Back to Ontario

After a full 12 days in Abbotsford and a less than desirable flight home, we returned home to Ontario. This photo was taken at 1 am Ontario time/ 10 pm BC time. Our poor little girl got sick sometime during the flight. She had a tiny bit of a runny nose before we left my moms place for the airport so I packed the Tylenol in the top of my backpack so I could give it to her just before we checked in. Well, with all the goodbyes I forgot the Tylenol and checked the bag. Sarah seemed fine so I wasn't too worried.

On our flight to Edmonton she fussed around for awhile then finally fell asleep in my arms 20 minutes before we landed. She wasn't too impressed to wake up but once she saw the play place and could walk around freely she was back to her old self. We all ate and walked around a little before boarding our second plane to Toronto. As a side note, we learned that the original plane that we were on was going to Toronto and was just briefly stopping in Edmonton. Why in the world would Westjet make us change planes and therefore get home an hour later?!? Even the flight attendent and pilot couldn't understand this.

Thankfully, Sarah slept for several hours on our second flight. However, she would often wake up momentarily with a cry and some body thrashing before falling asleep again. She also had a reallly runny nose, watery eyes and was drooling lots. About 45 minutes before landing Sarah threw up all over both of her blankets, me and herself. Yuck! At this point she was feeling warm and had one very rosy cheek. I was so thankful that we were travelling prepared and brought 2 extra changes of clothes for Sarah and a full change of clothes for each of us. (On our flight to Abbotsford, Sarah tossed her bottle on David's lap, which somehow opened, leaving him with a lap of milk for over 4 hours). So we all headed to the bathroom and got changed. Sarah was much happier for the last part of the journey. However, the two of us still had that puke smell and were feeling pretty done.

It's difficult to tell what Sarah actually has since she is also teething in a major way at the moment. The sickness could all be related to the teeth or not at all. Who knows. Anyways, today we relaxed at home, let Sarah catch up on sleep, did laundry, etc. Hopefully our little girl feels better soon.

Going Away

I can't believe that we leave for Abbotsford tomorrow morning already. Today will be consumed with the last of the laundry, general cleaning and packing, goody! We're excited to see our friends and family and are looking forward to the wedding. Anyways, I'm not sure how much I'll be on here while we're away. So if you don't hear from me in awhile that's the scoop. Have a great week!

LITTLE pool, BIG fun!

Yesterday we picked up a small little kiddie pool for Sarah (& I). Considering how much Sarah loves the bath I figured that the pool was guaranteed to be hit. Sure enough, as soon as I started running the water she was climbing over the sides of the pool trying to get in. Once she had her swim suit on she was in the pool right away, trying to spray the water into her mouth.

I thought the hose water would be too cold for her, I suppose I was wrong.

A few more drinks...

Just before swim time we had went for a walk to the library to return books. On the way home I picked up a free slurpee ( we get a free coupon in the mail almost every month). Sarah was eyeing it up the whole way home. She saw me put it down outside and just like that she was out of the water and going for it. I think the cup and straw were what was so appealing, it's not like she had any.

Playing with the straw in her mouth, back and forth, in and out of the pool.

Time for her bottle, that's a better thing to drink.

Of course, she had to play in her car...

We're looking forward to lots of use out of our little pool this summer. The only problem is that everytime we're outside I know that she's going to be trying to get into it, yikes!

Life Group End of Year BBQ/ Pool Party

Yesterday our life group got together for a BBQ at Steve and Kristy's house. David got home at 6:45 (like always), so we got there an hour late, oh well. Good people and good food. I realized the other day that I don't have any photos of anyone in our group so I thought I would take a moment to take a bunch of candid shots. I mostly got photos of the kids, since they're the ones that are always doing something interesting. So here's some pictures of Sarah and her little boy friends.

Mason attempting to share a ball with Sarah.

She loves balls. She can't quite say it yet, just sounds like ba so far.

Our pretty little lady, I just can't get enough of her.

Dan and baby Jared. Funny thing, in our previous care group there was a Dan that had a Jared too. No pics of Renita (next time).

Adam playing with Noah. Emma is sitting at the table. We just learned that they're having a girl. So come August, Sarah will not be the only girl in the group!


Steve and little Carter, no pics of Kristy either (next time).

Mason (mom and dad, Michelle and Shane are at the table as well)

The 3 kiddies playing around. As you can imagine, there is never a quiet, totally relaxed moment in our group. 5 couples and 5 kids under two, with 3 more due before Halloween, yikes! At least we're all in the same boat. Always interesting.

Visiting Daddy at the Winery

On Sunday morning I had to drive David to work. It was a beautiful day and knowing that we wouldn't make it home in time for church I thought we would take our time and enjoy being at the winery. Since it was just opening there were only a couple of people there so Sarah could enjoy walking around and checking everything out.

David working the wine bar.
Just outside the main tasting building the winery has a sensory garden. David often leads tours and "wine experiences" in this area. There are lots of herbs, plants and flowers here that reflect the scents and flavours in the wines. It was really pretty with several little sitting areas tucked away.

Of course Sarah enjoyed smelling all the flowers and checking out all the plants (& dirt).

Walking with daddy. We love how we can hold her hand and walk around now. So precious!

There is something about pictures of a dad holding their child's hand that makes my heart melt. This photo does just that, especially because of who the daddy and little girl are! So much trust and love.

Showing daddy something interesting. I love candid shots versus posed ones, so natural.

She just can't resist playing in the dirt!

A Walk to the Ice Cream Shop with the Kids

Yesterday evening we headed over to Matt and Kristi's place. Madeline and Kaleb were on their bikes and Sarah and Noelle shared the wagon as we went to the ice cream shop. Such a bunch of cuties!

Wine Bottles in the Garden

Before I get the question I thought I should answer it. It's what all of our neighbours were peering over the fences asking us a couple of weeks ago. Why do you have wine bottles in your garden? Well, the answer is because we needed something to mark the rows when we were planting and didn't have any small marker sticks. So David went into the garage and all he could find was wine bottles, voila!

Our neighbours thought we knew some special trick for helping our garden grow and wanted to get in on the action. People here seem to be very competitive in their garden growing (and tomato sauce).

Life continues on...

I realized that I haven't posted anything in the last couple of days. I suppose my time on the computer has been spent creating, designing and editing card images. Yep, the little business seems to be on its way. I've had quite a few orders already, and seem to get one or two each day. Some are quick and others take more time. I've been enjoying the learning experience and creative outlet. Yesterday I even spent some time designing some Christmas card templates. The goal is to have between 20-25 ready to go before the baby comes. So far I've got four done! So it looks like I won't be packing this idea up anytime soon.

Since my free little website only allows up to 25 "contact us" forms each month I am trying to figure out what to do in the website department. I've already almost met that quota and it hasn't even been two weeks yet. Not to mention that the free sites are generally not as professional and nice looking. So there's that to figure out as well.

I can't belive that we go to Abbotsford in less than a week. We're excited about being there but not looking forward to the flight. Sarah has pretty much slept on all our other flights, however, we have a feeling that this one will be a very different story.

We've still got some things to get planned, figured out, bought, etc before the trip so I think some of my time will go towards that in the next few days. David works every day until we leave so I'm hoping that I can get the car at least one of those days to do errands, etc. Tonight I plan to make some gourmet mac and cheese. We've still got tons of cheese to eat and not that many days at home. So I'll be cooking with cheese for the next few nights for sure.

So things are good here. I've been loving the warm (but not too hot) weather (who doesn't?) and spending time in the backyard with Sarah. I was glad to get the garden all weeded yesterday. It looks like everything came up and is doing well, so we're happy about that. We had a shipment of shingles left on our roof yesterday so we're happy about the thought of having a new roof, especially since we've had some water damage on Sarah's ceiling and now in one of the living room walls. We're hoping it happens while we're away so we don't have to hear all the noise. Here's hoping. Well that's about it for now.

When your husband works in a winery...

We have never had the problem of too much cheese until now. Since David is the TA for his wine tasting course he is often able to bring home leftover cheese, bread, etc after class. Not to mention 8-10 aprox 1/4 full bottles of wine per week. Now that he's working at a winery as well, his lot of freebies is just increasing. Whenever they have a really good sales day (which is often), the employees are able to bring home a free bottle of wine. Yesterday, David came home with this pile of cheese that is nearing expiration or just because. Last week he brought home a pile of Parmesan, Asiago, as well as several other kinds of hard cheeses. Now my cooking almost always includes at least one, if not up to 4 different kinds of artisonal cheeses. I was looking online to find some recipes for blue cheese since he seems to bring that home fairly regularly as well. No shortage of cheese here.

A few days ago David also brought home this candle holder that one of the other employees at the winery made. The winery had a whole bunch of these oak boards from old barrels, which David also brought home. Anyways, apparantly someone had some extra time at work and decided to try to make up some prototypes for the employees. Turned out quite lovely I thought.

And...of course our house is always full of wine. Too bad we don't drink much. Well, none for me at the moment and David just isn't a big drinker (which I'm thankful for).

First Beater Licking

Today I made up some Pistachio mousse for after dinner (something new). Once I was finished beating it and Sarah was pretty much hanging off my legs I figured why not give her a taste. As she was loving the licking I noticed the camera on the table and got a few shots. Seems like she likes the pistachio flavour, just like me! Yum!

Don't take it away!

Smelling the Herbs

Sarah loves being outside. Not surprisingly, she has also developed a curiosity for the palnts and dirt. I thought it was cute how she was smelling the herbs in our herb barrel yesterday. She also takes every opportunity to try to pick the seed "flowers" off the chives.

A Little Business?

Like so many other stay at home moms I have been pondering the idea of a having a small business. David and I both agree that I am at my best when I have something in my life that is challenging and “for me.” It’s not that raising a child isn’t challenging; however I have been feeling like something has just been missing for me in the creative/ self department. I love being a mom and I love being at home. But I do really miss teaching. I miss the kids, the staff, the ability to be creative in teaching and planning, etc.

Knowing that I won’t be heading back into the classroom anytime soon, I’ve been thinking of what I could do from home. I’m not looking to make a ton of money. However, some money would be good. With another baby on the way, I’m pretty limited in the freedom and hours for myself department. We also have no extra money to sink into any possible venture start up or product costs. I’m not into doing home parties and have no interest in any of the related product selling businesses (Tupperware, etc). I need my hours to be totally flexible right now.
Amazingly, I seem to have a little idea that just may be going somewhere. I have spent the last couple of weeks doing what I would call “research” to see if it is something that is feasible for me and if there is actually a market out there.

So what is it?

A web based “announcement/ card” business. Some of you may find this is no surprise.

This is something that actually fits all of my requirements, allows me to be creative and is something that I enjoy doing. I already have Photoshop which I love using. I have also created a website with a free hosting service. It’s still pretty rough, but it does the trick for now. I have only advertised on some Kijiji sites (free) to see if I would get any bites. I’ve also set up a PayPal account as a means of payment. Start up costs 0 dollars. And I don’t have to invest any money as I go either. I only have to pay my transaction fee to PayPal with each purchase which is very minimal.

The verdict: I spent last week offering the service for free to whoever wanted it. Surprisingly, it was harder to give away something for free than I thought. My point in doing this was to see what kinds of cards people were looking for, get some experience, build a sample portfolio and see what kind of a market existed for this. It doesn’t take me too long to put something together so this really wasn’t a big deal. As I have templates created it just gets faster and faster. I love how this is something that I can do while Sarah naps or in the evening when she’s sleeping. It doesn’t take away from my precious time with her or my household responsibilities. David has a couple of evening classes (and will continue to), so now I have something to work on in the evenings as well.

After my week of “free” on Monday I decided to post some ads on the internet, offering the service for $10 (rather than my regular price of $15). I have received several replies a day with several paid orders already. Not bad considering it’s just been a few days and my sample portfolios are very minimal. As a goal, if I could get 10 orders per week I’d be really happy.
It seems that birthday invitations are the most requested so far. This surprised me at first, but with the extravagance of so many birthdays these days I suppose I shouldn’t find this too surprising. I’ve also done up several wedding thank you cards, save the date cards, baptism invites and birth announcements.

People have responded very well so far, loving the product and service. I’ve also had several people e-mail me asking them to notify them personally at different times in the next few months when their baby is due or before an important birthday party.

So we’ll see what happens. I’m not too attached to the idea at the moment in case it doesn’t work out. I’m still at the “research” stage. But it does seem like a good opportunity for me at the moment.

If you’re curious to see what I’ve been up to in this area feel free to check out my little “under construction” site http://www.yourcustomcards.webs.com/ It will give you much more of an idea about what I’m actually doing.

Top Secret

About a month ago I saw an invitation on the smartcanuck website to apply to Pinecone Research to complete surveys. Since the site stated that each survey completed earns you $5 I figured that I would apply, after all $5 is $5! I was accepted by the company and have since received a few surveys to complete. Last week I received my first $5 cheque in the mail, so funny!

After completing a survey I was asked to be a product tester as well. Getting paid to eat new foods, why yes! So the other day we received our first top secret product my Purolater. All I have to do is eat the food and then fill out another survey about my experience (they only take about 5 minutes to complete). Since companies want feedback on products before putting them on the shelves, they often have product testers (regular people like me) taste their products first and report on them.

Every survey that I receive reminds me that I am not able to talk about any of the products that I read about or taste. David and I felt so special when our "secret" package arrived at our door step. It came with several papers reminding us not to show the product to anyone else or talk about it. By now you're probably wondering what the item was...sorry I can't tell. Thankfully it was very yummy, just wish we had more. Perhaps it will be in stores soon so that I can buy it.

Growing and Showing...19 Weeks

I thought it was probably time to post a picture of me with baby. I always feel so funny taking these kind of pictures.

Yesterday I had a baby doctor’s appointment. I’m 19 weeks along now, hard to believe that we've hit the half way mark already (even though the first half goes by much faster than the last half). Anyways, all is well. The baby is growing and moving lots. The doctor says the baby has a strong heartbeat and that the ultrasound looked good, so I won't be going back for another ultrasound.

I’m glad to be feeling consistently better these days. I even stayed up past midnight the other day and felt good, this used to be a big no no for me since it made me feel very nauseous. Yahoo! The other week I started to be able to feel the baby move. After the nauseous feelings and fatigue it’s a great feeling to be able to start to feel the miracle of the little baby moving and growing inside me. Right now it’s just little movements and light kicks, but there’s no mistaking what it is. This morning was the first time I could feel the kicks with my hand on top of my belly. David tried to feel it, but of course the baby stopped as soon as he put his hand on my belly.

Other than that things are pretty normal. No big cravings to report. However, I have been a big fan of fresh fruit and veggies these past few months. It’s hard to say if it’s the pregnancy or just the availability and better prices of the produce. Whatever it is, at least it’s good for me and the baby. I have eaten a ton of strawberries and mangoes in the fruit department. As far as veggies go, I have been a huge fan of cucumbers and tomatoes. I eat about three long English cukes a week, by myself! Lots of salads for lunch, yum.

After being in Thyme and seeing capris for $55 plus tax, I was wondering what I was going to do in the maternity clothes department. The thought of David having to work 6 hours for me to get a pair of pants just doesn’t seem right. So the other day I checked out a consignment store in the area for maternity clothes. I was happy that I found a few pairs of quality capris for $6-8 each. So now I have some pants that fit (and I don’t have to have the top button undone).
I also posted an ad on Kijiji for maternity clothes, you never know. A woman my size & age responded and I bought a pair of pants, several shirts, a dress, a few skirts and even a bathing suit from her, all for $25, she even dropped them off! I was a little hesitant about the bathing suit, but since she was selling everything together it didn’t really matter. To my amazement, the tankini fits me perfectly and actually looks good, this is amazing since I have a hard time finding a good fitting bathing suit even when I’m not pregnant. So at least I’ve got some fitting clothes to wear now. I would still like to get a few more shirts/ tank tops, but there’s plenty of time for that.

Canadian Tire

Today Sarah found a new favourite store, Canadian Tire. They have great carts for kids that even have steering wheels. It was just like those $1. rides (like the ones she tried at Marineland), except this was free and the cart actually moved (when we pushed it).

What do you think of this?

In front of someones house, next to the park around the corner, is this sign. I have since seen signs that say Autistic child and blind child in St. Catharines.

I can understand that the community wants drivers by to be aware of children, especially those with a disability. However, directly labelling the child and posting a sign in front of your house. Yikes, I feel kind of funny about this, can't say I'm a fan. I've never seen this or heard of this sort of thing before.

Thoughts?....

Braceless...and Loving it!

A couple of years ago I made the big decision to get braces. Today was the day when those pesky braces were finally removed! I can feel my teeth again! But they feel so different, when I look in the mirror I can't help but think I have imposter teeth in my mouth! How strange and wonderful!

I am so glad that I decided to go for it and finally get it done. Two years just goes by, with or without braces, and now my teeth are straight as can be. Today was a great day!

Now I'm down to just baby and not braces and baby, which has been what the last couple of years have been. Not the best combo, especially for a gagger like me!

(This was my self taken end of the day photo, perhaps I'll post a better one soon)

Drinking Alone

Sarah isn't really a cuddly girl. One of the ways that I knew it was time to wean her was because she was unable to just lay and eat. Once we moved onto the bottle she didn't want to lay in my arms at all, but was happy sitting on my lap. Now that she's walking she doesn't even want to sit in my lap while she's taking her bottle. She'll sit for a few seconds before trying to slide off my lap. She much prefers to walk around and drink at the same time. This has been driving us crazy since it is not a habit that we want her to be in. However, when we need her to drink her bottle and this is the only way, then one does what we have to do... let her.

The other day I decided to try letting her sit alone on "her" chair when I gave her the bottle (the couch was a no go). Amazingly, she will sit and drink her whole bottle on the chair. Funny girl. Oh well, at least we've figured out something that works. She also likes to hold one of her blankets at the same time.

A little more Sarah

My mom was saying that I needed to post some more pics of Sarah, so here's something for you before you head to work, love you!

Now that Sarah is walking everywhere the playground is so much more fun. Just in time for summer!

Walking around thr front porch, the wind blown look.

Enjoying her little outside bench (got that free from the woman who sold us her little rocking chair)

Still loves playing in her car. The car has since made its way outside with the warm weather.

Cuddles for Keisha!

Sarah seems more like a little girl and less like a baby every day. Her hair is getting long and the fact that she walks confidently everywhere makes her seem like a toddler.

She continues to sleep and eat well. I still can’t get over how much milk that we go through. She’s been drinking homo milk since she turned one. I’m not sure if she loves it more or if she’s been going through more of a growth spurt, but she drinks 4-5 bottles a day (8-10 ounces each), that’s a lot of milk! She has 10 teeth now, with 6 more making their way through. It’s funny how in the beginning of learning to eat solid foods she (like most babies) only liked smooth textured foods. Now she loves things that she can crunch and chew, not so much a fan of pureed baby food anymore.

I’ve been trying to transition her to one nap a day, but its hit and miss. Some days she wakes up in the morning around 6ish, so I feed her a bottle and then she goes back to sleep until about 9 am. On those days she just has a nap right after lunch for 2-3 hours. On regular 7am wake up days she still needs her morning and afternoon naps. We’ll see how she does once we go to BC and she isn’t able to have two naps a day.

Sarah's skin tag surgery has been scheduled for June 13 with a pre op appointment on the 6th of June. We were surprised how soon the surgery was scheduled, but think it's great timing before our guests come out in August.