tiffany's spot

Our anniversary was nice. We stayed in a nice hotel, went out for dinner, watched a movie, had massages . . . AND . . . . . . we got to have ice-cream , in the car , with no kids !

You know the days when you have plans and there is only a couple of hours before they start? That's today! Today is the nursery school picnic. I know, I know, it's not exactly the Red River Ex or Peurto Vallarta, but I have this feeling of anticipation. I'm a summer person, I think my recent optimism has to do with the disappearance of snow. Isn't it a great time of year? School's just about out for the summer. Okay, okay, I'm not teaching, nor am I a student. But the feeling is there! I spent 17 years of my life attending school, and every May/June I get this joy that it's almost over - the light at the end of the tunnel, the door that is about to open. And you know what's out there? Grass! Toenail polish! Bandannas! Skin! Campfires! Warmth, sunburns, the delicious smell of sunscreen. I can't wait to set up the water slide in the back yard for the kids. I've been sending them outside to play for weeks now, and it hasn't even been that warm...

Alright, I won't get too sappy. Steven and I have been married for five years. In those five years we have survived accomplished the following: three kids two houses one university degree (me) one franchise (him) surgery (me) multiple vehicles! There is much much more - these are just the biggies. Steven - I have enjoyed the last five years as your wife, partner, best friend, mother of your children. Thank you for your time, your patience, your laugh, your unique sense of humor. Thank you for getting me. Thank you for our children, our home, our life. Thank you for letting me be me, for putting up with the ups and downs. Thank you for loving me truly and deeply every day because of and in spite of everything! I can't wait to see what the next five will bring, and the five after that... Love you forever.

Friday is our 5 th anniversary. The traditional 5 th anniversary gift is wood. Steven says "I've got some wood for you baby." I'm so excited! Wonder what it could be?

As I lay in bed, cuddling and nursing my new baby, the midwives checked his heartbeat, rate of breathing, etc. I tried calling my mom numerous times, as she shuts her phone off at night, and Steven was cleaning up the room and getting things back in order. I finally got my mom on the phone, probably just before 6am. "Can you hear that?" I asked. Tennyson was angrily crying at being weighed and measured. My mom gasped. "What did you do?! I just talked to you!" And she had, just 7 hours earlier. She had seen that I had tried to call around five, so when I finally did talk to her she thought I was going to tell her I was in labour. We laughed and talked for a few minutes, and then she assured me she'd try and leave work early to come see the baby. After I hung up he phone, my midwife Natalie regretfully informed me that we needed to go to the hospital. They had been monitoring Tennyson for a few hours now, and had noticed that his rate of breathing was well above t...

I'm taking a bit of a reprieve from Tennyson's potty training. I was trying to be all "nice mommy" and have endless patience and tell him happily that no, poop doesn't go in your gitchies , poop goes in the potty. No Tennyson, you did not poop in the potty. That was a fart. Your poop is in your pants." Then today (and maybe a little yesterday) it was more like this: Kid. You. Cannot. Poop. Your. PANTS. That is DISGUSTING! I wasn't exactly yelling, but my tone was all but friendly and patient. It's been a week. He has not pooped once in the potty. He'll tell me, as the crap rolls down his pant leg and drops onto the floor, that he needs the potty. Is it just me, or is it a little late by then? It's a LITTLE LATE! To save my own sanity I've decided to take a break and try again in a couple of weeks. I may change my mind and try again tomorrow, who knows. Anyway, do you want to get to the heart of this post? I don't think you really do. ...

Here is a little more of the birthday bonanza I promised in honour of my son's second birthday. It's 25 things about him. I could probably add more by now - if you find it's a little longer than 25, that's what happened! 1. Today is his 2nd birthday (i wrote this 3 weeks ago on facebook). 2. He was born at home, in my room, and weighed in at 8 pounds, 15 ounces, 21.5 inches long. 3. He didn't really fit into the first sleeper I squished him into. 4. His first visitor was my mom. We ended up transferring to the hospital because he breathed like a dragon. Still does. We laughed at how big and plump and healthy he was despite being in NICU. 5. His first word was cookie. There was lots of mamama and dadadada, but cookie was the first perfectly said word. 6. He wears a size 8 shoe. 7. He wears a size 3 shirt and size 2 pant. 8. His big sister is his hero AND his nemesis all rolled into one. 9. He adores baby Mitchell, probably more than Mitchell adores him. He hugs, kis...

Seriously, I shouldn't even be giving you this, since nobody commented on chapter 1, but I'm just so nice. Sometimes. ***** I woke up at about 1:45am. I was having a contraction. I'd had some Braxton Hicks contractions for a couple of weeks already, but this was not one of them. I went to the washroom and discovered that my water was leaking. I was determined not to freak out and wake my midwife just yet, because women can labour forever before it gets really serious. I shut off the light and went back to the bed to use the stopwatch on my cell-phone to time a few contractions. It's recommended that women wait until contractions are about a minute long and 3 - 5 minutes apart (from the beginning of one contraction to the beginning of the next) before calling a doctor or midwife. My next contraction was big, painful, and lasted well over a minute. Less than a minute later the next big hairy contraction started. I flipped the lamp back on and shook Steven. I have never...

I anxiously tidied a few things around my room. I had to wait three minutes - if I cheated and just watched the stick do its thing I'd jinx it and then I'd have to wait an entire month again for my next chance to find out if we were having a baby. Just three minutes - three long minutes. Do you ever notice how long three minutes actually is when you're waiting for something? I was pregnant! The stick proved it, I was going to be a mommy a second time, to a second tiny baby. Steven happily gave me a hug, kissed the soon-to-be big sister and headed off to work. I went about my day, thinking baby thoughts and caring for my very lively, strong willed 15 month old daughter. Little did I know how much joy a new baby would bring to her life! By the end of the day I had found a midwife. The pregnancy was good, with only a scare or two. Early on I had some bleeding, and I spend the day in tears convinced I was having a miscarriage while my poor husband looked on with love and co...

84% How Addicted to Blogging Are You? I think you can click on this picture to take a quiz to see if you're at least as addicted as I am!

That's right. Another of those sleepless nights. I'd like to not attribute it to drinking a big cup of tea at ten o'clock, because then it would sort of be my fault. Sort of. Why is it that other people can drink coffee, tea, coke, etc. all day long and then crawl into bed at the end of the night and crash? Maybe I need to build up a tolerance. Maybe I should drink so much caffeine (a ridiculous amount. maybe borderline dangerous) that my nervous energy is so great that it overtakes my system and I have a physical, nervous-energy melt-down and crash and burn happily into my bed at night. That's absolutely the way to go. Candice , could you please tell me how much caffeine I'd have to pump into my system to make that happen? Should I inject it intravenously? On another note (totally copying Sonya's blog idea here), we tried to potty train Tennyson today . "Tennyson, look at your cool Lightning McQueen gitchies . Don't pee on Lightning McQueen." ...

I love when I use a label like "Super Happy Family Fun Day" and the kids - or the oldest one anyway - refers to it as that as though it's a perfectly normal way to label something. And why wouldn't it be? I've had this itching to get out with the kids and do something fun. On a whim we kind of decided to make today family day. After diaper gym (can't skip that!) we headed off to the 'Peg. We met Steven's dad and Doris halfway for lunch and mocked them ever so gently for going camping this weekend amidst the swirling snow flakes. From there we went to the forks where I bought a baby sling for Mitchie, let the kids run around and touch just about everything, and ate mini donuts. Oh how I love mini donuts. Then we let them run around like crazy people at the Children's Museum. That was fun too. The kids had a blast. How often are they in an environment where it's okay to touch/climb on/jump off of EVERYTHING? Not very. The baby sling? It's ver...

Ever feel like you have something to blog about? But you don't know what it is? I feel like that. I feel happy. I know I should just say "I am happy" but who knows what tomorrow will bring? Right now, in this chair, full of heavily chlorinated water (ran out of the bottled stuff), I feel practically ecstatic. No idea why. Maybe it's because I'm so cold and shivery and the shivering is disguising itself as energy and the energy is making me feel like I'm not a tired, dumpy MomWife who didn't get her house cleaned today and should feel guilty about it because her husband worked hard all day and I'm home on long-term vacation . But I don't. Maybe I should. Maybe you're reading this and thinking - yeah, you with all those kids you wanted and now your husband has to work all those hours to support you while you sit at home and watch Ellen and eat granola bars. Just so you know, I haven't watched Ellen in at least a week. Those kids are demanding...

I've been following this blog for a while now. It's written by Jennifer, a mother who had three young children very close together. She then found out she was pregnant a fourth time. In the middle of her pregnancy, it was discovered that the baby had heart problems - severe heart problems. Jennifer was admitted to the hospital where they pumped her full of medications to try and slow the baby's heart (it beat crazy fast). That same medication was so strong that at time it caused hers to do funny things. The baby was actually born (even though she had been told a few times he wouldn't survive) and went home perfectly healthy until he was a few months older, then his heart started having problems again. I can't tell the story that well, you'll have to go here to read a condensed version of it in a news story: http://www.startribune.com/local/44626042.html?page=1&c=y Jennifer blogged throughout the ordeal. She blogs when she's happy, when good things happ...

But I have to watch "House." Anybody watch that? It's delicious. Anyway, I blogged 3 times today (I guess now it's 4) so read all the way down. Not that I'm bossing you around. You don't really have to read any of it if you don't want to. I'll rephrase: If you feel so inclined, feel free and welcome to read my blog. Note that I blogged 3 times prior to this today. I'd hate for anyone to miss out on what I wouldn't do it MacDonald's, especially since my kids are concerned. Hoping you're having a great day!

I'm subbing again. Turns out I can work thismuch a week before it affects my EI. Imagine my elation at going back for my first day of substitute teaching this year. It's high school (I prefer H.S. actually), and I show up at the school wearing my shiny new clothes all eager to start again. I don't know if the secretary hadn't noticed that I hadn't been around for the last 8 months. She never let on. I think she was really really excited inside but was too shy to say anything. The teacher I was subbing for was sick and had emailed her the lesson plan. Nobody was quite sure what room I was to go to. His room was being renovated and he was sharing other classrooms. Eventually I get a key-ring with half a dozen keys on it and a room number. Once in the room I settled down to read the lesson plan. The first thing it said: Please go to room 82... That is not the room I was in. I packed up, turned off the lights and tried my multitude of keys in the door of the new room. N...

There's this thing about deli meat that I find so gross. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a deli meat sandwich covered in mayo, cheese, tomato, all the fixins. I like it as much as the next gal. But I kind of feel guilty feeding it to my kids. Sounds dumb right? Ever look in the display case at the deli counter? It's so off-putting. I can't think too hard about it, it makes me gag. All those perfectly formed blocks of "meat" leftovers, ground up, loaded full of preservatives, salt, and something gummy to hold all that together - what is that ? Fat? Gelatin? It's gross. As you're standing in line while somebody orders up 8 pounds of head cheese, do you ever imagine taking a bite out of one of those blocks and having it all slimy and mushy in your mouth? A little slice on your sandwich isn't so bad. The idea of having a big bite like that disgusts me. Once someone at the deli told me that someone they knew liked to order this breakfast ham log sliced into...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama . You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. ***** I'm thinking I shouldn't even participate in Not Me! Monday this week, because I really didn't do anything I need to be brutally honest about. I am a good mommy, and therefore have no need for Not Me!ing . For instance - I did not take my kids to MacDonald's for supper the other day. I didn't do that because I make a menu every week and have all the ingredients I need to make meals for at least the next 7 days. And if I had gone to MacDonald's for supper, by myself, with all three kids, which I didn't do, I most certainly would not have bought J and T their own carton of chocolate milk, because I know they just suck it back super fast and then don't eat their supper. So I didn't do that. If I had made the mistake of giving my kids each their own chocolate milk to guzzle ...

Welcome to Not Me ! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama . You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. ***** This past week I did not leave the baby in the van at a friend's house when I went back into the house to wash Tennyson's hands. Because he did not fall into a puddle while playing unsupervised in the driveway. I also did not just put him to bed without bathing him when we got home. I did not let my kids run around the yard with no shoes, socks or jackets on. I also did not feed my kids about a dozen cookies in the two day span following Tennyson's birthday parties. It wouldn't have mattered though, because I did not let them eat cake instead of dinner at those parties. I did not pretend not to notice the poo aura surrounding Tennyson and Mitchell a dozen times. I would not leave those messes for my husband to discover. I did not buy my son finger paint for his birthday only to avoid usi...

I bet you thought I was going to let Tennyson's birthday come and go with nary a mention didn't you? Well I'm not. There will be pictures of his multiple family birthday parties, a list of wonderful things about the boy, and perhaps a birth story (my favorite birth story of the three - shhhh - don't tell the others...) Give me a minute! Sheesh!

Lately I have felt broke. I know, I know, it's not PC to talk about money, but seriously - anybody with a limited budget, little kids and a single income knows what it's like. I really want to stay home with the kids. Financially, it's kind of difficult to get by on one income, especially since my maternity leave runs out in June. I'm planning on subbing again in the fall part time to avoid having to work full-time and leave the kids in daycare. Who knew I'd like being with them so much? It's funny - before I had Jordan I was so practical about it. I was going to have the baby in the summer and then in the fall I'd get a babysitter and finish my degree. The next year I'd get a full-time teaching job and secure my employment before we had another baby. That's all well and good until you actually have the baby. Suddenly, it's not just the baby. Suddenly, she's Jordan . She's here and she's sweet and she smiles at you like she smiles ...