[untitled because I couldn't think of something creative]

Well, I'm done my transcription work for the evening and Tim is up taking a shower, so I thought I'd take this time to put in a quick post. It could probably be considered a small miracle that I'm actually posting within three months of the last time I posted.

I actually got around to writing in my paper journal today for the first time in months. It's a little easier to write in there than it is to update an online journal because Reuben doesn't mind me doing that as much as being on the computer. I may find that I'm able to keep track of the kids growing up in there more than on here. Sorry for your loss.

Life continues to move along. Kaylee has been smiling at us more and more and makes the most adorable cooing sounds along with it. She particularly enjoys it when we talk to her. I have her on a great routine, eat, awake, sleep, then repeat. For anyone out there planning to have kids, I recommend the book "The Baby Whisperer". Yes, it sounds somewhat flaky, but the EASY routine really works quite well. I used it with Reuben, and I started Kaylee on it quite early on, and she has settled into it nicely. The last two nights she's been sleeping from about 8ish to 3 or 4, and I'm hoping that we can make this a habit. I know it's wierd to appreciate the 4am feeding, but when that's the only one, life is much better than when she's up every 3 to 4 hours.

Reuben is also growing quickly. He's saying more and more words every day. Last week he learned "no". It's cute for now, but I have a feeling I will get tired of hearing him say it. I haven't started toilet training yet, but that will come. First I have to get him back to only using the soother for nap times. I admit I got a little lazy and let him have it way too much while I was still pregnant with Kaylee, and I didn't want to try and wean him off of it while he was still adjusting to her being around. I think it's time to work on that one because I'm getting tired of watching him walk around with it in his mouth. It is especially annoying when he tries to talk with it in his mouth. So not cool.

Tim's work situation continues to be up in the air. We've been somewhat unhappy with how things are going at Artech lately as far as the amount of hours Tim is putting in without being paid overtime and other various frustrations around the type of work Tim is doing and issues he's having to deal with that he'd rather not. He's been doing some occasional work for Northland trucking lately, and there is a possibility that he may do that part-time as well as working more on a freelance basis for Artech. We will see. Sometimes I wish God would put up a huge billboard somewhere telling us exactly what we should do.

I am back to doing transcription work in the evenings. Kaylee has a good bedtime now, so that makes it easy to do. I very much enjoy doing it, and often wish that I had more time during the day to work on it, but of course with two kids to take care of that isn't possible. Is it wierd that part of me is looking forward to when they go to school so that I can start doing this on a more full-time basis? It gives me a chance to use my brain, and I like that.

Well, Tim's done his shower, so I'll go now. Maybe I'll start a habit of this, or maybe it might end up being a long time till I update again. We'll see...

Long overdue

Okay, I know. I've taken too long to post again. Luckily for you, I was catching up on reading some other blogs today, and I got the inspiration to write something again. So much has happened since last time, most importantly Kaylee Elizabeth was born on May 28, 2009 at 7:14 am. She weighed 10lb 1oz and was 55 cm long. Yes, I had a 10lb baby. All natural. The entire labour was about 3 hours long. I've been told I was born to deliver babies. I don't know about that...

She is very cute. Here are some pictures. Some of them were taken by me or Tim, some by my sister, some by my parents. Enjoy...











I have also determined that I think it's time for me to turn this blog private, meaning only the people I give permission to may see it. There's no particular reason for the switch at this time, but I'm starting to feel a little more cautious about what I put on the Internet, especially about the kids. So, I'll add whatever email addresses I can think of that I know will be reading this. If you get missed, just email me, and I'll add you...(as long as I know you)...

I know there hasn't really been a whole lot to this. I was actually feeling more inspired earlier, but then I got busy putting the kids to bed, and now I'm just tired. I do feel somewhat guilty for not writing more regularly. I wish that I was better at keeping a record of Kaylee and Reuben's lives and all the things they do, but they keep me so busy that I just don't seem to get around to it. It's one of those things that I keep putting off and saying that I'll get to it, but then never do. I should change that...

I should be napping

I know that many of you have been anxiously waiting for a new blog post, so instead of napping like I should, I'll give you a quick post. And yes, I do mean quick. Suck it up.

I finally got to clean my house today. I dropped Reuben off at Tim's parents this morning and got about two hours of solid cleaning in. Believe it or not, I didn't get everything done. My bathroom is still dirty, and I still need to dust the living room and our bedroom, but at least my kitchen floor is clean, and there aren't anymore dust bunnies made of cat fur under my living room couches anymore. Call it nesting, call it what you will, but I have been panicking slightly the past few days thinking that the baby is going to come without me being able to get my house clean first.

My due date is 18 days away. Honestly, I will be surprised if the baby doesn't come before then. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I really don't see us having to wait too long. I just hope it waits until after the May long weekend when Tim will finally have a break from work. It would suck if he couldn't be there when the baby is born.

Well, all the cleaning has made me exhausted, and I'm afraid that I might hear Reuben waking up from his nap (after only 30 minutes?!) I think I might pretend I don't hear him and hope that he goes back to sleep. It would be bad if he didn't have a good nap today because I know he is tired after spending time with his grandparents this morning.

Anyway, that's your update. Enjoy.

Fasting

Our pastor recently sent out an email with some information on fasting in preparation to ask the church to fast for the month of February. In response to that, and relating somewhat to our current financial situation, I've actually decided to commit to a fast of my own. Since I'm pregnant and fasting from food and water probably isn't a good idea, I've decided to fast from the Internet. Given my Internet addiction, I anticipate this to be a challenge, but I also hope that this time will allow me to draw closer to God. I hope to use this time for prayer and Bible study, particularly as it relates to our finances and trusting God for His providence in our lives.

What this means for you is: I will not be on Facebook, or on any message boards, or updating this blog, or checking my email nearly as frequently. I'm allowing myself to check my email once a day, probably in the mornings, so if you need to get a hold of me by the evening, try calling instead. I plan to return to my regular Internet usage on February 15.

I ask for your prayers, that God will use this time so I can deepen my relationship with Him, and also that He will continue to provide for all of our needs. I know that He is faithful, but by golly it's getting harder and harder to see how we're going to get through the next few months.

Peace my friends.

Sorry so long in coming

Laura very kindly reminded me that I haven't updated here in a while, so I will try to do that now. Clearly much time has passed since I last blogged here, and much has happened. The Christmas season has come and gone; this year's festivities were somewhat more subdued following the death of my Aunt Liz on Christmas Eve after a two and half year battle with cancer. O's parents have also found alternate care for him in preparation for me needing some time off when the new baby is born. So, I am officially not doing home daycare anymore. I can honestly say I'm somewhat relieved. I have been enjoying the time with just me and Reuben again.

So, what am I doing for work now? Well, I've found a job working for Weed Man doing telephone sales in the evenings and on Saturdays. I had two days of training this week and start in the sales room on Monday. I will be doing sales for about a month, and then they will be switching me to a job as an appointment setter, which will be a little less stressful and hopefully more pleasant to not have to be pushing people to buy the product. The pay will probably be slightly less due to no commission, but it should still be enough.

I'm also looking quite seriously at getting into doing transcription work from home. I've discovered it's a lot of work to get into, and definitely not easy to do, but as I have quite a fast typing speed and have pretty good grammar skills, I think this might be something I could really do. I actually had my first real transcription job to do last night! It was just a short, free-lance, help out someone who had extra work that she couldn't finish on time, thing. But she'll pay me $50 for it, and it didn't end up taking me as long as I thought it might. It was an hour of audio, and I think I had it all typed up in about 3 1/2 hours, and then took another hour and half to proof read it this morning. 5:1 ratio is not bad for a newbie, considering the industry standard is 4:1. I'm doing okay. Hopefully I can get some more experience like this under my belt so I can apply to actual companies for steady work.

Reuben is doing well. I think he misses having the other kids around, because I can hardly do anything without him needing me to play with him. I'm hoping we can get him better at playing by himself again. The new baby is growing well. I'm just over 22 weeks, so more than halfway through this. This pregnancy is going so much easier than Reuben's so I'm very thankful for that.

well, I think that's all for now. I'll try not to be gone for so long again...

Easy day

Today is an easier day. O has his immunization appointment today and his parents figured since it's in the middle of the day there wasn't any point in bringing him at all. I'm okay with it because my day is definitely a lot less hectic when there are only two kids to chase. Reuben and V both have colds, so I put them down for an extra nap this morning, and hopefully they'll still go down again this afternoon. I think I might not let them sleep much longer than an hour to help out with that, although Reuben keeps coughing so I doubt he's getting a great nap anyway, poor guy.

We got our Christmas tree yesterday. It's making my house smell lovely, and so far Reuben hasn't gotten into too many ornaments. He hasn't been pulling on it much, more poking and pulling a bit at the needles. I haven't decided if I should try to put presents under it right away or not. I think that might be adding too much temptation for the kids. We'll see. I might give it a try and see how it goes, and if they can't keep out of them, I'll just put them away.

The baby is growing quickly. If you have access to Facebook I've posted some pics on there of my expanding belly. I'll try to do it regularly, but I'm not good at remembering to take them. I'm feeling movement quite regularly now, which helps to make it more real, and the morning sickness is gradually going away.

We found out last week that V's parents have found an alternate caregiver for her because of me needing some time off when the baby is born, and so she'll be leaving at the end of the month to start there. The new sitter can't guarantee a spot in May, so I understand why they're pulling her out now. It makes things a little interesting for us now, as I have to either find someone else to watch, or figure out another way to make some extra money. We'll have to see what happens. I'm doing my best to trust that God will help us find a way.

Otherwise not much for news. I'm having a hard time believing that Christmas is already next week! It seems like it was forever a way, and now it's almost here. Go figure I'm not anywhere near done my Christmas shopping like I'd hoped to be at this point. I'm planning for me and Tim to get a babysitter and do that sometime this week. That's all for now...

On Canadian politics *warning: may contain strong language*

*more added at the bottom*

What a load of bullshit!

I am in the middle of watching tonight's national addresses by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and opposition leader Stephan Dion. Honestly, I couldn't even watch the end of Dion's speech he made me so mad. Talking all about what Canadians want and don't want in terms of an election, and how Canadians just want their government to focus on the economic crisis and not have to deal with all this political crisis stuff. Well duh! And you're the bloody idiot who's creating all this political crisis with your stupid non-confidence vote!! What happened to democracy? So what if the House has lost confidence in its government? Have the people lost confidence in the government? Maybe we should ask them! I sure as heck would rather have another election than have power-hungry politicians choosing my parliament for me!

Btw did anyone else find it interesting to see the ominous gray clouds rolling by in the background on CBC? I thought it was kind of ironic of them...

The whole thing makes me sick. Seriously people. Dion was talking about how we have to be mature, let the vote on Monday happen and then accept the results of that vote blah blah blah. Maybe he should be mature and accept the fact that he lost the REAL election and be happy with the government the PEOPLE chose.

Maybe I'm out of the loop. Maybe Harper really has been screwing things up. But can it really be so bad as to create all this political kerfuffle that is drawing the attention away from more pressing economic issues? Wasn't there some other way to deal with the opposition's unhappiness with the way things were going? Couldn't they have tried SOMETHING else first?

Grrrrr... Stupid politicians. Stupid government. Stupid democratic system that clearly has some serious flaws when politicians have this capability of overthrowing an ELECTED government without having another election to find out what the people actually think. Honestly, if there was any thought about me ever voting something other than Conservative, it is completely out the window now. I will NEVER vote NDP or Liberal after this stupid stunt they are pulling. If they had asked my opinion first, maybe. But going ahead and doing this without finding out if it is actually what the people want, that is blatantly defying anything constitutional in my books, whether or not it's actually written in there or not.

I'm going to go do something else now. All this political thinking is giving me a headache and pissing me off more. I don't like the feeling that we the people have had any say in this taken away from us. I would rather have had the Liberals win the election than take the government by force. At least then I would know that I had the opportunity to have my say, even if my say didn't make a difference.

ETA: (that stands for "edited to add" for all you non-internet savy types) I just wanted to say, not to be stupidly nit-picky or anything, but did anyone else notice the incredibly crappy quality of Stephan Dion's tape? He was out of focus for pity's sake! And the camera angle/pathetic head-shot! Yeesh! Not to mention the whole taking forever thing to get it to the networks to be played; I thought it was funny when the CBC commentators started talking about the communications issues of the Liberals when it took ages for it to play. Anyway, that's enough about that...

We heard a heartbeat!

So we finally got to go for our second appointment with the midwife today. I'd had to reschedule twice before this because my midwife's clients kept having babies on the day when I was supposed to have my appointments. Oh well. We saw her today, a pretty standard check-up, took some bloodwork for tests, found out I've gained 4 pounds so far, and then we got to hear the heartbeat! Ticking away at 165 bpm, so good and fast, but that's normal for this early on. I'm pretty sure Reuben's was about that speed too at this point.

I'll be 13 weeks tomorrow, so officially done the first trimester. Time seems to be going by pretty quickly this time. It probably helps that I'm so busy taking care of the kids that I just don't think about it as much. The morning sickness seems to be easing slightly, not gone by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely manageable. I also feel like I'm starting to get some energy back, which is nice because then I'm slightly more motivated to get some cleaning done around the house.

Tim is currently super busy with work. We're both looking forward to December when things should slow down a little for him. Promise Keepers has wrapped up, and he's off to Montreal this weekend for some Athletes in Action breakfast thingy. He's got tomorrow off though, which will be nice to have him around.

Well, I'm going to end this now. I'm just in from choir practice for Handel's Messiah that I'm singing with Redeemer's Alumni choir. It's pretty tiring. So off for now...

The Big Announcement and a small miracle

The Big Announcement: I'm pregnant again! I am due May 26, 2009 which puts me at just over 11 weeks. The morning sickness has so far not been nearly as bad as with Reuben, thank goodness. I'm on Diclectin again, but haven't had to go past the 4 a day dose like I did last time, and a lot of days I only take 3. It's been easier to manage the nausea by keeping on eating, which also means I think I'm gaining weight faster this time too. I'm already starting to show a little bit, and my pre-pregnancy pants are starting to not fit, when before they were too big. I'm definitely pretty tired, and taking care of 3 kids all day doesn't help. Oh well.

The small miracle: O had a two hour nap today! Yes. Two whole hours. I couldn't believe it. I think I was in shock. I actually got to have a nap too. Reuben and V were sleeping also. I think I've finally figured out how to get them all to sleep at the same time. It's called transitioning to one nap, so now all of them are very ready for a nap right after we have an early lunch. It is so far working out pretty good, and today was the best day ever. I'm hoping we can repeat this in the future.

Read the book and tell me what you think

So today I was inspired to write something a bit more than a "this is what's happening in our life" update, but low and behold when I went to blogger to put it in, they're down for maintenance. Figures. So I'm typing this in Notepad until I can get it posted properly. It's kind of weirding me out b/c the font is so strange. Maybe I should be doing this in Word.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to write is because on Justine's recommendation I am in the middle of reading Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis. I am only halfway through, and I am already blown away. I was blown away after the first chapter, but he continually blows me away the more I read, and now I am to the point where I have to blog about it.

The funny thing is I keep typing out what I'm thinking in my head about this book, and then I just delete it because I can't even come close to describing with any sort of accuracy what he's really talking about. I strongly recommend reading the book if you haven't already. I would like to hear more opinions on it. I think the man is brilliant, and has totally hit on something that a lot of people need to hear.

As a total aside, I think it's also funny that as I read the book, in my head I am hearing Rob actually reading it, because we've seen a number of his Nooma videos in church lately, and so now that I'm reading the book I feel a bit like I'm watching him in one of his videos, except I'm reading instead of watching. Sorry for the randomness...

Back to the point. Maybe I'm just totally excited for no reason and as soon as I'm done the book the hype will wear off and I'll forget about it. But I really hope not. I hope I can take what I'm reading, and put it into practice in my own life. I hope that maybe something in my life will change, and people will see that change and wonder what inspired it, and maybe they will ask me about it, and I can tell them about this book, and maybe they can be inspired by it too.

And in the end, isn't that kind of what spreading the gospel is about?