Orange ya glad you came over?

We had some friends over on Sunday.

Things got a little silly.

We sure are going to miss these monkeys when they move to FarFarAway.

Plus, because I'm such a cool mom, we decorated cupcakes. Those things were loaded with sprinkles and sugar!!

So much fun!

My week.

In addition to tons of cakes last week, Baby Boy (like that Shelly?) broke out in chicken pox. He really didn't get as many as Chelsea, but his seemed to be bigger and more painful looking.

Now, this next photo may be used as an ad for vaccinating. :( This was Gavin's worst morning for sure. He was miserable and it took a while for the Benadryl to kick in. Not even the magic sippy cup of juice could soothe him.

We survived with lots of cuddles. This picture shows a few of his worst ones, by his eyebrow and right under his eye.

But alas, we survived.

Obviously, by choosing not to vaccinate, I made the choice for my kids to get the chicken pox. There were moments when it was horrible and I cried because they were crying and itchy and I felt guilty for allowing my children's perfect, soft, pudgy skin to get all scabby, but in the end, we survived and it's all over with. It really was a good time for them to get chicken pox, if there ever is a good time.

Quick post

Things I adore.

#1 - chubby, dimple cheeks.
#2 - beautiful girls enjoying a heart sprinkle cupcake before bed.

That's all.

Always in the back of my mind

I don't think I've ever been so nervous.

This comes close to the time that I was a grade 1 teacher for 6 weeks, but when I was doing that, I had so much support that I knew I could do it. (Although I did cry about 3 times in the principal's office during those first few weeks!)

I am not ready. I haven't done anything to prepare except sort through my boxes. I have so many boxes still in my garage because they are full of grade 6 stuff that won't be used this year. It made me really sad to see all that time, hard work and effort be packed away.

I know that teaching grade 3 and 4 will be a growing experience for me. It's good to get out of the box we put ourselves in. But right now, it just looks so overwhelming. I like feeling proficient and confident. But right now, I don't know how to teach grade 3, grade 4 or a split grade. I don't know how to effectively manage the time between the two grades and not to mention it's needing to learn seven new curriculums - Gr 3 math, science and social studies, Gr 4 math, science and social studies, oh and Gr 4 French too! If I was teaching a new grade, I probably wouldn't be so overwhelmed. Grade 3? Sure. Grade 4? Sure. But together? Sigh.

Sigh.

Anyone out there want a grade 6 teacher? Please? I'm really good at grade 6.

Harvest for Kids

Yesterday, Winkler set the record for having the most combines harvesting one field at the same time. It was to happen just on the field to the south of us, so we packed up the kids and went walking. It was really well set up, with displays and activities for kids happening in the centre of the field. There was even a shuttle service/hayride to get into the centre.

That was Chelsea's favourite part I think.

There were 100 combines on one side of the field and 100 on the other side, so when they harvested, they were heading towards each other.

There were a lot of combines.

(Thanks AD for the picture!)

The petting zoo is always a hit with the kids.

With Gavin walking, it is much easier for him to enjoy the animals.

The true Gavin face - lips pursed, loudly saying "ooooo" over and over.

And, of course, the kiddie train.

Finally, at 12:00, they were off! We had thought ahead, and made sure to watch the harvesting from the dike right close to our house. This way, we avoided the dust and the crowds when it was time to come home.

perfect little ol' me. hahhahaaha

So here's the thing. I think I've got it all figured out now.


I'm a perfectionist. I always strive to be the best, do the best, etc. I'm sure it comes from being a middle child, sandwiched in between an older sister and a younger brother who was very sick when he was born. I'm an attention-seeker, and that makes me loud. In school, I was a teacher's pet, and I'm embarrassed to say that this continued on through my university years. I always got very good grades (with the exception of my first Biology exam in university) and I had high expectations of myself.


This whole perfectionist thing is why I'm struggling now. (I am always afraid to bare this on my blog because I'm afraid of offending someone or having someone judge me, but over the past few months I've begun to come into myself. This is who I am - take it or leave it, but I'm not changing to please anyone anymore.)

Anyways, here's the thing. Since May, I've lost 24 pounds. No tricks or gimmicks, no easy button, just a lot of watching everything I ate and working out and running A LOT. I realize 24 pounds sounds like a lot, but when you remember that I gained 70 during my pregnancy with G, I've got a lot to lose. Anyways, I tracked what I ate and ran all the time. I'm really good when I'm losing weight. Nothing tempts me.

Nothing except mini donuts.

Sigh.

And here's where the perfectionist part comes in. I cheated and ate mini donuts and dang they were good. Now I give amazing credit to those of you who can eat a little of something and it doesn't affect your diet. Those "100 cal snack pack" kind of girls. Those "just a few bites of a dessert are all I need" kind of girls. Those "let's have fries tonight" kinds.

I. am. not. that. girl.

Just puttin' that out there. I am a black or white kind of dieter. It is MUCH easier for me to say no, then to say yes a few times.

Once I cheat even a little, my whole day feels ruined. I figure, "Well, I cheated so today's a write off" even if it was only a few mini donuts, or whatever. So that night for supper, because I've already cheated, I'll cheat again. and again. and... well you get the picture. One little slip becomes a ridiculous slippery slope. If I'm not perfect, I figure, why bother?

Soooo.... this is embarrassing to admit, after the mini donut day, I was like, "Well, we're going on vacation soon and I know I'll be cheating then, so there's no point in watching what I eat now."

I know. It's ridiculous. But anyways, so for a week before we went on vacation and then while we were on vacation, I ate whatever. Nachos, white bread, bacon, eggs, ice cream, funnel cakes, oh and I did indulge in some fancy drinks too.

So, now I have to proudly say that since May, I've only lost 16 pounds. Sigh.

But, the good news is, I'm back on track. Food journal - check! Running and working out - check! Lots of water - check! No more diet pop - check!

I am really looking for an accountability person. Someone who wants to keep me in check a few times a week. Someone who'll look at my food journal and see what I'm doing for exercise. Just someone to make sure I am doing it. I need that. I need to know that I'm being evaluated.

Hey, I've proved many times in my life that all I want is an A+. I'm just looking for someone to give me a good grade. Anyone?

Stuff

I've finally decided on what I want in my dining room. I'm going to be putting up shelves on the south side around the window and filling them with all sorts of fun things. I bought a few things when we were in Grand Forks and I've spent WAY too much time on etsy the past two days.

I just bought this amazing cookie jar. I LOVE him. I seem to be developing a thing for owls.

I love art with words. I'm always drawn to words and phrases and mottos. This won't be going on my shelves, but on a different wall in the dining room.

I'm looking for an old Scrabble board so that I can assemble something like this to put on my shelves.

And now, instead of cleaning my kitchen, or resting with the fussy girl on the couch, I'm writing here instead. Geez, priorities, woman!

shickin' pocks

The pox are here...

The pox are there...
The pox are every, everywhere!

***

Sunday, Chelsea had a few weird blistery things on the back of her neck. Right away I suspected chicken pox, because she had been complaining of a headache for two days and had a fever the night before. Sure enough, as the day went on, more and more spots appeared.

These pictures were taken Tuesday morning. Since then, we've seen more spots and these ones have gotten a lot more fierce looking. Through this all, and I know we're still in the first few days, she has been amazing. She complains more about the headache than the itching. She only started complaining a bit about the itching this afternoon after her nap. She's since had two oatmeal baths. Bedtime tonight was a little rough, but all in all, I think she's doing great!

If there ever was a perfect time for C to get chicken pox, this is it. We had nothing planned this week and I'm not working yet, so we're getting in lots of cuddle time. We are praying for a quick recovery (with no scarring!).

** Update - well, this sucks. I've been up since 2 with a girl who can't sleep because she's itchy. We've watched some Mickey mouse clubhouse for the past few hours. I'm hoping she crashes soon. It doesn't itch when you sleep, right?? I'm going to be soooo tired tomorrow!

Final post about the Dells - I promise!

Wednesday, we went back to Mt. Olympus. We did lots more of the water parks and the wave pool, but we honestly spent the majority of the day laying in the sun. I read and read and read some more and Chris slept in the sun. It was amazing and relaxing!

Thursday, it rained and poured and rained some more. We slept in and then we hit the outlet malls. We left the mall and went to Mexicali Rose for lunch. It was amazing. Then, back to the malls, where my husband got very excited when he saw a certain store. Now, my husband isn’t a shopper, so when he gets excited, I try to share in it, and tell myself that if he wants to buy something, go with it, because really he doesn’t shop much, ever. So, back to us, casually walking through the mall, bags in hand and he veers off to dash into this store.

Now, I know my husband and I’m thinking electronics store, pet store, or toy store – it’s true. But alas, it’s the Corelle store. Corelle. Dishes. Yup. You see, Chris HATES the last set of dishes I bought. I bought a whole set of ceramic stoneware dishes that are beautiful, but honestly, aren’t practical. They get sooooo hot in the microwave and yes, I admit it is terrible. He also hated the first set that we had for the same reason. They were black plates that I had gotten when I moved out of home. Again, same thing with getting hot, plus we didn’t have enough. So he was soooo happy to enter a whole store of Corelle dishes. Corelle is what my mom uses (white with the green flowers on the edge – what do your mom’s look like?). He was going to just buy the plain white ones, but we picked out these ones together. Here’s hoping that these are the dishes that I will collect for the rest of my life, because I’m done with trying to find some plates that I love.

Thursday night, we went to a family-style restaurant for supper and then we had tickets to go see the Rick Wilcox magic show. It was amazing and worth every penny. We were so stumped on so many of his tricks and illusions. It was very well done and Chris and I are still talking about some of the stunts.

After the magic show, we headed back downtown and took in the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum and the 4D movies. Ripley's was better than we expected with some pretty neat displays.

This was a man hanging from a telephone pole, being chased by a dog (not pictured), but it was all made out of scraps and trash. I thought it was pretty cool.


This picture is actually carved out of toast. It was so cool. Makes me want to attempt something like this when I'm making breakfast.

And, here we are sporting our oh-so-sexy 3D glasses. We actually got to watch all 4 of the 4D movies because one of the workers really liked us, so she let us stay for the extra 2 shows for free. A 4D movie is really neat because not only are you watching the 3D movie, but you are able to smell things, or feel things that are happening in the movie. Most of the movies involved us getting sprayed with water or poked in the back which did get a little old.


Friday, we took it easy. Chris slept in late, and I got up early to read. I laid out in the back yard, right outside our patio door, and read in the sunshine. Then, Chris got up and we went to Arby’s for lunch because all week long, Chris really wanted Arby’s. I dropped him off back at the hotel after lunch where he worked on getting our internet up and running and I did some shopping at Kohl’s. I like shopping without Chris. That sounds bad, but Chris doesn’t shop – he hovers. He needs to be standing approximately 6- 8” away from me at all times when I’m shopping and I tend to just give up, rather than perseveare when I’m shopping with him. I spent an hour and a half at Kohl’s, then went back to the resort for more suntanning and reading, while Chris relaxed inside watching movies. It was a smokin' hot day and he was enjoying the airconditioning as he was slightly burnt from Wednesday's day of fun in the sun.


We bought a pizza from Walmart for supper and then we went downtown one more time to buy some fudge to bring home. There are approximately 18 places to buy fudge in the Dells, in case you are wondering. Turns out we should have bought way more than we did because both Chelsea and Gavin loved it.


Coming home was great. We got home at about 7 on Saturday night, after leaving at 5:30 in the morning. Chelsea ran outside and dramatically yelled "Mama!! Did you bring me a Barbie toy?" and Gavin, well, he walked across the driveway straight to Chris. That's right... walked. When we left, he was taking 2-3 steps, but now, he's a walking man. I love it!



And that's our trip. Soon this blog will be back to boring ol' posts about regular life and my kiddies. Exciting, isn't it?

Tuesday's vacation

Tuesday, we hit Mt. Olympus. So much fun. We did all the rides and rollercoasters first. I love rollercoasters. These ones were big wooden ones that made a LOT of noise. The only complaint I had is that they were pretty jerky. Chris and I apparently didn’t tighten the first seat belt and I actually slid side to side so hard around the corners of the rollercoaster that I bruised the sides of my legs really bad. But, the ride that freaked us out the best was Hades. It actually went under the parking lot after the biggest, fastest drop, pretty much ever. So, here I am, actually screaming in fear, (they take your picture as you are dropping and mine was literally pure fear), and then you are in complete darkness, the suddenly back up into the daylight, breathe a little breath of relief and then down back again. It was fun, but we only did it once.

Let me start this next story by telling you that to ride Hades, you have to climb up a lot of stairs to load onto the coaster. It’s pretty high up off the ground. When we tried to ride Hades the second time, we had just gotten to the turnstiles, so we would be the next to load, and I kid you not, the rollercoaster comes speeding up over the last hill and stops. STOPS. Those of us waiting have been talking the whole time because it was about a 20 minute wait, and we all get quiet. The employees are using their mysterious walkie-talkies to call in more staff, but we can’t hear what they are saying.

Now there are 6 employees, wearing their festive Mt. Olympus Hawaiian shirts, talking in hush tones. They start to WALK UP THE TRACK. Let me remind you. This is a wooden rollercoaster. The employees start unloading passengers way up this hill track, WAY up in the sky, or so it feels. I’m dying. I can handle rollercoasters, the heights, the speed, going upside down, because I’m strapped in. But seriously, if that had been me, having to walk down the track of the rollercoaster, I’m pretty sure I would have had to bumscootch the whole way. There is NO WAY I’d be able to walk down. Nope. Na-da. No way.

So then, the helpful staff, finally, after we’ve watched the entire population of the rollercoaster get off and walk down the track, one of the staff members says, “We just need a couple minutes to fix up a few things. It’ll be back up and running in 20-30 minutes.”

Yeah, no thanks. Nope. I am NOT going to be the first person to test out whether or not the coaster is good to go, for fear of having to walk down that track. No way.

We walked back down the stairs and decided we were done with rollercoasters for the day and so we then went to the Upper slides, and the slides inside, and then we laid in the sun for a long time. It felt so good to relax, suntan and read. Oh, and I was introduced to my new favourite food. Funnel cakes. So amazing. This one was topped with ice cream and warm apple pie filling.

Wednesday, we did Mt. Olympus again. We did all three of the big slides on the main level and then we just laid around in the sun. They have an amazing wave pool, so we’d jump in that for a while, then go back and lay in the sun again. It was so great.

We had a quick supper at Carvelli's, a pizza and pasta place, and then went back to the main strip. Here, we wandered again, checking out more shops and things and Chris really wanted to check out a haunted house, so we did.

It was really, really lame. No surprise there!

We did decide to check out Wizard Quest. We were a little apprehensive, but it turned out to be the coolest thing we did while we were in the Dells. It's basically a video game put to real life. You are given a quest and you have to find clues and wizards and answer questions. It was unbelievable.

It was pretty physical too. You had to crawl through mazes and tunnels and find secret rooms and passwords. We had such a good time. After we were done this, it was after 11, so we headed back to our hotel.

Day Two

Alright, so the forecast for the week was rain, thunderstorms, and then more rain. I told Chris that we'd be praying hard and speaking to those clouds and it worked! Monday morning, we we very pleased to see the sun and were super excited to hit up Noah’s Ark. I didn't get any pictures though because well, it was a waterpark and didn't feel like subjecting my new camera to water and because well, me + bathing suit = no pictures allowed. :P

It was a great, sunny, hot day, which unfortunately meant lllllooooonnnnnnggggg lines. Seriously, in the morning, we hit 3 slides in just over 2 hours. LONG lines. It was atually kind of fun because we kept running into a few of the same people, but it was really discouraging to spend most of the day in lines. We did eventually find a few of the slides that the lines went really quickly, so we enjoyed those ones, but we didn’t (praise the Lord) get to hit up The Scorpion’s Tail because the line was averaging about an hour and a half for the 15 second slide. I’m very relieved because that slide scared the bejeabers out of me. You stand in this little tiny cylinder, a voice counts down from 3 and the floors falls away from under you and you free fall until you go upsidedown through a loop. Seriously, so glad the lines were long for that one!

Monday night, we headed over to Field's at the Wilderness for supper. We had heard good things, but weren't expecting it to be quite so fancy, or we would have dressed up more. The good thing about the Dells is it's such a family tourist spot that most everyone is dressed very casual. There was a waiter for water, a waiter for bread, a waiter for drinks, etc... Crazy. The food was amazing,
Chris had a steak with blue cheese and peppers that he drooled over the entire time.

Chris convinced me to order the surf'n'turf. The lobster, shrimp, and steak were fantastic, but the scallops were definitely not my favourite.

We skipped out on dessert and headed downtown to more of the shops. There was so much to see downtown. I'll leave you tonight with a picture of my knight in shining armour...

Wisconsin

I'd like to blog about my trip, but I'm going to break it up into a few different chunks because I know there's no one out there who wants to read a big ol' day by day breakdown.

Sunday we were up and on the road by 7, I think. The drive was fantastic. It’s amazing how relaxing driving can be without 2 kids in the car. No Dora or Diego playing in the background, no requests for sippy cups or Chelsea yelling because Gavin is looking out her window – just driving. I took the first 5 hour stretch while Chris slept most of the way. I fell in love with how beautiful Wisconsin is. I did laugh a few times at the gas stations along the way. The farther we went, the stronger the accents got. But this came back to bite me in the butt, when some lady giggled when she was listening to Chris and I. “You MUST be from Canada. How’s the weather, eh?” Mocking me and my accent – why I almost feel like I’m back in Winkler, being mocked by my friends at home! :P

When we got to the Dells, we were a little apprehensive because our resort wasn’t showing up on GPS. Let me explain – we bought into a trial program of RCI Points a few years ago (Run the opposite way from this company, people!). We had to use our points up before August this year, or they would expire. So our travel agent guy kept recommending that we check out the Dells. We had points to go ANYWHERE, but hey, Wisconsin it was. We were put on a waiting list for a room, and when we got the call, we took it. We didn’t really care where we stayed, as long as it was a clean room. The problem was, we couldn’t find out much about it online or anything. So, when we couldn’t find it on the GPS. We were pleasantly surprised when we found it though. It was great and heck, *free* with our points.

It was a one bedroom, with a full kitchen, livingroom and little patio. It was great. I do need to point out here that we drove to the Dells in Chris’s tiny Golf. It cost us a whopping $45 in gas to drive almost 11 hours. I’m pretty sure Chris spent more than this on junk food on the way.

We quickly dropped off our bags and then headed to the action downtown. Chris was excited to eat at Famous Dave’s. Great atmosphere and yummy food. We had some nachos with brisket (I had to ask what this was) and sooooo good. Chris ordered a ½ rack of ribs and I kid you not, when the waitress brought out his food, he actually said in an excited voice “That’s a nice, big rack!!”.

I burst out laughing and apologized to the waitress who was laughing at my husband who was now 17 shades of red. We tipped her well, no worries.

After Famous Dave’s, we hit the Dells Comedy Club for the late night show. It was okay, but definitely not the highlight of the trip. More to come later!

Things they don't tell you about having children

1. You will go through an enormous amount of toilet paper and kleenex the first few years. Not that it's being used for it's actual purpose, but because it's just so darn fun for kids to take off the roll and out of the box.

2. You will never, ever get to eat a hot meal again. It'll be lukewarm, and chances are at some point, your children will be eating off your plate.

3. Same goes for drinks. It's open season on Mommy's water glass around here apparently.

4. Car seats, although a necessity for safety, are a magnet for stains, spills, crackers, cheerios and fishie crackers. Car seats also are not designed for easy cleaning. You have to actually unscrew screws and plastic pieces to take it out to wash it and even then sometimes you can't. Hey carseat companies, can we work on this to make it a touch more user friendly?

5. You will at some point suck your child's soother to get the nasty dust/hair/fluff off of it before you stick it in your baby's mouth. Don't judge me. I know you will or have done it in the past.

6. Sippy cups, again, wonderful for not spilling drinks. Terrible for getting misplaced or lost. Also, the chances of losing a sippy cup with milk, chocolate milk, or apple juice are exponential in comparison to losing one with just water. Nasty. 'nuff said.

7. You might think of a bathroom as a private place to do what you need to do. Kiss that bu-bye. If, by chance, I manage to sneak in to the bathroom without one or two children following me, you can bet at least one of them is pounding on the door before I'm done. It really is the most fun if both of them are pounding on the door and yelling at each other, and screaming and pulling hair, all while you are busy. Makes life so much more fun.

8. Your child's favourite tv show will wind up being one with annoying song lyrics that get stuck playing over and over and over again in your head. If you hear me singing "Shine on, shine on", you can thank the makers of "My Little Pony."

9. Poop, snot, puke, spit up, and pee no longer disgust you.

10. Instead of diligently marking your child's age and height in a safe place, you decide to let the handprints on the walls be a good guide. I say forget about washing walls. These are precious keepsakes for the future!

11. You will be shocked one day when you look at the walls closest to the highchair. I honestly didn't know that fruitloops become cement if left to dry on the wall.

12. Between the ages of 2 and 3, somehow your child will discover that the Band-aid is the magic cure all. Even the littlest, tiniest "owie" will require a Band-aid. If you are like me, your child, at one point, may have 14 band-aids on at the same time because you didn't want to argue any more about them. Pick your battles, people!

Canada Day

We headed down town for the festivities. This year wasn't a great hit, other than the petting zoo. Chelsea went on the bouncers once, but it was smokin' hot and crowded. But, animals are always a big hit.

Chelsea finally held a chick without it fearing for its life.
Gavin was loving the goat action.

And the one bouncer we could convince Chelsea to go on.

Anyways, it's late, I'm tired and I think I'm heading to bed. Night all.