Thursday, July 31, 2008

multitasking

This morning I was sitting on "the throne" and painted my toe-nails at the same time!

*hopefully I'll come out of this writer's block soon

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

saving the best for last

When we were living in a hotel for 10 days we got to eat out as much as we could. Basically that's all that we could do. Honestly it sucked. Even I got sick of "burger fries" every day and was in desperate need of a change. Every once in awhile we'd go into the "big" city and eat at a nicer restaurant. A few times we'd hit Montana's (which is a personal favourite - I LOVE their Big Sky Burger!). If you've been there you'll know that ontop of every table is a sheet of brown newsprint that the servers write their names on and then you can doodle while you wait for your food. It's a great way to kill the time. Last time we were there tho' Keziah used it for a different reason. She sat at the end of a booth in a highchair, and she'd take a bite of whatever she was eating and then put the rest under this brown paper, as if she was saving it for later. Here's a pic of her storing her food. We sure got a kick out of it. And true to her form, after she had a little break, she went back for her little stash and started snacking.

wordless wednesday

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Funny Female Joke

Alright, seriously, if you're a male, you might want to stop reading now.

I got this in my e-mail today, thought it was pretty funny. It's called The Washcloth.

I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the week. Early one morning, I received a call from the doctor's office to tell me that I had been rescheduled for that morning at 9:30 am. I had only just packed everyone off to work and school, and it was already around 8:45am. The trip to his office took about 35 minutes, so I didn't have anytime to spare. As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So, I rushed upstairs, threw off my pajamas, wet the washcloth that was sitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash in that area to make sure I was at least presentable. I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment. I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in. Knowing the procedure, as I'm sure you do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended that I was in Paris or some other place a million miles away. I was a little surprised when the doctor said, 'My, we have made an extra effort this morning, haven't we?'

I didn't respond.

After the appointment, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day was normal ... some shopping, cleaning, cooking. After school when my 6-year-old daughter was playing, she called out from the bathroom, 'Mommy, where's my washcloth?' I told her to get another one from the cupboard. She replied, 'No, I need the one that was here by the sink, it had all my glitter and sparkles saved inside it.'

Never going back to that doctor. Ever.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

continuation of the crazy weekend

Looking back now, yes, driving 10 hours to look at a glacier was a bit much. But it was just one of those things that I had to know (exactly how long was it from Wetaskiwin to the glacier??).

Anyway, Saturday Wetaskiwin hosted an air show featuring the snowbirds. Of course, we decided to go. It was like 35 degrees outside and there was little to no shade on site. Needless to say we left after only a couple hours, totally missing the snowbirds. The kids were nearly dead and we had had enough. What we saw tho' was really good and the announcer was a comedic genius.

Then today I headed into Edmonton to meet some fellow spouses and hear their stories thus far. We caught Mamma Mia, which I thought was really good. Meryl Streep was brilliant, Pierce Brosnan was hot as always (does that mean I'm old when I think Pierce Brosnan is better looking than the younger up and coming actors?). I will say tho'...I am very disappointed in Colin Firth. Shame on you sir. You'll have to see it and let me know if you agree.

Anyway here are a couple of pics. Enjoy!
Bridal Veil Falls

A Prairie Lily...I could pick these now right??

Our first view of the mountains, 2.5 hrs from our house, just outside of Rocky Mtn. House.

All of us ontop of the Athabasca Glacier

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Congrats!

Hats off to Laurena and Charles on the birth of their new baby girl - Amy Marie!! So happy for you guys!!

Friday, July 25, 2008

long day

Finally home after a long day in the car. It all started yesterday....


Steve and the kids wanted to camp out, and there's no way we can fit all 5 of us in any of the tents we have so we decided to camp out in the back yard. Steve and the 2 oldest anyway, Kez and I got to sleep in our own comfy beds! And keeping to the camp-out theme we thought we'd do something "touristy" tomorrow (which is today). We gave the kids the option of going to the beach, or heading to the mountains. Since they've never been to the mountains we got 2 huge enthusiastic responses of "MOUNTAINS!!". It was decided. Around 8:30 (after Steve and I spend some "couple" time watching Penelope - which I highly recommend! James McAvoy is my new hottie!) the 3 of them headed out to the tent. Around 8:50 Callah came in complaining she had a belly ache and wanted to sleep in her own bed. So around 8:55 I went out to the tent to fetch her pillow and I found the 2 boys fast asleep and snoring. So much for excitement!

Anyway back to today. So my idea was to hit the Columbia Icefields. I remember going there years ago and thought it was really cool how they date the glacier. So you can see how much it's melted in the last 100+ yrs. On the map it looked like it would take us 3 hrs at the most. Smooth sailing.

Obviously I was wrong.

We didn't take into account the 3 bear sightings ( and the hourdes of tourists standing in the road taking pictures of said bears), the construction and the super cautious drivers who go around corners doing 40 km/hr in a 90 km/hr zone. That being said we reached the Icefields roughly 5 hours after leaving Wetaskiwin. After a chilly (poor Keziah was really freezing...but I think she really enjoyed it!) hike up the rockface we carefully walked a few feet up the glacier, took some cool photos, walked around the little trail, back the hill down to our van, got back in and headed back home. That took us about an hour. So we stopped here and there along the way back for a few little hikes and pictures. Had supper at Rocky Mtn. House around 8 pm and finally arrived back in Wetaskiwin around 9:45 pm.

So nearly 12 hours on the road for a few short hours of breathtaking beauty. Was it worth it? I definately say so (altho' my bottom may argue). And I will post pictures, but I'm dreadfully tired right now, so they will more likely come tomorrow.

That's it for now, have a good nite!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

reason No. 1

Not that I'm counting, but if I were...

Last night Steve and I, my brother Kris and his fiance Laura all went to check out the new Batman flick, The Dark Knight. When we arrived we could hear the previews start, so I asked the ticket lady how many seats were left. She said they'd sold about 201 so far and so there were about 13 left. I looked back at our little group and asked "do we still want to do it?" knowing we'd probably have to split up or take the front row. The manager of the theatre was nearby and heard our dilemma.

"If you want, you can take the chairs from the foyer (nicely padded leather chairs) and put them where the wheelchair seats are."

I could've kissed the man! Clearly the best seats in the house! The movie was awesome, the seats were awesome, the popcorn was awesome. It was an awesome all around night.

So reason No. 1 why I love it here....the manager at the local cinema 4 is totally awesome!

Friday, July 18, 2008

my 15 days overdue baby girl

That's right, 4 years ago I was waddling along waiting for this baby to come out! It wasn't until early evening when I finally had contractions. We ran to the hospital and 4 hours later, out popped Callah Deanne Reid. Weighing 8 lbs, 1 oz. She was so tiny! She's been our little princess ever since!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY GIRL!!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Quotable Monday

From the bleak void that was today....

"What better way is there to live a life than to be known by and be obedient to the God of the cosmos?" - Randall Friesen

I'll strive to that.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

ha ha!

So yeah, on our anniversary we bought ourselves a digital camera. It's a Canon powershot A590 1S. Best Buy was having a deal at the time, with any camera purchase you could get an Epson stylus CX7400 All-in-one printer for only $9.99. We thought that was pretty cool. One of the highlights was that it's also a scanner. So for your viewing pleasure...

Our wedding! Notice the hair on Steve...something you don't see much of anymore! :)

one of those nights

When we moved here I felt hideously ugly and disgustingly huge, especially after 2 weeks of fast food and hotel living. So I decided to start up my Learn To Run program again. Some of you may remember when I took the program for the first time last May of '07. (We have a digital camera now so I might just take that picture of myself yet!) It's been a long, very tiring, process once again. And today after completing my 30 minutes of 3 + 1's, I looked like the devil himself. My face, I don't think, has ever been redder. But I felt good! I was pretty impressed! Then of course, 10 minutes later I thought to myself...why do I do this??? And I slowly melted onto the floor.

New Topic
For some reason my internet has been acting up. I sent out an e-mail help plea to some friends from back home and I guess there was a windows update that doesn't configure with some firewall software. What???? Can someone explain this to me and how do I fix it without letting the world log onto my computer? Steve usually does all this stuff but he's a bit busy right now, so this is my new undertaking. That and figuring out how to set up our new printer. I'm sure I'll be posting for help on that one soon too.

New Topic
My in-laws were here for a few days as previously mentioned and my MIL mentioned that she doesn't listen to the news 'cos it's all hopeless. Steve brought up this story about this guy who killed a bunch of people and then himself recently. No idea what he's talking about. I don't listen to the news either. But then she went on to semi quote some scripture from Phil 4:8. and that's why she doesn't listen to the news. And as Christians we should only fill our minds with hopeful things. That got me thinking way back to my small group and I'm pretty sure we discussed something similiar way back when about thinking about the negative of the world, but not dwelling on it. Am I right? Anyone remember what we were talking about? Steve countered that isn't that what a Christian should do? See all the evil of the world AND still have and see hope.

New Topic
And finally ('cos my eyes are actually involuntarily shutting down) I was reading Dixie's blog and she's talking about loss and how to get on with life afterward. I think about this every day and sometimes twice. I picture myself just falling to me knees and wailing. Or is it keening. Or maybe I'll just be silent. Completely dumbstruck and numb. I know we could all die at any time. You could die crossing the street to the grocery store. But when suicidal snipers wait outside your workplace, your clock could be ticking a little faster. I just pray and hope that it's not.

So anyway, this is just one of those nights, where I got alot going on inside my head. I could just lay there in bed, letting it all go wild and leave me sleepless or I could vent some of it, which is what I did, not necessarily making any of it clearer, but just put it out there so that I'm not alone in my thoughts anymore.

And with that said

g'nite

Friday, July 11, 2008

all is quiet once again

Now that wasn't so bad. :)

The in-laws were only here for a day, a little odd, in my opinion, but I'm not going to complain. They arrived Wednesday. We went into Edmonton Thursday, hit the usual (IKEA, Old Spaghetti Factory) and the not so usual ( almost 2 hours in Lammle's Western Wear...boo hiss). Missed the tornado warning out for this area. All in all a pretty good day. And they left just after noon today. Short and sweet.

Now why can't all visits be like that?

The van got cleared to license in Alberta. Yeah. Estimated cost was over $1300. Total cost close to $400. I love my husband!

Now if only I could figure out what I did to my back... and never do it again! Ouch! I haven't been in this much pain since I had Keziah 16 months ago!

Tonite we're just going to relax and enjoy the quiet...and have a few more muscle relaxants!

Monday, July 07, 2008

Quotable Monday

"There is more to life than increasing its speed." Ghandi

Not sure if I mentioned that one before, but it's something I'm becoming more and more aware of as time goes by. Sometimes I look at Keziah and am shocked by how tall she is and how much she's grown. Where has the time gone?

Friday, July 04, 2008

crappy night

I can't remember if I mentioned this already. In my continuing struggle on whether or not to have a 4th baby I was told the other day that I shouldn't. And I should have my tubes tied. I was hurt and taken aback. And whether or not it's true, I'm a bad parent, it got me thinking about the whole thing again and maybe I shouldn't. Maybe 3 is all we can handle and even 3 is too many.

This same person told me that my husband is a terrible, negligent father. I'm very hurt by this person's opinions.

And so this is how I'm dealing with this. Staying up extremely late until my brain will no longer function and I will basically pass out once my head hits the pillow.

I'm not really sure what this person is thinking, or hopes to prove by saying these things but I really wish that they would just shut up.