Pain pain...

Go away!

Actually, let's bring on the pain so I can GET THIS BABY OUTTA HERE!!

This past weekend I was away at our church Ladies Retreat. In my opinion it was one of the best that I've been to with this church (well done organizers!). Friday and Saturday night we had Vespers and I really enjoyed them. We do something similiar at my Wednesday night biblestudies. Something about ancient prayers heaped with tradition that I find soothing and comforting. This is just a sample of what we did on the weekend.

The Lords Prayer (taken from here)

Because we love God, we say:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Because loving God means that we yearn for God to make his glory known, we say:
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Because loving God means we love others as God loves others, we long for all to have the necessities of life, and we say:
Give us this day our daily bread.
Because we love others, we seek to unleash God's grace of forgiveness and say:
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Because we love others, we long that they will love and live God's will, so we say:
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Because we love God, and because we love others, we lift our hearts to God and say:
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Forever and ever. Amen.

We say this today becuase we love God and love others.

In the name of the Father precious,
and of the Spirit of healing balm.
In the name of the Lord Jesus,
I lay me down to rest.

The peace of all peace
be mine this night
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Magic words

When you're pregnant there are certain words that bring a smile to your face and there are some that don't.

When you walk into an office and the secretary takes one look at you and says," Whoa, you don't look good."

Those aren't no magic words.

Tuesday...

Is usually an enjoyable day. I get to go to Mom's and hang out kid free for a bit. The kids get a chance to go out and play with other kids. Steve spends most of the day at the church which frees us up to do whatever we want at home. It's usually a good day.

This morning I could barely keep my head up after I "woke" up. The kids didn't get to come to Mom's with me 'cos I had to leave early for a doctor's appointment (2 stones...the kids didn't get out and I had to leave early). Then Steve and I waited for 2 and a half hours (that's right, 2.5 hours!!!!) to see the doctor for a 10 minute pre-natal check up. I still can't believe it! Ugh!!

2 and a 1/2 hours...

So of course by the time we actually got home, the kids were up from their "nap" meaning I was given a slim-none chance of napping myself. And Steve took off right away for a chiro appointment that he had made, thinking he'd have tonnes of time beforehand to do some computer work himself.

What a waste.

I just hope the rest of the day goes well.

Oh yeah, and incase you're wondering, baby is fine. Meeting the delivery doctor went good (Steve made some crack about how we like to eat the placenta- which we don't- so I'm sure he's really looking forward to delivering our baby!) and now we just wait.

Pathetic I am

The kids have been home roughly 18 hrs. 10 of those they've been asleep.

I am

SO

TIRED.

It's amazing how much energy they suck out of you. Now I really know why I'm so tired this pregnancy. It's b'cos I have two extremely energetic kids.

Not to mention 10 minutes after they got home they managed to torpedo all the toys from their room into the living room.

This morning there's Rice Krispies falling from the roof. I mean where else would they come from to wind up all over the kitchen and living room. It's a miracle!

I can't wait for a nap.

Feet

I love feet. I love all the lines and muscles and veins that stick out and add character to a person's foot. Back in my drawing days (and Steve usually gets on me for not "re-living" my drawing days more often. My excuse is that I have no time nowadays, he says that's a lie, I say alright...I have to be in the right mood, he says it seems like I'm only in the mood to watch TV these days, and then we sit there glaring at each other for a while until I mutter something about he's right, that's all I feel like doing nowadays) I would take black and white photos of people's hands and feet and then sketch them. A person's hands and feet can tell alot about them. If they're workers, they're hands will be rough and grainy, if they're old they'll have wrinkles and life lines, and the young are smooth and sleek.

One of the things I love most about my body are my feet. I love how the veins stick out the top and you can see all the bones. One of the things I HATE most about being pregnant is that my feet swell up and I can no longer see any of these things that I love. It's like the last straw. I'm okay (well, no not really, but let's pretend) with the weight gain, the heartburn, the cravings and painful kicks, as long as I can still see and love my feet. But I tell ya, once those feet turn swollen and ugly, all hope is lost.

Same goes for my hands. I hate how they turn into little porker sausages and there's no hope at all of ever getting my ring off my wedding finger (well unless I stick it in the snow or the freezer for a length of time).

I really thought I'd avoid the whole swelling thing with a winter pregnancy. Sadly it appears not.

Happy BirValentine's Day

A few years ago I received a card from my hubby that said, "Happy BirValentine's Day". At the time I was both impressed that he remembered both (Valentine's Day and my birthday) and upset that he had combined them. You see today is my birthday. The day after Valentine's day.
The whole time I was growing up they never got entwined. It wasn't actually until I married Steve that they became one. And it wasn't until this year that they got righted again. B'cos the kids were gone all week we celebrated my birthday on Monday with supper out. Desserts with friends on Tuesday. Wednesday was Valentine's Day and today we headed to S'toon for a day out. In fact I'd have to say that this year has been one of the best in recent years. The phone rang this morning to wake us up. It was the kids singing Happy Birthday. I can only think of one better way to wake up, and that would be having them here. Then my 2 yr. old nephew phoned to wish me Happy Birthday as well. We had clear roads to and from S'toon. Got to see an awesome movie and had yummy burgers in our favourite pub for supper. It was a really good day!

In less than 24 hours the kids will be home and our "freedom" week will be done. I accomplished everything I set out to do, plus some, so the week in my opinion was a complete success!! I feel ready for the new arrival and can't wait to see what the next few weeks have instore!

First thoughts on "freedom"

The kids have been gone now for about 46 hours. The first thought when we got home, after dropping them off with my parents, was how quiet the house was. Steve quickly solved that by turning on Hockey Nite in Canada.

I'm thinking of things I can do this week without them. Get a massage. Eat cookies and not have to worry about sharing (that's so mean to say...yet so true!). Go out with the hubby and not have to worry about finding a babysitter, time constraints with babysitter and paying the babysitter. Bake apple pies without getting flour all over the kitchen (thanks to my little "helpers"!). And numerous other things. Mainly my goal is to go thru all the kid stuff, find and wash all neutral babystuff and organize the baby room.

What I've done so far?

Gone bowling till 2 am Saturday night. Napped for 3 hours Sunday afternoon. Watched movies again till 1 am Sunday night. Slept in till 9:20 am this morning (I had a doctor's appointment at 10).

So not alot.

And I miss them. I missed them before they even left. I actually miss hearing them cry out at night. I find myself checking in on their room at night, just to make sure everything's fine. I feel the urge to call my parent's and make sure everything is okay and I'm sure it is, they raised 4 kids of their own, so it's not like they can't handle 2.

But I'll use my emotional pregnant state as an excuse. After all I cried numerous times during the Grammy awards last night. That in itself is pretty sad.

So the clock is still ticking. The music is louder than it should be and we have over 96 hours left to go. I'm sure my opinion will change as we get closer to Friday.

Russian video

I received this in my e-mail today and thought it was pretty cool. Check it out. The story goes:

This tunnel in Russia is the longest in-city tunnel of Europe. There is a river running over it and water leaks at some points. When the temperature reaches minus 38 degrees like it did this particular winter, the road freezes and the result is the attached video taken during a SINGLE DAY with the tunnel camera. Congratulations to the dual bus driver .

What I can't believe is that after some of these major crashes, the other cars just try to get around them and continue on their way. Nice.

*Apparently I have no idea what I'm doing. When you click on the link above it takes you to the UTube site, but not the crash video, so you have to type in "russian tunnel" in the search area and then it will link you to the actual video. I still think it's worth checking out.

The new ketchup?

For lunch today Matthias wanted KD (a boy of my own true heart) and I asked Callah to help by getting the ketchup and chocolate sauce (for chocolate milk of course) out of the fridge. Which she did.

And I turned my back.

And she poured chocolate sauce into the pot of KD.

To be honest, it didn't taste that bad. Really sweet. It looked completely disgusting tho'.

Oh well. Lesson learned.

Congratulations?

Monday I went for another check-up to see if the baby had turned. It had. I was hoping that was all they would do, check the position of the baby, but no, I had to get the whole "experience" done once again (weighing, doppler and measuring). At the time I thought it was quite comical, the whole weighing thing, as I am 2 lbs short of being the biggest I've ever been (this is where the congratulations comes in?). You know I thought it would be funny to invent a card for pregnant mother's...Congratulations on being the biggest you've ever been! But that (sick) humour quickly faded and came to a sobbing hault last night, lying in bed. I felt repulsively huge. Definately not funny anymore.

I think tho' one of the things that's annoying me lately is myself. I'm getting jealous and angry at people who seem to have it all together. Seem so perfect. And I know that's just so wrong.

Last night I apologized to Steve for not being a trophy wife. For not being some pretty, little, "perfect" wife. I apologized for being a butch (big boned...yeah whatever....) and he said that's one of the reasons he married me, 'cos I AM a hard worker and not some trophy there to look pretty. I think that was a good thing, at least I know it was intended as a good thing.

And now I just feel miserable. A friend of mine loves being pregnant and loves to show it off (the fact that she is pregnant) and I guess I'm just annoyed 'cos I don't look like that, never will look like that and I don't have her confidence to show it off like that (even if I did). And so sometimes when I'm around her I feel like a large freak of nature. But what can I do to get around that? Avoid her? I honestly do enjoy her friendship, and like I said, I know it's just me 'cos I'm annoyed with other people too. So definately, I'm the problem here.

Argh...females are so complicated. Pregnancy sucks. And emotions can be so nasty.

I hate this moment right now.

That was totally wicked!!!

For the past 6 years (basically since I've lived in PA on my own - meaning without my parents) I always drag myself out in the bitterly cold to watch the Canadian Sled Dog Challenge. One year I even went out to watch them come in and close the race. To me there's something really exciting and ...well...Canadian about watching them. Maybe it has to do with the fact that when I was 5 I jumped off my bunkbed and landed feet first onto a miniature wooden dog sled. The handle part at the back broke and stabbed into the sole of my foot. I don't know, but the whole idea of battling the frigid cold and terrain with just a pack of dogs and a sled is really exciting (something you'd NEVER see on Survivor). This is just something that you don't see in very many places. I feel proud that I can experience a little bit of it. Now that I have children of my own, I drag them out to watch too. So that's what we did today. Right after my bible study we came home to pack on the clothes and headed out to the Lil' Red to watch the dog sleds. The kids were totally excited until we got out there and waited in the freezing wind for the first sled to come. But they lasted longer than we thought they would and Matthias, altho' complaining that he was cold, kept making snow angels in the ditch all the way back to the van.

We were watching them at the turn off the main road to Pine Grove. The organizers did it differently this year, as they had them run around the Lil' Red Park. Which maybe had it's good points, I don't know, but what I do know is that where we were watching, the road was pure ice. We watched 7 sleds go by and 4 of them slowed right down to a stop to turn the corner and one tragically overturned and both the musher and the passenger were thrown from the sled. The musher seemed a little out of it and the passenger had a bleeding nose, but otherwise unscathed. Steve felt like a hero as he ran ahead to catch the runaway dogs. That's my man!

Then we drove out to Emma Lake (my parents are looking at cabins out there) and on the way back we passed a HUGE accident that invovled a semi-truck and an SUV. The front tires of the trailer on the truck were completely destroyed and the whole front of the SUV was bashed in. Steve said it looked like the SUV hit the semi, got sucked under and spun out. I hope everyone was alright. The crash was right beside where the dogs run, so that too, I hope they are all alright.

And that's been our day so far. At least Steve is feeling better!