25 random things

This has been going around a bit this month, and I was tagged on FB. I didn't think I"d be able to come up with 25 things, but it turned out surprisingly easy! I love lists and notes and quizes and all that shtuff… I'm not tagging anyone, feel free to participate though and send me your link in a comment…

1. I used to write poetry. I used to be able to write them often, but now I can't seem to either find the time or have the inspiration as before.

2. I used to write stories, but that too is in the past, it seems. I decided in grade 2 that I was going to be a writer, and I really thought I would be, but things haven't turned out the way I expected. I'm too busy with other things and I guess this isn't as important as it once was to me. But maybe I will have a story of mine published one day…

3. I can't tan. It won't work. I can't even use a fake tanner! I should really go to a fake n' bake place, but I'm really too cheap and a bit too scared!

4. I'd still love to get my teeth fixed and get braces, even though I'm in my 30's. Sadly, my crooked teeth still make me self conscious.

5. I got my eyebrow pierced last summer. It lasted about 3 months before I decided to take it out. I had wanted a brow piercing since I was 14!!! Now I'm wishing for it again!!! I may just have to do it again…but my eyebrow is still tender. (???)

6. I have four children…3 of them which are boys. And even though it may not be the wisest decision for my health and sanity, I still long for another girl.

7. I attended Christian schools my entire childhood, but didn't make my own personal committment until grade 7, on March 23, 1991. 17 years ago. Wow.

8. I am entirely TOO loyal! Time and distance doesn't separate me from my love and friendship, but my loyalty has hurt me many times. But if you're a friend of me once, you always are!

9. I hate cooking. And cleaning. And generally any type of work, lol! I love being a "housewife" but I think that means that I like making up my own schedules and being lazy!!!

10. I haven't seen my extended family in Ontario in 11 years, yet I still miss them to death and desperately want to be a part of their lives. Either that or I pray God takes away my desires to know them so I stop feeling left out and hurt. *sigh*

11. I suffer from depression. It comes and goes. It's frustrating.

12. I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for 3 years this month, and I LOVE it! I love stamping and I love making cards and I just love the whole creative process. I love teaching others how to make things, and I love the friendships. I would love to start my own team up and go to Leadership and earn the cruise trip and such, but right now I am just happy with doing my small thing with good friends. If you ever want to stamp cards, email me!

13.I thought I'd have a daycare from my own house once I started having children, but was surprised to find out not only are babies hard to take care of (well, some more than others!) but I also didn't have the affection nor interest in caring for others kids' anymore!!! (that sounded bad, I know!) Things are changing NOW though and I'd love to watch my friends children if need be!

14. I dream of living on a farm with a pond and ducks and kittens and bunnies and lots of kids running around! I dream of hostessing events at our place and having people stay over.

15. One day I'd love to go back to school to become a Counselor and specialize in youth issues.

16. I would Love to be involved in the deaf community and want to go back to school to finish my sign language course and become an interpretor.

17. I have had two ectopic pregnancies (one was my first pregnancy and the other my 4th) and as a result had to have surgery to remove my left fallopian tube. Despite the tragedy involved, I have made some wonderful friends through a group (www.ectopic.org) and do consider myself very blessed to have gone on to have four children in the end.

18. I need to lose a good 50lbs this year. And once I do I'm going to the club to celebrate!!!

19. I can not drive Standard. I so badly want to, it would be helpful if I could, but I've tried to learn twice and both times I failed. I'm just scared to bits!!!!

20. I want to go to the Burmuda Triangle and see if I'll get lost! I wanted to go there for my honeymon, but not only did we not have the money, but my hunny also thought I was crazy! (maybe he's a bit supersticious)

21.I want my sister to have babies soon!!! Oh, wait, can I put that on here? That's something random about me!!!

22. I still have a hard time addressing my kid's teachers by their first names even though they're now my peers!

23. I want to be a bear so I can hibernate in the winters!!! BRR!!!

24. I've had the same best friend since I was in Kindergarten. I'm blessed. Heather is wonderful and crazy and I love her so!

25. I wish I had more of a connection to my heritage. I'm part Dutch, but know nothing of the language or foods or anything. I'm part Irish but don't know where from or whom … I feel out of touch with my family sometimes.

Yum! eating and reading

I've been working on the whole feeding business with Rhys for a while now and tonight it seemed as though he actually GOT IT! He's been licking his lips and smacking his gums, so he gets the idea, but he hasn't connected the movement with actual food, silly boy. Tonight, I gave him his pablum cereal mixed with his formula and added some pureed peaches, and boy, did he like it!!! He was actually pulling my hand over with the spoon in it to get some more, which delighted me. And he ate quite a bit too, which is nice to see since before he'd only take about 5 bites and think he was done. Tonight, I didn't need to "follow up" with a bottle. YAY!

Here are pictures of him when we first started him on pablum. He's in his own special "feeding chair". It's made by FisherPrice and it comes with three tops: one for playing, a white one with sectionals for feeding that goes on top, and the cover. My SIL used this for her DD when they went out and it worked great! What a well-behaved child, for one, but I loved that seat! So, we got one for Christmas from MIL. Yay! I've got Rhys into it for eating. I suppose I could pull out the highchair, but this works for now. Besides, I'm sure he'd just slide right out of that high chair, lol!



Still so cute, even with pablum up his nose!



"what is this? do I like this?"



"what is this for?"



"give me the REAL food!"

(oh BTW> he has moved up to 4oz bottles, but I still like his 2oz for convenience and for something quick when I know he's not really hungry. And they're cute and I get sooo many comments on them when I pull them out!)

Rhys is now 7 months old and he still hasn't sat up on his own yet, nor will he roll over for me. *roll eyes* He's so close though! He LOVES to sit up in my lap or on the floor between my legs, but once I let go, he's on the floor in a faceplant within less than a second. Not very nice for a baby. They don't like that. And no matter how many times I put him on his tummy or his back, he won't roll over. My neighbour claims that he's doing that all over the place at her house when she's watched him, but he has yet to prove it to me! :P We were supposed to have Mishelle from IDP over again this week, but we got more snow so she cancelled. (It wasn't a heck of a lot of snow, thankfully, so I don't know why she couldn't come, but whatever) I'd like to see where he sits against other children his age. I know not to expect a lot, since technically he still is 5 weeks behind everyone, but I still like the Ages & Stages Questionairre.

Here's one of my favourite pictures of my oldest and my youngest. Abi is reading to Rhys, who doesn't get it but loves the attention anyways!





Abi has become such a great reader. She is in chapter books and will go through one within an hour! It's impressive. So much so that sometimes I wonder if she is actually reading them or skimming them!!! She loves to read, and that makes me happy. Last weekend, we took the kids to the library and they all got their own Public Library cards! They were so excited! (well, all except Rhys. He'd just eat the books. Can't have that. Libraries overcharge you for damaged books, it would've been easier to just have bought it yourself from the bookstore then ate it!!! LOL) Abi took out 5 books the first day and finished them all within 2 days!

Kai is still working on his reading. He takes home easy readers from Kindergarten with Sight Words every week. I remember those from when Abi was in that class! Kai is doing incredibly well too, which is such a surprise and joy for us! I know it's all memorization because he can't tell one word from another, but that's the start of reading. I can read the book to him twice and he will know it all by heart! It's amazing! I hope he can continue his love of books and that his speech doesn't slow him down. (I can see some troubles with his one book that he brought home this week. It uses a lot of S words…like SLOW, SNOW, SLED..the two-letter consonant blends that he has problems with.)

My kids are amazing! *big grin*

taking my head of out the sand

So, I've been blogging for over two years now and for the first time ever (seriously) I decided to go through all the comments and do some editing! Oh good golly! I had over 400 to deal with! I guess I've been living with my head in the sand because I hadn't realized that I had been getting all of these comments and spam and cr*p. *roll eyes* Most of it was duplicated companies, of course….I had this one (whose name I can't recall now) and it left spam comments for me every 5 minutes for 1/2 hour!! that's a LOT of comments to delete.) This is seriously annoying! But I was good. I didn't take it personal. I just deleted everything without reading what was posted. No use getting myself all worked up and offended by some of the useless stuff out there. (like penis enhancers, xxx porn from Iran, etc)

But with all the bad stuff out there, I did find some GOOD comments. I'm sorry I didn't respond to all of them, but I didn't realize they were there. So, thank-you so much for your comments. Thank-you for taking the time to give me encouragement and to tell your thoughts and offer your friendship. It means a lot to me. And here I thought I blogged only to myself! LOL *wink*

On the topic…can someone leave me a comment on how to post the whole YouTube picture so that people can just click on it without me having to leave a link??? I've seen it done before but no matter how much I try, I can't figure it out! Thanks!

I laughed. I cried. I wet myself.

I just found this FUNNNNNY site tonight and have been giggling like a schoolgirl…and snorting like a barn animal…for about an hour. Have you ever seen those funny posters with kitties and bad spelling? Well, this is the place to go for a whole bunch of them! I don't know if they originate here or what, but it's hilarious!

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Here are my fave pics:

speech again

Kai was seen by a Speech Pathologist at the school this past week. I was invited and encouraged to join the meeting, which I fully planned to, but I lost my day planner (again, good grief!*roll eyes*) and I forgot which week it was and they told me the wrong day at the school, and yeah, when it came up, I didn't have anyone to watch the younger boys. Phooey. Anyways…. I popped in the next day to talk to the Learning Assistance coordinator and all she had time to tell me was that the Pathologist was "very concerned" for Kai. Not only with his delay, but there was some concern about his heart condition as well, as it was noticed that he was breathing with his whole body and not being able to speak much before he needed to take another breath. The worry was that maybe he just wasn't getting enough oxygen to his brain and that would impede learning skills. They were worried that he may end up with learning disabilities.

With that little information to go on, I had to wait another two days to talk with Alison again. Of course, I totally forgot that when I told her I'd see her on Friday morning after dropping the kids off at their classes, I wouldn't be at the school anyways as Jonathan now drives the kids to school for me. But I made it in to see her before classes got out, since I remembered that she couldn't see me right after school. Good thing she was able to meet with me; I didn't call ahead and so when I arrived, she was in the middle of meeting with another student. Oops. But it all worked out.

I ended up with no more new information then what she mentioned briefly on the Wednesday. I gave her my very full and big file folder I have on Kai and all of his tests, programs, doctor apointments, etc that he's been through so that maybe she can get more caught up on him. I was annoyed on Wednesday when she was surprised to hear that Kai had actually been diagnosed with Apraxia! I guess somehow that news didn't get to her, even though it's mentioned in his school files and I've told his teacher. *roll eyes* I did explain to her that his heart condition is stabilized and although it may cause some issues with his breathing, he does also have asthma and that no one else had noticed him breathing heavily before, so possibly it was just a rare thing. (hoping)

We won't get the Pathologist' report for another few weeks, but what she recommends is that we put Kai into private speech therapy along with his training at school. Phooey. I'm not surprised really since this is something that needs to be worked on a daily basis with, but I was so hoping that the school would be able to do enough for him. *sigh*

I guess I don't really feel Too Badly about this. I mean, it's too bad that we have to do this. {Private therapy can cost a lot, I've heard, but we do have good health coverage with Jonathan's work. We'll see how that works out.} I just hate that my son has so many health issues: cardiomyopathy, asthma, apraxia. He seems so "Normal", at the risk of using a bad word, so it's hard for me to understand and remember his frailty. I don't want him to be left behind…the possibility of the teacher thinking he's not ready for Grade One and having to hold him back in Kindergarten for another year hangs over my head. Yes, I would agree with her if that's what she thought; after all, Mrs. VB has been a K teacher for over 30 years! And, yes, if he had to repeat a grade, this is the best one and the best time. And yes, he may not even really notice and would make new friends and all would be good. But still… so sad. I hate the idea that he's BEHIND or that he needs extra help. You know?

I'm suddenly feeling like I've got nothing to complain or worry about. Really, Kai doesn't have it THAT bad. There is a boy in his class who has, I think what it's called is High Functioning Autism. He is the thought that pops into your head when you think of the term: flailing arms, random screaming, body throwing, hitting… It breaks my heart because this boy has such a warming smile and seems like such a sweetheart. But what his mother must go through. I worry about my Kai repeating Kindergarten, when his mother likely worries if her boy will even make friends or play with the other children.

I'll be looking into Speech Therapy this week. I hope I can find him in something soon. Until then, he will begin a special program designed to help strengthen his mouth muscles with horns and straws.

a better way

This is one of my new favourite songs right now. I would LOVE to be able to post the whole box from YouTube instead of sending you there with a popup, but I'm still learning.

This is the song "A Better Way" by the group "downhere".
Here are the lyrics.


Downhere - A Better Way
From the album Wide Eyed and Mystified

I'm not alone, I really believe
You never go, You never leave
Here and now, You always stay
“I love you” could not be said a better way

It's everything You've promised
There's no greater love than this
From prophets until today
A man laying down His life for His friends
Your sacrifice has spoken, You gave everything
And “I love you” could not be said
A better way

I am forgiven, I clearly see
It's why You came to do all you did for me
Trading earth with heaven, You took my place
“I love you” could not be said
A better way

Because You redeem, I know what's to come
Everything I could lose here, You've already won
So You have my surrender, with passion obey
“I love you” could not be said
A better way

what a relief!

Never thought I'd actually say this but PHEW!!! My AF arrived today!!! (I actually can't believe I'm posting this on my blog either, come to think of it!) It was only a week half past due, so you can imagine my concern! I spent a lot of time this past week in prayer asking for guidance, patience, trust and peace about His Will. I even took a pee test…which came out negative two days ago. But of course, I never trust tests when they're negative…what if you tested too early? LOL

Thankfully it is not a part of God's Plan to add another baby to this family while my other baby is still a baby! I couldn't imagine dealing with a troubled pregnancy along with a baby, toddler, kindergartener and grade 2'er!!! Add that onto my depression and ups and downs…. Yikes! This baby and Rhys would just be a year apart! EEK!!! However, I will admit to the fact that the idea did make me happy amidst the scare! What if this was My other Girl????

*sigh*

Thank-you, Father, for watching over this little family and for knowing what's Best and for placing us exactly where you want us to be. If we do have another baby (and, I'll be honest, I'd love the idea. I love little babies!) I will trust He will watch over me then just the same. Maybe we won't have any more. All I know is that I am still on my Birth Control pills!!!!!

upcoming kids' class

I have a Stampin' Up! class booked at the end of next week and it's for a girl for her 8th birthday party. I am SOOOO excited! I've never actually done a party for a group of girls, although I have had a few young kids in classes with parents before, so this should be interesting. These are the projects I have designed for the girls. They aren't hard and should be lots of fun for them!



The first thing is the bouncy card. I need to pick up a more "bouncy" wire, but it still looks good the way it is! I got the idea off of Dawn. . You have to see her video. It's really easy to make one yourself….so says the girl who cursed under her breath at the odd sizes to cut and score at!!! LOL

The second is a super cute note. A 3×3 envelope is decorated with a 'floating' vellum butterfly, and you tuck your note into the slit at the top. I love it!

The third project is a bookmark with two flowers which my lovely neighbour helped trace and cut for me today! It's not my favourite work, I'll be honest (the bookmark, not my neighbour's tracing/cutting!) but I still think it's cute and will work for the girls. My 7 year old daughter and her best friend liked it, so that sealed the deal for me!

For the cost of the party, I am including two gifts for the goodie bags for the hostess. Check them out below. I love them!!!




They are candy skewers using SU! NEW trio heart punch. LOVE IT!!! (got that idea off of Andrea HERE. I'll need to find some cellophane bags still.) And the second are pillow boxes from the Big Shot, decorated with the NEW Love You Much stamp. Inside the boxes are more of the trio heart punches and I'm going to add something else still, but I don't know what yet. But it'll be good!

I can't wait for the class! I had so much fun planning this and I so want it to be so much fun for Michaila and her friends. That's what's the important part, right? That the girl has a great time for her birthday; I'm so excited that I get to be a part of it!