Monday, October 30, 2006

I feel like chocolate

It's a completely insane feeling when you have this intense desire for chocolatey anything and you don't have any in the house.

I feel like I could rip something apart. Like Hulk getting mad over looking for chocolate.

Tomorrow is the final day to pay for or buy a ticket to the Women's Journey of Faith in S'toon. At least thru Mom's Morning Out. I have mine, do you have yours? Tomorrow is also the third installment of Carolyn's Sexual Intimacy talk. Should be a gooder.

I just got back from getting my hair cut and styled. I got it straightened, it seems like a long time since it's been completely straight. Steve's reaction was "lets have sex" so I think he likes it and even Matthias noticed altho' his comment was alot tamer, "wow Mom, nice hair". I was glad to hear them both. Whenever we take the chance to change anything it's nice to know that it payed off, however small the payback. So thank you Renita!

Friday, October 27, 2006

Some photos

Here are some photos from the retreat we went to at Kingsfold.

This is the staircase leading up to one of the fasting cabins. I thought it was really cool 'cos it's made entirely of trees and rock.








This is the chapel. Alot of wood and stained glass. Simply beautiful.







The view from the greenhouse towards the mountains. You can see a little winding path that leads down to the river. A nice easy walk.







A rock statue that I made. I've always wanted to make one of these.






And Callah...

so much potential, so little time

I swear I meant to update this thing sooner. I really did. In fact I can remember having some really good stuff to say earlier on in the week (of course for the life of me I can't remember now). But let's see...Monday just slipped by, Tuesday I was unusually tired, Wednesday was jam packed, Thursday the Mother-in-law was here and now it's Friday. I finally finished the little bit of baking I wanted to do for the bake sale tomorrow (Gateway Covenant Church, corner of 15th and 15th E, 9:30-3 pm) even tho' they were supposed to be delivered to the church by tonite (it's almost 10:30 pm now). Yeah, not going to happen. So you can see, it's just been one of those weeks.

Now to progressively recap...

Monday I had my post-ultrasound doctors appointment. I've been feeling the baby kick quite a bit lately, which has been nice. Sometimes at night I still lay down tho' and the little bump that's 'im is lost in the "jello" that's my belly. So I'm glad I can feel some proof even tho' I can't really see much yet. You still can't feel the kicks on the outside. Steve and I have both tried. Can't wait for that as well. When it gets really bad and keeps me from sleeping I love cuddling up to Steve so he can get kicked in the back as well! :) Anyway, was surprised to find that the ultrasound dated me 2 weeks ahead of schedule, making the duedate around March 10th instead of the previous 24th. Exciting.
Matthias also started level 2 swim. Half his class didn't show up Monday so there were only 2 boys, and the other little boy was either frightened of Matthias or the water, so he didn't even go in. Leaving Matthias the whole 1/2 hour with just the instructor. Turned out pretty good 'cos he really got to work on putting his head in the water and blowing bubbles. I'm amazed at how well he's doing. All that practice in the tub really does work!

Tuesday was Mom's and I thought it went really well. Was disappointed there wasn't a big turnout, but I'm quite confident that the ones who showed up had a good time. It was fun to get up and move around instead of just sitting down in chairs or at a table. Also informative in learning easy, no equipment, exercises that you can do in your living room infront of the TV. My kind of stuff.
Then let's see, I came home, had a spazz attack and the rest of the day pretty much blew chunks.

Wednesday was my "soccer Mom" day. Prepared all the ingredients for a stew and threw it in the croc pot, took Matthias to story time at the library, then we went to my Grandma's (which will have to be a whole other post some other sad time) followed by a quick pb & jam lunch, naptime, took Matthias to swim lessons, stopped for slurpees on the way to the final Carlton and St. Mary football game, picked up Steve from said game, came home for stew (previously made earlier that day) went to bible study, came home to mother-in-law and sister-in-law, talked for a few hours then went to bed.

Thursday was the day. I suppose in hindsight it went fairly well. Steve and his Mom only got in one heated argument, and that was about music, which really, they should just agree to disagree instead of arguing about it almost every time we get together.

I don't actually feel like talking about it much more than that. Perhaps I'm turning over a new leaf.

That leads to today. Which has been pretty good. Callah and I took Matthias out this morning for a brisk bike ride. I'm amazed at how well he's doing. We should easily be able to take the training wheels off next year. Followed by a game of tag with Gus in the back yard. Lunch and the start of my bakesale baking. Matthias informed me that today was Callah's dinosaurs birthday, so I decided to make gummi worm chocolate cupcakes. *As a side note don't put the gummi's in until AFTER you bake them. Lesson learned the hard way.* The kids loved them. Matthias' swim lesson went well, if you forget the fact that Callah spilled her water twice on the bleachers. Then after the lesson she ran into the street while I was unlocking the door. Then while making a quick shopping stop for more icing sugar to ice their cupcakes, she stuck her tongue out and refused to listen while at the check outs. Maybe I'm just super strict, but she is not allowed to do that to her dad and me. On the upside we got home too late to make supper so Domino's was called and they delivered. I got to watch my Men in Trees, finish baking pumpkin cookies and read the kid's a book before Matthias threw up in his bed. Ahh... I should've guessed the nites not over yet.

Steve just got home and that's my cue to finish up. This wasn't nearly as exciting as it should've been on Monday, but it's my life.

Chow.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

2 legs, 2 arms...

Well we had our first ultrasound the other day and it was great. I mean you never seem to tire of seeing this image of a little baby move and shake inside you and you can't feel a thing. It was great. It really was. There was a head, 2 arms and hands, 2 legs and feet and a beating heart. That's all that really matters isn't it? I loved it. Of course this woman is showing us all these cool picture possibilities and the one she settles on to copy and give us is this obscure circular grey thing in a pool of blackness (the head). Gee thanks. I guess for them it's just a job. Not nearly exciting as it was for us (or any other couple who come along). Sad, you'd think you'd go into a certain profession like that, and actually want to and enjoy doing it. Or maybe it was just a bad day. We all know there's been plenty of those going around lately (or is it just at my house?).

The boy has mastered his peeing technique. Once again we are pee puddle free now for 2 days! Yeah!!

The pants are getting tighter and tighter. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm glad. Once again reminding myself of how excited I am to have this baby. Even at night, after I've made my 5th bathroom break, I remind myself how much I wanted this one. Or as I'm tossing and turning trying to find a comfortable sleeping position when all I'm craving for is to lay on my belly Steve rolls over and reminds me how much we want another one.

Really, I do want this one and I am looking forward to it, even tho' another person told me today how much of a "joy" having 3 children can be.

Really, I swear I do.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

ultra...

Mom's Morning Out this morning was pretty good. Putting aside all personal, toturous (is that even a word?) feelings, the video itself went well.

That's all I feel like saying about that.

In a few hours Steve and I go for our first ultrasound of Baby 3. I always get excited when this time rolls around. This time especially I'm completely stoked b'cos I get to see that there really is something living inside me and that it looks (somewhat) human. This whole pregnancy has been different than the previous 2. So much so that I don't even feel like I'm pregnant. Being almost 4 1/2 months now I'm still wearing normal clothes (and I've come to a decision that I must be "larger" than I really think I am to be buying "larger" clothes than perhaps I should be therefore allowing me to still be able to wear them when technically if I were skinnier I really don't think I would be able to...just my thinking) altho' I will wear maternity once in awhile for a change or I just feel bloated and gross.

Right, what was I talking about?

Yeah, I don't even feel pregnant. And I think that the more I hear about friends and other women having miscarriages the more that thought is nagging in the back of my mind. So I can't wait to get a large belly and I can't wait to start feeling movement and kicking. That way I'll be reminded that yes, there is a baby human in my stomache and I'll get excited all over again.

I honestly can't wait.

Monday, October 16, 2006

potty peeing 101

I'm beginning to think that they should make a class for kids on how to pee on the potty. I'm not talking about potty training either. I'm talking about how to sit, or hold 'wee willy' down or how to aim or something. Lately Matthias has been having all sorts of peeing accidents, and he's fully potty trained. It's just that (and I finally realized this today) amazingly enough when he sits on the potty to pee, he somehow manages to unconsciously aim 'willy' directly between the seat and the bowl and therefore allowing pee to be "spewed" all over the wall, tub and floor of the bathroom. Or the other problem is that when pully down his pants, he gets them caught in the same place (between seat and bowl) and pees all over them. There has to be an easier way. Is it easier to have him stand and take his chances aiming the silly thing into the bowl? Or do we just continue to let him "miss-aim" and hope he'll grow a bit to fix that problem? I don't know. All I know is that I'm sick of cleaning up pee every morning.

Onto cheerier news, Mom's tomorrow we're watching a video by Lisa Bevere called Beautiful. It was taped at a live conference somewhere. I was watching it again last night and making notes (I felt like I was in high school again. This is my first video I've had to do myself, so naturally I left it till the last moment to make notes and am now getting more and more nervous by the hour to see if I can actually pull of a video and discussion by myself) and Steve was in the bedroom reading when he called out "what kind of video are you watching??" Lisa can be (and her and I are on first name basis' here....ha ha) kinda ...I'll say loud. She's very "power to the women" and "freedom of women" in a Christian way. If you don't know her or what I mean, you'll just have to come tomorrow to find out. I like her, I like the way she's real and honest about her life.

And speaking of that I should really get my butt in gear and start typing up my notes. The kids are "sleeping" Callah is actually quite miffed that I just separated her and Matthias. How foolish was I to think that they would actually get any sleep in the same room? But it's quiet upstairs now, so there's hope, for a while.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

gone, but slowly returning

I spent the past week at a pastor/spouse conference in Canmore, Alberta. Or I should say I spent the first 3 days there then travelled to Kingsfold Retreat Centre just outside Cochrane. If I could pick just one word, altho' most unlikely, to describe such a place it would definately be...well really beautiful is too "undescriptive" a word. It was an extraordinary place. I'll put pictures up sometime.

Not only was the scenery nice, the food that was served was amazing. The company was always entertaining and I had plenty of time to chill and relax (in other words sleep). I wasn't feeling the greatest in Canmore, but luckily that cleared up (except for this unending headache) in time for Kingsfold.

I'm also not the best traveller, so the 8 hours drives there and back were not my cup o' tea, but somehow it was worth it. It was also totally worth returning to find our little rugrats sleeping peacefully at their Grandma and Grandad's. Not so much worth it on the car ride back to PA, in freezing cold and rain, with so called "peacefull" rugrats matching screaming pitches at incredibly high octaves. But then again...

Anyway, it's good to be home.

overheard...

...while hiking up a small mountain in Canmore, Alberta.

"Ugh...I feel like I weigh 400 pounds!"
"Naw...you're more like 300."