a little worried

Tomorrow morning bright and early, well early for me anyway, Steve and I are off to Canmore for our Covenant Pastor and Spouse Retreat. I love how they call it a "retreat" 'cos we have to drive 8 hours there and back and the whole thing is only 3 days to begin with so technically we're only there for 1.5 days, and the drive is anything but relaxing. Anyway, off topic.

Tomorrow we leave and we leave our children behind. True I've left them before, those who know me know that I usually have no problem with that, but this time I'm a wee bit nervous. My sister is watching them while we're away. She's watched the 2 of them before, but it's adding the 3rd one that worries me. So if you think of me these next few days, pray for her and my children. And pray that everyone gets fed, including Gus the dog, no one gets hurt and they all still have hair by the time we get back.

Thank you.

Happy Birthday!

Hard to believe my little boy is now 5 years old.

Even tho' I know you'll probably never see this...Happy Birthday buddy. Mommy loves you.

ha ha

I used to watch this show all the time.

foot sex

A few weeks ago Steve came home from Davidners with 3 pairs of J.B.Field's Naturals wool socks. These aren't just any wool socks, their 96% Merino Wool socks. Oh yeah baby. I asked him what's so great about these socks. He said they just feel so good. Kinda like sex for you feet. So today I went out and bought me a pair of these socks.

Let the good times roll!

Look out!

The almonds are coming! The almonds are coming!! Kids everywhere are selling chocolate covered almonds!

I'm listening to the radio right now (sadly one of my favourite stations is The Wolf out of Regina) and Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven is on. Do you remember back in high school when this song was everything? Well it was for me. If you went to a school dance, it was almost a guarantee that this song would be the "final song". And then if you weren't dancing that last song, you might as well write "L-O-S-E-R" on your forehead with permanent marker. Man....those were the good ol' days (heavy on the sarcasm). I remember dancing to Bryan Adams Everything I Do (I do it for you) with this totally hot guy and we didn't know there was an extended version of the song ('cos they never played it on the radio) so the time comes when it normally would end and we start pulling away, but then the song keeps going! Talk about embarrassment.

Yikes I was just googling Stairway to Heaven and there's some questionable content in that song. I did not know that. Did anyone else know that? Hmmm....

So yesterday at Mom's we had Mel Shatula come talk to us. She's a super great talker. If I had the money I would pay her to be my personal trainer. She just seems really down to earth and easy to talk to. Anyway she had lots to say about fat, muscle and eating right. I don't know if I actually knew this before, but she mentioned that you burn more calories when you have more muscle, so you can't just do cardio all the time, you have to actually work the muscles (i.e. weightlift) to get the full effect. So the past 6 months of running and biking haven't really done me anything. Great. Hopefully now we'll actually see some benefits, now that I know what I'm doing.

oh yes!! Guess what starts up again tomorrow??

SURVIVOR!

I'm sadly very excited to begin watching the latest installment of deceitful, half naked humans backstabbing their way to a million dollars. I'm pulling for James the gravedigger. And did anyone catch the first episode of Kid Nation? Apparently there's quite the scandal about the whole idea. In my opinion, if the kid wants to go, let them go.

I'm just going to keep linking shows from cbs....I love the announcers voice. It's like the movie preview's guys voice. Ha ha, makes me laugh.

sing it with me!

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
mutilated monkey meat
little birdies dirty feet
great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
and I forgot my spoon
but I got my straw....
ssssllllllurp!!


Tomorrow Melanie Shatula is coming to Mom's to do some exercise stuff and talk about upcoming classes she's teaching. Should be a good time. Dress comfortably.

Also coming up, Thursday Sept 27, is Mom's Nite Out. Meet at BP's at 6 pm and we'll head over to Minto around 8 pm. This is always a good time and lot's of laughs. See you there!

WARNING...I'm having an emotional day!!

Yesterday I was laying in bed praying that my bladder would hold 'cos it felt cold in the house and my bed was warm, and I wasn't looking forward to jumping out of bed, when I heard the sound of footprints on our 'security' monitor (an old baby monitor we rigged up outside after all 4 of our tires were slashed last winter). I jumped out of bed and ran to the back door to look outside. Sure enough there was this guy walking around our back yard checking out our wheel barrow. He then went to the garage door, took the padlock off (it wasn't locked, but the garage door was) and then went to our van. I yelled for Steve. The guy tried all our doors, only to find them locked. Steve ran over, in his shorts, slipped on some shoes and a jacket and went outside to talk to the guy (and get our padlock back). Instead of running away, the guy reached into his jacket and lunged after Steve. I ran to phone the cops. Apparently the groundskeeper from the school across the street (Won-ska cultural school) saw the whole thing and was coming towards them too. She had also phoned the cops. I later found out that the guy had pulled a sock that had a rock tied into it out of his jacket and had swung that at Steve. I don't know what finally scared him off, but he got back on "his" mountain bike and biked off down the alley. Of course he was completely gone when the cops finally showed up. No harm was done to anyone or anything, a good thing considering we had just had our front windshield replaced 2 weeks ago. All that before 7 am yesterday.

Needless to say we had a rough night last night as well. Steve said he dreamt about a fight and getting beaten up. And every little noise I heard on the monitor made me wake up and listen closely. I hope tonite will be better.

Matthias is at school today. His 2nd full day (he had a 1/2 day on Tuesday). I had an early errand to run so I decided to drive by the school and check out how he was doing. It was before the first bell rang. I parked the van across the street and looked for my little man. I saw him ontop a slide trying to get back down the stair side. I thought that was odd. He's never done that before. I continued to watch as he came down and went over to 2 boys. They buddied up and kept turning away from him. Then they ran away from him. Matthias would catch up and the boys would run and hide from him. Matthias would loose them and stand by himself. He looked so lost. I started bawling and had to lock the door so I wouldn't jump out and go comfort my little boy. For the past 5 years I've tried so hard to keep him safe, and now he's stepped into the world, out of my grasp and there's nothing I can do. So I sat there and cried. 2 other boys then came up to him and one looked a bit bigger than Matthias. The bigger boy pushed him. Matthias ran away and the boys followed him and pushed him again. I wanted to go over to this kid and push him, see how he liked it. Tell him to leave my kid alone! Then the bell rang and they all ran to line up. I started the van and drove slowly away. When I got home I just hugged Steve and cried.

Tonite I'm going to a fundraiser for a fellow Mom. She's been coming to Mom's Morning Out for a few years now and she's a regular Mom's Nite Out-er. She has 2 girls (4 and 2 years old) and is currently pregnant with twins. She recently found out that one of these little babies has Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome. It means that he has an extra 18th chromosome, which causes severe birth defects. His chance of survival is slim. There is a 50% chance of him surviving birth. If he makes it he has a 50% chance of surviving the first month and if he makes that he then has only a 5-10% chance of making it to his first birthday. The Mom is a stay-at-home mom and her hubby will be taking time off to be with her, in S'toon, while they go through this. So her sister-n-law is having this fundraiser. I'm sure it'll be an emotional evening.

And I just burnt my cookies.

so far this week...

Looking back I can say that Sunday was good. True the Kez was super fussy at church, but she did finally fall asleep (the last 5 minutes of the service...but who's counting?). The sun was shining, we all had naps. Steve and I went to see 3:10 to Yuma (true we went on different nights, but it felt like we were there together...) which is awesome! We were looking forward to events starting up this week. Yes, it was going to be a good week.

Then came the phone calls. Now if you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that my in-laws are not on my 'MY5 List'. They're not even on MY10 list (if there was such a thing). So you should know where this is going. This Sunday Steve turns 30 (which again, I know it's a "big" birthday, but really shouldn't we be just as excited by him turning 31? Or 29? Isn't the point to celebrate another year of the person's life??) and way back when we were talking about what he wanted to do for his birthday. The idea came up of having a guy's poker night. Cool. He can do that and then on his birthday I'll make a cheesecake and we can celebrate as a family. Well, apparently that's just not good enough. His brother is coming up Friday for the poker night and sort of invited himself to stay till Sunday. Great. I love him. We get along sooo well (heavy on the sarcasm). His mother sounded all cheated, so we talked a bit more and decided that we'd go out for supper and then come back here for a cake and ice cream deal (we're going out b'cos all Steve's mom does is cook. She has shelves of recipe books and a normal meal consists of like 4 salads, home made bread - that she ground her own flour for, 2 types of meat or a main dish that could easily feed like 20, and a huge dessert - usually something homemade like pie or a cake - and not a mix cake, oh no, this is a made from scratch cake - and anyway, I just don't feel up to the pressure of cooking to impress, when all we had originally wanted was a private family birthday). Now where was I....ah yes. Again, not good enough. She wants to drive out to Narrow Hills for a picnic. But wait? Isn't this Steve's birthday? Shouldn't he be able to decide what he wants to do? So all day yesterday we're stressing out and talking about this weekend, that we were originally looking forward to, and now almost dreading. Let's just say it took awhile to get to sleep last night, and sadly not for all the good reasons, if you know what I mean. *wink wink, nudge, nudge*

This morning was the first Mom's Morning Out. Good to see so many new faces and the oldies (but goodies!) too. It always nice to get back and talk with Mom's you haven't seen in a few months. Next week we have Melanie Shatula coming to do some fitness stuff. Last spring she did an exercise ball workout with us that was pretty awesome.

I read this today on Bonnie's blog. It's a good read and something to keep in mind as we, Mom's, slug our way thru the day and sometimes wonder just what we're doing it all for. I know I wonder that sometimes, especially like now, when the kids are all suppossed to be laying down for a nap and I can hear Matthias running around upstairs, Callah is down - that I know and Keziah is on the couch beside me. I lay her on her back and she rolls over, pinning her left arm uncomfortably underneath her causing her to cry. I lay her on her stomach and she cries. I lay her on her back again and she rolls over, pinning her arm underneath her once again. So begins the cycle and our "quiet" nap time is ruined.

I had a good laugh today when a Mom and I were discussing our "diet" and wondering why the donuts and ice cream weren't magically working off the pounds. Wouldn't that be awesome? If someone invented a pastry or ice cream that would actually work off the pounds while you ate it? You could make a fortune!

If only.

Now to forage out, in the rain, with my 3 kids and do some grocery shopping.

I have a confession...

...to make.

I like to eat the raisins out of the Raisin Bran box.

last fling

Yesterday we went on our last holiday fling to the big city (Saskatoon). We left yesterday morning, bright and early, hit Tim's for some crappy tea, went back home to pick up some stuff we had forgotten (life jackets, razor and pablum), stopped at Turks for lukewarm coffee and a weak steamer and made it onto Hwy 11 before realizing Steve had forgotten his sun glasses. We were beginning to wonder if maybe we shouldn't be going. However, the rest of the drive there was uneventful.

First thing we did when we hit the city was stop at Broadway Roasters for some Monk tea ( and as I look back now I should've bought some hot chocolate 'cos they are one of the few places that make their hot chocolate with actual chocolate milk that in my opinion tastes WAY better than chocolate syrup in white milk) then off to the exciting Saskatoon zoo. Now if you haven't been to many zoos I strongly recommend going to the Saskatoon zoo before hitting a bigger zoo, something like Calgary. Otherwise, the whole time you're walking around looking at animals that you would normally hit on Saskatchewan highways, you're children will be like "where are the dinosaurs? I want to look at something else? Are the elephants here?" etc, etc. Doesn't really enhance the viewing pleasure. Altho' the bull elk was quite aggressive and would charge the fence everytime a vehicle would drive by. That was pretty cool.

Then there was the fishing pond. Now I have to say that lately I find fishing quite relaxing and soothing. It doesn't really matter that I haven't caught anything. However, when the stupid fish are jumping all around the place where you've cast your line, that can tend to be kind of nerve wracking to say the least. And before you know it, the peaceful lull of casting and reeling in is covered by a gentle stream of "loving" words geared towards fish. All in all, an hour well spent.

Now off to the Days Inn. Luckily, for some freakish reason yesterday every major road in Saskatoon was either closed or backed up thanks to construction and a stopped train. So travel on Circle, Idyllwyld, 20th, 22nd, and Warman were completely retarded. It took us over an hour to get from the Days Inn to Fuddruckers. Anyway I skipped ahead of myself. So we decided to stay at the Days Inn 'cos they've been really good to us in the past. This time was no exception. We even got Shrek goodie bags for the kids. We thought the pool and waterslide would be a nice treat after a day of walking around and we were right. Add onto that the fact that we actually remembered the kids life jackets (after forgetting the first time I mean) and it was clearly a highlight. The best thing that happened tho', I'd have to say was when Matthias came down the slide and swallowed a bunch of water, which in turn made him cough spasmodically, making me grab him and hold him against me to pat his back which resulted in him throwing up down the front of my swim suit. Good thing I have cups, otherwise that mess would've wound up in the pool!! Ha... ha... ha...

One thing I regret was not taking the camera into the hotel with us. There were plenty of memorable moments playing fish on the beds with the new Shrek cards, jumping from bed to bed and making Keziah shriek with glee. Today wasn't as eventful. We did some shopping, went swimming again (and not to be outdone by her brother, Callah, not wearing her life jacket, right before we were going back to the room, walked right up to the waters edge, plugged her nose, actually said, "weee!" and jumped into the deep end feet first. Steve dove in after her, but it'll take a few days to get the image of her eyes, open looking at us, as she was going down, out of my head) and hit a cool playground before piling back into the van and coming home.

Now I can say that summer is over.
I feel content, at least for awhile.
A new year is upon us.
Change is in the wind and things are happening.

Did I mention that Matthias has to catch the bus at 8:12 am? I don't get out of bed until after 8:30 if I can help it.

Summer please come back!

proud grandma

"So when does Matthias start school?"
"Actually his first day is today."
"Ahh...first day of learning how to swear."

*conversation as told to Lisa by Steve (with his Mom).

This is what I have to deal with.

whereabouts

This is what happens when spur of the moment meets strategically planned. Note Callah is wearing a grubby ol' Dora shirt and the jeans that she's wearing, the fly won't stay up, so her shirt is perfectly stretched over the zipper. Nice. Goes very well with The Kez's fancy flower print.

So we just got back from 4 days holiday at a cabin. Note to self: might want to tell someone where we're going or at least that we are infact going somewhere so people will know and stop leaving messages on our answering machine wondering if we're dead. But in fact, if we were dead, we wouldn't be checking our messages 'cos last I heard dead men check no messages. Or at least that's what I heard. I could be wrong.

For those who know Kim Dunphy, it was brought to my attention that she's recently joined the world of blogging. You can check her out here and she'll be added to the list on the side.

Have you seen those furry, fat caterpillars? Steve informed me the other day, while driving on the highway, that he really hates running over them (if you've been on a highway lately you may have noticed that they are ALL OVER THE ROAD). I said," good luck! How can you miss?" To his credit, he started swerving attempting to avoid contact with the little buggers. That's my husband!

Tomorrow Matthias starts Kindergarten. I know I'm more nervous than he is. I'm afraid he'll beat his fellow classmates up. He's becoming more and more "tough" lately. Might have something to do with his Dad actually placing a wager on whether or not he could take down his 6 year old 2nd cousin. Or the fact that his parents struggle with Hulk-like anger issues. Let's face it, he's been doomed from the start! I'm also afraid of him going on the bus. You see all sorts of videos of kids being beaten up on the bus. 5 seems so young to be sending them off into the world! Who's bright idea was that? Hey, the kid just turned 5 let's ship 'em off to some big scary brick building for hours of brain enhancing "fun" play!! Aack! Gag! Forget about whether or not he's ready for this! Am I ready for this?

Sigh.

My little man is growing up.

dog days

I'm not really sure what "dog days of summer" actually means, but for my purposes, this is what I refer to as the "dog days of summer". You know the time when school starts up again. Groups start up again. If you go camping, wearing a toque to bed is a necessity. You don't have to cut the grass quite as often. You don't salivate every time you drive by DQ, or the local cone shop (well okay, maybe you're one of those people that live off of ice cream even in the winter...well good on you!) and slurpees are no longer your favourite drink of choice (again, maybe you're one of those people that like to stand in the freezing cold of winter sucking on a slurpee b'cos you honestly believe that by making your insides really cold it will somehow make you actually feel warm). The leaves start to turn colours and you have to start worrying about frostbite on your baby tomatoes. The temperature is a steady 15 - 20 degree C, which amazingly enough feels quite cool. So cool that you find yourself wearing slippers and a nice cozy bunnyhug with the hood over your head (sadly remembering that only a few months earlier this same temperature made you believe it was indeed summer causing you to dust off your tank tops and shorts).

Yes these are my dog days of summer.


I went for a massage yesterday. I might've cried and I think I stopped breathing 3 times. It sure felt good.

Mom's Morning Out starts up again soon. September 11 to be exact. 9:30 am at the Alliance Church. Check out the link on the side for the hot topics.

minute by minute

I seem to be waging a war with myself on an emotional battlefield lately (hurting those around me in the process) and the best piece of advice I received today was to just take things minute by minute.

Right now that sounds about all I can do.

"take me to your leader..."

Yeah, Keziah's already a real head turner...and she's only 5 months!

So this is how you do it....

Well according to Mr. Clear Blue (thankfully) I am not pregnant. However, I cannot say that taking the test was quite exciting. I can see why people get addicted! I was really nervous at first, this being my first test I've ever taken before. I didn't want to take it too soon, but then they say they need the first urine of the day (and now I'm wondering, do you really want to know about this?) and I was actually loosing sleep over the whole situation until I finally got up and took the stupid thing. To be honest I'm a little disappointed. For some sick reason the thought of having another baby right away was kind of exciting. But whatever. I'm not, so you can all rest easy now that you know.

And last week Steve and I took the youth group and our own 2 kids camping at Narrow Hills. It was alot of fun as I knew it would be. Some of the highlights were the fact that our 2 kids were the ONLY kids that caught fish the entire week. I wasn't out in the canoe with them, but I hear it was quite the event. I guess they (the kids) were fine reeling the fish in and then watching as Steve slugged it unconscious, but when the fish jumped again Callah just freaked and wouldn't stop screaming until they landed back on shore. I wish I had seen it. We had a hard time getting her to pose with her big catch. This was as close as she would get. And always a sucker for sunsets, this is why I love camping. Matthias also did us proud once again but climbing the fire lookout tower. I don't know how much truth there is to this, but I heard someone say that he was the youngest person to ever climb it, which he did last year at the age of 3. That's him, 2nd from the bottom, green shirt.

And now reality is once again upon us and Keziah has been fussy ever since we picked her up from the sitters on Friday. I don't know what special gift that family had so I'll just leave it to the luck of the English. That accent must hold some sort of magical power to soothe. Maybe we'll just play some Sean Connery movie over and over until she settles (and yes, I know he's not English, but who can resist that voice??).

Wind down

There's nothing like a cold drink to take the edge off an emotionally stressful, dusty, hot, tiring long weekend at your step-father-in-laws family reunion.

there's a reason

If you check around, there's not alot of blog action happening around the web these days. I'm blaming it on the heat (as I sit here, all stinky and sweaty...yes I know I have to shower). If all else fails, blame everything on the heat, that's what I say. That and the fact that our household has just been busy. Here's what we've been up to...

As it turns out Callah didn't eat the sea shells. A few weeks after the incident we found the shells in a cubby hole in the van. Matthias was ecstatic and claimed Callah was his hero for the rest of the day.

Keziah is teething and a drooly mess.

We spent a week in Regina, where we checked out Chuck E Cheese for the first time. What a hit! I'm glad they're still young enough to know that it's not about how many tickets you get, but how much fun you have. Right?

We then spent a week at my parent's cabin at Marean Lake. Where we went minnow fishing EVER SINGLE DAY at least 2x a day. Now I gotta tell you, the funniest part of this whole experience was when Callah fell off the dock into the lake. She completely freaked out! Matthias and I were on the next dock and I started to run towards her, but when I realized that the water only came up to her chest, I slowed down a bit. She was fine. We also caught a few frogs and a crawfish (which Matthias still believes to be a "baby lobster"). Lots of "cool" wildlife and a week well spent.

Immediately following our return was Callah's 3rd birthday. You know the phrase "it's my party I can cry if I want to..."? Well she took it literally and not only cried, but pooped on the sidewalk (in her swimsuit) and threw up her cake in the new pool her dad bought her! It will be a birthday to remember (for us anyway).

Add onto that with a few melting hot days, a hot trip to Waskesui for the day, a 24 hour whirlwind trip to Regina, a box of ice cream sandwiches, a slurpee a day (thank goodness for 99 cent refill cups!), the start of Pablum for the Kez, and me literally thrusting my body forward 2-3 times a week wildly flailing my arms around trying to continue on with my running (or more accurately jogging)...believe me, it's not a pretty sight. And that's what we've been up to.

Now if you'll excuse me, my eyelids hurt and and I have to wash off this layer of sweat before the next one starts to stick.

heartburn...a cause for concern

I know normally heartburn wouldn't be a big deal, but you see, for me I only get heartburn when I'm pregnant. So last night, when I had some heartburn, I was a little concerned. I asked Steve, "wouldn't it be funny if I was pregnant?" He just kinda dry laughed and it was one of those funny/scary moments, not really a funny ha ha moment. And it doesn't really help that I haven't had my period yet since going off the breastfeeding.

I suppose I should drink now while I can...

And on another positive note, at least I'd be done.

mmmbblllaahhhhhhhhh....

for those who don't know...that's the sound of me melting.

I don't do well in heat.