I needed this today...

Today has been really emotional for me so far. I don't think my sleep was very restful. I did not have breakfast. May not help that I am leaving my entire family tomorrow for 5 days. Or the fact that M and I are trying to decide if R will be attending Kindergarten at the end of this month.
That is probably the root of it. My baby, old enough to go to Kindergarten, but still not yet 5. He just doesn't seem ready yet and I am having a hard time not putting that blame on myself. Not that there is blame to put. He is a very smart child, that is not it. We just are trying to figure out if we are doing him the best service to send him to school, on a bus, to be out performed by children who are almost a year older than him in some cases. I do not ever want my child to think that he is not as smart as other kids and I do not want him to be dogged by that his entire schooling, nor do I want him to hate school. Everyone I talk to - friends who have been kindergarten teachers, parents of children born later in the year, Michael's doctor, our parents - have supported what we have said and agreed with the things we asked them about. Now it is just figuring out what we are going to do. Is there a preschool out there that we can send him to that is not full? One that will teach him things, so he will learn and grow and not just have play time?
Aargh - I didn't need another thing on my plate today. I'm busy enough packing and getting my family ready to be without me for 5 days.
I got video forwarded from my mother-in-law today. It helped a bit, though I cried. Watch here.

Better day

Hello all! Things got better yesterday. Our neighbor girl and her friend stop by often after school and they cheered me up a bit and then once M came home, we three went out for a "girls night". Luckily with almost 12 year olds the evening doesn't go too late. :) I came home and talked with my good friend for awhile on the phone - it was encouraging.
Today has been better. I had an early morning business meeting in the "deep South" (which in Calgary is the opposite end of the city from us) that was encouraging. My same good friend as last night, who is on my team went with me, went with me and between our conversation and the encouragement from the meeting, today started off well.
Got home and my kiddies all came running to hug and cuddle and I felt LOVE. Yeah for being a mommy!
I have been getting the rest of my items together to sell at the TTMAC sale tomorrow. My shift is tonight from 4-8, so I actually get to go shop tomorrow and come home! Yeah for me. If you are in Calgary, check it out. It is a great place to get things if you are looking for toys, clothes, baby gear, kids books etc. I'll put the "poster" on a post of its own so you can have the information if you are interested.
Anyways, gotta go clean my house a bit before my shift.
(Oh, wanted to clarify from yesterdays post - while my daughter may have stuck some poop in her mouth, I do not think she ate it as there was a lot of drool on her shirt and I think she spit it out because of this fact. Gross I know, and sorry for sharing that much, but the thing that reassures me is that doctors say it will not adversely harm her and I know my kid is not the only one who has done it.)

Yicky, icky, sicky

In case anyone was wondering if I was still in the "poor me" funk of the other day - mostly I am not. I figured out why things were hitting me that hard, the next day I got sick, so yesterday. I woke up feeling not so great, but had a shower and felt OK and we went to church. After church I was feeling all achy and sore. I bumped my finger on A's car seat putting her in and nearly went through the roof and started crying, but got it under control. I then shivered the entire way home - while wearing a wool sweater and coat and scarf and gloves. We got in the door and my scarf sheds so much that M decided to use the lint brush on my coat and while I'm standing there and he is brushing my coat down I started to cry. For no reason other than the fact that I hurt so bad and was freezing.
So, up I went to the bath, then bed. Achy, achy, achy, all day. Still really hungry though. Slept half the day away. So nice to have a hubby home to look after things. And parents who were coming for supper who came early and then bought the supper we ate. It was nice to be cared for.
Today I feel a bit better, not as achy, but still better. Need to tidy the house. Bye for now.

The Witching Hour

Today I got home from R's music lessons and was trying to make supper while my kiddos are all begging for a piece of me. R has been on this "I want breakfast for supper" (and every other meal kick), A was upset, as always, because Mommy is doing something, anything, with food and none of it is going in her poor, deprived little tummy. K is crying because the other two were crying... no wait, if memory serves me correctly, K wasn't crying. That's a switch!
Anyways, in the midst of this, my DH, who had just arrived home 5 minutes before, disappears downstairs to the office to check his email. I am assuming he went to check his email, as he never actually said anything to me, I just saw the back of his head as he fled the chaos.
I called down to ask him to please come up as soon as he could as I could really use some help. He came up pretty quickly and I asked him if he could get the kids out of the kitchen so I could make supper - it's the witching hour, I told him and he said "The what!?!" I said the hour right before Daddy gets home, where Mommy is trying to get everything done, it's been a long day, supper is getting made and I just need a wee bit of help please.
So my DH took the kiddies downstairs, where R proceeded to wrestle with K and give her a bloody nose, which dripped on Daddy's shirt, which I had to rinse out quickly while the pork chops went in the oven and the rice cooked on the stove. I got K settled down, Daddy took her back downstairs. Then when it was time for all to come up for supper A tried to drag the Duplo Blocks bag that is almost as big as her up the stairs and almost fell back down them and began wailing when Mommy freaked out about her reaching DOWN the stairs for them.
We finally sat down to eat and R was so excited about the "steak" and he ate the corn, rice and pork chops we gave him. Then they all had a bath, and R convinced Mommy to give him the leftover pancakes that were in the fridge after A & K went to sleep - all 4 of them. So he got his breakfast.
I got a coffee, a cranberry bliss bar at Starbucks and a good hour that I read without any distractions because I was not in my house to be distracted. Hope I can sleep now, because I just realised that I forgot to tell the lovely barista to make it a decaf.
(BTW - click on this link or the link above to find hints on how to deal with the witching hour in your own home.)

Our weekend

I am loving my kids right now. We had a pretty good weekend, just busy with life stuff, but satisfying. On Saturday the kids and I went to my parents in the morning and Mom and I took the girls to see Dr. Tara S at the chiropractic office that she and her husband own in the south. She and I used to work together at the office. She is a part of the International Pediatric Chiropractic Association and she has done wonders with A (and R when he was a baby, he now sees the same chiro that we do at the office I used to work at. He loves getting adjustments and plays "Doctah Foh-ster" all the time). A was looking to the right only and had her head craned really far back when she was trying to hold up her head. She is still not perfect, but is well on her way. We think she had her chin up, brow forward when she was born, so she would've had some interference in her neck. K has no problems, of course. She was free floating in the womb and had the way through the birth canal cleared for her when she was born! :)
I also got together with my Norwex lady and talked with her about becoming a consultant on Saturday. I am loving all the products that I have and need so much stuff from them that I figure getting 35% off of everything is worth having to put in a $250 order every 3 months! I also have to get a Tupperware order off this week in order to stay active. Fun, fun! It seems like everything has fallen by the wayside since the girls were born, but I think it is just that the kids are so much more important that I have forgotten the not so important stuff. Fortunately Tupperware has some GREAT sales going on right now - 40-50% off their new Vent N Serve containers, Modular Mate Sets, some Stuffable containers, toys and organization sets. Hey, if any of you need anything, just let me know.
Yesterday I actually sat through the entire service at church in the auditorium! I nursed A during it, but still! It was good to get there and catch up a bit with people and have a social outlet. It was good for my extroverted self to go.
Well, gotta go... the girls will need to eat soon, it's been over 4 hours. My luck they will both want to eat at the same time!

Lonely Thoughts from an Extrovert

I am wishing that I was blogging more these days. I am finding myself with so much to say and yet don't know exactly how to say it. I am busy with feeding, changing, doing laundry, trying to teach my son things - he's learning the alphabet, thanks to Dixie's mention of the Starfall website. (I love this website, it is so awesome and R LOVES it!) Wednesday he spelled out Bob for me from the cover for his Bob the Builder Count to 20 book that Jobina sent when he was born - apparently it was Riker's favorite book when he was a little boy. (I know it by heart, FYI!) I have been trying to keep the house neat - and thankfully DH is very supportive in the cleaning arena, we have been getting some people to come and do a thorough clean every 2 weeks or so - and food on the table. As well as taking care of the finances and all the paperwork in our home. At times it all feels overwhelming. I'm not writing this to complain though or to say anything about the things I do. I'm talking about it more because I feel like I a not doing enough, that my son is watching too much Treehouse and I am not doing enough with my daughters - that they should be practicing sitting on their own or more tummy time.
This week we did not get together with anyone for a play date for R, or a coffee date for Mommy more like it. :) The Ls are sick this week, so no Mom's group as it is just us right now with the other mommies still working (the other two are pregnant presently, due in December). I am really feeling it today, the lack of adult company. DH and I have both been sick - DH with a cold and me with some sort of stomach bug. DH also had a night class at the U on Wednesday, so we haven't had any real quality time together this week. I feel pretty down today and a lot like just crying. I love my kids, but I really would love to just sit down and talk to another woman. I think I just need some encouragement that I'm not alone - that idea seems to be the most difficult one, especially for an extrovert like myself.
I will write a little more another time about all the cute things that R is doing and saying, how much he loves his sisters and how they respond to him, but right now I just needed to get this off my chest. Because this seems to be the only place I can right at this moment. And that's what this blog is for, right?
I gotta go feed A. Same old thing at our house. :) Just so you know, R is talking with K about what he is pretending. It's nice to see him trying to involve them in his play already. I really do love my kids! They are such blessings.

Consistency?

Since the girls have been born I have been awful at this blogging thing. First of all it is hard to find time and when I do, all I want to do is veg and not think. Sometimes I wonder if I have anything to say and then other times I have so much to say that I do not know how exactly to communicate it.
I have *GASP* been on Facebook a lot more in the past month. I am finding it easier to write short little blurbs to people and check up on different people and how they are doing. Uploading pictures to there is SO much easier than to Blogger, so I have a lot of pics going on there. If you are on Facebook, look me up and you can see all my pics too.
I am going to try to do better at keeping regular with my blog... I do love it and how it has chronicled my journey over the past almost two years. It's like a scrapbook and diary all rolled into one. I am hoping to post something - it may not be profound, but something - most days. Form a habit, be disciplined about something in my life. Hey, it's something that I have control over.
The kids are doing well. We just got home from holidays and I will share pics once I find the camera. R loved the ocean and seeing the whole E family. The girls are so much more interactive now, smiling in response to you talking to them. K has a huge grin with dimples in both cheeks and A smiles a little crooked with a small dimple in the left side and her cheek goes up so high her eye is almost shut as a result. I have gotten a picture of K smiling, but not A yet, and as I said, can't find the camera to upload them anyway.
I'll get it tomorrow if I can - have an appointment with the pediatrician for both girls and Costco run in the evening. Depending on the girls it may be a busy day. More to come...

Another virgin experience.

I think I have posted on here before about how one of our friends used to call something that you did for the first time a virgin experience. I had another one yesterday. It was the lovely experience of running out of gas.
I am quite conscientious about getting gas. Yes, I do let the tank run down so that the gas light comes on, but I always try to fill it as soon as that happens. However, this is a new vehicle for us, and I had no idea approximately how long I could go before I HAD to fill up.
I was on my way to Crowfoot where I was planning on filling up at the Safeway as I get 7 cents a litre off and I was going to grocery shop. Instead, right at the lights going out of our neighbourhood I stalled and the car died. I was at the front of the lineup. I called a couple of friends who live near us to see if anyone could bring me a jerry can of gas, but no one was home, so I had to hoof it home - positive thing, I got a walk in - a walk that is normally 30 minutes took me 20. I then took our jerry can to the gas station with our other vehicle and drove back to where my van was parking the Suzuki nearby. All this time my van is holding up traffic. It was backed up quite far when I returned. Needless to say, I was a little embarrassed and had to get gas here in our community, and as I took so long I had to go home, feed the girls, then return later for the groceries, again here not at Safeway. I also had to have a shower as I got gas on my hand and foot. Seems like a bit of a waste of an afternoon... I could've had a nap instead!

Updates on the kids

Hello all!
It has been awhile since I have posted. I am not going to feel badly about that and know that everyone understands... it has been a busy few weeks! I know that it is always busy with a new baby in the house, and I think that it is a bit busier with two babes, though not twice as busy like you would think.
Anyways, days have been flying by at our house. DH's mom was here helping out for 3 weeks and his dad came for the last weekend. I did one day on my own - which went good other than the fact that R swallowed a plum pit while I was nursing the girls. (Don't worry - he didn't chew it, apparently that can be poisonous, and he passed it two days later. I was on the phone to about 5 different people trying to find out if I needed to take him to the ER or not. He was all good though.) Oh, I am doing tandem nursing, except sometimes during the day when they seem to need to eat a little more often, yet not be up at the same time. K seems to need more food and holding more than A. She wants to be held quite a bit - and though we thought that A was the "feisty" one because she cried more in the hospital, it is K who cries more and wants her way in being held to go to sleep and stay that way. :) A is having some issues with gassiness. I have myself on quite a restricted diet to try to eliminate the gas, but she is still having some gassy times. Thankfully she is not colicky per se, but her poor little tummy is swollen at times and she needs to be held to get all of it out. The good thing is that they rarely have crying jags at the same time. It is not fun at all though when their crying is in tandem - our house seems filled with it at that time and it makes you want to curl in a little ball and whimper, "Make it stop, please make it stop." The most fun part (ha, ha) is when R decides to copy them at the same time or is actually crying because he wants something or is hurt. He is unfortunately going through the terrible twos now. Yeah for me.
Don't get me wrong. I am loving the girls when they are awake and interacting - they are sweetness in itself. And R is so amazing still, he loves his little sisters, needs to hug them and pat them and says' "S'ok A, 's'ok". (He gets them confused and usually one on their own is A. If he is talking about both girls it's usually "K-A".) He loves activity and wants to play whenever we can with him. It's just his little attitude and if he decides to pinch or throw things that I do not appreciate. This usually only comes out when two people have a baby each, or DH and I have been too busy with the girls and house stuff to pay him the attention he needs. So we are trying to wean him of that while still making him feel needed and important.
I am looking forward to the first 3 months being over. The most difficult thing right now is the whole gassiness issue which is compounded by a lack of burping on A's part. And I haven't figured that out yet either. Do you know how difficult it is to burp two babies at the same time? I can pretty much do everything else, but that I am still working on.
My mom was here for the days last Tuesday-Thursday - R went for a sleepover at Gramma and Grampa's on Tuesday night. DH has been home since Friday, so it has been good. We have been trying to get out and still function as a family and have been doing a pretty good job. We got ourselves a BIG Caboose by Joovy Strollers which has room for two in the front and a little backwards facing seat at the back for R. So far he likes it, so we are in luck. R and DH went to the zoo and for some errands on Saturday and in the afternoon we went for a walk. Yesterday we went to Cochrane and had A&W - the girls first restaurant visit.
Well, I should get going, A has begun to start crying - I think her tummy is bugging her again. I will post some pics soon, just don't have time right now. If you think to, pray that we will get A's tummy issues dealt with and that K will learn to put herself to sleep. :)

Predictable...what's that!?!

So since I last wrote a post DH's parents have been to visit, we had an ultrasound for the twins, DH has gone to Seattle for 5 days while R and I went to my parents for a few days, we have done a lot of the leg work for the changes that will happen here at our house, and I had another appointment at the OB this afternoon. Sound like our life is dull? Never! Too busy at times? Yes. But, we are handling it.
Today my house is not neat and tidy. And though it is bothering me a wee bit, I am going to let it slide today, because frankly I do not have the energy to clean it up at this point in the afternoon. My appointment at the OB went well, I had to take R with as I am getting tired of finding people to leave him with for all the many appointments that I have these days. It was during his regular nap time, so I was unsure how it would go, especially since he was up late last night waiting for Daddy to get home. For the ultrasounds I cannot bring him, but he was such a good boy at the doctor's - I really am blessed to have an obedient child. At least when we are away from home he is the majority of the time. We filled up with gas and did some bank deposits as well and when we got home he still went down for almost 2 hours now - I convinced him that his monkey, George, was really tired and needed him to cuddle with so he could go to sleep. Worked like a charm! Will have to remember that one.
Sorry that it seems like all I am doing these days is just catching people up briefly on what is happening in our world, but that is all that I seem to have the time and energy for. One of these days I will post, just because an idea is rolling around in my head that I want to share. Have a great day all!

Lots going on!

The last week in our lives has been a bit eventful, yet not. What I mean to say is that we took our house off the market last Friday... and I felt nothing but sweet relief. I was getting so tired of keeping my house clean every day and trying to keep R from being a two year old and messing things up, just in case we had a showing. And the showings were annoying because they are an hour window and usually over supper, so we would have to spend money to eat, because neither R or I would be able to wait. We just took a look at the market again and what our mortgage would have to go up and the monthly payments we would have and figured that it would be better to just do some rearranging and close in our loft to make another bedroom. It will be a bit of work, but far less stressful financially.
So now we are in plans to renovate. We are going to be getting a shed, moving our storage room items to the shed, move the office to the storage room - have to sell the current desk and filing unit and get a custom desk made. Finish off the storage room with giprock, mudding and taping, and painting. Change the door to a french door so we can get natural light into it. Then we get to close off the loft, probably with a pane of glass above the stubwall and put a door in. More giprock and mudding/taping and painting. We are going to get a standup deep freeze and sell ours and then get high efficiency washer and dryer that will stack so the deep freeze can go beside it and take up no more space. (I'm also going to be doing a lot more laundry, so this will save us money! :) Oh, and I am looking at a microwave that will go above the stove so I free up counter space! Yeah!
I had mentioned that we bought a van about 3 weeks ago. It happened in a day... I know, very fast. A guy we know works at a dealership, it is an awesome van, the make and model we were looking for, that they gave us a wonderful deal on, so we bought it. I posted the ad for the Subaru on Kijiji and usedcalgary on Wednesday at noon. We had a phone call on Wednesday night, they came and looked at it and test drove Thursday night and put down a deposit. They picked my baby up on Friday night and it now lives in Canmore. I almost cried, but I kept it together. Obviously, God is taking care of us as I never imagined that either of those transactions would go that quickly.
I am also now more confident in the decision that we made to take our home off the market. Though it would be nice to have a bigger home - we love this house. We built it, we picked everything and just finished off the basement in January! It finally felt like it was home to DH. Someday in the future, when the time is right, we will get a bigger place that will suit our family at that time, but for now God is taking care of us and we will do just fine. Maybe things will be a little more crowded in the next 6 months with 2 swings, 2 bouncy seats, 2 exersaucers and a playpen in our living room. Oh goodness, I am not ready to think about all that yet! :)
We have also been a little busier because my good friend V was here for a few days and now DH's parents are here on their way home from Mexico. It is nice to have people come visit us and see Rand how he has grown and what a good kid he is. He loves all the activity and attention and he LOVES my in-laws dog, Amigo!
Well, now that I have had the chance to catch up a bit, I think I ought to go. Have a wonderful week peoples! I hope to post more often once things settle down a little bit later this week.

The silence is deafening

It has been many days since I have been on here. There are many things that I wish to say and to add to this bog, but I find myself so exhausted by the end of the day or when I do have time that I feel no creativity or words in me and so I just catch up on other people's blogs and that is it. So if there are any of you out there who are curious to know how we are doing, I am sorry.
Our house is still up for sale. We have had more showings in this week then we did the few weeks before. There have been more houses popping up for sale, but the encouraging part is that there are more and more C/S and Sold signs going onto those signs. So we are waiting. Our neighbour's house is apparently conditionally sold now, so there is no competition there - not that there was really as their house is a totally different model and about $15,000 more than ours. The house that we want is still for sale, so maybe God is holding it for us and we just need to be patient. We thought for sure it would be sold by now.
We bought ourselves a new van. Yes, it was a fast purchase, but once we figured out that we really wanted a Dodge Grand Caravan, for the Stow-n-Go seats, it was relatively easy to find one. A friend of ours works at a dealership here in town and we just let him know the years and how much we wanted to spend and the next day he called and within a day we were the proud owners of a gold 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. It is just a base model, but that is all we needed for now. We already owned a portable DVD player, so didn't need that in the sound system. I was really unimpressed that it was gold, as 3 other families I know have gold vans and they seem to be everywhere, but what can you do with a used van when a deal comes your way. It's growing on me - certainly looks nice when it's clean and shining in the sun! Now we just have to sell our Subaru. Sniff, sniff!
I had appointments this week - one with the OB and one for an ultrasound. We are at 25 weeks now. Everything was fine at the OB appointment. Heart rates of 154 and 138. At the U/S they were 161 and 141, then later 148 and 138. These babies heart rates are all over the place! They weighed 1 pound, 7 ounces and 1 pound, 12 ounces, so a little bit different, but I am unsure how much is acceptable and until a doctor tells me, I am not going to worry. I have now gained 15.5 pounds, though it is all in my stomach, like I was with R. Oh, one of the babies is a bottom dweller just like R was. Head all the way down as far as it can get and hand right up by the head. S/he is curled up around on the left hand side and the second baby was curled up in a little ball - back to the sibling and limbs out in front of him/her. We were going to find out the sex - just for DH and I - but neither baby would show anything! Stinkers!
Today we went to the zoo in the morning - they had an Easter egg hung - sponsored by Cadbury, of course. We always love the zoo. It's a fun time. R talks about a certain animal all the way there, so we have to go visit those animals. Today it was the baby elephant, Malti. She's a cutie! I had to stand in line forever before we got in - DH and R went to look at the monkeys in the meantime. After naps, we had an early supper and then went to the swimming pool. Man, our boy loves swimming! I have been having troubles with a rash after swimming the past while, so I sat on the side and watched and took some pics - going to put those up on R's blog soon.
I should go for now, we are going to watch a movie now and then head to bed - might actually get into bed before 10:30 tonight! Why is it I'm always up later on weekends, even though we have to get up at the same time? Silliness, I tell you.
Happy Easter everyone, in case I don't post tomorrow.

Major changes happening

Things have been a little hectic in our house this past week. Seems like that is the new normal around here. I am not sure that I want it to continue for very long this way - it's not exactly the way I want our lives to go on a regular basis, all up in the air and stressful. I am sure that it is not that great for the babies either right now.

It all started last week - since we found out that we are expecting twins I have been checking out the MLS site every once in awhile to see if there are any houses that might work for us. Well there was one on there that I was wondering about and it wouldn't let me alone, so I called an agent that we went to Briercrest with, who we got reacquainted with here in Calgary at the church that DH formerly worked at. Arrangements were made for R and I to go look at it with one of the people that works with him. That agent also sent a couple of other properties for me to look and consider if I'd like to see them, and I decided to look at one other one. We were not looking to move at this time, so I didn't want to go look at a lot of properties that wouldn't necessarily work for us. The first house (the one that I was wanting to see) was horrendous! There were renters in there and it was so awful I feel dirty just thinking about it. Yuck! There were about 20 pairs of shoes in the entry way, Rodney told me to keep my shoes on and in the next breath I said to R not to touch anything. There was cat fur in balls all over the place, stuff over every surface in the kitchen and the family room (food, dishes, boxes of half eaten food). The bedrooms were just as bad, with clothes all over the place and the bathrooms make me shudder thinking about it. Rod went to go downstairs and I just stopped him and shook my head and said "Don't bother". It was so gross! I do not know how people can live like that! And how the owners can't kick those people out and try to sell it without them in it. They are never going to sell it like that.

Anyways, the second property was amazing! I felt at home the moment I walked in the door. It was beautifully decorated and the sunlight that was coming in made it so homey. It would suit our family so well and has quite a bit more room than ours. And it is just across the back alley from our good friends' R and A - J's parents. Mom and Dad came and looked at it with DH and I the next night and they all loved it too. (I would put the listing link in here but I feel a little uncomfortable with people knowing precisely where I live in Calgary, so if you want to know email me at rle75 (at) shaw (dot) ca.) Not that we have bought the house, we haven't. We got to sell our house first.

So our house is up for sale. And we are praying... specifically that our house will sell quickly - in the Calgary market right now it is so unpredictable whether a house will sell and how fast - and that the house we want to buy will not sell before ours.

I spent all Friday cleaning our house, as well as a couple of hours on Saturday morning. My friend K came over and helped Friday night for almost 4 hours. DH did touch ups on the walls and cleaned up things I could not after work on Friday and Saturday morning. Our house now looks very neat and I am already tired of cleaning up all the time. Feel a little stressed, but it is nice to look around and not have anything out of place. Our house feels so spacious.

So that is what is up with us.

Mennonite cravings

So life has been moving along as per usual. I have been tired, so trying to get more naps and exercise. I have a new Prenatal Yoga that I have been doing as well I went on a walk on one of the really nice days and we went to the zoo yesterday, so that was a bit of walking. I said to DH that I have already started waddling...yikes! Its insane how your body goes so easily back into the stretched out place it remembers from the last time. Hopefully it'll make labour easier this time around - I really want to have these babies naturally so every bit helps, even though it makes life and walking harder for the next few months.
We are trying to figure out what life is going to look like for us once these babies are born. We are trying not to make too many major decisions and get ahead of ourselves.
Its funny with these two I have been craving the foods that I got more when I was younger, but did not necessarily make myself, especially since we have been married. Mennonite food mostly! Things like Farmers Sausage with mashed potatoes and schmot fat (not sure how to spell it, but cream gravy), and my grandmas homemade noodle soup. I actually made noodle soup the other day, but cheated and used a tetra pak of chicken stock and Catelli Fine Egg Noodles. It was good, but NOT the same as homemade stock and homemade noodles. I guess Ill have to bribe my sister to make noodles for me and actually cook an entire chicken and make stock. Now I just need to find someone to make verenika (dry cottage cheese perogies) for me!

Things are Looking Up

Thanks to everyone who prayed and is praying. R had a 4 hour nap yesterday afternoon and though we had some conflict between that and bedtime (2 timeouts resulted) he is very much himself today and being a good boy and obedient and I have had the patience to deal with him when he is not doing what I ask or is just being a little boy.
I woke up feeling somewhat better, not so exhausted as yesterday, though my nose has started to run and the cough and sore throat are still pretty bad. It was the tiredness and lack of energy that was killing me though, so I would rather have this.
So thanks... just wanted to update you all and let you know where things are at here.
Drea is also having another babywearing giveaway on her review site, DE Reviews - this time for a ring sling from www.Slingcarrier.com. GO there and check out their ring sling carriers which are pretty affordable. And go to DE Reviews and check out their giveaway.
Oh, for those of you who like giveaways, the Bloggy Giveaways site that I have a link to in my links is having a Bloggy Giveaway Carnival with over 500 different giveaways, on until Friday, go check it out!

The Week from Hell

This last week has seemed a little like the week from hell. Sorry to you out there who do not like the language, but it has really. I had three parties last week and they went well, I put in some good orders, so that is really nice. Keeping house and a two year old make things a little difficult, but I can handle that.
What I had a hard time with is R got another ear infection last week Wednesday - I got him to the doctor's on Thursday and discovered that that was what he had. Thursday night was not good - I think I had a total of 3 hours of sleep, which I know I am in for sleepless nights with the new baby, just wasn't prepared for it yet! Friday night was rough - DH finally brought him into our bed and he slept there from 6-10 a.m. Just so you know, he has never slept in our bed. I cannot sleep with him in there too, when he was young I was afraid of rolling over onto him, but now he is just such a mover in his sleep that he drives me nuts and as soon as he is out, I transfer him back to his crib. Saturday night he slept good and Sunday I started to feel like I was coming down with something. Sunday night was rotten, I was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night with him - every time I tried to leave he would cry like his heart was breaking and start talking about mommy leaving and how I shut the door (which is the only way he can sleep). It was so sad. Meanwhile I feel terrible, like something the cat drug in.
Last night we finally slept through the night, though I was up from 5:30-6:30 because I didn't feel great. Today I told DH I feel like poop - which made him laugh, but I told him it was better than swearing (I am trying to stop doing that - not that I am really bad, it just slips out sometimes and my parents raised me to be a lady and I have been a little slack in that regards). Anyways... R went over to our neighbour's this morning and I did a quick errand and felt like fainting the entire time, so I took a quick nap when I got home, then went to get R. He is being a little trying and I have no patience as I am not feeling good. It is not a pretty combination. Timeouts are more frequent than normal and I hate that.
So I think the bottom line here is if you think to, please pray for our family. That we will get healthy and back on track. Hope all your weeks are going better! :)

My week

This last week has been a busy one. Between doing all the things I needed to do to get ready for working at the Home Show in the Tupperware booth that our team and two others had, making sure that supper was on at the end of the day, planning a kitchen out for a friend, having kids over to babysit two different mornings, having Mom's group at our house, celebrating a birthday with my friend, getting my haircut, going to the bank to set up an investing account, and book club on Saturday night, I barely got a breather in. (After writing all that, I now know why I was so insanely tired out by the time Saturday afternoon came! :) Oh, and on top of everything my body is growing a baby, which they say is the equivalent of training for a marathon everyday. Whoooo! I'm tired just thinking about it! It wasn't bad in the midst of things, but I was a little stressed by Thursday, so tried to take it a little easier the last few days.
This week is a little calmer, though still stuff going on. My mom is actually coming over to spend time with R on Wednesday and I am going to get all the finances done and accounts balanced and squared away that day, plus maybe some other stuff done. I am looking forward to it.
I'm going to sign off now as I am suddenly exhausted and have the opportunity to nap while R is sleeping.

Merry Christmas to all! (It's a little long, but you'll want to bear with me to the end)

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you are having a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and that you are enjoying celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Our family has had a busy few weeks. There is a nasty flu going around Calgary and two weeks ago I was supposed to drop off R at my neighbour's house so that I could go get my Christmas shopping done. She phoned me the morning of and let me know that her son was sick and that her daughter had been sick earlier in the week. So, shopping was out that day. We planned that I would bring R over this past Thursday and would go shopping then, but that morning I went into R's room to discover that he had thrown up in the night and there went my best laid plans! On Wednesday we had been at my parents for the day as my Grandma on my dad's side was here visiting, so I was hoping that R's flu was not the one going around that took out whole families one at a time. Turned out he only threw up twice and had a fever and everyone else he came into contact with has stayed healthy. Thank God - honestly, I was praying so hard, because who wants to be sick over Christmas!
So Friday we went shopping, both R and I and he was an ANGEL! We were in and out in 2 hours and I got everything that I needed - I had a list of all the things I needed and the places I was going and we got it done. In the afternoon we picked up DH after work and he and R went to Chapters while I got the last grocery shopping I needed to done. That evening we started on the painting downstairs. And we painted Saturday afternoon while R was in napping, and after he went to bed in the evening and finished it yesterday afternoon while he napped - the painting is DONE! YEAH! My back hurts badly, but it is over - I rollered the entire basement and M edged and did the finicky work and we got it done. We are putting down the flooring this week and Dad is coming on Saturday to help hang door and put up our canopy garage that we got for Christmas from Mom and Dad and C and M. And then the basement is usable. We can move a lot of the toys downstairs and have a little sanity upstairs again. But I got ahead of myself.
On Sunday we went to church and then to my parents where we had Christmas dinner, then opened presents. I got a Snowbabies music ornament, a sweater and Corelle "Urban Black" dishes - 8 place settings. I was happy! My dishes were wedding presents - so 10 years old - and beginning to chip on the edges and they took up so much room in my cupboard. DH got the phone he was wanting and R got... well, a lot of things. I'll tell you all about them on his blog in the next few days. We went to my aunt's house for dessert and spent some time with my grandma and cousins as well as aunt and uncle there. DH, R and I stayed overnight at Mom and Dad's, DH went to work in the morning and R and I picked him up at noon.
As everything had been insane the past week, not as I planned it to happen, our house was a mess last night and I cleaned up after we got home from the Christmas Eve service. It was a bit of a later night the past several for me.
This morning we got up and R had a bottle while DH read the Christmas story, then we opened presents. DH and I only exchanged stockings as we are going to Riverdance in February. I got shower stuff from my sister-in-law and we got chocolate and money from my in-laws. It's going towards living room furniture, which I am going to look for tomorrow morning, maybe get a Boxing Day special. Mom and Dad came over in the afternoon and we all spent time together and had supper - ham, my favorite! It was a relaxing kind of Christmas Day. It was a good thing.
I realise that the last few months my blog has been a bit sporadic. I have been finding it a bit difficult to find things to write about because the things that have been most on my mind I have written about elsewhere. Two months ago today DH and I found out that we are going to be parents a second time over!

YES, WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!

We are so excited! The little one is to arrive on the 3rd of July, so the day before my birthday. I felt a little nauseous for weeks 5-7, but got past that. I have been insanely forgetful and scatterbrained in the past 2 months, it's quite awful for me and extremely frustrating for DH. I started a blog for this little one the day I found out, but I have it private, only I can read it, which I think I will continue for a little while yet - not ready to share it yet with anyone. DH hasn't even read it. :)
So that is our news. If you got our Christmas letter you already know, as we told in it. We are 13 weeks tomorrow, so now into the 2nd trimester. At the end of January we get the ultrasound so we can officially "meet" this little person. R calls the baby "Nemo". Another tidbit for you...
Anyways, I am starting to babble and not make sense, so I will write more another time and get myself to bed now. Again,
Have a very Merry Christmas!

My Week

This past week has been a bit of a busy one. Last week DH was home to work on the basement. It was so nice to have him here, though he was downstairs most of the time doing mudding and taping and sanding. Not too fun of a job and extremely messy - dust everywhere. I helped him clean up a few different days and the first day even though I had a mask on my nose and everything were still covered in the fine dust. On Sunday, we made it usable again - good thing as I NEEDED to do laundry and couldn't get into my laundry room as it had plastic stapled over the door. Anyways, now we got to start on the priming. Maybe we'll be done for Christmas!?!
Speaking of which, I still have not put up my Christmas decorations and I am beginning to get a little depressed about it. I look forward to Christmas and decorating every year and then it just seems to fly right by and this year will be even worse as it'll be 3 weeks less that I get to have the wonderful Christmas lights and pretty decorations. Oh well, we will be doing it this weekend, for sure!
Saturday my book club had their annual Girls Christmas Party at my neighbour C's house. It's always fun! We had a gift exchange and I, of course, gave something that had Tupperware in it. Apparently the ladies liked my gift as it was stolen (yeah, it was a "Chinese" gift exchange where you have numbers and can steal a gift twice) and then some people wanted to order some. I ended up having 6 people order things through my Christmas party, which is not bad at all! :)
Monday I had a Tupperware party at my friend K's house. Only 3 people besides the two of us showed up, but we had fun anyway - it was very casual - I did no presentation, we just talked, I have my stuff out and they could ask questions. It was an enjoyable evening, though I was out late again.
Tuesday I had A here for an hour and a half - C and I have begun a babysitting exchange. While she goes to speech therapy with J, I have A every other Tuesday a.m. and then she takes R the other two weeks. Then I took R to A's to put down for his nap and went to an appointment with DH, then back to A's for Mom's group. A cold has been making its way around our house, so I really didn't feel well in the afternoon at A's and when R and I came home I just rested. DH has the cold pretty badly.
On Wednesday, R and I went for chiro appointments, then for groceries. It took DH an hour and a half to drive home after picking up our Subaru at the dealership that only takes half an hour normally to drive home from. There was around 15 accidents on the road that DH heard about when he was driving.
Yesterday was interesting. It started off pretty normal, cleaning house and trying to get things down around here. Just before I was going to put R down, DH phoned to see if we could pick him up from the CTrain as his cold was bothering him so much he couldn't concentrate at work. We did and R fell asleep for 2 minutes in the car. When we got home, he talked and complained for an hour before I went in there. He was feeling hot and his nose was running, so I gave him Tylenol Cold and rocked him for a long while. I finally put him down and he cried - but I was the heartless mommy who let him and went to have a shower - when I got out 10 minutes later he was fast asleep and slept for 2 good hours before I went in to wake him at 5 (I was scared he wouldn't go to bed if I didn't! :) DH slept through everything from quarter to two until five! I got an hour sleep in myself - yeah! My parents came over for supper and then stayed to babysit R while DH and I went to a Friends Church Leadership Christmas party. DH is going to be doing some speaking at church and this was a way for us to get to know some of the people who are in leadership there. We felt it was pretty important that we go or we would've stayed home due to DH's cold - though after his long nap and some Tylenol he was feeling able to function. I am glad we went and I am thankful for our church. People went out of their way to introduce themselves and strike up a conversation with us. It made us both feel good as well as confirmed our decision to make Friends Church our home church. We are very thankful to God for our church and the people we have gotten to know as a result.
Well, I gotta go, I have a Tupperware order to put in this morning and I gotta get a hold of K to do it. She decided to go to Arizona for a week, so this may be fun!

Marathon Day

Ever had one of those days where you go, go, go and feel like you've run a marathon (OK, so I've never actually run a marathon, but I have a good friend who just did a half marathon on September 9th) and it's only noon? I once asked a physical trainer if being the mom of a toddler counts as moderate activity and was told it's easy/moderate activity. In my opinion, if you add in housework and laundry with the laundry room being in the basement and it's a definite moderate, if not intense some days. Today is one of them. After my day yesterday of getting absolutely nothing done in my house, I got up this morning and have finished 3 loads of laundry, cleaned out my tub, cleaned both bathrooms, vacuumed the entire house, cleaned up any scraps of things lying around my house, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, changed my bed (and flipped the mattress), fed R as well as sat with him while he had a bottle. I finally had breakfast at 11:15.
And after all that hassle I had yesterday with the photos, I forgot to send the pictures with DH to give to my mom to take with her when she goes to see my grandma tomorrow. So I am trying to figure out how to get these pictures to her. Just feel like pulling out my hair on that one.
But, I still need to wash the floors and my in-laws just arrived! Gotta go!