a video!!! finally

I've been trying to upload videos since the 1st of Jan. I don't know if it's the net, blogger or our connection, but they haven't been working, until this one! Pretty much everyday Ivan and Dominique tell my belly "I love you baby". They've been doing this for months, since I told them that she could hear their voices. I'm afraid this one is a bit staged. I wanted the baby to know how much her siblings cared about her even before her birth and figured she may be coming soon, so I'd better get their little ritual on camera before she makes her grand appearance.

Baby has one more day to hang out before her due date and Brian's birthday. It's a little tricky trying to birth her on a certain day. We'll see how we do!

I have her clock finished apart from the fine details of name, birthdate, time and place. Yipee! Can't believe it!

visit to the zoo

Here are the pictures from our visit to the zoo. Aren't the monkeys hilarious? They came right up to where we were on the other side of the glass window like they wanted to crawl into our laps.

Big Buddy is still in the hospital. It's been so long and it doesn't seem as though they are in a hurry to let him leave. I used to joke that I'd race him out, but that's not so funny anymore because it looks like I'll be in and home before he will.

Last night I had so many contractions, I thought she'd come early, but then I woke up and they calmed down. So we went to the first toddler reading time at the new library- got even more books and played puzzles, discovered that there are no headsets for the kid games on the computers, so they added it to their list of things to add. Always glad we can help out.

I had wanted to vacuum the floors today, but mom did it for me and we are all so thankful for it. When I vacuum, I run it over the carpets and rugs. Mom had the hand attachment and was doing all the furniture and at the edges of the walls. She filled up a garbage bag and when we didn't have a replacement on hand, emptied it out manually and went at it again! The house is now all clean and beautiful and I got to work on the baby's clock. It is nearly done!!!

We went out to see Brian at the practically finished house. They may have a full day or just half a day of it tomorrow. It looks so great! I knew it would look good, but it's still shocking to see how nice it is having seen what an ugly wreck it was at first. They even planted shrubs and flowers, which is the first thing mom noticed.

He is taking his birthday off on Thurs. and the next couple of days off, so baby- you can come now, well not now, but in about 36 hours.

Everything is coming together

Here are the pictures of Brian putting the final touches on the swing/fort set and the finished project. It is amazing and is way nicer than what I imagined we'd have. The kids are loving it and I know it will be so helpful when the baby comes.

I got a lot of pages made for the baby book this weekend, and got some of her clock painted last night. Other moms clean house and I should, ours is a wreck, but lucky for Brian (ha,ha), he did not marry someone who nests with cleaning, but one who invents creative work for herself instead.



I had a major glitch with her baby book. Our printer has been having major attitude and I won't print color, so I've been coloring and making the pages pretty by collages etc. Since there was so much glue and pasted pictures... I thought I'd better laminate the pages to keep it all together. I feel bad even writing this, but when I laminated her first page of sonogram pictures- the pics turned all black! Yep, I erased her first ever pics. Told you it was bad. I did go back on my blog and find two of them though and printed out poor copies from there and today at my doctor appointment, I asked them to make a copy and got a picture they hadn't even given us- so I do have some documentation and a new pic.- that makes up for it right?

My appointment went well. Baby was moving a lot. The doc. asked if I wanted to keep waiting (I'm dilated to a 3.5) or be induced. I told her she'd be born Thurs. Thurs. would actually be great. Brian is finishing up his first flipped house Wed. afternoon (if all goes well) and is taking his birthday off. Mom volunteered to keep the kids so we could go out. Wed. night and I could get some more painted on her clock. I can't believe the projects we were going to do before her birth are getting done! I'm so excited about that. Mom has been such a huge help! We even have some muffins baked- because a nursing mom is a hungry mom!

We took the kids to the zoo today and it was so nice. Perfect weather and so fascinating. I could spend a whole day there. Half a day with the monkeys and the other half with everything else. I got some great pics I'll need to share.

Tomorrow we hope to take the kids to the first toddler reading time at the new library!! So fun.

We are trying to do fun stuff with the kids while we can. I think Ivan is the one with the biggest problem adapting. He turned into a troll tonight and has been very unbearable, but transitions are not his strongest suit. With Dominique, he was so small, he didn't notice all that much, but he knows there is major change now and while he's excited, it seems to be throwing him off too. Pray he'll adapt well and have peace and joy about our new baby.

Just in time!

We've been anticipating this moment most of the year. Yesterday , the Mockingbird branch library opened! ;) Did you think I was going to say something else?

It was wild being in a brand new library, with new unstained carpet, brand new shiny books, unscratched videos, beautiful shelves of movies and rooms, computers and children's area. There were about 400 people who braved the cold, but I bet not many of them walked over like we did- the parking lot was packed. They ran out of hotdogs, chips and hot chocolate by the time we had gotten our books and videos checked out, so Ivan was sorely disappointed about that and I had to make fake hot dogs, chips and choc. milk at home. They got to hear stories read and a clown was trying to get us to hulla hoop (including me- I kept telling her "no I can't hulla hoop right now" and showing her my lack of a waist and she finally got the drift). We watched a juggler make the first mess on the brand new carpet- he was juggling real eggs and dropped one. Well at least my kids didn't make the first spill! Then he brought out real knives to juggle and everyone moved back a little. At the end he said: "I have one more trick, but they no let me do it here at the library, it with fire." Yeah, Mr Omelet, that would make a bad first day at the brand new library that has been delayed half a year in opening. But it's just the right time for us. We live 2 blocks away. The older kids had no problem walking it with us today and I can put the baby in the stroller for a great weekly or bi-weekly or family outing. Plus they will bring materials from other libraries to the one that is closer to us or take our materials from the other libraries! Toddler reading time is Tues. so we're going to try to make the first one if baby is not here.


I've been trying to do fun things with the kids while we have the chance. Mom and I took them to the mall play area last week and they rode some rides. We went swimming Fri., maybe we'll try the jumpy air castle place or zoo or something this week. We'll see. Everything is a waiting game at this point.

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow, so we'll see how far I've gotten this week with my little contractions.

'Thanks for all your guesses. If you haven't put in your ideas as to when the baby will come or how big she will be, you can still go to the last post and put your two cents in. You will gain notoriety on this blog if you make the closest guess! Now isn't that enticing?

Baby birth guessing time

Time to make guesses about the baby (before she gets here). Here I am 9 months pregnant at my baby shower last Sunday. I am having some contractions, but nothing real intense or consistent. We will most likely have her before or by the 22nd, because my doctor is pro-induction, doesn't like to deliver big babies and in her own words, it would be unusual for me to have a small baby.

I am 12 pieces of toilet tissue around- so you can count out the squares and put it around your waist to see what this baby has done to me!! Her due date is Jan. 15th (Brian's birthday).

Guess: her birth day, how big she will be, how long she will be and her names. I'll give you one hint since some of you already know... her first name starts with an E (unless we look at her and suddenly decide on something else, which is unlikely).

The Fort/Swing Set

Here is some of the progression of the fort/swing set. They started by digging out a laundry post that has been there since we moved here. Brian had removed the first one long ago, but we had used the other one for hammocks some summers. Now the hammocks will have to hang from the fort. The kids did their part too of course, because anytime the set was being worked on, they wanted to be right there in the mix. They dug out dirt, measured and supervised the operation from the start.

There is still a little left to do, but Brian just has the weekends to work on it, so it is slow going. Last weekend he completed the climbing wall and the rails for the fort (I had what I thought would be an improvement that doubled his work, so I'm sure he is enjoying all my input ;) He also got the slide up, which is very fast, so the kids are getting used to it slowly. My friend brought some rubber mats to put at the end of it, so that helped some. I just realized that none of these pictures are recent, so I need to get snapping to show you what comes next.


I'm also trying to upload a video for about the 15th time this week. Is anyone else having troubles getting videos up? I have a stack of them to post. My next doctor's appointment is Monday, so we'll see how we are doing. Baby doesn't seem like she's in any rush to get here, but that's ok, I am slowly getting some things done- like pages for her baby book and hopefully this weekend I can paint some more on her clock.

The kids and I went swimming today and it was so nice. It's down right hot here and feels like a Canadian summer. It was good to get out and have some fun exercise. May be our last chance for a while, depending on when baby comes.

Mom is awesome!

Having an extra set of adult hands around is so great! We took the kids to library time today and they enjoyed it so much. It was nice to do something from our old routine, since we have been so loosy-goosy right now and that has been hard on the kids. Then we went to 2 stores and for lunch. I could never have done all that on my own. Then mom scrubbed my cupboards! I've done that before (they are white- or are supposed to be) but not in a while and they needed it. Last week she did about 10 loads of laundry- sheets, comforters and even pillows were cleaned. So wonderful.

Have you heard of women having weird pregnancy dreams? I had a dream that I had 4 babies in me to deliver and our daughter was last. I had to deliver my friend's son Isaiah (who is 2 1/2 years old) and a set of twins, then our daughter who is about to make her appearance. The dream was so real that when I had a contraction this morning, my first thought was "oh, no- all those babies to give birth to". Then I realized that I only had this one daughter and was so thankful!

While others are anxious for me to have our third, I've been enjoying getting some things done little by little. I have some pages to her baby book done and hope to be able to work on painting her clock some more before her arrival.

weird weather

Sat. it was hot here and Brian worked all day on the fort swing set. It is nearly done and I'll post pictures of the process at some point. In the meantime, I still have all these pictures from when dad was here, not to mention a bunch of totally awesome videos that I haven't been able to get to upload all week. I'm not sure why it's not working.

Monday morning, we woke up to the first rain we've had in 3 months. It was actually icy, rain. I woke up in the middle of the night and found little ice balls on the ground outside as it was raining. Brian was able to go with me to my doctor's appointment while mom kept the kids. I am dilated to a 2 now and so we wait. I'm sure that if I go a week past my due date on the 15th, my doctor will freak and have me induced, but she still has 10 days to make her due date.

Here is our family picture of 2008- which will soon need to be updated as we add another person to our mix! We are sitting on the bench where Brian proposed to me a little over 10 years ago.


We got the baby stuff out of storage and put together this weekend. Mom and the kids sterilized it all. My friend Tighe threw me a fabulous diaper shower Sunday. It was so great to have friends come and share stories, talk about and pray for the baby and her arrival. I can't believe how fast time is going by and that we will soon be on another grand baby adventure. We look forward to seeing her and getting to know who she is.

We are all enjoying the time we have with mom and she is spoiling us, much to our delight. She made us curried chicken this weekend, has been cleaning, singing to the kids and laughing with them. She just baked up some banana bread and muffins from a recipe out of deceptively delicious cookbook. Can you guess the secret ingredient? It's a vegetable. I'll tell you in the comments.

Singer Simple

Hearing that I had hand sewn a couple of rice bags as Christmas gifts, my mom asked if I would be interested in having a sewing machine. I told her that I was interested in doing some small simple things, and had gotten a hand held machine that was so pitiful I had to return it. Not too long later, mom and dad presented me with a post-Christmas gift of the Singer Simple.

It is a good machine with an even better marketing campaign designed to lure inexperienced sewers. The name in and of itself suggests that sewing is simple and maybe that I'll even sing through projects with pure delight. The DVD shows designer outfits, including trendy jeans and exquisite crafts, all the while explaining mightily complex abilities to soothing, yet upbeat music which cons the gullible sewer into thinking this is indeed simple.

I can say they are complex abilities because I have now completed 3 projects and 1 lesson none of which were enhanced with soothing, upbeat music or complete ease. I should have taken a hint when it took 3 of us adults with some 60 years and one semester of experience to figure out how to thread the machine and bobbin. Once this monumental task is complete, the beginner starts to get cocky thinking she can sew.

My first project, I have named "laughter". I had a t-shirt in the closet for the last year whose hem had fallen out. It's been there for 2 reasons. The first is that I am a daughter of parents whose parents survived the depression. This means that I am not allowed to throw away anything. And yet I'm of the generation that some would call lazy or that we would call economically savvy. When mom heard about the shirt, she said she would have hemmed it long ago by hand. This is where we differ. I know that hemming it by hand would have taken me a couple of hours, that time is money and that a brand new t-shirt from the store could cost me $10, thus I wouldn't even be making minimum wage if I had 2 hours to spare and if I wanted to spend those 2 hours hemming an old t-shirt.

So I take out the t-shirt thinking I can sew a simple hem. Mom looked at me warily saying it was a knit fabric- like that should clue me in! I was thinking it's a t-shirt- how hard can this be? 40 some years of experience shakes her head at her naive daughter. I start sewing and the material is not moving through the machine well, plus it's making weird noises. Mom says something is not right and proceeds to read through the manual. Being of the now generation, I know the clock is ticking and know it's only an old t-shirt, plus I'm not a perfectionist, so I just keep on sewing and drag the hem the entire way through the missing section. Mom comes to see the finished product and this is how the moniker "laughter" is appropriated. My hem is now a ruffle 3/4 of the way around the shirt. Undaunted, I hem the rest of the 1/4 hem which was intact and make a completed ruffle. Now I'm laughing too. This is not how the t-shirt was originally, but I have now made a fortune. You see I've been to the Houston galleria, where they sell $300 jeans that they have gone to great effort to make look worn in, torn up, antiquish, but trendy and new. Now I have a t-shirt that really is an antique, but newly done over. I'm not sure how trendy it looks, but I tell mom over her laughter that this will be the latest style and that everyone will want one.

Project #2 is another redone shirt that becomes the cover for my machine. Yes, technology fools us by trying to pretend it gives us greater ease in life while causing more work all on it's own. I named this project "ah-ha, oh-oh, hooray". The ah-ha came when I discovered why project "laughter" did not feed through the machine- the feeder feet were not engaged. I start sewing project #2 and complete 3 sections with no problems, getting all cocky, singing inside, thinking this really is simple. That is when the machine launched it's protest saying that I was just a monkey with a peddle and that it's under belly contained the real brains and work of the operation. I started to stitch and it went on strike. The DVD always showed one thread on top and one on bottom, but now 40 friends joined the under guy to mock me. I cut them loose and tried again, and again, and again, then called my mom who said the tension must be wrong. Now I saw my error. I really had no clue what I was doing. There were 4 dials, all of which are tension somethings, none telling me to what they were or which one was not properly adjusted or how much to adjust it. I quickly learned that every fabric, thread and project has it's favorite tensions that they hold in secret to the inexperienced sewer. I'm not sure what all I adjusted, but the underbelly got tired of holding up the project, most likely anticipating it's delight in the next step of my humiliation. I was about to stitch two long straight seams. This should be easy, simple, singing time I thought. Instead, I once again became the 12 year old behind a car who realized on our acreage that a machine with a motor is not as easy to steer or control as it had seemed all my life. The sewing machine is no different. The gas pedal is an art to be mastered in and of itself and there is no steering wheel, but steering is very much necessary. I weaved all over the desired place, but stayed on the road and determined my project a monumental success. (see green cover in picture)

I have actually been slowly gaining skill- I think. Project #3 is called "unmatched beauty". I was hemming the sleeves of an old cardigan sweater. It was a man's sweater at one time, but now it has feminine flair with a ruffled look (that I actually tried to do- on purpose- sort of). Only the sleeves do not look the same. One has lots of ruffle and the other a slight wave. It is indeed more beautiful and no longer falling apart, but please admire each sleeve one at a time and not side-by-side.

No matter. I now have several functional pieces that were once only taking up closet space, a machine for all my "simple" projects and the memories of laughter, ah-ha, hoorays and beauty that I'm sure will continue for years to come.

Thanks mom and dad for all my future adventures in sewing!

Bon voyage grandpa Ian!

Grandpa Ian has to go back to Canada today. The kids had so much fun with him. Ivan said that he is so not excited that grandpa has to go and that this is a bad day. Of course they don't mind it so much right now since they are getting pushes on the swing as I type.


The kids liked to play board games with grandpa and build the fort with him and get pushed on the swings. At one point, mom and I even left the kids and grandpa in the car while we went in the store to get a few groceries. I was trying to hurry as I imagined anyone with 2 toddlers in a car for an extended period of time. They did have a huge bowl of pasta salad from a party we were just at, that they nearly demolished by the time we got back with a full cart. Apparently they found things to do as seen in these pics. When we arrived back to the car, Dominique was crawling in the back window and Ivan was in the front seat "driving". Grandpa didn't even seem distraught! He must have done this kid thing before!

We will miss playing Settlers of Catan and it feels like we hardly got to visit at all, but I guess we'll have to go back to settling for interaction through the net. I'm sure I'll get stronger arms pushing the kids on the swings or maybe I'll be able to teach them to pump!