Snapshots of a lifetime

Tonight, I'm preparing a Father's Day gift for my Dad. I've been going through all my pictures, paper and digital, in search of the nine perfect photos to put in the frame I've bought him. It's so easy to forget how many pictures I have stashed away in my picture box and in various folders on the computer, but so many vivid memories are re-awoken when I flip through them.

There are a few small photographs of me as a young child which have been handed down from my mother. My small chubby cheeks so full of life show glimmers of the gleeful grins of my children years away from existence. Life was so simple then. Summers were so bright, my brother was my hero, and my parents knew all the secrets to life.

Another section shows my life during high school with friends long gone and some still dear to me. I want to step into those pictures and say "Stop being so scared of looking stupid and just enjoy yourself. You're young and brilliant and you can do anything".

After the high school pictures come the pregnancy pictures. I laugh now at how huge I thought I was. Six months pregnant and you can't even see that bump under that huge t-shirt! Just wait til the next baby, chick, that'll show you what a big belly looks like. I was so young, so unaware of all the changes that were about to come into my life with the entrance of such a small beautiful boy. I had no idea what it meant to be a mother and how many lessons I would learn deep within my heart, many of them during the darkest hours of night as my babe and I nestled together.

The stack of Nicholas' baby and early childhood pictures is huge. We took shot after shot of that daring grin and those dancing eyes. I'm blown away at how quickly those chubby little legs grew long and lean, and I still can't quite figure out where those cheeks I used to kiss for hours on end went.

As life continued there are the pictures of such happy times: the night I met Liam, Jo and Graeme's wedding, my wedding and honeymoon. As I look back on these pictures I know I am truly blessed to have had a life filled with so many loving people who have borought me such joy.

Now I have another pile of baby pictures growing, though these are almost exclusively digital. Lillian's babyhood is such a part of my life right now that I can't imagine looking back and saying "She was such a beautiful baby and look what a big girl she is now". I love how soft and sweet she is and I cannot imagine her ever changing.

As much as I may try to hang on to the present, though, all these pictures have reminded me of just how quickly change sweeps through everything. My interests change, new friends come into my life, and my children grow up more quickly than I can keep track of. I love my life exactly as it is right now. I would give so much to freeze everything just as it is right now so I could enjoy these moments forever...The deep and fulfilling love I have found with Liam, Nicholas' bright and curious spirit, and the deliciousness of Lillian. I know, though, that new joys and experiences await me, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for my family. I'll just make sure to take lots of pictures so I don't forget what today has been.

Open letters once more

I apologize to my poor blog and those poor people who read it. I've rather neglected my blogging duties lately, and although I've been crazy busy these past few weeks there's no good reason for ignoring a perfectly fun blog.

To break the recent silence, here are some open letters.

To Intuit,

I want my freaking husband back. Sure, you may have given him a job that he loves so much that work is like play, but you're going to kill him if he doesn't get some sleep soon. Not to mention the kids barely recognize him anymore. Today, I sat at the computer and Nick looked around and asked "Where's Liam?". It's a sign. Leave him alone for a few hours now and then would you?

To my neighbour's mom,

I'm sure Neighbour Chick appreciates that you're house-sitting for her, but the rest of us would appreciate it if you'd tone down your porn-like escapades. When my baby wakes up at 4 am because you're literally screaming your little head off, you're making too much noise. It's nice and all that you're getting so much enjoyment out of your sex life this late in life, but the rest of the world really don't need to hear about it once or twice every night. Shut the hell up.

To Nicholas,

Please erase the phrase "Stop telling me what to do!" from your brain. You can also lump in "He-LLO?" with it too. You're not a teenager yet so stop talking like one.

Sad news

For those of you who recall my entry requesting prayers for a young woman a few months ago, I wanted to share the sad news of her passing. I'm shocked by the sudden downward turn her health took and I still don't quite have my brain wrapped around it. I can only hope that her family is able to find some some comfort in this time of sorrow.

The following is her obituary.


Tanya Kilkenny


KILKENNY, Tanya Marie (nee Sundlie) 1975-2006 It is with great sorrow we announce the passing of Tanya Kilkenny, our beloved "T" on Thursday, June 1, 2006 at the age of 30 years. Tanya leaves to mourn her loving husband, Clint and her five month old daughter Trinity; her parents Gordon and Sandria Sundlie; her sister Shawna (Keven) McGhan and their children Ethan and Julia; her brother David Sundlie. Also surviving are her mother-in-law Myra Kilkenny and brothers-in-law Brad (Jamie) and Tyler. Four days after Tanya was diagnosed with cancer, she had a healthy baby girl, Trinity, by emergency c-section and had surgery to remove the tumor. Always upbeat and positive throughout an aggressive chemotherapy and radiation regimen, Tanya was an inspiration to many. Sadly one month after a clear bill of health, the aggressive cancer returned and she passed away surrounded by family and friends. Tanya grew up on acreage in Sherwood Park and from a young age loved horses. The free and wild yet gentle spirit of horses exemplified her life. She graduated with distinction from University of Alberta with a commerce degree. Tanya made her passion for people and horses her livelihood which was evident in everything that she did. Her riding students, friends and families meant the world to her. The family would like to thank the doctors and staff at the Cross Cancer Clinic and Royal Alexandra Hospital for their loving care during her illness. A Memorial Service will be held on Tuesday, June 6, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, 205 Fir Street, Sherwood Park. Friends who so wish may make donations to the "Trinity Kilkenny Trust" fund. This may be done at any Alberta Treasury Branch. South Side Memorial Chapel. Patterson, Mittelstadt & Justik. 432-1601. To send condolences visit, www.southsidememorial.com

Recent Reviews

Discalimer: Any typos or non-sense phrases are a direct result of the yummy mango peach coolers and I accept no reponsibility whatsoever. Nyah.

I felt like sharing my thoughts on the following book and movies which I have recently watched or read.

Ahem.

The Notebook: Liam and I really enjoyed this movie, so he bought the novel for me (birthday, Christmas...? I dunno). Anyhow, it's amazing. If you haven't seen the movie yet, rent it and sit at home with a box of kleenex. If you've watched the movie, buy (0r borrow from me) the book. As is typical of books, it offers far more depth in the characters and the sorrow conveyed by the narrator is much more intense. I came away from it thinking "I'm so glad to have found my true love" , "I hope I never take a day for granted" and "I can't wait to be looking back on a lifetime of shared memories". A must-read for married folk who want to appreciate the golden days of marriage.

War of the Worlds: I wish someone had told me it would be such a waste of time. It really did seem like it was going somewhere for a long time, and I even liked Tom Cruise in it, but what's with leaving so many questions unanswered in the terrible terrible ending? I give it a big fat raspberry. Screw you for wasting my evening.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Fun! Pretty much exactly what I'd expected. Quick and entertaining without a whole lot of substance, but things blew up and Brad Pitt was in it. I even managed to get past my dislike of Angeline Jolie enough to not be irritated by her. The best part (and the part I showed Nick) was when they shot the crap out of their house. (The house, by the way, made me insanely jealous, and not because of how huge it was but because of how clean and toy-free it was. Oh, but to have a house without toys and craft supplies everywhere...)

Fantastic Four: Another fun one. There were a few moments where it was necessary to turn off logic and remind oneself "It's based on a comic book", but all it all it was good. It made me laugh out loud several times, and that's never a bad thing. Mostly-naked dude wrapped in a pink jacket was amusing. I was also thrilled to see Commish playing a part. He's so cool.

Camp Haikus take two

Spring camp was this weekend and in light of that, here are some haikus a la spring camp.

Lily's pearly whites
Finally edged through her gums
Are there one or two?

Last camp they drank wine
We did juice and garlic shots
Well, maybe just me

How much corn was popped
By Akela late at night?
Enough to stuff us

Pit stop at Esso
Chunky puke in plastic bag
Nick felt much better

Sunshine in the morn
Sudden hail storm drenches kids
Look, the sun is back

Highlight of the fire
Was my kid telling his jokes
And others' punchlines

A fun run

Here's a photo from the recent Bay to Breakers race. Something about it made me think of Krista and I felt the need to post it. (sorry Liam!)

Happy morning to you!

Laughing babies

Click on this to instantly make your day happier. Make sure your volume is turned up. Lily gives it two drooly thumbs up.

Noooooo!

"As Spears has confirmed, she's pregnant with another child, rumored to be a girl.
Federline wants to name the baby Julia after his mom, according to In Touch Weekly, but Britney would rather name the baby Lillian after her own maternal grandmother. “She also likes the names Emily and Lola,” says a friend."


If Britney Spears names her kid Lillian I'll beat her (Britney, of course, not the baby).

Sick, sick, sick, and sick

Somebody either make me healthy and give me a real night's sleep or shoot me. Seriously.

I'm knocked out with my second cold since Easter. Nick gave it to me and he's still hacking away day and night. We're both exhausted and barely able to drag our butts through the day.

Oh, and Lillian came down with a stomach bug yesterday. Between 8 am and 1 pm she threw up about 20 times and started having diarrhea. I had her either in my arms or in the CuddlyWrap for 11 freaking hours yesterday. I finally got her settled for the night around 11, then she was up every hour until 4:30 when she threw up all over the bed. Yum.

And if that weren't enough, Liam also has this stomach thing. The poor guy had to bike home in the heat yesterday when he felt quite ill because I wasn't comfortable taking the puke-monster into the car. He's been pretty much camped out in the bathroom since yesterday.

I think there should be a few rules in place when it comes to families and illnesses.

1) Only one parent can be sick at a time.

2) If both kids are sick at the same time, only one of them is allowed to wake multiple times at night.

3) Mom should be allowed to sleep for more than 1 hour at a time when she's sick.

4) Nobody is allowed to get sick twice in a one-month period.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms! Thanks for doing the job that nobody else in the world could do!

A quickie

I thought this was too cute not to share.

Two for two

I ran both yesterday and today. Yay me!

Yesterday I went for 45 minutes and picked Nicholas up from school on the way back. Today Lily, Jack, and I headed out and I ran/walked a total of 35 minutes. I was originally going to just walk today and run tomorrow instead but I was feeling really good and Liam convinced me to go for it.

My ankle is holding out pretty well though it's kind of sore right now. I've already iced it once and I'll ice it at least once more tonight. I'd be very bummed out if I messed it up and set myself back again.

I'm pretty happy with the running I'm able to do. I thought I'd have to take things a lot more slowly than I am, but I guess that the regular walking I'd been doing combined with being pretty busy throughout the day have kept me in better shape than I'd anticipated.

After talking with Chantal last night (who is currently doing a Running Room clinic), I started thinking about doing the run/walk ratio Running Room suggests. After a number of weeks, you work up to 5 minutes of running to 1 minute of walking, then in the long term 10 running to 1 walking. They suggest running entire half-marathons in this manner. (When I did my half-marathon in 2002 my training didn't involve any type of walking breaks)

Anyhow, today I paid attention to my stopwatch and aimed for a 2:1 ratio. Unfortunately, the mental part of paying such close attention to my time caused me some grief and I'd shoot myself down or get too anxious to push for as long as I could really go. Next run, I'll tune out the watch and just focus on how I feel. Maybe I'll try incorporating a 5:1 when I'm more into the swing of things.

And that is the end of my mental ramblings on running.

You're called a parent because that's what you're supposed to do

I am growing increasingly disgusted with the parents in my area. (No, this is not aimed at anyone with the last name of Leddy!) Here’s warning that this is nothing but a rant because I’m very ticked off.

On Friday, I saw a little boy wandering around alone in our parking lot. He followed my neighbour up the stairs to her house and I offered to take him back home. This cute little boy was maybe 3 1/2 years old, couldn't tell me where his home was, and trustingly took my hand and followed me as we tried to find his Mom. As grateful as I was to be able to help him out, it scared me how easily he followed me, a total stranger, around. We eventually found a man (Dad, Uncle, random guy??) who said he was looking for him. He very nonchalantly explained that the boy had taken the garbage out and walked off with him.

Today, a little boy (about 4 years old) a few doors down played outside from 10-1:30 and Nick played with him from about 10:30-11 and when the little boy went to ask his mom if he could come over to our house, she was nowhere to be found. He called and called her but nobody answered. After Nicholas was gone to school, the boy continued to play outside of our yard and teased Jack by yelling at him, poking his fingers through the fence, and putting sticks over the fence. I asked him FIVE times to stop teasing the dog and then I went outside and very loudly (are you hearing this Mom??) told him to stop it immediately.

A full half hour later, I heard his mom asking him “Are you still playing with your friend? If he’s not outside anymore come back in the yard”. Sorry, lady, but my kid has been gone for almost an hour and a half. Maybe you’d have noticed if you were actually properly supervising your kid.

I’m sad to see how little supervision these young kids seem to have. When did kids stop being important?? My kids are the most precious things in the world to me and I can't imagine letting them wander around without anyone keeping an eye on them. It takes all of two seconds for some sicko to make off with them, or for them to get hurt.

Just parent your children already.

I did it!!

So, I made the plunge and went for my first run in over a year and a half. Woohoo!! It was only a short one (about 25 minutes) but I ran more than I walked, I had fun, and I felt great at the end of it.

My lungs are a little bit angry at me right now (I'm still hacking from that cold last week) but at least my ankle feels fine. I took the advice of the Running Room Dude and I iced it for 15 minutes when I got home, so hopefully it will still feel fine tomorrow.

I knew that I missed running but I didn't realize just how much until I actually got out there again. Here's hoping I remember how good it feels so that I stick to my goal of three runs each week!!

Eegad!

The wonky Johnstone lip has successfully been handed down another generation.

Photo credits to Krista. Thanks for being the party photographer!

Happy B-day!!!

Umm...yeah, so I can use Paint but not Photoshop, so I just fixed up a nice picture. The kid looks enough like you that I figured I could just leave it.

So happy 30th old fella! I hope that today will be at least half as good as yesterday's non-birthday-day-birthday-party. I didn't hear any creaking joints when you got out of bed this morning so apparantly the jump in your age hasn't quite caught up with you yet.

I hope your day is filled with lots of annoying people wishing you a happy birthday and I can't wait to be at your side when you're blowing out the candles on your 60th.

Happy Easter!!

Hip-Hop-Happy Easter everyone!!!

Ah crap

So...I twisted my ankle today and fell again. Yup. It was the one that was still sore from my fall eight weeks ago.

I stepped in a dip at the dog park and rolled it. Lily and I crashed. Stupid freaking ground.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't re-damaged it too much. I just want to be able to walk like everyone else!!

Yeehaw!

Liam's home.

Life is good.

That's all.

Wow

The things I find online scare me...

Lactating wanted woman for fun and freindship


Would like to spend some quality time with a woman who is or will be lactating. Good sex and fun guaranteed.


And it's a local ad too. Hhhmmm...when will you be back Liam?

Being alone is lonely

So, Liam has been gone for 51 hours and will be back in...another 63ish. Not that I'm counting or anything.

I feel like a big sap for missing him so much. I actually cried after he gave me a goodbye kiss and headed outside to wait for the cab. I knew I would miss him, but I didn't count on feeling so outright lonely. I've been trying to find ways to make the time pass by whereas when he's home time seems to just fly by.

I guess that this says good things about our marriage at least. When I say that he's my best friend and that I love spending time with him I'm not just paying him lip service. In the almost two years that we've been married he's become the core of my life and I really like it that way.

Anyhow, here's a picture he sent me. I called dibs on posting it first. Nyaha.

Does it make me a bad person?

I really want to find a new home for Fingers.

She (who I actually suspect is a he) is driving me nutty. Between waking me up more than the baby does, the constant meowing and begging to go outside, and trying to keep her and Nick from killing each other, I'm about done. For this cat not being mine I sure do spend a lot of time with her.

Liam, even Nick wants the cat gone. It's a sign. Can I offer her up on Freecycle (or maybe to Mr. Woods??!)?

Mini-goal update

So, April first was the date I was to reach my first mini-goal of losing a total of 25 lbs. Due to technical difficulties (aka the new digital scale that gives random readings within about 5 lbs of the truth) I know that I am somewhere close but not exactly certain of the numbers. I'm guesstimating that I'm about 5 lbs away from my goal but I'm quite happy with the progress I've made.

The biggest factor in not reaching my goal was the setback I had with my sprained ankle. I'd been planning on getting back into running around a month ago but the inability to even walk kind of put a damper on that. Considering I'd been counting on the running to shave off a few pounds, not even going for a decent walk for 5 weeks didn't allow for that.

The best thing I've noticed lately, and the key to not gaining or stalling out completely despite my lack of exercise, has been my gradual shift in thinking about food. Having read Body Clutter, I was able to gain some insight into my eating habits and I began to eat more consciously. I'll fully admit that I am still an emotional eater (add a bit of stress and watch me go!!) but the instances of mindless munching has gone down considerably.

Now that I've got some substantial change happening, I find my attitude changing. Rather than "Ugh, losing 55 lbs is going to be a lot of work" it's more "Ok, I've chipped away at 20 lbs, now I've got only 35 to go". It certainly helps that I'm fitting back into some pre-pregnancy clothes (like my denim skirt that I really really missed!!) and able to pick out clothing based on what looks nice not just what I'll fit into. Beginning to feel good about my body fuels my determination to keep going.

And so, my next mini-goal will be to make it back to my pre-pregnancy weight (10 lbs from where I am now) by June first. That's 10 lbs in 8 weeks, but I think I can do it safely and easily with increased exercise. The sunshine and warm air are making me itch to get out and walk or run. Lillian loves being in the CuddlyWrap when we go out and Jack never says no, so they're some really good incentives as well.

What am I turning into??

It's official. I've become trendy.

No, not in the way that everyone will want to become me, but more in the way that I've followed the cell phone trend and have purchased a Motorola Razr. And it's pink. PINK!!!

The best (or worst) part is that it matches my new pink diaper bag. The diaper bag, by the way, is satin brocade fabric with a cherry blossom design. It's all so pink.

I'm overwhelmed by an urge to buy pink nailpolish and fluffy earmuffs. Someone hold me.

Parenting, Liam style

A couple of weeks ago, I looked into the living room to see Liam bouncing Lily up and down and repeating over and over again in a girly-esque voice "I'm a pretty princess! I'm a pretty princess!!". My manly man is no more.

This morning while brushing my teeth, I overheard Liam saying to Nicholas "Even Spiderman does it that way.". I believe they were discussing Nick's web-shooter.

Princesses and superheroes apparantly make for good role models.

Heh

So there are very few things quite as entertaining as watching a baby trying repeatedly to catch an avocado pit as it rolls away. It's level of funny had absolutely nothing to do with my incredible lack of sleep lately. Nope. Just because I giggled so hard when the cereal attacked me that Liam asked if I was high isn't a sign of anything. Nope nope.

I need some freaking sleep.

Lilliam

Lillian is very much like her Dad. We've joked that the name Lillian actually sounds a lot like L'il Liam, which isn't too far from the truth. Here is further proof that Lillian is just a smaller, cuter, more girly version of Pappa John.

1. The scalp-to-hair ratio. In Lily's defense, though, she's gaining ground rapidly.

2. She's happy just hanging out and can amuse herself for extended periods of time with a plastic cup. (For Liam, think coffee mug.)

3. She speaks in grunts and nonsense chatter.

4. She's got that cute pudgy belly.

5. Her life revolves around my boobs.

6. She loves my hair more than I do.

7. She can fall asleep anywhere, anytime.

8. She gets very cranky when she lacks food or sleep.

9. She really likes books (more in the way of trying to chew on them when I'm feeding her, but close enough).

10. Watching her trying to roll over is a source of great amusement.

Humph!

So does everyone remember my beautiful new bedspread I purchased only a couple of months ago? The one that I was so excited about because it meant that I didn't have to use the ratty Walmart one any longer?

Yeah. It's in the wash. Jack PEED on it!!

He jumped into the bed and when I told him to get down (he almost landed on the Lilybird) he went to the foot of the bed and lifted his leg. And peed. A lot.

I'm so completely unimpressed right now. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it comes out of the wash in one piece. I put it on delicate just in case.

Officially official

Since Helen has been demanding a foot update (such a demanding woman that Helen!) here is my official foot update.

My foot is much better than it was but it's still frustratingly far from normal. The last of the bruising around my toes is finally fading but the swelling below my ankle bone seems to be sticking around.

My range of motion is pretty good except for pointing my toes down and in. I still gimp down the stairs a bit and I've discovered, quite painfully, that I can't go up on my tiptoes yet. Oh, and wiggling on my shoes is bad. Bad bad bad.

The biggest frustration for me right now is how little I can walk. A shopping trip makes me ache since I'm using my muscles wrong and I haven't gone for a decent walk outside in three weeks. Ugh.

Anyhow, hopefully Liam's right and I'll be pain-free in a couple of weeks. Since my plan of running in March has been squashed, I'm now hoping to get on the running bandwagon around the start of April.

Wow!

I fell asleep with the kids last night around 9:30 and my house was a disaster. I woke up at 7 this morning to find that my entire downstairs was spotless and there was a fresh pot of coffee made.

Either the cleaning and coffee fairies were here or I truly do have the best husband in the world.

Cutie cuties

Anyone who knows me well knows I don't do mornings. Well, because I was especially tired yesterday, Lily stayed up til 11:45 last night and the cat woke Nicholas up at 5:45 this morning.

In an attempt to cheer the heck up, I'm sharing these ultra-cute photos, courtesy of Cute Overlaod. I'll actually add them to my blog links someday.

Enjoy.

My Coffee!!!

A little while ago, I made my morning coffee as usual. Usual, by the way, is filling the water line to just above 4 cups and adding 3 Tablespoons of grounds to the basket in case anyone is interested.

Anyhow, I came upstairs to get dressed then remembered that my pants were down in the dryer. Following Kim logic, I decided to sit at the computer for a bit since I was upstairs anyhow.

By the time I went back down 10 minutes or so later, I smelled my coffee and thought "Hot diggity, I can start my first cup while I'm getting dressed!!" and proceeded to enter the kitchen to fulfill my fantasy.

Instead of a beautiful dark-brown lake of coffee steaming away in the pot, I found coffee-ground soup. Euch!! I forgot to push the pot in all the way and the sometimes-faulty Pour-a-cup feature had kept most of the coffee up in the basket.

I dumped the entire thing into the sink and phoned Liam, repeating over and over again "My coffee, my coffee!!!". He understood.

My coffee maker has now had a bath and a new pot is (hopefully) successfully brewing. I don't know how much more trauma I can handle this morning.

Good Morning!!

Well, that'll wake me up quicker than any cup of coffee.

This morning, Liam got up with Fingers around 7 and headed downstairs. A few minutes later, Nicholas woke up and came stumbling into our room. I mumbled "Your Dad is downstairs" and promptly fell back asleep.

Eight o'clock rolls by and Nicholas was back again saying "You need to wake up or you'll miss Tae Kwon Do". Ugh. When I asked where Liam was, Nick said he was asleep on the couch. Cursing the few hours of sleep I'd snuck in, I got up and stumbled to the bathroom.

I pushed the bathroom door open and walked in, noticing that the air seemed kind of warm. I wondered if Liam had turned the heat up as I turned to close the door. Then, all of a sudden, I noticed that there was A NAKED MAN SITTING IN MY BATHTUB!!!

I think it took my brain about five full seconds to realize that it was Liam, by which point I had gasped, stepped back, and almost fallen over.

Now I've made everyone picture Liam naked in the tub and that makes me laugh.

So yeah. Good morning world. Once my heart stops beating at 200 bpm I'll go make some coffee.

Blogger my shiny shiny love

So, to celebrate the ending of February and the entrance of a bright new month, here's a happier entry.

My husband rocks. Yesterday, not only did he go grocery shopping after work but he came home and washed the dishes. All of them. While he washed said dishes, I was not allowed to do anything. When I tried to clean up the living room, I was physically forced to sit down and I had a book shoved into my hands. Yay for reading.

Lily has finally figured out the rolling thing. After that inital roll a few weeks back, she'd kind of forgotten the fluke that flipped her over. Yesterday she seemed to remember what it was all about, though, and was flipping over repeatedly. It's real cute-like, but not during diaper changes. She's also doing the "I've rolled onto my belly and now I'm tired of it but I don't know how to get out" thing as well. Screeching baby is always fun.

On the topic of Lily, she has a new cutest part. As all parents know, the nighttime diaper is very soggy and heavy first thing in the mornings. Lily's morning diapers are heavy enough that they pull down and she shows a bit of butt crack. Hairy man butt crack is nasty, but teenie tiny baby butt crack is so so cute!!

And now on to Nicholas. Last night, he was getting changed into his pj's in my room. It just so happened that Michael Buble's "Feelin good" was on the radio. During the realy swanky part with all the "Bwa wa waa"s, Nick pulled his shirt off and was swinging it around over his head. It was purely unintentional on his part, but really freaking funny. My son, stripper extrordinaire.

Oh, and now something about me. After having abandoned my Leader Applicant work for so long (I think I went a month without touching it), I finally wrote yesterday! I finished one section which translated into two typed pages. Now I just need to proof-read and send it in. Yee-haw!

Adios February!!

For such a short month, February has thoroughly kicked the crap out of me.

In just 28 short days I have:

- attended a weekend Beaver camp
- travelled to Vancouver for 5 days with 2 kids
- dealt with Nicholas getting sick not once but TWICE and Lillian once
- sprained my freaking ankle, which now looks like it's been painted with blue ink
- missed out on more hours of sleep than is healthy (thank you Lily and Fingers)
- taken part in the regular day-to-day parenting of two kids and running of our house

So, February, go away. Let March come in and be kind to me. Somehow, the Magic of March will sweep into my house at midnight tonight and the dishes will be washed, the floors will be vacuumed, and the laundry will be washed, folded, and put away.

Ugh-ugh-ugh

So, this is what it's like to have two sick kids at once, hey?

Nick started to come down with a cold on Saturday and Lillian followed suit last night. I was in bed at 6:30 this morning with a hacking boy on one side and a snuffy girl on the other. What is it with babies that they can't figure out to breathe out of their noses??

As much as I didn't envy Liam having to head out in the cold this morning, there was a definite part of me that wanted to say "Hey, I'll go to work today and you can stay home with the kids. If only he could lactate. Damn him.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part. Lily apparantly has a built-in defence mechanism against Mommies putting things in her nose. I squirted some saline solution in her nose in an effort to clear out some of the goo. She started to choke so I piked her up and she puked a huge blob of milk and goo all over me. Yum. "If you're gonna squirt stuff up my nose and slime you, woman!! Bwahaha!!"

Home again home again

(My apologies to my dear Helen in taking so long to post my Vancouver entry. I'd started it Wednesday morning before the famous stair incident. Now that I'm unable to do anything useful, I'll finish it.)

After spending five days in Vancouver here are my broad generalizations of the city and it's residents:
- Everyone drinks coffee, talks on cell phones, and walks their little dogs around the streets. Often these things happen at the same time.
- There are definite gaps between the "Have's" and the "Have-not's". People either walk around with fashionable clothes and expensive accessories or else they push shopping carts and dig through dumpsters.
- The drivers are insane. Sudden starts and stops combined with random non-signaled turns made for some very tense moments on the roads.
- Vancouverites freak out when the temperature dips near freezing in February. This is Canada, people, get over it! You've got green frickin grass and flowers in February. I'm not even sure if they can be considered Canadians with winters like that.

On the topic of Trevor and Mina's wedding, it was simply beautiful. They were married O.L.P.H church (the Vancouver version, not the Sherwood Park version I was married in) in a beautiful ceremony. Their two readings were the "my love is a gazelle" and "love is patient, love is kind" ones, both of which Liam and I had chosen for our weddings. I read the first one which is the one Trevor read for us so there were some really nice memories there for me.

Mina was absolutely gorgeous. She wore a dress that had a sleeveless bodice on top and a poofy bottom with a bit of a train. There were white fabric roses on the skirt part and she had pretty white gloves as well. Her hair was pulled up and she wore a tiara as well as a veil. I wasn't alone in thinking she looked like a princess. During her walk down the aisle, she was so nervous that she was shaking and didn't look up at all. I teased her later that if I hadn't known her I would have thought she was unhappy to be getting married since she looked so serious! She relaxed a bit during the ceremony, though, and was soon teasing Trevor once more.

We had a lunch reception in a beautiful building (the name of which I can't remember) on the UBC campus. It was a cozy and intimate set-up as there were about 55 people present. I spent much of that time in other parts of the building feeding and rocking Lily as well as playing with Nicholas who had had enough of all this boring stuff before the ceremony had even finished. I had many many moments of wishing Liam were there since I felt overwhelmed with being mostly alone with two kids and even whined to Karen once "I want my husband!".

After speeches, a short dance, and some outdoor photos of the shivering bride (she was sleeveless in near-freezing temperatures!) we packed up and headed out to Mina's parents' apartment building where they had rented an area where the cake-cutting took place and various Korean foods were served. Trevor and Mina had changed into Korean clothing for this portion and Mina looked like a beautiful doll.

After a bit, Jo and Graeme drove the kidlets and I back to the hotel since we were all tired and needed to go to bed. Within 45 minutes of getting back to the hotel room, I had both kids asleep and I had polished off a cooler. I can't remember the last time alcohol has been a better friend to me. I even wrote some alcohol-induced mushy stuff about Liam in my journal. Yeesh.

We got to see Trevor and Mina for a bit on Sunday and I kept poking Mina's belly. The chick is 17 weeks pregnant and she's just starting to get a little bump! Too cute. I made them promise to send me belly pictures throughout the rest of the pregnancy.

Oh, and the honeymoon. They've headed off to Korea for a week then they'll hit Thailand for two weeks. I'm not jealous. Really. Not at all. Uh-huh.

The remainder of the trip was spent mostly in Stanley Park. We visited the more public areas at first but the 4-hour hike in the woods was much more satisfying. Nicholas found the Haunted Tree's Great-great-great-great-great-great Grandpa. Anyone who is confused about the Haunted Tree needs to tell Liam to post about it.

And that was my trip. Here are some of the professional photos that were taken. Each guest received a cd with these pictures.

Fall down go boom

Here's a Wednesday afternoon math lesson for my blog-readers:

Kim + Snow + Stairs + Sandals = Krista's couch + Advil + Baggie of snow


Yup. I pulled a Liam and sprained my ankle. I was taking Nicholas out to the bus and fell down the cement stairs leading down to the road. I was wearing slip-on sandals and now I feel really really dumb. Ugh.

I called Nick's school and they're going to bring him out to the parking lot so I don't have to get out of the car. Krista's going to come by and carry Lily down to the car for me in a little while.

Somebody tell me that this is the only way in which Liam is rubbing off on me. If I start going bald next I'm filing for a divorce. (Sorry Liam.)

Alive on the West coast

Well, we made it! After all the mad-dash packing and wrangling the kids into various vehicles, we're in Vancouver and I'm at my brother's place. We've been ditched for an hour or so while Trevor, Mina, and my parents go get an ultrasound of Baby MacPherson. I'm just a little bit jealous.

I'll keep this short and sweet since Nicholas is waiting for a turn at the computer. He has the difficult decision on whether he should play games off of the CBC Kids site or the Crayola Kids site. Life is full of dilemnas when you're 5 years old.

We've got us a fancy-schmancy hotel room. The bedroom has a door that separates it from the sitting room. OooOOOh! And the sitting room has a fridge, microwave, TV, and teenie tiny coffee maker.

Liam, if you read this before checking you e-mail, GO CHECK YOUR E-MAIL!

I'm done.

It's been a slice

Well, Edmontonians, I'm outta here.

Until next Tuesday anyhow. Tomorrow afternoon the kids and I hop on a plane for Vancouver and we leave behind my poor abandoned husband. My brother is going to marry this stunning lady:





Here's a couple more shots of them. They did their wedding pictures in advance and these are some photos their friend snapped while the professional was doing his thing. The first one is them wearing their formal attire and the second is in traditional Korean clothing. I believe they're doing the ceremony in the Western garb and the reception in the Korean.

Camp Haikus

I was inspired this morning and so here is my report of camp in the form of multiple Haikus in chronological order. Enjoy.

"I forgot my shirt"
Turn around and go back home.
Lily starts to scream.

Sunshine on the lake.
Megaboggan pulled by Steve.
Praying for strong ice.

Steep and muddy slope.
Why did I take the short cut?
Try not to squash Lil.

Co-ordinator?
Some instructions would be good.
Spring camp? Likely not.

Asparagus soup.
Salmon sauce and moist pork loin.
Coffee dark and full.

These children are mine.
I know how to parent them.
Back off crazy broad.

Sleeping baby girl.
In bed, arms, and cuddly wrap.
Who needs a play pen?

Go home little kids.
Where in the hell is Wally?
Camp might never end.

Grumpy babe and boy.
Screams in the car and at home.
Sleep will fix it all.

Rolling rolling rolling...

I would like to take a moment to officially announce to the world that Lillian rolled over from her back to her stomach this morning for the first time. About 30 seconds later, she rolled from her stomach to her back and landed on her big brother.

She's been close to rolling for a week, but that darned right shoulder always got in the way. For some reason it clicked for her today. I personally think it's because she was naked and there was less interference to deal with.

Oh, and here's the latest Nicholas quote for his fans: "Africa is a really really poor country because one time there was a flood and it washed all the money out of the country. I think it went into the sewers."

Goal update

Here's where things stand as of today:
Total weight lost: 15 lbs
Weight left to lose before April 1: 10 lbs
Total weight remaining to goal: 40 lbs

I'm chipping away at the pounds and it looks like I'll make it to my mini-goal. Woohoo!! On Sunday I wore a skirt that I haven't fit into since early in my pregnancy when Lily made my belly start to bulge.

Today I finally did a workout video like I've been meaning to for a few months. The video was aptly named Shaping Up For Dummies and goes through twelve exercises with two sets of twelve for each. Lillian played on the floor and behaved fabulously. A dirty diaper necessitated a quick bum change between exercises 7 and 8. My doing push-ups over top of her proved to be too much of a temptation and she required a quick snack before I could move on to the next exercise. All in all, it worked out quite well so hopefully this will inspire me to do videos on a regular basis.

Well ok then Miss Screechy-Pants

Life with children is so predictably unpredictable.

Thursday morning, I received a phone call from my friend cancelling our get-together which had been slotted for that afternoon because her friend had had her baby. Fine then baby, just mess up a play-date over your arrival into the world. Don't worry about the fact that I haven't seen said friend in over a month and multiple plans were changed in order to make that afternoon work for us.

In the evening, Nicholas' cold (which had been bothering him since the previous Friday) kicked into high gear. Out with my plans to attend the LLL meeting and in with the new plans of cuddling a beet-red boy who couldn't stop hacking.

I actually did make it to the chapter meeting on Friday night, but there were only Lily, myself, and one other adult present as opposed to the 10 or so ladies and 6 or 7 babies who were present last month.

Tonight, though, was the real kicker. I'd originally planned to go to both a movie and dinner with the girls to celebrate Krista creeping closer to becoming an old woman...I mean, to celebrate Krista gracefully aging another year.

Anyhow, I decided this afternoon to cancel the movie part of the evening since Nicholas kept us all up for most of the night last night. It started with him screaming and yelling in his sleep for 5-10 minutes at a time. Fun. Next, he showed up in our room at 2 am refusing to sleep anywhere but in our bed since he was too scared for anything else. After much arguing, Lillian and I shuffled over and Liam took a blanket a pillow downstairs to the couch.

So, back to tonight. I decided to meet up with everyone at the restaurant at 6:30. Things went really well for the first, um, 30 seconds? I took Lily out of her snowsuit then Krista picked her up and passed her to Helen. That is when Lily decided that this night out was for the birds and she began to scream.

These, by the way, were not normal cries or sobs but rather full-body ear-piercing screams that threatened to shatter every glass in the building. I have three ladies and most of a restaurant who can verify that fact.

I tried to calm my seemingly-posessed baby first in the washroom then outside before deciding that something was wrong and I should get home and figure it out. By the time I left Helen and I were pretty certain it must have been an ear infection that was causing all the trouble.

As soon as I got Lillian strapped in the carseat, she started to calm down. By the time we arrived home a few minutes later she had only made a few small complaining noises. When we got in the house, I immediately took her up to bed for some serious snuggling and she proceeded to nurse, babble, and coo.

Now, before we come to the conclusion that the Lil simply decided that Opium was for the decidedly un-cool, I will point out that she did have another short episode of screaming about 15 minutes later. I popped some Tylenol and teething tablets in her and she cheered up soon after.

The next 2 1/2 hours were filled with a happy playful baby who fell asleep within 5 minutes of lying down in bed with me and she's now been asleep for about 40 minutes.

While I'm grateful that tonight ended on such a tranquil note, I sometimes wonder if it's worth making plans when my kids are young. Maybe I should just stay home, cuddle with my kids, and read some good books.

Yoga mom

A true mom video clip. If you're offended by boobage flashing or a nursing kid, don't click!

Nursing on the go

Warning: Whining ahead

Ugh. I was up until 12:30 last night with Lillian and Nicholas was awake and hacking in my ear at 6 am. Exactly how many cups of coffee am I now entitled to?

I'm seriously considering ducking out of grocery shopping this afternoon so the Lil and I can sneak in a nap before my appointment at the bank at 2.

You've gotta love kids. Not only do they give you stretch marks and mess up your house, they also keep you on the edge of lunacy through lack of sleep.

Speaking of messing up the house, does anyone else think that the Mommy Goddess got things really screwed up in the mess and time department? If you have no kids, you have lots of time and very little mess. If you've got kids you end up with lots of mess and very little time. I've also noticed that it just seems to get worse when the children multiply.

Update: Yes, the fun continues. Shortly after writing this I went downstairs and saw that Fingers had knocked over a glass of milk on the kitchen table. Suddenly my idea of storing my scrapbooking things in the new shelving unit on the table seemed quite stupid since the box for my photos has been trashed. The chair and carpet are also soaked in milk. Yum.

While I was downstairs cleaning this up Jack snuck into my room (the door to which I was certain I'd closed) and woke Lillian up. Many profanities have since been muttered.

Magic Moments

Magic 99 has become the radio station of choice in our household. Since Nicholas lives here, he spends a lot of time hearing the songs they play. As a result, the following "magic moments" have taken place:

- He has taken the tune of "Good People" by Jack Johnson and changed the words. The result has been the song "Where have all the Lilys gone?", which he sings over and over again.

- He can accurately name the artist when Sarah McLachlan, Dido, Jann Arden, Michael Buble, or Diana Krall are singing. When it's Diana Krall, he always says "My Dad is in love with her". I may or may not have anything to do with him knowing that.

- He sings along with Enya's new song. There's nothing more amusing that a 5-year-old boy singing along with Enya.

- He yelled at the radio "They stole that song from Sarah McLachlan!!". It was the Beatles singing Blackbird.

I'm so very all alone

Well, except for the two kids, the dog, and the cat, I'm all alone.

Liam and Krista (and Tash??) are gone to Woodbadge Training this weekend and I've been left to fend for myself. Really, this isn't any different than a regular weekday except that Nicholas isn't going to school, but I'm bitter about it because weekends are supposed to be my Liam time.

Maybe I'll go downstairs and get some love from Rob. If I close my eyes and make sure not to feel the top of his head I might not notice the difference.

Pirate-y goodness

You know you might be married to a pirate when:

1. He goes around saying "Yarr" all the time.

2. He shaves his head.

3. His cat likes to perch on his shoulder.

4. He's got sexy legs.

5. He takes pictures like this:

Mmm-mmm good

Here's my thought of the day for everyone:

If you think that getting soap in your eye is where it's at, you haven't lived until you get St. Ives Apricot Scrub in your eye.

There's nothing quite like feeling the little chunks of grit under your eyelid to make you want to yell out "Oh yeah, world! I'm ready for another fun day!!".

Screw you St. Ives. That hurt like a %#$@. Put a frickin warning on the bottle or something. "Warning: Keep product out of eyes unless you are planning to have them removed anyhow. Idiot."

Goals a la Kim

Since Helen and Liam have posted their goals, I feel the need to share mine.

My goals deal are more along the weight-loss line of things, rather than cleaning or reading. I've got baby weight and then some to lose, so I've got my work cut out for me.

Since beginning to weigh myslef (something like two months ago) I decided that I want to lose 55 lbs total. No, I'm not going to say what the actual weight is, but suffice to say that it's doable since I was 10 lbs lighter than that only 3 years ago.

So far, I'm down 11 lbs. By April first, I want to have lost another 14 lbs. That will leave me with another 30 lbs. Yikes.

I'm going the route of FlyLady's Body Clutter book. Along with that I'm doing her Body Clutter Investigator (a daily sheet where I record my weight, water and food intake, etc.) and walking. Sometime around March I'll get back into running as well.

Go me!

Happy birthday to me!

For my birthday, the federal government has given me $508. Yee-haw!

It's actually Nicholas' money, but the cheque is written to me. Since we were late doing our income taxes (only by 7 months or so), we were cut off from the Child Tax Benefits. This is apparantly back-pay, minus the over-payment they made when they thought I was still single.

This makes me think...in theory Lillian is owed something like $600 for back-payments. We haven't done the paperwork to apply for her yet and the only thing that's stopping me is that her birth certificate is lost somewhere in the mess that is our computer room. I hate the mess in here with a passion, but I think that I could manage to get it cleaned up for $600.

Yay free money. Now I just need that gas bonus and the other $500 we've each been promised by Klein.

It really does explain a lot

Sometimes I wonder why I feel like I'm going looney. Then I look around my house and notice things like:

- Fingers eating empty gelatine capsules. How good could those possibly taste?!

- Jack running around outside barking at snowflakes.

- Nicholas coming up with phrases like "That's why they say 'Never play with a fool's peanut!'" and "Your boobs are Lily treasure-boxes,".

- Dumb people calling me and getting the wrong number giving me attitude. No, my name is not Joy and if you repeat the name followed by a last name and some guy's name our house will not magically transform into said household.

Uh huh.

Oh

So that's what a meltdown feels like. Nifty.

Yesterday I reached my limit. I didn't know what it was, but I found it.

Maybe it was the fact that I didn't finish a single meal that I started to eat, and didn't have time to sit down at all for supper.

Maybe it was because those damn little fishcakes refused to look like little fish the way they did in the kid's cookbook.

Maybe it was the mad-dash $200 grocery-shopping trip that included the baby who had to be fed half-way through.

Or maybe it was the 6 hours of sleep I'd had the night before, or the part where Lillian woke up 3 times during those 6 short hours.

Then again, it could have been those 15 minutes I had to unload the groceries from the car, get myself and Lillian dressed to go out, and walk to Nicholas' school to pick him up.

It wouldn't surprise me either if it had something to do with those nasty postpartum hormones kicking my butt just for the fun of it.

I think the part where I arrived at Nicholas' Tae Kwon Do hoping for a chance to sit only to find out it was parents night was a part of it. Trying to participate while jiggling a baby on one hip and holding up a pad for Nicholas to kick was a bit much.

All I know is that I've never been happier to see Liam than I was last night when he showed up to rescue me at Tae Kwon Do. He took over and Lillian and I headed for the sidelines for a quick snack before heading home. I cried the whole way and my legs were wonky when I walked up to the house.

Liam, my knight in shining armor, sent me to bed at 8 and washed the mountain of dishes that had taken over the entire kitchen.

Life is better today. I've had enough food, sleep, and quiet moments that I don't feel like running away from home.

For your viewing pleasure

Gee, that wasn't too weird at all

This morning when I woke up, I found it to be incredibly warm in our bedroom. After kicking off all the blankets and moving as far away from any warm bodies as possible, I silently begged the furnace to stop pumping hot air into our bedroom. I watched the clock for ten minutes, the whole while the furnace churning away. At this point, I seriously started to consider the possibility that the furnace was broken and would never turn off again.

I went downstairs to check what temperature it was set to and was very surprised to see that our front door was wide open. It had obviously been this way for quite some time judging by the frostiness of the air downstairs and the non-stop action of the little furnace that could.

I closed and locked the door then went up to the bathroom where Liam was having a shower to ask him why the door was open. He had no idea either. The last time either of us had paid attention to the door was when he locked it before he went to bed and I checked it a few minutes later on my way to bed.

Weird.

In the half hour or so since this incident I have come up with the following possibilities as to how our front door became unlocked and opened while everyone was still in bed:

1) Liam was sleep-walking and opened it himself.
2) Fingers was really bored and spent all night working on it.
3) Lillian knows a lot more than she's telling us.
4) Someone broke into our house without leaving any footprints in the snow then decided not to steal anything.
5) The Leddys somehow ended up with a working key to our house and thought it would be funny.
6) Some not-so-funny ghost has taken up residence in our house and wanted some fresh air.

Seriously, people, somehow our door ended up open and none of us has a clue. I'm open to suggestions here. As for now, I've got both the handle and the deadbolt locked and I'll be more than happy when the sun comes up this morning. Creepy.

Trying not to scream

I just want to smack someone. Or swear really loudly. Or down about 6 shots of anything alcoholic.

Today has been one of those days.

Nicholas spent the entire afternoon being a whining grump because my parents were over. This then escalated to full-out screaming by suppertime. He insisted at one point that he couldn't pick up a carrot stick with his right hand because the cat scratch on his left hand hurt too much. Uh huh. (The cat scratch, by the way, was the result of him trying a little too hard to help Fingers go down the stairs.)

Lillian has been joining in the mayhem. She's had three naps today, all of which have been less than one hour. When she doesn't get at least one good nap (2 or more hours straight) she turns into a screechy angry baby by the evening. Oh, and her final attempt at an evening nap was ruined by Nicholas' latest meltdown/outburst. Yes, Rob, that was the screaming you heard while you and Liam were on the phone. Sorry about the timing.

So, both kids are currently in the tub and Liam is supervising. I'm seriously considering drinking and/or running away. I already ran away once, but it was only down to the parking lot and I came back when I'd supressed the urge to smack Nicholas.

(Just to keep things clear, no I do not smack my children nor do I drink copious amounts of alcohol while breastfeeding a small baby. I just happen to be seriously questioning my judgement right now.)

Taking it to a whole new level

Jack and Fingers play. A lot. Jack can rarely walk through a room without Fingers launching herself from whatever piece of furniture she's sitting on, onto Jack's back. It's actually quite a lot of fun to watch since Jack usually ends up putting Fingers' entire head in his mouth at some point, and Fingers defends herself by clawing at his eyeballs with her hind legs. Lots of laughs for everyone.

As I type, both the cat and the dog are INSIDE of a sleeping bag rolling around and beating each other up. It looks like the sleeping bag is alive and slowly unzipping itself.

The Johnstone animals are weird and I'm home alone with them.

Lum Lum Lum

This morning I tried to get in touch with Liam via his office phone for over an hour an a half. I found out later that he was in a safety meeting, but for whatever reason I had myself convinced that he was in the hospital after crashing his car on the way to work. Yeah.

Anyhow, in light of Liam not being dead I decided to write this so he knows how much we like him in his not-dead state.

An Ode to Lum

We love Lum
Because he's great.
He puts food
Upon our plate.
The kids don't call
Him Pops or Dad,
But Poppa John
Ain't so bad.
We like to gaze
At his bald head.
But mostly we like
That he's not dead.

Ah, sweet sweet justice

Fingers was at my bedroom door this morning scratching and meowing because Liam had gone to work and left her oh-so-alone. Three times I got up and sprayed her with the water bottle, though in hindsight it should have been on spray not mist. I finally got up and put her in the laundry room, by which point both kids were awake. Lillian went back to sleep but Nicholas (and therefore I) have been awake since. So very frustrating.

Nicholas is now playing with Fingers and delivering payback without even realizing it. Every few seconds he calls out "Look Mom, Fingers is a basset hound" (pushing her ears down flat against her skull) or "Look Mom, Fingers is praying" (holding her paws together in kitty prayer stance).

Take that kitten. You may have woken me up early but my kid is going to play with you all day. Muwahaha!!

It's official

My brother and Mina have confirmed their wedding date as February 18th and I've got my plane ticket booked!

Nicholas, Lillian, and I will be flying out with my parents on Thursday the 16th and returning on Tuesday the 21st. Liam will be staying home partly to keep costs down and partly to take care of all the animals.

I'm so excited! My excitement has many factors including but not limited to the following:

1) I haven't travelled in an airplane since June of 2001 and I love to fly.

2) I haven't been to Vancouver since I was a kid.

3) I can finally visit my brother, and Mina, and the Jahnses.

4) I get to be out of the house for more than a few hours!!!

5) My brother is getting married to a wonderful woman.

6) Nicholas gets to go on an airplane, which he's done before but doesn't remember since he was only a baby at the time.

I'm kind of bummed that I'll be away from Liam for so many nights, especially since he'll be gone for 2 nights the weekend before when he and Nicholas go off to Beaver camp. I don't think we've ever spent more than one night at a time apart so this is going to be odd. I'll have to post a sign-up sheet for people to take shifts keeping him company throughout the weekend.

Merry Christmas!!

We received a belated Christmas present from Telus today...a $1000 credit to my cell phone account!

Back in the day, something like 3 1/2 years ago, I got this phone and had to pay a $1000 security deposit (the reason why involves a long story but can be summed up by the phrase "my ex is an ass"). I was to receive the security deposit back if I made all of my payments on time for the length of the contract (one year).

Me being me, I messed up and was late on one or two payments and lost the deposit. Or so I thought.

Apparantly Telus has suddenly decided that I'm worthy of the full $1000 and has credited it to my account. Yee-freaking-haw!

I phoned Liam and told him I wanted to buy a new phone, then promptly told him not to let me buy a new phone.

In a strange twist of fate, he took the stance of being the money miser and suggested we put my monthly phone money towards my student loan.

So, I've just now made a payment onto my student loan of the $34.19 plus our leftover money from last month. It feels oddly satisfying to be paying money to the government.

For all the Napoleon Dynamite fans out there

This made me happy. Be happy too!!

Linky link

Hip Hop Happy New Year!!

First off, my apologies to my blog. I've been neglecting you this past week. Liam has been home so I've been kept entertained.

Secondly, happy New Year everyone!! It's scary to think that at almost exactly this time three years ago I had a multi-hour drunken conversation with some bald guy and ended up with his phone number the next morning. He had this really cool friend named Cliff, but I never did get his number.

Tonight Liam and I acted like the boring old couple that we are and we celbrated the changing of the year over snacks and Monopoly. We did take in the fireworks in Sherwood Park at 8, but that was late enough for us to be out.

During tonight's game, I learned a number of things.

1. Monopoly is still as fun as it was when I was a kid.
2. Monopoly has a lot more rules than I was aware of when I was a kid.
3. Lillian enjoys board games enough to sleep through them. (She slept through the fireworks too, so I'm kind of sensing a theme here)
4. The offer of sexual favours can be very useful when bargaining for property and/or money. (During Monopoly only of course)
5. Drinking Coke out of wine glasses makes pop-drinking seem sophisticated.
6. Liam cuts broccoli into pieces to fit his bite size, not that of a normal human.

Growing growing growing

Now that Liam has updated his blog I can talk about Fingers, our new kitten.

But I'm not. I'm going to talk about the news my brother dropped on us last night at the end of Christmas Eve gift-opening night at the MacPherson house. He and Mina are pregnant!!

They're due at the beginning of August, so she's about 8 weeks along right now. I'm gonna be an Auntie!! (I realize I'm already Auntie to Preston, but Auntie by marriage is different that Auntie by blood.)

I'm so excited! Now we just have to convince them to move back to Alberta so I can see this kid more than once every few years.

Congrats Trevor and Mina, and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Prayer request

If you're the praying type, please keep Tanya in your thoughts.

We grew up in the same subdivision and she's only a few years older than me. She was just married this fall and baby was due in a few months. It was recently discovered that she has uterine cancer, the tumor being as big as baby. A c-section and total hysterectomy was done, so now they're dealing with her illness and a premature baby during their first months of marriage.

I'm praying things will turn out well for them. I can't even begin to imagine.

Come on already Liam!!

I've got a secret that's Liam's to tell but he hasn't updated his blog yet!!

I'll give a hint though...our family is growing.

Mmmmm

So just before lunch I decided to treat myself to a glass of egg nog. I'd actually bought it for Liam, but it's been two days and he hasn't even opened it yet!

Anyhow, I poured myself a glass then poured my coffee. Inspiration hit and I decided to combine the two. (Yes, I realize that most of you have probably tried this before but I'm new to this) Oh. My. Goodness.

In other news, Liam is at a management training seminar today. I feel so alone because I can't phone him! Normally I call him up a few times about random things, so this seems so strange.

At least tomorrow is his first day of vacation and I'll have him around the house. Until Tim steals him away tomorrow night anyhow...

Baptism photos

I've been having some issues with these pictures so I'm trying uploading them from photobucket. Here goes nothing...

Ninjas are cool

Nicholas has turned into one of those kids.

Lately, he's enjoyed dressing in black pants and black shirts, even black socks and underwear if they're available. He then calls himself a ninja. The outfit is really complete when he gets to wear his "toe socks", a pair of stretchy baby socks that are too big for Lilly but just big enough to go over Nick's toes.

Today he wants to be a ninja at school, so he's wearing a pair of black jeans and a black zip-up shirt. I figured that since they're normally school clothes he won't look too odd, even though I normally don't send him in head-to-toe black.

I had a talk with him about how even though he's a ninja he still has to behave properly. I found the phrase "Even ninjas listen to Madame's rules" popping out of my mouth. I'm starting to wonder about this family...

(Oh, and baptism pictures and updates will follow when I've got more than five minutes to myself. It should be about a week from tomorrow with the way things are going around here.)

Some holiday cheer.

This is just way too fun.

Scary scary Santa

Glub Glub!

I'm drinking a rye and Coke. Well, it's actually Pepsi, but who cares?

It's been a year tonight since I've had a drink. It'll be a year tomorrow since Lillian was conceived. Coincidence? Hmm...

Make it stop!

So Lillian, that dear and oh-so-cute baby of mine, woke up last night just before I was going to bed. Then, once I brought her up to bed she had a dirty diaper. After I changed her and finally got her to sleep it was about 12:30.

At 2:30, Nicholas appeared in our bed because he was scared of the ghosts in his room. Somehow my half-asleep brain thought that it would be a good idea for him to stay with us. Half an hour and fifteen elbow jabs later, I brought him back to his bed.

At 5:30, Lillian woke up again to eat and had yet another dirty diaper. Downstairs I went again.

I need some sleep. Not just one night of good sleep either, but actual good sleep on a consistent basis. I think my brain is starting to cave in.

Coffee time for me.

And now...it's Thursday

There's really no point to this entry other than to keep Krista quiet. It's now past Monday, so here's a new entry for you.

I also added some links. If there's anyone who's unfamiliar with PostSecret it's a must. Very interesting and very creepy at times. There's an explanation somewhere on the page.

Umm...what else...my kid is chewing away at her fingers. It's almost like it's been more than five minutes since she's eaten.

Other news, other news. Um. I built a gingerbread house with my parents and Nicholas tonight. It was funny and stressful all at the same time. Lillian got icing on her nose and threw a gumball across the table. Rowdy child.

Monday Monday

Anyone who knows me well knows I don't do mornings. At least not very well anyhow. I've technically been awake since 5:30 this morning even though I stayed in bed with my eyes squeezed shut til 8. Ugh. My kids are doing the tag-team routine to keep me awake in the early morning hours.

Nicholas for some reason felt the need to prove twice over this morning that he's Liam's kid. Maybe it's the name change, who knows. He woke up at 6 and layed on the floor outside the bathroom door while Liam took a bath. Weirdo. (For anyone not familiar with Liam lore, this is what he used to do when he was a kid) Then later on (once his lazy mother dragged her butt out of bed) he leaped off the couch yelling "Da-da-da-DA-da-da! I love this song!" when a Michael Buble song came on the radio. Uh...ok. It's a good song, but mellow out a bit kid.

In other news, my house is a disaster. Does someone want to come clean it for me?

I think I may make coffee this morning instead of this afternoon. If only I had some Bailey's to add to it...

Yay for new music

In case you live in the Edmonton area and haven't come across it yet, check out Magic 99 (99.3 FM). They do the jazz/blues/pop thing.

Some of it sounds a little too close to elevator music for my taste, but they play Louis, Ella, Ray Charles, Sarah McLachlan, and Micheal Buble. There are others, of course, but these are the most important ones in my eyes...or ears I guess.

All in all, it makes me happy and isn't that what really counts?

I have no words.

There's no turning back now.

I received a letter this morning from Alberta Registries. Nicholas' name change (which we finally got around to submitting last month) has officially come through.

His full name is now Nicholas Robert MacPherson Johnstone. We bumped MacPherson into a middle name since it's been a part of his name for so long, and also because I still yell it when he's in trouble.

The poor kid. He's one of us now. I don't know if we should throw him a party or offer him my condolences.

The wheels on the bus go round and round

I'm seriously annoyed with our school's bus system.

Nicholas takes the mini bus to school at noon and it picks him up on the street right in front of our complex. It works out beautifully.

On Friday, I inquired into the bus route he'd take if he were to return home by bus as well. I've been walking to the school each afternoon, but it's now way too cold to take Lillian out for that long. After filling in a form which was faxed in to the transportation people, I got a call this morning telling me that his bus stop is two blocks south of our house. The school is two blocks east of our house, so how exactly will this do me any good?

But wait! They'll add a mysterious new stop for him after Christmas break. The only problem is that they can't even tell me where it will be. Hhmm...

Warming up and scraping off the car with Lillian in tow is a pain in the rear, but it may just be easier than dealing with this.

The many cries of Baby Lily

1. Feed me now. I'm starving.
2. Feed me now. I'm not really hungry, but I could be at any given moment.
3. Give me back that boob. I wasn't done yet.
4. My diaper is nasty. Get it off now!
5. I woke up alone. Somebody tell me they still love me!
6. I'm almost awake. Feed me before I wake up and get really angry.
7. I'm bored. Somebody make some faces for me or jiggle me or something.
8. Not that face.
9. Jiggle faster/slower/bouncier/more softly.
10. I'm grumpy. You shall suffer along with me.
11. Treat me like the princess we all know I am.
12. Get that kid off of me.
13. I can't handle all the pressure of being a good baby. Bah!!
14. I'm tired and can't be bothered to fall asleep.

Sick day

I want a sick day. Who do I call?

I need a substitute Mommy, someone who can feed and dress the kids as well as change some diapers and pick up toys. If she could lactate as well that would be a huge bonus.

I want to spend the day in bed with a thick blanket, a good book, and a hot toddy.

Seriously, people, I need a phone number.

Gahk.

Screw you Bogger.

All I asked was that you spell-check my entry, not delete it.

What a waste of a perfectly satisfying rant. Shit.

I'll re-do it when I'm not so bitter.

Infant mathematics

Proven:

Baby Lily + 3 immunizations = cranky baby + fever

Theory:

Cranky + fever + Tylenol = sleep

Somebody stop me

This afternoon I was folding a load of Lillian's laundry and I was saddened to see that I'm going to have to put away a sleeper that she's grown out of already. It was Nicholas' when he was just itty-bitty, and I was sad to put it away that time too.

I was seriously tempted to phone Liam at work to tell him that we need to have another baby just so I can put someone else into that sleeper.

Someone either talk some sense into me or start trying to convince Liam we need three kids.

Laziness

I am a lazy bum.

Liam phoned home this morning at 10:45 and I was still in bed. Asleep.

My sleeping baby rocks.

Random notes

• Liam and I recently purchased a Nora Jones cd. I like it muchly. It seems to make our house mellow. I think I listened to it 5 times back to back on Friday.

• There was a drunk guy pissing on the steps to our complex this evening when my Mom brought Nicholas home. I wonder if he got any in the Leddy yard...

• I need to lable bottles in my house. I used some oil on Lillian's head because her scalp has been dry and flakey the past few days. I thought I was putting almond oil on her but upon closer sniffing I realize it was Benediction Oil. She didn't react to it, so I'm not the worst mother in the world...barely.

• Lillian has pretty much settled on waking at 4 am and 7 am for feedings. I usually only wake up until she's latched on then I'm snoozing again before she's even done eating, so I pretty much feel like I'm sleeping through the nights already. Yay for my good-sleeping baby!

• Liam found me some more Tanya Huff novels at Wee Book on Friday. Now I just need more hours in the day so I can actually read them.

Some people's children

I apologize in advance for my bad language. I'm pissed off and I feel the need to swear.

Some ass stole my diaper bag this afternoon when we were at the pool. Liam and Nicholas went swimming and Lillian and I walked over after a while to watch them. I entered the pool, put my diaper bag down on a bench, and watched my boys. After a bit, I decided to go sit in a chair about 20 feet away from the bench. I couldn't see my bag from where I was sitting because it was around a corner, but I didn't think much of it.

About 20 minutes later, I went back to get my bag and it was gone. Someone picked up Lillian's snowsuit, took her diaper bag, and left. Fuckers.

When I realized that it was missing I spoke to a lifeguard and then a receptionist at the front desk. I was advised to check every locker, cubby, and change room in the locker rooms since thieves apparently go there with bags first.

After checking every single locker in the women's locker room and talking to several people, I decided to check the family change room before getting Liam to go through the men's locker room. Sure enough, there was my bag on a seat in the family change room. Fuckers.

Thankfully, I'd left my wallet at home so the only thing possibly worth stealing was my cell phone. It was still there and no calls had been made.

As I headed back onto the pool deck to tell Liam that all was well, I realized just how pissed off I was that someone's dirty thieving hands had been in my bag going through Lillian's things. Stupid asses. All they got for all their trouble of snatching my bag was glimpse of some diapers and a baby undershirt. I should have left a dirty diaper or two in there.

Bum cooties

Last night, Liam and I were out doing some Christmas shopping. After making a pit stop to change Lillian's dirty diaper, I decided that I'd may as well make my own stop as well. When I went into the bathroom stall, I noticed that they had one of those sanitary toilet seat paper cover dispensers. It made me wonder a few things.

Are there ever any paper covers in those things? I've yet to see one that isn't empty.

Do people really thing that a little piece of paper is going to save them from the bum cooties on the toilet seat?

If they're really so concerned, why don't they just hover over the seat?

What types of bum cooties can you actually contract from sitting on a public toilet?

Maybe it's just me, but the whole thing seems more than a little bit silly.

Does it make me a bad Mom?

Lately, Nicholas has been beginning a lot of his statements with "Guess what!".

Every single time I have to fight not to answer "Chicken butt". Sometimes it's too hard and it bursts out anyway.

Liam does it too, so it makes it ok, right?!

More baby pictures

Here are some cutsie pictures to share. Yay for cute!!


You've gotta love Tummy Time. Well, unles you're Lillian and you've been on your tummy for longer than two minutes.

This is sideways and I don't know how to rotate it without re-doing it, so turn your head or monitor sideways. She just loves her swing, and so do I!!

If there's one thing that Lillian does love (besides my boobs, of course) it's bath time.

It's a dog's life

Today was a big day for Jack.

First, he wore his doggy jacket for the first time. It's red polar fleece lined with a blue cotton-type material. It was custom-made by our neighbor for his doggy pleasure. Unfortunately, it's a bit too big around the neck and when he was walking down the stairs his leg came through the neck hole and he tumbled down the last three steps. He ended up looking dusty and confused.

The next highlight of his day came only a half hour later when it started to snow. He chased snowflakes around the yard. Yep. He jumped and ran and snapped his teeth.

What a life Jack-o.

The good, the bad, and the poopy

Somewhere there is a god of Mommies who does nothing but make sure that the intricate balance of insanity and work being accomplished stays finely tuned.

Take my week, for example. On Monday, Lillian slept in until 9 am. By the time she was up, I'd folded a load of laundry and washed another, had breakfast, washed dishes, and taken a shower. By supper time, I'd cleared off the entertainment unit, set up my nativity scene, gone for a walk, and had coffee with Krista. It was an awesome day. I accomplished so much and I was feeling full of energy even when I went to bed.

The next day, though, started out badly right from the get-go. From 2:30-3:15 am I was up because of an evil cramp in my leg. There's nothing like sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen corn on your leg in the middle of the night to set the tone for the day. When Nicholas woke me up in the morning I had to practically peel myself out of bed. Lillian only stayed asleep until 7:45 before she was screaming but thankfully stopped once I put her in the swing.

After breakfast I decided to take a look at her diaper only to discover that the poop that was supposed to be in it was instead filling the leg of her sleeper. Off we went upstairs to was her off in the sink and rinse out the ultra-nasty sleeper. I also gave her a bath for good measure. Liam phoned not long after and when I complained about my cruddy morning he comforted me by telling me the rest of my day would be better. Just as I hung up the phone Lillian spat up all over herself and the carpet. Uh-huh.

Not too long after Lillian had another dirty diaper. This one, in an effort to be new and exciting, went up her back. Yep, baby poop up to her shoulders and yet another outfit to rinse out in the sink.

Thankfully, Nicholas headed off to school not too long after that and I managed to have a nap. When I picked him up from school I told him how I wasn't nearly so grumpy now that I'd had some sleep. His response was "Finally".

Thanks kid.

Bill of Non-Rights

I found this on a forum and felt the need to share.

(Said to have been written by State Representative Mitchell Kaye from Cobb County, Georgia as well as Libertarian from Mississippi Lewis Napper. I have no idea.)

We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great great-great grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bedwetters.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That a whole lot of people were confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of Non Rights.

ARTICLE I -- You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any form of wealth.
More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II -- You do not have the right to never be offended.
This country is based on freedom, and that means the freedom for everyone, not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III -- You do not have the right to be free from harm.
If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful. Do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.(Yeah, ya jackass.)

ARTICLE IV -- You do not have the right to free food and housing.
Americans are the most charitable people to be found(Not "among" the most charitable, but "the" most charitable. Yeah.), and will gladly help anyone in need but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generations of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.

ARTICLE V -- You do not have the right to free health care.
That would be nice but, from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in government run health care.

ARTICLE VI -- You do not have the right to physically harm other people.
If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair. (Yum.)

ARTICLE VII -- You do not have the right to the possessions of others.
If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII -- You don't have the right to demand that our children risk their lives in foreign wars to soothe your aching conscience.
We hate oppressive governments and won't lift a finger to stop you from going to fight, if you'd like. However, we do not enjoy parenting the entire world and do not want to spend so much of our time battling each and every little tyrant with a military uniform and a funny hat.

ARTICLE IX -- You don't have the right to a job.
All of us sure want all of you to have one, and will gladly help you in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.

ARTICLE X -- You do not have the right to happiness.
Being an American means that you have the right to pursue happiness -- which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

A cat named Mouse

Back in the late winter/early spring of 1991, a stray cat appeared in our yard one day. I begged my parents to let me keep her and eventually they gave in. I named her Spike after the dinosaur in The Land Before Time and I was as happy as an 11-year-old girl with a new cat could be.

Within a few short months, we noticed that we were going to have some new additions to the feline portion of our household. I was fascinated watching Spike's belly swell up to an unimaginable size and I laughed at how her belly swayed when she walked. One afternoon I noticed that she was acting strangely and not too long after six little kittens made their way into the world in our garage.

The kitten I picked out to keep was a fuzzy little grey one with white paws and a patch of white going from his chin down to his chest. One of the reasons my Mom liked him so much was because he was so quiet and calm. In later years, this came to mean that he turned into a total couch potato in the winter months. Watching his weight go up and down with the changing seasons was always entertaining.

Over the years, Mouse settled into his role in the MacPherson household. He laid claim to at least a dozen regular sleeping places throughout the house and made good use of them all. He especially enjoyed the warmth of any person whether adult, child or even baby.

Nicholas and Mouse had a special relationship right from day one. The first day I brought Nicholas home, Mouse went right up to him, sniffed him, and promptly decided that he wasn't a good food source. Within a couple of years, though, Nicholas not only knew how to feed "Kitty", but he also knew where the good stuff was; the catnip drawer.

This morning my Mom came over to give me a hand with some things around the house and mentioned that Mouse had gone outside last night and was still out when she went to bed. There was no sign of him when they checked for him at 2 am and again at 6 am. We were both hoping that he would show up some time today.

Unfortunately, my Mom called me when she got home this afternoon. My Dad found Mouse's body behind the garage this afternoon. They're not sure if he froze from staying out or if he died of something else. One way or another, he was happy and healthy when I saw him yesterday so at least he had a good life right until the end of his 14 years.

On the walk home this afternoon, I told Nicholas the sad news. I told him that Grandpa would bury Mouse in the woods beside the dog's grave. I hugged him and we both cried for a bit before walking some more. Every few minutes Nicholas would remember something else about Kitty and we would both stop and cry for a little bit again.

After a while, Nicholas began giggling through his tears and said he had something funny to say. When I asked him what it was, he said "It's funny that Kitty and the dog are buried beside each other. Now they'll chase each other around in the ground."

Run Kitty run.

Life beyond diapers

That haze that enveloped me in the last weeks of pregnancy and only became worse once Lillian came along and wrecked my sleeping schedule is slowly lifting. I've been feeling back to myself (well, mostly anyway) and I've been itching to do things which are more intellectually stimulating than changing diapers and doing the "Please stop crying" dance around the living room.

I've started writing a newsletter about alternative therapies and horses, which will hopefully be a stepping stone to me turning my focus back to my equine clients (for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about see http://www.passages.7h.com). I'm working out the formatting for a quarterly newsletter which will include info on the work I do with horses, spotlights on Flower Essences, and activities for riders to try out at home (or rather at the barn I suppose). I'm still trying to decide if I'm writing it more for gaining new clients or more for my own satisfaction. Does it matter?

The other "project" I'm undertaking is writing a story for the La Leche League magazine New Beginnings. I'd describe what I have in mind, but it seems that what I write takes on a life of its own and rarely ends up bearing any resemblance to what I'd intended at the start. If I ever complete it I'll be sure to post a copy here. And if it manages to get printed I'll brag about it big time.

Something else I'm looking forward to is doing the La Leche League leader training. For those not in the know, LLL is an international organization that offers information and support to breastfeeding mothers. They rock.

Anyhow, I was approached by a current leader I know and she invited me to become a leader. I'm not sure on the details of the training, but it involves some written materials as well as a period of mentoring with a leader. I'll find out more this week.

I have found LLL to be such a wonderful resource and I believe that what they do is very important. I'd love to be a part of it all, and I think it would be a wonderful way of bringing the focus of the human side of my practice around to women and babies as I'd been wanting to do.

On that note, I'm off. I can't sit here sniffing Lillian's head all day or Liam will get angry with me.