Rain Rain Go Away...

I planned to take the children to the beach today but it was pouring rain when we woke up. Boo. I was really disappointed because they've been so patient while we were house bound waiting for the painter to show up and I really wanted to do something fun with them.

Around lunchtime the sun started to show itself so we decided to be spontaneous and head to the park.

Being spontaneous is hard to do with three children. Today's spontaneity took us 48 minutes. Not bad!

We only had about two hours before we had to pick Ian up after work but they used the time they had well. The first hour and 15 minutes was at the splash pad. No pics because it's not allowed. Sigh. One or two pervs have to wreck it for everyone.

Afterwards we went to the petting zoo. It was pretty hot and the animals weren't in the mood to be petted, so all we got to see was a donkey.



The ducks (some or all could be geese... whatev) came right up to Sam and ate from his hand...



Take a look at this one... talk about aggressive. I didn't have anything to feed it and I was all like "back off you freaky duck" but he just kept coming at me. Freak.



Once the food was gone, the children decided to terrorize them and chase them all around...





Aww... a squirrel...



Sam hangin' at the park...





Fridays are Family Night, so we picked up a pizza on our way home and the children's movie choice for the evening is The Bee Movie. I hope I can stay awake!

A great day!

Blah

Nothing terribly great to report.

Slept very well in "The Tower" last night. I think we'll keep our gigantic bed.

Dawn sent me this video last night and now I can't get it out of my head. I found myself rather excited when I heard it at the park today.



We are quite curious as to why he keeps grabbing himself.

That's it.

Whew!

I'm back from my walk in the park with my friends Cindy and Jenn. I was envisioning a nice and relatively short power walk.

NO.

It was around the entire park and it's HUGE. Jenn made me laugh with her running commentary about how she was feeling throughout the walk and Cindy meant business. I fell somewhere in between.

Afterwards we headed over to Wendy's for a light dinner. I desperately wanted an M&M Frosty but Cindy refused to let me have it. We told the fellow behind the counter about how we just walked around this mammoth park and that a frosty would be a bad idea and do you know what he did for me? He made me a junior sized frosty and put crushed M&Ms on it and said it was "on him". It went very well with my salad.

I can't be sure, but I think Wendy's guy might have had a little crush on me... I don't know.. I'm just sayin'...

Ian bought a new frame for our bed and now the bed is really high. When I say "really high" I mean it. He called me upstairs to show it to me and I was all like WHAT THE HECK we can't keep that thing! I had to climb onto it and when I sit at the edge my feet are nowhere near the floor and I'm 5'9".

Yes... I wanted to post a picture of it but Ian said no pics of our bed. So you'll just have to take my word for it. It's high.

I hope I don't get a nosebleed while I'm waaaaay up there tonight.

See ya tomorrow...

B & B

As in Barf & Blood.

Once a woman crosses that beautiful threshold into motherhood, there are certain things she learns and she learns them quickly.

One of them is that jiggling a recently fed baby is a bad idea.

Apparently the 7 year gap between my daughters has stolen some of this common sense.

I had changed and fed Jordan and had her sitting on my lap facing me. She looked so happy and smiley, like she was ready to play. So I lifted her up like an airplane and gave her squishy hugs. We clapped hands while singing Old MacDonald Had A Farm. We were really getting into the whole bouncing-on-mom's-knee thing until my rendition of The Addams Family. The smile was suddenly replaced with wide eyes and then out spewed the barf, Linda Blair style. I wasn't too worried that she barfed on herself - she can be washed. But did it have to land on my last clean pair of pants? Yikes. We are both cleaned up and all is well.

That bit of common sense has made its return to the forefront of my mind. Must not jiggle baby filled with food.

Later this afternoon Julie came inside complaining of a teeny tiny injury that was hurting her. The weird part is that the injury happened three days ago.

Talk about a delayed reaction.

She tried Ian on for size at first, saying she wanted a band-aid because it hurt soooo much and that was the only thing that would fix it. He said that a band-aid wasn't necessary. I got what he was trying to do - he was trying to toughen her up.

Lots of drama and whining ensued. And then the headache started...

Me.. I'm all about a quick fix. I gave her the band-aid just so the whining would stop and she'd go back outside.

About twenty minutes later in comes Sam saying "its ok Jules.. I've got you....we're home....MOOOOOOOM!!!!" with Julie following him BAWLING. She'd fallen over a rock and scraped her knee and elbow.

Man... a lot of blood can come out of an elbow let me tell you.

I got her up on the bathroom counter and proceeded to wash off all the dirt and blood while Sam gently brushed away her tears, all to the tune of "Why do these things keep happening to me? Why can't they happen to some other kid...? Why meeeeee?"

I wonder where she gets this dramatic streak from. Any guesses...??

Once she was all cleaned and patched up she headed back outside. Whew... crisis averted.

And I was just thinking about what an uneventful afternoon I was enjoying.

Painting Complete!

I am very happy to report that my painting is complete!

Pino arrived yesterday and had the wallpaper in my entrance way, hallway and Sam's room stripped and the walls washed within 45 minutes of his arrival. He laughed when I told him it took my mother-in-law and me a whole day to peel the paper from my bathroom. He filled all the holes and patched up a few places on my ceiling and was gone by 11am.

I was startled by aggressive banging on my front door mid-afternoon. I very rarely answer the door when I am home alone because among my 435,608 fears, home invasion nears the top. I went to the door to see the Canada Post guy there with a box at his feet. "Are you Mrs. Kate Bittenberry?"

Uhh..yes...but no...not really... I signed for the box as "Bittenberry" because I'm wild and crazy like that.

"What's in the box?" you ask, filled with excitement on my behalf...

It's from Nestle... inside was a backpack diaper bag, a can of Nestle Good Start formula, a sample of rice cereal and a bunch of coupons.

WHOOOOO HOOOOOO. I am all about free stuff.

I guess word got out that I'm an all around great gal. Either that or I put my name in somewhere but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm an all around great gal.

I can imagine how disappointed you are that I didn't post a picture of this most wonderful backpack. I'm just too lazy. Sorry.

Pino arrived again this morning at 8am and completed all the painting by 3pm. Not bad. He even painted all the baseboards too. Yay Pino. Suffice it to say that I am Pleased with Pino's Perfect Painting.

In the meantime I am stressing out every time the children go near the walls. Already Julie has gotten paint on her arm but of course she has no idea how it got there. (can't you picture me rolling my eyes?)

Lots of furniture to be moved back into place. Poor Ian.. he gets all the lousy jobs.

Tonight I am going out for a walk with my girlfriends around the park. I have been looking forward to this since our last get together last Thursday. We talk and laugh so much and it just renews my energy for the week. No Frosties tonight... nope...now it's all about exercise and losing my baby weight... from Jordan...Julie...and Sam... Heck, I think I'm carrying my OWN baby weight still.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will take the children to the beach. They've been so patient these past two weeks waiting for Pino to show up, so tomorrow will be all about having fun together.

No Creative Title Today

Exciting news... It looks like I won't be painting this weekend. YAY! Pino the Painter called this evening and will be coming tomorrow morning at 8am. I hope he isn't a talker because I'm not a morning person, I suck at small talk and I'm a little cross with him for taking so long to show up. And I hope he brings his own lunch.

Every Tuesday evening is Inspirational Music in the Park night. It's a really wonderful time to sit outdoors and sing and worship the Lord together with tons of people from all walks of life. My plan was to head downtown with the children and meet up with my friend Jen and her adorable daughter but the weather had other plans...





Being the most excellent mother that I am, I suggested that the kids go out and play in the rain. Man.. was I a hero!

















One hot bath and one hot shower later, we all sat down to steaks done on the bbq and watched Wipeout. Talk about a great show. We laughed so hard at the contestants. The children are now in bed and I am getting ready to clean my kitchen.

Speaking of shows (and yes, procrastinating about the kitchen), last night was the finale of The Bachelorette. Talk about frustrating. AS USUAL the wrong person was picked.

DeAnna should have chosen Jason.



He was such a sweet, stable, polite and classy guy. She said she knew she would be safe with him. So what's the problem??

This was the problem...



Ugh. Jesse... the overgrown kid who snowboards for a living. No no no. I wanted to reach through the tv and give her a shake. Nothing stable about this guy.

There was something else that I wanted to write about and now I can't remember what it was because I'm all distracted because of DeAnna.

Ooh... I added a hit counter to my blog so I can see how many people come to read me every day. I thought I had only three readers but I was wrong. Ha ha.

I guess I'll have to be charming and witty now... talk about performance anxiety.

Monday Musings

Today was not the productive day I had hoped it would be and this is pretty much why...



Yep.. she did that pretty much all morning. I never did figure out what was wrong with her. She had a long, solid nap this afternoon and now is back to herself. Since she was in such a good mood I thought I'd take a couple of pictures to show off her mohawk.





Believe it or not, this is her natural hairstyle that she was born with. I have smoothed it down only to have it pop right back up again. It's like her signature.

Sam loves to tell people he was the only one who was born with "normal" hair, Julie was born with a mullet (so true) and now Jordan has a mohawk. I don't know why my girls have/had freaky hair since their most excellent mother sports perfect hair all day, every day.

Trying to get the children out of the house some days is a real chore. They would be content to stay in their pjs all day alternating between watching tv and playing video games. When they do go out they have all these rules to follow... don't talk to strangers, stick together, don't play on the road, don't go into people's houses, don't don't don't.... and they have to hear them every single time they go outside. (I'm nervous, what can I say) If I give them 30 minutes they are back in exactly 30 minutes. It's amazing.

Today Sam was trying to get Julie to come home from the park with him and he told her to hurry because Orlando Bloom was going to be at the house waiting for her. Apparently she just went nuts and he said he'd never seen her run so fast. Yeah, so she was pretty disappointed when it was only me here. I have to laugh that she believed him.

Sam wanted some popcorn since he was "starving to death" and since I was busy with Jordan he said he'd make it. Honestly, he was so excited watching the bag expand and the kernels start popping. I don't know why he was so excited...popcorn makes many appearances in our home.



I was so amazed at his excitement and the camera was nearby...so there you go.

He heard Julie coming and wasn't in the mood to share so he stuffed as much in his mouth as he possibly could...



Guess what???

The painter didn't come or call. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.... I really think I'm going to be painting this weekend.

Our realtor called tonight to tell us that he still doesn't know if the house across the street has sold yet. He's pretty frustrated!

Now we're expanding our search to a town 30 minutes north of here. It would be less populated and therefore much quieter, we'd be able to afford a larger home with more property and it would probably be much safer. Definitely lots of pluses. The one big negative for me would be moving away from my mom. I am SO close with my mom and can be there in under 5 minutes if she needs me. We'd have to find a new church (boo), and the children would have to switch schools. Sam got so upset when I mentioned moving to this particular town. He hates change even more than I do and that is really saying something.

God's in charge. Wherever He wants us, we'll go.

Sam is very into carting Jordan around lately. It's actually a huge help for me because sometimes my hands are full and I end up needing help.



And my herd all together...



My heart is so heavy after talking with my sister this weekend. It was so good to see her and we hugged for a long time without speaking. But at the same time I was filled with hurt and anger at the things she has said and done to us over the last year and a half. She apologized over and over but it didn't take the pain away. Its such a difficult situation. She's in counselling right now and it seems to be helping her. I'm glad for that.

That is all for today. I'm much too tired to be witty and charming tonight. ;-)

Weekend Recap

Friday night we had the first bbq of the season. It was so nice to sit in the backyard, smelling the bbq and watching the kids play. Ian is such a great bbq-er.

Saturday morning I took the children downtown to the Farmer's Market. We got a late start so it was pretty hot and crowded when we got there, and almost everything had been sold already. Next week we'll have to head out earlier.

Julie and Sam counted 18 dogs. Honestly. There are a couple of issues I have with dogs at a farmer's market. 1) They are around FOOD. I have seen these animals sniffing and licking stuff and it grosses me out. I know you're supposed to wash this stuff before eating it, but still, I wouldn't want a dog licking it. I don't know if there would be enough washing to eliminate that image from my mind. 2) on a hot day a dog's behaviour can be unpredictable. I would really appreciate my child not being bit because your dog is cranky from the heat. 3) it's crowded enough without adding dogs wandering about, tripping me with it's leash (and yes, this happened to me and the owner laughed. Hardly appropriate) and finally 4) I don't appreciate being licked or sniffed because the owner is too busy to watch what their animal is doing. Or they smile and watch as if it's perfectly normal for them to do that to a complete stranger. Why is it that owners think we all want to meet their dogs??

Next week the children want to count tattoos.

We did buy some awesome cookies though. Most people go for the fruits and veggies...my kids wanted cookies, so cookies they got.

Oh yes... and this brings me to something that just made my mouth fall open. Of all the times to leave my camera at home, this was not the day to do it.

While we were walking back to the car, we had to pass an adult store. I won't say the name of it because frankly it hardly needs any publicity from me and my three readers.

Right outside of the store, while the farmer's market was still operating, was a woman wearing a black sequined bra, a teeny tiny mini-skirt with her thong showing over her hips, high, high stiletto heels and holding a stick with a black feather on it. Obviously the store in it's already high-profile location wasn't enough to draw customers, they had put someone dressed like a prostitute right out front for the world - and tons of children - to see.

I was in shock. I kept the children distracted so they wouldn't see her because I had no idea how I would have explained what she was doing. I was planning on calling the store to complain, then calling their head office to do the same, but I haven't. Why? Because what would be the point. The store itself is hardly classy, why should their advertising techniques be? Still... I feel as though I should do something.

Here is a picture of my children's new best friend...



Something tells me we're going to be getting a lot of visits...

Later in the evening I sat down to talk with my sister for the first time in a year and a half. I'm still feeling wiped out from it. I don't know where we're going to go from here. I just don't know. I did bring Jordan over for her to see. We talked about a lot of things.

Sunday was a lazy day. Ian took the children to the mall and I rested. I have been feeling very tired lately. I hope I'm not sick!

Well, our painter did not come at all last week, even though he promised the work would be done that week. Ian called him so many times and left something like 8 messages throughout the week with no reply. He finally reached him late on Saturday night - after blocking our phone number - and put his foot down in the most polite, yet firm manner. If he isn't here by Thursday then he's fired. It's frustrating not knowing when - or even IF - he's coming because I can't make any plans with the children, I have to be around the house. My friend Jen invited me to the beach tomorrow and I can't confirm because I don't know what's happening with this dude.

I think I will psych myself up to paint this weekend. I think I might be able to wrangle a couple of friends to help me if I throw in some pizza... ;-)

Today is all about putting my house back together. Talk about a mess!! I'm also going to try to pack two boxes each from the children's rooms. Lots to do today.

Man oh Man...

This guy blows my mind...

Haircuts and Stuff

Jules was freaking me out this morning... Jordan was fussing and she went over to soothe her and I heard her softly saying "shhh....rest in peace... rest in peace..."

Yep...just a wee bit creepy.

Later on I found her walking around the house with the top of her dress stuffed with tissues... I didn't even know how to broach that one. At first I thought that this could be an open door to an interesting, educational talk, but in the end I took the the lame route... I just asked her to remove the tissue and that was that.

This afternoon I took the children to get badly needed hair cuts. All morning long all Julie could talk about was her appointment and how she needed a new look. She was over the moon because I was taking her to my "grown up" salon to get hers done. Sam was not so happy because he didn't want his cut at "some chick place".

Since Sam was so thrilled to go, I'll start with his shaggy "before" pics.







Pretty shaggy, right? He was pretty cross with me because he wanted to keep growing his hair longer and longer.

And there it goes...





This is the look I got when I asked if he liked his new look.



He hates the bits of hair that always linger...



Julie decided to dress up a bit for her appointment since she'd "be coming home all fancy and special" she said.

And here are her before pics...







Sam waiting for Julie...



She just soaked up the experience. She's never had her hair washed like this before and said it was "just awesome!"



I explained to the stylist what style Julie wanted and off she went...







Viewing the final product...note the huge smile on Julie's face. She said she felt like a new kid.



And her "after" pics...







She was so thrilled to have gotten the look she wanted. The stylist was absolutely amazing and gave her the full treatment. I am going to either call or write to the manager and let them know how wonderful she was and how my daughter left feeling like a princess.

On our way home this church sign caught my eye...



This church has had some pretty racy signs in the past so I was glad to see this one! LOL.

After dinner I met up with two of my dear friends, Cindy and Jenn. We talked at Tim's from 7pm until almost 11! Lots of laughs. It was a good time.

Now I'm off to bed!

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Birthday Canada!

Ian was home with us today and we took the children to see Wall-E. It was a really cute movie. Jordan watched almost half of it then slept through the rest. I don't think anyone even knew there was a baby there. That's her second movie :-)

My sister sent me a message through Facebook the other day, commenting on how beautiful the children are. She can't see my profile, just the profile pic. She also sent me a friend request which I chose to ignore. I just had to shake my head because the last time we had any contact the feathers were a-flyin'. Then she sent me another message yesterday so I sent her an email in reply. It wasn't an angry email by any means.

She chose to reply to me and while I appreciated that she was calm and apologized for part of the issues between us, she still chooses to see things very differently than they really are. That's hard to deal with. I love her and always will. She told me she loves me but she doesn't like me. That stung, but I appreciated her honesty. Who knows, maybe if she continues with her therapy then we could sit down in a year or two as a family and try to work things out. Anything is possible.

Jules helped me cut the grass tonight. I love the smell of freshly cut grass, although I don't like that my shoes have green on them now! Hopefully they wear off. Jules called them my Kermit the Frog shoes. Dang.

I am now off to prepare dinner and hopefully enjoy a movie with Ian later this evening.

Monday Mix

I thought that most companies would offer today as the stat holiday rather than tomorrow but I was wrong. Poor Ian had to head into the office today.

Being that Sam was so sick yesterday I tried to keep him as quiet as I could. We all stayed in our pjs until almost 3pm! What a great, lazy day.

When Ian came home he took the children to Toys R Us so that Sam could pick out something with his birthday money. He seemed fine when he left, but the trip seemed to have tired him out. Ian set him up in his room with a movie, then he headed out to see the movie Wanted.

I don't want to see that movie even though it sounds awesome. Why? Because Angelina Jolie is in it and I don't like her. I don't think she is a particularly good actress and she just all around bothers me. And yes, I am bothered that she broke up Brad and Jen.

I missed Canadian Idol tonight but I think I set our PVR to tape it. It's not as good as American Idol but it's all that's on these days.

I actually caught the tail end of The Bachelor: The Men Tell All. Man, that Deanna has zero tact. Still... I will be there next Monday when she breaks some dude's heart. That show is disgusting, but I watch it anyway.

I used to watch it while on msn with my friend Dawn and we would just die laughing at some of the craziness that went on. Our favourite part was when they would hand out the roses, and then there'd be only one rose left and the host of the show would come out and say "Ladies... this is the last rose of the evening". We'd laugh every time.

I'm off to bed.. I'm pooped.

First BBQ of the Year!

Sam was feeling even worse today. He was running a fever and was throwing up. We kept him as quiet as we could all day.

Ian's parents came to visit on their way to house-sit for Ian's sister. It was a short visit and poor Sam was out of it for the whole thing. Ian's mom sewed a new insert for our highchair and brought it down. It's really cute and the fit is perfect.



The girls and I went over to my mother's for a Canada Day bbq. Sam was so sad that he had to miss it, but he was just in no shape to leave the house at all.

My aunt and her husband were there, as well as my other aunt and my nephew. I love bbqs and all the salads... yum. It was a really nice visit.

Sam seemed much better when we got home which was a great relief to see. He tends to bounce back from these things pretty quickly. Lucky him!

Stuff on Saturday

We didn't get to have our yard sale today because it rained. Oh well... hopefully next Saturday will be sunny and bright and bring lots of people.

While Ian does the yard sale, I will set the children up with their lemonade stand. Ian gets all sorts of crazy deals for stuff and one of his favourite websites is called RedFlagDeals.com. It was there that he found a place that was sending out full sized cardboard lemonade stands for free, so he ordered one. I can't wait to see my little ones selling lemonade on the sidewalk.

We packed up and headed to the library. We signed out about 20 books! Julie and I got laughing so hard at one point I thought we would be asked to leave.

After the library we headed to the mall to have lunch and poke around. I needed to pick up some plastic cutlery for Sam's birthday party this afternoon.

Sam's party was from 4-6pm and was a great success. Ian introduced him to laser tag a couple of months ago and now Sam has his own membership at Laser Quest.

Here is Ian and Sam heading in to kick some butt...



Sam chose an Indiana Jones themed cake and it turned out really good!



This is the topper that went on it. Run Indy..RUN!



I hope he blew across and not directly down...



Ian's best friend Gary joined the part for the second game and came back to our place after. He and Ian took the children for a walk to Walmart and shortly after they returned Sam said he had a headache and wasn't feeling well.

He and I curled up in my bed together and I read to him from a Choose Your Own Adventure book while he lay quietly. Eventually Ian carried him to his own bed.

I hope he's feeling better tomorrow...