey is 5!!! Happy Birthday Zoey! Usually we have a little family "party" (as in cook a nice meal, buy Zoey a special food for the week) but we didn't do that this year. We did however do the birthday hat picture....it seems to be becoming a tradition :)

Here's Zoey on her big day

Year 4 (Apparently having a new baby made us forget to do Zoey's birthday pic this year...but this pic is from a few days later)

Year 3

Year 2

Year 1

and just because I really like this picture.....

Life would be boring without you dog!

I went away for the weekend...

2011-03-13T20:32:00.002-05:00

So I went away for the weekend....

and all of a sudden my 19 month old can count to SIX! What?!? She doesn't say the number one, but she counts from 2-6.

and she learned to dance to action songs....

(As a side note to my Ladies Retreat pals, I found it interesting that the song Eva learned to dance to on Friday night is about an army. It reminded me of the drawing that Lisa talked about)

I was only gone for 2 days. (And had a fabulous time!)

Soooo totally should've stuck with the potty training back in October.... little miss smarty probably would've done fine. *sigh* live & learn I suppose!

Ken is taking Eva to BC for a week at the end of the month, by the time they get back she will probably be able to read :D

Another week, Another blog

2011-03-09T14:30:00.003-06:00

Apparently one blog a week is what I do....

I don't have much to say really. The last few weeks have been fairly uneventful. Regular routine kind of stuff. Which is nice. And some fun things have been mixed in too. And work has been busier with papers to grade, etc.

Monday and Tuesday I spent at a conference. My body is SORE today...I haven't sat for that many hours in a row in a long time and my body does not like it. The conference was called "An Integrated Treatment Response to Neglected & Traumatized Children: The Neurosequential Model"....yes that's a mouthful. It was a brain-ful too. In english that title basically mean looking at the best ways to work with kids from a developmental perspective of how the brain naturally develops and how the natural brain development is effected by neglect and trauma. Super interesting, lots of information. Interesting for me to think of from a parenting side and as a professional side. I had a good time, but it made me tired.

Friday I'm heading to ladies retreat. Should be a good time. I'm hoping to finish the marking I currently have sitting at home before I go. Then I have a "free" weekend....free as in I don't have to feel like anything's hanging over my head for when I get home.

I'm sick of the cold. Snow and winter are ok....but I'm done with the cold. Hopefully it warms up soon.

That's pretty much all I got for today! And Ken just brought home apple fritters...yummy!

And because apparently my posts aren't complete without a cute picture of my kid, here she is :)

Thursday Thoughts...

2011-03-03T20:22:00.003-06:00

1)Last night Ken and I had a conversation that went like this:

Kathy: Your nose feels pointier then normal

Ken: It's cause I got skinny

Kathy: Ummm...I don't think your nose loses weight

2) On tuesday Eva's potty was open, I went to close the lid and I looked in and she had put one item of her plastic food in the potty.... and she chose to put a pea in.... get it, PEA in the potty (ha ha ha)

3) I actually didn't procrastinate on marking and got another class done between Monday and Thursday...yay me!

4) I've been trying to decide what to do during the week that Ken takes Eva to BC. First I thought I would just clean and sew all week, now I'm thinking about rearranging all of the bedrooms and doing a bit of a makeover on the office (which in the process of rearranging would become our bedroom), but then I realized that I need to do our taxes....so I might just end up doing taxes that week.... that sounds lame. "So Kathy, you have a whole week all to yourself, what did you do?.... taxes and mark papers" .... boo.... hopefully that's not the case, a "new" bedroom would be much more fun!

5) I think if I have extra money leftover in my business account after taxes I'm going to buy myself a computer for the business. But the iPad 2 just was announced/launched and well Ken made some good arguments for me to get an iPad instead of the Mac book air like I was thinking about. Now I'm not sure what to do.... and I think Ken just wants an iPad, even though it'd be mine :) But then he could have the Mac book pretty much to himself.... but then he might be jealous cause I'd have an iPad and he wouldn't. Hmmm....I guess I have to do my taxes to find out!

6) We had a pigtail milestone today. All of Eva's hair fits into the pigtails now!! hurray! Now I don't have to do a weird third ponytail at the back of her head with the hair that didn't quite reach before.

That's all...happy Thursday!

Life....Plain and Simple

Curls

The Library

Diamond Jubilee

Visits from Angels - A Family Update

My Veggie Senses are Tingling....

The rest of today....

Today...

Crumbs

The Faith of the Canaanite Woman 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”

The Faith of the Canaanite Woman

Tradition! Tradition!

What's in a Name?

Little Dude's Grand Entrance

Changes

The last 2 weeks

Randoms

The weekend away

A black eye and a trip!

Brussels Sprouts

Gymnastics

Only 358 more days to go!!

Laughs

Send in the Liberation Forces! (aka: a random rant on something I know nothing about)

A new stage of parenthood

Imagine, a great day!

Eva and the Bump

Back to School, Back to Work....

High Intensity Laser

We interrupt the regularly scheduled blog post

Catch Up

Questions for the Universe

Lazy Sunday

The End of the Man-Venture...

It's a good thing.....

Manventure non-jealousy post of the day....

Manventure jealousy post of the day......

Randomness

Manventure jealousy post of the day.....

Manventure - Part 1

The week

Potty Training and other things....

Race Day Recap

Monday Hair Cut Day!

Cookie Time!

Randoms

Just have to say...

Chicken!

Fair Fun!

I QUIT!!!

The unexpected and other stuff

Back to the Birds!

Sometimes I'm smart....

Update Time!

oopsy!

Random Babbling (aka avoiding work)

'cause you don't know just how weird we really are

Sorry, I have to work that day...

I'm not dead....

Home Alone... (a long post)

This is my life....

Happy Birthday Zoey!

I went away for the weekend...

Another week, Another blog

Thursday Thoughts...

The Faith of the Canaanite Woman
²¹ Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”