She's Alive!

This morning Callah came up to me with a new sweater she wanted me to put on her. So I did. Then we went into the livingroom where Matthias was playing.
"Hooray! Hooray! She's alive! She's alive!" he said.
I thought to myself, of course she's alive, I just put on a sweater for pete's sake.
Then he tried to run her over with a doll stroller.

The Best Christmas Gift

The best Christmas gift I received this year was having my son toilet trained. Finally it just kicked in!!!

Merry Christmas

I know it's still a couple of days away, but for us, it starts today. The mother-in-law is coming today and she's staying overnight. Which should be ...well....all sorts of things, but I'm trying to be nice here, so I won't say anything bad...good(?). She's leaving tomorrow, then we leave to go to my parent's home down in Regina. I know what you're thinking. Steve thinks the same about his in-laws. No, not really. I honestly believe that he gets along with everyone in my family. He has had a few tiffs with my Mom, but they've talked about it and worked it out. His family on the other hand...well, I don't want to get into it right now. Happy remember? So we'll go to Regina for a few days and then come home, carrying all our goodies that we've collected. 2 days break then it's the New Year! More food and drink. Thank goodness I got that gym membership!

So as I pause and think about the anger and impatience I felt yesterday, while out doing some last minute Christmas shopping, I think of all of you and pray that you will not honk at too many cars as they cut you off for that parking spot you've been waiting for for 15 minutes. Or you will not loose patience with your kids as they knock off another whole bucketfull of pine needles from your Christmas tree. And you will not flip out at the person in the checkout line in front of you who can't decide whether or not to buy the blue or green fuzzy knit sweater. I pray that you will remember what Christmas is all about. The birth of Christ. Hope you have a blessed Christmas with loved ones. Stay safe and happy this holiday season!

Merry Christmas!!

Something Fun

Okay I admit it, I'm a complete sucker for these things. This is one of those add a #, subtract a # and it gives you a really cool # that has to do with your life. Anyway, follow the steps one at a time. No cheating by jumping ahead!

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you
would like to have chocolate
(more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the
calculator

5. If you have already had your birthday this year 
add 1755 ....If you haven't, add 1754.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.



You should have a three digit number
The first digit of this was your original number
(i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).
The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

a story or two

Tomorrow there is no Mom's Morning Out. It seems like it's the first time in a long time, that I haven't gone. In a way I'm glad. I just keep thinking about all the people I forgot to phone about possible session ideas for the Spring. Some programmer I'll turn out to be!

This evening Matthias and I were sitting on the couch. He reached over and started playing with my hair. He'd throw it in my face, and then back, then in my face and then back. He repeated this several times, each time laughing. Suddenly he got up and went over to his art drawer. He pulled out his scissors. "I'm going to cut Mommy's hair. Okay?"
"No, it is NOT okay!" I don't think his little crayola scissors could even cut hair, but I'm not going to let him try either. This is when the "do not cut your hair" lesson came into play. Somehow I doubt he'll remember this little conversation. But I hope that he does.

A friend sent me this via e-mail today. I've heard it before and thought it was kinda cool.

The University Professor challenged his students with this question: "Did God create everything that exists?"

A student bravely replied, "Yes, he did!"

"God created everything?", the Professor asked. "Yes, Sir," the student replied.

The Professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil. Since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then God is evil."

The student became quiet before such an answer. The Professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question, Professor?"

"Of course," replied the Professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the law of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The Professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong, Sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You can measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct, Sir? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally, the young man asked the Professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the Professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing but evil."

To this, the student replied, "Evil does not exist, Sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when a man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The Professor sat down.

The young man's name -- Albert Einstein.

Christmas is officially "just around the corner". I hope you've begun your shopping. This is the time I love. The anticipation of something. We don't put any presents under the tree until Christmas morning. Last year he was speechless when he woke up and we told him to look under the tree, and he saw all these presents that weren't there the night before. It was pretty cool. I'm sure it'll be harder and harder to do that as he gets older. But for now, it's priceless.

Campground Humour

I know I get these crazy forwards all the time. I thought this was cute tho'.

A very proper lady began planning a week's camping vacation for her and her Baptist Church group. She wrote to a campground for reservations. She wanted to make sure that the campground was fully equipped and modern, but couldn't bring herself to write the word "toilet" in her letter. So, she decided on the old-fashioned term "Bathroom Commode." Once written down she still was not comfortable.
Finally she decided on the abbreviation "B.C." and wrote, "does your campground have its own B.C.?"

When the campground owner received the letter, he couldn't figure out what she meant by "B.C." He showed it to several of the campers, one of whom suggested the lady was obviously referring to a "Baptist" "Church" since there was a letterhead on the paper which referred to a "Baptist Church". So he sent this reply...

Dear Madam:
The B.C. is located nine miles from the camp ground in a beautiful grove of trees. I admit it is quite a distance if you are in the habit of going regularly. No doubt you will be pleased to know that it will seat 350 people at one time, and it is open on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday of each week. Some folks like to take their lunch and make a day of it. The acoustics are very good, so everyone can hear even the quietest passages.

It may interest you to know that my daughter met her husband there. We are also having a fund-raiser to purchase new seats, as the old ones have holes in them.

Unfortunately my wife is ill and has not been able to attend regularly. It's been a good six months since she last went. It pains her very much not to be able to go more often. As we grow older, it seems to be more of an effort, especially in cold weather.

Perhaps I could accompany you the first time you go, sit with you, and introduce you to all the other folks who will be there. I look forward to your visit. We offer a very friendly campground.

Yours truly,

Camp Director, Hector Collins

Family, Take 2

It's funny. Family can be both a good thing, and a bad thing. Depends on how you look at it. Yes, people can live their lives trying to keep their families together. There are those, on the opposite side, who spend their lives keeping their families apart. I wonder sometimes at my husband's family. If they 'try' to keep their family apart. They have so many problems, that if they really looked at the problems and tried to solve them, it might work and they could be a 'family' again. It's almost like they choose to create more problems tho' instead of fixing the existing ones. Drives me crazy how much problems they have, that they refuse to look at.
Then there's my family, and my Grandma goes out of her way to accomodate my uncle and his family (who want nothing to do with my family) just to try and keep us together. Does my uncle even notice how hard she's trying? Doubtful. He doesn't even care.
Where do we draw the line? When do we stop working on our 'old' families and work on the new ones we are creating and neglecting? Or do we ever? Do we constantly work at keeping (or breaking) them all?

Some friends of ours are taking in their niece-in-law. I think it's a cool thing. Someone in their family is having a rough time, so they've offered to help out and take the toddler in. I know they'll be great at it. They deserve kids of their own. They're creating a different family. Then there are those whose friends are more family to them, then their actual family is. What do you do when you want to keep your family together, but they want nothing to do with you?

Family...it's so complicated. This Christmas, I pray that visiting your families is very uncomplicated and that your able to just enjoy being around them. Enjoy the times with your family.

Political

I'm not one for politics. But when I hear of something that directly involves me, I will read up on it. Here's something for us Mom's to read.

Family

Last night Steve and I watched Cinderella Man (with Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweggar). It's a true story of a boxer thru the Great Depression of 1929-1933. I thought it was really good. One of those feel good movies. For some reason there seems to be a couple of those boxer feel-good shows. I also recommend Million Dollar Baby too. Anyway, without ruining it too much, I hope, James Braddock looses everything when the stock crashes in 1929. Not making ends meet, they loose the power and heat to their little apartment. They can no longer even afford milk. But James promises his young son that he'd never send him and his siblings away. No matter what James would keep the family together. The story goes on, and his wife ends up sending the kids away without James knowing causing James to beg for money to pay-up the power and heat guys. Then James, who had been down on his luck in the ring, took one last fight with a payout of $250. During the fight, he gets hit pretty hard, but at the last second as he's going down, he remembers what it was like to come home and find his kids gone. The house empty. He remembers seeing the empty milk jars with a "PAST DUE" notice on them. He will NOT let that happen again. So he comes back and ends up winning the fight.
Later on in the movie, at a press junket, a reporter asks him why he's fighting again, or something. James simply says, "Milk."
What is it that drives you to keep your family together? Seeing a movie like that, I can't imagine how desperate I'd feel if I were in their position. Trying so hard to keep my family together, like so many hundreds and thousands of others during that time. Family is so important. Being a mother now myself, it puts a whole different perspective on it. What would you do, to keep your family together?

I found out about this yesterday. Sad.

Bad Mom

Is it bad, when you hear your kids screaming, but you continue to hide downstairs?

A Little Forgetful

Thursday we took the kids with us to do some shopping. Thinking they're still too young to remember stuff well. So we bought them Mr. Potato Head. Matthias picked it out and carried it to the checkout and paid for it. Then when we brought it home, I said, "Give it to Mommy and you can play with it later."
"Later?" he asked slightly worried.
"You have to wait till Christmas."
"Christmas?"
"Yeah, now give it to Mommy."
"Okay".
I "hid" it downstairs with their other presents in the spare bedroom. 2 days later, he's totally forgotten about Mr. Potato Head. Either I'm too clever for him, or he's a little forgetful.

Oh and before I forget, if you're reading this from PA, don't forget about the Mom's Morning Out Christmas Potluck this Tuesday. There's always TONNES of food and lots of laughter. See you there!

That's me, Mrs. Pessimist

We were suppossed to leave to go on our annual Christmas Tree Hunt half-hour ago. We've previously done it on our own. This year, we're "suppossed" to do it with Steve's brother. He hasn't left Saskatoon yet. He wants to have a weiner roast. We have a Christmas party to go to tonite, kids have to be bathed and fed before the babysitter comes. Somehow I don't see this working out good. It's already 2 pm.

Mystery Solved

Last night I made scalloped potatoes for supper. When I was peeling them, I noticed there were little bite marks taken out of quite a few of them. Now we're not a big potato eating family. We prefer rice, so my first thought was "oh dear, we have mice." However, never seeing droppings of any sort, the mouse theory didn't have much merit. Then this morning, as I'm sitting here checking my e-mail, my daughter comes over to me and plops two potatoes, with fresh bites taken out of them, on the desk. Aha...and yuck!

7

There's this thing going around the inter-web, reminds me of a chain letter, which growing up, I always thru away. But before I threw them away, if they were questions, I'd tell myself the answers first. So I'll fill out this "questionaire" b'cos if nothing else, it might give some insight to myself, and b'cos I'm bored. So thank you Dixie.

7 Things to Do Before I Die:
1. Go to Scotland
2. Be financially secure
3. Get a tattoo
4. bike/walk/canoe across Canada
5. Do a long-term mission somewhere
6. Go to New Zealand (adventure capitol of the world!!)
7. Raise self-sufficient, God fearing, loving children into adults

7 Things I Cannot Do
1. Stay emotionally calm
2. Sleep while someone else is snoring
3. Skate (altho' for the life of me, I'm trying)
4. Watch a western movie all the way thru at one sitting
5. Drink beer
6. Sleep past 10 am.
7. Resist the convenience of fast food

7 Things That Attract Me To My Spouse (when I first met him)
1. His dog Newt
2. His cool vehicle (1982 Landcruiser)
3. His love for God
4. The way his hair curled out from under his baseball hat
5. His smile
6. His voice
7. His love for music

7 Things That Attract Me To My Spouse (now)
1. His love for God
2. His optimism
3. The way he plays with my kids
4. His love for his job (even when things go crappy)
5. The way he can make me laugh even on the crappiest of days
6. His solid hugs
7. His singing (which is so bad, it's cute)

7 Things I Say Most Often
1. "Don't"
2. "No"
3. "Don't touch."
4. "Do you have to go pee?"
5. "Obviously."
6. "No he's not here. Can I take a message?"
7. "I said, don't touch."

7 Books I Love
1. Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge
2. Little Women by Louissa May Alcott
3. The Complete Bartender (altho' I have never read it fully, I like having it on my shelf)
4. Jean M. Auel books
5. Maeve Binchy books
6. Guardian of The Balance by Irene Radford
7. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

7 Movies I Would Watch Over and Over
1. Braveheart
2. 13 Going on 30
3. The Day After Tomorrow
4. Garden State
5. Fried Green Tomatoes
6. Emma
7. Dodgeball

I'm suppossed to invite 7 people to join in on this bizarre fad, but I don't know 7 people who haven't already done this. So I'll just list a few people I know who haven't been "tagged" Steve, Gavin, Luke, Matt
If you read this blog and have time to spare, leave me your answers or e-mail them. I'd love to hear them!

This one's good...

Yet another quiz.

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

I like how they say I wave my "freak flag" once in awile. That's funny, yet so true!

Poop

WARNING!! THE FOLLOWING POST IS NOT FOR THE QUEASY OF STOMACHE!!

So the kids and I were eating some french toast for lunch, when all of a sudden Callah's face turns bright red. You know she's pooping. The stench afterward was bizarre, you'd have to have been in another room not to notice that she had indeed, pooped. So fine. She had 2 bites left so I let her finish. When she was all done, I cleaned her off and carried her to the change table, where horror of all horrors, I noticed that the poop had gone all the way up her back. Yuck. I gave up cleaning her and just took her to the bath. I finally cleaned up her mess and laid her down for her nap. Then I went to clean up the table and dishes. What do I find? Poop. Little "crumbs" of poop on her highchair. Sick. I look at the table cloth. Gross. Poop is smeared all along the one side. I shudder even now remembering. If she poops again, I'll leave it so her Daddy can clean it up.

On the flip side, Matthias pooped in the potty today! Yeah!! Hooray!!

Not a fan of myself

Well I just took this BOOK QUIZ, and I must say, if I were on a shelf, I wouldn't want to read me.

You're Mother Night!

by Kurt Vonnegut

Nobody knows what to believe about you, and you know least of all. You

spent most of your time convinced that the ends justify the means, but your means were,

well, downright mean! And the end is nigh. Meanwhile all you want is to travel back in

time, if not to change, then to just delight in the way it used to be. You are who you

pretend to be. Oh yes, you're the great pretender.

Take the Book Quiz

at the Blue Pyramid.

Manly Man

I had a few titles in my head throughout the day, I'm not really sure why I settled on "Manly Man". Really, what is a Manly Man? Well, being as I just finished watching The Lord of The Rings: Two Towers no CBC, I'd have to say Aragorn (a.k.a. Viggo Mortenson). Now there's a manly man.
sigh.
Steve knows about this little crush ( He also knows about the Stetson man, Matthew McConaughey. But that's another story all in itself.) and he's okay with it, 'cos I know about his on Janet Jackson. Anyway, to me there's just something manly about a guy who looks good dirty. If you notice, not once, are Aragorn's hands clean. If they appear to be, they really aren't around the nails and in the crevices of his hands. He grows stubble very well too. Another manly trait. Steve looks very good in grubbies. Remember this is just my opinion. There's also something soft lurking behind that dirty exterior tho'. In Aragorn's case, there's the deep love he has for Arwen, played by Liv Tyler. This kind of love story reminds me of my favourite movie, Bravheart, and the love story that makes the whole movie (between William and Murron). The kind that I used to dream of as a kid. Where some big, masculine, tough guy (a manly man) would fall in love with me and nothing could break that love.
But that's just fairy tale. True love like that doesn't exist anymore it seems. It's harder and harder to keep a love like that together. Why?
Of course I have no idea. That's one of those questions that I'm just gonna throw out there. Not really expecting an answer. Just something to think about.

Tomorrow at Mom's we're doing a Christmas craft. A snowflake ornament I believe. Or you can bring your own artistic creation and work on it. I encourage you to attend if you live in the area. It's a chance to get out, and the colder it gets, the harder it will be to get out.

This past weekend Steve went to Edmonton with his Dad and brother to see an Oilers game. A dream come true for him, not necessarily with the Oilers, but an NHL game. The thing that I wanted to mention, was that it's funny how accustomed we get to having someone in the bed with us. I used to sleep with my dog on my bed growing up, a big dalmation cross. She snored like there was no end, mind you, now that I think of it, so does Steve. Another thing they have in common. Anyway, after I left home, I missed Sasha's (my dog) warmth. It took awhile to get used to. Then I married Steve and had to get used to having another (hairy) body all over again. Now, whenever he goes away, I have terrible sleeps. Not only do I miss his warmth (he's like a dutch oven) but I just miss having someone there, beside me. And a big pillow just doesn't cut it. Makes me think of how hard it'll be when they're gone.

20 days till Christmas. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

A Thought on Being Loved

I'm just going to throw this one on here. Enjoy.

Update

I was right. Matthias threw up twice last night before 2 am. and was up again at 5 am. Callah cried out off and on all night. The good thing, I guess, was that Steve's truck didn't start this morning, so he got up with the kids, leaving me an xtra hour of sleep. What a great guy!