For those with boys.

So the Boy and I are trying to potty train. It was REALLY hard for the Girl, probably because I was doing it all wrong. She would go everywhere BUT the potty. Good times... But, the Boy's problem isn't that he won't go on the potty, he just HATES underwear. Even though we bought him special Cars underwear. So, what do I do? Do I let him run around naked? Do I force it? I'd love it if he was trained before the baby comes, but that's 9 weeks away and I think he may be more stubborn than that.
Help?

Our little Graduate

So, the girl is graduating from Kindergarden and they had a celebration party last week. They sang us some songs and the girl even got to announce the last one. Her line was, "We're going to knock your socks off with 'I am a Promise'." Even though we practised all day she STILL asked her teacher for help! It was really cute.

On another note, both kids went to the dentist the other day. I was really concerned about the Boy because he HATES to brush his teeth and this was his first visit. But, our dentist is OUTSTANDING!!!! The hygenist let him help with the Girl's cleaning, wear a mask and glasses so he felt like a real dentist. Then he was scared of lying down on the chair so she put him on her lap and did his cleaning while holding him. The Boy LOVED it and was laughing and happy, which is the exact opposite of what I expected. So, I don't know if this kind of treatment is normal for children's dentists because the Girl never had any problems, but I was super impressed.

And, no cavities for either of them.

Yippee!!

On the road again...

So, May was a busy month for travel... We went to Abbotsford, BC to visit M's family. That was a lot of fun and we saw Iron Man. (Awesome movie, btw.) A couple weeks after that, we went to Cardston, AB to see my family. (The only movie that was playing was Speed Racer... No thanks.) We did both drives at night and I must say that Washington State has way better roads than BC.

While we were in Cardston, I was able to see my brother and sister and their families. I also met my new niece who is three weeks old. She is really cute and seeing her made having our own baby that much more real. I must say that I'm pretty excited about our upcoming addition to the family.

So, we came back from Cardston on the Sunday before Memorial Day and I am glad that we did. I ended up spending all day getting ready to go to Bethlehem the next day for work. (You may be thinking that I am lucky to get to go to Bethlehem, but this is in Pennsylvania, not the Holy Land.) The day we left for Cardston, my car would not start after work. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but I thought it may be the battery or the alternator. It would cold start, but the more I turned the key, the stonger the battery got so I thought that was really odd. I cleaned the contacts to the battery, but it didn't help. So, I took the battery to Napa and they tested it and said it was good. I figured it was since it wasn't that old. I bought a brush to clean the contacts and then it worked perfectly. A few months ago, I was having the same problem with dirty contacts, but it was also freezing outside so I really did think it was cold starting. A guy at work told me to clean the contacts and put vaseline on them. I did that, but all I had was baby powder scented vaseline. I guess that is not a long term solution for battery maintenance.

Anyway, off to the corporate holy land... at 4:30 AM. I have done this flight before, but it still isn't very much fun. Spokane to Chicago, Chicago to Allentown. The nice thing about travelling is that I am on per diem. I always go to Starbucks in the airport and by an Odwalla juice puree and a banana nut muffin. Thre trip was okay and the meetings over the next couple of days were good too. I met some of the other graphic designers that work for sister companies and we had a good speaker come in from Canada.

On the way home, my flight to Chicago was delayed and I missed my connection to Spokane. I spent the night at the Crown Plaza hotel. I didn't get to see much in Chicago, but it did make me feel like a small-town boy. Everything is so BIG. We don't have a lot of tall buildings in Spokane. So, I finally made it home on Friday at 2:00 PM. I immediately had to turn around and head to the community college because my company had a team in the Relay For Life. I did this event last year and it was a lot of fun. I ended up walking a lot and getting a chance to talk with people from work that I normally don't a chance to talk to. I fell asleep after being up for 24.5 hours. I slept on a cot in a sleeping bag with a sweater wrapped around my head. The bad thing is that when I am that tired... I drool. (The sweater has been washed.)

It has been a crazy few weeks, but I have had a lot of fun. I have had a couple days of routine and that has been nice. It's good to see the family again. Below are some photos to show what we have been up to.



The Boy playing with the same car set I used to play with



The kids on the new swingset that The Girl and I built!



Aww... us at Waterton (PS: Rain sucks)

This is a really funny video a guy sent around at work... These two guys go to Gonzaga in Spokane.

Mega Recap

I haven't been blogging because I felt like there is too much I want to share and not enough time. SO, today is recap day- bullet style.

• A few weeks ago we went to a HUGE neighbourhood garage sale and ended up buying a bread maker. I've wanted one for a LONG time, so I was pretty excited. And I must say that I love it!!!! The smell of bread in my kitchen is my favorite at the moment.

• Ken and I went to see Ben Folds for our anniversary and it was AWESOME. I don't think I've ever seen anyone play piano like that before, and I loved how he took pictures of the crowd for his website. Good Times! Except I felt really old because it was at Gonzaga and pretty much everyone there was 10 years younger than us.

• Spring is here and to our surprise we have a billion random flowers growing in our yard. I guess the lady that lived here before us was quite the gardener, until she got dimentia. It makes me sad because I'm sure it was really pretty and now I don't know what to do with it! It needs a lot of work, and I don't have the energy this year.

• We went to Abbotsford last weekend and that was a TON of fun, but too short. The Girl loved to play with the dogs and The Boy (who is terrified of dogs) was warming up to them by the end. We went to IKEA and tried not to spend too much money, and we went to see Ironman which was really good. We also had some really good chats with the fam and we celebrated Mother's day before we left on Sunday.

• A few days ago my car battery died in the middle of a busy street. It was just me and the kids and it was an hour before The Girl had to be at school. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before, but I was able to call Ken for a tow truck and there was a McDonalds across the street so the kids could play while I watched for the truck. Luckily, there was one of the Girls friends from school at the McDonald's and her mom was so nice and drove her to school for me. The Boy and I got to ride in the tow truck and that pretty much was the greatest thing ever to happen to him. He kept saying, "MOM! Monster truck!!" and laughing. So even though it was a REALLY long day, we are all okay and the car is fixed.
  

Okay, recap complete. We are planning on going to Oma and Opa's next week so all our travelling will be done before I become too big to drive comfortably. So there is more excitement to come :)

Eight Years and Lasagna

Yesterday was my eighth wedding anniversary. M calls me at work and asks me what I want for dinner. I said spaghetti, but that didn't fly. So, I suggested lasagna... the crazy thing was that's what Em was thinking! It may sound like a dumb little story, but that's why I love being married to M! I love how we connect and I love how we seem to do it more often as our time together increases! KMM.

Okay, enough cheese! I have a lot of things to write about, but I have not taken the time to write about them. I want to give a review of the Ben Folds concert and talk about how awesome it was to run two miles the other day. (It has been a VERY long time since I have done that... if ever!) I start work in a couple minutes so the updates will have to come later.

Tractor Tipping...

So, we were at a friend's house on Friday evening and The Boy was pretty impressed with all of the toys that he could play with. He spent about two hours playing at this table while we were talking upstairs. We came to check on him every once in a while and this is how we found him. He sure does love his trains!

Another thing he is addicted to right now is cars... and "Cars" (the Disney movie). He has a little Lightning McQueen he likes to play with and he will not let it go. Our friends have a whole "Cars" play set and he found a tractor (cow). He would drive the Lightning McQueen up to the tractor and honk. He would then tip the tractor back like in the movie and moo while it was falling back. Pretty dang cute... I am also fairly certain he gets his cuteness from his dad. (I'll let you try and figure out who is writing this.)

Here is another cute pic of The Girl and The Boy that was taken the other night.

The trauma

So a few weeks ago I was at a normal checkup at the doctors, and the doctor couldn't find the baby's heartbeat until he pulled in the utlrasound machine and checked it on the ultrasound. The reason he couldn't hear it was because it was beating at 90 beats/minute. (Which is pretty slow) So, I started freaking out right away, because I've never had any pregnancy complications before, EVER. The doctor told me it wasn't really bad, but he was worried. He told me to schedule my big 20 week ultrasound as early as possible so they could check on the baby right away. ( I was only at 17 weeks) And then he told ME not to worry. haha. I had my kids with me, which I'm grateful for because it stopped me from completely wigging out in public.
SO, I get home and call to schedule my ultrasound and the first available appointment is almost 2 weeks away! And I began the classic flip flop where I try and convince myself that if anything should happen I'll still be okay, and praying that nothing will happen because I won't be able to handle it. And I did that pretty much the whole 2 weeks. NOT okay.
The coolest part of this 2 weeks was watching the girl's reaction to what was happening. One day when I was really sad she said,
"Mom...the baby will live as many months and weeks as it needs to."
And I said, "How do you know that?"
And she said, "I don't know, I just feel it in my heart."
So, that cheered me up. And every time she prayed she said, "...and please bless Mom's baby to never die." That made me laugh every time. I don't know what I would have done without her :) I wish I had faith like that.
Last Friday afternoon was my ultrasound and it was awesome. The baby is totally fine, and the heartbeat was steady at 139 beats/minute. It was also obvious the baby is a girl, and the girl is so excited to have a little baby sister! (The boy doesn't really get it. :)
SO, I don't know what happened the other week. I feel like I was freaking out for no reason, but I can't seem to get a hold of myself when bad things happen. I am SOOO glad that everything is okay, and I hope next time I can stop thinking and just have faith.