baby movement...kinda freakin me out

so our son is moving around a lot lately. lots of kicks and squirms. i was excited for this time to come but now that it's here....i am not sure i am loving in. this little guy is always really low when he kicks me and it always shocks me. sometimes it literally takes my breath away, but in a weird way! you know when your heart skips beats and it feels super weird and uncomfortable? that's how this feesl to me. it's not painful, just so odd and....and i don't know. there are no words. it freaks me out!! of course it is always good to know that the baby is moving cause that means that everything is good, right? but still, i am not sure i am going to really love all the moving around. is that bad? i feel slightly guilty feeling this way. maybe once i am used to it it won't bother me. let's hope.

another opinion needed....please!

ok so i need opinions. here are 3 that i am trying to choose from. which do YOU like the best??? (from this site)

st. barts noonie

green swirls noonie

serene blue noonie

if you do not have a goole account or can not vote on blogger please vote in facebook. i like opinions when i ask for them and i WILL take your suggestion into consideration. THANKS!!!

resolutions update

last year i made some goals, not resolutions and today was the first time i looked at them since i wrote them. haha. i for sure feel good about some of them. i recycle a lot more, i did the 3-4x a week exercise thing on and off until i started feeling all sick and nasty during the first trimester. i am also more involved with church, teaching in sunday school (kid connection at our church) 2 sundays a month. i still need to work on gossiping less but i am getting better and checking my thoughts before they spew out, so that's a start. i haven't bought any books for a while (steve bought me the new sophie kinsella book but she's one of my fav authors so i just HAD to have it, and i bought a baby book, but i am reading it) but i also haven't read anything other than baby books for a while either. the cooking thing was going better during the summer,....again with the excuses....when i was feeling all sick at the sight or smell of food the cooking kind of lessened. ok, it really lessened! BUT this week i have cooked the 2 nights that steve has been home for dinner. GO ME!! and i have a meal all planned for whenever he gets home tonight. finally the money goal....this has been happening whether i want it to or not. we have been on a rather strict (or at least i find it to be strict) budget so that we can afford baby stuff. since we are back to our cash budget i only have an allotted amount that i can spend and that's it. i usually run out of money each month but i have gotten smart. i take out half of each months money on the 1st and then if i run out it's all good because on the 15th i take out the other half. usually by the second week i am running low or completely out because i like going out for meals with friends or going to the movies or whatever. the budget has helped me to be more aware of where the money goes and to appreciate it more (cause i usually end up not having any....haha). i think i am going to avoid making any more goals. there is enough stuff coming my way that is going to be a challenge (you know with the baby and all that) so that's enough to tackle for now. it'll be a year of growth regardless.

christmas cookies

last christmas i was given a recipe for mint chocolate snowball cookies. i was pretty excited to make them......and eat them. :) i doubled the recipe and ended up with a TON of these cookies. i took a big tin of them to work and tried to pawn them off on people. 2 of the girls i work with helped me out and ate about 2 dozen that day. LOL. it was intense. since then they periodically talk about how yummy they were. when the christmas season hit both started asking me when i was going to make them again. i completely forgot. the last day of school came and i still hadn't made the cookies. so i invited the girls over to bake them with me and take their share home. only one of them could come but we had fun and made almost 3 dozen (which is what the recipe yields without being doubled....yeah....i had a lot of cookies last year). we made a big mess. one of the ingredients is "lots of icing sugar" and it's not kidding. the cookies are rolled in icing sugar before being baked and then rerolled when they come out or, like i did, you can sift icing sugar over them when hot. breanne took half of them home, i gave some to another friend and steve has been eating his way through what's left. baking is WAY more fun when it is done with someone and i think this is going to be a christmas tradition for years to come. :D

PS....most of that sugar fell off once the cookies had cooled. so don't let the picture deceive you.

"what is in a name?"

choosing names...no we haven't really decided on names. we still have lots of time, so i a not stressed about it. but i am curious. how do people actually DECIDE on a name? i mean, i have names i like, some names i have liked for a long time, but how do i know that it's a name i will like forever? i mean did other people feel this way about choosing their children's names? they have the name FOREVER and you have to call them that name FOREVER. it's a pretty serious task. is it true that when you see the baby you will just "know"? do people decide the name before and go in 100% convinced of the name and end up naming the child that? do people change their minds when they see the baby? i keep looking for "better" names, just in case i miss out on a great name. i don't know. i am just not sure how we will know. any suggestions? name suggestions or ways to know suggestions. all are welcome! (steve is pretty impartial...not sure if that is helpful or not...i don't know if i want the weight of this to be all on me.)

registration for birth

went to the hospital to register for the birth today. my doctor had given me the pamphlet for registrations when i went in for my 10 week visit. that pamphlet has been stuck on my fridge for the last 10 weeks. he told me to go to the hospital between 18 and 20 weeks. i then read the pamphlet and it said to go in at 20 weeks. so today we went in. 3 other pregnant ladies were there registering and they were all HUGE!! gonna pop any day!! i started to think that maybe i was registering too soon but the pamphlet said to do it at 20 weeks and my doctor said before 20 weeks. i filled out all the paper work then talked with the nurse. she seemed surprised that i was registering already. crap. now i look like such an eager beaver!! i can't even book labour and birth classes yet because they aren't booking that far in advance. dang. now i am looking really stupid. i was able to book our tour of the maternity ward. at least that is something. do people not usually follow what the pamphlet says? do other people's doctors not tell them to go in around this time? am i a total loser? i don't like standing out this way. i rather not be registering late or early. i would rather blend in to the middle group. ugh. oh well. nothing much i can do about that now. the good thing is that the nurse seemed really nice. that's a good start and the maternity ward actually looked pretty nice too (in comparison to the rest of LMH). oh well.

personal space bubbles

yesterday as i was driving around langley i was getting thoroughly annoyed with people who were driving RIGHT on my tail. i started thinking that maybe my 'personal space bubble' is just bigger than other's and that maybe those drivers aren't too close for most people, they are just too close for me. i was told recently that canadians have the biggest personal space bubbles, followed by americans and then europeans. makes sense. we live in less populated countries and therefore we are used to having our own space and not having to smell the person standing near us. i wonder if this transfers to our driving? in places like asia, central and south america and africa people drive like lunatics! they weave in and out of traffic, they drive super close to the person in front of them and beside them. we don't do that here. or if you do do that people get annoyed with you and possibly yell and swear at you (i was annoyed but didn't do either of those things :D). when steve and i were in vegas this past october we had a run in with a whole bus load of tourists from another (unmentioned) country while at a gelato stand. there was a long line up for gelato which we joined and patiently waited our turn. people kept pushing us and leaning against us and cutting in line. when we finally made our way to the gelato counter one of the staffers asked us what we would like and one of the tourists started yelling over us and waved a $100 bill around in hopes of being served first. this man was leaning over us with this whole chest again my back. where is the PERSONAL SPACE??? dude, we don't do that here. back off! is that all it is? just different cultural space bubbles? i dunno. anyway, just thought i would share this random thought trail i had.

squirm squirm

i am feeling movement now. i was expecting to feel "flutters" but whoever said that it feels like a flutter is insane....or else they felt something very different than what i am feeling. so it's not a strong kicking feeling but it's no flutter. a flutter sounds like a nice soft feeling, or else it would describe a nervous feeling (like having butterflies). i don't really know how to explain what i am feeling but it almost takes my breath away each time i feel it. it's not something i can ignore either. it's so weird to feel a tiny little foot or arm hitting you from the inside. if i had to explain it i would say it feels like when a small dog's tail hits against you, except on the inside. anyway, it's weird. haha

the baby @ 18(ish) weeks

that's our baby....our BABY! man that feels weird to say (or i suppose type). the ultrasound wasn't exactly what i expected. we had one done at 10 weeks. we knew we wouldn't see much at the 10 weeks ultrasound. i was a little surprised that steve wasn't allowed back until the end but once i understood that i wasn't going to be shown anything either until the end i was fine with him not being there while they just did measurements. anyway, this ultrasound was gonna be different....or so i thought. i thought we would see way more and get to watch the baby for a little while. but sadly that wasn't really what happened. the tech did tons of measurements and kept saying that the baby wasn't "cooperating" with her. haha. apparently it was hiding down super low and she couldn't see it very well. after a while the baby finally moved up and she got what she needed. she then got steve and showed us the baby. it was short. we maybe saw the baby for 2 minutes while she quickly took the pictures and labelled them. my half hour was up (if the baby had "cooperated" i am sure we would have been able to look at the baby for a longer length of time). oh well.

the baby was super active. he or she was moving its arms all over the place. at one point it stretched its neck out and threw it's head back. it was pretty crazy watching it all. SO different then the 10 weeks ultrasound. but i couldn't feel any of the movement. hopefully that will come soon.

we were told that i am measuring exactly as i should be for my dates. she also said that "everything looks great". so i guess that's good news!! the heart beat is 130 bpm. at my last doctor's appointment it was 140 bpm, all within norm. all excellent news!

mornings

does anyone have nice and peaceful mornings before work? you know the kind. you get up. put on a bathrobe. go to the kitchen and make some tea or coffee. sip your hot beverage while reading the newspaper and eating a yummy breakfast. slowly make your way back upstairs. get dressed. do your hair and head to work. do your morning looks like that? here is what my mornings looks like: alarm goes off. nope not getting up, too tired. reset alarm. alarm goes off again. lie there for another 10 minutes. shoot! gotta get up i have to leave in less than 30 minutes. brush teeth. quickly change. throw on makeup. attempt to fix hair. run downstairs. throw cheese, rice cakes and an apple into my lunch bag. grab a granola bar and head out the door. dang....not fun! what's the trick? go to bed earlier so i can get up earlier? is it worth it? do those morning actually exist? or do most people do mornings like i do?

another odd dream

dreamt about liza minneli last night...yeah....it's weird, i know. i dreamt that i was helping put together a show for her (i watched apprentice before going to bed last night and that was one of the team's tasks). right before she was going to go on stage i received a phone call from her doctor telling me that she had a huge growth in her stomach and he needed to talk to her ASAP. i gave her the phone and she started freaking out. conveniently i had a sonogram machine and i knew how to do an ultrasound. so i quickly put jelly all over her stomach (which was actually pretty big) and tried to look at the growth. it turned out to be a baby. she was preggo. BUT there was no amniotic fluid so we had to deliver the baby right then and there. pretty intense stuff eh?

dreams

i have had pretty vivid dreams for years but it seem like now that i am pregnant (and up more in the night to go to the bathroom) i am remembering more dreams. some mornings i can remember 3 dreams from the night before. i thought that i would document some of my dreams since they are pretty odd.

on monday i saw one of my students at school and immediately asked her if her mom was ok. i had an intense feeling that something really bad had happened to her mom. well the student looked at me like i was slightly crazy and told me that her mom was fine. i realized that the reason i thought something was wrong was because i had dreamt that her mom had died....so weird!

2 nights ago i dreamt that i was at my house (not the house i live in now) alone one evening and this guy broke in and tried to attack me. then one of my sisters (in real life she is a colleague, not my sister) arrived and the guy forced me down the stairs to where she was. my "sister" saw me and said hi. the guy pushed me down the stairs and attacked my "sister". he slammed the back of her head into a counter. she passed out and was lying on the floor. then another one of my "sisters" came in (yup, another girl i work with in real life) and she was also attacked (her head was hit into the dryer). 2 more "sisters" came in (one is a girl from work and the other a girl i went to college with) and they were also knocked out but they both died. the guy then showed me pictures of the attack and a movie. he then uploaded it onto his blog and left. i checked on my sisters who were still alive. they were ok. it turned out that one of them was 31 weeks pregnant and didn't look pregnant at all (which made me angry because i was 17 weeks and showing way more). she had an ultrasound in our house right then and the baby was fine. none of us seemed very scared....at this point i woke up. i got up and when i went back to bed i dreamt it all over. the only difference was that when the attacker showed up he was offering to take pictures for me and my friends on my front lawn....i was trying to take a picture of us all but was struggling. i thanked him for helping us. then i realized that he wasn't using my camera, he was using the camera my attacker had used. i all of a sudden realized that it was the same man and that he was going to do the same thing as last time, and he did. (which makes no sense because all 4 of my "sisters" were alive during round 2 of the attack but i knew that 2 of them had died previously).

last night i dreamt that i was taking this HUGE truck to the CO-OP gas station but didn't know if it should have diesel or regular. so i tried calling steve but he wouldn't answer. then gas was pouring out of the top of the truck and spraying everywhere like rain. i kept thinking that i shouldn't be outside because the fumes would be bad for the baby but i really needed to fill up. then i noticed that it was full serve and was super frustrated that no one was there helping me.

due date change

today i had a brief moment of complete shock and excitement. then logic hit me and that elation died. here's the story.

at the doctor's. 15 weeks today and excited to hear the heart beat. all was well. we heard it, it was pretty cool and very strong. woot woot!! then the doctor checked my dates again to see what my due date was going to be (this happens every time i have gone to the doctor. i know how far along i am and i know my dates so i don't need him to do this every time....is this what they always do?). he told me that i am 18 weeks and 2 days and that my due date is april 18th. WHAT??? YAY!!!! i am almost half way done! this is SO AWESOME!! then logic sinks in. last time my due date was may 11th. how did i skip 3 weeks? i had an ultrasound on oct. 13th and i was 10 weeks....that was 5 weeks ago. i am so confused. if i was 10 weeks last month how am i over 8 weeks further along? "8 weeks is just short of 2 months. it hasn't been 2 months!" steve and i spent a good 5-10 minutes explaining our case and how, sadly, i can't be that far along. the doctor remeasured my fundus and said that it's hard to measure on me (stupid tilted uterus!) so he can't totally tell. again, i went into my logic. he showed me the wheel thingy they use for dates and it said 18 weeks and 2 days. but i still don't care. i know i am right. after more talking he is convinced. he realized he was doing the wheel thing wrong and we had a good laugh (he was putting it as 13 weeks on oct. 10th, rather than 10 weeks on oct. 13th). SHOOT!! i almost wanted to just go along with it cause then i could tell everyone that i am 18 weeks and not 15....but really that wouldn't get me anywhere. i wouldn't have the baby earlier and the next ultrasound would show that he was wrong. oh well. it was exciting for a few seconds. he did change my due date....from may 11th to may 12th. dang. further away....but 12 is my fav number so whatever!

OPINION ALERT!!!

this might make a lot of women mad, but i am gonna say it anyways. besides this is MY blog and i can say whatever i want right? right? oh boy, i hope so.

for years now i have secretly HATED it when women say a certain thing. if i could roll my eyes at you without it being obviously rude, i would have. i probably was thinking it but smiling on the outside not knowing what to say. i wouldn't have wanted to lie and agree with you, but i also wouldn't have wanted to say what i am about to say to your face. i know, it's bad and pathetic of me. i finally feel like, because i am pregnant, that i can say this and no one can throw the "you've never been pregnant so what do you know?" thing in my face. i am now, hopefully, entitled to my opinion. here it goes.

why do women get all upset and annoyed when people say that they are pregnant for nine months? why do women feel the need to correct people and say "TEN months"?? seriously? i know it's gonna be a lllooooonnnngggg haul and women always want the baby out sooner than the little one is supposed to be born, and it's hard and tiring and many women are sick. i get it (well not fully, cause i haven't actually gotten to the end of a pregnancy before, but i am trying to put myself in their shoes). but why exaggerate? yes the logic is that a pregnancy lasts for 40 weeks. if you say that there are 4 weeks each month then that gives you 10 months. here is MY argument.

1.) you are considered pregnant from the first day of your last cycle. you hadn't even conceived at the point....not for another 2 weeks....so really it's at least 2 weeks less than the 40 weeks that you are actually pregnant.

2.) most women find out that they are pregnant 2 weeks after conception (i had pregnancy symptoms a week before i could even take a test, but that is rare and that did not happen in either of my 2 previous pregnancies). so really you only know about your pregnancy for 36 weeks of the so called "40". that, right there, knocks a month off.

3.) lets say we count the 2 weeks from conception to finding out that you are pregnant, lets even say that we count the 2 weeks prior to conception (which i TOTALLY don't understand. if those 2 weeks count then for every month that you have a cycle you are pregnant for 2 of those weeks). so we are back to the 40 weeks. first of all there is only 1 month in the WHOLE year that has only 4 weeks (28 days). all but 1 month have a minimum of 30 days. 40 weeks is 280 days. lets break this down by using my dates as an example.

5 of the months that i will be pregnant for have 31 days.
3 have 30 days.
1 has 28 days

if i were to go by the whole 'each month has 4 weeks (28 days)' thing then i would be skipping a bunch of days. 5 months that have 31 days has a total of 155 days. if i went on the logic of each month having 28 days then those five months would only have 140 days. i am skipping 15 days with that logic. three months with 30 days is 90 days. if i went with the 28 day theory it would be 84 days. again i am skipping days, this time it is 6 days. that is 21 days (3 weeks) in total that i am not counting. that is only 9 days short of a 30 day month, the 10th month that some women claim to be pregnant for.

here is where the possibility of too much info comes in, but i am sure most of you know how to do the math to figure this out on your own anyways so whatever. my last cycle began around august 11th. my due date is may 11th. that is NINE months. it is also 40 weeks. i have counted the weeks a bunch of times.

ok. this rant is ending, i promise.

you don't have to agree with me, i obviously don't agree with all you ladies out there, so go ahead and write a blog post about how much you disagree with me. i can take it. afterall, i have dished it out.

thanks for reading all of my craziness.

wheat and vomiting

ok, so over a month ago i read a section in my "what to expect when you're expecting" book about allergens. i kind of ignored it because it was talking about how if you had a peanut allergy then you should steer clear of peanuts while pregnant and nursing because if you eat that allergen your baby has a higher risk of having an allergy. i thought "i don't have and never have had any allergies, so let's move on". i have probably read that section twice since then and sort of skimmed it and forgot it.

today i was making my normal lunch (an apple and 2 rice cakes with melted cheese) and thinking about a comment that someone made to me about 2 weeks ago. this person said "lael, you're eating bread, i thought you only ate rice cakes?" i explained to that person that i do eat bread but prefer rice cakes because i had a wheat allergy for years and i grew accustom to having rice cakes instead of bread. as i was thinking about this today i realized I HAD AN ALLERGY!! lol. i am such an idiot. i called my mom and asked her a bunch of questions about this allergy of mine (i don't remember much about the symptoms because i was little. all i knew was that for years and years i couldn't eat wheat and as an adult i had issues with head aches when i would eat too much wheat). she told me that when i had a bunch of food introduced to me, fruit, veggies, meat and wheat, is when i started to get sick. they didn't know what was causing me to scream, cry and vomit at most meals. one day we were at a restaurant (i was under 2 years old at this point) and my mom gave me a piece of pizza crust to chew on and that was when i had a major attack. she didn't go into detail but i am imagining projectile vomit everywhere. yum yum. that was when my parents decided to take me off everything and introduce each food item slowly to figure out if it was wheat that was the issue. it was. from then until my late elementary years i only had rice cakes and rice bread, no form of wheat. i don't remember being allowed to eat wheat all of a sudden but apparently my parents slowly let me have small amounts of wheat until they could see that i was able to handle it.

so what does this mean? should i be cutting wheat out of my diet? honestly, my favourite meal lately is going to old spaghetti factory, ordering a bowl of minestrone soup (which has noodles in it) and eating lots of their free sourdough bread. AHHHHH. i am slightly panicking. i do NOT want our baby to have the allergy that i had (in part because i don't do vomit) or any allergy but i don't want to cut out wheat entirely if i don't need to. according to what i read it's more likely to pass allergies on while nursing...so that is slightly good news but it still isn't a guarantee either way. another thing it says is that i might not pass on the same allergy as i have, but because i am an "allergic mother" my child could have an allergy to peanuts, dairy products or many other foods. ugh. i guess i'm a gonna have to ask my doctor about this one. sometimes i think too much reading actually makes me more paranoid.

verbal insult

steve and i have had this ongoing disagreement/joke about how to pronounce the word "poor". i always say "p-or" and he says "p-oo-er". he is after me a lot for "mispronouncing" the word. i was beginning to actually believe that i was saying it wrong but i was too stubborn to admit it or change my ways. tonight he was at it again "it's not "P-OR" it's "P-OO-ER"!!"....whatever steve. so he decided to end this once and for all and find the pronunciation online. this is the link he found and played. basically it says "P-OR"!!!!! yup, that's right, i won. oh man it feels good!! it's been at least 2 years that he has been bugging me about this and now i can repay the favour by reminding him of this epic WIN for years to come.

oh and steve wants me to change my blog name to "verbal insult", hence this post's title. ;) yeah yeah steve, i bug you lots in here....but i equally....if not more often....make fun of myself.

pregnant :D

yup. as you have all probably read on facebook i am pregnant....again. but this time is going much better! i had an ultrasound at 10 weeks and we saw the blob like thing that i was ensured was indeed a baby. we also saw the flickering of the heart beat. baby was busy moving around. it was so precious! i can't wait for the next ultrasound (at 18 weeks...i will be 13 weeks tomorrow). we will find out the gender and then start getting ready for this baby to arrive. the due date is may 11th. such a nice month for a birthday! steve is eager to take the guest room bed out of the future baby room and into the basement room. if he had his way that room would be empty and ready for baby furniture already. it's gonna be a fun 27 weeks to come!!!! :D

las vegas

100TH POST!!!!! Yahoo! i made it!

steve and i spent monday through friday in vegas. we had never been and had some great and not so great experiences there. no gambling for us, just sight seeing and visiting with friends. i think everyone needs to see vegas at some point. the hotels, malls...everything is so exciting and over the top. if you haven't been you should go and fly with allegiant from bellingham as it's way cheap.

day one
we arrived in vegas around 7pm. we had prepaid for a shuttle from the airport to our hotel. we easily found the location for our shuttle pick up, gave our tickets at the counter and were asked to line up by the #4 sign. we did. a shuttle arrived about 5 minutes later. there was a lady in a wheelchair who was also going to our hotel and was going to be on our shuttle. the shuttle door opened and put the ramp down. the lady was loaded up onto the ramp but it wouldn't lift. it was stuck on the ground. they took her off the ramp and it still would not lift. eventually they gave up and we waited for another shuttle. it was close to an hour before another shuttle came for us. by this time i was DONE. i am not a good flyer or traveler. i get stressed and panicky about everything. are we gonna make the flight? will we have issues at the border? is our luggage too heavy? will the landing be rough? will we find out shuttle? will they lose our luggage? ....etc etc etc. SOOOOOOOO.... waiting this long was torture. i was already trying to calm down after a day of stressing out and all i wanted to do was eat dinner and get settled in our room. ANYWAY, so we got on the shuttle, there were no seats for steve and i so we stood. got to the hotel, checked in, went to our room and yuck! it WREAKED like smoke! it was not a non-smoking room like we requested and it was on the 6th floor (the lowest floor for rooms) and we were looking out at a wall and smoke stack things. steve asked for a room change. we got moved to the 31st floor to a MUCH better room! yay for steve and having the guts to ask for a new room (i would never do that). we went out and wandered around, had dinner and headed back to the hotel around 11pm. as we were walking along one of the ramps that crosses the street an absolutely plastered guy threw a beer bottle at us and got us soaking wet. nice. i was so happy to smell like beer. :P great start.

day two
on this day we did some major walking. we wanted to explore one end of the strip. so we headed down from our hotel (planet hollywood) to caesar's palace, treasure island, mirage and the venetican area. everything was so beautiful. every hotel has perfect gardens and is very themed. it was so neat to see!! we spent 5 hours walking 1 way on the strip and exploring the hotels. we stopped in at serendipity 3 for lunch. it was a super cute place with some great food. i had the best sweet potato fries i have ever had (i think they may have had sugar on them). they were amazingly delicious! after lunch we headed over to madame tussaud's wax museum which is part of the venetican. we walked up to the ticket counter, saw that it was $25 per person and walked away. then a lady approached us and said "are you just leaving the museum?" i said "no, we didn't go in". "well" the lady said "i can give you $10 off per person, just give them this coupon at the ticket counter". we did and we got it for $15 per person. nice! it was fun. we had never been to a wax museum. some of the celebs looked a lot like them and some looked nothing like them. after we finished looking at all the hotels at that end we headed back to our hotel. it had taken us 5 hours to go down that part of the strip and only 45 minutes to walk back to our hotel. SO MUCH TO SEE!! we finished the night off with the bellagio fountain show. another awesome free thing to see in vegas!

day three
this day was great. we discovered the cheesecake factory at the far end of the caesar's palace mall. we ate lunch and dinner at this restaurant. i ordered edamane beans ($3.50) and a marinara pizzette ($4.50) and it was more than i could eat. it was so good though! they also give you bread before your meal (don't you just love restaurants that give you bread for free? i think it's the best!). the bread was so delectable and perfect. for dinner that night i had fried cheese (basically mozzarella sticks, but better. more breading, less cheese. but sprinkled with parmesan) ($4.50) and we had a bowl of strawberries for dessert (6.50). yum yum. great food, good prices for vegas! (most buffets were around $17 per person for breakfast and anywhere from $19-30 per person for lunch or dinner.) we decided to walk a little less and use the deuce bus line to get around. it's only $7 per person for 24 hours and it takes you all over the strip stopping at most hotels. we took the bus down to the stratosphere....it was boring, and dirty and we didn't want to pay the $25 to go to the top of the tower. so we got back on the bus and headed back to the main part of the strip. that evening we went to the mirage to see the volcano show. it was great! then we went to treasure island to see the pirate show. the amount of people gathered for that show was insane! i assumed that that meant it was gonna be great. nope. it sucked! the actors were all just mouthing the words (and the voices were for sure not their voices! most of the voices didn't suit the people AT ALL). the girls were all dressed in the smallest amount of clothing they probably could be wearing and there were so many gross innuendos.

day four
this day was so nice and warm. we went to denny's for a cheap breakfast and regretted that choice pretty quickly. it was PACKED. when we got to our table there was about 4 inches between our table and the one next to us. when someone was seated next to us they said "wow, it's like we are sitting at the same table with strangers". yup. it was just like that. it was like sitting in the cafeteria in high school. it was ridiculous. the food was also not good. i ordered over-medium eggs (that way i know i get real eggs....if you order scrambled it will probably be eggs in a carton, gross.) and one was rock hard and one didn't seem to be cooked enough. anyway, you get what you pay for so whatever. after breakfast we headed back to our hotel and we laid by the pool for an hour and soaked up some sun. it was the most relaxing time we had this whole trip. (neither of us were sleeping well as our bed wasn't very comfy and our curtain was broken and it was very bright in our room from all of the lights.) that afternoon we met up with some friends who live in vegas (seth, sarah and their daughter adaiah) at the mirage. we went to siegfried and roy's secret garden. it was awesome. there was a great dolphin show, and a whole ton of other animals. after we finished there we went to the rio hotel where they (as locals) get 1/2 off the buffet price and can each bring a friend. so we got the buffet for nice and cheap. we spent hours there eating and laughing at adaiah (such a little cutie). it was pretty decent food and great company! seth and sarah dropped us off at palazzo after dinner and we walked through that hotel and through the venetican canal mall. so cool. a must see in vegas for sure! and a great place for gelato. :D

day five
our last day. we explored the luxor, excalibur and mandalay bay. mandalay bay was amazing. we went to the shark reef aquarium and saw all of their tanks and sea life. their tank viewing areas are the best i have ever been too! we spent a long time sitting and watching the sharks and turtles. it was worth every penny for this aquarium. i am so glad that we didn't miss out on it. (thanks lisa for telling us about it.) we went back to our hotel for our last 2 hours of our time in vegas and laid by the pool again. once the pool closed we went and collected our baggage from the bell desk and caught our shuttle back to the airport.

we missed some stuff that we had wanted to see (such as the botanical garden at the bellagio, coke world, the m&m factory, and we wanted to walk through wynn and encore) but there was no way to see it all and not have your feet fall off from all of the walking)....i guess we will just have to go back one day. :D

monopoly

steve loves monopoly. steve always wins monopoly. steve dominates the board in monopoly.

i suck at monopoly. i am consistent....at losing monopoly. i have no strategy when playing monopoly.

years ago steve and i would chill out on his back lawn on a blanket and play monopoly. he only had the german version so i never knew if the bad luck i had with community cards and chance cards were actually because i just had bad luck or because he would misinterpret the german...on purpose. i did however likes how some of the properties were "strausse" (streets in german) because i actually knew that word and therefore felt a little smart. :P

last year i bought the english version of monopoly hoping that this would change my losing streak. it did not. in fact it got worse. i now not only lose but i lose by a TON!!! i decided on a strategy about 2 months ago. i was going to go for railroads and not really care too much about anything else. well i got all 4 railroads and i raked in the cash! every time he landed on ANY railroad he had to fork over $200. it was lovely. no buying houses or hotels, it was clean and simple and cheap for me. well he clued in fast. since then he now goes for railroads too. tonight he got all 4 of them and i, of course, kept landing on rainbow, pennsylvania, B&O or short line. he also landed on free parking 6 TIMES!!!!!!! he was rolling in the dough and i was barely able to accumulate money each round to pay for the next time i would land on his railroads. then he began to build his empire. houses were going up all over the place. i managed to buy 6 houses, 2 hours per orange property that i owned (my only complete set). i got back in the game for a while but then i landed on his $400-500 house filled properties 5 times in a row and had to mortgage all my properties.

is there a strategy that i am just not getting? how can i be THIS bad at monopoly? i need help. suggestions are welcomed!!!!!

scategories

my family likes to play games. this past thanksgiving my sister (patty), brother (robbie), steve, my mom and i played all 16 rounds of scategories. it's a fun game. basically you have 16 cards, each card has 12 categories on it. you roll the dice (it has every letter of the alphabet on it), whatever letter comes up you need to think of a word that begins with that letter for each category on one card. the cards are numbered 1-16. you obviously start with #1 and that way everyone is answering the same categories each round with the same letter. an example of a category would be "a boy's name" or "something you hide"....etc etc.

steve likes to be....i believe his word to describe it is "creative"....the rest of us don't think "creative" is the correct term. he "thinks outside the box"...again his words, not ours. i think what is actually happening is that he is gets stuck and throws any word in there that starts with that letter. then when we all simultaneously yell "NO!!" to his answer and laugh he fights it to the death! i have to give him props because he comes up with some pretty good arguments...but in the end still losses despite his commitment.

here are some examples of categories and then the answers he gave for those categories:

hobbies: noodle quilting

kinds of dances: twinkle toes

excuses for being late: kite accident (what????)

something you're afraid of: fried pickles

things you shout: burn baby burn (is this a typical thing that people shout? he really fought hard for this one)

flowers: betunia (that would be petunia)

baby food: deviled eggs (he will never be allowed to feed our children)

diseases: debilitating diarrhea (first: debilitating is a describing word. second: diarrhea is not a disease)

things at a football game: metal

things in a science fiction novel: wind

things at the parliament: wood

hot places: water

things at an amusement park: willow trees

things in a gym/health club: indians (????)

things on a highway: inter-racial vehicles (my personal favourite)

things in a hotel: dentures (it's not a hotel unless it has dentures)

good times. lots of laughs!

1 year already!

i started my blog 1 year ago today! i still haven't reached my 100th post (but that is coming soon). this coming year i hope to step it up and have at least 150 in a year. i know that i will not be able to blog every day...i have enough trouble thinking of things to blog sometimes....but i think 150 is obtainable.

thanks for reading!

centerpieces

steve and i both have wednesdays off together. oct. 2008 i made some centerpieces and i decided to do it again this year. i love trying to be creative and i love flowers, so this was a great sunny afternoon project for me. :D

restaurant toast

this morning i got up at 8 (on my day off....brutal!) and had a bran muffin for breakfast. steve woke up around 9:30 and asked if i wanted to go out for breakfast....immediately i thought about the amazing restaurant toast. we got ready and hit up ricky's. i don't know what it is about toast at a restaurant but it's WAY better. i thought about why i like their toast more and there are a couple of things that might be part of the reason. 1.) i always order white bread when i am out. at home we always have 12 grain crap. it's good for you but really doesn't taste very good. 2.) they always toast the bread to perfection and then lather on the butter while it's still hot. yum 3.) the jam is always at room temperature (ours is always in the fridge). i don't know if that's why it's so delicious or not but man oh man i could eat it every morning. it was way better than my homemade bran muffins.

grade 5 is brutal!

grade 5 is SO hard!!! i have worked in primary (k-2) for 4 years. this is my first year working upstairs. i was nervous when i was told that i would be working in grade 4 and 5 because of the math. i didn't know if i would remember any of that stuff. i was told over and over "don't worry about it! it'll be fine. it will come back to you so quickly." you know what? they were right, it did. the math is fine. little did i know that the THEME and the WRITING would be the hard part.

"underline the predicate". the what now? seriously....what the heck is a predicate. (i know NOW but i honestly don't think i had ever heard that word before.) many words have been thrown out there that i need to remind myself of their meaning. when the teacher says "adjective" it takes me maybe 2 seconds to remember what that is and i am back in the game. but other stuff is honestly over my head. today mrs. v. was trying to remember the word for when a word has 2 pronunciations but is spelt the same way (ex: lead. lead as is lead of a pencil. or lead as in he lead the group). she looked over at me and said "what's that word again? it's on the tip of my tongue". i tried my best to give a believable performance of "oh yeah....why can't i remember what that's called". when really i was thinking "there's a WORD for that??" i think she ended up deciding that it was homophone...but i could be wrong. again, there were a lot of words thrown out there lately.

moving on to theme. right now in grade 5 we are doing force and friction and simple machines. ok i can get my mind around force, friction, gravity, load, surface texture....etc etc but simple machines is a WHOLE 'nother story. i need to sit and listen to the books she reads to the class so that i have examples of these simple machines. my brain doesn't just look at a pizza cutter and think "oh how nice, it's a wheel and axle" or when i am driving over a bridge i don't think "what a great inclined plane". sorry but this just is not how i think. this concept is BIG. there is a lot to it and i feel pretty stupid sometimes.

confession time. i was helping one of the students with her quiz. i was just reading out the questions and the word bank words that she could choose from. one of the questions was asking for the word that describes "what keeps our feet on the ground and keeps us from slipping". i immediately though "GRAVITY" and so did this student. when i was marking the test (with the teacher's answer key) i saw that the answer was actually "friction". it makes sense. the slipping part should have given that away, but nope, by brain didn't go there.

when i was in grade 4 we did a similar unit and we all had to make a simple machine (just like the kids will be doing this year). mine was PATHETIC. i obviously did not understand the project or the point of it. i took a desk chair (one of those ones that have wheels) and put 2 shoe boxes on the legs for your feet to sit in and then i attached an umbrella to the back with long plastic hanging down so you wouldn't get wet if it was raining. WHAT THE HECK IS THAT????? i don't know what i was thinking. and what were my parents thinking?? i can't believe they let me hand that in. i remember watching other people present their simple machines and i had that sinking feeling of "OH....NO!! i did this ALL wrong". oh man. it was bad. now here we are again. hopefully i learn it for real this time.

lovin' it

oh my gosh!! is this not the cutest???? i want to buy one NOW but i know it would be wise to wait until we know the gender of our little one. i am telling you, as soon as i know i am ordering one of these. there are so many cute ones. of course my favs are gender specific so i MUST wait. it's like a little pea in a pod. check out the other patterns at lala's pequenos.

***this was written a few months ago right after i found out i was pregnant. now that i know we are having a BOY i will be ordering one of these ASAP!!! i just need to choose a pattern.

couples questionnaire

taken from this blog

• what are you middle names? joel and beverly (he has a great one, mine is terrible)
• how long have you been together? in total? married for 3 years, together for 7 years on sept. 26
• how long did you know each other before you started dating? 1 year
• who asked who out? i asked him to be my grad date....but we weren't going as a couple (even though i wanted to) he technically asked me out OFFICIALLY 3 months later
• whose siblings do you see the most? my brothers
• do you have any children? nope.
• what about pets? no....thank goodness!!
• which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? dude, this one is deep....ummm...money is a tough one and who gets to drive the 'good' car (just kidding)
• did you go to the same school? yes we both went to the same high school for one year
• are you from the same home town? yes and no. neither of us were born in langley but when we started dating we both lived here
• who is the smartest? definitely, hands down, steve....expect for when it comes to geography haha
• who is the most sensitive? probably me
• where do you eat out most as a couple? we go through different spurts. we did chinese a lot for a while, then boston pizza, then mongolie grill, now we go to earls a lot (what's a lot? we got maybe once a month....is that a lot?)
• who has the craziest ex? that would have to be me since steve has only ever dated me.
• who has the worst temper? used to be me....it might still be me
• who does the cooking? both of us
• who is more social? for sure me!! i could talk anyone's ear off
• who is the neat-freak? both of us!! i am more obsessive about it but he for sure likes the house clean and he does his share of the cleaning around here.
• who is more stubborn? steve would say that i am, i would say that he is
• who hogs the bed? neither of us. we both sleep on our sides facing out of the bed
• who wakes up earlier? me most days...but that's not by choice
• where was your first date? we disagree on this one. i say that our first date was when we went to subway for lunch and then we sat in his car and prayed together, commiting our relationship to God, he says that that doesn't count as a date and that our frist date was to the old willowbrook theatre where we watched finding nemo. i may or may not have punched him in the stomach (jokingly) when he tried to pay for my ticket and he may or may not have had the wind knocked out of him.....
• who has the bigger family? i have more siblings but his siblings are both married and have kids....so i guess his family is bigger. if we are talking extended family then his is FOR SURE bigger....i have 1 uncle, 1 aunt and 2 cousins....he has a million
• do you get flowers often? not as much as i used to but that's because i asked him to stop wasting so much money on flowers cause i never take care of them. haha
• how do you spend the holidays? well....christmas i go to seattle with my family because steve works every minute of my 2 week break from work. but if we are talking about vacations....we like to go on cruises, they are awesome.
• who is more jealous? me. without a doubt.
• how long did it take to get serious? well steve told me he loved me when he was asking me out (BAHAHAHA....oh high schoolers...seriously clueless). i don't really know when things actually got serious. probably within a year of us dating we both knew that we would get married.
• who eats more? steve. steve. steve. steve. 10x more. and you would never be able to guess it would you?
• who does/did the laundry? steve isn't allowed to do the laundry because he has ruined some of my clothes, hehe, so i do it all and i am happy to do it.
• who's better with the computer? steve. i am clueless
• who drives when you are together? usually steve.

movie suggestions

i love movies. i love recommending movies to others and lending out some of our movie selection. i especially love sharing my favourites. there are certain movies that i always lend people; dirty rotten scoundrels, fried green tomatoes, shawshank redemption, inside man and thomas crown affair (to name a few). last christmas i saw sherlock holmes and LOVED it, i think i saw it 3 times in the theatre. needlesstosay (can i write that? does it need spaces? i am never sure), i added it to my favourites list. a few weeks ago i ranted and raved about it to some colleagues and told them that it's a MUST see!! i love the time period of the movie. i love the cast. i love the slow motion fight scenes where sherlock holmes explains each hit he is going to make (sounds dumb, but it's great). anyways...a few of the ladies at work said they were interested in borrowing it. i lent it to one of them last week. she watched it and......hated it!!!! NNNOOOOOO!!! what the heck? this sucks. now no one is going to want to take any of my movie suggestions. shoot. am i really that bad of a judge of movies? i like most movies i see. hate some (usually fantasy or sci-fi). LOVE others. sherlock holmes is in my love category. dang dude, i am super embarrassed that i wasted this lady's evening, and her husband's evening, with a movie that they did not like. at least they didn't rent it....i guess that's the only upside to this situation.

more of steve's baking

some of you may remember steve's baking attempt from last may. well he is at it again.

at work i was thinking that i should make some cookies today or tomorrow since i haven't baked in a while. to my surprise when i came home steve said he was thinking that he wanted to make some cookies. perfect! i get cookies but i don't have to make them. awesome. then he told me that he got all the ingredients out earlier today when i was at work and was going to make them when i wasn't home but he couldn't find shortening. so i went and pulled it out of the cupboard for him. he was shocked. he had apparently looked through all the cupboards, fridge and freezer looking for it but had no idea what it was so he didn't know what he was looking for. he was going to go to the store and buy some but didn't want to look like an idiot roaming around hunting for it when he didn't know where it would be. lol. what a guy.

anyway....i sat at the bar in the kitchen and watched him start this project. first thing he did was use a liquid measuring cup to measure the sugar....not a big deal, not super accurate but whatever....then he said "oh. half a cup. i put in a whole cup". "oh well" i said, "just double the recipe." he wasn't really looking at the lines on the measuring cup he was just kind of ball parking it. "baking doesn't need to be accurate. i feel like i can just throw anything in this bowl and it will come out great," he said. oh boy. when the recipe asked for 1/2 a tsp of baking soda he kind of froze up a bit. "so i am doubling that, so it will be a tablespoon" "no steve, when you double HALF a tsp it's just ONE tsp," i replied. haha so he started searching through the measuring cups looking for one that said 1 tsp. i watched for a bit trying really hard to hold back my laughter. after he searched through 2 stacks of measuring cups i told him that a teaSPOON is a spoon, not a cup. "oh right," he said. then he had to find the baking soda. he knew what cupboard all of the spices etc were kept in so he started rummaging through there in hopes of finding something that said "baking soda". finally he found that yellow/orangey coloured box and added a tsp to the mix. watching him try and figure out the mixer was also hilarious! he didn't know he needed to tilt the top up to put the bowl under. he was pushing and pulling at the bowl trying to get it to go into the mixer with absolutely no success....again i had to step in and say "umm...there is a button at the back. press it and pull the front up and then you can get the bowl in." eventually he got everything mixed together and we got them on parchment paper on baking sheets and into the oven. i haven't eaten one yet but they look ok (a little different than they normally look).

** steve would like me to tell you all that he is not an idiot and that baking is the only area he does not completely excel in. just so you know. ;)

jobs from grandpa

my grandpa has had a rough month and a half. due to a bunch of different things going on with him he is now MUCH more dependant on people. thankfully he lives in a care home where they take care of all his needs. they feed him, change his clothes, help him go to the washroom, shave him, shower him, get him in and out of bed, etc etc. he doesn't need to worry about anything. and yet he worries about EVERYTHING!!!! the man is the biggest worrier i have ever met (this must be where i get my worrying side from....)! as soon as lunch is over and he gets into bed for his nap he starts worrying about when the care girls will come and get him up for dinner? will they be here on time or will i miss dinner? what's for dinner? who will get me out of bed? what if they don't come on time, what should i do? who will feed me? how long will i have to wait after dinner to be brought back to my room? when i get back to my room who will put me in bed? will they take me to the bathroom first? etc etc etc. it's excessive. there are some things that he often wants me to do for him so that he isn't a "nuisance" to the care aides (who are PAID to do these things....i am not). some of them i don't mind doing. i lay out his clothes for him on sundays because monday is his bath day and he always wants fresh clothes after his bath. i shave his face (not my favourite cause i am always scared i am going to cut him. thankfully i haven't yet). put lotion on his face, forehead and the top of his right foot (kinda gross....read my other post about his feet). then comes the dreaded statement "lael, i would like you to give my dentures a good clean" NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!! i don't mind brushing his teeth when they are IN his mouth but not when they come OUT. it's a little much for me, but i can't say no to him, he's my grandpa and he can't do it himself. so i take a deep breath, swallow hard and start the job. i always go and get gloves from the nurse's station. then i grab a shallow dish from his bathroom and get him to put his dentures (he only has a partial denture for the top) into the dish. i try my best not to look at it. i take it into the bathroom run water into the dish and lightly shake the dish around in order to loosen the chunks of food that are stuck in the dentures (at this point i am trying REALLY hard not to gag). i then put the dish up against the side of the sink and pour the water out making sure that the dentures don't fall out. now i repeat the water shaking, food chunk loosening routine. finally i put toothpaste on his toothbrush, pick up the dentures (with my GLOVED hand) and clean them so they are minty fresh tasting. yuck YUCK YUCK!!!! a good day when visiting my grandpa is when he doesn't bring up his dentures.

children's lit: the crazy man

this is a novel for intermediate/middle school aged kids. it takes place in the 60s in saskatchewan. i am gonna give a brief description of the book and i know it sounds somewhat morbid but it's really a great book!! it's about a young girl Emmie (probably about 10 years old) who ends up getting run over by her father's tractor when trying to stop her dog from getting caught in the tractor. she ends up with a badly injured leg and her dad leaves her and her mom because he blames himself for the accident. "the crazy man" is not her dad, it's a man from the mental hospital in town who comes to work on their farm now that the dad is gone. the book doesn't go into much detail about the accident it's more about stereotypes and family. i am reading this book to the grade 5 class i work in right now. it's so awesome. i am having a hard time putting the book down each day. whenever i have free time in the day i quickly go and read ahead in the book just cause it's SO good!! in 2005 it won the governor general's award for children's literature. even though it's a kid's book i recommend it for everyone!

september 11th

tomorrow is september 11th. i know everyone immediately thinks about the twin towers etc when they hear that date but this year i will be thinking about how it was my due date for baby #2. i am not really sure how i should be feeling about that. if i should be "over" it, if crying still is pathetic, or if it's perfectly normal. it's just sad to me to think that there should be a baby any day now and there won't be. those 9 months FLEW by!! i can so clearly remember all of the doctor appointments during those first 3 months. we were SO excited. i was worried that 9 months would feel like an eternity, but really it went fast. tomorrow i am going to keep myself busy so that i don't just crawl into a hole all day and cry. God works in mysterious ways i tell ya. we don't get it. we'll probably never get it. there is no point going over and over the 'whys?' in my mind, it just makes me more upset. one day there will be a baby, that we know for sure. steve and i both feel like God has given us peace about that. it's just a matter of timing, His timing. something we have very little control over. we will be parents. the next chapter of our lives will start and this will just be a season in life where we learned lots and grew closer to God, our friends and family.

sophie vs. madeleine

i love sophie kinsella. she is the author of all the shopaholic books and some other awesome, non-series, books. i found out about a year ago that she also writes under the name "madeleine wickham". i was SUPER excited to learn this because i own ALL of her books and i am always eager for her next book to be published and hit the chapters nearest me. SOOOO this new bit of information meant more books for me to buy and read and hopefully love. i bought one of her madeleine wickham books, the gatecrasher and dove into it. it was good. i quite enjoyed it. a bit of a different style than the sophie kinsella books, but still totally worth the read. so i bought and read a second one: cocktails for three....also good....not quite as good as the gatecrasher. then i found a couple of her books in a cheap-o bin at safeway so i bought them as well. i am just finishing sleeping arrangements (it's not what it sounds like) and honestly i am not very satisfied with this book. so now here is my dilemma. do i keep reading her books? i feel somewhat loyal to her, but i am lovin the sophie books, and not really lovin the madeleine books. she has 4 others written under this madeleine name but i just don't know if i can do it. 4 books is a big commitment for me.

another thing that i am confused about is whether her name is sophie kinsella or madeleine wickham. i read on a website that her real name is madeleine wickham but then all of her madeleine books say "SOPHIE KINSELLA WRITING AS MADELEINE WICKHAM" so which is it? i hope her pen name is sophie kinsella cause it is a much nicer name than madeleine wickham...especially the wickham part.

here is a list of her books:

sophie kinsella books:

confessions of a shopaholic

shopaholic takes manhattan

shopaholic ties the knot

shopaholic and sister

shopaholic and baby

mini shopaholic (coming soon YAY!!)

can you keep a secret?

the undomestic goddess

remember me?

twenties girl

madeleine wickham books:

sleeping arrangements

cocktails for three

the wedding girl

the gatecrasher

swimming pool sunday

a desirable residence

the tennis party

bliss

driving home.

8 pm.

sun is setting.

clouds are purple and pink.

drive past canada bread.

smell the amazing aroma of freshly cooked bread.

yum.

games

steve and i love playing board games. the last few months we spend about an evening a week playing ticket to ride, monopoly or sequence. the past couple of weeks i have spent a lot of time at my grandpa's (between 3-7 hours a day) and the games on my ipod have become one of my common pass times (is it pass times or past times??? it passes the time but pass times sounds funny). the other day we hauled out some dice and started playing the old fashion, non electronic, version. it's been good. our printer is broken so we can't print out score sheets so we have to make out own each time we want to play a round, but oh well. i love resurrecting old games. they feel like new again.

wisdom teeth torture

today steve had an appointment to have his 4 wisdom teeth removed. we got there at 12:15, he filled out some paperwork and then they took him back for x-rays. they told me to be back in an hour to pick him up. i left to pick up some pudding and gauze for steve. he sent me a text at 12:50 saying that they had pricked him with a needle 15 times in order to freeze him up real good. i was back at the office about 10 minutes later (1pm). as soon as i walked in the dental assistant asked me to go to the back and sit with him. she said the freezing wasn't working and he was very shaky from the pain. i went back immediately and he looked white. they had only taken out one tooth at that point. 3 to go. they started on the next tooth (top left side of his mouth). he was rigid with pain. it was super hard to watch because i could see that the pain was VERY bad. they stopped and he was shaking like crazy. the freezing wasn't taking. they gave him another shot and tried again. they got it out quick and then gave him a minute to relax before beginning on the bottom left tooth. meanwhile the doctor stuck the bloody tooth he had just removed in my face and wanted me to look at the root and see how curved it was. awesome. just what i wanted to see, thanks doc.

next they started on the bottom tooth. it was giving them a ton of trouble. there was lots of cracking and blood. they finally decided to cut it in half and try again. the cutting was bad. steve was in SO much pain. i was completely helpless. they tried pulling it out and a tiny piece came out. they dug and cracked and pulled and rocked that tooth back and forth....nothing. by this point steve looked awful. he looked like he was close to passing out. it was as if i was watching him be tortured. they kept saying "breathe and relax".....ummm....yeah right! how can he do that when he can feel everything that they were doing? they pulled again on the tooth and there was another loud crack and then a splatter of blood all over the dentist's spectacles. yuck, yuck, YUCK!! they were getting no where. i could tell that steve wasn't going to be able to take much more (he had already had to deal with more than most people would have been able to handle) so i asked them to give him the adivan they had offered before. they did and they gave him more freezing. then they left him for a few minutes so that the meds could kick in a bit. they tried again. this time it wasn't as painful for steve, thank goodness! what a relief! they ended up cutting the tooth into about 6-8 pieces in order to get it out. finally the last chunk of root was out and again the doctor stuck it in my face and insisted that i look at the root and the hook it had. now the doc says to steve "one more to go", i look at the clock and it is now 2:45 (he had been in that chair for 2 hours and 15 minutes and more than an hour of that was just for one tooth) so i said "no, we are done for today". i rushed and got his prescription for T3s and whatever else they prescribed and got him out of there. the doctor was super nice and so was the dental assistant but the whole experience was traumatic. the doctor was quite frustrated that that one tooth had been so hard to get out. he said he had NEVER had a tooth take that long to get out. i felt bad for everyone. they did their best and steve just had to suffer his way through it all. what a trooper! when we got home i cut a leg off an old pair of nylons and stuck ice packs in it and tied it on his head. lol. he looked hilarious! he is still in so much pain but the worst is over....or so we hope!

oxymoron?

skinny cow....complete oxymoron....BUT super delicious and low cal. you can get them

in minis and they are only 50 calories. totally worth it. give 'em a try.

city change?

i usually get freaked out at the idea of moving cities. when we were looking for a townhouse last summer we looked extensively in abbotsford but i wasn't super keen on moving cities. i know, it's just abbotsford but for me and my anxious tendencies i knew that that would mean new grocery stores, new restaurants, new gas stations, new routes to familiar places etc etc. so we stayed in langley. i just home home last night from a a short, but sweet, trip to regina. honestly, i could live there. i loved it there. it wasn't too big or too small. it was easy to find things and the biggest draw....it's FLAT! running, walking, biking would be AWESOME because it's all flat. i went biking twice while there and loved it. it's very relaxing. it was insanely hot (it was actually kind of cold the last day and rainy), there weren't a bunch of bugs and the houses all have AC. another big plus is that the houses are a lot cheaper there. i haven't been there for a winter yet and that could for sure scare me away from wanting to live there. i am just happy that i am not freaked out at the idea of moving to a new city, even a new province!

movie suggestion

you should watch this film. it was recommended to me by a friend and it was so good! it takes place in the late 18th century and early 19th century. it is all about britain's member of parliament, william wilberforce's quest to abolish the slave trade in the british empire. it might sounds boring to some of you but it's really quite good.

diesel is not my friend

went through Tim Hortons drive thru the other day. just as i pulled up to the speaker thing to place my order a loud diesel truck pulled in behind me. as i said my order to the lady on the other end she kept having to say "SORRY CAN YOU REPEAT THAT?" and i would yell back "SMALL ICED CAPP MADE WITH MILK NOT CREAM" and again "SORRY. THERE IS A LOUD NOISE AND I CAN'T HEAR YOU. PLEASE PULL UP TO THE WINDOW TO ORDER". grrrrrrrr!!!!! so i pull up. but i have to wait for the cars in front of me to get their stuff from the window before i can make my order. meanwhile the big loud truck pulls up to the speaker and turns his truck OFF to make HIS order. ummmm HELLO!!!! you should have the same courtesy for the person in front of you. so annoying. for all of you loud diesel truck drivers out there, please don't use the drive thru or at least turn off your engine when the person in front of you and probably behind you , is trying to order.

hanging out at lynn canyon

boys will be boys...at every age.

salad. me and salad. i know, it's unheard of.

what's happening to me. i hate salad. i have ALWAYS hated salad. a few weeks ago i smelt caesar dressing and decided that maybe i should give salad another chance. so i ordered one. it was ok. actually less than ok. it was close to ok. not, throw up nasty, but not something that i would freak out about if it was served to me at someones house, but it wasn't great. a few days later i thought i should give it another try. it was a firm 'ok' this time. i was at a wedding a week after that and i tried some again since it was free and part of the buffet. it was better than ok this time. tonight i actually made a caesar salad as part of our dinner. i was close to enjoying it. but this makes no sense. i have always been a NO SALAD girl. when i list off the things i don't eat i say "red meat, pasta, salad and seafood". it's part of my thing. it's who i am. last year i started liking watermelon, but i was ok with that change because it was one fruit, something simple to add. then i added in corn and again i sucked it up and embraced the change. but this is salad, SALAD. ahhhh this is big. real big.

coupon clipping

my grandpa is all about clipping those coupons. he often asks me if i go through the fliers and find the best deals and go shop to shop comparing prices before purchasing my food (very stimulating conversation, i know). i don't. i never have. yesterday there were SO many fliers in the paper. today i sat down and looked through the fliers and wow, there are some good deals out there. like 12 cobs of corn for $4. doesn't that seem good? but what would i do with 12 cobs of corn? there is no way the 2 of us could eat all of that. most of the deals i found aren't practical for 2 people. how do people go about this coupon clipping thing? do you make a list of what you want and try and find deals. or when you find a deal do you plan meals according to that? ahhhh....it seems overwhelming. we do a budget system and at the end of each month we usually get to the last week and have about $40 for groceries...since we hadn't been careful with our grocery money throughout the month. that last week of the month is always lame. maybe if i start saving money by looking at the fliers we will have a happier last week of the month. :D

it's still awkward

really, really poor quality photo....sorry (it was taken on my phone). regardless, i am sure you can see how close that open window is to me. it's awkward. STILL very awkward for me. as i wrote in a past post about our neighbours i feel weird that we are always looking in on each other. i know it's townhouse living and there is nothing i can do about it....but i am still going to complain a little.

today we got some patio furniture and spent the better part of the morning assembling it. steve went off to work and i cleaned up our deck so it wouldn't look cluttered with old chairs, and dead flowers in pots (i can't seem to keep plants alive). once the sun was no longer on the table and chairs i wanted to enjoy a peaceful time sitting outside in our new comfy chairs reading my book and feeling the nice breeze. do you think i could stop thinking about whether or not someone was in that window looking at me??? NO. NO. NO! I COULD NOT! even now as i am sitting on the deck typing this i feel like i am being watching. there is a glare on their window so i can't tell if anyone is there or not. when we were painting and putting the wallpaper up in our room the guy in that townhouse look 2 naps and spent hours on his computer. all of which we could see from our window when i was painting. did he close his blinds for his naps? NOPE! AWKWARD! too many times over the past few weeks we have caught each other's eyes while i am in my kitchen and he is on his computer or whatever it is he is doing. i have decided that i need to keep the blinds closed most of the day. this saddens me but what else can i do? i feel like there is a stranger in my house. we were out on our balcony with some friends last weekend and he was sitting outside as well "reading". i kept seeing him smile and chuckle a bit as we talked and laughed. he was for sure listening. i am not surprised, it's a small area, what else can you do? but still....it's awkward!

also, while attempting to read today the next door neighbours were having a huge fight complete with yelling in chinese.that made my reading time so much more enjoyable.

july 21

july 21st. 1 year today since we lost our first baby. it's been a long haul. a year filled with disappointment and brief elation when i was pregnant the second time. it's hard to believe that it's already been 12 months. 12 months! man, i wish I knew God's plan for us. it's hard waiting. it's hard to have faith but we need to keep praying and clinging to God.

James 1 2-4
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

upstairs facelift

busy, busy, busy!! painted our bedroom (plus wallpapered one wall), painted ensuite, painted the other upstairs bathroom and have prepped one of the other bedrooms for painting. here are some pics of the project so far.

so long yucky yellow

far wall, old nastiness, right wall, new amazingness

almost done the 5 hour wallpapering project

YAY!! it's done! (not sure about the pillows yet....hence the tags still being ON)



new lamps...LOVE 'em!

THE bag is here!

GOT MY BAG!!! i LOVE it! it's very green and marvelous! (the lady at the post office said that she didn't need to see my ID because i am in there every week....??? i am? i didn't know that.)

eating...

i have been trying really hard the last 2 weeks to eat better and exercise more. so far i have done pretty good. 4-5 times a week i go for a power walk/jog. i wanted to pair that with the shred but then someone told me that if i am going to want to maintain this exercise program i shouldn't go all crazy and expect that i wil add an hour or more of exercise to my life each day from now on. so i am being more realistic and doing the walk/jog for now. i am also REALLY trying to eat better. here is my meal plan:

breakfast (i never used to eat breakfast so this is all new to me):
toast or bran muffin with fruit
snack:
cashews and some fruit
lunch:
rice cakes with a little cheese and veggies (right now i have been eating celery)
snack:
this changes a lot. sometimes i have fruit or veggies, sometimes i have more nuts, or some salt and vinegar mini rice cakes, or some crackers
dinner:
some kind of meat and veggies...this also varies a lot since steve isn't one who likes to eat the same thing each night for dinner. i am ok with eating the same thing over and over again.
night snack is a lot like afternoon snack

it's weird eating 6 times a day, but apparently it's more healthy. i am pretty much only drinking water, with the occassional fruit juice if i go out for cofee with friends. i also sneak in some chocolate chips once and a while. i love eating out but i have been making better choices at restaurants too. i have been ordering a chicken breast with veggies, or just having soup.

so far i have lost 6 pounds in a less than 2 weeks. it's a small victory but whatever.

BIG SECRET...

... it's slightly OCD.

so i have this weird counting obsession. sometimes i feel like it controls me a little bit...which makes me think that it is OCDish. anyone i have ever told about this thinks it's kinda weird...cause it is. and now i am gonna let my readers see a little glimpse of my messed up mind.

i have a favourite number. that number is 12. i have always loved 12. my birthday is on the 12th, and it's in june which is the 6th month of the year which is half of 12. the first letter of my name is L and that is the 12th letter in the alphabet. i remember learning my 12 times table and i can recite them very quickly and i love knowing it. i also like knowing what numbers equal 12. those numbers that mainly stick out in my mind are 3, 4 and 6. those numbers play a BIG part in my counting obsession (but i won't get into that).

i often counted things. i wanted things to equal 12 or be a multiple of 12, but it was manageable until i got a cell phone plan that included texting. i liked to text using ABC (which means that for C you would press the #2 key 3 times, once for A, another time for B and a third time for C). i have that system memorized. you can say a letter and i can tell you immediately how many times i would need to press a certain key in order to get that letter. when i am watching TV, reading or talking with people certain words stick out to me. those words i count according to texting... (weird, i know) let me give you an example:

steve...s=4 t=1 e=2 v=3 e=2

when you add those numbers up they equal 12. yay! this makes for a peaceful lael.

here is where things get complicated...

weird...w =1 e=2 i=3 r=3 d=1

when those numbers are added up they equal 10...this is when weird math comes into place. i want it to equal 12. so what i have to do (this is all in my head) is make it equal 12...i am 2 short. if you divide 10 in half (giving me 2 extras (10+2=12)) you get 5. so what i need to do is add together the ones that equal 5 twice. so i would do this:

w+i+d (1+3+1)= 1 extra point (i now have 11)
e+r (3+3)= 1 extra point (and now i have 12!!!)

i know that this makes NO sense...but it's what i do. here is another example:

CONGRATULATIONS
3+3+2+1+3+1+1+3+1+1+3+3+2+4= 33

so this is when i use multiples of 12. i would now want it to equal 36. i need 3 more points to make it equal 36. there are 15 letters in CONGRATULATIONS so i know i can divide it by 3 and get 5. so i would put CONGR together as one point, ATULA as another and TIONS as the final point. now i have 36.

as i am writing this i am seeing even more how little sense this makes. :S....but regardless this is how my mind works. i REALLY wish i could stop. sometimes when i get really stuck on a word i have to work hard to convince myself to 'let it go'. i often am counting and don't even realize it. it's very much a habit now. one night my brother was over and he would say a word and ask me for the count and i would quickly tell him how much it equalled....he thought i was crazy....and fast. what is also weird about this is what i have had a blackberry for 2 years and i don't even use ABC texting anymore because my keyboard is different than that.