Summer's Here!!!

It's amazing how differently you view things as an adult, as compared to when you were a child yourself. Summer holidays as a kid were blissful days of freedom. As an adult, as a parent, the summer "vacation" is a complete misnomer. It's not a vacation, not a holiday. It's more work then the rest of the year because while, sure, you don't have to drive kid A to dance class, kid D to soccer practice and you don't have to take kid K to flute lessons (all hypothetical 'kids' made up for this arguement) you have them around you all of the time! There is no 45-minute break from the rat-race while waiting for skating to be done. There is no free time for you to take a break. If you are at home, 99% of the time your kids are there too. And if you're leaving house for some reason, 99% of the time your kids are begging to come with you - if only so that they too can get out of the house for a bit. And folks, honest to God, it makes this whole sham of a "holiday," for parents anyways, one great big pain in the ass!!

And yep, now my rant is done.

(and if you actually bothered to read it, thanks for putting up with it ;))

So it's summer and I haven't posted anything in more than a month (actually I think it's encroaching on two months now), but I figured now was as good a time as any to put up a new blurb (see rant above) and post a few new pictures of the family. [All pictures are mine. All pictures are from May 2009.]

It's been another month and while I had hoped to put up some pictures or something from Easter, I didn't actually have a camera so I've had to hack the pictures from Cousin Dani! (All photo credits are yours Dani, but I gladly take most all of the credit for your subjects!!)

The entire weekend - starting with Girls Night Out on Friday, through Family Dinner on Sunday was a blast and we all had a great time! But as things like this usually happen the weekend ended and Jen and Ed headed home. Now it's Mother's Day this weekend and another adventure is on the horizon.

This year I'm escaping (for the most part) with my mom for the weekend. I have to take Saphira with me since she still relies on me for most of her food, but I'm getting away from the other two for a couple of days. I'm looking forward to it and I hope that it'll be fun. Hopefully Saphira won't be to unhappy being away from her brother and sister (they are after all her main sources of entertainment!) and that she'll behave while we're in Calgary. I guess I'll have to let you know.

Also on the slate for "Making Mommy Crazy" this month is Zona's birthday - 5 already!! - dance pictures, dance rehearsals and the dance show at the end of the month... And of course, my birthday too, but really we can forget that one for now I think.

Anyways I'd better get a move on if I'm going to be ready to leave with mom tomorrow. Have a great weekend everyone, and to all my 'Mom' friends - Happy Mother's Day!!

It seems like not too very long ago I was talking about how excited I was that Jen and Ed were coming home for Easter and then I told you all about some of the highlights of that very holiday weekend. It was also about that same time that I was talking about how Obie and I were looking at new van's for our (then) expanding family.

It's therefore hard for me to believe that it was actually a year ago.

But it has been... We've had our van for a whole year now (yep the free satellite radio just expired so we've got another cash cow to feed) and that Easter visit from the family is now turned around and we're expecting the encore. That's right, Jen and Ed are coming home for the holiday weekend again and once again, I'm very excited to see them.

This time we're having a girls night out on Friday. Us three Sisters and a couple 'select' friends are going to listen to music from our youths (you know NKOTB and other 90's groups) and then we're going take our adventures to the neighborhood pub and see if we could possible make as much trouble, for ourselves, now as we did in when we were in University. Of course Meag and Amy have the advantage on us since they're still at that point in their lives but I'm sure the rest of us will give them a run for their money.... I think it'll be the first time in nearly two years that I've gone out with 'the girls' and had it been something more then just a play date.

After that, of course, there will be the usual family gatherings, egg hunts (and boy my kids are already looking forward to that) and big family dinner. Fortunately I don't have to cook anything (maybe a side dish or dessert?) so that alone means this will be an easy weekend. I will try to post up some fun details from the weekend and hopefully put up some pictures too but I've been pretty busy these days - between the kids (all of which are actively mobile), Zona's school and dance, my writing and now a new part-time job I'm constantly running in circles but I'll try to make the effort as quick as I can.

Now I'll bet you're asking yourself "Job? What new part-time job?" and while I can't go into specific details because my work does deal with confidential and sensitive information I can say that it's for an organization that makes (or will be making) environmentally friendly fuels and 'Green' food-grade products. The hours are actually quite minimal at this point (only 10-15h per month) but within the next 9-12months the position does offer the possibility to expand that to full time and with the kids at the ages they are, that actually is a situation that should work wonderfully for me.

So that's today in my world. Or I guess it'd be more accurate to say that's up-to-today in my world. I'll be talking to you again soon, or I should be... I'll try to.

Glad NOT To Be In The Tropics???

It's been three years since I've been on a real 'honest-to-goodnees', leave-the-country/province vacation, vacation. So when my parents told me they were going to the tropics again this February (and that they were taking Meagz with them) I was so jealous. Not just because it's been that long since I've really had a break, but because it's February in Alberta. [And if you don't know why that might be an issue for me, I'd suggest you look in an Almanac for historical average temperatures in the area.] I don't like the cold. I like snow, I think it's pretty and all, but I really don't like the cold. I like rain, probably the only reason that it didn't drive me crazy when I lived on the coast, but I really, really don't like the cold. So yeah, the tropics would be a lovely escape this time of year and you wouldn't be mistaken to say that I was green with envy.

That was of course 'till I heard from Meagz a couple days ago with tales about how the trip was going so far. I didn't get full details because really it was just a short email and a few FB updates but the heat is far more intense then I'd like (more than she's liking too), the bugs a bit too prevalent, lizards and other gross "little" things too, and the main floor of the resort they are staying on keeps flooding... And their rooms are on the main floor.

Yep, me not so envious now. :)

They are having a good time though, which I'm sure not much could dampen, and I can't wait to hear more about it. Just couldn't wait to say that while I've enjoyed all my previous trips to more appealing clime's in the past and despite my unappealing coloring a week ago, I'm actually GLAD NOT to be in the tropics this February... well, at least not where my parents and Meagz are at!!!

For My Mommy Friends :)

I saw this on a friends site and had to post it here too!!!

From the Mouths of Babes

Have I mentioned before that I really suck at posting blog updates?? If I haven't I probably should have... And even though I've got the third baby and could use having three kids as my excuse, though it is a valid reason, the biggest reason is just that when faced with a few minutes of free time I generally don't choose to spend it writing a blog :) I am however working on my Christmas update (will include a couple REALLY cute pictures) and I'll have that posted before too much longer but probably not before the weekend. This update is just a short one because Rory said something far too cute not to be memoralized. :D

She wandered upstairs (she's in her own room downstairs now) about half an hour ago, after finally waking up, and plopped down beside Zack on the floor to watch some cartoons. She had a scowl on her face and every time he tried to say something to her or I tried to talk to her, she would bark her reply to us, all grumpy like. Finally it just became to funny for me when she told Zack to move his pillow away from her (remember that he was there first) because his breathing was too loud and she couldn't hear the TV. Granted, he is congested so his breathing is louder than usual, but still...

So I ask her, "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning??"

She replies: "Yes. I was upside down."

I'm trying not to laugh because, obviously, that's not exactly what I meant but I manage to ask her next: "Were your feet on your pillow?"

"Yes." She responds and she's so serious looking with her scowl and her somber eyes that I'm trying to think of something to make her smile.

So I try one more time. "And your head was under the blankets?"

Nothing. Still just a scowl. "No." I just don't know what to say to turn her mood around.

"You could go get back in bed, with your head on the pillow, and then get up again on the 'right' side of the bed." I tell her.

"I can't." She tells me and I'm trying so hard not to laugh because she is SO serious sounding.

And I also can't help but ask the obvious question. "Why not?"

So she tells me why...

"Cause the other side of the bed is against the wall."

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha....

I swear this conversation is word for word, minus some minor interruptions from Zack. Yep, yep. It was just so cute, and funny, I had to share it with everyone.

Our Newest Treasure

After all the waiting, both patient and impatiently, the baby is finally here!!!

So without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you all:

Helyn Saphira Marie
Our precious jewel ;) Born August 6, 2008 [08-06-08]
5:59pm 7lbs 12oz, 21 1/4 inches
(our biggest baby!)

As for information on the actual birth, for those of you who are interested... I mentioned in my last post I had a doctors appointment on Wednesday afternoon and when he checked me I was 3cm dilated. Now at this point [1:15pm] I wasn't actually having any contractions and by the end of the appointment he had made arrangements to induce me on Thursday morning - which would have been the 7th. I went from the doctors office to my mom's office to let her know how things had gone and to visit for a few minutes. By 2pm I'd started to have a few contractions but I didn't think too much about them as they weren't really all that different from what I'd been having for the last week or so.

By 2:30pm I knew they were different, they just felt different and for those of you who've had kids you'll understand what I mean. Mom had an appointment so I left her to head home before 3pm. When I talked to her and to Obie next at 3:30 I asked them to come to the house because although I didn't think it was time to head into the hospital I was getting to the point already that I didn't want to be by myself. Obie made it to the house just before 4pm and Mom got there about 10 minutes later. Obie only managed to shave and change his clothes before I'd decided that maybe we should head to the hospital after all, just in case, and so the three of us got into the van and headed over.

Well, I checked in down at Emergency and they sent me right up stairs to the delivery suite. When we walked through the double doors to the delivery ward the digital clock at the entrance read 4:44pm. If you've attended a birth or delivered at the LRH you'll know that when you get there they hook you up to a monitor to track your contractions for 10-20minutes unless you're obviously delivering and practically ready to push. So they hook me up and check me and right then I was 5-6cm dilated and my contractions were roughly 1.5minutes apart... needless to say, they moved immediately to the actual delivery room.

I get up on the bed in this second room and suffer through two or three more contractions as the nurses get situated, Obie tries to get me settled and comfortable (bless his soul, I'm not sure if he really thinks that a woman in labor can actually be comfortable), and mom is on the phone telling Meagan and my dad that if they come right away to the hospital they might make it before I have the baby. I think it was probably about 5:25pm at this point but I'm not absolutely sure. So the nurse gets me reconnected to the monitor (which keeps track of contraction duration and frequency, and monitors the baby's heart rate to ensure that it's not in distress) and checks me again to find that I'm now a "good" 8cm dilated and she calls for the doctor.

Thankfully, he gets there within a couple of minutes and when he checks me he immediately broke my water since, as with both my other deliveries, it hadn't happened on it's own. So he breaks the water and then says "well just call me when she's ready" and turns to leave. He hadn't even got to the door when I started contracting again and he waited to see how it went, then changed his parting remark to "just give me a shout, I'll be right around here." I think it was three contractions later when I announced that I felt like I needed to push and they called him back. He really must have been standing in the hallway because he was there by the time the next contraction started. They (being the two nurses who ended up being in the room and the doctor) asked me to wait through two more contractions while they finished getting every organized and in place before giving me the go-ahead to push.

As I started to push I happened to glance at the clock, which was right above the doctors head, and it was 5:55pm. Four minutes later it was all over. Obie got to cut the cord again (he didn't get a chance to with Arora) and then I was holding my newest daughter in my arms. :) Her head was really quite blue at first, the cord had been wrapped around her neck and shoulders a bit, and she was just slightly bruised from her speedy trip through the birth canal but otherwise she was perfect and even those 'imperfections' were shortly fading.

Two days later both Saphira and I are at home; happy, healthy and really hot. My mom has the other kids out at the farm, so our first night at home is going to be a bit of an experiment to see how Saphira adjusts to the house and the heat and tomorrow night will show us how she, and Zack and Zona, will respond to the whole 'fam damily' being together. In any case, it's going to be interesting and I have no doubt that I'm going to be very busy and very tired for the foreseeable future.

So there you have it and while she may have held on for 4 days past her due date, she made up for my torture by coming as quickly as, I think, she possibly could have. And in the end I've got a healthy baby girl and that's all that really matters.